Dario Triscar and Nertila Goga opened their new bistro in Milan on March 5 only to close just days later as the coronavirus pandemic swept into Italy.
In short order, they found themselves investing $1,200 Cdn (800 euros) in Plexiglas and spending much of their time in quarantine cutting and gluing barriers to line and surround their tables when the time would come to reopen.
More than two months later, Triscari proudly overlooks the bistro’s outdoor patio, where people are dining al fresco.
“We entered a new reality, and we have to adapt,” he said. “When restaurants in Wuhan reopened, we went online to see what they were doing, and that’s where we got the Plexiglas idea.”
People stroll under Milan’s famed Galleria Vittorio Emanuele with their bikes. Some people say now is the time to make the city a visionary leader by changing its transportation flow and encouraging bicycle commuting. (Prospero Bozzo/CBC)
Italy, the first Western country to be ravaged by the novel coronavirus, has further eased its two-month-long lockdown, allowing everything from museums and libraries to sit-down dining and hairdressers to reopen.
With strict new safety regulations in place, businesses in Milan are grappling with radical changes to their operations in a city with entirely new rhythms, with staggered opening hours decreed by the government and many still remote working from home.
Some in Milan have seized this time as a chance to make strategic, forward-thinking changes to the city’s modes and flow of transportation. But others are struggling to adapt to new measures that they must implement because of COVID-19.
Together, but apart
What’s gone for now, said Triscari, is what Italians call la socialità — the everyday encounters among friends and strangers tipping back a morning espresso pressed against a café counter or crowding around a table with bright orange Aperol spritzes after work.
Contractor Francesco Vigorita, 28, digs into an antipasto of calamari and potato across a Plexiglas shield from his father, Pino.
“What more can you do?” Francesco said, shrugging. “It’s not the same, and I miss seeing friends in groups, but for now, this is how it is.”
Restauranteur Sandra Zini, right, says she will wait to reopen her family’s bistro because its staff of five cannot handle all the new safety measures put in place.
For some, however, the transition to the new normal has been nothing short of defeating.
Sandra Zini, who with her mother and brother run Il Tronco, a restaurant that’s been in their family since 1933, have not yet reopened. They say the post-lockdown regulations are too complicated.
“Normally, we seat 50 clients. Now with social distancing, 16,” she said, gesturing to the widely spaced tables, which by law have to ensure diners who are not related sit a minimum one metre distance from each other.
Embracing change while upholding tradition
For Zini, that means taking the temperatures of staff members and clients, recording the name and phone number of every diner to allow for tracing in case of contagion, sanitizing the washroom each time someone uses it, and patrolling the social distance between clients.
It’s simply too much for her staff of five to handle.
“It’s a nightmare,” she said.
The tension between embracing change and upholding tradition is palpable on the streets of Milan.
A decade ago, when the city moved to reduce smog, the linchpin to its sustainability plan was increasing use of public transit. Now, with a 30 per cent cap on transit capacity because of social distancing requirements, the city is boosting other alternatives to private cars: bicycles, electric scooters, mopeds and vehicle sharing.
WATCH | Coun. Marco Granelli cycles in one of Milan’s new bike lanes
Milan city councillor Marco Granelli cycles along a stretch of the 35 km/h new bike paths laid in Milan to help reduce pressure on public transit. (Credit Megan Williams) 0:15
As Milan Coun. Marco Granelli shows off a traffic lane freshly converted into a bike path, pedestrian walkway, moped parking and spaces for vehicles to offload goods, taxi drivers across the street lean against their cars and glare, gesticulating and shouting the odd muffled expletive.
“It’s created a little debate in the city,” Granelli chuckled.
He said vehicle sharing is up 65 per cent, thanks in part to a government incentive that reimburses 60 per cent of the cost of a new bike or electric scooter and use of sharing schemes. Cycling, as a percentage of the means of transport, has risen to 30 per cent post-lockdown from 10 per cent pre-lockdown.
People in Milan line up to buy new bikes. The government is providing coupons of up to $750 for bicycle purchases to discourage people from driving. (Prospero Bozzo/CBC)
“Our main concern is laying down enough bike paths so that when students return in September, our city will be ready,” said Granelli.
To further prepare, Milan will start running its buses and trains with peak frequency to create as much space as possible and its subway is developing a software system to automatically block entrance turnstiles once a station reaches its passenger limit.
Opportunity for visionary thinking
But the biggest challenge long term will be replacing the revenue from the loss in ticket and monthly pass sales that covered half of the cost of running Milan’s transit system. The city is turning to the European Union to help cover the loss and invest heavily in more regional commuter and subway lines.
Renowned architect and urban thinker Patricia Viel says now is the time to explore ways that Milan can lead the world as a visionary city by banning most cars and widening sidewalks. (Prospero Bozzo/CBC)
Milan’s approach is seen as forward-thinking by other major cities, but many here would like the city to go even further.
“We as Milanese believe this is a great opportunity for this city,” said renowned Milan architect and urban thinker Patricia Viel.
She said the major opportunity is revisioning Milan, turning it into a slow-moving, polycentric, open urban space. She wants Milan to ban most cars, enact a speed limit throughout of 30 km/h, widen sidewalks and do away with bike lanes entirely, placing the obligation on the few cars that need to access the centre to follow the rhythm of pedestrians and cyclists.
A cyclist has his temperature checked at the entrance of Idroscalo artificial lake in Milan on Saturday. Temperature checks are one of the measures put in place as Italy eases some of its lockdown measures. (Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters)
“We need to educate people to share spaces in the urban environment,” Viel said. “To make them bigger, easier to use and safe. That means you have to be slow, but not by dividing. We really need to share more.”
She also sees lockdown as having shifted people’s relationship to time.
Gone for many, she said, is the unquestioned acceptance that days must follow a predetermined pattern around work.
“This is over,” said Viel. “Now we understand what it means to design our own day … and companies have learned to trust” remote working.
New working hours and locations
How work is restructured will be the cornerstone in any plan to keep infections down in a region where one in seven people have had the virus and half of Italy’s 33,000 COVID-19 deaths have occurred.
Already, Milan’s city hall is working with companies to increase remote working by urging them to have people work from home at least two days a week and stagger work hours. Hairdressers and hardware stores, for instance, are among many now obliged to open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m..
Along with frontline healthcare workers, more than 200 of whom died in Italy during the pandemic, safety is of utmost concern for professions that involve physical contact with others, such as hair dresses, barbers and beauticians.
WATCH | The ‘new normal’ in an Italian spa
Beautician Margherita Bordo takes a client’s temperature in her small spa. ‘It’s time for word to spread that it’s safe to come here,’ she said. 2:55
In her small spa in the north of the city, Margherita Bordo aims a purple plastic gun-like object at the forehead of a client to measure her temperature.
In addition to checking clients for fevers and recording their phone numbers, Bordo has also installed Plexiglas barriers, set up wooden partitions around treatment chairs (cleverly camouflaged as product display cases) and installed an air purifying system — the latter not required, but “to give clients extra assurance.”
“It will take time for word to spread that it’s safe to come here,” said Bordo, who along with a loss in income, has invested several thousand dollars in the safety measures. “But I’m optimistic. As long as we don’t get a second wave of infections.”
The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
___
Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
