PingWest品玩9月5日报道，Apple向外界证实，其一年一度的苹果音乐节（Apple Music Festival）今年停办。这个音乐节已经有10年历史，之前它被称iTunes Festival音乐节，在2015年Apple Music推出后，更名为Apple Music音乐节。更名为Apple Music音乐节后，苹果音乐节缩短到了两周以内，多个演出被挤压到了一天内。从2007年至2017年，苹果向英国当地人和粉丝提供免费门票。苹果通过iTunes、Apple Music以及地方性电台向比赛获奖者发放门票。凭借苹果公司+iTunes的号召力，曾吸引过全球一线歌手参与，包括“小甜甜”Britney Spear、埃尔顿·约翰（Elton John）、酷玩乐队（Coldplay）、奥兹·奥斯伯恩（Ozzy Osbourne）、弗洛伦斯（Florence + The Machine）、法瑞尔·威廉姆斯（Pharrell Williams）等等。目前Apple没有公布停办理由，也没有2017年以后音乐节是否回归的可能性置评。更多精彩请关注我们的微信公众号：PingWest品玩 新闻线索请投稿至：[email protected]

A group of music stars have come together to create a song in aid of relief efforts for the hurricane-battered island of Puerto Rico. Almost Like Praying has been written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, musical creator of the hit Broadway show Hamilton.Stars who have taken part include Gloria Estefan, Rita Moreno, Jennifer Lopez and Despacito singer Luis Fonsi.Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico with high winds and heavy rain and much of the island remains without power. Mr Miranda's parents are from the US territory. He said the song's inspiration came from his own efforts to contact loved ones after the storm, and also by the slow pace of relief efforts. Seven charts that explain Puerto Rico disaster Puerto Rico may be months without power Elon Musk says he can power Puerto Rico with solar "I thought I could work all 78 towns in Puerto Rico into the lyrics of this song and if we did our job right, these towns will never be forgotten again," he told Billboard magazine.Almost Like Praying mixes Spanish and English lyrics and takes its tune from elements of the song Maria from the hit musical West Side Story. A video of the recording has been released on YouTube.Mr Miranda has been a strong critic of the US government's relief efforts."I think it's been well documented that it's been slow and it's been insufficient, commensurate to the challenge ahead," he told Billboard.All proceeds from the song will go to the Hispanic Federation's Unidos Disaster Relief Fund for Puerto Rico.

At least 50 people have been killed in a suicide bombing in the eastern Nigerian state of Adamawa, police say.A bomber struck inside a mosque packed with worshippers during morning prayers in the town of Mubi. Witness Abubakar Sule told AFP news agency that it appeared the bomber was part of the congregation.No-one has said they were behind the bombing but the Islamist militants Boko Haram typically target crowded places in northern Nigeria.Some 20,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram's eight-year insurgency.The BBC's Ishaq Khalid reports that Boko Haram militants have recently stepped up suicide bombings in Nigeria's north-east after the military recaptured territories previously controlled by the group.At least 45 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack in the same state last December.In that attack two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives in a busy market. Founded in 2002 Known locally as Boko Haram, meaning "Western education is forbidden" Launched military operations in 2009 to create Islamic state Designated a terrorist group by US in 2013 Declared a caliphate in areas it controlled in 2014 Most territory recaptured by army Who are Boko Haram?

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A second uncle of a 10-year-old Indian child who gave birth to a baby girl last month has been arrested for allegedly raping her.He is the younger brother of the uncle who was arrested earlier and charged with raping the girl, police said.Police began looking for a second suspect after forensic tests revealed that the baby's DNA samples did not match those of the first accused.Child welfare activists say the first suspect remains in custody.He is not absolved of charges against him and his trial is under way in a special court dealing with crimes against children. He is in prison and has made no statement so far. The latest arrest was made on Tuesday evening after the girl named the second uncle in her conversations with the police and counsellors."The girl stated that her 38-year-old uncle had also abused her," a senior police official in Chandigarh city, Neelambari Vijay, told BBC Punjabi. She said police had sought permission to test his DNA samples. The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi says the harrowing case of the 10-year-old has made headlines for weeks, both in India and globally. The pregnant child caught in a media storm No abortion for 10-year-old rape victim Her pregnancy was discovered in mid-July when she complained of stomach ache and her parents took her to hospital.A local court in Chandigarh turned down the abortion plea on the grounds that she was too far into her pregnancy after a doctors' panel advised that termination of the pregnancy would be "too risky". Later, the Supreme Court also refused to allow an abortion for her on similar grounds.The girl was not even aware of her pregnancy, and was told her bulge was because she had a stone in her stomach, our correspondent adds. Her baby was given away to child welfare authorities for adoption.The girl initially told police and child welfare activists that she had been raped several times in the past seven months by the first uncle to be placed under arrest, who is in his 40s.She had also testified to the court by video link and very clearly named the uncle and revealed facts about her abuse. The girl's father had earlier told the BBC that the first accused had not denied the charges against him. Police too said he had admitted to the allegations.But after his DNA test results did not link him to the baby, police began searching for more suspects. They have also asked for a re-check of the forensic tests to ensure there has been no error in the DNA report.Indian law does not allow terminations after 20 weeks unless doctors certify that the mother's life is in danger. The country's courts have received several petitions in recent months, many from child rape survivors, seeking permission to abort. In most cases, these pregnancies are discovered late because the children themselves are not aware of their condition.Earlier this month, a 13-year-old girl was given court permission to terminate her pregnancy at 32 weeks. The boy she was carrying was born alive in Mumbai but he died two days later.In May, a similar case was reported from the northern state of Haryana where a 10-year-old, allegedly raped by her stepfather, was allowed to abort. She was about 20 weeks pregnant, doctors said.None of the girls can be named for legal reasons. A child under 16 is raped every 155 minutes, a child under 10 every 13 hours More than 10,000 children were raped in 2015 240 million women living in India were married before they turned 18 53.22% of children who participated in a government study reported some form of sexual abuse 50% of abusers are known to the child or are "persons in trust and care-givers" Sources: Indian government, Unicef

Google 在出行领域的野心越来越明显，上周他们悄然上线了酒店预订功能，这对于 OTA 网站来说可能不是好消息。让用户在 Google 上搜索出行信息并直接完成机票、酒店预订，其实是 Google 一直在做的事。早在去年，Google 便在一些酒店搜索结果中直接给出了预订按钮，尽管页面会显示酒店的真正供应商是 Expedia、Agoda 等 OTA，但用户可以直接通过 Google 完成预订而无需跳转至第三方平台（部分支持） ... ▲ 图片来自：Google Blog 而如今，Google 干脆把这项功能做成了一个独立站点。上周 Google 旅游产品副总裁理查德‧霍尔登（Richard Holden）在博客中介绍了全新设计的 Google Hotels，比如用机器学习为用户筛选酒店优惠，并通过用户上传的照片和评价判断酒店的亮点、是否受欢迎、是否为豪华酒店等

(Reuters) - A gunman opened fire from a moving vehicle outside a Philadelphia shopping center on Wednesday, wounding five young men, one of them critically, police said. All five victims of the shooting, which was reported just after 2:30 p.m. EDT in the city’s Germantown section, were transported to nearby Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia police said in a statement. A 20-year-old man who was shot in the head was listed in critical condition at the hospital, police said. The other four victims, all men ranging in age from 19 to 23, were in stable condition with gunshot wounds to extremities. No suspects were immediately taken into custody and no weapons were recovered at the scene, police said, asking for tips from the public in helping solve the drive-by shooting. Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

(Reuters) - A gunman opened fire from a moving vehicle outside a Philadelphia shopping center on Wednesday, wounding five young men, one of them critically, police said. All five victims of the shooting, which was reported just after 2:30 p.m. EDT in the city’s Germantown section, were transported to nearby Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia police said in a statement. A 20-year-old man who was shot in the head was listed in critical condition at the hospital, police said. The other four victims, all men ranging in age from 19 to 23, were in stable condition with gunshot wounds to extremities. No suspects were immediately taken into custody and no weapons were recovered at the scene, police said, asking for tips from the public in helping solve the drive-by shooting. Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

A doctor working in the Syrian rebel enclave of the Eastern Ghouta says the situation is "catastrophic" - and he believes the international community has abandoned the people living there."We don't have anything - no food, no medicine, no shelter," Dr Bassam said.Activists say 45 people were killed in fresh government air strikes on Wednesday, bringing the total death toll there since Sunday to nearly 300. The Red Cross is demanding urgent humanitarian access to the region.The Syrian military says it is trying to liberate the area from terrorists - but it has also been accused of targeting civilians.The Eastern Ghouta is dominated by the Islamist faction Jaysh al-Islam. But Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance led by al-Qaeda's former affiliate in Syria, also has a presence there.Pro-government forces, backed by Russia, intensified their efforts to retake the last major rebel stronghold on Sunday night."They targeted everything: shops, markets, hospitals, schools, mosques, everything," Dr Bassam told the BBC on Wednesday. "Maybe every minute we have 10 or 20 air strikes...I will treat someone - and after a day or two they come again, injured again.""Where is the international community, where is (the UN) Security Council... they abandoned us. They leave us to be killed," he said.The head of safety and security for the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), which operates medical facilities in the Eastern Ghouta, told the BBC that 45 people had been killed and another 250 injured on Wednesday alone. Dr Ahmad Dbis said that since Sunday, ten members of medical staff and volunteers had been killed and 14 medical facilities were taken out of service, with five totally destroyed.The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the total death toll since Sunday at 296.It said that barrel bombs - containers filled with explosives and shrapnel - were used in government strikes on the towns of Jisreen and Kfar Batna on Wednesday.It follows the bombardment on Tuesday of at least 10 towns and villages across the Eastern Ghouta.Syrian state television reported that at least six people living in government-controlled areas of eastern Damascus were killed earlier this week - and 28 others wounded - by shells fired from the Eastern Ghouta.The Syrian military said it carried out "precision strikes" on areas from which the shells were launched.Syria country profile Since Sunday, activists say nearly 300 people have died, more than 60 of which were children. At least 1,400 people have been injured, they say.By Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic correspondentThe catastrophe in eastern Ghouta is unfolding as the war in Syria enters a new and even more dangerous phase. The international community is impotent to act, not least because key members of that community are deeply implicated in what is going on, not least Russia.Other regional players like Turkey and Iran are acting to secure their own long-term strategic interests. So too is Washington though its goals seem uncertain now that IS is defeated and the Assad regime remains in power.There is no consensus in the international community, no great leadership in evidence, and no shared sense of what Syria's future should be. Just as the international community has failed to halt the use of chemical weapons, so too it has been unable to secure humanitarian access to those at greatest risk. No. The government has allowed one humanitarian convoy into the Eastern Ghouta since late November, and there are severe shortages of food.A bundle of bread now costs close to 22 times the national average and 12% of children under five years old are said to be acutely malnourished.On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) joined the UN in calling for emergency humanitarian access to allow much needed aid to be delivered and the wounded to be evacuated. "Wounded victims are dying only because they cannot be treated in time. In some areas of Ghouta, entire families have no safe place to go," the ICRC's Marianne Gasser said in a statement. "On the other side of the frontline, people in Damascus are in constant fear that their children will be hit by falling mortars. This is madness and it has to stop. Civilians must not be targeted," she added. The UN has already called for a ceasefire.The violence in the region - designated as a "de-escalation zone" by Syria's main allies, Russia and Iran, as well as Turkey - is the worst since 2013, when a chemical attack killed hundreds of people, activists say.Meanwhile, pro-government fighters have been sent to the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria to confront an offensive by Turkish troops and Syrian rebels.Turkey fired shells near the advancing columns, which, it says, forced the pro-government fighters into retreat. Afrin lies just south of the Turkish border. Turkey is trying to oust the Kurdish YPG militia, which controls the area and which has called on the Syrian military for help. Syria has denounced the Turkish offensive as a "blatant attack" on its sovereignty, while Turkey has insisted it will not back down. Syrian government forces are also carrying out offensives on the rebel-held north-western province of Idlib. The UN says more than 300,000 people have been displaced by the fighting there since December.

编者按：Samuel Gibbs日前发表了一篇名为Nokia 8 hopes to beat Apple and Samsung with 'bothie', a new version of the selfie的文章，介绍了Nokia即将推出的智能手机Nokia 8。都说诺基亚已经没落，在这款手机上他们的表现又会如何呢？Nokia最近新推出了一款手机，想要在这个被三星，苹果和华为支配的现代智能手机时代中重振自己当年的辉煌。Nokia 8 标志着芬兰电信品牌重回主流手机市场的高潮，Nokia 8 的开发从六个月之前拉开序幕，这款手机也有怀旧的情怀在里面，包含了Nokia 3310的一些特点。这款安卓手机旨在与iPhone 7和Samsung Galaxy S8相竞争，铝制机身，配有卡尔蔡司（Carl Zeiss）的摄像头，立体声效，以及Nokia的360度相机，和高分辨率的5.3英尺屏幕。Nokia手机是由私人股本公司HMD Global“复活”的，他们在下一次的自拍革命中追求的是“bothie”（双视），Nokia的双视觉技术可以同时开启后置和前置两个摄像头，手机使用者可以同时用两个摄像头拍摄视频和照片，也可以直接在Facebook和YouTube上直播。HMD的首席产品官Juho Sarvikas表示：“我们知道大家现在很爱直播，每分钟会有数百万张新照片和新视频上传到社交媒体上，人们看到这些直播就很想用新方式创造自己的直播内容。”Nokia 8厚度为7.9mm，与其他竞争对手相当，但是其顶部和底部的边框依然很宽，而其竞争对手已经把边框做到很细了。Nokia和蔡司的再次合作创造出了1300万像素的双摄像头，Apple，Google，华为，LG也把这种新的计算摄影应用到了最新的手机中去。Nokia 8还有立体声技术，可以多方向播放声音，模仿录制时的声音环境。CCS Insight的研发主席 Ben Wood表示：“Nokia 8有一些新颖的特点，比如双视觉功能，360度声音录制，但是至于有没有可以改变市场的特点还尚不明确，也不知道能不能从Apple和Samsung等现有竞争对手手里吸引消费者。”Nokia 3，5和6的发布主要关注低端智能手机市场，HMD表示Nokia 8定价为599欧元（人民币4715元），会在九月初开始售卖，刚好处在Samsung和Apple新机发布的季节。Wood认为Nokia 8需要咄咄逼人的定价和营销，来与劲敌相竞争，他说：“Nokia 8对HMD Global来说是十分重要的：这是我们第一次尝试进入一个利润更大的高端手机市场，这也很富有挑战性的一块市场，因为其现在是由Samsung和Apple主导的。我们希望被广泛认可的Nokia品牌可以从HTC，华为，LG和Sony等竞争对手中脱颖而出，同时也会努力与Apple和Samsung相较量。”Nokia 8比Samsung新的Note系列手机的发布要早一个周，但是我们也都知道2016年Note 7的电池问题引发了爆炸之后，Samsung也召回了Note 7。Apple在九月也应推出新的iPhone ... 编译组出品。编辑：郝鹏程

So did Republican attacks on immigrants mobilize any voters in 2018? Yes, but it came in the form of Latino voters who reversed their record-low turnout in 2014 with record-high turnout in 2018. In the Election Eve poll, 73 percent of Latinos said Mr. Trump made them angry, while 72 percent said that they felt disrespected. Forty-eight percent of Latino voters agreed that Mr. Trump is a racist whose policies are intended to hurt Latinos, and 27 percent said that Trump policies have had a negative impact on Latinos, while 18 percent said Mr. Trump was having a positive impact on Latinos. In 2001, the political scientists Adrian Pantoja, Ricardo Ramirez and Gary Segura established that perceived immigrant attacks have a strong mobilizing effect among Latino voters. In 2018, Latino voters once again proved that thesis correct.In California, Latino voters increased their turnout enough to oust five Republican incumbents and help Democrats pick up two open seats. In Texas, Democrats won two House seats where Latino turnout was up. In New Jersey, Democrats gained four seats. Next door in New York, Democrats picked up three seats. There were two more Democratic pickups in Latino-majority districts in Florida, and one each in New Mexico and Arizona, while Democrats held on to two hotly contested seats in Nevada.A recent analysis by the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, a research center at U.C.L.A. that I helped found, revealed that across eight states with sizable Latino communities, the Latino vote grew by 96 percent from 2014 to 2018, compared with a more modest 37 percent in growth in the votes cast by non-Latinos. In a postelection analysis, Latino Victory Project and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee noted that early voting among Latinos increased by 174 percent. The U.C.L.A. study also concluded that higher Latino turnout was influential in flipping 20 of the 40 House seats that Democrats gained.When asked how they engaged were by the 2018 election, 77 percent of Latino voters in the 70 swing districts identified by The Cook Political Report said that they actively encouraged their friends and family to vote. But it was not just self-mobilization; campaign outreach mobilized Latinos. In these 70 competitive districts, 53 percent of Latinos said someone contacted them and asked them to register or vote, thanks in part to efforts by the D.C.C.C., which invested $30 million in targeting Latino voters in battleground districts. (My firm, Latino Decisions, worked with the D.C.C.C., although I did not work on any direct campaign efforts for individual candidates.)So what does this mean for 2020? First, it’s going to be much harder for Mr. Trump and Republicans to persuade Americans that immigrants are ruining our country. Before Mr. Trump took office, Republicans were more trusted than Democrats on immigration, but now it’s Democrats who are more trusted. Nonetheless, Mr. Trump will continue attacking immigrants in 2019 and 2020. Indeed, he vows to shut down the federal government to get his border wall. While he is likely to get standing ovations at his rallies when he denigrates immigrants, the number of voters who favor his immigration agenda is shrinking. Perhaps worse news for the Republican Party is that many Latino voters view Mr. Trump’s deeds, words — and the man himself — as racist, and the 2018 election demonstrated that the community is eagerly awaiting its chance to vote him out in 2020.Matt A. Barreto (@realMABarreto) is a professor of Chicano studies and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, a co-founder of the polling firm Latino Decisions and the author of “Latino America: How America’s Most Dynamic Population Is Poised to Transform the Politics of the Nation.”Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

The world’s largest furniture retailer, IKEA, has set a straightforward strategy for India: affordability and accessibility.That is reflected in its flagship store which opens today (Aug. 09) at Hyderabad’s Hitec city.Nestled between tall office buildings and under-construction sites, the 400,000-square-foot outlet is the culmination of years of research and an investment of Rs1,000 crore ($146 million).IKEA expects this store to attract 7 million visitors annually. Towards this, the company has localised and tweaked its offerings.For instance, the in-house 1,000-seater restaurant (its biggest yet) will sell samosas starting at Rs10, besides its signature cinnamon buns, coffee, and meatballs. Such pricing is attractive in price-sensitive India.In addition, the company has put in place a plan to assist shoppers in assembling its signature do-it-yourself (DIY) furniture. It has also added India-focused products, like the tawa (a round iron griddle used to make Indian breads and pancakes), to its offerings.With an army of 950 on-ground staff, the Hyderabad store also has the retailer’s largest ever headcount.“We want to make promises today,” IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin told reporters at a press conference on Aug. 08. “The first promise is, we will try to become affordable…[offering] 1,000 products below Rs200 is a good start. We want to meet many more Indians with our affordable price. Secondly, we want to be accessible. From tomorrow, we will be accessible in Hyderabad, and now we will take our efforts to speed up our expansion…we are already ready with a spade in the ground in several parts of India.”Understanding Indian shoppers’ price sensitivity, the store offers around 1,000 products priced under Rs200. For instance, among the 7,500 items on offer are chopping boards for Rs100, mugs at Rs59, door-mats priced at Rs99 and monotone sofa throws that cost Rs180.There are armchairs for Rs4,990 (onwards) and tables such as the India-made Lack table starting at Rs599.At the restaurant, too, the dishes are modestly priced. For example, a portion of Hyderabad’s famed biryani (a steamed rice, meat, and, spice preparation) costs just Rs99, while IKEA’s signature chicken balls are available for Rs149.Besides ensuring affordability, IKEA has also tweaked the product categories that it will push more in India.While textiles is a major focus area for it globally, in India, it is betting on kitchenware and dining products. The company estimates that kitchenware can generate upwards of 10% of its turnover in the country.So a large section at the two-storied store is dedicated to all things kitchen: pots and pans, spice boxes, idli-makers, cutlery, bowls, plates, containers, and tiffin boxes.“We anticipate this is the very area where we can see huge volumes going forward,” John Achillea, the Hyderabad store manager, told Quartz. ”We see huge potential in this (kitchenware), even more than textile because India is already a big textile market. While we will have some work to do in textiles, the reality will be that cooking and eating products will be required right from the beginning.”Even in this, there have been some adjustments made for India based on research—IKEA visited over 1,000 homes to understand how Indian families live. So, for instance, the cutlery sets will only include spoons and forks since Indians hardly use knives to eat.And it doesn’t stop there.The 75-year-old Swedish retailer first announced its India plans in 2012 and committed Rs10,500 crore for this.Now it may overshoot the outlay.“We believe India is bigger today than it was when we got that approval, so we believe we will invest more money than the Rs10,500 crore (promised earlier),” said Patrik Antoni, IKEA’s deputy country manager in India.It has already spent Rs4,500 crore on the Hyderabad store, besides adding distribution centres and buying land for outlets in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Bengaluru.Apart from opening up to 25 outlets—some smaller format stores included—by 2025, the company also plans to increase its e-commerce presence.The next store is expected to open in Mumbai in 2019 along with the launch of its e-commerce arm.

There are two things that the streets of Bengaluru are full of: bars and software developers. Take a seat at your watering hole of choice, and it won’t be long before you hear murmurs of startups, VCs and funding at a neighbouring table. This is where the entrepreneurs of Bengaluru (known as Bangalore until November 2014) come to meet – in the coffee shops, bars and restaurants of one of India’s most buzzing cities.“The tech scene and entrepreneurial spirit in Bengaluru are booming,” says Niketh Sabbineni, a local tech entrepreneur who sold his company, Bookpad, to Yahoo in 2014. Although from the Indian city of Hyderabad, he and his cofounders moved to Bengaluru straight out of college in search of three things: access to entrepreneurs, talent and venture capital.They’re not alone in choosing it as a base to launch a business. In 2017, the World Economic Forum named it the world’s most dynamic city, based on factors including innovation and technology. (This year it was overtaken by Hyderabad, whose state government has implemented a number of strategies to encourage tech entrepreneurship in the city.) In May, Walmart beat Amazon to buy out Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce platform based in Bengaluru, for £12bn. It represented a watershed moment for the city’s startup scene. “There hasn’t been a [merger] of that magnitude in India for a tech company,” says Sabbineni. “It’s such an important deal.”However, the deal is not without its controversy. Yesterday (July 2), small business owners organised protests in several Indian cities, arguing the US giant would skew the field against the traders who depend on FlipKart for their livelihood.Bengaluru has come a long way since the inception of its IT industry. By 1983, two soon-to-be-giants of India’s fledgling tech industry – Infosys and Wipro – had moved their head offices to Bangalore. Other tech companies followed, growing their businesses around the two firms. This included foreign companies looking to cut costs by employing cheap local developers. The IT outsourcing model was born. On the one hand, the new jobs raised living standards for Bengaluru’s citizens and made them digital natives, but on the other, it branded the city as a place for cheap labour and one that lacked its own ideas.Emilien Coquard is a French developer who moved to Bengaluru in 2011, and now runs a software recruitment agency connecting foreign companies with local talent. Since arriving, he’s seen the city’s tech culture change. “There’s been a shift from a software-factory model to a startup mindset,” he says. “Twenty years ago people entered IT engineering because that’s where the jobs were – now they’re doing it because they’re genuinely interested in tech, and they’re super excited to be working in software development.”Coquard uses the example of Dunzo, an app that connects people looking for help with tasks to others who’ll accept payment for completing them, as evidence of the entrepreneurial mindset he believes is deep-rooted in Indian culture. Dunzo started as a WhatsApp group, before the founders turned it into an app. Now, Google has invested £9m in it. This entrepreneurial spirit is bolstered in Bengaluru by a number of programmes and government initiatives aimed at supporting the city’s tech scene. One is the not-for-profit 10,000 Startups, which connects startups with funders, accelerators and mentors, with a view to building 10,000 new businesses in the city by 2024.Suresh Jayaraju, a senior director at 10,000 Startups, says that progress has been swift since the business’s inception, four years ago. The incubator is now reorienting its focus away from the quantity of startups and towards their quality, as well as to concentrate on certain sectors. In particular, the programme is focusing on deep tech, such as blockchain, AI and machine learning.Jayaraju sees this as an area in which Bengaluru could lead the world. While the city lacks the expertise of more established tech hubs, such as San Francisco’s Bay Area or London, everyone across the world is at an early stage in deep tech, so the playing field is level, he says. “Having started with this so early, we can still have an advantage. If we have the right ideas, we can definitely get funded.”Not unlike some of its more established competitors, Bengaluru’s tech scene struggles with gender equality. In 2017, just 2% of all equity funding that was raised went to startups with a female founder. “Women staying at home is more of a norm here,” says Hena Mehta, a tech entrepreneur who started a Lean In chapter for Bangalore. “Even educated women who went to college and had jobs before getting married tend to choose to stay at home and raise kids.”While larger companies often have equality and diversity policies aimed at increasing female representation, startups tend to recruit on a “talent-first” basis. Mehta is currently building a team for her own startup, and says she doesn’t have the resources to find enough female candidates. “I literally haven’t seen a single woman’s resume come through for software engineering,” she says. While Bengaluru still has some catching up to do, its tech scene is definitely starting to get the attention of the rest of the world – and this time not just as a source of cheap labour. Last month, US incubator Techstars launched its first startup accelerator programme in Bengaluru. Vishal Ramaswamy, community lead for Techstars, sees this as a vote of confidence in the city’s entrepreneurial culture. This is echoed in the reverse brain drain that Ramaswamy says Bengaluru is experiencing. “There are a lot of people of Indian origin who’re in the US – investors, corporate folks, serial entrepreneurs – who’re slowly coming back to India,” he says. “They’ve got US experience and contacts, and they’re coming back to set up businesses in India.” Topics Business to business Startup scenes India South and Central Asia Entrepreneurs Artificial intelligence (AI) Small business

One week can be a long time in inter-state relations. In a week’s time, India and China had kissed and made up after their armies stood eyeball to eyeball at the Doklam Plateau for more than two months. The trouble at the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction began on June 16 when Indian soldiers detected construction activity on what is considered disputed territory on the Doklam Plateau. Chinese workers seemed to be building a road that would have allowed China to project power further into the territory claimed by Bhutan, thereby giving Beijing an ability to cut India’s northeast from the mainland.India’s response was immediate. The government sent troops into Bhutan to halt the road-building, demanding restoration of status quo ante. As the Indian external affairs minister explained in the Indian parliament: “Our (Indian) concerns emanate from Chinese action on the ground which have implications for the determination of the tri-junction boundary point between India, China and Bhutan and the alignment of India-China boundary in the Sikkim sector.” Sushma Swaraj added that “dialogue is the only way out of the Doklam standoff…and this should be seen in the context of the entire bilateral relationship.”China, for its part, demanded that India withdraw unconditionally from Doklam before any meaningful bilateral talks could be held, and state-owned media launched a shrill campaign, at times threatening war and issuing reminders of the 1962 conflict between the two countries and India’s humiliating defeat. New Delhi was responsible in handling the crisis—refusing to be drawn into escalation by bellicose rhetoric and not losing its nerve. Tensions continued to rise through Aug. 26 when disengagement was announced and an understanding reached with the withdrawal of Indian troops and cessation of Chinese road construction in the area.Notwithstanding the spin used by both sides to justify disengagement, the BRICS summit played a key role in the final outcome as representatives of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa headed for Xiamen in early September. It would have been difficult for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to justify his presence at the summit with Indian and Chinese forces facing off each other at the border. And for Chinese president Xi Jinping, keen on presenting himself as a global statesman, India’s absence would have meant the beginning of the end of BRICS, tarnishing Xi’s reputation in the run-up to the critical Communist Party Congress in October.As the scene shifted to Xiamen for the BRICS summit, India underscored its dissatisfaction with how BRICS member states dealt with the issue of terrorism during the previous summit in Goa. Despite India making terrorism a priority, China not only blocked India’s attempts to include the names of Pakistan-based terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) in the 2016 BRICS declaration, but openly defended Pakistan after the summit, saying it opposed linking any country or religion with terror and asked the world community to acknowledge Pakistan’s “great sacrifices.”A surprise was in store when this year’s BRICS declaration named LeT and JeM along with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, reiterating agreements arrived at during the 2016 Heart of Asia summit. The agreement was not merely an acknowledgment that BRICS member states face common threats in the form of terrorism, but also a tribute to India’s consistently strong stand on this issue. China warned Modi not to raise bilateral terrorism-related issues at the BRICS summit, but India made sure to put these on the agenda. By listing Pakistan-based terror organisations for the first time, the Xiamen declaration underlined changing regional realities for Pakistan, accustomed to using China as a shield against global pressure on terror.Modi and Xi signaled efforts to move away from the bitterness engendered by the short-lived Doklam standoff by managing to present a united front at the BRICS summit. They agreed that Doklam-like situations should not be allowed to recur by charting new mechanisms to strengthen border-defence agreements that have held in the past and identified the need for closer communications between defence and security personnel. Both nations also sought convergence at the global level by underscoring their positions resisting economic protectionism of the kind that the Trump administration has been espousing, and the BRICS countries committed to an “open and inclusive” multilateral trading system.After the resolution of the Doklam standoff and show of unity at the BRICS summit, a sense of normalcy has returned to Sino-Indian relations. But the underlying forces shaping this relationship—structural, domestic politics, and individual—continue to make for a grim prognosis. India and China are two rising powers in the larger Asian strategic landscape which is being reshaped by American disengagement. Both are governed by nationalistic leaders who want to shape global politics to serve their national aspirations. And China, by diplomatically mishandling India, remains bereft of friends in India and continues to reinforce a perception that it is intent on scuttling India’s rise. New Delhi will be carefully watching if the BRICS declaration on terrorist groups like LeT and JeM translates into action as early as during October when the issue of designating JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist is likely to come before the United Nations Security Council. China, for its part, has already started back-pedaling by reassuring Pakistan that there is no change in Chinese policy vis-à-vis its close ally.India’s presence may have salvaged the BRICS grouping this year but the broader agenda inspires little confidence, considering the serious differences among member states on a range of economic issues. At a time when the global economy is passing through a difficult phase, there has hardly been any real reform of the global governance architecture. Apart from China and India, the remaining three member states of BRICS are facing economic decline. No wonder the Chinese president is calling for expansion of BRICS, and as he argued in his keynote speech at the summit’s opening ceremony: “We should promote the ‘BRICS Plus’ cooperation approach and build an open and diversified network of development partnerships to get more emerging market and developing countries involved in our concerted endeavors for cooperation and mutual benefits.”The BRICS declaration also called for greater economic cooperation beyond the five-member bloc, including Egypt, Mexico, and Thailand, but there is resistance. Even with five members, the platform struggles in balancing China. China’s gross domestic product for 2016 was double that of the other four members combined. By bringing in other countries which it could manage, China’s dominance might just be complete.India could deftly leverage the BRICS summit in resolving the Doklam crisis as well as ensuring that its concerns are not marginalised. BRICS provides India with a platform to keep China engaged multilaterally as well as working with other members on matters of shared concern. In a reversal of sorts, BRICS for India today has become an instrument to manage the externalities—positive and negative—of China’s exponential rise. The success and failure of the grouping, therefore, depends on how India and China manage bilateral relations. There is no guarantee that other points on the contested Sino-Indian border would not flare up again if political relations remain strained. And despite the peaceful resolution of the Doklam standoff and success of the BRICS summit, there are few reasons to be optimistic about the future trajectory of relations between Asia’s two preeminent powers.This piece first appeared on YaleGlobalOnline. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com.

Frida Kahlo’s exhaustively documented crossover from artist to pop culture icon isn’t happenstance. The painter meticulously crafted her own image on a par with Cleopatra. If she were alive today, she’d probably be teaching a branding class at Harvard. Now it’s America’s turn to see how, and, more important, why she did it.Some of the contents of the home she shared with her husband, the muralist Diego Rivera — known as La Casa Azul (Blue House) in Mexico City — will be accessible for the first time in the United States in “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving,” an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, from Feb. 8 to May 12. Their belongings were to be locked away until 15 years after Rivera’s death, according to his instructions, but the task of unsealing and inventorying them didn’t happen until much later, in 2004. This is the biggest stateside show devoted to Kahlo and a considerably expanded iteration of last year’s exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.The sweeping survey adds greater insight into Kahlo’s collecting habits through works culled from the museum’s vault as well as the New York chapter of her timeline, and includes works lent by local institutions and galleries. The supplementary mix of Mesoamerican objects, one of the many types of art the couple favored, with her paintings and photographs divulge her yearning for Mexico’s indigenous and agrarian culture and her conflicts with capitalism, especially in the income inequality she witnessed during her travels in the United States.[Never miss an event again. Subscribe to The New York Times Culture Calendar.]Visitors will better understand Kahlo’s skill in searing her likeness into the public imagination, even if it meant dangling monkeys around her head and cultivating her most recognizable physical traits — a statement ’stache and unibrow. Neither her disabilities from polio and a bus accident, nor her frequent relapses of pain deterred Kahlo. By the time she died at the age of 47 in 1954, she left behind a public persona that is still being mined well into the 21st century; today she has more than 800,000 Instagram followers.

When Apple releases its HomePod connected speaker early next year, it’ll reportedly cap off a five-year development slog that included cancellations, revivals, and redesigns. Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reports that a group of Mac audio engineers started working on HomePod as a side project two years before Amazon would launch its Echo speaker. But as Apple pursued audio perfection, the project supposedly went through several permutations, including a prototype that was three feet tall.

Earlier this week, Apple unveiled the third iteration of its Apple Watch wearable device. It’s a third attempt at figuring out the market for a device that has still not found the widespread success that Apple’s other product lines, such as its iPhones, Macs, and iPads, have found.Originally, the device was marketed as a notification streamliner, and a way of learning more about your day as it progresses. At the time, CEO Tim Cook said the watch would help people “easily access information that matters, to interact with the world, and to live a better day by being more aware of their daily activity than ever before.”The second time around, when Apple launched the Series 2 last year, it marketed the device as “the ultimate device for a healthy life.” This time, with the launch of the Series 3—a device that effectively looks and acts much like the previous two iterations, just with a built-in cellular data chip—Apple had this to say:Whether users are out for a run, at the pool, or just trying to be more active throughout their day, Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular allows them to stay connected, make calls, receive texts, and more, even without iPhone nearby.In the three years the Apple Watch has been available, Apple has struggled to position it as a device that regular people who do regular things need. Unless you have a litany of meetings that you need to know about at any given moment, or are deeply interested in the minutiae of your heart’s pumping, there still isn’t that much of a reason to purchase one. And what Apple chose to highlight during its press conference Sept. 12 seems to solidify the Apple Watch as an excellent health-monitoring device, but little else.The three main things that Apple focused on during the watch part of its presentation included 1) the fact that the new watch has cellular data connectivity, 2) that it can now track your heart rate so thoroughly it knows how effective your workouts have been, and 3) that is has new sensors to track how many flights of stairs you’ve climbed.Apple highlighted a new partnership with Stanford University to use the watch’s heart-rate monitoring data to learn how to discover if people have arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats). This will be welcome news for those with heart issues, such as those at risk of atrial fibrillation (heart failure related to arrhythmia), but perhaps not something that the average consumer of tech gadgets will see as a large selling point.Health insurers like Aetna are subsidizing the cost of Apple Watches, in an attempt to better understand how people will need medical services. So when Apple creates features like the heart rate tracker, it’s difficult to see the device as much more than a tool that insurance companies would love to strap onto every one of its policyholders—if you walk a certain number of steps in a month, perhaps your premiums are lowered; if you log enough exercises in a week, you get a discount. But these shouldn’t be reasons for a consumer to want to buy the watch themselves (or arguably agree to strap on one at the behest of an insurer).The other main selling point is the wireless connectivity. You can now make calls from your wrist, wherever you are, without the need for a phone. But in what situations will you not have your phone with you? Ones where you probably won’t have a watch on (the bathtub, your bed), or, when you’re working out.An LTE Apple Watch is the perfect exercise companion: You can use it to stream music to your wireless headphones, use apps to track your workout performances, and stay up to date on any information pertinent to you without needing to keep your phone nearby. In Apple’s presentation, it showed off this functionality not by having someone take a call in line at a coffee store or at their office desk, but instead on a paddle board in the middle of a lake. It’s another example of the lifestyle Apple is trying to sell with the watch—one where we all work out and want to know just how healthy we are at all times. Apple might try to remember that not everyone lives in California where the sunny weather is a constant reminder that you should be outside burning off calories.The iPhone is a popular, successful product because it’s a reliable device that can be whatever its owner needs it to be. The apps, and the mobile web, provide just about any experience you’ll ever need. With the watch, Apple has created a device that has extreme utility only in certain situations. If that’s all it will ever be, that’s fine, but it won’t be what the company needs to diversify its revenue streams in the future. It can’t rely on the iPhone forever.

In 1847 a book called Real Life in India by “An Old Resident” offered advice to British ladies going to live in India. This covered clothing, equipment for the voyage, household management, and ways of passing the time.A long list of essentials for the voyage was provided. Women were told to take dozens of chemises, nightgowns, petticoats, “cambric trousers,” handkerchiefs, towels, stockings, and gloves, together with fourteen dresses of different sorts, bonnets, shoes, one warm cloak, and six mosquito sleeping drawers. Other necessities included bedding, table linen, shoe ribbons, haberdashery, hair brushes and combs, tooth brushes and powder, soap, perfume, stationery and books, candles, and a supply of Bristol water and soda. A considerable amount of cabin furniture was recommended: couch, swinging cot, chest of drawers, bookcase, chairs, looking glass, lamp, foot-bath, waterproof trunks, and air-tight cases for dresses.On first arrival in India, ladies were advised to consult friendly females about the management of domestic affairs. The “Old Resident” pointed out that a British woman who had been accustomed to performing various household duties would be surprised to find that in India there was nothing for her to do. Everything would be done by the domestic staff. The day’s supplies were purchased by the khansuma (butler) at the market soon after day-break. Shopping, “a source of entertainment and economy in England,” was not an occupation for a lady in India. An immediate supply of hams, cheeses, or pickles could be obtained by sending a peon with a note to the local store. Only preparations for the gaieties of the cool season gave ladies an excuse to venture out to visit the milliner or jeweller for new finery.Ladies could combat the lassitude caused by the Indian climate by reading, painting, music, needlework, intelligent conversation, and occasional soirées, or taking a morning and evening promenade. Our “Old Resident” points out the danger of falling victim to “indolent habits and coarse indulgences”: “the sylph-like form and delicate features which distinguished the youth of her arrival, are rapidly exchanged for an exterior of which obesity and swarthiness are the prominent characteristics, and the bottle and the hookah become frequent and offensive companions.”Painting and needlework equipment should be taken out from Britain. Silver knitting needles were best as steel ones tended to rust from the warmth of the hand. Ladies who were accustomed to riding should take out saddles, bridles, and a riding habit as prices were higher in India.The author ends his chapter devoted to information for “the weaker sex” with detailed advice about the care of pianos in India. He encouraged ladies to learn the art of tuning since piano tuners and instrument repairers were not found at every station in India.This piece was first published on the Untold Lives blog of the British Library. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com.

An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, killing at least 20 people, health officials said, as harrowing images emerged on social media of the deadly bombing, the third to hit Yemeni civilians since the weekend.Khaled al-Nadhri, the top health official in the northern province of Hajja, told the Associated Press that most of the dead were women and children who were gathered in one of the tents set up for the wedding party in the district of Bani Qayis. He said the bride was among the dead.The hospital chief, Mohammed al-Sawmali, said the groom and 45 of the wounded were brought to the local hospital. Health authorities appealed for people to donate blood.Ali Nasser al-Azib, the deputy head of al-Jomhouri hospital, said 30 children were among the wounded, some in critical condition with shrapnel wounds and severed limbs.Footage that emerged from the scene of the airstrike shows scattered body parts and a young boy in a green shirt hugging a man’s lifeless body, screaming and crying.Health ministry spokesman Abdel-Hakim al-Kahlan said ambulances were initially unable to reach the site of the bombing for fear of subsequent airstrikes as the jets continued to fly overhead after the initial strike.This was the third deadly airstrike in Yemen in recent days. Another airstrike on Sunday night hit a house elsewhere in Hajja, killing an entire family of five, according to al-Nadhri.On Saturday, at least 20 civilians were killed in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition after fighter jets bombed a bus carrying commuters near the war-torn district of Mowza in western Yemen, near the city of Taiz, which has been locked in fighting for three years.The Saudi-led coalition declined to comment on the strikes when contacted by the AP. The coalition has been waging a war on Yemen’s Shia rebels known as Houthis, who control much of the north, and the capital, Sana’a, to restore the internationally recognised government to power.According to the independent monitor Yemen Data Project, a third of the 16,847 airstrikes since the war started have hit non-military targets.Over the past three years, more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and tens of thousands wounded, while more than 3 million people have been displaced because of the fighting.UN officials and rights groups accused the coalition of committing war crimes and of being responsible for most of the killings. Airstrikes have hit weddings, busy markets, hospitals and schools.The Saudi-led coalition blames the Houthis, saying they are using civilians as human shields and hiding among the civilian population. The US and European countries have also been criticised and accused of complicity in the coalition’s attacks in Yemen because of their support for the alliance and for supplying it with weapons worth billions of dollars.Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has faced a flurry of attacks by the Houthis, with the kingdom’s defence forces saying they have intercepted missiles targeting the capital, Riyadh, and other cities. Topics Yemen Saudi Arabia Middle East and North Africa news

The Pentagon is likely to announce in the coming days that there are about 2,000 US troops in Syria, rather than the 500 the military has said are in the war-torn country.Two US officials detailed the new figure on Friday, as the military acknowledges that an accounting system has underreported the size of forces on the ground.Separately, Donald Trump discussed developments in Syria with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Sunday, a spokesman for Erdoğan said.The US military has publicly said it has about 500 troops in Syria, mostly supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces group of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting Islamic State in the north of the country.The two officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon could as early as Monday publicly announce the new figure, though there was always a possibility that last-minute changes could delay an announcement.An accounting system, known as the Force Management Level (FML), was introduced in Iraq and Syria under the Obama administration as a way to exert control over the military. But the numbers do not reflect the extent of the US commitment on the ground, since commanders often find ways to work around the limits, sometimes bringing in forces temporarily or hiring more contractors. Current FML figures are officially 5,262 in Iraq and 503 in Syria, but officials have privately acknowledged that the real number for each country is more. In August, the Pentagon announced that there were 11,000 troops serving in Afghanistan, thousands more than it has previously stated.The Pentagon said last December it would increase the number of authorized troops in Syria to 500. It is not clear how long the actual number has been at about 2,000. Obama periodically raised FML limits to allow more troops in Iraq and Syria as the fight against Isis advanced. As that campaign winds down, it is unclear how many, if any, US troops will remain in Syria. Most are special operations forces, working to train and advise local partner forces and to provide artillery support.After Trump’s call with Erdoğan, the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said the American president had told his counterpart the US would no longer supply arms to Syrian Kurdish fighters whom Turkey considers to be terrorists because of their affiliation to outlawed Kurdish rebels that have waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.“Mr Trump clearly stated that he had given clear instructions and that the [Kurdish fighters] won’t be given arms, and that this nonsense should have ended a long time ago,” Çavuşoğlu said.He quoted Trump as saying that he had given instructions to US generals and to the national security adviser, HR McMaster, that “no weapons would be issued”.“Of course, we were very happy with this,” Çavuşoğlu said.One of the officials discussing US troop numbers said that the actual number in Iraq was not expected to be announced because of “host nation sensitivities”.The US defense secretary, Jim Mattis, has expressed frustration with the FML method of counting US troops in conflict zones. Topics US military US national security US foreign policy Trump administration Syria Middle East and North Africa Islamic State news