Microsoft has to pay $20 million to settle US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that the tech company illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent, the FTC said on June 5. The company had been charged with violating the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without notifying their parents or obtaining their parents' consent, and by retaining children's personal information, the statement from the FTC said. The order requires the tech gi
Seven of eight earth system boundaries (ESBs) that are critical for stability of the planet’s health and survival of species have already been crossed, said a research paper by the Earth Commission published in Nature journal on May 31, suggesting risks posed by climate crisis on humankind. According to scientists’ evaluation, ESB transgression is spatially widespread, with two or more ESBs already transgressed throughout 52 percent of the land area on the planet and impacting 86 percent of the population. India, along with other South Asian countries, Europe and parts of Africa, is an
Members of UK-based climate activist group, Tyre Extinguishers have managed to deflate tyres of parked sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in 18 countries to combat global warming. The countries include the US, the UK, Canada, France, Spain, Germany and Italy. Once done, the activists put a note on cars that reads, “ATTENTION - your gas guzzler kills.” Tyre Extinguishers has a wide presence internationally. Its website explains the reason for protesting against SUVs. It also shares various ways to quickly deflate tires of parked cars. There is also a template for pamphlets that activists ca
The US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti has said that one out of every five US student visas will be issued in India in 2022, which is more than the proportion of the Indian population in the world. The US Mission in India held its seventh annual Student Visa Day countrywide on June 7 with Consular Officers from New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai interviewing almost 3,500 Indian student visa applicants. Speaking on the occasion, Garcetti underlined that more Indians come to the United States as students than from any other country in the world. He also said that his off
Israel has launched its first tourist marine nature reserve in the Mediterranean Sea off the country’s northern coast, Israel Nature and Parks Authority has said. Rosh Hanikra-Akhziv Marine Reserve spans approximately 7 km of coastline, and encompasses bays from the Lebanese border to Nahariya. It extends 15 km westward into the sea and covers over 100 square km. The protected site is the second tourist marine reserve in Israel, after the Eilat Coral Beach Nature Reserve in the Red Sea, and the largest of the nine marine reserves in the country with an area of more than 100 square km.
New York has overtaken Hong Kong to become the world’s 20 most expensive cities to live in as an expatriate due to rising inflation and accommodation costs, said the ECA International's Cost of Living Rankings for 2023. Hong Kong, Geneva and London stand at the second, third and fourth places. Singapore climbed from 13th place last year to enter the top five for the first time, breaking the general trend among Asian cities of coming down the rankings, partially due to lower rates of inflation compared to other regions. The biggest mover of the year was Istanbul, which climbed 95 sp
Singapore has decided to end its famous sport of horse racing – practised for more than 180 years – 2024 when the city-state’s only racecourse will close and be redeveloped for housing. The Singapore Turf Club (STC) in Kranji will hold its last race meeting, the 100th Grand Singapore Gold Cup, on October 5, 2024 and end operations in March 2027, handing over the 120-hectare site to the government. Located at Farrer Park in central Singapore, the STC was established by Scottish merchant William Henry Macleod Read in 1842. It moved to a larger venue, Bukit Timah in the western part
Senior officials from about 12 of the world’s major intelligence agencies held a secret meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting in Singapore on 2–4 June, said media reports. Organised by the Singapore government, these meetings have been discreetly held at a separate venue alongside the security summit for several years, they said. The meetings were not previously reported. Director of National Intelligence, US, Avril Haines represented her country’s intelligence community. China was among the other countries present. Samant Goel, the head of India's o
Indian nationals top the tally of skilled worker and student visas issued by the United Kingdom over the past year, according to the data shared by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in London in May. The ONS data collated by the UK Home Office shows that Indian nationals were the top nationality for cross-sector skilled work, including specifically targeted healthcare visas aimed at filling staff shortages in the National Health Service (NHS). The nationality also made up the largest group of students granted visas under the new Graduate post-study work route with 41 percent of gran
Scientists have identified the oldest known Homo sapiens footprints in South Africa. The newly discovered tracks have been dated to over 150,000 years ago. A wealth of fossil evidence suggests that Homo sapiens first diverged from earlier species about 300,000 years ago. The international team of scientists has identified the oldest known set of fossil footprints from a member of our species. The team calculated the dates of seven “ichnosites” (locations containing ancient human traces) along South Africa’s Cape south coast. It was found that they ranged between 71,000 and 153,000 ye