Streams flowing in the south of England may hold clues to the search for life on Mars. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
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From: MeNeedIt

Smog, industrial waste and contaminated water are just a few of the environmental problems facing many of the biggest cities today. But there is another type of pollution that’s becoming increasingly prevalent in our cities: noise pollution. Medical experts say people exposed to constant noise can suffer from a variety of psychological and physical ailments. As Saleem Shayan reports, it’s a particularly serious problem in megacities like Karachi in Pakistan where noise is a constant companion.
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From: MeNeedIt

Since its first edition in 1990, the Dak’Art Biennale in Senegal has become a key event in the world of African contemporary art. This year, the main international expo features the work of 75 artists from 33 countries. But the biennial also offers a chance for local Senegalese artists to showcase their work. Sofia Christensen reports from Dakar’s historic Medina neighborhood.
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From: MeNeedIt

The World Health Organization’s annual conference ended on a high note Saturday, with the organization’s director general praising delegates for giving him a strong mandate to implement an ambitious program of reforms and initiatives that will improve global health.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus paid homage to his predecessor, Margaret Chan, saying the reforms begun under her leadership to make the World Health Organization more responsive and better able to tackle emergencies were now paying off.

“The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has demonstrated exactly that. … Let me assure you that I am personally committed to ensuring that we do everything we can to stop this outbreak as soon as possible,” Tedros said. “And the commitment of the government, of course, and the leadership is at the center, which we really admire.” 

The World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the WHO, passed a number of resolutions aimed at improving global health. Some deal with diseases that have plagued humanity for centuries, while others are newly emerging.

But all these decisions, Tedros said, involve commitments to make the world a healthier, safer place. For example, he noted the assembly had approved a road map to reduce deaths from cholera by 90 percent by 2030.

“You endorsed our five-year strategic plan on polio transition, to strengthen country health systems that could be affected by the scaling down of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative,” he said. “You passed resolutions on tuberculosis and noncommunicable diseases. … And you have agreed to increase the development and use of digital technologies to improve health and keep the world safe.”

Tedros urged the delegates to go back to their countries with renewed determination to work every day for the health of their people. How well they succeed in this endeavor, he said, will be measured by the outcomes, by whether they result in real change on the ground.
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From: MeNeedIt

The UN children’s fund warned the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo threatens the health and well-being of children, and special care must be taken to help them survive. 

Ebola is highly contagious, killing between 20 and 90 percent of its victims, and the UN children’s fund is engaging communities in the fight against Ebola.  UNICEF spokesman, Christophe Boulierac said schools are crucial for minimizing the risk of transmission among children.

“UNICEF is scaling up prevention efforts in schools across all three affected health zones,” he said. “This includes on-going efforts to install hand washing units in 277 schools and supporting awareness raising activities reaching more than 13,000 children in Mbandaka, Bikoro and Iboko.” 

Previous outbreaks of Ebola in DRC and most recently in the horrific epidemic in West Africa have shown the high-level of trauma experienced by children at the loss of family members.   Boulierac told VOA orphaned children often become social outcasts because of their association with this fatal disease.

“There is as you mention, rightly, the risk of stigma and the risk that the child when his father, his care-giver, his mother is affected; the child is psychologically affected,” he said.

Boulierac said UNICEF is taking preventive measures, including providing trained therapists to families affected by the Ebola outbreak and helping children cope psychologically with the trauma of losing loved ones.
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From: MeNeedIt

Real-world debates permeate this year’s Venice Biennale on architecture, from commemorating spaces once part of the U.S. slave trade to maintaining the delicate status quo at religious sites in the Holy Land.

The sprawling exhibition, which opens Saturday for a six-month run, reflects not only on the political implications of what gets built but also on the empty spaces in between.

“We have to be aware of the political issues in order to make buildings which protect, in so far as we can, the status of the human being in the world,” said Shelley McNamara, co-curator with Yvonne Farrell of the main exhibition, “Free Space.” “We are acutely aware of the things that are threatening the quality of life of human beings.”

Israeli Pavilion

The Israeli Pavilion, subtitled “structures of negotiation,” outlines the consequences of multiple claims on revered religious places and how daily use defines monuments.

It doesn’t comment on how the Trump administration’s recent decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv might impact the Middle East conflict. But the curators agreed it is easy to draw inferences.

“What we know is that sometimes political events have a very heavy impact on the status quo of the holy places and vice versa, and even if the equilibrium of the status quo in the holy places is for some reason violated it has an influence on the political situation,” said the pavilion’s co-curator Tania Coen Uzzielli.

Take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, revered as the place of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial and one of the pavilion’s five case studies. The exhibit features a color-coded, three-dimensional model of the church made for an Ottoman-era pasha to make clear which denomination controlled which area.

In the early part of the last century, a conflict over who had the right to clean a raised stone in the church courtyard led to violence, said pavilion co-curator Deborah Pinto Fdeda.

“Tens of people died,” she said. “It is through the usage of places over time that these communities gain or lose power.” Yet even there the status quo evolved: “Today the Latins and Orthodox agree to clean it as if the other doesn’t exist.”

​US pavilion

The U.S. pavilion comments on the meaning of citizenship as governments dictate who belongs and who doesn’t.

Amanda Williams and Andres Hernandez created, in collaboration with Shani Crowe, “a pocket of retreat” in the courtyard behind a protective veil of black braids. The refuge is built on a rail, symbolizing the underground railroad that helped bring slaves to freedom. It projects upward, toward a better future.

“The piece tries to embody that trajectory from fighting and surviving for your citizenship to thriving,” Williams said.

Inside, a group called Studio Gang brought 800 stones from a 19th century landing in Memphis linked to the slave trade. Co-curator Ann Lui said the project was about “taking a moment to think about these fraught sites” without proposing, yet, how to remember them.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is one of six countries participating for the first time in the architectural Biennale, with a project that focuses on urban sprawl in the kingdom’s four major centers: political capital Riyadh, religious capital Mecca, the oil city of Dammam and the port city of Jeddah.

“The sprawl is the result of the oil boom but the result of the sprawl is actually social isolation,” said curator Sumayah Al-Solaiman.

Participation in the Biennale is yet another sign of recent opening in Saudi Arabia, giving Saudis an important chance to communicate their experiences directly to the world.

“I think it is becoming more and more relevant to be involved in things that relate in art and culture,” said architect Abdulrahman Gazzaz. “I think it is truly fascinating to us to be present at such a wonderful shift in the dynamic of the country.”

​The Vatican

The Vatican also is participating for the first time in the Biennale of architecture after joining the contemporary art fair in 2013 and 2015. The Holy See entrusted world-renowned architects including Norman Foster to create chapels in a wooded area on an island in the Venetian lagoon.

Curator Francesco Dal Co said the woods provided a metaphor “of where you get lost in life” and the chapels “are always a place of encounter, meeting experience and orientation.”

The chapels may stay on as a permanent presence on San Giorgio island after the Biennale closes on Nov. 25.
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From: MeNeedIt

Thousands of flags wave proudly this weekend at tombstones in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, just outside Washington. For more than 60 years, the army’s ceremonial unit, known as the Old Guard, has been placing the flags at graves in the huge military cemetery in preparation for Memorial Day. The national holiday, observed the last Monday in May, honors the men and women who died while serving in the military. VOA’s Deborah Block takes us to the annual tradition known as “Flags in.”
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From: MeNeedIt

To many Americans the Star-Spangled Banner, also known as Old Glory, is almost a religious icon. That hasn’t always been the case. Back in the late 1700s, during the American Revolutionary War, regiments of George Washington’s Continental Army used various flags to declare their independence from Great Britain. VOA’s Nikoleta Ilic spoke with an expert on U.S. flags about the origins and the various iterations of the Star-Spangled Banner.
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From: MeNeedIt

It is commencement season in America, when high school and university students gather for graduation ceremonies featuring advice from prominent Americans. This year, at a time of heightened political divisions in the country and accusations of “fake news,” many speakers are featuring political themes and talking about integrity. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

“Star Wars” fans need wait no longer. Another “Star Wars” installment, this one a spinoff about Han Solo’s formative years as a pilot and a fighter, opens on IMAX movie screens the world over. “Solo: A Star Wars Story” also traces the beginnings of the friendship between Han Solo and Chewbacca, the giant hairy wookiee. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke to the more than 2-meter-tall Joonas Suotamo, who plays Chewbacca.
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From: MeNeedIt

We’re connecting with the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending May 26, 2018.

Surprise! We get a Hot Shot Debut in the No. 1 position. Three consecutive champion songs have opened at the top — something that hasn’t happened in 23 years.

No. 5: Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line “Meant To Be”

But let’s start in fifth place, where Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line slip a slot with “Meant To Be.” 

Meanwhile, it tops the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for a 25th week, moving into second place on the all-time list. Sam Hunt owns the record: 34 weeks at the top with “Body Like A Back Road.” Speaking on May 20 at the Billboard Music Awards, Bebe said she would love to work with other country artists and is excited about the June 22 arrival of her first full-length album, “Expectations.”

No. 4: Post Malone & Ty Dolla $ign “Psycho”

Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign back it up two slots to fourth place with “Psycho.” That makes it an all-rap Top Four … and that’s a significant chart development. That hasn’t happened since 2009, when the chart featured, in descending order: Flo Rida’s “Right Round”; T.I.’s “Dead And Gone” with Justin Timberlake, Eminem and Dr. Dre; 50 Cent’s “Crack A Bottle”; and Kanye West’s “Heartless.”

No. 3: Drake “God’s Plan”

Drake holds in third place with his former 11-week champion “God’s Plan.” Drake and Migos’ upcoming joint tour is shaping up as one of the hottest tickets in North America this summer. New dates have just been added in Drake’s hometown of Toronto, along with Chicago, New York, Dallas and Los Angeles. The “Aubrey And The Three Amigos” tour kicks off July 26 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

No. 2: Drake “Nice for What”

Drake ends a 15-week run at No. 1, as his second consecutive champion “Nice For What” dips a slot to second place. Speaking on the Rap Radar podcast, the song’s producer, Murda Beatz, said that they were at Drake’s house playing the “NBA 2K” video game when they came up with the idea for the song. They decided to sample “Ex Factor” by Lauryn Hill, wrote the lyrics, made the beat, and finished the whole thing in about 90 minutes.

No. 1: Childish Gambino “This Is America”

For the first time in 15 weeks, we have a Hot 100 champion not named Drake. Childish Gambino opens atop the hit list with “This Is America.”

Propelling this song is the hard-hitting video, which first aired on the May 5 edition of Saturday Night Live. Childish Gambino — the musical alter ego of actor Donald Glover — will go on tour in September with Rae Sremurd and Vince Staples.

We’ll have a new lineup for you next week, so be sure and come back.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

The FBI warned on Friday that foreign cybercriminals had compromised “hundreds of thousands” of home and small-office router devices around the world which direct traffic on the internet by forwarding data packets between computer networks.

In a public service announcement, the FBI has discovered that the foreign cybercriminals used a VPNFilter malware that can collect peoples’ information, exploit their devices and block network traffic.

The announcement did not provide any details about where the criminals might be based, or what their motivations could be.

“The size and scope of the infrastructure by VPNFilter malware is significant,” the FBI said, adding that it is capable of rendering people’s routers “inoperable.”

It said the malware is hard to detect, due to encryption and other tactics.

The FBI urged people to reboot their devices to temporarily disrupt the malware and help identify infected devices.

People should also consider disabling remote management settings, changing passwords to replace them with more secure ones, and upgrading to the latest firmware.
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From: MeNeedIt