Month: August 2017

‘Need Help’: Harvey Victims Use Social Media When 911 Fails

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Desperate for help and unsure whether traditional rescue efforts will come through, Harvey victims are using social media to share maps of their location and photos of themselves trapped on rooftops and inside buildings.

“Need help in NE Houston! Baby here and sick elderly!” one user posted on Twitter along with her address late Sunday.

Another woman, Alondra Molina, posted Monday on Facebook that her sister was desperate for a rescue for herself and her four children, including a 1-year-old.

“Please if someone could at least get them out of the city me and my mom will come get them,” Molina wrote on a Facebook group where dozens were pleading for help. “The roads are just all blocked and we can’t get in.”

Annette Fuller took a video when she began fearing for her life on Sunday. She was on the second floor of a neighbor’s home along with the residents of three other houses, including five children, as water rose and hit waist level on the first floor.

“We called 911 and it rang and rang and rang and rang,” Fuller said Monday after the water receded and she managed to return safely to her single-story home.

“There’s just no agency in the world that could handle Harvey,” she said. “However, none of us were warned that 911 might not work. It was very frightening.”

Fuller’s two daughters, who live in Austin and Dallas, posted her video to Facebook after their mother texted it to them, and the post went viral.

“Social media, in some ways, is more powerful than the government agencies,” Fuller said.

Nursing home rescue

A nursing home in Dickinson, a low-lying city 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Houston, quickly became the face of the crisis after its owner took a photo of residents, some in wheelchairs, up to their chests in water.

The nursing home owner, Trudy Lampson, sent the photo to her daughter, whose husband posted it Sunday to Twitter, where it’s been retweeted about 4,500 times.

The photo was so dramatic that many users denounced it as fake. The nursing home residents were saved the same day.

“Thanks to all the true believers that re-tweeted and got the news organizations involved,” Lampson’s son-in-law, Timothy McIntosh, posted later in the day. “It pushed La Vita Bella to #1 on the priority list.”

McIntosh told The Associated Press on Monday that his post gained traction after a local newspaper reported it.

“We are in Tampa, Florida,” he said. “The only way we could have an impact was by trying to reach out to emergency services and trying to do social media to gain attention to the cause.”

Not only are the people who need rescuing relying on social media for help, volunteers and police departments alike are posting their phone numbers and instructions on Twitter and Facebook so people can get more immediate help.

Revolutionizing search and rescue

An unofficial battalion of volunteers called the Cajun Navy who brought small boats to Houston posted on Facebook that people who need rescuing should download the Zello cellphone app to find rescuers close to their area.

“This will connect you with officials on the ground there that can navigate help your way. PLEASE SHARE!” said the post, which has been shared more than 12,000 times since Sunday night.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted early Sunday that a woman was going into labor and shared the address. An hour later, he updated his followers that the woman had been taken away in an ambulance.

More than any other natural disaster, Harvey has made it clear that social media has revolutionized the search-and-rescue process, said Karen North, a professor of social media at the University of Southern California.

“And what’s really fascinating is that this is not emergency services experts creating strategic systems to rescue people,” North said. “This is evolving organically … Not only can people reach out to 911 but to friends and family elsewhere who can not only reach out to 911 but directly to rescuers in the location where the person needs help.

“It’s really just the idea of taking technology designed for one purpose and applying them to a disaster situation,” North said.

Dozens of people continued to post their pleas to be rescued through late Monday.

Fuller said if the water rises again at her home, she won’t bother calling 911 and will post directly to social media.

“If I was desperate, I’d put it in a public Facebook site and say, `Somebody please help,’ and hope that somebody was looking,”‘ she said.
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Poland Tells EU Its Overhaul of Judiciary in Line with EU Standards

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Poland said on Monday that the legislative process overhauling its judiciary is in line with European standards and called the European Commission’s concerns about rule of law in the country groundless.

On July 26, the Commission said it would launch legal action against Poland over the reforms and gave Warsaw a month to respond to concerns that the process undermines the independence of judges and breaks EU rules.

Last month, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed into a law a bill giving the justice minister the power to replace heads of ordinary courts, but after mass street protests blocked two other bills.

The vetoed bills would have empowered the government and parliament to replace Supreme Court judges and most members of a high-level judicial panel.

“In response … the Polish side emphasized that the legislative process which has the primary goal of reforming the justice system is in line with European standards and answers social expectations that have been growing for years, therefore the Commission’s doubts are groundless,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also said that “in the spirit of loyal cooperation” it has provided the European Commission with all necessary information on the situation in Poland.

Poland’s right-wing, eurosceptic government says the reforms are needed to streamline a slow, outdated legal system and make judges more accountable to the people. It has already tightened control of state media and took steps that critics said politicized the constitutional court.
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Putin Visits Hungary for Judo Competition, Energy Talks

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Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Hungary for the second time this year on Monday, attending the World Judo Championships in Budapest and discussing mutual energy interests with his Hungarian counterpart. 

Putin, who made an official trip to Hungary in February, sat in a VIP box at the Laszlo Papp Budapest Sports Arena with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other officials.

Discussions between the two leaders centered on energy issues, including Russia’s construction of new reactors for Hungary’s Soviet-built nuclear power plant and Hungarian imports of natural gas from Russia.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the expansion of the power plant in Paks, in central Hungary, would begin next year, after what he said had been a 22-month delay while the European Union examined the project’s compliance with EU rules.

“The procedures regarding the European Union have taken longer than expected and they have taken longer than they should have,” Szijjarto said after dining with Orban and the Russian delegation. “The real construction work will start in January and nothing will stop the investment from now on.”

Szijjarto also said that Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary would upgrade parts of their natural gas pipelines to allow the transport of up to 10 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to the region by the end of 2019.

Critics voice opposition

Hungarian opposition parties protested Putin’s trip amid concerns that Orban has become too close to the Russian leader. Orban used to be highly critical of Russian influence in the region.

Activists from the Together party blew whistles as Putin’s motorcade arrived at the arena and held up a banner in the stands reading “We Won’t Be A Russian Colony” before police escorted them out of the building.

A few supporters of Momentum, a new party whose recent campaign led Budapest to withdraw its bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, donned Putin masks and wore T-shirts with the slogan “Let’s go freedom of speech, let’s go Hungarians.”

Critics say the nuclear project is rife with corruption risks and increases Hungary’s dependency on Moscow.

“Putin is looking for colonies in the former Soviet bloc, not allies,” political activist Gabor Vago said. “Only Russia benefits from the nuclear deal, which ties Hungary for decades to an obsolete technology.”

Russia has loaned Hungary 10 billion euros ($11.9 billion) for the nuclear development plan, an amount expected to cover about 80 percent of the costs.
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European Security Organization Urges Trump to Stop Attacks on the Press

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The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is urging U.S. President Donald Trump to stop his attacks on the press, saying they “degrade” the essential role of the media in a democracy.

The OSCE’s media freedom representative, Harlem Desir, Monday said Trump’s comments about the media are “deeply problematic,” adding that such statements, especially those identifying the media as “the enemy of the people,” could make journalists more vulnerable to being targeted with violence.

“I urge the United States administration to refrain from delivering such attacks on the media,” said Desir in a letter addressed to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Desir highlighted remarks Trump made last week in Phoenix, Arizona in which the president accused the media of being “truly dishonest,” “fake,” “crooked,” and of making up stories and deepening divisions within the country.

Desir said the comments are “particularly worrying given the United States’ long-standing position as one of the global leaders in defending free speech and press freedoms.” He said the media play a key role in democracies to hold governments accountable and to offer a platform for diverse voices.

The Vienna-based OSCE monitors security and election issues across the group’s 57 member states, including Europe, much of central Asia, Russia and the United States.

Trump has popularized use of the term “fake news” to criticize news media and reporters that he contends treat him unfairly.

A poll released last week by Quinnipiac University found that the majority of Americans agrees with Trump: 55 percent of voters said they disapprove of the way in which the news media report on Trump, compared to 40 percent who approve.

An even larger number of voters – 62 percent – said they disapprove of Trump’s negative comments about reporters and their employers. Thirty-five percent of those surveyed said they agree with Trump on such issues.
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Italian Government Accused of Paying Libyan Militias to Curb Migrant Trade

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Italy is being accused of paying off Libyan militias linked to people smugglers in order to stop trafficking migrants across the Mediterranean for a month.

The claim, which coincides with an 86 percent fall in the number of asylum-seekers reaching Italy this month, compared to August of last year, comes as European and African leaders met in Paris to discuss how to stem the migrant flow roiling Europe.

According to Middle East Eye, a London-based news site, the Italian government has been paying off local brigades in the city of Sabratha, 80 kilometers west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. The alleged payoffs involve cash, aid and equipment, and are channeled through the city’s municipal authorities, which are controlled by the militias, the site claims.

Earlier this month, the Italian Development Cooperation Agency announced it shipped 11 tons of aid to Sabratha University Hospital. Italian government spokespersons are refusing to respond to the payoff allegations, but last week the Reuters news agency reported an armed group has been stopping migrant boats from setting off across the Mediterranean from Sabratha beaches.

There have also been reports that trafficking from nearby Zawiya has come to a virtual standstill. The trafficking trade may have been disrupted, too, by the arrest in recent days of Fahmi Salim Musa Bin Khalifa, nicknamed the “king of smuggling,” by a mainly Islamist militia, known as the Rada Special Deterrence Force, in Tripoli.

A Rada statement said, “He is considered to be one of the biggest smugglers across the [Mediterranean] Sea, and owns transporters. He is also very active in sending death boats [migrant boats] across the [Libyan] shores of Zuwara and Sabratha.” Zuwara is a port city in northwestern Libya, 60 kilometers from the Tunisian border.

Drop in crossings

In explaining the sharp drop in numbers during July and August, Italian authorities say weather conditions have been highly changeable in what is normally peak season for crossings, but the weather has been highly favorable, according to seafarers.

Another explanation offered has been the Libyan coast guards have been more effective in their interdiction efforts, because of training and equipment offered by the Italian navy. An Italian warship is docked at Tripoli’s port.

According to analysts, some coast guard units are also tied to the militias.

On Saturday, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti met mayors from southern Libya to renew a commitment to fight people trafficking as part of an agreement signed earlier this year between Rome and the internationally recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj, who heads one of Libya’s three rival governments.

The meeting focused on helping to shape economic alternatives to human trafficking and contraband smuggling in Libyan towns that profit from the migrant trade. “Youngsters in those areas and the whole of Libya deserve a future of hope, free from the threats of criminal organizations,” Italy’s Interior Ministry said in a joint statement with the Libyans.

“Libya looks forward to the timely support of Italy and the European Union,” the statement continued.

From Libya to Italy

Since 2014, more than 600,000 migrants have reached Italy by sea from Libya, where people smugglers linked to dozens of mainly town-based militias have operated with impunity in the turmoil that has engulfed the country since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Italy’s coalition government of Paolo Gentiloni has been stepping up efforts to curb the migrant influx.

Last month, Italian authorities introduced a code of conduct for NGOs operating humanitarian migrant rescue vessels in the Mediterranean.

The charities were accused of at best acting as a “pull factor,” encouraging asylum-seekers to risk the perilous crossing and, at worst, actually coordinating with the people smugglers and facilitating the trafficking.

Five of eight aid groups that operate migrant rescue ships, which pick up about 40 percent of the migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, have refused to sign up to the code, which discourages them from patrolling in Libyan territorial waters.

Paris meeting

At the meeting Monday in Paris, Italy was to push the European Union to try to replicate with Libya a deal struck last year with Turkey that largely shut down the migrant route through the Balkans.

Analysts warn such a deal would be unworkable when it comes to Libya, given its lack of an effective central authority. The Italians, with German support, have been pushing for a concerted interdiction effort along Libya’s southern borders.

Minniti also met Monday with the interior ministers of Chad, Libya, Mali and Niger to discuss strengthening controls on sea and land borders. Rome wants the U.N. refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration involved in setting up migrant centers in Niger and Chad.

Meanwhile, with full migrant centers, Italian authorities are considering using property confiscated from the mafia to house asylum-seekers.
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Britain Looking to Push Brexit Talks With EU Onto Trade

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The European Union and Britain start a third round of Brexit negotiations on Monday, with London looking to move discussions to the future relationship and Brussels demanding more clarity on the terms of the divorce first.

Almost five months after the two-year divorce process began, the Brexit discussions have made little headway, interrupted by a British general election as well as the summer. As things stand, Britain has little idea what relationship it will have with the other 27 countries of the EU past the Brexit date of March 2019.

On the EU side, the frustration is increasingly evident. On Monday, Germany’s main business lobby group criticized the British government for what it called an unclear stance on the future. The head of the Federation of German Industries — an influential group in the EU’s biggest economy — said that “appreciable progress can hardly be expected” during four days of talks this week.

Dieter Kempf said that there doesn’t appear to be a single agreed British government position. He added that British proposals on customs arrangements after the U.K. leaves the EU would require “disproportionately high bureaucratic effort” and are impractical for companies.

Kempf said that the U.K. must make clear statements on the terms of its withdrawal.

The EU has insisted that key issues of the withdrawal must be dealt with before any post-Brexit discussions can begin. Britain is hoping those discussions can begin as soon as October.

The bloc says that is impossible until there has been “sufficient progress” in agreeing terms of the divorce, including how much Britain must pay to settle its existing commitments to the EU.

Britain’s Brexit minister, David Davis, acknowledged that this week’s talks will be mainly technical, but urged EU negotiators to show “flexibility and imagination.”

“We want to lock in the points where we agree, unpick the areas where we disagree, and make further progress on a range of issues,” he said Monday.

In recent weeks Britain has released a series of position papers on aspects of Brexit ahead of the resumption of talks, but they received a muted reception from Brussels.

Meanwhile, Britain’s main opposition Labour Party announced Sunday that it backs the U.K. staying in the EU single market, which guarantees tariff-free trade, and customs union during a “transition period” of several years after Brexit, arguing that would give much-needed certainty to businesses and consumers. In return for remaining a member of the single market, Britain would have to agree to abide by the EU’s four freedoms, including the freedom of movement within the bloc. And by remaining in the customs union, Britain would not be able to carve out its own trade deals, possibly with the United States.

The government has also called for a transition period, but insists Britain will be out of the single market and customs union once Brexit actually takes place.

Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin. Lawless wrote from London.
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Facebook Unveils Center to Teach Brazilian Coders, Entrepreneurs

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Facebook Inc on Monday unveiled its first training center in Latin America for coders and entrepreneurs, encouraging technology careers for young Brazilians saddled with staggering unemployment after a deep economic crisis.

The company’s regional Vice President Diego Dzodan told Reuters the space in mid-town São Paulo, known as Estação Hack, will bridge the gap in Brazil between a tech sector hungry for skilled talent and an eager but untrained generation with time on their hands.

“Imagine the opportunity,” Dzodan said in an interview at Facebook’s Latin America headquarters. “You’ve got people without a job, so they can’t afford training. And yet there’s so much demand for positions that the market can’t fill.”

One in four Brazilians aged 18 to 24, most with more formal education than their parents, were unemployed at the start of the year, as the country’s worst downturn on record stunted the careers of a generation of young workers.

Facebook’s 1,000-square-meter space on the bustling Avenida Paulista is slated to open by December, offering free coding courses, career guidance, entrepreneur training and digital marketing workshops for 7,400 Brazilians in its first year.

Dzodan said Estação Hack or “Hack Station” would draw on lessons from outreach projects like the Startup Garage in Paris, opened by Facebook in January, but was tailored to Brazil. For example, the Sao Paulo space offers workstations and mentoring for entrepreneurs focused on projects with social impact.

The initiative is one of several in Sao Paulo where major firms are making the most of a tech-savvy subculture — and a slump in the commercial real estate market — to create branded spaces for innovation in Latin America’s biggest business hub.

In June 2016, Alphabet Inc opened the six-story Google Campus Sao Paulo, a half dozen blocks south of the new Facebook space, also offering mentoring for startups, training for entrepreneurs and free community events.

Last week, Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco Holding SA announced it was quadrupling its Cubo co-working space for tech startups, a joint investment with venture capital firm Redpoint eventures, which moves to a 12-floor building in Sao Paulo’s financial district in June 2018.

Dzodan, who declined to say how much Facebook was spending on its new space, said the impact would be measured in participants rather than brick-and-mortar investments.

“The maximum impact will come from training and education,” he said. “The multiplier effect of that is much greater than infrastructure.”
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France Holds Migration Summit After Backtracking on Asylum Hotspots

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Getting Europe’s migrant crisis under control will be in focus at a summit of Europe’s “big four” continental powers and three African nations in Paris on Monday, with French President Emmanuel Macron seeking concrete action.

The 28-nation European Union has struggled to agree on a coherent answer to the influx of migrants fleeing war, poverty and political upheaval in the Middle East and Africa, and the crisis is testing cooperation between member states.

Over the summer, Macron sought to take the initiative on managing the flow of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, mainly into Italy. He proposed hotspots in Africa to handle asylum requests.

The viability of such centers was questioned by European and African allies and on Monday an official from the Elysee Palace said the idea was no longer under discussion.

“The hotspots announcement was nonsense and neither Chad nor Niger were consulted beforehand,” a West African official said. “Macron is trying to make up for that mistake.”

Leaders at the meeting will seek accord on a migration action plan, notably on tackling the economic model of people traffickers. “The leaders will be presented a roadmap that outlines… what we want to do to tackle all stages of the migrant route,” the Elysee official told reporters.

‘Need to do more’

The meeting hosts the leaders of Germany, Italy and Spain as well as the leaders of Chad, Niger and Libya — all three of them transit countries for migrants. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will also attend.

The Elysee official said the roadmap would include ideas on fighting people traffickers, asylum rights and stabilizing chaotic Libya, where thousands of migrants end up before embarking on a perilous Mediterranean sea journey to Europe.

But diplomats and analysts said they did not expect any major breakthroughs.

The crisis has put Paris and Rome at odds. Italy has accused France and other EU states of not sharing the migrant burden and has also asked the EU Commission for more budget flexibility to help it tackle the crisis.

Nearly 120,000 migrants, including refugees, have entered Europe by sea so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. More than 2,400 have drowned while making the dangerous odyssey, often in overcrowded dinghies run by people smugglers without enough food or water.

An Italian government official said he hoped the Paris meeting would accelerate the dispersal of EU funds that have already been promised to Libya.

“More generally, Italy and Germany have pledged funds to Libya and to other African countries to try and get control of immigration, but France and Spain need to do more.”

Germany said on Monday it had reached an agreement with Egypt to stem the flow of migrants from the Arab country to Europe.

“What is important is the joint goal of Germany and Egypt to protect people’s lives and to fight illegal immigration and the criminal smuggling of people,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told a news conference.

A Niger presidential source said his country, one of the world’s poorest, would be looking for more European financing to help with general security measures.
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Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Reportedly to Lead Uber

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Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been named Uber’s top executive, taking the difficult job of mending the dysfunctional ride-hailing giant and turning it from money-losing behemoth to a profitable company.

 

Uber’s fractured eight-member board voted to hire Khosrowshahi late Sunday, capping three days of meetings and the withdrawal of once-top candidate Jeffery Immelt, former CEO and still chairman of General Electric, two people briefed on the decision said. They didn’t want to be identified because the decision had not been officially announced as of Sunday night.

 

Khosrowshahi has been CEO of Expedia since August of 2015. The online booking site is one of the largest travel agencies in the world.

Self-driving cars

 

He’ll replace ousted CEO Travis Kalanick and faces the difficult task of changing Uber’s culture that has included sexual harassment and allegations of deceit and corporate espionage. Uber also is losing millions every quarter as it continues to expand and invest in self-driving cars.

 

The company currently is being run by a 14-person group of managers and is without multiple top executive positions that will be filled by Khosrowshahi.

 

Khosrowshahi has served as a member of Expedia’s board since it was spun off from IAC/InterActiveCorp. two years ago. An engineer who trained at Brown University, Khosrowshahi helped to expand IAC’s travel brands which were combined into Expedia, the company’s website says. He also serves on the boards of Fanatics Inc. and The New York Times Co.

Many problems to solve

 

He immediately will face troubles on many fronts, including having to deal with multiple board factions that had once pushed Immelt and Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman. Several factions of the board are suing each other.

 

Whitman, an investor in Uber, denied multiple times publicly that she was interested in the job. Although she spoke to some board members remotely Friday night, they could not guarantee an end to their infighting or that Kalanick would not become board chairman, said another person with knowledge of the board discussions. That person also didn’t want to be identified because board discussions are supposed to be private.

 

Khosrowshahi also must bring together a messy culture that an outside law firm found was rampant with sexual harassment and bullying of employees. He also must deal with driver discontent, although Uber already has started to fix that by allowing riders to tip drivers through its app.
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Romania: Protests Held in 6 Cities Over Judicial Changes

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More than 1,000 people have participated in protests in Romania’s capital and other cities to show opposition to against proposed changes to the judicial system.

Demonstrators gathered outside government offices in Bucharest on Sunday called the ruling Social Democratic Party “the red plague” and yelled “A government of thieves and Mafioso!”

 

People took to the streets in half a dozen cities around the country to protest the proposals submitted by Justice Minister Tudorel Toader.

 

Toader recommended having the president no longer appoint the general prosecutor and the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, a main function of Romania’s presidency.

 

He also suggested a process to punish prosecutors and judges for erroneous rulings and prosecutions.

 

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has criticized the proposal. Protesters said it would slow efforts to root out corruption.
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Can Computers Enhance Work of Teachers? Debate Is On

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In middle school, Junior Alvarado often struggled with multiplication and earned poor grades in math, so when he started his freshman year at Washington Leadership Academy, a charter high school in the nation’s capital, he fretted that he would lag behind.

But his teachers used technology to identify his weak spots, customize a learning plan just for him and coach him through it. This past week, as Alvarado started sophomore geometry, he was more confident in his skills.

“For me personalized learning is having classes set at your level,” Alvarado, 15, said in between lessons. “They explain the problem step by step, it wouldn’t be as fast, it will be at your pace.”

As schools struggle to raise high school graduation rates and close the persistent achievement gap for minority and low-income students, many educators tout digital technology in the classroom as a way forward. But experts caution that this approach still needs more scrutiny and warn schools and parents against being overly reliant on computers.

The use of technology in schools is part of a broader concept of personalized learning that has been gaining popularity in recent years. It’s a pedagogical philosophy centered around the interests and needs of each individual child as opposed to universal standards. Other features include flexible learning environments, customized education paths and letting students have a say in what and how they want to learn.

Personalized learning

Under the Obama administration, the Education Department poured $500 million into personalized learning programs in 68 school districts serving close to a half million students in 13 states plus the District of Columbia. Large organizations such as the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation have also invested heavily in digital tools and other student-centered practices.

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning estimates that up to 10 percent of all America’s public schools have adopted some form of personalized learning. Rhode Island plans to spend $2 million to become the first state to make instruction in every one of its schools individualized. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also embraces personalized learning as part of her broader push for school choice.

Supporters say the traditional education model, in which a teacher lectures at the blackboard and then tests all students at the same time, is obsolete and doesn’t reflect the modern world.

“The economy needs kids who are creative problem solvers, who synthesize information, formulate and express a point of view,” said Rhode Island Education Commissioner Ken Wagner. “That’s the model we are trying to move toward.”

At Washington Leadership Academy, educators rely on software and data to track student progress and adapt teaching to enable students to master topics at their own speed.

Digital tool finds problem

This past week, sophomores used special computer programs to take diagnostic tests in math and reading, and teachers then used that data to develop individual learning plans. In English class, for example, students reading below grade level would be assigned the same books or articles as their peers, but complicated vocabulary in the text would be annotated on their screen.

“The digital tool tells us: We have a problem to fix with these kids right here and we can do it right then and there; we don’t have to wait for the problem to come to us,” said Joseph Webb, founding principal at the school, which opened last year.

Webb, dressed in a green T-shirt reading “super school builder,” greeted students Wednesday with high-fives, hugs and humor. “Red boxers are not part of our uniform!” he shouted to one student, who responded by pulling up his pants.

The school serves some 200 predominantly African-American students from high-poverty and high-risk neighborhoods. Flags of prestigious universities hang from the ceiling and a “You are a leader” poster is taped to a classroom door. Based on a national assessment last year, the school ranked in the 96th percentile for improvement in math and in the 99th percentile in reading compared with schools whose students scored similarly at the beginning of the year.

 

It was one of 10 schools to win a $10 million grant in a national competition aimed at reinventing American high schools that is funded by Lauren Powell Jobs, widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

‘Female Bill Gates’

Naia McNatt, a lively 15-year-old who hopes to become “the African-American and female Bill Gates,” remembers feeling so bored and unchallenged in fourth grade that she stopped doing homework and her grades slipped.

 

At the academy, “I don’t get bored ‘cause I guess I am pushed so much,” said McNatt, a sophomore. “It makes you need to do more, you need to know more.”

In math class, McNatt quickly worked through quadratic equations on her laptop. When she finished, the system spitted out additional, more challenging problems.

Her math teacher, Britney Wray, says that in her previous school she was torn between advanced learners and those who lagged significantly. She says often she wouldn’t know if a student was failing a specific unit until she started a new one.

In comparison, the academy’s technology now gives Wray instant feedback on which students need help and where. “We like to see the problem and fix the problem immediately,” she said.

Still, most researchers say it is too early to tell if personalized learning works better than traditional teaching.

A recent study by the Rand Corporation found that personalized learning produced modest improvements: a 3 percentile increase in math and a smaller, statistically insignificant increase for reading compared with schools that used more traditional approaches. Some students also complained that collaboration with classmates suffered because everybody was working on a different task.

“I would not advise for everybody to drop what they are doing and adopt personalized learning,” said John Pane, a co-author of the report. “A more cautious approach is necessary.”

New challenges

The new opportunities also pose new challenges. Pediatricians warn that too much screen time can come at the expense of face-to-face social interaction, hands-on exploration and physical activity. Some studies also have shown that students may learn better from books than from computer screens, while another found that keeping children away from computers for five days in a row improved their emotional intelligence.

Some teachers are skeptical. Marla Kilfoyle, executive director of the Badass Teachers Association, an education advocacy group, agrees that technology has its merits, but insists that no computer or software should ever replace the personal touch, motivation and inspiration teachers give their students.

“That interaction and that human element is very important when children learn,” Kilfoyle said.

 
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A Brief Explainer on Guatemala’s UN Anti-Corruption Agency

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Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales announced Sunday he was expelling the head of the U.N.-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, known as CICIG in Spanish. But the move was quickly blocked by the country’s top court. Background on the commission and its role in Guatemala:

What is CICIG?

Guatemala’s Congress, under heavy international pressure, voted in 2007 to ratify the commission, which is made up of foreign experts to help local law enforcement build cases and gain expertise in fighting organized crime and police corruption. The country had seen an explosion of drug gang violence and corruption in the decade after the end of a 1960-1996 civil war in which 200,000 people died. Opponents said the commission was an unconstitutional violation of Guatemala’s sovereignty.

What has it done?

The commission began by going after police corruption and drug gang enforcers and kidnappers. Its recommendations led to the firing or resignation of more than 1,700 police officers, several senior prosecutors and six Supreme Court judges.

Its scope rapidly expanded to broader political corruption. In 2008, it helped prosecutors build a case accusing former President Alfonso Portillo of stealing millions from the country’s defense department. While a local court absolved him, Portillo was extradited to the U.S. and served time on money laundering charges. In 2010, it helped clear President Alvaro Colom of allegations he’d orchestrated the murder of a prominent lawyer. It also helped prosecute former defense and interior ministers for cases including the slayings of prison inmates.

Its crowning achievement was the 2015 resignation of then-President Otto Perez Molina and his Vice-President Roxana Baldetti, who remain jailed awaiting trial on a variety of corruption charges. The wide-ranging investigations have swept up many business people, politicians and bureaucrats. A judge this year gave prosecutors the green light to move ahead with a corruption probe of President Jimmy Morales’ son and brother.

Action against Morales

The country’s chief prosecutor, together with Velasquez, announced Friday that they were moving to strip Morales himself of his immunity from prosecution in order to probe alleged irregularities in the financing of his 2015 presidential campaign. If the Supreme Court approved the request, it would be up to Congress to decide on removing immunity.

What happens to the commission now?

Morales didn’t address the future of the commission itself. Its current mandate, approved by the government and the U.N., extends through September 2019. The Constitutional Court injunction blocking expulsion of Velasquez means Morales the future of order itself is in question.

Guatemalan political forces have repeatedly tried to get rid of the commission, but public and international pressure has forced them to back off and renew its two-year terms.

The citizens of other countries in the region have watched its work admiringly, but paradoxically its success in prosecuting top politicians in Guatemala has made it unlikely that another leader in the region would invite the creation of such a commission.

 
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Albania’s Prime Minister Names Smaller, Restructured Cabinet

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Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama has named a restructured Cabinet with a goal of increasing the country’s economic growth from 3.8 to 5 percent in four years.

Rama on Sunday told his Socialist Party leadership that his Cabinet would be reduced from 20 to 14 ministerial posts, making it “a smaller but more cooperative one.”

The new structure merges the finance ministry with the economy ministry, and the energy ministry with the transport and infrastructure ministry. A new ministerial post has been created to oversee the Albanian diaspora and to coordinate with businesses.

Most of the appointees are holdovers from the previous government, but serving in different positions. Four are new appointments. The new Cabinet preserves an equal number of women and men.

The left wing Socialists secured a second mandate in a June election, winning 74 seats in the 140-seat parliament and can run the government without allies.

The opposition Democratic party won 43 seats while the Socialist Movement for Integration Party that was in Rama’s governing coalition in the previous mandate secured 19 seats. Four other seats were won by a smaller political grouping.

The Democrats said the Cabinet picks represented “the return to power of the former communist elite” that would lead to “deepening Edi Rama’s and a small group’s private reigning.”

Rooting out corruption, fighting drug trafficking, improving pay and lowering unemployment are some of the key issues in Albania, a NATO member since 2009 that wants to launch membership negotiations with the European Union next year.

The new Cabinet will be subject to a vote when parliament convenes early next month.
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Former Colombia Rebels Try Hand at Politics With New Party

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After more than five decades of battle in Colombia’s jungles, the nation’s largest rebel movement initiated the launch of its political party Sunday at a concrete convention center in the capital, vowing to upend the country’s traditional conservatism with the creation of an alternative leftist coalition.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia will transform into a political party under a new, still-to-be-announced name as part of a historic peace deal signed last year. The accords guarantee the ex-combatants 10 seats in Congress and the same funding the state provides to the nation’s 13 other political parties, in addition to a half-million dollars in funding to begin a think tank to develop their political ideology.

“We are taking an extraordinary step in the history of the common people’s struggle in Colombia,” said Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, to an audience of former guerrillas dressed in white T-shirts with the hashtag #NuveoPartido (#NewParty) on the back.

“This doesn’t mean we are renouncing in any way our fundamental principles or societal project,” he said.

The organization has signaled that it will adhere to its Marxist roots and focus on winning votes from peasants, workers and the urban middle class with a social justice platform, but it faces opposition from many who identify the guerrillas with kidnappings and terrorism.

A poll released in August found that fewer than 10 percent of Colombians said they had total confidence in the rebels as a political party and a large majority said they’d never vote a former guerrilla into Congress.

“They’re not going to be received very warmly in most of Colombia,” said Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America think tank. “Their human rights record hurt them. Their media image is terrible. Most Colombians quite simply aren’t socialists or communists.”

But, he added, “All is not lost. A message of wanting to redistribute wealth and undo economic injustice could probably do quite well in a lot of poor areas of Colombia.”

The group’s entrance into politics has been met with fierce resistance from leaders like former President Alvaro Uribe, one of the peace agreement’s staunchest critics. After passing a law earlier this year ratifying the group as a political party, the nation’s Supreme Court is now debating the legislation’s constitutionality. Critics say the former rebels shouldn’t be allowed to participate in politics before first going through a special peace tribunal.

“The fact that a war criminal could become the president of Colombia makes no sense,” former Peace Commissioner Camilo Gomez said at a recent court hearing.

Supporters like Ivan Cepeda of the leftist Alternative Democratic Pole contend that political incorporation of the group known as the FARC is the best means of ensuring a lasting peace.

“We have had to pay a very high cost in lives, in infrastructure … that today we are saving with the end of the conflict,” Cepeda said. “It’s more an investment in the democracy of Colombia.”

The FARC was formed in the early 1960s by guerrillas affiliated with Colombia’s Communist Party. Over the next 53 years the battle between the rebels, government forces and right-wing paramilitaries claimed at least 250,000 lives, left another 60,000 people missing and displaced millions, becoming the region’s longest-running conflict.

Four years of negotiations in Havana between rebel leaders and the government culminated with the signing of a peace accord in which guerillas agreed to turn over their arms, confess their crimes in a special peace tribunal that will spare most of any jail time, and turn over their war spoils as reparation to victims.

The agreement also addresses thorny issues like how to reduce Colombia’s booming coca production and provide economic alternatives to poor farmers. The U.S. once labeled the FARC one of the world’s largest drug trafficking organizations.

Colombian voters rejected the accord by a razor-thin majority in a post-signing referendum but a modified version with relatively minor changes was later approved by the legislature. A poll this summer by the Colombian firm Politmetrica found that optimism about the peace process has declined since last October’s referendum, from 67 percent of those surveyed to just about 53 percent.

The conference launched Sunday is expected to gather 1,000 former combatants from around the nation and define the FARC’s political platform. In a document leaked this spring – called the “April Theses” in a nod to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin’s directive by the same name – the FARC leadership described its political party as rooted in “Marxism, Leninism, emancipatory Bolivarian thought and the people’s revolutionary ideology.”

The rebel leader known by the nom de guerre of Pastor Alape said the party’s would quickly seek a leftist coalition to advance implementation of the peace accords.

FARC leaders have toyed with keeping their same acronym and changing their name to the Alternative Revolutionary Force of Colombia, but the idea hasn’t received a warm reception.

“If the FARC intend to grow it’s a mistake,” journalist Angel Becassino told news magazine Semana. The acronym “signifies a past that generates a lot of confrontation.”

Hanging over the FARC’s political transition is a bloody past: As many as 3,000 members of a FARC-aligned political party were gunned down by right-wing paramilitary assassins, sometimes in concordance with state intelligence services, during an earlier attempt at peace in the 1980s. Already, nearly two dozen former FARC members or their relatives have been assassinated since the end of hostilities, Cepeda said.

“What would kill the peace process is if they’re not protected and a lot of their leaders and activists are killed and nothing happens,” Isacson said. “Then you’re looking at a new wave of violence.”
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Trump Renews Threat to Scrap NAFTA Going into Next Round of Talks

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U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his threat to scrap NAFTA and ripped on trading partners Canada and Mexico in a tweet early on Sunday, days before the three countries were scheduled to hold a second round of negotiations on rewriting the 23-year-old agreement.

“We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada. Both being very difficult, may have to terminate?” he wrote.

In a separate Sunday morning tweet, Trump repeated his pledge that Mexico will eventually pay for his proposed border wall, saying the barrier is needed due to Mexico’s high crime rate.

In response, Mexico’s foreign ministry issued a statement Sunday afternoon reiterating the country’s position that it will not “in any way or under any circumstance” pay for Trump’s signature border wall.

The ministry added that overcoming violent crime associated with cross-border drug trafficking is the responsibility of both nations, pointing to the high demand for drugs in the United States from Mexico and other countries.

Trump, a Republican, promised during his campaign to build the wall and overhaul or eliminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he cast as killing jobs and exacerbating the U.S. deficit, and to adopt a more protectionist stance for trade generally.

The first five-day round of talks between the three countries concluded last Sunday, with all sides committing to follow an accelerated process in revamping the agreement, which was originally signed by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat whose wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ran against Trump in the 2016 election.

The second round of NAFTA talks will kick off on Friday in Mexico City.

Mexico’s negotiating position will continue to be “serious and constructive” and the country’s negotiators will not hash out differences “via social media or the press,” the foreign ministry’s statement said.

Going into the next round of NAFTA talks, Trump has kept the heat turned up. Both Mexico and Canada have dismissed his musing in a Tuesday speech that “we’ll end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point” as a negotiating tactic.
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El Salvador Asks US Government for TPS Extension

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El Salvador’s government has asked the Trump administration to extend Temporary Protected Status to nearly 200,000 of its nationals living in the United States, the country’s foreign minister announced Friday.

In a one-on-one interview with VOA’s Latin America service, Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez said tropical storms within the past five years, followed by drought conditions more recently, make the return of those citizens untenable.

“We’ve told the U.S. also that, of course they had their reasons initially for granting TPS in 2001 — the instability following the earthquakes in January and February of 2001 — and while we have overcome some of that instability, unfortunately we’ve suffered other catastrophes,” Martinez said.

The U.S. originally granted TPS to Salvadorans in the U.S. in March 2001 following a series of earthquakes. The current designation will expire March 9, 2018.

In making the case to American officials while visiting Washington, Martinez said he also emphasized what Salvadorans are contributing to the U.S. economy.

“Around 90 percent of the [Salvadoran] TPS population is working — and working more than 40 hours [a week], sometimes back-to-back shifts. … They work in key areas for economic development in the U.S., like construction, the restaurant industry, landscaping, hospitality, but also health care and home care, especially for children.”

El Salvador also relies heavily on remittances from workers in the U.S. — recent data indicates 17 percent of the country’s GDP depends on the money sent back to the Central American country — totaling $4.58 billion in 2016.

Each country covered by the program — designed, as the name states, to be a temporary measure during a crises, usually a natural disaster, epidemic or violent conflict —  undergoes periodic review to determine if those citizens residing in the U.S. will still qualify for the status and work authorization.

There are 10 countries whose citizens may qualify for TPS currently.

During President Barack Obama’s second term, for example, the Department of Homeland Security officials declined to renew TPS for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, assessing that the “widespread transmission of Ebola virus in the three countries that led to the designations has ended.”

After May 2017, citizens from those countries who had not adjusted their immigration status were no longer protected from deportation.

Under the Trump administration, TPS status for Haitians is in jeopardy, with top officials announcing in May a shorter-than-average, six-month extension until January 22, 2018, and has told Haitians living in the U.S. under TPS to “prepare for their return to Haiti in the event Haiti’s designation is not extended again.”

In the U.S., about 10 percent of the estimated 2 million people of Salvadoran origin are protected by TPS.

El Salvador has long struggled to contain a staggering homicide rate and transnational gang activity that stretches from Central America to the United States — a frequent talking point for the Trump administration officials, which has regularly — and erroneously — linked immigrants to crime.

Asked whether there has been increased cooperation between El Salvador and the U.S. on security issues under Trump, Martinez said there has been, although he is cautious to point out those efforts are a long time in the making.

“In reality, yes, there’s been an increase, but it’s a natural process that we’ve been developing with various U.S. [government] agencies,” Martinez said. “What I can say is that, with regard to security issues, El Salvador is one of the United States’ leading partners in the hemisphere.”

Interview of Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez by VOA’s Latin America Service Correspondent Gesell Tobias. Translation, additional reporting and text by VOA News Center Reporter Victoria Macchi.
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Jordan, Germany Said to Disagree on Status of German Troops

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A Jordanian official said Sunday that Jordan is negotiating with Germany over the legal status of German troops to be stationed in the kingdom, amid reports that disagreements delayed deployment.

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Germany seeks immunity in Jordan for 250 soldiers who are part of the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State group extremists. The report says Jordan balked at the demand.

 

The Jordanian official said talks with Germany are “subject to international diplomatic rules” and “equal mutual treatment.” He demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters on the issue.

 

Germany’s Defense Ministry played down the report saying the negotiation process is ongoing and that “we are in fruitful talks with Jordan.”

 

“We already started the deployment… and are expecting to be fully operational by October,” said a spokesman for the German Defense Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

 

Germany chose Jordan after previous host Turkey prevented German lawmakers from visiting the troops there.
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German Woman Dies, Raises Death Toll to 16 in Spain Attacks

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A 51-year-old German woman died Sunday from injuries suffered in the Aug. 17 vehicle attack in Barcelona, raising the overall death toll in Spain’s recent attacks to 16, health officials in Catalonia said.

 

The woman died in the intensive care unit of Barcelona’s Hospital del Mar, according to the regional health department.

 

The latest death raises the toll to 14 in the van attack in Barcelona’s popular Las Ramblas boulevard. Another man was stabbed to death in a carjacking that night as the van driver made his getaway, and another woman died in an Aug. 18 vehicle-and-knife attack in the nearby coastal town of Cambrils.

 

More than 120 people were wounded in the attacks. Authorities say 24 remain hospitalized, five of them in critical condition.

 

On Saturday, an estimated 500,000 peace marchers flooded the heart of Barcelona shouting “I’m not afraid” — a public rejection of violence following extremist attacks, Spain’s deadliest in more than a decade.

 

Emergency workers, taxis drivers, police and ordinary citizens who helped immediately after the Las Ramblas attack led the march. They carried a street-wide banner with black capital letters reading “No Tinc Por,” which means “I’m not afraid” in the local Catalan language.

 

The phrase has grown from a spontaneous civic answer to violence into a slogan that Spain’s entire political class has unanimously embraced.

 

Spain’s central, regional and local authorities tried to send an image of unity Saturday by walking behind the emergency workers, despite earlier criticism that national and regional authorities had not shared information about the attackers well enough with each other.

 

In a first for a Spanish monarch, King Felipe VI joined a public demonstration, walking in Barcelona along with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other officials. A separate anti-violence rally was held in the northern town of Ripoll, home to many of the attackers.

 

Eight suspects in the attacks are dead, two are jailed under preliminary charges of terrorism and homicide and two more were freed by a judge but will remain under investigation.

 

 
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Guatemalan Court Blocks President’s Order to Expel UN Envoy

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A court in Guatemala has blocked an order by the president of the Central American country to expel the head of a U.N. anti-corruption commission investigating his campaign financing.

The constitutional court ordered the government not to carry out President Jimmy Morales’s order to expel Iván Velásquez, a Colombian national. The U.N. official has tried to investigate alleged illegal payments linked to the president’s party, the National Convergence Front.

In a video published online Sunday, Morales said Velásquez should be expelled “in the interests of the Guatemalan people, for the strengthening of the rule of law and our institutions.”

Velásquez said Friday that his International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, working together with Guatemalan government legal officials, believes that Morales violated campaign-financing laws before his election in 2015. In order to pursue the investigation, Velasquez said, he will seek to strip Morales of his immunity from prosecution.

The court order to block Morales’s retaliatory expulsion order is expected to force the president either to drop his action against Velásquez or defy the nation’s top judges.

In Washington Sunday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” by Morales’ decision. The U.S. statement supported Velásquez as an effective leader of the commission and said his commission should be able to “work free from interference by the Guatemalan government.”

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres was “shocked” to learn that Morales declared Velásquez persona non grata, according to his spokesman.

“He fully expects that Mr. Velásquez will be treated by the Guatemalan authorities with the respect due to his functions as an international civil servant,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Guartemala’s attorney general, Thelma Aldana, has worked with the U.N. commission, known as CICIG. She has said Morales refused to account for more than $800,000 in campaign financing.

The same U.N. commission uncovered a corruption scandal that ousted Morales’s predecessor, President Otto Perez, two years ago.

About 2,500 people protested in the capital on Saturday, demanding that Morales, a former comic actor who won election on promises to be honest, resign.

 

 
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IS Claims Brussels Knife Attacker is One of Their Own

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The Islamic State news agency Aamaq has claimed the Brussels attacker who assaulted three soldiers with a knife as an Islamic State group soldier.

In a statement Sunday, it said he carried out the Friday evening attack in response to calls to target countries of the coalition that is fighting IS.

Belgian prosecutors have opened an attempted terrorist murder probe after attacker assaulted the soldiers while shouting “Allahu akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great.” He was shot dead by troops.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office said the man was known to police for assault charges but had no previous terror-related offenses.  The suspect, a Belgian citizen of Somali origin, was also carrying a fake firearm and copies of the Quran.

IS often claims attacks by people who have no known link to the group.
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UK Opposition to Offer Alternative ‘Soft’ Brexit in Policy Shift

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Britain’s main opposition Labour Party is announcing a policy shift which opens the possibility of the country remaining in the European Union’s single market and customs union for several years as part of a “soft” Brexit, a spokesman said on Saturday.

The party would propose the same “basic terms” as Britain’s current relationship with the EU during a transition period following Brexit in 2019, and after that for all options to be open, a spokesman for Labour said.

His comments came in response to a report in Britain’s Guardian and sister newspaper Observer in which shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer backed “continued membership of the EU single market beyond March 2019, when Britain leaves the EU,” so that Labour would become the party of a “soft Brexit” and offer a smoother economic outcome.

Jeremy Corbyn’s party would also “leave open the option of the UK remaining a member of the customs union and single market for good, beyond the end of the transitional period”, the paper said.

However, a longer-term arrangement would only be considered if a Labour government could by that point have persuaded the rest of the EU to “agree to a special deal on immigration and changes to freedom of movement rules,” the paper said.
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