Last week, when a deranged lunatic gunned down dozens of Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand it suddenly became the biggest news story in the world, and rightly so.
It was a major news event, and it needed to be reported. But shouldn't mass killings of Christians be given the same sort of media coverage? Sadly, we all know that doesn't happen. Whenever there is a mass killing of Christians, it is usually entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the United States, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why this is happening. Those that control the mainstream media consider Christians to be one of the main obstacles to "progress" in this country, and so any story that would put Christians in a positive or sympathetic light simply does not fit any of the narratives that they are pushing.
WNU Editor: My sentiments exactly. In my opinion one of the most under-reported stories of the past decade has been the industrial scale extermination of the Christian population and its culture in the Middle East. And it is a lack of coverage that still continues.
More than 1,000 people were feared dead in Mozambique four days after a cyclone slammed into the country, submerging entire villages and leaving bodies floating in the floodwaters https://t.co/18qyotSEL2pic.twitter.com/hDm47ZrPZU
American intelligence spending could rise to nearly $86 billion, a 6% increase that reflects the Trump administration's proposed boost in defense and national security spending and a renewed focus on threats from Russia and China https://t.co/Ve3weaSNdV
A column of bikers carrying Russian flags kicked off the event on Saturday in a procession of cars and motorcycles from Simferopol to Sevastopol in Crimea. Sergey Malgavko / TASS
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plans were thrown into further turmoil on Monday when the speaker of parliament ruled that she could not put her divorce deal to a new vote unless it was re-submitted in fundamentally different form.
In comments that blindsided May's office, Speaker John Bercow said the government could not bring forward proposals for a vote in parliament that were substantially the same as had been defeated twice before, in January and last week.
Brexiteers seeking a complete break from the European Union saw a "no-deal" exit as now more likely, but the government made clear it would seek to put off Brexit beyond the March 29 departure date, if the EU approves.
WNU Editor: That was unexpected. What's my take. This is what happens when 52% of the population votes one way in a referendum, but a majority of MPS have a different opinion. A frigging mess and the establishment doing everything possible to sabotage the results of a referendum.
Afghanistan National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi before their meeting at the Zhongnanhai Leadership Compound in Beijing, China January 10, 2019. Andy Wong/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In fallout from a feud over U.S.-Taliban peace talks, a senior U.S. diplomat has told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that U.S. officials will no longer deal with his national security adviser, four knowledgable sources said on Monday.
The decision to end U.S. contacts with Hamdullah Mohib will almost certainly raise tensions between the allies over Kabul's exclusion from negotiations that have mainly focused on a U.S. troop pullout and how the Taliban would stop militant groups from using Afghanistan as a springboard for attacks.
Mohib had launched a blistering public attack last Thursday on the chief U.S. negotiator, Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad.
The following day, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale told Ghani by phone that Mohib would no longer be received in Washington and U.S. civilian and military officials would not do business with him, the sources said.
WNU Editor: This move by the U.S. government is very drastic. The U.S. clearly wants no criticisms from Kabul on their one-on-one talks with the Taliban.
Marine Raiders with 1st Marine Raider Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command provide security while conducting a simulated night raid on a warehouse in Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 3, 2015. (Sgt. Scott A. Achtemeier/U.S. Marine Corps)
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon wants to increase its black budget for intelligence programs for a fifth straight year.
The Department of Defense has requested $22.95 billion for the top-line budget of the Military Intelligence Program, the DoD announced Monday. While the overall fiscal 2020 budget request was released last week, the MIP request typically comes days or weeks afterward.
That total includes both base budget and overseas contingency operations funding. No further budget figures or program details will be released for "national security reasons," per a department statement.
WNU Editor: $23 billion dollars is a lot of money for the Pentagon's black budget for intelligence programs, and we the public will never know the details.
Russia meddling probe head Robert Mueller (L) and US President Donald Trump (R): half of Americans agree with Trump that Mueller's investigation is a political 'witch hunt'
Half of Americans believe President Donald Trump is the victim of a political "witch hunt," nearly two years after the launch of the Russia meddling investigation, a new poll showed Monday.
Voters are also broadly opposed, 62 percent to 28 percent, to an impeachment effort against the president in the House of Representatives, the USA Today/Suffolk University poll showed.
But they overwhelmingly want Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report on whether Trump obstructed justice and whether his campaign colluded with Russians made public.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly said the European members of NATO should build their 'autonomy' amid questions over US commitment to the alliance
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said on Monday that Europe was concerned about the United States' long-term commitment to NATO and implicitly criticized President Donald Trump's approach toward the military alliance.
Trump, as the alliance's de facto leader, has made defense spending a priority after years of defense cuts following the 1945-90 Cold War. He has questioned NATO's value to Washington.
"What Europeans are worried about is this: will the U.S. commitment be perennial?," Parly said during an event in Washington. She will meet with her American counterpart at the Pentagon on Monday to discuss issues including Syria.
"The alliance should be unconditional, otherwise it is not an alliance. NATO's solidarity clause is called Article 5, not article F-35," Parly added, in a reference to the Lockheed-Martin F-35 jet fighter. She did not mention Trump specifically.
The "Islamic State" has now almost lost all the territory it once controlled. But assuming this development means the scourge of jihadism will end is premature, writes guest contributor Rainer Hermann.
The so-called Islamic State (IS) is nearly defeated, militarily speaking, thanks to the determined efforts of the international community.
However, one should not be fooled into thinking that everything will return to normal once the last IS stronghold is conquered and the last fighter has surrendered. This is merely one step in a larger struggle against jihadi terrorism.
* Police release photo of Gökmen Tanis, 37, captured on the tram's CCTV just minutes before the shooting * Three people have died and five people are injured after the shooting in Utrecht, central Netherlands * Police said the gunman 'who may have had a terrorist motive', opened fire on a tram in the city centre * The assailant fled the scene but police have since arrested a suspect in the Oudernoord district of Utrecht * Tanis' family members in Turkey say the person targeted on the tram was a relative of the 37-year-old * Dutch government raised the terrorism threat level to highest possible, and schools were on lockdown earlier * Incident took place just three days after a terror attack on two mosques in New Zealand where 50 were killed
A gunman has killed three people on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht in what authorities said may have been a terror attack, and a suspect has been seized after an hours-long manhunt which saw schools and businesses in lockdown.
Turkish-born Gökmen Tanis, 37, was allegedly targeting one of his own relatives in this morning's shooting, which left five other people injured, and saw the terrorism threat level in Utrecht raised to the highest possible.
The suspect - who 'was known' to authorities - was detained during a raid on the Oudernoord district of Utrecht, and the threat level in the province has been downgraded by one notch as a result of the arrest, Dutch police confirmed.
An air ambulance pilot was flying west of Las Vegas when something odd caught his night vision goggle aided eye. We have the audio of his report.
Around 9pm local time on Saturday, March 16th, 2019, an air ambulance helicopter was flying roughly 15 miles west of central Last Vegas when something odd caught his aided eye. During an exchange with an air traffic controller, the pilot of Mercy Air 21, an Agusta 119 Koala helicopter, noted spotting an unidentified object some distance from his position and only he was likely able to see it in the darkness as he was wearing night vision goggles (NVGs). The controller responded that he had nothing on radar in the area where he was seeing the object, but when he heard the pilot could only see it through his NVGs, he responded with amazement.
WNU Editor: It could have been a malfunction in the equipment, or some other simple explanation. But considering how close this sighting was made to a number of U.S. Air Force bases and tests ranges including Area 51 (see above map), you have to wonder if the US Air Force was experimenting with some top secret stuff in the skies that night. Or it could be for the reason below. :)
Since 2016, dozens of American officials have come home from Cuba and China with unexplained brain trauma. Evidence shows it may be the work of another government using a weapon that leaves no trace
In 2016 and '17, 25 Americans, including CIA agents, who worked in the U.S. Embassy in Cuba suffered serious brain injuries causing impaired vision and memory loss among other persistent symptoms. Now, we've learned that at least 15 American officials in China suffered unexplained brain trauma soon after. The FBI is now investigating whether these Americans were attacked by a mysterious weapon that leaves no trace. Over many months we have been collecting evidence of what appears to be a hostile foreign government's plan to target americans serving abroad and their families.
WNU Editor: Canadian diplomats have also been affected .... Canadian Diplomats Sue Their Own Government Over Injuries Suffered In Cuba (February 7, 2019). What's my take. Considering the number of diplomats and their families that have been impacted, and the countries where they were stationed, this smells to me of an intel operation gone wrong done in both Cuba and in China. Both countries are authoritarian regimes, nothing happens in these two countries without their intelligence community knowing about it. As to who is responsible for it? My gut tells me .... and it is just a gut feeling with no evidence .... that in one of these two countries a device was developed to conduct surveillance, and the other country learned about it and took it for their own surveillance operation.
South Korean National Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo reviews an honor guard during an armed forces full honor arrival ceremony hosted by U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis before the 50th annual ROK-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting at the Pentagon in Washington, U.S., October 31, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
SEOUL (Reuters) - It is premature to say whether recent activity at some of North Korea's rocket facilities involved preparation for a missile launch, South Korea's defence minister told a parliamentary hearing on Monday.
Early in March, several American think-tanks and South Korean officials reported that satellite imagery showed possible preparations for a launch from the Sohae rocket launch site at Tongchang-ri, North Korea, which has been used in the past to launch satellites but not intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.
"It's hasty to call it missile-related activity," Defence Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo told a parliamentary defence committee.
"Tongchang-ri is a launch site but we don't see any activity being carried out for a missile launch."
WNU Editor: South Korea's unification minister is even saying that there are indications that .... North Korea activity at a missile launch site could be preparations for a "demolition." .... Seoul official: North Korea could be dismantling rocket launch pad (UPI). This follows earlier reports that North Korea's nuclear sites are quiet .... No New Activity Spotted At North Korean Nuclear Sites (March 16, 2019). These reports from Korea are completely contrary to Western media reports that North Korea is restarting its missile and nuclear programs. So who is right?
Three accused Islamic State fighters are held as prisoners on a pickup truck near al-Shadadi, Hasaka countryside, Syria, Feb. 18, 2016. REUTERS/Rodi Said
DERIK, Syria — In a dimly lit room the men sit on rows of bunk beds, their legs crossed or extended. Some smoke or read. Others rock rhythmically to and fro, mumbling prayers under their breath. Bright pink blankets stand in stark contrast with the grim atmosphere. A pale, thin man with wire-rimmed spectacles and a wispy beard stares daggers at a reporter who is allowed to peer briefly through a grilled window built into the cell's iron door. He's from Dagestan and, like the rest of his fellow prisoners at the Derik Central Prison for Terrorists in northeastern Syria, he was a fighter for the Islamic State.
WNU Editor: Not surprised to read that many of the prisoners are foreigners. It is an understatement to say that many of these inmates are very dangerous.
The Syrian president appears comfortably in power, but his supporters in Moscow can't afford to pay for reconstruction; his adversaries in the West can, but won't.
When the Syrian conflict began, in March 2011, Bashar al-Assad seemed likely to be ousted, like other strongmen swept away by the Arab Spring. Eight years later, Assad is still president, but of a fractured, demolished country. Now one big question is: Who will pay to rebuild Syria?
The bill is large. The United Nations estimates the cost of reconstruction at $250 billion (about four times Syria's prewar GDP, or roughly the size of Egypt's economy). Russia wants the West to pay up; its military support is essential to the Assad regime's survival, but it has its own economic constraints. However, the United States and its Western allies have adamantly refused, absent meaningful political changes. There would be "no reconstruction without [a] political transition," a French embassy spokeswoman recently told me. Last fall, Nikki Haley, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, dismissed as "absurd" Russia's push for Western support. That leaves 18 million people, about a third of whom are refugees, facing an uncertain future in a country that's far worse off now than it was when the conflict began.
WNU Editor: As long as Assad is President, and there is a presence of Iranian and Hezbollah forces in the country, there will be no reconstruction funds. But for Assad and his allies, they will accept that as the price to pay to stay in power, even at the expense of the country.
TEHRAN, Mar. 17 (MNA) – The Chief of General Staff of Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri has called for putting an end to the illegal presence of foreign troops in Syria.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The military chiefs of staff of Syria, Iran and Iraq will hold a rare meeting in Damascus to discuss "ways to combat terrorism", the pro-Syrian government al-Watan daily reported on Monday.
The paper gave no further details of what would likely be discussed at the meeting, or its timing and location.
Iran has been one of the most steadfast supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during eight years of civil war, and is also a close ally of Iraq.
The United States has said it wants to limit what it calls Tehran's destabilizing influence in the Middle East, including in Iraq and Syria.
* SDF troops say they have seized buildings inside ISIS's last stronghold, Baghouz * Advance came early on Monday after a night of heavy shelling and airstrikes * Kurdish forces are working to repel an ISIS counter-attack, commanders say * Up to 5,000 people including jihadi fighters are thought to be inside the camp
American-backed fighters in Syria have seized buildings inside ISIS's last stronghold after a night of intense shelling and airstrikes.
Troops for the Syrian Democratic Forces captured a cluster of buildings inside Baghouz early on Monday and were facing off against an ISIS counter-attack.
'Several positions captured and an ammunition storage has been blown up,' SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said on Twitter.
* Police release photo of Gökmen Tanis, 37, captured on the tram's CCTV just minutes before the shooting * Three people have died and nine people are injured after the shooting in Utrecht, central Netherlands * One or several gunmen, 'who may have had a terrorist motive', opened fire on a tram in the city centre * The assailant or assailants fled the scene and police have since surrounded a building in the city * Dutch government has raised terrorism threat level to highest possible, and schools are on lockdown * Incident took place just three days after a terror attack on two mosques in New Zealand where 50 were killed
Dutch police have named a suspect in the 'terrorist-motivated' shooting on a tram in Utrecht, which resulted in the death of three people and left nine others injured.
Police tweeted a photograph of Turkish-born Gökmen Tanis, 37, believed to have been captured on the tram's CCTV just four minutes before the incident at 10.45am this morning, and urged the public to 'look out for him but do not approach.'
The gunman, who may not have been acting alone, fled the scene, reportedly in a stolen red Renault Clio, which has since been found abandoned in Utrecht, Holland's fourth largest city with a population of around 340,000.
Authorities say several people have been injured and three were killed in a shooting on a tram in Utrecht. The terror threat level around the Dutch city has been raised to maximum as police hunt for the suspected gunman.
A gunman opened fire on a tram in the central Dutch city of Utrecht on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding nine, said city Mayor Jan van Zanen.
"At this stage, we can confirm three deaths and nine wounded, three of them seriously," van Zanen said in a video message on Twitter. He added that a "terror motive" was the most plausible reason for the attack.
THREAD: Statement by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff #GenDunford on #Syria Troop Numbers: A claim reported this evening by a major U.S. newspaper that the U.S. military is developing plans to keep nearly 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria is factually incorrect. (1/3)
Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is refuting a Wall Street Journal report that the US military was developing plans to keep up to 1,000 troops in Syria, calling it "factually incorrect."
"There has been no change to the plan announced in February and we continue to implement the President's direction to draw down U.S. forces to a residual presence," Dunford said in a statement Sunday.
The Journal reported Sunday, citing US officials, that the US planned to continue working with Kurdish fighters in Syria who face threats from Turkey. The report said the plans came as talks between the US, Turkey, European allies and the Kurds have failed to establish a safe zone in Syria.
Young Palestinians took to the streets despite violence, intimidation and Israeli attacks, to protest the dire economic situation. Hamas blames the PA for harming 'resistance to the occupation'.
Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip violently suppressed demonstrations by hundreds of Palestinians who took to the streets across the Strip on Thursday and Friday, protesting the deteriorating economic situation under its rule. An independent Palestinian source estimates that some 500 people were held in detention on Saturday evening, after some detainees had been released.
Demonstrations were dispersed with live fire into the air, clubs, metal rods and pepper spray, Palestinian human rights organizations said. They reported journalists, some of whom were beaten and detained, were forbidden from documenting the demonstrations and had their phones confiscated, but some women watching the demonstrations from their homes documented the events.
Half a decade has passed since Vladimir Putin annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. For Russia, the costs continue to mount.
The accession treaty signed to bring the Black Sea territory into Moscow's fold is still unrecognized by most countries and the U.S. and European Union led a broad effort to punish Russia with sanctions. Undeterred, Russia has kept integrating Crimea into its economy, investing billions in new power plants and building a giant bridge to the peninsula last year.
Most of the costs Russia has incurred have come from the U.S. and EU penalties, which have piled up every year since the annexation, with new ones added for alleged election meddling and other actions. But the country and its residents -- already suffering from low prices for oil, Russia's main export -- are also feeling the pain a drop in foreign investment and stagnating incomes. A recent survey suggests the public appeal of the annexation is starting to wear off.
Here are five charts that illustrate the cost of the takeover.
WNU Editor: Even though there has been a price to pay for the annexation of Crimea, support within Russia for Crimea to be a part of the Federation is overwhelmingly in the high ninety percentile range.
A man holds a placard with a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin during celebrations marking the fifth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea in Simferopol on March 15.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Crimea to mark the fifth anniversary of what Moscow considers the day Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula became part of Russia.
Ukraine and the West have slammed Russia's move as an "illegal" annexation, leading to sanctions against Russian individuals and entities.
Putin, on March 18, inaugurated two new power stations in the cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol.
The power stations were partially launched last year, but the March 18 inauguration marked the moment they began working at full capacity.
WNU Editor: Crimea is never going to go back and be a part Ukraine. 90% of the peninsula is Russian, and just because of Ukraine's restrictions on the use of Russian in using government services, employment, and the language that is taught in schools, there is zero interest to rejoin the country. Russia has also invested billions in building a land bridge, and making Crimea independent in energy supplies. These are tangible benefits that only entrenches support to stay with Russia.
More News On The Fifth Anniversary Of Russia's Annexation Of Crimea
Maj. Gen. Duane Gamble, commanding general, U.S. Army Sustainment Command, leads a quarterly update meeting with Gen. Gus. Perna, commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, Feb. 26, 2019. (Kevin Fleming/U.S. Army)
The head of Army Materiel Command said recently that he is putting a high priority on munitions readiness to make sure Army units are prepared for the next war.
"This means having the right munitions – small-caliber to precision munitions – where we need them at the right time and the right place," Gen. Gus Perna told an audience at a March 14 Association of the United States Army event. "That means we must first ensure that the capability we have here in [the U.S.] can receive, store and issue munitions in a timely, effective manner."
A Taliban assault on checkpoints killed 22 troops, officials said Sunday, as at least 50 Afghan security forces surrendered to the militants and around 100 tried to flee to neighbouring Turkmenistan after heavy fighting in Afghanistan's northwest.
The battles mark the latest setbacks for the country's battered security forces, who come under daily attack and have suffered staggering casualties in recent years.
The attacks have continued even as the Taliban have been holding direct negotiations with the United States aimed at ending the 17-year war, with both sides citing progress.
Mohammad Tahir Rahmani, head of provincial council in the northern Faryab province, said the insurgents launched the latest attack late Saturday against checkpoints manned by police and pro-government militias in Qaisar district, setting off a fierce gun battle that lasted into Sunday morning. The army sent in reinforcements, who were among those killed.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to send terrorists targeting the country's Muslims back "in caskets" after he was named alongside other global figures in the New Zealand terror attacker's manifesto.
CYCLONE TREVOR has uprooted trees and brought intense flooding to northern Queensland after making landfall as a category three storm - here are the latest BOM updates.
CYCLONE IDAI is thrashing at the coast of Mozambique in East Africa with disastrous consequences as according to the country's president, some 1,000 people have died.
THE Indian Navy have deployed an aircraft carrier and nuclear submarines to the North Arabian Sea as tensions with Pakistan surge after the Kashmir suicide bombing in February.
(UTRECHT, Netherlands) — Dutch police say they have arrested a third person on suspicion of involvement in the tram shooting in the city of Utrecht that left three people dead and five injured.
Public prosecution office spokesman Ties Kortmann said Tuesday that three people are now in custody — the alleged shooter, 37-year-old Gokmen Tanis and two others who were also arrested on suspicion of involvement in the shooting Monday morning.
Kortmann says Tanis is being held on suspicion of manslaughter with a possible terrorist motive, but adds that investigations are continuing into what drove him to allegedly open fire in a tram.
Authorities say they have not ruled out other possible motives and Dutch media citing his neighbors in Utrecht have speculated that the shooting may have been linked to a relationship.
The spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) made his first statement in almost six months Monday, in which he dismissed claims that ISIS has been defeated and called for revenge for last week’s deadly mosque shootings in New Zealand.
“The scenes of the massacres in the two mosques should wake up those who were fooled, and should incite the supporters of the caliphate to avenge their religion,” he said, according to the New York Times. At least 50 people died when a 28-year-old Australian man opened fire during prayers at two Christchurch mosques last Friday.
The spokesman, whose identity is not known but is often referred to as Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, released the 44-minute recording via the Telegram mobile messaging app, reports the Times.
In addition to linking the New Zealand shootings to ISIS, al-Muhajir also claimed that the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is often rumored to be dead, is still alive. Al-Muhajir refuted claims made by President Donald Trump late last year that ISIS has largely been defeated, according the the Times.
The spokesman, who rarely makes statements, has never been seen in video or photograph. According to the Times, his detailed knowledge of current events raises questions about his whereabouts and how he is receiving information.
Social media users in China are coming together to support a woman who was asked to remove her goth makeup by subway staff earlier in March.
The unnamed woman posted on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo that subway staff told her she would need to take off her makeup if she wanted to ride the train, reports the BBC. The incident occurred in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
“A female security guard called her manager, and said that my make-up was ‘problematic and really horrible’,” the woman said on Sina Weibo, reports the BBC. “I’m hoping to use this relatively public platform to challenge the authorities: what laws grant you the right to stop me and waste my time?” she added.
Since the woman posted about her encounter on social media, it has been shared more than 5,000 times, according to the BBC, and thousands of others have posted pictures of themselves in heavy makeup, many using the hashtag #ASelfieForTheGuangzhouMetro.
“I’m on the bus; please hand me the makeup remover,” the BBC reports that one user posted.
China Daily reports that a security guard has been suspended for her handling of the situation. She will reportedly receive remedial training. “Guangzhou Metro apologizes publicly to the victimized passenger and to netizens, and will try to further improve its work and management to provide even better service,” Guangzhou Metro said on its WeChat account, China Daily reports.
Pete Breidahl knew something was wrong straight away. Confederate flags lined the walls, he says, and members strolled around in camouflage gear and rank insignia.
That day in November 2017 was the one and only time Breidahl, 40, visited the Bruce Rifle Club outside New Zealand’s university town of Dunedin. “Once was enough for me,” he tells TIME.
What he saw was shocking enough to prompt the former New Zealand Army soldier to tell local police they should investigate the extreme views of members. But he says his concerns fell on deaf ears.
On Saturday, one member of Bruce Rifle Club, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, was charged with murder following the massacre of 50 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch. While New Zealand has a proud reputation for religious tolerance, Friday’s mass shooting has spotlighted the country’s extremist underbelly.
“This attack has been brewing for some time,” says Clarke Jones, a terrorism expert at Australian National University. He says New Zealand could have around 70 active right wing groups.
Breidahl, a father-of-three, says he only visited the club for a serviceman’s rifle match it was hosting. Its members brazenly talked about preparing for combat, he recalled, describing the men at the club as “basement dwelling nerds that live out homicidal fantasies.”
One man in particular told Breidahl he wanted to be able to carry his gun around the university where he was studying. “He told me, ‘people carry skateboards around, what’s the difference?’”
Breidahl says the same man told him that he needed to prepare for the oncoming migration of Muslim people. “[He] told me that the army will be deployed on the streets of Dunedin to protect us from the growing terrorist attacks of Muslims,” he says.
Breidahl says another man spoke fondly about Martin Bryant, who murdered 35 people in the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 — Australia’s worst ever mass shooting.
“I was a 17-year-old kid living in Victoria, Australia, [when that happened.],” says Breidahl. “As long as I live I will never forget about a man on the news talking about the loss of his wife and child. I was in tears. The man who spoke to me talked about [Bryant] like he was a hero. He was so casual about it.”
Breidahl says the lack of empathy amongst members “scared the living daylights out of him.”
He says he still has nightmares about all the horrific things he saw during his days in the military. “Being at that shooting range… only for a day… brought back all those terrible memories.”
Breidahl says he left the club early that day, and barely finished his event because he knew he had to do something about what he had seen and heard. On November 20, 2017, he made a post in a rifle clubs Facebook group, a screenshot of which was shown to TIME, detailing strange encounters with some of the men at the event.
“I was literally scared,” the post concludes.
People were quick to respond, he says, likening the Bruce members to “Aramoana-type” fruit loops. (Aramoana was the last mass shooting in New Zealand in 1990, which claimed 14 lives.)
Breidahl says he took his concerns to the local arms officer at the Dunedin Police Station.
“She dismissed me straight away,” he says. “She told me they were ‘a bunch of funny folk’ down at the club and ‘it’s just who they were.’”
A Dunedin police spokesperson could not confirm local media reports that they were investigating Breidahl’s claims when contacted by TIME on Tuesday.
Breidahl believes the Christchurch massacres might have been prevented had his concerns been taken more seriously. “I was horrified and ashamed [when I heard the news],” he says. “We should have done more.”
Bruce Rifle Club vice-president Scott Williams says he “absolutely” rejects claims of white nationalism thriving within his membership. The club closed for the “foreseeable future” on Monday.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has vowed to reveal reforms to the nation’s gun laws within ten days of the massacre. Breidahl says it’s long overdue.
“You can’t stop crazy,” says Breidahl. “But if you take away the tool, it will save lives.”
Breidahl says he got rid of all his guns straight after Friday’s massacre. “We have failed the victims as New Zealanders,” he says. “All of us have.”
—With reporting by Charlie Campbell / Christchurch, New Zealand
(SIBOLANGIT, Indonesia) — An orangutan mother has been blinded after being shot with at least 74 air gun pellets on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, where threats to the endangered species have increased as the palm oil and paper industries shrink its jungle habitat.
An X-ray showed at least 74 air gun pellets in her body, including four in her left eye and two in the right, said veterinarian Yenny Saraswati with the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program.
The great ape, named “Hope” by her rescuers, also had several wounds believed to have been caused by sharp objects, she said Monday. Hope also was recovering from surgery to repair a broken collarbone.
Villagers spotted the severely wounded orangutan in a farm in Aceh province’s Subulussalam district last week with her month-old baby, which was critically malnourished, said Sapto Aji Prabowo, who heads the Aceh provincial conservation agency.
The baby died as rescuers rushed the pair to a clinic in neighboring North Sumatra province’s Sibolangit district.
“Hopefully Hope can pass this critical period, but she cannot be released to the wild anymore,” Saraswati said, adding that only removed seven of the pellets were removed because the veterinarians prioritized the broken collarbone and the risk of infection that it posed.
The orangutan conservation program said the use of readily available air guns to shoot and kill wildlife, including orangutans, is a major problem in Indonesia.
It said in the last 10 years, it has treated more than 15 orangutans with a total of nearly 500 air gun pellets in their bodies.
Last year, an orangutan in the Indonesian part of Borneo died after being shot at least 130 times with an air gun, the second known killing of an orangutan that year.
A 2018 comprehensive study of Borneo’s orangutans estimates their numbers have plummeted by more than 100,000 since 1999, as the palm oil and paper industries shrink their habitat and fatal conflicts with people increase.
Only around 13,400 Sumatran orangutans remain in the wild. The species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
(CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand) — New Zealand’s prime minister declared Tuesday she would do everything in her power to deny the accused mosque gunman a platform for elevating his white supremacist views, after the man dismissed his lawyer and opted to represent himself at his trial in the killings of 50 people.
“I agree that it is absolutely something that we need to acknowledge, and do what we can to prevent the notoriety that this individual seeks,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters. “He obviously had a range of reasons for committing this atrocious terrorist attack. Lifting his profile was one of them. And that’s something that we can absolutely deny him.”
She demurred about whether she wanted the trial to occur behind closed doors, saying that was not her decision to make.
“One thing I can assure you — you won’t hear me speak his name,” she said.
Later, in a passionate speech to Parliament, she urged the public to follow her lead and to avoid giving the gunman the fame he so obviously craves.
“I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost, rather than the name of the man who took them,” she said. “He may have sought notoriety, but we in New Zealand will give him nothing, not even his name.”
The shooter’s desire for attention was made clear in a manifesto sent to Ardern’s office and others before Friday’s massacre and by his livestreamed footage of his attack on the Al Noor mosque.
The video prompted widespread revulsion and condemnation. Facebook said it removed 1.5 million versions of the video during the first 24 hours, but Ardern expressed frustration that the footage remained online, four days later.
“We have been in contact with Facebook; they have given us updates on their efforts to have it removed, but as I say, it’s our view that it cannot — should not — be distributed, available, able to be viewed,” she said. “It is horrendous and while they’ve given us those assurances, ultimately the responsibility does sit with them.”
Arden said she had received “some communication” from Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg on the issue. The prime minister has also spoken with British Prime Minister Theresa May about the importance of a global effort to clamp down on the distribution of such material.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison also urged world leaders to crack down on social media companies that broadcast terrorist attacks. Morrison said he had written to G-20 chairman Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calling for agreement on “clear consequences” for companies whose platforms are used to facilitate and normalize horrific acts.
Lawyer Richard Peters, who was assigned to represent Brenton Harrison Tarrant at his initial court appearance on Saturday, told the New Zealand Herald that Tarrant dismissed him that day.
A judge ordered Tarrant to return to New Zealand’s High Court on April 5 for his next hearing on one count of murder, though he is expected to face additional charges. The 28-year-old Australian is being held in isolation in a Christchurch jail.
“He seemed quite clear and lucid, whereas this may seem like very irrational behavior,” Peters told the newspaper. “He didn’t appear to me to be facing any challenges or mental impairment, other than holding fairly extreme views.”
Peters did not return a call from The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Peters told the paper that Tarrant didn’t tell him why he wanted to represent himself. He said a judge could order a lawyer to assist Tarrant at a trial, but that Tarrant would likely be unsuccessful in trying to use it as a platform to put forward any extremist views.
Under New Zealand law, a trial is “to determine innocence or guilt,” Peters said. “The court is not going to be very sympathetic to him if he wants to use the trial to express his own views.”
Ardern previously has said her Cabinet had agreed in principle on tightening gun restrictions in New Zealand and those reforms would be announced next week. She also had announced an inquiry into the intelligence and security services’ failures to detect the risk from the attacker or his plans. There have been concerns intelligence agencies were overly focused on the Muslim community in detecting and preventing security risks.
New Zealand’s international spy agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau, confirmed it had not received any relevant information or intelligence ahead of the shootings.
In Parliament on Tuesday, Ardern said there are justified questions and anger about how the attack could have happened in a place that prides itself on being open, peaceful and diverse.
“There are many questions that need to be answered and the assurance that I give you is that they will be,” she said. “We will examine what we did know, could have known or should have known. We cannot allow this to happen again.”
Meanwhile, Christchurch was beginning to return to a semblance of normalcy Tuesday. Streets near the hospital that had been closed for four days reopened to traffic as relatives and friends of the victims continued to stream in from around the world.
Thirty people were still being treated at the Christchurch hospital, nine of them in critical condition, said David Meates, CEO of the Canterbury District Health Board. A 4-year-old girl was transferred to a hospital in Auckland and is in critical condition. Her father is at the same hospital in stable condition.
Relatives of the dead are still anxiously awaiting word on when they can bury their loved ones. Islamic tradition calls for bodies to be cleansed and buried as soon as possible. Ardern has said authorities hope to release all the bodies by Wednesday and police said authorities are working with pathologists and coroners to complete the task as soon as they can.
Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly, of Sydney, traveled to Sydney to attend and lead some of the funerals. Through a translator, he said he felt compelled to travel to Christchurch to support the grieving. A nationwide lockdown on mosques was imposed until Monday, which Hilaly said had upset Muslims whom he had visited in Auckland. Police continue to guard mosques across the country.
Grieving residents of this close-knit city have created makeshift memorials near the mosques the killer targeted and at the botanical gardens, where a mountain of flowers has grown by the day.
Janna Ezat, whose son, Hussein Al-Umari, was killed in the Al Noor mosque, visited the memorial at the gardens and became overwhelmed by the outpouring of love.
She knelt amid the flowers and wept, grabbing at daisies and lilies as though she might find her boy in them.
Ezat is comforted by reports that Hussein confronted the killer, charging at him after surviving the first spray of bullets.
“I’m very happy. I’m wearing white. We normally wear black,” she said. “But he is a hero and I am proud of him.”
A whale that washed ashore in a coastal Philippines province was revealed to have 88 pounds of plastic trash inside its body, New York Timesreports.
The 1,100-pound whale, found Saturday in the town of Mabini, had more than 40 pounds of plastic bags inside its stomach. D’Bone Collector Museum, a nonprofit organization that aims to retrieve and preserve wildlife, identified the mammal as a male curvier beaked whale in a Facebook post.
“This whale had the most plastic we have ever seen in a whale. It’s disgusting,” the post read.
The museum added that they also found 16 rice sacks, four banana plantation-style bags and multiple shopping bags during the necropsy.
“The plastic in some areas was so compact it was almost becoming calcified, almost like a solid brick,” Darrell Blatchley, president of the museum, told the Times.
In April 2018, a 33-foot sperm whale was found dead on a Spanish beach with more than 60 pounds of garbage in its digestive system, and a few months later, in June, a pilot whale died in southern Thailand after eating more than 80 plastic bags.
When whales ingest plastic, it gives them a sense of fullness without providing any essential nutrients. This leads to reduced weight, energy and swimming speed, increasing their vulnerability when pursued by predators.
The Philippines is the third-largest source of discarded plastic that ends up in the ocean, just behind two other Asian nations, China and Indonesia, according to a 2015 report released by Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. The report adds that these countries have benefitted from significant increases in GDP and living standards in recent decades, yet the waste-management infrastructure needed to cope with heightened demand for consumer products has fallen behind.
Joe Palma, the president and chief executive of the World Wide Fund for Nature in the Philippines, cited single-use plastics, the difficulty of recycling and a lack of local laws as factors contributing to the pollution.
“We’re wasting a lot more than we should be,” he told the Times.
(WASHINGTON) — The president of Brazil made an unusual visit to CIA headquarters Monday and later spoke of his admiration for the United States on the second day of a trip that reflected his country’s shift to a more pro-American stance.
President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician who succeeded a leftist who at times had a frosty relationship with the United States, arrived in the country with a half a dozen ministers and a goal of expanding trade and diplomatic cooperation between the two largest economies in the Western Hemisphere.
He was expected to meet Tuesday with President Donald Trump to discuss a range of issues, including ways to increase U.S. private-sector investment in Brazil and efforts to resolve the political crisis in Venezuela.
“Nowadays, you have a president who is a friend of the United States who admires this beautiful country,” Bolsonaro told an audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Bolsonaro underscored the difference between his administration and that of former President Dilma Rousseff by stopping by CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to discuss “international themes in the region,” according to his son, Eduardo, a Brazilian lawmaker accompanying him on his first bilateral overseas trip.
Eduardo Bolsonaro described the CIA as “one of the most respected intelligence agencies in the world,” in a tweet that was likely to raise eyebrows back home in Brazil, where the U.S. and its spy services have been regarded with suspicion in recent years.
In 2013, leaks from Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency had wiretapped conversations of Rousseff, leading to several years of tense relations between the U.S. and Brazil.
“No Brazilian president had ever paid a visit to the CIA,” said Celso Amorim, who served as foreign minister under former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and is a Bolsonaro critic. “This is an explicitly submissive position. Nothing compares to this.”
The CIA had no comment on the visit.
The far-right Bolsonaro was elected last year and is an admirer of Trump. He sought to underscore his pro-America stance with a tweet upon his arrival Sunday.
“For the first time in a while, a pro-America Brazilian president arrives in DC,” he said in the tweet. “It’s the beginning of a partnership focused on liberty and prosperity, something that all of us Brazilians have long wished for.”
Bolsonaro’s insurgent candidacy against the candidate of Rousseff’s party has been compared to Trump’s victory in 2016. The Brazilian president made the comparison himself in his speech to the Chamber of Commerce, describing how he has had to contend with “fake news” and tough coverage from established news organizations.
“We want to have a great Brazil just like Trump wants to have a great America,” he said.
The speech came after the two countries signed several bilateral agreements, including one that allows the United States to use Brazil’s Alcantara Aerospace Launch Base for its satellites, and Brazil announced an end to visa requirements for U.S. tourists who visit the country.
Brazil is seeking U.S. help with its efforts to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and to expand trade. The Bolsonaro administration is seeking to reduce public-sector spending and privatize state enterprises to cut debt and grow its economy.
A senior U.S. administration official noted that the U.S. does have a $27 billion trade surplus with Brazil and that there are opportunities to bring the nations’ business communities closer. He said there are expected to be new initiatives on energy infrastructure.
The official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, noted that Brazil has a close relationship with Venezuela’s military and may be able to serve as a go-between with the security forces that continue to support Maduro.
Brazil, like the U.S., has recognized the leader of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as Venezuela’s interim president under the argument that Maduro’s re-election last year was illegitimate.
“We have to sort Venezuela out,” Bolsonaro said. “We cannot leave them the way they are. We have to free the nation of Venezuela.”
(LONDON) — The speaker of Britain’s House of Commons dealt a potentially fatal blow to Prime Minister Theresa May’s ailing Brexit deal on Monday, saying the government couldn’t keep asking lawmakers to vote on the same deal they have already rejected twice.
The government intends to try a third time to get lawmakers to back the deal, ideally before May joins EU leaders Thursday at a Brussels summit where she is set to ask the bloc to postpone Britain’s departure. May has warned opponents that failure to approve the deal would mean a long, and possibly indefinite, delay to Brexit.
Speaker John Bercow scuttled May’s plan, saying centuries-old parliamentary rules prevent “the same proposition or substantially the same proposition” from being brought back repeatedly for votes in the same session of Parliament.
He said a new motion would have to be “fundamentally different. Not different in terms of wording, but different in terms of substance.”
The ruling caused an uproar on the government side of the House of Commons. Solicitor General Robert Buckland said Britain was facing a “major constitutional crisis.”
As interpreter and enforcer of Parliament’s rules, the speaker has huge power. Bercow — whose booming cries of “Orderrrrr!” have made him something of a global celebrity — has often used his office to boost the influence of backbench lawmakers, to the annoyance of the government.
“Part of the responsibility of the speaker is frankly to speak truth to power,” he said Monday.
Even before Bercow’s ruling, May faced a struggle to reverse the huge margins of defeat for the agreement in Parliament. It was rejected by 230 votes in January and by 149 votes last week.
Her goal is to win over Northern Ireland’s small, power-brokering Democratic Unionist Party. The DUP’s 10 lawmakers prop up May’s Conservative government, and their support could influence pro-Brexit Conservatives to drop their opposition to the deal.
Opposition centers on a measure designed to ensure there is no hard border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland after Brexit.
The mechanism, known as the backstop, is a safeguard that would keep the U.K. in a customs union with the EU until a permanent new trading relationship is in place. Brexit supporters in Britain fear the backstop could be used to bind the country to EU regulations indefinitely, and the DUP fears it could lead to a weakening of the bonds between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.
Talks between the government and the DUP are aimed at reassuring the party that Britain couldn’t be trapped in the backstop indefinitely.
But with no sign of a breakthrough, May’s spokesman, James Slack, said the government would only hold a vote if there is “a realistic prospect of success.”
Influential Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said he would wait to see what the DUP decided before making up his mind on whether to support May’s deal.
“No deal is better than a bad deal, but a bad deal is better than remaining in the European Union,” he told LBC radio.
After months of political deadlock, British lawmakers voted last week to seek to postpone Brexit. That will likely avert a chaotic British withdrawal on the scheduled exit date of March 29 — although the power to approve or reject a Brexit extension lies with the EU, whose leaders are fed up with British prevarication.
May has said that if her deal is approved, she will ask EU leaders this week to extend the Brexit deadline until June 30 so that Parliament has time to approve the necessary legislation. If it isn’t, she will have to seek a longer extension that would mean Britain participating in May 23-26 elections for the European Parliament — something the government is keen to avoid.
EU leaders say they will only grant it if Britain has a solid plan for what to do with the extra time.
“We have to know what the British want: How long, what is the reason supposed to be, how it should go, what is actually the aim of the extension?” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters in Brussels. “The longer it is delayed, the more difficult it will certainly be.”
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders agreed, saying: “We are not against an extension in Belgium, but the problem is — to do what?”
On January 1, Carlos Chamorro, one of Nicaragua’s most prominent journalists, packed his bags and snuck across the border with his wife. For months, he says, security forces from President Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian regime had been ramping up pressure on him and his colleagues to stop covering the political crisis that has gripped the Central American country of 6 million people since last April. In October, police set up a checkpoint outside his home, interrogating him whenever he stepped out. In December, they raided the offices of Confidencial and Esta Semana, the newspaper and television show that Chamorro, 63, has led for more than 20 years. As the New Year approached, sources told him authorities were planning to arrest him and fabricate a criminal case. “The aim is clearly dictatorial,” he tells TIME from exile in Costa Rica. “They think they can silence us.”
The targeting of journalists feels grimly familiar for Chamorro. In 1978 his father, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, also a famous newspaper editor, was assassinated by the regime of right-wing dictator Anastasio Somoza. Back then, Ortega was the leader of the leftwing Sandinista Liberation Front, an armed resistance group fighting Somoza’s regime. Chamorro’s murder was a major factor in turning public opinion and bringing down the regime a year later. Ortega led a transition government for five years before being elected to a six year term in 1984. While in office, the leftist redistributed lands, expanded public healthcare, and fought off the Contras—right-wing rebels that the U.S. funded and trained as part of its attempt to stop the spread of Communism during the Cold War. (Chamorro’s mother, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, was president from 1990 to 1997 after defeating Ortega in elections.)
But in recent years, critics and human rights groups say Ortega has become the kind of strongman he once fought to overthrow. After being re-elected in 2006, he pushed through changes to Nicaragua’s constitution that allow him to run for extra terms and make it harder for the opposition to win elections. Some voters and opposition parties boycotted the 2016 election, which Ortega won with his wife Rosario Murillo as his running mate. Many also accuse Ortega of corruption and of entering controversial alliances with businesses leaders, allowing them to dictate economic and labor policy. Meanwhile, the media had to operate under tight restrictions; in 2017 the Organization of American States found that journalists were experiencing intimidation, indirect censorship and a lack of access to public information and government events.
For all that, Chamorro says the regime “still tolerated criticism” from the press. “That’s precisely because they didn’t feel threatened. The government wasn’t really facing political or social opposition because it had been crushed, coopted, made illegal.”
That changed on April 18, when a small student-led protest against planned cuts to social security programs met with violent repression by police and paramilitary gangs. More protests broke out, quickly morphing into widespread calls for Ortega’s resignation.
“Immediately, we got a taste of what was to come,” Chamorro says of the crackdown on the press that began as Ortega sensed his grip on power weakening. The government ordered cable providers to take four independent news channels off the air, police and pro-government gangs beat up reporters and stole equipment from camera men. A radio reporter was struck in the head by a stick while broadcasting protesters’ clashes with the gangs on Facebook Live. Angel Gaona, a TV news reporter, was fatally shot in the head.
By the time the regime outlawed public protest in September, “effectively imposing an unofficial state of emergency,” according to Chamorro, more than 350 people had been killed — mostly by security forces and pro-government paramilitaries. Since then, Ortega has used the full force of the police and judicial system to try and stifle dissent. Political activists have been sentenced to hundreds of years in prison. In December Miguel Mora, the owner of news channel 100% Noticias, was arrested along with his news director, Lucía Pineda. Both were charged with terrorism and fomenting violence through their coverage. (They deny the charges). Their hearing has been repeatedly delayed. On March 18 a judge said it would take place on April 29. The pair remain in custody.
After the raid on Chamorro’s newsroom, armed guards took over the office in what Chamorro calls “an act of occupation.” Confidencial has remained online, operating from servers located abroad. Esta Semana had to move to YouTube after authorities threatened the owners of the television channel where it used to be broadcast, Chamorro says. He now leads a team of journalists, some also working in exile and some inside Nicaragua in clandestine conditions. “They’re working under very tense, precarious conditions. They get calls from people saying they know their every movement and they could capture them at any moment.”
Chamorro says that, despite the dangers his staff face, and the frustration of exile, he and many other Nicaraguans draw inspiration from his father. Before his father died, Chamorro says people used to ask him if he was afraid. “He’d always respond with what he claimed was a Mexican proverb: ‘Yes I’m afraid, but everyone is the owner of their own fear,’” Chamorro says, adding that he’s adopted that motto himself. “Every journalist, every university student, every priest, has to weigh their own risk and their own fear against the risks of living under a repressive dictatorship.”
Ortega has refused to step down, saying elections will be held on schedule in 2021 when his current five-year term ends. He has pledged to release some of the more than 600 people that the opposition classifies as political prisoners, in a bid to convince opposition leaders to negotiate an end to the crisis. But the day after the first 50 were released, authorities arrested another 107 at new protests on March 16.
Chamorro calls the current situation – in which Ortega clings to power but is struggles to govern a restive population – “an unsustainable state of siege.” He says that it will end in the collapse of the regime, as long as protesters keep demanding Ortega’s resignation and justice for what has happened, and if international pressure – including U.S. sanctions – remains in place. “At some point the dictatorship is going to unravel and then we’ll have a peaceful transition to democracy” he says. “I hope I’ll be there to tell that story.”
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GDC 2019: Google's new service could be 'Netflix' for video games Google isn't the only company that sees an opportunity in creating a sort of Netflix for video games
From Ayurveda practitioner to Goa CM: The phenomenal rise of Pramod Sawant When Parrikar cobbled up an alliance with the Goa Forward Party, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Independents in 2017 despite the Congress being the single largest party, Sawant was elected the Assembly Speaker.
259 allegations of sexual exploitation by UN staff and partner organisations in 2018 This represents an increase in the total number of incidents reported in 2017, when 138 allegations were made, and 165 allegations made in 2016.
RCom share price hits upper circuit after Mukesh Ambani bails out brother Anil on Ericsson dues Shares of Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications surged in trade on Tuesday morning, after Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani bailed out the firm on Ericsson dues.
Facebook unable to find enough local news to start new service 'Today In' The company plans to award some 100 grants, ranging from $5,000 to USD 25,000, to people with ideas for making more news available, said Jimmy O'Keefe, product marketing manager for "Today In."
Ola gets $300 million investment from Hyundai, Kia; raises competition for Uber The Bangalore-based company, which had been valued at $4.3 billion according to CB Insights, will continue to raise funds and has term sheets from other investors.
Rohit Shetty and Farah Khan are two of the ace directors in the industry who make their films larger than life. While there are a lot of rumours that do not turn out to be true, this particular one including the two of them have been confirmed by Rohit Shetty himself. There were reports that Rohit Shetty and Farah Khan will be joining hands to come together for a project where Farah will be directing the film and Rohit Shetty will be producing it. Apart from that, Rohit Shetty has been in the news for other reasons as well, the major one being his upcoming lady cop finale to Singham, Simmba, and Sooryavanshi.
When Rohit Shetty was at the panel of FICCI Frames 2019, Bollywood Hungama got in an exclusive conversation with him and decided to get confirmed reports on it. We asked him if Farah is really directing a film for him and what his role as a producer will be like and he said, "Yeah, Farah is directing a film for us. (I am just) just the producer. I want to see Farah happy while making the film and whatever her requirements are, whatever her vision is. We are just there to support that and nothing else, as a producer. It will be a Farah Khan film." We further enquired about the movie going on floors and he honestly replied, "She (Farah Khan) is still writing it. I think it will take a little bit of time but very soon I think. Maybe, by this year-end we will start."
Then, we came to the biggest question, if the lady cop finale is his venture with Farah and he clearly denied the rumours saying, "Farah's film? No, no! It's not that." Well, even if the lady cop film is not happening with Farah, we're just glad that both the projects are happening and we couldn't be more excited about his upcoming project
New Delhi: The promoters of IT company Mindtree have vowed that they would unconditionally oppose the attempted hostile takeover bid by Larsen and Toubro, and dubbed it a grave threat to the organisation. "A hostile takeover by Larsen and Toubro, unprecedented in our industry, could undo all of the progress we've made and immensely set our organisation back," the promoters said in a statement Tuesday.
The attempted hostile takeover bid of Mindtree by Larsen & Toubro is a "grave threat" and "value destructive" to the organisation collectively built over 20 years, the promoters said pledging to "unconditionally oppose" the hostile takeover attempt.
In the statement, the promoters — Krishnakumar Natarajan (executive chairman), Subroto Bagchi (co-founder), Rostow Ravanan (CEO) and Parthasarathy N S (executive vice chairman and COO) — went on to outline the move's potential "negative consequences to corporate culture, client relationships, employee retention".
"We don't see any strategic advantage in the transaction and strongly believe that the transaction will be value destructive for all shareholders. Our collective success depends on building and nurturing relationships with our clients and partners," it said. They added that "this unexplainable transaction will bring disruption to those relationships and impair Mindtree's ability to differentiate itself in the market and continue to deliver client value and great shareholder return".
Promising their full commitment to long-term vision of building an independent company, the statement by promoters said that they firmly "believe it is in the best interests of our shareholders…and our organisation overall to continue opposing this takeover attempt".
Mounting the country's first hostile takeover bid in the IT sector, infrastructure giant Larsen and Toubro Monday made an offer to buy up to 66 per cent stake in the Mindtree for around Rs 10,800 crore. L&T has entered into a deal to buy Cafe Coffee Day owner V G Siddhartha's 20.32 per cent stake in Mindtree and has also placed an order with brokers to pick up another 15 per cent of the company shares from the open market. Subsequent to these deals, L&T would make an open offer to buy additional 31 per cent stake through an open offer.
San Francisco: The hacker, who earlier stole and posted personal data of close to 843 million users of various popular websites on a Dark Web marketplace, has now put up the fourth set of nearly 26 million hacked databases for sale.
Hacker Gnosticplayers has put up the personal data of 26 million people using the services of six different companies globally for a value of up to 1.4231 bitcoin, or around $4,940, ZDNet reported late Monday. The companies impacted include GameSalad, Estante Virtual, Coubic, LifeBear, Bukalapak and Youthmanual. GameSalad is a game-development platform with 75 games that reached the top 100 in Apple's App Store.
"I got upset because I feel no one is learning, I just felt upset at this particular moment, because seeing this lack of security in 2019 is making me angry," the hacker told ZDNet. The stolen information mainly includes account holders' names, email addresses and passwords.
The hacker earlier posted a batch of 16 websites containing the data of 620 million users and a second batch of eight portals with the data of 127 million users, that included 18 million user records from travel booking site Ixigo and 40 million from live-video streaming site YouNow.In the third set, the hacker put up nearly 93 million hacked databases for sale. Gnosticplayers aims to sell over one billion user records.
