Mexico released a video showing the moment jailed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's son was arrested earlier this month, in what turned out to be a failed undertaking that ended with his release https://t.co/XkaOTdO9K7
"The mission was a difficult, complex, and precise raid that was executed with the highest level of professionalism, and in the finest tradition of the U.S. military." - @CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie Jr. pic.twitter.com/5tU7mZw1hv
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) October 31, 2019
"This dog is a four-year veteran of the @USSOCOM K-9 program and has been a member of approximately 50 combat missions." - @CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie Jr. pic.twitter.com/ushD1G5X01
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) October 31, 2019
Thank you Daily Wire. Very cute recreation, but the "live" version of Conan will be leaving the Middle East for the White House sometime next week! https://t.co/Z1UfhxsSpT
Today @USArmy Master Sgt. Matthew Williams received the #MedalofHonor for his remarkable actions in Afghanistan in 2008. MSG Williams repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire, risking his own life & navigating extreme mountainous terrain to save four injured Soldiers. pic.twitter.com/eNaCA5xfOc
— Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper (@EsperDoD) October 31, 2019
Three F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, (rear to front) AF-2, AF-3 and AF-4, flies over Edwards Air Force Base in this December 10, 2011 handout photo provided by Lockheed Martin. Darin Russell/Courtesy of Lockheed Martin/Handout via REUTERS
The Department of Defense has signed off on a $34 billion contract to buy 478 F-35 aircraft from Lockheed Martin.
The fighter jets will come in three versions — the F-35A for the Air Force, the F-35B for the U.S. Marine Corps and the F-35C for the U.S. Navy.
"The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is built in the heart of my district, is the world's most capable and lethal aircraft," U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, and the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.
Claims of major move by North Korea-linked group on Kudankulam facility have exposed country's vulnerabilities
Two days ago a well-known cybersecurity researcher sent alarm bells ringing when he claimed that he had found a data dump that indicated India's newest nuclear power plant had been hacked. As the Indian government scrambled to come up with a response, cybersecurity researchers across the globe began to sift through the data looking for clues.
India has a number of nuclear power plants across the country.
The fact that the nuclear power plant had ostensibly been hacked was also known to Pukhraj Singh, a respected Indian cybersecurity professional who had also served in India's technical intelligence agency, the NTRO (National Technical Research Organization). The NTRO is India's equivalent of the US National Security Agency. Singh left a few years ago and has been working on cyber-threat intelligence as a private consultant for a few years. It was Singh who pointed to the independent security researcher who had posted details of the hack on Twitter.
The US military ramped up the number of air and artillery strikes it conducted in Afghanistan during the month of September following the collapse of the peace talks with the Taliban after President Donald Trump canceled a Camp David summit with the insurgent group on September 7.
US troops carried out 1,113 air and artillery strikes during the month of September, according to statistics released by the US military compared to 810 such strikes in August and just 465 strikes in September of 2018.
"We had peace talks scheduled a few days ago. I called them off when I learned that they had killed a great American soldier from Puerto Rico and 11 other innocent people. They thought they would use this attack to show strength. But actually, what they showed is unrelenting weakness. The last four days, we have hit our enemy harder than they have ever been hit before, and that will continue," Trump vowed at a Pentagon ceremony marking the anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
In that four-day period referenced by Trump the US conducted some 153 strikes between September 8 and September 11, according to the data.
WNU Editor: In all fairness the Taliban have launched multiple attacks in the past few months thereby resulting in these U.S. air strikes. There is no question in my mind that the war has exploded this year, and the Taliban are now more confident than ever that they are winning the war .... peace talks or no peace talks.
The acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center says the Islamic State group has 'a lot of options' to attack Western interests.
Killing the Islamic State group's founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi will have little effect on preventing the terrorist network from conducting future attacks, the top U.S. official for counterterror operations said Wednesday.
"There's no question that the losses over the weekend were significant to ISIS," Russell Travers, acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told a congressional panel, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group. "At the same time, it's a deep bench."
Despite a consistent U.S.-led campaign to defeat the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria that effectively dismantled its so-called caliphate, the number of fighters in those countries aligned with the group has grown in the last five years from a low point of roughly 1,000 fighters, Travers told the House Homeland Security Committee. As many as 14,000 extremists remain there now, with roughly 2,000 in Syria from foreign countries.
WNU Editor: When it comes to radical Islam, I have learned one thing over the years. Never underestimate them. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may be dead, but the ideology that he was a part of is still alive and very active.
* Marine Corps General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr released the videos on Wednesday * Shows aerial view of Delta Force raid that led to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's death * Depicts special forces breaching the compound and engaging with fighters * Shows US forces returning fire at ground combatants who fired at helicopters * Another video shows the drone missiles leveling the compound after the raid
The Pentagon has released footage showing the raid that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Marine Corps General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr, commander of U.S. Central Command, released the footage at a press conference on Wednesday at the Pentagon.
McKenzie was the operational commander of the Delta Force raid, which took place on Saturday in northwest Syria, and resulted in the death of Baghdadi after the terror leader detonated a suicide vest to avoid capture.
The US President may have a chance to help engineer a lasting peace between the Kurds and Ankara
The morning after a summit meeting often holds surprises. Turkey lost no time to follow up on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's hugely successful but "difficult" talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi on October 22.
On October 23, Ankara formally conveyed to Washington Erdogan's decision that the Turkish military was stopping combat and ending the offensive in Syria codenamed Peace Spring, and making permanent the ceasefire agreed with the United States during the visit by Vice-President Mike Pence on October 17.
Demonstrators gather in front of La Moneda Presidential Palace during a protest against Chile's government in Santiago, Chile October 30, 2019. REUTERS/Pablo Sanhueza
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile withdrew on Wednesday as the host of an APEC summit next month at which the United States and China had been expected to sign a deal to ease a trade war that has hurt the global economy, as raging street protests gripped the South American country.
The abrupt move - which came after weeks of riots over inequality in Chile that have left at least 18 people dead - plunged the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting into disarray, with participating countries caught off-guard and no alternative venue lined up.
* The cancellation was due to protests, according to Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. * Trump and Xi were scheduled to meet at the APEC summit to discuss a possible "phase one" deal that the two countries are close to finalizing. * A proposed hike in public transport fares sparked nationwide protests in Chile this month.
Chile said it's calling off the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Santiago in mid-November.
President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping were scheduled to meet at the gathering to discuss a possible "phase one" deal that the two countries are close to finalizing.
The cancellation was due to protests, according to Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.
"This has been a very tough decision … but it is based on the wise principle of common sense," Pinera said in a media address Wednesday.
(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing an unwelcome new financial challenge in Syria after the U.S. pullback enabled his ally Bashar al-Assad to reclaim the biggest chunk of territory in the country still outside his control.
The U.S. decision to keep forces in northeastern Syria to guard oil fields denies Assad access to desperately needed funds to rebuild the Middle East state after eight years of civil war. That's adding to the urgency of United Nations-led talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups in Geneva starting Wednesday, which Putin has said could be "decisive" in settling the conflict.
WNU Editor: The war in Syria has cost Russia billions. The reconstruction of Syria alone will cost $250 billion .... money that Russia will not spend. What will help start this reconstruction process are Syria's oil fields that are now controlled by the U.S. and its allies, but that means inviting the U.S. to the table (something that Iran does not want). On a side note. There is growing dissent in Russia on the cost of the Kremlin's commitment to Syria. Many do not understand why Russia forces are there, and they are certainly not happy with the financial commitment.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attend a news conference, a day ahead of the first meeting of the new Syrian Constitutional Committee at the Untied Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, October 29, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran and Russia on Tuesday condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to maintain a military presence near oil fields in northeastern Syria, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying any exploitation of resources would be illegal.
Trump's suggestion on Sunday that Exxon Mobil Corp or another U.S. oil company operate Syrian oil fields drew rebukes from legal and energy experts.
The United States will strengthen its military presence in Syria with "mechanized forces" to prevent Islamic State fighters seizing oil fields and revenue, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Friday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif addressed the issue at a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday evening after meeting with his counterparts, Russia's Lavrov and Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and six Gulf countries agreed to jointly impose sanctions on 25 corporations, banks and individuals linked to Iran's support for militant networks including Hezbollah, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
The blacklisted targets were announced by the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) nations - which also include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin traveled in the Middle East to finalize details of an economic development plan for the Palestinians, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon.
All 25 targets were previously under sanctions by the United States.
ANKARA/AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian army troops clashed with Turkish forces near the border town of Ras al Ain on Wednesday, Syrian state media reported, as Ankara said it reserved the right to launch another cross-border offensive against the Kurdish YPG militia.
The state media gave no details but Turkish-backed rebels said similar, intermittent clashes had occurred in recent days with Syrian troops south of the town, which Turkey seized from Syrian Kurdish-led forces earlier this month.
The report underscores the risk that violence in northeast Syria could rekindle after Ankara and Moscow struck a deal a week ago in which Russia agreed to shift the YPG at least 30 km (18.64 miles) south of the border by late on Tuesday.
At least 250 people have been killed since the unrest began on October 1
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi's two main backers have agreed to work to remove him from office as protests against his government gained momentum in Baghdad and much of the Shiite south only to be met with violence.
Populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, who leads parliament's largest bloc, had asked Mr Abdul Mahdi to call an early election. When the premier refused, he called on his main political rival Hadi Al Amiri to help oust him.
WNU Editor: The Iraqi Shiite establishment need a sacrificial lamb to calm the mass protests that are now occurring throughout the country. It looks like the Iraqi Prime Minister got the short end of the stick.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for a resolution calling on President Donald Trump to impose sanctions and other restrictions on Turkey and Turkish officials over its offensive in northern Syria.
House members voted 403-16 in favor of the legislation, part of an effort by both Democrats and many of Trump's fellow Republicans in Congress to push Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government to end, and not resume, its offensive against Kurdish forces who helped U.S. troops battle Islamic State militants.
The US House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly in favour of recognising the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One as a genocide.
The issue is highly sensitive and comes amid deteriorating US-Turkey relations.
Presidential hopeful Joe Biden said the vote honoured the memory of victims.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the "worthless" vote, which was held on Turkey's National Day, was the "biggest insult" to Turkish people.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel-Mahdi's two main backers have agreed to work to remove him from office as protests against his Government gain momentum in Baghdad.
Populist Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who leads Parliament's largest bloc, asked Mr Abdel-Mahdi to call an early election.
When Mr Abdel-Mahdi refused, Mr Sadr called on his main political rival Hadi al-Amiri to help oust him.
Mr Amiri — who leads a parliamentary alliance of Iran-backed Shiite militia that holds the second largest amount of seats in Parliament behind Mr Sadr's alliance — issued a statement late on Tuesday (local time) agreeing to help oust the Prime Minister.
US mission includes denying any Russian or Syrian government forces access to Syria's oilfields, Pentagon chief says.
The United States will repel any attempt to take Syria's oilfields away with "overwhelming force" whether the challenger is Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) or forces backed by Russia or Syria, the Pentagon has warned.
The US military announced last week it was reinforcing its position in Syria with additional assets, including mechanised forces, to prevent oilfields from being taken over by ISIL remnants or other armed groups.
At least eight nuclear-powered submarines sailed out from their homeports on the Kola Peninsula last week, the Norwegian military intelligence says to NRK.
The aim of the massive operation is to get as far out to the North Atlantic as possible without being discovered by NATO, the intelligence service informs to NRK. Such maneuvers haven't been seen from the Northern Fleet since the days of the Cold War.
The operation started early last week, before Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Commander of the Northern Fleet, Vice-Admiral Aleksandr Moiseyev visited Kirkenes in northern Norway last Friday.
Lavrov had bilateral talks with his Norwegian counterpart Ine Eriksen Søreide and the two said at the following press conference that security situation in northern Europe was one talking point.
And that Beijing won't always follow America's plans for military dominance.
Key point: Military capabilities are about more than size.
Is China's newest aircraft carrier half-full or half-empty?
That depends on how you look at the vessel's aircraft capacity.
The ship, prosaically named the Type 001A for now, is China's second carrier and the first built in China. The first carrier, the Liaoning, is a refurbished ex-Soviet vessel.
The Liaoning could carry twenty-four J-15 fighters. The Type 001A can carry thirty-six J-15s plus various support aircraft and helicopters, according to Chinese media.
Key point: Moscow's carrier is limping along and it might be better for Russia if it was just replaced
The Russian navy plans to dry-dock its only aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov in 2020 and conduct extensive repairs on the aging, unreliable vessel.
The plan makes a perverse kind of sense from Moscow's point of view. But it's still a bad idea, two experts explained in Proceedings, the professional journal of the U.S. Naval Institute.
"As Russia's only aircraft carrier and its flagship, the Kuznetsov's main mission is projecting national prestige," wrote Richard Moss and Ryan Vest, both instructors at the U.S. Naval War College. "From that perspective, Russia must overhaul her and get her back into service as quickly as possible."
Newport News Shipbuilding turned on the faucets at the dry dock where the John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier is under construction.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A major milestone has been reached for the nation's next nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Newport News Shipbuilding began to flood Dry Dock 12 on Tuesday morning, which is where the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) is being built. The Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier has been under construction at the shipyard since 2015.
Water began to slowly pour into the dry dock, which will take several hours to fill up to 10 feet of the ship's hull. At that point, structural integrity tests will be performed before flooding continues.
The end goal is simple: fill the dry dock enough to allow the ship to float out for the very first time.
Amid a heap of repairs, refuelings and overhauls, all six of the US Navy's aircraft carriers assigned to the East Coast are in port at the same time. The Navy is pulling itself increasingly thin in an effort to accomodate the Pentagon's program for "great power competition" with Russia and China.
As of this article's publishing, not one of the US Navy's carriers on the Atlantic coast is ready for deployment - all six are tied up dockside in Norfolk, Virginia. Earlier this year, several of the huge, 100,000-ton warships returned to Norfolk for a series of overhauls, but others have encountered unexpected problems.
We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi! pic.twitter.com/PDMx9nZWvw
(CNN)This week, President Donald Trump shared a declassified photo of a military working dog that was injured during the weekend raid that took down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria.
Although details about the K-9 aren't public -- the Pentagon has said the dog's name needs to remain classified due to their affiliation with a classified unit -- it's a welcome reminder that military working dogs are an important and ever-present thread throughout America's military history.
In fact, dogs have been assisting military efforts all over the world for thousands of years. Here are some other things you may not know about these highly-trained canines.
THREE British tourists have been killed and another is fighting for his life after their car crashed over a bridge and landed in a river 75 feet below.
A HISTORIAN was stunned after heading down a 15-metre shaft below a suspected pyramid site, uncovering the "oldest tomb" he had ever seen, a documentary revealed.
THE US NAVY has drafted in the US Coast Guard to help it constrain China's aggressive expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea, as tensions continue to rise in the region.
(SEOUL, South Korea) — South Korea’s military said North Korea on Thursday fired two projectiles toward its eastern sea, extending a streak of weapons tests apparently aimed at ramping up pressure on Washington over a stalemate in nuclear negotiations.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapons were fired from a region near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. The Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t immediately confirm whether the weapons were ballistic missiles or rocket artillery, or how far they flew.
The North’s latest launch follows statements of displeasure over the slow pace of nuclear negotiations with the United States and demands that the Trump administration ease sanctions and pressure on Pyongyang.
Earlier this month, the North test-fired an underwater-launched ballistic missile for the first time in three years.
News of the launches came after South Korea said earlier Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a message of condolence to South Korean President Moon Jae-in over his mother’s recent death.
The two leaders met three times last year and struck a set of deals aimed at easing animosities and boosting exchanges. But in recent months, North Korea has drastically reduced its engagement and diplomatic activities with South Korea, after Seoul failed to resume lucrative joint economic projects held back by U.S.-led U.N. sanctions.
Last week, Kim ordered the destruction of South Korean-built facilities at a long-shuttered joint tourist project at a North Korean mountain. South Korea later proposed talks but North Korea has insisted they exchange documents to work out details of Kim’s order.
(SYDNEY) — The World Organization for Animal Health says around a quarter of the global pig population is expected to die from African swine fever.
Dr. Mark Schipp, the organization’s vice president, told reporters in Australia that the spread of the disease in the past year to countries including China, which has half the world’s pig population, had inflamed a worldwide crisis.
Schipp says veterinary scientists worldwide are trying to find a vaccine for the disease, but that it’s a “complex challenge” because of the nature of the virus.
While the disease does not spread to humans, it is virtually 100% fatal once embedded in pig populations.
(DAVAO, Philippines) — The third strong earthquake this month jolted the southern Philippines on Thursday morning, further damaging structures already weakened by the earlier shaking.
In the city of Kidapawan, a hotel damaged in the earlier earthquakes further buckled and precariously leaned onto an adjacent hospital that had been emptied of people because it was damaged. Six staffers who were inside Eva’s Hotel managed to run out safely, Mayor Joseph Evangelista said.
Both buildings were cordoned off as they may collapse completely anytime.
Thursday’s 6.5 magnitude quake was centered 10 kilometers deep (6 miles) near Kisante town, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
On Tuesday, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake nearby triggered landslides and caused other damage. At least eight people died, two are missing, 395 were injured and more than 2,700 houses and buildings, including schools and hospitals, were damaged, according to the Office of Civil Defense.
In the same region on Oct. 16, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake killed at least seven people, injured more than 200 and destroyed or damaged more than 7,000 buildings.
The Philippines has frequent seismic activity. The archipelago lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.
The photo of Alaa Salah—standing atop a car in a white toub, leading a crowd of protesters in a chant—made her famous across the world and helped fuel the revolution that ousted President Omar al-Bashir from 30 years of authoritarian rule in her native Sudan. It also came to symbolize the integral role women played on the front lines of the pro-democracy protests, where they often outnumbered men.
But six months later, Salah says women are being excluded as Sudan struggles to form a democratic government. The 22-year-old and other Sudanese advocates for women’s rights traveled to the United Nations in New York City this week to ask for international support as they fight for equal representation in their new government.
“Women led resistance committees and sit-ins, planned protest routes and disobeyed curfews, even in the midst of a declared state of emergency that left them vulnerable to security forces. Many were teargassed, threatened, assaulted and thrown in jail without any charge or due process,” Salah told a United Nations Security Council meeting on women, peace and security on Tuesday. “However, despite this visible role, despite their courage and their leadership, women have been side-lined in the formal political process in the months following the revolution.”
After al-Bashir was forced out, military and opposition leaders negotiated a power-sharing agreement in August, but only one woman participated in those talks, Salah said. Women now hold two of the six civilian positions on an 11-member Sovereign Council that will rule Sudan until elections are held in just over three years, Reuters reported. Under al-Bashir, 25% of seats in Sudan’s parliament were reserved for women, and no women served on his cabinet, according to Reuters. Salah and other activists are pushing to achieve 50% female representation in their new government.
Speaking through an interpreter, Salah tells TIME she wants the government “to listen to women as well” in order to achieve “the Sudan that [we] all envisioned.”
Salah, an architectural engineering student in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, became a symbol of the revolution when her photo went viral in April.
“My life changed after that picture,” Salah tells TIME. “Whenever I have the chance to help my people and serve my people, I will take it.”
Salah says it will be clear the pro-democracy movement has been successful when they see women occupying half of the decision-making leadership roles within the government, and when the political process includes people of different faiths and ethnicities.
“The government had been, for 30 years, systematically attacking women through the laws, discriminatory laws and policies,” Samah Jamous, another Sudanese activist who attended the U.N. event, tells TIME through an interpreter. “It just reached its point where they could not take [it], and the only way to really live the life that we deserve was by having this regime out.”
The protests began last December as Sudanese took to the streets over economic hardships—including the sharply rising cost of bread, shortages of food and fuel and limits on bank withdrawals — and frustration with the regime of al-Bashir, an accused war criminal who now faces charges of corruption and money laundering. He was ousted on April 11.
But military leaders seized power in al-Bashir’s absence, tempering the sense of victory among Sudanese protesters. Protests continued, pitting the generals against pro-democracy activists, who called for a civilian-led government. That tension erupted in a violent crackdown by paramilitary forces in early June, when more than 100 people were killed and dozens were sexually assaulted, according to a doctor’s organization aligned with opposition protesters.
“Given women’s pivotal role in working towards peace and development, in the promotion of human rights, and in providing humanitarian assistance to communities in need, there is no excuse for us not to have an equal seat at every single table,” Salah said at the U.N. “After decades of struggle and all that we risked to peacefully end Bashir’s dictatorship—gender inequality is not and will never be acceptable to the women and girls of Sudan.”
AFP/Getty ImagesA Sudanese anti-regime protester speaks on his mobile telephone in Khartoum as he walks past a huge billboard bearing an image of Alaa Salah on on April 11, 2019.
In addition to equal representation, a coalition of Sudanese women’s civil and political groups has advocated for laws that protect the rights of women and girls, and called for people to be held accountable for sexual and gender-based violence committed before, during and after the revolution.
“We see, every day, a committee that has been formed, and again and again, it’s all men—which is very frustrating,” Jamous says. “Despite what they say, when it comes to implementation, they just go back to the same mindset that does not see the women around—or does not see them as suitable candidates to be in such positions.”
“Every revolution inspires another revolution,” Salah says.
She and other activists say they’re cautiously optimistic about where Sudan is headed now, hoping the country will eventually have the civilian-led government they fought for. If not, Jamous says they’re prepared to protest once again: “The streets are there.”
(SANTIAGO, Chile) — Chilean President Sebastián Piñera said Wednesday that he is canceling two major international summits so he can respond to protracted nationwide protests over economic inequality that have left more than a dozen people dead, hundreds injured and businesses and infrastructure damaged.
The decision to call off the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and U.N. global climate gatherings, planned for November and December, respectively, dealt a major blow to Chile’s image as a regional oasis of stability and economic development.
Piñera said he was forced to cancel both events due to the chaos unleashed by 13 days of protests. Demonstrators are demanding greater economic equality and better public services in a country long seen as an economic success story. Shops have been vandalized and buildings set on fire, shutting down numerous subway stations.
“This has been a very difficult decision that causes us great pain,” Piñera said in a televised address. “A president always has to put the needs of his countrymen first.”
Trade and climate negotiators scrambled to find new locations for their summits, aimed at resolving tariff-related conflicts between China and the U.S. and finalizing countries’ climate rules in advance of a bigger summit next year during which governments will be asked to commit to new emissions limits.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had hoped to sign a modest trade agreement at the APEC summit, formerly scheduled to take place in Santiago on Nov. 16-17. Under the tentative deal, the U.S. had agreed to suspend plans to raise tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports, and Beijing had agreed to step up purchases of U.S. farm products.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said U.S. officials were “awaiting potential information regarding another location,” but it was unclear if any had been proposed. Gidley added that Trump wanted to sign the deal with China “within the same time frame,” hinting that a separate event could occur outside a summit.
The so-called Phase One trade agreement did little to address the underlying U.S. grievances against China, including its alleged practice of forcing foreign firms to hand over trade secrets; stealing technology, and unfairly subsidizing Chinese firms. China’s leaders have been reluctant to make the kind of policy reforms that would satisfy Washington, worrying such concessions would mean scaling back their aspirations to become a world leader in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and driverless cars.
Still, the apparent cancellation of the summit “removes a hard deadline for action toward a comprehensive agreement in the trade war,” said Jeff Moon, a former U.S. diplomat and trade official specializing in China who is now president of the China Moon Strategies consultancy. “That hard deadline and the relatively short period of time available allowed Trump and Xi to give themselves permission to do only easy things and delay indefinitely resolving tough issues.”
Now, Moon said, “there is no excuse for not pressing forward with the full U.S. agenda of concerns.”
Climate advocates said they were disappointed but expected to relocate their talks. The Santiago climate conference was meant to work out some of the remaining unresolved rules for countries on climate efforts, smoothing the way for the bigger effort in the 2020 summit: encouraging countries to up their commitments to cutting climate-changing emissions.
“The absence of rules does not stop countries from acting either alone or together” to cut emissions, said Nigel Purvis, a climate and environment negotiator in the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. “It really shouldn’t slow down climate action.”
But other climate experts said it was important to get those rules worked out in advance.
“To load everything into one conference — I think they’ll work pretty hard not to do that,” said Henry Jacoby, a climate expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said she believed there would be “every effort made that some type of … meeting does happen.”
“These … are the venues where the global community comes together to decide how to tackle this problem together,” she said. “The climate challenge requires every country to act, but it requires us to act collectively.”
U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa issued a statement saying that “alternative hosting options” were being explored. And a U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to comment publicly, said that all U.N. venues are being considered as options. Those would include cities such as New York, Geneva, Bonn, Vienna and Nairobi.
___
Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer and Paul Wiseman in Washington, and Frank Jordans in Berlin, contributed to this story.
Sporting a short haircut and stylish square-rimmed glasses, Claudia López, 49, shared a jubilant kiss with her partner after winning the mayorship of Bogotá on Sunday. It was a historic moment for Colombia, marking the first time a woman and openly gay candidate was elected as mayor of the capital city. It was also the country’s first local and regional elections since the 2016 signing of a controversial peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which ended a gruesome half century of civil war.
The journalist-turned-politician, who won with over 35 percent of the vote, is a member of the centrist Alianza Verde, or Green Alliance party, and served as a senator of Colombia. She stood as a vice presidential candidate for Green Alliance in the nation’s 2018 presidential elections. This year, López ran for mayor on an anti-corruption platform and challenged the positions of right-wing politicians, promising to advance equal rights for minority communities and women. Her victory marks the country’s shift away from the political elite, and indicates a desire in the residents of Bogotá for a transition to more liberal policies. On January 1, 2020, she will be sworn in as Mayor of Bogotá, a position widely considered the most important political office in the nation after the Presidency.
López’s election to office marks a significant moment for the women and girls of Colombia. Decades of conflict have subjected Colombian women and girls to gross human rights abuses, including murder, displacement, physical, emotional and sexual harassment and rape.
Groups of armed actors and gang members have used, and continue to use, women’s bodies as weapons of war, says Sara Fernández, a professor at the University of Antioquia in Medellín. “They appoint little girls as girlfriends to gang chiefs. There are forced pregnancies, forced maternities, forced abortions as well.”
Sitting in a brighly-painted office adorned with edgy feminist art, women’s rights activist Sandra Isaza of the Feminist Antimilitarist Network in Medellín discusses the lack of protection provided by the government and the measures Colombian women are forced to take to protect themselves from femicide (when men kill women or girls based on their gender). Civil society organizations are establishing accountability networks, buddy systems and check-in plans to ensure the safety of vulnerable women, she said. But still, it is not enough. “We reported cases of seven women who filed a lawsuit [in 2018]…and the State didn’t do absolutely anything, and they were killed,” Isaza says.
Most women in the country have experienced, or know someone who has experienced, violence, harassment, rape or even murder. While the full extent of the magnitiude of sexual violence is still being determined, data show that Colombia has the 10th highest femicide rate in the world.
“There’s very little credibility, very little legitimacy, and very little trust [in government institutions],” adds Fernández. “And that has a lot to do with sexism, and the misogyny this culture has.”
Colombian women have long been engaged in social activism through grassroots organizations and civil society. The Feminist Antimilitarist Network held several large protests in 2018 and 2019, gathering nearly 1,000 women and marching against femicide, gender-based-violence, discrimination and other challenges they face in society. But for the first time, many women are beginning to recognize the power of working from within the political system to create change.
“I believe that the possibility of saving the lives of women when we’re in power is fundamental. In this moment, feminist organizations are doing the job of the state. We, as a social movement of women, have…put pressure with marches, actions,” says Isaza. “Women have seen the mobilization as a way to influence and denounce the violence against women.”
By joining the political machine, activists believe that women will be able to take their agenda to the next level with the full resources of the state behind them.
“The idea is to create a movement that gets to have representatives, that gets a political base and that lays the foundation for a trustworthy, honest movement that really pushes for women’s policies,” says Fernández.
But it can be dangerous for women running for office, many of whom had to contend with very real threats in the run up to the vote. According to a report published by the Electoral Oversight Mission of the Organization of American States, Colombia’s Ministry of Interior received more than 300 complaints of political violence against women based on gender in 2019. All the complaints were made anonymously, “a fact that reflects the cost it has for women to make this violence visible,” the report states. Seven candidates, including Karina Garcia, a liberal party candidate running for mayor in Cauca, were killed. According to local media, Garcia, a wife and mother, was campaigning when she was attacked by gunmen who then set her car on fire. She had been receiving threats for weeks. One of Garcia’s last acts was to post a video in which she said that armed men had targeted her volunteers and issued threats against them advertising for her campaign.
Despite the violence, this election became a defining moment for women to raise their voices through the power of their votes. In addition to López, female candidate Virna Johnson was elected as mayor of Santa Marta. Another eight women were elected to mayoral positions in the region of Cauca. For the first time in Colombia’s history, an indigenous woman—Mercedes Tunabala Velasco—is one of them.
In the city of Medellín, Estamos Listas (We’re Ready), a gender-focused political movement spearheaded by women, also succeeded in placing a candidate on the city council. Estamos Listas’ platform centers around issues of violence, femicide, poverty and other hardships facing women and girls.
The numbers still do not reflect widespread change. There were 6.2 men for every 3.7 women candidates.A survey analyzing the results of the mayoral races in different municipalities found 121 women elected out of 1,101 total candidates, representing only 11 percent of the population. The 130 women elected as mayors in the 2019 elections actually represented a three percent decrease from the 134 women elected as mayor in the 2015 elections. And in the city council race in Medellín, two women left and two new women joined, keeping the total number at five women on a council of 21 representatives.
Women’s participation in Colombia has been edging upwards since the year 2000, when the country passed its law of quotas, which mandates that at least 30% of public offices are held by women. But now, experts say, simply having female representation is not enough to help address the many problems facing women and girls.
“Being a woman is not enough. We need feminists,” said Rocio Pineda, one of the godmothers of feminism in Colombia, who believes the moment requires liberal female candidates who are unafraid of standing up to men and promoting agendas that prioritize the needs of women and girls.
October’s electoral races held a broader symbolic significance because many of the elected women come from alternative, progressive or liberal sectors, and from feminist social movements. This, and the success of Claudia López’s election, means women in Colombia remain optimistic.
“I’m thrilled with the results in Bogotá,” says Fernández. “A good mayorship by Claudia is a great presentation card for her to run for President later. It’s a big bet, and I think she has the bravery and the brains to aim for that.”
This reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation as part of its Adelante Latin American Reporting Initiative.
It’s not easy to visit the Palestinian territories. To witness Hebron’s ancient religious sites in the West Bank, you normally need an Israel-issued visa. Entering Gaza, still under a 12-year Israeli-Egyptian air, land and sea blockade, is even more difficult, with access usually restricted to journalists and NGO workers.
But an app launched on Oct. 30 wants to bring the occupied Palestinian Territories into homes around the world. Palestine VR offers an array of virtual reality tours of the West Bank and Gaza, with users spared immigration interviews, soldiers at checkpoints, or the risk of attention by Hamas, or potentially fraught encounters with settlers.
Highlights of the new app include a tour of the ancient city of Hebron, guided by a former Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldier-turned activist; a walk through Ramallah with 13-year-old journalist Jana Jihad; and a visit to Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock in the company of Palestinian anthropologist Ali Qleibo.
“Those who visit Palestine and are exposed to the reality of oppression, discrimination and displacement are always moved by what they see,” said Salem Barahmeh, the executive director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, the NGO behind the app. “With Palestine VR, we want to bring this reality to people directly all over the world.”
Israel has controlled access to Gaza and the West Bank since the Israeli-Arab war of 1967. Its continued occupation of the territories is among a range of issues that have caused friction between Israel’s right-wing government and liberal American Jews. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September threatened to legally annex almost one-third of the West Bank—a move widely seen as a death knell for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, and his administration have made little effort to stay neutral. He has moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, which Palestinians regard as the capital of their future state, and recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau Israel also captured during the war of 1967.
In August, Israel blocked Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from a planned tour of the West Bank following a tweeted intervention from Trump, who claimed the two Democratic Congresswomen, both Muslims, “hate Israel and all Jewish people.” Israel subsequently said it would consider a “humanitarian request” for Tlaib — whose parents were Palestinian immigrants — to visit her relatives, on the condition she would not voice certain political views.
“It’s critically important that people see the reality with their own eyes and that’s exactly what my government is trying to prevent,” Avner Gvaryahu, a former soldier who leads the app’s virtual tour of Hebron, told TIME. “But with the help of this app, they can get the second-best thing. You can’t hide the occupation and I’m confident that this tool will encourage more people to learn about the reality on the ground.”
Hariri said he had “reached a dead end,” after protesters rejected a package of reforms he introduced last week. But his resignation looks unlikely to assuage protesters, who seek nothing less than the removal of the entire system, as the country’s economy teeters on the brink of collapse.
Here’s what to know about Hariri’s resignation and what it means for the protests in Lebanon.
What led to Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation?
The protests started on Oct. 17 after the government announced new taxes, including a fee on calls on free messaging services like WhatsApp. Protesters flooded the streets, angry at a government that has pushed Lebanon to the edge of economic collapse. This quickly grew into the largest anti-government protests in Lebanon’s history.
Hariri, the son of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, announced a package of reforms Oct. 21 that included a pledge to fight corruption, fix failing infrastructure, help for poor families and to cut politicians’ salaries in half.
That offer was met with chants of “revolution” and fresh calls for him to step down. Since then, the protests have only escalated, blocking major roads across the country. Banks and universities remain closed.
After Hariri resigned, some protesters chanted “We want the 16 million back,” in reference to the large sum Hariri is alleged to have given to a South African model. Hariri has not commented on the allegations, but the model claims she had an affair with Hariri before he took office, and there is no suggestion the cash gifts were illicit.
That amount is pocket change compared the tens, or even hundreds of billions of dollars the demonstrators say was stolen by their politicians, aided by bank secrecy laws. They say that want those laws lifted and the money back in the public coffers.
“We are going to stay in the street until the whole system falls down,” said Hanna Hajj, who is from the south of Lebanon but lives in Beirut. “It’s been 30 years of this. The system is corrupt.”
What’s the reaction in the streets?
Hariri’s resignation was greeted with cheers and pledges to continue the demonstrations. “This is goal one. We achieved it,” said Jad Rustom, 29, as he heard the news. “We are going to celebrate tonight and tomorrow we will see what is the next step.”
Protesters say they want an end to corruption, nepotism, government mismanagement and most of all, the sectarian political system that they say has allowed all these things to flourish. Lebanon’s current political system is based on a sectarian power-sharing agreement re-established at the end of the country’s civil war in 1990. It reserves certain offices for each religious sect; the President is always a Christian and the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim.
“We want a Lebanon that is not sectarian,” says protester Karim Choueiri, 43, who works at a solar energy company. “We want the best person to be in power, not because he’s Christian, Muslim, Druze, or whatever.”
Within moments of Hariri’s announcement, protesters started repeating the popular chant “all of them means all of them”—a saying also scrawled on walls across the country. “All of them” means the demonstrators want each of the country’s sectarian party leaders to resign.
“I’m worried there is too much utopia and there is a long road ahead,” says Choueiri. “It’s like we opened Pandora’s box. What happens next is not clear.”
What happens next?
This is not the first time Hariri has resigned. In 2017, he stepped down in a televised address while on a trip to Saudi Arabia—most believe under the pressure of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Lebanese came together then demanding their “kidnapped” prime minister be released and demanding an end to foreign meddling in their country. Many saw the forced resignation as Saudi Arabia’s attempt to counter the influence of Iran, which backs the Shi’ite political and militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
At the time, Lebanese President Michel Aoun refused to accept Hariri’s resignation. “That time was different,” says Layal Sakr, a Lebanese lawyer and co-founder of Seeds for Legal Initiatives, a legal advocacy organization. “This time it was the pressure of the people.”
Could Hariri return as prime minister again?
Hariri remains caretaker prime minister until the parliament votes on a new leader. And technically, “there is nothing in the law that says they cannot just nominate Saad Hariri again,” says Sakr. That would surely spark more outrage here.
What the protesters want is a new government, but elections must be ordered by the parliament, which still filled with the members of the old sectarian political parties.
If they do succeed in that, it’s unclear who will take over. The protesters have no leader or official list of demands, but most call for a technocratic government made up of experts who can help the country avoid complete financial collapse.
Why is Lebanon’s economy in such poor shape?
The civil war in neighboring Syria has negatively affected Lebanon’s economy, according to the World Bank, slowing GDP growth. At the same time, debt has piled up as lawmakers borrowed billions to pay for reconstruction from Lebanon’s own civil war, which lasted a decade and a half and ended in 1990. Protesters say officials also used the money to line their own pockets. The ratio of debt to GDP is now over 150%, and political paralysis has prevented the government doing much to tackle it.
Decades of state mismanagement and corruption has left Lebanon deeply divided between rich and poor, according to economist Nasreen Salti. Around one-third of Lebanese live below the poverty line, while an estimated 1% of the population holds 25% of the country’s wealth.
The war has also sent 1.5 million Syrians into Lebanon—which had a population of about 4.6 million at the start of the conflict—giving it the highest number of refugees in the world, per capita. While this has further strained the country’s cash-starved public services, the impact on the wider economy is disputed.
What has been the reaction to the protests?
Security forces have scuffled with protesters, who blocked roads several times. But the biggest on-the-ground confrontation has been between anti-government protesters and supporters of Hezbollah and Amal, Lebanon’s two main Shiite parties who both have ministers in the current government.
On Tuesday, these counter-protesters attacked anti-government demonstrators at a sit-in blocking a road in central Beirut. They carried no flags, but chanted in support of Amal leader Nabih Berri, shouting slogans like, “We are the children of the resistance.”
Hezbollah, which the U.S. government has designated a terrorist organization, is commonly referred to as “the resistance” in Lebanon because of the group’s role in ending the Israel’s occupation in south Lebanon. Hezbollah is also seen as less corrupt by many—but that image has been tarnished after Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has no official position in the government, said it should not resign and implied the protesters were backed by unnamed foreign embassies.
“There is clear funding by certain parties,” said Nasrallah. Protesters made light of this claim, some posting photos of their mothers making sandwiches for the protesters with captions like “this is support from from the Embassy of the Mother.”
After the confrontation Tuesday, the Amal and Hezbollah supporters raided the main protest camp, burning down tents and smashing chairs. Many of the protesters ran, but by evening, thousands had returned. “I feel bad for these people,” says anti-government protester Hussein Hassan of the counter-protesters as he stood amid the charred remains. “These people are poor, these people are brainwashed. I’m sure that soon enough they will join us in the streets, because our battle is theirs.”
(ISTANBUL) — Turkey on Wednesday condemned two resolutions passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that symbolize deteriorating Turkish-American relations.
Addressing his ruling party, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he wouldn’t recognize the nonbinding House resolution to recognize the century-old mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide. The bill passed 405-11. Erdogan then said Turkey “strongly condemns” a bipartisan bill to sanction senior Turkish officials and its army for Turkey’s incursion into northeastern Syria, which passed 403-16.
Both bills, passed Tuesday, were a sign of further deterioration in Turkish-American relations, which have been strained over multiple issues, especially U.S. support for Syrian Kurdish fighters considered terrorists by Ankara.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said that it summoned U.S. Ambassador David Satterfield on Wednesday over the resolutions.
Turkey disputes the description of mass deportations and killings of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as genocide and has lobbied against its recognition in the U.S. for years. It has instead called for a joint committee of historians to investigate. “We are saddened that a slander against our country is being accepted by a country’s parliament,” he said and added, “we would consider this accusation the biggest insult towards our nation.”
The step to consider the events as genocide “does not count for anything,” Erdogan argued, saying American lawmakers had acted “opportunistically” to pass the bill at a time when Turkey is being widely criticized for its incursion into Syria.
Turkey’s cross-border offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters, which Ankara says is necessary for its national security, began on Oct. 9 after months of Turkish threats and a sudden decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw troops and abandon Kurdish allies against the Islamic State group. Trump’s move was widely criticized by both the Republicans and the Democrats.
The second bill sanctioning Turkey shows the bipartisan disapproval of Trump’s decision and condemns Turkey’s offensive. The measure would bar most U.S. weapons sales to Turkey and slap sanctions on foreigners attempting to send the Turks military equipment. It would also block high-ranking Turkish officials from their assets in the U.S. and restrict their travel here.
“We will never accept those who attack Turkey and myself for the sake of supporting the PKK, which is a terror organization that is the killer of tens of thousands of people,” Erdogan said.
He was referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has waged a 35-year armed insurgency in Turkey’s southeast and eastern regions. The Syrian Kurdish forces are linked to the group and follow the same ideological leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who is imprisoned in Turkey.
Turkey halted its operation through two separate cease-fires brokered by the U.S. and Russia to allow the Kurdish fighters to withdraw 30 kilometers (19 miles) away from the Turkish border but Erdogan renewed threats to resume the operation if promises weren’t fulfilled.
Turkey and allied Syrian fighters now control a portion of the previously Kurdish-held border zone, as Russian and Syrian government troops move into the rest of the areas following a deal with the Kurdish force.
Turkey’s foreign ministry criticized American lawmakers in a statement, saying it would be wrong for them to take their “vengeance”for Turkey’s Syria offensive through the Armenian genocide bill. “Undoubtedly, this resolution will negatively affect the image of the U.S. before the public opinion of Turkey,” the ministry said.
Everyone has an opinion about where Felicia Anna works. For the last nine years, the 33-year-old Romanian sex worker has attracted clients by standing in the glowing windows of the world’s most famous red light district. Sipping coffee outside a cafe on one of Amsterdam’s cobbled, canal-side streets, she says the area’s reputation means it attracts far more controversy than legal prostitution does in other areas. “We’re always in the public eye, literally” she says, laughing. (TIME has used pseudonyms to protect the identities of sex workers interviewed for this piece.)
Named “De Wallen” (The Walls) in Dutch for its position inside the old city walls, the red light district’s medieval buildings have been a hub for sex workers since the 15th century—long before the Netherlands legalized brothels and began regulating and taxing prostitution in October 2000. Today, escort services and sex clubs make up a significant part of Amsterdam’s sex work sector. But De Wallen’s 330 window brothels—popularized in the 1960s as authorities grew more tolerant of women opening their curtains to attract clients—remain iconic: the literal manifestation of the clear-eyed Dutch approach to activities that other countries would rather sweep under the rug.
In the years since Felicia Anna arrived in this city of 850,000, though, a crisis has been building that leaves the fate of the red light district uncertain. Budget tourists have flooded the streets of De Wallen, often snapping photos of sex workers without permission and crowding out residents. The increasing numbers of migrant workers from Eastern Europe and further afield since the late 20th century—advocates estimate around 80% of those working in the windows are migrants—has fueled concerns among lawmakers over sex trafficking. And, on an international level, the Dutch model of legalized, visible sex work hasn’t gained as much traction as the Swedish decriminalization model—implemented in 1999 and recently copied by Canada, France, Ireland, and Israel—that criminalizes the buying, but not selling, of sex in a bid to drive down demand. In the U.S., full decriminalization bills introduced this year by New York State and Washington D.C. legislators face a long road and fierce criticism—including from some sex worker advocates.
Femke Halsema, Amsterdam’s first elected female mayor, says she is determined to see Dutch pragmatism prevail in her city, despite the red light district’s difficulties. “I don’t have to like sex work. It’s irrelevant. Because there’s a market,” she says. Halsema has ruled out a city-wide ban on sex work but says the red light district must fundamentally change: crime must go down, residents must have a quieter life, and sex workers must have safer working conditions. In July, she announced four possible options for reform—including the end of all prostitution in the red light district. That idea has angered sex workers and their unions, who say it would drive them into more vulnerable underground conditions and damage the livelihoods of tax-paying workers. “We are a part of Amsterdam. We were here first,” Felicia Anna says. “Do we always have to move away, just because some people don’t like it?” To solve the red light district’s crisis, Amsterdam will need to decide how the world’s oldest profession should look in the 21st century city.
Jasper Juinen—Bloomberg via Getty ImagesFemke Halsema, mayor of Amsterdam, poses for a photograph in her office in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Nov. 30, 2018.
The mayor’s office sits just half a mile from De Wallen, in a sleek city hall of metal and glass. Halsema came to Amsterdam in her early thirties, attracted by the freedom of the big city after getting bored knowing “every face” in smaller Dutch towns. Gazing through large windows over a canal, the mayor contemplates the red light district’s role in her adopted city’s reputation. “Amsterdam has a very long tradition of protecting freedom, and being a tolerant city. And I really want to protect that,” she says; as a lawmaker in parliament in 2000, she voted in favor of national legalization. “But we do not want to be famous because of sex and drugs. We want to be famous for our cultural heritage.”
But Amsterdam’s raucous reputation likely helped to draw many of the 18 million tourists who visited the city in 2018—four times the number of annual visitors a decade ago, before Europe’s budget air travel boom. On a Friday evening in the red light district this fall, they are out in force. British women on bachelorette parties stream out of karaoke bars and into brightly lit cafes that serve Nutella on everything. Clusters of French and Spanish teenagers wander over canal bridges, swigging wine bought from convenience stores, while Australian backpackers in coffee shops sample the legal weed. Middle-aged German couples shuffle past the window brothels and snap souvenir photos, ignoring signs that warn photography will violate sex workers’ privacy. And locals furiously grip their bike handles, chiming their bells to clear a path through the throng.
Since Halsema took office in July 2018, the city has hired extra security workers to remind tourists to behave and announced a ban on organized tour groups in the area, starting in April 2020. Soon, Halsema plans to go further. To alleviate congestion in the area and combat sex trafficking, she has suggested four scenarios: the closure of window brothel curtains to discourage gawking tourists; a reduction in the number of windows; the addition of more windows to relieve sidewalk crowding or the end of prostitution in the red light district entirely. If she moved sex work out of De Wallen, Halsema says she would create a new work space somewhere else, either by relocating the windows or by creating a sex work hotel, where authorities could screen visitors.
Some argue that the city government itself is partly to blame for the red light district’s problems. Starting in 2007, a city-run gentrification project called 1012 (for the area’s postal code) bought up the leases of buildings used as brothels and cannabis coffee shops and, over the next decade, replaced them with upscale boutiques and restaurants. Around 125 brothel windows closed, increasing the concentration of tourists around the ones that remained. In the meantime, new mini-markets and other shops geared toward tourists opened up, counteracting the city’s aim of drawing Amsterdammers rather than tourists to the area. In 2018, the city’s public audit office ruled the project had largely failed.
Sex workers say that 1012 shifted the atmosphere in the red light district, turning it into a more general tourist area and making it harder to run sex-related businesses. “At the moment, there are many tourists who just come to watch, and to take pictures, but don’t want to visit them as a sex worker and pay for their services,” says Rik Viergever, a board member at My Red Light, a non-profit brothel partly run by sex workers. Felicia Anna says the new demographic, which can’t afford her prices, has forced her to take several months off work.
It also did less tangible damage. Project 1012 “completely destroyed” trust between sex workers and the authorities, says Mariska Majoor, who worked in the windows in the 1980s and has since been a writer and one of the most prominent Dutch campaigners on sex worker rights. 1012 was done in the name of reducing human trafficking and crime in the red light district. “But it felt very obvious that it was a real estate thing, about buying up valuable land for rich people. It had nothing to do with making things better for sex workers,” Majoor says.
This time, though, Halsema says conditions for sex workers are central to her reforms. “I think most Dutch people have a sentimental image in their head of the red light district as a nice, intimate part of town, where sailors come, where strong Dutch women invite them in and who hit them if they’re being rude,” she says. “But the atmosphere there today is different.” Halsema claims that the surge in women from poorer Eastern European countries, such as Romania and Bulgaria, as well as other less economically developed regions like Latin America and Africa, increases the risk of exploitation. While not all of them were trafficked, she says, “you can question their free will, because there is a huge need for them to feed families elsewhere.”
Closing some windows or shifting everything to a contained, city-run workspace would, Halsema says, make it easier to monitor trafficking than in the porous borders of the red light district. In the long run, quashing Amsterdam’s reputation as a sex work hub could also send a signal to traffickers. “As a local governor I can’t end human trafficking any more than I can stop the international weapons’ trade,” she says. “But I do think there’s something to say about the relationship between being internationally known as a place of prostitution, and the attraction for traffickers.”
National figures show a striking increase in Dutch authorities’ counts of the number of victims in the Netherlands since the legalization of brothels, from 228 in 1998, to a peak of 1,711 in 2012, and 742 in 2018 ; the national rapporteur on trafficking estimates that the actual number of victims in the Netherlands is around five times the reported figures.72% of potential reported victims in 2018 were working in sex work, the rest in sectors like construction. But the government says the fluctuation in reporting rates may be explained by the changing resources allocated to policing and social services in a given year, and the awareness of the public. In recent years, the Internet has given traffickers new ways to do business outside the view of law enforcement, further complicating efforts to accurately count victims.
It is also hard to know if the problem is worse than in other countries, warns Brian Varma, manager at CoMensha, a Dutch non-profit that gathers data on trafficking. “In the E.U., every member state has its own methods for measuring victims,” he says. The Netherlands registers everyone presumed to be a victim by authorities, including some people who have declined to be formally or legally identified as trafficked. “Other countries, for example Germany or France, only register identified victims. That is why our numbers are higher,“ Varma says.
Though Halsema concedes that the figures on trafficking are unreliable, she says she feels obligated to do anything she can to reduce trafficking in her city. “Even if only [a small fraction] are trafficked, the stories you hear are so horrible.” The websites of Dutch anti-trafficking organizations brim with victim testimonials. Many were tricked by traffickers posing as boyfriends, known as “loverboys,” and forced to work for months or years as sexual slaves. In one 2016 court case, the victim of an Albanian trafficking gang told a court she’d been held hostage with her children in a red light district brothel, suffering beatings, rapes and pressure to undergo a breast enlargement. “We cannot accept it,” Halsema says.
Despite concerns from authorities, some sex workerssay the window brothels are actually one of the places they feel most empowered to do their job. Thanks to a quirk in the prostitution licensing system, the windows are the only place they can work in Amsterdam without giving a cut of their money to a brothel owner or escort agency—a rule sex worker unions have long argued is unfair. In the windows, workers pay a fixed rent of roughly 90 euros for a nine-hour day shift and 170 for a nine-hour night shift and keep the rest of what they make. “If I go to work in a club, usually the club owner would take away 50% of my income,” Felicia Anna says. Last year she started a new pressure group, Red Light United, to represent workers who use the windows. She surveyed 170 window workers and says 93% are against plans to move the windows.
Jade, 29, who began using the windows three years ago after moving to Amsterdam from outside the E.U., says that working alone in the windows allows her greater control over her money, as well as the option to turn clients away if she doesn’t like the look of them or if they are rude to her. She bristles at the mayor’s concern for migrant women. “We’re all seen as vulnerable foreign women now because we’re migrants,” she says. “But I’m very much an agent of my own life, of my migration and of my business.”
Few deny that trafficking exists in Amsterdam. Many sex workers and advocates argue, though, that the red light district is one of the safest places in the city to do sex work. Jade points out that working in the red light district, she is surrounded by her colleagues. Heleen Driessen, a counselor at P&G292, a De Wallen-based health clinic for sex workers, says the number of police, local lawmakers and social workers who visit the area regularly make it difficult for traffickers to put women to work there. ”Of course, there are sometimes victims of human trafficking,” Driessen says. “But when you ask them, they are also happy that they worked in the red light area, because they could find us and ask us for help.”
Driessen says the transparency about prostitution encapsulated by the red light district is what makes Amsterdam—and the Netherlands more broadly—one of the world’s safest places to be a sex worker. She contrasts that visibility with the Swedish model, which allows women to carry out sex work but criminalizes clients and anyone who profits from another person’s sex work. Critics of the Swedish model argue it serves only to minimize the visibility of sex work, rather than to make it safer for the women who do it. Some argue it discourages sex workers from working in pairs or groups because they could be jailed for running brothels. And because the criminalization of buyers pushes people to carry out sex work in isolated spaces out of sight of the authorities, the Swedish model has been blamed for a surge in violent attacks on sex workers in France and Ireland.
A vocal but fairly small minority is pushing for the Netherlands to adopt the Swedish model to address exploitation; Christian feminist campaign group Exxpose has compiled a petition of 50,000 signatures—above the threshold at which parliament must hold a debate. Exxpose cite research that shows Swedish authorities saw numbers of women working in street prostitution was halved in the decaded following the 1999 legislation.
Though the Swedish model has taken off in seven other countries, Exxpose’s push for criminalization in the Netherlands is unlikely to succeed any time soon. In Amsterdam, the mayor is clear that she’s a supporter of legalized sex work. But some sex workers say Halsema’s proposed reforms reflect a wider pattern of allowing sex work in theory, but discouraging it in practice. “There’s so much discouragement hidden in the rules that it’s virtually impossible to be innovative in this sector,” says Velvet December, a coordinator at the sex worker union PROUD, citing an existing ban on Amsterdam’s sex workers working from home, and on window workers using the internet to find clients
December fears if the window brothels are closed, the city’s already-tight rules governing sex work will make it hard to find new space for the industry to thrive. Investors will be put off by the regulations, and people living in areas targeted for a sex workers’ hotel will protest, she says, pointing to the example of nearby Utrecht as a city that tried to overhaul its prostitution sector. In 2013, the city closed its historic red light area and around 100 prostitution windows on canal boats, promising to look for new sites for window work. Six years later the plans remain stalled because of the difficulty finding financial backers and resistance from the city council.
Relocating or replacing the red light district with a purpose-built prostitution hotel would also mean the end of an international landmark—even if it’s a controversial one. “To have the sex industry integrated with so called ‘normal life’, among churches and restaurants and a kindergarten and the Salvation Army shop – that’s pretty special,“ Majoor says, noting that the red light district developed over centuries. “You can’t just create that atmosphere somewhere else. If we get rid of the sex work, Amsterdam’s city center will be like any other old European capital.”
Halsema says she’s well aware of the danger of being too dogmatic, given the red light district’s historical roots and the concerns of sex workers, residents and anti-trafficking groups. She has held public meetings on the proposed reforms, inviting local residents and sex workers to weigh in—a step that sets her apart from previous city authorities, sex workers say. The city council will debate her ideas up, offering opinions on potential risks and benefits of each one. But Halsema will make the final choice and implement it, likely some time next year. “I want to create a process where a lot of people feel they are being heard—which is not the same as having it their way. We all have to compromise in the end.”
The shape of that compromise will likely determine what comes to mind when you hear the name Amsterdam, or even the term “sex work,” 10 years from now. For a few months though, the windows and their curtains remain open. The red lights continue to glow. And the debate rages on.
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WBPSC Admit Card 2019 for various West Bengal Public Service Commission Recruitment direct download links are updated here. Applicants who had applied for the WBPSC vacancies can make use of this page and download WBPSC Exam Admit Card 2019. Candidates can also visit the official website of West Bengal PSC for details regarding the hall tickets.
WBPSC Admit Card 2019
Candidates who are looking for WBPSC hall ticket online download link can find here. The direct download links for West Bengal PSC written exam, interview, and document verification are listed below. To make it easy for the visitors we have given the vacancy wise details in the table below. Hence, check the details and click on the respective link to download the WBPSC Admit Card 2019. Interested aspirants can visit the official pscwbonline.gov.in page.
Candidates can download the admit card for the post of Clerk on its official website in the month of November 2019. Therefore, Aspirants are suggested to download the admit card from the below table. Hence, the Clerk exam will be held in the month of November 2019.
The Commission has published the Prelims exam date notice on its official website. Hereby, the admit card has been released on its official portal. Eligible candidates can download the hall ticket from the below section. Download the admit card and carry it for the exam.
WBPSC Livestock Development Admit Card 2019 – Download
WBPSCLivestock Development Exam Schedule 2019 – Get Here
WBPSC Judicial Service Interview Letter 2019
West Bengal Public Service Commission has issued the interview call letter on its official website. The Interview Call Letter has been released on 04th September 2019. The Commission has issued the Interview Schedule for the post of Judicial Services. Therefore, the West Bengal Public Service Commission Admit Card is available on the below table.
WBPSC Judicial Service Call Letter 2019 – Download
WBPSC Judicial Service Interview Schedule 2019 – Get Here
WBPSC Hall Ticket 2019 – Supervisor (Female)
West Bengal Public Service Commission has declared the exam date on 01st September 2019. The admit card date has been committed tentatively on Last Week of August 2019. Once the board releases the admit card on its official site, we will provide you the direct link to download the WBPSC Hall Ticket 2019.
West Bengal Public Service Commission is allowing to applicants of assistant professor vacancies to download admit card. Hence, find the links for West Bengal PSC Asst Prof exam admit card below and download it today. Aspirants need to enter the login details to download the hall ticket.
Online WBPSC Assistant Engineer Interview Call Letter 2019 download link is available now. Applicants who cleared the written can now download the interview call letter from the link given below. However, just click on the link to download the WBPSC Interview Call Letter for AE Vacancy 2018.
Description
Details
Post Name
Assistant Engineer
Vacancy Count
Various
Category
Admit Card
Interview Date
Update Soon
Official Website
pscwbonline.gov.in
WBPSC Assist Engineer Interview Call Letter 2019 – Download
WBPSC Lecturer interview call Letter 2019
WB Public Service Commission Admit Card 2019 for lecturer vacancies is going to update below. Applicants who are eagerly looking can download the hall ticket just by clicking on the link. Keep checking will update the details when the board announces them. For WBPSC Lecturer (Mechanical) admit card and interview call letter aspirants can find the link below.
WBPSC Admit Card for Fire Operator Vacancy 2019 will be available soon. The Public Service Commission, West Bengal releases the Admit Card in its official page i.e., pscwbonline.gov.in. Here we provide you a direct link below to download your WBPSC Admit Card 2019.
WBPSC Admit Card for Subordinate Forest Servies 2019 will be available soon. The candidates those who applied for subordinate forest service can download admit card here. Carry the WBPSC admit card to exam center without failure.
West Bengal Public Service Commission has announced the Mains Exam Admit Card in the Month of July 2019. Moreover, the exam has been scheduled from 25th July to 28th July 2019. Hence, Aspirants can get the admit card link in the below table.
SBI Clerk Result 2019 Released @ sbi.co.in – The State Bank of India (SBI) has released the Mains Result for the Post of Junior Associate (Customer Support & Sales) in clerical cadre on 31st October 2019. As we know, all the candidates may think “When will SBL Clerk Mains result come?”. The SBI Clerk mains result has declared now. So all those candidates who have appeared for the Written Test on 10th August 2019 can check your results from this page. Here on this page, we have updated the latest result link and it activated now!!!
SBI Clerk Result 2019 – Declared
Applicants who have participated in the SBI Clerk Mains Exam on 10th August 2019 can check your Junior Associates Result from this page. The State Bank of India (SBI) officials will prepare the State and Category Wise Merit List. The Merit list will prepare based on the Written Test Result. Applicants who will qualify in the SBI JA Main Exam will be placed according to their aggregate marks in descending order in respective States and Categories. Candidates are advised to keep a track on the official website for SBI Clerk Main Exam Result Updates.
SBI Clerk Mains Result 2019 – Overview
Description
Details
Organization Name
State Bank of India (SBI)
Post Name
Clerk (Junior Associates (Customer Support and Sales)) Posts
A huge number of willing aspirants have attended the written examination and waiting with a dream to get select in the Written Examination. So all the candidates can check SBI Clerk Mains analysis 2019. The SBI Clerk Mains Exam consists of 190 questions for 200 marks. Also, the candidates totally have taken 2 hours 40 minutes to perform the written examination. The SBI Clerk Recruitment was done to fill 8500 vacancies of Junior Associates across the Country.
SBI Clerk Mains Provisional Selection list 2019
The Provisional Selection list can be available on the official website. All those candidates who have participated in the written examination can check your Provisional Selection list from the direct link provided below. The Provisional Candidates List will be decided on the basis of Candidates Performance in the Mains Examination. Based on the Provisional selection list, the Applicants will get the call letter to attend the interview.
SBI Clerk Cut off Marks is the minimum qualifying marks secured in the written examination. The SBI Cut off Marks will be calculated on an overall basis. The officials have announced the category and Statewise SBI Clerk Cutoff marks. This will be based on multiple factors like the Total number of applicants appearing for the exam, a total number of vacancies for SBI Clerk and the difficulty level of the exam.
How to check SBI Clerk Mains Exam Result 2019?
Initially, applicants can visit the official website of State Bank of India (SBI) i.e sbi.co.in
On the home page, check for Join SBI
Click on the Current openings in the section
A new page will open, find the SBI Clerk Mains Result link.
Check your Junior Associates result and download it further reference.
Direct link to download SBI Clerk Mains Result 2019
BRLPS Result 2019: Get Community Coordinator, Office Assistant & Other Result, Cut Off Marks, Latest Updates @ brlp.in | Hello Guys!! We have a piece of good news for you!! The Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) has declared the BRLPS qualified candidates list to attend the CBT Exam on 11th October 2019. Candidates who had attended for the Community Coordinator & Other Examination in July 2019, can check and download the Result from the direct link provided below in the table. Aspirants just click on that link and find your results easily.
Update: The Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) has announced the CBT Marks for BRLPS and LSBA on 25th October 2019 at 11.00 PM.
Latest Update (26-10-2019):Marks for Area Coordinator and Block Coordinator would be provided at the website by 3 PM on 26th Oct. It will be available for the next 48 hours. Also, the Community Coordinator’s qualifying list and score will be published on the website soon.
BRLPS Result 2019 – Check Here @ brlp.in
Applicants who are waiting for your BRLPS Community Coordinator Result 2019 can check and download your result from the below link. In the below table we have mentioned the BRLPS Community Coordinator Sortlist. To download your result applicants should enter the BRLPS Admit Card 2019 details. Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) has released the BRLPS Office Assistant Result 2019 on the official website. Here on this page applicants can get complete details of BRLPS Cut Off Marks 2019 and BRLPS Merit List 2019. Along with the results we have provided additional information about BRLPS CC Result 2019 in the below table.
BRLPS Community Coordinator Result 2019 – Overview
BRLPS Result 2019 | Community Coordinator & Other Cut Off, Merit List
Description
Details
Organization Name
Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) (JEEVIKA)
Exam Name
State Project Management Unit Positions, District Project Coordination Unit Positions, Block Project Implementation Unit Positions, State Consultant-MLE & MIS, Accountant, Project Manager (ODF-S Cell), Consultant-SLWM (ODF-S Cell), Consultant-IEC/ CB (ODF-S Cell), Consultant-Technical Sanitation (ODF-S Cell), District Coordinator, District Consultant-CB & IEC, District Consultant-MLE & MIS, District Consultant-SLWM
Applicants who are interested in this BRLPS Vacancy 2019 can keep track of this page to get your results on time. Applicants can get more details from the above table. Candidates can check the BRLPS Community Coordinator 2019 Results from the official website brlp.in. The BRLPS Community Coordinator list will help the candidates to attend the next round. As we know, there are a huge number of candidates are interested in the Jobs BRLPS Inner Community Coordinator.
If the candidates prepare well for the Written Examination, they can clear this round easily. Through this kind of information, applicants can get some additional knowledge about the BRLPS Cut off Marks 2019. The officials will decide the cut off marks depends upon the Written Examination marks and some other categories.
The Shortlisted candidates will be invited for the next round of the Recruitment Process. List of applications received shortlisted applications, dates, and venue of tests for selection, etc. If the applicants’ name will attain into the BRLPS Merit List 2019, they will get more importance at the time of the Interview. All the applicants can get the BRLPS Results, Cut Off Marks, Merit List @ brlp.in.
DMC Recruitment 2019 – Apply Online for 25 Community Workers Job Vacancy. Municipal Corporation of Delhi Government has circulated a Notification for the Community Worker Vacancy. Candidates who have passed your Matriculation can utilize this great opportunity released under Delhi Municipal Corporation. DMC Delhi Registration Process has been started from 29th October 2019. Go through the Official Notification of DMC Recruitment for the Community Worker post provided on this page.
The Final Date for the submission of DMC Online Application is 08th November 2019. Selected candidates will be hired on a contractual basis with Fixed Monthly Allowance. Aspirants who have experience in community organizations can apply for this DMC Recruitment 2019. Aspirants who wish to apply for the DMC Job Vacancy can check the Important dates and Important links on this page.
Delhi Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2019 – Job Overview
MCD appeared on the seventh of April, 1958 under and Act of Parliament. Preceding that DMC ( Delhi Municipal Committee ) was the essential city assemblage of Delhi. Famous Freedom Fighter Guru Radha Kishan has the pleasure to speak to MCD ( at first Delhi Municipal Committee ) for most back to back a very long time as a Councillor. The primary chose Mayor of Delhi was Pt. Trilok Chand Sharma filled in as First Mayor of Delhi. From that point forward, the Municipal Body has consistently been alive in its constitution and working to the developing needs of residents. The 1993 alteration of the Act realized basic changes in structure, capacities, administration, and organization of the corporation.
MDC was presented in 1992 and was intended to encourage more noteworthy decentralization at the country and urban level individually. They did as such through giving legitimate status to neighborhood gatherings and entrusting them with more capacities and more noteworthy forces. The consideration of certain social classes that had truly been minimized from arrangement making and executing structures was crucial to the task of decentralization. These social classifications were the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and ladies. While the 73rd Amendment applies to the Panchayati Raj framework, the 74th Amendment applies to Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils, and Nagar Panchayats relying upon the size of the city.
BU Bhopal Result 2019 Barkatullah University released UG & PG results on 30th October 2019. Get the latest update about the Barkatullah University Results for all the Under Graduate and Post Graduate Degree courses. Latest Barkatullah University Results 2019 Released for all Bachelor and Master Degree Examinations announced @ bubbhopal.ac.in. Live and Upcoming Updates of BU Bhopal Online Result 2019 Available here.
BU Bhopal Result 2019-20@bubhopal.ac.in
Students those who are doing their UG, PG and Diploma Courses under the Barkatullah University its time to check out your exam results. Barkatullah University has released the BU Bhopal Result for UG & PG semester wise exam results on 30th October 2019. Students just click on the Result link to download the BU Bhopal Result. Correct Roll Number should be entered to get your BU Bhopal Exam Result 2019. As the University conducts semester exam twice a year. Once the examination results are out by the Bhopal University, students can check out our webpage to gather the Sarkari Result BU Bhopal details.
During the period of the announcement of results, students will not be able to access the official site. But provide you with the direct link to download the BU Bhopal Results without any hurdles. Scroll the entire article to gather the necessary details about the BU Bhopal Result 2019-20 Barkatullah University.
Barkatullah University was established in 1970 as Bhopal University is a public university situated at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. In the year 1988, it was renamed in as Barkatullah Vishwavidyalaya (University) after the name of freedom fighter Prof. Barkatullah who belongs to the state of Madhya Pradesh. University campus covers an area of nearly 400 acres that include academic buildings, residential buildings, and other necessary infrastructure. University is focused on interdisciplinary teaching and research.
The funding of the university is done by the Government of MP and the Barkatullah Vishwavidyalaya has a residential campus and serves as an affiliating university for 494 colleges in seven other districts of Madhya Pradesh. Apart from Bhopal District, the university has affiliated colleges in Vidisha, Raisen, Betul, Hoshangabad, Harda, and Rajgarh.
BU Bhopal Revaluation Result 2019-20
Those students who have attended the regular examination under Barkatullah University and still failed. Here comes one more opportunity to clear the examination. To increase your scoring along with those students who have failed in the previous examination will get a chance to clear through Revaluation Exams at Barkatullah University Bhopal Results. For every semester examination conducted by the Barkatullah Bhopal University, Students can apply for the revaluation after the announcement of the main examination results. Barkatullah University will take a week or more to process the exam papers to announce the Revaluation results. Do stay updated with this webpage to know about the BU Bhopal Revaluation Exam Result 2019.
GJU Result 2019 released. Students those who are studying under the Guru Jambheshwar University, it time to check out your exam results. And here GJU Result is released according to the semester wise for both the main exams along with the reappeared examination. Students can download the complete set of GJU Exam Result 2019-20 at free of cost. The GJU Results 2019 are declared for all the UG, PG, Distance Education Courses & Others.
GJU Hisar Result 2019-20 @ gjust.ac.in
Affiliated colleges and students those who are studying under the Guru Jambheshwar University here comes great news for you people. We are glad to inform you that your semester examination results are released by the University officially on the website. Candidates those who are in search of the GJU Hisar Results 2019-20 can check out our webpage. We people from recruitment.guru we let you know the regular updates about the GJU Semester Exam Result 2019-20. The below table will list out all the updated examination results as soon as released on the official website. Recently the Guru Jambheshwar University has released the few re-appeared examination GJU Results along with the main exam results in May 2019 month. As the GJU Exam Result is released in Pdf format where students can download exam results directly from the official website. Scroll down and get the latest release of Guru Jambheshwar University.
Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology founded in the year 1995 is a non-profit public higher education institution. It is situated within the urban setting of the little town of Hisar in Haryana State. The Guru Jambheshwar University is officially accredited/or recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) & NAAC. The Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology is a small coeducational teaching institution. GJ University Hisar offers courses and programs leading to officially recognized higher education degrees like bachelor degrees, master degrees in many areas of study. This 24 years old higher-education institution has a selective admission policy based on entrance examinations. International students can also apply for enrollment for this university.
Regular/ Supplementary Results of GJU Hisar
Checked out your examination results, but still not satisfied with the exam results. Here the Guru Jambheshwar University gives a second chance for the students to pass in their semester examination. Here students should apply for the Revaluation with certain norms given by the university. Once they applied for the Examination, the higher level Examiner will re-check the paper. Within a particular interval of Students can get the revaluation results. Still scored low marks then the supplementary examination will help you out. For each and every semester Students can apply for the revaluation after the announcement of the main examination results. Guru Jambheshwar University will take a week or more to process the exam papers to announce the Revaluation results. Do stay updated with the University to know about the GJU Revaluation Result.
OU Results 2019 – Aspirants who are studying under the Osmania University can get the complete result details here. We will update you with all the semester exam results along with the mark sheet. Students can get the OU Exam Results 2019 as per direct links. We suggest the candidates pursuing courses in Osmania University to stay updated with the Official Website.
Update: Osmania University has recently announced MBA Non-CBCS May/Jun/July/Aug-2019 Results on 30th October 2019.
OU Results 2019 @osmania.ac.in
Osmania University Result 2019 has released for all the Under Graduate and Post Graduate Degree. The candidates who have appeared for the examination have been waiting for the OU Results 2019. And here is the latest information regarding the University. Students can get the B.E Revaluation Results, Pharm-D, Ph.D. (Course Work), MBA & Other Courses Regular and Revaluation Results. We people from recruitment.guru have updated the Osmania University results according to the result released to date. We have also attached the direct links to download the OU Revaluation Results 2019 for your reference. So students who are studying under the Osmania University can check out the University results right from here. Also, check with the Osmania University Official Website @osmania.ac.in
Osmania University established in 1918. Osmania University is the seventh oldest University in the Country. It is the third oldest in South India. Osmania University is the first in the princely state of Hyderabad. The establishment of Osmania University symbolizes a renaissance in the Indian Educational System. It has shown remarkable resilience throughout its existence. It has a green campus of 500 hectares set in picturesque. Osmania University had idyllic surroundings. It owns the number of buildings of great architectural elegance and variety to enhance the beauty of the campus. The university is an autonomous institute. The university holds the flagship for Higher Education of Government of Telangana and has played a key role in planning, initiating and implementing various development programs. It conducts several exams in Telangana.
Regular/ Supplementary Results for OU
Students of OU should get to know the details regarding the Revaluation Results. Once after the main examination is conducted, the University will give you one more chance. In case you fail or score low marks in the semester exam, the university will give you a second chance called Revaluation mode. Applicants do check with the Official Website to know about the Revaluation procedure. Students can get the Regular, Revaluation and Supplementary Results for the OU here. This Revaluation process may take a few weeks to process the results.
Through the process of revaluation, students can increase their semester exam ranking or those who failed in the examination will get a chance to pass. The exam paper will be evaluated once again for those who have applied for the Revaluation process. So, we advise the candidates to stay updated with our webpage or with the Official website to gather more information about the OU Revaluation Results.
KUHS Results 2019 released for Final Year BSc. Medical Microbiology Regular/Supplementary Examinations, August 2019. Check out your Kerala University Results Declared on 30th October 2019.
Dear Folks!!. Kerala University of Health Sciences announced the course wise results through its official website i.e., kuhs.ac.in. Here on this page, we provide the result for various KUHS courses like Nursing, Ayurveda, Pharmacy, Paramedical, Medical, Homoeopathy, Unani, Siddha, Dental. Students who are looking for KUHS can find the results on our page. Hence, go through the information of Kerala University of Health results in sections below. We recruitment.guru moderated this page with the most recent results given by the KUHS for various courses. Students of KUHS can find both regular and supplementary exam results on our page. And this article is completely enclosed with the updated Kerala University of Health Sciences Results 2019.
KUHS Results 2019
Students studying at the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) used to check their exam results this month. Here on this page, we have provided a direct link to get the KUHS Results from the below table. We update the results on our page immediately when the official website updates. By this student who is eager to check the result can find without any delay. Also, reduces the confusion in finding their performance in the examinations. Students of KUHS can find both Undergraduate, Postgraduate of regular and supplementary exam results on our page. Apart from this, we used to update the latest information regarding the KUHS Exam Time Table, Admit Card, Syllabus, Previous Paper, and others. So, we advise the students of KUHS to check results through our website.
Latest KUHS Exam Results 2019
Name of the Exam
Release Date
Download Link
First Professional MBBS Degree Regular & Supplementary Examinations – August 2019
Withheld Release of Third MBBS part I Supplementary Examinations, July 2019 of SUT Medical College, Aeezia Medical college, MES Medical College, GMC Ernakulam
The Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) was established in the year 2010. The university is located on the government medical college, Thrissur campus. It was established on the basis of the Kerala University of Health Act 2010. There are 282 professional colleges of Kerala affiliated under this university. All affiliated colleges imparting professional education in health care in Kerala. All branches of treatment would come under the university and medical and para-medical colleges now functioning under different Universities.
KUHS 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. Students of Kerala University of Health Sciences can also get all Results Also. Just we are advising the Students to frequently visit this page to get the latest updates of all KUHS Result 2019.
HP Forest Guard Admit Card 2019 – The Himachal Pradesh Forest Department will issue the admit card soon on its official website. Hence, Aspirants can download the admit card from the below table. Thus, Officials have announced that the exam will be held tentatively in the month of November 2019.
HP Forest Guard Admit Card 2019 is released by the HP Forest Department for the Forest Guard Exam conducted on 30th June 2019. Aspirants applied for the Forest Guard jobs download Himachal Pradesh Forest Guard Admit Card 2019. Candidates read the complete article, to know the exam date, time and venue. Interested candidates can also collect the HP Forest Guard Hall Ticket 2019 at the official website www.hpforest.nic.in.
Candidates can get the Himachal Pradesh Forest Guard Hall Ticket 2019 by entering the application number at the official portal www.hpforest.nic.in. Candidates prepare for the forest guard exam with the help of Previous papers and syllabus available on our site recruitment.guru.
Click on the HP Forest Guard Admit Card download link.
A new page opens up.
Enter your Moblie Number and DOB & Click on the Search button.
Within a few minutes, Admit Cards will be displayed on the Screen.
Candidates can download the Admit card.
Take a photocopy for future reference.
HP Forest Guard Admit Card 2019 – Details
Individuals applied for the Vanrakshak jobs must and should download HP Forest Guard Admit card 2019 to appear for the written test. Candidates can collect the admit card from the official site www.hpforest.nic.in 0r from our page. We have attached the direct link to download the Forest Guard Hall Ticket that was dispatched by the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department Board at the Official Portal.
Generally, the officials will release the exam hall ticket 10 days before the exam date. So, after downloading the call letter of forest guard exam, individuals check the details of the exam date, time, venue, hall ticket number available on it. Aspirants interested to collect their HP Forest Guard Exam Hall Ticket from the official site follow the below given steps to avoid confusion in the downloading process.
Details listed on the Forest Guard Hall Ticket 2019
Name of the Candidate
Registration Number
Name of the Examination
Exam Date and Timing
Examination Centre
Instruction on the Admit Card
And the signature of applicant and exam counsellor
Himachal Pradesh Forest Guard Exam 2019 Information
A huge number of aspirants looking for Himachal Pradesh Govt Jobs had applied for the Vanrakshak jobs. The HP Board will recruit the eligible and talented candidates for its organization by conducting the written exam and Interview. The Board officials will organize the exam in 30th June 2019 (Sunday) in order to select capable candidates. So, applicants must download HP Forest Guard Hall Ticket 2019 to appear for the exam. We are also providing the direct link of Himachal Pradesh Forest Guard Admit Card 2019 at the bottom of this page. Candidates are asked to bring an ID Proof to the exam hall along with the Admit Card for the verification process. Those who forget to bring the ID Proof details along with the Forest Guard Admit Card will not be allowed to enter the examination hall.
Voter ID
Passport
PAN Card
Aadhar Card
Employee ID
Driving License
College ID
Photograph
And any another id assigned by the state or central Govt.
BENGALURU: Cognizant will cut as many as 7000 jobs in the next few quarters and exit its content moderation business, impacting another 6000 employees, as it begins a strategic restructuring to cut jobs.In a post-earnings conference call with analysts, the Teaneck, New Jersey-headquartered company said it would remove 10,000-12,000 mid-to-senior employees from their current roles, and reskill and redeploy about 5000 of those impacted. "The gross reduction is expected to lead to a net reduction of approximately 5,000 to 7,000 roles (about 2% of the company's total population)," company executives said.Cognizant is also exiting its content moderation business for clients such as social media giant Facebook. The company has come in a significant scrutiny for the working environment of the moderators and the impact of the work on their mental health."Exiting this area will impact an additional approximately 6,000 roles worldwide, though the company intends to work with its partners to explore ways to transition the roles to alternative vendors, thereby reducing the impact to associates," company executives said.The exit will also impact revenue in the company's Communications, Media and Technology segment, with the ramp-down in work expected to be over the next one to two years.
By Devashish MitraThe Indian economy has been going through a very bad patch recently. Last quarter's GDP growth rate fell to 5%, the growth in the previous quarter being slightly higher at 5.8%. Many international organisations and private entities in the business of forecasting are projecting current fiscal year GDP growth at below 6%. The private consumption expenditure growth rate saw a huge crash from 11% to 3% between the last two quarters. The manufacturing sector is stagnating, led by the dismal performance of the automobile industry. Construction and real estate are also in bad shape. The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) estimated India's unemployment rate in 2017-18 to be 6.1%, which is over double that in 2011-12 when the unemployment rate was 2.7%. The labour force participation rate is also abysmally low at 37%.Many experts are calling this an aggregate demand problem. I don't disagree. However, it is quite likely that the current aggregate demand problem is a symptom or manifestation of a problem that is primarily structural. If India's manufacturing sector had been more competitive internationally, it wouldn't be so dependent on domestic demand. With a larger share in the world export market, it would also employ more people, and through them, domestic demand would also, in turn, be higher.But why are India's manufactures performing so poorly? Take automobiles. This sector is highly protected by tariff rates in the range of 60-125%, varying by automobile type and price.Taking into account the fact that auto parts and components have a much lower import duty of 12.5% on average, the effective rate of protection could be well over 150%. Such high walls of protection would obviously make any industry lazy and inefficient. It is no surprise then that the Indian auto sector is so highly dependent on the domestic market.Let's next take textiles and apparel. Here, of course, outdated labour regulations that put extreme restrictions on hiring, firing and task reassignment make this labour-intensive sector highly uncompetitive internationally. Add to it the high import tariffs on artificial fibre and fabrics made from it, making India's artificial fibrebased textiles, and apparel out of them, highly uncompetitive in the world market. Obviously, these high prices also constrain their domestic quantities demanded.Import Walls Block ExportsOver the last five years, there has also been a hike in tariffs on electronic products, including parts and components. This hurts the activity of assembly and processing, one of the main engines of China's growth over the last three decades. Even though duties on imports of inputs into exports are reimbursed, they do hurt production for the domestic market, most often needed for reaching the minimum scale of production after which exports can begin.Besides, high import tariffs increase the demand for domestic resources by import-competing industries, making them costlier to obtain for producers of exports. Thus, an import tax acts also like an export tax (Lerner symmetry theorem in international economics). Hence, it becomes impossible to push for exports, when there is apolicy of import protection in place.So, it is essential to reverse the tariff increases of the last five years and continue with trade reforms beyond even those of the P V Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee administrations. Labour law reforms have begun in a few states. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to use his political capital to push even deeper labour reforms through. The problem of land acquisition also needs to be tackled skilfully.There is a demand problem. Structural reforms mentioned above will take time to have an impact. So, something more needs to be done to immediately fix the short-term health of the economy. This is the right time to be a bit flexible about deficit targets. Also, the different types of government expenditures are not the same in terms of their impact. Expenditures on infrastructure, which improve private sector productivity and provide employment opportunities directly and indirectly, are easier for GoI to pay off than those on government subsidies that primarily benefit the middle class.Thus, GoI can be more creative about the type of spending. It can also provide tax cuts to the middle class and the poor, thereby putting in their hands higher disposable incomes. At the same time, GoI can be more innovative in finding alternative sources of revenues that don't represent reductions in real personal disposable incomes. For instance, privatisation can raise revenues from the sale of public sector enterprises.The recent corporate tax cuts are an important reform in the right direction. This can stimulate both domestic and foreign investment. With relatively advanced technology coming with the latter, it can boost both export volume as well as the sophistication of Indian exports, both of which have been known to stimulate growth. The immediate impact of these reforms would be an increase in aggregate spending by firms. Also, multiplier effects through consumption by workers should be expected.Credit Where It's DueWhile cleansing the banking sector was essential, it has made credit more difficult to obtain, thereby negatively affecting aggregate expenditure, especially on consumer durables. Creditworthy consumers and producers need to obtain credit more easily. GoI seems to be aware of this problem and is trying to come up with plans to deal with it.The economy's temporary problems can easily become more permanent unless both long-term and short-term measures are taken simultaneously. The silver lining here is that crises bring about reforms, and there is no reason not to be optimistic in this regard in the case of the current economic crisis.The writer is professor of economics, Syracuse University, New York, US
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio has criticised industry lobby group COAI for not taking the telco on board on expressing viewpoint to the top echelons of the government, and taking 'strong exception' said that it does not represent industry view and that can only exacerbate the contentious relations between the two.The Cellular Operators Association of India (Coai) Tuesday sent out a letter expressing deep concern following the recent Supreme Court verdict, and cited the industry's inability for further investments leading to a decline in Quality of Service (QoS), creation of a possible monopoly and endangering the ambitious state-run programs.The group sought the Centre to bail out the older incumbents— Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.Jio in a letter to COAI's director general Rajan S Mathews, dated October 30 refuted the group's views which it addressed to telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad a day earlier."The failure of two operators, even in the unlikely event of it actually happening, will not have an impact on the sector dynamics with existence of vibrant competition including the presence of the PSUs and there is no restriction on entry by new operators," Jio in a letter said.Mumbai-based pure-play fourth-generation or 4G service provider further said that rivals continued to highlight their so-called financial stress, these service providers which were an effect of their own commercial decisions."Government should not be obliged to bail them out for their own commercial failure and financial mismanagement," the Reliance industries telecom arm added.Following the top court verdict last week, the older incumbents reeling under a cumulative debt of nearly Rs 8 lakh crore, facing Rs 1.3 lakh crore worth of dues, are further stressed and sought backing from the government."We seek the urgent intervention of the government to avert such an unprecedented impact on the financial health of our member companies," Mathews in a letter dated October 29 said.Mathews further said that such an adverse outcome will trigger a chain of events which will result in a disruption to the entire telecom business.Citing the urgency, the group sought sops, and added, "one of our members (Jio) has a different opinion on the issue," and added that it would submit its (member's) views separately.Jio, however, said that the submission of this letter by merely mentioning that one of the members has a divergent view, without so much as waiting for such view, was another manifestation of COAI's prejudiced mindset completely laced with the one-sided thought process.In the past, contradictory views between— Jio on one hand, and rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea on the other has already led the government to delay any stimulus to the sector.
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India-appointed administrator has asked the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police to release properties attached in the Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank case so that they can be auctioned, a move that could provide relief to aggrieved account holders.The city police will soon seek court approval to hand over the assets to the RBI administrator, two people with knowledge of the matter told ET."We have received a communique from the RBI asking us to de-attach the properties in the PMC case. We have given them an in-principle no-objection certificate," EOW chief Rajvardhan Sinha told ET, confirming the developments.Another official said the police will approach the competent court by the end of this week to release all provisionally attached movable and immovable property, estimated to be worth over Rs 3,500 crore. Wadhawans have Given Consent to Auction"If auctioned, the proceeds of the sale could be infused in the bank and distributed among the depositors on a pro rata basis," said another senior official with knowledge of the matter.JB Bhoria, the RBI-appointed administrator, declined to comment. The RBI said it had no comment."The administrator would have taken a decision as he would have deemed fit. As such it's an internal matter of the bank," said an official.The planned auction will be carried out under provisions of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest (Sarfaesi) Act, 2002, which allows banks and financial institutions to sell properties of defaulters to recover loans, the two people said."A sizeable chunk of the depositors are from the lower income group and an early auction will ease their financial load," one person said.The RBI placed PMC Bank under restrictions after a Rs 4,355-crore scam surfaced and capped withdrawals by account holders. Authorities are probing the alleged criminal conspiracy between some officials of PMC Bank and Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd promoters Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan.The Wadhawans have already given their consent to selling the 18 attached assets, including two private jets, a speed boat and a fleet of high-end cars. In a letter dated October 16 to the finance ministry, the RBI and probe agencies including EOW and the Enforcement Directorate, they sought monetisation of the attached assets at "fair market value"."We further give our unconditional consent for the appropriation of the money received from the sale of these assets to be adjusted and appropriated towards the principal loan amount procured by us and the respective companies," they said in the letter, which ET has reviewed. 71829246 "Since the accused have already given their consent, the auction won't face a court battle as seen in cases pertaining to Vijay Mallya or Nirav Modi," one official said.DIRECTORS' ROLE UNDER SCANNERThe city police found that while most directors were aware of the loans extended to HDIL, they refused to raise red flags. The EOW recently arrested a former director, SS Arora, and has summoned the entire suspended board of directors in the case."A few of them have written to us claiming innocence and in some cases have also moved court seeking anticipatory bail. However, they need to explain why 70% of the depositors' money was given to only one borrower — HDIL — and why they never scrutinised the loan accounts," the official said.The former directors need to be questioned to ascertain if they were aware of all the facts, including the alleged tampering with the bank's core banking solution to operate 44 accounts that were password protected, said the official. These "ghost accounts" were linked to the HDIL group and the loans sanctioned to these accounts eventually made it to HDIL or the personal accounts of the two promoters."We want to probe if there was a deliberate act of omission. Also, if there were instances of quid pro quo," the official added.Those summoned in the case include BJP leader Tara Singh's son, Ranjeet Singh. The directors had earlier denied any knowledge of the alleged irregularities.THE CASEThe fraud at PMC Bank came to light after the RBI discovered that the lender had allegedly created over 21,000 fictitious accounts to hide over Rs 4,300 crore of loans extended to almost-bankrupt HDIL.A manager of the bank, on behalf of the RBI-appointed administrator, then filed a case with the EOW. The HDIL promoters, suspended PMC Bank managing director Joy Thomas, its former chairman Waryam Singh and director Arora have been arrested by the EOW.
BENGALURU: Cognizant will cut as many as 7000 jobs in the next few quarters and exit its content moderation business, impacting another 6000 employees, as it begins a strategic restructuring to cut jobs.In a post-earnings conference call with analysts, the Teaneck, New Jersey-headquartered company said it would remove 10,000-12,000 mid-to-senior employees from their current roles, and reskill and redeploy about 5000 of those impacted. "The gross reduction is expected to lead to a net reduction of approximately 5,000 to 7,000 roles (about 2% of the company's total population)," company executives said.Cognizant is also exiting its content moderation business for clients such as social media giant Facebook. The company has come in a significant scrutiny for the working environment of the moderators and the impact of the work on their mental health."Exiting this area will impact an additional approximately 6,000 roles worldwide, though the company intends to work with its partners to explore ways to transition the roles to alternative vendors, thereby reducing the impact to associates," company executives said.The exit will also impact revenue in the company's Communications, Media and Technology segment, with the ramp-down in work expected to be over the next one to two years.
NEW DELHI | MUMBAI: Discussions between Reliance Industries (RIL) and a group of marque financial investors and sovereign wealth funds for a controlling stake of its pan India fibre InVIT — Jio Digital Fibre — appear to have stalled. Negotiations with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)-led group that also included I Squared Capital, an infrastructure focussed fund, and GIC of Singapore have hit hurdles over differences in commercial and operating terms, said multiple people in the know. The three were acting together as a loose alliance. In parallel, GIC has also been evaluating joining Brookfield as a co-investor in Jio's towers.Along with the prospective investors, Mukesh Ambani's family office was supposed to coinvest to reaffirm his commitment to the business.The search is on to find alternative partners or tweak the terms. No term sheet has been signed between both sides, added the officials in the know. Talks can, however, resume if the two sides bridge their differences, said officials.After divesting its towers, Reliance's efforts to unlock value in the fibre company were part of a series of time bound asset monetisation initiatives. These are critical for the group to become net-debt free over the next 18 months.Last Friday, Reliance agreed to transfer $15 billion (Rs 1.08 lakh crore) of its $23 billion (Rs 1.61 lakh crore) telecom liabilities into a standalone entity and bring Jio's core telecom asset and various organic and inorganic digital investments under a 100% owned Jio Platforms (JPL), a precursor to onboard a strategic investor in that platform as well."All develeraging plans of the tower, fibre assets and oil and chemicals business sale would help reduce debt to near zero," say Mayank Maheshwari and Parag Gupta, analysts with Morgan Stanley.THE DEAL DYNAMICSThe broad structure of the prospective fibre trade mirrored that of the recently announced $3.7 billion (about Rs 26,274 crore) tower transaction — a 20-year sale and buy back with an assured return to the investors, said the officials mentioned above. This means that Jio sells the network to the investors and buys it back after 20 years. The equity value of the 700,000 km fibre backbone was pegged at around $8 billion, excluding the liabilities. Reliance is believed to have offered a 9.5% assured return to the potential investors on their equity contribution plus sharing of the revenue upside. The equity return commitment is on account of the fact that Jio would be a major user of the network, while revenue upside refers to sales generated by third parties using the network.But these have now turned out to be the bone of contention."There has never been such a large fibre network built in the country, neither has it ever been monetised. There is still no visibility of how the business and its cash flows will pan out and to what extent Jio will enjoy pricing powers. In such a backdrop, the risk reward ratio offered was not stacking up for the investors," said an official. Under such circumstances, the prospective investors also wanted to have more operating freedom on governance and pricing flexibility.Half of the fibre capacity, as per the terms offered by RIL, was to be used by Jio for its own users while the rest was meant for third party users. The investors, sources said, however wanted a greater commitment from Jio in terms of usage.Following the latest earnings call in October, RIL's management said they are still looking for investors for the Fiber InvIT and discussions with potential investors for subscription of units of the Fibre InvIT "are in progress."When contacted with specific queries around the negotiations, an ADIA spokesperson declined to comment. Mails sent to RIL, I Squared Capital and GIC did not generate a response till press time on Wednesday. 71829172 CONNECTING BHARATReliance has been targeting 20 million households and 15 million enterprises in the next 12-18 months and is in the process of commercialising its fibre to the home (FTTH) service, after trials encompassing 0.5 million homes. As per Credit Suisse estimates the ramp up is expected to be around ~3 million plus homes by FY22, contributing nearly $200 million (Rs 1,420 crore) EBITDA."We expect a similar contribution from enterprises segment by FY22. Together, we expect broadband division to contribute to $400-500 million (Rs 2,841-3,551 crore ) to Jio's EBITDA in FY22," said Anubhav Aggarwal and Sayantan Maji, analysts with the brokerage.In the fourth quarter of the financial year ended March 2019, Reliance Jio transferred its tower and fibre assets to two special purpose vehicles (SPVs) owned by the two Sebi-registered InvITs. In April, RIL said the two trusts have acquired 51% stakes each in Jio's fibre and tower units — Jio Digital Fibre Pvt Ltd (JDFPL) and Reliance Jio Infratel Pvt Ltd (RJIPL). The trusts are sponsored by RIL's 100% subsidiary, Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd (RIIHL).The demerger helped Jio cut liabilities, which amount to Rs 1.07 lakh crore. In July, a consortium led by Brookfield Asset Management agreed to acquire Reliance Jio lnfratel unit in a multi-stage deal. To begin with, Brookfield were to invest Rs 25,215 crore in an infrastructure trust that owns 51% of the telecom tower company. Following the consummation of the transaction, Brookfield and its coinvestment partners were to own 100% of India's largest telecom tower company with 170,000 towers through the Tower Infrastructure Trust. The proceeds will allow Mukesh Ambani-controlled RIL reduce debt at its telecom unit, Reliance Jio Infocomm, and free up cash to take on rivals. That deal is nearing completion, as per the management.The latest quarterly numbers show, despite rupee depreciation, the consolidated capitalisation of Reliance Jio fell 51%YoY/ to Rs 19,100 crore, an eight-quarter low. This in turn allowed a $500 million fall in reported net debt, the first QoQ fall in 14 quarters other than 4QFY19 due to demerger of tower and fibre.
Investors could add PSU funds as a tactical play to their equity mutual fund portfolios, say fund managers. They believe low valuations, coupled with chances of a strategic sale or disinvestment in public sector units, could trigger a rerating for the sector."Valuations are cheap, most companies have good corporate governance, and possible disinvestment or strategic sale leaves room for value unlocking," said Taher Badshah, chief investment officer, Invesco Mutual Fund. The government is in a strong position and there is better political will for disinvestment at this point of time, he said.The S&P BSE PSU Index is trading at a price-earnings multiple of 10.11, an almost 20 per cent discount to its own 10-year average of 12.01, Badshah said. On price-to-book, it is trading at 0.81, compared with the 10-year average of 1.61.In comparison, the broader S&P BSE Sensex index is trading at 22.68. The PSU index is trading at a 55 per cent discount to the latest Sensex level and a 38 per cent discount to the benchmark's 10-year average.On price-to-book, the Sensex is trading at 2.88. This translates into a 72 per cent discount for the PSU index at the current level and 45 per cent discount based on the 10-year average.Many PSUs have been restructured in the last one decade. Some of these, such as IRCTC, Midhani, MSTC and RVNL, are unique businesses with a virtual monopoly, say analysts.71829338 The balance sheets of state-run oil marketing companies have improved post deregulation in the sector. Also, PSUs, more recently, have begun to allocate capital more efficiently through buy-backs and dividend pay outs. Operating in cyclical sectors, PSUs have the potential to outperform in an economic recovery.The government plans to sell its stake in Bharat Petroleum to a strategic buyer. It has initiated a bidding process to find out an asset valuer to estimate the fair value of the company. Also, media reports point to global and domestic logistic players showing interest in Container Corporation.Fund managers point out that disinvestment or stake sale of PSUs was an event closely tracked by the market. "If the government demonstrates its capability in doing one or two such sales, the entire PSU pack could be rerated," said Vinay Sharma of Nippon India Mutual Fund.Financial planners said investors would be better off taking exposure in open-ended active PSU funds as compared to passive exchange-traded funds."Fund manager discretion can play a role in generating alpha here and hence better to go with an active fund," said Rupesh Bhansali, the head of distribution at GEPL Capital. He recommended Invesco India PSU Equity Fund and SBI PSU Fund. Over the past one year, Invesco India PSU Equity Fund has given a return of 20.29 per cent, while SBI PSU Fund has returned 12.3 per cent. Bharat 22 ETF has returned 3.71 per cent, while CPSE ETF has lost 2.08 per cent.
New Delhi:Abolishing dividend distribution tax, securities transaction tax and long-term capital gains tax on shares could burn a Rs 80,000 crore hole in tax revenue, making it difficult for the government to offer any immediate concessions.The government has already slashed corporate tax rates, foregoing Rs 1.45 lakh crore, and more tax concessions will have to be made up for by increasing income tax on the super-rich or cutting welfare spending, both of which are not feasible, a government official aware of the matter told ET.The benchmark BSE Sensex crossed the 40,000 mark on Wednesday, building on the big gains of Tuesday after reports that the government may abolish the three equity transaction-related taxes.There are limited options to absorb the revenue loss if these taxes are abolished, said the official, adding that welfare expenditure for schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) and MGNREGS cannot be cut, given weak demand and rural stress.The Reserve Bank of India said the country's GDP growth will slow to 6.1% this year from 6.8% last year.Raising taxes on the super-rich to make up for the loss is also not feasible because their tax liabilities were increased in the budget this year. The effective tax rate on those earning over Rs 2 crore is 39% and on those earning over Rs 5 crore is 42.7%.A task force set up by the government to review direct taxes suggested in its report that dividend should be taxed in the hands of recipients, while leaving rates for long-term and short-term capital gains unchanged. 71829092 REVENUE CONCERNSDividend distribution tax, levied at 15% on gross dividend declared by a company, contributes about Rs 55,000 crore to the total tax kitty.The effective incidence is over 20%, after including cess and surcharge.The securities transaction tax nets Rs 12,000 crore, while a similar amount is estimated from long-term capital gains tax, taking the total to about Rs 80,000 crore.Revenue concerns have grown, with goods and services tax collections remaining subdued in the wake of the slowdown. Even direct tax collections have remained lacklustre and are unlikely to perk up given the slower economic growth and reduction in corporate tax rates.If the government does not cut welfare spending or increase taxes, it would need to increase borrowing, which, at the current juncture, would suck out liquidity from the market, the official said, adding that this would further hurt industry.Market participants and the industry have made a strong pitch for the removal of dividend distribution tax and securities transaction tax, as also long-term capital gains tax, to perk up the overall sentiment.The government will have to increase capital gains tax if it considers removal of the securities transaction tax, the official said, adding that capital gains are taxed at a higher rate the world over and STT only makes up for a lower tax levied in India.The government introduced 10% longterm capital gains tax in the Finance Bill of 2018. The tax is applicable on annual gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh.Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on September 20 slashed corporate tax rates to 22% from 30% for domestic companies without exemptions and proposed a competitive 15% rate for new investment in manufacturing.
CALIFORNIA: Apple is rumoured to be readying its first 5G iPhone for the next year and according to the latest Nikkei report, the modem for the upcoming model will be designed by Qualcomm. Apple is likely to launch three 5G-enabled iPhone models in 2020. The target of the iPhone maker is to ship at least 80 million of the new 5G iPhone models in a bid to overtake embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei, CNET reports. The purported 5G iPhone models are said to use Qualcomm's X55 modem chips. It was earlier speculated that Apple will have its own modem chips for its iPhone lineup in 2021.
During May-August 2019, an estimated 404.9 million people were employed in India. This meant that 2.5 million more people were employed during this period compared to a year ago, when employment was of the order of 402.4 million, according to a CMIE survey."This is a healthy sign because during the preceding two May-August periods, employment had fallen in similar year-over-year comparisons. Employment during May-August 2018 was 5.5 million lower than it was in May-August 2017 which, in turn, was 0.6 million lower than it was in May-August 2016," said Mahesh Vyas, CEO of CMIE.May-August 2019 is also the second consecutive Consumer Pyramids Household Survey, which is conducted over a four-month period, to have recorded a sequential increase in employment. "While all this is good news, the not so good news is that the increase in employment in the latest survey is distributed more in favour of sectors that should be seeing a fall in employment," said Vyas.He said agriculture saw an increase of 8.4 million jobs, he said, adding that the fall in jobs in manufacturing, IT and financial sector was worrying and an increase in farmhands was not a solution to the jobs challenge. "This is surprising because monsoon rains were running behind schedule and by the end of August 2019, kharif sowing was 1.7% lower than it was by the end of August 2018. The increase was largely in crop cultivation. This saw employment go up from 133 million to nearly 139 million. Poultry farming and animal husbandry also saw an increase in employment from 1.8 million to 4.3 million," said Vyas, while referring to the increase in farm jobs."An increase in employment in agriculture during a year in which agricultural activities had shrunk is odd. One explanation is that as jobs in other avenues had shrunk, labour had no recourse but to revert back to their farmlands and claim that they were employed in agricultural activities," said the CMIE CEO.According to the survey, employment in the manufacturing sector declined by 0.9 million between May-August 2018 and May-August 2019. The textiles industry is estimated to have shed 2.2 million jobs and non-metallic mineral products, including cement, tiles, bricks and glass, shed another 0.4 million. Vyas said in May-August 2019, these relatively low-skilled jobs were of the order of 296 million. A year ago, these were of the order of 289 million. "Therefore, these low-skill jobs saw an increase of over 7 million during the span of a year. Note that the total increase in jobs during this period was only 2.5 million jobs. So, it is possible that jobs have moved out from relatively better sectors."
Award for philanthropist Homoeopathic doctor and philanthropist K.P. Nandakumar has won this year's Sasthaaram Award instituted by the Thamarakkulam Sri Sabarimala Ayyappa Swa
DMC Recruitment 2019 – Apply Online for 25 Community Workers Job Vacancy. Municipal Corporation of Delhi Government has circulated a Notification for the Community Worker Vacancy. Candidates who have passed your Matriculation can utilize this great opportunity released under Delhi Municipal Corporation. DMC Delhi Registration Process has been started from 29th October 2019. Go through the Official Notification of DMC Recruitment for the Community Worker post provided on this page.
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