For tech entrepreneurs in Turkey, the unstable situation after last year’s coup attempt has made it harder to get the word out about the country’s tech scene and to solicit outside investment. Some entrepreneurs recently traveled to the United States for Etohum San Francisco, an event bridging the Turkish startup community with Silicon Valley. VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports.
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A Spanish court has given permission for the remains of famed surrealist painter Salvador Dali to be exhumed as part of a paternity test.
The judge in Catalonia ruled the body will be dug up July 20.
A woman claims Dali was her father. She has given a saliva sample that will be used to compare her DNA with that of Dali’s.
Maria Pilar Abel, 61, alleges her mother and Dali had an affair in the fishing village where he lived.
Abel said she only wants to be recognized as the artist’s daughter and has no interest in collecting any money.
The Salvador Dali Foundation is appealing the exhumation order.
Dali, who died in 1989, is the world’s most renown surrealist painter. His picture melting watches, The Persistence of Memory, is an icon of surrealism.
He is also known for a long pencil-thin moustache and eccentric behavior.
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With peeling paint and crumbling plasterwork, an abandoned picture house and its renovation in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli is more than a dream for Qassem Istanbouli.
The 31-year-old has reopened three such cinemas, two in his home city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, and another in Nabatiyeh, and has transformed them into hubs for film, art and theater.
“When I embarked on this journey, I felt I shared this dream with people in my city who are eager to have a cultural life restored,” said Istanbouli, who shows films by directors such as Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, David Lynch and Lars Von Trier.
Istanbouli, who was born in Tyre and studied fine arts and directing at the Lebanese University, initially relied on a bank loan and donations from the public for his projects but now gets financial support from the Lebanese ministry of culture, a Dutch NGO and the United Nations force in Lebanon.
Istanbouli’s dream is also driven by a family connection, his father used to repair cinema projectors, while his grandfather screened movies from Greece and the Palestinian territories, projecting them on a wall.
“This is a way to achieve my father’s dream,” he said.
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Before America put the first men on the moon in 1969, NASA astronauts prepared for their lunar missions on the volcanic terrain at a national park.
Lunar landscape
National parks traveler Mikah Meyer says he now knows why those astronauts visited Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in south-central Idaho.
“The area was the site of immense volcanic activity in the past,” he explained, so what’s left “is a kind of a ruins of volcanic rock…” — which, with its vast ocean of lava flows and islands of cinder cones, resembles the surface of the moon.
Mikah got a great 360-degree view of the surreal landscape after hiking to the top of the Inferno Cone – a massive mound of cinder that rises out of the ground like a black mountain.
“It looks like a mountain but it’s a cinder cone with this really loud, crunchy, sharp volcanic rock,” he said. “All throughout the park, whether it’s the big Inferno Cone or smaller volcanoes, you’re basically walking around on this black volcanic lava that was once magma and is now hard rock.”
Otherworldly encounters
Since much of the moon’s surface is also covered by volcanic materials, in 1969, NASA sent astronauts Eugene Cernan, Joe Engle, Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell to Craters of the Moon to learn the basics of volcanic geology before their lunar missions.
Becoming familiar with the materials would help them when collecting samples of different rocks on the moon, and, since only a limited amount of material (385 kilos total in 6 moon landings) could be brought back, it was important that they know enough geology to pick up the most scientifically valuable specimens and be able to describe the surface features they were exploring to geologists back on Earth.
In 1999, astronauts Mitchell, Engle and Cernan returned to Craters of the Moon to help celebrate the site’s 75th Anniversary, 30 years after training there. Alan Shepard had passed away in 1998.
A window into the past
Apollo 14 lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell said their purpose and training “was to sample virtually all types of volcanic activity and the processes that go along with volcanism, because we had to be the eyes of the geological community on the moon and be able to accurately describe the various types of flows.”
He noted that the surreal lunar landscape was also quite beautiful. “It has this peculiar, eerie beauty, like these flows do here, that are magnificent. I mean, they excite your imagination.”
Shuttle astronaut Joe Engle noted that it wasn’t known before the Apollo missions what kind of rocks were on the lunar surface, “so Craters of the Moon was one of the really valuable places to come and look at and study lava flows.”
Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, in December, 1972, described Craters of the Moon as “a spectacular place… an ideal place to study a high, broad range of the geologic impact.”
“The volcanic activity that occurred on the moon is not dissimilar to the kind of thing we have seen here… the geology that’s exposed here, it’s just an open window into the past and this is what we were looking for in trying to learn something about geology… and this is the kind of place where we were able to do something like that.”
Ancient rocks, new grass
Craters of the Moon formed during eight major eruptive periods between 15,000 and 2,000 years ago. Today its lava field covers 1600 square kilometers.
The site continues to be an important setting for space science research. In 2014, two research projects — FINESSE and BASALT — were launched at the park.
In the meantime, the lunar-like landscape continues to inspire visitors like Mikah. Looking out from the top of the Inferno Cone, he said, “You see the majestic contrast between the black dirt, the snow-capped mountains, and the older cinder cone which now have sagebrush and other grass and greens growing on them… it’s quite the beautiful juxtaposition.”
Mikah, who’s on a mission to visit all 417 units within the National Park Service, invites you to learn more about his travels across America by visiting him on his website, Facebook and Instagram.
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The charade only ended in the final years of Chuck Blazer’s life.
Stripped of his extravagances, soccer’s gregarious and greedy dealmaker was forced to admit to his years of corruption and confined to a New Jersey hospital.
The eccentric bon vivant who once strode across the global stage being flattered by sport and political leaders eager to capture his World Cup hosting vote died in disgrace on Wednesday at age 72.
However much Blazer elevated the status and wealth of soccer in North America over several decades, any achievements were polluted by the ravenous appetite of “Mr. 10 Percent” to seek bribes and siphon cash from deals into his personal account.
Blazer did go on to play a central role exposing soccer’s fraudulent culture, which led to FIFA President Sepp Blatter being toppled. But he turned only when presented with little option but to become a cooperating witness.
The impact of Blazer’s death on the FIFA prosecution in the United States — where three South American soccer officials are set to go on trial in November — is unclear. Many of the more prominent figures who might have faced him as a star government witness have already pleaded guilty.
Any recordings Blazer made after agreeing to become an FBI informant and wear a wire could still come into evidence without his testimony, said Timothy Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney now in private practice.
Even if Blazer didn’t record the defendants, prosecutors could have tried to “call him to testify generally about the ways and means of the corrupt practices, as pseudo-corruption expert,” Heaphy said. But Blazer’s absence, he said, “is like one brick removed from the wall. It won’t make the edifice come crumbling down.”
Blazer was driving his mobility scooter on a Manhattan street in 2011 when he was stopped by U.S. government agents and threatened with arrest.
It was the failure to fill in tax returns for years that put Blazer on the radar of the Internal Revenue Service. He became a government informant in 2011, using his role on FIFA’s already-tainted executive committee to secretly record conversations with associates in soccer’s governing body.
Blazer swept up evidence that formed the foundations of a Department of Justice case against world soccer executives who embezzled cash from commercial contracts and sought payments in return for backing countries as World Cup hosts.
At a November 2013 court hearing where his treatment for rectal cancer, diabetes and coronary artery disease was disclosed, Blazer entered 10 guilty pleas. He admitted to sharing in a $10 million bribe scheme with others to support South Africa’s bid for the 2010 World Cup, and facilitating a kickback linked to Morocco’s failed bid for the 1998 World Cup.
Blazer’s guilty pleas were only unsealed by a New York court in July 2015 after the American investigation into FIFA exploded into public view with a raid on a Zurich hotel ahead of the annual gathering of soccer nations.
Since then, U.S. prosecutors have brought charges against more than 40 soccer officials, marketing executives, associates and entities, while the Swiss attorney general has been conducting parallel investigations.
“Chuck hoped to help bring transparency, accountability and fair play to CONCACAF, FIFA and soccer as a whole,” Blazer’s lawyers said in a statement late Wednesday. “Chuck also accepted responsibility for his own conduct by pleading guilty and owning up to his mistakes. Chuck felt profound sorrow and regret for his actions.”
While some sports executives try to shirk the limelight, Blazer relished the status gained through his 16 years on FIFA’s executive committee until 2013.
For a suburban soccer dad, Blazer gained unimaginable influence and access. Journeys into the heart of power across the world were cataloged on a personal website inspired by Vladimir Putin during a 2011 meeting with the Russian leader.
When he wasn’t traveling the world, Blazer was cutting deals from an office and apartment in Trump Tower where he lived a chaotic life surrounded by cats and a pet parrot.
Blazer started in soccer by coaching his son’s club in New Rochelle, New York, and joined boards of local and regional soccer organizations. He was the U.S. Soccer Federation’s executive vice president from 1984-86. He helped to form the American Soccer League, a precursor to Major League Soccer in 1998 before entering regional soccer politics.
Blazer urged Jack Warner to run for president of CONCACAF in 1990. When the Trinidadian won, he made Blazer the general secretary — a position he held until 2011.
In 1991, Blazer created the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the organization’s national team championship that is played every two years, and he rose within FIFA to become chairman of its marketing and television advisory board.
Blazer turned on his boss, Warner, who also served with him on FIFA’s executive committee.
Corruption had been rumored for years within world soccer before Blazer provided evidence, accusing Warner and Mohamed bin Hammam of offering $40,000 bribes to voters in the 2011 FIFA presidential election.Bin Hammam, a Qatari who headed the Asian Football Confederation, had been the lone challenger to Blatter, who was elected unopposed to a fourth term after Warner and bin Hammam were suspended. Blatter was elected to a fifth term in 2015 before resigning after the raids in Zurich.
Blazer’s conduct was as corrupt as the actions of the people he accused.
Blazer pleaded guilty in November 2013 to one count each of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and willful failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, and to six counts of tax evasion.
A separate CONCACAF investigation report released in 2013 said Blazer “misappropriated CONCACAF funds to finance his personal lifestyle,” causing the organization to “subsidize rent on his residence in the Trump Tower in New York; purchase apartments at the Mondrian, a luxury hotel and residence in Miami; sign purchase agreements and pay down payments on apartments at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.”
“His misconduct, for which he accepted full responsibility, should not obscure Chuck’s positive impact on international soccer,” his lawyers said. “With Chuck’s guidance and leadership, CONCACAF transformed itself from impoverished to profitable.”
While Blazer was banned for life from soccer by FIFA in 2015, he was awaiting sentencing when he died.
There were almost no public tributes from FIFA or CONCACAF after his passing; CONCACAF merely said it extended “sympathies and condolences” to Blazer’s family and loved ones. The only acknowledgement of Blazer’s death by U.S. Soccer was a comment in a news conference by national team coach Bruce Arena.
“I’ve known Chuck for a lot of years. He did a lot for the sport. Sorry about all the issues regarding FIFA,” Arena said. “But he was a good man.”
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China is trying to contain the awesome influence of social media celebrities, some of whom have tens of millions of followers that dwarf more Western media icons like Oprah Winfrey. For example, the top 10 Chinese celebrities on Internet have between 67 million and 90 million online followers.
Recent weeks have seen the closure of social media accounts of several celebrities while the Beijing Cyber Administration (BCA) shut down the accounts of 60 celebrity gossip magazines. It also asked Internet portals hosting these accounts to “adopt effective measures to keep in check the problems of the embellishment of private sex scandals of celebrities, the hyping of ostentatious celebrity spending and entertainment, and catering to the poor taste of the public.”
Analysts said the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) has reason to worry about the massive influence of celebrities, according to Bill Bishop, who runs the widely read The Sinocism China Newsletter.
Money and values
“The Party is really pushing hard on Socialist Core Values and very few of the popular Internet celebrities are paragons of those values,” he said. “Individual media creators are much harder to control, and one of the core pillars of the CCP is propaganda and ideological control,” he said.
Celebrities are an important tool for marketing and advertising, and thousands of companies depend on them to disseminate product messages. The size of Internet marketing by Chinese celebrities was estimated at $58 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $100 billion in 2018, according to Beijing-based research agency Analysus.
Many of the social media celebrities come from the world of cinema, television, and sports. But there have been a large number of upstarts who have emerged from nowhere.
Their claim to fame is their ability to raise sensitive social issues, such as the neglect suffered by some so-called “leftover women” who have not found husbands. One such celebrity is Teacher Xu, a popular internet celebrity, who runs a hugely popular account on the WeChat platform.
Almost all celebrities make sure they do not cross the government’s policy line in their posts in texts and videos, said Mark Tanner, Managing Director of China Skinny, an internet based marketing company.
“Everyone in China knows that if you want to be a successful and effective voice in China, you need to toe the party line. So right to Pappi Chang to the little guys on the road, they know what to say and what not to say,” he said.
Analysts say the immense popularity of these high profile individuals is itself seen as a challenge to the authorities even if they do not take up political issues. A lot of what they talk about is indirectly connected to governance issues like the environment, and this is what bothers top officials.
Censor troubles
“Celebrities happen to hold a powerful microphone to speak to society, and in CCP leaders’ eyes, that alone is threatening no matter how non-political most of them may be,” said Christopher Cairns, a Cornell scholar.
The government also has things to worry at the technological level, where the popularity and content production of celebrities seem to be running far ahead of the government’s technical ability to control them.
“A lot of it has to do with lack of control. It is really hard for them to censure real time video. the software hardware for voice and video is just not there yet,” said Jacob Cooke, CEO of Web Presence in China. “And still, a lot of the system depends upon real-time monitoring. So, there are a lot of vague rules in terms of censorship including harming feelings of the Chinese people.”
The censors are using other reasons to crack down on celebrities they don’t like.The BCA reportedly told executives of Internet companies the new cybersecurity law required websites “to not harm the reputation or privacy of individuals.”
The government has said the new law is necessary for security reasons, but many analysts fear it can be used to surpress freedom of speech on the Internet.
President Donald Trump has personally intervened to allow a team of Afghan women students into the United States for a major global robotics competition, VOA has learned.
The U.S. embassy in Kabul had denied visas for the girls earlier this month, for unknown reasons.
However, VOA’s White House bureau chief, Steve Herman, reported Wednesday that Trump granted the girls what is known as a parole — reversing the earlier decision to bar them from the U.S. — that will allow them to come to Washington for 20 days.
A student team from Gambia also was granted visas last week after initially being rejected.
Former lawmaker behind contest
The president of FIRST Global, which organized the robotics competition, is former Democratic congressman and retired U.S. Navy Admiral Joe Sestak.
“I truly believe our greatest power is the power to convene nations to bring people together in pursuit of a common goal and prove that our similarities greatly outweigh our differences,” Sestak said.
He thanked the White House and the State Department for clearing the obstacles to the Afghan and Gambian students’ travel to the U.S. Teams from all 157 countries that have entered the competition now will be taking part, he added.
Event is held yearly
The three-day robotics competition begins Sunday in Washington.
FIRST Global Challenge holds the yearly contest to build up interest in science, technology, engineering and math across the world.
The group says the focus of the competition is finding solutions to problems in such fields as water, energy, medicine and food production.
Steve Herman contributed to this report
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A new exhibition in southern Poland shows the brutality of the Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz through the artistic work of its inmates. Some of the artworks are being shown publicly for the first time.
The “Face to Face: Art in Auschwitz” exhibition opened last week at the Kamienica Szolayskich (Szolayski Tenement House) of the National Museum in Krakow to mark 70 years of the Auschwitz Museum. The museum’s task is to preserve the site in the southern town of Oswiecim and to educate visitors about it. More than 2 million people visited the museum last year.
The curator of the Krakow exhibit, Agnieszka Sieradzka, said Wednesday it includes clandestine as well as commissioned drawings and paintings by Jews, Poles and other citizens held at Auschwitz during World War II.
“These works help us see Auschwitz as the inmates saw it and experienced it,” Sieradzka told The Associated Press. “We stand face to face with the inmates.”
The Nazis sometimes ordered talented inmates to make paintings for various purposes. One such painting is a portrait of a Roma woman that pseudo-scientist Josef Mengele experimented on. Mengele ordered portraits like this from inmate painter Dina Gottliebova, a Jewish woman from Czechoslovakia.
The task helped Gottliebova survive. After the war, she traveled to the U.S. and started a family. She died in 2009 in California under the name Dina Babbitt.
Among the clandestine art is the so-called Auschwitz Sketchbook by an unknown author. It has 22 drawings of scenes of beatings, starvation and death. It was found in 1947, hidden in a bottle in the foundation of a barrack at Birkenau, a part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. It is the first time it is being shown to the general public. It is housed at the museum and only shown on request.
Also being displayed is the original “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) gate top that was stolen and retrieved in 2009 and is now kept under guard at the museum.
From 1940 to 1945, some 1.1 million people, mostly European Jews but also Poles, Roma and Russians, were killed in the gas chambers or died from starvation, excessive forced labor and disease at Auschwitz, which Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland.
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Introducing a brand-new, multimillion-dollar intergalactic adventure film based on a French comic book strip during a summer box office dominated by superheroes and sequels may be considered a big risk to take by an independent filmmaker.
But French director Luc Besson was so confident in his vision for adapting the Valerian and Laureline sci-fi comics into a film, he took his script and sketches to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival three years ago with the hopes of securing funding for the $150 million project.
“They all raised their hands because they loved the script, so we had almost 90 percent of the funding in one day,” Besson told Reuters.
Set in the 28th century where humans and aliens have found a home on the space station Alpha, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets follows two space agents, the cocky Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and the spirited Laureline (Cara Delevingne), trying to uncover the origins of a mysterious force.
They journey through the different environments and diverse population of Alpha, known as the city of a thousand planets where species include sea monsters, organic robots, winged reptilians and thuggish, bug-eyed ogres.
The film comes out in theaters on July 21 and is the fruition of Besson’s nearly 50-year obsession with the comic strip he discovered at age 10, setting him on a path to make films such as The Fifth Element and Lucy.
Lots of competition
The stakes are high for Besson’s EuropaCorp film studio as Valerian enters a box office saturated with superhero films such as Wonder Woman and Spider-Man: Homecoming and sequels such as War for the Planet of the Apes and Despicable Me 3.
Still, the director didn’t consider it a gamble.
“You take risks when you do a first-time director movie at $8 million and no cast. That’s a gamble,” Besson said, adding that Valerian’s theatrical rights had already been bought across nearly 120 countries.
Early reviews for the film have been mixed, with critics praising the vibrant visuals but criticizing the plot and performances.
Variety’s Peter Debruge said the film’s “creativity outweighs its more uneven elements.” Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy dubbed it a front-runner for the Razzies, Hollywood’s annual tongue-in-cheek “worst film” awards.
But Besson believes the audience will determine the success of the film and future installments.
“I wish they love the film because I’m dying to make another one because I love Cara and Dane,” he said.
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Silicon Valley is reeling over a decision this week by the Trump administration to delay and most likely kill a new avenue for entrepreneurs to come to the U.S.
The International Entrepreneurship Rule, which the Obama administration set in motion, was supposed to go into effect this month.
It would have allowed entry into the U.S. of as many as 3,000 foreign entrepreneurs annually for 30-month stays. To qualify, applicants would have to show they would create U.S. jobs and had reputable sources ready to invest $250,000 in their businesses.
This week, the Trump administration said it was delaying the implementation of the rule until March 2018 with the expectation that it would be rescinded.
Even though the administration’s decision was widely anticipated, it still came as a blow to the tech industry.
‘Clearly a mistake’
Silicon Valley leaders frequently tout immigrant founders as key to the region’s success. Many hoped that President Donald Trump, who spoke about finding ways to attract high-skilled talent to the U.S. as a candidate, would allow the Obama-era rule to be implemented.
“This is clearly a mistake,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a tech-industry-backed group focused on immigration reform. He said more than 300,000 jobs would have been created by the program. The rule would have been “an economic win-win-win,” he said.
Some tech executives argue that the entrepreneurship rule would have given the U.S. a boost at a critical time. Silicon Valley has to compete with other regions around the world that are building strong digital economies, they say, and it may one day lose its spot as the top global tech draw. Countries such as Canada and France currently offer special avenues for entrepreneurs.
“If we don’t encourage entrepreneurs to come here from around the globe, they’ll go elsewhere,” said Kate Mitchell, a venture capitalist and past chair of the National Venture Capital Association. “That may be a benefit to the rest of the globe. But it will be a loss to Silicon Valley where there happens to be a special mix between capital and risk taking and understanding what it takes to build great companies.”
Canada has been actively recruiting U.S. tech talent. Last year, it launched a “Go North” campaign with events in San Francisco and Seattle. Last week, the Ottawa government enacted a new visa program that allows companies to bring foreign workers to the country within two weeks.
Critics of the U.S. rule say that Washington should create a legitimate avenue for foreign-born entrepreneurs and not rely on an exception that effectively grants newcomers “parole” from formally entering the U.S., a route that would not lead to citizenship.
In its filing, the administration said it needed to reconcile the entrepreneurship rule with a January executive order that spells out how the Department of Homeland Security can grant parole only on “a case-by-case basis” and only when “an individual demonstrates urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit derived from such parole.”
“The International Entrepreneur Rule has sometimes been referred to as an entrepreneur visa or startup visa, which is inaccurate,” said a spokesman with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “Only Congress can create a new visa program, and it has not done so.”
‘We can do better’
Russell Harrison, director of government relations at IEEE-USA, a group that represents American tech workers, said he “sheds no tears with the demise of the rule.”
But Harrison added that the administration should do something to help entrepreneurs get to the United States.
“We have to let them into the country as citizens, not as parolees,” he said. “If we are counting on these people to create jobs for hundreds of Americans, we can do better than that.”
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Recording star Kid Rock, an outspoken supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, hinted in website and social media messages on Wednesday that he intends to run for the U.S. Senate in 2018.
The 46-year-old Michigan native drew attention on Twitter and his Facebook page to a “Kid Rock ’18 for U.S. Senate” website, featuring a photo of the goateed singer-songwriter seated in a star-spangled chair in dark glasses and white fedora, above the tagline: “Are you scared?”
The site also displays images of a T-shirt, baseball cap and bumper sticker emblazoned with the campaign logo, “Kid Rock for US Senate” and a box of alternating slogans, including, “In Rock We Trust,” “Party to the People” and “You Never Met a Politician Quite Like Me.”
“I have a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is real. … The answer is an absolute YES,” he said on his verified Twitter account. “Stay tuned, I will have a major announcement in the near future.”
Reached by email, the musician’s spokesman, Kirt Webster, referred only to Rock’s Facebook page, which bore the same message. His music label, Warner Bros Records, also posted a website offering sales of Kid Rock for U.S. Senate merchandise.
Born Robert James Richie in the Detroit suburb of Romeo, Michigan, he rose to fame in 1998 as his debut album “Devil Without a Cause” sold some 14 million copies, and he gained additional celebrity through his courtship of actress Pamela Anderson and their brief marriage in the 2000s.
While no mention was made in Wednesday’s online postings about Rock’s political affiliation or even in what state he would run for office, he presumably would seek to challenge Michigan’s Democratic incumbent senator, Debbie Stabenow, who is up for re-election in 2018.
The Capitol Hill-based newspaper Roll Call reported earlier this month that Rock’s name surfaced as a possible candidate at a Michigan Republican Party convention, though no official decisions were announced.
According to Roll Call, Rock endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president in 2012 and initially supported Ben Carson for the Republican nomination in the 2016 but switched to Trump when the former reality-TV star became the party’s nominee.
Afterward, Rock released a line of pro-Trump merchandise, including a T-shirt that read “God Guns & Trump.”
In April, Kid Rock joined fellow rocker and conservative activist Ted Nugent and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for a White House visit and dinner with Trump.
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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. The rest are observing the 200th birthday of Henry David Thoreau, the author who penned that line.
The U.S. Postal Service marked the occasion Wednesday with a new postage stamp honoring the Walden and Civil Disobedience writer, philosopher and naturalist.
Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on July 12, 1817.
Concord Postmaster Ray White and officials from the Thoreau Farm and Birthplace were on hand to dedicate the stamp. They say it’s in tribute to Thoreau’s “personal example of simple living, his criticism of materialism and the timeless questions he raises about the place of the individual in society.”
Fans gathered at Walden Pond, where Thoreau lived and worked, to read aloud from Walden and other classics.
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From a girl who builds a flying bike to save her village to a female cicada defying the odds to join a flying contest, a new children’s book project in Cambodia is seeking to inspire girls to fight stereotypes and male dominance.
The vividly illustrated e-books in the local Khmer language tell the stories of eight different female characters who overcome challenges through courage and ingenuity under the tagline “Girls Can Do Anything.”
One story features a girl who invents a flying contraption that looks like a bike with bat-like wings to save her village while another girl fights aliens seeking to destroy her city.
“The availability of original storybooks for children in Khmer is limited. Content related to the empowerment of women is even more scarce,” said Edward Anderson from The Asia Foundation, which is running the project.
“The books … can serve as role models for young girls, helping them to break away from traditional subservient expectations and empower them to become leaders,” added Anderson, the acting Cambodia chief for the U.S.-based charity.
Cambodia was ranked 112 out of 144 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap 2016, after scoring poorly in political empowerment and education attainment for women.
Campaigners say a gap in education persists in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, with fewer girls attending and completing school, while sexual and labor exploitation remain a serious problem for women.
The book series, under a wider initiative known as “Let’s Read!” which aims to encourage reading among children, was created by Cambodian writers and illustrators during a “hackathon” event.
Prum Kunthearo, one of the eight writers, said it was the first time she had used a female protagonist in a story since she began writing books in 2013.
She said her story “Green Star,” about a girl who uses her knowledge of science to help a boy find his way home, was inspired by a lack of women in the science and technology sectors in the nation of 16 million people.
“Children should understand the importance of gender equality from an early age,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Phnom Penh.
Illustrator Pors Socheata hoped Cambodian girls would be empowered through the stories.
“Most of the characters in our storybooks are males, especially when they are superheroes or have achieved something good,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Although the books are only available in digital format for now, The Asia Foundation said it is working with the Cambodian government and companies to promote them, while it explores the possibility of publishing the books in hard copies to distribute to remote parts of the country.
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A French court annulled a 1.1 billion-euro ($1.27 billion) tax adjustment imposed on Google by France’s tax authorities, saying Wednesday that the way the California firm operates in France allows it to be exempt from most taxes.
The French tax administration had argued that Google was required to pay taxes in France for 2005-2010 because the American company and its Irish subsidiary sold a service for inserting online ads to clients in France through its Google search engine.
But the Paris administrative court ruled that Google Ireland Limited doesn’t have a “permanent establishment” in France via the French company Google France, another subsidiary of California-based Google Inc.
The court added that Google France doesn’t have the human resources or the technical means to allow it to carry out the contentious advertising services on its own.
The French government can appeal the decision.
Ireland gives Google tax advantage
Google has minimized its tax bill in France and other European countries by keeping its headquarters in Ireland, where rates are lower. The strategy has helped Google boost its profits and stock price.
In their ruling, the judges noted that the ads ordered by French clients could not be put online by the employees of Google France themselves because any ad orders ultimately needed approval from Google Ireland Limited.
During a hearing in the tax case last month, an independent magistrate proposed that the most fitting solution for the dispute was wiping out, but pointed to the “shortcomings of the current legal basis.”
Others countries have issues
France is not the only European country where Google has been at odds with national tax authorities. The company agreed to pay 306 million euros ($349 million) to settle an ongoing dispute with Italy and 130 million pounds ($167 million) to settle a case in Britain. A U.K. parliamentary committee has said the settlement seemed disproportionately small given the size of the company’s operations in Britain.
Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon — a group of firms known by the acronym GAFA — have been criticized for their tax-optimizing practices.
Wednesday’s ruling comes amid mounting criticism that the tech firms and other major U.S. companies have scrimped on their tax bills through a variety of accounting maneuvers that have rankled governments around the world. Google has said it never broke any laws.
Facebook, Twitter, Alphabet and dozens of other major technology companies protested online on Wednesday against proposed changes to U.S. net neutrality rules that prohibit broadband providers from giving or selling access to certain internet services over others.
In support of the “Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality,” more than 80,000 websites – from big social media platforms like Facebook to streaming services like Netflix and matchmaking website OkCupid — are displaying banners, alerts, ads and short videos to urge the public to oppose the overturn of the landmark 2015 net neutrality rules.
Net neutrality is a broad principle that prohibits broadband providers from giving or selling access to speedy internet, essentially a “fast lane,” to certain internet services over others. The rule was implemented by the Obama administration in 2015.
Changes to the rule are being proposed by the head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commision (FCC), Ajit Pai, appointed by President Donald Trump in January.
Pai wants the commission to repeal the rules that reclassified internet service providers as if they were utilities, saying the open internet rules adopted under former President Barack Obama harm jobs and investment. The FCC voted 2-1 in May to advance a Republican plan to reverse the “net neutrality” order.
During a speech in April, Pai asked: “Do we want the government to control the internet? Or do we want to embrace the light-touch approach” in place since 1996 until it was revised in 2015.
At a Capitol Hill press conference, Democrats and internet companies vowed to fight the changes and suggested internet companies could slow internet speeds. Senator Edward Markey said the internet “is under attack.”
“We will not let this takeover happen,” Markey said. “A free and open internet is our right and we will fight to defend it.”
Major broadband providers, including AT&T and Verizon Communications, acknowledged the public support for net neutrality. They emphasized they are in favor of an “open internet”— but made clear they oppose the 2015 net neutrality reclassification order that they say could lead to government rate regulation.
FCC spokesman Brian Hart declined to comment.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, the sole Democrat on a commission with two current vacancies, said in a statement on Wednesday she supports “those who believe that a free and open internet is a foundational principle of our democracy.”
The public will have until mid-August to send comments to the FCC before the final vote.
More than 550,000 comments have been filed in the last day with the FCC and more than 6.3 million filed to date and thousands of people called Capitol Hill offices to express concerns.
Online protest
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on the social media platform, “Right now, the FCC has rules in place to make sure the internet continues to be an open platform for everyone. At Facebook, we strongly support those rules.”
Twitter expressed support for the existing rules, encouraging users to protest while promoting the hashtag #NetNeutrality.
“Net Neutrality is foundational to competitive, free enterprise, entrepreneurial market entry — and reaching global customers. You don’t have to be a big shot to compete. Anyone with a great idea, a unique perspective to share, and a compelling vision can get in the game,” Twitter said in a blog.
Online forum Reddit displayed a pop-up message that slowly loads the text, “The internet’s less fun when your favorite sites load slowly, isn’t it?”
Netflix displayed banners on top of the home page while Amazon.com posted a short video explaining net neutrality, urging consumers to send comments to the FCC.
A pop-up banner on The American Civil Liberties Union’s website read: “Trump’s FCC wants to kill net neutrality. This would let the cable and phone companies slow down any site they don’t like or that won’t pay extra.”
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Environmentalists promote solar energy as an option to reduce pollution, but in places without a central electricity supply solar panels can be a practical solution. They are frequently used by nomads moving through the desert, and people living in remote villages. In recent years solar panels have come to serve as a source of energy in places affected by war and conflict. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports solar panels are now a common sight in villages across Syria.
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Not all the action now underway at Wimbledon is on the tennis court. In back rooms on the tournament site, technology is taking the matches to a whole new level. It offers the most immersive view to tennis fans, whether they are in the stands, or following the play on screens around the world. VOA’s Faiza Elmasry has this report narrated by Faith Lapidus.
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Intel Corp. on Tuesday announced a new line of microprocessors for data centers, setting up a battle with Advanced Micro Devices and others for the lucrative business of supplying the chips that power cloud computing.
The new Xeon Scalable Processor chips provide far greater support for next-generation computing applications such as artificial intelligence and driverless cars, said Naveen Rao, vice president of Intel’s artificial intelligence products group, in an interview with Reuters.
The chips are aimed at companies including Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft, Amazon.com and others that operate data centers with thousands of computers, both to power their own services and to provide computing horsepower for customers who don’t want to own and maintain their own computer systems.
Google Cloud Platform was the first data center to adopt the new Intel processors. Paul Nash, project manager for Google Compute Engine, called the deal an “expansion and deepening of our partnership” with Intel.
But Intel will face stiff competition from historic rival AMD, which recently launched its own next-generation data center processor.
The big Internet companies are also doing more of their own hardware design and experimenting with chips based on technology from ARM Holdings and others, partly as a way of pushing Intel to keep prices in line.
Martin Reynolds, an analyst at Gartner, said the new Intel processor is a step up from its previous generation with better power efficiency, improvement on artificial intelligence workload and more advanced storage.
Reynolds noted that the biggest risk for Intel may be its dependence on a relatively small number of big data center operators.
“The challenge now is so much of our their work is going to these big internet guys,” he said, and thus demand for chips is subject to how successful the companies are in the fierce battle for customers who are moving their computing to the cloud.
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Twitter on Tuesday hired Ned Segal, senior vice president of finance at Intuit and a former managing director at Goldman Sachs Group, as its chief financial officer beginning in late August.
Anthony Noto, who has been serving as Twitter’s CFO and chief operating officer since November, will remain at the company as COO, Twitter said in a statement.
The appointment of Segal, 43, comes as investors are demonstrating renewed optimism in Twitter, which still lags rival social network Facebook in terms of size and profitability.
Twitter shares rose 3 percent on Tuesday, before the announcement of Segal’s hiring after the market’s close. The stock is up 32 percent since April 17, when it hit the low of the year at $14.12.
In April, Twitter reported better-than-expected user growth in the first quarter of the year, partly related to heightened user interest in political news and comment.
Before joining Intuit, Segal was the CFO of RPX Corp , which helps companies manage patent risk, and earlier spent some 17 years at Goldman, according to a biography provided by Twitter.
From 2009 to 2013, Segal was a Goldman managing director and head of its global software investment banking unit, advising tech companies on mergers, acquisitions and initial public offerings, Twitter said.
Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said Segal was an ideal fit because of the range of his experience.
“He brings a principled, engaging and rigorous approach to the CFO role, with a track record of driving profitable growth,” Dorsey said in a statement.
Segal said in a statement he was committed to helping Twitter “continue toward its goal of GAAP profitability.”
Segal is entitled to receive a signing bonus of $300,000 and his annual salary will be $500,000, Twitter said in a securities filing. He will also be eligible to receive 1.2 million shares in the company, subject to conditions and vesting, according to the filing.
Twitter is scheduled to report earnings for the second quarter on July 27.
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Small satellites used for observing conditions on the earth are the fastest growing segment of the $260.5 billion global satellite industry, the Satellite Industries Association said in an annual report released on Tuesday.
Small satellites, some no bigger than a shoe box, generated an 11 percent jump in annual revenue for Earth imagery in 2016 and a growing share of the 1,459 operating spacecraft that circled the planet at the end of the year, the report said.
The orbital fleet includes 499 satellites that weigh up to 1,323 pounds (600 kg), many of them used for Earth observation and remote sensing, said Carissa Christensen, chief executive of Bryce Technology and Space, which wrote the report for the trade association.
Small satellite launchers
Satellite services, including home television, broadband and Earth observation services, collectively generated $127.7 billion of revenue in 2016, the biggest single piece of the industry, according to the report.
Satellites used for earth imagery accounted for just $2 billion of the total industry but accounted for 11 percent of the sector’s growth, according to the report.
“That’s expected to continue to grow, given the new companies coming into the industry,” association President Tom Stroup said in an interview.
The report found at least 33 dedicated small satellite launchers in development worldwide, including privately owned Rocket Lab, which debuted its Electron booster in May, and Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit, which is expected to fly its LauncherOne rocket this year.
Revenue from Earth observation services would have been higher, but the launches of many small satellites were delayed after a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch pad accident in September 2016, the report said.
SpaceX, owned and operated by entrepreneur Elon Musk, returned its Falcon fleet to flight in January and has launched 10 times so far this year.
126 satellites launch in 2016
In all, 126 satellites were launched last year, including 55 shoe-box-sized spacecraft known as CubeSats. About twice as many CubeSats were launched in 2015, the report said.
The number of small satellite launched during the first half of 2017 already has surpassed last year’s flight rate, Christensen said.
In February, a single Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket put 103 small satellites into orbit, along with a larger Earth-imaging spacecraft called Cartosat.