Category: News and Views

The buzzwords reflecting the frustration of China’s young generation | BBC News

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_118826694_gettyimages-1215935424In China, the rat race begins almost the minute you are born – from getting into a good school to getting that prestigious job. But millions now want to break free of this cycle, with two words shedding a light on the frustration felt by the younger generation.

When Sun Ke graduated from college in 2017, he went to Shanghai to pursue a dream shared by many from his generation – a good career, a car, perhaps even a house.

The 27-year-old didn’t expect it to be very difficult. His parents managed to start from scratch on their own, and now own several properties in their hometown, a small town near Shanghai.

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Daily Crunch: Google’s first retail location opened today in NYC | TechCrunch

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Google recently discovered a bug in its Android app that could have allowed an attacker to quietly steal personal data from a device. The company caught it, plugged it and confirmed that it had no evidence that anyone’s data was compromised.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has revived a bill that would establish a new U.S. federal agency to shield Americans from the invasive practices of tech companies operating in their own backyard.

The AI-powered defense company founded by Oculus founder and seller-to-Facebook Palmer Luckey has landed a $450 million round of investment that values the startup at $4.6 billion just four years in.

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Passengers Furious After Southwest Airlines Leaves Thousands Stranded: ‘I Just Want to Go Home’ | Entrepreneur

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Passengers across the country are furious after hundreds of delays and cancellations hit Southwest Airlines flights due to internal technical difficulties.

The popular airline was hit with two separate issues this week that left thousands of passengers stranded and disgruntled.

On Monday, Southwest faced connectivity issues with a third-party weather supplier used on flights, delaying over 40% of the company’s total flights for the day.

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Apple to let you sign up for services with Face/Touch ID instead of passwords | Mashable

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Passwords are hard to remember — especially if you use a lot of online services and try (which you should) to use a strong, different password for each one. But the days of trying to think of yet another password to sign up for a new service may be behind us.

In a WWDC developer session titled “Move beyond passwords,” Apple engineer Garret Davidson shows a new feature, allowing users to sign up for new online services using Face ID or Touch ID instead of a password.

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A robot is killing weeds by zapping them with electricity | CNN

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On a field in England, three robots have been given a mission: to find and zap weeds with electricity before planting seeds in the cleared soil.

The robots — named Tom, Dick and Harry — were developed by Small Robot Company to rid land of unwanted weeds with minimal use of chemicals and heavy machinery.

The startup has been working on its autonomous weed killers since 2017, and this April launched Tom, its first commercial robot which is now operational on three UK farms. The other robots are still in the prototype stage, undergoing testing.

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US Supreme Court rejects J&J talc cancer case appeal | BBC News

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The US Supreme Court has declined to hear Johnson & Johnson’s appeal over a pay-out to women who alleged that its talcum powder contained asbestos and caused them to develop ovarian cancer.

The healthcare giant must pay $2.1bn (£1.5bn) in damages to the women.

The top US court did not comment on its decision, but has left in place a 2018 verdict that favoured them.

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said decades of independent research show the product is safe.

The company asked the court to review the penalty it had been given after it was upheld in Missouri in 2020.

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PPP’s Crazy Final Days | Inc.com

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When the Small Business Administration shuttered the Paycheck Protection Program for all lenders other than community financial institutions earlier this month–three weeks before the forgivable loan program’s May 31 end date–it sent shock waves through the system.

Womply, a loan facilitator based in San Francisco, quickly rattled off a report noting that as many as 1.6 million of its small-business customers would be left out. Numerated, the Boston-based digital lending platform for banks, said it had $1.4 billion in outstanding applications from more than 33,000 businesses that had been started but not yet approved by the SBA. Meanwhile, other lenders worked to scuttle their programs and divert borrowers, even as it remained unclear how much money was actually left.

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Baskin-Robbins’ Vegan Options Now Available At All Locations | Green Matters

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Just in time for the warm (almost) summer weather, Baskin-Robbins has decided to expand its menu to accommodate vegans nationwide, by launching oat milk ice cream at all 2,500 U.S. locations. Needless to say, the plant-based community is preparing to get their sweet tooth on, and gearing up for the widely beloved frozen treat.

“We’re a brand that’s all about creating new flavor experiences and with so many people living plant-based or flexitarian lifestyles today, we couldn’t be more excited to launch our new oat milk-based option,” Shannon Blakely, VP of Marketing & Culinary at Baskin-Robbins, said in a press release. “We’re so passionate about this new base and Flavor of the Month as it’s not just an evolution of our offerings, but a sign of our passion and commitment to creating what’s ‘next’ in frozen desserts.”

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Amazon will buy MGM, the James Bond studio, in $8 billion deal | Mashable

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Amazon’s entertainment empire is about to get a massive boost.

The company announced on Wednesday that it’s signed an agreement to acquire MGM Studios for a purchase price of $8.45 billion. It’s a blockbuster deal that will further bolster Amazon’s already-potent entertainment division, the Emmy- and Academy Award-winning Amazon Studios.

The acquisition turbocharges Amazon’s efforts to make noise in Hollywood, giving the company a massive roster of beloved entertainment properties to support and mine for new ideas. And that’s in addition to an upcoming MGM slate that includes new movies for James Bond and The Addams Family, as well as House of Gucci, and the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect.

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Jeff Bezos will step down as Amazon CEO on July 5 | CNN

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will officially step down from his role as chief executive on July 5, he announced during the company’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday.

Bezos will hand the reins to Andy Jassy, who currently runs Amazon Web Services, after a nearly three-decade run leading the internet giant that made him one of the richest people in the world. Bezos will become Amazon’s executive chair.

The company first announced the leadership change as part of its February earnings report, saying Jassy would take over during the fiscal third quarter. Amazon (AMZN) had not previously shared the precise date of the transition.

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