WORLD

San Francisco, USA | Xinhua | Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Wednesday evening the company planned to eliminate over 18,000 people, thousands more than originally expected. Last November, the company said that the layoffs would affect about 10,000 people and that the job cuts would extend into the new year. In a …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Katikkiro of Buganda Charles Peter Mayiga has lauded the late Pope Benedict XVI for his humility and commitment. Speaking at Lubaga Cathedral on Thursday at a special mass for the demised Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Mayiga said the late Pontiff distinguished himself as a …

Mexico city, Mexico | Xinhua | Mexican armed forces on Thursday arrested Ovidio Guzman Lopez, son of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in Sinaloa state, officials and local media reported. The special forces operation was carried out in the town of Culiacan amid clashes, road blocks and vehicles …

Moscow, Russia | Xinhua | Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the country’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to start a 36-hour truce along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine from Jan. 6 to 7, the Kremlin said Thursday. “Taking into account the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, …

Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | The U.S. House of Representatives voted to adjourn until noon on Friday with no speaker elected on Thursday after 11 rounds of voting. U.S. Congressman Kevin McCarthy from California, the House Republican leader, fell short of the necessary votes to take the gavel in five more …

Las Vegas, U.S. | Xinhua | U.S. tech giant Qualcomm announced on Wednesday Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC (System-on-Chip), which is the automotive industry’s first scalable family of SoCs to simultaneously support digital cockpit and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). The Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC supports mixed-criticality workloads, allowing for digital cockpit, …

Pope Francis extols Benedict XVI as pastor in historic two-pope Vatican funeral ✳ 4,500 priests ✳ 500 bishops ✳ 125 cardinals Vatican City | National Catholic Online | In one of the rarest of scenes in two millennia of Catholic Church history, Pope Francis on Jan. 5 presided over the …

Dublin, Ireland | Xinhua | Facebook parent company Meta Ireland has been fined a total of 390 million euros (413 million U.S. dollars) for breaches of European Union (EU) data protection rules, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) said on Wednesday. The DPC handed out two fines to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited. …

London, UK | Xinhua | United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to halve inflation and boost the country’s economy in his first major speech in 2023 on Wednesday. Sunak made five pledges. These are: to halve inflation; to grow the economy; to reduce national debt; to cut hospital waiting …

Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | Members of a paralyzed U.S. House of Representatives failed to elect a new speaker again on Wednesday afternoon with no end in sight to the political stalemate. The House voted to adjourn until early Wednesday night for closed-door negotiations after U.S. Congressman, Kevin McCarthy, a Republican …