Toronto: Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners (ECP) has acquired MindGeek, owner of adult entertainment platforms like Pornhub, Brazzers and Redtube.
With the support of ECP, MindGeek said it will further its research and adoption of the latest and best available online safety protocols to ensure that it remains a world-class leader in trust and safety and “its platforms are inclusive, sex-positive spaces for adults”.
“In MindGeek, we have identified a dynamic tech brand that is built upon a foundation of trust, safety and compliance, and with ECP’s resources and broad expertise spanning regulatory, law enforcement, public engagement and finance, we have a unique opportunity to strengthen what already exists,” said Fady Mansour, founding partner, ECP.
ECP said the internet should be safe for all – with child protection, intimate image security and digital self-determination at the core.
“MindGeek must play a leading role in the fight against illegal content across the internet,” said the company.
The terms of the transaction were not publicly disclosed.
“We are excited for this next chapter of MindGeek. We look forward to working with the ECP team, and are confident that, with their support, we will continue to revolutionize safe, legal, sex-positive tech, and connect adult users around the globe with creators, content, advertising partners and technology they can trust,” said MindGeek.
Indore: The Indore Development Authority in Madhya Pradesh has pulled up a private firm for allegedly cutting 257 more trees than what was mandated to build a Rs 57 crore flyover in the state’s commercial capital, also the country’s cleanest city for several years in a row.
While 1,320 trees were to be relocated 15 kilometres away to build the flyover at Khajrana Square and 2,640 saplings were to be planted as compensation, the private firm has gone ahead and cut and reduced to stumps 257 trees apart from the marked ones, IDA chairperson Jaypal Singh Chawda said after inspecting the site on Friday.
“It has come to our notice the private firm has cut down 257 more trees than what was needed. IDA will not pay money to the private firm for translocation of these stumps. We had asked them to follow a scientific way of cutting and relocating 10 trees at a time,” Chawda said.
The removal of trees has made the heat unbearable at Khajrana Square, with several labourers at the site ruing the lack of shade.
“We are unable to find shade in this area, especially now when it is so hot and humid,” Rama Bai, a labourer, said.
MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had laid the foundation stone of the flyover in November last year and work is scheduled to be completed in 18 months, an IDA official informed.
New Delhi: India’s drug regulator has directed drug manufacturers not to use propylene glycol supplied by a Delhi-based company which provided the ingredient to Marion Biotech, whose cough syrups were alleged to have led to the deaths of children in Uzbekistan.
Maya Chemtech India Pvt. Ltd. supplied propylene glycol used in Marion Biotech’s cough syrups that were found to be “not of standard quality”, according to the regulator.
Three employees of Marion Biotech were arrested on charges of manufacture and sale of adulterated drugs.
Also, the drugs inspector from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) North Zone last week issued a notice to the pharmaceutical firm asking it to stop the sale and distribution of the drug concerned, stating that the sample was found to be “not of standard quality”.
Uzbekistan alleged in December last year that several children died after consuming Marion Biotech’s cough syrups, which it claimed were contaminated with unacceptable amounts of ethylene glycol or propylene glycol.
According to a communication sent by Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Rajeev Raghuvanshi to the licensing authorities of all states and Union territories on March 7, during the course of investigation a total of 33 samples were drawn by drugs inspectors. The test reports of 30 drug samples have been received, wherein 24 samples were declared as “not of standard quality”.
Also, out of these samples, 22 fall under the category of adulterated/spurious under Sections 17A and 178 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
“It is further informed that M/s Maya Chemtech India Pvt. Ltd…was mainly the supplier of propylene glycol which has been used in the impugned batches. In view of the above, you are requested to issue directions to all manufacturers in your jurisdiction not to use propylene glycol supplied by Maya Chemtech India Pvt,” the DCGI said in the letter.
Accordingly, he also requested them to instruct their enforcement officials to keep strict vigil on the matter and take stringent action as per law against the offenders in public interest.
On January 12, the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued a “medical product alert”, referring to two substandard (contaminated) products, identified in Uzbekistan and reported to it on December 22, 2022.
“The two products are AMBRONOL syrup and DOK-1 Max syrup. The stated manufacturer of both products is MARION BIOTECH PVT. LTD, (Uttar Pradesh, India). To date, the stated manufacturer has not provided guarantees to WHO on the safety and quality of these products,” the WHO had said then.
“Laboratory analysis of samples of both products, undertaken by national quality control laboratories of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan found both products contained unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and/or ethylene glycol as contaminants,” it had noted.
Srinagar, Mar 10: A division bench of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court on Friday requested the single bench to hear and decide afresh petition challenging engagement of Mumbai-based APTECH firm by Jammu & Kashmir administration for conducting job tests.
It set aside the single bench order cancelling allotment of contract to the firm and maintained its interim directions shall remain in force.
The division comprising Justice Tabi Rabistan and Justice M.A Choudhary today remitted the writ petition back to the writ court for deciding the matter afresh.
“……Therefore, in view of what has been discussed above, we, without discussing the merits of the case, deem it proper to dispose of the appeals and remit the writ petition back to the Writ Court for deciding the matter afresh. Ordered accordingly. Accordingly, the order and judgment impugned is hereby set aside, the writ petition is restored to its original number and the writ petition is remitted back to the learned Single Judge with a request to decide the matter afresh. Writ respondents through their learned counsel are directed to file objections/counter to the writ petition within two weeks from today, thereafter, rejoinder, if any, to be filed within next one week. Registry is directed to list the writ petition before the learned Single Judge on 5th of April, 2023, when the learned Single Judge is requested to finally decide the writ petition. Till then interim direction dated 09.12.2022 shall remain in force,” reads the order, a copy of which is in possession of news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO)
In its interim directions on December 09, the DB had directed that Services Selection Board shall proceed with the selection process of Junior Engineer (Jal Shakti Department) and Sub-Inspector (Home Department), however, the result of the same shall await further orders from this Court—(KNO)
The fire TikTok has faced in D.C. has been building for a number of years after the Trump administration tried to ban the app. It has continued with the Biden administration’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. conducting a national security review of TikTok.
SKDK is seen as the most well-connected Democratic firm in Washington with former top employees in senior and mid-level roles in the Biden administration. Anita Dunn, a founding partner, returned to the White House last May where she is senior adviser after a stint in the early part of the Biden administration and work on the 2020 campaign. Other former SKDK employees in the Biden administration include deputy White House communications directors Kate Berner and Herbie Ziskend, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh and Interior Department press secretary Tyler Cherry.
While it has thrived in the Biden era, SKDK has also faced additional scrutiny for its clients. It parted ways with Starbucks last year as the coffee company tried to fend off a union organizing effort. As of 2021, the firm worked for Amazon as well but it’s unclear whether the two companies still have a relationship.
Last year, Dunn said in financial disclosure documents that she had advised a number of blue-chip American companies in the previous two years who have business before the government, including AT&T, Lyft, Pfizer and Salesforce. The firm, which is owned by the Stagwell Group, has long emphasized that it doesn’t lobby the federal government or represent companies on issues before the government.
The bill introduced by a bipartisan group of senators that could affect TikTok is supported by the White House. It would give the federal government new powers to restrict, and potentially ban, technologies from China and other nations designated as U.S. adversaries, although such an action would face howls from advocates of free speech. TikTok is seen as one of the technologies that is helping prompt that action from Congress given the worries that the Chinese government could one day use data from its millions of American users.
To try to mitigate federal government action against TikTok, the app’s Chinese owner ByteDance has spent more than $13 million on lobbying since 2019 and has hired several dozen lobbyists, including former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and John Breaux Sr. (R-La.), who work for Crossroads Strategies, as well as former Reps. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), who currently work for K&L Gates.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“It’s been a joke that the only advice on how to raise more money online is to endorse the furthest left policy,” Karp said in an interview. “And for some candidates, that might be OK, but for many it’s not.”
They entered a crowded Democratic digital fundraising world where high-profile campaigns have seen immense fundraising success over the past few election cycles, with mixed electoral results. Amid that landscape is some reckoning with the ways in which the constant stream of fundraising texts and emails may have some negative impact on donor and voter morale, although such effects are difficult to measure.
Democratic campaigns have raised record sums online over the last few cycles. In the 10 most competitive U.S. Senate races in 2022, Democratic candidates outraised their Republican counterparts. But while the party’s donor base — which runs to the left of the Democratic party as a whole — has helped fuel campaigns across the country, the emphasis on raising money can also come at a cost if the tactics that may allow candidates to bring in big bucks are not aligned with those to help them win over voters in their state or district.
“What we’re aiming to do is raise money in a way that doesn’t pose electoral risks,” Carroll said.
The trio pointed to a need for greater integration between digital fundraising and other components of a campaign. Email lists, Carroll noted, should be treated not as a “piggy bank” but a list of committed followers, who might appreciate campaign updates and news clips. Donors, he added, are people who campaigns need to think of as potential volunteers and eventual voters as well.
Campaigns have a range of ways of getting their message out, including fundraising texts and emails, paid advertising and earned media. In some cases, those operations are run separately from one another. But voters and donors who are on the receiving end of constant communications do not necessarily distinguish between the ways they hear about a candidate, noted Hughes. And donors are more likely to donate to candidates who share a compelling story and build a brand, not just those who send the most emails or text messages.
“These people who are experiencing your email program are also experiencing what they’re seeing on MSNBC, they’re also experiencing the contact that they’re getting at the doors,” Hughes said. “And it’s important to treat them that way.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Mumbai: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered a highway construction company to pay Rs 55.47 crore for causing environmental damage by illegally excavating stone, sand and murram for its projects in the Nashik and Hingoli districts of Maharashtra.
In two separate orders on February 22, NGT’s western zone bench in Pune directed Rajendrasinh Bhamboo Infra Private Limited to pay Rs 36.35 crore and Rs 19.12 crore to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board within a month. The detailed orders were made available recently.
“We find that since the activity of mining has been conducted by the project proponent (Rajendrasinh Bhamboo Infra) without taking prior environmental clearance, the same is treated to be a violation which impacts the environment adversely,” said the green tribunal in one of its orders.
One Dattatraya Phalke had filed pleas with the tribunal saying that the company be blacklisted for having repeatedly “violated environmental norms for its commercial benefits”.
The tribunal had earlier punished the company by imposing “environmental compensation” but it continues to violate the environmental norms, said petitioner Phalke.
As per the pleas, the firm deliberately did not obtain “prior environmental clearance for its project at Kalamnuri in Hingoli and has illegally excavated more than 4,50,000 brass of stones, murom and sand”.
For its project at Nandgaon in Nashik district, the company has carried out illegal mining of 25,000 brass of similar construction materials, the plea added.
The Dubai-based public relations agency, which announced a first-of-its-kind policy to support its female employees by offering paid leave for fertility-based treatments, menopause, and period-related leave, received more than 1,000 job applications in less than 24 hours.
On Tuesday, February 28, TishTash Communications, headquartered in Dubai, announced that its staff will receive paid leave for menstrual and menopause, in addition to a variety of other women’s health needs.
According to it, staff members can avail of up to six days of menopause (and menstrual) leave per year, which is not part of the employees’ personal or sick leave.
According to TishTash Communications, recent research shows menopausal symptoms are forcing women out of the workforce, with nearly a million women leaving their professions due to unmanageable symptoms.
The agency notes that more than 10 of its team members range in age from 35-45, and because of TishTash is an all-female workforce, the agency strives to create a culture that encourages open and safe conversations about both menopause and menstruation.
“I can’t reply fast enough,” said Natasha Hatherall, Founder and CEO of TishTash Communications told Khaleej Times.
The agency also received over 100 phone calls at the front desk asking if the company was hiring.
Natasha on Wednesday took to Linkedin and wrote,
“Less than 24 hours since we made this announcement at TishTash Communications and we have received over 1000 job applications and our office phone has not stopped ringing.”
“Some of the applications are so searingly honest from women describing how they are literally crippled with endometriosis at their desk but are working in companies where they fear calling in sick, especially with “women problems” for losing their jobs.”
“The need to work in a company where it is “ok” to be a woman and all that comes with that is massive and I thought I had insight before today, but the hundreds of applications and personal messages I’ve received across social media show me maybe we haven’t touched the half it it.”
“As ever, for us it is not just about creating headlines and driving awareness on topics close to our hearts, but it is about walking the walk and continuing to do so and this is what Polly Willams and I are committed to at TishTash.”
“We hope others may listen and take action to create change with us.”
Natasha has also received many notes praising the move on Linkedin.
The Science Museum in London signed a sponsorship contract containing a gagging clause with the Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor, agreeing to take care not to say anything that could damage the firm’s reputation, it can be revealed.
The agreement, a copy of which was obtained by the Guardian and the investigative journalism organisation Point Source, concerned sponsorship of the museum’s current Wonderlab exhibition.
It stated that the Science Museum and its trustees must take reasonable care to “not at any time” during the exhibition term “make any statement or issue any publicity or otherwise be involved in any conduct or matter that may reasonably be foreseen as discrediting or damaging the goodwill or reputation of the sponsor”.
The inclusion of the so-called non-disparagement clause has led to accusations of greenwashing from environmental groups.
Equinor was known as Statoil until it changed its name in 2018. This month it was accused of “profiteering” from the energy crisis and higher household bills after posting record annual earnings of £62bn.
During the fourth quarter of 2022 it produced the equivalent of 2,046m barrels of oil a day. It has oil and gas assets in the North Sea, Brazil, Algeria, Angola, Nigeria and Tanzania.
Equinor and the Science Museum declined to reveal how much the oil company paid to sponsor the Wonderlab exhibition.
Environmental groups claim the Science Museum has lost its ability to honestly discuss the true impact of the oil and gas sector on the environment because of gagging clauses it has signed with big businesses.
In 2021, two prominent scientists refused to allow their work to be included in the Science Museum’s collection after it was revealed that the institution had signed a similar contract with Shell.
Steve and Dee Allen, global plastic pollution researchers, say the museum’s deals with fossil fuel companies such as Shell and Equinor mean it is no longer a credible scientific institution.
Commenting on the latest revelations, Steve Allen said: “Scientists cannot support these gagging clauses. It’s simply not tenable, because our job is to report how the world really is, to the best of our knowledge. We have to tell the whole truth, not just what is acceptable to the oil and gas industry.
“Even if the Science Museum completely cut its ties to the oil and gas industry today, I think the damage done to the institution’s credibility is going to take a very long time to repair.”
Robin Wells, a spokesperson for the campaign group Fossil Free London, said: “The idea that it is still acceptable for public institutions like the Science Museum to accept undisclosed amounts of money from big oil and gas companies like Equinor is very disappointing.
“The corrupting influence of oil and gas companies on public discourse about climate change has been repeatedly demonstrated over past decades.”
Dr Chris Garrard, a co-director of the campaign group Culture Unstained, said: “These clauses are deeply troubling, particularly when it comes to deals with unethical companies like fossil fuel companies, because it undermines the independence and integrity of public institutions.”
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While museums routinely state that large corporate sponsors do not exert any editorial influence over exhibitions, in 2015 the Guardian revealed that Shell had tried to influence the presentation of a climate change programme it was sponsoring at the Science Museum.
Internal documents showed that the oil company raised concerns that part of the programme created “an opportunity for NGOs to talk about some of the issues that concern them around Shell’s operations”.
A spokesperson for the Science Museum said: “At all times the Science Museum retains editorial control of the content within our exhibitions and galleries, and this is asserted clearly and unambiguously in all contracts we sign.”
On the use of gagging clauses, the spokesperson said the museum had decided “to no longer include them in new agreements”.
Equinor said: “The clause you are referring to is a standard clause included by the museum in the contract – it is not something we have asked to be included.”
It said that although its name remained attached to the Wonderlab exhibition on signage and on the Science Museum website, the term of the sponsorship agreement ended in March 2022.
Equinor supplies about a quarter of Britain’s gas, and it hopes to develop the Rosebank field to the west of Shetland, despite opposition from climate protesters. A final investment decision on the UK’s largest undeveloped oilfield is expected this year.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday asked APDR to serve a copy of its public interest litigation (PIL) to Adani Power Ltd, where the rights body alleged that power transmission towers of the company in West Bengal’s Farakka were constructed without paying due compensation for land.
The lawyer for Adani Power, who was present in the court, claimed that the project’s work for setting up the transmission lines for the export of electricity from its plant at Godda in Jharkhand to Bangladesh started in 2018.
Anuj Singh, the lawyer for the company, submitted before the court that it has not yet received a copy of the petition from APDR (Association for Protection of Democratic Rights).
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj directed the petitioner to serve a copy of the petition to the company and fixed February 20 for the hearing of the case.
The petitioner’s lawyer claimed that around 35 owners of mango and lychee orchards suffered loss of livelihoods owing to the setting up of the towers, alleging that they have not been given compensation for the land taken from them for the purpose.
They also alleged that many mango and lychee trees were felled but the owners were not compensated for that as well.
The company’s lawyer claimed that the compensation offered was disputed and refused by the land owners and as such, they should have approached the district magistrate of Murshidabad, where Farakka is located, for adjudication.
