Author: News Desk

Unilever PLC said on Friday it will stop advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the United States for the rest of the year, citing “divisiveness and hate speech during this polarized election period in the U.S.” The consumer goods company, which owns brands like Dove Soap and Lipton tea, joins a growing advertising boycott against Facebook as part of the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign started by U.S. civil rights groups after the death of George Floyd. ♦ Unilever to drop terms like ‘whitening’ from beauty products ♦ L’Oreal to drop words such as ‘whitening’ from skin products The effort called…

Amazon has agreed to buy California-based self-driving startup Zoox Inc in a deal reported to be worth more than $1 billion that gives it options to use autonomous technology in either ride-hailing or its delivery network. The world’s largest online retailer has stepped up its investment in the car sector, participating in self-driving car startup Aurora Innovation Inc’s $530 million funding round early last year. While Amazon and Zoox did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, the Information said on Thursday, citing sources, that Amazon had agreed to pay over $1 billion to buy Zoox. The report did not…

L’Oreal, the world’s biggest cosmetics company, will remove words referencing “white”, “fair” and “light” from its skin-evening products, a spokeswoman said on Friday, a day after Unilever made a similar announcement in the face of growing social media criticism. Unilever and L’Oreal are two big players in the global market for skin whitening creams used in many Asian, African and Caribbean countries where fair skin is often considered desirable. Unilever, in particular, came under fire for its “Fair & Lovely” brand at a time of worldwide focus on racial injustice following weeks of protests sparked by the May death of George…

Bahrain has announced the death of a 83-year-old female citizen from coronavirus, the total death toll reached 72. The MOH expressed its condolences to the family of the deceased. The total cases have driven to 24,081 of which 18,501 have recovered, which means that over 76 percent of the confirmed cases have recovered from the virus. Currently, there are 5,508 active cases. Also, there are 136 COVID-19 cases receiving treatment, of which 38 are in a critical condition. So far the country has conducted 511,458 tests, as per the government statics.

Emirates will be offering scheduled flights for passengers from seven additional cities in the month of July. These include Khartoum (from 03 July), Amman (from 05 July), Osaka (from 07 July), Narita (from 08 July), Athens (from 15 July), Larnaca (from 15 July) and Rome (15 July). This takes the total number of destinations that Emirates is offering to 48, facilitating additional travel options through a convenient connection in Dubai for customers across the world, while undertaking extensive measures to ensure the health and safety of customers and employees. ♦ Emirates will have to review strategy after coronavirus pandemic: COO Customers…

The World Health Organization-led coalition fighting the coronavirus needs $31.3 billion over the next 12 months to develop and roll out tests, treatments and vaccines, it said on Friday. It said $3.4 billion had been contributed to date, leaving a funding gap of $27.9 billion, of which $13.7 billion was “urgently needed”. The WHO initiative aims to scale up delivery of 500 million tests and 245 million courses of treatments to low- and middle-income countries by mid-2021, it said in a statement. It also aims to scale up delivery of 2 billion vaccines doses, including 1 billion to be bought…

UAE records 410 cases, and 2 fatalities from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the total cases in the country to 46,973, according to the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP). The new death takes the total fatalities to 310. 304 new recoveries were also announced, bringing the total recoveries to 35,469. This means over 73 percent of the confirmed cases have fully recovered from the virus. The new cases were found after conducting more than 49,000 coronavirus tests across the country.

Saudi Arabia has reported 3,938 new cases and 46 deaths from coronavirus, taking the total cases to 174,577. The death toll raised to 1,474 after reporting the new deaths. Meanwhile, 2,589 patients fully recovered from the virus, bringing the total recoveries to 120,471. In line with recent trends, the majority of the new cases were in Dammam (346), followed by Al Hofuf (332) and Al Mubarraz (294 ). https://twitter.com/media_ksa/status/1276493648109146113?s=20

An autistic British teenager who threw a six-year-old French boy from a 10th-floor viewing platform at the Tate Modern art gallery in London with the intention of killing him was jailed for 15 years on Friday and told he might never be freed. Jonty Bravery, who was 17 at the time of the incident and told police he carried out the act because he wanted to be on the television news, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder last December. The unnamed victim, who was visiting Britain with his family, fell 100 feet (30 metres) after he was targeted…

Kuwait has reported 915 new coronavirus cases, the majority of the cases are from citizens which is 492, taking the total confirmed cases in the country to 43,703, according to the Ministry of Health. 2 patients died of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 341. 602 new recoveries have been reported in the country, raising the total recoveries to 33,969. ♦ Sports activities in Kuwait to resume as coronavirus restrictions ease Kuwait has done 3,774 NP swab tests in the past 24 hours, as the country ramps up its efforts to test…