Month: May 2019

Facebook Limits Livestreaming Ahead of Tech Summit in Paris

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Facebook toughened its livestreaming policies Wednesday as it prepared to huddle with world leaders and other tech CEOs in Paris to find ways to keep social media from being used to spread hate, organize extremist groups and broadcast terror attacks.

Facebook’s move came hours before its executives would face the prime minister of New Zealand, where an attacker killed 51 people in March — and livestreamed parts of it on Facebook.

 

The CEOs and world leaders will try to agree on guidelines they will call the “Christchurch Call,” named after the New Zealand city where the attack on a mosque took place.

 

Facebook said it’s tightening up the rules for its livestreaming service with a “one strike” policy applied to a broader range of offenses. Any activity on the social network that violates its policies, such as sharing a terrorist group’s statement without providing context, will result in the user immediately being temporarily blocked. The most serious offenses will result in a permanent ban.

 

Previously, the company took down posts that breached its community standards but only blocked users after repeated offenses.

 

The tougher restrictions will be gradually extended to other areas of the platform, starting with preventing users from creating Facebook ads.

 

Facebook said it’s also investing $7.5 million in new research partnerships to improve image and video analysis technology aimed at finding content manipulated through editing to avoid detection by its automated systems — a problem the company encountered following the Christchurch shooting.

 

“Tackling these threats also requires technical innovation to stay ahead of the type of adversarial media manipulation we saw after Christchurch,” Facebook’s vice president of integrity, Guy Rosen, said in a blog post.

 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern welcomed Facebook’s pledge. She said she herself inadvertently saw the Christchurch attacker’s video when it played automatically in her Facebook feed.

 

“There is a lot more work to do, but I am pleased Facebook has taken additional steps today… and look forward to a long-term collaboration to make social media safer,” she said in a statement.

 

Ardern is playing a central role in the Paris meetings, which she called a significant “starting point” for changes in government and tech industry policy.

 

Twitter, Google, Microsoft and several other companies are also taking part, along with the leaders of Britain, France, Canada, Ireland, Senegal, Indonesia, Jordan and the European Union.

 

Officials at Facebook said they support the idea of the Christchurch appeal, but that details need to be worked out that are acceptable for all parties. Free speech advocates and some in the tech industry bristle at new restrictions and argue that violent extremism is a societal problem that the tech world can’t solve.

 

Ardern and the host, French President Emmanuel Macron, insist that it must involve joint efforts between governments and tech giants. France has been hit by repeated Islamic extremist attacks by groups who recruited and shared violent images on social networks.

 

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meetings, Ardern said, “There will be of course those who will be pushing to make sure that they maintain the commercial sensitivity. We don’t need to know their trade secrets, but we do need to know what the impacts might be on our societies around algorithm use.”

 

She stressed the importance of tackling “coded language” that extremists use to avoid detection.

 

Before the Christchurch attack, she said, governments took a “traditional approach to terrorism that would not necessarily have picked up the form of terrorism that New Zealand experienced on the 15th of March, and that was white supremacy.”

 

 

 
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Alabama Legislature Approves Ban on Nearly All Abortions

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Lawmakers in the southeastern U.S. state of Alabama passed a near-total ban on abortion Tuesday, sparking a legal fight over a measure that could become the nation’s most stringent abortion law.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America vowed Wednesday to challenge the legislation in court if Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signs it into law. “We have no choice,” said president Leana Wen. “We are talking about the rights for generations to come.” 

The Republican-dominated Senate voted 25-6 to make performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison for the abortion provider. The only exception would be when the woman’s health is at serious risk.

Senators rejected an attempt to add an exception for rape and incest. 

Supporters said the bill is designed to spark litigation that could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion. 

“Roe v. Wade has ended the lives of millions of children,” said Alabama Republican Senator Clyde Chambliss. “This bill has the opportunity to save the lives of millions of unborn children.”

A spokeswoman for Ivey said she intends to withhold comment until she has had a chance to thoroughly review the final version of the bill. 

Action by other states

Emboldened by the Supreme Court’s new conservative justices, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia have approved bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can occur in about the sixth week of pregnancy. And abortion opponents in several other states are seeking to challenge abortion access.

“This is a plan by the Republican Party, make no mistake, to overturn Roe v. Wade and turn back the clock on women’s reproductive civil and human rights,” U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand said in an interview Wednesday on CNN.

Another Democratic presidential candidate, former vice president Joe Biden, said the current law should not be declared unconstitutional.

“Roe v. Wade is settled law and should not be overturned,” Biden said. “The choice should remain between a woman and her doctor.”

A Pew Research Center poll conducted late last year found that 58 percent of those surveyed said abortion should be legal in almost all cases, while 37 percent said it should be unlawful.
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Trade War Sowing Seeds of Doubt With US Farmers

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The typical routines of life on a family farm carry a heavier burden these days for Pam Johnson.

“First thing I do is make a pot of coffee,” she told VOA in an interview in one of the cavernous sheds that contain her green and yellow John Deere farming equipment. Once she has that coffee, she “(goes) to the computer and look at what grain prices have done overnight and usually do a gut clutch, because they’ve been going down. They’re at five-month lows.”

Driven there in part by retaliatory tariffs imposed by one of the largest importers of U.S. soybeans – China.

Johnson and her husband are proud sixth-generation farmers but say they are dealing with some of the harshest economic conditions of their lives.

“We’re all tightening our belts,” she says.

The ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China, initially sparked by U.S. tariffs on imported aluminum and steel, is now impacting most farms across the country. 

As U.S. farmers head to the fields to plant this spring, they are facing a potential sixth consecutive year of declining farm income, because of international tariffs that have depressed prices for their grain products as well as increased costs for the materials to produce and store them.

​Short-term concern over U.S. trade policy is turning into long-term fear for farmers, who face uncertainty over congressional support for a new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, and the impact of China’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. grain exports. 

“We hear it may be out to 2025 before we see some of those markets come back to us, if they ever do,” Johnson said. “I think that’s the thing that hurts the most is, what is the damage being done that is irreparable?”

It is damage her son Ben Johnson, the seventh generation in the family business, may eventually have to deal with.

“All farms are going to suffer because of this,” he explained. “There’s a difference between ‘making it’ and flourishing.”

The Johnsons feel there is a growing disconnect between farmers and the rest of the American workforce, fueled by politicians increasingly hostile to trade policies the agricultural industry depends on.

“We need as much trade as we can and to be openly trading with as many places as we can,” Ben Johnson says. “It’s no different to any business – you want as many customers as you can. And to intentionally discourage them is frustrating.”

Neither Johnson nor his mother voted for President Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, largely because if his trade positions, they say. 

​Nothing that has happened since the election has eased Pam Johnson’s concerns.

“Saying that ‘I’m a tariff man’ and that ‘trade wars are easy to win’ concerns me,” she says, quoting comments the president has made. “There are still a lot of farmers who still support President Trump. I think there are more seeds of doubt being planted as we look forward into 2019 and no resolution and the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be getting dimmer about getting these things done.”

Politics aside, Pam Johnson admits success for her family business is closely tied to U.S. trade policy.

“I don’t want to see President Trump fail in these trade endeavors. We all need him to make this work so that all of us win,” she says.

A win her son Ben says can’t come soon enough.

“We’ve already missed the peak soybean export season, so in a way, it’s already too late… I guess it’s never too late, but before now would have been great,” he says.

While negotiations continue, the Trump administration says it is actively working on a new financial assistance program to help farmers weather the continuing trade storm.
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San Francisco Bans Police Use of Face Recognition Technology

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San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to ban the use of facial recognition software by police and other city departments, becoming the first U.S. city to outlaw a rapidly developing technology that has alarmed privacy and civil liberties advocates. 

The ban is part of broader legislation that requires city departments to establish use policies and obtain board approval for surveillance technology they want to purchase or are using at present. Several other local governments require departments to disclose and seek approval for surveillance technology. 

“This is really about saying: ‘We can have security without being a security state. We can have good policing without being a police state.’ And part of that is building trust with the community based on good community information, not on Big Brother technology,” said Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who championed the legislation. 

The ban applies to San Francisco police and other municipal departments. It does not affect use of the technology by the federal government at airports and ports, nor does it limit personal or business use. 

The San Francisco board did not spend time Tuesday debating the outright ban on facial recognition technology, focusing instead on the possible burdens placed on police, the transit system and other city agencies that need to maintain public safety. 

“I worry about politicizing these decisions,” said Supervisor Catherine Stefani, a former prosecutor who was the sole no vote. 

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., issued a statement chiding San Francisco for considering the facial recognition ban. It said advanced technology makes it cheaper and faster for police to find suspects and identify missing people. 

Critics were silly to compare surveillance usage in the United States with China, given that one country has strong constitutional protections and the other does not, said Daniel Castro, the foundation’s vice president. 

“In reality, San Francisco is more at risk of becoming Cuba than China — a ban on facial recognition will make it frozen in time with outdated technology,” he said. 

It’s unclear how many San Francisco departments are using surveillance and for what purposes, said Peskin. There are valid reasons for license-plate readers, body cameras, and security cameras, he said, but the public should know how the tools are being used or if they are being abused. 

San Francisco’s police department stopped testing face ID technology in 2017. A representative at Tuesday’s board meeting said the department would need two to four additional employees to comply with the legislation. 

Privacy advocates have squared off with public safety proponents at several heated hearings in San Francisco, a city teeming with tech innovation and the home of Twitter, Airbnb and Uber. 

Those who support the ban say the technology is flawed and a serious threat to civil liberties, especially in a city that cherishes public protest and privacy. They worry people will one day not be able to go to a mall, the park or a school without being identified and tracked. 

But critics say police need all the help they can get, especially in a city with high-profile events and high rates of property crime. That people expect privacy in public space is unreasonable given the proliferation of cellphones and surveillance cameras, said Meredith Serra, a member of a resident public safety group Stop Crime SF. 

“To me, the ordinance seems to be a costly additional layer of bureaucracy that really does nothing to improve the safety of our citizens,” she said at a hearing.
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Trade War Sowing Seeds of Doubt in US Farmers

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The ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China is having an impact on most farmers across the country. Their corn and soybean crops are subject to tariffs and increasing competition from other suppliers. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, U.S. farmers aren’t just concerned about their bottom lines this year. They’re also worried about the long term consequences of a trade war on the only business many have ever known.
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AI, Space Technology to Help With Early Diagnosis of Bowel Cancer

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Scientists of University College London (UCL) are developing new technology to help doctors detect deadly bowel cancer and polyps in their earliest stages and ensure the best chances of a patient’s recovery. The system called Odin Vision uses a combination of artificial intelligence and space technology for diagnostic precision. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has this story.
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Explorer Dives to Deepest Depths, Takes Time to Take it in

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Taking the hours-long journey to what is believed to be the deepest point mankind has visited in any ocean was a complicated one, and for Victor Vescovo, it meant being constantly alert as he monitored his state-of-the-art vessel.

But when he reached 10,928 meters into the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean, Vescovo took the advice of the man whose record he just broke, Oscar-winning director James Cameron, and took 15 uninterrupted minutes to take in the view and the enormity of the moment.

Cameron told him he’d be busy, of course, but noted that “few if any people have seen what you’ve seen” so “deeply appreciate how fortunate you are to see it,” Vescovo recalled in an interview.

​Deepest ocean depths

Last month’s groundbreaking mission was filmed as part of an upcoming Discovery Channel documentary series that will chronicle Vescovo’s trips to the furthest parts of the world’s waters — the Atlantic Ocean, the Southern Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. He has done all except the Arctic plunge, which is set for the fall.

The entire journey took nearly 12 hours: four hours to descend, four hours spent at the bottom, and then about four hours to ascend again. Vescovo, a businessman and amateur pilot who has also traversed the highest mountain peaks, including Mount Everest, said the goal of the expedition was not to best Cameron’s mark in the ocean, but to go to areas that were unexplored.

“I was stunned to discover when I did my research that of the five oceans, four had never had a visitation to their bottoms,” he said. “I thought it was about time that someone actually did that.”

For his journey, Vescovo traveled in a vessel called the SDV Limiting Factor, a titanium craft that is billed as the “ultimate submersible” and the only one able to travel to such depths. It was outfitted with high definition cameras that documented everything, including creatures unknown to man.

New species and plastic

“There’ve been numerous new species thought found on this expedition. The scientific group is thrilled with the things that have been brought back for additional analysis. It’s really great,” he said.

He saw a very unusual jellyfish in the Indian Ocean but there was also an unsettling find — trash, particularly plastic, in the deepest part of the water.

The discovery of plastic in such far reaches proves the need for more vigilance to protect the oceans, said Andy Sharpless, CEO of Oceana, which describes itself as the largest worldwide group in the world with the goal of saving the oceans.

“Vescovo’s discovery of plastic in the deepest part of the ocean is disturbing but not surprising because plastic is found throughout the water column in our oceans,” he said in a statement. “That’s why it can’t be easily ‘cleaned up.’ We need to focus on reducing the use and production of plastic in order to really protect our seas from plastic.”

Crucial ocean exploration

Patrick Lahey of Triton Submarines, which made the vessel that transported Vescovo and also followed Vescovo’s dives to the Challenger Deep, said the missions show why more exploration of the oceans are critical for science’s benefit.

“These are large swaths of the oceans that we’ve never seen that really we know virtually nothing about. I think it’s important for us as human beings to study these areas,” Lahey said.

“The ocean is the life force of our planet. I think this is a great opportunity for us to learn more about it and to try to use this tool that we’ve developed for that purpose.”
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Stocks Rise, Claw Back Chunk of Monday’s Trade-War Plunge

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Stocks climbed on Tuesday and clawed back a chunk of their losses from Monday’s rout, the latest whipsaw move as investors weigh just how badly the escalating U.S.-China trade war will hurt the economy. 

The day’s rally was nearly a mirror image of Monday’s plunge, when the S&P 500 had its worst day since early January, just not as severe: Technology companies led the way higher after bearing the brunt of the selling on Monday, Treasury yields rose modestly and gold gave back a bit of its gains. 

The S&P 500 rose 22.54 points, or 0.8%, to 2,834.41. It recovered nearly a third of its loss from Monday, and would now need to rise 3.9% to regain the record it set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 207.06, or 0.8%, to 25,532.05, and the Nasdaq composite index jumped 87.47, or 1.1%, to 7,734.49. 

Of course, stocks are still lower than they were last week, following China’s pledge to raise tariffs on U.S. goods. Stocks also remain lower than they were on May 5, when President Donald Trump ignited this latest round of fear for markets by announcing on Twitter that the U.S. would raise tariffs on Chinese goods. 

Tuesday’s rally came after another round of morning Trump tweets on trade. He said, “When the time is right we will make a deal with China,” and he cited his “unlimited” respect for and friendship with China’s leader.

Investors are looking for a “place of equilibrium,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research for Nationwide Investment Management.

“My skepticism is that there’s really not a lot of news driving the rally,” he said. “It feels like an attempted recovery that may not have legs.”

‘Looking for path to progress’

In the meantime, any further hints of resolution on the trade dispute — or Twitter storms — could drive markets into their next swing. 

“We’re not counting on a full resolution,” said John Lynch, chief investment strategist at LPL Financial. “But, we’re looking for a path to progress.”

The worries about trade have shattered what had been a remarkably steady rise for stocks at the start of this year. As 2019 began, investors increasingly bet that a trade deal would happen, and the Federal Reserve said it would take a pause in raising interest rates, which helped the S&P 500 rocket to its best start to a year in decades. 

If the trade dispute gets worse, or lasts longer than many expect, it could hurt confidence among businesses and households. If that in turn drives spending lower, it would lead to lower economic growth and corporate profits. 

On Tuesday, at least, such worries eased. An index known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” which measures how much traders are paying to protect themselves from upcoming price swings for stocks, dropped 12.1%. A day earlier, it had spiked 28.1%. 

The VIX index remains higher than it’s been for much of the past five years, but fear is considerably lower than it was during the market sell-off late last year sparked by worries about a possible recession. 

Tech companies post gains

Investors also returned to stocks of tech companies, which may have the most to lose from a protracted U.S.-China trade battle because many of their customers and suppliers are abroad. Tech stocks in the S&P 500 jumped 1.6%, with semiconductor companies making particularly big gains. 

A day earlier, tech stocks had taken the market’s heaviest losses. 

On the flip side were utility stocks, which were the only one of the 11 sectors that make up the S&P 500 to fall. A day earlier, when all the fear in the market put an alluring spotlight on the utility sector’s steady profits and dividends, they had been the only S&P 500 sector to manage a gain. 

Other investments seen as safe harbors also dropped, such as U.S. government bonds. When a bond’s price falls, its yield rises, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.41% from 2.40% late Monday. It was at 2.45% at the end of last week. 

Gold is another investment that tends to do fade when investors are feeling more optimistic, and it fell $5.50 to settle at $1,296.30 per ounce. 

In overseas stock markets, European indexes gained. The French CAC 40 jumped 1.5%, the German Dax rose 1% and the FTSE 100 in London climbed 1.1%. Asian markets were mixed. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 1.5%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.6% and South Korea’s Kospi ticked up 0.1%.

Silver jumps 4 cents

In the commodities markets, silver rose 4 cents to $14.81 per ounce, and copper gained a penny to $2.73 per pound.

Benchmark U.S. oil rose 74 cents to settle at $61.78 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained $1.01 to $71.24 a barrel. 

Natural gas rose 4 cents to $2.66 per 1,000 cubic feet, heating oil rose 2 cents to $2.06 per gallon and wholesale gasoline rose a penny to $1.98 per gallon. 

The dollar rose to 109.64 Japanese yen from 109.34 yen late Monday. The euro slipped to $1.1207 from $1.1231, and the British pound fell to $1.2905 from $1.2965. 
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Creating New Batteries from Dead Ones

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Researchers at Rice University have discovered an eco-friendly way to recycle lithium-ion batteries, the kind that power nearly every electronic device today. Their findings could keep more batteries out of landfills and even create new batteries from dead ones. Tina Trinh reports.
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Actor Tim Conway of ‘The Carol Burnett Show’ Dies at 85

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Emmy-winning actor Tim Conway, who brought an endearing, free-wheeling goofiness to skits on “The Carol Burnett Show” that cracked up his cast mates as well as the audience, died Tuesday at the age of 85, his publicist said.

Publicist Howard Bragman said Conway died in the Los Angeles area on Tuesday morning. Before his death, he had suffered complications from normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) but had no signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s, Bragman said.

Conway won three Emmy awards for acting on the Burnett show and a fourth as a writer in the 1960s and ’70s. He also won guest actor Emmys for a 1996 appearance on “Coach” and another in 2008 for “30 Rock.”

Burnett said Tuesday she was “heartbroken” at Conway’s death.

“He was one in a million, not only as a brilliant comedian but as a loving human being. I cherish the times we had together both on the screen and off. He’ll be in my heart forever,” she said in a statement.

Vicki Lawrence, who co-starred on “The Carol Burnett Show,” called Conway “hysterical, crazy, bold, fearless, humble, kind, adorable. … The angels are laughing out loud tonight,” the actress wrote Tuesday in an Instagram posting.

Comedy fame

Conway first found television fame on the 1960s comedy “McHale’s Navy” playing Ensign Parker, a befuddled by-the-book officer in a group of unconventional sailors in the Pacific during World War II.

He would find greater success in the comedy sketches on Burnett’s show starting in 1968. He was at his best with characters that were a little naive, clumsy or slow-witted, and especially when teamed with straight man Harvey Korman and given the chance to show off his improvisational and slapstick skills.

“Nobody could be with Tim and keep a straight face once he got on a roll,” Burnett said in a 2003 interview with the Television Academy Foundation.

She said Conway would stick with a sketch’s script through dress rehearsal but once it was time to tape the performance for a broadcast, he began freelancing. His improvised antics often reduced his co-stars — especially his close friend Korman — to tears of laughter.

“I think Conway’s goal in life was to destroy Harvey,” Burnett told the Television Academy Foundation.

​Dangerous dentist skit

In one popular skit, Conway’s portrayal of an inept dentist who accidentally injects himself with painkiller resulted in Korman, who was playing the patient, laughing so hard that he wet his pants, Burnett said.

Conway’s other most memorable recurring characters included an elderly man whose shuffling pace always caused trouble and Mr. Tudball, a businessman plagued by an indifferent and inept secretary played by Burnett.

Conway started on the show as a guest star in its first season in 1967 but did not officially become a regular until 1975.

“People have often asked me, ‘If you weren’t in show business, what would you be doing?’” Conway wrote in his memoir “What’s So Funny?: My Hilarious Life.” “The truth is I don’t think there’s anything else I could be doing so the answer would have to be, nothing … I guess you could say I’m in the only business I could be in.”

His popularity on the Burnett program led to his own shows, a sitcom in 1970 and a variety show in 1980, and they lasted about a year each. He said they failed because he was not comfortable being the star.

Before Korman’s death in 2008 he and Conway toured with an act that featured stand-up comedy, recreations of their better-known skits and question-and-answer sessions with the audience.

Movie career

Conway’s movie work included “The World’s Greatest Athlete” in 1973, “The Apple Dumpling Gang” in 1975, “The Shaggy D.A.” in 1976, “The Prize Fighter” in 1979 and “Private Eyes” in 1980. Conway also starred in the “Dorf” series of short videos as a sawed-off golf instructor, borrowing the accent his Mr. Tudball character used. He said Dorf was one of his favorite characters.

Conway, who was born Dec. 15, 1933, grew up near Cleveland and after serving in the Army worked in Cleveland radio and developed comedy routines. Actress Rose Marie, a co-star on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” liked his work and helped him get a regular spot on “The Steve Allen Show” in the early 1960s.
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Former Manager Charged with Abuse of Marvel’s Stan Lee

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A former business manager of Stan Lee has been charged in California with five counts of elder abuse involving the late Marvel Comics mastermind. 

A request for a restraining order filed last year by Lee’s daughter alleged Keya Morgan was manipulating the mentally declining Lee, preventing him from seeing family and friends, and trying to take control of his money and business affairs. 

The felony charges filed Friday by Los Angeles County prosecutors against the 43-year-old Morgan include theft, embezzlement, forgery or fraud against an elder adult, and false imprisonment of an elder adult. A misdemeanor count also alleges elder abuse. 

The charges date to June, when Morgan was working closely with Lee, who died in November. 

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Morgan. His attorney Alex Kessel said Morgan is not guilty.

“He has never abused or taken advantage of Mr. Lee in any way,” Kessel said in an email. “We expect him to be completely exonerated of all charges.” 

In June, attorneys for the 95-year-old Lee and his daughter Joan C. Lee were granted a restraining order against Morgan that barred contact with Lee and revealed that police were investigating Morgan for elder abuse.  

Lee, co-creator of such characters as Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, was for decades the face of Marvel Comics. His movie cameos, still emerging after his death in films like “Avengers: Endgame,” are a beloved element of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 
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Uber Drivers Are Contractors, Not Employees, US Labor Agency Says

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A U.S. labor agency has concluded that ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc’s drivers are independent contractors and not its employees, which could prevent them from joining unions.

The National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel, in a memo released on Tuesday, said Uber drivers set their hours, own their cars and are free to work for the company’s competitors, so they cannot be considered employees under federal labor law.

San Francisco-based Uber in a statement said it is “focused on improving the quality and security of independent work, while preserving the flexibility drivers and couriers tell us they value.”

Uber shares were up 6.4 percent at $39.46 in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The memo dated April 16 came in an NLRB case against Uber that has yet to reach the five-member board, which is independent of the general counsel.

Under the National Labor Relations Act, independent contractors cannot join unions and do not have legal protection when they complain about working conditions.

In January, President Donald Trump’s appointees to the NLRB adopted a new test making it more difficult for workers to prove they are a company’s employees.

Uber, its top rival Lyft Inc, and many other “gig economy” companies have faced scores of lawsuits accusing them of misclassifying workers as independent contractors under federal and state wage laws.

Employees are significantly more costly because they are entitled to the minimum wage, overtime pay and reimbursements for work-related expenses under those laws.

Uber, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week, said it would pay up to $170 million to settle tens of thousands of arbitration cases with drivers who claim they were misclassified. Uber denied any wrongdoing, but said settling the cases was preferable to drawn-out litigation.

The company has agreed to pay an additional $20 million to end long-running lawsuits by thousands of drivers in California and Massachusetts.

The U.S. Department of Labor in a memo released last month said an unidentified “gig economy” company’s workers were not its employees under federal wage law because it did not control their work.

The company, which appeared from the memo to provide house-cleaning services, had a similar relationship with its workers as Uber does with drivers. The memo signaled a shift from the Obama administration, which maintained that most workers should be considered companies’ employees.
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New Woody Allen Movie to Open in France in September

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Woody Allen’s latest film, which has been put on ice in the U.S. over decades-old sex abuse allegations against the director, will be released in France this year, a distributor said Tuesday.

“A Rainy Day in New York” starring Timothee Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez and Jude Law will hit French cinemas Sept. 18, Mars Films said ahead of the opening of the Cannes film festival.

“The 50th feature film by Woody Allen … is a romantic comedy set in present-day New York City,” the company’s CEO Stephane Celerier said on Twitter.

In February, Allen filed a $68 million (60 million euros) lawsuit against Amazon for breach of contract, accusing the streaming giant of canceling the film because of a “baseless” accusation that he sexually abused his daughter.

Allen has said Amazon sought to terminate the deal in June 2018, and has since refused to pay him $9 million in financing for “A Rainy Day in New York.”

The film has been completed but not released.

Earlier this month, Variety magazine reported it would be released in Italy in October.

The movie was one of several to be produced with the Oscar-winning director under a series of agreements reached after Allen made the “Crisis in Six Scenes” program for Amazon.

Allen has been accused of molesting Dylan Farrow, his adopted daughter, when she was seven years old in the early 1990s. 

He was cleared of the charges, first leveled by his then-partner Mia Farrow, after two separate months-long investigations, and has steadfastly denied the abuse. But Dylan, now an adult, maintains she was molested.

Her brother Ronan Farrow revived the allegations on the day the Cannes film festival opened in 2016 with Allen’s “Cafe Society,” lashing out at the media for failing to ask hard questions about the director.

Amazon’s relationship with Allen began with “Cafe Society” (2016), to which the studio had purchased the rights, before producing and distributing “Wonder Wheel” (2017), then committing to four additional films.
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Wall Street Rebounds as US-China Trade Rhetoric Cools

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Technology stocks led the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq higher on Tuesday, with U.S. stocks reclaiming ground lost to Monday’s steep sell-off as investors took heart from a tonal shift in ongoing U.S. trade negotiations with China.

All three major U.S. indexes were in the black, recovering some ground from their worst one-day percentage losses in months. The bellwether S&P 500 was hovering more than 3% below its most recent all-time high reached two weeks ago.

Investors’ nerves were calmed after U.S. President Donald Trump referred to the escalating trade war with China as “a little squabble,” adding that “we have a good dialogue going.”

Beijing echoed that sentiment, with a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman telling reporters: “My understanding is that China and the United States have agreed to continue pursuing relevant discussions.”

“Either this is a bargain-hunting rally or a dead cat bounce, or there is some consensus that something meaningful is going to come out of the trade talks in the next four to six weeks,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.

But Hellwig also feels the rollercoaster of the escalating trade war has had an effect on investor psychology.

“I’m starting to see some investors becoming anesthetized on the negotiations and focusing on what the market’s going to look like a year from now,” Hellwig added.

Boeing Co provided the biggest boost to the Dow, rising 2.1% as tariff-sensitive industrials buoyed the blue chip index.

Ralph Lauren Corp dropped 3.8% after the apparel company posted quarterly results.

Uber Technologies and ride-hailing peer Lyft Inc were both trading higher, reversing course after their post-debut slides. Their stocks were up 1.7% and 5.5%, respectively.

Walt Disney Co announced it would take control of Comcast Corp’s Hulu in a move to challenge Netflix and others in the global video streaming war.

Disney stock climbed 2.0%, while Comcast gained 2.4%. Netflix shares were up slightly.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 344.71 points, or 1.36%, to 25,669.7, the S&P 500 gained 39.29 points, or 1.40%, to 2,851.16 and the Nasdaq Composite added 124.25 points, or 1.62%, to 7,771.27.

Of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, all but utilities were in the black. Technology stocks had the largest percentage gains, climbing 2.1%.

Chipmakers enjoyed a reprieve, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index rising 2.7% after suffering its worst one-day percentage loss since Jan. 3.

First quarter earnings season is winding down, with 453 of S&P 500 companies having reported, 75.3% of which beat analyst expectations, slightly below the 76% beat rate for the last four quarters.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.70-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.74-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 41 new highs and 79 new lows.
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Gorsuch Replaces Biden as Chair of Civic Education Group

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Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is taking on a new role as the honorary chairman of a nonpartisan group devoted to education about the Constitution, replacing former Vice President Joe Biden.

 

The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia said Tuesday that Gorsuch, named to the high court by President Donald Trump, will serve as a spokesman for civics education and civility in politics.

 

The 51-year-old Gorsuch is the first justice to be the center’s chairman. Biden stepped down when he launched his campaign for the presidency in April.

 

Gorsuch said he’s concerned by polls that show most Americans would flunk a citizenship test and many say incivility keeps them away from public affairs.

 

“For a government of and by the people to work, everyone must have some idea how our Constitution works and we must be able to talk to each other about important ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect,” Gorsuch said in a comment provided by the Supreme Court.

 

Jeffrey Rosen, the center’s president and CEO, said the center was attracted by Gorsuch’s commitment to civics and civility. “We’re genuinely excited about this partnership because Justice Gorsuch is so passionate about the need for nonpartisan civics education,” Rosen said.

 

Gorsuch was put on the court by a president whose combative approach to politics is not often confused with civility. But Rosen said, “The attitudes of the president who appointed him did not factor in.”

 

Past chairmen have included former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The honorary chairman has alternated between Democrats and Republicans, Rosen said.

 

The center’s home in Philadelphia is near the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where the Constitution was drafted.

 

 
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New Museum Opening at Statue of Liberty

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A new museum opening at the Statue of Liberty is giving visitors another opportunity to explore its history and the impact the iconic structure has had on the world.

The 26,000-square-foot (2,415-square-meter) museum on Liberty Island, scheduled to open to the public on Thursday, is the new home for the statue’s original torch and other artifacts which had previously been in a smaller museum space inside the statue’s pedestal, which is accessible only to the fraction of the more than 4 million annual visitors who manage to get limited-availability statue entry tickets.

“We looked at this small museum and thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful to … move it out to a place where more people could experience it,” said John Piltzecker, National Park Service superintendent of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island.

The new space, located somewhat away from the entrance to the statue, is open to anyone who comes to Liberty Island, with admission included in the price of the ferry ticket. From the outside, the glass walls and copper-colored roof appear to be rising out of the earth, with a giant staircase rising to a rooftop terrace at the center.

The entire structure is meant to connect to Lady Liberty, using the same granite that’s part of the statue pedestal and including copper as a nod to the material the statue is made of, said Cameron Ringness, the project designer at FXCollaborative, which created the museum’s overall design.

“It’s really trying to belong to the site and the landscape and not feel like this building that just got placed here out of nowhere,” Ringness said. “We wanted to enhance the feeling that it’s really special to be in proximity to the statue.”

Inside, there are three main gallery spaces, starting with a theater where visitors walk through as they watch a film that goes into how the idea for the statue came about, the efforts that went into its making in France and its arrival in the New York harbor, as well as talking about what liberty meant then and what it means in the current day.

The film uses unusual footage taken by drones, including an interior shot rising up through the inside of the statue.

Another gallery goes into the building of the statue, with exhibits meant to show what it would have been like in Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi’s studio, and the models and molds used to make it, as well as a replica of the statue’s foot. Another section shows how iconic the statue has become, not only in American culture but around the world, with items like a menorah where each candle holder is a small Lady Liberty, as well as comic book covers, decorative plates, and dolls.

In the final section, visitors are encouraged to take digital self-portraits and add their thoughts on what liberty means to them, as they look at the original torch and a replica of the statue’s face.

Including that last part was vital, said Edwin Schlossberg, president and principal designer at ESI Design, which created the exhibition spaces.

“This statue was built to congratulate the United States for fighting the Civil War to free the slaves,” he said. “It is based on this idea that liberty was a critical thing that we all had to struggle for, so that idea had to continue as a core value in this experience.”

In conjunction with the museum’s opening, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which spearheaded the effort to raise the $100 million in private-sector funds for the project, also developed an app with Apple to bring aspects of the museum to people who cannot visit in person.

Users will be able to explore the museum’s life-size replica of the statue’s foot, for instance. With augmented-reality technology, which superimposes animation over a real-life setting, users will be able to walk around and see the virtual replica from different perspectives. Other features include a look at the city skyline through the decades from the Statue of Liberty’s eyes, as well as how the statue itself looked before its copper exterior turned green.

The app is available only on Apple mobile devices, not Android. Some features, including an audio tour, will be available only on location.

The foundation is also launching a three-part podcast exploring the statue’s history and symbolism. The podcast won’t be limited to Apple’s podcast distribution channels.
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Michigan Legislature to Vote to Ban Abortion Procedure

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Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature planned to vote Tuesday to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure, pushing ahead with legislation that would likely be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

 

The bills would prohibit physicians from performing a “dismemberment abortion,” the non-medical term for dilation and evacuation used by anti-abortion advocates, except to save a woman’s life. The procedure, in which the fetus is removed with a surgical instrument such as forceps, was used in 1,777, or 6.7%, of abortions in the state in 2017. It accounted for half of all second-trimester abortions, including 78% done after the 16th week of pregnancy.

 

The pending votes were scheduled at a time Republicans across the U.S. are advancing tough anti-abortion bills they hope can pass muster with the Supreme Court.

 

With Whitmer expected to veto the measures if they are sent to her desk, Right to Life is preparing to launch a citizens’ initiative that could be enacted by lawmakers without her signature. The group has successfully used the maneuver four times before to put anti-abortion bills into law.

 

“This is a horrific, barbaric procedure. It literally rips arms and legs off of living babies. This is not OK. This is not OK for any civilized person,” said Genevieve Marnon, legislative director for Right to Life of Michigan.

 

Whitmer has pledged to veto anti-abortion legislation.

 

“You’ve got a powerful backstop in a veto from my office,” she said last month at a Planned Parenthood conference.

 

Abortion-rights activists criticized the bills as they moved through House and Senate committees.

 

“We must call these bills what they are — nothing more than an orchestrated, national strategy by anti-abortion politicians to restrict abortion,” Amanda West, government relations director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, told a House pane in April. The organization representing the state’s doctors, the Michigan State Medical Society, also opposes the legislation.

 

Dilation and evacuation, or D&E, has been barred by 12 states. Bans are in effect in Mississippi and West Virginia but are on hold in eight other states because of legal challenges. North Dakota’s law, signed last month , only becomes effective if a federal appeals court or the U.S. Supreme Court allows its enforcement. Indiana’s ban, which also was enacted in April, is set to take effect in July but is being challenged in court.
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Google Opens German Center to Improve Data Privacy

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Google opened a privacy focused engineering center in Munich, Germany, on Tuesday, its latest move to beef up its data protection credentials as tech companies’ face growing scrutiny of their data collection practices.

CEO Sundar Pichai said the Silicon Valley tech giant is expanding its operations in the southern German city, including doubling the number of data privacy engineers there to more than 200 by the end of 2019.

The new Google Safety Engineering Center will make Munich a global hub for the company’s “cross-product privacy engineering efforts,” Pichai said in a blog post.

Staff will work with Google privacy specialists in other cities to build products for use around the world, Pichai said, adding that Munich engineers built the Google Account control panel as well as privacy and security features for the Chrome browser.

Data privacy and security at Google and its tech rivals including Facebook are increasingly in the spotlight. Both companies dedicated much of their annual developer conferences last week to privacy, with Google unveiling new tools giving people more control over how they’re being tracked while Facebook outlined plans to connect people though more private channels.
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WhatsApp to Refer Security Breach to US Authorities

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Facebook’s WhatsApp said on Tuesday a security breach on its messaging app had signs of coming from a private company working on surveillance and it had referred the incident to the U.S. Department of Justice.

WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging tools, is used by 1.5 billion people monthly and it has touted its high level of security and privacy, with messages on its platform being encrypted end to end so that WhatsApp and third parties cannot read or listen to them.

A WhatsApp spokesman said the attack was sophisticated and had all the hallmarks of a “private company working with governments on surveillance.”

“WhatsApp encourages people to upgrade to the latest version of our app, as well as keep their mobile operating system up to date, to protect against potential targeted exploits designed to compromise information stored on mobile devices,” a spokesman said.

“We are constantly working alongside industry partners to provide the latest security enhancements to help protect our users,” he said. WhatsApp did not elaborate further.

WhatsApp informed its lead regulator in the European Union, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), of a “serious security vulnerability” on its platform.

“The DPC understands that the vulnerability may have enabled a malicious actor to install unauthorized software and gain access to personal data on devices which have WhatsApp installed,” the regulator said in a statement.

“WhatsApp are still investigating as to whether any WhatsApp EU user data has been affected as a result of this incident,” the DPC said, adding that WhatsApp informed it of the incident late on Monday.

Cybersecurity experts said the vast majority of users were unlikely to have been affected.

Scott Storey, a senior lecturer in cybersecurity at Sheffield Hallam University, believes most WhatsApp users were not affected since this appears to be governments targeting specific people, mainly human rights campaigners.

“For the average end user, it’s not something to really worry about,” he said, adding that WhatsApp found the vulnerability and quickly fixed it. “This isn’t someone trying to steal private messages or personal details.”

Storey said that disclosing vulnerabilities is a good thing and likely would lead to other services looking at their security.

Incoming call

Earlier, the Financial Times reported that a vulnerability in WhatsApp allowed attackers to inject spyware on phones by ringing up targets using the app’s phone call function.

It said the spyware was developed by Israeli cyber surveillance company NSO Group — best known for its mobile surveillance tools — and affects both Android and iPhones. The FT said WhatsApp could not yet give an estimate of how many phones were targeted.

The FT reported that teams of engineers had worked around the clock in San Francisco and London to close the vulnerability and it began rolling out a fix to its servers on Friday last week and issued a patch for customers on Monday.

Asked about the report, NSO said its technology is licensed to authorized government agencies “for the sole purpose of fighting crime and terror,” and that it does not operate the system itself while having a rigorous licensing and vetting process.

“We investigate any credible allegations of misuse and if necessary, we take action, including shutting down the system. Under no circumstances would NSO be involved in the operating or identifying of targets of its technology, which is solely operated by intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” the company said.

Social media giant Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion.

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes last week wrote in The New York Times that fellow co-founder Mark Zuckerberg had far too much influence by controlling Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, three core communications platforms, and called for the company to be broken up.

Facebook’s shares were up 0.8 percent at $183.02 in pre-market trading.
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Eco-Conscious Artists Highlight of Prestigious Smithsonian Craft Show

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More than one million plant and animal species are likely to become extinct due to human activity, according to a new report by the United Nations. 

That threat to Mother Earth and other climate change concerns inspired folks at Washington’s recent Smithsonian Craft Show — one of the most prestigious events of its kind in America — to highlight and reward artists who are creating environmentally sustainable work. 

Art that’s good for the planet 

“In recent years we’ve noticed that the artists in our shows have been working with more renewable materials and methods that are environmentally safe,” said JoAnn Symons, president of the Smithsonian Women’s Committee. “So we’ve decided we would reward those efforts by offering the Sustainability Award every year in our show.”

In this year’s show, 120 crafters from across the country presented art in 12 different media, from basketry, leather and glass, to ceramics, wood and decorative fiber.

Twenty-one of them met the sustainability criteria and were eligible to compete for the “Honoring the Future® Sustainability Award,” which included a cash prize of $1,000.

Barns into birdhouses

Michigan woodworker John Guertin is one of the artists who met the requirements.

Each of his painstakingly crafted birdhouses is made with wood he recovers from the remains of old barns that have fallen into disrepair.

“If you can use recycled material from old sources to bring new generations of birds into the world — and other creatures — it makes a wonderful statement about our purpose in the world, that we don’t just exploit it, but rather we give something back,” he explained.

Many of his creations, which include homes for bats and owls, have a Victorian theme. Former President Gerald Ford commissioned a birdhouse with a stars and stripes theme. Other boxes are replicas of real buildings, including one created for the Mission San Luis Rey Museum in Oceanside, California, which resembles the Spanish-style building. “If you look at the real design of the mission, it has a rose window exactly in the position perfect for a birdhouse,” Guertin pointed out.

His artistic goal is simple.

“Make collectible bird houses that are functional, architectural and scientific works that will serve the needs of songbirds and other cavity-nesting species such as owls and bats, that will hopefully make some small impact on the environment,” he said. 

Whimsical whirligigs and hipster characters

“She’s a mix of new and reclaimed fabrics,” says Mimi Kirchner, as she holds up a cloth dog doll that’s sporting a mustard-colored cashmere scarf and a tiny matching felt satchel filled with shreds of recycled paper.

The Massachusetts artist qualified for the sustainability category because she makes “art” toys made out of used and “rescued” fabrics. They come from thrift stores, and people’s collections, she explained, so “a lot of it is vintage, and I give it a new life.” 

“I have always been most interested in depictions of people – in any art,” she once wrote on her blog. “Painting, sculpture, life-drawing.” 

Those elements come together nicely in her work, whether she’s making one-of-a-kind animal characters, whimsical people figures, or intricate Tiny World pin cushions which fit perfectly into a tea cup.

Shaking things up

Tim Arnold’s wooden boxes are inspired by the Shakers, a religious group known for its sturdy and simply designed furniture.

“These are items that the Shakers used to store dry goods back in the 19th century,” he said, pointing to a collection of oval boxes made with thin, light-colored wood. Similar to modern-day Tupperware sets, the Shakers also produced boxed sets “to sell to what they referred to as ‘the world,’ which was everybody outside their communities,” Arnold said. 

The Nashville, Tennessee artist says he tries to honor that tradition, but at the same time, “interject a little bit of my own personality into some of the boxes, particularly on the tops.”

Arnold adds to those tops some interesting objects, like a pair of magnetized scissors for a box designed for sewing, and uses unusual materials, like exotic wood, copper and animal skins.

“I’m buying python skins from the bounty hunters that are trying to eradicate the pythons in the Everglades,” he said, which makes him feel part of the solution to a huge python crisis in that area of Florida.

Wearable art

Textile artist-designer Mary Jaeger, who works in a 1920 factory in Brooklyn, New York, blends the time-honored elegance of Japanese textiles with contemporary Western designs.

She won the “Honoring the Future® Sustainability Award” for her stylish silks, which she makes by hand using leftover materials from bolts of fabric, and past projects. Those repurposed products include custom cut and hand-dyed cotton shirt dresses, accordion scarves, and coats and jackets with 3D textures and hand-dyed Shibori patterns.

“When I look at these beautiful silks that I’ve acquired over the years of designing, I wanted to repurpose them into something that was truly beautiful, but completely different than the original product that I purchased them originally to construct,” she said.

The award comes from Honoring Our Future, a nonprofit organization “that was launched to harness the power of art to educate and engage the public on climate change,” says its director, Fran Dubrowski.

“We’re trying to encourage the craft artist to really discuss sustainability with the visitors to their show, not just practice it at home,” she said. “They’re in constant contact with the public, and I think they can be wonderful ambassadors for climate education.” 
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