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Bollywood, often referred to as the heart of Indian entertainment, is not just about acting and glitz anymore. In recent years, several Bollywood actresses have ventured into the world of business, proving that they are more than just stars on the silver screen. As we celebrate Business Women’s Day on September 22nd, let’s take a closer look at some of the leading ladies of Bollywood who have successfully donned the entrepreneur’s hat.
- Alia Bhatt:
Alia Bhatt, known for her versatility as an actress, is equally adept as an entrepreneur. She co-owns ‘Eternal Sunshine Productions,’ a flourishing production house that has delivered hits like ‘Darlings’ and ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi.’ But Alia’s entrepreneurial journey doesn’t stop there. The new mother has also ventured into the world of fashion, launching her brand ‘Edamama,’ catering to babies and moms-to-be. Her dedication to both her craft and business ventures makes her a true inspiration for many.
- Richa Chadha
Richa Chadha, a powerhouse performer, decided to take her career to new heights by stepping into production. She co-founded ‘Pushing Buttons Studio’ along with her husband, Ali Fazal. Her maiden production, ‘Girls Will Be Girls,’ showcases her commitment to creating meaningful and impactful content. Richa’s foray into production at an early stage in her career challenges the industry norm, where many actors turn to production only later in their careers.
- Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone’s journey from a talented actress to a successful entrepreneur is nothing short of remarkable. She recently launched her skincare brand, ’82E,’ which took the market by storm with its niche self-care products. Deepika’s strategic move to rope in superstars like Shahrukh Khan and Ranveer Singh for endorsements on social media further catapulted her brand into the spotlight. She recently also announced an investment into a popular coffee brand, Blue Tokai.
- Katrina Kaif
Katrina Kaif, known for her beauty and grace, expanded her horizons by co-owning ‘Kay Beauty,’ a brand that offers a wide range of makeup and skincare products. With her brand receiving accolades from beauty enthusiasts, Katrina has cemented her status as a successful entrepreneur in addition to being a top-notch actress.
- Neha Dhupia
Neha Dhupia is a true all-rounder in the entertainment industry. As a model, pageant winner, actor, and producer, she continues to shine brightly. Her production company, ‘Big Girl Productions,’ has brought fresh and engaging content to the audience. Neha’s celebrity audio show, ‘#NoFilterNeha,’ has become one of the most popular podcasts in the country. Furthermore, her parenting community initiative, ‘Freedom to Feed,’ supports and empowers mothers in their breastfeeding and parenting journey.
- Priyanka Chopra
Last but certainly not least, Priyanka Chopra, a global icon, has ventured successfully into various industries. She owns ‘Anomaly,’ a haircare brand that’s making waves in the market. Additionally, Priyanka manages ‘SONA Home,’ offering luxury dinnerware. Her ability to conquer diverse fields while maintaining her position as a top-tier actress demonstrates her unparalleled work ethic and business acumen.


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Samsung Mobile announced the new Galaxy S8 and S8+ to the world on March 29, 2017. The highly anticipated twins add new functionalities that would improve overall travel experience.
International Airlines Group (IAG), parent company to British Airways, will start a new long haul low cost carrier (LCC) named LEVEL based at the Barcelona El-Prat Airport (BCN). Taking a page off another LCC, WOW Air, introductory fares start at €99/US$149 one way.
Qatar Airways Qatar Airways introduces a new business class seat called Qsuite. The 5 star Skytrax rated airline unveiled this new seat at the ITB Berlin travel trade show on March 8, 2017. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “Today I am proud to unveil the future of Premium […]

domain: news


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Thu Jan 06 06:58am EST
How hot a ticket is Monday's BCS Championship showdown between Auburn and Oregon? As of Wednesday evening, hot enough not only to frustrate the efforts of the kind of people who aren't used to making one to see a football game, but also to effectively break the big online ticket brokers: Both StubHub and TicketCity have actually stopped sales for the game due to a run on tickets that even the Super Bowl can't command.
"As a result of the high demand and scarcity of BCS National Championship Game tickets, we have been unable to fulfill some customers' orders," a StubHub spokesman said in a statement released Wednesday night. "Unfortunately, one of our larger sellers for this event could not secure enough tickets to fulfill all of their confirmed sales, which has caused a trickle-down effect." Needless to say, if you bought your ticket months ago, that effect could bring you quite a nice return on that investment this week.
Prior to shutting down sales, BCS Championship tickets on StubHub were starting at more than $3,880 on Wednesday afternoon, and climbing as high as $15,995 for a seat on the 50-yard line. The average ticket for the game had gone for slightly more than $1,100, making it the top-selling event in the history of the site. "Right now, it's unprecedented," Dan Rubendall, CEO of online ticket broker Zigabid.com, told the Portland Oregonian. "It's absolutely the craziest scene we've ever seen. I mean, this is bigger than any Super Bowl we've seen in 20 years."
You can still get a ticket online, but you'd better be prepared to pay: They're going for thousands on Craigslist, and the online brokers still offering them are asking $4,675 apiece. For standing room only. If you can afford that, you might as well spring for a helicopter ride to the gate and a bodyguard to make sure you actually get in with them, too.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.


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Former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson is seen as the bookmaker's favorite to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.Europe Politicsread more
An analyst for Ark Invest, which has a major investment in Tesla, says recent drastic price-target cuts by others on Wall Street are missing the big picture.Investingread more
President Donald Trump, his businesses and members of his family on Friday appealed a federal judge's decision that Deutsche Bank and Capital One can turn over years of...Politicsread more
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Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg has held talks with the Winklevoss twins, his old rivals, about the social media giant's developing digital currency, the Financial Times...Bitcoinread more
May had failed to win a parliamentary majority on Britain's withdrawal from the European Union.Europe Politicsread more
The Trump administration proposed Friday to roll back health-care protections for transgender people by ending an Obama-era policy that prohibited health providers from...Health and Scienceread more
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Analyst Michael Olson says he has "a high degree of confidence" that Amazon shares can reach the level without "significant changes to the business."Investingread more
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler says Mueller told the committee he would make his opening statement before the public.Politicsread more
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
Boeing, Embraer – The jet makers announced they had finalized the terms of a joint venture first announced in July, in which Boeing will pay $4.2 billion for an 80 percent stake. The partnership, which still needs Brazilian government approval, would be comprised of Embraer's commercial aircraft and services operations.
HCA, Humana, UnitedHealth – These and other health-care stocks are on watch after a federal judge ruled the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional in a case that is seen as likely to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Best Buy – Bank of America/Merrill Lynch downgraded Best Buy to "underperform" from "neutral," noting overall deceleration in industry growth trends as well as its continued caution on key areas for the electronics retailer, such as TVs.
Jack In The Box – The restaurant chain said it is exploring a number of strategic and financial alternatives to maximize shareholder value, including a possible sale.
PG&E – California regulators say the utility company falsified natural gas pipeline safety records for years. An investigation found PG&E did not have sufficient staff to fulfill required inspections, and pressured employees to complete the work. PG&E said it is taking actions in response to the state's findings.
Amazon.com – Amazon is sharpening its focus on the bottom line and making moves to remove unprofitable items from its site, according to The Wall Street Journal.
EQT – EQT's board is asking to meet with major shareholders Toby and Derek Rice for talks after the two threatened a board challenge, according to a Reuters report. The Rice family sold Rice Energy to EQT for $6.7 billion last year and now own a 2.75 percent stake, but is said to be unhappy with the energy producer's direction.
Lululemon – Lululemon was upgraded to "buy" from "hold" at Stifel Nicolaus, which said it sees positive sales momentum at the athletic apparel maker that puts it on target for double-digit revenue growth.
Goldman Sachs – Goldman is the target of criminal charges in Malaysia stemming from the 1MDB scandal. Charges were also filed against two former employees in the case involving alleged money laundering at the state-run fund.
Stanley Black & Decker – The tool maker was upgraded to "buy" from "hold" at Deutsche Bank, saying it continues to like the company's fundamentals and is now less concerned than it was previously about the possible impact of tariffs.
Sherwin-Williams – The paint maker was upgraded to "overweight" from "neutral" at JPMorgan Chase, which thinks coatings companies will benefit from positive pricing momentum.


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About 90 percent of cars in Nigeria were smuggled into the country by unscrupulous elements.
This is according to the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Colonel Hameed Ali, who also said it has become necessary to collect taxes on these illicit vehicles. In return these vehicles are then issued with papers effectively legitimising their resale.
Ali alleged that many vehicles on display for sale in auto shops across the country were also smuggled.
He said raids were conducted at various car dealerships in some parts of the country to ascertain whether the vehicles were brought in genuinely or not.
According to Ali the country needs revenue for development, hence the need to collect duties on those smuggled vehicles. What we are doing now? we are just enforcing the law, which allows us to collect revenue on behalf of Nigeria and also ensure those vehicles you and I will go and buy have genuine papers that are roadworthy,” said Ali.


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Last Friday, Quebec’s Minister of Economy and Innovation, Pierre Fitzgibbon, fought Highway 15‘s busy traffic heading north to St. Jerome, bringing with him $20 million in much needed funding and subsidies.
He stopped off first at a conglomerate of seven Quebec companies specializing in heavy electric vehicles, namely the commercial EV platform developed by Compagnie Électrique Lion and underlying its St.-Jerome-built electric school buses (sold mostly to California).
tap here to see other videos from our team.
The $7.9-million provincial contribution should help materialize projects like electric ambulances, dump trucks and firetrucks, which together could “reduce greenhouse gas emissions totaling nearly 3 million tons of CO2 over a horizon of ten years,” reads the press release.
While that news garnered the most headlines, the real deal, was the non-profit connecting those companies, the beneficiary of the largest portion – $12.7 million – of governmental aid: L’Institut du Véhicule Innovant (The Innovative Vehicle Institute, or IVI).
This Dalhousie University research engineer turned his 1971 Triumph Spitfire electric
New fuel cell design could make hydrogen-powered cars cheaper
St. Jerome: Where “modern” EVs were first tested
Thanks to IVI, Ville de Saint-Jérome has been a hot-bed of EV development for more than 20 years. In the beginning, it was all about electric cars — remember in 1996, Tesla wasn’t even a gleam in Elon’s eye — and the garage-laboratoire , then named CEVEQ ( Centre d’expertise du véhicule électrique du Québec), was something of a global pioneer.
It made Laurentians’ capital the first Canadian city inundated with zero-emission cars. An electric Citroën Berlingo was used by municipal administration; local police drove an electrified Peugeot 106. And the corporation helped develop and commercialize the St. Jerome-assembled ZENN, a Zero Emission No Noise low-speed two-seater. (If you don’t remember the ZENN, it’s because it barely sold 500 units from 2006 to 2010, mainly Stateside.)
“At that time, we were a voice in the wilderness,” says IVI’s executive director, François Adam. Then, around 2010, electric passenger cars took off with the likes of Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt. Since 2015, the Institute has focused on electrifying heavy-duty vehicles, industrial equipment and even autonomous machinerie .
More square feet — for crazier ideas
So, yes, Quebec has a specialized think tank bringing to life all kinds of strange vehicles for clients who want to reduce their carbon footprint. There’s the MadVac, from Longueuil’s Exprolink, an electric garbage collector currently cleaning up New York’s Central Park; the Manufacture Adria, from Rouyn-Noranda, a piece of specialized electric mining equipment. IVI helped with the Lion electric school bus mentioned above, as well as electric motorcycles and boats.
In the last five years, IVI worked with 120 companies from all over La Belle Province , generating more than $12 million of retombées , says its executive director. While initiating those commercial and industrial energy efficiency solutions, it’s also been training future technicians — IVI’s a collegiate center of technology transfer, affiliated with Cégep de Saint-Jérôme .
But until now, IVI’s 30 employees were spread out between the downtown college and a business park, its current garage-laboratoire so small only one project can be tackled at a time. There’s no room in this 100-square-meter laboratory to welcome any other innovation en devenir .
That’s about to change, with the $12.7 million issued by Quebec’s Infrastructures for Research and Innovation. The money, plus some land granted by the city of St. Jerome and another $1.3 million from IVI’s own pockets, will help erect a new 2,712-square-meter building uniting the firm’s employees under one roof, while adding a much-needed bigger “prototyping” room.
The new pavilion should be ready early 2022. “We have so many interesting projects but with our current limited space, we’re always on the brake,” says Adam. “With this new facility, not only will we add 10 haute technologie jobs, but we’ll quadruple our laboratory space.”


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The charm offensive had been arrived before Jesse Trump moved in to the White-colored House. By inauguration, Justin Trudeau’s top advisors had fostered close contacts with Trump’s group of friends, setting happens for any Washington visit peppered with smiles, handshakes and photo ops.
However this week relations between Canada and also the US apparently struck another note, as news broke that Ottawa had launched an exciting-out trade war against Washington.
Inside a wide-varying complaint, filed in December making public on Wednesday through the World Trade Organization, Canada has had are designed for Washington’s utilization of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy responsibilities. The complaint listed nearly 200 cases spanning 2 decades, alleging wrongdoing not just against Canada but a large number of other nations, for example South america, India and china.
Canadian officials portrayed the filing like a obvious message that Canada was being bold its industries and workers. “When people that you’re firm, you receive respect,” François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s worldwide trade minister told reporters.
high stakes renegotiations from the United States Free Trade Agreement. Among Trump’s repeated threats to drag from the decades-old pact, the Canadian government continues to be scrambling to hammer out an acceptable update that will safeguard the roughly 2.5m Canadian jobs and 75% of Canadian exports associated with the pact.
Some pointed towards the tough talk like a plan B through the Trudeau government. “By shedding the mitts in this public way, Canada is acknowledging that playing nice with Mr Trump on trades has unsuccessful miserably,” noted a columnist for that Globe and Mail.
If the approach had produced results was dependent on debate: while a lot of Trump’s rhetoric continues to be targeted at Mexico, his initial actions were targeted at Canada.
A number of aggressive trade actions saw steep tariffs and responsibilities levied on Canadian softwood lumber, Bombardier CSeries aircraft and, this week, newspaper.
Trump paired all of them an extensive attack. “We can’t let Canada or others make the most and do the things they did to the workers and also to our maqui berry farmers,” he told reporters in April.
The WTO complaint suggests the Trudeau government has changed in the approach , stated John Weekes, Canada’s former WTO ambassador and chief Nafta negotiator. “This is actually about delivering an indication towards the Americans that we’re ready to be tough.”
The timing of the signal suggests the Canadian government sees the sixth round of Nafta negotiations – slated to start later this month in Montreal – like a vital chance to find out if the US would like to locate mutual understanding around the thorny issues like the rules managing the auto industry and trade dispute mechanisms, stated Weekes.
On Wednesday US trade representative Robert Lighthizer made obvious his thought that Canada’s WTO complaint would simply exacerbate trade tensions.
“Canada’s new request consultations in the WTO is really a broad and ill-advised attack around the US trade remedies system,” Lighthizer stated inside a statement. “Canada’s claims are unfounded and may only lower US confidence that Canada is dedicated to mutually advantageous trade.”
However in the transcript of the interview using the Wall Street Journal printed Thursday, Trump struck a far more upbeat tone, stating that there is an opportunity of creating a reasonable deal, and meaning his administration could be available to extending the timeline of Nafta talks.
Now saw headlines suggesting that Canada is readying for Trump’s imminent withdrawal from Nafta, but Canadian officials have lengthy been ready for the chance, stated Colin Robertson from the Canadian Global Matters Institute.
Canada has proven no manifestation of slowing its outreach plan which has sent representatives in the Canadian government and companies on countless journeys over the US to speak up do business with Canada.
Relations between Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister and Rex Tillerson remain close, along with other channels of communication remain open.
“I believe that conversations continue to be happening between your pm and Mr Trump,” he stated.
A staff walks beneath solar power panels being installed at Madison-Grant Senior High School near Fairmount, Ind., in December. (Shaun Morehead/The Chronicle-Tribune via AP)
The month of january is among the very coldest, darkest several weeks of the season within the U . s . States — especially this The month of january, using the eastern half of the nation gripped by frigid Arctic air and waiting for something being known as a ” bomb cyclone.”
However in Washington this month, things could get really gloomy for that U.S. solar industry.
The us government faces two deadlines in The month of january that may have far-reaching ramifications around the U.S. solar industry if they don’t go industry’s way.
Through the first of these two deadlines, a completely independent agency must decide whether or not to accept a Trump administration proposal made to boost coal and nuclear power plants. Through the second deadline, President Trump themself will need to choose whether to slap rival nations with a group of tariffs the domestic solar industry largely opposes.
“Bad decisions either in situation might have negative impacts around the U.S. solar industry,” stated Abigail Ross Hopper, president and leader from the Solar Power Industries Association (SEIA).
The choices come just because the U . s . States is poised to capitalize on several many years of development in alternative energy. Solar and wind power sources provided 7 % of electricity generated in the united states in 2016, up from under a portion point about ten years ago.
First of all: the government Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has until Jan. 10 to determine whether to finalize an electrical grid plan that would reward facilities able to maintain 90-day fuel supplies on hands — effectively, individuals plants operated by coal or uranium.
The plan emerged in the Energy Department after its contested study analyzing if the grid could withstand the retirement of getting older coal-fired and nuclear power plants.
As individuals old vegetation is substituted with renewable sources like solar, which produces energy only occasionally, Energy Secretary Ron Perry and a few independent experts are worried the grid may at some point no longer have the ability to provide power at peak hrs — for example, when the sun’s rays goes down and consumers switch on the lights at home.
But studies — including the Energy Department’s own — found losing traditional power sources has not reduced the grid’s reliability. Critics blasted the 90-day rule like a pork-handed attempt by Perry to experience favorites with coal and nuclear — one which flies when confronted with FERC policy because the 1990s to create electricity markets more competitive. Clean energy lobbyists worry the implementation of these a guide can make renewables less competitive.
“This is an very cruel, blunt tool,” said Take advantage of Gramlich, who works best for alternative energy clients through his talking to firm Grid Strategies LLC.
After initially giving the independent agency only 45 days to rule, Perry begrudgingly extended the deadline to mid-The month of january in the request of FERC’s new chairman, Kevin McIntyre, writing the “better span of action” could be for FERC to do something at some point.
However the entire energy industry, save coal and nuclear, thought the Trump administration was asking the regulatory agency to determine too hastily, given the viability of electricity markets hung within the balance. A coalition of strange bedfellows, such as the top lobbyists for that oil, solar and wind industries, was adamant FERC give itself additional time to retort.
Meanwhile, a vital Republican person in the commission, Robert Powelson, openly recognized competitive markets within an October speech. “The moment we put our thumbs around the scale,” he stated, “may be the moment we bastardize the procedure.”
Considering that, renewable advocates are positive the 5-member commission, with three Republicans and 2 Democrats, won’t rubber-stamp Energy’s proposal.
“Without his election,” stated Gramlich, “I don’t think of the two Democrats, Cheryl LaFleur and Richard Glick, approving it.”
Meanwhile, coal boosters appear to become get yourself ready for the program to fail. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which initially funded research reported by Energy when it suggested the rule, authored inside a FERC filing the study sponsorship “shouldn’t be construed as support for that market interventions.” And after photos emerged of coal executive Robert E. Murray giving Perry a coal “Plan Of Action” outlining plant payments much like what his department ultimately suggested, Murray claimed he “never proffered” the concept.
Still, the grid resiliency concern is unlikely disappear even when FERC rejects Perry’s specific proposal. Energy observers expect the commission to try and develop a modern-day marketplace for paying electricity generators for having the ability to produce power reliably.
The 2nd deadline faces obama themself — and, for that reason, worries some solar lobbyists more.
In October, the U.S. Worldwide Trade Commission (ITC) dicated to support tariffs along with other import limitations to safeguard domestic solar companies from your increase of cheap solar power panels created overseas.
While two U.S.-based solar-panel makers, Suniva and SolarWorld Americas, introduced the original case towards the commission, the broader U.S. solar industry opposes any tariff that may increase the reduced cost of panels, a key advantage powering the industry’s growth over more costly coal and nuclear plants.
The ITC’s decision provides Trump with a much-sought opportunity to levy a tax on China along with other solar exporters. In 2017, Trump slowly edged nearer to a trade war with China, certainly one of his favorite rhetorical targets around the campaign trail. Within the summer time, the Commerce Department made the decision to tax aluminum foil from the country. A decision within the solar situation is anticipated by Jan. 26.
Solar lobbyists spent the second a part of last year meeting with Trump administration officials to create their situation the U . s . States will lose out on a multitrillion-dollar market globally by having an ill-paced tariff around the industry in the beginning.
“We have experienced several encouraging conversations with Secretary Perry and the staff,” stated Hopper from SEIA,” and think that they do know the vital role solar plays, and can more and more play, within our nation’s electricity mix.”
Greg Wetstone, president from the American Council On Alternative Energy, addressing solar investors, also offers were built with a couple of conferences with administration officials within the administration, including one out of December, he stated.
“There are senior officials there who understand the significance of the renewable sector, solar particularly, like a national economic driver,” Wetstone stated.
But unlike the FERC decision, careful analysis punish solar power exporters is going to be Trump’s and Trump’s alone — to whom what Wetstone known as “an instinctive political inclination toward a tariff” may come up.
As they calls the proposal before FERC “serious,” Wetstone said “most immediately, the tariff may be the more severe concern.”
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Ecological Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Publish)
— Superfund site list shortened: The Ecological Protection Agency states it’s made progress in clearing up the country’s seven most toxic locations — a high priority for Scott Pruitt. While trying to control the agency’s legal authority in different ways, Pruitt has emphasized Superfund sites are a place in which the Environmental protection agency can and really should regulate.
The Environmental protection agency chief stated the company has had four sites partly and three sites completely from the “National Priorities List,” the Washington Examiner reported. “We’ve managed to get important to obtain these websites cleared up faster and correctly,” Pruitt stated Tuesday. “By developing a streamlined task pressure and making major remedy decisions that hold potentially responsible parties responsible for cleanup, the Superfund program is transporting the agency’s mission of protecting human health insurance and the atmosphere more every single day.”
We’ve managed to get important to obtain these websites cleared up faster and correctly. Because of the effort of @EPA’s #Superfund program, we’ve completed 7 deletions in the National Priotity List. #EPABack2Basics https://t.co/cTzTNKyLd7
— Administrator Pruitt (@EPAScottPruitt) The month of january 2, 2018
— 1 / 2 of Puerto Rico continues to be at nighttime. It’s been greater than three several weeks since Hurricane Maria made landfall around the island and updates on progress have been scattered.
Quartz’s Zoe Schlanger breaks lower a couple of from the latest known data points: “Puerto Rico’s electrical utility states it’s operating at 69% of ordinary capacity—but that figure doesn’t indicate the number of from the island’s residents are really receiving power. The machine that monitors the level of distribution isn’t working. On 12 ,.29, the governor place the official estimate of individuals at nighttime at greater than 660,000 people, 45% from the island’s 1.5 million electricity customers. Now, 104 days since Maria hit, the 660,000 figure is the first one to come from the Puerto Rican government.”
A mining dumper truck hauls coal at Cloud Peak Energy’s Spring Creek strip mine near Decker, Mont. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
— Coal mining deaths arrived at their highest reason for 3 years, The Hill’s Timothy Cama reports: “A total of 15 miners died at work in 2017, Mine Safe practices Administration (MSHA) data show, in contrast to eight in 2016. That year saw the least mining deaths since records began… West Virginia saw the majority of the 2017 miner deaths, with eight.”
The report comes soon after the Senate approved former coal mining executive David Zatezalo to mind MSHA. Zatezalo received scrutiny for their own safety record like a former executive at Rhino Sources, a coal-mining company which was issued two “pattern of violations” warning letters from the comfort agency this year and 2011.
— A “bomb cyclone” is originating: That is correct. An enormous winter storm is headed towards the East Coast this week, hitting areas from Georgia to Maine with snow and ice, Capital Weather Gang’s Jason Samenow reports in a tale describing weather poised to create a “mother lode of numbing cold” in the Arctic southward.
“By Thursday, the exploding storm will, in lots of ways, look like a winter hurricane, battering easternmost Colonial with potentially damaging winds additionally to blinding snow. Forecasters expect the storm to become so-known as ‘bomb cyclone’ because its pressure is anticipated to fall so quick, an indication of explosive strengthening. The storm could rank because the most intense within the waters east of recent England in decades at the moment of the year.”
The sheer concentration of the storm (and also the intense way Samenow described it) elicited terror on Twitter:
The Post’s J. Freedom du Lac:
“Explosive device cyclone” not a chance not a chance not a chance https://t.co/4fWiBOWdPx
— J. Freedom du Lac (@jfdulac) The month of january 2, 2018
BuzzFeed’s Tom Vellner:
*searching at 2018 planner*
The month of january 1: A brand new year! Good stuff nearby! 🙂
The month of january 2: Buy groceries before explosive device cyclone hits
— Tom Vellner (@tomgvellner) The month of january 2, 2018
Bloomberg’s Kim Bhasin:
This winter season storm has got the @washingtonpost shook AF:
-“Explosive device CYCLONE” -“MOTHER LODE OF NUMBING COLD” -“BRUTAL BLASTS” -“WICKED COLD AIR”https://t.co/xXMfbL0ZwX pic.twitter.com/nyBdeyW2YX
— Kim Bhasin (@KimBhasin) The month of january 2, 2018
You will find already extremely cold conditions nationwide. On Tuesday, the nation’s Weather Service issued wind-chill advisories and frost warnings from South Texas to Canada and from Montana to Colonial, the Connected Press reports. Warming shelters were opened up over the southern U . s . States as hard-freeze warnings were set up for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Extreme cold continues to be blamed not less than nine deaths within the last week, per the AP.
— Study states climate accord could prevent prevalent drought: New research warns greater than a quarter of individuals all over the world could reside in drought conditions by 2050 when the standards set through the Paris climate agreement aren’t met. The research is among the most detailed assessments of future aridity up to now, The Protector reports. “Our research predicts that aridification would emerge over about twenty to thirtyPercent from the world’s land surface when the worldwide mean temperature change reaches 2C,” said Manoj Joshi, the study’s lead investigator stated. “But two-thirds from the affected regions could avoid significant aridification if warming is restricted to at least one.5C.”
— Mushrooms may be the response to more energy-efficient laundry soap. Yep: Two scientists in a Danish biotechnology company are studying fungi outdoors Copenhagen because they locate a more eco-friendly means of cleaning clothes.
The Brand New You are able to Times’s Stanley Reed reports that scientists are particularly searching for mushrooms to review enzymes that accelerate chemical reactions and procedures like decay. “Their jobs are helping the organization develop enzymes for laundry and dishwasher detergents that will require less water, or that will work just like effectively at lower temperatures. The power savings might be significant. Automatic washers, for example, take into account over 6 % of household electricity use within the Eu,” Reed reports.
The IAFOR Worldwide Conference on Sustainability, Energy and also the Atmosphere happens in Honolulu from Jan. 4-6.
The American Oil Institute holds a lunch and press conference on “The Condition of yankee Energy 2018” on Jan. 9.
The Women’s Council on Energy and also the Atmosphere holds attorney at law on political appointment process within the energy and ecological fields on Jan. 9.
The Power Department’s Office of one’s Efficiency and Alternative Energy holds a “Better Structures peer exchange call to discuss what’s coming for residential energy-efficiency in 2018” on Jan. 11.
The Middle for Proper and Worldwide Studies hosts attorney at law with former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Jan. 11.
Politico holds an event on “Driverless Cars and the way forward for Mobility” on Jan. 16.
The Bipartisan Policy Center hosts FERC commissioners Neil Chatterjee and Cheryl LaFleur for any discussion around the suggested Grid Resiliency Prices Rule on Jan. 16.
The Women’s Council on Energy and also the Atmosphere holds its sixth annual Lunch & Learn event to determine what topics to pay for in 2018 on Jan. 23.
The Middle for Proper and Worldwide Studies holds a celebration on Canada’s energy future on Jan. 23.
Here’s what’s around the Republicans agenda this season:
What is “cat-ice”?
These bankruptcies are not stars on the horizon — it’s really “cat-ice.” But what is this winter season weather phenomenon? pic.twitter.com/43pZvvCMeM
— CBS News (@CBSNews) The month of january 2, 2018
See a small wombat zip round her pen:
Watch Stephen Colbert’s undertake President Trump’s climatic change logic:
U.S. information mill getting new trade lawsuits against their foreign competitors having a scope and frequency not observed in greater than fifteen years, government documents show, like a wave of recent complaints builds under President Trump.
A Washington Publish analysis of Commerce Department data found 23 new trade disputes initiated since The month of january, making 2017 the busiest year for tariff cases since 2001. The brand new cases target trade between your U . s . States and 29 counties, probably the most in almost any year since 2001.
The instances include fights over Korean automatic washers, Spanish olives, Chinese aluminum foil, Vietnamese tool chests, Argentine biodiesel and Canadian jetliners. The U.S. trade players include financially strapped solar power manufacturers, downsizing Rust Belt steel plants and declining California olive farms.
Several demands originated from firms that they are under foreign possession. As well as in a shift from previous years, some lucrative corporations are asking the federal government to put new limitations on their own foreign rivals, benefiting from a current alternation in federal law.
The rush of complaints may come as the White-colored House moves to redefine America’s role within the global economy.
“At President Trump’s direction, we’ve told American companies that we’ll become more enforcement minded than any recent administration, whilst remaining dedicated to a good and transparent procedure that is professionally and impartially implemented,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross stated within an emailed statement. “They know we’ll stand with American workers when confronted with unfair trade practices.”
Tariff cases typically start when U.S. companies formally accuse foreign competitors of “dumping” products within the U . s . States at unfairly affordable prices or taking advantage of unfair subsidies, or both. Then your Commerce Department along with a quasi-judicial U.S. agency known as the Worldwide Trade Commission decide how to proceed.
Ross has stated he wants the federal government to create more cases by itself, something which could let companies save money on legal expenses. The Commerce Department required its initial step for the reason that direction inside a November tariff action against sheet metal distributors in China, the very first government-initiated action since 1985.
The Washington Post’s count of 23 new disputes in 2017 is dependant on the amount of petitioners getting new tariffs if for instance a single U.S. company requests tariffs on products from 10 countries, the Publish treated it as being just one new dispute despite the fact that this kind of action would spur 10 Commerce Department investigations. When calculated in line with the quantity of new investigations — because the Commerce Department has a tendency to represent the popularity in the news releases — there have been 79 new investigations in 2017, reflecting an enormous 65 % hop over the year before along with a 16-year high.
Since the majority of the new cases are simply starting to work their way with the government’s deliberative process, it’s too soon to inform whether or not they may ultimately succeed.
Some information mill pushing for cost quotas, which forbid foreign firms from selling below confirmed cost. As well as in two cases this season, three companies have invoked a effective and rarely-used U.S. trade lever known as the “safeguard” provision, which imposes blanket taxes on products whatever the country of origin. Such cases are unique for the reason that they might require an immediate sign-removed from obama before Trump required office, no business had requested to become safeguarded in this manner since 2001.
“The fact we have already seen a couple of these cases in 2017 ought to be a obvious signal that corporate America thinks the Trump administration will grant it protection,” stated Chad Bown, another in the Peterson Institute for Worldwide Financial aspects, an investigation and policy organization centered on global trade.
The Trump administration is getting ready to rule on cases early the coming year.
The U.S. companies seeking tougher import responsibilities reason that trade limitations are necessary to level the economical arena and sustain American jobs, and also have little related to politics or Trump.
For example, a Washington condition paper company referred to as North Off-shore Paper, known as NORPAC, is accusing Canadian competitors of flooding the U.S. market with less costly product. Consequently, NORPAC, which sells paper for newspapers along with other industries, stated it’s been made to trim its staff from about 450 to 350 employees previously year.
Meanwhile, two family-owned olive farm conglomerates, Bell-Carter Foods and Musco Family Olive, are asking the Commerce Department to combat Spanish olive maqui berry farmers which they say are propped up by a more sophisticated system of farm subsidies there.
A coalition of U.S. biodiesel manufacturers claims rivals in Indonesia and Argentina can sell their product within the U . s . States at unfairly affordable prices. It states the Argentine government is also giving regulations and tax breaks to exporters to unfairly subsidizing the.
Two companies requesting blanket “safeguard” protection — Georgia-based Suniva and Or-based SolarWorld USA — are solar power manufacturers which make pv cells, the small chips that convert solar power into functional power.
In the last couple of years, they’re saying a ton of less-costly aspects of Chinese solar manufacturers have place them in a disadvantage the 2 firms have since declared personal bankruptcy and also have let go thousands.
Their claim, however, doesn’t have the backing of others within their industry: the trade group Solar Power Industries Association opposes the tariff, so it argues may cause 88,000 jobs to become lost elsewhere in the market. The Worldwide Trade Commission ruled in SolarWorld’s and Suniva’s favor in October, however the two companies stated the responsibilities it suggested are extremely small.
Others seeking tariffs aren’t suffering as badly. The 3rd company requesting broader safeguard protection — Chicago-based appliances for the home giant Whirlpool — logged $5.4 billion in sales this season.
But Whirlpool’s income happen to be dwindling for a long time, partly since it claims it’s losing share of the market inside a key product category — automatic washers — to Korean manufacturers LG and Samsung. Whirlpool argues they’ve been dumping automatic washers within the U . s . States for a long time and moving their production centers all over the world to prevent earlier tariffs.
In quarrelling against tariffs, the foreign companies have noticed that additionally they employ Americans.
“No you ought to doubt our dedication to creating jobs within the U.S. We’ve been marketing our products for nearly 4 decades and also have greater than 18,000 workers,” Samsung senior v . p . John Herrington stated inside a statement rebutting Whirlpool’s tariff request. “We understand what this means to become a united states manufacturer, we are a united states manufacturer, and we’re inside it for that lengthy run.”
Some of the companies requesting import protection are really under foreign possession. They range from the U.S. subsidiary of Nan Ya Plastics. The Taiwanese plastics manufacturer is requesting new limitations on Korean and Taiwanese polyester products included in a lengthy-running trade dispute.
A U.K.-based metals conglomerate known as Ferroglobe has requested for U.S. limitations on plastic metal from Australia, South america and Norwegian. It’s waging a parallel trade war in Canada, where it’s requesting new limitations on plastic imports from four countries.
DAK Americas, the New York-based subsidiary of 1 of Mexico’s largest textile firms, is teaming track of Indorama Ventures USA, the U.S. arm of the Indian firm. They’re requesting limitations on textile products from South america, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan.
The complex worldwide connections of individuals requesting tariffs — and also the frequently strong U.S. existence of the businesses they’re targeting — illustrates an issue for import responsibilities: Foreign firms that end up slapped with tariffs can occasionally prevent them by moving production to some third country, or perhaps to the U . s . States.
“Tariffs don’t work . . . should you use a tariff they are able to still move so good through another country,” Craig Zekelman, leader of Illinois-based steel pipe manufacturer Zekelman Industries, told the cable funnel CNBC the 2009 summer time.
Zekelman is teaming track of four other steel firms — ArcelorMittal, PTC Alliance, Webco Industries and Michigan Seamless Tube — to require a broader system of quotas that will set fixed minimum prices for foreign firms.
Steel the likes of Zekelman — which take into account about 50 % from the new demands in 2017 — had a tease of broader-reaching action when at the start of Trump’s term the White-colored House announced it’s investigating whether or not to label foreign-made steel and aluminum a nationwide security risk, something which would impose harsh limitations on foreign steel imports.
That effort, though, continues to be stalled in excess of six several weeks. Inside a This summer 25 interview using the Wall Street Journal, Trump stated any pursuit on niche metals is “waiting till we obtain everything appeared between healthcare and taxes and even perhaps infrastructure.”
After that time November. 28 the Commerce Department required the highly improbable step of getting a tariff situation by itself, requesting tariffs above 57 percent on aluminum sheet metal from China. Officials was adamant your time and effort was outside of the sooner niche metals analysis.
Inside a shift from past years, some companies getting cases are faring relatively well against their rivals.
Boeing is among the largest U.S. exporters, a business that maintains healthy income selling commercial jets to airlines and advanced weaponry towards the U.S. military.
None of this stopped the Chicago-based aerospace manufacturer from claiming within an April 27 complaint that it’s been unlawfully injured by Canadian jet-maker Bombardier’s 2016 cope with Fuel Prices for 75 CS100 jetliners, requesting tariffs on 100- to 150-seat jets from Canada, a category by which Boeing doesn’t compete.
Boeing’s lawyers might be emboldened with a 2015 trade law that managed to get simpler for lucrative corporations to win U.S. trade disputes. The Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 bars the Worldwide Trade Commission from turning lower trade cases purely because the petitioning clients are lucrative.
The Commerce Department surprised the aerospace industry in September if this ruled in Boeing’s favor, proposing an enormous 300 percent import duty that will make U.S. sales untenable for Bombardier.
But Bombardier might have already found a method to steer clear of the new fee. The organization lately decided to sell the legal rights towards the CS100 to Airbus, a French manufacturer that’s Boeing’s primary competitor available jet market. And also the announcement included a twist: Future manufacture of the C-series aircraft could be shifted from Canada to Alabama, where Airbus already operates a production facility.
“It’s not meant to circumvent anything, but the truth is whenever you provide an aircraft within the U.S. it isn’t susceptible to any U.S. import tariff rules,” Bombardier president Alain Bellemare stated in October.
MUMBAI, India — Americans shopping on Amazon . com.com this holidays might find the best prices for popular gifts like leather footwear and luxury bedding are originating from an unpredicted source: Indian retailers.
Amazon . com, always looking for methods to affordable prices, continues to be strongly recruiting Indian vendors to market their items on the e-commerce giant’s American site. A minimum of 27,000 Indian sellers have registered since Amazon . com started the outreach 2 yrs ago. They vary from giants like Reliance Industries, a conglomerate that hawks its Titan watch line on the website, to smaller sized firms such as the Boho Street, a peddler of vegan tapestries, incense and handcrafted copper mugs.
It makes sense affordable prices for consumers because selling foreign goods with the e-commerce giant reduces a few of the usual costs of the traditional importer. But it’s also advantageous to Amazon . com, which will get to increase its enormous product selection and charge sellers hefty charges.
For Indian retailers like Abhishek Middha, founding father of The Boho Street, Amazon . com provides almost turnkey accessibility American market.
“Amazon handles all things in the U.S., from shipping to customer handling, therefore we can concentrate on making the highest quality products and adding more products to the catalog,” he stated.
Although Mr. Middha accustomed to sell on other marketplaces like Etsy, he switched almost entirely to Amazon . com 2 yrs ago due to its vast scale and suite of services. This past year, his sales on Cyber Monday spiked to four occasions the typical level, assisting to propel his annual revenue to $1.9 million. On Black Friday this season, his sales tripled in contrast to the day before.
“Amazon trained us how to produce a brand,” he stated.
The development of Amazon’s Indian global seller program shows how sophisticated the San antonio retailer’s strategy is becoming. The organization operates India’s second-largest e-commerce site, Amazon . com.in, which suits the country’s growing base of internet consumers. But Amazon . com also sees India as an origin of cheap and-quality products that may be offered on its American site, particularly in crucial groups like apparel, to assist it take share of the market from competitors like Walmart.
Abhijit Kamra, who heads Amazon’s global selling enter in India, stated that Americans already buy many items that come in India, for example cotton towels.
“What we are attempting to do is compress the worldwide logistics and produce sellers and customers closer,” he stated inside a phone interview. A few of the 17 million Indian products around the primary Amazon . com.com site, for example saris, have a tendency to attract customers of Indian heritage. But other groups, like jewellery and health products, have wider appeal, Mr. Kamra stated.
Amazon . com has listed a lot of its Indian products on the special page, Amazon . com.com/India, to assist customers within the U . s . States locate them. For that holiday selling season that began with Black Friday, the organization spent several weeks helping sellers prepare by stockpiling goods within the U . s . States and programming special “lightning deals” to create shopper interest. In some instances, the organization even given sellers money for inventory.
The India program is very lucrative for Amazon’s main point here. A merchant who chooses the entire variety of Amazon . com services, including buying advertising and contracting with the organization to keep and provide the products from Amazon’s American warehouses, typically hands over about one-third from the item’s purchase cost in charges and commissions.
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These third-party sellers are very important to Amazon’s business, stated Aaron Cheris, mind from the Americas retail practice at Bain, a worldwide management talking to firm. “They earn more money on their own third-party stuff than you are on the stuff they offer themselves,” he stated inside a phone interview. Amazon . com states which more than 1 / 2 of the units offered on its shopping sites originate from such outdoors sellers.
To draw in customers on the crowded site like Amazon . com.com, consider using a distinct segment. For Krishna Murari, the founding father of Rajlinen, that niche is luxury cotton bedsheets for that odd-size beds in motorhomes.
“I haven’t seen an R.V.,” stated Mr. Murari, an old electronics engineer. But he discovered the niche sheets from your American company that sells custom mattresses, after which studied pictures of camper mattresses. Now his factory in Indore, in central India, sells greater than 10,000 R.V. bed sets each year within the U . s . States, most of them custom stitched.
Mr. Murari stated buyers haven’t much curiosity about camper sheets until June or This summer, so for that holidays, he’s concentrating on high thread-count percale sheets for normal beds. Mr. Murari frequently imitates designs offered by big American retailers, but attempted to undercut them on cost, selling his versions for around $30 a collection, just below Target’s prices and under 1 / 2 of Bed Bath & Beyond’s prices for similar products.
At the beginning of the vacation shopping season, Rajlinen had about 42,000 sheets relaxing in Amazon . com warehouses over the U . s . States, awaiting orders in the future in. Mr. Murari stated his profit was low and that he didn’t plan to offer big discounts over the past weekend or on Cyber Monday, unlike many American retailers. His primary goal was to usher in enough revenue to help keep his 115 workers employed.
While Amazon . com.com has sellers hailing from many countries, Mr. Cheris stated that China and india are two of the most important places for Amazon . com to recruit new retailers, since both nations are causes of cheap product which.
Unlike China, where local companies dominate e-commerce, India is another huge domestic marketplace for Amazon . com. Although the majority of India’s commerce is carried out offline, Indians are coming online in a rapid clip through their smartphones. Amazon’s leader, Shaun Bezos, views India and it is 1.3 billion residents as essential to his company’s future, and that he has vowed to invest a minimum of $5 billion accumulating his India operations.
Flipkart, the very best e-commerce site in India by volume, has pressed the central government to pass through policies to safeguard local internet companies from unfair competition by foreign companies prepared to lose a lot of money. Your clients’ needs Indian exports, a high priority of Pm Narendra Modi, Amazon . com is positioning itself like a good corporate citizen.
The Indian retailers selling on Amazon . com.com find their local site, Amazon . com.in, to become a less appealing marketplace. Having a per-capita earnings of $1,600 annually, most Indians are reluctant to pay for anything near to the prices that sellers can command within the U . s . States.
Raja Rajan, mind of Boston Creative Company in Coimbatore in south India, has been doing well selling $13 engraved spoons and $60 folded book art on Amazon . com.com. He lately started selling the spoons on Amazon’s Indian site, too. Within the first six days, Mr. Rajan stated inside a phone interview, he was without even one purchase.
Possibly which was because Indians understand how cheap such spoons will be to produce. Mr. Rajan stated his profit is all about $8 a spoon — wealthy enough to permit him to slash prices on Black Friday and Cyber Monday and find out what goes on.
“We are likely to cut the cost in two,Inches he stated. “I would like to check it out.Inches
A Canadian mining company has lost its bid to bar a suit accusing it of human legal rights abuses against miners in Eritrea following a ruling by an appeals court in Bc.
The choice, against Nevsun Sources, makes way for any groundbreaking legal challenge that links the Vancouver company to allegations of contemporary slavery.
The situation, launched in 2014 by three refugees who alleged these were made to work on Bisha mine and suffered harsh conditions and physical punishment, is among merely a handful by which foreign claimants happen to be granted use of Canadian courts to pursue firms located in the country over alleged human legal rights abuses abroad.
Filed in Canada, the suit was fond of Canada’s Nevsun, which owns a controlling curiosity about the gold, copper and zinc mine via a chain of subsidiary corporations.
court within the province of Bc ruled that could be heard within the Canadian legislation.
Nevsun appealed the 2016 ruling, quarrelling that any suit ought to be heard in Eritrea. On Tuesday, however, the Bc court of appeal ignored their challenge, noting the chance of corruption and unfairness within the Eritrean legislation.
Joe Fiorante of Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman, charge counsel for that plaintiffs, stated: “There will be considered a reckoning inside a Canadian court by which Nevsun will need to response to the allegations it had become complicit in forced work and grave human legal rights abuses in the Bisha mine.”
In affidavits filed to the court, the plaintiffs – all whom have since left Eritrea – alleged that as conscripts within the country’s national service system, these were forced to get results for government-owned construction firms subcontracted to construct the mine. They claimed the circumstances were inhuman and work was transported out underneath the constant threat of physical punishment, torture and jail time.
A truck involves ferry excavated gold, copper and zinc ore in the primary mining pit in the Bisha Mining Share Company in Eritrea. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
Since Nevsun owns 60% from the Bisha Mining Share Company, which operates and owns the mine (another 40% is a member of the Eritrean government), the plaintiffs claim the Canadian company should have known the reported abuses, but unsuccessful to avoid or stop them.
No allegations have been verified in the court.
Within their decision, the Bc appeals court idol judges referenced a 2016 United nations inquiry into human legal rights in Eritrea, which found the federal government had committed crimes against humanity inside a prevalent and systematic manner. The report noted that officials within the one-party condition had enslaved as much as 400,000 people, with lots of describing the way the country’s system of lifelong military service comes down to modern-day slavery.
This technique is in the centre from the situation against Nevsun, stated Fiorante. “Our situation alleges that individuals which were conscripted into that system were made to operate in service of creating a Canadian-owned gold mine in Bisha, Eritrea,” he stated.
Fiorante added that about 60 individuals have to date come forward concentrating on the same claims of having to work on the mine.
Nevsun has denied the allegations within the suit. While the organization declined to discuss the most recent ruling because the matter is prior to the court, a Nevsun spokesperson known a 2015 human legal rights audit from the Bisha mine, noting that contractual commitments strictly stop using national service employees by Bisha’s contractors and subcontractors.
This past year the Protector spoken with multiple people who alleged they were made to work on the mine, earning less than $ 1 each day. The job was transported out among terrible conditions along with a climate of fear and violence, they claimed.
“The mine was as an open prison,” stated one former security officer, speaking on condition of anonymity to safeguard family still in Eritrea. “They may take you and also do what they need along with you. I had been of them. I was like objects for that government as well as for foreign companies related to us the things they wanted.”
The governments of 30 countries around the world are utilizing military of so known as opinion shapers to meddle in elections, advance anti-democratic agendas and repress their citizens, a brand new report shows.
Unlike broadly reported Russian tries to influence foreign elections, the majority of the offending countries search on the internet to control opinion domestically, states US NGO Freedom House.
“Manipulation and disinformation tactics performed a huge role in elections in a minimum of 17 other nations in the last year, damaging citizens’ capability to choose their leaders according to factual news and authentic debate,” the federal government-funded charitable organization stated. “Although some governments searched for to aid their interests and expand their influence abroad, just like Russia’s disinformation campaigns within the U . s . States and Europe, generally they used these techniques in their own borders to keep their hang on power.”
Even just in individuals countries that didn’t have elections within the this past year, social networking manipulation was still being frequent. From the 65 countries surveyed, 30, including Venezuela, the Philippines and Poultry, were discovered to be using “armies of opinion shapers” to “spread government views, drive particular agendas, and counter government critics on social media”, based on Freedom House’s new Freedom around the Internet report. In each one of the 30 countries it found “strong indications that folks are compensated to distort digital information landscape within the government’s favour, without acknowledging sponsorship”.
Time has risen each year because the first report in ’09. In 2016, just 23 countries were discovered to be utilizing the same kind of pro-government “astroturfing” (an imitation grassroots movement). Lately “the practice is becoming considerably more prevalent and technically sophisticated, with bots, propaganda producers, and pretend news outlets exploiting social networking and check algorithms to make sure high visibility and seamless integration with reliable content,” the report states.
“The results of these quickly distributing techniques on democracy and social activism are potentially devastating … By bolstering the false perception that many citizens stand together, government bodies can justify crackdowns around the political opposition and advance anti-democratic changes to laws and regulations and institutions with no proper debate.”
The report describes the assorted forms this manipulation takes. Within the Philippines, it’s manifested like a “keyboard army” compensated $10 each day to function fake social networking accounts, which supported Rodrigo Duterte within the run-as much as his election this past year, and backed his attack around the drug trade this season. Turkey’s ruling party enlisted 6,000 individuals to manipulate discussions, drive agendas and counter opponents. The federal government of Sudan’s approach is much more direct: one inside the country’s intelligence service produced fake accounts to produce support for government policies and denounce critical journalists.
“Governments are actually using social networking to suppress dissent and advance an anti-democratic agenda,” stated Sanja Kelly, director from the Freedom around the Internet project. “Not only is that this manipulation hard to identify, it’s harder to combat kinds of censorship, for example website blocking, because it’s spread and due to the sheer number of individuals and bots deployed to get it done.Inches
“The fabrication of grassroots support for government policies on social networking results in a closed loop where the regime basically endorses itself, departing independent groups and ordinary citizens around the outdoors,” Kelly stated.
Facebook is testing whether people prefer “personal and public content” being separated included in its test that hid all non-compensated posts, stated their mind of reports feed, Adam Mosseri.
Speaking following a Protector report revealed the unconventional change, forced on six small international locations, Mosseri stated Facebook “currently” doesn’t have intends to roll the experiment out further. But he didn’t address set up test would become general policy worldwide when the results reveal that Facebook users do like the news-free news feed.
The exam, which relegated all printed content in six different countries towards the “explore feed”, a brand new Facebook feature moving out worldwide, were built with a devastating impact on engagement for newspaper organisations in individuals countries, including Slovakia, Guatemala and Bolivia.
In Slovakia a wide range of the 60 largest Facebook pages saw a loss of engagement which is between two-thirds and 75 %. Local journalists in Guatemala expressed concern in the “catastrophic” change, reporting the new feed mixed the work they do along with “preposterous” sites, enabling multiplication of propaganda having a potentially pernicious impact on democracy in general.
Dina Fernandez, a journalist with Guatemalan site Soy502, stated that she’s “very very worried” through the change, “not only since it has decimated our figures but additionally since the feed appears with crazy sites”.
“The danger for that spread of propaganda and also the political instrumentalisation of social networking, specifically in countries with fragile democracies like ours, is acute,” she stated.
In the statement, Facebook’s Mosseri stated: “We always pay attention to our community about ways we may improve news feed. People inform us they need an simpler method to see posts from buddies and family. We’re testing getting one dedicated space for individuals to maintain their buddies and family, and the other separate space, known as explore, with posts from pages.
“The objective of this test would be to understand if people choose to have separate places for private and public content,” Mosseri added. “We will hear what individuals say concerning the experience to know if it is a concept worth going after any more. There’s no current intend to roll this out beyond these test countries in order to charge pages on Facebook to cover all of their distribution in news feed or explore. Regrettably, some have mistakenly made that interpretation — however that wasn’t our intention.”
A few of the confusion comes from the truth that Facebook produced a really different form of the explore feed throughout the planet. Outdoors from the six affected countries, that also includes Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Serbia, the explore feed is made to introduce Facebook users to pages they don’t already follow.
Within the test subjects, the explore feed still shows posts from pages unknown towards the user – which could include low-quality meme groups, in addition to very skewed or untrustworthy news sites – however it mixes in posts from individuals sites the customer has really selected to determine.
Despite Mosseri’s declare that the exam is to find out if users should you prefer a separation between personal and public posts, there’s one of the ways publishers are able to place their content back in the news feed: by having to pay to do this. Promoted posts still come in the actual news feed, because they also have done.
While media organisations reacted with concern towards the news from the test, some Facebook users weren’t quite as upset. “I type of miss the Facebook which was JUST my buddies on my small feed,” stated one.
Britain’s valuable position like a major development and research center might be put in danger when the Government slams the brakes on immigration, a PwC study of major investors finds.
Big worldwide companies depend on open borders to employ researchers from around the globe – and to stock United kingdom universities using the brightest minds.
Britain’s open position helps it attract almost $20bn (£15bn) of “imported corporate R&D” spending each year from global companies. This will make up greater than 80pc of corporate R&D in the united states.
But when it might be tougher to obtain top groups of analysts over the border, then a lot of that may be in danger.
“To deliver innovation, a lot of world’s largest companies depend on shifting talent, money, and concepts across borders. If policies within the major global economic forces begin to focus more inwardly, however, this could cast uncertainty over companies’ innovation plans as well as their current models will have to evolve,” stated PwC’s John Potter.
“Uncertainty only serves to slow innovation. Considering that R&D activities ultimately assistance to produce the jobs, growth and insightful our communities, we have to ensure clearness over policy to help keep innovation centres all over the world working effectively.”
The USA, that has probably the most foreign business-funded R&D, is easily the most vulnerable to “economic nationalism”, based on the study from the greatest 1,000 listed companies on the planet along with a survey of 562 R&D executives.
Britain may be the next most in danger, while China may be the third-most susceptible, the research found.
“With the Brexit negotiations arrived, it’s still not obvious just how much the pending withdrawal in the Eu will hinder the recruiting ability of British companies and universities,” the report stated, noting that sectors for example engineering have lengthy cautioned of lack of skilled workers.
“British college officials have cautioned that applications from EU students is going to be lower in 2017, after getting risen continuously in the past years.”
This is another serious risk towards the condition of innovation within the wider continent, as Britain is really a leader within this work – and there’s no guarantee any fall in spending within the United kingdom would proceed to neighbouring countries.
“Weaker R&D programs within the United kingdom could in addition have a ripple effect over the region,” the report stated.
“Although the finish consequence of Brexit within the United kingdom is unclear, the ecu executive quoted above expressed concern when the United kingdom gets to be more isolated, ‘the economic power and talent from the United kingdom might deteriorate, and Europe in general – not always the EU – will become less strong in contrast to Asia and also the Americas.’”
From 2007 to 2015, Europe fell lower the rankings when it comes to attracting global R&D investment, shedding in the top continent towards the third-most widely used.
However you will find signs this risk might not materialise.
Theresa May stated Brexit negotiations are within “touching distance” of reaching an offer around the legal rights of EU citizens presently within the United kingdom, and British citizens in other EU countries.
May ‘ambitious and positive’ following Brexit talks at EU Summit00:21
In the situation of america, the report discovered that immigrants are particularly focused in high-tech and innovative jobs – migrants constitute 16.9pc from the whole workforce but 32pc of workers in computing and maths jobs and 24pc of individuals in science and engineering, the report stated.
Most postgraduate students during these areas will also be from overseas.
Policies to slash immigration could put this in danger and applications from foreign students to universities are falling.
“Other countries have taken care of immediately such developments within the US by courting worldwide students for his or her own universities, publicising their more welcoming and transparent immigration policies,” the report stated.
“Both Canada and Australia have revamped their policies for worldwide students, offering streamlined application processes, simpler visa and work-study rules, and much more certain pathways to citizenship for college students who wish to remain after graduation.”
European aircraft giant Airbus takes a big part stake in Bombardier’s questionable C-Series jet programme, potentially safeguarding 1,000 jobs in Belfast.
In France They-based plane maker is obtaining 50.1% from the programme, the way forward for that was left doubtful after Canadian company Bombardier was hit with a 300% import levy through the U . s . States. The large tariff adopted a complaint from Boeing that the organization had dumped its C-Series jets at “absurdly low” prices.
Unite, britain’s largest union, welcomed the brand new partnership and stated the output of wings for that C-Series would stay in Belfast where 1,000 individuals are employed around the programme.
“We have obtained assurances that this means that employment connected using the output of C-Series wings will stay in Belfast,” stated Davy Thompson, regional officer of Unite.
“Unite continues our efforts to guarantee the withdrawal of america tariffs around the C-Series but this can be a welcome development Body that provides ‘breathing space’ towards the C-Series itself and which we anticipate should safeguard the way forward for C Series production jobs in Belfast for that near future.Inches
In an indication of the level from the challenges facing Bombardier, Airbus didn’t pay anything for most stake. The Ecu aircraft manufacturer uses its global firepower and offer chain to supply procurement, marketing and advertising, and customer care towards the jet programme.
The company secretary, Greg Clark, stated their bond was “a huge step forward”.
“Not has only Airbus dedicated to Belfast being the house of the wing manufacturer for that C-series, but they’re pointing to the potential of expanding the output and also the order book,” he stated.
The offer leaves Bombardier about 31% from the C-Series programme, while financier Investissement Québec will own about 19%.
Boeing complained to all of us government bodies in April that aid received by Bombardier in the Canadian and United kingdom governments amounted to illegal subsidies, letting it sell its C-Series jets towards the US air travel Delta for below cost cost. Delta has placed a $5.6bn (£4.2bn) order for approximately 125 from the new jets, with delivery because of begin the coming year.
Northern Ireland not employed around the jet project.
“While we welcome this announcement regarding the C Series, you will find ongoing challenges connected with employment on other Bombardier contracts in Belfast,” stated Unite’s Thompson. “We is going to be engaging with management and our membership to guard all workers’ interests within the coming period.”
The suggested tariffs have put huge pressure on Bombardier, departing workers in Northern Ireland fearful for his or her jobs. Both United kingdom and Canadian governments have formerly threatened hitting back at Boeing by denying the organization defence work.
Airbus’s leader, Tom Enders, stated inside a statement: “This is really a win-win for everyone. The C Series, using its condition-of-the-art design and great financial aspects, is a superb match our existing single-aisle aircraft family and quickly extends our product offering right into a fast growing market sector.
“I probably have our partnership with Bombardier will boost sales and the need for this programme tremendously. It will not only partnership secure the C Series and it is industrial operations in Canada, the United kingdom and China, but we bring new jobs towards the US. Airbus may benefit from strengthening its product portfolio within the high-volume single-aisle market, offering superior value to the air travel customers worldwide.”
Quebec and Canada,” he stated. “This partnership should greater than double the need for the C Series programme and ensures our outstanding game-altering aircraft realises its full potential.”
The move seemed to be welcomed by Dominique Anglade, Quebec’s deputy pm, who stated: “The arrival of Airbus like a proper partner today will make sure the sustainability and development of the C Series programme, in addition to consolidating the whole Quebec aerospace cluster.”
President Trump has known as its northern border American Free Trade Agreement “the worst deal ever,” only one factor might really be worse: no deal whatsoever.
The 4th round of negotiations to revise the agreement concludes March. 17, however, many people near to the talks have expressed doubts that they’ll succeed.
If NAFTA crumbles, trade among Mexico, Canada and also the U . s . States would come under World Trade Organization rules with modest average tariff rates as well as an established, if unwieldy, process for resolving disputes.
However the tariff rates, although relatively low, could be greater on U.S. exports than you are on U.S. imports. Many trade professionals state that would hurt U.S. exporters of all things from corn to auto parts which the U . s . States could finish track of less jobs while having to pay greater prices for goods of computer does.
Meanwhile, Canada and Mexico could select from free-trade contracts they’ve forged with Europe lately, supplying zero tariffs.
President Trump stated March. 11 he and Canadian President Justin Trudeau would discuss potential changes towards the United States Free Trade Agreement. (The Washington Publish)
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told a Mexican Senate committee now the finish from the United States Free Trade Agreement “won’t function as the finish around the globe.Inches
And somewhat Videgaray is appropriate. The field of global trade has far less walls and hurdles of computer did 23 years back, when NAFTA entered effect.
[Trump Twitter bombs along with a negotiating standoff: How NAFTA talks could fail ]
Nevertheless, even small tariff variations might have substantial effects, many trade experts say, and may upend established supply chains.
“If NAFTA ends, the tariffs the U . s . States imposes on imports from Mexico would revert (from presently zero) for their WTO levels. For that U . s . States, these tariffs average 3.5 percent” across all goods, Chad Bown, a senior fellow in the Peterson Institute for Worldwide Financial aspects, stated within an email.
“Mexico’s WTO tariffs really are a bit greater — typically 7.1 %,Inches he authored. “So U.S. exporters would move from facing zero tariffs presently for his or her sales towards the Mexican market under NAFTA to 7.1 % typically without NAFTA.”
For automobiles, the space could add 100’s of dollars towards the cost of the vehicle. Or carmakers in Mexico might drop U.S. suppliers susceptible to WTO rates to check out European auto parts manufacturers, who will not have to pay for any tariff under their free-trade pact.
NAFTA’s rules of origin for automobiles would also disappear. Individuals rules specified for to avoid countries outdoors The United States by using the agreement like a mystery in to the U.S. market. Under NAFTA, 62.five percent of the need for an imported vehicle must originate in Canada, Mexico or even the U . s . States for your vehicle to obtain duty-free accessibility region.
Without NAFTA, supply chains could reorient themselves. Cars offered within the U . s . States might contain more foreign parts, and Mexican cars offered to Europe or South America would use less U.S. components.
“U.S. producers would face less market access in Mexico without NAFTA than Mexico would face within the U . s . States,” stated Caroline Freund, a senior fellow in the Peterson Institute for Worldwide Financial aspects and former economist in the World Bank.
Eliminating NAFTA may also hurt the agriculture industry, that is strong in the usa Trump transported in the presidential campaign. Since NAFTA was enacted, U.S. food and farming exports to Canada and Mexico convey more than quadrupled, to $38 billion in 2016, based on the Fresh Produce Association from the Americas. And Mexican farming exports have provided consumers year-round use of vegetables and fruit that were available only during certain seasons.
A collapse of NAFTA may also boomerang on a few of the accord’s harshest critics, especially labor and ecological groups that are looking to toughen up the things they see as ineffective side contracts towards the original agreement. Without NAFTA, however, individuals contracts would simply vanish.
Leo Gerard, president from the U . s . Steelworkers union, states NAFTA was offered towards the American public with “a bag filled with lies.” He states it’s done little to create good wages to Mexico and it has therefore siphoned jobs to Mexico from the U . s . States and Canada. He singles out auto factory jobs half his people make auto parts.
But Gerard isn’t prepared to simply shred the NAFTA agreement. He really wants to repair it with enforceable labor standards and wages.
“If you simply rip up, it’s worse,” he stated. “If you bail using this, you’re going to need to have new rules.”
[What you ought to learn about NAFTA as the story goes via a quarter-existence crisis]
Mexico, however, wouldn’t escape damage from the collapse of NAFTA. NAFTA helps generate confidence in most three nations, that has been especially useful in attracting investment to Mexico. A collapse from the accord could choke off a number of that investment.
Furthermore, the WTO tariff figures are averages as well as in some areas — particularly in agriculture, athletic shoes and textiles — the U . s . States could impose much greater responsibilities. It might impose a 25 % tariff on pickups, 48 percent on sports athletic shoes, and between 5 and 20 % for textiles, Freund stated.
Despite the disposable-trade contracts Mexico has with Europe yet others, it will likely be hard- pressed to divert goods in the U . s . States, where Mexico transmits 80 % of their exports.
Ultimately, the collapse of NAFTA may help Mexico sell individuals goods. The finish from the agreement most likely would undermine confidence in Mexico’s currency, the peso, that has declined nearly 6.five percent in the last month among squabbling over trade. That may further lower costs of producing in Mexico, which makes it even tougher for the U . s . States to contend with its southern neighbor.
The outcome a NAFTA collapse might have on U.S.-Canada trade is less obvious. Before NAFTA, the 2 nations were built with a bilateral free-trade agreement that may return into pressure after NAFTA. If that’s the case, each country might have zero tariffs alternatively. In the event that agreement weren’t introduced back to effect, then Canada could impose a typical tariff of four.2 percent on U.S. goods underneath the WTO rules.


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CS Foods Has Expanded
I am sure that most of us living in Puerto Peñasco have at one time or the other been in CS Foods across from Numeros. It was small and crowded and as Michelle Hopkins, the owner, said “clients came in, got what they needed and left” as it was so cramped. Not any more, they took over the video store that was next door and now you just want to wonder around looking at everything they have. The freezers will be labeled so you no longer need to open every one of them.
We recently stopped by CS Foods on the corner of Juan De LA Barreda and Blvd Kino, across from Numero’s to check out their expansion. If you haven’t gone in yet… it is a must. Looks like a gourmet store with more specialty items. They really needed more room and this is just perfect. As Michelle and Carlos the owners said, “We didn’t know what all we had until we moved”. Now things are on display and there is everything from those hard to find items to chef’s jackets and shirts, commercial pots and pans and more.
Michelle and Carlos moved here 10 years ago from Nogales. Her father started the business 35 years ago and now their trucks deliver to over 36 cities in 9 states and as far south as Mexico City. When in high school, on vacations and Saturdays, Michelle use to work with him, so that is how she got into the business.
CS currently has 7 stores with the Puerto Peñasco location being more like a gourmet store while the others are more warehouse style. Puerto Peñasco has become the first model of the chain. Other cities that have stores are Hermosillo, Juarez, Guadalajara, La Paz, etc. Franchisees are taught systems, inventory control, about importing and how to run a business. CS is a supplier to such chains as IHOP, Peter Piper Pizza, Applebee’s and Hooters in Mexico.
It is so great to a have store that carries a vast array of those had to find items as well as staples. To help the American community for our holidays, they special order turkeys for Thanksgiving, hams at Easter and carry all of our favorite pies. They carry a lot of seasonings as well as frozen racks of ribs, salmon, chicken breasts, butter, heavy cream, nuts, eggs, condiments, Italian sausage, bacon, sliced beef, pizza sausage, Blue Cheese and Gorgonzola, lobster (on occasion), dinner rolls and breads just to name a few of the items. Unlike the big box stores, one really nice thing is they make small containers of like Chia seeds, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips and nuts. They even have small portions of specialty cheeses.
If you have not gone to CS lately go over and say hello. They are open 8-5 Monday – Friday, open Saturday until 3. If you need something special, definitely don’t be afraid to ask. If they can get it, they will certainly try. They are taking orders for Turkeys now so don’t wait. We got ours from them last year and it was a wonderful Butterball.
So nice not to have to haul stuff from the USA anymore. Thanks Michelle and Carlos and many good wishes.


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Chinese car maker Changan has set up a R&D centre in Nottingham as it prepares to expand into Europe and America.
Changan is the second largest Chinese car maker, with the capacity to produce 2.5 million cars a year. It turns over around £6 billion a year, and its 2010 sales are up 30 per cent year-on-year.
Company officials have previously stated a desire to become a top ten global car manufacturer, but have not set a timeline for achieving this.
Mr XU Liuping, Chairman of the Board for Changan Automobile, said: “Setting up our own R&D centres overseas, including in the UK, is a vital stepping stone for Changan Automobile to utilise global resources and to enter the league of the world-leading car makers.”
The move, which was brokered by the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA), will create up to 200 new jobs over the next three years.
According to EMDA, Changan was attracted by the UK's expertise in powertrains, transmissions, chassis and new energy technologies, and it is in these areas the R&D centre will focus.
Changan already has R&D centres in Beijing, Harbin, Jiangxi, Shanghai and Chongqing as well as two design centres, one in Turin, Italy, which was opened in 2005 and another in Yokohama, Japan, in 2008.
Changan has partnerships in China with Ford, Volvo and PSA Peugeot Citroen.


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Sony posted a press release in Europe today that mentions a hot new digital video camera that burns directly to DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW.
Sony posted a press release in Europe today that mentions a hot new digital
video camera that burns
to DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW.
The video camera, named the DCR-DVD7E, features an unusual round body design
that provides room for the DVD-R inside, the lens and little else. The unit
reportedly features a 10x optical zoom, a 2.5 in. LCD screen and weighs some 360
The release said the Sony DCR-DVD7E would be available in May, but it didn't
say how much it would cost.
The Business of Going DigitalDigital business isn't about changing code; it's about changing what legacy sales, distribution, customer service, and product groups do in the new digital age. It's about bringing big data analytics, mobile, social, marketing automation, cloud computing, and the app economy together to launch new products and services. We're seeing new titles in this digital revolution, new responsibilities, new business models, and major shifts in technology spending.
What The Business Really Thinks Of IT: 3 Hard TruthsThey say perception is reality. If so, many in-house IT departments have reason to worry. InformationWeek's IT Perception Survey seeks to quantify how IT thinks it's doing versus how the business views IT's performance in delivering services - and, more important, powering innovation. The news isn't great.


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FIFA 18 launched last week with critical acclaim and now EA Sports has revealed that they recorded 1.6 million FIFA 18 concurrent players last weekend. This is a huge milestone for a sports game that launched just last week.
The news comes from official EA Sports Twitter account which revealed that the studio recorded 1.6 million FIFA 18 concurrent players during the weekend. However, which platforms hold how much players were not revealed but, if we have to guess then PS4 might have the majority of players for FIFA 18.
In related news, the Switch version of FIFA 18 has encountered an unusual glitch that leaves the players faceless. The glitch appears occasionally but, still it annoys gamers. This FIFA 18 glitch causes players to have no faces which is quite disturbing for the Nintendo Switch users.
Also, EA Sports has expressed its frustrations over gamers comparing the Nintendo Switch version of the game with current-gen version. According to producer Andrei Lazarescu, he wouldn’t put Switch version against current-gen versions.
That’s the frustrating thing about it. I wouldn’t put this against the PS4 or Xbox One version, or vice versa, I would look at them as two individual football games. This one’s biggest advantage is that you can play it on the go.
However, this does make sense the Switch version of the game lacks some features that are present in PC and current-gen versions like the single-player campaign “The Journey” is not part of the Switch version of FIFA 18.
FIFA 18 is a soccer simulator sports title developed by EA Sports for PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.


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1165 København K
Tlf: 35 32 28 98 (mon-thurs)
Milk can prevent obesity, and may even help with weight-loss, according to new University of Copenhagen research
Milk has had a hard time in recent years. The preferred food of calves everywhere has been dubbed fattening (for humans), hard to digest and a trigger for allergies.
Now, University of Copenhagen research has shown that milk can actually help to prevent obesity. This is according to the Danish medical news site, Dagensmedicin.dk.
Researcher Janne Lonrenzen from the Faculty of Life Sciences has, in her PhD thesis, demonstrated a link between milk intake and the ability to eliminate fat from the body.
The calcium in dairy products reduces the increase of fat in the blood after high-fat meals, she says.
» Calcium from dairy products binds fatty acids, makes them less soluble and reduces absorption into the body. Thus, calcium affects the absorption of fat and may therefore help to prevent obesity« explains Janne Lorenzen in an interview with Dagens Medicin.
People on diets often choose to cut out dairy products entirely. However, the new study shows that this may be counterproductive.
According to Janne Lorenzen and her colleagues, a dietary increase of 1200 milligram of Calcium from milk each day could give a yearly weightloss of 2.2kg.
This may be a small decrease, but, for many dieters, every gram counts.
However, any slimmers out there who are reaching for the calcium tablets should note that the research has also shown that calcium from milk has a far greater effect than that from dietary supplements.
Janne Lorenzens project is financially supported by Danish dairies. They do not, however, have any influence on the form or results of the project, she says.


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The LightSquared drama continues with news that the company has failed to make an agreed payment to satellite provider Immarsat, and that some investors in the hedge fund that launched the venture were suing the fund. There are also indications that some vendors may be under pressure from the likely failure of the venture, NSN in particular. Read all the stuff on the topic and you’re left with the conclusion that this was booted from day one. Maybe, but not for the reasons being tossed around.
The coverage on this deal has vacillated between saying there’s a big political gorilla in the room to saying that the GPS interference angle was inevitable from day one and should have been recognized. The big question in my view is more one of margins. Here’s this industry (telecom) that’s been mired in commoditization pressure for a decade. Here’s a proposal to enter the market with technology that has a very long build-out cycle, and thus would hit the market even further along the downward spiral into marginal ROI. So what’s the business model? Wholesale, which divides up the minimal margins available even further. It’s like saying “I can make money selling dirt because I have a new way to produce it!”
There are some successes, at least for the moment, in the networking space. Brightcove’s IPO last week saw the stock rise by nearly a third, and it’s worth wondering whether the gain here is linked in some way to the “LightSquared mindset”. There’s a perception that anything having to do with broadband, especially broadband video, is going to be great simply because everyone “knows” that it’s going to be REALLY big in the next couple of years. The problem isn’t so much big-ness as profit, of course. The streaming model isn’t going to create indiscriminate winners any more than other tech models did, but it will generate hype among the non-discriminating. With Brightcove the value is the linkage to a TV Everywhere-like syndication of video rights. The business model for streaming media that shows the best chance for near-term success is the model that uses it to extend and not to replace standard linear-RF multi-channel TV.
One of the big questions now is whether this revolution in video attitude will create an opportunity for the telcos. TV Everywhere is a syndication approach, something that says that you can see a show because you’ve subscribed (implicitly or explicitly) to it. The delivery of the material is secondary to rights determination, meaning that you can invoke delivery if you can validate rights. Telcos and cable companies could easily expect to play in the syndication space, and cable companies like Comcast have in fact managed to create a framework for rights-mediated streaming and even offer it to partners. The telcos are a bit behind the curve here, it seems, and the next question will be whether they can catch up or whether the networks themselves will take over rights management, on their own or via a third party. In that case, someone wanting to stream something would come to the network for validation, possibly through the streaming provider (Hulu, Amazon, YouTube), and the operators could end up disintermediated again.
Why does this sound like groundhog day? Operators have been waving to the departing trains of opportunity for five years now, and the reason is that they have yet to make a success of their monetization plans. For the most part that’s because they’ve yet to make a success of a service-layer approach. The need for an architecture to create NGN services is nearly universal. The essential requirements for this architecture at the functional level are almost universally accepted. The lack of progress in this area is if not universal, at least widespread. I’m wondering what it’s going to take to fix the problem, and whether there’s any chance of getting it while the operators still have a chance to participate in NGN services.