Saturday, June 12We Break the News

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Jun112021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Gov’t substitutes OTT with 12% tax on Data & Airtime

Gov’t substitutes OTT with 12% tax on Data & Airtime

AFRICA, Entertainment, SMART PHONES, Social Media, TEENAGERS, UGANDA, Youth
The Ministry of Finance has slapped a harmonized excise duty rate of 12% on airtime, value-added services and internet data as substitute for Uganda’s controversially approved Over The Top (OTT) tax. ‘‘Some tax policy interventions to be implemented in FY2021/22 include rationalizing the excise duty regime on telecommunication services,’’ state minister for finance and economic planning,  Mr Amos Lugoloobi told MPs as he presented the 2021/22 national budget tailored towards industrialization for inclusive growth, employment and wealth creation. However, the newly levied taxes that take effect July 1 will exclude access to data for internet portals providing medical and education services. Introduced in 2018, OTT tax sought to regulate access to microblogging a...
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Jun102021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments

Joe Biden revokes Donald Trump’s bid to ban Americans from downloading TikTok

DIGITAL, Entertainment, SMART PHONES, Social Media
Joe Biden's new executive order comes after the Trump administration attempted to ban TikTok last year. President Joe Biden has reversed his predecessor Donald Trump's plans to ban the popular video app TikTok in the US. In a new executive order, Mr Biden revoked the Trump administration's attempt to ban the Chinese-owned app, and has instead ordered a new Commerce Department review into security concerns around data sharing and privacy. The Trump administration tried to ban new downloads of TikTok in August last year and attempted to bar US companies from doing business with ByteDance, the app's parent company in Beijing. Mr Trump also backed a takeover of ByteDance by American company Microsoft. TikTok is estimated to have more than 100 million users in the US and is ...
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Jun92021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments

Man who slapped Macron ‘subscribes to far-right YouTube channels’

CRIME, INTERNATIONAL, Media, POLITICS, PRESIDENT, Security, Social Media, WORLD
French President Emmanuel Macron gets slapped by a member of the public during a visit in Tain-L'Hermitage, France, in this still image taken from video on June 8, 2021. BFMTV/ReutersTV via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS VIDEO WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. THIS IMAGE WAS PROCESSED BY REUTERS TO ENHANCE QUALITY. UNPROCESSED VERSION OF THE VIDEO WAS PROVIDED SEPARATELY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE. FRANCE OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN FRANCE Suspect identified as 28-year-old Damien Tarel slapped the French president during a walkabout, a moment that has gone viral on social media. The man alleged to have slapped French President Emmanuel Macron in the face subscribes to several far-right YouTube channels and is a fan of medieval swordsmanship, media reports and sources c...
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Jun92021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
CCBA works with Nakasero National Blood Bank to donate blood.

CCBA works with Nakasero National Blood Bank to donate blood.

AFRICA, Business, EAST AFRICA, GOVERNMENT, HUMAN INTEREST STORIES, INTERNATIONAL, Ministry Of Health, Parliament, Social Media, TECHNOLOGY, UGANDA, WORLD
June 8, 2021. Kampala, Uganda – Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) in Uganda along with the National Blood Bank and Kampala Rotary Club, Munyonyo, will be engaging in the annual blood donation drive where Ugandans are encouraged to give blood and help save countless lives across the country.  This drive will raise awareness for the need for regular blood donations, easy access to those donations and timely supply of safe and quality-assured blood and blood products as a key part of health care in Uganda. At the launch on 8th June 2021, it was shared that multiple districts, along with the capital city of Kampala, will be part of this initiative including Fort Portal, Jinja, Masaka and Mbale along with neighbouring towns like Entebbe. Globally, every year leading up to June 14th...
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Jun82021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Afro-Cuban fusion dance troupe sensation makes waves on social media!

Afro-Cuban fusion dance troupe sensation makes waves on social media!

AFRICA, Entertainment, Media, MUSIC, Social Media
Cuba, the Caribbean island which gave us the iconic Queen of Salsa and Rumba Afro-Cuban Celia Cruz is seeing the rise of dance troupe Datway -- a group of 16 dancers aged 18 to 32 whose fusion of dance styles with Africa-descended roots i.e. salsa, reggaeton and hip hop is making waves across Facebook and Instagram. Under a tin roof held up by walls covered in graffiti, the members of Datway train from Monday to Friday, shooting their videos on weekends. "Hip hop videos from other countries are always (set) in these very beautiful places," Datway founder Dariel Lopez, aka Chaiky Dari, told AFP. "We always look for places that are... well not ugly, because for us they are not ugly, but real -- those balconies in need of a touch of paint, young people and children who are not v...
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Jun82021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Big tech supports global tax, but wants digital services levies axed

Big tech supports global tax, but wants digital services levies axed

Computing, DIGITAL, Social Media, TECHNOLOGY
U.S. tech giants could benefit from the agreement of the Group of Seven rich countries’ agreement to create a global minimum 15% corporate tax rate if the final deal also scraps increasingly popular digital services taxes, according to industry lobbyists. The Deal, reached Saturday, was designed to reduce companies’ incentives to shift profits to low-tax offshore havens and could bring hundreds of billions of dollars into government coffers. The statement on the U.S. Treasury Department website touting the deal also discusses the "removal of all Digital Services Taxes, and other relevant similar measures, on all companies." Facebook Inc (FB.O) was quick to praise the deal, and Alphabet Inc's (GOOG.LO) Google followed suit: "We strongly support the work being done to update i...
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Jun52021 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments
Nigeria Suspends Twitter After It Deleted A Tweet By The President

Nigeria Suspends Twitter After It Deleted A Tweet By The President

AFRICA, DIPLOMACY, Nigeria, PAN AFRICA, Social Media, Twitter, West Africa
LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria's government said Friday it was suspending Twitter indefinitely in Africa's most populous nation, a day after the company deleted a controversial tweet President Muhammadu Buhari made about a secessionist movement. It was not immediately clear when the suspension would go into effect as users could still access Twitter late Friday, and many said they would simply use VPNs to maintain access to the platform. Others mocked the government for using the platform to announce the action. "You're using Twitter to suspend Twitter? Are you not mad?" one user tweeted in response. Information Minister Lai Mohammed said Friday that government officials took the step because the platform was being used "for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's c...
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