Month: August 2018
US ends aid to Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Unrwa provides critical services, including education and health care The United States is ending all funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, the US State Department says. It described the organisation, the United Nations Relief...
Viabtc CEO Proposes BCH Organization to Establish Standards
News On August 31 the CEO of the firm Viabtc, Haipo Yang, published a blog post proposing the establishment of a standardization organization like the World Wide Web’s W3C consortium. Haipo Yang wants to start a similar group called the...
Photos: Aretha Franklin’s funeral was absolutely fit for the Queen of Soul
The Queen of Soul has been laid to rest. Fans flocked to Detroit on Friday to pay respects to legendary singer Aretha Franklin, who died August 16 at the age of 76. The funeral service was a gathering of family...
Europe’s quest for financial independence
On Monday, France and Germany each gathered all of their ambassadors for their annual meeting in Berlin and Paris. In their opening speeches, French President Emmanuel Macron and German foreign minister Heiko Maas delivered markedly synchronized messages. Faced with the prospect of “America first”...
A Fraud Case Against the Academy of Art University in San Francisco Can Go to Trial, Judge Rules
A suit accusing the Academy of Art University in San Francisco of defrauding the US government out of millions of dollars in student loans and grants will go to trial after a federal appeals court judge ruled that there was...
The Atlantic Daily: Almost Too Strange to Be True
What We’re Following Policy Plans: Donald Trump’s current talks to renegotiate NAFTA are a rhetorical victory for the president, but they may leave America less prepared for economic struggles in the long run, Matt Peterson argues. A reported plan to...
China Has Been Using LinkedIn to Recruit Potential U.S. Spies
By Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images. In what would appear to be a sign that no social-media platform is truly safe from foreign interference, William Evanina, the head of U.S. counter-intelligence, told Reuters on Friday that Chinese intelligence services have been using...
9 Artists to Watch at the Governors Island Art Fair
Since 2008, the Governors Island Art Fair has been a bastion of contemporary art, with art nonprofit 4heads offering artists, many of whom lack gallery representation, the chance to take over former military housing on Governors Island with their work. This year’s edition, running September...
Thanks to his racist dogwhistles, Trump is the Democrats’ best fundraiser
Andrew Gillum is motivating Democratic voters, thanks to an assist from the president Andrew Gillum's Facebook page Donald Trump loves to hit the campaign trail and bask in the adoration of his fans. Occasionally, he even pauses from a recitation...
Venice 2018 Review: THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, The Coens Misfire In New Netflix Western
The 75th Venice Biennale seems to have profited considerably from Cannes' war with Netflix this year, allowing lots of gold-tipped content to find what previously might have been an unexpected home here. Yesterday, the critics seemed to respond pretty favourably...
Former Ripple CTO’s Blockchain Project Coil Enters Closed Beta
Coil, a new company founded by Ripple's former chief technology officer Stefan Thomas, has launched a closed beta. The project – which aims to allow web content creators to better monetize their work – was announced in May, when Thomas...
Nafta: US-Canada trade talks break up without deal
Talks between the US and Canada about amending the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) ended on Friday with no deal in sight. US officials said they would meet Canada again next week in an effort to reach an agreement...
President Trump says tech giants could be an ‘antitrust situation.’ His Justice Department’s antitrust lawyer isn’t so sure.
In an interview with Bloomberg News this week, President Trump stated that tech giants like Google and Facebook could represent a “very antitrust situation.” It was the latest in a series of claims that those companies are “rigging” their content...
A Law Alone Won’t Get California to 100 Percent Green Power
Before Californians use an electron, they like to swirl the glass a little, get some nose. You want a whiff of that subatomic particle’s terroir before pouring it into an air conditioner or a phone. Does it have the musty,...
Return of the Ugly German?: The Riots in Chemnitz and Their Aftermath
August 31, 2018 08:46 PM Three cities in Germany. Three crimes. On Oct. 16, 2016, in Freiburg, the Afghan asylum-seeker Hussein K. raped a 19-year-old university student, leaving her unconscious on the banks of a river in which she then...
Gadget Lab Podcast: Can Tech Help Me Sleep Better?
How to Get the Most Out of Gmail’s New Features. (If your first instinct is to freak out when an oft-used app gets a redesign, this article will help with that). Arielle recommends the HBO series “Sharp Objects,” starring Amy...
Why obvious lies make great propaganda
At the height of the 2016 election, researchers at the RAND Corporation released a report documenting an unusual propaganda model dubbed the “firehose of falsehood.” The report described a strategy where a propagandist could overwhelm the public by producing a...
Obama’s foreign policy options were continually limited by Netanyahu and the lobby — Ben Rhodes
Ben Rhodes’s memoir of serving as a top foreign policy aide to President Obama, titled The World As It Is, came out in June to highly favorable reviews. I got the book to scratch my itch on Israel/Palestine and was...
Early De Palma, Ishii’s ORGIES OF EDO, DJANGO, CRIMSON PEAK All Coming To Blu-ray This November From Arrow Video!
NEW UK/US TITLE: Crimson Peak (Blu-ray) Limited Edition Guillermo del Toro’s lavish, stunningly realised journey into the dark heart of Gothic romance... Pre-order via Arrow in the UK: http://bit.ly/2on1wyGPre-order via Amazon in the UK: https://amzn.to/2PoZ86m Pre-order via DiabolikDVD in the US: http://bit.ly/2Plm46s Release date: 26/27...
A judge shut down a frivolous ‘Christian flag’ lawsuit & gave the plaintiffs hell
Christian flag shutterstock A federal judge denied a Christian conservative organization’s request for an injunction to fly the Christian flag at Boston’s city hall. In front of City Hall in Boston, there are three flagpoles. One has the American flag,...