RIL is looking to lead India’s 4th Industrial Revolution – Daijiworld.com

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New Delhi, Jul 16 (IANS): Similar to Alibaba and Tencent which created tech-based ecosystems in China, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is best positioned to create a similar ecosystem in India, according to BofA Securities.

It said that RIL is best positioned to create tech eco-system in India. "Similar to Alibaba and Tencent which created tech-based ecosystems in China, we find RIL best positioned to create a similar ecosystem in India," it added.

"In 2-3 years, we expect RIL to have a captive mobile base of 500 million users, fixed broadband users of 15 million and SME base of 5-7 million. The company has also acquired stakes in 25 start-ups and is looking to lead India's 4th Industrial Revolution," the report said.

"We also find the company well placed to create Super-App (have 4-5 successful apps) and lead SME and kirana digitization. Also Jio unlike Bharti and Vodafone Idea, doesn't use Chinese vendors," the report said.

The Indian government in the last few months has tweaked some rules impacting China's presence in India telecom, media and technology (TMT) space.

The key changes are amended the FDI policy for countries sharing a border with India by moving from the earlier automatic approval to the government, banned 59 Chinese apps to counter potential threat posed on sovereignty and security, asked e-com platforms to display the country of origin on products. Also, it has begun consultations on whether it needs to ban Chinese vendors for 5G.

"We expect these changes to potentially lead to a freeze/reduction of Chinese investments in India's tech ecosystem. We don't see much impact as there seems to be adequate liquidity chasing these start-ups," the report said.

"We note that China has invested $4 billion in the Indian start-up ecosystem and 13 out of the total 28 Unicorns have been China funded. As of now, we also don't see much impact on companies which are funded by Chinese investments," it added.

These are companies run by Indian founders and largely agnostic to where the capital comes from as long as reputation of investor is good. Over time, Chinese ownership may be diluted with capital coming from other investors. The current bans by the Indian government suggest that focus is more on software/apps that challenge India's sovereignty and where there are concerns that data may be shared outside India.

India is the fastest growing internet market in the world, with 19 billion app downloads in 2019. "Post China apps ban, we are seeing alternate apps gaining traction quickly. India's PE/VC ecosystem is looking to fund some of these Indian apps to capitalize on this opportunity. This aligns well with the govt focus on "Aatmanirbhar Bharat" (Self-reliant India)," it said.

Most traction by Chinese apps was in Bharat' (Indians in tier 2/3 cities). For instance, Tiktok has more users in rural India and apps like UC browser, ShareIt etc work well in low bandwidth areas.

A few Indian apps that have gained traction since the ban are Roposo, Chingari, ShareChat and DailyHunt. "We also see Instagram/YouTube/Snap attracting most of TikTok's influencers or users," the report said.

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RIL is looking to lead India's 4th Industrial Revolution - Daijiworld.com

Welcome to the newest edition of Eco Africa – Deutsche Welle

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Onthis week's edition of Eco Africa, we bring you a host of clever ideas for a greener planet!

First, we're off to Kenya to learn more about the plight facing one of nature's greatest waste disposal services, the vulture. They clean up carcasses in the wild but are under huge threat from poachers. Now an NGO is trying to help protect the birds by informing locals of the important role the creatures play in the ecosystem.

Next we visit a start-up in Germany which is aiming to boost biodiversity with its insect-friendly compostable confetti made of seeds which can simply be thrown into the wind, rather than be planted.

Then we check out a new eco-friendly floating neighborhood in Amsterdam that is being built entirely on water. With rising sea levels, the innovative idea is gaining attention as a way to cope with the threats posed by climate change.

Mali is our next stop, where millions of people have no access to electricity. A start-up wants to change that by providing mini solar power plants to remote villages.

Finally we check out a start-up in West Africa which aims to improve the efficiency of recycling rubbish by connecting customers with waste collectors using an app.

Check out the showand let us know what you think atecoafrica@dw.com.

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Welcome to the newest edition of Eco Africa - Deutsche Welle

The future of the AI ecosystem with Kate Kallot – Wired.co.uk

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Join us on Monday, July 27 for a virtual briefing with WIRED editor Greg Williams and Kate Kallot, the director of AI ecosystems for the machine learning group at Arm, as they explore the future of artificial intelligence.

Date: Monday, July 27, 2020Time: 13.00 BST / 08.00 ESTAccess: ComplimentaryBook now

Kallot whose work focuses on the creation of disruptive AI applications will explain what today's AI ecosystem looks like, and how it is evolving amidst the coronavirus outbreak

In this punchy 25-minute briefing, we'll explore the major differences in the localised responses to the global COVID-19 pandemic, and how emerging markets such as Africa are developing its software developer hubs, and applying innovative ways to solve region-specific challenges with artificial intelligence.

Register for this thought-provoking discussion online here.

Kallot is the director of AI ecosystems for the Machine Learning Group at Arm. In this role she works closely with partners and influencers to create disruptive AI applications on Arm-based technologies. She has a special interest in Tech for Good and a strong belief in the power of AI to drive social change.

She has won multiple awards throughout her career including the CES Best of Innovation Award and the China AI Industry Innovation Alliance Most Remarkable Product Award in 2018.

Kallot holds a BA and MBA from EFAP, International School of Marketing, Paris.

Designed as an extension of WIREDs long-running live conference portfolio, WIRED virtual briefings are punchy, deliberate and engaging sessions that reflect the same high calibre of speakers and programming featured at a WIRED event. Part of the WIRED Foresight series, curated by WIRED editor, Greg Williams.

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Why telemedicine and health tech providers need to improve their regulatory preparedness – Express Healthcare

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The COVID-19 pandemic has put telemedicine and health tech in the spotlight. This has opened up avenues of care, spurred innovation and investments in these segments as well as ushered newer operating models. But, along with growth prospects, there are challenges too in the current ecosystem. So, Jitesh Aggarwal, Founder & CEO,TreelifeConsulting recommends measures that telehealth and health tech companies should take to improve their preparedness to navigate the new normal and avoid pitfalls, especially legal, as they try to tap into emerging trends and capitalise opportunities

The focus on telehealth has intensified since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tell us how prepared are start-ups, companies in this space to capitalise the opportunities that this crisis has created for them?

Telemedicine has been around in India since the early 1990s. However, only because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are we noticing mass adoption of this model of providing medical care. The publishing of the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines is another major reason why this form of medical practice has witnessed a surge and is the reason that telemedicine practice will stay. In effect, the Guidelines have made the practice of text/audio/video-based medical care legal and regulated, and thus have given platforms (apps and websites alike) as well as doctors the standards to adhere.

Start-up companies in the telemedicine space are the ones who facilitate, i.e. provide a platform for telemedicine. For these companies, being prepared means adhering to two things: a) regulatory preparedness and b) competitive preparedness.

Regulatory preparedness: Itwould come from compliance with the IT Act, 2000 (as it is the standard data protection legislation in India at present), the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, and the MCI Act and Rules and Code, primarily. From our estimate, the more diverse the telemedicine offering of a company is, the more they are prepared to tackle the situation. Essentially, the diversity here means the bundling of a telemedicine service offering along with other health tech or healthcare service offerings. For example, if a start-up plans to offer and add a telemedicine software, to its already existing offerings which involves software for healthcare CRMs, clinical software and patient management systems, and does not have an interface that requires such start-up to deal directly with consumers, the regulatory preparedness would be greater. Compare this to a start-up that is just getting into the telemedicine space and because of its business model will be handling more data on its own but may not be as regulatory prepared even though it should be, ideally. This could be a drawback of telemedicine in India where everyone is clamouring to provide this service.

Competitive preparedness: Itis a result of being more strategically aware in terms of business. In a way, tier I and II cities, already have a robust telemedicine offering. As this space becomes more mature, it will be tougher for newer entrants to simply be a telemedicine offering. They would need to strategise to create a value proposition, and something along the lines of diversity as specified above could be a starting point. Moreover, in tier I cities, medical professionals are already beginning to limit the number of telemedicine platforms they sign on to. This may create a supply problem for telemedicine platforms as well, as there are only so many platforms on which medical professionals can provide their advice.

What are the measures that Indias health tech industry needs to implement for tapping into the emerging trends, capturing new markets and serving evolving consumer needs?

To ensure that the Indian healthcare ecosystem does not miss out on the current wave, a few things should be worked around:

Promote research: The Indian ecosystem does not support research. This is evidenced by the lack of intellectual property protections that medical inventions have in India. With the onset of PE money/backing into the health tech industry, there is a chance that research, innovation and invention are not fostered on a larger scale in India, and instead, our tech solutions mirror the ones used outside the country. The GoI would need to give this a push, not only through a policy level but through monetary support as well. In January this year, Microsoft launched a $40 million fund to focus on accelerating medical research, increasing the shared understanding of mortality and longevity and reducing health inequity. These philanthropic efforts need to be mirrored by way of government policy as well. Spending on healthcare in India, including both public and private spend is only 3.6 per cent of the GDP, as compared to 16.9 per cent in the US.

Adopt EHRs: For health tech to grow, the solutions provided need to work for the Indian population and solve issues specific to India. Such solutions would only be able to grow once they have an actionable set of data to work from. Electronic health records (EHR) present a great opportunity to increase patient visibility and decrease patient recruitment time

Bring in standardisation across healthcare records: Standards for healthcare data need to be defined and implemented because different codes exist for storage of medical data across hospitals, pharmacies, diagnostic labs etc. Without standardisation, there is bound to be chaos in case of data records portability

Health data needs to be understood as Indias prized possession, and should be regulated differently: The IT Act, 2000 is hardly a standard to protect health data of patients. India up till 2018 (at least) was pondering a separate bill for digital health data of patients. This seems to have been subsumed under the PDP Bill, 2019. For a plethora of reasons, the healthcare sector needs legislation which is healthcare specific, as far as data protection is concerned. While regulatory sandboxing is a novel concept under the PDP Bill, there is no implied bar from government exemptions on it, i.e. the government will have the power to access data, or use data in a manner beneficial to it, or to its schemes, irrespective of the benefits provided to a company from strict adherence to the provisions of the PDP Bill.

Is the demand for remote monitoring solutions and non-contact technologies for patient care just a by-product of the health crisis or are we likely to see the influence of these technologies in the healthcare sector long after the pandemic ends? If yes, why?

Yes, remote monitoring solutions are here to stay, after the pandemic ends. Health tech start-ups have already used the opportunity presented by the pandemic to offer solutions that are convenient for the average city-dwelling customer/patient in India. Telemedicine is one, m-tech through IoT devices and/or wearables technology is another. In fact, there are companies that are using these solutions and packaging them as their unique solutions creating an environment that permits efficient access to health monitoring for patients.

Convenience to customers is one reason. The fact that PE/VC has recognised this is another. There is expected to be a significant inflow of investor money into this space, and where investor money goes, process standardisation follows. Once health care provides start providing standardised solutions to patients, patients will know what to expect, and the ecosystem as a knock-on effect of the same will become more dependable and this is what PE/VC money will be counting on.

Which are the new areas where health tech must focus on to build new capabilities? Which will be the most viable segments that will draw investors? Why?

The Indian healthcare ecosystem should build upon key focus areas such as standardising pharma supply chains and delivery, including for e-pharma. Drug/medication delivery to patients needs to be more standardised, regularised and the scope of the same should be extended to beyond tier I and II cities.

There needs to be standardisation of health data across India.Niti AayogsNational Health Stack push is already being implemented to an extent. Companies have already won bids to create a national health exchange which shall permit controlled transfer and sharing of health data. Moreover, institutions such as iSpirit, have taken it upon themselves to foster collaboration in the space of creating open-source APIs for the handling of health data, including the creation of an ecosystem of permissions for access to patient-related health data. Of course, for a countrywide adoption, a lot of work needs to be done.

Another focus area should be digital research. Advances in AI and ML, and deep learning have provided us with the tools to interpret data. Today, we can simulate how cells and even complex organs like the heart may respond to drug treatment. If data creation, generation and storage are standardised (as mentioned above), it will lead to greater data availability and insight generation capabilities. This could benefit,inter alia, processes involved inin-vitrotesting. Computational results can informin vitroresearch for a faster, more targeted, drug discovery approach.

Clinical trials help to assess the efficacy and safety of drug candidates. The lengthy, high-risk and expensive process of drug discovery and development can take a total of 10 to 15 years. Digitising clinical trials will validate better drugs, faster. The reduction of this timeframe will deliver life-enhancing medications faster to patients in need. There is a need to improve clinical trial efficiency. There are several pain points in the research and development process that technology can address. Together with the establishment of EHRs, clinical trials, once digitised, may also be paired up with the existing technology of wearable tech and virtual care. This would help with the creation of more efficient drugs for treating underlying medical conditions.

Along with opportunities, there could be pitfalls too, especially legal. What are they likely to be and how can companies safeguard themselves against them?

Companies providing different technologies and different product/service offerings will require to have different safeguards in place.

From a telemedicine perspective, platforms/tech providers would need to ensure compliance with laws surrounding not only data privacy, but also laws that govern the medical profession, pharmacies and telemarketing. The compliance and liability burden would depend on the kind of service offering made by the telemedicine platform providers. Are they merely providing a mode of connection between the patient and medical profession or are they going beyond that? Even then, there will not be a one size fits all solution to meet the regulatory requirements.

With the evolution of the medical device regime in India, companies that provide medical devices are going to be more heavily regulated. All kinds of devices offering some kind of benefit (whether assistive, operative or invasive) are now regulated as medical devices. More importantly, and rather ambiguously, the government has chosen to regulate software as medical devices without providing a determination as to what software is sought to be regulated, thus leaving that door open. Read with the drug pricing regulation in India, which permits caps on the prices ofall medical devicesas well, and this may hamper the growth and deployment of novel and India-centric software solutions to treat medical conditions and conduct medical research. Moreover, from next year, i.e. October 2021, all stakeholders within the medical device supply chain will need to be amenable to a lot more compulsory regulation by way of registrations as well as for applying and acquiring licenses. This will lead to a cost-to-benefit analysis for the deployment of medical technology, and this should certainly not be the way to promote evolution in this sector.

One of the most immediate changes that health tech companies may need to be prepared for is the cost of compliance with the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill 2019. As of the current interpretation of the text of the PDP Bill, 2019 (which effectively can get signed into law at any time) there is no period provided to affected companies to comply with the data protection measures in the Bill. The requirement of having a privacy-by-design system in place means that for a lot of companies the cost of compliance will go up as they would have to upgrade/overhaul their data protection systems and software. This change would be akin to the one experienced by European companies when they needed to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but at least, in that case, there was a period prescribed within which companies were permitted to overhaul their security systems.

Along with the changes mentioned above, generally, companies in the health tech space would need to be aware of the changes in the laws and regulations that govern this sector. It is anticipated because of the overhaul needed within the system, combined with the lack of innovation and regulation in the past (most of the regulation we are seeing now has come about as a response to COVID-19), will lead to a situation where regulations and policies will need to be chopped and changed as the eco-system matures.

Data security will be one of the biggest challenges in times of telemedicine and digital healthcare. How can companies ensure the privacy of their data to protect their patients and uphold their credibility?

The short answer is complying with the data privacy law of India, as is present at a particular point in time.

If the compliance is under the IT Act, 2000, the deployment of the IS/ISO/IEC 27001 on Information Technology Security Techniques Information Security Management System Requirements standard is a compliance requirement, along with the principles espoused under the IT Act and Rules for protecting and sharing data.

If we are to move under the PDP regime, the changes proposed to Indias date protection ecosystem are revolutionary and would require a greater level of compliance. Some of these are: the principles of accountability by the company to the user whose data is being used; providing the right to data erasure; facilitating data audits and data protection impact assessments, and most of all ensuring localised (i.e. in India) data storage.

The best way for companies to protect data would be to (and this is not only from a cost-saving perspective though that should also be considered) streamline their processes, and have a holistic business plan in terms of service offerings, scaling and tie-ups/partnerships. By way of an example, if a hospital is looking to optimise its process or improve upon their offerings, any method employed to do the same should be viewed from a data protection impact assessment angle. In the due diligence that is being done by the hospital, policies surrounding data protection of its partners and potential partners needs to be done so that there is an alignment of the same. The objective is that there must be harmony between the processes involved. A failure to achieve such harmony may lead to increased costs, penalties, liabilities and also a loss of credibility, including a potential loss to data of its patients.

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Collaborative sustainable management of other use areas to protect Tapanuli orangutan in Batang Toru ecosystem – The Jakarta Post – Jakarta Post

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Batang Toru ecosystem has come under the national and international spotlight in the last few years, due to its unique character and valuable biodiversity, especially the newly discovered Tapanuli orangutan.

Recently, some environmental activists have been calling for more studies on the ecosystem, for strategic environment study and an environment audit on the ecosystems carrying capacity. They also demand a halt to the hydropower project there.

Conducting more studies looks like opening Pandora's box. It will reveal and provide opportunities for interests other than the necessity to protect the orangutan. In reality, this is not a scientific, but a political process that goes beyond the control of both NGOs and scientists, especially scientists from overseas.

The outcome is unpredictable and the level of uncertainty is high, since the regents and local councilors tend to resist any changes to the existing land status that they fought so hard for in the past. It is more obtainable to work within the existing land title and call for sustainable management of these areas, with the Tapanuli orangutan as the umbrella species. It is more effective and can provide an immediate solution to the protection of the primate.

Implementation of sustainable management in zones allocated for other land uses (APL) in the Batang Toru ecosystem in North Sumatra can be the answer to maintaining a long-term viable population of this critically endangered species. The sustainable development principles will treat economic, environmental and social dimensions in an equilibrium, so that there is no dichotomy between conservation and economy.

On July 26, 2019, I wrote in this newspaper that the Tapanuli orangutan could coexist with the run-of-river hydropower plant, against those who insist the construction must stop. I want to re-emphasize that position, with better understanding of the land use system, more studies coming out recently (Rahman et.al, 2019) and Kuswanda (2020), as well as new findings from a more detailed study recently conducted by the National University Center for Sustainable Environment and Resource Management (Prasetyo and Prakosa, 2020) on the project site, and consultations with orangutan experts of PanEco and YEL Foundation.

My argument came from the fact that the majority of the Batang Toru forests (around 71 percent) have been protected under protection forest status and around 10 percent are under nature conservation status.

A comparison between the land status and Tapanuli orangutan habitat suitability distribution by Rahman, et.al, (2019) shows that the majority of the orangutan population is found within the protected and conservation forests.

Orangutans inhabiting APL are mostly in low to moderate density. The APL are managed by the local governments of North, Central and South Tapanuli and are intended for economic purposes. The Batang Toru hydropower project is located in this area, not in the highest density of orangutan population, as claimed by Serge Wich. Other large-scale economic activities are also found in the APL.

The fact that the majority of the orangutan population is already within the protection forest is a big relief. The challenge is how to protect orangutan outside the protected and conservation areas.

The focus of this solution is to guarantee the safety of orangutans and the integrity of forest cover in all land statuses and to create wildlife corridors to allow genetic flow of isolated populations to a larger population. Public education followed by law enforcement to prevent killing and hunting of orangutans, as well as illegal logging prevention, is a must and is a prerequisite.

At the same time, orangutan habitat suitability within the APL status should be identified and delineated. Any projects in these areas have to protect the habitat and restore it whenever possible for temporary disturbed ones, and finding offset for habitats that are permanently disturbed, and restore areas that are not suitable as orangutan habitat into ones that are suitable.

As for the misleading information about the hydropower project, especially coming from IUCN Fact Check created by Serge Wich recently, I have found the fact check has a fundamental problem because it was based on wrong and outdated information. PT NSHE has done more work and studies since construction started, and new data and information has changed some of the previous position.

Ian Singleton last February stated during a workshop in Medan, in which Serge Wich refused to participate and called for a boycott of, that the project did not infringe the connectivity of orangutans from the Sibual-Buali population to the larger population in the west block and with the planned mitigation program, the impacts will be minimal.

The critical habitat within its area of influence (AOI) has been identified, the permanent disturbance of orangutan habitat is 84 hectares, and temporary disturbance and to be restored is 189 ha, and priority area to be protected has been delineated. The permanent disturbance is going to be offset, and the recommendation is to establish a wildlife corridor in Sitandiang.

There has been daily orangutan monitoring with the involvement of local communities, trained and supervised by orangutan experts. The company collaborates with scientists, NGOs, local governments and conservation agencies at all levels.

Other companies need to follow this example. The bar for best practices should be established. I call for all concerned parties to collaborate and achieve this objective as soon as possible.

***

The writer has advised PT NSHEs president. The views expressed are her own.

Editor's note: This opinion piece has been updated to clarify the writer's position.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.

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Collaborative sustainable management of other use areas to protect Tapanuli orangutan in Batang Toru ecosystem - The Jakarta Post - Jakarta Post

Impact of COVID-19 on Foodcoin ecosystem 2020 by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2026 – 3rd Watch News

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It is our aim to provide our readers with report for Foodcoin ecosystem Market, which examines the industry during the period 2020 2026. One goal is to present deeper insight into this line of business in this document. The first part of the report focuses on providing the industry definition for the product or service under focus in the Foodcoin ecosystem Market report. Next, the document will study the factors responsible for hindering and enhancing growth in the industry. After covering various areas of interest in the industry, the report aims to provide how the Foodcoin ecosystem Market will grow during the forecast period.

The final report will add the analysis of the Impact of Covid-19 on Foodcoin ecosystem Market.

Request a free sample copy @ https://www.reportsandmarkets.com/sample-request/global-foodcoin-ecosystem-market-research-report-2019-to-2026?utm_source=3wnews&utm_medium=38

The Foodcoin ecosystem Market report between the years 2020 2026 will highlight the current value of the industry. At the same time, there is also an estimate of how much this line of business will be worth at the end of the forecast period. As it is our goal to maintain high levels of accuracy at all times, we will take a look at the CAGR of the Foodcoin ecosystem Market. We make sure that all the information available in this report has excellent levels of readability. One way we achieve this target is by Foodcoin ecosystem Market segmentation. Going through the report for 2020 2026 will bring our readers up-to-date regarding this industry.

While examining the information from this document, one thing becomes clear, the elements which contribute to increase in demand for the product or service. At the same time, there will be a focus on what drives the popularity of these types of products or services. This report is for those who want to learn about Foodcoin ecosystem Market, along with its forecast for 2020 2026. Information regarding market revenue, competitive partners, and key players will also be available.

Segmentation

As discussed earlier, there is segmentation in the Foodcoin ecosystem Market report, to improve the accuracy and make it easier to collect data. The categories which are the dividing factors in the industry are distribution channels, application, and product or service type. With this level of segmentation, it becomes easier to analyze and understand the Foodcoin ecosystem Market. At the same time, there is emphasis on which type of consumers become the customers in this industry. When it comes to distribution channels, the Foodcoin ecosystem Market report looks at the different techniques of circulation of the product or service.

Regional Overview

In this part of the Foodcoin ecosystem Market report, we will be taking a look at the geographical areas and the role they play in contributing to the growth of this line of business. The areas of interest in this document are as follows Middle East and Africa, South and North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. From the Foodcoin ecosystem Market report, it becomes clear which region is the largest contributor.

Latest Industry News

From this Foodcoin ecosystem Market report, the reader will also get to learn about the latest developments in the industry. The reason is that these products or services have the potential to disrupt this line of business. If there is information about company acquisitions or mergers, this information will also be available in this portion of the Foodcoin ecosystem Market report.

If you have any special requirements about this Foodcoin ecosystem Market report, please let us know and we can provide custom report.

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Who shops the most online, liberals or conservatives? – DigitalCommerce360

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Consumers political preferences offer clues to how they shop, according to data from Infogroup, a provider of consumer marketing data and services.

Political moderates are the most likely to buy online, closely followed by liberals. And both groups shop frequently for womens apparel, home furnishings and childrens goods.Conservatives are the most likely to shop via catalogs. And they buy a lot of tools and auto repair products, books and music, and crafts items.

These conclusions are based on an analysis of 50,000 consumers from each of three categoriesindividuals who characterize themselves as conservative, liberal and moderateand then comparing those groups against all consumers in the Infogroup database. Infogroup says it has data on 300 million individuals in 184 million households compiled through its own research, client data and external sources.

Its especially important now, at a time of great polarization, that companies know who is responding to their messages, so they can align those messages with their goals.

Heather Winnicki, senior vice president of consumer transactional data

Infogroup

The analysis suggests there are other significant differences based on political affiliation. Liberals are the youngest and most likely to live in cities. Conservatives are the oldest, and more likely to live in suburbs and rural areas. Moderates have the highest income,are most likely to have a college degree and are the most likely to be married and have children in the home.

Why is it important to understand these connections between political leaning and lifestyle?

This kind of marketing intelligence influences the channels marketers decide to use to promote their products and serviceswhether it be particular radio outlets, Fox News vs. MSNBC, or particular print publications, says Heather Winnicki, Infogroup senior vice president of consumer transactional data. Its especially important now, at a time of great polarization, that companies know who is responding to their messages, so they can align those messages with their goals.

Winnicki notes that much of this data comes from direct-to-consumer retailers and brands, many of them selling non-essential items. That might skew the income and education numbers higher, as lower-income consumers might be less likely to buy products that are not necessities.

She also cant explain why moderates appear to be the most affluent and the biggest shoppers for discretionary items. We dont know the reason for the disproportionately high income were seeing among moderates, she says. Perhaps those who dont commit themselves to one side or the other are able to accumulate more wealth. We dont know. It may warrant an in-depth political study.

Here are some additional insights from the Infogroup report about the relationship between political preference and various shopping behaviors and demographic characteristics:

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Who shops the most online, liberals or conservatives? - DigitalCommerce360

Biden forges brand of liberal populism to use against Trump – The Associated Press

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WASHINGTON (AP) Joe Biden stood in a Pennsylvania metal works shop, just miles from his boyhood home, and pledged to define his presidency by a sweeping economic agenda beyond anything Americans have seen since the Great Depression and the industrial mobilization for World War II.

The prospective Democratic presidential nominee promised the effort would not just answer a pandemic-induced recession, but address centuries of racism and systemic inequalities with a new American economy that finally and fully (lives) up to the words and the values enshrined in the founding documents of this nation that were all created equal.

It was a striking call coming from Biden, a 77-year-old establishment figure known more as a back-slapping deal-maker than visionary reformer. But it made plain his intention to test the reach of liberal populism as he tries to create a coalition that can defeat President Donald Trump in November.

Trump and his Republican allies argue that Bidens positioning, especially his ongoing work with progressives, proves hes captive to a radical left wing. Conversely, activists who backed Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary were encouraged, yet cautious, about Bidens ability to follow through while conceding that his plans on issues including climate action and criminal justice still fall short of their ideals.

Bidens inner circle insists his approach in 2020 is the same its been since he was elected to the Senate in 1972: Meet the moment.

Hes always evolved, said Ted Kaufman, Bidens longest-serving adviser. The thing thats been consistent for his entire career, almost 50 years, is he never promises things that he doesnt think he can do.

Kaufman, who succeeded Biden in the Senate when he ascended to the vice presidency, said Bidens core identity hasnt changed: progressive Democrat, friendly to labor and business, consistent supporter of civil rights, believer in government and the private sector. Whats different in 2020, he said, are the countrys circumstances a public health crisis, near-Depression level unemployment, a national reckoning on racism and the office Biden now seeks.

If you want to get something done, encourage it, Kaufman said. What he learned over history watching campaigns is that you put forth a program, and then you come into office, and everybody involved knows thats the program youre offering.

Bidens evolution has been on display from the start of his campaign as hes tacked left both in substance and style while trying to preserve his pragmatist brand.

At the start of the Democratic primary, Biden was positioned as offering a moderate alternative to Sanders call for a political revolution and Warrens push for big structural change.

The former vice president countered their proposed universal government-funded health insurance with a government insurance plan that would compete alongside private insurance. Progressives wanted tuition-free public higher education; Biden offered tuition subsidies for two-year schools. Biden called the climate crisis an existential threat and offered a clean energy plan with a trillion-dollar price tag, but resisted the full version of progressives Green New Deal. He promised hefty tax hikes for corporations and the investor class but opposed a wealth tax on individuals net worth.

Biden noted that his health care platform put him to the left of 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, who had jettisoned a public option from his 2010 health care law, angering liberal Democrats.

And on race, even before the recent national uprising against police violence, Biden spoke often of the nations systemic failure to live up to the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson didnt, he said often in early speeches, alluding to the fact that the Declarations author and the third U.S. president owned slaves.

Still, Biden isnt immune from the kind of internal party tensions that cost Clinton progressive support in 2016, and hes spent the last three months shoring up his left flank.

Biden and Sanders created policy groups to write recommendations for Democrats 2020 platform. Those committees unveiled 110 pages of policy plans Wednesday, ahead of Bidens speech in Pennsylvania. They left Biden short of endorsing single-payer health insurance and the most aggressive timelines to achieve a carbon-neutral economy, but ratified his claims of a more progressive slate than his predecessors.

Further, Biden already had moved toward Sanders tuition position, endorsing four years of full subsidies for most middle-class households. He adopted Warrens proposed bankruptcy law overhaul and her ideas for a government procurement campaign to benefit U.S. companies.

Progressives promise continued pressure.

I think our job is really to sometimes push him, Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal said. Jayapal, who helped lead the Biden-Sanders health care task force, said that means being alongside him, of course, and then sometimes be out in front.

Likewise, Varshini Prakash of the Sunrise Movement, a leading environmental advocacy group, said her group wont abandon the Green New Deal. But she credited Biden for embracing a level of public investment that would remake the energy economy during the pandemic recession.

Biden has managed party unity that wasnt present four years ago.

I dont consider Bidens proposals a political hat tip to progressives as much as rising to the moment were living in, said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and a Warren ally.

The former vice president also has amassed an impressive slate of endorsements and built a stable of regular campaign surrogates, including all his major primary rivals. Many of them held events in the hours and days following his speech Thursday in a show of force that Trump, even with his intense online presence and fervent base, would be hard-pressed to match.

For his part, Trump accused Biden of plagiarizing his economic populism but also tarred Biden as a leftist who cant win.

Its a plan that is very radical left, but he said the right things because hes copying what Ive done, Trump said Friday before departing the White House for Florida.

Kaufman said Biden will continue campaigning as a nominee unconcerned about such labels. Whats allowed him to survive all these years, Kaufman said, is that hes not into any of those characterizations.

Go here to read the rest:

Biden forges brand of liberal populism to use against Trump - The Associated Press

Liberal Democrats MOCKED as Alok Sharma tells Remainers to ‘move on from Brexit’ – Daily Express

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Mr Sharma said: "The honourable lady needs to move.

"The British people decided that we are leaving the European Union in 2016.

"We are implementing that vote."

The Liberal Democrats' 2019 manifesto contained a pledge to revoke Brexit should the party gain political power.

READ MORE:Liberal Democrat MP savaged by Brexiteer get a job with the EU!'

However, the election last December was a disaster for the party as they secured only 12 MPs.

The party's performance was made worse by the fact their former leader Jo Swinson lost her seat in the 2019 election.

Earlier this year the BBC's Andrew Neil brutally mocked the Liberal Democrats' election performance during an interview with Layla Moran on Politics Live.

Andrew Neil pointed out that due to their disastrous general election result the Liberal Democrats only have 12 MPs and questioned why it was taking so long to choose a new leader.

"There is a feeling in the party that whoever takes over now needs to be someone who is going to stay the distance."

The Liberal Deomcrats have yet to announce who will be the new leader of the party.

Ed Davey is currently the acting leader of the Lib Dems.

The party originally outlined a timetable to elect a new leader that started with nominations in May and that will conclude in July.

See the article here:

Liberal Democrats MOCKED as Alok Sharma tells Remainers to 'move on from Brexit' - Daily Express

NDP MLA calls for Liberal to be ousted from caucus after conversion therapy comments – CTV News

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VICTORIA -- An NDP member of B.C.s legislature is calling on Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson to boot an MLA who refuses to stop advertising in a socially conservative magazine criticized for being homophobic.

After the advertising in The Light Magazine was revealed, several Liberal MLAs expressed their concern and stated publicly their support for the LGBTQ2+ community.

Wilkinson said advertising procedures would be reviewed, and later tweeted, There is no room in the Liberal party for homophobia, transphobia or any other form of discrimination.

The Light has published content against B.C.s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) policy in public schools. It has also published content opposing a ban on so-called conversion therapy, a discredited practice aimed at changing a persons sexual orientation.

Chilliwack-Hope MLA Laurie Throness said he would continue to advertise in the publication because it aligns with his Christian values.

NDP MLA Spencer Chandra-Herbert, who said he was hurt and disappointed to find out that advertising dollars were spent on the publication, is now calling on the Liberals to eject Throness from caucus. The member from Vancouver said if the leader had no tolerance for discrimination, he should eject Throness.

Chandra-Herbert said he has not had direct contact with Wilkinson. Yet he characterizes Throness actions as defying the Liberal leader.

The article the MLA was defending is an article arguing we shouldnt have laws to ban conversion therapy because it would be hurtful, Chandra-Herbert said. So that to me sounds like he supports conversion therapy.

CTV News requested an interview with Wilkinson. He appeared with Liberal caucus chair Jackie Tegart, who said, Discrimination of any kind does not have any place in our caucus. This issue has been discussed and agreed to by all members and will be adhered to.

When Wilkinson was asked if he was comfortable with Throness in caucus he said, We have an agreement within our caucus that there is no room for discrimination of any sort including transphobia and homophobia.

He took one question before leaving.

Andrew Weaver, a former Green Party MLA, introduced a private members bill to ban conversion therapy in British Columbia. Chandra-Herbert stood alongside him in support of the bill, yet the NDP government didnt pursue it saying it would be largely symbolic. Later, the province pursued a different avenue asking the federal government make conversion therapy a criminal code offense. The federal Liberals introduced legislation in March of this year that, if passed, would ban the practice in Canada.

Read more:

NDP MLA calls for Liberal to be ousted from caucus after conversion therapy comments - CTV News

Blindsided by the WE scandal, Liberal MPs wonder: How did Justin Trudeau get us into this mess? – Toronto Star

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We is once again a touchy subject in Justin Trudeaus Liberal party.

While the hits just keep on coming about Trudeaus connections to the WE charity, the controversy has touched off grumbling in Liberal circles about the lowercase we as in, how exactly did we get into this mess, and who is we anyway in the decision-making circle around the prime minister?

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, the Liberal MP for the Toronto riding of Beaches-East York, says he was on the phone immediately after the news emerged about WE being chosen to hand out nearly $1 billion in pandemic relief to students. He placed a call last week to the office of Diversity, Inclusion and Youth Minister Bardish Chagger whos now gone silent with the media to get an explanation.

I was struggling to understand why it was being done this way, said Erskine-Smith, a rare MP willing to go on the record on Friday about his concerns with the entire WE affair.

He made the call before he knew all the details, which have been emerging daily, about how closely WE had been working with Trudeaus family, including nearly $300,000 in speaking fees paid out to Trudeaus mother and brother.

Had I known what I know now, I would have said this was too close to the prime minister, Erskine-Smith said.

Other MPs, preferring to talk off the record on Friday, said there has been a lot of chatter in the caucus over the past week about how this WE controversy has revived concerns about team culture or lack of it in Trudeaus government.

There arent a lot of relationships between the PM and caucus, one MP said. Now, he said, with most of caucus relations taking place remotely during the pandemic, there are even fewer opportunities for MPs to have contact with the PM and the tight team around him.

It is either ironic or fitting that WE has made the Liberal we annoyed and nervous.

One MP said he was surprised to learn from news reports first in the Star, as it happens that WE had been given a contract to do work that would normally be done by the public service.

This is a real head-scratcher for me and several of my colleagues, the MP said. I like to consider myself plugged in but the first time I heard of the WE contract was when I read the controversy in the papers. I know for a fact that I was not alone.

What baffled many MPs was why the government needed to do any contracting out at all, especially after months of proving that it was nimble and adaptable enough to get COVID-19 aid directly to citizens.

This was Erskine-Smiths main concern at first: the government has generous and effective programs in place already for students and summer jobs. MPs themselves, of all stripes, are often helpful in steering that help toward where its most needed in their ridings.

So, while Erskine-Smith didnt put it this pointedly, not only was the WE decision made without input from MPs, the plan itself which has now been reversed also kept MPs out of the loop.

Its just so frustrating, he said, citing all the good work the government has been doing to provide help to citizens in this crisis. Now this is taking up so much of the conversation. Erskine-Smiths own mother asked him on Friday why this was going on, though he says his office is not being inundated with complaints, at least not yet.

The exquisitely bad timing of this controversy has Liberals frustrated too. Not only is it happening during a pandemic, but also still in the shadow of the humbling the government received during last years election.

From all accounts, Trudeau had been making genuine efforts after the election, also after last years SNC-Lavalin saga, to forge some greater connections with the Liberal team. Just this week, Trudeau handed a major ambassadors appointment to former interim leader Bob Rae a decision seen as a symbolic olive branch to Liberals who had been kept at arms length from the PMO.

Make sense of what's happening across the country and around the world with the Star's This Week in Politics email newsletter.

But the WE controversy is viewed by some Liberals as being about how easy it is for Trudeau and his team to lapse back into old habits of keeping to themselves and giving access and benefits only to the small number of people they trust. Many MPs chose to speak off the record on Friday precisely because they were worried about reinforcing that outsider-insider culture.

None of the MPs or Liberals I reached were calling for Trudeau to resign, as his official opponents are. But there were suggestions that the PM had to surround himself with people who ask harder questions, who would have immediately spotted that WE would hurt the Liberal we.

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Blindsided by the WE scandal, Liberal MPs wonder: How did Justin Trudeau get us into this mess? - Toronto Star

Liberals’ revenue tripled their top adversaries’ – Whitehorse Star

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The Yukon Liberal Party raked in triple the revenue of both the Yukon Party and the Yukon NDP in 2019, according to an Elections Yukon report.

By Gabrielle Plonka on July 15, 2020

The Yukon Liberal Party raked in triple the revenue of both the Yukon Party and the Yukon NDP in 2019, according to an Elections Yukon report.

The revenue report was released Tuesday by Maxwell Harvey, the chief electoral officer.

Access to no strings attached funding is critical to support outreach to the electorate to outline goals and policies, Harvey said in a press release.

Political financing regulation and disclosure requirements are designed to make political financing fair and transparent.

The total revenue for all four Yukon parties in 2019 was $257,740.

The Yukon Liberal Partys revenue for 2019 was $156,000.

The Yukon Partys revenue was $55,676, while the Yukon NDPs revenue was $44,543.

The Yukon Green Partys revenue was $1,520.

The Yukon Liberal Party saw 90 contributions total $49,415, with $22,195 in monetary donations. In-kind donations totalled $27,220.

Other revenue totalled $106,585. The partys president could not be reached for comment before press time to elaborate on this revenue.

In 2018, the Liberal party reported a total revenue of $51,020.

According to Elections Yukon, other revenue constitutes fundraising proceeds; donations received at meetings and rallies; membership fees; event registration fees; loans; or investment income.

According to Dave Wilkie, the assistant chief electoral officer, political parties are not required to itemize other revenue totals.

Other jurisdictions have more robust or tighter rules as far as requiring more information, but here other revenue is very non-specific, Wilkie said.

About $6,000 of monetary contributions was donated by eight of the 11 Liberal members of the legislative assembly.

Ranj Pillai, Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, and Paolo Gallina, the MLA for Porter Creek Centre, were the largest donors contributing $1,500 and $1,000 respectively.

There are five donations under the name of Mostyn for $400 each.

The donors are Richard Mostyn, the minister of Highways and Public Works, Richard T. Mostyn, Shona Mostyn, Liam Mostyn and Peter Mostyn.

Ted Adel and Don Hutton are the only two Liberal members of the assembly not listed as party donors. Neither man is a member of the cabinet.

Larry Bagnell, the Yukons Liberal MP, donated $400 to the party.

Other major contributors were Nuway Crushing, a civil engineering company, the TD Bank and Susan Walton. Those three donors gave $1,000 each.

The Yukon Partys revenue of $55,676 saw 142 contributions totalling $42,711, with $32,211 in monetary donations. In-kind donations totalled $10,500.

Other revenue totalled $12,965.

Four of the Yukon Partys six elected members donated a total of about $4,500.

Stacey Hassard, who was the Yukon Partys interim party leader from late 2016 up until Currie Dixons election to the role in May, donated $1,798 to the party and was the largest individual donor. Dixon contributed $900.

Brad Cathers and Geraldine Van Bibber are the only two Yukon Party members not directly listed as donors.

The Yukon Party saw more donations from businesses than the Liberals in 2019.

All In Exploration, Big Bear Donair, CAP Management Services, Kluane Drilling Ltd., Nickel Creek Platinum, Pelly Construction Ltd., Pembridge Resources and the TD Bank all made donations.

The largest corporate donors were the TD Bank and Pembridge Resources, which contributed $1,000 each.

The Yukon NDP had the highest number of donors, with 208 contributions totalling $42,742.

In-kind donations added up to $1,446 and other revenue totalled $1,802.

The party did not receive any corporate donations in 2019.

The NDPs two elected members, leader Kate White and Liz Hanson, donated $1,250 and $1,100 respectively.

Skeeter Wright, a previous NDP candidate, was the largest donor, contributing $1,840.

The two other donors contributing more than $1,000 were Max Fraser, a local filmmaker, and Lesley McCullough, acting deputy Justice minister from 2016 to 2019.

Fraser and McCullough donated $1,275 and $1,100 respectively.

Karen Barnes, the recently-retired Yukon University president, contributed $600.

The Yukon Green Party, which doesnt currently have any elected members in the legislativeaAssembly, reported three contributions in 2019 totalling $1,500.

Mike Ivens, the Green Party president, donated $1,300.

Read the original post:

Liberals' revenue tripled their top adversaries' - Whitehorse Star

Ford’s plan to build new long-term care beds is re-announcement of Liberal promise – CTV News

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TORONTO -- Ontario Premier Doug Ford's recent announcement to build nearly 8,000 new long-term care beds is a re-commitment of promises made by the former Liberal government, CTV News Toronto has learned, despite the premier presenting it as new information.

Ford, on Wednesday, touted an "historic investment" of $1.75 billion to "kick start the development of long-term care beds" over the next five years.

"Today's announcement will result in an estimated nearly 8000 new Long Term Care beds and 12,000 redeveloped Long Term Care beds," Ford claimed.

However, sources in the Ministry of Long-Term Care confirmed the government re-announced commitments that had been made by the former Liberal government and beds that were allocated over the course of the past two years.

Of the 7,889 new beds Ford promised to build, roughly 6,000 were allocated by the Wynne government in 2017 and 2018, and the remainder was allocated by the Ford government in 2018 and 2019.

Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Long-Term Care, was first to reveal the government's plan for 8,000 beds in November 2019 during Question Period.

"Our government... is investing $1.75 billion to create 15,000 new beds and redevelop another 15,000 in five years," Fullerton told the Ontario Legislature. "Weve already got almost 8,000 beds allocated this year so far, 50% of the requirement."

"This year alone, we have allocated 1,814 new beds and reaffirmed our commitment towards building 6,085 previously allocated beds," Fullerton said.

Government sources told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday that the ministry will be able to build and re-develop just 4,000 beds in 2022, as the province offers developers new incentives to recoup their investment earlier in exchange for fast-tracked construction.

In a statement to CTV News Toronto, a spokesperson for Minister Fullerton didn't address Wednesday's re-announcement, but emphasized the changes to the construction funding model would "kick-start construction."

"Our government consulted with the sector to understand what was needed to encourage rapid development and our modernization of the way government funds the development of long-term care beds will do just that," the statement reads.

"Yesterdays announcement means that thousands of long-awaited beds will finally get built."

Read more from the original source:

Ford's plan to build new long-term care beds is re-announcement of Liberal promise - CTV News

7 reasons you should pursue a degree in Liberal Arts from Bennett University – Times of India

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The last few months have proved that you need education that empowers you in this rapidly changing society and economy; and not something that will become obsolete tomorrow. This is where a three-year Degree course or a one-year Post Graduate Diploma in Liberal Arts education from Bennett University will come in handy and prepare you for any contingencies that may arise in future.

To broaden your horizons, at Bennett University you will be exposed to fundamentals of ten varied disciplines namely Psychology, Philosophy, Business Studies, Marketing, Journalism, Advertising & Public Relations, Economics, Political Science, English Literature and Finance in the first year and you can Major in any one of your choice.

Here are 7 reasons why you should pursue a degree in Liberal Arts from Bennett University (a top private university from The Times of India Group)

1. Bennett University also offers Business oriented Majors with Liberal ArtsHaving a choice to select a Business Major while pursuing a Liberal Arts degree is common in other countries, but in India, very few colleges offer such a varied bouquet of business oriented options that include finance, marketing, business studies, advertising and public relations. Bennett University is the countrys first that allows you to do so. However if you are in favour of Humanities over Business Major, you are welcome to choose from Psychology, Philosophy, Political Science, etc. Hence, the program is unique and designed in such a way that it enables a student to study multiple courses from different fields to get a holistic, inter-disciplinary education that helps develop all-round personality, making one a desirable candidate during corporate hiring.

2. Much better value for money compared to other similar programs being offered at other universitiesBennett University offers this course at a very good value for money proposition. Not only is the program being offered at Bennett University very exhaustive, it also has lower fees as compared to similar programs being offered by other Universities in India such as Ashoka University or OP Jindal University.

3. Options to design your degree and your elective mix.Students have the flexibility not only to choose their own curriculum with the help of the esteemed faculty, but also to change the basket of electives if they prefer some other courses being offered on campus. Hence, the program is unique and designed in such a way that it enables a student to study multiple courses from different fields to get a holistic, inter-disciplinary education that helps develop all-round personality, making one a desirable candidate during corporate hiring. The electives also include courses in Family Business and Entrepreneurship, which help impart requisite skills to expand a family business or launch a new start up.

4. In-depth, exhaustive learningAt Bennett University most of the Majors that can be selected in the Liberal Arts program are also being offered as full time degree programs there. Hence, any discipline that a student opts for, will have more depth, and the quality of education will be much higher as compared to any other university.

5. State-of-art InfrastructureIn addition to the in-depth curriculum taught by a richly experienced faculty team, Bennett Universitys 68-acre campus has cutting edge technology & state-of-art infrastructure. The beautiful, campus of this University - located in Greater Noida and part of the National Capital Region has all the modern amenities including ultra-modern AC classrooms and hostel facility; a world-class sports centre that includes air-conditioned badminton, squash, table-tennis and basketball courts and also tennis, volleyball, soccer courts, to name a few. You can gain credits in your course by playing sports, ensuring an all-round development. It also houses an ATM, food courts, mess, dispensary, gym, along with two libraries within the premises that help provide a global learning and living experience to all the students.

6. Get unparalleled exposure: Meet industry leaders and celebrities who frequent the campusBeing a student at Bennett University has its own advantages. Not only one gets a chance to meet and interact with industry leaders that the Times of India Group has regular access to, but also celebrities who visit the campus frequently for movie promotions. Students also get exposure to the iconic path-breaking Times Group events held in Delhi and Mumbai like the, Filmfare Awards, Femina Miss India, Mirchi Music awards, Delhi Times Fashion week, music concerts; and also ET & Times Now events.

7. Make friends from different walks of life The range of electives and course options being offered by Bennett University is unmatched in India. Bennett University has multiple faculties including Technology, Law, Media and Management, and can provide the best opportunity to mingle with some of the best brains in different domains; and make friends from diverse fields and not just Liberal Arts.

Originally posted here:

7 reasons you should pursue a degree in Liberal Arts from Bennett University - Times of India

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Down $7.3 Over Past 4 Hours, Breaks Below 20 Day Average; Price Base in Formation Over Past 30 Days – CFDTrading

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Bitcoin Cash 4 Hour Price Update

Updated July 16, 2020 11:19 AM GMT (07:19 AM EST)

Bitcoin Cash came into the current 4 hour candle down 0.12% ($0.26) from the open of the last 4 hour candle, marking the 3rd candle in a row a decrease has occurred. Bitcoin Cash outperformed all 5 assets in the Top Cryptos asset class since the last 4 hour candle.

Bitcoin Cash closed yesterday down 1.22% ($2.81); this denotes the 3rd day in a row a decrease has occurred. This move happened on lower volume, as yesterdays volume was down 3.2% from the day before and down 45.92% from the same day the week before. Out of the 5 instruments in the Top Cryptos asset class, Bitcoin Cash ended up ranking 4th for the day in terms of price change relative to yesterday. Here is a daily price chart of Bitcoin Cash.

Moving average crossovers are always interesting, so lets start there: Bitcoin Cash crossed below its 20 day moving average yesterday. Also of note is that on a 30 day basis price appears to be forming a base which could the stage for it being a support/resistance level going forward. For additional context, note that price has gone down 8 out of the past 14 days.

Behold! Here are the top tweets related to Bitcoin Cash:

Our DEX now supports:Bitcoin Cash $BCHBitcoin Gold $BTGBitcoin Diamond $BCDDeVault $DVTeXperience Points $XPTrade securely, without KYC.

Why arent they asking for bitcoin cash?

@HoarseWisperer Finally the little guys get their day, the plan worked. Are we going to use part of the Bitcoin cash for pizzas and beers?

For a longer news piece related to BCH thats been generating discussion, check out:

Bitcoin Cash for beginners

Bitcoin Cash.Great article Thanks for reading =) Thanks for this information This is very informative Cain.This is very helpful for a beginner like me, like this article Thanks for reading!Sir @Cain I am a big fan since my last month of joining here in read.cash and I am getting real good information about your articles.Thank you so much @Cain for always sharing information about BCH and why it has always been the real thing!This article is good not only for beginner but also to those people with an idea regarding to crypto currencies.

Continued here:

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Down $7.3 Over Past 4 Hours, Breaks Below 20 Day Average; Price Base in Formation Over Past 30 Days - CFDTrading

How Donald Trump’s vanity may have doomed his reelection bid – CNN

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"I'm going to Walter Reed to see some of our great soldiers who have been injured," said Trump on Thursday. "Badly injured. And also see some of our Covid workers, people who have such a great job. And I expect to be wearing a mask when I go into Walter Reed. You're in a hospital so I think it's a very appropriate thing."

"Trump -- who has stubbornly refused to wear a mask in public, ridiculed those who have and done little to encourage his supporters to embrace the common sense public health measure -- has said he will wear a mask during a visit to Walter Reed National Medical Center on Saturday.

"He is also expected to be photographed wearing it, a photo opportunity that some of the President's aides practically begged him to agree to and hope will encourage skeptical Trump supporters to do the same."

It might be too late -- from both a public health perspective and a political one.

"Sometimes, American politics is complicated. Right now, it's extremely simple: the public has reached a harshly negative judgment of the president's handling of the most important issue facing the country, and the issue is so paramount that there's little room to wiggle out of it."

What's remarkable about where Trump finds himself now is that it's almost entirely due to his own personal vanity.

"Cloth face coverings are recommended as a simple barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the cloth face covering coughs, sneezes, talks, or raises their voice. This is called source control. This recommendation is based on what we know about the role respiratory droplets play in the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, paired with emerging evidence from clinical and laboratory studies that shows cloth face coverings reduce the spray of droplets when worn over the nose and mouth. COVID-19 spreads mainly among people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet), so the use of cloth face coverings is particularly important in settings where people are close to each other or where social distancing is difficult to maintain."

Given that, why hasn't Trump been wearing a mask? Because he thinks it makes him look weak and/or bad. Not kidding.

What, exactly, do you make of that Trump quote other than that he isn't going to wear a mask because of vanity?

"Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens -- I just don't see it," he said. Why not? Because, based on the science, what an American president would be saying by wearing a mask when meeting with foreign leaders is that he is following best practices to keep himself -- and those around him -- safe.

But of course, that's now how Trump sees mask-wearing. He sees it as a sign of weakness or lack of masculinity.

"He makes a speech and he walks onto the stage wearing this massive mask ... and then he takes it off, he likes to have it hang off usually the left ear. I think it makes him feel good, frankly. He's got the largest mask I think I've ever seen. It covers up a big proportion of his face. And I think he feels he looks good that way."

So, yeah. Because he thinks that masks make him (and people generally) look bad or not manly or tough or something, Trump has resisted wearing one in public for months on end. Which has had a deeply deleterious effect on public health and his own political prospects.

View post:

How Donald Trump's vanity may have doomed his reelection bid - CNN

Trump team launches a sweeping loyalty test to shore up its defenses – POLITICO

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Last year, POLITICO reported that a top Trump administration health official was using tax dollars to hire GOP consultants to boost her image. Now, an inspector general report confirms the story.

White House officials have said the interviews are a necessary exercise to determine who would be willing to serve in a second term if President Donald Trump is reelected. But officials summoned for the interviews say the exercise is distracting from numerous policy priorities, like working to fight the pandemic, revitalizing the economy or overhauling regulation, and instead reflect the White Houses conviction that a deep state is working to undermine the president.

Its an exercise in ferreting out people who are perceived as not Trump enough, said one person briefed on the meetings.

If theyre spending time trying to hunt down leakers, thats time theyre taking away from advancing an agenda, said a former senior administration official whos spoken with officials undergoing the interviews. And thats irresponsible.

The interview process, along with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows ongoing hunt for leakers, shows how the White House less than four months before the presidential election remains consumed by loyalty and optics despite urgent policy problems such as a raging coronavirus pandemic, nationwide worries about reopening schools and historically high unemployment. This weeks White House drama over Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious-disease doctor, highlighted the persistent internal concern about whether government officials are in line with Trumps preferred policy approaches such as the presidents desire to downplay the latest coronavirus surges.

The reinterviewing exercise is being led by Johnny McEntee, a 30-year-old who's been a Trump aide since the 2016 campaign and was installed earlier this year as chief of the White House personnel office and is responsible for filling thousands or jobs across the federal agencies.

The interviews can take the form of general questions, such as an appointees career goals, but can also veer into territory meant to test a persons perceived loyalty, like asking for the appointee's thoughts on the U.S. relationship with China or probing questions about why an appointee was chosen for his or her current job. Interviewers have also asked people to give examples of ways they are supporting the administration.

It just seems like you could be a rocket scientist, but all they care about is whether you are MAGA, said one senior administration official familiar with the interview process. It is fair to do something to prepare to fill jobs in a second term, but right now, it is hard to know what the metrics are with this personnel office for being successful. There is no set criteria for what makes a good political appointee.

McEntee, a former body man for Trump, did not respond to a request for comment. A White House official who defended the process said its part of the personnel offices preparations for a second term, including gauging the officials postelection plans.

The head of the presidential personnel office under President Barack Obama called the interviews unusual. I could definitely see that kind of questioning being uncomfortable and creating unease among political appointees, said Rudy Mehrbani, who also vetted appointees while in the White House counsels office under Obama. If you are working in one subject area like Peace Corps or USAID, that does not mean you are signing on to the administrations position on funding for reproductive rights.

Political appointees at the Defense Department, including a top layer of officials undersecretaries are going through reinterviews with the White House personnel office this month, according to a current Defense official and two former officials. During the interviews, the representatives from the personnel office are forcing senior leaders to answer questions about their loyalty to the president with an eye toward keeping their jobs in a second Trump term, the people said.

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman countered that the interviews with the White House personnel office were set up by the Defense department so that our political appointees could discuss second-term opportunities at the department and throughout the administration.

In other areas of the government, the personnel tests come at a moment when Trump appointees are already struggling to manage portfolios that have ballooned during the pandemic. For instance, HHS staff have now spent more than five months juggling the round-the-clock response to the coronavirus while handling other ongoing policy goals, like the presidents focus on securing lower drug prices before the election a balancing act that officials described as exhausting even before facing de facto loyalty tests.

Five political appointees in disparate roles across HHS said theyd either scheduled their meetings with the personnel office or were awaiting an appointment.

The interviews also have exposed some Trump appointees to unexpected risks: Labor Department officials were forced to quarantine after meeting with a White House personnel staffer who later tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Bloomberg Law first reported.

You would think they would want to shore up the bench in response to the pandemic or start getting ready to fill expected gaps because people get sick or they leave, Mehrbani added. In the run up to a transition, historically, there is lots of turnover. Those are the things the personnel office should be tending to.

For Trumps true believers, the interviews are viewed as a mandatory part of working in the Trump administration.

If were going to extend this amount of capital on you, and push for you, they should ask more questions. Im glad theyre doing it finally, one White House official said. The fact that PPO is finally considering whether people are aligned with the president its long overdue.

Lara Seligman contributed to this report.

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Trump team launches a sweeping loyalty test to shore up its defenses - POLITICO

The Trump-O-Meter: Where President Donald Trump’s campaign promises stand in the summer of 2020 – PolitiFact

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Donald Trumps campaign promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border was vintage Trump: controversial, huge, symbolic. But he also meant a real wall.

"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively," Trump said when he launched his campaign for the White House. "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall."

Trumps passionate supporters loved when he made that promise in 2015 and applaud that hes talked about the wall through the three and half years of his presidency. If they judge him on changing the conversation in Washington on immigration, the president definitely achieved that.

RELATED:Browse 102 campaign promises individually rated on the Trump-O-Meter

But Trumps election didnt result in an actual wall being built. Trump couldnt get Congress to pass legislation that would have addressed costs or logistics of an actual wall. Mexicos leaders rejected Trumps rhetorical demands to pay for it. And its unclear that the Trump administration has the ability, money or time to complete such a complex project.

The Trump administration was able to reinforce and rebuild about 200 miles of fencing and barriers some of it existing before he took office. Trump has repeatedly referred to these efforts as building a wall along the 2,000 mile border. But this most repeated of his campaign promises is largely unfulfilled. Compared with before Trump took office, the numbers of people apprehended crossing the U.S. Mexican border were down in 2017 and 2018, then increased dramatically in 2019 as families in Central America fled crime and other instability. Crossings are down this year, most likely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As Trump reaches the fourth anniversary of being nominated as the GOPs candidate for president, PolitiFact offers an account of the progress on 102promises he made in the 2016 campaign. Our Trump-O-Meter promise tracker finds that roughly 49% of Trumps promises can be described as either broken or not achieved.

Among Trumps Broken Promises were to establish the right to carry a concealed weapon in all 50 states; invest $550 billion in infrastructure; repeal Obamacare, and end birthright citizenship.

Trumps unfulfilled campaign promises are broken most often because he would have needed to change laws to achieve his goals but was unable to get action through Congress. (PolitiFact rates campaign promises based on outcomes, not intentions or effort.)

Our tracking project which we have done for 11 years including the promises of President Barack Obama and more than two dozen governors and mayors shows Trump kept roughly 24% of his promises. Typically he achieved progress when he could act on his own without Congress or the promise didnt require complex administrative action. As promised, he took no salary for his presidency. He began the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate agreement. He rolled back regulations. He refused to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

His most substantial kept promise: cutting taxes. When Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress in 2017, they passed a wide-ranging bill that lowered taxes for many people and businesses. Trumps promises on taxes were ambitious, and he didnt get everything he wanted in the tax law. But he got enough to earn ratings of Compromise on his tax promises to eliminate the marriage penalty (it was reduced but not eliminated), lower the business tax rate to 15% (it was lowered to 21%), eliminate the estate tax (also reduced but not eliminated) and cut taxes for "everyone."

With roughly five months left in Trumps term, PolitiFact has rated Trumps remaining promises Compromise (about 20%) or Stalled (5%). At a similar point in 2012, Obamas promises were rated Promise Broken at 16%, Promise Kept at 37%, Compromise at 14%, and the rest Stalled (10%) or In the Works (22%).

How much will Trumps policy success or failure matter as voters go to the polls? The coronavirus pandemic has changed the political equation for answering that question. The coronavirus pandemic arrived unexpectedly in the final year of Trumps first term. It is a wild card in assessing his record, given its most direct impact on the day-to-day lives of Americans.

Nevertheless, Trump had three years to achieve his campaign promises before the pandemic. He may yet move more legislation through Congress to address that and other issues. PolitiFact will be updating promise ratings as circumstances warrant. Prior to the Trump-O-Meter, PolitiFact tracked former President Barack Obamas campaign promises for eight years on The Obameter. Obamas final tally was 24% of his promises rated Promise Broken; 48% promises rated Promise Kept, while another 28% of his promises were part of a Compromise.

How Trump achieved progress or fell short

Trump scored legislative victories with the passage of his tax bill, an increase in defense spending, and, with the backing of many Democrats, a criminal justice overhaul.

Trump has also managed to win confirmation of judges at an unusually fast clip, thanks to strong support from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Trump signed massive spending bills and coronavirus relief packages, which had bipartisan support.

He has not succeeded in his promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, even when his party controlled both chambers of Congress. The Trump administration has not forwarded a repeatedly promised infrastructure bill to Congress. And, even before the enormous outlays required by the pandemic, his promise to cut domestic spending did not happen.

Much like his predecessor,Trump faced obstacles in working with Congress due to intense partisan polarization. But experts suggested he has fueled those very partisan fires that inhibit his own agenda.

"We have not had a president so distant from the legislative process as Trump since at least the 1920s," said Steven S. Smith, a political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis.

Trump tended to punch back against even modest deviations from his position. "He has mean-tweeted virtually every congressional leader at some point," said Gregory Koger, a University of Miami political scientist.

Like Obama, Trump has made stronger use of his executive powers, which dont require the agreement of Congress. Trump has been able to make progress on his environmental agenda by rolling back the actions of his predecessor through executive orders and regulations, rather than winning legislative votes.

"But as for regulatory changes and executive orders, what one president can do, the next president can undo," said John J. Pitney, Jr., a Claremont McKenna College political scientist and author of "Is Congress Broken?"

This means that if Joe Biden wins the 2020 presidential election, he would be able to overturn many of Trumps policies on immigration, the environment, and climate change, among other issues.

Any president has the tools to put their mark on foreign policy, and Trump has done so. Some of his biggest foreign policy promises were kept: pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement, leaving the Paris climate accord, quitting the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, renegotiating the North American Free-Trade Agreement, providing strong backing for Israel including moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and curtailing the Obama-era thaw with Cuba.

RELATED:Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. Donate today.

Some of these moves will be hard to reverse, while others could be changed by a Democratic administration.

Some say the biggest impact from Trumps approach may be intangible. "The area that may be irreversible is American leadership in the world," Pitney said. "We have made our allies wary of American leadership during the Trump administration, and they are not likely to again accede to a U.S. leadership role that makes them vulnerable."

Then again, Trump had promised during his campaign to adopt an America First approach. He said he would build the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, he demanded that U.S. allies pay us for more for their defense, he pledged to impose tariffs on trading partners, and he said he would keep out Muslims and immigration from terrorism-prone countries.

History may question the wisdom of these policies, but Trumps rhetoric during the 2016 campaign gave clear signs that the rest of the world would find fault with some American policies on his watch. Dissatisfaction abroad with U.S. leadership under Trump suggests he has kept that promise.

PolitiFact reporter Miriam Valverde contributed to this report.

RELATED:Read more Trump-O-Meter reports on all 102 of President Donald Trump's 2016campaign promises.

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The Trump-O-Meter: Where President Donald Trump's campaign promises stand in the summer of 2020 - PolitiFact

Sheer incompetence! Donald Trump Jr. shreds his father or at least thats how it appears in this viral clip – MarketWatch

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Ben Meiselas, the lawyer who represented Colin Kaepernick in his case against the NFL, and his two brothers have a knack for delivering viral attack ads aimed at the Trump White House.

Last month, they posted an edited version of Ivanka Trumps commencement speech, which was cancelled by a university in Kansas. They followed up with a video focusing on GOP lawmakers who have dodged questions relating to some of Trumps more controversial tweets and actions.

Now theyre out with another, which has already racked up more than 4 million views overnight:

As you can see, the clip flips Donald Trump Jr.s attacks on Joe Biden Gross negligence! and sheer incompetence around and lobs them at the president. This guy is the epitome of the swamp, he said. The entire family have enriched themselves.

The Meiselas brothers, who run the MeidasTouch.com website, reserved some of their harshest criticisms for a statement that accompanied the video.

Trump children, propped up in this regime by the bizarre and shameless nepotism seen in banana republic dictatorships, represent the blend of incompetence, entitlement, and cringeworthy hypocrisy thats propelled America into disaster were now in under Trump, they wrote.

The #ByeDonJr hashtag blew up over night, as the Twitter haters ate up the clip:

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Sheer incompetence! Donald Trump Jr. shreds his father or at least thats how it appears in this viral clip - MarketWatch

Anthony Fauci Is a Better Economist Than Donald Trump or Jared Kushner – The New Yorker

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Back on April 29th, Jared Kushner, Donald Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser, gave an interview to Fox News in which he dismissed concerns that the coronavirus pandemic would have a lasting negative impact on the American economy. I always find that we see the leading indicators, and often the media sees the lagging indicators, Kushner said. I think youll see by June a lot of the country should be back to normal, and the hope is that by July the countrys really rocking again.

Kushners statements neatly encapsulated the Trump Administrations economic theory of COVID-19: it would be a sharp but short shock. As states, particularly some that are governed by Republicans, rushed to reopen their economies in May and June, economic activity did rebound. The Labor Departments jobs report for June, which was released on July 2nd, showed that employers added 4.8 million jobs, and the official unemployment rate fell from 13.3 per cent to 11.1 per cent. Trump hailed this as spectacular news. But now it looks as though the employment survey, which was carried out in the second week of June, may well have marked an inflection point for the economy rather than a breakout.

As last month proceeded, the rate of new infections picked up in a number of states, including Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas. Americans took notice and changed their behavior. Some real-time indicators of discretionary consumer spending, including restaurant reservations and credit-card activity, took a dip. Given the threat that the virus presents in confined spaces, it could be argued that the restaurant and bar businesses are special cases. However, there is also evidence from other industries, such as retail and transportation, that the initial hit from the virus may be turning into a long-lasting one.

Last week, the clothing company Brooks Brothers filed for bankruptcy, and United Airlines warned that it may furlough nearly half of its U.S. employees in Octobersome thirty-six thousand people. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that, during the previous week, another 2.3 million Americans had filed for state or federal unemployment benefits. We are beginning to see the impact of the recession spreading to companies that were not directly impacted by the virus, Andrew Challenger, a senior vice-president at the firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which monitors hiring and firing closely, told Reuters. At the same time, companies that attempted to reopen but were only able to attract a fraction of their pre-COVID customers are closing down again.

In an online appearance with the National Press Club on Monday, Robert Kaplan, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said that the surge in infections and hospitalizations was having a chilling effect on the economy. Citing high-frequency data that his institution monitors, as well as conversations with businesspeople, Kaplan said, Unfortunately, with this resurgence of disease, it is muting that rebound. It is muting that growth. Other analysts agree. Economists at the investment bank Jefferies & Co. said on Monday that their index of economic activity suggests the recovery is running out of steam.... Most components of our index are now below their mid/late June peaks.

In his remarks, Kaplan emphasized the connection between faster economic growth and following public-safety protocols. He appealed to all Americans to wear masks and social-distance. If we dont do these things, it will be more likely that we have to slow the rate of reopening, he said. In some places, that is already happening. On Monday, Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, ordered restaurants, bars, wineries, movie theatres, museums, and zoos to close their indoor operations statewide. In a number of counties where the virus is spreading the fastest, including Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside, Newsom added additional businesses to the list, including gyms, hair salons, and nonessential offices.

Other states, including Arizona and Texas, have taken some more modest steps to roll back or slow the pace of reopening. What is lacking, and has been lacking all along, is effective national leadership which recognizes that repairing the economy and extinguishing the virusor knocking it down to a very low levelare complementary policies rather than contradictory ones. From China to South Korea to Ireland, other governments have exhibited this type of leadership and resolve. We have a President who reportedly hasnt attended a meeting of his coronavirus task force for more than a month, and who donned a mask in public for the first time on Saturdaynearly five months after the first U.S. case of the virus was confirmed.

On Monday, a number of media outlets reported that the Trump White House is trying to discredit Anthony Faucithe best-known member of the task forcewho has expressed concerns over reopening the economy as the number of cases surges. Appearing on NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday, Admiral Brett Giroir, another member of the task force, said that Fauci looks at it from a very narrow public-health point of view. That may be true; Fauci doesnt pretend to be an economist. And yet, by emphasizing the need to arrest the renewed spread of the virus, he is dispensing advice that jibes with what Kaplan and other economic policymakers, including Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, have been saying. (The path forward for the economy is extraordinarily uncertain and will depend in large part on our success in containing the virus, Powell told Congress a couple of weeks ago.)

Even as the United States is reporting record numbers of new cases, Trump seems unable or unwilling to accept reality. Until the start of this month, the daily death toll for the country as a whole had been falling, largely due to dramatic declines in New York, New Jersey, and other states in the Northeast, which endured lengthy lockdowns and moved cautiously to reopen. Over the past week, though, the national mortality trend line has ticked up a bit, a Washington Post graphic shows. And, on Friday, Deborah Birx, the cordinator of the White House task force, publicly acknowledged that a rise in the over-all number of deaths is expected as the disease continues to spread in some of our large metro areas where comorbidities exist, the Times reported.

Ultimately, this is a human tragedy. To protect the lives of vulnerable Americans, and also to protect the economy, Trump and Kushner should listen to Fauci rather than try to trash him.

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Anthony Fauci Is a Better Economist Than Donald Trump or Jared Kushner - The New Yorker