Here’s a little known fact to sink your teeth into — Did you know that George Washington’s second inaugural speech contained only 135 words? It’s not because America’s first president had nothing to say. Tooth historians say it’s because the president was wearing new dentures, making it difficult for him to speak. Searching for other toothy morsels from history, our reporter Maxim Moskalkov went to the National Dentistry Museum in Baltimore to learn more.
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From: MeNeedIt
Young boys who were forced to beg on the streets for Islamic teachers have turned their suffering into art, as they join more than 1,000 artists showing their work at Africa’s biggest and oldest biennale art exhibition in Senegal this month.
Some 50,000 child beggars known as talibe live in religious schools called daaras in the West African nation, according to rights groups, who say some were trafficked from neighboring countries and many are beaten and abused.
“Being in the daara was like being in prison,” read one caption for an image of a sorrowful eye peering through a row of fingers. “My friend’s hands represent the feeling of being locked up.”
All of the photographs in the “Look at me” exhibition – which is part of the Dakar Biennale, known as Dak’Art, founded in the 1990s – were taken by and of street children living in a nearby shelter run by Samusocial, a charity.
Most children who come through the shelter are former talibe, while others escaped forced labor or family disputes, said Samusocial, which provides medical care and shelter while attempting to reunite them with their families.
“For me, the color red is like pain,” said another caption, describing a photograph of a boy, known as D.D., wrapped in a colored cloth. “I put it in the background because it’s in the past.”
In plastic sandals and bright T-shirts, the boys walked down the street together to visit the exhibition. They gazed wide-eyed at the photos printed larger than they are.
“I am happy,” said D.D., 16, who worked in a sewing shop for several years where he was regularly beaten. “I didn’t expect to see this,” he said of his photograph.
Samusocial often uses art and music to help the children build confidence and open up, said director of operations Isabelle Diouf.
“These children need beautiful things. It takes them out of the realities of the street a little and makes them want to move forward,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Spanish photographer Javier Acebal, who worked with the children on the exhibit, said he hopes it will change viewers’ perceptions of beggars.
“When you’re walking down the street you think you know about these children, but in fact you know nothing,” he said. “They say they want to be like normal kids. I hope people start to think about that.”
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From: MeNeedIt
The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI are investigating Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political data firm embroiled in a scandal over its handling of Facebook Inc user information, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Prosecutors have sought to question former Cambridge Analytica employees and banks that handled its business, the newspaper said, citing an American official and others familiar with the inquiry.
Cambridge Analytica said earlier this month it was shutting down after losing clients and facing mounting legal fees resulting from reports the company harvested personal data about millions of Facebook users beginning in 2014.
Allegations of the improper use of data for 87 million Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica, which was hired by President Donald Trump’s 2016 U.S. election campaign, have prompted multiple investigations in the United States and Europe.
The investigation by the Justice Department and FBI appears to focus on the company’s financial dealings and how it acquired and used personal data pulled from Facebook and other sources, the Times said.
Investigators have contacted Facebook, according to the newspaper.
The FBI, the Justice Department and Facebook declined to comment to Reuters. Former officials with Cambridge Analytica was not immediately available to comment.
Cambridge Analytica was created around 2013, initially with a focus on U.S. elections, with $15 million in backing from billionaire Republican donor Robert Mercer and a name chosen by future Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, the New York Times has reported. Bannon left the White House on August 2017.
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From: MeNeedIt
President Donald Trump says he is looking for a way to let a Chinese technology firm “get back into business fast” after U.S. trade ruling severely crippled the company.
“Too many jobs in China lost,” Trump tweeted Sunday, days after ZTE announced it had ceased “major operating activities.”
The U.S. had cut off exports of U.S.-made parts to ZTE — more than 25 percent of the components ZTE needs to build its wireless stations, optical fiber networks and smartphones.
The U.S. cutoff came after ZTE was, in the words of one expert, “caught red-handed” putting the U.S. technology into products and selling those goods to countries under a U.S. trade embargo, including Iran and North Korea.
The U.S. fined ZTE $1.2 billion last year. But the U.S. said last month ZTE lied about punishing the employees believed to be involved in skirting the sanctions, paying them bonuses instead.
The Commerce Department cut off ZTE’s access to U.S. components until 2025, forcing it to shut down operations at its factory in Shenzhen.
Trump has often complained about China stealing U.S. jobs. But he tweeted he is working with Chinese President Xi Jinping to ease the economic fallout at ZTE and ordered the U.S. Commerce Department “to get it done!”
“The president’s tweet underscores the importance of a free, fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial economic trade and investment relationship between the United States and China,” the White House said Sunday. “The administration is in contact with China on this issue, among others, in the bilateral relationship.”
Douglas Jacobson, an attorney who represents suppliers who do business with ZTE, told VOA that Trump’s order to help ZTE is a stunning decision and one bound to make U.S. law enforcement officials unhappy by going over their heads.
“This has caught all of those in the exports and sanctions world certainly by surprise and with some degree of shock and awe,” Jacobson said. “This is unprecedented that the president of the United States would intervene in what really is a law enforcement case.”
But Jacobson said the ZTE matter is not a sign of a general thaw in trade tensions between the U.S. and China, including the recent tit-for-tat tariffs.
Jacobson said he believes Trump may be willing to make a concession on China in exchange for China’s help with North Korea.
Steve Herman, Ken Bredemeier, Ira Mellman and Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this report.
From: MeNeedIt
A koala hospital and new wildlife reserves are the focus of one of Australia’s boldest plans to protect the vulnerable marsupial. Almost 25,000 hectares of state forest will be set aside for koalas in New South Wales state, which will also set up a new clinic north of Sydney to provide specialist care for sick and injured animals.
Koalas are officially listed as vulnerable to extinction in New South Wales. The state government is to spend $34 million on a range of measures to protect the iconic marsupial.Special reserves will be set up where the animals will be able to breed freely.
The koala population in New South Wales has fallen by a quarter over the past two decades. It is estimated there are 36,000 koalas left in the state.Their numbers have also fallen in other parts of Australia.
The animals face various threats, including a loss of habitat due to land-clearing, attacks by dogs, bushfires, heatwaves and road accidents. A sexually-transmitted disease — chlamydia — is also harming the health of many koalas.
Special measures will also be put in place to help drivers avoid koalas that stray onto highways, including better signs. Tunnels and specially-made bridges have also allowed wildlife to traverse roads while avoiding cars and trucks.
New South Wales environment minister Gabrielle Upton hopes to set up a network of koala and wildlife hospitals to help injured animals.
“This is so there are places that we can have resident expertise in one placein places where we know that koala populations are present and need to be sustained and therefore increased over time. We are going to trial chlamydia vaccinations. Chlamydia is a disease that impacts them most severely on the north coast in New South Wales. There are some really practical parts of this package that address some of the roadkill hot-spots,” said Upton.
“We have had some success with underpasses and overpasses in areas where they know they have core habitat. We need to ensure we have the right road signs, the right fencing.”
The new koala clinic will be set up in Port Stephens, north of Sydney. It will join an existing hospital in the regional town of Port Macquarie that began treating injured marsupials in 1973.
Conservationists have welcomed the new facility but argue that the New South Wales state government’s multi-million dollar plan does not address the number one threat to koalas – land clearing and logging.
The koala lives in trees and has large furry ears, sharp claws adapted for climbing and no tail. It features in many Aboriginal stories of creation and is considered a totemic species.
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From: MeNeedIt
People in her hometown of Los Angeles remember actress Meghan Markle as a charitable young girl who sparkled on stage. Next week the entire world will be watching Markle as she officially ties the knot to England’s most eligible bachelor. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo takes a look at Markle’s fairy tale life and the prince that some say is the lucky one.
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From: MeNeedIt
There’s a push to level the playing field for women in India, where women account for 42 percent of university graduates but only 24 percent are hired as entry level professionals. Of these, 19 percent are likely to reach senior level management. To make matters worse, the number of women who leave the work force is also higher than men. As Ritul Joshi reports, a specially designed management course for women in New Delhi is teaching them to make their way in a male dominated work force.
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From: MeNeedIt
NASA is planning to send a tiny autonomous helicopter to Mars on its next rover mission to the red planet.
The space agency announced Friday that the helicopter will be carried aboard the Mars 2020 rover as a technology demonstration to test its ability to serve as a scout and to reach locations not accessible by ground.
The helicopter is being developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
The craft weighs less than 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms), has a fuselage about the size of a softball and twin, counter-rotating blades that will spin at almost 3,000 rpm — a necessity in the thin Martian atmosphere. Solar cells will charge its lithium-ion batteries.
Flights will be programmed because the distance to Mars precludes real-time commands from Earth.
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From: MeNeedIt
The Eurovision song contest has concluded for 2018, with the top prize going to Israel’s Netta Barzilai and her quirky girl-power song Toy.
The Eurovision contest is an international tradition pitting performers from 43 nations against each other and decided by viewers all over the world. Along with European nations, Australia and Israel are allowed to compete.
Barzilai’s song, a fast-paced pop number, featured throaty singing and unconventional mouth noises, including squeaks, pops and clucks, as she protested to her listeners that she would not be used as a plaything. Meanwhile, her backup singers cavorted and preened in a manner that was, at times, reminiscent of chickens strutting and flapping their wings.
Some viewers responded negatively online to the performer’s antics, but in the end, her unorthodox performance and #MeToo-friendly message won the day.
The show, staged in Lisbon, Portugal, was not without other controversies: British singer SuRie was interrupted onstage when a protester grabbed her microphone. The protester was quickly subdued and SuRie finished her performance, with viewers online lauding her for her calm response and strong finish.
An Australian broadcaster narrating the event, however, accidentally uttered an expletive on the air, prompting a storm of chatter on Twitter.
A Chinese video service, Mango TV, was barred by the European Broadcast Union from airing the event, after it edited out of Tuesday’s semifinal a performance featuring a romantic dance sequence by two men. It also reportedly blurred out images of rainbow flags in the audience.
Some 200 million viewers were expected to view Saturday’s performances.
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From: MeNeedIt
A former Australian Rules Footballer of Nigerian descent is taking legal action against the sport for alleged racial, sexual and religious discrimination. Joel Wilkinson says the abuse he suffered was a “continuous breach of human rights” and insists that racism is rife in Australia’s most popular professional sport. It is thought to be the first case of its kind in Australia.
In 2014, Wilkinson appeared in an anti-discrimination advert sponsored by the Australian Football League, the AFL in which he spoke of the abuse he had suffered on the field.
“I actually felt like he was trying to make me feel like I was a little kid, a little black kid, a little piece of dirt.”
But the former Gold Coast Suns player now alleges that the League’s public stance on racism is very different from what he says is a “much darker reality.” He insists that his career ended abruptly in 2013 because he was so outspoken about the mistreatment he endured.
He is taking his case for compensation to Australia’s Human Rights Commission after talks with the AFL failed to reach an agreement.
“I have suffered extreme racism during my time in the AFL and post my career in the AFL until this very day,” said Wilkinson. “My career was taken from me. My rights were violated due to racism, religious vilification and racially-motivated sexual harassment that I experienced for many years.”
The AFL said in a statement that it was sorry the ex-player “had suffered experiences of racial abuse” during his time as a footballer, and that it was committed to resolving his complaint.
In 2013, a famous Aboriginal AFL player was taunted by a young spectator who called him an ape.’ The 13-year old girl later apologized for her behavior.
The competition is Australia’s most-watched professional sport. Matches in the city of Melbourne attract up to 100,000 fans. The Australian Football League has more than 80 Indigenous players, about 10 per cent of the total. It has also featured players with Jamaican, Lebanese and Sudanese heritage.
Rights groups have previously praised the League’s efforts to tackle racism in Australia.
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From: MeNeedIt
The Everett House, which serves as the Turkish ambassador’s residence, is a Washington landmark. It is also famous as the one-time home of the Ertegun family, the brothers who would go on to found Atlantic records and change the sound of American jazz and pop music. But the Erteguns also played a role in Washington history by standing with African Americans in what was, at the time, a deeply segregated city. VOA’s Ozlem Tinaz reports.
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From: MeNeedIt