Tag Archives: internet

What Are Venus Flytraps Doing With Magnetic Fields?

These predatory plants are more than meets the eye.
Photo: Adam Berry/Getty Images (Getty Images)

A team of researchers recently strapped a dismembered carnivorous plant to a sensitive instrument in Berlin, in a room that shuts out the world’s magnetic noise. It was a Venus flytrap’s “jaw”—really a specialized leaf—and when the team turned up the heat, the jaw summoned the energy to try to close. In that moment, a magnetic field emanated from the trap.

The field was picked up on an atomic magnetometer, an instrument that deduces a change in magnetic fields in the spin of electrons. The team’s research was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.

“The novelty here is that we show magnetic fields from a multicellular plant system; specifically, action potentials from multicellular plant system,” Anne Fabricant, an atomic physicist at Helmholtz Institute in Mainz, Germany, said in a video call. “And also that we use atomic magnetometers, because the previous two experiments were done with a different kind of magnetic magnetometer.”

The lab traps, with the single trap jaw being examined at bottom right.
Photo: Anne Fabricant (Other)

Magnetic fields had previously been observed in other plants; algae in one study, bean plants in another. The previous magnetometers, called SQUIDs, are large and run at very cool temperatures, and the team needed something more convenient for their use. Different actions on or by a plant can elicit the fields—from being wounded to trying to snap at food within its reach, as was the case with the flytrap. The magnetic field doesn’t correspond with the act itself but the action potential that precipitates the plant’s next move.

While a flytrap normally looks like a cross between Kermit the frog’s mouth and alien eyelids, the researchers excised just one of its flaps for study—the action potential would still occur, and using only one flap kept the object of inquiry still. The team increased the heat in the room as a non-invasive way of catalyzing the same action potential that occurs when the trap is trying to feed. When the action potential coursed through the plant, the electrons of the rubidium atoms in the sensors changed their rotation—to the team, evidence of the magnetic field’s existence.

Eat up, Venus. You deserve it.
Photo: Oli Scarff/Getty Images (Getty Images)

Fabricant, lead author of the new paper, said there wasn’t much doubt that a field would crop up; the issue was how to pick it up. When there are moving charges in physics, electrical and magnetic fields are produced. The trouble is having instruments that can detect them, as the flytrap’s field was found to be about a million times weaker than Earth’s magnetic field. That’s why the researchers had to conduct the search in such a magnetically silent room.

“If [the field were] too small, then we wouldn’t be able to measure it with our sensors,” Fabricant said, adding that, if multiple fields were created but in opposite directions, “they would cancel out when we tried to measure the whole trap. There was a big risk that we would just measure zero.”

Thankfully, that’s not what happened. They picked up magnetic signals with a 0.5 picotesla (very, very small) amplitude, providing evidence that the plant’s action potential results in a similar physical phenomena as other previously tested flora. This being the most complex plant yet examined, the flytrap’s field offers a hint at what else the plant kingdom may have in store.

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SpaceX filing reveals Starlink internet service has over 10,000 users

Public beta testing for SpaceX’s satellite-beamed internet service kicked off late last year for people in the US, Canada and the UK, and an FCC application (PDF) tells us a bit about how things are going so far. CNBC points out the filing, which seeks designation for Starlink as an eligible telecommunications carrier, and notes that SpaceX reports over 10,000 people are already using the service.

Starlink is seeking designation so it can access the millions of dollars it’s been granted from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to provide service across a number of states. The letter also notes that SpaceX already has more than 1,000 satellites in orbit (it just launched a few more last night), and that its network is showing it can provide more than 100/20 megabits per second connections, as well as less than 31ms of latency for 95 percent of round-trip measurements.

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SpaceX fires 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit, with more set to launch Friday – Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket climbs into a moonlit sky over Cape Canaveral after liftoff at 1:19 a.m. EST (0619 GMT) Thursday. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

Sixty more SpaceX-owned Starlink internet satellites rocketed through a moonlit winter sky over Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 launcher early Thursday, while another Falcon 9 stood on a different launch pad a few miles away to loft another 60 Starlink payloads Friday.

Nine Merlin 1D engines flashed to life and sent a rumble across Florida’s Space Coast at 1:19 a.m. EST (0619 GMT) Thursday. Hold-down clamps released to allow the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket to climb off pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The Falcon 9’s guidance system steered the rocket northeast from Cape Canaveral to align with planned orbital inclination of the Starlink satellites.

After surpassing the speed of sound, the Falcon 9 soared into the rarefied uppermost layers of the atmosphere and shed its 15-story first stage booster around two-and-a-half minutes into the flight. An upper stage engine ignited to continue accelerating into orbit with the 60 Starlink satellites, while the first stage — designed B1060 in SpaceX’s reusable rocket inventory — descended to an on-target landing on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” nearly 400 miles (630 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.

The first stage’s landing punctuated the fifth trip to space and back for this booster, and it broke a record for the fastest turnaround between flights of a SpaceX booster, besting the previous mark of 38 days set last month.

The booster on Thursday’s mission last flew Jan. 7 with the Turksat 5A communications satellite, just 27 days ago.

The Falcon 9’s upper stage reached a preliminary orbit with the 60 Starlink satellites about nine minutes after liftoff Tuesday, then reignited its engine for one second to maneuver into a targeted orbit ranging between 155 miles and 180 miles (250-by-291 kilometers) in altitude.

The 60 Starlink satellites deployed from the rocket a little more than an hour after liftoff, while flying over the Pacific Ocean near New Zealand.

With the fresh broadband relay stations launched Thursday, SpaceX’s Starlink fleet appears to have grown to more 1,000 active satellites, according to data gathered by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks global satellite and launch activity.

In total, the company has launched 1,085 satellites to date, including prototypes and failed spacecraft that are no longer in orbit.

Another 60 Starlink satellites are mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket awaiting liftoff from pad 39A, a few miles north of pad 40 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. That launch has been grounded several days to await better weather conditions in the offshore booster landing zone in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX briefly planned to launch both Falcon 9 rockets less than five hours apart early Thursday, but the company said Wednesday afternoon that the mission from pad 39A would be pushed back until Friday morning at 5:14 a.m. EST (1014 GMT) “to allow additional time for pre-launch checks.”

SpaceX has both of its ocean-going rocket landing platforms, or drone ships, deployed in the Atlantic Ocean for the two Starlink missions.

The two missions will be the 18th and 19th dedicated Falcon 9 flights for the Starlink network, which SpaceX is building out to provide broadband internet services around the world. Thursday’s mission was SpaceX’s fourth Falcon 9 launch of the year, and the 107th Falcon 9 flight overall since 2010.

SpaceX says the Starlink network is providing preliminary low-latency internet service to users in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom through a beta testing program. Commercial service will begin after SpaceX has its initial network of around 1,584 satellites in orbit, including spares.

The quarter-ton Starlink satellites are built by SpaceX technicians and engineers in Redmond, Washington.

The initial block of Starlink satellites, including the 60 launched Thursday, fly in mid-inclination orbits tilted 53 degrees to the equator. The new Starlink satellites will unfurl their solar panels and activate their automated krypton ion thrusters to reach their final operating positions in the network.

Once operational, they will orbit at an altitude of 341 miles, or 550 kilometers, to provide broadband coverage over nearly all of the populated world.

SpaceX plans to launch more Starlink satellites into polar orbit to enable global coverage for maritime and aviation customers, including the U.S. military. The company has regulatory approval to launch around 12,000 Starlink satellites.



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Texts reveal Armie Hammer complaining about being ‘kink shamed by the internet’

Armie Hammer complained about being ‘kink shamed by the internet’ after women came forward claiming he pressured them into indulging his perverse cannibal and rape fantasies, texts reveal.

The day after an anonymous Instagram account posted screenshots of messages and stories from multiple women outing the Hollywood star, Hammer messaged a friend about his outrage, saying it was ‘invasive and s****y to get kink shamed by the internet.’

But he also boasted that since his secret was spilled he had received ‘a lot of offers from girls who said I can eat pieces of them.’

The friend, who shared the screenshots with DailyMail.com, said Hammer had been sexting her for about six weeks before he was outed, and sent her audio recordings calling her his ‘perfect little w***e’ and ordering her to ‘give me 5 big orgasms.’

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she started talking to Hammer on Instagram in December, and within a day he opened up to her about his aggressive sexual fantasies and tried to persuade her to join in.

Armie Hammer has been rocked by disturbing claims of cannibalism and violating BDSM practices with multiple women, which his lawyer has denied 

Instagram messages between Armie Hammer and a friend show the actor saying he enjoys ‘choking someone just to the point where they are about to pass out’

‘I had one girl who we would role play that I had kidnapped her and was explaining to her that I kidnapped her because I knew she wanted it,’ Hammer wrote in the texts.

‘And then would explain how I was going to keep her and use her as long as I wanted. That’s called consensual non-consent. And I am very down.’

The Call Me By Your Name star said he was into dangerous fetishes including choking to the point of blackout.

‘Pleasure, choking someone just to the point where they are about to pass out but timing with when they are going to c** so they come to while they are c**ing and lose their s***. Also, great sex in general. It’s my favorite drug,’ he wrote.

In the texts Hammer then pushed the woman to record herself masturbating.

‘Because if we get in to this I will own those orgasms. So be my perfect little wh**e and give me 5 big orgasms. Followed by ‘thank you sir’. Go. And don’t text again till you’ve c*m 5 times,’ he wrote.

‘That’s my good girl. Tell me about it. Voice note or video. Voice note me. Tell me about it.’

Hammer also sent her a highly explicit audio recording of himself, which his exes say was very common when he was aroused.

‘I wanna hear about each orgasm,’ he said in the recording, in a rasping and sultry low voice. ‘I want you to tell me how it felt like, how strong each was, how long it lasted. Those are mine don’t forget so you have to tell me everything.’

Hammer messaged the woman he had been sexting for the past six weeks the next day, telling her the screenshots were ‘invasive and shi**ty’ 

Hammer told the woman, ‘I am happy. Life is good. This is just a hard moment. I am very happy. And very zen. Learning through every struggle and being grateful for it all’

‘I had one girl who we would role play that I had kidnapped her and was explaining to her that I kidnapped her because I knew she wanted it,’ Hammer wrote in the messages 

On January 10 Hammer’s name began trending on Twitter when anonymous Instagram account HouseOfEffie started sharing screenshots allegedly between Hammer and his exes, exposing sick fantasies including that he ‘wanted to cut off’ his girlfriend’s toe and ‘keep it in his pocket’, to take out and barbecue their ribs, keep them as his sex slaves, and to act out raping them.

Hammer texted the woman he had been sexting for the past six weeks the next day, telling her the screenshots were ‘invasive and shi**ty’.

‘I feel a bit overwhelmed to be honest. It’s very invasive and shi**ty to get kink shamed by the internet ha,’ he said.

‘I am happy. Life is good. This is just a hard moment. I am very happy. And very zen. Learning through every struggle and being grateful for it all.

‘I’ve gotten a lot of offers from girls who said I can eat pieces of them haha.’

The woman blocked him the next day and says she has not spoken to him since.

‘I started messaging him early to mid December. He was very responsive. It was from his official verified Instagram account,’ she said. ‘By the end of that day he was really interested in sexting and he was sending voice messages.

‘We had conversations over the few weeks which ranged from sexual… to mundane.

‘On the day that this account, HouseOfEffie, started to blow up, my friend texted me saying ‘Did you see how all of Twitter is talking about how Armie Hammer is a cannibal?’

‘I sent him a voice message saying how are you feeling and he said he felt he was being kink shamed over the internet.

‘He started to ask me things that started to turn really sexual again, and this is in the height of the scandals coming out. I blocked him after that and never talked to him again.’

In an interview with DailyMailTV last week Hammer’s ex Paige Lorenze said she believed some dangerous men hid behind the acceptance of the kink movement in order to abuse women 

Lorenze described their time together in Los Angeles as ‘like a real life 50 Shades Of Grey without the love’. Laying out more of his sick fantasies, Hammer begged the Instagram model to have her ribs removed, so that he could barbecue them 

In an interview with DailyMailTV last week Hammer’s ex Paige Lorenze said she believed some dangerous men hid behind the acceptance of the kink movement in order to abuse women.

‘I’m not trying to kink shame at all,’ Lorenze said. ‘But I think that dangerous men [sometimes] use this as like a smoke screen for abusing and hurting women for their own sexual pleasure.

‘I am holding him accountable and I think he knows that he’s caused a lot of women pain, even if he doesn’t want to admit it right now. And there is power in numbers.’

‘This [situation] is terrible, it’s so unfair on his children and I think everyone is just so disgusted and shocked.’

Lorenze, 22, who dated Hammer late last year, opened up in the interview about her ‘deeply traumatic’ relationship with the movie star, describing how it left her emotionally and physically scarred.

The former professional skier-turned-Instagram model provided DailyMailTV with an exclusive image of a sickening scar just millimeters away from her private parts that was left when Hammer allegedly carved his first initial ‘A’ into her skin during a kinky sex game.

She also revealed that Hammer allegedly learned how to tie women up by practicing on mannequins he stored in the basement of the $5.8 million home he shared with his estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers and their two young children in Los Angeles.

Lorenze claimed that Hammer talked about wanting to strangle his dog, a Welsh Terrier named Archie.

‘He would get angry at his dog and say like: ‘I’m going to kill this dog, I would have strangled him if you weren’t here,” she said, noting that she does not believe he ever hurt the animal.

Lorenze also revealed that Hammer allegedly learned how to tie women up by practicing on mannequins he stored in the basement of the $5.8 million home he shared with his estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers (pictured) and their two young children in Los Angeles

Lorenze’s story about the basement mannequins was supported by photos posted online by another alleged former lover, known on Instagram as Nastya D. Screenshots of messages (above) purportedly sent to Nastya D by Hammer showed a mannequin wrapped in red rope with what he called a ‘leash’ coming out of the back

Lorenze said Hammer often tied her up, hit her with paddles and planned out ‘high protocol nights’ of painful sexual moves, which often left her covered in bruises.

She said her lover – 12 years her senior – was ‘sweet and kind’ but ‘manipulative’.

‘I think he definitely loved it that I was younger. He always had me wear lingerie and tied me up,’ she said.

‘I just kind of agreed to it and let it happen, I was just trying to please him.

‘He would say things like: ‘I want to bite a piece of your skin off and eat it,’ he would bite me so hard. Sometimes it would basically break skin.’

A lawyer for Hammer has categorically denied the allegations against him, calling them ‘patently untrue’.

‘Any interactions with this person, or any partner of his, were completely consensual in that they were fully discussed, agreed upon, and mutually participatory,’ Hammer’s attorney said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

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Jack Ma tension with Beijing casts shadow over Alibaba’s future

HANGZHOU, CHINA – NOVEMBER 13: Alibaba founder Jack Ma attends the 5th World Zhejiang Entrepreneurs Convention at Hangzhou International Expo Centre on November 13, 2019 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province of China.

VCG | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China — Jack Ma, Alibaba’s high-profile founder appears to be on the wrong side of the Chinese government, sparking a chain of events that has upped regulatory scrutiny on the e-commerce giant and cast uncertainty over its future.

Even after Alibaba reported December-quarter earnings above expectations, analysts and experts have warned that Ma’s friction with Beijing could hurt growth.

“Investors are looking at Alibaba with a much more careful eye after having been attracted by the growth story and the founder’s global profile,” Rebecca Fannin, author of “Tech Titans of China,” told CNBC by email.

“The current frictions are a new reality for investors who may not have carefully considered how the company’s rise as a powerful tech titan could be a threat to the status quo.”

It began in October when Ma made some negative comments about Chinese financial regulators just days ahead of the initial public offering (IPO) of Ant Group in Shanghai and Hong Kong, which would have been the world’s biggest. Ma also founded Ant Group and Alibaba owns about a third of the company.

There are two major concerns now. First, that Ant Group could be forced to restructure and even scale back some of its businesses like lending which has driven its growth. Such moves could seriously slash its valuation. The second concern is whether regulators might force Alibaba to break up or change parts of it core commerce business, which is its biggest profit driver.

“For now the greatest risk seems to be around investors’ confidence in the Alibaba brand and ecosystem,” Neil Campling, head of tech, media and telecom research at Mirabaud Securities, told CNBC by email.

“But if there is tighter regulation for the core drivers of the Alibaba platform then it could certainly stunt the growth of Alibaba. After all innovation and intricate weaving of the different aspects of the ecosystem combine to bring economies of scale and growth.”

Campling has a long-term buy rating on Alibaba’s stock.

Just ‘noise’ for long-term investors

Fannin believes Ma’s friction with Beijing will “ease up” but it will take some “agility on Alibaba’s part to deal with government pressure, changing consumer needs in a digital economy, and investor concerns.”

Alibaba’s U.S.-listed stock has been under pressure since the Ant Group IPO was pulled, falling from a record closing high of $317.14 on Oct. 27 to $254.50 at the close on Tuesday, a nearly 20% drop.

But some analysts and investors remain bullish.

Mizuho increased its price target on the stock from $270 to $285 on Tuesday saying the “stock (is attractive with the regulatory overhang mostly priced in.”

Matthew Schopfer, head of research at Infusive, an asset manager which is invested in Alibaba, said that the recent concern around the tech giant “will prove to be noise for the long-term investor.”

“Alibaba is a leading example of China’s technological capabilities and we do not expect the government to permanently damage the business. Additionally, heightened regulation will only further entrench the scale players like Alibaba,” Schopfer told CNBC by email.

“When we get to the other side of these regulatory headwinds, we think the market will again focus on Alibaba and its platforms as a critical part of the Chinese consumer’s everyday life and a major beneficiary from growth in Chinese spending power and the increasing digitalization of consumption.”

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Alibaba looking to raise up to $5 billion in U.S. dollar bond issuance

Signage for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. covers the front facade of the New York Stock Exchange November 11, 2015.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Alibaba will be taking advantage of the low interest rate environment in the U.S. right now by issuing the bonds.

The company said the proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital needs, repayment of offshore debt and potential acquisitions of, or investments in, complementary businesses.

So-called “sustainability notes” will also be issued with the proceeds going toward green projects such as renewable energy, the company said.

Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and CICC are the underwriters for the deal.

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India cuts internet around New Delhi as protesting farmers clash with police

Online access would be suspended in at least 14 of 22 districts in Haryana state near New Delhi, until 5 p.m. Monday, according to the Department of Information and Public Relations of Haryana on Sunday. That order was first imposed Tuesday in three Haryana districts for 24 hours, but has been extended every day since.

A 48-hour internet shutdown was also imposed in three other areas around Delhi’s borders late on Friday, with India’s Ministry of Home Affairs saying the move was “in the interest of maintaining public safety and averting public emergency.”

According to officials, those blackouts should have lifted on Sunday night, but Paramjeet Singh Katyal, a spokesperson for Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body representing protesting farmers, said the internet was still not working as of Monday.

The internet restrictions came after violent scenes last week as demonstrations continue against three agricultural laws passed in September. Since late November, hundreds of thousands of protesters have gathered on the outskirts of New Delhi to demonstrate against changes they say they weren’t consulted on and which will hurt their livelihoods.

On Tuesday last week — a national holiday known as Republic Day that marks the anniversary of the enactment of the country’s constitution — thousands of protesters stormed New Delhi’s historic Red Fort as police used tear gas and batons against the demonstrators.

Dozens of officers were injured and one protester died when a tractor overturned during the protests near Delhi police headquarters, police said Wednesday. More than 100 protesters are still missing, Samyukta Kisan Morcha said Sunday.

An internet shutdown was also imposed in areas around New Delhi from midday to midnight on Tuesday.

Darshan Pal, a leader from Samyukta Kisan Morcha, condemned the internet shutdowns, calling the moves “undemocratic.”

“The government does not want the real facts to reach protesting farmers, nor their peaceful conduct to reach the world,” Pal said in a statement Sunday. “It wants to spread its false spin around farmers. It is also fearful of the coordinated work of the farmers’ unions across different protest sites and is trying to cut off communication means between them.”

Nevertheless, farmers are still joining the protests, Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s Katyal said Monday. “Typically these village groups work against each other but this time they have all united for the collective fight,” Katyal said.

Additional deputy commissioner of police in Delhi, Jeetendra Meena, said police had deployed more forces at the border in case any protests break out Monday.

Concerns over democracy

Although India is the world’s most populous democracy, it also topped the world in terms of internet shutdowns in 2019, according to Access Now, an advocacy group which tracks internet freedom.
In 2019, the government imposed a months-long internet blackout in Indian-controlled Kashmir after India rewrote the constitution to remove Kashmir’s protected autonomy.
That same year, authorities shut down internet in other areas, including in parts of New Delhi, amid widespread protests against a controversial citizenship law considered by many to be discriminatory against Muslims.
The approach is controversial. In India, some individual shutdowns have been challenged in the courts, and there is an ongoing effort to change the country’s laws to make such blackouts more difficult to impose.

The shutdowns also come against the backdrop of rising concerns about press freedom in India.

On Saturday, Mandeep Punia, a freelance journalist covering the protests, was arrested on the border between Delhi and Haryana, Punia’s lawyer Akram Khan told CNN Monday.

Punia has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days from Sunday, accused of obstructing a public servant from discharging his duty and voluntarily causing hurt and assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from duty.

“(The) accused was merely carrying out his journalistic duties and another journalist was detained along with him but was released around midnight,” according to an application for Punia’s bail.

But Delhi police’s Meena said Punia was not carrying an ID card when he was caught in a scuffle between villagers and protesters. Meena said Punia incited the farmers and pushed police.

Devdutta Mukhopadhyay of Internet Freedom Foundation, a non-governmental organization, said the government was using “extremely draconian” measures and the internet suspension was disproportionate. Online access remains restricted in the majority of Haryana, which impacts not just protesters but citizens who have been forced to work and study from home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

She said there had been reports of mob violence against protesters, and added that it was important for farmers to put forward their side of the story as unbalanced reporting could foster a negative opinion among the public.

The shutdown could set a “very dangerous precedent,” she added.

“It’s not like you are taking down specific posts or pages that you think are false or inflammatory, this is you shutting down an entire medium of communication.”

Last week, India’s Congress Party, along with 15 other Opposition parties, wrote a joint letter, condemning the way the protesters had been handled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, calling their response “arrogant, adamant and undemocratic.”

Why farmers are protesting

The massive farmer protests have been a significant challenge to Modi as months of demonstrations and sit-ins across the country against his key agricultural policy have grown into a stalemate marked by deadlocked talks between farmers and his administration.

For decades, the Indian government offered guaranteed prices to farmers for certain crops, providing long-term certainty that, in theory, allowed them to make investments for the next crop cycle. The new rules allow farmers to sell their goods to anyone for any price — giving them more freedom to do things such as sell directly to buyers and sell to other states.

But farmers argue that the new rules will leave them worse off by making it easier for corporations to exploit agricultural workers, and help big companies drive down prices. While farmers could sell crops at elevated prices if the demand is there, conversely, they could struggle to meet the minimum price in years when there is too much supply in the market.

The laws have been so contentious because agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58% of India’s 1.3 billion population, and farmers have been arguing for years to get the minimum guaranteed prices increased. They are the biggest voter block in the country — making farming a central political issue.

The government has held rounds of talks with leaders of more than 30 farmers’ unions that are opposed to the laws — but the talks have gone nowhere.

Last month, India’s Supreme Court issued an order putting the three contentious farm laws on hold and ordered the formation of a four-member mediation committee to help the parties negotiate. But farmers’ leaders have rejected any court-appointed mediation committee.

According to Samyukta Kisan Morcha, at least 147 farmers have died during the course of the months-long protests from a range of causes, including suicide, road accidents and exposure to cold weather. Authorities have not given an official figure on protester deaths.



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Verizon FiOS Cable Cut, Internet Outage Hits East Coast

Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)

A strange outage is impacting internet users in the Northeast U.S. It’s not entirely clear what is going on, but it sure is annoying.

Around noon on Tuesday, outage reports began pouring in, according to DownDetector, which tracks online service outages. But it’s not limited to one company; users reported issues with Comcast, Google, Zoom, YouTube, Slack, Amazon Web Services, and many others. (AWS’s own status page indicates that its services are operating normally, for what it’s worth.)

While the cause (or causes) remains unconfirmed, a cut Verizon fiber optic cable in Brooklyn, New York, may be the culprit. Verizon’s customer support confirmed on Twitter that one of its cables had been severed, and customers said they received notice of the outage via email.

Not all services, nor all users, appeared to be affected equally. Even among the New York-based Gizmodo staff, the problem seems just… weird. One editor could access Slack fine, but Google services were down. Others experienced slower response times while still being able to access all services they attempted to use.

At the time of writing, several services, including Google and Zoom, appear to be coming back online. Others remain inaccessible for some users.

A Verizon spokesperson said in an email that they are looking into the issue.

An AWS spokesperson said the issue was related to an internet service provider and not AWS itself. In an email, a Google spokesperson echoed AWS, saying in a statement, “We are aware of reports regarding issues affecting access to some Google products, but have not found issues with our services. We’re continuing to investigate.”

We’ve also reached out to Comcast for clarity on the outage and will update when we hear back. If the outage is impacting you, let us know what you’re seeing in the comments.

Update 1:25 PM ET, Jan. 26: AWS confirmed that issues customers experienced were related to an internet service provider, not AWS. Google said it’s investigating the issue but has found no problems with its services.



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Apple, Tesla and Facebook ready to report record sales in busiest week of earnings

U.S. companies have barely managed to eke out positive earnings growth so far in this quarterly results season, but the big test arrives in the week ahead.

Nearly a quarter of the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.30%
is set to report results, with those companies representing 39% of the index by market value, according to calculations based on FactSet data. Given that the S&P 500 is weighted by market capitalization, this roster of companies will have an outsize impact on the profit trajectory for the index.

Earnings are expected to decline for the fourth consecutive quarter once all results are in for the latest period, but those companies that have reported thus far have been beating expectations in aggregate.

The FactSet consensus now models a 5% earnings decline for the index, compared with the 6.3% drop projected a week ago. If profit growth for the S&P 500 ultimately ends up positive, it would mark an end to the current earnings recession, which takes place when corporate profits drop for two or more consecutive quarters.

Apple Inc.
AAPL,
+1.61%
and Facebook Inc.
FB,
+0.60%
are among the highlights of next week’s slate, along with Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+0.20%,
which will deliver results for the first time since it became a member of the S&P 500. All three high-profile companies are scheduled to report Wednesday afternoon and expected to have produced record revenue in the holiday quarter.

The holiday quarter is always crucial for Apple, which releases new iPhones in the fall. With a slightly later launch than usual this year due to the pandemic pushing sales into the period, Apple is widely expected to post its largest quarterly revenue total ever and its first ever total above $100 billion. The technology giant likely also continued to see benefits from remote-work and remote-schooling trends, which have driven strong iPad and Mac sales throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

Full preview: Get ready for Apple’s first $100 billion quarter in history

Facebook is also expected to post what should easily be a record quarter given strong digital advertising trends during the holiday period. Still, the company will face questions about user engagement and a decision to ban Donald Trump from the platform indefinitely over his role in inciting the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol. Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik points to “continued usage fatigue” across social media as well as a “conversation skewed towards unmonetizable political events.”

Full preview: Facebook earnings still flourishing amid pandemic, economic slowdown and antitrust scrutiny

Tesla already disclosed delivery numbers for the full year that came in ahead of analyst expectations, and all eyes will be on the company’s outlook for 2021. RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak anticipates a delivery forecast of 825,000 to 875,000 million units for the full year, even though Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tesla’s last earnings call that an analyst was “not far off” for expecting 840,000 to a million deliveries during 2021.

Full preview: Can Tesla’s sales growth match stock’s rise?

Here’s what else to watch for in the week ahead, which brings reports from 117 members of the S&P 500 and 13 Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.57%
components.

Up in the air

Boeing Co.’s
BA,
-0.76%
journey remains turbulent even as the company’s 737-MAX jets were recertified after being grounded for almost two years. Though the company began deliveries of these aircraft, “the pace of delivering all 450 parked 737-MAX will be dictated by airline customers ability to absorb aircraft as well as air traffic demand,” according to Benchmark Company analyst Josh Sullivan.

Boeing’s Wednesday morning report will offer perspective on the company’s recovery expectations amid the pandemic, though Sullivan sees volatility ahead stemming from a recent equity offering and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on airlines.

The fourth-quarter reports from U.S. airlines have been bleak so far, and American Airlines Group Inc.
AAL,
-0.06%
and Southwest Airlines Co.
LUV,
-0.80%
offer more on Thursday morning.

Can you hear me now?

Verizon Communications Inc.
VZ,
+0.35%
leads off a busy week of telecommunications earnings Tuesday morning, followed by AT&T Inc.
T,
+0.35%
Wednesday morning and Comcast Corp.
CMCSA,
-0.92%
Thursday morning.

For the wireless carriers, a key issue will be the impact of iPhone 12 promotions on recent results. Investors will also be looking for information about a recent wireless auction offering spectrum that will be crucial for 5G network deployments. Though the bids haven’t been made public yet, the auction drove record spending and AT&T and Verizon are both expected to have paid up handsomely to assert their standing. The question for investors is what impact these bids will have on the companies’ financial positioning.

Full preview: AT&T earnings to kick off a defining year for telecom giant

AT&T and Comcast have more media exposure than Verizon, and those two companies have been trying to contend with the new realities brought on by the pandemic. Both companies have made moves to emphasize streaming more with their film slates given theater closures, and the financial implications of these moves will be worth watching.

Paying up

The evolving situation with the pandemic is reflected perhaps no more clearly than in the results of Visa Inc.
V,
-1.52%,
Mastercard Inc.
MA,
-1.63%,
and American Express Co.
AXP,
-1.01%,
which have a pulse on the global consumer spending landscape. The companies should provide insight on a travel recovery toward the end of the year, as well as the impact of recent lockdowns.

Susquehanna analyst James Friedman wrote recently that his Mastercard revenue projection of $3.97 billion is slightly below the consensus view, though he also asked: “does anyone really care about Q4 2020?” Friedman is upbeat about mobile-payments and online-shopping dynamics that suggest “positive trends ahead” for Mastercard, which reports Thursday morning. Visa follows that afternoon, while American Express kicks of the week with its Tuesday morning report.

The chip saga continues

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
AMD,
+1.38%
is poised to keep benefiting from Intel Corp.’s
INTC,
-9.29%
stumbles, which analysts expect to last for some time even as Intel prepares for a new, technology-oriented chief executive to take the helm.

“We have low confidence that Intel will be able to close that transistor gap quickly, and therefore expect it to continue to lose share for the foreseeable future,” Jefferies analyst Mark Lipacis wrote after Intel’s latest earnings report. AMD will show how that dynamic has played out on its side of the equation when it posts numbers Tuesday afternoon.

Full preview: If Intel gets its act together, can AMD maintain swollen valuation?

Other chip makers reporting in the week ahead include Texas Instruments Inc.
TXN,
-1.31%
on Tuesday afternoon; Xilinx Inc.
XLNX,
+1.26%,
which is in line to be acquired by AMD, on Wednesday afternoon report, when it will be joined by chip-equipment maker Lam Research Corp.
LRCX,
-0.06%
; and Western Digital Corp.
WDC,
-5.23%
on Thursday afternoon.

Busy week for the Dow

Among the 13 members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.57%
set to report this week are 3M Co
MMM,
-0.96%.
, Johnson & Johnson
JNJ,
+1.13%,
American Express, Verizon, and Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+0.44%,
all of which report Tuesday.

“Near term, we see the company’s COVID-19 vaccine readout as a key upcoming catalyst and believe efficacy in the 80%+ range would suggest a clear role for the product in the market,” J.P. Morgan analyst Chris Schott wrote of Johnson & Johnson.

Cowen & Co. analyst J. Derrick Wood sees tough comparisons for Microsoft especially in its Azure and server businesses, though he expects a more favorable situation going forward.

Full preview: SolarWinds hack may actually be a good thing for Microsoft

Wednesday brings results from Boeing and Apple, while Thursday features McDonald’s Corp.
MCD,
-0.07%,
Dow Inc.
DOW,
-0.10%,
and Visa. Honeywell International Inc.
HON,
-1.45%,
Chevron Corp.
CVX,
-0.30%,
and Caterpillar Inc.
CAT,
-0.13%
round out the week Friday morning.

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