Facebook plans to change its name: report N Korea confirms test of ‘new type’ submarine-launched missile

Social media giant Facebook Inc is planning to rebrand itself with a new name next week, the Verge reported on Tuesday, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about the name change at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28, but it could be unveiled sooner, the Verge reported. In response, Facebook said it does not comment on “rumour or speculation”. The news comes at a time when the company is facing increasing US government scrutiny over its business practices. Lawmakers from both parties have excoriated the company, illustrating the rising anger in Congress with Facebook. The rebranding would position Facebook’s social media app as one of many products under a parent company, which will also oversee groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and more, the Verge report added.

It’s not uncommon in Silicon Valley for companies to change their names as they bid to expand their services.

Google established Alphabet Inc as a holding company in 2015 to expand beyond its search and advertising businesses, to oversee various other ventures ranging from its autonomous vehicle unit and health technology to providing internet services in remote areas. The move to rebrand will also reflect Facebook’s focus on building the so-called metaverse, an online world where people can use different devices to move and communicate in a virtual environment, according to the report. Facebook has invested heavily in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) and intends to connect its nearly three billion users through several devices and apps. On Tuesday, it announced plans to create 10,000 jobs in the European Union over the next five years to help build this metaverse.Zuckerberg has been talking up metaverse since July and the buzzy word, first coined in a dystopian novel three decades earlier, has been referenced by other tech firms such as Microsoft.

The Verge report said a possible name for the company could have something to do with Horizon. Recently, Facebook renamed its in-development VR gaming platform named “Horizon” to “Horizon Worlds”. Source: dawn.com

State media say the test, the eighth this year, was ‘successful’ as the US urged Pyongyang to refrain from ‘provocations’ and resume talks. North Korea has confirmed it testfired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), a day after South Korea reported the launch of what it said appeared to be an SLBM from North Korea’s east coast. State media said on Wednesday a “new type” of SLBM had been launched, and released a series of photos. The device had “lots of advanced control guidance technologies”, North Korea’s state news agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, adding that it was fired from the same vessel that the North used in its first SLBM test five years ago. The report did not mention leader Kim Jong Un, suggesting he did not watch the test.

The launch, near the city of Sinpo, where Pyongyang has a major shipyard building submarines, is the fifth since September, the eighth this year, and the first test of an SLBM since 2019. The North is banned from missile tests under United Nations sanctions. The UN Security Council will hold an emergency closed-door meeting on North Korea on Wednesday at the request of the United States and the United Kingdom. Pyongyang has been gradually improving its military arsenal since talks on denuclearisation broke down in 2019 following the collapse of the Hanoi summit between Kim and then US President Donald Trump.

Kim has accused the US and South Korea of maintaining a “hostile policy” towards the North, insisting that his country’s military development is crucial for “self-defence”. The White House reviewed North Korean policy after Joe Biden took office in January and has been urging Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table – key envoys from the US and South Korea met in Washington, DC this week as the test was detected and Sung Kim, Biden’s special envoy on North Korea, is due to travel to Seoul to discuss the possibility of reviving diplomacy with Pyongyang. Source: aljazeera.com