Monthly Archives: May 2022

ExpressBasics: 5 Google Docs tips that you should know about – The Indian Express

Posted: May 11, 2022 at 12:04 pm

Google Docs is one of the most widely used text editors because of its accessibility, ability to backup your documents in real-time to the cloud and much more. However, there are a bunch of features that Google Docs makes available to all its users that could make your experience more intuitive, time saving and perhaps, more efficient.

Check out the five tips below.

If you have ever simply wanted to use your voice to type out longer text documents, know that Google Docs enables you to do this pretty easily.

If youre using Google Docs on Chrome and have a microphone ready to go, simply go to Tools/ Voice Typing in the menu bar on top. You can also bring up the voice typing enabler by hitting Ctrl+Shift+S.

You can then click on the microphone to begin speaking and your text will be captured automatically. You can enter punctuation manually by saying words like period and comma. You can also also go to a new line or new paragraph by saying so.

If you use Google Docs a lot for typing college assignments, office reports or other kinds of long-format text, you may want to keep an eye on the word count. Programs like Microsoft Word will show you a real-time count of the number of words you have used. While Google Docs can also do this, the feature is hidden by default.

To enable it, go to Tools/ Word Count and in the small box that appears on the next screen, choose Display Word Count while typing. This will give you a live word counter on the bottom left of your document.

You can also tap on the drop-down arrow next to this word counter to change the count to the number of pages, characters or characters excluding spaces.

Google Docs can automatically detect bad spellings and typos and correct them for you in real-time. However, if you wish to be in more control as to what is changed in the document, you can do that with Suggestion Mode. In this mode, Docs will only suggest changes where needed and you can decide for yourself if you want to implement them.

To change from Editing Mode to Suggestion Mode, you can go to the right side of the main toolbar on top of the screen. Find the Editing option here with a dropdown arrow on the right. Click on this arrow and from the options that appear, choose Suggesting.

If you have shared your document with a teammate who has made some changes, Google Docs lets you view the document with the changes, or revisions highlighted. These could be differences in spellings of words to entire sections including multiple paragraphs.

Once your edited document is back, you can check your edit history by heading to File/ Version History.

Google Docs lets you define quick keyboard shortcuts which can transform to particular characters like or . To define these custom characters, simply head to Tools/ Preferences and head to the Substitutions tab on the right.

Here you can define your custom shortcuts by adding your own characters on the left and what they turn into, on the right.

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ExpressBasics: 5 Google Docs tips that you should know about - The Indian Express

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Proposed Canadian Act on news intermediaries big boost to Indian digital media – Hindustan Times

Posted: at 12:04 pm

A recent Canadian Order on news intermediaries like Google has come as a big boost to Indian newspapers and their digital platforms in their fight against the monopolist exploitation of their news content by Google. Prominent Indian newspapers and their digital editions have been representing against the said abuse of its monopoly and position by the tech giant.

Google earns a huge amount of advertising revenue from the content generated by the digital editions of these newspapers. However, there is no fair payback or sharing of revenues by Google in this regard, causing huge financial losses to the news publishers in India.

Publishers and governments across many parts of the democratic world are waking up to this exploitation by Google and taking proactive measures to ensure fair play. Judgement in Canada is a step in that direction which is finding resonance in India and many other parts of the world. Google is under the scanner for anti-competitive practices in Australia, France, Canada and the EU.

Such orders would encourage and empower Indian lawmakers and CCI to implement fair play and also support the growth of media and real news in India at a time when Global search Engines can be manipulated to create negative perceptions about India through fake news as well as an inherent bias.

According to the Canadian Order, an Online News Act has been created with the intention to regulate digital news intermediaries with a view to enhancing fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace. The Act applies to those digital news intermediaries and giants like Google who have a significant bargaining power imbalance over news businesses, depending on certain factors, such as whether the intermediary occupies a prominent market position. The order envisages provisions of fair compensation to the news businesses for the news that is made available by the intermediary.

The proposed rule would ensure that platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers fairly for their content. It may be noted that Australia had also passed a ground-breaking law last year. The law would make it mandatory for Google and Facebook to pay original news publishers for content on their platforms.

Top Indian newspapers and their digital editions are being represented by DNPA in India, in its similar fight against Google for fair play in India. The order in Canada has come at a time when CCI has issued notice to Google on the basis of a complaint registered by DNPA at CCI in this regard

The "Online News Act," of Canada will require digital platforms that have a bargaining imbalance to make fair deals with news publishers, which would then be subject to scrutinised or assessed by a regulator and if such deals do not materialise, the platforms would have to go through final offer arbitration processes overseen by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications regulator.

It may be noted that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered an inquiry against Google for alleged abuse of its dominant position in the digital advertising market on a complaint filed by the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA). DNPAs members include Jagran New Media ( Dainik Jagaran Group), Amar Ujala, Dainik Bhaskar, India Today, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, The Times of India, Eenadu, Malayalam Manorama, ABP Network, Zee Media, Mathrabhumi, Hindu, NDTV, Lokmat, Express Network etc .

In an order dated January 7, the commission had directed the Director General (DG) to cause an investigation into the matter under the provisions of Section 26(1) of the Act. The commission has also directed the DG to complete the investigation and submit the investigation report within a period of 60 days from the date of receipt of this order.

"The commission is of prima facie view that Google has violated the provisions of Section 4(2)(a) of the Act, which merits investigation. Further, the Informant has also alleged that above-mentioned conduct of Google results in violation of the provisions of Section 4(2)(b)(ii) as well as Section 4(2)(c) of the Act. The DG can appropriately examine these allegations as well during investigation," the CCI said in an order.

DNPA has filed a complaint against Alphabet Inc., Google LLC, Google India Private Limited and Google Ireland Limited (Google/OPs) under Section 19(1)(a) of the Competition Act, 2002 alleging violation of Section 4 of the Act.

The association believes that more than 50% of the total traffic on the news websites is routed through Google and, being the dominant player in this field, Google, by way of its algorithms, determines which news website gets discovered via search. It further averred that the content produced by news media companies create the context for the audience to interface with the advertiser; however, online search engines (Google) end up leveraging the revenue/returns much more than publishers.

It may be noted that Google is the major stakeholder in the digital advertising space, and it unilaterally decides the amount to be paid to the publishers for the content created by them, as well as the terms on which the aforesaid amounts have to be paid. Sources said that DNPA believes that Google has abused its dominant position in the market and violated various Sections of the Competition Act, 2002.

Follow the latest breaking news and developments from India and around the world with Hindustan Times' newsdesk. From politics and policies to the economy and the environment, from local issues to national events and global affairs, we've got you covered....view detail

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Proposed Canadian Act on news intermediaries big boost to Indian digital media - Hindustan Times

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Neighbors ‘really, really nervous’ with 11 violent armed robberies in Lakeview, Lincoln Park in less than a week – CBS News

Posted: at 12:03 pm

CHICAGO (CBS) -- There were four more violent armed robberies in the greater Lakeview area overnight making for a total of 11 in less than a week in Lakeview and neighboring Lincoln Park.

That includes a disturbing incident early Friday in which Dakota Earley, 23, was shot and critically wounded at Wayne and Webster avenues over a cellphone.

As CBS 2's Tara Molina reported, the Lincoln Park community held a meeting about their concerns Tuesday evening. A big turnout was expected ahead of time at the meeting because of the continued concerning crime in the area -- such that the meeting was moved from The Warehouse on Fullerton Avenue to St. Josaphat School, 2245 N. Southport Ave., to accommodate the crowd.

Police tell us they believe some of the crime is connected, but no one is in custody in any of the recent crimes.

"Really, really nervous," said longtime Lakeview resident Greg Baird. "A lot of friends are not going out like they were."

We've heard about that nervous, uneasy feeling from Lakeview to Lincoln Park, with at least 11 armed robberies in the past week.

A 52-year-old man was rushed to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center just after 12:30 a.m. after he was robbed at gunpoint in the 1500 block of West Waveland Avenue by two men who took off in a silver sedan.

About 15 minutes later, three people were walking on the sidewalk in the 600 block of West Cornelia Avenue when two men approached, robbing them at gunpoint and taking off in a dark sedan.

Police are not saying if they believe the two Lakeview crimes are connected as they continue to investigate. Police have also not said if these crimes are connected to a robbery at 1:03 a.m. Monday in the 900 block of West Armitage Avenue in Lincoln Park, where police say two men were robbed at gunpoint by a group of four men traveling in a gray sport-utility vehicle.

One of the victims, 26, fell to the ground and the robbers took his wallet and an unknown amount of money at gunpoint. The other, 25, ran to safety.

Those three armed robberies all came after the disturbing shooting that critically wounded Earley, which was caught on camera. Earley is still hospitalized after a number of surgeries.

"If detectives determine a link, they will update the Community Alert, which we will disseminate at that time," police said in a statement.

Police said these armed robberies at the following times and locations are also possibly linked:

2900 block of North Clark Street on Wednesday, May 4, at 10:45 p.m.

2600 block of North Bosworth Avenue on Wednesday, May 4 at 10:50 p.m.

1100 block of West Wellington Avenue on Wednesday, May 4 at 11 p.m.

3000 block of North Racine Avenue on Thursday, May 5 at 10 p.m.

2600 block of North Racine Avenue on Thursday, May 5 at 10:26 p.m.

700 block of West Aldine Avenue on Friday, May 6, at 12:30 a.m.

1100 block of West Fullerton Avenue on Friday, May 6, at 3 a.m. The victim of this robbery was a DePaul University student.

"You've got to look over your shoulder a little bit more," Baird said.

Brian Comer is the president of the Sheffield Neighborhood Association - a group expressing concerns about the uptick to Chicago Police at the community meeting.

"This is an opportunity for our neighborhood to really take hold of itself and start becoming really active partners with police here in the 18th District," Comer said.

Neighbors say vigilance is warranted at all hours, but especially when the sun goes down.

"People are worried about walking at night by themselves," Comer said. People are worried if their car is going to be next."

Comer said if the crime trend does not reverse, the situation could be ominous.

"People are wondering what the neighborhood is going to turn into if this keeps continuing," he said.

In Lakeview, Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) also issued a public safety notice in the wake of armed robberies in the area. Tunney wrote that he met with Town Hall (19th) District Cmdr. Amin Jessani, who said additional police resources will be deployed.

The police resources will be focused on an area from Belmont Avenue south to Fullerton Avenue and from DuSable Lake Shore Drive west to Racine Avenue. Fullerton Avenue divides the Town Hall (19th) District from the Near North (18th) District.

"This area corresponds to the recent armed robberies and it includes several busy CTA stations and business corridors. Officers from citywide units will be deployed to the 19th District to boost local staffing numbers and officers stationed in the 19th District will be working increased hours," Tunney wrote. "New 'mission teams' of patrolling beat officers and detectives will be assigned to each robbery case and these teams will be out talking to neighbors and collecting evidence."

Police Supt. David Brown also talked about such plans on Monday.

"All of those areas, to include Lincoln Park, will see increased resources - not just flooding, but specific to the blocks we are seeing these crimes happen," Brown said.

Anyone with information on any of the robberies is asked to call Area Three detectives at (312) 744-8263.

Tara Molina is a general assignment reporter for CBS2 Chicago.

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Neighbors 'really, really nervous' with 11 violent armed robberies in Lakeview, Lincoln Park in less than a week - CBS News

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If you plan on visiting beaches on the Treasure Coast this week, be careful – WPBF West Palm Beach

Posted: at 12:03 pm

AT THE BEACH NEAR SOUTH HUTCHINSON ISLAND, AND THIS IS WHY TAKE A LOOK AT THOSE WAVES THE LIFEGUARDS OUT HERE SAY THAT THEY ARE SEEING SOME REALLY STRONG RIP CURRENTS AND THE EXPECTED TO BE THAT WAY THROUGHOUT THEEE WK WITH TUESDAY BEING THE HIGH PEAK DAY. I WOULD SAY UNLSES YOURE A REAL STRONG SWIMMER. LETS GO AHEAD AND STAY OUT OF THE WATER. LET IT DIE DOWN OVER THE NEXT COUPLE DAYS. ITS GONNAE B REALLY ROUGH. ITS REAL TREACHEROUS. AND IF YOUO D GO OUT, MAYBE STAY KNEE-DEEP OR WAIST DEEP GET IN AND GET OUT AND LIFEGRDSUA SAY CONDITIONS LIKE THESE NOT UNCOMMON TO HAVE TO MAKE A FEW RESCUES. WE HAVE ONE WEEKEND BEFORE LAST. THEND O EF A COUPLE PEOPLE AT PEPPER PARK, AND WE HAD AOU CPLE NEAR RESCUES A LOT OF TIMES WE TRY TO GO DOWN AND WHISTLE PEOPLE OUT OR DONT LET THEM GO OUT TOO DEEP WHATS LITTLE MINUTE FOR SURE TO GET IN TROUBLE AND AGAIN LIFEGUARDS ONLY RECOMNDME CONDITIONS LIKE THIS FOR STRONG SWIMMERS. NOW IF YOU ARE HEADING TO THE BEACH THEY UERG YOU TO STAY NEAR A LIFEGUARD STAND HERE IN SILICON COUNTY WAVELAND BEACH AND PEPPER PARK BEACH OPEN EVERY DAY FROM 9:45 TO 4:45 WITH LIFE GUARD STANDING B

If you plan on visiting beaches on the Treasure Coast this week, be careful

Updated: 7:25 PM EDT May 10, 2022

High winds are creating dangerous conditions along some beaches on the Treasure Coast.St. Lucie County Ocean Rescue Lt. Morgan Harmon was on watch at Waveland Beach on South Hutchinson Island Tuesday.RIP CURRENT DANGERS: Man dies, total of 5 people rescued after caught in rip current off Palm BeachHarmon said he expects to see strong rip currents throughout the week and he urges people to be careful."I would say unless you are a real strong swimmer go ahead and stay out of the water and let it die down over the next couple of days," Morgan Harmon said. He said if you do plan to visit the beach try to swim near a lifeguard.Stay informed: Local coverage from WPBF 25 News

High winds are creating dangerous conditions along some beaches on the Treasure Coast.

St. Lucie County Ocean Rescue Lt. Morgan Harmon was on watch at Waveland Beach on South Hutchinson Island Tuesday.

RIP CURRENT DANGERS: Man dies, total of 5 people rescued after caught in rip current off Palm Beach

Harmon said he expects to see strong rip currents throughout the week and he urges people to be careful.

"I would say unless you are a real strong swimmer go ahead and stay out of the water and let it die down over the next couple of days," Morgan Harmon said.

He said if you do plan to visit the beach try to swim near a lifeguard.

Stay informed: Local coverage from WPBF 25 News

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If you plan on visiting beaches on the Treasure Coast this week, be careful - WPBF West Palm Beach

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Mookie Betts has 2 of Dodgers 3 hits, drives in 5 to beat Cubs – True Blue LA

Posted: at 12:03 pm

The Dodgers managed only three hits in the nightcap of Saturdays doubleheader, but they made them count. Mookie Betts hit a three-run double and added a two-run home run to lead Los Angeles over the Cubs 6-2 and a doubleheader sweep at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Despite the three hits, the Dodgers did manage nine walks, helping to stretch out Chicagos bullpen game to seven pitchers and 168 pitches. The nine walks match a season high for LA this season, also April 12 in Minnesota.

Four of those walks scored in the second inning, the first run coming home on a four-pitch walk to Hanser Alberto, whose 2.3-percent career walk rate ranks 415th among the 415 players with at least 1,000 plate appearances since 2015.

After the bases-loaded walk tied the game, Betts untied it.

Betts cleared the bases against reliever Keegan Thompson, but the first three runs of the inning were charged to Daniel Norris, the opener of this bullpen game who recorded four outs. All three runs against him reached base via walk. Technically, Norris is just the seventh starting pitcher to lose to the Dodgers despite allowing zero hits, and the first since Jered Weaver on June 28, 2008.

Through two outs in the ninth, the Dodgers only had one hit as a team, coming eerily close to just the fifth game in MLB history in which a team scored at least four runs despite zero or one hit. The most is six runs, by the White Sox against the Washington Senators in 1909.

Betts ruined the footnote with a home run to left, cashing in yet another walk and continuing his hot run. Betts during his eight-game hit streak is 12-for-31 (.387/.412/.677) with three home runs, eight runs batted in, and eight runs scored.

The Dodgers had to settle for six runs on three hits instead, which was more than enough thanks to continued stinginess from a pitching staff that has held opponents to three or fewer runs 21 times in 25 games.

It was a Steve Winwood type of night for Dodgers starter Tyler Anderson, who had a lot of traffic on the bases behind him early, but was able to roll with it, baby.

Much of the action was in right field, including a drive by Willson Contreras that clanged off Betts glove after a long route, scored a triple. Contreras, a catcher by trade who was the designated hitter in the nightcap, scored on a ground ball, beating out a throw from third baseman Max Muncy.

After stranding a two-out double in the second, Anderson allowed another triple in the third, this one by Seiya Suzuki that found its way past Betts into the right field corner. A walk gave Chicago runners on the corners with one out, but Anderson induced a popout and a strikeout to escape the jam.

The Cubs were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position against Anderson, who notched three of his seven strikeouts in those situations.

Nobody was on base in the fifth inning for Contreras, who proved he was in scoring position in the batters box by launching a ball 420 feet and nearly onto Waveland Avenue.

That was just the second run against Anderson, who has allowed either one or two runs in all five games, recording between twelve and fifteen outs. His seven strikeouts Saturday are a season high. The left-hander, who began the season as the Dodgers sixth starter, has a 2.78 ERA.

Contreras had the only hit against Brusdar Graterol, who stranded him thanks to two strikeouts, finishing off a season-high two innings.

Daniel Hudson, Graterol, and Craig Kimbrel finished off the win with four scoreless frames.

Home runs: Mookie Betts (5); Willson Contreras (3)

WP Tyler Anderson (3-0): 5 IP, 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts

LP Daniel Norris (0-2): 1 IP, 0 hits, 3 runs, 3 walks, 1 strikeout

Both teams can sleep in a little tomorrow, with the series finale on Sunday Night Baseball (4:08 p.m. PT, ESPN). Walker Buehler takes the mound with an active scoreless streak of 14 innings, with Marcus Stroman pitching for the Cubs.

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Mookie Betts has 2 of Dodgers 3 hits, drives in 5 to beat Cubs - True Blue LA

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Brexit: why has row over Northern Ireland protocol resurfaced? – The Guardian

Posted: at 12:02 pm

The UK is set for another bust-up with the EU over Brexit, testing the patience of European leaders trying to maintain a united front against Vladimir Putin.

What is the UK threatening, why now and what are the consequences?

The issue is the Northern Ireland protocol, signed by Boris Johnson in January 2020.

It is now threatening to derail the new Stormont power-sharing government after the Democratic Unionist party refused to appoint new ministers until the checks on the Irish Sea border on goods coming into Northern Ireland from Great Britain were scrapped.

What has happened now?

The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, issued a strongly worded and lengthy broadside against the EU late on Tuesday night criticising proposals it made last October to relax checks on goods crossing from Great Britain into Northern Ireland.

She said the proposals would worsen the current trading arrangements and lead to everyday items disappearing from shelves and lead to other unacceptable burdens on business.

And she warned that the UK will not shy away from taking action to stabilise the situation in Northern Ireland if solutions cannot be found.

She said Lincolnshire sausages and other chilled meats would need a veterinary certificate to enter Northern Ireland, sending a parcel to Northern Ireland would require more than 50 fields of information for customs declarations and there would be powers to search peoples bags for food, like ham sandwiches, on departure from the ferry to Northern Ireland.

She also said pet owners would need to pay 280 for certificates and jabs for their dogs or cats just to go on holiday in the UK.

And finally that VAT reliefs such as the recent energy saver could not be applied in Northern Ireland, despite posing no risk to the EU single market.

Havent we heard all this before?

Yes, most of it. Recall the row over the Great British banger?

So why now?

Negotiations with the EU over the protocol are about to restart or implode if the UK goes ahead with a threat to table new laws, possibly as early as Tuesday next week, to disapply some of the protocol.

Anything new?

Yes. Truss also protested that composite foods such as Thai green curry ready meals, New Zealand lamb and Brazilian pork could disappear from the shelves if the protocol was applied in full.

Why is that interesting?

Remember the row about chlorinated chicken coming into the UK from the US? The Thai green curry example raises the same issue for the EU and goes to the heart of the protocol checks. They were agreed to ensure that third country goods whether it was unregulated meat from South America or the US or counterfeit goods from China could not slip into Ireland or the single market via Northern Ireland.

What does the EU say?

Last October the EU offered to scrap 80% of Northern Ireland food checks and 50% of customs checks in four discussion papers it called far-reaching and a new model for the protocol.

It also repeatedly offered a deal to eliminate food checks if the UK agreed to maintain equivalent food standards as the EU. This was rejected in the overall trade deal as it could have raised a barrier in trade deals with the US and other countries with different food standards. But the EU offered the UK a bespoke deal for Northern Ireland that would have resulted in physical checks on food scrapped under an equivalence deal which would be reviewed in the event of a US trade deal.

How did the UK react?

The then Brexit secretary, Lord Frost, claimed the far-reaching proposals were nothing of the sort arguing the 50% reduction in customs checks was merely a reduction in 50% of the number of boxes vendors had to check when sending goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

He also demanded the role of the European court of justice as the arbiter in any potential disputes was changed.

And he repeated a threat to take unilateral action to achieve his goals.

Now what will the UK walk away?

Talks, stalled because of both the Ukraine war and the Northern Ireland assembly election, will resume.

But expect relations to get worse before they get better.

The UK is expected to unveil legislation next week to disapply some of the protocol.

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What will the EU do if the UK walks away from the protocol?

The EU Brexit, chief Maro efovi, issued a blunt statement on Tuesday warning the protocol was a cornerstone of the wider withdrawal agreement and its renegotiation is not an option. If the UK does go for the nuclear option and disapply the protocol completely, the EU has promised swift and decisive action.

These could range from limited sanctions on emblematic British goods such as Scottish salmon and whisky or suspension of the entire trade and cooperation deal.

The UK knows the EU has no appetite for a row given the situation in Ukraine but the legal ground work for a trade war was undertaken last November when Frost threatened to walk away.

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Will NOT be tolerated! Sinn Fin issues Brexit ultimatum over UK ‘game of chicken’ with EU – Express

Posted: at 12:02 pm

Michelle O'Neill, as Sinn Fin's vice-president, is entitled to claim the post of First Minister. Speaking to the media on Monday, while urging the need to "get back down to business" to form a new executive with the DUP, she told Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Government to sort out the remaining Brexit issues with the EU so as not to make Northern Ireland "collateral damage".

Ms O'Neill said: "Brinkmanship will not be tolerated when Northern Ireland becomes collateral damage in a game of chicken with the European Commission.

"Responsibilities for finding solutions to the Protocol lie with Boris Johnson and the EU.

"But make no mistake, we and our businessmen here will not be held for ransom."

For Sinn Fin to form a new government, the DUP, which is now the second-largest party, must agree to take up the deputy first minister's position, as laid out in the Good Friday Agreement.

Brexit LIVE: Macron calls on Britain to join new European political community

But DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said he will not lead his party back into power-sharing until issues with the post-Brexit trading arrangements contained in the Northern Ireland Protocol are resolved.

He claimed: "We want to see this place up and running as soon as possible.

"We want stable devolved government. We are committed to our participation in those institutions."

Speaking at a press conference with his new MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) team at Stormont, Sir Jeffrey added: "We need decisive action by the government to address the difficulties created by the protocol.

"Whether that is driving up the cost of living, whether that is the harm that it is doing to businesses and our economy, or indeed in undermining political stability in Northern Ireland.

"The protocol needs to be dealt with."

He added: "We sought a mandate from people to adopt the stance that we have taken and we will continue, as we recognise others also have a democratic mandate [and] we want to work with them to deliver stable government for Northern Ireland.

"But the long shadow of the protocol is casting its mark over this place."

The Protocol is designed to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

It created the Irish Sea border and means Northern Ireland continues to follow some EU rules.

Unionists opposed it because they believe it is driving a wedge between them and the rest of the UK.

DON'T MISSWhat O'Neill really wants how much power does she have? [EXPLAINER]Is a united Ireland inevitable?[POLL]Sinn Fein celebrates new era for Northern Ireland [INSIGHT]

Brandon Lewis, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, met with the main parties in Belfast on Monday and called for its leaders to "come together to agree on a way forward to deliver a stable and accountable devolved government".

He added: "We will continue to press the EU to agree to the crucial changes [to the Protocol] that are urgently needed but will take nothing off the table in our pursuit of those solutions."

During the election campaign, Sinn Fin's deputy leader Michelle O'Neill said people were not "waking up thinking about Irish unity" and described matters such as the cost-of-living crisis as bigger priorities.

However, Sinn Fin remains committed to holding a referendum on Irish unification, and its manifesto called on the British and Irish governments to set a date for a border poll.

On Friday, party leader Mary Lou McDonald said planning for a unity referendum would come within a "five-year framework".

The new assembly will meet on Friday to elect a speaker, who will then ask the parties for their nominations for first minister and deputy first minister.

If the DUP nominates a deputy first minister, then an executive can be formed and other ministers can be chosen.

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Will NOT be tolerated! Sinn Fin issues Brexit ultimatum over UK 'game of chicken' with EU - Express

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Tech giants, gatekeepers of the cloud – Bangkok Post

Posted: at 12:02 pm

AWS, Microsoft and Google collectively made up 65% of global spend on cloud computing in Q1 2022, and their share is increasing year-on-year. At least two of these organisations have shut down users and companies they decided did not align with their ideologies. If you put your data on the cloud, it sits somewhere. In many cases, it's on the servers of these three companies who may or may not decide to cut you off without warning sometime in the future. It is also important to remember these three companies have servers across the globe and if a country decides to remove itself from the pack, it could take a peek at what you are storing there.

- Should there be a time limit on opinions? Yahoo and MSN Messenger started in 1999, Skype came out in 2003, with Facebook the following year and Twitter in 2006. That means as of today, you could have stuff on these platforms going back 16-23 years. Before that, things were mostly written down, said directly to someone's face, or over the phone. Unless someone was eavesdropping, recording the call or somehow copied your diary, these thoughts and expressions were lost to time or memory. Think back to your teenage years. Your prefrontal cortex is still developing with raging emotions, which according to literature continues on up to 25 on average for men and 20 for women. You're in the middle of working out who you are and what you like and don't. You're being bombarded in university with postmodernist dogma and a swathe of new concepts. During that time, you will have changing opinions on everything and say things one week that have been replaced by something else two weeks later.

- Skip forward to now. Some prospective employers will do a full web search to see what you have posted. Some will engage companies that specialise in this. If you decide to get into any form of politics, the dive for dirt will be deeper by some opponents. You will have seen what happens in Supreme Court nominations in the US. Multiply this by a large number and this is what's occurring today. Let's have a time limit on this. While that cortex is developing, anything said is off limits soon after. Anything else from say 10 years back is also irrelevant unless they have repeated the concept since. Wayback Machine has its uses but dredging up stuff from ancient social media history shouldn't be one of them.

- If you have a favourite Apple app that hasn't been updated over the past three years, they will be removing it from the App Store. Developers will get 90 days to update the code or be dropped.

- If you own a tractor, Thomas Calburn will be disturbing "millions of dollars worth of John Deere agricultural machinery stolen from a dealership in Ukraine by Russian Federation forces that has been traced to the Chechen Republic and bricked, it is reported". It appears some modern equipment can be remotely disabled. Late on your payments and working on the land? Your equipment may just stop working. With the advent of chip-based products also comes the chance that they can be shut down without your control.

- For lovers of artificial intelligence and sound mixing, I watched a video on the new plug-in from Waves, the Clarity Vx. The product will allow the removal of noise from a vocal track. Not just the background stuff that others can do but singing in the middle of a construction site, random kind of stuff, even in real time if necessary. The developer described the process required to train the AI system to do this. He used over a million segments of recorded noise in a wide range of circumstances, listening to a decent sample of this himself. He also described how important it is to stop the AI from going too far and attack the materials you do not want affected. In response to a question from a viewer, he also pointed out that the product would not be able to remove, say, a second voice for a couple of reasons.

- An AI is trained to do a certain thing, like recognising something a car shouldn't run into. Unless it has been trained to do so, it may not avoid something falling out of the sky. If the focus is a vocal only, it may not be able to distinguish between one of many voices. There are sometimes side benefits to AI training. In the example of Clarity, it does a good job of extracting the solo singer from a music track. In summary, an AI is only as good as the training it received and the focus of the training will be the only thing it can do, hopefully well. If you create online content in challenging sound situations, then I recommend you check out this new plug-in. I have no personal association with Waves other than owning some of their plug-ins.

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Tech giants, gatekeepers of the cloud - Bangkok Post

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London is looking to tap the deep pockets of Silicon Valley – CNBC

Posted: at 12:01 pm

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan hopes to convince U.S. tech firms to invest more in London.

Leon Neal | Getty Images

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, traveled to California as part of a trade mission to try to convince Silicon Valley tech leaders to invest more money in the U.K. capital.

On Tuesday, Khan met with senior tech bosses including Google Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, venture capital investors and entrepreneurs from the Bay Area.

The London mayor ultimately hopes to bolster what is already a strong relationship between London and Silicon Valley.

He specifically wants more U.S. tech firms to open more offices in London. He also wants more U.S. tech investors to back more London start-ups with more of their billions.

U.S. tech giants including Google, Meta, Amazon, Twitter and Apple already have large offices in the capital, while Silicon Valley venture capital heavyweights including Sequoia and Lightspeed Ventures have also set up outposts in the city recently to help them find start-up investment opportunities.

Ahead of his meetings, Khan said in a statement that he planned to "bang the drum for even more investment in London by American tech companies."

In 2016, there were concerns that Brexit would lead to a mass exodus from U.S. tech, but it didn't happen.

Today, U.S. tech giants employ tens of thousands of people across London, with many of them in highly-skilled and highly-paid roles that contribute to the city's overall economy.

In January, Google announced that it is paying $1 billion for the colorful Central St. Giles building, where it already occupies a number of floors, in London's West End.

The internet giant is also in the process of building a vast new office with enough space for over 4,000 staff on a site behind King's Cross train station, while Apple is set to be one of the main tenants of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment.

Google's new London headquarters.

Google

"Google has been committed to the growth and success of London through investments in our local offices, employees and R&D since we first opened our offices in London in 2003," Porat said in a statement.

"Google shares the Mayor's belief in the power of technology to drive sustainable economic growth, and we look forward to continuing to deepen our connection to the capital in the years ahead."

Research published Wednesday shows that London is the number one destination for U.S. tech companies that are looking to expand internationally, ahead of other European capitals such as Paris, Berlin and Stockholm.

While investments from U.S. tech companies can create jobs and boost local economies, they can also push up house prices. Property prices in King's Cross and Shoreditch have soared in the last decade as companies like Google and Amazon have moved in, for example.

The average house price in June 2010 in N1 (the postcode that encompasses parts of King's Cross and Shoreditch) was 561,671, according to property website Rightmove. By June 2020, that figure had risen to 939,561, with a range of factors behind the surge including both government and central bank stimulus.

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London is looking to tap the deep pockets of Silicon Valley - CNBC

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Navigating the rocky road to European tech sovereignty at the Tech.eu Summit – Tech.eu

Posted: at 12:01 pm

Its the final countdown to the Tech.eu Summit! On Tuesday May 17, hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors, corporate leaders, policy makers, academics and journalists will convene to share ideas on how to grow the European tech scene and take innovation ecosystems to the next level in a sustainable way.

Check out the full programme, and whizz on over here to grab your tickets to the event.

From the Digital Markets Actto the EU Chips Act, the EU is scrambling to create policies that will strengthen its competitive clout on the global stage by creating a fairer playing field for EU tech companies and safeguard the bloc in times of crisis. However, the sovereignty journey is fraught with complications and slow which is why we're thrilled to have three experts on the Grow stage on Tuesday at 15:45 to bring us up to speed.

Ludwig Siegele, the European business editor at The Economist, will sit down with Veriff co-founder and CPO Janer Gorohhov, Sebastien Marotte, the EMEA president of Box, Yann Lechelle, the chief executive of Scaleway.

Yann told Tech.eu recently that Europe is far from achieving digital sovereignty. The boss of the French cloud computing company has lots to say about what the EU needs to do to boost its own tech giants. He has also founded, grown and exited five tech startups, many specialised in developing alternatives to the worlds largest tech giants and is a founding member of France Digitale, HUB France AI, and GAIA-X.

Janer is in charge of product and innovation at Estonias Veriff. The online identity verification company was set up in 2015 and now has over 360 employees and serves over 190 countries.

Sebastien will bring his 30 years' business experience and knowledge of the EMEA region to the panel. Before joining cloud content management company Box, he spent over 10 years at Google Cloud and held executive roles at software giants like Hyperion and Oracle.

Learn more from these experts and many others with a ticket to the Tech.eu Summit on 17 May in Brussels. See you there!

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Navigating the rocky road to European tech sovereignty at the Tech.eu Summit - Tech.eu

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