Passionate activists are using technology to make the world a safer, more equitable place — and a new video series shines a light on their powerful stories.
“Internet Without Borders” is a four-part series from Jigsaw, the tech incubator at Google’s parent company Alphabet, featuring interviews with activists and technologists who use digital tools to defend human rights in their countries.
Jigsaw, whose mission is to look at how technology can make people safer around the world, filmed the videos at the 2016 Oslo Freedom Forum last May. There, the company sought out people who are “courageously fighting for freedom in diverse communities around the world.”
The first two videos of the series launched on Jan. 19, featuring Afghan tech CEO Roya Mahboob and Egyptian activist and actor Omar Sharif Jr.
“I have a vision to bring equal access to education through technology for the women and girls in Afghanistan,” Mahboob says.
A Russian company has unveiled commemorative silver and gold coins featuring Donald Trump’s face ahead of his presidential inauguration.
The limited-edition coins ― only 45 have been made ― feature a cherubic mug of the incoming president as well as the Statue of Liberty and the inscription: “In Trump We Trust.”
Vladimir Vasyukhin, director of the metal-works company Art-Grani, recently showcased the nearly two-pound medallion to The Associated Press Television Network.
Heavy-hitting lawyers plan to sue President Donald Trump in federal court Monday over business interests that they say put him in violation of the Constitution by receiving payments from foreign governments.
The nonprofit good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, will file the suit Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the organization said.
The suit alleges that Trump violated the Constitution the moment he was sworn in as president on Friday because he had not divested his interests in the Trump Organization
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Donald Trump at a news conference Jan. 11 with his attorney Sheri Dillon to discuss his business interests. AFP – Getty Images
With the advent in Washington of an Administration with radical new priorities regarding Israel, and a disdain for Palestinian rights, Palestine is facing a daunting reality. In recent years, ascendant political currents in America and Israel had already begun to merge. We have now reached the point where envoys from one country to the other could almost switch places: the Israeli Ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer, who grew up in Florida, could just as easily be the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, while Donald Trump’s Ambassador-designate to Israel, David Friedman, who has intimate ties to the Israeli settler movement, would make a fine Ambassador in Washington for the pro-settler government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Whereas America’s solicitous concern for Israel and its disregard for the Palestinians were once cloaked behind evenhandedness, under Trump we are set to see a more complete convergence between America’s political leadership and the most chauvinistic, religious, and right-wing government in Israel’s history. It will be this Israeli government and its new American soul mates who will call the tune in Palestine for at least the next several years.
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As Donald Trump enters the White House, the Palestinians face stark choices.PHOTOGRAPH BY BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP / GETTY
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Brandishing signs reading “The future is female” and “Make America kind again,” tens of thousands of women in a sea of pink hats marched on the nation’s capital Saturday, raising their voices in direct opposition to Donald Trump.
As Trump attended a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral on his first full day as president, protesters from across the country descended on D.C., arriving in buses, caravans and packing public transportation to gather near the National Mall and hear from prominent women’s rights activists, lawmakers and celebrities. A slow-moving procession began Saturday afternoon along Constitution Avenue toward the Washington Monument, and planned to end near the White House.
Organizers say the Women’s March on Washington was intentionally scheduled for the day after the presidential inauguration with the aim of sending a powerful message to the newly minted administration: Women’s rights are human rights.
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Demonstrators arrive at Union Station for the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21, 2017, in Washington, DC. Jessica Kourkounis / Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day was marred by noisy demonstrations, shoving matches and sporadic clashes with cops that resulted in more than 200 arrests.
Three-thousand members of local, state and federal law enforcement — backed by 5,000 National Guard members and police officers from as far away as New Jersey — patrolled the streets as the evening’s festivities got under way and the legions of protesters still seething over the Manhattan mogul’s unexpected victory threatened more disruptions.
Acting Police Chief Peter Newsham said that by around 6:30 p.m. ET things had calmed down, but authorities were still monitoring several groups.
At the same time, police are preparing for the Women’s March on Washington set for Saturday that is expected to draw 200,000 protesters — a number that inaugural historian Jim Bendat said could break records.
President Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on Friday, and delivered his inauguration address to the nation, which he apparently wrote himself.
Well, except for one line, which he straight up copied from the Batman villain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.
Timothy Burke for Deadspin noticed the striking resemblance and mashed together this quick video to show the shared line.
The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet member Friday, formally approving his defense secretary.
As the Senate voted on retired Gen. James Mattis for defense secretary, he easily cleared the 50-vote majority threshold. New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was the first and so far only senator to vote against him.
The Senate was set to vote next on retired Gen. John Kelly for homeland security secretary.
The Senate was not expected to consider Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo for CIA director until Monday, after at least three Democrats objected to his quick confirmation over concerns including surveillance, though a deal was possible to allow the vote to proceed Friday.
The two expected confirmations were fewer than the seven targeted by the Trump transition team. They had hoped to meet the number that President Barack Obama had on his Inauguration Day, but Senate Democrats have objected to many of Trump’s nominees.
Donald Trump will become president Friday with an approval rating of just 40%, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll, the lowest of any recent president and 44 points below that of President Barack Obama, the 44th president.
Following a tumultuous transition period, approval ratings for Trump’s handling of the transition are more than 20 points below those for any of his three most recent predecessors. Obama took the oath in 2009 with an 84% approval rating, 67% approved of Clinton’s transition as of late December 1992 and 61% approved of George W. Bush’s transition just before he took office in January 2001.
Trump’s wobbly handling of the presidential transition has left most Americans with growing doubts that the President-elect will be able to handle the job. About 53% say Trump’s statements and actions since Election Day have made them less confident in his ability to handle the presidency, and the public is split evenly on whether Trump will be a good or poor president (48% on each side).
The President-elect dismissed the poll findings on Twitter: “The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before.”
Congress scored the first of what could be a series of bipartisan year-end victories late Thursday night with the final passage of a $305 billion measure to fund roads, bridges, and rail lines.
The five-year infrastructure bill is the longest reauthorization of federal transportation programs that Congress has approved in more than a decade, ending an era of stopgap bills and half-measures that left the Highway Trust Fund nearly broke and frustrated local governments and business groups. President Obama will sign the bill into law, as it fulfills his long-running push for lawmakers to pass an infrastructure bill even though it is significantly less than the $478 billion he sought in his own plan earlier this year.
The Senate approved the highway bill on an 83-16 vote. All but two Democrats—Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tom Carper—voted for it. Among the 14 Republican opponents were three of the four presidential candidates serving in the Senate: Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul. (Senator Bernie Sanders missed the vote.) The House cleared it, 359-65, earlier on Thursday. It won unanimous support from Democrats and opposition mainly from conservatives. Negotiators had struck a deal on the legislation only on Tuesday, but the House and Senate needed to act quickly before the Highway Trust Fund again ran dry.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Image: Jigsaw / Internet Without Borders
D.C. Protests on Inauguration Day
Trump’s Bane Quote
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James' World 2 