Sunday, September 16, 2018
ADS SPACE
Chair Umpire Ramos Hands Cilic Warning for Slamming Racket
ZADAR, CROATIA —
Chair umpire Carlos Ramos has issued a code violation to Croatia after Marin Cilic slammed his racket to the clay and mangled the frame during a tense Davis Cup match against Sam Querrey of the United States.
Since it was the first violation of the match, it was only a warning. No points were deducted and Cilic did not exchange any words with Ramos.
Ramos was also the umpire who gave Serena Williams three code violations in her straight-set loss to Naomi Osaka during last weekend’s U.S. Open final. The American great argued she wasn’t being treated the same as some male players.
The normally collected Cilic lost his cool after committing a series of uncharacteristic errors late in the third set against Querrey.
After winning the opening set, Cilic wasted a 6-1 lead in the second-set tiebreak.
Querrey, who played in place of Steve Johnson, won the third set to take a two sets to one lead.
Croatia leads the best-of-five semifinal 2-1.
Croatia’s Borna Coric is due to face Frances Tiafoe in a potentially decisive fifth rubber.
After Math: Oh boy, new toys!
Seven feet of Christmas cheer: For $115, Amazon will be more than happy to deliver a Douglas Fir to your front door. Just be sure to tip the delivery driver if you live at the top of a four-flight walk-up.
$60: Want to “Switch” up your gaming experience? Now you can relive the nostalgia — and hand-cramping ergonomics — of the original NES controllers with the new generation of Nintendo console!
$1,100: The Xs Max only $300 more than last year’s flagship Apple phone. What’s the big deal? It’s not like you’re going to trade it in for an updated model exactly 11 months and three weeks from now.
10,000: Spotify finally, finally got around to loosening its chokehold on the number of songs its users can download for offline playback and did so in a big way this week. The company announced that it would effectively triple the cap, jumping from 3,333 songs up to a cool 10,000. Because who doesn’t love round numbers?
300 MBPS: If you want those Spotify downloads to finish up before New Years, Verizon has a solution. The company announced this week that come October 1st, it will roll out its 5G home internet bundle. The service will set you back $70 a month, though existing Verizon customers will receive a $20 discount.
$6: All these new toys and trees and connectivity are enough to make one forget to eat. Luckily for New Yorkers, Walmart is relaunching Jet.com and its three-hour fresh grocery deliveries. Never leave your house.
First!: But I mean if you were going to leave your house, being the first person to ride on SpaceX’s new “around the moon” orbital jaunt would be a pretty good reason to do so.
Trump Tariffs Put Missouri Senate Candidate Hawley in a Bind
JEFFERSON CITY, MO. —
The fate of a Missouri nail manufacturer suffering under President Donald Trump’s steel tariffs has put Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley in a bind between his support for the president’s trade strategy and a local plant that says it could be forced to close.
Mid Continent Nail Corporation says it could shutter its Poplar Bluff plant, which employs about 335 workers, as early as this month without an exemption to tariffs, the site’s Operations General Manager Chris Pratt told reporters in early September. The company previously had said that it might not survive through Labor Day but stayed open.
After Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on imported steel, the company in June cut 60 of 500 positions at the plant in rural Butler County, where the unemployment rate is above the national average and the company is the area’s second-largest employer. Pratt said many employees also have left because of the uncertainty, and the company is not replacing those workers.
“Right now we’re counting on Josh Hawley, who says he has a good relationship with President Trump, to save the 500 jobs in Poplar Bluff, Missouri,” Pratt said after Labor Day.
Trump imposed tariffs in March, saying a reliance on imported metals threatened national security. He initially exempted Canada, Mexico and the European Union to buy time for trade negotiations, but tariffs for those countries took effect in May after talks stalled.
Mid Continent is owned by Deacero, a private Mexican company, which supplies steel for the nails made in Missouri. Company spokeswoman Elizabeth Heaton said nails are sold throughout the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean and used for industrial pallets, crating for transportation and residential construction.
Hawley, the state attorney general, and Democratic incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill are sparring in one of the most closely-watched Senate races in the nation, with Republicans’ 51-49 majority at stake on November 6. Both candidates visited the plant after tariffs began and both say they’re fighting for Mid Continent, but the issue is more delicate for Hawley.
Missouri is one of several Senate races including North Dakota, Indiana and Montana, where Republican candidates are on the defensive as trading partners retaliate against agricultural and manufacturing products from the U.S. in response to Trump’s tariffs.
In Missouri, Hawley says he supports Trump’s goal of getting tough with trading partners to get better deals for the U.S. and urges patience to see results from the negotiations. The Trump administration recently said it reached a deal with Mexico to update the North American Free Trade Agreement and is now negotiating with Canada to finalize it.
In an August letter to Deacero, Hawley says the company makes a strong case for an exemption and urges the Department of Commerce to grant it quickly.
But an exemption is unlikely to be granted quickly. The federal government has been deluged with requests for exemptions, the process is slow and some U.S. steel producers have objected to Mid Continent getting favorable treatment, saying the company could switch to U.S. suppliers.
Pratt said the plant also buys American steel, but he said there’s not enough to meet the company’s needs and noted that domestic prices rose steeply with the tariffs.
Hawley has also put pressure on the plant’s Mexican parent company to keep it open.
“As a company with a global presence and many locations, Deacero is clearly not struggling to make ends meet,” Hawley wrote in the letter. “The reality is that Deacero can afford to keep the factory open, and in turn, help keep men and women employed who simply want to do right by their families and earn a living.”
Democrat McCaskill has gone on the attack over the company’s plight, highlighting Mid Continent Nail during a June U.S. Senate hearing, pushing for the exemption and holding an August hearing in St. Louis to listen to concerns from Missouri businesses.
Instead of tariffs, McCaskill has advocated joining U.S. allies to take a stand against China’s unfair trade practices and spending more money to enforce current trade laws through the United States International Trade Commission.
In a recent Facebook post, she used the tariffs as an example to paint Hawley as a rubber stamp to Trump.
“All across the state, farmers and manufacturers are telling me how they’re being hurt by this trade war. That’s why I’m calling for it to end,” McCaskill wrote. “Hawley is supporting it because he doesn’t want an inch of daylight between him and President Trump.”
Samsung Galaxy J6 Prime could come in red, full specifications leak
Samsung’s Galaxy J budget/lower mid-range smartphone series continues to do well in markets like India, despite the fact that the phones don’t usually compete well against the likes of Xiaomi, Asus, and Honor in terms of specifications. This year, Samsung has launched the Samsung Galaxy J6, Galaxy J8, Galaxy A6, Galaxy A6+, and the Galaxy A8+. Last month, the company also launched the Galaxy A8 Star in India.
We earlier reported that Samsung was developing a variant of the Galaxy J6, which we termed as Galaxy J6+. The phone’s model number will be SM-J610, and it will be coming to Europe. It has since been leaked elsewhere. Now, SamMobile states that the publication has been able to get hold of the full specifications list of the Samsung Galaxy J6 Prime, which may be launched in some markets as the Galaxy J6+.
The Samsung Galaxy J6 Prime could come in red and grey colors in addition to the usual black color variant. It will have a bigger 6-inch display (in comparison to the Galaxy J6’s 5.6-inch display), but the display resolution will remain HD+ (1480×720). The display will be an “Infinity Display,” which means that it has a tall display aspect ratio and small bezels. SamMobile states that there is a chance the Galaxy J6 Prime will have an LCD and not an AMOLED display.
The phone will get a dual camera setup like the higher-end Galaxy J8, with 13MP and 5MP rear cameras, while the front-facing camera will be 8MP. According to SamMobile, it’s possible that the phone’s fingerprint sensor will be placed on the side of the device, which was suggested by recently leaked renders.
The Galaxy J6 Prime will have a quad-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz. SamMobile’s information suggests that the phone could be powered by something like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425, which is a low-end SoC that is used in phones like the Xiaomi Redmi 5A.
The phone will have 3GB/4GB of RAM, paired with 32GB/64GB of storage along with a microSD card slot. It will have a 3,300mAh battery—up from the 3,000mAh battery of the Galaxy J6. Connectivity options will include a microUSB port, dual SIM slots, and LTE. In terms of software, the Galaxy J6 Prime will be powered by Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box.
The Galaxy J6 Prime’s support pages are already live on Samsung’s website, and it has also received FCC certification. Therefore, it’s probable to expect the phone to launch shortly.
Source: SamMobile
Want more posts like this delivered to your inbox? Enter your email to be subscribed to our newsletter.
A Man Has Filled More Than 600 Potholes On Mumbai’s Roads In The Loving Memory Of His Son
Get Daily Updates In Email
In July 2015, during the heavy rains in Mumbai, a boy named Prakash Bilhore was just 16-year-old when he lost his life. Its been three years now his family is still saddened by this that changed his mother-fathers life forever.
For the love of his son Prakash, his father Dadarao Bilhore fill the potholes on the roads make them smooth so that no one crashes with the potholes that took his son’s lives. Till now, Dadarao has filled more than 600 potholes in the city.
According to a leading daily, AFP, his son was sitting in the back seat of the motorcycle which hit a deep pothole, sending him flying off the vehicle. Also, Prakash who was not wearing a helmet suffered a fatal brain damage. His father said, “Prakash’s sudden passing away left a huge void in our lives. I do this work to remember and honour him.”
“I also don’t want anyone else to lose a loved one like we have,” Mr. Bilhore tells AFP at the modest apartment where he lives with his wife, daughter and extended family.
A leading daily, AFP shared a video on Twitter and wrote, “In tribute to his dead son, one of thousands lose their life due to potholes in India’s financial capital, Mumbai resident Dadarao Bilhore has filled in almost 600 potholes”
Take a look at the video:
VIDEO: In tribute to his dead son, one of thousands killed in pothole accidents in India’s financial capital, Mumbai resident Dadarao Bilhore has filled in almost 600 potholes https://t.co/8p4Jw0zm03 pic.twitter.com/cWMahqOynR
— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 14, 2018
Till now, we came across the daily news which we heard or read that potholes are very common taking lives of many people. The Government’s statistics show that potholes were responsible for the loss of lives of 3,597 people last year all over India which is an average of 10 per day.
A campaign is underway to have Mumbai featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the city with the most potholes, according to the indiatimes.com.
We salute Dadarao Bilhore for initiative, strength, and with such a spirit he is doing the whole work.
Published by Soniya Kaur on 16 Sep 2018
Facebook is hiring a director of human rights policy to work on “conflict prevention” and “peace-building”
Facebook is advertising for a human rights policy director to join its business, located either at its Menlo Park HQ or in Washington DC — with “conflict prevention” and “peace-building” among the listed responsibilities.
In the job ad, Facebook writes that as the reach and impact of its various products continues to grow “so does the responsibility we have to respect the individual and human rights of the members of our diverse global community”, saying it’s:
… looking for a Director of Human Rights Policy to coordinate our company-wide effort to address human rights abuses, including by both state and non-state actors. This role will be responsible for: (1) Working with product teams to ensure that Facebook is a positive force for human rights and apply the lessons we learn from our investigations, (2) representing Facebook with key stakeholders in civil society, government, international institutions, and industry, (3) driving our investigations into and disruptions of human rights abusers on our platforms, and (4) crafting policies to counteract bad actors and help us ensure that we continue to operate our platforms consistent with human rights principles.
Among the minimum requirements for the role, Facebook lists experience “working in developing nations and with governments and civil society organizations around the world”.
It adds that “global travel to support our international teams is expected”.
The company has faced fierce criticism in recent years over its failure to take greater responsibility for the spread of disinformation and hate speech on its platform. Especially in international markets it has targeted for business growth via its Internet.org initiative which seeks to get more people ‘connected’ to the Internet (and thus to Facebook).
More connections means more users for Facebook’s business and growth for its shareholders. But the costs of that growth have been cast into sharp relief over the past several years as the human impact of handing millions of people lacking in digital literacy some very powerful social sharing tools — without a commensurately large investment in local education programs (or even in moderating and policing Facebook’s own platform) — has become all too clear.
In Myanmar Facebook’s tools have been used to spread hate and accelerate ethic cleansing and/or the targeting of political critics of authoritarian governments — earning the company widespread condemnation, including a rebuke from the UN earlier this year which blamed the platform for accelerating ethnic violence against Myanmar’s Muslim minority.
In the Philippines Facebook also played a pivotal role in the election of president Rodrigo Duterte — who now stands accused of plunging the country into its worst human rights crisis since the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 80s.
While in India the popularity of the Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging platform has been blamed for accelerating the spread of misinformation — leading to mob violence and the deaths of several people.
Facebook famously failed even to spot mass manipulation campaigns going on in its own backyard — when in 2016 Kremlin-backed disinformation agents injected masses of anti-Clinton, pro-Trump propaganda into its platform and garnered hundreds of millions of American voters’ eyeballs at a bargain basement price.
So it’s hardly surprising the company has been equally naive in markets it understands far less. Though also hardly excusable — given all the signals it has access to.
In Myanmar, for example, local organizations that are sensitive to the cultural context repeatedly complained to Facebook that it lacked Burmese-speaking staff — complaints that apparently fell on deaf ears for the longest time.
The cost to American society of social media enabled political manipulation and increased social division is certainly very high. The costs of the weaponization of digital information in markets such as Myanmar looks incalculable.
In the Philippines Facebook also indirectly has blood on its hands — having provided services to the Duterte government to help it make more effective use of its tools. This same government is now waging a bloody ‘war on drugs’ that Human Rights Watch says has claimed the lives of around 12,000 people, including children.
Facebook’s job ad for a human rights policy director includes the pledge that “we’re just getting started” — referring to its stated mission of helping people “build stronger communities”.
But when you consider the impact its business decisions have already had in certain corners of the world it’s hard not to read that line with a shudder.
Citing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (and “our commitments as a member of the Global Network Initiative”), Facebook writes that its product policy team is dedicated to “understanding the human rights impacts of our platform and to crafting policies that allow us both to act against those who would use Facebook to enable harm, stifle expression, and undermine human rights, and to support those who seek to advance rights, promote peace, and build strong communities”.
Clearly it has an awful lot of “understanding” to do on this front. And hopefully it will now move fast to understand the impact of its own platform, circa fifteen years into its great ‘society reshaping experience’, and prevent Facebook from being repeatedly used to trash human rights.
As well as representing the company in meetings with politicians, policymakers, NGOs and civil society groups, Facebook says the new human rights director will work on formulating internal policies governing user, advertiser, and developer behavior on Facebook. “This includes policies to encourage responsible online activity as well as policies that deter or mitigate the risk of human rights violations or the escalation of targeted violence,” it notes.
The director will also work with internal public policy, community ops and security teams to try to spot and disrupt “actors that seek to misuse our platforms and target our users” — while also working to support “those using our platforms to foster peace-building and enable transitional justice”.
So you have to wonder how, for example, Holocaust denial continuing to be being protected speech on Facebook will square with that stated mission for the human rights policy director.
At the same time, Facebook is currently hiring for a public policy manager in Francophone, Africa — who it writes can “combine a passion for technology’s potential to create opportunity and to make Africa more open and connected, with deep knowledge of the political and regulatory dynamics across key Francophone countries in Africa”.
That job ad does not explicitly reference human rights — talking only about “interesting public policy challenges… including privacy, safety and security, freedom of expression, Internet shutdowns, the impact of the Internet on economic growth, and new opportunities for democratic engagement”.
But among the role’s listed responsibilities is working with Facebook’s Politics & Government team to “promote the use of Facebook as a platform for citizen and voter engagement to policymakers and NGOs and other political influencers”. So here it looks to be continuing its ‘business as usual’ strategy of pushing for more political activity to take place on Facebook.
If Facebook wants an accelerated understanding of human rights issues around the world it might be better advised to take a more joined up approach to human rights across its own policy staff board, and at least include it among the listed responsibilities of all the policy shapers it’s looking to hire.
Amazon’s gamepad no longer works with newer Fire TVs
We’ve asked Amazon if it can comment on the decision.
AFTVnews speculated that it may have to do with the unconventional connection. Amazon switched to a WiFi Direct connection for the second-generation controller in order to reduce lag (all-important for game sessions), but it was both unconventional and complex. Your Fire TV would show up as a WiFi hotspot, for example, even though it was just waiting for a Game Controller. This may be an attempt to simply things and steer users toward Bluetooth controllers (which still work), or a recognition that the Fire TV isn’t the gaming machine Amazon hoped it would be.
Hurricane Florence Hits Farmers Hard in North, South Carolina
Farmers may be among the hardest hit by Hurricane Florence, which is hit at a particularly bad time and is pouring rain on some of the most important agricultural areas of the Carolinas. VOA spoke with one North Carolina farmer, who says the rain is damaging his cash crop.
Sessions Instructs US Attorneys to Fight Nationwide Injunctions
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed Department of Justice lawyers in a memo Thursday to resist the nationwide injunctions issued by federal judges that have hindered or halted some of the Trump administration’s signature policies, including the border separation of families and various travel bans.
Sessions stated in an official press release accompanying the memo that the guidance would help standardize the reasoning litigators use when arguing against injunctions.
“The Constitution does not grant to a single district judge the power to veto executive branch actions with respect to parties not before the court,” Sessions said in the release. “Nor does it provide the judiciary with authority to conduct oversight of or review policy of the executive branch.”
Sessions argued that his motivation was not partisan, but aimed at maintaining the traditional balance of power in the U.S. government.
“Increasingly, we are seeing individual federal district judges go beyond the parties before the court to give injunctions or orders that block the entire federal government from enforcing a law or policy throughout the country. This kind of judicial activism did not happen a single time in our first 175 years as a nation, but it has become common in recent years.”
Sessions specifically instructed government lawyers to argue that nationwide junctions violate constitutional limits on judicial power, stop other courts from debating the law, have no basis in judicial history, and interfere with judgments from the legislative and executive branches.
Tehran Knocks Paris Police Response to Embassy Attack
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday said that extremists were responsible for an attack on Tehran’s embassy in Paris the day before, and that the city police’s response to the attack was slow and weak.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying officers did not arrive quickly after the disturbance was reported. He said the troublemakers were members of an extremist organization, but he did not identify the group, IRNA said.
“It is necessary for the French government to take serious measures to protect Iranian diplomatic missions in that country,” Ghasemi said, according to the news agency.
A Paris police spokeswoman said “individuals” had thrown objects and smashed windows at the embassy. She said the responding officers searched 12 people but didn’t take anyone into custody because embassy personnel didn’t want to file a complaint.
The spokeswoman provided information about the incident but would not give her name, a common police practice in France.
Ghasemi said that some suspects had been arrested and that Iran had asked the French government to prosecute and punish them, IRNA reported. Tehran is doing its own investigation of the commotion and the allegedly tardy arrival of Paris police, the news agency said.
The Paris police spokesman said she did not have information about the motives or identities of the people outside the embassy.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard last week claimed responsibility for a missile attack targeting an Iraqi base of the Kurdish separatist group Party of Democratic Kurdistan of Iran. The Revolutionary Guard said the attack killed at least 11 people and wounded 50.
New iPhone Dual-SIM Tech Will Only Be Available in 10 Countries (at First)
Apple’s upcoming iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max devices will be the company’s first handsets to support dual-SIM capabilities, as was widely predicted earlier this year.
If you’re a U.S. customer, you may be wondering why you’d want a dual-SIM phone — it just hasn’t taken off here in the States. But in many regions around the world, smartphone owners frequently have two SIM cards (and two cellular lines) installed on their devices.
In India, 98 percent of iPhones are dual-SIM. It’s 92 percent in the Philippines and 90 percent in China. But in the U.S., it’s just 4 percent, according to IDC.
Many of the markets where dual-SIM phones are common are becoming critical for Apple and other handset makers. Because of that, Apple adding dual-SIM capabilities to its own devices was basically an inevitability.
Benefits range from having two phone numbers on a single device (like a work and home number) to being able to easily switch to an international travel SIM. You can read more about the advantages of dual-SIM smartphones here.
Of course, Apple’s dual-SIM capable phones don’t actually have two SIM trays like many Android models do. Instead, the new iPhones will have a single nano SIM slot but can support an additional cellular line through the use of the company’s proprietary eSIM technology.
It’s worth noting that eSIM technology isn’t available in China yet (with a couple citywide exceptions), where dual-SIM smartphones are massively popular. Because of that, Apple is launching an exclusive model with two physical SIM slots in that market.
Other regions will get the eSIM-equipped iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. But at launch, that list of “other regions” isn’t going to be all that big.
Currently, there are only ten countries that support Apple’s eSIM technology:
- Austria
- Canada
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Germany
- Hungary
- India
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- United States
Of course, availability varies depending on your carrier. In the U.S., for example, there are some carriers that don’t support eSIM — namely Sprint and many smaller or regional telecom firms.
For new iPhone owners in China, dual-SIM capabilities will be available at launch thanks to the two physical card slots. But for eSIM-equipped iPhone owners, Apple says the functionality will launch in an update to iOS 12 later this fall.
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Virgin to use eco-friendly jet fuel on commercial flight this October
As before, LanzaTech’s particular approach to jet fuel helps the planet both through its composition and how it’s obtained. The company captures waste gas from steel mills and converts it into an ethanol that puts up to 65 percent less carbon into the atmosphere. It’s not only reducing the immediate impact of the fuel, it’s cutting pollution at the mills.
You’ll have to be patient if you want to see airlines adopting this on a wide basis. While the fuel should be “competitive” with conventional options, there’s still some work to be done before it’s useful for airlines around the globe — and even then, it’s only estimated to produce “nearly one fifth” of aviation fuel used in a given year. Nonetheless, it could be important for reducing the impact of airliners until electric aircraft are good enough to start replacing existing fleets.
Take A Look At The Apple’s New iPhone XR And It’s Features
Get Daily Updates In Email
Apple has now launched its new mobile phone- iPhone XR which will give many people a feel like they are using a default iPhone. With the lower price and some same features, this new iPhone XR has a similar design with iPhone XS model which is much more expensive. iPhone XR is considerably lower at prices plus features.
The display of iPhone XR has a display of 6.1-inch LCD with a print at the top. iOS always offers a very nice display LCD which led the company as well. If you look closely at the top notch and the rounded corners gave a little different look to this new iPhone. This features preserves the look of iPhone XR full-screen pattern.
It shares many notable features with the new XS but there is 3D touch is removed in the XR which iPhone users will surely miss. This time Apple is giving a variety of vibrant colours which includes blood red, dark peach, sky blue, black and white obviously and consumers are going to love this. The XR missing the stainless steel frame like the XS, but it still has an aluminium frame and glass sandwich design. It is lighter than XS for sure and people will buy it if they don’t care about the other features like dual cameras and 3D Touch.
It’s like last year when iPhone 8 compared with X.
iPhone XR has Apple’s new A12 Bionic processor inside and it is the same chip used in more expensive models. It has also IP67 water resistance, a battery that lasts long one and a half which is longer than last year’s iPhone 8 Plus, and a single 12-megapixel camera which has also blurring effects. And for the very first time, Apple is giving dual sim feature.
It will available in the market from October for $749 which is Rs.55,000 with 64GB of storage. 128GB and 256GB of storage Apple iOS are available in the market.
Published by Soniya Kaur on 15 Sep 2018
Meatpacker, Muslim Workers in US Settle Bias Dispute
A major U.S. meatpacking company has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle charges of discrimination involving Muslim workers who walked off the job in a dispute over prayer breaks.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the financial settlement Friday after several years of litigation between Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation and 138 Muslim workers, most of whom were Somali immigrants.
The dispute began in late 2016 after the workers were fired following a three-day walkout at a meatpacking plant in Fort Morgan, Colorado.
Management had changed policies allowing Muslim workers to take short prayer breaks.
The EEOC said it had “reasonable cause to believe that Somali, African and Muslim employees were harassed, denied their requests for prayer breaks and fired.”
Cargill disagreed but said it settled the case to avoid further litigation. The company also said it was committed to allowing “Muslim workers to take short breaks to perform their obligatory prayers.”
A Teamsters union chapter representing the workers will pay them $153,000 to settle discrimination complaints related to the dispute. The EEOC said Teamsters Local 455 had failed to advocate for the workers — who were dues-paying union members — and had harassed them because of their race, religion and national origin.
The union denied wrongdoing but also agreed to give their union officials grievance training and to publicize employee rights to work in an environment free of discrimination.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations applauded the settlements, as did Denver lawyer Qusair Mohamedbhai, who represented the workers.
“We are gratified with the settlement reached for the 138 former Cargill employees that we represented in this proceeding and applaud the company for its ongoing efforts to consistently grant prayer requests to people of all faiths based on its long-standing policy and values,” Mohamedbhai said.
US House Panel Backs Bill to Make Trump Tax Cuts Permanent
WASHINGTON —
A Republican-led panel in the U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to make the individual tax cuts from President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul permanent, a move seen by some as a bid to help GOP candidates in the Nov. 6 congressional elections.
Members of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee voted 21-15 along party lines to send the measure to the House floor for a full chamber vote expected by Oct 1. But the tax cuts are likely to be dead on arrival in the Senate, where they would need Democratic support to pass.
The tax overhaul that Trump signed into law last December, known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, gave permanent tax relief to corporations but set individual cuts that will expire after 2025.
The measure to make the individual cuts permanent are part of a three-pronged legislative package dubbed “Tax Reform 2.0,” which Republicans introduced three days ago. The panel was due to address two other prongs, involving retirement savings and tax incentives for startup businesses, later on Thursday.
House control
Republicans are in danger of losing control of the House to Democrats in November. Voters favor Democratic candidates over Republicans 52 percent to 38 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released this week. Democrats need a net gain of at least 23 seats to win a majority in the House.
Republicans insist that Trump’s tax overhaul has helped boost the economy. But their message has been undercut by worries about Trump’s policy on trade tariffs and a lack of evidence that tax cuts have delivered promised pay increases to workers.
House Republicans said the legislation on the tax cuts would add to economic momentum and create 1.5 million new jobs in the long run, citing numbers from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
But the legislation also carries risks for Republican fiscal conservatives. Making individual tax cuts permanent would add another $630 billion to the deficit by 2019, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. That would bring the total cost of tax cuts under Trump to well over $2 trillion in lost government revenue.
Democrats decried the legislation, saying it would mainly benefit the wealthy, expand the deficit and lead to cuts in the Social Security and Medicare programs for the elderly.
Committee Republicans rejected several Democratic amendments that would have directed Congress to obtain Trump’s tax returns; provided tax relief to disaster victims and the sick; protected benefits for the elderly; raised taxes on the highest incomes; and eliminated a cap on the federal deduction for state and local tax payments.
BMW unveils its vision for the ‘iFuture’ of luxury vehicles
The iNEXT is the latest iteration of BMW’s “project i” which was started back in 2013 and has since spawned models like the i3 and i5, hence the naming scheme. This new model is an SAV (Sports Activity Vehicle), that takes the idea of “state of the art” and runs with it. Or, at least it will in 2021 when BMW expects “the car we know today as BMW iNEXT will come onto the market.”
The demo vehicle that BMW showed off, as it made its San Francisco stop during a 4-city teaser tour, looked like it had driven straight out of San Angeles. The exterior was all angles and planes with a matte finish that melded from copper, on the hood, to rose gold on the rear spoiler.
Given the iNEXT’s electric powertrain, the front grille has been replaced with a beaver tooth (or rather “kidney-shaped” according to the press release) front plate, the cabin floor is completely flat allowing for a variety of seat layouts. It’s not that they’re really needed, the top half of the iNEXT’s front seats flip back 90 degrees on command to facilitate conversations with the rear passengers (read: better to threaten your kids with turning this car around if they don’t stop the horseplay already.)
Since the interior floor of the vehicle is flat (thanks to the underlying layer of Li-ion batteries), BMW’s design team sought to imagine the interior of the vehicle as the “Favorite Space” you’d want to be. As such, they incorporated a number of aspects from what you’d find in the modern living room into the vehicle’s passenger cabin.
The vehicle interior that BMW envisions somehow manages to blend bleeding edge of modern technology with your grandmother’s living room. There is no instrument console. Instead it’s been replaced with a pair of exceedingly large touchscreen displays that span the length of the dashboard. They need a sneeze guard, but that’s a different matter entirely. The left panel, dubbed “Boost,” displays relevant telemetry data while the right panel, “Ease”, serves more as a smart planning coordinator, allowing you to check the state of your smart home security or the state of your social schedule.
The steering wheel totally does the Demolition Man thing where you can say “BMW, let me drive” and the steering wheel’s outer ring expands to a comfortable circumference for human hands. If the driver wishes to let the level 3 autonomous driving system (that means you can take your hands off the wheel and look away from the road for a while — but no napping) take over, they simply have to tap the emblem in the center of the steering wheel. BMW hopes to eventually upgrade the on-board autonomous systems to level 4 when more expansive parts of the US highway infrastructure come into regulatory code.
The center console was a juxtaposition of teal and walnut, the front seats a riot of peach, mid-century and modern aesthetics battering themselves at loggerheads. The back seats were splayed out as a single sheet of jacquard material, which presumably will be waterproofed since dear god can you just imagine what your kids will do to it and the integrated touchscreens.
Oh, right, the back seats in the iNEXT have integrated touch screens that controlled the sound system. Simply draw a musical note on a specific section of the seat and the radio turns on. Spread your thumb and forefinger to turn up the volume, squeeze them together to turn it down.
The integrated seat controls are part of the iNEXT’s “Shy Tech” system, essentially smart screens that are only visible to the user when they need to be. With the sound system touchpad, for example, its LED only lights up and the system activates when the user draws the proper pattern. While the current iteration is only applicable to fabric-based interfaces, the BMW design team hopes to eventually expand the functionality out to wood or other kinds of cloth.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take the iNEXT for a test drive. Namely because BMW held the entire press event on a remote SFO airfield aboard a Lufthansa-branded Boeing 777 cargo jet with the prototype already loaded aboard. Yeah, we stood in a plane to get pitched on a car.
The design team was understandably mum on when, or even if, many of these features will make it into other production models but I for one hope they do. Because if you’re going to hand your life over to a robot chauffeur on the open road, you may as well do it in a cabin that mirrors your Nana’s sitting room. That’s living on the edge.
Manafort Pleads Guilty, Agrees to Cooperate with Mueller Probe
President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges Friday in connection with his past lobbying efforts on behalf of Ukraine. As part of the plea deal, Manafort has also agreed to cooperate in the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election led by special counsel Robert Mueller. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
Israel-Palestinian Peace Elusive Under Trump Administration
Twenty-five years after Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo Peace Accords that raise hopes for a comprehensive settlement, experts say peace in the Middle East is as elusive as ever. And as VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports, some of those experts caution that the Trump administration has lost the trust of Palestinians to be an honest broker in the conflict through several recent actions.
Original Content podcast: Netflix’s ‘Insatiable’ is even worse than you’ve heard
“Insatiable,” the Netflix comedy about an overweight high school girl who suddenly becomes slim and beautiful thanks to having her jaw wired shut for a summer, has been drawing controversy ever since its first trailer went online.
The reviews for the show were almost uniformly negative, yet they didn’t quite prepare me for the terribleness of the initial episodes, which alternate between feeble attempts to mine humor from hot-button issues like sexual assault and suicide, and even feebler attempts to treat those issues seriously.
To help me figure out just what makes this show so bad, I was joined by Original Content‘s original co-host, Darrell Etherington. Our ultimate question: Is this the worst thing we’ve watched for the podcast? (Yes.)
We also discuss the fact that Henry Cavill has been cast as the lead in Netflix’s adaptation of the “Witcher” video game franchise.
This episode was actually recorded more than a week ago, but I didn’t get time to edit it until after Disrupt SF. So much has happened since then — like “The Witcher”‘s showrunner leaving Twitter and Cavill apparently departing the role of Superman. (Plus, somehow, “Insatiable” has been renewed for a second season.) Still, the initial news gave us an opportunity to weigh the relative merits of the “Mission Impossible” movies, and to discuss my favorite subject, Superman’s invisible mustache in “Justice League”.
You can listen in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You also can send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)
Here’s How Much the iPhone XS Max Costs Around the World
Contrary to earlier reports and analyst predictions, Apple’s new iPhone XS flagship did not see a $100 price drop from the last generation.
Instead, the iPhone XS starts at $999 — the same retail price as its predecessor. The larger-bodied, 6.5-inch OLED iPhone XS Max retails for $100 more at a new $1,099 price tier.
That means the most expensive stock iPhone you can buy from Apple in the U.S. is now the 512-gigabyte iPhone XS Max. The device will cost U.S. consumers $1,449.
But, of course, consumers in other countries will typically pay more money for the newest iPhone than U.S. consumers, as we saw with last year’s iPhone X. That’s largely due to international currency valuations and import fees.
It’s worth noting that many countries, unlike the U.S., include sales tax in the final cost. While sales tax varies depending on the state, U.S. consumers can expect to pay (at most) about $1,099 for an iPhone XS once the tax has been applied.
While not true across the board, in some countries, you’ll be paying a lot more for a new top-tier iPhone XS Max. For example, that device retails for a staggering $1,971 in Italy.
The Verge on Thursday published this handy table showing what the top-tier iPhone costs around the world, compared to the base tier and iPhone XS Max and the iPhone X at its launch.
How Much the
iPhone XS Max Costs
Around the World
| 2017 iPhone X | iPhone XS (64GB) | iPhone XS Max (512GB) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. | $999 | $999 | $1,449 |
| Japan | $1,008 | $1,008 | $1,473 |
| Hong Kong | $1,094 | $1,095 | $1,592 |
| China | $1,224 | $1,269 | $1,868 |
| Russia | $1,380 | $1,292 | $1,868 |
| U.K. | $1,322 | $1,309 | $1,898 |
| Poland | $1,385 | $1,352 | $1,956 |
| Italy | $1,416 | $1,389 | $1,971 |
On the other hand, the publication notes that international iPhone pricing appears to have “settled” a bit in certain countries — particularly on those that paid the most for the 2017 iPhone X.
In Russia, the iPhone XS retails for $1,292, an actual $100 price drop from how much the iPhone X cost last year at launch.
The iPhone X sparked criticism last year because of its high price compared to other devices, but it appears that the entire industry is moving toward Apple’s premium tier. Last month, Samsung debuted its latest Galaxy Note 9 phablet at $999.
Of course, Apple also debuted the iPhone XR this year — a mid-range handset that still manages to sport many of the premium tier features of the iPhone XS. That device starts at $749, pitting it more closely against flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S9.
As Per A Global Study, Indian Employees Are The Most Hard-Working In The World
Get Daily Updates In Email
We all work to earn money and also gain a certain amount of experience which takes us to next level of successs. A job is an important aspect of one’s life which keeps one going on and one and achieve everything once they had desired for. Be it buying the smallest thing or the largest, having a good job with a decent pay package makes all your dreams come true.
In India, work conditions are quite different from that of other countries. Be it pay package or work conditions, it is very different and way too hectic than the rest of the countries.
Well, after hectic weekdays, we all need a weekend to relax and spend some quality time with themselves or with their family. This is a basic need which every Indian employee wants. Unfortunately, there are many who are not blessed with such work conditions and need to work on weekends. This is really frustrating and nothing can be done about it.
So, if you are facing the same condition, you are among the 69 per cent full-time Indian employees who are willing to work five days a week. A recent survey done by an international workforce management company reveals that India is the hardest working country. Some survey done in countries like the US, Canada, Germany, Mexico, France, Australia and the UK have some insightful revelations.
Mexico is a bit closer to India which has 43 per cent of workers satisfied with a five-day working schedule. Other countries like the US is at 27 per cent, Australia is at 19 per cent and France is at 17 per cent.
If you get the same amount of salary, 34 per cent of the global workers would like to work for four days a week and 20 per cent would prefer to work for three days a week. Also, 35 per cent of the participants were willing to take 20 per cent pay cut if they were given the option to work a day less every week.
When it comes to working more than 40 hours in a week, the US tops the list with 49 per cent of the employees slogging overtime followed by India (44 per cent), Mexico (40 per cent) and Germany (38 per cent).
So, it’s a proud moment for the Indian employees where their efforts are being appreciated but appreciation always doesn’t work, you also need a life because money can’t buy anything. So, it’s high time company owners understand this and provide suitable work conditions for their employees.
Published by Harmisha Chauhan on 15 Sep 2018
Google is improving the Assistant’s Song Search thanks to the Pixel 2’s Now Playing feature
An often overlooked Google Pixel 2-only feature is its “now playing” option. It’s pretty simple, but in my view, it’s one of the coolest exclusive features on any smartphone. It utilizes deep neural networks to continuously analyze background audio picked up by your phone’s microphone. It then creates a unique fingerprint of the audio based on small snippets and compares this fingerprint to a large, on-device database. When it finds a match, it displays the artist and song title on the lock screen, on the ambient display/always on display, and/or in a notification. It’s all done offline as well, making it highly power efficient. Google has used what they’ve learned from developing Now Playing on the Pixel 2 to further refine Google Assistant‘s Song Search.
Google is now employing the same technology in Google Assistant’s Song Search feature so that you’ll get more accurate and faster results than ever before. It’ll work the exact same way too. Simply ask Google Assistant what song is playing, and it will listen for the music that’s playing and identify it for you. It’s just going to be faster and more accurate, without any loss of functionality. You can’t use it offline, though. Google broke down the process of how it worked so well on the Google Pixel 2 and scaled it up to work on a server for millions of songs.
The main difference is that, since Google Assistant’s Song Search is a server-side system, it’s not limited to the same processing constraints as on the Pixel 2. As such, it gives Google a lot more flexibility to increase the amount of data processed to help identify a song more quickly. For more popular songs, the matching threshold is also lowered so that less processing power is used than for a less popular song. Google believes that there’s still room for improvement, even after already taking a system which already worked well offline and improving it massively with an online connection. It’s a great tool for those who find themselves wondering what a song is called when they’re outside, and we look forward to seeing even more improvements in the future.
Source: Google
Want more posts like this delivered to your inbox? Enter your email to be subscribed to our newsletter.
Introducing New Apple iPhone XR With Liquid Retina Display
Introducing New Apple iPhone XR With Liquid Retina Display.
Apple announces Today, new iPhone XR with Liquid Retina LCD display. The new display on iPhone XR is the most advanced LCD in the industry. An innovative backlight design allows the screen to stretch into the corners. So you see true-to-life color from one beautiful edge to the other.
The largest LCD ever on an iPhone 6.1-inch Liquid Retina LCD display with 1792×828 resolution.
Advanced Face ID.
Security is simple when your face is your password. You can unlock your iPhone, log in to apps, and pay for things with a glance. It’s the most secure facial authentication ever in a smartphone. And now it’s even faster.
Intelligent A12 Bionic
This is the smartest, most powerful chip in a smartphone, with our next-generation Neural Engine. For amazing augmented reality experiences. Incredible portraits with Depth Control. And speed and fluidity in everything you do.
Apple-designed GPU. A new fourth core (4-core GPU) and lossless memory compression bring big gains in graphics performance to games, video editing, and visually demanding apps. iPhone XR Graphics performance Up to 50% faster than A11 Bionic with Metal 2 optimized
iPhone XR camera –
- It comes with 12MP rear Camera and 7MP TrueDepth front camera with 4K video up to 60 fps in iPhone XR.
- The world’s most popular camera is defining a new era of photography. Where an innovative sensor works with the ISP and Neural Engine to help you create photos like never before.
- The 4K video and wider stereo playback. iPhone XR shoots the highest‑quality video of any smartphone.
- With better low‑light performance. Extended dynamic range in videos up to 30 fps.
- Stereo recording. And stereo playback with wider sound separation.
A picture is worth a trillion operations. The iPhone XR camera system harnesses the unprecedented power of the Neural Engine and its ability to perform five trillion operations per second. Together with the Apple‑designed ISP, it works like the world’s fastest photographer’s assistant to help turn your pictures into showstoppers.
 |
| iPhone XR Water Resistant |
This new design is splash and water resistant, with a rating of IP67, and protects against everyday spills including coffee, tea and soda
Wireless Technologies
iPhone XR uses LTE Advanced for fast download speeds4 and introduces Dual SIM5 through the use of a nano-SIM and digital eSIM.
Featuring iOS 12
iPhone XR comes with iOS 12, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system. iOS 12 changes the way iOS users see the world using augmented reality, helps people rediscover and share photos, and makes communications more expressive and fun with new Animoji and Memoji.
Screen Time helps customers understand and take control of the time they spend interacting with their iOS devices, Siri Shortcuts give any app the ability to work with Siri and new privacy features help protect users from being tracked on the web.
iPhone XR will be available to pre-order beginning Friday, October 19 and in stores beginning Friday, October 26. iPhone XR comes in six new colours- white, black, blue, yellow, coral and (PRODUCT)RED.
iPhone XR price starting from $749US
Source: iPhone Xr
FEMA will test mobile ‘Presidential Alert’ on September 20th
This isn’t the first nationwide EAS test, but it is the first for WEA — it’ll be crucial to showing that the mobile-oriented system can work as effectively as conventional TV- and radio-based alerts on such a large scale. And to no one’s surprise, FEMA and the FCC are taking great pains to notify people in advance and avoid the chaos that stemmed from Hawaii’s false missile alert.
In some ways, the test might be a sign of things to come. Senators recently put forward a bill that would reduce the chances of false alarms, add alerts to streaming services, eliminate opt-outs for some federal-level notices and repeat alerts coming from either FEMA or the President. Simply speaking, these kinds of tests may be more frequent and widespread.
Learn Multiple Programming Languages and Platforms with This Bundle
It should go without saying that having a solid background in computer science gives you a significant leg up over the competition when it comes to landing a lucrative career in a variety of fields. And, the good news is you don’t need to invest in a traditional computer science education to get the skills you need to be competitive.
The Complete Computer Science Bundle will get you up to speed on some of the most important programming languages, platforms, and development techniques in the world, and it’s available for over 85% off at $39.
With eight courses and over 400 lessons taught by industry experts, this extensive bundle walks you through both the fundamentals and most advanced aspects of programming languages like C and Java, along with increasingly popular digital development platforms like Raspberry Pi.
You’ll learn about object-oriented programming and data structures in Java, database formatting techniques with SQL, object building with C++, and much more. There are also courses that are dedicated to showing you the ins and outs of Python—one of the world’s most popular and versatile programming languages—and showing you how to implement your new skills in a variety of social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Get the skills you need to be competitive in the world of computer science and development with the Complete Computer Science Bundle for just $39—over 85% off.
Want more posts like this delivered to your inbox? Enter your email to be subscribed to our newsletter.
Bigg Boss 12 Just Confirmed The Vichitra Jodi And Other Celebrities On The Show
Get Daily Updates In Email
The popular reality show- successfully completed its 11 seasons and all of them were most watched by the viewers. Once again, Dabangg Superstar Salman Khan is all set with Bigg Boss 12 which will broadcast on the Colors. With commoners, celebrities are going to be the contestants on the Bigg Boss 12. Well, be prepared guys because now you will hear those yelling, shouting, singing, dancing and all the drama again in the Bigg Biss again. Big Boss is coming up with next season- season 12, starting on 16 September and it is going to be much different than previous BB seasons.
Now, only one day is left for the premiere of BB 12. As for now, we know that cricketer Sreesanth, TV couple Dipika Kakkar-Shoaib Ibrahim, Neha Pendse, Anup Jalota, Gurmeet Choudhary-Debina are most likely to come up on the show. Recently, it is confirmed by the Colors TV that Sreesanth is going to be on the show for sure and it will be fun to know more the cricketer. Also, showing few promos on the Colors TV, Neha is also confirmed on the show.
Not only Colors confirmed the names of the celebs but also promos are out in which ex-Roadies contestants Kriti Verma and Surbhi Rana and commoners Mital Joshi and Roshmi Manik, friends turned enemies.
This makes sure that these vichitra jodis are going to give us some screaming headlines.
Other than this, earlier Salman has already announced in the grand press launch of Bigg Boss 12 in Goa. His first couple contestant is none other than laughter queen Bharti Singh with hubby Harsh Limbachiyaa. Everyone is excited and curious as well to know the rest of the contestants and every other detail of the show. There are some other names also that are being speculated for the show like Shaleen Bhanot, Dipika Kakar, Karanvir Bohra, Ssumier Pasricha, British adult star Danny D, and Mahika Sharma.
Published by Soniya Kaur on 15 Sep 2018
‘Forza Horizon 4’ activates in-game bonuses for Mixer streams
In the case of FH4, watching players on Microsoft’s Mixer streaming platform (with an account linked to your Xbox gamertag) will add some of the game’s “Influence” points to your account every five minutes, and if you’re a streaming it for others to watch the bonuses come in every two minutes. The game won’t be released until September 28th (Ultimate Edition) or October 2nd (everyone else) on Xbox One and PC, but the credits can be earned now via the demo that dropped this week.
Now that Microsoft owns a livestreaming platform of its own and the popularity of streams affects sales, it’s unlikely this is the last time we’ll see this kind of push. The only question now is whether it will become as annoying and potentially costly as the loot box craze (Forza doesn’t have any) of the last few years?
Cuomo Defeats Nixon in NY Gubernatorial Primary
ALBANY, N.Y. —
Gov. Andrew Cuomo overcame a primary challenge from activist and actress Cynthia Nixon on Thursday, thwarting her attempt to become the latest insurgent liberal to knock off an establishment Democrat.
Cuomo, who always led in the polls and outspent his rival more than 8 to 1, seldom mentioned Nixon by name during an often-nasty campaign, instead touting his experience, achievements in two terms as governor and his work to push back against President Donald Trump.
“You cannot be a progressive if you cannot deliver progress. And a New York progressive is not just a dreamer, but we are doers,” Cuomo said at a campaign rally the night before the vote. “We make things happen.”
With registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans more than 2 to 1 in New York, Cuomo becomes the automatic front-runner in November’s matchup against Republican Marc Molinaro and independent Mayor Stephanie Miner.
Nixon thanks supporters
Nixon, a longtime education activist and actress best known for her Emmy-winning role as lawyer Miranda Hobbes on HBO’s “Sex and the City,” was counting on a boost from liberals looking to oust establishment politicians. She called herself a democratic socialist and pointed to recent congressional primary victories by New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts’ Ayanna Pressley as evidence that underdog challengers can defy the odds.
Nixon thanked supporters Thursday in Brooklyn, saying that together they helped push Cuomo to the left and show that liberals have a shot at making big changes.
“Before we take our country back we have to take our party back,” she said. “This is an incredible moment for progressives but it’s not just a moment. It’s a movement.”
Attorney general
Elsewhere on the ballot, New York City Public Advocate Letitia James won a four-way Democratic primary for attorney general in a race that was a competition over who could best use the office to antagonize President Donald Trump.
James, 59, would become the first black woman to hold a statewide elected office in New York if she prevails in the general election, where she will be heavily favored. She defeated a deep field of fellow Democrats: U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout and former Hillary Clinton adviser Leecia Eve.
The winner in November will inherit several pending lawsuits filed by the state that challenge Trump’s policies and accuse his charitable foundation of breaking the law.
James faces little-known Republican attorney Keith Wofford in the general election in November.
If she wins in November, James would also become the first woman elected attorney general, though not the first to hold the job. New York’s current attorney general, Democrat Barbara Underwood, was appointed to replace Schneiderman. She declined to run for election.
iPhone XS Max Giveaway
Play to Win!
We’re giving away an unlocked 64GB iPhone XS Max for free in February! Earn your chances to win Apple’s greatest iPhone using the giveaway tool below. You’ll automatically gain one entry just for signing up.
iDrop News Apple iPhone XS Max Giveaway
iPhone XS Max Features
- Super Retina HDR 6.5‑inch (diagonal) all‑screen OLED Multi‑Touch display.
- 2688‑by-1242‑pixel resolution at 458 ppi
- 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio (typical)
- Dual SIM (nano-SIM and eSIM)
- 4K video recording at 24 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
- 3D Touch
- TrueDepth camera with Face ID security.
Price: $1099 Buy
Editor’s Rating:
Pros: TrueDepth camera with Face ID, extremely powerful A12 chip, long battery life, 3D Touch, 4K video recording.
Cons: None.
Bottom Line: The iPhone XS Max is an incredible industry-leading smartphone and has set the bar even higher for Apple’s competition.
/e/ is a Google-free LineageOS fork for several devices from Google, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and others
There are many reasons why free and open source software is great. It allows someone to take a project and evolve it into something else that they see fit. Naturally, they have to follow the proper licenses that come with those projects, but when done right we can get software projects like /e/. /e/ is a fork of LineageOS that aims to be completely free of everything Google. Not only that, but there are a number of goals the developer has in mind for /e/ that more people feel are vital to a mobile operating system. This week it has been announced that the first beta of /e/ is now available for a limited number of devices (linked down below).
The original idea of /e/ came from Gaël Duval, an open source advocate, last year when he wrote a series of articles titled “Leaving Apple & Google. . .” It was in this series of articles when he announced that a new smartphone OS was currently being planned. The new mobile operating system had three goals including:
- Be free from Google (no Google services, no Google search, no Google Play store, etc.)
- Be far more respectful of user’s data privacy
- Be attractive enough so that Mom and Dad, children and friends would enjoy using it even if they aren’t technophiles or geeks
It’s been a year and now the first beta of /e/ is available to the public. As mentioned, /e/ is a Google-free fork of LineageOS with this first beta being based on version 14.1. The ROM comes bundled with microG by default with the Mozilla Network Location Provider backend so location functionality will work even without GPS. The mail app is forked from K9 mail, the SMS app is Signal, the default chat app is Telegram (or you can use Signal), there’s a weather app, a note-taking app, a tasks app, and a map app (that, unfortunately, isn’t open source yet.) The account manager allows you to choose a single /e/ account for all services. The search engine is a fork of Searx, but Qwant and DuckDuckGo are available alternatives in the default browser (LineageOS’ Jelly.)
Depending on the addition of more build servers and more contributors who can maintain or port to specific devices, they are hoping to see the list of supported devices grow. Speaking of, here is the official list of devices that can test out this first beta of /e/ right now.
Fairphone
- FP2 – “FP2”
HTC
- One (M8) – “m8”
Huawei
LeEco
- Le 2 – “s2”
LG
- G5 (International) – “h850”
Motorola
OnePlus
Samsung
Xiaomi
- Mi 5s – “capricorn”
- Mi 5s Plus – “natrium”
- Redmi 3S/3X – “land”
- Redmi Note 4 – “mido”
Here are some screenshots provided by the developers:
And here some more images which have been provided by @onlyninja on our Telegram group:
The developers are working on changing the DNS server from Google’s and bringing up the ROM to the LineageOS 15.1 (Android 8.1 Oreo) base.
Download links of the first beta build of /e/ for supported devices
Source: Hacker Noon
Want more posts like this delivered to your inbox? Enter your email to be subscribed to our newsletter.
Empire Multiuser GUI - A Graphical Interface To The Empire Post-Exploitation Framework
The Empire Multiuser GUI is a graphical interface to the Empire post-exploitation Framework.
It was written in Electron and utilizes websockets (SocketIO) on the backend to support multiuser interaction. The main goal of this project is to enable red teams, or any other color team, to work together on engagements in a more seamless and integrated way than using Empire as a command line tool.
This is a BETA release and does not have all the functionality of the full Empire Framework. The goal is to get community involvement early on to help fix bugs before adding in many of the bells and whistles. The main interaction with Agents at this point is soley through a shell prompt. The next release will have Module support, etc.
Features
- Multiplatorm Support (OSX,Window,Linux)
- Traffic over HTTPS
- User Authentication
- Multiuser Support
- Agent Shell Interaction
Installation
- Checkout this repo to a folder on your system
- Install NodeJS (NPM) here
- Start your Empire Server
- Install the Empire Framework
- Switch to the 3.0-Beta branch git checkout 3.0-Beta
- Setup your listeners and generate stagers (as this is not yet supported in the GUI)
- Start the server with your password ./empire –server –shared_password ILikePasswords –port 1337
4. Run the following commands from your EmpireGUI directory
- npm install
- npm start
5. Login to the Empire!
North Korea skirts US sanctions by secretly selling software around the globe
Fake social media profiles are useful for more than just sowing political discord among foreign adversaries, as it turns out. A group linked to the North Korean government has been able to duck existing sanctions on the country by concealing its true identity and developing software for clients abroad.
This week, the US Treasury issued sanctions against two tech companies accused of running cash-generating front operations for North Korea: Yanbian Silverstar Network Technology or “China Silver Star,” based near Shenyang, China, and a Russian sister company called Volasys Silver Star. The Treasury also sanctioned China Silver Star’s North Korean CEO Jong Song Hwa.
“These actions are intended to stop the flow of illicit revenue to North Korea from overseas information technology workers disguising their true identities and hiding behind front companies, aliases, and third-party nationals,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said of the sanctions.
As the Wall Street Journal reported in a follow-up story, North Korean operatives advertised with Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, solicited business with Freelance.com and Upwork, crafted software using Github, communicated over Slack and accepted compensation with Paypal. The country appears to be encountering little resistance putting tech platforms built by US companies to work building software including “mobile games, apps, [and] bots” for unwitting clients abroad.
The US Treasury issued its first warnings of secret North Korean software development scheme in July, though did not provide many details at the time. The Wall Street Journal was able to identify “tens of thousands” of dollars stemming from the Chinese front company, though that’s only a representative sample. The company worked as a middleman, contracting its work out to software developers around the globe and then denying payment for their services.
Facebook suspended many suspicious accounts linked to the scheme after they were identified by the Wall Street Journal, including one for “Everyday-Dude.com”:
“A Facebook page for Everyday-Dude.com, showing packages with hundreds of programs, was taken down minutes later as a reporter was viewing it. Pages of some of the account’s more than 1,000 Facebook friends also subsequently disappeared…
“[Facebook] suspended numerous North Korea-linked accounts identified by the Journal, including one that Facebook said appeared not to belong to a real person. After it closed that account, another profile, with identical friends and photos, soon popped up.”
Linkedin and Upwork similarly removed accounts linked to the North Korean operations.
Beyond the consequences for international relations, software surreptitiously sold by the North Korean government poses considerable security risks. According to the Treasury, the North Korean government makes money off of a “range of IT services and products abroad” including “website and app development, security software, and biometric identification software that have military and law enforcement applications.” For companies unwittingly buying North Korea-made software, the potential for malware that could give the isolated nation eyes and ears beyond its borders is high, particularly given that the country has already demonstrated its offensive cyber capabilities.
Between that and sanctions against doing business with the country, Mnuchin urges the information technology industry and other businesses to exercise awareness of the ongoing scheme to avoid accidentally contracting with North Korea on tech-related projects.
Friday, September 14, 2018
102-Year-Old Indian Woman Wins Gold Medal In 200m At World Masters Athletics
Get Daily Updates In Email
We often refuse to do certain things with an excuse of ‘Ab Umar nikal gyi’. We do not realise that it is not our age but our will power that defines what we are and what we want to do in our lives. Recently, a 102-year-old woman won Gold in 200m at World Masters Athletics and proved that age is just a number.
The lady named Man Kaur has already won several competitions in her entire career and even after the age of 100, there’s no stopping for her. The reason behind her fitness even after this age is her discipline in her way of living.
A proud moment for India! Mann Kaur, India’s oldest female athlete, wins the 200m Gold Medal in the age group of 100 – 104 at the World Masters Athletics Championships. Watch this video to know more about her age-defying achievements. #OMGIndia pic.twitter.com/CMrNnqWRiv
— HISTORY TV18 (@HISTORYTV18) September 11, 2018
Milind Soman took to Twitter to tweet about this woman and wrote, “LOOK AT THAT SMILE !!! Man Kaur from India wins the 200m GOLD in the World Masters Athletics #WMAMalaga2018. Age group 100- 104 years!! What a privilege for every person in the world to see her in action and to share her joy.”
LOOK AT THAT SMILE !!! Man Kaur from India wins the 200m GOLD in the World Masters Athletics #WMAMalaga2018. Age group 100- 104 years!!
What a privilege for every person in the world to see her in action and to share her joy#PinkathonFOREVER pic.twitter.com/hDvWc3EVVf
— Milind Usha Soman (@milindrunning) September 11, 2018
People couldn’t stop praising her for fitness, her will-power, and her achievements.
Let’s have a look at how people are reacting:
Incredible
— Jay Shankar (@JJustJazzy) September 11, 2018
That bib of category must be the one of the rarest! Its inspiring not only for Indian women but also for all from the universe!
— kranti salvi (@krantis) September 12, 2018
Salute to “Man Kaur” for her stunning performances. We all wish her to keep going as it. And also she is an inspirational woman to make us motivated..
— Amit_Unite&respect (@mgodandme) September 14, 2018
A twitter user wrote, “Wait. Won the 100-104 year old event? Was anyone else running? lol. Sorry. I won’t make it to 60 if I’m lucky. Truly inspirational in a time of great negativity.” Well, we agree to him.
Wait. Won the 100-104 year old event? Was anyone else running? lol.
Sorry. I won’t make it to 60 if I’m lucky.Truly inspirational in a time of great negativity.
— Koogz (@zkoogz) September 14, 2018
Man Kaur hails from Patiala, Punjab. She started her career at the age of 93 after getting encouraged by her 78-year-old son who also participated in World Masters Athletics. This event is considered as a Olympics for Senior Citizens.
Man Kaur is the oldest Indian female athlete.
In a video shared by History TV 18, Her sons mentioned that she did not have any health problems. They said, “When she ran for the first time, she completed a 100 metres track in one minute and on second.”
The lady is an inspiration to not only elder people, but to today’s young generation as well.
Anyway, what’s your excuse now?