Tom Cruise Tweets as Production Starts on ‘Top Gun’ Sequel
Tom Cruise is back on the flight line for a sequel to the 1986 film “Top Gun.”
The actor on Thursday tweeted a photo of himself as Navy pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in a flight suit, looking at a fighter jet. The photo includes the phrase “feel the need.” In the original movie, Cruise’s character talks about how he feels the need for speed.
Cruise writes #Day 1 of production of “Top Gun: Maverick.”
The movie is scheduled for release in July 2019.
your ad hereTrump Renews Call for ABC Apology
U.S. President Donald Trump again asked the ABC TV network Thursday for an apology for reasons that were not entirely clear. The request came a day after the network canceled Roseanne Barr’s television show following racist remarks she posted about Valerie Jarrett, an African American who served as a White House adviser to President Barack Obama.
Trump’s request comes after he suggested Wednesday he should get an apology from Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC.
On Thursday, though, Trump was more direct when he tweeted: “Iger, where is my call of apology? You and ABC have offended millions of people, and they demand a response. How is Brian Ross doing? He tanked the market with an ABC lie, yet no apology. Double Standard!”
Trump did not elaborate on how the network offended people. ABC correspondent Brian Ross, however, was suspended for four weeks last year after erroneously reporting that Trump asked former national security adviser Michael Flynn to make contact with Russian officials before the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Although ABC has not apologized directly to Trump for Ross’ error, the network issued a statement shortly after recanting the story that said, “We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday.”
Trump has not denounced Barr, who is white, for posting a tweet Tuesday that was later deleted saying Jarrett is a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and the “Planet of the Apes.” She later tweeted she was sorry “for making a bad joke” about Jarrett.
But White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee-Sanders said Wednesday Barr’s remarks were “inappropriate” and complained about the hiring of Trump critic Keith Olberman by ESPN, which is also owned by Disney. “This is a double standard that the president is speaking about.”
Barr’s offensive remarks triggered intense backlash, including ABC’s cancellation of her show which had been renewed for a second season.
“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” said ABC entertainment President Channing Dungey.
Trump’s Twitter response Wednesday was somewhat surprising after Huckabee-Sanders said in response to a question about Barr Tuesday that he is focusing on trade, North Korea and other issues and “not responding to other things.”
After saying Tuesday she would stop tweeting, Barr resumed posting, blaming the effects of the sleep medication Ambien for her racist remarks in one of her more than 100 subsequent postings.
“guys I did something unforgivable so do not defend me. it was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting — it was memorial day too — i went 2 far & do not want it defended — it was egregious indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but…don’t defend it please.”
The maker of Ambien, Sanofi S.A., responded to Barr’s claim saying, “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”
Iger, who once considered challenging Trump for the presidency in 2020, indeed called Jarrett to inform her about the show’s cancellation.
“He wanted me to know before he made it public that he was canceling the show,” Jarrett said.
Jarrett has not commented on Trump’s response nor has Iger replied to Trump’s suggestion he was treated differently by the network.
Barr’s TV show was a new version of her 1988-97 sitcom “Roseanne.” It returned this year with Barr playing a character who is supportive of President Trump.
Barr in real life is an avid supporter of Trump. He hailed the new show two months ago for its strong ratings.
“Look at her ratings! Look at her ratings,” he said at a speech in Richfield, Ohio. “Over 18 million people,” Trump said, “and it was about us.” They haven’t figured it out yet; the fake news hasn’t quite figured it out yet. They have not figured it out. So that was great.”
Trump’s response to the Barr controversy was not his only controversial remark in recent days. On Memorial Day, a solemn U.S. holiday to honor military personnel who died in the line of duty, Trump tweeted: “Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice!”
The tweet drew criticism from some, including retired Admiral John Kirby, a State Department spokesman during the Obama administration.
“This is one of the most inappropriate, ignorant and tone-deaf things our Commander-in-Chief could have said on a day like today,” Kirby wrote on Twitter.
your ad hereDoctors Race to Vaccinate 1,000 People in Congo Against Ebola
Health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are racing against time to contain an outbreak of Ebola. So far, the World Health Organization reports at least 25 people have died out of the 58 people who have gotten the virus. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports that efforts to vaccinate people exposed to Ebola started more than 10 days ago.
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New Delhi Peace House Fosters Tolerance, Peaceful Coexistence
In an attempt to bridge the gap of understanding between different Indian communities, a house in the Indian capital of New Delhi is trying to foster the message of tolerance and peaceful coexistence in a unique manner. The house gives people from different religions and communities the chance to live together as a family for up to six months as a way to promote understanding. VOA’s Ritul Joshi reports from New Delhi.
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Gravity Could Be Source of Sustainable Energy
In today’s energy-hungry world, scientists are constantly revisiting every renewable resource looking for ways to increase efficiency. One researcher in the Netherlands believes even gravity can be harnessed to produce free electricity on a scale sufficient to power small appliances. VOA’s George Putic has more.
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41 Advance to Spelling Bee Finals
This year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee drew the largest number of competitors in its history, 516. But the field is far smaller, as only 41 spellers advance to the finals Thursday.
The finalists were announced Wednesday after two days of onstage spelling during which nearly 200 spellers were eliminated for getting words wrong. Scores on a written spelling and vocabulary test determined who advanced to the finals.
“There were no perfect scores on the test,” spelling bee Executive Director Paige Kimble says, “We thought it was an easy test. We were wrong.”
“They made it hard on purpose” said Jacob Williamson, a former competitor who is coaching five spellers this year.
But that didn’t seem to shake the confidence of those who have traversed the road before.
“It was fine, actually. I didn’t expect it to be fine,” said Erin Howard, 13, of Huntsville, Alabama. “I think at worst I missed five.”
According to Scripps, 113 of the spellers this year had previous national finals experience and 45 have relatives who are former competitors, including Atman Balakrishnan, from Chicago, whose father Balu Natrajan was the winner in 1985, and the first Indian-American to take the title.
The top scorers this year are Shruthika Padhy, Aisha Randhawa and Karthik Nemmani.
Shruthika came into the bee as one of the favorites, having finished in seventh place last year.
The past 13 champions and 18 of the last 22 have been Indian-American.
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AP Fact Check: Trump Overstates Progress on Opioids
President Donald Trump is overstating progress against the opioid epidemic, claiming “the numbers are way down” despite an increase of opioid-related deaths and overdoses in his first year in office.
A look at his comments during a political rally in Nashville on Tuesday night:
TRUMP: “We got $6 billion for opioid and getting rid of that scourge that’s taking over our country. And the numbers are way down. We’re getting the word out — bad. Bad stuff. You go to the hospital, you have a broken arm, you come out, you’re a drug addict with this crap. It’s way down. We’re doing a good job with it. But we got $6 billion to help us with opioid.”
THE FACTS: Opioid prescriptions are down; deaths and other indicators of the epidemic are up, according to the latest statistics, from 2017. And those developments have nothing to do with the $6 billion approved by Congress because that money is for this year and next.
Trump didn’t specify what numbers he was talking about. But according to data released in April, prescriptions for opioid painkillers filled in the U.S. fell almost 9 percent last year, the largest drop in 25 years. The total dosage of opioid prescriptions filled in 2017 declined by 12 percent because more prescriptions were for a shorter duration, fewer new patients started on them and high-dose prescriptions dropped. The numbers are from health data firm IQVIA’s Institute for Human Data Science.
But legal prescriptions are only one front of the epidemic.
Drug overdose deaths involving opioids rose to about 46,000 for the 12-month period ended October 2017, up about 15 percent from October 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The numbers are preliminary because of continuing cause-of-death investigations later in the reporting period. They could go higher.
Other measures from the CDC also point to increasing severity of the problem last year.
For example, emergency department visits for overdoses of opioids — prescription pain medications, heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl — rose 30 percent in the U.S. from July 2016 to September 2017. Overdoses shot up 70 percent in the Midwest in that time while increasing by 54 percent in large cities in 16 states.
“Getting rid of that scourge” is the intent, but the numbers don’t show it fading.
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New Guidelines: Start Colorectal Cancer Screening Earlier
The American Cancer Society is recommending people start testing for colon and rectal cancer at age 45, rather than 50 as currently prescribed.
It also recommends people who are in good health and with a life expectancy of more than 10 years continue regular colorectal cancer screening through the age of 75.
The group said the initial test does not have to be a colonoscopy, but instead could be one of several non-invasive tests, such as a home stool test available by prescription.
“All of these tests are good tests, and the choice should be offered to patients,” said the cancer society’s Dr. Rich Wender. “The best test is the test that gets done.”
The change in procedure is based on new information about a marked increase in the incidences of colorectal cancer, particularly rectal cancer, among younger individuals. Experts aren’t sure why there has been a 50 percent increase in cases since 1994.
Most colon cancer occurs in adults 55 and older, and the good news is that rates of cases and deaths have been falling for decades. Colon cancer, combined with rectal cancer, is the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.
This year, more than 140,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with it, and about 50,000 will die from it.
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WHO: Smoking Remains Major Cause of Death, Disease
Fewer people are smoking worldwide, especially women, but only one country in eight is on track to meet a target of reducing tobacco use significantly by 2025, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
Three million people die prematurely each year because of tobacco use that causes cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and stroke, the world’s leading killers, it said, marking World No Tobacco Day. They include 890,000 deaths through secondhand smoke exposure.
The WHO clinched a landmark treaty in 2005, now ratified by 180 countries, that calls for a ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship, and taxes to discourage use.
“The worldwide prevalence of tobacco smoking has decreased from 27 percent in 2000 to 20 percent in 2016, so progress has been made,” Douglas Bettcher, director of the WHO’s prevention of noncommunicable diseases department, told a news briefing.
Better pace in industrialized nations
Launching the WHO’s global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco smoking, he said that industrialized countries were making faster progress than developing countries.
“One of the major factors impeding low- and middle-income countries certainly is countries face resistance by a tobacco industry who wishes to replace clients who die by freely marketing their products and keeping prices affordable for young people,” he added.
Progress in kicking the habit is uneven, with the Americas the only region set to meet the target of a 30 percent reduction in tobacco use by 2025 compared with 2010, for both men and women, the WHO said.
However, the United States is currently not on track, bogged down by litigation over warnings on cigarette packaging and lags in taxation, said Vinayak Prasad of the WHO’s tobacco control unit.
Parts of Western Europe have reached a “standstill,” particularly because of a failure to get women to stop smoking, African men are lagging, and tobacco use in the Middle East is actually set to increase, the WHO said.
Risk awareness
Overall, tobacco kills more than 7 million a year and many people know that it increases the risk of cancer, the WHO said. But many tobacco users in China and India are unaware of their increased risk of developing heart disease and stroke, making it urgent to step up awareness campaigns, it said.
“The percentage of adults who do not believe smoking causes stroke are, for example, in China as high as 73 percent; for heart attacks, 61 percent of adults in China are not aware that smoking increases the risk,” Bettcher said. “We aim to close this gap.”
China and India have the highest numbers of smokers worldwide, accounting for 307 million and 106 million, respectively, of the world’s 1.1 billion adult smokers, followed by Indonesia with 74 million, WHO figures show. India also has 200 million of the world’s 367 million smokeless tobacco users.
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US Judge Dismisses Kaspersky Suits to Overturn Government Ban
A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday dismissed two lawsuits by Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab that sought to overturn bans on the use of the security software maker’s products in U.S. government networks.
The company said it would seek to appeal the decision, which leaves in place prohibitions included in a funding bill passed by Congress and an order from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The bans were issued last year in response to allegations by U.S. officials that the company’s software could enable Russian espionage and threaten national security.
“These actions were the product of unconstitutional agency and legislative processes and unfairly targeted the company without any meaningful fact finding,” Kaspersky said in a statement.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington said Kaspersky had failed to show that Congress violated constitutional prohibitions on legislation that “determines guilt and inflicts punishment” without the protections of a judicial trial.
She also dismissed the effort to overturn the DHS ban for lack of standing. Kaspersky Lab and its founder, Eugene Kaspersky, have repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said the company would not help any government with cyber espionage.
The company filed the lawsuits as part of a campaign to refute allegations that it was vulnerable to Kremlin influence, which had prompted the U.S. government bans on its products.
That effort includes plans to open a data center in Switzerland, where the company will analyze suspicious files uncovered on the computers of its tens of millions of customers in the United States and Europe.
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Film Producer Weinstein Indicted on Rape Charges
Film producer Harvey Weinstein was indicted Wednesday on first- and third-degree rape and criminal sex act charges, furthering the first criminal case to arise from a slate of sexual misconduct allegations against the former movie mogul.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said the indictment brought Weinstein “another step closer to accountability.”
The announcement came hours after Weinstein’s lawyers said he’d decline to testify before the grand jury because there wasn’t enough time to prepare him and “political pressure” made an indictment unavoidable.
A statement issued through a Weinstein spokesman said the 66-year-old film producer, who has denied the allegations, learned of the specific charges and the accusers’ identities only after turning himself in Friday. With a deadline set for Wednesday afternoon to testify or not, his request for more time was denied, the statement said.
“Finally, Mr. Weinstein’s attorneys noted that regardless of how compelling Mr. Weinstein’s personal testimony might be, an indictment was inevitable due to the unfair political pressure being placed on Cy Vance to secure a conviction of Mr. Weinstein,” the statement said, referring to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.
Vance said in a statement that the Weinstein camp’s “recent assault on the integrity of the survivors and the legal process is predictable.”
“We are confident that when the jury hears the evidence, it will reject these attacks out of hand,” Vance said.
Weinstein was charged Friday with rape and criminal sex act charges involving two women in New York, as a grand jury continued hearing evidence in the case; the panel has been at work for weeks. Defendants have the right to testify in a grand jury’s secret proceedings but often don’t, for various reasons.
Dozens of accusers
Dozens more women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to assault in various locales. He has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex, and his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said Tuesday that Weinstein was “confident he’s going to clear his name” in the New York prosecution.
Brafman called the rape allegation “absurd,” saying that the accuser and Weinstein had a decade-long, consensual sexual relationship that continued after the alleged 2013 attack.
The woman, who hasn’t been identified publicly, told investigators Weinstein confined her in a hotel room and raped her.
The other accuser in the case, former actress Lucia Evans, has gone public with her account of Weinstein forcing her to perform oral sex at his office in 2004. The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual assaults unless they come forward publicly.
Vance, a Democrat, came under public pressure from women’s groups to prosecute Weinstein after declining to do so in 2015, when an Italian model went to police to say Weinstein had groped her during a meeting.
Police set up a sting in which the woman recorded herself confronting Weinstein and him apologizing for his conduct. But Vance decided there wasn’t enough evidence to bring charges.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, also a Democrat, ordered the state attorney general to investigate how Vance handled that matter.
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Kim Kardashian West Headed to White House to Talk Pardon
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian West is heading to the White House on Wednesday to make a star-powered case for prison reform and advocate on behalf of a great-grandmother serving a life sentence.
Kardashian West has urged the president to pardon Alice Marie Johnson, 63, who is serving a life sentence without parole for a non-violent drug offense.
In an interview with Mic, Kardashian West said she’d been moved by Johnson’s story after seeing a video by the news outlet.
“I think that she really deserves a second chance at life,” Kardashian told Mic. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get her out.”
She said in the interview she’d been in touch with Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, over the case.
“I’ve been in communication with the White House and trying to bring her case to the president’s desk and figure out how we can get her out,” she said of Johnson, who has spent over two decades behind bars.
Kushner oversees the administration’s push to overhaul the nation’s prison system and help former inmates gain skills and more effectively make the transition back into society.
It’s unclear whether Kardashian West will meet with Trump during the visit, though the president often invites visitors to the White House complex into the Oval Office for informal meetings and photo-ops.
She told Mic if she had the chance to meet the president, she’d tell him: “I really do believe that she’s going to really thrive outside of prison, and I would just urge him to please pardon her.”
Trump last week granted a rare posthumous pardon to boxing’s first black heavyweight champion, clearing Jack Johnson’s name more than 100 years after what many saw as his racially-charged conviction.
The boxer’s pardon had been championed by actor Sylvester Stallone, who brought the story to Trump’s attention in a spring phone call.
Trump has issued just a handful of other pardons, including one for former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a staunch campaign supporter, one for Scooter Libby, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney, and one for a U.S. Navy sailor convicted for taking photos of classified portions of a submarine.
Kardashian West supported Trump’s rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, during the 2016 election. But her husband, rapper Kanye West, recently offered his support for Trump in a series of tweets, saying they both share “dragon energy.”
West also paid a visit to the then-president elect in New York before his inauguration. Trump said they’d talked about “life” as they posed for photos in the lobby of Trump Tower. West has said he didn’t vote for president, but if he had, he would have cast a ballot for Trump.
The White House declined to comment on the visit. Trump has talked about the need to get tougher on drug dealers, including suggesting some should receive the death penalty. Kardashian West appeared to preview the visit on her Twitter feed, writing: “Happy Birthday Alice Marie Johnson. Today is for you.”
Johnson was convicted in 1996 on eight criminal counts related to a multi-year Memphis-based cocaine trafficking operation involving more than a dozen people. The 1994 indictment describes dozens of deliveries and drug transactions, many involving Johnson.
She was sentenced to life in prison in 1997, and appellate judges and the U.S. Supreme Court have rejected her appeals. Court records show she has a motion pending for a reduction in sentence, but federal prosecutors are opposed to a sentence reduction, saying in a court filing that the sentence is in accord with federal guidelines, based on the large quantity of drugs involved. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Memphis did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
A criminal justice advocacy site, CAN-DO, and one of Johnson’s attorneys say a request for clemency was rejected by former President Barack Obama. The reasons are unclear.
Memphis attorney Michael Scholl, who filed the latest court documents in her request for a sentence reduction, said she was not a leader in the cocaine operation.
“What is the purpose of putting a lady with no prior criminal record, on a non-violent drug offense, in jail for her entire life?” he said in a telephone interview. “She’s a model inmate.”
Scholl added that Johnson has admitted her wrongdoing, which is borne out in letters she has written to U.S. District Judge Samuel H. Mays, who now oversees her case.
“Judge Mays I’m writing to you to express my deep remorse for the crime that I committed over 20 years ago. I made some bad choices which have not only affected my life, but have impacted my entire family,” she said in a February 2017 letter in the court record.
In a hand-scrawled letter last June she wrote: “I’m a broken woman. More time in prison cannot accomplish more justice.”
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Trump Gives Terminal Patients ‘Right to Try’ Experimental Drugs
U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation Wednesday to give patients with deadly diseases the “right to try” experimental drugs that might extend their lives.
At a White House signing ceremony, Trump called the measure a “fundamental freedom” for people with life-threatening conditions to use medications that have shown promise in initial testing but not been approved by U.S. regulators for sale to the public.
The bill cleared Congress last week after a spirited debate in which Republicans said it could give hope to thousands of people looking to save their lives, while many Democrats opposed to it said it would give patients false hope.
Trump had voiced support for the legislation at his State of the Union address in January, saying that the terminally ill should not have to leave the U.S. in search of an experimental drug in another country.
Patients will be able to take advantage of the provision only if they have exhausted their treatment options using drugs already approved by U.S. regulators. They then will be able to use drugs the Food and Drug Administration has yet to declare as safe.
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Judge Denies Meek Mill Request for Other Judge’s Removal
A judge in Philadelphia has denied Meek Mill’s request for the removal of another judge from the rapper’s case.
President Judge Leon Tucker told Mill in a Wednesday hearing that he doesn’t have jurisdiction over the matter. He says only the state Supreme Court can decide that.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered Mill’s release from prison last month where he was serving a two- to four-year sentence on a probation violation related to a decade-old gun and drug conviction.
Mill’s lawyers want Judge Genece Brinkley removed from his case. They allege she’s been waging a vendetta against the rapper, including sending him to prison for the probation violations.
She has strongly defended her impartiality.
Prosecutors say they believe Mill should get a new trial because of questions raised about the credibility of his arresting officer.
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Weinstein Won’t Testify Before Grand Jury in Rape Case
Harvey Weinstein declined Wednesday to testify before the New York grand jury that is weighing whether to indict him on rape and other sex charges, with his lawyers saying there wasn’t enough time to prepare and “political pressure” made an indictment unavoidable.
A statement issued through a Weinstein spokesman said the former movie mogul learned the specific charges and the accusers’ identities only after turning himself in Friday, with a deadline set for Wednesday afternoon to testify or not. His request for more time was denied, the statement said.
“Finally, Mr. Weinstein’s attorneys noted that regardless of how compelling Mr. Weinstein’s personal testimony might be, an indictment was inevitable due to the unfair political pressure being placed on Cy Vance to secure a conviction of Mr. Weinstein,” the statement said, referring to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.
His office declined to comment.
Weinstein was charged Friday with rape and criminal sex act charges involving two women in New York, as a grand jury continued hearing evidence in the case; the panel has been at work for weeks. Defendants have the right to testify in a grand jury’s secret proceedings but often don’t, for various reasons.
Weinstein faces rape and criminal sex act charges involving two women in New York. Dozens more women have accused him of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to assault in various locales.
He has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex, and his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said Tuesday that Weinstein was “confident he’s going to clear his name” in the New York prosecution.
Brafman called the rape allegation “absurd,” saying that the accuser and Weinstein had a decade-long, consensual sexual relationship that continued after the alleged 2013 attack.
The woman, who hasn’t been identified publicly, told investigators Weinstein confined her in a hotel room and raped her.
The other accuser in the case, former actress Lucia Evans, has gone public with her account of Weinstein forcing her to perform oral sex at his office in 2004. The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual assaults unless they come forward publicly.
Vance, a Democrat, came under public pressure from women’s groups to prosecute Weinstein after declining to do so in 2015, when an Italian model went to police to say Weinstein had groped her during a meeting.
Police set up a sting in which the woman recorded herself confronting Weinstein and him apologizing for his conduct. But Vance decided there wasn’t enough evidence to bring charges.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, also a Democrat, ordered the state attorney general to investigate how Vance handled that matter.
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Picasso Painting Showing in Hong Kong Estimated at $45 Million
Pablo Picasso’s painting of ‘Golden Muse’ Marie-Therese Walter, estimated to be worth up to $45 million, is on display in Hong Kong. The highly celebrated painting of his secret mistress of many years is the highlight of a collection of treasured works of art by Old Master painters that will be up for sale in London. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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Behind the Scenes at Cirque Du Soleil’s Latest Extravaganza
Cirque Du Soleil, one of the world’s largest theatrical producers, is back on tour with another surreal spectacle. It’s called Luzia, a dazzling, acrobatic presentation that takes its audience to an imaginary world where light combines with spirit and rain to celebrate the beauty and magic of Mexican culture. VOA reporter Iacopo Luzi, takes us backstage for a behind the scenes look at what it takes to produce one of the most fascinating shows on earth.
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Does Good Food Help Cure Disease and Reduce Medical Costs?
The California public health system will start delivering healthy meals to 1,000 patients with congestive heart failure or type 2 diabetes… and little purchasing power. The patients, who are part of a pioneering three-year pilot program, will receive a personalized diet and nutritional education to determine the impact of good nutrition on their ailment, and whether a healthier menu can lower their medical costs.
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Canadian Who Aided Yahoo Email Hackers Gets 5-Year Term
A Canadian accused of helping Russian intelligence agents break into email accounts as part of a massive 2014 data breach at Yahoo was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine.
Karim Baratov, who pleaded guilty in November 2017 in San Francisco, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Baratov, a Canadian citizen born in Kazakhstan, was arrested in Canada in March 2017 at the request of U.S. prosecutors. He later waived his right to fight a request for his extradition to the United States.
Lawyers for Baratov in a court filing had urged a sentence of 45 months in prison, while prosecutors had sought 94 months.
“This case is about a young man, younger than most of the defendants in hacking cases throughout this country, who hacked emails, one at a time, for $100 a hack,” the defense lawyers wrote in a May 19 court filing.
Verizon Communications Inc., the largest U.S. wireless operator, acquired most of Yahoo’s assets in June 2017.
The U.S. Justice Department announced charges in March 2017 against Baratov and three others, including two officers in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), for their roles in the 2014 hacking of 500 million Yahoo accounts. Baratov is the only one of the four who has been arrested. Yahoo in 2016 said cyberthieves might have stolen names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and encrypted passwords.
Gmail targets
When FSB officers learned that a target had a non-Yahoo webmail account, including through information obtained from the Yahoo hack, they worked with Baratov, who was paid to break into at least 80 email accounts, prosecutors said, including numerous Alphabet Inc. Gmail accounts.
Federal prosecutors said in a court filing “the targeted victims were of interest to Russian intelligence” and included “prominent leaders in the commercial industries and senior government officials (and their counselors) of Russia and countries bordering Russia.”
Prosecutors said FSB officers Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin directed and paid hackers to obtain information and used Alexsey Belan, who is among the FBI’s most-wanted cybercriminals, to breach Yahoo.
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US Warns Again on Hacks It Blames on North Korea
The U.S. government on Tuesday released an alert with technical details about a series of cyberattacks it blamed on the North Korean government that stretch back to at least 2009.
The warning is the latest from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation about hacks that the United States charges were launched by the North Korean government.
A representative with Pyongyang’s mission to the United Nations declined comment. North Korea has routinely denied involvement in cyberattacks against other countries.
The report was published as U.S. and North Korean negotiators work to resuscitate plans for a possible June 12 summit between leaders of the two nations. The FBI and DHS released a similar report in June 2017, when relations were tense between Washington and Pyongyang due to North Korea’s missile tests.
The U.S. government uses the nickname “Hidden Cobra” to describe cyber operations by the North Korean government, which it says target the media, aerospace and financial sectors, and critical infrastructure in the United States and around the globe.
Tuesday’s report did not identify specific victims, though it cited a February 2016 report from several security firms that blamed the same group for a 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The alert provided a list of 87 IP addresses, four malicious files and two email addresses it said were associated with “Hidden Cobra.”
Last year’s alert was published on the same day that North Korea released American university student Otto Warmbier, who died days after his return to the United States following 17 months of captivity by Pyongyang.
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Chinese Delegation Observing US Drug Abuse Prevention Programs
The U.S. said it is hosting a senior-level Chinese delegation to witness its drug prevention and treatment efforts, even as the United States continues to battle opioid abuse that is killing more than 60,000 people annually.
The State Department said Tuesday the Chinese will visit drug abuse prevention programs in Washington and New York and highlight the role that U.S. agencies, private treatment centers and non-government community coalitions play in fighting drug abuse in the U.S.
An average of more than 160 people are dying every day in the U.S. from opioid abuse. But the State Department said the U.S.-Chinese effort to reduce the demand for illicit drugs adds to the two countries’ “recent productive cooperation” by imposing restrictive controls on synthetic opioids.
The State Department said it is aiming to cut drug abuse, “as addiction knows no national borders, and illicit drug use anywhere enriches transnational criminal drug traffickers.”
Last October, U.S. President Donald Trump declared opioid abuse a “national public health emergency.”
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France to Beef Up Emergency Alert System on Social Media
France’s Interior Ministry announced plans on Tuesday to beef up its emergency alert system to the public across social media.
The ministry said in a statement that from June during immediate threats of danger, such as a terror attack, the ministry’s alerts will be given priority broadcast on Twitter, Facebook and Google as well as on French public transport and television.
The statement said that Twitter will give “special visibility” to the ministry’s alerts with a banner.
In a specific agreement, Facebook will also allow the French government to communicate to people directly via the social network’s “safety check” tool, created in 2014.
The ministry said that this is the first time in Europe that Facebook has allowed public authorities to use this tool in this way.
This announcement comes as a much-derided attack alert app launched in 2016 called SAIP is being withdrawn after malfunctions.
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Weinstein’s Lawyer Concerned About Publicity, ‘Pressure’ on Prosecutors
The lawyer defending movie mogul Harvey Weinstein against rape charges said Tuesday he was concerned that publicity surrounding the case and “inappropriate pressure” on prosecutors could be unfair to his client.
The lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, spoke to reporters after a closed-door proceeding before New York Supreme Court Justice James Burke in Manhattan, which he said he had requested to raise his concerns about the case. Brafman said he expected Weinstein would be exonerated of the charges, which he called “absurd.”
Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 70 women, in some instances dating back decades, has denied having nonconsensual sex with anyone.
Brafman said he could not discuss the substance of the proceeding in detail and did not say exactly what action, if any, he had asked the judge to take. Weinstein did not appear at the proceeding.
“One of my concerns is that by virtue of some of the publicity that has occurred over the weekend, that the ability for people to keep an open mind is of concern to me,” Brafman told reporters outside the courthouse. “I also think that the pressure that is being brought to bear on the [Manhattan] District Attorney’s office demanding that an indictment or prosecution of Mr. Weinstein proceed is inappropriate pressure.”
Brafman did not elaborate on the source of the “pressure.” “I’m not certain whether there is any remedy but I wanted to make it clear that I was not happy with those issues,” he said.
The District Attorney’s office declined to comment.
Weinstein has been charged with two counts of rape and one count of a criminal sexual act following a months-long investigation by the New York Police Department. Authorities did not identify the two women, but said the crimes took place in 2004 and 2013. If convicted on the most serious charges, Weinstein could face between five and 25 years in prison.
Brafman said Tuesday that Weinstein was accused of raping one woman, and that he had a 10-year consensual affair with her both before and after the alleged rape.
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ABC Cancels ‘Roseanne’ Following Star’s Racist Tweet
The American Broadcasting Co. canceled Rosanne Barr’s new television show Tuesday after she posted racist remarks about Valerie Jarrett, an African-American who served as a White House adviser to President Barack Obama.
Barr, who is white, tweeted earlier in the day that Jarrett was a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes.
Barr later tweeted she was sorry “for making a bad joke” about Jarrett.
Before it was deleted, Barr’s tweet read: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby = vj.”
Her offensive remarks triggered an intense backlash, resulting in ABC’s cancellation of her show, which had been renewed for a second season.
“Rosanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” said ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey.
Her TV show was a new version of her 1988-97 show Rosanne. It returned this year with Barr playing a character who is supportive of President Donald Trump.
Barr is an avid supporter of Trump, who hailed the new show two months ago for its strong ratings.
“Look at her ratings! Look at her ratings!” he said at a speech two months ago in Richfield, Ohio. “Over 18 million people, and it was about us. They haven’t figured it out yet; the fake news hasn’t quite figured it out yet. They have not figured it out. So that was great.”
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