BBC: The developer of Fortnite has confirmed it will bypass the Google Play app store when the game is released for Android smartphones. The Google Play store lets Android users buy and download apps using a simple interface, although Google takes a 30% cut of sales made.Epic Games’ chief executive Tim Sweeney said 30% was…
Digital Spy: Margot Robbie and Nicole Kidman have both joined Charlize Theron’s film about the scandal that rocked Rupert Murdoch’s US media empire. The trio of award-winning actresses have signed for leading roles in an untitled political drama from director Jay Roach, who chronicled the 2008 US presidential election in the Emmy Award-winning HBO television…
BBC: Most of the plastic food containers that householders wash out after use and put in the recycling bin cannot actually be recycled, it has emerged. The mixture of plastics used in many yoghurt pots, ready meal trays and other containers limits the ability of councils to recycle them. The Local Government Association says that…
Hindustan Times: Fuelled by caffeine, pizza and adrenaline, sleep-deprived programmers in a marathon Saudi contest this week explored high-tech solutions to prevent a repeat of past calamities in the annual haj pilgrimage. In a cavernous hall in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, thousands of software professionals and students competed in the kingdom’s first-ever hackathon,…
Ryan Jenkins, Assistant professor of Philosophy and a senior fellow at California Polytechnic State University/Gulf News When it comes to AI and weapons, there needs to be a set of ethical guidelines and policy that are sensitive to various ambiguities Silicon Valley continues to wrestle with the moral implications of its inventions — often blindsided…
Sonia Sodha, Observer columnist/ The Guardian, UK Disney’s sacking of the contrite James Gunn plays into the hands of people with unpleasant agendas Since it started trending on social media 10 months ago, two things have come to define the #MeToo moment. One is the powerful public testimony of women and men who have experienced…
Harsh Mander / India’s north-eastern Assam state was thrown into turmoil on July 30, after approximately four million people living there were not included in a draft list of citizens published by authorities. The Registrar General of India (RGI), which published the draft list called the National Register of Citizens (NRC), said out of the…
Peter Singer, In an essay published last month in The Guardian, 15 leading economists – including the Nobel laureates Angus Deaton, James Heckman, and Joseph Stiglitz – criticized what they call “the ‘aid effectiveness’ craze” on the grounds that it leads us to ignore the root causes of global poverty. I advocate assessing the effectiveness…
Al Arabiya: North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and has been trying to sell weapons to Yemen’s Houthi militia, according to a confidential UN report seen by Reuters news agency on Friday. The report said North Korea is in violation of United Nations sanctions and is cooperating militarily with Syria. The…
Hinudstan Times: Pak-istan’s apex anti-graft body has approached Interpol seeking issuance of Red Corner Notices against jailed former premier Nawaz Sharif’s sons Hasan and Hussain, a media report said on Saturday. Sharif’s sons were declared as absconders by an accountability court after they failed to appear in either of the three cases launched against them…