Facebook is working with three global relief organizations to provide disaster maps — close to real-time data about where people are, where they are moving, and whether they are in danger in the hours and days after a flood, fire or earthquake.

The social networking giant — with nearly 2 billion users, or about 25 percent of the world’s population — said it has agreed to provide maps to UNICEF, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the World Food Program, the food-assistance branch of the United Nations.

“We are excited about this,” said Tony Wicks, a data strategist at UNICEF. “Facebook has vast amounts of data.”

The company will provide maps of data in the aggregate. No Facebook user will be identified, the firm said.

After a disaster, “the first thing you need is data, which is extremely scarce and perishable,” said Molly Jackman, a public policy manager at Facebook. But Facebook, particularly in areas with a high concentration of users, can “present a more complete picture of where people are,” she said.

Types of maps

Facebook will offer the organizations three types of disaster maps that will be updated as frequently as possible.

Facebook’s location density maps show where people are located before, during and after a disaster. In addition to using satellite images and population estimates, these maps also draw from Facebook users who have their location data setting turned on.

Facebook’s movement maps show how people move during and after a disaster, and can help organizations with directing resources. For example, Facebook created maps after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Kaikoura, New Zealand, last year to show where people were going in the days after the quake struck.

Facebook’s Safety Check maps are based on where Facebook users are when they use the firm’s Safety Check service to tell friends and family they are safe. Facebook will create maps showing areas where people are declaring themselves safe and where help may be needed.

For example, after a disaster, “we might know where the house is, but we don’t know where the people are,” said Dale Kunce, global lead for information communication technology and analytics for the American Red Cross.

“Our first reaction may be to go to where the devastation happened,” Kunce said. “But maybe most people are 10 miles away, staying with families when they reported they were safe. So the place to go may be where they are. We’re excited to see what the possibilities and potential are.”

Snapshots

Wicks, of UNICEF, said the partnership is at the beginning stages, but daily snapshots of where populations are have the potential to help his organization with disaster planning. For example, knowing how close people are to a health facility and how long it takes for them to travel to a medical clinic can help with decisions such as where to deploy medical services in case of a disaster.

The data maps will be most helpful in places where internet connectivity is high and in regions with a lot of Facebook users, Wicks said.

“Are these data representative of the populations we are trying to serve?” Wicks asked. “That’s the key question.”

Facebook said that it intends to make it possible for other organizations and governments, including local organizations, to be part of the program.
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From: MeNeedIt

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that he won’t commit to holding a vote to increase the government’s borrowing authority this summer.

The Wisconsin Republican instead says the House will vote on such debt legislation before the government defaults — but not necessarily by an August deadline requested last month by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

“We’re going to address the debt ceiling before we hit the debt ceiling,” Ryan told reporters.

Increasing the so-called debt limit is needed to avert a first-ever default on U.S. obligations such as interest payments and Social Security benefits.

Increasing the debt limit requires legislation by Congress and is invariably a headache. Conservative Republicans say they would like to condition lifting the government’s almost $20 trillion borrowing limit on passing cuts to other government programs.

Mnuchin wants an increase in the debt limit as quickly as possible and has said spending cuts can wait until later.

But White House budget director Mick Mulvaney has said he would like spending cuts to accompany a debt increase. Such a public difference of opinion is unusual, but it has now become clear the Mnuchin is taking the lead for the administration.

“The Treasury secretary is and should always be the person in charge of debt limit negotiations, debt limit legislation. That’s a natural thing. Every Treasury secretary is in charge of that,” Ryan said.

Ryan won’t commit to a debt measure that’s free of add-ons. He supported the most recent debt increase, negotiated with the Obama administration, which was paired with a two-year budget plan that lifted agency spending limits and imposed modest spending cuts.

“We’re going to work with them on this,” Ryan said. “We’re having long, ongoing conversations with our members about how to address this and we’ll address it before we hit the debt limit.”

The government has officially hit its borrowing capacity, but Mnuchin is using accounting maneuvers to maintain the government’s solvency for the time being.

Mnuchin hasn’t publicly said when Treasury will run out of options to avert a default, but outside experts have estimated that the government probably won’t run out of money until September or later.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

Drinking even moderate amounts of alcohol is linked to changes in brain structure and an increased risk of worsening brain function, scientists said Tuesday.

In a 30-year study that looked at the brains of 550 middle-aged heavy drinkers, moderate drinkers and teetotalers, the researchers found people who drank more alcohol had a greater risk of hippocampal atrophy — a form of brain damage that affects memory and spatial navigation.

People who drank more than 30 units a week on average had the highest risk, but even those who drank moderately — between 14 and 21 units a week — were far more likely than abstainers to have hippocampal atrophy, the scientists said.

“And we found no support for a protective effect of light consumption on brain structure,” they added.

The research team — from the University of Oxford and University College London — said their results supported a recent lowering of drinking limit guidelines in Britain, but posed questions about limits recommended in the United States.

U.S. guidelines suggest that up to 24.5 units of alcohol a week is safe for men, but the study found increased risk of brain structure changes at just 14 to 21 units a week.

A unit is defined as 10 milliliters (ml) of pure alcohol. There are roughly two in a large beer, nine in a bottle of wine and one in a 25 ml spirit shot.

Harder to justify

Killian Welch, a Royal Edinburgh Hospital neuropsychiatrist who was not directly involved in the study, said the results, published in the BMJ British Medical Journal, underlined “the argument that drinking habits many regard as normal have adverse consequences for health.”

“We all use rationalizations to justify persistence with behaviors not in our long-term interest. With [these results], justification of ‘moderate’ drinking on the grounds of brain health becomes a little harder,” he said.

The study analyzed data on weekly alcohol intake and cognitive performance measured repeatedly over 30 years between 1985 and 2015 for 550 healthy men and women with an average age of 43 at the start of the study. Brain function tests were carried out at regular intervals, and at the end of the study participants were given an MRI brain scan.

After adjusting for several important potential confounders such as gender, education, social class, physical and social activity, smoking, stroke risk and medical history, the scientists found that higher alcohol consumption was associated with increased risk of brain function decline.

Drinking more was also linked to poorer “white matter integrity” — a factor they described as critical when it comes to cognitive functioning.

The researchers noted that with an observational study like this, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect.

They added, however, that the findings could have important public health implications for a large sector of the population.
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From: MeNeedIt

The World Health Organization published a new classification of antibiotics Tuesday that aims to fight drug resistance, with penicillin-type drugs recommended as the first line of defense and others for use only when absolutely necessary.

The new “essential medicines list” includes 39 antibiotics for 21 common syndromes, categorized into three groups: “Access,” “Watch” and “Reserve.”

Drugs on the “Access” list have lower resistance potential and include the widely used amoxicillin.

The “Watch” list includes ciprofloxacin, which is commonly prescribed for cystitis and strep throat but “not that effective,” Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO assistant director-general for health systems and innovation, told reporters.

Its use should be “dramatically reduced,” the WHO said.

“We think that the political will is there, but this needs to be followed by strong policies,” Kieny said.

The “Reserve” category antibiotics such as colistin should be seen as a last resort. That prompts questions about how producers of such antibiotics could make money, said Suzanne Hill, WHO’s director of essential medicines and health products.

‘Keep it in reserve’

“What we need to do is stop paying for antibiotics based on how many times they are prescribed, to discourage use. We don’t want colistin used very frequently. In fact, we don’t want it used at all,” Hill said. “What we need to do as a global community is work out how we pay the company not to market colistin and not to promote it and to keep it in reserve.”

The WHO classification takes into account the use of antibiotics for animal health use, and was developed together with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health.

Other changes to the list included the addition of two oral cancer treatments, a new pill for hepatitis C that combines two medicines, a more effective treatment for HIV, and new pediatric formulations of medicines for tuberculosis.

But the WHO also said Roche’s well-known flu drug oseltamivir, marketed as Tamiflu, may be removed from the list unless new information supports its use in seasonal and pandemic influenza outbreaks.

“There is an updated data set compared to when the committee evaluated this product last, and what that suggests is that the size of the effect of oseltamivir in the context of pandemic influenza is less than previously thought,” Hill said.

But oseltamivir was the only listed antiviral, and was still useful for pregnant women and patients with complications, so the drug should be restricted to the most critical patients, she added.
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From: MeNeedIt

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday that by 2050 global demand for fresh water is projected to grow by more than 40 percent and at least a quarter of the world’s population will live in countries with a “chronic or recurrent” lack of clean water.

He told the Security Council that “strains on water access are already rising in all regions,” noting that three-quarters of the 193 U.N. member states share rivers or lake basins with their neighbors.

“Water, peace and security are inextricably linked,” Guterres said. “Without effective management of our water resources, we risk intensified disputes between communities and sectors and increased tensions among nations.”

The secretary-general said the United Nations is ready to engage in preventive diplomacy to keep the competition for water from sparking conflicts.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, whose country currently holds the council presidency, noted that since 1947, some 37 conflicts have taken place between countries related to water.

“Our planet, the human family and life in all its myriad forms on Earth are in the throes of a water crisis that will only get worse over the coming decades,” he said.

“If current patterns of consumption continue unabated, two-thirds of the world’s population will be facing water shortages as a daily reality by 2025,” Morales added.

Right now, he said, more than 800 million people lack access to safe drinking water and more than 2.5 billion don’t have basic sanitation.

Morales, who presided over the meeting, said the limited availability of fresh water underscores the importance of tackling the issue and ensuring that access to clean water is shared and doesn’t become “a pretext for domestic or international conflict.”

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said the world has already seen what can happen “when the waters run dry,” pointing to drought in Somalia that is driving acute food shortages and threatening famine and a lack of clean water that is exacerbating the crisis sparked by Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria and sickening thousands.

He said the world currently is not on track to meet U.N. goals for 2030 calling for improved water security, access to drinking water and sanitation, as well as stronger management of water resources shared by countries.

In South Asia, Rycroft said, 1 billion people across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan rely heavily on just three rivers, but “despite facing similar problems posed by water demand and climate change, regional collaboration between these countries is limited.”

Rycroft said Britain has provided $30 million over the past five years to support a regional approach to “identify and resolve challenges affecting these transboundary waters.”

But to tackle the problem globally, he urged the world’s developed nations to also invest in delivering improved water security within and between states.

In one example of regional cooperation, Ethiopian Ambassador Tekeda Alemu said that while there are differences between the six countries that are upstream and downstream on the Nile River, those nations negotiated for 13 years to produce an agreement on using its waters. It was signed by all six nations and is awaiting ratification by three of them.

“The cooperation between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan and the signing of the Declaration of Principles by the leaders of the three countries is also another manifestation of regional cooperation that needs to be enhanced further,” he said.
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From: MeNeedIt

A kiss from a colorful reef fish called a tubelip wrasse is no one’s idea of romance, being so full of slime and suction, but it is perfectly suited for eating a hazardous diet using one of the animal kingdom’s most unique feeding strategies.

Scientists on Monday described for the first time how the fish thrives in the Indian Ocean and central-western Pacific as one of the few creatures capable of dining on corals, one of the planet’s most difficult menu items.

Corals are marine organisms boasting thin, mucus-covered flesh that contains venomous, stinging cells spread over a razor-sharp skeleton. Of the more than 6,000 fish species that live on reefs, only about 128 eat corals. Scientists knew that the yellow-and-purple tubelip wrasse was one of them, but how it did it was a mystery.

The researchers used a scanning electron microscope to determine the structure of its fleshy, pouty-looking lips and high-speed video to learn what it does while feeding.

“Kissing the mucus and flesh of corals with self-lubricating lips was not what we were expecting,” said marine biologist Víctor Huertas of James Cook University in Australia.

The thick lips of the fish, which reaches about 7 inches (18 cm) long, were found to be made of a tightly packed series of thin folds of tissue, like the underside of a mushroom top, covered in slime from mucus-secreting cells.

“To our knowledge, this type of lip has never been recorded before,” James Cook University marine biologist David Bellwood said.

They discovered that the fish approaches the coral slowly and inspects its surface, protrudes its jaws, then produces powerful suction as its lips make contact with the coral for two-100ths of a second. In that scant time, it ingests the flesh and coral mucus off the coral skeleton.

“It looks exactly like a quick kiss with a distinctive ‘tuk’ sound,” Huertas said, “often leaving a coral ‘hickie,’ which is actually a patch of flesh sucked off the skeleton.”

“It would be a good basis for a horror movie,” Bellwood added.

The mucous coat may protect the lips from the stinging cells, help to seal them against the coral surface to enhance suction force and serve as a conveyor belt that captures the coral mucus and the stinging cells being ingested, the researchers said.

The research was published in the journal Current Biology.
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From: MeNeedIt

Bob Dylan has completed his Nobel course requirements.

The Swedish Academy announced Monday that it has received the mandatory lecture from the 2016 literature winner, enabling Dylan to collect 8 million Swedish kronor ($922,000) in prize money.

Spokeswoman Sara Danius described Dylan’s talk in a news release as “extraordinary” and “eloquent.” Nobel Prize officials said the 26-minute talk was recorded on Sunday in Los Angeles and an audio clip is posted on the academy’s website.

Danius said its delivery to the academy meant that “the Dylan adventure is coming to a close.” Dylan, widely regarded as the most influential songwriter of his time, received the Nobel Literature diploma and medal in April but was still required to give a speech to receive the money.

Dylan took weeks to publicly acknowledge even winning the prize, announced in October, and greeted with both joy and dismay that a rock star had received an honor previously given to William Faulkner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Alice Munro among others.

He did not attend December’s Nobel ceremony in Stockholm and his acceptance remarks were read by the United States Ambassador to Sweden, Azita Raji.

Dylan’s songs have drawn on literary influences from Beat poetry to Anton Chekhov and his recording was a celebration of books and music and of the common language among art forms. In a warm, raspy delivery, with lounge-style piano in the background, he called Buddy Holly his first musical hero, praised his “imaginative verses” and remembered seeing him in concert not long before Holly died in a 1959 plane crash.

“Something about him seemed permanent and he filled me with conviction,” Dylan said of seeing Holly on stage.  “Then out of the blue, the most uncanny thing happened, he looked at me right straight there in the eye and he transmitted something, something I didn’t know what. It gave me the chills.”

Dylan said that folk songs were his earliest musical vocabulary, but that books such as “Ivanhoe” and “Don Quixote” helped shape his view of the world and inspire him to write songs “unlike anything anybody had ever heard.” From the start, he believed in absorbing classical texts and the vernacular of the day.

He discussed three works at length: “Moby Dick,” (a reminder we “see only the surface of things”), “All Quiet On the Western Front” (in which “death is everywhere, nothing else is possible”) and “The Odyssey,” a “strange, adventurous tale” he likened to such modern pop songs as Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound.” He concluded by noting that Shakespeare’s words were meant to be spoken, “Just as lyrics in songs are meant to be sung, not read on a page.”

“And I hope some of you get the chance to listen to these lyrics the way they were intended to be heard: in concert or on record or however people are listening to songs these days,” he said. “I return once again to Homer, who says, `Sing in me, oh Muse, and through me tell the story.’”
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From: MeNeedIt

Global airlines made a full-throated defense of globalization on Monday at their largest annual gathering, vowing not to give up on climate change agreements and calling for a swift resolution of a diplomatic rift threatening air travel in the Middle East.

Missing from the general meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Mexico was Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker. Usually a star of the show, he appeared to have left the summit amid a dispute between Arab powers.

Asked about Saudi Arabia and Bahrain’s move to ban Qatari planes from their airports and airspace, IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac called for openness.

“We would like borders to be reopened, the sooner the better,” he told reporters, expanding on earlier remarks in the opening session.

“Aviation is globalization at its very best,” he had told executives from IATA’s more than 200 airlines. “As aviation’s leaders, we must bear witness to the achievements of our connected world.”

Qatar Airways could not be reached for comment.

The Arab rift was a stark reminder of the political risks to the airlines, which have run up healthy profits even as the global consensus they rely upon comes under the threat of nationalist and protectionist political currents.

Forecasting a third straight year of robust earnings, IATA raised its 2017 industry profit outlook on Monday to $31.4 billion, up from a previous forecast of $29.8 billion.

The IATA also raised its outlook for 2017 industry revenue to $743 billion from $736 billion on expectations that the global economy will post its strongest growth in six years.

The forecast underscored a new golden age for airlines’ profitability even as carriers scramble to meet fast-changing electronics restrictions, pressure to limit emissions and unprecedented scrutiny on social media over their every mistake.

A United Nations representative urged airline leaders to stand by an industry emissions accord known as CORSIA even as U.S. President Donald Trump breaks with a climate pact struck in Paris last year.

“We need to promote implementation of this historic agreement,” said Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, president of the U.N.’s International Civil Aviation Organization.

IATA’s de Juniac said the airlines would hold fast to their commitments.

“The very disappointing decision of the U.S. to withdraw from Paris is not a setback for CORSIA,” he told the meeting.  “We remain united behind CORSIA and our climate change goals.”
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From: MeNeedIt

More than a billion people around the world rely on food from the ocean as their primary source of protein. But as the planet’s oceans become more polluted, they are changing and all kinds of marine life are being impacted. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer reports that this week ((June 5-9)) more than 4,000 government, scientific, business and civil society leaders will meet in New York to mobilize for action to stop the decline of our oceans.
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From: MeNeedIt

Ariana Grande returned to the city to pay tribute with an energetic, all-star concert featuring Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Liam Gallagher two weeks after a suicide bombing killed 22 of her fans and injured dozens of others in Manchester, England.

Grande was emotional and teary-eyed throughout the One Love Manchester concert Sunday, which the British Red Cross said raised more than 10 million pounds ($13 million) for the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, created for those affected by the attack at Grande’s May 22 show.  

She closed the three-hour-plus event with a cover of “Over the Rainbow,” crying onstage at the song’s end as the audience cheered her on.

“Manchester, I love you with all of my heart,” Grande said before the performance, and just after singing “One Last Time” with Miley Cyrus, Pharrell and more of the show’s performers standing behind her in solidarity.

Gallagher, formerly of Oasis, earned loud cheers from the audience as he emerged in his home town in surprise form. He sang and offered encouraging words to the crowd, who held inspirational signs in their hands.

One of the most powerful moments was when the Parrs Wood High School Choir performed Grande’s “My Everything” with the singer. The 23-year-old pop star held the young lead performer’s hand, both with tears in their eyes, as the rest of the singers joined in.

Perry also left a mark with her resilient performance: She sang a stripped down version of her hit, “Part of Me.” Backed by two singers and a guitarist, she delivered the song wearing all white, singing, “Throw your sticks and your stones, throw your bombs and your blows, but you’re not gonna break my soul.”

“I encourage you to choose love even when it’s difficult. Let no one take that away from you,” she said.

Bieber shared similar words onstage, even coming close to crying when he spoke about God and those who died at Grande’s show.

“[God] loves you and he’s here for you. I wanna take this moment to honor the people that were lost, that were taken,” he said. “To the families, we love you so much. … Everybody say, ‘We honor you, and we love you.’”

Coldplay were also a crowd favorite, performing well-known songs like “Viva La Vida” and “Fix You.”

Grande performed throughout the show, singing her hits from “Side to Side” to “Break Free.” She even collaborated with others onstage: She sang Fergie’s verse on the Black Eyed Peas hit, “Where Is the Love” along with the group; she performed a duet with Cyrus; and she sang her debut song, “The Way,” with rapper Mac Miller.

Cyrus said she was “so honored to be at this incredible event” and performed “Happy” alongside Pharrell, who also sang “Get Lucky.”

“I don’t feel or smell or hear or see any fear in this building. All we feel here tonight is love, resilience, positivity,” Williams said.

Take That, who are from Manchester, followed with fun energy that the crowd danced to.

“Our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by this,” singer Gary Barlow said. “We want everyone to stand strong.”

Robbie Williams also performed, changing some of his lyrics of “Strong” to honor the Manchester victims.

“Manchester we’re strong … we’re still singing our song,” he sang with the audience of 50,000.

The Manchester concert came the day after attackers targeted the heart of London, killing seven people. Authorities have said the attack started with a van plowing into pedestrians and then involved three men using large knives to attack people in bars and restaurants at a nearby market.

The One Love Manchester concert aired across the globe. Other performers included Little Mix, Niall Horan, Imogen Heap and Victoria Monet.
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From: MeNeedIt

Diversification is a growing trend in some sectors of the agriculture industry. Some winemakers in the northwestern state of Oregon are branching out into marijuana as a new business venture. Faith Lapidus reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

Facebook said it wanted to make its social media platform a “hostile environment” for terrorists in a statement issued after attackers killed seven people in London and prompted Prime Minister Theresa May to demand action from internet firms.

Three attackers rammed a rental van into pedestrians on London Bridge and stabbed others nearby on Saturday night in Britain’s third major militant attack in recent months.

May responded to the attack by calling for an overhaul of the strategy used to combat extremism, including a demand for greater international regulation of the internet, saying big internet companies were partly responsible for providing extreme ideology the space to develop.

Facebook on Sunday said it condemned the London attacks.

“We want Facebook to be a hostile environment for terrorists,” said Simon Milner, Director of Policy at Facebook in an emailed statement.

“Using a combination of technology and human review, we work aggressively to remove terrorist content from our platform as soon as we become aware of it, and if we become aware of an emergency involving imminent harm to someone’s safety, we notify law enforcement.”

May has previously put pressure on internet firms to take more responsibility for content posted on their services. Last month she pledged, if she wins an upcoming election, to create the power to make firms pay towards the cost of policing the internet with an industry-wide levy.

Twitter also said it was working to tackle the spread of militant propaganda on its platform.

“Terrorist content has no place on Twitter,” Nick Pickles, UK head of public policy at Twitter, said in a statement, adding that in the second half of 2016 it had suspended nearly 400,000 accounts.

“We continue to expand the use of technology as part of a systematic approach to removing this type of content.
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From: MeNeedIt