Nikki Haley gets Trump’s support for nailing down Kelly, Tillerson in memoir

Former US Ambassador to UN Nikki Haley has finally cracked the code from within narrating in her book how former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had tried to circumvent some policies in the name of national interest despite going against President Donald Trump’s own decisions.

Haley’s claims in her book With All Due Respect come at a time when US Presidnet Trump is facing the House impeachment inquiry over his policy on Ukraine. She said former secretary of state Rex Tillerson and former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly tried to persuade her to work around and dump Trump that she claimed to have refused. “Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” she wrote.

Interestingly, they argued the same way many witnesses of Democrats did when they testifed in private before the House Intelligence Committee. Haley told CBS Sunday Morning show that she did not believe the president had done anything wrong in the Ukrainian phone call.

She said that she was “shocked” at the request made during their closed-door meeting. “It was their decisions, not the president’s, that were in the best interests of America, they said. The president didn’t know what he was doing,” she wrote in her book. She recalled Tillerson reasoning her out that he resisted the president’s decisions because, “if he didn’t, people would die.”

It may be mentioned here that President Trump fired Tillerson in March, 2018, who later called the President “dumb as rock”, while John Kelly resigned in December, 2018. In fact, Haley received thumbs up from the President when he tweeted “Good luck Nikki!”

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Samsung makes inroads into IITs, recognizes 3 Indore IIT projects

Samsung India conducted the 9th edition of the Samsung Innovation Award at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indore to recognize and reward innovations of students that have the potential to revolutionize everyday life under this year’s theme ‘Systems that learn’ for practical ideas around multi-modal sensing, applications of learning systems, VR, XR, 3D imaging, and distributed AI.

The awards were presented by Dr. Aloknath De, Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Samsung R&D Institute – Bengaluru (SRI-B). Prizes worth INR 3.5 lakhs were awarded to the top three winners, while the other three finalists received award of merit from Samsung.

The First prize went to Ram S. Mohril for the project “AR/VR Enhanced Textbook reading and learning experience”. The project is a revolutionary idea where it aims to transform the technical writing and learning field by developing a book for higher education students and through augmented and virtual reality technologies. The Second Prize was grabbed by Chaitanya Mehta for his project “Tree Climbing Quadraped Robot”. Chaitanya developed the quadruped which is capable of traversing the terrain smoothly, transition from ground to the trunk of the tree without assist to meet future requirement of smart and automated farms.

The Third prize was awarded to Nemath Ahmed, Suraj Polamaina, Shavez Malick for their project “Immersive Acoustic Spatial Awareness for Visually Impaired”. Their project aimed at helping the visually impaired to navigate, socialize and stay aware of near hazards with the use of echolocation technique. The Merit awards were given to the projects “Fingerprint Spoof buster”, “AI based Contactless Biometric system” and “Leukemia Classification from Microscopic Images using Deep learning techniques”.

“Over the past nine years, Samsung Innovation Award has been delighted to recognize the talent pool across various IITs in India. We are happy to see sharp problems, novel ideas and smart execution of the participating teams. This edition at IIT Indore brought forward some of the innovative renditions in sync with the theme. At Samsung, innovation is deep rooted in our DNA and our constant endeavor is to promote the culture of innovation amongst bright minds”, said Aloknath De, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Samsung R&D Institute – Bengaluru (SRI B).

The six-finalist teams had the opportunity to present their ideas to the jury consisting of senior researchers and scientists from Samsung and IIT-Indore. The winning projects were selected on the basis of originality of the product and solution, feasibility of implementation, completeness, relevance in the market and presentation to the jury members at IIT-Indore.

“We intend to take this event further and develop a long standing association with Samsung Research Institute Bangalore to nourish research, innovation and entrepreneurship eco-system at the institute for the benefit of the society,” said Prof. Pradeep Mathur, Director, IIT- Indore. Samsung Innovation Award 2019 was initiated five months ago.

Initiated and conceptualized in 2011, over the last 9 years, Samsung Innovation Award has recognized the efforts and dedication of over 60 finalist teams from premiere IITs like Delhi, Kanpur, Roorkee, Madras, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. The last edition was held at IIT-Hyderabad.

 

Kamala Harris fires her campaign team amid fund crunch, Tulsi emerges stronger

Kamala Harris the Democratic nominee for president has fired many of her campaign staff amid reports of ranking lower than two other contestants, indicating a desperate bid to cut down cost and still remain in the fray for the US Presidential elections.

However, she is not the only candidate facing a cash crunch with more staffers but but these layoffs are not a good sign for someone polling among the top five, said experts. She has raised $11.8 million last quarter but ended up spending $14.5 million.

The USA Today/Suffolk poll predicted Harris at 3 percent with assured vote by Democrats in their primaries. Another Indian American Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D–Hawaii), who called out Harris’s criminal justice record, now surpassed her standing at 4 percent.

It means, if Gabbard wins one more poll, she may be among the speakers vying for nomination at the November’s Democratic debate. Moreover, Gabbard is halfway through the polling threshold for December, which Harris hasn’t qualified for still.

Joe Biden is on top among the Democratic nominees at 26 percent, followed by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (17 percent), Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (13 percent), and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (10 percent).

Harris had remained a top contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination since her July 2018 when she announced that she would publish a memoir, another sign of a possible run. In January, she officially announced her candidacy for President of the United States in the 2020 United States presidential election.

Within 24 hours, she matched the record set by Bernie Sanders in 2016 for the most donations raised in the day following announcement. More than 20,000 people attended her formal campaign launch event in her hometown of Oakland, California and her support rose by between 6–9 points in polls following the first Democratic presidential debate.

However, in the second debate, Harris was confronted by Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard over her record as Attorney General, notably her past positions on marijuana, cash bail, and parole reform. The current cash crunch may further fuel to her woes in the electioneering.