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Leaders from 20 EU countries sign the Quantum Pact to recognize the importance of quantum tech for enhancement of  Europe’s scientific and industrial competitiveness

—  Thomas Skordas of the European Commission describes the Quantum Pact as the EU’s attempt to make Europe the ‘Quantum Valley’ of the world.

 

 

Vish Gain / Silicon Republic:

 

 

EU leaders have gathered today (22 March) to sign what they are calling a Quantum Pact that recognises the importance of advancing quantum computing technologies to enhance the bloc’s scientific and industrial competitiveness.

 

Quantum computing has been rapidly advancing with major breakthroughs taking place around the world. The emerging technology has potential to transform a range of sectors, including medicine, energy, communications, cybersecurity, space, defence, as well as climate and weather modelling.

 

“It will enable huge productivity gains, revitalise industry and open up new markets, applications and job opportunities,” said Thomas Skordas, deputy director-general responsible for communications networks, content and technology in the European Commission.

 

Skordas was filling in for EU commissioner Thierry Breton at the Shaping Europe’s Quantum Future conference held in Brussels, Belgium today. He describes the Quantum Pact as the EU’s attempt to make Europe the “Quantum Valley” of the world.

 

“Only by building on our strengths, by working together, by being ambitious, by targeting the whole spectrum of activities – research, industry, infrastructures, talent, external partnerships and more – can we transform Europe into the leading region globally for quantum excellence and innovation. Quantum will help us to challenge the boundaries of what is possible.”

 

The event featured keynotes, panel discussions and workshops on EU quantum strategy and was held at the Belgium Institute of Natural Sciences.

 

A declaration was first signed in December, setting the stage for cooperation, investment and innovation in quantum computing technologies in the EU and positioning it as a global leader in the space.

 

The pact today has been signed by 20 European countries: Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. Ireland has not signed the pact.

 

Last month, the EU and Canada announced intentions to boost their strategic digital partnership to address “new challenges in digital transformation” such as in the areas of AI, quantum science, semiconductors, public policy related to online platforms, secure international connectivity, cybersecurity and digital identity.

 

For quantum science, the regions intend to expand “mutually beneficial collaboration” to improve and accelerate research, development and innovation in the area, while also promoting jobs and the use of quantum tech in the broader economy.

 

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— Techmeme

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Takeoff’s mother fights for her son in lawsuit against Houston bowling alley

The owners of 810 Billiards & Bowling continue to fight the wrongful death lawsuit for Takeoff’s fatal shooting, blaming attendees, including the rapper.

 

Source: Variety/Getty

Nearly a year ago, Takeoff’s mother Titania Davenport filed the million dollar lawsuit. The case comes after her son was murdered outside of the bowling alley in November 2022. According to the Los Angeles Times, Davenport alleges that the Houston bowling alley was informed of the Migo’s arrival and that the venue should seek more security measures.

 

The lawsuit against the bowling alley was filed in June 2023, but no settlements have been reached. 810 Billiards & Bowling has requested that the lawsuit be dismissed. They denied any wrongdoing in Takeoff’s, real name Kirshnik Ball, death.

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A post shared by QuavoHuncho (@quavohuncho)

 

According to RadarOnline, the venue places all the blame on Patrick Clark, who was charged with the murder in December 2022. Possession of illegal firearms was also cited as part of the responsibility.

 

Blame was also placed on Takeoff, Quavo, and others who participated in gambling activities outside of the bowling alley.

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Davenport is adamant that Takeoff was an innocent bystander and that 810 Billiards & Bowling should take responsibility. In the lawsuit, she stated that the venue was aware that large crowds would attend due to the presence of celebrities. She believes that they disregarded the possibility of improving the security measures.

 

The grieving mother also claims that a group of patrons attempted to intimidate Takeoff. This resulted in verbal and physical altercations. This then led to gunshots that would claim Takeoff’s life. Davenport is requesting more than $1 million dollars to cover emotional damage, funeral expenses, and Takeoff’s personal injuries.

 

Takeoff’s father joins mother in lawsuit against bowling alley

Kenneth Ball, Takeoff’s father, and Davenport have been in a legal battle over Takeoff’s estate, as the rapper did not leave a will. RapUp reports that Takeoff left behind at least $26 million. Still, Ball has been named an Intervenor in Davenport’s lawsuit against the bowling alley. AllHipHop reported that Ball is also seeking $1 million dollars in damages as Ball has suffered greatly due to his son’s death.

Source: Penske Media/Getty

 

Additionally, Quavo’s assistant, Joshua Washington, filed a lawsuit against 810 Billiards & Bowling in August 2023. Washington was injured in the same shooting that abruptly ended Takeoff’s life. According to RapUp, Washington was shot in his right side, and in the rush to flee, he had to find his own way to the hospital. He also claims that security was inadequate and personnel was not properly trained.

 

Patrick Clark remains on house arrest

After Takeoff’s untimely death on Nov. 1, 2022, law enforcement began investigating the crime. The Los Angeles Times reported that detectives utilized video, audio, and physical evidence that marked Patrick Clark as the perpetrator.

 

On Dec. 1, 2022, Clark was apprehended and charged with Takeoff’s murder. He was held on a $1 million bond, which he posted. As a condition of his bail, Clark must remain on house arrest until his next court date in August 2024. The case is predicted to go to trial.

 

Over a year later, Takeoff’s presence continues to be missed. As one-third of the Migos, he will always be remembered and cemented as a legend.

 

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— Bossip

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PACAW aims to transform the mindset of future African leaders

CUMBERLAND, Md. — The monumental problems impacting the young, neglected populations in the world’s poorest countries will, sooner or later, reach everybody’s borders, posits Dr. Sylvanus Ayeni, a retired neurosurgeon who is also the president and founder of Pan Africa Children Advocacy Watch (PACAW), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Maryland.

 

“We live in a very complex, unsettling and troubled world, which is shrinking — distance wise — faster than we can imagine,” Ayeni said.

 

 

Ayeni founded PACAW in 2007 in response to the devastating deficits in education, infrastructure and healthcare facing African nations, predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa. PACAW’s primary mission is to nurture and develop a new generation of African leaders who will use the continent’s abundant natural resources to provide a much needed better life for the citizens. PACAW does this by providing access to quality education at public primary and secondary schools, and community development activities.

 

“The main purpose is to get Nigerian youths to think differently about who they are, their innate capabilities and ultimate responsibility to their nation,” Ayeni said. “Furthermore, to get them to develop a ‘Can Do’ mindset instead of constantly waiting for foreign aid from Europe, the United States, Canada and Asia. Also, to embrace the spirit of selflessness, incorruptibility and nation building.”

 

PACAW is currently seeking funding to build science laboratories in public high schools run by the state and local governments, an issue that is very close to Ayeni’s heart.

 

“Many of these schools, sadly, have been totally neglected by the leaders,” he added.

 

In the 2024 school year, which beings in September, PACAW, in collaboration with Olise Omolu Foundation (https://oliseomolu.com), will launch an annual multi-state high school essay competition in Nigeria for senior high school students. The goal of this project is to re-orient and guide Nigeria’s youths — the nation’s future — toward a mindset of selflessness, service, incorruptibility and ethical thinking. Support for this endeavor will be greatly appreciated.

 

“The world would be different — hopefully better — if we realize that there is only one human race, a well-established scientific fact which unfortunately has been ignored for decades,” Ayeni said.

 

To learn more about PACAW or to make a contribution, please visit https://www.pacaw.org.

 

About Sylvanus Ayeni

Sylvanus Ayeni was born and raised in Nigeria and graduated from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria. As a neurosurgeon, he worked in the private sector, for the U.S. Navy and in academia. Now retired from medicine, he is the president and founder of PACAW. He is also the author of Rescue Thyself: Change In Sub-Saharan Africa Must Come From Within (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers), in which he offers a bold dialogue about the necessity of finding alternative pathways to solve the monumental problems facing the nations of Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Chinese officials have begun to follow the new PC, laptop, and server guidelines to phase out Intel/AMD processors and Windows from government PCs and servers 

Microsoft’s Windows and foreign database programs also sidelined as Beijing favors Chinese hardware and software

 

 

Financial Times:

 

 

—  China has introduced new guidelines that will mean U.S. microprocessors from Intel and AMD are phased out of government PCs and servers, as Beijing ramps up a campaign to replace foreign technology with homegrown solutions.

 

The stricter government procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options. It runs alongside a parallel localization drive under way in state-owned enterprises.

 

The latest purchasing rules represent China’s most significant step yet to build up domestic substitutes for foreign technology and echo moves in the U.S. as tensions increase between the two countries. Washington has imposed sanctions on a growing number of Chinese companies on national security grounds, legislated to encourage more tech to be produced in the U.S. and blocked exports of advanced chips and related tools to China.

 

Officials have begun following the new PC, laptop and server guidelines this year, after they were unveiled with little fanfare by the finance ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Dec. 26.

 

They order government agencies and party organs above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases.

 

On the same day in December, the state testing agency, China Information Technology Security Evaluation Center, published its first list of “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems, all from Chinese companies.

 

Among the 18 approved processors were chips from Huawei and state-backed group Phytium. Both are on Washington’s export blacklist. Chinese processor makers are using a mixture of chip architectures including Intel’s x86, Arm and homegrown ones, while operating systems are derived from open-source Linux software.

 

Beijing’s procurement revamp is part of a national strategy for technological autarky in the military, government and state sectors that has become known as xinchuang or “IT application innovation.”   The standards “are the first nationwide, detailed and clear instructions for the promotion of xinchuang,” said a local government official managing IT system substitution.

 

State-owned enterprises were similarly told by their overseer, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, to complete a technology transition to domestic providers by 2027, according to two people briefed on the matter.

 

Since last year, state groups have begun quarterly reporting on their progress in revamping their IT systems, though some foreign technology would be allowed to remain, the people said.  The state-led march away from foreign hardware will dent US companies in China, starting with the world’s dominant PC processor makers, Intel and AMD.

 

China was Intel’s largest market last year, providing 27 per cent of its $54bn in sales and 15 per cent of AMD’s $23bn in sales. Microsoft does not break out China sales but president Brad Smith last year told the US Congress that the country provided 1.5 per cent of revenues. Microsoft and Intel declined to comment. AMD did not respond to a request for comment.

 

It may be difficult for Intel or AMD ever to make the list of approved processors. To be evaluated, companies must submit their products’ complete R&D documentation and code. The top criteria for evaluation is the level of design, development and production completed within China, according to a notice from the state testing agency.

 

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— Techmeme

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DOJ has analysis for against Apple; Sources: Apple to roll out its system to update packaged iPhones’ software for its US stores in April 

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

 

 

—  With its lawsuit against Apple, the Justice Department focuses on outdated issues and irrelevant points, missing an opportunity to address more pressing concerns.

— Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook holding an iPhone 15 Pro Max. — Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

 

Also: Why the company is talking to generative AI partners; Sonos readies a fresh Roam speaker; and Apple prepares a wide rollout of a nifty new retail store feature.

Last week in Power On: Apple’s new CarPlay becomes its last hope to crack the automotive industry.

The Starters

— Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, unveiled the antitrust case against Apple last week. — Photo by Nathan Howard/Bloomberg

Despite the friendly image that Apple Inc. cultivates, it’s a hard-driving company behind the scenes. Just ask the many suppliers that Apple has abruptly dropped or the app developers it has put out of business.

 

Apple also hasn’t been one to welcome openness or competition. It refused to bring its iMessage app to Android phones and only agreed to adopt the cross-platform RCS messaging system under mounting pressure. Apple makes developers use its in-app purchase system, shuns cloud-gaming services and has been reluctant to open up its tap-to-pay chip to outside apps — all because it wants to protect its kingdom from rivals.

That’s provided the US Department of Justice with plenty of fodder for its antitrust lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday. But the case relies mostly on outdated arguments and cites problems that Apple is already resolving. It even levels the dubious claim that Apple makes its products worse in order to harm rivals. (The DOJ also takes credit for Apple’s success, attributing the company’s rise to a Microsoft Corp. antitrust settlement in 2001).

But perhaps the biggest flaw in the case: It does little to prove that Apple has harmed consumers.

The lawsuit claims that the main reason people hold on to their iPhones is because Apple makes it difficult to switch, not because people — I dunno — actually like their iPhones. The DOJ goes as far as to claim that Apple is trying to hurt automakers with a new version of CarPlay that takes over more of the instrument panel. But that service is completely optional for both consumers and auto brands (and, let’s face it, not at risk of being widespread anytime soon).

The government even makes the fairly silly assertion that Apple’s control over the iPhone led to the very public failures of Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft in smartphones. It argues that cloud-gaming apps were barred in order to sell pricier iPhone hardware and that Apple is responsible for the learning curve that makes it more difficult to switch to Android.

There are very real concerns with some of Apple’s practices. But the Justice Department spends less time on those issues, focusing instead on half-baked claims that suggest a lack of familiarity with modern technology.

 

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— Techmeme

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‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ leads box office with $45 million debut

“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” ruled over the domestic box office and arrived on the higher end of expectations.

 

 

— The latest installment in Sony’s supernatural comedy series has collected $45.2 million in its debut in 4, 345 North American theaters. Earlier in the weekend, “Frozen Empire” looked like it would top out with $42 million but estimates were revised up after a bigger-than-expected Sunday.

 

At the international box office, the film ignited to a tepid $16.4 million from 25 markets for a global start of $61 million.

 

Still, those domestic ticket sales are just barely ahead of its 2021 predecessor, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” which earned $44 million to start while the box office was deep in pandemic recovery mode. It’s a sign that the 30-year-old franchise hasn’t expanded its constituency beyond the original (and aging) core fans of the business of busting ghosts.

 

Plus, “Frozen Empire” carries a bigger budget than the last one, costing $100 million to produce and many millions more to market. It’ll need to far outgross “Afterlife” ($204 million globally against a $75 million budget) to justify its price tag since cinema operators get to keep roughly 50% of revenues. Sony expects the movie to benefit from spring break, but “Frozen Empire” will face steep competition next weekend from “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.”

 

Critics and audiences were mixed on the sequel, which landed a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes and a “B+” CinemaScore. “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” follows the events of “Afterlife,” itself a sequel to the 1980s sci-fi comedy classic. (The ill-fated 2016 reboot doesn’t exist in this universe.) Franchise veterans Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman (whose father Ivan Reitman helmed 1984’s “Ghostbusters”) wrote “Frozen Empire,” which sees new recruits in the legendary ghost-catching business (Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon and Finn Wolfhard) team up with veterans (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts) to prevent an apocalyptic diety from igniting a second Ice Age.

 

This weekend’s other new release, Sydney Sweeney’s religious horror film “Immaculate,” opened in fourth place with a middling $5.3 million from 2,354 theaters. Neon backed the movie, which follows Sweeney as an American nun who joins a remote convent in the Italian countryside. But her warm welcome is interrupted after she discovers her new home harbors some dark secrets. Reviews have been so-so, while moviegoers saddled the film with a “C+” CinemaScore (which is not unusual for the horror genre).

 

“The movie features the popular Sydney Sweeney, but horror movies are not cast-driven,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, who categorized the opening weekend result as “fair.” “They’re driven by the hook: the evil doll, the wicked smile, the invisible or silent presence, the found footage, the possessed child. That’s what terrifies the horror crowd. The hook is not completely clear here.”

 

Elsewhere, “Dune: Part Two” impressively remained in the No. 2 spot with $17.6 million from 3,437 venues, dropping just 37% from its last outing. After three weeks of release, the sci-fi epic has grossed $233 million in North America and $574 million globally.

 

After two weeks at No. 1, Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” dropped to third place. Ticket sales for the family film were still strong with $16.8 million, a 44% decline from the prior weekend. So far, it has amassed $133 million at the domestic box office and $268 million globally.

 

Mark Wahlberg’s canine drama “Arthur the King” rounded out the top five with $4.4 million from 3,003 locations. It has generated $14.6 million to date, which isn’t all that impressive. However, Lionsgate only spent $19 million on the film, so its modest price tag could soften its box office shortcomings.

 

On the independent scene, “Late Night With the Devil” took sixth place and summoned $2.8 million from 1,034 venues, including (and you can’t make this up) $666,666 on Sunday. This marks the biggest opening weekend for its distributor IFC Films, overtaking 2022’s “Watcher” with $826,775. The low-budget thriller stars David Dastmalchian as a late night talk show host who keeps the cameras rolling during a live Satanic incident.

 

“This weekend’s release of ‘Late Night With the Devil’ set fire to our old opening record,” says Scott Shooman, head of AMC Networks Films, which encompasses IFC. “[It] continues to showcase that there is still potential for highly reviewed, intelligent auteur films in movie theaters across all genres.”

 

 

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— Variety

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How the restructure of Diamond Sports, with lifeline from Amazon, might offer new model for on air local sports fixtures that stream in this digital era

—  A lifeline to the bankrupt Diamond Sports Group might offer a new model for airing local fixtures in the streaming era

 

Financial Times:

 

Diamond Sports Group, a consortium of a few dozen regional sports networks scattered across the U.S., was valued at $11bn as recently as 2019.

 

By the end of last year, however, it was in bankruptcy and near ready to liquidate. What then ensued could be described, in baseball terms, as a bottom-of- the-ninth-inning rally. In a surprise move in January, Amazon agreed to pump in $115mn in cash into Diamond, an infusion that is the centrepiece of a newly-crafted, intricate restructuring plan.

 

If approved by a bankruptcy court in the coming weeks, the deal will allow the broadcaster to continue airing basketball, hockey and baseball fixtures across American cities. The Diamond saga is more than just a run-of-the-mill corporate restructuring. The case has become a proxy war for the future of live sports and television broadcasts in the U.S., as leagues and distributors debate the proposition of when, or even if, live fixtures migrate entirely away from linear television and on to digital streaming platforms.

 

The number of subscribers to cable and satellite pay-TV packages in the US has dipped from about 100mn a decade ago to roughly 60mn today. Diamond’s portfolio of live sports is accessed almost exclusively through cable television packages and its subscriber count has fallen by almost a quarter since it was acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group from Fox just before the pandemic, near the high-water mark of the pay-TV market. “Sports leagues have to figure out the right pricing models to watch their games,” said longtime media analyst and consultant Brian Wieser.

 

“The risk of getting that wrong is turning into a niche sport like boxing, which decided its best fights would only be on pay-per-view.”

 

At the time of its bankruptcy filing last year, 40 clubs across three major professional sports leagues — Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League — had contracts with Diamond to air local fixtures.

 

The regional sports network is a quirk of U.S. broadcasting, given the nation’s size and span across four time zones in the contiguous 48 states alone. With multiple MLB, NBA and NHL matches airing simultaneously each night, a cable subscriber in Kansas City wants access to a different 7pm game than a subscriber in Milwaukee. The strongest and largest media markets in the U.S., including in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, have successful standalone regional sports networks supported by millions of local subscribers.

 

By contrast, Diamond Sports Group consolidated dozens of regional networks in midsize markets from Texas to Florida to Arizona. But the continuing shift from linear broadcast and pay television to digital streaming had shattered Diamond’s business model, which depended on elevated levels of pay-TV subscribers.

 

In the run-up to its 2023 bankruptcy filing, Diamond halted some contractual payments it owed to many of those teams, leaving leagues and club owners scrambling to find emergency broadcasting options, in some cases in the middle of their seasons.  Some, such as the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, yanked their fixtures off Diamond-owned Bally Sports and put the games on free-to-air television. The MLB also took the opportunity to test out something new: pulling the local rights of the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres away from the individual clubs and into its own control.

 

Diamond’s creditors, who collectively held $8.9bn debt, were, at the nadir, probably set to recover only a few nickels on the dollar. At one point, the sides had even favoured a “wind-down” plan where Diamond would collect fees for the final 2023-2024 sports season, pay out the meagre proceeds to stakeholders and then cease operations for good. In that scenario, Major League Baseball could then have had the opportunity to centralise individual franchise streaming rights for clubs that had been contracted to Diamond into a league-controlled bundle.

 

MLB declined to comment. Diamond’s bankruptcy advisers approached Amazon as they were exploring their options last year, according to a person familiar with the matter. Diamond bondholders such as Prudential and Hein Park Capital were also scrambling to assemble a go-forward plan that could save their investment. The tech giant saw a strategic opportunity to capture more of the US live sports market, for which it currently has a hodgepodge of rights ranging from Thursday night National Football League games to an assortment of U.S. professional women’s soccer and basketball. Media and technology observers believe Amazon’s sports push has two motivations.

 

First, by adding another plank to its Prime service, it can create more loyalty among customers who are charged nearly $200 a year for free package deliveries as well as streaming video. Second, Amazon in recent years has become a digital advertising powerhouse and the addition of streaming hundreds of games would provide even more inventory to pitch marketers. Amazon declined to comment.

 

By mid-January, Diamond had surprised Wall Street and the sports world by announcing it had struck a deal with a majority of its creditors to stand up a reorganised company. As a part of the deal, Amazon would buy a $115mn convertible note that could swap into 15 per cent of the equity of the new Diamond as well as a separate option to put in another $50mn of equity at a $500mn equity valuation.

 

In addition to the Amazon investment, junior creditors are providing $450mn of bankruptcy process and exit financing that will give them the bulk of the ownership of new Diamond. Sinclair has also agreed to pay Diamond $495mn to settle claims that the parent had siphoned billions in fees and dividends from the subsidiary.

 

Recommended LexStreaming services Disney, Fox and Warner sports streaming platform foreshadows consolidation Premium content However, much of the cash infusion is already spoken for in repayments to senior creditors and money owed to teams. It is also unclear how much critical mass Amazon can really accumulate as Diamond only has the streaming rights for five baseball teams. Diamond will publish its targeted valuation as a reorganised company in the coming weeks.

 

In January, projections disclosed in the Amazon negotiations showed that Diamond expected its linear revenue to fall from $2.5bn to $1.8bn between 2023 and 2026. Streaming revenue, however, is to jump from $50mn to nearly $700mn over that period. These projections may be revised in April to account for any new deals struck.

 

Sports teams will have their respective linear TV agreements with Diamond while five of those baseball teams, as well all Diamond’s more than 25 NBA and NHL franchises, have given the network its streaming rights. This Diamond direct-to-consumer content will be distributed via Amazon Prime. The reorganised Diamond is expected to be valued at about $1bn based on previous debt trading levels and guidance from people close to the deal.

 

For Amazon, the modest investment could, if successful, set a new standard for distributing streaming sport content. One person involved in the Amazon negotiations for Diamond described the deal with the Seattle-based behemoth using a sports analogy: Diamond was like a player with an expiring contract acquired at the midseason trade deadline.

 

If there were long-term synergies, a longer arrangement could be later struck, leaving the interim period as like a trial period. “This way they get to see if there is a cultural fit,” said this adviser. “Amazon loves live sports. The deal puts them in position to be the provider down the road.”

 

 

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— Techmeme

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The AACCNJ announces the honorees for the 2024 ‘Women Who Empower’ Awards luncheon

TRENTON, N.J. —  The African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey (AACCNJ) announces the Honorees for the 2024 “Women Who Empower” Awards Luncheon, which will be held on May 9 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at the Crowne Plaza Princeton – Conference Center, Plainsboro, N.J.

The 2024 honorees are:

Denise Anderson, Ph.D., MPH, Founder & CEO, Denise Anderson & Associates, LLC.

Samantha DeAlmeida Roman, MA, MS, President, Associated Builders & Contractors, NJ Chapter

Waltasia Mansano, MS, PMP, Manager, PSE&G Clean Energy Jobs Program

Jacqueline King, MS, Ph.D., Founder & CEO, Black Women Empowered, will serve as the Keynote Speaker.

“At our May 9th, Women Who Empower Awards luncheon, we will leverage our network to present to some, and introduce to others, our 2024 honorees; a group of talented and successful women that contribute to the greatness of New Jersey and the nation, every day,” said John E. Harmon, Sr., IOM, Founder, President & CEO, AACCNJ.

“I am profoundly honored to be recognized as a woman who empowers. As a member of this resilient and inspiring community, I am committed to lifting voices, breaking barriers, and fostering women’s empowerment. Together, we can achieve extraordinary things and create a brighter, more inclusive future for future generations.” – Dr. Denise Anderson, Founder & CEO, Denise Anderson & Associates, LLC.

“As an organization president who regularly partners with the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, I am thrilled to be recognized as a 2024 ‘Women Who Empower’ honoree. Together, ABC-NJ and AACNJ have been working to break down barriers and ensure women and minorities have more opportunities as entrepreneurs and business leaders in New Jersey’s construction industry. Thank you so much for this special honor and the work you do every day to challenge ‘politics as usual’ in Trenton.” – Samantha DeAlmeida Roman, President, Associated Builders & Contractors, NJ Chapter.

“Thank you to the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey for this esteemed recognition as one of the ‘2024 Women Who Empower’ honorees. It is a testament to our collective efforts in championing diversity and inclusion in New Jersey. Working hand in hand with the Chamber, we have made significant strides in supporting small businesses and underrepresented communities. This award reaffirms our commitment to driving positive change and creating a more equitable future for all. I’m deeply grateful for this honor and our ongoing partnership.” – Waltasia Mansano, Manager, PSE&G Clean Energy Jobs Program

 

Sponsors for the 2024 Awards Luncheon include ABC-NJ, SJI, and Atlantic City Electric.

 

Visit the website to register today https://www.aaccnj.com/womenwhoempower

 

About African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey

The AACCNJ performs an essential role in the economic viability of New Jersey. While providing a platform for New Jersey’s African American business leaders to speak with a collective voice, the AACCNJ advocates and promotes economic diversity fostering a climate of business growth through major initiatives centering on education and public policy. The Chamber serves as a proactive advocacy group with a 501(c) 3 tax exemption, which is shared by the National Black Chamber of Commerce.

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Some TikTok fans in India still question its gov’t 2020 decision to ban the app, not satisfied with others like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels due to lack of similar allure 

—  Young adults in India who came of age on the app are still angry at their government 

 

Wall Street Journal:

 

—  NEW DELHI — Gayatari Mohanty always wanted to be a dancer.

 

But her father, who washes cars for a living, and her mother, a domestic helper, didn’t have enough money for lessons. So the 19-year-old New Delhi native taught herself.

— PHOTO: T. Narayan/BLOOMBERG NEWS Artists at a pop-up studio for collaborating creators and artists inside Meta’s offices in Gurugram, India, in 2022.

One day in 2019, Mohanty discovered TikTok. She and a friend were drawn to the platform’s lighthearted videos. They often rushed home from school to upload clips of Mohanty’s spirited dancing to retro Bollywood songs from the 1960s and 70s.

Soon Mohanty had gained some 5,000 followers. That didn’t make her a star or earn her any money, but it was enough to boost her confidence.

“My skill gave me my biggest achievement in life,” she said. “TikTok became my stage where I could show my dancing skills and get appreciated for it.”

That all ended suddenly the next year, when India’s government banned the Chinese short video-sharing titan, citing cybersecurity concerns.

“It felt like a personal loss, like someone close to me was no more,” she said.

The South Asian nation provides a case study in what happens when the wildly popular service goes away, as it might in the U.S. A bipartisan bill that sailed through the House this month would force parent company ByteDance to sell the platform’s U.S. operations or face a ban. President Biden has said he supports such legislation, which will now go to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain.

— PHOTO: Dhiraj Singh/BLOOMBERG NEWS Some TikTok fans in India say rival domestic services aren’t as appealing.

ByteDance was founded in Beijing, and some worry that Chinese authorities could compel the company to turn over TikTok data on American users. TikTok has said it hasn’t received any such requests and wouldn’t comply if it did.

ByteDance didn’t respond to queries about its ban in India or a potential ban in the U.S.

Some TikTok fans in India question the decision to kick out the social-media app. New Delhi undertook the move because it feared the Chinese-owned app, along with others such as messaging app

WeChat, could be used to harm India’s defenses, a senior government official said at the time. The move came after a border clash between troops from the two countries left 20 Indian soldiers dead.

 

Mohanty was one of around 150 million people who used the app every month in India then, according to market-intelligence firm Sensor Tower. It was TikTok’s largest market by users at the time.

Today, some of the platform’s fans in the South Asian country still mourn its absence. They say rival Indian services that sprung up in TikTok’s wake aren’t as appealing. While new short-video offerings from YouTube and Instagram have offered alternatives, some feel they lack TikTok’s allure. And some fans are still angry at the government for booting out TikTok.

Mohanty didn’t use any other social-media platforms beyond TikTok at the time of its ban. After a year without the service, she tried a local TikTok clone, called Moj, which launched the month after TikTok was ousted. But she says it proved harder to use, and uploading videos was more difficult.

“We feel a little lost since the ban” four years ago, said her friend, 18-year-old Moni Sharma. “We have been struggling to adjust to alternate apps.” Sharma has accounts on YouTube and Instagram, but says that it is harder to lip sync to songs on those platforms and that they have gained fewer followers there.

“It’s likely that U.S. users will follow in India’s footsteps should TikTok be banned,” flocking to short-video equivalents from YouTube and Instagram, said Jasmine Enberg, a principal analyst at Insider Intelligence.

— PHOTO: Sunil Kataria/REUTERS Residents of an Indian village film a scene in 2022 for a social drama for their YouTube channel.
   

Americans are more likely to already use YouTube today than they are to use Instagram, so Instagram could see additional adoption because it has more room to grow, said Simon Kemp, founder of digital consulting firm Kepios.

Today, Moj and another local TikTok-like app, Josh, now have a combined 641 million downloads in India, according to Sensor Tower. Monthly active users for Instagram have risen 91% to 511 million since TikTok’s ban, while YouTube’s are up 55% to 653 million.

The ban has sparked questions over free speech similar to those being raised in the U.S. now.

“India is a free and democratic country and authorities can’t just force decisions and restrict freedom of speech and expression just because you have political disagreements with another country,” said 18-year-old Noushad Ali, who used to make TikTok videos about teenage romance.

“Why did the Indian government ban it?” asked Ritik Tannk, a former TikTok creator who made comedy videos, one of which garnered 16 million views. “Our data gets passed on through other apps also, like Facebook and YouTube. Why ban just TikTok for data privacy?”

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Some former TikTok users have moved on. Twenty-year-old Shivam, who goes by one name, never had an account on TikTok, but he used to spend at least four hours a day watching comedy videos on the service.

He and his friends would hardly socialize with classmates who weren’t into the app, he said. “It felt cool to be talking about TikTok—what you had watched or who was the most popular,” he said. “In a way you can say it was also under peer influence that I wanted to be connected to TikTok.”

 
 — Ritik Tannk, a former TikTok creator who made popular comedy videos, says he doesn’t understand why TikTok was banned in India. Ramesh Gupta, seen pouring tea at his New Delhi snack shop, once did a brisk business selling food and drinks to TikTok fans making videos nearby, but sales have fallen since the ban. (L) Ritik Tannk, (R) Ramesh Gupta

 

Now Shivam watches YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and videos on Moj. In retrospect, he says, TikTok was mostly just a reason to hang out with friends.

One of Shivam’s friends, 19 year-old Satyam Sinha, had a TikTok account but only amassed a couple of hundred subscribers. He made silly videos, eating burgers in a funny way or mimicking dialogue from a Hindi-language movie.

“I felt like I was being given some sort of recognition by unknown people,” he said. “It made me feel good about myself.”

When TikTok was banned, he mourned the loss for a few months, but quickly moved to other services like Reels and Moj. “We can’t keep crying all our lives,” he said.

TikTok’s absence in India is felt by local vendors working in New Delhi’s Connaught Place, a shopping district where crowds of creators once gathered to shoot their videos.

Ramesh Gupta runs a snack shop in the area. His sales have fallen about 20% since the TikTok ban, he said. He enjoyed watching young men and women with colorful hair and shiny sunglasses dance and sing, and liked serving them meals when they rested between shots.

“They would break for lunch and have tea and snacks like noodles, samosas and cutlets at my shop,” he said.

“Those days are gone now.”

 

 

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— Techmeme

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Protestors disrupt Jill Biden Human Rights Campaign keynote address for Gaza to ceasefire

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Gala in Los Angeles hit a snafu on Saturday when protestors of the Israel-Hamas war interrupted Jill Biden’s keynote address at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles.

 

Just as the first lady started speaking, about five people rose from their seats and began shouting, “Free Palestine.” One held a sign that said, “Queer Jews Say Ceasefire Now.”

 

The evening serves as a major fundraiser for HRC, one of the country’s leading LGBTQ advocacy organizations.

 

They protestors continued yelling as security ushered them out of the room.

 

Biden stopped speaking and resumed when the protestors were out of the ballroom.

 

It was announced earlier this week that Biden would be delivering the keynote remarks during the dinner and awards ceremony.

 

Earlier in the night, protestors blocked the driveway leading to the hotel’s front entrance on Avenue of the Stars. At one point, some could be heard shouting, “Genocide Joe!”

 

The evening’s program also includes awards being presented to Jean Smart “(Hacks)” and Sterling K. Brown “(American Fiction).”

 

A similar protest – with celebrities including Sara Ramirez (And Just Like That).” and Indya Moore “(Pose)” in attendance — was held at HRC’s New York City gala in February. Activists denounced HRC’s ties to weapons manufacturer Northrop Grumman and called on the LGBTQ group to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.

 

Just days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, HRC president Kelley Robinson issued a statement regarding the ongoing violence in the Middle East. “The toll on both Israeli and Palestinian civilian lives rises daily. And many in the United States who are Jewish and Muslim recognize that hate-motivated bias and violence will rise here. Antisemitism is wrong. Islamophobia is wrong. Full stop,” the statement said, in part.

 

“[M]any members of our community feel very broken right now. The world is heavy and frightening. And the future is uncertain. This violence is a reminder that the struggle for liberation against extremism, discrimination, and hate is a global struggle. It’s my struggle. It’s your struggle. It’s our struggle.”

 

Earlier this month, protestors calling for a ceasefire in Gaza also disrupted the Oscars by blocking streets leading to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. With the A-list crowd scrambling to get into their seats in time, producers delayed the start of the Academy Awards by about five minutes.

 

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— Variety