Gregg Nigl's bracket has gone an astounding 48-for-48 so far, correctly predicting every single game through two rounds of the 2019 NCAA tournament. We've been tracking brackets for years, and before this tournament, the longest streak we'd ever seen was 39 games in a row.
From gambling in libraries to being sockless within 100 yards of the Queen, there a lot of downright stupid British laws. Oobah Butler, no stranger to weird stunts, is here to break 'em.
Perfect for artists and designers, Corel Painter 2019 is a digital art and painting software that lets you develop gorgeous, unique designs: it features the world's most realistic Natural-Media® and exclusive particles, pattern pens, thick paint brushes and more — plus, it's all totally customizable.
David Fincher, Edward Norton and the minds behind "Fight Club" talk about the bare-knuckled, bloody battle to bring Chuck Palahniuk's book to the big screen.
A month ago, racer Jorge Martinez lost control of his bike and found himself hitched onto the back of Marion Calvo's ride. Things only devolved from there...
The letter raised many questions about Barr's and Mueller's motivations, whether Trump committed impeachable offenses and whether Democrats, and the media, were wise to focus on Mueller's investigation over the past two years.
To give up whiteness is to become vulnerable, to confront the deep tears in the psyche gouged over generations, to see the hate in the face of a loved one and name it and therefore open yourself up to being seen and ultimately touched.
A banner reading "MUELLER SUBMITS TRUMP INQUIRY FINDINGS" spanned the entire Saturday New York Times front page, but there was nothing to put below it; those five words were the sum of what anyone knew or could know.
Saudi-based Almarai owns 15,000 acres of an irrigated valley — but what business does a foreign food production company have drawing resources from a US desert?
Most advanced-stage cancers mutate, resisting drugs meant to kill them. Now doctors are harnessing the principles of evolution to thwart that lethal adaptation.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump before their meeting during the second US-North Korea summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. Reuters/Leah Millis
* North Korean affairs expert Zhang Liangui tells forum the talks broke down because Washington changed its negotiating position at the last minute * Pyongyang 'felt its expectations would not be met', he says
The Hanoi summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump collapsed mainly because the US changed its negotiating position at the last minute, according to a Chinese expert on North Korean affairs.
Zhang Liangui, a professor of international strategic research at the Central Party School, said Kim was "shocked" at the talks in February when the US presented him with a new list of nuclear facilities that had not been disclosed by Pyongyang.
The Central Party School trains Communist Party cadres and is a think tank for top Chinese leaders.
Zhang said the new list meant the US required Pyongyang to dismantle all of its underground nuclear arms facilities. That was in addition to what had previously been discussed – destroying the plutonium and uranium-enrichment plants housed at the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
WNU Editor: An insight into why last month's U.S. - North Korea talks collapsed. On a positive note. In the future when the U.S. and North Korea sit down to negotiate a nuclear/sanctions deal, everything will be on the table.
Cyclone survivors in southern African face "a ticking bomb" of disease despite arrival of some emergency medicine, food and tents https://t.co/C53hCKUkN8
đź“· People loot a "China Aid" warehouse surrounded by flood water in Beira, Mozambique pic.twitter.com/UMEfE39GQB
More than 11,000 Syrian Democratic Forces fighters were killed and 21,000 others wounded fighting ISIS, the group announced on Saturday following the group's formal liberation of ISIS' last enclave in Syria.
"On this occasion we cannot but remember those heroes and pay tribute to the memory of the martyrs and wish the urgent recovery of their wounds, without their sacrifices we would not granted this victory," the SDF statement says.
Task & Purpose was unable to independently verify the SDF's casualty figures.
A fighter of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) holds her weapon as they announce the destruction of Islamic State's control of land in eastern Syria, at al-Omar oil field in Deir Al Zor, Syria March 23, 2019. U.S.-backed forces proclaimed the capture of Islamic State's last territory in Syria on Saturday, eliminating its rule over a self-proclaimed "caliphate," but the jihadists remain a threat from sleeper cells around the world. REUTERS/Rodi Said
This week the people of Crimea celebrated the fifth anniversary of joining the Russian Federation. People across Russia shared their joy. Centuries of common culture and history made the reunification more like a homecoming. Crimea's important role in defeating Nazi Germany's genocidal assault on Mother Russia eight decades ago gives it a cherished place in Russia's modern history.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and several dignitaries were in attendance of the ceremonies held on the Black Sea peninsula. Two power stations were opened underlining the energy independence of Crimea and its future integral development with Russia.
Earlier this year saw the opening of a 19-kilometer road and rail bridge – the longest in Europe – across the Kerch Strait from Russia's mainland to Crimea at a cost of nearly $4 billion.
Russian president Vladimir Putin greets BP chief executive Robert Dudley (right) and AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot (centre) during a meeting with businessmen at the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday. Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/Reuters
As Putin marks 20 years in power, he knows how much the world needs his country
As the train screeches to a halt, the young man, in his slim-fit Tom Ford suit, alights energetically. This is Revolution Square station, deep beneath Moscow's congested boulevards.
Built in 1938, the station is one of the gems of the Moscow metro system, itself one of the finest pieces of public transport infrastructure in the world. Stalin understood symbols. The metro system served as a reminder of the splendour of the Soviet Union. In the war, these places were air-raid shelters. In 1941 and 1942, a hundred war babies a month were being delivered down here as war raged overhead. What else are you going to do?
Today, the metro carries seven million passengers a day, close to half the population of this enormous city of 15 million citizens. Trains arrive off-peak every two minutes and at rush hour every 30 seconds.
WNU Editor: The only thing that I can add to the above commentary is that European and Chinese dependence on Russian energy is only going to grow with time.
Even without a physical state, the Islamic State can still fund its main product: political violence.
BEIRUT—If you're looking to transfer money here, there's a chance you will be directed to Abu Shawkat. He works out of a small office in a working-class suburb of the Lebanese capital, but won't give you its exact location. Instead, he'll direct you to a nearby alleyway, and whether he shows up depends on whether he likes the look of you.
Abu Shawkat—not his real name—is part of the hawala system, which is often used to transfer cash between places where the banking system has broken down or is too expensive for some to access. If he agrees to do business, you'll set a password and he will take your cash, then provide you with the contact information of a hawala broker in the city where your money is headed. Anyone who offers that specific password to that particular broker will get the funds. Thus, cash can travel across borders without any inquiry into who is sending or receiving it, or its purpose.
* Days after US President Donald Trump opted not to impose extra sanctions on North Korea, Pyongyang has reversed a decision to pull its staff from an inter-Korean liaison office * The continued presence of North Koreans at the liaison office suggested Pyongyang's satisfaction over Trump's decision to hold off on more sanctions, said analysts
Days after US President Donald Trump opted not to impose extra sanctions on North Korea, Pyongyang has reversed a decision to pull its entire staff from an inter-Korean liaison office.
North Korean officials on Monday returned to work at the office in the northern city of Kaesong, after the US on Thursday imposed the first new sanctions on Pyongyang since the collapse of the second Trump-Kim summit.
However, Trump on Friday said he ordered the withdrawal of new large-scale sanctions on North Korea, a move experts said could be an effort to defuse tensions or signalling that the "maximum pressure" sanctions campaign on Pyongyang was not going to get any stronger.
CARACAS (Reuters) - Lights went out across much of Venezuela, including many areas of the capital city of Caracas on Monday, according to Reuters witnesses, less than two weeks after power was restored following a prolonged blackout.
Power was out in much of eastern Caracas as well as downtown, where the Miraflores presidential palace and most government ministries are located. Authorities said the Caracas subway was shutting down due to the lack of power.
Several western states had no power, according to Reuters witnesses, though it remained on in the southern city of Puerto Ordaz and in parts of Valencia, the country's third-largest city. Shops across the country closed early to protect against possible looting.
Neither state electricity company Corpoelec nor the Venezuelan information ministry responded to requests for comment.
Yet, each time Trump said so, some of us in the media lampooned him. We treated any words he spoke in his own defense as if they were automatically to be disbelieved because he had uttered them. Some even declared his words to be "lies," although they had no evidence to back up their claims.
We in the media allowed unproven charges and false accusations to dominate the news landscape for more than two years, in a way that was wildly unbalanced and disproportionate to the evidence.
We did a poor job of tracking down leaks of false information. We failed to reasonably weigh the motives of anonymous sources and those claiming to have secret, special evidence of Trump's "treason."
As such, we reported a tremendous amount of false information, always to Trump's detriment.
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel mounted air strikes on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and deployed extra troops to the border on Monday in response to the longest-range Hamas rocket attack to cause casualties in years.
After a day of intense fighting across the border, Israel and Hamas agreed to an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire, Palestinian officials said. The border appeared to have calmed down by night-time.
"An agreement on a ceasefire was reached between Palestinian factions and Israel upon Egyptian mediation," a senior Palestinian official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras attends a student parade marking Greece's Independence Day, during his visit on the island of Agathonisi, Greece March 25, 2019 (Reuters Photo)
* May wanted to hold third on her deal but DUP leader Arlene Foster failed to provide any new breakthrough * PM said: 'It is with great regret that I have to conclude that as things stand there is still not sufficient support' * MPs will hold a vote tonight which aims to seize control of Brexit and hold 'indicative votes' on softer options * She will whip against the motion proposed by rebel Tory Oliver Letwin, but it is still expected to pass tonight * Cabinet ministers have warned that they will call an election if MPs try to force them into a softer Brexit * May also appeared to rule out No Deal Brexit unless MPs vote again to let it happen * Theresa May is resisting calls to quit in return for support for her ailing Brexit deal from Boris and Rees-Mogg * She faced cabinet today after members a coup against her collapsed within hours at the weekend * Boris Johnson told Mrs May she had 'bottled' Brexit negotiations and needs to 'channel the spirit of Moses' * European Commission has released a warning that 'it is increasingly likely the UK will leave without a deal' * Row as Foreign Office Minister Mark Field admits he would back revoking Article 50 if May's deal is killed off
Theresa May today shelved plans for a third vote on her Brexit deal, hours after a new push to force it through the Commons was quickly rebuffed by the DUP.
The Prime Minister addressed the Commons this afternoon and admitted 'as things stand there is not sufficient support' to hold a fresh vote on her deal, quashing speculation that it would happen tomorrow.
Now she faces a move by rebel MPs who want to pass a motion tonight to seize control of Brexit - giving them the power to hold a vote on Wednesday letting the Commons select its favorite Brexit option in so-called 'indicative votes'.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli territory in an election boost for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as his chief political rival sought to appear as a better alternative to lead Israel.
During a White House visit by Netanyahu, Trump signed a proclamation officially granting U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, in a dramatic shift from decades of U.S. policy. Israel seized the strategic land from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
The recognition, which Trump had announced in a tweet last Thursday, appeared to be the most overt gesture by the Republican president to help Netanyahu, who had been pressing Trump for the move.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military said on Monday it had begun carrying out strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, hours after a Palestinian rocket hit a house near Tel Aviv.
Reuters witnesses heard explosions in Gaza.
The military said in a statement that it had "begun striking Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip."
One position hit was a Hamas naval position west of Gaza City, and a another was a large Hamas training camp in northern Gaza, Palestinian security officials and Hamas media outlets said.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stands next to his airplane before boarding it to Beirut at Ben Gurion airport near Lod, Israel March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Jim Young/Pool
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned his Russian counterpart Monday that the United States will not "stand idly" as Russia escalates political tensions in Venezuela.
"The continued insertion of Russian military personnel to support the illegitimate regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela risks prolonging the suffering of the Venezuelan people who overwhelmingly support interim President Juan Guaido," a State Department readout of the call between Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
* Corpses, booby traps and explosives belts were strewn across Baghouz, eastern Syria, after the brutal siege * IS desperately sent their wives and daughters to fight as air strikes rained down on the remote village * Haunting images show the rubble of their last citadel where they had been forced to live underground * US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces declared victory on Saturday after months of battling at the fort
Corpses and booby traps litter the last field of battle-scarred terrain that has finally been reclaimed from ISIS by US-backed forces.
Islamic State deployed suicide bombers, snipers, rockets and female fighters as they did everything in their power to desperately cling to Baghouz, eastern Syria.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces declared victory over the jihadists on Saturday in the remote village, after reducing their once terrifying proto-state to a ghostly riverside camp.
Bullet-riddled trucks, burnt out cars, sheets from tents used to cover their underground dwellings and rusted Kalashnikovs were the sorry remains of the once proud 'caliphate.'
Worries over polling data as election commission refuses to declare official results
Thai politics has descended into chaos after its first election since a 2014 coup, as two parties claimed the right to govern, the electoral commission refused to announce the official result and concerns were raised over irregular polling data.
Unofficial results from Sunday's election indicated that the pro-military Phalang Pracharat party outperformed low expectations to win the most votes, while the pro-democracy Pheu Thai party narrowly won the most seats.
The 110-mile-wide strait separates China and Taiwan. It is seen as a potential geopolitical flashpoint should Beijing seek to take Taiwan by force, but it is international waters
* The United States sailed two ships through the Taiwan Strait, Sunday * Operation comes as top officials from the Trump administration prepare to travel to Beijing for high-level trade talks * The Trump administration has sought to make the Taiwan Strait transits more routine, with the operations now taking place on a monthly basis * Prior to July, the transits occurred only about once a year * The 110-mile-wide strait separates China and Taiwan - it is seen as a potential geopolitical flashpoint should Beijing seek to take Taiwan by force * Beijing continues to lay claim to Taiwan, a self-governed, democratic island that China views as a breakaway province * The two have been separated since the end of a bloody civil war in 1949 * While the strait constitutes international waters, China is thought to be very sensitive about the presence of US military forces there
The United States sent Navy and Coast Guard ships through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, the military said, as the United States increases the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.
The voyage risks further raising tensions with China but will likely be viewed by self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from Washington amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing.
The two ships were identified as the Navy Curtis Wilbur destroyer and the Coast Guard Bertholf cutter, a U.S. military statement said.
Thailand's highly anticipated election results have been delayed as competing parties claim victory and concerns of irregularities and allegations of cheating grow.
The unofficial results from this national election — the first democratic exercise since the 2014 military coup — were originally expected last night, hours after polls closed.
While the Election Commission said some results would be ready in the coming hours, exact tallies were not due to be finalised until Friday. Even then, the party preferences would not have been calculated.
Orders of older warplanes surge as U.S. military spending rises and Russia rattles its sabers.
American-made fighter jets, once facing extinction, have seen a resurgence in sales, thanks largely to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Add to that Middle Eastern nations arming for potential war with Iran and there may be more than $80 billion in new or potential sales for F-15s, F-16s, and F/A-18s worldwide.
Trump's Pentagon budgets over the past two years have enabled the U.S. Navy to keep buying new F/A-18 Super Hornets. His fiscal 2020 budget plan calls for purchasing even more of those warplanes, plus a new variant of the F-15 for the Air Force, which has not purchased Eagles since 2001. Meanwhile, eastern European nations spooked by Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea are looking at the affordable F-16.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu provided details of Russia's latest snap exercise at the National Defence Control Centre in Moscow on 16 March Source: Russian MoD
In the last several years, the Russian military has drastically increased its battle readiness in apparent preparation for a possible major conflict with an opposing massive ground force (see EDM, September 29, 2016; December 6, 2017; January 15, 2019). The massive buildup was first publicly reported in September 2016 by first deputy defense minister and chief of the General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov. He discussed the issue in a briefing to Russian journalists following the conclusion of the Kavkaz 2016 military exercise which was centered on Crimea and the Black Sea region. Kavkaz 2016 has since been overlapped by even larger Russian war games, but in 2016 they were the biggest such maneuvers since the 1980s. In 2016, Gerasimov told journalists that front-line combat units—so-called battalion tactical groups (BTG)—will be primarily manned by contract soldiers to increase their battle readiness and will be supported by new special logistical field units.
(CANBERRA, Australia) — Australia’s prime minister on Tuesday accused an influential minor political party of trying to “sell Australia’s gun laws to the highest bidders” by asking the U.S. gun lobby for donations.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was responding to an Al Jazeera documentary that reported One Nation party officials Steve Dickson and James Ashby flew to the United States for meetings with pro-gun interests including the National Rifle Association and political donors Koch Industries in September last year for money to undermine Australian gun laws.
The trip took place weeks before the Australian Parliament banned foreign political donations with laws that took from Jan. 1, 2019. It is unclear whether they secured any money.
Morrison said the revelations were reasons why Australians should not vote for One Nation at general elections due in May.
“We have reports that One Nation officials basically sought to sell Australia’s gun laws to the highest bidders to a foreign buyer and I find that abhorrent,” Morrison told reporters.
Morrison said his government had made laws to “criminalize taking foreign political donations so foreign lobbyists cannot seek to influence our politics.”
Opposition leader Bill Shorten, whom opinion polls suggest will be prime minister after the election, accused One Nation of a “betrayal of the Australian political system.”
“The idea of One National political party operatives going to the United States, seeking millions of dollars, promising to water-down gun law protection in Australia — that was absolutely horrifying,” Shorten told reporters.
The Al Jazeera documentary used secret recordings made by a journalist posing as gun lobbyist Rodger Muller with a hidden camera.
One Nation, an anti-Muslim party that had four senators after 2016 election but has been left with two after defections, said in a statement that all party members “have always complied with the law.”
One Nation also suggested the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera had breached new laws that prohibit covert foreign interference in Australian politics. The party said it had had complained to Australia’s main domestic security agency and police “due to concerns of foreign interference into Australian politics in the lead up to the imminent federal election.”
“Al Jazeera are a state owned propaganda arm of the Qatari government that supports Islamic extremist groups and are not a legitimate media organization,” the statement said.
“One Nation was invited by Rodger Muller, who has now been outed as a foreign agent working for Al Jazeera to meet with the NRA, American business leaders and attend the Congressional Sportsmen’s Dinner” in Washington, the statement said.
The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Ashby, who is party leader Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff, is recorded saying that the party would “own” both the Australian Senate and House of Representatives with a $20 million donation from the U.S. gun lobby. This means the party would hold the balance of power in both chambers and influence a government’s legislative agenda.
Ashby also warned that if such a donation became public, it would “rock the boat.”
The news followed the mosque attacks in New Zealand on March 15 for which an Australian white supremacist has been charged with murder. New Zealand has responded by banning a range of semi-automatic weapons and foreshadowing a government-funded buyback of newly outlawed guns. The country’s response is similar to how Australia strengthened its gun laws following the murders of 35 people by a lone gunman in 1996 in Tasmania.
One Nation state president Steve Dickson, who is a Senate candidate at the next election, traveled with Ashby and Muller to the United States to ask for political donations, Al Jazeera reported.
Dickon told NRA officials that the Australian gun control model “will poison us all, unless we stop it,” Al Jazeera reported.
A former One Nation senator who is now an independent lawmaker, Fraser Anning, has been widely criticized for blaming Muslim immigration for the New Zealand massacre.
Hanson, One Nation’s leader who was criticized for wearing a burqa in the Senate, voted for the ban on foreign donations in November.
“Overseas money should not have an influence in our political scene …. so I believe foreign donations should be stopped,” Hanson told the Senate.
A Hong Kong tourist has been charge after a hidden camera he allegedly concealed in a stick of deodorant was discovered at a Sydney hostel Monday night.
The camera was found by a 27-year-old French woman when she noticed the device shortly after showering, according to the New South Wales police. The woman reportedly took photos of the hidden camera peaking out of a deodorant in a toiletry bag on the sink before contacting the police.
When the man was searched, Australian police say they found the remnants of a smashed camera.
The 36 year old, who has not been named, also had numerous hard drives with him filled with videos of women that appear to have also been taken by secret cameras, the police report said.
Both tourists were staying at a hostel on Lamrock Avenue near Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach. The woman checked in to the hostel on Sunday, and was allocated a room with the Hong Kong man, whom she did not know.
The man has been charged with installing devices to film others and possessing surveillance devices intended for unlawful use. He has been refused bail and is set to appear in court Tuesday, according to the police statement.
The case comes amid a wave of spycam crimes that involve cameras concealed in public places, like restrooms and hotels, that record people without their consent. Thousands of such voyeuristic cases were reported in South Korea last year, while incidents have also prompted arrests in the U.S., Hong Kong, Canada, and elsewhere.
(TORONTO) — A Filipino woman who helped shelter former NSA contractor Edward Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong has been granted refugee status in Canada.
Vanessa Rodel and her daughter Keana arrived in Toronto Monday evening.
“I feel so great and I feel like I’m free,” she said.
Lawyer Robert Tibbo represented Rodel as she sought asylum in Hong Kong in 2013 due to an alleged kidnap and rape by militants in her homeland. The attorney asked her to help Snowden hide out there after he leaked documents revealing extensive U.S. government surveillance.
Tibbo said Hong Kong rejected Rodel’s asylum request and since then officials there have grilled her over her contacts with Snowden, who now lives in exile in Russia.
Tibbo and a nonprofit group called For the Refugees wants Canada to accept five others who helped Snowden.
Snowden’s lawyer decided to go public with the identities of the refugees after learning that movie director Oliver Stone had found out about them and would incorporate their role into his film on Snowden, which was released in 2016. The three families, who didn’t realize they were harboring one of the world’s most wanted figures at the time, said they feared being sent back.
“Since that became public they have been targeted by the Hong Kong government who called up all of their refugee claimants and denied them all on the same day after about a half hour,” For the Refugees spokesman Ethan Cox said. “They have had their support payments cut off. They’ve only been able to survive off donations to our non-profit.”
Snowden tweeted about Rodel and her daughter.
“Thank you to all those in Canada and around the world who have made this possible,” he wrote in French. “After so many years, the first of the families who helped me is free and has a future. But the work is not over — with solidarity and compassion, Canada can save them all.”
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said she could not comment on privately sponsored refugee applications.
A French Muslim group is suing Facebook and YouTube after the internet giants broadcast a livestream of the March 15 New Zealand mosque shootings, Agence France-Presse reports.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) said it is taking action against the companies for “broadcasting a message with violent content abetting terrorism, or of a nature likely to seriously violate human dignity and liable to be seen by a minor,” according to AFP, which received a copy of the complaint.
In France, these offenses can carry charges of up to three years’ imprisonment and a 75,000 Euro ($85,000) fine.
In a statement published five days after the shootings, Facebook said it removed the original video “within minutes” of being alerted by the New Zealand police. No users flagged the 17-minute clip, which was viewed around 4,000 times on the social platform before being taken down, the social media company said.
But the footage was copied and extensively reposted after the Christchurch attacks, which killed 50 people, sending Facebook, YouTube and other platforms scrambling to block and delete it.
Facebook said in the first 24 hours alone it removed more than 1.2 million videos of the attack.
In the wake of the shooting, tech giants have come under heavy criticism for their inability to stop the circulation of content portraying violence and acts of terror.
During a parliamentary address on March 18, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke out about the role of tech companies in spreading extremist content.
“We cannot simply sit back and accept that these platforms just exist and that what is said on them is not the responsibility of the place where they are published,” Ardern said.
“They are the publisher, not just the postman,” she added. “It cannot be a case of all profit, no responsibility.”
The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security also published an open letter to the CEOs of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft, calling on the companies to “ensure that the notoriety garnered by a viral video on your platforms does not inspire the next act of violence.”
Facebook said in the New Zealand case, it was fighting a “core community of bad actors” that continually re-uploaded edited versions of the video in various formats.
The Menlo Park company added that it is working toward improving artificial intelligence to combat the spread of hateful material.
(BANGKOK) — The two top parties began angling for the upper hand in forming a new government in Thailand on Monday after partial results showed no group won a majority of seats in the country’s first national election since a 2014 military coup.
One outcome: many accusations of cheating in Sunday’s vote, in efforts to discredit the other side’s claim to leadership and perhaps get some winners disqualified.
The allegations highlight continuing deep divisions in Thailand, which has been wracked by political instability for nearly two decades.
The junta-appointed Election Commission announced the results of 350 constituency races but said full vote counts, which are needed to allocate 150 other seats in the House of Representatives, won’t be available until Friday after apparent counting problems.
The partial results showed the military-backed Palang Pracharath party won the most popular votes nationwide. But under a complicated new electoral system put in place by the junta, the anti-military Pheu Thai party is likely to win the highest number of seats in the House.
Each party insists its advantage gives it the right to try to form a government, though neither holds a majority in terms of votes or seats. And because an unelected 250-member Senate appointed by the junta will also vote for prime minister, a party must win a combined 376 votes to assure victory.
That vote will likely take place sometime in May and give Palang Pracharath’s candidate, current junta Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a considerable advantage.
The election is the latest chapter in a nearly two-decade struggle pitching conservative forces including the military, courts and ultra-royalists against the political machine of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a tycoon who upended tradition-bound Thai politics with a populist political revolution and is now despised by the military.
Thaksin now lives in exile abroad to avoid a prison term, but parties allied with him have won every election since 2001 despite repeated efforts by the military and courts to block his influence. His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who led the Pheu Thai government that was ousted in 2014, also fled the country after what supporters said was a politically motivated prosecution.
While behind-the-scenes recruitment of smaller parties is the main way for Palang Pracharath or Pheu Thai to try to gain enough support to form a government, the public battle is being fought with cries of foul on social media, mostly from Pheu Thai partisans.
Although formal ties between Thaksin and Pheu Thai are now legally banned, he amplified the accusations of foul play in an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday.
His complaints included inconsistent and delayed results from the Election Commission, ballot numbers exceeding voters in some areas, turnouts twice the number of registered voters, and a suspiciously large number of voided ballots.
Thailand’s main poll-watching organizations have not yet publicly addressed most of the allegations.
The watchdog group P-Net charged that the junta-appointed Election Commission was inefficient, and that it had found vote buying ahead of the voting.
But there is concern about the other allegations.
Allen Hicken, professor of political science at the University of Michigan, noted that while Thaksin’s words read as “sour grapes,” the allegations have been circulating widely.
He said he considered the three most troubling issues to be the delayed result announcements, turnouts exceeding 100 percent and a large number of invalid ballots.
Hicken said he would withhold judgment pending explanations by the Election Commission, “but all three are consistent with electoral chicanery in other contexts.”
The commission’s secretary-general, Charoongwit Poomma, defended its handling of Sunday’s vote and said delays in announcing full results reflect its duty to ensure the election is free and fair. He said he had not received reports of issues such as excessive voting numbers or disappearing votes.
The cheating charges come on top of the judgment by many human rights and pro-democracy groups that the rules set by the junta made a fair election impossible.
Palang Pracharath chief Uttama Savanayana said it will contact like-minded parties to form a new government.
The leader of Pheu Thai, Sudarat Keyuraphan, also said it would try to form a government because it won the most constituency races.
“The party with the most seats is the one that has received the confidence from the people to set up the government,” Sudarat said.
China has removed more than two minutes of LGBTQ content from the 2018 Best Picture nominee Bohemian Rhapsody, which landed in the world’s second-largest movie market on March 22.
The biopic chronicling British rock-band Queen shows frontman Freddie Mercury kissing and touching other men in its original version. But in China, a scene of two men kissing, the word “gay,” and a clip of the main character dressed in women’s clothing were removed, according to CNN.
Mercury (played by Rami Malek), became a queer icon shortly before the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s and eventually died of complications related to the illness, though he never formally came out. The film initially focuses on Mercury’s romantic relationship with Mary Austin (played by Lucy Boynton). As the relationship begins to deteriorate, Mercury tells Austin that he thinks he might be bi-sexual, to which she responds, “No Freddie, you are gay.” That scene has also been cut from the Chinese version of the movie.
“Rather than homophobic, I think (China’s censors) are sexphobic,” LGBTQ activist and documentary filmmaker Fan Popo told CNN. “They are probably the most conservative people in China, that’s why they are chosen for this job,” he said.
This is not the first LGBTQ censoring in China to raise eyebrows in recent months. One Chinese broadcaster caused uproar on Chinese social media when it censored Rami Malek’s Best Actor Oscar acceptance speech, changing “gay man” to “special group” in the subtitles.
Other recent Oscar contenders with LGBTQ themes like Call Me By Your Name and Moonlight were not released in China at all.
Although attitudes toward homosexuality are slowly changing in China, LGBTQ content is still routinely censored on mainstream Chinese media.
(CARACAS, Venezuela) — A new power outage spread across much of Venezuela on Monday, knocking communications offline and stirring fears of a repeat of the chaos almost two weeks ago during the nation’s largest-ever blackout.
The outage began shortly after 1 p.m. (1700 GMT) and appeared to have affected as many as 16 of Venezuela’s 23 states, according to reports on social media.
As with the previous outage, the government of President Nicolas Maduro sought to blame U.S.-backed opponents, accusing them of sabotaging the Guri dam, source of the bulk of Venezuela’s electricity.
They said the “attack” had already been controlled, with service restored in many areas and others expected to come online in the coming hours.
“The damage that took 5 or 6 days to repair in the electrical system after the first attack carried out by the right-wing we recovered today in a few hours,” Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said in a televised address.
But those reassurances, similar to ones last time around, did little to calm the anger of residents in Caracas who filled traffic-clogged streets as they walked home after subway service in the capital was suspended
Like other small business owners, 27-year-old restaurant manager Lilian Hernandez was bracing for the worst even as service started flickering back on in parts of Caracas.
“We Venezuelans suffer all kinds of problems,” said Hernandez, who had just recently managed to restock food that spoiled during the previous outage.
Netblocks, a non-government group based in Europe that monitors internet censorship, said outage had knocked offline around 57 percent of Venezuela’s telecommunications infrastructure.
The Trump administration, which has made no secret of its desire to remove Maduro, has denied any role in the outages. Electricity experts and opposition leader Juan Guaido faults years of government graft and incompetence.
“This outage is evidence that the dictator is incapable of resolving the crisis,” Guaido wrote on Twitter Monday.
Meanwhile, as Venezuela’s economic and political crisis deepens, many seem resigned to continuous disruptions in their daily routines.
“The important thing is for people not to get desperate,” said William Rodriguez, who sells books at a kiosk under a downtown highway overpass.
Also Monday, the rift between Russia and the United States over how to resolve the crisis in Venezuela widened following the arrival of Russian military personnel to support Maduro.
In a telephone call, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that “the United States and regional countries will not stand idly by as Russia exacerbates tensions in Venezuela,” the State Department said. Pompeo said “the continued insertion of Russian military personnel” in Venezuela could prolong the country’s problems and urged Russia “to cease its unconstructive behavior.”
Lavrov countered during the call that “Washington’s attempts to organize a coup in Venezuela and the threats directed against its legitimate government represent a violation of the U.N Charter and blunt interference into internal affairs of a sovereign nation,” according to the Russian foreign ministry.
Pompeo’s call to Lavrov came after a Venezuelan official said Russian aircraft arrived in Caracas this past weekend as part of ongoing military cooperation. Reports that two Russian air force planes arrived could not be independently confirmed.
The U.S. and dozens of other countries support Guaido, who says Maduro’s re-election last year was rigged. Maduro alleges the U.S. and Guaido are plotting a coup.
(BEIRUT) — The U.S-backed Syrian fighters who drove the Islamic State from its last strongholds called Monday for an international tribunal to prosecute hundreds of foreigners rounded up in the nearly five-year campaign against the extremist group.
The administration affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said such a tribunal is needed “for justice to take its course,” particularly after countries have refused to bring home their detained nationals. The SDF has captured more than 1,000 foreign fighters, including many from Western countries.
“We don’t have other options,” Abdulkerim Umer, a foreign affairs official in the Kurdish-led administration, told The Associated Press. “No one wanted to take the responsibility (of repatriating their nationals). We can’t put up with this burden alone.”
Western countries have largely refused to take back their detained citizens, fearing they would not be able to convict them in civilian courts and that they could pose a security risk. The problem has grown more urgent since President Donald Trump announced his intention to reduce the U.S. military presence in Syria, where American forces are fighting alongside the SDF.
“It is an exceptional situation and we are looking at an exceptional framework,” said Ilham Ahmed, the head of the political arm of the SDF, told the AP. “We are dealing with a failed state. In this case we can treat the (Kurdish-administered) region as an exception.”
Asked about the tribunal proposal in Washington, U.S. special envoy for Syria and the anti-IS coalition, Jim Jeffrey, said: “We’re not looking at that right now.”
Jeffrey said the priority is to deal with the Iraqi and Syrian prisoners, which he estimated at 7,000 held in eastern Syria and representing the vast majority of those in detention. The second priority, Jeffrey said, is convincing the home countries of the foreign fighters to take them back.
Umer said foreign fighters should be tried where their crimes occurred and where they were detained. “The international community has evaded its responsibility, so we ask that they help us set up the court here,” he said.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said in an email that it only knew of the proposal from media reports, but that setting up such a tribunal would “raise many political and legal issues, which would require careful evaluation by the international community.”
Germany has said bringing detained German militants home would be “extraordinarily difficult,” in response to a U.S. call for European nations to repatriate their nationals.
The SDF has been fighting IS since 2014 and has retaken large areas in northern and eastern Syria. Its administration is not recognized internationally or by the Syrian government, which has vowed to bring all the country’s territory back under its control.
The Kurdish-led administration has asked the government to grant it autonomy in a new constitution, something Damascus has roundly rejected. Umer said the issue of the foreign detainees is therefore an “exceptional case” that requires an international tribunal. He said the presence of the foreign fighters is a “big problem” that could stoke further instability in the region.
“It is a burden and a risk for us and the international community,” he said.
Nadim Houry, the director of the counterterrorism program at Human Rights Watch, said “it is hard to imagine” setting up an international tribunal on sovereign territory without that country’s approval. Previous efforts to get Security Council backing for international tribunals for crimes committed in Syria have failed, mostly because of vetoes by Russia, a main ally of Damascus.
Houry said a major legal concern would be trying people for the same crimes in different courts depending on their nationality.
“There is no real precedent for creating an international tribunal for some nationals and not the others,” Houry said. “It is an option that raises as many questions as it provides answers.”
He said that while the U.S.-led coalition has provided military aid to the SDF, it has done nothing to help develop the local judiciary.
“It is a fair call on the (SDF)’s part to say this should be an international responsibility, but so far the path to such help is unclear.”
Kurdish-run courts in northeastern Syria have tried hundreds of Syrians suspected of links to IS. In trials attended by the AP last year, Kurdish authorities showed leniency toward the mostly Arab suspects in a bid to build bridges with the majority Arab population. The courts do not impose the death penalty.
Umer said an international tribunal would help bring the system in line with global norms.
In Russia, the reaction to the results of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into links between Moscow and President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign can be summed up in one phrase: “We knew it all along.”
“[It] proved what was known in Russia from the very beginning,” said Konstantin Kosachev, a senator in Russia’s upper house of the legislature, in a Facebook post on Monday.
Mueller’s long-awaited report concluded that neither Trump, nor anyone associated with his presidential campaign “conspired or knowingly coordinated” with Russia during the 2016 election, according to a summary released Sunday by Attorney General William Barr. Trump called the report as a “complete and total exoneration,” but Mueller pointedly did not absolve the president on allegations related to obstruction of justice.
The report also detailed the disinformation and social media campaign led by Russia’s Internet Research Agency during the 2016 election, as well as the Russian government’s hacking of Democratic Party officials and members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Since becoming the Special Counsel for the Russia probe in 2017, Mueller compiled hundreds of pages of known court filings, demonstrating Moscow’s alleged plots to sow discord and help Trump win the presidency.
Throughout the investigation, Russian politicians and the state media have denied that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 presidential election at all. And until Monday, there was limited coverage of the Mueller probe in the Russian mainstream media. Only occasionally was it referenced as an example of the U.S. government’s attempt to demonize Russia and undermine Trump.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded on Monday, according to Russian state-owned TASS news agency: “We believe the accusations that continue to be made against Russia in terms of interference in the U.S. electoral processes are unfounded because even the brief information that is listed in the summary [of the Mueller report] has no basis.” He added: “It’s hard to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if it’s not there.”
Other officials have given a more heated response. Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the information committee at the Federation Council tweeted on Monday: “From the very start it was a biased, artificial, provocative, conspiratorial, designed-to-fuel-hatred towards Trump campaign. Its second goal was to demonize Russia and prevent any US moves towards better relations with Moscow.”
It was clear even BEFORE the Mueller report. From the very start it was a biased, artificial, provocative, conspiratorial, designed-to-fuel-hatred towards Trump campaign. Its second goal was to demonize Russia and prevent any US moves towards better relations with Moscow. https://t.co/88HqkQg6K9
In the Russian media, some saw evidence of a battle yet to come. The editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-backed Russia Today (RT) news network Margarita Simonyan said, “Now [the U.S.] will say this: ‘There was no collusion, but Russia still interfered. On its own deceitful initiative.'”
One of Russia’s most popular TV networks, Channel One Russia, also wrote that “American political scientists say the report is not the end of the political struggle in the United States, but only the beginning of a new stage,” referring to a Fox News interview with Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor who frequently defends Trump. The channel’s morning show implied that the U.S. media had been fanning hysteria about possible collusion in order to turn public opinion against Russia.
In Russia’s state-controlled news agency, RIA Novosti, journalist Ivan Danilov wrote that with the Ukrainian presidential elections approaching, the “most interesting is yet to come,” comparing American politics to a “skit” in a psychiatric hospital.
An op-ed by Kosachev, the Russian senator, in the state-controlled newspaper Novaya Gazeta argued that U.S. lawmakers knew “perfectly well” accusations of meddling were “a lie” but were buying time to impose “mass laws against Russia … And they succeeded.”
(JERUSALEM) — Israeli forces on Monday struck targets across the Gaza Strip, including the offices of Hamas’ supreme leader, in response to a surprise rocket attack from the Palestinian territory, as the military bolstered its troops and rocket-defense systems in anticipation of a new round of heavy fighting with the Islamic militant group.
Israel opened public bomb shelters in most major cities and civil defense authorities canceled sports events and public transportation in southern Israel. The Israeli army said air raid sirens wailed in southern Israel late Monday night, with one rocket fired into the country, but it provided no further details.
“Israel will not tolerate this. I will not tolerate this,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared during a White House meeting with President Donald Trump.
“Israel is responding forcefully to this wanton aggression,” he said. “We will do whatever we must do to defend our people and defend our state.”
Ahead of the Israeli airstrikes, Hamas’ leadership went into hiding.
Several airstrikes rocked Gaza, including an explosion that destroyed the office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. An earlier blast destroyed a multistory building in Gaza City that Israel said had served as a Hamas military intelligence headquarters.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. In both blasts, Israel fired warning shots to evacuate the buildings. But the airstrike on the multistory building was so powerful it sent debris flying onto the roof of The Associated Press bureau, located on the 11th floor of a nearby high-rise.
The sudden conflagration came at a time when both Netanyahu and his Hamas foes are in desperate situations.
Netanyahu is in a tight race for re-election, and just two weeks before the April 9 vote, faces tough criticism from challengers who accuse him of being too soft on Hamas.
In Washington to celebrate the U.S. recognition of Israel’s control of the Golan Heights, Netanyahu instead was forced to cut short his trip under heavy pressure to strike back at Hamas.
Earlier, Haniyeh issued a statement warning Israel against heavy retaliation. He said the Palestinian people “will not surrender” and its militant factions “will deter the enemy if it exceeds the red lines.”
In Beirut, the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, met Monday with a Hamas delegation led by top official Saleh Arouri. Hezbollah said they discussed the Gaza situation and “Israeli aggression.”
Hamas is facing perhaps its toughest domestic test since seizing control of Gaza from the rival Palestinian Authority 12 years ago.
An Israel-Egyptian blockade, imposed to weaken Hamas, combined with sanctions by the Palestinian Authority and mismanagement by the Hamas government, have all fueled an economic crisis that has left Gaza with an unemployment rate above 50 percent.
Hamas has been leading weekly protests along the Israeli border for the past year in hopes of easing the blockade, but the demonstrations, in which some 190 people have been killed by Israeli fire, have done little to improve conditions.
Last week, hundreds of Gazans protested the dire conditions, a rare expression of public discontent against the authoritarian government. Hamas responded with a violent crackdown, beating and arresting dozens of demonstrators and drawing rare public criticism.
The rocket attack, which caught Israel off guard, may have been an attempt by Hamas to divert attention from its growing domestic woes.
Israel and Hamas have fought three wars, most recently in 2014. Although neither side appears to have an interest in a full-fledged war, fighting could easily spin out of control. The 2014 conflict lasted 50 days and ended with over 2,000 Palestinian deaths, including hundreds of civilians, and 73 killed on the Israeli side.
Netanyahu faces the difficult task of delivering a tough blow to Hamas while avoiding protracted fighting that could work against him on election day.
Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu, said a mild response was not an option.
“It will be something on a bigger scale,” he said.
“He doesn’t want a war before elections, but they put him in a corner,” he added. “After three missiles reaching the heart of Israel, the chance of a big escalation including a ground offensive, is very high.”
Monday’s attack came 10 days after rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel’s densely populated commercial capital of Tel Aviv, and the Israeli military struck back. Gaza’s Hamas leaders said the rocket was fired accidentally and the fighting quickly subsided.
The sounds of air raid sirens jolted residents of the Sharon area, northeast of Tel Aviv, shortly after 5 a.m. Monday, sending them scurrying to bomb shelters. The sound of a strong explosion followed.
The rocket destroyed a residential home in the farming community of Mishmeret, wounding six members of a family. The Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including two women who were moderately wounded. The others, including two children and an infant, had minor injuries.
The Israeli military said Hamas militants fired the rocket from southern Gaza. It said its Iron Dome rocket-defense system was not activated because the attack in central Israel had not been anticipated. The army added it was reinforcing its missile defense batteries in preparation for an escalation.
Maj. Mika Lifshitz, a military spokeswoman, said it was a self-manufactured rocket with a range of 120 kilometers (75 miles), making it one of the deepest rocket strikes ever carried out by Hamas.
Lifshitz added that two armor and infantry brigades were being mobilized to the Gaza front and that a limited drafting of reserves was also taking place.
The cities of Tel Aviv and Beersheba opened public bomb shelters. Civil defense officials canceled sporting matches and train service in southern Israel. Schools were ordered to hold classes in bomb shelters, and large public gatherings were banned.
The family home in Mishmeret was left in ruins, with tiles, broken furniture and debris scattered about. A shattered baby’s crib lay among the rubble and two family dogs died in the explosion.
“I nearly lost my family,” said Robert Wolf, grandfather of the injured residents. “If we hadn’t gotten to the bomb shelter in time, I would now be burying all my family.”
Netanyahu came under heavy criticism from allies and opponents for what they say has been an ineffective policy containing Gaza militants. He has conducted indirect cease-fire talks through Egyptian mediators in recent months, and even allowed the delivery of millions of dollars of Qatari aid to Hamas to ease harsh conditions in Gaza.
“The reality in which Hamas turned Israel into a hostage is unprecedented and unfathomable,” his chief challenger, Benny Gantz, wrote on Twitter on Monday. Gantz is a former military chief who led the army during the last Gaza war in 2014.
Netanyahu also came under attack from his own nationalistic allies.
“Israel’s deterrence has collapsed, and it has to be said in all honesty Netanyahu has failed against Hamas,” said Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the Yamin HeHadash faction in Netanyahu’s coalition.
Witnesses reported seeing Hamas evacuating personnel from government premises. Hamas also announced that its Gaza chief, Yehiya Sinwar, had canceled a public speech. Other leaders turned off their mobile phones, while Hamas police were seen evacuating their stations. Hamas even released some prisoners it was holding, in another sign of anxiety.
Israel shut down its main crossings into Gaza and imposed restrictions on fishing off the Gaza coast.
Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations are trying to broker a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas.
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ISRAEL military forces mobilised tanks and reinforced troops along the Gaza border on Tuesday morning as fears grow a new conflict could break out between Israel and Hamas.
SIX German town halls scattered across the country have been evacuated after receiving bomb threats via mail. Police officers have launched a large-scale operation to detect any problems, with explosives detection dogs also in attendance.
ANGELA Merkel and Emmanuel Macron will meet EU boss Jean-Claude Juncker today as they look to form a united European front to stem the ongoing threat from China.
RUSSIA has responded to FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller's long-awaited report on alleged collusion between Russia and Trump during the presidential campaign in 2016.
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