Landmark U.S. opioid trial against Johnson & Johnson begins in Oklahoma

Abstract: CHICAGO - The first civil trial that could hold a drug company responsible for the U.S. opioid epidemic began Tuesday in Oklahoma — a case that could affect thousands of others like it. The trial pits the state against Johnson & Johnson. Two other drug companies named in the lawsuit settled ahead of the trial. Oklahoma has accused the three drugmakers of deceptively marketing opioid painkillers, hyping their effectiveness and downplaying the risks of addiction. The lawsuit is the first of many to go to trial and is seen as an important test of whether drug companies can be held accountable in court for an addiction epidemic that has killed tens of thousands of Americans. In opening statements, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter accused Johnson & Johnson of being motivated by greed in embarking on “a cynical, deceitful multimillion-dollar brainwashing campaign” to sell opioids as a “magic drug.” “It’s time to hold them responsible for their actions,” Hunter told the presiding judge, who will decide the case in lieu of a jury. Johnson & Johnson has denied the charges levied by the state against its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals. The company’s lead attorney pointed to federal and state agencies having approved and monitored its painkillers Nucynta and Duragesic, and the decades-old familiarity of doctors with opioid medications and their addictive qualities. “Both pharmacists and physicians have an independent responsibility to prescribe and monitor these drugs,” attorney Larry Ottaway said. He also said that the company’s two drugs were prescribed in low quantities in Oklahoma and were deemed by government agencies as “rarely addictive” because of their timed-release mechanisms. “Janssen’s conduct was not a nuisance,” Ottaway added, referring to the state’s public nuisance law under which it is being sued. “They provided medically necessary medications for the treatment of terrible, terrible problems. Those treatments were approved and regulated by the FDA,” he said. Medical professionals are likely to testify for both sides in the trial, which is expected to last two months. Attorneys said among them will be Russell Portenoy, a once highly regarded pain expert who spent decades touting the benefits of opioid painkillers and claiming their risks were overstated before changing his view after numerous lawsuits. There are some 2,000 lawsuits brought by states, cities and Native American territories across the country, all seeking compensation from makers of the highly addictive prescription painkillers. The lawsuits are being compared to the 1998 cases against Big Tobacco, which ended in a 46-state overarching settlement estimated at $250 billion in annual payments over the first 25 years of it being in force. In the Oklahoma lawsuit, Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva on Sunday settled the case for $85 million. Purdue Pharma, maker of the opioid painkiller OxyContin — a key driver of the crisis — reached a $270 million settlement with the state in March. Overdoses from prescription painkillers and heroin exploded over the last 20 years, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Almost 400,000 people have died from an overdose involving prescription or illicit opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pop icon Prince and rocker Tom Petty were among the high-profile victims of the epidemic.

opioids
johnson & johnson
oklahoma
drugs
courts
teva
purdue pharma
medicine
fraud


Netflix will 'rethink' Georgia shoots if abortion law holds

Abstract: NEW YORK - Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos says the streaming giant will “rethink our entire investment” in Georgia if the state’s recently passed abortion law goes into effect. Sarandos made his remarks in a statement Tuesday, first reported by Variety. They constitute the strongest language yet from any leading Hollywood studio since Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a ban on virtually all abortions. Sarandos said that Netflix has many women working on productions in Georgia whose rights “will be severely restricted” by the law. He said the company will help the American Civil Liberties Union contest the law in court. Netflix productions in the state will continue before the legislation is implemented. Atlanta has in recent years become a major hub of TV and film production.

netflix
georgia
abortion
streaming
u.s .


Apple unveils first new iPod model in four years

Abstract: LOS ANGELES - Apple on Tuesday introduced its first new iPod model in four years, highlighting music and games as it continued to make a priority of serving up digital content. The new-generation iPod touch, essentially an iPhone without the phone calls, was available in more than two dozen countries at Apple’s online shop starting at $199. “We’re making the most affordable iOS device even better with performance that is twice as fast as before, Group FaceTime and augmented reality,” said Apple vice president of product marketing Greg Joswiak. “The ultra-thin and lightweight design of iPod touch has always made it ideal for enjoying games, music and so much more wherever you go.” The iPod touch evolved from the original iPod digital music player first launched by Apple in 2007. The iPod touch became popular with people, particularly parents of internet-coveting children, who wanted mobile devices for getting online without the cost of telecommunications services. The mobile devices can connect to the internet using Wi-Fi hotspots. Apple earlier this year unveiled streaming video plans along with news and game subscription offerings as part of an effort to shift its focus to digital content and services to break free of its reliance on iPhone sales. An Apple TV+ service, an on-demand, ad-free subscription service, will launch this year in 100 countries, the company said. Apple News+ was launched in the U.S. and Canada in English and French and will be available later this year in Britain and Australia, the company said. Separately, the company said it was launching a new game subscription service called Apple Arcade later this year with at least 100 titles at launch. “iOS is the world’s largest gaming platform, and with three times faster graphics, games on the new iPod touch run even smoother and look even more beautiful,” Apple said in a release. The first new iPod since the year 2015 comes as Apple shifts to emphasize digital content and other services to offset a pullback in the once-sizzling smartphone market, and with many news organizations struggling to monetize their online services.


Government orders Nomura Holdings to improve business management compliance after info leak

Abstract: The government ordered Nomura Holdings Inc. and its core securities unit Tuesday to improve business management compliance after the company admitted last week that insufficient internal controls led to the leakage of confidential information about the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s new section plan to clients. The Financial Services Agency imposed the action on Nomura Holdings and Nomura Securities Co., saying in a release that the conduct by Nomura employees did not violate laws and regulations but “is likely to impair and undermine the credibility … of capital markets significantly.” A similar administrative action was taken against Nomura Securities in 2012 when the brokerage leaked nonpublic information about new share offerings by large companies to clients. Nomura Holdings said Friday that a probe found information had been leaked, and CEO Koji Nagai and other executives will return up to 30 percent of their monthly remuneration for up to three months to take responsibility. A probe by outside lawyers found a researcher at Nomura Research Institute leaked information that new listing and delisting criteria for the TSE upper section in terms of market capitalization would likely be set at ¥25 billion ($228 million) or more to a strategist at Nomura Securities in March. The researcher was a member of a TSE panel tasked with discussing the criteria and other matters related to the bourse’s plan. The strategist then revealed that information to institutional investors via other employees. “We will further strengthen our compliance and internal controls frameworks. We are committed to preventing a recurrence and will work toward regaining trust,” Nomura CEO Nagai said in a statement. The FSA recognized a flaw in Nomura’s internal control because it was unable to prevent the information leak. The FSA ordered Nomura to submit a business improvement plan, which will include steps to clarify the management’s responsibilities and preventive measures, by June 4.

financial services agency
nomura securities
tse
financial markets


Leopalace21 inside directors to resign en masse over shoddy construction scandal

Abstract: Leopalace21 Corp.’s outgoing president, Eisei Miyama, will not remain as a director and will step down en mass with six other inside directors on the apartment rental firm’s board, according to sources. Bunya Miyao, the managing executive officer of the company, will succeed him as president, the sources said Tuesday. Miyao will also be the only inside director to keep his seat on the board, they added. Miyama will resign from the presidency Thursday amid widespread controversies that have plagued the company’s construction business. Leopalace21 also plans to fortify its corporate governance by decreasing the number of inside directors from eight to five and increasing the number of outside directors from three to five. The changes will be made official at the company’s general shareholders meeting in June. Miyama had previously expressed his intent to stay involved in the company’s management after stepping down as president. When announcing his resignation May 10, he said, “I’ll do what I can as a director.” However, a third-party committee looking into Leopalace21’s shoddy construction scandal is expected to pin the blame on a corporate culture that prioritized business expansion over a regime of ensuring quality construction. The panel is likely to point out flaws in the company’s inspection process and seek to rebuild its corporate management by increasing outside personnel and clarifying corporate accountability, according to the sources.

leopalace21
scandals
construction industry


Pokemon Co. looks to cash in on 'Detective Pikachu' with Switch game, and make sleep more fun

Abstract: Pokemon Co., partly owned by Nintendo Co., unveiled several new initiatives at an event in Tokyo, including a game inspired by the “Detective Pikachu” film for the Switch console and a new device for tracking sleep. The Detective Pikachu title aims to cash in on the popularity of the eponymous movie released this month. The game could further boost demand for the Switch, although Pokemon did not announce a release date. Another new game, Pokemon Sleep, aims to turn sleep into “entertainment” by recording when the players go to bed and wake up and what times of the day they sleep, although more details will be unveiled at a later date. A new device called Pokemon Go Plus will sync with Pokemon Go and is aimed at helping people develop healthy sleep habits and turning sleep into entertainment, Pokemon Chief Executive Officer Tsunekazu Ishihara said at the event in Tokyo. It will be released in 2020, he said. “Everyone spends a large part of their life sleeping, and turning that into entertainment is our next challenge at Pokemon,” he said. Players can pair the Pokemon Go Plus device with their smartphones. The device will be able to track players’ sleeping time and send data to their smartphones when it is placed by their pillows. “Players will enjoy a good sleep together with Pokemon and waking-up will be a delight for them,” Ishihara said. Pokemon is looking to follow up on its surprise hit Pokemon Go, which created a sensation in the gaming community by letting users hunt for monsters and prizes in the real world with their smartphones. It also showed off a cloud services app called Pokemon Home that will let players pool pocket monsters collected across Switch and 3DS titles, and in Pokemon Go. The app will be released in 2020. Ishihara also revealed the first details of Pokemon Masters, a new title developed with DeNA Co. The new game is scheduled for release by the end of 2019 and will focus on battling Pokemon, with footage showing impressive graphics quality. News that DeNA was developing a new title with Pokemon was cheered by investors and analysts this month. Nintendo owns a significant stake in Pokemon Co. and recorded ¥6.9 billion of operating profit from that investment in the latest fiscal year.

pokemon
detective pikachu
switch
nintendo
pokemon sleep
pokemon go
pokemon go plus
smartphones
video games


Toyota considers investment in Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi

Abstract: NAGOYA - Toyota Motor Corp. is considering investing up to ¥60 billion ($550 million) in Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing Technology Co. in an effort to expand its business in China, sources close to the matter said Wednesday. Toyota and Didi are looking to set up a joint venture to offer mobility services, including ride-sharing in the world’s largest auto market, the sources said. Didi has secured an overwhelming ride-hailing market share in China through the acquisition of Uber Technologies Inc.’s Chinese business. The Chinese ride-hailing service operator has already aligned with Toyota in the so-called e-Palette project to develop electric and autonomous vehicles that can be used as mobile stores, together with other global technology giants, including Amazon.com Inc. The move comes amid Toyota’s continuing transformation into a “mobility company” that offers a wide range of services. The automaker has invested in several ride-hailing operators across the globe, including another giant of the sector in Grab Taxi Holdings Pte. out of Singapore. Toyota said last month it will jointly invest $1 billion in Uber’s new subsidiary to develop autonomous vehicles, together with SoftBank Group Corp. and auto parts supplier Denso Corp.

toyota
ride-hailing
didi chuxing
china
amazon.com
grab taxi holdings
softbank
carmakers


Renault looks to reassure partner Nissan over Fiat tie-up plans

Abstract: Renault SA officials Wednesday sought to reassure the firm’s alliance partner Nissan Motor Co. over a possible tie-up between the French automaker and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, which could upend the auto industry. Renault and Nissan representatives met outside Tokyo on Wednesday along with officials from the third partner in their alliance, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. The alliance has been rocked by the arrest of its former chief, Carlos Ghosn, who faces four charges of financial misconduct and has been pushed out of all his executive roles. And the partnership was shaken further this week by news that Renault is studying “with interest” a 50-50 merger proposal with Fiat Chrysler (FCA), a prospect that took Nissan by surprise. In a brief statement, the alliance said their operating board meeting on Wednesday included “open and transparent discussion on FCA’s recent proposal to Groupe Renault.” “The meeting also discussed and positively concluded several current operational alliance matters,” the statement added, after the meeting at Nissan’s headquarters in Yokohama. Arriving in Japan on Tuesday, Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard offered an optimistic assessment. “I think that all the recent events are very good for the alliance, and I will make sure that Nissan and Mitsubishi will take great advantage of the news,” he said. But Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa has received news of the proposed tie-up more cautiously. “From the standpoint of Nissan’s interests, we need to look a little closer to see what sort of contractual relationship the deal would create,” the Nikkei business daily quoted him as saying. Renault has for years tied its strategy to its partnership with automaker Nissan, but Ghosn’s arrest and Nissan’s resistance to a closer partnership appears to have prompted rethinking at the French firm. The merger with Fiat Chrysler is backed by the French government, which owns a 15 percent stake in Renault, and Italy’s deputy premier also enthusiastically endorsed the deal. Renault holds a 43 percent stake in Nissan, which in turn owns 15 percent of its French partner and would not be able to block it from proceeding with a Fiat Chrysler merger.

renault
nissan
fiat chrysler automobiles
mitsubishi motors
carlos ghosn
mergers
italy
france
scandals
carmakers


Huawei's trouble with U.S. ban could impact Japan's smartphone market and suppliers

Abstract: As the world watches to see if Huawei Technologies Co. survives the ongoing turmoil stemming from the U.S.-China trade war, wider implications are likely to hit Japan if the Chinese telecom giant continues to be blacklisted by Washington. The move by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to put the firm on the so-called Entity List, effectively barring it from doing business with American firms without government approval, could severely harm Huawei’s ability to manufacture and market its products, including smartphones. Consequently, the Japanese smartphone market is likely to see a change in the balance of power with the looming troubles facing Huawei, which had boosted its presence in the country in recent years, industry observers said. Japanese makers of electronic components that supply their products to Huawei may also take a hit from the potential loss of business with the world’s No. 2 smartphone-maker. “If this situation continues, it will severely hit Huawei’s smartphone unit sales,” said Hideaki Yokota, an executive analyst at MM Research Institute, a Tokyo-based mobile-industry research firm. “Unlike Apple’s (iPhones), Huawei’s smartphones are Android-based, so they can be replaced with many other Android devices, such as Samsung’s and Sony’s phones.” According to MM Research Institute, Huawei was ranked fifth in terms of overall smartphone shipments in Japan last year with a 6.4 percent market share. Huawei had the lion’s share of the market last year for SIM-free smartphones that are not sold by major carriers, with 43.8 percent, according to BCN Inc., another Tokyo-based marketing research firm. Huawei has increased its share in Japan because its high-end smartphones are cheaper than comparable models from its rivals, Yokota said. The fate of Huawei smartphones has been further muddied on worries that Google LLC might decide to stop providing support for the Chinese firm’s handsets. The U.S. Department of Commerce has given Huawei a 90-day extension in an apparent aim to support existing users. Yet Google’s compliance with Washington’s demands have raised the possibility that owners of Huawei phones may be cut off from updates for the Android operating system, as well as the use of its widely used apps such as YouTube and Gmail from late August. Based on such concerns, Japan’s KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Corp. have postponed sales of Huawei’s latest P30 series smartphone, which was scheduled to hit store shelves this month. Some mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs, who rent network bandwidth from megacarriers and offer cheaper data plans than their larger rivals, also suspended sales. Aeon Mobile, however, plans to still market the new Huawei phones. “I think there are probably some consumers who are choosing to stay away from Huawei smartphones out of concern that they won’t be able to receive Android updates,” said Yokota. Other analysts say the situation may work in the favor of some Japanese smartphone makers such as Sony Corp. and Sharp Corp., allowing them to grow their shares in the domestic market. Moreover, Arm Holdings PLC, a U.K.-based chip design firm owned by SoftBank Group , also apparently halted business with Huawei following the Trump administration’s move. “Arm is complying with the latest restrictions set forth by the U.S. government and is having ongoing conversations with the appropriate U.S. government agencies to ensure we remain compliant,” an Arm spokesperson said in an email. Huawei uses Arm’s architecture licenses to produce cutting-edge chips for its smartphones, so the business suspension is a heavy blow to the manufacturing of the handsets, said Yokota. Gartner Inc., a U.S.-based research firm, says Huawei had a 15.7 percent share of smartphones sales in the first quarter of this year, the world’s second-biggest trailing only South Korea’s Samsung at 19.2 percent. The Chinese firm’s procurement from Japanese makers has been surging in recent years. Huawei has estimated that the figure for this year will be $8 billion, more than double the $3.3 billion it procured in 2016. If Huawei’s smartphone production capability is severely crippled, “there will be impacts on Japanese parts makers,” said Yasuo Imanaka, chief analyst at Rakuten Securities, adding that it is still difficult to estimate the level of damage. He also said that in the event Huawei loses its smartphone share, other rivals will step in, so Japanese suppliers would have opportunities with them. It is possible that other Chinese smartphone vendors, such as Oppo and Vivo, would increase their market share. But, still, Huawei would be a more profitable partner for Japanese firms because, unlike those firms, it procures quality electronic components from Japanese suppliers. Some companies that are believed to be high-volume suppliers include Murata Manufacturing Co. and TDK Corp. Estimates by Mizuho Securities show that Murata Manufacturing’s 5 percent of sales come from Huawei and TDK’s is about 10 percent. A spokesperson at Kyoto-based Murata Manufacturing, which has the world’s top share in the market for multilayer ceramic capacitors used for smartphones, said the firm has been evaluating the possible implications of the recent events. Media reports also said companies that have either shunned Huawei completely or restricted buying from the company since the move include U.S. chipmaker Intel Corp. and Osaka Prefecture-based Panasonic Corp. Another concern for Japanese companies linked to the U.S.-China trade war is industry speculation that China might retaliate by shutting out Apple Inc. from the world’s second-largest economy. “Japanese electronic components providers remain cautious over the move,” said Imanaka. “They have started to think that that is a possible scenario.”

huawei
smartphones
trade war
apple
android
google
murata manufacturing


Suzuki chairman to receive no pay for one year

Abstract: Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman Osamu Suzuki will not receive executive remuneration for a one-year period starting in July as part of disciplinary measures following revelations of improper vehicle inspections, the automaker said Tuesday. President Toshihiro Suzuki will receive a 50 percent pay cut for six months. The chairman and president will decline their annual bonuses for fiscal 2018. Chairman Suzuki himself declined to receive pay, the company said. He earned ¥220 million in fiscal 2017, including ¥93 million as a bonus. “We will make all-out efforts to ensure legal compliance,” he said in a statement. The company’s irregularities include inspections by unqualified workers. The company will dismiss Hiroaki Matsuura, director and managing officer in charge of vehicle inspections. He will resign as managing officer Friday and leave the board June 27 after the company’s annual shareholder meeting. The automaker punished other managers involved in the improper inspections, but declined to elaborate. As preventive steps, the company will establish an inspection reform committee headed by the executive vice president on Saturday, aiming to revise rules such as qualifications for inspectors.

suzuki chairman pay carmakers ceo recalls


Biggest series of tornadoes in years carve through U.S. Midwest and beyond

Abstract: KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - A vicious storm tore through the Kansas City area, spawning tornadoes that downed trees and power lines, damaged homes and injured at least a dozen people in the latest barrage of severe weather that saw tornado warnings as far east as New York City. Parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey also were under tornado warnings hours after a swarm of tightly packed twisters swept through Indiana and Ohio overnight, smashing homes, blowing out windows and ending the school year early for some students because of damage to buildings. One person was killed and at least 130 were injured. The storms in Kansas City on Tuesday were the 12th straight day that at least eight tornadoes were reported to the National Weather Service. After several quiet years, the past couple of weeks have seen an explosion of tornado activity with no end to the pattern in sight. A large and dangerous tornado touched down on the western edge of Kansas City, Kansas, late Tuesday, the National Weather Service office reported. At least a dozen people were admitted to the hospital in Lawrence, 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and home to the University of Kansas, hospital spokesman Janice Early said. Damage also was reported in the towns of Bonner Springs, Linwood and Pleasant Grove in Kansas. But the Kansas City metropolitan area of about 2.1 million people appeared to have been spared the direct hit that was feared earlier in the evening when the weather service announced a tornado emergency. Mark Duffin, 48, learned from his wife and a television report that the large tornado was headed toward his home in Linwood, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Kansas City. The next thing he knew, the walls of his house were coming down. Duffin told the Kansas City Star that he grabbed a mattress, followed his 13-year-old to the basement and protected the two of them with the mattress as the home crashed down around them. “I’m just glad I found my two dogs alive,” he said. “Wife’s alive, family’s alive, I’m alive. So, that’s it.” The severe weather wasn’t limited to the Midwest. Tornadoes were confirmed in eastern Pennsylvania and the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for parts of New York City and northern New Jersey. The winds peeled away roofs — leaving homes looking like giant dollhouses — knocked houses off their foundations, toppled trees, brought down power lines and churned up so much debris that it was visible on radar. Highway crews had to use snowplows to clear an Ohio interstate. Some of the heaviest damage was reported just outside Dayton, Ohio. “I just got down on all fours and covered my head with my hands,” said Francis Dutmers, who with his wife headed for the basement of their home in Vandalia, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) outside Dayton, when the storm hit with a “very loud roar” Monday night. The winds blew out windows around his house, filled rooms with debris and took down most of his trees. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency in three hard-hit counties, allowing the state to suspend normal purchasing procedures and quickly provide supplies like water and generators. Monday marked the record-tying 11th straight day with at least eight tornadoes in the U.S., said Patrick Marsh, a Storm Prediction Center meteorologist. The last such stretch was in 1980. The weather service website showed at least 27 reports of tornadoes on Tuesday, most in Kansas and Missouri but also in Pennsylvania and Illinois. Outbreaks of 50 or more tornadoes are not uncommon, having happened 63 times in U.S. history, with three instances of more than 100 twisters, Marsh said. But Monday’s swarm was unusual because it happened over a particularly wide geographic area and came amid an especially active stretch, he said. As for why it’s happening, Marsh said high pressure over the Southeast and an unusually cold trough over the Rockies are forcing warm, moist air into the central U.S., triggering repeated severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. And neither system is showing signs of moving, he said. Scientists say climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme weather such as storms, droughts, floods and fires, but without extensive study they cannot directly link a single weather event to the changing climate.

tornadoes kansas weather indiana ohio disasters


Illinois may expand abortion rights as other states restrict them

Abstract: SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS - The Illinois House voted to bolster the right to abortion on Tuesday as Democratic-led states respond to restrictions placed by some Republican-led states that conservatives hope will lead the U.S. Supreme Court to review the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that guaranteed the right to abortion. The Illinois House voted 64-50 on Rep. Kelly Cassidy’s Reproductive Health Act, which would rescind prohibitions on some late-term abortions and 45-year-old restraints such as criminal penalties for doctors performing abortions, all measures whose enforcement has been prohibited by court orders. Outnumbered Republicans denounced the plan, contending it so loosens definitions of fetal viability and doctors’ responsibility in determining the medical need for an abortion that it broadly expands late-term terminations that are not medically necessary. The vote shows how red and blue states are diverging on the issue, with blue states such as Illinois moving toward expanding abortion rights while red states ban abortion as early as 6 weeks of pregnancy. The high court signaled in an Indiana ruling Tuesday more openness to state restrictions. At least six states have adopted steep restrictions or bans on abortion — neighboring Missouri just last Friday outlawed abortions past the eight week of pregnancy. “These attacks have increased dramatically. They’re focused and strategic and aimed at undermining our right to bodily autonomy and self-determination,” Cassidy said. The legislation heads to the Senate, which Democrats control. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement that he looks forward to signing it into law. “With reproductive health care under attack across the country, we must do everything in our power to protect women’s rights in Illinois,” Pritzker said. “Today was a major step forward for every woman in this state.” Cassidy, whose first pregnancy two decades ago ended with a medically necessary abortion which she said saved her life and her ability to have her three sons, repeatedly said the intent is to “codify current practice.” That proved dissatisfactory to Rep. Avery Bourne of Raymond, the Republicans’ point person on the issue and an expectant mother in the 34th week of her pregnancy. Abortion is currently allowed to the point that the fetus is viable outside the womb. Cassidy said her measure doesn’t change that. But Bourne noted that the bill makes exceptions for a physician’s determination that viability could be sustained only with an “extraordinary” post-birth procedure or because of factors “relevant to the patient’s health and well-being,” including “familial health,” a definition for which Bourne sought futilely. The bill does not appear to include a definition. “This bill means that for a woman at my stage in pregnancy, where the baby responds to his dad’s voice as he reads him books at night, … the baby is perfectly healthy, but if that woman says, ‘Based on my familial health, this is medically necessary,’ that is allowed,” Bourne said. “We are talking about the most expansive bill we have ever seen in this state and one of the most expansive across the country.” Cassidy pointed out that the legislation’s discussion of the mother’s health after fetal viability comes from Doe v. Bolton, a Supreme Court ruling overturning Georgia’s abortion law and issued on the same day as Roe. “All of the factors are there, based on Supreme Court language, to allow a physician to make a decision within the accepted standard of clinical practice,” Cassidy said. Illinois joins Democratic-led states such as Nevada, New York and Vermont with efforts to reinforce abortion rights in advance of the potential abandonment of Roe. An effort to loosen restrictions on late-term abortions in Virginia died last winter after the bill’s sponsor acknowledged in a video it would allow abortions up to the moment of birth and Republicans interpreted the governor’s comments on the subject as sanctioning infanticide. But with President Donald Trump’s hostility toward Roe and his like-minded appointments to federal courts, “We can no longer rely on bad law protected by federal injunctions,” Cassidy said. There are plenty of testing grounds. Alabama’s law signed this month makes providing an abortion a felony in most cases. Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia also have approved bans on abortions once a heartbeat in the fetus is detected, usually as early as six weeks. “If you think this bill goes too far, who do you want to send to prison?” asked Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Hillside Democrat. “The new Georgia law would criminalize women who even traveled outside the state to seek an abortion. Is that really what we want here in Illinois?” Ralph Rivera, legislative chairman for Illinois Right to Life Action, said in a statement that opponents to the plan are in the majority, as evidenced by “the incredible grassroots efforts” against it — including a Capitol-jamming rally of up to 4,000 anti-abortion protesters in March. “No words can express the disappointment and heartache pro-life Illinoisans, like myself, are feeling,” Rivera said.

illinois
abortion
rights
pregnancy
women
u.s .
family planning


Child advocacy group says kids in 173 countries are better off now, with Singapore on top

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS - A children’s advocacy group says youngsters in all but three of the 176 countries it evaluated have a better chance of growing up healthy, educated and protected from harmful practices like child labor and child marriage than at any time in the past two decades. Save the Children said in a report released Tuesday saying that U.N. statistics show at least 280 million children are better off today. But it said a quarter of the world’s children are still denied the right to a safe and healthy childhood, with youngsters fleeing or caught in conflict the most disadvantaged. Singapore tops the rankings as the country that best protects and provides for its children, followed by Sweden, Finland, Norway, Slovenia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, South Korea and Belgium. At the bottom were Central African Republic, Niger despite recent progress, Chad, Mali and South Sudan. The Global Childhood Report 2019 said the most dramatic progress since 2000 was among some of the world’s poorest countries. Sierra Leone made the biggest improvements, followed by Rwanda, Ethiopia and Niger. The United States ranks 36th in the 2019 report, tied with China. It ranks just above Bahrain, Belarus and Kuwait and ahead of Bosnia and Russia, tied at 38. Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children, said the report looked at eight indicators of a good childhood including child survival, education, child labor and early marriage and compared the year 2000 with 2018. “There has been remarkable progress if you look across the world,” she said at a recent briefing on the report’s finding. “It’s an amazing statistic” that the indicators overall got better in 173 of 176 countries. Compared with 2000, Miles said there was a 49 percent drop in deaths of children under age 5, a 40 percent drop in child labor, a 33 percent drop in chronic malnutrition and stunting, and a 25 percent drop in child marriage. She said only one of the indicators rose — the number of children living in conflict or affected by violence — and it increased “very significantly.” There was an 80 percent rise in children living in or fleeing conflict zones in the 2000-2018 period, Miles said, “and today’s conflicts last much, much longer.” According to the report, an estimated 420 million children are living in conflict zones, more than double the number in 1995, and nearly 31 million children today have been forcibly displaced from their homes. Launched ahead of International Children’s Day on June 1, the report said that in 2000, an estimated 970 million children were robbed of their childhood by events such as exclusion from education, malnutrition, sickness, violent death, child marriage and early pregnancy. That number today has been reduced to 690 million, it said, meaning at least 280 million children are better off today than they would have been in 2000. The report said this means that today there are 4.4 million fewer child deaths every year, 49 million fewer stunted children, 130 million more children in school, 94 million fewer children working, 11 million fewer child marriages and 3 million fewer teen births.

singapore
children
save the children
conflict
china
u.s .
health
u.n .
poverty


Daily hell for squatters in poorest areas of Caracas

Abstract: CARACAS - Erick Hurtado wants to escape the abandoned Caracas building that has been his home for eight years, but despite his daily nightmare, he prefers to wait there for the abode promised to him by Venezuela’s embattled government. That’s the dream shared by 120 people living in Jehovah Gire — the name the residents have given the unfinished building that was initially supposed to house the justice ministry in Petare, one of the capital’s poorest neighborhoods. Most of those living in the building have been victims either of natural catastrophes or Venezuela’s crippling economic crisis. “I’ve had enough of living here … if I had somewhere to go, I’d leave this hole,” Hurtado, a 42-year-old moto-taxi driver, told AFP at the building, which offers a view over Petare’s immense slums. There’s been no water in the building for the last four months. The residents improvised by digging a hole in the asphalt road outside to create a makeshift tub where they could wash themselves and their clothes. A plastic bucket serves as a toilet, there’s electricity only on the ground floor and illness is widespread. “There are epidemics, mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats,” complained Roni Aranguren, a 42-year-old builder who came to live here with his wife and four children after losing his job and his home. He has a simple dream: “A worthy house.” Some 80 children live in Jehovah Gire, but only around 50 go to school and even then they’re often absent due to a lack of transport and food, said Stephanie Marcelot from the Rayiluz NGO, which is helping the residents. Many children suffer from bloated stomachs, a sign of chronic malnutrition, while cases of dengue fever, scabies and bronchitis are not uncommon. Over the years, people have forgotten why the building was abandoned. Some say the civil servants refused to work in a neighborhood considered dangerous, says Rayiluz’s Katiuska Camargo. There is hope — some former residents have managed to obtain apartments thanks to a government program that has provided 2.6 million homes since 2011, but the opposition claims that figure is inflated. According to Roberto Orta, president of the Caracas real estate board, 155 mostly private buildings were occupied by squatters between 2003 and 2007, with 241 more expropriated “without compensation” between 2006 and 2008 during the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez’s presidency. The most infamous illegal occupation was of the Tower of David, a skyscraper that housed 1,150 families between 2007 and 2014 but has since been abandoned. That building was so notorious as a haven for squatters and gangs it was depicted in the U.S. TV series “Homeland.” But the Jehovah Gire residents say they don’t want to be viewed as squatters and have formed a cooperative to be recognized as victims. And they hope to soon be transferred to a housing complex in the Caracas suburbs.


Swiss court blocks Italy's bid for possible da Vinci portrait

Abstract: ZURICH - Switzerland’s highest court has rejected Italy’s request for the return of an oil painting attributed by some to Leonardo Da Vinci, ruling no Swiss laws were broken when the work was brought over the border. Titled “Portrait of Isabella d’Este” and dated to the 16th century, the painting became the subject of an international tug-of-war after an Italian woman, Emidia Cecchini, sought to sell it in 2013. Police were alerted to its existence when an Italian lawyer surfaced with a mandate to sell it for no less than €95 million ($106 million). Art experts have yet to agree on whether it really is by the Renaissance master. An Italian investigation into possible tax crimes and insurance fraud uncovered evidence that led police in 2015 to the painting in a vault in the Swiss town of Lugano, a lakeside banking center in the Italian-speaking south where many Italians have crossed the border to deposit assets. Cecchini, who Swiss court documents said was convicted in Italy with two others for their role in exporting the picture, has always maintained the painting had been in Switzerland for a century, taken there by her relatives who at one time lived in the country, Swiss and Italian media have reported. The Swiss verdict clears the way for the work’s return to Cecchini, from Pesaro. Cecchini’s attorney did not respond to email and telephone requests for comment on Wednesday. Italy’s Justice Ministry declined to comment. Italy demanded its seizure on grounds it had been trafficked out of the country illegally to Switzerland. In a decision published on Wednesday, the Swiss Federal Tribunal declined Italy’s request for the painting’s return, ruling its export to Switzerland was not liable to prosecution. “Subject to any other international agreements, no state is required to apply foreign public law within its borders,” the Federal Tribunal said in a statement. Under Swiss law regulating international cultural property transfers, people may face prosecution for illegally transporting objects of unique value if they are listed in a Swiss federal registry or, in this case, in a corresponding Italian inventory. For this painting, however, that was not the case, the Swiss court wrote. The portrait, a 24-inch by 18-inch oil-on-canvas of a noblewoman, resembles a charcoal study by da Vinci that hangs in Paris’s Louvre museum. There is discussion among art experts about whether it is really a da Vinci. Carlo Pedretti, a da Vinci expert and professor at the University of California Los Angeles before he died last year, told media in 2015 its origins merited more study but could not confirm whether da Vinci was involved in painting it.

italy
switzerland
leonardo da vinci
art
portrait of isabella d'este


France has unverified 'indication' of chemical attack in Syria

Abstract: PARIS - France’s top diplomat said Tuesday that the country had an “indication” that a chemical attack had been carried out in Syria’s Idlib province this month, an attack alleged by Washington last week. “We have an indication that chemical weapons were used in the Idlib region, but for now it has not been verified,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a parliamentary commission. “We’re being cautious because we consider that chemical weapons use has to be proven and be lethal, in which case we can react,” he said. President Emmanuel Macron has made use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government a “red line” that would trigger a military reprisal against the regime of President Bashar Assad. The United States has also threatened reprisals if the suspected Idlib attack is proven. Russia and Turkey reached an agreement last September that nominally protects Idlib amid fears for the safety of some 3 million people in the northwestern area of Syria. But Syria’s former al-Qaida affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has seized a large part of the province and adjoining areas, triggering a regime offensive that includes strikes by Syrian and Russian airplanes. International inspectors say that Assad’s forces have carried out a series of chemical attacks in the course of the brutal civil war, which has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since 2011. A sarin gas attack in April 2017 in the town of Khan Sheikhun killed 83 people, according to the United Nations, leading U.S. President Donald Trump to order a strike by 59 cruise missiles on a Syrian air base. And France joined Britain and the U.S. in launching missile strikes on three suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria in April 2018 after a suspected chemical attack in Douma.

france
syria
idlib
chemical weapons
bashar assad


SpaceX satellite swarm poses new headache for astronomers

Abstract: WASHINGTON - It looked like a scene from a sci-fi blockbuster: An astronomer in the Netherlands captured footage of a train of brightly lit SpaceX satellites ascending through the night sky last week, stunning space enthusiasts across the globe. But the sight has also provoked an outcry among astronomers who say the constellation, which so far consists of 60 broadband-beaming satellites but could one day grow to as many as 12,000, may threaten our view of the cosmos and deal a blow to scientific discovery. The launch was tracked around the world and it soon became clear that the satellites were visible to the naked eye: a new headache for researchers who already have to find workarounds to deal with objects cluttering their images of deep space. “People were making extrapolations that if many of the satellites in these new mega-constellations had that kind of steady brightness, then in 20 years or less, for a good part the night anywhere in the world, the human eye would see more satellites than stars,” said Bill Keel, an astronomer at the University of Alabama. The satellites’ brightness has since diminished as their orientation has stabilized and they have continued their ascent to their final orbit at an altitude of 550 kilometers (340 miles). But that has not entirely allayed the concerns of scientists, who are worried about what happens next. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is just one of a several companies looking to enter the fledgling space internet sector. To put that into context, there are currently 2,100 active satellites orbiting our planet, according to the Satellite Industry Association. If another 12,000 are added by SpaceX alone, “it will be hundreds above the horizon at any given time,” said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, adding that the problem would be exacerbated at certain times of the year and certain points in the night. “So, it’ll certainly be dramatic in the night sky if you’re far away from the city and you have a nice, dark area; and it’ll definitely cause problems for some kinds of professional astronomical observation.” The mercurial Musk responded to the debate on Twitter with contradictory messages, pledging to look into ways to reduce the satellites’ reflectivity but also saying they would have “zero percent impact on advancements in astronomy” and that telescopes should be moved into space anyway. He also argued the work of giving “billions of economically disadvantaged people” high-speed internet access through his network “is the greater good.” Keel said he was happy that Musk had offered to look at ways to reduce the reflectivity of future satellites, but questioned why the issue had not been addressed before. If optical astronomers are concerned, then their radio astronomy colleagues, who rely on the electromagnetic waves emitted by celestial objects to examine phenomena such as the first image of the black hole discovered last month, are “in near despair,” he added. Satellite operators are notorious for not doing enough to shield their “side emissions,” which can interfere with the observation bands that radio astronomers are looking out for. “There’s every reason to join our radio astronomy colleagues in calling for a ‘before’ response,” said Keel. “It’s not just safeguarding our professional interests but, as far as possible, protecting the night sky for humanity.” A Dutch website set up to record UFO sightings was flooded early Saturday with reports after the Starlink “train of stars” was spotted crossing the Netherlands’ skies, sparking fears of an alien invasion. The site, www.ufomeldpunt.nl , got more than 150 sighting reports, with astonished spotters describing a “bizarre train of stars or lights moving across the skies at constant speed.” “There’s a long line of lights. Faster than a plane. Huh?” one spotter reported, while another called it a “star caravan” and one saying “I have it on film.” One spotter simply texted: “WTF?” “I didn’t know what to make of it,” an unnamed witness later told the NOS public broadcaster. “Is it Russia attacking the US? Are they UFOs? Seriously, I didn’t know,” the witness said. One Dutchman who remained unfazed was satellite spotter Marco Langbroek, who knew what the mysterious lights were — and had his camera on hand. “I cheered them on, the moment they appeared,” he told the NOS.


Accusations fly as Venezuelan kids with cancer die awaiting marrow transplants

Abstract: CARACAS - The deaths of several cancer-stricken Venezuelan children who were awaiting bone marrow transplants have ignited a bitter dispute between the government and opponents over who is to blame. Several dozen people protested this week outside the J. M. de los Rios pediatric hospital after the reported deaths there of four children on a transplant waiting list. Many said President Nicolas Maduro’s government is responsible for deteriorating medical care in a country that has suffered a humanitarian crisis for years. But government human rights official Larry Devoe says U.S. sanctions blocked funds that Venezuela could have used to send the children to Italy for bone marrow transplants. Venezuelan activists say at least two dozen other children need similar transplants.

venezuela
cancer
nicolas maduro
u.s .
health


80 countries ready to step up action on climate, U.N. envoy says

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS - About 80 countries have signaled that they are willing to scale up their commitment to cut carbon emissions under the Paris agreement to combat climate change, the U.N. climate envoy said Tuesday. Under the landmark deal, countries agreed to announce by 2020 new efforts to strengthen their national plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to limit global temperature rise. U.N. climate envoy Luis Alfonso de Alba told journalists that “80 is the number of countries (from) which we have already received a signal that they are willing” to enhance their plans. “But it doesn’t mean that they are willing to do that to the scale we need,” he added. The United Nations is pushing for stronger action on climate change in the face of new scientific data showing that current efforts fall well short of the goal of containing global warming. “We need to step up ambition quite radically. We are not talking about a small incremental approach, but rather a quite drastic increase,” said De Alba. A total of 197 parties have signed the Paris agreement, of which 186 have ratified it. The United States under Donald Trump decided to pull out of the deal, but the withdrawal will only become effective in 2020. De Alba was in Washington last week to meet with U.S. officials ahead of a major U.N. climate summit in New York in September that some hope will be a turning point. The climate envoy said he held “very positive” meetings with U.S. administration officials, who encouraged the United Nations to push other countries to do more even if the United States is pulling back. “They agree that a lot more needs to be done,” said De Alba of his meetings in Washington. “They are waiting for those countries to do it.” The United States is the world’s biggest polluter after China. At the U.N. summit, about 20-30 countries will be chosen to be in the spotlight for their ambitious plans. The U.N. is pressing governments to commit to a 45 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade and to become carbon-neutral by 2050.

climate change
luis alfonso de alba
donald trump
u.s .
u.n .


Most new Ebola cases in Congo were not known contacts, aid group says

Abstract: GENEVA - The World Health Organization emphasized progress in the fight against Ebola in eastern Congo even as Doctors Without Borders warned Tuesday that efforts to trace new cases to previous ones are largely failing. WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan told reporters in Geneva that disease surveillance has improved even as the number of attacks against health workers rose three-fold over the last five months. Five health workers have died since the outbreak began in August. “We’ve also managed to improve surveillance performance in terms of the proportion of cases coming off contact lists,” he said. Disease transmission has “decreased significantly” over the last couple of weeks in the epicenters of Butembo and Katwa though challenges remain there, he added. Doctors Without Borders, which pulled out of Ebola treatment centers in Butembo and Katwa earlier this year because of the violence, said contact tracing is still too low. “As few as 32 percent of the new confirmed cases were linked back to known contacts,” the group said in a statement. “This means that the listing of contacts and surveillance are not effective. Contact tracing is essential to control the evolution of the outbreak.” More than 1,200 people have now died in the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. Virus containment efforts are particularly challenging because the highly volatile security situation makes it too dangerous for surveillance teams to access some areas. The real number of Ebola cases is “likely to be even higher” because of the difficulties in tracing cases, Doctors Without Borders said. The disease is spread mainly through contact with the bodily fluids of Ebola patients and victims. In an effort to contain the virus, health workers monitor those who are known to have come into contact with an Ebola patient for a period of 21 days. If new cases haven’t previously been identified as possible contacts by outbreak responders that suggests authorities have little idea where the virus is spreading. The violence also has kept workers from being able to vaccinate people in some communities.

ebola
congo
doctors without borders
who
disease
violence
conflict


Trump EPA overruled career staff on smog at Wisconsin county seeking to host key plant, emails show

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Politically appointed U.S. environmental officials last year overruled concerns of career scientists about air pollution in a Wisconsin county where U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a factory to be built by Foxconn Technology Co., newly released internal emails show. Trump has been a supporter of the Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn building a flat screen factory in Racine County, Wisconsin, a project the company said could create up to 13,000 jobs. He announced the project at a ceremony in 2017 and has claimed it is proof of his ability to revive U.S. manufacturing. Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, helped secure about $4 billion in tax breaks for the project. But Racine County has suffered some of the state’s worst cases of smog, also known as ozone, pollution that causes premature deaths from lung and heart complications. The emails obtained by the Sierra Club and Clean Wisconsin under a freedom of information request show Trump administration officials, including then-administrator Scott Pruitt, overruled career EPA scientists to exempt Racine County from a list of counties that break smog standards. That has freed Foxconn from having to make millions of dollars in pollution control devices, if the project is eventually built. The Racine County case is the latest example of the administration overlooking concerns flagged by agency scientists over other issues such as climate change or hazardous chemicals. “My background is in air pollution health effects and more specifically on acute exposures, so for me personally this is hard to digest and support,” Lars Perlmutt, an EPA scientist, wrote to colleagues in an April email last year about pressure to make the exemption, one of the emails shows. Jenny Liljegren, a scientist in the air and radiation division in EPA’s Midwest region, said she was “in disbelief” about the pressure from officials to make the exemptions. “I do not see a sound technical basis for the areas we are being directed to finalize in Wisconsin.” In an exchange of emails with Liljegren, another EPA scientist, Eric Svingen, complained that Wisconsin “cherry picked” air quality data over wider areas of the state to suggest that emissions that form smog were not ultimately doing so within the Wisconsin borders. “These emails show is that the political leadership appeared to be injecting itself in this process in a way that’s contrary to having fact-based decisions,” said Janet McCabe, head of air quality at the EPA under former President Barack Obama. Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In April the company, an Apple Inc. supplier, said it was committed to its contract to build the flat screen plant and research facilities in Wisconsin. EPA spokesman Michael Abboud referred questions about the emails to a brief the agency filed May 10 in the case. The brief said that EPA considers a wide range of information in deciding which areas are in compliance with air pollution rules and that “each designation is intensely fact-driven.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Illinois, which neighbors Wisconsin and could see greater levels of pollution, sued the EPA last year over the exemption in Racine County and the agency is also under pressure from lawsuits from environmental groups. In the May 10 brief, the EPA asked a federal appeals court to take another look at the smog exemption decisions under Pruitt, but until the court makes any ruling companies do not have to purchase the pollution equipment.

epa
wisconsin
pollution
donald trump
foxconn
racine county
u.s .


Bald eaglet back in air after two weeks in Louisiana wildlife hospital

Abstract: METAIRIE, LOUISIANA - A bald eagle hatched this spring in a New Orleans suburb was released Tuesday in the same neighborhood after two weeks in Louisiana State University’s Wildlife Hospital. Dozens of neighbors who have watched over the eagle family cheered as the mottled brown bird hopped out of the cage in which it had traveled from Baton Rouge and launched itself into the air in Metairie, Louisiana. “I have a 1-year-old. It’s been a lot of fun seeing her point up and say, ‘Bird!’ ” said Christie Penot, whose home is across from the yard where the eagles built their nest. The nest was built a year ago, but this year is the first that eggs have hatched, she said. The eaglet sat for a while on the roof of a house in the shadow of its nest, fending off a pair of mockingbirds, which were dive-bombing it. Then it flew off. It was heading toward a tree where its parents and sibling had been seen earlier Tuesday morning, said photographer and coastal consultant P.J. Hahn, who has been following the birds since they began work on the nest during the winter. The eaglet had been taken to the LSU veterinary school’s Wildlife Hospital on May 11. It had been found May 10, walking in a nearby street and barely able to fly. Bald eagles’ first flights often leave the bird stranded on the ground, but their parents generally keep feeding them until they fly again, according to the Journey North citizen science center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. However, this bird and its sibling had begun flying in late April. Veterinarians didn’t find any broken or injured bones, so they think the bird had a muscle injury, veterinary school spokeswoman Ginger Guttner said in a news release Friday. The birds are clumsy when learning to fly, Hahn said Friday. “They fly into a tree and hit it hard. … I’m sure it probably bruised its shoulder.” About 40 people, mostly area residents and a few media representatives, were present as the LSU van and its police escort drove up and pulled into a driveway across the street from the nest. Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputies had blocked off the street and cleared a wide pathway through the small crowd. People cheered when the bird flew and landed. Claudia Bowman wiped away tears and hugged Christine Pauley-Lataxes, who was cheering and screaming. Someone began chanting “L-S-U! L-S-U!” Hahn gave the veterinary school a 60-by-40-inch (1.5-by-1-meter) photograph of one of the adults feeding a still fuzzy nestling to thank the veterinarians and their students for volunteer work at the hospital, which is part of LSU’s veterinary school.

bald eagles
louisiana
birds
u.s .
animals


Poaching of African elephants has slowed but they still face extinction, researchers say

Abstract: PARIS - The illegal slaughter of African elephants to feed Asia’s demand for ivory has decreased by more than half in eight years, but the mammals are still threatened with extinction, researchers warned Tuesday. In 2011, poachers killed some 40,000 elephants — about 10 percent of the continent’s population, according to figures from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), based in Geneva. Last year the kill rate was about 4 percent, or 15,000 animals, according to new research published in Nature Communications. “We are seeing a downturn in poaching, but it is still above what we think is sustainable,” said co-author Colin Beale, a conservation biologist at the University of York. At current trends, the African elephant is in danger of being “virtually wiped out,” surviving only in small, heavily protected pockets, he said. A century ago up to 12 million of the world’s heaviest land animal roamed the continent. Today they number about 500,000 if forest elephants — a subspecies — are included. Despite a 1990 ban on international trade in ivory, demand in Southeast Asia and especially China has overwhelmed the capacity of local and global authorities to curb the carnage. “Currently, poaching is worst in West and Central Africa,” said Beale. “I worry most for the future of forest elephants.” Smaller and more solitary than their cousins on the savannah, forest elephants in the Congo Basin are estimated to have declined by 65 percent over the last 15 years alone. The countries where poachers have been brought most to heel are Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Botswana’s elephant population has increased nearly tenfold since 1970, according to co-author Julian Blanc, a researcher in the Wildlife Management Unit of the U.N. Environment Programme in Nairobi. “Due to good management, the country was largely unaffected by poaching in the 1980s, as well as the current episode that began in the mid-2000s,” he said. But the researchers emphasized that law enforcement alone cannot solve the problem. “We need to reduce the demand in Asia and improve the livelihoods of people who are living with elephants in Africa,” said Beale. To better understand the complex link between ivory and poaching, the researchers looked at data from a CITES program that records the sighting of elephant carcasses by park rangers across 53 protected sites in Africa. Changes in the level of illegal killing tracked closely to fluctuating prices in Asia for ivory. The prevalence of poaching also matched key indicators of corruption and poverty, which varied sharply across regions. Ultimately, however, the biggest threat to Loxodonta africana may not be human greed but our ever-expanding footprint. “Habitat destruction and fragmentation caused by humans may be the more serious threat to elephant survival in the long term,” said Blanc. West Africa — which today has, by far, the smallest elephant population — is also the region in which the most habitat has been lost to agriculture and urbanization, he pointed out. It is unclear whether a 2017 ban on the sale of ivory in China has dampened demand or simply shifted the once-legal trade underground, the researchers said. “We have no good evidence yet that the ban and associated demand reduction campaigns are working,” said Beale. “So I have concerns that the current decline may be temporary.” An investigation by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC found that even though legally licensed stores it had visited in 2017 no longer sold ivory the following year, the total amount of illegal ivory pieces found had actually increased. L. africana is listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of endangered species.


Yazidis sue Germany for failing to repatriate IS fighters for trial

Abstract: FRANKFURT, GERMANY - A Yazidi women’s association said Wednesday it has sued two German ministers for failing to repatriate German citizens who had fought for the Islamic State group in Syria to stand trial at home. The autonomous administration in north and east Syria has offered to hand over some 61 German prisoners suspected of having fought for IS, the Germany-based Federation of the Yezidi Women’s Council said in court documents seen by AFP. Berlin’s “failure to accept the offer and to make possible the urgently necessary prosecution constitutes the crime of obstruction of punishment,” they allege. Germany has repeatedly said it wants to bring its citizens home from Syria stand trial, but has highlighted many obstacles. “Legal cooperation is impossible since there are no state structures” in the relevant parts of Syria, a justice ministry spokesman told AFP. “We haven’t received the criminal complaint, so we can’t comment.” He added there were 22 outstanding arrest warrants against German fighters held in Syria. Germany has recently retrieved a suspect from Kurdish-controlled territory in Iraq. The young man was suspected of the rape and murder of a teenager in the west German city Wiesbaden. He fled to northern Iraq last year, but was quickly brought back by federal police after talks with the autonomous administration in Erbil. The operation was controversial as Germany has no extradition treaty with Iraq. In Syria, hundreds of foreign IS fighters are being held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, made up of Arabic and Kurdish groups. The Yazidi are a Kurdish-speaking minority in Iraq who fled in their thousands as IS advanced into the country from Syria in 2014. At the jihadis’ hands, thousands of women and teenagers were subjected to kidnapping, rape and other inhumane treatment such as being held as slaves, the U.N. has said.

yazidis
germany
islamic state
iraq
war
terrorism
rights
refugees


Trump suit to block Deutsche Bank subpoenas put on hold amid appeal

Abstract: NEW YORK - The federal district judge who last week denied Donald Trump’s request to block subpoenas to Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp. for financial records put the case on hold while the president appeals his ruling. U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos on Monday signed off on part of an agreement that delays enforcement of the subpoenas while Trump and the U.S. House of Representatives seek an expedited hearing at the federal appeals court in Manhattan. Trump, his three eldest children and his businesses sued to stop the banks from turning over the records, claiming the subpoenas are part of an improper campaign by House Democrats to delve into the president’s finances for political purposes. Ramos refused, saying that since the president, his family and his business were unlikely to show that the congressional subpoenas are improper, he wouldn’t intervene to stop them. The judge denied Trump’s initial request for a delay, but the House agreed not to enforce the subpoenas during the appeal, and Ramos signed off on a part of that agreement Sunday. The appeals court hasn’t yet said whether it will grant the request for a sped-up schedule, which calls for briefs to be filed by July 18. In a similar case, a judge in Washington last week refused to block a subpoena for records from Trump’s accountants at Mazars USA LLP. The president is also appealing that ruling. Both sides in the Washington case have also agreed to delay enforcement of the subpoenas and asked for an expedited appeal. The case is Trump v. Deutsche Bank AG, 19-cv-03826, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

deutsche bank
donald trump
capital one
mazars
u.s .
trump organization


Michael Avenatti pleads not guilty to defrauding Stormy Daniels

Abstract: NEW YORK - The pugilistic and embattled attorney Michael Avenatti pleaded not guilty Tuesday to defrauding his most famous client, porn star Stormy Daniels, and seized the spotlight to toss a barb at President Donald Trump. Avenatti barely spoke during his three appearances before federal judges in New York, except to answer a few procedural questions. Twice, though, he vented to journalists his disgust with the prosecutions and his disdain for the president. Avenatti rose to fame representing Daniels in her battle to be released from a nondisclosure deal she had signed regarding an alleged affair with the president. Daniels has said she had sex with Trump in 2006, when he was married; Trump denies the affair. In his role as Daniels’ lawyer and since, Avenatti has repeatedly criticized the president in television appearances and the two have exchanged barbs on social media. Trump has called Avenatti a “lowlife” and alleged that he has made false accusations. Walking to a courthouse elevator between appearances Tuesday, Avenatti looked without a smile at reporters as he quipped: “Anybody know when the president and Don Jr. are going to be arraigned?” Then, speaking before a collection of microphones set up outside a courthouse, he predicted his eventual acquittal and again made clear he believes his prosecutions are politically motivated. “I am now facing the fight of my life against the ultimate Goliath, the Trump administration,” he said. “I look forward to a jury verdict in each of these cases. I am confident that when a jury of my peers passes judgment on my conduct, that justice will be done, and I will be fully exonerated.” His long day began at 6:54 a.m., when he surrendered to be booked formally on wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges announced in an indictment last week stemming from his representation of Daniels. Bail was set at $300,000 at an initial court appearance. Avenatti, 48, agreed to have no contact with Daniels while the case is pending. In his second appearance of the day, one of Avenatti’s lawyers told Judge Deborah A. Batts, who would preside over a trial, that he thought the case should be combined with charges Avenatti faces in California. A prosecutor disagreed. The judge left the issue for future consideration. In a final court appearance, Judge Paul G. Gardephe asked Avenatti how he would plead to four separate charges of trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike Inc., the sportswear company. “100 percent not guilty,” Avenatti responded repeatedly. Avenatti is scheduled to return to court in both cases on June 18. Avenatti was indicted last week on charges that he cheated Daniels out of $300,000 she was owed for her book, “Full Disclosure,” which was published in October. According to the indictment, Avenatti emailed a letter, purportedly from Daniels, to her literary agent with instructions that payments from her $800,000 book deal be deposited into an account he controlled. Prosecutors say Daniels never authorized the letter and was unaware of it. Avenatti then used the money to pay business and personal expenses, including the costs of hotels, airfare, dry cleaning and his Ferrari, the indictment said. The charges related to Daniels are the third criminal case brought against Avenatti. In late March, charges against Avenatti were announced the same day in New York and Los Angeles. In New York, he was charged with trying to extort up to $25 million from Nike by threatening to expose claims that the company paid the families of high school basketball players to get them to attend Nike-sponsored colleges. In Los Angeles, he was charged with stealing millions of dollars from clients, including much of the $4 million owed to a paralyzed man, along with dodging taxes, defrauding banks and lying during bankruptcy proceedings. When the charges were enhanced last month, federal authorities seized a private jet Avenatti co-owned. If convicted, Avenatti faces a potentially long prison sentence because the charges carry maximums stretching to hundreds of years.

michael avenatti
fraud
stormy daniels
new york
donald trump
nike
u.s .


Supreme Court upholds Indiana abortion law on fetal remains but balks on key restrictions

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld an Indiana law that requires abortion providers to dispose of aborted fetuses in the same way as human remains, a sign that the conservative court is more open to abortion restrictions. But the justices rejected the state’s appeal of a lower court ruling blocking a separate provision that would prevent a woman in Indiana from having an abortion based on gender, race or disability. The high court, with two liberal justices dissenting, thus found a way perhaps to signal a greater receptivity to state restrictions in the area of abortion without yet welcoming a more direct challenge to abortion rights. The court split 7-2 in allowing Indiana to enforce the requirement that clinics either bury or cremate fetal remains, reversing a ruling by a federal appeals court that had blocked it. The justices said in an unsigned opinion that the case does not involve limits on abortion rights. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Ginsburg said in a short solo opinion that she believes that the issue does implicate a woman’s right to have an abortion “without undue interference from the state.” The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago had blocked both provisions of a law signed by Vice President Mike Pence in 2016 when he was Indiana’s governor. The Supreme Court’s action Tuesday keeps it out of an election-year review of the Indiana law amid a flurry of new state laws that go the very heart of abortion rights. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey this month signed a law that would ban virtually all abortions, even in cases of incest and rape, and subject doctors who perform them to criminal prosecution. That law has yet to take effect and is being challenged in court. Other states have passed laws that would outlaw abortion once a fetal heartbeat has been detected, typically around six weeks of gestation. Still, the high court is expected to hear at least one abortion-related case in its term that begins in October and ends in June 2020. In February, the justices blocked a Louisiana law that regulates abortion clinics, pending a full review. The Indiana measure that would have prevented a woman from having an abortion for reasons related to race, gender or disability gets closer to the core abortion rights. While the justices declined to hear the state’s appeal of that blocked provision Tuesday, they indicated that their decision “expresses no view on the merits.” Justice Clarence Thomas, who supports overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that first declared abortion rights, wrote a 20-page opinion in which he said the Indiana provision promotes “a state’s compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics.” No other justice joined the opinion. Thomas and Ginsburg also engaged in a brief battle of dueling footnotes in which Thomas said Ginsburg’s dissent “makes little sense.” Ginsburg wrote that Thomas’ footnote “displays more heat than light,” including Thomas’ calling a woman who has an abortion a mother. “A woman who exercises her constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy is a not a ‘mother,’ ” she wrote. One other noteworthy aspect of the court’s action Tuesday was the silence of liberal Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, who vote regularly to uphold abortion rights. By not joining their liberal colleagues in dissent, Breyer and Kagan helped Roberts in his desire to avoid, where possible, controversial outcomes that split the five conservatives and four liberals. The two also may have preserved their ability to negotiate with, if not influence, Roberts in other cases. The court upheld the fetal remains provision under the least stringent standard of review courts employ. The legislation only needed to be rationally related to the state’s interest in the proper disposal of the remains, the court said. Indiana met that burden, it said. The court said it is leaving open court challenges to similar laws under a higher legal standard.

indiana
abortion
clarence thomas
u.s .
u.s. supreme court


Brazil authorities transfer prison inmates after rioting kills 55

Abstract: MANAUS, BRAZIL - Brazilian security officials said Tuesday nine inmates blamed for killing sprees in several prisons will be transferred to stricter federal facilities, after two days of unrest left 55 prisoners dead and authorities rushing to prevent the violence from spreading. Fighting between inmates began around noon on Sunday in a prison complex in Manaus, the capital of the northern Amazonas state. The state prison secretary said the deaths were the result of infighting in one of the prison’s criminal groups. “The dead individuals are members of this group, involved with drug trafficking,” he said in a statement, without specifying which fraction. In the Manaus complex, an emergency security protocol was activated and within 45 minutes the situation was under control, local authorities said. Still, 15 inmates were killed, either asphyxiated or murdered with hand-crafted arms such as sharpened toothbrushes. The following day, more fights erupted in three other facilities, all in the same city of Manaus, leaving another 40 inmates dead and pushing federal authorities to send a special taskforce to avoid a scenario similar to that of January 2017, when weeks of gruesome prison killings left over 120 victims. The nine inmates who will be transferred to federal facilities on Tuesday are believed to have ordered the killings, authorities said. As a precautionary measure, another 200 prisoners have also been moved to different cells. While police forces were intervening to separate inmates considered at-risk, two detainees were shot as they tried to take prison staff hostage. “As the troop advanced, they (inmates) were killing people choking them inside their cells,” said Col. Vinicius Almeida, who leads the state prison office. In the meantime, family members of inmates gathered outside the prisons, waiting for information on their loved ones. Some outside the Puraquequara Prison Unit (UPP) on Tuesday told The Associated Press they had heard people screaming and calling for help from within the facility Monday night. “I’m going to stand here until they give me some news,” said Ediane Costa Soares, 38, whose 19-year-old son, Anderson Soares de Souza, is an inmate at UPP. Her son does not appear on the list of victims, but Costa Soares wants reassurance about her son’s well-being after the riots. “They have not told us anything.” The Anisio Jobim Prison Complex, where 15 inmates died Sunday, was the scene of gruesome infighting two years ago that left 56 prisoners dead. Many of those victims had their heads cut off or their hearts and intestines ripped out. Drug-trafficking and other criminal gangs run much of their day-to-day business from Brazil’s prisons, where they often have wide sway. The 2017 slayings were largely gang-related, prompting authorities to increase efforts to separate factions and frequently transfer prisoners.


Rights body slams France's 'inhumane treatment' of the children of jihadis

Abstract: PARIS - France must stop the “inhumane treatment” of children of jihadis stranded in Syria who are not being allowed to come to the country, its rights ombudsman said Wednesday, warning that Paris was flouting its U.N. obligations. The statement by France’s Human Rights Defender Jacques Toubon came as controversy intensifies over the reluctance of French authorities to take in the children of French citizens affiliated with Islamic State (IS) jihadis in Syria and Iraq. “The French state needs to adopt effective measures allowing the halt to the inhumane and degrading treatment of children and their mothers and put an end to the violations of the rights of the child,” Toubon said. He alleged violations of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which France is a signatory. The human rights defender leads an independent state institution set up in 2011 and enshrined in the constitution to defend people whose rights have been violated. Toubon had been asked to give an opinion on the issue by the lawyers of several families with French citizens held in Syria and Iraq. According to the French foreign ministry, some 450 French citizens linked to IS are either detained by Kurdish forces in northern Syria or being held in refugee camps. But France is reluctant to bring back foreign fighters or their families after suffering a wave of deadly jihadi attacks that have killed more than 250 people since 2015. It has said it would consider requests for their return, but only on a case-by-case basis. Since March it has repatriated five orphans and a three-year-old girl whose mother was sentenced to life in prison in Iraq. In April, France’s State Council, which rules on the constitutionality of policies and laws, rejected several requests to intervene, saying it was a French diplomatic matter outside the council’s jurisdiction. “Finally a national authority has condemned France and urged it to respect its international and European obligations,” said lawyer Marie Dose, who represents several of the affected families, after Toubon’s statement. Lawyers William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth, who represented families who sought the opinion, welcomed the recognition “of the extreme seriousness of the violation of fundamental rights.” “We expect that the French authorities will organize the repatriation (of the children) as soon as possible,” they said in a statement. The grandparents of two children stranded with their French jihadi mother at a camp in Kurdish-held Syria filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights earlier this month over France’s refusal to allow them home.


Disaster aid bill again blocked in House by GOP conservative

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A second conservative Republican in as many House sessions blocked a long-overdue $19 billion disaster aid bill Tuesday that’s a top priority for some of President Donald Trump’s most loyal allies on Capitol Hill. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said that if Democratic leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi thought the measure was so important, they should have kept the House in session in Washington late last week to slate an up-or-down roll call vote. “If the speaker of this House thought that this was must-pass legislation the speaker … should have called a vote on this bill before sending every member of Congress on recess for 10 days,” Massie said as he blocked the measure. “You can’t have bills passed in Congress with nobody voting on them,” Massie said. “That is the definition of the swamp, and that’s what people resent about this place.” Massie’s move earned swift rebukes from top Democrats. Sanford Bishop of Georgia said his agricultural district was but one part of the country suffering from hurricane damage and that aid won’t arrive until well after the start of planting season. “Many will not be able to plant this year,” Bishop said. Hurricane Michael struck Georgia in the middle of last fall’s harvest season. Another conservative, Texas freshman GOP Rep. Chip Roy, had blocked an earlier attempt Friday to pass the measure under fast-track rules, but Democrats tried again Tuesday. Bishop flew to Washington from Georgia to request the House pass the popular measure under fast-track procedures that permitted any individual lawmakers to block the bill. Eventual passage of the bill, supported by Trump and top leaders in Congress, is a forgone conclusion. Trying again on Tuesday was a political freebee for Democrats, who went on the attack right after the vote. “I cannot understand why any member would object to giving relief to so many millions of our citizens who have been badly damaged by natural disasters,” said No. 2 House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Hoyer said the bill “will be passed overwhelmingly” when the House returns. One concern of many House Republicans was a move by House Democrats last week to dump overboard Trump’s request for $4.5 billion to address the crisis of Central American refugees at the southern border. Trump is a supporter of the measure, which swept through the Senate on Thursday in a rush to exit Washington for Memorial Day. Many Republicans, including southerners facing re-election, are frustrated that the bill has taken so long. After being denied his border money in a fight with House Democrats such as Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Trump still embraced the bill, which directs much of its aid to political strongholds of his such as the Florida Panhandle and rural Georgia and North Carolina. Passing legislation without any objection from anyone is often trickier to do in the House than the Senate, however. “I just think a unanimous consent, voice vote, on the way out the door — there’s always, out of 535 (members of Congress) there’s always a few who think maybe that’s not appropriate,” said Sen. Ken Cramer, R-N.D, a conservative who presided over a moments-long pro forma session of the Senate on Tuesday. Cramer, who moved over to the Senate this year after spending three terms in the House GOP majority, also pointed out that the final disaster bill “actually took out some of the things that the House conservatives wanted” such as billions of dollars to care for the influx of migrants seeking asylum after crossing the southern border. There are also newer additions to the measure to help Midwestern areas suffering from springtime floods, along with large chunks of money to rebuild military bases such as Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida that were damaged by a string of disasters dating to last fall’s hurricane season. The measure ordinarily would have passed months ago but Trump injected himself into the debate, demanding that funding sought by Puerto Rico’s elected officials, Republicans and Democrats both, be kept out. Democrats held firm in demanding that Puerto Rico, a territory whose 3 million people are U.S. citizens, be helped by the measure. Their confidence was clear from the outset and GOP resolve on Puerto Rico, never particularly strong to begin with, steadily faded as the impasse dragged on. The bill now contains more money for Puerto Rico, about $1.4 billion, than Democrats originally asked for. Roy said last week that lawmakers ought to go on record either way on the legislation, which is among the few significant bills to make it through the system despite the intense partisanship dominating Washington.

disasters
aid
republicans
donald trump
thomas massie
democrats
congress
u.s .


Trump insult 'beneath the dignity of the office,' says Joe Biden aide

Abstract: NEW YORK - A senior aide to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says President Donald Trump’s attacks against Biden on foreign soil “are beneath the dignity of the office.” While in Japan on Monday, the Republican president said he agreed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s assessment that Biden “is a low-IQ individual.” Biden’s campaign said it waited until Tuesday to respond out of respect for Memorial Day. Deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield lashed out at Trump in a statement. She said: “To be on foreign soil, on Memorial Day, and to side repeatedly with a murderous dictator against a fellow American and former Vice President speaks for itself.” Bedingfield called Trump’s comments “part of a pattern of embracing autocrats at the expense of our institutions.”

joe biden
donald trump
kim jong un
memorial day
u.s .
north korea


Fake social media accounts spread pro-Iran messages during U.S. midterms, cybersecurity firm says

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A network of fake social media accounts impersonated political candidates and journalists to spread messages in support of Iran and against U.S. President Donald Trump around the 2018 congressional elections, cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc. said on Tuesday. The findings show how unidentified, possibly government-backed, groups could manipulate social media platforms to promote stories and other content that can influence the opinions of American voters, the researchers said. This particular operation was largely focused on promoting “anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes,” according to the report by FireEye. The campaign was organized through a series of fake personas that created various social media accounts, including on Twitter and Facebook. Most of these accounts were created last year and have since been taken down, the report said. Spokespeople for Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. confirmed FireEye’s finding that the fake accounts were created on their platforms. Twitter said in a statement that it had “removed this network of 2,800 inauthentic accounts originating in Iran at the beginning of May,” adding that its investigation was ongoing. Facebook said it had removed 51 Facebook accounts, 36 pages, seven groups and three Instagram accounts connected to the influence operation. Instagram is owned by Facebook. The activity on Facebook was less expansive than that on Twitter and it appeared to be more narrowly focused, said Facebook head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher. The inauthentic Facebook accounts instead often privately messaged high profile figures, including journalists, policymakers and Iranian dissidents, to promote certain issues. Facebook also concluded the activity had originated in Iran. Facebook content was posted in English or Arabic. Topics of discussion included public figures, U.S. secessionist movements, Islam, Saudi Arabian influence in the Middle East and politics in the United States and Britain. About 21,000 accounts followed one or more of the Facebook pages, while about 1,900 accounts joined one or more of the groups and around 2,600 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts, according to Gleicher. FireEye said that some accounts in the social media campaign claimed to be activists, correspondents or “free journalists” in descriptions of the users. Accounts expressed support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the deal aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. They also opposed the Trump administration’s designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, according to the cybersecurity firm. The network’s Twitter accounts posed as Republican political candidates running in the 2018 U.S. congressional midterms, appropriating photos and plagiarizing tweets from legitimate accounts, FireEye said. Early this year, Facebook said it took down hundreds of “inauthentic” accounts from Iran that were part of a vast manipulation campaign operating in more than 20 countries. The pages were part of a campaign to promote Iranian interests in various countries by creating fake identities as residents of those nations, Gleicher said at the time. The operators “typically represented themselves as locals, often using fake accounts, and posted news stories on current events,” including “commentary that repurposed Iranian state media’s reporting on topics like Israel-Palestine relations and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen,” according to Facebook. Facebook has invested heavily in artificial intelligence and staff in an effort to stamp out efforts by state actors and others to manipulate the social network using fraudulent accounts. Late last year, Facebook took down accounts linked to an Iranian effort to influence U.S. and British politics with messages about charged topics such as immigration and race relations. The social network began looking into these kinds of activities after revelations of Russian influence campaigns during the 2016 U.S. election aimed at sowing discord. Lee Foster, a researcher with FireEye, said he found some of the fake personas — often masquerading as American journalists — had successfully convinced several U.S. news outlets to publish letters to the editor, guest columns and blog posts. These writings displayed both progressive and conservative views, the report said, covering topics including the Trump administration’s designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. “We’re assessing with low confidence that this network was organized to support Iranian political interests,” said Foster. “However, we’re not at the point where we can say who was doing it or where it’s coming from. The investigation is ongoing.” Before the 2018 midterm elections, the nameless group created Twitter accounts that also impersonated both Republican and Democratic congressional candidates. It is unclear if the fake accounts had any effect on their campaigns. The imposter Twitter accounts often plagiarized messages from the politicians’ legitimate accounts, but also mixed in posts voicing support for policies believed to be favorable to Tehran. Affected politicians included Jineea Butler, a Republican candidate for New York’s 13th District, and Marla Livengood, a Republican candidate for California’s 9th District. Both Livengood and Butler lost in the election. Livengood’s campaign called the situation “clearly an attempt by bad actors” to hurt her campaign and noted that Livengood was “a strident opponent of nuclear weapons in Iran.” Butler could not be immediately reached for comment.

social media
iran
donald trump
twitter
facebook
u.s .
internet
fraud
2018 u.s. midterm elections


U.S. Navy reviewing service members' Trump-linked 'Make Aircrews Great Again' patches worn during Japan visit

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The U.S. Navy says it is reviewing whether service members violated Defense Department policy or regulations by wearing a uniform patch with the words “Make Aircrew Great Again” during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to their ship in Japan. The phrase emblazoned on the patch, along with a likeness of Trump, is a play on his campaign slogan. The military has uniform dress codes and regulations against partisan political acts while in uniform. In a brief statement Tuesday, the navy said only that the matter was under review by navy leadership to ensure that the wearing of the patches did not violate policy or regulations. Trump visited the USS Wasp assault ship on Tuesday before returning to the U.S. from four days in Japan


Young Sudanese workers strike for 'civil rule'

Abstract: KHARTOUM - The chants grew louder as the army pickup passed. “Power to the civilians,” the dozens of young Sudanese bankers cried outside their closed Khartoum branch, heeding a protest group’s calls for a general strike. In unison, the young men and women called on the head of Sudan’s new military council Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to “cede power. Burhan took Sudan’s helm in April when the army overthrew long-time leader Omar al-Bashir after months of countrywide protests against his iron-fisted rule. “They make us promises but we haven’t received anything, so we chose to up the revolutionary pressure,” said 27-year-old banker Sara Ossman, wearing a light-blue veil to match her glasses. Flanked by colleagues on either side, she bounces her attention between the voice-straining protest chants and her smart-phone screen, updating a full-array of social media accounts. “Military power represses freedom of opinion, expression … all freedoms,” said Ossman, who grew up under Bashir’s regime. “It’s been 30 years that the country has lived like this.” With the backing of Islamists, Bashir ruled the country for three decades. But almost two months after his ouster, his generals still remain despite pressure from protesters who have been camped outside the army headquarters in Khartoum calling for civilian rule. Leaders of the nationwide uprising called for a general strike Tuesday and Wednesday after talks stalled with the military over a transfer of power to a civilian-led body. “As young people in particular, we want to flourish, to build a new Sudan,” said Moussa al-Haj. The slender 26-year-old also works at a bank, but says it has “no cash. Resentment has mounted in Sudan for years over an economic crisis marked by sky-high inflation and foreign currency shortages. Government austerity measures provoked the first string of protests in December when it tripled the price of bread. Those demonstrations quickly spiraled into a country-wide protest movement, drawing in broad swathes of society including doctors, lawyers and dentists. But not everyone has joined in. Throughout the capital on Tuesday, many storefronts drew their iron-shutters just halfway closed. At one tour operator, two young employees peer out of their semi-closed shop as a group of striking protesters outside chants for change. They said they too were on strike but were ordered not to protest or speak to the press. At the head of the group, Asmaa Mohamed films the scene with her phone. “I went to the office before coming here. I refuse to work today and tomorrow,” said the 28-year-old, wearing a long red dress. “We don’t want a government of thieves who exploit the country,” she said, her eyes glued to the screen. Buses and cars beep as they cruise by the group carrying women and men flashing the V-for-victory sign out of the windows. “We had a very tough dictatorship. We don’t want to relive this experience,” said 29-year-old Abir Abdallah. “Freedom, justice … all that will only happen with a civilian government. The military doesn’t want it.” A different group of youths was stationed outside Khartoum’s central bank, but they weren’t chanting. The soldiers were in place to prevent pro-strike demonstrations. At the same time, employees from the national electricity company arrived on the scene to protest the strike. “If we stop work, the country will be wiped out,” said 45-year-old Ezzedine Ali, who told AFP he backs a military-led political transition before pealing off to join in on the rally. “No to the strike, no to civil disobedience,” they shouted.