The setback has not thrown Ogallo off-track.

Islamabad : The founder of Islamabad Chamber for Small Traders and former President ICCI Shahid Rasheed Butt on Saturday lauded the decision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to restart the economy revival.The COVID-19 will affect the economy for months, maybe years, but reopening businesses cannot...

CES 2014, LAS VEGAS – HARMAN, the premium global audio and infotainment group (NYSE:HAR), unveiled two new services for the automotive market that leverage the Aha by HARMAN Cloud Platform and HARMAN’s infotainment system design leadership to ensure safe, personalized and connected driving experiences throughout the life of the vehicle. Extending beyond the popular Aha Radio interactive content service, the new Aha Updates and Aha Analytics services take HARMAN’s expertise and investments in cloud infrastructure into new directions.

Global smartphone leader Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Thursday confirmed expectations for its first annual profit decline since 2011, although a pickup in the fourth quarter hinted that earnings may have stabilized in the short term.

Get intel on the boss's attacks and strategies to defeat it.

It seems clear now why the Trump administration fought so hard to avoid making public the details of the waivers it granted to White House staffers who might otherwise have been in violation of the president's self-imposed ethics rules. They show that President Donald Trump, who made "drain the swamp" a campaign battle cry, has enlisted numerous swamp-dwellers—former lobbyists, consultants, corporate executives—to staff key positions in his White House and has granted them broad exemptions to work on issues directly related to their former jobs and clients.

After repeatedly slamming DC lobbyists during the campaign, Trump used one of his first executive orders to lay out ethics rules for his new administration. The January 28 order barred Trump officials from working on issues related to their former employers for at least two years, and these rules applied not only to lobbyists, but to anyone who worked for a business or organization potentially affected by federal policy decisions. The prohibitions were not absolute: Waivers would be available in certain cases.

The Trump administration initially balked when the Office of Government Ethics demanded the White House hand over the waivers it had granted. But after a standoff the administration relented late Wednesday and released about 14 waivers covering White House staffers. They make clear that Trump's ethics rules are remarkably flexible and that his top staffers don't need to worry too much about staying on the right side of them. On paper, Trump's rules are similar to those imposed by President Barack Obama, but it appears that Trump is far more willing to hand out exemptions. At this point in the Obama administration, just three White House staffers had been granted ethics waivers. So far, Trump has granted 14, including several that apply to multiple people.

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and adviser Kellyanne Conway were both granted waivers to deal with issues involving their previous employers. In the case of Priebus, this narrowly applies to the Republican National Committee. But Conway is now free to work on issues involving her ex-clients from her previous life as an operative and pollster—clients that included political campaigns, nonprofit activist groups, and corporations.

Conway's relationships with these clients were murky to begin with; she was never required to disclose who she worked for. We do know that she repped virulently anti-immigration and anti-Muslim groups. The names of some of her corporate clients also have trickled out, including Major League Baseball, Hasbro, American Express, and Boeing. The waiver may have been granted to help smooth the way for Conway after evidence emerged that she continued to operate own her polling and consulting company even after she'd gone to work in the White House—a possible violation of conflict-of-interest laws that drew the attention of congressional Democrats who have begun probing her relationship with the company.

Conway's waiver was not retroactive, but there is another that specifically allows White House employees to communicate freely with former employers and coworkers at media organizations—and applies back to January 20. Trump's executive order didn't simply prohibit any of his hires from working on matters relating to a former employer—it specifically covered "any meeting or communication relating to the performance of one's official duties." This means at least two of Trump's top aides, former Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon and his assistant Julia Hahn, would be prohibited from chatting with their former colleagues at Breitbart about anything work-related—a rule that Bannon appears not to have followed. While not named, it seems likely that protecting the Breitbart alums from ethics complaints was the aim.

Another takeaway from Trump's waivers is that they appear to be far less restrictive than Obama administration waivers. Many Obama waivers (there were only 10 total granted to White House employees during his administration) were very narrowly tailored. For example, James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, was granted a waiver to allow him to introduce Bill Clinton at an event for the Atlantic Council, even though Jones had previously worked for the group. John Brennan, at the time one of Obama's deputy national security advisers, had previously worked for The Analysis Company, and he was granted a waiver to use the company's data while investigating the so-called "Underwear Bomber" incident. Brennan was not cleared to talk to any of the company's employees, however.

Trump's waivers, on the other hand, are broad.

For instance, Trump granted a waiver to Michael Catanzaro, who is the president's most senior energy policy aide, allowing him to work freely on "broad policy matters and particular matters of general applicability relating to the Clean Power Plan, the WOTUS [Waters of the United States] rule, and methane regulations." Catanzaro worked as a registered lobbyist for several oil and gas companies as recently as January, which made the waiver necessary. On his most recent lobbying disclosure form—filed on behalf of one of his clients, natural gas company Noble Energy—Catanzaro wrote that he was working on "EPA and BLM's proposed and final regulations covering methane emissions from new and existing oil and gas facilities." Nearly identical language appears in his most recent lobbying disclosure on behalf of another natural gas company, Encana. In other words, Catanzaro is now making policy on the very issues he was paid by corporations to lobby on. There are no restrictions in Catanzaro's waiver relating to his previous clients.

Another lobbyist turned Trump aide is Shahira Knight, who was previously employed as vice president of public policy for mutual fund giant Fidelity and now serves as Trump's special assistant for tax and retirement policy. Her waiver grants her permission to work on "matters of general applicability relating to tax, retirement and financial services issues." Fidelity's most recent lobbying report—filed while Knight ran its lobbying shop—lists the main issue areas targeted by the company's lobbyists: finance, retirement, banking, and taxes.

While the Obama administration reluctantly granted waivers for narrow sets of circumstances, the Trump waivers appear to be written to carefully exempt the previous lobbying work done by White House aides.

And this is just the beginning. The administration released only the waivers granted to White House employees—the release does not include waivers granted to administration officials who work for federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency or the Treasury Department. The White House will turn those waivers over to the Office of Government Ethics on Thursday, but it's not clear when they will be made public.

Spot Release 2.0, launching today, includes improvements to navigation, autonomy, stair climbing, and more

Should you sign that contract? Can you remix or cover any song you want? What’s a split sheet? Chances are you’ve encountered a few tough questions related to music law, and if you haven’t yet, trust us. You will.

On this week's podcast, Canadian music lawyer Byron Pascoe of Edwards PC Creative Law walks us through general music law FAQs that will empower you to make good decisions. We also cover common music law agreements - from producer to management agreements - and related negotiation strategies and red flags.

Whether you're just launching your career or scaling the summit to the top of the industry, you're sure to pick up some helpful tips.

This episode is adapted from a recent music business webinar from Canadian Musician and NWC Webinars. To sign up for free webinars and access recordings of all of our previous sessions, visit www.nwcwebinars.com.

Darryl Ballantyne, CEO of Toronto-based lyric licensing company LyricFind, joins us to discuss the quickly-growing business of displaying lyrics, from Google searches to merchandise and a lot more. We get into how the licensing deals for lyrics work and, yes, the legal dispute between Genius Media and Google that had LyricFind caught right in the middle.

We also touch on a number of new initiatives that LyricFind has announced over the past year, including partnerships with fizy in Turkey, MPA/PMLL in the U.K.. and some Canada-specific content, like the funding from the Canadian Government to promote and export Canadian content through lyrics and lyric translations and to bring the stories found in Indigenous songs to all Canadians. That includes some interesting insight into the process of translating various Indigenous languages.

Born 200 years ago on May 12, she's famous for her work in nursing, but was an accomplished medical statistician as well.

Happy birthday, Psalm West! Today is an especially sweet Mother's Day weekend for Kim Kardashian because her youngest is celebrating his first birthday. We can't believe...

Happy birthday, Psalm West! Today is an especially sweet Mother's Day weekend for Kim Kardashian because her youngest is celebrating his first birthday. We can't believe...

Australia’s frontline white ball spinner, Adam Zampa, is poised to leave South Australia in the off-season for a move back home to New South Wales.

If COVID-19 has spawned in you a desire to grow veggies and raise chooks, you might be among a demographic cohort tipped to create a wave of post-pandemic migration.

Happy birthday, Psalm West! Today is an especially sweet Mother's Day weekend for Kim Kardashian because her youngest is celebrating his first birthday. We can't believe...

Learn how to take simple x/y coordinates, and create map polygons shaped like holiday images, that can be plotted using SAS/Graph's PROC GMAP.

SAS admins need to know about these menu options that may not be available in SAS Visual Analytics Viewer.

 This paper presents the essential information that you need to get started with ODS Graphics in SAS 9.4.

There are several logistics deals in the pipeline that would likely be closed as early as by June.

The post Indonesia’s B2C logistics startups see deal traction as demand soars for last-mile services appeared first on DealStreetAsia.

Meet Sweety! The Ragdoll cat who gets into some cute crazy (yet very relatable) shenanigans!

Created by artist @redfur_13.art, who shared on her Webtoons bio, "My name is Red, and I own a young ragdoll cat named Sweety. She had two litters when she was young, and now has a forever home with me. "

You can follow the comic series, which updates twice a week) on Instagram or Webtoons! 

May 10 is Mother's Day and like many other Bollywood celebrities, Shilpa Shetty took out time to talk about what an "incredible example of strength, dignity, ethics and love" her mother has been for her as well as her sister Shamita. "I am so grateful to God for blessing me with 'this' mother in this life, who has loved and supported me unconditionally and selflessly. She has been an incredible example of strength, dignity, ethics and love to both Shamita and me and moulded us into the individuals we are today. The moral and spiritual values that she gave us throughout our formative years make for such a beautiful gift - one that can never be repaid," said Shilpa.

Shilpa used TikTok's in-app campaign #ThanksMaa to thank her mother. She created a video using TikTok's photo template to express love for her mom on this special occasion. It features beautiful photographs of the actress along with her mother.

She also thanked her mother-in-law, "who encourages me with pride in all my endeavours", adding: "None of this would have ever been possible without your love and blessings". Meanwhile, to make the day even more memorable, cricketers David Warner, Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan and actress Hansika Motwani will be going live on TikTok at 11 am on May 10.

Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news

Italy's health authorities said Wednesday they had recorded more than 160 cases of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus, in what one expert said could be the first outbreak outside the tropics.

It's a competitive world out there, where everyone, right from school going kids to top business tycoons are strugglin

This policy paper provides new evidence on the link of labour market regulation, bankruptcy legislation, financial market development and R&D support policies with growth dynamics. The study goes beyond looking at differences in average growth rates as it analyses changes in the whole distribution of firms.

This workshop sought to address whether the data we are using to measure and analyse globalisation is up to the task, and if it isn’t, what could be done.

Patent data provide an increasingly used means to analyse innovation performance worldwide including in countries with incomplete data coverage, such as some developing countries. This paper discusses the specific issues associated with using patent data for measuring and analysing innovation in narrow technological fields, such as many environment-related technologies.

The report provides a description of start-up dynamics exploiting the richness of the recently collected DynEmp v.2 database. The contribution of new firms in terms of new jobs to the existing workforce can be expressed as a combination of four different elements: the start-up rate; the average size of firms at point of entry; the survival rate; and the average growth rate of survivors.

In 2014, many countries implemented the latest international guidelines for compiling FDI statistics. The new standards have resulted in significant changes in FDI statistics, including new measures of FDI at the global level.

In order to safeguard their competitiveness in an increasingly digitalised global economy, governments across OECD and emerging economies are implementing a range of policy measures/programmes to support investment in and use of robotics. This paper assesses the extent to which robotics impact the organisation of production through offshoring and backshoring.

Governments in OECD and emerging economies are betting heavily on robotics to safeguard the competitiveness of their manufacturing industries. This paper examines the importance of industrial robotics as a driver of production and trade quality.

Specific country notes have been prepared using data from the database OECD Health Statistics 2015, July 2015 version. The notes are available in PDF format.

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Hungary decreased by 1.6 percentage points from 38.2% in 2017 to 36.6% in 2018. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

The tax-to-GDP ratio in France did not change between 2017 and 2018. The tax-to-GDP ratio remained at 46.1%. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of0.1 percentage points from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

Specific country notes have been prepared using data from the database OECD Health Statistics 2015, July 2015 version. The notes are available in PDF format.

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Iceland decreased by 0.8 percentage points from 37.5% in 2017 to 36.7% in 2018. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Greece decreased by 0.2 percentage points from 38.9% in 2017 to 38.7% in 2018. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Italy did not change between 2017 and 2018. The tax-to-GDP ratio remained at 42.1%. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

The 2012 Technology Foresight Forum will focus on the potential of big data analytics as a new source of growth, which could help generate significant economic and social benefits

This report takes an initial look at methodologies to measure and estimate the monetary value of personal data, which is creating economic and social value at an increasing pace. But measuring and estimating its value is difficult. This is because not only a huge amount of personal data is being generated, but also as it is used in many different situations and for numerous purposes.

Health care has fundamentally changed as a calling and as a business. Today, another revolution is underway, driven by ICTs, or what we might call tele-technoscience, and responding to what a new OECD report identifies as “social and demographic changes, the rise in chronic diseases, and the need to improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery”.

This report examines what economic theory can teach us about the reasons why the adoption of this latest Internet protocol is taking longer than was thought at its introduction.

This working paper describes the potential of the proliferation of new sources of large volumes of data, sometimes also referred to as "big data", for informing policy making in several areas. It also outlines the challenges that the proliferation of data raises for the production of official statistics and for statistical policies.