LONDON: Google is once again postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-January, in addition to requiring all employees to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened.
The highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is driving a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, leading companies to delay or scrap return-to-office plans after nearly two years of people working from home.
CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post Tuesday that Google is delaying its global return to offices until Jan. 10. After that, he said the company will let countries and locations determine when to end voluntary work-from-home policies “based on local conditions, which vary greatly across our offices.”
He also promised a 30-day heads up before workers are expected back in the office. This is the second time in little over a month that Google has delayed return plans — the last time was in late July, when it also announced its vaccine mandate. Google, which is headquartered in Mountain View, California, has more than 130,000 employees worldwide.
Google again delays return to office due to COVID surges
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Google again delays return to office due to COVID surges
- Google delays return to office again until mid-January amidst a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations
Meta blocks access to Muslim news page in India
- The affected Instagram account, @Muslim, has a page with 6.7 million followers
- Meta blocked the account by legal request of the Indian government, says founder
WASHINGTON: Meta has banned a prominent Muslim news page on Instagram in India at the government’s request, the account’s founder said Wednesday, denouncing the move as “censorship” as hostilities escalate between India and Pakistan.
Instagram users in India trying to access posts from the handle @Muslim — a page with 6.7 million followers — were met with a message stating: “Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.”
There was no immediate reaction from the Indian government on the ban, which comes after access was blocked to the social media accounts of Pakistani actors and cricketers.
“I received hundreds of messages, emails and comments from our followers in India, that they cannot access our account,” Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh, the news account’s founder and editor-in-chief, said in a statement.
“Meta has blocked the @Muslim account by legal request of the Indian government. This is censorship.”
Meta declined to comment. A spokesman for the tech giant directed AFP to a company webpage outlining its policy for restricting content when governments believe material on its platforms goes “against local law.”
The development, first reported by the US tech journalist Taylor Lorenz’ outlet User Magazine, comes in the wake of the worst violence between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan in two decades.
Both countries have exchanged heavy artillery fire along their contested frontier, after New Delhi launched deadly missile strikes on its arch-rival.
At least 43 deaths were reported in the fighting, which came two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing a deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-run side of the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.
Pakistan rejects the charge and has warned it will “avenge” those killed by Indian air strikes.
The @Muslim account is among the most followed Muslim news sources on Instagram. Khatahtbeh apologized to followers in India, adding: “When platforms and countries try to silence media, it tells us that we are doing our job in holding those in power accountable.”
“We will continue to document the truth and stand out firmly for justice,” he added, while calling on Meta to reinstate the account in India.
India has also banned more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading “provocative” content, including Pakistani news outlets.
In recent days, access to the Instagram account of Pakistan’s former prime minister and cricket captain Imran Khan has also been blocked in India.
Pakistani Bollywood movie regulars Fawad Khan and Atif Aslam were also off limits in India, as well as a wide range of cricketers — including star batters Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan and retired players Shahid Afridi and Wasim Akram.
Rising hostilities between the South Asian neighbors have also unleashed an avalanche of online misinformation, with social media users circulating everything from deepfake videos to outdated images from unrelated conflicts, falsely linking them to the Indian strikes.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump called for India and Pakistan to immediately halt their fighting, and offered to help end the violence.
Netflix announces major revamp of app homepage
- Redesign features enhanced personalization and improved recommendations, as well as vertical videos on mobile devices
DUBAI: Streaming giant Netflix will begin rolling out a major revamp of its TV app’s homepage next week.
The new design “is simpler, more intuitive, and better represents the breadth of entertainment on Netflix today,” the company’s chief product officer, Eunice Kim, said on Tuesday.
It includes a navigation bar at the top of the screen, rather than the current position on the left, and more-responsive recommendations while a user browses the app.
Netflix’s chief technology officer Elizabeth Stone said that in making these recommendations the service “will pull in more signals,” such as search history and the trailers watched by a user.
“And because everything will happen seamlessly in the background, you won’t even notice it happening — it will just be magically easier to find something to watch,” she added.
The overall design will be more minimalist and cleaner, providing all the relevant information about a title in one place so as to reduce “eye gymnastics” and help users make an “informed choice,” Kim said.
The mobile app is also getting an overhaul, as Netflix tests the use of the favored video format on social media: vertical viewing. The vertical feed will feature clips from movies and TV shows that users can browse and then click on to visit to a title’s home page.
Netflix has previously used artificial intelligence technology across the platform for features such as recommendations but now, with advances in generative AI, it aims to go a step further by showcasing titles in more languages and including chatbot-like functionality.
For example, viewers can use conversational phrases such as “I want to watch something scary but not too scary” to search for content.
“Believe it or not, that search phrase will actually yield results in the new experience,” said Stone.
The company is also investing further in its content-delivery network, Open Connect, which optimizes streaming globally across differing internet speeds.
“Open Connect has given us a really strong foundation and now we’re building on that foundation as we deliver a broader and more complex variety of entertainment, including live events and games on TV,” Stone said.
“Entertaining the world is hard but technology makes it easier.”
Bill Gates says AI key for health, education innovation
- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said artificial intelligence will play a key role in unlocking new tools for health, education and agriculture at a meeting with Indonesia's president on Wednesday
JAKARTA: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said artificial intelligence will play a key role in unlocking new tools for health, education and agriculture at a meeting with Indonesia's president on Wednesday.
Indonesia is Southeast Asia's biggest economy and has a population of around 280 million across its sprawling archipelago, with a growing demand for data centres and AI tech in the region.
Gates visited President Prabowo Subianto and Indonesian philanthropists in the capital Jakarta, where he spoke about his optimism that AI-driven innovation will help tackle global challenges.
"AI is going to help us discover new tools. And even in the delivery of health and education and agriculture advice, we'll be using AI," he told a meeting.
"Once we finish (eradicting) polio, we'd like to try and eradicate measles and malaria as well. We have some new tools for that. And of course, part of my optimism about the innovation is because we have now artificial intelligence."
UN agencies have been campaigning for four decades to eradicate polio, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water.
The billionaire philanthropist has donated more than $159 million to Indonesia since 2009, mostly to the health sector including to fund vaccines, Prabowo said.
Gates later visited an elementary school in Jakarta alongside Prabowo to see students having free meals as part of a programme launched by the Indonesian leader.
Prabowo also announced plans to give Gates Indonesia's highest civilian award for his "contribution to the Indonesian people and the world".
Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella last year pledged a $1.7 billion investment in AI and cloud computing to help develop Indonesia's AI infrastructure.
Dozens of former Eurovision contestants call for Israel ban from contest
- 72 artists accused the EBU of double standards, ‘normalizing and whitewashing’ alleged Israeli war crimes
- Open letter criticizes organizers for last year’s ‘disastrous’ contest
LONDON: A group of 72 former Eurovision contestants has called on the European Broadcasting Union to ban Israel and its national broadcaster, KAN, from this year’s song contest, citing the country’s war in Gaza.
In an open letter published Tuesday, the artists accused the EBU of “normalizing and whitewashing” alleged Israeli war crimes by allowing the country’s participation.
“By continuing to platform the representation of the Israeli state, the EBU is normalizing and whitewashing its crimes,” the letter said, adding that the organization’s handling of last year’s contest in Sweden was “disastrous,” resulting in “the most politicized, chaotic and unpleasant edition in the competition’s history.
“Last year, we were appalled that the EBU allowed Israel to participate while it continued its genocide in Gaza broadcast live for the world to see,” it said.
“Rather than acknowledging the widespread criticism and reflecting on its own failures, the EBU responded by doubling down — granting total impunity to the Israeli delegation while repressing other artists and delegations.”
Among those signing the letter are the UK’s 2023 entrant Mae Muller, Ireland’s 1994 Eurovision winner Charlie McGettigan, Finnish singer Kaija Karkinen and Portuguese performer Fernando Tordo.
Controversy surrounding Israel’s participation has grown since last year, when the EBU resisted mounting pressure to ban the country despite its military campaign in Gaza.
Critics accused the EBU of double standards, citing Russia’s exclusion from the contest in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.
“Silence is not an option,” the letter said. “The EBU has already demonstrated that it is capable of taking measures, as in 2022, when it expelled Russia from the competition. We don’t accept this double standard regarding Israel.”
The appeal comes amid increasing scrutiny over Israel’s inclusion in this year’s contest, which will take place in Basel, Switzerland, from May 13-17.
Last week, the EBU lifted a ban on Palestinian flags in the audience, reversing a longstanding policy that prohibited symbols from non-competing countries or territories.
Officials in several countries — including Spain, Iceland and Slovenia — have also voiced objections. Slovenia publicly protested Israel’s inclusion earlier this month.
Despite growing criticism, the EBU has said that Israel’s entry complies with competition rules and will proceed as planned. Large-scale protests are expected during the event.
This year, Israel will be represented by Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, performing a song titled “New Day Will Rise.”
AFP Gaza photographers shortlisted for Pulitzer Prize
- Jury praised the ‘powerful images’ from Gaza by Mahmud Hams, Omar Al-Qattaa, Said Khatib and Bashar Taleb
NEW YORK: Four Palestinian photographers from Agence France-Presse (AFP) were finalists for their Gaza coverage in the “Breaking News Photography” category of the Pulitzer Prize, the most prestigious awards in US journalism.
The jury for the award, presented on Monday by Columbia University in New York, praised the “powerful images” from Gaza by Mahmud Hams, Omar Al-Qattaa, Said Khatib and Bashar Taleb.
The AFP photographers’ work encapsulated “the enduring humanity of the people of Gaza amid widespread destruction and loss,” they said.
The Pulitzer nomination crowns an exceptional year for Hams, who also won the News award at the Visa pour l’Image festival in Perpignan and the Bayeux Calvados Prize for war correspondents — two of the most prestigious international awards in photojournalism.
AFP has provided uninterrupted coverage of the war in Gaza since 2023, when Hamas launched its attack against Israel on October 7, with teams on both sides of the border to guarantee rigorous and impartial information.
AFP’s local journalists are working in perilous conditions in Gaza to document the consequences of the war on civilians.
Since the start of the war, virtually no journalist has been able to cross into Gaza, which borders Israel and Egypt.
“This recognition is a tribute not only to the talent and bravery of these photographers, but also to AFP’s steadfast commitment to documenting events with accuracy and integrity, wherever they unfold,” Phil Chetwynd, AFP’s global news director, said in a statement.
“We are deeply grateful to Mahmud, Omar, Said, and Bashar, whose work gives voice to those caught in the heart of the conflict,” he added.
