Indian guru Asaram Bapu found guilty of raping teenage girl
Verdict read out inside prison in Jodhpur due to fears of violence from his followers
Associated Press in Delhi
Wed 25 Apr 2018 18.23 AEST Last modified on Wed 25 Apr 2018 18.38 AEST
Asaram Bapu
Asaram Bapu is escorted by police officers at Jodhpur airport in 2013. He has been in prison for five years.
An Indian court has found a guru guilty of raping a teenage girl in 2013.
The verdict against Asaram Bapu, 77, was read out inside a prison in Jodhpur due to fears that his followers might resort to violence. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
It is the latest high-profile rape case in India, following others that have fuelled public protests and raised questions about how police handle allegations and treat victims.
In August last year, another popular Indian guru, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, was for raping two female followers.
The judge, Madhusudhan Sharma, will announce the sentence for Bapu later after hearing arguments from the prosecution and his attorneys.
Bapu denied raping the girl and can appeal against his conviction in a higher court.
In her complaint to police in 2013, the girl accused Bapu of raping her when she visited his retreat in Jodhpur with her mother. Her family said they had been followers of Bapu for more than a decade.
Bapu has been in prison since his arrest in 2013.
On Wednesday, security was tight around the prison complex and in states where the guru has a strong following. Religious sects wield considerable political clout in India, with several politicians among gurus’ followers.
Bapu is on trial in a separate rape case along with his son, Narayan Sai. Two sisters have accused them of sexual assault.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Apple Will Start Paying Billions in Back Taxes to Ireland - Fortune
Apple Will Start Paying Billions in Back Taxes to Ireland
By DON REISINGER April 24, 2018
Apple will begin paying Ireland for back taxes next month as part of its battle with the European Union over alleged tax shelters.
The tech giant on Tuesday was expected to sign an agreement with Ireland finance minister Paschal Donohoe to set up a tax-repayment plan worth 13 billion euros ($15.9 billion), according to the Financial Times. Apple is expected to pay those back taxes in full by September. However, the funds will be held in escrow in Ireland until a case between Apple and the EU’s competition watchdog, the European Commission, is settled.
The Commission slapped Apple with its massive tax bill in 2016 after it charged the company with obtaining illegal state aid from Ireland to significantly reduce its tax burden. While both Apple and Ireland have said that the agreement between them was legal, the Commission argued that Apple has illegally sidestepped steep tax bills and must pay up.
Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter
Apple has said that it pays its fair share of taxes and in the U.S., is the biggest taxpayer. Apple CEO Tim Cook has called the Commission’s charges “maddening” and has promised to fight the case to its bitter end.
In December, however, Apple was ordered to pay the tax levy while it continues to battle its case in European courts. The cash will be kept in an escrow account, where it will stay until one side wins. That likely won’t happen anytime soon, however, since most industry experts believe the case will continue to be litigated for several years.
Apple did not immediately respond to a Fortune request for comment on the apparent escrow deal with Ireland.
By DON REISINGER April 24, 2018
Apple will begin paying Ireland for back taxes next month as part of its battle with the European Union over alleged tax shelters.
The tech giant on Tuesday was expected to sign an agreement with Ireland finance minister Paschal Donohoe to set up a tax-repayment plan worth 13 billion euros ($15.9 billion), according to the Financial Times. Apple is expected to pay those back taxes in full by September. However, the funds will be held in escrow in Ireland until a case between Apple and the EU’s competition watchdog, the European Commission, is settled.
The Commission slapped Apple with its massive tax bill in 2016 after it charged the company with obtaining illegal state aid from Ireland to significantly reduce its tax burden. While both Apple and Ireland have said that the agreement between them was legal, the Commission argued that Apple has illegally sidestepped steep tax bills and must pay up.
Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter
Apple has said that it pays its fair share of taxes and in the U.S., is the biggest taxpayer. Apple CEO Tim Cook has called the Commission’s charges “maddening” and has promised to fight the case to its bitter end.
In December, however, Apple was ordered to pay the tax levy while it continues to battle its case in European courts. The cash will be kept in an escrow account, where it will stay until one side wins. That likely won’t happen anytime soon, however, since most industry experts believe the case will continue to be litigated for several years.
Apple did not immediately respond to a Fortune request for comment on the apparent escrow deal with Ireland.
American Cities Are Fighting Big Business Over Wireless Internet, and They’re Losing - Bloomberg
American Cities Are Fighting Big Business Over Wireless Internet, and They’re Losing
“It’s often lost on the public just how badly they’re being screwed”
By
April 25, 2018, 7:01 PM GMT+10
Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Photographer: Zach Gibson
Big business is quietly trouncing cities in the fight over the future of the internet. The results of an obscure, bureaucratic battle inside the U.S. communications regulator could decide not only which Americans get ultra-fast internet but how much it’ll cost and even what city streetlights will look like.
On Wednesday, a committee created by the Federal Communications Commission will meet to frame the future of 5G, a technology that will make downloads dramatically faster on phones and perhaps replace home broadband for some. The group, with representatives of the business world outnumbering government officials four-to-one, may push for a vote on guidelines that have been under debate for more than a year.
It will be the first summit since Shireen Santosham and her boss quit in dismay. The city of San Jose, where Santosham works as chief innovation officer, resigned in late January from the wonky-sounding board, called the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. New York City later followed. The process came to embody a nationwide effort by telecommunications companies, like AT&T Inc. and Sprint Corp., to establish business-friendly rules for their industry, Santosham and other city officials allege.
The FCC, with guidance from the committee, could make rules that will influence how 5G mobile internet is priced, how quickly it spreads around the country and whether local governments must subsidize the cost. The 5G system is meant to replace today’s mobile wireless technology, making it easier to stream high-definition video anywhere and enable new kinds of apps. The cellular networks will use frequencies that carry a lot of information but don’t travel very far. That means antennas need to be close together and will number in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions. They’ll be closer to shops and homes than today’s arrays atop cell towers.
The influence of Big Telecom inside the FCC has already spread into state capitols. More than a dozen states, mostly in Republican strongholds, have passed laws borrowing similar language from the 5G committee. U.S. lawmakers are drafting legislation along similar lines. “This is the biggest movement in broadband that we’ve seen in recent history,” Santosham said.
Santosham, a former McKinsey consultant, has been one of the most vocal agitators against the country’s telecom giants over the past year. Her office led committee work on behalf of San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, a Democrat selected to join a year ago. She served as his official proxy. The initiative was billed as a way to bring cities, states, companies and interest groups together to devise guidelines for updating telecom infrastructure, a move that paves the way for self-driving cars and a world where every device connects to the internet.
An hour before the FCC introduced the group to the public in April 2017, Santosham said she learned San Jose would be the only city represented. Eventually, the agency added officials from Lincoln, Nebraska, and Lenexa, Kansas, but they have always been outnumbered by corporate suits.
Elizabeth Bowles, president of an internet provider in rural areas of Central Arkansas, was appointed chairman in July after the resignation of her predecessor, another telecom executive who was later arrested on an unrelated fraud charge. A few months into Bowles’s tenure, the group was deadlocked on most major issues. Cities and corporate representatives couldn’t agree on prices for installing 5G beacons on government property such as streetlights. An even bigger point of contention: Companies and the FCC have expressed desire for “shot clocks,” a basketball metaphor that would automatically give carriers permission to install beacons if negotiations with cities aren’t resolved in a timely manner.
“The problem with the debate is everyone is entrenched into their sides,” Bowles said. “Every single member of the committee will have something in those documents that they don’t like. That’s what a compromise is. If AT&T is thrilled with it, then we didn’t do our job.”
Too often, officials say, AT&T got its way. As committee members were returning from New Year’s festivities, they got an email from Douglas Dimitroff, a telecom attorney and chairman of one of the group’s city-focused subcommittees. “We have made substantial changes to the last version,” he wrote in an email obtained by Bloomberg through a public records request. Then he thanked Chris Nurse, a senior executive at AT&T who proposed hundreds of revisions, according to a copy of the draft.
Santosham protested. Sam Cooper, a senior technology adviser to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, wrote: “Shotclocks. Object.” Even a telecom consultant said the revisions were unfair, tilted in favor of wireless companies like AT&T at the expense of cable providers like Comcast Corp. “AT&T has generally driven the bus,” said Angela Stacy, a committee member who’s vice president at a software company for cities called Connected Nation Exchange.
The FCC declined to comment. FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly has accused some officials of trying to “impose their will or extract bounties from providers” and suggested San Jose was seeking “high rents and fees.” AT&T said in an emailed statement that the city-focused working group had unanimously consented to a plan that will be presented to the full committee on Wednesday.
But that group now excludes San Jose and New York. Amid the fracas, Santosham asked San Jose’s mayor to write a letter to the FCC. Together, they attended the committee hearing in late January, and he resigned soon after. A cadre of state officials voiced their opposition to the process in a letter on April 6. “The ideas being generated are overwhelmingly lopsided” and create a “windfall for companies,” wrote John Betkoski, president of NARUC, a national association representing state commissions.
New York withdrew this month and embraced a popular conservative talking point to convey their frustrations: federalism. “It’s really the whole package of trying to preempt local governments from managing public-owned lands,” said Cooper, the adviser to New York’s Democratic mayor. “We couldn’t say in good conscience that these recommendations would be good for cities or localities to adopt.”
Committee work was unglamorous, but Santosham said it could be stimulating. Members would talk on the phone for hours at a time and exchange emails, debating the anodyne decisions that make up much of local telecom regulation. The relationship was usually friendly, Santosham said.
But as corporate interests took over, officials who stuck around could be seen as endorsing the results. Cities can have more sway over technology deployment than many people realize. For instance, they pushed carriers to offer access to fast internet in low-income neighborhoods, said Gerard Lederer, a lobbyist on behalf of cities. “The reason that the vast majority of Americans today have access to high-speed broadband is not because of FCC policies and not because of things at the state level. It’s because of local governments,” he said.
Withdrawing from the process, however, means ceding some of the most influential internet policy work in years. The results will likely serve as something the FCC will “refer to as they make decisions for the next year, five years, ten years,” said Brent Skorup, a member of free-market think-tank The Mercatus Center who sits on the committee.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the committee is expected to discuss proposals for city and state code, including shot clocks. There remain fundamental disagreements, which may take time to reconcile, said Bowles, the chairman. The committee will meet again in July. Bowles dismissed concerns over departures. “I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy with the fact that you’re outnumbered, you should take your ball and go home,” she said.
For San Jose, the march toward 5G continues without the FCC. On Monday, the city struck an agreement with AT&T to install about 200 small-cell devices for 5G on light poles in exchange for $5 million in lease revenue over 15 years. Perhaps the worst part of the whole process, said San Jose Mayor Liccardo, is that most Americans aren’t paying attention: “When you’re talking about complex issues of technology and regulation, it’s often lost on the public just how badly they’re being screwed.”
— With assistance by Todd Shields
“It’s often lost on the public just how badly they’re being screwed”
By
April 25, 2018, 7:01 PM GMT+10
Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Photographer: Zach Gibson
Big business is quietly trouncing cities in the fight over the future of the internet. The results of an obscure, bureaucratic battle inside the U.S. communications regulator could decide not only which Americans get ultra-fast internet but how much it’ll cost and even what city streetlights will look like.
On Wednesday, a committee created by the Federal Communications Commission will meet to frame the future of 5G, a technology that will make downloads dramatically faster on phones and perhaps replace home broadband for some. The group, with representatives of the business world outnumbering government officials four-to-one, may push for a vote on guidelines that have been under debate for more than a year.
It will be the first summit since Shireen Santosham and her boss quit in dismay. The city of San Jose, where Santosham works as chief innovation officer, resigned in late January from the wonky-sounding board, called the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. New York City later followed. The process came to embody a nationwide effort by telecommunications companies, like AT&T Inc. and Sprint Corp., to establish business-friendly rules for their industry, Santosham and other city officials allege.
The FCC, with guidance from the committee, could make rules that will influence how 5G mobile internet is priced, how quickly it spreads around the country and whether local governments must subsidize the cost. The 5G system is meant to replace today’s mobile wireless technology, making it easier to stream high-definition video anywhere and enable new kinds of apps. The cellular networks will use frequencies that carry a lot of information but don’t travel very far. That means antennas need to be close together and will number in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions. They’ll be closer to shops and homes than today’s arrays atop cell towers.
The influence of Big Telecom inside the FCC has already spread into state capitols. More than a dozen states, mostly in Republican strongholds, have passed laws borrowing similar language from the 5G committee. U.S. lawmakers are drafting legislation along similar lines. “This is the biggest movement in broadband that we’ve seen in recent history,” Santosham said.
Santosham, a former McKinsey consultant, has been one of the most vocal agitators against the country’s telecom giants over the past year. Her office led committee work on behalf of San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, a Democrat selected to join a year ago. She served as his official proxy. The initiative was billed as a way to bring cities, states, companies and interest groups together to devise guidelines for updating telecom infrastructure, a move that paves the way for self-driving cars and a world where every device connects to the internet.
An hour before the FCC introduced the group to the public in April 2017, Santosham said she learned San Jose would be the only city represented. Eventually, the agency added officials from Lincoln, Nebraska, and Lenexa, Kansas, but they have always been outnumbered by corporate suits.
Elizabeth Bowles, president of an internet provider in rural areas of Central Arkansas, was appointed chairman in July after the resignation of her predecessor, another telecom executive who was later arrested on an unrelated fraud charge. A few months into Bowles’s tenure, the group was deadlocked on most major issues. Cities and corporate representatives couldn’t agree on prices for installing 5G beacons on government property such as streetlights. An even bigger point of contention: Companies and the FCC have expressed desire for “shot clocks,” a basketball metaphor that would automatically give carriers permission to install beacons if negotiations with cities aren’t resolved in a timely manner.
“The problem with the debate is everyone is entrenched into their sides,” Bowles said. “Every single member of the committee will have something in those documents that they don’t like. That’s what a compromise is. If AT&T is thrilled with it, then we didn’t do our job.”
Too often, officials say, AT&T got its way. As committee members were returning from New Year’s festivities, they got an email from Douglas Dimitroff, a telecom attorney and chairman of one of the group’s city-focused subcommittees. “We have made substantial changes to the last version,” he wrote in an email obtained by Bloomberg through a public records request. Then he thanked Chris Nurse, a senior executive at AT&T who proposed hundreds of revisions, according to a copy of the draft.
Santosham protested. Sam Cooper, a senior technology adviser to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, wrote: “Shotclocks. Object.” Even a telecom consultant said the revisions were unfair, tilted in favor of wireless companies like AT&T at the expense of cable providers like Comcast Corp. “AT&T has generally driven the bus,” said Angela Stacy, a committee member who’s vice president at a software company for cities called Connected Nation Exchange.
The FCC declined to comment. FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly has accused some officials of trying to “impose their will or extract bounties from providers” and suggested San Jose was seeking “high rents and fees.” AT&T said in an emailed statement that the city-focused working group had unanimously consented to a plan that will be presented to the full committee on Wednesday.
But that group now excludes San Jose and New York. Amid the fracas, Santosham asked San Jose’s mayor to write a letter to the FCC. Together, they attended the committee hearing in late January, and he resigned soon after. A cadre of state officials voiced their opposition to the process in a letter on April 6. “The ideas being generated are overwhelmingly lopsided” and create a “windfall for companies,” wrote John Betkoski, president of NARUC, a national association representing state commissions.
New York withdrew this month and embraced a popular conservative talking point to convey their frustrations: federalism. “It’s really the whole package of trying to preempt local governments from managing public-owned lands,” said Cooper, the adviser to New York’s Democratic mayor. “We couldn’t say in good conscience that these recommendations would be good for cities or localities to adopt.”
Committee work was unglamorous, but Santosham said it could be stimulating. Members would talk on the phone for hours at a time and exchange emails, debating the anodyne decisions that make up much of local telecom regulation. The relationship was usually friendly, Santosham said.
But as corporate interests took over, officials who stuck around could be seen as endorsing the results. Cities can have more sway over technology deployment than many people realize. For instance, they pushed carriers to offer access to fast internet in low-income neighborhoods, said Gerard Lederer, a lobbyist on behalf of cities. “The reason that the vast majority of Americans today have access to high-speed broadband is not because of FCC policies and not because of things at the state level. It’s because of local governments,” he said.
Withdrawing from the process, however, means ceding some of the most influential internet policy work in years. The results will likely serve as something the FCC will “refer to as they make decisions for the next year, five years, ten years,” said Brent Skorup, a member of free-market think-tank The Mercatus Center who sits on the committee.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the committee is expected to discuss proposals for city and state code, including shot clocks. There remain fundamental disagreements, which may take time to reconcile, said Bowles, the chairman. The committee will meet again in July. Bowles dismissed concerns over departures. “I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy with the fact that you’re outnumbered, you should take your ball and go home,” she said.
For San Jose, the march toward 5G continues without the FCC. On Monday, the city struck an agreement with AT&T to install about 200 small-cell devices for 5G on light poles in exchange for $5 million in lease revenue over 15 years. Perhaps the worst part of the whole process, said San Jose Mayor Liccardo, is that most Americans aren’t paying attention: “When you’re talking about complex issues of technology and regulation, it’s often lost on the public just how badly they’re being screwed.”
— With assistance by Todd Shields
WhatsApp to raise minimum age limit to 16 in EU - BBC News
April 25, 2018
WhatsApp to raise minimum age limit to 16 in EU
Popular messaging service WhatsApp is banning under-16s from using its platform in the European Union.
Users must currently be at least 13, but the firm is changing the rules ahead of the introduction of new EU data privacy regulations in May.
The app, which is owned by Facebook, will ask users to confirm their age when prompted to agree new terms of service in the next few weeks.
It has not said how the age limit will be enforced.
At present, WhatsApp does not ask users their age when they join, nor does it cross-reference their Facebook or Instagram accounts to find out.
About a third of all UK-based 12- to 15-year-olds active on social media use WhatsApp, according to a 2017 report by the media regulator Ofcom.
That made it the fifth most popular social network with the age group after Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube.
Data privacy
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into force on 25 May, will give people much more control over how companies use their information.
They will also have the right to have personal data erased.
It also includes specific rules to protect children from having their personal data collected for marketing purposes, or to create user profiles.
Under-age social media use 'on the rise'
Reality Check: Who controls your data?
Facebook cuts off billions from privacy law
Are you ready for a data privacy shake-up?
WhatsApp, which has faced scrutiny for its data sharing practices in the past, said its move would help it meet the "new high standards of transparency" in the EU.
However, the app plans to keep its age limit at 13 in the rest of the world.
Skip Twitter post by @bellabo
Gavin Blair
@bellabo
@rachelburden casually mentioned that WhatsApp are changing their their T&C and under 16's being banned from the platform to my teenage daughter. Massive sobs and snot bubbles for the last 1/2hr
4:12 PM - Apr 25, 2018
Helen Buchanan
@HellyB1972
Very pleased today to hear WhatsApp is raising the age of use from 13 to 16. At last someone is doing something to protect teenage minds & self esteem. Come on Facebook get your act together#WhatsApp #Facebook
5:43 PM - Apr 25, 2018
JulietB3
@julietb3
Replying to @ckkrisshnakumar and 5 others
All very valid points but my 13 year old daughter is part of a form WhatsApp group where they check in with how they are feeling and also what lessons they have, homework that's due, they help each other with homework. So increasing the age limit would be detrimental for her.
5:27 PM - Apr 25, 2018
Most social media apps - including Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Musical.ly and Reddit - are restricted to those aged 13 and over.
This is in part because a US law - the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (Coppa) - bans online services from collecting personal information about younger children.
Facebook did, however, launch Messenger Kids, which is targeted at children as young as six, last December. It is an ad-free service designed to be compliant with Coppa.
Different approach
WhatsApp will also be allowing all users to download a report detailing the data it holds on them as part of its new terms of service.
That could include the make and model of the device they use, their contacts and groups and any blocked numbers.
Facebook, which has also been criticised for its handling of personal data, is taking a different approach to younger users on its main service.
To comply with GDPR, the social network is asking those aged 13 to 15 to nominate a parent or guardian to give permission for them to share information on the platform.
If they do not, they will not see a fully personalised version of the platform.
In a related development, Facebook's Instagram service has also launched a "data download" tool that provides a file containing the photos, comments, archived Stories, contacts and other personal data a user had posted to the service in the past.
WhatsApp to raise minimum age limit to 16 in EU
Popular messaging service WhatsApp is banning under-16s from using its platform in the European Union.
Users must currently be at least 13, but the firm is changing the rules ahead of the introduction of new EU data privacy regulations in May.
The app, which is owned by Facebook, will ask users to confirm their age when prompted to agree new terms of service in the next few weeks.
It has not said how the age limit will be enforced.
At present, WhatsApp does not ask users their age when they join, nor does it cross-reference their Facebook or Instagram accounts to find out.
About a third of all UK-based 12- to 15-year-olds active on social media use WhatsApp, according to a 2017 report by the media regulator Ofcom.
That made it the fifth most popular social network with the age group after Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube.
Data privacy
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into force on 25 May, will give people much more control over how companies use their information.
They will also have the right to have personal data erased.
It also includes specific rules to protect children from having their personal data collected for marketing purposes, or to create user profiles.
Under-age social media use 'on the rise'
Reality Check: Who controls your data?
Facebook cuts off billions from privacy law
Are you ready for a data privacy shake-up?
WhatsApp, which has faced scrutiny for its data sharing practices in the past, said its move would help it meet the "new high standards of transparency" in the EU.
However, the app plans to keep its age limit at 13 in the rest of the world.
Skip Twitter post by @bellabo
Gavin Blair
@bellabo
@rachelburden casually mentioned that WhatsApp are changing their their T&C and under 16's being banned from the platform to my teenage daughter. Massive sobs and snot bubbles for the last 1/2hr
4:12 PM - Apr 25, 2018
Helen Buchanan
@HellyB1972
Very pleased today to hear WhatsApp is raising the age of use from 13 to 16. At last someone is doing something to protect teenage minds & self esteem. Come on Facebook get your act together#WhatsApp #Facebook
5:43 PM - Apr 25, 2018
JulietB3
@julietb3
Replying to @ckkrisshnakumar and 5 others
All very valid points but my 13 year old daughter is part of a form WhatsApp group where they check in with how they are feeling and also what lessons they have, homework that's due, they help each other with homework. So increasing the age limit would be detrimental for her.
5:27 PM - Apr 25, 2018
Most social media apps - including Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Musical.ly and Reddit - are restricted to those aged 13 and over.
This is in part because a US law - the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (Coppa) - bans online services from collecting personal information about younger children.
Facebook did, however, launch Messenger Kids, which is targeted at children as young as six, last December. It is an ad-free service designed to be compliant with Coppa.
Different approach
WhatsApp will also be allowing all users to download a report detailing the data it holds on them as part of its new terms of service.
That could include the make and model of the device they use, their contacts and groups and any blocked numbers.
Facebook, which has also been criticised for its handling of personal data, is taking a different approach to younger users on its main service.
To comply with GDPR, the social network is asking those aged 13 to 15 to nominate a parent or guardian to give permission for them to share information on the platform.
If they do not, they will not see a fully personalised version of the platform.
In a related development, Facebook's Instagram service has also launched a "data download" tool that provides a file containing the photos, comments, archived Stories, contacts and other personal data a user had posted to the service in the past.
Toronto van attack: Alek Minassian praised 'incel' killer - BBC News
April 25, 2018
Toronto van attack: Alek Minassian praised 'incel' killer
"I have a gun in my pocket" – the moment Alek Minassian was arrested.
A van driver accused of killing 10 people in Toronto posted to Facebook minutes before the attack to praise killer Elliot Rodger and refer to the misogynistic "incel" Reddit group.
Alek Minassian, 25, was charged on Tuesday with 10 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder.
Police say he appeared to intentionally strike pedestrians after mounting a busy pavement in a rental van.
He was arrested several blocks away after a tense standoff with police.
Mr Minassian's Facebook post, which the social network has confirmed as real, praised Elliott Rodger, a 22 year old from California who killed six people in a shooting rampage through Isla Vista, California in 2014 before turning the gun on himself.
It read: "The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!"
The term "incel" refers to a now-banned group on the message site Reddit, used by Rodger, where young men discussed their lack of sexual activity and attractiveness to women - often blaming women for the problem.
"Chads and Stacys" refers to attractive men and women who are perceived as better than or unavailable to "incels", which is short for "involuntary celibate".
Toronto van attack: What's an incel?
Toronto Police Detective Sergeant Graham Gibson said at a press conference on Tuesday that the 10 dead and 14 wounded were "predominantly" women.
He said the youngest were in their twenties and the eldest in their eighties.
Authorities have not yet formally identified any of the victims.
Mr Minassian appeared in court on Tuesday to hear the charges against him. He sported a shaved head and white jumpsuit and held his hands behind his back, showing little emotion throughout.
He was ordered to have no contact with surviving victims and to return to court on 10 May.
A man believed to be a relative of Mr Minassian's sat in the front row of the court and wept. Asked by reporters after the hearing if he had anything to say, the man replied "sorry".
Tom Llamas
✔
@TomLlamasABC
This man, believed to be Minassian's relative, was escorted out by court officials and was crying in the front row during the hearing. He said "sorry" when asked if he had anything to say to the people of Canada and softly said "no"when asked if there were warning signs. @ABC
12:25 AM - Apr 25, 2018
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the incident a "senseless attack and a horrific tragedy".
Yonge Street, where the attack took place, remained closed on Tuesday as police continued their investigation.
A line of officers standing shoulder-to-shoulder walked slowly down the street combing it for remaining evidence.
What else do we know about the suspect?
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) confirmed that Mr Minassian was a member for two months in late 2017. He requested to be voluntarily released.
Mr Minassian had previously attended a school for students with special needs in north Toronto, former classmates said.
He would be seen walking around Thornlea Secondary School with his head down and hands clasped tightly together making meowing noises, Shereen Chami told Reuters.
But she said Mr Minassian had not been violent. "He wasn't a social person, but from what I remember he was absolutely harmless," she told Reuters.
Mr Minassian went on to attend Seneca College in the North York area of Toronto, where the van incident took place, CBC reported.
What we know about Alek Minassian
Police say Mr Minassian is from the northern Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill and was not previously known to authorities.
Public safety minister Ralph Goodale said there "would appear to be no national security connections" and Canadian broadcaster CBC cited government officials as saying Mr Minassian was not associated with any known terror groups.
Who were the victims?
Anne Marie D'Amico was "full of life", her colleague said
So far three victims have been named in the media and through other channels.
Anne-Marie D'Amico worked for the US investment company, Invesco, CBC reports. The company's Canadian headquarters are on Yonge Street.
Toronto van attack victim 'full of life'
The Jordanian embassy in Ottawa has told the BBC that one of its citizens was among the victims. Jordanian media named him as Munir Abdo Habib al-Najjar, who they said was in Canada to visit one of his sons.
Toronto resident Dorothy Sewell, 80, has also been named by relatives as one of the victims.
Dorothy Sewell was a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team
Her grandson, Elwood Delaney, said she was the "best grandma anyone could have asked for".
The South Korean embassy in Canada confirmed to the BBC that two of its citizens were among the dead and another was critically ill. Their names have not been disclosed.
The 15 injured remain in hospitals throughout Toronto.
How did the incident unfold?
Police said the suspect in the van mounted the kerb on Yonge Street between Finch Avenue and Sheppard Avenue at about 13:30 local time (17:30 GMT) on Monday and drove into pedestrians along a 1km (0.6-mile) stretch.
Reza Hashemi, who owns a video shop on Yonge Street, told the BBC he heard screaming on the other side of the road. He said the van was repeatedly mounting the pavement and running into people.
'It was awful': What eyewitnesses saw
One witness told City News that the driver was "hitting anything that comes in the way".
"People, fire hydrants, there's mail boxes being run over," said the unnamed man, who said he was driving behind the van during the incident.
As the van continued, the man said he sounded his horn to try to warn pedestrians. "I witnessed at least six, seven people being hit and flying in the air, like killed, on the street," he said.
Pictures from the scene showed bodies covered in orange sheets along the van's route. Debris and items of clothing were scattered across the pavements and road.
The suspect confronted a police officer and claimed to have a gun
The van was brought to a halt by police several streets away and was quickly surrounded.
The suspect pointed an object at the officer and claimed to have a gun.
Calm actions of Toronto police stun US
"I don't care. Get down," the officer said, before arresting Mr Minassian without firing a shot. The arrest was filmed by two bystanders and the officer was praised for not opening fire.
A makeshift memorial has sprung up at the junction of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue and a wall is being filled with messages of condolences, grief and support.
One of those who came to lay a flower, Dave Spence, said residents would "walk a little differently" when they came through the area "for years to come".
Toronto van attack: Alek Minassian praised 'incel' killer
"I have a gun in my pocket" – the moment Alek Minassian was arrested.
A van driver accused of killing 10 people in Toronto posted to Facebook minutes before the attack to praise killer Elliot Rodger and refer to the misogynistic "incel" Reddit group.
Alek Minassian, 25, was charged on Tuesday with 10 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder.
Police say he appeared to intentionally strike pedestrians after mounting a busy pavement in a rental van.
He was arrested several blocks away after a tense standoff with police.
Mr Minassian's Facebook post, which the social network has confirmed as real, praised Elliott Rodger, a 22 year old from California who killed six people in a shooting rampage through Isla Vista, California in 2014 before turning the gun on himself.
It read: "The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!"
The term "incel" refers to a now-banned group on the message site Reddit, used by Rodger, where young men discussed their lack of sexual activity and attractiveness to women - often blaming women for the problem.
"Chads and Stacys" refers to attractive men and women who are perceived as better than or unavailable to "incels", which is short for "involuntary celibate".
Toronto van attack: What's an incel?
Toronto Police Detective Sergeant Graham Gibson said at a press conference on Tuesday that the 10 dead and 14 wounded were "predominantly" women.
He said the youngest were in their twenties and the eldest in their eighties.
Authorities have not yet formally identified any of the victims.
Mr Minassian appeared in court on Tuesday to hear the charges against him. He sported a shaved head and white jumpsuit and held his hands behind his back, showing little emotion throughout.
He was ordered to have no contact with surviving victims and to return to court on 10 May.
A man believed to be a relative of Mr Minassian's sat in the front row of the court and wept. Asked by reporters after the hearing if he had anything to say, the man replied "sorry".
Tom Llamas
✔
@TomLlamasABC
This man, believed to be Minassian's relative, was escorted out by court officials and was crying in the front row during the hearing. He said "sorry" when asked if he had anything to say to the people of Canada and softly said "no"when asked if there were warning signs. @ABC
12:25 AM - Apr 25, 2018
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the incident a "senseless attack and a horrific tragedy".
Yonge Street, where the attack took place, remained closed on Tuesday as police continued their investigation.
A line of officers standing shoulder-to-shoulder walked slowly down the street combing it for remaining evidence.
What else do we know about the suspect?
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) confirmed that Mr Minassian was a member for two months in late 2017. He requested to be voluntarily released.
Mr Minassian had previously attended a school for students with special needs in north Toronto, former classmates said.
He would be seen walking around Thornlea Secondary School with his head down and hands clasped tightly together making meowing noises, Shereen Chami told Reuters.
But she said Mr Minassian had not been violent. "He wasn't a social person, but from what I remember he was absolutely harmless," she told Reuters.
Mr Minassian went on to attend Seneca College in the North York area of Toronto, where the van incident took place, CBC reported.
What we know about Alek Minassian
Police say Mr Minassian is from the northern Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill and was not previously known to authorities.
Public safety minister Ralph Goodale said there "would appear to be no national security connections" and Canadian broadcaster CBC cited government officials as saying Mr Minassian was not associated with any known terror groups.
Who were the victims?
Anne Marie D'Amico was "full of life", her colleague said
So far three victims have been named in the media and through other channels.
Anne-Marie D'Amico worked for the US investment company, Invesco, CBC reports. The company's Canadian headquarters are on Yonge Street.
Toronto van attack victim 'full of life'
The Jordanian embassy in Ottawa has told the BBC that one of its citizens was among the victims. Jordanian media named him as Munir Abdo Habib al-Najjar, who they said was in Canada to visit one of his sons.
Toronto resident Dorothy Sewell, 80, has also been named by relatives as one of the victims.
Dorothy Sewell was a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team
Her grandson, Elwood Delaney, said she was the "best grandma anyone could have asked for".
The South Korean embassy in Canada confirmed to the BBC that two of its citizens were among the dead and another was critically ill. Their names have not been disclosed.
The 15 injured remain in hospitals throughout Toronto.
How did the incident unfold?
Police said the suspect in the van mounted the kerb on Yonge Street between Finch Avenue and Sheppard Avenue at about 13:30 local time (17:30 GMT) on Monday and drove into pedestrians along a 1km (0.6-mile) stretch.
Reza Hashemi, who owns a video shop on Yonge Street, told the BBC he heard screaming on the other side of the road. He said the van was repeatedly mounting the pavement and running into people.
'It was awful': What eyewitnesses saw
One witness told City News that the driver was "hitting anything that comes in the way".
"People, fire hydrants, there's mail boxes being run over," said the unnamed man, who said he was driving behind the van during the incident.
As the van continued, the man said he sounded his horn to try to warn pedestrians. "I witnessed at least six, seven people being hit and flying in the air, like killed, on the street," he said.
Pictures from the scene showed bodies covered in orange sheets along the van's route. Debris and items of clothing were scattered across the pavements and road.
The suspect confronted a police officer and claimed to have a gun
The van was brought to a halt by police several streets away and was quickly surrounded.
The suspect pointed an object at the officer and claimed to have a gun.
Calm actions of Toronto police stun US
"I don't care. Get down," the officer said, before arresting Mr Minassian without firing a shot. The arrest was filmed by two bystanders and the officer was praised for not opening fire.
A makeshift memorial has sprung up at the junction of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue and a wall is being filled with messages of condolences, grief and support.
One of those who came to lay a flower, Dave Spence, said residents would "walk a little differently" when they came through the area "for years to come".
Trump and Macron hint at new Iran nuclear deal - BBC News
April 25. 2018
Trump and Macron hint at new Iran nuclear deal
Trump and Macron's touching moments
US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have suggested
there could be a new agreement on Iran's nuclear programme.
After talks in the US, Mr Trump, who is sceptical of an accord that was struck in 2015, spoke about "doing a much bigger, maybe, deal".
Mr Macron said a new pact must cover Iran's ballistic missile programme and its role in the Middle East.
Iran warned of "severe consequences" if the US withdraws from the deal.
In 2015, Iran agreed to mothball its nuclear programme in return for an easing of economic sanctions on Iran.
The US president has been threatening to reject an extension of the Obama-era nuclear pact reached between Tehran and world powers by a 12 May deadline.
Mr Macron had been lobbying Mr Trump to stick with the deal, saying there was no better option.
What is the Iran nuclear deal?
Could the Iran nuclear deal collapse?
Oil at $75 as Iran sanction fears mount
Trump-Macron bromance in the making?
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to visit the US on Friday to make a last-minute bid to dissuade Mr Trump from potentially torpedoing the agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was quoted as saying that Tehran would "most likely" abandon the accord if the US pulled out.
What did Trump and Macron say in Washington?
"I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, maybe, deal," the US president said, adding that any new agreement must be built on "solid foundations".
"They should have made a deal that covered Yemen, that covered Syria, that covered other parts of the Middle East," said Mr Trump, referring to the 2015 accord which he described as "insane".
Media captionWhat French people think about Trump and Macron meeting
Meanwhile, Mr Macron agreed that Tehran's influence in the region must be part of negotiations.
He also stressed that - as well as controlling Iran's nuclear programme for the next decade as envisaged by the current agreement - a fresh deal would need to cover its nuclear activities longer-term, as well as its ballistic missile programme.
And he talked about working with President Trump to build a "new framework" in the Middle East - and especially in Syria.
Mr Macron said he did not know whether Mr Trump would extend the 12 May deadline, adding: "I can say that we have had very frank discussions on that, just the two of us."
Mr Trump earlier warned Iran against resuming its nuclear programme.
"They're not going to be restarting anything. They restart it they're going to have big problems, bigger than they've ever had before."
'Bigger, better' deal
Analysis by the BBC's Barbara Plett Usher
The visit was a strange mix.
On the one hand, a display of stark differences - Mr Macron almost channelling an anti-Trump in his opening admonition to resist "aggressive nationalism" and "build a new multilateralism."
On the other hand, an overt display of deliberate chumminess punctuated with tussling handshakes and capped by the very odd dandruff episode, where Mr Trump seemed to hover between playfulness and aggression.
But whether or not the French president felt humiliated by the bout of unexpected grooming, he did manage to get Mr Trump's attention on the Iran nuclear accord.
He framed his appeal to preserve the deal with the promise of a "bigger, better" one.
In other words, build on the existing agreement to address its flaws, rather than scrap it and start fresh.
Whether or not this is possible is an open question.
But the suggestion was enough to intrigue Mr Trump.
His tone changed, moving from a blistering harangue of the deal before the meeting to something more considered - although still noncommittal - afterwards.
And that shows the influence of personal engagement with the president, from someone who - like Mr Macron - knows how to talk to him.
What was Iran's response?
On Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threatened "severe consequences" if the US withdrew from the deal.
Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif: "You cannot stop the process or not engage just because of a fear of failure"
Meanwhile, Mr Zarif said just hours before the Trump-Macron summit that a probable response would be to restart the enrichment of uranium - a key bomb-making ingredient.
"You cannot stop the process or not engage just because of a fear of failure. But at least you need to have some hope of success, some prospect for success, in order for this process to start," the Iranian foreign minister was quoted as saying by Reuters.
"And I do not believe that, under the present circumstances, with the present tone, and language and approach of the current administration in Washington, you would have much prospect."
Iran maintains its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful civilian purposes.
What are Trump's objections to the 2015 accord?
The US president has long complained that the accord - signed by the US, Iran, Europe, Russia, China and Germany - does nothing to halt Iran's support for militant groups in the region such as Hezbollah.
Mr Trump is also demanding that signatories to the pact agree permanent restrictions on Iran's uranium enrichment.
Iran nuclear deal: Key details
Under the current deal they are set to expire in 2025.
What about other issues discussed in Washington?
Mr Macron, on a three-day visit to the US, is the first foreign leader to be treated to a state visit during the Trump presidency.
The White House State Dinner is the first of Donald Trump's presidency
President Macron and his wife, Brigitte, attended a state dinner in their honour at the White House on Tuesday.
Guests included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Apple chief executive Tim Cook.
"May our friendship grow even deeper, may our kinship grow even stronger, and may our sacred liberty never die," Mr Trump said in his toast.
In response, Mr Macron spoke of "how deep, how strong, and how intense the relationship is between our two countries".
"I got to know you, you got to know me. We both know that none of us easily changes our minds, but we will work together, and we have this ability to listen to one another," he said.
President Trump rolled out the red carpet for the French leader
The Iran deal is not the only potential source of discord between the two leaders.
Also on the agenda is the Paris climate accord, the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and planned US tariffs on EU steel and aluminium.
Mr Trump thanked France for joining the US and Britain earlier this month in launching air strikes after an alleged chemical attack in Syria.
Trump and Macron hint at new Iran nuclear deal
Trump and Macron's touching moments
US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have suggested
there could be a new agreement on Iran's nuclear programme.
After talks in the US, Mr Trump, who is sceptical of an accord that was struck in 2015, spoke about "doing a much bigger, maybe, deal".
Mr Macron said a new pact must cover Iran's ballistic missile programme and its role in the Middle East.
Iran warned of "severe consequences" if the US withdraws from the deal.
In 2015, Iran agreed to mothball its nuclear programme in return for an easing of economic sanctions on Iran.
The US president has been threatening to reject an extension of the Obama-era nuclear pact reached between Tehran and world powers by a 12 May deadline.
Mr Macron had been lobbying Mr Trump to stick with the deal, saying there was no better option.
What is the Iran nuclear deal?
Could the Iran nuclear deal collapse?
Oil at $75 as Iran sanction fears mount
Trump-Macron bromance in the making?
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to visit the US on Friday to make a last-minute bid to dissuade Mr Trump from potentially torpedoing the agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was quoted as saying that Tehran would "most likely" abandon the accord if the US pulled out.
What did Trump and Macron say in Washington?
"I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, maybe, deal," the US president said, adding that any new agreement must be built on "solid foundations".
"They should have made a deal that covered Yemen, that covered Syria, that covered other parts of the Middle East," said Mr Trump, referring to the 2015 accord which he described as "insane".
Media captionWhat French people think about Trump and Macron meeting
Meanwhile, Mr Macron agreed that Tehran's influence in the region must be part of negotiations.
He also stressed that - as well as controlling Iran's nuclear programme for the next decade as envisaged by the current agreement - a fresh deal would need to cover its nuclear activities longer-term, as well as its ballistic missile programme.
And he talked about working with President Trump to build a "new framework" in the Middle East - and especially in Syria.
Mr Macron said he did not know whether Mr Trump would extend the 12 May deadline, adding: "I can say that we have had very frank discussions on that, just the two of us."
Mr Trump earlier warned Iran against resuming its nuclear programme.
"They're not going to be restarting anything. They restart it they're going to have big problems, bigger than they've ever had before."
'Bigger, better' deal
Analysis by the BBC's Barbara Plett Usher
The visit was a strange mix.
On the one hand, a display of stark differences - Mr Macron almost channelling an anti-Trump in his opening admonition to resist "aggressive nationalism" and "build a new multilateralism."
On the other hand, an overt display of deliberate chumminess punctuated with tussling handshakes and capped by the very odd dandruff episode, where Mr Trump seemed to hover between playfulness and aggression.
But whether or not the French president felt humiliated by the bout of unexpected grooming, he did manage to get Mr Trump's attention on the Iran nuclear accord.
He framed his appeal to preserve the deal with the promise of a "bigger, better" one.
In other words, build on the existing agreement to address its flaws, rather than scrap it and start fresh.
Whether or not this is possible is an open question.
But the suggestion was enough to intrigue Mr Trump.
His tone changed, moving from a blistering harangue of the deal before the meeting to something more considered - although still noncommittal - afterwards.
And that shows the influence of personal engagement with the president, from someone who - like Mr Macron - knows how to talk to him.
What was Iran's response?
On Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threatened "severe consequences" if the US withdrew from the deal.
Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif: "You cannot stop the process or not engage just because of a fear of failure"
Meanwhile, Mr Zarif said just hours before the Trump-Macron summit that a probable response would be to restart the enrichment of uranium - a key bomb-making ingredient.
"You cannot stop the process or not engage just because of a fear of failure. But at least you need to have some hope of success, some prospect for success, in order for this process to start," the Iranian foreign minister was quoted as saying by Reuters.
"And I do not believe that, under the present circumstances, with the present tone, and language and approach of the current administration in Washington, you would have much prospect."
Iran maintains its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful civilian purposes.
What are Trump's objections to the 2015 accord?
The US president has long complained that the accord - signed by the US, Iran, Europe, Russia, China and Germany - does nothing to halt Iran's support for militant groups in the region such as Hezbollah.
Mr Trump is also demanding that signatories to the pact agree permanent restrictions on Iran's uranium enrichment.
Iran nuclear deal: Key details
Under the current deal they are set to expire in 2025.
What about other issues discussed in Washington?
Mr Macron, on a three-day visit to the US, is the first foreign leader to be treated to a state visit during the Trump presidency.
The White House State Dinner is the first of Donald Trump's presidency
President Macron and his wife, Brigitte, attended a state dinner in their honour at the White House on Tuesday.
Guests included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Apple chief executive Tim Cook.
"May our friendship grow even deeper, may our kinship grow even stronger, and may our sacred liberty never die," Mr Trump said in his toast.
In response, Mr Macron spoke of "how deep, how strong, and how intense the relationship is between our two countries".
"I got to know you, you got to know me. We both know that none of us easily changes our minds, but we will work together, and we have this ability to listen to one another," he said.
President Trump rolled out the red carpet for the French leader
The Iran deal is not the only potential source of discord between the two leaders.
Also on the agenda is the Paris climate accord, the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and planned US tariffs on EU steel and aluminium.
Mr Trump thanked France for joining the US and Britain earlier this month in launching air strikes after an alleged chemical attack in Syria.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
The brilliant reason Jay Leno has never touched a dime of his 'Tonight Show' money - CNBC News
The brilliant reason Jay Leno has never touched a dime of his 'Tonight Show' money
Kathleen Elkins | @kathleen_elk 11:35 AM ET Fri, 29 Dec 2017
Why Jay Leno 'never touched' his Tonight Show money Why Jay Leno never touched his 'Tonight Show' money
If you're resolving to save more money in 2018, you may want to take a cue from self-made millionaire Jay Leno.
The comedian and former host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" has used a brilliant money-saving strategy since he began his career.
From the moment he entered the working world, "I always had two incomes," Leno told CNBC Make It last year. "I'd bank one, and I'd spend one."
And he made sure to spend the smaller amount.
"When I was younger, I would always save the money I made working at the car dealership, and I would spend the money I made as a comedian," he said.
"When I started to get a bit famous, the money I was making as a comedian was way more than the money I was making at the car dealership, so I would bank that and spend the car dealership money."
Jay Leno, former host of NBC's "The Tonight Show"
Leno continued relying on this strategy even after he started hosting "The Tonight Show" in 1992, even though he reportedly earned as much as $30 million a year at the height of his career.
"When I got 'The Tonight Show,' I always made sure I did 150 [comedy show] gigs a year so I never had to touch the principal," Leno said. "I've never touched a dime of my 'Tonight Show' money. Ever."
Leno, who now hosts CNBC's "Jay Leno's Garage," said his conservative philosophy gives him financial peace of mind.
"So many people get to be the age I'm at now and they've got nothing because they just blew it all," the 67-year-old said. "I put my money in a hammock and say, 'You relax. I'm going to go work.' And when I come back, I put some more money in the pile."
While most of us will never make the kind of money Leno makes, the strategy is sound: Generating multiple income streams can help you increase your savings and diversify your earnings, so that you're less impacted by downturns.
"It sounds ridiculous," Leno said, "but if everything ends tomorrow, I know I'll be fine."
Kuwait: Not resolving GCC crisis is destructive to region - Al Jazeera
April 24, 2018
Kuwait: Not resolving GCC crisis is destructive to region
Kuwaiti Deputy FM Khaled al-Jarallah says the crisis 'will destroy the hopes and dreams' of the GCC if left unresolved.
Al-Jarallah warned that the crisis threatened to derail the work of numerous initiatives by the six-member body [AFP]
Kuwait's deputy foreign minister said the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member-states were determined to resolve the ongoing crisis in the Gulf because not doing so would be destructive to the region, the official KUNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah who met Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on Tuesday discussed the "means of solving the crisis."
"Everybody realises the longer this division the deeper the wound will be in the Gulf body," he said.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar on June 5, 2017, accusing Doha of supporting "terrorism". Qatar rejected the allegations as "baseless".
Al-Jarallah warned that the crisis threatened to derail the work of numerous initiatives by the GCC.
"This disagreement, if not resolved, will destroy the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the members of the GCC countries in cohesion, unity, harmony and joint GCC action for the benefit of GCC countries," he said.
"Unfortunately, since this dispute broke out, several GCC mechanisms have been disrupted with meetings and proposals stalled," al-Jarallah said before adding that "the repercussions that can be caused by the continuation of the dispute" could affect security in the region, as well as the council's economic ties with other trade blocs around the world.
Al-Jarallah commended the US for its mediation efforts, adding that the circumstances were such that it would be better to wait before holding a joint US-GCC summit.
A Gulf summit that was supposed to take place at the beginning of April in Washington, DC, has been postponed to September.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
Kuwait: Not resolving GCC crisis is destructive to region
Kuwaiti Deputy FM Khaled al-Jarallah says the crisis 'will destroy the hopes and dreams' of the GCC if left unresolved.
Al-Jarallah warned that the crisis threatened to derail the work of numerous initiatives by the six-member body [AFP]
Kuwait's deputy foreign minister said the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member-states were determined to resolve the ongoing crisis in the Gulf because not doing so would be destructive to the region, the official KUNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah who met Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on Tuesday discussed the "means of solving the crisis."
"Everybody realises the longer this division the deeper the wound will be in the Gulf body," he said.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar on June 5, 2017, accusing Doha of supporting "terrorism". Qatar rejected the allegations as "baseless".
Al-Jarallah warned that the crisis threatened to derail the work of numerous initiatives by the GCC.
"This disagreement, if not resolved, will destroy the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the members of the GCC countries in cohesion, unity, harmony and joint GCC action for the benefit of GCC countries," he said.
"Unfortunately, since this dispute broke out, several GCC mechanisms have been disrupted with meetings and proposals stalled," al-Jarallah said before adding that "the repercussions that can be caused by the continuation of the dispute" could affect security in the region, as well as the council's economic ties with other trade blocs around the world.
Al-Jarallah commended the US for its mediation efforts, adding that the circumstances were such that it would be better to wait before holding a joint US-GCC summit.
A Gulf summit that was supposed to take place at the beginning of April in Washington, DC, has been postponed to September.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
Facebook releases long-secret rules on how it polices the service - CNBC News
Facebook releases long-secret rules on how it polices the service
Facebook Inc on Tuesday released a rule book for the types of posts it allows on its social network.
It's the first time the social network has done this and it gives more detail than ever before on what is permitted on subjects ranging from drug use to inciting violence.
Published April 24, 2018
Reuters
Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Zach Gibson
Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Facebook Inc on Tuesday released a rule book for the types of posts it allows on its social network, giving far more detail than ever before on what is permitted on subjects ranging from drug use and sex work to bullying, hate speech and inciting violence.
Facebook for years has had "community standards" for what people can post. But only a relatively brief and general version was publicly available, while it had a far more detailed internal document to decide when individual posts or accounts should be removed.
Now, the company is providing the longer document on its website to clear up confusion and be more open about its o
perations, said Monika Bickert, Facebook's vice president of product policy and counter-terrorism.
"You should, when you come to Facebook, understand where we draw these lines and what's OK and what's not OK," Bickert told reporters in a briefing at Facebook's headquarters.
Facebook has faced fierce criticism from governments and rights groups in many countries for failing to do enough to stem hate speech and prevent the service from being used to promote terrorism, stir sectarian violence and broadcast acts including murder and suicide.
At the same time, the company has also been accused of doing the bidding of repressive regimes by aggressively removing content that crosses governments and providing too little information on why certain posts and accounts are removed.
New policies will, for the first time, allow people to appeal a decision to take down an individual piece of content. Previously, only the removal of accounts, Groups and Pages could be appealed.
Facebook is also beginning to provide the specific reason why content is being taken down for a wider variety of situations.
Facebook, the world's largest social network, has become a dominant source of information in many countries around the world. It uses both automated software and an army of moderators that now numbers 7,500 to take down text, pictures and videos that violate its rules. Under pressure from several governments, it has been beefing up its moderator ranks since last year.
Bickert told Reuters in an interview that the standards are constantly evolving, based in part on feedback from more than 100 outside organizations and experts in areas such as counter-terrorism and child exploitation.
"Everybody should expect that these will be updated frequently," she said.
The company considers changes to its content policy every two weeks at a meeting called the "Content Standards Forum," led by Bickert. A small group of reporters was allowed to observe the meeting last week on the condition that they could describe process, but not substance.
At the April 17 meeting, about 25 employees sat around a conference table while others joined by video from New York, Dublin, Mexico City, Washington and elsewhere.
Attendees included people who specialize in public policy, legal matters, product development, communication and other areas. They heard reports from smaller working groups, relayed feedback they had gotten from civil rights groups and other outsiders and suggested ways that a policy or product could go wrong in the future. There was little mention of what competitors such as Alphabet Inc's Google do in similar situations.
Bickert, a former U.S. federal prosecutor, posed questions, provided background and kept the discussion moving. The meeting lasted about an hour.
Facebook is planning a series of public forums in May and June in different countries to get more feedback on its rules, said Mary deBree, Facebook's head of content policy.
From cursing to murder
The longer version of the community standards document, some 8,000 words long, covers a wide array of words and images that Facebook sometimes censors, with detailed discussion of each category.
Videos of people wounded by cannibalism are not permitted, for instance, but such imagery is allowed with a warning screen if it is "in a medical setting."
Facebook has long made clear that it does not allow people to buy and sell prescription drugs, marijuana or firearms on the social network, but the newly published document details what other speech on those subjects is permitted.
Content in which someone "admits to personal use of non-medical drugs" should not be posted on Facebook, the rule book says.
The document elaborates on harassment and bullying, barring for example "cursing at a minor." It also prohibits content that comes from a hacked source, "except in limited cases of newsworthiness."
The new community standards do not incorporate separate procedures under which governments can demand the removal of content that violates local law.
In those cases, Bickert said, formal written requests are required and are reviewed by Facebook's legal team and outside attorneys. Content deemed to be permissible under community standards but in violation of local law - such as a prohibition in Thailand on disparaging the royal family - are then blocked in that country, but not globally.
The community standards also do not address false information — Facebook does not prohibit it but it does try to reduce its distribution - or other contentious issues such as use of personal data.
Facebook Inc on Tuesday released a rule book for the types of posts it allows on its social network.
It's the first time the social network has done this and it gives more detail than ever before on what is permitted on subjects ranging from drug use to inciting violence.
Published April 24, 2018
Reuters
Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Zach Gibson
Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Facebook Inc on Tuesday released a rule book for the types of posts it allows on its social network, giving far more detail than ever before on what is permitted on subjects ranging from drug use and sex work to bullying, hate speech and inciting violence.
Facebook for years has had "community standards" for what people can post. But only a relatively brief and general version was publicly available, while it had a far more detailed internal document to decide when individual posts or accounts should be removed.
Now, the company is providing the longer document on its website to clear up confusion and be more open about its o
perations, said Monika Bickert, Facebook's vice president of product policy and counter-terrorism.
"You should, when you come to Facebook, understand where we draw these lines and what's OK and what's not OK," Bickert told reporters in a briefing at Facebook's headquarters.
Facebook has faced fierce criticism from governments and rights groups in many countries for failing to do enough to stem hate speech and prevent the service from being used to promote terrorism, stir sectarian violence and broadcast acts including murder and suicide.
At the same time, the company has also been accused of doing the bidding of repressive regimes by aggressively removing content that crosses governments and providing too little information on why certain posts and accounts are removed.
New policies will, for the first time, allow people to appeal a decision to take down an individual piece of content. Previously, only the removal of accounts, Groups and Pages could be appealed.
Facebook is also beginning to provide the specific reason why content is being taken down for a wider variety of situations.
Facebook, the world's largest social network, has become a dominant source of information in many countries around the world. It uses both automated software and an army of moderators that now numbers 7,500 to take down text, pictures and videos that violate its rules. Under pressure from several governments, it has been beefing up its moderator ranks since last year.
Bickert told Reuters in an interview that the standards are constantly evolving, based in part on feedback from more than 100 outside organizations and experts in areas such as counter-terrorism and child exploitation.
"Everybody should expect that these will be updated frequently," she said.
The company considers changes to its content policy every two weeks at a meeting called the "Content Standards Forum," led by Bickert. A small group of reporters was allowed to observe the meeting last week on the condition that they could describe process, but not substance.
At the April 17 meeting, about 25 employees sat around a conference table while others joined by video from New York, Dublin, Mexico City, Washington and elsewhere.
Attendees included people who specialize in public policy, legal matters, product development, communication and other areas. They heard reports from smaller working groups, relayed feedback they had gotten from civil rights groups and other outsiders and suggested ways that a policy or product could go wrong in the future. There was little mention of what competitors such as Alphabet Inc's Google do in similar situations.
Bickert, a former U.S. federal prosecutor, posed questions, provided background and kept the discussion moving. The meeting lasted about an hour.
Facebook is planning a series of public forums in May and June in different countries to get more feedback on its rules, said Mary deBree, Facebook's head of content policy.
From cursing to murder
The longer version of the community standards document, some 8,000 words long, covers a wide array of words and images that Facebook sometimes censors, with detailed discussion of each category.
Videos of people wounded by cannibalism are not permitted, for instance, but such imagery is allowed with a warning screen if it is "in a medical setting."
Facebook has long made clear that it does not allow people to buy and sell prescription drugs, marijuana or firearms on the social network, but the newly published document details what other speech on those subjects is permitted.
Content in which someone "admits to personal use of non-medical drugs" should not be posted on Facebook, the rule book says.
The document elaborates on harassment and bullying, barring for example "cursing at a minor." It also prohibits content that comes from a hacked source, "except in limited cases of newsworthiness."
The new community standards do not incorporate separate procedures under which governments can demand the removal of content that violates local law.
In those cases, Bickert said, formal written requests are required and are reviewed by Facebook's legal team and outside attorneys. Content deemed to be permissible under community standards but in violation of local law - such as a prohibition in Thailand on disparaging the royal family - are then blocked in that country, but not globally.
The community standards also do not address false information — Facebook does not prohibit it but it does try to reduce its distribution - or other contentious issues such as use of personal data.
Carrie Lam: Textbook revisions ensure accuracy and Hong Kong people should not overreact - Hong Kong Free Press
Carrie Lam: Textbook revisions ensure accuracy and Hong Kong people should not overreact
24 April 2018 16:32 Kris Cheng2 min read
FBTwitterFlattrRedditDonate
Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said that people should not overreact to a recent review of textbooks by the Education Bureau, saying that the review served to ensure accuracy in the material.
Broadcaster i-Cable found last week that a textbook review group at the Education Bureau had criticised phrases in textbooks, saying that they used inappropriate wording or unclear concepts. The phrases found to be problematic included: “Hong Kong is located south of China” and “the Chinese Communist Party’s one-party rule.”
Lam said the review was done by a committee, and was not conducted by the government or by her. Lam said she did not see any problems after reading the committee’s report.
“You can say that we have always used these phrases, so we should just continue using them. But if we can use more accurate words, especially in textbooks, there is no excuse not to,” she said ahead of the weekly Executive Council meeting.
“I have every confidence that these experts are doing this very important task with that one single objective in mind, and that is to ensure [a] high degree of precision and accuracy in our textbooks.”
She cited former Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang, who said the phrase “China took back Hong Kong’s sovereignty” was incorrect.
“China has never given Hong Kong’s sovereignty to a third party. The preamble of the Basic Law also states that the People’s Republic of China will resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong – this is more accurate,” she said.
“I just feel that some people have overreacted to this very important exercise to ensure that the descriptions that we use – especially when we use [them] in textbooks – are accurate.”
Lam said Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung has explained the issue and the public should not view the issue “through coloured spectacles.”
Last week, Yeung also said that the sentence “Hong Kong is located at China’s southern side” in textbooks should be changed. His comments led lawmakers to accuse him of conducting political censorship.
“[The phrase] is unclear, as there could be different interpretations from the wording,” Yeung said.
“It could mean the southern side outside China, it could mean the southern side within China’s borders – this is unclear from the wording, so it has to be changed,” he said.
24 April 2018 16:32 Kris Cheng2 min read
FBTwitterFlattrRedditDonate
Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said that people should not overreact to a recent review of textbooks by the Education Bureau, saying that the review served to ensure accuracy in the material.
Broadcaster i-Cable found last week that a textbook review group at the Education Bureau had criticised phrases in textbooks, saying that they used inappropriate wording or unclear concepts. The phrases found to be problematic included: “Hong Kong is located south of China” and “the Chinese Communist Party’s one-party rule.”
Lam said the review was done by a committee, and was not conducted by the government or by her. Lam said she did not see any problems after reading the committee’s report.
“You can say that we have always used these phrases, so we should just continue using them. But if we can use more accurate words, especially in textbooks, there is no excuse not to,” she said ahead of the weekly Executive Council meeting.
“I have every confidence that these experts are doing this very important task with that one single objective in mind, and that is to ensure [a] high degree of precision and accuracy in our textbooks.”
She cited former Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang, who said the phrase “China took back Hong Kong’s sovereignty” was incorrect.
“China has never given Hong Kong’s sovereignty to a third party. The preamble of the Basic Law also states that the People’s Republic of China will resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong – this is more accurate,” she said.
“I just feel that some people have overreacted to this very important exercise to ensure that the descriptions that we use – especially when we use [them] in textbooks – are accurate.”
Lam said Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung has explained the issue and the public should not view the issue “through coloured spectacles.”
Last week, Yeung also said that the sentence “Hong Kong is located at China’s southern side” in textbooks should be changed. His comments led lawmakers to accuse him of conducting political censorship.
“[The phrase] is unclear, as there could be different interpretations from the wording,” Yeung said.
“It could mean the southern side outside China, it could mean the southern side within China’s borders – this is unclear from the wording, so it has to be changed,” he said.
Singapore's Lee Names New Trade, Industry Minister in Reshuffle - Bloomberg
Singapore's Lee Names New Trade, Industry Minister in Reshuffle
By Michelle Jamrisko
April 24, 2018, 6:49 PM GMT+10
Lee Hsien Loong Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong named a new trade and industry minister in a cabinet reshuffle, further preparing his party for a leadership transition sometime in the next few years.
Chan Chun Sing will be Minister for Trade and Industry from May 1, taking on duties currently shared by Lim Hng Kiang, who will step down, and S Iswaran, who will become Minister in Charge of Trade Relations. Chan, who turns 49 this year, will relinquish his position as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Chun Sing ChanPhotographer: Gian Ehrenzeller/Getty Images
Chan will play a key role in an economy that is forecast to see solid growth in 2018 after an export boom last year gave the country its fastest expansion since 2014. Inflation remains within the government’s forecast range while its labor market is strengthening, but officials face longer-term challenges such as rapid aging and adjusting to the digital economy.
Lee, 66, is devolving more responsibilities from older ministers to the younger ones. Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat will take on the additional job of assisting the prime minister on National Research Foundation matters from Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean. Chan will take over responsibility for the Public Service Division from Teo.
Read about who to watch in Singapore’s Cabinet
There was no movement in the finance minister post, which last changed hands in 2015, when Heng replaced Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam shortly after the government won a landslide election victory. Heng, who turns 57 this year, was part of a younger team of officials Lee promoted to show that the ruling People’s Action Party was preparing for succession.
Ong Ye Kung will remain Minister for Education with an expanded portfolio overseeing the entire ministry, from higher education and skills previously. He will relinquish his job as Second Minister for Defence. Josephine Teo will be Minister for Manpower, and Indranee Rajah will be promoted to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Education.
— With assistance by Keith Zhai
By Michelle Jamrisko
April 24, 2018, 6:49 PM GMT+10
Lee Hsien Loong Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong named a new trade and industry minister in a cabinet reshuffle, further preparing his party for a leadership transition sometime in the next few years.
Chan Chun Sing will be Minister for Trade and Industry from May 1, taking on duties currently shared by Lim Hng Kiang, who will step down, and S Iswaran, who will become Minister in Charge of Trade Relations. Chan, who turns 49 this year, will relinquish his position as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Chun Sing ChanPhotographer: Gian Ehrenzeller/Getty Images
Chan will play a key role in an economy that is forecast to see solid growth in 2018 after an export boom last year gave the country its fastest expansion since 2014. Inflation remains within the government’s forecast range while its labor market is strengthening, but officials face longer-term challenges such as rapid aging and adjusting to the digital economy.
Lee, 66, is devolving more responsibilities from older ministers to the younger ones. Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat will take on the additional job of assisting the prime minister on National Research Foundation matters from Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean. Chan will take over responsibility for the Public Service Division from Teo.
Read about who to watch in Singapore’s Cabinet
There was no movement in the finance minister post, which last changed hands in 2015, when Heng replaced Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam shortly after the government won a landslide election victory. Heng, who turns 57 this year, was part of a younger team of officials Lee promoted to show that the ruling People’s Action Party was preparing for succession.
Ong Ye Kung will remain Minister for Education with an expanded portfolio overseeing the entire ministry, from higher education and skills previously. He will relinquish his job as Second Minister for Defence. Josephine Teo will be Minister for Manpower, and Indranee Rajah will be promoted to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Education.
— With assistance by Keith Zhai
Harvard's longest study of adult life reveals how you can be happier and more successful - CNBC News
Harvard's longest study of adult life reveals how you can be happier and more successful
Zameena Mejia 9:58 AM ET Tue, 20 March 2018
Why the secret to your success is who you marry Why the secret to your success is who you marry
The United Nations is celebrating the International Day of Happiness today and if you've ever wondered how to live a long, successful and happy life, Harvard researchers may just have your answer.
"The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health," Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School, told The Harvard Gazette in 2017. "Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation."
Waldinger, the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, said in a viral 2015 "TED Talk" released in 2015, that "good relationships keep us happier and healthier."
The ongoing Harvard study is considered one of the world's longest studies of adult life, having started in 1938 during the Great Depression.
"Our study has shown that the people who fared the best were the people who leaned into relationships, with family, with friends, with community," Waldinger said in the TED Talk.
The study aims to shed light on how "psychosocial variables and biological processes from earlier in life predict health and well-being in late life (80's and 90's), what aspects of childhood and adult experience predict the quality of intimate relationships in late life and how late-life marriage is linked with health and well-being," according to the study's website.
"Most of what we know about human life, we know from asking people to remember the past, and as we know, hindsight is anything but 20/20," Waldinger said. "We forget vast amounts of what happens to us in life and sometimes memory is downright creative."
In the past 79 years, the researchers tracked the lives of 724 men, following up with each one on an annual basis to ask about their work, home lives and health.
They not only received questionnaires, Waldinger said, but they were also interviewed in their homes, provided their medical records from their doctors, got their blood drawn, their brains scanned and let the researchers talk to their children.
Albert Einstein used this mindset shift to be happier and more successful Albert Einstein used this mental shift to be happier and more successful
The participants were broken up into two groups: The first group started in the study as sophomores at Harvard College and finished college during World War II, with most heading off to serve in the war. The second was a group of boys from Boston's poorest neighborhoods, selected specifically because they were from some of the most troubled and disadvantaged families in the Boston of the 1930s, Waldinger said.
After gaining tens of thousands of pages of research data based on these participants, Waldinger said, the clearest message from the study is that "good relationships keep us happier and healthier."
Here are the three lessons you can learn about relationships from the study, according to Waldinger:
Social connections are 'really good' for you
Waldinger said the first lesson you can take is that "social connections are really good for us and that loneliness kills."
"It turns out that people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community are happier, they're physically healthier and they live longer than people who are less well connected," he said.
On the contrary, keeping to yourself and experiencing loneliness is toxic. Waldinger points out that people can even feel lonely in a crowd of people or in their marriage.
"People who are more isolated than they want to be from others find that they are less happy, their health declines earlier in midlife, their brain functioning declines sooner and they live shorter lives than people who are not lonely," Waldinger explained.
Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope in "Parks and Recreation."
Colleen Hayes | Getty Images
Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope in "Parks and Recreation."
When it comes to relationships, pick quality over quantity
Just as a parent or teacher may have once warned you, Waldinger said that when it comes to friends, it's not about the number of friends you have, but "it's the quality of your close relationships that matters."
Waldinger adds that you should also make sure your relationships are healthy because your willingness to commit to a person or people is not enough to reap the benefits.
This simple exercise helps you figure out what to do with your life and career This simple exercise can help you figure out what to do with your life
"It turns out that living in the midst of conflict is really bad for our health," Waldinger said. "High-conflict marriages, for example, without much affection, turn out to be very bad for our health, perhaps worse than getting divorced."
Good, warm and close relationships, on the other hand, have the ability to "buffer us from some of the slings and arrows of getting old," Waldinger said.
Eighty-year-old men and women who were happily partnered reported that on the days when they had more physical pain, their mood remained just as happy. Meanwhile, those in unhappy relationships had their physical pain magnified by being in more emotional pain.
Good relationships actually protect your brain
Waldinger explained that in addition to positively affecting your physical and emotional health, good relationships have the power to sharpen your memory.
People who are in relationships where they feel they can count on their partner in times of need actually have a sharper, longer-lasting ability to remember things.
All the same, those who were in a relationship where they felt they couldn't count on their partner experienced early memory decline.
To clarify, it's not that the researchers found that people in good relationships were flawless or had to be easygoing all the time.
"As long as they felt that they could really count on the other when the going got tough, those arguments didn't take a toll on their memories," Waldinger said.
If you want to be happier and have stronger, positive relationships, Waldinger recommended "replacing screen time with people time," "livening up a stale relationship by doing something new together," such as long walks or date nights, or "reaching out to that family member who you haven't spoken to in years."
"Relationships are messy and they're complicated and the hard work of tending to family and friends, it's not sexy or glamorous," he said. "It's also lifelong. It never ends."
Zameena Mejia 9:58 AM ET Tue, 20 March 2018
Why the secret to your success is who you marry Why the secret to your success is who you marry
The United Nations is celebrating the International Day of Happiness today and if you've ever wondered how to live a long, successful and happy life, Harvard researchers may just have your answer.
"The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health," Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School, told The Harvard Gazette in 2017. "Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation."
Waldinger, the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, said in a viral 2015 "TED Talk" released in 2015, that "good relationships keep us happier and healthier."
The ongoing Harvard study is considered one of the world's longest studies of adult life, having started in 1938 during the Great Depression.
"Our study has shown that the people who fared the best were the people who leaned into relationships, with family, with friends, with community," Waldinger said in the TED Talk.
The study aims to shed light on how "psychosocial variables and biological processes from earlier in life predict health and well-being in late life (80's and 90's), what aspects of childhood and adult experience predict the quality of intimate relationships in late life and how late-life marriage is linked with health and well-being," according to the study's website.
"Most of what we know about human life, we know from asking people to remember the past, and as we know, hindsight is anything but 20/20," Waldinger said. "We forget vast amounts of what happens to us in life and sometimes memory is downright creative."
In the past 79 years, the researchers tracked the lives of 724 men, following up with each one on an annual basis to ask about their work, home lives and health.
They not only received questionnaires, Waldinger said, but they were also interviewed in their homes, provided their medical records from their doctors, got their blood drawn, their brains scanned and let the researchers talk to their children.
Albert Einstein used this mindset shift to be happier and more successful Albert Einstein used this mental shift to be happier and more successful
The participants were broken up into two groups: The first group started in the study as sophomores at Harvard College and finished college during World War II, with most heading off to serve in the war. The second was a group of boys from Boston's poorest neighborhoods, selected specifically because they were from some of the most troubled and disadvantaged families in the Boston of the 1930s, Waldinger said.
After gaining tens of thousands of pages of research data based on these participants, Waldinger said, the clearest message from the study is that "good relationships keep us happier and healthier."
Here are the three lessons you can learn about relationships from the study, according to Waldinger:
Social connections are 'really good' for you
Waldinger said the first lesson you can take is that "social connections are really good for us and that loneliness kills."
"It turns out that people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community are happier, they're physically healthier and they live longer than people who are less well connected," he said.
On the contrary, keeping to yourself and experiencing loneliness is toxic. Waldinger points out that people can even feel lonely in a crowd of people or in their marriage.
"People who are more isolated than they want to be from others find that they are less happy, their health declines earlier in midlife, their brain functioning declines sooner and they live shorter lives than people who are not lonely," Waldinger explained.
Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope in "Parks and Recreation."
Colleen Hayes | Getty Images
Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope in "Parks and Recreation."
When it comes to relationships, pick quality over quantity
Just as a parent or teacher may have once warned you, Waldinger said that when it comes to friends, it's not about the number of friends you have, but "it's the quality of your close relationships that matters."
Waldinger adds that you should also make sure your relationships are healthy because your willingness to commit to a person or people is not enough to reap the benefits.
This simple exercise helps you figure out what to do with your life and career This simple exercise can help you figure out what to do with your life
"It turns out that living in the midst of conflict is really bad for our health," Waldinger said. "High-conflict marriages, for example, without much affection, turn out to be very bad for our health, perhaps worse than getting divorced."
Good, warm and close relationships, on the other hand, have the ability to "buffer us from some of the slings and arrows of getting old," Waldinger said.
Eighty-year-old men and women who were happily partnered reported that on the days when they had more physical pain, their mood remained just as happy. Meanwhile, those in unhappy relationships had their physical pain magnified by being in more emotional pain.
Good relationships actually protect your brain
Waldinger explained that in addition to positively affecting your physical and emotional health, good relationships have the power to sharpen your memory.
People who are in relationships where they feel they can count on their partner in times of need actually have a sharper, longer-lasting ability to remember things.
All the same, those who were in a relationship where they felt they couldn't count on their partner experienced early memory decline.
To clarify, it's not that the researchers found that people in good relationships were flawless or had to be easygoing all the time.
"As long as they felt that they could really count on the other when the going got tough, those arguments didn't take a toll on their memories," Waldinger said.
If you want to be happier and have stronger, positive relationships, Waldinger recommended "replacing screen time with people time," "livening up a stale relationship by doing something new together," such as long walks or date nights, or "reaching out to that family member who you haven't spoken to in years."
"Relationships are messy and they're complicated and the hard work of tending to family and friends, it's not sexy or glamorous," he said. "It's also lifelong. It never ends."
Analysis: A tale of two Hannitys - CNN
Analysis: A tale of two Hannitys
by Brian Stelter @brianstelter
April 23, 2018: 2:57 PM ET
sean hannity seth rich
Fox News host Sean Hannity probably wouldn't like this guy Sean Hannity.
On camera, Hannity rails against "elite" media types who have inappropriately cozy connections with the rich and powerful.
Off camera, that's who Hannity is.
A pair of stories in the past week have highlighted this on-air, off-air contradiction. First came the revelation that Hannity has been a client of President Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen. Now there's a story in The Guardian that shows just how wealthy he is.
The Guardian reviewed public records that "link Hannity to a group of shell companies that spent at least $90 million on more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade."
According to the paper, "the properties range from luxurious mansions to rentals for low-income families. Hannity is the hidden owner behind some of the shell companies and his attorney did not dispute that he owns all of them."
Hannity defended his investment strategy in a statement issued on Monday.
"It is ironic that I am being attacked for investing my personal money in communities that badly need such investment and in which, I am sure, those attacking me have not invested their money," Hannity said. "The fact is, these are investments that I do not individually select, control, or know the details about; except that obviously I believe in putting my money to work in communities that otherwise struggle to receive such support."
The attorney did not respond to a request for comment from CNNMoney. (Hannity's attorney in these matters, Christopher Reeves, is married to a CNN executive.)
Last week Hannity was widely criticized for not disclosing his Cohen connection to viewers.
Hannity downplayed the legal relationship by saying it "dealt almost exclusively about real estate."
That gave The Guardian a reason to investigative Hannity's real estate investments.
The revelation about Cohen and the paper's reporting about 870 homes calls to mind this infamous Hannity quote: "Now, my overpaid friends in the media, well, they have their chauffeured limousines, they like their fine steakhouses and expensive wine lifestyles."
Hannity's disdain for his fellow members of the media is one of the dominant themes of his nightly show.
To Hannity's credit, he has counted himself in the "overpaid" category in the past.
But his consistent message on Fox, repeated ad nauseam, is that TV anchors and other journalists are woefully out of touch.
He frequently claims journalism is "dead," even though he invites conservative journalists on his show to attack Trump's perceived enemies.
Hannity was all smiles at a recent party thrown by The Hollywood Reporter. He hobnobbed with guests like CNN's Don Lemon and Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti.
Then he headed over to his Fox studio for a monologue about "abusively biased so-called wannabe journalists."
One of the graphics on screen referenced a "fake news eruption."
The following week, when the Cohen relationship was revealed, he bemoaned the media's "obsession" with him and said he deserved privacy.
His comments "were certainly as hypocritical as spectators have come to expect," Time magazine critic Daniel D'Addario wrote.
"Hannity has made a career of hounding public figures, some of whom are now private citizens; Hillary Clinton and James Comey are unlikely to hold office ever again," D'Addario said. "So Hannity promoting the idea that a public person should be able to keep an essential fact private is surprising."
by Brian Stelter @brianstelter
April 23, 2018: 2:57 PM ET
sean hannity seth rich
Fox News host Sean Hannity probably wouldn't like this guy Sean Hannity.
On camera, Hannity rails against "elite" media types who have inappropriately cozy connections with the rich and powerful.
Off camera, that's who Hannity is.
A pair of stories in the past week have highlighted this on-air, off-air contradiction. First came the revelation that Hannity has been a client of President Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen. Now there's a story in The Guardian that shows just how wealthy he is.
The Guardian reviewed public records that "link Hannity to a group of shell companies that spent at least $90 million on more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade."
According to the paper, "the properties range from luxurious mansions to rentals for low-income families. Hannity is the hidden owner behind some of the shell companies and his attorney did not dispute that he owns all of them."
Hannity defended his investment strategy in a statement issued on Monday.
"It is ironic that I am being attacked for investing my personal money in communities that badly need such investment and in which, I am sure, those attacking me have not invested their money," Hannity said. "The fact is, these are investments that I do not individually select, control, or know the details about; except that obviously I believe in putting my money to work in communities that otherwise struggle to receive such support."
The attorney did not respond to a request for comment from CNNMoney. (Hannity's attorney in these matters, Christopher Reeves, is married to a CNN executive.)
Last week Hannity was widely criticized for not disclosing his Cohen connection to viewers.
Hannity downplayed the legal relationship by saying it "dealt almost exclusively about real estate."
That gave The Guardian a reason to investigative Hannity's real estate investments.
The revelation about Cohen and the paper's reporting about 870 homes calls to mind this infamous Hannity quote: "Now, my overpaid friends in the media, well, they have their chauffeured limousines, they like their fine steakhouses and expensive wine lifestyles."
Hannity's disdain for his fellow members of the media is one of the dominant themes of his nightly show.
To Hannity's credit, he has counted himself in the "overpaid" category in the past.
But his consistent message on Fox, repeated ad nauseam, is that TV anchors and other journalists are woefully out of touch.
He frequently claims journalism is "dead," even though he invites conservative journalists on his show to attack Trump's perceived enemies.
Hannity was all smiles at a recent party thrown by The Hollywood Reporter. He hobnobbed with guests like CNN's Don Lemon and Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti.
Then he headed over to his Fox studio for a monologue about "abusively biased so-called wannabe journalists."
One of the graphics on screen referenced a "fake news eruption."
The following week, when the Cohen relationship was revealed, he bemoaned the media's "obsession" with him and said he deserved privacy.
His comments "were certainly as hypocritical as spectators have come to expect," Time magazine critic Daniel D'Addario wrote.
"Hannity has made a career of hounding public figures, some of whom are now private citizens; Hillary Clinton and James Comey are unlikely to hold office ever again," D'Addario said. "So Hannity promoting the idea that a public person should be able to keep an essential fact private is surprising."
Hong Kong Approves Dual-Class Shares, Paving Way for Tech Titans - Bloomberg
Hong Kong Approves Dual-Class Shares, Paving Way for Tech Titans
By Benjamin Robertson
April 24, 2018, 6:38 PM GMT+10
Companies including Xiaomi and Ant Financial may choose city
Applicants can file under new rules starting April 30
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. approved the biggest change to its initial public offering rules in two decades, putting it in a position to battle New York for some of the world’s hottest companies.
Technology firms that have shares with different voting rights will now be allowed to go public in Hong Kong, overturning rules that barred the likes of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. from considering the former British colony. Businesses will be able to apply under the new regime starting April 30, HKEX said Tuesday.
The new framework is a victory for the exchange and its Chief Executive Officer Charles Li, who championed the changes after losing Alibaba and other tech titans to venues in New York, where dual-class shares and similar structures have long been permitted. The step could be a landmark for Hong Kong’s efforts to be the leading home for international Chinese listings and builds on Li’s vision for a trading hub that rivals the U.S.
Some of the world’s largest and most influential technology companies, from Facebook Inc. to Google parent Alphabet Inc., have share classes with different voting rights to protect their founders’ influence after going public. The structures are contentious because they reduce the rights of other shareholders, and investors including BlackRock Inc. opposed HKEX’s plan.
Read more: Why investors are upset -- A QuickTake on dual-class shares
The city lost to New York and Shanghai in the global IPO rankings last year, with funds raised down 33 percent compared with previous year to $16.9 billion, the lowest level since 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The payoff for HKEX could come very soon. Xiaomi Corp., Ant Financial Services Group and Lufax, the peer-to-peer lending unit of Ping An Insurance (Group) Co., are among a number of Chinese technology giants preparing to go public. Smartphone maker Xiaomi is considering listing in both Hong Kong and Shanghai and targeting a valuation of about $100 billion.
By Benjamin Robertson
April 24, 2018, 6:38 PM GMT+10
Companies including Xiaomi and Ant Financial may choose city
Applicants can file under new rules starting April 30
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. approved the biggest change to its initial public offering rules in two decades, putting it in a position to battle New York for some of the world’s hottest companies.
Technology firms that have shares with different voting rights will now be allowed to go public in Hong Kong, overturning rules that barred the likes of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. from considering the former British colony. Businesses will be able to apply under the new regime starting April 30, HKEX said Tuesday.
The new framework is a victory for the exchange and its Chief Executive Officer Charles Li, who championed the changes after losing Alibaba and other tech titans to venues in New York, where dual-class shares and similar structures have long been permitted. The step could be a landmark for Hong Kong’s efforts to be the leading home for international Chinese listings and builds on Li’s vision for a trading hub that rivals the U.S.
Some of the world’s largest and most influential technology companies, from Facebook Inc. to Google parent Alphabet Inc., have share classes with different voting rights to protect their founders’ influence after going public. The structures are contentious because they reduce the rights of other shareholders, and investors including BlackRock Inc. opposed HKEX’s plan.
Read more: Why investors are upset -- A QuickTake on dual-class shares
The city lost to New York and Shanghai in the global IPO rankings last year, with funds raised down 33 percent compared with previous year to $16.9 billion, the lowest level since 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The payoff for HKEX could come very soon. Xiaomi Corp., Ant Financial Services Group and Lufax, the peer-to-peer lending unit of Ping An Insurance (Group) Co., are among a number of Chinese technology giants preparing to go public. Smartphone maker Xiaomi is considering listing in both Hong Kong and Shanghai and targeting a valuation of about $100 billion.
Chinese Uber competitor Didi Chuxing reportedly in talks to launch $80 billion IPO - CNBC News
April 23, 2018
Chinese Uber competitor Didi Chuxing reportedly in talks to launch $80 billion IPO
Didi wants to reach a valuation of between $70 and $80 billion through an IPO, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
Didi said Tuesday that it was expanding its service to Mexico, a move that pits the company directly against Uber.
Ryan Browne | @Ryan_Browne_
Published Updated Moments Ago
CNBC.com
Jean Liu, president of Didi Chuxing
Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Jean Liu, president of Didi Chuxing
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is holding talks about an initial public offering (IPO), according to a report.
Didi Chuxing was last valued at more than $50 billion in December, after raising $4 billion from investors including Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. It now wants to reach a valuation of between $70 and $80 billion through an IPO, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
The company could go public as early as the second half of 2018, sources told the WSJ, but as talks are in the early stages a set date for the listing is not entirely clear.
Didi Chuxing declined to comment on the report when contacted by CNBC.
Didi said Tuesday that it was expanding its service to Mexico, a move that pits the company directly against Uber. Didi has also said it wants to enter Taiwan.
The company has previously partnered with international rivals to expand its reach to markets beyond China. But its move into Mexico marks the first instance of a direct expansion outside of its home market.
Didi Chuxing bought Uber's business in China in 2016. Uber has been planning its own IPO, but CEO Dara Khosrowshani has said this will likely not take place until 2019.
Toronto van killings: Police officer hailed as 'hero' after arresting suspect who begged to be shot without firing gun - Independent
April 24, 2018
Toronto van killings: Police officer hailed as 'hero' after arresting suspect who begged to be shot without firing gun
Video shows police officer staring down suspect at gunpoint in the middle of a road while he pointed what appeared to be a gun and shouted 'Kill me'
Jon Sharman
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A police officer has been praised as a “hero” for calmly confronting the suspected Toronto van crash driver.
Video footage showed the police officer staring down the suspect, later identified as Alek Minassian, at gunpoint in the middle of a road, while he pointed what appeared to be a gun and shouted, “Kill me”.
Images broadcast by Canadian media showed the suspect pulling an object from his side a number of times, and aiming at the officer.
As the suspect shouted “Kill me”, the unnamed officer replied, “No, get down”. When the suspect then said, “I have a gun in my pocket,” the officer responded, ”I don’t care. Get down”.
Picture of suspect emerges after van ploughs into crowd in Toronto
Eventually Mr Minassian was seen to turn around with his hands in the air, and then to lie on the ground.
The 25-year-old suspect was arrested “without incident”, authorities later said, and the non-violent end to the confrontation won praise from viewers.
Mr Minassian is believed to have been behind the wheel of a rented white van which mowed down pedestrians in Toronto on Monday afternoon. Ten people were killed and another 15 injured.
He is due in court at 10am local time, when police said they would reveal further details.
toronto-van-attack-police-hero.jpg
A lone police officer (R) confronts the man suspected of driving a van into pedestrians in Toronto (L) as he points an object that looks like a gun (rayy0889/Twitter/Screengrab)
One Twitter user said “Thank you to the officer who showed composure, courage and ethics”, while Lauren Ash, an actor, added that the officer “showed the world that he could do his job effectively without immediate deadly force”.
Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, told The Globe and Mail: “This officer looked at what was going on and determined he could handle it the way that he did. People are right, this guy is a hero.”
Gary Clement, a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police superintendent with 34 years’ experience of policing, said it was “quite clear” Mr Minassian wanted to goad the officer into shooting him.
“I would say this individual met the right police officer,” Mr Clement added. “Nobody knows how they’re going to react. In this situation a lot of it comes down to muscle memory. This guy reacted in a very mature manner.”
Toronto van killings: Police officer hailed as 'hero' after arresting suspect who begged to be shot without firing gun
Video shows police officer staring down suspect at gunpoint in the middle of a road while he pointed what appeared to be a gun and shouted 'Kill me'
Jon Sharman
Is hypnobirthing the secret to Kate Middleton's 'effortless' births?
UK public finances show first current budget surplus in sixteen years
New Venom trailer offers first actual look at Tom Hardy's monster
US Border Patrol agent who shot teenager dead acquitted of murder
A police officer has been praised as a “hero” for calmly confronting the suspected Toronto van crash driver.
Video footage showed the police officer staring down the suspect, later identified as Alek Minassian, at gunpoint in the middle of a road, while he pointed what appeared to be a gun and shouted, “Kill me”.
Images broadcast by Canadian media showed the suspect pulling an object from his side a number of times, and aiming at the officer.
As the suspect shouted “Kill me”, the unnamed officer replied, “No, get down”. When the suspect then said, “I have a gun in my pocket,” the officer responded, ”I don’t care. Get down”.
Picture of suspect emerges after van ploughs into crowd in Toronto
Eventually Mr Minassian was seen to turn around with his hands in the air, and then to lie on the ground.
The 25-year-old suspect was arrested “without incident”, authorities later said, and the non-violent end to the confrontation won praise from viewers.
Mr Minassian is believed to have been behind the wheel of a rented white van which mowed down pedestrians in Toronto on Monday afternoon. Ten people were killed and another 15 injured.
He is due in court at 10am local time, when police said they would reveal further details.
toronto-van-attack-police-hero.jpg
A lone police officer (R) confronts the man suspected of driving a van into pedestrians in Toronto (L) as he points an object that looks like a gun (rayy0889/Twitter/Screengrab)
One Twitter user said “Thank you to the officer who showed composure, courage and ethics”, while Lauren Ash, an actor, added that the officer “showed the world that he could do his job effectively without immediate deadly force”.
Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, told The Globe and Mail: “This officer looked at what was going on and determined he could handle it the way that he did. People are right, this guy is a hero.”
Gary Clement, a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police superintendent with 34 years’ experience of policing, said it was “quite clear” Mr Minassian wanted to goad the officer into shooting him.
“I would say this individual met the right police officer,” Mr Clement added. “Nobody knows how they’re going to react. In this situation a lot of it comes down to muscle memory. This guy reacted in a very mature manner.”
Toronto van attack: How is the suspect not dead? - BBC News
April 24. 2018
Toronto van attack: How is the suspect not dead?
The calm actions of a police officer who arrested the Toronto van suspect without firing a shot have prompted praise and, in some quarters, astonishment.
Video from the scene shows suspect Alek Minassian pointing an object at the officer and shouting: "Kill me!"
The officer tells the man to "get down" and when the suspect says he has a gun, the officer repeats: "I don't care. Get down."
Minassian is then seen lying down and the officer arrests him.
Many in North America are asking how the suspect did not end up dead in a hail of police gunfire. It contrasts with incidents in the US where police have shot and killed unarmed people.
However one US-based academic told the BBC the officer had had a "duty" to kill the suspect.
Toronto police quiz van attack suspect
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told journalists the officer had done a "fantastic job" to understand the "circumstance and environment" and get to a "peaceful resolution".
He said police in the city were "taught to use as little force as possible in any given situation".
Media caption"Anybody in his way, he would hit": Witnesses recall Toronto van incident
Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, told the Globe and Mail newspaper that the officer was a "hero" and could have justified opening fire.
"This officer looked at what was going on and determined he could handle it the way that he did," he said. He said he had spoken to the officer, who had told him: "I just did my job. What I did was no big deal. But look at these poor people."
Canada's Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale praised the "brave and professional" police response.
Some on social media have praised the officer's "extraordinary restraint".
Author Viet Thanh Nguyen also highlighted the apparent contrast with the behaviour of some US police.
"What is wrong with American police training? Shoot to kill? This Canadian officer arrests a mass murderer without firing a shot," he said.
How often are US police killed on duty?
Are US police too quick to shoot knife-wielding suspects?
However, Michael Lyman, professor of Criminal Justice Administration at Columbia College of Missouri, told the BBC that the officer may have had a "duty" to kill the suspect.
"Assuming the suspect is holding a gun and pointing it toward officers, it is concerning that the officer is not engaging the suspect with deadly force," he said.
Professor Lyman said that the officer might not have opened fire out of fear of public criticism after the event.
"People died as a result of the suspect's actions. Can we assume that the officer knew this? If so, this changes things a bit in that the level of public threat is higher. Under this circumstance, it would seem that the officer had a 'duty' to respond with deadly force - assuming what he was holding was a firearm," he said.
US cop kills unarmed man with pants down
US police video shows unarmed man shot dead
Professor William Terrill from the Arizona State University School of Criminology & Criminal Justice said the officer may have judged that the object held by the suspect did not pose a threat.
"It's possible the officer thought the object in the person's hand was not a gun, or not a real gun. The fact that the officer left the cover of his car and exposed himself out in the open would further support such a supposition," he said.
"It's also possible the officer recognised a potential suicide-by-cop incident and chose not to engage with deadly force. The only remaining option I can posit is the officer simply froze."
David Klinger, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St Louis said the video did not show enough detail for an informed assessment of the officer's actions.
"If the cop could clearly see what was in the suspect's hand, and that it wasn't a gun, then it's a simple matter of a cop doing his job correctly," he said.
Toronto van attack: How is the suspect not dead?
The calm actions of a police officer who arrested the Toronto van suspect without firing a shot have prompted praise and, in some quarters, astonishment.
Video from the scene shows suspect Alek Minassian pointing an object at the officer and shouting: "Kill me!"
The officer tells the man to "get down" and when the suspect says he has a gun, the officer repeats: "I don't care. Get down."
Minassian is then seen lying down and the officer arrests him.
Many in North America are asking how the suspect did not end up dead in a hail of police gunfire. It contrasts with incidents in the US where police have shot and killed unarmed people.
However one US-based academic told the BBC the officer had had a "duty" to kill the suspect.
Toronto police quiz van attack suspect
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told journalists the officer had done a "fantastic job" to understand the "circumstance and environment" and get to a "peaceful resolution".
He said police in the city were "taught to use as little force as possible in any given situation".
Media caption"Anybody in his way, he would hit": Witnesses recall Toronto van incident
Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, told the Globe and Mail newspaper that the officer was a "hero" and could have justified opening fire.
"This officer looked at what was going on and determined he could handle it the way that he did," he said. He said he had spoken to the officer, who had told him: "I just did my job. What I did was no big deal. But look at these poor people."
Canada's Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale praised the "brave and professional" police response.
Some on social media have praised the officer's "extraordinary restraint".
Author Viet Thanh Nguyen also highlighted the apparent contrast with the behaviour of some US police.
"What is wrong with American police training? Shoot to kill? This Canadian officer arrests a mass murderer without firing a shot," he said.
How often are US police killed on duty?
Are US police too quick to shoot knife-wielding suspects?
However, Michael Lyman, professor of Criminal Justice Administration at Columbia College of Missouri, told the BBC that the officer may have had a "duty" to kill the suspect.
"Assuming the suspect is holding a gun and pointing it toward officers, it is concerning that the officer is not engaging the suspect with deadly force," he said.
Professor Lyman said that the officer might not have opened fire out of fear of public criticism after the event.
"People died as a result of the suspect's actions. Can we assume that the officer knew this? If so, this changes things a bit in that the level of public threat is higher. Under this circumstance, it would seem that the officer had a 'duty' to respond with deadly force - assuming what he was holding was a firearm," he said.
US cop kills unarmed man with pants down
US police video shows unarmed man shot dead
Professor William Terrill from the Arizona State University School of Criminology & Criminal Justice said the officer may have judged that the object held by the suspect did not pose a threat.
"It's possible the officer thought the object in the person's hand was not a gun, or not a real gun. The fact that the officer left the cover of his car and exposed himself out in the open would further support such a supposition," he said.
"It's also possible the officer recognised a potential suicide-by-cop incident and chose not to engage with deadly force. The only remaining option I can posit is the officer simply froze."
David Klinger, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St Louis said the video did not show enough detail for an informed assessment of the officer's actions.
"If the cop could clearly see what was in the suspect's hand, and that it wasn't a gun, then it's a simple matter of a cop doing his job correctly," he said.
Toronto van attack: Suspect quizzed after 10 pedestrians killed - BBC News
April 24, 2018
Toronto van attack: Suspect quizzed after 10 pedestrians killed
Suspect Alex Minassian is due to appear in court on Tuesday morning
Canadian police are questioning the suspected driver of a rented van that ploughed into pedestrians in northern Toronto on Monday, killing 10 and injuring 15.
Alek Minassian, 25, was not previously known to authorities, police said.
The incident appeared to be deliberate but the motive was not clear, officials added.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the "tragic and senseless attack" had brought him "great sadness".
Meanwhile, an officer has been praised for not opening fire during a tense standoff with the suspect, who claimed to be armed.
Video broadcast on CBC News showed a man pointing what appeared to be a gun at officers and shouting "kill me".
The officer tells the man to "get down" and when the suspect says he has a gun, the officer repeats: "I don't care. Get down." The suspect was then arrested without shots being fired.
How is Toronto attack suspect not dead?
Minassian is due to appear in court at 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Tuesday.
How did the incident unfold?
Police said the white rental van mounted the kerb on Yonge Street between Finch Avenue and Sheppard Avenue at about 13:30 local time (17:30 GMT) on Monday and drove into pedestrians along a 2km (1.24 mile) stretch.
Reza Hashemi, who owns a video shop on Yonge Street, told the BBC he heard screaming on the other side of the road.
He said the van was repeatedly mounting the pavement and running into people.
Media caption"Anybody in his way, he would hit": Witnesses recall Toronto van incident
'It was awful': What eyewitnesses saw
One witness told City News that the driver was "hitting anything that comes in the way".
"People, fire hydrants, there's mail boxes being run over," said the unnamed man, who said he was driving behind the van during the incident.
As the van continued, the man said he sounded his horn to try to warn pedestrians. "I witnessed at least six, seven people being hit and flying in the air, like killed, on the street," he said.
Skip Twitter post by @JustinTrudeau
Justin Trudeau
✔
@JustinTrudeau
Replying to @JustinTrudeau
The @TorontoPolice and first responders faced danger without hesitation today, and I want to thank them for their courage and professionalism. We’ll continue working with our law enforcement partners as the investigation continues.
11:48 AM - Apr 24, 2018
Pictures from the scene showed bodies covered in orange sheets along the van's route. Debris and items of clothing were scattered across the pavements and road.
The van was brought to a halt by police several streets away and was quickly surrounded.
The suspect was arrested 26 minutes after the first emergency call was made to the police.
What is known of the suspect?
Police said Minassian was from the northern Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill and was not previously known to authorities.
"The actions definitely looked deliberate," said Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders.
Public safety minister Ralph Goodale said there "would appear to be no national security connections" and Canadian broadcaster CBC cited government officials as saying he was not associated with any known terror groups.
Minassian had previously attended a school for students with special needs in north Toronto, former classmates said.
He would be seen walking around Thornlea Secondary School with his head down and hands clasped tightly together making meowing noises, Shereen Chami told Reuters.
But she said Minassian had not been violent.
"He wasn't a social person, but from what I remember he was absolutely harmless," she told Reuters.
Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption
Investigators have sealed off the damaged rental van
Another former student, Ari Bluff, told CBC Minassian did not seem to have many friends.
"I remember seeing him probably just walking down the halls, usually by himself, or in the cafeteria by himself," he said.
Minassian went on to attend Seneca College in the North York area of Toronto, where the van incident took place, CBC reported.
Reporter James Moore, with Newtalk 1010, told the BBC he had heard reports that Minassian was regarded as being "quite brilliant".
Canada's Globe and Mail quotes a fellow student as saying Minassian was good at working with specialised computer chips used to process images.
What else is known?
Van rental company Ryder System Inc confirmed that one of its vehicles was involved and said it was co-operating with authorities.
The incident happened while foreign ministers of the G7 leading industrialised nations - Canada, the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - were holding talks in Toronto.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said the G7 meetings would continue on Tuesday as planned.
Emergency services flooded the area along Yonge Street
"The work of the ministers obviously goes on. This is a very sad day for the people of Toronto and the people of Canada," she said.
City Mayor John Tory urged residents to remain calm.
"This kind of tragic incident is not representative of how we live or who we are or anything to do with life in the city on a day-to-day basis," he said.
The White House issued a statement saying the US "stands with the Canadian people" and offering "any support Canada may need".
Toronto van attack: Suspect quizzed after 10 pedestrians killed
Suspect Alex Minassian is due to appear in court on Tuesday morning
Canadian police are questioning the suspected driver of a rented van that ploughed into pedestrians in northern Toronto on Monday, killing 10 and injuring 15.
Alek Minassian, 25, was not previously known to authorities, police said.
The incident appeared to be deliberate but the motive was not clear, officials added.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the "tragic and senseless attack" had brought him "great sadness".
Meanwhile, an officer has been praised for not opening fire during a tense standoff with the suspect, who claimed to be armed.
Video broadcast on CBC News showed a man pointing what appeared to be a gun at officers and shouting "kill me".
The officer tells the man to "get down" and when the suspect says he has a gun, the officer repeats: "I don't care. Get down." The suspect was then arrested without shots being fired.
How is Toronto attack suspect not dead?
Minassian is due to appear in court at 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Tuesday.
How did the incident unfold?
Police said the white rental van mounted the kerb on Yonge Street between Finch Avenue and Sheppard Avenue at about 13:30 local time (17:30 GMT) on Monday and drove into pedestrians along a 2km (1.24 mile) stretch.
Reza Hashemi, who owns a video shop on Yonge Street, told the BBC he heard screaming on the other side of the road.
He said the van was repeatedly mounting the pavement and running into people.
Media caption"Anybody in his way, he would hit": Witnesses recall Toronto van incident
'It was awful': What eyewitnesses saw
One witness told City News that the driver was "hitting anything that comes in the way".
"People, fire hydrants, there's mail boxes being run over," said the unnamed man, who said he was driving behind the van during the incident.
As the van continued, the man said he sounded his horn to try to warn pedestrians. "I witnessed at least six, seven people being hit and flying in the air, like killed, on the street," he said.
Skip Twitter post by @JustinTrudeau
Justin Trudeau
✔
@JustinTrudeau
Replying to @JustinTrudeau
The @TorontoPolice and first responders faced danger without hesitation today, and I want to thank them for their courage and professionalism. We’ll continue working with our law enforcement partners as the investigation continues.
11:48 AM - Apr 24, 2018
Pictures from the scene showed bodies covered in orange sheets along the van's route. Debris and items of clothing were scattered across the pavements and road.
The van was brought to a halt by police several streets away and was quickly surrounded.
The suspect was arrested 26 minutes after the first emergency call was made to the police.
What is known of the suspect?
Police said Minassian was from the northern Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill and was not previously known to authorities.
"The actions definitely looked deliberate," said Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders.
Public safety minister Ralph Goodale said there "would appear to be no national security connections" and Canadian broadcaster CBC cited government officials as saying he was not associated with any known terror groups.
Minassian had previously attended a school for students with special needs in north Toronto, former classmates said.
He would be seen walking around Thornlea Secondary School with his head down and hands clasped tightly together making meowing noises, Shereen Chami told Reuters.
But she said Minassian had not been violent.
"He wasn't a social person, but from what I remember he was absolutely harmless," she told Reuters.
Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption
Investigators have sealed off the damaged rental van
Another former student, Ari Bluff, told CBC Minassian did not seem to have many friends.
"I remember seeing him probably just walking down the halls, usually by himself, or in the cafeteria by himself," he said.
Minassian went on to attend Seneca College in the North York area of Toronto, where the van incident took place, CBC reported.
Reporter James Moore, with Newtalk 1010, told the BBC he had heard reports that Minassian was regarded as being "quite brilliant".
Canada's Globe and Mail quotes a fellow student as saying Minassian was good at working with specialised computer chips used to process images.
What else is known?
Van rental company Ryder System Inc confirmed that one of its vehicles was involved and said it was co-operating with authorities.
The incident happened while foreign ministers of the G7 leading industrialised nations - Canada, the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - were holding talks in Toronto.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said the G7 meetings would continue on Tuesday as planned.
Emergency services flooded the area along Yonge Street
"The work of the ministers obviously goes on. This is a very sad day for the people of Toronto and the people of Canada," she said.
City Mayor John Tory urged residents to remain calm.
"This kind of tragic incident is not representative of how we live or who we are or anything to do with life in the city on a day-to-day basis," he said.
The White House issued a statement saying the US "stands with the Canadian people" and offering "any support Canada may need".
Monday, April 23, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg survived Congress. Now he has to face Wall Street - CNN Money
Mark Zuckerberg survived Congress. Now he has to face Wall Street
by Seth Fiegerman, Danielle Wiener-Bronner and Nathaniel Meyersohn @CNNMoneyInvest
April 22, 2018: 6:47 AM ET
These are the most confusing questions Congress asked Zuckerberg
1. Facebook faces Wall Street: Mark Zuckerberg survived 10 hours of grilling by nearly 100 members of Congress this month. Now, Facebook's CEO must confront a group that could actually punish his company in the short-term: investors.
Facebook (FB) is set to report its first-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Zuckerberg will then field questions on a conference call with analysts for the first time since the Cambridge Analytica data scandal upended the company and shaved tens of billions of dollars off its market value.
Much is at stake. GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives called this earnings report a "pivotal barometer" for investors in a research note Friday. It will be a "key step for investors to either boost their confidence in the Facebook story going forward or raise further red flags," he wrote.
The consensus estimate among analysts is for Facebook's sales for the first three months of 2017 to hit $11.4 billion, up more than 40% from the same period a year earlier. But that only tells part of the story.
Analysts are concerned about how much an ongoing backlash among users, advertisers and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic could slow down a company once viewed as unstoppable.
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Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Donald Trump's campaign, accessed information from as many as 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge. The data debacle came to light late in the quarter, meaning the impact may be felt more in the quarters to come.
Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research, predicts there will be "an ongoing erosion of usage throughout 2018" due to "reduced trust" and "increasing awareness of toxicity of the platform," among other factors. He also expects marketers to rethink the upsides of advertising on Facebook because of the potential privacy concerns from consumers.
Ives thinks the "worst case scenario" is that as much as $2 billion in ad sales could be "at risk" for the company this year.
So far, Facebook executives have played down concerns. Zuckerberg said an online campaign to delete Facebook has not had a "material impact" on the company. Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said only a "few" marketers have paused their advertising on the platform.
Expect them to be grilled about both points on the earnings call — as well as how much Facebook is spending to make things right.
Zuckerberg has said Facebook will conduct a costly audit of thousands of third-party applications and hire more security and content review staff. The cure could end up being worse than the disease — at least for Facebook's bottom line.
2. Starbucks fallout: Facebook isn't the only company that will have to answer for a major scandal when it reports earnings this week. Starbucks (SBUX) will probably face questions about the uproar around the arrest of two black men who were waiting for a third person at one of the coffee chain's Philadelphia stores. CEO Kevin Johnson said the arrest "should not have happened," and the company has planned racial-bias training for 175,000 employees next month.
Related: Starbucks has a bold plan to address racial bias. Will it work?
3. First quarter US growth: The Commerce Department will release its initial estimates for first-quarter economic growth on Friday, and expectations are pretty low. Analysts surveyed by FactSet are expecting just 2.2%, down from 2.9% at the end of last year. Barclays (BCS) last week cut its forecast to just 1.5%.
This may have something to do with what the San Francisco Fed once called the "puzzle of weak first-quarter GDP growth," suggesting a statistical problem with how the government measures growth early in the year. The problem leads experts to believe that growth could rebound in the following quarters.
But Barclays and others are also predicting low growth because Americans just haven't been spending as much. Consumer confidence hit a 17-year high in February, but retail sales were disappointing in January and February. They picked up a bit in March.
Related: What boom? The economy is off to a 'meh' start to 2018
4. Market calm: The stock market has settled back down.
Wall Street's anxiety about a trade war with China has faded for the moment, allowing investors to focus on healthy corporate profits and the boost from corporate tax cuts.
"It's one of the gifts we get from earnings season," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR.
The Dow gained 0.4% last week, its smallest move in either direction in two months. The S&P had its quietest week since the end of last year. But the market may soon have to worry about an old nemesis: inflation.
Commodities, including oil and aluminum, are spiking, putting pressure on business' costs. Tariffs may be playing a role, too. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond, which had been falling as expectations of inflation eased, is back up to a three-year-high of 2.96%.
Related: Fed official worried about recession indicator
5. Tariff and tax impact: Two big trends to watch this earnings season are tariffs and taxes. As first-quarter earnings roll in, watch for what companies have to say about President Trump's tariffs and about the benefits of the corporate tax cut enacted late last year.
A slew of large companies should give us some idea when they report this week: Alphabet (GOOG) and Whirlpool (WHR) are coming on Monday. Caterpillar (CAT), Coca-Cola (KO), Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Verizon (VZ) follow on Tuesday. AT&T (T), Boeing (BA), Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) report on Wednesday. American Airlines (AAL), General Motors (GM) and PepsiCo (PEP) are on Thursday. And ExxonMobil (XOM) is reporting on Friday.
6. Coming this week:
Monday — Alphabet, Hasbro, Kimberly-Clark and Whirlpool earnings
Tuesday — Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Jetblue (JBLU), Lockheed Martin, Restaurant Brands (QSR), Southwest, Verizon and Wynn Resorts earnings; Conference Board's consumer confidence index
Wednesday — Boeing, Chipotle, Comcast, Dr Pepper Snapple, Facebook and Twitter earnings
Thursday — American Airlines, Dunkin' Brands, General Motors, PepsiCo, Starbucks and Southwest earnings
Friday — Exxon earnings; Q1 GDP
by Seth Fiegerman, Danielle Wiener-Bronner and Nathaniel Meyersohn @CNNMoneyInvest
April 22, 2018: 6:47 AM ET
These are the most confusing questions Congress asked Zuckerberg
1. Facebook faces Wall Street: Mark Zuckerberg survived 10 hours of grilling by nearly 100 members of Congress this month. Now, Facebook's CEO must confront a group that could actually punish his company in the short-term: investors.
Facebook (FB) is set to report its first-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Zuckerberg will then field questions on a conference call with analysts for the first time since the Cambridge Analytica data scandal upended the company and shaved tens of billions of dollars off its market value.
Much is at stake. GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives called this earnings report a "pivotal barometer" for investors in a research note Friday. It will be a "key step for investors to either boost their confidence in the Facebook story going forward or raise further red flags," he wrote.
The consensus estimate among analysts is for Facebook's sales for the first three months of 2017 to hit $11.4 billion, up more than 40% from the same period a year earlier. But that only tells part of the story.
Analysts are concerned about how much an ongoing backlash among users, advertisers and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic could slow down a company once viewed as unstoppable.
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Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Donald Trump's campaign, accessed information from as many as 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge. The data debacle came to light late in the quarter, meaning the impact may be felt more in the quarters to come.
Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research, predicts there will be "an ongoing erosion of usage throughout 2018" due to "reduced trust" and "increasing awareness of toxicity of the platform," among other factors. He also expects marketers to rethink the upsides of advertising on Facebook because of the potential privacy concerns from consumers.
Ives thinks the "worst case scenario" is that as much as $2 billion in ad sales could be "at risk" for the company this year.
So far, Facebook executives have played down concerns. Zuckerberg said an online campaign to delete Facebook has not had a "material impact" on the company. Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said only a "few" marketers have paused their advertising on the platform.
Expect them to be grilled about both points on the earnings call — as well as how much Facebook is spending to make things right.
Zuckerberg has said Facebook will conduct a costly audit of thousands of third-party applications and hire more security and content review staff. The cure could end up being worse than the disease — at least for Facebook's bottom line.
2. Starbucks fallout: Facebook isn't the only company that will have to answer for a major scandal when it reports earnings this week. Starbucks (SBUX) will probably face questions about the uproar around the arrest of two black men who were waiting for a third person at one of the coffee chain's Philadelphia stores. CEO Kevin Johnson said the arrest "should not have happened," and the company has planned racial-bias training for 175,000 employees next month.
Related: Starbucks has a bold plan to address racial bias. Will it work?
3. First quarter US growth: The Commerce Department will release its initial estimates for first-quarter economic growth on Friday, and expectations are pretty low. Analysts surveyed by FactSet are expecting just 2.2%, down from 2.9% at the end of last year. Barclays (BCS) last week cut its forecast to just 1.5%.
This may have something to do with what the San Francisco Fed once called the "puzzle of weak first-quarter GDP growth," suggesting a statistical problem with how the government measures growth early in the year. The problem leads experts to believe that growth could rebound in the following quarters.
But Barclays and others are also predicting low growth because Americans just haven't been spending as much. Consumer confidence hit a 17-year high in February, but retail sales were disappointing in January and February. They picked up a bit in March.
Related: What boom? The economy is off to a 'meh' start to 2018
4. Market calm: The stock market has settled back down.
Wall Street's anxiety about a trade war with China has faded for the moment, allowing investors to focus on healthy corporate profits and the boost from corporate tax cuts.
"It's one of the gifts we get from earnings season," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR.
The Dow gained 0.4% last week, its smallest move in either direction in two months. The S&P had its quietest week since the end of last year. But the market may soon have to worry about an old nemesis: inflation.
Commodities, including oil and aluminum, are spiking, putting pressure on business' costs. Tariffs may be playing a role, too. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond, which had been falling as expectations of inflation eased, is back up to a three-year-high of 2.96%.
Related: Fed official worried about recession indicator
5. Tariff and tax impact: Two big trends to watch this earnings season are tariffs and taxes. As first-quarter earnings roll in, watch for what companies have to say about President Trump's tariffs and about the benefits of the corporate tax cut enacted late last year.
A slew of large companies should give us some idea when they report this week: Alphabet (GOOG) and Whirlpool (WHR) are coming on Monday. Caterpillar (CAT), Coca-Cola (KO), Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Verizon (VZ) follow on Tuesday. AT&T (T), Boeing (BA), Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) report on Wednesday. American Airlines (AAL), General Motors (GM) and PepsiCo (PEP) are on Thursday. And ExxonMobil (XOM) is reporting on Friday.
6. Coming this week:
Monday — Alphabet, Hasbro, Kimberly-Clark and Whirlpool earnings
Tuesday — Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Jetblue (JBLU), Lockheed Martin, Restaurant Brands (QSR), Southwest, Verizon and Wynn Resorts earnings; Conference Board's consumer confidence index
Wednesday — Boeing, Chipotle, Comcast, Dr Pepper Snapple, Facebook and Twitter earnings
Thursday — American Airlines, Dunkin' Brands, General Motors, PepsiCo, Starbucks and Southwest earnings
Friday — Exxon earnings; Q1 GDP
Palestine files complaint against Israel under anti-racism treaty - Guardian
April 23, 2018
Palestine files complaint against Israel under anti-racism treaty
Exclusive: complaint claims Israel maintains ‘system of discriminatory measures’
Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem
Mon 23 Apr 2018 20.00 AEST Last modified on Mon 23 Apr 2018 20.21 AEST
Palestinian diplomats in Geneva have filed a complaint against Israel for what they say are breaches of its obligations under a UN anti-racism treaty, triggering what may be a lengthy and high-profile investigation.
The complaint, handed in by the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Ibrahim Khraishi, to the body that monitors the implementation of the UN convention, accuses Israel of policies and practices that have “the common aim of displacing and replacing the Palestinian people, for the purpose of maintaining a colonial occupation”.
Violations in the occupied territories, which the complaint defined as the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, sought to maintain “a Jewish demographic majority in the entirety of historic Palestine”, claims the 350-page document, of which the Guardian has seen a summary.
“Not only is the purpose of the settlement regime discriminatory in itself, it is further maintained by a system of discriminatory measures, severely depriving Palestinians of their fundamental rights,” it adds.
Israel ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1979 and, Palestine, which gained UN observer state status five years ago, signed in 2014. The submission is believed to be the first interstate complaint filed under the treaty.
The convention is monitored by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a body of 18 independent experts that is now tasked with assessing the complaint.
Although the committee has no enforcement mechanisms, Israel will now be required to submit written explanations within three months, including any remedies it has taken. The committee could then move to investigate the claims.
“It does not reach the level of a court order,” said Ammar Hijazi, from the Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs. But he said a finding that Israel had breached the treaty would oblige other signatories to the convention, which include the US, to “ensure that such practices are not continued”.
The complaint claims Palestinians are severely limited in their freedom of movement compared to Israeli settlers and are subject to “confiscation and seizure” of their land, including home demolitions.
It says Israel violates the right to equal treatment before tribunals by using separate legal systems for Palestinians and settlers, and points to higher maximum sentences for Palestinian defendants.
It claims Israel has violated article 3 of the convention, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid. “It is clear that Israel’s acts are part of a widespread and oppressive regime that is institutionalised and systematic; that accords separate and unequal treatment to Palestinians,” the summary says, calling for the dismantling of all existing Israeli settlements.
The Guardian has contacted Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs for comment.
All countries are required to submit regular reports to the committee on how rights are being upheld. Israel’s most recent report, presented in 2017, said it condemned all forms of racism and “maintained a consistent policy prohibiting such discrimination”.
Palestine files complaint against Israel under anti-racism treaty
Exclusive: complaint claims Israel maintains ‘system of discriminatory measures’
Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem
Mon 23 Apr 2018 20.00 AEST Last modified on Mon 23 Apr 2018 20.21 AEST
Palestinian diplomats in Geneva have filed a complaint against Israel for what they say are breaches of its obligations under a UN anti-racism treaty, triggering what may be a lengthy and high-profile investigation.
The complaint, handed in by the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Ibrahim Khraishi, to the body that monitors the implementation of the UN convention, accuses Israel of policies and practices that have “the common aim of displacing and replacing the Palestinian people, for the purpose of maintaining a colonial occupation”.
Violations in the occupied territories, which the complaint defined as the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, sought to maintain “a Jewish demographic majority in the entirety of historic Palestine”, claims the 350-page document, of which the Guardian has seen a summary.
“Not only is the purpose of the settlement regime discriminatory in itself, it is further maintained by a system of discriminatory measures, severely depriving Palestinians of their fundamental rights,” it adds.
Israel ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1979 and, Palestine, which gained UN observer state status five years ago, signed in 2014. The submission is believed to be the first interstate complaint filed under the treaty.
The convention is monitored by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a body of 18 independent experts that is now tasked with assessing the complaint.
Although the committee has no enforcement mechanisms, Israel will now be required to submit written explanations within three months, including any remedies it has taken. The committee could then move to investigate the claims.
“It does not reach the level of a court order,” said Ammar Hijazi, from the Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs. But he said a finding that Israel had breached the treaty would oblige other signatories to the convention, which include the US, to “ensure that such practices are not continued”.
The complaint claims Palestinians are severely limited in their freedom of movement compared to Israeli settlers and are subject to “confiscation and seizure” of their land, including home demolitions.
It says Israel violates the right to equal treatment before tribunals by using separate legal systems for Palestinians and settlers, and points to higher maximum sentences for Palestinian defendants.
It claims Israel has violated article 3 of the convention, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid. “It is clear that Israel’s acts are part of a widespread and oppressive regime that is institutionalised and systematic; that accords separate and unequal treatment to Palestinians,” the summary says, calling for the dismantling of all existing Israeli settlements.
The Guardian has contacted Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs for comment.
All countries are required to submit regular reports to the committee on how rights are being upheld. Israel’s most recent report, presented in 2017, said it condemned all forms of racism and “maintained a consistent policy prohibiting such discrimination”.
John Oliver is getting the ultimate revenge on Sean Hannity - Independent
April 23, 2018
John Oliver is getting the ultimate revenge on Sean Hannity
Posted about an hour ago by Greg Evans in news
UPVOTE
Talk show host and political commentator John Oliver have been firmly on the offensive for the past few months.
The 40-year-old has been using his show Last Week Tonight to take very elaborate shots at the Trump administration.
This includes writing and publishing a children's book about a gay rabbit just to troll Mike Pence's book about his family's heterosexual rabbit.
Now he's turned his attention to Donald Trump and his new best friend Sean Hannity, who last week was revealed as the 'mystery client' of Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen.
It was also revealed that Hannity is almost in constant contact with the president and is practically considered to be a White House staff member.
This is problematic for numerous reasons that we won't list in their entirety, but the fact that Trump is potentially getting a lot of his advise from a Fox News journalist is worrying.
Now to the point. Trump has a big decision to make in the next few weeks as by 12 May he will have to rectify the Iran Nuclear Deal.
The deal was struck by the Obama administration in 2015 along with the British, Chinese, Russian, French and German governments and allowed Iran to trade on the open market. In exchange, they would not enrich their uranium to weapons for 15 years.
However, Trump is famously not a fan of the deal and has tweeted about it on more than one occasion.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion
21:39 - 2 Feb 2017
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
not anymore. The beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.)! Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!
00:25 - 29 Dec 2016
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!
22:02 - 18 Feb 2018
Needless to say, it doesn't look like Trump will be attempting to improve this deal. Furthermore, some of his top advisers, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton and - you guessed it - Sean Hannity aren't supporters of it either.
Noticing that there could be a problem here, Oliver has stepped in and is attempting to sway Trump's decision with an advert that will run during Hannity's show in the DC area, which Trump watches religiously.
Oliver said:
Two of Trump’s top advisers are, like him, dead set against this deal, and they’re getting backup from Sean Hannity, whose show the president watches so much, advisers refer to him as the ‘shadow chief of staff'.
Hannity hates this deal too, so there is not really a way for us to get a moderating voice into this conversation short of buying time on Hannity’s show this week and running an ad like this.
Cut to an ad of Catheter Cowboy, a recurring character on the show, interrupting a family meal to explain why protecting the Iran deal is actually a pretty good idea for most of mankind.
John Oliver is getting the ultimate revenge on Sean Hannity
Posted about an hour ago by Greg Evans in news
UPVOTE
Talk show host and political commentator John Oliver have been firmly on the offensive for the past few months.
The 40-year-old has been using his show Last Week Tonight to take very elaborate shots at the Trump administration.
This includes writing and publishing a children's book about a gay rabbit just to troll Mike Pence's book about his family's heterosexual rabbit.
Now he's turned his attention to Donald Trump and his new best friend Sean Hannity, who last week was revealed as the 'mystery client' of Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen.
It was also revealed that Hannity is almost in constant contact with the president and is practically considered to be a White House staff member.
This is problematic for numerous reasons that we won't list in their entirety, but the fact that Trump is potentially getting a lot of his advise from a Fox News journalist is worrying.
Now to the point. Trump has a big decision to make in the next few weeks as by 12 May he will have to rectify the Iran Nuclear Deal.
The deal was struck by the Obama administration in 2015 along with the British, Chinese, Russian, French and German governments and allowed Iran to trade on the open market. In exchange, they would not enrich their uranium to weapons for 15 years.
However, Trump is famously not a fan of the deal and has tweeted about it on more than one occasion.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion
21:39 - 2 Feb 2017
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
not anymore. The beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.)! Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!
00:25 - 29 Dec 2016
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!
22:02 - 18 Feb 2018
Needless to say, it doesn't look like Trump will be attempting to improve this deal. Furthermore, some of his top advisers, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton and - you guessed it - Sean Hannity aren't supporters of it either.
Noticing that there could be a problem here, Oliver has stepped in and is attempting to sway Trump's decision with an advert that will run during Hannity's show in the DC area, which Trump watches religiously.
Oliver said:
Two of Trump’s top advisers are, like him, dead set against this deal, and they’re getting backup from Sean Hannity, whose show the president watches so much, advisers refer to him as the ‘shadow chief of staff'.
Hannity hates this deal too, so there is not really a way for us to get a moderating voice into this conversation short of buying time on Hannity’s show this week and running an ad like this.
Cut to an ad of Catheter Cowboy, a recurring character on the show, interrupting a family meal to explain why protecting the Iran deal is actually a pretty good idea for most of mankind.
Nikki Haley's "I don't get confused" comment captures attention- CBS News
April 21, 2018, 11:41 AM
Nikki Haley's "I don't get confused" comment captures attention
NEW YORK — The public split between the White House and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley this week over Russia sanctions threw a spotlight on her at-times uneasy relationship with President Donald Trump, even as her deft rebuttal bolstered talk about her own future political fortunes.
Haley's rejoinder to a putdown from a close Trump adviser about message confusion — she declared that "I don't get confused" — was seized as a rallying cry among some women and echoed the audacity the former governor displayed while upending the old boys' club in the South Carolina Statehouse. But the episode also called into question her standing on Mr. Trump's national security team ahead of tough decisions on North Korea, Iran and other fronts.
"What distinguishes her from the star-struck sycophants in the White House is that she understands the intersection of strong leadership and public service, where great things happen," said Rob Godfrey, a spokesman for Haley when she was governor.
Haley, now considered to be on the shortlist of future presidential candidates, has consistently taken a harder line than Mr. Trump on Russia. While that, at times, has drawn Trump's ire, her hawkishness on other occasions has been appreciated by the president, who has allowed her to reprimand Moscow while he works toward a friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
That dynamic broke down this week. Trump was angry Sunday when he saw Haley on television discussing new Russia sanctions that she said would be announced the next day. He blasted her for being out of step with the rest of the administration, according to two White House officials. They were not authorized to discuss private conversations and commented only on condition of anonymity.
Despite Haley's comments, which she made on CBS News' "Face the Nation," no new sanctions were imposed.
Asked for an explanation, Larry Kudlow, the president's new economic adviser, told reporters that Haley "got ahead of the curve" and he added, "She's a very effective ambassador, but there might have been some momentary confusion about that."
The next day, Haley hit back, releasing a statement to Fox News that read: "With all due respect, I don't get confused."
Kudlow apologized but Haley's differences with the White House had already pushed into the open.
At the United Nations, responding to a shouted question about her relationship with the president, she simply said, "It's perfect." But the White House was left scrambling to explain.
Haley's allies insist she always consults with the West Wing, and sometimes the president personally, before speaking publicly. White House officials said the plan about the sanctions changed after she was briefed and she wasn't told before she went on television. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin further muddled the narrative Thursday when he told Fox Business Network that the administration "refined the strategy after Nikki made that announcement."
He said, "She wasn't left twisting in the wind, this was a fluid situation, the decision changed."
Haley's pushback struck a chord, becoming something of an instant feminist motto in the way it rebelled against what some saw as a patronizing comment from a powerful man. The words carried additional resonance considering Haley's place as one of the few prominent women in Mr. Trump's inner circle. Her comment was compared in some quarters to the way Sen. Elizabeth Warren had appropriated "Nevertheless, she persisted" as a rallying cry after the remark was delivered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after he tried to silence Warren on the Senate floor last year.
"I feel sorry for Nikki Haley," said former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. "She has been very tough up there making points. She makes very clear that she's representing the president. And all of a sudden she's put into this ridiculous situation of looking as though she is out there by herself on something."
Mr. Trump has vented to confidants about the media attention the dustup has received, but he hasn't given any signal that he wants to dismiss his ambassador, according to White House officials and outside advisers. Her footing on Mr. Trump's revamped national security team remains unclear: She is tight with Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo, but lost an ally when H.R. McMaster was replaced by John Bolton as national security adviser.
All the attention has restarted some wary West Wing whispers about Haley's ultimate goals.
Her rebuttal stood in stark contrast to the conduct of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who largely remained silent when they were undermined by Trump. She did not support Mr. Trump in her state's primary election, was viewed by many as gunning for Tillerson's job last fall, and has been floated by some Republicans as a possible running mate for Pence if he makes his own White House run.
One West Wing aide joked recently that the only question was if Haley's name would appear on a ballot in 2020 or 2024.
And on Tuesday, her office mistakenly blasted an email containing a series of press clippings that mention Haley — a message meant for the ambassador herself — to a number of journalists. Among the headlines highlighted, one cited MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough and read, "Scarborough: Nikki Haley would beat Donald Trump if she ran in 2020 GOP primary."
"She has an incredibly bright future and will be a major player for the Republican Party in the years ahead," said Newt Gingrich, former House speaker and informal Trump ally. "I think she's a future secretary of state and vice president. And remember: this president learns a lot from television. She is a remarkably effective presence for the United States of America on television and the president likes that."
Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, grew up enduring racist taunts during her childhood in a small South Carolina town. She is accustomed to defying political expectations.
In her first campaign in 2004, she defeated the longest-serving member of South Carolina's House. One of only a handful of women in the Legislature, she showed the tough political skin she said was needed to make political progress.
"I don't know how to be intimidated," she declared.
She faced her biggest challenge in 2015, when a self-avowed white supremacist gunned down nine black worshippers in a Charleston church. Haley sat front-and-center for weeks at the funerals and later backed removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds, where it had flown for more than 50 years.
Says former spokesman Godfrey: "She's not afraid to stand up to people who are bullies, whether it's a thug dictator on the next continent, or it's a thug state senator in the next county."
___
Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Additional reporting by Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Catherine Lucey in Washington and Edith Lederer at the United Nations.
Nikki Haley's "I don't get confused" comment captures attention
NEW YORK — The public split between the White House and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley this week over Russia sanctions threw a spotlight on her at-times uneasy relationship with President Donald Trump, even as her deft rebuttal bolstered talk about her own future political fortunes.
Haley's rejoinder to a putdown from a close Trump adviser about message confusion — she declared that "I don't get confused" — was seized as a rallying cry among some women and echoed the audacity the former governor displayed while upending the old boys' club in the South Carolina Statehouse. But the episode also called into question her standing on Mr. Trump's national security team ahead of tough decisions on North Korea, Iran and other fronts.
"What distinguishes her from the star-struck sycophants in the White House is that she understands the intersection of strong leadership and public service, where great things happen," said Rob Godfrey, a spokesman for Haley when she was governor.
Haley, now considered to be on the shortlist of future presidential candidates, has consistently taken a harder line than Mr. Trump on Russia. While that, at times, has drawn Trump's ire, her hawkishness on other occasions has been appreciated by the president, who has allowed her to reprimand Moscow while he works toward a friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
That dynamic broke down this week. Trump was angry Sunday when he saw Haley on television discussing new Russia sanctions that she said would be announced the next day. He blasted her for being out of step with the rest of the administration, according to two White House officials. They were not authorized to discuss private conversations and commented only on condition of anonymity.
Despite Haley's comments, which she made on CBS News' "Face the Nation," no new sanctions were imposed.
Asked for an explanation, Larry Kudlow, the president's new economic adviser, told reporters that Haley "got ahead of the curve" and he added, "She's a very effective ambassador, but there might have been some momentary confusion about that."
The next day, Haley hit back, releasing a statement to Fox News that read: "With all due respect, I don't get confused."
Kudlow apologized but Haley's differences with the White House had already pushed into the open.
At the United Nations, responding to a shouted question about her relationship with the president, she simply said, "It's perfect." But the White House was left scrambling to explain.
Haley's allies insist she always consults with the West Wing, and sometimes the president personally, before speaking publicly. White House officials said the plan about the sanctions changed after she was briefed and she wasn't told before she went on television. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin further muddled the narrative Thursday when he told Fox Business Network that the administration "refined the strategy after Nikki made that announcement."
He said, "She wasn't left twisting in the wind, this was a fluid situation, the decision changed."
Haley's pushback struck a chord, becoming something of an instant feminist motto in the way it rebelled against what some saw as a patronizing comment from a powerful man. The words carried additional resonance considering Haley's place as one of the few prominent women in Mr. Trump's inner circle. Her comment was compared in some quarters to the way Sen. Elizabeth Warren had appropriated "Nevertheless, she persisted" as a rallying cry after the remark was delivered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after he tried to silence Warren on the Senate floor last year.
"I feel sorry for Nikki Haley," said former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. "She has been very tough up there making points. She makes very clear that she's representing the president. And all of a sudden she's put into this ridiculous situation of looking as though she is out there by herself on something."
Mr. Trump has vented to confidants about the media attention the dustup has received, but he hasn't given any signal that he wants to dismiss his ambassador, according to White House officials and outside advisers. Her footing on Mr. Trump's revamped national security team remains unclear: She is tight with Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo, but lost an ally when H.R. McMaster was replaced by John Bolton as national security adviser.
All the attention has restarted some wary West Wing whispers about Haley's ultimate goals.
Her rebuttal stood in stark contrast to the conduct of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who largely remained silent when they were undermined by Trump. She did not support Mr. Trump in her state's primary election, was viewed by many as gunning for Tillerson's job last fall, and has been floated by some Republicans as a possible running mate for Pence if he makes his own White House run.
One West Wing aide joked recently that the only question was if Haley's name would appear on a ballot in 2020 or 2024.
And on Tuesday, her office mistakenly blasted an email containing a series of press clippings that mention Haley — a message meant for the ambassador herself — to a number of journalists. Among the headlines highlighted, one cited MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough and read, "Scarborough: Nikki Haley would beat Donald Trump if she ran in 2020 GOP primary."
"She has an incredibly bright future and will be a major player for the Republican Party in the years ahead," said Newt Gingrich, former House speaker and informal Trump ally. "I think she's a future secretary of state and vice president. And remember: this president learns a lot from television. She is a remarkably effective presence for the United States of America on television and the president likes that."
Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, grew up enduring racist taunts during her childhood in a small South Carolina town. She is accustomed to defying political expectations.
In her first campaign in 2004, she defeated the longest-serving member of South Carolina's House. One of only a handful of women in the Legislature, she showed the tough political skin she said was needed to make political progress.
"I don't know how to be intimidated," she declared.
She faced her biggest challenge in 2015, when a self-avowed white supremacist gunned down nine black worshippers in a Charleston church. Haley sat front-and-center for weeks at the funerals and later backed removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds, where it had flown for more than 50 years.
Says former spokesman Godfrey: "She's not afraid to stand up to people who are bullies, whether it's a thug dictator on the next continent, or it's a thug state senator in the next county."
___
Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Additional reporting by Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Catherine Lucey in Washington and Edith Lederer at the United Nations.
Michael Bloomberg Pledged $4.5 Million to Uphold U.S. Commitment to the Paris Agreement - TIME
Michael Bloomberg Pledged $4.5 Million to Uphold U.S. Commitment to the Paris Agreement
Michael Bloomberg in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 2018.
By ELI MEIXLER 5:48 AM EDT
Michael Bloomberg has pledged $4.5 million to support the Paris climate agreement, as the administration of President Donald Trump retreats from the landmark accord.
The billionaire philanthropist and former New York City mayor announced on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday that his personal donation would contribute to meeting America’s commitment to the pact.
“America made a commitment and as an American if the government’s not going to do it we all have responsibility,” Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg, who has been a vocal critic of President Trump’s climate policy, said that the U.S. was currently acting as “part of the problem” under the Trump administration. “America is a big part of the solution and we should go in and help the world stop a potential disaster,” he added.
Last year, the Trump administration announced its intention to withdraw from the pact, but hinted that the U.S. could honor its pledge if the agreement was renegotiated to better benefit American workers.
Michael Bloomberg in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 2018.
By ELI MEIXLER 5:48 AM EDT
Michael Bloomberg has pledged $4.5 million to support the Paris climate agreement, as the administration of President Donald Trump retreats from the landmark accord.
The billionaire philanthropist and former New York City mayor announced on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday that his personal donation would contribute to meeting America’s commitment to the pact.
“America made a commitment and as an American if the government’s not going to do it we all have responsibility,” Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg, who has been a vocal critic of President Trump’s climate policy, said that the U.S. was currently acting as “part of the problem” under the Trump administration. “America is a big part of the solution and we should go in and help the world stop a potential disaster,” he added.
Last year, the Trump administration announced its intention to withdraw from the pact, but hinted that the U.S. could honor its pledge if the agreement was renegotiated to better benefit American workers.
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