SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday temporarily blocked an order by President Donald Trump that barred asylum for immigrants who enter the country illegally from Mexico. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order against the asylum policy, which was announced on Nov. 9. Reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Nick MacfieOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

With these moves, the United States may be hoping to protect the interests of American tech companies, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong about the threat of Chinese spying. That’s real, and laid out in the open: Just look at China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law.The N.I.L. is no standard security and spying legislation, concerned principally with preventing the leak of state secrets. Its main thrust isn’t protective; it’s proactive. “All organizations and citizens shall support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence efforts according to the Law,” it says. (I know of no official English version; this is my translation, based partly on several others.) Another provision is even more explicit: The state institutions tasked with enforcing the N.I.L. — which also oversee all intelligence and espionage activities, civilian and military — “may demand that relevant organs, organizations and citizens provide necessary support, assistance and cooperation.” Spying for the state is a duty of the citizens and corporations of China under the law, much like paying taxes.The N.I.L. offers enticements for compliance: “The state gives commendations and rewards to individuals and organizations that make major contributions to national intelligence efforts.” In its January indictment against Huawei, the United States claims that the company systematically gives bonuses to employees who pilfer intellectual property from foreign companies.The N.I.L. leaves little room for opting out. “Obstructing the work” of China’s intelligence institutions is punishable and may be a criminal offense. Those institutions are entitled to “have priority use of, or can lawfully requisition the transportation or communications tools, premises and buildings of state organs, organizations or individuals” — and “when necessary,” set up “relevant work sites and equipment within them.” In other words, installing a back door in Huawei hardware to collect foreign intelligence would have a firm basis under Chinese law.During an interview with CBS last month, Ren Zhengfei, the founder and chief executive officer of Huawei, was asked if he had “ever given any information to the Chinese government, in any way, shape or form?” Mr. Ren — who is also Ms. Meng’s father, as well as a veteran C.C.P. member and a former officer of the People’s Liberation Army — answered: “For the past 30 years, we have never done that, and the next 30 years to come, we will never do that.”

Ms. Meng, who owns two multimillion-dollar mansions in Vancouver, British Columbia, is on bail and living in one of them while she awaits trial in January. She is seen as corporate royalty in China, and her arrest has been interpreted among the Chinese elite as a signal that the government is unable to protect its most valued people as they travel the globe.The arrests of the Canadian and of the foreign students and teachers last week come as American business executives have expressed alarm about their safety traveling in China. Washington has warned Americans that the Chinese authorities have blocked a number of Americans from leaving the country, a practice known as exit bans.Last month, a Chinese-American executive at Koch Industries was interrogated for multiple days in southern China, with the authorities allowing him to leave only after the State Department intervened.Since Ms. Meng’s arrest, the Chinese government has ratcheted up the pressure on Canada, halting imports of Canadian canola oil and beef. Officials have been unusually brittle in expressing disdain for the country.“We hope that the Canadian side will not be too naïve,” Geng Shuang, a spokesman at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said this month.“Canada shouldn’t naïvely think that gathering so-called allies to put pressure on China will work,” he said.Mr. Geng was referring to Canadian officials asking Washington for help in the release of the former diplomat, Michael Kovrig, and the businessman, Michael Spavor. Both men have been held in secret detention sites, without visits from lawyers or family members.When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada visited the White House in June, he said that President Trump had pledged to raise the detention of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor when he met with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, in Japan at the end of that month. It is not known whether Mr. Trump did so.

RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - Virginia’s embattled governor insisted he would not resign over a racist yearbook photo, but said the state’s lieutenant governor would have to step aside if sexual assault allegations against him were found to be true. In a CBS interview to be broadcast on Monday, Governor Ralph Northam said he had learned from the controversy that erupted on Feb. 1 when a racist photo surfaced from his medical school yearbook, and that as a former pediatrician he could help Virginians heal. “There’s no better person to do that than a doctor. Virginia also needs someone who is strong, who has empathy, who has courage and who has a moral compass,” Northam told CBS “This Morning” co-host Gayle King. “And that’s why I’m not going anywhere.” According to excerpts of the interview provided on Sunday by CBS, Northam was asked about allegations of sexual crimes, including rape, that have been made by two women against Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, a fellow Democrat who is African-American and the state’s second-highest elected official. Fairfax, who has denied the allegations, has also faced widespread calls from Democratic leaders to step aside. Northam told CBS it must have taken tremendous courage for the women to come forward, and that he supported Fairfax’s call for an investigation. “And if these accusations are determined to be true, I don’t think he’s going to have any other option but to resign,” Northam said. State Democratic House of Delegates member Patrick Hope has said he will introduce articles of impeachment against Fairfax on Monday unless the lieutenant governor resigns. Fairfax has said that encounters with both women were consensual. On Sunday, a spokeswoman for the lieutenant governor said he was “aggressively exploring options for a thorough, independent, and impartial investigation” of the allegations. “We hope, for example, that the FBI will show a willingness to investigate,” the spokeswoman, Lauren Burke, said in a statement. Slideshow (2 Images)“He (Fairfax) believes that an inherently political process is not the most likely path for learning the truth,” Burke said. The political chaos surrounding the state’s top two elected officials has extended to the second in line to succeed Northam, Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring, who admitted that he had once darkened his face to imitate a black performer. The possibility of all three top leaders of Virginia’s executive branch having to resign raised the prospect of Democrats losing the governorship to the Republican speaker of the state House, who is next in the line of succession. Reporting by Gary Robertson; Additional reporting by Letitia Stein; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Peter CooneyOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The lies multiplied so rapidly Cori Langdon could hardly keep up. The taxi driver’s cellphone video of the Las Vegas mass shooting was being widely republished by conspiracy theorists, who were using it as “proof” that the massacre was staged by the government and that Langdon was an “actor”.Langdon thought that if YouTube and Facebook removed some of the content, the online attacks and bogus stories might stop spreading. But it wasn’t so simple.When some footage was taken down, conspiracy theorists saw it as further evidence that Langdon was involved in a cover-up. Some told her they were worried the FBI had gotten to her. “It just fuels them even more,” said Langdon, who was harassed online even while being hailed by some as a hero for picking up passengers at the Mandalay Bay shooting that killed 58 people in October. “These conspiracy theorists love their guns. They are freaked out and paranoid.” Concerns about conspiracy theorists bullying victims of mass shootings have escalated this month as student survivors of a Florida high school massacre have become vocal proponents for gun reforms, making them prime targets for online abuse. Google and Facebook have faced particularly intense scrutiny for their role in spreading false stories claiming teenage survivors are so-called crisis actors hired to promote gun control.But recent efforts to restrict offensive posts have shone a harsh light on a seemingly intractable problem of the modern conspiracy theory epidemic: that censoring the content can reinforce and enhance false beliefs and that there is no easy way to change the mind of a conspiracy theorist. Some wind up on alternative platforms.Social media companies taking down content and mainstream news coverage of hoax claims can also drive traffic to those sites creating the questionable content. That appeared to be the case this week with Infowars, a rightwing website that has fueled “crisis actor” claims and is facing consequences from YouTube as a result. Radio host Alex Jones, a leading conspiracy theorist and far-right pundit, has used YouTube’s clampdown to drum up interest in his attacks on the Florida students, presenting it as a “free speech” issue.“If you believe your institutions are conspiring and then you expose it and then they ban your speech, how could you not think that that’s part of it?” said Joseph Uscinski, a University of Miami professor and conspiracy theory expert. If Jones and Infowars continue to face YouTube censorship, he added, “it will convince his fans that he’s on to something.”There’s no easy solution, though many agree that YouTube and Facebook could do a better job removing content that constitutes harassment and preventing its algorithms from actively promoting fake news. Infowars is reportedly one strike away from a YouTube ban, though Jones has a long history of offensive material, most notoriously spreading claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre that killed 20 children was a hoax – a theory that led grieving parents to face death threats. If permanently banned, it’s unclear if Jones would end up hosting his own videos or using a platform like PewTube, which was created for “alt-right” users kicked off mainstream sites. In some cases, fringe commentators with massive online followings have tried to push boundaries by avoiding explicit hoax claims and instead cast doubt on shooting survivors by simply “raising questions”.Americans strongly opposed to gun control are susceptible to believing this kind of content, especially if the creators are facing threats from the “establishment” media or Silicon Valley. “You’re motivated to attack information that is not consistent with your beliefs. This is just a human trait,” said Colleen Seifert, a University of Michigan psychology professor, adding that when pro-gun conspiracy videos are suddenly removed, viewers can become further entrenched in their beliefs. “Absence of information might feed conspiracy arguments, because there’s no explanation for the disappearance.” Uscinski argued that efforts to expose harmful conspiracies can backfire, noting that a leading Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist became well-known after a local newspaper wrote about his blog. “Maybe it should be ignored.”Brock Matejka, whose brother survived the Vegas massacre and was labeled an “actor” online, said he tried to argue with conspiracy theorists attacking his family, but got nowhere: “Those people are so set in their ways. They are so far gone.” When his brother Braden took down his Facebook page due to the threats and harassment, conspiracy theorists were emboldened, said Brock: “That was their proof that he was faking.” Langdon said she was happy to see some videos attacking her disappear: “They just make me sick.” But months later, she still fights with strangers on her Facebook page, trying unsuccessfully to refute the conspiracy beliefs. Mike Cronk, a retired teacher and Vegas survivor also attacked by conspiracy theorists, said it was painful to watch the Florida teenagers face harassment and that the tech companies “should be held accountable”. The platforms should not let the abuse spread, especially considering how impossible it is to change the perspectives of believers, he added: “Those people are really stuck. They truly truly believe it, and it doesn’t matter what you say.” Topics US news Parkland, Florida school shooting YouTube Facebook Social networking US gun control US school shootings features

Update Nov. 9, 12pm EST: The Trump administration will strip immigrants who come to the US illegally of their right to request asylum for at least the next three months under a new executive order.The order, which Donald Trump signed Nov. 9, is meant to address “mass migration” through the US-Mexico border. It is the president’s latest attempt to stop “caravans” of Central American immigrants traveling through Mexico en route to the US. It does not apply to immigrant children traveling alone.It follows a new rule issued by the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice on Thursday, which stipulates that immigrants will only be eligible to apply for asylum at ports of entry; asylum seekers who cross the border illegally will only be eligible for lesser protections that are generally harder to obtain.The White House has been brainstorming about different ways to stop a growing number of families and children from that region from requesting asylum at the US border. Under Jeff Sessions, the Department of Justice has already narrowed the criteria to apply. The administration’s failed family-separation policy earlier this year was another effort to dissuade asylum-seekers.Requesting asylum is legal under US and international laws, regardless of whether an applicant enters the country legally or illegally. But senior White House officials claim the law gives the president broad authority to bar “all aliens or any class of aliens” if he deems them a threat to the country. This is how the Trump put it in his executive order:The continuing and threatened mass migration of aliens with no basis for admission into the United States through our southern border has precipitated a crisis and undermines the integrity of our borders. I therefore must take immediate action to protect the national interest, and to maintain the effectiveness of the asylum system for legitimate asylum seekers who demonstrate that they have fled persecution and warrant the many special benefits associated with asylum.Trump’s administration used the same rationale to justify its travel ban on citizens from several majority-Muslim countries, which was accepted by the Supreme Court after several iterations and amendments.Administration officials say the goal of the new rule is to reroute asylum seekers to ports of entry, so their claims can be more quickly processed, and deserving asylum seekers can get protection sooner. This is hard to do currently, they say, because of a barrage of applications by people who ultimately get denied.At the moment, US Border Patrol agents who come across asylum seekers who enter the country illegally refer them to asylum officers for screening; if their case has merit, they are sent to immigration courts to make the final decision. It’s a process that can take years.It’s unclear exactly how the new rule would speed it up, but it could transfer immigrants’ waiting time south of the border. Ports of entry have already been limiting the number of people they take in, saying they don’t have enough capacity.Like many other Trumpian efforts to curb immigration, this one too will likely be challenged in court. Just a few minutes after its publication, immigration lawyers were pointing out the exact passages of the law it contradicts.In fact, immigrant advocates already sued the Trump administration for turning away asylum seekers at ports of entry, alleging that it violates immigration laws and the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause. The case, which was filed in July of 2017, is ongoing.This story was updated Nov. 9 to include details from an executive order signed by Donald Trump that day.

A female tiger which fled a wildlife park in India's flood-ravaged state of Assam was found relaxing on a bed inside a local resident's house.She is believed to have fled the Kaziranga National Park, where 92 animals have died in recent days amid heavy flooding.Officials from a wildlife conservation group arrived at the house and created a safe escape route for her.She was guided in the direction of the jungle.According to the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), the tigress was first spotted next to a highway on Thursday morning, some 200 metres away from the national park.She was likely to have been disturbed by the busy road and ended up seeking refuge in the house, which is located near the highway, it said.Rathin Barman, who led the rescue operation, said the tigress entered the house - which is next to a shop - at 07:30 local time (02:00 GMT) and slept throughout the day. "She was very exhausted and had a nice day-long nap," he told the BBC. The house owner, Motilal, who also owns the adjoining shop, fled the house along with his family members as soon as they saw the tiger walking in. "The great thing was that nobody disturbed her so she could rest. There's a lot of respect for wildlife in this region," Mr Barman said. "[Motilal] says he will preserve the bed sheet and pillow on which the tiger rested."WTI officials were later called to the scene and began preparing a safe escape route for her. They blocked traffic on the highway for an hour and set off firecrackers to wake the animal up. She eventually left the house at 17:30 local time, crossed the highway and went in the direction of the forest.Mr Barman said it was not clear if she had actually entered the forest or if she had just "walked off into an adjoining area".The Unesco-recognised Kaziranga National Park is home to 110 tigers, but none of them have died in the flooding.Animals killed in the park include 54 hog deer, seven rhinos, six wild boars and one elephant. Floods kill dozens and displace millions in India The river politics behind South Asia's floods Is India's weather becoming more extreme? Monsoon floods have devastated the eastern states of Bihar and Assam, killing more than 100 people and displacing millions. The monsoon season, which lasts from June to September, has also wreaked havoc in Nepal and Bangladesh.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Friday dealt a setback to President Donald Trump by refusing to allow his administration to implement new rules prohibiting asylum for people who cross the U.S. border illegally, with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts joining the four liberal justices in denying the request. The justices on a 5-4 vote rebuffed the administration’s bid to put on hold a California-based federal judge’s order preventing it from carrying out the policy making anyone crossing the U.S.-Mexican border outside of an official port of entry ineligible for asylum. The planned asylum change was a key component of Trump’s hardline policies aimed at making it tougher for immigrants to enter and stay in the United States. Roberts, who last month rebuked Trump over his criticism of the judiciary, joined liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor against the administration. Trump’s two high court appointees, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, joined the two other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, in dissent. “The Supreme Court’s decision to leave the asylum ban blocked will save lives and keep vulnerable families and children from persecution. We are pleased the court refused to allow the administration to short-circuit the usual appellate process,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged Trump’s policy. The Justice Department expressed disappointment with the decision, saying the 25 nationwide injunctions against Trump administration policies were “unprecedented.” “The Court has not yet fully considered the merits of this case,” Justice Department spokesman Steven Stafford said. “We will continue to defend the executive branch’s lawful authority over the discretionary benefit of asylum.” U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco blocked the policy on Nov. 19. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals then refused the administration’s request to lift Tigar’s order. Tigar’s ruling prompted Trump to call the jurist an “Obama judge” and blast the 9th Circuit in general as a “disgrace.” Tigar was appointed to the bench by Democratic former President Barack Obama. Trump’s comments led to an extraordinary response from the normally reticent Roberts, who defended the independence of the federal judiciary and wrote in a public response to Trump on Nov. 21, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.” The port-of-entry restrictions, due to expire after 90 days, were made through a presidential proclamation Trump issued on Nov. 9 alongside a new administration rule. The administration has sought ways to block thousands of Central American men, women and children traveling in caravans to escape violence and poverty in their home countries from entering the United States, with Trump calling them a national security threat. Illegal crossings at the southern border have dropped dramatically since the late 1970s, but in recent years, applications for asylum have ballooned and more Central American families and unaccompanied children are migrating to the United States. Slideshow (2 Images)Trump’s proclamation stated that mass migration on the border had precipitated a crisis and he was acting to protect the U.S. national interest. Trump’s policy was crafted to alter American asylum laws that have given people fleeing persecution and violence in their homelands the ability to seek sanctuary in the United States. The Supreme Court in June backed Trump in another major immigration-related case when the justices in a 5-4 ruling endorsed the legality of the Republican president’s travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations. Roberts joined the court’s other conservatives in that ruling. On Wednesday, a different judge blocked another of Trump’s asylum-related orders, this one aimed at restricting asylum claims by people citing gang or domestic violence in their home countries. Reporting by Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunhamand Leslie AdlerOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

DONGGUAN, China—A top executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co. fired back at efforts to block the company’s sale of 5G products and said its equipment is safe, challenging foreign officials to back up claims that it poses a cybersecurity threat. Ken Hu, one of Huawei’s four deputy chairmen, told reporters Tuesday that no evidence has been produced to support the claim that the company’s products are a security risk. ...

(This Feb. 24 story corrects paragraph 12 to show Huawei was world’s third-largest smartphone vendor last year, not second largest) FILE PHOTO - Guo Ping, Rotating Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Technologies company, attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei KarpukhinBy Paul Sandle, Jack Stubbs and Douglas Busvine BARCELONA (Reuters) - China’s Huawei welcomed comments from President Donald Trump about the future of U.S. mobile communications on Sunday and asserted its position as a world-leading smartphone producer as Washington and Beijing seek a trade war ceasefire. U.S. and Chinese negotiators are set to meet for a sixth straight day of negotiations on Sunday as they work to strike a deal ahead of a March 1 deadline on a trade dispute which has disrupted global commerce and slowed the world economy. At the center of the imbroglio is Huawei Technologies, accused by Washington of sanctions busting, intellectual property theft and facilitating Chinese state espionage operations. Speaking ahead of the mobile industry’s biggest global event which begins in Barcelona on Monday, Huawei Chairman Guo Ping reiterated his company’s position that it has never and would never allow any country to spy through its equipment. Guo, who holds Huawei’s rotating chairmanship, said Trump’s recent assertion that the United States needed to get ahead in mobile communications through competition rather than seeking to block technology was “clear and correct”. Trump’s tweets on Thursday did not specifically mention Huawei, the world’s largest producer of mobile network equipment, but appeared to soften earlier U.S. statements that it should be barred from Western networks on security grounds. “I have noticed the president’s Twitter, he said that the U.S. needs faster and smarter 5G, or even 6G in the future, and he has realized that the U.S. is lagging behind in this respect, and I think his message is clear and correct,” Guo said, speaking through an interpreter. He said the United States did not represent the whole world and called for equipment makers, network operators and governments to work together to devise trustworthy standards to manage cyber security risks. “We need to have unified standard that should be verifiable. It should not be based on politics,” Guo said. Huawei also sought to reaffirm its position as one of the world’s leading technology companies, unveiling a folding 5G smartphone to an audience of media and analysts in Barcelona. Huawei, the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor after Samsung and Apple, said it had taken the lead in developing phones for 5G - which promises super-fast internet speeds - because it was also involved in developing the networks. The new Huawei Mate X will have two back-to-back screens which unfold to become an eight-inch tablet display, and goes on sale later this year priced at 2,299 euros ($2,607), setting a new upper limit for consumer smartphones. Samsung had unveiled its own folding smartphone last week, priced at nearly $2,000, as part of a bid to top the technology of Chinese rivals and Apple Inc. The Huawei logo is displayed ahead of the Mobile World Congress (MWC 19) in Barcelona, Spain, February 24, 2019. REUTERS/Sergio PerezThomas Husson, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said the Mate X showed Huawei was an innovative technology company and no longer trailing American and Korean competitors. “The fact that Huawei is not just a network equipment provider but also a smartphone manufacturer ... gives them a competitive advantage for 5G. It is also a double-edge sword as some argue the security risks are higher,” Husson said. China’s Xiaomi, the world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker, also unveiled a 5G handset on Sunday, but without the folding screen or high price tags touted by the Huawei and Samsung devices. Xiaomi’s offering will start at 599 euros ($679) when it hits the market in May. Reporting by Paul Sandle, Jack Stubbs and Douglas Busvine; Additional reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by David HolmesOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Venezuela's embattled President Nicolás Maduro said he had been in talks with the Trump administration for months, even as the US ramped up its sanctions.The US is one of more than 50 nations which do not recognise Mr Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate leader.On Tuesday, Mr Maduro said that talks with the Trump administration had been going on for months.But US National Security Adviser John Bolton said the only thing being discussed was Mr Maduro's departure.Speaking on television, Mr Maduro said: "Just as I have sought dialogue in Venezuela, I have sought a way in which President Trump really listens to Venezuela." President Trump confirmed on Tuesday that his administration was "talking to various representatives of Venezuela". "I don't want to say who, but we are talking at a very high level," the US president said.Mr Maduro had suggested that he authorised the back-channel discussions.But Mr Bolton cast those contacts in a very different light, tweeting that the "only items discussed by those who are reaching out behind Maduro's back are his departure and free and fair elections".Mr Bolton said Mr Trump's aim was to "to end the pilfering of the Venezuelan people's resources and continued repression" and that to that end, President Maduro "must go".The US imposed sweeping sanctions earlier this month aimed at increasing pressure on President Maduro to step down. Venezuela crisis in 300 words What's behind Venezuela's political crisis? The country has been caught up in a struggle for power between President Maduro and the leader of Venezuela's National Assembly, Juan Guaidó.Mr Guaidó declared himself interim president in January, claiming that the elections which brought Maduro to power for a second term were fraudulent. While Mr Guaidó has gained the backing of over 50 countries he has so far failed to remove Mr Maduro from power. Talks between the two sides hosted by Barbados and mediated by Norway recently stalled after President Maduro denounced the opposition for backing the sweeping sanctions imposed by the US. The country is suffering one of the worst economic crises in history with a quarter of its 30 million population in need of aid, according to the United Nations. More than four million Venezuelans have left the country over the past years. Mr Maduro's government has come under fire by the international community for a number of reasons.When opposition parties gained a majority in the country's National Assembly, the president created a rival body stacked with his supporters which assumed many of its powers. His 2018 re-election was controversial, and labelled as rigged by his critics, after many rivals were barred from running or fled the country. Protests and demonstrations erupted into violence and were met with a crackdown by authorities which saw civilians killed.The US has been a frequent target of Mr Maduro's anger. US sanctions may worsen Venezuela suffering - UN 'Corruption network' in Venezuela's food programme Mr Maduro has accused the US, and John Bolton in particular, of trying to kill him, without supplying any evidence. He claims that his opposition is backed by foreign powers, rather than a domestic resistance to his authority.Government officials were the first target of US sanctions against Mr Maduro's government - but earlier this year, it brought new restrictions forward on the state oil company, which is a major player in the national economy.That was followed in August by sweeping sanctions that froze all property of the government in the US, and blocks American firms doing business with Venezuela.

The internet is an ocean of algorithms trying to tell you what to do. YouTube and Netflix proffer videos they calculate you’ll watch. Facebook and Twitter filter and reorganize posts from your connections, avowedly in your interest—but also in their own.New York entrepreneur Brian Whitman helped create such a system. He sold a music analytics startup called The Echo Nest to Spotify in 2014, bolstering the streaming music service’s ability to recommend new songs from a person’s past listening. Whitman says he saw clear evidence of algorithms’ value at Spotify. But he founded his current startup, Canopy, after becoming fearful of their downsides.“Traditional recommendation systems involve scraping every possible bit of data about me and then putting it in a black box,” Whitman says. “I don’t know if the recommendations it puts out are optimized for me, or to increase revenue, or are being manipulated by a state actor.” Canopy aims to release an app later this year that suggests reading material and podcasts without centralized data collection, and without pushing people to spend time they later regret.Whitman is part of a movement trying to develop more ethical recommendation systems. Tech companies have long pitched algorithmic suggestions as giving users what they want, but there are clear downsides even beyond wasted hours online. Researchers have found evidence that recommendation algorithms used by YouTube and Amazon can amplify conspiracy theories and pseudoscience.Guillaume Chaslot, who previously worked on recommendations at YouTube but now works to document their flaws, says those problems stem from companies designing systems designed primarily to maximize the time users spend on their services. It works—YouTube has said more than 70 percent of viewing time stems from recommendations—but the results aren’t always pretty. “The AI is optimized to find clickbait,” he says.Analyzing that problem and trying to create alternatives is becoming its own academic niche. In 2017, the leading research conference on recommendations, RecSys, which has long had significant attendance and sponsorship from tech companies, gained a companion workshop dedicated to “responsible recommendation.”At the 2018 event, presentations included a method for recommending Twitter accounts to people that would expose them to diverse viewpoints, and one from engineers at the BBC about baking public service values into personalization systems. “There is this emerging understanding that recommenders driving narrow interests is not necessarily meeting everyone’s needs, in both public and commercial contexts,” says Ben Fields, a BBC data scientist.Xavier Amatriain, who previously worked on recommendation systems at Netflix and Quora, says that understanding is catching on in industry, too. “I think there’s a realization that these systems actually work—the problem is they do what you tell them to do,” he says.LEARN MOREThe WIRED Guide to Internet AddictionThe broader reassessment of how tech companies such as Facebook operate—somewhat acknowledged by the companies themselves—is helping that process. Whitman says he’s had no trouble recruiting engineers who could take their pick of top tech jobs. Canopy’s staff includes engineers who worked on personalization at Twitter and Instagram.The app they’re building is designed to recommend each user a small number of items to read or listen to every day. Whitman says its recommendation software is designed to look for signs of quality so it won't just push picks that suck up users' time, and that the company will share more details when it gets closer to launching. To improve privacy it will run the recommendation algorithms on a person’s device, and share only anonymized usage data with company servers. “We can’t even tell you directly how many people are using our app,” he says.

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena looks on during a special party convention in Colombo, Sri Lanka December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Dinuka LiyanawatteCOLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has asked the police chief and defense secretary to quit following the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels that killed 359 people, two sources close to the president said on Wednesday. The sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter amid accusations within the government of intelligence failures ahead of the attacks. (The story corrects headline to defense secretary, not minister, no change to text.) Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Darren SchuettlerOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Enlarge this image The New York Times report says that at least two supervisors at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey were aware that two female employees were not in the country legally. Brendan Smialowski /AFP/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Brendan Smialowski /AFP/Getty Images The New York Times report says that at least two supervisors at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey were aware that two female employees were not in the country legally. Brendan Smialowski /AFP/Getty Images The Trump Organization employed immigrants in the country illegally at one of its New Jersey golf clubs, according to a lawyer representing one former and one current employee.Anibal Romero told NPR that his two clients worked using falsified papers at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey and that he knows of other employees continuing to work at the club without legal documentation. A report published Thursday in The New York Times first detailed the employment history of Romero's clients, two women who worked in close proximity to Trump both before and after he was elected president. The president has visited the Bedminster club more than 70 times since taking office. One of the women continues to live in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant. The other, who is from Costa Rica, has become a legal permanent resident since quitting her job at Bedminster. She worked at the property from 2010 to 2013 and told the Times she washed and ironed Trump's underwear, shirts and other personal effects. The report underscores a discrepancy between the president's harsh rhetoric against immigrants — both here illegally and legally — and the apparent hiring practices of his own company. Trump sent thousands of troops to America's border with Mexico ahead of the midterm elections, and there has recently been a spike in arrests there. It's estimated that nearly 8 million undocumented immigrants currently work in the United States. Politics Trump Escalates Immigration Issue Days Ahead Of Elections With White House Remarks Although Trump's 2016 campaign refrain, "America First," was intended in part to signal a commitment to American workers, the Trump Organization has hired both documented and undocumented foreign workers in the past. Undocumented Polish immigrants worked at the construction site of Donald Trump's iconic Trump Tower in New York City between 1979 and 1980. And the president's company has used H-2B visas to bring in employees for his private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. The New York Times report says that at least two supervisors at the Bedminster club were aware of the women's immigration status. A statement provided to NPR by the Trump Organization said: "We have tens of thousands of employees across our properties and have very strict hiring practices. If any employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately."Romero told NPR that the woman still in the country illegally had positive impressions of Trump from his visits to the club before his election. In an interview with the Times, she recalled a $50 tip he gave her after he praised Guatemalans' work ethic, "I told myself, 'God bless him.' I thought, he's a good person." But Romero told NPR that his client's supervisor became hostile after Trump took office. The lawyer also sent NPR a statement describing the allegations: [M]y clients and others were repeatedly subjected to abuse, called racial epithets and threatened with deportation. Ironically, the threats often came from the same supervisor who had employed them despite knowing their undocumented status and even provided them with forged documents. Undocumented immigrants regularly find themselves trapped in unfair or dangerous workplaces where complaining about their conditions or treatment would mean calling attention to their lack of legal status. National New Southwest Border Arrests Jump 78 Percent In November Romero said that his undocumented client approached him earlier this year — after hearing he was representing the other employee — and explained she wanted to find a way to end her alleged physical and verbal abuse at the golf club."Enough is enough," Romero said she expressed to him back then. "[I]t's time to come out of the shadows and let people understand that we work hard in America and we are not criminals, we are good people who work hard."As of Friday afternoon, he says she is still on the payroll of the Trump Organization but does not plan to return to work.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - Paul Manafort had “a huge dumpster of hidden money” abroad, a prosecutor said on Wednesday, urging a jury to convict U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief on financial fraud charges based more on a paper trail of evidence than on the testimony of a former protege. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Andres gave his closing statement in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, where Manafort is on trial on tax and bank fraud charges, along with failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. The jury is expected to begin deliberating on a verdict on Thursday morning. The trial is the first to come out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The charges involve tax and bank fraud, not possible collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign for president. A Manafort conviction would undermine efforts by Trump and some Republican lawmakers to paint Mueller’s Russia inquiry as a political witch hunt, while an acquittal would be a setback for the special counsel. The star witness against Manafort was seen as Rick Gates, his former right-hand man, who was indicted along with Manafort but pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government. The defense has portrayed Gates as a lying thief who had his hand in the “cookie jar” and was only trying to reduce his own sentence, noting Gates will be allowed to argue for probation even though he admitted to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars and being involved in Manafort’s alleged crimes. Andres argued that while Manafort did not “choose a Boy Scout” as his associate, Gates’ testimony was corroborated by other evidence, including nearly 400 exhibits, and a series of financial professionals who took the stand for the prosecution. “The star witness in this case is the documents,” Andres told the jury. “That wasn’t a cookie jar,” he added, referring to the tens of millions of dollars Manafort held overseas. “It was a huge dumpster of hidden money in foreign bank accounts.” Prosecutors say Manafort, 69, tried to mislead bankers with doctored financial statements in 2015 and 2016 to secure more than $20 million in loans and failed to pay taxes on more than $15 million that he earned as a political consultant in Ukraine. FILE PHOTO: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort departs from U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, U.S., February 28, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File PhotoDefense lawyers decided not to call any witnesses in the trial, and Manafort, a veteran Republican political operative, did not testify in his own defense. In the defense’s closing argument, Manafort’s lawyers argued that issues with his financial situation were known to the bankers before they extended him the loans. They also sought to emphasize the idea that Manafort did not knowingly break the law - a requirement for conviction - and was rather failed by the bookkeepers, accountants and other professionals in whom he trusted his financial affairs. “Sometimes the people we rely on are trustworthy. Sometimes they are not,” said lawyer Richard Westling. The defense took particular aim at Gates, who admitted in court to an extramarital affair. Gates also said he helped Manafort doctor financial statements, hide foreign income and evade hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. income taxes. Manafort’s attorneys have portrayed Gates as living a secret life of infidelity and embezzlement. Defense lawyer Kevin Downing told the jury that Gates had shown himself to be a liar. “He came in here trying to look all clean shaven,” Downing said. “He came in here and tried to get one over on you.” Manafort made millions of dollars working for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians before taking an unpaid position with Trump’s campaign. He was on the campaign team for five months and led it in mid-2016 when Trump was selected as the Republican presidential nominee. Prosecutors say Manafort hid money in offshore bank accounts and then used it to pay for over $6 million in New York and Virginia real estate, items such as antique rugs and fancy clothes, including a $15,000 jacket made of ostrich skin. If found guilty on all 18 charges by the 12-person jury, he could face eight to 10 years in prison, according to sentencing expert Justin Paperny. Manafort also faces a second trial in September in Washington, where he is accused of failing to disclose lobbying for Ukrainian politicians, among other crimes. After the defense concluded its closing argument, Andres objected to Downing’s suggestions that a civil audit would have been more appropriate for Manafort’s tax issues and that Mueller’s office had unfairly singled him out. Slideshow (8 Images)Judge T.S. Ellis sided with Andres, and when he later gave instructions to jurors, he told them that the government was not required to do a civil tax audit before bringing criminal charges. He also instructed them to ignore any argument about the Department of Justice’s motives in bringing the case. “We don’t want the jury deciding this case on that issue,” Ellis said earlier. Before the jurors left for the day, the judge suggested that they not discuss their deliberations with the media after the verdict, claiming it might have a “chilling effect.” Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Nathan Layne; additional reporting by Amanda Becker; writing by Alistair Bell; editing by Jonathan Oatis and James DalgleishOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - The star witness in the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort faced tough questioning on cross-examination on Tuesday about a “secret life” that included an extramarital affair and stealing funds from his former boss. Rick Gates, who served as a right-hand man to Manafort in his political consulting business for a decade, acknowledged maintaining a flat in London for the affair, inflating expense reports and a long list of other misdeeds. “In essence, I was living beyond my means,” the married father of four said from the witness stand in Alexandria, Virginia. “I’m taking responsibility for it. I made a mistake.” Gates, who is cooperating with U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, testified on Monday that he helped Manafort doctor financial statements, hide foreign income and evade hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. income taxes. Under questioning by defense attorney Kevin Downing on Tuesday, Gates also admitted he wrote a fraudulent letter to prospective investors in a movie project and that “it’s possible” he submitted to Trump’s inaugural committee personal expenses, which may have been improper. Downing sought to portray Gates as an inveterate liar, raising questions about whether he has been truthful with Mueller’s office even after cutting a plea deal in February. Under the deal, he admitted to helping Manafort evade taxes, violate U.S. lobbying laws, and conceal foreign bank accounts. In addition, he pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators. “After all the lies you told you expect this jury to believe you?” Downing asked Gates, who responded that he did. “I’m here to tell the truth,” Gates shot back. “Mr. Manafort had the same path. I’m here.” Undercutting Gates’ credibility is the foundation of Manafort’s defense. Manafort, 69, has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of bank fraud, tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts containing tens of millions of dollars earned from work for Russian-backed politicians in Ukraine. The charges largely predate the five months Manafort spent on Trump’s campaign. If convicted on all counts, Manafort could face eight to 10 years in prison based on federal sentencing guidelines, according to sentencing expert Justin Paperny. Gates made numerous damaging admissions during cross-examination. Gates admitted to stealing from Manafort, but he said he did not know how much money he took. Looking at a ledger listing nearly $3 million in transactions, he was unable to say which ones were legitimate and which ones he initiated with false expense reports. Paul Manafort (L), former campaign chairman for U.S. President Donald Trump, in Washington, DC, U.S., December 11, 2017, and Rick Gates, former campaign aide to Trump, in Washington, U.S., December 11, 2017 are pictured in this combination photograph. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File PhotoDowning also pressed Gates about creating “fake and phony” invoices to trigger payments to himself from Manafort’s accounts in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. “Are they payments for your secret life?” Downing asked. “No, they’re not,” Gates said. Prosecutors hope to wrap up their case this week. Manafort’s trial is the first on charges brought by Mueller’s office, who is also investigating whether Trump campaign members coordinated with Russian officials. Gates also worked on the campaign. During questioning by prosecutors on Tuesday morning, Gates said that Manafort had emailed him in late 2016 asking for the incoming Trump administration to consider tapping Federal Savings Bank Chief Executive Steve Calk for Secretary of the Army. Employees from Federal Savings Bank are expected to testify later this week. Prosecutors allege that the bank lent Manafort money based on fraudulent documents, and that Calk was named an adviser to the campaign and sought the Army post as part of a quid pro quo. Calk and Federal did not reply to requests for comment. Gate’s testimony was part of the prosecution’s effort to prove that Manafort was responsible for financial maneuverings that he and other witnesses have testified include filing false tax returns, defrauding banks in borrowing against real estate, and failing to report foreign bank accounts. One part of his testimony led to laughter in the courtroom. “Not happy. I just saw this. WTF,” Manafort wrote to Gates in an email using a common shorthand to show exasperation after learning his projected tax payment for 2014. Gates said that he helped fabricate documents to convert some income to a loan to lower Manafort’s tax bill. Gates also acknowledged creating a fraudulent letter for movie producer and political operative Steven Brown, who pleaded guilty in April to participating in a scheme that defrauded investors of over $9.5 million involving false documents. Walter Mack, Brown’s lawyer, declined comment. Slideshow (2 Images)Gates also testified on Tuesday how he and Manafort hid income earned for political work in Ukraine, explaining their efforts to set up companies in Cyprus so they could easily be paid by Ukranian businessman who held bank accounts there. Prosecutors showed contracts laying out that Manafort would be paid $4 million a year in quarterly installments of $1 million, all channeled through Cyprus. The funds were logged as loans in order to meet later audits in Cyprus that required documentation of transfers between bank accounts. Gates testified they were not loans but compensation to Manafort. Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert; Writing by Warren Strobel; Editing by Grant McCool and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Opioids are the first cause of accidental death in the US. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), opioid-related overdose deaths have sharply risen in the recent years. In 2016 alone, 64,000 people in the US died of overdose, primarily due to opioid use.Donald Trump has declared the country’s opioid epidemic a national emergency, but he seems determined to ignore experts advice to treat drug addiction as a health problem, rather than a criminal issue. Instead, he is reportedly gearing up to crack down on illegal opioid sales with a dramatic step: According to Politico, the president is finalizing a plan to tackle the opioid crisis which would include the death penalty for opioid dealers, alongside other interventions such as changing government reimbursement policies to limit access to painkillers.This aggressive strategy would resemble Richard Nixon’s 1970s “war on drugs.” Pushed forward by the Ronald Reagan administration, the war on drugs tried to combat the crack cocaine by closing down the illegal drug market, both internationally and domestically. But that approach failed to reduce the number of people using drugs and experiencing health consequences (including lethal) and led to a rise in other epidemics, such as hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS, since criminalizing drug possession favored habits such as reusing syringes. (It also caused the US prison population to balloon, especially among African-Americans, a result which one Nixon aide later claimed was intentional.)Today, most experts say that drug policies should focus on treating addiction and regulating the drug markets, rather than focusing only on eliminating drug supply. The most effective way to prevent drug-related deaths is by treating addiction, show data from the National Institute of Drug Addiction. In the case of opioids, this can be achieved through prescription treatments like Naxalone or Methadone.According to the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the best way to reduce the public health damages created by drugs is by decriminalizing drug possession and drug-use, and adopting alternatives to jail for low-level dealers. Of course, illegal heroin sales and dealers are only a part of the US opioid problem; prescription opioids are consumed at an exponential rate in the US, compared to the rest of the world.

The mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh comes amid a wave of rightwing violence across the US fuelled by conspiracy theories. It is also part of a long history of white supremacist terror aimed at American Jewish communities.The murder of 11 people and wounding of six, allegedly by Robert Bowers, 46, came a day after the arrest of Cesar Sayoc, 56, for a mail bombing campaign that targeted liberals including George Soros. A prominent Jewish billionaire, Soros has in recent weeks been the target of heightened conspiracy-minded rhetoric from prominent Republicans including Donald Trump.A social media post that appeared to be Bowers’ last before the attack was an attack on HIAS, a Jewish-run refugee charity, which he accused of working to “bring invaders in that kill our people”.This belief is in keeping with white supremacist “white genocide” narratives, which hold in part that Jews are orchestrating the “demographic replacement” of white people by means of immigration.It also resembles recent conspiracy-minded comments by mainstream Republicans about the so-called “caravan” of Honduran refugees which is currently hundreds of miles from the US southern border.On 17 October, the Florida congressman Matt Gaetz sent out a tweet that read: “Footage in Honduras giving cash 2 women & children 2 join the caravan & storm the US border @ election time. Soros? US-backed NGOs? Time to investigate the source!” While attempting to explain the tweet, he made a similar charge about Soros and the Balkans.It was also reported last week that the Iowa congressman Steve King had aired white-nationalist style views about demographic replacement in an interview with a far-right Austrian website.On Saturday, Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors hate groups, said Gaetz’s tweet was a “soft version” of the white genocide theory.Beirich added that “sections of the far right, including the president, have fallen into a fever swamp” concerning Soros. Earlier this month, Trump tweeted the assertion that the financier paid activists protesting against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court. During the 2016 election, his final campaign ad connected Soros and the then Federal Reserve chair, Janet Yellen, with a supposed “globalist” establishment conspiracy.Beirich said those who deploy such rhetoric “absolutely bear a moral responsibility” for acts of antisemitic violence such as that which took place in Pittsburgh.The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) chief executive, Jonathan A Greenblatt, released a statement on Saturday in which he said the shooting was “likely the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States”.He added that it came at a “time when ADL has reported a historic increase in both anti-Semitic incidents and anti-Semitic online harassment”.The statement pointed to ADL research showing large increases in antisemitic incidents and antisemitic online harassment.Over the last two decades, white supremacists have repeatedly targeted synagogues and other Jewish institutions for vandalism and violent attacks.On 13 April 2014, Frazier Glenn Miller Jr, a neo-Nazi, shot dead three people at a Jewish community center and a retirement home in Overland Park, Kansas.In 2002, Jake Laskey, his brother Gabriel Laskey and two other men threw swastika-engraved rocks at Temple Beth Israel in Eugene, Oregon, during Friday prayers. In 1994, the same synagogue was the target of a drive-by shooting by a member of the neo-Nazi American Front group, which desecrated several synagogues in the 1990s.On 10 August 1999, Buford O Furrow Jr fired 70 shots into the Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills near Los Angeles, wounding five people.Beirich pointed out that synagogues were firebombed during the civil rights era and have retained “an enormous symbolic importance” for white supremacists. The main intention in attacking them, she said, was to terrorize Jews.“The thing about hitting a house of worship is that you make everyone in that community frightened,” she said. “If you’re a white supremacist, you can’t hit a better target.”The journalist David Neiwert, author of books on the far right including The Eliminationists, which details how hate speech has radicalized the US right, said antisemitic conspiracism, “which is being promoted at the highest levels of government and media”, leads to violence from some who believe it.“It convinces them that their fellow Americans are part of a nefarious plot to destroy American society, and gives them permission to kill,” Neiwert said. “It is the driver in the spate of domestic terrorism the country is currently experiencing.” Topics The far right Pennsylvania US politics Pittsburgh shooting Antisemitism analysis