The alleged gunman who reportedly shouted “all Jews must die” before opening fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday appears to have regularly posted antisemitic conspiracy theories on an extremist social media site, including accusing Jewish people of trying to bring “evil” Muslims into the United States.Officials named the suspect as Robert Bowers, of Pittsburgh. His age was unclear but he was reported to be 46. He was taken into custody shortly after the shooting, officials said.On Gab, a social media network favored by white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other “alt-right” figures, including those kicked off other social networks for hate speech, there was until late on Saturday morning a profile for a “Robert Bowers” who had posted frequently about Jewish control of the American government. The account was taken down but archived versions of the page remained available.The account suggested white Americans and “Western Civilization” were “headed towards certain extinction”, and that Jewish and Muslim people were to blame.The final post read: “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”That post, from Saturday morning, referenced “HIAS”, a global not-for-profit organization, founded in 1881 as the “Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society” to help Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe. It now protects refugees.The post claimed the organization “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people”.The author of the posts was someone “steeped in the debates of the alt-right”, said the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks American hate groups. The SPLC posted on Twitter that the alleged gunman’s social media postings “show adherence to antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews are trying to destroy the white race through immigration – aka ‘white genocide’”.The final post appears to reference a debate within the American “alt-right” over the “optics” of different kinds of public advocacy for white nationalism, SPLC analysts said.Public records for a 46-year-old Robert Bowers from Pittsburgh contain several possible email addresses for him that include the phrase “onedingo”, the social media handle used by Robert Bowers on Gab.HIAS works with the US government to help resettle a wide range of refugees. The organization has worked to mobilize other Jewish organizations against the Trump administration’s attempts to limit and block the admission of refugees, particularly Muslims and, more recently, those from Central America.The Robert Bowers account reposted another user who wrote: “Open you Eyes! It’s the filthy EVIL jews Bringing the Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!!”In an initial statement, HIAS made no reference to the alleged shooter. “There are no words to express how devastated we are,” the organization wrote.The Robert Bowers Gab posts also repeatedly criticized Donald Trump for not being a true ally of white nationalists.“Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist,” Bowers wrote. “There is no #MAGA [Make America Great Again] as long as there is a [Jewish] infestation.”The account also shared a post criticizing of Trump for charges brought by federal prosecutors against a small number of violent white supremacists after protests in Charlottesville, Virginia last year during which a counter-protester died.Shortly after the shooting, the Twitter account of Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son, liked a tweet that highlighted the posts containing the alleged shooter’s criticism of Trump.Several of the posts also referenced internal divisions among white nationalist and conspiracy theorist groups, including one post that suggested supporters of the “QAnon” conspiracy theory were deluded.Gab was founded by Andrew Torba in August 2016, after the rightwing activist Milo Yiannopoulos was permanently banned from Twitter for encouraging the online abuse of a black Hollywood actor. The site, which brands itself as a refuge for “free speech”, has been popular from the beginning with white nationalists and neo-Nazis and has been called “Twitter for racists”.It was banned from the Google Play app store last year, for violating the company’s hate speech policy.Gab confirmed in a public statement on Saturday there had been a verified account with the same name as the alleged Tree of Life gunman. The site said it had suspended the account but saved all data associated with it. Gab pledged that it would fully cooperate with a law enforcement investigation.“Gab unequivocally disavows and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence,” the statement said.On Twitter, Gab’s official account defended the site against accusations it had created a platform for hate and terrorism to flourish, and suggested violent terrorists used many different social media sites. It shared an article about Twitter postings by Cesar Sayoc, the man accused of sending mail bombs to prominent Trump critics.By late afternoon, Gab’s Twitter account announced that PayPal had cut off its relationship with the site. A PayPal spokesman confirmed the move.“The company is diligent in performing reviews and taking account actions,” a spokesman, Justin Higgs, said. “When a site is explicitly allowing the perpetuation of hate, violence or discriminatory intolerance, we take immediate and decisive action.”Higgs said PayPal “has been closely monitoring Gab and was in the process of canceling the site’s account before today’s tragic events occurred”.In response to Paypal’s public comments, Gab responded: “‘Hate’ is subjective.”Gab also bragged on Twitter that it had “been getting 1 million hits an hour all day”. Topics Pennsylvania Antisemitism Religion Pittsburgh shooting news

BEIJING—By claiming without offering proof that China is interfering in the U.S. midterm elections, President Trump not only escalated bilateral tensions, but he also provided ammunition to senior Communist Party members who say his real intention is to stop China’s ascent as a global power.Mr. Trump’s allegation, delivered as he led a United Nations Security Council meeting Wednesday, opened a new rhetorical front in the burgeoning trade dispute. In the past, Mr. Trump has tended to credit China with outsmarting the U.S....

New Zealand has become the latest target of a propaganda campaign in China’s state-run media, with the English language Global Times newspaper claiming that tourists are cancelling their holidays in retaliation for the country banning Huawei from being involved in the 5G rollout.In November national telecommunications company Spark was temporarily banned from using Huawei equipment in the rollout after New Zealand’s spy agency warned it would pose “significant national security risks”.A report in the English-language Global Times newspaper, a tabloid arm of the Communist party’s official newspaper group, quoted a Beijing resident identified as “Li”, saying that as a result he planned to cancel his holiday to the country and go elsewhere instead.“Is it a kind of robbery? New Zealand stabbed us in the back but asks for our money? This is double-faced,” the paper quoted him as saying.The report, which was picked up by New Zealand media, comes amid a period of unusually tense relations between the two nations. Over the past month a major tourism event between the two countries was put indefinitely on hold, an Air New Zealand plane was turned back from Shanghai, and telecommunications company Huawei launched a high-profile advertising blitz, aimed at pressuring the government to sign off on its participation with the nation-wide 5G rollout.A visit by the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to Beijing was cancelled late in 2018 with no new date confirmed.Associate Professor Jason Young, the director of the New Zealand contemporary China research centre at Victoria university, said he had not been able to find an equivalent of the Global Times article in the Chinese-language press – strongly suggesting the piece was aimed at a New Zealand audience only.The Huawei ban and the Pacific “reset” – New Zealand’s strengthening of ties in the Pacific region to counter growing Chinese influence – have made the New Zealand–China relationship “much bumpier” than under the previous National government, Young says.Other, smaller stressors, have added to the tension. “China’s relationship with a number of western countries over the last couple of years have been quite rocky, especially with the United States. For New Zealand, we’re not immune to such international trends, but we also have a long relationship and there’s a lot of good things continuing,” Young said.New Zealand had close to half a million Chinese tourists in 2018, make it the second-largest source of visitors after Australia.The opposition National party’s leader, Simon Bridges, said the government’s “steadily deteriorating relations” with China were putting the valuable trading relationship at risk. But Ardern said that while the two countries had their “challenges” their ties remained robust. Topics New Zealand China Asia Pacific Huawei news

Enlarge this image A man walks on Benning Road in Northeast Washington, D.C., in front of the Greater Northeast Medical Center, where Dr. Edwin Chapman works. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption toggle caption Claire Harbage/NPR A man walks on Benning Road in Northeast Washington, D.C., in front of the Greater Northeast Medical Center, where Dr. Edwin Chapman works. Claire Harbage/NPR The current drug addiction crisis began in rural America, but it's quickly spreading to urban areas and into the African-American population in cities across the country."It's a frightening time," says Dr. Edwin Chapman, who specializes in drug addiction in Washington, D.C., "because the urban African-American community is dying now at a faster rate than the epidemic in the suburbs and rural areas."Chapman is on the front line of the opioid epidemic crippling his community in the Northeast section of Washington. He heads the Medical Home Development Group, a clinic specializing in addiction medicine.About a dozen patients sit in the lobby of his clinic on a recent Monday morning. The clinic is on a busy street, and even on the second floor you can hear blaring ambulances whiz by — Chapman says often they stop right outside his building."Sometimes we'll have a cluster of folks outside selling drugs," he says. "We've had overdoses right outside, right under the building, right next door to the building." Enlarge this image Dr. Chapman in his office at the end of the day on Friday. He waits for the last patient to come in, not wanting them to have to spend the weekend without medication. The walls are covered with awards, certificates, newspaper clippings and family photos. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption toggle caption Claire Harbage/NPR Dr. Chapman in his office at the end of the day on Friday. He waits for the last patient to come in, not wanting them to have to spend the weekend without medication. The walls are covered with awards, certificates, newspaper clippings and family photos. Claire Harbage/NPR According to the Office of the Medical Examiner in Washington, D.C., overall opioid overdose deaths among black men between the ages of 40 and 69 increased 245 percent from 2014 to 2017. Loading... Nationally, the drug death rate is also rising most steeply among African-Americans. Among blacks in urban counties, deaths rose by 41 percent in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Loading... African-American communities are in the midst of a drug epidemic and the culprit is fentanyl, says Dr. Melissa Clarke, who works with Chapman at Medical Home."African-Americans are falling victim to fentanyl and carfentanyl because they are so much more potent than heroin," she says. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is often laced in heroin and other street drugs, Clarke says."People who've even been lifelong heroin users are dying because they don't understand how to titrate those doses," she says. That's a huge part of the challenge. It's always been impossible for addicts to know the potency of street drugs, but with fentanyl in the mix, they're even more dangerous now. "We feel like we have a fire underneath us — people are dying every day," she says. Enlarge this image Gerald A. Goines Sr. sits in the waiting room of Chapman's clinic in Northeast Washington, D.C. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption toggle caption Claire Harbage/NPR Gerald A. Goines Sr. sits in the waiting room of Chapman's clinic in Northeast Washington, D.C. Claire Harbage/NPR This epidemic started in white suburban and rural areas where people are overdosing mostly with prescription medicine like Percocet and OxyContin. Chapman says that African-American patients have historically been less likely to be prescribed pain narcotics."The theory is that African-Americans tolerate pain better. That's a myth," Chapman says. But it probably saved blacks from falling victim to the initial opioid crisis, he says. Enlarge this image Chapman's office overlooks a busy street in Northeast Washington, D.C. He says there have been numerous overdoses just outside the door. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption toggle caption Claire Harbage/NPR Chapman's office overlooks a busy street in Northeast Washington, D.C. He says there have been numerous overdoses just outside the door. Claire Harbage/NPR On a recent Saturday morning, a crowd of mostly health professionals and a handful of patients gather at Chapman's clinic. He has organized an event to discuss this current drug crisis and to encourage people to come up with solutions to the epidemic. The doctor is warm and laughs easily, but he's serious about tackling this epidemic head-on. His urgency comes from experience. Like many here, he's a graduate of the historically black Howard University's College of Medicine. He has been practicing medicine for close to 40 years, and for 12 years he ran the methadone clinic at the D.C. General Hospital."Those patients were very segregated from the community and only their substance abuse was treated," he says. That experience taught him many lessons, including the need to address patients' overall health, not just their addiction. He also learned about the effects of incarceration on drug addiction — many addicts cycle in and out of prison, he says. His patient population is largely made up of African-American, long-term heroin users — many with a history of poverty and mental health problems. Enlarge this image Norman Hughes talks with Dr. Chapman during an appointment. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption toggle caption Claire Harbage/NPR Norman Hughes talks with Dr. Chapman during an appointment. Claire Harbage/NPR "I'm always asked, 'Why do you treat these folks?' " he says. " 'Aren't you afraid to have people like that come into your office?' "He says he sees drug addiction like any other chronic disease and treats a full load of patients with Suboxone, a medication that keeps his patients' relentless cravings in check. He's certified by the Drug Enforcement Administration to prescribe the drug, but by law he can only treat up to 275 patients annually because of federal provider treatment caps.His treatment model works, he says. His clinic has a 78 percent retention rate a year — that's the percentage of patients who stay with him annually, keeping their drug addiction in check. Abstinence therapy has a 10 percent retention rate nationwide. Enlarge this image Pauletta Jackson drops off her prescription for Suboxone at the pharmacy just downstairs from Chapman's clinic. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption toggle caption Claire Harbage/NPR Pauletta Jackson drops off her prescription for Suboxone at the pharmacy just downstairs from Chapman's clinic. Claire Harbage/NPR One of the challenges is debunking myths — "this is a chronic disease and not a moral failing," he says, noting that science shows drug addiction is a brain disorder and some are more predisposed to it than others.Chapman is soft-spoken, but his determination to fight this current drug crisis in his community is unwavering. He has partnered with several groups, including Howard University and the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, to share information and raise awareness. Fighting stigma is a big part of the battle against this epidemic, he says."Seventy-eight percent of the overdoses in the district are African-Americans," says Chapman. "It's just that the population has been totally ignored. They are invisible."He mentors young physicians to work with addicts. Doctors like Dr. Melissa Clarke, who is also certified to prescribe Suboxone. She says finding him wasn't easy.Not enough doctors"Oh, like a needle in a haystack," she says, "there are not a lot of practices out there that have fully embraced as much as Dr. Chapman has that medical home approach to care." Enlarge this image Dr. Scott Whetsell (left) is training with Chapman to better understand how to help the patients that come to the clinic. Gerald A. Goines Sr. (right) waits to see Chapman. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption toggle caption Claire Harbage/NPR Dr. Scott Whetsell (left) is training with Chapman to better understand how to help the patients that come to the clinic. Gerald A. Goines Sr. (right) waits to see Chapman. Claire Harbage/NPR She admires his dedication, saying, "He's always had the vision, he's always had the understanding of opioid addiction is a chronic disease."Chapman's father worked with the Urban League in Gary, Ind., where he fought hard to get black physicians hospital privileges in the 1940s. Chapman credits his father for his career choice and work ethic. He says he's on a mission to debunk drug-related myths and to fight stigma.Larry Bing has been a patient of Chapman's for two years now."I'm 64," he says. "I'm an addict and spite of being on Suboxone and in therapy, every day ain't a good day for me." Enlarge this image Chapman wears pins that signify his commitment to treating patients fighting addiction. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption toggle caption Claire Harbage/NPR Chapman wears pins that signify his commitment to treating patients fighting addiction. Claire Harbage/NPR Bing is tall, handsome and he has been to prison about seven times. He started using when he was 15. He has tried to get off drugs several times before with methadone, a more conventional treatment offered by the D.C. government, but he relapsed four times. "Had I known about the Suboxone before the methadone, I would have tried it first," he says.But it still isn't easy. "When you talk about addiction it ain't necessarily just the drug," he says. "It's that lifestyle, too, that you crave."Bing heard about Chapman on the streets from an addict friend who later died from an overdose. Bing's treatment is covered by Medicaid and Medicare and he knows he's lucky to have the support of his wife, Evelyn. The Bings have been married for 22 years. Larry and Evelyn Bing have been married for 22 years. Larry heard about Dr. Chapman on the streets from an addict friend who later died from an overdose. His treatment is covered by Medicaid and Medicare and he knows he's lucky to have the support of his wife, Evelyn. Marisa Peñaloza/NPR hide caption toggle caption Marisa Peñaloza/NPR Evelyn Bing a, 67-year-old native Washingtonian who is fond of stylish hats, says her husband was already struggling with addiction when they met in 1992. Evelyn didn't know. When she found out, she chose to stick by him, but she doesn't wish that experience on anybody. "It was a horrific experience sometimes, it wasn't easy. It was hard, it was sad, it was ugly."Often he'd go get cigarettes, "and going to get cigarettes lasted for five days," she says. "I was terrified that something really happened to him."Unable to sit at home and wait, she prowled dark streets looking for him, she says, and her biggest fear was that he'd end up back in prison or dead. Though she's grateful her husband found Chapman, she knows many in her community aren't as lucky. "I don't think we as African-Americans are getting the best resources," she says.And as the opioid crisis spikes in D.C., she says many African-Americans are desperate for help. "I'd like to see more Dr. Chapmans, drugs off the street, crime stopped, more schools, more programs to educate on what using drugs do to people."Evelyn Bing says her husband's life is improving, and for that, she credits Chapman. "He listens and cares for his patients' overall health," she says. Enlarge this image Pauletta Jackson walks out of the medical building after seeing Dr. Chapman. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption toggle caption Claire Harbage/NPR Pauletta Jackson walks out of the medical building after seeing Dr. Chapman. Claire Harbage/NPR Dr. Edwin Chapman wants to galvanize his community to fight this drug epidemic. "It's going to be what we do at the grass-roots level, on the ground, more so than what the federal government is doing," he says. "This is very urgent."Chapman is unassuming, but forthright and passionate about his work. At 71, he says he can't think about retirement — "not when my city is right in the middle of a raging epidemic."

“But we have nothing to do with the pro-Putin or pro-Five Star sites,” Mr. Morisi said at the time.Since becoming Italy’s interior minister and vice premier, Mr. Salvini’s constant social media posts, television appearances and campaign-style travel have raised the question of when he actually works. But that is perhaps an outdated conception of work in an age when the media message is the métier.At 12:38 p.m. on Sept. 24, the government passed Mr. Salvini’s tough new immigration law. At 12:55 p.m. he posted a smiley face emoticon. At 1:09 p.m., he tweeted a link to himself talking about it on Facebook Live. At 1:45 he tweeted that the hashtag about his decree, #DecretoSalvini, was “in ten minutes already third on Twitter in Italy! Thank you.” At 2:59, he tweeted that the hashtag was “FIRST in Italy on Twitter.”Mr. Foa has had his own adventures on Twitter.A few days before the 2016 United States presidential election, he shared an Italian blog post claiming Mrs. Clinton had attended a “satanic” dinner with John Podesta.He said that the report seemed plausible to him because he recalled reading in some “very serious press” about “pedophilic” art in the collection of Mr. Podesta. (John’s brother, Tony Podesta, collects contemporary works.)“I didn’t go deep on this,” he said in the interview this week in his defense, acknowledging that he “might be wrong,” and that he sometimes succumbed to the temptation to publish the sensational to boost his audience on social media.“It’s happened to me a couple of times,” he said.In 2017, he falsely claimed the United States military was preparing to mobilize 150,000 reservists, possibly for a war against Syria or North Korea or Russia. He said a friend in American national security circles told him Mr. Trump had called up reservists and that he checked with an expert he knew in Italy who said it was true.“So I had two sources and I wrote just five lines on my blog, ten lines. And that’s all,” he said.Still, he thinks reporters could be more cautious, when, for instance, reporting that Russia was behind the March poisoning of a former Soviet Spy, Sergei V. Skripal.

YouTube said it will stop recommending as many videos that feature conspiracy theories and other false claims, moving to address longstanding criticism that its algorithms help spread disinformation.Videos that could “misinform users in harmful ways,” such as ones that claim the Earth isn’t round or question the actors behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will no longer be recommended with as much prominence, the Alphabet Inc. unit said in a blog post Friday....

It’s been half a century since the magnificent Apollo 11 Moon landing, yet many people still don’t believe it actually happened. Conspiracy theories about the event dating back to the 1970s are in fact more popular than ever. A common theory is that film director Stanley Kubrick helped NASA fake the historic footage of its six successful Moon landings. But would it really have been possible to do that with the technology available at the time? I’m not a space travel expert, an engineer, or a scientist. I am a filmmaker and lecturer in film post-production, and—while I can’t say how we landed on the Moon in 1969—I can say with some certainty that the footage would have been impossible to fake.Here are some of the most common beliefs and questions—and why they don’t hold up.There are two different ways of capturing moving images. One is film, actual strips of photographic material onto which a series of images are exposed. Another is video, which is an electronic method of recording onto various mediums, such as moving magnetic tape. With video, you can also broadcast to a television receiver. A standard motion picture film records images at 24 frames per second, while broadcast television is typically either 25 or 30 frames, depending on where you are in the world.If we go along with the idea that the Moon landings were taped in a TV studio, then we would expect them to be 30 frames per second video, which was the television standard at the time. However, we know that video from the first Moon landing was recorded at ten frames per second in SSTV (Slow Scan television) with a special camera.Some people may contend that when you look at people moving in slow motion, they appear to be in a low gravity environment. Slowing down film requires more frames than usual, so you start with a camera capable of capturing more frames in a second than a normal one—this is called overcranking. When this is played back at the normal frame rate, this footage plays back for longer. If you can’t overcrank your camera, but you record at a normal frame rate, you can instead artificially slow down the footage, but you need a way to store the frames and generate new extra frames to slow it down.At the time of the broadcast, magnetic disk recorders capable of storing slow motion footage could only capture 30 seconds in total, for a playback of 90 seconds of slow motion video. To capture 143 minutes in slow motion, you’d need to record and store 47 minutes of live action, which simply wasn’t possible.Well, maybe they did have a super secret extra storage recorder—but one almost 3,000 times more advanced? Doubtful. That’s a bit of logic at last! But shooting it on film would require thousands of feet of film. A typical reel of 35mm film—at 24 frames per minutes second—lasts 11 minutes and is 1,000 foot long. If we apply this to 12 frames per second film (as close to ten as we can get with standard film) running for 143 minutes (this is how long the Apollo 11 footage lasts), you would need six and a half reels.These would then need to be put together. The splicing joins, transfer of negatives, and printing—and potentially grains, specks of dust, hairs, or scratches—would instantly give the game away. There are none of these artefacts present, which means it wasn’t shot on film. When you take into account that the subsequent Apollo landings were shot at 30 frames per second, then to fake those would be three times harder. So the Apollo 11 mission would have been the easy one.It isn’t. After the flag is let go, it settles gently and then doesn’t move at all in the remaining footage. Also, how much wind is there inside a TV studio? There’s wind in the desert, I’ll accept that. But in July, the desert is also very hot and you can normally see heat waves present in footage recorded in hot places. There are no heat waves on the Moon landing footage, so it wasn’t filmed in the desert. And the flag still isn’t moving anyway.Yes, it’s a spotlight—a spotlight, 93 million miles away. It’s called the sun. Look at the shadows in the footage. If the light source were a nearby spotlight, the shadows would originate from a central point. But because the source is so far away, the shadows are parallel in most places rather than diverging from a single point. That said, the sun isn’t the only source of illumination—light is reflected from the ground too. That can cause some shadows to not appear parallel. It also means we can see objects that are in the shadow.Stanley Kubrick could have been asked to fake the Moon landings. But as he was such a perfectionist, he would have insisted on shooting it on location. And it’s well documented he didn’t like to fly, so that about wraps that one up… Next? I give up.This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Researchers believe they have identified the prime driver for a startling rise in the number of people who think the Earth is flat: Google’s video-sharing site, YouTube.Their suspicion was raised when they attended the world’s largest gatherings of Flat Earthers at the movement’s annual conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2017, and then in Denver, Colorado, last year.Interviews with 30 attendees revealed a pattern in the stories people told about how they came to be convinced that the Earth was not a large round rock spinning through space but a large flat disc doing much the same thing.Of the 30, all but one said they had not considered the Earth to be flat two years ago but changed their minds after watching videos promoting conspiracy theories on YouTube. “The only person who didn’t say this was there with his daughter and his son-in-law and they had seen it on YouTube and told him about it,” said Asheley Landrum, who led the research at Texas Tech University.The interviews revealed that most had been watching videos about other conspiracies, with alternative takes on 9/11, the Sandy Hook school shooting and whether Nasa really went to the moon, when YouTube offered up Flat Earth videos for them to watch next.Some said they watched the videos only in order to debunk them but soon found themselves won over by the material.Landrum said one of the most popular Flat Earth videos, “200 proofs Earth is not a spinning ball” appears to be effective because it offers arguments that appeal to so many mindsets, from biblical literalists and conspiracy theorists to those of a more scientific bent.One way or another, the interviewees found themselves believers and before long were asking “where is the curve?” and “why is the horizon always at eye level?”Landrum, who presented her results at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC, said she did not think YouTube was doing anything overtly wrong, but said that if the site wanted to help it could tweak its algorithm to show more accurate information.“There’s a lot of helpful information on YouTube but also a lot of misinformation,” Landrum said. “Their algorithms make it easy to end up going down the rabbit hole, by presenting information to people who are going to be more susceptible to it.”“Believing the Earth is flat in of itself is not necessarily harmful, but it comes packaged with a distrust in institutions and authority more generally,” she added. “We want people to be critical consumers of the information they are given, but there is a balance to be had.”Landrum called on scientists and others to create their own YouTube videos to combat the proliferation of conspiracy videos. “We don’t want YouTube to be full of videos saying here are all these reasons the Earth is flat. We need other videos saying here’s why those reasons aren’t real and here’s a bunch of ways you can research it for yourself.”But she conceded that some Flat Earthers may not be swayed by a scientists’ words. When the US astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explained how small sections of large curved surfaces will always appear flat to the little creatures that crawl upon it, his message was seen by some Flat Earthers as patronising and dismissive, Landrum said.“There’s always going to be a small percentage of people who will reject anything that scientists put out there but maybe there’s a group in the middle that won’t,” she added. “The only tool we have to battle misinformation is to try and overwhelm it with better information.”Google did not respond to a request for comment. Topics Science YouTube Google Alphabet news

Now the troubles in tech are seeping into other markets. On Tuesday, energy companies were the worst performers as oil plummeted. At time of writing, futures on the US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, were down nearly 6%. Retail companies declined too after the turmoil travelled around the world, pulling down European and Asian markets.The losses look set to wipe out all of the 2018 gains in the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index.With all this happening, tech companies still look relatively expensive and their high valuations means there could be more room for these stocks to fall, if investors don’t consider the slump a buying opportunity.The market’s fear gauge—the Cboe volatility index that measures investor sentiment—is once again creeping up. For now, at least, it’s still less severe than the sheer panic that gripped traders at the start of the year.

9 U.S. ‘Can The President Be Impeached?’ We Answer Your Questions

A similar point of view characterizes the films of Dinesh D’Souza, the polemicist who had pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions in 2014, only to be pardoned by President Trump this year. Moviegoers did not have to go out of their way to catch Mr. D’Souza’s most recent effort, “Death of a Nation.” The film had a wide release last summer, playing in more than 1,000 theaters, including those belonging to the AMC and Cinemark chains.The film makes the case that the Nazi platform was similar to that of today’s Democratic Party. Prominent among its villains is George Soros, who was allegedly sent a pipe bomb by Cesar Sayoc Jr., who also is accused of sending similar packages to Hillary Clinton and Mr. Obama.“The progressive Democrats are the true racists,” the film’s narrator intones. “They are the true fascists. They want to steal our income. They want to steal our earnings and our wealth and our freedom and our lives.”The PG-13 rated film had a box office take of roughly $6 million, which paled next to the $33 million brought in by “Obama’s America,” a 2012 film by Mr. D’Souza that claimed Mr. Obama, as the president, sought to destroy the United States from within to sate the “anti-Colonialism” impulses of the African father he hardly knew.“Death of a Nation” will have a second life on the streaming platforms Amazon, iTunes and Google Play, as well as on DVD, sold at Walmart, Best Buy and other retailers. The distribution is being handled by Quality Flix and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.The Incitement Industry can also be a driving force at Fox News, which has lately featured guests who have asserted without evidence that Mr. Soros financed the migrant caravan making its slow way toward the southern border of the United States. Someone who shared that view was the man charged with killing 11 congregants during a hate-driven shooting rampage at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

WASHINGTON/PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to close the U.S. border with Mexico next week, potentially disrupting millions of legal border crossings and billions of dollars in trade, if Mexico does not stop immigrants from reaching the United States. “There’s a very good likelihood that I’ll be closing the border next week, and that will be just fine with me,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Trump has repeatedly said he would close the U.S. border with Mexico during his two years in office and has not followed through. However, this time the government says it is struggling to deal with a surge of asylum seekers from countries in Central America who travel through Mexico. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials warned that traffic with Mexico could slow as the agency shifts 750 border personnel from ports of entry to help process asylum seekers who are turning up between official crossing points. “Make no mistake: Americans may feel effects from this emergency,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement. Nielsen said the personnel shift would lead to commercial delays and longer waiting times at crossing points. Some of those delays were already being felt on both sides of the international border. On Friday afternoon, the wait was longer than usual on the Mexican side of the crossing between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas, with long lines of freight trucks carrying goods from Mexican factories into the United States, according to a Reuters witness. One driver said she had been stuck in line for three hours on her way to her job in the United States. Nielsen and other U.S. officials say border patrol officers have been overwhelmed by a dramatic increase in asylum seekers, many of them children and families who arrive in large groups fleeing violence and economic hardship in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Related CoverageTrump says it is very likely he'll close border with MexicoAfter Trump border threat, Mexico says doesn't act on threatsMarch is on track for 100,000 border apprehensions, DHS officials said, which would be the highest monthly number in more than a decade. Most of those people can remain in the United States while their asylum claims are processed, which can take years because of ballooning immigration court backlogs. Nielsen warned Congress on Thursday that the government faces a “system-wide meltdown” as it tries to care for more than 1,200 unaccompanied children and 6,600 migrant families in its custody. Mexico played down the possibility of a border shutdown. “Mexico does not act on the basis of threats. We are a great neighbor,” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter. Mexican Senator Ricardo Monreal, who leads President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s party in the chamber, said in a statement on Friday he would seek to send a diplomatic note to the U.S. Congress criticizing what he called Trump’s “xenophobic attitudes.” It was not clear how shutting down ports of entry would deter asylum seekers because they are legally able to request help as soon as they set foot on U.S. soil. But a border shutdown would disrupt tourism and commerce between the United States and its third-largest trading partner, with trade totaling $612 billion last year according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A general view shows vehicles queued to cross the Cordova-Americas international border crossing bridge in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico March 29, 2019. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez“We’d be looking at losses worth billions of dollars,” said Kurt Honold, head of CCE, a business group in Tijuana, Mexico, in response to Trump’s threat. “It’s obvious he’s not measuring what he says.” A shutdown could lead to factory closures on both sides of the border, industry officials say, because the automobiles and medical sectors have woven international supply chains into their business models. “We are Siamese twins - we are so entangled together,” said Alan Russell, chief executive of the Tecma Group, an outsourcing firm. Lean hog futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange fell 5.7 percent on worries that the border closure would disrupt exports to the top U.S. pork market. U.S. ports of entry recorded 193 million pedestrian and vehicle-passenger crossings last year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. As president, Trump has legal authority to close particular ports of entry but he could be open to a legal challenge if he decided to close all of them immediately, said Stephen Legomsky, a former chief counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under Democratic President Barack Obama. Trump is trying to convince Congress to sign off on a revised trade agreement with Mexico and Canada that his administration negotiated last year. Trump launched his presidential bid in June 2015 with a promise to crack down on illegal immigration, saying Mexico was sending rapists and drug runners into the United States. He said on Friday Mexico should do more to prevent Central American migrants from reaching the United States. Slideshow (13 Images)“It’s very easy for them to stop people from coming up, but they don’t choose to do it,” he said. Lopez Obrador said on Thursday tackling illegal immigration was an issue chiefly for the United States and the Central American countries to address. Trump has so far been unable to convince Congress to tighten asylum laws or fund a proposed border wall, one of his signature policies. He has declared a national emergency to justify redirecting money earmarked for the military to pay for building a wall. Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by David Alexander and Andy Sullivan in Washington, Anthony Esposito and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City, Karl Plume in Chicago and Julio-Cesar Chavez in El Paso, Jose Luis Gonzalez in Ciudad Juarez and Mica Rosenberg in New York; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Grant McCoolOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

To be American in 2018 is to be force-fed a daily diet of lies. We soak in bogus voter-fraud claims, anti-vaccine delusions and the biggest and deadliest conspiracy theory of them all: that climate change is a hoax, in the words of the president of the United States, “created by and for the Chinese in order to make American manufacturing noncompetitive.” (In October, Mr. Trump backed away from calling climate change a fiction, but added that scientists “have a very big political agenda.”) “Everything Is Connected” suggests that this state of affairs was inevitable, which may be right. Conspiracy theories thrive among the discontented, as ways to avoid or compensate for changes they cannot accept. Such changes are only going to come faster and harder, with ever wilder justifications floated on ever more sophisticated media channels, and we’ll need artists to help us understand the chaotic, conspiratorial images to come.For the real hazard of today’s conspiracy theory boom is that it had smoothed the way for actual malfeasance, which these days you can disclose publicly with minimal consequence. Mr. Trump responded to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi with an outright admission in the Oval Office that the kingdom’s arms deals were too valuable for him to lose. Or consider last year’s release of the Paradise Papers, a huge cache of documents revealing offshore financial shenanigans by C.E.O.s, cabinet secretaries and celebrities. The papers disclosed the kind of connections Marc Lombardi spent years researching and drawing, yet they produced almost no public outcry.How will tomorrow’s artists bring our attention to these wrongs, as Mr. Haacke and Ms. Holzer have done, and can museums do anything to keep them from drowning in a morass of alternative facts? “Everything Is Connected” may be the show for an age of conspiracy theorists, but the biggest conspiracies of all are hiding in plain sight.Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy Through Jan. 6 at the Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue, Manhattan; 212-731-1675, metmuseum.org.

关于 Google「回归」的消息还遥遥无期，不过 Google AI 可是在中国刷足了存在感。9 月 17 日，世界人工智能大会在上海开幕，Google 举办了一场关于「AI 触手可及」的讨论。这个概念在 2017 年的 Google I/O 大会上就首次提出，这次面向中国的合作伙伴，Google 展示了 AI 与其他行业结合的新的案例。AI 与医疗结合，能够协助医生诊断病症。Thorough Images 创建了一个机器学习系统，将 TensorFlow 运用于病理诊断，他们还在和 301 医院、中国医学科学院肿瘤医院和中日友好医院的诊断系统进行了整合。AI 与天文结合，帮助科学家发现了新的行星。Google AI 的工程师与一名天体物理学家合作，训练机器学习模型在 NASA 太空望远镜收集到的数据中寻找行星，最终发现了两颗新的行星：开普勒-90 i 和 开普勒-80 g。还有在中国已经可以使用的 Google 翻译、前段时间刚刚推出的「猜画小歌」小程序......Google 正在积极向中国、向世界展示自己的 AI 能力，并且真正让这项技术与其他行业相结合，帮助开发者、帮助企业，也给用户带来更有意思的产品。Google 全球副总裁、工程研究员 Jay Yagnik 介绍了 Google 的 AI 战略：「通过 AI 使应用程序和服务变得更有用，帮助企业和开发者运用 AI 进行创新，为研究人员提供工具和资源来解决在医疗健康、环境保护等领域的难题。」通过自己的产品面向用户，搭建开源的框架帮助开发者，Google 在 AI 领域扮演着领头羊、实践者的角色，而科技巨头的身份也让它有着对业界更多的思考。论坛演讲中，Jay Yagnik 详细阐述了 Google 最近公布 的 AI 原则，以及未来如何运用它来指导 AI 的发展。Jay 表示：「AI 如何发展与应用将在未来对社会产生重大影响，这也是我们为什么需要正确引导它的原因。」在论坛结束后，我们对 Google 全球副总裁、工程研究员 Jay Yagnik 进行了采访。在与他的深入交流中，Jay 谈到了 Google AI 与其他行业结合时的考量因素、中美之间的 AI 竞争，以及 Google 为什么那么「酷」、公司内部众多有趣的小项目，与它们背后的文化来源。以下采访对话经过极客公园编辑整理：Q：在中国，很多公司关注的是新零售、安防等商业化进程比较快的项目。而在这次大会上，Google 展示的是关于艺术和医疗领域的应用。为什么会产生这种差异？A：Google 想通过更广泛的应用领域，向公众证明 AI 的应用前景是非常广泛的。我们会通过 Google 的云平台发布算法，允许各个行业利用我们的技术开拓各自领域的应用。Q：Google 经常会通过一些小的项目来展示 AI 技术，比如猜画小歌的体验，这些技术很有意思，让不关注科技的人开始关注科技，Google 是如何形成这种文化的？A：Google 是一个对技术充满激情的公司。如果大家看过去两百年人类生活水平的提高，可以发现都与技术进步相关。人们生活水平的提升，其实就是技术水平进步的函数。这就是 Google 对技术充满热情和激情的原因，也让公众感受到了我们对技术的追求和热情。这种文化驱使我们去做这些能够改变生活的事情。Q：您在上午演讲中讲述了照片成像的历史，来说明机器学习目前处在一个早期的阶段。目前机器学习还是发生在云端的训练和部署，那么是否距离终端部署还停留在很初级的阶段？A：机器学习的发展并不是由云端到终端设备的一个过程。机器学习在云端还是在终端设备，我们也是在不断调整，目前在云端和终端设备上都可以开展机器学习。今年我们发布了 HDPU，这就是部署在设备终端的；而上午讲的影像发展，这是一种应用，我们还会发现其他广泛的应用领域，还有一些是边缘应用，也是非常有趣的。分布式计算也是一种应用，这种应用并不需要把数据集合在一起，也可以做出机器学习的效果。Q：AI 给很多行业带来了突破，Google 在推动 AI 与它们结合时，会考量哪些因素？A：我们并不会对行业进行明显的区分，主要是观察哪些领域可以应用人工智能，并取得重要的进展；另一方面我们会观察哪些领域对人们的生活是重要的，从重要性的角度来选择。Q：Google AI 来到中国的原因是什么，是因为中国巨大的市场规模和潜力吗？A：不是，我们进入中国市场，并不是因为机会主义的考量，主要还是考虑 AI 技术更广泛部署为整体技术发展所做的贡献。随着人工智能技术的提升，以后我们也不需要很大的数据集，在较小的数据样本里面，也可以正常完成工作，所以我们还是更看重 AI 技术广泛部署而带来的贡献。Q：Google 是否已经将 AI 技术作为中国用户了解 Google 技术能力的主要途径？Google 未来如何计划提升 AI 技术在中国市场商业影响力？A：我们在大会上展示了 Google 翻译，它一共支持 38 种不同的语言，中文是其中之一，产品在中国很受欢迎。Google 是一个以 AI 为主的公司，我们愿意参与这些活动，让更多的用户了解 Google，知道我们在做什么。关于如何提升 AI 技术在中国的影响力，我们将不断改进我们的 AI 技术，把它做为工具交付给中国用户，比如 TensorFlow，各行各业就可以利用 TensorFlow 去开拓各自领域的商业价值。Q：如何看待中美在 AI 领域的竞争？A：我并不想把它看作是两个国家之间的竞争，而更多的是使人类社会普遍受益的一种做法。随着技术进步，人工智能技术一定会越来越先进，促进人类社会的发展和进步。首先考虑技术优化，之后会丰富应用场景，技术是一种团结的力量，而非竞争，这种技术就是人工智能技术。

The head of US intelligence has said that North Korea is “unlikely to give up” its nuclear weapons because its leadership sees them as “critical to regime survival” – in comments which contrasted sharply with Donald Trump’s own assessment.Daniel Coats, the director of national intelligence, made his assessment in a written statement on “worldwide threats” to the Senate on Tuesday, which was noteworthy for the many ways it differed from the rhetoric favoured by the president and his top aides.The gaps were not only evident on North Korea, but also on Iran’s nuclear programme, the continuing threat of the Islamic State in Syria and on the importance of climate change. The distance between the White House and its intelligence agencies was highlighted further in verbal testimony to the Senate intelligence committee by Coats, alongside the heads of the CIA, DIA and NSA who also testified.Coats’s assessment on North Korean intentions had particular impact as it comes in the run-up to a planned second summit at the end of February between Trump and Kim Jong-un.Trump has rejected repeated reports that – while the Pyongyang regime has halted nuclear and missile tests since the first summit in Singapore last June – it has not paused its production of nuclear weapons and may have stepped it up.“The media is not giving us credit for the tremendous progress we have made with North Korea,” Trump complained in a tweet last week. The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has insisted that the diplomatic effort was aimed at complete North Korean disarmament.In his written testimony, however, Coats said: “We continue to assess that North Korea is unlikely to give up all of its nuclear weapons and production capabilities, even as it seeks to negotiate partial denuclearization steps to obtain key US and international concessions.”“North Korean leaders view nuclear arms as critical to regime survival,” Coats argued.He went on to point out that Kim Jong-un’s pledge in Singapore to pursue the “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” – which Trump and Pompeo portrayed as a historic breakthrough – was no more than “a formulation linked to past demands that include an end to US military deployments and exercises involving advanced US capabilities”.That assessment of North Korea was echoed by the head of the Defence Intelligence Agency, Lt Gen Robert Ashley. He told the Senate committee: “The capability and threat that existed a year ago are still there.”In contrast, Coats said that US intelligence “continue to assess that Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device”.He noted that Iran’s activities are limited by the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but as Iran derives ever fewer benefits from the deal, hardliners are pressing for the state to break free of those constraints.Trump abrogated the JCPOA in May last year and his administration has threatened sanctions against anyone doing business with Iran.Pompeo and the national security adviser, John Bolton, have described Iran as the biggest terrorist threat in the world, but the intelligence community’s worldwide threats assessment does not echo that view. It lists Iran below Isis and al-Qaida and homegrown extremists.The intelligence report also represented a rejoinder to Trump’s claims of victory over Isis in Syria.Coats’s written testimony said: “Isis still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria, and it maintains eight branches, more than a dozen networks, and thousands of dispersed supporters around the world, despite significant leadership and territorial losses.”On a day that Trump ridiculed concern about climate change because of the current blast of arctic weather in the midwest, the intelligence report also includes sombre predictions of the repercussions of global warming.Trump has dismissed climate change as a hoax, and on Tuesday tweeted: “What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!”The administration has scrubbed references to climate science from government websites, but Coats’s report presented it as a major threat.“Climate hazards such as extreme weather, higher temperatures, droughts, floods, wildfires, storms, sea level rise, soil degradation, and acidifying oceans are intensifying, threatening infrastructure, health, and water and food security,” Coats warned. Topics Trump administration North Korea Iran US foreign policy Americas US politics news

“This weekend, we received some troubling news: our president is not a Russian asset,” Stephen Colbert said to open Monday’s Late Show, the first since the wrap-up of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. To recap, Mueller delivered the report of his much-hyped two-year investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election to the attorney general, William Barr, on Friday evening. Barr, a Trump appointee, released a summary of Mueller’s report on Sunday, in which he cleared the president of collusion with Russia and declined to bring any further charges.Colbert called the lack of collusion finding “troubling news, because if Trump is not working with the Russians, then what the hell is wrong with him? If they don’t have anything on him, why does he keep saying nice things about Vladimir Putin?”The conclusion of the much-hyped investigation is “anti-climatic”, he continued. “It’s like saying, “Guess what, kids! Santa came! And he brought ... mostly nothing. In fact, Santa took his sack of presents and handed them over to some guy named Bill, and Bill is like ‘I’ll give you a summary of the gifts’.”In wake of the news, particularly the clearance of collusion allegations, many conservative pundits called for the president’s critics to apologize. Fine, Colbert said. “I will start. I have said one or two things about Donald Trump, like how he’s a terrible president, so uh...you know, I’m just going to bite the bullet and come out and say it,” he turned, straight-faced, as the camera zoomed in. “Mr. President, if you’re watching – and I know you are – I’m sorry that you’re a terrible president.”Though the summary of Mueller’s report is arguably “the best news of his presidency,” Colbert warned that Barr’s decision to not press on obstruction of justice allegations is suspect; before he was appointed attorney general, Barr voluntarily wrote a 19-page memo in which he called the obstruction theory “fatally misconceived” and based on “a novel and legally insupportable reading of the law”.In other words, “That’s a hell of a job application,” Colbert said, re-enacting the scene. “Hello, here’s my card, it says: Bill Barr, obstruction is not possible.”“Oh, I got the job?” he continued as Barr. “What’s my first assignment – decide whether obstruction is possible? Let me see that card again – no it is not.”Ultimately, it is good news that the president is not a foreign asset, he said, “but even if Donald Trump was falsely accused, he only has himself to blame. Because he lies so much, you just don’t know what to believe. He even lies about things he doesn’t need to lie about,” such as the time lied, via Air Force One memo, about the reason behind his son’s meeting with Russians in Trump Tower. It may not be a collusion, Colbert said, but it is a lie.Fair is fair, though – “Barr says Mueller says there was no collusion between Trump and Russia, so we have to cross collusion off the list of reasons Trump is unfit to be president,” Colbert concluded, pointing to a whiteboard filled, on one side, with the president’s disqualifying actions; on the other, a list of seventeen ongoing congressional and legal investigations against him.“Sir, it’s gone,” Colbert said of the Mueller one. “That must be one-seventeenth of a weight off your shoulders.”On the Daily Show, Trevor Noah admitted that the Mueller investigation’s conclusion was “a little disappointing”, particularly the special counsel’s reported refusal to make a call on obstruction of justice.“Are you shitting me right now?” Noah ranted. “Robert Mueller spends two years investigating obstruction of justice and his conclusion is ‘I don’t know, what do you guys think?’ That’s not an answer, Robert Mueller! That is the question we gave you!”The president’s supporters were, predictably, calling the report a massive victory for Trump. However, “I think this was really a win for everyone,” Noah said. “I mean, this is great for Democrats, because they can move on from collusion now and campaign on the issues that more people care about. It’s a win for America, because, you know, your president isn’t a traitor.”“It’s also a huge win for the children of Africa, because they’re about to receive a giant shipment of Trump Colluded T-shirts.”And perhaps the ultimate winner? The American taxpayer. Mueller may have spent $25m on the investigation, but his findings forced former Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort to pay the government over $40m, “which I guess is another reason why the Mueller investigation was such a big win for Trump,” Noah explained. “This is the first time he’s been involved in something that actually turned a profit.”Over in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel observed that since Mueller recommended no new charges for Trump or his advisers, “now the process of tearing our country even further apart can finally begin”.“Half of American is upset that our president didn’t collude with Russia. Seems like we should probably be happy about that, shouldn’t we?” he continued. “And deep down, didn’t we know that Trump didn’t collude with Russia because he could never pull that off.”“And even if he did collude, it probably would’ve been by accident,” Kimmel said, pointing out that Mueller’s investigation did find that Putin and his government made overtures to the Trump campaign, and that Russia meddled in the election on Trump’s behalf.“Basically, Trump got in the White House the same way Lori Loughlin got her kid into USC,” he concluded, referring to the recent college admissions bribery scandal. Topics Late-night TV roundup Stephen Colbert Trevor Noah Jimmy Kimmel TV comedy Robert Mueller Comedy news

TORONTO — An aging construction worker arrived quietly in the building’s basement, took his seat alongside three other men and struck his lighter below a cooker of synthetic heroin.A woman, trained to intervene in case of an overdose, placed a mask over her face as his drug cooked and diluted beneath a jumping flame. He injected himself, grew still and then told of the loss of his wife who died alone in her room upstairs — an overdose that came just a few months before this social service nonprofit opened its doors for supervised injections.“I don’t want to say, ‘What if, what if,’” said the 52-year-old man, known as Gordie. He said his wife, Carol, had talked about kicking her habit before her death in September. “It never happened,” he said.He repeated a kind of mantra, born of personal grief, that is quickly becoming a guiding principle for many heroin users and advocates across Canada, Europe and, now, a handful of United States cities like New York: “Don’t do it alone.”ImageA 52-year-old drug user known as Gordie holds a funeral program card for his wife, who overdosed in her room a few months before a local center opened. “I don’t want to say, ‘What if, what if,’” he said.As Mayor Bill de Blasio has come out in support of supervised injection centers in New York, his stance has been shaped by Canada’s lead.The country has been a pioneer; its first supervised injection facility, where heroin can be used under supervision, opened in Vancouver in 2003. A decade of political and legal wrangling followed, culminating with the Canadian Supreme Court ruling in favor of the approach in 2011.No such federal approval exists in the United States, and none is likely to come from the Trump administration. But cities from Philadelphia to San Francisco — which could open the nation’s first sites this summer — are discussing going forward anyway, risking a potential showdown with federal authorities.In New York, where as many as four sites are being envisioned as part of a one-year pilot study, officials suggest that the Justice Department may be reluctant to interfere with a city-backed effort to combat the seemingly unstoppable surge of deaths from prescription opioids, heroin and the powerful opioid, fentanyl.In Toronto, the largest city in Canada, opening sites became a recent imperative: In 2013, there were 104 fatal opioid overdoses; in the first 10 months of 2017, there were 263, according to the latest data available from the city’s health department.Two official sites opened here last year; four more have opened so far this year. In some, users can only inject drugs; in others, they can snort or swallow them. At the moment, none allow drugs to be smoked.Days before Mr. de Blasio announced his decision this month, he and John Tory, the conservative mayor of Toronto, spoke by phone for about 30 minutes, mostly about doing the “preparatory work” to ensure public support.“I think that many people in the public would feel as I did — a bit uneasy at first,” Mr. Tory said in an interview. But as he familiarized himself with studies of the benefits of supervised injection facilities, he said he was “persuaded of the view that it really is about saving lives.”The New York Police Department sent a small camera-toting contingent to Toronto and Vancouver to see how officers there handle the sort of drug-related disorder that for years has been anathema to New York’s policing culture.They did not like everything they saw.“We did see quality-of-life issues; we did see drug dealing,” Commissioner James P. O’Neill said at a news conference this month. “It wasn’t a 24/7 operation, so at one point we actually saw someone shooting up in the doorway of the center.”“It was good for us to see that to make sure that it doesn’t happen here,” he added.The Toronto police are currently studying crime trends to figure out whether the quality-of-life issues have worsened because of the new facilities or from other factors like the general rise in drug overdoses in the city over the same period.In Toronto, calls to 911 have risen near the biggest sites. “Public urination, public defecation, prostitution, sexual assault, robberies, noise, you name it, we’re hearing about it,” said Staff Superintendent Mario Di Tommaso of the Toronto Police Service. “And that’s all coming from the public.”Indeed, groups of users, drugs in hand, are a common sight outside the biggest of these centers; many arrive before the doors open, some unable to wait to use inside.For health officials, users and advocates, that underscores the need to have a place safe from overdose, or from worries about robbery while the drugs are taking effect. Several times in recent weeks, staff members had to revive people overdosing outside a center.“It’s like the AIDS crisis; we’ve had people dying for a decade and nobody cared,” said Councilor Joe Cressy, 33, among Toronto’s most assiduous advocates for the sites. “The question we’re asked today is: Why can’t you open more sooner?”Other cities in Canada are moving forward as well. Montreal has opened several supervised injection sites in the last year. Ottawa got its first site in April. Vancouver now has more than a half-dozen places where users can inject. (Police in Vancouver said their sites have not caused crime to increase.)Toronto’s path was not exactly smooth. Last August, activists fed up with waiting for Canadian federal approval took over a section of a downtown park, pitched a tent and began a volunteer site. They did so after a particularly bad week in which a half-dozen people fatally overdosed in the city, said Sarah Ovens, 28, a social worker and volunteer who helps run the site in Moss Park.Soon Mayor Tory came down. Then Ontario’s premier, Kathleen Wynne, visited.The tents have since been replaced by a trailer. Since August, about 7,500 injections have been supervised by a rotating cast of hundreds of volunteers; 214 overdoses have been reversed, usually with oxygen rather than naloxone, an overdose reversal medication, said Ms. Ovens.Crowds now gather in the muddy grass outside before its doors open at 4 p.m. Soon the renegade site will get an officially sanctioned location in a nearby storefront.Across the street, in an officially sanctioned site at the nonprofit Fred Victor, Gordie, the construction worker, said he comes daily when it opens in the evening.Nick, a 28-year-old Ojibwe man who took fentanyl at the injection site, said he had been through treatment but could not make it stick. “It’s the devil,” he said of opioids, adding that he and his girlfriend come to Fred Victor because it is safe to use there. The site will eventually be open around the clock, everyday.Not everyone is sold.“If your son, daughter, loved one ever had an addiction, would you want them to go in a little area and do more drugs?” Doug Ford, a conservative populist running for Ontario premier and the brother of the former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, told reporters in April. “I am dead against that.”Mr. Ford, who hosts big rallies and campaigns on a bus with a huge image of himself giving a thumbs-up, is the front-runner in next month’s election, and has invited comparisons here to President Trump. In a statement to The Times, Mr. Ford said he had his own personal views, but would consult with experts on the issue. “Helping people is my top priority,” he said.His big lead in polls has worried some city officials that provincial funding for supervised injection sites could be at risk should he win.“I am concerned,” said Kristyn Wong-Tam, a city councilor whose downtown ward contains a city-run site called The Works. “We don’t push people out. We draw them in. To me, that’s the Toronto way.”The Works, a harm reduction center and methadone clinic, has already overseen nearly 9,000 injections. The site, open 12 hours, six days a week, sits a few steps from a university campus and just off the corner of Yonge-Dundas Square, the equivalent of New York’s Times Square.Intake is still done by paper — the computer system could not be developed fast enough — and visitors are asked to provide some information, such as gender, age, the drug they will be using and whether they have overdosed; they can remain anonymous. About three-quarters of those who come are men, many are homeless and less than 10 percent are first-time visitors, according to Toronto Public Health, which operates the site.Each person gets a kit that includes saline solution for mixing with heroin or other drugs, a choice of different gauge needles, a cooker — thinner than a spoon and single-use — and a spot at one of the five booths. (Other sites may also have straws for snorting.) Because it can get crowded, there is a 30-minute time limit in the injection area and in the nearby “chill out” room.Each month, about half of those who come receive referrals to other health or city services.There have been 123 overdoses through April, and most are brought back with oxygen. The goal is to treat the overdose without reversing the high — a result when naloxone is used — so that the user is not thrust into immediate withdrawal and a new search for drugs. Staff administered naloxone in fewer than a third of overdoses.The city-run site gets heavy traffic and its presence can be felt on the streets outside.Discarded needles can be found in streets and alleys. At a Tim Hortons across the street, an “out of service” sign hangs on the bathroom door as a decoy to dissuade people who would deal or use drugs inside. (Customers are buzzed in.)Business owners want the disorder contained.“I think we’re at a time when the Giuliani mentality needs to come to Toronto,” Mark Garner, the head of the local business improvement area, said, referring to the former mayor of New York. “The perception of safety” is diminished by the facility, he said, but added that he wanted more outreach workers and better data, not more police.As it is, officers keep a low profile. They do not enter the site, though undercover officers do conduct buy-and-bust operations targeting dealers in the area.Mayor Tory did not dispute the idea that some upheaval can be found at the sites. But he said Commissioner O’Neill’s team may have misinterpreted what they saw in Canada.“Far be it for me to substitute my judgment for that of your police commissioner,” Mayor Tory said. “But the same people had the same issues before, and maybe they were a little bit out of view in alleyways, taking drugs.“I think if we’re bringing them to a place now where professionals are helping them to deal with their drug issues, maybe that’s why they’re more in plain view.”

There is no issue that better illustrates the parallel universe in which Donald Trump resides than immigration policy. In the real world, unauthorized immigration is the lowest it’s been in a decade, and violent crime has been dropping since the 1990s. Yet in Trump’s bizarre world, we are experiencing an out-of-control immigrant crime wave.Apparently MS-13 members with face tattoos are flooding across an unguarded southern border by the millions and are wreaking havoc in lawless “sanctuary cities”, where they are given voting rights, free healthcare, and the names and addresses of Trump supporters. Immigrants – at least those from whom he does not personally profit – are, in Trump’s words, “gang members, drug dealers, human traffickers, and criminals of all shapes, sizes, and kinds”. “These aren’t people. These are animals.” What better way, then, to punish his enemies than to send them people of whom Trump is so personally terrified?Such is the logic of Trump’s announcement that he intends to bus undocumented immigrants to so-called sanctuary cities. These are localities which, in varying ways, limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities in order to encourage immigrant cooperation with local police.Trump’s proposal resembles a perverse re-enactment of the 1980 Mariel boatlift, when Fidel Castro emptied out Cuba’s prisons and encouraged convicts to flee to a United States that was welcoming the island’s dissidents with open arms. That Trump’s enemies don’t see today’s asylum seekers – mostly Central Americans fleeing gang violence, a growing proportion of whom are women and children – as the reincarnation of Scarface is lost on Trump.Warnings from Congress that such a policy would be illegal have not deterred him, nor has resistance to the idea from his own Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. The only enthusiasm his proposal has attracted has been from the Democratic mayors he imagines he is trolling: the mayor of Oakland, whom Trump tweeted does “NOT WANT our currently ‘detained immigrants’”, responded that “Oakland welcomes all, no matter where you came from or how you got here.” If Trump were to follow through with his threat, it would probably be better for immigrants, who would benefit from the social support networks that exist in sanctuary cities.The reason Trump’s threat (which Trump’s deputy press secretary has clumsily tried to recast as an “olive branch”) has failed to elicit mass panic and capitulation by Democrats is that they live in those cities, and see sanctuary policies working pretty well. Political science research reflects this. Tom Wong of the University of California San Diego found that sanctuary cities are more likely to see undocumented immigrants report crime to local police, and that sanctuary cities tend to see less reliance on public assistance, and better labor force participation rates, than non-sanctuary cities. And Loren Collingwood of the University of California Riverside and Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien of San Diego State University found that sanctuary cities are statistically no more likely to experience crime than non-sanctuary cities. The then attorney general, Jeff Sessions, subsequently misrepresented their research, claiming it found the opposite of what it actually did.Going beyond the sanctuary cities debate, research has long shown that immigrants as a whole commit less crime than native-born Americans, and areas that have more immigrants today have fewer violent crimes. There is simply no empirical basis to the premise that immigration and crime are somehow linked. Simply mentioning immigration and crime in the same sentence poisons the political conversation, by creating the perception of a relationship that isn’t there. Even rebuttals such as this one help keep these two unrelated things together in the public’s mind.Yet there is a danger in portraying Trump as more calculating than he is. The Democrats’ reaction to his sanctuary cities announcement flatters him too much, lambasting him for using immigrants as “pawns” in some diabolical scheme. Trump is no evil genius, and this lazy attempt at trolling is evidence enough. That Trump is willing to fan xenophobic hysteria – including against sitting members of Congress – as his re-election strategy is not surprising. That he actually buys into his own rhetoric is telling. Trump’s belief in an imaginary immigrant crime wave meriting dictatorial emergency powers is so unquestioning that he is genuinely surprised whenever his illegal executive actions get slapped down by courts, or voters react negatively to his policy of stealing children from their parents.It’s a common mistake, made mostly by elite types with an allergy to populist rhetoric, that demagogues don’t really believe what they say. They must be hucksters who, behind closed doors, mock their supporters as rubes. Throughout his campaign, Trump benefited from this presumption that he doesn’t really mean it: he’s saying these things to get attention, or to get a better deal with NBC. After years of Trump playing the willful idiot, it’s worth considering that it may not be an act at all. Topics US immigration Opinion Donald Trump comment

The latest fraternity to be suspended by Syracuse University issued a formal apology late Thursday in which it acknowledged the production of a racist video that was intended as a spoof. "It's with profound embarrassment and disappointment in ourselves that we find our fraternity in this situation," the statement from Theta Tau read, in part. "Anyone of color or of any marginalized group who has seen this video has every right to be angry and upset with the despicable contents of that video." Each year, according to the statement, the fraternity asks new members to roast older members, and "one of these brothers is a conservative Republican, and the new members roasted him by playing the part of a racist conservative character. It was a satirical sketch of an uneducated, racist, homophobic, misogynist, sexist, ableist and intolerant person. The young man playing the part of this character nor the young man being roasted do not hold any of the horrible views espoused as a part of that sketch. ... None of the satire was said or done in malice." The frat also said: "We cannot apologize enough for the pain, sadness and fear that this has caused. Our heart breaks when we see the protests and Hendricks Chapel congregations when we see the pain that our brothers have caused." Theta Tau became the fourth fraternity to be suspended by the university this academic year, according the school's independent newspaper, The Daily Orange. Syracuse suspended Sigma Alpha Mu last week following a months-long investigation into hazing. The video -- made public by The Daily Orange on Wednesday -- showed members of the engineering fraternity using racist, ethnic, sexist slurs, and other offensive language, while pretending to perform sexual acts on each other. Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud called the students' conduct in the footage "extremely troubling and disturbing" in a statement released Wednesday.Students protest Theta Tau videos outside Chancellor Kent Syverud’s house: https://t.co/KOHOwcYZxn pic.twitter.com/HqXB3PQmLB— The Daily Orange (@dailyorange) April 19, 2018 "Videos showing this offensive behavior have surfaced online. They include words and behaviors that are extremely racist, anti-semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities," Syverud said. "The conduct is deeply harmful and contrary to the values and community standards we expect of our students. There is absolutely no place at Syracuse University for behavior or language that degrades any individual or group's race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, disability or religious beliefs."SU students gathered outside the chancellor's house to protest the university withholding a video that led to Theta Tau's suspension pic.twitter.com/ePDfEvVOAy— The Daily Orange (@dailyorange) April 19, 2018 Syracuse University's Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities suspended the fraternity after confirming Theta Tau’s involvement, according to the statement. The university’s Department of Public Safety was investigating the incident and looking to "identify individuals involved and to take additional legal and disciplinary action," Syverud said. The university hasn't released the footage, citing the ongoing investigation, but part of the video still was available on The Daily Orange's website as of early Friday. It was originally posted to a secret Facebook group called "Tau of Theta Tau," according to The Daily Orange. Many students held on-campus protests on Wednesday, marching near the chancellor's home with signs and chanting for the video to be released. The demonstrators, including some who marched for more than three hours, pointed to the footage as an example of systemic racism and sexism at Syracuse University, according to local news reports.

The US is facing an opioid crisis that is like no other country in the world. In 2016, 64,000 people died of an overdose, primarily due to opioid use. For the past five years, the Federal Reserve has been conducting a national study on economic wellbeing (pdf). Last year, it started asking questions about opioid usage. The Fed found that one in five adults in the US personally knows someone who has been addicted to opioids or prescription painkillers.This startling figure reveals the reach of the crisis, and explains why it has been declared a national emergency. The Fed also wanted to assess how opioid addiction links to economic wellbeing—specifically, if the increase in addiction is part of what Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton call “deaths of despair.”Exposure to the opioid epidemic is higher for whites than for ethnic minorities, and slightly higher for those without a college degree. Case and Deaton argue that groups facing worsening economic conditions—like the white working-class with low education in America’s rust belt—are more susceptible to addiction-related deaths. Others argue that the increase in opioid use is down to other factors, including the supply of these drugs.According to the Fed’s research, 25% of white people are personally exposed to the opioid crisis, compared to 12% of blacks and 15% of Hispanics.The Fed then looked at how people assessed the state of their local economy and the national economy, to see if the “deaths of despair” hypothesis held true. They found that the majority of people think their local economy is good or excellent, as shown in the table below. That said, people who knew someone addicted to opioids had a slightly less favorable view than people who didn’t.All adultsWhitesExposed to opioid users54%56%Not exposed58%63%The same trend applies to the national economy, though optimism is lower overall. The Fed points out, however, that local unemployment rates are similar for people exposed to opioids as for those that aren’t. “Subjective assessments of economic conditions do show more support for the ‘deaths of despair’ hypothesis than objective outcomes, like local unemployment,” according to the Fed report.This implies that the roots of the opioid crisis aren’t obviously linked to economic conditions in places where the addiction rate is high. But perceptions of economic wellbeing shouldn’t be dismissed just because they don’t align with the data.