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IBM quietly lays off thousands

IBM is quietly laying off thousands of employees, mainly impacting senior-level programmers, sales and support staff. The recent cuts were carried out in secret with employees sharing they were asked to sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), and not talk about the specifics.

IBM’s spokesperson shared that the cost of workforce rebalancing represents a very low single digit percentage of the company’s workforce, and that it expects to exit 2024 with roughly the same number of employees as the beginning of the year. The company reportedly took a $400 million “workforce rebalancing” charge to cover the cost of planned layoffs in the first quarter of 2024.

SpaceX targets Mars mission in two years

SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars in two years, CEO Elon Musk said in a post on social media platform X. Earlier this month, Musk had said that the first Starships to Mars would launch in two years “when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens.”

Musk, known for providing changing timelines on Starship’s readiness, said earlier this year that the first uncrewed starship to land on Mars would be within five years, with the first people landing on Mars within seven years. In June, a Starship rocket survived a fiery, hypersonic return from space and achieved a breakthrough landing demonstration in the Indian Ocean, completing a full test mission around the globe on the rocket’s fourth try.

India probes Netflix

India is investigating the business practices of U.S. streaming giant Netflix’s local operations, including allegations of visa violations and racial discrimination. The details of India’s investigation were included in a July 20 email which was written by a Union Home Ministry official to Netflix’s former director of business and legal affairs for India, Nandini Mehta, who left the company in 2020.

The Indian official’s email shows growing scrutiny of Netflix in India, where it has roughly 10 million users and which it considers a growth market where companies target affluent people in the nation of 1.4 billion people. Netflix has often faced heat in India over its content deemed insensitive by some users. This month, it was forced to add new disclaimers to an Indian series about a plane hijack after social media outrage and government anger over what they said was Muslim hijackers being shown as Hindus.