New South Wales installed the world’s first mobile-phone detection camera on its roads to detect car drivers using mobile phones while driving.

The cameras are built to operate 24×7 and withstand all weather conditions. The state plans to install 45 such cameras in the next three years.

New South Wales Minister of Transport, Andrew Constance, said, “The NSW Government is serious about reducing our state’s road toll and rolling out mobile phone detection cameras is another way we will do this.”

Drivers in NSW are allowed to make or receive voice calls only if they have a hand-held device. Video calling, using social media, and photography while driving are banned.

354 people perished in road accidents in New South Wales in 2018. The total this year has reached 329. The New South Wales government hopes that the new cameras will help to cut the number of deaths by road accidents by 30%.

The cameras will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to scan images to detect instances of drivers using mobile phones. The images which AI deems as violations will be shown to an authorized person who will verify them.

After the cameras are installed, violators will only be issued warning letters for the first three months. Afterward, they will be fined A$344, and for areas around schools, the fine will go up to A$457. Violators will also get penalty points.

Opponents of the move argue that it will see a surge in the cases of driving violations and also that it holds the drivers guilty before trial as the drivers will have to prove that they were innocent conclusively.

Indeed, the NSW government forecasts that 135M violators will be caught by the new cameras every year for at least 4 to 5 years. Even if only 3% of violators move courts against their fines, it adds up to 72,900 new cases.

According to the latest reports, India has announced total financial assistance of 450 million USD to Sri Lanka. The move was officially announced on Friday, November 29, 2019, by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The line of credit includes 50 million USD to help Sri Lanka fight terrorism. The remaining 400 million USD are set aside for development projects in the island nation, out of which the credit line of 100 million USD has been kept for solar projects, according to the reports.

The latest development is the result of the fruitful meeting held between Narendra Modi and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the newly voted President of Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa is on a 3-day visit to India. He arrived in New Delhi on November 28, 2019, Thursday.

As per the reports, the talks were largely concentrated on issues such as accomplishing aspirations of Tamils in the island nation, addressing fishermen’s concerns, and ways to accelerate trade and security ties. Post the meeting, Modi told the media about India’s assurance of complete assistance to the Sri Lankan President so that his country can be taken on a road to rapid progress.

Earlier in April, Sri Lanka’s capital city Colombo witnessed a string of bombing attacks that killed more than 250 people.

In his statement, Modi also stated that he had a detailed discussion with Rajapaksa on strengthening their mutual cooperation when it comes to coping with terrorism. He also revealed that Sri Lanka’s police officials are receiving training to counter-terrorism in leading Indian institutions.

It is important to note that Sri Lanka has already constructed 46k houses under the Indian housing project and 14k are being built for people with Tamil origin.

Divulging further details on the Tamil issue, Modi expressed confidence in the government of Sri Lanka that they would continue the reconciliation procedure and satisfy the Tamil community’s aspirations. According to the PM, a stable Sri Lanka is in the interest of the whole region of the Indian Ocean and not just for India.

Modi was also quoted as saying,

“The mandate that you have received reflected the aspirations of the Sri Lankan people for a strong and prosperous Sri Lanka. India’s good wishes and cooperation are always with Sri Lanka in this regard.”

On the other hand, Rajapaksa also termed the talks as fruitful while saying that security cooperation remained the discussion’s prime focus area. He also stated,

“During my tenure as president, I want to bring the relationship between India and Sri Lanka to a very high level. We have a long-standing relationship historically as well as politically.”

For those who are unaware, Rajapaksa was sworn in on November 18, 2019, as the country’s President. The visit to India is his first foreign trip after taking over the island country’s reins in his hands.

A new bill proposed in the German Parliament has provisions to allow customers to store their Bitcoin other cryptocurrencies in German banks from 2020.

The bill will allow banks to treat cryptocurrency, just like any other traditional asset. Also, banks will enable transactions in cryptocurrency on their online banking platforms.

The adoption of cryptocurrency has increased over the years as people embrace its benefits like low cost and high-speed transactions. The problem of volatility of cryptocurrencies can be addressed by taking fiat currency out of the picture completely. If the manufacturer, seller, purchaser all use the same ecosystem for cryptocurrency transactions, then the need to check the price of Bitcoin against local currency will not exist. Banks have no option but to accept cryptocurrency if they want to stay relevant in the evolving financial world.

Sven Hildebrandt, Head of a consulting firm DLC, welcomed the move saying that Germany could play a pioneering role in the regulation of crypto-assets and could even become a crypto-heaven.

Banking Association BdB also backed the bill, saying that subjecting cryptocurrency to the same regulations as fiat currency would prevent money laundering and terrorist financing through cryptocurrency. As banks had experience in asset management, they would easily adapt to handling cryptocurrency.

Today’s criminals and terrorist organizations can transfer their ill-gotten wealth by converting it into digital currency, and at the receiver’s end, the digital currency is re-converted into fiat money. Cryptocurrency exchanges have implemented KYC norms for users, but many do not have the infrastructure to ensure the authenticity of documents submitted for fulfilling the KYC criteria. Banks have systems in place which will match each document submitted by a user with government data.

Banks also have access to the overall banking history of their customers. Thus, any customer who does not have a verifiable banking history comes in to deposit a large amount of cryptocurrency will raise red flags in banks. They also can check the authenticity and background of recipients of large international transfers as they have the technology to do so.

On the other hand, the bill has come under criticism from the Baden-Wuerttemberg consumer center. Financial expert Niels Nauhauser has said that banks and financial institutions have not completely understood how cryptocurrency works, and it may contaminate the other assets held in a client’s portfolio.

If banks allow storage of multiple cryptocurrencies, then there could be a problem as different cryptocurrencies are priced differently. For some, like bitcoin, the price is decided by the ratio of supply and demand, and in others, their value is tied to a physical asset like the US dollar, gold, etc. Check Bitcoin Price News to get the latest update of Bitcoin price.

If this bill is adopted, the next logical step would be to allow banks to offer financial products such as FDs, loans in Cryptocurrency.

Trump Administration is all set to cut its contribution to NATO’s budget substantially from next year. The move comes at a delicate time because the president is going to be in London to attend the 70th anniversary of the transatlantic alliance.

At this point, the US contributes 22% of the total NATO budget. Most of the money goes towards joint military operations, security investments, and maintenance of the NATO headquarters. That being said, it should be noted that the cut in contribution should not come as a major setback for NATO. It has a relatively tiny budget of $2.5 billion annually.

According to reports, the US is going to cut its contribution from 22% to 16%. The move is aimed at bringing its contribution in line with Germany, which contributes 14.8%, Europe’s biggest economy. However, it should be noted that the US has a larger economy than Germany.

A NATO official confirmed the development, He said,

“All Allies have agreed a new cost sharing formula. Under the new formula, cost shares attributed to most European Allies and Canada will go up, while the US share will come down.”

He went on to add that this development is an indication of fair “burden-sharing” among NATO allies.

Another diplomat from NATO confirmed that the new contribution structure had been agreed on last week. A US defense official stated that the money saved from cutting down NATO contribution is going to be used for military and security operations in Europe. He added that those operations are also going to take place in countries like Georgia and Ukraine that are not members of NATO either.