Enlarge this image A man snaps a selfie in Bharuch, India. Harish Parmar/EyeEm/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Harish Parmar/EyeEm/Getty Images A man snaps a selfie in Bharuch, India. Harish Parmar/EyeEm/Getty Images How far would you go to snap the perfect selfie?For some people, the answer is clearly: too far.Take India, for example.In July, a 28-year-old man sneaked into a restricted safari area at the Bannerghatta Biological Park in Bengaluru with his friends. He held his camera up to get a photo of himself with an elephant. The animal trampled him to death.That same month, four people were trying to take a selfie on a cliff at Nagoa Beach. As waves crashed into the cliff, they fell in the Arabian Sea and were swept away. All of them drowned.India's authorities are out to quash risky selfies, joining other countries like Russia (which has created signs and campaigns to promote safe selfie-taking) and Spain (which has banned people from taking selfies during the annual running of the bulls).The Mumbai police has identified 16 accident-prone zones in the city where selfie-related deaths were rising. They are trying to raise awareness about the risks of selfies at places like Mumbai's iconic seafront at Marine Drive and the popular Girgaum Chowpatty Beach. The campaign was created in the wake of a selfie-related accident in January 2016, when three young women slipped while taking a selfie and fell into the water in Bandra, a beachfront neighborhood in Mumbai. A passer-by saved two of them; the third drowned — and their rescuer is also believed to have drowned. YouTube And in June the mobile giant Samsung sponsored a YouTube video in which Nitin Gadkari, India's minister for shipping, road transport and highways, urges people to use their mobile phones responsibly.These dire selfie warnings come on the heels of a study published last year: Me, Myself and My Killfie. The title of the report uses the word "killfie" to describe selfies taken under circumstances dangerous enough to kill you.To find these "killfies," researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in New Delhi rounded up newspaper reports and data on selfie deaths worldwide.Because the study relies on media accounts, it's not a definitive tally of deaths by selfie worldwide. "There is very little empirical data [on selfie-related deaths] at the moment," says Rajendran Narayanan, a social scientist based in Trichy, India, and former dean of arts at Bharathidasan University who did not work on the report. Enlarge this image In this photograph taken on June 15, 2015, young Indian students take 'selfies' on Marine Drive promenade in Mumbai. Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images) hide caption toggle caption Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images) In this photograph taken on June 15, 2015, young Indian students take 'selfies' on Marine Drive promenade in Mumbai. Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images) The results of the study, however, are indicative of a larger trend, he notes. "While the act of taking a selfie in itself isn't harmful or dangerous, taking a selfie in a dangerous location is," he says. "As a society, we need to be aware of this."The research team found accounts of 127 reported deaths by selfie between 2014 to 2016, with more than half in India. Among the causes of death: taking selfies with wild animals, on railway tracks and in moving vehicles.Deaths caused by taking a selfie with a gun were reported in the U.S. and Russia but did not appear to be an Indian phenomenon. The Two-Way 'Monkey Selfie' Lawsuit Ends With Settlement Between PETA, Photographer The researchers didn't just want to keep count of selfie deaths. They wanted to create a tool to identify hazardous areas for selfie-taking."We analyzed the data of thousands of dangerous locations in India and across the world," says Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, a computer scientist at IIIT. The team also studied photos posted to social media with the hashtags #dangerousselfies and #extremeselfies to identify potentially hazardous selfie settings. They used the research to build an app called Saftie, which launched in June and is currently is available for download for free on Android phones. (Saftie is a mash-up of "safety" and "selfie.")The app sends users a text message when they are near a location that poses a threat to selfie-takers. Users will also be notified if they are at the locations where the 127 selfie deaths from the the study occurred.The developers hope that users can build on its resources. Anyone with access to the app can contribute. If three people mark a location as risky, the app will add it to the list of danger spots. This system helps safeguard the app from pranksters.Ultimately, the researchers just want people to be safe when taking a selfie. Perhaps the Mumbai police said it best. Just before this year's monsoon season in June, they warned people not to take selfies in the heavy rains. Don't make 'taking a selfie' mean 'taking your own life' #SafeMonsoonTips pic.twitter.com/9YMYjapA78— Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) June 28, 2017 They wrote on Twitter: "Don't make 'taking a selfie' mean 'taking your own life.' "Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, South India. Her work has appeared in The International New York Times, BBC Travel and Forbes India. You can follow her @kamal_t

Amazon.com Inc. has triggered a race to the bottom in smart speakers.Amazon slashed prices on its new lineup of six Echo devices as part of its Black Friday promotions last month. The price drop for its entry-level Dot, to $30 from $50, helped make it the No. 1-selling product on the online retail giant’s website over the Thanksgiving weekend. The new version of Amazon’s original Echo speaker now sells for $100, roughly half the price of the first-generation device when it launched three years ago....

TIJUANA, Mexico/SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Three asylum seekers due to be returned to Mexico after appearing in U.S. immigration court on Tuesday asked officials to let them stay in the United States because they feared for their safety while waiting out the process in Mexico. Honduran migrant Ariel, 19, who is waiting for his court hearing for asylum seekers, that have been returned to Mexico to await their legal proceedings under a new policy established by the U.S. government, have a coffee in Tijuana, Mexico, March 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge DuenesThe requests are a new approach by migrants in response to President Donald Trump’s recent policy that requires people seeking protection in the United States to wait for their U.S. court dates in Mexican border towns, part of his hard line stance to halt migration. Some 240 people - including families - have been returned to Mexico since late January under the program, dubbed Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), according to U.S. officials. Six Central American migrants who crossed from Tijuana through the San Ysidro port of entry had their cases heard at a San Diego courthouse in the program’s first day of hearings on Tuesday. All were told to return to Mexico. Robyn Barnard, a lawyer from the nonprofit group Human Rights First, said she asked officials to let her two Honduran clients stay in the United States. Both are afraid of returning to Tijuana to wait for their next hearings in early August. Tijuana, like much of Mexico’s northern border zone, has seen extensive bloodshed since the federal government began using the military against drug cartels over a decade ago. “Mexico is not a safe place for all people, and there are vulnerable groups at risk,” Barnard told reporters after the hearing. Her clients would remain at a U.S. Port of Entry on Tuesday night, ahead of interviews with asylum officers, likely the next day, Barnard’s assistant said. One client, 19-year-old Ariel, said he left Honduras because of gang threats and gave only his middle name because he feared reprisals. He was among the first group of asylum seekers sent back to Mexico on Jan. 30 and given a notice to appear in U.S. court in San Diego. “God willing everything will move ahead and I will be able to prove that if I am sent back to Honduras, I’ll be killed,” he said prior to the hearing. Mariel Villarreal, an immigration lawyer with San Francisco-based Pangea Legal Services, said she asked that her client from Guatemala be allowed to stay in the United States. “They are just being sent back to homelessness in Tijuana,” she said, adding that Mexican officials are not explaining how returnees can earn work permits. U.S. officials have said they are working with the Mexican government to ensure migrants are safe while they wait in Mexico. But some Mexican officials have warned the country’s border cities would struggle to look after asylum seekers for long periods. The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups are suing in federal court to halt the MPP program, which is part of a series of measures the Trump administration has taken to curb the flow of mostly Central American migrants trying to enter the United States. The administration says most asylum claims, especially for Central Americans, are rejected, but because of immigration court backlogs people are often released and live in the United States for years waiting for their cases to be resolved. The government has said the new program is aimed at ending “the exploitation of our generous immigration laws.” Critics say the program violates U.S. law and international norms because migrants are sent back to often dangerous towns in Mexico where it is difficult to keep track of their U.S. court dates and to find legal help. Gregory Chen, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said there are real concerns about carrying out this major shift in U.S. immigration policy. Slideshow (12 Images)“The government did not have its shoes tied when they introduced this program,” he said. Immigration advocates are watching how the proceedings will be carried out this week, especially after scheduling glitches created confusion around three hearings last week, according to a report in the San Diego Union Tribune. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which runs U.S. immigration courts under the Department of Justice, said only that it uses its regular court scheduling system for the MPP hearings and did not respond to a question about the reported scheduling problems. Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Tijuana and Jose Gallego Espina in San Diego; writing and additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York and Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City; Editing by Bill Trott and Darren SchuettlerOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

India wants its citizens’ data to be stored within the country. Now that is easier said than done.In a draft of the personal data protection bill, 2018, a committee set up under former supreme court justice BN Srikrishna said: “Every data fiduciary (entity processing personal data) shall ensure the storage, on a server or data centre located in India, of at least one serving copy of personal data to which this Act applies.”Another panel working on a cloud computing policy for India has recommended that data generated from within India should be stored locally.The idea behind these suggestions is to ensure that law enforcement agencies have immediate and easy access to such data.While the intentions seem straightforward, such a massive change will involve crossing many huge hurdles.From legal challenges to physical infrastructure, companies will have to undergo an extensive overhaul to accommodate such a mandate. Among other things, it could raise costs for both Indian and global companies, and force them to tweak their business processes.“While the (Srikrishna) committee has proposed many sensible things in its framework, data localisation is not one of them,” said Logan Finucan, senior policy analyst with consulting firm Access Partnership. “It has envisioned an awkward system for cross-border data transfers that will do little to protect privacy but will raise costs for digital products and services. Not just foreign companies (will) pay this price, but (even) Indian citizens and companies who use global services.”India’s data centre and cloud computing business has been growing rapidly and is expected to be a $7 billion market by 2020, up from $4.5 billion now. However, there are concerns about the robustness of the infrastructure that such businesses provide.Today, most companies store data in centralised servers managed by large cloud service providers that have sufficient expertise against cyber attacks. However, not many Indian data centres can match that level of security.“India might not always be the best place to store your data if the setup is not geared from scratch for security and privacy and it’s been put up only for compliance reasons,” said Pandurang Kamat, chief technologist at technology service firm Persistent Systems. “(If there is) a company that already has a highly-secure data centre (elsewhere), and they now have to host something locally just for compliance reasons, they may not have the same kind of security protection that they have from their centralised provider…you might actually end up with a worse setup.”Cybersecurity experts also raise concerns over the idea of having all Indians’ data accessible in a single place rather than having it spread across the world like it is today.“The bigger concern is that if you try to put data into one place, the entire world knows it and that is where the security risk gets heightened,” said Ashish Aggarwal, senior director at IT industry body Nasscom. “If there is going to be a concerted attack, then knowing that you can get all the data in India makes it easier.”Such concerns stem from the fact that over 40% of all data breaches in India occur due to malicious or criminal intent rather than technological errors.Beyond just security, India currently lacks even the basic infrastructure needed to host such huge amounts of data.The basic requirement to run a data centre is uninterrupted power supply.While India has overcome its power deficit at the moment, there are still issues around fuel availability and a weak transmission infrastructure.“In India, we do see a market for data centres and cloud computing but power is a big barrier in terms of pricing,” Aggarwal said.Meanwhile, data centres also take up large expanses of land, and regulatory glitches around land acquisition and other processes must be smoothened out.“(The) building code needs to be revisited, otherwise we are having a lot of wastage,” Aggarwal said. “Data centres don’t really need building plans meant for normal buildings.”And even if such barriers are overcome, some experts even question the logic behind hosting data locally.“In the era of internet whereby anyone sitting anywhere in the world can access the data assets residing anywhere in the world, what purpose does the localisation of data serve?” said Rana Gupta, vice-president at cybersecurity firm Gemalto. “Considering that in many cases, the interaction data being generated will involve interactions between individuals from multiple nationalities, then it is perceivable that the same data will be available in multiple geographies.”

Forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad in Syria have committed crimes against humanity through their “starve or surrender” strategy and sieges that have devastated areas controlled by the opposition, a report by human rights watchdog Amnesty International has concluded.The report, to be released on Monday, examines four “reconciliation” deals between the Assad regime and the opposition in Aleppo, Homs and Darayya as well as an agreement that included four besieged towns, two by the government and two by the rebels, and which led to the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians after years-long sieges and indiscriminate bombardment.While the report concludes that all sides in the conflict had violated international law, it says the regime’s strategy of systematically preventing crucial food and medicine supplies from entering civilian areas while mounting bombing campaigns amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. “In essence, the deals have enabled the government to reclaim control of territory by first starving and then removing inhabitants who rejected its rule,” the report says. More than 500,000 people are still believed to be trapped in besieged areas in Syria. Their plight was brought into sharp focus last month when images of a starving baby in the opposition-controlled eastern Ghouta near the capital, Damascus, surfaced. Her mother was unable to feed her because the lack of food meant she was too weak to breastfeed. The baby died.A leading United Nations official said on Thursday that eastern Ghouta’s 400,000 residents were on the verge of a “complete catastrophe” resulting from a block on aid deliveries. “I feel as if we are now returning to some of the bleakest days of this conflict again,” said Jan Egeland, a senior adviser to the UN’s Syria envoy.The Amnesty report examined the sieges and evacuation deals in the city of Darayya near Damascus, in Aleppo, the al-Waer district of Homs, and the towns of Madaya, Zabadani, Kefraya and Foua, all of which were concluded between August 2016 and March 2017. It conducted interviews with 134 people including displaced residents, UN officials and humanitarian workers. The report found that the government restricted indispensable humanitarian and medical aid while simultaneously carrying out attacks on civilians, hospitals, markets and homes, violations that amount to war crimes. It also said the sieges, unlawful killings and forced displacement constituted a “systematic as well as widespread” attack on the civilian population, a crime against humanity. It accused rebels who besieged Foua and Kefraya of blocking aid and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, attacks that also amounted to war crimes. The Syrian government has described many of the controversial agreements to evacuate civilians in besieged rebel-held areas as reconciliation deals. While humanitarian officials acknowledge that the evacuations do save lives that are at risk if the fighting continues, few believe that those leaving have any choice, often facing the risk of extrajudicial punishment, drafting into the military, or other retribution for having remained in opposition-held areas.In many cases, civilians living under siege have reported that they have resorted to eating grass or boiled water with spices while awaiting aid deliveries from UN warehouses just a few miles away that are prevented by government blockades from reaching people in need.One civilian quoted in the report described life in besieged Darayya as being in “Stone Age-like conditions.” Satellite imagery has confirmed that forces loyal to Assad had burned surrounding agricultural fields. Separately, the ongoing siege in eastern Ghouta, which has lasted several years but was tightened after a government offensive in April, has left civilians with little food or medical supplies. A kilogram of rice costs approximately US$12 while the price of sugar is the equivalent of about $27, mostly due to the siege but also because of predatory pricing by local merchants, placing basic staples out of the reach of starving citizens. Residents say baby milk and even painkillers are unavailable and few have electricity because it costs too much to buy diesel oil. Raed Srewel, an activist in the city of Douma, said expectant mothers were underfed, leading to a greater prevalence of heart conditions in infants as well as infections such as meningitis. Eastern Ghouta is one of several “de-escalation” zones created under a deal brokered by Russia and Turkey to reduce the violence in Syria. But the government has continued to impose a siege on the area and there have been airstrikes in recent days. “There is great hunger among the people,” Srewel said. “It’s a common sight now to see women standing around garbage heaps with the hope that they will find something there to eat. Children go to school in the morning with nothing in their mouths and can barely concentrate in classes. The basic pillars of life are absent here.” Topics Syria Bashar al-Assad Middle East and North Africa Aleppo Amnesty International news

Media player Media playback is unsupported on your device Video Conductor's Indian homecoming When Maria Badstue was five months old, she was adopted by a Danish couple from India. When Mumbai's Royal Opera House was renovated and opened after being shut for decades, she returned to the country of her birth to conduct the Italian opera, Il Matrimonio Segreto by Domenico Cimarosa, a contemporary of Mozart. Produced by Suranjana Tewari and Parth Chhabra. Filmed and edited by Vishnu Vardhan and Jaltson AC.

Dropbox Inc. defied a plunging stock market and a hazardous backdrop for technology companies, pricing its IPO above expectations an hour after a 724-point selloff and then watching its shares rocket sharply higher on their first trading day.The company’s stock closed up 36% to $28.48 on Friday, well above its already elevated $21 initial-public-offering price, defying the gravity of a stock market that lost 6% this week and a technology sector that slid 7.9%, according to S&P. ...

Turkish forces are preparing to enter Idlib province to support rebel forces opposing both the Syrian regime and jihadist insurgents, the Turkish president has said.Idlib and surrounding areas in north-west Syria are among the largest strongholds for rebels fighting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, but it is now largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group led by al-Qaida’s former Syria affiliate.Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “We are taking new steps to ensure security in Idlib. Today there’s a serious operation in Idlib and this will continue, because we have to extend a hand to our brothers in Idlib.”He said Turkish troops were yet to reach Syria, but fighters from the Free Syrian Army were carrying out the operation.Many Syrians had fled to Idlib from the neighbouring Aleppo province, which was rocked by heavy fighting last year, and Turkey intended to support them, Erdoğan said.Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is not party to a deal brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran for the safe zone in Idlib province, one of four such “de-escalation” zones in Syria.“We will absolutely not allow the creation of a terror corridor along our borders,” the Turkish leader said.Media reports have pointed to a heavy deployment of military hardware and personnel by the Turkish army to its southern border area in recent weeks.This year Turkey ended its months-long Euphrates Shield operation against jihadists and Kurdish forces in Aleppo province that involved both the Turkish army and Syrian rebels.Meanwhile, a series of airstrikes by Russian jets in the past 24 hours killed about 120 Islamic State fighters and 60 foreign mercenaries in Syria, Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday.Two waves of airstrikes on Khan Sheikhoun, a town in Idlib province controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces, killed at least 13 civilians in the same period, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the observatory, said the strikes had probably been carried out by the Syrian air force. The town was the target of a sarin gas attack in April that killed at least 87 people, 30 of them children.Donald Trump blamed the Syrian government for the attack and ordered cruise missile strikes on the airbase from which he said it had been launched. Topics Syria Turkey Bashar al-Assad Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Al-Qaida Middle East and North Africa news

India’s biggest insurance firm is stepping in to rescue the posterboy of the country’s deeply distressed banking sector.The government-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will pump in up to Rs13,000 crore ($1.88 billion) for a 40% stake in IDBI Bank, the worst performer in terms of bad loans last financial year. This is over and above the 11% the insurer already holds in this public sector bank. Needless to say, the investment will be funded by the premiums paid by millions of individual policyholders.LIC already has more than a 1% stake in over 300 NSE-listed companies, according to PRIME database, a capital markets information provider.IDBI Bank isn’t its first or lone questionable investment. In the past, it has bought into several firms—Vakrangee, Videocon Industries, and Gitanjali Gems—that went on to face bankruptcy. It has also taken part in every disinvestment programme initiated by the government, rescuing sick state-run companies.“There have been so many questions asked about LIC’s investments, but where are the answers? How do we know the bailout of these bad assets by LIC will not stop with IDBI Bank alone?” asked a consultant who advises insurance companies, requesting anonymity. “There needs to be some justification but just because there are interested parties involved there are none.”Queries sent by Quartz to LIC remained unanswered.IDBI Bank, on the other hand, has gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of 27.95% of its total advances as of March 2018, the highest among its peers.This is besides the 1% or more stake that LIC has in about 20 other public sector banks, most of them in the red.Such investments by LIC, especially during these troubled times, are perceived to be made under government pressure. “Earlier in other economies such as Chile, the government has dipped into pension funds in times of distress. So, the government needs to convince the citizens and other stakeholders that next it won’t dip into the employees’ provident funds, etc. to rescue bad-performing companies,” said the insurance consultant.Moreover, a degree of accountability is imperative since it involves public money.“There may perhaps be a need for a larger independent public institution like CAG (comptroller and auditor general of India) or a wing of a judiciary body to examine the investment proposal and comfort the savers with some assurance that their money will not be lost and it will keep a track of the firm’s performance over the period of this investment,” said Ashvin Parekh, who runs consulting firm Ashvin Parekh Advisory Services.

A leading member of a congressional intelligence committee is threatening to subpoena the White House in order to obtain a draft letter that Donald Trump reportedly wanted to send to James Comey when he fired him as FBI chief.The move comes amid growing questions over whether the president tried to obstruct justice and has misled people about his business interests in Russia.Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said on Sunday it was “probably past time” that lawmakers used a subpoena to force Trump to hand over relevant documents. He also accused the president of being dishonest when he said during the election campaign that he had no business dealings with Russia.Special counsel Robert Mueller is understood to have a copy of the letter already as part of his independent investigation into Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election and into whether Trump has in any way obstructed justice.Schiff has not seen the letter in question, he told CNN on Sunday. He said the intelligence committee contacted the White House after Trump had alluded to possible recordings of private conversations he had with Comey in the days leading up to the FBI chief’s unexpected dismissal in early May.“I have not seen the document. And we wrote to the White House, after the claim was made that the president had tapes of his discussions with Comey, to ask about anything memorializing any conversations with Comey,” said Schiff.He added: “They first responded by tweet and then by letter saying they didn’t have any such thing. If this is responsive to our letter, they need to produce it and it’s probably past time for our committee to subpoena the White House to make sure we get all relevant documents.”When Comey was fired in May, the Trump administration said it was because he had botched the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s wrongful use of a private email server when she was secretary of state, then said that he had lost the confidence of those under him at the FBI.But Trump then revealed in a television interview a few days later that “this Russia thing with Trump and Russia” had influenced the firing – presumably referring to Comey’s FBI investigation into possible collusion between Trump advisers and Russian officials to sway the 2016 US election in Trump’s favour. Shortly afterwards, the DoJ appointed Mueller as special counsel to scrutinize the dealings of the Trump campaign and the Trump administration in all those matters, an investigation that is ongoing.But the New York Times claimed on Friday that Trump and one of his senior advisers, Stephen Miller, had collaborated on a long, angry draft letter to Comey in May, described as a “screed”, which White House counsel Donald McGahn blocked the president from sending. “Among Mr McGahn’s concerns were references to private conversations the president had with Mr Comey, including times when the FBI director told Mr Trump he was not under investigation in the FBI’s continuing Russia inquiry,” the paper wrote. Nevertheless Trump’s letter to Comey telling him he was fired did include a reference to those conversations. The full contents of the draft letter has not been revealed.CNN show host Dana Bash asked Schiff on Sunday if it would be a case of obstruction of justice if the letter revealed that the president and Stephen Miller had said explicitly that Trump was firing James Comey because of the Russia investigation.He said: “It’s certainly further evidence of a potential obstruction of justice, and something that Mr Mueller would have to consider. It’s something, I think, our committee also needs to get to the bottom of.”Schiff said if it was the case, it would be consistent “with what the president himself admitted” – a reference to Trump’s “this Russia thing” comment.“And the fact that it’s in such sharp contrast to what they initially said, that this was about his [Comey’s] handling of the Clinton email investigation, is further evidence of an attempt to conceal the real motives,” he said.Schiff also responded to recent news that Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, emailed Vladimir Putin’s spokesman during the US presidential campaign asking for help with a Trump real estate project in Moscow, according to email evidence presented to Congress.Cohen, who was vice-president of the Trump Organization at the time as well as being Trump’s attorney, sent an email to Dmitry Peskov, a top Kremlin official, according to the Washington Post, in which he mentioned difficulties between a Russian company and a “Trump Tower-Moscow” project, and requested assistance. Schiff said on Sunday that he thought the revelations were very significant.“We had requested documents from Mr Cohen,” he said.“And not being satisfied, we subpoenaed Mr Cohen for whatever records were relevant to our investigation. It means, among other things, the president was dishonest when he said during the campaign that he had no business in Russia, wasn’t pursuing business in Russia,” Schiff said.He said he expected Cohen to be called to testify to the committee at some point. He added: “So, yet another, I think, misleading statement by the administration about their relationship with Russia. It’s also significant because if they were pursuing business in Russia during the campaign, that might’ve influenced the positions that the candidate took in a more pro-Russian direction.” Topics Donald Trump US politics James Comey Russia news

In January 2018, the top policy executives from YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter testified in a Senate hearing about terrorism and social media, touting their companies’ use of artificial intelligence to detect and remove terrorist content from groups like ISIS and al Qaeda. After the hearing, Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group that has been working with tech companies for five or six years, told executives in an open letter that it was alarmed to hear “almost no mention about violent actions by white supremacists,” calling the omission “particularly striking” in light of the murder of Heather Heyer at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and similar events.More than a year later, Muslim Advocates has yet to receive a formal response to its letter. But concerns that Big Tech expends more effort to curb the spread of terrorist content from high-profile foreign groups, while applying fewer resources and less urgency toward terrorist content from white supremacists, resurfaced last week after the shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, which prime minister Jacinda Ardern called “the worst act of terrorism on our shores.”In the US, some critics say law enforcement is hamstrung in combating white supremacists by inadequate tools, such as the lack of a domestic terrorism law. But the big tech companies are private corporations accustomed to shaping global public policy in their favor. For them, failure to police terrorist content by white supremacists is a business decision molded by political pressure, not a legal constraint.Tech companies say that it is easier to identify content related to known foreign terrorist organizations such as ISIS and al Qaeda because of information-sharing with law enforcement and industry-wide efforts, such as the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a group formed by YouTube, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter in 2017.On Monday, for example, YouTube said on its Twitter account that it was harder for the company to stop the video of the shootings in Christchurch than to remove copyrighted content or ISIS-related content because YouTube’s tools for content moderation rely on “reference files to work effectively.” Movie studios and record labels provide reference files in advance, and “many violent extremist groups, like ISIS, use common footage and imagery,” YouTube wrote.But as a voluntary organization, the Global Internet Forum can set its own priorities and collect content from white nationalists as well. Facebook noted that member companies have shared “more than 800 visually distinct videos” related to the Christchurch attacks to the group’s database, “along with URLs and context on our enforcement approaches.”Law professor Hannah Bloch-Wehba hasn’t seen any evidence that technology is inherently better at identifying ISIS-related content than right-wing extremist content. Rather, she says, tech platforms built these tools in response to pressure from regulators and engineered them to address a specific kind of terrorist threat.“We just haven’t seen comparable pressure for platforms to go after white violence,” and if they do, companies face “political blowback from the right,” says Bloch-Wehba. “It feeds into a narrative about who terrorists are, who is seen as a threat, and what kinds of violent content is presumed to be risky.”Bloch-Wehba says tech companies' definitions of terrorism tend to be vague, but ISIS and al Qaeda are typically the only groups named in their transparency reports, which reveals their priorities.The cycle is self-reinforcing: The companies collect more data on what ISIS content looks like based on law enforcement’s myopic and under-inclusive views, and then this skewed data is fed to surveillance systems, she says. Meanwhile, consumers don’t have enough visibility in the process to know whether these tools are proportionate to the threat, whether they filter too much content, or whether they discriminate against certain groups, she says.If platforms are now having a harder time automating the process of identifying content from white nationalists or white supremacists, “it’s going to be hard for them to play catch-up,” Bloch-Wehba says.Madihha Ahussain, special counsel for anti-Muslim bigotry for Muslim Advocates, says it’s not just a matter of expanding guidelines around terrorist content. Tech companies fail to enforce established community standards. “We believe there’s a lot of content generated from white nationalist groups generally that would violate” tech platform guidelines, but “it takes a lot on the part of advocacy groups to see some action.”For years, Muslim Advocates took it as a good sign that tech executives would meet with the group and appeared responsive. “But then we realized that nothing was actually changing,” Ahussain says.In a statement to WIRED, a YouTube spokesperson said, “Over the last few years we have heavily invested in human review teams and smart technology that helps us quickly detect, review, and remove this type of content. We have thousands of people around the world who review and counter abuse of our platforms and we encourage users to flag any videos that they believe violate our guidelines.”YouTube says its guidelines prohibiting violent or graphic content that incites violence are not limited to foreign terrorist organizations and go beyond just ISIS and al Qaeda. The company estimates that the Global Internet Forum contained 100,000 hashes of known terrorist content at the end of 2018.YouTube also says it’s taking a stricter approach to videos flagged by users that contain controversial religious or supremacist content, even if they don't violate the company’s guidelines. In such cases, YouTube will not allow the videos to contain ads, and it says it will remove the videos from its recommendations algorithms and remove features like comments, suggested videos, and likes.In a statement, a spokesperson for Twitter said, “As per our Hateful Conduct Policy, we prohibit behavior that targets individuals based on protected categories including race, ethnicity, national origin or religious affiliation. This includes references to violent events where protected groups have been the primary targets or victims.”Facebook pointed to a company blog post on Monday about its response to the New Zealand tragedy. The company said the original Facebook Live video was removed and hashed “so that other shares that are visually similar to that video are then detected and automatically removed from Facebook and Instagram.” Since variants of screen recordings of the stream were difficult to detect, Facebook used audio technology to detect additional copies.Tech platforms have a financial interest in promoting their own version of “free expression,” Bloch-Wehba says. “Any attempt to move away comes laden with this set of assumptions about consumer rights, but those aren’t really legal rights—or, at least, they’re very unsettled legal rights,” she says. Nonetheless, “it plays into the same conversation, mostly coming to the right wing, that we should all be able to say whatever we want.”Ahussain says meaningful change will only come if tech platforms want to address the issue, but the lack of diversity within tech companies has led to a lack of understanding about the complexities and nuances of threats faced by Muslims. To address that, Muslim Advocates and other groups want tech companies to hear directly from the communities that have been impacted. “We’ve recognized the need to have conversations in a neutral space,” and with a chance to set the tone, agenda, and guest list, she says.A tap-to-fly helicopter hints at a flying-car futureRead/write metaphors are a flawed way to talk about DNATrump’s casinos couldn’t make Atlantic City great againFacebook can make VR avatars move exactly like youI embraced screen time with my daughter—and I love it👀 Looking for the latest gadgets? 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KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo’s election board has postponed a long-anticipated presidential vote scheduled for Sunday by one week until Dec. 30 after a fire destroyed voting materials. Already delayed repeatedly since 2016, the poll is meant to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila, stepping down after 18 years in what would be Congo’s first democratic transition. Following a meeting with candidates in the capital, the electoral commission (CENI) said it was unable to provide sufficient ballot papers for Kinshasa after a warehouse blaze last week destroyed much of the capital’s election material. “We cannot organize general elections without the province of Kinshasa, and without the Kinois voters - who represent 10 percent of the electoral body,” CENI president Corneille Nangaa told journalists. “The presidential, legislative and provincial ballots will take place on Dec. 30 2018.” The decision may further stir the volatile and violent nation of 80 million people after several government crackdowns on opposition rallies in the run-up to the vote. After the announcement, a crowd outside CENI headquarters started shouting in protest. Police pushed them back. Security forces have killed dozens of people in the past two years demonstrating against Kabila’s refusal to step down when his mandate officially expired in December 2016. Hundreds of university students took to the streets in Kinshasa on Thursday, protesting any delay to the vote. Civilians react after the announcement by Congo's election board to postpone a presidential vote scheduled for Sunday by one week, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, December 20, 2018. REUTERS/Kenny KatombeMany Congolese hope the election can help draw a line under decades of conflict and economic stagnation. Millions died in two wars around the turn of the century and dozens of militia remain active near the eastern borders, where they fight over ethnic rivalries and natural resources. Earlier on Thursday, opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, one of the frontrunners, told Reuters it would be unacceptable for the election to be pushed back. “The CENI president said there will be an election, rain or shine, on the 23rd of December,” Fayulu said. “We cannot accept a change of Mr. Nangaa’s position today.” Explaining the CENI’s decision, Nangaa said 5 million additional ballot papers had been ordered from the provider in South Korea to replace those destroyed in Kinshasa, but only 1 million had arrived so far. The last of the ballot papers are scheduled to arrive on Saturday night. The postponement caps a chaotic week, which saw more than 100 people killed in fights between ethnic groups in northwestern Congo and clashes between police and opposition supporters in Kinshasa. Those protests erupted after Kinshasa’s governor ordered a halt to campaigning over security fears. International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda warned in a statement on Thursday that her office would not hesitate to take action if large-scale crimes were committed around the elections. Campaigning had been due to end at midnight on Friday in what has boiled down to a race between Kabila’s preferred successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, and two main challengers, Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi. Slideshow (9 Images)Shadary has a big advantage due to sizeable campaign funds and ruling party control of many media outlets. However, a rare national opinion poll in October had Tshisekedi leading the race with 36 percent, well ahead of Shadary’s 16 percent. Fayulu had 8 percent. Additional reporting by Sofia Christensen and Aaron Ross; Writing by Aaron Ross and Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Andrew CawthorneOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Israeli military personnel search for victims of a collapsed tailings dam owned by Brazilian mining company Vale SA, in Brumadinho, Brazil January 30, 2019. REUTERS/Washington AlvesRIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s Minas Gerais state labor prosecutors’ office said on Thursday it had frozen more than 800 million reais ($219 million) of miner Vale’s (VALE3.SA) funds as compensation for victims of a deadly tailings dam burst. (This version of the story corrects headline and paragraph 1 to show funds frozen by state labor prosecutors, not state labor ministry) Reporting by Pedro Fonseca; Editing by Christian PlumbOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

U.S. President Donald Trump hosts participants of the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas JacksonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s legal team said on Thursday the results of the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller vindicate Trump and show Trump acted properly when he fired James Comey, the former director of the FBI. “The results of the investigation are a total victory for the President ... it is clear there was no criminal wrongdoing,” his lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, Jay Sekulow, Jane Raskin and Martin Raskin said in a statement. Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Writing by Makini BriceOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he has put the United States and Russia on notice that Israel will continue to take military action across the frontier in Syria, even as the two powers try to build up a ceasefire there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to a session of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun “We are controlling our borders, we are protecting our country and we will continue to do so,” Netanyahu said in public remarks to members of his right-wing Likud party in parliament. “I have also informed our friends, firstly in Washington and also our friends in Moscow, that Israel will act in Syria, including in southern Syria, according to our understanding and according to our security needs.” U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday affirmed joint efforts to stabilize Syria as its civil war wanes, including with the expansion of a July 7 truce in the southwestern triangle bordering Israel and Jordan. Israel has been lobbying both leaders to deny Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other Shi’ite militias any permanent bases in Syria, and to keep them away from the Golan Heights frontier, as they gain ground while helping Damascus beat back Sunni-led rebels. Netanyahu’s remarks echoed those on Sunday by Israel’s regional cooperation minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, who sounded circumspect about the ceasefire deal and said Israel has “set red lines and will stand firm on this”. Israel’s military has said it has carried out around 100 strikes in Syria. Attacks have targeted suspected Hezbollah or Iranian arms depots or have come in retaliation for shelling from the Syrian-held Golan. A U.S. State Department official has said Russia had agreed “to work with the Syrian regime to remove Iranian-backed forces a defined distance” from the Golan Heights frontier with Israel, which captured the plateau in the 1967 Middle East war. The move, according to one Israeli official briefed on the arrangement, is meant to keep rival factions inside Syria away from each other, but it would effectively keep Iranian-linked forces at various distances from the Israel-held Golan as well. Those distances would range from as little as 5-7 kilometers (3-4 miles) and up to around 30 km (18 miles) depending on current rebel positions on the Syrian Golan, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Additional reporting by Dan Williams; Editing by Ori Lewis and Richard BalmforthOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON/CARACAS (Reuters) - The United States on Monday announced sanctions on three Venezuelans and 20 companies with ties to socialist President Nicolas Maduro for narcotics trafficking, with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence calling for more nations to increase pressure on Caracas. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence addresses the Organization of American States at the OAS headquarters in Washington, U.S. May 7, 2018 REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueThe new sanctions continue a pattern of stepped-up U.S. measures on individuals connected to Maduro, who is blamed by President Donald Trump’s administration for a deep recession and hyperinflation that have caused food shortages in Venezuela and sent a exodus of migrants into neighboring countries. The individuals sanctioned on Monday are fairly low-profile and the move is unlikely to create major economic hardship. Trump has been considering but has so far opted not to impose sanctions on a Venezuelan oil services company and on insurance coverage for tankers carrying Venezuelan oil. Those measures are still under consideration, though, one administration official said on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Pence told the 35-nation Organization of American States - which includes Venezuela as a member - that they needed to take greater steps to isolate Maduro. “We believe it is time to do more, much more,” Pence said in an address to the OAS in Washington. “Every free nation gathered here must take stronger action to stand with the Venezuelan people and stand up to their oppressors.” Pence said the OAS should suspend Venezuela’s membership, and urged other members to cut off the nation’s leaders from financial systems and restrict their travel visas. He also called on Maduro to suspend elections scheduled for May 20, saying he expected voter intimidation and manipulation of data. “There will be no real election in Venezuela on May 20, and the world knows it,” Pence said. The suggestion was immediately rejected by Caracas. “There is zero possibility that elections will be suspended,” said Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations, condemning Pence’s speech. Maduro, himself subject to sanctions last year, regularly laughs off Washington’s disapproval and blames the U.S. “empire” for his country’s economic woes, saying it is trying to undermine his administration. Of the newly sanctioned companies, 16 are based in Venezuela and four in Panama. They are owned or controlled by the three individuals, the U.S. Treasury said in a statement. The measures are aimed at having a “chilling effect” on other drug traffickers in Venezuela and are one in a series of many steps, said Carlos Trujillo, U.S. ambassador to the OAS. “I think the (Trump) administration is willing to do anything, whatever it takes, to make sure that Venezuelan people get to enjoy democracy and the liberties that come with it,” Trujillo said in an interview. Trujillo said he thinks Venezuela could leave the OAS by the end of 2018 - something he said was needed for the group to “be taken seriously.” “Venezuela has said in the past that they want to leave, but it seems they don’t find their way to the door,” he said. Reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington and Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas; additional reporting by David Alexander in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Rosalba O'BrienOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Hong Kong's richest man is opening a multi-million-dollar Buddhist art museum at a monastery in the territory. Business tycoon Li Ka-shing has a long history of philanthropy, having contributed millions to universities and hospitals in East Asia and North America. He also pledged support for rescue efforts after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the Sichuan earthquake of 2008.Now the 90-year-old,whose wealth Forbes estimates at $33.4bn, has turned his attention to the arts by opening the museum at the Tsz Shan Monastery.Head of Buddha with Regal Crown -- China Ming dynasty 15th century. Credit: CK Hutchinson Holdings LtdThe museum, which cost around HK$3 billion ($382 million) according to theLi Ka Shing Foundation, sits at the base of an enormous bronze statue of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, which towers over the monastery, which Li also helped build.Among other artifacts, it houses 100 Buddha statues, as detailed in a statement issued by CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd, the company that Li chairs.Preserving Hong Kong's past in the miniature 'Invisible Man' Liu Bolin hides 18 people in famous Chinese paintingThe museum, which is free to all visitors, will officially open on May 1, but an inaugural ceremony was held last week. Its permanent collection seeks to "tell the story of Buddhism and how it survives its environment as it moved through the course of history," Li's company said.Standing Śākyamuni Buddha -- Gandhāra Kushan dynasty second to third century CE. Credit: CK Hutchinson Holdings LtdThe statement adds that the museum aims to enrich those "who seek transcendence and spiritual realizations with an opportunity to explore beyond the symbolism and the art for the essence of the Buddhism."The museum took three years to build and features relics mostly donated by Li or his foundation, which he established in 1980. Pensive Bodhisattva -- China Northern Qi dynasty (550-577 CE). Credit: CK Hutchinson Holdings LtdAddressing more than 2000 guests at the ceremony, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said: "Nestled in the grand opus of nature, where tree-lined hills look onto calming seas, the tranquil atmosphere of Tsz Shan Monastery offers the busy world a blissful retreat to put the buzzing world behind and relax its mind. An aerial view of the Tsz Shan monastery in Hong Kong. Credit: DALE DE LA REY/AFP/AFP/Getty ImagesSuperman strikes back? Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing slams China attacks"The invaluable collection of Buddhist statues, paintings, carvings and sutras housed in the Tsz Shan Monastery Buddhist Art Museum represent not only the enlightened ideals and cultural sphere of Zen Buddhism but will also provide a base for cultural programs and activities," the politician added. "The visual and literary culture of the Monastery and its museum will no doubt serve as a quiet space for reflection and the appreciation of Buddhist art for our citizens and visitors."

The US ambassador to New Zealand has been “counselled on standards of conduct for government employees” after an investigation into his behaviour at a party in Samoa in the summer.US officials from the state department’s office of inspector general flew to New Zealand last week to interview Scott Brown, a former Republican senator, and reported their findings on what happened at a peace corps reception where Brown caused controversy with remarks to volunteers serving food and other guests.Brown admitted to the New Zealand news website Stuff that he had been admonished for what he said was his praising of the appearance of several of the party’s attendees. He also said he had remarked that the waiting staff were good enough to earn hundreds of dollars in the US.The Guardian understands that two complaints that were subject to investigation by the state department originally came from two female peace corps volunteers who were at the event, and who served food and drink to the guests as a way to flip the cultural norm of Samoans serving westerners.But in addition to these complaints guests at the party have alleged to the Guardian that the ambassador’s behaviour was “shocking”, “culturally insensitive”, “rude” and “undiplomatic”. The Guardian contacted more than a dozen people who attended the party and spoke to a number who said he had made them feel uncomfortable.After contacting the state department with these new allegations, a spokesman said: “The state department takes allegations of misconduct seriously and we investigate them thoroughly. “We hold all employees to the highest standard. The office of inspector general has conducted an independent review of the allegations and reported its findings to the department.“Senior leadership at the state department has been in contact with Ambassador Brown and he has been counselled on standards of conduct for government employees, which also includes ambassadors.”The incident at the centre of the affair was a party that Brown attended with his wife, Gail Huff, to celebrate 50 years of the peace corps in Samoa. It was his inaugural visit to Samoa – for which he is also the official US representative.In response to what he said were “rumours and innuendo” about his behaviour Brown said his actions were misinterpreted. He said he had told some attendees they looked “beautiful” or “handsome”, and told others they could make hundreds of dollars working in the hospitality industry in the US.He and Huff said they had “no idea” the comments would be regarded as offensive, and the “takeaway” was that they would be “very, very careful” about what they said in the future. Topics US news Samoa New Zealand Asia Pacific news