Study Points to New Antibody Approach to Tackling Ebola, Other Infections
Scientists working on developing vaccines against Ebola have found they can “harvest” antibodies from volunteers vaccinated in research trials and use them to make treatments for the deadly viral infection.
In a study published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports, the scientists said the approach could be used for Ebola and other newly emerging deadly diseases caused by viruses.
The technique, based on people exposed to the Ebola vaccine but not the Ebola virus itself, suggests protective therapies could be developed from people who are disease-free.
“It is a small, extra step that could lead to new antibody therapies from an increased pool of donors and with reduced risk,” said Alain Townsend, a professor at the MRC Human Immunology Unit at Britain’s Oxford University.
He noted that besides Ebola, many experimental vaccines for other life-threatening infections, such as H5N1 and H7N9 bird flu and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), are entering clinical trials and could offer similar opportunities for antibodies to be collected.
Ebola is now spreading in Democratic Republic of Congo, where World Health Organization data show at least 676 people have been killed and more than 700 others infected in an outbreak that started eight months ago.
The largest Ebola epidemic in history swept through Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea in 2013-2016, killing more than 11,000 people. That outbreak prompted a global push to develop vaccines and treatments — and some, including a protective shot developed by Merck and several antibody therapies for infected patients, have been deployed in the Congo outbreak.
Antibodies intended for treatment are normally collected from the blood of people who have survived infection. But they can also be tricky to obtain and carry heightened risks such as potential persistent viruses or other pathogens.
The Oxford team decided to try using blood from trial volunteers who had been given an experimental Ebola vaccine and whose immune system had responded to the shot by making antibodies. They successfully isolated 82 antibodies taken from 11 volunteers in trial at Oxford’s Jenner Institute.
They found that despite having less time to develop, a third of the antibodies were effective at neutralizing a strain of Ebola known as Zaire — the one causing the Congo outbreak.
The scientists then made a cocktail of four of the antibodies to create a treatment, which successfully cured six guinea pigs of Ebola when it was administered three days after infection.
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Dutch Security Agency Warns Against Chinese, Russian Technology
The Dutch security service advised the government Tuesday not to use technology from countries with active cyber-hacking campaigns against the Netherlands, such as China and Russia.
The recommendation came as the Dutch government is weighing options for a new 5G telecommunications network in the coming years and seeks to replace its domestic emergency services network, known as C2000.
The AIVD security agency flagged Chinese and Russian attempts at digital espionage as a major security risk.
“It is undesirable for the Netherlands to exchange sensitive information or for vital processes to depend on the hardware or software of companies from countries running active cyber programmes against Dutch interests,” the AIVD said in its annual report.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte has refused to rule out doing business with Chinese technology companies, even as key allies the United States and Australia restricted Huawei Technologies from accessing its next-generation mobile networks on national security grounds.
Washington has said that Huawei is at the beck and call of the Chinese state, warning that its network equipment may contain “back doors” that could open them up to cyberespionage.
Huawei says such concerns are unfounded.
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Study: Prostate Cancer Death Rates Stabilizing
Death rates from prostate cancer — the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men — have stabilized or declined in dozens of countries since the turn of the century, the American Cancer Society reported Tuesday.
In 33 of 44 countries surveyed, the incidence of prostate cancer had stabilized in the last five years for which data was available — and in seven countries, it was down, the report found.
Only four of the countries surveyed, including Bulgaria, saw an increased incidence of prostate cancer, it said.
“In the most recent five years of data examined, prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates are decreasing or stabilizing in most parts of the world,” the study’s author MaryBeth Freeman said.
Prostate cancer deaths were down in 14 countries surveyed and stable in 54 others. Only three countries experienced a rise in prostate cancer deaths, according to the study findings, which were presented Tuesday at a conference in Atlanta.
The United States had the biggest drop in prostate cancers, which Freeman attributed to a decline in the use of a controversial diagnostic test that identified too many non-dangerous tumors.
The incidence of prostate cancers rose in the U.S. during the 1980s and early 1990s when the PSA, or Prostate-Specific Antigen, blood test became widely available.
The test is imprecise, however, and yields too many false positives. It identifies higher than normal levels of PSA, a protein produced by the prostate, which could be a sign of cancer but is more often a symptom of other diseases.
Moreover, some prostate cancers are not aggressive and do not grow enough to pose a risk.
A false positive, on the other hand, can have harmful consequences for the patient: anxiety, complications linked to biopsies, or anti-cancer treatments.
In 2012, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an expert panel that reviews the effectiveness of preventive clinical services, advised against use of the PSA test.
In 2018, it revised the recommendation to say that taking the test should be an “individual” decision for men 55 to 69. At 70 and after, it advised against its use.
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Scam Ads Promoting Fake Tax Breaks Prosper on Facebook
Hundreds of ads on Facebook promised U.S. homeowners that they were eligible for huge state tax breaks if they installed new solar-energy panels. There was just one catch: None of it was true.
The scam ads used photos of nearly every U.S. governor — and sometimes President Donald Trump — to claim that with new, lucrative tax incentives, people might actually make money by installing solar technology on their homes. Facebook users only needed to enter their addresses, email, utility information and phone number to find out more.
Those incentives don’t exist.
While the ads didn’t aim to bilk people of money directly — and it wasn’t possible to buy solar panels through these ads — they led to websites that harvested personal information that could be used to expose respondents to future come-ons, both scammy and legitimate. It’s not clear that the data was actually used in such a manner.
Facebook apparently didn’t take action until notified by state-government officials who noticed the ads.
The fictitious notices reveal how easily scammers can pelt internet users with misinformation for months, undetected. They also raise further questions about whether big tech companies such as Facebook are capable of policing misleading ads, especially as the 2020 elections — and the prospect of another onslaught of online misinformation — loom.
“This is definitely concerning — definitely, it’s misinformation,” said Young Mie Kim, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who studied 5 million Facebook ads during the 2016 elections. “I keep telling people: We don’t have any basis to regulate such a thing.”
Experts say websites and apps need to be more transparent about the ads that run on their platforms.
Last year, Facebook launched a searchable database that provides details on political ads it runs, including who bought them and the age and gender of the audience. But it doesn’t make that information available for other ads. Twitter offers its own database of ads and promoted tweets. Google has an archive for political ads only.
The partial approaches allow misleading ads to fester. One problem is the fact that ads can be targeted so narrowly that journalists and watchdog groups often won’t see them.
“That allows people to do more dirty tricks,” said Ian Vanderwalker, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program.
In mid-March, some websites linked in the fake solar-energy ads disappeared. After complaints from governors’ offices, Facebook inactivated nearly all of the ads and several pages affiliated with them.
“These scammy ads have no place on Facebook,” company spokeswoman Devon Kearns said in a statement. “We removed these pages and disabled these ad accounts recently and will continue to take action.”
Facebook says it uses an automated process to review the images, text, targeting and position of ads posted to its site. In some cases, employees review the ads. Users can also give feedback if they believe the ads violate company policies.
Governors’ offices were alarmed to see photos of top politicians featured alongside claims such as “you can get paid to go solar.”
Helen Kalla, a spokeswoman for Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, said she notified Facebook last month after staffers saw them.
Facebook took them down days later, although some continued to re-appear days after that complaint. Facebook also yanked ads featuring images of governors in Texas, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona, South Carolina and other states. But the ads had already been running for some time.
After researching solar-panel options for his two-story home in Mount Tabor, New Jersey, 37-year-old Chris Fitzpatrick saw an ad claiming he might qualify for “free” solar panels because Gov. Phil Murphy planned to release “$100 million solar incentives.” He was skeptical because none of the solar companies he worked with mentioned such incentives, but worried others might not be.
“It’s very frustrating because it preys upon innocent people,” Fitzpatrick said.
The Associated Press found that some of these ads directed people to solar-energy websites that listed the same business address — a mailbox in Carlsbad, California — that had been used by a company once under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, the government’s consumer protection agency. In 2012, the FTC sued Jason Akatiff and his company — then called Coleadium, also known as Ads 4 Dough — for running fake news websites that marketed unfounded health benefits of colon cleanse and acai berry products, according to court records.
Akatiff settled the allegations without admitting guilt and agreed to a $1 million fine. Akatiff changed his company’s name to A4D Inc. in 2015, according to California business filings.
Akatiff did not respond to messages left with his California business.
Though the FTC can investigate fake ads, sue to stop them and seek compensation for victims, thousands of ads targeting select groups run online daily, making it harder to catch suspect advertisers.
Scam ads are popular in certain industries, such as insurance or solar power, where companies are looking for people they can target later for products and services, said Peter Marinello, vice president of the Council of Better Business Bureaus Inc.
The scammers sell the personal information they collect to other companies looking for potential customers, Marinello said. “That’s how this whole process plays out.”
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While Washington Fiddles, Many States Facing Up to Threats of Climate Change
When Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey introduced their Green New Deal resolution, Markey said it would be “the greatest blue-collar job creation program in a generation.”
President Donald Trump, on the other hand, said it would “put millions of Americans out of work.”
Battle lines have been drawn with the first major U.S. proposal to tackle climate change in nearly a decade: Does stopping global warming mean wrecking the economy? Or is failing to act worse?
In the coming months, Voice of America will explore the prospects for salvaging the environment without killing off jobs.
We will meet winners and losers in the energy transition. Our first stop will be in Markey’s home state of Massachusetts, where an energy transition is well underway. We will visit a town where one of the state’s last coal-fired power plants closed, shedding coal jobs but gaining a cutting-edge solar farm. We will see how Massachusetts’ investments in the green economy are paying dividends in jobs and economic growth.
Though the Senate has voted down Markey and Ocasio-Cortez’s nonbinding Green New Deal resolution, the proposal has put climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions back on the agenda on Capitol HIll. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a steadfast opponent of measures to reduce carbon emissions, now acknowledges global warming is a real and human-induced threat.
Trump, by contrast, has called climate change a hoax and sees unfettered production of coal, oil and natural gas as the path to economic expansion.
Hotter, drier, wetter
Pressure is growing on elected officials to do something. The impacts of climate change are increasingly obvious.
Eight of the 10 hottest years on record have piled up in just the last decade.
Hotter and drier conditions in California helped spread the wildfires that caused $24 billion in damage and claimed 106 lives last year. Those fires broke the record for area burned, a record that was set just the year before.
A warmer atmosphere holds more water, making epic soakers like last year’s Hurricane Florence more likely. That $24 billion disaster followed 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, which did $127.5 billion in damage to Houston and the surrounding areas.
And this is just the beginning. Scientists from 13 government agencies estimated that if emissions remain high, extreme heat would slice $155 billion annually from labor productivity by 2090 as more days are too hot to work. Dwindling water supplies for cities and industries would take a $316 billion toll each year. Annual health care costs for West Nile Virus, just one of several diseases expected to rise with warming temperatures, would be $3 billion higher.
Polls show Americans feel the threat of a changing climate more strongly than ever. Seventy-three percent say global warming is happening, and 62 percent say it is mostly human-caused. Both figures are the highest since the Yale Program on Climate Communication started polling in 2008.
Two-thirds say they are “worried” or “very worried” about global warming. For the first time, that includes a third of conservative Republicans.
Meanwhile, the federal government is moving in the opposite direction. Trump has moved to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate treaty. His administration is working to loosen Obama administration regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and vehicles.
That has left states, local governments and businesses to fill in the gap. But it will not be easy or cheap.
Pricing pollution
One possible tool: Put a price on the carbon pollution that is causing global warming in the first place.
Raising the price reduces demand for more-polluting fuels and encourages companies and consumers to find cheaper, cleaner alternatives, economists say.
Pricing carbon would also raise revenue that can be returned to taxpayers or invested in reducing emissions.
Nine U.S. states price carbon through a cap-and-trade system, a market-based approach in which polluters buy permits for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit. California has its own program.
And economic growth in these states has continued as greenhouse gas emissions have declined.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric about how a carbon tax or a greenhouse gas tax would wreck the economy,” said Brookings Institution economist Adele Morris. “There’s absolutely no peer-reviewed evidence that supports that assertion.”
But these policies are not politically popular. A national cap-and-trade proposal died in Congress in 2010. Last November, Washington state voters rejected a carbon tax.
And they would not solve the problem on their own. Pledges the United States and others made in Paris will not achieve the ultimate goal of the accord: Keep global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”
That would take a carbon price of at least $40 to $80 per ton, rising to $50 to $100 by 2030, according to a World Bank-backed commission. It’s only about $15 per ton in California, and $5 in the nine-state market.
“There’s an open question whether politically, it’s achievable to hit some of the temperature targets that scientists have recommended,” Morris said. “That’s the conundrum. What’s the willingness to pay (in carbon taxes) of the American electorate? How far can we go before we hit a wall?”
Filling the federal vacuum
As Trump moves to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate treaty, many states are moving forward on their own.
Most require power providers to source a percentage of their energy from renewable or zero-carbon sources. Several have recently increased these requirements. New Mexico recently joined California in aiming to be 100 percent renewable by mid-century.
And the private sector is stepping up, as well.
After Trump announced the United States would withdraw from the Paris agreement, more than 2,000 businesses and investors declared that they continue to support the climate accord.
A group of large investors managing more than $30 trillion in assets is pushing major corporations in their portfolios to get on board.
“Any company that’s a high-emitting sector, we need to work with them to radically change their emissions or divest from them,” said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a sustainability nonprofit. Ceres is a founding partner of the initiative known as Climate Action 100+.
Under pressure from the group, oil giants Shell and BP recently said they will tie executives’ bonuses to reaching climate goals. Major mining corporation Glencore agreed not to expand its coal mining business.
For investors, Lubber says, the economic risk comes not from fighting climate change.
“If we don’t stop global warming, we wreck the economy,” she said.
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Donald Trump, Mao Zedong Headline New Hong Kong Opera
Cantonese opera is an art form best known for elaborate make up, costumes and tales of long-dead heroes. But for four days this April, a Hong Kong theatre will take on a larger than life character from the modern day: U.S. President Donald Trump.
Hong Kong’s Sunbeam Theatre will stage a performance of Trump On Show, a three and a half hour comedic reimagining of the U.S. president’s life and that of his fictional twin brother who lives in China. The opera was written, directed and produced by Edward Li Kui-ming, a Feng shui master and film producer turned prolific playwright.
The upcoming production is a follow-up to Li’s successful and controversial Chairman Mao opera staged in 2016, which recounted three fictional romances of China’s most famous leader, Mao Zedong.
“After the success of Chairman Mao, it seems to me in recent years everybody in the whole world are indulged in the name Donald Trump. Everyday, we are talking about Trump, Trump, Trump,” Li said in an interview at his theatre. for which he donned traditional Chinese robes. “It inspired me: why aren’t we doing an opera related with Donald Trump?”
Li said his operas were not meant to be political commentary – rather works of “black comedy” – but both Chairman Mao and Trump on Show touch on some of the most controversial topics in Chinese 20th century history, including the Cultural Revolution and Mao’s tenure as leader of China.
It also does not shy away from lampooning famous leaders like Zhou Enlai, Jiang Qing, who was better known as “Madame Mao,” and the infamous chairman himself. Many of the characters from Chairman Mao will reappear in the Trump opera and in a wink to the audience, lead actor Loong Koon-tin will play both Mao as well as Trump.
Li plans to complete the trilogy next year with a production about the Gang of Four, a powerful faction led by Madame Mao that dominated Chinese politics during the 1960s and 1970s.
Such a light-hearted and humorous look at Chinese history is almost unthinkable in mainland China today, which resumed sovereignty of the former British colony in 1997. Hong Kong has more freedoms than China until 2047 under the “one country, two systems” model, although many residents and political leaders fear where the city will head when that period expires.
Hong Kong’s identity crisis, however, helped to renew interest in Cantonese opera in the the 1990s after a 30 year decline, according to renowned Cantonese opera scholar Chan Sau-yan. Today the industry is heavily supported by the Hong Kong government, which opened the $346 million Xiqu Centre in January to host performances.
While most Cantonese operas staged in Hong Kong follow traditional themes, Li’s productions are not the first to comment on political issues or veer away from tales of gods and antiquity.
“When Chinese opera first evolved in the 11th century, it was a social commentary exposing the misdemeanors of the literati and the officials,” Chan said. “My theory is Chinese opera has long been a form for the common people for the underrepresented people but then of course later in the Qing dynasty it has been turned into a royal form of art patronized by the royal families.”
During the 1930s, another tumultuous era in Chinese history, a number of Cantonese operas staged in Hong Kong and southern China featured contemporary settings and political themes, he said.
For as much as it may poke fun at contemporary geopolitics, Trump on Show, however, has another agenda, according to Li. The opera will contain many lessons for the controversial U.S. president and includes a cathartic scene in which North Korean leader Kim Jong-un makes Trump a cheeseburger in the White House kitchen.
“In this opera we try to make everybody understand unity is the best way, love is the best way to solve all the best problems,” Li said.
He hopes as well that he can one day stage the performance for the U.S. president in Washington.
Trump on Show runs from April 12 to 15 at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong.
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Meatless Burgers Go Mainstream
Vegetarian patties have long been available to Americans seeking healthier alternatives to hamburgers. Mainstream fast food chains also have been looking for healthier alternatives that would not compromise on flavor. Burger King teamed with California-based Impossible Foods to create a meatless hamburger that would taste as good as its world famous Whopper. The new meatless option was rolled out in 59 Burger King restaurants in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Facebook, Rights Groups Hit Out at Singapore’s Fake News Bill
Singapore submitted wide-ranging fake news legislation in parliament on Monday, stoking fears from internet firms and human rights groups that it may give the government too much power and hinder freedom of speech.
The law would require social media sites like Facebook to carry warnings on posts the government deems false and remove comments against “public interest.”
The move came two days after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said governments should play a more active role in regulating the online platform.
But Simon Milner, who works on Facebook’s public policy in Asia, said after the law was tabled, the firm was “concerned with aspects of the law that grant broad powers to the Singapore executive branch to compel us to remove content they deem to be false and proactively push a government notification to users.”
“As the most far-reaching legislation of its kind to date, this level of overreach poses significant risks to freedom of expression and speech, and could have severe ramifications both in Singapore and around the world,” said Jeff Paine, managing director of the Asia Internet Coalition, an industry association of internet and technology companies in the region.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Singapore’s Law Minister K. Shanmugam said the new legislation would not hinder free speech.
“This legislation deals with false statements of facts. It doesn’t deal with opinions, it doesn’t deal with viewpoints. You can have whatever viewpoints however reasonable or unreasonable,” he said.
Tech giants Facebook, Twitter and Google all have their Asia headquarters in the city-state, a low-tax finance hub seen as a island of stability in the middle of the fast-growing but often-turbulent Southeast Asia region.
“Malicious actors”
Singapore, which has been run by the same political party since independence from Britain more than 50 years ago, says it is vulnerable to fake news because of its position as a global financial hub, its mixed ethnic and religious population and widespread internet access.
It is ranked 151 among 180 countries rated in the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, a non-government group that promotes freedom of information, below the likes of Russia and Myanmar.
The new bill proposes that the government get online platforms to publish warnings or “corrections” alongside posts carrying false information, without removing them.
This would be the “primary response” to counter falsehoods online, the Law Ministry said.
“That way, in a sense, people can read whatever they want and make up their minds. That is our preference,” Law Minister K. Shanmugam told reporters on Monday.
Under the proposals, which must be approved by parliament, criminal sanctions including hefty fines and jail terms will be imposed if the falsehoods are spread by “malicious actors” who “undermine society”, the ministry said, without elaborating.
It added that it would cut off an online site’s “ability to profit”, without shutting it down, if the site had published three falsehoods that were “against the public interest” over the previous six months.
It did not say how it would block a site’s profit streams.
The bill came amid talk of a possible general election this year. Law Minister Shanmugam declined to comment when asked if the new legislation was related to a vote.
“This draft law will be a disaster for human rights, particularly freedom of expression and media freedom,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director, Asia division, at Human Rights Watch.
“The definitions in the law are broad and poorly defined, leaving maximum regulatory discretion to the government officers skewed to view as “misleading” or “false” the sorts of news that challenge Singapore’s preferred political narratives.”
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Your Body: The Network You Didn’t Know You Had
Networks like Bluetooth connect our devices easily and effortlessly. But the area that these portable networks cover is big enough to make them hackable. Now, a group of engineers from Purdue has solved that problem by turning your body into a network. Kevin Enochs explains.
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Chinese Boxer Trounces Stereotypes, Depression to Become ‘Queen of the Ring’
Huang Wensi narrows her eyes and swings her fists towards her opponent, delivering a series of sharp punches before the referee finally separates the two, who have been dueling for seven rounds.
“I made it, my son!” screamed the 29-year-old as she danced in the ring before her rival, Thailand’s Jarusiri Rongmuang, from whom she snatched away the Asia Female Continental Super Flyweight Championship gold belt at the match in Taipei.
The dreadlocks-wearing Huang is one of a small but growing number of women in China to embrace professional boxing, relishing its intense nature despite traditional stereotypes that steer women away from such activities.
As a mother, she is also a rarity within a small circle of professional female boxers and clinching her top title on her son’s birthday last October made victory all the sweeter.
“A women is not just limited to being a wife or mother in the house,” said Huang, adding that her son, now aged 2-1/2, had jumped for joy during her video call to tell him of the win.
“I live for myself. This makes me truly happy. I hope there are more moms who could see this game. Besides living for family, you could also live for yourself.”
Born in a small town in China’s southern province of Guangdong, Huang started learning to box in 2002 after a coach spotted her potential at school. She joined a provincial team three years later, but retired in 2011, after an injury.
In 2015, she met the man who is now her husband and her son was born a year later. But after his birth, she suffered such severe depression that she was driven to contemplate suicide, she said.
That event spurred her comeback as a professional boxer, after spending a few years in grueling practice to regain her physique and strength, said Huang, who also works as a teacher in the coastal city of Zhejiang.
“I knew that was my only way out,” she said.
After the victory, fans and friends surrounded Huang to celebrate her medal.
“Don’t call me a king,” she said. “Please call me the queen of the ring.”
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New York City’s Congestion Pricing Plan a First for US
New York will become the first U.S. city to impose congestion pricing, seen as a key weapon against global warming, following lawmakers’ approval on Monday of a state budget to fund the plan.
Drivers will have to pay to drive in busy midtown Manhattan, one of the city’s five boroughs, as part of an effort to reduce the number of cars and invest in public transit such as subways, officials said.
Fewer cars means lower emission of carbon dioxide, the leading gas that causes global warming, experts say.
Benefits are many
Fewer cars also means a better traffic flow, which creates lower emissions than cars idling, they say.
“You have to get fewer cars driving into Manhattan,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday.
“The traffic is so bad. I can’t tell you how many days myself, I just get out of the car and walk, because it’s so much faster.”
The plan is part of the state’s $175 billion budget that also includes a ban on disposable, single-use plastic bags.
New York becomes the first major U.S. city to follow the lead of London, which began levying a congestion charge on vehicles driving into the city center in 2003, and a handful of other international locations including Stockholm and Singapore.
The system has succeeded in reducing air pollution and traffic in London, which currently charges drivers £11.50 ($15.24) per day during weekday business hours.
Plan would start in 2021
After introduction of the congestion charge, bus ridership in central London increased by 37 percent in the first year, and traffic congestion dropped by about a quarter, research found.
Beginning in 2021, New York drivers will likely be charged more than $10 (7.70 British pounds) to travel below 60th Street in Manhattan, essentially south of Central Park in an area that includes Broadway theaters, Wall Street banks and high-end shopping.
The precise amount of the fees will be decided later as will be the possibility of exemptions for taxis, ride-sharing drivers and other issues, officials say.
While an earlier campaign for congestion effort failed more than a decade ago under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, this effort succeeded in part due to the promise of raising badly needed funds for the deteriorating subway system, experts said.
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Movie Theater Owners, Studios and Stars Convene at CinemaCon
The movie industry — everyone from the Hollywood studios that produce the films to the companies that make the screens, speakers and seats in theaters — are descending on Las Vegas this week for CinemaCon. The future of film going will be in the spotlight as the annual trade show kicks off Monday at Caesar’s Palace.
There will surely be much celebration and self-congratulation for the record 2018 box office year, which exceeded $11.8 billion in ticket sales in North America, and recent successes like “Us” and “Captain Marvel.” Yet this year’s CinemaCon is coming at a time of great change in Hollywood. Streaming and how long movies play in theaters have been a conversation staple at CinemaCon in recent years, but Walt Disney Co.’s just-completed acquisition of 20th Century Fox will be the elephant in the room.
“People are really wondering what this consolidation is going to look like for the entire business,” said Kevin Grayson, the president of domestic distribution for STX Films.
On a practical level, it means there won’t be a separate presentation from Fox, which always staged an elaborate production, usually involving its former distribution chief in some kind of costume.
“We will absolutely miss the Fox presence, but we also need to support and embrace Disney for what they bring to our industry and what they’re going to look to do to further bolster the distribution line of great product,” said Mitch Neuhauser, the managing director of CinemaCon. “It’s going to be a very bittersweet convention. But we will change with the times and move forward in a productive way.”
In other words, the show must go on. Disney, which has been the market-leader for three years running, along with three of the other major studios, Universal, Warner Bros. and Paramount (Sony is sitting this year out), will come armed with splashy new footage, trailers and some of their biggest stars to hype their slates for the summer movie season and beyond to an audience of theater owners, from the biggest chains to the smallest mom and pop shops.
It’s not just the biggest studios: Lionsgate, Amazon, Neon and STX Entertainment will also be present, with some showing sneak peeks of upcoming films like “Wild Rose,” “Late Night” and “Long Shot.”
STX will kick off the main studio presentations Tuesday morning after a few remarks on the state of the industry.
“It really gives us that opportunity to shine a light on STX and show that we are not here for the short term, we are here for the long term,” said STX’s Grayson.
STX specializes in mid-range and mid-budgeted commercial films like “The Upside” and “Second Act,” and CinemaCon is an essential space to interact with not only the big players in exhibition but the people who own “twins and triples” in the middle of the country that are just as essential to their business.
“We’re releasing 10 to 12 films this year and 12 to 15 next year, “Grayson said. “So when the other studios are making the tentpoles, it allows us to fill that gap.”
Outside of the main theater, there will also be a whole world on the trade exhibition floor showing the latest and greatest in everything from theater technologies to concession snacks.
“There has been a non-stop momentum of new technology that is driving the industry,” said Neuhauser.
Ray Nutt, the CEO of Fathom Events, which specializes in event cinema, from classic movies to the Metropolitan Opera and even sporting events, agrees.
“That box office record doesn’t just happen because there’s good content out there,” Nutt said. “It happens because the amenities in the theaters are awesome these days, whether it’s luxury seating or enhanced food and beverage. These are all things that make going to the movie theater special and one of a kind.”
Julien Marcel, the CEO of Webedia Movies Pro, a tech and data company for the theatrical industry, predicts that there will also be much discussion over the “second digital revolution” in movie going.
“All movie experiences start online and the key challenge for exhibitors is how to adapt with this second digital revolution,” Marcel said. “The first digital revolution was when projection moved from analog to digital. Now we’re at the heart of the second digital revolution where the marketing goes all digital and the ticket sales go all digital.”
Marcel’s company recently published a study that said there was 18.7 percent growth in online ticket sales in 2018. Movie tickets purchased online currently make up about a quarter of all ticket sales.
He also expects there to be a lot of focus on the “subscription economy.” MoviePass might be struggling, but AMC and Cinemark have found successes with their own models and more companies are gearing up to do the same.
And even with all the changes afoot, the mood as ever going into CinemaCon is optimism.
“I’ve been around this business for 30 years now and it was always something that was coming along whether it was cable television or the VCR that was going to kill the industry,” said Nutt. “But people in this industry keep innovating in different ways to keep people coming back out to the theater to have that communal experience. It’s pretty gratifying to see the resiliency of the industry.”
CinemaCon runs through Thursday.
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Facebook Removes Accounts Linked to Indian Political Parties, Pakistan’s Military
Anjana Pasricha contributed to this report.
ISLAMABAD – Facebook has removed hundreds of accounts and pages linked to Indian political parties or the Pakistani military for what the company described as “coordinated inauthentic behavior or spam.” The Facebook or Instagram accounts, pages or groups were detected through internal investigations into account activity in the region before upcoming elections in India.
“These Pages and accounts were engaging in behaviors that expressly violate our policies. This included using fake accounts or multiple accounts with the same names; impersonating someone else; posting links to malware; and posting massive amounts of content across a network of Groups and Pages in order to drive traffic to websites they are affiliated with in order to make money,” Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said in a statement.
The social media giant has become much more conscious of user activity after a scandal in which data mining firm Cambridge Analytica used information from tens of millions of Facebook users to manipulate political campaigns in multiple countries, including the United States.
Indian political parties are relying heavily on social media to push forward their agenda in a tough general election that begins April 11, and the issue of fake news remains a major concern.
Facebook says 687 pages and accounts that were detected and suspended by its automated system were linked to India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, or INC. The Facebook statement also said the company removed 15 pages, groups and accounts tied to officials associated with Indian IT firm Silver Touch. The information technology firm is linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. One Silver Touch Facebook page was followed by 2.6 million accounts, compared to 206,000 followers of the INC-linked pages.
The INC tweeted that no official pages run by the party had been taken down. “Additionally, all pages run by our verified volunteers are also unaffected,” it said.
A party official who did not want to be named told VOA that Facebook has not shared further information with the party about the pages in question or provided a list of them.
Pratik Sinha, who runs fact-checking website AltNews.in, said Facebook’s announcement gives a “lopsided” view that only the opposition INC has been engaged in pushing spam. Sinha pointed out that Silver Touch, whose accounts were taken down, had spent much more on advertising on the social media platform compared to the pages created by the INC’s IT cell.
Pakistan’s military
In neighboring Pakistan, 103 pages or accounts linked to the media cell of that country’s military have been removed.
“Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found that it was linked to employees of the ISPR (Inter-Services Public Relations) of the Pakistani military,” the Facebook statement said.
These individuals, according to the statement, were operating “military fan Pages; general Pakistani interest Pages; Kashmir community Pages; and hobby and news Pages” with posts on politics and the military.
The ISPR declined to comment for this story.
Journalists or rights activists in Pakistan often complain of online trolling or harassment from fake accounts.
Journalist Gharidah Farooqi said she regularly faces threats and harassment online from accounts that appear to be military fan pages. She has complained to the military’s media wing, but been told the institution has nothing to do with the issue.
Another journalist, Asma Shirazi, told VOA she has faced an “organized and institutionalized” campaign against her online for her coverage of opposition leaders, particularly ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Shirazi added that she has been accused of being “anti-Pakistan” and taking bribes from Sharif’s (Pakistan Muslim League) party.
Last week, several Facebook accounts posted pictures and personal details — such as home address and contact details — of rights activist Marvi Sirmed and incited people to kill her after falsely accusing her of acting against Islam and promoting a “free sex, incestuous society.”
Sirmed is a regular critic of the military, as well as the current administration of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Facebook has already taken down at least one account, but Sirmed said several others remain. Sirmed says she has complained to local authorities and is awaiting a response.
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Federal Study Gives New Options for People With Rare Cancers
People with rare cancers have been out of luck — not only do most lack good treatments, but drug companies also don’t pursue them because of small potential sales. Now, a federal study that pools these folks gives them strength in numbers and new options.
The first results from this novel effort were revealed at an American Association for Cancer Research conference Sunday in Atlanta. They suggest that for people with one of these unusual diseases, there seems to be a way to predict who will benefit from a drug combo that boosts the immune system and who will not.
“For the patients that it works for, it’s phenomenal, it’s life-changing … but it’s not for everybody,” said one study leader, Dr. Sandip Patel of the University of California, San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center.
Brigitte Sagasser, 54, of San Marcos, California, is one study participant who seems to be benefiting. Her tumors have been shrinking since starting the treatment a year ago for a rare type of ovarian cancer that defied surgeries, chemotherapy and hormone therapy.
“I’ve tried all kinds of stuff before and nothing really helped in the long run,” she said. “I felt like I was kind of out of choices on what could be done.”
Rare cancers individually affect fewer than 6 in 100,000 people a year, but collectively make up 22% of all cancer cases. They include tumors in the brain, blood, glands, bones, and skin, and there’s often not even a study that patients can join to test an experimental drug or therapy.
“We’re trying to fill that gap” by funding the federal study, said Dr. Elad Sharon of the National Cancer Institute.
550-plus patients enrolled
It has enrolled more than 550 patients in the U.S. and Canada since it started in 2017. Currently, it’s testing a combo of two immunotherapy drugs, Opdivo and Yervoy — in people grouped into “buckets” according to their tumor type. The drugs’ maker, Bristol-Myers Squibb, is donating them for the study.
One of these buckets just reached critical mass to yield results — neuroendocrine tumors, which can form many places in the body but often in the lungs or digestive tract. Biopsies when the disease is diagnosed classify the cases as high, low or intermediate grade according to how aggressively the cells seem to be growing.
In the study of 32 patients, the drug combo only worked for high-grade tumors. Eight of the 18 patients saw their tumors significantly shrink. None of the others did.
In the high-grade group, survival at six months without worsening disease was 31% — better than the 10% that doctors historically have seen for such patients, said Patel, who has been a paid adviser to Bristol-Myers and several other companies.
Avoiding false hope
“It gives us a glimpse into what can happen,” said another study leader, Dr. Razelle Kurzrock at the San Diego cancer center. “If we get it right, maybe we can get it to work in more patients.”
About one-quarter of all patients had symptoms typical of immune system therapies — effects on the liver, fatigue, nausea — and 6% had colitis, gut inflammation. But side effects were manageable and not severe, Patel said.
Identifying which patients are likely to benefit from these drugs spares others these side effects, expense and false hope.
Sagasser developed a problem from Yervoy, but continues to get Opdivo every two weeks. She is looking forward to next year, when it will be 20 years since she was first diagnosed.
“It will be a party next year, believe me,” she said. “I expect to be cancer-free by then and for good.”
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Facebook Reveals How it Ranks Items in The News Feed
Facebook is lifting the lid on the algorithm that decides which posts appear in its news feed, as part of a drive to be more transparent and offer greater control to users.
The feature “Why am I seeing this post?”, being rolled out from Monday, offers some insight into the tens of thousands of inputs used by the social network to rank stories, photos and video in the news feed, the foundation of the platform.
“The basic thing that this tool does is let people see why they are seeing a particular post in their news feed, and it helps them access the actions they might want to take if they want to change that,” Facebook’s Head of News Feed John Hegeman told reporters on Monday.
After a series of privacy scandals, Facebook needs to regain users’ trust as it prepares to roll out a single messaging service combining Facebook messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram that could make it even more central to users’ communications.
The new news feed feature will show users the data that connect them to a particular type of post, Hegeman said, for example that they are friends with the poster and they’ve liked their posts more than others, they’ve frequently commented on that type of post before, or that the post is popular with users with the same interests.
It will detail some of the interactions that lead the algorithm to reach its conclusion, he said, although it will not show all of the thousands of inputs that influence the decision.
“We’ve tried to really focus on the signals that are most important and play the biggest role in what causes people to see a post or not,” Hegeman said.
“We don’t think this is going to solve everything on the theme of transparency but we think this is an important step.”
Facebook developed the new tool with research groups in New York, Denver, Paris and Berlin, he said, and as a result of feedback Facebook has made it easy for users to access tools to control what is in the news feed themselves.
Facebook is also updating its “Why Am I Seeing this Ad?” feature launched a few years ago with additional details, Hegeman said, such as explaining how ads work that target customers using email lists.
The company shifted its strategy for its centerpiece news feed in early 2018 when it decided to prioritize posts from family and friends and downgrade non-advertising content from publishers and brands.
your ad hereDrudge Report: Mick Jagger to Undergo Heart Valve Replacement Surgery
The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is to undergo heart valve replacement surgery this week in New York and is expected to a make a full recovery, U.S. website Drudge Report said on Monday, citing unidentified sources.
The group have postponed a tour of the United States and Canada to give Jagger time to receive medical treatment, the veteran rock band said on Saturday.
The 75-year old is expected to back on stage by summer, Drudge Report said.
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61-Year-Old Serves as Surrogate Mother for Son, His Husband
A 61-year-old Nebraska woman who served as a surrogate mother for her son and his husband has given birth to a baby girl.
Matthew Eledge and Elliot Dougherty were talking about becoming parents when Eledge’s mother and Dougherty’s sister offered to help.
Cecile Eledge was 60 at the time and had gone through menopause, but she was approved after extensive screening. Dougherty’s sister was the egg donor, and after doctors used Eledge’s sperm to fertilize the egg, the embryo was implanted.
Cecile Eledge gave birth last week at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The family says they’ve received nothing but support.
Dr. Ramzy Nakad is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who worked with the family. Nakad tells the Omaha World-Herald that doctors keep older expectant mothers under heightened surveillance, and in this case, “Everything was aligned for a good outcome.”
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TSA’s Social Media Highlight Weird Stuff in Travelers’ Bags
David Johnston stands over a table full of peculiar items confiscated at Dulles International Airport: a glittery clutch with brass knuckles as a clasp. A perfume bottle shaped like a grenade. A rusted circular saw blade. A pocket-sized pitchfork.
None of those is quite right. Then Johnston sees it: a guitar shaped like a semi-automatic rifle. Bingo. It will do nicely for the Transportation Security Administration’s social media accounts.
Johnston, TSA’s social media director, is following in the footsteps of Curtis “Bob” Burns, who created unlikely internet buzz for the not-always-beloved agency by showcasing the weirdest stuff travelers pack in their carry-ons. He died suddenly in October at age 48.
Burns’ work created a model for other federal agencies. The quirky photos combined with a hefty dose of dad humor helped lure in more than a million followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, who would then see important messages about the do’s and don’ts of airline travel.
“How are we going to replace Bob? The reality is we can’t,” said Johnston. “We had a unique situation with him, but we can still be entertaining and help people as we find our way forward without him.”
On the blog, Burns shared a weekly count of firearms that TSA officers found at checkpoints nationwide. He did a summary of knives and all matter of other bizarre and sometimes scary items that travelers had stuffed into their bags, pockets, purses or briefcases.
In one Instagram post, someone tried to bring on a glove with razors for fingers and Burns (naturally) made a “Nightmare on Elm Street” joke.
“It’s safe to sleep on Elm Street again. Freddy lost his glove at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).”
The agency’s Instagram account won three Webby awards last year, including the People’s Voice Award for weird social content marketing. In his acceptance speech, Burns eyed the award, shook it and declared: “This Webby is carry-on approved!”
Johnston, who worked with Burns for about three years, and has been in government jobs for nearly a decade, has tried to keep it up all on his own, but it’s been tough.
Johnston sent out a Valentine’s Day post that showed off a throwing star, ax and double-edged dagger confiscated from a passenger’s carry-on bag. (“Safe travels, you romantic fool!”) And it was national puppy day recently, so that was an excuse for a photo of Cole, a big-eyed TSA explosives detection dog.
TSA is growing its social media staff — bringing in three more workers to expand its social media presence. The staff will continue to use fodder sent in by officers around the country, who seize all manner of unusual items people try to bring onboard. But it’s hard to find people who have both the government know-how and a sense of humor that resonates.
Burns’ humor
Johnston said the thing that made Burns’ posts so special was Burns himself.
“When you look at his posts, you’re seeing a window into his soul,” he said. “It really was from his heart. He was a fun, happy guy.”
Burns’ sister-in-law, Candy Creech, said he had a dry sense of humor and a hefty dose of patriotism: He had served in the Gulf War. Burns had worked in airports before taking over social media and believed there was public negativity around TSA. He wanted to change that.
“And I think he felt he could change that by communicating with people in a way that wasn’t scolding,” she said. “He was one of a kind.”
During a TSA Facebook live, “Ask Me Anything” episode last year, Burns said the success of the account was partly due to the shock value.
“People don’t come to a government Instagram account and expert to see humor,” Burns said. “And they also don’t expect to see these crazy things that people are trying to bring on a plane.”
‘They Brought What?’
At Dulles, in the prohibited items section, Johnston sees a few possibilities for TSA’s YouTube series called “They Brought What?” including a large snow globe with big a white fairy imprisoned in some kind of liquid (It’s creepy and it has liquid, so they can highlight the liquid restrictions.)
He passes over the four pairs of nunchucks (Yawn — you can’t believe how many people bring those) and a handful of pocket knives. He stops at a large bullet from Afghanistan that has been altered to be a cigarette lighter and pen.
“The things people think of,” he said. Turning more serious for a moment, Johnston notes the importance of showing off these items, especially to people who aren’t well-traveled.
“The bottom line is our social media pages makes travelers better informed, so they have a better experience and it frees up our officers to do what they need to do — look for the bad actors,” he said.
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Measles Count in US This Year Surpasses All of 2018
U.S. health officials report that the number of measles cases through the first three months of this year have surpassed the count for all of 2018.
There have been 387 cases through March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. There were 372 last year. It’s the most since 2014, when 667 were reported.
This year’s numbers have been driven by outbreaks in several states, including New York, California, Illinois, Texas and Washington.
Most people who get measles have not been vaccinated. Measles is spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, and is extremely contagious.
For most people, measles is miserable but not life-threatening. There have been three measles-related deaths reported since 2000, including two in 2003 and one in 2015.
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Rapper Nipsey Hussle Shot and Killed at 33
Nipsey Hussle, the skilled and respected rapper who earned a Grammy nomination this year for his major-label debut and was heavily respected in South Los Angeles where he grew up, has died, authorities said. He was 33.
The Los Angeles Crisis Response team said Sunday that “we lost a great musician” and support has been offered to Hussle’s family.
“Our prayers are with them and all those who knew and loved Nipsey Hussle,” the crisis team said.
Police said three men were shot Sunday and one of them killed outside Marathon Clothing, the store Hussle owns. Police said the other two men were in stable condition.
Representatives for the rapper didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking confirmation of his death.
A large crowd of fans and residents gathered behind police lines as night fell. Detectives were canvassing the area for witnesses and looking to see if any surveillance video captured the incident, police Lt. Chris Ramirez said.
Mayor Eric Garcetti tweeted his condolences Sunday.
“Our hearts are with the loved ones of Nipsey Hussle and everyone touched by this awful tragedy. L.A. is hurt deeply each time a young life is lost to senseless gun violence,” Garcetti tweeted. “My Crisis Response Team is assisting the families coping with shock and grief.”
Hussle, whose real name is Ermias Asghedom, was born on Aug. 15, 1985, in the Crenshaw neighborhood of south Los Angeles.
The Eritrean-American said his first passion was music but getting resources was tough since he left his mother’s house at 14 to live with his grandmother. Hussle said he got involved in street life as he tried to support himself, and he joined the gang Rollin 60’s Neighborhood Crips as a teenager.
“The culture of my area is the gang culture … so by being outside, being involved with hustling, being in the hood, doing things to try to get money, being young, you know riding your bike through the hood, getting shot at, your loved ones and homies that’s your age getting killed, getting shot at … it’s like, we were just raised like if you with me and something goes now, I’m in it, whether I’m from the [expletive] or not,” he said in a 2014 interview with VladTV. “So after a while it just be like you always in the middle of some [expletive], you might as well, you know what I mean … be part of it. Or don’t be a part of it and get the [expletive] out the way.”
Music eventually happened for Hussle. The proud West Coast rapper released a number of successful mixtapes that he sold out of the trunk of his car, helping him create a buzz and gain respect from rap purists and his peers. In 2010 he placed on hip-hop magazine XXL’s “Freshman Class of 2010” — a coveted list for up-and-coming hip-hop acts — alongside J. Cole Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, Jay Rock and others.
Hussle continued to build more hype for himself, and Jay-Z even bought 100 copies of Hussle’s 2013 mixtape “Crenshaw” for $100 each, sending the budding rapper a $10,000 check.
But Hussle, who was once signed to Sony’s Epic Records, hit a new peak with “Victory Lap,” his critically acclaimed major-label debut album on Atlantic Records that made several best-of lists last year, from Billboard magazine to Complex. The album debuted at No. 4 on Billboard’s 200 albums charts and featured collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Diddy, CeeLo Green and more.
At this year’s Grammy Awards, “Victory Lap” was one of five nominees for best rap album in a year that hip-hop dominated the pop charts and streaming services and a number of top stars released projects, including Drake, Eminem and Kanye West. Cardi B’s “Invasion of Privacy” won the honor last month, while the other nominees were Travis Scott, Pusha T and Mac Miller.
“It’s my debut album so for my first one (to be nominated) out the gate, it’s like, it was overwhelming a little bit. It was … inspiring, humbling,” he said in an interview with the Recording Academy on the 2019 Grammys red carpet.
Hussle attended the Grammys with his daughter. The rapper was engaged to actress Lauren London.
The world mourned his death on social media Sunday. NBA star Steph Curry tweeted, “God please cover and restore (at)NipseyHussle right now!!!”
“This doesn’t make any sense! My spirit is shaken by this!,” Rihanna wrote on social media while posting photos of Hussle with his daughter and another with his fiance. “Dear God may His spirit Rest In Peace and May You grant divine comfort to all his loved ones! I’m so sorry this happened to you (at)nipseyhussle.”
Snoop Dogg posted a video of himself and Hussle together on Instagram, and posted a second clip sending prayers to the rapper’s family.
“Prayers out to the whole family man. This [stuff has] got to stop man,” he said in the second video.
Rapper Nas mourned Hussle’s death on Instagram and wrote, “It’s dangerous to be an MC. Dangerous to be a b-ball player. It’s dangerous to have money. Dangerous To Be A Black Man.”
“So much hatred. We live like our brothers and sisters in third world countries live. Right in America,” he continued. “Its so deep rooted. It’s not a easy fix. Hard to fix anything when kids are still living in poverty. I ain’t shutting up though, Nipsey is a True voice. He will never be silenced.”
Outside of music, Hussle said he wanted to provide hope and motivation to those who grew up in Crenshaw like him, and pay it forward.
Hussle was also a strong businessman. In a story published in February, Forbes wrote that the rapper and business partner Dave Gross purchased the Crenshaw plaza where his Marathon Clothing store is located, and had plans to knock it down and “rebuild it as a six-story residential building atop a commercial plaza where a revamped Marathon store will be the anchor tenant.”
“Watching Nipsey inspired me to invest and own in our communities,” Emmy-nominated actress Issa Rae, also from Los Angeles, wrote on Twitter.
In 2016, Hussle and rapper YG released the protest song “FDT,” short for “[Expletive] Donald Trump,” criticizing the U.S. President’s policies when he was the Republican presidential candidate.
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ePUMB skype chat
