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In 3 Months, 3 Immigrants Have Died at a Private Detention Center in California

A Honduran immigrant held at a troubled detention center in California's high desert died Wednesday night while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Vincente Caceres-Maradiaga, 46, was receiving treatment for multiple medical conditions while waiting for an immigration court to decide whether to deport him, according an ICE statement. He collapsed as he was playing soccer at the detention facility and died while en route to a local hospital.

Caceres-Maradiaga's death is the latest in a string of fatalities among detainees held at the Adelanto Detention Facility, which is operated by the GEO Group, the country's largest private prison company. Three people held at the facility have died in the last three months, including Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba, a 32-year-old Nicaraguan found hanging in his cell on March 22, and Sergio Alonso Lopez, a Mexican man who died of internal bleeding on April 13 after spending more than two months in custody.

Since it opened in 2011, Adelanto has faced accusations of insufficient medical care and poor conditions. In July 2015, 29 members of Congress sent a letter to ICE and federal inspectors requesting an investigation into health and safety concerns at the facility. They cited the 2012 death of Fernando Dominguez at the facility, saying it was the result of "egregious errors" by the center's medical staff, who did not give him proper medical examinations or allow him to receive timely off-site treatment. In November 2015, 400 detainees began a hunger strike, demanding better medical and dental care along with other reforms.

Yet last year, the city of Adelanto, acting as a middleman between ICE and GEO, made a deal to extend the company's contract until 2021. The federal government guarantees GEO that a minimum of 975 immigrants will be held at the facility and pays $111 per detainee per day, according to California state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), who has fought to curtail private immigration detention. After that point, ICE only has to pay $50 per detainee per day—an incentive to fill more beds.

Of California's four privately run immigration detention centers, three use local governments as intermediaries between ICE and private prison companies. On Tuesday, the California senate voted 26-13 to ban such contracts, supporting a bill that could potentially close Adelanto when its contract runs out in 2021. The Dignity Not Detention Act, authored by Lara, would prevent local governments from signing or extending contracts with private prison companies to detain immigrants starting in 2019. The bill would also require all in-state facilities that hold ICE detainees, including both private detention centers and public jails, to meet national standards for detention conditions—empowering state prosecutors to hold detention center operators accountable for poor conditions inside their facilities.

An identical bill passed last year but was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown. "I have been troubled by recent reports detailing unsatisfactory conditions and limited access to counsel in private immigration detention facilities," Brown wrote in his veto message last September. But he deferred to the Department of Homeland Security, which was then reviewing its use of for-profit immigration detention. In that review, the Homeland Security Advisory Council rejected the ongoing use of private prison companies to detain immigrants, citing the "inferiority of the private prison model." Yet since President Donald Trump took office, the federal government has moved to expand private immigration detention, signing a $110 million deal with GEO in April to build the first new immigration detention center under Trump.

Nine people have died in ICE custody in fiscal year 2017, which began October 1. Meanwhile, private prison stocks have nearly doubled in value since Election Day.




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How Trump and His Allies Have Run With Russian Propaganda

The concept is straight from the Soviet playbook: Plant false information and use it to influence the attitudes of another country’s people and government. This “active measures” technique from the Cold War era appears to have been resurrected with alarming success by the Kremlin in its attack on the 2016 presidential election—and has been echoed in tactics used by President Donald Trump and his associates, according to Clint Watts, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

“Part of the reason active measures have worked in this US election is because the commander in chief has used Russian active measures at times against his opponents,” Watts, a former FBI agent, recently testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Key to this equation have been RT and Sputnik international, two Russian state-sponsored news outlets. Both reach only relatively small audiences in the US (RT is estimated to reach about 8 million people via cable television), but their impact has been magnified greatly online, with their stories reposted on what Watts calls “gray” conspiracy sites like Breitbart News and InfoWars. Twitter bots and other social media accounts further amplify the stories. And in several cases, Trump or his associates have directly cited phony Russian propaganda in a speech or interview. Here are some examples:

A false report of a terrorist attack at a NATO base in Turkey: Last July, RT and Sputnik each reported on a fire at the Incirlik base, framing it as potential sabotage. Pro-Russian and pro-Trump Twitter accounts spread and magnified the false reports, but mainstream news organizations didn’t pick up the report because it wasn’t true, as Watts explained in a piece for the Daily Beast. Yet, in mid August, Paul Manafort—Trump’s campaign chairman at the time—escalated the story to a terrorist attack, complaining on CNN that US media outlets were not adequately covering it. Politifact debunked Manafort’s claims, noting that Turkish authorities had reported small, peaceful demonstrations outside the base, but no actual assault on the base.

The case of the phony Benghazi email: On October 10, Wikileaks released a batch of emails hacked from campaign chairman John Podesta’s email account. About 5 pm ET that day, Sputnik News published a story about leaked Clinton campaign emails with the headline “Hillary confidante: Benghazi was ‘preventable’; State Department negligent.” Roughly an hour later, Trump told supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania that Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal had called the Benghazi attack “almost certainly preventable.” “This just came out a little while ago,” Trump said. Those words weren’t actually Blumenthal’s and Sputnik later deleted the story – but by then the headline had spread far and wide.

False claims of pervasive voter fraud: RT has been attempting to delegitimize the American electoral process since 2012 by calling the U.S. voting system fraudulent, according to the declassified version of the report the Director of National Intelligence released this past January. In his Senate testimony, Watts called this the “number one theme" pushed by Russian outlets. In October 2016, a Kremlin-controlled think tank circulated a strategy document that said Russia should end its pro-Trump propaganda “and instead intensify its messaging about voter fraud to undermine the U.S. electoral system’s legitimacy and damage Clinton’s reputation in an effort to undermine her presidency,” according to a Reuters investigation

That same month, Trump pushed hard on the theme that the election was rigged; on Oct. 17 Trump tweeted “Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day.” The sources his campaign pointed to were all debunked by Politifact, which noted that Trump had also tweeted in 2012 about dead voters delivering Obama’s win.

The Swedish attack that wasn’t: Trump’s strategy of running with false information didn’t stop when he won the election – and hasn’t been limited to Russian-owned media properties: He’s also used Fox News reports in a similar way. In February, Trump appeared to imply at a Florida rally that a terrorist attack had occurred the previous night in Sweden. Sweden itself had no idea what he meant and the Swedish Embassy reached out to ask for clarification. Twitter users, including many Swedes, ridiculed Trump’s statement, with references ranging from IKEA to the Swedish Chef character from the “Muppets.” Trump later said that he was referring to a Fox News story on violence allegedly perpetrated by refugees. That report, which aired the night before Trump’s rally, did not mention a specific terror-related attack; it focused on reports that rape and gun violence had increased since Sweden began taking in a record number of refugees in 2015.

Wiretapping claims pushed by a Fox News personality: In March, even though Trump's claim about Obama wiretapping Trump Tower had been directly debunked by top US intelligence officials, the president seized on a baseless claim by Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano that British spies had wiretapped Trump at former President Obama’s request. Fox News later disavowed Napolitano’s statement. Trump continued to repeat his conviction that he’d been wiretapped, even though American and British intelligence officials insist there is no basis for the claims.

The murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich: Trump allies recently pushed another story that started as a conspiracy theory online and was fueled by Russian news outlets. Fox’s Sean Hannity aired several segments focusing on the unsubstantiated claim that Rich was behind the Clinton campaign email leaks and then murdered for his actions, even though police have said he was likely killed in a robbery attempt. When the claims were thoroughly debunked, Fox retracted the story from its website – but not before it had been spread by Trump ally and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Even after Fox pulled the story, Gingrich told the Washington Post, “I think it is worth looking at.”

In his Senate testimony, Watts noted that Trump is vulnerable to further manipulation by the Russians: He warned that Russian-linked Twitter accounts are actively trying to engage the president by sending him conspiracy theories. “Until we get a firm basis on fact and fiction in our own country, get some agreement about the facts,” Watts said, “we’re going to have a big problem.”




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Republican Congressman on Suspected Islamic Radicals: "Kill Them All"

In response to the London terror attack, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) had an extreme proposal: kill anyone suspected of being an Islamic radical.

On his campaign Faceboook page, Higgins, a former police officer, posted this message:

The free world…all of Christendom…is at war with Islamic horror. Not one penny of American treasure should be granted to any nation who harbors these heathen animals. Not a single radicalized Islamic suspect should be granted any measure of quarter. Their intended entry to the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every conceivable measure should be engaged to hunt them down. Hunt them, identity them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.

The post went up early on Sunday morning. On Saturday evening, suspected terrorists killed seven people during an attack on London Bridge. ISIS has claimed credit for these murders.

With his declaration that Christendom is "at war with Islamic horror," Higgins was embracing a theme of the far right: the fight against extremist jihadists is part of a fundamental clash between Christian society and Islam. And in this Facebook post, he was calling for killing not just terrorists found guilty of heinous actions, but anyone suspected of such an act. He did not explain how the United States could determine how to identify radicalized Islamists in order to deny them entry to the United States. It was unclear whether his proposal to deny any assistance to any nation that harbors "these heathen animals" would apply to England, France, Indonesia, Spain, and other nations where jihadist cells have committed horrific acts of violence.

Higgins office refused to allow a Mother Jones reporter to speak to a spokesman for the congressman. But in an email, his spokesman confirmed the Facebook post was authentic.

In late January, Higgins delivered a fiery floor speech attacking Democrats and the "liberal media" for opposing President Donald Trump's Muslim travel ban. He declared that "radical Islamic horror has gripped the world and…unbelievably…been allowed into our own nation with wanton disregard."

Shortly before running for Congress, Higgins resigned from his post as the public information officer of the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office, where he had earned a reputation as the "Cajun John Wayne" for his tough-talking CrimeStopper videos. Higgins abruptly quit after his boss, the sheriff, ordered him to tone down his unprofessional comments. "I repeatedly told him to stop saying things like, 'You have no brain cells,' or making comments that were totally disrespectful and demeaning," the sheriff said.

"I don't do well reined in," Higgins noted at the time. "Although I love and respect my sheriff, I must resign."

Update: Higgins' campaign spokesman, Chris Comeaux, told Mother Jones in an email: "Rep. Higgins is referring to terrorists. He's advocating for hunting down and killing all of the terrorists. This is an idea all of America & Britain should be united behind."




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Trump's Tweets Threaten His Travel Ban's Chances in Court

President Donald Trump began the week with a barrage of early-morning tweets blasting the courts for blocking his travel ban executive order. But in doing so, he may have just made it more likely that the courts will keep blocking the ban.

These tweets followed upon several from over the weekend about the ban and the terrorist attack in London, including this one from Saturday evening:

In January, Trump signed an executive order banning nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days, as well as halting the refugee resettlement program for 120 days (and indefinitely for Syrian refugees). When the courts blocked it, rather than appeal to the Supreme Court, Trump signed a modified version of the order. The new ban repealed the old one, reduced the number of banned countries from seven to six, and added exceptions and waivers. Still, federal courts in Maryland and Hawaii blocked it, and now the Justice Department has appealed to the Supreme Court to have this second version of the ban reinstated.

The biggest question in the litigation over the ban is whether the courts should focus solely on the text of the order or also consider Trump's comments from the campaign trail, and even during his presidency, to determine whether the order uses national security as a pretext for banning Muslims from the country. The president's lawyers argue that the courts should focus on the text of the order and defer to the president's authority over national security. Trump's tweets Monday morning and over the weekend make it harder for the courts to justify doing that.

The travel ban is supposed to be a temporary remedy until the government can review its vetting procedures. But Trump's tweets make it appear that the ban itself is his goal. Trump repeatedly and defiantly uses the word "ban" when his administration has instead sought to call it a pause. 

The tweets "undermine the government's best argument—that courts ought not look beyond the four corners of the Executive Order itself," Stephen Vladeck, an expert on national security and constitutional law at the University of Texas School of Law, says via email. "Whether or not then-Candidate Trump's statements should matter (a point on which reasonable folks will likely continue to disagree), the more President Trump says while the litigation is ongoing tending to suggest that the Order is pretextual, the harder it is to convince even sympathetic judges and justices that only the text of the Order matters." And once the courts start looking at the president's statements, it's not hard to find ones that raise questions about anti-Muslim motivations.

Even the president's allies acknowledge his tweets are a problem. George Conway, the husband of top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, responded to Trump on Twitter by pointing out that the work of the Office of the Solicitor General—which is defending the travel ban in court—just got harder.

Conway, who recently withdrew his name from consideration for a post at the Justice Department, then followed up to clarify his position.

Trump may soon see his tweets used against him in court. Omar Jadwat, the ACLU attorney who argued the case before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, told the Washington Post this morning that the ACLU's legal team is considering adding Trump's tweets to its arguments before the Supreme Court. "The tweets really undermine the factual narrative that the president's lawyers have been trying to put forth, which is that regardless of what the president has actually said in the past, the second ban is kosher if you look at it entirely on its own terms," Jadwat told the Post.




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The Intercept Discloses Top-Secret NSA Document on Russia Hacking Aimed at US Voting System

On Monday, the Intercept published a classified internal NSA document noting that Russian military intelligence mounted an operation to hack at least one US voting software supplier—which provided software related to voter registration files—in the months prior to last year's presidential contest. It has previously been reported that Russia attempted to hack into voter registration systems, but this NSA document provides details of how one such operation occurred.

According to the Intercept:

The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the US election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed US government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.

While the document provides a rare window into the NSA's understanding of the mechanics of Russian hacking, it does not show the underlying "raw" intelligence on which the analysis is based. A US intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive.

The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into US voting systems than was previously understood. It states unequivocally in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, that conducted the cyber attacks described in the document:

Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate actors … executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016, evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions. … The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to … launch a voter registration-themed spear-phishing campaign targeting U.S. local government organizations.

Go read the whole thing.




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दिल्ली के गुरुद्वारे में नेहा धूपिया और अंगद बेदी ने रचाई थी गुपचुप शादी, दो साल बाद देखिए खूबसूरत WEDDING ALBUM

साल 2002 में फेमिना मिस इंडिया का खिताब जीतने वाली नेहा धूपिया और बॉलीवुड एक्टर अंगद बेदी ने 10 मई 2018 को दिल्ली में गुपचुप तरीके से शादी करके सभी को चौंका दिया था।




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Uttarakhand: ग्रीन जोन उत्तरकाशी में मिला कोरोना पॉजिटिव मरीज, प्रदेश में संक्रमितों की संख्या हुई 68

उत्तराखंड में कोरोना वायरस के मरीज बढ़ते ही जा रहे हैं। आज सुबह एक और कोरोना संक्रमित मरीज सामने आया है। ग्रीन जोन उत्तरकाशी के सीएमओ डॉ. डीपी जोशी ने मरीज में कोरोना संक्रमण की पुष्टि की है।




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Mother's Day 2020: बेहद खास हैं ये बॉलीवुड सॉन्ग्स, मां के साथ बिताए हर पल की दिला देंगे याद

आज पूरी दुनिया में मदर्स डे मनाया जा रहा है। मां के साथ बिताया हर दिन हम सभी के लिए बेहद खास होता है। फिल्म में भी मां और बच्चों के बीच के रिश्ते को हमेशा से काफी खास तरीके से पेश किया जाता रहा है।




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Airtel का जबरदस्त ऑफर, एक प्लान को पांच यूजर्स कर सकेंगे इस्तेमाल

टेलीकॉम कंपनी एयरटेल (Airtel) ने उपभोक्ताओं के लिए खास प्लान की सीरीज बाजार में उतारी है, जिसका नाम 'फैमिली पोस्टपेड प्लान' है। यूजर्स को इस प्लान में अनलिमिटेड कॉलिंग के साथ पर्याप्त डाटा और प्रीमियम एप्स की सब्सक्रिप्शन मुफ्त में मिलेगी।




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Mother's Day 2020: आयुष्मान ने बनाया मांओं के लिए खास गाना, सोशल मीडिया पर किया रिलीज

बॉलीवुड सितारे भी मदर्स डे को बेहद खास अंदाज में मना रहे हैं। ऐसे कई सितारे हैं जिन्होंने अपनी मां की तस्वीर सोशल मीडिया पर साझा कर उन्हें याद किया।




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10 दिन पहले ही जूनियर एनटीआर को खास अंदाज में बधाई दे रहे साउथ स्टार्स, #NTRBirthdayCDP हो रहा ट्रेंड

साउथ सुपरस्टार जूनियर एनटीआर (Jr NTR) 20 मई को अपना जन्मदिन मनाएंगे लेकिन उनके फैंस के बीच अभी से उनके जन्मदिन की खुशी है।




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Mother's Day 2020: ये हैं बॉलीवुड की पांच सिंगल मदर्स, जो सबके लिए बन गईं मिसाल

चलिए आगे की स्लाइड में ऐसी ही सिंगल मदर्स के बारे में बताते हैं जिनके बारे में जानकर आपको भी गर्व होगा।




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Coronavirus: स्मार्टफोन से फैल सकता है कोरोना वायरस, ऐसे करें डिवाइस की सफाई

Coronavirus how to sanitize your phone at home: कोरोना वायरस भारत में तेजी से फैल रहा है। ऐसे में जरूरी है कि आप अपने हाथ समय-समय पर धोते रहें। साथ ही अपने फोन को भी हमारे बताएं गए तरीकों के जरिए सैनिटाइज करना ना भूले।




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COVID-19 claims another life in the Windsor area

There were nine new cases and one death related to COVID-19 reported Saturday by the Windsor Essex County Health Unit. The health unit update said a female in her 90s died Friday. She was a resident of a long-term care facility. As of Saturday, there have been 694 confirmed cases of coronavirus, 263 cases are […]




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Coronavirus in India Live Updates: पिछले 24 घंटे में सीआईएसएफ के 18 और जवान पॉजिटिव, संक्रमितों की संख्या 64 हुई

वैश्विक महामारी कोरोना वायरस से निपटने के लिए लगाया गया लॉकडाउन जारी है। आज लॉकडाउन 3.0 का सातवां दिन है। वहीं, देशभर में संक्रमित मरीजों की संख्या में लगातार बढ़ोतरी हो रही है




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वंदे भारत मिशन Update: मालदीव से 698 भारतीयों को लेकर कोच्चि पहुंचा आईएनएस जलाश्व

इसी कड़ी में मालदीव के माले से 698 भारतीयों को वापस लेकर आईएनएस जलाश्व रविवार को कोच्ची हार्बर पहुंचा।




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Coronavirus in Himachal Pradesh: दो और संक्रमित, 54 पहुंचा आंकड़ा

हिमाचल प्रदेश में कोरोना वायरस के दो और पॉजिटिव मामले आए हैं। दोनों ही हिमाचल के निवासी नहीं हैं।




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Mother's Day: कोरोना वॉरियर कांस्टेबल गीता के बच्चे बोले- दुनिया की बेहतर मां

कर्फ्यू के चलते रात-दिन बल्ह थाना में ड्यूटी दे रही सदर विस क्षेत्र के टिल्ली गांव की लेडी कांस्टेबल गीता ठाकुर के बच्चों ने अपनी मां को दुनिया की सबसे अच्छी मां बताया है।




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Mother's Day special: बेटी की टूटी बाजू, 10 माह का है बेटा, पर कल्पना के लिए पहले ड्यूटी

कोरोना महामारी के दौरान जिले में बहुत से लोग ऐसे हैं, जो अपने घर-परिवार से दूर रहकर ड्यूटी दे रहे हैं।




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बीएस 6 Vespa Elegante 149 के फीचर्स से उठा पर्दा, जल्द होगा लॉन्च, जानिए डिटेल्स

दो पहिया वाहन निर्माता कंपनी अपना BS6 Vespa Elegante 149 स्कूटर लॉन्च करने जा रही है। बता दें कि कंपनी ने अपने सभी 150 सीसी इंजनों को 149 सीसी का कर दिया है। Vespa Elegante में सिंगल सिलेंडर इंजन दिया गया है।




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इसी महीने लॉन्च हो सकती हैं ये शानदार बाइक्स, Triumph से Ducati तक, जानिए फीचर्स

वायरस और लॉकडाउन के कारण सभी ऑटो कंपनियों की बिक्री बिल्कुल ठहर सी गई थी। लेकिन सरकार द्वारा तीसरे चरण में सशर्त ढील देने पर कंपनियां फिर से अपने कारखाने और डीलरशिप खोल रही हैं।




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नई Hyundai Tucson SUV बाजार में आने को तैयार, साउथ कोरिया में चल रही टेस्टिंग, जानिए फीचर्स

Hyundai कंपनी अपनी नई जनरेशन कार Tucson SUV को बाजार में उतारने की तैयारी कर रही है। कंपनी इसे घरेलू बाजार में अगस्त 2020 में लॉन्च करने की योजना बना रही है। इस कार को ऑटो एक्सपो 2020 में भी प्रदर्शित किया गया था।




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#CoronaLockdown: कर्नाटक से 1140 प्रवासियों को लेकर झारखंड के लिए रवाना हुई विशेष ट्रेन

कर्नाटक में फंसे 1140 प्रवासी मजदूरों को लेकर विशेष ट्रेन मंगलूरू रेलवे स्टेशन से झारखंड के लिए रवाना हो गई है।




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Uttarakhand Weather: हरिद्वार की सड़कों पर दिन में ही छा गया अंधेरा, तेज हवाओं ने लोगों को डराया, तस्वीरें...

आज फिर उत्तराखंड में मौसम ने करवट बदली। पहाड़ से मैदान तक बादल छाए हुए हैं। वहीं, हरिद्वार में अचानक ही सड़कों पर अंधेरा छा गया। वहीं, हवा भी इतनी तेज थी कि देखकर लोग सहम गए।





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Hashtag Trending – Free internet access for the vulnerable; Elon Musk under fire; Conspiracy theories

The City of Toronto partners with tech giants to provide free temporary internet access for vulnerable Torontonians, Elon Musk is under fire for recent Tweets, and a bizarre conspiracy involving Bill Gates is circulating online.   The City of Toronto is partnering with technology and telco companies to provide free temporary internet access for residents…




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Challenges and opportunities in the COVID era and beyond – CMO Talks with Wipro CMO Ved Bhat

The pandemic has had a huge impact on the economy. However, even with all that’s happened, Wipro CMO Ved Bhat sees opportunities for companies to stand apart, and to take their products and brands to the next level. In a recent CMO Talks discussion, Bhat focused on people as he answered ITWC President and CEO…




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Hashtag Trending – Meet for free; Raspberry Pi’s new camera; Intel’s new processors

Google makes Meet video conferencing app free for everyone, Raspberry Pi gets a new high-definition camera attachment, Intel’s new consumer processors have up to 10 cores! With Zoom being the flavour of the month, Google is feeling a bit left out. Therefore, to challenge Zoom’s popularity, Google has made its Google Meet, its own robust…




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Cyber Security Today – Zoom meeting job review scam, fake Labor Department email and a new Android threat

Zoom meeting job review scam, fake Labor Department email and a new Android threat. Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Friday May 1st. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com. To hear the podcast click on the arrow below: Videoconference provider Zoom has toughened its security by making it mandatory for users to…




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CompTIA launches a new cybersecurity analyst certification worldwide

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) has updated its cybersecurity analyst (CySA+) certification exam, the association announced this week. The new exam applies behavioural analytics to the information technology (IT) security market, validating an IT professional’s ability to defend and continuously improve the overall state of organizational security. It addresses changes in the cybersecurity environment,…




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FOOi: the tipping point in cashless transactions in Canada

Transitioning to the cashless society just got easier with FOOi, a digital wallet that enables Canadians to make instant peer-to-peer and peer-to-business payments. And it all began with a conversation about tipping.   “Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro together was easier in some respects than launching this app,” says David Morrison. “We’ve certainly experienced a steep learning…




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Hashtag Trending – Data Transfer Project; Amazon and COVID-19; and NVIDIA’s open source ventilator

Facebook is rolling out a tool that lets users in the US and Canada transfer photos and videos from its platform to Google Photos, Amazon says it plans to spend all of its profit for the second quarter, an estimated $4 billion, on its response to the coronavirus pandemic, and NVIDIA’s chief scientist rolls out…




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Cyber Security Today – Email scam targets executives, NSA rates conferencing tools and prepare for COVID tracing apps

Email scam targets executives, NSA rates conferencing tools and get ready for COVID tracing apps Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Monday May 4th. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com. To hear the podcast, click on the arrow below: Senior executives of companies around the world should always be careful clicking on…




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Hashtag Trending – Facebook bans anti-lockdown protesters; Amazon VP condemns Amazon, quits; New Apple Macbooks

Anti-quarantine protesters jumped onto other social platforms after being shut down by Facebook, Amazon Vice President Tim Bray said Amazon is designed to create a climate of fear and quits the company, Apple releases new MacBook 13 with an improved keyboard and more storage.   Anti-quarantine protesters are being kicked off Facebook and quickly finding…




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ICANN rejects private equity purchase of .org

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) this weekend announced that it has voted down the proposed change of control and entity conversion request submitted to it by the Public Interest Registry (PIR). ICANN, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to ensuring the secure and stable operation of the internet’s unique identifier systems, noted in…




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Mastercard study finds a significant rise in the use of contactless payments amid COVID-19

There has been a significant surge in contactless payments for everyday purchases since the onset of COVID-19, according to a new study. The Mastercard global consumer study conducted from April 10 to 12 says that in Canada, 76 per cent of consumers say contactless payments are now their preferred way to pay when making in-store…




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StorkSupply deliver deals for baby gear on demand

The high cost and short life of baby supplies inspired new dad Matt Cass to create a company. His novel leasing service is saving parents money, time and space on everything from cribs to toys.   When Matt Cass and his wife had their first child 2½ years ago, they had to stock up on…




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Hashtag Trending – WeWork’s ex-chief sues SoftBank; Children’s computer game gets hacked; IBM Think

WeWork’s ex-chief sues SoftBank, a popular children’s computer game gets hacked, and IBM’s Think conference goes virtual this week. WeWork cofounder and former chief executive Adam Neumann has filed a suit against Japanese conglomerate SoftBank for abandoning a $3 billion tender offer to the startup’s shareholders. The money is part of a $9.6 billion rescue…




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Microsoft announces Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3

Microsoft this week revealed the new Microsoft Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3 convertible tablet PCs. Microsoft Surface Go 2 Microsoft’s Surface Go fills the role of an affordable tablet PC that can run the full Windows 10 operating system. Its lower pricing was especially attractive to the education and front-line sectors. The Surface…




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Cyber Security Today – World Password Day advice, GoDaddy hosting accounts hacked and WordPress sites under attack

World Password Day advice, GoDaddy hosting accounts hacked and WordPress sites under attack. Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Wednesday May 6th. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com. Tomorrow is World Password Day. So follow safe password practices so you don’t help criminals steal data. How bad are you? Here’s are few…




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Hashtag Trending – Shopify turn heads; Airbnb slashes 25% of jobs; Purchased Tesla part has extra surprise

Today Shopify’s latest earnings call turns heads; Airbnb says it’s cutting a quarter of its staff; and a hacker buys old Tesla equipment and finds them full of user data.   After reporting that adjusting earnings tripled to 19 cents a share from 6 cents a year ago, social media is again buzzing about the…




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Hashtag Trending – Sidewalk Labs dies; Rideshare apps struggle; Telus revenue short

Sidewalk Labs officially pulled out of Toronto after years of controversy, hacker bribed a Roblox worker to reveal user account data, Telus’ revenue falls by nearly 20 per cent year over year.   Sidewalk Labs pulls the plug on smart city project The tug-of-war for Toronto’s infamous Sidewalk Labs’ smart city project ended yesterday when…




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Cyber Security Today – Canada hit by COVID cheque fraud; Webex, Teams under attack, more COVID email scams and three big data breaches

Canada hit by COVID cheque fraud; Webex, Teams under attack, more COVID email scams and three big data breaches Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Friday May 8th. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com. To hear the podcast click on the arrow below: It didn’t take long for cybercriminals to take advantage…




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More than 90,000 join IBM for Digital Think conference

Arvind Krishna’s first keynote as IBM’s chief executive officer probably wasn’t the event of his dreams. Instead of standing in front of an enthusiastic crowd at IBM Think in San Francisco, he spoke to a digitally-connected audience over video powered by Watson Media, not knowing who was watching. As it happens, 75,000 people were registered…




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Ontario judge orders videoconferencing for pre-trial testimony: ‘It’s 2020’

Ontario lawyers have been warned to learn to live with videoconferencing for pre-trial hearings as the COVID-19 pandemic restricts people from in-person sessions. A judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ordered the parties in a civil lawsuit to do the pre-trial questioning of a witness — usually held in a law office…




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Saskatoon company using plants to help search for COVID-19 vaccine

ZYUS Life Sciences is working with VIDO-InterVac to see if proteins produced by plants can be made into a working COVID-19 vaccine. 




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The Helpers: GoFundMe set up to provide supplies to La Loche residents

"I never really thought it would get this big, but I think it just speaks to how we are all in this together and everyone is just trying to do what they can to help this community that's been hit particularly hard."




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La Loche to roll out managed alcohol program to support people in withdrawal

The SHA is hoping a novel harm reduction program can help the northern village of La Loche win its battle against COVID-19. 




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Authorities investigate new video showing Ahmaud Arbery just prior to shooting

Authorities have confirmed they are looking into a new video related to the death of Ahmaud Arbery, the Georgia man who was allegedly shot by a father and son in February. The video, obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, shows someone who appears to be Arbery on a home surveillance camera down the block from a construction site just minutes before the 25-year-old was shot on the afternoon of Feb. 23. Two police cars can be seen in the video minutes later traveling down the street in the direction Arbery ran and was later shot.





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China reports 14 new coronavirus cases, high-risk area resurfaces