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While the traditional measure of labor clout–union membership–has been declining for decades, workers are organizing in new ways that may frustrate the IPO dreams of high-flying Silicon Valley startups. This week, that activism took shape in coordinated protests by Uber and Lyft drivers across California to demand better pay, benefits transparency, and more dialogue with management. In San Francisco, a driver picket even forced Lyft to abruptly relocate its presentation to investors.“If enough drivers participate, they will have an impact,” says NYU business professor Arun Sundararajan, who is generally bullish on the prospects for Uber, Lyft, and other “gig-economy” companies. “Worker protests by Uber and Lyft drivers get far more attention than any other labor action in the world right now.”They may also be getting attention of the white-collar employees. “The strikes . . . are a sign of the deep frustration many ride-share drivers feel–and which, amid ongoing conversations with colleagues, it is clear many internal Uber employees share,” writes an anonymous Uber employee in an essay for Medium’s OneZero today. (Medium states that it has verified the person’s identity.)That’s an important aspect of today’s Silicon Valley organizing–an effort to create solidarity between the working-class and elite-class of workers. “It’s nice to know that someone from the inside cares. Probably the first time I’ve ever felt that way,” says Rebecca Stack-Martinez, an Uber and Lyft driver with the group Gig Workers Rising, which organized Monday’s protests in San Francisco.This fits a larger narrative of solidarity efforts. The Tech Workers Coalition, a key player in actions like the Google Walkout, has been encouraging this bridge for years, beginning with support for pay increases and union drives among service workers at companies like Facebook and Intel.Related: These Facebook workers want to unite employees and low-wage contractorsThe lingo in today’s OneZero essay strongly hints at a connection to the coalition. “As tech workers, we share more in common with the drivers that support the platform than the company executives that spend millions ensuring that ride-share companies, and others in the so-called gig economy, can continue to bend the law and exploit workers,” writes the author.But it’s unclear how many tech workers feel that solidarity, and how willing they are to stick their necks out. Take the situation at DoorDash, for instance. Over 200 techies have signed an open letter (also published on Medium) pledging not to work for the food delivery company unless it reforms and improves driver pay. But not a single DoorDash employee has signed on or reached out to the effort, the petition’s organizer, Anna Geiduschek, tells me.Today’s Uber employee essay is a sign that some people inside the company also support the drivers. But it remains unclear whether it represents a significant contingent, especially one that is prepared to risk its own well-being to support fellow workers.

Firefighters battle a wildfire near Santa Rosa, California, U.S., October 14, 2017. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart TPX IMAGES OF THE DAYSACRAMENTO, Calif./NEW YORK (Reuters) - The deadliest and most destructive California wildfires in a century caused insurers more than $11.4 billion in losses, the state’s insurance regulator said Monday. The total amount of insured losses for the November Camp Fire, which destroyed most of the town of Paradise in northern California, jumped 25 percent since December, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara told reporters during a media event. More than 13,000 insured homes and businesses were destroyed out of more than 46,000 claims reported by insurers. The figures are “unprecedented,” Lara said. “These are massive numbers for us.” Lara said. The November wildfires, combined with other blazes in the state drove total 2018 insured losses to $12.4 billion. A total of 89 people died in the Camp Fire and thousands were left homeless. Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California and Suzanne Barlyn in New York; Editing by James DalgleishOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Plans to honor Brazil’s far-right president with a black-tie gala at the American Museum of Natural History have been scrapped after a public outcry that saw New York’s mayor brand Jair Bolsonaro “a very dangerous human being”.Bill de Blasio was among those to speak out after plans for the 14 May event emerged last week, claiming Bolsonaro’s “overt racism and homophobia” and his hostility to the environment mean it would be wrong for such a museum to host him.Museum staff and scientists in both the United States and Brazil also blasted the decision to pay tribute to a rightwing populist who critics fear is leading the South American country into a new era of Amazon destruction with profound implications for Brazil’s indigenous people and the battle against climate change.The museum responded to that criticism last week, claiming it was “deeply concerned” about an event which did not “in any way reflect the Museum’s position that there is an urgent need to conserve the Amazon Rainforest”.On Monday afternoon the museum announced the gala would no longer go ahead there after a joint agreement with organizers from the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce that it was “not the optimal location”.“This traditional event will go forward at another location on the original date & time,” the museum added in a tweet.Brazil has long been hailed as a global leader in soft power and, in recent years, has also emerged as a respected player in the fight against climate change.But under Bolsonaro – who won a landslide victory at home last year but is regarded with widespread disdain overseas – that looks set to change dramatically, with many regarding Brazil’s radical new leader as a pariah.Bolsonaro’s critics celebrated the decision not to hold the gala at the museum, which made immediate headlines in Brazil. One read: “Bolsonaro is banned from New York museum.”“Thank you!” the campaigning group, Amazon Watch, tweeted at the national history museum. “We must come together to denounce Bolsonaro’s bigotry, racism and plans for the destruction of the Amazon and violations of indigenous rights!”In a reference to Bolsonaro’s notoriously antediluvian attitudes, the Brazilian feminist Sâmia Bomfim praised a “wise decision from those who specialize in Jurassic creatures”.There was no immediate response from Bolsonaro, whose popularity ratings have plummeted since he took power on 1 January.But a key foreign policy adviser, Filipe Martins, offered the Bolsonarista take on the museum controversy on Saturday. New York’s Mayor de Blasio was, he said, a “toupeira” – a mole. Topics Jair Bolsonaro Museums New York Brazil Americas news

Shop on Amazon for a smart plug today, and you’ll notice that the most popular options work with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and in some cases Apple’s HomeKit. Connecting your bedside lamp or coffee maker to the internet, in other words, doesn’t require pledging allegiance to a single company’s voice assistant.Amazon is looking to change that with its own smart plug, along with all the other Alexa-enabled products the company announced in September. Amazon’s new microwaves, stereo amplifiers, smart home hubs, and cord-cutting DVRs all have two things thing in common: They match or undercut comparable products on price, and they don’t work with competing voice assistants. The trade-off for Amazon’s low prices is being locked into the Alexa ecosystem.Tech giants discouraging consumers from bonding with somebody else’s platform is not new. Apple, for instance, uses services like iMessage and accessories like AirPods to discourage iPhone users from considering Android. Amazon withholds its Prime Video apps from Google’s Chromecast devices and won’t sell some products from Google’s Nest. Google has retaliated by pulling its YouTube apps from Fire TVs and the Echo Show.Amazon Smart Plug [Photo: courtesy of Amazon]But smart home appliances have been an exception to the rule, as most of them aren’t built by the tech giants themselves. Products such as Philips Hue light bulbs, TP-Link smart plugs, and Ecobee thermostats try to support as many platforms as possible to serve the broadest potential audience. As a result, consumers have a degree of freedom to choose between different voice assistants. If you want to replace your Amazon Echos with Google Homes, or use Siri to control your home from an iPhone, you might not have to replace all the smart home hardware you’ve already bought.This is the kind of flexibility that Amazon is now trying to discourage with its own plugs, microwaves, and more. By creating the devices itself, selling them cheaply, and giving them top billing on its website, Amazon is laying the groundwork for homes that are only compatible with Alexa.Amazon started moving in this direction last year with the Echo Plus, a $150 Alexa speaker that doubles as a smart home hub for devices using the ZigBee connection protocol, and which Amazon has just upgraded with a new design and better sound quality. Using an Echo Plus obviates the need for a separate hub or bridge device to control certain bulbs, switches, and sensors, the trade off being that those devices will only work with Alexa. You don’t get the flexibility that comes with other hubs such as Samsung SmartThings (which supports Alexa and Google Home) or product-specific bridges such as the Philips Hue Bridge (which supports Alexa, Google Home, and Apple’s HomeKit).AmazonBasics Microwave [Photo: courtesy of Amazon]Amazon has also been shunning other voice assistants as it moves into home security. The Amazon Cloud Cam, announced last year, requires an Alexa or Fire TV device to view video feeds by voice. And a few months after Amazon acquired Ring earlier this year, the smart doorbell maker indefinitely delayed the HomeKit integration it announced in 2016. (Ring says it’s still “eager to introduce HomeKit functionality,” but has shifted feature releases to ensure “the best possible experience with our products.”)Along with releasing its own Alexa-first gear, Amazon is incentivizing other vendors to follow the same path. Along with the new consumer products, Amazon also announced the Alexa Connect Kit, which lets companies build smart home devices without having to write their own networking and security firmware or pay ongoing cloud computing fees. While Amazon says Connect Kit devices can work with non-Alexa voice assistants, it’s unclear how many companies will bother when the whole point of the kit is to minimize development efforts and costs. (Qualcomm and Intel offer similar kits that support multiple voice assistants, albeit without the flat cloud compute pricing that Amazon is offering.)Over time, these efforts will result in more cheap smart home appliances that only work with Alexa, whether they’re made by Amazon or not. If you like Alexa and want to standardize your purchases around it anyway, that might not be a problem. But if you want to buy products that offer more flexibility, chances are you’ll pay more for the privilege.Some companies are working on interoperability standards, which would connect any smart home device regardless of vendor, but Amazon isn’t supporting those efforts, and neither are Apple or Google. And why would they? The alternative–creating as many smart homes as possible that only they can control–looks much more attractive.

Comments Related Extras Related Videos Video Transcript Transcript for Apple releases the iPhone XR If today's tech bikes new offerings from apple you can now start ordering the new iPhone and are. It has a larger screen and comes in more colors and that ten as. It's also about 250 dollars cheaper which would have known that also new iPad tablets are expected to be announced. At an at apple event on October 30. Google Maps is now rolling out its ETA teacher to IOS users which allows them to share traveling locations in real time. ETA also allows users to share their locations across third party apps like FaceBook messenger and what's happened and Alexa is now using it's inside voice. Amazon's virtual assistant now has a whisper mode when he speaks softly to Alexa it will respond with a quieter voice. He is at eight featuring your first have to turn it on and just say blacks and a. Turn on Westborough ma Latif who works at your home right now Alexa turn on whisper mode sorry for your trip might have a great day. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

The American Museum of Natural History says it is exploring its options after discovering that the honoree at a gala to which it rented space next month will be President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, whose environmental policies have come under fire.In statements Thursday and Friday, the museum responded to criticism that an institution dedicated to nature and science would serve as a podium to honor someone who has proposed opening up more of the Amazon rain forest to mining and agribusiness.The event is an annual gala honoring a Person of the Year Award organized by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit that promotes business and cultural ties between the United States and Brazil.The museum said it had agreed to book the event this year before it learned who the nominee would be, and its remarks suggested it might be considering whether there is any way to back out of hosting the engagement.“The external, private event at which the current President of Brazil is to be honored was booked at the Museum before the honoree was secured,” the museum said in a tweet. “We are deeply concerned, and we are exploring our options.”In a statement Friday, the museum said the event “does not in any way reflect the Museum’s position that there is an urgent need to conserve the Amazon Rainforest, which has such profound implications for biological diversity, indigenous communities, climate change, and the future health of our planet.”ImageThe museum on Central Park West is a popular spot for galas. Officials said they decided jointly with the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce to move the gala, scheduled for May 14, from the museum to another venue.CreditChristina Horsten/Picture Alliance, via Getty ImagesThe outcry over the event comes at a time of increasing sensitivities about what sort of oversight museums should demonstrate in regard to the people who serve on their boards, give them money or, as in this case, rent their space.Traditionally, museums have argued that they do not apply ideological litmus tests to their donors or trustees, a position of principle, but also one that enabled often cash-challenged nonprofit institutions to accept financing from the widest spectrum of individuals.The natural history museum cited the principle a few years ago in defending its decision to offer a board seat to Rebekah Mercer, who is an influential donor to the museum and also to groups that deny climate change.Some museums, however, have recently taken a different stance, in several cases, for example, saying they were reconsidering their connections to the Sackler family over the ties of some family members to the opioid crisis. And in New York, there have been protests at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where a vice chairman on its board, Warren Kanders, runs a company that manufactures tear gas that was used to repel migrants trying to cross into the United States from Mexico.The Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce could not be reached for comment. Michael R. Bloomberg, former mayor of New York, was one of the chamber’s honorees last year, and Bill Clinton has been an honoree in the past.The criticism toward this year’s honoree built quickly. Mayor Bill de Blasio entered the debate Friday, telling WNYC radio that he found the event at an institution that accepts city funding “really troubling.”“If you’re talking about a publicly supported institution and you’re talking about someone who’s doing something tangibly destructive, I’m uncomfortable with it, and I would certainly urge the museum not to allow him to be hosted there,” he said.Beka Economopoulos, who is the director of a traveling museum, said some staff members at the natural history museum had been organizing in opposition to the event involving President Bolsonaro.“What he stands for is antithetical to what the museum stands for,” she said. “When the museum offers its name and its space to this individual, it undermines the trust the public puts in this museum and in science itself.”Officials at the museum seemed to recognize that the gala has become an issue that needed to be addressed with their staff. A letter to the staff was sent out on Thursday night from Michael Novacek, senior vice president and provost, and Daniel Scheiner, vice president for human resources, saying they shared “a deep concern at the current plans.”A spokeswoman for the museum said she could not speculate on what options the institution was exploring for a gala that is just a month away. “That is precisely the review that is going on now,” said the spokeswoman, Anne Canty.

Fake editions of the Washington Post with a large headline announcing Donald Trump’s departure from the White House were passed around Washington DC early Wednesday morning by a group of activists.The paper, which was printed on a broadsheet eerily similar to the real Washington Post, was dated 1 May 2019 and included a series of anti-Trump and women empowerment stories. The stories and a PDF of the spoof newspaper were also published on a website that imitated the Washington Post’s homepage.“Trickster activist collective” the Yes Men revealed they were the organization behind the prank newspaper later Wednesday following initial confusion on who was behind it.MoveOn, a liberal activist group, was initially thought to be behind the fake newspaper, but the group denied involvement. “While we love the headline, we didn’t produce today’s satirical Washington Post,” the group wrote on Twitter. Women’s group Code Pink was also thought to be behind the distributions.The Yes Men have conducted similar stunts before, passing out a satirical edition of the New York Times in 2008 with the headline “Iraq War Ends” and a similar fake edition of the New York Post in 2009 about climate change around New York City.While Washington Post journalists have been reporting on the story, it is unclear whether it will take action against the group.The newspaper’s public relations department tweeted: “There are fake print editions of The Washington Post being distributed around downtown DC, and we are aware of a website attempting to mimic The Post’s. They are not Post products, and we are looking into this.”The newspaper’s public relations team did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.Long-time grassroots organizer LA Kauffman told the Guardian that she and fellow activist Onnesha Roychoudhuri directed the creation of the spoof newspaper. The idea sprouted from meetings and conversations with the Yes Men that began in spring 2018.“It was designed as a creative intervention to help spread hope and joy,” Kauffman said. “The element of surprise was important for that goal.”While under all-female fictional bylines, the paper’s stories are actually excerpts of writings from authors and activists such as George Lakey and Mark and Paul Engler, Kauffman said, who gave “enthusiastic permission” to the group to use their work.Twelve people helped with the design and printing of the newspaper, while about 25 people distributed printed papers in DC, Kauffman said. Andy Bichlbaum, cofounder of the Yes Men, told Washington Post reporters that printing 25,000 papers cost $40,000, most of which was raised from the group’s mailing list.Kauffman, who spent three hours helping to distribute the paper herself, said that there was a “lot of laughter, a lot of smiles” from those who were handed a copy. At least two people who identified themselves as White House staffers said they would bring the paper into the White House with them, Kauffman added.Distributing actual fake newspapers during a time when the president calls media outlets like the Washington Post “fake news” may be a sensitive form of activism, but Kauffman said Trump’s comments on the media did not deter them.“The fact that [Trump] has a steady drumbeat of attacks on fake news should not keep us from dreaming and imagining a different future, and using a vehicle of a newspaper to communicate that,” Kauffman said. “It is dreaming, it is not deception.” Topics Washington Post Newspapers & magazines Donald Trump Newspapers US press and publishing news

Enlarge this image The American Museum of Natural History in New York said Monday it is not the "optimal location" for a gala honoring the president of Brazil. Christina Horsten/picture alliance via Getty Image hide caption toggle caption Christina Horsten/picture alliance via Getty Image The American Museum of Natural History in New York said Monday it is not the "optimal location" for a gala honoring the president of Brazil. Christina Horsten/picture alliance via Getty Image The American Museum of Natural History in New York has announced that it will no longer host an event honoring Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is outspoken about his desire to roll back environmental protections. Environmental organizations had pushed for the event to be moved. "The decision echoes the museum's institutional values and its tireless quest for truth through science and education, which is the exact opposite of all the Brazilian President stands for," said the Brazilian environmental organization Observatório do Clima.The museum had rented the gala space to the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce for its annual Person of the Year Awards Gala Dinner. Previous honorees have included Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg. Latin America Brazil Pulls Its Offer To Host Major U.N. Climate Summit On Thursday, AMNH stressed that it had not been aware Bolsonaro was to be the honoree when the event was booked by the nonprofit group that promotes "trade, investment, and cultural ties between the two nations." The museum said: "We are deeply concerned, and we are exploring our options."Two days later, the museum seemed even more clear about its unease about the event: "We want you to know that we understand and share your distress." Employees also voiced their concerns about the event to management. On Monday, the museum put out a joint statement with the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce."We jointly agreed that the Museum is not the optimal location for the Brazilian-Am. Chamber of Commerce gala dinner," it said. "This traditional event will go forward at another location on the original date & time."It's not clear where the May 14 dinner will be held, though the chamber's website says it will happen at an "upscale venue" that will be announced soon. The Rain Forest Was Here Deep In The Amazon, An Unseen Battle Over The Most Valuable Trees The chamber says it chose Bolsonaro as its person of the year as "a recognition of his strongly stated intention of fostering closer commercial and diplomatic ties between Brazil and the United States and his firm commitment to building a strong and durable partnership between the two nations."Bolsonaro has suggested changing rainforest protections to allow for development. Recently, he said: "Environmental politics can't muddle with Brazil's development. ... Today, the economy is almost back on track thanks to agribusiness, and they are suffocated by environmental questions."New York Mayor Bill de Blasio applauded AMNH's move "on behalf of our city." He said: "Jair Bolsonaro is a dangerous man. His overt racism, homophobia and destructive decisions will have a devastating impact on the future of our planet."

Gunfire and explosions in Nairobi, fast food at the White House, a great white shark off the coast of Oahu and the Australian Open tennis – the week captured by the world’s best photojournalists

6 月 20 日，据《华尔街日报》报道，PayPal 以 4 亿美元的价格收购 HyperWallet 付款平台。HyperWallet 通过提供平台，使用户更加方便地向卖家或供应商付款，无论是支付大额服务费还是向司机支付车费。目前 Hyperwallet 可以在超过 200 个国家以不同形式完成支付，包括通过借记卡和向银行或 PayPal 账号发起转账，PayPal 表示之后将把这些功能引入自己的支付平台中。HyperWallet 最初由麻省理工学院工程师 Lisa Shields 在温哥华创办，致力于帮助个人和企业更方便地接收付款，并且利用庞大的区域服务平台与世界各地相连接，从而实现「颠覆性定价」以及大众支付。当谈及收购 HyperWallet 的原因时，PayPal 表示 HyperWallet 服务超过 200 个市场，其服务的客户包括 Amazon 和 HomeAway（旅行服务）等公司，这将会增强 PayPal 向全球电子商务平台和市场提供解决方案的能力。在收购完成后，PayPal 的股票上涨了 0.1%。这次收购只是 PayPal 的一个小动作，随着 PayPal 进入欧洲，Square 成为 PayPal 在欧洲的竞争对手。上个月，PayPal 斥资 22 亿美元收购了欧洲支付公司 iZettle，收购过后，iZettle 将继续以欧洲市场为主要目标，并以其在欧洲的庞大业务市场为进军欧洲的布局带来优势与帮助。这将进一步加强 PayPal 在与 Square 竞争中的地位。此外，iZettle 还与巴西的 PagSeguro 竞争，在巴西地区再次为 PayPal 赢得了竞争优势。PayPal 布局全球的野心十分明显，早在 5 月，PayPal 与印度尼西亚的风投公司 Alpha JWC Ventures 合作，瞄准东南亚庞大的支付市场。Alpha JWC 的合伙人表示：公司将投资 500 万美元用于支持 PayPal 孵化器，共同孵化东南亚金融科技公司，被选中的入孵企业将得到 PayPal 高管的指导，力求为东南亚金融科技生态系统创造更大价值。据了解，自成立以来，PayPal 孵化器已经成功培育了六家金融科技初创公司：Axinan，Chynge，InvoiceInterchange，Jumper.ai，PolicyPal 和 TenX。该计划旨在资助来自印尼、新加坡、越南、菲律宾和泰国的金融科技初创公司。6 月 3 日，PayPal 收购了可预测 AI 系统开发商 Jetlore，Jetlore 是由两名斯坦福大学计算机博士创办的，它将机器学习技术推广到零售产业，通过 Jetlore 系统帮助零售商更好地迎合消费者的需求。PayPal 在声明中说：「通过 Jetlore 的人才和 AI 技术，我们可以增强 PayPal 市场解决方案，加快开发速度，增加新功能，为商户创造更多价值，不仅限于线上结账。」尽管 PayPal 在美国国内已经确立了自己的领导地位，但美国国内移动支付市场的竞争依然相当激烈，PayPal、Apple Pay 和 Google Wallet 形成混战的格局，苹果和 Google 通过自己的移动设备为自己赢得了优势，为 PayPal 带来了压力。而欧洲市场有 Square 与 PayPal 形成对立，亚洲市场则有支付宝、财付通形成垄断之势。PayPal 进入相关市场的难度也会随之大幅度提升。为了保持自身的竞争力，PayPal 在加大收购力度的同时，更应该调整自己的运营策略和适应不同国家区域的法律法规，更好地融入到当地的金融生态圈，才能继续扩大公司的价值和提高各个区域的影响力。参考：

One of the most prized possessions of Brazil’s National Museum, which was gutted by a huge fire last month, has been found amid the debris: the oldest human fossil in the region, known as Luzia.The museum director, Alexander Kellner, told The Associated Press on Friday that 80 percent of the fossil’s pieces had been found.The fossil was discovered during an excavation in 1975 outside the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. It was given the name Luzia in homage to “Lucy,” the famous 3.2 million-year-old remains found in Africa.The National Museum held Latin America’s largest collection of historical artifacts, with about 20 million pieces. The fire, on Sept. 2, ravaged the stately, 200-year-old museum in Rio de Janeiro. Years of history encapsulated inside were thought to be lost.Michel Temer, the president of Brazil, tweeted at the time that it was “a sad day for all Brazilians.”ImageFragments of Luzia’s skeleton displayed at a news conference on Friday.CreditCarl De Souza/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“The loss of the National Museum collection is incalculable for Brazil,” he wrote. “Two hundred years of work, research and knowledge have been lost.”Mayor Marcelo Crivella of Rio de Janeiro said on Instagram that it was a “national duty” to rebuild “from the ashes.”Researchers, museum workers and anthropologists had gathered outside, along with hundreds of residents as the building stood smoldering, as the import of what could be lost sank in.The 12,000-year-old skeleton known as Luzia was among those treasures believed to be destroyed at the museum, which is linked to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and is the oldest scientific institution in Brazil, with large natural history and anthropology collections.Some items in the collection are irreplaceable to science, as well as to the country’s national memory. One of the world’s largest meteorites survived the fire, but other pieces — mummies, from Egypt and South America, as well as Egyptian artifacts — may have been destroyed.Residents had lashed out at what they said was Brazil’s near-abandonment of museums and other basic public services. Many saw the fire as a symbol for a city, and nation, in distress.“It’s a moment of intense pain,” said Maurilio Oliveira, a paleoartist at the museum. “We can only hope to recover our history from the ashes. Now, we cry and get to work.”

Most of the skull from a prized 12,000-year-old fossil nicknamed Luzia has been recovered from the wreckage of a fire in Brazil's National Museum. The 200-year-old building in Rio de Janeiro burned down in September, destroying almost all of its artefacts. But on Friday the museum's director announced that 80% of Luzia's skull fragments had been identified.The human remains - the oldest ever found in Latin America - were viewed as the jewel of the museum's collection.The museum staff said they were confident they could recover the rest of Luzia's skull and attempt reassembly. "They've suffered alterations, damage but we're very optimistic at the find and all it represents," archaeologist Claudia Rodrigues was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.The skull is understood to have been stored in a metal box inside a cabinet, described as a "strategic place", which helped it resist fire damage. Museum artefacts saved from Brazil fire The key treasures at risk from museum fire In pictures: Museum destroyed in blaze Structural work to secure the historical palace in the Brazilian city is still being carried out almost 50 days on from the fire.The cause of the blaze - which tore through hundreds of rooms containing more than 20 million artefacts - is still under investigation. The 2 September fire sparked criticism and protests of the country's government in its aftermath. The museum is managed by Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, whose rector said they had known the building was vulnerable because of financial cuts. Luzia's remains were found in a cave in the 1970s in the state of Minas Gerais, north of Rio, by French archaeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire. Tests suggest the skull and bones belonged to a woman in her 20s who was just under 1.5m (5ft tall) - and they were believed to be the oldest recovered on the continent. Experts had produced a digital image of her face using her skull, which was used as the basis for a sculpture that was also in display on the building.Luzia was named in homage to Lucy - the famous and important 3.2 million-year-old human remains found in Africa in 1974.

Bolivia’s leftist president Evo Morales has clashed with an ally of Brazil’s new far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, highlighting the new ideological battlegrounds forming across Latin America as its leftist “pink tide” is consumed by a conservative counter-current.Rodrigo Amorim, a recently elected congressman for Bolsonaro’s Social Liberal party, belittled an urban indigenous community that occupied a disused indigenous museum in northern Rio de Janeiro.“If you like Indians, you should go to Bolivia – as well as being communist, it’s governed by an Indian,” Amorim told the Rio newspaper O Globo in an interview published on Friday.Morales, who was elected Bolivia’s first indigenous president in 2005, hit back. “We regret the reemergence of white supremacist (KKK) ideology” in the region, he tweeted, calling such thinking a reflex of the xenophobia of Donald Trump’s administration.“Faced with intolerance and discrimination, indigenous peoples will promote respect and integration. We all have the same rights because we are children of the same Mother Earth,” Morales added.Bolsonaro, a self-styled anti-leftist crusader famed for his hostility towards minorities, has also faced accusations of racism towards Brazil’s black and indigenous communities. In interviews and on the campaign trail Bolsonaro has repeatedly compared indigenous tribespeople to animals living in zoos.But Morales – one of the few survivors of the “pink tide” generation of Latin American leaders that also included Bolsonaro’s leftwing nemesis Lula – was careful to direct his fire at Amorim, not Brazil’s new far-right leader.Despite their huge ideological differences, Morales attended Bolsonaro’s 1 January inauguration – a consequence, experts say, of Bolivia’s economic reliance on its neighbour. Bolivia exports around half of its natural gas to Brazil and the countries’ long-standing supply contract will expire later this year, meaning Morales is reluctant to cross Bolsonaro, whatever his personal feelings.Morales struck a diplomatic tone after travelling to Brasilia to watch Bolsonaro take office, arguing the two men had “a duty to work together for the benefit of our countries”.“Bolivia and Brazil are neighbors for life,” Morales tweeted alongside a video showing him clutching Bolsonaro’s hand with both hands.Bolsonaro – who has outraged activists by signalling he will move to open up Brazil’s indigenous reserves to development – has repeatedly name-checked Morales in order to justify his controversial plans for such communities.“In Bolivia, right here next door to Brazil, we’ve got an Indian who is president,” he said in a webcast to followers shortly before taking power. “So why do Indians in Brazil have to be treated like prehistoric men?”He added: “I’ve talked to the Indians. What do the Indians want? The great majority of the ones I’ve spoken to: they want electricity, they want internet, they want doctors, dentists … they want to play football, they want cars, they want to go the cinema, to go to the the theatre. They are human beings just like us.” Topics Bolivia Americas Brazil Human rights news

Islamic State is reverting to the guerrilla-style tactics it employed in its early days to strike targets, including a suicide bombing it claimed in northern Syria this week, as it stands to lose the last sliver of territory it controls.U.S.-backed forces in Syria on Thursday vowed to escalate military operations against Islamic State and root out its sleeper cells, a day after the attack that killed more than a dozen people, including four Americans....

Enlarge this image An explosion damaged a restaurant in Manbij, Syria, on Wednesday, as shown in a screen grab from the Kurdish Hawar News agency, or ANHA. ANHA/AP hide caption toggle caption ANHA/AP An explosion damaged a restaurant in Manbij, Syria, on Wednesday, as shown in a screen grab from the Kurdish Hawar News agency, or ANHA. ANHA/AP Updated at 5:42 p.m. ET Four Americans were killed in an explosion while conducting a routine patrol in northern Syria, according to the Pentagon. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility.Two U.S. service members, one civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency and one contractor working as an interpreter died in the attack in Manbij. Three service members were injured.A statement from U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, says that initial reports indicate an explosion caused the casualties, but that the incident is under investigation. U.S. forces with the international coalition regularly patrol in and around the town."President Trump and I condemn the terrorist attack in Syria that claimed American lives and our hearts are with the loved ones of the fallen," Vice President Pence said in a statement. A local news site reported that a huge explosion erupted in the city center near a girls' school and a restaurant. The site reported that both civilians and troops were killed and wounded. Local groups say at least 16 people were killed in total, according to The Associated Press.ANHA, a news agency in the Kurdish areas in Syria, showed the restaurant's windows blown out, with the twisted metal frame of an awning hanging off the building.The town of Manbij, located close to the Turkish border in northern Syria, was retaken from ISIS in 2016. U.S. troops have been working in the city with the local military council, as well as patrolling outside the city with Turkish troops, NPR's Tom Bowman reports."It's a vibrant, bustling city," says Bowman, who visited in early 2018. "[It] has a huge market selling all sorts of goods and produce.""I was there ... with the U.S. military," Bowman says, "We walked around without body armor. It was remarkably calm. ... You would never get a sense that there was a shot fired in anger there."But some residents and members of the U.S. military have been concerned about ISIS fighters "slipping back into the city" for more than a year, Bowman reports.The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group says that a suicide bomber probably carried out the attack.Hassan Hassan, an expert on the Islamic State, says the group has identified the bomber as Abu Yasin al-Shami.The explosion comes shortly after President Trump announced in December that the U.S. would withdraw forces from Syria. The announcement put him at odds with some of his advisers and worried U.S. allies. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, Brett McGurk, resigned in response to the decision.Pence hinted Wednesday that the fight against ISIS was nearly finished. "Thanks to the courage of our Armed Forces, we have crushed the ISIS caliphate and devastated its capabilities," Pence said. "As we begin to bring our troops home, the American people can be assured, for the sake of our soldiers, their families, and our nation, we will never allow the remnants of ISIS to reestablish their evil and murderous caliphate – not now, not ever." Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle took a different view. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he believed he had been in the restaurant that was bombed while he visited with Kurds, Arabs and others in Manbij. He urged the president to "look long and hard of where he's headed in Syria." Graham said: "My concern about the statements made by President Trump is that you have set in motion enthusiasm by the enemy we're fighting. ... Every American wants our troops to come home, but I think all of us want to make sure that when they do come home, we're safe."President Trump has said U.S. allies could complete the job of dismantling the extremist group. In December, Trump said, "We'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now."The Pentagon says the U.S. has begun withdrawing troops, NPR reports.About 2,200 American troops serve in Syria, working with Arab and Kurdish rebels to defeat the Islamic State, reports NPR's Tom Bowman. Now that the U.S. is leaving — and no one is offering a timetable, by the way — the concern is that the Arab and Kurdish forces won't be able to finish the job on their own. They just don't have the strength. So ISIS could expand. That's the main concern. And - or there could be some sort of power struggle among the rebels, maybe ethnic cleansing, a possible bloodbath, one official told me. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Wednesday's attack underscores the danger in Trump's policy."The tragic death of three American service members, which has been recently reported, is a reminder both of how lethal ISIS is and how risky an abrupt pullout can be, that it may well encourage ISIS to be more aggressive as our forces begin to depart," he told reporters. NPR's Lama Al-Arian and Jane Arraf contributed to this report.

Since a devastating fire gutted Rio’s National Museum and consumed most of its collection of 20m items, archaeologist Murilo Bastos, 35, has lived an upside-down life.He used to work in an office inside the colonial palace, once the home of the Portuguese royal family. Now he scours its charred interior for anything that survived the blaze.“We were used to working in air conditioning, now we are on a building site,” he said, stamping dusty boots as he took a break outside its sealed-off perimeter on a recent morning. The museum’s outer walls are still standing but three of its interior floors collapsed.“We don’t work in the field. The field came here,” he said.The fire in September was an unthinkable tragedy for academics like Bastos, many of whom started out at the museum as interns and watched helplessly as irreplaceable archives went up in smoke. Yet some have found new meaning in the rescue work, celebrating each of the 1,500 finds made so far – including indigenous bowls, arrowheads and an axe – no matter how blackened or broken. They hope a new National Museum can emerge from its ashes.“The museum is alive,” Bastos said. “The rescue is paying off. We are recovering things.”A key moment was the rediscovery of “Luzia” – the 11,500-year old skull of “the first Brazilian woman” believed lost in the fire, then rescued in fragments from the remains of a metal cupboard. “It was a symbolic moment,” said historian Regina Dantas, 56.Six days a week, the 60-strong recovery team picks through the ruins; their findings are taken to a screening area, examined by specialists and stored in containers.Archaeologist Claudia Rodrigues-Carvalho, the team’s coordinator – and the museum’s former director – said that by February the building should be secure enough for proper excavation work to begin. “I never never wanted to be here, doing this, but as it happened I can’t imagine being anywhere else,” she said.For decades, museum directors had pleaded for more money to protect the wooden-floored museum, she said. In June, as the museum celebrated its 200th birthday, Brazil’s government development bank finally agreed to $5.6m for restoration work. But none of it had arrived when the fire broke out.“I felt defeated. I worked intensely to prevent this,” she said. “[But] the museum did not have a budget.”The museum’s anthropology, ethnography, palaeontology, geology, entomology, arachnology and malacology collections were all housed in the palace – and most of them were destroyed, she said. The botany, invertebrate and vertebrate collections were kept in separate annexes and survived.The losses are thought to include indigenous feathers, textiles and insects kept in glass cases, though some fibres may have survived from the museum’s mummies and indigenous textile collections. Rock, metal and porcelain items were more likely to have resisted the intense heat, she said.Police are still investigating the causes of the blaze, but the museum’s current director, Alexander Kellner, said he was well aware of the fire risk when he took office in February, but was unable to install a safety system in time.“We knew we didn’t have the necessary protection,” he said, “fire doors, sprinklers, things like that. But in a listed building, with a very diverse archive, you can’t do whatever you want.” Museum staff have not been given a reopening date but a spokeswoman said it would take three years. Whenever it does reopen, a top priority for Kellner will be to reach more Brazilians.Fewer than than 200,000 people visited in 2017; in its first eight months, the Museum of Tomorrow attracted a million visitors. “A museum that doesn’t talk to society is condemned to extinction,” Keller said.Nycoly Tavares, 21, a biology student at Rio’s Federal University studying fish at the museum, said the aloofness of academics kept them distant from working-class Brazilians like herself.“The teachers were like gods, they stayed in their rooms. They have to change this,” she said. “We have to keep the museum growing.”New interactions between society and the museum have already begun.A commemorative stamp was issued in December at a ceremony where musicians performed a song in honour of its Bendegó meteorite – which also survived.A Rio tattooist has been inking free museum tattoos on the arms of staff and students, a project organised by palaeontologist Beatriz Hörmanseder, 26, a graduate student who studied prehistoric crocodiles from the museum’s collection. “The tattoos helped me,” she said. “I lost all my work.”For her master’s degree at Rio’s Federal University, she was studying a 110m-year-old Brazilian crocodile, found in a lake bed in the north-east. It had never been studied. “It could have been a new species,” she said. But she had not yet scanned the fossil, whose skeleton was remarkably complete.And now all that is left of it are some photographs, her notes, and its catalogue number, tattooed under the museum’s image on her left forearm.Classes continue at the museum in a separate complex. And Hörmanseder has found a new crocodile fossil to study – 35m years old and from Utah – which was in a government deposit. It’s not the same. But it’s better than nothing.“I really liked the Brazilian one,” she said. “I want to keep working and help rebuild the museum, in any way we can.” Topics Brazil Museums Americas news

The threat of a growing security vacuum in Syria as a result of Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops has been underlined by an attack on a joint US-Kurdish patrol, which reportedly killed five people and injured at least two American soldiers.The attack on Monday, in which a suicide bomber drove a car into a checkpoint, emphasised the vulnerability of American troops since the US president declared he was withdrawing 2,000 soldiers from northern Syria on the grounds that Islamic State has been defeated.The bomber targeted a joint patrol by US forces and the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Hasakah countryside of north-east Syria.Kurdish forces later claimed none of their number had been killed.Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, is threatening to send troops into US-overseen areas on the Syrian border.He said preparations for a Turkish incursion into Syria were complete, but insisted the aim was not to undermine the territorial integrity of the country. Erdoğan said: “We will deliver Manbij to its real owners. We don’t have eyes on anybody’s land. Those who insistently want to keep us away from these regions are seeking to strengthen terror organisations.”The idea of a safe zone was promoted initially by Trump, but Erdoğan appears to sense the concept could become a joint Turkish-US plan in which the US could provide air cover and Turkey the ground troops.Erdoğan said his warning that he would not allow the safe zone to become a swamp for Kurdish terrorists stemmed from Turkish experience of safe zones for Kurds in Northern Iraq.The attack on the convoy took place two days after Trump attended a ceremony marking the return of the bodies of four US citizens, including two soldiers killed on 16 January by an Isis suicide bomber in the SDF-held town of Manbij.That attack was the deadliest on US troops since they were deployed to Syria in 2014 to assist local forces against Isis.Overruling his security apparatus, Trump announced in December that 2,000 elite US troops would withdraw from Syria, which led to the resignations of his defence secretary, Jim Mattis, and Brett McGurk, the special envoy to the coalition fighting Isis.The latest attack on a US convoy will put pressure on Trump either to accelerate the withdrawal or set out how he intends to protect American forces before they leave.In a TV interview on Sunday, McGurk said Trump had no plan for Syria, and insisted that since Isis had not been defeated, Trump’s decision represented a threat to the west’s security.He warned that Trump’s decision had endangered US troops, saying: “You never telegraph a punch when you’re in a military campaign. You also don’t telegraph your retreat.“The minute you announce to the world that you’re leaving, a vacuum opens up and all the other powers in the region start making different calculations.”Late on Sunday, Trump spoke to Erdoğan, who told him Turkish forces were ready to go into northern Syria, including Manbij, to fill the vacuum likely to be left by the US’s departure.Speaking to Turkish businessmen on Monday, Erdoğan said he would set up a safety zone on the border between Syria and Turkey, largely by putting Turkish troops in charge of a 20-mile (32km) zone running the length of the border.“We will never allow a safe zone in Syria transformed into another swamp against our country,” he said, adding that he would hand over Manbij to its rightful owners. He also insisted Turkey could remove terrorists from the area with US logistical support.The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have carried out the bulk of the fighting in the past four years on behalf of the US against Isis in Syria.They believe Erdoğan will use the safe zone concept as a way of attacking YPG forces, and any decision by the US to provide logistical support to Turkey to seize the area would be regarded as a further betrayal.Erdoğan regards the YPG as inextricably linked with the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which is fighting for greater independence inside Turkey.Turkey’s president sees the YPG and PKK as a single terrorist force that represents an existential threat to the Turkish state.The UK, which along with France has special forces operating in the area, was effectively given no warning of Trump’s decision. Since the announcement, US officials have given different accounts of the pace of the withdrawal and the plan for what will replace US forces.The Kurds, feeling deserted by the US, are increasingly inclined to reach an accommodation in a federal Syria with the president, Bashar al-Assad, rather than accept Turkish rule. Turkey has led the opposition to Assad.Erdoğan will meet Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, later this month to discuss whether they can reach a political agreement on Syria’s future, including the enclave of Idlib, still held by groups opposed to Assad.Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Turkish foreign minister, will fly to Washington for a meeting of the US-led coalition against Isis on 6 February.By then, allies in the global coalition will be impatient for the US to have prepared a coherent strategy to resist the re-emergence of Isis in Syria and fill the political void left by the US’s departure. Topics Syria US foreign policy Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Trump administration Turkey US military Middle East and North Africa news

A US Navy servicewoman and a former Navy Seal are among the four Americans killed in a suicide bombing this week in northern Syria that the United States believes was probably carried out by Islamic State, officials said on Friday.Army Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent, 35, and Scott Wirtz, a civilian Department of Defense employee from St Louis, died during the Wednesday attack in Manbij, officials said in a statement.The Pentagon did not identify the fourth person killed, a contractor working for a private company.The Manbij attack on US forces in Syria appeared to be the deadliest since they deployed on the ground there in 2015. It took place in a town controlled by a militia allied with US-backed Kurdish forces.Kent joined the navy in 2003 and in her years of service received nearly one dozen honors, including the National Defense Service Medal and two Joint Service Commendation Medals, navy officials said in a statement.Wirtz, a Navy Seal for 10 years, had been employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency since 2017 and completed three deployments for the agency in the Middle East, the agency said.Army officials did not immediately respond to requests for more details on Farmer.Two US government sources told Reuters on Thursday that the United States views the Isis militant group as probably responsible for the attack. Isis has claimed responsibility.The attack occurred nearly a month after Donald Trump confounded his own national security team with a surprise decision to withdraw all 2,000 US troops from Syria, declaring Isis had been defeated there.If Isis carried out the attack, that would undercut assertions, including by Mike Pence several hours after the blast on Wednesday, that the militant group has been defeated.Experts do not believe Isis has been beaten despite its having lost almost all of the territory it held in 2014 and 2015 after seizing parts of Syria and Iraq and declaring a “caliphate”.While the group’s footprint has shrunk, experts say it is far from a spent force and can still conduct guerilla-style attacks. An Islamic State statement on Wednesday said a Syrian suicide bomber had detonated his explosive vest in Manbij. Topics US military Syria Middle East and North Africa Islamic State news

ISIS claimed responsibility for a deadly explosion that killed four Americans on Wednesday. WSJ's Gerald F. Seib explains three reasons why the tragic event is so ominous. Photo: AP By Updated Jan. 16, 2019 6:44 p.m. ET A bombing in Syria claimed by Islamic State killed at least four Americans on Wednesday, the Pentagon said, hardening divisions in Washington over President Trump’s plan to withdraw troops from the country. The four Americans—two military service members, a civilian Defense Department employee and a Pentagon contractor—were among 19 believed killed in the blast, including allied fighters with the Syrian Democratic Forces and a number of civilians, according to local media and a monitoring group. Other Americans may have been... To Read the Full Story Subscribe Sign In