Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to arrive to India on Thursday for a two-day visit during which Moscow is expected to ink weapons deal worth billions of dollars.

The Kremlin said before the two-day visit by Putin and top Russian ministers that the “key feature” would be the signing of a $5bn deal for the S-400 air defence system, despite the risk of US sanctions against countries buying Russian defence equipment.

On the eve of Putin’s arrival later on Thursday, the US poured cold water on India’s efforts to obtain a waiver to avoid sanctions under legislation called Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

The deal will also help reassure Russia because India-Russia ties have been fraying at the edges for the past several years

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Journalist and security analyst

Upgrades in arms systems “including the S-400 air and missile defense system” would be a particular focus for CAATSA, a US State Department spokesperson was quoted as saying by India’s PTI news agency.

“The S-400 is attracting attention due to the US-Trump overhang. With the US’ domestic legislation discouraging countries like India from engaging in ‘significant’ trade with Russia, there is a high-visibility political sub-text about how this deal will impact the India-US bi-lateral,” said Commodore (retired) Uday Bhaskar, Director at Society for Policy Studies.

“The US response will be evident by November 5, when both the trade with Russia and the hydrocarbon imports from Iran will come to a tipping point. If the US decides to go ahead with its domestic legislation and invoke penalties/sanctions against Delhi, it would test the resilience of the India-US bi-lateral,” he said.

“This would potentially be an anomalous situation, wherein the US would place both India and China in the same ‘sanctions’ basket – unlikely bed-fellows indeed. Beijing will monitor this S-400 issue very closely and read the tea-leaves carefully for long-term strategic implications.”

Critical gaps in defence capabilities

Last month Washington slapped financial sanctionson the Chinese military for buying Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and the S-400.

f the US decides to go ahead with its domestic legislation and invoke penalties/sanctions against Delhi, it would test the resilience of the India-US bi-lateral

Commodore (retired) Uday Bhaskar, Director at Society for Policy Studies

However, the US is in a difficult position when it comes to India. It wants to bolster ties with New Delhi to counter China’s growing assertiveness, something that has also rattled India.

Washington and New Delhi announced plans last month for joint military drills in 2019, and agreed on the exchange of sensitive military information. The US is now India’s second biggest arms supplier.

But Russia remains number one, and a string of new deals with the Asian giant would be a major win for Moscow – and a big snub to the US.

Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who appear to enjoy a personal rapport, are also likely to discuss a deal for four Krivak-class frigates worth $2bn and 200 light utility Ka-226 helicopters pegged at $1bn.

Experts say India needs the sophisticated S-400 to fill critical gaps in its defence capabilities, in view of China’s rise and perceived threats from Pakistan, against whom India has fought three wars.

“India has been concerned about a possible two-front war in which it has to face some form of confrontation from Pakistan and China at the same time,” said Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, New Delhi-based foreign policy analyst and Foreign Affairs Editor at Hindustan Times newspaper.

“Also India’s Air Force’s strength has weakened owing to acquisition problems. India has been shopping around for sometime now for air-defence systems,” he told Al Jazeera. 

“The S-400 systems have not been battle-tested but technologically they are quite good, also relatively cheap. So the Russian S-400s are being seen as a good solution.

“The deal will also help reassure Russia because India-Russia ties have been fraying at the edges for the past several years,” he added.

Warm ties 

Putin, 65, and Modi, 68, are also set to discuss a possible second Russian-built nuclear power plant. Moscow is currently expanding India’s biggest nuclear power plant in Kudankulam.

Also on the agenda is Russian training for Indian astronauts as New Delhi aims to launch its first crewed space mission in 2022.

More than 20 agreements are expected to be signed during Putin’s visit in areas such as defence, space and economy.

But military relations would likely be the main focus.

India is the world’s biggest arms importer and is undergoing a $100bn upgrade of its ageing hardware, much of it of Soviet vintage including MiG jets that have frequently crashed in the Indian countryside.

Annual Russia-India trade has slipped below $10bn since 2014, as Modi cultivated closer diplomatic and economic ties with Washington, while Russia has courted Pakistan and China.

Ties received a boost last year when Modi and Putin held a fruitful annual bilateral summit, followed by meetings in Astana and at the G20 in Germany. They also met in Sochi this year.

On the strategic front, Russia helped India become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation this year and has backed New Delhi’s long-held demand for a permanent UN Security Council seat.

Zeenat Saberin contributed to this report from New Delhi

On March 17, 2018, Christopher Wylie changed the discourse around data and privacy forever.

After months of secret work, the whistleblower went public with claims that the shadowy political consultancy Cambridge Analytica had weaponised the information of 50 million Facebook users during the 2016 US presidential election.

Wylie’s claims, made to the Observer newspaper, triggered the most intense scrutiny of Facebook and its hold on the world’s data to date. His exposé of Cambridge Analytica, combined with subsequent revelations around Facebook’s privacy practices, wiped $60 billion off the social network’s value. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, usually reluctant to give press interviews, felt obliged to go on a media apology tour, which evolved into a global advertising campaign.

Wylie’s emergence as a poster boy for data security was timely, coinciding with the EU’s new privacy regulation, the GDPR. His shock of pink hair, nose ring, and eloquent turn of phrase have made him TV dynamite, while The Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr dubbed him “the millennials’ first great whistleblower.”

Wylie is not without critics, thanks to his own role at Cambridge Analytica. As a former employee, he helped build what he came to describe as “Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare mindf–k tool,” which exploited Facebook data. BuzzFeed also reported on his efforts to set up another political consultancy while he was still in possession of the same controversial Facebook data set.

But his actions humbled one of the biggest companies in the world and turned the usually arcane issue of online security into an urgent, mainstream topic of discussion. Thanks to his decision to blow the whistle, Silicon Valley firms are going through a serious period of introspection.

Previous rank: New entry Twitter: @chrisinsilico

READ THE UK TECH 100 INTERVIEW: Christopher Wylie says he was pushed into traffic and assaulted after exposing Facebook’s bombshell data scandal »

The Japanese city of Osaka has ended its sister city agreement with the US city of San Francisco due to a dispute over a statue that memorialises women made sex slaves by Japanese forces in the 20th century.

The statue in San Francisco features depictions of women from China, Korea and the Philippines, symbolising “comfort women”, a term that refers to the women and teenaged girls abducted and forced to work in brothels under Imperial Japanese rule.

The statue bears an inscription that reads: “This monument bears witness to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of women and girls, euphemistically called ‘Comfort Women’, who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces in thirteen Asian-Pacific countries from 1931-1945. Most of these women died during their wartime captivity.”

In a letter to his San Francisco counterpart, London Breed, Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura said there is “disagreement among historians regarding the historical facts such as the number of ‘comfort women’, the degree to which the former Japanese Army was involved, and the extent of the wartime harm”.

Yoshimura concluded his letter by saying: “In the future, should the City and County of San Francisco retract the Comfort Women Memorial and plaque from public property … the City of Osaka will be genuinely inclined to fully revive the sister city affiliation whenever necessary.”

Cutting of ties ‘unfortunate’

The statue was erected by a private group but San Francisco officials agreed to recognise it as public property this week.

Breed’s office said in a statement it was “unfortunate” that Yoshimura ended their relationship.

The move was also termed “outrageous and absurd” by Lillian Sing, co-chair of the Comfort Women Justice Coalition, a US group based in San Francisco, who spoke to The Guardian.

“It shows how afraid the Osaka mayor and Japanese prime minister are of truth and are trying to deny history,” said Sing.

The Japanese government has taken steps to address the historical issue of sex slavery. Japan and South Korea reached an agreement in 2015 that included an apology from Japan, though Tokyo never accepted legal responsibility for the plight of comfort women.

Japan also founded the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation, a one billion-yen (roughly $8.7m) fund to care for survivors.

WASHINGTON – The FBI’s background investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was released early Thursday to the U.S. Senate. 

The highly anticipated report centers around allegations of sexual assault and misconduct when Kavanaugh was a youth and could be a pivotal document in swaying a number of key votes on the Senate that could determine his future on the nation’s highest court. 

Republicans have carefully planned for the results of the investigation, including only allowing senators to view it in a secure room in the U.S. Capitol amid debate over how much of the report should be available for public view.

The results of the FBI’s investigation were first given to the White House then sent to Capitol Hill. 

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley tweeted early Thursday, “Supplemental FBI background file for Judge Kavanaugh has been received.”

Late Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed a cloture motion that paves the way for a procedural vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination on Friday and a final up-or-down vote on confirmation as early as Saturday. While speaking on the Senate floor, McConnell, R-Ky., said the report would be in the hands of the Senate by Wednesday evening and members would have time to view it before a Friday vote. 

“This evening, the Senate will receive the results of the FBI’s supplemental background investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh,” McConnell said on the floor Wednesday. “This is now the seventh time the FBI has looked into Judge Kavanaugh’s background. And this information comes on top of what has already been one of the most thorough and most exhaustive Senate reviews of any Supreme Court nominee in the entire history of our country.”

Democrats have questioned the scope of the report repeatedly, as some connected to the allegations had not been interviewed by the FBI and amid reports that the White House had a hand in who was contacted and who was not. 

Christine Blasey Ford, the first to come forward with allegations of sexual assault, was not contacted throughout the FBI’s supplemental investigation, even though she offered to cooperate and hand over additional documents to federal agents. 

Her story and testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee led to Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., pushing for the FBI investigation when the committee voted to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination last week. 

His vote and two other Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, could determine whether Kavanaugh is appointed. 

More: The Senate could vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination over the weekend. Here’s how that goes down

More: Republicans plan careful steps to protect secrecy of FBI report on Brett Kavanaugh

More: Jeff Flake says Trump mocking Christine Blasey Ford is ‘kind of appalling’

Attorney Michael Avenatti said Wednesday that agents also had not contacted his client, Julie Swetnick, who alleged in a sworn statement that Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, tried to get teenage girls drunk so they could be “gang-raped” by multiple boys.

The report is expected to amount to a background file with separate documents, including either interview summaries or the transcript of interviews. White House officials said they do not expect to comment publicly on the report but may confirm its receipt because of the extraordinary circumstances surrounding Kavanaugh’s nomination.

The Justice Department has referred questions about the probe to the White House. 

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders did not answer a question Wednesday about whether President Trump wants the report made available to the public.

“We’ve been very open and transparent throughout the process,” she said.

 

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Jeff Gido, a partner at Goldman Sachs and the head of the bank’s financial technology group, was set to leave the bank after 17 years and join rival JPMorgan.

That is, until Goldman countered with what’s known as a bid-back, according to people familiar with the matter. Gido is now staying put at Goldman. He joined Goldman in 2001, according to FINRA records, and became partner in 2014.

He’s helped the firm advise on fintech deals this year including IHS Markit’s $1.9 billion acquisition of data firm Ipreo, and exchange operator CME Group’s acquisition of Britain’s NEX for $5.5 billion.

Goldman’s moves illustrate the extent to which Wall Street banks are intent on hanging onto star dealmakers, as M&A volumes swell to record levels.

Earlier this year, Goldman stopped the departure of technology banker Tammy Kiely, who was supposed to leave for Morgan Stanley. Kiely later got a promotion.

And JPMorgan promoted financial sponsors banker Mahir Zaimoglu in the last couple of months in a move that ended his talks for a role at Goldman, Business Insider previously reported.

The war for talent between Goldman and JPMorgan has been particularly fierce this year. Senior tech banker Kurt Simon left JPMorgan over the summer for a vice chairman role at Goldman, as did industrials banker Chris Gallea earlier in the year.

Goldman also nabbed JPMorgan healthcare managing director Benjamin Wallace, viewed by many as a rising star at the firm.

Global M&A activity totaled $3.3 trillion in the first nine months of the year, which is up 37%, according to Refinitiv, which is the former Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk business.

Goldman ranks fourth in the global investment banking league tables for advising on financial technology deals so far this year, behind JPMorgan, Citi and Morgan Stanley, as measured by deal value, according to Dealogic. However, it’s advised on more fin tech deals than any other bank this year.

Editors, USA TODAY
Published 3:32 a.m. ET Oct. 4, 2018

Senators to review FBI report on Kavanaugh; protests planned

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill will begin reviewing the FBI’s supplemental background check into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday. The report, which is planned to be kept secret, is expected to center around Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teens. Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, who filed a cloture motion that paves the way for a procedural vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination, said senators would have plenty of time to view the report. Meanwhile, celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend, Lena Dunham and others are joining forces to protest Kavanaugh. Organizers say the main #CANCELKAVANAUGH protest will be held a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol at 12:30 p.m. ET. 

Closing arguments in Chicago cop trial

Closing arguments are set to begin Thursday in the trial of the Chicago police officer charged with murdering Laquan McDonald. Jason Van Dyke insisted in his court testimony that he acted in self-defense in the controversial 2004 killing of the black teen. McDonald’s death — captured in a chilling police video that was eventually made public — became a touchstone in the larger conversation about policing in African-American communities. Video appeared to show that McDonald, holding a small knife, was walking away from officers when Van Dyke fired his service weapon. Van Dyke eventually fired a total of 16 shots, prosecutors say.

Community in mourning after deadly South Carolina shooting

The investigation into a deadly South Carolina shooting resumes Thursday after a male suspect fired upon officers from multiple agencies during a two-hour standoff in an upscale residential neighborhood, according to authorities. At least seven law enforcement officers were shot, one fatally, after Florence County Sheriff’s Office deputies attempted to serve a warrant at a home not far from areas devastated by flooding from Hurricane Florence. The fallen officer, identified as Terrence Carraway, 52, had recently celebrated 30 years as a police officer, according to the Associated Press. Officials refused to say why they were serving a warrant and did not name the wounded officers. The suspect, who was not immediately identified, is in custody. 

MLB playoffs: Attention shifts to NLDS doubleheader

Major League Baseball’s playoffs roll along with a National League Division Series doubleheader on Thursday. After winning a 13-inning wild-card thriller against the Chicago Cubs, the Colorado Rockies travel 90 miles north to Milwaukee, where the Brewers will host Game 1 at Miller Park (5 p.m. ET on FS1). While the Brewers will turn to their bullpen to attempt to shut down the Rockies’ potent lineup, the Rockies will send Antonio Senzatela to start Game 1. Later, the Los Angeles Dodgers host the Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium (8:30 p.m. ET on MLB Network). Pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu gets the call for the Dodgers in Game 1 and will face Braves All-Star Mike Foltynewicz. And about Yasiel Puig’s World Series guarantee? USA TODAY Sports’ experts are leaning toward an American League champion. 

Ex-rap mogul ‘Suge’ Knight set to get 28-year prison sentence

Former rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight is expected to be formally sentenced Thursday to nearly 30 years in prison after he killed one man and injured another with his truck outside a Compton, California, burger stand. Knight, 53, the Death Row Records co-founder who was a key player in the gangsta rap scene that flourished in the 1990s, pleaded no contest to manslaughter in Los Angeles Superior Court last month and agreed to serve 28 years in prison. His attorneys said he was acting in self-defense and was fleeing armed attackers when he ran over Cle “Bone” Sloan, a consultant on the N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” and Terry Carter, who died from his injuries. 

Contributing: Associated Press

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The city council of Houston, Texas unanimously passed an updated ordinance Wednesday that effectively blocks a proposed “sex robot brothel” from opening.

A Canadian company that already operates an “adult love dolls rent before you buy service” in Toronto had hoped to open a location in Houston and even started construction before running into permit issues that halted work.

The company, KinkySdollS, sells and rents human-like dolls that can cost more than $3,000 each.

Prior to the council’s Wednesday vote, locals had organized to express their concerns; a petition speaking out against the business gained more than 10,000 signatures.

“A business like this would destroy homes, families, finances of our neighbors and cause major community uproars in the city,” said Pastor Vega, one of the speakers at the meeting.

“As a woman, I am concerned and horrified to see where our society is taking us,” Virginia Mireles said.

One council member said he planned to record the business’ patrons entering the building and shame them online.

That council member spoke out against the business: “I know there’s some people that will sit there and say, ‘What does the City of Houston have to do with any of this?’” said councilman Greg Travis. “And the answer is ‘We’re not getting into your bedroom, but don’t bring it into our district. Don’t bring it into our city. This is not a good business for our city. We are not Sin City.’”

June 5: There’s no evidence having sex with robots is healthy, report says

The council updated a local ordinance Wednesday to ban patrons from having sex with a device resembling a human at a business. Under the new regulation, a business could still sell the sex robots.

Turner speculated that the business might have been attracted to Houston because it remains the only major U.S. city without zoning and has a strong history of resisting regulation.

He said the council’s move was not targeted at any one particular business, rather “at this type of behavior” by any businesses.

Contributing: KHOU-TV, Houston; The Associated Press

 

 

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Millennials have created massive shifts in countless industries.

Beards are in, hurting razor makers. Golf is out, worrying equipment manufacturers. And, sugar is public enemy number one, resulting in some massive shift in the food industry.

It’s part of a change that Emmanuel Faber, CEO of the massive food company Danone, calls the “food revolution.”

“These millennials are changing the way everyone eats and drinks,” Faber told Business Insider in a recent interview.

With Faber at the helm, Danone — which has a market cap of $47.7 billion— hopes to cash in on the revolution instead of being left in the dust.

“They’re turning away from the older brands that the previous generation, their parents, thought were there for granted, and they’re reconsidering completely their options,” Faber said.

Much of the media coverage of millennials has focused on the generation’s youth, pointing to their indifference towards marriage and buying homes as evidence that many aren’t ready to grow up. Now, however, as the eldest millennials are solidly in their mid-30s, they’re having children of their own. And, that means new industries are being impacted by the generation’s whims, and new generations are being shaped by the millennial mindset.

“We … see parents becoming agents of change,” Faber said. “When you are a millennial and you have a child, you reconsider how you feed your family.”

The predominant trends are both culinary, such as a preference for higher-protein and lower-sugar options, as well as ethical, like a growing emphasis on sustainability and a desire for clarity in food production. Now that millennials are having children of their own, new industries are being hit by these demands.

The baby-food business, for example, is undergoing a seismic shift as more millennials have kids.

Instead of embracing the convenience of preservative-packed jars of baby food, millennial parents are seeking out options with fewer ingredients and more information on sourcing. Danone recently overhauled two of its baby-food brands, which make up a massive part of its business, to emphasize their use of natural ingredients.

Watch Business Insider’s full conversation with Faber here: