MTN backs BEE plan that could open door for Starlink - but only on equal terms
MTN has said it welcomes the proposed policy direction that could alter BEE ownership rules to allow multinational communications operators such as Starlink to operate in South Africa, as long as the same rules apply to everyone.
The South African telecommunications giant also said a legislative amendment may be required in Parliament to bring the proposal into effect, which would likely take a long time.
MTN made these inputs in its submission on the proposed policy direction on the recognition of equity equivalent investment programmes in the ICT sector.
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CNN
23 minutes ago
- CNN
CNN Poll: Americans largely oppose Trump's ramp-up of deportations
Americans largely oppose recent efforts by Donald Trump's administration to scale up its deportation program, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds, with a rising majority saying the president has gone too far in carrying out deportations. In the latest survey, 55% say the president has gone too far when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the US illegally, up 10 points since February. Opposition among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents has risen in that time from widespread to nearly universal: Ninety percent of Democratic-aligned adults now say that Trump's deportation policy has gone too far, while just 15% of Republican-aligned adults say the same. A 57% majority also say they oppose plans to build new detention facilities capable of holding up to 100,000 undocumented immigrants, while 53% oppose increasing the budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement by billions of dollars — two White House priorities reflected in the sweeping policy bill that Trump recently signed into law. Nearly 6 in 10 oppose efforts to end birthright citizenship, another Trump priority. The courts are reviewing the president's executive order seeking to bar birthright citizenship for children born on American soil to parents who were in the country unlawfully or who were there lawfully but temporarily. Overall, just shy of half, 46%, say Trump's immigration policies have made the country safer, and 42% say the federal government has been careful about following the law in carrying out deportations. Both figures are largely unchanged since April. The president's approval ratings are around 40% for his handling both of immigration in general and deportations specifically In CNN's poll, 59% of Americans oppose arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants who have resided in the United States for years with no criminal record. That echoes a theme seen in much immigration polling this year — support for immigration enforcement tends to erode when pollsters specify that people without criminal records or longtime residents will be among those affected. A CNN review of government data found that most immigrants taken into ICE custody between last October and May had no serious criminal convictions. While only about one-quarter of Republicans and Republican-leaners are opposed to arrests aimed at this group, just shy of half — 47% — offer outright support, far below the 83% who approve of his handling of deportations overall. 'The most important issue is how ICE is focusing on immigrants with no criminal history,' wrote one California woman polled, who stood among the minority of Republicans who thought Trump had gone too far with his deportation campaign. 'They should research on immigrants that pose a huge threat the country.' Even as views of Trump's second-term immigration platform have soured, support for specific policies can vary depending on how they're described. In CNN's poll, 16% of Americans who said they were opposed to increasing the budget for ICE also said, in a separate question, that they viewed the increase in spending on 'border security, enforcement of immigration laws and detention of those charged with entering the country illegally' as a reason to support Trump's recently passed spending bill. There's also relatively muted opposition to punitive ideas Trump has advanced against those who do have criminal records regardless of their current citizenship status. Americans are closely split on whether they'd favor or oppose Trump carrying out threats to send US citizens convicted of violent crimes to detention in a foreign country (37% would support this, with 39% opposed and the rest offering neither opinion). And there's narrow support, 43% to 35%, for efforts to prioritize revoking US citizenship from naturalized citizens convicted of certain crimes — the only positive reading on any policy tested. By contrast, Americans overwhelmingly say, 71% to 12%, they'd oppose Trump acting on his threats to deport high-profile critics of the administration's policies, even if they live in the US legally and have not been convicted of any crimes. Asked in the same survey to name the issue they consider most important, 20% of Americans mention immigration, ranking it second only to economic concerns. While that's similar overall to January, the partisan dynamics of the issue have shifted somewhat. At the start of the year, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were 26 points likelier than those aligned with the Democratic Party to mention immigration. Now, while it's still a more potent issue among Republicans than Democrats, that gap has narrowed to 10 points amid the rising Democratic opposition to Trump's deportation policies. The poll also finds more support than backlash for protests against the Trump administration's deportation policies. Americans say, 55% to 45%, that the protests of the Trump administration's deportation policies have been mostly justified. And by a 9-point margin, 47% to 38%, they say they're more concerned that the government will go too far in cracking down on protests rather than fearing that the protests themselves will get out of hand. There's particularly strong backing for the protests among Democratic-aligned adults (78% of whom call them justified), adults younger than 35 (63%), and people of color (59%). Most Americans, 59%, say they oppose Trump using National Guard troops, who are typically controlled by state governors, in response to immigration protests even if a state's governor does not support the use of those troops. The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from July 10-13 among a random national sample of 1,057 US adults drawn from a probability-based panel. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results among all adults have a margin of sampling error of ±3.5 percentage points.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Prolific Procreator Elon Musk Announces AI App for Kids
Elon Musk announced in a late-night X post that he intends to launch a 'kid-friendly' version of his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok, which he has dubbed 'Baby Grok.' The announcement comes after months of shenanigans from Grok, including a fixation on 'white genocide' in South Africa, praise for Adolf Hitler, and several posts where the chatbot referred to itself as 'MechaHitler.' Grok's current content guidelines state that the chatbot avoids 'generating or engaging with explicit, adult, or inappropriate material,' but users regularly swap tips on how to circumvent these restrictions. Despite considerable bad press, Musk is working overtime to bolster Grok's standing among the competition, which includes OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude. These efforts include the introduction of AI-generated companions earlier this week, including a pornographic anime girl avatar named Ani. Users can toggle between NSFW and Kid Mode when interacting with Musk's companions, but users found that changing those settings had little effect. Critics have expressed concerns about the impact AI chatbots could have on children. An advisory from Australia's eSafety Commissioner argues that without safeguards, AI companions can expose children to dangerous concepts, leave them dependent on AI for companionship and socially withdrawn, result in them developing unhealthy attitudes toward relationships, put them at heightened risk of sexual abuse as a result of exposure to sexualized conversations, compound the risk of bullying, and put them at risk of financial exploitation. One Florida mother filed a lawsuit against a company that specializes in AI chatbots based on fictional characters, after her 14-year-old son became obsessed with a chatbot inspired by Daenerys Targaryen, a character from Game of Thrones, and died by suicide. Her son fell in love with the chatbot, becoming increasingly withdrawn from his real life as he began to spend the bulk of his time conversing with the bot. After sharing his thoughts of suicide with the bot, telling it, 'Maybe we can die together and be free together,' he took his own life. Earlier this week, Musk—a father of 14 known children—released Grok 4 without industry-standard safety reports that detail an AI model's capabilities, limitations and potential dangers. Musk also announced two new 'Grok for Government' partnerships with the General Services Administration and the Department of Defense. Solve the daily Crossword
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Robert Schmuhl: Winston Churchill responded to political defeat by linking arms with America
Winston Churchill knew political defeat but never quite like the one he suffered nearly 80 years ago on July 26, 1945. For this notable tippler, it was more humiliating than losing his seat in Parliament to a prohibitionist opponent two decades earlier. In the United Kingdom's election of 1945, Churchill won his own campaign to remain in the House of Commons — but the Conservative Party he led received a drubbing. Labour captured 393 seats to 197 for the Conservatives. Churchill, prime minister since 1940, was immediately shown the door of 10 Downing Street. Clementine Churchill tried to console her husband of 37 years: 'It may be a blessing in disguise.' Her distraught spouse snapped: 'At the moment, it's certainly very well disguised.' Churchill's loss couldn't have come at a worst time, as far as he was concerned. The Potsdam Conference, involving the 'Big Three' of President Harry Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and Churchill, was in full swing. Decisions about the postwar world, Germany's future and concluding hostilities against Japan remained unresolved. The new prime minister, Clement Attlee, replaced Churchill at the conference eight days before it ended. Between April and late July of that year, Franklin Roosevelt had died, and Churchill was removed as head of the British government. Key World War II architects were no longer making decisions, leaving Stalin senior partner of the alliance battling the Axis powers. But why, people today ask, did Churchill lose? British voters regarded Churchill an inspiring wartime commander. He rallied people during dark hours and many months of fighting alone against Adolf Hitler's Germany. But as much as they admired him under fire, the United Kingdom citizenry harbored doubts about Churchill's capability to switch gears and lead in peacetime with different social and economic demands. To them, it was time for a change. Dejected from rejection, Churchill went off on an Italian holiday to paint — and plot. The trouncing cast him in a new role, leader of the opposition, but he continued to scrutinize world affairs, as he'd done the decade before with Nazism and fascism on the rise. Less than a year after being tossed out, he visited Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, to speak truth about power. He sounded the alarm that former ally Stalin was responsible for an 'iron curtain' descending across Europe, creating Soviet satellites to Kremlin rule. From Churchill's perspective, the 'Soviet sphere' operated with pernicious intentions. 'I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war,' he argued. 'What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines.' Churchill's return to global attention received mixed reviews. Some commentators labeled his speech unduly bellicose; others applauded his courage to define ominous realities. Churchill deliberately chose the U.S. rather than his homeland to plant his flag against Soviet expansionism. As prime minister, he'd made five transatlantic trips for extended meetings with Roosevelt. He understood America was the 'leader of the free world,' and he wanted to strengthen ties between his country and this one. In his 'iron curtain' speech, Churchill spoke of the need for 'a special relationship.' He even proposed common citizenship. That phrase 'special relationship' entered common parlance and still reverberates in transatlantic affairs affecting the two nations. But Churchill did more than compose and deliver memorable orations. He kept brawling in the political arena, winning back 10 Downing Street in 1951 and remaining in power until he resigned in 1955 at the age of 80. Churchill considered Russia 'a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.' That convoluted, inscrutable description holds true today, as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin seem to talk past each other whenever they address the war in Ukraine and other subjects. By contrast, America was an open book to Churchill and, in his opinion, 'at the pinnacle of world power.' He wanted the British empire, then showing definite signs of decline, to link arms in facing the future. With shrewd foresight, he conducted personal diplomacy to nurture the 'special relationship,' scheduling regular parleys with presidents. Between 1946 and his last White House visit in 1959, he met with Truman and Dwight Eisenhower six times in Washington and New York. On the day Churchill resigned 70 years ago this past April, he told his cabinet, 'Never be separated from the Americans.' The decade between his humiliation of 1945 and his departure as prime minister was marked by cataclysmic change and unrelenting Cold War danger. Yet as storm clouds gathered, he worked to disperse them. During those years as before, he championed freedom and democracy. 'Trust the people' was his mantra — and his bulldog determination helped him rebound from defeat to return to the world stage, this time as a seeker of peace.
