Kolkata, (IANS) Amid the row over the Supreme Court verdict on Rafale jet deal, Union Minister Smriti Irani on Monday demanded an explanation from the Congress as to why it tried to play with matters of national security and create doubts about the credibility of the Indian Air Force by spreading “constant lies” in the last one year.

Targeting Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who has been relentlessly attacking the Narendra Modi government at the Centre over the defence deal with a French company, Irani said the Congress leader must reveal his source of information about the alleged anomalies in the deal.

For the last one year Congress has been playing with the nation’s security by spreading a series of lies regarding the Rafale deal. 

“However, lies do not last long. The Honourable Supreme Court has exposed the lies spread by Congress on this issue in front of the whole nation after scrutinising all the aspects of the deal,” Irani told the reporters at the state BJP headquarters here.

“Rahul Gandhi must tell people, who was his source of information? Who inspired him to humiliate the Indian Air Force, and defame the country on international platforms,” she added.

Tel Aviv, (IANS) Facebook temporarily banned Yair Netanyahu, son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for posting anti-Muslim posts, the media reported on Monday.

According to a report in The Times of Israel, Yair’s Facebook account was blocked for 24 hours on Sunday after he called for “avenging the deaths” of two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers who were killed at the West Bank shooting last week.

“Unbelievable. Facebook blocks me for 24 hours for simply criticizing it! Thought police,” Yari wrote on Twitter.

Facebook is yet to comment on this.

After the controversial Facebook post was removed, he wrote that the social media giant was “trying to shut our mouths in the only place where we have the right to express our opinions”.

Yari also posted a screenshot of the original post along with new posts criticising Facebook.

“Do you know where there are no terror attacks? In Iceland and Japan. Coincidentally there’s also no Muslim population there,” he posted.

This is not the first time Yair has been in the spotlight.

According to The Jerusalem Post, in 2017, Yair posted a diagram featuring antisemitic tropes such as Jewish billionaire George Soros, who funds left-wing causes and organizations in several countries.

“The post depicted Soros controlling the world via other conspiracy theory figures like lizard people, known as Reptilians, and the Illuminati or Freemasons,” the report added.

 A day after the Supreme Court dismissed petitions seeking a probe into the Rafale deal, the political dogfight over the issue intensified with the Congress accusing the Narendra Modi government of “misleading” the apex court that resulted in “factual bloomers” in the judgment. The opposition party demanded that the Attorney General and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) be summoned by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament in this connection.

The Centre’s ruling BJP, which has been touting the verdict as a “clean chit”, hit back charging the Congress with trying to sabotage the country’s security preparedness by raking up the deal again and again. 

The CAG report, relying on which the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions, turned out to be the latest flashpoint over the Modi government’s decision to buy 36 French built fighters. 

While the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi-led bench in the verdict said that the “pricing details have been shared with the CAG, and the report of the CAG has been examined by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)”, the Congress maintained that “no portion of the CAG report has been placed before Parliament or placed in the public domain”. 

Keeping the pot boiling, PAC Chairman and senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said he will press for summoning the Attorney General and the CAG to ask them when was the public auditor’s report tabled and when did the PAC examine it.

“The government lied in the Court that the CAG report was presented in the House and in PAC. They also told the Court that the PAC has probed it. They claimed that the report was in the public domain. Where is it,” Kharge told the media here. 

He said the CAG will be questioned as to when was the report presented, when was it accepted, when was it brought to PAC, when was the evidence taken and when was it presented in Parliament.

Subsequently addressing a media conference here, Congress leader and advocate Kapil Sibal said the Supreme Court verdict had “factual bloomers” for which the Modi-led Centre was responsible. 

“There are factual bloomers in the judgment for which the government is responsible and not the court. If you give wrong facts to the court and on that basis, the court makes factual assertions, in that case it’s the government which is responsible,” said Sibal. 

He also asserted that the apex court was neither the right forum to examine the corruption in the deal nor the verdict was a “clean chit” for the BJP-led Centre.

“The Supreme Court is not the appropriate forum because, it cannot examine all the file notings or examine witnesses on oath including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who needs to be questioned as also defence ministry officials. 

“It is childish that the government and the BJP is claiming victory,” Sibal said ridiculing Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for their assertions that the verdict was a clean chit to the Modi government and accusing the Congress of jeopardising national security by politicising the defence deal. 

“The court said that it cannot go into issues of pricing and matters relating to technical suitability of the jets, so how can the government claim that the deal is clean and there is no corruption. The court nowhere said that,” Sibal said iterating that only a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe can unearth the “corruption and crony capitalism” in the deal. 

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party continued its attack on the Congress saying the grand old party was trying to “sabotage India’s security preparedness by raking up the Rafale deal issue, despite the Supreme Court ruling that there was no need for a probe”.

“This is nothing but sabotage of our security preparedness. We have already said that (Congress President) Rahul Gandhi owes an apology to the nation, to the defence forces and Lok Sabha also,” Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar told the media in Panaji. 

“The Supreme Court has clearly exposed the falsehood of Congress and also gave a clean chit to the deal by saying that no further enquiry was needed. Still if the Congress persists with the issue, the only conclusion is that it wants to stop the deal which will weaken the security preparedness of the country,” he added.

The Supreme Court on Friday junked the pleas seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged financial and procedural “irregularities” in the Rafale deal, but the issue has continued to reverberate both inside and outside parliament. 

IANS

BENGALURU: Due to the ongoing restoration work on the concrete beam supporting the rail tracks at Trinity Metro station, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) will affect a shutdown in operations between MG Road and Baiyappanahalli either this weekend (December 16-17) or the next (December 23-24). Trains won’t run on this portion of the Purple Line, which covers Baiyappanahalli, Indiranagar, Swami Vivekananda Road, Halasuru, Trinity and MG Road stations.

This 6.7km portion of the East-West Corridor was the first Metro line here to be declared open for commercial operations on October 20, 2011. Trains along this portion began operations late on Thursday (7 am). It may have a delayed run even on Friday, depending on the work being carried out through the night near Trinity Metro station. Operations between MG Road and Mysuru Road will continue as usual.

BMRCL Managing Director Ajay Seth told media that work to restore the concrete beam to its previous state are on in full swing. “There is a process of grouting that needs to be followed. We need to pump in adhesive solutions and chemicals to ensure that all gaps on the beam are closed. The curing process will take 30 to 36 hours. So we will have to effect a shutdown in operations then.” An action plan will be readied shortly with the help of experts, he added.

BMRCL chief public relations officer Y L Chavan said, “This is the first time we are facing this kind of problem. Experts from the Indian Institute of Science and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation are arriving tomorrow (Friday) to guide us in the restoration process.”

No problem in Baiyappanahalli
Rubbishing rumours of a major crack on the rail tracks near Baiyappanahalli, chief public relations officer of BMRCL Y L Chavan said, “These are structural joints that bind structures together. They are present throughout our network.” Due to panic spread since Wednesday, some were taking pictures and posting them on social media and WhatsApp groups.  “It is wrong information, “ he said. “The ridership did not suffer due to the temporary stoppage of trains. Metro registered 3.88 lakh commuters on Wednesday.”

STRENGTHENING OF CONCRETE BEAM BEING DONE
Explaining the work being undertaken on pier 155, Chavan said that due to the appearance of air voids similar to the gaps on a honeycomb in the beam,  the portion had slipped. The beam absorbs vibrations caused by running of trains. “We are filling the gaps and strengthening the segment so that it goes back to its previous position. It is a fault, so we are rectifying it,” he said.

News Agencies

  At a time when pressure is mounting on tech companies to utilise facial recognition technology with care to avoid its misuse, Google has said it will not offer the controversial technology for now.

Toeing Microsoft’s line which has asked governments across the world to regulate this technology, Google said facial recognition merits careful consideration. 

“Like many technologies with multiple uses, facial recognition merits careful consideration to ensure its use is aligned with our principles and values, and avoids abuse and harmful outcomes,” Kent Walker, Senior Vice President of Global Affairs at Google, said in a blog post on Friday. 

“We continue to work with many organisations to identify and address these challenges, and unlike some other companies, Google Cloud has chosen not to offer general-purpose facial recognition APIs before working through important technology and policy questions,” informed Walker.

Earlier this month, Microsoft President Brad Smith said that given the potential for abuse of the fast advancing facial recognition technology, governments across the world need to start adopting laws to regulate this technology in 2019.

“Unless we act, we risk waking up five years from now to find that facial recognition services have spread in ways that exacerbate societal issues,” warned Smith in a blog post.

“The time for action has arrived,” he said, adding that the industry must also exercise restraint while using this technology.

Microsoft is one of several companies playing a leading role in developing facial recognition technology. 

The company, Smith said, would start adopting new principles to manage the issues surrounding facial recognition technology in the first quarter of 2019.

According to Walker, Google has long been committed to the responsible development of AI. 

“These principles guide our decisions on what types of features to build and research to pursue. As one example, facial recognition technology has benefits in areas like new assistive technologies and tools to help find missing persons, with more promising applications on the horizon,” he added. 

IANS

 In a no-holds-barred assault, the Shiv Sena here on Saturday termed the appointment of new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das as “dangerous” with a potential to unleash ‘financial terror’ in the country.

“The (BJP) government does not like people who speak the truth, but wants only those who ‘nod their head in agreement’. If this is the intention behind Das’ appointment, it signals the beginning of a ‘financial terror’ regime,” warned the Sena, an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the Centre and in Maharashtra.

Questioning Das’ credentials for the crucial post, the Sena said while the two previous RBI governors – Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel – were world-renowned economists, the current incumbent is only a graduate with no “known” knowledge of economics, and is an IAS officer (bureaucrat) with specialisation in history.

“He is known to applaud all good and bad policies of the Narendra Modi government. In fact, he had blindly supported the devastating demonetisation drive (November 2016), and remained unaffected by the peoples’ miseries then. When doubts were raised on the new pink-coloured Rs 2,000 currency notes, he made a laughable statement that those notes which bleed are genuine,” the Sena said in hard-hitting edits in the party mouthpieces, ‘Saamana’ and ‘Dopahar Ka Saamana.’

It pointed out that the post of governor of the country’s apex bank is “akin to sitting on a throne of nails and wearing a crown of thorns”, and hence Das’ top priority is to “safeguard the independence” of RBI besides convincing global investors of the same.

“Rajan had strongly opposed the demonetisation move and quit. Patel sacrificed his post to protect the RBI’s independence and even prevented the government from raiding its reserves. The current economic chaos witnessed in the country is directly because of flawed policies like note ban and GST implementation, resulting in high inflation and falling Rupee value,” said the Sena.

Though it was within the ambit of the RBI to arrest all these ills, it did not happen in the past four years, as there was massive interference in the apex bank’s affairs.

It was only when these hindrances became unbearable that Rajan and Patel left, while a “tolerant” person like Das has been anointed as RBI Governor, the Sena pointed out.

Citing an example, the Sena said that the RBI has imposed severe lending restrictions on 11 banks, but the government feels if these are eased then these banks could thrive again.

Opposing the government’s view, the RBI’s stance is that industrialists and big borrowers failed to repay their debts and fled the country – actions which hit the economy badly and will continue to do so.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy made serious written allegations against Das in the past, but despite that, he has been catapulted to the top post as RBI Governor, the Sena rued.

“Das enjoys good relations with politicians, but his appointment as RBI head should not lead to any manipulation of the economy and end up as a ‘joke’… Here, he faces crucial questions like inflation and fiscal management. As the RBI Governor, will he be able to rein in the political elements who created the problems in the first place?” the Sena asked in the concluding part of the edits.

IANS

 International regulations limiting sulfur in fuels for ocean-going vessels will increase uncertainty for crude oil and petroleum product price formation in both the short and long term, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

These rules, set to take effect in January 2020, apply across multiple countries’ jurisdictions to fuels used in the open ocean, Xinhua news agency reported.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the 171-member state United Nations agency that sets standards for shipping, decided to reduce the maximum amount of sulfur content in marine fuels used on the open seas from 3.5 percent to 0.5 percent by 2020. These regulations are intended to reduce sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants from global ship exhaust.

On Friday, EIA said that the upcoming IMO regulations pose a significant challenge for global petroleum refineries, which will have to figure out how to increase the supply of low sulfur products for use in marine applications and minimize the output of high sulfur oils.

EIA said that one approach refineries could pursue is to divert more low sulfur distillate fuel into the bunker fuel market. This means that ocean-going ships would be competing with trucks, heavy equipment, trains and planes for supplies of distillate fuels at a time when global demand for distillate is already high. To respond to extra demand for distillate fuels, refineries can increase the rate they process crude oil or invest and build more refinery capacity to produce distillate fuels. 

Refineries could also process crude oils that are lower in sulfur and yield a greater amount of distillates and lower amounts of residual oils, which currently make up the largest component of marine fuels used by large ocean-going vessels. 

Vessel operators also have several choices to comply with the new sulfur limits. One option is to switch to a lower-sulfur fuel compliant with the new rules. Another option is to utilize scrubbers to remove pollutants from ships’ exhaust, allowing them to continue to use higher-sulfur fuels. Ships have the option to switch to nonpetroleum-based fuels as well. 

The decisions refiners and shippers make in response to the IMO regulations heavily influence one another, adding to uncertainty and complexity, according to EIA. 

When burned, the sulfur in marine fuel produces sulfur dioxide, a precursor to acid rain. The sulfur content of transportation fuels has been declining for many years because of increasingly strict regulations implemented by individual countries or groups of countries.

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 Video-sharing giant YouTube has removed as many as 7.8 million videos between July and September, in its attempt to address violative content on the video platform.

According to YouTube’s latest “YouTube Community Guidelines Enforcement” report, 81 per cent of these videos were first detected by machines while out of those detected by machines, 74.5 per cent videos had never received a single view.

“When we detect a video that violates our guidelines, we remove the video and apply a strike to the channel. We terminate entire channels if they are dedicated to posting content prohibited by our Community Guidelines or contain a single egregious violation, like child sexual exploitation,” the company said in a statement on Friday.

The company has been using a mix of human reviewers and technology to battle inappropriate content on its platform and in 2017 it started applying more advanced Machine Learning (ML) technology to flag content for review by its teams. 

A majority of attempted abuse comes from bad actors trying to upload spam or adult content and over 90 per cent of the channels and over 80 per cent of the videos that were removed in September were for violating YouTube’s policies on spam or adult content.

“Looking specifically at the most egregious but low-volume areas like violent extremism and child safety, our significant investment in fighting this type of content is having an impact.

“Over 90 per cent of the videos uploaded in September and removed for Violent Extremism or Child Safety had fewer than 10 views,” the company added.

IANS

 Over 1,000 institutions with managed investments worth $8 trillion have committed to phasing out fossil fuels, says a report.

The number of institutions committing to fossil fuel divestment has increased rapidly and spread globally since 2012. 

The report — 1000 Divestment Commitments and Counting — came to light on the margins of the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice.

Parties to the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) were set to adopt a “rulebook” for the Paris Agreement, which will outline the governing framework and mechanisms for full implementation of the 2015 climate pact.

According to the report, the reach and impact of the new global movement is huge with major institutions committing to remove, in whole or in part, nearly $8 trillion in assets from fossil fuel investments.

The momentum was driven by a people-powered grassroots movement, where people across the world were pushing their local institutions to work for a world powered by 100 per cent renewable energy.

The report said that in the financial world, divestment has taken on a momentum of its own as well.

Fund managers and fiduciaries are increasingly becoming aware of the risks of climate breakdown and deciding on their own to divest from morally unsound and financially risky industries.

The recent institution to divest was the Caisse des depots et consignations, which manages France’s public sector pensions, savings and investments worth 173 billion euros ($196 billion).

It had announced that from 2019 it will no longer invest in companies that generate more than 10 per cent of their business from coal.

In November 2012, 350.org Bill McKibben and a handful of young organisers hit the road to build a movement to change the terrifying mathematics of the climate crisis.

The Fossil Free campaign set out a bold, ambitious plan to take down the main culprit for the climate crisis — the fossil fuel industry.

Since 2012, the fossil fuels divestment campaign has grown faster than any previous divestment movement.

To assist developing nations to move away from coal, the World Bank, Canada and Britain on Thursday announced financial, technical and advisory support.

The Canadian government pledged up to $275 million Canadian dollars to fund the Energy Transition and Coal Phase-Out Programme. 

The British government also pledged 20 million pounds to the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme which is administered by the World Bank to help low and middle-income countries implement environmentally sustainable energy solutions.

IANS

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday demanded a discussion on the Rafale deal in the Rajya Sabha as the upper House was adjourned for the day amidst sloganeering and noise.

“I demand that Congress party should immediately start a discussion on Rafale,” Jaitley said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party members were on their feet asking Congress President Rahul Gandhi to apologise.

“Rahul Gandhi maafi maango (apologise),” the ruling party MPs said in a chorus.

This came after the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed petitions demanding court-monitored probe into the Rafael fighter jet deal.

Earlier, as soon as the House met for the day, some members belonging to the DMK and AIADMK trooped to the Chair’s podium, holding placards.

They have been protesting against a proposed dam over the Cauveri river.

Amid the pandemonium, Deputy Chairman Harivansh adjourned the House for 20 minutes.

But as the House was reconvened at 11.30 a.m., the scene was no different. He tried to go ahead with the Zero Hour but nothing could be heard over the din.

The Chair then adjourned the House for the day.

IANS