The employment of SkyCam in football broadcasts has received mixed reviews in the past, but this camera shot of Cordarrelle Patterson's 102-yard kickoff return touchdown on Sunday was one of those few times when the camerawork made the play even more spectacular.
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A Swedish engineer's umbrage at a traffic ticket has led to a six-year legal fight and now a global change in the speed with which traffic light signals are timed.
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Make your dentist happy by brushing smarter and better! The AquaSonic features a 40,000 VPN motor that blasts away 10x more plaque than a regular brush. Get the brush, travel case, and 8 heads for $39.99 today.
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he Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL are the best argument that specs don't tell you everything you need to know about a phone — because the experience of using a Pixel 4 is better than any other Android phone.
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Maybe, just maybe, having an ultra-corporate space-faring culture could have some problems. Explore the spiritual successor to New Vegas on October 25th without the Fallout setting, license or baggage.
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'Welcome To Pooh Corner' was one of the first shows to air when the Disney Channel first launched on April 18, 1983. For some reason, they decided to present this Winnie the Pooh adaptation with low-budget, full-body character suits.
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As I step inside Hella Novella, a recently opened comic book shop in the Mission, I realize that with my arms outstretched, I can touch both walls of graphic novels at the same time.
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Under Trump's crackdown on asylum, the U.S. government is preparing to send a woman back to a place where she was beaten and raped for the 'crime' of being a lesbian
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Payment of the presidential salary was considered an important duty under the Constitution — but there's other expenses involved in living in the White House. What is covered by the government and what does the president have to pay out of pocket?
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From Hollywood heir to Hillary Clinton's State Department to failed cable news host to Pulitzer Prize winner, Ronan Farrow explains his path to 'Catch and Kill' and what comes next.
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More than 2,500 physicians have received at least half a million dollars apiece from drugmakers and medical device companies in the past five years alone, a new ProPublica analysis of payment data shows.
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I hate to say I told you so, but well... as predicted, in the wake of Trump's commanded military withdrawal from northeast Syria, the once U.S.-backed Kurds cut a deal with the Assad regime. (And Vice President Mike Pence has now brokered a five-day cease-fire.) Admittedly, Trump the "dealmaker" ought to have brokered something similar before pulling out and before the Turkish Army—and its Sunni Arab Islamist proxies—invaded the region and inflicted significant civilian casualties.
One must admit that a single phone call between Trump and President Erdogan of Turkey has turned the situation in Syria upside down in just over a week. The Kurds have requested protection from Assad's army, Russian troops are now patrolling between the Kurds and invading Turks, and the U.S. is (for once) watching from the sidelines.
WNU Editor: President Trump has certainly disrupted how Washington works. As I had said in a previous post. I never thought I would see the day when Democrats are condemning a President for withdrawing from a conflict that shows no sign of ever ending. And where are the anti-war protesters?
Activist Dany Mortada has spent the last four days on the streets of Beirut as part of anti-government protests amid an economic crisis in Lebanon https://t.co/MOQWFQC4mmpic.twitter.com/YBM0ibjdJF
Paralysed by seething protesters and unyielding bosses in Beijing, Hong Kong's government lacks the power and experience to end the unprecedented political crisis, analysts sayhttps://t.co/NjrQlbtU6Q
Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighters gesture as they stand at a back of a truck in the border town of Tal Abyad, Syria, October 17. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
VANCOUVER, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, hit by scandals and locked in a near dead-heat ahead of Monday's election, has put away his teleprompter and taken his campaign on the offensive.
A day ahead of a federal election that looked as though it could spell the end for one of the world's last remaining progressive leaders, the Trudeau team is seeing signs of hope.
Surveys of public opinion still indicate that Trudeau will lose his majority in Parliament and be forced to rely on the support of smaller parties.
But talk of an outright loss to the main opposition Conservative Party of Andrew Scheer is fading and a weekend of bad headlines for the Conservatives has energized Liberal aides.
A month before invading Kurdish areas in Syria, Turkey's president said he "cannot accept" the West's restrictions that keep him from a bomb.
WASHINGTON — Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants more than control over a wide swath of Syria along his country's border. He says he wants the Bomb.
In the weeks leading up to his order to launch the military across the border to clear Kurdish areas, Mr. Erdogan made no secret of his larger ambition. "Some countries have missiles with nuclear warheads," he told a meeting of his governing party in September. But the West insists "we can't have them," he said. "This, I cannot accept."
With Turkey now in open confrontation with its NATO allies, having gambled and won a bet that it could conduct a military incursion into Syria and get away with it, Mr. Erdogan's threat takes on new meaning. If the United States could not prevent the Turkish leader from routing its Kurdish allies, how can it stop him from building a nuclear weapon or following Iran in gathering the technology to do so?
It was not the first time Mr. Erdogan has spoken about breaking free of the restrictions on countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and no one is quite sure of his true intentions. The Turkish autocrat is a master of keeping allies and adversaries off balance, as President Trump discovered in the past two weeks.
WNU Editor: If countries like Pakistan and India can develop and manufacture a nuclear weapon, so can Turkey. But is Turkey ready to spend the billions to build such an arsenal, and risk the political fallout from doing so. At this moment in time the answer is no.
Latin America, the traditional poster child for political risk in financial markets, is back as a source of concern for investors.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Saturday became the second leader this month to declare a state of emergency, his hand forced by violent protests in South America's wealthiest country after an increase in transportation costs. In Ecuador, unrest blew up after President Lenin Moreno ended fuel subsidies.
Argentina, meanwhile, is back in the grip of capital controls after voters revolted against President Mauricio Macri's budget-cutting agenda and handed his opponents a commanding lead ahead of presidential elections on Oct. 27.
The upshot is that Latin Americans are yet again rejecting austerity sought by investors and the likes of the International Monetary Fund, arguing it does little to reduce income inequality or improve social services.
WNU Editor: Almost every country in Latin America is facing some crisis or another. The countries that are on my radar are the following .... Venezuela with its political and economic collapse. Mexico's horrific murder rate and drug wars. Central America's criminal gangs and poor economic conditions. Colombia's never ending war against groups like FARC and ELN. Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil facing economic hard times.
Seen for the first time late Friday, Oct. 18, 2019, and ready for transport in Redondo Beach is a secret payload from Northrop Grumman that is being taken to King Harbor Marina, where it will be lifted onto a barge on the way to its next destination. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily Breeze/SCNG)
The system being moved represents a big leap in ship-based directed energy capabilities and is slated to be tested aboard USS Portland.
Less than a day ago, The War Zone reported on a mysterious and very large object related to a "U.S. Navy demonstration program" that was being shipped by Northrop Grumman from the relatively small marine in Redondo Beach to San Diego. Now, as the object is set to be transported via truck to the pier, we know what it is. It is a high-energy laser system that we can say with near certainty is part of the Solid-State Laser Technology Maturation (SSL-TM) program that Northrop Grumman won the contract for in 2015.
Secretary of State defends ceasefire deal with Turkey. Says it will save lives. US will work to stop Iranian arm transfers.
"Our administration's been very clear," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive Friday interview, published on Sunday. "Israel has the fundamental right to engage in activity that ensures the security of its people. It's at the very core of what nation-states not only have the right to do, but an obligation to do."
Immediately after assisting Vice President Mike Pence in negotiating a Syria ceasefire with Turkey in Ankara on Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headed to Israel. He told the Israeli newspaper in the interview that the ceasefire deal with Erdogan "saved lives". However, with American troops now exiting Syria, the question of potential Iranian expansion and Israel's security was focus of his statements.
The Taiwan News reported that even though she graduated five years ago, Chairman Xi's daughter has returned to Harvard for graduate studies. The newspaper speculates that Xi sent her to protect her safety.
The Taiwan News said she may be unhappy with life in Red China.
The newspaper reported, "Some observers also consider the move to be a potential safeguard. Sending his daughter back to the U.S. might be considered a diplomatic measure to signal trust in Washington and also a means for Xi to remove his daughter from harm if factional struggles within the Communist Party were ever to threaten Xi's grip on power."
Tens of thousands of anti-communist protesters defied an official ban to march through one of Hong Kong's prime tourist districts Sunday. But what began as a peaceful demonstration followed the usual pattern and degenerated into violence, arson and destruction.
Marchers originally intended to rally at the West Kowloon high-speed rail terminus—a showpiece transport hub, built at a cost of $10.7 billion, connecting the former British colony to mainland Chinese cities. Some parts of the facility are subject to mainland customs and immigration laws and therefore the terminus is seen as a symbol of Beijing's presence by many protesters, whose push for greater political freedom has taken on an increasingly anti-China tone over five months of unrest.
Casualties on both sides of the border from mortars and small arms fire
At least nine people were killed Sunday in firing along the de facto India-Pakistan border in Kashmir, officials said, adding to the spike in deaths in recent days as New Delhi eased a curfew in the disputed region.
Tensions escalated between the nuclear-armed neighbors after India revoked Kashmir's autonomy on August 5 and imposed movement and communications restrictions to quell unrest.
Officials from the two countries accused each other of firing mortar rounds and small arms along the so-called Line of Control.
The U.S. on Friday announced that it will impose new sanctions on Cuba over its human rights violations and for supporting Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and his government.
The Commerce Department wrote in a statement that it will "further restrict" Cuba's access to commercial aircraft and other goods.
The department will revoke any existing licenses for aircraft leases to Cuban state-owned airlines and will deny any future lease applications. It will also impose additional sanctions to cover foreign goods that have U.S. content, according to the department.
To understand how far it has deteriorated, The New York Times ran tests and found dangerous levels of bacteria.
The brick shack on the outskirts of Venezuela's capital is crowded with tubs, jugs and buckets. The water they hold must last the family of eight for a week — but it's not enough for frequent washing or flushing, so the kitchen is filled with greasy pots and the house smells of stale urine.
And none of the water is treated, making diarrhea and vomit a regular occurrence.
"We practically live in the bathroom," said the mother of the family, Yarelis Pinto. Her pregnant daughter, Yarielys, sat nearby, pale and listless, recovering from her latest bout of diarrhea just one month away from childbirth.
In Venezuela, a crumbling economy and the collapse of even basic state infrastructure means water comes irregularly — and drinking it is an increasingly risky gamble. Venezuela's current rate of infant mortality from diarrhea, which is closely related to water quality, is six times higher than 15 years ago, according to the World Health Organization.
But the government stopped releasing official public health data years ago.
WNU Editor: I have one contact who lives in Caracus, and he told me months ago that everyone knows the water system is a threat to public health.The New York times is only a few months late. On a side note. Apparently support for the government who is responsible for this catastrophe is still strong .... Thousands Rally in Support of Maduro in Caracas (VOA).
Director of U.S. National Intelligence James Clapper (R) listens to CIA Director John Brennan (L) during testimony at the House Intelligence Committee on 'Worldwide Threats', in Washington February 4, 2014. (Reuters)
If U.S. Attorney John Durham is conducting a criminal investigation, it's not clear what allegations of wrongdoing are being examined.
A review launched by Attorney General William Barr into the origins of the Russia investigation has expanded significantly amid concerns about whether the probe has any legal or factual basis, multiple current and former officials told NBC News.
The prosecutor conducting the review, Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, has expressed his intent to interview a number of current and former intelligence officials involved in examining Russia's effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, including former CIA Director John Brennan and former director of national intelligence James Clapper, Brennan told NBC News.
Durham has also requested to talk to CIA analysts involved in the intelligence assessment of Russia's activities, prompting some of them to hire lawyers, according to three former CIA officials familiar with the matter. And there is tension between the CIA and the Justice Department over what classified documents Durham can examine, two people familiar with the matter said.
WNU Editor: Inspector General Horowitz is set to release his report on FISA Court abuses this coming week, and the leaks implicating top intelligence officials are already coming out .... Review of Russia Inquiry Grows as FBI Witnesses are Questioned (New York Times). Everyone is now hiring lawyers, and I predict the blow-back against this investigation will only grow with time (see below).
A Western intelligence official familiar with what Durham has been asking of foreign officials says his inquiries track closely with the questions raised about the Russia investigation in right-wing media—a line of inquiry based on accusations made by George Papadopoulos. https://t.co/pku50keorJ
* Hawaii congresswoman and presidential candidates hit back at Hillary Clinton * Gabbard accused ex-Secretary of State of being 'embodiment of corruption' * Clinton said Gabbard was a 'Russian asset' who was being 'groomed by Kremlin' * Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang were only Democratic candidates to back Gabbard * Others remained silent while Cory Booker mocked Gabbard's rebuttal to Clinton * Clinton backed out of appearance at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit * She and Gabbard had been scheduled to speak there next week * Clinton confidante insists she backed out of event because of Kirstjen Neilsen
Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard assailed Hillary Clinton for 'having blood on her hands' after the former Secretary of State claimed that Russia was grooming the congresswoman from Hawaii to be a third-party candidate.
'Thousands of my brothers and sisters in uniform were killed in Iraq, a war that she championed,' Gabbard told Fox News on Friday.
'Their blood is on her hands. That's why she's smearing my character and trying to undermine my campaign.'
Clinton, the Democratic nominee who lost to Donald Trump in the 2016 election, told a podcast hosted by former Obama aide David Plouffe on Friday that Gabbard is a 'Russian asset'.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announces the House of Representatives will launch a formal inquiry to investigate whether to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump following a closed House Democratic caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., September 24, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other U.S. lawmakers announced late Saturday U.S. time that they had arrived in Jordan for meetings with King Abdullah II and other officials regarding the situation in Syria.
Although touted as a "bipartisan" delegation, the group includes just one Republican -- Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, ranking member of the House Armed Services Commitee. Thornberry is among a group of Texas Republicans who've announced they won't seek reelection in 2020.
WNU Editor: There is only one Republican in the group -- Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. He is retiring before next year's Congressional election.
German Chancellor and head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party Angela Merkel speaks at the congress of the youth wing of the CDU, Junge Union, in Potsdam, October 16, 2010. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
POTSDAM, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's attempt to create a multicultural society has "utterly failed," Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday, adding fuel to a debate over immigration and Islam polarizing her conservative camp.
Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel said allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating had not worked in a country that is home to some four million Muslims.
"This (multicultural) approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, south of Berlin.
Merkel faces pressure from within her CDU to take a tougher line on immigrants who don't show a willingness to adapt to German society and her comments appeared intended to pacify her critics.
WNU Editor: All my European friends have been telling me for years that this progressive experiment in multiculturalism has been a dismal failure. Chancellor Angela Merkel is five years late. But I guess this debate depends on one's perspective. If you favour ethnic enclaves and ghettos then multiculturalism is a success. If you favour melting pots and cultural cohesion it is a failure. I live in Canada and it prides itself to be a multicultural society. But what I see in the Montreal suburb where I live in is the formation of ethnic/cultural ghettos, and a great deal of animosity .... especially among the French majority and its minority/immigrant communities. Is this progress .... no. And it is definitely not a success. But the political and media narrative is completely different.
Kurdish-led militiamen ride atop military vehicles as they celebrate victory over Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro/File Photo
The national media blasted President Trump's withdrawal of 50 US military advisors from the Syrian border with Turkey as a "sellout," a "betrayal" and a "huge strategic blunder."
Let's be clear: None of them truly care about the Kurds. Otherwise, they would have been sending correspondents and camera crews to Rojava, as the Kurds call northern Syria, on a regular basis.
Let's also be clear about the goals of Turkish president Tayyip Recep Erdogan. While he attempted to stylize his military invasion of Rojava as a counterterrorism operation, few international observers bought into it. Why? Because there have been no terror attacks against Turkey from Syrian territory since the Syrian Kurds established their self-governing entity in 2012. None.
WNU Editor: Turkish President Erdogan's threat to invade northern Syria and destroy Kurdish autonomy in that part of Syria was very real. His forces and his Syrian fighters were already deployed, and he gave a deadline on when he was going to do it. Given a choice between waging a war against a NATO ally with limited resources or to retreat and use the threat of sanctions to deter Turkey from destroying the Kurds, President Trump choose the one that would have the maximum impact with the least lost of life. This is not selling out the Kurds. As of today the ceasefire is still holding, but tensions are high. President Erdogan will be seeing Russian President Putin on Tuesday to discuss Syria. I understand that Putin is telling Erdogan to hold back, and to not escalate the crisis. We shall know after that meeting if this is will happen.
Moscow (CNN)As US President Donald Trump hailed the agreement his administration negotiated with the Turks for northern Syria as "a great day for civilization," the Turks quickly dumped cold water over the White House's euphoria, refusing to even call the deal a ceasefire.
Only a few hours later, airstrikes and artillery fire could be felt in northern Syria as the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces accused Ankara and its proxies of severe ceasefire violations.
The mood both in Washington and in the Middle East is that the ceasefire is not the real deal. It expires on Tuesday, October 22, the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recip Tayyip Erdogan will meet in Sochi to discuss the future of Syria. It seems pretty clear: that's when the world will find out that the real deal will be for the future of this volatile region.
WNU Editor: Russia does not own this mess. Russia is profiting from this mess. This is the difference that Western analysts and commentators are failing to understand.
Concept art for the Textron Ripsaw next-generation combat vehicle prototype. Textron
Defense One: The US Army Wants to Reinvent Tank Warfare with AI A new project aims to make the battlefield more "transparent" — while relying on robots and software that "think" in unpredictable ways.
Tank warfare isn't traditionally easy to predict. In July 1943, for instance, German military planners believed that their advance on the Russian city of Kursk would be over in ten days. In fact, that attempt lasted nearly two months and ultimately failed. Even the 2003 Battle of Baghdad, in which U.S. forces had air superiority, took a week. For the wars of the future, that's too slow. The U.S. Army has launched a new effort, dubbed Project Quarterback, to accelerate tank warfare by synchronizing battlefield data with the aid of artificial Intelligence.
Russia's Armed Forces have undergone a prolonged transformation over the past decade as part of reform and modernization of Russian military capability. This has covered many facets involving numerous experiments and corrections. However, the political-military leadership has not forgotten the key role traditionally assigned to artillery in Russian combat operations. In 1944, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin asserted in a speech that "artillery is the god of war." As the current modernization process continues, it appears that artillery systems are now playing an increasingly important role in efforts to boost the accuracy of fires. Artillery reform involves an experiment to increase the effectiveness of the Missile and Artillery Troops (Raketnyye Voyska i Artilleriya—RV&A) by developing new artillery models or modernizing existing systems as well as restructuring units and integrating these into the unified information space. Some of this process draws on lessons learned from artillery use in Syria and recent tests in last month's (September 16–21) strategic-operational exercise Tsentr 2019 (see EDM, October 9; VPK, October 8).
(MADRID) — The Spanish government says it will exhume and relocate the remains of late military dictator Gen. Francisco Franco on Thursday.
In a statement Monday, the government said the remains would be taken from the grandiose mausoleum at the Valley of the Fallen complex outside Madrid and taken to a discreet grave close to the capital by helicopter.
The procedure was authorized after the Supreme Court recently dismissed the objections by Franco’s family.
The government is pushing ahead with the exhumation before Spain holds a general election on Nov. 10.
(LONDON) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is expected to appear in court as he fights extradition to the United States on charges of conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer.
The 48-year-old Australian is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court for a case management hearing. Former Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed an order in June allowing Assange to be extradited.
U.S. authorities accuse Assange of scheming with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break a password for a classified government computer.
The case is expected to take months to resolve, with each side able to make several appeals of rulings.
The public gallery was jammed with Assange supporters, and outside the courthouse others carried placards calling for Assange to be released.
Assange has been in Belmarsh Prison on the outskirts of London while the extradition case is being prepared. He is facing a number of serious charges including espionage.
The first extended hearing is set for early next year but may be delayed.
Assange claims he is a journalist entitled to First Amendment protection.
(HONG KONG) — Hong Kong officials apologized to Muslim leaders Monday after riot police sprayed a mosque and bystanders with a water cannon while trying to contain pro-democracy demonstrations in the semiautonomous Chinese city.
The city’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and its police chief visited the Kowloon Mosque to say sorry to the chief imam and Muslim community leaders.
They left without commenting but the mosque leaders told reporters that the officials apologized.
“Our mosque is not damaged, nothing is done wrong. Only thing is that they should have not done it. For that they apologized so we accept it,” said Saeed Uddin, honorary secretary of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong.
During Sunday’s protest, a police water cannon truck that was passing by the mosque suddenly sprayed a stinging blue-dyed liquid at a handful of people standing in front of its gate, according to video of the incident by pro-democracy lawmaker Jeremy Tam.
The mosque’s front steps, metal gate and sidewalk outside were stained with the blue liquid while the people caught in the plume were left gagging, coughing and trying to rinse the solution from their eyes, the video shows.
Volunteers later arrived to help clean up, and by Monday morning the blue coating was largely gone.
Tam said on his Facebook page that he and two others, an Indian businessman and the head of a charity for ethnic minorities, went to the hospital to check for injuries.
Local broadcaster RTHK reported the people outside the mosque were there to guard it.
Hong Kong authorities scrambled to minimize the fallout from the incident, which protesters seized on as the latest example of what they call unnecessarily harsh police tactics.
Police used the water cannon along with tear gas and pepper spray to battle protesters who remained on the streets after the end of an unauthorized rally, vandalizing and setting fire to shops with mainland China ties. They were rallying to call for broader political rights and police accountability, in the latest turmoil to grip the financial center since early June.
Hong Kong is home to more than 300,000 Muslims, according to the Islamic Community Fund, which runs the city’s five mosques and two Muslim cemeteries. They first arrived in the 19th century after being recruited in India by British colonizers.
Police said Sunday the spraying was an accident and sent representatives to meet with mosque leaders.
“It is most unfortunate that the dispersal operation has caused unintended impact on the Kowloon Mosque,” the force said on its Facebook page.
Later Monday, organizers planned an evening sit-in at a suburban train station on the three-month anniversary of a violent attack there on protesters by men with suspected organized crime ties.
Hong Kong’s subway operator said it would close the station by early afternoon in an apparent bid to foil the protesters, who have trashed and torched subway facilities in anger at the operator’s support for authorities.
(JAKARTA, Indonesia) — Indonesian President Joko Widodo was sworn in Sunday for his second and final five-year term with pledges to champion democracy and take bolder actions against poverty and entrenched corruption in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
Known for his down-to-earth style, Widodo opted for an austere ceremony at the heavily guarded Parliament in contrast to the festive parade and horse-drawn carriage at his first inauguration, a relaxed affair where he was cheered on by thousands of waving supporters.
A knife attack by an Islamic militant couple against his security minister on Oct. 10 prompted a security crackdown for Widodo’s second inauguration. Army troops and police, along with armored vehicles, firetrucks and ambulances, were deployed across Jakarta and major roads were closed. On his way to the ceremony, Widodo left his convoy with some of his security escorts and shook the hands of supporters, who waved national flags, yelled his name and called him “bapak,” or father.
After taking his oath before the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in front of lawmakers and foreign dignitaries, Widodo laid out ambitious targets to help Indonesia join the ranks of the world’s developed nations by its centennial in 2045.
He said in his inauguration speech that he expects poverty — which afflicts close to 10 percent of Indonesia’s nearly 270 million people — to be just about wiped out and the country’s annual GDP to reach $7 trillion by then.
“For those who are not serious, I’ll be merciless. I would definitely fire people,” Widodo warned.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan were among the dignitaries attending. President Donald Trump sent Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao for the ceremony in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy and a member of the G-20 bloc of nations.
Indonesia is a bastion of democracy in Southeast Asia, a diverse and economically bustling region of authoritarian regimes, police states and nascent democracies.
After decades of dictatorship under President Suharto, the country was convulsed by political, ethnic and religious unrest in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since then, it has consolidated its democratic transition. While most of the country remains poor and inequality is rising, it is home to a rapidly expanding middle class.
Popularly known as Jokowi, Widodo is the son of a furniture maker who grew up with his family in a rented bamboo shack on the banks of a flood-prone river in Solo city on Java island. He is the first president from outside the country’s super rich and often corrupt, political, business and military elite.
Widodo, 58, presents himself as a man of the people, often emphasizing his humble roots. His popular appeal helped him win elections over the past 14 years for mayor of Solo, governor of Jakarta and twice for president. In a reflection of his popularity, he has nearly 26 million followers on Instagram and more than 12 million on Twitter.
He has been likened to Barack Obama, but since taking office he has been perceived as unwilling to press for accountability that threatens powerful institutions such as the military. Instead, he has emphasized nationalism while also fending off attacks that he is not devout enough as a Muslim.
Widodo was sworn in with his new vice president, Ma’ruf Amin, one of the most important religious figures in Indonesia. He chose Amin as his running mate to shore up his support among pious Muslims. Amin was chairman of Majelis Ulama Indonesia, the country’s council of Islamic leaders, and supreme leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Muslim organization.
But Amin, 76, has been criticized for being a vocal supporter and drafter of fatwas against religious minorities and the LGBT community. Human Rights Watch says the fatwas, or edicts, have legitimized increasingly hateful rhetoric by government officials against LGBT people, and in some cases fueled deadly violence by Islamic militants against religious minorities.
Widodo has been widely praised for his efforts to improve Indonesia’s inadequate infrastructure and reduce poverty. He inaugurated the nation’s first subway system, which was financed by Japan, in chronically congested Jakarta in March after years of delay under past leaders.
Pressing on is the biggest challenge, however, in his final years in office given the global economic slowdown, major trade conflicts, falling exports and other hurdles that impede funding.
In an interview with The Associated Press in July, Widodo said he would push ahead with sweeping and potentially unpopular economic reforms, including more business-friendly labor laws, because he’ll no longer be constrained by politics in his final term.
“Things that were impossible before, I will make a lot of decisions on that in the next five years,” he said then.
(SANTIAGO, Chile) — Protests and violence in Chile spilled over into a new day and raged into Sunday night despite the president cancelling a subway fare hike that has prompted violent demonstrations.
Officials in the Santiago region said three people died in fires at two looted supermarkets early Sunday — among 60 Walmart-owned outlets that have been vandalized, and the company said many stores did not open during the day. Five more people later were found dead in the basement of a burned warehouse and were not employees, authorities said.
At least two airlines cancelled or rescheduled flights into the capital, affecting more than 1,400 passengers Sunday and Monday.
President Sebastián Piñera, facing the worst crisis of his second term as head of the South American country, announced Saturday night that he was cancelling a subway fare hike imposed two weeks ago. The fare boost touched off major protests that included rioting that caused millions of dollars in damage to burned buses and vandalized subway stops, office buildings and stores.
After meeting with the heads of the legislature and judicial system Sunday, Piñera said they discussed solutions to the current crisis and that he aims “to reduce excessive inequalities, inequities abuses, that persist in our society.”
Jaime Quintana, president of the Senate, said that “the political world must take responsibility for how we have come to this situation.”
Authorities said 10,500 soldiers and police officers were patrolling the streets in Santiago as state of emergency and curfew remained in effect for six Chilean cities, but protests continued during the day. Security forces used tear gas and jets of water to try disperse crowds.
Interior Minister Andrés Chadwick reported that 62 police officers and 11 civilians were injured in the latest disturbances and prosecutors said nearly 1,500 people had been arrested. He said late Sunday that there had been more than 70 “serious events” during the day, including more than 40 incidents of looting.
With transportation frozen, Cynthia Cordero said she had walked 20 blocks to reach a pharmacy to buy diapers, only to find it had been burned.
“They don’t have the right to do this,” she said, adding it was right to protest “against the abuses, the increases in fares, against bad education and an undignified pension, but not to destroy.”
Long lines formed at gas stations as people tried to fill up for a coming workweek with a public transport system disrupted by the destructive protests. Santiago’s subway, which carries an average of 2.4 million riders on a weekday, had been shut down since Friday.
Subway system chief Louis De Grange said workers would try to have at least one line running Monday, but he said it could take weeks or months to have the four others back in service. He said 85 stations and more than three-fourths of the system had been severely damaged.
(AKCAKALE, Turkey) — Kurdish fighters and civilians began evacuating from a besieged Syrian town on Sunday, the first pullback under the U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal, opening the way to a broader withdrawal of the Kurdish-led forces from parts of the Turkish border.
The evacuation is a boost to a cease-fire that has been shaky since it began on Thursday evening. Clashes have erupted daily, with occasional shelling, particularly around Ras al-Ayn, the border town where Kurdish fighters have been encircled by Turkish-led forces.
A local official in Ras al-Ayn told the Associated Press that Kurdish fighters and civilians had begun leaving in convoys. He said it was unsure if it would be completed Sunday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the process.
The cease-fire deal only calls for fighters to leave the border area. But Kurdish civilians flee as well because without their protection they fear atrocities by the Turkish-backed Syrian forces. Those fighters, who are Arab and often Islamist extremists, have been accused of killings of Kurdish civilians and captured fighters during this campaign and in other Syrian territory seized in Turkish campaigns since 2017.
A senior official in the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Redur Khalil, said that after the Ras al-Ayn evacuation, the forces will withdraw from a zone about 120 kilometers (75 miles) wide and 30-kilometers (20 miles) deep between Ras al-Ayn and the town of Tel Abyad further west.
Under the accord, that pullback is supposed to be completed by Tuesday evening when the cease-fire — or pause in fighting, as Turkey calls it — runs out.
The Trump administration negotiated the accord after heavy criticism at home and abroad that it had opened the way for the Turkish invasion by abruptly removing its soldiers from northeast Syria . That move abandoned the Kurdish-led force, which had allied with the Americans to fight the bloody, years-long campaign that brought down the Islamic State group’s rule over nearly a third of Syria.
Khalil told the AP that the SDF had reached understandings with the Americans to leave the town from the start of the cease-fire but the siege delayed the plans for days. Turkish officials have denied they were preventing the withdrawal of any fighters.
In daily gun battles, Kurdish fighters holed in up in a hospital on the town’s southern edge and nearby neighborhoods traded fire with the Turkish-backed forces. The SDF said 16 of its fighters had been killed and three wounded the past 24 hours
Both sides accuse each other of repeatedly violating the three-day old cease-fire. Turkey’s Defense Ministry said one of tis soldiers was killed Sunday in a Kurdish attack with anti-tank weapons and small arms fire near the border town of Tal Abyad.
That brought the Turkish military’s death toll to seven soldiers since it launched its offensive on Oct. 9.
On Saturday, medical convoys were able to enter Ras al-Ayn for the first time, delivering medical supplies and bringing out 30 wounded and four dead.
The broader Kurdish pullback, if it is carried out, will grant Turkish forces control of the swathe of territory roughly in the middle of the Syrian-Turkish border. The area has been the main theater of fighting during the offensive, causing the flight of tens of thousands of civilians — Arab and Kurd — from the villages that dot the landscape. At least 160,000 civilians have been displaced by the Turkish assault.
Significant issues remain over the arrangements at the border.
A previous agreement between the U.S. and Turkey over a “safe zone” along the Syria-Turkish border foundered over the diverging definitions of the area.
Erdogan has said the Kurdish fighters must withdraw from a far larger length of the border — from the Euphrates River to the Iraqi border, more than 440 kilometers (260 miles) — or else the Turkish offensive will resume Tuesday.
U.S. officials say the agreement pertains to the 120-kilometer section. Erdogan’s spokesman, Kalin, confirmed that is the area affected by the pause in fighting, but said Turkey still wants the larger zone.
Turkey considers the Kurdish-led fighters as terrorists because of their links to a Kurdish insurgent group inside Turkey. It says any presence of the group along its borders is an existential threat. Turkey also wants to resettle some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees on its soil in the border “safe zone.”
Another question is what the arrangement will be along the rest of the northeastern border, from the Euphrates River to the Iraqi border, most of which remains solely in the hands of Kurdish-led fighters.
When they were abandoned by U.S. troops, the Kurds turned to Russia and secured an agreement for Syrian government forces to deploy in the northeast last week.
So far, the Syrian forces have only moved into one location directly on the border, the town of Kobani, and a few positions further south.
Erdogan is to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian town of Sochi on Tuesday. His spokesman Kalin said he will tell Putin that Ankara does not want either Syrian forces or Kurdish fighters along the border because refugees would not go back to areas under their control.
“We want to create conditions that will be suitable for them to return where they will feel safe.”
___
Mroue reported from Beirut. Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul contributed.
(MILAN) — Italian authorities evacuated 4,000 people from the center of the northern city of Bolzano on Sunday to defuse a World War II bomb found during construction.
Three experts defused the 500-pound American bomb during a three-hour operation that also forced 60,000 people to stay in their homes and closed sporting complexes and churches, the news agency ANSA reported.
An alarm signaled the all-clear to reopen the city center just before noon, as well as a nearby north-south highway and rail line both connecting Italy with Austria and Germany.
The bomb was found close to the city’s central cathedral and not far from the train station — the likely wartime target — during excavation work for a new shopping center.
The online news site Neue Suedtiroler Tageszeitung said after being defused, the bomb was brought to a secure site nearby for a controlled explosion.
According to historian Ettore Frangipane, Bolzano, in the northern Alto-Adige region bordering Austria, suffered 13 major World War II bombing raids that damaged 60% of the city and killed 200 people.
Alto Adige was part of a broad swath of northern Italy that remained under Nazi occupation long after Italy’s 1943 surrender to the Allies.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrived Sunday in Afghanistan, where stalled peace talks with the Taliban and persistent violent attacks by the insurgent group and Islamic State militants have complicated the Trump administration’s pledge to withdraw more than 5,000 American troops.
Esper told reporters traveling with him that he believes the U.S. can reduce its force in Afghanistan to 8,600 without hurting the counterterrorism fight against al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. But he said any withdrawal would happen as part of a peace agreement with the Taliban.
The U.S. has about 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan as part of the American-led coalition. U.S. forces are training and advising Afghan forces and conducting counterterrorism operations against extremists. President Donald Trump had ordered a troop withdrawal in conjunction with the peace talks that would have left about 8,600 American forces in the country.
U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad had a preliminary peace deal with the Taliban, but a surge in Taliban violence and the death of an American soldier last month prompted Trump to cancel a secret Camp David meeting where the peace deal would have been finalized. He declared the tentative agreement dead.
“The aim is to still get a peace agreement at some point, that’s the best way forward,” said Esper, who was making his first trip to Afghanistan as defense secretary. He visited Afghanistan in his previous job as U.S. Army secretary.
He would not say how long he believes it may be before a new peace accord could be achieved.
A month after the peace agreement collapsed, Khalilzad met with Taliban in early October in Islamabad, Pakistan, but it was not clear what progress, if any, was being made.
Esper’s arrival in Kabul came as Afghan government leaders delayed the planned announcement of preliminary results of last month’s presidential election. Esper said he plans to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Both Ghani and his current partner in the unity government, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, have said they believe they had enough votes to win. The Sept. 28 vote was marred by widespread misconduct and accusations of fraud.
Officials said the announcement of preliminary results has been delayed due to problems with the transparency of the process, delays in transferring ballot papers and delays in transferring data from a biometric system into the main server.
Esper planned to meet with his top commanders in Afghanistan as the U.S. works to determine the way ahead in the 18-year war.
Trump, since his 2016 presidential campaign, has spoken of a need to withdraw U.S. troops from the “endless war” in Afghanistan. He has complained that the U.S. has been serving as policemen in Afghanistan, and says that’s not the American military’s job.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — While President Donald Trump insists he’s bringing home Americans from “endless wars” in the Mideast, his Pentagon chief says all U.S. troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq and the American military will continue operations against the Islamic State group.
They aren’t coming home and the United States isn’t leaving the turbulent Middle East, according to current plans outlined by U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper before he arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday. The fight in Syria against IS, once spearheaded by American allied Syrian Kurds who have been cast aside by Trump, will be undertaken by U.S. forces, possibly from neighboring Iraq.
Esper did not rule out the idea that U.S. forces would conduct counterterrorism missions from Iraq into Syria. But he told reporters traveling with him that those details will be worked out over time.
Trump nonetheless tweeted: “USA soldiers are not in combat or ceasefire zones. We have secured the Oil. Bringing soldiers home!”
The president declared this past week that Washington had no stake in defending the Kurdish fighters who died by the thousands as America’s partners fighting in Syria against IS extremists. Turkey conducted a weeklong offensive into northeastern Syria against the Kurdish fighters before a military pause.
“It’s time for us to come home,” Trump said, defending his removal of U.S. troops from that part of Syria and praising his decision to send more troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia to help the kingdom defend against Iran.
Esper’s comments to reporters traveling with him were the first to specifically lay out where American troops will go as they shift from Syria and what the counter-IS fight could look like. Esper said he has spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to shift about 1,000 troops from Syria into western Iraq.
Trump’s top aide, asked about the fact that the troops were not coming home as the president claimed they would, said, “Well, they will eventually.”
Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told “Fox News Sunday” that “the quickest way to get them out of danger was to get them into Iraq.”
As Esper left Washington on Saturday, U.S. troops were continuing to pull out of northern Syria after Turkey’s invasion into the border region. Reports of sporadic clashes continued between Turkish-backed fighters and the Syria Kurdish forces despite a five-day cease-fire agreement hammered out Thursday between U.S. and Turkish leaders.
The Turkish military’s death toll has risen to seven soldiers since it launched its offensive on Oct. 9.
Trump ordered the bulk of the approximately 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria to withdraw after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made it clear in a phone call that his forces were about to invade Syria to push back Kurdish forces that Turkey considers terrorists.
The pullout largely abandons America’s Kurdish allies who have fought IS alongside U.S. troops for several years. Between 200 and 300 U.S. troops will remain at the southern Syrian outpost of Al-Tanf.
Esper said the troops going into Iraq will have two missions.
“One is to help defend Iraq and two is to perform a counter-ISIS mission as we sort through the next steps,” he said. “Things could change between now and whenever we complete the withdrawal, but that’s the game plan right now.”
The U.S. currently has more than 5,000 American forces in Iraq, under an agreement between the two countries. The U.S. pulled its troops out of Iraq in 2011 when combat operations there ended, but they went back in after IS began to take over large swaths of the country in 2014. The number of American forces in Iraq has remained small due to political sensitivities in the country, after years of what some Iraqis consider U.S. occupation during the war that began in 2003.
Esper said he will talk with other allies at a NATO meeting in the coming week to discuss the way ahead for the counter-IS mission.
Asked if U.S. special operations forces will conduct unilateral military operations into Syria to go after IS, Esper said that is an option that will be discussed with allies over time.
He said one of his top concerns is what the next phase of the counter-IS missions looks like, “but we have to work through those details.” He said that if U.S. forces do go in, they would be protected by American aircraft.
While he acknowledged reports of intermittent fighting despite the cease-fire agreement, he said that overall it “generally seems to be holding. We see a stability of the lines, if you will, on the ground.”
He also said that, so far, the Syrian Democratic Forces that partnered with the U.S. to fight IS have maintained control of the prisons in Syria where they are still present. The Turks, he said, have indicated they have control of the IS prisons in their areas.
“I can’t assess whether that’s true or not without having people on the ground,” said Esper.
He added that the U.S. withdrawal will be deliberate and safe, and it will take “weeks not days.”
According to a U.S. official, about a couple hundred troops have left Syria so far. The U.S. forces have been largely consolidated in one location in the west and a few locations in the east.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations, said the U.S. military is not closely monitoring the effectiveness of the cease-fire, but is aware of sporadic fighting and violations of the agreement. The official said it will still take a couple of weeks to get forces out of Syria.
Also Sunday, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a group of American lawmakers on a visit to Jordan to discuss “the deepening crisis” in Syria.
Jordan’s state news agency Petra said that King Abdullah II, in a meeting with the Americans, stressed the importance of safeguarding Syria’s territorial integrity and guarantees for the “safe and voluntary” return of refugees.
___
This story has been corrected to reflect that the U.S.-Turkey agreement was reached on Thursday, not Friday.
(LONDON) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pressed ahead Sunday with plans to try to win parliamentary backing for his new Brexit deal even as the European Union began considering his grudging request to extend the looming Brexit deadline.
As the dust settled on a day of high drama in Parliament, the next steps in Britain’s divisive, tortuous Brexit saga became clear. Monday will feature more legal action, more arm-twisting, cajoling and veiled threats by Johnson and his ministers and more amendments designed by lawmakers to stymie Johnson’s plan to have Britain leave the 28-nation bloc on Oct. 31.
In the midst of all this, EU leaders and officials across the Channel were pondering whether to grant the British leader a Brexit extension that he does not even want.
As required by law, Johnson sent an unsigned letter to the EU at the last possible moment late Saturday seeking a delay to Britain’s impending Oct. 31 departure. But he followed it with a signed letter indicating that he does not favor another Brexit extension.
“My view, and the government’s position, (is) that a further extension would damage the interests of the U.K. and our EU partners, and the relationship between us,” Johnson wrote to European Council President Donald Tusk.
Johnson has long declared that he plans to take the U.K. out of the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a divorce deal, and his minister in charge of Brexit again emphasized that stance.
“We are going to leave by Oct. 31st,” Michael Gove told Sky News on Sunday. “We have the means and the ability to do so.”
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said Tusk would consult with other leaders “in the next days” about Johnson’s request, but most signs indicate the EU would prefer an extension to an abrupt no-deal Brexit.
Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne, whose country holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, said Sunday “it makes sense to allow extra time.”
At home, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he believes Johnson has enough support to get his deal through Parliament, but added the government would keep talking with its Northern Ireland ally, the Democratic Unionist Party, to persuade it to back the deal. So far, the party, which holds 10 seats in Parliament, has refused to support Johnson’s deal because it treats Northern Ireland differently than other parts of the U.K.
“We’ll keep talking to the DUP and see if there’s any further reassurances that can be provided,” Raab told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
Johnson’s Conservative party has only 288 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, so he needs the support of some opposition lawmakers.
While the Conservatives are focused on getting more votes, the opposition Labour Party was in favor of a second referendum on the whole question of leaving the EU.
Labour’s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer told the BBC it is “inevitable” that lawmakers opposed to Brexit will put forward an amendment seeking a second referendum — something strongly opposed by Johnson and his government.
“Whether it’s this deal or any future deal, it’s got to go back so the public can say, ‘Do you want to leave on these terms?'” Starmer said. “If so, then we do. If not, we remain.”
Johnson’s letters came after another tumultuous day in the House of Commons, which worked in a Saturday session for only the first time since the Falklands War in 1982. For hours, British lawmakers issued both ringing endorsements and scathing condemnations of Johnson’s Brexit deal, only to kick any decision on it down the road by passing an amendment withholding approval for the deal until laws enabling it are passed. That could take days, or even weeks.
While Johnson insists on sticking to the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline, lawmakers are trying to avoid a no-deal Brexit, which economists say would wreak damage on the U.K. economy.
Heaping more pressure on lawmakers to back Johnson’s deal, Gove also said British government is triggering contingency plans to mitigate the disruption s expected if the country leaves the EU without a deal. He did not explain what that would entail.
And in court, Johnson could face legal challenges from opponents who feel that sending his second letter to the EU was done specifically to frustrate the will of Parliament.
The Court of Session in Scotland is already considering the matter and it may end up being decided in the British Supreme Court, which in September ruled that Johnson had acted unlawfully when he suspended Parliament for five weeks as the Brexit deadline crept closer.
Scottish National Party legislator Joanna Cherry, part of a group that brought the earlier successful case against Johnson, said the legal battle over Brexit continues.
“We’re back in court on Monday morning and it will be possible then to secure the court’s assistance if the prime minister has flouted the law and the promises he gave to the court,” she said.
___
Sam Petrequin in Brussels and Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed.
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DEEP SEA explorers have found a second Japanese aircraft carrier on the seabed of the Pacific ocean that went down in the historic World War Two Battle for Midway.
TYPHOON BUALOI is currently swirling over the Pacific Ocean, blasting maximum wind gusts of 132mph. Will Typhoon Bualoi hit Japan just weeks after Typhoon Hagibis?
THE 2019 hurricane season will conclude next month, but that does not mean that storms are becoming any less frequent or intense. So what tropical systems are churning around the globe now?
RUSSIAN hackers disguised as Iranian cyber spies have attacked the UK and dozens of other countries, US and British intelligence agencies have alleged.
MELANIA TRUMP faced humiliation on social media this week after she posted a video of her meeting teenagers to discuss vaping in schools as part of her BeBest campaign.
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Jammu University Results 2019 – Hello Students!! This is the right time to check your results, those who have appeared for the Jammu University Examination. Students those who are studying under the Jammu University can check their result from the official website of the University i.e, jammuuniversity.in. Currently, Jammu University has announced the results for B.A, B.Sc, B.Com, BBA, BCA, B.A Eng B.Com 3rd Sem CBCS Exam, M.Ed 2&4th Sem & others. Students can check or download the University Exam Result with the help of the below Details. Here we have provided a direct link to verify the Exam Results. Students can click the direct link to know their individual Exam Results.
Jammu University Results
Here on this page, we have updated the latest Jammu University Exam Results. Students can verify and download the results from the official website of the University as well as on this page they can check their results with the help of the link provided in the below table. Anyone can check the results for Regular/Supplementary Students of Under Graduate and Post Graduate Students. University Provides Various Under Graduate (UG), Post Graduate (PG), Diploma, Certificate, Language and many other types of Courses, for all those Students can check their results on this page. Also, we will be providing the link for Upcoming Jammu University results, it will be work once the University will be announcing it officially. We advise the Students to keep in touch with our page recruitment.guru to get the latest updated information related to the Jammu University Exam Results.
Latest Jammu University Exam Results 2019
Name of the Exam
Release Date
Download Link
B.SC. NURSING 4TH YEAR (SUBSEQUENT) EXAM – HELD IN AUGUST 2019
The University of Jammu also known as Jammu University was established in 1969 by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir. It was established by the act of state legislature which split the Jammu and Kashmir University into the separate University of Jammu & University of Kashmir. The Jammu University is the first university which received the ISO-9001 Certification. At the initial stage of this university has 7 campuses even now it is the same. The university provides all kinds of Graduate, Post Graduate & Doctoral courses to its students. The main campus of Jammu University is located at Baba Saheb Ambedkar Road in Jammu. The university has affiliated with 157 colleges which offer all kinds of Graduate & Post Graduate Courses.
Jammu University Supply/Revaluation Results
Students have appeared for the Jammu University Examination can check their results, if they got low grades, still Students can apply for the Revaluation. The higher level Examiner will check the results and announce the Revaluation results. Still, if any students will get low marks again they can write the exam. For that, they should apply for the Supplementary Examination. For each and every semester Students can apply for the revaluation after the announcement of the main examination results. Students can keep in touch with the University website to know more information about the Revaluation Results.
Vardhman Mahaveer Open University has declared the VMOU BLIS Results 2019. The University currently published the results of DLIS, BLIS, MLIS, BSCP, BA III, B.Com II, III, B.Ed II, III & other Courses results are available here. Students eagerly waiting for the VMOU Exam Results can refer to this page. All the Regular and Supply VMOU Kota Result 2018-19 included here. Also, you can have the individual results link regarding all the UG, PG, Diploma, PG Diploma, Certificate, and Lateral Entry Programmes. So, stay connected to get all the latest updated VMOU Result 2019. In fact, you can verify the www.vmou.ac.in official site of VMO University.
VMOU Result 2019 @vmou.ac.In
Here, on this page, Students can get their Semester and Annual Exam VMOU Result 2019. So, verify the page to download the Regular/ Supplementary marks list pdf from the VMOU Result 2019-20. Also, you can have the download process provided on this page recruitment.guru to have your RKCL VMOU Result at your fingertips. The University provides the UG, PG, Diploma, PG Diploma, and many other courses. So, we have comprised all the Result VMOU direct links in this article. However, we have also enlisted all the individual VMOU Result 2019-20. Furthermore, go through the below-provided links and follow the instructions available on this page to have your VMOU Online results. Also, the University conducts the RSCIT every year. So, we also provide the VMOU Kota RSCIT Result in this article.
Vardhman Mahaveer Open University has released RSCIT Results 2019 @vmou.ac.In.
वर्धमान महावीर ओपन यूनिवर्सिटी RSCIT परिणाम 2019 घोषित – Direct Link
Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University is an open university in Kota, Rajasthan, India, established on 23 July 1987, and was initially known as Kota Open University. It focussing, particularly on the humanities, commerce, library science and informatics. It is geographically distributed throughout Rajasthan, with regional centers in Ajmer, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Udaipur and Bharatpur, and several tens of "study centers" in cities, in addition to a special center at New Delhi. The university has almost 50,000 new admissions in 2015 with a learner base of more than 100,000 students every year.
VMOU Supply/Revaluation Results
Students have a chance to apply for the revaluation, if the students may get low marks In the examination, they can apply for the Revaluation results. So again the head of the ExamIner will review the answer paper. After revaluation, students may get high marks. Still, if anyone got low marks, they can apply for the Supplementary ExamInations. Moreover, to get the Revaluation/Supplementary Results, students should pay the fee. Students can get all the results from this page Regular, Revaluation and Supplementary Results. Students of the Vardhman Mahaveer Open University can also get all Results Also. Just we are advising the Students to frequently visit this page to get the latest updates of all VMOU Results 2019.
DAVV Result 2019 released for BA, B.Sc, B.Com, BBA, MA, M.Sc and M.Com Exam on the Official Website. Aspirants those who are interested in downloading the DAVV UG Results 2019 can check out the below section. Get the complete UG PG Semester exam marks through www.dauniv.ac.in result 2019. We advise the students to take the complete details regarding the DAVV mponline Result 2019 from our webpage. Make use of this page to know all the Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyala DAVV Results 2019. Go through the full post to get all the DAVV Result 2019.
DAVV Result 2019 @dauniv.ac.in
देवी अहिल्या विश्वविधालय डीएवीवी परिणाम 2019 Announced. Therefore, students of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya University its time to check out your DAVV Result 2019. Aspirants those who attend the Annual and Semester Examination conducted by the Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya can check out here to know the DAVV B. Sc B.Com Result 2019-20. The DAVV updates BA, B.Sc, B.Com, BBA, MA, M.Sc and M.Com Results according to semester wise. Subsequently, Candidates can get the direct link to download DAVV Mark List & DAVV Pass List 2019 for all Courses.
That is to say, we will update with the recently released DAVV Results 2019 on this webpage along with DAVV Revaluation Result 2019. DAVV UG PG Exams are conducted successfully and now examiners who have attended the DAVV Exam can check out Semester Result 2019 through Online mode. Above all, we have also provided the direct link to check the DAVV Result Pass List 2019 from the below section.
Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya is a State University whose jurisdiction was initially restricted to Indore city. Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya formerly the University of Indore was established in 1964 by an Act of Legislature of Madhya Pradesh. The University regulates all the schools within the three campuses. There are many other colleges affiliated to the university in Indore division. The university has more than 300 affiliated colleges imparting education at undergraduate and post-graduate levels in basic and professional disciplines. The university has 9000 students in its campus and a total of over 300,000 students in affiliated colleges.
DAVV Supply/Revaluation Result
Students have a chance to apply for the revaluation, if the students may get low marks in the examination, they can apply for the Revaluation results. So again the head of the Examiner will review the answer paper. After revaluation, students may get high marks. Still, if anyone got low marks, they can apply for the Supplementary Examinations. For Revaluation/Supplementary, students should pay the fee. Students can get all the results from this page Regular, Revaluation and Supplementary Results. Moreover, Students of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyala University, Indore can also get the MBA Results Also. Just we are advising the Students to frequently visit this page to get the latest updates of all DAVV Result 2019.
JNTUA Results 2019 – Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Anantapur has published the JNTUA Semester Exam Results 2019 for various Courses. Students those who have appeared for the B.Tech II, III, IVth Year Results Examination will be waiting for the results. Now, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Anantapur has released the results and Students can check this from the official website of the University i.e, jntua.ac.in. Also on this page, we always used to update all the results for Regular/Supply and UG/PG Students. Students can keep connected to this page to get the related details of JNTUA Exam Results 2019.
JNTUA Results 2019
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Anantapur has successfully conducted the University Examination and now it’s time to declare the results. According to the marks in the examination, we can predict the Student’s performance individually. Currently, the University has announced the results for various courses on a daily basis. Here on this page, we have provided a direct link to download/check the JNTUA Exam Results 2019. Even, we have updated the Upcoming JNTUA Results on this page, the link will be work when the University will officially announce in the official website. Students can find the Upcoming JNTUA Results 2019 along with JNTUA Revaluation Results & More.
Upcoming JNTUA Exam Results 2019
Name of the Exam
Announcement Date
Result Link
MBA II Semester (R17) Regular & Supplementary Examinations, May/June 2019
About Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Anantapur
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Anantapur (JNTU Anantapur) is a state university in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, India. Founded in 1946, it has since 1973 been a constituent college of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, as set by The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Act, 1972. In 2008 it had received autonomous status by the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological Universities Act, 2008. The University offers various B.Tech and M.Tech Courses.
JNTUA Supply/ Revaluation Results
Students have a chance to apply for the revaluation, if the students may get low marks in the examination, they can apply for the Revaluation results. So again the head of the Examiner will review the answer paper. After revaluation, students may get high marks. Still, if anyone got low marks, they can apply for the Supplementary Examinations. For Revaluation/Supplementary, students should pay the fee. Students can get all the results from this page Regular, Revaluation and Supplementary Results. We request the students to keep connected to this page recruitment.guru to get the latest updates of JNTU Anantapur.
Visvesvaraya Technological University has released the VTU Results 2019 @vtu results.ac.in. Get VTU MCA 1st to 5th Semester (Additional Records)and recently released VTU Results 2019 here. Students who have appeared for the Exams can check the results from the official website of the University i.e, vtu.ac.in. Also, here on this page, we used to update all the regular, supplementary exam results for various courses that are offered by the Visvesvaraya Technological University. Students can get all the updated information regarding the University Examination Results from this page recruitment.guru. So we advise the students to keep connected to this page.
Non-CBCS VTU results.ac.in 2019
The Visvesvaraya Technological University has conducted various Examinations for the students, currently, the Visvesvaraya Technological University has published the VTU MCA 1st to 5th Semester (Additional Records). Here we have provided a direct link to download the results. Also on the official website Students can get the results for CBCS and Non-CBCS also. Apart from the result links applicants can find the steps to check the VTU Results, VTU CBCS Results, Non-CBCS VTU Architecture Results & More.
Visvesvaraya Technological University is a collegiate Public State University in Karnataka State of the Republic of India, established by the Government of Karnataka. Apart from a few notable exceptions, VTU has authority over engineering education all over the state of Karnataka. It is a statutory requirement for colleges offering any program in engineering or technology in the state to be affiliated with the university. VTU is one of the largest universities in India with 212 colleges affiliated to it with an intake capacity of over 467,100 undergraduate students and 12,666 postgraduate students. The university encompasses technical and management fields which offer 30 undergraduate and 71 postgraduate courses. It has around 1800 PhD candidates.
VTU Revaluation Results
Students, those who have not cleared/ got low marks the University examinations can apply for the Revaluation. This is is a chance for the students to increase their marks in subjects in which they have scored low marks. If students have written the main exam well and still got a low score. Then you can go for the revaluation process where your exam papers re-evaluated. Currently, the University has released the revaluation results for UG, PG with all-region Students. So Students can check the Revaluation results from the official website as well as on this. We have attached the direct link to get the Supply/Revaluation Results.
UP ITI Result 2019 – Get UP ITI SCVT NCVT 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Semester Exam Results here @ admissionscvtup.in 2019 – Uttar Pradesh UP SCVT/ VPPUP ITI has announced the Fourth Round Allotment Result for the ITI Govt. and Private Admission in Various Trades 2019. Those candidates who have applied for this Exam Can Download Result from the below link. Applicants can find the quick link to access your UP ITI Fourth Round Seat Allotment. The result link has activated for both Government and Private colleges, applicants need to enter the Registration number and Date of Birth.
Latest Update 21st Oct 2019: UP ITI Result for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Semester exams will be announced soon. All students are advised to keep checking this page for more latest updates.
UP ITI SCVT NCVT 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Semester Result 2019– UP ITI result for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th semester of NCVT and SCVT programs for 2019 will be announced soon. Separate results will be published for ITI courses offered under NCVT and SCVT. UP ITI Result 2019 will be published on separate dates on the official website of UP SCVT. After the publication of UP ITI Results, we will update the result link. Applicants can get a direct link from the table to get your SCVT NCVT 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Semester Results.
UP ITI SCVT NCVT 1st Semester Result 2019 – Click Here UP ITI SCVT NCVT 2nd Semester Result 2019 – Click Here UP ITI SCVT NCVT 3rd Semester Result 2019 – Click Here UP ITI SCVT NCVT 4th Semester Result 2019 – Click Here
UP ITI 4th Round Seat Allotment Result 2019Declared– SCVTUP has announced UP ITI Fourth Merit List/List of selected candidates for the 4th round counseling on 12th September 2019. All candidates who will participate in 04th round counseling will be able to check their name in the 04th round college allotment result. All candidates are advised to stay in touch with this page for more latest updates. All those Students can check UP ITI Counselling 2019 Result from the direct link. Students are just by clicking one direct link UP VPPUP ITI Result 2019 to know your status.
UP ITI 4th Round Seat Allotment Result 2019 – Govt College
UP ITI 3rd Round Seat Allotment Result 2019 – SCVTUP has announced UP ITI Third Merit List/List of selected candidates for the 03rd round counseling. All candidates who will participate in 03rd round counseling will be able to check their name in 03rd round college allotment result. As per the latest update, UP ITI 03rd Round Seat Allotment Result 2019 has announced on 29thAugust 2019. All candidates are advised to stay in touch with this page for more latest updates. All those Students can check UP ITI Counselling 2019 Result from the direct link. Students are just by clicking one direct link UP VPPUP ITI Result 2019 to know your status.
UP ITI 02nd Round Seat Allotment Result 2019 – SCVTUP will soon announce UP ITI Second Merit List/List of selected candidates for the 2nd round counseling. All candidates who will participate in 2nd round counseling will be able to check their name in 2nd round college allotment result are now waiting for the 2nd Merit List. As per the latest update, UP ITI 2nd Round Seat Allotment Result 2019 will be announced on August 2019. All candidates are advised to stay in touch with this page for more latest updates. All those Students can check UP ITI Counselling 2019 Result from the direct link. Students are just by clicking one direct link UP VPPUP ITI Result 2019 to know your status.
UP ITI 01st Round Seat Allotment Result 2019 – To get an Admission for UP ITI Students have appeared for the Counselling process of UP ITI Seat Allotment. And currently the UP SCVT ITI Admission 2019 officials have released the UP ITI Seat Allotment Result 2019 for First round. The UP ITI Admission 2019 Team has released the UP ITI Seat Allotment 2019 for the Government and Private Colleges on 27th July 2019. All those Students can check UP ITI Counselling 2019 Result from the direct link. Students are just by clicking one direct link UP VPPUP ITI Result 2019 to know your status.
Candidates those who have appeared for the UP ITI Counselling 2019 can check your First round seat allotment result from the below link. Moreover, applicants can get the complete UP ITI Seat Allotment 2019 from the official website admissionscvtup.in 2019. Addition to this here we have mentioned the UP ITI Merit List 2019 Date, UP ITI First Round Seat Allotment result date, UP ITI Registration @www.vppup.in link. We advise the Students to keep track on this page to get the Second, Third, Fourth & other Round Seat Allotment Result. Because we will update the latest result link it will activate after the announcement of the Result.
UP ITI Cut off 2019 will play an important role in the UP ITI Admission 2019, because based on the UP ITI Cut off marks students will get the seat allotment. If the Students get the UP ITI Cut off 2019 then students can select the colleges by their choice. The officials will announce the Cutoff marks and which is based on some categories. All those students may get the UP ITI Merit List. This will be based on the VPPUP Merit list & cut off marks. If the applicants get the high Cut off marks, applicants name will attain into the Merit list.
UP ITI Merit List | UP VPPUP ITI Result
Students will be called for the Counselling process based on the UP ITI Merit List 2019. If the applicants get secured top 10 UP ITI Merit List 2018-19, they can attend the Counselling process. Also, Students can choice filling the application form for the Colleges. Applicants can get the UP ITI Admission 2019 easily with the UP ITI Merit List. Students should attend the counseling process with the ITI Certificate Download. Although here we have given some steps to download UP ITI First Round Seat Allotment Result.
How to check the UP ITI First Round Seat Allotment?
Initially visit the official website of the State and Private I.T.I. Entry i.e, admissionscvtup.in
On the home page click on the Seat allocation process
A new page will be open, in that click on the link UP ITI Seat Allotment Result 2019
UP ITI First Round Seat Allotment page will be open,
Enter the registration number and Date of Birth to get यूपी आईटीआई परिणाम 2019
Applicants can check and download the results for further reference.
BTEUP Scrutiny Result 2019 Declared on 21st October 2019 @ bteup.ac.in | UP Diploma Polytechnic 2nd, 4th, 6th Semester Results. Welcome to our BTEUP Result page. Here we help you find all the BTEUP Scrutiny Result Semester Wise. The Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh has announced the UP Polytechnic Scrutiny Result. Hence, candidates who are waiting for the BTEUP Result 2019 can check from the direct link given below. BTEUP Revaluation Result for polytechnic diploma odd/even semester, annual and Back Paper exams will be released soon.. However, all the best and check the Result by clicking the link below.
Latest Update 21-10-2019: BTEUP Polytechnic Scrutiny/Re-Evaluation Even Semester Result Released…..Stay Connected with us for the latest Results…
BTEUP Polytechnic/Diploma Revaluation Even Semester Result 2019 – Applicants who have applied for the BTEUP Scrutiny Revaluation can check your result from the below link. Here we have updated the latest result link. And the result link has activated now. Board of Technical Education has released the diploma/polytechnic scrutiny results for odd semesters on 21st October 2019. Hence the Students can keep checking the BTEUP official website bteup.ac.in to check the BTEUP Revaluation Result 2019.
BTEUP Scrutiny Revaluation Result 2019
Organization Name
Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh (BTEUP)
BTEUP Even Semester Exam Result 2019 – Click Here Download BTEUP 2nd, 4th, 6th Sem Result 2019 – Click Here
BTEUP Result
BTEUP Scrutiny Result for Polytechnic Exam is Released Today. UPBTE Finally released the Polytechnic Diploma Scrutiny Final Result by official website – www.bteup.in. This is a piece of very good news for the students who are looking for the BTEUP Scrutiny Result and UPBTE Polytechnic Diploma Merit List. The candidates those who are looking for the BTEUP Scrutiny Result can download directly from Recruitment.guru.
UPBTE Polytechnic Result 2019
Below we have enclosed the UPBTE Polytechnic Diploma Scrutiny Result. Students are waiting for so, many days but Uttar Pradesh Board of Technical Education has released the BTEUP Scrutiny Result now. So, People who are waiting for the BTEUP Scrutiny Result can download the Merit list directly from here.
bteup.ac.in 2019 Result
UP Board of Technical Education is responsible for organizing polytechnic/diploma examinations and releasing results. BTEUP had conducted Polytechnic annual exams for 1st, 2nd and 3rd in June month. Written exams were conducted for all branches including Civil, Mechanical, IT, Electronics, Electrical, Computer science, etc. The board will release the scorecard for these exams. Candidates can check their results after the declaration. They will be available either on the BTEUP recruitment.guru website or in the college.
BTEUP Scrutiny Result
Candidates who were not able to clear some / all papers had applied for scrutiny. Now UPBTE is in the process of preparing UPBTE Scrutiny Exam Result 2019. The scrutiny exam result is declared now. Students who had applied can check them from below given links below. We will update the other information regarding UPBTE Polytechnic Results here.
UP BTE Revaluation Result
UPBTE Re-evaluation / Scrutiny/ Re-checking Result for all semesters 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th will be available provided here. Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh, last year, had announced results for the UPBTE Regular Annual Results for All Semesters. Now, the students who got fewer marks than expected, are applied for UPBTE Scrutiny. Candidates who applied are eagerly looking for the Polytechnic Semester Exam Result. BTEUP Exam Result 2019 will go to be released in Month 2019.
Download UPBTE Scrutiny Result
Students can check their UPBTE Scrutiny result either on the official website or in the College. Mark Sheets will be available after the change in marks & overall Performance. There is always a chance for an increase in marks through Scrutiny. Students have to contact their Exam Cell for Scrutiny Result.
Download BTEUP Polytechnic Diploma Scrutiny Result
Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh Polytechnic Diploma Scrutiny Result 2019 BTEUP Scrutiny Result 2019 Check Scrutiny Process Filling of Scrutiny Form 2019 UP Polytechnic Annual Exam Copy Re-Check result.
Download BTEUP Scrutiny Merit List 2019
Below we have enclosed the BTEUP Results & Merit List for all zones. People can check their marks from the below links.
Now you can check the BTEUP Scrutiny Final Result. BTEUP Exam 2014 Incomplete Result for Absent (AB)/ Incomplete (MW)Candidates Corrected Marks has been Announced by Board on 9 March 2019. Hence, Please Click On Given below Link.
BTEUP Scrutiny Result Download Links
Get BTEUP Scrutiny Result 2019 Zone 1 (Western Region)
NOTICE– Special Back Paper Exam will be Conducted on 23.12.2014 (Tuesday)
Important Note:
Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh has recently announced Result for the Polytechnic Diploma. Furthermore, After the Result, some students get fewer marks than expected. So they have to fill scrutiny Form for Re-Checking of their Answer books. So, there will be an increase in marks.
Scrutiny Form:
Candidates can get Scrutiny Form from their respective Colleges. Students have to contact their Exam Cell for Scrutiny form.
There is always a chance for an increase in marks through Scrutiny. So Candidates need to fill the form for Subjects in which they are sure that they will have a chance of increment in marks.
However, The Process of Scrutiny is live. Candidates need to be very choosy about the Selection of Exam Paper. It is free to fill scrutiny of any paper.
Bengaluru: An anonymous group calling itself "ethical employees" has complained to the board of Infosys and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that the company is taking 'unethical' steps to boost short-term revenue and profits and stating that the complainants have emails and voice recordings to substantiate the claims.Copies of the letters sent by the group to both the board of Infosys and the SEC were shared with ET. In the letters, the group alleges that CEO Salil Parekh is bypassing reviews and approvals for large deals. "He (Parekh) directs them to make wrong assumptions to show margins.CFO is compliant and he prevents us from showing in board presentations large deal issues…Several billion-dollar deals of last few quarters have nil margin," the letter states. "Please ask auditors to check deal proposals, margins, undisclosed upfront commitments made and revenue recognition," the letter stated.Infosys is examining the charges made by the whistleblower, the company said late on Sunday night. "The whistleblower complaint has been placed before the Audit Committee as per the company's practice and will be dealt with in accordance with the company's whistleblowers' policy," it said in a statement.The letter added that the complainants were asked to not fully recognise visa costs in the quarter and were pressured to not immediately recognise $50 million in reversals in a contract."In large contracts like Verizon, Intel, JVs in Japan, ABN AMRO acquisition, revenue recognition matters are forced, which are not as per accounting standards," the letter stated.In the second quarter of financial year 2020, Infosys said its margin expanded 120 basis points, topping analysts expectations on profitability.The letter added that the CEO, and CFO Nilanjan Roy were pressuring the finance team to show more profits in their treasury management 'by taking risks and making changes to policies'."They ask us not to make key disclosures in 20F and annual report and to share only good and incomplete information with investors and analysts. This is a regulatory issue. We have mails and voice records and will share during investigation," the letter added.The whistleblower letter to the board is dated September 20, 2019. The letter to the US SEC was first sent on September 27, according to a purported follow-up letter dated October 3. Infosys ADRs trade on the US stock exchanges.Earlier this month, the company's deputy CFO Jayesh Sanghrajka resigned. The last time Infosys faced a whistleblower complaint was during the tenure of former CEO Vishal Sikka who left in 2017 after a tussle over corporate governance with Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy. This led to the return of cofounder Nandan Nilekani as the non-executive chairman in 2017.
By Team ET WealthWhen the corporate tax rate was reduced to 25% last month, it was termed as an early Diwali for the corporate sector. Now, taxpayers are hoping the government will gift them a similar tax relief. According to former Niti Aayog Chairman Arvind Panagariya, "there is a strong case for a similar reform of personal income tax".The Akhilesh Ranjan taskforce, set up to suggest an overhaul of the Income Tax Act, has also recommended sweeping changes in the tax slabs. It submitted its report on the new Direct Taxes Code to the government in August. However, the report has not been made public. According to newsreports, the taskforce has retained the basic exemption level at Rs 2.5 lakh for general taxpayers. For senior citizens (above 60 years) the basic exemption stays at Rs 3 lakh and for very senior citizens (above 80 years) it stays at Rs 5 lakh.The big change is the widening of the income slabs. The 10% tax slab extends right up to Rs 10 lakh, which will bring a significant relief to a large chunk of taxpayers. According to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), more than 27% of the 5.52 crore individual taxpayers who filed returns for 2017-18 had an income between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. If the recommendations of the task force are implemented, these 1.47 crore taxpayers would move from the 20% slab to the 10% slab.What the new slabs could look like 71659783 Currently, there is a 4% cess on total tax and full tax rebate for incomes up to Rs 5 lakh a year. The new DTC has reportedly recommended scrapping of the surcharges but retained the tax rebate.Bigger impact on higher income slabsThe impact will not be very significant for low income taxpayers. Middle income earners with taxable income of up to Rs 5-6 lakh will not see a major change in their tax liability under the new slabs proposed by the DTC panel. However, they can escape the tax net by availing deductions that will take their net taxable income below the Rs 5 lakh tax-free threshold. The taskforce has retained the full tax rebate offered under Section 87A to taxpayers earning up to Rs 5 lakh a year.Annual taxable income Rs 6 lakh 71659928 Annual taxable income Rs 9 lakh 71659940 Even someone with a net taxable income of Rs 7 lakh a year would not get a significant break. He would see his tax reduce from Rs 44,200 to Rs 40,000, a drop of just 9.5%. However, the tax relief would be significant for taxpayers with higher incomes. A taxpayer with a net taxable income of Rs 10 lakh would see his tax reduce by about 34%, from Rs 1.06 lakh to Rs 70,000.Annual taxable income Rs 12 lakh 71659957 Annual taxable income Rs 24 lakh 71659968 The changes will be even more spectacular for taxpayers in the higher slabs. According to CBDT data, if the tax slabs are rejigged, another 40 lakh taxpayers would move from the 30% slab to the 20% slab. A taxpayer with a net taxable income of Rs 22 lakh would save Rs 1.7 lakh in tax every year. His tax outgo will reduce 36%, from Rs 4.75 lakh to Rs 3 lakh.Annual taxable income Rs 60 lakh 71659978 Fourth income slab introducedThe taskforce has also introduced a new 35% slab for incomes above Rs 2 crore. If you factor in the 25% surcharge and the 4% cess, the highest effective tax rate for those earning between Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore is 39%. So taxpayers falling in this income slab may not see as big a decline in their tax liability as other taxpayers. Even so, they still stand to gain from the widening of the 20% tax slab from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.Annual taxable income Rs 1.2 crore 71659984 Annual taxable income Rs 2.5 crore 71659995 Will the surcharge on tax go?There could be good news for the super rich as well. The taskforce has recommended that tax surcharges should be used only as temporary measures. When the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had introduced the 10% surcharge on income of over Rs 1 crore in 2013, it was meant to be a one-time measure. Indeed, Chidambaram had stressed that it was a temporary levy when he said in his budget speech that "I am confident that when I ask the relatively prosperous to bear a small burden for one year, just one year, they will do so cheerfully."However, the surcharge on tax became a permanent feature of successive budgets. The measure was extended by the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the 2014 budget. The following year, it was raised to 12%. In 2016, a new 10% surcharge was introduced for those earning above Rs 50 lakh while the surcharge on income above Rs 1 crore was enhanced to 15%. The cavalcade of misery did not stop there. This year, the rich were hoping for some relief. Instead, the surcharge was hiked to 25% for incomes above Rs 2 crore and to 37% for incomes above Rs 5 crore.The hike in surcharge means that a taxpayer with a net taxable income of Rs 6 crore pays Rs 2.53 crore, or more than 42% of his income, in tax. The surcharge alone is Rs 65 lakh. If this levy is removed and the tax slabs are rejigged, the tax liability will reduce 33% from Rs 2.53 crore to Rs 1.97 crore. According to the CBDT data, there were 2,850 taxpayers reporting an income of above Rs 5 crore in 2017-18. These individuals were badly hit by the hike in surcharge and would be obviously be relieved if it is removed.Revenue collections will be hitOf course, the proposed changes in the income tax slabs will come at a heavy price. The generous cut in the corporate tax rate would mean an esimated revenue loss of about Rs 1.45 lakh crore to the exchequer. According to a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch report, the rejig of the income tax slabs would cost the exchequer another Rs 1.75 lakh crore. Of this, Rs 1 lakh crore would be borne by the Centre and Rs 75,000 crore by states.As of now, officials are tightlipped about the proposed changes and tax professionals are not willing to hazard an opinion. But everbody does expect a big (and possibly populist) change in the tax structure soon. Incidentally, reducing the corporate tax rate to 25% was one of the proposals of the task force. It has also suggested the removal of the Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT).If all goes well, taxpayers could have a bright and happy Diwali.
MUMBAI: Early trends in quarterly results show resilient double-digit growth in aggregate net profit aided by the recent corporate tax cut. However, lacklustre single-digit revenue growth reveals lower demand. A sample of 69 companies that declared results for September quarter reported a 12.5% year-on-year rise in aggregate net profit, the highest in five quarters. But, revenue grew at a five-quarter low of 5.6%.India Inc's topline has been under pressure due to weak demand and is expected to remain in single digits for the second quarter. "The slowdown in consumption demand is reflected in the Reserve Bank of India's Consumer Confidence Index as well that declined to 89.4 in September 2019 compared with 95.7 in July 2019," said India Ratings in a recent report. 71680136 The operating margin of the sample showed a small improvement of 20 basis points yearon-year to 16.5%.Analysts ScepticalBut analysts remain sceptical of any major improvement after the majority of companies declare results for the quarter."In Q2FY20, although corporates would have lower base of profits (in the year-ago quarter), lower operating leverage in Q2FY20 (due to slow demand) would mean that margins may not show a jump," said Deepak Jasani, research head, HDFC Securities.Excluding banks and finance companies, growth in revenue and net profit tapered to 4.9% and 10.5%, respectively. This implies an improved year-on-year performance by banks.Though the cut in corporate tax is expected to help India Inc report better profit growth, it will be too early to estimate the extent of the benefit since the numbers so far are skewed by Reliance Industries, the country's largest company by profit, and information technology (IT) companies. For instance, at ?3.1 lakh crore, RIL alone accounted for half the sample's revenue and nearly 36% of its net profit. It reported record net profit of ?11,262 crore, up 18.2% year-on-year, the highest growth in at least five quarters.The 11 IT companies that have declared results so far reported a slower quarter at the aggregate level on account of softer demand from global banks and capital markets, which constitute over half the total revenue of the sector. Aggregate revenue rose 6.6% compared with growth of 17.9% in the year-ago quarter while net profit growth slowed to 4% from 13.6%.Together, RIL and IT companies constituted 78.5% of the sample's revenue and 83.7% of its net profit. As more companies declare results in the coming weeks, the trend will become clearer.
The new buyer of Air India, which the government hopes to sell shortly, will get the master brand and logos associated with the state-owned airliner, including the iconic Maharaja mascot. However, subsidiaries such as Air India Express, the profitable low-fare carrier, won't be included in the main sale and will be divested separately. These units won't be able to use the master brand and logos once a new owner for Air India is in place, according to people with knowledge of the matter. sub-brands is being examined… Value of the brand will be part of the total valuation of the airline," said a top official. "There are 12 subbrands with Air India which are being examined for severance."The issue figured at an Air India disinvestment meeting called by the civil aviation ministry on Friday. Air India management will take stock of the brands and logos. The carrier's logo is a red swan emblazoned with the Konark Chakra in orange. The swan was adapted from Air India's old centaur logo while the chakra is from Indian Airlines logo. The two state-owned carriers were merged in 2007 under Air India. The Maharaja, which first appeared in 1946, has been a popular brand "Severance of Air India with other identity associated with the airline.Air India Express, Alliance Air and Air India Singapore Terminal Services Ltd will be excluded from the main Air India deal, as will Air India Air Transport Services and Air India Engineering Services. These will be sold separately, according to the people cited above. After the sale of the parent airline and a new owner is in place, the sub-brands can't use the master brand and logos, they said.The government is keen to push through the sale of Air India this year. It has already removed a major hurdle by transferring debt to a special purpose vehicle. The document seeking expressions of interest from bidders is expected to be issued next month.A final call on key aspects of the sale will be taken by the AI specific alternative mechanism headed by home minister Amit Shah. Others on the panel are finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and minister of state for civil aviation Hardeep Singh Puri.
The caution among financiers over real estate funding has now started affecting the commercial property segment too, hitherto considered safe. Increasingly, financing by banks to commercial real estate projects of developers has been more conservative compared to last year.This has worsened the already low liquidity for realtors across the country and builders are looking out for alternative sources of financing. Banks have become more selective in choosing projects they want to invest in as the sector continues to reel under economic slowdown.Bankers are now exercising extra caution in loan disbursements by seeking additional documents and collateral as well as reviewing existing limit both on fund and nonfund based lines of credit. "Earlier, it would take maximum 30 days to get lease rental discounting approved but now it's not less than 60-90 days. There are multiple levels of approvals that are taken before money is being disbursed," said Jitu Virwani, MD of Embassy Group.Embassy is raising Rs 4,000 crore by divesting commercial assets. "There is so much turmoil in the industry. Our intent is to keep liquid cash as there are opportunities to invest in others projects or companies too," said Virwani.Builders of commercial real estate are witnessing delays in loan approval and disbursal given its high-risk nature. Lending by banks is the cheapest form of credit for real estate firms, who rely on it primarily for working capital."Banks have turned very cautious as to who they are lending to even if it's backed by a stream of income flow. We can certainly see a massive flight to safety as financiers have become quality conscious. It would take some more time before it comes back to normalcy," said the managing director of a private equity firm with large exposure to real estate.The real estate sector in India is faced by a severe liquidity crunch with the downturn in the residential property segment, with many builders struggling to repay loans to shadow lenders."In both cases of retail mall and office complex, landlord's relationship with tenants and ability to get rental escalation has become more crucial now as banks are turning more diligent. The conclusion and conversion ratio of lease rental discounting proposals has come down due to the cautionary pause hit by most lenders," said Subhash Udhwani, founder of real estate-focused boutique investment bank Elysium Capital.According to Fitch Ratings, about $10 billion of development loans are coming up for repayment in the first half of 2020 and this may impact mainstream banks that disbursed money to shadow lenders or invested in their bonds.Defaults by two housing finance companies, Dewan Housing Finance Corp and Altico Capital, have only aggravated the financial stress.The outlook for Indian real estate in the quarter to September fell to the level previously seen during the heightened uncertainty of the pre-election period in 2014 and the demonetisation period of late 2016, found a jointl survey by industry lobby FICCI, National Real Estate Development Council (NARDECO) and realty consultant Knight Frank India.
NEW DELHI: The commercial vehicles industry is bearing the biggest brunt of the slowdown this fiscal but it is expected to grow next year despite increase in prices due to BS-VI emission norms implementation, according to a senior official of Mahindra & Mahindra. The various stimulus steps taken by the government to spur the economy being "bit of medium-term measures", Mahindra & Mahindra CEO, Mahindra Truck and Bus Division Vinod Sahay said the impact will be felt on the ground in the next six to seven months, thereby helping to lift the commercial vehicles (CV) segment next fiscal. "Overall, the CV industry is facing the biggest brunt of the (current) slowdown. It is not a surprise because we are the barometer of the economy. When the economy doesn't do well there is not way CV industry can do well," Sahay told . "This year is going to be in red and the question is how much in red and it will depend on stimulus for revival, which I don't see coming. Some pre-buying of BS-IV (vehicles) ahead of BS-VI implementation will happen but the industry will end in the red. There is no question of any growth," he added. As per industry body SIAM data, in the April-September period this fiscal, total domestic CV sales slumped by 22.95 per cent to 3,75,480 units as against 4,87,319 units in the year-ago period. Medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) segment declined by 35.79 per cent in the same period at 1,22,521 units as compared to 1,90,801 units in the first half of last fiscal. When asked about the outlook for the next fiscal and if price hikes due to BS-VI implementation from April 1, 2020 will affect demand, Sahay said, "Fundamentally, I don't think so." Recollecting how the transition from BS-III to BS-IV panned out, he said there was heavy pre-buying but despite that there was growth in the first year of BS-IV rollout. "So it is not necessary that the first year of BS-VI will have to be in red because of the price increase," he said. As per industry estimates, BS-VI compliant commercial vehicles are likely to be costlier by at least 10 per cent than the existing BS-IV models. Sahay further said, "The fundamental question here is how does the economy do? If the economy starts improving due to all the steps that the government has taken, which are a bit of medium-term measures, we believe that it will start playing in six-seven months time frame." So next year if the economy starts reviving, specially if the domestic consumption starts improving, he said, "We feel that once all that impact starts coming in and and if the economy comes back in shape CV will bounce back. Also because of the base effect of this year, which will be a heavy decline, my bet is that next year will be a good growth. It will not go down." For the present, however, he said demand for CVs continues to be low. Also, the stimulus of additional depreciation of 15 per cent announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in August, taking it to 30 per cent on all vehicles till March 2020, "doesn't help CV segment because people will buy CV only when there is business available," he added. Commenting on the company's plans for BS-VI transition, Sahay said, "We are almost ready for BS-VI like anyone else. We can't launch BS-VI as fuel is not available. We are getting our vehicles homologated. Some vehicles have already got homologated." Around March next year is when the fuel will be available and Mahindra Truck and Bus Division will be introducing vehicles accordingly, he added. "We will start production around December for some pilot vehicles. From March onwards we will start selling it to dealers. Once fuel is there we will start retailing from April 1 onwards," Sahay said. In the first year of BS-VI implementation, the company will launch the full range of 22 variants of 'Furio' intermediate commercial vehicle, of which five will be upgrades of existing BS-IV version, he said. Besides, Sahay said the full-fledged commercial launch of Cruzio range of buses will also happen after the BS-VI norms come into effect. Currently, the company is doing pilot level of sales to gauge customers in the BS-IV version. Asked about the company's network expansion plans, he said, "We have reached 430 touch points across the country now from 250 two years back. Largely we have covered tier I and II cities. The target is to reach 520 by mid of next financial year."
The stock market outlook remains uncertain due to the economic slowdown and elusive corporate earnings revival but that has not stopped investors from lapping up select stocks. As many as 100 stocks on the BSE 500 index have rallied between 50 per cent and 200 per cent from their 52-week lows in the last many months. Stocks like Nippon Life Asset Management, InterGlobe Aviation, Manappuram Finance, Bajaj Finance, Bata India, HDFC Asset Management among others have doubled from their 52-week lows. Investors and traders are betting on them as their earnings growth is expected to remain resilient in this downturn. Some lesser-known mid- and small-cap stocks, too, have recovered between 50 per cent and 100 per cent from their yearly lows because of strength in earnings. For instance, Brigade Enterprises and MAS Financial Services have recovered 80 per cent each from their 52-week lows as they reported over 40 per cent growth in operating profits in the last 12 months. ET has compiled 20 such companies, which as per Bloomberg consensus estimates can potentially gain as much as 70 per cent return over the next one year. 71680220
By Mehul KothariSr. Technical Analyst, Indianivesh SecuritiesWhere are We? The Nifty surged more than 3 per cent to close above the 11600 mark. Meanwhile, the Nifty Bank index too gained more than 3 per cent, but was not an outperformer. On the sectoral front, the Auto (+7.67 per cent) and Metal (+5.09 per cent) counters were the biggest contributors whereas underperformance was seen in the IT (+0.58 per cent) index. Broader markets, too, participated in the rise as the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices gained between 3 per cent and 4 per cent from their previous weekly closings.What is in Store? In order to maintain the upside momentum and enter a fresh bull run, the Nifty will have to clear the threshold of 11700-11800. The first is placement of falling trend line formed by joining the swing highs of 12103 (June 2019) and 11982 (July 2019) and the latter is 11790 — which is 78.6 per cent retracement level of the entire crack from 12103 to 10637. A move above 11800 could be an extremely strong sign for the bulls because above 11800 the Nifty has a potential to touch a new life-high (somewhere near 12200 levels). So the next 100 points for the Nifty will be very crucial for the markets. We would advise traders to hold their longs but with a strict stop- loss of 11500 in Nifty.What could investors Do? On the stock front, we like Blue Star for the coming week. The theoretical target for the pattern comes around Rs 1050 while the stock is still quoting near the Rs 830 mark. Traders are advised to buy the stock between Rs 830 and Rs 820 for the upside target of Rs 925 with a stop-loss of Rs 775. (1–2 months). Also in the F&O space, we are bullish on Adani Group stocks. Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports both can rally 5-8 per cent in the coming weeks as both have confirmed price breakouts on the larger degree chart, followed by a rise in volumes.
Bengaluru: An anonymous group calling itself "ethical employees" has complained to the board of Infosys and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that the company is taking 'unethical' steps to boost short-term revenue and profits and stating that the complainants have emails and voice recordings to substantiate the claims.Copies of the letters sent by the group to both the board of Infosys and the SEC were shared with ET. In the letters, the group alleges that CEO Salil Parekh is bypassing reviews and approvals for large deals. "He (Parekh) directs them to make wrong assumptions to show margins.CFO is compliant and he prevents us from showing in board presentations large deal issues…Several billion-dollar deals of last few quarters have nil margin," the letter states. "Please ask auditors to check deal proposals, margins, undisclosed upfront commitments made and revenue recognition," the letter stated.Infosys is examining the charges made by the whistleblower, the company said late on Sunday night. "The whistleblower complaint has been placed before the Audit Committee as per the company's practice and will be dealt with in accordance with the company's whistleblowers' policy," it said in a statement.The letter added that the complainants were asked to not fully recognise visa costs in the quarter and were pressured to not immediately recognise $50 million in reversals in a contract."In large contracts like Verizon, Intel, JVs in Japan, ABN AMRO acquisition, revenue recognition matters are forced, which are not as per accounting standards," the letter stated.In the second quarter of financial year 2020, Infosys said its margin expanded 120 basis points, topping analysts expectations on profitability.The letter added that the CEO, and CFO Nilanjan Roy were pressuring the finance team to show more profits in their treasury management 'by taking risks and making changes to policies'."They ask us not to make key disclosures in 20F and annual report and to share only good and incomplete information with investors and analysts. This is a regulatory issue. We have mails and voice records and will share during investigation," the letter added.The whistleblower letter to the board is dated September 20, 2019. The letter to the US SEC was first sent on September 27, according to a purported follow-up letter dated October 3. Infosys ADRs trade on the US stock exchanges.Earlier this month, the company's deputy CFO Jayesh Sanghrajka resigned. The last time Infosys faced a whistleblower complaint was during the tenure of former CEO Vishal Sikka who left in 2017 after a tussle over corporate governance with Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy. This led to the return of cofounder Nandan Nilekani as the non-executive chairman in 2017.
ఐదేళ్లు అధికారంలో ఉండి కూడా లక్షలాది అగ్రిగోల్డ్ బాధితుల్లో కనీసం ఒక్కరికి కూడా న్యాయం చేయలేకపోయింది తెలుగుదేశం ప్రభుత్వం. పైగా నారాలోకేష్ స్వయంగా రంగంలోకి దిగి అగ్రిగోల్డ్ ఆస్తులను కాజేసేందుకు ప్రయత్నిస్తున్నారన్న ఆరోపణలు పెద్దెత్తున వచ్చాయి. బాధితులు ధర్నాలు చేసినా వారికి ఒక్క రూపాయి కూడా ఇవ్వలేదు. ఆస్తులు వేలం వేసి బాధితుల సమస్యను పరిష్కరించేందుకు ప్రయత్నించలేదు. కొత్త ప్రభుత్వం అగ్రిగోల్డ్ బాధితులను ఆదుకునేందుకు తొలి విడతలో భాగంగా రూ. 264 కోట్లు విడుదల చేసింది. ఆర్థిక […]
రామోజీ రావు వియ్యంకుడికి చెందిన నవయుగ సంస్థ బాగోతాలు ఒక్కొక్కటిగా బయటకు వస్తున్నాయి. చంద్రబాబు అండతో ఆ కంపెనీ చెలరేగిపోయిన విధానం ఆశ్చర్యానికి గురి చేస్తోంది. పరిశ్రమల ఏర్పాటు అంటూ ప్రభుత్వం నుంచి తక్కువ ధరకే భూములు తీసుకున్న నవయుగ సంస్థ ఆ భూములను బ్యాంకుల్లో తాకట్టు పెట్టి ఏకంగా 19వందల కోట్ల రూపాయలు రుణం పొందింది. ఇలా ప్రభుత్వం నుంచి తీసుకున్న భూములను బ్యాంకుల్లో తాకట్టు పెట్టే సమయంలో ఏపీఐఐసీ నుంచి నిరభ్యంతర పత్రం కూడా […]
14 ఏళ్ల ప్రేమను పెళ్లిగా మార్చుకొన్న నడాల్ స్పానిష్ బుల్ రాఫెల్ నడాల్ ఎట్టకేలకు ఓ ఇంటివాడయ్యాడు. తన బాల్యస్నేహితురాలు మారియా ఫ్రాన్సిస్కా పెరెలీతో 14 సంవత్సరాల తన ప్రేమబంధాన్ని.. వివాహబంధంగా మార్చుకొన్నాడు. తన కెరియర్ లో ఇప్పటికే 19 గ్రాండ్ స్లామ్ టైటిల్స్ నెగ్గిన క్లేకోర్టు కింగ్ నడాల్..33 ఏళ్ల వయసులో పెళ్లికొడుకయ్యాడు. 31 సంవత్సరాల తన స్నేహితురాలు పెరెలీని తన జీవితభాగస్వామిగా చేసుకొన్నాడు. గత 14 సంవత్సరాలుగా పెరెలీతో సహజీవనం చేస్తూ వచ్చిన నడాల్…మొలార్కాలోని ఓ రాజభవంతిలో..350 […]
మాజీ ఎమ్మెల్యే బైరెడ్డి రాజశేఖర్ రెడ్డి మరో జంప్ చేస్తున్నారు. కొద్దికాలంగా టీడీపీ వైపు ఉంటున్న బైరెడ్డి ఇప్పుడు బీజేపీలో చేరుతున్నారు. బీజేపీలో చేరే అంశంపై అనుచరులతో చర్చించేందుకు ఈనెల 24న బైరెడ్డి సమావేశం ఏర్పాటు చేస్తున్నారు. కర్నూలులో హైకోర్టు ఏర్పాటు, అమరావతి ఫ్రీజోన్ వంటి డిమాండ్లకు బీజేపీ కూడా సానుకూలంగా ఉన్నందున సీమ అభివృద్దే లక్ష్యంగా బీజేపీలో చేరుతున్నట్టు బైరెడ్డి చెబుతున్నారు. ప్రస్తుత రాజకీయ పరిస్థితుల్లో ఇక టీడీపీ కోలుకోవడం అయ్యేపని కాదని ఆయన విశ్వసిస్తున్నారు. […]
డాన్ బ్రాడ్మన్ ను అధిగమించిన రోహిత్ సిరీస్ లో 500 పరుగుల రోహిత్ శర్మ భారత డాషింగ్ ఓపెనర్ రోహిత్ శర్మ…సాంప్రదాయ టెస్టు క్రికెట్లో సైతం రికార్డుల మోత మోగించాడు. తొలి డబుల్ సెంచరీతో సంచలనం సృష్టించాడు. రాంచీ లోని జార్ఖండ్ ఇంటర్నేషనల్ క్రికెట్ స్టేడియం వేదికగా సౌతాఫ్రికాతో జరుగుతున్న ఆఖరిటెస్టు రెండోరోజు ఆటలో రోహిత్ ద్విశతకం బాదాడు. టెస్టుల్లో తొలి డబుల్… టెస్టు క్రికెట్లో ఓపెనర్ గా తన కెరియర్ లో కేవలం మూడోటెస్టు మాత్రమే […]
నవయుగ సంస్థకు ఏపీలో దెబ్బ మీద దెబ్బ తగులుతోంది. నవయుగ సంస్థకు మరో పెద్ద షాక్ ఇచ్చింది ఏపీ ప్రభుత్వం. నెల్లూరు జిల్లా కృష్ణపట్నం పోర్టు సమీపంలో ఇండస్ట్రియల్ పార్కు ఏర్పాటు చేస్తామంటూ పదేళ్ల క్రితం నవయుగ సంస్థ ప్రభుత్వం నుంచి తక్కువ ధరకే నాలుగు వేల 731 ఎకరాల భూమిని తీసుకుంది. కానీ ఇప్పటికీ ఎలాంటి ఇండస్ట్రియల్ పార్కు పనులను ప్రారంభించకుండా భూమిని తమ వద్దే ఉంచుకుంది. కొత్త ప్రభుత్వం మాత్రం 4వేల 731 ఎకరాల […]
ఏపీ ప్రభుత్వం 13 జిల్లాలకు ఇన్చార్జ్ మంత్రులను ప్రకటించింది. వీరు ఆయా జిల్లాల్లో అభివృద్ధి, సంక్షేమ పథకాల పనితీరును సమీక్షిస్తారు. శ్రీకాకుళం జిల్లా ఇన్చార్జ్ మంత్రిగా కొడాలి నాని విజయనగరం జిల్లా- వెల్లంపల్లి శ్రీనివాస్ విశాఖ జిల్లా – కన్నబాబు తూర్పుగోదావరి జిల్లా- మోపిదేవి వెంకటరమణ పశ్చిమ గోదావరి జిల్లా- పేర్నినాని కృష్ణా జిల్లా – పెద్దిరెడ్డి రామచంద్రారెడ్డి గుంటూరు జిల్లా – రంగనాథ రాజు ప్రకాశం జిల్లా- బుగ్గన రాజేంద్రనాథ్ నెల్లూరు- బాలినేని శ్రీనివాస్ రెడ్డి […]
తన సినిమా వస్తుందంటే చాలు హైదరాబాద్ లో వాలిపోతాడు కార్తి. ఆడియో ఫంక్షన్ దగ్గర్నుంచి, ప్రత్యేక ఇంటర్వ్యూలు వరకు చాలా హంగామా చేస్తాడు. అటు కార్తి అన్నయ్య సూర్య కూడా అంతే. తన సినిమా తెలుగు రిలీజ్ కోసం ప్రత్యేకంగా కొన్ని షెడ్యూల్స్ ప్లాన్ చేస్తాడు. కార్తి, సూర్యతో పాటు విశాల్ లాంటి కొంతమంది తమిళ నటులు తెలుగు మార్కెట్ కోసం చాలా ప్రయత్నాలు చేస్తుంటారు. కానీ ఇలాంటి ప్రయత్నాలేవీ చేయకుండానే విజయ్ కు ఇక్కడ తెలుగులో […]
Facebook is willing to reverse course on its plans to tie its digital currency project to a synthetic currency tied to a basket of global currencies.
Reuters is reporting that Facebook’s head of the Libra project, David Marcus, told a group of bankers that the company’s main goal was to create a better payments system and was open to alternative approaches to the original structure of the project.
Facebook and its partners had intended to create its cryptocurrency by pegging it to a basket of national currencies whose holdings would be set by the Libra Association.
National banks considered the plan part of a dangerous end-run around their regulatory authority and have been holding up the project until they could assume tighter control over how the Facebook-architected cryptocurrency and payment technology would operate.
The scrutiny from regulators proved too much for some of Facebook’s largest, and earliest, partners in the Libra Association, whose members would determine how the cryptocurrency would operate.
In the past month seven of the Libra Association’s founding members dropped out including: PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Ebay, and Stripe. Those seven represented a big chunk of the strategic value and commercial heft of the planned association, with Stripe, Mastercard, Visa, and Ebay standing in for a huge number of payment processors and merchant touchpoints that the new cryptocurrency would need were it to dramatically scale to the size Facebook wanted right out of the gate.
Now, in another strategic reversal, Marcus is conceding the synthetic currency in favor of stablecoins tied to the local currency in each market that Libra would operate.
"We could do it differently," Reuters quoted the Libra Association chief as saying. "Instead of having a synthetic unit … we could have a series of stablecoins, a dollar stablecoin, a euro stablecoin, a sterling pound stable coin, etc."
All of this is happening against the backdrop of Facebook’s stated launch date of June 2020 for the Libra cryptocurrency. Marcus told Reuters that the June launch was still the goal, but that the association would not move forward unless it had addressed the concerns of regulators and received the proper approvals.
Reuters reported that the G-20 financial overseers wrote in a statement that money laundering, illicit finance and consumer protection need to be evaluated before any stablecoin projects can “commence operation.”
Years ago, I wrote a piece criticizing a cover story by a well-known writer and political commentator that I'd met a few times, with whom I'd occasionally sparred on Twitter. The piece wasn't merely a representation of my own views, but pulled in snarky tweets from other journalists disparaging her work too. It was a pile-on, and not my proudest moment.
The Writer wasn't exactly thin-skinned; in fact, quite the contrary: She was a brash, sometimes obnoxious feminist with strong opinions, unafraid to speak her mind. I often agreed with her, even when I found her delivery abrasive. Still, after a couple of years with me as a thorn in her side, she decided she'd had enough—and so she did something that many readers will find familiar: She blocked me on Twitter.
The block button is an important tool that allows women and other vulnerable people to have some semblance of the same Twitter experience that the average white man might, free from constant harassment. I couldn't tell you how many times I've used it over the years to drown out nasty ad hominems, sea lions, and of course, sexual harassment and worse.
Twitter wasn't always the "hell site" we know it as today. Many early users like me found professional advancement and lasting friendship in 140-character missives. But as the site grew, so did its potential for misuse. By 2014—two years shy of its tenth anniversary—Twitter had become central to the GamerGate controversy, ostensibly a dispute about issues of sexism and progressivism in gaming but on Twitter, a free-for-all of harassment and doxing of any woman even tangentially involved in the discussion. The harassment was so severe that it drove some women off the site permanently.
Out of GamerGate emerged better tools for blocking, tools like BlockTogether that allow individual users to share a list of people they've blocked. The idea behind these tools is that harassers are likely to have multiple targets, so why not make it easier for potential targets of harassment to block numerous would-be harassers all at once?
But BlockTogether and similar tools are not without flaws. Once you're on a blocklist, it can be hard to get your name removed and if you end up, for whatever reason, on one created by a prominent or well-respected user, you may find yourself blocked by people you don't know and would've enjoyed following. Some might call this reasonable collateral damage.
Numerous journalists and others have complained of finding themselves on a blocklist after a disagreement with an individual who uses them. I'm unfortunately on one used by a number of journalists. Why, you might ask, was I blocked in the first place? I remember quite clearly: It was for disagreeing with someone about the life sentence handed to Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road website. For my opinion, I've lost the ability to follow or interact with dozens of journalists whose work I read.
Despite that, I don't blame women or other minorities who've experienced harassment for using the block button liberally. Blocking someone isn't a matter of free speech (unless of course the blocker in question is an elected official), as some of my harassers have claimed—rather, it's often a matter of preserving one's sanity. The block button, along with blocklists, are useful tools for curating space—not a safe space per se, but one free from random harassers, spammers, and the like. Think of it more as a large invite-only event, as opposed to a New York City street.
And yet, I can't help but wonder if our liberal use of the block button prevents us from experiencing the kind of reconciliation that can happen in our offline communities. We often remove someone from our life, only for them to apologize their way back in later on. Even the Amish, who practice shunning as a matter of faith, allow for the repented to return.
Twitter's architecture has changed over time, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. Presently, its algorithm sometimes surfaces replies from people you do follow, to tweets from individuals you don't, based on some assumption that you mind find them interesting. Occasionally, it will surface a reply from a friend to someone with a locked account or, in rare cases, to someone who blocks you, as it did for me the other day. Someone I follow had replied with an interesting comment to a tweet from The Writer—a tweet that, of course, I couldn't see without logging out and going directly to her profile. And so I did.
What I found was someone who, with that same fierce energy, seemed a lot more thoughtful, with views more similar to mine than I remembered. I felt a momentary pang of sadness for the camaraderie that might have been. I realized the obvious: That we've both grown, alongside the backdrop of the horrific political environment that's accompanied us through the past half-decade. "Have you thought about reaching out to her?" a friend asked.
Therein lies the rub: In the case of The Writer, I could reach out to her; we've met in person a few times, and we retain mutual friends. She might respond favorably, or with a "thanks but no thanks", but either way, it's unlikely she would deem my approach to be harassment. But there's this other journalist I've never interacted with, who no doubt signed up to a blocklist that I happened to be on. I discovered that she blocked me when I went to read a tweet someone had DM'd me, and was disappointed—but reaching out to her through some other channel would seem weird, invasive. It isn't worth it.
I recently reviewed my own list of blocked accounts (you can do so through your settings), a list that numbers well into the hundreds. Most aren't worth revisiting—there's sexual harassers and transphobes, Bahraini bots and Roseanne Barr, some Trumpites and a few high-profile right-wing accounts. But among them, close to the bottom of the list (coinciding with the early days of the block button), I spotted a few outliers, and decided to give them a second chance.
Technology is constantly changing and progressing and yet, the block button—and blocklists—remain in rudimentary form. They're simply not priorities for companies whose focus is on profit. But were we to redesign them, perhaps we could find a way to make blocks time-limited, or at least provide users with more nuanced options. One such existing feature is Facebook's "snooze" button, which allows users to "mute" another person for 30 days, with a reminder when that time period is up; I found that one particularly handy last summer while a friend was going heavy on self-promotion. I use Twitter's "mute" function to rid my feed of people with whom I have to interact professionally and thus can't block. And then there's the "soft block"—a feature or bug, it isn't clear—wherein one can block and unblock someone quickly on Twitter so that the user no longer follows them…at least until they wisen up (this feature/bug is made easier by the fact that Twitter seems to be perpetually plagued by an "unfollow bug"). These tools are helpful, but with all the riches these companies have, they could design something—with input from those most affected by harassment—that is less blunt, more elegant, more thoughtful.
Ultimately, the block button is an imperfect solution to a pervasive problem, and therefore remains as necessary as ever. I know that I'll continue to use it as long as I'm on social media. But…don't we deserve something better?
When a TV show gets turned into a movie, it often represents a big change of pace, with a standalone plot, a bigger budget, all made for a bigger (or at least more casual) audience.
“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Story” — which premiered a week ago on Netflix —doesn’t take that approach at all.
Far from telling a new story or serving as jumping on-point for new viewers, “El Camino” functions more like a two-hour epilogue to the existing show. It appears to have been made exclusively for existing “Breaking Bad” fans who were wondering about what happened to Aaron Paul’s character Jessie Pinkman after the series finale.
As we acknowledge in the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, Jordan is the only regular OC host who’s actually seen the entirety of “Breaking Bad.” And she was reasonably satisfied with the film, feeling that it had some of the same strengths as “Breaking Bad” — though it didn’t quite capture the strong character development and elaborate plotting that made the series great.
Darrell, meanwhile, gets a chance to explain why he’s so resistant to “Breaking Bad,” and why nothing in “El Camino” changed his mind.
In addition to our review, we discuss Netflix’s latest earnings, in which which the streamer reported better-than-expected profits, despite still-sluggish subscriber growth in the United States.
You can listen in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You can also send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)
And if you want to skip ahead, here’s how the episode breaks down:
0:00 Intro 2:12 Netflix Q3 earnings 16:06 “El Camino” reviews (spoilers for “Breaking Bad” but not “El Camino”) 38:20 “El Camino” spoiler discussion
As it looks to modernize its operations, the Los Angeles Fire Department is turning to a number of new technologies including expanding its fleet of drones for a slew of new deployments.
One of the largest fire departments in the U.S. next to New York and Chicago, the LAFD has a budget of roughly $691 million, employs over 3,500, and responded to 492,717 calls in 2018.
The department already has a fleet of 11 drones to compliment its fleet of 258 fire engines, ambulances, and helicopters.
However, Battalion Chief Richard Fields, the head of the department’s Unmanned Aerial Systems program would like to see that number increase significantly.
Los Angeles has become an early leader in the use of drones for its firefighting applications thanks in part to an agreement with the Chinese company, DJI, which the department inked back in April.
At the time, the Chinese drone manufacturer and imaging technology developer announced an agreement to test and deploy DJI drones as an emergency response preparedness tool. The company called it one DJI’s largest partnerships with a fire-fighting agency in the U.S.
“We are excited to be strengthening our partnership with the LAFD, one of the nation’s preeminent public safety agencies, to help them take advantage of DJI’s drone technology that has been purpose-built for the public safety sector,” said Bill Chen, Enterprise Partnerships Manager at DJI, in a statement at the time. “Through our two-way collaboration, DJI will receive valuable insight into the complexities of deploying drones for emergency situations in one of the most complex urban environments in the nation.”
Now, roughly five months later, the program seems to have been successful enough that Battalion Chief Fields is looking to double the fleet.
“Our next iteration is to start using our drones to assist our specialized resources,” said Fields. Those are firefighters and support crews that deal with hazardous materials, urban search and rescue, marine environments and swift water rescues, Fields said.
The LAFD Swift Water Rescue Team. Photo courtesy of Flickr/ LAFD Mike Horst
The technology demands of the fire department extend beyond the drone itself, Fields said. “There are a lot of technologies that allows us to make the drone more versatile… the most valuable tool isn’t the drone; it’s the sensor.”
So far, the most useful application has been using infrared technologies to balance what’s visible and combine it with the heat signatures the sensors pick up.
Training to become a drone pilot for the LAFD is particularly intense, Fields says. The typical pilot will get up to eighty hours of training. “Our training is nation-leading. There’s nothing out there in the commercial market that beats it,” according to Fields.
For now, the entire LAFD fleet is composed of DJI drones, something which has given military and civilian officials pause in the past few years.
Concerns have been growing over the reliance on Chinese technology in core American infrastructure extending from networking technology companies like Huawei, to drone technology developers like DJI.
Back in 2018 the Department of Defense issued a ban on the acquisition and use of commercial drones, citing cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The ban came a year after officials from the Department of Homeland Security and members of Congress called out DJI specifically for its potential to be used by the Chinese government to spy on the United States.
In Los Angeles, Fields says he takes those concerns seriously. The department has worked closely with regulators and advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union to craft a strict policy around what gets done with the data that the LAFD collects.
“The way that we establish our program is that the drone provides us with our real-time situational awareness,” said Fields. “That helps the incident commander get a visual perspective of the problem and he can make better decisions.”
The only data that is recorded and kept, says Fields, is data collected around brush fires so that the LAFD can do a damage assessment, which can later be turned into map layers to keep records of hotspots.
As for data that could be sent back to China, Fields says that any mapping of critical infrastructure is done without connecting to the internet. “It’s being collected on the drone and 90% of that information is how the drone is operating. There is some information of where the . drone is and how it is and the [latitude] and [longitude] of the drone itself… That’s the data that’s being collected,” Fields says.
From Fields’ perspective, if the government is so concerned about the use of drones made by a foreign manufacturer, there’s an easy solution. Just regulate it.
“Let's come up with a standard. If you use them in a federal airspace these are the check marks that you have to pass,” he says. “Saying that DJI drones are bad because they come from China [and] let's throw them all out… that's not an answer either.”
Space is becoming a major area of startup and commercial investment, and so I’ve decided to start providing a weekly round-up of the biggest news in aerospace, space science and space-related technologies. Let me know if you appreciate this or have suggestions, and I’ll make sure it evolves as needed to be useful resource.
This week, there was an abundance of spacesuit news, and signs from multiple operators that there’s going to be an orbital traffic boom in the immediate future. Also, we’re heading into the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC) this coming week, so expect a lot more news starting tomorrow.
NASA showed off a brand new generation of spacesuit, including the one that the first American woman and next American man to set foot on the Moon will don for that historic moment. The new Artemis suits are designed to scale from essentially the smallest to the largest possible adult human frame, which NASA touts as a way to make the astronaut program more accessible to a wider range of Americans. The agency should be going out of its way to fix that, because of what happened that led to item #2 this week.
For the first time, NASA is looking to outsource the full production of these Artemis-generation spacesuits (including the Orion survival suit, which was also revealed today and will be worn only during flight aboard the Orion capsule). To that end, it has put out a request for input from industry about their design and development ahead of setting up a proper RFP.
NASA astronauts Christina H. Koch and Jessica Meir
As I alluded above, there was a very good reason that NASA really emphasized how inclusive its Artemis suit designs are: The agency had to cancel a first all-woman spacewalk earlier this year because it didn’t have the right amount of properly sized spacesuits on board the International Space Station. It sent one up in June, however, and that historic moment happened this past week, with Koch and Meir performing a roughly seven-hour spacewalk to repair a power controller.
That’s on top of the 12,000 it’s already had cleared, which makes for a total potential constellation size of 42,000. That’s about 8x the number of satellites currently in orbit, across all orbital zones. It’s a move that is definitely raising the ire of both industry and space researchers, because it’ll make it a lot more complicated to ensure orbital spacecraft avoid collisions, and it could potentially obscure the view of the stars from Earth. SpaceX says it has taken steps to ensure it can avoid both problems, but not everyone is convinced.
Meanwhile, startup Swarm has been granted FCC approval to deploy its own, much-smaller constellation of 150 satellites. Swarm isn’t competing directly with SpaceX’s Starlink – it wants to provide low-bandwidth IoT connectivity. And while it isn’t looking to put up a huge volume of spacecraft, there was some concern that its toaster-sized satellites might be too small to track and present a risk that way.
New Zealand-born and lately U.S.-headquartered Rocket Lab was successful in launching its fifth Electron rocket this year. The startup’s success was more a proof point for its business model than its technology, however, since the payload that flew aboard this mission was actually one that wasn’t slated to go up until much later in the queue. Rocket Lab’s original client for this one had to drop out due to unfortunate circumstances, and Rocket Lab was able to get client Astro Digital an earlier ride. This kind of late-stage payload swap has not typically been a strength of the established commercial space launch industry.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic will begin ferrying wealthy paying tourists to the very edge of space next year, if all goes to plan, and now we know what they’ll be wearing when they do: Under Armour. The sportswear company and Branson’s space enterprise unveiled the new suits at a flashy special event featuring the first tourists who have reserved $250,000 tickets aboard Virgin Galactic’s atmosphere-skimming spacecraft.
Lockheed Martin has been in the commercial space business since there has been a commercial space business to be in, and around a decade ago it established a corporate venture fund to make strategic bets on startups. I sat down with the fund’s GM and Executive Director J. Christopher Moran to talk about what the fund looks for in startups – and the industry giant is a lot more interested in early stage companies that you might have thought. Extra Crunch Subscription required.
Hey everyone. Thank you for welcoming me into you inbox yet again.
Last week, I talked about the eternal dumbness of the smart home and how Google had a big chance to lay out their vision this past week. Guess what? They did not, instead we got a new more expensive Google Wifi that falls under the Nest brand as well as a Google Mini that can be wall-mounted…
If you're reading this on the TechCrunch site, you can get this in your inbox here, and follow my tweets here.
The big story
Zuckerberg had an interesting week, delivering a very rehearsed keynote that was neither in front of Congress or an audience of developers at F8. He spoke at Georgetown on the topic of free speech and Facebook’s brand of capitalism.
It was an odd speech, but it was an opportunity for him to speak at length about what he saw as Facebook’s mission in terms of free speech
“These two simple ideas — voice and inclusion — go hand in hand. We've seen this throughout history, even if it doesn't feel that way today. More people being able to share their perspectives has always been necessary to build a more inclusive society. And our mutual commitment to each other — that we hold each others' right to express our views and be heard above our own desire to always get the outcomes we want — is how we make progress together.
But this view is increasingly being challenged. Some people believe giving more people a voice is driving division rather than bringing us together. More people across the spectrum believe that achieving the political outcomes they think matter is more important than every person having a voice. I think that's dangerous. Today I want to talk about why, and some important choices we face around free expression.
Throughout history, we've seen how being able to use your voice helps people come together. We've seen this in the civil rights movement. Frederick Douglass once called free expression "the great moral renovator of society". He said "slavery cannot tolerate free speech". Civil rights leaders argued time and again that their protests were protected free expression, and one noted: "nearly all the cases involving the civil rights movement were decided on First Amendment grounds".
Facebook is in an interesting position here, where they’re tying a moral stance with an economic one. They seem to draw the line at paid ads and paid political speech whereas everything before it was so nuanced. I don’t like that very much.
Unrestricted speech on the internet has been an evolving topic. There’s the very real argument that giving people a megaphone to harass and bully minimizes other people’s ability to have unrestricted speech themselves. Facebook and most of the other major platforms have agreed with this and have put policies in place.
There’s also the situation where someone is threatening or discussing violence or hate speech. Again, Facebook goes further than the law requires and has this firmly in their policies.
If you look at the company’s existing policies that have been put in place over the past few years, you would find plenty of guidelines at odds with sections of Zuck’s speech and yet he seemed to be drawing a big red line here and now, with the only reason being the criticism of Facebook’s ad policy that allowed Donald Trump to pay for and target ads that were ostensibly untrue.
I wrote about the situation in full here and it rings true again after Zuckerberg’s speech. Timing is everything and it’s hard to take this moral stance seriously right now especially.
Send me feedback on Twitter @lucasmtny or email lucas@techcrunch.com
On to the rest of the week's news.
(Photo by Steve Sands/WireImage)
Trends of the week
Here are a few big news items from big companies, with green links to all the sweet, sweet added context:
Sprint + T-Mobile = official best friends The FCC has reportedly decided to let another massive merger go through (after some decent concessions), allowing T-Mobile and Sprint to proceed in their massive telecom merger.
Switch sales surge Nintendo has already made a major splash with the Switch, but the traction it’s gaining in North America has already eclipsed its last-gen system’s worldwide unit sales. Check out their latest milestone.
Justice Dept takes down a massive child exploitation site The government infiltrated and clamped down on a massive child exploitation dark web site this week and my colleague Zack has the full rundown.
GAFA Gaffes
How did the top tech companies screw up this week? This clearly needs its own section, in order of badness:
Welcome to TechCrunch’s China roundup, a digest of events that happened at major Chinese tech companies and what they mean to tech founders and executives around the world.
The talk about U.S.-China relationships over the past two weeks has centered heavily on the NBA controversy, which has put the interest of some of China’s largest tech firms at stake. Last week, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey voiced support for Hong Kong protests in his since-deleted tweet, angering China’s NBA fans and prompting a raft of local tech companies to sever ties with the league. But some businesses seem to be back on track.
Tencent, which is famous for a slew of internet products, including WeChat and its Netflix-like video service, has been NBA’s exclusive streaming partner since 2009 and recently renewed the deal through the 2024-25 season. As many as 490 million fans in China watched NBA programming through Tencent in just one season this year, the pair claims.
The basketball games are clearly a driver of ad revenue and subscribers for Tencent amid fierce competition in China’s video streaming market, but following Morey’s statement, the company swiftly announced (in Chinese) it would suspend portions of its broadcast arrangements with the NBA. Popular smartphone brand Vivo and Starbucks’s local challenger Luckin also promised to pause collaboration with the NBA.
It was a tough call for businesses having to choose between economic interest and patriotism, and Tencent was tactful in its response, pledging only to “temporarily” halt the streaming of NBA “preseason games (China).” As public anger subsided over the week, Tencent resumed airing NBA preseason games on Monday. After all, the content partnership reportedly cost Tencent a heavy sum of $1.5 billion.
Entertainment giant turns to education
TikTok is probably the Chinese Internet service being most closely watched by the world at the moment. Its parent firm ByteDance, last reportedly valued at $75 billion, has ambitions beyond short videos.
This week, more details emerged on the upstart’s education endeavors through a WeChat post by Musical.ly founder Lulu Yang, whose short-video startup was acquired by ByteDance and subsequently merged with TikTok. Yang confirmed he was helping ByteDance to develop an education device in collaboration with phone maker Smartisan’s former hardware team, which ByteDance has absorbed. The product, which leverages ByteDance’s artificial intelligence capabilities, will be a “robotic learning companion” for K-12 students to use at home.
The news arrived in the same week that ByteDance’s flagship video app TikTok announced producing educational content for India, where it’s used by 200 million people every month. The move is designed to assuage local officials who have vehemently slammed TikTok for hosting illicit content, as my colleague Manish Singh pointed out.
Diving into education appears to be a sensible move for ByteDance to build relationships with local authorities, which can at times find its entertainment-focused content problematic. The multi-billion-dollar online education industry is also highly lucrative. ByteDance, with 1.5 billion daily users across TikTok, Douyin (TikTok for China), Toutiao news aggregator and other new media apps, is in a good position to monetize the enormous base by touting new services, whether they are educational content or mobile games.
Also worth your time
A total of 53 major video streaming services in China have introduced a “safe mode” for teenagers as of this week, state media reported (in Chinese). During the controls mode, underage users won’t be able to search for content, send real-time comments or private messages, upload or share videos, or reward live streaming hosts with virtual gifts. It’s part of China’s national effort to protect young people from consuming harmful digital content and internet addiction, which has also spawned age checks processes in Tencent games.
Xiaohongshu, a fast-growing social commerce app in China, is back in Android app stores nearly three months after it was banned by the government for undisclosed reasons. Rumors had it that the service, which was reportedly valued at more than $2.5 billion last year, was used to spread pornography and fake reviews. It’s hardly the first tech company hit by media regulation, and it can probably learn a thing or two from ByteDance, which has aggressively ramped up its content moderation force following a sequence of crackdowns by the government.
Meituan will partner with 1,000 vocational schools in the country to train as many as 100 million workers from the service industry over the next ten years, the Hong Kong-listed company announced (in Chinese) this week. Food delivery makes up the bulk of the on-demand services giant’s business but its footprint spans a wide range. The classes it provides to prepare workers for a digital era will also touch upon skincare, hair styling, manicure, plastic surgery, hospitality and parenting, a program highlighting the extensive reach of technology into Chinese people’s every life.
Chinese workers turn out to be big advocates for the application of AI. According to a survey by Oracle and research firm Future Workplace, workers in India (60 percent) and China (56 percent) are the most excited about AI. Japan, where the labor force is shrinking, ranks surprisingly low (25 percent), and the U.S. has an equally mild reaction (22 percent) toward the technology.
This week Mark Zuckerberg gave a speech in which he extolled “giving everyone a voice” and fighting “to uphold a wide a definition of freedom of expression as possible.” That sounds great, of course! Freedom of expression is a cornerstone, if not the cornerstone, of liberal democracy. Who could be opposed to that?
The problem is that Facebook doesn’t offer free speech; it offers free amplification. No one would much care about anything you posted to Facebook, no matter how false or hateful, if people had to navigate to your particular page to read your rantings, as in the very early days of the site.
But what people actually read on Facebook is what’s in their News Feed … and its contents, in turn, are determined not by giving everyone an equal voice, and not by a strict chronological timeline. What you read on Facebook is determined entirely by Facebook’s algorithm, which elides much — censors much, if you wrongly think the News Feed is free speech — and amplifies little.
What is amplified? Two forms of content. For native content, the algorithm optimizes for engagement. This in turn means people spend more time on Facebook, and therefore more time in the company of that other form of content which is amplified: paid advertising.
Of course this isn’t absolute. As Zuckerberg notes in his speech, Facebook works to stop things like hoaxes and medical misinformation from going viral, even if they’re otherwise anointed by the algorithm. But he has specifically decided that Facebook will not attempt to stop paid political misinformation from going viral.
I personally disagree with this decision, but I think it’s something about which reasonable people can disagree. However I find it deeply disingenuous to claim that this is somehow about defending free speech. If someone were to try to place a blatantly false political ad on any platform or network, would anyone seriously consider a decision not to run that ad an attack on free speech? Of course not. And they shouldn’t take the converse argument seriously either.
The larger issue, though, is that Facebook seems to think that if an algorithm is content-agnostic, it is therefore fair. When Zuckerberg talks about giving people a voice, he really means giving those people selected by Facebook’s algorithm a voice. When he says “People having the power to express themselves at scale is a new kind of force in the world — a Fifth Estate,” what he actually means is that Facebook’s algorithm is itself that Fifth Estate.
The belief is apparently that any human judgement based on content beyond the absolute minimum required by law and implied by the social contract — i.e. filtering out hate speech, abuses, or dangerous medical misinformation, all of which he stresses in his speech — is dangerous and wrong, and that this goes for both native content and paid advertising. According to this belief, Facebook’s algorithm, so long as it is content-agnostic, is definitionally fair.
And that belief is just flat-out wrong. As we’ve all seen, “optimizing for engagement” all too often means optimizing for outrage, for polarization, for disingenuous misinformation. True, it doesn’t mean favoring any side of any given issue; but it does mean favoring the extremes, the conspiracy theorists, the histrionic diatribes on all sides. It means fomenting mistrust, suspicion, and conflict everywhere. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all lived it.
Facebook’s decision to accept political ads regardless of content is essentially a logical extension of how their algorithm optimizes for engagement. It speaks to their belief that as long as they don’t pass judgement based on content, their ongoing, ceaseless editing of what people see and don’t see — and please call it censorship if you think this is any way about freedom of speech — is therefore fair and just. This belief was defensible ten or even five years ago. It is not defensible today.
But it is also not going to change. Facebook’s original sin is not political ads; it is optimizing for engagement so that their users see more ads of all kinds. That’s what needs to change for Facebook to become a positive force in the world … and it’s also what never will, because that engagement is the fundamental engine of their business model.
Earlier this month at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco, we sat down with Box’s Aaron Levie and PagerDuty’s Jennifer Tejada to discuss their respective companies’ paths to an IPO, the general IPO landscape and the pros and cons of going public. With a lot of recent IPOs faltering and increased pressure on startup valuations, now is as good a time as ever to think about the role IPOs play in a company’s lifespan.
“I think it’s really important to think of the IPOs, the beginning, not the end,” said Tejada. “We all live in Silicon Valley and that can be a little bit of an echo chamber and you talk about exits all the time. The IPO is an entrance, right? It is part of the beginning of a long journey for a durable company that you want to build a legacy around. And so, it is a moment — it’s the start of you really sharing a narrative backed by financial data to help people understand your current business, the potential for your business, the market that you’re in, etc. And I think we tend to talk about it like it’s the be-all end-all.”
That’s something Levie definitely agrees with. “I think we have too much of a fixation on the IPO moment versus just building durable business models and how do they end up translating into valuations. The valuation that you get at an IPO is due to variety factors.”
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 02: (L-R) PagerDuty CEO & Chairperson Jennifer Tejada, Box Co-Founder/Chairman & CEO Aaron Levie, and TechCrunch Writer Frederic Lardinois speak onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019 at Moscone Convention Center on October 02, 2019 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch)
It’s no secret that Box and PagerDuty had very different experiences as they got ready to go public. Box announced its S-1 only a few days before a major market crash back in 2014. PagerDuty, on the other hand, went public earlier this year, with solid financials and very little drama.
Tejada, in many ways, attributed that to the work she and her team did to get the company ready for this moment. “I get asked a lot by CEOs that are thinking about getting ready to go public, ‘you know, what was your playbook? How do you do this?’ And I think instead of thinking about what’s the playbook, you need to be intellectually honest about what your business looks like,” she said. In her view, CEOs need to focus on the leading indicators for their business — the ones they want the market to understand. But she also noted that the market needs to understand a company’s potential in the long run.
“You want to make sure that the market understands where you think the business can go and gets excited about it, but that they don’t over-rotate in their expectations, because dealing with really high expectations creates a lot of downstream difficulty.”
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