Technology News

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s biggest gaming company, Tencent Holdings, said Tuesday it will limit gaming time for minors and ban children under age 12 from making in-game purchases after a state media article called games “spiritual opium.”

Tencent’s pledge to curb gaming for minors came hours after the company’s stock plunged as much as 11% following a critique published by the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper affiliated with China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

The newspaper article named Tencent’s wildly popular Honor of Kings game as one that minors were addicted to, and cited a student as saying that some played the game for eight hours a day. The online article was removed hours later.

“‘Spiritual opium’ has grown into an industry worth hundreds of billions,” the newspaper said, adding that no industry should be allowed to develop in a manner that will “destroy a generation.”

On Tuesday, Tencent said in a statement it will limit gaming time for minors to one hour a day, and two hours a day during holidays. Children under age 12 will also be prohibited from making purchases within the game, the company said.

Under Chinese law, users under age 18 can play online games for a maximum of one and a half hours a day, and three hours during holidays.

Tencent also called for the industry to control gaming time for minors and discuss the possibility of banning those younger than 12 from playing games.

It was not clear if Tencent issued the curbs in light of the article. The company did not immediately comment.

The critique of the gaming industry sparked a selloff of stocks in Chinese gaming companies including NetEase amid fears that the gaming industry could be the next to experience a clampdown.

Chinese authorities in recent months have targeted e-commerce and online education, implementing new regulations to curb anti-competitive behavior after years of rapid growth in the technology sector.

Last month, authorities banned companies that provide tutoring in core school subjects from turning a profit, wiping out billions in market value from online education companies such as TAL Education and Gaotu Techedu.

“Obviously there’s great concern over policy uncertainty because this is not just about online education, there was also talk about data security and now, about mobile games,” said Kenny Wen, wealth management strategist at Everbright Sun Hung Kai.

“So the future will be highly uncertain, it is difficult to give a fair valuation on these stocks and investors will take a wait-and-see approach and be relatively prudent in this sector as we don’t know what will happen next.”

Tencent’s stock price closed down 6.11% at 446 Hong Kong dollars on Tuesday.

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PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has taken to popular social media apps in a new push to encourage vaccinations against COVID-19, combat “false information” and reach out to younger people.

Filming himself from his summer residency at Fort de Bregancon on the French Riviera wearing a casual T-shirt, Macron, 43, offered to answer people’s questions in a video posted on Instagram and Tiktok.

As France faces a new surge in confirmed daily COVID-19 cases, Macron said the vaccine is “the only weapon we have to face it.”

“I know that many of you are still wondering, are afraid. Many are hearing false information, false rumors, sometimes complete rubbish … Go ahead, ask me and I will try to be as direct and clear as possible,” he said.

Since then, Macron has posted a string of short videos addressing issues including : “I’m young and healthy, I have no reason to get the vaccine,” “the vaccine is not safe and not 100% efficient” and “it’s too soon, the vaccine has been developed too quickly.”

Macron’s move comes after three successive weekends of protests against France’s special virus pass drew thousands of people in Paris and other French cities.

Macron intends to continue answering people’s questions all week on the social media, his office said.

This is not the first time that Macron, who is widely expected to seek a second presidential term next year, has used social media in a bid to speak to younger people.

In May, he filmed a video in the French presidential palace with two of France’s most popular YouTube stars, Mcfly and Carlito, after they met a challenge to reach more than 10 million views with a song about social distancing.

Over 35 million people in France — about 53% of the population — are fully vaccinated.

At least 6 million of them have gotten their first vaccine shot since Macron announced on July 12 that a COVID-19 health pass will be required to enter all restaurants and to travel domestically. The measure, if approved by the Constitutional Council, is expected to begin Aug. 9.

To get the pass, people must have proof they are fully vaccinated, recently tested negative or recently recovered from the virus.

France also requires all health care workers to start getting vaccinated by Sept. 15 or risk suspension.

Almost 112,000 people with the virus have died in France, which is now registering over 20,000 new infections a day, up from less than 2,000 new cases a day on July 1.

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Follow all AP stories on the global pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Federal prosecutors are seeking to retry a former University of Tennessee researcher accused of hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving research grants from the federal government.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey Arrowood filed a one-page notice in U.S. District Court in the case against Anming Hu, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported on Tuesday.

Hu was an associate professor in the university’s Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering when he was charged in February 2020 with three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements.

A federal judge declared a mistrial in June after deliberating jurors said they had reached an “impasse.”

Hu’s attorney, Phil Lomonaco, asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing the government’s evidence of fraud is too weak.

The Justice Department has cracked down on university researchers who conceal their ties to Chinese institutions. A Harvard chemistry professor was arrested on similar charges. Federal officials have warned schools to be on alert for espionage attempts, asserting that Beijing is intent on stealing intellectual property from America’s colleges and universities.

Prosecutors say Hu defrauded the National Aeronautics and Space Administration by failing to disclose that he also was a professor at the Beijing University of Technology in China. Under federal law, NASA cannot fund or give grant money to Chinese-owned companies or universities.

Hu’s defense presented testimony that university officials told faculty the NASA restriction didn’t apply to them.

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MILAN (AP) — Stellantis said operations are meshing faster than expected since the company’s creation with France’s Peugeot PSA;s takeover of the Italian-American car maker Fiat Chrysler, yet snarled global supply chains clipped production by 700,000 vehicles.

In the first half of the year, Stellantis booked profits of 5.9 billion euros ($7 billion), compared with a loss 813 million euros the same period last year when COVID-19 shut down vast swaths of the manufacturing sector.

Shipments rose 44% to 3.2 million units. Revenues rose 46% to 75 billion euros.

“We are very pleased with the speed with which the new team has begun to execute as one company, as Stellantis,’’ Chief Financial Officer Richard Palmer told reporters.

Semiconductor shortages accounted for 200,000 units of production losses in the first quarter and 500,000 in the second quarter as supply chains again kicked into action as infections slowed in Europe and the U.S. Semiconductors are used more than ever before in new vehicles with electronic features such as Bluetooth connectivity and driver assist, navigation and hybrid electric systems.

Stellantis achieved 1.3 billion euros in cost savings in the first half, mostly by sharing investments in new technologies and platforms, which Palmer said was a faster rate than initially forecast. It aims to achieve 80% of the targeted 5 billion in cost savings by 2024.

“These synergies allow us to continue to invest in the electrification strategy, which we talk about every day,” Palmer said.

Stellantis, which lags competitors in rolling out electric vehicles, plans to launch 21 fully electric or plug-in gas electric hybrid vehicles over the next two years.

“We are now racing, we are now executing our plans,” CEO Carlos Tavares told analysts. He said that there would be 22 pure electric vehicles on sale in two years, including 11 already on the market.

North American posted record profitability on global sales of Ram trucks and the strong launch of the Jeep Wrangler 4xe, which was the best-selling plug-in gas electric vehicle in the United States in the second quarter. Stellantis was the market leader in South America and second in Europe.

Stellantis also raised its forecast for operating profit margins to around 10% for the year, after achieving 11.4% in the first half, a record against performance of both previous standalone companies.

Tavares said the industry is facing negative risks in the second half, in the form of uncertain semiconductor supply, rising raw material prices and the threat of future lockdowns due to coronavirus variants.

“The only thing I can do is put as many tailwinds as I can in motion to be sure that we overcome the headwinds,” Tavares said

Visibility on semiconductor supply “is still quite poor,” Tavares said, but the hope is that it will be better than the first half. Within Stellantis, semiconductors could be distributed among its operating regions in order to “protect the best parts of our business, if need be,” the CEO said.

One lesson of the pandemic has been an increased value on individual mobility, Tavares said.

The financial results were presented on a pro-forma basis, taking into account the performance of each of the carmakers as separate entities during 2020.

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SEATTLE (AP) — The divorce of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates has been finalized.

The Microsoft co-founder and his wife announced in May they were ending their 27-year marriage and on Monday a King County Superior Court judge signed the dissolution decree. The New York Times reports the court documents didn’t detail how they would divide their assets.

Bill Gates was formerly the world’s richest person and his fortune is estimated at about $150 billion.

They met after she began working at Microsoft as a product manager in 1987. The two were married in 1994 in Hawaii.

The Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most influential private foundation in the world, with an endowment worth about $50 billion. It has focused on global health and development and U.S. education issues since incorporating in 2000.

The two have said they will continue to work together as co-chairs of their foundation. However, if after two years Gates and French Gates decide they cannot continue in their roles, French Gates will resign her positions as co-chair and trustee, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced earlier this month.

If French Gates resigns, Gates would essentially buy her out of the foundation, one of the world’s largest private charitable organizations, and she would receive resources from him to do her own philanthropic work. The resources received would be separate from the foundation’s endowment, according to foundation.

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