Music can be the ultimate mood setter. Faster beats ignite excitement, while slower songs help one relax. And that makes all the difference in what we order from restaurant menus.

A study published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences finds the volume of ambient music has a systemic effect on consumers’ preferences for healthy vs. non-healthy foods. That’s because volume is proven to directly impact heart rate and arousal. Softer music has a calming effect, making us more mindful of what we order. This typically results in healthier choices, such as a salad. Louder environments increase stimulation and stress, inspiring diners to crave a greasy cheeseburger and fries instead.

“Restaurants and supermarkets can use ambient music strategically to influence consumer buying behavior,” said Dipayan Biswas, PhD, marketing professor at the University of South Florida Muma College of Business.”

Dr. Biswas conducted the study at a café in Stockholm, Sweden, which played various genres of music in a loop separately at 55Db and 70Db. The menu items were coded as healthy, non-healthy and neutral, the category used for items like coffee or tea. During the experiment conducted over several hours across multiple days, researchers found 20% more restaurant patrons ordered something unhealthy when exposed to louder ambient music compared to those who dined during a quieter time.

55Db (295 items sold)    70Db (254 items sold)

Healthy- 32%     Healthy- 25%

Non-healthy- 42%     Non-healthy- 52%

Neutral- 26%     Neutral- 23%

While previous studies have looked at varying aspects of ambience’s impact on food sales such as lighting, scent and décor, this is the first study to look specifically at how volume dictates healthy vs. non-healthy food choices. These findings allow restaurant managers to strategically manipulate music volume to influence sales.

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis met with Danish Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen Friday at the Pentagon to reaffirm the long-standing defense relationship between the United States and Denmark, chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana W. White said.

In a statement summarizing the meeting, White said Mattis thanked his counterpart for Denmark’s commitment to international security, including NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, enhanced forward presence, and the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

“The secretary encouraged Minister Hjort Frederiksen to continue increasing Denmark’s defense spending, and thanked him for improving and strengthening defense cooperation between both nations,” White said.

The increase of skyscrapers in a city resembles the development of some living systems. Spanish researchers have created an evolutionary genetic algorithm that, on the basis of the historical and economic data of an urban area, can predict what its skyline could look like in the coming years. The method has been applied successfully to the thriving Minato Ward, in Tokyo.

Scientists have realized that the growth of cities follows patterns similar to those of certain self-organized biological systems. Inspired by nature, they have developed genetic algorithms that predict how the number of skyscrapers and other buildings in an urban area will increase.

“We operate within evolutionary computation, a branch of artificial intelligence and machine learning that uses the basic rules of genetics and Darwin’s natural selection logic to make predictions,” said architect Ivan Pazos.

“In this type of computing, a multitude of possible solutions to a problem are randomly combined,” added the expert, who currently works for a Japanese architectural firm, “and a selection system is choosing the best results. This operation is repeated again and again until the algorithms get the most accurate results.”

In this way, Pazos and a team of researchers from the University of A Coruña (Spain) have created algorithms -based on other standard genetic algorithms- that learn the growth patterns of urban districts using historical data from the construction sector and different economic parameters.

The study, published in the Journal of Urban Planning and Development, has focused on one of the neighbourhoods with the highest vertical growth in the world in recent years: the Minato Ward, in Tokyo, where the headquarters of multinational companies such as Mitsubishi, Honda, NEC, Toshiba or Sony, are located. “This methodology could have been applied to any other city with a high number of skyscrapers,” Pazos points out.

In 2015, once all the information had been gathered, the authors created a series of maps and 3D representations of Minato to be able to predict the number of buildings and their probable locations within this booming ward in the following years during the 2016-2019 period.

“The predictions of the algorithm have been very accurate with respect to the actual evolution of the Minato skyline in 2016 and 2017,” said Pazos, who comments: “Now we are evaluating their accuracy for 2018 and 2019 and it seems, according to the observations, that they will be 80% correct.”

According to the authors, the algorithm not only estimates the number of future skyscrapers in a neighbourhood of the city, but also the specific areas where they will be most likely be located.

“The final conclusion of the study is that evolutionary computation seems to be able to find growth patterns that are not obvious in complex urban systems, and by means of its subsequent application, it serves the function of predicting possible scenarios for the evolution of cities.” said Pazos.

Glacial retreat in cold, high-altitude ecosystems exposes environments that are extremely sensitive to phosphorus input, new University of Colorado Boulder-led research shows. The finding upends previous ecological assumptions, helps scientists understand plant and microbe responses to climate change and could expand scientists’ understanding of the limits to life on Earth.

The study, which was recently published in the journal Science Advances, found that even in mountainous terrain above 17,000 feet above sea level, where soils freeze every night of the year, the addition of phosphorus resulted in rapid growth of plants and photosynthetic microbes, allowing them to overcome the chilly, arid climate.

“Life is more resourceful than we might have previously suspected,” said Steven Schmidt, a professor in CU Boulder’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EBIO) and a co-author of the research. “Phosphorus allows microbes to react quickly and grow in these sites.”

Nitrogen and phosphorus are both essential nutrients for vegetation and microbes, but plants are slower to re-grow in dry, high-elevation sites than in wet, temperate areas. Based on classical experiments, researchers had suspected that this sluggish regeneration was primarily due to the harsh climate and the relative lack of the nitrogen, limiting the potential for organic life.

“The thought has always been that nitrogen is most important to these newly-uncovered soils,” said John Darcy, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii who co-authored the study while at CU Boulder. “But previous research has been concentrated in coastal and island landscapes. No one had looked at these cold, dry high-altitude systems before.”

Researchers from CU Boulder, Duke University, the University of Montana and the University of Minnesota drew upon six years’ worth of field data from arid sites in the central Alaska Range and the Andes Mountains of southern Peru. Both areas have experienced significant glacial retreat in recent decades due to climate change.

Post-glacial landscapes have been observed to remain largely un-vegetated for up to 150 years, leaving behind expanses of potentially unstable lakes and land that could result in floods, mudslides and potential water shortages.

The previously unappreciated importance of phosphorus for vegetation and microbes adds new context to long-held ecological theories and could inform future astrobiology studies as well as further research into agricultural runoff pollution.

“We’re expanding the boundaries of what we know about the limits to life on Earth,” Schmidt said.

UBC computer scientists have turned Amazon Alexa into a tool for software engineers, tasking the virtual assistant to take care of mundane programming tasks, helping increase productivity and speed up workflow.

Software engineers use many different tools for any one project. They work with millions of lines of computer code and run their code through various independent tools to help edit, build and test systems and for project management to get their programs running smoothly.

“It can be quite complicated to switch between the different tools because they each use a unique syntax and you have to understand how to put them together,” said Nick Bradley, who led this work during his master’s research in computer science at UBC. “The idea to use Alexa came out of my frustration from using these different tools and having to spend so much time looking up how to do it and use those tools together.”

Bradley and computer science professors Reid Holmes and Thomas Fritz decided to test whether Amazon’s virtual assistant could help with this process. They wanted software engineers to use simple, conversational language to ask Alexa to complete some of their tasks, the same way we ask it to give us the weather forecast or play our favourite songs.

Researchers said it was more than just a matter of teaching Alexa some key phrases and mapping different commands to the work, they also had to figure out common multi-step tasks engineers were performing and build a system that could automate those tasks. They then asked 21 engineers from local Vancouver software companies to test out their system and evaluate it. While the engineers found the tool useful and provided lots of positive feedback, there was one challenge.

“The biggest problem was using voice commands in an office environment–they found it distracting to their neighbours,” said Bradley.

The computer scientists’ next development will be to create a chat bot to fulfill a similar function so engineers can type minimal requests and have the system perform their multi-step tasks so they can focus on the more important parts of their jobs.

Holmes says this research is part of a larger effort to understand how software engineers do their jobs.

“The pace of change in the software field is so fast that engineers don’t have time to be introspective and think about the way they work,” he said. “Our job in academia is to step back and really think about how we can better support engineers to quickly and correctly build the kinds of software we depend upon in our modern society. Systems keep getting larger and more complex and using personal assistants could be one way to help developers be more effective within this fast-paced environment.”

The researchers also recognize that these virtual assistants could be programmed for a variety of occupations including medicine, law, or accounting.

“You can imagine a situation where a lawyer is reading a legal brief and asks Alexa to find relevant cases on similar topics to help with research,” said Holmes.

Across England, Wales, and Scotland, morbid obesity (BMI of 40kg/m² or over) rates in adults are expected to soar over the next 17 years, with the number of morbidly obese adults likely to exceed 4 million by 2035–more than double the 1.9 million in 2015, according to new research being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Vienna, Austria (23-26 May).

The highest prevalence rates will be seen in Wales, with around 13% of Welsh men and 9% of Welsh women likely to be morbidly obese by 2035 if current trends continue. The prevalence of morbid obesity is expected to vary widely between the three countries and in different age groups. By 2035, 16% of English men aged 55-64 are likely to be morbidly obese. That compares to 0% of Scottish men aged 15-24.

The authors warn that the study presents a disturbing picture of substantial rises in morbid obesity rates that will have huge health and financial implications for health services and society. They call for concerted action by individuals and governments to reverse this trend.

The prevalence of morbid obesity is increasing worldwide, with numbers doubling in the past 20 years. A recent global study reported morbid obesity levels ranging from less than 0·1% in Chinese women to 23·1% in American women.

Morbid obesity entails far more serious health consequences than moderate obesity and is associated with a higher risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, mental illness, and some cancers.

Morbid obesity is already a huge burden on the economy and health services, accounting for around a third of all obesity-related costs.

While overweight and obesity trends for England, Wales, and Scotland have been projected to 2035, until now, no trend estimates existed for morbid obesity.

In this study, Laura Keaver from the CRISP research group at the Institute of Technology, Sligo, Ireland and Dr Laura Webber from the UK Health Forum, London used height and weight data from the Health Survey for England, Welsh Health Survey, and the Scottish Health Survey (2004-14) for adults aged 15 and older (in 5 year age groups) to create a model predicting BMI trends (healthy weight, overweight, obesity, and morbid obesity) over the next 17 years.

The new estimates indicate that rates of morbid obesity in adults will reach 5% in Scotland (compared to 4% in 2015), 8% in England (2.9% in 2016), and 11% in Wales (3% in 2015) by 2035 (see table 1).

According to the authors: “Our study reveals a worrying picture of rising morbid obesity across England, Wales, and Scotland that is likely to weigh heavily on healthcare systems and economies. Strong measures to reverse this future trend must be an important public health priority.”

In further analyses, the research team predicted future trends in social inequalities in obesity (BMI of 30kg/m² or over) by modelling BMI data from the health surveys to project trends in adult obesity prevalence (aged 16 or older) according to their sex and social group (occupation and education).

Previous studies have found that lower socioeconomic position is linked with higher adult BMI, and socioeconomic inequalities in obesity are increasing in many European countries. But whether these associations will change over the coming decades is unclear.

By 2035, obesity rates will be highest, and see the greatest rise, in adults working in routine and manual positions. As a result, the difference in obesity levels between those in managerial roles (29% males, 31% females) and those in routine and manual roles (39% males, 40% females) is expected to widen in England and Wales (with the exception of English females where it is expected to reduce).

In contrast, the gap in obesity levels between those with less than tertiary education (i.e., university or trade school/college) and those with tertiary education is projected to close in all countries with the exception of Welsh females where it is projected to increase.

The authors conclude: “Our findings highlight that future interventions to tackle obesity must be accessible to everyone and should be designed to impact all sectors of society to further reduce these inequalities.”

The authors point out the limitations that apply to the quality, precision, and availability of the data demand cautious interpretation (e.g., weight and height was self-reported in Wales and measured in England and Scotland). They also note that uncertainties always exist when making predictions as past trends do not always predict future trends. In addition, the study cannot predict the effect that future interventions or policies will have on social inequalities in obesity.

Genuinely ‘deforestation-free’ palm oil products are problematic to guarantee, according to a new study.

Palm oil is a vegetable oil that is used in thousands of products worldwide, including an estimated 50% of all products on supermarkets shelves, from food to detergents to cosmetics.

Although growing palm trees requires less land and resources than traditional vegetable oils, the cultivation of palm oil is a major cause of tropical deforestation, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. Oil palm plantations replaced 2.7 million hectares of tropical forest in these two countries between 1990 and 2005, leading to a loss of biodiversity and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

Pressure from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Greenpeace has led many companies to commit to only using “deforestation-free” palm oil products – those made exclusively using palm oil from plantations that have not cleared forests. However, environmentalists have criticised the action so far as taking too long and not following sufficiently strict guidelines.

Now, a study by researchers from Imperial College London has revealed some of the challenges faced by companies in guaranteeing that products labelled as “deforestation-free” have really been produced without causing deforestation. The results are published this week in the journal Global Environmental Change.

‘Challenging to guarantee’

They identify the major barriers to success as highly complex supply chains, insufficient support from governments, a lack of consensus over what counts as ‘deforestation’, and growing markets in India and China that prefer low cost to sustainably produced goods.

However, the researchers point to some existing schemes and suggestions for tackling several of the issues that could lead to truly sustainable palm oil production.

Lead author Joss Lyons-White, from the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment and the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: “Deforestation-free palm oil is possible, but our study found it is very challenging for companies to guarantee at present.

“For example, supply chains are so complex that tracing palm oil back to source is very difficult – lots of trade may occur between different parties before manufacturing, where the palm oil is used in many different products for different purposes. This makes it hard to know exactly where the original oil was from – and whether it was linked to deforestation or not.

“However, simply banning palm oil is unlikely to be the answer. Instead, we need to find ways to ensure commitments can be implemented more effectively.”

Defining the issues

Certification can help to overcome the problem of complex supply chains, and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) does currently operate a certification system, which has been shown to reduce the loss of virgin forests. However, RSPO certification does not currently guarantee palm oil is completely deforestation-free.

For example, RSPO certification aims to protect virgin forest and forest of ‘high conservation value’, but does not cover other forests that have been logged or regrown following clearance. These forests may still make valuable contributions towards nature conservation targets, but the existing standard does not protect them from conversion to palm oil plantations.

To identify areas that posed problems for companies trying to be deforestation-free, the research team interviewed people across the palm oil sector, from growers and processors through to traders, manufacturers and retailers.

They found the complexity of a typical supply chain means there are many organisations with different functions, connected in different ways for different purposes. These organisations find it difficult to engage with one another about policies and procedures, and misunderstanding was rife between parties.

Cost is also a factor, with emerging markets in China and India demanding more palm oil at the most competitive prices, rather than paying more for deforestation-free, sustainably produced oil. This means there is often little incentive for producing deforestation-free palm oil.

Solutions beyond public shaming

Creating a market for sustainable products in these countries is one key direction for positive change, say the researchers, but there are other areas where progress is already being made. For example, there has recently been a multi-party agreement on a working definition of ‘deforestation’, expanding it beyond purely virgin forests, and the RSPO is considering a proposal to update its standard with this definition in late 2018.

There are also initiatives to promote collaboration between supply chain members, designed to improve coordination and reduce misunderstanding. These measures may be more likely to produce more sustainable products than external pressure placed on companies by NGOs, for example, in cases where companies lack direct control over their supply chains.

Co-author Dr Andrew Knight, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: “NGOs have used public shaming to compel companies to make commitments to deforestation-free palm oil. This tactic was effective in the past to obtain commitments from companies, but the context surrounding commitment implementation is problematic. Shaming may not continue to achieve positive outcomes in terms of reduced deforestation if the complex issues impeding implementation are not worked out.

“A more collaborative and supportive approach to understanding supply chains and the people and companies that comprise them is required. Based on this common understanding, more effective strategies can be developed, founded upon thoughtfully constructed certification and stronger government regulation, which will be more likely to ensure the rate of deforestation of these vulnerable and important ecosystems slows.”

The permanent networking of mobile devices can endanger the privacy of users and lead to new forms of monitoring. New technologies such as Google Nearby and Silverpush use ultrasonic sounds to exchange information between devices via loudspeakers and microphones (also called “data over audio”).

More and more of our devices communicate via this inaudible communication channel. Ultrasonic communication allows devices to be paired and information to be exchanged. It also makes it possible to track users and their behaviour over a number of devices, much like cookies on the Web. Almost every device with a microphone and a loudspeaker can send and receive ultrasonic sounds. Users are usually unaware of this inaudible and hidden data transmission.

The SoniControl project of St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences has developed a mobile application that detects acoustic cookies, brings them to the attention of users and if desired, blocks the tracking. The app is thus, in a sense, the first available ultrasound-firewall for smartphones and tablets. “The most challenging part of developing the app was to devise a method that can detect different existing ultrasound-transmission techniques reliably and in real time”, said Matthias Zeppelzauer, Head of the project and Senior Researcher in the Media Computing research group of the Institute of Creative\Media/Technologies at St. Pölten UAS.

Determining interests and location

Such ultrasonic signals can be used for so-called “cross-device tracking”. This makes it possible to track the user’s behaviour across multiple devices, and relevant user profiles can be merged with one other. In this way, more accurate user profiles can be created for targeted advertising and filtering of internet content.

Unlike their electronic counterparts when visiting web pages, up to now it has not been possible to block acoustic cookies. “In order to accept voice commands, the mobile phone microphone is often permanently active. Every mobile application that has access to the microphone as well as the operating system itself can at any time without notice: activate the microphone of a mobile device, listen to it, detect acoustic cookies and synchronise it over the Internet”, said Zeppelzauer. Users are often not informed of this information transmission during ongoing operation. Only a permanent deactivation of the microphone would help, whereby the device as a telephone would become unusable.

Masking of ultrasound cookies

In the project SoniControl, Zeppelzauer and his colleagues, Peter Kopciak, Kevin Pirner, Alexis Ringot und Florian Taurer have developed a procedure to expose the cookies and inform device users. For masking and blocking the ultrasonic data transfer, interference signals are transmitted via the loudspeaker of the mobile device. Thus, acoustic cookies can be neutralized before operating systems or mobile applications can access them. Users can selectively block cookies without affecting the functionality of the smartphone.

The masking of the cookies occurs by means of ultrasound, which is inaudible to humans. “There is currently no technology on the market that can detect and block acoustic cookies. The application developed in this project represents the first approach that gives people control over this type of tracking”, said Zeppelzauer.

All project results and the application have been made publicly available. The system is therefore directly usable and expandable for everyone. All project results have been released under Creative-Commons license.

Data exchange via ultrasound in the Internet-of-Things

The technology is now being further developed in a follow-up project, SoniTalk. Through Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies an increasing number of devices are communicating with one another. Ultrasonic communication is increasingly used for data exchange between mobile phones and devices. Thus, ultrasonic communication is an alternative technology for ad-hoc data exchange, near-field communication (NFC) and as a channel for two-factor authentication that proves the identity of users by combining two different and independent components.

The new project SoniTalk wants to give users full control over what is allowed to be sent by which app and should effectively help to protect user privacy. The goal of SoniTalk is an open source, transparent and fully private-sphere oriented protocol for ultrasonic communication. SoniTalk seeks to lay the groundwork for a new free standard in the field of ultrasonic communication that enables secure communication and protects user privacy.

Iridescence is a form of structural colour which uses regular repeating nanostructures to reflect light at slightly different angles, causing a colour-change effect.

It is common in nature, from the dazzling blues of peacock’s feathers, to the gem-like appearance of insects.

Although using bright flashy colours as camouflage may seem counterintuitive, researchers at the Bristol Camo Lab found that intense iridescence obstructs the bumblebee’s ability to identify shape. The eyes of bumblebees have been extensively studied by scientists and are very similar to those of other insects.

They can be used as a visual model for predatory insects such as wasps and hornets. When presented with different types of artificial flower targets rewarded with sugar water, the bees learned to recognise which shapes contained the sweet reward.

However, they found it much more difficult to discriminate between flower shape when the targets were iridescent.

This current study using bumblebees as a model for (predatory) insect vision and cognition is the first to show that iridescence indeed has the potential to deceive predators and make them overlook the prey, the same way disruptive camouflage would work to break up the otherwise recognisable outline of a prey.

The changing colours make the outline of the prey look completely different to the shape the predators are searching for.

The researchers concluded that iridescence produces visual signals which can confuse potential predators, and this may explain its widespread occurrence in nature.

Lead author Dr Karin Kjernsmo of the University of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “It’s the first solid evidence we have that this type of colouration can be used in this way.

“Thus, if you are a visual predator searching for the specific shape of a beetle (or other prey animal), iridescence makes it difficult for predators to identify them as something edible. We are currently studying this effect using other visual predators, such as birds as well. This because birds are likely to be the most important predators of iridescent insects.”

The first links between iridescence and camouflage were first made over one hundred years ago by an American naturalist named Abbott Thayer, who is often referred to as “the father of camouflage”.

He published a famous book on different types of camouflage such as mimicry, shape disruption and dazzle, which is thought to have inspired the “Razzle Dazzle” painting of battleships during the first World War.

However, iridescence has been rather overlooked for the past century, as it is often assumed to be purely for attracting mates and displaying to other individuals.

The UK has several species of iridescent beetle, the largest of which being the Rose Chafer, whose superb green and gold colour-changing wing cases can commonly be spotted on flowers in grasslands during the summer.

Dr Kjernsmo added: “This study has wider implications for how we understand animal vision and camouflage – now when we see these shiny beetles we can know that their amazing colours have many more functions than previously thought.”

Unsustainable fishing has depleted coastal fisheries worldwide, threatening food security and cultural identity for many coastal and island communities, including in Hawai’i. A recently published study, led by researchers at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (UH Manoa), identified areas in the Hawaiian Islands that would provide the greatest increase in coastal fishery stocks, if effectively managed.

Fishing is a way of life in Hawai’i. Coastal fisheries provide over two million pounds of fish per year in the Hawaiian islands and fishing is intimately linked to recreation, traditional knowledge and practices, and social cohesion.

To determine where management and conservation efforts would be most impactful, researchers developed regional “seascape models” that integrate fishing patterns and reef fish survey data to produce maps of key habitats that support abundant coastal fishery stocks. In their computer model, the research team simulated the effect of removing fishing pressure. These detailed maps reveal areas with the highest recovery potential for reef fisheries on each island, providing important information for resource managers.

“The results provide hope in terms of the scale of potential recovery in the areas we identified,” said lead authors of the study Kostantinos Stamoulis, researcher at UH Manoa at the time of this work, and Jade Delevaux, geospatial analyst at the UH Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST).

Fish stocks were predicted to increase by more than 500% on average for the identified areas on O’ahu, the most heavily fished island. Areas with the highest recovery potential for coastal fisheries across the island chain were located on east Kaua’i, southeast and southwest O’ahu, south and northwest Moloka’i, Ma’alaea bay and the west shore of west Maui, west Hawai’i Island just north of Makole’a point, and east Hawai’i Island around Cape Kumukahi and north of Kaloli point.

While full recovery could take decades, protecting areas with the highest recovery potential would allow them to serve as sources of larvae and adults to replenish overfished areas.

“Our study also identified remote areas with habitats that currently support healthy fish stocks, such as the north shore of Moloka’i and the south shore of Maui. Managing these areas would ensure that they continue to supplement coastal fisheries into the future,” said the lead authors.

Generally, areas located near rural parts of the north shores of all islands are not heavily fished, have high quality habitat, and therefore support abundant stocks of reef fish.

The State of Hawai’i has committed to effectively manage 30% of Hawai’i’s nearshore waters by 2030. To meet this ambitious goal, the Division of Aquatic Resources is leading a statewide analysis of existing science in partnership with The Nature Conservancy to identify areas for effective marine management.

“This new study will help us identify those areas with the greatest potential for increasing reef fish populations on all islands,” said Bruce Anderson, Administrator for the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources. “This scientific information will be compared with an ongoing spatial analysis as part of the Marine 30×30 Initiative. Ultimately our intention is to combine this information with local knowledge and collaboratively identify what to do in management focus areas.”

Alan Friedlander, chief scientist for National Geographic’s Pristine Seas program and a co-author of the paper concludes, “To ensure food security and overall ecosystem sustainability into the future, we must significantly increase the amount of area protected from overfishing and other human impacts. Our study provides an ecosystem-based approach that helps to identify areas that will benefit the most from increased management in Hawai’i and elsewhere.”

The Israeli attack in Syria on Thursday, May 24 night struck a Hezbollah base inside the Homs Governorate, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) alleged on Friday morning, Al-Masdar News reports.

“Six missiles were fired at the Dabaa military airport and surrounding area in the western sector of Homs province, targeting Lebanese Hizbullah weapons warehouses,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

“The missiles would have been fired by Israel,” he added.

Contrasting the SOHR’s claims, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) stated that the Israeli attack was repelled after the Syrian Air Defense intercepted several missiles.

The Syrian military has yet to issue an official statement regarding this alleged Israeli attack.

By Olurotimi Osha*

Most regular folks of Western nations are ignorant of the true state of Africa, and the role their respective countries play in the du jour underdevelopment of Africa, which forces African migrants to risk their lives to make it to the West, only to generate increasing acrimony among their hosts.

I recently had an interesting conversation with my Italian roommate, after I had expressed my deep gratitude to the Italian people for taking in African refugees, treating them well, and giving them a chance to start over in Italy. While out jogging, I had met a Nigerian, who crossed the desert and survived adrift an inflatable boat for three days in the Mediterranean Sea until the Italians rescued them and brought them ashore to Sicilia. Although the Nigerian man now had a job as a cleaner, but because he supported his wife and Italian born kids, he still had to rely on panhandling for the generosity and mercy of kind Italians, to supplement his income. My roommate explained that the increasing numbers of Africans is putting a huge pressure on the average Italian and is causing growing “irritation” (not racism though) in the southern parts of Italy.

He mentioned that Africa was the only place where the people did not fight for their independence and break away from foreign domination by Europe, but had its independence was negotiated through help from Europeans and Americans. He lauded places like Italy, France and America, where independence was fought for through violent revolution and war. He wondered why Africans did not appear patriotic and stay in Africa to build it. And he referenced Africa’s proverbial poverty. Needless to say, my roommate knew of the history of Africa’s path to independence from a myopic European perspective, and consequently, was ignorant of the brave liberation struggles of African nationalists, who left European powers no other choice but to jettison physical colonisation of most of the continent.

Then I decided to enlighten my roommate from Rome—the city that was a bastion of the Italian Renaissance of the 15th century—a bit about the African paradox, which also exists in part because Europeans and intelligence operatives from other parts of the world, have not really left Africa, but continue to exploit its resources through fifth columnists camouflaging as African leaders. And then I asked him if he was aware that majority of the world’s natural resources used in western industries are extracted from Africa. I asked him if he knew that Nigeria for instance was among the biggest oil producers in the world and has among the top five largest reserves of natural gas and oil in the world and that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product was US $1 trillion from mainly oil production. He said he did not know this, but that when he heard of Africa, he only understood it to be the poorest continent in the world that Europe and America help—and of course, when he hears of Nigeria he hears of Boko Haram, terrorism, and corrupt Nigerians who defraud westerners.

Consequently, I proceeded to enlighten him a bit more. He was quite surprised to learn that, according to Forbes magazine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, has the world’s richest deposits of tin and coltan, used to make electronic devices and chips in our computers, etc. It has among the world’s largest deposits of cobalt, used in jet engines. The Congo has oil and diamonds too. It has been described as the most richly endowed mineral resources place on earth. I remember one closet bigot colleague of mine who was a stockbroker. When I tried to discuss the issue of looking to investments in Africa because of its resources, the Lebanese American derisively cackled, “that he knew of a company that has thought of investing in water in Africa.” Water was the only resource the American of Lebanese descent could think of, when I raised Africa as a region for investment. I will get back to the issue of Lebanese folks, who have a close relationship with Nigeria. (I am not prejudiced or bashing a nationality. Just one moment and I will reveal more.)

My roommate also got to know that an Italian energy company called Eni, currently has a corruption case in Milan, where we live, regarding its involvement in scandalous bribes of Nigerian government officials to the tune of billions of dollars, for oil field concessions in Nigeria. He had not known of this, until I informed him. He knows a lot about Italian politics. And he belongs to a party that is nationalistic and while not racist, is critical of immigration. However, what he did not know was that the value in oil deals and concessions which the Italian oil company has gained from Nigeria alone, is far greater than the cost to Italians, of all Nigerians who have risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean to work in Italy. Besides, I also learned in my International Criminal Law class, that the Italian mafia also controls and facilitates the trafficking of Africans into Italy.

Now he had learned that Africa despite having tremendous resources, ingenuity (he is a rap aficionado music student who wants to be a rap producer, and praises black creative genius), and hardworking people (Africans were used as slave labour to build America and historically were used as slave labour to build Middle Eastern empires), remained paradoxically populated with impoverished people, because of continued detrimental activities of the West and the Middle East in the continent.

He is very solutions oriented, my roommate. Thus, he asked, “What is the solution to curb Africans from emigrating and braving the perils of the desert and the hazards of racist rogue cops in America?” I asked him if it were possible for all Europeans and non-blacks to leave Africa alone – by removing themselves and going back to where they came from the way racists in America and some parts of Europe where Africans are called monkeys, chant that blacks should go back to Africa. Then arrangements can be made for all Black people to return to Africa to use their resources and labour fairly for themselves. The refugee, who was panhandling, was an Igbo man. Igbos do not beg but are industrious and take pride in their diligence and entrepreneurial skills. He left Nigeria seeking work. Because corrupt Nigerian government officials sell oil and embezzle the proceeds keeping billions in Swiss banks and hide hundreds of millions of dollars in their homes. I referred him to YouTube videos revealing discovered millions of dollars in cash, in people’s homes in Nigeria.

I asked him if these puppet Nigerian and African leaders on the payroll of foreign intelligence outfits (for instance Mobutu of Zaire was used by the Central Intelligence Agency and Belgian intelligence) would be released for the Nigerian public to deal with according to their laws and hearts’ desire. And if foreign intelligence would sever all links with Africans, so there would not be blacks working at cross-purposes with African interests and sabotaging African development. This way Nigerian graduates like the refugee I met (he said he had a degree in Statistics and I could tell he was a university graduate from his flawless spoken English), could be employed in Nigeria, when the proceeds from oil are invested in developing Nigerian industries, rather than siphoned off to banks in Europe and America, with the help of foreigners.

General Ibrahim Babangida, who used General Abacha as a fix-it man, was allegedly on a foreign payroll. He institutionalised corruption in Nigeria, and his regime witnessed the razing of Nigeria’s ministry of defence building (equivalent of the United States Pentagon), to obliterate paper trail of his nefarious activities. US $12 billion from oil proceeds went missing under his regime. He was known as an egregious human rights violator during his reign of terror and corruption. The Oputa panel has claimed that he was involved in the perfidious use of a letter bomb to kill a Nigerian journalist investigating his atrocities. Yet the Queen of England knighted him while he executed his reign of terror. Is England not supposed to be a staunch opponent of reprehensible dictators? (Knight Grand Cross of the Bath was conferred on Babangida in May 1989 by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain) General Babangida was a traitor to the Nigerian state, which his regime ruined with impunity.

Apart from Europeans who live in Lagos and Port Harcourt, and of course South Africa, there are also Asians who have lived in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa for decades and claim Africa as their home. One of the things the refugee, who left Nigeria three years ago, complained about was the increasing presence of Chinese firms in Nigeria, buying oil fields in shady deals. He said the investments from China are not leading to industries and job creation for Nigerian graduates, but instead was propelling a heavy influx of Chinese people into Nigeria, since the firms prefer to bring in Chinese workers, to work in even the most unskilled jobs in their firms and industries.

In Kano, there have been Indians, Arabs and Lebanese who have lived in Nigeria for decades, profiting off Nigeria’s oil. For instance, Gilbert Chagoury is a Lebanese (Nigerians call him a white man), worth US $4.2 billion on Forbes. He and his brothers claim Nigerian citizenship and have lived there for decades. They were close associates of the perfidious military dictator, Sani Abacha, who embezzled billions from Nigeria, and hanged a Nigerian intellectual, award winning writer, and environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa. Ken Saro-Wiwa complained about the despoliation of Nigerian lands from oil extraction, by foreign oil companies, which did not exercise the standards of care that would have been imposed in Europe and America. Abacha enriched Chagoury the Lebanese man, but hanged a Nigerian intellectual for seeking justice. My roommate acknowledged that there appeared to be an element of dearth of “Nigerian love for fellow Nigerians,” he called it. It can be described as self-hate, as the facially scarified Abacha, who allegedly died of a sudden heart attack in the arms of prostitutes flown in from India for his pleasure, scorned Nigerians like him.

My question was not a tacit endorsement of the extreme position of expropriation of South African lands without compensation of white farmers, taken by South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa and Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, to redress historic racial injustice against Africans.

Will every non-black physically leave sub-Saharan Africa voluntarily and leave Africa alone, so that Africans do not have to keep flooding Europe and America seeking help? It is a pipe dream. Therefore, until this occurs, westerners must accept the “irritation” of black presence, just as their presence in Africa causes a lot more than mere irritation, which Africans must endure.

*Olurotimi Osha is a Doctor of Law candidate at the George Washington University Law School, in Washington, DC, United States of America.

By Umar Manzoor Shah

The leader of a new political party claiming to represent India’s Shia Muslim minority has verbally attacked the country’s Sunnis, resulting in accusations that he is being used by pro-Hindu groups to divide the country’s Muslims ahead of national polls.

Shia politician Syed Waseem Rizvi — from India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh — launched a Shia-centric political party named Indian Shia Awami League on May 14.

It wasn’t long until he was accusing the majority Sunni Muslims of defaming Islam.

Sunnis constitute about 80 percent of India’s 172 million Muslims.

Rizvi said in a statement six days after launching his political party that Sunnis take all the benefits of government welfare schemes meant for Muslim minorities, leaving nothing for Shia people. Politicians looking for Muslim votes cater to the majority Sunni interest, he said.

In an interview with online news portal ThePrint, Rizvi blamed Sunni extremism for Hindu-Muslim riots and he added that Shia people are targeted during the riots because of their Muslim identity.

“The Shia-Sunni conflict is irreconcilable … They (Sunnis) don’t even consider us Muslims, but because of them our identity is under threat,” the Shia leader said.

In response, many Muslim leaders have said that Rizvi’s claims are part of plan to divide the country’s Muslims ahead of national elections due in April 2019.

Molvi Ghulam Ai Gulzar, a prominent Shia scholar and author, told ucanews.com that Rizvi seems to be mandated by hard-line Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to stoke sectarian tensions in the country.

“This is a clear attempt to create hatred amongst the Muslims against one another,” said Molvi Gulzar. “Fanatic Hindu groups are hell-bent to divide Muslims and create animosity,” he said.

“Muslim leaders must step in to thwart such elements who have infiltrated into our ranks.”

India’s two Muslim communities have fought each other in the past but each time the conflicts were pacified by religious leaders from the both sides.

Molvi Gulzar said that Rizvi has a history of making inflammatory statements beneficial for pro-Hindu groups such as RSS and the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). Rizvi was on record as saying that Muslims speaking out against Hindus over the Ayodhya dispute should move to Pakistan. He also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to close madrassas as they were breeding grounds for terrorists.

“Rizvi made the same appeal in a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as well,” Movli Gulzar told ucanews.com

Well-known Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq said Rizvi’s statements in “no way” represent Shia Muslims.

“We condemn such statements that aim to divide Muslims. We can have theological differences but we as a community are one,” said the cleric.

Saaqib Ali, a research scholar at University of Kashmir’s department of Islamic studies, told ucanews.com that ahead of national elections there will be rigorous attempts made by the Hindu groups like the BJP to divide Muslim communities.

Ali said that since the BJP came to power in 2014, Muslim communities have experienced violence against them by Hindu hardliners.

Muslims are determined to vote against the BJP in elections “and so attempts are being made to divide the country’s Muslims to scatter their votes,” Ali said.

Shia cleric Moulana Qalb-e-Jawwad said the BJP has been using a “few of its sycophants” to create an atmosphere that could prove detrimental for law and order.

Globally, Shias are a minority as they form only 10-12 percent of 1.6 billion Muslims, according to a 2009 study of the Pew Research Center.

The succession of Prophet Muhammad was the cause of differences between the two branches of Islam. The majority — that became the Sunni — considered his father-in-law and friend Abu Bakr as Muhammad’s heir, but a small group — that became the Shia — wanted his son-in-law and father of his grandchildren instead.

Abu Bakr finally became the first caliph and ongoing political differences between the opposing groups evolved to form the two sects which are still at loggerheads today.

By Dan Southerland*

China recently has been threatening Taiwan with artillery drills and bombers flying near the self-governing island.

But according to some analysts a more serious threat to Taiwan may turn out to be Beijing’s attempts to subvert democracy there.

This would involve, among other things, encouraging splits among the island’s people that would work to China’s advantage.

J. Michael Cole, chief editor of the Taiwan Sentinel, summed this up well when he wrote that “instead of trying in vain to win the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese as part of its effort to engineer the unification of China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has…abandoned that strategy.”

Instead, Cole said, the CCP is “now intensifying efforts to corrode and undermine Taiwan’s democratic institutions, create social instability, further isolate Taiwan internationally, and hollow out Taiwan’s economy by attracting its talent.”

Beijing regards democratic and self-governing Taiwan as part of its territory, a breakaway province that must return to the motherland.

According to Cole, the key reason for China’s shift to a subversion strategy is the failure of an eight-year-long attempt by China “to shape Taiwanese self identification and support for unification through various economic incentives and various acts self-described as ‘goodwill.’”

That approach had the counterproductive effect of strengthening a trend in Taiwan for its people to identify themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese, an identity that has been highlighted repeatedly in public opinion polls in Taiwan.

And in elections for both the executive and legislative branches of government 2016, Taiwan’s voters came out in favor of a return to power of what Cole calls the “Taiwan-centric” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

China’s unhappiness with Taiwan’s new president

For eight years, from 2008 to 2016, Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou pursued a policy of rapprochement with Beijing.

So China was clearly unhappy when Taiwan’s new president Tsai Ing-wen took power in May of 2016.

Beijing sees Tsai as a proponent of independence for the Taiwan and its more than 23 million people.

Though Tsai has been careful not to speak openly about independence, she hasn’t supported the conciliatory China policy pursued by her Nationalist Party predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou.

Tsai’s ruling DPP has also declined to endorse a so-called consensus reported to have been agreed to in 1992 by China and Taiwan when the island was ruled by the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party.

DPP supporters contend that there’s little documentation to show that any consensus was agreed upon.

At the same time, Tsai has taken a pragmatic approach by calling for a continuation of the status quo with China.

Beijing has cut off contacts with Taiwan that had been established during Ma Ying-jeou’s presidency and has been using a variety of means to pressure its government and, sometimes under cover, to influence its people.

In 2017, China intensified its efforts to get nations that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan to break off their ties with Taiwan.

These efforts had ceased when Ma Ying-jeou was in power under a kind of tacit agreement by China to ease pressure in the diplomatic realm.

How PRC subversion works

Russell Hsiao, executive director of the U.S.-based think tank Global Taiwan Initiative, has outlined how a policy of subverting Taiwan’s democratic system might work.

In testimony last month before the congressionally funded U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), Hsiao said that China had already adopted subversion tactics in the 1980s, when Taiwan began moving from a dictatorship under martial law to a democratic system.

He described such tactics as part of the Communist Party’s United Front policy of “forming alliances with non-communist masses against a common enemy” that dates back to the 1920s.

According to New Zealand scholar Anne-Marie Brady, “United Front activities incorporate working with groups and prominent individuals in society; information management and propaganda; and it has also frequently been a means of facilitating espionage.”

China’s leader Xi Jinping gave a speech in 2014 on the importance of United Front work, calling it one of the Communist Party’s “magic weapons.”

As Hsiao explains it, given the history of the Chinese civil war between the Communists and Nationalists and the strategic importance of Taiwan for the Communist Party’s leaders, Taiwan remains “the United Front’s number one priority.”

After the People’s Republic of China (PRC) took the Republic of China’s seat in the United Nations in 1971, Beijing’s objective evolved into the incorporation of Taiwan into the PRC under a formula described as “One Country, Two Systems.”

That formula, rejected at the time by the Nationalist government, was applied to Hong Kong and remains until today the blueprint for the Communist Party since it was first proposed by China’s supreme leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979, says Hsiao.

In the meantime, Hsiao says, nonmilitary actions by China that take place in a “grey zone of conflict falling beneath the level of warfare” possess the “most coercive potential against Taiwan.”

China’s nonmilitary tools include economic coercion, political influence, clandestine measures, information operations such as propaganda and disinformation, and the use of noncommunist proxies in Taiwan who act motivated by self interest rather than ideology.

China’s efforts to get Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to break their ties with the island and switch their recognition to Beijing can have a psychological effect.

Since the election of Tsai Ing-wen as president of Taiwan in 2016, China has intensified its anti-Taiwan diplomatic offensive.

On May 24, the West African nation of Burkina Faso cut its ties with Taiwan, ending a 24-year-long relationship with Taipei only a few weeks after the Dominican Republic severed its relations with Taiwan.

Taiwan now has only 18 diplomatic allies around the world compared with 22 when Tsai was elected president.

In a televised statement, Tsai criticized Beijing for its “dollar diplomacy” and said that Taiwan would “no longer be forbearing” and would instead become more determined in seeking international partnerships.

But as Hsiao explains, “the continued bleeding of diplomatic allies could lead to lower public confidence and morale in Taiwan.”

Beijing is also using its influence to exclude Taiwan from international organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Recruiting Taiwan’s young people

According to Russell Hsiao, the student-led “Sunflower Movement” on Taiwan in the spring of 2014 caused a rethink in Beijing’s approach to United Front work against Taiwan.

Student protesters occupied Taiwan’s Legislature for 23 days in opposition to a trade agreement which the island’s government had drawn up with China without what many considered to be adequate consultation.

Beijing found that high-level exchanges with Taiwan had done little to change pro-independence views on the island. Therefore, Hsiao says, China shifted its United Front strategy to focus on targeting small and medium-sized enterprises, middle to low income people, regions outside of the capital Taipei, and Taiwan’s youth.

Targeted groups also included aboriginals, distant relatives, fishermen’s associations, religious organizations, pro-China political parties, Chinese spouses, and retired Taiwan Army military officers, some of whom have been willing to provide sensitive military information in return for bribes provided by Beijing operatives.

In a report written for the U.S.-based Jamestown Foundation, China scholar Peter Mattis wrote that in 2009 then President Ma Ying-jeou “opened the flow of people and businesses across the strait without consulting security officials on how to manage the risks.”

This brings up another issue: An estimated 300,000 Chinese wives in Taiwan with passports from China are reported to include many who are associated with pro-unification groups.

Chinese businesses go through local pro-China legislators in Taiwan to purchase local fish products, making some local industries beholden to China and its interests, according to Russell Hsiao.

In an effort to attract Taiwanese high school graduates, China offers them subsidies to study at Chinese universities and to stay on and work there if they like.

This can be particularly appealing at a time when wages remain stagnant in Taiwan and openings for well-paying jobs are limited.

At the same time, China’s economy has been growing much faster than Taiwan’s in recent years, thus opening up more opportunities to start up small businesses in China.

Michael Holtz of The Christian Science Monitor reported last month from China’s southeastern city of Fuzhou on Beijing’s efforts to win over young Taiwanese.

Fuzhou is located on the western side of the Taiwan Strait and only 155 miles from Taipei, Taiwan’s capital.

According to Holtz, in February Beijing introduced 31 new policies aimed at making it easier for Taiwanese to invest, study, and work on the mainland.

The U.S. Connection

As Russell Hsiao notes, Beijing attempts to use United Front activities to weaken Taiwan’s relationship with the United States, its main security partner.

Chinese propaganda presents China as Taiwan’s natural partner for cultural and ethnic reasons, despite the fact that Taiwan and the U.S. share an interest in supporting democracy and human rights.

On March 17, President Donald Trump angered Beijing by signing legislation known as the Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages U.S. officials to visit Taiwan.

The U.S. has unofficial ties with Taiwan and provides the island with defensive weapons.

Trump also upset Beijing by authorizing U.S. companies to sell to Taiwan technology needed to renovate the island’s aging submarine fleet, the oldest such submarine fleet in the world.

Perhaps more importantly, U.S. technology will now support Taiwan’s development of new submarines.

*Dan Southerland is RFA’s founding executive editor.

By Gjergj Erebara

Albania’s opposition Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI, have finalised their preparations for a major protest on Saturday in Tirana, demanding the resignation of the Interior Minister Fatmir Xhafaj, who they accuse of engaging in drug smuggling.

Meanwhile, opposition MPs effectively blocked the work of parliament last week, disrupting hearings and refusing to discuss anything except their allegations about Xhafaj.

Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama attempted to maintain a show of normality by holding meetings with supporters across the country where government officials presented the alleged achievements of the government and listened to people’s problems.

In the course of the so-called “tour of accountability”, Rama made several speeches per day, claiming big successes in improving the economy and social services, justifying controversial decisions to award concessionary contracts for various public services and promising new roads.

Along with these acts, Rama and other Socialist Party officials have slated the opposition’s claims against the Interior Minister as “a fabrication” designed to undermine Albania’s hopes of opening EU membership talks next June.

“This is an unprecedented act of historic betrayal of this country,” Rama said in parliament on Tuesday, referring to the opposition attacks and the scheduled protest. “This is anti-European propaganda,” he added.

Answering to the allegation, Lulzim Basha, head of the Democratic Party, said: “Your government’s links with crime and corruption are the true obstacles to [EU] integration.

“You are the true traitors to the citizens and you did this just to fill your pockets by allying yourself with organized crime and drug traffickers.”

Hillary Clinton would like to be the next CEO of Facebook.

The former presidential candidate admitted it during the Radcliffe Award at Harvard on Friday:

Host Maura Healey: “If you could be a CEO of any company right now, what would you choose?”

Hillary Clinton: “Facebook… I just want to add, it’s the biggest news platform in the world… Most people in our country get their news, true or not, from Facebook. Now, Facebook is trying to take on some of the unexpected consequences of their business model, and I for one hope that they get it right, because it really is critical to our democracy that people get accurate information on which to make decisions.”

But how exactly would she run Facebook, if given the chance?

Well, as Infowars reported during the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton campaign staffers were acting as “assignment editors” for the mainstream media by telling reporters what to cover – and what to keep secret from the public.

Yes, that’s right: her staffers were directly working with mainstream “journalists” to develop news stories favorable to her, according to a batch of Clinton campaign emails released by Wikileaks.

“Peter Nicholas (Wall Street Journal) is doing a story for Friday on caucus organizing efforts and the Sanders campaign’s theory that caucuses will be good for them in the same way that they were for Obama,” said campaign communications staffer Jesse Lehrich in a 2015 email. “We’ve pushed back with our theory of the case, including our strong organizing effort in Iowa and beyond.”

In another leaked email, Politico’s chief political correspondent Glenn Thrush asked Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta to approve his story prior to publication.

“Because I have become a hack I will send you the whole section that pertains to you,” Thrush wrote to Podesta. “Please don’t share or tell anyone I did this [and] tell me if I f*cked up anything.”

And other emails reveal the New York Times granted Hillary Clinton veto power over articles and the ability to retroactively determine which of her statements they could print.

In short, Clinton was effectively the “editor-in-chief” of the mainstream media which worshipped her while attacking her rival Donald Trump at every chance.

On a related note, Facebook recently asked users to submit nude pictures of themselves to “prevent” them from being shared publicly on the company’s various platforms.

“We’re now partnering with safety organizations on a way for people to securely submit photos they fear will be shared without their consent, so we can block them from being uploaded to Facebook, Instagram and Messenger,” Facebook said in a statement. “This pilot program, starting in Australia, Canada, the UK and US, expands on existing tools for people to report this content to us if it’s already been shared.”

Doesn’t this seem like tempting blackmail material to use against political enemies?

Top military, diplomatic, and political leaders have exposed, warned of, and condemned our runaway, unaudited military budgets for decades, to no avail.  (For many examples, see America’s War Machine: Vested Interests, Endless Conflicts by James McCartney, with Molly Sinclair McCartney.) They usually come to the same desperate conclusion: that only organized citizens back in their Congressional Districts can make Congress stop this spending spree. Only us, Americans!

From 1953, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his “Cross of Iron” speech before the Convention of Newspaper Editors, to full-length addresses by President Obama’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, the warnings about unrestrained military spending have not been addressed. The military budget—now at about a trillion dollars when you add up all costs—is spiraling out of control and draining the public budgets for rebuilding America’s public infrastructure and services. Now both major parties go along with uncritical rubber-stamping.

Even the strict Pentagon budget of about $700 billion is now over fifty percent of the entire federal government’s operational budget for the other departments and agencies.

President Eisenhower said:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

The oft-repeated phrase of “waste, fraud, and abuse” describing the Pentagon’s contracts with the giant defense industry rarely quantifies the toll of the outrageous waste of taxpayer dollars.  Too many way-over-budget weapons systems that are not needed, such as the F-35 boondoggle. Too many nuclear-equipped missiles, submarines, and bombers (referred to as the nuclear triad) are maintained at too-expensive levels.

Former generals, such as Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush’s national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, have called for scrapping two of the triad. Doing so would still leave plenty of dispersed, globally destructive power to act as a sufficient nuclear deterrent. But the war machine of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Boeing, Raytheon, and other big corporations is forever hungry for more and ever-bigger contracts.  While warmongering neocons and so-called think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute keep looking for enemies to exaggerate, the weapons industry lobbyists swarm over Capitol Hill demanding new military spending. The Trump administration is pushing a new arms race calling for spending at least $1.2 trillion over the next 30 years to allegedly upgrade existing nuclear weapons (see The Project on Government Oversight, “New Documents Raise Questions about Increased Nuclear Spending”).

Former Secretary of Defense Gates made pointed reference to the vastly excessive firepower of our too-many submarines and other delivery systems compared to all other countries in the world combined.

With Trump throwing more money at the DoD, the excessive Pentagon spending Gates described is much worse today. What to do?  Start with requiring a fully and authentically audited military budget, a provision already required by federal law since 1992.

The Pentagon has been in violation of that Congressional directive since 1992 but keeps promising that an audit is coming, to Congress’s Government Accountability Office (GAO).

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing in January, DoD Comptroller David Norquist promised an audit later this year. To illustrate his sincerity, Norquist said his office had already discovered two stunning situations: “The Army found 39 Black Hawk helicopters that had not been properly recorded in its property system. The Air Force identified 478 buildings and structures at 12 installations that were not in its real property system.”

The Comptroller did not go into the fraud and waste minefield that has lost taxpayers trillions of dollars since 1992. Not all this comes from the Pentagon. For years, the DoD has wanted to close dozens of costly, obsolete military bases in the U.S.  Various members of Congress, who view the military budget as a jobs program, have blocked these closures.

There is some light. Fifty-three members of the House of Representatives have signed on to H.R. 3079, which would reduce the budget of the Department (subject to emergency presidential waivers) by one-half of one percent if the Pentagon’s financial statements do not receive an audit OK by the GAO. H.R. 3079 is a stirring in the body politic, however weak the pulse.

Obtain a copy of H.R. 3079 and its named sponsors to see whether your Representative is on board. If not, demand to know why. All of Connecticut’s Representatives have ducked co-sponsoring this bill.

No such bill has been introduced in the Senate.

What more support do they need from the Pentagon than its own specialized audits, the GAO’s famous investigations, and a quote from Secretary Gates right inserted Sec. 3 (10) of H.R. 3079 from a speech given on May 24, 2011:

The current apparatus for managing people and money across the DOD enterprise is woefully inadequate. The agencies, field activities, joint headquarters, and support staff function of the department operate as a semi-feudal system—an amalgam of fiefdoms without centralized mechanisms to allocate resources, track expenditures and measure results relative to the department’s overall priorities.

This legislation needs immediate public hearings in Congress. Full annual audits will reveal the costs of Empire. This is your money that could be used in your own community for jobs to repair and upgrade your public transit, roads, bridges, schools, drinking water/sewage systems, and other crumbling infrastructure and facilities.

At a recent gathering focused on auditing the annual military budget, citizens from 16 Congressional Districts agreed to organize that pressure to make Congress work for us. Stay tuned.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. — Eleanor Roosevelt

The world is witnessing a new breed of women leaders and game-changers that are gate crashing and boldly scaling new heights even as they are pairing their ingenuity and knowledge with passion for bringing lasting solutions to most pressing social challenges and creating a sustainable and more equitable world. Several of them are young icons who are stepping into power in technology, philanthropy, politics, business and media. They are showing the pathways to fundamentally transform our world – to end hunger and poverty, make healthcare universal, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. The world is poised at the cusp of large scale transformations in which everyone needs to do their part: governments, the private sector, civil society and social entrepreneurs in order to bring collective peace and prosperity in harmony with our environment.

A new twinkling star on the Indian horizon is Sheetal Amte. One may assume that fame should have accrued naturally to her, being born with a privileged lineage. Apart from the iconic global status of her legendary grandfather Baba Amte and almost equally impressive credentials and highly fascinating lives of sons, Vikas and Prakash and their wives, Bharati and Mandakini, all of them doctors by qualification, Sheetal has her own distinct contribution to nation building. Surprisingly an Amte pedigree is not an instant and assured springboard for power or stardom. Carrying this legacy demands selfless commitment against impossible odds. Moreover, Sheetal arrived on stage in an era where the world refuses to acknowledge you except on your own merits. We live in a world far more complex and uncertain, demanding much more of us and our collective sense of moral imagination.Sheetal has made a bold entry into the female leadership brigade and her achievements in a short time mark the rapid ascendancy of her trajectory.

Sheetal is a medical doctor, disability specialist, motivational speaker and social entrepreneur. Poised and elegant, she is a thoughtful campaigner who works methodically to drive change without seeking the limelight. For years after her studies, she worked in the shadows of Anandwan while at the same time seeking exposure to the new development winds blowing across the world. She finally emerged from the woodwork to become CEO of Maharogi Sewa Samiti (MSS -Leprosy Service Society) the flagship organisation that was her sagely grandfather’s’ primary locomotive of social change. In January 2016 she was selected by world economic forum as ‘young global leader 2016’.

Her formative years were spent in Baba’s tutelage and they have shaped her perceptions of the world. “I am conscious of my responsibility to uphold the ideals he represented – a deep commitment to public service”, chuckles an otherwise reticent Sheetal.

Apart from the roll of great honours like John Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, the 1988 United Nations Human Rights Prize, Padma Vibhushan award and International Gandhi Peace Prize ,there are a thousand stories of Baba Amte and they have been recounted a thousand times—a man who renounced his father’s huge estate embracing an austere life, a man whose first encounter with a leprosy patient left him repulsed and totally transformed him; a man who created a commune called Anandwan, “forest of joy” for the benefit of leprosy patients, social outcasts and those with disabled speech and hearing, visually impaired, the orthopedically challenged and the socially backward tribals. His focus was more on the social implications of leprosy which he viewed as a cultural plague. He later made a vigorous foray into environmental issues.

Anandwan was set up in 1951 in the primitive forested backyards of eastern Maharashtra on rocky land that was covered with scrubby vegetation and infested with scorpions, wild boar, cobra and scorpion. This task was carried out by a small band of people: Baba himself, his wife, two sons aged 1 and 2, six badly maimed leprosy sufferers, a lame cow and a dog. An army of leprosy patients and other social outcasts created fertile fields from barren rock land and forests and tilled it from scratch with half a dozen tools and their stumps of hands.”Charity destroys, work builds”—became Baba’s life-long credo.

Anandwan village is now home to some 3,000 inmates who are victims of social apartheid. It is a classic representation of the village of Gandhi’s dreams. All of it is the result of the industry of another man, Vikas Amte himself. He is a silent crusader and one of world’s great institution builders’ .The perfection we see in even the tiniest activity at Anandwan is the fruit of Vikas’s relentless efforts to groom and empower every inmate at Anandwan. The pursuit of excellence, for him, is not just a passion but a daily habit. He founded Swaranandwan, ‘The Orchestra of the Abled-Disabled’, the cultural group of Anandwan inmates, in 2002. More than 100 artistes who are leprosy affected, physically and mentally challenged and blind perform music and dance. “Baba Amte is a process. One death won’t breach that. He has already given a direction, reason, logic and purpose,” says Vikas.

Though influenced by a number of political personalities and ideologies including that of Marx, John Ruskin, Mao and the anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin, Anandwan is noticeably devoid of any belligerent political overtones-for through all his reading and development ,the man who founded it not only retained his own individuality but passed on the spirit of freedom to those around him. It continues to resonate through the founder’s pithy quotes on walls and in the literature of the Anandwan. But Gandhiji’s philosophy of spartan living certainly allured Amte. Baba was an illumined sage with extraordinary insight. Every aspect of his life and work was charged with moral and spiritual significance. His spiritualism was not the one shaped by conventional religion but was honed by his own internal search for Truth and the eternal verities.

This was the reason why he was such a clear sighted revolutionary. He epitomised Che Guevara’s vision of a great thinker: “The merit of Marx is that he suddenly produces a qualitative change in the history of social thought. He interprets history, understanding its dynamics, predicts the future, but in addition to predicting it, he expresses a revolutionary concept: the world must not only be interpreted, it must be transformed.”

Anandwan has also served as a social laboratory for three generations of Amtes for experimenting with their social and economic philosophies. These experiments have yielded some of the most daring social and ecological programmes in India.

Sheetal’s chromosomes have unique and diverse strands: the laser sharp intelligence of father Vikas which flows from Baba Amte and the pure compassion of mother Bharati which flows from Sadhanatai ,Baba Mate’s wife and his most powerful ally and source of moral strength. She combines the audacity of her father with the humility of her mother.

She very well knows she has to be to be audacious enough to set goals that can make her stretch and give clarity of vision and purpose. But you have to be humble to know the limits and, therefore, set the bar accordingly. Sheetal’s brother Kaustubh, a chartered accountant by training, who manages the finances of Anandwan is the man who will step into Vikas’s shoes when the third generation of Amtes assume full leadership. In fact, he has to regularly relieve his father on the steering wheel to enable him to attend important meetings across the country. Says Kaustabh: “We are not just a family of four or five but of 4000 and Baba always said ‘responsibilities are not transferable’, so we came back.”Prakash’s sons Digant, a doctor, and Aniket, an engineer—have too joined their father’s work in the globally acclaimed Hemalkasa project, nestled in deep tribal land.Prakash has countless awards to his name and has been christened” the Albert Schweitzer of India”.

Not content to rest on the laurels of Anandwan’s traditional projects, Sheetal founded ‘mashaal’ and ‘chirag’, the exclusive leadership training programs for motivating medical professionals across India. She has also set up a centre called ‘nijbal’ for offering a complete suite of services for rehabilitation of the disabled.

I first met Sheetal when she was in high school: a serious, aloof, demure, quiet and reserved girl bewildered by the aura in which she lived. On the surface, she looked an unlikely candidate for a larger role in Anandwan. Now, as I look back, and after seeing her evolve over the years, I realize that what I saw was just a single slice of her identity. At a more granular level you will find a finely honed analytical person with a cool brilliance but a tough, gritty core undergirding the soft exterior. She’s a genuinely talented and impassioned advocate .So when you hear her speak about issues, in her low rich voice, you immediately the strength of her convictions and a propulsive desire to change the status quo. The idea that hard work equals success has been in her DNA. She has spent her spare time innovating and constructing integrated solutions to social problems. Her compassion is a natural trait that epitomised her grandmother, Sadhanatai. She is fundamentally an aesthete, with eclectic tastes. Whatever downtime she has, she settles into a quieter routine, ands spends it with her 3 year old son, Sharvil.

Sadhanatai was perhaps the finest practitioner of the art of compassion. Her compassion was whiter than the whiteness of falling snowflakes. It was hardwired into her brains. We can see glimpses of that magic in Bharati. Into the old, often frightening world of leprosy wards she comes regularly, practising the compassionate art of nurturing patient’s hopes. Many of the lost tormented souls have been transformed by the magic of her luminous presence. Sheetal’s soothing expressions reinforce her mother’s benign attention. There is none of the cold forlornness of abandonment here .Life continues to flutter even in the pall of gloom dispels all their lonely miseries. In Anandwan today, the Amte mystique –symbolised by Baba and Tai -not only survives, but flourishes in exuberance.

What are Sheetal’s dreams for Anandwan? Sheetal is part of the core team that is working hard for making Anandwan India’s first smart village. For her, social work provides both personal and professional joy. Most important to her, a social worker is insulated from the corporate turf wars and ego bashing, fuelled by the fierce race to meet performance targets and generate limitless profits. Sheetal believes that if you focus on generating social value you automatically get personal value as a natural by product .if you work on just personal value you work on a very short term horizon. This myopic approach has now corrupted the mainstream corporate philosophy. “We are not looking to corporatize Anandwan—whoever comes here to work has to fit in with the values of this place. The right mindset is needed,” Sheetal muses.

With her skills and experiences, she is working to bolster the key foundations of rural society –primary education, basic healthcare and sustainable development. She is trying to create a doorstep health museum for building awareness about preventive care for health problems, nutrition, health rights among the low income groups including school children to decrease the disease burden and mitigate the financial distress of the poor on account of expenditure on health. Her career went stellar when she entered the health arena. She has been awarded a grant by Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and WHO alliance for setting up ‘Centre for Excellence for Medical Leadership, Ethics and Motivation’. Under her leadership, Anandwan holds free health camps, particularly for retinal disorders, mental illness and diabetes detection and management. Sheetal also serves on the Advisory Board of Indian Institute of Public Health and Public Health Foundation of India.

She endorses the idea of Bill Drayton, the greatest modern leader in social entrepreneurship, that the central challenge is to make everyone a changemaker. The first step, she argues, is to take the first step. Social change flows from individual actions. Small gains well consolidated as part of a sequence can mean more than big gains which are unstable and short-lived. By changing what they do, people move societies in new directions. Big simple solutions are tempting but full of risks. For most outsiders, most of the time, the soundest and best way forward is through innumerable small steps; they could be just nudges and tiny pushes. Slower and smaller steps also help build people’s adaptability to changes. We should look for small innovations, not just blockbusters.

Sheetal firmly believes that what we need for any revolution to succeed is humility. When we design solutions that recognize everyone as equal partners, we have a real chance to achieve our goals. This logic comes from the power of empathy—not a form of empathy that comes from superiority, but one born out of a profound humility. The problem today is that most social leaders are really not listening, or they’re listening only to what they want to listen to, or they assume they’re so right that they’re need not listen. This is leading to a lot of suboptimal solutions in the world.

The kind of leaders we need —and certainly the ones the new breed comprising Sheetal and their ilk aspire to be —reject ideology, reject the status quo, reject trite assumptions, and are really open to listening to solutions from people who are actually the most impacted by the problems. This is the alchemy that characterises the real heroes of the future.

History has shown us that many of today’s challenges can be overcome in the years ahead. The world has the tools, resources and knowhow to improve the lives of all people. We just need to empower people to use their own knowledge to shape their futures the way young leaders like Sheetal Amte are doing. If we do that, more inclusive development will be within our reach. As Bill Drayton himself puts it: “Entrepreneurs cannot be happy people until they have seen their visions become the new reality across all of society”.

The President of Lukoil Vagit Alekperov and Gazprom’s Alexey Miller signed on Friday an Agreement of Intent at the Saint-Petersburg International Economic Forum. According to the Agreement the companies intend to jointly develop the Vaneyvisskoye and the Layavozhskoye fields in Nenets Autonomous District.

​The project allows for the establishment of an equally-owned joint venture in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Gazprom is a current holder of a subsoil use license to explore and produce hydrocarbons in the area of federal significance that includes the Vaneyvisskoye and the Layavozhskoye fields on the territory of Nenets Autonomous District

Lukoil and Gazprom” have a General Agreement on Strategic Partnership for 2014-2024.