Tag: puts

Si Jiahui leads Brecel in Crucible semi-final while Allen puts heat on Selby

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Chinese youngster Si Jiahui leads Luca Brecel 5-3 at the end of an intriguing first session of their world championship semi-final.
The 20-year-old, the first debutant to reach the last four since Andy Hicks in 1995, lost the first frame, but produced back-to-back clearances of 125, 102 and 97 to punish Brecel for errors with a near-faultless display of break building. However the Belgian, who beat seven-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in the last eight, scrapped his way back to 4-3 before succumbing in a nail-biting conclusion to the afternoon’s play.
In a scrappy start, Brecel enjoyed the benefit of an outrageous fluke when he rattled the pink in the jaws and saw the ball run the length of the table down the cushion before dropping in. He went on to make 50 before missing the blue off its spot although Si – the youngest semi-finalist at the tournament since O’Sullivan in 1996 – was unable to prevent him from going ahead.
However, the youngster announced himself in style in the second frame, sinking a tough red to get in before compiling an imperious 125 break. And he repeated the feat to take a 2-1 lead when, after Brecel had missed the yellow at 33-0, he cleared the table once again.
Si eased himself 3-1 in front at the mid-session interval after an arm-wrestle in the fourth frame with both players twice missing difficult reds to the middle pockets before he prevailed 103-29 courtesy of a break of 97. The world No 80 stuttered briefly, missing a regulation red as he applied right-hand side to the cue-ball in an effort to develop the pack after Brecel had erred once again, but eventually tied up an untidy fifth frame 103-3.
Si’s first error of note arrived in the next when, 53 points into another seemingly decisive break, he jawed the black to allow his opponent to the table, and Brecel’s break of 72 stopped the rot.
Having benefited from a mistake, Brecel handed it back almost immediately, following up a good long red with a careless blue, but the Chinese player was equally profligate, leaving himself unable to see a colour as he attempted to develop the pack before taking seven attempts to hit the nominated brown. A second snooker and three more misses yielded 12 more points to leave the 28-year-old 38-33 ahead, and he eventually drew back to within one frame of his opponent with a visit of 69.
The final frame of the session unfolded with a sustained safety exchange, but it was Brecel who made the first move with a break of 33 before inexplicably missing the pink – although Si faltered at 43-34. Brecel then rattled a pink towards the top pocket which, had it gone in, would have levelled the match at 4-4, but it rolled agonisingly over left-middle, allowing the younger man to go two in front again.

Mark Allen finished the opening stanza of the other semi-final against Mark Selby on a roll, winning the final three frames to lead 5-3 overnight.
A 123 clearance gave Selby the ideal start but uncharacteristic errors in the safety battles in the next two frames allowed his Northern Irish opponent to take control with breaks of 63 and 66. Selby missed a black off its spot in the fourth frame but still went into the mid-session interval level at 2-2 as it was Allen’s turn to fluff his lines in a tactical exchange.
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A break of 68 moved Selby into the lead in an ebb-and-flow session and while Allen levelled, there was a hint of controversy when replays showed he grazed the red he was bridging over to make a tough pot. The referee did not spot the foul while Allen did not acknowledge it either so – with players so scrupulous in calling to attention any wrongdoing when they are at the table – the suggestion was the left-hander, who has won three ranking events this season, was oblivious to what he had done.
Selby did have a visit to the table thereafter but his rival’s break of 64 left him well adrift and Allen quickly wrapped up the frame. Allen then finished the session with breaks of 60 and 78 to seize the initiative.
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#Jiahui #leads #Brecel #Crucible #semifinal #Allen #puts #heat #Selby
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 28, 2023
GOP puts MTG ‘on an island’ over Pentagon leaker case

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“It’s a separate conversation whether a lot of this stuff is over-classified — that’s probably true. And it’s a separate conversation about whether or not this administration has misled the public about what’s happening in Ukraine — that’s probably true,” Hawley said.
The influential conservative added that claims Teixeira has “exposed stuff the public should know’” might be “fair enough, but is the way he did it the right way to do it? No.”
As lawmakers received their first detailed classified briefing on the case Wednesday, the degree to which Greene stands alone marks a significant line in the sand for a Republican Party that’s increasingly split over commitment to defending Ukraine against Russia. Regardless of their stance on the Ukraine war, and on over-classification across the government, GOP lawmakers across the ideological spectrum agree that Teixeira should be held to account.
“They’re on an island with regard to serious policy people,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said in an interview regarding Greene and Carlson. “Unfortunately, they’re on an island of influence. But there’s not a lot you can do about that.”
The FBI arrested Teixeira over his alleged involvement in the leak of the classified documents last week. The documents included sensitive intelligence on Ukraine’s spring plans in its war against Russia, as well as a trove of other information on global hotspots. Teixeira has since been charged with two federal crimes over his actions, which have attracted attention from the highest levels of the federal government.
Senators left their briefing saying it revealed little new information. But many suggested the scope of the breach indicated Congress would have to step in to revamp how the federal government handles classified information. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters he thought “there have to be some improvements” without elaborating what those would be, and Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) noted that “I think it’s time that Congress has got to step in.”
“I didn’t learn much more than they’ve already leaked,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said after the briefing, echoing the comments of other Republicans.
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he still had a lengthy list of questions and he “wasn’t satisfied with any plans they have in place to prevent this from happening in the future.”

“The core challenge we have on our hands right now is whether Congress is going to — on a bipartisan basis — assert not just our right, but our obligation, to come together to conduct oversight over these agencies, which we cannot do without full access,” he said. “It’s getting harder every day and cases like this make it even worse.”
Top officials who briefed lawmakers on the leak included Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and others in the intelligence and defense communities.
Earlier Wednesday, Warner and Rubio sent a joint letter to Haines and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin demanding a host of information about the leak. Among their requests: copies of all documents obtained and disseminated by Teixeira; details on why it took so long for the government to identify the leak; and whether the airman should have had access to the classified information.
Rubio said in an interview earlier in the week that time would reveal the leaker’s motives but added that his alleged actions were indefensible.
“It was illegal. It was a crime,” Rubio said. “I can’t be supportive of someone committing a crime.”
Greene, for her part, called Teixeira “white, male, christian, and antiwar” and asked who is “the real enemy” in an April 13 tweet. She moderated her defense slightly in a Monday appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast, saying the leaker has “got to face some penalties for what he’s done — I’m not saying he shouldn’t,” but insisting that more of the U.S. actions in Ukraine should be exposed.
Carlson, in response to the leak, said at the top of his April 13 show that “telling the truth is the only real sin” in Washington.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was the first to publicly bash Greene, accusing her of making “one of the most irresponsible statements you could make” in defense of the young guardsman.
And a flurry of congressional Republicans also made clear that viewing Teixeira’s alleged actions in the context of his criticism of U.S. involvement in the Ukraine war is a mistake, given that the leak endangered lives in various conflicts.
“In terms of defending him as a hero, he’s anything but that,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “He’s compromised our sources and methods. He’s compromised American lives on the ground — our assets on the ground that report intelligence to us.”
Even those Republicans skeptical of government actions in intelligence gathering wouldn’t back Greene’s position carte blanche. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he wasn’t familiar with the specifics of Teixeira’s case, noting it did not appear to be an “organized thing,” but said he saw it differently from that of Edward Snowden, whom Paul described as a whistleblower routing material through the media.
“There have to be rules about releasing information, but I think also there sometimes are hard questions,” he said in an interview, noting he was not making an analogy between the two cases.
Democrats, across the board, bashed Greene and Carlson for offering any sort of political cover for the actions of the leaker.
“I don’t know which nation-state they’re loyal to,” Warner said.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are broadly interested in revisiting how much information is classified by the federal government, as well as how many people have access to it, in light of Teixeira’s alleged leaks. They predicted the episode would inject bipartisan momentum into legislation revisiting classification procedures.
In addition, Congress has begun to investigate the leaks. House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Intelligence Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) pressed the Defense Department for information about the disclosures in a Tuesday letter.
While that oversight moves ahead, Republicans broke from Greene to argue that the leaker must be punished as harshly as possible, regardless of what any loud voices on their party’s right might suggest.
“If you leak classified documents, you’re going to suffer consequences of the law,” Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said in an interview. “Regardless of what the purpose is, we’ve made that statement for decades. We shouldn’t change that now.”
“Someone who does that needs to be punished to the full extent of the law,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) echoed.
Asked about Greene and Carlson’s defense of his actions, Sullivan replied: “I stand by my statement. As someone who served in the military for almost 30 years, I know a little bit about what I’m talking about.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 19, 2023
Appeals court ruling puts hundreds of Jan. 6 felony cases in limbo

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But Judge Florence Pan, who wrote the majority opinion, said it was the wrong time to decide that broad question because the three defendants whose cases were before the court were all also charged with assaulting police. There’s little question that those who assaulted police that day acted with “corrupt intent.” But in Jan. 6 obstruction cases that don’t involve assault, determining “corrupt intent” is much more complicated, she said.
“It is more prudent to delay addressing the meaning of ‘corrupt’ intent until that issue is properly presented to the court,” Pan wrote, pointing to the pending appeal of Jan. 6 defendant Thomas Robertson — a former Virginia police officer who was convicted of obstruction by a jury — as one potential vehicle. Pan was appointed to the appeals court by Joe Biden.
The stakes of the lingering issue are enormous. More than 300 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged with obstructing Congress’ proceedings — many of whom are not accused of assaulting police. The obstruction charge carries a 20-year maximum sentence and is a cudgel the Justice Department has used at times in plea negotiations with rioters who surged into the Capitol’s most sensitive spaces.
The Jan. 6 select committee urged the Justice Department to charge Donald Trump with this precise crime as well, after a federal judge in California agreed that Trump “likely” committed obstruction. Any ruling narrowing the definition of “corrupt intent” could take such a charge off the table.
Pan noted that prior cases have defined corrupt intent in multiple ways. The Supreme Court has previously described acting “corruptly” as doing something “wrongful, immoral, depraved, or evil.” The late Justice Antonin Scalia defined “corrupt” acts as those done “to bring about either an unlawful result or a lawful result by some unlawful method, with a hope or expectation of either financial gain or other benefit to oneself or a benefit of another person.”
Pan’s 40-page opinion may not be the last word. The second judge who joined her ruling — Justin Walker, a Trump appointee — issued a concurring opinion that adopted a narrow interpretation of the definition of “corrupt intent.”
“A defendant must intend to obtain a benefit that he knows is unlawful,” Walker concluded.
Complicating the matter further: Walker contended that his interpretation may be the binding opinion of the appeals court under precedent that requires the most “narrow” interpretation to prevail when a panel is splintered. (In a footnote, Pan said she disagreed.)

Defense attorneys for Jan. 6 defendants are already poring over Walker’s analysis. Nicholas Smith, who argued the case on behalf of three Jan. 6 defendants before the appeals court panel in December, said that if Walker’s contention is correct, his narrow definition of “corrupt intent” is already the binding opinion of the court.
If the Justice Department concludes that the ruling is too problematic for the vast array of Jan. 6 cases, prosecutors could ask the full, 10-member bench of the appeals court to weigh in.
The immediate effect of the appeals court’s 2-1 vote is the reversal of a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, who determined that obstruction charges were being improperly applied to Jan. 6 defendants. But Nichols’ ruling did not dissect the “corrupt intent” aspect of the law. Rather, he contended that the obstruction charges required evidence that the defendants interfered with physical documents — computer files, papers or other tangible evidence.
More than a dozen other district court judges had rejected that premise, contending that the meaning of the obstruction law — passed in the aftermath of the Enron scandal — is clear: Obstruction includes a wide range of efforts to frustrate the official work of government, not just tampering with documents.
The appeals court panel largely agreed with that interpretation, ruling that the vast majority of the district court judges got it right. The judges also agreed that the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress — which was disrupted by rioters — should be classified as an “official proceeding” of Congress, a point that some Jan. 6 defendants had challenged. But that’s where the agreement ended.
In a dissent, Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, faulted the two other judges for leaving all sorts of advocates and protesters exposed to the potential of severe criminal penalties for routine protests or even just some forms of lobbying.
“A lobbyist who successfully persuades a member of Congress to change a vote has likewise influenced an official proceeding. So has a peaceful protestor who, attempting to sway votes, holds up a sign in the Senate gallery before being escorted away,” he wrote. “Of course, this case involves rioting as opposed to peaceful advocacy, lobbying, or protest. But the construction of [corrupt intent] adopted by my colleagues will sweep in all of the above.”
Katsas argued that under his colleagues’ approach, the demonstrators who’ve gathered outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices over the past months in response to that court’s action wiping out abortion rights could face up to 20 years in prison.
Even Walker’s somewhat narrower interpretation “would continue to supercharge comparatively minor advocacy, lobbying, and protest offenses into 20-year felonies, provided the defendant knows he is acting unlawfully in some small way,” Katsas wrote. “But even that hypothetical protestor would be protected only until the jurist, a neighbor, or the police told the protestor what the law is.”
Walker’s reading of the obstruction law still gives it “improbable breadth,” Katsas wrote.
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#Appeals #court #ruling #puts #hundreds #Jan #felony #cases #limbo
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 7, 2023
Nikhat – fragrance – from Hyderabad fills world atmosphere; her control over mind game puts her on the top

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The women’s world boxing championship in New Delhi ended in a blaze of glory for India. Four times the Indian tricolour flew on the topmost mast and four times the Indian national anthem reverberated around the hall. Our four golden girls namely Nitu Ghanghas, Saweety Boora, Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina Borgohain made all Indians proud with their achievements inside the boxing ring.
India emerged as the topmost country in the championship. With four gold medals, India pushed the mighty China to second spot and powerhouse Russia had to be content with third place.
The outstanding display of our triumphant girls was analysed by Omkar Nath Yadav, who has been associated with boxing for four decades. Yadav was a national level boxer who served as a talent scout and coach. He was the first to spot the potential of Nikhat Zareen way back in the year 2009. “Nikhat was then a skinny 13-year-old girl. After I had watched her in a few bouts I realised that this girl is outstanding. Her footwork and punching speed were exceptionally good. I was then a talent scout and I decided to take a gamble on her. She was a very lively (chulbuli) girl and I felt that she would definitely do well,” said Yadav.
“I entered her name for the PYKA Games which were to be held in Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. My colleagues were skeptical of my decision and warned me that she is not yet fully developed in physique. She is a 13-year-old girl. How can she compete against 19-year-old rivals? She will be knocked out by the stronger girls from Haryana and Punjab. She may suffer grievous injuries. But I persisted because I felt that she had a rare spark and we should give her a chance to prove her merit inside the ring against tough opponents,” said the coach.
“Far from being knocked out, Nikhat put up such a wonderful fight that she fully justified my faith in her. Thereafter I persuaded experienced girls from Manipur to do sparring with Nikhat. That improved her technique and confidence. After that her career took off like a rocket. In 2010 she won the national championship. In 2011 she won the sub-junior world boxing championship in Antalya in Turkey. In 2014 she won a silver medal in the World Youth boxing championship and thereafter an impressive list of victories followed,” said Yadav.
When asked to analyze Nikhat’s game, the coach said:
“Her greatest asset is her ferocious determination and her mental abilities. She never gives up. She is able to learn fast. A coach does not have to struggle with her. She picks up her instructions quickly and smoothly. Today she has made all of us in the boxing fraternity of Hyderabad and in India proud of her achievements,” stated Yadav.
“In this championship she was facing a very tough opponent–Nguyen Thi– Tam of Vietnam, who is the Asian champion. The Vietnamese girl was a hard punching fighter and Nikhat had to pull out an extra effort to win. But Nikhat has that ability. When the struggle is hard, she can bring out an extra effort from within herself,” said Yadav.
“Among the other boxers, Nitu Ghanghas was very good too. She is a product of Bhiwani in Haryana and has been coached by Jagdeesh Singh, the same man who coached Olympic medalist Vijender Singh and others. Nitu was very aggressive and knew how to dominate the fight against her opponent from Mongolia. From start to finish there was no doubt that Nitu would win. Saweety Bora faced a tough time and so did Lovlina Borgohain. But I am glad that they too won and enhanced our gold medal tally,” concluded Yadav.

India’s top celebrities and political leaders hailed the victory of our girls. Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal had a special word of praise for Hyderabad’s Nikhat. She tweeted: “Nikhat you are a world champion again. Congratulations for winning the gold medal.” Mahindra and Mahindra Company handed over a Mahindra Thar SUV vehicle to Nikhat. It was good to see that our women boxers got the recognition and rewards that they deserved. The victories of these girls will inspire many more youngsters to take up sport and achieve excellence at the world level.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 27, 2023
Abortion puts New York Republicans on defense

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Already, House Majority PAC, the Democratic Party’s main House-specific political action committee, is budgeting $45 million to compete in New York next cycle. And the group’s president, Mike Smith, firmly declared that “the path to a Democratic House Majority runs through New York.”
How able Democrats are in turning the ‘24 election cycle into a referendum on abortion policy will go a long way toward determining the party’s success at the ballot box. Advocates believe that Republicans may just play into their hands.
They believe they can spotlight a continued appetite for anti-abortion legislation in a GOP-led House, as well as a looming court case that could restrict abortion even in states where it is protected by state laws.
The House has already voted on one bill that would make it a felony to not provide medical assistance to an infant that survives an attempted abortion (which is already illegal), and it has promised a speedy vote on a second that would put stricter bans on federal funding for the procedure.
The newly elected Republicans from New York — Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, George Santos, Nick LaLota, and Brandon Williams — all voted in favor of the first bill, which passed the House.
These members are all targets of the Democratic congressional campaigns spending group, House Majority PAC. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, chaired by Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), has not yet released its target list.
D’Esposito, Molinaro, LaLota, and Williams did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Lawler’s office denied an interview request and he denied a request made in person. The National Republican Congressional Committee also declined to comment on this issue.
Abortion rights advocates are also anticipating that a federal judge will rescind the FDA’s approval of a popular abortion drug, in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, significantly restricting access to abortion. The decision is still pending, but such a move would bring the issue to the fore for many voters, even in states with strong protections for abortion. Some national drugstore chains like Walgreens have voluntarily pulled the drug from their shelves in anticipation of a decision in the case.

That is just one component of the abortion access tug-of-war. Stitzlein, of NARAL, said while the FDA case is the current battle, he believes the anti-abortion movement will continue challenging access on other fronts.
“I remain convinced that there’s going to be a move to a national abortion ban by Republicans in the House and in the Senate. And nothing I’ve seen dissuades me of that,” said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), who represents an upstate battleground district, in an interview with POLITICO. “The protections that are offered in states like New York and California, if there’s a national abortion ban, won’t be a way to protect women anymore.”
Morelle, who’s race was considered a toss up last cycle, said he not only talked about his support for abortion access on the trail but made it a “centerpiece” of his campaign.
“Incumbents here, they’re going to have to make a decision about whether or not they’re going to adhere to the national agenda that has been established by, frankly, pretty extreme members of the Republican Party,” Morelle said. Or if “they’re going to represent the interests of people in their communities that are much more moderate.”
Advocates and Democratic lawmakers believe even the threat of a national ban will activate voters in New York in the same way the initial Dobbs decision did for voters in purple and red states, from Michigan to Kansas, in the midterms.
“This is an issue that’s not going away because Republicans are going to keep pushing the envelope and keep pushing the envelope,” House Majority PAC Executive Director Abby Curran Horrell said in an interview with POLITICO.
In 2024, Republicans in congressional races in reliably blue states will also be running alongside whomever ends up being the GOP presidential nominee. Nearly all the candidates have already declared support for abortion restrictions or bans.
Former President Donald Trump has said Republicans should have moderated their anti-abortion stance in the 2022 cycle, but he also takes credit for putting in place the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. Former Vice President Mike Pence supports an outright national abortion ban. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign a six-week abortion ban into law in his state.
“The fact that they will presumably support [the nominee] will be showing that they are objectively anti-choice,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) about the frontline Republicans in New York. “Any anti-choice vote they make will obviously come back to bite them.”
If there’s any success in restricting access, Nadler said, “in New York, I think the Republicans are going to pay very dearly.”
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#Abortion #puts #York #Republicans #defense
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 27, 2023
Twitter’s plan to charge researchers for data access puts it in EU crosshairs

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Elon Musk pledged Twitter would abide by Europe’s new content rules — but Yevgeniy Golovchenko is not so convinced.
The Ukrainian academic, an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen, relies on the social network’s data to track Russian disinformation, including propaganda linked to the ongoing war in Ukraine. But that access, including to reams of tweets analyzing pro-Kremlin messaging, may soon be cut off. Or, even worse for Golovchenko, cost him potentially millions of euros a year.
Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter is shutting down researchers’ free access to its data, though the final decision on when that will happen has yet to be made. Company officials are also offering new pay-to-play access to researchers via deals that start at $42,000 per month and can rocket up to $210,000 per month for the largest amount of data, according to Twitter’s internal presentation to academics that was shared with POLITICO.

Yet this switch — from almost unlimited, free data access to costly monthly subscription fees — falls afoul of the European Union’s new online content rules, the Digital Services Act. Those standards, which kick in over the coming months, require the largest social networking platforms, including Twitter, to provide so-called vetted researchers free access to their data.
It remains unclear how Twitter will meet its obligations under the 27-country bloc’s rules, which impose fines of up to 6 percent of its yearly revenue for infractions.
“If Twitter makes access less accessible to researchers, this will hurt research on things like disinformation and misinformation,” said Golovchenko who — like many academics who spoke with POLITICO — are now in limbo until Twitter publicly decides when, or whether, it will shut down its current free data-access regime.
It also means that “we will have fewer choices,” added the Ukrainian, acknowledging that, until now, Twitter had been more open for outsiders to poke around its data compared with the likes of Facebook or YouTube. “This means will be even more dependent on the goodwill of social media platforms.”
Meeting EU commitments
When POLITICO contacted Twitter for comment, the press email address sent back a poop emoji in response. A company representative did not respond to POLITICO’s questions, though executives met with EU officials and civil society groups Wednesday to discuss how Twitter would comply with Europe’s data-access obligations, according to three people with knowledge of those discussions, who were granted anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.
Twitter was expected to announce details of its new paid-for data access regime last week, according to the same individuals briefed on those discussions, though no specifics about the plans were yet known. As of Friday night, no details had yet been published.
Still, the ongoing uncertainty comes as EU regulators and policymakers have Musk in their crosshairs as the onetime world’s richest man reshapes Twitter into a free speech-focused social network. The Tesla chief executive has fired almost all of the trust, safety and policy teams in a company-wide cull of employees and has already failed to comply with some of the bloc’s new content rules that require Twitter to detail how it is tackling falsehoods and foreign interference.
Musk has publicly stated the company will comply with the bloc’s content rules.
“Access to platforms’ data is one of the key elements of democratic oversight of the players that control increasingly bigger part of Europe’s information space,” Věra Jourová, the European Commission vice president for values and transparency, told POLITICO in an emailed statement in reference to the EU’s code of practice on disinformation, a voluntary agreement that Twitter signed up to last year. A Commission spokesperson said such access would have to be free to approved researchers.
European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová said “Access to platforms’ data is one of the key elements of democratic oversight” | Olivier Hoslet/EPA-EFE
“If the access to researchers is getting worse, most likely that would go against the spirit of that commitment (under Europe’s new content rules),” Jourová added. “I appeal to Twitter to find the solution and respect its commitments under the code.”
Show me the data access
For researchers based in the United States — who don’t fall under the EU’s new content regime — the future is even bleaker.
Megan Brown, a senior research engineer at New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics, which relies heavily on Twitter’s existing access, said half of her team’s 40 projects currently use the company’s data. Under Twitter’s proposed price hikes, the researchers would have to scrap their reliance on the social network via existing paid-for access through the company’s so-called Decahose API for large-scale data access, which is expected to be shut off by the end of May.
NYU’s work via Twitter data has looked at everything from how automated bots skew conversations on social media to potential foreign interference via social media during elections. Such projects, Brown added, will not be possible when Twitter shuts down academic access to those unwilling to pay the new prices.
“We cannot pay that amount of money,” said Brown. “I don’t know of a research center or university that can or would pay that amount of money.”
For Rebekah Tromble, chairperson of the working group on platform-to-researcher data access at the European Digital Media Observatory, a Commission-funded group overseeing which researchers can access social media companies’ data under the bloc’s new rules, any rollback of Twitter’s data-access allowances would be against their existing commitments to give researchers greater access to its treasure trove of data.
“If Twitter makes the choice to begin charging researchers for access, it will clearly be in violation of its commitments under the code of practice [on disinformation],” she said.
This article has been updated.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 23, 2023
Belgian intelligence puts Huawei on its watchlist

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Belgium’s intelligence service is scrutinizing the operations of technology giant Huawei as fears of Chinese espionage grow around the EU and NATO headquarters in Brussels, according to confidential documents seen by POLITICO and three people familiar with the matter.
In recent months, Belgium’s State Security Service (VSSE) has requested interviews with former employees of the company’s lobbying operation in the heart of Brussels’ European district. The intelligence gathering is part of security officials’ activities to scrutinize how China may be using non-state actors — including senior lobbyists in Huawei’s Brussels office — to advance the interests of the Chinese state and its Communist party in Europe, said the people, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The scrutiny of Huawei’s EU activities comes as Western security agencies are sounding the alarm over companies with links to China. British, Dutch, Belgian, Czech and Nordic officials — as well as EU functionaries — have all been told to stay off TikTok on work phones over concerns similar to those surrounding Huawei, namely that Chinese security legislation forces Chinese tech firms to hand over data.

The scrutiny also comes amid growing evidence of foreign states’ influence on EU decision-making — a phenomenon starkly exposed by the recent Qatargate scandal, where the Gulf state sought to influence Brussels through bribes and gifts via intermediary organizations. The Belgian security services are tasked with overseeing operations led by foreign actors around the EU institutions.
The State Security Service declined to comment when asked about the intelligence gathering.
A Huawei spokesperson said the company was unaware of the company’s Brussels office staff being questioned by the intelligence service.
China link
Belgian intelligence officers want to determine if there are any direct ties between the Chinese state and Huawei’s Brussels office, the people said. Of particular interest, they added, are Huawei representatives who may have previously held posts in Brussels institutions with access to a network of EU contacts.
At the core of Western concerns surrounding Huawei — which is headquartered in Shenzhen, China — is whether the firm can be instrumentalized, pressured or infiltrated by the Chinese government to gain access to critical data in Western countries.
Huawei’s EU lobbying offices — one located in between the European Parliament and European Commission and Council buildings and the other a “cybersecurity transparency center” close to the U.S. embassy — have been a major lobbying power in EU policymaking over the past decade. The most recent corporate declarations put the firm among the top 30 companies spending most on EU lobbying in Brussels, with a declared maximum spending of €2.25 million per year. In 2018 — right at the start of the geopolitical storm that struck the firm — it entered the top 10 of lobbying spenders in Brussels.
The company’s Shenzhen headquarters has also strengthened its control over its Brussels office activities over the past decade. In 2019 it replaced its then-head of the EU office Tony Graziano — who had a long track record of lobbying the EU and had led Huawei’s Brussels office since 2011 — with Abraham Liu, a company loyalist who had risen up the ranks of its international operations. Liu was later replaced with Tony Jin Yong, currently the main representative of Huawei with the EU. It has also consistently brought in Chinese staff to support its public affairs activities.
The Chinese telecoms giant last year started ramping down its EU presence, folding its activities across Europe into its regional headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany, POLITICO reported in November. Part of that shake-up was to let go of some of the firm’s Western strategists, who had worked to push back on bans and blocks of its equipment in the past years.
The scrutiny of Huawei’s EU activities comes as Western security agencies are sounding the alarm over companies with links to China | Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images
Huawei has continuously stressed it is independent from the Chinese state. “Huawei is a commercial operation,” a spokesperson said. Asked whether the company had a policy to check which of its staff are members of the Chinese Communist Party, the spokesperson said: “We don’t ask about or interfere with employees’political or religious beliefs. We treat every employee the same regardless of their race, gender, social status, disability, religion or anything else.”
One key concern brought up by Western security authorities in past years is that Huawei as a China-headquartered company is subject to Beijing’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which requires companies to “support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts” as well as “protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.”
Asked how it handles legal requests from the Chinese government to hand over data, the spokesperson referred to the company’s frequently asked questions page on the matter, which states: “Huawei has never received such a request and we would categorically refuse to comply if we did. Huawei is an independent company that works only to serve its customers. We would never compromise or harm any country, organization, or individual, especially when it comes to cybersecurity and user privacy protection.
Eye on EU
Huawei has faced pushback from Belgian security services in past years. The country’s National Security Council in 2020 imposed restrictions on its use in critical parts of 5G networks.
Belgium — while being a small market — is considered strategically important for Western allies because of the presence of the EU institutions and the headquarters of the transatlantic NATO defense alliance.
The Belgian State Security Service’s interest in Huawei follows an increasing interest in China’s operations in the EU capital. In 2022, the service released an intelligence report laying out its findings on the operations of Chinese-backed lobbyists in Brussels. In it, the VSSE hit out at the Chinese state for operating in “a grey zone between lobbying, interference, political influence, espionage, economic blackmail and disinformation campaigns.”
In response to the study, the Chinese embassy in Belgium said the intelligence services “slandered the legitimate and lawful business operation of Chinese companies in Belgium, seriously affecting their reputation and causing potential harm to their normal production and operation.”
It’s not just China. “Undue interference perpetrated by other powers also continues to be a red flag for the VSSE,” the intelligence service said in its report. “The recent interference scandal in the European Parliament is a case in point.”
As far as that case goes, the Belgian authorities have so far charged several individuals in the ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of bribery between Qatar and EU representatives, with police raids yielding €1.5 million in cash.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 23, 2023
Instagram now puts ads in user search results

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New Delhi: Meta-owned Instagram has announced it will put ads into the platform’s search results to reach people actively searching for businesses, products and content.
Ads will show up in the feed that people can scroll when they tap into a post from search results.
“We plan to launch this placement globally in the coming months,” the company said in a blog post.
Instagram also announced ‘Reminder’ ads which are rolling out to all advertisers as an option in feed.
The move is to help advertisers build awareness, anticipation, and consideration for upcoming moments.
“People can opt into convenient reminders and receive three notifications from Instagram one day before, 15 minutes before, and at the time of the event,” said Instagram.
People come to Instagram to discover new brands, products or upcoming events.
The company said it aims to give businesses more ways to get discovered and form meaningful connections.

“We recently partnered with brands such as Starz to test a new ad format that makes it easier for businesses to announce, remind and notify people of future events or launches that they might be interested in,” it added.
The photo and video sharing platform has been adding more and more ads over the years.
Ads are now seen in Explore page, Explore feeds, Reels, Stories, and even user profiles.
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#Instagram #puts #ads #user #search #results
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 22, 2023
Telangana: After BRS, now BJP puts up posters shaming Kavitha

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Hyderabad: The posters of BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha, ‘shaming’ her on the issue of the ED investigation into her involvement in the Delhi Excise scam case surfaced on Saturday in the state with taglines like ‘You brought shame to Telangana’.
This comes after a series of posters put up by the BRS party mocking the BJP-led centre on several issues.
Kavitha on Thursday skipped the Enforcement Directorate(ED) summons here for questioning in the Delhi excise policy money laundering case and made a plea to defer the proceedings but it was rejected by the probe agency which asked her to appear on March 20.
Kavitha, MLC and daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, wrote to the ED saying it must wait for the outcome of her plea before the Supreme Court challenging the summons and seeking protection from arrest. The apex court on Wednesday agreed to hear the plea on March 24.
The Bharat Rashtra Samiti(BRS) leader, who was first questioned in this case by the ED on March 11 and asked to depose again on March 16, sent her “authorised representative” Soma Bharat Kumar, general secretary of the BRS, in the morning with a six-page petition to the investigating officer stating she was skipping the March 16 summons as they explicitly does not require her to appear in person.
“I humbly beseech your good self that the proceedings before the Supreme Court being sacred and sacrosanct, the outcome thereof must be awaited before any further proceedings take place with respect to the subject summons.
“I once again request your good self that you may please defer the proceedings awaiting appropriate order(s) or direction(s) by the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” she wrote in the letter sent to the ED.
Sources in the ED said her plea was rejected in view of the ongoing investigations which is at an important phase including the requirement of her physical and document-based confrontation with other accused arrested/involved in the case.

Kavitha has been asked to appear on March 20, officials said.
In her letter, Kavitha spoke about her first deposition before the ED where she said she “furnished all relevant information and answered all queries to the best of my knowledge, ability and understanding”.
Kavitha, however, expressed surprise and “shock” that her phone was “impounded” by the agency that day and she was not physically confronted with any arrested accused despite the agency’s earlier “categoric assertion” for the same.
She also wrote to the agency that being a woman she should not be called to the ED office for questioning but this exercise should either be conducted over a video link or the investigators can visit her residence for the same.
“I, therefore, have reasons to believe and a grave apprehension that the enquiry/investigation being carried out may not have the sanctity of law and my expectation of a free, fair, or impartial enquiry or investigation has been severely impaired,” she wrote.
Official sources had said that during the nine hours she spent at the ED office in Delhi on March 11, she was confronted with the statements made by Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandran Pillai, an arrested accused in the case who allegedly shares close ties with her, apart from those of few others involved in the case.
The BRS MLC’s statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Kavitha has asserted that she had done nothing wrong and alleged that the BJP-led Centre was “using” the ED as the saffron party could not gain a “backdoor entry” in Telangana.
Pillai, the ED had said, “represented the south group”, an alleged liquor cartel linked to Kavitha and others that paid kickbacks amounting to about Rs 100 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to gain a larger share of the market in the national capital under the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2020-21.
The “south group”, according to the ED, “comprises” among others Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Pharma), Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (YSR Congress MP from Ongole Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh), his son Raghav Magunta and Kavitha.
The ED also alleged in Pillai’s remand papers that he “represented the benami investments” of Kavitha in the excise policy case.
The BRS leader was earlier questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the case.
The ED has so far arrested 12 people in the case, including former Delhi deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia.
It has also recorded the statement of Butchi Babu, an accountant allegedly linked to Kavitha, where he allegedly said “there was political understanding between K Kavitha and the chief minister (Arvind Kejriwal) and the deputy chief minister (Sisodia). In that process, K Kavitha also met Vijay Nair on March 19-20, 2021”.
Nair was arrested in the case by both the ED and the CBI. Butchi Babu has been arrested by the CBI.
According to Butchi Babu’s statement, Nair was “trying to impress Kavitha with what he could do in the (excise) policy”.
“Vijay Nair was acting on behalf of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia,” the statement recorded by the ED read.
It is alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.
The policy was subsequently scrapped and the Delhi lieutenant governor recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA.
(With excerpts from PTI).
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#Telangana #BRS #BJP #puts #posters #shaming #Kavitha
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 18, 2023
St. Patrick’s Day puts debt rancor aside for Biden and McCarthy

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“From one Irish American to another, I want to strive every day to live up to the example of President Reagan and Tip O’Neill,” McCarthy said, addressing the president.
Biden said he agreed with McCarthy that there’s no reason why “we can’t find common ground,” and he hopes that “we can turn this breakfast into more of an everyday relationship.”
“There’s no reason why we can’t hope to change this direction of extremism of both our parties,” Biden said, adding that it’s about the “power of friendship.”
Biden and McCarthy’s relationship this year has been marked by finding a path forward on raising the debt ceiling. In Biden’s State of the Union speech last month, he scolded Republicans about their past interest in cutting the nation’s biggest entitlement programs. Biden later met with McCarthy in search of a path to lifting the nation’s debt ceiling.
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#Patricks #Day #puts #debt #rancor #Biden #McCarthy
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 17, 2023