business
WhatsApp delays data sharing change after backlash
WhatsApp on Friday postponed a data-sharing change as users concerned about privacy fled the Facebook-owned messaging service and flocked to rivals Telegram and Signal. The smartphone app, a huge hit across the world, cancelled its February 8 deadline for accepting an update to its terms concerning sharing data with Facebook, saying it would use the pause to clear up misinformation around privacy and security. “We’ve heard from so many people how much confusion there is around our recent update,” WhatsApp said in a blog post. “This update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook.” It said it would instead “go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15.” The update concerns how merchants using WhatsApp to cha...
SON: We have initiated more measures to tackle importation of substandard products into Nigeria
File Photo The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) said it has devised more efficient measures against importation of substandard products to protect local manufacturers in the country. The Director-General of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim stated this during a visit to the organization’s office in Awka, Anambra State, on Saturday. According to Mallam Salim, the agency will continue to discourage importers of substandard products from short-changing unsuspecting consumers. He also announced plans to improve workers welfare and increase engagement with stakeholders in the country, noting that the move by the agency would help protect the interest of the business community while also safeguarding life and property. The Director-General assured that the organization would work with stakeholders ...
Chris Murphy, Longtime Manager of INXS, Dies at 66
“CM celebrated an illustrious career over 40 years and made an incredible impact on the global music and entertainment industry,” the statement continued. “Best known for taking his ‘band of brothers’ INXS to worldwide stardom, CM Murphy influenced the lives of many around the globe with his endless passion and drive. He will be greatly missed.” Led by the late Michael Hutchence, INXS was one of the most successful groups to emerge from Australia in the late 1970s and sold approximately 70 million records worldwide during their career. The surviving band members wrote in a tribute to Murphy, “Without Chris’s vision, passion and hard work, the INXS story would be totally different. Chris’s star burned very bright and we celebrate a life well lived and send all ...
Mikel Arteta delighted with new football chief appointment
Arsenal boss, Mikel Arteta, is delighted with the imminent arrival of new football chief Richard Garlick. Arteta has revealed his excitement at the appointment of Richard Garlick as the club’s director of football operations. Garlick, who currently holds the role of the Premier League’s director of football, will replace Huss Fahmy, who left the Gunners board in November. “We lost Huss at the start of the season,” said the Spaniard. “He had a really important role because it is a very important link between myself, Edu the technical director, the board, Vinai [Venkatesham]. “We needed a person with a lot of experience, who knows the job really well, has all the connections in English and international football. “As well, someone that can bring some ideas and some qualities that we believe ...
Ignoring Ban, Trump Supporters Traveled by the Busload to D.C. Rally With Help of Concert App
For some hardcore Trump supporters like Ben Philips, of Bloomburg, Pennsylvania, the income earned through the site augments an existing pro-MAGA business. Philips is the owner of the Trumparoo toy company, which makes stuffed kangaroo toys with a Trump-like tuft of orange hair that he sells to passengers in the van caravans he organizes on Eventbrite, charging $25 per person. (Eventbrite typically charges $.79 per ticket sold plus 4.5% fee for ticket sales on its platform.) On Jan. 6 Philips died on the steps of Capitol Hill from a sudden stroke, hours after he dropped off a van full of Trump supporters he met on the site at the presidential rally, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Passengers learned of Philips’ death when he didn’t return to the van. After multiple calls to his cel...
ASCAP & BMI Responds to DOJ’s Consent Decrees Inaction: Read the Open Letter
Read the full letter below. January 15, 2021 An Open Letter from ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews and BMI President and CEO Mike O’Neill in Response to the DOJ Closing Statement on the ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it would conduct a review of the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees to determine if they still served their intended purpose. Today, the DOJ has formally closed its review and will take no action to modify or terminate the decrees but left open the possibility of changes in the future. While we were disappointed that no action was taken, we are encouraged to see how the DOJ’s approach to these issues has evolved. In his closing remarks, AAG Makan Delrahim recognized several important truths that we have long understood: S...
U.S. imposes fresh sanctions on Iran in final days of Donald Trump presidency
The United States on Friday sanctioned companies in Iran, China and the United Arab Emirates for doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and on three Iranian entities over conventional arms proliferation. They are the latest in a series of measures aimed at stepping up pressure on Tehran in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s administration, which ends on Jan. 20. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington had sanctioned seven companies, including Chinese-based Jiangyin Mascot Special Steel Co. and UAE-based Accenture Building Materials, and two people for shipping steel to or from Iran. He said Iran’s Marine Industries Organization, Aerospace Industries Organization and the Iran Aviation Industries Organization had also been blacklisted over conven...
Save Our Stages Grants Aren’t Open Yet, But Here’s How Venues Can Get Ready
Who is eligible? The SOS Act was initially intended to solely support independent music venues when it was introduced in the summer of 2020. By the time it passed passed as part of the stimulus package in December, the now-called Shuttered Venue Operators (SVO) Grant program includes $15 billion for live performance venue operators and promoters, performing arts organizations, theatrical producers, talent representatives, motion-picture theatre operators and non-profit museums. Subsidiaries of these organizations can also be eligible. Businesses that fall under those categories must have been fully operational as of Feb. 29, 2020 and planning to continue operations in the future. In order to be eligible for the grant, the entities must be able to show at least 25% gross revenue loss in any...
Apple Music’s Africa Strategy Is Starting to Pay Off
“Africa has birthed a lot of special talents that have been creating amazing music for a long time and we’re happy to finally have the platforms and the means to share our music across the continent and to the rest of the world,” Tems tells Billboard. “[The Africa Rising program] allowed my music to reach new listeners and [has] also given my supporters and myself something to be excited about in these tough times.” ALL EYES ON AFRICA Over the past several years, labels, distributors and industry trade groups have turned their focus towards the African music market, and Apple Music is not the only streaming service making inroads on the continent, or supporting its local artists. (Tems, for example, was also included as part of the latest class of YouTube’s Foundry program, whi...
Jazmine Sullivan On Self-Confidence Struggles and Empowering Women In R&B
You followed an earlier three-year recording break with a five-year interlude. Are these breaks intentional or happenstance? As far as length of time, it’s not really intentional. I’ll just chill for a second and then a little break turns into a longer break. But as long as it turns out to be, I do feel breaks are necessary. Taking breaks when you’re younger, it feels different than when you’re older. For one thing, getting yourself back into the swing of things is different, both physically and vocally. I’m starting to understand that now. It’s a different kind of building back up as you get older … even things like getting up earlier and doing interviews. How has the pandemic inspired and challenged your singing and songwriting? I’m amazed people are telling me I sound stronger and...
China possibly committed ‘genocide’ against Xinjiang Muslims
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) said on Thursday that new evidence had emerged in the past year that “crimes against humanity – and possibly genocide – are occurring”. The CECC also accused China of harassing Uighurs in the US. China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in Xinjiang that it describes as “vocational training centres” to stamp out “extremism” and give people new skills, but others have called them concentration camps. The United Nations says at least one million Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang. Faith leaders, activist groups and others have said crimes against humanity, including genocide, are taking place there. Beijing denies abuse accusations. The CECC report called for a formal US “determination on whether atro...
Yung Bleu Manifested a Drake Feature, Now He’s Ready For a Joint EP
Bleu’s most prominent manifestation came last year when he declared that he would work with Drake. As fate would have it, Bleu’s dream became a reality when NBA star DeMarcus Cousins first listened to his EP Love Scars and fell in love with Bleu’s melodious single “You’re Mines Still.” Cousins texted Bleu and vowed to get Drake on the record. A week later, Bleu received an Instagram DM from the 6 God himself, gushing about the song’s potential and his desire to collaborate. Two weeks after “You’re Mines Still” was released, Bleu and Drake’s remix quickly followed. The love-drunk single swept through social media and ballooned into a massive hit for Bleu. Peaking at No. 52 on the Billboard Hot 100, “You&...
