New low for Trump

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has snarled himself in fresh controversy after he was accused of being disrespectful to a soldier slain in an ambush in Niger and showing insensitivity to the grieving family.

Mr Trump disputed accounts of his conversation with the pregnant widow of Sergeant La David Johnson, 25, one of four servicemen killed in a jihadist ambush October 4.

But Sgt Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told the Washington Post: “President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband.”

She agreed with an earlier account of the call by a Florida congresswoman who heard part of the conversation and accused Mr Trump of insensi- tivity for telling the pregnant widow, Myeshia Johnson, that the young soldier “knew what he was signing up for.”

“I didn’t hear the whole phone call, but I did hear him say ‘I’m sure he knew what he was signing up for, but I guess it still hurts’,” Representative Frederica Wilson said.

Mr Trump tweeted: “Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!”

He later said: “I did not say what she said” and “I had a very nice conversation.”

Asked about what proof he could offer, he said: “Let her make her statement again, then you will find out.”

Sgt Johnson was among four US soldiers killed on October 4 in Niger, where Islamic State fighters have established a presence. The military has released few details.

The Miami man’s body was returned home on Tuesday.

His wife Myeshia, who is expecting the couple’s third child, sobbed loudly while cradling his coffin.

Rep. Wilson said that after Mr Trump’s call, Myeshia “was crying, she broke down. And she said ‘He (Mr Trump) didn’t even know his name’.”

Another slain soldier’s father accused the President of going back on a promise to send him a cheque for $US25,000.

The White House said the money had been sent.

And chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine general whose son was killed in Afghanistan, was left angry and frustrated at the way the issue has become politicised after Mr Trump questioned whether then president Barack Obama called him with condolences.

Irving, After Hayward Injury, has Much to Do to Lead the Celtics

The duo were supposed to be a high-octane experiment worth dismantling the team for, but now it’ll have to wait

On the morning of his first game with the Boston Celtics, Kyrie Irving sat at the centre of a scrum of reporters along and refused to talk about what everyonewantedhimtotalkabout,specifically his reasons for demanding a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Well, guys, going forward, I kind of want to put that to rest,” said Irving, who proceeded to do everything he could to avoid putting it to rest.

As this bit of theatre was playing out before the team’s shoot-around Tuesday, Gordon Hayward sat by himself a few feet away. He, too, was a few hours from his Celtics debut, but he was stage right, just beyond the spotlight’s glare. It belonged to Irving in his return to the Cavaliers — and now it will belong to Irving indefinitely.

Laterthatnight,intheCeltics’season opener,againsttheCavaliers,Hayward and Irving spent exactly 5 minutes 15 seconds cohabitating the court as new teammatesbeforeitallcrumbledapart: Haywardgrimacinginagonynearone of the baskets after an alley-oop gone awry, his left leg fixed at a gruesome angle, his future suddenly uncertain.

Hayward, a 27-year-old forward who signedafour-year,$128millioncontract to join the Celtics in July, was eventu- Kyrie Irving in action during Celtic’s loss to Bucks ally wheeled off the floor on a stretcher with a fractured left tibia.

The Celtics seemed primed to challenge the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference this season, and perhaps they still can. But the reality is that so many of their hopes were wrapped up in Hayward, an outstanding shooter who figured to benefit from the attention that Irving draws from defenders. But Hayward’s absence leaves them with depleted depth on the wing.

Itisanobviouspoint,andonethatwas trueevenbeforetheylostHayward,but Irving will have an outsize role in dictating how the Celtics move forward from here. If he was eager to escape LeBron James’s colossal shadow, Irving has that chance now. He did not want it this way. But the rest of the league will be watching regardless.

How the Frightful Five Shake

How the Frightful Five Shake Down Startups in the Valley Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook & Microsoft have created an ecosystem that enriches themselves even when they don’t think of the best ideas first

Farhad Manjoo

New York: The tech giants are too big. But so what? Hasn’t that always been the case? As the men who run Silicon Valley will be the first to tell you, a company’s size doesn’t matter here. For every lumbering Goliath, there are always one or two smarter, faster Davids just now starting up in some fabled garage, getting ready to slay the giants when they least expect it.

So if you’re worried about the power of the Frightful Five — Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft — just look at how IBM, Hewlett-Packard or monopoly-era Microsoft fell to earth. They were all victims of “creative destruction,” of an “innovator’s dilemma,” the theories that bolster Silicon Valley’s vision of itself as a roiling sea of path-breaking upstarts, where the very thing that made you big also makes you vulnerable. Well, maybe not this time. The technology industry is now a playground for giants. Where10 or 20 years ago we looked to startups as a font of future wonders, today the energy and momentum have shifted almost completely to the big guys. In addition to the many platforms they own already, one or more of the five are on their way to owning artificial intelligence, voice assistants, virtual and augmented reality, robotics, home automation, and every other cool and crazy thing that will rule tomorrow.

Startups are still getting funding and still making breakthroughs. But their victory has never been likely (fewer than1% of startups end up as $1-billion companies) and recently their chances of breakout success — and especially of knocking the giants off their perches — have diminished considerably. The best startups keep being scooped up by the big guys (see Instagram and WhatsApp, owned by Facebook). Those that escape face merciless, sometimes unfair competition (their innovations copied, their projects litigated against). And even when the startups succeed, the five still win.

Because today’s giants are nimbler and more paranoid about upstart competition than the tech behemoths of yore, they have cleverly created an ecosystem that enriches themselves even when

ROLLING IN THE DEEP

they don’t think of the best ideas first. The five run server clouds, app stores, ad networks and venture firms, altars to which the smaller guys must pay a sizable tax just for existing. For the five, the startup economy has turned into a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose proposition — they love startups, but in the same way that orcas love baby seals. There is perhaps no better example of this dynamic than what has happened to Snap, the company that makes the disappearing messaging app Snapchat.

After failing to buy Snap several years ago, Facebook repeatedly tried to copy its key innovations. This year, when Facebook lifted Snapchat’s Stories feature for Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook’s main app, it seemed to deliver a death blow. — NYTNS

WhatsApp empowers women, kids with 'Live Location' feature

In a move that will help women and kids connect with their families and friends as they travel, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has introduced 'Live Location' feature.

The feature that allows people to share location in real-time with family or friends.

The end-to-end encrypted feature lets people control who they share with and for how long. You can choose to stop sharing at any time or let the Live Location timer simply expire.

"The Live Location feature in WhatsApp makes women feel confident about sharing their real-time location or a journey with someone close, so that it can be tracked for a purpose and privately," said Sohini Bhattacharya, CEO of Breakthrough, a non-profit organisation, in a statement on Wednesday.

This is how this feature works. Open a chat with the person or group you want to share with. Under "Location" in the attach button, there's a new option to "Share Live Location".

Choose for how long you want to share and tap send. Each person in the chat will be able to see your real-time location on a map.

And if more than one person shares their Live Location in the group, all locations will be visible on the same map.

Live Location is available on both Android and iPhone and will be rolling out in the app in the coming weeks.

This feature will prove to be extremely useful during disasters and crisis situations, as help and relief can be provided more effectively and quickly.

"For women, in unsafe and dangerous situations, it may be a helpful tool for police officials and families, as real-time locations can be shared easily in WhatsApp," said Ranjana Kumari from Centre for Social Research.

Crackdown on firecrackers sale: 1,200 kg crackers seized, 29 arrested

In a crackdown on sale of crackers, following the Supreme Court order restricting the sale and purchase of firecrackers in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR), the Delhi Police has seized over 1,200 kg of firecrackers and arrested 29 people for violating the ban from 13 districts.

"No firecracker shop in the capital would be allowed to open till November 1. We have seized more than 1,200 kg of firecrackers and made 29 arrests so far from various areas of Delhi. Dozens of firecracker shops were forced to shut on Tuesday," Delhi Police Spokesperson Madhur Verma said

Follwoing the Supreme Court order, Delhi Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik had asked Deputy Commissioners to ensure that no one violates the court directive.

Special teams of police have been deployed in all the districts to monitor the situation.

The police conducted surprise checks in various areas of Delhi during which five firecracker sellers were arrested from Sadar Bazar and Lahori Gate areas and Dozens of others were nabbed from different places.

The police has also forced the cracker sellers to stop selling it online following the top court’s directive.

The Supreme Court on October 9 said that its last month's order - which lifted its November 11, 2016 order, suspending all licences permitting the sale of firecrackers - would now be effective from November 1. Diwali falls on October 19.

Twitter plans new rules to curb violence, abuse

After Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced plans to act more aggressively on violence and sexual abuse, the micro-blogging website has now detailed new rules it will implement soon.

In an internal email which was obtained by Wired.com, Twitter's head of safety policy has emailed members of its Trust and Safety Council on new rules to promote free speech and curb violence and sexual harassment.

"We hope our approach and upcoming changes, as well as our collaboration with the Trust and Safety Council, show how seriously we are rethinking our rules and how quickly we're moving to update our policies and how we enforce them," Twitter said on Wednesday.

"We will immediately and permanently suspend any account we identify as the original poster/source of non-consensual nudity and/or if a user makes it clear they are intentionally posting said content to harass their target," the email read.

"If the account appears to be dedicated to posting non-consensual nudity then we will suspend the entire account immediately," it added.

On hate symbols and imagery, it said: "We are still defining the exact scope of what will be covered by this policy. At a high level, hateful imagery, hate symbols, etc will now be considered sensitive media (similar to how we handle and enforce adult content and graphic violence)".

On violent groups, Twitter said it will take enforcement action against organisations that use or have historically used violence as a means to advance their cause.

"Consistent interpretation and enforcement of our rules is our objective. We also need to remove the burden of reporting from those who are targeted. We've prioritised the work," Dorsey said in a tweet.

Tips to part-time English teaching

Have you ever wondered what it is like to work as an English teacher in China? Thousands of schools in Beijing advertise on the Internet offering attractive salaries and flexible working hours for native English speakers. Sounds like an amazing opportunity to gain some extra cash, right? Well, your perspective might change after you enter an office of a language school.

If you are a qualified English language teacher looking for a full-time job, then you are quite lucky. The process of getting a job is rather simple and most of the language schools provide visa sponsorship, accommodation and meals. You might even be offered airfare reimbursement.

If you are just a native English speaker without teacher’s qualifications, you still have a chance of getting a fulltime job in one of Beijing’s language centers. You can get 12,000-20,000 yuan ($1,817$3,028) per month, depending on your experience and university degree.

However, if you are just looking for a part-time position to earn some extra money in your free time, be prepared to undergo a long and painful process before your language school finally assigns you some students.

Signing a contract does not actually mean getting the job. It always depends on the students.

Most of the schools offer very expensive one-on-one tuition for students. In order to make sure that both the kids and their parents are satisfied with a new teacher, the school offers them a free demo class. This basically means that you will have to give the student a free 30-minute class before you get approved. Be ready to give several demos before you get a student – many Beijingers already know the system and enjoy walking from one school to another to get tester classes without charge.

As soon as you finally get your dream student, make sure you read the contract carefully. If you fail to meet all the teaching requirements, you will not be able to get the full compensation.

Were you more than 15 minutes late for your class?

Then you need to give a student an additional class without pay.

Did you cancel two classes this month? Well, in that case, half of your hourly rate would be deducted from the next two classes that you give.

In addition, do not expect to get your salary right after your first month of work. As schools are afraid that you might suddenly leave without notice, they usually keep your first salary as a “deposit” that will be returned to you at the end of your contract. Last but not least, do not attempt to talk to parents in order to make a good impression of a friendly foreigner. You are not allowed to contact them. Beijing language schools always panic if they see teachers approaching parents – since language centers serve as a middleman between the foreigners and Chinese parents they always suspect that you are trying to steal their customers.

It is a hard job, but if you are passionate about teaching and love children, give it a go. And remember the above tips and suggestions – being more careful will certainly make your experience more rewarding.