Hundreds of tennis players, officials must isolate after Australia Covid case

21:20, February 03, 2021

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  Indonesia reports 11,948 newly-confirmed COVID-19 cases, 387 new deaths

  An official checks beds inside a train that has been fitted out as temporary isolation site for COVID-19 patients in Madiun, East Java, Indonesia, Jan. 27, 2021. The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 11,948 within one day to 1,024,298, with the death toll adding by 387 to 28,855, the Health Minist

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  US New Orleans to ease restrictions as COVID-19 cases drop

  A bar providing outdoor seats is seen in New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, on Jan. 27, 2021. southern city of New Orleans will ease some of its COVID-19 restrictions after COVID-19 cases declined for three consecutive weeks, an official said on Wednesday.

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  Regulator says Australia must address Google ad dominance

  In this Monday, Nov. 5, 2018 file photo, a woman walks past the logo for Google at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. (Photo: AP)A lack of competition for Google and a lack of transparency in the digital advertising supply chain needed to be addressed because they were impacting publishers, advertisers and consumers, Australia’s competition watchdog said on Thursday.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released its interim report on its inquiry into the Google-dominated digital advertising services industry in Australia that is worth 3.4 billion Australian dollars ($2.6 billion) a year.The industry allows advertisers to buy access to consumers’ eyeballs almost instantaneously through an automated bidding process, flashing up products that supposedly align with the individual consumers’ personal interests. Such individually tailored ads can follow consumers around the internet.Google not only powers the digital display technology, it also controls much of the advertising space.Commission Chair Rod Sims said “there is a real lack of competition, choice and transparency in this industry” that add to advertisers’ costs and increase prices paid by consumers.“Google’s significant presence across the whole ad tech supply chain, combined with its significant data advantage, means Google is likely to have the ability and the incentive to preference its own ad tech businesses in ways that affect competition,” Sims wrote.He said that during the inquiry, parties expressed concern about potential conflicts of interest from Google’s various roles in this industry. "This includes Google very often acting on behalf of both publishers and advertisers for the same ad sale across the ad tech supply chain, while also selling its own ad inventory,” Sims added.The commission had yet to form a view on whether Googles conduct breached Australian competition law through a misuse of market power, the report said.A lawsuit announced last month from severa...