Google’s head of philanthropy says the company is having “a lot of conversations” internally amid worries about the tech giant’s bottomless appetite for consumer data and how it uses its algorithms.
                   
Vice President Jacqueline Fuller wouldn’t comment on specific data privacy controversies dogging Google lately, but says she shares other concerns many have about Big Tech. Cyberbullying. Hate speech amplified online. The impact of artificial intelligence on everything, from jobs to warfare.
                   
“As a consumer myself, as part of the general public, as a mother, it’s very important to understand what am I seeing, what are my children seeing,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press in Paris, where she announced new grant winners Tuesday for projects aimed at teaching digital skills to poor, immigrant, rural or elderly users.
                   
The philanthropic arm she runs, Google.org, is like the company’s conscience, spending $100 million a year on non-profit groups that use technology to try to counteract problems the tech world is accused of creating, abetting or exacerbating.
                  
“Across the world we want to make sure we’re a responsible citizen,” she said.
But can Google’s do-good arm make up for everything else? At least it’s trying, she argues.
                   `
“The company is having a lot of conversations around things like access to information and access to data and making sure there’s no algorithmic bias,” she said.
                  
Public outrage has grown over Google’s use of consumer data and domination of the online search market, with governments stepping up scrutiny of the company.
                   
Just in the past week, nine groups called for the U.S. government to block Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness-gadget maker Fitbit, citing privacy and antitrust concerns. Then Google came under fire for a partnership with U.S. health care system Ascension that the Wall Street Journal says gives the search giant access to thousands of patient health records without doctors’ knowledge. Both companies say the deal is compliant with health-privacy law.
                   
Fuller wouldn’t comment specifically on either case, but said, “We take our users’ trust very seriously.”
                   
She also insisted that the company has a very “vibrant discussion” internally about sexual misconduct, human rights and other problems that have tarnished Google’s reputation.
                   
Its philanthropic arm is focused lately on using artificial intelligence to help society, for example by providing better access to health care and more effective emergency services. It’s also working on ways to limit the damage of the breakneck developments of AI, notably after employee departures and public pressure over a Pentagon contract pushed the company to pledge it wouldn’t use AI in weapons development.
                   
Among projects Google.org is funding are those that help users create and share digital resumes or map job opportunities, as the company tries to figure out “how can we anticipate some of the impacts of AI in an economy, and understand how can we make sure that everyone has access to jobs that are not only interesting now but jobs that are going to be here in the future,” Fuller said.
                   
Google is also holding a competition this year in Europe for projects on “how we can keep children safe,” she said.
                   
Digital literacy is crucial, she said: “All of us need to discern what is truthful of what I see online. How do I ask the questions of who is sponsoring this content.”
                   
In Paris, Fuller announced the winners of Google.org’s latest “Impact Challenge,” contests it holds around the world for non-profits using technology for good. Ten groups won grants worth a total of 3 million euros for projects helping the millions of people in France who lack the basic digital skills that are increasingly crucial for everything from paying taxes to finding a job.
                   
Despite its philanthropic efforts, Google’s critics remain legion _ even within the tech universe.
                   
Former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris argues technology is shortening our attention spans and pushing people toward more extreme views. He couldn’t get Google to tackle these problems when he was there, so he quit and is pushing for change through his Center for Human Technologies.
                   
He says companies like Google won’t change voluntarily but that the tech world has undergone a “sea change” in awareness of problems it’s caused, thanks in part to pressure from a frustrated public.

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Ghana is regarded as a West African hub of invention, with growing numbers of young people looking at local solutions to local problems.  In December, Ghana is hosting two conferences on innovation and technology.

Alhassan Baba Muniru, co-founder of the Recycle Up company, wants to clean up the natural environment in Ghana.

But he also wants to educate, empower and support young people to pursue conservation – and to make money while doing it.

At the December Innovation Africa summit in Accra, he plans to advocate for more support for young inventors, especially those looking to do green business.

“Even while we are in school we are already entrepreneurial so, for me, I can be able to do a formal job but the freedom of being able to bring my own ideas into action and really take charge of doing something practical and something which also makes society better – it’s much more fulfilling,” said Muniru.

Part of Recycle Up’s work includes collecting plastic from schools to sell to people like Nelson Boateng, whose company mixes it with sand to create bricks.  

Muniru and Boateng walk through the factory in the outskirts of Accra, where plastic from across the city is shredded, melted, mixed and then molded into bricks to be used for roads, pavements and buildings.

Boateng, who also manufactures plastic bags, said the bricks are his way of helping to clean up the environment and to provide jobs.

But while Ghana is seeing a spurt in innovation, he said the country needs a lot more infrastructure to support environmentally-friendly business.

“For innovations in Ghana, it’s very, very difficult if you don’t really have the heart.  You will lose hope because honestly speaking when I was doing my polybag that is polluting the environment, I was having a lot of money.  I have money, there wasn’t any problem. When I started this, when you go to the bank they don’t know this, they want something that the money will be flowing, not something you people don’t know –  and not something you say you are trying to save the environment, nobody will mind you on that,” he said.

Supporting local technology startups is expected to be discussed at another December conference in Accra – the second annual Ghana Tech Summit.

Ghanaian inventor Andrew Quao is working to ease the burden on hospitals with technology that allows pharmacies to diagnosis and monitor chronic and tropical diseases.

He said African healthcare sectors like Ghana’s are ripe for innovative solutions.

“I think it is growing in the right direction, I think the climate is good, you have got a good mix of local talent and experience and expats coming in and seeing Ghana as a good point to start, so that also works.  We have the ‘brain gain.’ The diasporans – people like myself who schooled in the U.S. – coming back and trying to bring innovations in country,” said Quao.

While both public and private sectors are backing innovation, entrepreneurs hope to see a swell of support from the Innovation Africa and Ghana Tech summits.

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In her first public appearance since being deported by U.S. authorities who had jailed her for being a Russian agent, Maria Butina was on Monday offered a job by Moscow to defend Russians imprisoned abroad.

During an event for the media, Russia’s human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, offered Butina, 31, a job working for her commission.

“I invite you to work in our group defending compatriots abroad. I’m sure together we’ll be able to do a lot of good for people who’ve ended up in tough situations abroad,” Moskalkova said.

Butina, who flew back to Russia on Oct. 26 after being deported, did not say whether she would accept the offer made at what she called her first public appearance since she was mobbed by wellwishers in front of the media at the airport on her arrival home.

Butina pleaded guilty in December last year to one count of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Russia by infiltrating a gun rights group and influencing U.S. conservative activists and Republicans, a conviction slammed as ridiculous by Moscow.

Russia accused Washington of forcing Butina to confess.

The case put strain on relations that were already under pressure from an array of issues including U.S. allegations of Russian election meddling and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Moscow denies any inteference in U.S. elections.

Moskalkova invited Butina to help her commission defend the rights of Russians abroad such as Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot serving 20 years in the United States for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the country.

Moskalkova said she also knew that Butina had been offered a job in the State Duma, the Russian lower house of parliament, and urged her to accept that one too.

The case of Yaroshenko, who was arrested by U.S. special forces in Liberia in 2010, and others like it have prompted Russia to accuse the United States of hunting its citizens across the world.

The United States has accused the Russians in question of specific crimes and sought their extradition and arrest with regard to those crimes.

Russia said last week it had lodged a formal diplomatic protest after Israel extradited a Russian man to the United States where he faces a slew of serious cyber crime charges.

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Twenty-four Malian soldiers were killed and 29 wounded in an attack on an army patrol in northern Mali on Monday in which 17 militants were also killed, a spokesman for the army said.

The West African country is still reeling from an attack on an army post that killed 54 in early November — one of the deadliest strikes against its military in recent memory, which underscored the increasing reach and sophistication of armed jihadist groups active in the wider region.

The Malian patrol attacked on Monday was in Tabankort, Gao region, while on a joint operation with Niger against militants operating near the border.

“During this attack, Malian forces suffered 24 deaths, 29 wounded as well as equipment damage. On the enemy’s side, 17 were killed and a certain number captured,” army spokesman Diarran Kone said.

The authorities have not named the assailants or identified which group they belonged to. From strongholds in Mali, groups with al Qaeda and Islamic State links have been able to fan out across the Sahel, destabilizing parts of Niger and Burkina Faso.

Violence has surged this autumn with heavy military and civilian losses in Mali and Burkina Faso.

In addition to November’s bloodshed in Mali, 38 Malian soldiers were killed on Sept. 30 in coordinated attacks on two army bases in the center of the country, which has slipped from government control despite the presence of the French army and other international forces.

Meanwhile 39 people were killed in Burkina Faso on Nov. 6 when militants attacked a convoy carrying workers of Canadian gold mining company Semafo.

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The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on four companies and two people operating in Syria, Turkey, the Gulf and Europe for providing financial and logistical support to Islamic State.

The targets were blacklisted under an executive order that imposes sanctions on terrorists and those who have provided assistance or support for terrorists, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

Turkey-based Sahloul Money Exchange Company, Al-Sultan Money Transfer Company and ACL Ithalat Ihracat were targeted for providing financial and logistical support to Islamic State, as were Turkish nationals Ismail Bayaltun and his brother Ahmet Bayaltun.

The Afghanistan-based Nejaat Social Welfare Organization and two of its senior officials, Sayed Habib Ahmad Khan and Rohullah Wakil, were also targeted for supporting activities of the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan.

In a statement, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin characterized the move as a follow-up pressure tactic on the jihadi group after a U.S. special forces operations killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“Following the highly successful operation against al-Baghdadi, the Trump administration is resolved to completely destroy ISIS’s remaining network of terror cells,” Mnuchin said, using an acronym for the group.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets held by those targeted and prohibit Americans from doing business with them.
 

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“Enough, we cannot deal with this anymore,” a visibly disgusted Predica Jean, coordinator for the League of Haitian Women for Reconstruction(Lig Fanm Ayisyen pou Rekonstruksyon)  (LIFAR) said during a press conference in Port-au-Prince.  

“We’re asking all the political actors who are involved to resolve the situation quickly so we can have a country where we can live (in peace and security), where women’s rights are respected,” she added.

Haiti’s League of women is denouncing the gang rape of female prisoners during an attempted jail break by 300 male prisoners. There are STD and pregnancy fears in addition to the psychological trauma. Female activists demand #justice reparations. #Haiti@hrw ?Renan Toussaint pic.twitter.com/ahpu82SoUF

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 14, 2019

Jean decried the gang rape of a dozen female prisoners by male prisoners attempting to escape from a jail in the northern city of Gonaives last week. She asked for justice and reparations for all the women who were violated.

About 340 male prisoners, angry about the jail’s poor living conditions, broke out Nov. 7-8. They had been reportedly held for days in overcrowded cells without food and water. They managed to disarm a guard and break through the gates. Once out, they sought female prisoners in a separate part of the jail, according to witnesses, and raped them repeatedly until a police unit arrived and fired tear gas to stop the attack.

Jean also demanded the immediate release of a female prisoner who remained jailed even though she was set to be released before the attacks.

“They claimed they couldn’t find her release form and held her in jail where she was subjected to rape,” Jean told reporters.

The LIFAR coordinator cited the Geneva Conventions and other international law statutes that demand prisoners of war, as well as civilian prisoners, be treated humanely. “These laws are being violated in our country,” Jean said.

A human rights activist who spoke to VOA Creole said police officers who arrived at the jail during the incident told him they were shaken by what they heard.

“Some of the officers said they were heartbroken and crying when they heard the screams of the women during the criminal actions of the men,” the activist said.

After the incident, the nongovernmental organization Zanmi Lasante (Friends for Health) stepped in to address the rape victims’ immediate health needs, including testing for sexually transmitted diseases. They were also provided medication to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Jeanne Bolivar, the Haitian Ministry for Women’s Affairs coordinator for the Artibonite Department, visited the female prisoners and told VOA Creole they were visibly distraught. She said she is working to find a psychologist who can counsel the victims. She also denounced the authorities of Gonaives who transferred the women after the attack to a jail in neighboring St. Marc in their underwear.

“The women’s rights were not respected, their dignity was not respected at all,” Bolivar said. She told VOA Creole she spoke to a young woman who told her she was raped by seven men.

Bolivar said she is working to find food for the transferred prisoners as well.

Women’s rights activist Guerline Residor called on law enforcement officials to act responsibly.

“We are asking the Ministry of Justice, the chief of police, police officers, etc., to intervene rapidly to resolve the dangerous situation women in the north find themselves in,” she said.

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Hundreds of Haiti’s national police officers (PNH) were in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the northern city of Cape Haitian Sunday, demanding better work conditions and a union to represent and defend their rights. This is the second time in a month police have protested.

“We need a union that can represent us when things aren’t good,” a member of POLIFRONT, Haiti’s Border Police unit of the National Police, told VOA Creole. He was in uniform and wearing a black face mask. “I’m talking about abuse, our meager 19,000 (Haitian gourdes) salary (about $208), which is not enough.”

This policeman from the POLIFRONT unit of @pnh_officiel says they need a union to defend and protect their rights. ?Matiado Vilme @VOAKreyol#Haitipic.twitter.com/6AoAu70fBO

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019

The officer said the police are suffering because they don’t enjoy the same benefits reserved for their leaders, and they don’t have anyone to represent and defend them when they need it most.

“If we remain strong, we’ll get everything we need,” another police protester, dressed in civilian clothing, from the Mobilized Intervention Unit (BMI) of the national police told VOA.

This policeman of the Mobilized Intervention unit of @pnh_officiel says an 8 hour workday limit is essential to the officers. He believes the constitution will prevail and their demands will become a reality. ?Matiado Vilme #Haitipic.twitter.com/FErnXQDzt6

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019

“The police is a legal force, recognized by the constitution, which also gives us the right to form a union. So if the constitution allows us to form a union, that means we will have it one way or another. And we should only be working eight hours a day, according to the law,” he added.

According to the officer, although a law was passed and signed by the director of the national police force, it has not gone into effect, and police officers often are subjected to long work days.

The Port-au-Prince protest was festive, with a truck and deejay accompanying the protesters in the streets while blaring motivational songs, ending with the country’s national anthem. “For the flag, for the nation,” they sang to a tune very similar to France’s national anthem “La Marseillaise.”

#Haiti national policemen @pnh_officiel are back in the streets today in PAP demanding better work conditions including higher salary, insurance, health care. They sang the national hymn too, which may sound familiar if you know La Marseillaise. ?Matiado Vilme @VOAKreyolpic.twitter.com/ubmu0SNgs0

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019

Up north in Cape Haitian, hundreds of police officers took over the streets for a noisy, festive, peaceful protest. “Si yo pa reponn nou, nou pral nan rebelyon. We’ll shift to rebellion mode if they don’t respond to our demands” they chanted. Their demands are the same as their colleagues’ in the capital: better wages, insurance, health care and a union.

“Si Yo pa reponn nou, nou pral nan rebelyon” if they don’t respond we’ll shift to rebellion mode policemen in Cape Haitian chanted today. #Haiti ?Yvan Martin Jasmin @VOAKreyolpic.twitter.com/1ehBD89INx

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019

Some of the protesters held posters that said: “Policemen are not slaves,” “Too many policemen have been imprisoned for no good reason” and “19,000 gourdes cannot take care of a family.”

Haiti’s National Police force has been plagued by allegations of corruption. They have also been accused of human rights violations for firing on unarmed civilians and using excessive force during peaceful protests.

Earlier this month, the United Nations human rights office and Amnesty International expressed concern about the situation and asked the Moise administration to investigate the incidents “promptly, thoroughly and effectively.” National Police officials say the force that exists today is a work in progress and far more professional, but that problems persist.

During a recent visit to police stations in Carrefour and Petionville, two suburbs of the capital, President Jovenel Moise told the press he asked for officials to give him a detailed report on the officers’ working conditions so they could be addressed as soon as possible. He also commended the police for their dedication and hard work.

On November 15, a new police inspector general was named. In his inauguration speech, Herve Julien urged young officers to stay far away from politics for the good of the national police force.

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British photographer Terry O’Neill, whose images captured London’s Swinging ’60s and who created iconic portraits of Elton John, Brigitte Bardot and Winston Churchill, has died at age 81.

O’Neill died Saturday at his home in London following a long battle with cancer, according to Iconic Images, the agency that represented O’Neill.

“Terry was a class act, quick witted and filled with charm,” the agency said in a statement posted to its website. “Anyone who was lucky enough to know or work with him can attest to his generosity and modesty. As one of the most iconic photographers of the last 60 years, his legendary pictures will forever remain imprinted in our memories as well as in our hearts and minds.”

Born in London in 1938, O’Neill was working as a photographer for an airline at Heathrow Airport when he snapped a picture of a well-dressed man sleeping on a bench. The man turned out to be the British home secretary, and O’Neill was hired by a London newspaper.

In the early 1960s he photographed the Beatles during the recording of their first hit single, and he captured the image of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill clutching a cigar as he was carried to an ambulance after a 1962 hospital stay.

O’Neill later said that when photographing the Beatles he placed John Lennon in the foreground because he thought that “it was obvious John was the one with the personality.”

Soon O’Neill was photographing the hottest stars of the mid and late ’60s: Bardot, Raquel Welch, Michael Caine, Steve McQueen, Diana Ross and Audrey Hepburn.

He photographed many other big names over the course of a career that spanned decades, including model Kate Moss, Queen Elizabeth II, singers David Bowie and Amy Winehouse and former first lady Laura Bush.

O’Neill’s photos of Elton John remain among his most recognizable. One shows the singer, exuberant and sparkling in a sequined baseball uniform, with an audience of thousands in the background.

“He was brilliant, funny and I absolutely loved his company,” John tweeted Sunday.

Another iconic O’Neill photo, this one from 1977, depicted actress Faye Dunaway lounging poolside the morning after winning a best actress Oscar for her performance in “Network,” the statuette sitting on a table and newspapers strewn on the ground.

O’Neill was married to Dunaway for three years in the 1980s. According to British newspaper The Guardian, the couple had a son. O’Neill later married Laraine Ashton, a modelling industry executive.

In an interview with the Guardian last year, O’Neill discussed how he viewed his past photos.

“The perfectionist in me always left me thinking I could have taken a better shot. But now when I look at photos of all the icons I’ve shot – like Mandela, Sir Winston Churchill and Sinatra – the memories come flooding back and I think: ‘Yeah, I did all right.’”

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The biennial Dubai Airshow opened Sunday as major Gulf airlines rein back big-ticket purchases after a staggering $140 billion in new orders were announced at the 2013 show before global oil prices collapsed.

The airshow, which runs until Thursday, draws major commercial and military firms from around the world, as well as smaller manufacturers competing for business in the Middle East. The United States has the largest foreign country presence with over 100 companies represented.
      
The Chicago-based Boeing will likely use the airshow to emphasize its dedication to safety after crashes of its 737 Max killed 346 people. The planes have been grounded around the world, impacting customers like flydubai which has more than a dozen of the jets in its fleet and more than 230 on order.

Boeing and Biman Bangladesh Airlines signed a deal for two 787-9s aircraft, which list at $292.5 million a piece. However, buyers often get better deals from manufacturers.

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The Burkina Faso army said on Sunday it had killed 32 “terrorists” in two operations in the north of the country after an attack on a patrol.

One soldier was killed in the operations, which come less than a month after 37 people were killed in an ambush on a convoy transporting employees of a Canadian mining company.

The army said 24 people were killed in the first operation on Friday and a further eight in a second on Saturday.

The first operation in Yorsala in Loroum province saw a number of women who “had been held and used by the terrorists as sex slaves” freed.

Arms, ammunition and other materials were also recovered in the second operation on the outskirts of Bourzanga in Bam province, the army statement added.

The impoverished and politically fragile Sahel country has been struggling to quell a rising jihadist revolt that has claimed hundreds of lives since early 2015.

The attacks — typically hit-and-run raids on villages, road mines and suicide bombings — have claimed nearly 700 lives across the country since early 2015, according to an AFP toll.

Almost 500,000 people have also been forced to flee their homes.

The attacks have been claimed by a range of jihadist groups, including Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

The country’s badly equipped, poorly trained and underfunded security forces have been unable to stem the violence, which has intensified throughout 2019 to become almost daily.

The Sahel region, including Burkina Faso’s neighbors Mali and Niger, has been afflicted by the violence despite the presence of the regional G5 Sahel force as well as French and U.S. troops.

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A trove of leaked Chinese government documents reveals details of its clampdown on Uighurs and other Muslims in the country’s western Xinjiang region under President Xi Jinping, the New York Times reported Saturday.

United Nations experts and activists say at least 1 million Uighurs and members of other largely Muslim minority groups have been detained in camps in Xinjiang in a crackdown that has drawn condemnation from the United States and other countries.

The documents, which the newspaper said were leaked by “a member of the Chinese political establishment,” show how Xi gave a series of internal speeches to officials during and after a 2014 visit to Xinjiang following a stabbing attack by Uighur militants at a train station that killed 31 people.

The report said Xi called for an “all-out ‘struggle against terrorism, infiltration, and separatism’ using the ‘organs of dictatorship,’ and showing ‘absolutely no mercy.’”

The documents show that the Chinese leadership’s fears were heightened by terrorist attacks in other countries and the U.S. drawdown of troops from Afghanistan.

It is unclear how the documents totaling 403 pages were gathered and selected, the newspaper said.

Beijing denies any mistreatment of the Uighurs or others in Xinjiang, saying it is providing vocational training to help stamp out Islamic extremism and separatism and teach new skills.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment from Reuters on Sunday.

The documents show how officials were given talking points to explain to returning university students that their family members had been taken away for training, and how the program faced pushback from some local officials, the report said.

They also show that the internment camps expanded quickly after Chen Quanguo was appointed in August 2016 as the party boss of the region, the report said. Chen had taken a tough line to quell restiveness against Communist Party rule during his previous posting in Tibet.
 

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