SRINAGAR: In order to curb overcharging by auto-rickshaw drivers in Srinagar city, the Regional Transport Officer Kashmir has urged the public to use Google Maps to check their travel distance and pay according to the rates set by the transport department. Several complaints have been received about drivers overcharging passengers without justification.
According to Syed Shahnawaz Bukhari, a rate list is readily available on the transport department’s website. For the first 2 kilometres, commuters should pay Rs 39 to the auto-rickshaw driver, and after that, the driver can charge Rs 17 per kilometre. “In this era of technology, it is not difficult for people to assert their rights. Commuters can simply use Google Maps to monitor travel distance,” said Bukhari.
There are over 3500 auto-rickshaws in the city, making it challenging for the RTO Kashmir to hold drivers accountable on a daily basis. “Before taking a seat in an auto-rickshaw, commuters should check the travel distance. Google Maps will assist them, and they should pay based on the total distance travelled. For example, when travelling from Dalgate to Lal Bazaar, use Google Maps to determine the distance and pay the driver accordingly,” Bukhari said.
Any violations by auto drivers can be reported to the Regional Transport Office, and action will be taken, said Bukhari. While there is a proposal to install meters in autos, the use of Google Maps is the best option for commuters in the absence of a fare meter, he added. “I appeal to the public to make use of technology, know about the distance they travel, pay Rs 39 for the first 2 kilometres, and add Rs 17 for subsequent kilometres. Education is key, and the general public must assert their rights,” Bukhari concluded. [KNT]
For more than 80 days, Mariupol endured a brutal and unrelenting bombardment, as Russian forces determined to take the port city reduced much of it to rubble.
In March 2022, a few days after the war began, Russian forces cut off electricity, water and gas supplies, forcing residents to melt snow for water and cook outside over open flames. Mariupol was encircled and the relentless bombing of the city began.
After a maternity ward was shelled and images of bloodied, heavily pregnant women were broadcast across the world, the siege of Mariupol became emblematic of the brutality of the Russian invasion.
Updated satellite imagery from Google Maps has revealed the scale of the destruction across large sections of the Ukrainian city – and the Russian efforts to erase any evidence of the atrocities that took place there.
Google maps imagery shows the Ukrainian city of Mariupol before and after the Russian invasionGoogle maps imagery from the centre of Mariupol
Weeks into the siege, as homes became uninhabitable and routes out of the city were closed off, many residents moved into public shelters. More than a thousand took refuge in the central drama theatre, which had once been a focal point of city life.
As more residents gathered in the basement, someone spelled out the word DETI – children – in giant Russian letters in front of the building.
Around 10am on 16 March, Russia bombed the building. It’s thought that about 1,200 people were inside. At the time, authorities said 300 people had been killed, but the Associated Press said their investigations put the number closer to 600.
Amnesty International condemned the bombing as “a clear war crime”. By December, Russia had begun to demolish the building’s remains. Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the city’s exiled mayor, has said Russia destroyed what remained of the theatre to “hide war crimes”.
Google maps imagery shows the Ukrainian city of Mariupol before and after the Russian invasionMariupol’s drama theatre, the site of one of the most deadly single attacks of the war
In mid-April, all remaining Ukrainian troops defending the city were ordered to regroup at Azovstal, the city’s huge steel plant. The factory’s employees and their families also took refuge there, where they became the target of heavy bombardment for a number of weeks.
After some time, food and water began to grow scarce and the plight of those sheltering at Azovstal became the centre of international attention. On 1 May, the UN and Red Cross facilitated an agreement that secured the release of the civilians; and then two weeks later the remaining troops were ordered to surrender.
A total of 2,439 fighters gave themselves up to the Russian forces outside the plant and with that, the city of Mariupol had finally fallen.
Google maps imagery shows the Ukrainian city of Mariupol before and after the Russian invasionMariupol’s Azovstal steel plant where thousands of Ukrainian civilians and troops took shelter
Mariupol’s suburbs were not spared, with the latest images showing the extent of the damage to residential areas.
46% of the city’s building were damaged or destroyed in the siege, according to one estimate. In a city that was once home to more than 400,000, the UN estimates that up to 90% of its multi-storey residential building have been damaged or destroyed.
Google maps imagery shows the Ukrainian city of Mariupol before and after the Russian invasionResidential housing in Mariupol’s east
Andryushchenko estimates that the updated Google satellite images were captured on different dates after March 2022. Writing on Telegram, he has claimed that the pictures reveal a new mass burial site at the city’s Novotroitsky cemetery.
Associated Press has reported that at least 10,000 new graves are scattered across the city and the death toll is estimated to be at least 25,000.
Google maps imagery shows the Ukrainian city of Mariupol before and after the Russian invasionA former official has claimed Mariupol’s Novotroitsky cemetery is the location of a new mass burial site
In March, Vladimir Putin travelled to Mariupol for the first time since the war began. Russian media reported that he visited several sites, spoke to residents and was presented with a report on the city’s reconstruction.
Russian authorities have said they hope to entice some of the hundreds of thousands who fled to return. They claim that hundreds of apartments have already been rebuilt, but reports from former residents who have returned show that many of the new buildings were built hurriedly and are of poor quality.
Google maps imagery shows the Ukrainian city of Mariupol before and after the Russian invasionDestruction in the centre of Mariupol
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 8 or 9 years old, and adults Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61.
The website of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school founded in 2001, lists a Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the school since July 2016.
Police gave unclear information on the gender of the shooter. For hours, police identified the shooter as a 28-year-old woman and eventually identified the person as Audrey Hale. Then at a late afternoon press conference, the police chief said that Hale was transgender. After the news conference, police spokesperson Don Aaron declined to elaborate on how Hale currently identified.
The attack at The Covenant School — which has about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade, as well as roughly 50 staff members — comes as communities around the nation are reeling from a spate of school violence, including the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year; a first grader who shot his teacher in Virginia; and a shooting last week in Denver that wounded two administrators.
“I was literally moved to tears to see this and the kids as they were being ushered out of the building,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at an afternoon news conference.
Drake did not give a specific motive when asked by reporters but gave chilling examples of the shooter’s prior planning for the targeted attack.
“We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident,” he said. “We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”
The Covenant School was founded as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church. The affluent Green Hills neighborhood just south of downtown Nashville, where the Covenant School is located, is home to the famed Bluebird Café – a beloved spot for musicians and song writers.
President Joe Biden, speaking at an unrelated event at the White House on Monday, called the shooting a “family’s worst nightmare” and implored Congress again to pass a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons.
“It’s ripping at the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of this nation,” Biden said.
There have been seven mass killings at K-12 schools since 2006 in which four or more people were killed within a 24-hour period, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. In all of them, the shooters were males.
The database does not include school shootings in which fewer than four people were killed, which have become far more common in recent years. Just last week alone, for example, school shootings happened in Denver and the Dallas-area within two days of each other.
Monday’s tragedy unfolded over roughly 14 minutes. Police received the initial call about an active shooter at 10:13 a.m.
Officers began clearing the first story of the school when they heard gunshots coming from the second level, police spokesperson Don Aaron said during a news briefing.
Two officers from a five-member team opened fire in response, fatally shooting the suspect at 10:27 a.m., Aaron said. One officer had a hand wound from cut glass.
Aaron said there were no police officers present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.
Other students walked to safety Monday, holding hands as they left their school surrounded by police cars, to a nearby church to be reunited with their parents.
Rachel Dibble, who was at the church as families found their children, described the scene as everyone being in “complete shock.”
“People were involuntarily trembling,” said Dibble, whose children attend a different private school in Nashville. “The children … started their morning in their cute little uniforms, they probably had some Froot Loops and now their whole lives changed today.”
Dr. Shamendar Talwar, a social psychologist from the United Kingdom who is working on an unrelated mental health project in Nashville, raced to the church as soon as he heard news of the shooting to offer help. He said he was one of several chaplains, psychologists, life coaches and clergy inside supporting the families.
“All you can show is that the human spirit that basically that we are all here together … and hold their hand more than anything else,” he said.
Jozen Reodica heard the police sirens and fire trucks blaring from outside her office building nearby. As her building was placed under lockdown, she took out her phone and recorded the chaos.
“I thought I would just see this on TV,” she said. “And right now, it’s real.”
From her office nearby, Kelly Stooksberry could see parents rushing to park their cars on the side of the road before sprinting to locate their children. She saw one woman fall to her knees and grab her chest.
“It was gut-wrenching,” she said.
Top legislative leaders announced Monday that the GOP-dominant Statehouse would meet briefly later in the evening and delay taking up any legislation.
“In a tragic morning, Nashville joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience a school shooting,” Mayor John Cooper wrote on Twitter.
Nashville has seen its share of mass violence in recent years, including a Christmas Day 2020 attack where a recreational vehicle was intentionally detonated in the heart of Music City’s historic downtown, killing the bomber, injuring three others and forcing more than 60 businesses to close.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
A lawsuit targeting Google Maps could be filed this year, three people with knowledge said. The investigation is ongoing, and no decision has been made on whether to file a case or on what to include in a complaint, those three people said.
The timing of antitrust cases such as this is always shifting and often delayed. Unlike merger reviews, other antitrust cases are not subject to any time constraints. Reports that the DOJ was preparing an advertising-focused case against Google date back to 2020, but it took more than two more years before a lawsuit materialized. Still, the map investigation is a priority for the department’s antitrust division, and prosecutors are working quickly to reach a conclusion, the people said.
The investigation is broadly focused on Google’s control of digital maps and location data, in this instance the precise location of a host of different places, which is a key part of its search results, the people said.
A lawsuit challenging Google’s maps business would open up an unprecedented third front in as many years in the Justice Department’s antitrust war against the company.
The investigations date back to the Trump Justice Department when it opened a wide-ranging antitrust probe into every part of the company’s business in early 2019.
The DOJ and a group of state attorneys general first sued Google in October 2020, accusing the company of illegally monopolizing the online search market. That case is currently set to go to trial in September. Then in January, Google was hit with a second case from the DOJ and an overlapping group of states targeting its online advertising business.
Google is also facing an advertising-related lawsuit from a Texas-led group of states, and litigation over conduct involving its Google Play mobile app store from a Utah-led group of states. The latter is also slated for trial in the Fall.
A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment.
Google’s trove of map data is often used in search queries, such as “pizza near me.” However, Google Maps is also a key part of the underlying technology used in apps such as delivery services and ride-share companies.
The DOJ is examining whether Google illegally forces app developers to use its mapping and search products as a bundle, rather than choose competing options for different services, the people said. For example, Google has extensive data on the locations of businesses and other places, and prosecutors are examining how the company may prevent developers from using that data with a competing mapping service.
Google has said its policies are designed to improve user experience, saying that combining Google and non-Google information could cause errors and safety risks. It also says it licenses some mapping data from third parties and faces restrictions on how that data can be shared.
“Developers choose to use Google Maps Platform out of many options because they recognize it provides helpful, high-quality information,” said Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels. “They are also free to use other mapping services in addition to Google Maps Platform — and many do.”
The DOJ is also scrutinizing the Google Automotive Services offering for automakers, which packages together Google Maps with the Google Play app store and the company’s voice assistant, the people said. It can be difficult for carmakers and the companies that manufacture the information and entertainment systems to mix products and services such as voice assistants offered by competing companies if they also use Google Maps.
“There is enormous competition in the connected car space, including an array of companies offering car infotainment systems,” Schottenfels said, including hundreds of car models supporting Apple CarPlay and Amazon Alexa. “Even if automakers choose Android Automotive OS, they aren’t required to use Google Automotive Services for their cars.”
Reuters earlier reported on some parts of the DOJ investigation. Germany’s antitrust authority is also investigating Google’s mapping business.
Google’s mapping business has also faced congressional scrutiny. According to the House Judiciary Committee’s 2020 staff report on antitrust issues in the tech sector, Google is “effectively forcing [developers] to choose whether they will use all of Google’s mapping services or none of them.”
The government is also scrutinizing contract provisions that require customers to share app data with Google. As an example, Google requires food delivery apps to share data on customer searches and deliveries.
The House report also goes into detail on how Google built its map business through acquisitions, including its 2013 purchase of competitor Waze. Those deals could also get attention in an eventual lawsuit.
The DOJ’s advertising case filed in January focused heavily on a number of Google’s acquisitions in that sector, and is seeking to break up major parts of the company’s ad business.
Jonathan Kanter, the DOJ’s antitrust head — and a longtime critic of Google while in private practice — has said the largest tech companies are looking to use their various lines of business to boost their monopoly power in a core market, in this case search, as well as leverage that core market power to build dominant positions in new markets.
While all three investigations — search, advertising and maps — are technically separate components of the DOJ’s overarching Google investigation, they highlight how the department views its role in policing fast-moving technology markets.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Amid the ongoing row over the teachers’ training program in Finland between the Lt-Governor and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has alleged that L-G VK Saxena is “trying to stop the file” again. AAP leaders held a protest outside the L-G House over the matter.
The L-G House termed the allegations as “motivated” and “misleading” and asked CM Arvind Kejriwal to show Delhi Teachers Finland on Google Maps. LG also said that by showing teachers Finland on Google Maps and then conducting online session with Finland teachers, Delhi Govt can save over 120 Crores which it can utilise in giving ads across the country.
Social media users extended their support to LG, saying the same Kejriwal had asked Vivek Agnihotri to upload The Kashmir Files on youtube, the same way Delhi teachers can visit Finland through google maps saving crores of taxpayers’ money.
[ Disclaimer: With inputs from The Fauxy, an entertainment portal. The content is purely for entertainment purpose and readers are advised not to confuse the articles as genuine and true, these Articles are Fictitious. ]
