Australian senator resigns following anger for Gaza vote
Senator Fatima Payman has resigned from Australia’s ruling Labour Party, just days after voting against it to back a motion for Palestinian statehood.
Labour has strict consequences for anyone who undercuts its policy stances, and Ms Payman has previously been “indefinitely suspended” from the party’s caucus after promising to do so again. “This is a matter I cannot compromise on,” the 29-year-old stated on Thursday, adding that she was “deeply torn” by the decision.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that Ms Payman praised him for his leadership and denied that she was pressured into departing. Ms Payman will now serve on the crossbench as an independent senator.
The 29-year-old Muslim senator, whose family fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took power in 1996, is Australia’s first and only federal politician to wear a headscarf. “Unlike my colleagues, I understand how it feels to be on the receiving end of injustice. “My family did not flee a war-torn country to come here as refugees so that I could remain silent when I saw atrocities against innocent people,” she stated at a press conference announcing her retirement.
Jeff Bezos to sell an additional $5 billion of Amazon shares
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced that he will sell another 25 million shares in the digital behemoth, worth about $5 billion (£3.9 billion). It comes after the company’s stock market valuation reached a record high on Wednesday. In February, he stated that he would sell Amazon shares valued at approximately $8.5 billion.
Mr Bezos sold Amazon shares for the first time since 2021. The company’s stock has increased by more than 30% this year in anticipation that rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) technology will enhance revenues at its cloud computing division.
Last month, Amazon’s stock market worth surpassed $2 trillion for the first time. However, it lags behind other large technology giants such as Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft, all of which have exceeded the $3 trillion barrier. Amazon reported strong quarterly earnings at the end of April, indicating that the company’s gamble on AI was paying off.
Japan declares success in ‘battle’ against floppy discs
Japan will no longer use floppy discs after 2024. People were still required to submit documents to the government using obsolete storage devices until last month, even though more than 1,000 regulations mandated their usage. However, Digital Minister Taro Kono announced that these limitations have since been lifted.
In 2021, Mr Kono “declared war” on floppy discs. against Wednesday, some three years later, he declared, “We have won the war on floppy discs!” Since taking over the position, Mr Kano has made it his mission to phase out outdated technology. He has previously stated that he would “get rid of the fax machine”.
Japan was formerly regarded as a technological powerhouse, but in recent years has lagged behind the global tide of digital transformation due to a strong reluctance to change. For example, companies continue to prefer fax machines over emails; previous efforts to remove this equipment from government offices were rejected due to opposition.
The announcement sparked widespread discussion on Japanese social media, with one user on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling floppy discs a “symbol of an anachronistic administration”.
India’s X alternative Koo will shut down services
Millions of social media users in India were stuck when Koo, a domestic microblogging site that marketed itself as an alternative to X, announced it was ceasing operations. The platform’s founders explained that the decision was made due to a lack of finance and hefty technology costs.
Koo, which launched in 2020, featured texting in over ten Indian languages. It rose to prominence in 2021 after various ministers supported it amid a dispute between the Indian government and X, which was then known as Twitter. The disagreement began when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government requested that the US-based platform ban a list of accounts it said were disseminating fake news.
The standoff continued as the government threatened legal action against the company’s employees in India. During the dispute, a slew of supporters, cabinet members, and BJP officials flocked to Koo overnight. Many of them used hashtags to advocate for X to be banned in India.
