Here's your obligatory Avengers: Endgamespoiler warning. If you haven't seen the movie yet and are still worried about spoilers, this is your one and only chance to dip out.
And now a buffer paragraph. Remember how Marvel recently dangled the news that a gay MCU character would soon be revealed? It was a weird thing to hype. The Marvel movies are good fun, but they haven't exactly tackled queerness in a way that feels authentic to life in the 21st century.
That's relevant, because here we have Marvel celebrating something it hasn't really earned: the "girl power" scene from Endgame. You know the one I mean. It's the final showdown with Thanos, all the dusted heroes are back, and hey, look at that: all the women are teamed up! (Except Black Widow.) Read more...
Cecily Strong channeled Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update and soaked Colin Jost in the process.
Strong had a hilarious, on-the-nose performance as Pirro making racist comments, raging about the "loony left," defending Donald Trump from all sides, and referring to Michael Che as "Kenan." One of the most fun bits is her insistence on spitting and throwing martinis in Jost's face any time he brought up some negative development about Trump.
Strong nailed Pirro's intense volume and energy. Read more...
People who work in IT are a popular target when it comes to making fun of people in the workplace, but Paul Rudd and Beck Bennett's IT characters on this cut Saturday Night Live sketch take it to a whole different level.
During the office's retirement party for their boss David, the guys in IT put together a little something special. What everyone thought would be a nice slideshow turned out to be a new wave performance about their love of computers. With their silver suits, slicked hair, and keyboard/keytar instruments, the whole thing has a very heavy Kraftwerk/Talking Heads/Devo vibe.
It's a truly bizarre performance with references to how computers are gods, computers will take over the world, and Bennett professing (in song) that he'd like to have sex with a computer. Almost everyone starts breaking character at that point. Read more...
Luckily, just as it was with DVDs and the internet, the sex industry is at the forefront of the evolution of gadget technology. And that means some ingenious tools for making masturbation fun again. Read more...
Paul Rudd deserves a medal for not breaking during Kate McKinnon's performance in "A Journey Through Time" on Saturday Night Live.
This reoccurring "post-anomaly government interview" sketch has historically been an invitation for McKinnon to deliver some of her raunchiest lines as the chain-smoking character Ms. Rafferty, who always seems to get the raw end of the deal when it comes to alien abductions and time travel.
In this sketch, while Paul Rudd and Cecily Strong recount their tale of entering a portal to the peaceful, crystalline, far-off future, McKinnon regales the group with a tale of how she must've gone in the wrong end of the portal, transporting her (half naked) thousands of years into the past where she was assailed by ape anuses. Rudd's professionalism and experience in comedy really shows when McKinnon mounts his torso to eat bugs out of his hair, grind on his spine, and suck ear wax out of his ear. Read more...
Saturday Night Live is usually about the comedy and nothing else. But sometimes it has worthwhile things to say.
Leslie Jones joined the Weekend Update crew during the show's Season 44 finale to share her thoughts on the multiple states that have moved to enact draconian anti-abortion laws. And guess what? It's not a joke to her.
Jones spells out in stark terms exactly what this battery of state laws amounts to: an open war on women. And she has one response to that: a shouted "Dracarys," the command word Danaerys Targaryen uses on Game of Thrones to make her dragons (sorry— dragon, singular) breathe fire. Read more...
Pete Davidson has carved out a comfortable niche on Saturday Night Live as a rap star with a love for weird tangents. Sketches from recent years really don't get much better than Tucci Gang. Until now?
Davidson's new one starts off in a familiar enough place: Game of Thrones, his "favoritest show ever." But it's really not. What Davidson's heart of hearts really beats for is the odd couple Netflix series Grace and Frankie, starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda.
That's it. That's the joke. It's great. The sketch also features surprise appearances from host Paul Rudd, musical guest DJ Khaled, and Kenan Thompson pal Jacob Anderson, who plays Grey Worm on Thrones. Read more...
Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" is a fun song. Even when the lyrics are re-worked to celebrate the many transgressions and seemingly provable outright crimes of the Donald Trump administration.
Alec Baldwin brought his Trump schtick back to Saturday Night Live's cold open on May 18, the show's Season 44 finale. The rousing Oval Office jam session featured all the familiar faces you've come to expect from SNL's many journeys into Trumpworld, including a special guest appearance from Robert De Niro as Robert Mueller.
Yes, Trump is still president and all the things that this fun song sings about are in fact completely terrible. But it sure is catchy, right? Read more...
Been taking too many picture's with mom on Mother's Day? Well, it's time to free up some space with this WD My Book 10TB external hard drive. Priced at $79.99 (listed at $299.99), saving you 73% off. With Memorial Day coming up, and Father's Day closely after, you don't want to miss out on special moments.
What if we told you that your Jon Snow sexy cosplay didn't have to end?
We all have that one show or movie franchise that we like so much, we want every merch item available. You know, your classic shirts, mugs, doormats, lamps, sex toys...
Marvel, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and Pokemon-themed toys are all up for grabs. Just use the code MASHABLE5 and you can take 5% off your purchase, plus get free delivery on orders over $100. Read more...
Comparing coding to magic is not exactly an exaggeration.
You string together a bunch of very specific instructions (magic words) that can command your computer to do whatever you want it to do. Sure, it can't exactly make you teleport to the other side of the world, but it can do equally mind-blowing things like creating your own assistant (remember Iron Man's J.A.R.V.I.S?) and taking a photo of a black hole.
If you want to get started with technological sorcery, you have to learn a programming language first, of course. And since we want to be the first ones to say "Yer a wizard, Harry," we highly suggest picking up the Complete Python Certification Bootcamp Bundle. It's an 85-hour learning collection that will train you in Python programming, one of the simplest and most versatile languages out there. Read more...
In this era of internet privacy (or lack thereof), much ado has been made about a little something called a virtual private network, or VPN. But what is it, exactly?
In a nutshell, a VPN is a service that creates a private, secure internet connection between your computer and a server, which reroutes (and thus conceals) your online activities. It works sort of like "an anonymous middleman that does your browsing for you," as Mashable's Monica Chin put it last year.
VPNs are gaining traction among individual internet-goers for a few really good reasons: Not only can they hide your browsing behavior on public networks, protecting your data from the prying eyes of hackers, but they tweak your IP address so that you can access restricted and censored content, no matter where you are. (This can come in *very* handy if you travel a lot or work remotely.) Read more...
Four things are necessary for your survival on this here Earth: food, water, oxygen, and shelter. That's just Biology 101.
Now, your access to the following 10 items won't mean the difference between life and death. But they *can* mean the difference between, say, an organized wallet and a bulky pocket, or a delicious home-cooked dinner and a Lean Cuisine you found in the back of your freezer.
Plus, they're all on sale for the next few days, so you really can't go wrong by checking them out.
A must-have for any tropical getaway, this GoPro-compatible diving mask lets you record underwater adventures without obscuring your view of the ocean floor. It also features an anti-fogging design, which you'll know is a huge plus if you've ever been snorkeling or scuba diving before. Read more...
Nearly seven years after the Harvard Business Reviewfirst gave it the title, Data Scientist is still arguably the sexiest job out thereLinkedIn reports that demand for these highly skilled workers is ridiculously high, and according to the company review site Glassdoor — which recently named the position its Best Job in America for 2019 — the same can be said for their salaries. Your typical U.S. data scientist earns an average base pay of $117,345 a year.
In the iconic words of Paris Hilton: That's hot.
The thing is, data science isn't exactly a field you can just waltz right into. Job seekers typically need three things in order to snag a gig: math and statistics knowledge, computer literacy, and some sort of specialized knowledge of a certain industry. Read more...
New York City's Times Square is a famous for its towering digital billboards. However, they're typically not on fire.
That all changed Saturday when a billboard advertising Skyy Vodka went up in flames around 3 p.m. The video ad, featuring drag queen Trixie Mattel, continued to play as the fire grew and tourists looked on.
The resulting tweets, perhaps predictably, were lit.
Keep your loved ones close and your billboards closer today. ❤️
— Mia Helena Targaryen (@Mia_TheBlessed) May 18, 2019
holy shit we’re casually walking through times square and there’s suddenly tons of fire trucks and ambulances and BOOM! a big ass fire the next block up from the line friends store! pic.twitter.com/tAvuKyhvSw
World of Warcraft Classic is meant to take fans of Blizzard's hit MMORPG back to simpler times. But memory, as it turns out, is a funny thing.
The new-old WoW — Classic restores to the MMO many of the rules and systems that defined its 2005 release — isn't set to launch until the summer, but players are participating in the closed beta test now. And an apparently not-insignificant number of them are running into issues that they're reporting as bugs.
There's just one problem: some of those bugs are actually features.
It's hard to say how many people are making the mistake when Classic isn't even out yet. But the number is apparently large enough that Blizzard felt it necessary to run down a bunch of actual WoW features in a "Not A Bug" list posted to the Blizzard forums. Read more...
HBO's Games of Thrones finally and truly ends on Sunday, May 19.
The hotly anticipated series finale airs on May 19, and fans around the world are busy losing their collective sh*t in response to the "controversial" season. Comedian and rocker Jack Black, however, is taking a different approach. Specifically, he's scatting the show's theme song.
In a May 17 video, starting around the 35-second mark, Black "sings"(?) the show's distinctive opening number while swinging a sword, drinking coffee, and proudly showing off his nipples. Standard Black stuff, really. Read more...
Did you catch the Lady Gaga concert that took place on May 17?
Unless you work out of Apple Park, the tech giant's massive spaceship-shaped headquarters in Cupertino, you probably didn't attend.
The singer and actress performed a special private concert for Apple employees on Friday to help formally open the campus as well as pay tribute to Steve Jobs, according MacRumors. The concert took place on a Jony Ive-designed stage, decked with a rainbow arch, inside of Apple Park's ring.
According to AppleWeb (via Cult of Mac), the tech giant's own intranet, the "Apple Stage" as it's called, the platform and rainbow structure are made of some 25,000 parts, including an aluminum frame (because of course it is), and is designed to for quick assembly and deconstruction. Read more...
While attending a jump rope competition in Johannesburg, South Africa, the former body pro bodybuilder, actor, and governor of California was dropkicked in the back by an unidentified attacker while he was in the middle of filming a video for his Snapchat account.
Now, most people would've turned around to see WTF hit them, but not Schwarzenegger. The guy's so buff he didn't even realize someone had dropkicked him at first.
In a video posted to YouTube (skip to 0:56), the attacker, clad in a dark sweatshirt and gray sweatpants, is seen launching a flying kick right into Schwarzenegger's back. Read more...
Never get between bargain hunters and their discounted designer beachwear.
Target shoppers across the country found that out the hard way Saturday, when many rolled up to their favorite big box store only to find a giant line. That's right, a line to enter a Target. And what, exactly, was the reason for this shopping fervor?
That would be the limited edition Vineyard Vines collection.
The one day I come after work to Target for in-store pickup, would be the day of Target’s Vineyard Vines launch
I have never seen so many white people elbowing each other for beach towels and t-shirts.
Instead of opening us up to new, previously unimaginable forms of self-pleasure, for the most part its nascent existence has been little more than an extension of the clichés we've come to expect from Tube sites. Whether it's the rote 360 3D VR porn made most accessible through sites like Pornhub, or the more interactive adult VR games about customizing your own virtual sex doll — many criticize VR porn for being even more limited to the cis, heteronormative male gaze than regular porn. Read more...
In what might be one of the most bizarre cross-promotions ever, Samsung has teamed up with four UK restaurant chains to give Galaxy phone owners access to special dishes available only on a secret menu.
According to Samsung's website, anyone who owns one of its Galaxy phones (sorry iPhone friends!), can visit a participating Bill’s, The Breakfast Club, Patty & Bun, or Pizza Pilgrims and use the device to scan an in-restaurant AR code to unlock secret dishes.
"You’re probably here because we’ve got your taste buds tingling for something special," reads the website. "Bill’s, The Breakfast Club, Patty & Bun, and Pizza Pilgrims have been secretly creating some exciting dishes that only Samsung owners can get their teeth into." Read more...
Ethics reforms championed by then-Gov. Bobby Jindal in 2008 have created loopholes that have greatly limited the power of the state's Ethics Board to police lawmakers.
The members of a middle school basketball team that represented a Jewish Community Center in Omaha, Nebraska, were not expecting the 2001 season to be an auspicious one. That all changed, however, when a mysterious coach with no obvious ties to the community center showed up, and made it his mission to whip the boys into shape.
"Our American economy is on fire, I'm not gonna tell you if it's a fire that keeps you warm or burns your house to the ground, but it's some kind of fire."
Photoshop is easily one of the most used photo-editing softwares in the world, and this Complete Photoshop Master Class Bundle 2019 shows you beginner to advanced applications of the tool. Do everything from editing beautiful, professional-quality photos to developing sophisticated graphics for web design.
When Walmart's US CEO Greg Foran invokes words like "fierce," "good" and "clever" in speaking almost admiringly about one of his competitors, he's not referring to Amazon.
You wouldn't be blamed if you had forgotten about Quora, the question-and-answer machine that comes up immediately when Googling for, say, why rich people are so frugal or whether it's okay to let your cat live outside if you don't value it. But Silicon Valley now considers Quora — something of a relic of a quainter era on the internet — a $2 billion company, Recode has learned.
I have been thinking, like so many people this week, about rage. Who I'm mad at, what that anger's good for, how what makes me maddest is the way the madness has long gone unrespected, even by those who have relied on it for their gains.
Sabika Sheikh, a Muslim exchange student from Pakistan with dreams of changing the world, struck up an unlikely friendship with an evangelical Christian girl. The two became inseparable—until the day a fellow student opened fire.
With Abraham Lincoln as the flagship, deployed strike group assets include staffs, ships, and aircraft of Carrier Strike Group 12, Destroyer Squadron 2, USS Leyte Gulf and Carrier Air Wing 7. Petty Officer 3rd Class Darion Chanelle Triplett/U.S. Navy via AP
* Media reports quote unnamed sources as saying the move is designed to deter aggression from Iran * Tensions have risen in the region following attacks on tankers in the Gulf and a Saudi oil pipeline
JEDDAH: The United States is planning to deploy military forces in the waters of the Arabian Gulf and in a number of Gulf Cooperation Council countries, according to media reports in the region last night.
The request from Washington was approved by a number of GCC nations, including Saudi Arabia, according to a report by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, which quoted unnamed Arab diplomatic sources.
Storing nuclear weapons close to trouble is a bad idea, and giving Ankara a shared finger on the nuclear trigger is rapidly losing its charm.
Amid the recent self-congratulatory celebrations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 70th anniversary, there was no mention one of its strangest policies: the nuclear sharing program that keeps American nuclear bombs in five NATO countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey) and trains host air forces to use them. Thus at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 100 miles from the Syrian border, the United States stores some 20 to 80 B61 nuclear weapons for delivery by Turkish or American aircraft. There is not much comfort in knowing that these weapons are under direct American control in heavily guarded bunkers and are designed to be unusable without the proper codes. It is time to bring them home.
Voting in India's election, the world's biggest ever, ends after an acrimonious and at times violent campaign awash with insults, fake news -- and lots of petals https://t.co/0zcq8gJlrg
President Trump has requested the immediate preparation of paperwork needed to pardon several service members accused or convicted of war crimes, indicating that he plans to pardon the men around Memorial Day https://t.co/MqNTlqwhiZ
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One after a day of traveling around the state at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, Louisiana, May 14. REUTERS/Leah Millis
WNU Editor: The above picture is from this photo-gallery .... Photos of the week (Reuters).
WNU Editor: The Rommel Papers is the collected writings by the German World War II Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. You can download a free ebook copy from here.
Pacific Ocean, December 8, 2016. The U.S. Navy's most technologically advanced surface ship USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) steams in formation with USS Independence (LCS 2). Upon arrival, Zumwalt will begin the installation of her combat systems, testing and evaluation, and operation integration with the fleet. (Picture source: U.S. Navy Combat Camera / Petty Officer 1st Class Ace Rheaume)
Once slated to bombard targets on land, the three destroyers of the Zumwalt-class are changing course.
The USS Zumwalt and her two sister ships are undergoing a dramatic change of mission just three years after the first ship was commissioned. The destroyers, originally meant to provide naval gunfire support for the Marines and bombard targets far inland, are now being reorientated to a ship-killer role.
The Zumwalt-class of destroyers was meant to dramatically boost the fleet's gun firepower. After the retirement of the four Iowa-class battleships in the early 1990s, the service studied a number of solutions before deciding on the Zumwalts. Each ship would be equipped with two 155-millimeter Advanced Gun Systems, each firing a precision-guided Long Range Land Attack Projectile to ranges of up to 83 miles.
WNU Editor: The program has cost $23 billion to date, and it has only produced three ships with an average cost of $7.8 billion. Talk about a big mess .... new mission or not.
A B-52 Stratofortress, nicknamed "Wise Guy," makes its final approach to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., May 14, 2019. The bomber was flown out of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, also known as the "Boneyard," where it had been since 2008. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Ted Daigle)
* The US Air Force has brought a B-52 bomber back from the dead, pulling "Wise Guy" out of the "boneyard" for continued service. * The aircraft was delivered to the 307th Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base on Tuesday for continued service. * This bomber is only the second B-52 to ever be brought back from the boneyard. The other was a bomber nicknamed "Ghost Rider."
A decommissioned B-52H Stratofortress heavy, long-range bomber nicknamed "Wise Guy" was brought back from the Air Force's "boneyard" and delivered to an operational unit, the Air Force announced Tuesday.
Col. Robert Burgess, the commander of the 307th Operations Group, 307th Bomb Wing, flew the aircraft back to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Tuesday, The War Zone reported.
The USAF is suddenly loosening its restrictions on video shot from inside the cockpits of its stealth combat aircraft.
The Air Force F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team has released a video showing rare in-cockpit video of the stealth jet tearing through the skies. Images, let alone video, taken of or inside the F-22's cockpit have been highly restricted since the F-22A took its first flight over 20 years ago. This is especially true when it comes to its control panel, although a couple of photos do exist. While you can find piles of exciting GoPro-like clips taken inside the cockpits of nearly all tactical jets, similar clips featuring F-22s are far less common. Even Hollywood productions featuring A-list casts haven't gotten the green light to feature any internal angles of the F-22's cockpit. Now that is clearly changing and soon the Air Force's other stealth fighter demonstration team will also be joining the Raptor team when it comes to in-cockpit movie making magic.
As the Air Force and Lockheed Martin move forward with weapons envelope expansions and enhancements for the F-22, there is of course a commensurate need to upgrade software and its on-board sensors to adjust to emerging future threats, industry developers explained. Ultimately, this effort will lead the Air Force to draft up requirements for new F-22 sensors, Lockheed developers said.
(Washington, D.C.) The US Air Force is now integrating new weapons onto 143 F-22s to massively expand their target envelope, air-to-air attack range and lock-on-launch precision -- to preserve the widely held belief that the stealth fighter is the most advanced and dominant air-to-air fighter ever to exist.
Lockheed Martin, seeking to give its F-35 a leg up against a rival fighter offered by Boeing, is dramatically reducing the F-35 sticker price for the next batch of jets it will sell to the Pentagon.
The aerospace company is offering the base model of the fifth-generation F-35 for $80 million apiece in negotiations with the Pentagon, according to a report from DefenseOne. That's an 11% reduction from the $90 million price last September when the last tranche of the fighters was ordered.
WNU Editor: This was first reported by Defence One 2 weeks ago .... Price Drop: Lockheed Pitches $80M F-35A to Pentagon (Defense One). That's is what the Pentagon needs .... more competition among defense contractors.
The troubled Sukhoi Su-57 gets an order boost from Moscow.
The Russian government has bumped up its first order for new Su-57 fighter bombers, commiting to five time as many planes as it had originally planned to purchase by 2028. The order comes after the fighter's development has stalled and co-developer India has pulled out of the project. Moscow has also offered the jet to Istanbul if Turkey is kicked out of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
State TV says military shot down 'hostile targets coming from direction of occupied territories,' a day after explosions heard in vicinity of Iranian and Hezbollah facilities.
Syria claimed its air defenses on Saturday night shot down a number of missiles fired from Israel, for the second time in less than 24 hours.
The official SANA news agency said the military intercepted "hostile targets coming from direction of occupied territories." Syrian state TV said the missiles were shot down over Quneitra and near Damascus.
Seen at an exposition in 2017 are two of the truck-launched drones, next to a variant of the vehicle that uses a concealed missile launcher. (Yanjing Auto)
What is most striking about modern warfare is the synthesis of technologies. A light truck for carrying troops is over a century old. Tube-launched artillery mounted on trucks was a stable of World War II. Explosive-tipped drones are a new variation on loitering munitions that have been around in some form since the 1980s. Combined, however, these components turn a light and mobile troop carrier into not just an artillery piece, but an artillery piece that can potentially scout an entire battlefield and then launch multiple precision strikes across it. It is the synthesis that makes the machine.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin says that laser technology will play a crucial role in the nation's military might as he spoke about the "first practical results" of the country's Peresvet combat laser system.
Putin highlighted the importance of developing laser technology, including the "tactical-level combat laser complexes," at a defense-themed cabinet meeting on Friday.
lran is currently in "a full intelligence war" with the United States, according to statements by the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Major General Hossein Salami on Saturday.
"We are in a full intelligence war with the United States and the enemies of the Islamic Republic. This war is a combination of psychological warfare, cyber operations, military operations, diplomacy, fear, and intimidation," Salami, who became head of Iran's elite military force last moth, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency. He further noted Americans in the region face "great risks" at this point. "America has lost its power, and even though they look powerful, they are frail," he said.
The United States is widely cited as the world's foremost military power, but the country has a spotty record when it comes to asymmetrical warfare. Now-infamous war games conducted nearly 17 years ago showed a maritime matchup against tactics similar to those of Iran would likely prove extremely deadly for the Navy.
A new wave of tensions between longtime foes Washington and Tehran was set off by alleged reports of Iran pursuing new missile activity in the region, just as it prepared to commemorate the U.S.' unilateral pullout from a 2015 nuclear deal by stepping back from some of its own commitments to the historic agreement. Among these alleged threats were satellite imagery purporting to show small traditional sailing vessels known as dhows being fitted with cruise missiles.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (C) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (not pictured) at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, May 17, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/Pool/File Photo
Iran's foreign minister has said he does not believe a war will break out in the region amid concerns over rising tensions with the US.
Mohammad Javad Zarif told state news agency IRNA that Tehran did not want a war, and that no country had the "idea or illusion that it can confront Iran".
The US has deployed warships and planes to the Gulf in recent days over what it has described as Iranian "threats".
But US President Donald Trump has said he wants to avoid conflict.
Speaking to IRNA at the end of a visit to China on Saturday, Mr Zarif said Mr Trump "does not want war, but the people around him are pushing him towards war under the pretext of making America stronger against Iran".
U.S. diplomats on Saturday warned that airliners flying over the Persian Gulf may risk being "misidentified" amid tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
American diplomats in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates relayed the order Saturday from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), The Associated Press reported.
The warning comes amid heightened tensions following the Trump administration sending a carrier strike group and bomber task force to the region while warning of possible conflict with Iran.
Butchers have stopped selling meat cuts in favor of offal, fat shavings and cow hooves, the only animal protein many of their customers can afford.
MARACAIBO, Venezuela — Zimbabwe's collapse under Robert Mugabe. The fall of the Soviet Union. Cuba's disastrous unraveling in the 1990s.
The crumbling of Venezuela's economy has now outpaced them all.
Venezuela's fall is the single largest economic collapse outside of war in at least 45 years, economists say.
"It's really hard to think of a human tragedy of this scale outside civil war," said Kenneth Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard University and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. "This will be a touchstone of disastrous policies for decades to come."
To find similar levels of economic devastation, economists at the I.M.F. pointed to countries that were ripped apart by war, like Libya earlier this decade or Lebanon in the 1970s.
WNU Editor: What is more shocking to me than the above New York Times report is that many Venezuelans still support this rotten regime. Check out my commentary here .... Why Is Venezuela's Maduro Still In Power? (April 19, 2019).
* Norway's foreign ministry said on Friday the talks were in an 'exploratory phase' * Representatives arrived in Oslo this week in an attempt to end months of tension * It comes after angry drivers queued for hours for fuel after gasoline shortages
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has said Norway talks sought to 'build a peaceful agenda' for the crisis-stricken country in political turmoil.
Norway's foreign ministry, which has a tradition of conflict mediation, said on Friday that the talks were in an 'exploratory phase.'
The representatives of each side arrived in Oslo this week, signaling a fresh approach to ending months of tensions since Juan Guaidó declared himself president in an attempt to oust Maduro.
The talks come as fuel shortages in the country have sparked anger after drivers queued for hours following a plunge in gasoline imports and a stoppage at the nation's second-largest oil refinery.
Far-right party leader appeared to offer contracts in return for campaign help
The fate of Austria's coalition government is in the balance after the far-right vice-chancellor resigned over a video that appeared to show him promising public contracts to a woman posing as a Russian backer, in return for help in his election campaign.
The Freedom party (FPO) leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, told a press conference in Vienna on Saturday that he had been the victim of a "targeted political assassination" aimed at breaking apart the coalition, and insisted the full video would show he had done nothing illegal.
WNU Editor: He was set-up, and he felled for it. Heinz-Christian Strache's excuse is that he was drunk and he wanted to impress the attractive woman who was telling him that they could help him. This attractive woman did not only give him no help, but she and her accomplices videotaped the entire meeting. He is toast, and deservedly so. I also expect an election call any moment now.
* Scott Morrison will stay on as Prime Minister after the Coalition secured an election win on Saturday night * Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has conceded defeat and confirmed he would resign as Labor Party leader * Labor and Mr Shorten went into the night as favourites to win, but suffered unexpected losses in Queensland * The Liberals did not emerge unscathed either, with former prime minister Tony Abbott losing in Warringah * ABC election analyst Antony Green has called the election for Mr Morrison and his Coalition government
Bill Shorten has congratulated Scott Morrison on winning a surprise election victory and confirmed he would be resigning as Labor leader.
At the stroke of midnight, following the Labor leader's concession speech, the Prime Minister delivered a midnight victory speech praising God and the Australian people.
'I have always believed in miracles and I'm standing with the three biggest miracles in my life tonight and tonight we've been delivered another one,' he said, next to his wife Jenny and their daughters Abbey and Lily.
In a result which opinion polls and betting markets had failed to predict, the Liberal and the National parties recorded strong swings to them - particularly in Queensland - granting them a possible slim majority or a minority with the support of pro-climate change action independents.
WNU Editor: The pollsters and pundits in Australia were completely wrong. There are 5 seats that remain to be decided, and the ruling coalition is leading in 4. If this trend continues the Ruling-Coalition will have been re-elected with a slight majority. Why did Labor lose? From abolishing the Queen to radical climate change policies, many Australians were not ready to go down that path.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger was posing for photos at a gymnasium in South Africa * He appeared relaxed as he chatted to fans in the sports hall full of children * Out of nowhere he is rushed at with a flying kick to his back by an attacker * A bizarre commotion follows as someone yells, 'Help me, I need a Lamborghini'
This is the shocking moment Arnold Schwarzenegger is drop-kicked from behind while posing for selfies with fans, including children in South Africa.
Schwarzenegger can be seen talking to people in a gymnasium at the fourth annual Arnold Classic Africa event when out of nowhere he is attacked with a flying kick.
Fortunately and perhaps unsurprisingly, despite his age, Schwarzenegger was unfazed, writing on Twitter afterwards: 'Thanks for your concerns, but there is nothing to worry about.
'I thought I was just jostled by the crowd, which happens a lot. I only realized I was kicked when I saw the video like all of you. I'm just glad the idiot didn't interrupt my Snapchat.'
WNU Editor: His security detail (if he had security) completely failed. He is lucky the assailant did not have a knife or gun. I met Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Schwarzenegger Classic in Cleveland in 1992. At the dinner where a few dozen of us were with him, I found him to be an incredibly gracious and generous host. I was also impressed with how he treated his wife Maria Shriver. He was always deferential to her, and you could tell that he deeply loved her. It is sad that their marriage did not last.
The State Department wants to go global with a program originally aimed at ex-Warsaw Pact members.
The U.S. State Department wants to expand a little-known effort that offers countries cash to buy American-made weapons if they give up Russian-made arms.
The year-old initiative, called the European Recapitalization Incentive Program, is already helping six eastern European countries buy new helicopters or armored vehicles. Now, State Department officials are looking to take the effort global to get allies and partners to abandon not only Russian weapons, but Chinese ones too.
"The goal is to help our partners break away from the Russian supply chain [and] logistics chain that allows Russian contractors and service personnel and Russian-manufactured spare parts onto either NATO allied bases or partner military bases," a State Department official said this week.
The effort comes at a time as military officials across the Potomac River at the Pentagon talk about great power competition between the U.S. and Russia and China.
WNU Editor: This type of marketing and sales work. My family's real estate business in Russia does the same thing. We take-over the leases of clients on the condition that they move from their current location into our customized and newly constructed (and more expensive) premises. No one has ever said no. In regards to U.S. arms sales. The U.S. pays off the commitments that foreign countries have made in purchasing arms from Russia and China if they switch to the U.S.. In the short term this is expensive, but in the medium and long term it becomes incredibly lucrative. On a side note (and for those who are interested). I learned about this marketing/sale strategy when I read Peter C. Newman's book 'The Reichmanns", and how they built their real-estate empire in New York City in the 1970s and 80s.
* Palantir had a huge year, breaking through a government contract barrier that had held it back from lucrative Pentagon deals and securing an $800 million contract with the Army that it had sought for nearly a decade. * The company has also made progress on the enterprise front, expanding a significant partnership with Airbus and branching out in the automotive and pharmaceutical markets.
Palantir — the Silicon Valley data analytics company co-founded by PayPal founder and Trump advisor Peter Thiel — has made the CNBC Disruptor 50 list for six years running. But this year was perhaps the most disruptive of all for the company, which has attracted $2.8 billion in funding, raising its valuation to $20.5 billion, according to PitchBook.
In 2019, Palantir was able to leverage a favorable landmark 2017 court decision to break through government contracting barriers that formerly kept the firm out of the running for some of the Pentagon's most lucrative contracts.
WNU Editor: WNU has been following this company since the beginning .... The CIA's Investment In Tech Company Palantir Is Reaping Billions (December 10, 2013). I like this company because it values the importance of not only accumulating data, but knowing how to process and analyze it. I have always believed that future conflicts will be determined by using this same technology. Accumulating and processing the data from a battlefield, and then using it to target high-value targets.
(MILAN) — Italy’s anti-migrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini led a rally of right-wing populist leaders Saturday seeking historic results in next week’s European Parliament elections in their bid to transform European politics.
Salvini, the head of Italy’s right-wing League party, has positioned himself at the forefront of a growing movement of nationalist leaders seeking to free the European Union’s 28 nations from what he called Brussels’ “illegal occupation.”
He pledged to close Europe’s borders to migrants if the League wins not just the most votes of any party in Italy, but also of Europe.
Salvini was joined by 10 other nationalist leaders, including include far-right leaders Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally party and Joerg Meuthen of the Alternative for Germany party. It was a major tour de force for the expanding movement ahead of the May 23-26 vote that will take place in all 28 EU nations.
Still, most of the tens of thousands of supporters that packed the square outside the central Duomo cathedral in Milan were there for Salvini. League flags filled the square, with a smattering of national flags from other nations.
A short distance away, some 2,000 protesters marched to protest the right-wing gathering.
In front of the Duomo, Salvini railed against unchecked migration and decried Islam, saying it mistreated women. He said Turkey would never be a part of Europe and rejected the label of extremists for the leaders with him.
“In this piazza, there are no extremists. There are no racists. There are no fascists. If anything in Italy and in Europe, the difference is between who looks ahead, between who speaks of the future … instead of making trials of the past,” he said.
The far-right and populist leaders in Milan are making one of the strongest challenges to the European status quo in decades, united under an anti-migrant, anti-Islam, anti-bureaucracy banner.
“It is an historic moment important enough to free the continent from the illegal occupation organized by Brussels for many years,” Salvini said.
He accused European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, of “betraying Europe … by constructing a Europe of finance and uncontrolled immigration.”
Closing the rally, Salvini clutched a rosary, entrusting his victory to Europe’s patron saints as he looked up at a statue of the Virgin Mary atop the Duomo. When he did the same thing before last year’s national election, his flaunting of a religious object was roundly criticized as inappropriate in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.
Notably absent Saturday was the leader of Austria’s anti-immigrant Freedom Party, Heinz Christian Strache, who stayed in Vienna to resign as vice chancellor after two German newspapers showed video of him offering government contracts to a potential Russian benefactor.
Despite the political setback for a key member of the Europe of Nations and Freedom parliamentary group, Le Pen predicted it “will perform a historic feat, moving from the 8th place in Europe to third or maybe second” among major political groups in the European Parliament.
Speaking to reporters before the rally, Le Pen called Strache’s predicament a domestic matter, but expressed surprise “that this video that seems two years old is coming out today, a few days before the election.”
She said the movement was united “in our conception of cooperation in Europe, our shared desire to protect our citizens, our common refusal to see our country being subjected to the submergence of migration.
“The fundamental fight we are waging is a commitment against totalitarianism, globalization and Islamism, to which the European Union is responding, respectively, through accession and complacency,” she said.
The populist and far-right party leaders want to decentralize some EU policymaking, including for trade, agriculture and banking, while tightening immigration laws. Most share common views over immigration and want some powers to be returned to the member states’ capitals, but clash on other economic and social policies.
An analysis by the London-based Teneo consultancy forecasts that Europe’s two traditional center-right and center-left political groups will be weakened in the May vote, falling short of the 50% threshold of support for the first time. But Teneo said that result will mostly increase the influence of other centrist parties more than that of the nationalists.
(JOHANNESBURG) — Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was assaulted during a public appearance in South Africa on Saturday, but the 71-year-old appeared to quickly recover and say “I’m just glad the idiot didn’t interrupt my Snapchat.”
Video shows the former California governor standing and filming children at a sporting event in Johannesburg when a man makes a flying kick into his back. Schwarzenegger stumbles forward. The man is quickly grabbed by security. Off camera a man shouts several times “Help me!”
The video shortly afterward shows Schwarzenegger smiling and shaking hands with bystanders but then walking out ringed by security.
Schwarzenegger later posted on Twitter: “Thanks for your concerns, but there is nothing to worry about. I thought I was just jostled by the crowd, which happens a lot. I only realized I was kicked when I saw the video like all of you. I’m just glad the idiot didn’t interrupt my Snapchat.”
Thanks for your concerns, but there is nothing to worry about. I thought I was just jostled by the crowd, which happens a lot. I only realized I was kicked when I saw the video like all of you. I’m just glad the idiot didn’t interrupt my Snapchat.
He had been attending his Arnold Classic Africa event, which features dozens of sports and fitness activities. In a separate Twitter post, the event blamed a “crazed fan” for the assault.
The statement cited organizer Wayne Price as saying the assailant was “known to the police for orchestrating similar incidents in the past” and that Schwarzenegger was “fine and still in good spirits.”
The actor confirmed he had no intention of laying charges and would continue with another appearance on Sunday as planned, the statement said.
(CANNES, France) — Ahead of Saturday’s premiere of an Argentine documentary on abortion, dozens of women demonstrated for abortion rights on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
Women, including the filmmakers and activists seen in the film, waved green handkerchiefs and carried a large banner while walking the Cannes carpet at the premiere of Argentine director Juan Solanas’ “Let It Be Law.” The documentary depicts Argentina’s battle to legalize abortion.
Argentina’s Senate last year rejected a bill to legalize abortion, prompting protests in Buenos Aires streets. Green handkerchiefs have come to be symbol of the movement. A modified version of the bill is to be presented to Congress on May 28.
The film’s debut comes as abortion rights are also being fiercely contested in the U.S. On Tuesday, the Alabama Senate passed a bill that would outlaw almost all abortions in the state, including those involving pregnancies from rape or incest.
Many in the movie industry in Cannes have followed the developments in the U.S. with concern.
“What’s happening in Alabama is so important in the world,” Eva Longoria, who produced the Netflix documentary “Reversing Roe,” said Friday at a “Women in Motion” event in Cannes. “It’s going to affect everybody if we don’t pay attention.”
(VIENNA) — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called for an early election after his vice chancellor resigned Saturday over a covertly shot video that showed him apparently promising government contracts to a purported Russian investor.
Kurz said he would ask President Alexander Van der Bellen to set a date for a new election “as soon as possible.”
Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resigned after two German publications, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the weekly Der Spiegel, on Friday published extracts of a covert video purportedly showing Strache offering Austrian government contracts to a Russian woman who was allegedly interested in investing large amounts of money in Austria.
Strache’s far-right, anti-immigrant Freedom Party is the smaller partner in Austria’s ruling government coalition with Kurz’s People’s Party. At a news conference late Saturday, Kurz said talks with remaining officials from the Freedom Party showed they were not willing to make the changes Kurz felt necessary to continue the current coalition.
Kurz also said a possible coalition with the center-left Social Democrats would derail the government’s program of limiting debt and taxes.
Strache’s resignation was a black eye for the populist and nationalist forces who favor tighter European immigration policies. It came only a few days before the May 23-26 elections in 28 European Union nations to fill the European Parliament.
In his resignation statement earlier Saturday, Strache apologized but said he was set up in a “political assassination.” He conceded his behavior in the video was “stupid, irresponsible and a mistake.”
In the video, the source of which the publications declined to reveal, Strache and party colleague Johann Gudenus are heard telling the unnamed woman she could expect lucrative construction work if she bought Austria’s Kronen Zeitung newspaper and supported the Freedom Party. The video spanned six hours of drink-fueled conversation in a villa on the Spanish island of Ibiza between the Austrian politicians and the woman, who claimed to be the niece of a prominent Russian businessman.
The 49-year-old politician said he had been in a state of “increasing alcohol intoxication” and had “behaved like a teenager” in an attempt to “impress the attractive host.” He said he had had no further contact with the woman and she did not donate to his party. He claimed to be a victim of the illegal use of surveillance equipment.
A key topic in the EU elections has been the debate over immigration and human rights after Europe faced an influx in 2015 of migrants and asylum-seekers from war-torn areas in the Mideast and Asia.
On one side are nationalist, anti-immigrant movements critical of the EU such as Austria’s Freedom Party, the Alternative for Germany party and France’s far-right National Rally party. They want to halt most immigration into Europe, especially from Muslim areas, and give more control back to national governments from EU headquarters in Brussels.
On the other side, pro-European movements such as continent’s mainstream center-right and center-left parties see the EU parliament vote as a chance to reject populism and support European cooperation and integration.
In the video, Strache also appeared to suggest ways of funneling money to his party via an unconnected foundation to circumvent Austrian rules on political donations.
The justice spokesman for the opposition Social Democratic Party, Hannes Jarolim, has asked prosecutors to look into the matter, the APA news agency reported.
Jarolim reportedly claimed the statements in the video could constitute offenses or attempted offenses such as misuse of office, bribery and money laundering.
(LONDON) — Thousands are marching in Northern Ireland to demand that the region’s leaders permit same-sex marriage.
The demonstrators in Belfast on Saturday want same-sex couples to be treated the same way in Northern Ireland as they are in the rest of the UK, where same-sex marriage is legal. The issue is a stumbling block to restoring Northern Ireland’s Catholic-Protestant power-sharing administration, which has been suspended for more than two years.
Northern Ireland’s 1.8 million people have been without a functioning administration since the government collapsed in January 2017 over a failed green-energy project. The rift later widened to broader cultural issues separating Northern Ireland’s British unionists and Irish nationalists.
The socially conservative Democratic Unionist Party, an ally of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, is opposed to a redefinition of the law.
(BAGHDAD) — Employees of energy giant ExxonMobil have begun evacuating from an oil field in the southern Iraqi province of Basra but work at the field is still ongoing, Iraqi officials said Saturday.
The evacuation comes amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran. The U.S. has already ordered all nonessential diplomatic staff out of Iraq.
As tensions escalate, there are concerns that Baghdad could once again get caught in the middle. The country hosts more than 5,000 U.S. troops, and is home to powerful Iranian-backed militias, some of whom want those U.S. forces to leave.
An Iraqi oil official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said all those who are being evacuated are foreigners or Iraqis who hold additional national citizenships. The official did not give numbers but said the first group left two days ago and another batch left early Saturday.
“We continue to closely monitor. As a matter of practice, we don’t share specifics related to operational staffing at our facilities,” said Julie L. King, media relations adviser at ExxonMobil headquarters in Irving, Texas.
She added that ExxonMobil has programs and measures in place to provide security to protect its people, operations and facilities. “We are committed to ensuring the safety of our employees and contractors at all of our facilities around the world,” King wrote in an email.
An Iraqi security official confirmed that ExxonMobil’s employees are evacuating the West Qurna 1 oil field in Basra province, adding that “the vast majority of the evacuees are Americans.” He also spoke on condition of anonymity adding that the evacuations began on Thursday.
State-run Iraqi News Agency said work at Qurna 1 oil field “is going on normally” and has not been affected by the evacuation of ExxonMobil’s employees.
Basra Oil Co. chief Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail told INA the number of employees is less than 70, adding “they did not withdraw but decided to be in Dubai during this period and run the oil field remotely.”
He said the departure of the employees is for a short period and work will not be affected even by 1 percent in terms of production, maintenance and new projects.
“Work in Qurna 1 field is very normal,” Ismail said.
(CANBERRA, Australia) — Australia’s ruling conservative coalition won a surprise victory in the country’s general election on Saturday, defying opinion polls that had tipped the center-left opposition party to oust it from power and promising an end to the revolving door of national leaders.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison compared his Liberal Party’s victory for a third three-year term to the births of his daughters, Abbey, 11, and Lily, 9, who were conceived naturally after 14 years of in vitro fertilization had failed. His wife, Jenny Morrison, suffered endometriosis.
“I have always believed in miracles,” Morrison, 51, told a jubilant Sydney crowd as he claimed victory.
“I’m standing with the three biggest miracles in my life here tonight, and tonight we’ve been delivered another one,” he said, embraced by his wife and daughters.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten had earlier conceded defeat as the coalition came close to a majority in the 151-seat House of Representatives, where parties need a majority to form a government. Vote counting was to continue on Sunday.
“I’m disappointed for people who depend upon Labor, but I’m glad that we argued what was right, not what was easy,” Shorten told his supporters.
Shorten would have become Australia’s sixth prime minister in as many years. He said he would no longer lead Labor after six years at the helm.
The tight race raised the prospect of the coalition forming a minority government. The conservatives became a rare minority government after they dumped Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister for Morrison in an internal power struggle last August. The government then lost two seats and its single-seat majority as part of the blood-letting that followed.
An unpopular single-term Labor government that was voted out in 2013 had been the only previous minority government since World War II.
Opinion polls prior to Saturday’s election had suggested that the coalition would lose and that Morrison would have had one of the shortest tenures as prime minister in the 118-year history of the Australian federation.
There was so much public confidence of a Labor victory that Australian online bookmaker Sportsbet paid out 1.3 million Australian dollars ($900,000) to bettors who backed Labor two days before the election. Sportsbet said 70% of wagers had been placed on Labor at odds of $1.16.
Another betting agency, Ladbrokes, said it had accepted a record AU$1 million wager on Labor.
Shorten, who campaigned heavily on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, said Saturday morning that he was confident Labor would win, but Morrison would not be drawn on a prediction.
Morrison is the conservatives’ third prime minister since they were elected in 2013.
Tony Abbott, who became the first of those three prime ministers in the 2013 election, conceded defeat Saturday in the Sydney seat he has held since 1994.
Polling suggests climate change was a major issue in that seat for voters, who instead elected an independent candidate, Zali Steggall. As prime minister in 2014, Abbott repealed a carbon tax introduced by a Labor government. Abbott was replaced by Turnbull the next year because of poor opinion polling, but he remained a government lawmaker.
Senior Labor lawmaker Chris Bowen said his party may have suffered from what he conceded was an unusual strategy of pushing a detailed policy agenda through the election campaign.
Morrison began the day Saturday by campaigning in the island state of Tasmania, where the Liberals appeared to have gained two Labor-held seats. He then flew 900 kilometers (560 miles) home to Sydney to vote and to campaign in Sydney seats.
Shorten campaigned hard on more ambitious targets to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The government has committed Australia to reduce its emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030. Labor has promised a 45% reduction in the same time frame.
Shorten, a 52-year-old former labor union leader, has also promised a range of reforms, including the government paying all of a patients’ costs for cancer treatment and a reduction of tax breaks for landlords.
Morrison, a former tourism marketer, promised lower taxes and better economic management than Labor.
Both major parties promised that whoever won the election would remain prime minister until he next faces the voters’ judgment. The parties have changed their rules to make the process of lawmakers replacing a prime minister more difficult.
During Labor’s last six years in office, the party replaced Prime Minister Kevin Rudd with his deputy Julia Gillard, then dumped her for Rudd.
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EUROVISION'S viewers are convinced there is a hidden meaning linked to Brexit behind the song of British contestant Michael Rice, with many claiming the Brit is sending a "pro-EU" message.
GIBRALTAR will never to intimidated by inflammatory Spanish rhetoric, MEP Ashley Fox has said, after a general election campaign which saw candidates for the far-right Vox Party brand them "parasites" and "pirates".
How Sivaramakrishnan Ganapathi knit the biggest revival story of India's apparel export industry In December 2017, Sivaramakrishnan Ganapathi was in Dubai for a short Christmas holiday with his family. It had been planned months ago. Else he would have avoided taking a break just two months after taking a job as managing director at Gokaldas Exports. But this was in some ways worse — now he was on vacation, and yet his mind was preoccupied. After two decades at the Aditya Birla Group, it took a lot of deliberation to quit as chief operating officer at Idea Cellular and move to lead Gokaldas, heeding the call of his friend and IIM-Bangalore classmate Mathew Cyriac, a one-time PE executive who now owned a significant chunk of the publicly traded garment exporter. Gokaldas was weighed down not just by the structural challenges in India's apparel export industry — low margins, a fluctuating rupee and competition from countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh — but also its own chequered past. 69390526 The company was among the earliest India targets for Blackstone, one of the world's largest investment firms, led by the influential American executive Stephen A Schwarzman. By virtue of its scale, Blackstone's investments and their performance are closely watched for signals about sectors and countries. In 2007, the bulge bracket investor put in Rs 482.50 crore for a 50.1% stake, which at Rs 275 a share represented a 20% premium to the prevailing share price. It then acquired another 20% through an open offer. Over the next decade, however, the company stagnated, its dollar revenues halved, and its share price was hammered down to double digits. Blackstone tried to sell the company, and slowly offloaded its stake. In early 2017, after having spent a decade at Blackstone, Mathew Cyriac quit as co-head of the firm's private equity business in India to start his own fund. It was when he went to the company's New York offices to say his goodbyes that the firm offered Gokaldas to Cyriac. When his Florintree Capital bought Blackstone's stake at Rs 42 a share — through special purpose vehicle Clear Wealth Consultancy Services LLP — the deal represented an 84% write-down on the latter's original investment. 69390534 69390539 69390551 First order of business was hiring a CEO, and the second, backing them up with necessary capital. "When I looked around, most apparel exports companies were led by their owners. I decided I needed to find a CEO who would think like an owner," Cyriac says. Ganapathi's mandate was to turn around the company, once India's largest apparel exporter. He visited the company's Bengaluru factory four times before he signed on. He also held discussions with the company's chairman, Richard Saldanha, who told him that the company was not in the business of apparel, but in the business of trust. 69390558 69390562 Companies such as Gokaldas make their money by supplying garments to the world's leading fashion retailers. Think Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Zara and so on. These brands are not just paranoid about quality, they need to be able to trust a supplier to not deviate from specifications across tens of thousands of units. Nurturing relationships, calming frayed nerves, offering the flexibility to quickly turn around unscheduled but urgent orders — these are all as much part of the business as producing high-quality garments. Cyriac says he also felt a "moral obligation" to set the story right, as someone who had been part of Blackstone's India journey right through. (He was not involved in managing Gokaldas while he worked at the investing firm). There were 25,000 employees who were counting on the company's turnaround. 69390567 Big players such as Arvind Lifestyle were entering the field. Gokaldas had slipped to the seventh position on the export turnover league table. The top player, Shahi Exports, posted seven times as much revenue as Gokaldas, whose top line had stagnated at about Rs 1,000 crore for a decade. Things were not looking good. 69390573 Once he was in the driver's seat, Ganapathi lost no time in donning the battle gear. On the morning of December 29, 2017, he took a break from his Dubai vacation and got into a video-conference, while the rest of the Gokaldas board joined from Bengaluru. His primary focus was to get approval to raise around Rs 125 crore. That was the easy part. It would take five more months for the company to raise Rs 70 crore through qualified institutional placements. The money came from L&T Mutual Fund and HSF Mauritius, an overseas fund. With the money in the bag, Ganapathi turned his focus on customers and efficiency. Around a year later, his plan seems to be working. After recording losses of Rs 46 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 28 crore in 2017-18, Gokaldas has recorded a net profit of Rs 25.58 crore for 2018-19. All the four quarters were in the black despite the apparel exports industry facing steady headwinds. The shares of the company closed at Rs 76 at the end of trading on Friday, May 17. The challenge now is to maintain the gains and take the company higher up in the exports league table. So what did Ganapathi change? 69390582 Richard Saldanha, chairman of Gokaldas Exports and a former vice-chairman at Blackstone, says the basic change has been "how the company goes to market" — how it interacts and sells its services to its clients. Saldanha had joined the Gokaldas Exports board in 2011 after the exit of the erstwhile promoters, the Bengaluru based Hinduja brothers — Madanlal, Rajendra and Dinesh (unrelated to the UK based Hinduja group). It was unusual for a private equity investor to let the erstwhile promoters run the business for three years after a buyout. After the trio left, the company saw two more CEOs — Gautam Chakraborty and P Ramababu — come and go. But sustainable performance eluded it. Meanwhile, the rupee to dollar rate that was around Rs 39 in 2007-08 was flirting with Rs 70 in 2017. Earlier, says Saldanha, Gokaldas would go to customers only to take orders. One of the first things Ganapathi did after taking over as CEO was to visit all his major customers across the world — the list includes the likes of Nike, Adidas, GAP and Marks & Spencer. Ganapathi says: "I met all the customers one by one, explained to them that we are seriously committed to the relationship and we will expand our capacities." Next, Ganapathi focused on increasing capacity. "The company has been shrinking and giving up on capacity. I thought let me push it." 69390591 He found assembly lines lying idle in warehouses and decided to revive them. This alone led to a 10% increase in capacity. Another move was operational efficiency. He pushed the same assembly line that made 1,000 garments in a given time to make 1,100, he says. "We tried to engineer the assembly lines better." Ganapathi says a garment-making assembly line is not a smoothly moving chain. A particular stitch may take 33 seconds while the next one may take 38 seconds, and bottlenecks develop at these points. "We redeployed the most efficient workers to the parts of the assembly line that took more time." Automation was brought in to expedite work. "We reduced the time taken to make a shirt from 21 minutes to 19 minutes," Ganapathi adds. Margins soon improved and working capital needs dropped from 120 days to 100 days. The last and key part of the turnaround process was to inject funds and invest in new, modernised processes. The fund infusion happened in May 2018. The company invested Rs 36 crore in improving its plants, processes and information systems, and also acquired seven new customers. Ganapathi points out that for over a decade no equity had flowed into the company, as the buyout deals were between promoters. Cyriac says he sees a "big opportunity" in the industry. "We see a chance to treble the company's turnover in double quick-time and opportunities to acquire many distressed assets," says Cyriac. He also sees an opportunity to build an apparel-making platform around Gokaldas Exports. Independent analysts are not quite as optimistic. "India's apparel exports are estimated to de-grow by 4-5% in FY2019, following a similar de-growth of 4% in FY2018," credit rating agency ICRA said in a February report. The report added a bottom was near and it expected a positive movement soon. However, it also pointed out that Indian players have not been able to make anything out of overall growth in the global trade in apparel. China has been continuously losing market share, which has been pocketed by Bangladesh and Vietnam. The report pointed out the new emerging free-trade agreements such as the 11-nation trans-Pacific partnership and the proposed European Union-Vietnam foreign trade agreement would be detrimental for Indian exporters. These would give exporters from nations with zero or very low tariffs access to the Indian market. There are domestic challenges, too, says Ganapathi. Despite all the homework he did before joining, he was not ready for the sudden developments — for example, the rupee strengthening in the last few months of 2017, the impact of the goods and services tax regime on exports or the credit squeeze on banks. Other structural changes can help Gokaldas. Analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher said in a December 2018 report that as global customers set up shop in India, now 20% of Gokaldas' revenues would come from the domestic market. The report, by Shailee Parekh and Charmi Mehta, said: "We expect Gokaldas Exports to grow revenue at a compounded annual growth rate of 18.3% in 2017-18 to 2020-21, taking the overall turnover to over Rs 1,700 crore in 2020-21." It also predicted a sharp growth in its gross margin from 48% now to 53% by 2021. This would be music to the ears of investors such as L&T and HSF Mauritius who invested in Gokaldas last year, and can push the company up to among the top three among Indian apparel exporters. The market capitalisation of Gokaldas Exports has been stagnant at Rs 300-400 crore for over a decade. By continuing to win the trust of customers, the company might eventually win the trust of the stock markets, too. Source: ET
D-St wishes for a stable govt but experts say coalition a better bet Mumbai/New Delhi: While Dalal Street has built in a possible return of the Modi government in stock prices, a few market veterans have expressed the view that coalition governments are actually a better idea for progress on the policy front.They say a coalition regime actually helps keep checks and balances in place, which works better for the economy. Data showed the domestic equity market has delivered robust returns under coalition governments previously.India has collation governments ever since 1989. Even the outgoing Modi regime was a coalition called the NDA, but an overwhelming majority for the BJP made it dominant in that dispensation.BSE benchmark Sensex more than doubled during 1989-1991. Likewise, it rallied nearly 5 times under the Manmohan Singh-led UPA governments during 2004-14."I believe coalition governments are better for India. That is my view," Shankar Sharma, vice-chairman and joint managing director of First Global, said in an interview last month, adding that there was data to back his contention."India has seen the best 25 years of growth between 1991 and 2014. Coalition has checks and balances, prevents over-centralised decision making, keeps it very democratic. If it becomes one or very few people making decisions in a complicated area like the economy, sometimes it might be right, sometimes it might be wrong," Sharma said.The first successful coalition government to complete a full five-year term was the BJP-led NDA regime under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee which ruled between 1999 and 2004. However, the 30-share Sensex remained almost flat at 4,961 on May 21, 2004 against 5,033 as of October 1999.However, the index advanced 30 per cent since Vajpayee first became PM for 13 months in March 1998.After that, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), comprising as many as 13 parties, ruled for two terms from 2004 to 2014 with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. "A weak coalition government is not a death knell. It totally depends upon who the prime minister is. What kind of a government it is, who is the finance minister, what role does RBI play in the interim period between the time the government is formed and the finance minister is in place to take some crucial decisions, what will the new budget look like -- will all depend on a lot of these factors," Ashwini Agarwal, Co-founder, Ashmore Investment Management India, told ETNow in an interaction.Market witnessed one of the biggest rallies during the two UPA governments between May 22, 2004 and May 26, 2014. Sensex soared nearly 400 per cent to 24,717 from 4,962 during this period."You cannot go back to the coalition era and say this decision really went wrong. Some policies will be very good, some policies will be moderately good or some policies will be bad, but nothing will be disastrous. I think coalition governments are fine," Agarwal said.Kenneth Andrade, founder of Oldbridge Capital Management echoed Sharma's views. "If you look at elections in the past and the outcomes of elections in the past some of the best governance that we have had is when parties come together or form a coalition. So the mid-90s we had a coalition that was there and we had professionals who ran that government at that point in time," Andrade said in an interview with ETMarkets.com earlier this week.A section of the market was of the view that it did not matter who formed the government at the Centre.According to Saurabh Mukherjea, founder of Marcellus Capital, if one looks back at India's history over the last 40-50 years, there is very little evidence that politics have any meaningful impact on the economy or on the stock market.Mukherjea said for past five decades, India's GDP growth has been better than it was in the decade before. "Obviously, it will be hard to convince ourselves or others that over the past five decades, India has had some enlightened version of economic leadership, which has resulted in five decades of trending up," Mukherjea said in an interview last month. "…if you look at our country, there is very little proof or evidence that government X changes the policy of government X minus one. Since 1991, there has been a great deal of continuity in economic policy of various governments. Whatever policy the previous government promulgated, the next government have taken it through. There are obviously ideological differences between our political parties but those ideological differences are not with regards to economic policy," Mukherjea said. Source: ET
Option band suggests Nifty50's trading range at 11,000 to 11,550 By Chandan TapariaNSE Nifty opened flattish, but gradually extended gains and surged 150 points to close above the 11,400 level ahead of exit poll results. The index formed a big bullish candle with a reversal of the Harami formation on the daily scale as sustained buying interest was seen on Friday.The index now needs to hold above the 11,350 level to extend gains towards 11,500 and then 11,550. On the downside, supports are seen at 11,250 and then 11,180.On the options front maximum Put open interest was seen at 11,000 followed by 11,500 strike while maximum Call OI stood at 12,000 followed by 12,500 strike.Call writing was seen at 11,800 followed by 11,400 strike, while Put writing at 11,000 strike. Option band signified a wider trading range between 11,000 and 11,550 levels.India VIX fell down 1.01 per cent to the 28.07 level. However, higher VIX suggests that volatile swings could continue in the market ahead of election outcome.Bank Nifty witnessed strong buying momentum throughout the session and gained nearly 600 points to close above 29,450. The index formed a bullish candle on the daily scale as it surpassed crucial hurdle of 29,250. Till it holds 29,250, it could extend its move towards 29,850 and then 30,000, while on the downside, supports are seen at 29,000 and then 28,888.Nifty futures rose 1.38 per cent to the 11,440 level. Built-up of long positions were seen in Just Dial, Bajaj Finserv, Arvind, Tata Chemical and Bajaj Finance while shorts were seen in Aurobindo pharma, Bank of India, Siemens and Lupin.(Chandan Taparia is Technical & Derivative Analyst at MOFSL. Investors are advised to consult financial advisers before taking an investment calls based on these observations) Source: ET
Mind completely occupied with Mindtree acquisition; will make it a big firm: A M Naik NEW DELHI: Acquisition of Mindtree is the topmost agenda for infrastructure giant Larsen & Toubro at the moment and eventually the mid-sized IT firm is going to be transformed into a big company, L&T Group Chairman A M Naik said.The USD 20 billion conglomerate, which has taken its overall holding in Mindtree to about 26 per cent, will launch the open offer to buy additional stake in around 10 days, he added."We continuously look for opportunities as they come by, but right now our mind is completely occupied on Mindtree and I hope we will be able to eventually make this into a big company as well," Naik told PTI in an exclusive interview here.Naik said Mindtree's acquisition was top on L&T's agenda right now."We have got around 26 per cent stake in Mindtree and now we will wait till we get 51 per cent. The open offer will be launched in about 10-12 days time," he added.Naik joined L&T in 1965 as a junior engineer and rose to the position of CEO and MD in 1999 and chairman in 2003. In 2017, he stepped aside from executive responsibilities and took over as Group Chairman.On delays in approval for the open offer, Naik said: "In about 10 days it will start."Elaborating on Mindtree promoters' opposition to the hostile takeover bid, Naik said they are obviously attached to their company, but have started to realise that L&T is also an employee-centric organisation."Mindtree promoters are obviously attached to their company, so they don't easily want to give up. But now they realise that L&T is a very nice company which is excellent to its employees too."I think slowly they also feel...they wanted to sell it anyway. Altogether it is about 12 per cent (stake) and we are not saying you sell and go. Whenever they sell and if they want to sell it to us, we will buy the stake," he said.Naik stressed that Mindtree is over over a billion dollar acquisition and there is huge potential for growth in the segment."I hope we will do better and do great things. ... in IT and engineering service, once we complete our acquisition of Mindtree, we will be USD 3 billion and our idea is in three to four years, take it to USD 5 billion," he asserted.He added: "It was zero when I took over....application of new generation of technologies is now a major focus for us with L&T Nxt and I hope we will do a great job in this area."Earlier, L&T had purchased around 20 per cent stake of V G Siddhartha and Cafe Coffee Day in Mindtree through a block deal for about Rs 3,210 crore, and has since topped that up with share purchases from the open market.In all, the infrastructure major is eyeing up to 66 per cent stake in Mindtree for around Rs 10,800 crore -- marking the country's first-ever hostile takeover bid in the information technology industry.L&T had proposed to buy additional stake in Mindtree through an open offer that was slated to begin on May 14 and close on May 27. Source: ET
TCS expects significant growth across Latin America, India, South Africa, others Last year, TCS had introduced its 'Business 4.0' strategy -- a thought leadership framework to help customers leverage digital technologies to address their growth and transformation agendas.
Electric scooter maker Okinawa Autotech invests Rs 200 crore to set up new plant; eyes 1 million production capacity The new plant at Alwar in Rajasthan is being set up in a staggered manner with 5 lakh units per annum capacity to be ready by the end of this fiscal to add to the existing volume of 90,000 units a year.
Marriage of 13-yr-old girl foiled in Maharashtra The police rushed to the venue around 4 pm and stopped the marriage before it could be solemnised, he said.
Rahul Gandhi hails women for playing key role in Lok Sabha polls Earlier, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted: "Do vote in the last phase of the general elections to make the country liberal and progressive."
Delhi: Women abduct Mumbai-based businessman from hotel, rescued from Laxmi Nagar; six held The businessman was kidnapped from a hotel in the national capital on Friday evening.
Sikhs say Nordstrom apologized for turban, waiting for Gucci Gucci's turban was first talked about last winter, when a white model walked the runway wearing it during a fashion show.
Major ports cargo traffic rises 6 pc to 60 MT in April These top ports, under the central government, had handled 56.86 MT of cargo in April last year.
Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao moots changes in policy of allocating coal for power production Rao, who visited the power plant being built by NTPC at Ramagundam in the state, held a meeting with officials. He requested that 2,000 MW be supplied from NTPC to Telangana in view of the growing power demand in the state.
Explained: Facebook, Twitter and the digital disinformation mess The kind of disinformation now known as fake news has tainted public discourse for centuries, even millennia. But it's been amplified in our digital age as a weapon of fearmongers, mob-baiters and election-meddlers that can widen social fissures, undermine democracies and bolster authoritarian regimes.
Nine of top-10 firms add Rs 82,379.79 crore in m-cap The valuation of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) soared Rs 9,635.15 crore to Rs 8,02,316.11 crore and ITC gained Rs 4,535.7 crore to stand at Rs 3,69,475.16 crore.
Nitish Kumar wants BJP to sack Pragya Thakur for 'Godse a patriot' comment BJP leader Pragya Thakur had last week stirred a controversy with her remark that Nathuram Godse was a patriot.
PM Narendra Modi says fortunate to visit Kedarnath; thanks EC to grant its nod to visit Referring to the ongoing development works at the temple town, Modi said development should be a mission in which nature, environment and tourism should not be affected.
Australian PM Scott Morrison declares victory; Bill Shorten steps down as Labor leader Concern about climate change is now at a 10-year high among Australians, with 64 per cent believing it should be a top priority for the government, according to an Ipsos poll released in April.
How To Become Rich: Don't have money to invest? Even these habits can make you wealthy If you look at the lives and works of the wealthy, you'll notice several characteristics they may have in common. Let's take a look at those characteristics that will one day help you create wealth.
Do vote to make country liberal, progressive: Congress "Do vote in the last phase of general elections to make the country liberal and progressive," Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted.
