News

Eurozone Retailers Sold Slightly More in July
5Sep By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, Europe, News

Eurozone Retailers Sold Slightly More in July

Retailers in the eurozone sold slightly more goods in July. According to the European statistics bureau Eurostat, the sales volume increased by 0.3 percent compared to a month earlier. In June, sales fell by 1 percent. According to Eurostat, sales of car fuel rose by 0.4 percent, and food and stimulants showed a plus of 0.1 percent. However, non-food sales volume fell by 0.4 percent because consumers buy fewer non-essential goods due to high inflation. Compared to a year ago, retail sales volume in the euro area fell by 0.9 percent.
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Top Man of VR Project Horizon Resigns from Meta
29Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, Technology, US

Top Man of VR Project Horizon Resigns from Meta

Vivek Sharma, the vice president of VR platform Horizon, is stepping down from Meta. Horizon is one of the spearheads of the metaverse that the company is building above Facebook. Vivek Sharma spent six years at Facebook's parent company, previously responsible for Marketplace and the Gaming business unit, among other things. As vice president, he expanded Horizon: the VR business unit that has shaped the emerging metaverse. Horizon Worlds is one of the VR projects he watched: a project that is very reminiscent of the ancient online game Second Life, but with an extra layer of virtual reality. But Vivek Sharma is equally responsible for Horizon Workrooms and Venues: the apps for collaborating and meeting in a VR environment or going to live events virtually. It is unknown why ...
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Google Classifies Innocent Photo of Naked Child as Child Porn and Closes Account
22Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, Technology

Google Classifies Innocent Photo of Naked Child as Child Porn and Closes Account

A man was kicked out of his Google account and received a visit from the police for sending a photo of his child's genitals to his doctor. The story sounds like a privacy nightmare. The toddler in question had swelling around his crotch. In preparation for a video consultation, he sent pictures of the condition to the doctor at the request of medical personnel. The facts date from February 2021, when many doctors' practices in the US were not easily accessible due to corona. The condition was treated with antibiotics. However, two days later, the man notified Google that his accounts were being blocked for harmful content, violating Google's policy, and may have committed illegal acts. As a result, the man no longer had access to emails, contacts, or online photos, and even hi...
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Apple Employees have to Go Back to the Office 3 Days a Week
17Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, Technology

Apple Employees have to Go Back to the Office 3 Days a Week

Apple wants its employees to be back in the office at least three days a week from September 5. It's not the first time Apple has tried to get people back to the office. However, several lockdowns over the past two years have slowed down previous efforts. In practice, Apple will require employees to work from the office on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and a third day determined by individual teams. That's an adjustment to the original plan, which required office work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Apple first announced its three-day office work policy in June 2021. Since then, however, there have been several new Covid peaks worldwide, with the result that Apple limited its policy to two office working days per week. The new policy will go into effect for Apple locations in Silicon...
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Tesla has Already Built 1 Million Cars in Shanghai
15Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, China, News

Tesla has Already Built 1 Million Cars in Shanghai

Electric car maker Tesla has reached a milestone with its factory in Shanghai. 1 million cars have already rolled off the production line there since production started at the end of 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk reported via Twitter. In total, Tesla has already built more than 3 million Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y cars, Musk added. The company has long been the most valuable automaker in the world. Because of that valuation on the stock market, Musk is also the wealthiest person on earth. The Shanghai factory was Tesla's first outside the United States. The American company now also has a factory in Germany.
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US Inflation Lower Than Expected
10Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, News, US

US Inflation Lower Than Expected

US inflation is slowing faster than expected. That is according to data from the US Department of Labor on Wednesday.   On an annual basis, inflation rose by 8.5 percent in July. That's less than the 9.1 percent recorded in June - the most significant increase in four decades. Compared to June, consumer prices remained unchanged in July. However, falling fuel and energy prices compensated for price increases for food and housing. As a result, food prices rose by 10.9 percent year-on-year. It is the biggest jump since 1979. Core US inflation - excluding volatile food and energy prices - stood at 5.9 percent yoy in July and 0.3 percent in June. Analysts at Bloomberg news agency had expected total inflation of 8.7 percent and 0.2 percent on an annual and monthly basis. They had estim...
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DuckDuckGo Now Also Blocks Microsoft Scripts
8Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Technology, News

DuckDuckGo Now Also Blocks Microsoft Scripts

After criticism from users, the privacy-friendly search engine will also stop tracking by Microsoft.   DuckDuckGo is a search engine that does not track you online and thereby omits trackers or other techniques to identify you online. In addition, it also has extensions for Firefox and a mobile browser. In May, the organization was criticized for this. Despite its promise, DuckDuckGo's browser still contained Microsoft tracking scripts. That is why it is now announcing that that too will be discontinued. CEO Gabriel Weinberg also explains why: "We were restricted from applying 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection to Microsoft tracking scripts by a policy requirement linked to our use of Bing as the source of our search results." Now that requirement is no longer there, and Weinbe...
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French Student Arrested in Morocco for Hacking American Companies
1Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Technology, France, Morocco, News, US

French Student Arrested in Morocco for Hacking American Companies

In Morocco, 21-year-old Sebastien Raoult has been arrested at the request of the FBI. The man is accused of hacking and stealing data from various American companies.   Raoult's arrest dates back to June 1 but only became known through French and Moroccan media last week. He was arrested at Rabat airport while trying to catch a flight to Brussels. According to the FBI, Raoult is part of the ShinyHunters hacker group. In it, he would have hacked several American companies since 2020 and sold their data. As a result, the man was signalled to Interpol and could be arrested. The question now will be whether the man will be extradited to the US. He risks a prison sentence of up to 116 years, but his lawyer is against it. He argues that the facts would have been committed in France by a...
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Why, Energy Crisis? Shell Makes Record Profit of 11 Billion Euros, TotalEnergies Doubles Profit
28Jul By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, News

Why, Energy Crisis? Shell Makes Record Profit of 11 Billion Euros, TotalEnergies Doubles Profit

While millions of people worldwide are moaning under high energy prices, major oil and gas producers such as the British Shell, the French TotalEnergies, and the American ExxonMobil are making billions in profits.   Oil and gas giants Shell and TotalEnergies benefited in the second quarter from the high energy and fuel prices caused by the war in Ukraine. As a result, shell made a profit of approximately 11.3 billion euros in the last quarter – between April and June. That was another 26 percent more than the previous record… set in the previous quarter, between January and March. As a result, 7.7 billion euros will be distributed to shareholders. France's TotalEnergies, on the other hand, tripled its profit to 5.6 billion euros, and the American ExxonMobil already indicated that t...
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EU Countries Negotiate Exceptions to Gas Savings Plan
26Jul By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, Europe, News

EU Countries Negotiate Exceptions to Gas Savings Plan

Minister Rob Jetten wants the number of exceptions to measures to save on gas consumption in the EU in the coming months to be limited.   A number of countries, including Spain, Greece, and Poland, object to the European Commission's proposal to reduce gas consumption by 15% between August and the end of March and demand exceptions. Based on anonymous sources, the German news agency DPA reported Monday night that the 27 member states had agreed on a European Commission emergency plan called Save gas for a safe winter to save 15 percent gas voluntarily and, if that is not possible quickly enough, to introduce mandatory measures. But the race is not over yet. For example, Polish minister Anna Moskwa said on arrival in Brussels that savings in her country are unnecessary because the ...
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