SRN News

Clubhouse launches Android app as downloads plummet (Sun, 09 May 2021)
(Reuters) – Live audio app Clubhouse will begin introducing a test version of its app to Google’s Android users in the United States on Sunday, the company said, in a potentially big expansion of its market. The app, which spiked in popularity early this year after celebrity billionaire Elon Musk and others appeared in audio chats, has sparked copy cats from startups and larger rivals including Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc. It has been available only to users of Apple devices and by invitation. In some markets such as China, invitations were so sought after some were auctioned on online marketplaces. But downloads of the app, one measure of popularity, have significantly fallen. After peaking in February with 9.6 million downloads, that number fell to 2.7 million in March and then 900,000 downloads in April, according to Sensor Tower. The drop has sparked questions about its long term viability and whether its success was owed in part to people spending more time at home during the pandemic. The long anticipated Android launch is expected to reach more new users globally. The Android version will reach other English-speaking markets and then the rest of the globe days and weeks after the U.S. market beta launch. Clubhouse, which created the category, now faces the likes of Facebook, whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in April a slew of audio products, including Clubhouse-style live audio rooms and a way for users to find and play podcasts. In January, Twitter Inc said that it will introduce a new feature to let users charge admission to their live audio chat rooms in its “Spaces” feature, as the company seeks to court more content creators. It has been available to Android users since March. (Reporting by Nandakumar D in Bengaluru and Elizabeth Culliford in New York; Editing by Kenneth Li and Daniel Wallis) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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Dogecoin loses third of price after Elon Musk calls it a ‘hustle’ on ‘SNL’ (Sun, 09 May 2021)
By Alden Bentley and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) -Dogecoin lost more than a third of its price on Sunday, after Tesla chief and cryptocurrency supporter Elon Musk called it a ‘hustle’ during his guest-host spot https://twitter.com/cryptoafricaedu/status/1391373668744372225?s=21 on the “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketch TV show. Dogecoin was quoted as low as $0.416 on crypto exchange Binance https://www.binance.com/en/trade/DOGE_USDT?type=spot, down 36% from levels around $0.65 before the show. The billionaire Tesla Inc chief executive hosted the SNL show at 11:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday (0330 GMT on Sunday). Cryptocurrency enthusiasts had for days been eager to see what he would say, after his tweets this year turned the once-obscure digital currency, which began as a social media joke, into a speculator’s dream. Asked ‘what is dogecoin’, Musk replied, “It’s the future of currency. It’s an unstoppable financial vehicle that’s going to take over the world.” When a show cast member Michael Che countered, “So, it’s a hustle?”, Musk replied, “Yeah, it’s a hustle,” and laughed. Musk is the rare business mogul to have been asked to host the venerable comedy TV show. His appearance on the iconic late night show puts Musk back in the spotlight just as Tesla’s stock is losing steam following last year’s monster rally. The unconventional CEO has posted numerous comments about cryptocurrencies on Twitter and criticized regular cash for having negative real interest rates. “Only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere,” he said in February. His cryptic tweets “Doge” and “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto” that month kicked off a rally in dogecoin – created as a parody on the more mainstream bitcoin and ethereum. On Thursday, Musk tweeted: “Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!” with a video clip attached in which he said, “it should be considered speculation at this point.” But he also said, in the video, that cryptocurrency has a “good chance” of becoming what he called “the future currency of the Earth.” Some financial commentators questioned whether it was responsible for Musk to comment on the cryptocurrency, given he has the power to move its price. “I think he’s having a lot of fun … He can say anything he wants about dogecoin or cryptos fully aware that just him saying something moves the price,” said James Angel, associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, who specializes in financial markets and cryptocurrency. “Anyone who wants to play the Elon Musk game should be prepared to lose all their money.” The flood of selling appeared to cause problems for popular retail trading platform Robinhood, which tweeted early on Sunday that due to high trading volume and volatility some customers had experienced “intermittent issues” trading cryptocurrencies. The company later said the issues had been resolved and that it would contact customers affected by the downtime. On crypto data tracker CoinGecko.com, dogecoin has jumped more than 800% over the last month and is now the fourth-largest digital currency, with a market capitalization of $73 billion. It hit a record high Thursday above $0.73. Tesla said in February it bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and would soon accept it as a form of payment for its electric cars, a large stride toward mainstream acceptance that sent bitcoin soaring to a record high of nearly $62,000. Tesla shares closed 1.3% higher at $672.37 on Friday. Some crypto experts said that Sunday’s dogecoin selloff was driven by speculation and that Musk had not hurt its long-term prospects. “Long term fundamentals of doge are intact. This is a buying opportunity,” said Jehan Chu, managing partner at Hong Kong blockchain venture capital firm Kenetic Capital. “It’s a true social currency – that’s its value.” (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Alden Bentley in New York, and Noel Randewich and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Joe White and Vidya Ranganathan and Megan Davies;Editing by Matthew Lewis, Simon Cameron-Moore and Grant McCool) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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Audio News – SRN News

A Delaware pharmaceutical company has agreed to pay $12.6 million to resolve allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act by paying kickbacks (Sun, 09 May 2021)
A Delaware pharmaceutical company has agreed to pay $12.6 million to resolve allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act by paying kickbacks VERBATIM: Federal officials say the settlement resolves allegations that Incyte Corporation improperly used an independent foundation to cover copays of certain people taking the company’s cancer drug Jakafi from 2011 to 2014. Officials say the scheme resulted in Incyte causing false claims for Jakafi to be submitted to Medicare and to the federal health care program for military members. Incyte denies any wrongdoing and says the settlement agreement is not an admission of liability.   Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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A profile of Americans who oppose the LGBT agenda (Sun, 09 May 2021)
A profile of Americans who oppose the LGBT agenda VERBATIM: Same-sex marriage and other homosexual practices are increasingly being embraced by the general population, but there is a small group that consistently rejects the agenda. A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute finds those who are completely against LGBT are more likely to be Christians, Republicans, in the older age bracket and white. About one-in-three Americans who oppose the homosexual agenda identify as Evangelicals. Michael Harrington, SRN News.   Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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