Elon Musk says Beijing disapproved of him sending Starlink to Ukraine, wanted him to promise he wouldn't sell the satellite internet in China

 

Elon Musk said China clearly disapproved of his decision to send SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine.

The billionaire told Financial Times in a recent interview that Beijing asked for him to promise he wouldn't sell Starlink in China.

In February — two days after Russia invaded Ukraine — Musk sent Ukraine a shipment of Starlink satellite internet dishes. It was the first of many shipments to the country that has helped Ukraine stay connected amid Russia's attacks and a hack on the satellite provider for its military.

Early on, Ukraine officials and military leaders praised the move, with a US general saying Starlink "totally destroyed Putin's information campaign" and attempts to silence Ukraine President Zelenskyy.

But recently, FT reported that Ukrainian forces have faced some outages of their Starlink devices on the frontlines in recent weeks. Roman Sinicyn, a co-ordinator at a foundation that donates Starlink systems to the Ukrainian armed forces, told the publication the outages are the result of SpaceX representatives attempting to prevent Russians from using the technology.

Since, Musk has also activated Starlink in Iran amid widespread protests over the death of a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Amini who died in police custody. People in the country have reported internet outages and the Iranian police denied Amini was mistreated.

The satellite internet service is available in about 40 countries, but SpaceX has yet to sell Starlink in China. Chinese state media has reported that SpaceX does not have plans to apply for an operating license in China. Internet service in China is available only through state-owned providers, and access is strictly censored.

The Tesla CEO is heavily reliant on China — the largest electric-car market in the world. In 2018, Musk launched a factory in Shanghai. Since, the factory has become one of Tesla's main export hubs. Last year, half of Tesla's global deliveries came from China.

The billionaire has publicly praised China in the past and recently wrote an article for China's internet regulator.

"Chinese companies will be a force to be reckoned with in the cause of energy innovation," Musk reportedly wrote in the article.

FT said the billionaire appeared hesitant to comment on growing tensions between the US and China, but said he believes there will eventually be a conflict with the communist country over Taiwan.

"Apple will be in very deep trouble, that's for sure," Musk said, noting he believes the global economy will plummet by 30%. Though, the billionaire said Tesla's Shanghai factory will still be able to sell cars in China.

Last week, the billionaire also weighed in on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, suggesting the citizens of the occupied territories should vote on which country they'd rather live in. His suggestion was met with heavy criticism. Even Zelenskyy mocked Musk's attempt to solve a real-world crisis on Twitter.

"Which @elonmusk do you like more?" Zelenskyy asked, with a poll. "One who supports Ukraine. One who supports Russia."

Musk's comments on Ukraine were also met with criticism from China's top propagandist, Hu Xijin. 

"Elon Musk has released his personality too much, and he believes too much in the US and West's 'freedom of speech.' He will be taught a lesson," Hu reportedly wrote

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Google invests over $200m in Nigeria, others Kindly share this story:

Google has spent well above $200m in Nigeria and across Africa in the last one year.

The Director of Google Cloud Africa, Niral Patel, disclosed this to journalists during a round table online conversation after Google for Africa event on Wednesday.

During the 2021’s Google for Africa, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Sundar Pichai, disclosed a $1bn investment commitment to the continent across five years.

While speaking to journalists, Patel, who stated he couldn’t disclose the exact amount the company had invested, said Google had invested well over 20 per cent of its commitment on the continent.

At this year’s event, the firm revealed that its subsea cable, Equiano, would launch before the end of 2022.

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Top 5 credit applications in Nigeria that have crossed 5 million downloads as of Q3 2022

With the quantity of unbanked Nigerian grown-ups put at 60 million starting around 2021, most of the around 40 million that have ledgers are still underbanked as they have no admittance to credit and other monetary administrations. This is the reason the fintech and credit applications are overall heartily embraced by a huge number of Nigerians.

With the arrangement of fast advances without security, credit applications are spanning the monetary consideration hole left by the customary banks in Nigeria.

Despite the fact that there have been protests that the loan costs being charged by a portion of these are excessively high, it has not prevented numerous Nigerians from belittling them. As a matter of fact, going by the quantity of downloads of these applications, a portion of the computerized loaning stages currently have a greater number of clients on their applications than the enormous conventional banks in the country.

While there are presently lots of advance applications giving credit administrations in Nigeria, including those authorized by the National Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the unlicensed ones also called predatory lenders, every one of them keep on getting a charge out of support as they are meeting the monetary requirements of numerous Nigerians.

Nairametrics takes a gander at the download figures of these applications on the Google Play Store, which gives a fair thought of the applications being generally utilized by Nigerians. Here are the best 5 credit applications that have crossed 5 million downloads on the Google Play Store as of the finish of Q3 2022:

Branch

Branch is a platform that offers quick online loans in Nigeria. As of Q3 2022, this app is the most-downloaded loan app in Nigeria that has crossed 10 million downloads on Google Play Store.

The app determines loan eligibility and personalized loan offers using the users’ smartphone data. Their interest rates range from 15% – 34%. You can get access to loans from N1,000 to N200,000 within 24hrs, depending on your repayment history, with a period of 4 to 40 weeks to pay back.

All you need to apply is your phone number or Facebook account, bank verification number (BVN) and bank account number. They will also request access to the data on your phone in order to build your credit scor

Palmcredit

Palmcredit comes a distant second to Branch in terms of downloads, it is nonetheless one of the most patronized loan apps in Nigeria. The lending platform says it can provide a quick loan of up to N300,000 in less than 3 minutes without any form of collateral. You can borrow between N2,000 to N300,000 quick loan and if your documentations are complete and accurate, you can get your disbursement within a business day, the platform claims. The app has been downloaded over 5 million times on the Google Play Store as of Q3 2022

FairMoney

FairMoney says it offers fast loans within 5 minutes with no documentation or collateral required. The loan amounts vary based on your smartphone data and repayment history. Loan amounts range between N1,500 to N500,000 with repayment periods from 61 days to 180 days at monthly interest rates that range from 10% to 30%. The app is, no doubt, one of the most used by Nigerians as it has also been downloaded 5 million times and still counting.

 

Okash (1 million downloads) now 5 million

Okash is a convenient quick online loan platform for Nigeria mobile users managed by Blue Ridge Microfinance Bank Limited. OKash fulfills customers’ financial needs completely online 24/7. The application process takes just a few steps with minimal documentation and the approved loan amount is transferred to the applicant’s bank account. The app offers loans ranging from N3,000 to N500,000 and repayment plan ranges from 91 days to 365 days.

The app is one of the most-downloaded loan apps on the Play Store as it had crossed 5 million downloads as of Q3 2022

PalmPay

Palmpay is an automated lending service focused on increasing access to credit to financially under-served/excluded individuals around Africa. Launched in Nigeria in 2019, the company says it has provided over 5,000,000 customers with convenient and affordable digital payments.

The company also claims that loan decisions on its app are provided within 15 seconds and if approved, the applicant receives funds within 5 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On the app, the usual amount for new borrowers is N10, 000

This app is one of the most-downloaded loan apps in Nigeria. As of Q3 end, it had recorded over 5 million downloads to be among the top 5 with such record

Crypto scammers steal $100m from Binance

 

Scammers have stolen $100 million in cryptocurrency from Binance, the world’s biggest exchange for cryptoassets, the firm said on Friday.

Company chief Changpeng Zhao wrote on Twitter that “an exploit” in the system led to extra production of the exchange’s dedicated currency, adding: “The current impact estimate is around $100m.”

“The issue is contained now. Your funds are safe. We apologise for the inconvenience and will provide further updates accordingly,” he wrote.

It is among the biggest thefts in cryptocurrency history, although it is still dwarfed by the mammoth heist of more than $500 million from the Axie Infinity blockchain game earlier this year.

Scammers are increasingly using weaknesses in “cross-chain bridges” — the means used by investors to move assets from one blockchain to another.

Blockchains are digital ledgers that store details of transactions — the biggest is bitcoin but there are thousands of others.

Changpeng Zhao wrote that the theft involved “an exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub”, reassuring customers it had been fixed.

Elliptic, another analysis firm, said in its crime report this week that bridges “tend to accumulate large amounts of locked assets on numerous blockchains, many of which may not have advanced security or auditing cultures due to their relative obscurity”.

“This has made bridges an attractive target for cybercriminals in the past,” it added.

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How to Add LinkedIn Contacts to Gmail

Want to export your LinkedIn contacts to Gmail to stay in touch with your connections via emails? Here's how to do it.

LinkedIn is the single largest purpose-built platform for building a professional network on the internet. However, strong professional relationships transcend a single platform.

To give your career a boost, it's important to open multichannel communication lines with your LinkedIn contacts. A good way to do that is by exporting your LinkedIn contacts to Gmail.

Why You Should Export Your LinkedIn Contacts to Gmail

Why make efforts to open a new communication line on Gmail? Well, for starters, not all LinkedIn users actively use the platform. Although you can use LinkedIn to pitch your services to people, it may take a while to get going on business conversations or even get a response to your messages from potential business partners.

Exporting your LinkedIn contacts to Gmail lets you fast-track conversations and increases the chance of your messages being seen. And then there's the issue of losing your LinkedIn account. Although there are steps you can take to recover your LinkedIn account, sometimes, you can lose it for good.

How to Export Your LinkedIn Contacts

Before you can add your LinkedIn contact to Gmail, you'll first need to export your connections. LinkedIn will send the exported data as a CSV file to the email address linked to your LinkedIn account.

You'll then have to download and add the data to your Gmail account. We'll guide you through the whole process below.

Visit LinkedIn on your desktop and click on the Me icon in the top right corner of your LinkedIn feed page.

Click on Settings & Privacy in the drop-down box.

At the left corner of the page that comes up, Select Data Privacy from the options under Settings.

From the How LinkedIn uses your data menu at the center of the page, select Get a copy of your data.

On the next screen, select Want something in particular? Select the data files you're most interested in from the options, tick the checkbox labeled Connections, and then click the Request archive button.

LinkedIn will notify you of your pending download. Downloads are typically ready in a few minutes, after which you'll get a link for the download sent to the email address associated with your account.

Open your email and click the download link through to the LinkedIn download page.

On the LinkedIn download page, click on Download archive to download your LinkedIn contact to your computer

Importing Your LinkedIn Contacts to Gmail

After downloading your LinkedIn contacts, follow the steps below to add the data to your Gmail.

Sign in to your Gmail and click on the app icon in the top right corner of your inbox screen.

Click on Contacts from the drop-down that opens.

Scroll down and click on Import after the page loads.

Click Select file on the menu that pops up at the center of your screen. Find the CSV file you downloaded to your computer and click Import.

Your contacts will be imported to your Google account in a few seconds.

Safeguard Your LinkedIn Contacts

If you have a rapidly growing network, it's a good idea to add your LinkedIn contacts to Gmail every quarter of the year. By doing so, you're not only opening up new ways to communicate with other relevant professionals, you're also making a backup of useful contacts.