Strikingly (YC W13) is hiring product designers and engineers in Shanghai
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Kim Jong-un: fragile and under pressure but he won’t give up
The Observer The North Korean leader’s surprise freeze of his nuclear programme is less a genuine move than a diplomatic manoeuvre,...
Sunday, 31 May 2020
Cartoon Caption Contest
Submit your caption.
from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/cartoon-caption-contest/this-weeks-contest-2020-06-08
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from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/cartoon-caption-contest/this-weeks-contest-2020-06-08
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A Weekend of Anger and Defiance Across New York City
Emily Witt on confrontations between New York City police officers and protesters during rallies and marches following the killing of George Floyd, in Minneapolis.
from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/a-weekend-of-anger-and-defiance-across-new-york-city-george-floyd-police-protesters
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from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/a-weekend-of-anger-and-defiance-across-new-york-city-george-floyd-police-protesters
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Mark Zuckerberg 'expressed concerns' in Trump phone call, so that should fix everything
Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly suggested to President Donald Trump, in a roundabout fashion, that perhaps the poster-in-chief could tone it down a little. For him? Pretty please?
Axios reports that two sources familiar with a phone call Trump made to the Facebook CEO on Friday said that Zuckerberg did not make any specific requests of the president, but conveyed "concerns" about his "tone and rhetoric," expressed disagreement with recent sentiments, and told the president that his choice of words "put Facebook in a difficult position."
The latter is likely a reference to the fact that Facebook has faced increased pressure to moderate the president's statements on the platform, which regularly contain outright lies, misinformation, and inflammatory rhetoric. Read more...
More about Mark Zuckerberg, Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump, Facebook Election, and Techfrom Mashable https://mashable.com/article/trump-social-media-mark-zuckerberg-black-lives-matter/
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In Minneapolis, Protesters Confront the Police—and One Another
Luke Mogelson reports from the scene of George Floyd’s killing, where protesters have spread through the city to battle law enforcement, chastise looters, and fight to be heard.
from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/in-minneapolis-protesters-confront-the-police-and-one-another-george-floyd
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from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/in-minneapolis-protesters-confront-the-police-and-one-another-george-floyd
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Mayor Bill de Blasio’s defense of the NYPD’s handling of protests revives old tensions
Mayor Bill de Blasio walks outside City Hall during the coronavirus pandemic on April 19, 2020, in New York City. | Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
The mayor has said the police acted with restraint, but has also called for an investigation into the van incident.
A video of a New York City Police Department van driving into a group of protesters has ignited questions about the NYPD’s response to the demonstrations, and whether the city’s leadership — specifically Mayor Bill de Blasio — has the ability and will to hold the police force accountable.
Protests over the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, engulfed New York City for another night on Saturday, and some turned in violent, with reports of both protester and police aggression. But the police response to some of the demonstrations has drawn outrage from activists and elected officials, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
In particular, outrage has centered on a video showing a police van driving into protesters. In the clip, protesters surround an NYPD van and push a barricade up to its bumper, with some protesters flinging objects — what looked like water bottles and traffic cones — at the van. Another police van pulls up and begins to slowly make its way through the crowd, while the other all of a sudden accelerates, sending protesters flying. It is not clear if anyone was injured.
Here is the overhead... pic.twitter.com/US6Qqhkz3O
— Rob Bennett @ (@rob_bennett) May 31, 2020
De Blasio, addressing the protests Saturday night, called the scene “a very tense one.”
“And imagine what it would be like, you’re just trying to do your job and then you see hundreds of people converging upon you. I’m not gonna blame officers who are trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation,” de Blasio said Saturday. “The folks who were converging on that police car did the wrong thing to begin with and they created an untenable situation. I wish the officers had found a different approach. But let’s begin at the beginning. The protesters in that video did the wrong thing to surround them, surround that police car, period.”
De Blasio’s initial comments drew criticism, and though he tempered his remarks the next day, he now faces pressure from both police and protesters. The mayor’s response was a reminder of the sometimes tenuous relationship he’s had with both cops and criminal justice advocates throughout his tenure.
De Blasio has softened his stance, but his more moderate tone may have come too late
De Blasio walked back the comments slightly at a Sunday morning press conference, saying he did not “ever want to see that again” and announcing an independent investigation into the incident, to “look at the actions of those officers and see what was done and why it was done and what could be done differently.”
That investigation will be led by the city’s chief lawyer, James Johnson, and the city’s watchdog, Department of Investigations Commissioner Margaret Garnett. The findings are expected in June. (New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo later Sunday announced that Attorney General Letitia James would also investigate.)
At Sunday’s press conference, de Blasio defended the police’s handling of the protests this weekend overall. “We saw tremendous restraint overall from the NYPD. There are always going to be some incidents we don’t like,” he said.
NYC Mayor de Blasio just now, somehow: “We saw tremendous restraint overall from the NYPD.” pic.twitter.com/zUwUvjgfji
— The Recount (@therecount) May 31, 2020
“I saw a lot of restraint under very, very difficult circumstances. I am going to keep saying, to anyone who is protesting for change, do not take your anger out on the individual officer in front of you.”
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, who took over as the top cop late last year, also backed up the police, although with far more forceful language. On Sunday morning, he told reporters that peaceful protests had been “hijacked” by a small number of agitators. Shea said he did not like what he saw in the van video, but he added, “I look at it fairly and I urge you to also: There are protests and there are mobs.”
Earlier in the day, Shea posted a lengthy Twitter thread that said what NYPD cops had endured in 2020 was “unprecedented.”
“In no small way, I want you to know that I’m extremely proud of the way you’ve comported yourselves in the face of such persistent danger, disrespect, and denigration,” he wrote. “What we saw in New York City last night and the night before was not about peaceful protest of any kind. It was not about civil disobedience. It was not about demonstrating against police brutality.”
There is no question that some protests escalated into violence and destruction. Banks in downtown Manhattan had their windows smashed, and some businesses were looted. The outside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral was graffitied. Protesters set cop cars aflame, damaging 47 vehicles, according to police officials. Shea said nearly 350 people had been arrested, and more than 30 officers were injured.
There was no mention, however, of protesters who might have been hurt or injured in some of the chaos of the protests, or of those wounded by officers. De Blasio largely blamed outside agitators for much of the mayhem, calling them “people who came to do violence in a systematic organized fashion. That is a different reality we need to grapple with.” But he did not go into greater detail.
His failure to do so, and to fully acknowledge and condemn what seemed like clear examples of the NYPD’s excessive use of force, led to sharp criticism of the mayor.
“Considering that these protests are linked to policing, and communities who feel like there’s no accountability for misconduct even when documented....these types of broad overarching comments may be the absolute worst that could be made at this time,” Jumaane Williams, New York City’s public advocate, tweeted.
Considering that these protests are linked to policing, and communities who feel like there's no accountability for misconduct even when documented....these types of broad overarching comments may be the absolute worst that could be made at this time. https://t.co/zBBwxQXDh3
— Jumaane Williams (@JumaaneWilliams) May 31, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez, who represents constituents from the Bronx and Queens, called de Blasio’s comments on Saturday “unacceptable.”
“This moment demands leadership & accountability from each of us. Defending and making excuses for NYPD running SUVs into crowds was wrong,” she tweeted.
Corey Johnson, the New York City Council speaker, called the clip of the van “outrageous.”
“Driving police vehicles into crowds of protestors is not deescalation,” he said. Johnson and other city officials have demanded an independent investigation in the protests, separate from the one the mayor has already promised.
As more protests are underway Sunday, fears persist that the failure to denounce the dangerous acts outright might cause tensions to boil over into violence again. And that possibility — and the police response so far — may be a reckoning for de Blasio, who ran for mayor on a platform of police reform and has had, at times, a strained relationship with the institution, despite his latest defense of the department.
De Blasio ran on police reform, but his relationship with the NYPD is complicated
A “tale of two cities,” was de Blasio’s broad campaign platform when he ran for mayor in 2013. The simple idea was of two New Yorks: one for the privileged, and another for the low-income and minority members of the city. As part of this theme, he embraced a platform of police reform, campaigning against such tactics as “stop and frisk.” In a famous campaign ad, de Blasio’s teenage son Dante, who is biracial, said his dad would end the stop-and-frisk era that “unfairly target[ed] people of color.”
But the reality was a lot more complicated, especially in New York, where mayoralties can rise and fall on how the public perceives public safety. For his first police commissioner, de Blasio hired Bill Bratton, who served as police chief in the 1990s under Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Many criminal justice reform advocates denounced the pick for Bratton’s association with “broken windows” policing, a theory that cracking down on small crimes prevents larger ones.
One of the first big tests de Blasio faced in his tenure was the death of Eric Garner in July 2014, who died after an NYPD officer placed him in a chokehold, which was captured on video. (His plea, “I can’t breathe,” was the same made by George Floyd in his final moments.) “Like so many New Yorkers I was very troubled by the video,” de Blasio said at the time.
In December 2014, protests broke out in New York after a grand jury declined to indict the officer involved in the incident. (Also around this time, a separate grand jury declined to indict the officer in the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.) De Blasio expressed solidarity with some of the protests. “Black lives matter,” he said at the time. “They said it because it has to be said. It’s a phrase that should never have to be said. It should be self-evident, but our history sadly requires us to say it.”
Later that month, two NYPD officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were killed by a gunman while they were sitting in their cop car in Brooklyn. The 28-year-old gunman had explicitly targeted police officers, and in the aftermath, some criticized the protests as fomenting anti-police hatred. New York’s vocal police unions, in particular, blamed de Blasio. (De Blasio later called for a halt in the protests.)
At the funeral for the slain officers, cops turned their back on de Blasio. The reaction by the rank-and-file officers became symbolic of a lingering mistrust between New York’s police and the mayor. That image has been nearly impossible for de Blasio to shake, and one a lot of the police unions have continued to fuel. After a shooting in the Bronx earlier this year that seemed to target police, which de Blasio roundly condemned, one of the unions “declared war.”
And, again, it’s been hard for de Blasio to overcome this sense of antipathy, even if it does not fully reflect the relationship between the NYPD’s top brass and the mayor’s office. Which, in turn, has led to criticism from the left flank, who now see de Blasio as far too deferential to the NYPD and as failing to fully address the real, structural problems he had campaigned on.
New York’s record-low crime rate in the city (though murders did tick up in 2019) has largely continued under de Blasio, though that could be attributed to many factors. And police reform has happened, if imperfectly. The NYPD’s neighborhood policing initiative vastly expanded under de Blasio and then-NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill, which assigns police to specific blocks to strengthen relationships with the community. Shea, the current commissioner, is also a champion of this approach. The new strategy still has its critics, and studies are still being done on its effectiveness, both in improving relationships and in targeting crime.
The NYPD has also tried to put more emphasis on precision policing, which is intended to target repeat or violent offenders rather than blanket approaches like stop-and-frisk. There’s also been expanded rollout of body cameras.
But critics say it isn’t enough. There are questions on whether anti-bias claims against the police are being appropriately investigated. De Blasio has continued to back some “broken windows” policing, and he fought an attempt by the Manhattan district attorney to stop prosecuting those evading public transportation fares.
Of course, there are lots of nuances surrounding de Blasio’s record that both camps critical of him — that he’s anti-police or abandoned needed reforms — miss. But it helps explain why the mayor might face blowback regardless of how he responds to the protests in New York.
The response to the mayor’s comments also shows why police reform is so challenging, even in the nation’s most populous city. Both things can be true: Some protesters became violent, and some cops used inappropriate force and may have provoked protesters. Failing to acknowledge the gray areas of the turmoil in New York deepens the distrust. In the longer term, that makes it harder to work toward or implement reforms. And for now, it may make the protests, sure to continue, even more volatile.
Support Vox’s explanatory journalism
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from Vox - All https://www.vox.com/2020/5/31/21276113/protests-nypd-new-york-city-bill-deblasio
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Saturday, 30 May 2020
These bears work quietly to protect your online privacy
TL;DR: A two-year subscription to TunnelBear VPN is on sale for £3.38 per month, saving you 58% on list price.
We like to imagine that TunnelBear VPN is run by lots of hardworking bears, all doing everything they can to ensure your online security and data privacy. It's probably not the case, but they do feature heavily on TunnelBear's site and interface, so that's something.
TunnelBear is one of the most popular VPN providers, and that's probably partly down to the cute bears that pop up everywhere. It's also due to the range of advanced security features offered by the service, including easy-to-use apps, strong encryption, and fast connection speeds. Read more...
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Police use tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes with protesters around the country
Demonstrators gathered at Lafayette Park across from the White House, attempt to breach a police barricade on May 30, 2020. | Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
It was another night of nationwide protest over George Floyd’s death.
Nationwide protests over police violence after the death of George Floyd continued to escalate Saturday night. At least 25 cities imposed curfews to try to keep protests, some of which became violent, off the streets. States called up their National Guards. In cities around the country, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas. Some protesters threw glass bottles, stones, and bricks.
Floyd died in Minneapolis on Monday after a police officer, who was charged with murder on Friday, pinned Floyd’s neck to the ground with his knee for nearly 9 minutes while Floyd pleaded for air. Across the country, Floyd’s death has become a symbol of police violence and inequality. And the protests are playing out against the backdrop of a pandemic that has disproportionately affected black Americans.
Many protests started out peacefully. But as the night continued, violence erupted from both protestors and police — and in some cases, the police violence was unprovoked, according to reporters on the scene.
A police SUV drove into a crowd of protesters in Brooklyn
Videos widely circulated on social media showed a New York Police Department SUV driving into a crowd of protesters. Mayor Bill de Blasio offered only mild condemation, saying, “It is a troubling video, and I wish they hadn’t done that, but we have to be clear.. they were being surrounded by a violent crowd,” according to Gloria Pazmino, a reporter for NY1, on Twitter.
Here is the overhead... pic.twitter.com/US6Qqhkz3O
— Rob Bennett @ (@rob_bennett) May 31, 2020
Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and other projectiles in cities around the country
In Washington, DC, some protesters attempted to scale barricades surrounding the White House. Police fired clouds of tear gas and rubber bullets.
Back in the medic area, protesters are screaming, “it burns!” Volunteer medics are washing out wounds. Offering people milk and water mixed with antacids for their burning throat and eyes. #DC pic.twitter.com/Bx8Nc8S7Xg
— Marissa J. Lang (@Marissa_Jae) May 31, 2020
Police also fired tear gas at protestors in Minneapolis — without provocation in at least one case, according to MSNBC’s Ali Velshi:
WATCH: @AliVelshi reports from Minneapolis as police fire tear gas toward protesters: “There has been no provocation ... The police pulled into this intersection unprovoked.” pic.twitter.com/OEUXdPg73O
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 31, 2020
In Denver, police fired tear gas as protestors threw fireworks, according to Denver Post reporter Saja Hindi:
Cops responding with A LOT of tear gas. pic.twitter.com/GXYE0JfvHZ
— Saja Hindi (@BySajaHindi) May 31, 2020
The Geneva Convention bans tear gas in international warfare, although it’s explicitly allowed in domestic policing situations; in the short term, it causes painful symptoms, and “we don’t know much about the long-term effects, especially in civilian exposure,” a tear gas expert told Vox in 2014.
Journalists were struck by rubber bullets and arrested
In Minneapolis, a photographer for local news organization WCCO was struck by a rubber bullet, forced onto the ground by police, and arrested, according to the news outlet. Police also fired tear gas at journalists who had identified themselves as media, according to LA Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske:
Minnesota State Patrol just fired tear gas at reporters and photographers at point blank range. pic.twitter.com/r7X6J7LKo8
— Molly Hennessy-Fiske (@mollyhf) May 31, 2020
In Brooklyn, police arrested a Huffington Post reporter:
Confirmed that this is @huffpost reporter @letsgomathias getting arrested — I didn’t catch when they first apprehended him but it was incredibly violent. His press badge is clearly visible. pic.twitter.com/ob3FvEzkiK
— Phoebe Leila Barghouty (@PLBarghouty) May 31, 2020
These aren’t the first arrests of journalists during the ongoing protests: CNN’s Omar Jimenez was arrested on live TV earlier in the week.
from Vox - All https://www.vox.com/2020/5/31/21275882/protests-george-floyd-minneapolis-washington-new-york
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This VPN is on sale for less than £1 per month
TL;DR: A five-year subscription to Ivacy VPN is on sale for £0.94 per month, saving you 88% on list price.
The thing about VPNs is that the best deals are generally reserved for the longest contracts. To access the lowest monthly rates, you tend to have to sign up for years.
That's not always a problem though, because some services are so good that you're probably happy to commit. Ivacy VPN is a good example of this, with a long list of impressive features that should keep you content for the duration of your subscription.
A five-year subscription to Ivacy VPN is now on sale for just £0.94 per month, saving you 88% on list price. This includes a generous 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can always back out with your money if you're not impressed. Read more...
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New top story on Hacker News: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
48 by genedangelo | 21 comments on Hacker News.
In May of 1963, I started my first full-time job as a computer programmer for Mitchell Engineering Company, a supplier of steel buildings. At Mitchell, I developed programs in Fortran II on an IBM 1620 mostly to improve the efficiency of order processing and fulfillment. Since then, all my jobs for the past 57 years have involved computer programming. I am now a data scientist developing cloud-based big data fraud detection algorithms using machine learning and other advanced analytical technologies. Along the way, I earned a Master’s in Operations Research and a Master’s in Management Science, studied artificial intelligence for 3 years in a Ph.D. program for engineering, and just two years ago I received Graduate Certificates in Big Data Analytics from the schools of business and computer science at a local university (FAU). In addition, I currently hold the designation of Certified Analytics Professional (CAP). At 74, I still have no plans to retire or to stop programming.
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48 by genedangelo | 21 comments on Hacker News.
In May of 1963, I started my first full-time job as a computer programmer for Mitchell Engineering Company, a supplier of steel buildings. At Mitchell, I developed programs in Fortran II on an IBM 1620 mostly to improve the efficiency of order processing and fulfillment. Since then, all my jobs for the past 57 years have involved computer programming. I am now a data scientist developing cloud-based big data fraud detection algorithms using machine learning and other advanced analytical technologies. Along the way, I earned a Master’s in Operations Research and a Master’s in Management Science, studied artificial intelligence for 3 years in a Ph.D. program for engineering, and just two years ago I received Graduate Certificates in Big Data Analytics from the schools of business and computer science at a local university (FAU). In addition, I currently hold the designation of Certified Analytics Professional (CAP). At 74, I still have no plans to retire or to stop programming.
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Friday, 29 May 2020
What's so important about a VPN kill switch?
TL;DR: A two-year subscription to PureVPN is on sale for £2.33 per month, saving you 74% on list price.
The list of features offered by VPN providers is long and growing, but some are more important than others. Sure, server location and connection speed is important, but these things don't impact your privacy and security.
If online security is your priority, you should be looking out for things like a kill switch. This terminates your internet connection if the VPN disconnects, so that your identity isn’t exposed. It's a vital second layer of protection, and it's something every VPN service should provide. Read more...
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Unblock American Netflix with this high-speed VPN
TL;DR: A 15-month subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for £5.64 per month, saving you 49% on list price.
A VPN, in case you didn't already know, is a secure tunnel between your device and the internet. This shields your online traffic from snooping and interference.
These services are great tools for protecting your data and identity, but most people sign up for another reason. Online security should always be a priority, but the majority of subscribers use VPNs for unlimited streaming.
You are assigned a new IP address when you connect to a VPN server, meaning you can unblock content from another location. With a VPN subscription, you can watch all the content on American Netflix from anywhere in the world. Read more...
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New top story on Hacker News: World's deepest octopus captured on camera
World's deepest octopus captured on camera
11 by pseudolus | 2 comments on Hacker News.
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11 by pseudolus | 2 comments on Hacker News.
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Scenes from a New York City Protest of the Police Killing of George Floyd
Marella Gayla writes about the photographer Chris Facey and the photos he captured at a May 28th protest, in New York City’s Union Square, of the police killing of George Floyd, in Minneapolis.
from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/scenes-from-a-new-york-city-protest-of-the-police-killing-of-george-floyd
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'Struggling' Zuckerberg decides doing nothing is best when it comes to Trump
Mark Zuckerberg has officially weighed in and —surprise! — after much deliberation has decided that doing nothing is the right and just thing.
On Friday afternoon, the Facebook CEO posted a lengthy note explaining his company's labored response to Donald Trump's threats against Minneapolis protesters responding to the police killing of George Floyd. Despite Trump's post on Facebook, which clearly reads as threatening to have the protestors shot, Zuckerberg wrote that the proper thing to do was leave the post up.
Thankfully, Zuckerberg had the courage to do, well, nothing.
"I know many people are upset that we've left the President's posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies," wrote Zuckerberg. Read more...
More about Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump, George Floyd, Tech, and Big Tech Companiesfrom Mashable https://mashable.com/article/zuckerberg-defends-trump-facebook-post-protesters/
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How to demand justice for George Floyd and support Minneapolis protesters
You can seek justice for George Floyd wherever you are.
On May 25, Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, according to the criminal complaint against the officer, who has been arrested and charged with murder. The officer, Derek Chauvin, ignored Floyd's insistence that he couldn't breathe.
In the days that followed Floyd's death, protests broke out in Minneapolis, despite the pandemic. For many, Floyd's death made plain just how unyielding police violence is against black Americans, even as the world grapples with the deadly coronavirus. Read more...
More about Black Lives Matter, Racism, Activism, Social Good, and Identitiesfrom Mashable https://mashable.com/article/justice-for-george-floyd-minneapolis-support-protesters/
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The Intolerable Tensions Between American Cities and their Police Forces
Benjamin Wallace-Wells writes about the killing of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, and how the gap between the liberal mayors who run many big cities and the officers who help police them seems especially pronounced now.
from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-intolerable-tensions-between-american-cities-and-their-police-forces
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from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-intolerable-tensions-between-american-cities-and-their-police-forces
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How Violent Protests Change Politics
Isaac Chotiner interviews Omar Wasow, a politics professor at Princeton, about violent and nonviolent protest tactics, and what they can tell us about the demonstrations after the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis.
from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-violent-protests-change-politics
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from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-violent-protests-change-politics
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Feds flew an unarmed Predator drone over Minneapolis protests to provide “situational awareness”
Customs and Border Protection regularly uses Predator surveillance drones to surveil the border, but on Friday, one took a detour. | Gary Williams/Getty Images
The US has a long history of surveilling protesters, but the technology used to do so has grown more powerful.
On Friday, a Predator surveillance drone operated by United States Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) diverted from its normal route along the Canadian border in order to circle the skies over Minneapolis. Hours earlier, a third night of protests had escalated as thousands demonstrated following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a police officer held his knee to Floyd’s neck for several minutes. (The officer has since been fired and charged with third-degree murder.) And while federal authorities say the unarmed drone was there “to provide situational awareness,” the presence of a military-grade aircraft watching protesters in Minnesota added to an already anxious day in America.
A couple of hours before reports about the Predator drone over Minneapolis, President Trump tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Though his use of this charged phrase with racist origins suggests a threat against the protesters, Trump later tried to walk back his statement, and it seems unlikely that his rhetoric had anything to do with the drone flight. Still, to know that a drone was circling the protesters as the president was making these charged remarks is unsettling. According to CBP, however, the Predator drone that flew over Minneapolis was there to help the police.
“Earlier today a US Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations unmanned aircraft system was preparing to provide live video to aid in situational awareness at the request of our federal law enforcement partners in Minneapolis,” a spokesperson for CBP told Recode in an email. “The unmanned aircraft system provides live video feed to ground law enforcement, giving them situational awareness, maximizing public safety, while minimizing the threat to personnel and assets.”
The spokesperson said that “arriving in Minneapolis airspace, the requesting agency determined that the aircraft was no longer needed for operational awareness and departed back to Grand Forks.” The CPB spokesperson also added that the agency “routinely conducts operations with other federal, state, and local law enforcement entities to assist law enforcement and humanitarian relief efforts.” The specific law enforcement agency that requested the drone was not named.
Here’s what else we know about the flight. The drone CPB 104, which is an unarmed version of a Predator drone, departed from Grand Forks, North Dakota, around 9 am CT, according to data collected from the flight-tracking tool ADS-B Exchange. Flying at around 20,000 feet, it made a loose hexagon-shaped route around Minneapolis and then began to fly away from the city. The drone flight might have gone unnoticed if it hadn’t been spotted by Jason Paladino, an investigative reporter with the Project on Government Oversight, who shared the news in a tweet. Motherboard followed up with a fuller report.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/20010084/Screen_Shot_2020_05_29_at_7.58.55_PM.png)
ADS-B Exchange
“No government agency should be facilitating the over-policing of the Black community, period. And CBP has no role in what’s happening in Minneapolis at all,” said Neema Singh Guliani, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, in a statement. “This rogue agency’s use of military technology to surveil protesters inside US borders is deeply disturbing, especially given CBP’s lack of clear and strong policies to protect privacy and constitutional rights.”
As Guliani suggests, the drone’s deployment is part of a larger trend in which government agencies, including police, are using increasingly powerful surveillance tools for monitoring activists. The use of the military-grade drone technology also raises concerns about the federal government deploying sophisticated drone technology typically only used in war zones and along the border — an already highly alarming practice — to conduct surveillance operations inside the US.
“This is what happens when leaders sign blank check after blank check to militarize police, CBP, etc while letting violence go unchecked,” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in response to news of the drone flight. “We need answers. And we need to defund.”
Surveillance tech deployed at the border is coming into the US
The technology used to monitor the US border has become increasingly high tech, and members of both parties have become interested in the idea of a “smart wall” along the border. While Donald Trump has called for a physical border wall, officials have come to look at, and sometimes use, all sorts of technology, including Lidar, artificial intelligence-powered cameras, facial recognition, and cellphone data monitoring to regulate people near or crossing the border.
Human rights advocates and civil liberties advocates have strongly opposed the use of such technologies, pointing out that they can exacerbate racial inequities and privacy violations.
But drones have been used at the border for more than a decade. As Recode’s Shirin Ghaffary reported, CBP has been using Predator B aircraft at the border since 2006. The CBP 104 drone has been in use since October of that year, according to a March 2007 report from Government Technology magazine that described how the new unmanned aerial system had been used to find people suspected of crossing the US border without authorization.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/20009470/Screen_Shot_2020_05_29_at_1.46.18_PM.png)
US Customs and Border Patrol
Meanwhile, CBP documents from 2012 identify the CBP 104 as a Predator drone equipped with radar and satellite communication links, not to mention radio communications with law enforcement. As the Washington Post reported in 2014, flight logs show how CBP has historically allowed its drones to be used by other federal agencies, such as the Coast Guard and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In response to Recode’s request for comment, the CBP spokesperson also said that its air and marine operations aircraft is used throughout the country, not just at the border, and that it regularly works with federal, state, and local law enforcement. The spokesperson claimed that the drone has been used in humanitarian relief efforts as well as to help agencies like FEMA.
The US has a long history of surveilling protesters
The fact that the government uses a range of technology to surveil protesters, including black activists, is by no means new. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were both surveilled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). But the technology that police departments and federal authorities now have access to is much more powerful than what was around in the 1960s. Some of these tools, like Predator drones, would not be out of place on foreign espionage missions, and now they’re increasingly deployed to monitor activists and protesters inside US borders.
Examples from recent years are especially alarming. Following the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, the Department of Homeland Security kept tabs on the Black Lives Matter movement through organizers’ social media accounts, according to an Intercept investigation. Just a year later, the American Civil Liberties Union released a report detailing how companies, including Facebook and Twitter, provided social media data for a surveillance product that was marketed to law enforcement agencies as a way to track activists and protesters. The New York Police Department, specifically, has deployed a variety of tools over the years to surveil activists, including those involved in the Black Lives Matter Movement and Occupy Wall Street.
Aerial surveillance is also not a new tactic being used by cops, either. During the 2015 Baltimore protests following the death of Freddie Gray, the FBI used a spy plane to record the protests as well as smaller gatherings, according to the ACLU. Since then, the Baltimore police have fought — and won — the ability to regularly use surveillance planes that are armed with cameras, despite the objections of activists and civil liberties advocates.
The Minneapolis Police Department is not different in its affinity toward surveillance technology. BuzzFeed reviewed the many types of surveillance the department likely has at its disposal. They include Clearview AI’s facial recognition software, automatic license plate readers, audio-based gunshot detection tools, and other data aggregation tools.
Still, as Friday’s Predator drone flight suggests, it can be incredibly difficult to understand just how much technology law enforcement actually has access to at any point in time. Many of these tools are often hidden from public view, leading journalists and advocates to turn to require public records requests and lawsuits to learn more about how they’re used.
While CBP says the drone has been directed away from Minneapolis, it is possible to track where the drone is now; its flight path is documented on this website. As of early Friday evening, the drone appeared to still be in flight, traveling a hexagon-shaped route close to the Canadian border.
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from Vox - All https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/29/21274828/drone-minneapolis-protests-predator-surveillance-police
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Thursday, 28 May 2020
7 of the best Squarespace templates for your blog
There’s a good reason why Squarespace is an incredibly popular web building and hosting service: it allows people to build beautiful websites relatively easily and affordably, thanks largely to its drag-and-drop page builders and templates.
While Squarespace might offer less flexibility for experienced coders than other website builders like WordPress, it is user friendly, even if you have zero coding experience. That’s largely because it offers around 100 different and customisable templates. These templates act as “rough draft” designs for you to build the website you want, determining how your site looks and how it works. Read more...
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BEST FOR FEATURES
TudorWith a modern, asymmetrical design, this template is a great all-around choice for bloggers.
BEST FOR FLEXIBILITY
FiveWith a clean and fresh feel, this template is great if you want flexibility and multiple sidebars.
BEST FOR TRAVEL BLOGGERS
NativeWith easy social media integration and location display, this clean, scrolling page template is a natural choice for travel bloggers.
BEST FOR PHOTO-HEAVY BLOGS
HauteIf your blog includes lots of stunning photography, this mosaic-style template is a great way to display it.
BEST FOR FOOD BLOGS
StantonWith a big banner image, text on the homepage, and recent posts featured below, this template is a solid choice for food bloggers.
BEST FOR FASHION BLOGS
RallyWith a long, scrolling homepage, this template allows you to weave blog posts with banner photographs to create a visually-appealing website.
BEST FOR MULTIPLE CONTRIBUTORS
SkyeNot only is this a clean and streamlined magazine-style template, but it’s also great if you have multiple writers contributing to the blog.
from Mashable https://mashable.com/uk/roundup/best-squarespace-templates-for-blogs-uk/
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$51 million in bushfire donations reveals a big problem with viral Facebook fundraisers
As Australia's unprecedented bushfires destroyed over 31 million acres in early 2020, a Facebook fundraiser launched by comedian Celeste Barber went viral. Initially aimed at supporting rural New South Wales firefighters, the appeal eventually raised over A$51 million from 1.3 million donors across the globe. It was the largest fundraiser in Facebook's history, eclipsing its predecessor by A$20 million.
Online fundraisers have gained increasing relevance amidst the coronavirus pandemic, as millions struggle with health concerns and unemployment. Facebook itself has promoted its fundraising functionality as a shining spot of good as its reputation has taken hit after hit elsewhere. However, the giving spirit can sometimes blind people to exactly what they're donating to, especially when it comes to viral campaigns. Read more...
More about Facebook, Australia, Fundraising, Charities, and Australian Bushfiresfrom Mashable https://mashable.com/article/australia-bushfire-celeste-barber-facebook-fundraiser-51-million-charities/
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Donald Trump: The Most Mendacious President in U.S. History
Susan Glasser writes about the misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies emanating from President Donald Trump, largely via his tweeting, which in recent months has taken a darker and more manic turn.
from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/the-most-mendacious-president-in-us-history
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from Everything https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/the-most-mendacious-president-in-us-history
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Trump’s executive order on social media is legally unenforceable, experts say
President Trump announcing his executive order on social media in the oval office on Thursday | Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images
Legal experts say the executive order is largely toothless — but it could set a symbolic precedent about government censorship of the internet
Despite President Donald Trump’s threats that Republicans might shut down social media companies in retaliation for fact-checking his tweets, the executive order he signed on Thursday unsurprisingly doesn’t come anywhere close. Even in the order’s more limited scope, legal experts say it will be difficult to enforce.
Trump’s new order aims to limit social media companies’ legal protections if they don’t adhere to unspecified standards of neutrality. It comes just two days after Twitter fact-checked two of his tweets that made misleading claims about voting by mail in the 2020 elections.
“Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Trump followed up by threatening to “strongly regulate social media companies” or close them down altogether, and cautioned that a “big action” is coming.
The order calls for limiting protections that a law called Section 230 offers tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google by not holding them responsible for what users post on their platforms. (Recode’s Sara Morrison explains everything you need to know about Section 230 here.) To do this, the order tasks regulators at the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to create new rules that could pull back some of those protections, potentially opening them up to a litany of lawsuits for libel, defamation, and other complaints.
“Currently, social media giants like Twitter receive an unprecedented liability shield based on the theory that they are a neutral platform, which they are not,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday. “We are fed up with it. It is unfair, and it’s been very unfair.”
The order specifically mentions Twitter six times — more often than its bigger and arguably more influential competitors Facebook and YouTube.
It argues that companies like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube “are engaging in selective censorship that is harming our national discourse” that allegedly favors certain political viewpoints over others. Some conservatives have long argued — without real evidence — that social media platforms are biased against their politics.
Critics — including reportedly, some of Trump’s most conservative advisors — have warned the order could set a dangerous and unconstitutional precedent that the President can use executive powers to effectively censor companies for political reasons. Many legal experts say the order is largely toothless and will be challenged in court.
“The most obvious thing I would say about this order is that it’s not enforceable — it’s kind of a piece of political theater,” Kate Klonick, a professor of internet law at St. John’s University told Recode (Klonick was speaking about a draft of the order which was similar to what ended up being signed on Thursday).
Still, the order is being viewed as a symbolic threat to social media companies, particularly as they continue to grapple with moderating contentious speech.
Conservatives accusing the social media companies of liberal bias point to times when these platforms have banned conservative figures, such as far-right commentator Alex Jones and right-wing activist Laura Loome, after they repeatedly violated the sites’ harassment policies.
Many liberals, meanwhile, have argued that these platforms aren’t doing nearly enough to moderate the conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and politically misleading content shared on their sites — such as President Trump’s Facebook ads that purported to be links to the US census but instead directed people to a survey for his reelection campaign. After Recode and others reported on the misleading ads, Facebook eventually took them down.
Another unintended side-effect of Trump’s executive order could impact his own tweets: Tech companies might become “more aggressive about policing messages that press the boundaries,” as The New York Times reported, to protect themselves from being sued without the protection of Section 230.
“This is a hopeless quagmire to enter,” Former FTC chairman Bill Kovacic, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, told Recode. Kovavic said the order presents immediate legal challenges, and that the bipartisan FTC and FCC will likely be hesitant to enforce this. “There should be conservatives objecting too, because what happens if a future President who’s a Democrat gets tired of listening to Fox — or can’t stand the National Review anymore?”
The FCC and the FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As I previously explained, aside from getting the FTC and FCC onboard, Trump also has serious challenges ahead in trying to enforce this order, primarily because it arguably violates the First Amendment.
[T]he First Amendment does not limit Twitter, Facebook, Google, or any social media platform. It limits the government, not private companies, from infringing on people’s freedom to say what they please. That means you can’t go to jail for, say, blogging unfounded conspiracy theories about the Illuminati, but you can get kicked off a social network — just like you could get fired from your job for lying or for saying something racist to a colleague.
Ironically, it’s actually Trump — not Twitter — who is wading into unconstitutional territory here. If Trump were to try to shut down social media companies in retaliation for Twitter’s fact-check of his tweets, that would be a clear violation of the First Amendment. It would be sure to invite a fierce legal challenge and would signal an alarming attempt by the president of the United States to wield his executive power against one of the most fundamental rights in this country.
Trump can, however, try to get legislation passed that would selectively cull tech companies’ legal protections unless they follow certain standards of neutrality, and his executive order tasks the Attorney General to draft a proposal for such a law. But Democrats — some of whom have also been pushing for reform to Section 230, though not in the way Trump is suggesting — would need to also get on board in order to tally enough votes to pass the legislation through the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.
In the meantime, the big question is what happens next for social media companies. Will they start to roll back the new policies they’ve incrementally put in place around policing hate speech, harmful posts, and misleading information?
“I don’t think [social media companies] will change their content moderation policies overnight. It really depends how the public reaction to executive order is,” said Klonick. Twitter and other companies could “play a little bit of chicken,” to see if people pursue legal action against them — or they could try to seek a court injunction to stop enforcement of the order.
Twitter declined to comment and Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
from Vox - All https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/28/21273878/trump-executive-order-twitter-social-media-section-230-free-speech-implications
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