Author: News Desk

San Francisco, Oct 18 (IANS) Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company Waymo has laid off more employees, for the third time this year.The fresh layoffs are part of an internal reorganisation process, a company spokesperson told The San Francisco Standard, without revealing the exact number of affected employees. “A small number of Waymo teams recently made adjustments to their teams as part of normal course of business,” the spokesperson said. Earlier this year, Alphabet laid off dozens of Waymo employees as part of wide-scale layoffs across the company. In March, Waymo sacked more than 200 employees in its second round of layoffs.…

New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Elon Musk on Wednesday said that in order to tackle bots, new X users will need to pay $1 per year to post on the platform, although they can read other posts for free.The company is rolling out the test of this new programme in New Zealand and the Philippines, before it launches it globally.X will require new users in New Zealand and the Philippines to pay $1 to create accounts.“Read for free, but $1/year to write. It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users,” Musk posted.“This won’t stop bots completely, but…

Washington,Oct 18 (IANS) The US House of Representatives has failed to elect a new speaker in the first round of voting, as right-wing Republican Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, failed to garner enough support from his own party two weeks after the historical ouster of Kevin McCarthy.On Tuesday night, Jordan, who was nominated by House Republicans on October 13, won 200 votes from the 220 Republicans present, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic nominee, received all 212 votes from his party, with both falling shy of the 217 majority needed to become the next Speaker,…

Washington, Oct 18 (IANS) The US State Department has raised its travel advisory for Lebanon to Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ due to the “unpredictable security situation related to rocket, missile, and artillery exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah or other armed militant factions”.In the advisory issued on Tuesday, the Department said it will allow family members and some non-emergency US government personnel from the embassy in Beirut to voluntarily depart the country “due to the unpredictable security situation”.The advisory also noted that “large demonstrations have erupted in the wake of recent violence in Israel and Gaza” that erupted on October…

The state public works department officials said that the repair work for the most important roadways link between north Bengal and Sikkim had been going on on an emergency basis.“That process is finally over and the road link will be reopened on Thursday. This is a positive development since this Sevoke-Sikkim road link is in true sense the lifeline connection between the two states,” a department official said.He also said that certain parts of the highway were damaged in a major way because of the flash flood. “So people commuting from North Bengal to Sikkim or vice versa had to…

Apparently not into the actress making public their family secrets, Jaden Smith and Willow Smith reportedly “feel bad for their dad with all the recent headlines about their parents.”A source tells ET about the Smith kids, which also include Trey Smith, whom the ‘Emancipation’ actor shares with his ex-wife Sheree Zampino: “They know he has been going through a lot lately and this isn’t helping.”The source added: “They wish some of their family’s private matters remained private.”As for how Will is handling the matter, the source says the 55-year-old star is “trying to stay busy and has been hanging out…

Ravi Bhalla, who became the first Sikh to be elected as the Mayor of Hoboken City in November 2017, told CBS News on Tuesday that the first letter, which was sent more than a year ago, called on him to resign. While the second letter threatened his life, it was the third letter, which came soon after the second, that shook Bhalla and his family. “This is your last warning. If you don’t resign immediately, we will kill you, we’ll kill your wife, we’ll kill your children,” the contents of the third letter read. Another letter read, “it’s time to…

The HP Pavilion Plus 16 laptop is available in Warm Gold and Natural Silver colours at a starting price of Rs 1,24,999.The HP Pavilion Plus 14 laptop is available in Moonlight Blue and Natural Silver at a starting price of Rs 91,999, said the company.The new portfolio comes with IMAX-enhanced display for a superior viewing experience.The laptops are powered by latest 13th Gen Intel Core processors, AMD Ryzen 7 series processors and up to NVIDIA RTX 3050 graphics for a seamless performance.Equipped with HP Presence 2.0 for smart-AI features, the laptops enable better collaboration and productivity, said the company.“The new…

The state government had already allowed five shows from 9 a.m. to 1. 30 a.m. the next day.On Tuesday, the Madras High Court had directed the producers of the movie to approach the state government regarding special screenings during early mornings.A meeting of the producers association, Tamil Nadu Movie Theater’s association and government officials was held this morning.State Home secretary P. Amudha has written to Seven Screen Studios, the producers of the movie, ‘Leo’ on the decision of the government and the inability to screen the movie at 7 a.m for the first sixdays from the release day.In the letter,…

Introducing modernized Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA) legislation in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Ng said this mission will build on the foundations of the agreement to create connections between two countries’ businesses and set Canadian businesses up to support the rebuilding of Ukraine, reports Xinhua news agency.”The modernized CUFTA marks an important milestone in the Canada-Ukraine relationship, opening greater collaboration for our businesses and the ability to support Ukraine’s economic rebuild while driving benefits for Canadians at home,” said Ng.On September 22, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the modernised CUFTA in Ottawa…