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Google Clamps Down On Activist Employees, Sacks 28

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Google, one of the world’s largest companies, has been grappling with growing activism within sections of its 180,000+ workforce seeking among other things overhauls on pay, harassment and ethics by the company. In a latest run-in over the company’s Nimbus Cloud contract with various ministries of the Israeli government, Google has fired 28 employees involved in persistent protests and obstructions despite warnings from the company’s top leadership.

The strict action follows several employees participating in sit-ins at the company’s New York and Sunnyvale, California offices. Nine staffers were arrested by the police a day earlier on charges of trespass at the two offices after being reported by the company.

Google has sternly warned that physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing the company’s facilities is a clear violation of its policies, and completely unacceptable behavior.

According to media reports, tensions had been brewing between the company’s top leadership and a well knit section of activist employees over Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion deal between Google and Amazon to supply the Israeli government with cloud services, including artificial intelligence, which the protesting employees allege will aid Israel’s military.

The rift has widened to a gulf since the war in Gaza strip began in October 2023 following the most devastating multi pronged lightening terror attack by Hamas and other outfits on southern Israel, which left 1700 people, including 600 soldiers of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and 60 policemen, dead and hundreds of others injured. An unspecified number of people were also kidnapped by the attackers and held hostage in the Gaza strip.

The brutal full scale retaliatory war unleashed by Israel on the Gaza strip has triggered a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions in the Palestinian territory with an estimated  33,000+ people killed in Gaza and 76,000 others wounded and lakhs staring at starvation.

While Google asserted that it had terminated the 28 employees after concluding individual investigations, the activist employees described the company action as a “flagrant act of retaliation” and alleged that some employees who did not directly participate in the protests were also among those fired.

Massive Eruption Of Ruang Volcano In Indonesia Triggers Evacuations

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Raises fears of 1871 like tsunami which killed 400 people

A dramatic eruption on Wednesday, after two previous main explosive events in the Ruang volcano on Ruang island, in the North Sulawesti province of Indonesia, on Wednesday, which spewed a fiery-red column of lava, incandescent rock, and ash as much as three kms into the sky, has lead to large scale evacuations, temporary closure of a provisional airport and raised fears of a 1871 like tsunami that killed 400 people.

According to the National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure, named BNPB, the country’s Multiplatform Application for Geohazard Mitigation and Assessment (MAGMA) has raised the alert level for the volcano, which has a peak of 725 metres above the sea level, to IV, the highest in the four-tiered system.

Officials worry that part of the volcano could collapse into the sea and cause a tsunami, as happened in 1871.

BNPD informed in a statement that people living in Tagulandang Island area, located a km north-east of Ruang Island, and others that are within a radius of six km, especially those living close to the coast, have been ordered to be immediately evacuated to a safe place.

A TV grab of the Ruang volcano eruption

The volcano was still billowing a column of smoke on Thursday morning, prompting authorities to shut the nearest international airport in Manado city on Sulawesi island for 24 hours.

Runways were shut “due to the spread of volcanic ash which could endanger flight safety”, Ambar Suryoko, head of the Manado region airport authority office, has been reported as saying.

The airport hosts airlines that fly to Singapore and cities in South Korea and China.

Indonesia sits along the “Ring of Fire”, the most active zone in the world for seismic activity.

In December 2023, more than 20 people died in Indonesia after a surprise volcanic eruption at Mount Marapi on the island of Sumatra.

According to a study, among the 17,504 islands in Indonesia, there are 22 volcanic islands with records of volcanic eruptions from pre-historic times. As much as 75% of these are classified as active and have a high potential to endanger the surrounding population which generally lives on small islands.

More than 150,000 people have been evacuated in 25 volcanic unrests on nine volcanic islands during 1966 to 2017.

The largest fatalities from eruptions on volcanic islands have been caused by volcanic tsunamis. Between 416 and 2018, there were 19 volcanic tsunami events on Indonesia’s volcanic islands, resulting in 41,328 deaths, the study added

AAP Names 3 MLAs In Final List Of Punjab Candidates For Lok Sabha Elections 2024

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Tinu pitted against “deserter” Rinku from Jalandhar (SC); MLAs Sherry Kalsi, Kaka Brar, and Pappi Parashar also in fray

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab named three of its incumbent MLAs in its final list of four candidates to cover all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state which go to the polls on June 1.

As per the list posted on X by the party’s national general secretary (organization) Dr Sandeep Pathak , the party MLA from Batala Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi will contest from Gurdaspur,  Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar, MLA Muktsar, will be in the race from Ferozepur, and Ludhiana (Central) MLA Ashok Parashar Pappi is being fielded from Ludhiana parliamentary seat.

Two-time former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA from Adampur constituency Pawan Kumar Tinu, who resigned from his party and was welcomed into the AAP fold by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann recently, has been pitted in Jalandhar (SC) against Sushil Kumar Rinku, who, despite having been repeated from the seat by AAP quit the party and joined the BJP, and is now the candidate of the saffron party. Former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi of the Congress is a formidable candidate from the constituency.

BJP Names 3 More Candidates In Punjab For Lok Sabha Elections 2024

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Parampal Kaur Sidhu
Incumbent MP & Union minister of State Som Prakash’s wife Anita from Hoshiarpur (SC), Ex-IAS Parampal Kaur from Bathinda, and Manjit Singh Manna Mianwind from Khadoor Sahib

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced the names of three more candidates to contest the Lok Sabha elections 2024 from Punjab, which goes to the polls in the last phase on June 1.

With this the party, which is contesting the parliamentary elections in the border state for the first time outside of the alliance with its senior Punjab partner Shiromani Akali Dal, has named candidates to nine of the 13 seats.

Expectedly, Parampal Kaur Sidhu, daughter-in-law of senior Akali leader and former Punjab cabinet Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka, who recently resigned from the IAS and joined the BJP along with her husband Gurpreet Singh, Chairman of Bathinda zila parishad, has been fielded by the party from Bathinda.

File photo of Anita with her husband Som Prakash

From Hoshiarpur (SC) seat, which the party has traditionally been contesting as part of the alliance, and from where it won the last two elections in 2014 and 2019, the BJP has replaced its incumbent MP and Union minister of state Som Prakash with his wife Anita Som Prakash apparently on considerations of advancing age and health issues. Som Prakash crossed 75 years of age recently.

Manjit Singh Manna Mianwind

The party has reposed faith in the candidature of BJP district president (Amritsar Rural) Manjit Singh Manna Mianwind from Khadoor Sabha Lok Sabha constituency. A two-time Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA from Khadoor Sahib assembly constituency (2002, 2007), Manjit Singh later moved to the newly constituted Baba Bakala (SC) assembly constituency.

He joined the BJP prior to the 2022 assembly elections in the state after he was denied the SAD ticket from Baba Bakala. However, he lost his security deposit when he joined the fray as a BJP candidate from the same constituency, as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) wave swept the state.

The Baba Bakala seat was also won by AAP candidate Dalbir Singh Tong by a big margin. SAD candidate Baljit Singh Jalal Ushman finished a distant third behind Santokh Singh Bhalaipur of the Congress.

 

 

 

 

Kejriwal Fails to Get Immediate Relief From SC In Liquor Policy Case

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File photo of Arvind Kejriwal

Trial court extends his judicial custody till April 23

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Monday 15.04.2024 failed to get immediate relief from the Supreme Court of India on his plea challenging a Delhi High Court order upholding his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and his subsequent remand in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.

Hearing his plea, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta issued notice to the ED directing it to file a reply by April 24. The matter would next be heard in the week commencing April 29.

During the hearing on Monday, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, sought “an extremely short date (Friday)” to begin hearing the petition, which was declined by the court. “We will give a reasonable date… a very short date. But not what you are saying,” the court said, as it also told Singhvi to “reserve your arguments” after he continued to press for an earlier hearing.

Meanwhile, in a related hearing, a Delhi court extended Kejriwal’s judicial custody till April 23.

Kejriwal was produced virtually before special judge Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue Courts on the expiry of his judicial custody. The Court said it is extending custody till April 23 when judicial custody of co-accused (Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha) is also ending.

Earlier, the Rouse Avenue Courts also sent K Kavitha to judicial custody till April 23 after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did not seek an extension of her three-day police custody and sought 14-day judicial custody instead. The CBI submitted before the court that she did not cooperate with its investigation and “deliberately gave evasive replies contrary to the evidence on record”.

K Kavitha is the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

 

Samsung Regains Top Smartphone Maker Slot, As Apple Records Greater Fall In Shipments In 1Q24

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Image Courtesy: Samsung

 

Preliminary data collated by US based premier market intelligence and research organization International Data Corporation (IDC) for the Jan-March 2024 quarter shows that Korean smartphone giant Samsung has once again reasserted its top position in the smartphone market worldwide, dethroning iPhone maker Apple, which had managed to capture the top spot at the end of 2023.

IDC, headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts, shared this information from its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker in a handout posted on its website on Monday.

Apple’s global smartphone shipments reportedly fell by 9.6% in the quarter, from 55.4 million units in the same period last year to 50.1 million units. Samsung’s shipments also fell during this period, but by just 0.7% to 60.1 million units. Apple’s global market share fell to 17.3% from 20.7% a year ago, while Samsung’s fell to 20.8% from 22.5% amid rising sales of Chinese companies Xiaomi and Transsion.

Xiaomi, the third largest smartphone shipper in the quarter, recorded almost 34% rise in sales to 40.8 million units, while Transsion shipments leaped 85% to 28.5 million. OPPO overtook Vivo to claim the fifth spot in the first quarter.

However, striking a note of optimism, the IDC handout noted that the global smartphone shipments increased 7.8% year over year to 289.4 million units in the first quarter of 2024 (1Q24). “While the industry is not completely out of the woods, as macroeconomic challenges remain in many markets, this marks the third consecutive quarter of shipment growth, a strong indicator that a recovery is well underway,” it added.

Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, shared: “As expected, smartphone recovery continues to move forward with market optimism slowly building among the top brands.”

While IDC expects Samsung and Apple to maintain their hold on the high end of the market, it envisions that the resurgence of Huawei in China, as well as notable gains from Xiaomi, Transsion, OPPO/OnePlus, and Vivo will likely have both OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) looking for areas to expand and diversify. In its opinion as the recovery progresses, the top companies can be expected to gain share, as the smaller brands struggle for positioning.

IDC’s research director of its Worldwide Tracker team Nabila Popal adds: “The smartphone market is emerging from the turbulence of the last two years both stronger and changed. Firstly, we continue to see growth in value and average selling prices (ASPs) as consumers opt for more expensive devices knowing they will hold onto their devices longer. Secondly, there is a shift in power among the Top 5 companies, which will likely continue as market players adjust their strategies in a post-recovery world.

“Xiaomi is coming back strong from the large declines experienced over the past two years and Transsion is becoming a stable presence in the Top 5 with aggressive growth in international markets. In contrast, while the Top 2 players both saw negative growth in the first quarter, it seems Samsung is in a stronger position overall than they were in recent quarters,” she concluded.

Channi It Is From Jalandhar, Khaira from Sangrur In Cong’s First List Of 6 Candidates For 2024 Lok Sabha Elections In Punjab

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Charanjit Singh Channi fielded from Jalandhar (SC) lok sabha seat
Dr Gandhi from Patiala; Aujla & Amar Singh retained from Amritsar & Fatehgarh Sahib

The Indian National Congress (INC) has finally named its candidates for six of the 13 Lok Sabha seats from Punjab which is going to the polls in the final phase of the 2024 elections on June 1.

The six have found their names in another list of 10 candidates from Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh released by the party late on Sunday.

The candidates named for Punjab seats

  • Amritsar – Gurjeet Singh Aujla
  • Jalandhar (SC) – Chranjit Singh Channi
  • Fatehgarh Sahib (SC) – Dr Amar Singh
  • Bathinda – Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu
  • Sangrur – Sukhpal Singh Khaira
  • Patiala – Dr Dharam Vira Gandhi
Gurjit Singh Aujla retained from Amritsar
Dr Amar Singh retained from Fatehgarh Sahib (SC) seat

The party has retained its sitting MPs Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Dr Amar Singh from Amritsar and Fatehgarh Sahib (SC) constituencies, respectively. Former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi has expectedly been fielded from Jalandhar (SC) seat and firebrand party MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, on bail in a 2015 drug haul case, from Sangrur.

There is a special significance attached to Khaira being fielded from Sangrur. He and AAP chief minister of Punjab Bhagwant Singh Mann, who represented the constituency twice in the Lok Sabha from 2014 to 2022 before quitting the seat midway through the second term to contest the 2022 assembly elections in the state, have been involved in a long and bitter running battle of words. In giving him its ticket from the constituency, the Congress appears to be seeking to send a strong message to Mann.

Sukhpal Singh Khaira gets ticket from Sangrur

Khaira has been a three time MLA from Bholath. He began his political career with the Congress and later moved to the AAP in 2015. He remained AAP’s Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly for a year during 2017-18 before being suspended by the party for alleged anti-party activities.

In January 2019, he resigned from the primary membership of the party and floated a new political party Punjab Ekta Party. The same year he resigned from his assembly seat and contested the Lok Sabha elections from Bathinda as a candidate of the Punjab Democratic Alliance. He however lost the election.

He was welcomed back into the Congress fold in June 2021 by then Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh at the height of the leadership crisis besetting the latter. Khaira brought with him two rebel AAP MLAs Jagdev Singh Kamalu and Pirmal Singh Khalsa ahead of the 2022 assembly elections in the state. He again won the Bholath seat on the Congress ticket.

Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu gets party nod from Bathinda

From Bathinda, the party has placed its faith on four-time MLA from Talwandi Sabo Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, who quit the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) after being suspended for alleged anti-party activities, and returned to the Congress in October 2023.

In Patiala, former AAP MP and cardiologist Dr Dharam Vira Gandhi, who joined the Congress recently, has been given the party ticket. The party’s four-time MP from this constituency and former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur had recently quit the party and joined her husband in the BJP. She is now the saffron party’s candidate for the June 1 elections. Dr Gandhi as an AAP candidate had defeated then incumbent Preneet Kaur in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by over 20,000 votes.

Dr Dharam Vira Gandhi is party candidate from Patiala

He was made the AAP parliamentary party leader, but sacked in April 2021 when he spoke out against the expulsion of senior leaders like Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan from the party’s National Executive and later from the party. He was at that time replaced by party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal’s loyalist Bhagwant Singh Mann, the current chief minister of Punjab.

He had later quit the party and launched an outfit of his own called ‘Punjab Manch’. He unsuccessfully contested the 2019 lok sabha elections from the constituency as an Nawan Punjab Party (NPP) candidate, finishing third behind Preneet Kaur of the Congress and Surjit Singh Rakhra of SAD.

Heroic Mom Died Protecting Her Baby From Sydney Mall Stabbing Spree

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CCTV grab of the attacker who went on a stabbing spree in a Sydney mall on 13.04.2024

A grievously stabbed new mother’s heroic dying act in trying to save her 9-month-old baby, which also suffered stab wounds in a mass and indiscriminate knife attack by a lone apparently “mentally ill” man in a Sydney shopping mall in Australia on Saturday, is the subject of administration across the country, which is in mourning over the horrific incident that has left at least six people dead, including the 38 years old woman, and several others injured.

According to media reports, more casualties were avoided by the timely intervention of a woman police officer on duty nearby who rushed alone to scene on getting information of the attack and shot the rampaging attacker dead.

File photo of Sydney mall stabbing spree victim Ash Good with her baby

The woman, later identified as Ash Good, and the baby, Harriet were reportedly among the first ones to be stabbed as the attacker, wearing a sports jersey and shorts, madly ran through at least two levels in the Westfield Bondi Junction Shopping Center with a large knife in hand, randomly chasing and brutally stabbing people.

Profusely bleeding from her stab wounds, Ash ran towards two strangers, later identified as brothers, and thrust her stabbed baby into the arms of one of them, hoping they would save it. Showing great presence of mind amidst the panic, the strangers pulled the stabbed mom and baby into a store and tied their wounds with whatever clothing they could find in an attempt to reduce the bleeding before emergency services reached the scene.

Rushed to hospital, the woman, however, could not survive, and the baby, after emergency surgery, is still serious but in stable condition. Out of the six dead, five were women.

During investigations into the incident, police authorities identified the attacker as Joel Cauchi (40) from Queensland state and linked the attack possibility to Cauchi’s mental health issues. In a statement released through Queensland Police, his family described his actions as “horrific” and said he had mental health issues “since he was a teenager”.

PIO Gopi Thotakura To Become First Indian To Travel To Space As A Tourist

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Image credits: Blue Origin
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has revealed a six-person crew flying on the 7th human flight of its reusable suborbital rocket/spacecraft New Shepard

Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos’ private spaceflight company Blue Origin is preparing to send its crewed reusable suborbital rocket/spacecraft New Shepard on its 25th flight on a date to be decided soon, and one of the six space tourists being taken on it to an altitude of up to 100 km (62 miles) above sea level is an Indian origin entrepreneur, pilot and aviator.

Gopi Thotakura, co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, a global center for holistic wellness and applied health, located near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Georgia state, United States, is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist.

The 30 years old, born in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh, is a graduate of the prestigious Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. In addition to flying jets commercially, he has also piloted aerobatic and seaplanes, as well as gliders and hot air balloons. He has served as an international medical jet pilot too. A lifelong traveler, his most recent adventure took him to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in East African country of Tanzania.

Blue Origin recently revealed the six-person crew flying on its NS-25 mission. Besides Gopi Thotakura, the crew includes Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller, and a former US Air Force Captain Ed Dwight.

Dwight was selected by US President John F. Kennedy in 1961 as the nation’s first Black astronaut candidate but was never granted the opportunity to fly to space.

This mission will be the seventh human flight for the New Shepard program and the 25th in its history. To date, the program has flown 31 humans above the Kármán line, the point above sea level that marks the start of space. Jeff Bezos himself, his brother Mark Bezos and two other private persons were part of the history creating first human flight of the New Shepard reusable rocket/spacecraft on July 20, 2021.

Since then, at 90 years of age, actor William Shatner, who played the stellar role as Captain James Kirk on the epic first Star Trek television series, has been the oldest person to fly to space on the New Shepard rocket/spacecraft.

One of the stated goals of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is to create a future where people live and work in space to benefit Earth. It seeks to preserve Earth by identifying additional material and energy resources, as well as relocating to space the industries that are likely to harm Earth. The company is developing reusable rocket engines and launch vehicles designed to significantly lower the cost and increase the accessibility of space travel.

Blue Origin’s Club For The Future

https://www.clubforfuture.org/

Ending Speculation, Congress Bets On Manish Tewari From Chandigarh LS Seat; Pawan Bansal Loses Age War

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Finally, the Indian National Congress has bet its money on a younger candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024 from Chandigarh constituency, apparently to counter BJP’s recent decision to make a generational shift in naming its nominee.

Manish Tewari, sitting Congress member of Parliament from adjoining Anandpur Sahib constituency in Punjab and former Union minister, found his name on top of a fresh list of 16 party candidates for the Lok Sabha elections from Chandigarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha released by the party on Saturday, 13.04.2024.

Those named from Himachal Pradesh are state cabinet minister and former Congress stalwart late Virbhadra Singh’s son Vikramaditya Singh from Mandi and Vinod Sultanpuri from Shimla (SC).

Manish Tewari, who hails from Chandigarh, has got the party ticket at the expense of another former Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who has represented the constituency in the Lok Sabha four times since 1991, but lost the last two elections consecutively in 2014 and 2019 to star candidate Kirron Kher, the sitting MP, who has for the last few years been under treatment for cancer. She is now 71 years old.

Despite these two reverses,  Pawan Kumar Bansal (75) was widely believed to be the party’s top choice once again, considering his seniority and local popularity. He is also learnt to have been the choice of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is supporting the Congress in the Chandigarh elections as part of a pact which saw the Congress supporting AAP’s successful mayoral election bid in the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh.

But Manish Tewari’s persistent lobbying to get the party ticket from Chandigarh which he had been indulging in for years, and the BJP declaring a younger candidate and former state party president for 10 years Sanjay Tandon (60) as its candidate, appear to have weighed on the party high command while taking the final decision.

Two years younger to Tandon, Manish Tewari has been a two time MP – from Ludhiana (2009-2014) and Anandpur Sahib (2019-2024) – and Union Minister of State (Independent charge) Ministry of Information & Broadcasting from 2012-2014.

Playing an active role in students’ politics from a young age, Tewari remained president of the then Congress (I) affiliated students’ body National Students Union of India (NSUI) from 1988-1993 and then president of Indian Youth Congress (I) from 1998-2000 under the patronage of Rajiv Gandhi.

Having done his schooling from St John’s High School, Sector 26, Chandigarh and Govt. Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, Chandigarh, he graduated in Arts from DAV College, Sector 10, Chandigarh. He later did his Bachelors of Laws from University of Delhi and is a practicing lawyer in the Supreme Court of India.

He has authored several books, including the last one titled ’10 Flash Points: 20 years – National Security Situations That Impacted India’.

His father VN Tewari, an author and professor of Punjab language at Panjab University, Chandigarh, was killed by militants in 1984 while on a walk in Sector 24 of Chandigarh. His mother late Dr Amrit Tewari retired as Professor and head of Department of Dentistry at the prestigious Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.