He left behind his notorious Beirut neighborhood of Ouzai to pursue success, but having made his money in finance Ayad Nasser is back – and he’s brought artists with him. ‘Ouzville’ is a new and fast-growing paint-splashed creative space in the heart of a densely packed neighborhood with a tough reputation where huge murals overlook crumbling buildings. John Owens reports from Beirut.
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From: MeNeedIt
The Red Cross launched a smartphone app Tuesday to help refugees and migrants arriving in Italy access information and services, including medical, psychological and legal support.
The digital platform called “Virtual Volunteer” was unveiled on World Refugee Day as new data showed the number of refugees globally reached a record 22.5 million in 2016.
“People moving are often caught in a fog of poor information,” said Jagan Chapagain, head of programs and operations at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). “They don’t always know what services are available to them.
“This is a tool that will help give them a clearer view so that they can make informed decisions,” he said in a statement.
Italy is on the front line in the European migrant crisis, which has seen hundreds of thousands of people arrive in the continent by land and sea after fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Nearly 70,000 have arrived in Italy so far this year, mostly migrants from West Africa and Bangladesh, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Goods, services, tips
Virtual Volunteer uses geolocation to show users on a map where to access shelters, food banks, canteens, showers, clothes distribution points, maternal health centers, free legal assistance, dentists and language schools.
Refugees and migrants can also find advice on how to protect themselves from traffickers and can access information to help them locate family members if they have become separated.
The app — developed by the IFRC and tech giant IBM — has already been rolled out in Greece and Sweden, where it has been used by 30,000 people. “Information saves lives. Ensuring that people can access unbiased, factual information has a big impact,” Italian Red Cross President Francesco Rocca said in a statement.
Virtual Volunteer, also accessible as a website, offers information in multiple languages depending on what is most needed in each country. Languages in Italy include French, Arabic and Tigrinya, reflecting the high number of Eritrean arrivals, while those in Greece include Arabic, Farsi and Dari.
The IFRC plans to roll out the service in other countries affected by migration, including the Philippines and countries in West Africa.
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From: MeNeedIt
Australia says it will move classified government information from a private data center in Sydney after a Chinese consortium bought a major stake in the company. The move comes despite assurances from the company, Global Switch, that its files are secure.
Global Switch owns two secure data facilities in downtown Sydney, and stores classified Australian government defense and intelligence files.
Its ownership changed in December when its UK-based parent company accepted a $3 billion bid from Chinese investors for a 49 percent stake in the Sydney-based firm. Among the investors was an entrepreneur who owns part of China’s leading data enterprise, the Daily Tech.
In response, Australian officials said they would move classified files from the private storage facility to a state-run data unit when its current contract expires in 2020, despite a promise from Global Switch that its services are secure.
Peter Jennings, the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a respected think tank, says the government in Canberra is right to be wary of China’s cyber capabilities.
“China is certainly up there with Russia and Iran and North Korea as being amongst the most active cyber espionage entities. It is looking to steal information,” he said. “Increasingly I think China is building a capability to actually go in and do damage to critical infrastructure through cyber means as well.”
The government says Australia is increasingly a target for cybercrime and espionage, and has warned that cyberspace was “under persistent threat.”
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said cyber security was “the new frontier of warfare” and announced new measures to protect Australian democracy from foreign interference.
Last October, Canberra revealed a foreign power had managed to install malicious software on the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s computer system to steal sensitive documents and compromise other government networks. Officials did not identify the country suspected of the breach, but security analysts pointed the finger at China.
From: MeNeedIt
U.S. actor Jack Black has some big comedic shoes to fill in his forthcoming project, which sees him take the lead role in “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” a star-studded reboot of the hit 1995 comedy that starred the late Robin Williams.
Black said that he only watched the original film after being cast in the follow-up. He described Williams as a “genius” who was “at the peak of his powers” in the movie.
The original “Jumanji” saw Williams play a man who escapes from captivity inside a magical jungle-themed board game. The new film sees that premise reversed, with the lead characters journeying into the game’s fantastical world.
“In this one we actually travel with the characters into the jungle and it’s gorgeous and treacherous and exciting,” Black told Reuters.
In another twist away from the original, which saw Williams’ character enter the game as a child and emerge as an adult, this film sees child characters transform into adults when they get pulled into the game.
Black and co-star Nick Jonas were promoting the film at Cine Europe 2017, an annual cinema convention held in Barcelona.
In addition to Black and Jonas the film features screen muscleman Dwanye “The Rock” Johnson, and comedian Kevin Hart.
“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” is due out in cinemas in December.
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From: MeNeedIt
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to Chevron Corp. by preventing Ecuadorean villagers and their American lawyer from trying to collect on an $8.65 billion pollution judgment issued against the oil company by a court in Ecuador.
The justices turned away an appeal by New York-based lawyer Steven Donziger, who has spent more than to two decades trying to hold Chevron responsible for pollution in the Ecuadorean rain forest, of lower court rulings blocking enforcement in the United States of the 2011 judgment.
While not disputing that pollution occurred, San Ramon, California-based Chevron has said it is not liable and that Donziger and his associates orchestrated the writing of a key environmental report and bribed the presiding judge in Ecuador.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan barred enforcement of the judgment in 2014, citing the corruption used to obtain it. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year upheld Kaplan’s decision, citing “a parade of corrupt actions” by Donziger and his associates, including coercion and fraud, culminating in the bribe offer.
The 2nd Circuit found that Chevron’s $8.646 billion judgment debt was “clearly traceable” to corrupt conduct by the legal team representing the villagers from the area affected by the pollution.
The lengthy legal battle with Chevron has been waged in several countries and was documented in “Crude,” a 2009 documentary film. The plaintiffs have said they plan to continue efforts to enforce the judgment in other countries, regardless of the outcome in the United States.
The saga was drawn extensive media attention over the years, with a succession of reporters given tours by both sides of the affected sites on the edge of the Amazonian jungle near the town of Lago Agrio. The plaintiffs also touted the backing of several celebrities including actors Mia Farrow and Danny Glover.
Donziger and representatives of residents of the Lago Agrio region have sought to force Chevron to pay for water and soil contamination caused from 1964 to 1992 by Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001. Chevron has said a 1998 agreement between Texaco and Ecuador absolved it of further liability.
Donziger’s crusade began to unravel when Chevron noticed a deleted scene in the “Crude” documentary, released in 2009, showing Donziger working with supposedly neutral experts in preparing a report for the Ecuadorean court.
Chevron was then able to get access to out-takes and other material related to the documentary via court order. Chevron cited this evidence when it filed its lawsuit in 2011 seeking to block enforcement of the judgment, saying Donziger’s actions violated U.S. anti-racketeering law.
Donziger has also tried to enforce the judgment in Canada, Brazil and other countries where Chevron operates.
From: MeNeedIt
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday tightened rules on where injury lawsuits may be filed, handing a victory to corporations by undercutting the ability of plaintiffs to bring claims in friendly courts in a case involving litigation over the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. blood-thinning medication Plavix.
The justices, in an 8-1 ruling, threw out a lower court decision allowing hundreds of out-of-state patients who took Plavix to sue the company in California. State courts cannot hear claims against companies that are not based in the state when the alleged injuries did not occur there, the justices ruled.
The court last month reached a similar conclusion in a separate case involving out-of-state injury claims against Texas-based BNSF Railway Co.
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From: MeNeedIt
Google says it is stepping up its efforts to identify and remove videos related to terrorism and violent extremist content, particularly on its YouTube platform.
“While we and others have worked for years to identify and remove content that violates our policies,” Google said, “the uncomfortable truth is that we, as an industry, must acknowledge that more needs to be done. Now.”
First, the company says it’s increasing its use of technology to identify videos that contain extremist messages. It added that it has used “video analysis models” to find and assess more than 50 percent of the terrorism-related content that has been removed in the past six months.
“We will now devote more engineering resources to apply our most advanced machine learning research to train new ‘content classifiers’ to help us more quickly identify and remove extremist and terrorism-related content,” the company said.
The company acknowledges that technology can’t fully solve the problem, so it is also adding 50 expert NGO’s to its YouTube Trusted Flagger program. Flaggers, the company said, can better identify the difference between violent propaganda and news and that they are more than 90 percent accurate. Google says it already works with 63 organizations as part of the program.
Google said it will also be taking a “tougher stance on videos that do not clearly violate our policies.” It said videos that “contain inflammatory religious or supremacists content” will appear with a warning. People will not be able to make money off them, or to comment on or endorse them.
“That means these videos will have less engagement and be harder to find,” Google wrote. “We think this strikes the right balance between free expression and access to information without promoting extremely offensive viewpoints.”
In a fourth step, Google said it will “expand its role in counter-radicalization efforts” through what it calls the “Redirect Method.”
“This promising approach harnesses the power of targeted online advertising to reach potential Isis recruits and redirects them towards anti-terrorist videos that can change their minds about joining,” Google wrote, in reference to Islamic State. “In previous deployments of this system, potential recruits have clicked through on the ads at an unusually high rate, and watched over half a million minutes of video content that debunks terrorist recruiting messages.”
The steps were first published in an opinion piece Sunday on the Financial Times website and can now be found on a Google blog.
Google’s steps follow a recent Facebook announcement that the social media giant is using artificial intelligence to combat terrorist content.
Earlier this year, the non-profit Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report critical of organizations like Google and Facebook. The anti-hate group said the companies “have done little to counter the use of their platforms to spread hateful, false “information,” from conspiracy theories accusing various minority groups of plotting against America to websites promoting Holocaust denial and false “facts” about Islam, LGBT people, women, Mexicans and others.”
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From: MeNeedIt
Climate change, trade and terrorism were highlighted Monday at a Beijing meeting of foreign affairs officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, known collectively as the BRICS nations.
The five nations are seeking to further align their views on key issues at a time when President Donald Trump is withdrawing the U.S. from multilateral arrangements such as the Paris climate accords and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China in the coming year would look to “expand with more broad and wide-ranging cooperation in areas such as trade and commerce and investment.”
Together the BRICS countries account for roughly 40 percent of the world population and 20 percent of the global economy. All five countries are members of the G20, although their economic prospects have declined somewhat amid crises in Brazil and South Africa and the effect of sanctions lodged against Russia by the West.
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane pointed to climate change as a major concern.
“There is one climate and for future generations we must employ every effort at our disposal to reverse the effects of climate change,” she said.
Nkoana-Mashabane also pointed to the need to form joint efforts to fight terrorism, sentiments reflected by Vijay Kumar Singh, an Indian External Affairs official.
“It is important to enhance BRICS security in counterterrorism matters,” Singh said.
Leaders of the five nations are due to meet for a summit in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen in September.
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From: MeNeedIt
Little-known American golfer Brooks Koepka won the 117th U.S. Open championship Sunday for his first major title at the age of 27. He’d only won one previous tournament on the PGA Tour.
Koepka tied for the best score in relation to par in the history of the U.S. Open with a 16-under 272 for the four rounds on the par 72 course. His margin of victory was four shots over two golfers who tied for second place — Brian Harman, also from the U.S., and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama.
“It’s definitely a special moment,” Koepka said shortly after completing his final round of 5-under-par 67. “The way I putted this week was unbelievable. . . What I’ve done this week is amazing.”
Koepka pulled away on the closing holes by making a difficult save of par on the 13th hole, then sinking birdie putts on the 14th, 15th and 16th holes.
The Florida native said he received lots of encouragement and advice from friends and family Saturday night, ahead of the final round, and that he felt very confident in his game. And he said he knew where he stood throughout the final round because there were very clear leader boards at each hole.
“I just tried to get as low as I could (on each hole) and stay focused,” Koepka said.
This year’s tournament was played at Erin Hills, an 11-year-old course less than an hour’s drive from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A U.S. Open had never been held in that north central state before.
While more players than usual broke par at a U.S. Open, many of the world’s best golfers failed to make the halfway cut after Friday’s second round. In fact, it was the first time since the world rankings were created in 1986 that the top three ranked golfers in the world missed the cut.
They are defending champion and world No. 1 Dustin Johnson of the United States, No. 2 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and No. 3 Jason Day of Australia. It was McIlroy who also shot 16-under-par in winning his U.S. Open title at Congressional Country Club outside Washington in 2011.
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From: MeNeedIt
Hundreds of thousands of people are gathering in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo for one of the world’s largest gay pride parades.
The revelers have packed the city’s Paulista Avenue before Sunday’s parade. Some are helping hold up a gigantic rainbow-colored flag symbolizing LGBT rights.
Organizers say they expect 3 million people to participate in the city’s 21st annual gay pride parade.
The parade this year focuses on secularism and the idea that no religion is law regardless of people’s individual beliefs.
Claudia Regina is president of the gay rights group organizing the parade.
She says on the event’s official Facebook page that “our main enemies today are religious fundamentalists” and says some groups insist on condemning LGBT people and “removing rights that we have already obtained.”
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From: MeNeedIt
When Wal-Mart Stores Inc. bought online retailer Jet.com for $3 billion last year, it marked a crucial moment — the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer, after years of ceding e-commerce leadership to arch rival Amazon, intended to compete.
On Friday, Amazon.com Inc. countered. With its $14 billion purchase of grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc., the largest e-commerce company announced its intention to take on Wal-Mart in the brick-and-mortar world.
The two deals make it clear that the lines that divided traditional retail from e-commerce are disappearing and sector dominance will no longer be bound by e-commerce or brick-and-mortar, but by who is better at both.
Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods also brings disruption to the $700 billion U.S. grocery sector, a traditional area of retailing that stands on the precipice of a ferocious price war.
German discounters Aldi and Lidl are battling Wal-Mart, which controls 22 percent of the U.S. grocery market, with each vowing to undercut whatever price the others offer.
The stakes are highest for Wal-Mart. Amazon’s move aims at the heart of the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant’s business — groceries, which account for 56 percent of Wal-Mart’s $486 billion in revenue for the year ending Jan. 31. With the deal, Whole Foods’ more than 460 stores become a test bed with which Amazon can learn how to compete with Wal-Mart’s 4,700 stores with a large grocery offering that are also within 10 miles (16 km) of 90 percent of the U.S. population.
Amazon is expected to lower Whole Foods’ notoriously high prices, enabling it to pursue Wal-Mart’s customers. The push comes as Wal-Mart is headed in the opposite direction — going
after Amazon’s higher-income shoppers with a recent string of acquisitions of online brands such as Moosejaw and Modcloth and on Friday, menswear e-tailer Bonobos.
Wal-Mart may be ready. In preparation for the grocery price war, Wal-Mart in recent months has cut grocery prices, improved fresh food and meat offerings, modernized shelving and lighting
in its grocery aisles, and expanded its online grocery pickup service.
Marc Lore, the Jet.com founder who now runs Wal-Mart’s e-commerce business after selling a startup to Amazon, told Reuters in an interview that Amazon’s move does not change Wal-Mart’s game plan. “We’re playing offense,” he said.
Wal-Mart is offering curbside pickup of online grocery purchases at 700 locations, with 300 more planned by year end.
It also is testing same-day fresh and frozen home delivery from 10 of its stores. “We see an opportunity to do a lot more of that,” Lore said.
Roger Davidson, who oversaw Wal-Mart’s global food procurement and now is president of Oakton Advisory Group, said the deal will reduce Wal-Mart’s brick-and-mortar advantage.
“I think this acquisition is a concern,” he said.
Some industry observers say Amazon will find it difficult to use Whole Foods to pull away Wal-Mart shoppers because the two stores appeal to different customers. But Michelle Grant, head of retailing at market research firm Euromonitor, said Amazon could use an obscure part of the Whole Foods portfolio — Whole Foods 365 — to lure Wal-Mart shoppers.
Whole Foods 365 offers private-label goods and lower prices than typical Whole Foods stores, and is targeted at younger, value-conscious shoppers. Amazon could provide the financial
capital and tactical ability to build that into something big.
“That [Whole Foods 365] may become a big problem for Wal-Mart,” Grant said.
Amazon, which reported $12.5 billion in cash and equivalents and a free cash flow of $10.2 billion in the year ended March 31, has plenty to spend. Wal-Mart reported $6.9 billion in cash
and equivalents and $20.9 billion in free cash flow at its year ended Jan. 31.
Brittain Ladd, a former senior manager at Amazon who worked on its brick-and-mortar strategy, said Amazon will use Whole Foods to test concepts for the grocery store of the future.
Ladd, who left Amazon in March, said Amazon will seek to eliminate checkout lines by using technology that automatically scans goods as customers add them to their shopping carts. It
will select merchandise based on Amazon’s vaunted customer data, and potentially expects the use of technology to change prices during the course of a day.
Amazon declined comment on competition with Walmart but spokesman Drew Herdener said in a statement the company has no plans to cut jobs or use technology in development at its
Seattle Amazon Go store to automate jobs of cashiers.
Ladd, who helped with AmazonFresh’s global expansion and now is a supply chain consultant, said an Amazon-owned Whole Foods also likely will offer in-car pickup of online purchases, and
home delivery from Whole Foods stores, add pharmacies and showcase Amazon devices inside the stores.
“Amazon will reduce prices and change the assortment of products carried in Whole Foods stores to attract a larger customer base,” said Ladd. “Kroger and Wal-Mart will be impacted as their customers will defect to Amazon.”
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From: MeNeedIt