WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border can now use a mobile app to schedule a time to approach a land port of entry, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed on Thursday, a move intended to reduce unauthorized crossings but which has sparked concerns over privacy and access.
The app, called CBP One, is available in English and Spanish and will allow migrants in Central and Northern Mexico who upload biographical information and a photo to request an appointment at one of eight ports in Texas, Arizona and California, according to a fact sheet.
The administration had announced it would expand its use of CBP One, giving asylum seekers direct access to enter their information as a pre-screening step before an appointment. Launched in 2020, the app has previously been used to allow people crossing legally at land ports of entry to submit their information beforehand and for non-governmental organizations to request humanitarian entry for certain migrants.
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration touts the app as a more regulated, potentially quicker alternative to crossing the border. But advocates worry asylum seekers will be required to submit personal information without being guaranteed entry and that some may not have access to a cell phone or internet.
The app rollout comes after Biden last week announced his administration would expand COVID-era "Title 42" restrictions to quickly expel Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the border back to Mexico while opening up legal pathways for those who have U.S. sponsors and enter by air.
Biden, a Democrat who intends to seek re-election in 2024, has been criticized by Republicans for what they consider permissive border policies amid record crossings. READ MORE...
A new partnership between the satellite phone firm Iridium and chip giant Qualcomm will bring satellite connectivity to premium Android smartphones later in the year.It means that in places where there is no mobile coverage, handsets can connect with passing satellites to send and receive messages.
Qualcomm's chips are found in many Android-powered smartphones. Apple announced a satellite feature for the iPhone 14 in September 2022.The service is currently only available for sending and receiving basic text messages in an emergency.
British smartphone maker Bullitt was the first to launch its own satellite service, beating Apple to the post. It is also for emergency use, and will be available in selected areas when first rolled out. The new partnership will make the same service accessible to millions more smartphone users, without tying them to a particular brand - but it will be down to the manufacturer to enable it.
Iridium is the original satellite phone system, sending its first satellite in to orbit in 1997. It completed a refresh of its network of 75 spacecraft in 2019. The satellites cover the entire globe and fly in low orbit, around 485 miles (780km) above the Earth, and groups of them can communicate with each other, passing data between them.
Qualcomm said that at first the new feature, called Snapdragon Satellite, will only be incorporated into its premium chips so is unlikely to appear in budget devices. But it will eventually be rolled out to tablets, laptops and even vehicles, and also become a service that is not restricted to emergency communication - although there is likely to be a fee for this.
Satellite connectivity is broadly considered to be the next frontier for mobile phones because it tackles the problem of "not-spots" - areas where there is no existing coverage. These tend to be more common in rural or remote places. It has already been successfully deployed to provide broadband coverage by services such as Elon Musk's Starlink.
Satellite broadband is fast and generally reliable, but more expensive than cable or fibre connections. Use of the the feature will be subject to local government regulations, as countries including India and China ban the use of satellite phones.
Indonesia is a nation of more than 10,000 islands, so supplying the whole country with electricity is a huge challenge. More than a million people are not connected to the electricity grid at all.
"Those people who don't have electricity are living on remote islands, so in this situation it's hard to connect a cable to them and it's hard to install other expensive solutions such as wind turbines," says Luofeng Huang, a lecturer in mechanical engineering at Cranfield University.
Solar power is one option to provide those islands with energy. It has become much cheaper in recent decades - the International Energy Agency (IEA) says that it is becoming the cheapest option for new electricity power plants.
But solar farms take up lots of space - space that might be better used for housing, farming and business. So scientists and engineers are working on ways to install solar panels on the ocean surface, providing power to those living onshore nearby.
"Floating solar is very convenient because it can just be put on top of the water, and if you need more electricity you can put on more solar panels," says Mr Huang. Floating solar is already in use at a number of sites around the world, but on lakes, rather than the sea. READ MORE...
I am no mind reader nor am I a forecaster nor am I much of anything other than being retired, but I can speculate on what might happen in this country of ours, after living for 75 years.
First of all, while the GOP has the majority in the House, they do not control the Senate nor do they control the Whitehouse... THEREFORE, very little if anything will get accomplished over the next two years.
Second, the GOP majority in the House will be holding hearings on all kinds of stuff that the Democrats have tried to HIDE, and the best that will be accomplished there will be convincing the mainstream media to publish any of it... My guess is that they will ignore most of it, and downplay the rest, always drawing back to the terrible days of Trump.
Third, inflation ain't going anywhere and if anything, it will get worse before it gets better... this means get ready to pay higher and higher prices for all the shit that you think you need and cannot do without.
Fourth, illegal immigration will continue to increase over the next two years, regardless of the pressure that the GOP led House tries to place on the Senate and the Whitehouse... however, it will take a couple of years before some of the UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES of this illegal immigration begin to play out. Unintended consequences ALWAYS bite people in the ass harder than they anticipate.
Fifth, while the USA is playing around with the concept of going green by destroying oil and gas production in favor of wind and solar, the rest of the world is giving us the middle finger because they ain't doing shit to save the planet and they won't do shit, because it will hurt their economies.
Sixth, by the time Biden leaves office in 2024, Robots will be taking jobs away big time in the USA as they are already in the far east. Businesses can cut labor cost long term by replacing workers with robots and 2024 will be the year that we really start to see this play out. Question: How will workers pay their bills if their jobs are replaced by robots?
Seventh, our education system K-12 will continue to worsen because all our PhD Educators think that K-12 should prepare students to go to college rather than prepare them to go to work. Not all jobs will be college graduate jobs unfortunately. Educators will not be able to identify with students as they force them to make high marks on certified tests and not teach them to RETAIN KNOWLEDGE.
Eighth, as the Dems continue to put money into social programs and green programs and not increase money to the military, the USA will end up with an obsolete military force in the next two years, not to mention a piss poor space program. Believe it or not, CHINA is doing the exact opposite with their space and military programs. Question: What do you think they know that we do not?
Nineth, racism will worsen in the USA and the Dems try to push their equality and equity programs. What these Dems fail to realize is that not everyone is handsome or attractive. Not everyone is gifted athletically, musically, artistically, or mentally... and, to try to create equity is going to be like spitting in the wind and it is going to piss a lot of people off.
Tenth, the frigging BILLIONAIRES will continue to get wealthier and wealthier as prices increase and people continue to buy shit that they don't really need, but TV commercials have convinced them they need. That greed will continue to destroy the middle class and the wealthy are laughing at us because we are so stupid. If we could control our greed, they could not increase their wealth.
Some stars were notable by their absence - Tom Cruise and Brendan Fraser have previously distanced themselves from the voting body behind the Globes and did not attend.
But most of the nominees and guests who showed up the Beverley Hilton hotel in Los Angeles were happy to pose for photos as they walked the red carpet ahead of the ceremony.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, US actress Jennifer Coolidge won best TV supporting actress for The White Lotus
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, Pose star Billy Porter was one of the category presenters at this year's ceremony
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, Anya Taylor-Joy, pictured with Malcolm McRae, was nominated for best supporting actress for The Menu
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, British actor Eddie Redmayne was nominated for best supporting actor for The Good Nurse, in which he starred opposite Jessica Chastain
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, Actress Jenna Ortega, who recently appeared in the hugely popular Netflix series Wednesday, handed out an award
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, Glass Onion director Rian Johnson was seen bowing down to Decision To Leave director Park Chan-wook on the red carpet
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, The Flight Attendant star Kaley Cuoco, who is expecting a child with her partner, US actor Tom Pelphrey
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, Awards favourite Viola Davis was nominated for her performance in The Woman King
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, Pinocchio director Guillermo del Toro walked the red carpet with his wife Kim Morgan, and later won best animated feature for Pinochhio
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, Actress Laverne Cox wore a vintage blue and gold gown on the red carpet
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, Julia Garner has starred in Inventing Anna, but it was her performance in Ozark which won her a Golden Globe
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, Jamie Lee Curtis and Irish actor Barry Keoghan, two actors in the supporting categories, cosied up on the red carpet
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption, Angela Bassett won best supporting actress for her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The quest to cure death is a rich person’s game. And that doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon, which worries some experts in case humans ever figure out how to achieve immortality.
As science continues to push the possibilities of living longer—and living better longer—that science is often driven by funded research. And who better to provide a blank check than mega-billionaires like Jeff Bezos? Indeed, last year, the founder and former CEO of Amazon made a hefty investment in Altos Labs, a biotech startup focused on “cellular rejuvenation programming to restore cell health and resilience, with the goal of reversing disease to transform medicine.”
So, if the rich can live longer, the rich can get richer longer, compounding the already imbalanced spectrum of money, power, and control, experts argue in a new Financial Times article.
“The longer you’re around, the more your wealth compounds, and the wealthier you are, the more political influence you have,” Christopher Wareham, a bioethicist at Utrecht University, tells FT. The science of longevity will only widen existing gaps, he says.
Make no mistake, the effort to slow down aging isn’t slowing down. The Institute for Aging Research at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine claims we’ve moved beyond hope in turning anti-aging into reality, and we now sit “at the point between having promise and realizing it.”
The Financial Times article notes that private funding far outpaces public funding in the anti-aging research. So, if all the proponents of anti-aging research outlive their dreams—a big if at this point in time, but a goal many have—the first ones to benefit from said science will undoubtedly be those funding the research, like Bezos. And if mega-billionaires have all the insights in not only adopting anti-aging science, but then licensing that science out to the masses, not only do the rich get richer, but the rich get richer for... forever.
Of course, a democratized solution to anti-aging will help the masses, but the rich can still compound their wealth and power, a byproduct worthy of a philosophical discussion.
Grammy-winning singer Lizzo offered a "fresh take" on cancel culture on Twitter Sunday, arguing that the term is no longer being correctly applied.
"This may be a random time to say this but it’s on my heart.. cancel culture is appropriation," Lizzo tweeted. "There was real outrage from truly marginalized people and now it’s become trendy, misused and misdirected. I hope we can phase out of this & focus our outrage on the real problems."
Mumford & Sons co-founder Winston Marshall called it a "fresh take." Marshall experienced what it was like to be "canceled" last year when he tweeted his support for an anti-Antifa book. The backlash became so deafening that the banjo player decided to leave the band.
Several commenters agreed with Lizzo's description, arguing that while cancel culture used to mean consequences for individuals who may have deserved it, it is now being weaponized against good people that simply made mistakes. Others said it was effectively silencing those who have different opinions.
"Absolutely," user Jessica Ballinger tweeted. "There are very real issues that warrant outrage… I sometimes wonder if cancel culture stems from people feeling impotent against those bigger issues, so they go after simpler targets to feel better about themselves, like they did something." READ MORE...
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., hit back at MSNBC on Sunday over what she called a "hit piece" that she argued tried to paint her as a "white supremacist."
Luna quoted a column, written by MSNBC opinion columnist Julio Ricardo Varela, in a tweet and said it was pushing a "twisted lie."
"'It’s important that we journalists avoid placing too much emphasis on a representative of Mexican descent who’s signed on to a political movement that began with the demonization of Mexicans," he wrote in the piece.
Edie Heipel, a member of Luna's communications team, posted a screenshot of her email after searching an NBC universal email to see if the writer had reached out for comment.
"When @MSNBC publishes a bogus hit piece on @realannapaulina and you check to see if they reached out for comment like responsible journalists…," Heipel wrote.
Varela didn't return a request for comment. READ MORE...
A woman who left Alabama to join the Islamic State in 2014 now says she regrets her actions and is hoping to return to the United States.
"If I need to sit in prison, and do my time, I will do it.… I won’t fight against it," Hoda Muthana, now 28, told The News Movement from the Roj detention camp in Syria, according to The Associated Press. "I’m hoping my government looks at me as someone young at the time and naive."
Muthana, who was born in New Jersey to Yemeni immigrants and was raised in Alabama, ran away from home at the age of 20 to join ISIS. Raised in a conservative Muslim household, she told her family she was going on a school trip but instead flew to Turkey and crossed into Syria using funds from secretly cashed tuition checks.
Once she arrived in Syria, Muthana says she was detained in a guest house reserved for unmarried women and children. READ MORE...
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