Following the world premiere of Avengers: Endgame, the Avengers assembled one last time. More than two dozen actors gathered on stage at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Read more...
Donald Trump sat down with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The pair reportedly discussed Dorsey’s platform, Twitter, as well as social media as a whole. Trump said he “look(s) forward to keeping an open dialogue” with Dorsey, a reversal from his usual sentiment towards the tech giant. Read more...
Mark Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner and his alter-ego, The Hulk, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. He recently admitted that in order to avoid spoilers, directors Joe and Anthony Russo gave him a script with fake scenes. Read more...
Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard stuck a dagger in the Oklahoma City Thunder with a series-clinching buzzer-beater on Tuesday night, and now, his victory stare is spreading far and wide across Twitter.
Lillard nailed a ridiculously deep three-pointer as time expired to win the game for Portland, 118-115, and send the Thunder home. The shot capped a 50 point night for Lillard, too, making his final goodbye wave to the Thunder all the more brutal.
But as Lillard and his teammates celebrated, he gave a TV camera a cold-blooded stare and nod combo that had NBA fans shook, including a few who referenced what is perhaps the most well-known cold stare meme. Read more...
After early Fold review units given to reviewers starting breaking just days after they got them, Samsung has indefinitely delayed the foldable phone's launch in the U.S. and China.
While we know some reasons why Folds were breaking — dirt somehow got underneath the screen and reviewers accidentally peeled off the display's screen protector-like film — a comprehensive teardown by iFixit has revealed the nearly $2,000 device has multiple points of failure.
Details are scarce, and nothing is confirmed, but the blockchain network could either be public or hybrid — a combination of public and private blockchains.
One important detail: This blockchain network will reportedly be based on Ethereum, a popular smart contract platform which makes it fairly easy to deploy your own cryptocurrency token. Read more...
Don't worry, this post is free of Avengers: Endgame spoilers.
Avengers: Endgame hits theaters this week, which means we're about to find out how Earth's greatest superheroes can reverse the destructive actions of the galaxy's most misguided environmentalist.
Thanos of Titan, the ultimate big bad in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, assembled the all-powerful Infinity Stones in his Infinity Gauntlet so he could eradicate 50 percent of all life in the cosmos, chosen at random, by snapping his fingers. This demi-genocide, he reasoned, would leave the remaining population with such abundant resources that there would be no more war, no more famine, no more societal collapse. Read more...
Voucher codes, or coupon codes, or discount codes, are a great thing. It doesn't matter how you describe them, because the only thing that's important is that they get you money off your purchase.
Normally, when it comes to these handy codes, you have to go looking. We don't know about you, but we regularly start hunting for codes once we're already at the checkout. Desperately searching for a code at the last minute is rarely successful, but it's worth a go, especially when you could end up saving a big chunk if you strike lucky.
A much better tactic is shopping for a product with a code primed and ready to use if needed. That's the case with Dell right now. You can save up to £350 on laptops and desktops using the code EXTRA10 at the checkout. This code gives you an extra 10 percent off Dell's wide range of quality products, including Inspiron, XPS, and gaming devices. Read more...
If you're a serious gamer, then you'll know that your hardware can be the difference between victory and defeat.
Dell's Alienware laptops and desktops provide the perfect foundation to launch a gaming obsession orf develop a casual gamer into a serious one. Alienware devices are not amateurs, and that becomes very clear when you check out the specs.
Take the Alienware m15 laptop for example. It is incredibly thin and light, and offers Core i7 and Nvidia Max-Q power in a svelte frame. This means that not only will you be able to compete at the highest level, but you'll be able to do it anywhere and anytime too. Read more...
Earth Day rightly received a lot of publicity this year, particularly in the wake of the climate change protests in London that resulted in traffic disruptions and a significant number of arrests. Even though the official day has now passed, we have a continued responsibility to make sustainable choices.
Following on from Earth Day, eBay has launched a 40 percent off sale on House of Marley products. If you aren't familiar with the brand, then you should be, because it was created by Bob Marley’s children in line with the reggae icon’s mission of sustainability.
The brand's wide range of headphones and speakers are carefully crafted using mindfully sourced materials such as recycled paper, wood composite, and bamboo, meaning you get high-end audio equipment combined with a cool natural aesthetic. Read more...
There's only so much you can do to improve your home cinema set-up before you need to actually invest in a new TV. You can line up the best snacks, the best drinks, and the best seats, but if your TV isn't up to scratch, then the experience is going to be lacking.
A TV model that you definitely couldn't accuse of lacking in any way is the Philips 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Android Smart TV. With HDR Plus and three-sided Ambilight, this model makes your viewing experience more immersive through a set of seriously impressive features.
The Ambilight emits a wide glow from your TV screen onto the wall, making the colour and excitement move beyond the screen. Needless to say, this makes an impression. There's the Ultra HD technology with four times the resolution of a standard Full HD screen, giving sharper, crisper, more detailed images. And then there's the fact that it comes with Google Assistant, Google Play Store, and Chromecast built in, so you are ready to dive in right away. Read more...
Sure, they're small, but that doesn't mean earbuds are a purchase to be taken lightly.
You've probably been listening to music on the go since you were about 12. So you know that finding a good pair of earbuds is actually pretty tricky. We've probably all gone through more than we can count.
And while picking up a £5 pair in the checkout line is easy enough, you know you'll just be back again next month (or sooner) for a new pair because they stopped working.
Does that mean all earbuds are rubbish? No way. It's simply not true that bass, noise cancellation, and crisp sound can only be found in fancy over-ear headphones. Some of us prefer our headphones to be a little more inconspicuous and portable. Read more...
Spoiler warning for Game of Thrones: Season 8. Proceed with caution.
Game of Thrones, Episode 69 "A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms": It was tense. It was dramatic. It was hornier than a Dothraki cookout.
Facing certain death from an approaching army of White Walkers, the extremely thirsty inhabitants of Winterfell flirted, seduced, and boinked each other into sexy oblivion on Sunday — stopping just short of breaking into a castle-wide orgy.
Of course, to most this makes total sense. Whether you've gotten it on to relieve relationship tension or taken some "me time" before a big exam, it's no secret that sexual activity can help take the edge off of stress and reduce anxiety. But would everyone really be doing the no pants dance with a horde of pissed off zombies in the backyard? Read more...
Of all the things to put inside your vagina, garlic seems like it'd be pretty low down on the list of, uuuh, desirable objects.
Well, apparently that sentence is a complete lie. Because people are shoving cloves of the stuff inside their vaginas. And, according to Dr Jennifer Gunter, the New York Times' gynaecologist, this is a thing you should never, ever, ever do.
In a particularly arresting thread, Gunter explained the myriad reasons why garlic is not your vagina's friend.
Why you should not put garlic in your vagina. A thread. Garlic contains allicin, in THE LAB it MAY have antifungal (i.e. anti yeast) properties. This is in a lab, not even in mice. Just a dish of cells. Your vagina is not a dish of cells#vaginaisanogarliczone 1/8
When an era comes to a close, it's always nice to have a little souvenir to remind you of those days.
And that's precisely what the cast of Game of Thrones did after they wrapped the final season of the epic show.
Isaac Wright even told Conan O'Brien what he took.
"I think some people got a slightly better deal than I did," said Wright. "Liam [Cunningham] who plays Davos Seaworth, he got a dothraki arakh, like a proper sword."
He said that Conleth Hill, who plays Lord Varys, managed to take all his rings with him.
"I, on my very last day on set, suddenly realised I hadn't taken anything with me and it wasn't going to be possible to get the wheelchair through customs," explained Wright. Read more...
After Salli Garrigan survived the Columbine shooting as a high school junior, she felt like many of us have following a mass shooting — convinced that the average person can't prevent such tragedies.
The Columbine shooting, which claimed 13 lives, seemed anomalous when it happened. The idea that two teens would plan the deaths of their classmates — and gain access to the necessary weaponry — shocked America into believing that, by god, it would never happen again.
Back then, people scoured the darker corners of the teenage experience in search of answers and solutions. It seemed easier to blame bullying, violent video games, and extreme rock acts like Marilyn Manson for the killers' actions, as many in media and politics did. On the other hand, regulating access to guns felt "scary and drastic," says Garrigan. Rather than viewing Columbine as an opportunity to demand safer gun laws, many people, including politicians and pundits, saw an inexplicable tragedy whose roots only experts could understand. Read more...
The key to a strong deals roundup is variety, and that's exactly what we're offering up with this selection.
We have handpicked the best deals on everything from electric toothbrushes to smartwatches. There's even an electric chainsaw thrown in for good measure, because you just might be in the market for a coffee machine and a powerful 2000 watt device with robust metal gearing. Who are we to judge?
These are the best deals from across the internet for April 24.
Best of the best
A selection of the very best deals on an eclectic mix of devices including electric toothbrushes, Amazon devices, and fragrances. Read more...
Anyone who has ever had their home invaded by pigeons — and I'm speaking from personal experience here — will know that it's not exactly a pleasant occurrence.
A long way from it. If the feathery pests find a way past your human defences, there's every chance they will want to make themselves comfortable and NEVER LEAVE AGAIN.
If you don't believe me, please see the following Twitter thread from London resident Lucy Topping:
Ive been in my house for about two hours, I just looked up and there’s TWO PIGEONS in my sitting room watching me eat my tea. What the fuck do I do? pic.twitter.com/wBtcDA0ag9
For the weeks where Wednesday feels like it's taken years to get to, staying in for the weekend is the move.
Allergy season is relentless right now, but you can ease your symptoms with a new air purifier: The Winix 5300-2 Air Purifier and Coway Airmega 400 Smart Air Purifier are both on sale and can offer particle and pollen reduction of up to 99.97 percent.
The Amazon Spring Sale might be over but there are still a whole load of great deals to consider.
There are great offers on TVs, smartphones, kitchen appliances, and more, with discounts available on the biggest brands. There are also a few very interesting deals for gamers. Specifically, Xbox gamers.
You can now get a download code for a six-month Xbox Game Pass for just £23.99. That's a considerable reduction on the normal price of £42.64. If you bag this deal then you'll receive two stackable codes, and you must redeem each code individually. You get the first three months for £23.99, and then a further three months for free. Read more...
Game of Thrones subtly dropped one of the series' biggest reveals in the second episode of Season 8. After seven years of mystery and endless theories, we finally have an answer to what the White Walkers want.
"He wants to erase this world, and I am its memory," Bran says of the Night King. "He'll come for me. He's tried before, with many Three-Eyed Ravens."
But as straightforward as this end goal sounds, it's actually a lot more complicated than Bran makes it out to be. (Typical.)
Yo bro I heard you were talkin' shit
Image: hbo
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Night King actor Vladimir Furdik teased that in Season 8, "People will see he has a target he wants to kill, and you will find out who that is." Furdik went on to explain that it's because, "He wants revenge... Everybody in this story has two sides—a bad side and a good side. The Night King only has one side, a bad side." Read more...
Samsung's Galaxy Fold — the $1,980 folding phone whose launch has been delayed after several reviewers reported issues with the screen — might launch on June 13.
This is according to an email that AT&T has been sending to its customers — but, unfortunately, it's not as simple as that.
As The Verge points out, Samsung hasn't confirmed June 13 — or any other date — as the new, official launch date. Furthermore, AT&T's email to customers says that "federal regulations" require the company to ask customers to accept a new shipping date, which might mean AT&T had to choose some date and they went with what they thought was most likely. Read more...
If you don’t have an Instant Pot yet, you’re missing out on some serious cooking opportunities. The Instant Pot Lux is basically six different appliances in one, and right now it’s $20 off at Walmart.
Use the six-quart Instant Pot as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, sauté pan, and warmer. Plus, it has settings to make bread, cake, and eggs.
There are 12 built-in cook programs and you can also set the Instant Pot manually. The cooker features three heat settings and has a 24-hour delay start timer, making it convenient for cooking a meal that’ll be ready for you when you get home in the evening. Read more...
ICYMI amid the Homecoming hubbub, Beyoncé's set to finally drop the audio from her landmark film Lemonade on all on-demand streaming services later this month.
April 23 — as in, the third anniversary of Lemonade's release on HBO — will mark the first time ever that fans will be able to listen to the studio versions of Her Bey-ness' bops via Spotify.
Of course, it's hard to strut to "Formation" or giddyup to "Daddy Lessons" when you're tethered to a mobile device, where most people's Spotify listening takes place. Not only are the average smartphones and tablets ultra-clunky, but their battery lives can be iffy, especially when you're running a data-draining app like Spotify in the background. Read more...
Nighttime trips to the bathroom don't normally elicit much thought. They probably should, since the bathroom's where some of the most accidents in the home happen. Ever fallen or gotten bumps and bruises during a late-night bathroom excursion? Exactly.
That was the line of thinking motivating entrepreneurs Matt Alexander and Mike Kannely, who came up with the IllumiBowl — a motion-activated toilet light that makes finding your way to and using your porcelain throne less fraught with late-night peril. If it sounds familiar, that's because it was featured on ABC's Shark Tank in 2016, during which Alexander and Kannely scored a seed investment in the company. Read more...
The moment you realize your phone is dead, and you'll have to spend at least a few hundred bucks for a new one, is never a very happy one. But you can make it a bit less frustrating by taking your phone apart, glueing the parts onto a glass, and framing it as if it were an artwork.
Reddit user TheIncorporeal did exactly that, and the result is quite aesthetically pleasing — especially if you're a tech geek.
Of course, making it look this nice isn't exactly easy, but TheIncorporeal has some tips on how to do it. The short version is that you need to find the right frame and arm yourself with patience; but check out his comments, below, for details. Read more...
Tesla is giving its Model S and Model X cars much-needed boosts — just as its older offerings have seen sales languish.
Range and charging capabilities will be upgraded in both, the carmaker announced in a blog post Tuesday. Tesla is also bringing back a cheaper version of the cars that don't have as much range.
The new Model S can now get 370 miles on a single charge, while the Model X steps up to 325 miles thanks to an all-new drivetrain design. Previously, these cars got 335 miles and 295 miles out of their batteries, respectively. (To help you picture all that, the shortest route from LA to San Francisco is about 380 miles.) The cars will be slightly less-expensive than what used to be Tesla's longest-range options: starting at $88,000 for the S and $93,000 for the X. These upgrades come with no changes to the cars' 100 kWh battery packs. The improvements will start at its Fremont factory this week. Read more...
First things first: A musical? About Tootsie? It has no business working as well as it does.
I mean, really. Who could have predicted this? A show-to-stage extravaganza, based on the beloved, Oscar-nominated 1982 comedy about a desperate, out-of-work actor who disguises himself as a woman because he thinks it'll be easier to get parts that way (HA), and winds up falling in love with a co-star and learning a few things along the way is one of those tales you'd be forgiven for thinking is best left in the past.
Happily, this thoroughly modern update is a genuine thrill, mostly thanks to Robert Horn's smart book, which excises a lot of the more cringe-y aspects on the original comedy, and instead invites audiences to laugh at Michael Dorsey. The show begins with Michael interrupting the opening number to complain about his character's motivation, for goodness sake! Packed with jokes, the show is completely ridiculous, but it totally works. Read more...
Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey was on the receiving end of a not-so-subtle own today following an April 23 Oval Office meeting with Donald Trump. It seems that Biz Stone, one of the company's original co-founders, doesn't think too highly of the CEO's justification for meeting with the President. And so, Stone did what many frustrated Twitter users do: he used the platform to make his displeasure known.
"I’ve got a meeting today that could result in division," wrote Stone. "I’m letting you know so you don’t hear it from someone else first. I’m volunteering at a grade school math center. I’m hoping both parties will learn from the exchange." Read more...
HIRA, Libya/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Forces supporting Libya's internationally recognized government pushed back troops loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar to more than 60 km (37 miles) southwest of the capital, Tripoli, on Tuesday, Reuters reporters said.
The town of Aziziya was fully under the control of the Tripoli forces, with shops reopening after days of fighting, a Reuters team at the scene said.
Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), which is allied to a rival government in eastern Libya, mounted an offensive on Tripoli almost three weeks ago but despite heavy fighting last week it has failed to breach the city's southern defenses.
In recent days, forces backing the Tripoli administration have pushed back the LNA in some areas.
But fighting still raged in some southern suburbs on Tuesday, with shelling heard throughout the day even in central Tripoli, residents said.
Kim Jong Un inspects an honour guard at an undisclosed location in North Korea before travelling by train to Russia to meet Vladimir Putin pic.twitter.com/IZiQSiNlyR
A man takes a picture of a General Electric (GE) engine during the China International Import Expo (CIIE), at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, China November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former engineer and a Chinese businessman have been charged with economic espionage and conspiring to steal trade secrets from General Electric Co to benefit China, according to an indictment unsealed by the U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday.
The indictment against the former GE engineer, Xiaoqing Zheng, and Chinese businessman Zhaoxi Zhang, comes after Zheng was initially charged in August in connection with the alleged theft. It marks the first time the U.S. government has formally said the scheme was carried out to benefit China and that the Chinese government provided "financial and other support."
According to the indictment, Zheng stole the proprietary data on GE's turbine technology by encrypting the files on his computer and secretly embedding them into a digital photograph of sunset before emailing the photograph to his personal email.
Zheng, 56, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday and was allowed to remain free on bond. His attorney Kevin Luibrand declined to comment.
Chinese President Xi Jinping reviews the honor guards of the Chinese People s Liberation (PLA) Navy before boarding the destroyer Xining for the naval parade. Xi is overseeing a sweeping plan to refurbish the PLA by developing everything from stealth jets to aircraft carriers as China ramps up its presence in the disputed South China Sea and around self-ruled Taiwan, which has rattled nerves around the region and in Washington. Xinhua via REUTERS
WNU Editor: The above picture is from this photo-gallery .... China's navy on parade (Reuters).
* Bandwidth on satellites built by U.S. companies is used to connect Chinese soldiers at South China Sea outposts, the Wall Street Journal said in a report. * China's state police have also used the satellite services to help fight protesters, notably in a region where ethnic minorities were forcibly relocated, the report said. * The key to circumventing U.S. trade laws is a Hong Kong-based company called Asia Satellite Telecommunications, the report said, which is jointly owned by Carlyle Group and Chinese state-controlled Citic Group.
China makes use of nine satellites in orbit around the Earth, built by Boeing and Maxar Technologies-owned SSL and financed through investment firm Carlyle Group, to boost Chinese government capabilities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The report found that bandwidth on the satellites is used to connect Chinese soldiers at South China Sea outposts, to boost propaganda broadcasts and to help state police fight protesters. In the final case, China's police force used satellite bandwidth to quell protests in Xinjiang, an area where the government has been sharply criticized for the forced relocation of of Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority in the province. China is said to have relocated as many as one million Uighurs into internment camps.
China's President Xi Jinping arrives for the third plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 12, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Speculation on Chinese leader's health fuels concern about one-man rule
BEIJING—Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent European tour produced much pageantry, from ceremonial welcomes to banquets, that boosted his image. For some observers, it was his unusual gait that caught the eye.
Television coverage of Mr. Xi's visits to Italy, Monaco and France last month appeared to show him walking with a slight limp while inspecting honor guards and touring local sights. At a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr. Xi gripped both arms on his chair to support himself as he sat down, news footage showed.
These images stirred speculation about Mr. Xi's health among politically minded Chinese, foreign diplomats and China watchers, who quietly wondered if the Chinese leader, who turns 66 in June, had an ailment that caused him physical discomfort. Guessing games have played out on overseas Chinese news outlets and social media, where users offered theories from muscle sprains to gout.
Mr. Xi has been publicly visible in China since the trip, including an appearance on a warship on Tuesday during a celebration of the 70th anniversary of China's navy.
The Progressive Conservatives won a minority government in Tuesday's P.E.I. election, with a Green official opposition.
The incumbent Liberals were reduced to third place, with Premier Wade MacLauchlan going down to defeat in his own district of Stanhope-Marshfield.
CHARLOTTETOWN -- Voters in P.E.I. have shed their century-old embrace of the Island's two-party system by electing a Tory minority government, bringing a dramatic conclusion to a tight electoral race that saw the upstart Green party secure a firm foothold in the legislature.
Two hours after the polls closed Tuesday, the Tories were leading and elected in 12 ridings, the Greens were in second with nine and the incumbent Liberals, led by Premier Wade MacLauchlan, were in third with five.
MacLauchlan failed to win his seat.
"It's something that happens in politics," he told reporters. "The tide has changed."
WNU editor: I live in Canada, so I follow politics very closely here. For the past week the media has been telling everyone that the Greens were leading in the polls, and they were on their way to become the first Green Provincial government ever elected in Canada. Many were even hinting that it could be historic. With the results now official, the following conclusions can now be made. The polls, the media, and the pundits were completely wrong. Again. The final results are here. This election is another defeat for the Liberal brand, and an ominous sign for Prime Minister Trudeau. In the last election Prime Minister Trudeau won every riding in the Atlantic provinces. That is clearly not going to happen when Canadians go to the polls later this year.
Shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six years
OTTAWA — The president of the Philippines says if Canada doesn't take back tonnes of trash within the next week he will "declare war" and ship the containers back himself.
Filipino media outlets report that Rodrigo Duterte made threats Tuesday about dozens of shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage that has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six years.
"I want a boat prepared," Duterte aid. "I'll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail."
Duterte, who is known for his combativeness, threatened to declare war on Canada if the issue isn't resolved.
WNU Editor: This dispute over a hundred containers of trash has been ongoing now for almost 6 years. If someone dumped trash on my property, I would clean it up and sue those who did it. But in the Philippines it is different. They just leave it there hoping that the ones who dumped the garbage would clean it up. Good luck on that. But what is infuriating about this case is that the Philippines is the world's third worst offender in dumping plastic in the ocean .... Philippines plastic pollution: why so much waste ends up in oceans (SCMP). No outrage from the Philippine President on that.
More News On Philippine's President Duterte Threatening War Against Canada Over Garbage
This is one of the lessons that Western policymakers can learn from Poroshenko's crushing defeat.
Petro Poroshenko lost the Ukrainian presidential elections by a larger margin than any candidate in the history of Ukraine. He won in only one region of the country. His opponent, a comedian with no political experience, received more votes than any candidate in Ukrainian history. Why, after five years of policies that had the full political and financial backing of the West, did the Ukrainian people reject him by a three-to-one margin?
The answer lies in the anti-Russian policies that he and the Ukrainian parliament have pursued these past five years. These include restrictions on the usage of the Russian language, on travel to Russia, on trade with Russia, on any social contact with Russians, even those who clearly oppose Putin and support Ukraine. That there would be political blowback for this was entirely predictable, given that city dwellers in Ukraine more commonly speak Russian, and half of the country has relatives across the border. The writing was on the wall for Poroshenko when an annual poll earlier this year showed that popular sympathies for Russia among Ukrainians were now higher than at any point since May 2014.
WNU Editor: Could not have said it any better. The media in the West are blaming corruption/the economy/and the war as the main reasons why President Poroshenko was defeated at the polls on Sunday. But the number one reason was President Poroshenko's anti-Russian nationalism that was just too much to bear for a majority of Ukrainians, especially for those who are either Russian-Ukrainian or who have friends/family members whose background is Russian. I have seen politicians use the politics of division to arouse their supporters and to punish the opposition, but President Poroshenko brought it to a level that was truly frightening. Fortunately .... the mass majority of Ukrainians had the good sense of rejecting it, and at the same time sending a clear message that the politics of fear no longer work.
The next major vote in Ukraine will be the election of a new parliament at the end of this year. Their approval rating is currently in the single digits, and almost all of them will be voted out. They are unfortunately still in power, and the first bill that they will be voting on later this week will be the mandatory use of the Ukrainian language in all government/business/and public institutions. This bill has no support in the public, but this parliament does not care, and will ram it through anyway. This will be President-elect Vladimir Zelensky first major test, and even though he does not have to power to block this discriminatory bill, it will lay the groundwork for a lot of political fireworks in the coming months.
A video has emerged on ISIS media in Arabic and Tamil, claiming responsibility for the Easter bombings that killed more than 300
Islamic State on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday that killed more than 320 people and wounded hundreds of others.
The fresh statement appears to corroborate an earlier, ISIS-linked video received by the Asia Times, which threatens future attacks in Arabic and Tamil language.
"The day before yesterday, the brothers of the strike force set out for a number of churches and hotels where nationals of the Crusader Coalition were present," Islamic State said in a statement, the coalition being a reference to the US-led military alliance that was tasked with defeating the group in Iraq and Syria.
ISIS's Amaq news agency released an image on Tuesday showing the jihadis who carried out the devastating bomb attacks last week. Despite the Amaq statement mentioning seven terrorists, eight people can clearly be seen in the photo. Pictured centre is purported National Thowfeek Jamaath leader Moulvi Zahran Hashim
* The clip shows eight jihadists touching in a circle, chanting while touching hands then raising arms to the sky * Standing in front of a black ISIS flag they pledge allegiance to the group's elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi * ISIS has claimed it was responsible for the Easter Sunday massacre which has killed at least 320 people * The massive casualty toll makes it the deadliest overseas operation claimed by ISIS since its 'caliphate' began * The jihadists lost their grip on their last territorial holdout in Syria last month but still have network of fighters
ISIS has released footage of the Sri Lanka suicide bombers swearing allegiance to the terror group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before the Easter Sunday massacre.
In the video eight jihadists stand in a circle, touch hands and pledge their loyalty to the elusive ISIS caliph, who has not been seen in public for five years.
With a black ISIS flag hanging in the background, the attackers chant in unison before raising their hands together and pointing to the sky.
* A report about China's first homemade aircraft carrier shows operators standing on the bridge, technicians at control panels, and the ski-jump flight deck without any aircraft on board. * The home-grown warship is not expected to join fleet review marking PLA Navy's 70th anniversary on Tuesday.
China's state broadcaster has aired footage of the country's new aircraft carrier, revealing details for the first time of the home-grown warship's interior.
While the new aircraft carrier is not expected to take part in a fleet review marking the PLA Navy's 70th anniversary on Tuesday, a CCTV report has offered a rare glimpse of the vessel in footage taken during its most recent sea trial.
The naval parade will include 32 Chinese warships — including its first and only operational aircraft carrier the Liaoning — and 20 foreign vessels from 10 countries, deputy naval commander Qiu Yanpeng said on Saturday.
The new warship, the Type 001A, is the first Chinese-built aircraft carrier. Its design is based on the Liaoning, an unfinished Soviet Kutznetsov-class vessel Beijing bought from Ukraine in 1998 and retrofitted.
* China celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army Navy in Qingdao on Tuesday, showing off some new weapons systems. * During the parade, which was shrouded in fog, mist, and rain, the Chinese navy showed off the Nanchang, the first of the new generation of Type 055 destroyers. * The new destroyers are the most heavily armed of China's surface combatants, with 112 universal vertical-launch-system cells capable of firing anti-air, anti-ship, anti-submarine, and land-attack missiles.
China showed off a new naval weapon, the first of a new generation of hard-hitting destroyers, at a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army Navy on Tuesday.
During the celebratory maritime parade, the Nanchang (101), a 10,000-ton Type 055 stealth destroyer, sailed onto the scene, Reuters reported.
The ship is armed with 112 vertical-launch cells with the ability to fire HHQ-9 surface-to-air missiles, YJ-18 anti-ship cruise missiles, and CJ-10 land-attack cruise missiles. The main gun is a H/PJ-38 130-mm gun, but there are reports that this vessel could eventually be equipped with a railgun. The vessel uses X- and S-band radars, allowing it to track stealthy objects of various sizes.
It was not the display of naval might that China's President Xi Jinping would have envisioned.
At one point, the pride of China's fleet — its 304-metre air craft carrier the Liaoning — was almost impossible to see from close range, as thick fog shrouded the country's biggest-ever naval gathering.
Formations of air force jets could be heard but not seen as low clouds literally rained on the parade.
But while the unpredictable weather off the coast of the port city of Qingdao ruined the spectacle, the continuous lines of increasingly advanced submarines and warships conveyed a clear message: China has arrived as a naval power.
MANCHESTER, N.H. – A new poll in the state that holds the first primary in the race for the White House shows Sen. Bernie Sanders of neighboring Vermont leading in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The University of New Hampshire Granite State Poll also shows former Vice President Joe Biden a distant second, with South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg surging to third. And the survey, released Monday, puts Republican President Trump far ahead of his declared or potential primary rivals in New Hampshire's GOP presidential primary, which will be held next February.
WNU Editor: Here is a good analysis on the current Democrat Primary race from one that many in the Democrat Party closely follow .... Bernie Sanders Can Win, But He Isn't Polling Like A Favorite (Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight). I personally think that Senator Bernie Sanders has a fair chance to win the Democrat primaries, but it is going to be tough. The Democrat establishment and the media are not friendly, and the current field is very diverse and fluid. As for former Vice President Joe Biden, IMHO he should not waver/hesitate .... Biden Seems To Be Wavering On Campaign Launch, May Be Postponed (TPM).
Jared Kushner downplayed the significance of Russian interference in the 2016 election, dismissing it as a "couple of Facebook ads" in an interview with TIME and arguing that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation was more damaging to democracy than the influence operation itself.
"You look at what Russia did, buying some Facebook ads to try to sow dissent and do it, and it's a terrible thing," Kushner said at the TIME 100 Summit in New York City. "But I think the investigations and all of the speculation that's happened for the last two years has had a much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple of Facebook ads."
"If you look at the magnitude of what they did, the ensuing investigations have been way more harmful," he added.
WNU Editor: According to the Mueller report. The Russians spent about $150,000 in Facebook ads, and leaked to Wikileaks that the Democrat Party had fixed the primary process to stop Senator Bernie Sanders and to help Hillary Clinton. Does that rise to the level on what we have seen and heard in the past two years via through the Mueller Report, with a final conclusion that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. I guess it depends on what political party and/or agenda that you support, but right now the media and the Democrats are screaming fowl against Jared Kushner.
More News On Jared Kushner's Remarks On The Mueller Probe
A growing number of Democrats running for President in 2020 say the House of Representatives should begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
The latest is Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton, who declared his candidacy Tuesday, and in an interview on NPR's Morning Edition, said "we absolutely should be having this debate."
Moulton said he was ready to begin impeachment proceedings last year. "Don't tell me there's not enough to debate impeaching the President," Moulton said, accusing Trump of obstructing justice, violating campaign finance laws and profiting from office, in violation of the constitution's emoluments clause.
"He is subject to the same laws as the rest of us are and that's why we should move forward with this debate."
WNU Editor: For impeachment in the House of Representatives and a conviction in the U.S. Senate to succeed, a majority of Republicans must go along. I have no doubts that a majority of Democrats will vote to impeach the President, regardless of the charges that are levied. They are hungry to do it, and their progressive base is aggressively pushing for it. The real question is what will the Republicans do. I personally believe that unlike the Republican base that are overwhelmingly supportive of the President, the Republican establishment and many of its elected members will support convicting the President. This commentary from a "Republican insider" probably sums up what many of them are thinking .... The Mueller Report Was My Tipping Point (The Atlantic). But will they do it in a public forum where their vote is known .... no. The blow-back from the Republican base will be massive and unforgiving. But if it is a secret vote .... I predict that it will be close. Interestingly .... a voice vote can be done in the Senate on convicting a President. So how do you determine if a voice vote is over two-thirds of the vote?
The London offices of Orbis Business Intelligence. The firm's co-owner is Christopher Steele, who wrote a series of memos in 2016 alleging ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.CreditCreditStefan Wermuth/Reuters
WASHINGTON — The 35-page dossier, spiced up with tales of prostitutes and spies, sketched out a hair-raising story more than two years ago. Russian intelligence had used bribery and blackmail to try to turn Donald J. Trump into a source and ally, it said, and the Kremlin was running some Trump campaign aides practically as agents.
But the release on Thursday of the report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, underscored what had grown clearer for months — that while many Trump aides had welcomed contacts with the Russians, some of the most sensational claims in the dossier appeared to be false, and others were impossible to prove. Mr. Mueller's report contained over a dozen passing references to the document's claims but no overall assessment of why so much did not check out.
Now the dossier — financed by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and compiled by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele — is likely to face new, possibly harsh scrutiny from multiple inquiries.
Republicans in Congress have vowed to investigate. The Justice Department's inspector general is considering whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation improperly relied on the dossier in applying to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a warrant to eavesdrop on Carter Page, a Trump adviser. The inspector general wants to know what the F.B.I. learned about Mr. Steele's sources and whether it disclosed any doubts about their veracity to the court.
WNU Editor: Kudos to the New York Times for realizing that the Steele Dossier is bunk .... something that this blogger and many of its readers realized 2 years ago. As to why the media re-evaluation on the Steele Dossier now? The Inspector General's report on how the Department of Justice handled the FISA applications to conduct surveillance of the Trump campaign is coming out in the next month or two, and it looks like many in the media are now conducting a CYA campaign knowing what the IG's conclusions will be.
More News On The New York Times' "New Take" On The Steele Dossier
* US Northern Command revealed Mexican soldiers took a pistol from the troops * Two American soldiers were approached by 'five or six' men near Clint, Texas * Pentagon are now investigating how to avoid similar situations, a source said * There had been no protocol for the unusual circumstances the men faced
The Pentagon are reviewing military guidance after the disarming of two US soldiers in the Texas border country by Mexican troops, a source revealed.
According to the US Northern Command, 'five or six' armed Mexican soldiers questioned two American troops conducting operations near the border on April 13.
Officials said the Mexicans were armed with rifles and raised their weapons when they saw the US soldiers, before stripping them of Beretta M9 pistol near Clint, Texas.
The Pentagon are carrying out inquiries that 'will help us modify any instructions that we're giving the troops,' a defense source told the Washington Examiner.
Sri Lanka has held its first mass funeral amid a day of mourning for the victims of Sunday's bomb blasts.
The death toll from the attacks on churches and hotels has risen to 321 with about 500 wounded, police said.
A state of emergency is in effect to prevent further attacks.
The Islamic State (IS) group claimed the attack on Tuesday via its news outlet. Sri Lanka's government has blamed the blasts on local Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ).
* Thirty-two Chinese warships and 39 aircraft will take part in naval parade in Yellow Sea on Tuesday, along with nearly 20 foreign vessels * But home-grown carrier the Type 001A is not yet 'combat ready' and the Pentagon says it won't send a warship
China's navy will mark the 70th anniversary of its founding on Tuesday, but its new home-grown aircraft carrier is unlikely to take part in a multinational fleet review, military observers said.
The People's Liberation Army Navy on Saturday announced that 32 Chinese warships and 39 aircraft would be part of the naval parade in the Yellow Sea. They will be joined by nearly 20 foreign vessels from 10 countries, but the United States will not join the event this year.
The fleet review off the coast of Qingdao, Shandong province is expected to be the fifth military parade inspected by President Xi Jinping since he took the helm in late 2012.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is refashioning his country's military into a potent fighting force that in some critical areas now surpasses the U.S. armed forces, making an American victory over China in a regional war far from assured, Reuters reports today.
A scenario considered unthinkable not so long ago in Asia is now possible. According to retired Admiral Gary Roughead, who held the top job in the U.S. Navy, America "could lose" in a regional war with China over Taiwan.
"We really are at a significant inflection point in history," said Roughead, who was Chief of Naval Operations until his retirement in 2011.
Intent on challenging American hegemony in Asia, China under Xi has established control over much of the South China Sea, stepped up military maneuvers aimed at pressuring long-time U.S. allies Japan and Taiwan, and for the first time has sufficient firepower to deter American aircraft carriers from sailing too close to its shores.
WNU Editor: China is not replacing America as Asia's military titan, it is Asia's military titan. The question that needs to be asked is .... will Asia replace America as the world's military titan in the coming decades.
The Washington Post sparked backlash on Monday for an article that focused on reaction from the "far right" after the Sri Lanka attacks on Christians, with at least one analyst saying it's been a common focus for the newspaper after multiple crises, regardless of the cause.
An "analysis" piece published on the church and hotel massacres that killed nearly 300 people and wounded more than 500 others kept the focus on the reactions of "far-right" politicians around the world. It noted that France's National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said her thoughts were with "persecuted Christians around the world" who are "targeted for their faith."
WNU Editor: I read and follow the Washington Post everyday. I have also noticed in the past few months this obsessive focus from the Post on the "far right" after multiple crisis regardless of the cause. At least it's readers are now openly voicing their concerns on what direction is the Post going. And why.
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Devastating Easter bombings in Sri Lanka were retaliation for attacks on mosques in New Zealand, a Sri Lankan official said on Tuesday, as Islamic State claimed responsibility for the coordinated blasts that killed 321 people.
Islamic State's claim, issued on its AMAQ news agency, came shortly after Sri Lanka said two domestic Islamist groups, with suspected links to foreign militants, were believed to have been behind the attacks at three churches and four hotels, which wounded about 500 people.
Islamic State gave no evidence for its claim. The government has said at least seven suicide bombers were involved.
"The initial investigation has revealed that this was in retaliation for the New Zealand mosque attack," junior minister for defense Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament.
WNU Editor: How does this junior defense minister know? And when do extremist Islamic groups need a reason to attack churches since they have been doing it throughout history. This sounds more like the Sri Lankan government trying to divert attention away from the real story which is that this is a massive intelligence failure on their part when they were warned two weeks ago that these attacks were going to take place. There is also this article from the BBC stating that Sinhalese Buddhist - Muslim relations have been tense for the past year after mobs attacked Muslim targets .... Sri Lanka attacks: What led to carnage? (Anbarasan Ethirajan, BBC). Bottom line. Sri Lanka is not the paradise that the country is trying to present.
More News On The Sri Lanka Defense Ministy Saying That The Blasts Were Revenge For New Zealand Mosque Killings
A Russian-made S-400 air-defense system could detect an F-35 at 20 miles, Air Force estimated. It could pick up an F-15EX 200 miles away.
The debate continues over the Pentagon's proposal to buy new F-15EX Eagle fighters from Boeing to complement Lockheed Martin-made F-35 stealth fighters.
As lawmakers weigh the military's request, Air Force magazine has published an infographic comparing the two fighters.
Both fighters cost roughly $80 million apiece, according to Air Force. But the similarity ends there. The F-35 is stealthier but the F-15 flies higher, farther and faster and carries more weaponry.
(SEOUL, South Korea) — Two months after he failed to win a badly needed easing of sanctions from President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is traveling to Russia in a possible attempt to win its help as the U.S.-led trade sanctions hurt his country’s already-struggling economy.
There are no signs of a financial or humanitarian crisis in North Korea. But some observers say the sanctions, toughened over the past several years, are gradually drying up Kim’s foreign currency reserves and he is desperate to find ways to bring in hard currency. His propaganda service is already saying that North Koreans can survive with only “water and air.”
Russia, along with China, has called for the easing of the sanctions, though both are members of the U.N. Security Council, which has approved a total of 11 rounds of sanctions on North Korea since 2006. Some experts say Kim may ask Russian President Vladimir Putin in a meeting set to take place in Vladivostok on Thursday to voice strong opposition to the sanctions, enforce them less stringently and send humanitarian food aid to North Korea.
It’s still unclear how much assistance Kim could get from Putin. Along with China, Russia isn’t likely to want to openly evade the sanctions and face diplomatic friction with the United States. More than 90% of North Korea’s foreign trade has gone through China, with which it shares a long, porous land border.
Analyst Go Myong-Hyun of the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies said Kim’s Russia trip, the first by a North Korean leader since 2011, may have been planned long before the February breakdown of the second summit between Kim and Trump in Vietnam. Go said North Korea and Russia had wanted to discuss economic cooperation if the summit had resulted in an easing of sanctions.
What will still likely be on the agenda is a request by Kim for food aid. In February, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kim Song, issued an unusual appeal for “urgent” food assistance. North Korean officials blamed the shortage on bad weather and the sanctions.
Analyst Cho Bong-hyun of Seoul’s IBK Economic Research Institute said North Korea needs more than 1 million tons of food aid, so it would want Russia to provide hundreds of thousands of tons of corn, flour and other foodstuff. Russia could send North Korea food, but mostly in a secret manner, Cho said.
Kim will also likely raise the issue of thousands of North Korean workers in Russia, who must return home along with other overseas North Korean workers worldwide by the end of this year under the U.N. sanctions.
“There is a high possibility that Kim will ask Putin to be flexible on the issue as it’s related to the inflow of dollars,” said analyst Shin Beomchul of the Asan institute. He said North Korea may seek to persuade Russia to overlook North Korean visitors with short-term non-employment visas engaging in illegal work.
In May last year, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said North Korea sends an estimated 50,000 workers aboard, mostly to China and Russia. Most work at factories, construction sites, lumber camps and restaurants. They often toil in tough working conditions and large portions of their salaries are taken by North Korea’s government, according to activists and defectors.
After Kim failed to get sanctions relief from Trump in Vietnam, he called for national unity under the banner of self-reliance to surmount the sanctions. His state media called self-reliance “the treasured sword,” a term previously used to refer to his nuclear weapons.
“It is necessary to sweep away the whirlwind of sanctions by the hostile forces,” Kim said in a rare speech at the country’s rubber-stamp parliament earlier this month.
The Vietnam summit collapsed after Trump rejected Kim’s calls for the end of five of the 11 sanctions that he said impede his country’s civilian economy in return for partial steps toward nuclear disarmament. They include a ban on key exports such as coal, textiles and seafood; a significant curtailing of oil imports; and the repatriation of North Korean overseas workers by December.
These sanctions, approved one by one since 2016 when Kim began a series of nuclear and missile tests, are inflicting more pain than the six previously imposed sanctions that largely target North Korea’s weapons industry.
The new sanctions especially affect North Korea’s official external trade. According to China Customs figures, China’s imports from North Korea dropped by 88% and exports to the North by 33% in 2018. South Korea’s central bank said North Korea’s economy contracted 3.5% in 2017 from a year earlier.
North Korea monitoring groups in Seoul say the prices of rice and other key commodities at hundreds of markets in North Korea remain largely unchanged. South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers last month that it hasn’t detected any signs of mass starvation.
Some experts say Kim has likely used some of his foreign currency reserves to import goods from China to maintain price stability. Some say North Korea’s huge trade deficit may have been offset by illicit border trade with China that is likely thriving again with lax enforcement of the U.N. sanctions. Others say North Korea is trying to locally produce items it had imported.
“It’s certain that North Korea is releasing a large amount of money,” Go said. “When its money runs out, it’ll face an urgent situation and step up calls for sanctions relief.”
There is no independently confirmed data on the size of North Korea’s foreign currency reserves. Go said some economists estimate them at $5 billon. Outside speculation varies over how long North Korea can withstand the impact of the sanctions without major economic and social chaos.
Cho speculates North Korea will likely hold out for the next three to five years. But others say it could face a drain on its foreign currency reserves sooner, by December or next year at the earliest.
Whether the sanctions will eventually force Kim to fully give up his nuclear program is unclear. Kim considers his nuclear weapons a stronger security assurance than any non-aggression promises the U.S. could offer. In his April 12 parliamentary speech, he described the sanctions as a plot to disarm North Korea before trying to overthrow his government.
If there is an indication of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea, many experts say China will likely make large-scale food shipments to prevent the exodus of refugees from the North.
Thae Yong Ho, a former minster at the North Korean Embassy in London who defected to South Korea in 2016, said in a recent blog post that there are rumors among North Korean residents that Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, in May. He said North Korea’s hard-line stance will continue for the time being if it gets help from Russia and China.
Eight Hong Kong activists were handed sentences of up to 16 months in prison on Wednesday for their roles organizing pro-democracy demonstrations in 2014.
The activists were convicted on charges of public nuisance and incitement two weeks ago, a verdict that some perceived as underscoring eroding political freedoms in the semi-autonomous Chinese enclave under pressure from Beijing.
Law professor Benny Tai and retired sociology professor Chan Kin-man, co-founders of the “Occupy Central” protest that immobilized the city’s financial district five years ago, were both sentenced to 16 months, the Associated Press reports. Reverend Chu Yiu-ming was also given 16 months, but his sentence was suspended for two years.
Two others received eight-month sentences, and two more had their sentences suspended. Another activist was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service, and a ninth defendant’s sentencing was postponed for health reasons.
The activists had faced up to seven years in prison, but many, including the defendants, had argued the charges were politically motivated.
Joshua Wong, the student protest leader who served six-months in 2017, told TIME, “Political prisoners have become the norm [in Hong Kong].”
Outside the courthouse, the defendants were met by supporters toting yellow umbrellas, which became a symbol of the 2014 protests after they were used to deflect police tear gas and pepper spray. The demonstrations came be known as the “Umbrella Movement.”
The non-violent street demonstrations began with the “Occupy Central” campaign that called for a brief sit-in to press for democratic reforms, including the direct election of Hong Kong’s leader. Instead, it spawned a 79-day encampment in front of government headquarters that incorporated a wide array of grievances, including fears of disappearing political freedoms after the former British colony’s 1997 handover to China.
Police eventually dissolved the protest movement, which did not win any successions but did pose a formidable challenge to Beijing’s authority.
“Freedom of expression in Hong Kong has deteriorated significantly in the past few years, and [Wednesday’s] sentencing only adds to that,” said Maya Wang, a senior researcher on China for Human Rights Watch. “It sends a message that there are serious consequences for promoting democracy peacefully.”
Earlier this month, Hong Kong lawmakers put forward a controversial extradition bill that would allow fugitives to be transferred to mainland China to stand trial, stoking further concerns of declining legal protections in the city.
(LONDON) — The World Health Organization says Malawi has become the first country to begin immunizing children against malaria, using the only licensed vaccine to protect against the mosquito-spread disease.
Although the vaccine only protects about one-third of children who are immunized, those who get the shots are likely to have less severe cases of malaria. The parasitic disease kills about 435,000 people every year, the majority of them children under 5 in Africa.
“It’s an imperfect vaccine but it still has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives,” said Alister Craig, dean of biological sciences at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who is not linked to WHO or vaccine. Craig said immunizing the most vulnerable children during peak malaria seasons could spare many thousands from falling ill or even dying.
The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, was developed by GlaxoSmithKline and was approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2015. A previous trial showed the vaccine was about 30% effective in children who got four doses, but that protection waned over time. Reported side effects include pain, fever and convulsions.
Pedro Alonso, director of WHO’s malaria program, said similar vaccination programs would begin in the coming weeks in Kenya and Ghana, with the aim of reaching about 360,000 children per year across the three countries.
Alonso called the vaccination rollout a “historical moment,” noting that it was significantly more difficult to design a vaccine against a parasite as opposed to a bacterium or virus.
He acknowledged the vaccine was flawed but said the world could not afford to wait for a better option. “We don’t know how long it will take to develop the next-generation vaccine,” he said. “It may be many, many years away.”
In the meantime, he said, the stalled progress against malaria demanded new tools now. Resistance is growing to medicines that treat the disease, while mosquitoes are becoming more resistant to insecticides. In addition, funding for malaria efforts has plateaued in recent years.
It took GSK and partners more than 30 years to develop the vaccine, at a cost of around $1 billion. GSK is donating up to 10 million vaccine doses in the current vaccination initiatives. A company spokesman said GSK is working with partners to secure funding for potentially broader vaccination programs.
Some experts warned the vaccination programs should not divert limited public health funds from inexpensive and proven tools to curb malaria such as bed nets and insecticides.
“This is a bold thing to do, but it’s not a silver bullet,” said Thomas Churcher, a malaria expert at Imperial College London. “As long as using the vaccine doesn’t interfere with other efforts, like the urgent need for new insecticides, it is a good thing to do.”
Craig said one of health officials’ biggest challenges could be convincing parents to bring their children for repeated doses of a vaccine that only protects about a third of children for a limited amount of time.
More commonly used vaccines, like those for polio and measles, work more than 90 percent of the time.
“This malaria vaccine is going to save many lives, even if it is not as good as we would like,” Craig said. “But I hope this will kick-start other research efforts so that the story doesn’t end here.”
(TOKYO) — Japan’s government apologized Wednesday to tens of thousands of victims forcibly sterilized under a now-defunct Eugenics Protection Law and promised to pay compensation.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said he was offering “sincere remorse and heartfelt apology” to the victims.
His apology comes just after the parliament enactment earlier Wednesday of legislation to provide redress measures, including 3.2 million yen ($28,600) compensation for each victim.
An estimated 25,000 people were given unconsented sterilization while the 1948 Eugenics Protection Law was in place until 1996. The law was designed to “prevent the birth of poor-quality descendants” and allowed doctors to sterilize people with disabilities. It was quietly renamed as the Maternity Protection Law in 1996, when the discriminatory condition was removed.
The redress legislation acknowledges that many people were forced to have operations to remove their reproductive organs or radiation treatment to get sterilized, causing them tremendous pain mentally and physically.
The government had until recently maintained the sterilizations were legal at the time.
The apology and the redress law follow a series of lawsuits by victims who came forward recently after breaking decades of silence. That prompted lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties to draft a compensation package to make amends for the victims.
The plaintiffs are seeking about 30 million yen each ($268,000) in growing legal actions that are spreading around the country, saying the government’s implementation of the law violated the victims’ right to self-determination, reproductive health and equality. They say the government redress measures are too small for their suffering.
In addition to the forced sterilizations, more than 8,000 others were sterilized with consent, though likely under pressure, while nearly 60,000 women had abortions because of hereditary illnesses, according to Japan Federation of Bar Associations.
Among them were about 10,000 leprosy patients who had been confined in isolated institutions until 1996, when the leprosy prevention law was also abolished. The government has already offered compensation and an apology to them for its forced isolation policy.
(COLOMBO, Sri Lanka) — The death toll from the Easter suicide bombings in Sri Lanka rose to 359, police said Wednesday, as the country’s leaders vowed to overhaul the security apparatus amid a series of intelligence lapses before the attacks.U.S. Ambassador Alaina Teplitz, meanwhile, told reporters that “clearly there was some failure in the system.” Sri Lanka’s leaders have said some of the country’s security units were aware before Easter of possible attacks, but did not share those warnings widely.Teplitz said the U.S. had “no prior knowledge” of a threat before the bombings. She said a team of FBI agents and U.S. military officials were helping in the investigation.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility and released images that purported to show the seven bombers who blew themselves up at three churches and three hotels Sunday in the worst violence this South Asian island nation has seen since its civil war ended a decade ago.
The government has said the attacks were carried out by Islamic fundamentalists in apparent retaliation for last months’ New Zealand mosque massacre but has said the seven bombers were all Sri Lankan. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said investigators were still working to determine the extent of the bombers’ foreign links.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said Wednesday morning that 18 additional suspects were arrested overnight, raising the total detained to 58.
The Islamic State group has lost all the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria and has made a series of unsupported claims of responsibility around the world.
Sri Lankan authorities have blamed a local extremist group, National Towheed Jamaar, whose leader, alternately known as Mohammed Zahran or Zahran Hashmi, became known to Muslim leaders three years ago for his incendiary speeches online.
Teplitz declined to discuss whether the embassy or U.S. officials had heard of National Towheed Jamaar or its leader prior to the attack. “If we had heard something, we would have tried to do something about this,” Teplitz said.
The Islamic State group’s Aamaq news agency released an image purported to show the leader of the attackers, standing amid seven others whose faces are covered. The group did not provide any other evidence for its claim, and the identities of those depicted in the image were not independently verified.
Meanwhile, in an address to Parliament, Ruwan Wijewardene, the state minister of defense, said “weakness” within Sri Lanka’s security apparatus led to the failure to prevent the nine bombings.
“By now it has been established that the intelligence units were aware of this attack and a group of responsible people were informed about the impending attack,” Wijewardene said. “However, this information has been circulated among only a few officials.”
In a live address to the nation late Tuesday, Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena said he also was kept in the dark on the intelligence about the planned attacks and vowed to “take stern action” against the officials who failed to share the information. He also pledged “a complete restructuring” of the security forces.
Wijewardene said the government had evidence that the bombings were carried out “by an Islamic fundamentalist group” in retaliation for the March 15 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 50 people, although he did not disclose the evidence.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters in Auckland on Wednesday that she’d had no official word from Sri Lanka, or seen any intelligence reports, to back that up. However, she added that Sri Lanka was in the early stages of its investigation.
An Australian white supremacist was arrested in the Christchurch shootings.
The history of Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka, a country of 21 million including large Hindu, Muslim and Christian minorities, is rife with ethnic and sectarian conflict.
In the 26-year civil war, the Tamil Tigers rebel army had little history of targeting Christians and was crushed by the government in 2009. Anti-Muslim bigotry fed by Buddhist nationalists has swept the country recently but Sri Lanka has no history of Islamic militancy. Its small Christian community has seen only scattered incidents of harassment.
(WELLINGTON, New Zealand) — New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday that she and French President Emmanuel Macron will host a meeting in Paris next month seeking to eliminate acts of violent extremism and terrorism from being shown online.
Ardern said she and Macron will ask world leaders and chief executives of technology companies to agree to a pledge called the “Christchurch Call,” named after the New Zealand city where an attack took place last month.
Ardern didn’t release any details of the pledge, saying they were still being developed.
She said she’d been talking with representatives from companies including Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Google along with world leaders and felt they could reach consensus by keeping the pledge tightly focused.
“This isn’t about freedom of speech,” Ardern said. “It’s specifically focused on eradicating those extreme acts of terrorism online.”
The man accused of murdering 50 people in two Christchurch mosques on March 15 livestreamed the attack on Facebook after mounting a camera on his helmet. The chilling 17-minute video was copied and viewed widely on the internet even as tech companies scrambled to remove it.
Ardern said the shooter had used social media in an unprecedented way to promote an act of terrorism and hate. She said nobody would argue that a terrorist had the right to livestream the murder of 50 people.
“No tech company, just like no government, wishes to see violent extremism and terrorism online,” Ardern said. “And so we have a starting point that is one of unity.”
In an opinion piece in the Washington Post last month, Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg called for governments and regulators to play a more active role from in policing the internet.
“As part of this, we have a responsibility to keep people safe on our services,” Zuckerberg wrote. “That means deciding what counts as terrorist propaganda, hate speech and more. We continually review our policies with experts, but at our scale we’ll always make mistakes and decisions that people disagree with.”
In his op-ed, Zuckerberg didn’t directly address problems with livestreaming, although he did say it was impossible to remove all harmful content from the internet.
Ardern said Macron had played a leadership role among the Group of Seven major economies in trying to eliminate online terrorism, and his role would complement her experience from the recent Christchurch attacks when they co-chair the May 15 meeting.
Maria Ressa has a message for the members of the U.S. media who feel under attack: stand your ground.
“I think we’re living through a very unique moment where again it proves that information is power,” the journalist told TIME at the TIME 100 gala in New York Tuesday. Ressa, who was included in TIME’s 2019 list of the most influential people, attended Tuesday’s gala in New York City with her sister. “Its a completely chaotic time where technology has helped make facts disputable, eroded truth, and crippled trust.”
While Ressa has been an award-winning journalist for decades, she rose to international prominence over the past year as a beacon for the free press in the Southeast Asian country. After working for the Wall Street Journal and CNN, she co-founded the Philippines news website Rappler in 2012, and has extensively reported on the President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly crackdown on drugs and the extrajudicial killings in the country.
In November of 2018, the Philippine government charged Ressa and the website with tax evasion, which Ressa alleged was merely an effort to intimidate her.
She has since been arrested twice in recent months — in February on charges of “cyber libel” related to an article published by Rappler in May 2012 and in March over accusations that Rappler violated laws prohibiting foreign ownership of media companies.
“In 14 months the Filipino government has filed 11 cases [against me],” she said. “My only crime is to be a journalist, to speak truth to power.”
“What an incredible roomful of people. I mean, the energy from the mother of dragons to Nancy Pelosi. It is the — I don’t know what to do with it. I mean, I think we’re living through a very unique moment where, again, it proves that information is power. It’s a completely chaotic time where technology has helped make facts disputable, eroded truths, and crippled trust.
For journalists, for people at the front lines of trying to fight for truth, this is an existential moment for journalism and for democracy; for Rappler, the company I helped build in the Philippines, it’s an existential moment, not just for our company, but for me.
In 14 months, my government, the Philippine 2 government, has filed 11 cases. I posted bail eight times, I’ve been arrested twice in five weeks, detained once, and the only thing I’ve done, my only crime is to be a journalist, to speak truth to power.
So, TIME, thank you, TIME, for helping us shine the light, that’s truly important, and for including us in this roomful of people. Sometimes in the global south we’re not included.
Who am I? Who inspires me? I came with my sister. Where is my sister? Where are you? I came with my sister, who is live-streaming, she’s live-streaming. So she and I were born in the Philippines. We made different choices.
I guess the first really big choices were homes, right, for every one of us. My sister chose New York. This is her home. She married a German-Italian-American guy, and they have gorgeous kids. Me, I had to wait until I was 40 because I couldn’t decide. After living a decade in Jakarta, I chose. I chose Manila, the Philippines, for better or worse.
Well, it’s ironic that even though our two nations are almost exactly across the world from each other, our leaders have the same style, they’re macho, populist styles, sexist at best, misogynistic at worst. Our leaders, these leaders use anger and fear to divide and to conquer, they create and they live a politics of hate.
But I think everyone in this room realizes that anger and hate only destroy. What do you do when that’s over? How do you build, right? Because in order to create, to build for the future, you have to move away from that. How well we survive this time of creative destruction, it really is, depends on each of us, on each of us fighting our individual battles of integrity, for integrity. We’ve got to jump in, and I know you in this room have, and we have to answer some crucial questions:
Who are we? What do you stand for? What are the values? This word came up a lot today. What are the values that give meaning? What is the line that you will never cross, because on this side you’re good, and on this side you’re evil.
I think the TIME 100, you in this room, have faced these questions, and you’ve made your choice, and that’s why you move your world. So who are we toasting? Please, grab your glass, raise it to Filipinos, to Americans, and other freedom-loving people all around the world who are fighting desperately for their democracies, because they — we believe in the goodness of human nature. We believe that the only way to build is with hope, it’s with inspiration, it is — it’s with love. We will hold the line powered with the best of human nature. Please, let’s toast to freedom.
2019 TIME 100 honoree Fred Swaniker urged everyone in the room to keep doing “hard things” in a powerful toast at the 2019 TIME 100 Gala in New York on Tuesday evening.
“All of us who are privileged enough to be healthy, to be alive, to have education and to have influence, our role is not to do small things and to solve small problems,” Swaniker said. “The only way that we can justify privilege is by solving the world’s biggest problems, and by doing hard things.”
Swaniker seeks to educate and inspire the youth of Africa, who make up 60% of the continent’s population, with three educational initiatives. He said Tuesday that the message of doing hard things is a constant within all of them.
Swaniker is a co-founder and trustee of the African Leadership Academy, an organization which works “to develop the future Nelson Mandela, the next Wangari Maathai and the African Bill Gates,” the organization’s website states. Swaniker’s other programs, African Leadership Network and African Leadership University, are working toward developing 3 million ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in the coming decades.
An MBA recipient from Stanford Business School, Swaniker has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
“Fred has the passion, understanding and ability to take this great continent forward, through its young people,” Mo Ibrahim, the founder of Celtel International and chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, wrote of Swaniker for the TIME 100 issue. “I am filled with hope knowing that he is there to help the next generation of African leaders to blossom.”
Read the full text of Swaniker’s tribute at the Gala below:
The first thing you notice when you walk onto any of my campuses at the African Leadership University, there’s a big sign that says, ‘Do hard things.’ This is a reminder to all of the young leaders that we’re developing at this academy that all of us who are privileged enough to be healthy, to be alive, to have education and to have influence, our role is not to do small things and to solve small problems. The only way that we can justify privilege is by solving the world’s biggest problems, and by doing hard things.
Many of us in this room have chosen to do hard things. I see the Rock over there. It must be very hard to look as good as you do every day and still be working on the movie that’s probably going to have the record for having the most sequels in the world. I’m looking forward to watching the Fast and the Furious number 25. On the list I see Michelle Obama. It must have been really hard for her to run the country for eight years, when someone else was in the seat.
In my case, I’ve chosen to do a very hard thing: to develop three million leaders in Africa, who will bring leadership capacity to 40% of the world’s population by the end of this century. That’s a very hard, impossible thing. But all of you have chosen to do very hard things to be on this list. But of all the hard things we have to do, the most difficult thing is to keep going, individually, when everyone else is telling you, ‘This isn’t going to work,’ and no one believes in you and it looks like it’s all going to work and to keep faith and to have the perseverance and the passion to keep going. If you are like me, you didn’t get here alone. Every single person has had someone who has been on this hard road with them. They are the people who love you even if no one else loves you. They care about you when no one else cares about you. They’re there to be a shoulder to cry on. I know every single person on the list has had that person who helped them get here. If you don’t have that person, I recommend you get a dog, because they’re very good at giving you unconditional love.
In my case, the woman who has helped me on this journey is my wife, Amanda. Amanda, please stand up. She literally travels on this journey with me, everywhere I go around the world. She’s the soft cushion to the hard knocks that I have to go through. She nurtures me, and allows me to do the hard things that I have to do. Today, I want to raise a glass to those who journey with us as we do hard things.
Jared Kushner said that he does not “dispute” American intelligence’s conclusion that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman was behind the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but argued that it’s most important to prioritize American foreign policy interests.
Speaking at the TIME 100 Summit on Tuesday, the senior White House advisor called Khashoggi’s death an “absolutely terrible tragedy” but said his own responsibility is advancing American interests.
Kushner, who has been angling for an Arab-Israeli peace agreement throughout his time at the White House, has fostered a close relationship with the Saudi Crown Prince. In December, Chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Elijah Cummings said that Kushner had used WhatsApp to communicate with bin Salman and other foreign officials, in what could be a possible breach of federal law.
Kushner said Tuesday that when he spoke to bin Salman after Khashoggi’s death, he urged him to “be as transparent as possible.”
“And obviously, we have to make sure there is accountability for what happened,” Kushner said.
Pressed if he thought bin Salman had taken his advice, Kushner responded, “Well, we’ll find out.”
During Tuesday’s summit, Kushner also touched on the Saudi’s participation in the war in Yemen, arguing that Saudi Arabia is trying to “defend themselves.” About 85,000 children are believed to have died as a result of starvation in Yemen between April 2015 and October 2018, according to analysis by Save the Children.
Kushner defended the Trump administration’s decision to continue military assistance to Saudi Arabia, saying that the U.S. needs to be a “dependable supplier.”
“If you don’t sell these materials- weapons to Saudi Arabia, they’re going to buy from China and Russia. At the end of the day, they want to be able to defend themselves,” Kushner said.
(MOSCOW) — A polar bear which was found roaming around a village in eastern Russia, hundreds of miles away from its usual habitat, has been airlifted back home.
The exhausted-looking animal apparently traveled on an ice floe from the remote, sparsely populated Chukotka to a village on Kamchatka, about 700 kilometers (434 miles) south when it was found.
Russian emergency authorities on Monday mounted an operation to repatriate the bear. A member of the response team shot a tranquilizer at the bear and put it in a container and onto a helicopter which flew to the snow-covered Chukotka. The bear was then released into the wild.
Environmentalists say that wild animals such as polar bear are suffering from the shrinking hunting environment and the receding ice as the Arctic is getting warmer.
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