News World Wild: February 2018

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Fiction: Seeking Asylum but Finding Heartbreak

Sharon Bala’s debut novel, “The Boat People” — the fictionalized account of a real incident in 2010 — pits Sri Lankan Tamil refugees against the Canadian government.

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Children’s Books: In New Novels for Kids, Dangerous Journeys and Hockey Madness

Books from Christopher Paul Curtis, Cynthia Kadohata, Veera Hiranandani and April Stevens offer thrills, suspense and some quieter pleasures, too.

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ITV Studios Boosts British Broadcaster As New Boss Reveals “Strategy Refresh”

Double digit growth at ITV Studios helped the British commercial broadcaster offset falling advertising revenue as recently installed Chief Executive Carolyn McCall revealed plans for a “strategy refresh”. The production business, which produces series such as Dancing On Ice, Victoria and Love Island grew 13% over the full year to the end of December 2017, taking in £1.58B (US$2.2B). This helped total revenue at ITV grow to £3.13B. The advertising numbers across ITV's…

from Deadline http://ift.tt/2GQgUuG

Britbox Scores 250K Subscribers Just Under A Year After Launch

BritBox, the U.S. streaming service operated by British commercial broadcaster ITV and BBC Worldwide, has reached 250,000 subscribers just under a year after launch. The digital platform has posted its first subscriber numbers days after its launch in Canada. It comes as the service doubled the number of hours it offers to subscribers to over 3,600 hours of British programming. The company plans to increase the amount of original and acquired programming by 50% over the…

from Deadline http://ift.tt/2GOI9Ga

FNC Cops Biggest Cable News Crowd For 194th Month; MSNBC Posts Year-To-Year Growth

Fox News Channel in February celebrated its 194th month as cable news's most watched network. FNC also finished first among all basic cable nets – news and non – in both metrics, marking its 20th month in a row on top in total day with overall audience. Among the net's bragging points, Sean Hannity snagged his most watched month since heading back to 9 PM while bumping MSNBC's Rachel Maddow from the top spot among adults 25-54, aka the news demographic. Net’s Tucker…

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Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson Set Record Straight On Shooting Survivor’s Claim CNN Scripted Town Hall Question

Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity set the record straight Tuesday night about segments on their last week’s programs, in which Parkland,FL shooting survivor Colton Haab and father Glenn claimed CNN tried to script the teen’s question for that network’s town hall on school shootings. Glenn Haab today acknowledged he omitted some words from an email he got from a CNN producer that he had forwarded to news outlets to prove his claim. The removal of those…

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Father Of Florida Shooting Survivor Admits To Altering Email Exchange With CNN

CNN’s town hall on gun control and safety following the Parkland shooting received “fake news” backlash after Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor Colton Haab claimed CNN tried to script his question. CNN denied these claims and said that the student’s father, Glenn Haab, sent doctored email exchanges between CNN and himself to media outlets. When the dust settled from this back-and-forth, it turns out Haab did, in fact, alter the emails. Haab admitted…

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Kevin Smith Shares His Heart Attack Experience, Thanks Fans & Chris Pratt For “Well-Wishes”

“I never in a million years thought it was a heart attack,” said Kevin Smith in regards to the “massive heart attack” he suffered from late Monday night. The director, comedian, and the king of nerds and everything under the fanboy umbrella took to Facebook Live to details the hours leading up to his heart attack. In the 19-minute video, Smith uses his funny and self-deprecating storytelling skills to share his near-death experience which happened after filming one of two…

from Deadline http://ift.tt/2Fb6by0

Bryant Gumbel Pays Tribute To Parkland High School’s Hockey Championship Win On ‘Real Sports’

Bryant Gumbel closed tonight’s edition of his HBO show Real Sports with commentary on the winners of the Florida state high school hockey championship. “Despite being seeded last, the winners this past weekend upset the top seed in the semi-final, then went on to another upset, by a score of 7-4, in the championship game,” Gumbel began. “Just two wins, but no small feat in light of the fact that, just 11 days earlier, many of the players’ classmates and teachers were…

from Deadline http://ift.tt/2CLoUuL

Stephen Colbert: While Donald Trump Live Tweets Fox News, Hope Hicks “Bannons” House Intel Committee

Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner got a security clearance demotion today. But, Stephen Colbert noted at the top of his show, Trump has not yet commented on Kushner’s demotion. “He was too busy with his main presidential duty: live tweeting Fox News,” CBS’ Late Show host explained. Trump tweeted a bunch of stuff that had been said by various talking heads on FNC. But the one presidential tweet that really stood out was two words long and in all caps: “WITCH…

from Deadline http://ift.tt/2ov5nu8

Paramount’s ‘Gemini Man’ Adds ‘Doctor Strange’ Actor Benedict Wong

Paramount Pictures and Skydance Media’s Will Smith-starring action thriller Gemini Man has added Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange) to the cast as production has officially commenced. Oscar-winning director Ang Lee is at the helm of the project, which had been in development for the past 20 years, originally set up at Disney. It follows Henry Brogan (Smith), an elite assassin who suddenly is targeted and pursued by a mysterious young operative who seemingly can predict his…

from Deadline http://ift.tt/2FBHaK7

Reed Morano’s Sundance Winner ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ Sells To Momentum Pictures

EXCLUSIVE: Momentum Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to I Think We're Alone Now, the Reed Morano-directed film that stars Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning. It won a Special Jury Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at Sundance, where it premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section. Morano made the film after winning an Emmy for directing the first three episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, on which she is also exec producer. Del (Dinklage) finds himself alone in the…

from Deadline http://ift.tt/2CqoMFa

Geoff Shaevitz To Exit Lionsgate Production Prexy Post; He Will Become Lit Manager At Management 360

EXCLUSIVE: Geoff Shaevitz is leaving his post as President of Production at Lionsgate to become a manager at Management 360, sources said. Shaevitz has been with Lionsgate since 2012, when he followed Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger over from Summit after that company was acquired by Lionsgate. Shaevitz will become a manager in the lit department of Management 360. This comes as several key Lionsgate executives are in the process of exiting. Shaevitz began as a CE at…

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'Euphoria killing' women jailed in Australia

The Briton and Australian murdered a teenager after plotting to become serial killers, a jury heard.

from BBC News - World http://ift.tt/2CpOcCH

Fury over India's reporting of Sridevi death

India's news media face backlash over graphics showing Sridevi in bathrooms to illustrate how she died

from BBC News - World http://ift.tt/2F6KQpb

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Letter opened at Virginia's Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall triggers hazmat situation; 11 fall ill

02/27/18 6:27 PM

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Judge accused of bias by Trump rules against challenge to border wall

02/27/18 5:03 PM

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Trump names Brad Parscale as campaign manager for 2020 re-election bid

02/27/18 11:15 AM

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

President Trump strikes deal with Boeing for new Air Force One planes

02/27/18 9:22 AM

Kindred Capital, an £80M seed VC firm in London, is giving founders it backs a share of fund profits

Kindred Capital, a London-based VC firm that has actually been up and running since 2015, is announcing that it has closed its first seed fund of £80 million, money it has already been deploying in around 20 tech startups throughout Europe over the last two years. Read More

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India-based music streaming service Gaana raises $115M led by Tencent

Chinese internet giant Tencent is continuing to put its money in India and in music streaming services after it agreed to lead a $115 million investment in India’s Gaana. Gaana is a music streaming service that was started by Times Media, the company behind the Times of India newspaper and tech incubator Times Internet among other things, seven years ago. Gaana didn’t reveal its… Read More

from TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2F7j109

Global tech firms and investors are reshaping Latin America’s startup environment

Latin America is emerging as the new battleground for the global tech giants, and some of Silicon Valley and Asia’s biggest investors—from Sequoia Capital to SoftBank—are taking notice. International investment in Latin American startups has more than doubled since 2013, with 25 new investors entering the region in 2017 alone, including SoftBank, Didi Chuxing and… Read More

from TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2F0mNJe

New, new, new TechCrunch

In the beginning, there was TechCrunch. Then there was new TechCrunch. And, if you’ve been reading TechCrunch for the last five years or so, you’re used to seeing new, new TechCrunch. Our last redesign, launched in 2013, was conceived when iOS was still Skeuomorphic and responsive web design was forward thinking. It’s served us well, but the internet never stands still and… Read More

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Warrantless surveillance law proves it’s time to take privacy into our own hands

The warrantless surveillance law gained attention in 2013 when Edward Snowden leaked that the NSA was using it to spy on Americans’ text messages, phone calls, emails and internet activity — all legally, and without warrants. That bill has been passed by the U.S. Senate for another six years and has been signed into law by President Trump. Naturally, this has caused quite the uproar. Read More

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Square’s bets beyond a register brought in $253M last year as it posts a largely positive fourth quarter

Square posted a largely successful fourth quarter that showed continuing growth with its Cash App — with users spending around $90 million on its Cash card in December, putting it on a potentially $1 billion run rate. That would offer another significant avenue for Square to snap up additional customers as it looks to chip away at the alternatives available for directly sending cash… Read More

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IBM Watson CTO Rob High on bias and other challenges in machine learning

For IBM Watson CTO Rob High, the biggest technological challenge in machine learning right now is figuring out how to train models with less data. “It’s a challenge, it’s a goal and there’s certainly reason to believe that it’s possible,” High told me during an interview at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Read More

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Sonos One’s Alexa support comes to Canada

Sonos One users in Canada can now join their peers south of the border in yelling requests at their connected speakers – a free update issued today enables Amazon Alexa on the Sonos One. The One launched with Alexa support in the U.S., but while the speaker has been available to Canadian buyers since late last year, Alexa voice commands are new with the update. That means Canadians will… Read More

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Amazon is buying smart doorbell maker Ring

With Nest’s first smart video doorbell right around the corner, Amazon is busy buying up the competition. After acquiring Blink just two months ago, Amazon is now acquiring Ring, makers of the self-titled Ring doorbell (plus a bunch of other security gear, like solar security cameras, floodlight cams and an in-home alarm system). Read More

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Apple adds an M. Night Shyamalan thriller to its roster of original shows

Apple will apparently have every kind of show from anyone with any kind of name working in Hollywood when it launches its updated approach to original video content: The latest original on its slate is a 10-episode, half-hour thriller series order that will be executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan, who is also going to direct the first installment (via Variety). The thriller is being written… Read More

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Senator Markey officially introduces legislation to reestablish net neutrality

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) has introduced legislation to reverse the FCC’s recently published order and reestablish 2015’s net neutrality rules. Although the bill has little chance of reaching the president’s desk, let alone being signed into law, it’s an important step in the long-term battle over how the internet is to be regulated. Read More

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These will be the first cities getting 5G from Sprint and T-Mobile

Just last week, AT&T announced the first handful of cities where it’ll roll out its 5G network later this year. Today at Mobile World Congress, T-Mobile and Sprint did the same. Sprint’s first 5G networks will go live in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Washington, DC and Houston. T-Mobile will fire up 5G in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Dallas first. Read More

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Uber’s SVP of leadership is leaving her day-to-day role

Frances Frei, who joined Uber last June as the company’s first-ever SVP of leadership and strategy, is leaving the company, Recode first reported. Frei’s plan is to remain as an advisor at Uber while moving on to create a new leadership development program for people of color and women at other companies. Read More

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Netflix to have around 700 original movies and shows available in 2018

Netflix’s original content ramp is showing no signs of slowing own – in fact, if anything, it’s speeding up. Netflix CFO David Wells says that the streaming company wants to have somewhere around 700 original shows and movies on the service in 2018, using that previously revealed budget of around $8 billion earmarked for original content. Wells, speaking at Morgan… Read More

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Chinese smartphone maker Doogee shows off its vision for the smartphone camera 

Doogee’s Mobile World Congress press conference is mostly what you’d expect from a company you’ve never heard of: small, low key, in the second basement meeting room at a hotel across from the convention center. It’s a bit like the smartphone farm system, the company’s hoping it can gin up enough awareness to rise above the din of news from the world’s… Read More

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BMW says in-car digital assistants have to go beyond being ‘Echo Dots in a cup holder’

BMW wants to bring personal assistants to the car, but it doesn’t want to build its own. Instead, it wants to work with Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others to bring the best features of their platforms to its cars. “We don’t want Alexa to drive our car. That’s not a good fit,” Dieter May, BMW’s senior VP for digital products and services, told me during… Read More

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Facebook launches a local news accelerator for publishers

Facebook is trying to play extra nice with local news publishers by putting $3 million behind the launch of the Local News Subscriptions Accelerator. The three-month pilot program will help 10 to 15 U.S.-based metropolitan news organizations gain more digital subscribers both on and off Facebook. Read More

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The FTC settles with Venmo over a series of privacy and security violations

The FTC announced today it has settled with PayPal over a complaint about the company’s handling of privacy disclosures in its peer-to-peer payments app Venmo, its lack of disclosure over the speed with which customers could access funds, as well as other issues related to the security and privacy of customer transactions. News that the Federal Trade Commission was looking into… Read More

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BrainQ aims to cure stroke and spinal cord injuries through mind-reader tech

Israel-based BrainQ is a new neurotech startup hoping to take on brain-computer interface (BCI) companies Kernel and Neuralink. But it’s early days in this industry, including for BrainQ, which plans to use a non-surgically embedded EEG machine to gather data and help improve outcomes for stroke and spinal cord patients. Read More

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Robo-logistics company Magazino raises $25M for its warehouse bots

German robotics firm Magazino, creator of robots meant to work alongside people in warehouses and the like, has raised $24.8 million to continue development and deployment of its TORU and SOTO robots. Read More

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Afghanistan's Ghani offers talks with Taliban 'without preconditions'

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group on Wednesday as part of a proposed political process that he said could lead to talks aimed at ending more than 16 years of war.

from Reuters: World News http://ift.tt/2sXfwUY

China's military flexes muscles for domestic objective: more funding

BEIJING (Reuters) - With stealth jets entering service, leaked pictures of new high-tech naval artillery and proud reports of maneuvers that "dare to shine the sword," China's armed forces are putting on a show of power as they lobby for greater defense spending.

from Reuters: World News http://ift.tt/2BXTLrk

Saudi crown prince says corruption purge supports budget: Washington Post

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince said the kingdom's anti-corruption crackdown was needed to meet budget targets, comparing the purge to chemotherapy in an interview with the Washington Post published on Wednesday.

from Reuters: World News http://ift.tt/2BXd2Jt

Jerusalem's Church of Holy Sepulchre reopens after protest

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered as the site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial, reopened on Wednesday after Israel backtracked on Tuesday from a tax plan and draft property legislation that triggered a three-day protest.

from Reuters: World News http://ift.tt/2FBA7kn

Canada gravely concerned by Myanmar's jailing of journalists

GENEVA (Reuters) - Canada is gravely concerned by the imprisonment of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday, adding that ethnic cleansing had taken place in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

from Reuters: World News http://ift.tt/2oucd2Z