Month: October 2017

US Senators Seek to Block Foreign Online Ads Targeting American Voters

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Cobiz

With U.S. midterm elections barely a year away, lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a bipartisan proposal to regulate online political advertising in the United States, an effort prompted by revelations that Russian elements spent large sums on internet ads targeting Americans ahead of the 2016 U.S. election.

“Our entire democracy was founded on the simple idea that the people in our country should be self-governing,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the Rules Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal elections, at a news conference.

“Our democracy is at risk,” Klobuchar added. “We recently learned that $100,000 was spent in [Russian] rubles on Facebook political ads during the 2016 election. We know that [Russian-funded] ads were purchased in other venues, as well.”

To prevent a repeat, Klobuchar, along with Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, unveiled the Honest Ads Act, which would require Facebook, Twitter, Google and other technology giants to post information about the source of political ads, just as U.S. television and radio broadcasters are required to do.

The bill has the backing of Republican John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Unfortunately, U.S. laws regulating transparency in political campaigns have not kept pace with rapid advances in technology, allowing our adversaries to take advantage of these loopholes to influence millions of American voters with impunity,” McCain said in a statement.

The bill also would require tech companies to make “reasonable efforts” to ensure that foreign entities are not using social media platforms for political purposes. Earlier this year, Facebook shut down a multitude of suspicious accounts that targeted elections in France.

Since its creation, the internet has been more free-wheeling and less regulated than other media forms, a feature that technology firms and others have argued is critical to its success.

Warner, a former cellphone executive, insisted he has no desire to alter cyberspace’s fundamental nature.

“We don’t want to slow down innovation in the internet,” the Virginia senator said. “But I think Americans deserve to know if the ads they are seeing are generated by Americans or generated by foreign interests.”

Executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter will have a chance to weigh in on the legislation when they testify in an open hearing the Senate Intelligence Committee has scheduled for next month.
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Women Share Harassment Stories With #MeToo

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Cobiz

Two weeks ago Carla Rountree of Washington, D.C., was enjoying an autumn afternoon with friends at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, gaily dressed in a tutu with a goofy unicorn horn tied to her head. While ordering a drink at a beverage stall, a man standing next to her said, “You know, I could grab that horn like you’re an ice cream cone, flip you over, and just lick you.”

She retorted, “I don’t think you’d like the results of that.” He smirked and replied, “YOU might.”

“No one within earshot, including the female bartender, said anything about it,” Rountree says. “It was just accepted, which infuriated me just as much as the god-awful comment.”

That incident occurred as women all over the United States are tweeting and posting #MeToo, sharing their experiences with sexual harassment.

The movement followed the fall from grace of movie producer Harvey Weinstein, the latest rich, famous and powerful man to be brought down by a series of allegations of sexual harassment dating as far back as 30 years and involving more than 20 women. Weinstein’s attorneys say he did not participate in any nonconsensual sex.

If the number of women harassed by Weinstein looks dramatic, the number who have spoken up via #MeToo to reveal their own sexual harassment experiences is more startling.

On Oct. 15, actress Alyssa Milano called for sexual harassment victims to post or tweet the two-word phrase. By the next day, Time magazine reported, more than 27,000 people had responded. By mid-week, women from around the globe were tweeting their stories.

By the numbers

Meanwhile, a poll released Tuesday by ABC/The Washington Post, indicated 54 percent of female respondents said they have been the victim of sexual assault.

A third of female respondents said they have experienced sexual advances from a male coworker or a man who had influence over their career. Fifty-eight percent of the women who said they had been harassed on the job said they didn’t report it. And 94 percent of women who were harassed at work believe men usually don’t face consequences for those actions.

An all-too-common thread among #MeToo stories: When the behavior was reported, no one did anything.

Kellie Dickson Johnson of Chattanooga, Tennessee, says she was frustrated by just such an experience while working at a restaurant. A patron pursued her relentlessly with flowers, poems and invitations to go out. She began to dread going to work.

“When I finally told the managers, their response was that it was ‘cute’ and ‘sweet.’ They absolutely did not see the problem. The next week, they were down one employee.” In other words, she quit.

In The Washington Post poll, 64 percent of women who had been harassed said they felt intimidated, 52 percent said they felt humiliated, 31 percent said they felt ashamed.

Many of the stories happened when the victims were children.

Deirdre Launt says she was 14 and working at a hometown grocery store in Portage, Michigan, when it happened to her.

“It was my first job,” she says in an email. “There were two guys a bit older than me who worked there, too … They used to poke me really hard, all over, and laugh and be like, ‘What are you gonna do, go tell?”‘

When she reported the incident, Launt says, “I got something like a ‘boys will be boys’ brush off and nothing was done. They didn’t see the guy’s behavior as a problem, they saw me as a problem.” Launt quit the job and 29 years later, she rarely enters the store.

Many women have wondered if their experience counts as sexual harassment if it wasn’t considered too bad, if they didn’t feel psychological damage, or if they were drinking or dressed provocatively when it happened.

Biggest question

But the biggest question is this: What do we do about it?

Cheryl Colbert of Arlington, Virginia, recalls an incident in the early 1990s when a man accosted her in the courtyard of her apartment building. She is now raising a teenage son and daughter, and says she feels guilty the rules she sets for her daughter are different than those she sets for her son, such as coming straight home after a practice at school so she won’t be walking alone at night.

Colbert says she takes heart that men and women are responding to #MeToo with support.

“While my story isn’t public, those that need to know are aware. But speaking up wasn’t easy so please listen, acknowledge & accept.,” actor Alex Winter tweeted this week.

The hashtag #HowIWillChange has also cropped up, posted by men who detail what they will do differently in future to help protect women. Some of the methods mentioned are teaching children respect, proactively learning about women’s issues, and calling out predatory behavior.

“Men, keep in mind women don’t owe us their stories for us to become advocates for them in public/private spaces,” Phillip Lewis wrote.

Other men and women are tweeting #WithYou.

“I’m raising my son to treat all women with respect and compassion. I am speaking out against misogyny. I am listening,” U.S. military veteran Dave Harrell said.

Colbert has a pretty straightforward plan, which she describes in an email. “The only thing I feel we can do is each one do the right thing. And say something when it happens. SAY SOMETHING WHEN IT HAPPENS.”
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From Destructive Plants to Paper, Inks and Art

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Corts

Invasive plants can kill their native host trees, increase soil erosion and cause major damage to streams and other wetland areas. That’s why the National Park Service is asking volunteers to remove these invasive plants; so native plants have a chance to grow. VOA’s Faiza Elmasry reports on one volunteer, Patterson Clark, an artist, graphics editor and environmental advocate who is bringing a reduce, reuse and recycle ethos to his removal technique. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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Mayim Bialik ‘Truly Sorry’ for Opinion Piece on Weinstein

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Corts

Actress Mayim Bialik says she’s “truly sorry for causing so much pain” with her New York Times opinion piece that critics suggested put blame on women who’ve accused movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

Bialik wrote in the piece published Friday that she makes choices to be “self-protecting and wise,” like dressing modestly and not acting flirtatiously. She later added that nothing “excuses men for assaulting or abusing women” and women should be able to wear whatever they want and act however they want.

Bialik addressed the backlash in a Facebook Live interview with the Times on Monday, saying she regrets it “became what it became.”

She said Wednesday on Twitter that “what you wear and how you behave does not provide any protection from assault.”
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Demi Lovato, Shawn Mendes to Perform at MTV Europe Awards

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Corts

Pop star Demi Lovato, singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes, rockers The Killers and grime artist Stormzy are set to perform at MTV’s EMAs in London.

MTV’s European music awards will also feature performances from Kesha and Camila Cabello. Rita Ora is due to host the Nov. 12 ceremony at London’s SSE Arena, Wembley.

MTV said Thursday that awards presenters will include “Game of Thrones” actress Natalie Dormer, teen star Madison Beer and actress Sabrina Carpenter.

Taylor Swift leads the race with nominations in six categories, including best video for “Look What You Made Me Do.” Other multiple nominees include Mendes, Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar.

Winners are selected by fans across the continent.

The EMAs, held in a different European city each year, were last held in London in 1996.
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Country Stars Honor Shooting Victims at CMT Artists Show

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Corts

Singer Jason Aldean and other stars honored victims of a mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas instead of accepting awards at the CMT Artists of the Year show Wednesday night.

The format of the show pivoted to focus on victims of the shooting, as well as those recovering from hurricanes and wildfires, with a night of somber tributes, inspirational anthems and voices lifted in harmony.

Aldean, who was on stage at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when the shooting occurred Oct. 1, stood side-by-side with the night’s other award winners, including Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Chris Stapleton and Keith Urban, to dedicate the night to music fans. The honorees did not accept awards or give speeches as usual, but some chose to perform or other musicians performed in their honor.

“We’ve been tested beyond our worst nightmare these past few months,’’ Aldean said during the live broadcast from Nashville, Tennessee. “Heartbroken doesn’t even begin to describe how some of us feel. But we have proven time and again in this country that we have the power to overcome anything that threatens our way of life, or our freedom. We dedicate this night to you and everyone who has experienced loss or tragedy in the last few months.’’

Aldean closed out the night with a defiant and rollicking group performance of “I Won’t Back Down’’ by Tom Petty with Urban, Stapleton and Little Big Town.

Andra Day kicked off the awards show with her anthem “Rise Up,’’ in a beautiful harmony duet by Little Big Town. Then Lee Ann Womack, Danielle Bradbury and rapper Common joined them for a performance of “Stand Up For Something.’’

“On this night when we usually celebrate a year of music, we also want to celebrate a year of incredible human spirit, the spirit we see in our fans every night,’’ Stapleton said.

“So in some small way we want to thank you for your resolve and perhaps lift your spirits for just a moment,’’ Urban said.

The names of the 58 victims from Las Vegas were listed during an in memoriam segment, along with the names of Petty, Gregg Allman, Glen Campbell, Don Williams and Troy Gentry.

Other performances including Bryan singing his single “Fast,’’ and Stapleton singing his song “Broken Halos,’’ a song that he’s dedicated to victims of the Vegas shooting.

The Backstreet Boys sang Florida Georgia Line’s emotional ballad “H.O.L.Y.’’ and Keith Urban performed a jazzy version of his song “Blue Ain’t Your Color.’’

Phillip Phillips added some blues licks to Sam Hunt’s mega hit “Body Like a Back Road,’’ which was named song of the year by CMT.

Near the end of the night, Bryan took a moment to honor his friend Aldean.

“It could have been any one of us standing on that stage two weeks ago,’’ Bryan said. “It’s a nightmare that nobody should have to face. Jason has responded with dignity, care, respect and, some ways, defiance. And we all proud of him, especially me.’’
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Colliding Neutron Stars Solve Interstellar Puzzles

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Cosc

The idea of gravitational waves has been around for over 100 years since Albert Einstein posited their existence. But in 2016 scientists proved they were out there using giant L-shaped detectors called gravitational wave observatories. But this week more news was made when scientists were able to watch the creation of gravitational waves. VOA’s Kevin Enochs report
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Western Influence Feeding the Streets of Iraq

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Coeco

In Iraq, young entrepreneurs cash-in on a food trend popularized in the West. Trucks serving American-style fast food serve meals on-the-go and opportunities for those hungry for work. Arash Arabasadi reports.
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Experimental Virtual and Mixed Reality Technologies Can be Applied to Military of the Future

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Cobiz

The U.S. Military is looking at technologies such as wearable sensors, virtual and augmented reality to enhance the training of its recruits. At a recent meeting of military personnel and academics at the University of Southern California’s Global Body Computing Conference, commanding officers talked about why there is a need for ever more modern technology. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from Los Angeles on some of the emerging technologies that can help the military.
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Gene-editing Technology Prepares to Enter Fight Against Human Disease

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Cosc

Back in the old days, movies were edited by simply cutting out a piece of film you didn’t want and replacing it with a new shot. That’s almost exactly how the CRISPR gene editing technology works, but on a cellular level. Researchers now say they are close to being able to use this technology to fix some genetic diseases. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Divers Removing 30-Year-Old Junk Reef Off California Coast

Posted on 10/19/2017 by Cosc

Divers are removing hundreds of old tires, plastic jugs and other junk that was dumped off the Southern California coast nearly 30 years ago by a man who thought he was helping the ocean environment.

The cleanup began last week off of Newport Beach, the California Coastal Commission announced Wednesday.

“It’s about time this was cleaned up. Dumping plastic and other trash into our oceans is not the way to restore the marine ecosystem,” commission Chair Dayna Bochco said in a statement. “There is an estimated 18 billion pounds of plastic that enters the world’s oceans every year and we must do what we can to clean this up.”

In 1988, Rodolphe Streichenberger created what he described as an experimental, artificial reef.

The reef covered several acres of ocean floor and consisted of 1,500 used automobile tires, 2,000 one-gallon plastic jugs covered with plastic mesh, 100 sections of PVC pipe and other items, including fishing net, Styrofoam and iron roads, the commission said.

Streichenberger believed the reef would spur the growth of kelp forests, provide a place to grow mussels for commercial harvest and rebuild ocean habitat damaged by pollution and development.

The materials are “absolutely harmless,” Streichenberger told the Los Angeles Times in 1996. “You have seen no impact. Only fish. It’s very good for the fish.”

But his research was “deeply flawed,” according to the Coastal Commission.

“State scientists said the tires contained harmful toxins, the material was not dense enough to anchor to the ocean floor and warned the discarded netting and ropes could trap fish and marine mammals,” the commission said in its statement.

“It’s hard to believe there was a time when someone thought this was a good idea,” commission Executive Director Jack Ainsworth said. “We now know that plastic is poison in the ocean, polluting every level of the food chain.”

Streichenberger also had failed to obtain permission from the commission for the project. He was refused a retroactive permit in 1997 and the commission eventually issued a cease-and-desist order.

Streichenberger and his now-defunct Marine Forests Society sued, challenging the commission’s authority. In 2005, the California Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling and sided with the commission.

Streichenberger died the next year at 77.

Over the years, the Coastal Commission and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife kept tabs on the reef.

Instead of a thriving and diverse ecosystem, divers found that the junk had been spread around the sea floor by currents and held only “the type of marine life commonly found on pier pilings and boat bottoms,” the commission statement said.

“There’s no native kelp, just a few fish swimming around,” said Kirsten Gilardi, assistant director at the Wildlife Health Center School at the University of California, Davis, which is involved in the cleanup. “It’s nothing like the diversity and density you’d see on a natural rocky reef off the Southern California coast.”

Earlier this year, the Coastal Commission finally found a way to fund a cleanup through permit fees for a different underwater project at Hermosa Beach.

Since then, divers have been pulling tires from the water at the rate of about 100 a day, according to the commission.
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Dow closes above 23,000 for first time; IBM soars

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Coeco

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 23,000 for the first time on Wednesday, driven by a jump in IBM after it hinted at a return to revenue growth.

The Dow hit 22,000 on Aug. 2, only 54 trading days earlier and roughly half the time it took the index to move from 21,000 to 22,000. This marks the fourth time this year the Dow has reached a 1,000-point milestone.

“Retail investors continue to pour into the marketplace, and with each headline about a new record, and especially round numbers like that, people tend to feel like they’re missing out and you kind of suck more people into the market,” said Ian Winer, head of equities at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

“Ultimately, the only way you’re going to top is by getting everybody all in. And we’re getting close.”

Investors globally pulled $33.7 billion from U.S. equity funds during the third quarter, according to Thomson Reuters’ Lipper research unit. The funds are on course to post net outflows for the full year.

Shares of IBM, which beat expectations on revenue, jumped 8.9 percent and accounted for about 90 points of the day’s 160 point-gain in the blue-chip index.

Solid earnings, stronger economic growth and hopes that President Donald Trump may be able to make progress on tax cuts have helped the market rally this year.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also hit record closing highs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 160.16 points, or 0.7 percent, to end at 23,157.6, the S&P 500 gained 1.9 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,561.26 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.56 point, or 0.01 percent, to 6,624.22.

“Today the catalyst is clearly IBM … which appears to have turned the corner. It gave the Dow the boost to stay over 23,000,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

The Dow had briefly surpassed the all-time peak on Tuesday but closed just shy of it.

The financial index jumped 0.6 percent, led by bank stocks recovering from recent post-earnings losses. Bullish calls by brokerages helped to support the bank shares.

Bank shares had run up ahead of recent results, which resulted in some selling following the news, Krosby said.

Investors await news on Trump’s decision on the Federal Reserve chair position. The White House said Wednesday Trump will announce his decision in the “coming days.”

Abbott rose 1.3 percent after the company’s profit beat estimates on strong sales in its medical devices business.

After the bell, shares of eBay fell 4 percent following its results.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.09-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.32-to-1 ratio favored advancers. About 5.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 5.9 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Some Flowers Create Blue Halo to say Hello to Foraging Bees

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Cosc

Some flowers have found a nifty way to get the blues.

They create a blue halo, apparently to attract the bees they need for pollination, scientists reported Wednesday. Bees are drawn to the color blue, but it’s hard for flowers to make that color in their petals.

Instead, some flowers use a trick of physics. They produce a blue halo when sunlight strikes a series of tiny ridges in their thin waxy surfaces. The ridges alter how the light bounces back, which affects the color that one sees.

The halos appear over pigmented areas of a flower, and people can see them over darkly colored areas if they look from certain angles.

The halo trick is uncommon among flowers. But many tulip species, along with some kinds of daisy and peony, are among those that can do it, said Edwige Moyroud of Cambridge University in England.

In a study published Wednesday by the journal Nature, Moyroud and others analyze the flower surfaces and used artificial flowers to show that bumblebees can see the halos.

An accompanying commentary said the paper shows how flowers that aren’t blue can still use that color to attract bees. Further work should see whether the halo also attracts other insects, wrote Dimitri Deheyn of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

Some Flowers Create Blue Halo to Attract Foraging Bees

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Cosc

Some flowers have found a nifty way to get the blues.

They create a blue halo, apparently to attract the bees they need for pollination, scientists reported Wednesday. Bees are drawn to the color blue, but it’s hard for flowers to make that color in their petals.

Instead, some flowers use a trick of physics. They produce a blue halo when sunlight strikes a series of tiny ridges in their thin waxy surfaces. The ridges alter how the light bounces back, which affects the color that one sees.

The halos appear over pigmented areas of a flower, and people can see them over darkly colored areas if they look from certain angles.

The halo trick is uncommon among flowers. But many tulip species, along with some kinds of daisy and peony, are among those that can do it, said Edwige Moyroud of Cambridge University in England.

In a study published Wednesday by the journal Nature, Moyroud and others analyze the flower surfaces and used artificial flowers to show that bumblebees can see the halos.

An accompanying commentary said the paper shows how flowers that aren’t blue can still use that color to attract bees. Further work should see whether the halo also attracts other insects, wrote Dimitri Deheyn of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

A Lifeline for Millions in Somalia, Money Remittance Industry Seeks More Support

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Coeco

Every month, Fatma Ahmed sends $200 of the earnings she makes in London to her family in Somalia.

“It’s for daily life. For rent, for buying grocery things, to live over there. Because actually in Somalia, that much we do not have,” she said.

Remittances from overseas diaspora constitute a vital part of the economy of many developing nations, none more so than Somalia, where the inflows add up to more than foreign aid and investment combined. However, analysts warn that the industry is poorly understood by regulators and banks, putting the welfare of millions of people at risk.

The two million Somalis living overseas send an estimated $1.3 billion back home every year. With no formal banking system in Somalia, most of the diaspora use remittance services.

Technology makes that possible, says Abdirashid Duale, CEO of Dahabshiil, one of Africa’s biggest remittance services.

“Now, it is so instant, where we have the latest technology, with the internet, secure channels that we can use to send money back home,” Duale said. “Or we use mobiles … smartphones, technology where it will help us to deliver money quickly, but less costly. Technology is supporting us also with the compliance issue.”

Remittance companies rely on global banks to route the money, and those banks must comply with regulations on money laundering and the financing of crime and terrorism.

Citing those concerns, many banks have chosen to withdraw from the market. Such a move is unnecessary, says remittance industry expert Laura Hammond of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

“Very often, it is not based on any kind of empirical evidence that shows that money is going into the wrong hands,” Hammond said. “The fear is just there is a conflict in Somalia, there’s the al-Shabab movement. And so there is a problem in a sense, a real precarious nature of the Somali remittance industry.”

The industry received a high-profile boost last month as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $1 million using the remittance firm Dahabshiil, along with mobile phone companies Somtel and eDahab, with the money transferred “live” to 1,000 families suffering the drought in Somalia.

The technology is moving fast. However, the cooperation of the global banking system remains key, and the remittance industry wants regulators to do more to support this lifeline.
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Ai Weiwei’s ‘Human Flow’ Highlights Refugee Plight Around the World

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Corts

Human Flow by internationally acclaimed artist and activist Ai Weiwei, highlights the plight of refugees around the world. The Chinese dissident is not the first to make a documentary about the displaced, but his film captures the flow of humanity on a planetary scale.

Ai filmed in 23 different countries in 40 different refugee camps where people fleeing war, environmental crises and religious persecution were staying. His goal is to show that the flood of refugees has global repercussions.

“You are forcibly robbing this human being of all aspects that would make human life not just tolerable but meaningful in many ways,” says a voice in the documentary.

According to the film, over 65 million people in the world today have been forcibly displaced from their homes. Using cameras attached to drones, Ai Weiwei records humanity’s movement from up high.

Ai, a renowned artist known for his massive art installations with social and political connotations around the world, is an unassuming, soft- spoken man with a thoughtful expression. Sitting opposite me in one of the studios of the Voice of America, he snaps my picture on his iPhone along with many others he has taken that day of people and exhibits on VOA’s hallways. I feel like an art installation. I ask him what prompted him to make a film about human flow.

“It was serendipitous,” he responds.

An unexpected opportunity

While vacationing on the Greek island of Lesbos with his family, Ai saw a boat full of refugees approaching. He started filming immediately on his phone.

Known for his political activism against communist China, his imprisonment, torture and subsequent exile, he lives in Berlin now and one would hardly believe that anything could take the Chinese dissident by surprise. But as he relates, filming and living with refugees in makeshift camps was unlike anything he had experienced before.

“We have been hearing about the refugees all the time in the news. But to see a real group of people come down is very different. You see the children, the women, and you see those elderly people and they are tired, they are frightened, they basically risk their lives, give up everything, to come to just try to find safe conditions. Even though I grew up in a communist society we didn’t see these kinds of things happen. So, for me it is a shock, and I think it’s an opportunity to learn about what really happened. “

Human Flow shows masses fleeing wars, religious persecution, and environmental disasters. At times his film feels like another one of his enormous art installations, with humanity playing a dual lead, both as a massive organism and as single individuals staring into a camera. The effect is more visceral than intellectual and that is exactly what Ai Weiwei wants to convey.

“We wanted to build an understanding about human flow. Human flow as always happens in human history. In many cases, it is part of our humanity and our civilization,” he says.

Stemming the flow

But the social anomaly of our times, says the filmmaker, is the effort by countries to stem that flow by preventing refugees from crossing borders and integrating into new societies. After a harrowing sea voyage and days of walking, many refugees from the Middle East make their way to northern Greece, only to be stopped on its border with Macedonia.

“Over seventy borders have built up their fences and walls and have forbidden any refugee to pass through. So, by doing that, they are really not only stopping the life line of those refugees to try to find a safe place, even just temporarily across the border and go to another location, but are also putting them in extremely dangerous conditions.”

Ai talks about human smuggling and sex trafficking of a very vulnerable population, mostly of women and children.

At a refugee camp in Turkey, he films an exasperated doctor trying to take care of the young. He points to a baby: “two months old, and born here but he didn’t have any vaccinations.” The deplorable health conditions are one of the many problems plaguing the stateless. A man stands knee high in mud, looking at a cemetery filled with drowned refugees, relatives and friends. He hides his head in his hands and sobs.

A warning for the future

Ai Weiwei warns if we don’t save those people from displacement, entire generations — born without identity, prospects for a better life or a country — will be vulnerable to extremism and radicalization.

“I think, if you see so many children growing up under these conditions, in this 65 million people, now it’s getting much bigger, with 420,000 refugees added from Myanmar, how will these children behave, when they grow up, after they have seen how their parents have been badly treated, unfairly treated, the world watching but doing nothing. What kind of image would remain in their minds?”

Ai Weiwei is very critical of Europe and the United States for lacking empathy, leadership and vision about the refugee issue. He sees the elections of ultra-right governments in Europe and of Donald Trump in the US as dire for refugees worldwide.

“It certainly requires global leaders and also every citizen to be involved to solve the problem,“ he says, warning, if this does not change, no one’s future is safe.
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A Lifeline for Millions in Somalia, Money Remittance Industry Seeks Support

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Coeco

Remittances from overseas diaspora constitute a vital part of the economy of many developing nations, none more so than Somalia, where the inflows add up to more than foreign aid and investment combined. But analysts warn the industry is poorly understood by regulators and banks — and its precarious nature puts the welfare of millions of people at risk. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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Elvis House, Marilyn Dresses, JFK Radio Up for Auction

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Corts

Years before Elvis Presley became the King of Rock and Roll, the story goes, he lived in a small house up a hill from his elementary school in northeastern Mississippi and played with other kids in a nearby field. Fans now have a chance to buy that old home and land.

The white, wood-frame house and more than 16 acres (6 hectares) of adjoining property are part of an upcoming celebrity auction that includes everything from actress Marilyn Monroe’s dresses to Michael Jackson’s dark fedora.

Want the Army uniform that Tom Hanks wore while filming “Forrest Gump?” It’s in the sale. What about Whitney Houston’s see-through, acrylic piano or the umbrella with a parrot-shaped handle that Julie Andrews carried in “Mary Poppins?” Or Hugh Hefner’s 1973 BMW, purchased with Playboy profits, presumably?

The house, land and other memorabilia are part of an online auction set for November 11 by GWS Auctions, a Southern California company which specializes in the sale of items including estates, fine art and celebrity collectibles.

More than 150 items will be auctioned in all, including other items linked to Presley — his private jet, a 1957 pink Cadillac, a boat named “Hound Dog,” a television he shot up at Graceland and a two-bedroom mobile home from his Circle G ranch.

There’s also a radio once owned by President John F. Kennedy; a dress, nightgown and jumpsuit owned by his late widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; Reese Witherspoon clothing from the movie “Legally Blonde;” and a 1993 Jaguar owned by the late model Anna Nicole Smith.

GWS Auctions owner Brigitte Kruse said all the celebrities’ items have been authenticated in various ways.

“Their possessions are rare, but beyond any monetary value, fans place an emotional value on owning something that came in contact with their idols,” she said.

In the case of the Presley house, Charlene Presley, a relative by marriage, said the structure was initially built by the singer’s father, Vernon Presley, and uncle next to the small home where Presley was born in 1935. That birthplace is the focal point of a park and museum that draw thousands of visitors annually to Tupelo.

The newer house was moved to higher ground about a half-mile away from Elvis’ birthplace around 1942, and the singer and his mother, Gladys Presley, lived there for a time, Presley said.

“This house is a house that Elvis and Gladys lived in and he went to school at Lawhon School in the third grade,” she said. “She would walk him to school down this street and around to Lawhon.”

The adjoining property was a playground for Presley, who swam in the creek, played and hunted on the land, according to Presley.

The executive director of the Elvis Presley Birthplace Foundation, Dick Guyton, said five shotgun-style homes — named for their long, narrow design — once stood in the area where Presley’s birth home is still located. But Guyton said he doesn’t know what happened to any of the four other structures, meaning he can’t vouch for the house that’s coming up for sale.

“We don’t have any way to authenticate it,” Guyton said. “We don’t know that that particular house is one that sat here by the birthplace.”

Kruse said members of the Presley family and a longtime employee of Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises have certified all the Presley-related sale pieces.

How much might someone pay for a little house that would normally be worth a few thousand dollars at most? Who knows? But the Presley jet sold for nearly $500,000 in May before it was cleaned up and anyone had located its engines, the auction company said.

Located within a short walk of Presley’s birthplace, the land includes a tract that was going to be developed into a cemetery for Elvis fans more than a decade ago. The project never panned out, and no one has lived in the house for years.

“There’s never really been anything like this,” Kruse said. “It will be interesting to see what this one does.”
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Diana Ross to Perform, be Honored at American Music Awards

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Corts

Diana Ross will receive a lifetime achievement honor at next month’s American Music Awards and will celebrate with a performance on the broadcast next month.

ABC and Dick Clark Productions announced the honor Wednesday. It’s the first time the AMAs have given out the award since 2006, when it was presented to Sting. Previous winners include Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Michael Jackson.

The 73-year-old Ross tells The Associated Press of the honor: “It took a lifetime to get here, I’m not going anywhere … It’s been a wonderful journey for me of joy and much appreciation.”

The Motown legend and former Supremes singer has performed at the AMAs several times and hosted the show twice.

The AMAs will air live on ABC from Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 19.
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Teens Overwhelmingly Prefer Snapchat to Facebook, Study Finds

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Cobiz

Teenagers are turning away from traditional social media like Facebook and increasingly turning to Snapchat to communicate with their friends, according to a new study released Wednesday.

According to Piper Jaffray’s semi-annual “Taking Stock with Teens” research survey, 47 percent of teenagers said Snapchat is their favorite social media platform, compared with just nine percent who said Facebook was their favorite.

The results show a sharp spike in the number of teens who said Snapchat is their favorite platform, up from 24 percent when the survey was given in the spring of last year.

In addition to Snapchat and Facebook, 24 percent of teens said they preferred Instagram – virtually unchanged from 2016 – and seven percent said they prefer Twitter, down from 15 percent last year.

For the report, Piper Jaffray interviewed 6,100 teens in 44 states, with an average age of 16.

While Snapchat is the most popular social medium used by teens, it is also the most harmful for them, according to a study released earlier this year by the British Royal Society for Public Health.

The study, which ranked the psychological impact of various social media on teenagers, showed Snapchat, along with Instagram, to cause the largest number of “health and well-being” issues among those surveyed.

Those issues include anxiety, depression, quality of sleep, body image, loneliness and real-world friendships and connections.

Shirley Cramer, the chief executive of the RSPH, said Snapchat and Instagram likely cause the most mental health issues among teens because “both platforms are very image-focused and it appears they may be driving feelings of inadequacy and anxiety in young people.”

To combat the negative influence of social media, the researchers recommend adding pop ups that warn users of heavy usage, which was supported by 71 percent of the people surveyed.
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10 WTO Members Air Concerns About Trump ‘Buy American’ Order

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Coeco

A Geneva trade official says China and Taiwan have joined many U.S. allies including Israel at the World Trade Organization to express concerns over a Trump administration executive order that seeks to maximize use of American-made goods, products and materials in government procurement.

The 10 WTO members, also including the European Union, Canada and Japan, urged Washington to continue honoring the trade body’s “Government Procurement Agreement” adopted by Washington and 45 other countries — mostly EU states — that aims to promote fairer, freer access to government contracts.

The official said the countries took issue Wednesday with the “Buy American and Hire American” executive order signed in April that lays out a policy aimed to “maximize” use of U.S.-made items in government procurement and assistance awards.
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Twitter Vows New Crackdown on Hateful, Abusive Tweets

Posted on 10/18/2017 by Cobiz

Twitter vowed to crack down further on hate speech and sexual harassment, days after CEO Jack Dorsey said in a tweet-storm that the company was “still” not doing enough to protect its users.

The policy changes were specifically aimed at protecting women who unknowingly or unwillingly had nude pictures of themselves distributed online or were subject to unwanted sexual advances. They would also aim to shield groups subject to hateful imagery, symbols and threats of violence.

In an email Twitter shared with The Associated Press Tuesday, Twitter’s head of safety policy outlined the new guidelines to the company’s Trust and Safety Council, a group of outside organizations that advises the company on its policies against abuse.

The company said it would enact the changes in the weeks ahead. News of the policy changes was first reported by Wired.

Among the changes, Twitter said it would immediately and permanently suspend any account it identifies as being the original poster of “non-consensual nudity,” including so-called “creep shots” of a sexual nature taken surreptitiously. Previously, the company treated the original poster of the content the same as those who re-tweeted it, and it resulted only in a temporary suspension.

It said it would also develop a system allowing bystanders to report unwanted exchanges of sexually charged content, whereas in the past it relied on one of the parties involved in the conversation to come forward before taking action.

Twitter also said it would take new action on hate symbols and imagery and “take enforcement action against organizations that use/have historically used violence as a means to advance their cause,” though it said more details were to come.

While it already takes action against direct threats of violence, the company said it would also act against tweets that glorify or condone violence.

On Friday, Dorsey foreshadowed the coming policy changes in a series of tweets, saying the company’s efforts over the last two years were inadequate.
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