British Herald Sep-Oct 2019

BRITISH HERALD

ISSN 2632-8836

WHERE BRITAIN MEETS THE WORLD

£4.00

VOL 1 ISSUE 4 SEP-OCT 19

P/34

P/38

How the Saudi attack effects global oil supply

Rohingya still in Myanmar face 'threat of genocide' United Nations

JACK MA 55 RETIRED

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September-October 2019

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British Herald is among the world’s leaders in online news and information delivery. With our service, one can read up-to-the-minute news stories and receive Breaking News text alerts. British Herald is a registered trademark owned by Herald Media Network Limited, United Kingdom. Herald Media Network Limited is one of the leaders in the global media market. Leveraging on its consolidated strengths in the digital media and communication market, as well as its well-established branding and advertising networks. The efforts in producing quality content and transforming them into a multimedia platform have been well recognized and has accreditated British Herald both at National and International levels.

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EDITOR'S NOTE

Brexit’s drama draws in Supreme Court

B

ritain, which was once deemed as a country where the sun never sets, has turned gloomy with the Brexit clouds. With the UK's new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson government’s decision of proroguing the Parliament until the Queen’s speech on October 14, the opposition have moved to the Supreme Court citing the constitutional validity of this move.

Johnson justifies his actions by saying that it was the right thing to do just before the Queen’s speech to outline the government's new agenda to introduce fresh legislative plans for the year ahead. Though the suspension is not controversial in itself, opponents have questioned about the timing in the runup to the Brexit deadline, October 31, that has been used to silence the MPs. The task now rests with the Supreme Court panel to judge whether it will uphold the Scottish Court of Session’s ruling that prorogation was lawbreaking, or the separate judgment of the High Court in London that dismissed the challenge against it calling it a “political issue” that was not for the court to decide.

David Philip Pannick, Baron Pannick, QC, representing pro-EU activist Gina Miller,

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who appealed against the High Court of England and Wales ruling, said, "The exceptional length of the prorogation, in this case, is strong evidence that the Prime Minister’s motive was to silence Parliament for that period because he sees Parliament as an obstacle to the furtherance of his political aims."

Questioning the PM’s move, Pannick asked, "Why he decided to advise Her Majesty to prorogue Parliament for a period as long as five weeks and there is no evidence from the Cabinet Secretary or any other official explaining that?”

In the UK, dissolution and prorogation are the two ways in which the UK Parliament can be suspended.

Dissolution enables the MPs to renew its mandate from the electorate. Prorogation, on the other hand completely transfers power, thereby acting as a no-voice agent, while dissolution at least gives the electorate a voice.

On September 17, Brenda Marjorie Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, DBE, PC, QC, known as Lady Hale a British judge and the current President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom said the judges faces “serious and difficult questions”, given that "three senior judges in Scotland have reached a

different conclusion to three senior judges in England and Wales."

Now there might be two dilemmas after the court’s judgment- if the Court upholds that judgment, the House of Commons could be forced to reconcile immediately, sparking a fresh round of Parliamentary controversy. But if it states otherwise, the bill that was passed in the earlier session would continue to be operational. Additionally, no matter what, the judgment is Richard Keen, Baron Keen of Elie, Advocate General for Scotland, backing the government confirmed their stance said, ‘if the court announces the advice as unlawful, the government is keen to take necessary actions to adhere with any declaration made by the court’.

Best,

ANSIF ASHRAF Managing Editor, British Herald ansif@britishherald.com

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BRITISH HERALD

CONTENTS

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2019 | VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 04

6

17

6 | JACK MA 55 Retired

17 | Ajmer Sharif Dargah - The Abode of Cultural Tranquility

34

38

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34 | How the Saudi attack effects global oil supply

38 | Rohingya still in Myanmar face 'threat of genocide' United Nations

69 | With glue and fake blood, climate protesters target London Fashion

44 | Tanzania's Zanzibar begins to register traditional healers

66 | Classic sitcom 'Seinfeld' will head to Netflix in 2021

77 | A leap into the great wide open at Asia's first World Cup

WHERE BRITAIN MEETS THE WORLD

ISSN 2632-8836

Managing Director & Group Editor-in-Chief Ansif Ashraf www.ansif.com, Consultant Editor Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury, Senior Editor Ashly Christopher, Associate Editor Azam Rafiq Sait, Creative Designer Sooraj SV., Contributors | Via Reuters Steve Gorman, Nichola Groom and Alex Dobuzinskis, Paul Sandle, Isla Binnie, Julie Zhu and Kane Wu, Sinead Cruise and Huw Jones, Edward Taylor, Matthew Stock, Josh Horwitz, Stephen Nellis, Kate Kelland and Julie Steenhuysen, Tom Miles, David Shepardson, Paul Lienert and Ben Klayman, Paresh Dave, Jayson Mansaray, Pascale Denis and Richard Lough, Sheila Dang, Jamie Freed, Paul Carsten and Alexis Akwagyiram, Emily G Roe IT & Support Jibin Thomas & Vinod Kumar Advertising & Sales Shameela Jabeen (advertise@britishherald.com) Digital Marketing Adnan Niroukh Published by; HERALD MEDIA NETWORK LIMITED Company Number – 11289223, Registered Address: 156 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW31HW, England. United kingdom, T +44 20 8123 7074, M mail@britishherald.com W www.britishherald.com ©2019 Herald Media Network Limited. © 2019 BRITISH HERALD, as to material published in the U.K., All Rights Reversed. ©2019 Herald Media Network Limited, as to material., British Herald e-Magazine is published bi-monthly. Copying for other than personal use or Internal reference or of articles or columns not owned by BRITISH HERALD without written permission of Herald Media Network Limited is expressly prohibited.

Views and opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Herald Media Network Limited, Its publisher and/or editor. We (at Herald Media Network Limited) do Our best to verify the information published, but do not take any responsibility for the absolute accuracy of the information. Herald Media Network Limited does not accept responsibility for any investment or other decision taken by readers on the basis of information provided herein. British Herald ® is published under a license Agreement with Herald Media Network Limited, 156 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW31HW, England. ‘’BRITISH HERALD’’ is a trademark used under license From Herald Media Network Limited.

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JACK MA 55 Retired

COVER STORY

BRITISH HERALD

JACK MA 6

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55

RETIRED “I think there are a lot of things that I can learn from Bill Gates. I can never be as rich as him, but there is one thing that I can do better, that is, I can retire early... I can now do many things- unique and innovative in the field of education.”

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L

aying the foundation of his retirement on his 55th birthday, Jack Ma, a Chinese techmogul who co-founded the e-commerce retail company, Alibaba – which primarily was a B2B company but later on expanded into B2C and C2C service through many of its subsidiaries. It was recorded that Alibaba is China's largest integrated international online wholesale marketplace. It is ranked among the top 10 most valuable companies in the world by the Global 2000 list and enjoys the 9th highest global brand value.

An English teacher with a tech vision.

Jack Ma, born as Ma Yun, was from a lower-middle-class family, but his zeal was high. At the time when Ma was growing up, China, a communist country remained isolated from the west. With the visit from the then US President Richard Nixon to his home-town Hangzhou, it became a booming tourist destination. Ma, a visionary from a very young age, started tapping on this newly found opportunity. He would serve as a tourist guide in exchange for English lessons from them.

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JACK MA

COVER STORY

BRITISH HERALD

JACK MA 55 Retired

Without money or connections, the only way Ma could get ahead was through education. After high school, he applied to go to college -- but failed the entrance exam twice.

With a continued effort, he finally passed on his third attempt, going on to attend Hangzhou Teachers Institute.

He graduated in 1988 and started applying to as many jobs as he could. He received more than a dozen rejections -- including from KFC -- before being hired as an English teacher at a very nominal salary.

The year 1994 was the time when Ma first learned about the internet and henceforth his love-interest grew. Being efficient in translation, he founded the Hangzhou Haibo Translation Agency which offered translation and interpretation services.

He went to the US with the aid of a few friends who helped him in the new venture. At that time in the US, the internet market was booming with e-commerce platforms like eBay and Walmart. Ma was enthralled by the power of the internet but was disappointed as well when his first web-search for ‘beer’ gave results to none of the Chinese brands.

Determined, he launched a website and soon he received many inquiries from Chinese investors. He was amazed by the internet's potential and in 1995, along with his friend, registered a website- chinapages. com which turned into a profitable endeavour within three years of its creation.

His success empowered him to create a website for Chinese companies.

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COVER STORY

Jack Ma with co-founders of Alibaba in 1998.

For a year, he worked for the China International Electronic Commerce Center (CIECC), a department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation in China as a head but subsequently he resigned and by April 1999, he along with his seventeen friends launched Alibaba- a Chinabased online marketplace ideally for small-medium B2B trade.

Determined to put China in the virtual world from then on, there was no turning back. With the networks that he made during his tenure in CIECC, he managed to grab the US $25 million from Goldman Sachs and Japan's SoftBank. With this sum, Alibaba went on to improve the web-aesthetics and further aid more and more small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to use this Chinese e-commerce platform to enhance China's export to the globe. By the end of the year 2000, Alibaba was under severe jeopardy due to its aggressive expansion undertaken

in reaching out to the international markets too soon. Realizing its mistakes, Alibaba closed down many worldwide branches that weren’t needed, limiting their scope to a much narrow vision. Now the company's one big aim was to strengthen Alibaba in the Chinese market. Once this dream was fulfilled, the company could spread its wings again into the market worldwide.

The beginning of the 21st century saw the emerging of a wide range of start-ups, in a move to expand its reach.

This proved to be beneficial to the company. Though they were not earning much, they found that customers were eager to pay more to appear higher on Alibaba’s search results. Hence they launched paid services which allowed exporters to build a premium storefront on Alibaba's international sites. To promote this they went on roadshows. Soon this gained momentum and they were successful in pursuing Chinese firms

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to launch their businesses online.

“You’ve to make consumers smart. An e-commerce portal doesn’t sell a product at cheaper rates, instead, an offline shop sells it at costlier prices.” Drawing comparison between America and China, Ma said, “If eBay is sharks in the Ocean, We (Alibaba and Taobao) are crocodiles in the Yangtze River. If we fight in

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Early Alibaba team

the ocean we will lose. But if we fight in the river, we will win."

A free way to do business One of the biggest reason for Taobao’s success was it's initial service to users which was free. eBay could not match up with this scheme because there was too much pressure on them from their American investors who wanted quick capitalization on their investments.

Taobao appealed to a new and younger generation of China which eBay refused to acknowledge. Taobao featured live chat and encouraged to make friends online and build community.

Its approach of innovative human touch website generated a feeling of optimism and directly made an impact on the youth that eBay failed to appreciate.

This resulted in building trust and online shoppers joined Taobao very quickly in comparison to eBay. In 2005, Yahoo invested $1 billion in Alibaba in exchange

for about a 40% stake in the company. This was huge for Alibaba -- at the time it was trying to beat eBay in China-and it would eventually be an enormous win for Yahoo too, netting in $10 billion in Alibaba's IPO alone. The move was designed to catch-up with eBay. Alibaba eventually took over Yahoo!

China operations. Alibaba now vouched to beat Google in China.

Lacking experience, expertise and clear vision, Alibaba failed to put Yahoo! among the top search engines in the Chinese market like Google and Haidu (local search engine). There were many strategic mistakes like the Yahoo! China's employees feared that they were being taken over by a local company which created an environment of animosity at the workplace. They lacked the expertise to beat the search engine giants and create brand loyalty towards Yahoo!

But concerning Alibaba, funding from Yahoo! allowed Taobao to invest

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In 2003, Alibaba launched its e-commerce subsidiary Taobao, Alimama, Aliexpress and Tmall. Along the line was the American giant eBay tapping on the Chinese market. Ma was determined not to succumb under another failure hence Alibaba propositioned an offer which was too hard to ignore. Alibaba rejected eBay's buyout of its new subsidiary. While eBay charged a considerable commission for every product listing, Taobao offered the enterprises free listing and zero commission for the first three years.

Though this put pressure on the company, yet Ma's vision was unwavering. He looked at eBay as Alibaba's foreign competitor and was determined not to let it gain a foothold in China. With the trust of many smallmedium sized enterprises already associated with Alibaba, his vision of free service was quick to gather B2B loyalty. Taobao only charged for few value-added services like setting up the webpages and though it ran at a huge loss initially, it was successful in the longer run. Alibaba's subsidiary performed efficiently and eBay eventually had to close down its China's endeavour.

BRITISH HERALD

COVER STORY

2019 Ali Day (Jack Ma)

in national advertisements.

Soon it surpassed eBay. Hence to develop China's e-commerce, Taobao was made free for an additional three years. This adversely affected eBay. eBay claimed that free is not a business model. And they campaigned against it vigorously. But Ma's business model had always been to creating values rather than making money and it soon happened the way he had anticipated. He was determined to not let eBay's American vision of just taking control over the Chinese marketplace affect the Alibaba's Chinese vision of creating values. Finally, eBay did scrap its membership fee but it was too late a step. In 2006, eBay eventually shut

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down its Chinese website.

And it was like winning a war for Jack Ma.

IPO fever over Alibaba In 2010, Alibaba made a debut at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange where it raised $22.1 billion. Then on, on September 18, 2014, it went public at the New York Stock Exchange where it opened at a whopping $21.8 billion. Four days later, underwriters exercised an option to sell more shares, bringing the total IPO to US$25 billion. They had exercised an option to purchase additional shares at the US$68 IPO price, which boosted its shares. Bankers

bought an additional 48 million American depositary shares, taking the total amount of shares sold in the offering to 368 million, or about 14.9% of the company.

Alibaba claimed the record of the largest US-listed initial public offering, and eventually, its IPO became the biggest, breaking the world record. It's investor, Yahoo! too benefited from its US$1 billion investment where Yahoo likely made US$8.3 billion in Alibaba's IPO. One can amount Alibaba's IPO success with such successful NYSE debut to the fact that Alibaba dominated the China market at that time. Of its subsidiary includes e-commerce websites like Alipay, Aliexpress, Taobao, Tmall

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BRITISH HERALD among many others. It has expanded into every sphere of the business hence US investors who were likely to tap on the Chinese market through Alibaba roved their bet to be favourable.

Subsidiaries & Investment One of the many famous talks by the Chinese Guru was his core philosophy.

Having started literally from nothing to now owning practically everything is what has kept Alibaba alive and aided Alibaba to where it is now. "Our philosophy is that we want to be an ecosystem. Our philosophy is to empower others to sell, empower others to service, making sure that other people are more powerful than us. With our technology, our innovation, our partners - 10 million small business sellers - we can compete with Microsoft and IBM." From the very beginning, Ma believed in empowering small business which will hence nurture other small businesses, and together these small businesses would themselves grow into trade with national and international companies which eventually made Alibaba a successful startup. And this is why Ma made it possible to own multiple ventures in and out of China.

Ever since Alibaba, Ma and partners were successful in investing and building many companies. Alibaba has spread its wings to many verticals ranging from health care, media and entertainment to online payment and of course e-commerce websites.

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COVER STORY Of the many successful subsidiaries are:

Taobao: Launched in 2003, as eBay's competitor, Taobao Marketplace offered a variety of products for retail sale.

Taobao grew to become China's largest C2C online shopping platform and later became the second most visited website in China. Taobao's growth was attributed to offering free registration of up to three years and commissionfree transactions using a free third-party payment platform, Alipay. It is reported that between 2011 and 2013, the number of stores on Taobao with annual sales under 짜100 thousand increased by 60%; the number of stores with sales between 짜10 thousand and 짜1 million increased by 30%, and the number of stores with sales over 짜1 million increased by 33%.

In 2008, Taobao introduced a newly dedicated B2C platform called Taobao Mall to complement its C2C marketplace, pioneering as a premium destination for branded goods to the national consumers. 2010 saw the launch of eTao, an independent search engine for online shopping, providing product and merchant information from several major consumer e-commerce websites in China. It served as a platform to compare prices from different sellers and identify products to the buyers.

Adding a feather to its cap,

a Taobao Mall brick and mortar store was opened to complement its online business in 2011. By 2011, it became an independent business and changed its Chinese name to Tian Mao (Tmall).

Eventually, Taobao became China's largest e-commerce website with a consumer focus.

To meet the restructuring phase, Taobao split into three different companies: Taobao Marketplace (a C2C platform), Tmall.com (a B2C platform; then called Taobao Mall), and eTao (a search engine for online shopping).

AliPay: "People said it's the stupidest idea of having something like AliPay but I believed in it; I said it's very essential to aid the e-commerce website.

Sometimes the stupidest idea turns out to be the best." said Ma. Founded in 2003, AliPay is a mobile and online payment platform. It is the world's number one mobile payment service organization and the second-largest payment service organization in the world. Alipay claims it operates with more than 65 financial institutions including Visa and MasterCard to provide payment services for Taobao and Tmall and thousands of online and local Chinese businesses. Alipay overtook PayPal as the world's largest mobile payment platform in 2013. Globally, more than 300 worldwide merchants use Alipay to sell directly to consumers in China and

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COVER STORY

2018 The Computing Conference

support transactions in 18 major foreign currencies.

AliExpress: Of the many innovations by the Chinese giant, 2010 saw another online retail platform that is AliExpress. It is an amalgamation of many small businesses located in China and nearby countries like Hong Kong who offer products to international buyers. It started as a B2B selling and buying portal and later on expanded into C2C, cloud computing among

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various services. It is the most visited e-commerce website in Russia and was the 10th most popular website in Brazil.

Though it is often linked to the likes of Amazon and eBay, Ma stating its business model said that AliExpress is different from Amazon because it acts only as an e-commerce platform, as the sellers are individuals or companies; the website offers a popular affiliate marketing program where partners are rewarded for sending visitors to the site with a commission on sales.

It just directly connects Chinese businesses with international buyers,

hence different from its predecessor like Taobao, and does not sell products directly to consumers.

Cainiao: Integrating six large Chinese logistics companies, Alibaba constructed Cainiao for delivery of packages in China in 2013. This platform served as a logistics data platform project. This network gradually grew to 14 local logistics companies in 2014. Taobao and Tmall, two of the world's largest and most popular online retail

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COVER STORY

manufactures, traders, as well as buyers together and makes the online business easier. The difference between 1688 and Alibaba is that the former is mainly for the domestic market and the latter is mainly for international business trade.

marketplaces, achieved a total transaction volume of 3 trillion yuan (US$478.6 billion). The website supports more than 580 million monthly active users.

Alibaba is aggressive about its overseas expansion and has invested US$100 billion yuan in over five years to build the most efficient logistics network in China and around the world. The Cainiao Network aims to deliver any consumer order with 24 hours in China and within 72 hours anywhere in the world.

1688.com: Similar to Alibaba, 1688.com is a B2B website in Chinese for wholesale and drop shipping. It gets

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Alimama: It is Alibaba Group’s monetization platform. Using data technology, Alimama matches the marketing demands of merchants, brands and retailers with the media resources on Alibaba’s platforms and third-party properties, and enables Alibaba to monetize its core commerce and digital media and entertainment businesses.

Alimama also has an affiliate marketing program that places marketing displays on third-party apps and websites, thereby enabling marketers, if they so choose, to extend their marketing and promotional reach to properties and users beyond Alibaba’s platforms.

Lazada: Alibaba acquired Lazada, a Singaporean e-commerce company in 2016. It was founded by Rocket Internet in 2011.

Lazada operates sites in six Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia,

Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The sites were launched with a business model of selling inventory to customers from its warehouses. In 2013 it added a marketplace model that allowed third-party retailers to sell their products through Lazada's site.

South China Morning Post: One of the major buyouts for Alibaba Group has undoubtedly been South China Morning Post, a 1903 Hong Kong-based, Englishlanguage newspaper, in December 2015 for about US$266 million as part of its plan to grow its media and entertainment business.

"Asia is changing, and China is changing. 'Post' will have great opportunities. With its access to Alibaba's resources, data, and all the relationships in our ecosystem, the 'Post' can report on Asia and China more accurately compared to other media that have no such access. If the 'Post' can play the role of a connector between the West and the East, I have confidence in the paper's future success, he stated Jack Ma assured the editorial independence and asserted, "What a publication can do is to help people get a clearer picture without jumping to any rash conclusions. I'm very happy that the 'Post' can take the responsibility to report on China more broadly and deeply. I believe the 'Post' must be fair to our readers. We should let our readers see China

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COVER STORY

2018 The Computing Conference (Jack Ma)

from different angles and perspectives."

Alitrip: Foraying into the travel sector, Alitrip, now named Fliggy, an online travel platform that is designed as an online mall for brands such as airline companies and agencies.

Fliggy set the target audience as the younger generation and it strives to become a one-stop service when they plan their trips,

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particularly in overseas travel.

AutoNavi: Alibaba Group acquired AutoNavi, a Chinese map, and navigation company, in 2014.

Alibaba Cloud: Alibaba launched Alibaba Cloud in September 2009 at their 10th anniversary, aiming to build a cloud

computing service platform, including e-commerce data mining, e-commerce data processing, and data customization. Alibaba Cloud is the largest highend cloud computing company in China. Alibaba Cloud offers a complete suite of cloud services, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large scale computing, security, management and application services, big data analytics, a machine learning platform, and IoT services.

In 2009, Alibaba acquired Hi China, the largest

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BRITISH HERALD domain registration service and web hosting service company in China, and built it into Alibaba Cloud.

It is Asia Pacific’s largest Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Infrastructure Utility Services (IUS) provider by revenue, according to Gartner. Alibaba Cloud is also China’s largest provider of public cloud services, including PaaS and IaaS services, according to IDC.

Alibaba Pictures Groups: Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd. was renamed from China Vision Media after Alibaba Group bought a 60% stake for US$804 million in 2014.

The two firms announced they would establish a strategic committee for potential future opportunities in online entertainment and other media areas and launched Alimusic. The entertainment company has been the largest Chinese movie company since 2015.

Alibaba created a new live entertainment business unit under its entertainment group which focuses on ticketing, content creation and live experiences, bringing its entertainment ticketing platform Damai and it's content creation and technology units MaiLive and Maizuo under one roof. It aims to provide a platform for live events (e.g. concerts, plays, eSports and sports events), as well as supporting content partners and leveraging Alibaba's

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COVER STORY data capability for offline shows.

Alibaba also has its own instant messaging service, Laiwang founded in 2013.

In April 2014, Alibaba Group and UC Web, a Chinese provider of mobile internet software technology and services, launched Shenma, a mobile-only search engine, as part of a joint venture.

Later in June, the Alibaba Group acquired UC Web, with an international product portfolio that includes a mobile browsing service (UC Browser), app and game distribution platforms (9Apps and 9Game), a mobile traffic platform (UC Union) and UC News that primarily caters to all types of news in the India market.

“If you want to grow, find a good opportunity if you want to be a great company, think about what social problem you could solve.” ― Jack Ma It is but natural for Alibaba to tap into its social media platform owing to its e-commerce presence.

It hence acquired an 18% stake in Weibo, China's social media, with over 129 million monthly active users. Another investment is Alibaba tapping on the growing demand for the online streaming platform, a US styled Youtube, Youku Tudou for a US$1.22 billion.

"It doesn't matter if I failed.

At least I passed the concept on to others. Even if I don't succeed, someone will succeed." It is this outlook towards life that Jack Ma is and has been successful in almost every sphere of business.

Alibaba VS Amazon VS eBay A cited pioneer in their respective nation, Amazon,

eBay & Alibaba is the e-commerce giants of the world though there is a thin line of a differing business model that differentiates the three from each other.

"Alibaba spends money on improving the products and services, not on kickbacks.

That's a good thing. It's called a value system, and because of that, we get more and more small-medium sized companies to support us in China." - Jack Ma Alibaba does not engage in direct sales, compete with our merchants or hold inventory. Its revenue generation is by charging fees which are determined by the number of units sold in its retail centres and the number of paying members in its wholesale centres, secondly from the fees generated from its digital marketing; thirdly commissions from its Alipay transactions, and a fixed membership fees from its storefronts. Alibaba acts as a middleman for buyers and sellers and facilitates business through its extensive network.

Amazon sells products directly while also serving as an intermediary for other sellers, generating a commission at every sale.

Amazon also maintains a subscription-based business model through its Amazon Prime service, as well as a small electronics product line. Under a Prime account, customers pay an annual fee to secure free twoday or same-day shipping on eligible items and have access to streaming media, such as digital music or movies. Amazon's competitive logistic is good

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when compared to the rest.

It's relatively new. Amazon content creator platform provides an online platform for independent authors and publishers of books, music and films. It also generates revenue from selling its e-reader, the Kindle, and the e-book and mobile application purchases offered to Kindle owners.

The difference between Amazon and us is Amazon is more like an empire everything they control themselves, buy and sell.

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COVER STORY

Our philosophy is, using internet technology, we can make every company become Amazon. - Jack Ma eBay’s unique selling proposition is to connect willing buyers and sellers and make transactions possible using either a traditional price-setting structure or an auction-type format, where individual users and merchants sell goods to consumers. It also generates from its third party payment gateway, PayPal.

Jack Ma's take on Globalization Jack Ma says globalization cannot be stopped and if trade stops then war will follow. To dissolve problems we need to embrace globalization and it is our responsibility and opportunity to improve it. “Global trade should be simple, inclusive and modernized. The next generation of globalization should be inclusive of young people as the first wave was controlled by the big sharks” he added.

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BRITISH HERALD

FEATURE

Ajmer Sharif Dargah - The Abode of Cultural Tranquility

The Mysticism of Sufism:

S

ufi Islam is the essence of Islam.

Known as ‘Tasawwuf’ in the Arabic-speaking world, Sufism is a form of Islamic mysticism that emphasizes introspection and spiritual closeness with the God. Sufism/Tasawwuf is embodiment of the blessed life and noble ways of ‘The Holy Messenger Allah’. It is actually a broader style of worship that transcends sects, directing followers’ attention inward. Sufi practice focuses on the

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renunciation of worldly things, purification of the soul and the mystical contemplation of God’s nature. Followers try to get closer to God by seeking spiritual learning known as ‘Tariqa’. As Sufism spread, it adapted elements of local culture and belief, making it a popular practice. Sufism’s popular appeal ultimately helped Islam spread across Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Indian Sub-Continent, Europe as well as all seven continents. Today, many well-known Sufi orders – such as the Chishty's, Qadiris, Suharwardi's,

Naqshbandis, Tijani's, Muridiya's, Mevlavie's along with numerous others, enjoy a substantial global following.

Chishty Sufi Order was established in Indian SubContinent by Hazret Khawaja Moinudeen Hasan Chishty who spoke and taught about Sufism/Tasawwuf as the message of universal Love, Peace and Brotherhood in accordance with Islamic principles and reflecting on the way of non-compulsion in the true spirit of the Holy Quran. The central concern of the Sufis, as of every Muslim, is "Tawhid", the

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FEATURE

witness that “there is no deity but Allah. Sufism, in its humble manifestation is a sublime way based upon Islamic Spirituality and its deep practices emphasizes the inward search for Allah and shuns materialism as well as restrict individuals from engaging in blind materialistic pursuits of the world, that emphasizes introspection and spiritual closeness with Allah.

Sufism in Popular Culture Sufism has shaped literature and art for centuries, and is associated with many of the most resonant pieces of Islam’s “golden age,” lasting from roughly the 8th through 13th centuries, including the poetry of Faridudeen Attar, Hafiz Shirazi, Hz. Moulana Jalaludeen Rumi and Hz. Amir Khusraw Chishty along with many other notables Sufi Mystic's in later centuries.

By educating the masses and deepening the spiritual concerns of the Muslims, Sufism has played an important role in the formation of Muslim society.

With the formation of Sufi orders in later centuries, books about the behavior and ways of the Sufi in various times became important. Sufi vocabulary is important in Persian and other literatures related to it, such as Turkish, Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto and Punjabi.

Through the poetry of these literatures, mystical ideas spread widely among the Muslims. The greatest contribution of Sufism to Islamic literature, however, is Poetry—beginning with charming, short Arabic

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poems based on Divine Love "Ishq e Haqiqi" (sometimes recited for a Sufi spiritual gatherings - "Mehfil e Sama") that express the yearning of the soul for union with the Beloved "Maqam e Fana Fi Allah". Also, typical of Sufi poetry is the hymn in praise of Allah, expressed in chains of repetitions.

Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Chishty: It is said that the first message of humanity in India was sent by Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Chishty known as Gharib Nawaz. He spread

the message of Humanity, Universal Love, Peace and Brotherhood and chose the way of non-compulsion in the true spirit of the Holy Quran. He taught how humans should be treated and how untouchability needs to be abolished. He embraced the people and spoke of human rights. He said that in front of Allah, all are same. Besides being a great Sufi mystic, Khawaja Gharib Nawaz was an erudite scholar and poet. He also has a huge collection of poems in Persian. The light of his personality has dispelled darkness and has illuminated thousands of hearts throughout the world.

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He is not only respected, esteemed, honored, implored but in fact is the ‘Focus of Attention and a Center of Hope to myriads of people irrespective of caste, creed, religion and nationality.

Ajmer Dargah- A Spiritual Space for ‘All faiths’: A shrine of Sufi Saint, Moinuddin Chishty, Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan is popular as Dargah Sharif. Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishty is one of the most outstanding figures in the annals of Islamic Sufi mysticism. Ajmer Sharif is the centre of Islam in South Asia and the design of the tomb of Ajmer dargah is replicated across India. It is among the most popular places and a preferred pilgrimage destination. The Buland

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FEATURE

Darwaza, the Shahjahani Gate and the Nizam Gate, which is the main gate, speak of the associations of the Dargah with the era of royals. Celebration of Urs at Ajmer Sharif is the main attraction of the place. These ceremonies are attended by members of all creeds, communities without the distinction of rank, region or religion and thereby subscribe to the ideals of universal love that Khawaja Moinudeen Chishty had preached and practised in his life time. This creates a sense of unity in that thinking which tends to break social and religious barriers and paves the way for unique emotional as well as humanitarian integration. It is believed that everyone who visits the Dargah is blessed and their desires get fulfilled.

The most overwhelming sight is to see people from diverse religions bowing to the Almighty under one roof.

Devotees and pilgrims from all over the world converge at the Dargah Sharif in Ajmer Sharif to pay their respect.

Be it Muslims, Hindus or Sikhs, one get to experience universality here.

Chishty’s principle of ‘Love towards All’ is seen among the Muslims and non-Muslim South Asians who appreciate and also appropriate Chishty spiritual experience. The Chishty’s were spiritual adepts with a flexible creative humanitarian mission. Initially the Chishty message was directed to South Asia but has now become a diverse global phenomenon upon which many feel free to draw, whether within the framework of traditional South Asian Islam or beyond that framework. Through Ajmer Dargah, Chishty ethos will continue to resonate, whoever sings and whoever listens.

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FEATURE Countries, their culture, traditions and vice versa.

His study has enabled him to travel extensively and represent Ajmer Dargah Sharif globally.

Salman Chishty is the 26th Generation Gaddi-Nashin (Hereditary Custodians/ Key Holders) through his Chishty family, which has been engaged in serving at the globally famed, acknowledged and renowned center of Peace and Unity for the whole of Humanity. Since his early age, Syed Salman Chishty has been passionate about the World Sufi and Spiritual Traditions with special focus on Chishty Sufi Order. After the completion of his basic education from Ajmer Sharif, Chishty obtained Bachelor’s Degree in Economic and Commerce from Wilson College, University of Mumbai.

Salman ChishtyThe Legate of Multiculturalism and Co-Existence: Haji Syed Salman Chishty, belongs to the family of Gaddi Nashin Khadim Chishty Sufi Community serving at Ajmer Dargah Sharif - who are the hereditary custodian of the

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11th century Sufi Shrine of Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishty. His family has been serving at the Dargah Ajmer Sharif from last 800 years as the Keys of the blessed Sufi Shrine has been passed on among their family from generation to generations. He is also conducting his research in World Sufi Traditions and their impact on different

Syed Salman Chishty has been actively participating in various national and international platforms to promote and amplify the message of Unconditional Love and Human Service towards all. He has shared spaces with global spiritual leaders, carrying out interfaith talk and dialogues on various platforms to disregard the myth and association of Islam with Terrorism and Violent Extremism.

His passion and deep longing towards the mystic World of Sufi’s and Spiritual cultures of the world has enabled him to travel across various Sufi destinations globally where he has been frequently invited to speak and participate in International Sufi and

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FEATURE Unconditional Love, Serve and Respect for the whole of Humanity across the world.

He has written articles on Islamic Spirituality, Sufism, Spiritual Understandings, Interfaith Dialogues, Counter Terrorism Initiatives CVE's , Spiritual Ethics of the Chishty Sufi Order and related subjects for various English national and international newspapers, journals, publications, blogs and websites globally.

Inter Social Conferences on Spirituality, Interfaith Dialogues at World’s top University Conferences such as Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University’s annual Student Events as well as Interactive Sessions on Campus. He has also conducted Workshops on Chishty Spiritual Understandings with special focus on Khidmat e Khalq (Service towards Humanity) and great Indian Spiritual teachings in the light of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (World is One Family).

Salman Chishty has spread the Importance of Sufi Musical renditions in Chishty Sufi Order, Sufi Arts, Sufi Poetry, Sufi Literature and represented Ajmer Sharif - India along with

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the Chishty Sufi Order teachings in countries as diverse as Al Hijaz – Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Senegal, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore, United States of America, United Kingdom, Greece, Bosnia Herzegovina, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, etc.

He has been heading the Chishty Foundation– Ajmer Sharif as the Managing Trustee and Chairman from last nine years of which he is also the Founding Member.

He has been traveling extensively with a focus on the blessed cause of Unity,

With a special talent, insight and deep interest in Sacred Sufi Photography, He developed his special artistic line of Sufi Musafir Photography works captured through the eyes of his Sufi Heart during journeys across Global Destinations which is now being regularly featured and exhibited across various Galleries, Studios, Photography Events, Exhibitions which he describes and shares as virtual essays as well as Sufi notes on "Spiritual moments in Human Life". Through this he attempts to share some of the most intense moments of life, One’s selfawakening, feelings of fellow Humans Being Human, which leads to the Divine Realizations of the Ultimate Truth - AL HAQ. He has been constantly engaged in sharing the blessed Sufi teachings of great Sufi Grand Masters, Teachers with the likes of Hz.Khawaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishty(ra) and Hz.Mevelana Rumi(ra) as well as other great Sufi Spiritual Masters teachers from last 1400 years through The Islamic Art of Calligraphy, Islamic Architectural Sacred Designs patters, Islamic Sacred Monuments

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BRITISH HERALD Photography, Sufi Poetry Culture and Sufi musical renderings which unites all of Humanity in Oneness towards the Feelings of Truth and Divine Reality.

Main attractions of Dargah: Some of the main attractions of Ajmer Dargah include:

• Gumbad Mubarak (The Dome)- The ceiling of the dome is covered by a costly velvet chatgiri. The devotees are led into this space to offer flowers and prayers over the tomb. A peculiar kind of fascinating aroma prevails in the shrine which inspires the visitors with a spontaneous and irresistible urge for devotion and homage towards the revered saint.

• Begami DalaanOverhanging the principal eastern to the Shrine or Mausoleum, there is a handsome porch known as the Begami Dalaan. The tomb is of white marble inlaid with pieces of precious stones and is daily bestrewed with sandal-paste and Itars (perfumes). It is always covered with very costly ‘Ghilaafs’ (coverings made of velvet and silk) embroidered with pleasing

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FEATURE gold and silver tracings.

• Mazar of Moinuddin Chishty- The grave of Moinuddin Chishty has been converted into a tomb with glittering dome all over it.

This is the main attraction of the Dargah where people offer Chaadar.

• Mehfil Khana- Another most important place at the Dargah, This magnificent building for Mehfil and Sama, is called as the Mehfil Khana Grand Auditorium. It is used for six days only during the annual Urs for religious ‘Mahfils’ in which Qawwali is performed.

• Victoria Tank- In memory of Queen Mary’s visit to the Shrine, the roof of the tank was constructed by the British Government for the convenience of the people to perform ablution.

A Place where Culture and Tradition bind: Dargah Sharif or Ajmer Sharif is one of the most sanctified shrines in the country. Located in the heart of Ajmer, this Dargah is venerated by both Muslims and Hindus. Fifteen minutes before the evening

prayers, as a part of the daily ritual, the Dargah workers place candles inside lamps and recite Persian verses accompanied by rhythmic drumbeats in the background. After the recital of the verses, lamps are placed in four corners of the tomb and lit. This ritual is known as ‘Roshnee’ (lighting ceremony). Every day, after namaaz is offered, “qawwalis” praising Allah are sung by devotional singers inside Ajmer Sharif’s hall, Mehfil-eSama.

Many people including famous personalities offer Chaadar to the Prophet.

Britain’s Queen Mary used to offer the chaadar at Ajmer Dargah. She made a place for ablutions and till this day it is called as the 'British Monument' inside the Dargah. After Independence, whoever has been the Prime Minister of the country has sent a 'chaadar' to commemorate the same.

This is not restricted to the Indian Prime Minister alone; the rulers of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have also sent across 'chaadars' to the shrine regularly.

The offering of blanket is linked with Garib Nawaz. It was in 12th century when

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FEATURE as ''Huzoor Ka Salaam'' (greetings of the Prophet).

Even in Hindu culture, a female child is considered ''Ghar Ki Laxmi''. Then how can there be discrimination," Salman Chishty brows over the much debated question.

Khwaja Garib Nawaz went ‘behind the curtain’ (as passing away is referred to in Sufi tradition). This practice has been going on for the last 805 years, after it was started by Sultan Altamash, his disciple who has also constructed the dome at Ajmer Dargah. The practice is basically to cover the saint's grave with respect. It is said that those who send the 'chaadar', their wishes are fulfilled by Allah.

Till date, they have received Chaadars from personages such as PM Narendra Modi, Former PM A.B. Vajpayee and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Even former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, sent a 'chaadar' to Ajmer in 2013. He was the first US president to send a blanket to the holy shrine.

The Hymn of PraiseBhadawa is sung at the main entrance of the Shrine by Shahi Qawwals which literally means a

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poem or verses in praise of Allah, His Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) or famous Sufis (Auliyas). Bhadawa is the only recitation which is accompanied by talis (clapping) only, and no other instrument is played. It was composed by Khawaja Behlol Chishty, one of the ancestor of Gaddi Nashin Khadims.

Joining hands towards betterment of the country: Ajmer Dargah conducts many inspirational drives for the betterment of the nation. Save Girl Child- The globally-revered Ajmer Dargah in Rajasthan has recently decided to join a Pune Gynecologist Dr. Ganesh Rakh’s eight-year old ''Save Girl Child'' initiative and together they will strive to make it an international movement. "In Islam, the birth of a girl child is treated

The move comes after the ''Save Girl Child'' proponent, Dr. Ganesh had an audience with Ajmer Dargah''s Haji Syed Salman Chishty.

Extending support to this initiative, Ajmer Dargah will make banners, posters, short films and video-clips for social media and urge Imams in mosques to incorporate and preach in their Friday prayer sermons to the common masses the importance of saving the girl child.

Spreading wings through Education- The Akbar Mosque inside Ajmer Sharif was built by the emperor as a token of his gratitude following the birth of his son, Jahangir. Today, it is home to a Quranic educational institution that offers religious education to children.

Ajmer Dargah converting into a Swacch Iconic Place- The surroundings of the Dargah Sharif is very much clean and green as the volunteers and paid servicemen work round the clock. As part of the SIP, the focus is to have First Circle of Lanes surrounding the Dargah Ajmer Sharif and name it as ‘Circle of Unconditional Love’.

Swacch Iconic Places (SIP), under the Swacch Bharat Mission (SBM), is a special clean up initiative focussed on 100 select iconic heritages, spiritual places in the country under the multi-stakeholder approach

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FEATURE linking to all creation.

model. The campaign was initiated in 2016 with ten Swacch iconic places in India. Hindustan Zinc has joined hands with Government of India, to convert Dargah Ajmer Sharif into a Swacch Iconic Place.

Under the initiative, Hindustan Zinc will execute the project in three phases. In the first phase, the company will set up two flower compost making machines, cleaning and basic repair of the Jhahalra, re-flooring in select areas including laying underground pipes for electrical and water supply, procurement of machines for cleaning the floors, risk management system plan, providing drawings for conservation of the Nizam Gate and undertaking conservation of Shahjahani Gate.

Cultural beliefs transcending over Religion: Badi Deg- The notion of giving, especially giving and helping those in need, is so entrenched in Islam.

Giving awakens our souls and triggers genuine concern for the well-being of others. Priority is given to feeding the poor and the needy, and that is one of the best acts in Islam. One of the beliefs in Sufism is that, food provides a way of sharing in the greatest of divine blessings by creating unity among people and

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Inside the courtyard of Ajmer Dargah Sharif, there are two massive Degs (cauldrons for cooking food) on either side of the Sahan Chiragh (courtyard lamp) fixed into solid masonry in which a palatable mixture of rice sugar, ghee (butter) and dried fruits is cooked for distribution to the public as ‘Tabarruk’. The circumference at the edge of the larger cauldron is 10-1/4 feet. It cooks 3000 kg of vegetarian Sweet Rice, while the smaller Deg can cook upto 1500 kg of veg Sweet Rice langar food. Khidamt e Khalq" service towards Humanity happen which still continues even after also 450 years. It is the offering of the blessed Veg Sweet Rice Langar food services being cooked in the same Big Deg cauldron cooking pot which was offered by Emperor Akbar in 1567 A.D. About 20 traditional cooks – Bawarchis – from four families have the responsibility of making this sumptuous meal. For the last 800 years, the langars at the Dargah have served only vegetarian food. It is done because no non-Muslim must feel that he or she cannot eat at the Khwaja’s langar.

At moulid, Sheb e Urs festivals, Special Nights of Prayers, weekly or monthly Zikr Gatherings, feeding stations are set up to offer food and water to all within and outside passers-by too. The belief is that no one goes empty-handed from this Sanctorum.

At Dargah, everyone is welcome and no one is questioned upon one’s identity and religion. This place is the biggest example of secularism in India.

Home to Diverse Devotional Expressions: Ajmer Dargah stands as a perfect example of how religion, food, music and tradition has been blended into a heterogeneous Indian Culture. Being a Muslim sacred Space, Indians of all faiths feel culturally connected to the traditions of Dargah. The Sufi Dargah's across India are open for all especially for women to come and pray, meditate, engage in Zikr and be part of Qawwali gatherings.

Chishty’s principle of Love towards all is very much evident from the devotees of all caste and creed who throng the Sufi Shrine. Ajmer Dargah is definitely a place brimming with pure unconditional love and celebration of joy, love and happiness.

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AVIATION

Ethiopian Airlines to launch it's first direct Service from Bangalore to Africa

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thiopian Airlines, the Largest Aviation Group in Africa and SKYTRAX Certified Four Star Global Airline, is pleased to announce that it will start passenger flights to Bengaluru, Capital of India’s southern Karnataka state, as of 27th October 2019.

The center of India’s hightech industry, also known for its parks and nightlife.

It is home for more than 200 high tech companies and more than 200 Biotech companies, making it largest

biotechnology cluster in India.

Mr. Tadesse Tilahun, Regional Director Indian Subcontinent commented “We are thrilled to launch Bengaluru operations as part of our strategic plan to expand in India. We are one of the first entrants to serve Indian market, having 48 years of continuous operation out of Mumbai.

Yet again, we are glad to be the first airline to give direct connection from South

India to Africa.” He added “We have witnessed robust growth of traffic from South India to Africa and rest of the world. Our first direct flight from Bangalore to Africa will give seamless connection to our esteemed customers to/from Africa and our entire vast network” Currently, Ethiopian Airlines operates twice daily passenger flights to Bombay and Delhi as well as cargo service to Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi.

The four weekly direct flights will be as per the below schedule:

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AVIATION

Qatar Airways has full confidence in Cathay Pacific, eyes bigger stake makes that difficult.

Analysts have said Air China could look to increase its stake in Cathay in the future as China tightens its grip over the former British colony.

"We as an airline are very supportive of the relationship between Air China and Cathay Pacific," al-Baker told Reuters on the sidelines of the function.

Qatar Airways has full confidence in Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd and will increase its 10% stake in the Hong Kong carrier if it has any opportunity to do so, the Qatari airline's chief executive said.

Cathay has become the biggest corporate casualty of political unrest in Hong Kong after China demanded it suspend staff involved in, or who support, antigovernment demonstrations.

to the Malaysian island of Langkawi from October.

The Hong Kong airline's other major shareholders are Swire Pacific Ltd, which has a 45% stake and management rights, and Air China Ltd, with 30%.

Qatar bought its stake in 2017 and has previously expressed interest in increasing it, although it has said the tight share register

Qatar Airways is also an investor in British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group and LATAM Airlines Group SA. Al-Baker, however, said his airline is not interested in buying Malaysia Airlines, at a time when sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd is considering offers for the national carrier.

Qatar Airways is also not interested in buying Air India in an upcoming government sales process, he said.

"Cathay Pacific is there to stay, and to expand and to serve the people of both Hong Kong and China, as Hong Kong is an integral part of mainland China," Qatar Airways' Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker said. "We have no concern about the brand, we have no concern on the viability of the airline."

He was speaking at a function to announce the launch of flights from Doha

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BUSINESS

Deutsche Post hikes parcel prices for more businesses

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eutsche Post DHL will hike parcel prices next year for business customers with individually agreed conditions due to rises in transport and labour costs, the German logistics group said.

The partly state-owned company hit business customers who pay list prices with higher rates earlier this year, helping it to lift guidance for full-year operating profit.

A spokeswoman said the latest price increase applied to customers that make at least 3,000 shipments a year. She declined to give precise details, noting prices were agreed individually with such customers.

Deutsche Post DHL announced in March it would invest an extra 150 million euros that (132.89 million pounds) a year in staff, automation and infrastructure as it seeks to keep pace with rising parcel volumes due to booming ecommerce.

The company said the price increase was also due to an expansion of road tolls on trucks, which it will pass on to these customers as a surcharge of 0.10 euros per parcel.

Finance Chief Melanie Kreis has said she is not concerned that price rises will drive away ecommerce giants like Zalando or Amazon noting that competitors face similar cost pressures due to a shortage of drivers.

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BUSINESS

French Connection posts smaller loss, sees company sale by year-end

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rench Connection said it expects the sale process of the British clothing retailer to be completed by the end of the year, and reported a smaller first-half operating loss on growth in its wholesale business in the United States.

French Connection, once known for its provocative FCUK brand of clothes and accessories, said its operating loss from continuing operations narrowed to 3.7 million pounds, compared with 5.5 million pounds a year ago, and added that it was

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on track to meet full-year expectations.

The company had earlier expected the strategic review and formal sale process to conclude during the first half of 2019, but later delayed the process by three months until Sept. 17.

"Discussions are still ongoing with a number of parties," the company said in a statement.

The retailer, whose brands include its namesake French Connection, Great Plains and YMC, has struggled to differentiate itself from rivals such as Inditex's Zara, which offers a greater variety of

clothes at cheaper prices.

The London-based company said it made good progress in its wholesale business in the United States with strong sales in department stores such as Bloomingdales and Nordstrom, but expects retail conditions to continue to be challenging.

French Connection, which was founded by Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Stephen Marks in 1972, said in October last year it had begun talks with four interested parties regarding a sale of the company after launching a review.

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BUSINESS

Total starts expanded ethylene capacity at South Korea plant

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rench energy group Total SA said it had started production at the expanded ethylene capacity at its plant in Daesan, South Korea, creating higher output to meet growing global petrochemical demand.

The site, owned by Hanwha Total Petrochemical, will produce 1.4 million tonnes of ethylene per year, representing an increase of 30% to its previous production capacity, Total said in a statement. Total and it's South Korean partner Hanwha has invested $450 million in the site.

"These investments and today's successful start-up of the first project reflect our strategy of meeting growing global demand for petrochemicals by channelling our investments into our world-class complexes and leveraging cost-advantaged feedstock,"

Bernard Pinatel, president of Total's Refining & Chemicals arm, said in the statement.

France to host pilot plant for FrancoGerman battery consortium

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rance will host a pilot plant to make electric car batteries, a French Finance Ministry source said, part of a pan-European project to rival Asia's dominance of the battery market.

France had committed 700 million euros and Germany would offer 1 billion euros toward a project that envisaged setting up plants in both nations in future, the source said of the plans. A minister said the plans would be announced.

The electric car battery project aims to repeat the success of Airbus, which began producing aircraft 50 years ago as a pan-European project with public support. However, efforts to mirror Airbus in other industries have proved more difficult.

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told lawmakers in parliament that the plans for battery industry would be announced when he meets his German counterpart Peter Altmaier in Paris, although he gave no details. "First there will be a pilot factory and then there will be factories in both countries," the Finance Ministry source said, adding that the pilot site would be in France.

France and Germany have asked the European Commission to approve state subsidies for a consortium including carmaker PSA, its German subsidiary Opel, and French battery maker Saft, as well

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as Siemens and Manz. The European Union allows state aid in certain conditions under its rules for Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI).

EU Energy Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager have signaled support for the battery cell initiative.

Germany is considering supporting a second European production consortium with preliminary agreements expected in the coming months. France and Germany also plan joint investment of public funds in data storage facilities to wean Europe away from foreign centers and spur artificial intelligence investment.

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BUSINESS

Airbnb plans stock market splash in 2020

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ome rental giant Airbnb said it plans to list its shares in 2020, making it one of the most high-profile names to tap the stock market next year.

In a short statement posted on its website, Airbnb did not give any details on how it plans to list its shares, although it is widely expected to take a directlisting route.

A direct listing to go public is a process in which no new shares are created and helps companies save millions of dollars in underwriting fees.

This year has marked the stock market debuts

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of several high-profile companies, including Uber and Lyft Inc, but their shares have fared poorly after the launch, amid investor skepticism over their path to profitability.

WeWork owner The We Company has also delayed its initial public offering, walking away from preparations to launch it this month after a lackluster response from investors.

Market experts though have said Airbnb might receive a warmer reception from investors when it debuts, considering that its financials looked more stable than recent internet unicorns that have gone public.

different reception for Airbnb, assuming that they can show they're a profitable business without having to lose money on marketing," said Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital, a provider of institutional research and IPO ETFs. Airbnb has not given any details on whether it was profitable in the second quarter of 2019 but has previously said that its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization were positive for 2017 and 2018.

The company said it raked in more than $1 billion in revenue for the second quarter.

"I think it'll be a whole

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BUSINESS

Pernod launches share buyback, new investments in U.S., China

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rench spirits maker Pernod Ricard, which is being targeted by activist investor Elliott, unveiled a share buyback programme and new investments in China and the United States as it posted profit growth that beat forecasts.

Pernod, the world's secondbiggest spirits group behind Diageo, handed investors a 32% dividend hike and unveiled plans to buy back up to 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in shares, sending its shares up 3% to record highs. It also appointed two new independent board members.

In the United States - its largest market where it now makes 18% of sales - Pernod further strengthened its bourbon whisky portfolio with the $223 million acquisition of Castle Brands.

Pernod Ricard is under pressure from U.S. hedge fund Elliott, which has a 2.5% stake, to improve profit margins and corporate governance.

For the year ahead, Pernod Ricard struck a cautious note, citing a "particularly uncertain environment".

It predicted a "soft" first quarter due to unfavourable comparisons in Asia, but it also forecast a dynamic start in the United States after a flat performance so far this year.

Finance chief Helene de Tissot cited fears of a no-deal Brexit, and trade disputes between China and the United States and U.S. threats of tarriffs on Europe

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are being prudent, rather than this being a signal of weaker underlying trends.

In particular, we note that guidance for F19 also started at between 5%-7%", wrote brokerage Bernstein.

In February, Pernod vowed to lift its margins and shareholder returns under a three-year strategic plan that Elliott has described as a first small step.. Elliot representatives said on Thursday they had no immediate comments to make on Pernod's latest announcements.

Pernod reported a profit margin gain of 74 basis points, which was above its forecast for a 50 basis points rise, and organic group sales growth of 6% in full year 2018/19.

as negative factors.

"This could have an impact on us and we are closely monitoring the situation," she said.

Forecast-Topping Profit Growth Pernod reported profit from recurring operations rose 8.7% to 2.58 billion euros for the fiscal year ended June 30. That was ahead of its own forecast of 8% profit growth and an acceleration from 6.3% growth in the 2017/18 financial year.

The company forecast underlying profit growth from recurring operations of 5-7% for the year ending June 30, 2020.

Pernod shares rose around 3% to 171.55 euros, as analysts welcomed the company's latest set of figures and share buyback, in spite of Pernod's slightly cautious outlook.

"We suspect management

This came as higher sales in China, driven by Martell cognac, and in India thanks to Seagram's Indian whiskies, offset a flat performance in the United States.

China is the group's largest market after the United States, accounting for around 10% of total group sales, and the company is banking on its growing middle-income earners and younger generation to further boost sales.

Pernod unveiled on Thursday plans for a 13-hectare malt whisky distillery site in Emeishan, Sichuan, which is due to begin production in 2021.

The distillery will have a Chinese master distiller to produce a malt whisky catering to local tastes.

In April, rival Diageo also unveiled a joint venture with Jiangsu Yanghe Distillery Co., the third-largest distiller of China's dominant Baijiu spirit, to launch a new whisky brand called Zhong Shi Ji.

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E-COMMERCE

Indian's top trader body seeks ban on Amazon, Flipkart's festive season sale

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leading Indian trader body asked the government to ban upcoming festive sales on Amazon's local unit and its rival Flipkart, saying their deep discounts violate the country's foreign investment rules for online retail.

in a letter to the federal trade minister.

The two e-commerce firms typically hold annual festive season sales ahead of key Hindu festivals Dussehra and Diwali, which are due this year in October, when Indians make big-ticket purchases such as cars and gold jewellery.

Its demand is unlikely to see government action before this year's sales kick-off, but it could help frame government policy on deep discounts.

Walmart-owned Flipkart's six-day sale begins Sept. 29, while Amazon is yet to announce dates.

Both e-retailers promise big discounts on everything from fashion to smartphones to home appliances and have previously said discounts and deals are offered by sellers on their platforms.

"By offering deep discounts ranging from 10% to 80% on their e-commerce portals, these companies are clearly influencing the prices and create an uneven level playing field which is in direct contravention of the policy," the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said

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CAIT, which represents 500,000 merchants and traders in India, also demanded a "blanket ban" on such sales and asked the government to probe the potential violation of FDI norms.

big discounts.

Those rules forced Amazon and Flipkart to reconfigure ownership structures and re-jig some key vendor relationships and agreements.

Asked for comment, Flipkart said more than 100,000 sellers on its platform awaited its 'Big Billion Days' sale event.

"We empower our sellers with business insights that allow them to decide the best value for their own products, so they can deliver benefits and savings to consumers and scale their businesses at the same time," said Rajneesh Kumar, chief corporate affairs officer at Flipkart Group.

Amazon said more than 500,000 sellers - a bulk of which are small businesses, women entrepreneurs, startups, weavers and artisans - use the festive sale to reach customers.

FDI RULES India does not allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in inventory-driven models of e-commerce, used by Walmart and Amazon in the United States, where goods and services are owned by an e-commerce firm that sells directly to retail customers.

It modified e-commerce rules late last year to protect the country's vast unorganized retail sector that does not have the clout to purchase at scale and offer

"Sellers decide the pricing for their products on our marketplace," a spokeswoman for Amazon said. "They offer their choice of selection to their customers across the country at prices that they deem fit."

Amazon last month said at an open panel discussion, organized by India's competition watchdog, that it abides by all Indian rules and does not influence the pricing of products on its website.

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E-COMMERCE

Drop in online shopping knocks UK retail sales in August weakest since May. Looking at the three months to August as a whole, sales rose 3.3% on an annual basis, broadly in line with their average over the past year, and there was no market reaction to the data. The figures broadly chimed with a British Retail Consortium survey that showed spending in August was flat on a year earlier, as shoppers cut non-essential spending.

B

ritish retail sales unexpectedly fell in August after shoppers bought less online than the month before, when an annual promotion by Amazon appeared to have encouraged them to splash out, official figures showed.

The figures gave little obvious sign that either the possibility of a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 or a fall in sterling over the summer had dealt a visible blow to consumer spending, which has solidly supported British growth in recent years.

Monthly retail sales volumes dipped by 0.2%, the Office for National Statistics said, compared with an average forecast for a flat reading in a Reuters poll of economists and the first fall in three months.

"No cause for alarm," economist Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a note to clients. "The modest fall in retail sales volumes does not change

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the overall picture of solid momentum in household spending." British consumers appear to have largely taken the prospect of leaving the European Union in their stride, helped by weaker inflation and stronger growth in wages that are now rising at their fastest rate in more than a decade.

The boss of Next, one of Britain's biggest clothing retailers, reported a rise in profits and told that disappointing sales in recent weeks appeared to reflect unusually warm weather, rather than Brexit jitters.

The category of 'non-store retailing' - predominantly online shopping - dropped by 3.2%, the biggest decline since August 2015, and came a month after Amazon held its annual 'Prime Day' promotion which helped boost sales by 7.6% the previous month.

Compared with August 2018, sales were up by 2.7%, slowing from growth of 3.4% in July and again the

But the picture is less bleak than that presented by the Confederation of British Industry, which said its members reported the biggest fall since 2008 in its gauge of retail sales in August, as sentiment crumbled in the sector.

Many businesses are more cautious than consumers as Britain's political crisis drags on, and fear that a no-deal Brexit could lead to significant disruption to imports of fresh food and other goods.

Department store and supermarket operator John Lewis said last week a possible no-deal Brexit could worsen already difficult trading conditions after firsthalf operating losses at the group's department stores widened and that the impact could be "significant".

Separately the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said that if Britain leaves the EU without a deal, its economy was likely to be 2% smaller than otherwise in 2020-2021, pointing towards a recession, even if its exit is relatively well managed.

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OIL

How the Saudi attack effects global oil supply day (bpd), according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Saudi Arabia - the de facto leader of OPEC - had 2.27 million bpd of that capacity.

That leaves around 940,000 bpd of spare capacity, mostly held by Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Iraq and Angola also have some spare capacity.

They may now bring that production online to help plug some of the gap left by Saudi Arabia - but it won't be enough.

T

he strike on the heartland of Saudi Arabia's oil industry, including damage to the world's biggest petroleumprocessing facility, has driven oil prices to their highest level in nearly four months.

The attack cut 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of Saudi crude output, over 5 percent of the world's supply. But the attack also constrained Saudi Arabia's ability to use the more than 2 million bpd of spare oil production capacity it held for emergencies.

Here are some facts about the impact on oil supply and spare capacity:

The kingdom has for years been the only major oilproducing country that has kept significant spare capacity that it could start up quickly to compensate for any deficiency in supply caused by war or natural disaster.

Why Is It So Disruptive For Global Oil Supplies?

The attack on Saudi oil facilities not only knocked out over half of the country's production, but it also removed almost all the spare capacity available to compensate for any major disruption in oil supplies worldwide.

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Most other countries cannot afford to drill expensive wells and install infrastructure, then maintain it idle.

Before the attack, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) global supply cushion was just over 3.21 million barrels per

Haven't Opec And Its Allies Been Cutting Output?

Can't They Reverse Those Cuts?

Yes, OPEC and its allies such as Russia have cut output to prevent prices from weakening because the market has been oversupplied.

Those cuts aimed to reduce supply by 1.2 million bpd. But much of that was from Saudi Arabia so it now cannot be reversed quickly.

Non-OPEC members such as Russia are pumping near capacity, with perhaps only 100,000-150,000 bpd of available additional production.

What About Iran?

Iran holds spare capacity, but it cannot get the oil to

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BRITISH HERALD market because of sanctions imposed by the government of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Iran's exports have fallen over 2 million bpd since April.

Washington has said Iran was behind attack, so is unlikely to the ease sanctions to allow Iran to plug a gap it believes was created by Tehran.

Iran, for its part, said after the attack that it would pump at full volume if sanctions were eased.

OIL traditional oil production.

If the Saudi outage looks like it will be prolonged and oil prices rally significantly, then shale producers will raise output.

But even if shale producers pump more, there are constraints on how much the United States can export because oil ports are already near capacity.

So What Happens Now? What About Oil In Storage?

And Venezuela?

It all depends on how long the outage lasts.

U.S. sanctions have also impacted the Venezuelan oil industry. But Venezuelan output has been in free fall for years, and state oil company PDVSA is unlikely to be able to boost production much even if sanctions were eased.

Saudi Arabia, the United States and China all have hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in strategic storage. That is the storage that governments keep for exactly this scenario - to compensate for unexpected outages in supply.

What About U.s.

Shale? Can Shale Producers Pump More?

The United States has become the world's top crude producer after years of rapid growth in supply from the shale sector, much of it pumped from fields in Texas.

The U.S. has also grown as an exporter, and shipped more crude to international markets in June than Saudi Arabia.

Shale producers can move quickly to pump more when prices rise, and can bring production online in a matter of months. That is a much faster timeline than most

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They can release oil from strategic storage to meet demand and temper the impact on prices. U.S. President Donald Trump said he had authorised a release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The IEA, which coordinates energy policies of industrialised nations, advises all its members to keep the equivalent of 90 days of net oil imports in storage.

Oil from storage should keep the market supplied for some time, but oil markets will likely become increasingly volatile as storage is run down and the possibility of a supply crunch rises.

The IEA said the markets were still well supplied despite the Saudi disruptions.

"We are massively oversupplied," said Christyan Malek, head of oil and gas research for Europe, Middle East and Africa at J.P. Morgan, adding it would take five months of a 5 millionbpd outage to take global crude supply levels back to a 40-year normal average.

"Having said that, this attack introduces a new, irreversible risk premium into the market," he added.

What Happens If There Is Another Supply Disruption?

With no spare capacity, future disruptions would cause oil prices to rise. A higher price over time will encourage producers to invest and pump more, while at the same time reducing consumption.

OPEC member Libya is in the middle of a civil war, which threatens its ability to continue pumping oil. Another big Libyan disruption would add to the shocks and highlight the lack of spare capacity.

Nigerian exports have also suffered from disruptions.

Even before the Saudi attack, spare capacity was falling. Consultancy Energy Aspects has said it expects OPEC spare capacity to fall to below 1 million bpd in the fourth quarter from two million bpd in the second quarter of 2019.

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WORLD

Exclusive Australia concluded China was behind hack on parliament, political parties China is also a victim of internet attacks,” the Ministry said in a statement.

“China hopes that Australia can meet China halfway, and do more to benefit mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries.”

A

ustralian intelligence determined China was responsible for a cyber-attack on its national parliament and three largest political parties before the general election in May, five people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Australia’s cyber intelligence agency - the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) - concluded in March that China’s Ministry of State Security was responsible for the attack, the five people with direct knowledge of the findings of the investigation.

The five sources declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The report, which also included input from the Department of Foreign Affairs, recommended keeping the findings secret to avoid disrupting trade

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relations with Beijing, two of the people said. The Australian government has not disclosed who it believes was behind the attack or any details of the report.

In response to questions posed by media. Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office declined to comment on the attack, the report’s findings or whether Australia had privately raised the hack with China. The ASD also declined to comment.

China's Foreign Ministry denied involvement in any hacking attacks and said the internet was full of theories that were hard to trace.

“When investigating and determining the nature of online incidents, there must be full proof of the facts; otherwise, it’s just creating rumours and smearing others, pinning labels on people indiscriminately. We would like to stress that

China is Australia's largest trading partner, dominating the purchase of Australian iron ore, coal and agricultural goods, buying more than one-third of the country’s total exports and sending more than a million tourists and students there each year.

Australian authorities felt there was a "very real prospect of damaging the economy” if it were to publicly accuse China over the attack, one of the people said.

UNHINDERED ACCESS Australia in February revealed hackers had breached the network of the Australian national parliament. Morrison said at the time that the attack was "sophisticated" and probably carried out by a foreign government. He did not name any government suspected of being involved.

When the hack was discovered, Australian lawmakers and their staff were told by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate

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BRITISH HERALD to urgently change their passwords, according to a parliamentary statement at the time.

The ASD investigation quickly established that the hackers had also accessed the networks of the ruling Liberal Party, its coalition partner the rural-based Nationals, and the opposition Labor party, two of the sources said.

The Labor Party did not respond to a request for comment. One person close to the party said it was informed of the findings, without providing details.

The timing of the attack, three months ahead of Australia’s election, and coming after the cyber-attack on the U.S. Democratic Party ahead of the 2016 U.S. election, had raised concerns of election interference, but there was no indication that information gathered by the hackers was used in any way, one of the sources said.

Morrison and his LiberalNational coalition defied polls to win the May election narrowly, a result Morrison described as a "miracle".

The attack on the political parties gave the perpetrators access to policy papers on topics such as tax and foreign policy, and private email correspondence between lawmakers, their staff and other citizens, two sources said.

Independent members of parliament and other political parties were not affected, one of those sources said.

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WORLD Australian investigators found the attacker used code and techniques known to have been used by China in the past, according to the two sources.

Australian intelligence also determined that the country’s political parties were a target of Beijing spying, they added, without specifying any other incidents.

The people declined to specify how the attackers breached network security and said it was unclear when the attack had begun or how long the hackers had access to the networks.

The attackers used sophisticated techniques to try to conceal their access, and their identity, one of the people, said, without providing details.

The findings were also shared with at least two allies, the United States and the United Kingdom, said four people familiar with the investigation.

The UK sent a small team of cyber experts to Canberra to help investigate the attack, three of those people said.

The United States and the United Kingdom both declined to comment.

CHINA TIES Australia has, in recent years intensified efforts to address China’s growing influence in Australia, policies that have seen trade with China suffer.

For instance, in 2017, Canberra banned political donations from overseas

and required lobbyists to register any links to foreign governments. A year later, the ASD led Australia’s risk assessment of new 5G technology, which prompted Canberra to effectively ban Chinese telecoms firm Huawei from its nascent 5G network.

While some U.S. officials and diplomats have welcomed such steps by Australia and praise the countries’ strong intelligence relationship, others have been frustrated

by Australia’s reluctance to confront China more publicly, according to two U.S. diplomatic sources.

On a visit to Sydney last month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered thinly veiled criticism of Australia’s approach after Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Canberra would make decisions towards China is based on “our national interest”.

Pompeo said countries could not separate trade and economic issues from national security.

"You can sell your soul for a pile of soybeans, or you can protect your people," he told reporters at a joint appearance with Payne in Sydney.

Morrison’s office declined to comment on whether the United States had expressed any frustration at Australia for not publicly challenging China over the attack. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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WORLD

Rohingya still in Myanmar face 'threat of genocide' United Nations

H

undreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who remain inside Myanmar face systematic persecution and are living under the threat of genocide, a U.N. fact-finding mission said on Monday, repeating calls for top generals to face trial.

Myanmar security forces are accused of killings, gang rape and arson during a crackdown that drove more than 730,000 people to flee western Rakhine state for neighbouring Bangladesh after attacks on police posts

by Rohingya insurgents on August 2017.

Myanmar has rejected

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most of the accusations and dismissed a report last September by a U.Nappointed panel which said military officers carried out the campaign against the Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and should stand trial.

"The threat of genocide is continuing for the remaining Rohingya," Australian human rights lawyer and panel member Christopher Sidoti said in a statement accompanying a new report issued in Geneva, adding that Myanmar was failing to prevent and punish genocide.

Some 600,000 Rohingya are living in "deplorable" conditions in Myanmar’s

Rakhine state, subject to restrictions on movement that touch almost every aspect of their lives, the U.N report said.

"These facts underscore the impossibility of return for the nearly one million Rohingya refugees, mostly in Bangladesh," it added.

Myanmar's Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun told the U.N. Human Rights Council that some Hindus and Muslims had gone back to Myanmar where authorities were creating a "conducive environment", adding: "It is crystal clear that there are people who want to return, even now."

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"We cannot overlook the horrific atrocities committed

by ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) against innocent people and its coordinated terror attacks on police outposts," he said.

Tun, referring to the former U.N. Secretary-General who led an advisory commission on Rakhine, added: "The late Kofi Annan cautioned on the use of the word genocide in referring to the situation in Rakhine state. It is a charge which requires legal review and judicial determination and should not be thrown around loosely."

Myanmar rejected the factfinding mission when it was formed at the rights forum in March 2017, with a mandate to investigate military abuses against the Rohingya and in other conflicts with ethnic armed groups in Myanmar.

The new report accuses

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WORLD

the security forces of "torture and ill-treatment" of suspected insurgents in northern Myanmar, and says sexual and gender-based violence by the Myanmar military "remains a prominent feature of conflicts in Shan and Kachin states".

Two military spokesmen did not answer phone calls seeking comment.

"In Rakhine State, the Tatmadaw (army) has been using helicopter gunships against the Arakan Army and both sides are accused of indiscriminate use of heavy artillery fire, gunfire and landmines in civilian areas," Yanghee Lee, U.N. special rapporteur on Myanmar, said in her own update.

"Myanmar has done nothing to dismantle the system of violence and persecution and the Rohingya who remain in Rakhine live in the

same dire circumstances that they did prior to the events of August 2017," she told the council during a three-hour debate.

The U.N panel said the evidence it gathered from nearly 1,300 interviews with witnesses had been passed to a new investigative mechanism for Myanmar which will support any future prosecution in international courts.

Tun said Myanmar's own independent commission of inquiry was a "work in progress" and action would be taken against perpetrators upon credible evidence. He said his government strongly rejected any attempt to take the matter to any international judicial or legal body unless national processes were clearly exhausted.

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NEWS

Google wins a legal battle with German publishers over fee demands

G

oogle won a legal battle after Europe's top court said publishers in Germany could not demand copyright fees since 2013 from the tech firm because the European Commission had not been notified of the German regulation.

The group of publishers previously said they were demanding as much as 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) from Googleowner Alphabet in copyright fees for their news snippets and other items published by the U.S. company on the Web. The German case underlines the battle waged by publishers seeking a share of revenues earned from the distribution of news on Alphabet services such as Google News and YouTube.

The European Union toughened its copyright rules in April, forcing Google to pay publishers for news snippets and Facebook to filter out protected content.

The bloc's 28 members must implement those regulations

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in the next two years.

The German case arose after VG Media, a consortium of about 200 publishers, took Google to a German court for using text excerpts, images and videos produced by its members without paying them.

The lawsuit was based on a German ancillary copyright

law in force since August 2013.

The German court sought guidance from Europe's highest court, the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), which ruled that the EU executive had not been notified of the German technical regulation.

"A German provision prohibiting internet search engines from using newspaper or magazine snippets without the

publisher's authorization must be disregarded in the absence of its prior notification to the Commission," ECJ judges said.

Commenting on the ruling, Google said in a statement: "We are pleased that this has now been clarified."

Google previously said the majority of German publishers had allowed it to preview content without payment and said they had benefited from free user traffic steered to their sites.

VG Media urged the German government to implement the new EU copyright rules immediately.

"This new European Press Publisher's Right favours the press publishers by conferring wider and (more) robust rights than the 2013 German law," its CEO Markus Runde said in a statement.

Germany's Justice Ministry said it would examine the ECJ ruling and present a draft law to implement the new European rules.

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NEWS

Start-ups to grab $280 billion in banking payments revenues by 2025, study says "We face an inevitable world of instant, invisible and free payments, which spells trouble for banks that don't want to be relegated to the plumbing of payments."

B

anks are set to miss out on as much as $280 billion in revenue from their payments operations by 2025, as new start-ups muscle in and more of the business of sending money to individuals and companies becomes instant and free, according to a new report.

The global payments business, which covers anything from card payments to wiring money overseas, is dominated by banks and this year was worth around $1.5 trillion, professional services firm Accenture said.

That is expected to grow to $2 trillion globally by 2025, but banks are likely to lose out on $280 billion, or 15% of their global payments revenues, Accenture estimates.

Banks face rising competition from tech

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Accenture said it had examined trends in how consumers pay and projected changes in the future behaviour of payments providers, technology and regulation to arrive at its forecasts on the likely loss of revenue for banks. start-ups like Silicon Valley payment providers Stripe and Square, as well as technology platform PayPal, and the likes of Londonbased TransferWise that offer foreign exchange payments to retail and small business customers with lower fees.

More payments are becoming instant - removing the need for credit cards that earn banks revenue and they will increasingly be made directly to the end merchant using new technology, Accenture said. More competition also means a squeeze on margins and accelerates the trend toward free payments.

"Rather than being at the forefront of the new wave of the booming payments market, banks are feeling the heat from new competition and seeing their margins squeezed," said Gareth Wilson, head of Accenture's global payments team.

It estimated that free payments would put 8% of banks' payment revenue at risk. A further 3.9% is at risk from non-bank rivals offering "invisible payments", while instant payments could take another 2.7% of revenues More than two-thirds of banking executives surveyed

by Accenture agreed that payments were becoming free.

"The digital boom will mean banks have to change the way they think about their revenue composition fundamentally," said Alan McIntyre, who leads Accenture's banking practice.

"Channels that once made the banks billions of dollars will cease to exist," McIntyre said, adding that lenders needed to build new digital business models, with "oneclick payments the new norm."

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ODD FACTS

Scores of tigers rescued from infamous Thai temple have died

M

ore than half of the tigers that Thai authorities confiscated in 2016 from an infamous Tiger Temple tourist attraction have died from a viral disease because their immune systems were weakened by inbreeding, media reported.

The Buddhist temple west of Bangkok was a tourist destination where visitors took selfies with tigers and bottle-fed cubs until authorities removed its nearly 150 tigers in 2016 in response to global pressure over wildlife trafficking.

The confiscated animals

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were taken to two staterun sanctuaries, but it soon became apparent they were susceptible to canine distemper virus, said a senior official from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.

"When we took the tigers in, we noted that they had no immune system due to inbreeding," the department's deputy director-general, Prakit Vongsrivattanakul, told the state-owned broadcaster MCOT on the weekend.

"We treated them as symptoms came up," Prakit said.

Prakit did not give a figure

for the number of tigers that had died but public service broadcaster Thai PBS reported that the toll was 86 of the 147 rescued animals.

The temple had promoted itself for years as a wildlife sanctuary, but it was eventually investigated for suspected links to wildlife trafficking and animal abuse.

Wildlife activists accused the temple's monks of illegally breeding tigers, while some visitors said the animals appeared drugged.

The temple denied the accusations.

Government officials could not be reached for comment.

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ODD FACTS

Police test 'Spider-Man' device as alternative to Taser

that is... you won't see it," Smith said.

He said he has demonstrated the device to dozens of police departments in the United States, as well as in Australia and New Zealand.

Reuters has documented a total of at least 1,081 U.S. deaths following use of police Tasers, almost all since the weapons entered widespread use in the early 2000s, including 49 in 2018.

In many of those cases, the Taser was combined with other force, such as hand strikes, pepper spray or restraint holds.

W

ith 49 people killed last year after being shocked by Tasers, police departments across the United States are trying out a "Spider-Man"-like device that fires a tether that entangles and restrains the suspect.

Called Bolawrap, the device fires an eight-foot (2.4 meters) bola-style tether at a suspect to entangle his legs and prevent him from getting away. It works at a range of 10-25 ft (3-7.6 meters).

"Whether it is a Taser, pepper spray, baton ... there's been this gap created by the courts requiring that a higher level of force be used at the appropriate time," said Tom Smith, president of Wrap Industries, which manufactures the Bolawrap device.

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"This tool fits perfectly into that gap giving the officers another option to use before having to use that high level of force to end that conversation very early, very safely," he said.

Smith, who founded TASER International, now Axon Enterprises, made the Taser with his brother before leaving to join Wrap Technologies. He said he saw the success of the Taser as proof there was an appetite for more non-lethal tools in policing.

In the city of Bell, Calif., southeast of Los Angeles, Police Chief Carlos Islas said he tried out the device on himself.

"I personally went ahead and took the opportunity to get wrapped myself and the reason I did that - it is important for me to understand what an individual who is going to get wrapped is going to feel, and to me it's very negligible.

"I mean there was no pain," he said.

The Bolawrap is a little bit larger than a cell phone and designed to fit easily onto a police belt. The synthetic fiber tether exits the device at about 640 feet (about 200 meters) per second "And

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HEALTH

Tanzania's Zanzibar begins to register traditional healers

comes for reassurance, herbs and prayers that this baby will survive.

“People come here because I actually help them. I met many patients that went to the hospital first and got no help, or the medicine didn’t work,” said Mwanahija Mzee, 56.

"This is my job six days a week for more than 20 years, so I do better, know more than them. Patients that come to me don’t die."

Mwanahija Mzee's parents were also traditional healers in Zanzibar, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

Z

anzibar's traditional healers with their toolkits of herbs, holy scriptures and massages are being registered by authorities keen to regulate the practitioners who treat everything from depression to hernias.

About 340 healers have been registered since Zanzibar, a region of the East African country of Tanzania, passed the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act in 2009.

where women line up in the early morning sun cradling their sick children.

One family seeks relief for a child suffering from an umbilical hernia, scared that if they bring the child to the hospital for surgery, he will die. A pregnant woman who has repeatedly miscarried

To be registered, mgangas must be aged at least 18, have at least three years of experience and have a recommendation letter from a trained mganga. A council of 11 members that can include birth attendants, respected healers, village elders and lawyers approve the applications each month.

While the government does not try to dictate healers' methods, it tries to work with them on quality control,

There are an estimated 2,000 more healers, or mgangas, hoping to register, said Hassan Combo, the government registrar at the council that records them.

Traditional healer Bi Mwanahija Mzee has already registered. She tends to patients at her busy clinic

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BRITISH HERALD

government registrar Combo said, for example ensuring plants used in medicines are of the same standard.

HEALTH

being possessed by djinns.

Others, like sheikhs at the Shifaa Herbal clinic, read the Koran to cast out the djinns blamed for many maladies.

A group facilitated by the registrar's office links doctors with traditional healers to give them some medical education on specific diseases like hypertension, diabetes and pregnancy. The mgangas share information with the doctors about patient statistics and needs, he said.

Mwanahija Mzee uses a mix of massages, medicines from roots, herbs and leaves and Koranic verses, which may be written on a plate in red food colouring. The plate is then rinsed, and the water ingested as part of the medicinal regimen.

Supernatural Spirits

Some patients like Fatma Hamad say they trust traditional healers over the overcrowded, underfunded public hospitals where many feel their ailments are not treated properly.

Some healers use herbs.

Others use scriptures from the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Most use both. Belief in supernatural sprits like djinns features strongly.

Some healers, like Haji Mrisho, mainly give blessings to pregnant women to prevent their unborn babies

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Fatawi Haji Hafidh, manager at Makunduchi Hospital, the second-largest government-run hospital on Zanzibar's main island, says overstretched doctors and nurses may not have the time to see patients or the

diagnostic equipment.

Patients may also be unable to afford the medicine prescribed, or they may stop taking it before the course is finished, leading them to relapse and adding to their suspicion of government-run facilities, he said.

Many simply believe djinns are the problem.

Fatma Hamad took her 2-year-old daughter to the hospital after one of the toddler's legs became paralysed during a high fever. Unable to find the problem through X-rays, the hospital recommended she seek out a traditional healer.

Mwanahija Mzee massages the child, and after a few appointments, her mobility is slowly improving. The mother has taken this as proof that the illness was caused by possession, “Must be a djinn, as Bi Mwanhija said," Hamad said.

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HEALTH

Perils of gender and geography hamper global development, report finds gender inequality is the first thing," Desmond-Hellmann said.

"But the second thing is that if you're a girl born in (one of the poorest parts of Africa), geography is also stacked against you. It's just not okay that a child in Chad is 55 times more likely to die than a child in Finland."

D

espite steady development gains, a child's birthplace is still the most significant predictor of its future health, and no matter which country you're born in, life is harder if you're a girl, a major report said.

The analysis by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a leading philanthropic funder of health and development, found that some half a billion people worldwide still don't get basic health and education, and girls everywhere suffer disadvantage.

"Gaps between countries, districts, and boys and girls prove that the world's investments in development aren't reaching everyone," said the Foundation's Goalkeepers report, which tracks progress on reducing poverty and improving

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health.

It found that despite gains in girls' educational attainment, women's life chances are limited by social norms, discriminatory laws and policies, and gender-based violence.

In an interview on the report's findings, Gates Foundation chief executive Sue Desmond-Hellmann said its clearest warnings were of "the perils of gender and geography".

She cited data in the report which showed for example that more children die in Chad every day than in Finland every year, and that while Finland's average education is up to college level, in Chad, the average child doesn't finish primary school.

"Gender remains a massive negative on equality, so making sure we address

The Goalkeepers report is compiled annually by the Gates Foundation and tracks progress on United Nations sustainable development goals which aim to reduce inequality and poverty and improve health around the world by 2030.

While it found "unabated" development progress, with life, health and prosperity improving on average across the world, it also highlighted "persistent gaps" which mean many people are being left behind.

The report called for a new approach to development to help close these gaps, targeting the poorest people in the countries and areas that need to make up the most ground.

Focussing on three policy areas, it said governments should prioritise primary healthcare to deliver health systems that help the poorest, boost digital coverage to help their least-empowered people, and support farmers are facing the impact of climate change.

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SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook fact-checker finds UK Conservatives ran ads with altered BBC headline the BBC did not immediately reply to requests for comment, but the article's author, BBC journalist Sean Coughlan, pointed out on Twitter that "the only reference to the £14bn figure in the story is from the head of stats saying it's not a correct figure to use."

The story included analysis from Robert Cuffe, the BBC's head of statistics, who said that the government was not calculating the spending increase in the usual way.

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ne of Facebook's third-party fact-checkers accused Britain's governing Conservative Party of misrepresenting a BBC News article in its ads on the social media platform.

UK factchecking charity Full Fact found that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's party has been funding ads on Facebook that link to a BBC article with an apparently altered headline that reads "£14 billion pound cash boost for schools."

The actual BBC story is headlined "School spending: Multi-billion pound cash boost announced," and instead puts the number

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at £7.1 billion, criticizing the government's use of £14 billion pound figure as not the usual way of calculating spending.

Full Fact, which is part of the third-party factchecking programme created by Facebook to fight misinformation on the platform, said it had been scrutinizing online advertising ahead of a possible snap election in the country.

"It is wrong for the work of independent journalists to be altered in this way and misleading for readers," said Will Moy, chief executive of Full Fact.

The charity said it had raised its concerns with Facebook.

A Facebook spokesman said the company was looking into the ads in question.

The Conservative Party and

"Describing this as a £14bn increase would make the government seem more generous than it is in fact being," Cuffe wrote in the analysis.

Full Fact said that the BBC told the fact-checkers that it had never changed the headline of the article.

Facebook confirmed that headlines could be altered when running ads on the platform.

"We are working to put safeguards in place to ensure publishers have control over the way their headlines appear in advertisements," the Facebook spokesman said.

The fact-checkers said that versions of the Facebook ad using the altered headline had been viewed between 220,000 and 510,000 times since Sept. 2. The ads were showing as "inactive" in Facebook's public ad library at the time of writing.

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MOBILE

Apple's new iPhones shift smartphone camera battleground to AI

A

pple Inc introduced its triplecamera iPhone this week, marketing chief Phil Schiller waxed on about the device's ability to create the perfect photograph by weaving it together with eight separate exposures captured before the main shot, a feat of "computational photography mad science."

"When you press the shutter button it takes one long exposure, and then in just one second the neural engine analyzes the fused combination of long and short images, picking the

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best among them, selecting all the pixels, and pixel by pixel, going through 24 million pixels to optimize for detail and low noise," Schiller said, describing a feature called "Deep Fusion" that will ship later this fall.

It was the kind of technical digression that, in years past, might have been reserved for design chief Jony Ive's narration of a precision aluminium milling process to produce the iPhone's clean lines. But in this case, Schiller, the company's most enthusiastic photographer, was heaping his highest praise on custom silicon and artificial intelligence

software.

The technology industry's battleground for smartphone cameras has moved inside the phone, where sophisticated artificial intelligence software and special chips play a major role in how a phone's photos look.

"Cameras and displays sell phones," said Julie Ask, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.

Apple added a third lens to the iPhone 11 Pro model, matching the three-camera setup of rivals like Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd,

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already a feature on their flagship models.

But Apple also played catchup inside the phone, with some features such as "night mode," a setting designed to make low-light photos look better. Apple will add that mode to its new phones when they ship on, but Huawei and Alphabet Inc's Google Pixel has had similar features since last year.

In making photos look better, Apple is trying to gain an advantage by way of the custom chip that powers its phone. During the iPhone 11 Pro launch, executives spent more time talking its processor - dubbed the A13 Bionic - than the specs of the newly added lens.

A special portion of that chip called the "neural engine," which is reserved for artificial

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MOBILE

intelligence tasks, aims to help the iPhone take better, sharper pictures in challenging lighting situations.

Samsung and Huawei also design custom chips for their phones, and even Google has custom "Visual Core" silicon that helps with its Pixel's photography tasks.

Ryan Reith, the program vice president for research firm IDC's mobile device tracking program, said they had created an expensive game in which only phone makers with enough resources to create custom chips and software can afford to invest in custom camera systems that set their devices apart.

Even very cheap handsets now feature two and three cameras on the back of the phone, he said, but it is

the chips and software that play a huge role in whether the resulting images look stunning or so-so.

"Owning the stack today in smartphones and chipsets is more important than it's ever been, because the outside of the phone is commodities," Reith said.

The custom chips and software powering the new camera system take years to develop. But in Apple's case, the research and development work could prove useful later in products such as augmented reality glasses, which many industry experts believe Apple has under development.

"It's all being built up for the bigger story down the line augmented reality, starting in phones and eventually other products," Reith said.

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MOBILE

Order checks for Apple's new iPhone bode well platform on the first day of sales vs pre-sales for the iPhone XR last year, citing Tmall figures.

CNBC said that Kuo had boosted his forecast for iPhone 11 series shipments from between 65 million and 70 million units in 2019 to between 70 million and 75 million units.

While giving numbers that did not compare directly with Kuo's, analysts at two other brokerages also said that the initial orders were looking good.

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re-orders for Apple Inc's latest iPhones got off to a better start than the last cycle a year ago, several Wall Street analysts said, citing their own research data.

The company last week unveiled three iPhone models featuring upgraded processors and new camera functionality, including iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, priced between $699 and $1,099.

CNBC quoted TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, known as a close follower of the Cupertino, California-based company's supply chains, as saying that demand for new iPhones is beating his expectations – and

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that much of it was due to Chinese consumers.

Greater China was the third biggest region in terms of sales in 2018, and after raising alarms after slack sales growth earlier this year, Apple has seen bumps in demand driven by discounting by Chinese online retailers.

Chinese e-commerce site JD.com said on its official Weibo account that day one pre-sales for the iPhone 11 series jumped 480% versus the previous year, with the top three most popular products being the iPhone 11 Pro in midnight green, and the standard iPhone 11 in black and purple.

Chinese media outlet Yicai also said that they jumped 335% on Alibaba's Tmall

Instinet, owned by Japanese bank Nomura, cited "shipment" checks for its conclusions, while Wedbush's Daniel Ives said he had conducted supplier checks throughout Asia including China.

"We are careful about extrapolating the first weekend. data, though it is fair to say it is ahead of last year's launches," Instinet analysts wrote in a note.

"Should the early shipment time data hold and translate to unit volumes, Apple may be able to offset this year's average selling price reduction," they added.

Apple shares were trading marginally higher around midday in New York compared to an almost half-percent fall for the techheavy Nasdaq index.

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MOBILE

Huawei talks up own apps with Mate 30 challenge to Apple, Samsung

and popular apps like Gmail, Youtube or Maps - all victims of the ban.

Huawei pressed ahead with the launch regardless, betting that the Mate 30's design and hardware would still win fans.

"This is the best-performing smartphone in the world," Yu told a news briefing.

"Yes, we have some limitations on Google Mobile Services. But we have a huge advantage with the phone itself."

H

uawei unveiled its new smartphones to challenge Apple's iPhone 11, talking up slick design and best-inclass features while playing down concerns about the lack of access to Google's popular apps.

At a glitzy launch in the German city of Munich, the Chinese firm said its new Mate 30 Pro and Mate 30 devices were more compact, their cameras more sensitive, and wraparound screens more vivid than those of the latest Apple iPhone.

Connectivity was 50% faster than market leader Samsung's <005930.KS> fifth-generation (5G) phones,

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The Mate 30 Pro's threecamera array is able to bring images to life in low light.

Its on-board video camera has a fine definition of 40 megapixels and, in superslow motion, a speed of 7,680 frames per second that is several times that of its nearest rival. chief salesman Richard Yu said.

It was Huawei's first launch of an all-new smartphone since U.S. President Donald Trump hit the world's No. 2 player in the market with a U.S. export ban in May. Washington has effectively barred U.S. firms from supplying Huawei, alleging it is a national security risk as its equipment could be used

by Beijing to spy - something the Shenzhen-based company has repeatedly denied.

The result is the Mate 30 lacks access to a licensed version of U.S. Google's Android operating system, as well as mobile services that include its Play Store

The 6.53-inch flex OLED screen wraps further round the body than earlier models, making it possible to fit a display larger than the one on the iPhone 11 Pro Max, onto a smaller device.

The Mate 30 will ship to Europe next month, and will be available in China from next week, said Yu. It will be priced from 799 euros ($884), the top-end Mate 30 Pro from 1,099 euros and the Mate 30 Pro 5G from 1,199 euros.

Huawei also has a luxury Porsche Design model for 2,095 euros.

Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G retails at $1,299, and the iPhone 11 Pro starts at $999, but lacks 5G connectivity.

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MOBILE don't think it will sell like past generations," said Annette Zimmermann of consulting firm Gartner.

"The average user will not accept that they do not have easy access to their favorite apps," added Zimmermann, who attended the event.

Huawei says the phone's 'brain' - the Kirin 990 chipset unveiled at a recent tech fair in Berlin - outperforms the Qualcomm-powered 5G rivals already on the market from Samsung.

Own-Branded Apps The build-up to the Huawei launch was overshadowed by uncertainty over whether buyers of the flagship Android device will be able to use apps supported by Google, a unit of Silicon Valley giant Alphabet.

Instead, the new devices will carry Huawei's own app gallery, while the company will spend $1 billion to promote the system around it. In another incentive to boost its appeal, Huawei is charging app partners a commission of 15% - half the cut taken by Apple and Google.

option means that some apps may not work properly or run smoothly, say experts.

Holding the launch in Europe underlines the importance of the 500 million consumers in the region, where Huawei lost five percentage points in market share since the U.S. ban, even as buyers rallied to its brand at home.

Without Google on board, however, analysts say Huawei may struggle to win over consumers.

"Even though this phone is filled with lovely features we

In particular, the 'big coretiny core' configuration of the hardware means it can run power-hungry applications like artificial intelligence or support online gaming, while saving battery on routine tasks.

"Huawei has Apple soundly beaten when it comes to form factor design but even these beautiful-looking devices are going to struggle to see any volume without the Google ecosystem," analyst Richard Windsor said in a note ahead of the launch.

Mate 30 users will be able to download Facebook <FB.O>, WhatsApp and Instagram from other app stores. But it would only be possible to access Youtube, Google's mobile video app, via a web browser, said Yu. The phones will run on an 'open-source', or generic, version of the Android operating system - like Huawei's phones in its Chinese home market. That

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AUTOMOBILE

BRITISH HERALD

European automakers tell governments they must help sell electric cars jobs because mainstream customers were not buying electric vehicles. Instead, consumers are opting for larger sport utility vehicles.

E

urope's carmakers are telling governments they must help build electric car charging points and provide consumer subsidies to boost sales of battery-powered vehicles and assist the industry in meeting stringent new emissions rules.

"Our industry is eager to move as fast as possible toward zero-emission mobility. But this transition is a shared responsibility," said PSA Group Chief Executive Carlos Tavares, who is also president of European auto industry association ACEA. "It requires a 360 degrees approach." pressure from a European Union mandate to deliver a 37.5% cut in carbon dioxide emissions between 2021 and 2030, on top of a 40% cut in emissions between 2007 and 2021.

Industry executives warned at this week's Frankfurt auto show that the EU rules could be disastrous for profits and

"Governments across the EU need to match the increasing pace at which we are launching these cars by dramatically stepping up investments in infrastructure.

Moreover, they also have to put in place sustainable purchase incentives that are consistent across the EU," Tavares said.

German carmakers are accelerating plans to launch electric vehicles, under

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Ford, GM rev up electric pickup trucks to head off Tesla

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arge pickup trucks that tow most of the profits into Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co are holdovers from another century - with heavy ladder frames and big internal combustion engines in the front driving the wheels in the back.

Now, Ford and GM are racing to design radical new takes on their most profitable models, replacing petroleum-fueled engines with batteries in a bid to outflank Tesla Inc's plan to eclipse their brands. Ford's F-150 pickup and GM's

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Chevrolet Silverado are the top-selling vehicles in the U.S. market.

"This is going to be a real watershed for the whole industry," Ford Chairman Bill Ford told in a recent interview. The automaker has disclosed few details about the electric F-series, but Bill Ford hinted the truck could have load-carrying space under the hood in addition to the traditional bed in the back.

"You pick up all that extra space where the engine compartment has been," Ford said. An electric

F-Series could be a work truck - with its batteries functioning as a job site power source, he said. And it could be positioned as a high-performance vehicle next to the gas-fueled, 450 horsepower Raptor pickup truck.

The Dearborn, Michiganbased company has said it will invest $11.5 billion electrifying its vehicles by 2022, including adding 16 fully electric models, all of which will be profitable.

Ford and GM have more than one reason to take chances on electric pickups - a

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AUTOMOBILE

BRITISH HERALD concept that some analysts and industry executives say could be a small niche.

Electric pickups could help Ford and GM generate the significant sales of EVs they will need to meet tougher emission standards and electric vehicle mandates in California and other states.

The Trump administration is moving to roll back those standards, but the electric trucks are a hedge if California prevails.

Governments and corporations - major buyers of pickups - could view electric pickups as a way to show a commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Competition from Tesla and EV startups Rivian Automotive and Workhorse Group Inc is another factor, although Ford recently mitigated some of that risk by investing $500 million in Rivian.

Three years ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk declared he wanted to attack the heart

of the Detroit automakers' franchises with a Tesla electric pickup he has described as a "cyberpunk" truck with the performance of a Porsche 911 sports car.

Tesla is expected to unveil a prototype this year, with analysts forecasting a 2022 debut. Musk declined to comment for this story.

Officials familiar with Ford and GM's plans said their electric pickups would be introduced by early 2022.

"Our strategy is very clear," Ted Cannis, Ford's director of electrification, said at the No. 2 U.S. automaker's product development centre outside Detroit. "We're going to play to our strengths. We're good at pickups."

Ford's electric truck will be built on a company EV platform separate from the vehicles it will offer later on a Rivian platform.

Ford has said it will introduce a hybrid F-150 next year. Bill Ford said the all-electric F-150 "won't be too far after that."

GM'S ELECTRIC PICKUP PUSH At GM, Chief Executive Mary Barra said that the automaker would make a full-size electric pickup, but provided no further details.

The company has said it plans to invest $8 billion to develop electric and selfdriving vehicles, launching 20 new EVs globally by 2023.

Officials have not discussed plans for the electric pickup, but GM is pushing to introduce it within two years, according to several people familiar with the plans.

The lead engineer is Josh Tavel, who was the chief engineer for the Chevy Volt, Cadillac ELR, and Spark and Bolt EVs as well as chief executive engineer for fullsize pickups, GM said.

Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe believes positive reaction last fall for his company's R1T electric truck, due in fall 2020, shows the potential demand.

"The question is how great is the demand and does it translate across all price points or does it stay more isolated in the higher price points?" he said at the company's Plymouth, Michigan, headquarters.

Ford officials will not discuss sales expectations for the electric F-150. But Bill Ford said the electric pickup could outperform conservative expectations - if prospective customers try it.

Ford has broken with pickup segment conventions before - substituting a

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VW, Ford in talks to develop the second electric car in Europe Handelsblatt

turbo-charged six-cylinder "EcoBoost" engine for the traditional V-8, and then giving the current generation of the truck an aluminium body instead of steel, the chairman said. The aluminium F-series is the best-selling pickup truck line in the United States, and about half are equipped with six-cylinder engines.

"Like it was with EcoBoost and like it was with aluminium, it's important we get people in the vehicle to try it," Ford said.

Beau Boeckmann, president of Galpin Ford in the Los Angeles area and one of the largest U.S. Ford dealers, said customers are already asking about the truck.

fewer than 30,000 sales in 2026, compared with an expected 2.3 million sales overall.

"We're in uncharted waters," IHS Markit principal analyst Stephanie Brinley said.

"We're talking niche in the beginning."

Detroit's other big automaker, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, has no current plans for an allelectric Ram, while Toyota Motor Corp is betting more heavily on a hybrid Tundra pickup.

"The sliver of volume that's going to be electric pickups is not worthy of a business case," said one person familiar with Toyota's plans.

"We're going to be shocked," he said. "I think the electric pickup truck has a huge future."

The Detroit automakers ultimately want to defend a segment they see as their own.

Not everyone is so sanguine.

Industry tracking firm IHS Markit has estimated the entire full-size electric truck segment will account for

"Why would we let Tesla beat us with a pickup truck?" said one person familiar with Ford's plans. "That's our turf."

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F

ord could build more than one model of an electric car based on Volkswagen's electric vehicle platform, Ford's Europe Chief Stuart Rowley told German daily Handelsblatt.

To make only one model made no sense financially, and a decision about whether to build a second model could happen soon, Rowley is quoted telling Handelsblatt.

"Yes, we are in talks about this," Rowley told the paper.

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BRITISH HERALD

VW CEO shifts strategy from empire building to efficiency

Ducati and Audi brands, in addition, Scania, MAN and VW.

Eye on Cost Piech, who passed away last month, took pride in emphasizing engineering brilliance ahead of earnings, a culture which caused VW's profitability to lag behind rivals such as Toyota and Peugeot.

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olkswagen has abandoned its decadesold obsession with empirebuilding and no-expensespared engineering to free up resources for the development and mass production of electric cars, its CEO Herbert Diess said.

A global clampdown on toxic exhaust fumes has triggered a new wave of consolidation in the auto industry as carmakers look for ways to slash development costs for low-emission and selfdriving technologies.

While rivals such as FiatChrysler and Renault explore a $35 billion deal to bulk up, Volkswagen is taking the opposite approach: slimming down.

"We don't need more brands.

With very few exceptions

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we can tap the world's large profit segments with our existing brands," Chief Executive Herbert Diess said at the Frankfurt auto show.

VW is spending 80 billion euros ($88.55 billion) to buy battery cells and develop electric cars and has struck a broad alliance with Ford to help share development and manufacturing costs.

Volkswagen grew into a multi-brand empire under the leadership of Ferdinand Piech, the company's chief executive and chairman between 1993 and 2015, whose aggressive expansion resulted in the acquisition of Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini in a single year.

Today the German company has 660,000 employees and owns the Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche,

Diess said that creating the best product without regard to costs is a perilous strategy in today's world, given the task of overhauling combustion engines at the same time as developing new technologies.

"The product experience needs to be right. But you need to keep an eye on cost.

You cannot run the business by focusing only on the product," Diess added.

"There are several examples where this has failed. Look at Borgward, they had by far the best products, but they disappeared," Diess said, referring to a company which made popular passenger cars in the 1950s. Borgward filed for bankruptcy in 1961 and was revived by Chinese investors in 2015.

This week European auto leaders warned that a new emissions clampdown threatens jobs and profits after the European Union forced carmakers to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 37.5% between 2021 and

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BRITISH HERALD 2030. This comes in addition to a 40% cut in emissions between 2007 and 2021.

AUTOMOBILE overtaking Toyota," Witter said. Last year, Volkswagen

Frank Witter, the company's chief financial officer, said he wants to raise profitability to help shoulder the emissions clampdown by slimming down, rather than bulking up the car and truck maker.

"Reducing complexity has its value in terms of the overall group structure," Witter said in an interview at the company's headquarters in Wolfsburg. "In the past, the strategy was reduced to 10 million retail sales and

VW has begun dismantling Piech's empire, selling some assets, including transmissions and bearings manufacturer Renk, MAN Energy Solutions, and listing trucks maker Traton earlier this year.

Volkswagen is still reviewing its assets and products in its drive to increase profits.

sold 6.2 million passenger cars.

"There are other things we certainly could think about, but I continue to refrain from speculation because that makes things more complicated."

Toyota tests solar-powered Prius in the quest for plugless electric car

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nspired by new ultra-thin solar panels developed for satellites, a project led by Toyota Motor Corp is experimenting with a sun-powered Prius that it hopes will one day require no plugging in.

In the Japanese government-funded demonstration project, Toyota engineers fitted solar panels designed by Sharp Corp to the hood, roof, rear window and spoiler to see how much juice the sun can generate.

The electricity from the panels goes directly to the drive battery, so the Prius can charge while moving or when parked.

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On a good day, the charge can be sufficient for up to 56 kilometres (35 miles) of travel, more than the 47 kilometres driven a day by the average American, according to a study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

But the performance drops off quickly if it is cloudy or even when it's too hot. If used in real-world driving in those conditions, the Prius would have to be plugged into recharge.

The solar cells are super-slim - just 0.03 millimetres, making

them malleable enough to form-fit to the body of a car. The engineers needed to create a buffer between the car and the cells to protect them, so the actual solar panel modules are closer to a centimetre thick.

The trunk of the car is filled with batteries for the solar panels, adding an extra weight of around 80 kilograms (180 lb).

Making the entire package lighter and bringing down the extremely high costs are among the biggest challenges for the technology, said Satoshi Shizuka, Toyota's lead engineer on the project, adding that commercialization likely remained "years away".

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U.S. to allow drivers to choose 'quiet car' alert sounds

To meet emissions requirements from California, automakers need to sell more electrically powered vehicles, and those vehicles are often harder to hear at lower speeds than gasolinepowered engines.

At higher speeds, tire noise, wind resistance, and other factors eliminate the need for a separate alert sound, regulators say.

The Trump administration froze the Obama-era rule as it conducted a review of petitions from automakers.

Nissan had argued that the alert was only needed up to 12.4 mph (20 kph).

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he National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed allowing automakers to offer a variety of sound choices for electric vehicles and other "quiet cars" to choose from to alert pedestrians.

The agency in February 2018 finalized rules requiring EVs and hybrids to emit alert sounds to warn pedestrians of their approach, extending to 2020 the deadline for full compliance.

The long-delayed rules, which were first demanded

by Congress in 2010, require automakers like Tesla Inc, Nissan Motor Co and General Motors Co to add sounds to vehicles when they are moving at speeds of

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up to 18.6 miles per hour (30 kph) to help prevent injuries among pedestrians, cyclists and the blind.

The agency said in response to a petition from automakers it was proposing to amend its rules "to remove the current limitation of one sound per vehicle model." The agency wants public comment "on whether there should be a limit to the number of compliant sounds that a manufacturer can install in a vehicle and what that limit should be."

NHTSA required the alerts be in all â&#x20AC;&#x153;quietâ&#x20AC;? vehicles

by September 2020.

Automakers were required to have the sounds in 50 percent of vehicles by Sept 1.

NHTSA said last year it expects the rules finalized to prevent 2,400 injuries annually by 2020 and to require the addition of alert sounds to about 530,000 models 2020 vehicles.

NHTSA has said the rules would cost the auto industry about $40 million annually because automakers will need to add an external waterproof speaker to comply. But the benefits of the reduced injuries are estimated at $250 million to $320 million annually.

The agency estimates the odds of a hybrid vehicle being involved in a pedestrian crash are 19 percent higher than with a traditional gasoline-powered vehicle. About 125,000 pedestrians and cyclists are injured annually on roads in the United States.

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AUTOMOBILE

Electric pickup, batteries included in GM's $7 billion pledge "With as much excess capacity as GM still has, the company won't be opening any new plants for the foreseeable future," said AutoForecast Solutions Vice President Sam Fiorani.

GM has said it plans to introduce a stable of electric vehicles by 2023, but has not provided details. Sources have said those vehicles will feature an advanced battery system and a new vehicle structure that is flexible and modular, to accommodate different vehicle types and sizes.

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n all-electric pickup truck and an advanced battery system will be part of the $7 billion that General Motors Co has pledged to invest in the United States as parts of contract talks with the United Auto Workers.

The automaker and the union were continuing talks to resolve a strike by 48,000 hourly workers that shut down GM's highly profitable U.S. operations.

GM said it would make investments in eight facilities in four states, but did not specify timing, location or products other than the electric pickup and a battery cell plant.

GM plans to invest both

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in advanced propulsion systems for electric vehicles and in core products such as trucks and utility vehicles that generate much of its profit, the company said.

Some of that investment is earmarked for the production of electric vehicles in Michigan and battery cells in Ohio, sources said.

GM also is expected to update plants in Michigan, Tennessee and Missouri to build redesigned versions of its midsize pickups and crossovers, according to a GM source. The company said it would invest in â&#x20AC;&#x153;additional new vehicle and propulsion programs,â&#x20AC;? but said nothing about opening new plants.

Over the past three years, GM has spent an average $8.45 billion a year on capital expenditures. Most of that investment was made in North America, another GM source said.

The $7 billion investment pledged to the UAW works out to less than $2 billion a year over the four-year life of the proposed contract.

GM plans to introduce a fullsize electric pickup in 2022, cited officials familiar with the company's plans.

A person familiar with GM's offer to the UAW said the company could produce the electric truck at the DetroitHamtramck plant that now has no future assignment.

GM could also build an electric vehicle battery plant near its shuttered assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio.

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HOLLYWOOD

Who calls the tunes in space Brad Pitt asks NASA astronaut system to find his missing father, confronting a mystery along the way that threatens humanity’s existence back on Earth. "Ad Astra" - whose Latin title means "to the stars" - opens in U.S. theatres on Friday. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was given an early copy of the movie's script to provide visual and technical expertise, according to its film and TV liaison, Bert Ulrich. Detailed images of Mars from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory informed the film’s recreation of Martian landscapes, he said. “The script did not have a NASA storyline, but there were ways that we could still help them,” Ulrich said in an interview, adding that the film shows some parallels to NASA’s Moon-to-Mars Artemis programme, such as the way characters use the moon to travel further to Mars.

B

rad Pitt traded laughs in a call to the International Space Station with a NASA astronaut, who somersaulted during the zero-gravity interview ahead of this week's release of the actor's new film, the space thriller "Ad Astra."

Pitt peppered astronaut Nick Hague with dozens of questions about what life was like in space.

He interviewed Hague from Washington via a transmission line from NASA's Mission Control

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“Most important question: Who controls the jam box?”

Pitt asked, referring to the space station's music.

After asking questions like how realistic his zero-gravity movements were in a studio environment - as Hague performed one for him Pitt said he had one last question "and I need to call on your expertise."

“We have a rotating playlist; we take turns. And it’s nice because we have the international flair as well,” Hague replied. “Getting to hear some traditional music from Russia over dinner is a nice change, exposure.”

"Who was more believable, Clooney or Pitt?” the actor asked, referring to George Clooney, a good friend who played an astronaut in the 2013 film "Gravity" and has starred with Pitt in a number of other films.

Pitt plays astronaut Roy McBride, who travels to the outer edges of the solar

“You were, absolutely,” Hague replied.

Center in Houston.

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ENTERTAINMENT

France's Canal+ pairs up with Netflix in pay-TV shift

distributed via deals on internet service providers such as French telecoms group Orange.

Netflix, too, is under pressure, with Apple Inc launching its streaming service in November and Walt Disney joining the fray with Disney Plus.

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ivendi's Canal+ has agreed with a deal to add Netflix subscriptions to TV bundles in France and elsewhere, the French broadcaster said, in the latest such alliance to counter pressure from streaming giants.

The new Canal+ bundles integrating Netflix would be available in France from Oct. 15 and later expanded to other European markets.

Pay-TV groups have been squeezed globally as viewers switch to online video platforms that often offer cheaper packages and churn out original productions. Netflix, with a string of hit shows such as "The Crown" and "Stranger Things", has been a leader of the streaming pack.

Some have responded by striking deals with Netflix and other platforms to add

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"(Netflix) is stepping things up to occupy this space as much as possible before others show up," said Philippe Bailly, of French digital consultancy NPA Conseil. content and keep clients from switching off, including Comcast's Sky in Britain, even if it allows streaming companies to make further inroads in their market.

"People have already subscribed to Netflix, it's unavoidable," said Francois Godard, European media and telecoms analyst at Enders Analysis.

Canal+ has suffered after losing some soccer broadcasting rights in recent years and is still losing subscribers despite producing critically acclaimed series such as "The New Pope" alongside Sky and HBO. It has been overtaken by Netflix's 6 million subscribers in France, and it reported falling first-half revenue.

Netflix's deal with Canal+ is the first of its kind in France, though the U.S. group's films and shows are already

Canal+ Chief Executive Maxime Saada told reporters the group is also "in discussions" with Disney but declined to provide details.

Canal+ distributes some Disney films.

It is still unclear how much pay-TV groups will succeed in winning back clients as a result of such deals.

Netflix has about 10 million subscribers in the United Kingdom, roughly the same as Sky, Enders' Godard said.

The Canal+/Netflix bundles will initially cost 35 euros a month, including the Canal+ subscription fee. Netflix offers its services in France for a monthly subscription of between 7.99 euros and 15.99 euros.

Pay-TV groups are betting consumers will prefer to have a one-stop-shop. "It is going to be very expensive for customers to buy everything," Saada said.

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ENTERTAINMENT

Disney CEO Bob Iger resigns from Apple board as TV battle looms

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pple Inc said that Walt Disney CoChief Executive Officer Bob Iger had resigned from the company's board of directors on Sept. 10 as the two companies prepare to compete head-to-head in the streaming television business.

Iger departed Apple's board the same day the company revealed new details about Apple TV+, a $4.99-per-month service that will launch on Nov. 1.

Apple is spending billions in Hollywood to secure original programming for the service.

The monthly subscription

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price for Apple TV+ undercuts Disney, which earlier this year announced its own streaming service that will feature its iconic children's content and cost $6.99 per month. The Disney+ service will debut on Nov. 12.

"While we will greatly miss his contributions as a board member, we respect his decision, and we have every expectation that our relationship with both Bob and Disney will continue far into the future," Apple said in a statement.

Apple and Disney had long had a unique relationship among major American companies, dating back to when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs became a Disney director and major shareholder when the entertainment giant bought Pixar, the digital animation studio majority-owned by Jobs. Iger became an Apple director shortly after Jobs' demise in 2011.

Iger said it was "an extraordinary privilege" to have served on Apple's board for eight years.

"I have the utmost respect for Tim Cook, his team at Apple, and for my fellow board members," Iger said in a statement. "Apple is one of the world's most admired companies, known for the quality and integrity of its products and its people."

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ENTERTAINMENT

Apple TV+ premieres with star-studded period drama 'Dickinson' at Tribeca Festival song will feature in the show.

"Dickinson", which also stars Jane Krakowski of NBC's "30 Rock", joins seven other original shows that Apple TV+ will feature when it launches on Nov. 1, including "The Morning Show" with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon and "See," a sci-fi drama starring Jason Momoa.

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pple TV+ premiered its first show at the Tribeca TV Festival flaunting feminist snark, lavish period costumes and a star-studded cast in "Dickinson," a series that sheds a modern light on the life of an iconic American poet.

Emily Dickinson, the prolific American poet, is played

by Hailee Steinfeld, the pop star whose breakout vocal performance in Pitch Perfect 2 and debut single "Love Myself" made her a teen idol - a casting decision that Apple is likely betting on to draw young, loyal fans to the streaming service.

Steinfeld's Dickinson is a firebrand who writes poetry furiously into the night and

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"Dickinson" cast members said they were grateful Apple seemed to spare no expense on period costumes and sets. flirts with Death, a character played by rapper Wiz Khalifa, all while feeling constrained by the expectations she faces as a woman in 1850s New England.

In the first episode, Dickinson resists her mother's efforts to marry her off and is heartbroken when her father berates her for submitting a poem to be published in a literary magazine.

"I do think that the pressure that Emily Dickinson is under to feel or act or do certain things, I think that women still feel that today," Steinfeld said after a screening of the show's first episode.

Steinfeld also surprised the Tribeca audience with the announcement that she will release her new single "Afterlife" on Sept. 19 and the

Apple, which transformed the music, mobile and personal computing industries, plans to spend $2 billion on original programming for its new streaming service this year.

"They clearly put a lot of money and kindness into the look of the show which I think pays off amazingly on screen," Krakowski, who plays Dickinson's mother, said after the Tribeca screening.

To compete with Walt Disney Co's Disney+ and Netflix in a battle for streaming TV customers, Apple is offering a year of free TV service for customers who purchase most Apple devices. Apple TV+ will be available in over 100 markets at launch.

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ENTERTAINMENT

Tinder breaks into scripted original content, wraps filming first video series already attracted millions of devoted users. Walmart Inc is working with MGM to boost Walmart's Vudu video service. Costco Wholesale Corp has also considered video plans to keep customers interested in the brand.

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opular dating app Tinder has wrapped filming on its first television series, as owner Match Group Inc seeks to dive deeper into creating original content, people with direct knowledge of the project said.

Making new shows is part of a larger strategy that will be revealed in the near future, a spokeswoman told Reuters, declining to elaborate on the plans. The source familiar with the production said it is Tinder's first foray into creating an online platform for scripted video content.

The multi-episode series centres on an "apocalyptic" storyline and includes a relationship subplot but is

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not directly connected to Tinder's core dating app business, the source said. It was filmed in Mexico City in late August.

Tinder's move should not be a big surprise, given its ownership. Parent company Match is majority-owned by IAC, founded by Hollywood legend and IAC <IAC.O> Chairman Barry Diller.

Last October, Tinder launched a lifestyle website called Swipe Life to publish original content, including articles and videos about dating and relationships.

Offering original content is an increasingly popular strategy for the mostly U.S.-based technology and retail industries that have

The strategy seeks to engage users on a deeper level even when they are not using the service.

That could help Match hold on to its rapidly growing customers. Its shares have risen more than 75% this year as it continues to add subscribers.

It was reported in April that Airbnb Inc, the start-up for booking home rentals around the world, has ambitions to develop a slate of original shows to whet customers' appetite for travel.

For several years, Airbnb has considered various ideas for creating or licensing miniseries and documentaries about travel, and shows featuring Airbnb homes, guests and hosts.

It was not clear when Tinder's first series will launch or how Match Group will promote it.

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ENTERTAINMENT

Classic sitcom 'Seinfeld' will head to Netflix in 2021

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etflix Inc landed the global streaming rights for the classic TV sitcom "Seinfeld," the company said, bolstering its digital catalogue as it faces the loss of two popular series.

"All 180 episodes of the Emmy-Award winning Seinfeld are coming to Netflix - worldwide! - starting in 2021," Netflix said on Twitter.

Netflix is poised to lose popular comedies "Friends" and "The Office" as the battle for streaming viewers intensifies.

"Friends" will move to AT&T Inc's HBO Max in 2020, and "The Office" will go to a streaming service from Comcast Corp's NBCUniversal in 2021.

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"Seinfeld," a show starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld playing a version of himself and often humorously described as a show about nothing, followed four self-absorbed friends in New York City. It was a hit on the NBC broadcast network in the 1990s.

The series currently streams on Walt Disney Co's Hulu in a deal that runs through 2020.

Sony Corp's Sony Pictures Television, which owns the distribution rights to "Seinfeld," reached the new agreement with Netflix. Terms were not disclosed.

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FASHION

Tisci takes Burberry's Victorian past to the future in the spring show

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talian designer Riccardo Tisci looked to Burberry's Victorian roots for the luxury British brand's latest line at London Fashion Week, mixing delicate lace with edgy street style for looks aimed at catering to different age groups.

The Burberry creative chief, who has successfully revamped the brand since joining last year, had a starstudded catwalk to unveil the Spring/Summer 2020 line with models including Kendall Jenner and sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid strutting down a runway laid out with a Victorian-inspired sound system installation.

For the "Evolution" line, Tisci said he had gone through the archives to when founder Thomas Burberry created the brand in 1856, and this inspired his latest designs: cinched waists and eyecatching sleeves that were voluminous, slashed at the front or fringed.

Burberry's trademark trench coats had silk panels, sparkling studs or came floor-length.

Tisci put fringes on skirts, sleeves and across dresses that also had chain detailing.

Printed skirts and tops nodded to nature, depicting trees and animals.

Women's silk shirts were long and loose, suits had box pleat or asymmetric skirts -

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FASHION

short at the front and long at the back, while blazers were sculpted. Trousers were high waisted. There were also pinstripe suits.

Tisci used a simple colour palette of grey, black, white and beige, with dabs of red, blue, pink and yellow. There was also plenty of gingham.

Tisci put ruffled lace on the front and sleeves of dresses, which for the evening were adorned in crystal mesh or ostrich feathers. Footwear was split-toe block-heel boots and sandals.

Menswear consisted of sharp suits and trench coats that were worn with belts.

Tisci added details such as crystal embroidery, zips and rib-knit panels.

"My first year at Burberry was about understanding and refining the new codification for the house. With that foundation in place, I feel ready to start exploring what's at the heart of this incredible brand," Tisci said in show notes.

"This is the story behind this collection, a collection inspired by our past and dedicated to our future. It's the evolution of our Burberry kingdom."

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Tisci has enticed younger buyers with his casual designs and revamped "TB" logo and there were plenty of luxury tracksuits, T-shirts, snazzy jackets, sneakers, sandals and baseball caps with long sides or diamantĂŠ veils. "...The Victorian era (was) a time in Britain for great change and progress, an era that has always inspired me and my work," Tisci said. "(Burberry) chose to present

his company with an emblem of a knight on a horse, but for his family crest, he instead chose a unicorn.

Thomas Burberry was a daring innovator but also a romantic and a dreamer."

In an Instagram post ahead of the presentation, Burberry said the show had been certified as carbon neutral.

With younger clients' changing tastes and growing environmental awareness, many brands are seeking to improve their green credentials.

"We have offset our impacts such as the flights of guests travelling to London specifically for the show and the build and production of the event through...projects which prevent deforestation and conserve tropical rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon," Burberry said.

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FASHION

With glue and fake blood, climate protesters target London Fashion Week

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limate activists glued themselves to a door and poured out a "bleeding" red carpet at the opening of London Fashion Week seeking to draw attention to the apparel industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impact on the environment.

Protesters from the Extinction Rebellion group have vowed to disrupt the five-day event, where Burberry, Victoria Beckham, Erdem and other luxury brands are presenting their spring 2020 womenswear

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collections.

The group, which has staged protests in recent months calling for action to tackle climate change, had asked the British Fashion Council (BFC) to cancel the event.

Wearing white outfits with blood-like stains, five protesters glued themselves to one entrance of the central London Fashion Week venue. Other demonstrators briefly lay in a pool of pink liquid, which they said depicted blood.

The protesters arrived before

the first show and were gone a few hours later. Fashion editors, buyers and bloggers entered the building through another main door nearby. "(The demonstrators) are calling for the fashion industry to tell the truth about its contribution to the climate and ecological crisis," the group said in a statement.

At a time of growing public environmental awareness, fashion brands are being urged to be more sustainable and cut waste.

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BFC Chief Executive Caroline Rush said that the demands to cancel Fashion Week did not "solve the problem in terms of the way the industry needs to address the climate change emergency".

Rainforest Inspiration "By having a platform like Fashion Week, it's an opportunity to bring designers and the industry together and engage them in the conversation," Rush said, adding the BFC was

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promoting a Positive Fashion initiative.

"We're looking forward to five days of incredible creativity, and we'll be showcasing fantastic businesses, that many of them are already working in terms of how they can address the climate change emergency and what they're doing to address positive change."

In a separate protest, nine members of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) group poured buckets of black

slime over themselves to highlight what they called "the hazardous waste associated with the leather industry".

London Fashion Week is the second leg of a month-long catwalk season that also includes New York, Milan and Paris.

The shows draw buyers, editors and bloggers, and in London for the first time, the public will also mingle by the catwalks.

London will hold six public shows where, for tickets

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FASHION priced at 135 pounds and 245 pounds, fashion fans can watch models strutting down the catwalk in outfits by Alexa Chung, Henry Holland and SelfPortrait.

Designer Mark Fast, known for his knitwear, held London's first show, presenting a colourful rainforest-inspired line of vivid green and neon pink cropped tops with matching short skirts.

Also nodding to 1990s looks, there were brightly-coloured fringed dresses, mesh tops and snakeskin prints on outfits and footwear that included lace-up heels and knee-high boots, all inspired by the rainforest flora and fauna.

"The destruction of the rainforest started to happen, and I thought maybe this show should be a celebration of the beauty of the Amazon," Fast said backstage referring to the recent fires in the Amazon rainforest.

Asked about the Extinction Rebellion protest, Fast said: "We all have our own fights we have to express, and we express it in different ways."

Designer Bora Aksu looked to Persian princess and women's rights activist Taj Saltaneh for his frilly dresses embroidered with floral patterns.

Aksu contrasted pastels with bright orange, red and pink for layered tulle and organza frocks as well as printed dresses, accessorised with lace tights and floral headpieces. Models also wore tailored jackets, capes and calf-length trousers.

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SPORTS

FIFA tells Iran it is time to allow women into stadiums where she feared being jailed for six months, having attended the match in disguise as a man.

Khodayari's death has caused widespread outrage in Iran and internationally, prompting calls on social media for Iran’s football federation to be suspended or banned by FIFA.

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IFA president Gianni Infantino has told Iran it is time to allow women into football stadiums and the global soccer body expects "positive developments", starting with their next home match in October.

He added, "Our position is clear and firm. Women have to be allowed into football stadiums in Iran. Now is the moment to change things and FIFA is expecting positive developments starting in the next Iran home match in October."

While foreign women have been allowed limited access to matches, Iranian women have been banned from stadiums when men’s teams have been playing, since just after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran, who have qualified for five World Cup finals, including each of the last two, host Cambodia on Oct. 10 in their first home game of the 2022 qualifying competition.

Infantino said in a FIFA statement he was hopeful that the Iranian football federation and government authorities had been receptive to "our repeated calls to address this unacceptable situation."

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Critics say FIFA's own statutes hold discrimination on grounds of gender punishable by suspension or expulsion.

There were signs the situation regarding female fans in Iran was changing when a group of women was permitted to attend the second leg of the Asian Champions League final in Tehran last November, a match where Infantino was present.

This month, a female fan died after setting herself on fire to protest against her arrest for attending a match.

Female fans, however, have been denied access to matches since. At Iran’s friendly against Syria in June, women were locked out of the Azadi Stadium and detained by security forces.

Sahar Khodayari, dubbed "Blue Girl" for the colours of her favourite team Esteghlal, died in hospital after her selfimmolation outside a court

Infantino said a FIFA delegation was now in Iran.

"I am looking forward to hearing good news from them," he said.

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SPORTS

Jump in English matches with hate crime reported race."

The most common arrest type was for public disorder, with 524 arrests made last season, followed by 260 for violent disorder and 158 arrests for pitch incursions.

Championship side Stoke City had the highest number of supporters arrested (80) followed by Leeds United (49) and Aston Villa (42).

"The latest Home Office statistics do not make for pleasant reading but to provide some context 62 of the 80 arrests were as a result of anti-social behaviour that occurred both during and after the Checkatrade Trophy fixture against Port Vale in December 2018," a Stoke City representative told Reuters.

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he number of soccer matches in England and Wales where hate crime incidents were reported increased by 47% in the 2018-19 season, a British government study said.

Although football-related arrests dropped by 10% to 1,381 last season, the number of hate crimes reported increased from incidents in 131 matches the previous season to 193 matches in 2018-19. The study said 79% of those

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incidents were race related and 14 arrests were made for racist and indecent chanting last season, which was twice the number of arrests in the 2016-17 season.

"In the 2018-19 season, the number of matches where hate crime was reported increased by 47%, from 131 matches to 193 matches," the Home Office study said.

"Some of the increase is likely due to improvements in recording. Of the 193 matches, 79% of the hate crime incidents related to

"Of the other 18 arrests, only five of those were made at home fixtures at the bet365 Stadium.

"Working in partnership with the police and authorities, we are continuing to do everything we can to try and eradicate anti-social behaviour from football."

There were also 1,771 football banning orders in force -- down from 1,822 last season -- but the number of new banning orders increased by 19%. Newcastle United have the most number of banning orders with 71 in force.

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SPORTS

Haas stick with known quantity Grosjean for 2020

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he Haas Formula One team decided to retain Romain Grosjean for 2020 rather than opt for Nico Hulkenberg because the Frenchman was a known quantity, team boss Guenther Steiner said.

The U.S.-owned team will now have an unchanged lineup of Grosjean and Danish driver Kevin Magnussen for the fourth year in a row.

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Magnussen, 26, already had a contract for 2020 while 33-year-old Grosjean had faced an uncertain future after costly mistakes.

"We know what we have got and we can work with that," Steiner told reporters at the Singapore Grand Prix. "Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why we took the decision to stay with Romain for another year."

Haas, who joined the grid in 2016 and have a close technical partnership with

Ferrari, are enduring their worst season. They are ninth out of 10 in the constructorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; standings with only Williams below them and seven races remaining.

Fifth in the standings last year, they have struggled to extract speed from their cars in the races and to get the tyres performing.

Steiner said changing drivers while the team were trying to sort through their problems would only introduce further unknowns.

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SPORTS "It is the car, we are open about that, conscious about that," he said. "And now changing driver, I don’t know if it would help us to make the car better. The new guy wouldn’t know where we start off."

Best Chance Hulkenberg, 32, is set to be replaced at Renault by young Frenchman Esteban Ocon alongside Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

Haas had looked his best chance of staying on the grid, despite having a difficult relationship with Magnussen following track clashes between the two, for a 10th season.

Steiner said the team had held talks with the German but they had not progressed to the point of a formal offer.

"I just informed him that we went the other way," he said. "I hope that he finds a cockpit and that we have got him around in Formula One again next year as he deserves to be here."

Grosjean, who started out with Renault in 2009 and has had 10 career podium finishes, was delighted to keep his seat.

"We’ve built the story since day one and it feels like the story’s not yet over, so very, very happy to carry on with the team," he said.

"This year’s been a challenge, but it’s also been a good year in terms of growing up.”

Six of the 10 teams now have confirmed lineups, with Alfa Romeo and Williams yet to confirm their plans. Red Bull have a selection of their own drivers to choose from for their two teams.

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If marathons weren't hard enough already - strap a tree to your back

litres of water.

Activist and tree grower Siyabulela Sokomani, who is running carrying a wild olive, said the group of friends is raising cash to plant 2,000 trees in Khayelitsha, one of Cape Town’s biggest townships, where many of them come from.

The 34-year-old entrepreneur attended school there and was inspired by a teacher who started an environmental club.

“There were no trees in the township where I grew up,” he said. Now Sokomani has tattoos of his favourites - the Coral Tree, Speckboom and Acacia - twining across his shoulder.

The Spekboom is a favourite at Sokomani’s Shoots and Roots nursery. Spekboom can grow almost anywhere and absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere faster than most other trees in dry conditions, the United Nations says.

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outh Africa, an accountant, an entrepreneur and a boxing executive are among 20 friends running the Cape Town marathon - with saplings strapped to their backs.

The group are promoting the planting of native trees amid a nationwide push to replace invasive species with indigenous one to cope with

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drought and climate change.

Last year, Cape Town suffered its worst drought in a century, nearly running out of the water and forcing authorities to enforce severe water rationing and set up public water points.

Spooked businesses put $3.7m into a fund to eradicate invasive waterhungry trees around Cape Town, a move that would top up reservoirs with billions of

Last year Sokomani went back to his school to plant 67 trees on Mandela Day, symbolising the 67 years that Mandela spent in public service. He co-founded Township Farmers in 2017 to teach children about agriculture and plant trees in schools.

From 2001 to 2018, South Africa lost 1.34 million hectares of tree cover, equivalent to a 22% decrease since 2000, according to Global Forest Watch, a monitoring organization run the Washington-based thinktank World Resource Institute.

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SPORTS

A leap into the great wide open at Asia's first World Cup

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he leaders of the game have lined up all week proclaiming the ninth Rugby World Cup as "historic" and for once the hyperbole was not misplaced as the sport prepared to take a bold leap out of its comfort zone.

Invented at an English school 196 years ago by a rebellious teenager and beloved mostly in former British colonies and France, rugby union has high ambitions for the first foray of their showpiece tournament into Asia.

With only hosts Japan

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representing the region, though, thoughts of conquering the world's most populous continent are still a pipe dream, but fans in China and India will at least be able to watch on television for the first time.

Even in Japan, where the rough and tumble 15-man game has always enjoyed high participation numbers, the sports of sumo, baseball and football are far too firmly entrenched to be budged in the short-term by the upstart rugby.

What is clear, though, is that the Japanese will embrace the tournament wholeheartedly, as

illustrated by the 15,000 fans who turned out to watch Wales train in Kitakyushu and the 97% of tickets sold.

Organisers are hoping Friday's opening match between the hosts and Russia at Tokyo Stadium will set a Japanese viewing record for a single sporting event, surpassing the 25 million who tuned in to watch the Brave Blossoms defeat Samoa in 2015.

That remarkable viewing figure came amid a surge of interest following Japan's defeat of twice champions South Africa at the last World Cup in England, probably the biggest upset in the history

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Japan have improved since under coach Jamie Joseph but still face a tough task in even finishing in the top two of a pool also featuring Ireland, Scotland and Samoa to reach the quarterfinals for the first time.

And after the last of the 48 matches on Nov. 2, the Webb Ellis Cup - named after the 1823 schoolboy who legend says picked up the ball in a game of what would now be called football - will almost certainly return to one of the sport's heartlands.

All Blacks Benchmark New Zealand's mighty All Blacks, winners of the trophy three times including at the last two tournaments, are favourites and the benchmark by which other teams judge themselves.

They feature in the most highly-anticipated match of the opening weekend when they take on South Africa's Springboks in the 99th edition of a fierce and often bloody rivalry that goes back long before the World Cup. South Africa, world champions in 1995 just after

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SPORTS the end of the Apartheid era and again in 2007, have this year looked like they have the makings of one of the great Springboks sides with a hulking pack of forwards and skill

and pace in the backs.

They drew 16-16 with New Zealand in Wellington earlier this year, one of a couple of results - the other a loss to Australia - that resulted in the All Blacks' decade-long reign at the top of the world rankings coming to an end.

New Zealand retain a winning record of nearly 90 percent over the last decade, of course, but the loss of the number one ranking has only added to a perception that this might be the most open World Cup since the tournament began in 1987.

Australia, who have won the World Cup twice and were finalists four years ago, have always peaked at the right time and will have taken great confidence from the

record 47-26 win over the All Blacks in Perth last month.

It is in Europe, however, that hopes have been growing quietly that the neutral turf of Japan might provide another champion to match the solitary Northern Hemisphere title won by England in 2003.

Ireland, who open their campaign against former semifinalists Scotland in Yokohama on Sunday, looked to be the strongest challengers a year ago after registering their first two wins over New Zealand and they top the world rankings.

The Irish have tailed off a little this year with England and Six Nations champions Wales taking over the mantle, while three-times finalists France are eternally the game's unknown quantity and cannot be written off however bad things appear.

As for the rest, it is likely to be a case of a couple of upsets that might turn one of the superpowers off course into a quarter-final path they did not anticipate, and a few fun weeks on tour in a country little-known by many of their fans.

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