Arabic Language Excluded from Google Assistant

Google Assistant. (Google)
Google Assistant. (Google)
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Arabic Language Excluded from Google Assistant

Google Assistant. (Google)
Google Assistant. (Google)

Google intends to add more than 20 languages to its voice-command based digital assistant app by the end of this year. The voice assistant will be available in more than 30 languages by the end of 2018, but noticeably absent is Arabic.

In the next few months the Google Assistant will be able to respond by text in Danish, Dutch, Hindi, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish and Thai on Android phones and Apple iPhones, the CNET.com website reported.

Nick Fox, Google's vice president of product, said in a blog post that the assistant will be available in more than 30 languages, reaching 95 percent of all eligible Android phones worldwide, reported the German news agency.

The assistant currently responds in eight languages by text on Android phones: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

Fox said Google Assistant will also gain multilingual speech later this year, allowing the assistant to understand you fluently in multiple languages, instead of just one. This feature will start with English, French and German.

"If you prefer to speak German at work, but French at home, your assistant is right there with you," he added.



Mexico Barred from Sending Cattle to US over Flesh-eating Pest

US agriculture officials are closing the southern border to cattle due to concerns over a flesh-eating pest detected in Mexican herds - AFP
US agriculture officials are closing the southern border to cattle due to concerns over a flesh-eating pest detected in Mexican herds - AFP
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Mexico Barred from Sending Cattle to US over Flesh-eating Pest

US agriculture officials are closing the southern border to cattle due to concerns over a flesh-eating pest detected in Mexican herds - AFP
US agriculture officials are closing the southern border to cattle due to concerns over a flesh-eating pest detected in Mexican herds - AFP

The US Secretary of Agriculture has announced ports will be closed to the livestock trade at the southern border after Mexican cattle tested positive for the flesh-eating New World screwworm (NWS), AFP reported.

"The United States has promised to be vigilant -- and after detecting this new NWS case, we are pausing the planned port reopening's to further quarantine and target this deadly pest in Mexico," Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement.

President Donald Trump's administration on May 11 announced a halt on imports of live cattle, horses and bison over the southern border because of an outbreak of the screwworm fly, whose flesh-eating larvae can kill cattle.

Mexico resumed cattle exports to the United States on Monday after mitigation efforts, following Washington's announcement that it was gradually lifting the nearly two-month pause.