As tension grows between China and the United States, there is worry in Beijing that the conflict could end up further restricting Chinese access to American technology.Of foremost concern is that despite decades of effort, China has yet to build a homegrown operating system good enough to replace Microsoft Windows. “Our operating system market is dominated by U.S. companies such as Microsoft, Google and Apple,” a recent report by state-run Xinhua News Agency said. “To fundamentally solve the problem of ‘being choked in [the] neck’, creating a domestic operating system and supporting software and hardware ecosystem is a must.” To be fair, China is not alone. Other countries including Russia, Germany and South Korea have been trying to develop their own operating systems. But none of them have gotten very far yet. Washington has already targeted China’s technology vulnerabilities. The U.S. Commerce Department has banned FILE – In this June 19, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump, from left, and Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, listen as Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon, speaks during an American Technology Council roundtable.Decoupling fallout Economists now talk about “decoupling” the Chinese and U.S. economies, severing supply chains and business relationships that account for trillions of dollars in trade, because of the political tensions between Washington and Beijing. “Some decoupling in the high-tech area seems inevitable and already in process,” said Doug Barry, the spokesman for communications and publications at the US-China Business Council. Driven by the U.S. campaign to restrict China’s technology giants because of threats to U.S. national security, experts say the U.S.-China decoupling could widen to include desktop computers as well. “To keep China from using Windows would be devastating to China,” Dr. Feng Chongyi, associate professor in China Studies at Australia’s University of Technology Sydney, wrote in an email to VOA. “I am afraid this is a logical step when the Cold War II escalates to a higher level.” China’s vulnerability Like the rest of the world, China is heavily dependent on American technology companies that design microchips and the most popular computer operating systems.According to a market report released last July by a Chinese research firm, Microsoft enjoys a dominant position in desktop and server operating systems, with nearly 90% of the market share in China. “Domestic desktop and mobile operating systems are still in their infancy, accounting for less than 1% of the domestic market share,” said the report by FILE – Edward Snowden speaks via video link as he takes part in a round table on the protection of whistleblowers at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, March 15, 2019.The need for a homegrown operating system took on new urgency inside China in 2013 after Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked evidence showing secret U.S. surveillance programs, revealed he had avoided using commercial operating systems like Windows to hide his communications from the National Security Agency (NSA). FILE – People use computers at an Internet cafe in Hefei, Anhui province, September 26, 2010.Dream of homegrown OS Building its own operating system has been one of China’s largest and longest-running technical challenges. The effort can be traced back to the late 1970s when China first began to use the Unix operating system and tried to develop its own Unix-based operating system. Creating this operating system was formally approved as a critical mission in the country’s top-level policy blueprint, the 1992 Five-Year Plan. But almost three decades later, there’s been little success. Over the years China has developed more than 20 operating systems with some of them being installed on computers used by the military and other sensitive government agencies. None of them has made much of a dent in the consumer market. One of the biggest reasons, experts say, is the country does not have a so-called software ecosystem of developers creating programs to run on a new homegrown operating system. “These systems have never been accepted by a large base of software developers,” Qin Peng, a former Chinese IT consultant told VOA. “It is actually impossible for China to be in a position to have an ecosystem that is on par with the one in the U.S,” said Qin, who left China in 2014 and is now living in the U.S. where he is an independent commentator focusing mainly on IT issues. Developers are selective on which projects they spend their time and money on, and most of the time their decisions are based on how big the user base is for a particular system. “Chinese companies have not yet built up a library of premier applications, as many of them rely on Microsoft and Google for all kinds of functions,” Qin told VOA. Liu Xinhuan, general manager of Tongxin Software Technology Co., Ltd., one of China’s major operating system makers, said in an interview with a Chinese media outlet that it could take up to 10 years before China can really compete with foreign operating systems, and the key to shorten the process “is to have a large ecosystem” of developers. All of which means if the Chinese and U.S. economies do further decouple, Beijing could be stuck with few options for replacing the operating systems they have relied on for decades.
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Month: June 2020
Republican Senators Push FCC to Act on Trump Social Media Order
Four Republican U.S. senators on Tuesday urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to review whether to revise liability protections for internet companies after President Donald Trump urged action.Trump said last month he wants to “remove or change” a provision of a law that shields social media companies from liability for content posted by their users and directed a U.S. Commerce Department agency to petition the FCC to take action within 60 days.Senators Marco Rubio, Kelly Loeffler, Kevin Cramer and Josh Hawley asked the FCC to review Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and “clearly define the criteria for which companies can receive protections under the statute.”FILE – FCC Chairman Ajit Pai testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 5, 2019.Last week, an advocacy group backed by the tech industry sued, asking a judge to block the executive order.FCC Chairman Ajit Pai — who in 2018 said he did not see a role for the agency to regulate websites like Facebook Inc , Alphabet Inc’s Google and Twitter — declined to comment on potential actions in response to Trump’s executive order. He told reporters on Tuesday it would not be appropriate to “prejudge a petition that I haven’t seen.”FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said on Tuesday the order poses a lot “of very complex issues.”O’Rielly tweeted earlier “as a conservative, I’m troubled voices are stifled by liberal tech leaders. At same time, I’m extremely dedicated to the First Amendment which governs much here.”
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IBM Quits Facial Recognition, Joins Call for Police Reforms
IBM is getting out of the facial recognition business, saying it’s concerned about how the technology can be used for mass surveillance and racial profiling. Ongoing protests responding to the death of George Floyd have sparked a broader reckoning over racial injustice and a closer look at the use of police technology to track demonstrators and monitor American neighborhoods. IBM is one of several big tech firms that had earlier sought to improve the accuracy of their face-scanning software after research found racial and gender disparities. But its new CEO is now questioning whether it should be used by police at all. “We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies,” wrote CEO Arvind Krishna in a letter sent Monday to U.S. lawmakers. People stand in front of facial recognition software before entering the Icon Siam luxury shopping mall as it reopened after restrictions to halt the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus were lifted in Bangkok on May 17, 2020.IBM’s decision to stop building and selling facial recognition software is unlikely to affect its bottom line, since the tech giant is increasingly focused on cloud computing while an array of lesser-known firms have cornered the market for government facial recognition contracts. “But the symbolic nature of this is important,” said Mutale Nkonde, a research fellow at Harvard and Stanford universities who directs the nonprofit AI For the People. Nkonde said IBM shutting down a business “under the guise of advancing anti-racist business practices” shows that it can be done and makes it “socially unacceptable for companies who tweet Black Lives Matter to do so while contracting with the police.” Software engineers work on a facial recognition program that identifies people when they wear a face mask at the development lab of the Chinese electronics manufacturer Hanwang (Hanvon) Technology in BeijingKrishna’s letter was addressed to a group of Democrats who have been working on police reform legislation in Congress fueled by the mass protests over Floyd’s death. The sweeping reform package could include restrictions on police use of facial recognition. The practice of using a form of artificial intelligence to identify individuals in photo databases or video feeds has come under heightened scrutiny after researchers found racial and gender disparities in systems built by companies including IBM, Microsoft and Amazon. IBM had previously tested its facial recognition software with the New York Police Department, although the department has more recently used other vendors. It’s not clear if IBM has existing contracts with other government agencies. Many U.S. law enforcement agencies rely on facial recognition software built by companies less well known to the public, such as Tokyo-based NEC or the European companies Idemia and Cognitec, according to Clare Garvie, a researcher at Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology. A smaller number have partnered with Amazon, which has attracted the most opposition from privacy advocates since it introduced its Rekognition software in 2016. Krishna’s letter called for police reforms and noted that “IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling” and human rights violations. Civil liberties advocates have raised concerns in recent weeks about the use of surveillance technology to monitor protesters or to enforce rules set to curb the coronavirus pandemic. Even before the protests, U.S. senators this year had been scrutinizing New York facial recognition startup Clearview AI following investigative reports about its practice of harvesting billions of photos from social media and other internet services to identify people. Joy Buolamwini, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose research on facial recognition bias helped spur IBM’s re-examination of the technology, said Tuesday she commends the congressional police reform package for seeking restrictions on the use of police body cameras to scan people’s faces in real time. But she said lawmakers can go further to protect people from having governments scan their faces on social media posts or in public spaces without their knowledge. “Regardless of the accuracy of these systems, mass surveillance enabled by facial recognition can lead to chilling effects and the silencing of dissent,” Buolamwini wrote in an email sent from Boston’s city hall, where she was testifying in support of a proposed ban on facial recognition use by municipal agencies. San Francisco and several other U.S. cities have enacted similar bans over the past year.
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The Doctor Will (Not) See You Now: Deepfakes at the Therapist’s Office
Deepfakes, which use artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate highly realistic but phony videos, have been exploited for both entertainment and unethical purposes. Now one startup is showing how the face-swapping technology can be a practical tool for improving mental health and therapy practices. VOA’s Tina Trinh explains.Camera: Tina Trinh
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Bon Appetit’s top Editor Resigns After Offensive Photo
The editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit, Adam Rapoport, resigned after a photo of him dressed in a stereotypical Puerto Rican costume surfaced on social media.Staffers at the magazine had criticized him after the photo, of him and his wife, circulated on Twitter. That tweet featured a screenshot of a 2013 Instagram photo by Rapoport’s wife that depicted the two dressed up in costume. In the screenshot, his wife tagged the photo “boricua,” a reference to Puerto Ricans, and called Rapoport “papi.” He was wearing a large, heavy chain, a do-rag and a baseball cap. His wife’s account is private. In an Instagram post, Rapoport said he was stepping down as editor “to reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being.” He said the photo was of an “extremely ill-conceived” Halloween costume 16 years ago. He acknowledged “blind spots” as an editor and said the magazine’s staff and readers deserved better leadership.Furor over the photo unleashed other employee complaints. One staffer, Sohla El-Waylly, claimed on Instagram that she hasn’t been paid for appearing in videos for Bon Appetit’s popular YouTube channel, in contrast to white editors who did likewise. She called for Rapoport’s resignation and for people of color on staff to receive “fair titles, fair salaries, and compensation for video appearances.” She received support online from several of her colleagues. At least four said they would not appear in the publication’s videos until their colleagues of color received equal pay. Condé Nast, the magazine’s publisher, did not address those concerns directly. But in a statement it said it is “dedicated to creating a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace.”Several of Bon Appetit’s staff, including El-Waylly, are YouTube stars. Devoted fans devour videos of them making dishes, sometimes with celebrities; recreating junk-food classics from scratch, like Oreos and Warheads, in the magazine’s test kitchen; and just chatting about food, food media and each other. Videos get millions of views.Bon Appetit has been trying to tap into a national moment, saying recently that it will be highlighting more black-owned food businesses and “tackling more of the racial and political issues at the core of the food world.”Media companies are facing their own moment of reckoning around racism as rallies protesting police brutality against black people spread across the U.S., touching off broader conversations about race. Reporters, editors and other staff members, particularly people of color, are speaking up about racist content and policies at their publications. New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet resigned Sunday over publication of an opinion piece by Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, that advocated for using military force to quell unrest. That followed a revolt by many Times employees, some of whom argued that publication of Cotton’s argument endangered the lives of black staff.The Philadelphia Inquirer’s top editor resigned Saturday after the paper’s staffers pushed back against a “Buildings Matter, Too,” headline on a column about buildings damaged in the protests. The headline was a play on the Black Lives Matter movement that the paper acknowledged was “offensive and inappropriate.”Colleagues of a black reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are supporting her after the paper told her she could not cover the police brutality protests because she was biased.Also on Monday, Christene Barberich, the founder and top editor of Refinery29, a website owned by Vice and aimed at women, said she was stepping down after seeing “the raw and personal accounts of Black women and women of color regarding their experiences” at the company. Several former staffers had posted on social media about racism they experienced, including pay disparities. In a memo to staff, Vice CEO Nancy Dubuc said the company will begin a company-wide and systematic overhaul of “how we hire, develop and retain a globally diverse workforce.” Barberich will remain with the company through a “transition period,” Dubuc said.
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World Athletics’ Ex-Chief Lamine Diack Goes on Trial in Paris
Former World Athletics’ Chief Lamine Diack was in a Paris courtroom Monday as a corruption trial opened against him. The case involves a Russian doping scandal. Eighty-seven-year-old Lamine Diack seemed relaxed as he made his court appearance Monday, sporting a dark grey suit. Arguments in the case were originally due to start in January, but postponed when new documents containing testimony from his son and co-defendant were submitted to the court. Lamine Diack is the former head of World Athletics – which was once known as the IAAF. As head of the IAAF from 1999 to 2015, Diack was once one of the most powerful figures in world athletics. Today, he lives under house arrest in Paris, charged with corruption and money laundering. Prosecutors allege Diack solicited millions of dollars to cover up Russian doping tests. Some of the money allegedly went to finance Macky Sall’s 2012 presidential campaign in Senegal. Sall won the election. If found guilty, Diack faces up to 10 years in prison. Diack denies wrongdoing. The trial is being held in Paris as the alleged money-laundering happened on French soil. One of Diack’s lawyers, Simon Ndiaye, told reporters that people were unfairly lashing out against his client without any precise elements to back up their accusations. Ndiaye said Diack’s accusers have forgotten others surrounding the ex-chief. His client’s only concern, Ndiaye said, was to defend the IAAF and preserve its financial resources. One of Diack’s sons, Papa Massata Diack, also faces corruption among other charges. He remains in Senegal, which has refused to extradite him, and will be tried in absentia. Four others are also on trial. Briton Sebastian Coe replaced Diack as the association’s head. He is trying to rebuild trust in athletics and has introduced changes in how sport is governed.
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Heir to South Korea’s Samsung Empire Avoids Jail
A South Korean Court has rejected an arrest warrant for the heir to the legendary Samsung Group conglomerate in connection with a controversial merger. Prosecutors have accused Lee Jae-yong, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, of stock manipulation and illegal trading involving the 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, of which Lee is the largest shareholder. He allegedly sought to inflate the value of Cheil Industries and lower the value of Samsung C&T to give him a bigger stake in the merged company, a move that would give him increasing control of South Korea’s largest conglomerate and smooth the transition from his ailing father, Lee Kun-hee, who suffered a heart attack in 2014. But the Seoul Central District Court ruled Tuesday that while prosecutors had amassed enough evidence against Lee in their investigation, there was not enough to justify detaining him. The 51-year-old Lee arrived at the courthouse Monday for the hearing, which lasted nine hours, and awaited the decision at a detention center. Samsung released a statement last week denying the allegations against Lee, who prosecutors have also accused of inflating the value of Samsung Biologics, a subsidiary of Cheil Industries. Lee is also awaiting a retrial on his original 2017 conviction for bribing a confidante of then-President Park Geun-hye in return for Park’s support for the 2015 merger, a scandal that forced Park out of office and eventually landed her in prison. Lee served a year in prison before an appeals court suspended his sentence, but South Korea’s Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s decision last year.
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Cristobal to Merge With New Storm System After Lashing South
Tropical Storm Cristobal could soon renew its strength by uniting with another storm system coming from the west to form one giant cyclone, forecasters say. After drenching much of the South, forecasters now expect the remnants of Cristobal to bring fierce winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms to much of the Midwest by Tuesday. A very strong storm system sweeping out from the Rocky Mountains is expected to meld with Cristobal, said Greg Carbin, who oversees forecasts at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. “The two will eventually merge into a large cyclone,” Carbin said. “It’s a pretty fascinating interaction we’ll see over the next couple of days.” Wind gusts of up to 45 mph (72 kph) are expected in Chicago by Tuesday night, the National Weather Service said. Boaters were being warned of gale-force winds on nearby Lake Michigan on Tuesday and Wednesday. FILE – A wave crashes as a man stands on a jetty near Orleans Harbor in Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, June 7, 2020, as Tropical Storm Cristobal approaches the Louisiana Coast.High winds could be felt from Nebraska to Wisconsin, forecasters said. In parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, the gusty winds and low humidity will bring the threat of wildfires in areas with dry grass, National Weather Service forecasters warned. Any blazes that start will spread rapidly, they said. Cristobal weakened into a depression early Monday after inundating coastal Louisiana and ginning up dangerous weather along most of the U.S. Gulf Coast, sending waves crashing over Mississippi beaches, swamping parts of an Alabama island town and spawning a tornado in Florida. In Louisiana, two boaters were found Monday afternoon in good condition after their boat sank in a deepwater straight near Slidell on Sunday, authorities said. Cristobal’s remnants could be a rainmaker for days. Its forecast path takes it into Arkansas and Missouri by Tuesday, then through Illinois and Wisconsin to the Great Lakes. “It’s very efficient, very tropical rainfall,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said in a Facebook video. “It rains a whole bunch real quick.” In their last update on Cristobal from the hurricane center, forecasters said up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain could fall in some areas and could cause significant river flooding across the mid- and upper Mississippi Valley. FILE – Charles Marsala, who lives in the Orleans Marina in the West End section of New Orleans, films a rising storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain, in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal, June 7, 2020.Coastal Mississippi news outlets reported stalled cars and trucks as floodwaters inundated beaches and crashed over highways. On the City of Biloxi Facebook page, officials said emergency workers helped dozens of motorists through floodwaters, mostly on U.S. 90 running along the coast. In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was closed much of Sunday but was being reopened Monday. Police and state transportation department vehicles led convoys of motorists to and from the island when breaks in the weather permitted. “The storm could have been a lot worse, I’m very thankful to say. We were largely spared,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said. Cristobal provided the state with “a good test” of overall hurricane response and preparedness, particularly combined with ongoing COVID-19 response efforts, the governor said. President Donald Trump agreed to issue an emergency declaration for Louisiana, officials said. In Florida, a tornado — the second in two days in the state as the storm approached — uprooted trees and downed power lines Sunday afternoon south of Lake City near Interstate 75, the weather service and authorities said. There were no reports of injuries. The storm also forced a waterlogged stretch of Interstate 10 in north Florida to close for a time Sunday.
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Google Maps to Alert Users About COVID-19-Related Travel Restrictions
Google is adding features on its Maps service to alert users about COVID-19-related travel restrictions to help them plan their trips better, the Alphabet Inc unit said Monday. The update would allow users to check how crowded a train station might be at a particular time, or if buses on a certain route are running on a limited schedule, Google said.The transit alerts would be rolled out in Argentina, France, India, Netherlands, the United States and United Kingdom among other countries, the company said in a blog post.The new features would also include details on COVID-19 checkpoints and restrictions on crossing national borders, starting with Canada, Mexico and the United States.In recent months, the company has analyzed location data from billions of Google users’ phones in 131 countries to examine mobility under lockdowns and help health authorities assess if people were abiding with social-distancing and other orders issued to rein in the virus.Google has invested billions of dollars from its search ads business to digitally map the world, drawing 1 billion users on average every month to its free navigation app.
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Viewers Refute Myth That Black US Films, TV are Poor Exports
To entice a European TV executive shopping for programs a few years ago, ABC offered up glossy fare including “Scandal” starring Kerry Washington and “How to Get Away with Murder” with Oscar-winner Viola Davis.
“‘This is great, but when are you going to start bringing us shows that don’t have black leads?'” the buyer asked in the 2015 meeting, as then-ABC executive Channing Dungey recounts. “I was sitting in a room in the 21st century, and I thought I was being slapped across the face.”
The remark was unusually blunt but the attitude is a familiar one within Hollywood’s own ranks: African American actors and stories make for poor exports, an assertion that’s burdened black artists and limited their opportunity and influence.
Until now. Box-office hits like “Black Panther” and the ethnically diverse “Fast & Furious” franchise increasingly undercut what filmmaker Ava DuVernay calls a “longstanding myth,” joined by a new generation of successful small-screen fare.
It’s an issue with resonance, as American torment over to the videotaped death of a black man in police custody is reflected in demonstrations held far outside this nation’s borders. Protesters carrying “We Are All George Floyd” and “Black Lives Matter” placards have gathered in cities including Montreal, London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Auckland.
Dungey, who at ABC became the first African American to head a major broadcast network and now is Netflix’s vice president for original series, says diversity’s appeal is proven by the streaming service’s globally distributed programs and closely held viewership figures provided to The Associated Press.
Racial discrimination and injustice are themes of some, but not all, of the Netflix projects that have drawn widespread audiences. The characters tend to be African American, created by the black writers, directors and stars whose progress in the U.S. entertainment industry has outpaced that of other people of color.
“When They See Us,” DuVernay’s Emmy-winning miniseries about the Central Park Five case, was watched by 31 million households worldwide in its first month of release, according to Netflix, with 51 percent of the audience outside the United States. “American Son,” about a missing black teenager that was produced by and starred Washington, was watched in 17 million homes worldwide in its first month, with non-U.S. subscribers making up 46 percent of viewers.
“Raising Dion,” about a black youngster with superpowers, drew attention from 32 million households, with 60 percent outside the U.S.
“I thought we might be in trouble when it’s called ‘American Son,'” Washington said of her film’s global prospects. “But the (African) diaspora was vast and large and the struggles that people of color have in facing prejudice when dealing with people in authority, that is not an American phenomenon. Racism and the prejudice expressed particularly toward young men of color happens all over the world.”
Multinational consumption is critical to the streaming service, with about 65 percent of its subscribers outside the U.S.
Netflix has begun sharing viewership results with its creators, resulting in what DuVernay called “astounding numbers” that are in dismaying contrast to how her major studio films, “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Selma,” fared with limited international releases.
“It wasn’t until I made a small documentary about prisons in America that I felt the world watching my work, and that was because Netflix made ‘13th’ available in 100-plus countries,” she said of her Oscar-nominated 2016 film.
The numbers provided by Netflix to the AP aren’t wholly revelatory: they represent one of the service’s viewing yardsticks — households that watched at least two minutes of a program. Netflix declined to provide overall program rankings.
Where viewers of black-led projects are found varies widely. “When They See Us” was most popular in Britain, Ireland, the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg), and in Africa. “American Son” did well in France, Africa, Mexico and Latin America.
“If you think about the global market, what does the rest of the world look like? The rest of the world looks like America’s diversity. It does not look like Europe,” said Darnell Hunt, a University of California, Los Angeles, professor and lead author of annual research on diversity and profitability. “The rest of it is Africa, it’s Asia, it’s Australia, all these other countries that look like America’s minority groups.”
Kenya Barris, creator of ABC’s sitcom “black-ish” and Netflix’s new comedy “#blackAF,” saw the bias at work with the 2017 big-screen romp “Girls Trip,” which he co-wrote. It was a U.S. box- office hit with $115 million but drew only $25 million internationally, which Barris attributed to a lack of support.
The result is different when a TV show such as “black-ish” is widely seen.
“I was in England, gave a waiter my (credit) card and he was like, ‘Oh my God, are you Kenya Barris? I love your show.’ And I was shocked,” said the writer-producer.
Studios and others resisting inclusiveness risk a “death knell” as newcomers such as Netflix open their doors, DuVernay said.
“Now there is a way to say, ‘I’m not going to deal with the trauma of this lie that handcuffs my work,'” she said. “I’m going to make work where it is embraced and where it will be shared widely.”
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WHO: Spread From People Without Symptoms Is Rare
The World Health Organization says it still believes the spread of the coronavirus from people without symptoms is “rare,” despite warnings from numerous experts worldwide that such transmission is more frequent and likely explains why the pandemic has been so hard to contain.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19 said at a press briefing on Monday that many countries are reporting cases of spread from people who are asymptomatic, or those with no clinical symptoms. But when questioned in more detail about these cases, Van Kerkhove said many of them turn out to have mild disease, or unusual symptoms.
Although health officials in countries including Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere have warned that COVID-19 is spreading from people without symptoms, WHO has maintained that this type of spread is not a driver of the pandemic and is probably accounts for about 6% of spread, at most. Numerous studies have suggested that the virus is spreading from people without symptoms, but many of those are either anecdotal reports or based on modeling.
Van Kerkhove said that based on data from countries, when people with no symptoms of COVID-19 are tracked over a long period to see if they spread the disease, there are very few cases of spread.
“We are constantly looking at this data and we’re trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question,” she said. “It still appears to be rare that asymptomatic individuals actually transmit onward.”
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UN Provides $40 Million in Response to New Ebola Outbreak, Other Emergencies in DR Congo
The U.N. has released $40 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to help tackle a new outbreak of Ebola and other health and humanitarian crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The re-emergence of Ebola in Mbandaka, in DRC’s Equateur province, a week ago has dashed hopes of finally bringing this deadly disease to a timely end. More than 2,200 people have died since the epidemic started in eastern Ituri, North and South Kivu provinces in August 2018. Meanwhile, international support for humanitarian operations in Congo has fallen off a cliff. The U.N. hopes its injection of $40 million to tackle Ebola and other health and humanitarian crises in the country will kickstart a more generous response from donors. FILE – A police officer stands at the deserted crossing point between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).To date, the United Nations has received only 13 percent of this year’s $2 billion appeal. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs notes the DRC is battling a dangerous mix of health and humanitarian crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic. OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke acknowledges the fight against the pandemic is putting economies around the world under enormous financial strain. But he tells VOA the fight against the coronavirus cannot be won unless it is won in all countries. He adds the fight against COVID-19 must not be waged at the expense of other critical humanitarian needs. “The fight against other diseases — measles, Ebola; other issues, such as hunger, child malnutrition and so on will continue unless we also continue to direct funding to those issues. So, we are asking the donors not to make a choice either or, but to do both,” he said. The DRC is struggling under a plethora of humanitarian needs, besides Ebola, including the world’s largest measles outbreak, as well as conflict and massive displacement in the eastern part of the country. Laerke warns failure to provide the means to tackle these problems will have widespread repercussions. “People will only survive, if we fight all of this at the same time because if we take our eyes off the ball of one disease, another one will pop up and they will die from that instead,” he said. Money from the emergency fund with strengthen the DRC’s health services for Ebola survivors and get community-based surveillance and rapid response systems running. The fund also will provide food, shelter, water and sanitation, and a myriad of other essential services, including containment measures for COVID-19.
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Poll: Pandemic Does Little to Alter US Views on Health Care
The coronavirus pushed hospitals to the edge, and millions of workers lost job-based coverage in the economic shutdown to slow the spread, but a new poll suggests Americans have remarkably little interest in big changes to health care as a result of the pandemic.
People are still more likely to prefer the private sector than the government on driving innovation in health care, improving quality and, by a narrower margin, providing coverage, according to the survey by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Those views are basically unchanged since February, when an earlier edition of the AP-NORC poll asked the same questions at a time that the coronavirus was still largely seen as a problem in other countries, not the United States.
“It does strike me as odd,” said Gaye Cocoman, a retired data processing administrator from small-town Macedonia, Ohio, who has Medicare. “I’m covered, but I look at the millions of people who aren’t and wonder what in the world they’re going to do if they get sick. There seems to be no appetite for change.”
The poll found that people are more likely to trust private entities over government at driving innovation in health care (70% to 28%), improving quality (62% to 36%) and providing insurance coverage (53% to 44%). Americans had more confidence in government’s ability to reduce costs, preferring it over the private sector 54% to 44%. All of those preferences are unchanged since before COVID-19 arrived.
Not that long ago Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan was at the center of the Democratic presidential debate. But even with an estimated 27 million people losing employer coverage in the economic shutdown, there’s been no groundswell of support for the Sanders plan, which calls for replacing the nation’s hybrid system of private and government coverage with a single government plan for all.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, asked last month whether waves of layoffs were prompting her Democratic caucus members to reconsider the employer-based system that covers most working families, responded: “That’s not our conversation.”
Pelosi said Democrats are backing measures to tide over workers who have lost coverage — such as expansions of the Affordable Care Act — but “rather than saying let’s take that (employer coverage) away from them, we should say let’s get them their jobs back.”
It could simply be a reflection of human nature to shelve ambitious schemes during a crisis, said health economist Katherine Baicker, dean of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. There’s only so much available bandwidth.
“I wonder if the short-term crisis dampens people’s appetite for health system reform,” Baicker said. “The idea of upending the health system at this moment … it may be that people think, ‘No — let’s get a vaccine.’ ”
After the spectacle of coronavirus-related shortages of everything from cotton swabs, to protective gear for nurses and doctors, to breathing machines for desperately ill patients, the poll did find 56% saying the U.S. is spending too little on improving and protecting the nation’s health.
That is a significantly bigger share than the 42% who think the government is spending too little in general. Still, views on the need for more health care spending were unchanged since before the pandemic.
Christina Rush, a middle school counselor from Raleigh, North Carolina, is among those who think the U.S. should spend more on health care and cites the virus as a reason.
“Looking at COVID, I didn’t realize the huge shortages of material that would be needed,” Rush said. “I would have thought we had what we needed in terms of the medical system, but it seems we were so far behind some of these other countries, like South Korea. We could be spending more.”
With more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 and about 40 million people unemployed, the poll found what may reflect hints of introspection among those who still have jobs and coverage. In May, Americans were less focused on their own complaints.
While about 3 in 5 said they were very or extremely concerned about Americans in general having access to high quality care, people were less likely than in February to say they were greatly concerned about having access to quality care for themselves (46% to 58%) and about their own health care spending (35% to 44%).
Other research is reinforcing that pattern, said Jennifer Benz, deputy director of the AP-NORC center. “Our data are showing that in the midst of a public health and economic crisis, people’s assessments of their own situations are holding steady, or even better than they were before the COVID outbreak started to unfurl,” she said.
“It feels a little counter-intuitive,” added Benz.
Utility worker Nick Zumbusch said he’s noticed that shift, too, since the pandemic. He’s seeing it when it comes to workplace gripes.
“In February, people had all sorts of complaints about their jobs — their daily tasks, their hourly pay,” said Zumbusch, a father of three from Waconia, Minnesota. “Come May, there wasn’t a whole lot of complaining. It was, ‘I’m happy to be here, and I’m happy to have a job.'”
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K-Pop Fans Show Organizing Prowess with Black Lives Matter Activism
Until last week, if you clicked the hashtag #whitelivesmatter on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, you’d find a smattering of right-wing posts by those opposed to the wave of global protests against racism and police brutality. But follow that hashtag now, and you’re likely to find something much different: random, fan-created videos of South Korean pop music stars. Over the past week, K-Pop fans around the world have commandeered the #whitelivesmatter hashtag, as well as #alllivesmatter and #bluelivesmatter, as a way to drown out racist posts that have also used those labels. It’s not just hashtags. When the Dallas, Texas police department set up a mobile app for users to submit videos of “illegal activity” from the protests, K-Pop fans quickly overwhelmed the site with tributes to their favorite stars, forcing the police department to take it down because of “technical difficulties.” The online disruption, combined with the millions of dollars donated by K-Pop celebrities and their followers to Black Lives Matter causes, underscores how international fans of Korean music have emerged as a formidable organizing force for social causes around the world. “Their ability to massively coordinate action is just unparalleled. I’m serious when I say they are the most potent online force in the world right now,” says TK Park, who has written about Korean pop culture and runs the “Ask A Korean!” blog. Organizing skills It may seem random, but the closer you look the more sense it makes. K-Pop has become a global phenomenon, with massive fan bases in every part of the world. In the United States, many of those fans are African Americans. As Park points out, K-Pop fans everywhere are very skilled at massive online campaigns with very specific goals. Usually, that means coordinated efforts by fans to push certain songs or videos up the music charts by streaming them obsessively or posting about the content on social media. “These groups of fans have accumulated a lot of [organizing] experience while supporting their idols,” says Hong Seok-kyeong, a communications professor at Seoul National University. “It requires a great deal of logic and strategy, like setting a timeline or choosing a channel.” But K-Pop fans are increasingly aiming their grassroots organizational powers at charitable and other causes, such as A group of protesters take a knee while marching in lower Manhattan, June 6, 2020, in New York.But those efforts have been turbo-charged with the reemergence of Black Lives Matter protests, which were spurred by the most recent police killings of African Americans. After BTS on Sunday donated $1 million to the Black Lives Matter organization, the group’s fans, known collectively as the “ARMY,” matched that donation within 24 hours, according to the OIAA website — a stunning display of online fundraising ability. 우리는 인종차별에 반대합니다.
우리는 폭력에 반대합니다.
나, 당신, 우리 모두는 존중받을 권리가 있습니다. 함께 하겠습니다.
We stand against racial discrimination.
We condemn violence.
You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together.#BlackLivesMatter
— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) June 4, 2020“We’re happy to help ARMY organize and support the Black Lives Matter movement,” said an OIAA spokesperson. “We stand in solidarity with black ARMY. They’re an important part of our family. And we stand with black people everywhere. Your voices deserve to be heard.” Political past It’s not the first time K-Pop fans have influenced international politics. In 2019, Korean music fans in Chile were partly responsible for a series of protests calling for more social and economic equality, a report by the country’s interior ministry concluded. During those protests, K-pop fans criticized alleged human rights violations by the Chilean police force, according to a report by CNN Chile. Why K-Pop?
But why are K-Pop fans more politically active, especially on explicitly progressive causes, than fans of other types of music? After all, most K-Pop songs aren’t particularly political, at least no more than the music of any other country. The answer, according to Park, may be that K-Pop seems to have a special appeal to racial minorities and immigrants across the world — groups that don’t necessarily see themselves reflected in white-dominated western pop culture. In the United States, Asian-Americans and then African Americans were among the first to embrace Korean music, Park says. He notes there has been a similar trend in Europe. It’s possible, he speculates, that K-Pop is “essentially serving as a pop culture conduit connecting the marginalized around the world.” It could be “the pop culture representation of Third Worldism,” he says, referring to the diplomatic stance of non-aligned countries during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The explanation may not be all-encompassing. After all, not all Korean music fans are marginalized or even minorities. But whatever is behind the activism, one thing is certain: the organization of K-pop fans is organic, with both the strategies and targets developing naturally online. “This collective action takes place as voluntary support, not a top-down order,” says Professor Hong. “They learn from themselves, by themselves.” While some K-Pop fans have at times been accused of cyber bullying, groups like OIAA are now trying to harness the community’s collective power to accomplish “global good,” the group’s website says. To do that, the collective selects a different non-profit group every month to which it directs fan contributions. “Many people giving small amounts,” it says, “can create a substantial impact when we work together.” Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.
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Head of Samsung Conglomerate Facing New Legal Jeopardy
The heir to South Korea’s Samsung empire appeared in a Seoul court Monday for a hearing to decide whether he will be arrested and jailed in connection with a controversial merger. Lee Jae-yong was silent as he walked through an army of shouting reporters when he arrived at the courthouse. If the court approves the warrant, Lee could be detained and taken into custody. A final decision is expected late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Prosecutors have accused Lee, the current vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, of stock manipulation and illegal trading during the 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, of which Lee is the largest shareholder. He allegedly sought to inflate the value of Cheil Industries and lower the value of Samsung C&T to give him a bigger stake in the merged company, a move that would give him increasing control of South Korea’s largest conglomerate and smooth the transition from his ailing father, Lee Kun-hee, who suffered a heart attack in 2014. Lee is also accused of inflating the value of Samsung Biologics, which is a subsidiary of Cheil Industries. Samsung released a statement last week denying the allegations against Lee. Lee was convicted in 2017 for bribing a confidante of then-President Park Geun-hye in return for Park’s support for the 2015 merger, a scandal that forced Park out of office and eventually landed her in prison. Lee served a year before an appeals court suspended his sentence. South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial on the original charges.
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NASCAR Vows to do Better Job Addressing Racial Injustice
Bubba Wallace donned a black T-shirt with the words “I Can’t Breathe” and NASCAR paused before Sunday’s Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway to acknowledge the country’s social unrest. The governing body vowed to to do a better job of addressing racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s death. During their warm-up laps, the 40 cars pulled to a stop in front of the empty grandstands and shut off their engines so NASCAR President Steve Phelps could deliver a message over their radio sets. “Thank you for your time,” Phelps said. “Our country is in pain and people are justifiably angry, demanding to be heard. The black community and all people of color have suffered in our country, and it has taken far too long for us to hear their demands for change. Our sport must do better. Our country must do better.” A black NASCAR official took a knee along pit road, mimicking a gesture used by protesters in tribute to former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. All 40 crews stood on the wall in front of their pit boxes. “The time is now to listen, to understand and to stand against racism and racial injustice,” Phelps said. “We ask our drivers … and all our fans to join us in this mission, to take a moment of reflection, to acknowledge that we must do better as a sport, and join us as we now pause and take a moment to listen.” Wallace, the only African American driver in NASCAR’s top series, has been the sport’s most outspoken voice since Floyd died while in the custody of Minneapolis police, sparking massive protests in all 50 states and around the world demanding an end to law enforcement brutality against people of color. Wallace’s T-shirt carried Floyd’s pleading words when an officer, identified as Derek Chauvin, pinned a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes while he was handcuffed. Chauvin and three other officers have been fired and charged in the incident, which followed the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Protesters have cited all three African American victims in their demands for social justice. After Phelps spoke to the NASCAR drivers, they observed a 30-second moment of silence. Then, as the cars refired their engines and slowly pulled away for the green flag, the Fox broadcast cut to a video made by a number of Cup drivers, including Wallace and seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, as well as retired star Dale Earnhardt Jr. Several drivers also posted the video on their Twitter accounts, vowing to “listen and learn” from the protests that have rocked the nation. The vowed to “no longer be silent” and pledged to “work together to make real change.” With its roots in the South and one-time embrace of Confederate symbols, NASCAR has a checkered racial history. The organization has launched diversity programs but still struggles to shake its reputation as a largely white sport. During a shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, NASCAR driver Kyle Larson was fired after casually uttering a racial slur while competing in a video racing game. “We need step up more than we ever have before,” said former Cup star Jeff Gordon, now a Fox broadcaster. “We are listening, we are learning and we are ready to change.”
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Live Music-and-Dance Party, But COVID Era-Style
Social distancing in the age of COVID-19 bars crowds from dense gatherings like movies or rock concerts. This ‘new normal’ changes the business model of venues relying on turnout for profit. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi cues up this story of a nightclub selling tickets and embracing the new normal.
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Virginia NGO Provides Computer Lessons To Low-Income Immigrants
A Virginia NGO called Computer CORE helps low-income immigrants master using computers in order to help them find jobs. However, the coronavirus pandemic has made life hard for the organization because so few of the students have computers or an internet connection at home. VOA’s Maxim Moskalkov has the story. Camera: Sergey Sokolov
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How Messaging Technology is Helping Fuel Global Protests
Protesters are using a variety of technology tools to organize rallies, record police violence and communicate during the marches sweeping the U.S. and other countries following the death of George Floyd. Some of that involves secure messaging services like Signal, which can encrypt messages to thwart spies. Those apps, along with others for listening to police scanners and recording video, are enjoying an uptick in popularity. But experts say convenience and reach remain key, which favors standbys like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. White nationalists, however, are also turning to apps like Telegram to blast disruptive messages to their supporters, hoping to wreak havoc on demonstrations.When a friend shared a Facebook post with Michelle Burris inviting her to protest in downtown Washington, D.C., last Saturday, she knew she had to go. So she bought a Black Lives Matter mask from a street vendor before marching the streets of the district with a “No Justice, No Peace” sign.After that march ended, she pulled up details on Instagram for a car caravan demonstration just a few blocks away. “It was extremely powerful, not only Facebook but Instagram,” Burris said. “It was very easy to mobilize.”Protesters are using a variety of technology tools to organize rallies, record police violence and communicate during the marches sweeping the U.S. and other countries following the death of George Floyd. Some of that involves secure messaging services like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, which can encrypt messages to thwart spies. Those apps, along with others for listening to police scanners and recording video, are enjoying an uptick in popularity.But experts say convenience and reach are key. “Reaching as many people as possible is the number one criterion for which platform someone is going to use,” said Steve Jones, a University of Illinois at Chicago media researcher who studies communication technology.That means Twitter, Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram remain the easiest ways for people to organize and document the mass protests. Facebook’s tools remain popular despite a barrage of criticism over the platform’s inaction after President Donald Trump posted a message that suggested protesters in Minneapolis could be shot.”I don’t want to support or be a part of something that is possibly supporting Trump and his racist, hate filed spew,” said Sarah Wildman, who’s been to three protests in Atlanta and has used Instagram exclusively to locate and to document the demonstrations she attended. But she said she feels that, at this point, “the benefits of Instagram outweigh not using it.” Half a century ago during the civil rights protests, Jones said, it was almost impossible to know what was going on during a protest. “There was a lot of rumor, a lot of hearsay,” he said. “Now you can reach everyone almost instantaneously.”Wildman said she uses Instagram’s “live” function to find out what is happening during protests, especially when protesters in the back might not know what’s happening at the front. At one, she said, people started yelling that police were using tear gas — but it wasn’t true, which she learned by checking Instagram.Organizers are also using Telegram, an app that allows private messages to be sent to thousands of people at once, creating channels for specific cities to give updates on protest times and locations, as well as updates on where police are making arrests or staging. One New York City Telegram channel for the protests grew from just under 300 subscribers on Monday to nearly 2,500 by Friday. During a peaceful rally in Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday, Anjel Newmann, 32, said that while she’s mostly using Instagram and Facebook to organize, younger people are using Snapchat. The main problem: It’s hard to tell which online flyers are legitimate. “That’s one of the things we haven’t figured out yet,” she said. “There was a flyer going around saying this was canceled today.”The simplicity of shooting and sharing video has also made possible recordings of violence that can spread to millions within moments. A smartphone video of Floyd’s death helped spark the broad outrage that led to the protests. Apps like Signal are seeing an uptick in downloads according to Apptopia, which tracks such data. Signal was downloaded 37,000 times over the weekend in the U.S., it said, more than at any other point since it launched in 2014. Other private messaging apps, such as Telegram and Wickr, have not seen a similar uptick.One new user is Toby Anderson, 30, who also attended the Providence rally on Friday. Anderson, who is biracial, said he downloaded the encrypted Signal app several days earlier at the request of his mom. “She’s a black woman in America,” he said, worried about his safety and eager to grasp any additional measure of security she could.Meanwhile, apps like Police Scanner and 5-0 Police Scanner, which allow anyone to listen to live police dispatch chatter — and may be illegal in some states — racked up 213,000 downloads over the weekend, Apptopia said. That is 125% more than the weekend before and a record for the category. Citizen, which sends real-time alerts and lets users post live video of protests and crime scenes, was downloaded 49,000 times. On the down side, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism said in a blog post this week that it has found white nationalists using Telegram to try to wreak havoc during the protests. “Some, especially those in the accelerationist camp, are celebrating the prospect of increased violence, which they hope will lead to a long-promised ‘race war,'” the ADL said Monday. “They are extremely active online, urging other white supremacists to take full advantage of the moment.” In one Telegram channel, the ADL found, participants suggested murdering protesters, then spreading rumors to blame the deaths on police snipers.Others want to further exacerbate racial tensions. “Good time to stroke race relations” and “post black live’s don’t matter stickers,” a user posted — with misspellings — to the Reformthestates Telegram channel, according to the ADL.
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Netflix to Remove Show That Sparked Outrage Among Haitian Americans
Netflix is removing an episode of the History 101 program that says AIDS originated in Haiti.“We have seen the concerns raised and, together with the series creators, have decided to remove the episode while we review the issues involved,” a spokesperson for the online streaming service told VOA via email Saturday. Netflix offers users television shows, movies and documentaries.History 101 is a British TV show produced by ITN productions. It is described on Netflix as “infographics and archival footage [that] deliver bite-size history lessons on scientific breakthroughs, social movements and world-changing discoveries.”The episode sparked outrage among Haitian Americans, who posted their criticism and started a petition on Instagram and Twitter.“The framing of the whole doc lacks in world view,” renowned Haitian American DJ Michael Brun posted on Instagram. “For a disease that has affected Africa the hardest, they had 0 scientists or representation from the continent (or Haiti).” View this post on Instagram As the @Netflix History 101 doc has been removed and is currently being revised by their team, I wanted to share what my issues were with their HIV / AIDS episode. The biggest issue is irresponsible framing in regards to black communities worldwide and the inclusion of misinformation. I hope more companies can take note and lead their research with a more balanced world view that doesn’t unfairly stigmatize certain groups of people. If anyone wants sources for anything I mention just let me know and I will be happy to share. The reason this is being reviewed by their team is because of fact based research, not because of anger. Let’s lead with truth.A post shared by Michaël Brun (@michaelbrun) on Jun 6, 2020 at 10:41am PDTAccording to The AIDS Institute, a U.S. nonprofit organization that promotes social change, scientists attribute the HIV infection in humans to a type of chimpanzee found in West Africa.The Haitianroom, a popular Haitian American Instagram account, circulated a petition against the Netflix program that aimed to get 16,000 signatures. By 4:30 p.m. EDT they had obtained 12,488 signatures.“The lies are part of the reason why many of us had a hard time growing up Haitian!!!” the post said. View this post on Instagram Update: they have taken down episode 9 which this was featured in!! We did it guys!!! ✊🏽 The lies are part of the reason why many of us had a hard time growing up Haitian!!!I just signed and donated! Link in my bio if you want to sign the petition (you don’t HAVE to donate but it helps if you do ❤️✊🏽🇭🇹) Also call them and request to remove the documentary… Info down below @netflix @strongblacklead . . We are calling Netflix to act responsibly in this matter and remove the episode immediately. In the first quarter of 2020, Netflix had over 182 million paying streaming subscribers worldwide. Of these subscribers, 69.9 million were from the United States. Misinformation is dangerous. We call ITN Production, the producers and researchers of this episode to step forward and support the immediate removal of this episode from Netflix and any other platform that it may have been published. This content should not be share or presented as fact on any media outlets again. Going forward we ask that this stigma against Haiti and Haitian people be put to rest. It is rooted in racism and should no longer be referenced as factual data by anyone researching HIV/AIDS and is origin. In fact, given all of the funding and research that has gone to support HIV/AIDS research over the past 30 years; is important that major corporations and media giants like Netflix help END THE STIGMA not perpetuate it. 1. Cancel your Netflix subscription. 2. Repost the video shared by @XEAUX on Instagram, Twitter and other social media outlets. 3. Use the hashtag #AIDSdidNOTcomefromHaiti, tag @Netflix and @strongblacklead and post the hashtag in their comment section. 4. Contact Netflix to request removal of the video. Main:(888)638-3549 | Customer Service: (866) 579-7172 | Headquarters: (888) 638-3549. 5. Sign the petition. . . . . . . #thehaitianroom #haitianwomen #haitianmen #haitianpeople #haitian #haitians #haiti #ayiti #netflixA post shared by The Haitian Room 🇭🇹 (@thehaitianroom) on Jun 6, 2020 at 10:58am PDTLunionsuite, another popular Haitian American Instagram account that has 150,000 followers, also posted criticism about the episode. On Saturday afternoon it posted a thank-you to followers for putting pressure on the streaming company.
“Netflix History 101 Episode 9 “AIDS” [has] officially been removed by @netflix on their platform!! Thank you to everyone who came together to make this happen in less than 24 hours!! We Did It!!” the post read. View this post on Instagram Netflix History 101 Episode 9 “AIDS” has officially been removed by @netflix!!! Thank you to everyone at @netflix for understanding the importance of removing this episode! We’re waiting on an update on whether they will publicly address it, and our community. — We Did It!!! ❤️🇭🇹⚫️✊🏾 @xeaux @orlandooo7 @michaelbrun @leovolcy — #lunionsuite #wematter #ourstorymatters #haitian #haiti #blacklivesmatterA post shared by #1 Haitian-American Platform (@lunionsuite) on Jun 6, 2020 at 12:25pm PDTThe move comes as thousands worldwide take to the streets to protest racism and to demand justice for George Floyd, an African American man who died in the custody of four police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Netflix is one of several technology, banking, apparel and entertainment firms that have issued messages of support for those demonstrating against police treatment of black people.“To be silent is to be complicit. Black Lives Matter. We have a platform and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up,” the May 30 Netflix post said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Netflix US (@netflix) on May 30, 2020 at 1:36pm PD
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Reddit Co-Founder Leaves Board, Urges Black Replacement
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian announced his resignation from the board of the social media site and urged the board to replace him with a black candidate.
Ohanian, who is white, implicitly linked his move to protests around the globe over the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after a police officer pressed his knee against his neck for several minutes, even after he stopped pleading for air and became unresponsive.
The entrepreneur, who is married to tennis star Serena Williams, said he made the decision for the sake of his daughter.”I’m writing this as a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: “What did you do?,” Ohanian said in a blog post. He pledged to use future gains on his Reddit stock to “serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate.”
He also said he would give $1 million to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp. Former NFL player Kaepernick is known for kneeling to protest police brutality and racism in 2016, and later filed a grievance claiming the league had blacklisted him as a result.
Reddit, based in San Francisco, calls itself “the front page of the internet” and has millions of users. LIke all social media sites, it has had issues over the years balancing freedom of speech against posts with racist, inflammatory and abusive intent.
Co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman said in a Reddit post that the board would honor Ohanian’s wish to be replaced by a black candidate. He also said Reddit was working with moderators to explicitly address hate speech.
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Comic Strips Thank Front-Line COVID-19 Workers
Newspaper comic strips have always operated in a parallel universe, seldom reflecting the problems of the real world.No matter what the reader is going through, Dagwood has never had to apply for unemployment benefits; there’s no global warming in Mark Trail’s forest; and people get old but don’t die in Gasoline Alley.But this Sunday, sharp-eyed readers will find tributes and thank-you’s to front-line workers who have spent the last five months fighting the coronavirus and making sure vital services don’t stop.The artists of more than 70 strips will hide six items associated with the COVID-19 battle lines within the pictures – a medical mask, a steering wheel for those who drive delivery trucks, a supermarket shopping cart, apples for teachers, a fork to thank food service workers and a microscope to salute medical researchers.The idea was the brainchild of Rick Kirkman, who is one of the creators of the comic strip “Baby Blues.”“Every time somebody finds or discovers one of those little symbols in the artwork, to me, I hope that evokes a little bit of gratitude that goes out into the universe,” he said.Kirkman threw out the idea to other cartoonists, and the results can be seen Sunday.“You can hide these things and just be really devious about it,” he said. “You can leave them in the open. You can use them as props. You can even build your gag around them. I don’t care as long as they’re in there.”But working an apple into a cartoon to thank schoolteachers is not as simple as it may sound.Sunday comic strips are drawn and submitted to their syndicates sometimes as much as three months in advance.Bruce Simon is a Berkeley, California-based cartoonist and comics historian.“The coordination problems are horrific with all these people having different deadlines and the syndicates need to work so far ahead,” Simon said.“Wiley Miller who does ‘Non-Sequitur’ actually pulled his scheduled strip and did a new one because he works so far ahead. But he wanted to be a part of it so he did a special one for Sunday and the one he had scheduled will show up some other time,” Simon added.And while it’s easy to camouflage a truck steering wheel into a 21st century-era cartoon, what about a long-running saga of the fifth century?“Prince Valiant. Now, how ‘Prince Valiant’ is going to incorporate a grocery cart or microscope into his historic strip is going to be something interesting,” Simon said.Because no newspaper carries every comic strip, all the strips with a thank-you to front-line workers can be seen after Sunday on the ComicsKingdom.com and GoComics.com websites.
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