🇺🇸 **Alexa has been eavesdropping on you this whole time**
*CT Post/The Washington Post* - <https://archive.fo/x7OKb>

Many smart-speaker owners don't realize it, but Amazon keeps a copy of everything Alexa records after it hears its name. Apple's Siri, and until recently Google's Assistant, by default also keep recordings to help train their artificial intelligences.

So come with me on an unwelcome walk down memory lane. I listened to four years of my Alexa archive and found thousands of fragments of my life: spaghetti-timer requests, joking houseguests and random snippets of "Downton Abbey." There were even sensitive conversations that somehow triggered Alexa's "wake word" to start recording, including my family discussing medication and a friend conducting a business deal.

You can listen to your own Alexa archive here. Let me know what you unearth.

For as much as we fret about snooping apps on our computers and phones, our homes are where the rubber really hits the road for privacy. It's easy to rationalize away concerns by thinking a single smart speaker or appliance couldn't know enough to matter. But across the increasingly connected home, there's a brazen data grab going on, and there are few regulations, watchdogs or common-sense practices to keep it in check.

Let's not repeat the mistakes of Facebook in our smart homes. Any personal data that's collected can and will be used against us. An obvious place to begin: Alexa, stop recording us.
---------------

🇺🇸 **World's biggest brothel swamped with millennial adult VIRGINS 'not interested in sex'**
*Daily Star* - <https://archive.fo/PUWp1>

Dena, from famous Nevada legal brothel Sheri’s Ranch, revealed the Daily Star Online they having a boom of “late bloomers”.

Sheri’s Ranch is believed to be the largest establishment of its kind in the world.

The brothel styles itself as luxurious rest with a bar, spa, pool and a full range of services on the “sex menu”.

And ranch mama Dena revealed some of their clients are not interested in just sex.

She revealed some of their clients come and play video games as part of their session.

Dena told Daily Star Online: “I have noticed that there are more adult virgins than ever before coming to Sheri’s so that they can lose their virginity to a prostitute and learn the proper ins-and-outs of sex.

“While I’m not sure if these late bloomers are visiting us because they have been immersed in video games and virtual worlds throughout their teens, it does seem to make sense.

“Millennials” – who reached young adulthood in the 21st century – have been claimed to be having less sex.

The General Social Survey revealed that the share of men under 30 who aren’t having sex has tripled in the past decade.
---------------

🇷🇺 **Aeroflot plane crash: Russia jet 'struck by lightning'**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/Muf3p>

Passengers and crew on board a jet that was forced to make an emergency landing at a Moscow airport say it was struck by lightning moments before it crashed.

Reports of the strike came as survivors told how they escaped the Aeroflot jet which burst into flames on landing at Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday.

Forty-one of the 78 people on board were killed in the accident.

Investigators probing the cause of the crash have made no official comment on the claims it was hit by lightning.

Modern aircraft are built to withstand lightning strikes, and Russia's national carrier has said only that the plane returned to the airport for "technical reasons".

However passengers said the plane, which was heading for the northern Russian city of Murmansk, was struck just after take-off.

Pilot Denis Yevdokimov told Russian media that the lightning had interrupted communication with air traffic controllers and forced him to switch to emergency manual mode.

Dramatic video showed the plane making a very bumpy landing, bursting into flames after bouncing on the tarmac.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Infographic: U.S. Unemployment Rate Hits 49-Year Low**
*IBT* - <https://archive.fo/5Z6ce>

The U.S. labor market continues to run strong, creating an unexpectedly high number of 263,000 jobs in April. According to the latest jobs report, published today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent last month, the lowest level since December 1969 and down from a 30-year high of 10.0 percent measured in October 2009 in the aftermath of the latest recession.

Total nonfarm employment has now risen for 103 consecutive months as the U.S. economy created more than 20 million jobs since the end of the great recession in 2009. Nonfarm payrolls reached
151,095,000 in April, up from 130,501,000 in July 2009, the first month of the current expansion.
----------------

🌍 **1 million species of plants and animals at risk of extinction, U.N. report warns**
*CBS* - <https://archive.fo/q93us>

People are putting nature in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with the risk of extinction looming over 1 million species of plants and animals, scientists said Monday.
But it's not too late to fix the problem, according to the United Nations' first comprehensive report(<https://archive.fo/Gk0jM>) on biodiversity.

"We have reconfigured dramatically life on the planet," report co-chairman Eduardo Brondizio of Indiana University said at a press conference.

Species loss is accelerating to a rate tens or hundreds of times faster than in the past, the report said. More than half a million species on land "have insufficient habitat for long-term survival"
and are likely to go extinct, many within decades, unless their habitats are restored. The oceans are not any better off.

"Humanity unwittingly is attempting to throttle the living planet and humanity's own future," said George Mason University biologist Thomas Lovejoy, who has been called the godfather of biodiversity for his research.
He was not part of the report.

"The biological diversity of this planet has been really hammered, and this is really our last chance to address all of that," Lovejoy said.

Patricia Miloslavich, a contributor to the report and senior professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at Universidad Simón Bolívar, spoke with "CBSN AM" on Monday about the conclusions.
----------------

🇱🇰 **All suspects in Sri Lanka bombings arrested or dead: acting police chief**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/rQsuB>

All suspected plotters and those directly linked to Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings have either been arrested or are dead, the country’s acting police chief said on Monday.

In an audio statement circulated by the defense ministry, Chandana Wickramaratne, the acting Inspector General of Police, said security forces had also confiscated bomb-making material
intended for future use by the militants involved in the attacks, which killed more than 250 people.

Sri Lankan authorities have said the bombings were believed to have been carried out by two little-known local Islamist groups, the National Tawheed Jamaath (NTJ) and Jamathei Millathu
Ibrahim (JMI). Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
----------------

🇺🇸🇰🇷 **Trump discusses North Korea with Japan's Abe after tests**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/CdxFl>

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he had spoken with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about North Korea and trade after North Korea raised doubts about the future of
denuclearization dialogue with new weapons tests.

In a tweet, Trump described his talk with Abe, a close ally, as a “Very good conversation!” but gave no other details.

Trump and his administration have played down the North Korean weapons tests, which took place on Saturday, and which military analysts say could have involved short-range, ground-to-ground ballistic missiles.

Abe told reporters the United States and Japan would “respond together” to North Korea “going forward.”

If the weapons were ballistic missiles, they would have been the first fired by North Korea since its 2017 freeze in nuclear and missile testing opened the way for dialogue with the United States and South Korea.

Analysts interpreted the tests as an attempt to exert pressure on Washington to give ground in denuclearization negotiations after a February summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended in failure.

In a Twitter message on Saturday, Trump said he was still confident he could reach a deal with Kim.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that Washington still had “every intention” of negotiating with North Korea. Pompeo said he and Trump spoke about the launches on Saturday and were
“evaluating the appropriate response.”
----------------

🇧🇬 **Pope defends migrants during trip to immigration-adverse Bulgaria**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/gAB12>

Pope Francis said on Monday the plight of suffering immigrants and refugees was “the cross of humanity,” taking up their case for the second day of a visit to Bulgaria that has put him at odds with the government.

Bulgaria’s center-right coalition government, which includes three nationalist anti-migrant parties, wants the European Union to close external borders and set up refugee centers outside the bloc.

It has built a fence along its border with Turkey and stepped up controls on its border with Greece to help block any repeat of the massive migrant influx that gripped Europe in 2015 and stoked support for far-right
anti-immigrant parties.

Francis began his second day in Bulgaria with a visit to a refugee center in Sofia, where he met with about 50 people and their children who are helped by a Catholic charity.

“Today, the world of migrants and refugees is a bit like a cross, the cross of humanity, a cross that many people suffer,” he told them in improvised remarks after hearing some of their stories and listening to children singing.

The center, housed in a former school building, helps migrants mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Taha Saber Ismael, a refugee from Iraq, gave the pope a printed note in imperfect English asking him to help his and six other Iraqi families obtain residency permits because they were “hoping having good and safe country to live in”.
----------------

🇱🇰 **Two arrested and social media shut down as 400-strong Christian mob attacks Muslim shops in Sri Lankan town hit by Easter bomb**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.is/KYg9M>

Two people have been arrested in a Sri Lankan town after Christians attacked Muslim shops.

Residents say the mostly-Catholic mob stoned and vandalised Muslim-owned businesses in the seaside town of Negombo, where a suicide bombing targeted a Catholic church last month.

Social media was shut down and extra troops deployed onto the streets and hundreds were reportedly involved in violence over the weekend.

It is unclear how the dispute began but most witnesses said a private dispute took a religious turn.

The weekend clashes were said to involve majority ethnic Sinhalese and Muslims but a curfew put in place by security forces was lifted on Monday.

One Muslim resident of Porutota village near Negombo, said the attackers burnt a three-wheeler taxi and a motorbike.

A gem-seller said around 400 people rampaged in the streets, bombarded his shop with missiles, and some took precious stones kept in showcases.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said the situation has been brought under control.
---------------

🇬🇧 **Cambridge college sacks researcher over links with far right**
*The Guardian* - <https://archive.fo/srGkS>

A Cambridge University college has dismissed a researcher after uncovering evidence of his collaboration with far-right extremists, with the head of the college apologising “unreservedly” to students for the appointment.

St Edmund’s College announced it had terminated the post held by Noah Carl, who was at the centre of protests earlier this year after being named as the college’s Toby Jackman Newton Trust junior research fellow.

Carl’s appointment prompted complaints from students and staff that his writings on race and intelligence helped “legitimise racist stereotypes”, with more than 1,000 people signing an open letter attacking Carl’s publications.

A special investigation panel appointed by the college upheld the complaints and said Carl “had put a body of work into the public domain that did not comply with established criteria for research ethics and integrity”.

Matthew Bullock, the master of St Edmund’s, said in a statement: “The panel found that in the course of pursuing this problematic work, Dr Carl had collaborated with a number of individuals who were known to hold extremist views.

Carl was previously a research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and attended the London Conference on Intelligence, where “race intelligence” and eugenics were discussed. After news of the closed-doors meeting emerged, University College London said it would bar the conference from using its facilities in future.

In March, the Canadian academic Jordan Peterson announced he was to be an unpaid visiting fellow at Cambridge’s divinity school this summer, but the offer was later rescinded after an outcry among students and faculty members.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Illegal Migrant Allegedly Paid $130 To ‘Rent’ A Child To Cross The Border**
*The Daily Caller* - <https://archive.fo/Eca51>

A Guatemalan man is accused of spending money to “rent” a boy and purchasing a fraudulent birth certificate for him, all in an attempt to pass him off as family to U.S. Border Patrol.

Maynor Velasquez Molina, a migrant from Guatemalan, and an 8-year-old boy were among a group of 101 illegal immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border near Lukeville, Arizona, on Feb. 18, according to a criminal complaint reported by the Arizona Daily Star. Velasquez claimed to Border Patrol agents that the boy was his son, but agents learned four days later that the Guatemalan birth certificate was bogus.

When questioned by Homeland Security Investigations, Velasquez reportedly claimed that “he had looked for a child in Guatemala to cross the United States/Mexico international border with as he was told that it was easier to get into the United Stats with a child,” read the complaint.

The illegal migrant allegedly paid the boy’s father roughly $130 — or 1,000 quetzales — to rent the child for the trip and paid $130 to another individual to produce a fake birth certificate for the child. The two then traveled together by bus to the U.S. southern border.

A federal grand jury indicted Velasquez in Tucson, Arizona, for human smuggling on March 27.

“The surge of illegal alien family units and fraudulent ‘family units’ attempting to cross the border is largely the result of loopholes in U.S. immigration law,” read a statement from the Trump administration. “Migrants know that, as a result of these loopholes, if they unlawfully arrive at our border with a minor, they will be promptly released in the American communities.”
---------------

🇺🇸 **Treasury Secretary Mnuchin denies House Dem's request for Trump's tax returns**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/AMxmY>

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a letter Monday, denied House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal's request for President Trump's tax returns, saying the request lacked a “legitimate legislative purpose.”

“As you have recognized, the Committee’s request is unprecedented, and it presents serious constitutional questions, the resolution of which may have lasting consequences for all taxpayers,” the letter read.

Mnuchin told the Massachusetts Democrat he'd relied on the advice of the Justice Department. He concluded that the department was “not authorized to disclose the requested returns and return information.”

“The Department of Justice has informed us that it intends to memorialize its advice in a published legal opinion as soon as practicable. Out of respect for the deadlines previously set by the Committee, and consistent with our commitment to a prompt response, I am informing you now that the Department may not lawfully fulfill the Committee’s request,” the letter read.

The move, which was expected, is sure to set in motion a legal battle over Trump’s tax returns. The likely options available to Democrats would be to subpoena the Internal Revenue Service for the returns or to file a lawsuit.
---------------

🌎 **New UN campaign to bring youth into gender equality fight**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.is/snmNn>

The U.N. women's agency launched a campaign Monday to bring a young generation of women and men into the campaign for gender equality ahead of next year's 25th anniversary of the conference that adopted the only international platform to achieve women's rights and empowerment.

"Today, nearly 25 years after the historic Beijing conference, the reality is that not a single country can claim to have achieved gender equality," <:pepesmug:281041251749462016> said a statement from UN Women's executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Events leading up to next year's anniversary include the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women's annual meeting in March 2020 devoted to Beijing's implementation, a high-level meeting when world leaders gather for the annual General Assembly session in September 2020, and a "Global Gender Equality Forum" co-hosted by France and Mexico in France bringing civil society representatives and activists of all ages together to look to the future. No date has been announced yet for that event.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Florida woman pulls alligator from her pants during traffic stop**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.is/jgnio>

A Florida woman pulled an alligator out of her pants during a traffic stop on Monday — a strange move that might just rank on the state's list of odd reported crimes.

Ariel Machan-Le Quire, 25, was in the passenger's seat of a vehicle around 3:30 a.m. in Punta Gorda when she was pulled over, the Miami Herald reported, citing an incident report from the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

The department said that the woman was asked if she had anything else in the vehicle, and then “proceeded to pull an alligator out of her yoga pants (about one foot in length) and placed it into the bed of the truck."

Machan-Le Quire, along with 22-year-old driver Michael Clemons, claimed they were trying to collect wildlife from underneath an overpass. Investigators said the woman also had 41 small turtles inside of a backpack.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission was called to take over, the sheriff's office said.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Baby Boomers Are Just As Addicted To Smart Phones As Millennials**
*Forbes* - <http://archive.fo/MXE9O>

Provision Living, a group of senior living communities across the U.S. did a study looking at 1,000 Baby Boomers and 1,000 millennials to compare the similarities and differences between the two generations usage of smart phones. And the results were not what was expected.

On average, Baby Boomers – those born between 1946 and 1964 – are on smart phones five hours a day. That’s almost the same amount of time on a phone as millennials – those born between 1981 and 1995 – who clock in over five-and-a-half hours per day. But what’s really interesting, is how that time on devices is being spent, and more importantly, what it means for our mental health. In a period when the more we are “connected” means more time alone on devices, the perception of connectivity and actually engaging others can be starkly different.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Riot Games employees walk out to protest forced arbitration in sexual harassment claims**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.fo/UdYmY>

More than 150 workers at video game developer Riot Games, known for fan favorites like League of Legends, walked out of the company's Los Angeles headquarters Monday to protest the use of arbitration to handle sexual discrimination claims.

Employees are protesting the decision last month by the company to force two plaintiffs in sexual discrimination cases into arbitration, the Los Angeles Times reported. The company had been saddled with a sexual harassment scandal since August when video game blog Kotaku published a report alleging inappropriate treatment towards employees.

Since then, five current and former employees filed lawsuits, accusing the company of gender-based discrimination and harassment, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"To every former, current, & future female Rioter, I am sorry I didn't speak up when I experienced sexism at Riot... I want you to know that my silence ended today," Ronnie Blackburn, Riot Games researcher and walkout organizer, tweeted in August.

The protest, which workers say is the first of its kind in the video game industry, is only the latest walkout to shine a light on what critics call a culture of sexism in tech companies and in particular a male-dominated "bro culture" popularized by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

In November, 20,000 employees at Google staged a walkout protesting the tech giant's sexual misconduct allegations. As a result, Google promised it would change its mandatory arbitration policy for employees. Other companies, like Facebook, Lyft, Microsoft and Uber, also committed to enact new policies.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Feds released 168,000 illegal immigrant family members into communities**
*The Washington Times* - <https://archive.fo/TeYZA>

The government is so overwhelmed by the border surge that it’s already released 168,000 illegal immigrant family members directly into communities, the government said Wednesday.

An ICE official made the revelation at a Senate hearing where she and other top immigration officials pleaded with Congress to do something to stop the surge of migrants that’s overwhelming the system.

April set new records, with the Border Patrol nabbing more than 58,000 illegal immigrants traveling as families in that month alone.

That was part of more than 109,000 illegal immigrants nabbed border wide, including at or between the ports of entry.

And for the first time in history, nearly half of the adults arriving are bringing children with them, looking to take advantage of the loopholes in U.S. policy that they believe — usually correctly — will earn them a foothold in the U.S.

“They have received the message loud and clear — bring a child, you will be released,” Carla Provost, chief of the Border Patrol, told Congress.
---------------

🇺🇸 **The Cubs are investigating a fan's alleged racist hand gesture: 'Such ignorant and repulsive behavior is not tolerated at Wrigley Field'**
*Chicago Tribune* - <https://archive.fo/CTc9Y>

The Cubs are investigating an on-air incident involving an alleged racist gesture behind NBC Sports Chicago reporter Doug Glanville during Tuesday night’s Marlins-Cubs telecast at Wrigley Field.

Crane Kenney, the Cubs President of Business Operations, issued a statement three hours after a 5-2 victory over the Marlins.

“An individual seated behind Mr. Glanville used what appears to be an offensive hand gesture that is associated with racism,” Kenney said.

“Such ignorant and repulsive behavior is not tolerated at Wrigley Field. We are reviewing the incident thoroughly because no one should be subjected to this type of offensive behavior.

“Any derogatory conduct should be reported immediately to our ballpark staff. Any individual behaving in this manner will not only be removed from the ballpark, but will be permanently banned from Wrigley Field.”

A bearded fan in a Cubs hooded sweatshirt seated in the first row behind Glanville, who was next to the Cubs dugout, made gestures as Glanville spoke to Cubs play-by-play announcer Len Kasper.

The fan made an upside-down “OK” sign, which has been appropriated by white supremacists.
---------------

🇬🇧 **Royal baby Archie: Prince Harry and Meghan name their 'bundle of joy'**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/6LOFv>

Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announced on Wednesday they had named their newborn son Archie as they showed him off to the world, saying their “little bundle of joy” was magic.

In a post on their Instagram account accompanying a picture of the parents with Queen Elizabeth, her husband Prince Philip and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland, the couple said the seventh-in-line
to the British throne would be known as Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

The announcement came hours after the new royal got his first taste of life in the limelight as Meghan and Harry appeared with him before a small group of media at St George’s Hall in
Windsor castle where they held their wedding reception just under a year ago.

Harry tightly cradled his son, wrapped in a white shawl and wearing a hat.

“It’s magic - it’s pretty amazing and I have the two best guys in the world so I am really happy,” said a beaming Meghan, wearing a white sleeveless coat dress, when asked how she was finding being a new mother.

She said the boy, the seventh-in-line to the British throne who has not yet been publicly named, was calm, had the sweetest temperament and was sleeping well.

“He’s just been the dream,” she said, prompting Harry to quip: “I don’t know who he gets that from”.

Archie was born in the early hours of Monday morning, weighing 7 lb 3oz (3.26 kg), but few other details have been given about the birth.
----------------

🇻🇪 **Ally of Venezuelan Opposition Leader Is Detained After Failed Uprising**
*New York Times* - <http://archive.fo/gkp3Y>

The vice president of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly was detained by intelligence officers in the capital on Wednesday night, the latest sign of crackdown following a failed call for a military uprising against President Nicolás Maduro last week.

The vice president, Edgar Zambrano, was surrounded by intelligence officers after leaving his party’s headquarters in the capital, Caracas, he said on Twitter. He was towed away in his car after refusing to leave his vehicle, according to Mr. Zambrano and witnesses.

A member of the moderate Democratic Action opposition party, Mr. Zambrano joined the head of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, and a few dozen dissident soldiers last week outside a military base as Mr. Guaidó tried to take the base and set off a national rebellion. The call to oust Mr. Maduro failed to convince the military to switch sides en masse, however.

Instead, clashes broke out across Caracas between demonstrators and forces loyal to Mr. Maduro, injuring dozens and killing five across the country before Venezuela largely returned to its recent status quo: a protracted political standoff as the country slid into further shortages of food, medicine and electricity.
----------------

🇪🇺🇮🇷 **Iran nuclear deal: European powers reject 'ultimatums'**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/WbrwO>

European powers have said they remain committed to the Iran nuclear deal but that they "reject any ultimatums" from Tehran to prevent its collapse.

Iran announced on Wednesday that it had suspended two commitments under the 2015 accord in response to the economic sanctions the US reimposed last year.

It also threatened to step up uranium enrichment if it was not shielded from the sanctions' effects within 60 days.

The EU, UK, France and Germany noted "with great concern" Iran's move.

Under the nuclear deal, which is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief.

But a year ago US President Donald Trump abandoned the deal, saying it was "horribly one-sided" and needed to be renegotiated, and began reinstating sanctions. In November, those
targeting Iran's oil and financial sectors took effect.

Iran's economy is now sliding towards a deep recession, the value of its currency has dropped to record lows, and its annual inflation rate has quadrupled.
----------------

🤡🌎 **Google is releasing 53 new gender neutral emojis**
*Android Central* - <https://archive.fo/L34s1>

Google is working on a new set of gender fluid emoji that consists of 53 non-binary characters. The new emoji are neither male or female, instead opting for a third gender neutral option for those who identify as neither. The emoji are rolling out to Pixel phones this week, but will eventually come to all devices running Android Q.

Google designers spent a lot of time deciding what exactly a genderless emoji would look like, and the hair seemed to be the most important factor. In order to bridge the gap between male and female, it went with a hairstyle which parts the hair to the side with longer hair in the back.

There are also other small changes for certain characters. For example, the vampire character distinguishes itself with a chain instead of the bow tie found on the male version while the merperson adorns an orange color and crosses their arms to cover their chest instead of having a seashell bra like the female version.

Google collaborates with others on emoji standards, and Jennifer Daniel is not only the director of Android emojis, but she also sits on the Unicode consortium that sets emoji standards. This makes it more likely we'll see Apple and others join up and release its own version of genderless emoji at some point down the road.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Chelsea Manning released from Virginia jail after 62 days**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/Lo5n7>

Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been released from federal custody after spending about two months in jail for refusing to testify about her disclosure of military and diplomatic secrets to WikiLeaks in 2010, according to a statement from her legal team.

But Manning could soon return to jail, as her lawyers indicated that she would again refuse to testify in response to a separate subpoena received while she was detained.

Manning, who served about seven years in prison for the massive leak, objected to the questioning in a grand jury appearance in March that was apparently part of a continued effort by federal prosecutors investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. She was subsequently held in contempt, and a federal appeals court rejected her argument for release -- that her rights were violated by the subpoena proceedings and the federal prosecutors purportedly seeking to entrap her -- in April.

Manning was released from the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday after 62 days because the grand jury that had demanded her testimony was no longer sitting, according to the statement.

The second subpoena would have her appear before a different grand jury next week, "but for (the) same questions," according to a tweet posted on Manning's Twitter account Thursday night.

"It is therefore conceivable that she will once again be held in contempt of court, and be returned to the custody of the Alexandria Detention Center, possibly as soon as next Thursday, May 16," Manning's team said in the statement. "Chelsea will continue to refuse to answer questions."
---------------

🇺🇸 **Microsoft Word is getting politically correct**
*Fast Company* - <https://archive.fo/rYamU>

Microsoft will soon preview a version of Word that will use artificial intelligence to make your writing not just grammatically but politically correct.

Microsoft doesn’t call it a “political correctness check,” but that’s essentially what it is. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Actually Microsoft calls it “Ideas in Word,” which refers to a series of AI-driven features that help you format your document and write better.

For instance, Word will decode acronyms for you, and tell you how long it’ll take to read a given document. It’ll also underline words or phrases that sound insensitive, and suggest corrections.

Say you write, “We need to get some fresh blood in here.” The AI is likely to underline “fresh blood” and suggest “new employees” instead.

It might underline places where your writing exhibited gender bias. If you tend to say “mailman” or Congressman” in the generic, it might suggest you use “mailperson” or “Congressperson.” If you use the term “gentlemen’s agreement,” it may suggest you use “unspoken agreement” instead.

If you describe someone as a “disabled person” the AI would suggest “person with a disability.” Person-first terminology is preferred because it portrays the person as more important than the disability.

The “inclusiveness” checks are part of a larger group of “Refine My Writing” tools that also include clarity, conciseness, punctuation, and “sensitive geopolitical terms.” For that last one, the AI’s models look for phrases that may be hard to understand by, or that might be offensive to, someone in another country or culture, Microsoft says.
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🇬🇧 🍻 **One in five harmed by others drinking alcohol over past year, survey finds**
*The Guardian* - <http://archive.fo/F22cD>

One in five people in England have been harmed by others drinking alcohol over the past year, a survey has found.

The most commonly reported harms related to less serious issues, such as being kept awake (8%) or feeling anxious or uncomfortable about another person’s behaviour at a social occasion (7%). But nearly one in 20 people reported experiencing aggression – being physically threatened or hurt – or being pressurised into something sexual.

The survey of 5,000 over-16s across England looked at the extent, type and frequency of the harms associated with other people’s drinking and who was most likely to be affected.

The authors of the paper said: “It is clear that [alcohol-related harm] is relatively prevalent and that some individuals experience harm frequently. The most prevalent harms could be considered insignificant, but even apparently minor harms such as sleep disruption can have an impact on health and quality of life, particularly if experienced persistently.”

Those who said they had been in any of these situations in the past 12 months were asked to say who had been responsible, how often it had happened and whether they drank themselves.
----------------

🇺🇸 <:strawman:372034857099984897> **Florida mother arrested after 'hundred of bugs' crawl from child's backpack: reports**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.is/NyKoH>

A Florida mother was arrested for child neglect last week after investigators reportedly found cockroaches, soiled mattresses and rancid food in her home.

The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office inquiry came after staff at her second-grade daughter’s school reported their concerns that the girl consistently wore the same dirty clothes every day, wasn’t taking regular baths and “hundreds of bugs crawled out” her backpack in the school's lunchroom, according to reports.

“The roaches were on nearly every surface in the home,” an official reportedly said, including the children’s beds, in the kitchen and inside the refrigerator.

The sheriff’s office opened the investigation in mid-April. Authorities said the girl’s clothes had “caked on fecal matter and urine soaked in,” Pensacola's WEAR-TV reported.

Three children from the home, between ages 5 and 14, attend *Baghdad* Elementary in the Florida panhandle, the station reported. The mother, identified as Jessica Stevenson, 33, has been charged with five felony counts of child abuse, according to WEAR. Her bond was set at $12,500.

In contrast to the rest of the home, Stevenson’s bedroom was relatively clean with a flat-screen TV, clean clothes in her closet and a stash of snack food, authorities said. The second-grade girl was frequently given new clothing by the school, according to the Pensacola News-Journal, which reported that she would wear the same clothes until the school gave her a new set.

“The amount of neglect in this case is very disturbing,” Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille said, according to WEAR.

The suspect made bond and was released Saturday, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
----------------

🇧🇫 **French military frees hostages in Burkina Faso, two commandos killed**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/9lYMn>

French commandos rescued four foreign hostages including two French citizens from a militant group in Burkina Faso, France’s military said on Friday, adding that
two of the elite soldiers were killed in the night-time operation.

French special forces carried out the raid under cover of dark over the night of Thursday-Friday, supported by U.S. intelligence and troops from France’s Barkhane operation deployed in the
Sahel region to counter Islamist militants.

All four hostages were safe, President Emmanuel Macron’s office said, adding that a U.S. woman and a South Korean woman were also freed in the covert operation.

“The precise and determined actions of French soldiers allowed us to take out the kidnappers while protecting the lives of the hostages,” France’s army chief Francois
Lecointre told a news conference, describing the militant group as “terrorists”.

Four kidnappers were killed and two escaped, he said.

“Those who attack France and the French know that we will spare no effort to track them and take them out. We will never abandon our citizens,” Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly told reporters.

The French forces had not been aware of the presence of the U.S. and South Korean hostages ahead of the operation and they had been held for 28 days, Lecointre said.

“We were not aware of their presence ... the American will be repatriated separately,” Parly said.

“The contacts (with those countries) show that these countries were not necessarily aware of their presence.”
----------------

🇦🇫 **Taliban fighters double as reporters to wage Afghan digital war**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/QpPja>

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman and editor-in-chief of the insurgent group’s daily news bulletin, starts every day by collecting reports of overnight fighting with U.S. and Afghan forces.

Mujahid says he gets his team of writers to cross-check facts shared by some of the hardline Islamist groups fighters, who double as reporters in the 34 provinces across the country. The writers prepare press statements
in five languages and gather footage and photographs shot on smartphones.

The editor-in-chief then approves final drafts of the reports - highlighting the group’s claimed victories in its war aimed at toppling the U.S.-backed Afghan government - before they are published by IT
specialists based outside the country.

While some Afghan journalists say its accuracy is patchy, and its opponents accuse it of spreading “fake news”, the Taliban’s slick media operation has emerged as a key weapon in the information war that
often leaves the Western-backed government and its U.S. partners struggling to catch up.

Last month, for example the Taliban was swift to deny involvement in a suicide attack on the communications ministry in Kabul later blamed on Islamic State, while information from the government was slower to emerge.

Taliban spokesmen say they have also stepped up their outreach as the pace of direct talks between its negotiators and the United States on ending the war in Afghanistan has picked up in recent months.
They are often quicker than U.S. officials to give their read-out from the talks - the sixth round of which wrapped up in Qatar on Thursday.

“Whatever developments occur during the Doha talks, we share it with journalists,” said Mujahid, adding that the messages were aimed at domestic and international audiences.
----------------

🇺🇸 **The ‘Tactical Rabbi’ helps synagogues defend against anti-Semitic violence**
*LA Times* - <https://archive.fo/495Vh>

It was 45 minutes into his lecture when the rabbi pulled out an AR-15.

“Who thinks, by show of hands, that we should be carrying more guns in shul?” Rabbi Raziel Cohen asked the crowd at a Westside Chabad synagogue Wednesday night, during an active-shooter seminar organized in the wake of the deadly attack at Chabad of Poway.

Half the room raised their hands.

In the days since the shooting, Chabad leaders in California have scrambled to secure public safety grants and to calm frightened congregants, mobilizing hundreds more through active-shooter drills and community defense training. In Southern California, religious security experts such as Cohen, who calls himself the “Tactical Rabbi,” are quickly becoming their own cottage industry.

“Our arms are open, but security always comes first — if some of the openness has to be sacrificed, so be it,” said Rabbi Simcha Backman, who heads Chabad of Glendale and is part of the sect’s California leadership. “In Jewish law, going back to the Torah, first and foremost is protecting lives. Everything else is secondary. And in the world we live in today, we need to focus on saving lives and keeping people safe.”

But safety comes at a price. One large Chabad congregation meets in a building disguised as an empty storefront. Another now questions newcomers at the door.

“We don’t want to be victims,” Cohen said. “We need to protect ourselves now.”

Increasingly, many feel that means bearing arms.
---------------

🇨🇳 **A new camera can photograph you from 45 kilometers away**
*MIT Technology Review* - <https://archive.fo/S6zJr>

Long-distance photography on Earth is a tricky challenge. Capturing enough light from a subject at great distances is not easy. And even then, the atmosphere introduces distortions that can ruin the image; so does pollution, which is a particular problem in cities. That makes it hard to get any kind of image beyond a distance of a few kilometers or so (assuming the camera is mounted high enough off the ground to cope with Earth’s curvature).

But in recent years, researchers have begun to exploit sensitive photodetectors to do much better. These detectors are so sensitive they can pick up single photons and use them to piece together images of subjects up to 10 kilometers (six miles) away.

Nevertheless, physicists would love to improve even more. And today, Zheng-Ping Li and colleagues from the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai show how to photograph subjects up to 45 km (28 miles) away in a smog-plagued urban environment. Their technique uses single-photon detectors combined with a unique computational imaging algorithm that achieves super-high-resolution images by knitting together the sparsest of data points.

The new technique is relatively straightforward in principle. It is based on laser ranging and detection, or lidar—illuminating the subject with laser light and then creating an image from reflected light.

The big advantage of this kind of active imaging is that the photons reflected from the subject return to the detector within a specific time window that depends on the distance. So any photons that arrive outside this window can be ignored.
---------------

🇺🇸 **San Francisco police raid home of journalist to find who leaked Adachi report**
*San Francisco Examiner* - <https://archive.fo/93UE3>

Police raided the home and office of a freelance journalist Friday morning as part of an ongoing investigation into a leaked confidential police report containing salacious details about the death of late Public Defender Jeff Adachi.

Freelance journalist Bryan Carmody told the San Francisco Examiner that his home and office were raided by police and FBI agents because he had obtained a copy of the police report, and sold information from that report to the press following Adachi’s death on February 22.

The leak drew wide condemnation and prompted members of the Board of Supervisors to call for the police department to investigate and hold accountable the source of it within the department.

Two weeks prior, Carmody said that he was interviewed by police officers about where he obtained his information, but refused to disclose his source. Today, Carmody said that police and FBI agents executed a search warrant on his Richmond District home and Western Addition office.

They confiscated his cell phones, computers and a copy of the police report from within his office safe.

“They have completely shut down my business,” said Carmody, who has operated as an independent stringer for Bay Area and national television stations, including Fox News, CNBC and CBS Evening news.

Carmody accused police of “intimidation” to “make me break my [journalistic] ethics.”

“I’m refusing to give up my source,” he said.
---------------

🇮🇱 **‘Trumpville’ Site Chosen on Israel-Held Golan to Honor President**
*Bloomberg* - <https://archive.fo/iXveN>

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a location has been identified for the new Golan Heights community to be named after U.S. President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu said he will ask the cabinet to approve it once his next government is formed. A name for the new community has not been announced.

Israel is paying this tribute to Trump after he officially recognized Israeli sovereignty over the strategic plateau in March.

Israel captured the southern section of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981, a move not recognized by most countries.
---------------

<:zoomer:548787209235464193> **New players are accused of cheating during week 5 Fortnite World Cup qualifiers**
*DOT Esports* - <http://archive.fo/2DMgv>

Cheaters apparently aren’t scared after Damion “XXiF” C received a 14-day ban from Fortnite: Battle Royale competitive modes last week. He was banned for teaming during the week three World Cup Solo qualifiers, but this doesn’t seem to be enough to convince other players to avoid doing the same thing.

New accusations of teaming have arisen in the most recent Solo qualifiers, this time against players Yermpy and Oro. A Twitch streamer, Philldown, who was the duo’s victim, caught two clips of them playing a match in which they avoid shooting each other and focus on him when he lands near them.


Philldown says that the first clip shows Oro purposely missing shots on Yermpy, while the second video shows Yermpy and Oro landing close to each other and ignoring themselves to focus on Philldown. From the streamer’s perspective, it feels like he’s playing duos alone.

But Yermpy and Oro failed twice. Not only were they caught with suspicious behavior, but they also couldn’t qualify for the World Cup Finals. Other players on the competitive Fortnite subreddit agreed that these two were intentionally playing bad against each other to instead focus on other players who could take them down, which falls under collusion, according to the tournament’s rules.

Yermpy and Oro’s case is different than what happened to XXiF, though. In week three, he was reported and then banned for having his friends feed eliminations to him across more than one match, which gave him enough points to qualify for the Fortnite World Cup Finals in New York. Since it granted XXiF an unfair competitive advantage, he lost his World Cup spot and prize money.

Epic has yet to comment on Yermpy and Oro’s situation. It’s likely that the company won’t address their case in detail as it did with XXiF since none of them made it to the Finals.

🇺🇸 **Twitter accidentally shared user data with advertising partner**
*New York Post* - <https://archive.fo/JDm1z>

Twitter says it “inadvertently” collected iOS location data from some of its users and shared it with one of its “trusted” advertising partners — marking the fourth time in the past year that people’s private information has been made public.

“You trust us to be careful with your data, and because of that, we want to be open with you when we make a mistake,” said the social media giant in a blog post Monday.

“We have discovered that we were inadvertently collecting and sharing iOS location data with one of our trusted partners in certain circumstances. Specifically, if you used more than one account on Twitter for iOS and opted into using the precise location feature in one account, we may have accidentally collected location data when you were using any other account(s) on that same device for which you had not turned on the precise location feature. ”

The company claimed that the data leak had been caused by a “bug.”

“We have confirmed with our partner that the location data has not been retained and that it only existed in their systems for a short time, and was then deleted as part of their normal process,” it said. “We have fixed this problem and are working hard to make sure it does not happen again. We have also communicated with the people whose accounts were impacted to let them know the bug has been fixed.”

Twitter said it had “intended to remove location data from the fields sent to a trusted partner during an advertising process known as real-time bidding.”
---------------

🇫🇷 **Record number of attacks on gays in France: report**
*Yahoo!/AFP* - <https://archive.fo/T7fKj>

Assaults in France on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people hit a new record in 2018, "a dark year" for the LGBT community, French group SOS Homophobie reported Tuesday.

The non-profit association registered 231 physical attacks, up from the previous annual record of 188 anti-LGBT assaults back in 2013 linked to same-sex marriage legislation.

"2018 was a dark year for LGBT people," said SOS Homophobie co-presidents Véronique Godet and Joël Deumier in the yearly report.

The number of assaults jumped 66 percent over 2017, with a spike towards the end of the year when a case a day was being reported to the group.

SOS Homophobie's helpline, website and legal services collected 1,905 statements from witnesses of abuse of the gay community, 15 percent more than the previous year.

The breakdown of cases, which could involve multiple categories, showed 62 percent involved rejection, 51 percent insults, 38 percent discrimination and 20 percent harassment. Threats and defamation made up 17 percent each with physical assault on 13 percent.

Some 66 percent of witnesses were men, who were "more inclined to talk about it and turn to SOS Homophobie to denounce what they suffered".

The association said the 42 percent leap in reporting of violence against lesbians appeared linked to the greater willingness of victims to speak out and the influence of the #MeToo movement.

With 23 percent of reported cases, Internet was the leading place for the expression of LGBT phobia in France.

Facebook and Twitter act like an "echo chamber" of daily cases with the social networks recording more than half of all reported cases, the group said.
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🌎 **WhatsApp security issues: Hackers attack iPhones and Androids with code**
*Metro* - <https://archive.fo/NNKJX>

The app discovered a vulnerability that allowed attackers to install malicious code on iPhones and Android phones by ringing up a target device.

The code could be transmitted even if users did not answer their phones and a log of the call often disappeared, the Financial Times reported.

The company, which is owned by Facebook, said the attack bore a resemblance to spyware developed for intelligence agencies.

People are now being urged to update their WhatsApp immediately.

There are concerns that the software was used in attempts to access the phones of human rights campaigners, including a UK-based lawyer.

WhatsApp said: ‘We believe a select number of users were targeted through this vulnerability by an advanced cyber actor.

‘This attack has all the hallmarks of a private company known to work with governments to deliver spyware that reportedly takes over the functions of mobile phone operating systems.

‘We have briefed a number of human rights organisations to share the information we can, and to work with them to notify civil society.’

The firm is said to have alerted officials at the US Department of Justice after discovering the vulnerability in early May.

WhatsApp claims to have 1.5 billion users around the world and it released a software update on Monday.

According to the Financial Times, the spyware was developed by NSO Group, an Israeli cybersecurity and intelligence company.
---------------

🌎 **New security flaw in Intel chips could affect millions**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/fREhv>

Intel has revealed another hardware security flaw that could affects millions of machines around the world.

The bug is embedded in the architecture of computer hardware, and it can’t be fully fixed.

“With a large enough data sample, time or control of the target system’s behavior,” the flaw could enable attackers to see data thought to be off-limits, Bryan Jorgensen, Intel’s senior director of product assurance and security, said in a video statement.

But Intel said Tuesday there’s no evidence of anyone exploiting it outside of a research laboratory. “Doing so successfully in the real world is a complex undertaking,” Jorgensen said.

It’s the latest revelation of a hard-to-fix vulnerability affecting processors that undergird smartphones and personal computers. Two bugs nicknamed Spectre and Meltdown set a panic in the tech industry last year.

Intel said it’s already addressed the problem in its newest chips after working for months with business partners and independent researchers. It’s also released code updates to mitigate the risk in older chips, though it can’t be eliminated entirely without switching to newer chips.

Major tech companies Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft all released advisories Tuesday to instruct users of their devices and software, many of which rely on Intel hardware, on how to mitigate the vulnerabilities.
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🇺🇸🇨🇳 **Trump declares national emergency over threats against US technology amid campaign against Huawei**
*CNBC* - <https://archive.fo/9xCCn>

President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared a national emergency over threats against American technology, the White House said.

The move, done via executive order, authorized the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, in consultation with other top officials, to block transactions that involve information or communications technology that "poses an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States."

Following the order, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the addition of Huawei Technologies and its affiliates to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List, making it more difficult for the Chinese telecom giant to conduct business with U.S. companies.

The addition means that U.S. companies cannot sell or transfer technology to Huawei without a license issued by the BIS. That could make it harder for Huawei to do business, as it depends on some U.S. suppliers for parts.

President Donald Trump backed the decision, which will "prevent American technology from being used by foreign owned entities in ways that potentially undermine U.S. national security or foreign policy interests," Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.

The announcement has been under discussion for a year. It comes as the U.S and China remain locked in a trade dispute and could escalate tensions between the world's two largest economies.

The order had been opposed by small rural carriers, who continued to rely on Huawei equipment even after it was largely dropped by the larger telecommunications companies.
---------------

🇮🇱 **Hackers bust into Israeli site’s online Eurovision broadcast with missile threat**
*The Times Of Israel* - <https://archive.fo/c4ZzH>

Israeli viewers watching the Eurovision song contest on the Kan public broadcaster’s website Tuesday were briefly interrupted by a series of threats after hackers apparently broke into a livestream.

The hacked message replaced the campy song contest with a video of a forged warning from the Israel Defense Forces telling viewers within 1.2 kilometers of the Eurovision song contest venue in north Tel Aviv to seek shelter from an imminent rocket attack.

The approximately two-minute video ended with a warning that “Israel is not safe, you will see.”

It was not immediately clear who was behind the hack attack, though Hebrew media speculated it may have come from pro-Palestinian groups in Arab states.

Kan, which is hosting the international song contest put on by the European Broadcast Union, said in a statement that it’s site had been hacked into for several minutes.
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