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Today's topic is "Amazon Opens Cashier-less Grocery Store"

On February 25, Amazon opened its first cashier-less supermarket in its hometown of Seattle. Shoppers scan a smartphone app to enter the store, and cameras and sensors track what's taken off shelves. Shoppers never have to wait in line or open their wallets, and items are charged to an Amazon account after leaving.

Called Amazon Go Grocery, the new store expands on the company's 2-year-old chain of 25 Amazon Go convenience stores. It's 966 square meters – more than five times the size of the convenience stores – and stocks much more beyond the drinks and sandwiches found at Amazon Go.

Cameron Janes, who helps oversee Amazon's physical stores, said the technology had to be adjusted to account for how people squeeze tomatoes to see if they're ripe, or rummage through avocados to find just the right one.

Nothing at the store is weighed. One lime goes for 39 cents; a banana is 19 cents. There are no cashiers, but workers greet customers and walk around aisles restocking shelves. One employee stands by the alcohol section to check IDs.

However, cashier-less stores have been criticized for discriminating against low-income people who may not have a credit card or bank account. Amazon has since let customers pay with cash at its convenience stores, and the company said shoppers can do the same at the grocery store.

Amazon is not new to groceries. In 2017 it bought Whole Foods and its 500 stores, and it's also been expanding its online grocery delivery service. But it's still far behind rival Walmart, America's largest seller of groceries, which has more than 4,700 stores. Walmart's online grocery service has also been popular with customers, who buy online and then drive to a store to pick up their order.

Amazon would not say if it plans to open more Amazon Go Grocery stores, but it said there are no plans to bring the technology to Whole Foods stores.

Earlier in February, 7-Eleven said it was also testing a cashier-less store for employees inside its offices in Irving, Texas.

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Today's topic is "Putin Backs Constitutional Change Allowing Him to Stay in Office"

Russian President Vladimir Putin has supported a constitutional amendment that would allow him to seek reelection in 2024. The constitutional change would pave the way for the 67-year-old Putin to stay in office until 2036.

Valentina Tereshkova, an 83-year-old lawmaker who is revered in Russia as the first woman to travel to space, proposed either scrapping Russia's two-term limit for presidents or restarting the clock when the constitution is amended.

Putin and the lower house of parliament quickly endorsed the proposal. Lawmakers also passed a set of constitutional amendments that include defining marriage as a heterosexual union and language promising to respect "belief in God."

In a speech to lawmakers, Putin opposed doing away with the presidential term limit, saying, "Society must have guarantees of regular government rotation." But he backed stopping the count and restarting it in 2024, if the Russian Constitution is revised. Putin's current term ends in 2024.

A nationwide vote on the amendments is scheduled for April 22.

Putin has been in power for more than 20 years. He is Russia's longest-serving leader since Josef Stalin.

After serving two presidential terms in 2000-2008, Putin briefly became prime minister while his ally Dmitry Medvedev served as president. After Medvedev extended the length of a presidential term to six years, Putin reclaimed the presidency in 2012 and won another term in 2018.

Observers had been speculating as to what steps Putin would take to stay in power, but it wasn't clear until Tereshkova's proposal. Political analyst Abbas Gallyamov said Putin may have been prompted to act by the sudden decline in the value of the ruble, caused by a drop in global oil prices.

Opposition activists had been planning a March 21 protest rally in Moscow that they expected up to 50,000 people to attend. However, Moscow authorities quickly banned outdoor events with more than 5,000 people until April 10, saying it was necessary to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

#WorldNews #AudioNews #Putin #Russia

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Today's topic is "University is a Bad Deal for One in Five Students"

A study in England by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found that 20% of those who went to university would have more money if they hadn't, once things like taxes and the costs of studying were considered.

The study compared those who went to university with those who had similar grades in high school but chose not to go. On average, it found that those who went to university do earn about 20% more in their life than those who didn't. That's about $165,000 more for men and about $127,000 more for women.

However, the subject they study affects how much they earn. So much so, that for some subjects, a university degree can earn a person less over their life than what it cost them to get it.

Women who study creative arts and languages were a little better off compared to those who didn't go to university. But if women study law, economics or medicine, they could make almost $320,000 more. Men who study creative arts actually lose money compared to those who don't go to university but can make more than $600,000 extra if they study medicine or economics.

However, Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union says that just looking at income doesn't consider the other benefits that students and society get from people getting a university education.

Michelle Donelan, the UK universities minister agrees and told the Guardian that universities also offer "experiences and friendships".

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Today's topic is "Chinese App TikTok Becomes Popular with US Youth"

Chinese-owned video app TikTok is becoming more and more popular with young people in the United States. In 2019, it more than doubled its users in America to 37 million.

The service lets users create and share short videos, many of which are under 15 seconds. The TikTok app offers a wide choice of sounds, parts of songs, and special effects tools to help create the videos.

TikTok is especially popular with teens and young adults and is considered a competitor to video-sharing app Snapchat, as well as Facebook’s Instagram service. Last year, TikTok was the second-most downloaded app from Apple and Google stores — only WhatsApp was downloaded more.

While TikTok has continued to grow since its US launch in 2017, it has also received a lot of media attention for being the first Chinese-owned social-media service to become popular in the US. Some lawmakers have raised concerns that the app could be sharing information about users with the Chinese government.

TikTok claims that it does not share information with the Chinese government, but nonetheless, the US Department of Defence has asked its workers not to use the app, and the military has banned its use on government devices.

In addition, some groups and parents have said they are worried that young users are seeing videos on TikTok that they shouldn’t, such as those with sexual content. A group named Common Sense Media says parents should check to see what their children are watching and suggests only those aged over 16 should use the app.

Last year, TikTok agreed to pay the US government a $5.7 million fine for collecting personal information from children under 13. TikTok users are supposed to be at least 13 years old, but it does not confirm users’ ages. However, TikTok says it removes accounts that break this rule if they are reported by other users.

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Today's topic is "Phone Users in China Must Now Scan Their Faces"

Mobile phone users in China must now have their faces scanned when they register a new SIM card. The new rule began on December 1.

The Chinese government has said that the rule will stop SIM cards from being resold and protect people from phone scams. People in China already had to register SIM cards with their ID cards or passports, and many companies had already begun scanning people's faces in 2018.

Most people in China access the internet using their phones and the government has strict control over it – removing or blocking content it does not want citizens to see.

Since 2017, people wanting to use group chats or comment boards have had to register using their real names, though they can still display a different name to other users.

Speaking to the BBC, Jeffrey Ding of Oxford University said that internet security might be one reason for China getting rid of anonymous phone numbers and internet accounts. But he said another likely reason was the government's desire to watch its citizens – or at least try to.

The New York Times has reported that cameras in the Xinjiang region use facial recognition technology to track Uighurs, a mostly Muslim minority in western China. The Chinese government has also been accused of putting more than a million Muslims in camps, which it calls "vocational training centers."

In 2017, the South China Morning Post reported that the government was building a facial recognition system that could identify any of the country's 1.3 billion citizens in three seconds. However, the system was having a number of problems, and it was not clear when it would be completed.

In August this year, protesters in Hong Kong destroyed several "smart" lampposts because they were afraid they could be used to track their faces.

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Today's topic is "Hong Kong to Give 7 Million People $1,200 in Cash"

Hong Kong is giving about $1,280 to all permanent residents who are 18 years old or over. The payment is part of $15.4 billion the government plans to spend in the next year to help the local economy.

The government said that about 7 million people will receive the payment, which it hopes will encourage people to spend more money at local businesses. It said that Hong Kong's economy has slowed because of large protests that began in June 2019, as well as coronavirus from China.

The government also plans to cut income taxes for almost 2 million taxpayers, give low-income people who live in public housing a month of free rent, help businesses pay bills for things like water and electricity, and give extra money to 200,000 poor households.

The plan is part of Hong Kong's new government budget for 2020-2021. Financial Secretary Paul Chan said that it's the first time in 15 years the government will spend more than it has made from taxes. He said this is because the Hong Kong economy has been in recession since the middle of 2019.

However, although Hong Kong's budget problems are worse than some had expected, Hong Kong has over $145 billion in reserves, so it can afford the plan. "This actually is not that big [of] a deal," said Terence Chong of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, speaking to CNN.

Did you know?

Hong Kong is one of the wealthiest cities in the world and is home to 67 billionaires.

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Today's topic is "Dutch Team Building a 'Breathing' Tower in Dubai"

The world's tallest building is getting a new neighbor, and this one can "breathe" thanks to its ceramic wall cover.

Dutch architect Ben van Berkel and his company, UNStudio, designed Wasl Tower, which will be built next to Dubai's 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa. The buildings are so close, in fact, that they will share a train station.

When the 302-meter-tall Wasl Tower is finished in August 2021, it will have one of the tallest ceramic facades in the world.

Ceramic "fins" will cover the outside walls of the $400 million building, letting light in while reducing the amount of heat that enters. This will make it easier to manage the building's temperature.

According to UNStudio, the tiles on the outside of the building will reflect sunlight in a way that makes the tower look like it is growing and getting smaller, similar to breathing. And it will continue to "breathe" at night thanks to LED lights behind the ceramic facade.

Another feature is the twisting shape of the building, which has a wide, twisting line that goes almost from its bottom to its top. Called the "Vertical Boulevard," the line is made of balconies that go all the way up to the top of the building, where there are swimming pools on the roof.

"This boulevard connects the outdoor with the indoor, which is a unique feature for this region," says UNStudio.

The building's twisting shape is based on the way some famous artworks stand, called "contrapposto," in which most of the body's weight is on one foot, making the hips and shoulders twist in opposite directions.

First used in Greek sculptures around 2,500 years ago, more recent examples of contrapposto include Michelangelo's David and The Birth of Venus by Botticelli.

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