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Israel Considering Asylum Requests From its Iran-Based Social Media Followers – Voice of America

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WASHINGTON – Israel says it has been considering requests by thousands of Iranians seeking to leave Iran and receive asylum or medical assistance in the Jewish state, a longtime foe of Iran’s Islamist rulers.

In recent weeks, Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has told local news outlets that its Persian social media channels have seen a surge in messages from Iranians asking for Israeli help as they face a second coronavirus wave that has further strained a shrinking economy plagued by U.S. sanctions and Iranian government mismanagement.

Responding to a VOA Persian question in a Wednesday briefing held via Zoom, the Israeli ministry’s Persian new media director, Sharona Avginsaz, said there have been cases in which her team has referred requests from Iran for travel to Israel to “relevant” government bodies.

“Obviously, it’s a very sensitive issue, because Iran is an enemy country of Israel. And so, it’s not a simple matter for somebody to immigrate from Iran to Israel,” Avginsaz said, speaking through a translator. “But we look at each case specifically, and where we can, we refer onward.”

Avginsaz said some of the travel requests have come from Iranians seeking refuge in Israel from political or religious persecution in Iran. Israel enjoyed friendly relations with Iran before the 1979 Iranian revolution that brought to power Islamist clerics hostile to Israel.

The ministry official said she also has received questions through her social media channels from Iranians seeking Israeli medical expertise in dealing with the coronavirus.

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“Where we can pass on information that helps people, we do that,” Avginsaz said.

500,000 Instagram followers

Instagram is by far the most popular of Israel’s four Farsi-language social media channels, which also include Twitter, Telegram and Facebook. The Instagram channel reached 500,000 followers as of May 31.

Israel’s Persian Twitter account has 228,000 followers, while its Facebook page has 193,000 followers and the Telegram channel has 25,000 members.

The ministry has said some of the requests from Iran for Israeli assistance have been sent in private messages to those channels, while others have come in public comments posted by people using pseudonyms as their account names.

Avginsaz said Instagram is the most followed of the channels because it is the only one that is not blocked by Iran’s government and is accessible for Iranians without having to use VPNs.

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She said Israel has determined that at least 90 percent of the Instagram channel’s followers are inside Iran and more than 40 percent of those people are in the capital, Tehran, with the remainder located mostly in other large Iranian cities. As many Iranians use VPNs to access the other channels, like Twitter, she said it is hard to know if those users are inside Iran or elsewhere.

“The majority of our Instagram followers are opposed to the Iranian regime and not happy with how things are going in Iran these days,” Avginsaz said, through the interpreter. “As a result of that, most but not all of the responses that we see to our posts are positive messages from people who would like to see a different reality between Israel and Iran, and a different future for themselves and their country.”

Gaining entry difficult

Few Iranians have been able to make it to Israel in recent years. In one high-profile case, Israeli authorities granted entry in August 2017 to Neda Amin, an Iranian journalist who fled Iran in 2014 and moved to Turkey, where she contributed blog posts to Israeli news site Times of Israel. At the time, she had appealed to Times of Israel and Israeli authorities for help, saying Turkish authorities were threatening to send her back to Iran in retaliation for her collaboration with the Israeli news site. Turkey and Israel have had tense relations for years while maintaining official ties.

Almost three years after entering Israel, Amin, whose father was Jewish, told Jewish content website AISH.COM last month that she still was awaiting government approval of her asylum application. Amin said she was frustrated that her lack of asylum status has prevented her from getting an Israeli work permit or applying for conversion to Judaism. However, she also expressed gratitude for the friendly greetings she said she had received from Israelis and was hopeful of being allowed to remain.

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.

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Facebook Faces Yet Another Outage: Platform Encounters Technical Issues Again

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Facebook Problem Again

Uppdated: It seems that today’s issues with Facebook haven’t affected as many users as the last time. A smaller group of people appears to be impacted this time around, which is a relief compared to the larger incident before. Nevertheless, it’s still frustrating for those affected, and hopefully, the issues will be resolved soon by the Facebook team.

Facebook had another problem today (March 20, 2024). According to Downdetector, a website that shows when other websites are not working, many people had trouble using Facebook.

This isn’t the first time Facebook has had issues. Just a little while ago, there was another problem that stopped people from using the site. Today, when people tried to use Facebook, it didn’t work like it should. People couldn’t see their friends’ posts, and sometimes the website wouldn’t even load.

Downdetector, which watches out for problems on websites, showed that lots of people were having trouble with Facebook. People from all over the world said they couldn’t use the site, and they were not happy about it.

When websites like Facebook have problems, it affects a lot of people. It’s not just about not being able to see posts or chat with friends. It can also impact businesses that use Facebook to reach customers.

Since Facebook owns Messenger and Instagram, the problems with Facebook also meant that people had trouble using these apps. It made the situation even more frustrating for many users, who rely on these apps to stay connected with others.

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During this recent problem, one thing is obvious: the internet is always changing, and even big websites like Facebook can have problems. While people wait for Facebook to fix the issue, it shows us how easily things online can go wrong. It’s a good reminder that we should have backup plans for staying connected online, just in case something like this happens again.

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We asked ChatGPT what will be Google (GOOG) stock price for 2030

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We asked ChatGPT what will be Google (GOOG) stock price for 2030

Investors who have invested in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) stock have reaped significant benefits from the company’s robust financial performance over the last five years. Google’s dominance in the online advertising market has been a key driver of the company’s consistent revenue growth and impressive profit margins.

In addition, Google has expanded its operations into related fields such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence. These areas show great promise as future growth drivers, making them increasingly attractive to investors. Notably, Alphabet’s stock price has been rising due to investor interest in the company’s recent initiatives in the fast-developing field of artificial intelligence (AI), adding generative AI features to Gmail and Google Docs.

However, when it comes to predicting the future pricing of a corporation like Google, there are many factors to consider. With this in mind, Finbold turned to the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT to suggest a likely pricing range for GOOG stock by 2030. Although the tool was unable to give a definitive price range, it did note the following:

“Over the long term, Google has a track record of strong financial performance and has shown an ability to adapt to changing market conditions. As such, it’s reasonable to expect that Google’s stock price may continue to appreciate over time.”

GOOG stock price prediction

While attempting to estimate the price range of future transactions, it is essential to consider a variety of measures in addition to the AI chat tool, which includes deep learning algorithms and stock market experts.

Finbold collected forecasts provided by CoinPriceForecast, a finance prediction tool that utilizes machine self-learning technology, to anticipate Google stock price by the end of 2030 to compare with ChatGPT’s projection.

According to the most recent long-term estimate, which Finbold obtained on March 20, the price of Google will rise beyond $200 in 2030 and touch $247 by the end of the year, which would indicate a 141% gain from today to the end of the year.

2030 GOOG price prediction: Source: CoinPriceForecast

Google has been assigned a recommendation of ‘strong buy’ by the majority of analysts working on Wall Street for a more near-term time frame. Significantly, 36 analysts of the 48 have recommended a “strong buy,” while seven people have advocated a “buy.” The remaining five analysts had given a ‘hold’ rating.

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1679313229 737 We asked ChatGPT what will be Google GOOG stock price
Wall Street GOOG 12-month price prediction: Source: TradingView

The average price projection for Alphabet stock over the last three months has been $125.32; this objective represents a 22.31% upside from its current price. It’s interesting to note that the maximum price forecast for the next year is $160, representing a gain of 56.16% from the stock’s current price of $102.46.

While the outlook for Google stock may be positive, it’s important to keep in mind that some potential challenges and risks could impact its performance, including competition from ChatGPT itself, which could affect Google’s price.


Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.

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This Apple Watch app brings ChatGPT to your wrist — here’s why you want it

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Apple Watch Series 8

ChatGPT feels like it is everywhere at the moment; the AI-powered tool is rapidly starting to feel like internet connected home devices where you are left wondering if your flower pot really needed Bluetooth. However, after hearing about a new Apple Watch app that brings ChatGPT to your favorite wrist computer, I’m actually convinced this one is worth checking out.

The new app is called watchGPT and as I tipped off already, it gives you access to ChatGPT from your Apple Watch. Now the $10,000 question (or more accurately the $3.99 question, as that is the one-time cost of the app) is why having ChatGPT on your wrist is remotely necessary, so let’s dive into what exactly the app can do.

What can watchGPT do?

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