Technology

US tech giant Google is investing in a $10 billion fund to help accelerate India’s transition to a digital economy in the next five to seven years. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc’s Google, said on Monday that the project will focus on building products that are relevant to India’s needs and empowering businesses for their “digital transformation”. “Our goal …

The United Arab Emirates said it plans to launch its “Hope” Mars probe on Friday local time from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center after a two-day delay due to poor weather there. A rocket is due to blast off at 5:43am local time (20:43 GMT Thursday) carrying the unmanned spacecraft that is bound to orbit the Red Planet in the Arab …

There is little chance of a 100-percent effective coronavirus vaccine by 2021, a French expert warned Sunday, urging people to take social distancing measures more seriously. “A vaccine is several years in development,” said epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet, a member of the team of scientists advising the government on the crisis, speaking on BFMTV television. “Of course, there is an unprecedented …

SYDNEY: Corporate travel agents are using the coronavirus-induced lull in bookings to work with companies on how to get their staff out of Zoom videoconferences and safely back in the air. They are launching new tools to provide on-the-ground information about local mask requirements, social distancing regulations and quarantine rules, as well as details of the hotel, airline and ground-transport …

LONDON: Britain’s main opposition Labour party said on Sunday it has joined a Facebook advertising boycott over allegations that the social network has failed to sufficiently curb hateful content. Hundreds of advertisers, including big-name consumer brands, have suspended advertising with the social media giant as part of the #StopHateForProfit” campaign. “All MPs in the Labour party use Facebook to get …

Thai researchers plan to begin human trials of a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus in November and are preparing 10,000 doses, a senior official said on Sunday, aiming for a vaccine that could be ready for use by late next year. Following favourable results in trials on primates, the next step is to manufacture doses for human trials, said …

SpaceX on Saturday delayed the launch of a rocket due to take 57 mini-satellites into space as part of plan to build an orbiting, global broadband internet system. The company tweeted that it was postponing the 10th Starlink mission “to allow more time for checkouts.” It said it was working to identify a new launch window. The mission had been …

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter on Friday said it suspended more than 50 white nationalist accounts for violating policies against violent extremism. “The accounts in question were suspended for violating our policies in relation to violent extremism,” a Twitter spokesman said, confirming a report by NBC News. The move came days after release of a report by nonprofit Global Project Against Hate and …

In the span of a few hours on Friday, Amazon banned and then unbanned the TikTok video-sharing app from employee mobile devices, calling the move a mistake. It was not immediately clear what led to the initial ban by Amazon. One person familiar with the matter said senior Amazon executives were unaware of the request to delete TikTok from employee …

CHICAGO: The coronavirus pandemic has exposed a clash among medical experts over disease transmission that stretches back nearly a century – to the very origins of germ theory. The Geneva-based World Health Organization acknowledged this week that the novel coronavirus can spread through tiny droplets floating in the air, a nod to more than 200 experts in aerosol science who …