LONDON: Twitter Inc. is shutting its reopened offices in United States, while other big tech companies are making vaccination mandatory for on-campus employees, as the highly infectious Delta COVID-19 variant drives a resurgence in cases.
Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc. said on Wednesday all US employees must get vaccinated to step into offices. Google is also planning to expand its vaccination drive to other regions in the coming months.
Twitter, which on Wednesday also paused future office reopenings, had started allowing employees back to its campuses in San Francisco and New York at 50 percent capacity about a fortnight ago after more than 16 months.
US coronavirus cases have been rising due to the Delta variant, which emerged in India but has quickly spread and now accounts for more than 80 percent of US coronavirus cases.
Health authorities on Tuesday said Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 should go back to wearing masks in indoor public places in regions where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly.
San Francisco-based ride-hailing company Lyft Inc, which had already made vaccinations mandatory for employees returning to the office, postponed its reopening to February from September.
“We anticipate the COVID situation will remain fluid for the upcoming months, making it difficult for us to land a clear return date without a possibility of moving it again,” Lyft CEO Logan Green said in a memo to staff.
According to a Deadline report, streaming giant Netflix Inc. has also implemented a policy mandating vaccinations for the cast and crew on all its USproductions.
Apple Inc. plans to restore its mask requirement policy at most of its US retail stores, both for customers and staff, even if they are vaccinated, Bloomberg News reported
Apple and Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
Many tech companies including Microsoft Corp. and Uber have said they expect employees to return to offices, months after pandemic-induced lockdowns forced them to shift to working from home.
Google also said on Wednesday it would extend its work-from-home policy through Oct. 18 due to a recent rise in cases caused by the Delta variant across different regions.
Big Tech starts requiring vaccines; Twitter closes re-opened US offices
https://arab.news/5cz2v
Big Tech starts requiring vaccines; Twitter closes re-opened US offices
- Twitter is shutting reopened offices in the US amidst the spread of the DELTA COVID-19 variant
- Google and Facebook announced it is now mandatory for all US employees to get vaccinated before coming back to offices
Israeli strike kills 3 journalists in Gaza, as media watchdog reports near-record number in jail
- Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Shaat and Anas Ghneim were using a drone camera to document aid distribution when a vehicle was targeted
- Deaths coincide with publication of a Committee to Protect Journalists report that reveals 330 journalists are imprisoned worldwide
LONDON: An Israeli airstrike killed three journalists in Gaza on Wednesday, the territory’s civil defense agency said. Their deaths came as a report revealed the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide remains close to a record high.
The agency said the bodies of Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Shaat and Anas Ghneim were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah following the airstrike in Al-Zahra, southwest of Gaza City.
Shaat had regularly contributed photographs and video footage to Agence France-Presse, though he was not on assignment at the time, the news agency said.
The Israeli military said its troops had identified “several suspects who operated a drone affiliated with Hamas” in central Gaza and attacked them because of the threat they posed. The details were under review, it added.
An eyewitness said the journalists were using a drone to document the distribution of aid by the Egyptian Relief Committee in the Gaza Strip when a strike hit one of the committee’s vehicles.
“A vehicle belonging to the Egyptian Committee was targeted during a humanitarian mission, resulting in the martyrdom of three individuals,” said Mohammed Mansour, a spokesperson for the organization.
All vehicles belonging to the committee bear its logo, he added, and he accused Israeli soldiers of “criminally” targeting the vehicle.
Meanwhile, a newly published report by the Committee to Protect Journalists stated that as of Dec. 1, 2025, 330 journalists were imprisoned worldwide, down from a record 384 at the end of 2024 but still close to historic highs.
Israel, which is holding 29 journalists, all of them Palestinians, ranked third on the list of countries with the most detained media workers, after China (50) and Myanmar (30). Nearly one in five jailed journalists reported they had been subjected to torture or beatings.
“Autocracies and democracies alike are locking up journalists to quash dissent and stifle independent reporting,” the committee’s CEO, Jodie Ginsberg, said.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Israeli forces had killed at least 466 Palestinians since the ceasefire agreement took effect in November. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that 127 journalists and other media workers were killed in the course of their work during 2025, the vast majority of them in Gaza.
* With agencies
