AFP map locating White Island volcano in New Zealand which erupted on Monday leaving at least 6 people dead and eight missing pic.twitter.com/AhupX8AilK
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his peacekeeping efforts. During his speech, warned of militant groups and global military powers expanding in the Horn of Africa https://t.co/LUag3R9nqUpic.twitter.com/z7PrNECjQT
The U.S. has blocked new appointments to the World Trade Organization's appeals court to protest how the WTO does business. Now the appeals court is down to just one judge, meaning it can no longer issue rulings. https://t.co/9MDHLDVO5c
KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber in Afghanistan detonated explosives on Wednesday outside the United States' main military base of Bagram in an attack that wounded five people, Afghan and NATO officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
All five wounded in the attack at the southern entrance to the base were Afghans, said Wahida Shahkar, a spokeswoman for the governor of Parwan province, where the base is located.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russia's President Vladimir Putin attend a joint news conference in Paris, France. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/Pool
WNU Editor: The above picture came form this photo-gallery .... Editor's Choice Pictures (Reuters).
In this Dec. 9, 2019 photo made available by the FBI, Saudi Arabia Defense Attaché Major General Fawaz Al Fawaz (second from right) meets with Saudi students at the NAS Pensacola base in Pensacola, Fla. (FBI via AP)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon announced on Tuesday it was halting operational training of all Saudi Arabian military personnel in the United States until further notice after a Saudi Air Force lieutenant shot and killed three people last week at a base in Florida.
The decision will have far-reaching impacts on visiting Saudi personnel, including grounding more than 300 Saudi Arabian military aviation students as part of a "safety stand-down," first reported by Reuters earlier on Tuesday.
The Pentagon later confirmed the Reuters report about aviation students and added the move would also affect infantry personnel and all other Saudi training, other than classroom training. Such coursework, which includes English-language classes, will continue.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. disruption of the global economic order reaches a major milestone on Tuesday as the World Trade Organization (WTO) loses its ability to intervene in trade wars, threatening the future of the Geneva-based body.
Two years after starting to block appointments, the United States will finally paralyze the WTO's Appellate Body, which acts as the supreme court for international trade, as two of three members exit and leave it unable to issue rulings.
Major trade disputes, including the U.S. conflict with China and metal tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, will not be resolved by the global trade arbiter.
The new report from Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed former CIA Director John Brennan lied to Congress about whether the dossier authored by Christopher Steele was used in the Obama administration's Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA).
The ICA, a report conducted by intelligence officials in 2016 on Russian election interference, was used to brief President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump in January 2017. According to the IG report, there was significant discussion by top intelligence officials as to whether the unverified Steele dossier should be included in the main body of the ICA report, summarized in an appendix, or even included at all.
A strange response from the former CIA Director to an Inspector General's report that basically says he lied to Congress when he said the debunked Steele dossier was not relied upon for the Obama administration's Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). Bottom line. We now have an official report backed by evidence stating that the Intelligence Community Assessment's on Russian interference was based on a dossier riddled with false claims and written by a former MI6 Intelligence officer Christopher Steele who was also paid for by the Clinton campaign. And the cherry on top of this cake is that this same dossier was also used to obtain FISA warrants that permitted FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign via through Carter Page in 2016. I just cannot make this stuff up. And as for John Brennan not facing perjury charges. What type of justice system permits that?
Just had a very good meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and representatives of Russia. Discussed many items including Trade, Iran, North Korea, INF Treaty, Nuclear Arms Control, and Election Meddling. Look forward to continuing our dialogue in the near future! pic.twitter.com/tHecH9a9ck
* Trump tweeted out a photo of himself seated at the Resolute Desk along with Lavrov * Mike Pompeo warned earlier: 'Should Russia or a foreign actor steps to undermine our democratic processes, we will take action in response' * Official readout says Trump 'warned against any Russian attempts to interfere in United States elections and urged Russia to resolve the conflict with Ukraine' * Lavrov met with Trump at the White House in 2017, when Trump reportedly revealed classified information * Lavrov was at the White House for about an hour * After their 2017 meeting, Russian media released photo images * The talks in Washington come a day after Putin held a landmark first meeting with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, * The pair met in Paris alongside the presidents of France and Germany * Europeans are leading efforts to end a five-year war pitting Ukraine against Russian-backed separatists * A cable news reporter shouted to Lavrov about election interference as he arrived Tuesday afternoon
President Donald Trump tweeted out a grinning photo of himself during an Oval Office meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov – where the White House says Trump delivered a 'warning' on election interference.
The photo shows a smiling Trump seated at the Resolute Desk, with Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy emissary standing behind him.
Both men are looking forward, presumably toward an official White House photographer.
The happy scene belies the fraught topic mentioned in an official White House readout of the meeting – the men's first since 2017.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday lashed out at FBI Director Christopher Wray after the man he chose to lead the bureau backed the findings of an inspector general report that found the investigation into Russian election interference was properly launched.
"I don't know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn't the one given to me. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!" Trump wrote.
Trump's morning tweet suggested he's lost confidence in Wray, who he appointed in 2017. But officials at the White House said they did not believe Trump was prepared to fire him because his decision to dismiss his first FBI director, James Comey, resulted in the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.
With congressional Democrats looking to impeach Trump by Christmas, a clash in the Senate looms.
After Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his findings on Monday, his report, far from quelling the controversy over the FBI and the investigation of the Trump campaign, ended up inflaming it. The proximate cause of the controversy was the dueling interpretations of it by Attorney General William P. Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray. The former casts doubt on the report, while the latter embraced it. Barr stated that the report showed that the FBI investigation was based on the "thinnest of suspicions." Wray, by contrast, said that it showed that the investigation was justified. For good measure, he added, "we have no information that indicates that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 election." Trump himself lashed out at Wray in a tweet Tuesday, declaring, "I don't know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn't the one given to me. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!" Trump's use of the word "current" aroused speculation that Wray may soon suffer the same fate that James Comey experienced in May 2017, when Trump dismissed him.
WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Top officials from Canada, Mexico and the United States signed a fresh overhaul of a quarter-century-old trade pact on Tuesday that aims to improve enforcement of worker rights and hold down prices for biologic drugs by eliminating a patent provision.
The signing ceremony in Mexico City launched what may be the final approval effort for U.S. President Donald Trump's three-year quest to revamp the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a deal he has blamed for the loss of millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs.
Martin Baxter's Electoral Calculus Model estimates a Tory majority of 46 based on opinion polls from 02 Dec 2019 to 07 Dec 2019, sampling 10,827 people.
I arrive at 10,827 by discarding the Savanta ComRes poll highlighted in yellow.
Baxter did not discard that poll out of bias but rather because there were two overlapping polls by the same pollster and he used the most recent one.
I calculated the averages excluding Opinium because Opinium looks silly in relation to everything else. The net effect is to toss the highest and lowest and keep average the rest. This is a frequently used method to discard outliers.
WNU editor: My gut .... and it just my gut .... tells me that the Tories are going to do even better than what the polls are saying. Not everyone has this point of view .... UK's Johnson now less certain of election victory: YouGov (Reuters).
Washington (CNN)The US government believes that Iran is behind a series of increasingly sophisticated rocket attacks on joint US-Iraq military facilities in Iraq, several US officials tell CNN. The attacks have taken place as the US has grown increasingly concerned that Iran may be planning new provocations against US troops and interests in the region.
The US military strongly believes Iranian-backed groups inside Iraq are responsible according to a US official with direct knowledge of the recent incidents.
There have been nine rocket attacks on or in the vicinity of Iraqi facilities that host US troops in the last five weeks with the most recent one taking place on Monday.
A Sukhoi SU-35 fighter aircraft performs during the "Aviadarts" military aviation competition at the Dubrovichi range near Ryazan, Russia, August 2, 2015. (photo credit: REUTERS/MAXIM SHEMETOV)
The reports claim that "Israeli fighters had to flee from the Russian Su-35" and at the same time that "Iran delivered unknown air defense systems to Syria."
Iranian and Russian media reported that Russian Sukhoi Su-35 warplanes were scrambled from Russia's Khmeimim air base in northern Syria to intercept an alleged Israeli attack near the Tiyas Military Airbase, also known as the T-4 Airbase earlier this month. The report on the alleged attack on the Syrian Arab Air Force base east of Homs was first put online in a blog at Avia. It was picked up by the website Almasdar News. The Tasnim News in Iran then claimed that the Su-35s sought to intercept Israeli planes over Syria.
The reports claim that "Israeli fighters had to flee from the Russian Su-35" and at the same time that "Iran delivered unknown air defense systems to Syria." The T-4 base is a well-known transit point for Iranian weapons, and has Russian personnel stationed there. Israel has been accused of striking the area in the past. In May 2018, Ynet said that Israel carried out an airstrike to destroy an Iranian 3rd Khordad Air Defense system at T-4. Syria claimed more airstrikes hit the area in June and July of this year and September last year.
(Allegedly US) drone strike targeting a car allegedly carrying members of Turkey-backed Ahrar al-Sham group has killed 3 including a senior commander of Ahrar al-Sham. As per early reports, it appears the drone strike was carried out by high precision AGM 114R9X @Aviation_Intelpic.twitter.com/Znq4c3Oahx
For the second time this week, the secretive AGM-114R9X Hellfire missile has punched a hole through a car's roof and sliced its target to death.
It appears that the AGM-114R9X, a secret low collateral damage derivative of the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, has been employed against occupants of another vehicle in northwestern Syria. This is the second time this week. Previously, we knew of only one other instance in which the unique missile had been used, back in 2017 when an Al Qaeda kingpin was similarly targeted and killed in western Syria. The War Zone was the first to posit that an exotic new low-collateral damage weapon was being used after images from that strike surfaced.
WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - US President Donald Trump on Friday (Dec 6) called for the World Bank to stop loaning money to China, one day after the institution adopted a lending plan to Beijing over Washington's objections.
The World Bank on Thursday adopted a plan to aid China with US$1 billion (S$1.36 billion) to US$1.5 billion in low-interest loans annually through June 2025. The plan calls for lending to "gradually decline" from the previous five-year average of US$1.8 billion.
"Why is the World Bank loaning money to China? Can this be possible? China has plenty of money, and if they don't, they create it. STOP!" Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.
WNU Editor: This is just another example on how international institutions are not capable of adjusting to real world situations. Kudos to President Trump for pointing out the obvious.
* 20,000 U.S. troops to deploy to Europe for 'Defender' * U.S. presence in Europe growing as Trump criticises allies
The United States will send 20,000 troops to Europe next April and May in its biggest military exercises on European soil since the Cold War to underscore Washington's commitment to NATO, a senior allied commander said on Tuesday.
Days after a NATO summit in London at which U.S. President Donald Trump called low-spending European allies "delinquent", U.S. Major General Barre Seguin said the exercises, centred on Germany, will be the largest of their kind in 25 years.
"This really demonstrates transatlantic unity and the U.S. commitment to NATO," Seguin, who oversees allied operations from NATO's military headquarters in Belgium, told Reuters.
WNU Editor: Only 20,000 US troops will be deployed to Europe for this exercise. During the Cold War exercises commonly involved a hundred thousand soldiers (if not more). Just last year Russia did a massive military exercise with China and Mongolia that involved three hundred thousand soldiers .... These Are The Weapon Systems To Watch For At The Vostok 2018 War Games (September 10, 2018). In the whole scheme of things, this is actually a small exercise.
Chile's president says his country is making "every humanly possible effort" Tuesday to find a military plane carrying 38 that vanished shortly after taking off for Antarctica.
Officials lost contact with the C-130 Hercules aircraft at 6:13 p.m. Monday, less than 90 minutes after the plane departed from the city of Punta Arenas for a Chilean base on the world's southernmost continent.
The plane likely would have run out of fuel around 12:40 a.m. Tuesday, the air force said, adding that a search is now ongoing in the "sector where communication with the aircraft was lost, in order to rescue potential survivors."
Russia and Ukraine have made progress on restoring peace in eastern Ukraine at a Paris summit mediated by Germany and France. In addition to implementing a ceasefire, the two sides also agreed to a prisoner exchange.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, agreed to implement a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine by year-end, following their first meeting on Monday at a summit in Paris mediated by France and Germany.
"The sides commit to a full and comprehensive implementation of the cease-fire, strengthened by the implementation of all necessary ceasefire support measures, before the end of the year 2019," according to a joint communique.
* Speaker Pelosi and Democrats announced formal articles of impeachment * The White House said the president will fight the charges in the Senate * 'The President will address these false charges in the Senate and expects to be fully exonerated,' press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement * Charges against Trump focus on the abuse of power and obstruction of justice * 'We must be clear, no one, not even the president, is above the law,' House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said in announcing charges * House Judiciary Committee will mark up charges this week * Sets up vote in full House to impeach Trump some time next week * Vote is expected to pass Democratic-controlled chamber * Matter then moves to the Senate for Trump's trial
Donald Trump will participate in some form when the Senate tries the impeachment case against him, the White House announced Monday as the administration expressed confidence the president would be exonerated.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper delivers remarks before ringing the closing NASDAQ bell for Veterans Day in New York, New York, November 11, 2019. DoD/Lisa Ferdinando/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Defense Secretary Mark Esper has ordered a review of procedures for vetting foreign nationals and security on military installations following a shooting at a naval base in Pensacola, Fla., by a Saudi military trainee that killed three people and wounded 11 others.
In an interview at the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Reagan Presidential Library, Esper called the Friday shooting a "tragic incident" and said the Pentagon has "taken precautions."
"Yesterday, I directed that we look at our security precautions across the services and all of our installations and bases and facilities to make sure that [we've] got the appropriate degree of security to protect our service members and their families and our communities," Esper said.
On December 8, 2019 some photos emerged on Twitter showing the Head-Up Display of a Greek Mirage 2000 allegedly targeting a Turkish frigate with Exocet anti-ship missiles during a show of force. This comes amid growing tensions between the two countries reached even higher levels after last week's agreement between Turkey and Libya to establish new boundaries for resources' exploitation in the Mediterranean Sea.
As you may already know, relations between Greece and Turkey have always been complicate. Earlier this year, Turkey started drilling for oil off the coast of Cyprus, prompting a joint Cyprus-Greece-Egypt statement saying that Turkey had violated international laws as they were operating in Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone and territorial waters. European leaders also issued a formal statement saying that Turkey's drilling is illegal and imposed new sanctions, to which Turkey answered stating that the drilling is legal because it's in the territorial waters of Northern Cyprus, which falls within Turkey's continental shelf.
* Speaker Pelosi and Democrats announced formal articles of impeachment * Charges against Trump focus on the abuse of power and obstruction of justice * 'We must be clear, no one, not even the president, is above the law,' House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said in announcing charges * House Judiciary Committee will mark up charges this week * Sets up vote in full House to impeach Trump some time next week * Vote is expected to pass Democratic-controlled chamber * Matter then moves to the Senate for Trump's trial
Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats announced two charges against Donald Trump on Tuesday, setting up a vote to impeach the president by the end of the year.
'Today, in service to our duty to the constitution and to our country, the House Committee on the Judiciary is introducing two articles of impeachment charging the president of the united States, Donald J. Trump, with committing high crimes and misdemeanors,' said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler.
The two charges are abuse of power and obstruction of justice.
* Lauren Bruner, who died in September at the age of 98, was one of the last few survivors of the Japanese attack on the USS Arizona in 1941 * A few years before his death, he made arrangements with the US Navy and the National Park Service to have his remains interred in the ship's hull * He was the second-to-last sailor to escape the burning ship during the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 78 years ago * Bruner will be the last sailor to be interred inside the USS Arizona, joining the remains of 44 shipmates who survived the attack but wished to be laid to rest at the site * Divers brought his ashes down to the ship's hull during a solemn ceremony at the USS Arizona Memorial on Oahu on Saturday * Some 30 World War Two veterans and 2,000 members of the public took part in commemoration ceremonies on the anniversary on Saturday * The anniversary ceremony also remembered the victims of Wednesday's attack at the base when a US Navy sailor shot and killed two civilian Department of Defense employees at the shipyard before taking his own life
One of the last American crew members to escape the USS Arizona during Pearl Harbor had his ashes interred inside the ship's wreckage on Saturday.
Divers took an urn containing Lauren Bruner's ashes down to the wreckage on the 78th anniversary of the bombing in Hawaii. Bruner, who died in September aged 98, had asked that an urn with his ashes be placed inside the Arizona's sunken hull upon his death.
He was the second to last person to jump from the burning ship before it exploded and sank. The Arizona now rests at the bottom of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
Of the ship's 1,512 crew, 1,177 were killed - more than half of the 2,335 killed in the overall attack on the naval base.
WNU Editor Well done ad. It reminds me of a Bob Dylan song (video here). Bottom line. This is going to be copied in one form or another in future elections around the world.
'To think that authorities let their athletes down, it is really disgusting.' International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons on 'clean' athletes after WADA banned Russia for four years for doping https://t.co/9ZMDnImOqzpic.twitter.com/hTAetXIxAA
New: Turkey has begun shuttling Syrian refugees into NE Syria despite dangerous security conditions in the border towns—the first sign Erdogan is moving forward with his plan to resettle some 3M Syrians into formerly Kurdish territory. @ForeignPolicyhttps://t.co/rbnfDRvzX2
This week, Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi will personally defend her country from accusations of genocide against the Rohingya community at the UN's top court. https://t.co/mdjAi7LZB7
#UPDATE Tales of heroism, devastation and horrifying injuries emerged on Tuesday after New Zealand's #WhiteIsland volcano erupted, killing an estimated 14 people and turning what should have been an intrepid day trip into a nightmare https://t.co/TuNLcUcb60
(TAIPEI, Taiwan) — Taiwan’s top diplomat said Tuesday that his government stands with Hong Kong citizens pushing for “freedom and democracy,” and would help those displaced from the semi-autonomous Chinese city if Beijing intervenes with greater force to quell the protests.
Speaking to The Associated Press in Taipei, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu was careful to say his government has no desire to intervene in Hong Kong’s internal affairs, and that existing legislation is sufficient to deal with a relatively small number of Hong Kong students or others seeking to reside in Taiwan.
But he added that Hong Kong police have responded with “disproportionate force” to the protests. He said that any intervention by mainland Chinese forces would be “a new level of violence” that would prompt Taiwan to take a different stance in helping those seeking to leave Hong Kong.
“When that happens, Taiwan is going to work with the international community to provide necessary assistance to those who are displaced by the violence there,” he said.
Chinese paramilitary forces have deployed to the Chinese city of Shenzhen, just outside Hong Kong, since the protests began in June. Neither they nor the thousands of Chinese military troops garrisoned in Hong Kong itself have been deployed to confront the protesters so far.
“The people here understand that how the Chinese government treats Hong Kong is going to be the future way of them treating Taiwan. And what turned out in Hong Kong is not very appealing to the Taiwanese people,” Wu said.
China’s Communist Party insists that Taiwan is part of China and must be reunited with it, even if by force. Modern Taiwan was founded when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists, who once ruled on the mainland, were forced to retreat to the island in 1949 after the Communists took power in the Chinese Civil War.
Beijing has suggested that Taiwan could be reunited under the “one country, two systems” model that applied to Hong Kong after the former British colony was returned to China in 1997. That agreement allowed Hong Kong to keep its civil liberties, independent courts and capitalist system, though many in Hong Kong accuse Beijing of undermining those freedoms under President Xi Jinping.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has said that the “one country, two systems” model has failed in Hong Kong and brought the city to “the brink of disorder.”
Government surveys earlier this year showed that about 80% of Taiwanese citizens oppose reunification with China.
Wu spoke a month before Taiwanese voters go to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 11. Opinion surveys suggest that Tsai, a U.S. and British-educated law scholar who rejects Beijing’s claims to Taiwan, is on track to secure a second term over her more China-friendly rival, Han Kuo-yu of the Nationalist Party.
China severed links with Taiwan’s government after Tsai took office in 2016 because of her refusal to accept Beijing’s claims on the island. It has since been increasing diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Taiwan.
That includes sending aircraft carriers through the Taiwan Strait — the most recent transit was last month — and peeling away Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies. Two more, the Solomon Islands and Kiribati, switched their diplomatic recognition to Beijing in September.
A second term for Tsai would see a continuation of Taiwan’s tough stance against its much larger neighbor.
“If President Tsai is reelected, we’ll continue to … maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. We’ll continue to send out goodwill gestures to China,” Wu said. “We want to make sure that the Chinese have no excuse in launching a war against Taiwan.”
Taiwan, known officially as the Republic of China, lacks a seat at the United Nations. It counts on its 15 official diplomatic allies, which are mostly small and poor, to help bolster its claims to international legitimacy.
Safeguarding diplomatic relations with those remaining countries is a top priority for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wu said.
“I think our relations with these 15 countries are quite strong at this moment and we don’t worry that much,” he said.
Taiwan also has unofficial relationships with several other countries, including the United States, which does not support its independence but is bound by law to ensure its defense.
The Trump administration has increased support for Taiwan even as it is embroiled in a trade war with China. The U.S. this year agreed to sell 66 F-16 fighter jets worth $8 billion to Taiwan, prompting complaints by China.
Wu said Taiwan’s relationship with the U.S. is the best it has been in 40 years — a reference to the four decades since Washington formally shifted its diplomatic relations with China from the government in Taipei to the one in Beijing.
The ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China is creating both opportunities and challenges for Taiwan, Wu acknowledged. Taiwanese companies are big investors in China, and some are moving their businesses off the mainland as the trade war drags on, he said, citing $23 billion of investments pledged by companies relocating operations back to Taiwan.
But he said Taiwan enjoys “strong bipartisan support” in Washington and is not concerned that its status with the U.S. could be used as a bargaining chip in the trade negotiations.
“We are being assured … by very senior Trump administration officials that their relations with Taiwan is independent of relations with any other country and to the United States, Taiwan is a very important partner,” he said.
MILAN (AP) — A Holocaust survivor who has been put under police protection due to anti-Semitic threats was escorted Tuesday evening through the center of Milan by hundreds of Italian mayors and thousands of ordinary citizens behind a banner reading: “Hatred has no future.”
‘’I have known hatred. I have known what it means to be a reject of the society to which I believed I belonged,” Liliana Segre, an 89-year-old senator-for-life who survived Auschwitz as a child, told the crowd.
“I heard the words of hatred, hateful and insulting, and I saw with my eyes the realization of a ferocious program prepared from hatred,” Segre said.
Segre said she now looks for hope in the eyes of school children when she tells her story, and in the eyes of mayors and ordinary citizens “who came here to shout, ‘Enough hatred.’ ”
Segre was given a police escort last month after a stream of anti-Semitic posts and threats were aimed at her after she championed a new parliamentary panel against racism, discrimination, anti-Semitism and online hatred.
“Let’s leave hatred to the anonymous ones at the keyboards,” she said to cheers in front of City Hall.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala told thousands in the crowd, including about 1,000 mayors, that such demonstrations would continue ‘’until this climate of hatred changes.”
The mayors, wearing sashes in the Italian green, white and red, were applauded as they entered the arcaded Galleria, and the crowd chanted “Liliana” when Segre met the mayors below the central glass dome.
Thousands of ordinary Italians joined the march or cheered form the sidelines, singing the anti-fascist anthem “Bella Ciao,” as the march proceeded through the 19th century Galleria to the square in front of City Hall.
The march was organized by the Italian mayor’s association and was meant to cut across party lines. But the role of League leader Matteo Salvini in fomenting anti-migrant and racist sentiment was recognized.
Bologna Mayor Virginio Merola told The Associated Press that rising racism in Italy could be traced to the country’s long economic crisis along with the League’s provocative rhetoric. Bologna is the largest city in Emilia-Romagna, a traditionally left-wing stronghold that faces tough regional elections next month, where Salvini is poised to make strong gains.
“There is too much racism, hatred and anti-Semitism in Europe, and Italy,” Merola said. “We need to react and show citizens that the way to live together is through civil cohabitation.”
Segre said the history of Italian Jews was represented in each of the 8,000 towns and cities in Italy “in the names of the streets, to the headstones, to the rare Jewish vestiges,” that will remain when there are no more survivors to bear witness.
It was a reminder made more poignant by recent anti-Semitic incidents involving just such markers of Jewish life. The city council of Schio, north of Vicenza, last month blocked as “divisive” the town mayor’s move to put up so-called stumbling stones to remember Schio’s Holocaust victims. And vandals in Rome defaced street signs that had been rededicated to honor two Jewish female scholars and an anti-fascist professor. The streets had previously been named after anti-Semitic scientists.
Segre is backing a National Museum of Resistance, which was announced this week to be built in Milan. ‘’It is a moral commitment to support and carry forward the memory,” she said.
(WHAKATANE, New Zealand) — Experts said geothermal activity on a New Zealand volcanic island increased significantly on Wednesday, dealing a blow to relatives waiting for crews to recover the bodies that remain there following a deadly eruption two days earlier.
Volcanic tremors rose in the morning, accompanied by an increase in the amount of steam and mud being released at White Island, the GeoNet seismic monitoring agency said.
“We interpret these signals as evidence of continued high gas pressures within the volcano,” the agency said. “The situation remains highly uncertain as to future activity. Eruptions in the next 24 hours are still likely to occur.”
Six deaths were confirmed after Monday’s eruption. Five people died at the time of the blast or soon after, while a sixth person died Tuesday night at an Auckland hospital.
Another eight people are believed to have died, with their bodies remaining on the ash-covered island for now. And 30 people remain hospitalized, including 25 in critical condition. Many of the injured suffered severe burns.
Bruce Bird, an acting assistant police commissioner, said they were monitoring the situation hour by hour.
“Safety for our staff is a huge priority for us,” Bird said. “And we’ve got to get this right.”
Bird said they had deployed a drone over the island to measure gas levels after strong winds had thwarted those attempts on Tuesday.
But helicopter pilot Mark Law said the delay was hard to understand and that if he was making the decision, he would leave immediately.
“It would take 20 minutes to get out there. We know where they are,” he said, referring to the bodies. “Then we could bring them home.”
Survivors from the Monday eruption ran into the sea to escape the scalding steam and ash and emerged covered in burns, said those who first helped them.
The tragedy will have an ongoing effect on the town of Whakatane, which road signs tout as the gateway to White Island. As well as being an important tourist draw for the 20,000 people who live here, the volcano has an almost mystical significance, its regular puffing a feature of the landscape.
Whether the island will ever host tourists again remains uncertain after the horrific tragedy that unfolded when the volcano exploded a little after 2 p.m. Monday.
Geoff Hopkins was in a boat offshore after visiting the island with his daughter, the tour a 50th birthday present for him. He told the New Zealand Herald the eruption at first looked beautiful but quickly turned menacing.
As injured people were transported onto their boat screaming in pain, Hopkins and his daughter Lillani poured fresh water onto them, cut them out of their clothes and tried to keep them calm.
He told the Herald they were horrifically burned on their exposed skin and faces, even under their clothes.
In all, police believe there were 47 visitors on the island at the time. They say 24 were Australian, nine were American and five were New Zealanders. Others were from Germany, Britain, China and Malaysia. Many were passengers aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Ovation of the Seas.
The first confirmed death was of a local man, Hayden Marshall-Inman, a guide who had shown tourists around the island.
Former Whakatane Mayor Tony Bonne said Marshall-Inman was a keen fisherman and well-liked. He was so kind, Bonne said, that he would often leave extra money at the grocery store for those he knew were struggling to pay.
Many people were left questioning why tourists were still allowed to visit the island after seismic monitoring experts raised the volcano’s alert level last month.
“These questions must be asked, and they must be answered,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in Parliament.
New Zealand’s Deputy Police Commissioner John Tims said Tuesday that police were opening a criminal investigation into the deaths that would accompany an investigation by health and safety regulators.
But hours later, police put out a statement saying that while they were investigating the deaths on behalf of the coroner, “To correct an earlier statement, it is too early to confirm whether there will also be a criminal investigation.”
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said 11 Australians are unaccounted for and 13 were hospitalized. Three Australians were suspected to be among the initial five confirmed dead, he told reporters in Sydney. “I fear there is worse news to come,” Morrison said.
Relatives of a newlywed American couple say the husband and wife were severely burned. Barbara Barham told The Washington Post that her daughter Lauren Urey, 32, and son-in-law Matthew Urey, 36, from Richmond, Virginia, were on a honeymoon trip.
White Island, also known by the indigenous Maori name Whakaari, is the tip of an undersea volcano about 50 kilometers (30 kilometers) off New Zealand’s main North Island.
New Zealand’s GeoNet seismic monitoring agency had raised the volcano’s alert level on Nov. 18 from 1 to 2 on a scale where 5 represents a major eruption, noting an increase in sulfur dioxide gas, which originates from magma. It also said volcanic tremors had increased from weak to moderate strength. It raised the alert level to 4 for a time after Monday’s eruption but lowered it to 3 as the activity subsided.
At least 10 people were killed on the island in 1914 when it was being mined for sulfur. Part of a crater wall collapsed, and a landslide destroyed the miners’ village and the mine itself.
The island became a private scenic reserve in 1953. Daily tours allow more than 10,000 people to visit every year.
“Tourism has been a growing market, and White Island has been an anchor for that,” Bonne said. “It’s something unique that pulls people from all around the world.”
He said it was sad to think that might all now come to a stop.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump met Tuesday with the Russian foreign minister at the White House just hours after articles of impeachment were unveiled against him and a day after a Justice Department watchdog report declared the FBI was justified in opening an investigation into ties between Moscow and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Washington, his first since May 2017, was overshadowed by the introduction of Ukraine-related impeachment articles by the House and Trump’s complaints about the watchdog’s report.
Lavrov met earlier in the day with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who warned against Russian interference in U.S. elections. Lavrov repeated denials of Russian interference, calling them “baseless.” Special counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the Trump-Russia investigation from the FBI, determined that Russia interfered in the election in an effort to help Trump beat his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
“I was clear: It’s unacceptable, and I made our expectations of Russia clear,” Pompeo said of election interference. “The Trump administration will always work to protect the integrity of our elections. Period. Should Russia or any foreign actor take steps to undermine our democratic processes, we will take action in response.”
Lavrov derided the “wave of suspicions that has overcome Washington” related to election interference, renewing demands that evidence of such activity be given to Moscow.
“All speculation about our alleged interference in domestic processes of the United States is baseless,” Lavrov said. “No one has given us this proof because it simply does not exist.” He raised an oft-repeated Russian proposal to release confidential communications with the U.S. to resolve the concerns in 2016 that he said the Obama administration rebuffed.
Pompeo did not appear impressed by Lavrov’s offer and said the U.S. had already published its conclusions. “We don’t think there is any mistake about what transpired,” he said of the finding.
Pompeo and Lavrov also discussed arms control agreements, Ukraine, Syria and Venezuela. The two noted cooperation in counterterrorism and anti-narcotics efforts that has continued despite the tensions and expressed hope that shared goals for North Korea and Iran could be realized.
But, they also acknowledged that their differences are significant and include the New START arms control treaty that is due to expire next year and the tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats by both countries.
On the treaty, Russian President Vladimir Putin favors an extension of the pact, but Trump has said he wants China included if it is to be extended. Lavrov noted that Beijing has said it isn’t interested in joining but reiterated Moscow’s desire to keep the deal alive.
Lavrov’s last meeting with Trump took place shortly after the president fired FBI Director James Comey, a move that the Republican president later said was made because of the Russia investigation.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump attacked Comey’s replacement, Christopher Wray, whom he handpicked for the job, for agreeing with the inspector general’s conclusion that the Russia probe was not politically motivated. Trump repeatedly has alleged that it was.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the president should tell Russia that if it meddles in the 2020 election, the bilateral “relationship is going to be over in a permanent way. Call Russia out for what they’re doing, inside of Syria, try to get them to stop being so disruptive in Syria.”
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., expressed doubt that Trump would demand accountability from the Russians.
“President Trump’s pattern of cozying up to autocrats and our adversaries harms American interests and undermines American leadership,” he said. “While dialogue with the Russians is important, especially for strategic stability and the future of arms control, I have no confidence in President Trump to defend our interests in these conversations.”
Lavrov arrived in Washington after a meeting in Paris on Monday between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, along with the French and German leaders, at which they agreed to revive the peace process on the bloody separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine and exchange all their prisoners.
But they failed to resolve crucial issues such as a timeline on local elections and control of the borders in the rebel-held region. Still, Russian and Ukrainian officials on Tuesday described the talks as a step toward peace and pledged to continue negotiations.
Pompeo said that he and Lavrov “spent a fair amount of time talking about Ukraine” and that the U.S. would not relent on its stance that Crimea, the peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, “belongs to Ukraine.” He did not address the impeachment inquiry as it relates to Ukraine but said he is “proud of what this administration has done in defense of that country’s sovereignty and security.”
In New York Times Co. vs. United States, the landmark 1971 case which permitted the publication of the Pentagon Papers, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in his majority opinion wrote, “Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die . . .” On Monday, after a contested legal proceeding, the Washington Post released “The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War”, a trove of hundreds of unpublished interviews on the prosecution of the conflict with senior level officials conducted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
As negotiations with the Taliban resume, could the Afghanistan Papers have a similar galvanizing effect as the Pentagon Papers, which sped the conclusion of the Vietnam war? This seems to be the imperative behind their release and Craig Whitlock, the investigative journalist responsible for the reporting, wrote, “The specter of Vietnam has hovered over Afghanistan from the start.”
Parallels certainly exist between the two wars. The U.S.-backed governments in both countries suffered from endemic corruption. Our adversaries have enjoyed a sanctuary next door (Cambodia and Laos in Vietnam, Pakistan in Afghanistan). The drug trade exploded in each country as a result of the war. Most profoundly, in Afghanistan as in Vietnam, we have disastrously misunderstood the objectives of our adversaries. For the Vietcong and North Vietnamese, the war was one of national liberation while we Americans associated it with Domino Theory and transnational communism. For the Taliban, the war has also been one of national liberation, in which a key objective is the expulsion of foreigners from Afghanistan, while we Americans continue to associate it with transnational terrorism and al-Qaeda, which for years hasn’t had a significant presence in the country.
The Afghanistan Papers effectively catalogue the deeply dysfunctional nature of the war, from its continuously flawed strategy to its bungled execution. Upon release of the papers, certain members of Congress noisily expressed their outrage, as though learning for the first time of our history of failed policies in Afghanistan. This included Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Vietnam-era veteran, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He took to Twitter, immediately calling for hearings and writing, “We must end the vicious, lethal cycle of misinformation & unspecified, unsupported strategies.”
With the war well into its second decade, such sudden indignation rings a bit hollow. Did we, the American people, really need an elaborate unearthing of thousands of previously classified documents to tell us that our efforts in Afghanistan aren’t going well? Anyone paying the slightest modicum of attention to the war can see how it has festered on for eighteen years—that number alone tells you it’s been a disastrous undertaking. As does this number: 2,401 American dead. As well as a bill that comes to over $2 trillion. The Washington Post opens its story with the following, “A confidential trove of government documents . . . reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.”
Inherent in this statement is the logic that the American people were misled and because they were misled they gave three successive administrations their consent to continue prosecuting the war. What is unspoken in this logic is that if the American people knew how poorly the war was going they would’ve mobilized to end it, much as they eventually mobilized to end the Vietnam war. That mobilization hasn’t come for Afghanistan. This isn’t because of a lack of “truth” or “facts”. It is because of a lack of interest.
Policy makers and military professionals certainly deserve some of the blame for the quagmire in Afghanistan. However, the people who are most to blame for Afghanistan aren’t these functionaries. It is we, the American people, who appoint our representatives and fund our military with taxes, who are the ultimate masters of our societal successes and failures.
In the lead up to the 2018 mid-term elections, 42 percent of us didn’t even know whether or not we were still at war in Afghanistan. We fight multiple conflicts around the globe, but we pay no war tax and place those costs into our national deficit, having chosen to pass them along to future generations. Simultaneously, we unquestioningly outsource our national defense to a military caste, largely recruited from the same regions and increasingly from the same families, who bear the burden of these muddled conflicts. Is it a coincidence that in our history the wars we’ve decisively won—such as the Civil War, and First and Second World Wars— were largely fought by citizen soldiers, who would never abide our cyclical quagmires in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and, of course, Afghanistan.
The first part of the Washington Post’s series is headlined, “At War With the Truth”. However, it doesn’t tell us who, exactly, is at war with the truth. The inference seems to be that it is “the government”, which as Justice Black wrote in his opinion “a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose”. But what if it’s not the government. What if it goes deeper than that? What if it’s us, we the people, who after eighteen years of war still lack the resolve to look in the mirror and ask ourselves how we got here and whether we’re willing to change so that it never happens again. The free press can expose government duplicity, as it has in the past. But what about our societal duplicity. Who will expose that?
(RIO DE JANEIRO) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday called young Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg a “brat” after she expressed concern about the slayings of indigenous Brazilians in the Amazon.
Bolsonaro questioned the coverage news media have given Thunberg, 16, who on Sunday tweeted a link to a story about the murder of two indigenous people in Brazil’s Maranhao state.
“Greta said that the Indians died because they were defending the Amazon,” Bolsonaro told a group of journalists. “It’s impressive that the press is giving space to a brat like that,” he added, using the Portuguese word ”pirralha.”
Following Bolsonaro’s comments, Thunberg changed the bio on her Twitter profile to say “Pirralha.”
Thunberg became a symbol for youth demanding radical change to confront climate change when she sparked global school strikes.
Her comments about the deaths of the indigenous people came as the U.N. was hosting its international climate change conference, where Brazil’s environmental policies have been the subject of criticism. Deforestation of its Amazon rose nearly 30% in the 12 months through July.
“Indigenous people are being literally murdered for trying to protect the forrest (sic) from illegal deforestation,” she tweeted. “Over and over again. It is shameful that the world remains silent about this.”
The comment by Bolsonaro, who has frequently expressed his admiration for his U.S. counterpart, follows Donald Trump’s sarcastic dig at Thunberg in September. Trump responded to a video of Thunberg discussing suffering people, dying ecosystems and looming mass extinction, saying, “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”
(KIRUNA, Sweden) — Thick reindeer fur boots and a fur hat covering most of his face shielded Niila Inga from freezing winds as he raced his snowmobile up to a mountain top overlooking his reindeer in the Swedish arctic.
His community herds about 8,000 reindeer year-round, moving them between traditional grazing grounds in the high mountains bordering Norway in the summer and the forests farther east in the winter, just as his forebears in the Sami indigenous community have for generations.
But Inga is troubled: His reindeer are hungry, and he can do little about it. Climate change is altering weather patterns here and affecting the herd’s food supply.
“If we don’t find better areas for them where they can graze and find food, then the reindeers will starve to death,” he said.
Already pressured by the mining and forestry industry, and other development that encroach on grazing land, Sami herding communities fear climate change could mean the end of their traditional lifestyle.
Slipping his hand from a massive reindeer skin mitten, Inga illustrated the problem, plunging his hand into the crusted snow and pulling out a hard piece of ice close to the soil.
Unusually early snowfall in autumn was followed by rain that froze, trapping food under a thick layer of ice. Unable to eat, the hungry animals have scattered from their traditional migration routes in search of new grazing grounds.
Half the herd carried on east as planned, while the rest retreated to the mountains where predators abound, and the risk of avalanches is great.
Elder Sami herders recall that they once had bad winters every decade or so, but Inga said that “extreme and strange weather are getting more and more normal, it happens several times a year.”
The arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe. Measurements by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute show the country has warmed 1.64 degrees Celsius (2.95-degree Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times. In Sweden’s alpine region, this increase is even greater, with average winter temperatures between 1991 and 2017 up more than 3 degrees Celsius (5.4-degree Fahrenheit) compared with the 1961-1990 average.
Snowfall is common in these areas, but as temperatures increase, occasional rainfall occurs — and ‘rain-on-snow’ events are having devastating effects. The food is still there, but the reindeer can’t reach it. The animals grow weaker and females sometimes abort their calves while the survivors struggle to make it through the winter.
“We have winter here for eight months a year and when it starts in October with bad grazing conditions it won’t get any better,” Inga said.
That is devastating to Sami herders, a once-nomadic people scattered across a region that spans the far north of Sweden, Norway, Finland and the northwestern corner of Russia. Until the 1960s, this indigenous minority were discouraged from reindeer herding and their language and culture were suppressed. Today, of the 70,000 Sami, only about 10% herd reindeer, making a limited income from meat, hides and antlers crafted into knife handles.
“Everyone wants to take the reindeers’ area where they find food. But with climate change, we need more flexibility to move around,” said Sanna Vannar, a young herder from a community living in the mountains surrounding Jokkmokk, an important Sami town just north of the Arctic Circle. “Here you can’t find food, but maybe you can find food there, but there they want to clear-cut the forest and that’s the problem.”
The 24-year-old is the president of the Swedish Sami Youth organization and, together with eight other families elsewhere in the world, they launched a legal action in 2018 to force the European Union to set more ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Earlier this year, the European General Court rejected their case on procedural grounds, but the plaintiffs have appealed.
“We’ve said we don’t want money because we can’t buy better weather with money,” Vannar said. “We’ve said we need that the EU take action and they need to do it now.”
The EU’s new executive Commission is expected to present a ‘European Green Deal’ on Wednesday, to coincide with a U.N. climate conference in Madrid.
Herders have also started working with Stockholm University, hoping to advance research that will broaden understanding about changing weather patterns.
As part of this rare collaboration between Sami and science, weather stations deep in the forests of the Laevas community are recording air and ground temperature, rainfall, wind speed and snowfall density. Sami ancestral knowledge of the land and the climate complements analysis of data gathered, offering a more detailed understanding of weather events.
“With this data we can connect my traditional knowledge and I see what the effects of it are,” says Inga who has been working on the project since 2013 and has co-authored published scientific papers with Ninis Rosqvist, a professor of Natural Geography at Stockholm University.
Rosqvist directs a field station operating since the 1940s in the Swedish alpine region measuring glaciers and changes in snow and ice. But through the collaboration with Inga, she realized that less “exciting” areas in the forests may be most crucial to understanding the impacts of changing climate.
“As a scientist I can measure that something is happening, but I don’t know the impact of it on, in this case, the whole ecosystem. And that’s why you need their knowledge,” she said.
Rosqvist hopes this research can help Sami communities argue their case with decision-makers legislating land use rights.
Back in the forest, Inga is releasing onto the winter pastures a group of reindeer that had been separated from the herd when the animals scattered earlier in autumn.
Several other herders have spent more than a week high in the mountains searching for the other half of the herd and trying to bring the animals down, to no avail.
“As long as they are forced to stay there, they’ll get into worse and worse condition,” he warned.
Since the start of the public impeachment hearings in Congress last month, Andriy Yermak, a top adviser to the President of Ukraine, has heard his name come up again and again in witness testimony. He took part in many of the events at the center of the impeachment inquiry, and the 300-page report released last week by the inquiry mentions Yermak dozens of times.
But in his first interview about those public hearings, Yermak has questioned the recollections of crucial witnesses in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s alleged abuse of his office for political gain.
“Listen, I want to tell you straight,” Yermak told TIME in the interview on Dec. 4, the first time he has openly discussed his views on the public impeachment hearings. “Of course, now, when I watch these shows on television, my name often comes up, and I see people there whom I recognize, whom I met and know,” he says, referring to the witness testimony. “That is their personal opinion, especially the positions they expressed while under oath. I have my own truth. I know what I know.”
The most crucial point at which Yermak’s recollection contradicts the testimony of the inquiry’s witnesses relates to a meeting in Warsaw on Sept. 1, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. The meeting was part of an ongoing effort by the Zelensky administration to improve ties with the Trump administration.
One of the American diplomats who attended that meeting, Gordon Sondland, the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, testified before the inquiry last month that he pulled Yermak aside after the Warsaw meeting and delivered an important message: U.S. aid to Ukraine would probably not resume until Zelensky’s government announced two investigations that could implicate President Trump’s political rivals.
“I told Mr. Yermak that I believed that the resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine took some kind of action on the public statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland testified.
This statement was allegedly intended to announce two investigations: one into the discredited claims that Ukraine helped Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the 2016 presidential election, and another related to the work that Hunter Biden, the son of presidential candidate Joe Biden, did for a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, while his father was the U.S. Vice President.
Based on the testimony from Sondland and other witnesses, the final report from the House Intelligence Committee concluded last week that Sondland made this offer of a quid pro quo clear to Yermak that day in Warsaw. “Following this meeting, Ambassador Sondland pulled aside President Zelensky’s advisor, Mr. Yermak, to explain that the hold on security assistance was conditioned on the public announcement of the Burisma/Biden and the 2016 election interference investigations,” the report states.
Yermak disputes this. “Gordon and I were never alone together,” he said when TIME asked about the Warsaw meeting. “We bumped into each other in the hallway next to the escalator, as I was walking out.” He recalls that several members of the American and Ukrainian delegations were also nearby, as well as bodyguards and hotel staff, though he was not sure whether any of them heard his brief conversation with Sondland. “And I remember – everything is fine with my memory – we talked about how well the meeting went. That’s all we talked about,” Yermak says.
These comments cast doubt on an important moment in the impeachment inquiry’s reconstruction of events: specifically, the only known point at which an American official directly tells the Ukrainians about the link between U.S. aid and the announcement of specific investigations.
In a statement, Sondland’s lawyer said “Ambassador Sondland stands by his prior testimony and will not comment further.” Yermak said no one from the congressional committees that are overseeing the impeachment inquiry have contacted him to seek his testimony, nor have any other U.S. officials.
In his initial testimony to the impeachment inquiry in October, Sondland said he never knew the U.S. aid to Ukraine was conditional on the investigations Trump wanted. But the following month, Sondland amended his testimony with a new sworn statement, in which he described the conversation with Yermak in Warsaw. “I now recall speaking individually with Mr. Yermak, where I said that resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland wrote in the amended testimony.
Legal experts said at the time that the amendment looked like an attempt to protect Sondland from accusations that his initial testimony had misled Congress. Lying to Congress is a crime that can carry a punishment of up to five years imprisonment.
The White House rejected Sondland’s amended testimony at the time, saying that it was only his assumption that there was a link between the aid and the investigations, and claiming that he had not “identified a solid source” for his claims that this link existed. President Zelensky and his advisers have previously denied knowing about such a link.
President Trump and his allies seized on those remarks as evidence of his innocence. “The Ukrainian president came out and said very strongly that President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. That should be case over,“ Trump told reporters on the day TIME published that interview.
Independent fact-checkers found these remarks misleading, and noted that President Zelensky also voiced criticism of the Trump Administration during the interview. In particular, Zelensky questioned the fairness of the decision to block U.S. military aid to Ukraine, suggesting that this was not the way strategic allies should behave toward each other.
Many observers criticized Trump for cherry-picking parts of the Zelensky interview last week, and pointed out that Ukraine is still deeply dependent on the U.S. for financial and political support, making it difficult for Zelensky and his aides to contradict Trump’s arguments against the impeachment inquiry.
The new interview with Yermak is likely to revive that debate. When TIME asked him whether he had ever felt there was a connection between the U.S. military aid and the requests for investigations, Yermak was adamant: “We never had that feeling,” he says. “We had a clear understanding that the aid has been frozen. We honestly said, ‘Okay, that’s bad, what’s going on here.’ We were told that they would figure it out. And after a certain amount of time the aid was unfrozen. We did not have the feeling that this aid was connected to any one specific issue.”
One of the top priorities for the Ukrainian government’s foreign policy is to arrange a state visit to the U.S. and a meeting between Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office. On the morning of our interview, Yermak had met in Kyiv with two senior U.S. diplomats who testified before the inquiry last month, George Kent and Philip Reeker, in part to discuss the Ukrainian hope of visiting the White House soon. “My colleagues supported me,” Yermak said, referring to Kent and Reeker. He added that they did not discuss any specific dates for the visit. (The U.S. embassy declined to make Reeker and Kent available for comment during their visit to Kyiv last week.)
“Once the President has meetings in the White House, in Congress and in business circles, it will create a final understanding that this is a new team, a new set of leaders in Ukraine, a set of leaders who have come to change the country, to fight corruption, who in the course of three months in parliament, and six months of our tenure, have achieved a whole lot,” Yermak says.
For Yermak, the most unpleasant part of the public impeachment hearings so far has been the publication of his private communications with senior U.S. diplomats. These messages appear to show Yermak discussing the wording of a statement that President Zelensky could make to announce the investigations Trump wanted.
In his interview with TIME, Yermak suggested that the published messages do not give a full picture of the conversations he had with U.S. officials about this, especially his exchanges with Kurt Volker, the State Department’s special envoy to Ukraine.
“I do not intend to publicize what I wrote to anyone. Those are my principles,” Yermak said.
When TIME pointed out that his private communications with U.S. officials had already been made public as part of the impeachment inquiry, Yermak added: “I am not going to comment on whether that was all we wrote to each other, whether it was incomplete or something else. But I remember very clearly what I said, what I did and whom I wrote to. I can tell you 100%, and I can answer for this, that everything I did was right. Everything I did was within the law, and I never crossed the line, never violated legal norms or moral ones.”
According to the report issued last week as part of the impeachment inquiry, the closest that Ukraine came to announcing the investigations Trump wanted was during an interview that President Zelensky had planned to give CNN in September.
“After hearing from President Trump, Ambassador Sondland promptly told the Ukrainian leader and Mr. Yermak that ‘if President Zelensky did not clear things up in public, we would be at a stalemate,’” the report states. “President Zelensky responded to the demand relayed by Ambassador Sondland, by agreeing to make an announcement of investigations on CNN.”
Yermak also disputed this series of events. “The interview with CNN did not happen because of a scheduling conflict, and that’s the only reason,” he tells TIME. “This statement, which people are choosing to focus on – such statements were put out countless times, and will probably be repeated many times again, because that is our position. To fight corruption. To carry out honest investigations,” Yermak added.
But the findings of the impeachment inquiry so far have shown that Trump wanted Ukraine to open two specific investigations, both of which could be used for his political benefit back home. Asked how close Ukraine came to announcing these investigations, and whether that announcement would have helped Trump politically, Yermak said: “Politics doesn’t have patience for hypotheticals. ‘What if this, and what if that.’”
He added, “Look, we are principled in our position. We did not violate anything. We did not do anything that would amount to crossing a line. At all times we kept our word. We did what we said we would do. So I think it wouldn’t be right to give assessments of what line someone may have approached. We never entered into a conspiracy with anyone. We never participated in any conversations under the carpet. It was all public and transparent.”
(SANTIAGO, Chile) — Chile’s air force lost radio contact with a transport plane carrying 38 people on a flight Monday evening to the country’s base in Antarctica, and authorities indicated several hours later that they were not optimistic about the aircraft’s fate. The military said earlier that it had declared an alert and activated search and rescue teams.
The C-130 Hercules carried 17 crew members and 21 passengers, including three civilians. The personnel were to check on a floating fuel supply line and other equipment at the Chilean base.
President Sebastián Piñera said via Twitter that he was with his defense and interior ministers at the air force headquarters monitoring developments.
In a statement early Tuesday, the air force said the plane had not been heard from in more than seven hours and likely would have run out of fuel around 12:40 a.m. The air force “continues the search in the sector where communication with the aircraft was lost, in order to rescue potential survivors,” the statement said.
The plane took off at 4:53 p.m. from the southern city of Punta Arenas, which is more than 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) from the capital of Santiago. Contact was lost at 6:13 p.m., the initial announcement said.
Drake’s Passage, where the plane was missing, is infamous for severe weather conditions, including freezing temperatures and ferocious storms. But the air force said late Monday that the weather was good when the plane began its flight, or the mission would not have been carried out.
Gen. Eduardo Mosqueira of the Fourth Air Brigade told local media that a search was underway and a ship was in the general area where the plane should have been when contact was lost.
Mosqueira said the aircraft would have been about halfway to the Antarctic base when it lost contact. No emergency signals had been activated, he said.
He said the plane, whose pilot had extensive experience, had been scheduled to return Monday night.
(PRAGUE) — Six people were killed and three more wounded in a shooting in a hospital in the eastern Czech Republic Tuesday, the prime minister and officials said. The apparent suspect later shot himself dead as police approached his car.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis told Czech public television the shooting took place around 7 a.m. in a waiting room. The attacker opened fire at people’s heads from close range, Babis said. He said he was heading for the site, at the University hospital in the eastern city of Ostrava, 350 kilometers (220 miles) east of Prague.
Interior Minister Jan Hamacek said police found the suspect’s car and he shot himself in the head as they approached and died from his injuries about half an hour later. Hamacek said police will be investigating his motive.
“I’d like to assure the public that there’s no danger anymore,” Hamacek said.
Police identified the suspect as a 42-year-old man. Several hundred police officers had launched an extensive manhunt, using two helicopters, for the suspect and his silver-gray Renault Laguna car.
Regional police chief officer Tomas Kuzel said the suspect used an illegally held Czech-made 9 mm gun. He said police believe the suspect acted alone. Police published a photo of the suspect, having withdrawn an earlier photo of a different man. They said that man was now considered to be a witness.
Clinic director Jiri Havrlant told media the dead were four men and two women. Another man and a woman had to be operated on, while one person was more lightly wounded.
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CAMBODIAN Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday dismissed a threat from the European Union to halt special trade privileges with the Southeast Asian country over human rights, saying Britain's exit from the bloc will ease the pain of sanctions.
SEVERAL "unexpected anomalies" that were found inside the tomb of Tutankhamun – KV62 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings – were exposed by an archaeologist during a new documentary.
CHINA has ordered all its government offices and public institutions to remove American computers amid trade negotiations between the two countries failing to progress.
IMPEACHMENT proceedings have reached a historic point as Democrats announced two articles yesterday accusing US President Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but the central figure in the proceedings – Nancy Pelosi – was not as ruthless with President George W. Bush after the 2003 Iraq invasion.
CHINA insisted that its territorial claims in the South China Sea are legitimate and conform to international law, as tensions between the superpower and its neighbours continue to simmer.
VOLCANIC TREMOR activity has increased since the deadly volcanic eruption on White Island a couple of days ago, according to the New Zealand agency that gathers volcano data, GeoNet.
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When a coefficient is greater than zero, it is a positive relationship; when the value is less than zero, it is a negative relationship. A value of zero indicates that there is no relationship between the two variables.
A mid-cap fund is a type of investment fund that focuses its investments on companies with a capitalization in the middle range of listed stocks in the market.
A daylight overdraft is when a bank withdraws more money than it has in its Federal Reserve account in order to make a payment; the overdraft must be settled by the end of the business day.
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Tax preparation fees aren't one size fits all. What you pay will vary – depending on the complexity of your return, who does it and even where you live.
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Learn how the price elasticity of demand is more sensitive for some types of consumer goods than others, and see what factors most influence elasticity.
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A doji is a name for a session in which the candlestick for a security has an open and close that are virtually equal and are often components in patterns
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MACD divergence is a popular method for predicting reversals, but unfortunately it isn't very accurate at times. Learn the weaknesses of indicator divergence.
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There are many possible explanations for a stock's value declining despite good news being released. Investors should remain calm and consider the news.
Instagram is still one of the easiest ways to gain a following on social media. But not seeing those numbers budge can be frustrating. Similarly, all those fake accounts following you, those bots and follow for follow fools, they can drown your marketing heart. You’ll tap that like menu with a hopeful feeling and throw your phone down sad when you see it’s just Jenny588890 wanting you to visit their fake Instagram page. What’s an online marketer to do? Well, there are a few simple things you can do to improve your Instagram presence. We’ve got the goods right here.
“They’re taking our jobs!” a picketer shouts as he waves a sign painted with a big red “NO” symbol and the profile of robo-assistant. People clog the streets of the capital. Angry workers displaced by the robot revolution. It’s a future Isaac Asimov predicted. In his fiction, robots worked alongside humans to accomplish dangerous tasks better. They could calculate at superhuman speeds and had overtaken much of the lower job market. While we’re not there yet, robots are slowly crawling into our lives. They help us keep our floors cleaned and shined. They help us build cars and help us
New places, new cultures, new faces, new foods, it’s all an exciting adventure. That is until you look at your bank account. How much did that dinner cost? It was probably those drinks. What if you traveled with someone willing to pick up the tab. What if they were willing to pay you on top? That’s the dream, right? Travel and pay for none of it? If you’re not tied down to your location, you could experience so much of the world. And there are companies willing to pay you to do so. Here are a few of them. 1.
We’re addicted to subscriptions. Amazon, Netflix, HBO, Google Music, Hulu, etcetera, etcetera. In a survey, 2,500 people underestimated their spending on subscriptions by almost 200%. People sign up for subscriptions because they think, “that’s cheap, I’ll get that.” The market has conditioned people to think this way. Why not take advantage of it? Subscription boxes are an easy way to make a little bit of extra cash each month. Even if you get a few people to sign on, you’re going to make some money. But what’s involved in building a subscription box business? How do you choose what to
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UBTER Recruitment 2019 – Apply Online | 37 Class IV Group D Vacancies. Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education has announced Latest Job Notification regarding fill up 37 Vacancies. It is a golden opportunity for the candidates who are searching for Govt Jobs in Uttarakhand. Applicants who have interested in UBTER Group D Vacancy 2019 can apply through Online Process. The UBTER Online Application is available from 10th December 2019. Candidates who have passed 8th and having a residence in Uttarakhand can apply for the UBTER Recruitment 2019.
Before applying for the UBTER Recruitment process candidates must go through the Eligibility conditions. If you meet those requirements mentioned in the Notification then apply for Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education Class IV Jobs before the closing date 04th January 2020. Candidates should check the remaining details like Educational Qualification, age limit, important dates, the process to apply, pay scale, selections process.
Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education Group D Jobs 2019 – 37 Openings
Name of the Board
Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education Roorkee (UBTER)
About Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education Roorkee
Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education accommodates the foundation and constitution of the Board of Technical Education in Uttarakhand and for issues associated therewith or coincidental there too. The demonstration is authorized by state gathering in the multi-year of India. It will be esteemed to have come in to drive from the date of notice issued by the state government. It reaches out to the entire of Uttarakhand state. Training and such a warning might be set aside a few minutes after the initiation of this Act, despite the way that at least one of the seats of individuals are yet to be filled.
The Board may co-pick. from I.I.T, Degree level Engineering Colleges and specialists in the significant field from businesses, such people not surpassing three, as might be the specialists in subjects incorporated into the courses of study set somewhere around the Board. Name of the people co-selected and term of co-choice of each will be advised in the Gazette. The State Government may choose a reasonable up-and-comer by open choice from outside the branch of Technical Education or on an exchange or on assignment on a similar evaluation and pay scales officials from the branch of Specialized Education, such officials will exercise such powers and perform such obligations as might be recommended by this Act or state Government.
Karnataka PWD Result 2019 to be released soon for the Assistant Engineer (AE), Junior Engineer (JE) Post @ www.kpwd.gov.in or kpwd.co.in. Check and download Cut off Marks, Merit List Here. Many Candidates have attended the written test and eagerly waiting for the Karnataka PWD AE and JE Result 2019. The Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) Board has conducted the Written Exam on 22nd, 23rd, 24th June 2019. The Karnataka PWD Results 2019 is expected to be released in the month of December 2019 (Tentatively). So, all the aspirants can check and download PWD AE and JE Result 2019. And also can download Karnataka PWD Cut Off and Merit List from this page.
Karnataka PWD Result 2019 – Download here
The Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) will declare the results for Assistant Engineer and Junior Engineer posts as soon as possible on their official webpage www.kpwd.gov.in. A huge number of Aspirants appeared for the written exam on 22nd, 23rd, 24th June 2019. After completing the Written Examination candidates are waiting for the Result. The higher Official of Karnataka PWD is planning to release the Result in the month of December 2019 – Tentatively. So, you can check and download Karnataka PWD AE Result 2019 and Karnataka PWD JE Result 2019 here.
To check results candidates should have their roll number and password along with them. Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) will release the Karnataka PWD AE & JE Results 2019 based on the performance of the candidates. The total number of posts the Karnataka government launched for AE and JE is 870 posts. For Assistant Engineers 570 posts are available and for Junior Engineers 300 posts are available. Many Candidates completed the Examination successfully and waiting for the Results.
Karnataka PWD AE & JE Cut Off Marks 2019
From this article, you can have detailed information about the Karnataka PWD AE & JE Cut Off Marks 2019. The Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) has not yet released the exact cutoff marks. Selecting the Candidates for the Next level is completely depends upon the Cut Off Marks. The board will soon announce the cutoff marks in their official web page. The Karnataka PWD AE & JE Cut Off Marks 2019 will be prepared by the higher officials based on the category and few factors. We have given the direct links to download Karnataka PWD Exam Results and Cut Off Marks which will be activated at the time of Official Announcement.
KPWD AE & JE Merit List 2019 @ www.kpwd.gov.in
In this section, the Candidates can have an idea about the Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) Merit List 2019. Generally, the authority will announce the Merit after releasing the Result. All the candidates whose names are listed on the Karnataka PWD AE & JE Merit List 2019 have the highest preference to move for the next level of the selection process. After the official announcement, we will provide the Karnataka PWD AE & JE Merit List 2019 on this page. In the upcoming section, we have given the stepwise procedure to check the Karnataka PWD Exam Result 2019.
How to check the Karnataka PWD Exam Result 2019?
Initially, applicants can visit the official website of the Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) @ www.kpwd.gov.in or kpwd.co.in
Then the Homepage of Karnataka PWD Appears on the Screen.
And Search for the link related to the Karnataka PWD AE & JE Result 2019.
Then Click on that link.
And then log in with Candidates Details
Click on the submit button.
Finally, the Result displays on the Screen download it for the further selection process.
Direct Links to Download Karnataka PWD Result 2019
LIC Assistant Mains Previous Year Question Paper Pdf for Assistant Manager & Other Posts is updated here. Candidates who have registered for the LIC Recruitment 2019 can download the LIC Assistant Exam Question Papers here. The Life Insurance Corporation will conduct Prelims and Mains Written Examination. So candidates can Download LIC Mains Previous Year Question Paper Pdf to clear the Written Examination. Moreover, applicants can get the LIC Assistant Mains Syllabus 2019 details to the Question Paper model.
LIC Assistant Previous Year Question Papers Pdf
Life Insurance Corporation has announced the LIC Recruitment 2019 Notification for 7871+ Vacancies for Assistant & other posts. Applicants those who are interested in Life Insurance Corporation can apply for the Vacancy and start up your preparation.
Above all, candidates should start your preparation now before the LIC Assistant Exam Dates commences. Like that, the competitions seem to be high referring out with LIC Assistant Previous Year Question Papers is much better. Examiners can also get to know the complete LIC Assistant Syllabus 2019 pdf from our webpage.
Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Asst Exam Paper Pattern 2019
Life Insurance (LIC) Asst Prelims Exam Pattern 2019
Name of the Subject
Number of Questions
Maximum Marks
Duration
English Language/ Hindi language
30
30
20 minutes
Numerical Ability
35
35
20 minutes
Reasoning Ability
35
35
20 minutes
Total
100
100
1 Hour
LIC Assistant Mains Exam Pattern 2019 Pdf Download
Name of the Subject
Number of Questions
Maximum Marks
Duration
General/ Financial Awareness
40
40
30 minutes
General English
40
40
30 minutes
Quantitative Aptitude
40
40
30 minutes
Reasoning Ability & Computer Aptitude
40
40
30 minutes
Hindi Language
40
40
30 minutes
Total
200
200
2 Hours 30 Minutes
LIC Assistant Exam Previous Year Question Papers Pdf Download
Applicants can download the LIC Assistant Previous Papers Pdf at free of cost. We have gathered and listed out few LIC Exam Question Paper for your reference. Just by clicking on the below link you can download the LIC Previous Year Question Paper for Prelims & Mains Exam.
Dear Aspirants !! Are you searching for OSSSC Junior Clerk Syllabus 2019? It is the right destination to download the Odisha SSSC Junior Clerk Syllabus 2019 to prepare well for the examination. Odisha Sub-Ordinate Staff Selection Commission Officials are going to conducting the Written Examinationon 22nd December 2019 for recruiting various Junior Clerk and Junior Assistant posts. So, Interested candidates use this amazing opportunity to achieve their dream job through the OSSSC Recruitment 2019.
Candidates need to know all the topics for the examination to start the preparation. By knowing the contents of the Odisha SSSC Junior Clerk Syllabus 2019, the contenders can understand how to prepare for the Examination. All the candidates need to secure the highest marks in the examination. Getting a job in the Odisha Sub-Ordinate Staff Selection Commission is a hard task for all. So, aspirants have to use this wonderful chance to participate in the written Examination. Aspirants can start their exam preparation with the help of the Odisha SSSC Junior Clerk Exam Pattern2019 and the Syllabus.
To make your examination preparation easy, we have also provided the OSSSC Junior Clerk Exam Pattern 2019 on this page. Based on your preparation, you will score good marks in the Odisha SSSC Junior Clerk Examination. Aspirants can go through the Odisha SSSC Junior ClerkExam Pattern 2019 for Junior Clerk/Junior Assistant Post tabulated in the below section.
Odisha SSSC Junior Clerk Exam Pattern 2019-20
Odisha SSSC Junior Clerk Written Examination Pattern 2019
Paper
Name of the subject
Number of Marks
Time Duration
Paper-I
Language Test (English & Odia)
85
150 minutes
Paper-II
General Knowledge
100
Paper-I
Mathematics
100
180 minutes
Paper-II
Basic Computer Skills
100
Total
385
330 minutes
Odisha SSSC Junior Clerk Practical Skill Test 2019
Name of the subject
Number of Marks
Time Duration
Essay and letter writing in Odia
15
30 minutes
Basic Computer Skills
50
60 minutes
Selection Procedures:
To hold a position in Odisha SSSC as Junior Clerk/Junior Assistant posts aspirants must qualify in the following selection process. All the applied candidates must know that the selection rounds given below.
Written Examination
Practical Skill Test
Download OSSSC Junior Clerk Syllabus 2019-20 PDF
Odisha SSSC English Language Test Syllabus
Verbs
Tenses
Active and Passive Voice
Subject-verb Agreement
Connectors
Types of Sentences
Direct and Indirect Speech
Comparison
Odisha Language Test Syllabus 2019
Grammar
Translation (One English passage of around 100 words to be translated into Odia)
Central Bank Of India Previous Papers is available to download free of cost. Applicants who have applied for the CBI Officers exam 2019 can start preparing for the exam using Central Bank of India Specialist Officers Previous Year papers Pdf links. To help you in preparation of the exam completely, we have also given details like exam date, exam pattern, selection process, etc. For many more details read further sections of the article.
Central Bank Of India Previous Papers Pdf
Central Bank of India released a recruitment notification to fill various officer’s posts. Since bank jobs are much more popular when it comes to job options. There will be a huge number of candidates applying for the CBI Bank exams 2019-20. It requires proper exam preparation with hard work, as the competition will be a bit high in bank exams. For this purpose, we have given CBI specialist Officers last year exam question papers with solutions to score better in the exams.
Applicants can check subject wise Central Bank of India Specialist Officers (SO) Old exam papers in the below section of the article. Also, check for CBI SO syllabus & exam pattern details in the given link and start preparing for the exam. Exam pattern & syllabus helps in understanding the structure of the exam and also the type of questions asked in the exam.
CBI Applicants can check the Central Bank of India Exam Syllabus along with the latest test pattern. Exam Pattern helps in understanding the structure of the exam and the type of questions asked in the exam. First, go through CBI SO syllabus & exam pattern before starting exam preparation.
CBI Specialist Officers Exam Pattern 2019 Pdf
Subject Name
Total no of Questions
Total Marks
Stream/Category Specific Questions (Credit or risk)
60
60
Computer Knowledge
20
20
Banking, Present Economic Scenario & General Awareness
20
20
Total
100
100
The exam will be of objective type multiple-choice questions.
The duration of the exam is 60 minutes.
Download Central Bank of India Specialist Officers Old Papers PDF
Most of all aspirants who applied for the Central Bank of India Jobs have started the exam preparation. The Central Bank Of India is the oldest bank in India. It provides banking services. The Headquarters of the central bank is located at Mumbai. Placed in Central Bank is a great opportunity. So candidates prepare well. We provide all the preparation information to get good marks. Download Central Bank Of India Credit Officer Previous papers & syllabus is the major steps for preparation. The practice is imperative for time management in the exam. So applicants need practice. The central bank Of India Credit Officer practice papers is available in the market. Do practice with practice papers. Central Bank Of India Credit Officer sample papers is also important to get knowledge about the exam.
SBI Officers Previous Year Solved Papers Pdf
Central Bank of India Specialist Officers Previous Year Papers Pdf
MAHAGENCO Syllabus 2019 for various Recruitment is updated on our page. Aspirants who are looking for the MAHAGENCO Exam Syllabus 2019 can find on our page. Check the complete Mahagenco syllabus and Exam Pattern before starting your preparation. Which helps the applicants of Mahagenco Recruitment 2019 for clear understanding Exam Pattern and syllabus, and helps in scoring good score.
MAHAGENCO Syllabus 2019 Pdf
MAHAGENCO is Maharashtra state government authorized. Where the Maharashtra Govt used to recruit the candidates for various vacancies for Mahagenco. However, aspirants who applied for the Mahagenco Recruitment 2019 can find the syllabus and Exam Pattern details on our page.
To make it easy for the candidates to find the respective vacancy Syllabus, we have given the separate links in the table below. Hence, just find the respective link and check the latest and complete Syllabus and Exam pattern details below.
Applicants who have applied for the MAHAGENCO recruitment can check the MAHAGENCO Syllabus Pdf here. We have updated the Latest MAHAGENCO AE Deputy Executive Engineer Syllabus 2019. Also, interested applicants can check the Maharashtra GENCO Exam Pattern 2019 here.
Exam Type: Objective Type Multiple Choice Questions.
Total Time Duration for the written Test is 120 Mins.
The MAHAGENCO Assistant Engineer Exam Pattern is updated here. Applicants applied for the above job role can refer to the test pattern and prepare well for the exam. Interested candidates can also check MAHAGENCO AE Deputy Executive Engineer Previous Papers from the link.
Download Maharashtra GENCO Exam Syllabus 2019
Check the following section of MAHAGENCO Exam Syllabus for Assistant Engineer and Dy. Executive Engineer Posts.
MAHAGENCO JE Syllabus was updated for various vacancies. Candidates who have applied they are searching for MSPGCL Junior Engineer Syllabus and Exam Pattern. For those Applicants, we uploaded the Complete Syllabus of Maharashtra GENCO Jr Engineer. Aspirants can also download the MAHAGENCO Syllabus in Pdf Format along with Exam Pattern on our site. Get MAHGENCO JE Exam date, timings, Exam centers, etc. @ mahagenco.in.
MAHAGENCO Junior Engineer Syllabus 2019
Are you looking for the MSPGCL Syllabus? Don’t worry you are in the right place to get Complete Syllabus for the Posts of Junior Engineer in MAHAGENCO. Aspirants can check the full Mahagenco JE Syllabus and Exam Pattern on our page. There are more no. of candidates applying for the MSPGCL JE Recruitment 2019 Notification. So there will be a huge competition for Latest Govt Jobs in Maharastra. For that applied people have to start preparing as soon as possible to get a good score. Aspirants make use of the given MAHAGENCO JE Syllabus and Exam Pattern before appearing the Exam. Applicants can find the Maharastra Stare Power Generation Company Limited Junior Engineer Exam details like Exam Date, Timings, Venue, etc. here.
Selection Procedure for MSPGCL JE Jobs
MSPGCL was recruiting the People for Junior Engineer Posts based on the following tests.
Online Test.
Interview.
MAHAGENCO JE Exam Pattern
Examination Type
Topics
No. of Questions
Marks
Duration
Objective Type
Technical Subjects
60
120
2 hrs
Aptitude Test
60
60
Total
80
180
MSPGCL JE Exam Conducted for 180 marks.
It consists of Two Parts.
The Exam includes 80 questions to answers.
It is an Objective Type Exam.
Duration of the Je Engineer 2 hrs.
Here provided Exam Pattern is referenced for the candidates who are appearing the MAHAGENCO JE Exam. The MSPGCL did not yet release the official Junior Engineer Exam Pattern. We are here to give to the latest information on MAHAGENCO Jr Engineer Exam. We will update the exact Exam Pattern once released by the Board.
MAHAGENCO JE Syllabus Pdf 2019
Here we have provided the MAHAGENCO Junior Engineer Syllabus Pdf. The below syllabus is only for reference purpose. Hence, go through the details and start your preparation.
Aptitude Syllabus
Time & Distance.
Time & Work.
Simplification.
Interest.
Percentages.
Profit and Loss.
Problems on Ages.
Averages.
Pipes & Cisterns.
Boats & Streams.
Data Interpretation etc.
MAHAGENCO Junior Engineer Syllabus for Electronics
Basics of Circuits and Measurement Systems.
Analytical, Optical Instrumentation.
Transducers, Mechanical Measurement and Industrial Instrumentation.
Control Systems and Process Control.
Electrical and Electronic Measurements.
Analog Electronics.
Digital Electronics.
Signals, Systems, and Communications.
MAHAGENCO Junior Engineer Syllabus for Mechanical
Theory of Machines and Machine Design.
1st Law of Thermodynamics.
2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
IC Engines Combustion.
Engineering Mechanics and Strength of Materials.
Properties of Pure Substances.
Air standard Cycles for IC Engines.
IC Engine Performance.
IC Engine Cooling & Lubrication.
Classification.
Specification.
Fitting & Accessories.
Rankine cycle of System.
Boilers.
Air Compressors & their cycles.
Refrigeration cycles.
The Principle of the Refrigeration Plant.
Hydraulic Turbines.
Centrifugal Pumps.
Fluid Statics, Measurement of Fluid Pressure.
Fluid kinematics.
Dynamics of Ideal fluids.
Nozzles & Steam Turbines.
Properties & Classification of Fluids.
Measurement of Flow rate.
Basic principles.
Classification of steels.
MAHAGENCO Jr Engineer Exam Syllabus for Electrical
Basic concepts.
Circuit law.
Measurement and Measuring Instruments.
Electrical Machines.
Magnetic Circuit.
AC Fundamentals.
Fractional Kilowatt Motors and single phase induction Motors.
MAHAGENCO Technician Syllabus & Exam Pattern is available for download from the link given on this page. Candidates who are going to appear for this exam can check the MAHAGENCO Recruitment 2019 Notification and apply online on the official website i.e www.mahagenco.in before the last date.
MAHAGENCO Technician Syllabus & Exam Pattern 2019
The Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited has released an advertisement inviting applications from talented candidates for Technician Grade III posts. There are 746 vacancies according to the Latest Employment News. Candidates who possess ITI in a relevant Trade from a recognized Institute are eligible to apply. Eligible aspirants who are interested in Engineering Jobs or Government Jobs in Maharashtra can apply for these posts in online mode before the last date.
Candidates will be searching for the MAHAGENCO Technician Syllabus & MAHAGENCO Technician Exam pattern. We are providing the Maharashtra Technician Gr-3 Syllabus & MAHAGENCO Technician Grade-3 Exam Pattern to start their preparation. Check the official website to download the MAHAGENCO Syllabus & Exam Pattern. The MAHAGENCO Technician Syllabus pdf is also available for download from the link given below.
MSPGCL Technician Exam Pattern 2019-20
Section
Subject
Questions
Marks
I
Aptitude Test
90
90
II
Technical Test
100
100
Total
190
190
The exam is of Objective type i.e it consists of Multiple Choice Questions.
Duration of the exam is 120 Minutes.
The exam consists of 2 sections.
The exam is conducted for a total of 190 Questions.
MAHAGENCO Syllabus for Technician Grade 3 Pdf
MAHAGENCO Syllabus for Reasoning
Analytical Reasoning.
Blood Relationships.
Directions.
Number Series.
Arrangements.
Analogies.
Classification.
Coding-Decoding.
Similarities and Differences.
Alphabet Series.
Statements.
Syllogisms.
Non-Verbal Reasoning.
Symbols and Notations.
Symmetry.
Data Sufficiency.
Visual Ability etc.
MAHAGENCO Technician Gr-3 Syllabus for Numerical Ability
ISRO Technician Previous Papers are available. Candidates can get Indian Space Research Organization Technical Assistant exam model question papers on our page. Also, check the exam pattern and written exam date details in the sections below. Interested aspirants can check the official website of ISRO @ isro.gov.in for more details.
ISRO Technical Assistant Question Papers
Are you looking for ISRO Technician & Technical Assistant previous papers? Finally, you reached the correct place. Here we help you by providing the Indian Space Research Organization model question papers. Aspirants can find direct links to download ISRO Technician/Technical Assitant previous question papers pdf below. Candidates just need to click on the link to download ISRO old papers and use them as a reference. You can also visit the official site through the link given below for more ISRO Technical Assistant Question Papers.
Indian Space Research Organization has released the recruitment notification for 45 Technical Assistant, Technician, Medical Officer, Driver and Fireman jobs. Hope, job seekers who are waiting for the central govt jobs might have applied for the vacancy. However, to help those contenders we have given the ISRO previous year paper for the technician and other engineering vacancies below. Here is an overview of ISRO Technician Notification 2019.
ISRO Technician Previous Year Question Papers Pdf @ isro.org
The exam date for the written test will be announced by the board on their official website. Candidates are advised to keep checking our page for updated. Also, check the selection process and exam pattern details in the section below and start your preparation today.
ISRO Technician Exam Paper Pattern Details
Indian Space Research Organization is going to conducts a written examination to select the candidates. Applicants who qualify in written are only eligible for Skill Test & Personal interview rounds. Hence, check the exam pattern details and list our the sections need to concentrate more. Having knowledge of exam pattern and syllabus helps the applicants a lot in preparation. Also, improves the understanding levels of the candidates.
However, check the exam pattern in the table below. Download the ISRO Technician Grade A & B and other vacancies below and start your preparation.
Technician Written Test – Exam Paper Pattern Details
S. No
Exam Type
Topics
1
Objective Type
Basic English
2
Gnerela Knowledge
Arthematic
3
Technical Subjects
Last 5 Years ISRO Technician/Assistant Question Papers
Here we are providing the ISRO model question paper free downloading links. So Aspirants can download the ISRO Technician grade A & B old papers just by clicking on the links. The papers give are taken from official ISRO website, and we added some of the materials. Candidates can make use of this material and prepare well for the examination. Will update the details and paper if we found any new. Interested can also visit the official website of ISRO for more details.
Download ISRO Technician/Technical Assistant Exam Model Question Papers Pdf
SSC CHSL Recruitment 2019: The staff selection commission is conducting a combined higher secondary level (10+2) exam for the recruitment of Lower Divisional Clerk, Junior Secretariat Assistant, Postal Assistant & Others. SSC wants eligible candidates to apply for these posts. If you are interested, you can start applying for these posts. The last date to apply for SSC CHSL is 10th January 2020. All relevant details are available below. Candidates can check if they are eligible and then proceed to start applying for SSC Jobs. Candidates who have completed their 12th can consider applying for these posts. There are various vacancies for each post.
SSC CHSL Recruitment 2020-21
You can find all the relevant details below. The selection will happen in three tiers. Candidates who are looking for Central Government Jobs can apply for these posts. The vacancy details will be disclosed later by the SSC officials. Read the entire article to check eligibility and to get all details about SSC CHSL Recruitment. You can also refer to the official notification for more details. The board had earlier released a short notification, but now the detailed notification is also published. We have provided the link to the notification and the website for your reference. Candidates are advised not to wait till the last minute to apply for these posts.
Overview of SSC CHSL Jobs 2020
Name of the Organization
Staff Selection Commission (SSC)
Type of exam
Combined Higher Secondary Level Exam (CHSL)
Number of Vacancies
Various (Exact details will be disclosed soon)
Name of Post
Lower Divisional Clerk, Junior Secretariat Assistant, Postal Assistant & Others
The details of the vacancy will be disclosed later by the Staff selection commission. The various posts are as under
Name of the Post
Number of Posts
Lower Divisional Clerk (LDC)
Various.
Junior Secretariat Assistant (JSA)
Various.
Postal Assistant/ Sorting Assistant
Various.
Data Entry Operator (DEO)
Various.
Total
Various.
Keep checking the official website for updates on vacancy count.
Eligibility Criteria for SSC CHSL Recruitment 2019
Candidates interested in SSC CHSL Jobs can check their eligibility with the details below to apply online.
Academic Qualification:
Must have completed 12th standard or equivalent from a recognized board or university in India.
Read the official notification for more details on SSC CHSL Careers.
Age Limit:
As on 1st January 2020, the applicant must be
Minimum – 18 years
Maximum – 27 years
Age relaxation on upper limit is available as below
SC/ST – 5 Years
OBC – 3 Years
PwD. (Unreserved) – 10 Years
PwD. (OBC) – 13 Years
PwD. (SC/ST) – 15 Years
Age relaxation for others is applicable as per the rules. You may check the official notification for details on SSC CHSL age limit and age relaxation.
Selection Process:
Tier I – Computer Based Examination.
Tier-II – Descriptive Paper.
Tier III – Skill Test/ Typing Test.
Pay Scale for SSC CHSL Recruitment 2020:
Name of the Post
Salary
Lower Divisional Clerk (LDC)
Rs. 19,900/- to Rs. 63,200/-.
Junior Secretariat Assistant (JSA)
Rs. 19,900/- to Rs. 63,200/-.
Postal Assistant/ Sorting Assistant
Rs. 25,500/- to Rs. 81,100/-.
Data Entry Operator (DEO)
Rs. 25,500/- to Rs. 81,100/-.
Total
Rs. 25,500/- to Rs. 81,100/-.
Refer to the official website for details on the pay scale for SSC CHSL Jobs
SSC CHSL Online Application Fee:
Application fee of Rs. 100/- is applicable
SC/ST/ PWD/ Ex-servicemen/ Women candidates – No fee
Application can be paid online or offline. The ways of payment are:
Online – BHIM UPI, Net Banking, Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, RuPay Credit or Debit Cards
Offline – In cash at any SBI branch by generating SBI Challan
How to apply for SSC CHSL Recruitment 2019?
Visit the official website @ www.ssc.nic.in
You have to register yourself for SSC CHSL Careers (One-time registration)
Find the notification for the job you want to apply for
Read the notification carefully
Make sure you are eligible before proceeding to the application
Go to notifications
Click on Combined Higher Secondary Level Examination 2019 Section
Click on Apply Online
Use your registration number and password to log in
Fill in all the details and make sure the information you provide is correct
Submit the application form
Make the payment, either online or offline.
Address:
Government of India, Staff Selection Commission Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Block No. 12, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 110003
Note:
Please read the entire notification before applying. All the formats for submitting certificates are available in the official notification. You will also find rules of application. In case of any error, the application will be rejected without any information. It is highly recommended that candidates read every detail in the notification.
KAS Hall Ticket 2019-20: The Kerala Administrative Service (also called KAS) is going to release the KAS Admit Card for KAS Officer Trainee Stream 1, and Stream 2, and Stream 3 posts. The candidate who had applied for the Kerala Administrative Service Exam can download the KAS Exam Hall Ticket from our webpage on 7th February 2019. Along with the KAS Hall Ticket, the board has declared the exam date on 22nd February 2019. So, applicants are requested to download their Kerala Kas Hall Ticket before the last date.
The Eligible candidates only can download the KAS Admit Card from the below-given link. Therefore, candidates will get a clear picture of the exam once they downloaded their KAS Hall Ticket. Keep the required details before proceeding to the login. Check the below highlighted details make sure those details are available on your Kas Admit Card (Hall Ticket).
Candidates Name
Registration Number
Application Number
Father’s Name
Date of Birth
Gender (Male/ Female)
Exam Center Venue
Examination Centre Code
Name of the Exam
Time Duration
Space for Invigilator's Signature
Name of the Test Centre
Category
Space for Applicant's Signature
Name of the Exam Conducting Board
Photograph of the Candidate
Important Guidelines for the Exam Takers
Signature of the Board Counselor
Kerala Administrative Service Exam 2019
The Kerala Administrative Service has finalized to conduct the exam on 22nd February 2019. So the candidate who eagerly waiting to admire the KAS Officer Posts can start preparing for the exam.
Documents to Carry Kerala Administrative Service Exam
The board suggests the examiners enter the exam hall along with some important documents. However, the Invigilators will allow only the candidates who are having proper ID proofs along with them. Please ensure you must keep photocopies of the KAS Admit Card before entering the exam.
Original Photograph
Voter Card
Pan Card
Employee ID
College ID
PAN Card
Passport
Driving License
Any other ID proof issued by a Gazetted Officer
Bank Pass Book with the photograph
Procedure to Download KAS Hall Ticket
Click on the KAS Admit Card from the below link.
Click the Search box and enter “Hall Ticket”
Find the Hall Ticket with Post name.
Give the required details on Login Page.
Log in to the KAS Admit Card.
Admit Card page will appear on the screen.
Fill the needed credentials into the hall ticket which are asked.
After filling recheck the details that you have entered.
Once it is done with the checking Submit the admit card.
Finally, download the hall ticket after the submission.
Take a photocopy of the KAS Admit Card.
Carry for the exam and the upcoming selection rounds.
Note: The Hall Ticket Only available only after 7th February 2019. Visit our website on a daily basis to get to know any changes in the exam date or Admit card.
In this article, we all most covered the entire details about the Kerala Administrative Service hall ticket, Exam Details and etc. To score good marks in the exam candidates must prepare for the exam with previous papers and syllabus. It would be a Written Exam, candidates should be available on the exam center before the exam schedule. To know more details about the exam centers and others, candidates can visit the official website.
BBMB Recruitment 2019 – Apply Online | 45 Fireman, Surveyor, Turner, Sewerman, Boatman, Shift Attendant, OTA & Other Vacancies. The Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) has announced a Job Notification for 45 Vacancies of Fireman, Surveyor, Turner, Sewerman, Boatman, Shift Attendant, OTA & Other Posts. Applicants who are looking for the Chandigarh Government Job can apply for the vacancy through the Online process. The Last date of the application is said to end up by 30th December 2019.
The selected candidates will be appointed on regular basis on a probation period of 3 years on initial of the pay scale as per Punjab C.S.R or DC Rate as applicable whichever is higher. The candidates who wish to apply for more than one post should submit the separate application form for each post. Check the eligibility details and then apply for the vacancy before the last date. Read further to know more about the Bhakra Beas Management Board Fireman Vacancy 2019.
Eligibility Criteria for BBMB Fireman, Sewerman & Other Jobs 2019
Educational Qualification:
Fireman – Matric or’10 +2 or Graduate with a basic course on elementary Fire Fighting from a recognized institute of State/Central Govt. of India.
Turner – Matric or Middle pass with ITI Cedficale in the Trade of Turner & 1-year experience in the trade
Surveyor – Matriculation with ITI Certificate in the Survey Trade and 2 Years’ experience in the trade.
Sewerman, Boatman and Shift Attendant – Should be literate*, physically sound and mentally alert.
OTA – Matric with Physics and Chemistry or Equivalent qualification
Pharmacist – Pre Medical/ 10*2 (Medical) with two years diploma in Pharmacy of Allopathic System of Medicine and Dresser’s Course from the recognized institute.
Marine Fitter Grade I – Should hold a certificate of competency as First Class Molor Engine Driver issued by MMD Ministry of Transport or should have received a training certificate from the Cater-Piller Service Agency.
Applicants will be shortlisted by the BBMB Recruitment Board and called for the further selection process.
Interview.
Other Important Instructions for Departmental Employees
Departmental Employees are also eligible to apply if they possess the requisite qualification as mentioned above on the closing date of application.
Serving Government employees must send a copy of their on-line application form through proper channel before the closing date specified below.
Copy of Online Application form complete in all respects along with enclosures must reach in the office of undersigned on or before 30.12.2019 up to 1600 hours.
The applicant should send a copy of his/her On-line application form through Registered/Speed Post Courier in the office.
And, clearly specify the post applied for and his/her mailing address on the envelope.
General Instructions
A candidate whether belongs to the General category or reserved categories can submit only one application for a particular post. Scanned copies of essential certificates, like, date of birth, qualification, experience, reservation proof with domicile.
The applicant shall fill in all the columns of the form and write N/A in case any column is not applicable.
Apply ONLINE Steps for BBMB Fireman, Sewerman & Other Jobs 2019
Download the Official Notification, read the details carefully
Check your eligibility details before applying for the Post
Then, Click on Apply Online Link Provided Below.
Start filling Registration Form with all the required details.
Recheck whether the details are properly filled & move to the next step.
Upload scanned copies of your recent photograph and necessary documents.
Finally, press the submit button to finish the Application Process.
Take the print out for further reference.
Important Date for BBMB Chandigarh Recruitment 2019
BBMB has an installed capacity of 2918.73 MW – the third-largest installed hydropower capacity in India. BBMB also transmits Power in the Northern Grid through a widespread network of 3751.96 Ckt. Km. of 400, 220, 132 and 66 kV transmission lines. BBMB maintains some of the largest water reservoirs in the country such as Bhakra and Pong Dam reservoirs and also operates 98 Km. long water conductor system including channels & tunnels. Bhakra – Nangal & Beas Projects have been the harbinger of green & white revolutions, rapid industrialization & urbanization in the Northern Region, besides protecting the downstream areas from ferocious floods.
BENGALURU: Infosys has kicked off a talent plan that offers incentives and wage hikes to more than 25,000 midlevel executives — slightly more than a tenth of its workforce — who gain skills in newer digital areas, as the software exporter looks to harness their domain expertise in legacy businesses to quicken growth in digital.Infosys and other IT services firms have been struggling with flat or declining business in traditional services, which contribute nearly two-thirds to their revenue. The legacy business also has more expensive employees. The software services companies are training these employees in newer digital businesses, which is growing in the higher double digits. "We have created comprehensive learning pathways for the mid-level managers. We have created something called digital tags and have linked incentives with them. While there are quarterly skill incentives, there is another pay growth on better billing (once they become experts in digital technology)," Krishnamurthy Shankar, global head of HR at Infosys, told ET.In the newer digital and agile projects, mid-level managers need to work together with clients to solve a business decision, as opposed to traditional services where they largely coordinated with clients and programmers. "When we looked at it (upskilling the mid-level employees), we came up with four things that are areas where we will ensure there is investment in them. So, specialisation in digital is the first area and we have identified 36 skills," said Shankar.The second important area for upskilling is expertise in process areas such as becoming an agile coach, while the third is becoming a specialist in their own service lines. The fourth core part is becoming a consultant, Shankar said.Analysts said the upskilling of midlevel managers is becoming more relevant because companies such as Infosys are forced to take a consultative approach."Companies need to have a model wherein there is multi-level of speciality built into a single resource. This is about two things: being future ready and commercial viability of that resource," said Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO of Greyhound Research.
When scores of Ivy League-trained economists are burning midnight oil with their sophisticated forecasting models to figure out what the Reserve Bank of India would do next on interest rates, Bank of America has a simple suggestion — just keep a watch on onion prices.The mostly ubiquitous and affordable onion that is part and parcel of any Indian cuisine, last week threw many calculations to wind as the mighty central bank had to bow to pressure from the soaring prices of the essential vegetable rather than do its might to revive an economy where growth rate has fallen to a six-year low.A Monetary Policy Committee mandated to maintain inflation at 4% with a two percentage point band on either side — a new adoption of Western model to Indian policy making — is grappling with the same old problem: food prices.Prudent policy making to stabilise prices and the expectations of price rise and a need for a pragmatic regime to fuel investments have come into conflict once again as the basic structure of Indian economy remains at the crossroads."The monetary authority is helpless in handling a supply shock-induced inflation till it feeds into a generalised inflationary expectations," says Partha Ray, professor of economics at IIM Calcutta. "This issue is all the more important in India in the current context when onion prices are skyrocketing."The RBI last week shocked markets when it kept the repo rate — the rate at which it lends to banks — untouched at 5.15% citing price pressures, especially food items such as onion, milk, pulses and sugar. Investors were expecting the central bank to supplement government measures by further lowering the benchmark rate by a quarter point as the central bank and the government were appearing to be in sync with their prescription for an economic revival."Inflation has indeed risen sharply in November and may remain elevated for a few months," Governor Shaktikanta Das said justifying the pause. "However, the forces driving up inflation appear to be transient."Still the six-member MPC wouldn't cut rates. Why? Because the onion and cereals prices have driven inflation expectations by more than 100 points! It's yet again the 'transient' inflation that's impacting expectations, which the 2016 'inflation targeting' policy aimed to address.FOOD VS COREThe share of food in headline CPI in India at 45.9% is much higher than the 10-20% in other countries."If we compare India's CPI weightages to that of its BRICS peers, the disparities become starker. While India's food basket has been allocated nearly 39%, the category's share is only 25.5% and 19.1% in Brazil and South Africa, respectively," said a research paper by Sidbi-promoted ratings firm, Acuite Ratings and Research, earlier in 2019.Items such as housing, amusement/ recreational expenses, consumer durables, FMCG and transportation have gained in prominence over time but continue to represent a lower weightage in the overall price index."The Reserve Bank has no jurisdiction over the construction and composition of CPI, though the restructuring by the government is underway," said Tirthankar Patnaik, chief economist at the National Stock Exchange. "We cannot ignore the fact that Indians still spend a big portion of their income on food and RBI has to anchor inflation expectations of the Indian household given the way food inflation has risen."October consumer prices rose 4.68%, highest in 18 months, which few saw two months back.The MPC in its August meeting had forecast inflation for the second half at 3.5-3.7%, which was retained in October and come December, it goes to 5.7-4.1%. In all, 40-220-basis points revision in a matter of four months.Then, there is perhaps a case of revisiting food weightage in the consumption, given its impact on RBI's inflation target, which, in turn, has a big role in determining the rate at which funds for investments are available. Or whether food should be completely eliminated by the RBI while arriving at inflation forecast given that food inflation in India still continues to be due to supply-side factors and vagaries of monsoon? 72465784 Blaming the rate action completely on food prices may be missing the woods for the trees."If the MPC is being influenced by the prices of food, then it is an MPC issue," says Jahangir Aziz, economist at JPMorgan. "The MPC could easily ignore food inflation on the grounds that it is temporary as it did in the last review: after rising in the first half, inflation falls below the 4% target in second half in the MPC's own forecast. The fact that the MPC thought that it was appropriate to keep policy rate on hold despite their own forecast that inflation would slip below the target 9 months ahead, is an issue about monetary policy making. It has nothing to do with the weight of food in the CPI basket."MISSING TARGETSWhen a central bank is mandated by law to maintain price stability, the key to achieve this is the ability to forecast where the prices would be, a task more complicated than weather forecasting.Most countries adopt targeting wholesale prices, which is a right reflection of the state of an economy. India chose to target Consumer Price Index with a substantial portion of spending going on food. Predicting industrial products prices is a lot more easier than food prices.A research paper posted by the RBI staff on its website in May earlier this year notes that an examination of the CPI inflation projections in India during April 2015-September 2018 show two periods of large projection errors — October 2016-March 2017 and June-September 2018."Both episodes were associated with unanticipated sharp fall in food inflation particularly in case of perishables," the paper said. "Volatility in vegetables prices translated almost one-on-one to overall food inflation, given the magnitude of price variations and large weight of vegetables in CPI."This time, it is a reversal of the situation, with projection errors on the upside, with actual inflation overshooting the projection since July-August. Food prices rose 7.89% in October, from 5.11% in September, the largest annual gain since July 2016. Food & beverages index went up by 6.93%, with main upward pressure coming from vegetables at 26.10% as onion and tomato prices jumped due to unseasonal rains and disruption of supply chain.Governor Das admits that challenges still remain."With regard to growth and inflation, all that we want to say is that we have certain projections, based on the available data," Das said. "We feel that we need some more time to have greater clarity and less uncertainty about our projections. We just want to be convinced that whatever projections we have made at this point of time with regard to inflation and with regard to growth, the coming months will play out on the same line. So, there is need for greater clarity, there is need to be more certain about it, to reduce the element of uncertainty in our projections."POLITICS OF PRICESAdministrations the world over prioritise tackling prices as any failure on that front could lead to social chaos as well as regime fall. This puts policy makers in a quandary as containing price pressures often militate against the interests of industry, which is expecting the next interest rate cut.That was probably one of the reasons that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government chose targeting consumer prices rather than wholesale prices. If vegetable prices are the ones that would determine, what's in store on the rate front?"Onion prices have now jumped up 371% year-on-year in early December from 177% in November," says Indranil Sen Gupta, economist at Bank of America. "If they retreat to ?60/kg in December and ?40/kg in January from ?91/kg now, on government imports, inflation should peak off at 5.9% in December and slip to 5.4% in January. If onion prices moderate to ?60/kg only in January, when the bulk of onion imports arrive, inflation will still post 6.1% in January."That essentially means that there's little scope for RBI to forecast inflation of about 4% anytime before April. The pause could extend to as long as October if crude oil prices join rising vegetable prices.But if farm products affect policy making, is it time to rethink the gauge to target? Should it be WPI or CPI, or something else?"There is no connection between the weight of food in CPI and food inflation," says Aziz of JPMorgan. "The weight is the average amount a person spends on food relative to other expenditures. That is in the case of India and many other countries fixed at a particular base year and revised periodically. Some of the more advanced countries have shifted to both chain weighted CPI (and GDP) that takes into account substitution that consumers might undertake in reaction to changes in prices and is, therefore, closer to a better cost of living index."It is not clear by when India would move to a different model like that of chain weighted consumer price index, but till such time the current one would continue to determine policy rates."We advise investors to track onion prices as they hold the key to the next RBI rate cut," says Sen Gupta of Bank of America.
NEW DELHI: After showing a brief pick-up during the festive season, sales of passenger vehicles, trucks, motorcycles and scooters have again tapered off in November, with sluggishness in the broader economy, stringent financing norms and the industry's impending transition to BS VI emission standards impacting demand.Automakers dispatched 263,773 passenger vehicles to dealers last month, a decline of 0.84%, shows data available with industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Passenger car sales in the local market dropped by 10.83% (to 160,306 units) in the period under review, but strong demand for utility vehicles lifted overall volumes. Sales of utility vehicles rose 32.70% to 92,739 units in November."The wholesale reported in the passenger vehicle segment has come on a low base of last year. Some new launches in the utility vehicle segment have helped prop up sales in October and November," SIAM director general Rajesh Menon said.Passenger sales had risen marginally for the first time in 11 months in October, aided by the festive season and the introduction of new models in the utility vehicle space.However, vehicle sales across categories remained in the negative zone for over a year now. Automakers feel the impending price increases due to higher input costs and switchover to enhanced emission norms will continue to disrupt the market over the next few months.Menon said the industry body is in talks with the government to introduce BS-VI fuel across the country from February next year in order to ensure a smooth transition. Currently, the BS-VI fuel is available only in the NCR region. As of now, the government has kept April 1, 2020, as the date for introducing upgraded fuel across the country.Sales of commercial vehicles in the month under review went down 15% to 61,907 units. "Sales of commercial vehicles will only pick up once spending in infrastructure development projects starts happening," said Sugato Sen, deputy DG, SIAM.Wholesale demand for two-wheelers fell 14.27% to 1,410,939 units. While sales of scooters dropped 11.83% to 459,851 units, those of motorcycles declined 14.87% to 893,538 units. Sen said two-wheeler sales remained muted due to low demand from rural areas where consumption has been affected. Overall, vehicle sales across categories in November dropped 12.05% to 1,792,415 units.Retail sales data showed a somewhat better picture in terms of sales, indicating a correction in inventory levels in the industry. Retail sales of passenger vehicles last month went up 6.25% to 313,061 units, while those of twowheelers increased 4.60% to 1,752,903 units. Commercial vehicle retails, however, declined 8.60% to 79,547 units. Overall, retail sales across categories increased by 4.76% to 2,213,519 units, compared with 2,112,876 units in the year-ago period.
BENGALURU: Infosys has kicked off a talent plan that offers incentives and wage hikes to more than 25,000 midlevel executives — slightly more than a tenth of its workforce — who gain skills in newer digital areas, as the software exporter looks to harness their domain expertise in legacy businesses to quicken growth in digital.Infosys and other IT services firms have been struggling with flat or declining business in traditional services, which contribute nearly two-thirds to their revenue. The legacy business also has more expensive employees. The software services companies are training these employees in newer digital businesses, which is growing in the higher double digits. "We have created comprehensive learning pathways for the mid-level managers. We have created something called digital tags and have linked incentives with them. While there are quarterly skill incentives, there is another pay growth on better billing (once they become experts in digital technology)," Krishnamurthy Shankar, global head of HR at Infosys, told ET.In the newer digital and agile projects, mid-level managers need to work together with clients to solve a business decision, as opposed to traditional services where they largely coordinated with clients and programmers. "When we looked at it (upskilling the mid-level employees), we came up with four things that are areas where we will ensure there is investment in them. So, specialisation in digital is the first area and we have identified 36 skills," said Shankar.The second important area for upskilling is expertise in process areas such as becoming an agile coach, while the third is becoming a specialist in their own service lines. The fourth core part is becoming a consultant, Shankar said.Analysts said the upskilling of midlevel managers is becoming more relevant because companies such as Infosys are forced to take a consultative approach."Companies need to have a model wherein there is multi-level of speciality built into a single resource. This is about two things: being future ready and commercial viability of that resource," said Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO of Greyhound Research.
New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday, in a major move, has kick-started the process to setup six more airports in the new state of Telangana, which so far has just one operational airport in Hyderabad. An aeronautical survey has been marked for the proposed development of these six airports by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).In an issue which has political significance in Telangana, the K. Chandrashekhar Rao government has been pressing for more air-connectivity, especially after the newly-bifurcated state in 2014 did not get bulk of the air-connectivity which existed in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh. Telangana presently has just the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad while Andhra Pradesh shares this airport, with Hyderabad being the joint capital for 10 years, and has six other operational commercial airports in Vishakapatnam, Vijaywada, Tirupati, Kadapa, Oravakal and Rajahmundry. The first three are international airports. The TRS government in Telangana had last year identified locations in the state for setting up three new airports as well as upgradation of three existing airstrips which have not been operational for several years.The Centre has now marked an aeronautical survey for setting up new green-field airports in Jakaranpally in NizamabadDistrict, Addakal Mandal in Mahbubnagar District and one in Bhadadri Kothagudem. The survey will also cover three existing airstrips in Warangal, Adilabad District and BasanthNagar in Pedapalli District for their development as brown-field airports. The Warangal airstrip has an existing airport area of about 706 acres and two runways while the airstrip in Pedapalli has an area of about 288 acres – the former has not been in operation commercially since 1981. The new airports, once ready and operational, are expected to lessen the passenger load on the Hyderabad International airport which is presently the sixth busiest airport by passenger traffic in India and served over 21 million passengers in the last fiscal.The six new airports will cover all parts of the new state, with Adilabad being the northern tip, Bhadadri Kotagudem being the east end and Mahubanagar being the western end of the state.
NEW DELHI: Amazon India country head Amit Agarwal said the US online retail giant is focusing on the growing grocery business, a segment where large corporations are alleged to be a threat to small storekeepers."Our ambition is to have the largest wallet share of customers for grocery purchases," Agarwal said in an interview in New Delhi on Tuesday. Food and grocery is the largest portion of India's retail market and organised retailers including e-commerce companies have headroom to expand.He said Amazon plans to achieve its goal through a combination of formats including Amazon Fresh and Amazon Pantry and delivery of daily items from brick-andmortar outlets of partner retailers More, Future Group.Currently, organised retailers account for $25 billion, or 4%, of India's annual $580 billion food and grocery market and their share is expected to grow to $69 billion, or 7%, by 2024, according to Axis Capital.Agarwal said the sheer online reach and e-commerce volumes help vendors to reduce margins and still make a better return on investment. He said technology helps sellers to reduce their defect rate and cost of operations."Some sellers (are) realising that selling a thousand bottles of a product at ?20 profit is better than selling 10 bottles at ?100 profit," he said.Agarwal said whenever there is disruption, confusion and uproar are bound to follow."I keep reminding people that this is about long term… Disruption is happening, there is going to be confusion. There are going to be questions. There is going to be inspection because the disruption is very new. So we should not be surprised by (it), we should expect it," he said. "So I think instead of trying to look at it as a distraction, I look at it as short-term opportunities for us to educate, for us to inform, for us to sort of engage… but it doesn't change our long-term goal."The long-term goal for Amazon is to turn India into the largest overseas subsidiary for the Seattle-based company. Amazon has continuously poured billions of dollars into the country it counts as one of the most promising future markets.
Mumbai: Yes Bank's much talked about big ticket fund raising ended in a whimper on Tuesday with the struggling lender announcing only $500 million of the $2-billion target, that too is being only "favourably" looked at, putting a big question mark on its ability to mop up the badly needed capital.Citax Holdings and Citax Investment Group, funds led by one Srinivas Solaraj, have made the offer to invest $500 million, the bank informed the exchanges after the board meeting.The uncertainty over fund-raising saw Yes Bank stocks coming under heavy selling pressure, pulling down the already battered stock 10.5 percent to Rs 50.55 on the BSE as against a correction of 0.61 per cent on the benchmark. In August 2018, when RBI refused to clear co-founder and chief executive Rana Kapoor's reappointment, it was trading over at Rs 240.The reported $1.2-billion offer by Canadian investor Erwin Singh Braich/SPGP Holdings "continues to be under discussion", the bank said after the board meeting specifically held to finalise capital infusion.The statement also said the bank continues to "evaluate" other potential investors to raise $2 billion.Capital constraints have forced Yes Bank to go slow on lending last quarter and shoring up the buffers has become a priority for the bank, which is headed by Ravneet Gill since March this year.On November 29, the bank had said it had commitments for $2 billion from eight domestic and global investors and that the Tuesday's board meeting was to finalise it."The board is willing to favourably consider the offer of $500 million from Citax Holdings and Citax Investment and the final decision regarding allotment will be made at the next board meeting, subject to requisite regulatory approvals," the bank informed the exchanges, but without stating when the next board meeting will take place.Other investors who have evinced interest include Braich, the country's largest individual investor Rakesh Jhunjunwala, GMR Group and the Aditya Birla Family Office, the bank had claimed on November 29."We shall continue to evaluate other potential investors to raise capital up to $2 billion," the lender said on Tuesday.On November 29, it had said discussions with Braich were expected to conclude shortly and a binding term sheet had been extended till December 31.During an interaction in early November, Gill had told PTI that the bank was in discussions with investors who were willing to collectively pump in $3 billion, including what later got revealed as Braich's $1.2 billion offer.The bank had said it had to go slow on lending in the September quarter due to capital scarcity, and that it would like to get done with the infusion by end of December itself.It can be noted that the goings have been difficult for Ye Bank since August last year, when the RBI refused to clear Kapoor's reappointment citing concerns over governance and loan practices.Immediately after his appointment in March this year, Gill identified stressed assets and started providing for them, resulting in it reporting its first ever quarterly loss in March this year.The board had on November 29 decided that it would raise up to $2 billion through a preferential allotment of shares to the investors who have evinced interest, which also include Discovery Capital and Ward Ferry.It had also claimed to have made interest from an unnamed "top-tier" US fund house to invest $120 million.
By Chandan TapariaNifty opened with marginal gains on Tuesday, but started correcting from the word go and ended the session forming a Bearish Belt Hold candle on the daily chart. The index faced resistance around the 20 DEMA and continued to make lower lows throughout the day.It formed lower highs and lows for the third consecutive session and closed below its immediate support at 11,888 level, which doesn't bode well for the bulls. Now, we may see the continuation of the ongoing corrective move towards its next support at 11,800 and then 11,700 levels. On the upside, resistance shifted lower towards 11,950 and 12,050 levels.In monthly options, maximum Put open interest was seen at strike price 11,500 followed by 12,000, while maximum Call OI was at 12,000 followed by 12,200 level. Some Call writing was seen at strike prices 11,900, 12,000 and 12,200, while there was marginal Put writing at strike prices 11,900 and 11,500, followed by unwinding at strike prices 12,000 and 12,100. Options data suggested a trading range between 11,700 and 12,100 levels.India VIX fell 2.12 per cent to 14.29 level.In line with the benchmark indices, Bank Nifty started correcting from initial trades and formed a Red Body Candle on the daily chart. The banking index moved within Monday's trading range and thus formed an Inside Bar pattern on the daily chart. It closed below the 20 EMA on the daily chart. As long as it sustains below its resistance zone between 31,500 and 31,600 levels, a corrective move towards the 31,000 – 30,800 range cannot be ruled out.Nifty futures closed negative at 11,903 with a 0.53 per cent loss. There was long buildup in Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Finance, while shorts were seen in Apollo Tyre, RBL Bank, GAIL, NBCC and ZEEL.(Chandan Taparia is Technical & Derivative Analyst at MOFSL. Investors are advised to consult financial advisers before taking an investment calls based on these observations)
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a 2009 law, which diluted the liability of third-party intermediaries over any published content, would not apply to a pre-2009 defamation case filed against Google India by Visaka Industries over an allegedly defamatory write-up on asbestos.Visaka Industries filed the complaint after the company said it issued legal notices asking Google India to take down the write-up. Google then moved the Andhra High Court for quashing the proceedings, but did not get any relief.On Google's appeal, the Supreme Court stayed the proceedings till it had applied its mind to the issues involved. On Tuesday, a bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and KM Joseph ordered that the case be sent back to a Secunderabad magistrate for a trial.The relaxation in the liability of third-party intermediaries, the court said, would not be available to pre-2009 cases, especially defamation cases.The complainant, a public limited company, claimed that it manufactured asbestos cement sheets in all its plants in an environment-friendly manner, but was still targeted by the coordinator of the Ban Asbestos India group. The coordinator wrote a piece against the company, which it claimed injured its reputation.The service provider (Google) made it easier than ever before to disseminate the defamatory statements to the worldwide audience over the Internet, without taking any due care and diligence to prevent it, Visaka Industries claimed.The court took note of the earlier version of Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, which was kept at bay the impact of other laws. After an amendment, the law exempted third-party intermediaries if they had removed the offensive material once their attention was drawn to it.A subsequent court judgement clarified that it would be exempt only if it had taken the offensive material down following a government or court order.That benefit was not available to the respondent in this case despite the government backing the argument that even in pre-amendment, an intermediary could not know the contents of what was posted on its website and, therefore, be held liable in the absence of a takedown order by a court or government agency.
MUMBAI: In some good news to the millions graduates and also to the education system in the country as a whole, where for many years as much as 70 percent of the professional degree holders were found to be unemployable, a survey has found that nearly half of the fresh pass-outs are employable now. The survey, however, does not speak about the jobs scenario given the shape of the economy due to the high capacity underutilization prevalent in across most industry segments for many years now. According to the India Skills Report by Wheebox, People Strong and CII, there is an overall positive trend in talent supply as over 46 percent of the students surveyed are found to be employable or ready to take-up jobs in 2019 against only 33 percent in 2014. "There is an improvement in the availability of employable talent at around 47 percent in 2019 up from 33.9 percent in 2014," Wheebox founder and chief executive Nirmal Singh said. The most employable candidates are MBA passouts with 54 percent of the being found employable against 40 percent in two years ago, it said, adding BPharma, polytechnic, BCom and BA graduates have also seen an improvement in their employability which has increased by over 15 percent. However, there has been a decline in the employability for those coming out with BTech, other engineering streams, MCA, technical and computer-related courses, says the survey. The survey is based on a study by the talent management specialisit Wheebox which has conducted the national employability test survey from July-November 2019 with more than 3 lakh participants from 3,500 educational institutions across the country. Further, Maharashtra tops among the states in highest employability followed by Tamil Nadu, UP, Andhra and Karnataka. Mumbai is ranked at the top, followed by Hyderabad in terms of the most employable cities. Bengaluru, New Delhi, Pune, Lucknow and Chennai have maintained their presence in the top 10 list over the past six years. States those saw a dip in their ranking are Bengal and Haryana, which could not make it into the top 10 list. The survey finds the employability scores amongst men and women both are at par. The talent pool of women can be found in Telangana, Rajasthan and Delhi. While at the city level, Hyderabad, Ghaziabad and Visakhapatnam are in the top three to have the most employable women talent pool.
RCEP pullout: Asymmetry in FTAs on govt radar, says Piyush Goyal Speaking in Rajya Sabha on RCEP, Goyal said: "Any trade deal like RCEP must consider that countries have very different sizes and population, unequal levels of economic development and human development indicators, contrasting levels of prosperity, investment capacity, cultural diversity and significantly different political and judicial systems."
No turnaround at SBI: NPA divergences lead to net loss of Rs 6,968 crore in FY19 The revised gross NPA stood at Rs 1.84 lakh crore against the bank's earlier reported figure of Rs 1.72 lakh crore. The divergence in provisioning for FY19 came in at Rs 12,036 crore.
Express IT Awards Jury meet: The jury is in, countdown begins The jury, more fastidious than ever before, scrutinised every one of the short-listed entries painstakingly. In the innovation category they were looking for solutions which are home-grown and cater for problems which are India-specific. Indeed, if there was a solution that could solve simple problems and do it across a large landscape, it was a winner.
Capital hunt! Yes Bank weighs Citax; no call on Braich yet Yes Bank's search for capital has been getting more arduous as its disclosure of names of prospective investors ended up raising more questions than answers.
Support to NSO: Corporate database for GDP to get wider In November last year, the government came under sharp attack from the Congress when data were revised to show the average annual growth rate between 2005-06 and 2013-14 (UPA period) stood at just 6.7%, against 7.7% recorded in the first four years of the NDA government.
OTT: Regional content gains ground on Hotstar As proliferation of cheap smartphones and affordable data take video consumption beyond metros, regional content has gained ground leading to increased demand for OTT platforms. The number of video OTT platforms increased to 32 in 2018 from less than 15 players in 2012, showed a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report.
