Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello was the big winner at the MTV EMAs gala in Spain on Sunday, while Janet Jackson used her acceptance speech for a life-time achievement award to take a stand for women’s rights.

Jackson was honored with the Global Icon Award for her four-decade, 11-album career that started when she was a child growing up in the family that also produced her music legend brother, Michael, and The Jackson Five.

The 52-year-old Jackson showed she still has her dance moves while performing a medley of “Made for Now,” ″All for You” and “Rhythm Nation” while accompanied by African drummers and torchbearers. She later said her award came with a responsibility.

“Tonight I feel moved to speak for those women whose voices have been silenced,” she said. “I am one of those voices, women who have been gagged, literally and metaphorically, women who have been abused, women who have lived with fear, I stand with you.

“Tonight I carry the hope that a new world is emerging. Women, our voices will be heard!”

Other than Jackson’s call for gender equality, the show was all about the dazzle provided by the costumes, choreography and the elaborate light and video displays on the huge circular stage.

With pop star Ariana Grande shut out despite her five nominations, Cabello was the undisputed star of the night.

The 21-year-old Cabello beat out Grande, Drake, Dua Lipa and Post Malone for best artist, while her sultry hit “Havana” took the trophy for best song and best video. She also topped the category for best act.

Last year, Cabello won the award for best pop artist at the edition held in London. Born in Havana before her family left for Miami, Cabello was discovered on the U.S. version of X-Factor and formed a part of the group Fifth Harmony.

The 25th edition of the awards, formerly known as the as the MTV Europe Music Awards, was as usual loaded with eye-catching performances, as well as references to Bilbao’s links to the art world, first and foremost thanks to the city’s Guggenheim Museum.

Host Hailee Steinfeld opened the show with a video sketch featuring her breaking into an art gallery to “steal” one of the MTV trophies, only to then emerge on stage in a tiny silver dress. Several costume changes later, she became a “work of art,” in her words, when she donned a long white dress and was sprayed with blue and yellow paint.

After Nicki Minaj and Little Mix got the music going, the singer of Panic! At The Disco made an action-movie entry. Frontman Brendon Urie was depicted in a video as climbing down the façade of the Bilbao Exhibition Centre before he was lowed from the hall’s ceiling while singing the opening of “High Hopes.”

When his group won the best alternative award, Urie announced “this is going in my bathroom.”

Minaj won for best hip-hop artist and best look. 5 Seconds of Summer left with the best rock award, Marshmello was voted best electronic artist, and best new artist went to Cardi B.

Shawn Mendes won for best live performer, and British singer-songwriter Dua Lipa was best pop artist.

The spectators went wild singing along to “Malamente” by Spanish sensation Rosalia, but the most moving performance belonged to Halsey. She delivered her heart-torn “Without Me” while chained inside a large transparent cube. When the cube lifted, water poured down on her like rain.

Boy duo Jack & Jack lifted spirits singing “Rise” while being hoisted aloft on wires, spinning and twisting over a stage that depicted a whirlpool until a friendly bunch of fans rushed in to cushion their landing.

On Saturday night, Muse kicked off the weekend’s festivities with guitar-driven rock concert at San Mames Stadium, home to local soccer club Athletic Bilbao.

The MTV EMAs is held in a different European city each year, with winners selected by fans across the continent.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

By the time Mary Keitany was pacing her way up Manhattan’s First Avenue, she had no reason to look back for challengers. The Kenyan’s lead was growing over the strong women’s field with every stride, and all she thought about was the finish line.

Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia didn’t break out into a big grin until he pulled away from two opponents late in the race.

In perfect crisp autumn weather for distance runners, Keitany and Desisa won the New York City Marathon on Sunday in near record times.

Keitany, 36, became the second woman to win the marathon four times. She ran the race in 2 hours, 22 minutes, 48 seconds, the second fastest time for the course in history. Margaret Okayo of Kenya set the record of 2:22:31 in 2003.

“I can say the course record was not in my mind,” Keitany said. “For me, winning was the most important.”

Desisa, 28, held off countryman Shura Kitata by 1.99 seconds for his first win in New York, joining victories at the Boston Marathon in 2013 and 2015. He finished second in New York in 2014 and third in 2015 and 2017.

“This is my dream,” Desisa said. “To be a champion.”

Desisa finished in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 59 seconds, the second fastest time for the course. Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya set the record of 2:05:05 in 2011. Last year’s winner, Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya, finished third.

“I’m pretty happy to finish on the podium,” Kamworor said. “I came out the best that I could in the race. I tried my best, and I’m happy to be third.”

Keitany won in 2014, 2015 and 2016 before coming in second last year to Shalane Flanagan, the first American woman in 40 years to win the New York City Marathon. She joined Grete Waitz, the Norwegian who won the marathon nine times between 1978-1988, as the only women to win the marathon four times.

She and Ethiopians Rahma Tusa and Gudeta turned their race to a three-woman field at the 15-mile mark. Keitany pulled away from Tusa and Gudeta at the 19-mile mark, leading Tusa by 26.58 seconds and Gudeta by 43.98 seconds. She extended her lead over Tusa to 1:27.83 at the 21-mile mark.

From that point, the question was not whether Keitany would win. Rather, it was by how much.

She beat countrywoman Vivian Cheruiyot by 3 minutes, 13 seconds.

Flanagan finished third.

“You have to find motivation, things to focus on,” Flanagan said. “When I finally got to third place, I got another level of excitement because I was fighting.”

The United States had four women finish in the top 10: Molly Huddle was fourth, Desiree Linden was sixth and Allie Kieffer was seventh.

Four American men also finished in the top 10: Jared Ward was sixth, Scott Fauble was seventh, Shadrack Biwott was ninth and Chris Derrick was tenth.

Daniel Romanchuk became the first American to win the men’s wheelchair division, with a time of 1:36:21. Romanchuk finished 01.15 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Marcel Hug. David Weir of Britain, American Aaron Pike and Australian Kurt Fernley rounded out the top five.

“I need air and I’m in pain,” said Romanchuk, a 20-year old from Champaign, Illinois, who won the Chicago Marathon last month. “It’s wonderful to be able to win my two Abbott major marathons on American soil. It’s an amazing experience.”

Manuela Schar of Switzerland repeated as winner of the women’s wheelchair division. Schar, who also won the Berlin and Chicago marathons, finished with a time of 1:50:27. American Tatyana McFadden finished second with a time of 1:50:48. Lihong Zou of China came in third. Eliza Ault-Connell of Australia and Margriet Van Den Broek of the Netherlands finished fourth and fifth.

“New York is always a really tough one for me because of the course,” Schar said. “I’m not really a good climber so I always have to work really hard in the flat part. Yeah (I) tried to make that ground that I lose in the hills. I’m always a bit more nervous before New York than before the other races.”

Retired NFL running back Tiki Barber finished the race in 4:44:47. He has run the marathon every year since 2014, with his best time being 4:28:26 in 2016. Actress Teri Hatcher recorded a time of 5:51:21 in her second marathon. In 2014, she compiled a time of 5:06:42.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

The UN Migration Agency has begun providing life-saving health care to two Somali towns previously inaccessible because of war and conflict.

Tens of thousands of people in the towns of Gobweyn and Bulla Gaduud have been deprived of life-saving health care for nearly three decades. These areas have been too dangerous for aid workers to reach because of the never-ending cycles of war and conflict in the area.

In recent months, International Organization for Migration spokesman, Joel Millman says government forces have succeeded in subduing the armed groups that have made life a misery for local inhabitants. This, he says has opened up these areas to outside help.

“For the past 27 years, war and conflict have made healthcare access difficult or impossible in many parts of the country. Now these communities have access to vaccinations, malaria treatment, antenatal care for pregnant mothers, malnutrition screenings and referrals, among other essential services,” Millman said.

Millman says aid agencies who finally were able to reach these towns were dismayed by the prevailing conditions. He says they found high levels of malnutrition and extremely poor immunization coverage.

Because the towns had no humanitarian services, he says many people had abandoned their villages. He says they were living in overcrowded settlements in far-away urban centers where medical care was available.

He says it is likely many of these displaced people will decide to return to their communities now that the life-saving aid they need can be had closer to home.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

A prosthetic center in Iraq’s holy city of Karbala is introducing highly advanced robotic limbs, offering amputees a new beginning by enabling them to regain mobility and independence. VOA’s Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

Aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing food industry and now accounts for more than 50 percent of the total global seafood supply, according to the World Economic Forum. But farming fish requires food for those fish, and currently, it relies on a lot of ingredients that could be feeding people, including soybean, corn, rice and wheat. Faith Lapidus reports on some new sustainable ideas about feeding farmed fish, from Norway.
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From: MeNeedIt

Four U.N. specialized agencies warn that many parts of Asia and the Pacific suffer from alarmingly high levels of malnutrition and hunger. This is the first time the Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.N. Children’s Fund, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization have issued a joint report, which calls for urgent action to reverse the situation.

The report finds efforts to reduce malnutrition and hunger have come to a virtual standstill in Asia and the Pacific. Unless greater effort is made to tackle this situation, it warns prospects for economic and social development in the region will be at serious risk.  

As of now, the U.N. agencies say many parts of Asia and the Pacific will not reach the U.N. sustainable goal of ending all forms of malnutrition and achieving zero hunger by 2030.  

The United Nations reports 821 million people globally suffer from hunger. World Food Program spokesman Herve Verhoosel said 62 percent of that number, or 509 million people, are in the Asia-Pacific region, with children, in particular, bearing the biggest burden.

Verhoosel said 79 million children, or one in every four under age five, suffer from stunting, and 34 million children are wasting. He says 12 million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, which increases their risk of death.

The report notes climate-related disasters are rising in the region, having a detrimental impact on agriculture. Loss of crops, it says, results in more hunger, more loss of nutrition and loss of livelihood.

According to the report, climate-related losses in Asia between 2005 and 2015 amounted to a staggering $48 billion. Authors of the report say countries in the region must adapt agriculture so it’s more resilient to extreme climate events, and to mitigate the damage from climate change.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

For the first time an underwater robot is to be used to plant baby coral to parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef damaged by mass bleaching, as scientists plan to collect hundreds of millions of coral spawn off the Queensland city of Cairns in the coming weeks.

Most coral reproduce through spawning, where eggs and sperm are pushed into the water at the same time.  In northern Australia, researchers are preparing to harvest this mass release of coral spawn on the Great Barrier Reef.  They will be reared into baby corals in floating enclosures.  Then they will be delivered as so-called ‘larval clouds’ to Vlasoff Reef about an hour’s sailing from Cairns by a semi-autonomous robot.

Professor Peter Harrison, the director of the Marine Ecology Research Center at Southern Cross University, said science is giving a nature a helping hand.

“What we are trying to do now is compensate for the loss of corals that would normally provide enough larvae for the system to naturally heal,” Harrison said.

Large areas of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have been damaged by severe bleaching – or loss of the algae that gives coral its color.  The bleaching is caused by rising water temperatures and made worse by climate change.

The experiment on Vlasoff reef, which was badly affected by the mass bleaching, will be coordinated by divers, who will guide the spawn-spreading robot, known as the LarvalBot.   

Professor Matthew Dunbabin from the Queensland University of Technology says time is of essence.

“In future projects we are hoping that we can start to do that more autonomously, but this is very new and we are up against the clock in terms of trying to get this in the field as quick as possible to make sure that we can have a reef to preserve,” Dunbabin said.

A coral reef is made up of millions of tiny animals called coral polyps.  The reefs are critical ecosystems, and provide a home for at least a quarter of all marine species.

The Great Barrier Reef is about the same size as Italy or Japan.  Thirty species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises have been recorded along the reef.

It faces a range of threats, from climate change and overfishing, to the run-off of pollution from farms, to coral-eating crown of thorns starfish.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

Many people know that a woman’s health, including her diet and exercise habits, can impact the health of her baby even before she gets pregnant. But, until recently, little was known about a father’s diet and exercise choices.

Matthew Hurt is teaching his young sons how to hit a baseball. He wants them to enjoy sports and exercising.

“I want it to be just natural for them. I don’t want it to be a chore. I want them to just want to go outside, want to be active and enjoy life to its fullest.”

Impact of exercise

A study at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center looked at the impact of fathers’ exercise habits on their offspring.

Kristin Stanford is a member of Ohio State’s Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center. She co-led the study. The results showed that even moderate exercise before a baby was conceived “resulted in an improved metabolic health in their adult offspring. Essentially, it improved their glucose metabolism, decreased body weight and increased their insulin sensitivity.”

The World Health Organization says 1 in 4 adults worldwide are dangerously inactive. That increases the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.

Inactivity also has social and economic consequences.

The research at Ohio State was done in mice. More work needs to be done to see if it applies to people as well.

“The idea would be that if you have a dad who wants to have a child, if they would exercise maybe just a month prior to conception, that would have a really dramatic effect on their child’s life.” 

Poor diet? Just exercise

The researchers also found that exercise helped even with a poor diet. Sedentary mice fed a high fat diet passed along negative health issues like obesity and insulin resistance, but those effects were completely reversed by exercise.

“A high-fat diet, even mild high-fat diet, in this case it was only three weeks, changes the profile, but exercise kind of restored it back to normal.”

More work needs to be done to see if the same applies to humans. But in the animal studies, exercise for the male mouse was key to the health of his offspring. 
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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. employers added a stellar 250,000 jobs last month and boosted average pay by the most in nearly a decade in an effort to attract and keep workers.

The Labor Department’s monthly jobs report, the last major economic data before the Nov. 6 election, also shows the unemployment rate remained at a five-decade low of 3.7 percent.

The influx of new job-seekers lifted the proportion of Americans with jobs to the highest level since January 2009.

Consumers are the most confident they have been in 18 years and are spending freely and propelling brisk economic growth. The U.S. economy is in its 10th year of expansion, the second-longest such period on record, and October marks the 100th straight month of hiring, a record streak.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

A website popular with racists that was used by the man charged in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre was shut down within hours of the slaughter, but it hardly mattered: Anti-Semites and racists who hang out in such havens just moved to other online forums.

On Wednesday, four days after 11 people were fatally shot in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, anonymous posters on another website popular with white supremacists, Stormfront, claimed the bloodshed at Tree of Life synagogue was an elaborate fake staged by actors. The site’s operator, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, said traffic has increased about 45 percent since the shooting.

The anti-Semitic rhetoric was just as bad on another site popular with white supremacists, The Daily Stormer, where a headline said: “Just go, Jews. You’re not welcome.”

Trying to stop the online vitriol that opponents say fuels real-world bloodshed is a constant battle for groups that monitor hate, and victories are hard to come by. Shut down one platform like Gab, where the shooting suspect posted a message shortly before the attack, and another one remains or a new one opens.

The problem dates back to the dawn of the internet, when users connected their computers to each other by dialing telephone numbers. A report issued by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League in 1985 found there were two online “networks of hate” in the United States, both run by neo-Nazis who spread anti-Semitic, racist propaganda.

Today, the vastness of the online world is a big part of the problem, said Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Center for Extremism. Determining how many hate sites exist is nearly impossible, he said.

“It’s really difficult to put an actual number on it, but I would say this: There are thousands of hate sites and there are dozens and dozens of platforms in which hate exists,” Segal said.

A new study by the VOX-Pol Network of Excellence, composed of academic researchers who study online extremism, said the exact number of far-right adherents on just one platform, Twitter, is impossible to determine. But at least 100,000 people and automated accounts are aligned with radicals commonly referred to as the “alt-right,” the study found, and the true number is probably more than twice that.

An ADL report released a day before the shooting said extremists had increased anti-Semitic harassment against Jewish journalists, political candidates and others ahead of the midterm elections. Researchers who analyzed more than 7.5 million Twitter messages from Aug. 31 to Sept. 17 found almost 30 percent of the accounts repeatedly tweeting derogatory terms about Jews appeared to be automated “bots” that spread the message further and faster than if only people were involved.

The New York-based ADL said that before the 2016 election of President Donald Trump anti-Semitic harassment was rare, but afterward it became a daily occurrence. It commissioned a report in May that estimated about 3 million Twitter users posted or re-posted at least 4.2 million anti-Semitic tweets in English over a 12-month period ending Jan. 28.

Gab shutdown

The story of Gab, the platform where Robert Gregory Bowers allegedly wrote an ominous message early Saturday before the shooting, shows how new sites spring up in a hate-filled environment.

Created in 2016 to counter what founder Andrew Torba viewed as liberal censorship on social networks, Gab gained popularity among white supremacists and other right-wing radicals after tech companies clamped down on racist sites following the deadly clash at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Daily Stormer was offline briefly after the violence but re-emerged on a new host.

With Gab now shut down after the synagogue shooting, Torba is portraying the platform not as a hate-filled corner of the internet, but as a bastion of free speech that’s working with federal authorities “to bring justice to an alleged terrorist.”

A message posted by Torba said Gab was trying to get back online, and Segal has few doubts it will succeed.

Don Black, the former Klan leader who runs Stormfront, said traffic is up partly because of the Gab shutdown and partly because of increased interest among users. His site, which has been in operation since 1995 and has about 330,000 registered users, has only had one “prolonged” shutdown — a month following the Charlottesville melee, he said.

“I expect all sorts of more trouble now because of the Pittsburgh shooting,” Black said.

Free speech

Purging hateful content from the internet is a challenge. The Constitution’s guarantee of free-speech provides a roadblock to banning hate speech in the United States, according to the First Amendment Center, a project of the Washington-based Freedom Forum Institute.

“Political speech receives the greatest protection under the First Amendment, and discrimination against viewpoints runs counter to free-speech principles. Much hate speech qualifies as political, even if misguided,” said an essay by center scholar David L. Hudson Jr. and Mahad Ghani, a fellow with the center.

Some advocate other tactics for curbing hate.

Three days before the synagogue attack, a coalition that includes the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal advocacy organization that monitors hate groups, released a proposed framework aimed at social media companies.

The plan is geared around a model terms-of-service policy that states that platform users “may not use these services to engage in hateful activities or use these services to facilitate hateful activities engaged in elsewhere.” Next year, sponsors plan to begin posting report cards showing how sites are doing at quelling hate speech.

No company has publicly announced plans to adopt the coalition’s guidelines, but Segal said the ADL separately has talked with several social media companies about limiting hate speech. Companies have been welcoming but solutions remain elusive, he said.

Segal added: “The commitment to eradicating hate from platforms is not always matched by the ability to do so because there is just so much content out there.”
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From: MeNeedIt

It was a protest that went around the globe. 

From Singapore to Dublin, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Pryor, Oklahoma, Google employees walked out of their offices to protest the internet search giant’s handling of sexual discrimination cases, and express their frustration with its workplace culture. 

In San Francisco, where Google has several offices, hundreds of workers congregated at a plaza where they gave speeches and held signs. One read: “I reported and he got promoted.”

The unusual protest — tech companies are not unionized and typically keep strife about personnel matters behind closed doors — riveted Silicon Valley, which has struggled in recent years over the treatment of women in the industry.

Resignation, severance

The Google protest was spurred by a New York Times story that outlined allegations against high-profile leaders at the firm, including Andy Rubin, known as “the father of Android,” who was reportedly paid $90 million in severance. Rubin has denied the allegations in the article, as well as reports of his severance amount. 

Richard DeVaul, a director at X, a unit of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, resigned from the company on Tuesday. He was accused of making unwanted advances to a woman who was a job applicant at the firm. 

List of demands

“We are a small part of a massive movement that has been growing for a long time,” protest organizers said in an article published in the online magazine The Cut. “We are inspired by everyone — from the women in fast food who led an action against sexual harassment to the thousands of women in the #metoo movement who have been the beginning of the end for this type of abuse.”

Leaders of the protest issued a list of demands, including that Alphabet add a worker-representative to its board of directors and that the firm internally disclose pay equity information. 

They also asked the company to revise its human resources practices to make the harassment claims filing process more equitable, and to create a “publicly disclosed sexual harassment transparency report.” 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees that “as CEO, it’s been personally important to me that we take a much harder line on inappropriate behavior. … We have taken many steps to do so, and know our work is still not done.”

Social media protest

The global protest unfolded on Twitter and Facebook as employees from offices around the world posted photos of themselves walking out at the appointed time of 11:10 a.m. 

The greatest concentration of Google workers is in the San Francisco area. In San Bruno, 12 miles south of San Francisco, employees at YouTube, which is part of Google, walked out, as did those in Mountain View, company headquarters. 

“As a woman, I feel personally unsafe, because if something were to happen, what accountability measures will be in place to make sure that justice is sought?” said Google employee Rana Abdelhamid at the San Francisco protest. 

Christian Boyd, another Google employee, was angry about what she said was protecting the powerful, even in the face of credible allegations. 

“It’s sad to see that what we consider the best companies are not immune to this, as well,” Boyd said.

After 30 minutes of speeches, the workers went back to their offices but vowed to continue pressuring Google to change. 
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From: MeNeedIt

The Pistol Annies’ sassy new song about reclaiming singlehood called “Got My Name Changed Back” has raised some eyebrows for its lyrics about a husband who cheats while on the road and prompted speculation about who might have inspired it.

The trio of Miranda Lambert, Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe won’t say, but Presley notes that there are two divorces and two ex-husbands between them.

“It was a feel-good divorce song that was needed,” Presley said. “You’re welcome.”

“We can say whatever we want together a little more bravely than we ever would alone,” Lambert added. “Our whole catalog has been about celebrating things that weren’t so positive and putting them in a humorous light.”

The women tackle failed marriages, desperate wives, female friendships and complicated women with a lot of wry humor and just the right amount of sadness on their first album in five years called “Interstate Gospel,” out on Friday.

They wrote the record together without any outside writers, which has mostly been their pattern. “We haven’t written any songs with other writers,” Lambert said, but then the other two correct her, noting there was one song on their first album that her ex-husband Blake Shelton co-wrote with them.

“Oh well, he’s gone,” Lambert said with a laugh.

It was another divorce song that prompted them to start writing again after years of each working individually on their solo albums.

Lambert came up with a verse and chorus for the regretful tune, “When I Was His Wife,” and sent it to Presley and Monroe in a voice note. Soon after they were hanging out at Lambert’s house churning out songs.

“We don’t do per se writing sessions,” Presley said.

“We do slumber parties with guitars,” Lambert said.

The break between records has been productive for all three singers. Lambert released a critically-acclaimed double album, “The Weight of These Wings,” while Monroe and Presley each released two solo albums over the past five years.

“It’s like we have so much life to talk about, we have enough for solo projects and as a band,” Lambert said.

The song they will admit is about themselves is “Stop Drop and Roll One,” a country rocker in which they celebrate their differences and similarities. As the song goes, “One’s got the matches, one’s got the lashes, one’s running her mouth again.”

“If we all dumped our purses out on the table, it would be ‘Stop Drop and Roll One,’” Presley said.

A song like “Best Years of My Life” showcases their ability to craft emotionally complex female characters longing for escape from their monotonous lives through a recreational drug or a trashy TV show. “Masterpiece” acknowledges the public fascination with the glossy image of a perfect relationship, even if it’s not real.

“There’s a lot of stuff that you have to go through (as a woman),” said Monroe. “This album touches on a lot of that and there’s some humor and twists in there that make it a little less hard.”

The trio isn’t doing a tour to promote the album, just three shows in Nashville, New York and Los Angeles, mostly because Presley is pregnant, although they will be performing at the Country Music Association Awards on Nov. 14.

“This record feels very special and I feel like when we do an intimate couple of shows, it gives people a chance to live with it on tape and live with it in person and go from there,” Lambert said.
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From: MeNeedIt