Corona crisis and increasing work pressure are putting journalist's lives in danger

Indore, Madhya Pradesh: In the tension of work in the 70-year-old newspaper of the state, a senior journalist was killed yesterday. Employees are being exploited in newspapers due to the corona period. 

Many employees have been chased away in the old newspaper Naidunia due to this. This has increased the work pressure on survivors. Management and editor are pressuring to work from remaining colleagues. In such a case, a senior journalist was killed.

When output head Ujjwal Shukla asked Piyush Dixit to watch two editions together, Piyush Dixit said it is not possible to get so much work done at once. There was a debate between Piyush and Ujjwal Shukla regarding this. After some time, Piyush's blood pressure increased to a dangerous level. The colleagues lay Piyush on the sofa of the office and Kapish Dubey and Sameer Deshpande started massage Piyush's hands and feet. 

Meanwhile, all the physical activities of Piyush stopped suddenly and he also put his neck aside. Meanwhile, senior companion Ramnath Mutkule suddenly made pressure on his chest with hands, due to which his breath returned. After this, Piyush was taken to hospital and admitted. Work tension and pressure has now become on the lives of journalists. 

Last days old partner of Naidunia Marketing Mh. Iqbal had suddenly died. They came to office a day ago. It is said that they were being pressured for bringing political advertisements. Friends say they were in great stress over this. However, Piyush Dixit's health is fine. Everyone praised the efforts of fellow Ramnath Mutkule. While going to hospital, Piyush started crying and told his colleagues that he has small children and wife. He was more worried about his family not his life.

Argentina and Mexico to produce AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

Buenos Aires: Argentina and Mexico will produce the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for most of Latin America, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said on Wednesday after a meeting with company executives involved in the project.

An agreement signed between British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the biotechnology company mAbxience of the INSUD Group includes transfer of technology to initially produce 150 million doses of the vaccine to supply all of Latin America with the exception of Brazil, the Argentine government said.

AstraZeneca, Britain's second-largest drugmaker, has long operations in Argentina. The company signed a deal with the foundation of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim for production of the vaccine, which is expected to be delivered in the first half of 2021, pending Phase III studies and regulatory approvals.

The South American country, which has passed 5,000 coronavirus fatalities, posted a record daily number of COVID-19 infections on Wednesday with 7,663 new cases. There were more than 200 fatalities over the previous 24-hour period.

Brazilian state agrees to produce Russian COVID-19 vaccine

Curitiba: A Brazilian technology institute said on Wednesday it expects to produce a controversial coronavirus Russian vaccine by the second half of 2021, shortly after the state of Parana signed a memorandum of understanding with Moscow.

Russia has touted it as the world's first registered coronavirus vaccine, although experts have also raised safety concerns for going to market while other pharmaceutical companies are still carrying out mass testing. Parana's Technology Institute, known as Tecpar, said it may import the vaccine earlier than the production date, if Brazil's federal health regulator Anvisa approves the vaccine.

Tecpar signed the cooperation agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which said in a statement from Moscow that its goal was to "organise the production of the Sputnik V vaccine and its distribution in Brazil and other Latin American countries."

Brazilian public health experts and former senior regulatory officials said on Tuesday they had safety concerns about the vaccine, which has not passed the usual mass testing required of vaccinations. At a press conference, Tecpar Director Jorge Callado said they were still waiting for Russia to send in its phase 1 and 2 vaccine test results, and that their understanding is they are still conducting phase 3 trials. He added that Parana would likely participate in the phase 3 testing, subject to Anvisa authorisation.

Brazil has the world's worse coronavirus outbreak after the United States, with over 3 million confirmed cases and 100,000 deaths, making it a global hub for testing coronavirus vaccines, including British and Chinese candidates.

Israeli jeweller makes $1.5 million gold COVID-19 Face Mask, The World's Most Expensive

Motza, Jerusalem, Israel: Art rather than ostentation is the rationale behind the world's most expensive coronavirus mask, say the Israeli jewellers who are crafting the $1.5 million object for an unnamed U.S.-based client.

Made out of 18 carat gold and studded with 3,600 black and white diamonds, the mask will be fitted with an N99 filter to offer a high level of protection, said Isaac Levy, owner of the Yvel jewellery brand. "I don't think he is going to use it going to the supermarket but he is going to use it here and there, I'm sure," said Levy. He described the client as a Chinese art collector living in the United States.

"He is a young-old customer of ours, very charming, very outgoing, very wealthy and he likes to stand out," Levy said. The jeweller plans to deliver the mask personally when it is completed, in October. The mask, which a team of around 25 artisans is working on, might be viewed a vulgar display of wealth during hard economic times, but for Levy it is above all a work of art.

"We are very proud to be able to create such a mask that provides so much work to so many people that desperately need these jobs in theses challenging times." he said.

Beirut explosion leaves migrant domestic workers without income or way home

Beirut, Lebanon: Migrant domestic workers protested outside the Kenyan Consulate in the Lebanese capital on Monday and Tuesday after being expelled by their employers without documents and no way to return home.

On the top of an economic crisis that has suffocated the income of one of the most vulnerable sectors of Lebanese society, the massive blast that rocked Beirut on August 4 has brought with it a new obstacle for migrant workers. According to Amnesty International, Lebanon is home to approximately 250,000 migrant domestic workers, mostly women, who come from African and Asian countries.

"These women are among the most marginalised people in society, and are bearing the brunt of the economic crisis exacerbated by COVID-19," said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International's MENA Regional Director in a press release.

During the pandemic, some of these women have been abandoned in front of the Ethiopian Consulate after their employers were not able to provide their regular income. Some of them have even been denied their own passports, which remain in the hands of their former bosses.

Physical abuse has also increased during the lockdown, according to Al Jazeera which documented the case of 23-year-old Faustina Tay who was found dead after she contacted an activist group for domestic abuse in March. The port explosion has now pushed many migrant domestic workers into homelessness.

"Even if they get enough money to buy a ticket back home, they will not be allowed to leave the country as the Lebanese government refuses to let them go," activist Dara Foi Elle told Reuters. "The Nigerian Embassy is trying to get laissez-passer papers to let them go, but we need help from the Lebanese government."

World powers promised not to fail the Lebanese people as the capital, Beirut, recovers from the blast that killed 158 people and destroyed swathes of the city last Tuesday. But foreign countries demanded transparency over how the aid is used, wary of writing blank checks to a government viewed by its own people as deeply corrupt. Some are concerned about the influence of Iran through the Shi'ite group Hezbollah.

Google turns Android phones into earthquake sensors; California to get alerts

California, US: Alphabet Inc's Google's Android phones on Tuesday started detecting earthquakes around the world to provide data that could eventually give billions of users precious seconds of warning of a tremor nearby, with an alerting feature first rolling out in California.

Japan, Mexico and California already use land-based sensors to generate warnings, aiming to cut injuries and property damage by giving people further away from the epicenter of an earthquake seconds to protect themselves before the shaking starts. If Google's approaches for detecting and alerting prove effective, warnings would reach more people, including for the first time Indonesia and other developing countries with few traditional sensors.

Seismology experts consulted by Google said turning smartphones into mini-seismographs marked a major advancement, despite the inevitably of erroneous alerts from a work in progress, and the reliance on a private company's algorithms for public safety. More than 2.5 billion devices, including some tablets, run Google's Android operating system.

"There are hundreds of millions of people around the world that live near earthquake fault zones. And every few seconds of notice that you can receive can give you time to you know get off of a ladder or move away from a dangerous object and overall take cover, so if you can get early notice that an earthquake is coming toward you, you can protect yourself, and that's an area where we think Android can help," said Marc Stogaitis, principal software engineer at Google.

Google's program emerged from a week-long session 4-1/2 years ago to test whether the accelerometers in phones could detect car crashes, earthquakes and tornadoes, said Stogaitis. Accelerometers - sensors that measure direction and force of motion - are mainly used to determine whether a user is holding a phone in landscape or portrait mode.

The company studied historical accelerometer readings during earthquakes and found they could give some users up to a minute of notice. Android phones can currently separate earthquakes from vibrations caused by thunder or the device dropping only when the device is charging, stationary and has user permission to share data with Google.

If phones detect an earthquake, they send their city-level location to Google, which can triangulate the epicenter and estimate the magnitude with as few as several hundred reports, Stogaitis said.

The system will not work in regions including China where Google's Play Services software is blocked.

Google expects to issue its first alerts based on accelerometer readings next year. It also plans to feed alerts for free to businesses that want to automatically shut off elevators, gas lines and other systems before the shaking starts. To test its alerting abilities, Google is drawing in California from traditional government seismograph readings to alert Android users about earthquakes, similar to notifications about kidnappings or flooding.

People expected to experience strong shaking would hear a loud dinging and see a full-screen advisement to drop, cover and hold on, Stogaitis said. Those further away would get a smaller notification designed not to stir them from their sleep, while people too close to be warned will get information about post-quake safety, such as checking gas valves. Alerts will trigger for earthquakes magnitude 4.5 or greater, and no app download is necessary.

At the U.S. Geological Survey, Robert de Groot, communication coordinator for the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning (EEW) system, said the bi-level approach that Google is taking is unique.

"Google is using is what we call bi-level alerting where there's two kinds of messages: what is called a be aware message and then a take action message. And that has a lot of implications.

That's a type of alerting we haven't seen done yet," he said. "But beyond being interesting, and beyond being innovative, if it's successful in protecting people, then it is a success." Stogaitis also said Google has not discussed its plans with Apple Inc, whose competitor to Android comprises half the market in countries including the United States. Apple was not immediately available for comment.

TikTok to sue Trump administration over executive order ban

China: TikTok is planning to sue the Trump administration, challenging the U.S. president's executive order banning the video-sharing app in the United States, according to U.S. National Public Radio, or NPR.

Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order barring transactions with TikTok's parent company ByteDance and also Tencent, owner of WeChat, starting in 45 days.NPR reported that the lawsuit will argue that Trump's action is unconstitutional because it didn't give the company a chance to respond. TikTok also alleges that the administration's national security justification for the order is baseless, according to the source.

TikTok will file the federal lawsuit as soon as Tuesday, the outlet said, citing a person "who was directly involved in the forthcoming suit but was not authorized to speak for the company."

'Trump hurts his own voters by banning WeChat,' says Chinese American

New York: U.S. President Donald Trump has unveiled sweeping bans on U.S. transactions with the Chinese owners of messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok, escalating a high-stakes confrontation with Beijing over the future of the global tech industry.

"Me and my mom, she's now in China, and WeChat provides a very easy, convenient platform for her where she comes from. She is from a generation that experienced a cultural revolution, and for many reasons that she couldn't get higher education. And the apps are high-tech these days, for her it is a bit overwhelming. But WeChat is so easy. Just a few clicks, she has sent a message, she can type something, and she can just send a voice message. That's most (of what ) she she does. And this morning she was so worried and called me on WeChat and asked me, 'is it true?' I said they are making a move, but I'm not sure what's the outcome." said Dong Zheng, 36, American citizen, originally from China. 

The executive orders announced Thursday and effective in 45 days come after the Trump administration this week flagged increased effort to purge "untrusted" Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks, calling Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat and Bytedance's popular TikTok "significant threats."

American citizen and originally from China, Leanna Louie said, "A lot of people, WeChat is, like, their life, you know. They live their life around it, you know? Some of them buy food from it, sell food from it. Some people buy houses and sell houses through WeChat. They buy clothing and sell clothing through WeChat. They buy and sell cars through WeChat. They even buy and sell cell phones through it. So, all those basic needs that we're talking about is all transacted through WeChat. And if it's cut out from their lives, then, you know, it's going to make it more difficult for them. And as a president, do you want to make people's lives better, or do you want to make their lives worse? I think that's what you have to ask."

China said on Friday the companies comply with U.S. laws and regulations and warned that the United States would have to "bear the consequences" of its action.

Trump orders transactions ban on WeChat, stoking tension with Beijing

Beijing, China: U.S. President Donald Trump has unveiled a sweeping ban on U.S. transactions with the Chinese messaging app giant WeChat, escalating a high-stakes confrontation with Beijing over the future of the global tech industry.

The executive orders announced Thursday and effective in 45 days come after the Trump administration this week flagged increased effort to purge "untrusted" Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks, calling Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat and Bytedance's popular TikTok "significant threats.

"The ban on U.S. transactions with Tencent, one of the world's biggest internet companies, portends further fracturing of the global internet and severing of long-standing ties between the tech industries in the United States and China.

WeChat has been downloaded a relatively small 19 million times in the United States, according to data from Sensor Tower. In China, however, the app is ubiquitous as a medium for services as varied as games and payment. It is also a common platform to communicate with individuals and businesses outside of China.

Trump's order sent Asian stock markets lower on Friday (August 7), with Tencent shares falling as far as 10.1% before recouping some of its losses in afternoon trade.

Russia supported China, Russian foreign ministry said- "US TikTok move unfair"

Russia: U.S. efforts to clamp down on popular short video-sharing app TikTok are an "egregious" example of unfair economic competition for U.S. dominance in the international information space, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Saturday.

"The actions of the U.S. authorities run counter to the basic principles of a free market economy and violate rules of the World Trade Organization," Zakharova said in a commentary posted on the foreign ministry's website. U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order banning any U.S. transactions with Chinese tech firm ByteDance, owner of TikTok, starting 45 days from then.

Washington has also threatened to ban TikTok's business in the United States if it is not sold to a U.S. company before Sept. 15.

These restrictions have violated a wide range of Washington's international obligations to ensure the free and wide distribution of information, the free choice of its sources, and to encourage cooperation in this area, Zakharova said.

She said that Moscow is calling on Washington to reconsider its methods to preserve the monopoly of U.S. IT giants in international social networks and ensure they meet generally accepted values and international legal norms.

"We hope that specialized international structures and human rights organizations will react appropriately and give an impartial assessment of these actions," she added.

India Today Group shutting down of English tabloid 'Mail Today' print edition, turns digital

New Delhi: The crisis continues in newspapers during the Corona period. India Today Group is also facing crisis. The group announced that its English language tabloid Mail Today will suspend its print publication with effect from 10 August 2020. The reason stated is that the print segment has been hit due to the pandemic but the content shall continue to be publish in the online format.

Informing employees about the decision, Aroon Purie, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief of the India Today Group in an internal mail said, "As you all know, the Group entered the newspaper space 13 years ago with great hope. We collaborated with one of the most successful newspaper publishers in the world- the Daily Mail Group of the UK. The idea was to produce a newspaper that was different from the broadsheets in the market. Not only did we bring it out in a more handy format, but we also carried hard-hitting reports, bold headlines, a dazzling mix of stories and a powerful visual display. ​It had colourful special sections on different days of the week and a very vibrant sports section. Many of our stories were followed by the legacy newspapers, the paper was often waved in Parliament demanding probes based on our stories and quoted frequently on TV news."


"I am very happy to say that, over the years, we realised our vision. It wasn’t easy. A lot of sweat and hard work, not to mention crores of investment, went into making it an exciting daily. The newspaper carved a niche for itself in the minds and hearts of many readers, particularly the young."

"During these years, we weathered the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 and the demonetisation shock to the economy in 2016. Unfortunately, the pandemic has drastically changed reader preferences. Daily and rigorous news consumption on devices during the lockdown makes it clear that the newspaper print medium will not resurrect. ​There is, therefore, little prospect of making Mail Today in print a viable publication. It is with deep regret that I announce the suspension of the print edition--the last print edition in its current form will be published on Sunday, August 9. ​​ I will miss holding a ​copy of Mail Today every morning as I am sure will many of our readers. "


"That said, we will be rebooting Mail Today in a digital avatar to meet the challenges of the future," he added. Dwaipayan Bose, Editor, Mail Today, will be moving to take charge of Indiatoday.in. He will report to Vice Chairperson Kalli Purie.

Several other editorial team members are being evaluated for various digital, social media and TV verticals in the Group. Regrettably, other colleagues will move on to opportunities outside the India Today Group and I wish them well. Trained in the ITG ecosystem, I know their talent will be in high demand. Our HR department will be in touch on the next steps.

Innovation: 'Mozo' the robot takes orders and serve food in Cairo restaurant

Cairo, Egypt: As Egypt loosens coronavirus restrictions, one restaurant decided to let robot wait its tables in a bid to attract customers who wish to limit human interaction.

Adorned with its own name tag, tie and apron, the robot named "Mozo", which means waiter in Spanish, is programmed to take orders and deliver meals to tables. "Mozo" works in tandem with the restaurant's human staff, whose role is now limited to entering a passcode to confirm each table's order and then place the food platters on the robot's specially designed trays. Launched at Kimbo Restaurant & Cafe in Cairo on July 14, "Mozo" is the only robot in Egypt waiting tables so far.

"When the problem of the coronavirus began in Egypt, Egyptian culture started thinking more about social distancing," said Aladdin Al-Howainy, from MARSES Robotic Solutions, the Egyptian company that developed "Mozo". He added that the robot was designed to look as friendly as possible to Egyptians not used to being around a moving robot.

"Everyone is afraid", said Dana Mohamed, a customer being waited on by the robot. "(It helps) people who are afraid that someone else might touch their food before they do." Egypt has allowed cafes and restaurants to return to work after the coronavirus measures were lifted, under the condition that they close at midnight and limit their capacity to 50%.

The North African country has been reporting dwindling numbers of coronavirus cases, the latest being less than 200 cases a day. In total, Egypt has recorded 94,483 cases, and 4,865 deaths.

Samsung launches Galaxy Note Z Fold 2, foldable smart phone as pandemic shrinks market

Seoul, South Korea: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its latest Galaxy Note smartphone and new version of its foldable phone, the Z Fold 2, on Wednesday, hoping to regain ground against rivals Huawei and Apple Inc as the smartphone market begins to recover from its COVID-19 slump.

Samsung launched its previous premium model, the S20, in February at the start of the pandemic but since then has ceded its top ranking in the smartphone market to China's Huawei, as people opt for cheaper models in tough times. The Z Fold 2 has a 6.2-inch (15.75-cm) screen when folded to provide a full smartphone experience even when it is closed, Samsung announced during a livestreamed event. Its unfolded display measures 7.6 inches (19.3 cm).

The new iteration is thinner than the first Fold, and the hinge is improved to be more resilient, Samsung said. Samsung did not disclose the phone's price, but said more details and preorders will be available on Sept. 1. The new Note 20 boasts a larger screen at 6.7 inches (17 cm), 5G connectivity, enhanced writing features with its S-Pen stylus, and access to more than 100 console and PC games via a tie-up with Microsoft Corp's Xbox cloud service.

It will go on sale on Aug. 21 in about 70 countries, including the United States, where the basic version will retail for $999 (USD), compared with its predecessor's $949. Apple fans are unlikely to jump ship to the new Samsung model as the 5G iPhone is likely to be launched later this year, analysts say.

Samsung posted a 29% on-year drop in shipments in the June quarter, the biggest fall among top vendors, according to researcher IDC. Apple, which launched the budget-friendly SE during the period, remained resilient with 11% on-year shipment growth, while Huawei posted only a 5% fall.

The global smartphone market shrank about 16% on-year in the April-June quarter due to COVID-19 lockdowns and consumer caution, a larger contraction than in the first quarter, and is expected to improve only slightly in the second half, IDC said.

Artificial Intelligence: Star Wars-inspired 'smart skin' developed by Singapore scientists

Singapore: Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed an AI device with a sense of touch that can identify objects and textures.

The device, officially dubbed ACES (Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin), is composed of 100 different small sensors and is about 1 square centimetre in size. According to its developers, it can process information faster than the human nervous system, and has been trained to recognise 20-30 different types of textures and read braille letters, all with over 90% accuracy.

"So humans need to slide to feel texture, but in this case, the skin, with just a single touch, is able to detect textures of different roughness, and so in some sense, it's quite difficult to cheat this skin, especially when it's combined with AI algorithms that can learn very quickly," said research team leader Dr. Benjamin Tee.

According to Tee, the device is part of a series of other innovations that he and his team are developing to help make prosthetic limbs that can feel and sense-not just for detecting objects or textures, but also being able to feel temperatures and even pain.

"When you lose your sense of touch, you essentially become numb every single moment, and prosthetic users face that problem. They are unable to feel the world, just like us. So by recreating an artificial version of the skin, for their prosthetic devices, they can hold a hand and feel the warmth and feel that it is soft, how hard are they holding the hand. You know, they are able to do that, and they can regain some semblance of normal life," said Tee, demonstrating that the device could detect a squishy stress ball is "soft" while a solid plastic ball is classified as "hard".

Tee said that the concept was originally inspired by a scene from the original "Star Wars" trilogy when protagonist Luke Skywalker loses his right hand and had it replaced with a robotic one, and was seemingly able experience sensations of pain and touch again.

The recent projects has been in development for the past two years, although Tee previously spent over a decade working on this field.

Among the other patents they have developed is a water-resistant, self-healing transparent skin that that can repair itself when ruptured. Made from a fluorocarbon-based polymer with a fluorine-rich ionic liquid, the material can repair itself after being ruptured, and takes around a full day to completely "heal" from a large cut. His team has also developed a self-healing, light-emitting material that Tee said can be used for wearable electronic devices or even clothing.

Tee said that the technology is still in the experimental stage and has yet to hit the private market, but there has been "tremendous interest," especially from the medical community.

US President Donald Trump said he would be in favour of helping US airlines

Washington, DC: US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would be in favour of helping U.S. airlines financially when he was asked about a group of Senate Republicans backing $25 billion payroll assistance for companies financially devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.

"We don't want to lose our airlines so if they're looking at that, whether they're Republican or Democrat, I'd be certainly in favor," Trump said at a White House briefing. He also defended his suggestion of giving a speech from the White House accepting the Republican Party's presidential nomination, after lawmakers and ethicists said it was inappropriate and possibly illegal to use a nonpartisan, public site as a venue for a political address.

"Well, it is legal," Trump said when asked about his speech plans, arguing that the Hatch Act prohibiting leaders from trading on public goods for political gains does not apply to him. "If I use the White House, we save tremendous amounts of money for the government in terms of security, traveling."

Facebook launches TikTok-like product inside Instagram

California, US: Facebook rolled out its own version of social media rival TikTok in the United States and more than 50 other countries on Wednesday, embedding a new short-form video service called Reels as a feature within its popular Instagram app.

The debut comes days after Microsoft said it was in talks to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations from China's ByteDance. ByteDance has agreed to divest parts of TikTok, sources have said, under pressure from the White House which has threatened to ban it and other Chinese-owned apps over data security concerns. The launch of Reels escalates a bruising fight between Facebook and TikTok, with each casting the other as a threat. Both have been eager to attract American teenagers, many of whom have flocked to TikTok in the last two years.

Reels was first tested in Brazil in 2018 and then later in France, Germany and India, which was TikTok's biggest market until the Indian government banned it last month following a border clash with China. Facebook also tried out a standalone app called Lasso which did not gain much traction. Similar to TikTok, Reels users can record short mobile-friendly vertical videos, then add special effects and soundtracks pulled from a music library.

Those similarities led TikTok Chief Executive Kevin Mayer to call Reels a "copycat product" that could coast on Instagram's enormous existing user base after "their other copycat Lasso failed quickly." Facebook faced similar charges at a congressional hearing on U.S. tech companies' alleged abuse of market power last week, with lawmakers suggesting the company has copied rivals like Snapchat for anti-competitive reasons.

Vishal Shah, Instagram's vice president of product, acknowledged the similarities in a Tuesday (August 4) video conference call with reporters and said that "inspiration for products comes from everywhere," including Facebook's teams and "the ecosystem more broadly."

Instagram is not yet planning to offer advertising or other ways for users to make money through Reels, although it did recruit young online stars like dancer Merrick Hanna and musician Tiagz - who was recently signed by Sony/ATV after rising to fame via TikTok memes - to test the product ahead of launch. The company paid the creators for production costs, Shah said.

Microsoft's rescue attempt of TikTok endears old company to new generation

Microsoft has emerged as a savior to young users of TikTok, who praised the tech industry giant for trying to buy parts of the social media company's operations, in hopes of avoiding a U.S. shutdown.

Bearing hashtags like #SaveTikTok and #Microsoft, which have attracted nearly 1 billion views combined, TikTok'ers - an overwhelmingly young group that uses the app to create short dance, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos - embraced a company founded by people their grandparent's age and whose former chief executive's pre-internet-era onstage outbursts and profuse sweating are now a YouTube meme.

Microsoft has largely abandoned its historic practice of tying all of its products back to its Windows operating system or other properties. Minecraft apps have no obvious connection to Microsoft. Its sales have quadrupled over the six years since it was acquired and it now reaches 126 million monthly users. JT Casey, a TikTok user with 2.8 million followers, said he was initially worried about the idea of Microsoft's ownership, but concluded there is a potential change that could benefit video creators.

"I kinda started realizing that I'm sure Microsoft would want to figure out a way to monetize TikTok better, which would eventually lead into creators making more money as well as Microsoft. I guess after thinking about it for a day or so I would not be opposed to Microsoft buying it, seeing what they do with it. They are a very big company and would invest a lot of money into it," Casey said. Content creators are already looking at their options through other social media platforms while they wait and see what happens to TikTok.

"We were talking about 'oh look, Microsoft looks to buy it' and they were like 'Oh it's fake, don't believe that'. What's going through their heads is honestly like, where the next app is going to be. That's what I'm hearing, people are talking about people going to Triller, people are going to Byte, because the short video is never going to go anywhere, it's just a matter of is TikTok going anywhere," said Dimitri Robinson, a TikToker with 270,000 followers.

Ex-Google executive Anthony Levandowski sent to prison for stealing robocar secrets

San Ramon, US: A former Google engineer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing trade secrets before joining Uber's effort to build robotic vehicles for its ride-hailing service.


The sentence handed down Tuesday by US District Judge William Alsup came more than four months after former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski reached a plea agreement with the federal prosecutors who brought a criminal case against him last August. Levandowski, who helped steer Google's self-driving car project before landing at Uber, was also ordered to pay more than 850,000.

Alsup had taken the unusual step of recommending the Justice Department open a criminal investigation into Levandowski while presiding over a high-profile civil trial between Uber and Waymo, a spinoff from a self-driving car project that Google began in 2007 after hiring Levandowski to be part of its team.

Levandowski eventually became disillusioned with Google and left the company in early 2016 to start his own self-driving truck company, called Otto, which Uber eventually bought for 680 million. Before leaving Google, though, Levandowski downloaded a trove of Google's self-driving car technology, resulting in him facing 33 counts of intellectual property theft. He wound up pleading guilty to one count, culminating in Tuesday's sentencing.

The accusations turned Levandowski, once highly regarded for his early inroads into self-driving cars, into a notorious figure almost synonymous with greed run amok in Silicon Valley," his own lawyers acknowledged in court documents filed last week. The lawyers argued Levandowski deserved some leniency because there was never any evidence that he used Google's trade secrets while overseeing Uber's self-driving car division.

He lost that job in 2017 while asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when Uber was still defending itself against Waymo's lawsuit. Uber settled its case with Waymo for 245 million a few days into a trial that featured its former CEO, Travis Kalanick, speaking about some of his discussions with Levandowski about the ride-hailing service's desire to win the race to build self-driving cars.

Levandowski, 40, faced a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a 250,000 fine. Besides sentencing Levandowski to 18 months in prison, Alsup fined him 95,000 and ordered him to pay Waymo 756,499 to reimburse the company for the costs it incurred in helping the government with its investigation.

It appears uncertain whether Levandowski will be able to make the payments. He filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after another court upheld an arbitration ruling requiring him to pay Google 179 million, most of which consisted of a bonus he received for his work on self-driving cars.

In its victim statement, Waymo told Alsup that Levandowski's misconduct was enormously disruptive and harmful to Waymo, constituted a betrayal, and the financial effects would likely have been even more severe had it gone undetected. In documents arguing why Levandowski deserved prison time, US Attorney David Anderson called his theft a brazen and shocking act that seemed driven by ego as much as greed.

Levandowski's actions suggest he wanted to be seen as the singular inventor of the self-driving car, the way Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the telephone," Anderson wrote.

Trump's bid for a piece of Microsoft-TikTok deal could spur legal action

Washington, DC: On Tuesday, President Donald Trump repeated his unprecedented demand that the United States get a cut of the proceeds from the forced sale of Chinese internet giant ByteDance's short-video app TikTok - a demand based on an interpretation of U.S law that regulatory lawyers say may be open to challenges.

Trump said that he told Microsoft and other companies interested in buying the assets of Tik Tok that the U.S. Treasury would have to benefit also."I told Microsoft and frankly others if they want to do it, if they make a deal for Tik Tok, whether it's the 30 percent in the United States or the whole company, I say it's okay but, if you do that, we're really making it possible because we're letting you operate here. So the United States Treasury would have to benefit also, not just, not just the sellers," he said.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a U.S. government panel that reviews deals for potential national security risks, has given ByteDance until Sept. 15 to negotiate a sale of TikTok to Microsoft Corp , amid concerns over the safety of personal data that the app handles under its Chinese parent.

CFIUS legislation gives the U.S. government broad authority to seek mitigation from companies that are jeopardizing national security, legal experts said. While CFIUS has never before sought a cut from the proceeds of a divestiture it has ordered, the White House could argue that imposing a fee on Bytedance would deprive it of resources that would otherwise support China's government on technology initiatives that could harm U.S. interests, some of the legal experts added.

Microsoft has said it is seeking to buy the assets of TikTok in North America, Australia and New Zealand. It has not disclosed how much it is willing to pay, though sources previously told Reuters that ByteDance executives value all of TikTok at more than $50 billion. The White House, the Treasury Department, Bytedance and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Danielle Brooks to play gospel legend Mahalia Jackson in biopic

Los Angeles: Orange Is the New Black alum Danielle Brooks has signed on to play gospel music icon and civil rights activist Mahalia Jackson in an upcoming biopic in the works at Lifetime.

The movie, titled Robin Roberts Presents: The Mahalia Jackson Story , is the first in a four-film deal with the Good Morning America anchor. According to Deadline, Kenny Leon is on board as the director. The biopic will trace Jackson's life and career as she rose to become the best known gospel singer in the mid-20th century and a civil rights activist who sang at the 1963 March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. She also sang at John F. Kennedy's inaugural ball in 1961.


The project is produced by Rock'n Robin Productions and Lincoln Square Productions. Roberts and Linda Berman serve as executive producers. Having had the privilege of working with Kenny on Steel Magnolias' and Robin Roberts on Stolen by my Mother', I am ecstatic to have them join forces to work together on this special project, said Tanya Lopez, EVP of Movies, Limited Series & Original Movie Acquisitions, Lifetime and LMN.

Adding Danielle Brooks as Mahalia is icing on the cake. This team is committed in celebrating the legacy of Mahalia and reintroducing her to a world that needs her spirit more than ever, she added. Leon and Brooks previously worked together on the stage production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing .