Elon Musk Denies Report Of Potential Starlink IPO Next Year

Elon Musk on Wednesday denied a report that his rocket company SpaceX was discussing an initial public offering (IPO) for its satellite internet business, Starlink, as soon as 2024.

He called it "false" in a reply to a post on social media platform X that shared a Bloomberg News report saying SpaceX had been moving the unit's assets to a wholly owned unit that would ultimately be spun off.

The billionaire entrepreneur has previously said he intended to list Starlink when revenue growth and cash flow became smooth and predictable. Earlier this month, he said Starlink had achieved cash-flow breakeven.

SpaceX has an estimated value of $150 billion and was the first private company to send humans into orbit. Its breakthroughs have left rivals, including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin scrambling to keep pace as reusable rockets significantly reduce launch costs.

The Starlink unit is the world's largest satellite operator. On Wednesday, it obtained a contract to offer free internet in Mexico until the end of 2026.

"I believe he (Musk) will take Starlink out, not next year, but maybe 2025, 2026. He's waiting for a level of stability or predictability in revenue," said Justus Parmar, founder and CEO of venture capital firm Fortuna Investments.

When the IPO happens, it will "be an extremely strong catalyst for everything space related", Parmar said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/4mWLwuM

Mexico's First Non-Binary Magistrate Found Dead

A prominent Mexican magistrate who was the country's first citizen to be granted a non-binary passport was found dead on Monday, authorities said.

The body of Jesus Ociel Baena, an "activist of the LGBTIQ+ community and that of another person were found in a house in Aguascalientes", the state prosecutor's office said.

The death could be related to a "personal matter", prosecutors said, ruling out the possibility of a third person at the scene.

An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of both deaths, officials said.

Baena, 38, became Mexico's first non-binary magistrate to serve on an electoral tribunal in October 2022.

Baena received the country's first passport that did not mention the holder's gender on May 17, with Mexico's former foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard hailing it a "historic day".

At the end of July, authorities granted Baena protection following "multiple attacks" and social media "death threats", Baena said.

The death sparked protests by the LGBTQ community in the Latin American country.

In Mexico City, dozens of people carrying candles and multi-coloured flags gathered to call for justice following Baena's death.

Rights advocacy group Letra S took to X, formerly Twitter, to urge Mexican authorities to investigate "thoroughly and without prejudice what happened".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/Kx8Frys

NDTV Sports-Cricket

Former India captain Ravi Shastri is also famous for his lively commentary and presentation during cricket matches. In that case, there is no wonder that many aspire to develop communication skills like that of Shastri. Copying the commentary style of the ex-India star is not an easy task but it seems that former New Zealand player Ian Smith has mastered the art. During India's Cricket World Cup match against Netherlands, Smith, while sitting in the commentary box, copied the style of Shastri leaving the latter and another ex-India player Anjum Chopra in splits.

"Welcome to Bengaluru, Happy Diwali day to you all and now we shall have a toss of the coin. The almighty Richie Richardson in the middle. Now listen to me please everybody.." said Smith.

Watch it here:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ICC (@icc)

Centuries from Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul powered India to a 160-run World Cup win over the Netherlands as they completed the group stage with a perfect nine wins in nine games.

Iyer (128 not out) and Rahul (102) put on 208 runs to guide India to 410-4.

India then employed nine bowlers, including part-timers Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, to dismiss the Dutch for 250 in the tournament's concluding league match in Bengaluru.

The hosts will face New Zealand in the first semi-final in Mumbai on Wednesday followed by the second last-four clash between Australia and South Africa the next day in Kolkata.

Iyer smashed his first World Cup ton in a match where all the top-five Indian batsmen went past the fifty mark on a batting-friendly pitch.

He reached his hundred -- his fourth in ODI cricket -- off 84 balls. He ended with 10 fours and five sixes.

Bengaluru-born Rahul raced to his ton with two sixes for the fastest Indian hundred in World Cups off 62 balls.

He departed four balls later as India fell short of their highest ever World Cup total of 413-5 v Bermuda in 2007.

Kohli reached his half century but fell for 51, silencing the crowd who had been anticipating the star batsman's 50th ODI ton after he equalled Sachin Tendulkar's record of 49 in the team's previous win over South Africa.

Skipper Rohit, who hit 61, and Shubman Gill laid the foundations for the total in an opening stand of 100 with the pair hitting regular boundaries.

Gill fell for 51 off Paul van Meekeren and fellow quick Bas de Leede dismissed Rohit after the captain reached his fourth 50-plus score including a ton in the tournament.

(With AFP Inputs)

from NDTV Sports-Cricket https://ift.tt/dAzltC5

Israel Says Its Under $8 Billion Debt Since War With Hamas Began

Israel has raised about 30 billion shekels ($7.8 billion) in debt since the start of the war with Hamas militants, the Finance Ministry said on Monday.

Slightly more than half of that - 16 billion shekels - was dollar-denominated debt raised in issuances in international markets, it said.

The ministry on Monday raised another 3.7 billion shekels in the local market in its weekly bond auction.

"The financing capabilities of the State of Israel allow the government to fully and optimally finance all its needs," the ministry's accountant-general division said.

The war that began on Oct. 7 when Hamas gunmen rampaged through Israeli towns has sharply boosted Israel's expenses to fund the military as well as to compensate businesses near the border and families of victims and hostages taken by Hamas. At the same time, tax income has slowed.

As a result, Israel recorded a budget deficit of 22.9 billion shekels in October, a leap from 4.6 billion in September and pushing up the deficit over the prior 12 months to 2.6%.

The ministry said it would continue to operate "in all channels in order to finance the government's activities, including all the needs arising from the ... war and the economic and civil aid to the home front."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to "open the taps" to help those impacted by the war, which economists believe will sharply push up the deficit and debt to GDP ratio through 2024.

But Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron has said the government needs to balance "supporting the economy and maintaining a sound fiscal position."

Credit rating agencies have already warned they could cut Israel's ratings if debt metrics deteriorate.

The accountant general denied an Israeli media report that the state would apply for a loan from the Bank of Israel for the first time since 1986.

($1 = 3.8635 shekels)

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/nkfJqZd

In Biden-Xi Meet, Renewing Military Talks Will Be Top Agenda: Jake Sullivan

Restoring dialogue between the US and Chinese militaries as tensions persist will be the priority for President Joe Biden when he meets Wednesday with his counterpart Xi Jinping, a senior White House official said Sunday.

"The president is determined to see the re-establishment of military-to-military ties," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CBS's "Face the Nation."

"He believes that having military-to-military communication is necessary to manage competition responsibly and to ensure the competition does not turn into conflict," Jake Sullivan said.

"And we need those lines of communication so that there aren't mistakes or miscalculations or miscommunication."

It was China, he told CNN in a separate interview, that had "basically severed those communication links" amid tensions over trade, Taiwan, and other issues.

Biden and Xi are to meet on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit this week in San Francisco.

It will be the two men's second in-person meeting since Biden's election in 2020. And it will be Xi's first visit to the United States since 2017.

Jake Sullivan told CBS that the two leaders would also discuss Iran, specifically "the question of Iran's nuclear program and the threat it poses... as well as the threat that Iran poses to regional stability, and the threat it poses to US forces in the region."
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/Ig3xUWT

Arab, Muslim Leaders Slam Israel But Divided On Severing Economic Ties

Arab and Muslim leaders on Saturday condemned Israeli forces' "barbaric" actions in Gaza but declined to approve punitive economic and political steps against the country over its war against Hamas.

The outcome of a joint summit in the Saudi capital of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation highlighted regional divisions over how to respond to the war even as fears mount that it could draw in other countries.

The summit took place against a backdrop of widespread anger in the Middle East and beyond over Israel's aerial and ground offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel says it has set out to destroy Hamas following the group's bloody October 7 attacks that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, also mostly civilians, and saw about 240 taken hostage. 

The final declaration on Saturday rejected Israeli claims that it is acting in "self-defence" and demanded that the United Nations Security Council adopt "a decisive and binding resolution" to halt Israel's "aggression". 

It also called for an end to weapons sales to Israel and dismissed out of hand any future political resolution to the conflict that would keep Gaza separate from the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who before the war was considering establishing formal diplomatic ties with Israel, told the summit he "holds the occupation (Israeli) authorities responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people." 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, on his first trip to Saudi Arabia since the two countries mended ties in March, said Islamic nations should designate the Israeli army a "terrorist organisation" for its conduct in Gaza. 

Israel blames Hamas for the high death count, accusing it of using civilians as "human shields" -- a charge Hamas denies.

Regional divisions

The Arab League and the OIC, a 57-member bloc that includes Iran, were originally meant to meet separately. 

Arab diplomats told AFP the decision to merge the meetings came after Arab League delegations failed to reach an agreement on a final statement. 

Some countries, including Algeria and Lebanon, proposed responding to the devastation in Gaza by threatening to disrupt oil supplies to Israel and its allies as well as severing the economic and diplomatic ties that some Arab League nations have with Israel, the diplomats said. 

However, at least three countries -- including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020 -- rejected the proposal, according to the diplomats who spoke on condition on anonymity. 

In a statement issued from Gaza, Hamas called on summit participants to expel Israeli ambassadors, form a legal commission to try "Israeli war criminals" and create a reconstruction fund for the territory. 

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said a lack of concrete punitive measures against Israel would render the summit toothless. 

"If we do not have real tools for pressure, then any step we take or speech we give will have no meaning," said Assad, who was welcomed back into the Arab fold this year after an extended rift over his country's civil war. 

He said no Middle Eastern country should engage in any "political process" with Israel, including developing economic relations, until a lasting ceasefire is reached. 

The lack of consensus was no big surprise, said Rabha Saif Allam, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs at the Cairo Center for Strategic Studies. 

Differences between Washington's Arab allies and countries closer to Iran "can't be erased overnight," Allam said.

Israel and its main backer the United States have so far rebuffed demands for a ceasefire, a position that drew heavy criticism on Saturday. 

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "it is a shame that Western countries, which always talk about human rights and freedoms, remain silent in the face of the ongoing massacres in Palestine".

Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister, similarly decried "double standards" in the world's response to the war, saying Israel was getting a pass on violations of international law. 

Iran president in Riyadh

Raisi's stop in Riyadh made him the first Iranian president to set foot in Saudi Arabia since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended an OIC meeting in the kingdom in 2012. 

In addition to addressing the summit, he held a face-to-face meeting with Prince Mohammed, Saudi state media said on X, formerly Twitter. 

Iran backs Hamas as well as Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Huthi rebels, placing it at the centre of concerns the war could expand. 

The conflict has already fuelled cross-border exchanges between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, and the Huthis have claimed responsibility for "ballistic missiles" the rebels said targeted southern Israel.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/NhqW5jR

New York Appoints Famed Sex Therapist As State's 1st Loneliness Ambassador

Dr Ruth Westheimer, a well-known media figure and sex therapist, has been appointed as New York state's honorary ambassador to loneliness, Governor Kathy Hochul announced Friday. According to a press release, this development is intended to assist an underserved mental health need. Dr Westheimer is aiming to help New Yorkers with social isolation, which is associated with physical and mental health issues such as cardiovascular disease, depression and premature death. 

"As New York works to fight the loneliness epidemic, some help from honorary Ambassador Ruth Westheimer may be just what the doctor ordered," Governor Hochul said in a statement. "Studies show individuals experiencing loneliness had a 32 percent higher risk of dying early and we need leaders like Dr. Ruth to help address this critical component of our mental health crisis," she added. 

As per the press note, Dr Westheimer is a survivor orphaned by the Holocaust. She rose to prominence as a sex therapist and syndicated talk show host on both radio and television during the 1980s and 1990s. It was last year, the 95-year-old suggested the idea of becoming an 'ambassador' for the state in a bid to provide fellow New Yorkers will advice on how to address loneliness and isolation, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 

"Hallelujah!" Dr Westheimer said in a news release. "I am deeply honored and promised the Governor that I will work day and night to help New Yorkers feel less lonely," she added.

Also Read | Meet 'Mika', The World's First Ever AI Humanoid Robot CEO

Loneliness is defined as the feeling of being alone, regardless of the amount of social contact, while social isolation refers to a lack of social connections, as per the press release. More than a third of adults 45 or older experience loneliness, while nearly a quarter of adults 65 and older are considered socially isolated, a study by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine found. 

Therefore, under Ms Hochul's leadership, New York is working to create "age-friendly communities and build a more robust system of mental health care," according to the news release. Last year, Governor Hochul also signed an executive order to create the state's first-ever Master Plan for Aging to ensure older New Yorkers can live healthy, fulfilling lives while ageing with dignity and independence.

Notably, Dr Westheimer's honorary appointment underlines Ms Hochul's recent emphasis on ageing and social needs. 

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/rFAQKHT