Washington, Oct 27: US District Judge Amit Mehta on Monday announced that the first pretrial hearing on the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s antitrust lawsuit against search giant Google will be held on Friday.
The judge from the US District Court for the District of Columbia said lawyers for both the DOJ and Google must appear at the telephone hearing at 1400 hrs (GMT) and the hearing will be open to the public and media.
The DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on October 20, accusing the tech giant of maintaining its status as “gatekeeper” to the Internet by illegally using its muscle to prevent the rise of competitors.
The lawsuit alleged that the Alphabet Inc unit has spent billions of US dollars to smart phone manufacturers like Apple in making its search service the default in browsers.
Google has issued its public response to the lawsuit, calling it “deeply flawed” as users chose, instead of being forced, to use Google.
“People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to, or because they can’t find alternatives,” Google SVP of Global Affairs Kent Walker wrote in a blog post. “This lawsuit would do nothing to help consumers,” he added.
(UNI)

Houston, Oct 27: Donald Trump’s market-friendly policies, tough stance against China and acknowledgement of the contributions of the Hindu community in the US have struck a chord with a group of Hindu-American women who are rooting for the Republicans to ensure that he wins the November 3 presidential election.
Participating in an online session, a panel of Hindu-American women, from different walks of life, expressed their strong views in favour of President Trump.
Karishma Himatsinghani, a media entrepreneur from Dallas, said that she is neither a Leftist, nor a Rightist, but a moderate centrist who finds Trump treading a centrist path in programmes and policies.
It is the Leftist media that has affixed an image of Right-wing on Trump as a matter of political expediency. Trump’s focus is on keeping the economy going during the uncertain COVID-19 crisis. The president’s commitment is reflected in tax-cuts for businesses and removal of regressive government regulations that impeded economic activity, she said.
“Look at the way the Democrats have responded to the recent riots in Oakland, Seattle and elsewhere, where they are seen as endorsing the rioters, which should ring alarm bells for all voters. How are we supposed to survive with lawlessness on the streets, where law enforcement agencies are undermined and attacked by a certain political class?” she asked.
The Democrats were brainwashing the youth in subscribing to anarchy and violence as a solution to the social justice issues, Himatsinghani claimed, asserting that it will further exacerbate the depravity of the affected, instead of providing relief and resolution.
“Trump is the only President in US history to have openly acknowledged the Hindu community and appreciated their contributions at the ‘Howdy Modi’ event. Democrats have always vilified the Hindu community and religion with pejorative terms, and have even excluded them this time from the election manifesto completely,” she claimed.
Srilekha Palle, a healthcare administrator, took a dig at the ideology of the Democrats.
“Do you want education for your children dictated by the big government, or by you as a parent; do you want healthcare to be decided by doctors and healthcare professionals and costs driven by the market, or to be decided by the unaccountable big government; if you want your lives to be governed by government bureaucrats vote for Democrats, but if you want to live in a free society, vote for Republicans,” she asked the panelists.
Palle said President Trump has strengthened Indo-US relations where he has taken unprecedented steps to recognise India’s concerns on terrorism and the threat posed by China.
By renaming the whole region as Indo-Pacific, the US President has finally recognised India’s stabilising role in global affairs, she said.
In recognition of the increasing connectivity between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Trump administration in 2018 renamed the US Pacific Command to US Indo-Pacific Command. The move is reflective of the growing importance of the Indian Ocean in US strategic thinking.
Vandana Mangalick, a lifelong Democrat from Minneapolis who voted five times for that party, highlighted the Democrats stance on Kashmir and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“The Democrats are supposed to stand for human rights for the persecuted. But why have six Democrat-controlled city councils, passed anti-India resolutions, opposed CAA? What business do city councils have meddling in a sovereign country’s affairs?” she asked.
Raman Bhaumik, an entrepreneur in Dallas said, “The Republicans have always supported small businesses and reduced government regulations to manageable levels.
Their policies reflect in the way businesses have gotten quick loan approvals even during challenging COVID-19 times. We would not have survived COVID-19 without the support of Republicans”.
“I am a product of a stereotypical Bengali intellectual family environment, where social welfare, social reform, and liberal thought is worshipped, but what is going on in the US today is that a noble purpose of social justice, has been hijacked to serve a partisan political purpose, and extremists are masquerading behind social justice to spread mayhem in the society,” said Dr Paramita Sarkar, a scientist.
Radhika Garimella, another recent Democrat, said there was a vast gap between what the Democrats promise and what they actually deliver.
Democrats have been a big failure in checking the growth of extremism in their party, reflecting how governments are run under their administration. The Democrats have decided to harbour and nurture socialists like Bernie Sanders, she claimed, adding that there is no choice but to leave the party and join the Republicans to ensure a massive victory for Trump.
Sangeeta Dua, Chairperson Indo- American Republicans of Greater Houston, moved a resolution in favour of the Republicans and President Trump on account of strong defence, law and order on the streets, free-market based healthcare, jobs for Americans, rebuilding American Industry, and a strong presence of America in global affairs to maintain peace. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Oct 27: Scientists have confirmed, for the first time, the presence of water on the sunlit surface of the Moon, a discovery which indicates that water molecules may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to the cold, shadowed places as previously thought.
Using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), the researchers, including those from the University of Hawaii in the US, detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater — one of the largest craters visible from the Earth, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere.
While earlier studies of the Moon’s surface, including those conducted during the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 mission, detected some form of hydrogen, the NASA scientists said these were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl (OH).
Data from the current study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, revealed that the Clavius Crater region has water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million — roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water — trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface.
As a comparison, the researchers said the Sahara desert has 100 times the amount of water than what SOFIA detected in the lunar soil.
“Prior to the SOFIA observations, we knew there was some kind of hydration. But we didn’t know how much, if any, was actually water molecules — like we drink every day — or something more like drain cleaner,” said Casey Honniball, the lead author of the study from the University of Hawaii.
Despite the small amounts, they said the discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the harsh, airless lunar surface.
“We had indications that H2O — the familiar water we know — might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon. Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Whether the water SOFIA found is easily accessible for use as a resource remains to be determined, the researchers added.
According to the scientists, SOFIA offered a new means of looking at the Moon, flying at altitudes of up to 45,000 feet.
They said the modified Boeing 747SP jetliner with a 106-inch diameter telescope reaches above 99 per cent of the water vapor in the Earth’s atmosphere to get a clearer view of radiation from the universe in the infrared wavelength.
Using its Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST), the researchers said SOFIA was able to pick up the specific wavelength unique to water molecules and discovered a relatively surprising concentration in the sunny Clavius Crater.
“Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space. Yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there,” Honniball said.
The scientists believe several forces could be at play in the delivery or creation of this water.
One possibility they said could be from micrometeorites raining down on the lunar surface, carrying small amounts of water, which may deposit the water on the lunar surface upon impact.
The researchers hypothesised that there may also be a two-step process whereby the Sun’s solar wind delivers hydrogen to the lunar surface and causes a chemical reaction with oxygen-bearing minerals in the soil to create hydroxyl.
Meanwhile, they said radiation from the bombardment of micrometeorites could be transforming that hydroxyl into water.
Commenting on how the water was stored on the lunar surface, the scientists noted that the water could be trapped into tiny beadlike structures in the soil that form out of the high heat created by micrometeorite impacts.
Another possibility is that the water could be hidden between grains of lunar soil and sheltered from the sunlight –potentially making it a bit more accessible than water trapped in beadlike structures, they noted in a statement.
“It was, in fact, the first time SOFIA has looked at the Moon, and we weren’t even completely sure if we would get reliable data, but questions about the Moon’s water compelled us to try,” said Naseem Rangwala, SOFIA’s project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in the US.
“It’s incredible that this discovery came out of what was essentially a test, and now that we know we can do this, we’re planning more flights to do more observations,” Rangwala added. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Oct 27: A bipartisan group of five influential senators has urged the Trump administration to seek removal of high tariffs on import of pecans by India, asserting that it is impacting a large number of American farmers.
The growing middle class in India has demonstrated its desire for consumer-oriented agricultural products, like tree nuts, and the Indian market represents one of the most dynamic and fastest growing in the world, the senators wrote in a letter to US Trade Representatives Robert Lighthizer.
“Unfortunately, the current high tariff (36 per cent) that India charges on pecan imports makes it difficult for American producers to compete in this important market,” said the letter that was written by Senators Kelly Loeffle, David Perdue, Doug Jones, John Boozman and Tom Cotton.
“In contrast, we understand that the current Indian tariffs on US pistachios and almonds is much lower (10 per cent), which highlights how disproportionately high the pecan tariff is,” said the latter dated October 23 that was released on Monday.
Lowering the tariff on pecans would provide the Indian people with more economical access to tree nut varieties, while providing a much-needed economic boost to rural America. The pecan industry contributes over USD 3.57 billion to the economies of the 15 pecan producing states in the United States, it said.
Over the last ten years, exports alone have pumped an additional USD 1.25 billion in economic activity into rural America. Reducing trade barriers into India is an opportunity to strengthen the economy of rural America, the senators wrote.
“As you continue discussions with Prime Minister Modi’s Administration to reach a trade deal and potentially reinstate India’s Generalized System of Preference Status, we would like to stress the importance of removing existing barriers to the export of US agricultural products, specifically pecans,” the senators wrote.
“As you may know, American pecan producers have faced many challenges due to rising imports from Mexico, Chinese tariffs, natural disasters like Hurricane Michael, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Gaining access to new markets for pecans will help ease the pain while orchards are replanted and a trade deal is negotiated with China,” they said.
Loeffler, who grew up on a farm and who serves on the US Senate Agriculture Committee, also spoke with members of the Georgia Pecan Grower’s Association about international trade and the multiple factors currently affecting pecan prices.
Georgia is the nation’s leading pecan producing state. (PTI)

Washington, Oct 27: Conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in as the 115th justice on the US Supreme Court on Monday night, an hour after the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed her nomination, delivering President Donald Trump a landmark win just a week before the crucial presidential election.
The Senate confirmed the nomination of Barrett as the Supreme Court Judge by 52-48 votes, overcoming the unified opposition of Democrats.
Barrett, a 48-year-old religious conservative, was administered the official constitutional oath by Justice Clarence Thomas on the South Lawn of the White House alongside President Trump.
“I stand here tonight, truly honoured and humbled,” she said shortly after she took the constitutional oath.
“This is a momentous day for America, for the United States Constitution and for the fair and impartial rule of law,” said Trump in his remarks on the occasion.
“She is one of our nation’s most brilliant legal scholars, and she will make an outstanding justice on the highest court in our land,” he said.
Out of nine Supreme Court Justices, Trump, so far, has nominated three of them.
In the US a Supreme Court justice is appointed for life and does not have a retirement age. Barrett’s confirmation creates a 6-3 conservative majority on the court.
“It is highly fitting that Justice Barrett fills the seat of a true pioneer for women: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Tonight, Justice Barrett becomes not only the fifth woman to serve on our nation’s highest court, but the very first mother of school-aged children to become a Supreme Court justice. Very important,” Trump said.
The opposition Democratic party has decried the Senate for confirming her nomination. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden had said that the new judge should have been selected by the winner of the November 3 elections. Trump, however, defended his decision.
“I want every American child watching to understand that this is a very special and important ceremony. We are fulfilling the duty that passes to each new generation to sustain the national traditions and virtues that make possible everything we have achieved before that we will do tomorrow,” Trump asserted at the White House.
Grateful for the confidence of the Senate in her, Justice Barrett in her remarks pledge to the American people that she will discharge her duties to the very best of her ability.
“The confirmation process has made ever clearer to me one of the fundamental differences between the federal judiciary and the United States Senate, and perhaps the most acute is the role of policy preferences,” she said.
“It is the job of a senator to pursue her policy preferences. In fact, it would be a dereliction of duty for her to put policy goals aside. By contrast, it is the job of a judge to resist her policy preferences. It would be a dereliction of duty for her to give in to them,” she added.
Federal judges don’t stand for election. Thus, they have no basis for claiming that their preferences reflect those of the people. This separation of duty from political preference is what makes the judiciary distinct among the three branches of government, Barrett said.
“A judge declares independence not only from Congress and the President, but also from the private beliefs that might otherwise move her. The Judicial Oath captures the essence of the judicial duty the rule of law must always control,” she said.
Senator and Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris slammed the Republicans for confirming Barrett’s nomination a week before the important presidential elections.
“Today Republicans denied the will of the American people by confirming a Supreme Court justice through an illegitimate process—all in their effort to gut the Affordable Care Act and strip health care from millions with pre-existing conditions,” she said.
“Tonight’s vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court justice is a disgrace, not only because of what she will do when she gets on the bench, but because of the entire process, which was pushed through with extraordinary hypocrisy by Senate Republicans in the last days of a president’s term,” Senator Bernie Sanders said.
Eight days from Election Day, after 60 million Americans have already cast their ballots, Trump and the Republican Senate have committed an act of supreme desperation by jamming through a Supreme Court justice – all so that they can achieve their years-long campaign to destroy Americans’ health care, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“With this usurped Supreme Court seat, the President is ripping away millions of families’ health care in the middle of a pandemic that has infected over 8.6 million and killed nearly one-quarter of a million Americans.
“In her confirmation hearing, Justice Barrett refused to answer whether she believes that Medicare is constitutional. She refused to acknowledge the scientific fact that climate change is happening, saying she isn’t a scientist, calling it ‘controversial’,” she said.
“The President’s Supreme Court manipulation threatens the very values and rights that define and distinguish our nation: a woman’s constitutional right to make her own medical decisions, the rights of LGBTQ Americans, the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain for fair wages, the future of our planet and environmental protections, voting rights and the right of every American to have a voice in our democracy,” Pelosi said. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Oct 27: Kamala Harris is smart as a devil, has a backbone like a ramrod and is vastly experienced, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said, defending his decision to select the California senator as his running mate.
Biden named Harris as his running mate in August, making her the first Black woman to run on a major political party’s presidential ticket.
“Number one: her values. Number two: She is smart as a devil. Number three: She has a backbone like a ramrod. Number four: She is really principled. And number five: She has had significant experience in the largest state in the union, running a Justice Department that’s only second in size to the United States Justice Department,” Biden told CBS News in an interview on Monday.
“Your age makes the choice of your vice president all the more important. Why do you think Senator Harris would be ready to step in and become commander-in-chief if something were to happen to you?” he was asked.
“You know, obviously, I hope that never becomes a question. Kamala Harris was the first woman and first Black person to be district attorney of San Francisco, And attorney general of California. And she’s only the second Black woman to serve in the United States Senate,” Biden said.
Responding to a question, Harris acknowledged that being the first woman of colour, the first woman as vice president, may change things.
“I do. It helps change the perception of who can do what because that is still part of the battle after all. And you imagine some young person then seeing, ‘Oh, things can be different. I don’t have to conform to whatever I’m – you know, supposed to do or relegated to do. I can imagine what can be and be unburdened by what has been’,” she said.
Harris said that she would play the role of Biden’s partner in a Biden administration.
“One of the first things he said was, ‘I want you to be the first person in the room and the last person in the room’,” she said.
Responding to another question, Harris alleged that President Donald Trump is a racist.
“You can look at a pattern that goes back to him questioning the identity of the first Black president of the United States. You can look at Charlottesville, when there were peaceful protesters. And on the other side, Neo-Nazis and he talks about fine people on either side. Calling Mexicans rapists and criminals. His first order of business was to institute a Muslim ban. It all speaks for itself,” Harris said.
“President Trump has said he denounces racism and white supremacy. After the Black Lives Matter protests that began this summer, the president tried to frame the election as a choice between law and order and Biden and Harris,” she said.
Harris refuted the allegations that her policies are socialist in nature.
‘No. It is the perspective of a woman who grew up – a Black child in America, who was also a prosecutor, who also has a mother who arrived here at the age of 19 from India,” she asserted.
“I am not gonna be confined to Donald Trump’s definition of who I or anybody else is. And I think America has learned that that would be a mistake,” Harris said. (PTI)