India Asks WhatsApp to Explain Privacy Breach
India has asked Facebook-owned WhatsApp to explain the nature of a privacy breach on its messaging platform that has affected some users in the country, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday.A WhatsApp spokesman was quoted by the Indian Express newspaper on Thursday as saying that Indian journalists and human rights activists were targets of surveillance by an Israeli spyware. The company said it was “not an insignificant number” of people, but did not share specifics.WhatsApp’s comments came after the messaging platform sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group on Tuesday, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents including diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and government officials. NSO denied the allegations.“We have asked WhatsApp to explain the kind of breach and what it is doing to safeguard the privacy of millions of Indian citizens,” Prasad said in a tweet.WhatsApp said it had no comment on Prasad’s tweet, but referred to a previous WhatsApp statement that the company believes people have the fundamental right to privacy and no one else should have access to their private conversations.Facebook’s WhatsApp Allows Users to Control Who Can Add Them to Group Chats
Facebook Inc on Wednesday changed the privacy settings on its WhatsApp messaging platform, allowing users to decide who can add them to chat groups, as it tries to revamp its image after growing privacy concerns among users.
WhatsApp, which has about 1.5 billion users, has been trying to find ways to stop misuse of the app, following global concerns that the platform was being used to spread fake news, manipulated photos, videos without context and audio hoaxes, with no way to monitor their origin or…
India is WhatsApp’s biggest market with 400 million users. Globally, the platform is used by some 1.5 billion people monthly and has often touted a high level of security, including end-to-end encrypted messages that cannot be deciphered by WhatsApp or other third parties.In its lawsuit filed in a federal court in San Francisco, WhatsApp accused NSO of facilitating government hacking sprees in 20 countries, calling it “an unmistakable pattern of abuse.”
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Nigeria Non-profits Take Cancer Awareness to the Streets
Nigeria accounts for the highest cancer mortality rate in Africa according to the World Health Organization. Low awareness, late detection and high cost of treatment are major factors contributing to increasing cancer mortality in the west African nation. But in October, also world cancer awareness month, several non-profits in Nigeria are taking information about the disease to the streets and sponsoring underprivileged patients for treatments. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
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Exhibit Dedicated To J.D. Salinger Opens In NYC
The New York Public Library just opened an exhibition dedicated to J.D. Salinger, the author of the classic coming-of-age novel Catcher in the Rye. For the first time, the reclusive writer’s fans will be able to see his rare letters, manuscripts, photos and other personal items. The glimpse into the writer’s creative process is attracting thousands. Anna Nelson visited the exhibit, and Anna Rice has her story.
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The Real-World Inspiration for Monsters Like Dracula, Frankenstein
Dracula, Frankenstein and other monsters may have literary origins, but Hollywood has turned them into iconic characters that have scared and thrilled audiences for decades.In the new exhibit, “Natural History of Horror,” the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County explains the link between art and reality, and shows how filmmakers looked to science and archeology as inspiration for hair-raising movie monsters.
“It’s really been a journey since those films were created to see how these different monsters have been interpreted and reinterpreted over the years,” said Jeff Pirtle, director of archives and collections, at NBC Universal.
“When you look at, for instance, Dracula, all you have to do is see a man in a cape and a tuxedo underneath — it’s an iconic image,” said Beth Werling, collections manager in the museum’s history department. “You know, it’s the suave, sophisticated Dracula during the day, and a vampire at night. You look at Frankenstein and the green makeup and the flat head and the bolts coming out of the neck, you know what you’re looking at.”
Visitors can see original monster movie posters and props donated by Universal, including the ball and chain that shackled Frankenstein’s reanimated corpse in the 1931 movie.
There is also a reproduction of the costume from the 1954 film “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” with movable gills.
Beyond the props, the exhibit highlights the real-life inspirations for the Hollywood horrors.
The myth and science that inspired the Creature from the Black Lagoon movie. (Photo: Elizabeth Lee / VOA)Milicent Patrick designed the “creature” from the Black Lagoon by studying reptiles, amphibians, fish and pictures of extinct animals. One of the creature’s origins came from the discovery in 1938 of coelacanths — fish that some biologists thought at the time to be the missing link between sea and land creatures.
The discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 inspired “The Mummy” in 1932. In the new exhibit, the wrappings of a real mummy are displayed near fake wrappings from the movie.
“The prop is pretty much what the originals were made out of — linen cloth, very coarsely woven. And in our case, with the prop mummy wrappings, they were dubbed with Fuller’s earth (clay material) to give them the kind of dusty, crusty look to age them,” Werling said. Fuller’s earth is “kind of like a dirt-like mixture that you would use when you wanted to age something or have something look dusty. As a matter of fact, it was used also in the makeup for Boris Karloff in ‘The Mummy.’ ”
For Dracula, the prop for the vampire bat is on display, along with a real bat and information on how Europeans used to think vampires caused various types of diseases.
The monsters may look different and have different origins, but they share a common thread in the horror films.
“What it really encompasses is characters that all they really want is to be loved,” Pirtle said. “Because you see Dracula, you see Frankenstein, you see the Mummy, you see the bride of Frankenstein, and it’s characters that just want to be accepted. And I think that’s just a universal theme that audiences identify with.”
Love and acceptance may explain why filmmakers keep making movies inspired by these Hollywood horrors.“Natural History of Horror” is on display now until April 19, 2020.
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Seychelles Leader Pleads for Action on Climate Change
Small island nations are among the most vulnerable to climate change. Many are fighting the effects of a warming planet but say they cannot succeed alone. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi heads to island waters for this story
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Security Firm Says Chinese Hackers Intercepted Text Messages
Chinese hackers with a history of state-sponsored espionage have intercepted the text messages of thousands of foreigners in a targeted campaign that planted eavesdropping software on a telecommunications provider’s servers, a cybersecurity firm said.FireEye said in a report issued on Thursday that the hackers belong to the group designated Advanced Persistent Threat 41, or APT41, which it says has been involved in spying and cybercrime for most of the past decade. It said some of the targets were “high-value” and all were chosen by their phone numbers and unique cellphone identifiers known as IMSI numbers.
The cybersecurity firm would not identify or otherwise characterize the victims or the impacted telecoms provider or give its location. It said only that the telecom is in a country that’s typically a strategic competitor to China.The spyware was programmed to capture messages containing references to political leaders, military and intelligence organizations and political movements at odds with the Chinese government, FireEye said.FireEye’s director of advanced practices, Steven Stone, said that none of the known targets was a U.S. government official.The discovered malware, which FireEye dubbed MESSAGETAP, was able to collect data on its targets without their knowledge but could not read messages sent with end-to-end encrypted applications such as WhatsApp and iMessage.“If you’re one of these targets you have no idea your message traffic is being taken from your device because your device hasn’t been infected,” Stone said.FireEye said the hackers also stole detailed calling records on specific individuals, obtaining the phone numbers they interacted with, call durations and times.
A government representative at China’s embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.FireEye did not identify the maker of the equipment that was hacked or specify how the hackers penetrated the telecom provider networks.It said APT41 began using MESSAGETAP during the summer, which is around when pro-democracy protests began in Hong Kong. The firm said since its discovery, it has found “multiple” telecoms targeted by the malware.FireEye said it has observed APT41 targeting four telecoms this year as well as major travel services and healthcare providers in countries it did not identify.Details of the espionage operation come as the U.S. tries to persuade allied governments to shun Chinese telecom equipment providers led by Huawei as they build next-generation wireless networks known as 5G, claiming they represent a risk to national security.The U.S. government already has banned government agencies and contractors from using equipment supplied by Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese company. It is now seeking to bar their use in telecom projects that receive federal funding.Huawei vehemently denies that it has allowed China’s communist rulers to use its equipment for espionage, and Washington has presented no proof of such. U.S. officials say a 2017 Chinese law requires organizations and citizens to help the state collect intelligence.
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George W. Bush’s ‘Courage’ Portraits Exhibited in Kennedy Center
Washington’s Kennedy Center opened an unusual exhibition within the walls of its new art space, a collection of paintings by former president George W. Bush. The total of 66 oil paintings of military veterans will be displayed in the center this fall. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.
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Halloween Fan Lights Up Arlington
Every year on October 31, or Halloween, American streets overflow with candy and costumes. On average, people spend $86 a year on decorations, sweets, costumes and accessories. Yet some love the spooky holiday much more than others. Mariia Prus met with a true Halloween fan who takes the holiday frightfully seriously.
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Nationals Top Astros to Win First World Series
The Washington Nationals defeated the Houston Astros 6-2 Wednesday in the deciding seventh game of the World Series to claim their first Major League Baseball championship in franchise history.Washington had to rely on what had become a defining factor of their playoff run, staging a late comeback after falling behind early in the game.The Nationals played in five deciding games in October and at one point trailed in all five. Even making the playoffs seemed like a distant goal in May when the team was struggling with a 19-31 record.’We stayed in the fight’But Manager Dave Martinez, who faced numerous calls for him to be fired, preached resiliency and his motto that to turn things around the team needed only to win that day’s game.“Guess what, we stayed in the fight,” Martinez said Wednesday, echoing what had become a team slogan. “We won the fight!”A second-inning home run by Astros first basemen Yuli Gurriel put the Nationals and ace starting pitcher Max Scherzer in a 1-0 hole.Scherzer was pitching days after being scratched from a planned start in Game 5 of the series thanks to a neck injury. He and the Nationals fell behind 2-0 in the fifth inning as Houston shortstop Carlos Correa singled home Gurriel.Up to that point, Astros starting pitcher Zack Greinke had been moving methodically through the Washington lineup, allowing only a single by Nationals left fielder Juan Soto in the second inning. Things changed in the seventh inning.Washington Nationals left fielder Juan Soto, right, hugs catcher Kurt Suzuki after Game 7 of the baseball World Series against the Houston Astros, Oct. 30, 2019, in Houston.Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon sent a one-out Greinke pitch into the left field stands. Soto came to the plate next and reached on a walk, prompting Astros Manager A.J. Hinch to end Greinke’s night and put the game in the hands of relief pitcher Will Harris.No reliefThe first batter Harris faced was Washington designated hitter Howie Kendrick, already a star of the playoffs for hitting a grand slam in the deciding game of the first round that pushed the Nationals past their painful history of never winning a playoff series.Kendrick smacked the second pitch from Harris down the right field line where it slammed into the foul pole for a home run that put the Nationals ahead 3-2.A Soto single in the eighth inning widened the lead to 4-2, and right fielder Adam Eaton gave the Nationals more cushion in the top of the ninth with a single that scored two more runs.Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin allowed just two hits in three innings of work, while reliever Daniel Hudson tossed a perfect ninth inning as the Astros failed in their quest to turn their 107-win regular season into a reclamation of the World Series crown they won in 2017.“Let’s be honest, there’s 28 other teams that would love to have our misery today,” Hinch said after the loss. “We play to get here. We play to have an opportunity to win it all. And I just told our team, it’s hard to put into words and remember all the good that happened because right now we feel as bad as you can possibly feel.”A game like the season“The way this game went is the way this whole season went,” said Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who was the team’s first draft pick after it relocated from Montreal to Washington in 2005. “What a story. What a fun year, man.”The most valuable player of the World Series was Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg. He won Game 1 and Game 6 of the series while giving up just two runs and striking out seven batters in each contest.Strasburg called the experience of winning a championship “surreal.”“To be able to do it with this group of guys is something special. We didn’t quit.”The series made history in an odd way with the visiting team winning each of the seven games. Washington won games one, two, six and seven in Houston, while Houston won games three, four and five in Washington.
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Going Its Own Way: Twitter Bans Political Ads from Its Service
In a major break from other internet companies, Twitter said on Wednesday it would no longer accept political ads, a decision that will affect users and political campaigns in the U.S. and around the world.In a series of 11 tweets, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, said that while internet advertising is powerful and effective for advertisers, “that power brings significant risks to politics.”“We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally,” Dorsey said. “We believe political message reach should be earned not bought.”We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…?— jack ??? (@jack) October 30, 2019The ban, which will go into effect Nov. 22, will cover candidate ads as well as ads for political issues. Advertisements that encourage people to vote will remain.
Technology and elections
Twitter’s decision comes as internet firms have struggled with internet-fueled disinformation campaigns both in the U.S. and around the world.
Earlier on Wednesday, Facebook said it removed three Russia-backed disinformation campaigns in Africa that they were part of legitimate local organizations.
Since the birth of social media, tech savvy political candidates have gained an edge by using internet services – including buying ads on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter- to augment traditional media and talk directly to their supporters.But since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, mixing technology and electoral politics has come under increasing scrutiny. Echoed in Dorsey’s tweets is a darker view that technology’s success at helping candidates target and reach masses can create its own problems.“A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet,” Dorsey wrote. “Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.”A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.— jack ??? (@jack) October 30, 2019
Fighting against, profiting from misinformationTwitter’s decision will likely have little effect on the firm’s bottom line – less than $3 million was spent on political advertising on the service in the U.S. mid-term election, the firm’s chief financial officer tweeted. Still, it appears to end a struggle between the advertising business and Twitter’s fight against misinformation.“It’s not credible for us to say: ‘We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want!'”For instance, it‘s not credible for us to say: “We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want! ?”— jack ??? (@jack) October 30, 2019That comment is in stark contrast to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ongoing defense of his firm’s decision not to factcheck political ads.Zuckerberg told investors on Wednesday that he stands by that decision, adding that “ads can be an important part of voice — especially for candidates and advocacy groups the media might not otherwise cover so they can get their message into debates.”Twitter’s across-the-board ban on political ads earned the praise of one Silicon Valley executive.“I think this is the right call by Jack Dorsey and by Twitter,” said Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, chief marketing officer at Mozilla, the parent of the Firefox browser. In 2018, Mozilla stopped advertising across Facebook’s businesses because of Facebook’s data practices.“Accepting money to run ads that contain falsehoods isn’t the right thing to do for people,”Kaykas-Wolffsaid. “We know that the harm from misinformation is very real in political discourse. … You either vet the ads or you don’t run them.”It remains to be seen whether Twitter’s decision will influence other internet firms and how it will be received by people seeking office, who have now lost one way to reach voters.
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Nairobi Startup Pushes Cleaner Home Cooking Fuel
NAIROBI, KENYA — Catherine Mutua she has always used charcoal and gas to cook for her young family.But, the source of energy she grew up with was becoming too expensive. She found out that she can also cook with another kind of fuel, ethanol.”Before I was using the gas and charcoal,” Mutua said. “I shifted after I was educated how the fuel is cheap, safe for the kids, for the environment.”Mutua gets the ethanol from a filling station set up by the Koko Networks, a Nairobi-based start-up. The company also sells ethanol stoves that cost a customer about $70.Regina Anyango, owner of small food kiosk in Nairobi, uses ethanol fuel to prepare meals for customers. Her kitchen is free of fumes and smoke from charcoal use. (Mohammed Yusuf/VOA)Regina Anyango runs a food kiosk in Kangemi neighborhood in Nairobi. She says she no longer battles black fumes spewed out of her charcoal stove.”So far it has been very economical, no fume faster to use when you are cooking, Anyango said. “And it’s easy to control.”According to health experts, fumes from charcoal and kerosene contribute to respiratory diseases. They also produce carbon emissions that are heating up Earth’s atmosphere.Ethanol, by contrast, is made from food sources like sugar or corn, and is considered carbon-neutral.Some officials believe this kind alternative source energy can help reduce the number of trees cut down for the use of charcoal or firewood.The Koko network of tanks are serviced at least once a week with each station carries 300 liters of fuel. (Mohammed Yusuf/VOA)Michael Wakoli is the fuel supply manager for the Koko Networks. He told VOA ethanol is a more practical and convenient fuel to use.”Typically traditionally what will happen because of the nature of fuel that we used to cook — kerosene, charcoal — you will be forced to cook outside because of the harmful fumes that we have,” Wakoli said. “But we are giving you an in-house solution, which is 200-300 meters away, you can get for a very small bundle.”Wakoli said the filling stations are in parts of Nairobi with huge populations that are usually neglected.”So we have typically targeted dense market — Kawangware, Kibera, Kitengela area, Embakasi, Kahawa West — where we can reach many people as possible and because knowing the need of people and being near to them.” Koko Networks says its customer base has been growing and now serves up to 3,000 people.
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Twitter to Ban Political Advertisements
Twitter is banning all political advertising from its service, saying social media companies give advertisers an unfair advantage in proliferating highly targeted, misleading messages.
Facebook has taken fire since it disclosed earlier in October that it would not fact-check ads by politicians or their campaigns, which could allow them to lie freely. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress last week that politicians have the right to free speech on Facebook.
The issue arose in September when Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, refused to remove a misleading video ad from President Donald Trump’s campaign that targeted former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate. FILE – Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey leaves after his talk with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, June 7, 2019.In response, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, another presidential hopeful, ran an ad on Facebook taking aim at Zuckerberg. The ad falsely claimed that Zuckerberg had endorsed Trump for re-election, acknowledging the deliberate falsehood as necessary to make a point.
Critics have called on Facebook to ban political ads. CNN chief Jeff Zucker recently called the policy of allowing lies ludicrous and advised the social media giant to sit out the 2020 election until it can figure out something better. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted the change Wednesday , saying the company was recognizing that advertising on social media offered an unfair level of targeting compared with other mediums.
The majority of money spent on political advertising in the U.S. goes to television ads.
Twitter’s policy will start Nov. 22.
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Facebook Removes 3 Russian Networks It Says Engaged in Foreign Interference in Africa
Less than a week after the Africa-Russia Summit, Facebook has suspended three networks of Russian accounts it says were engaging in foreign interference in Africa.Facebook said the accounts targeted Madagascar, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon. The accounts supported select political figures and derided pro-democracy activists in the countries.Russia has had an increasing interest in engaging with African countries on trade and policy as sanctions continue to hurt its economy.Russian President Vladimir Putin organized the first Russia–Africa Summit and Economic Forum, which promoted increased economic relations between Russia and the continent earlier in October in Sochi, Russia.According to documents leaked by The Guardian, companies and groups affiliated with the Russian government have been cooperating with African politicians and interfering in elections. According to the documents, Madagascar’s president Andry Rajoelina won the election with Russian support. Rajoelina has denied the allegation.The Stanford Internet Observatory also reported that Russia was working with local media organizations on the African continent to spread disinformation.This represents a new tactic compared to what occurred with Russian influence ahead of the U.S. 2016 presidential election.The three networks are among the first subjects of Facebook’s new policies aimed at curbing “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”Facebook defined coordinated inauthentic behavior in an October press release as using fake accounts and deceiving people on the origins of pages and groups.According to The Stanford Internet Observatory, a total of 1.72 million accounts “liked” the now removed Facebook pages. Though some of these “likes” could be from the same account across multiple pages.The removal of the networks demonstrates Facebook’s commitment to prevent manipulation on its platforms, but it also shows the evolving nature of Russian methods since 2016.
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Dispensing Medical Marijuana
Cannabis is a medicinal plant, an herbal remedy to relieve symptoms or treat various diseases. In some U.S. states, marijuana is legal for treating specific health problems, but not at the federal level. Arizona is one state where marijuana is legal for both medicinal and recreational purposes. Aari Ruben lives in Arizona. Ruben is an advocate for marijuana legalization, drug policy reform and human rights. Ruben opened a medical marijuana dispensary, Desert Bloom Re-Leaf Center in Tucson. “When I was first exposed to cannabis, it was a social or recreational activity. As time went on and I became more familiar with cannabis and different strains and different effects, I became aware that there were medical uses, Ruben says. I believe the primary medical uses were in regard to treatment of cancer at that time,” says Ruben. “There was a lot of anecdotal evidence that cannabis was effective in treating cancer. As time went on, I began to do my own research and discovered that cannabis had a wide array of uses. Because of prohibition, the genetics, which are diverse, had been primarily bred for THC. And there were other potential medical benefits that could be gained by using land restraints or original genetic strains of cannabis to do new breeding projects with different focus.” Ruben says his dispensary provides people living with ailments different options for their health. He says he is proud to be able to provide alternative medicine to patients in need. “It gives people hope,” he says. Desert Bloom Re-Leaf Center operates in a 365 square-meter storefront where people with a medical card can purchase concentrates, topical tinctures and a variety of edibles. There is also a production site with a head grower and chemist who monitor products for quality assurance. Prior to opening the dispensary, Ruben worked as an administrator for a pain management and mental health clinic that treated people with opioids. “My experience was that those medicines create dependence and addictive behaviors in a large number of people. Patients get on opiates because of some type of injury or operation. They’re on well controlled prescribed amounts of opiates, and through the course of treatment those doses are increased because of their developing a tolerance and needing more medication to achieve the desired analgesic effect. And you know, at some point, the doctor has a responsibility to the patient and to the system that exists and that patients tend to get cut off or not allowed to increase their dose further, and that’s when problems start to arise. The medications themselves are extremely effective. We absolutely need them for surgery and for immediate emergent situations. However, they don’t seem to be a good alternative for most individuals for long term use. The toxic effects seem to outweigh the benefits.” California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana, in 1996. Since then, more than half of U.S. states have done so. Ruben says support continues to increase in the United States for the legalization of cannabis. “There’s more support for the legalization of marijuana than there has ever been. The last time that we were close to this amount of the voting populace in support was in the mid-70s. And we’ve surpassed the amount of people that support legalization of marijuana. The support for medical uses is at an all-time high, and I believe to be in the 80 or 90 percent range in terms of adults that support people having safe legal access to medical marijuana for reasonable medical use,” says Ruben. Although the federal government hasn’t given its approval to marijuana for medicinal use, it has signed off on three related compounds (cannabinoid, dronabinol or nabilone) as specific treatments. Ruben says new customers may come to his shop with very little information from their physician. And prescribing the best treatment for customers can be trial and error, but he says cannabis has a high safety profile. “We experiment and do our trial and error process with individuals with a high degree of security and confidence that nothing bad is going to happen to them, that we can navigate that safely and find what works for them, and use that information then to help others with similar circumstances. And so that to me is fascinating and one of the most interesting parts of my job, matching up the right plants with the right people, which happens organically over time.”
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Activist Thunberg Declines Climate Prize, Urges More Action
Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, who has inspired millions across the world to stage protests urging leaders to better tackle global warming, has declined an environmental prize, saying “the climate movement does not need any more prizes.”Two fellow climate activists spoke on Thunberg’s behalf at an award ceremony Tuesday in Stockholm for the regional inter-parliamentary Nordic Council’s prizes, reading a statement thanking the group for the honor. Thunberg, 16, is currently in California.But Sofia and Isabella Axelsson quoted Thunberg as saying that “what we need is for our rulers and politicians to listen to the research.”The Nordic Council hands out annual prizes for literature, youth literature, film, music and the environment, each worth 350,000 Danish kroner ($52,000).It was not the first prize that the climate activist has won or been nominated for.Three Norwegian lawmakers nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year because they believe “the massive movement Greta has set in motion is a very important peace contribution.”Last year, about three months into her school climate strike campaign, Thunberg declined another award, the Children’s Climate Prize, which is awarded by a Swedish electricity company, because many of the finalists had to fly to Stockholm for the ceremony.
Thunberg notes that flights contribute to global warming, so she sailed across the Atlantic Ocean for two weeks on a zero-emissions sailboat to reach New York. There the Swede scolded a U.N. climate conference in September , repeatedly asking, “How dare you?”
“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and yet all you can talk about is money. You are failing us,” she said.Weeks later, Thunberg won the 2019 Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel” — “for inspiring and amplifying political demands for urgent climate action reflecting scientific facts.”In May 2019, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine, which named her a “next generation leader.”
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Africa’s Only Wheelchair Rugby League Battles It Out
South Africa is home to one of the world’s top rugby’s teams. It’s also home to Africa’s only national league of wheelchair rugby. But while wheelchair rugby is an amateur sport with limited resources, there is no shortage of dedication and determination.The finals of the South African Wheelchair Rugby League mean the country’s best players literally get to crash things out on the court.As a boy, Okkie Anker of Pretoria dreamed of becoming part of South Africa’s top rugby team, the Springboks. But he broke his neck during a high school match in 2011. Now, he considers himself honored to have played twice for the Wheelboks, South Africa’s national wheelchair rugby team, and face off rugby’s famous pregame challenge ritual.“From the first day, I was just loving the game, and the contact and the adrenalin that pumps is almost the same than normal rugby. We faced the haka two times in 2013 and three times in 2015. … It was a great experience to still face the haka and then sing the national anthem,” Anker said.Leratho Netchane is not only taking the lead during warmup, she became Africa’s first female wheelchair rugby player 12 years ago. After taking some time off, she’s back, playing with the Mustangs of Bloemfontein in the Free State Province and encouraging the next generation of players.“With the limited resources that we have, we are trying. And I believe that the Lord is going to take us where we need to go, because now whatever we do, especially as a team, we’re not doing it only for ourselves,” Netchane said.Playing wheelchair rugby is pricey. An imported, specialized high-performance wheelchair alone costs just over 8,000 U.S. dollars. But former Wheelbok and Mustang player, Jared McIntyre, developed a beginner’s wheelchair that costs about one-fifth the price of imported ones.“If we have the means to … as I mentioned, as in South Africa, create awareness amongst the sport with cost-effective chairs, we can just as well do it in other countries. And one of these days, you know, have more African countries competing against each other,” Mcintyre said.South Africa’s wheelchair rugby team hasn’t competed internationally since 2015 because it’s been simply too expensive.South Africa Wheelchair Rugby Vice President David Jacobs says despite the cost, they’re working to develop the sport across Africa.“With our affiliation to the South African Rugby Union and the other rugby unions in South Africa, we’re now slowly starting to create further awareness. And once that awareness got a good foundation, we’ll then look at rolling that out into the rest of Africa into the rugby-playing countries of Africa,” Jacobs said.After plenty of sweat, the Mustangs lifted the trophy for the fourth time running in this year’s South African Wheelchair Rugby League.Finances permitting, South Africa Wheelchair Rugby hopes to compete internationally again next year.
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Africa’s Only Wheelchair Rugby League Battles it Out
South Africa is home to one of the world’s top rugby’s teams, the Springboks. It’s also home to Africa’s only national league of wheelchair rugby, the only full-contact Paralympic sport. But while wheelchair rugby is an amateur sport with limited resources, there is no shortage of dedication and determination. Marize de Klerk reports from South Africa’s capital, Pretoria where South Africa’s top teams recently went head to head.
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A Female Drone Community Blooms Despite Industry Attempt to Target Men
After falling in love with flying her drone, a young videographer searched for a community of other female drone flyers—but couldn’t find one. So, she started her own. Deana Mitchell reports.
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After 20-year Wait, Emmerich Recounts WWII Battle in Drama ‘Midway’
Twenty years after first toying with the idea, German film director Roland Emmerich brings his World War II drama “Midway” to cinemas next month, focusing on the 1942 Battle of Midway.Known for big-budget disaster movies filled with special effects like “Independence Day” and “Godzilla,” Emmerich long wanted to recount the giant air and sea battle in the Pacific during which U.S. forces defeated an attacking Japanese fleet.The June 4-7 1942 clash, the subject of a 1976 film starring Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda, took place six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which had catapulted the United States into the conflict.But a new studio deal, financing and the 2001 release of romantic war drama “Pearl Harbor” put Emmerich’s version project on hold, he told Reuters in an interview.”I chose another war movie, I did ‘The Patriot’ but it (‘Midway’) never left my mind,” the 63-year-old said referring to his 2000 film set during the American Revolutionary War. “All of a sudden ‘Pearl Harbor’ was there so I had to wait.””Midway” was rekindled several years ago when work on a script began.The film focuses on real-life U.S. Navy bomber pilot Richard ‘Dick’ Best, played by British actor Ed Skrein, and Emmerich said he worked with the U.S. Navy to make the movie, having to convince some officials about the production.”I had to talk to the admiral who was running Pearl Harbor, all the different places there … and he was very dismissive.He said ‘this is one of these Hollywood movies (which) has a cheesy love story and uses our soldiers, to tell it,'” he said. “And I said, ‘well, not really’ … I said, my movie is about Dick Best and … from that moment, he was so supportive .. and he ended up even being an extra.”A special screening of “Midway” was held in Hawaii for U.S. Navy members at the base.Despite the long wait, Emmerich said the upcoming release of the film, which also stars Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid and Nick Jonas, was timely.”In the last three, four, five years, because of the whole refugee crisis, nationalism is on the rise again, and right wing parties are on the rise again and it’s great to remind people that at one point nationalism led to World War II,” he said.
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HBO Orders 10 Episodes of ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel
HBO is green-lighting a new “Game of Thrones” prequel after reportedly canceling another that starred Naomi Watts.The cable channel said Tuesday that it’s given a 10-episode order to “House of the Dragon,” set 300 years before the original series that ended its eight-season run in May.The prequel is based on George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood,” HBO said. The new drama was co-created by Martin and Ryan Condal, whose credits include “Colony.”It will focus on House Targaryen, made famous in “Game of Thrones” by Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys and her fearsome dragons.”House of the Dragon” was announced by HBO programming president Casey Bloys during a presentation for HBO Max, the streaming service launching in May 2020 . A spinoff of HBO megahit “Game of Thrones” would be a key attraction in the increasingly crowded streaming marketplace.HBO declined comment on reports Tuesday that it had dropped another “Game of Thrones” prequel set thousands of years before the original. A pilot episode starring Watts had been filmed in Northern Ireland.The straight-to-series order for “House of the Dragon,” whether a sign of faith in the project or pressure to get it into production, avoids letting devotees of the fantasy saga down once more.Casting and an air date were not announced.
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Protected Status Not Enough to Guard Threatened Nature Reserves, Scientists Find
Expanding the planet’s protected natural areas to safeguard vanishing forests and other ecosystems, and the species they protect, is unlikely to be effective on its own as human encroachment into reserves grows, scientists warned Tuesday.A study by Cambridge University researchers, which looked at thousands of conservation areas in more than 150 countries, found that, on average, protected designation is not reducing human encroachment in vulnerable areas.Both chronic underfunding of efforts to protect the land, and a lack of engagement with local communities that live there are hurting conservation efforts, they found.Creating protected areas is “a type of intervention that we know can work, we know is absolutely essential for conserving biodiversity, at a time in this world’s history where it has never been under higher pressure,” said lead author Jonas Geldmann.”But despite that we are seeing that some of our protected areas are not managing to mitigate or stop that increasing pressure,” said Geldmann, of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute.One-sixth of the globe now falls within protected areas, the study noted. Those include national parks, nature reserves and wilderness areas, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Database on Protected Areas.Such protected areas are vital for preserving diverse ecosystems, and helping to curb climate change by conserving carbon-sequestering forests and other vegetation.The United Nations Environment Program estimates protected areas hold 15% of the carbon stored on land.”Protected areas are one of the most important things that we can do to stem the loss of biodiversity and to help solve the climate crisis,” said Andrew Wetzler, managing director of the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council’s nature program. “The destruction of natural habitat is the single biggest driver of extinction.”Cambridge researchers said their analysis is by far the largest of its kind.From lights to cropsScientists examined over 12,000 protected areas between 1995 and 2010, using census and crop yield data as well as satellite evidence of agriculture and lighting at night to assess human encroachment.The majority of protected areas in every global region saw increased human activity. However, researchers said encroachment appeared more serious in nations with fewer roads and a lower rank on the Human Development Index.Across the northern hemisphere and Australia, protected status on average proved effective at slowing encroachment when compared with equivalent unprotected habitats.But in particularly biodiverse regions such as South America, sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia, pressure from human activity inside protected areas was significantly higher.The study found agriculture is a major driving force behind human encroachment in protected areas.African mangrove forest reserves, for instance, saw 13% greater losses to agriculture than unprotected mangrove areas between 1995 and 2010, the study found.”Because (protected areas) are supporting biodiversity, they are more likely to support a high agricultural yield,” Geldmann said. To farmers, “they are actually more attractive than the outside areas.”In order to safeguard protected areas, experts emphasized the need for governments to allocate additional resources.”Simply designating a place as protected can’t be the beginning and the end of a conservation effort,” Wetzler said. “We need to make sure protected areas are appropriately funded.”Consulting local communities and involving them with conservation efforts also is key, the experts said.”We’ve seen from other studies that if you don’t engage with the people living in and around the protected areas, if they’re not partners to the protected areas, then making (reserves) work is much more difficult,” Geldmann said.Local communities are too often left out of conversations about a protected area’s importance and upkeep, he said.”But when you start engaging them, there’s often a lot of value to be had for local communities as well as for biodiversity.”
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Study Triples Population at Risk of Climate-triggered Floods
The number of people threatened by climate change-triggered flooding is about three times higher than previously thought, a new study says. But it’s not because of more water.It’s because the land, especially in Asia and the developing world, is several feet lower than what space-based radar has calculated, according to a study in the journal Nature Communications Tuesday.So instead of 80 million people living in low-lying areas that would flood annually by 2050 as the world warms, this new study finds the population at risk is closer to 300 million people.And if emissions of heat-trapping gases continue unabated and Antarctic ice melts more in a worst-case scenario, around 500 million people could be at risk by the end of the century, according to the study by Climate Central , a New Jersey based non-profit of scientists and journalists.Space-based radar says 170 million are at risk in that scenario.For big picture global mapping of flooding threats, the go-to technology for elevation is NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission . But that doesn’t accurately show ground, instead mistaking rooftops and tree canopies for ground with an average error of 6.5 feet (2 meters), said Climate Central chief executive officer Ben Strauss, a scientist who studies sea level rise.For the United States, much of Europe and Australia, this is not a problem because those areas use airborne lidar radar, which is more accurate about true elevation. But in flood prone Asia and other places that’s not an option, Strauss said.So Climate Central used the shuttle radar, artificial intelligence and 23 different variables to create a computer model that is more accurate in globally mapping elevation, Strauss said. They then tested it against the airplane-generated data in the United States and Australia and found this computer model was accurate, he said.“This is a far greater problem than we understood,” Strauss said. “Far more people live in risky places today than we thought and the problem only multiplies in the future.”He said the new model found “a huge difference” in elevation in places such as Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Jakarta and Mumbai.Five outside sea level rise experts said the study highlighted a problem with current data, especially in Asia.“This study represents very significant progress in the understanding of the risk which climate change-related sea level will cause for hundreds of million of people before the end of this century,” said Jean-Pascal van Ypersele of the Universite catholique de Louvain in Belgium. “If hundreds or even tens of millions of people are flooded in Asia or Africa, it will create social and economic disruptions on a huge scale.”University of Colorado’s Steve Nerem said the problem is real, but he isn’t sold on the new model yet, partly because it is based on the shuttle radar to begin with.It does highlight an issue that needs to be fixed, said Katy Serafin at the University of Florida. “The longer we wait to address this, the less time we will have to develop adaptive and sustainable solutions to coastal flooding.”
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Prince’s Posthumous Book Released as Fans Continue to Mourn
Panic, joy, shock: Dan Piepenbring felt them all when Prince plucked him to collaborate on his first memoir, followed by more shock and profound sadness at news of the superstar’s death while the book was in its early stages.Though the project was thrown into chaos when Prince died on April 21, 2016, of an accidental drug overdose, his estate ultimately decided to press on, allowing Piepenbring and his publishing team free access to the pieces of his life left behind at his beloved Paisley Park, including the contents of his vault.Now, the highly anticipated collaboration, “The Beautiful Ones,” is out in the world with its release Tuesday as many fans continue to mourn, propelling the 33-year-old journalist into the spotlight to explain how he sorted it all out.Dan Piepenbring poses for a portrait at The Associated Press in New York City, Oct. 22, 2019.”There was a sense even from the start that it couldn’t really be happening,” Piepenbring told The Associated Press of his involvement. “It felt very surreal. There was also just a sense of joy, I think, at the possibility of meeting someone that I held in such high regard, someone whose music had been the soundtrack to the better part of my youth.”The book, from Spiegel & Grau, includes no bombshells, though Prince very much wanted to provide some, and a mere 28 memoir pages written in his elegant script and quirky style, replacing the word “I” with a drawing of a human orb, for instance. All told, Piepenbring spent 12 to 15 hours face-to-face with Prince in Minneapolis, New York and on tour in Melbourne.His own wordsTheir last conversation was just four days before Prince died. It was focused on his parents and their conflicting influences in his life. His father, John L. Nelson, was a disciplined, God-fearing jazz pianist with an explosive temper. His mother, Mattie Della Shaw, was a beautiful, fun-loving party girl with a stubborn, irrational streak — and a sneaky flair, as Prince wrote:”She would spend up what little $ the family had 4 survival on partying with her friends, then trespass in2 my bedroom, ‘borrow’ my personal $ that eye’d gotten from babysitting local kids, & then chastise me 4 even questioning her regarding the broken promises she made 2 pay me back.”The tumultuous nature of his parents’ relationship had a lasting impact.”The wound of Ur parents fighting is chilling when U’re a child,” Prince wrote. “If it happens 2 become physical, it can be soul-crushing.”Their conflicts, divorce when he was 7, and the dual impact on Prince and his work is the book’s prevailing theme.
“So much of his writing is about division in some way and the fight to make oneself whole again,” Piepenbring said. “There’s this kind of brokenness that he’s always working to repair.”Prince writes that his first memory was his mother’s eyes, describing her habit of throwing conspiratorial winks his way.”Sometimes when my father wasn’t playing piano he’d say something 2 my mother & she would wink at me. She never told me what it meant and sometimes it would be accompanied by a gentle caress of her hand 2 my face. But eye am quite sure now this is the birth of my physical imagination.”Big ideasPrince had big ideas for the book, considering at one time a “how to” on making it in the music business without selling your soul. At another point, he suggested that he and Piepenbring figure out a way to end racism. At still another, he wanted to focus on the importance of creative freedom.”I think he was really in the process of excavating his past with a level of detail and specificity that maybe he had avoided before,” Piepenbring said. “He had come to the realization that he really was in many ways the sum of his mother and father and they were the, sort of, two poles of his being.”Prince wrote on other subjects as well, including puberty (his stepfather took him to R-rated movies at a drive-in as a stand-in for the birds and bees talk), the blackouts and seizures he had as a child and his first kiss, with a girl of just 5 or 6. They’d play house.Doodles, lyrics, photosPiepenbring wrote a lengthy introduction explaining his encounters with Prince and how the book was completed. He wasn’t allowed to take notes during their first meeting so he was forced to reconstruct the conversation. Some of their chats are printed as marginalia in the book. There’s an abundance of hand-drawn childhood doodles and cartoons, along with lyrics Prince often wrote on whatever was handy, including a brown paper bag.There’s a photo album Piepenbring unearthed at Paisley Park that a sleepless Prince decided to put together in 1977 at age 19, only days from completing his debut album, “For You.” With witty remarks written in pencil, Prince sits on the hood of his first car in one shot. In another, he snapped his first paycheck from Warner Bros.There’s also an early outline he wrote for the 1984 film “Purple Rain” with an even darker story line than the one that made it onto screens. The film, based loosely on his life, won Prince an Oscar for best original sound score. In the 1982 treatment, “The Kid” character Prince plays is a diagnosed schizophrenic who as a child watches his mother shoot his father dead, then turns the gun on herself.Prince had envisioned playing both his mother and father in flashback scenes. The finished film, not written by Prince, involves a suicide attempt with a gun that the father survives.Many of the photos in the book are familiar to hardcore fans and it includes a heavy dose of previously published interviews with Prince. From the start, it was clear to Piepenbring that Prince envisioned him as something more than a ghostwriter.Prince was looking for a second voice to bring his vision alive in print, almost “like a sounding board,” said Piepenbring, who is based in New York and was working for Paris Review when, at age 29, he was chosen for the book.As for what might have been, Piepenbring said, “I think we would have gotten more of his story than we’ve ever seen, and I think we would have gotten not just this book but a number of books from him. He told me that he wanted to write a lot of books, and I really think he was serious about that.”
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New ‘Star Wars’ Movie Era in Disarray After ‘Game of Thrones’ Creators Exit
The exit of the “Games of Thrones” creators from the next “Star Wars” film left future stories in the science fiction saga up in the air Tuesday, although some fans welcomed their departure.David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had been hired in 2018 to write and produce a trilogy of new movies in the blockbuster Walt Disney Co franchise, with the first scheduled for release in December 2022.But the creators of HBO’s hit fantasy series said they were stepping away from the project to focus on new work for streaming service Netflix.”We love Star Wars. When George Lucas built it, he built us too,” Benioff and Weiss said in a statement late Monday.”But there are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects. So we are regretfully stepping away,” they added.Disney had said the trilogy from Benioff and Weiss was expected to tell a story separate from the Skywalker series that began with the 1977 film starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, and which is due to conclude with the December movie “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.”Disney and Lucasfilm did not return requests for comment Tuesday on how their withdrawal would affect the planned 2022 movie, details of which had not been announced.The “Star Wars” franchise is one of the most valuable in Hollywood. The 2017 film “The Last Jedi” took $1.3 billion at the global box office and Disney earlier this year opened “Star Wars” lands at its theme parks in California and Florida.Fans ‘relieved’Fans seemed relieved at the exit of Benioff and Weiss, given widespread disappointment at the conclusion earlier this year of their medieval fantasy TV series “Game of Thrones.””I am very relieved to read that D.B. Weiss and David Benioff have stepped away from their Disney/Lucasfilm deal (to create a new trilogy). The last two seasons of #GameOfThrones proved without source material … they are lost,” wrote Marty Kottick on Twitter.Others hoped their departure would clear the way for the first woman, or person of color, to direct or write a “Star Wars” movie.”Consider how many people who aren’t white men LOVE #StarWars, and would be more than happy to be a part of the next phase of the franchise!” tweeted a user, Liz Shannon Miller.Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy in a statement called Benioff and Weiss “remarkable storytellers.””We hope to include them in the journey forward when they are able to step away from their busy schedule to focus on Star Wars,” she added.In the worksDisney also has announced a separate “Star Wars” trilogy in the works by “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson. No release date has been unveiled.Meanwhile, “Star Wars” embarks on another phase on Nov. 12 when spinoff TV series “The Mandalorian” begins streaming on the new Disney+ service.
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