San Francisco - USA
San Francisco, Oct 29, 2024 (AFP) -Google's parent company Alphabet reported robust third-quarter results on Tuesday, with revenue climbing 15 percent year-over-year to $88.3 billion, powered by strong performance from its crucial advertising business and growth in cloud services.
The technology giant's net income surged 34 percent to $26.3 billion, while earnings per share increased 37 percent to $2.12.
Operating margins expanded significantly, rising 4.5 percentage points to 32 percent, reflecting improved cost efficiency at one of the world's biggest companies.
"Our commitment to innovation, as well as our long-term focus and investment in AI, are paying off with consumers and partners benefiting from our AI tools," said CEO Sundar Pichai, referring to the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence.
The results showed that Google is holding its own despite worry that the search engine juggernaut has been caught short in the AI race.
Google also faces increasing pressure as its world-dominating search engine competes for ads with a widening array of platforms, including Meta, Amazon, Apple, TikTok and even streamers such as Netflix.
But Emarketer senior analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf said Google proved that its defense "is locked in, and it heads into the holiday season well-positioned to win ad budgets."
The company also satisfied questions about whether its search engine will withstand the growing popularity of generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which can answer many queries directly in lieu of an internet search.
In response to these pressures, Google earlier this month reshuffled its search engine business, replacing the division chief after a four-year tenure.
The company also moved its Gemini chatbot team to Google DeepMind, separating it from the search group.
Pichai said that Google Search's AI Overviews, which display a snapshot of information at the top of the results page, was proving a success and available to one billion users in more than 100 countries.
"We are definitely expanding what's possible in search and it's been really heartening to see users adapt," Pichai told analysts.
Google Cloud emerged as a standout performer in the June-to-September period, with revenue jumping 35 percent to $11.4 billion, driven by increased adoption of AI infrastructure and solutions.
That business, which trails market leaders Amazon and Microsoft, provides businesses with computing power, data storage and AI tools delivered over the internet.
The company's core Google Services segment, which includes Search, YouTube, and other advertising products, grew 13 percent to $76.5 billion.
YouTube hit a significant milestone, with total advertising and subscription revenues exceeding $50 billion over the past four quarters for the first time.
After the release, investors sent Google's share price higher by five percent in after-hours trading.
Despite the solid earnings, Google faces significant legal challenges, at least in the long-term.
In August, a federal judge found that Google's search engine was an illegal monopoly, with the US government suggesting a company breakup might be appropriate.
A separate antitrust lawsuit challenges its dominance of online advertising.
Additionally, Google has been ordered to open Android-powered smartphones to rival app shops following a case brought by Fortnite-maker Epic Games, though that decision has been suspended pending appeal.
While those legal battles are expected to take years to resolve, they have raised questions about the company's long-term strategy and its heavy reliance on search engine advertising revenue.
Google reports strong growth driven by AI, cloud
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Google reports strong growth driven by AI, cloud
Chinese astronauts to conduct experiments in space, including lunar bricks
JIUQUAN, China: China sent three astronauts on Wednesday to its permanently inhabited space station, where they will conduct dozens of scientific experiments, some related to the construction of human habitats.
The spacecraft Shenzhou-19 and its three crew lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 4:27 a.m. (2027 GMT), according to state media.
“During the Shenzhou-19 flight ... 86 space sci-tech experiments will be carried out in the fields of space life sciences, microgravity physics, materials, medicine, new technologies,” Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), said in a press conference on Tuesday.
One of these experiments is expected to involve exposing bricks made from simulated lunar soil to conditions in space.
Should the tests prove successful, the bricks could be a key material used in the construction of a permanent lunar research station, which China hopes to complete by 2035, as it would in theory be more convenient than transporting building materials from Earth.
The bricks will be sent in a separate uncrewed cargo spaceflight to the Shenzhou-19 crew next month.
The Shenzhou crewed spaceflights have been a regular fixture of China’s space program for the past two decades and have increased in frequency in recent years as China built and began operating its “Tiangong” space station, officially completed in November 2022.
The fast development of China’s manned and unmanned space program has alarmed the United States, which has encountered issues with its own crewed spaceflights.
Two NASA astronauts brought to the International Space Station by Boeing’s Starliner capsule in June have been stranded there since due to unforeseen issues with the spacecraft’s propulsion system. They are expected to return in February 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
CMSA’s Lin on Tuesday said that in order to avoid similar issues, the emergency response plan has been “continuously optimized” so that astronauts have more time to deal with scenarios such as damage to the Shenzhou-19 caused by space debris.
Lin added that Shenzhou-20 and its carrier rocket were on standby and ready to perform an emergency rescue mission if necessary.
Since the launch of Shenzhou-14 in June 2022, Shenzhou missions have involved trios of astronauts and six-month stays in space, with an overlap period of several days where the departing crew hands over the station to the newly arrived group. The Shenzhou-19 crew is expected to return to Earth next year in April or May.
Lin highlighted that two of the three astronauts crewing the Shenzhou-19 were born in 1990 and conducting their first spaceflight, with Wang Haoze also being the third female Chinese national sent into space.
The leader of the crew, 48-year-old Cai Yuzhe, was part of the Shenzhou-14 crew that completed Tiangong’s construction. Outside the mission, all three crew members are part of the Chinese military’s air force.
As Tiangong approaches its second anniversary, China’s focus has now turned to the goal of achieving a manned landing on the moon by 2030. In May, China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe was launched from the island province of Hainan and successfully returned a month later.
While the mission was uncrewed, its completion made China the first country to retrieve samples from the moon’s far side.
The two younger Shenzhou-19 crew members were part of the third batch of astronauts selected to train for future spaceflights. The fourth batch, announced in 2022, will for the first time be more focused on moon landings, rather than just flights to the Tiangong space station, according to Lin.
“(The training content of the fourth batch) will extend the astronauts’ abilities, from controlling spacecraft to driving lunar rovers, from celestial body identification to geological exploration, from weightless floating in space to carrying heavy loads on the moon,” the CMSA official said.
Adidas reaches settlement with rapper Ye
- Adidas and Ye had been embroiled in multiple lawsuits for the past two years, since the German company ended a partnership with Kanye West
LONDON: Adidas has reached a settlement with rapper Ye to end all legal proceedings between them, the sportswear brand said on Tuesday, without giving a value for the deal.
Adidas and Ye had been embroiled in multiple lawsuits for the past two years, since the German company ended a partnership with the rapper previously known as Kanye West over antisemitic comments he made.
“There isn’t any more open issues, and there is no... money going either way,” CEO Bjorn Gulden told reporters on a conference call.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sexually assaulted 10-year-old boy, lawsuit claims
NEW YORK: Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in 2005, according to a new lawsuit that joins more than two dozen others accusing the music mogul of sexual misconduct.
The civil lawsuit was one of two filed on Monday in a New York state court in Manhattan by Tony Buzbee, a lawyer who says he represents more than 150 victims of Combs’ abuse, and has filed at least 17 lawsuits.
In Monday’s second lawsuit, another male accuser said he was a 17-year-old auditioning for the reality TV show “Making the Band” when Combs and a bodyguard sexually assaulted him in 2008.
“The lawyer behind this lawsuit is interested in media attention rather than the truth,” Combs’ lawyers said in a statement resembling those issued after earlier Buzbee lawsuits. “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone--man or woman, adult or minor.”
Combs, 54, has also pleaded not guilty to criminal sex trafficking charges in federal court in Manhattan, where he faces felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Federal prosecutors have accused the Bad Boy record label founder of coercing men, women and children into sex acts without their consent, bribing and intimidating them into keeping quiet, and employing his staff to cover up his crimes.
Combs has been held for six weeks in a Brooklyn jail after being denied bail twice, and is appealing his detention.
In the complaint involving the 10-year-old, the California plaintiff known as John Doe said he was an aspiring actor and rapper when a consultant whom his parents had hired arranged an “audition” with Combs at a New York hotel.
According to the complaint, after Doe told Combs he would “do anything” to become a star, Combs gave him a soda spiked with drugs, pushed him down, and forced him to perform oral sex.
Doe said he lost consciousness, and upon waking was sore and had his pants undone. He said he cried and asked to see his parents, leading Combs to say he would hurt them “badly” if Doe revealed what happened, the complaint said.
In the second complaint, a different California plaintiff named John Doe said Combs forced him to perform oral sex on himself and the bodyguard, with Combs framing the latter as a “test” of how much Doe wanted to succeed in the music industry.
Doe failed the audition, after Combs deemed him “untrustworthy due to his reservations about performing oral sex on his bodyguard,” the complaint said.
Combs’ criminal trial is scheduled for May 5, 2025.
Michelin days are over, says cook at Thai street-food stall
- Tourists wait in three-hour queues to sample Jay Fai’s legendary crab meat omelette
BANGKOK: A Thai cook whose Bangkok street-food stall was the first to earn a coveted Michelin star has said she plans to retire, possibly as early as next year.
Jay Fai shot to international fame in 2017 when the dining guide honored her humble street-side restaurant in its first Bangkok edition.
Tourists from around the world wait in three-hour queues to sample Jay Fai’s legendary crab meat omelette — always sizzled up by the owner herself over blazing coals, wearing her signature ski googles to protect her eyes from sparks.
The 81-year-old told Thai media outlet Komchadluek that the toil of sourcing and checking ingredients every day was becoming too much.
“I will not keep the restaurant going, but I am glad to teach whoever wants my recipe,” she said in the interview, video of which was posted online on Sunday. She said she had not decided on when exactly to step down, but said it “could be next year.”
Though classed as street food, dishes from the open kitchen at Jay Fai’s eponymous restaurant in old Bangkok are not cheap — the signature crab omelette costs around $40.
Thousands turn out for Thai royal barge pageantry
- Royal barge processions date back hundreds of years, but are held rarely, saved for the most significant occasions
BANGKOK: Thousands of well-wishers lined the banks of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River Sunday to watch King Maha Vajiralongkorn ride a glittering royal barge procession to mark his 72nd birthday.
A flotilla of 52 ornately decorated boats, paddled by more than 2,000 oarsmen decked out in scarlet and gold, carried the king and Queen Suthida in formation through the heart of the Thai capital to a Buddhist ceremony at Wat Arun, the city’s ancient Temple of Dawn.
The king, officially regarded as semi-divine but who came in for unprecedented criticism in street protests in 2020 and 2021, took his place on a century-old royal barge known as the “Golden Swan” to deliver robes to monks in a ceremony marking the end of Buddhist Lent.
Royal barge processions date back hundreds of years, but are held rarely, saved for the most significant occasions — most recently, the king’s coronation in 2019.
During the 70-year reign of the previous king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, only 16 barge processions were held.
King Vajiralongkorn turned 72 in July, completing his “sixth cycle” in the 12-year astrological calendar — a milestone regarded by Thais as important and auspicious.
Normally the intricately ornamented barges — their prows decorated with garudas, nagas and other mythical creatures from Buddhist and Hindu mythology — are kept in a museum.
But on days of national importance, navy oarsmen in sarongs, red tunics and traditional hats propel them through the water to the banging of drums, as perfectly coordinated golden paddles break the waters.
Only four of the barges are actually deemed “royal,” while the others are officially royal escort vessels.
The barge procession dates back to Thailand’s 1350-1767 Ayutthaya period. When Bangkok was built more than 250 years ago, kings used the boats to travel through the capital’s network of canals.
As Thailand modernized, the barges fell out of use, but king Bhumibol revived the tradition in 1957 to celebrate the 25th century of the Buddhist era.
