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- One picture of an exhausted Rohingya woman from Myanmar touching the Bangladesh shore after crossing into the country by boat through the Bay of Bengal and the other of refugees making their way along the shore, taken by Mumbai-based photographer Danish Siddiqui, are among the pictures shot by a Reuters team that won the Pulitzer prize for feature photography on 17April for images documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis.
- The pictures were shot by Siddiqui in September 2017. He was part of a team of journalists that captured images of the refugees at their most vulnerable mourning mothers, scarred children and survivors of violent attacks.
- Siddiqui told the Mumbai Mirror he had been staking this particular beach for three weeks in order to photograph the arriving refugees. “The minute I saw the fires across the river, I knew they (the refugees) would come soon.
- The boats arrived, and refugees disembarked quickly, unloading their belongings as fast as they could the whole process lasted just a few minutes, because the fishermen/smugglers who brought them there wanted to flee before the border guards arrived.”
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- Volkswagen Beetle - Often touted as the ‘People’s Car’, the VW Beetle was an automobile that was designed and built for the masses with affordability in mind.
- Although the history of the Beetle dates back to the 1930s, production began only after World War II. It quickly became one of the most successful cars in history by selling more than 21 million units, with production spanning over 65 years, making it the longest-running and most-manufactured single-platform car ever. Dr Ferdinand Porsche, the engineer behind the Beetle, later used the same rear-engine design for Porsche sports cars.
- Audi Quattro-The Audi Quattro is a legend that not only changed the world of rallying forever, but also established that all-wheel-drives are not just for off-road machines.
- The idea for the Quattro high-performance car came from a decision to fit a VW military vehicle’s 4x4 system in a coupé body.
- Toyota Prius - Launched in 1997, the Prius is not only the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, but also the first car to become a poster child for sustainable and eco-friendly motoring.
- on 18 April, almost all the large carmakers in the world have at least one PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) or pure electric car in their line-up, but back in the late 90s, it was a radical idea. But the Prius became a hit in Japan and the United States, especially amongst Hollywood celebrities, who believed they were helping clean up the world.
- Tesla Model S - Probably the most radical, influential and disruptive car of this decade. The Tesla Model S has not only successfully forced the entire automobile industry to change, but has also given a much-needed image makeover to electric cars.
- A catalyst for an all-electric revolution, the full-sized saloon transformed Tesla from a small Silicon Valley startup to one of the most powerful carmakers in the world, with its market cap surpassing that of Ford and GM. The Tesla Model S is also the world’s fastest accelerating car, beating the likes of LaFerrari and McLaren P1 hypercars.
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- Former First Lady Barbara Pierce Bush, wife of a U.S. president and mother of another, died on 18 April She was 92.
- Her husband George Herbert Walker Bush, the former U.S. president and her son George Walker Bush, also a former president, were by her side along with other family members when she breathed her last at her Houston home.
- “A former First Lady of the United States of America and relentless proponent of family literacy, Barbara Pierce Bush passed away Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at the age of 92,” said a statement from the office of her husband.
- Funeral arrangements would be announced as soon as is practical, the statement said.She is survived by her husband, five children including former President George W. Bush and her brother Scott Pierce, as well as 17 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
- Over the past few years, she had been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure. In her final days, she decided against seeking additional medical treatment.
- Bush was last hospitalised for bronchitis in January of 2017 alongside her husband, who was being treated in the ICU.
- Joining the nation in celebrating the life of Barbara Bush, U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania said Barbara Bush as a wife, mother, grandmother, military spouse, and former First Lady, was an advocate of the American family.
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- Starbucks will close 8,000 company-owned U.S. cafes for the afternoon on May 29 to train nearly 1,75,000 workers on how to prevent racial discrimination in its stores.
- The announcement from world's biggest coffee company comes as it tries to cool tensions after the arrest of two black men at one of its Philadelphia cafes last week sparked accusations of racial profiling at the chain.
- Protesters have called for a boycott of the company."I want to begin by offering a personal apology to the two gentlemen who were arrested in our store. What happened in the way that incident escalated and the outcome was nothing but reprehensible. And I'm sorry. I want to apologize to the community in Philadelphia and to all my Starbucks partners.
- This is not who we are, and it's not who we are going to be. We are going to learn from this, and we will be better for," said Starbucks Chief Executive Kevin Johnson. "While this is not limited to Starbucks, we're committed to being a part of the solution," he added.
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- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 17April kept its growth forecasts for the world economy unchanged for this year and next year, but warned that a potential broad-based trade conflict threatens to prematurely derail global growth.
- In its newly-released World Economic Outlook, the IMF said the global economy would grow 3.9 percent in 2018 and 2019, unchanged from its previous forecast in January.
- That forecast has been borne out by continuing strong performance in the euro area, Japan, China and the United States, all of which grew above expectations last year, according to the IMF.
- It also projected near-term improvements for several other emerging markets and developing economies including some recovery in commodity exporters. It says the accelerations in investment and trade will continue to power the world economy's upswing.
- Maurice Obstfeld, economic counselor and director of research at the IMF, said in a press conference in Washington D.C. that the world economy continues to show broad-based momentum, but the prospect of a similarly broad-based conflict over trade presents a jarring picture.
- He said the recent intensification of trade intense started in early March with the United States' announcement of its intent to levy steel and aluminum tariffs for national security reasons
- While the United States has engaged in several bilateral negotiations to reduce U.S. trade deficits with individual trading partners, Obstfeld believes these initiatives will do little to change the overall U.S. external current account deficit.
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- Facebook announced on Wednesday that it would begin rolling out changes to how it handles private data this week to comply with forthcoming EU rules, with European residents seeing the measures first.
- The social network, which has been rocked by disclosures about hijacking of personal data on tens of millions of its users, said it will start implementing "new privacy experiences" to comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which become effective May 25.
- "Everyone no matter where they live will be asked to review important information about how Facebook uses data and make choices about their privacy on Facebook," said a statement from chief privacy officer Erin Egan and deputy general counsel Ashlie Beringer. "We'll begin by rolling these choices out in Europe this week."
- Under the new policy, Facebook users will be asked to review and make choices about ads they receive, including whether they want Facebook to use data from third parties.
- Facebook users will also be asked to review and choose what to share about the political, religious, and relationship information on their profiles. Additionally, users will be allowed to opt in or out of use of facial recognition technology.
- The statement said users will be told that facial recognition is optional, but that it could offer some benefit, such as being notified when someone is using an unauthorized picture. "We not only want to comply with the law, but also go beyond our obligations to build new and improved privacy experiences for everyone on Facebook," Egan and Beringer wrote.
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