Category: Global

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  • Indian CEO offers X user a job after liking his suggestions

    Indian CEO offers X user a job after liking his suggestions

    Indian food delivery app Zomato’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Deepinder Goyal, whose app is now synonymous with food itself in India, recently shared updates on some of the new features in the app on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle. 


    The updates were in continuation of the new feature update called ‘Food Rescue’, announced by Goyal on November 10 earlier this month. While many of his followers shared their opinions about the update, one user’s review, in particular, caught the eye of the Indian billionaire.


    The new feature attempts to reduce food wastage by redirecting cancelled orders on Zomato to other potential customers. 


    Goyal, while shedding light on the feature, wrote, “Canceled orders will now pop up for nearby customers, who can grab them at an unbeatable price, in their original untampered packaging, and receive them in just minutes.”


    An X user by the name of Bhanu shared some positive critique to prevent misuse of the new feature:


    1. Should not be applicable to COD (Cash on Delivery)
    2. Cancellation should not be allowed if the delivery reaches 500 m to the delivery point 
    3. Chances of twi idiots sharing meals ordering and cancelling at the same time getting a discount place 
    4. Less than two cancellations are allowed per month.


    These pointers impressed CEO Goyal and he offered Bhanu to “work together” with him.

     
    Goyal wrote, “All this and more already in place. Good thinking, by the way. Who are you and what do you do? Would love to know you more, and see if we can work together? 🙂 DM [Direct Message] me please if you wanna chat more.”


    However, Bhanu seemed to be happy in his workplace as he responded to the offer to work for the food delivery company by respectfully sharing that he is based in Bangalore and is working already. “Thanks a lot. I am from Bangalore. Regularly use Blinkit. I regularly give suggestions to improve services via Twitter by tagging your company. Always thinking to reduce negative impact and improve service delivery. Working as a PM in a startup company.”


    The interaction caused a flare of surprise among Indian users and made it to the headlines for news outlets around the globe, especially in India.

  • 2024 ‘virtually certain’ to be hottest year on record: EU monitor

    2024 ‘virtually certain’ to be hottest year on record: EU monitor

    This year is “virtually certain” to be the hottest in recorded history with warming above 1.5C, EU climate monitor Copernicus said Thursday, days before nations are due to gather for crunch UN climate talks.

    The European agency said the world was passing a “new milestone” of temperature records that should be a call to accelerate action to cut planet-heating emissions at the UN negotiations in Azerbaijan next week.

    Last month, marked by deadly flooding in Spain and Hurricane Milton in the United States, was the second hottest October on record, with average global temperatures second only to the same period in 2023.

    “Humanity’s torching the planet and paying the price,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a speech on Thursday, listing a string of calamitous floods, fires, heatwaves and hurricanes across the world this year so far.

    “Behind each of these headlines is human tragedy, economic and ecological destruction, and political failure.”

    Copernicus said 2024 would likely be more than 1.55 degrees Celsius (2.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1850-1900 average — the period before the industrial-scale burning of fossil fuels.

    This does not amount to a breach of the Paris deal, which strives to limit global warming to below 2C and preferably 1.5C, because that is measured over decades and not individual years.

    “It is now virtually certain that 2024 will be the warmest year on record and the first year of more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels,” said Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Deputy Director Samantha Burgess.

    “This marks a new milestone in global temperature records and should serve as a catalyst to raise ambition for the upcoming Climate Change Conference, COP29.”

    – Wild weather –

    The UN climate negotiations in Azerbaijan, taking place in the wake of the United States election victory by Donald Trump, will set the stage for a new round of crucial carbon-cutting targets.

    Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax”, pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement during his first presidency. While President Joe Biden took the United States back in, Trump has threatened to withdraw again.

    Meanwhile, average global temperatures have reached new peaks, as have concentrations of planet-heating gases in the atmosphere.

    Scientists say the safer 1.5C limit is rapidly slipping out of reach, while stressing that every tenth of a degree in temperature rises heralds progressively more damaging impacts.

    Last month the UN said the current course of action would result in a catastrophic 3.1C of warming this century, while all existing climate pledges taken in full would still amount to a devastating 2.6C temperature rise.

    And in a report on Thursday, the UN warned that the amount of money going to poorer countries for adaptation measures was barely one-tenth of what they needed to spend on disaster preparedness.

    In a month of weather extremes, October saw above-average rainfall across swathes of Europe, as well as parts of China, the United States, Brazil and Australia, Copernicus said.

    The United States is also experiencing ongoing drought, which affected record numbers of people, the EU monitor added.

    Global warming is not just about rising temperatures, but the knock-on effect of all the extra heat in the atmosphere and seas.

    Warmer air can hold more water vapour, and warmer oceans mean greater evaporation, resulting in more intense downpours and storms.

    Copernicus said average sea surface temperatures in the area it monitors were the second highest on record for the month of October.

    C3S uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations to aid its calculations.

    Copernicus records go back to 1940.

    But other sources of climate data such as ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons allow scientists to expand their conclusions using evidence from much further in the past.

    Climate scientists say the period being lived through right now is likely the warmest the Earth has been for the last 100,000 years.

  • Afghan women not barred from speaking to each other: morality ministry

    Afghan women not barred from speaking to each other: morality ministry

    Women in Afghanistan are not forbidden from speaking to each other, the Taliban government’s morality ministry told AFP on Saturday, denying recent media reports of a ban.

    Afghan media based outside the country and international outlets have in recent weeks reported a ban on women hearing other women’s voices, based on an audio recording of the head of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV), Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, about rules of prayer. 

    PVPV spokesman Saiful Islam Khyber said the reports were “brainless” and “illogical”, in a voice recording confirmed by AFP. 

    “A woman can talk to another woman, women need to interact with one another in society, women do have their needs,” he said. 

    He added, however, that there were exceptions according to Islamic law, such as those described by Hanafi that women should use hand gestures instead of raising their voices to communicate with other women while praying.

    Women in Afghanistan are barred from singing or reciting poetry aloud in public, according to a recent “vice and virtue” law detailing sweeping codes of behaviour, including that women’s voices should be “concealed” along with their bodies when outside their homes. 

    Women’s voices have also been banned from television and radio broadcasts in some provinces.

    The law codified many rules the Taliban government has imposed based on their strict interpretation of Islamic law since they came to power in 2021, with women bearing the brunt of restrictions the United Nations has called “gender apartheid”. 

    The Taliban authorities have banned education after secondary school for girls and women, also barring them from various jobs as well as parks and other public places. 

    The Taliban government has said all Afghan citizens’ rights are guaranteed under Islamic law. 

  • Canada on ‘high alert’ bracing for migrants fleeing US

    Canada on ‘high alert’ bracing for migrants fleeing US

    Canadian authorities said Friday they’re on “high alert” with all eyes on the US border as the country braces for a possible influx of migrants from the United States.

    US President-elect Donald Trump has promised the largest mass deportation in American history, accusing immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country.”

    During his first presidential term from 2017 to 2021, tens of thousands of migrants, including Haitians stripped of US protections, fled north to Canada.

    “We’re on high alert,” a Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman, Sergeant Charles Poirier, told Agence France-Presse.

    “All of our eyes are looking at the border to see what’s going to happen… because we know that Trump’s stance on immigration might drive up illegal and irregular migration to Canada,” he said.

    In Ottawa, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland met Friday with a group of ministers tasked with handling thorny issues that might emerge between Canada and the incoming Trump administration.

    She sought to reassure that Canada was ready for a possible uptick in migrant arrivals.

    “We have a plan,” she told a news conference after the meeting without giving details. “Canadians need to know… our borders are safe and secure, and we control them.”

    Watching out for a possible influx comes as Canada is slashing its own immigration targets.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has said it wants to slow population growth while it bolsters key infrastructure and social services.

    Quebec Premier Francois Legault this week also expressed concerns about a large number of arrivals overwhelming his province’s already strained ability to house them.

    Immediately following Tuesday’s election, online searches in the United States about moving to Canada jumped tenfold.

    The legal status of the people making those queries is unclear, but some US citizens opposed to Trump’s return to power have reportedly been querying Canadian immigration and relocation services.

    Google Trends pointed to search terms such as “immigrate to Canada,” “Canada immigration process” and “how to move to Canada.”

    The government estimates the processing of permanent residency applications can take up to one year, while projected wait times for refugee claims is 44 months.

    Entering Canada between border checkpoints is illegal, and dangerous, especially in winter months, the RCMP’s Poirier noted.

    “We understand the misery and fear that drives people to try to cross into Canada (through forests or fields or across lakes and rivers), but there are real dangers,” he warned.

    “It’s starting to get cold. We’ve seen some tragedies in the past. People were severely frostbitten and had to have amputations. People also suffered severe hypothermia,” Poirier said.

    Some have died.

    Rule changes in 2023 have also made it harder for people coming from the United States to succeed in making asylum claims in Canada, and they would likely be returned to the United States.

    Poirier said “more boots on the ground” are expected to be deployed along the world’s longest non-militarized border in the coming days, as authorities expect migrants to start hitting the road soon, ahead of Trump’s inauguration in January.

    Additionally, cameras, sensors and drones have already been set up along this 8,891 kilometres (5,525 miles) stretch, and information is being shared between Canada and the United States in real-time, he added.

    Despite months of planning, Poirier warned that if thousands of migrants come all at once and cross at many border points, “it could become unmanageable.”

  • Racist online attacks intensify after Trump’s election victory

    Racist online attacks intensify after Trump’s election victory

    Racist attacks against American Arabs, Africans, and Latinos following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US elections have increased online. 


    A number of African Americans shared the messages they had received in the past three days. In one of the messages, it is seen that the recipient has been told they are being selected to “pick cotton.” 


    The sender advised them to bring all their belongings, too, as all their “executive slaves” would be present there. Exaggerating the threat further, the recipient of the message is told that they should come prepared “to get searched and patted down once inside of the plantation.”


    These messages allude to the dark ages of slavery and have been received by children, college students and working professionals from unrecognized phone numbers in the wake of the presidential election.


    CNN reports that authorities are tracking the sender. 


    However, other reports suggest that Harris’ defeat has made immigrants like Arabs, Asians and Latinxs (a gender-neutral term to refer to men and women of Latin American heritage) easy targets.


    These people are being accused of ‘gifting’ Trump the presidency by not voting for Harris. From appeals for mass deportation to wishes that minorities lose their citizenship, racist and Islamophobic comments are everywhere on the internet.


    Some of these attacks are directed at Muslims in the context of genocide in Gaza as one commenter said, “I hope they are all deported. And I can’t wait until Netanyahu gets the green light to turn Gaza into a parking lot.”


    “Netanyahu bombs and obliterates a school in Gaza. He did this because we just elected Trump, who told him ‘finish it off’ — and this is what he meant. To the Arab voters in Michigan who voted for Trump — this is on YOU,” Cheri Jacobus, a political strategist, pundit and writer, tweeted.


    However, many in her replies pointed out that this has been happening for a year with the support of Joe Biden’s administration, of which Kamala was a part.


    Some other commentators were outrightly ferocious, “I HOPE HE DEPORTS THEM ALL TO THE GULFS (Arab and Muslim Trump voters) coming from one.”


    Exit polls have revealed that more than 50 per cent of Muslims in America actually voted for Green Party’s Jill Stein. 


    Other figures indicated that Trump gained support in communities of colour — including a 5.5-point shift in majority-Black counties and a 6.8-point increase in Latino-majority counties. Still, a notable share of voters—18.37pc—opted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who campaigned on ending US support for Israeli military actions in Gaza. In contrast, Harris maintained a pro-Israel stance and totally alienated Muslim voters.

  • Delhi plans drone flights to combat smog crisis

    Delhi plans drone flights to combat smog crisis

    India’s capital unveiled plans Friday to fly special drones to clear pollution from its smog-choked skies — a plan derided by experts as another “band-aid” solution to a public health crisis.

    New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution in winter.

    The smog is blamed for thousands of premature deaths each year and is an annual source of misery for the capital’s residents, with various piecemeal government initiatives failing to measurably address the problem.

    Friday marked the start of a trial for an aerial drone tasked with flying around the city’s pollution hotspots to spray water mist in an effort to clear dust and harmful particulate matter from the air.

    “We have been examining different technological solutions and best practices from across the world,” Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said after launching the initiative.

    “This one drone is part of a pilot project by a company. We will study, and if it succeeds, we will take this forward.”

    Rai said that once the trial was over, the Delhi government would issue a tender to purchase two more drones.

    If implemented, the three drones would be responsible for mitigating air pollution across a city that stretches across 1,500 square kilometres (580 square miles) — around the same size as greater London.

    A technician at the site, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the drones carried a maximum 16 litres (4.2 gallons) of water and could only operate for a few minutes at a time before they needed to be refilled.

    “But these are not the solution to air pollution,” Sunil Dahiya of advocacy group Envirocatalysts told AFP. “These are band-aid solutions.”

    Prior government efforts to mitigate the smog, such as a public campaign encouraging drivers to turn off their engines at traffic lights, have failed to make an impact in the city.

    Delhi opened a “smog tower” — a 25-metre (82-foot) tower in the city centre containing fans that were touted as filtering 1,000 cubic metres of air per second — to much fanfare in 2021.

    The project was panned by experts when it was launched and is no longer operational.

    “Cutting emissions at the sources of the pollution is more important,” Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, told AFP.

    “We have enough studies to show that vehicles, industry, and construction are the areas that need intervention to tackle the issue.”

    The level of PM2.5 particles — the smallest and most harmful, which can enter the bloodstream — registered above 300 micrograms per cubic metre in Delhi this week, according to monitoring firm IQAir.

    That is 20 times the daily maximum recommended by the World Health Organization.

  • US Elections 2024: What caused Kamala Harris to lose?

    US Elections 2024: What caused Kamala Harris to lose?

    The Democrat candidate Kamala Harris has lost the US presidential elections 2024.

    While many political pundits had already predicted her loss, they are shocked by how badly she was defeated, with Donald Trump surpassing the requisite 270 electoral college numbers in no time. Not only that, he also won the progressive vote. 


    BBC reports that Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in an email to campaign staff on Wednesday, “This will take a long time to process.”


    Political pundits are attributing the defeat to a number of factors:

    Stance on Gaza genocide 

    First thing first, it’s the baggage of Joe Biden’s murky legacy that Harris carried and then owned. In an op-ed for The Guardian back in August, Mehdi Hassan wrote, “Biden’s Gaza policy is a liability for Kamala Harris. She must break with Biden now.”


    Israel’s carnage in Gaza alienated more Dem voters than the party believed. 


    Media reports suggest that a large number of Arab-American voters, young voters and Muslims generally did not vote for Kamala Harris because of her commitment to sustaining the flow of US weapons to Israel and her rhetoric of “Israel has the right to defend herself.”


    While she tried to redeem herself by saying that she will end the “war in Gaza” during her last speech in the swing state of Michigan with a large population of Arab-American citizens, the erstwhile state still voted for Trump’s Republican party, and more importantly, for the anti-Israel Jill Stein. 


    Biden’s approval ratings has consistently plummeted in the last four years and this impacted Kamala badly as two thirds of voters believed that the country is on the wrong track and that Kamala will continue Joe Biden’s policies. 


    America’s support of Ukraine, both militarily and financially, was enabled by Biden’s administration of which Harris was a part and also a key factor as well. As per the recent numbers, the Democratic administration provided more than $64.1 billion in military assistance alone. 


    Meanwhile, Trump repeatedly reminded his supporters that he never started a war in his tenure. 


    Policies on Climate


    Kamala’s change of stance on climate also paved the way for her loss. While she opposed “fracking”-the artificial matter of extracting gas- during her campaign, she confirmed that she will not seek to ban fracking if elected.


    Climate activists also alleged that her tone towards climate changed over time.


    Flaws in campaigning style


    Kamala got endorsements from all the big shots of Hollywood like Taylor Swift and Beyonce while Trump was seen attending rallies, meeting voters and serving fries at a McDonalds drive-thru.


    Quoting the Democrat campaign misjudgments, analyst Leigh Sales said, “The Democrats also had a tin ear when it came to the gap between rich and poor and how politically potent it is. Why was Harris constantly campaigning with squillionaire celebrities?”


    Illegal immigration


    Trump’s “America First” slogan gained traction from many quarters all around the country as he targeted the issue of Illegal immigration. Kamala, on the other hand, has shown leniency as she advocated for strict border security and reforms.


    Economic policies


    Last but not least, ever-growing inflation in Biden’s four-year-tenure contributed in steering voters away from Kamala’s side. Reportedly, the inflation rate was the highest after the 1970’s.

  • Canadian govt asks TikTok to shut operations for security reasons

    Canadian govt asks TikTok to shut operations for security reasons

    Canada said Wednesday it is shutting down TikTok’s offices in the country following a security review, but people will still be allowed to use the popular video-sharing app.

    “The government is taking action to address the specific national security risks related to ByteDance Ltd.’s operations in Canada,” Francois-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry, said in a statement.

    Ottawa is not imposing restrictions on Canadian users of TikTok, which has come under scrutiny for its ownership under China-based ByteDance.

    “The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice,” Champagne said.

    Canada banned TikTok from all government devices last year and launched a security review of the application.

    Champagne said Wednesday’s decision was made in accordance with a law that “allows for the review of foreign investments that may be injurious to Canada’s national security.”

    TikTok said it would challenge the decision in court.

    “Shutting down TikTok’s Canadian offices and destroying hundreds of well-paying local jobs is not in anyone’s best interest,” said a spokesperson.

    “We will challenge this order in court.”

    A cyber expert at the University of Ottawa, Michael Geist, said “there may well be good reasons” to ban the app but warned the move could be counterproductive.

    “Banning the company rather than the app may actually make matters worse since the risks associated with the app will remain but the ability to hold the company accountable will be weakened,” Geist wrote in an online post.

    TikTok also faces a ban in the United States if it remains owned by ByteDance – a threat the company is battling in a federal appeals court, arguing that it violates free speech rights.

    The US government alleges that TikTok allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users. It also says the platform is a conduit to spread propaganda.

    China and the company strongly deny these claims.