LA JOYA, TEXAS - APRIL 10: Central American immigrants wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents near the border with Mexico on April 10, 2021 in La Joya, Texas. A surge of immigrants crossing the southern border, including record numbers of children, continues. John Moore/Getty Images/AFP
Moussa Diaby (C) of Leverkusen breaks through the defense from Ryan Sessegnon (L) and Pavel Kaderabek of Hoffenheim during a German Bundesliga match between TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and Bayer 04 Leverkusen in Sinsheim, Germany, April 12, 2021. (Photo by Ulrich Hufnagel/Xinhua)
A Palestinian man sells dates at a market in the West Bank city of Nablus ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, on April 12, 2021. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)
In this picture taken with a slow shutter speed, far smaller crowds than usual of Muslim pilgrims circumambulate the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, as they keep social distancing during the minor pilgrimage, known as Umrah, marking the holy month of Ramadan, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, April 12, 2021. During Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar, Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from dawn to dusk. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
People hold pictures as they attend a rally for women's rights protection in Bishkek, on April 8, 2021. - Hundreds of people rallied in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek on Thursday calling for police chiefs to be sacked after a young woman abducted for marriage was found dead in a country where bride kidnapping is systemic. (Photo by VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO / AFP)
South Korean women soccer team's Lee Young-ju, right, and Lee Seon-joo jump for the ball to fight against China's Wang Shanshan during their Asian qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at the Goyang stadium in Goyang, South Korea, Thursday, April 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
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| Facebook says it will lift a ban on Australian news Josh Edelson AFP/File |
SYDNEY, Feb. 23 : (AFP) - Facebook said Tuesday it will lift a contentious ban on Australian news pages, after the government agreed to amend a world-first law requiring tech giants to pay media companies.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook said a compromise had been reached on key aspects of the law, which was fiercely opposed by the tech companies.
"As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism, and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days," said Will Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia.
The social media firm sparked global outrage last week by blacking out news for its Australian users and inadvertently blocking a series of non-news Facebook pages linked to everything from cancer charities to emergency response services.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison had angrily accused Facebook of making a decision to "unfriend" Australia.
But the last minute compromise -- as parliament looks set to pass the law this week -- means that Facebook and Google, which was also targetted, will not be penalised so long as they reach some deals with local media firms to pay for news. They will also get an additional two months to broker those agreements.
"We're pleased that we've been able to reach an agreement with the Australian government and appreciate the constructive discussions we've had" said Easton.
- Precedent-setting -
The tech firms had fiercely opposed the legislation from the get-go, fearing it would create international precedent that would threaten their business models.
"There is no doubt that Australia has been a proxy battle for the world," said Frydenberg. In particular, the companies objected to rules that made negotiations with media companies mandatory and gave an independent Australian arbiter the right to impose a settlement.
Google was keen to avoid creating a precedent that platforms should pay anyone for links, something they could make their flagship search engine unworkable.
Facebook -- which is much less reliant on news content -- had said being forced to pay for news was simply not worth it. "We have come to an agreement that will allow us to support the publishers we choose to, including small and local publishers," said Facebook vice president for global news partnerships Campbell Brown.
Despite earlier threats to pull its services from Australia over the legislation, Google had already softened its stance and brokered deals worth millions of dollars with a host of local media companies, including the two largest: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Nine Entertainment. Facebook and Google still face the prospect of having to agree deals with media around the world, as the European Union, Canada and other jurisdictions move to regulate the sector.
Since their emergence around the turn of the century, Google and Facebook have been largely unregulated and have grown into two of the world's largest and most profitable companies. But a string of scandals about misinformation, privacy violations, data harvesting and their virtual monopoly on online advertising has triggered the attention of watchdogs.
For every $100 spent by Australian advertisers today, $49 goes to Google and $24 to Facebook, according to the country's competition watchdog. Critics of the law have said it is punishing successful companies and amounts to a money grab by struggling but politically connected traditional media.
They also lament that there is no requirement in the law that money gained by the media companies from Facebook and Google be spent on expanding public interest journalism rather than just boost profits.
Thousands of journalism jobs and scores of news outlets have been lost in Australia alone over the past decade as the sector watched advertising revenue flow to the digital players. RSS
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| Mate 2 runs on Huawei's most advanced processor chip, the Kirin 9000. | credit: economictimes |
BEIJING,Feb. 23 : (AP) - Struggling under U.S. sanctions, Huawei unveiled a folding smartphone with an 8-inch (20-centimeter) -wide screen Monday to show off its tech prowess but said it will be sold only in China.
The Mate X2 highlights the challenges for Huawei Technologies Ltd. after Washington cut off access to U.S. processor chips and Google services. Last year, Huawei fell from the top-selling global smartphone brand to sixth place.
Huawei says the Mate X2, its third folding phone, has crisper visuals and better sound for movies and games. It runs on Huawei’s most advanced processor chip, the Kirin 9000.
The phone offers “a truly immersive experience,” the president of Huawei’s consumer unit, Richard Yu, said at a launch event broadcast online.
Huawei, China's first global tech brand, was battered by being put on an export blacklist by then-President Donald Trump in 2019 as a security risk, an accusation the company denies. Huawei sold its budget-priced Honor smartphone brand in November to focus resources on higher-end models. The Mate X2 will start at 17,999 yuan ($2,785), according to Yu.
Monday’s launch “says a lot about how it still wants to trumpet its advances in technology, even if commercially speaking, its shipments will be severely hampered,” said Bryan Ma of IDC in an email.
Executives said earlier Huawei stockpiled chips and other components in preparation for a possible U.S. cutoff. It isn't clear how long those supplies might last.
Huawei designed the Kirin line that powers its most advanced smartphones but relies on outside manufacturers including Taiwan's TSMC to make them.
The Trump administration stepped up sanctions last year by blocking TSMC and other global producers from using U.S. technology to make chips for Huawei, including those designed by the company.
Chinese officials accuse Washington of abusing national security complaints to suppress rising technology competitors. Huawei denies accusations it might facilitate Chinese spying.
Without Google music and other services preinstalled, Huawei’s smartphone sales, including Honor, fell 22% last year to 188.5 million, according to Canalys.
Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, said Feb. 9 he didn’t expect new U.S. President Joe Biden to lift Trump’s sanctions but expressed confidence the company can survive. Huawei, headquartered in Shenzhen in southern China, also is the biggest global maker of switching equipment for phone networks.
Huawei’s smartphone unit depends increasingly on its home China market, which accounts for more than 70% of sales, up from 50% in 2019. The loss of Google services had no impact in China, where they aren’t licensed and Huawei already used local alternatives.
China’s ruling Communist Party has spent billions of dollars trying to build its own chip industry. But domestic producers lack the technology to manufacture chips for Huawei’s most advanced products.
“The bigger question is more about how long their current stockpile of components will last them,” said IDC’s Ma.
Huawei has yet to report 2020 sales and profit, but Ren, the founder, said they were better than the previous year. Huawei said revenue for the first nine months of 2020 rose 9.9% to 671.3 billion yuan ($100.4 billion).
Argentina goalkeeper Laurina Oliveros (12) makes a save on a kick by Canada defender Shelina Zadorsky (4) during the second half of a SheBelieves Cup women's soccer match, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Color Out of Space 2019 Dual Audio ORG Hindi 720p BluRay 1GB ESubs
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Color Out of Space 2019
Color Out of Space 2019 Dual Audio ORG Hindi 720p BluRay 1GB ESubs
IMDb: 6.2/10 || Size: 1GB || Language: Hindi+English (Original DD5.1Ch Audios)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Quality: 720p BluRay
Director: Richard Stanley
Writers: Scarlett Amaris, H.P. Lovecraft
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur
Storyline: A secluded farm is struck by a strange meteorite which has apocalyptic consequences for the family living there and possibly the world.
