San Francisco: Ride-hailing app Uber has announced to lay off nearly 3,000 more employees in the second round, along with closing or consolidating some 45 offices globally.
Last week, Uber fired nearly 3,700 employees via multiple Zoom calls. With this, 25 per cent of its global workforce is now out of job.
“We have made the incredibly difficult decision to reduce our workforce by around 3,000 people, and to reduce investments in several non-core projects,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in a letter to employees on Monday.
In a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Uber said due to lower trip volumes in its rides segment and the company’s current hiring freeze, it is reducing its customer support and recruiting teams to cut down on heavy losses.
Uber is also closing or consolidating some 45 offices globally, including its Pier 70 office in San Francisco, a branch responsible for its experimental projects like self-driving cars.
Over the next 12 months, it will begin the process of moving its Asia-Pacific headquarters out of Singapore to a new location “in a market where we operate our services,” according to the company.
Uber will reduce its costs by over US $1 billion a year by these actions, the company said.
The 3Cs: Covid, China and Climate Change dominated the 47th annual G-7 Summit in Cornwall, UK. But overall the leaders were not able to present a united stand on any major issue.
The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wanted the summit to showcase his brand of ‘Global Britain’, after Brexit. But there were terse exchanges between the French, EU and British leaders and officials on the issue. In effect, the summit turned out to be more Biden focused and expectations were raised high on some real agreement taking place on the 3C’s before the summit, though that was not the result ultimately.
Broadly, Biden sought to set a new tone after the unrestrained Trump years. Most G-7 leaders seemed relieved to have a return to a more predictable and traditional US administration. France’s Emmanuel Macron welcomed Biden back to the “club.” But the final Communique showed that even Biden’s expectations to ensure a consensus on many of his promises fell short.
On the issue of Covid-19, the leaders of the seven most affluent western nations seemed united, but there was a difference of opinion on the way forward. Earlier, they had shown commitment to donate 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses over the next year to poorer countries. But in reality the bloc fell short of its own goal — 613 million new doses pledged, instead of a billion.
Even so, the vaccine effort gave Biden some help with his China push. Biden has criticised China for a transactional brand of vaccine diplomacy, where the shots are being doled out for geopolitical advantage. Biden called on democracies to counter China and Russia by donating vaccines equally and based on need, without seeking favours in return.
On the second day of the summit, US unveiled plans to counter China through infrastructure funding for poorer nations. Promising to “collectively catalyse” hundreds of billions of infrastructure investment for low- and middle-income countries, the G7 leaders said they would offer a “values-driven, high-standard and transparent” partnership.
G-7s “Build Back Better World” (B3W) project was aimed directly at competing with China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Infrastructure (BRI) initiative.
However, several leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pushed back over worries about turning the G-7 into an anti-China group, suggesting any infrastructure programme should be framed as a more positive, pro-environment effort.
French President Emmanuel Macron also pushed back publicly, saying that the “G-7 is not a group that is hostile to China.” Macron was one leader who sought the middle ground.
China hit back at these statements dismissively saying that the days when “global decisions” were dictated by a “small group of countries are long gone”.
The final version of the communique skirted B3W, instead creating a task force to study how to spur infrastructure development abroad. It made no mention of BRI, though Biden renewed his call at a press conference, and said that, “I proposed that we have a democratic alternative to the Belt and Road initiative, to build back better.”
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced last month that due to surging Covid cases in India, he’d not travel to the UK, he addressed the summit virtually. He conveyed India’s commitment to “collective” solution to global health challenges, and called for “one earth, one health” approach, which aims for unity and solidarity among the states of the world to deal with the pandemic. He also emphasised the need to keep raw materials for vaccines easily accessible.
The summit’s Communique, which was issued several hours after the end of the summit, promises many things but falls short of what was expected to be achieved before the summit.
Rome: Italy became the first side to enter the knockout stages of Euro 2020 thanks to a 3-0 win over Switzerland here.
The result means they will now fight for the top spot in Group A in their final league game against Wales, who beat Turkey earlier in the day.
Manuel Locatelli was Italy’s hero with two goals as Roberto Mancini’s side displayed assured and attacking football, Xinhua reports.
In Group A’s other match at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Aaron Ramsey and Connor Roberts scored a goal each for Wales as they won 2-0 against Turkey.
Both sides traded attacks in the first half, but Wales looked more dangerous in front of the goal and scored the opener in the 42nd minute when Ramsey chested Gareth Bale’s chip into the box before tapping the ball past Turkey goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir.
Turkey’s Burak Yilmaz should have restored parity early in the second half, but the captain wasted a golden chance from close range following a corner. At the hour mark, Wales were awarded a penalty but Bale put the spot-kick over the bar.
Bale had a hand in Wales’s second goal though, as the striker danced through Turkey’s penalty box before squaring to Connor Roberts, who sealed the deal in the dying seconds of injury time.
Munich: Germany got their Euro 2020 campaign back on track — and blew Group F wide open — with a 4-2 romp against Portugal in Munich.
After Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his 107th international goal, leaving him two short of Ali Daei’s all-time record, to give Portugal an early lead, the Germans roared back with four unanswered goals. German pressure forced own goals by Ruben Dias and Raphael Guerreiro to put the hosts 2-1 up at half-time.
A Kai Havertz goal underlined Germany’s dominance before left-back Robin Gosens capped his man-of-the-match display by heading in Germany’s fourth goal to add to his two assists.
Portugal hit back when Diogo Jota tapped in Ronaldo’s hooked volley to make it 4-2 with 23 minutes left.
Germany continued their domination of Portugal, who they have now beaten five consecutive times at World Cup or European Championship finals since Euro 2000.
Germany created a huge amount of chances compared to 1-0 defeat by France, while Portugal lacked the composure of their 3-0 win over Hungary the same day.
This is the first time Portugal have conceded four goals since losing 4-0 to Germany at the 2014 World Cup.
With the result, France (4 points) remained atop the standings in Group F followed by Germany (3 points), Portugal (3 points) and Hungary (1 point).
With a win over Hungary on June 23, Germany can secure their progression, while holders Portugal face a tough task with France.
On June 15, the Anti-trust regulator in the UK announced it has opened a year-long probe into Google’s and Apple’s mobile ecosystems (iOS and Android) suspecting a possible stifling of competition.
Facebook is facing a challenge in the European Union on the issue of use of cookies to track users without their prior consent. Its user privacy infringement through use of cookies is in direct breach of EU data protection regulations.
Tik Tok is being sued by a Parents Group in the Netherlands for illegally accessing data on their children and compromising their privacy and safety. The UK similarly is suing the company over the use of data on millions of children.
India’s National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has sought a report from Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram regarding posts on these sites offering illegal adoption of children tragically orphaned from the Corona pandemic. A Parliamentary Committee has asked Twitter to appear before it to discuss safeguarding of citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social media platforms.
Across the world, with misuse of social networking sites posing a threat not only to individual but also to national security, social media behemoths are at last facing extra scrutiny for everything ranging from mergers, acquisitions and monopoly behavior, to privacy and free speech infringement.
While other countries are recognizing and taking legal steps to counter the threat, the US has been slow to take off. Some experts and legislators here have questioned whether these social media platforms are fulfilling their obligation as neutral digital public forums. Among them, liberals have expressed concern these sites are not doing enough to counter violent or false speech, while conservatives have argued that the platforms are unfairly restricting and banning public access to potentially valuable conservative speech.
Existing federal law does not offer recourse for users seeking to challenge a social media provider’s decision about whether and how to present a user’s content. Legal challenges to these sites remain largely unsuccessful absent federal law provisions that can make these private companies accountable for violating free speech.
Claims against social media companies are anyway barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides immunity to social media providers, both for decisions to host content created by others, and for actions taken “voluntarily” and “in good faith” to restrict access to “objectionable” material. Those fine but ambiguous terms provide enough elbow room to the companies to act freely, even irresponsibly.
India’s challenge to the mighty Social Media Empire Raj has accelerated with Twitter losing the coveted “safe harbor” immunity over its failure to appoint statutory officers on the company’s roll in line with the new IT rules.
But unrest among users is growing with liberals complaining not enough is done to exclude harmful incendiary and hate content posted by conservatives, and the latter protesting the bias against conservatives of the almost wholly liberal Silicon Valley controlled media platforms that work against Republican Party and favor Democrats.
Trump, who had often spoken against Section 230, did issue an executive order directing the executive branch to ask independent rule-making agencies whether new regulations could be placed on the social media companies. But that symbolic order meant little, with Trump’s own access to the Twitter and Facebook platforms ironically getting blocked!
That these bans are more political than principled is clear from Facebook’s recently announced decision to ensure Trump stays barred until slightly beyond the midterm elections at which point the company will revisit the ban’s extension. Only a fool would believe it will not be extended once again to prevent Trump from using his powerful internet potential to dislodge Biden. Hardly innocent, Facebook’s and Twitter’s actions clearly are a favor to Biden and Democrats.
While as Biden supporters we may welcome that outcome, regardless of our party affiliation, we should be horrified at the stranglehold placed by social media mandarins on public discourse and behavior. The selective use of banning in favor of one person, party, or cause is not only despicable but scary. That such unrestrained power of censorship can impact not only our politics and elections, but also destroy vital other sectors of our life such as public health, education, religious pursuit, and the economy, as was clearly demonstrated in the wake of the Corona pandemic, makes the threat to each of us personal.
As pressure intensifies for making these companies liable not only for third-party content posted on the platform but also for their biased interference with and manipulation of speech, it has finally provoked some Congressional action. Twitter and Facebook have been questioned in several Congressional committee hearings over their impartiality and excessive power to restrict free speech, and their ability to monopolize public discourse and commerce. Republican Senator Josh Hawley introduced a bill last June that would eliminate the Section 230 immunity unless tech companies submitted to an external audit certifying that their content moderation practices were politically neutral. But further progress is stalled on that and other legislative ventures due to difficulty in finding cross-party support.
Lobbyists meanwhile have aggressively sought to derail any attempt to legislate reform and placed a stranglehold on lawmakers by the corrupting power of money. Elected representatives and even bureaucrats in America in many cases depend directly or indirectly on the financial backing, charity, and goodwill of those powerful social media companies. If you dare to cross the imaginary and ambiguous red line they have arbitrarily set, you get cancelled, de-platformed, and de-funded.
At state level luckily, Florida’s Governor and legislative leaders have announced they intend to set new requirements for social media companies, including clearing the way for lawsuits and financial penalties against platforms that violate the requirements. The Texas Attorney General’s request to Twitter to explain their content guidelines is another example of state initiatives aimed at restraining social media platforms gaining momentum.
The discourse around Corona as we all noticed was and is heavily controlled, with the media platforms suspending or banning contrarian views on anything to do with Corona’s origins, diagnosis, therapeutics, and mitigation. By arbitrarily censoring whatever clashed with the versions advocated by the official infectious disease bureaucracy and scientists, they abused public trust. Worse, they likely colluded with the bureaucracy and the scientists to perpetuate one-sided discourse, as seen in the recently revealed email exchanges between National Institutes of Health’s Dr. Fauci and Facebook’s Zuckerberg.
After 18 months of highly manipulated information dissemination on Corona, as the Wuhan origin of the virus theory is becoming plausible, and some treatment therapies that were outlawed by the media companies as “Trump-speak” are beginning to be accepted as beneficial, there is ground not merely for recrimination but also monetary compensation for the socio-economic damages caused to the global community from excessive use of discretionary power and abuse of authority by the media.
President Biden’s appointment of Lina Khan, who has been a fierce critic of Big Tech’s market monopoly, to head the Federal Trade Commission is a promising development. But her impact is likely to be more on market fairness than on challenging suppression of free speech. (Photo courtesy AP)
Biden’s appointment of Lina Khan, who has been a fierce critic of Big Tech’s market monopoly, to head the Federal Trade Commission is a promising development. But her impact is likely to be more on market fairness than on challenging suppression of free speech. The same possibly is true of the multi-bill legislation introduced on June 10 2021 in the US House, which if passed would be the most daring Congressional venture to curtail the power of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google over online commerce, information, and entertainment.
In contrast, India’s challenge to the mighty Social Media Empire Raj has accelerated with Twitter losing the coveted “safe harbor” immunity over its failure to appoint statutory officers on the company’s roll in line with the new IT rules. Its top executives, including the country managing director, could face police questioning and criminal liability under Indian Penal Code over ‘unlawful’ and ‘inflammatory’ content posted on the platform by any user.
One can imagine Google, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram etcetera facing a similar fate.
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Based in California, the published author contributes opeds and essays regularly to The South Asian Times.
The letters of your name have the power to help you build a successful life. Owing to the benefits that the study of numerology offer, several celebrities and business tycoons have paved their way to success by changing their names.
Celebrity name changes
Not many people know this, but even the most respected and renowned celebrity, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, changed his name from Inquilab Srivastava (birth name) to what he is recognized as today. It was his father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, who made the change in his name. This industry name is also said to have paved a way for success.
Sometimes people also add or subtract certain letters in their name to procure the benefits of numerology. For instance, formerly known as ‘Rani Mukherji’, the actress changed the spelling of her name to Rani Mukerji, as suggested by her numerologist. This change of only a single letter has worked wonders for her life. There are several other celebrities in Bollywood as well as Hollywood who have made small or big changes to their names to seek the benefits of numerology. Lucky Names in Businesses
Even the most popular of tech giants or businesses today have changed the names of their businesses/corporations. For instance, Instagram which is one of the most popular social media sites in the world was earlier named as Burbn. Similarly, Google was not the first choice, the tech-giant was earlier named BackRub. Hence, people from all walks of life have adapted to name changes for their business’s success. How to Find Your Lucky Name?
Numerology is a scientific art. Hence numerology provide an insight on how you can benefit from a change in your name based on your lucky letters.
As per Chaldean numerology, every alphabet has been assigned a number and every number is known to have a positive or negative impact on your lives.
What are the Core Numbers for every Alphabet?
The following table shows what number is assigned against each alphabet. This number can be modified to synchronize with your Date of Birth.
Steps to follow:
First Name Number and Compound Number: Based on the letters of your first name, allocate a number to each alphabet. See table below. In name number, both two-digit name number and single digit sum is equally important.
Name Number and Name Compound: Assign number to each alphabet of an individual’s last name.
For instance- First Name – 29 is compound and 2 is First name number
This is how you can calculate your name number. Based on the astrological implications of the number, a numerologist can choose the best name for you. There are several other intricacies of finding a name number which is best understood by someone who has studied numerology.
Remember your name is your identity, the signal that one telecasts to world and it carries a purpose much more than that. Hence, one must focus on these aspects of life to foster one’s growth trajectory.
(Sidhharrth S Kumaar is an astro numerologist in India )
Not many people may know but even the most respected and renowned Indian celebrity, Amitabh Bachchan, changed his name from Inquilab Srivastava (birth name) to what he is recognized as today. (Photo courtesy Pinterest)
Geneva: President Biden went to Europe for a week to convince the allies that America was back, and for good; gather them in common cause against the rising threat of China; and establish some red lines for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whom he called his “worthy adversary.”
At G7 he made inroads on China on which in Europe here has been reluctance to think of China as a threat — economically, technologically and militarily.
In Geneva, Biden expressed cautious optimism about finding ways to reach a polite accommodation with Putin. But it is far from clear that any of the modest initiatives the two men described on Wednesday, after a stiff, three-hour summit meeting on the edge of Lake Geneva, will fundamentally change a bad dynamic, rcometns New York Times
Biden, one of his senior aides said after the meeting was over, “is perpetually optimistic” that Mr. Putin may, despite a long history of efforts to undermine the Western alliance, see advantage in changing course.
This was Biden’s first foreign tour as President. He began over the weekend in England, on the rocky shores of Cornwall, the venue for G7, talking about friendship, alliances, consultation, comity and multilateralism. At every stop he opened with the same three words: “America is back.”
In Brussels, at NATO’s 31st summit on Monday, he said it was up to Democratic nations to prove to the world that autocracies cannot deliver for their people. He said NATO members must root out corruption, guard against hatred and “phony populism,” and invest in strengthening institutions “that underpin and safeguard our cherished democratic values.”
