back | Common News Update

Apr122021 by adminNo Comments

Back in business: Pubs, hairdressers and shops reopen as lockdown eases

Business

Businesses have wasted little time in welcoming back customers after lockdown measures eased across the UK at midnight.Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the nation to "behave responsibly" as non-essential shops, hairdressers, salons, pubs, restaurants and gyms reopened in England. In Wales, people can now also visit non-essential shops and travel across the border to other areas of the UK from today.Meanwhile, people in Northern Ireland are now allowed to meet 10 others outside as the "stay at home" order has been scrapped.Live COVID updates from across the UK and around the world ...

Apr42021 by adminNo Comments

Companies back moratorium on deep sea mining

Science

A long-running dispute over plans to start mining the ocean floor has suddenly flared up.For years it was only environmental groups that objected to the idea of digging up metals from the deep sea.But now BMW, Volvo, Google and Samsung are lending their weight to calls for a moratorium on the proposals. The move has been criticised by companies behind the deep sea mining plans, who say the practice is more sustainable in the ocean than on land.The concept, first envisaged in the 1960s, is to extract billions of potato-sized rocks called nodules from the abyssal plains of the oceans several miles deep.Rich in valuable minerals, these nodules have long been prized as the source of a new kind of gold rush that could supply the global economy for centuries.Interest in them has intensified beca...

Apr32021 by adminNo Comments

Covid-19 surge derails banks’ plans to get back to HQs

Finance

(This story originally appeared in on Apr 03, 2021)MUMBAI: Bank corporate offices are getting back to a work-from-home mode (WFH) with a skeletal staff attending office, given the resurgence of Covid in Mumbai where most of them are headquartered. Public sector banks, private sector banks and even the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are moving back to last year’s system of working when Covid cases were first on the rise. Bankers said that there was a feeling of deja vu because of the increasing coronavirus numbers. The return to WFH comes at a time when banks were seeing more employees attend office following the roster system from February this year. The return to work had resulted in larger crowds in business districts. However, recently banks recorded multiple cases among staff members, f...

Mar242021 by adminNo Comments

Football news LIVE: Harry Kane to Real Madrid unlikely, Gareth Southgate’s advice to Jesse Lingard, ‘Jose Mourinho has held Gareth Bale back’

Sports

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Keep up to date with all the latest sports news, views and gossip. TOP HEADLINES: Harry Kane to Real Madrid transfer doubt raised amid reports Tottenham star would be ‘easier to land than Kylian Mbappe or Erling Haaland’ Andros Townsend defends under-fire Steve Bruce for giving Newcastle stars six days off during international break – […] talkSPORT

Mar12021 by adminNo Comments

Biden urged to back AI weapons to counter China and Russia threats

Technology

Getty Images/ReutersThe US and its allies should reject calls for a global ban on AI-powered autonomous weapons systems, according to an official report commissioned for the American President and Congress.It says that artificial intelligence will "compress decision time frames" and require military responses humans cannot make quickly enough alone.And it warns Russia and China would be unlikely to keep to any such treaty.But critics claim the proposals risk driving an "irresponsible" arms race."This is a shocking and frightening report that could lead to the proliferation of AI weapons making decisions about who to kill," said Prof Noel Sharkey, spokesman for the Campaign To Stop Killer Robots."The most senior AI scientists on the planet have warned them about the consequences, and yet th...