Friday, 29 July 2016

Amazon boss becomes world's third richest man


Jeff Bezos Amazon chief executiveImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionJeff Bezos is Amazon's chief executive

Strong earnings from Amazon and a boost to the company's stock have made its founder, Jeff Bezos, the world's third richest man, according to Forbes.
Mr Bezos's owns 18% of Amazon's shares, which rose 2% in trading on Thursday. Forbes estimated his fortune to be $65.3bn (£49.6bn).
Amazon's revenue beat analysts' expectations, climbing 31% from last year to $30.4bn in the second quarter.
Profit for the e-commerce giant was $857m, compared with $92m in 2015.
Amazon had developed a reputation for announcing little or no profit each quarter, but appeared to hit a turning point last year and has seen improving earnings since.
Amazon shares have spiked 50% since February.
Amazon's Prime membership, which offers extra services including free shipping for an annual fee, saw impressive international growth.
In June, Amazon launched Prime in India to take advantage of the country's large consumer market.
"It's been a busy few months for Amazon around the world, and particularly in India - where we launched a new [Amazon Web Services] Region, introduced Prime with unlimited free shipping, and announced that Prime Video is coming soon, offering Prime members in India exclusive access to Amazon Original Series and Movies - including original content featuring top Indian creators and talent," said Mr Bezos.

Amazon prime signImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Amazon has boosted Prime membership by improving its video streaming offerings, an area in which it competes with Netflix.
Prime Day, Amazon's annual promotional shopping festival earlier this month, was the company's largest ever sales day.
Amazon does not release figures for its Prime membership, but Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimated US membership to be close to 63 million. Members spend an average of $1,200 a year, compared with $500 by non-members, according to the research firm.

Cloud services

Amazon's cloud computing unit also spiked. Revenue for Amazon Web Services (AWS), climbed 58.2% to $2.89bn, beating analysts' exceptions of $2.83bn.
Sales growth for the unit in North America climbed 10% and 8% in the rest of the world.
Amazon has grown its market share in cloud computing compared with rivals such as Microsoft and Google.
It introduced a new Asia Pacific region for its cloud unit this quarter.
Amazon has also been looking to expand its presence in other areas. The company has now launched its online grocery store in the UK.
Earlier this month, it announced a partnership with US bank Wells Fargo to offer discounts on student loans for members of its Prime Student services.

US election: Moment Hillary Clinton accepted nomination

US electionMoment Hillary Clinton accepted nomination

1 hour ago
The moment Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination for president of the United States at the party's convention in Philadelphia.

The loudest lawyer in America

The loudest lawyer in America

28 July 2016 Last updated at 00:36 BST
Masked wrestlers, motorcyles crashing through walls and explosions galore. Not quite what you would expect from a lawyer seeking to promote his legal practice.
However, Bryan Wilson, a criminal defence attorney from Fort Worth, Texas, has become a huge internet hit through a series of bizarre adverts in which he appears as the larger-than-life Texas Law Hawk.
Video Journalist: Richard Kenny
For more videos subscribe to BBC Trending's YouTube channel.

Gay activist Harvey Milk 'to be honoured with US Navy ship'


Gay rights activist Harvey Milk pictured during his time in the US NavyImage copyrightUS NAVAL INSTITUTE
Image captionMilk served in the US Navy during the Korean War

The US Navy is set to name a ship after gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, according to a report by the US Naval Institute News.
The tanker, which is yet to be built, will be called the USNS Harvey Milk, USNI News said.
It cited a notification signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.
Milk was one of the first openly gay politicians in the US and was killed a year after winning election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
He served in the US Navy in his youth as a diving officer during the Korean War before being honourably discharged.
Milk was wearing his Navy belt buckle when he was shot dead.
Speaking in 2012, Milk's nephew Stuart Milk said such a move would send "a green light to all the brave men and women who serve our nation: that honesty and authenticity are held up among the highest ideals of of nation's military".

Harvey Milk, pictured in San Francisco in 1977Image copyrightAP
Image captionMilk was assassinated soon after taking political office

The news delighted San Francisco politician Scott Wiener, who has called for a ship to be named after Milk, saying it was an "incredible day".
"When Harvey Milk served in the military, he couldn't tell anyone who he truly was,"he wrote.
"Now our country is telling the men and women who serve, and the entire world, that we honour and support people for who they are."
The idea is not without controversy. After the suggestion was first mooted critics said Milk would have disapproved of lending his name to a Navy ship, given his opposition to the Vietnam War.
Several other civil rights champions are also set to be honoured with ships bearing their names, USNI News said, including former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth.

Turkey failed coup: Who are the Gulenists?


An abandoned tank is seen near a Turkish flagImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionMr Gulen and his supporters have been blamed for the failed coup earlier in July

A small, handwritten note flutters on the gates of a school in Istanbul's Sisli district.
"Within the context of the state of emergency, this education institution has been closed and its property has been given over to the treasury," it reads.
Above the signature is the red seal of a notary. Run by or close to the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, it is one of the almost 1700 schools closed down in the past fortnight, now labelled a breeding ground for terrorism.
From education to the military, judiciary to NGOs, police to private businesses, the post-coup purge has been staggering.
Among the media, 131 outlets will be closed. In the military, 1,700 officers have been discharged, including almost half of Turkey's admirals and generals.
Nearly 16,000 people have been detained. Even some 250 cabin crew at Turkish Airlines have been dismissed: all suspected backers of the coup or of Fethullah Gulen.

Chained gates in Istanbul, Turkey. Photo: 27 July 2016Image copyrightAFP
Image captionThe closure of several media outlets was ordered soon after the abortive coup

The scale of the clampdown has drawn criticism from Western governments.
But to grasp what is happening requires an understanding of the Gulen movement: a man whose followers have spread through Turkey's institutions for the past four decades.
Fethullah Gulen emerged in the 1960s as an Islamic preacher within a constitutionally secular Turkey.
His advocates call him a guru of moderate Islam tinged with humanitarianism, delivering his ideology through a network of high-achieving schools in Turkey and about 140 countries.
Critics say he has built a dangerous cult that has infiltrated all corners of the Turkish state - a fifth column that has shown its true colours in this latest coup attempt.
Members of his movement were embedded until recently within virtually every institution.

More on Turkey's coup


A leaked diplomatic cable from the US ambassador to Turkey in 2009 read: "The assertion that the [National Police] is controlled by Gulenists is impossible to confirm but we have found no one who disputes it."
A grainy video of the cleric emerged in 1999 apparently calling on his followers to "move within the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centres… You must wait until such time as you have got all the state power".
Mr Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999, says his words were manipulated.
Some of those who have reported on the shadowy network over the years have faced lawsuits, such as the journalist Ismail Saymaz.
"The Gulen structure aims to surround the state from within and take over", he tells me.
"They're not armed militants but cloak themselves as judges, teachers, police, MPs and businessmen.

Turkish journalist Ismail Saymaz
Image captionJournalist Ismail Saymaz says the Gulen network aims to "take over" the state

"Right-wing governments have used the Gulenists against the secular military - the movement got its biggest power during Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule."
The Erdogan-Gulen alliance was indeed strong: an Islamist pair reshaping a once fiercely secular Turkey.
But as Mr Erdogan's conservative AK Party became entrenched in power, rivalry grew.
When a series of leaked phone calls in 2013 appeared to implicate Mr Erdogan and his inner circle in corruption, the Gulenists were blamed.
They were painted as a "parallel state", who had also struck years earlier, when the movement was widely believed to have fabricated evidence in the so-called "Ergenekon" and "Sledgehammer" cases: two sham trials accusing hundreds of military officers of plotting a coup.
The convictions were eventually overturned.
Naval captain Ali Yasin Turker was among those sentenced during Sledgehammer.

Turkish naval captain Ali Yasin Turker
Image captionThis navy captain blames the Gulen network for his wrongful conviction

He spent 33 months in prison before the conviction was crushed.
"The media close to Fethullah Gulen carried out an operation against us, violating our right to a free trial", he says.
"His followers were in the police and judiciary but they didn't have enough in the military so they were trying to replace us with their own."
So did the military purge during Ergenekon and Sledgehammer pave the way for this latest coup?
"Certainly. If they hadn't been able to get rid of us then and put their own followers in the military, they wouldn't have been able even to think about a coup, let alone carry it out."
Many of the so-called Gulenists left Turkey in recent days or weeks, fearful that they would be arrested.
We tracked down Abdullah Bozkurt, a former journalist from Zaman, once Turkey's most-read newspaper and the biggest Gulen media outlet.

Fethullah Gulen speaks to the mediaImage copyrightREUTERS
Image captionMr Gulen himself lives in exile in the US

He moved abroad this week and denounces a "witch-hunt targeting every critical, dissenting and opposition journalist - whether thought to be affiliated with Gulen or not".
"How could you plot a coup through a media organisation?" he asks.
"This is collective punishment without any evidence. The government is simply killing alternative narratives and intimidating people not to ask serious questions."
I ask what it means to be a follower of Gulen.
"It's an intercultural, interfaith dialogue. I don't believe this is the infiltration of Turkey. Where do you expect students from his schools and universities to go? They needed to find jobs in the public and private sector."
And what of allegations that the movement is a sect, a sort of Turkish Opus Dei?

Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave their national flags and hold a portrait of Fethullah GulenImage copyrightAP
Image captionFor Turkish government supporters, Mr Gulen is a hated figure - this sign calls him a "traitor"

"I don't believe in that nonsense", he says.
"You hear all sorts of rhetoric from the government blaming the Vatican or America or other conspiracy theories. They have a track record of shifting responsibility. The Gulen movement is a perfect scapegoat."
Opposition to the attempted coup has united Turks - but punishment or purge is uprooting almost every part of society.
President Erdogan appears vindicated in his constant talk over the years of an "enemy within". But criticism still continues that the clampdown is going too far.
The Turkish government is demanding Fethullah Gulen's extradition from the US - but Washington says it's still waiting for evidence that he's involved.
He and his supporters say there is none, insisting they are a peaceful interfaith movement.
But the attempted coup has largely turned Turkish society against them and the calls are loud to flush out the Gulen influence once and for all.

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