Hundreds of Google staff have signed a letter backing a leading AI ethics researcher who was sacked by Google. Timnit Gebru says she was fired after sending an internal email that accused Google of “silencing marginalised voices”. Hundreds of colleagues have signed a letter accusing the search giant of racism and censorship, while Twitter users have rallied around Ms Gebru using the hashtag #BelieveBlackWomen.

Google disputes her version of events. Ms Gebru is a well-respected researcher in the field of ethics and the use of artificial intelligence. She is well-known for her work on racial bias in technology such as facial recognition, and has criticised systems that fail to recognise black faces. Her co-author on one of those well-known papers, Joy Buolamwini, said Ms Gebru “deserved more” from Google. “Ousting Timnit for having the audacity to demand research integrity severely undermines Google’s credibility for supporting rigorous research on AI ethics and algorithmic auditing,” she said.(BBC)…[+]

US President-elect Joe Biden has said he will ask Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office to curtail the spread of coronavirus. He told CNN he believed there would be a “significant reduction” in Covid-19 cases if every American wore a face covering. Mr Biden also said he would order masks to be worn in all government buildings. The US has recorded 14.1 million cases and 276,000 deaths from Covid-19 – the highest of any country in the world. Mr Biden is preparing to take office as pharmaceutical giants are poised to ship millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines to the American public. The UK on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer vaccine.(BBC)…[+]

One of three Americans hailed as heroes for overcoming a gunman on a train travelling to Paris has told a French court his main aim was to survive. Spencer Stone, a 28-year-old ex-serviceman, described via video from the US how he and his friends saw Ayoub El Khazzani pick up a Kalashnikov rifle and prepare to open fire. He counted three separate attempts the gunman made to try to kill him. Mr Stone was one of two people wounded in the August 2015 Thalys train attack. The other was fellow passenger Mark Magoolian. No-one died but Mr Stone rejected the defendant’s claim that he could not kill anyone. “I think we prevented a massacre,” French reports quoted him as telling the court.Ayoub El Khazzani, a 31-year-old Moroccan, is accused of attempted murder as part of a terrorist enterprise, three months before the deadly militant Islamist attacks in Paris.(BBC)…[+]

Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews have been airlifted to Israel – the first of several thousand waiting to emigrate there in a long-running saga. Most of their community has lived in transit camps in Ethiopia for years as questions over their eligibility has dogged the process. The immigrants are related to Ethiopian Jews brought to Israel decades ago in a series of secret operations. Israel had been accused of delaying bringing the remaining group in. The issue gained greater urgency in recent weeks as fighting between the Ethiopian government and local forces in the Tigray region threatened to spread south to Gondar city, where most of the Jews are now housed.

A US mayor who flew off by private jet on holiday while urging residents to stay home is the latest politician to be accused of Covid-19 hypocrisy. Steve Adler, leader of Austin, Texas, went on a family getaway to Mexico as he told people to keep indoors amid spiralling virus caseloads. He recorded a video from the beach resort instructing residents back home: “This is not the time to relax.” But Mr Adler, a Democrat, denied violating his own regulations. He told the Austin American-Statesman, which revealed his trip: “There was no recommendation for people not to travel during that period of time. “Someone could look at me and say, ‘He travelled.’ But what they could not say is that I travelled at a time when I was telling other people not to travel.” According to the Austin American-Statesman, Mr Adler last month hosted an outdoor wedding reception with 20 guests for his daughter at an upmarket hotel in the city.(BBC)…[+]

Pressure is mounting on the UK and EU negotiating teams to finalise a post-Brexit trade deal. Talks went on late into Wednesday evening at the business department in central London. The two sides are urgently seeking compromises in key areas before current trading rules expire at the end of December. Fishing rights, competition rules and how an agreement should be enforced remain outstanding issues. The two sides have been locked in talks since March to determine their future relations once the UK’s Brexit transition periods ends on 31 December.(BBC)…[+]