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Mozilla has dramatically changed the look and feel of its browser since the introduction of Firefox Quantum two years ago now — a release that prefaced the arrival of other new features that promote privacy and speed, like an extension that makes it harder for Facebook to track you. And now today, Mozilla is touting a new Firefox browser update that comes with a big speed boost to try and give Google Chrome a run for its money.
In the video above, Mozilla explains how Firefox is now better at “performing tasks at the optimal time by deprioritizing the least commonly used features, suspending idle tabs, and faster startup after customization.” In a blog post explaining the changes that come with the update, Mozilla describes how the browser now essentially applies many of the same time-management principles that an ordinary person does when they’re trying to prioritize their own most urgent needs.
In order to give Firefox a speed boost — of as much as 80% in some cases — Firefox will now do things like suspending idle tabs. “You shouldn’t feel guilty about opening a zillion tabs, but keeping all those tabs open uses your computer’s memory and slows down its performance,” Mozilla’s post explains. “Firefox will now detect if your computer’s memory is running low, which we define as lower than 400MB, and suspend unused tabs that you haven’t used or looked at in a while.” Of course, you can easily click on the tab and reload a webpage where you left off whenever you want.
Additionally, if you’re one of the Firefox users who’ve customized your browser with an add-on like a favorite theme or an ad-blocker, Firefox now skips some work it determines to be unnecessary during subsequent start-ups so the browser will load faster.
This Firefox update also de-prioritizes some of the least-used features in order to prioritize scripts for things you need first. As an example, the company’s blog post explains this helps “make the main scripts for Instagram, Amazon and Google searches execute 40-80% faster; scanning for alternative style sheets after page load; and not loading the auto-fill module unless there is an actual form to complete.”
Meanwhile, a number of other interesting features are part of today’s update. They include:
Personalization of private browsing. More and more users are relying on this feature to hide from third-party trackers, but Firefox wants users to be able to access their favorite extensions, too. “In the Add-ons manager, you can choose which extensions are enabled and which ones aren’t,” the company explains today.
Fingerprint blocking. Mozilla has promised that Firefox would tackle practices like so-called “fingerprinting,” which builds a kind of digital fingerprint that follows you around the web. Today’s browser update gives you the option to basically turn on a setting in the browser to protect yourself from that practice, as well as from “cryptomining” — using your computer’s CPU to generate cryptocurrency for someone else’s benefit.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/a-web-browser-you-forgot-existed-might-soon-be-faster-than-chrome/ar-AABKwkQ
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You've probably heard "5G" a lot recently. It's been in a lot of stories.
It's at the center of America's fight with China's Huawei, which provides cellular equipment for wireless carriers around the globe.
5G is also a big topic for Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T. Those carriers are working to build out the faster networks now, and Sprint and T-Mobile have even used 5G to discuss the competitive landscape in an effort to get merger approval from the Justice Department.
Apple recently ended a bitter, years-long legal battle with Qualcomm mainly because the chipmaker makes some core 5G technology that Apple needs to make future iPhones competitive.
But what the heck is 5G?
Put simply, 5G is a next-generation wireless network that will give you much faster internet connections. But, because of the way it works, it's about to change the way lots of other things connect to the internet, too, like cars and TVs, and even things like connected lights on city streets.
Here's what you need to know:
Faster connections, and more of them
5G promises much faster network speeds, which means heavy-duty content like video should travel much more quickly to connected devices.
Verizon's 5G network, which is live in Minneapolis and Chicago, is already providing speeds in excess of 1Gbps, or about 10x the speeds you might get on a good day with 4G LTE, the current standard offered by wireless carriers in most places. That means you should be able to download an hour-long high-definition video in seconds instead of minutes.
The lower latency of 5G also means that it takes less time for one gadget to talk to another. This is important in places like smart cities that are connecting to smart cars, since information needs to be delivered instantly. One day, 5G might be able to tell your car that someone is about to run a red light and that your car needs to slam on the brakes. In that sort of situation, you can't have much delay in the network.
The greater bandwidth of 5G means that more devices can use the network at the same time. This means it should alleviate problems at places like sports stadiums or concerts where thousands of people may be trying to place a phone call or upload a picture at the same time. In these instances, a network can get jammed up and stops working for everyone. 5G should prevent that from happening.
5G will change the way you get TV and internet at home
Right now, you probably have a cable wire running from the telephone poles on your street to your house. It might come in the attic and then, thanks to some drilling done by the cable guy, snakes its way from room to room connecting to cable boxes. Those cables also need to connect to a modem and/or router to provide wireless internet to your house. That means even if you "cut the cord" and ditch cable, you still need the same coaxial cable line for internet at home.
4G LTE is fast but not quite fast enough for an entire house of people to play games and stream 4K movies at the same time. It makes a poor replacement for wired broadband.
According to proponents, 5G will be fast enough for that, and you can forget the cords. It's supposed to be just as reliable as the wired broadband internet you're used to, and it could save you a lot of headaches.
Verizon has already talked a bit about how this will work.
Instead of giving you a bunch of cable boxes and other gadgets, it's going to simply give you an Apple TV 4K and a wireless modem. Since Verizon isn't going to run a standard cable line to your house, it's also going to include a subscription to YouTube TV, YouTube's streaming service that will provide access to TV channels. YouTube TV normally costs $40 per month, but Verizon's deal is likely only a limited-time offer.
You'll still have a modem at home, but it'll connect to Verizon's wireless 5G signal and then serve as a home Wi-Fi router, complete with standard Ethernet ports. This is how devices like the Apple TV 4K, your smartphone, computer and other internet gadgets will connect to Verizon's 5G wireless network.
What phones support it?
It's still super early in 5G days for phones, but things are about to take off quickly.
Verizon and AT&T already have some 5G markets active, and Sprint and T-Mobile will begin rolling them out this year. Verizon is now selling the first 5G phone in the U.S. -- the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G -- in just two markets. Meanwhile, Sprint's LG V50 ThinQ 5G launches on May 31 for its first markets.
AT&T isn't selling a true 5G phone just yet, but it's signed up to sell the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G later this year, as are T-Mobile and Sprint.
These are all Android phones, but Apple is expected to have its first 5G iPhone ready in 2020.
How does 5G impact Sprint and T-Mobile's merger?
5G also plays a role in the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. Earlier this week, FCC chairman Ajit Pai recommended that the FCC approve the $26.5 billion merger because he argues that it'll speed up how quickly the two carriers are able to activate 5G in the U.S.
"Two of the FCC's top priorities are closing the digital divide in rural America and advancing United States leadership in 5G, the next generation of wireless connectivity. The commitments made today by T-Mobile and Sprint would substantially advance each of these critical objectives," Pai said.
But the decision is up to the DOJ, which has anti-trust concerns if the two companies join.
Trump says 5G is a race America must win
Even President Trump is all in on 5G. In April, President Trump said that 5G is a race that America "will win." He said 92 5G markets will be up and running by the end of the year, which will be ahead of South Korea, which is said to have 48 live at the same time.
"According to some estimates, the wireless industry plans to invest $275 billion in 5G networks, creating 3 million American jobs quickly, and adding $500 billion to our economy," President Trump said in April. At the same time, the FCC announced new rules that will make it easier to deploy next-generation networks, including hub and relay antennas, to spur the advancement of 5G.
The FCC also announced a $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity fund to bring faster 5G networks to rural areas, and a new spectrum auction that opens up 3,400MHz of wireless spectrum for carriers to bid on. The spectrum can be thought of as a highway: the more lanes you have, the more customers you can support and the faster you can go.
5G, Huawei and the U.S. trade war
5G has also played a role in the U.S. trade war with China, because of concerns that Huawei's equipment and phones can be used to spy over wireless networks.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration blacklisted Huawei's equipment for use in America's 5G rollout. Huawei wants U.S. business, however, and has argued that our 5G networks won't roll out quickly if we don't use its equipment.
Following the blacklist, Google cut ties with Huawei, though it has since granted a 90-day reprieve after the U.S. Commerce Department announced on Monday that U.S. companies can work with Huawei for that window of time to make sure security risks are sealed up before August 19. This will allow Google to help make sure people who own Huawei Android phones have the latest privacy patches installed on them.
The ban on working with Huawei also hit chip businesses that work with the company, including Broadcom, Intel, Xilinx and Qualcomm, some of which also have a hand in building out 5G networks and modems. Those firms will be missing out on new business as Huawei works to expand 5G networks outside of the U.S. If Google doesn't supply its version of Android to Huawei, it makes Huawei's phones a lot less appealing in the company's markets outside of China, like Europe, where it already sells highly competitive phones with full access to Google services like search and the Play Store. (Huawei can use a more basic version of Android, which is open-source and not controlled by Google and is already in use in China, but it won't have Google services included.)
Some analysts, including Evercore's C.J. Muse, think that Trump's ban on Huawei may have been a tactic to bring China back to the trade negotiations table. "The clear risk here is that while President Trump believes he has achieved leverage in the negotiations, we may have pushed China past the precipice and that the current technology cold war gets engrained and accelerates," Muse warned.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/5g-explained-why-its-such-a-big-deal-for-america/ar-AABKyuX
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Across Europe, voting begins Thursday in European Parliament elections, which will continue through Sunday. The elections are hotly anticipated across the continent, with many people wondering how the results will affect the future of the European Union and the bloc’s dealings with the rest of the world. With the help of our correspondents in Europe, we answer five key questions about the elections and the legislative body.
What is the European Parliament?
The 751-member legislature is most notable for being, as Deutsche Welle puts it, “the only democratically legitimized supranational institution in the world.” In other words: It is the only assembly made of various countries where the people of those countries can directly vote for their representatives. It is also notable for the large numbers of voters in its elections. More than 370 million people are eligible to vote, making these the second largest elections in the world, behind India’s.
Members of European Parliament are sent as representatives of the 28 countries in the E.U. Each country decides how the elections are held. Anything goes as long as the ballots are secret and women and men can both vote. (The voting age is 18 everywhere but Austria, where it is 16.) Seats are apportioned to each country according to the size of its population. Germany, the E.U.’s most populous state, has 96 representatives, while small countries like Cyprus, Malta and Luxembourg have six each. That said, members of the European Parliament — or MEPs — do not always vote along nationality lines. Once elected to the European Parliament, they join larger parties and coalitions.
MEPs are elected to five-year terms and have a say in the bloc’s finances, international presence and general direction. Since the Lisbon Treaty of 2009, which expanded the body’s powers, the European Parliament has appointed the head of the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive body, approved or rejected international agreements such as a recent trade pact with Singapore, and decided on the E.U.’s full budget. The body is involved in decisions on a vast array of topics, including agriculture and fisheries, environmental issues and migration policies.
Who are the key players to watch for in these elections?
There are eight political groups in the European Parliament. Forming a group requires at least 25 members from at least seven countries. The largest groups are the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) and the center-left Socialists and Democrats. Both are expected to lose seats as voters show an appetite for more-extreme views on the left and the right.
The EPP is likely to lose seats to more-nationalist and Euroskeptic parties. This will be especially crucial in the case of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party. The EPP suspended Fidesz in March over its rejection of E.U. migration policies. Now Orban is calling for the group to join forces with far-right parties such as Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s League party, and French politician Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. The head of the EPP has already ruled out such an alliance, but, as Politico noted, Orban has said “he would find it hard to stick with the EPP if it forms an alliance with ‘pro-migration’ parties on the left.”
It’s also worth keeping an eye on the fortunes of Britain’s Euroskeptic Brexit Party, which is led by Nigel Farage. A recent poll showed the Brexit Party has more support than Britain’s mainstream liberal and conservative parties combined — a little bit ironic considering that if the party had its way, Britain would already be out of the E.U. and not be represented in European Parliament at all.
Meanwhile, on the left, other parties are expected to gain ground. According to the Associated Press, polling in April showed that the progressive Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, backed by French President Emmanuel Macron, is projected to gain eight seats, bringing its number to 76, and that the Green party could win 57 seats, five more than it now holds.
Ultimately, the new Parliament could reflect what is occurring in governments all around Europe: a weakening of the center that is forcing political realignment on the major issues shaping the world.
Wait, there’s a Brexit Party? What does that mean for Brexit? (From the London bureau’s William Booth and Karla Adam)
Yep. This is an election few thought would occur in Britain, given that the country voted three years ago to leave the E.U. and was to have quit the bloc two months ago. The questions are understandable. Will Britain’s 73 new representatives to the E.U.’s legislative body serve for days, weeks or years? Who knows? The chaos is made more sensational by the forecast that this nascent, single-issue party is going to blow everyone else out of the water, with the potential to influence how Brexit turns out and how long Prime Minister Theresa May stays in office. The demands of the Brexit Party seem simple: Get us out of the E.U. Now. Honor the 2016 referendum result.
A big win for the Brexit Party could push May and her Conservatives to hurriedly pass a deal before parliamentarians take up their seats in July, or, as Farage prefers, leave the E.U. with no deal. Writing in the Guardian, former Labour prime minister Tony Blair described the stakes: “This is not a vote to choose a prime minister or a government. It is a vote for the Farage Brexit — or against it.”
Alternatively, a good showing from the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats or Change UK might embolden those in the British Parliament who want a second referendum on Brexit.
What about the far right? What does it hope to gain? (From Brussels bureau chief Michael Birnbaum and Berlin bureau chief Griff Witte)
Since the last election in 2014, the E.U. has been hammered by a refugee crisis, multiple mass-casualty terrorist attacks, a vote by the British people to exit the bloc, a security scare fueled by the Kremlin and a fitful economic recovery after the global financial crisis. Such issues are pulling voters to the fringes, and far-right and other parties that are hostile to the E.U. appear poised to control more seats than ever before.
From grand palazzi in Rome to Art Nouveau villas in Budapest, Europe’s anti-migration right-wingers have been prepping their battering rams to knock down the doors of the European Parliament. No one expects them to win a majority, but their aim is less to legislate than to obstruct. A greater far-right presence could have a disproportionate effect on how the E.U. functions, putting the far right in a position to play spoiler. And a legislature with less ability to get things done would feed the narrative of the E.U.'s nationalist critics, who argue that the bloc is fundamentally broken.
But for Europe’s critics to wield maximum influence, they will need to work together — something they have failed to do so far.
With all these Euroskeptic players involved, is there a threat of Russian interference in these elections? (From Brussels bureau chief Michael Birnbaum)
It doesn’t seem likely. At least yet. Parliament, politicians, security services and social media companies that were bracing for an onslaught from Russia have been surprised that, so far, they seem to have avoided one.
Experts are cautious about saying Russian interference has been neutralized, but the anxiety has shifted somewhat inward, as many of the disinformation tactics pioneered by Russia have been domesticated and are being replicated on both extremes of the political debate in Europe.
That said, Russia is still working openly to promote political division in Europe. The Sputnik news agency has offered wall-to-wall coverage of the “yellow vest” protests that have shaken France. The German-language homepage of RT, formerly Russia Today, recently featured a banner debunking “myths” that the former West Germany was superior to communist East Germany. But the scale of what has been identified is nothing compared with the past — or with what the Europeans had anticipated.
In part, far-right parties in Europe have not needed Russia, because some of their domestic supporters have mimicked Russia’s strategy of promoting disinformation and amplifying it through the use of automated social media accounts.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/five-things-to-know-about-europes-surprisingly-dramatic-parliamentary-elections/ar-AABN6L6
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A banner emblazoned with the words "Honor to Mussolini," unfurled just steps from the Milan piazza where the fascist dictator's body was hung upside down after his 1945 execution. One-armed salutes and fascist slogans shouted at protests. Italy's right-wing interior minister skipping commemorations for the 74th anniversary of the country's liberation from Nazi occupation.
Fascist symbols, rhetoric and salutes — long a public taboo — have made their way out of the hooligan sections of soccer stadiums and into Italian streets in the run-up to this week's European Parliament elections.
The leader of the right-wing party leading in the Italian polls, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, has faced criticism for perceived complacency toward neo-fascist extremists in his bid to see his once regionally based League party finish No. 1 in Italy, and perhaps Europe, when Italians vote Sunday.
Salvini, who has attracted the admiration of European far-right leaders for his anti-immigrant, anti-Islam stances, makes a show of dismissing extremist labels and the existence of fascist ideology on the Italian political spectrum.
"In this piazza, there are no extremists. There are no racists. There are no fascists," Salvini declared to a crowd of thousands gathered last weekend for a campaign rally of European populists, including far-right leaders from France and Germany.
But his words belie the resurgence of neo-fascist groups emboldened on the sidelines of a European election campaign that is shaping up into a contest between Europe's traditional political powerhouses and euroskeptic right-wing populists campaigning to restore control over a range of issues to the EU's 28 member states. And many are putting at least part of the blame on Salvini for underplaying or even appearing to encourage Italy's fringe extremist parties and their antics.
Salvini drew criticism last month when he skipped April 25 Liberation Day commemorations in Rome marking Italy's 1945 liberation from the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini, who spent the last two years of World War II overseeing a puppet republic in Nazi-occupied northern Italy.
Just a day earlier, Salvini had dismissed the unfurling of the "Honor Mussolini" banner in Milan by dozens of "ultra" fans from Rome's Lazio soccer team — known for their neo-fascist allegiances — as just the work of "idiots."
And at protests last month, far-right activists were emboldened to shout fascist slogans and raise one-armed salutes over the placement of Roma families — a minority persecuted during World War II — in public housing in the Italian capital. Critics noted the extremists had received a permit from law enforcement, which falls under the direction of Salvini. Salvini himself has tweeted photographs of Roma dwellings being torn down.
Guido Calderon, an expert on right-wing Italian groups, says that Salvini has been courting the far-right for years, melding their extremist rhetoric with his League party's xenophobic platform targeting immigrants. This allows Salvini to appeal to more extremist voters while maintaining the party's traditional base, he said.
Polls show a growing concern among Italians that fascism, officially banned as a political movement in Italy but never expunged from popular culture or the political fringe, is rearing its head in alarming ways. The SWG polling agency says 71% of Italians believe it is important to combat the return of Nazi and fascist ideology, up from 65% just two years ago, while two-thirds believe it is important to repress those who incite fascism, up from 60 percent in 2017.
But Calderon said "another part of the population is attracted" to fascism. And that, he said, is because Italians have never fully dealt with their fascist past.
Still, neither of Italy's main right-wing extreme parties, Forza Nuova or CasaPound, are expected to get anywhere near the threshold to enter Europe's parliament in the Sunday vote.
Mussolini was in power for nearly two decades before Italy entered WWII, a period of modernization during which the fascist regime built schools, railroad stations and administrative buildings that remain in public use today. Many monuments and symbols glorifying Mussolini's rule were removed following the war, but a surprising number remain in plain view , reflecting Italy's complicated relationship with its 20th-century history.
Rome's Foro Italico sports complex on the western bank of the Tiber river is one of the most striking examples, with pavement mosaics paying homage to the fascist dictator and a marble obelisk that bears his name. In the nearby headquarters of the Italian Olympic Committee, news conferences are still held in front of a mural showing Mussolini on a pedestal addressing a crowd. Calendars featuring the late dictator pop up in newsstands and his framed image can be spied behind bars in northern Italy.
Salvini, recognizing the power of Mussolini's image, recently addressed a European election rally in the northern city of Forli from a balcony once used by the fascist dictator.
And Mussolini's name remains part of the political discourse, first with lawmaker Alessandra Mussolini, Benito Mussolini's granddaughter who started out with a now defunct neo-fascist party, and now with his great-grandson, Caio Giulio Cesare Mussolini, who is running with the far-right Brothers of Italy party in the European elections.
Many commentators dismiss his candidacy as a publicity stunt for the tiny Brothers of Italy. Still, he recognizes the strength of the family name, making #scrivimussolini, — or #writeinmussolini — a campaign motto, because, he said on Twitter, "Many want to write Mussolini on the ballot."
"I continue to meet people from that period who have memories that are more than satisfying," Mussolini told The Associated Press. "I met a 95-year-old person who had a version of that period very different from the one you find in public opinion."
Italy's fraught history came to the forefront again this week when a high school teacher was placed on two-week's unpaid leave after her 14-year-old students completed a project that likened Salvini's security decree cracking down on illegal immigration to Mussolini's 1938 racial laws targeting Jews. The disciplinary action by provincial school officials was widely criticized as anti-democratic and against freedom of instruction and speech in the classroom.
"That someone can compare the interior minister, Matteo Salvini, like him or not, to Mussolini or even Italy and the security decree with extermination camps is crazy, truly crazy," Salvini said.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fascist-symbols-and-rhetoric-on-rise-in-italian-eu-vote/ar-AABMOdL
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President Trump on Thursday blasted Rex Tillerson after The Washington Post reported that the former secretary of State told lawmakers that Russian President Vladimir Putin was better prepared than Trump for a meeting in 2017.
"Rex Tillerson, a man who is 'dumb as a rock' and totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be Secretary of State, made up a story (he got fired) that I was out-prepared by Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Hamburg, Germany," Trump tweeted.
"I don't think Putin would agree. Look how the U.S. is doing!"
The president nominated Tillerson as secretary of State at the outset of his administration, and fired him in March 2018 amid numerous clashes over U.S. foreign policy.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-fires-back-at-dumb-as-a-rock-tillerson-on-putin/ar-AABNEuQ
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Live TV is no easy feat — even for Oscar-winning actors.
On Wednesday night’s live broadcast of Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons, Jamie Foxx made a noticeable flub of one of his lines and then proceeded to hilariously call further attention to it. After fumbling his words, Foxx said, “It’s live. It’s live — people at home thinking their TV is messed up.”
The rest of the cast couldn’t help but respond to Foxx’s flub with Marisa Tomei and Ellie Kemper visibly laughing and smiling at Foxx’s acknowledgment of the “anything can happen” nature of live television. Ike Barinholtz covered his mouth with his hand to hide his case of the giggles, while Harrelson turned around, unable to contain himself.
In this live ABC special, Foxx was taking on the role of George Jefferson, filling the shoes of the original actor Sherman Hemsley down to his signature hairstyle and sharp suit.
Foxx was word perfect the night before during dress rehearsal, which EW was present for. At any rate, audiences responded kindly to the organic moment with viewers celebrating the moment and the surrounding cast’s reaction to the error on Twitter.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/jamie-foxx-hilariously-breaks-character-after-line-flub-on-live-in-front-of-a-studio-audience/ar-AABLU0W?li=BBnb7Kz
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Another day, another triumph for reigning "Jeopardy!" champ James Holzhauer.
Holzhauer, 34, recorded his 25th consecutive win on Wednesday's edition of the popular quiz show.
With $71,885 in winnings Wednesday, Holzhauer, a professional sports gambler from Las Vegas, now sits at $1,939,027 in total prize money. He would cross the $2 million barrier with one more victory at his current daily average of $77,561.
Holzhauer's streak has spurred renewed interest in the venerable quiz show, which –with host Alex Trebek – is celebrating its 35th anniversary season.
Holzhauer ranks second all-time in "Jeopardy!" victories and prize money. He trails only Ken Jennings, who remains in the top spot on both lists: 74 victories and $2,520,700 in prize winnings.
Although the current champ remains far from Jennings' win total, he's closing in on the money crown based on a playing strategy that features picking higher-dollar clues first and betting aggressively on Daily Doubles.
Holzhauer's average daily winnings eclipse the previous one-day high, $77,000, set by Roger Craig in 2010. If he keeps winning and continues at that winnings pace, he will be surpass Jennings' money mark with fewer than 10 more victories.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/jeopardy-juggernaut-james-holzhauer-moves-closer-to-dollar2-million-winnings-with-25th-win/ar-AABL4u3?li=BBnb7Kz
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The messy situation between Chiefs defensive back Tyrann Mathieu and multiple family members keeps getting messier.
Via Travers Mackel of WDSU-TV, a Wednesday bond-revocation hearing for Geourvon Sears, a Mathieu relative, resulted in multiple allegations that Mathieu has made threats against family members.
George Sears, the brother of Geourvon Sears, claimed in court that Mathieu “put a hit on” Geourvon Sears. George Sears also said that he has received threats from Mathieu. George Sears testified that Mathieu drove past their home over the weekend, and that Geourvon feared Mathieu was going to hurt them.
Their mother also testified that Mathieu made threats via social media.
None of it was enough to keep Geourvon Sears’ bond from being revoked. Based on allegations that he threatened Mathieu with allegations of sexual misconduct, evidence that Sears has been chronically smoking marijuana, and proof of tampering with his ankle monitor, Geourvon Sears ended up in jail.
Mathieu’s lawyer separately denied any misconduct on Mathieu’s behalf, claiming that after Mathieu “decided to stop assisting these individuals financially, they turned to harassment, slander and extortion in their quest to gain financially.”
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/multiple-family-members-accuse-tyrann-mathieu-of-making-threats/ar-AABL0bw?li=BBnb7Kz
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So many rats regularly lurk on a sidewalk in Brooklyn that it is the humans who avoid the rats, not the other way around. Not even cars are safe: Rats have chewed clean through engine wires.
A Manhattan avenue lined with trendy restaurants has become a destination for foodies — and rats who help themselves to their leftovers. Tenants at a public housing complex in the South Bronx worry about tripping over rats that routinely run over their feet.
New York has always been forced to coexist with the four-legged vermin, but the infestation has expanded exponentially in recent years, spreading to just about every corner of the city.
“I’m a former Marine so I’m not going to be squeamish, but this is bad,” said Pablo Herrera, a 58-year-old mechanic who has counted up to 30 rats while walking on his block in Prospect Heights, just around the corner from the stately Brooklyn Museum.
Rat sightings reported to the city’s 311 hotline have soared nearly 38 percent, to 17,353 last year from 12,617 in 2014, according to an analysis of city data by OpenTheBooks.com, a nonprofit watchdog group, and The New York Times. In the same period, the number of times that city health inspections found active signs of rats nearly doubled.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, like mayors before him, has declared war on rats, but so far the city is still losing.
“There is no doubt that rats have a major impact on New Yorkers’ quality of life and this administration takes seriously our responsibility to control and mitigate their population,” said Laura Anglin, deputy mayor of operations. “No New Yorker likes having rats in their community and we are committed to continuing the work of controlling rats in all of our neighborhoods.”
One key reason rats seem to be everywhere? Gentrification. The city’s construction boom is digging up burrows, forcing more rats out into the open, scientists and pest control experts say.
Milder winters — the result of climate change — make it easier for rats to survive and reproduce. And New York’s growing population and thriving tourism has brought more trash for rats to feed on.
But the onslaught of rats extends beyond New York: Cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles are also confronting outbreaks.
“Everywhere I go, rat populations are up,” said Robert Corrigan, a research scientist in New York who estimates that their numbers may have increased by as much as 15 to 25 percent in some cities.
The rodents are not only a nuisance and a blight on the quality of life, but also a health risk. A bacterial infection spread by rat urine, leptospirosis, killed a Bronx resident in 2017.
Chicago — crowned the nation’s rat capital in one study — has more than doubled its work crews dedicated to rats, who set out poison and fill in burrows in parks, alleys and backyards. It also passed ordinances requiring developers and contractors to have a rat-control plan before demolishing buildings or breaking ground on new projects.
Washington, where rat complaints have nearly tripled to roughly 6,000 last year from 2,400 in 2014, is testing a rat-sterilization program tried elsewhere that uses liquid contraceptives as bait.
And Seattle is planning to train neighborhood property owners and managers on how to stem infestations. “We respond where we can, but management of rats, not elimination of them, is our practical goal,” said Hilary Karasz, a county health official.
In New York, rats once scurried in the shadows but now they frolic brazenly in broad daylight. One even became a social media star: pizza rat. Parents at an Upper West Side playground said rats jumped into the sandbox where their children played, though the vermin have been cleared for now.
Mr. de Blasio, calling for “more rat corpses,” unveiled a $32 million assault on rats in 2017, which included increased litter basket pickups, the deployment of solar-powered, trash compacting bins and rat-resistant steel cans. The city has also used dry ice to smother rats where they live.
But after dropping last year, rat sightings are again on the upswing. The top spot for rat sighting complaints has been the Upper West Side, where residents are known for speaking up, followed by four Brooklyn neighborhoods: Prospect Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick and Ocean Hill. (Find your neighborhood here.)
Daniel Barber, the chairman of a citywide council of tenant associations in public housing developments, believes the rat problem has gotten better, though, he added, “I’m not going to say it’s a drastic improvement.”
Many community leaders say the city needs to dedicate a lot more money to rooting out the rat problem and expanding trash cleanups and pickups across the city. “It’s a Band-Aid,” said Aaron Biller, the president of Neighborhood in the Nineties, a civic group on the Upper West Side. “It’s like if someone said, ‘we need to clean the floor of a gymnasium’ and handed you a toothbrush.”
City health inspections found 30,874 instances of “active rat signs,” which including sightings and droppings, at buildings and properties last year, or nearly double the 16,315 instances in 2014, according to the analysis. In the first three months of this year, there were 8,003 inspection reports of active rat signs, up from 6,787 in the same period last year.
City health officials said the results include initial and follow-up inspections and reflect the increasing number of inspections that are being carried out overall as part of the city’s rat reduction campaign.
Jason Munshi-South, a biology professor at Fordham University who has led “rat safaris” to observe the vermin in Columbus Park in Chinatown, said that while New York is doing more than other cities, it will never be able to entirely eradicate rats.
A major contributing factor is how the city collects trash: bags are left outside on the curb for hours before pick up the next morning. “It’s just an all-night buffet for the rats,” he said.
On Ninth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, rats chow down on trash bags piled outside restaurants and bars. Steve Belida, the chairman of a local block association, said he used to get the occasional rat complaint. Now he gets a steady stream.
Michael Deutsch, an entomologist with Arrow Exterminating on Long Island, said there is no “magic bullet’’ to reducing rats. “You can’t just go in and order an airstrike — and then leave,” he said. “Rat populations can rebound unless you are always pressing them.”
Even buildings that never have had a rat problem are now being inundated by those rodents. Larry Jayson said he recently saw a rat jump out of a trash bin in an apartment building that is next to a new tower under construction in Flatbush, Brooklyn. It was the largest rat he had ever seen.
“We’ve seen rats the size of Cleveland,” said Mr. Jayson, the executive director of Housing and Family Services of Greater New York, a nonprofit organization. “You’re unearthing and unleashing hell on those poor people who live next door.”
Under the city’s building code, developers are required to hire a licensed exterminator for any site where a building is being demolished. But there is no similar rule for new developments.
Simon H. Williams, a researcher at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, likened the impact of the construction on rats to “stepping on an ants nest.”
In Prospect Heights, rats have made themselves at home on a block of Lincoln Place that has attracted young families and middle-class professionals. A run-down building on the corner is being renovated while several new buildings are going up nearby, contributing to the local rat population.
On a recent night, black trash bags piled along a stretch of sidewalk known as “rat alley” seemed to crinkle on their own as rats squirmed inside. High-pitched squeaks filled the air. “It’s not the night before Christmas,” said Mr. Herrera, who lives next door.
Mr. Herrera has found gnawed chicken bones and rat droppings underneath his car hood. He spent $150 to replace chewed-up ignition wires. Walking down the street has become a source of anxiety for his 9-year-old daughter, Isabella Henry.
Despite numerous complaints to city officials — including dozens of calls to 311 — the rats keep turning up. Residents say they feast on garbage left outside the apartment building under renovation on the corner, which has failed 10 city health inspections since last year, according to records.
Getz Obstfeld, a co-owner of FSG Realty, which manages and partly owns the building, said that they have targeted rat holes, added more trash cans and removed construction debris.
Still, the rats keep coming.
“They love it over here, it’s up and coming,” said Russell Coit, 66, a retired maintenance supervisor who lives on the block. “They would like to invest in something over here, too.”
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rats-are-taking-over-new-york-city/ar-AABJp16?li=BBnb7Kz
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The schooner Clotilda—the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to America’s shores—has been discovered in a remote arm of Alabama’s Mobile River following an intensive yearlong search by marine archaeologists.
"Descendants of the Clotilda survivors have dreamed of this discovery for generations," says Lisa Demetropoulos Jones, executive director of the Alabama Historical Commission (AHC) and the State Historic Preservation Officer. "We’re thrilled to announce that their dream has finally come true."
The captives who arrived aboard Clotilda were the last of an estimated 389,000 Africans delivered into bondage in mainland America from the early 1600s to 1860. Thousands of vessels were involved in the transatlantic trade, but very few slave wrecks have ever been found.
"The discovery of the Clotilda sheds new light on a lost chapter of American history," says Fredrik Hiebert, archaeologist-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, which supported the search. "This finding is also a critical piece of the story of Africatown, which was built by the resilient descendants of America’s last slave ship."
Rare firsthand accounts left by the slaveholders as well as their victims offer a one-of-a-kind window into the Atlantic slave trade, says Sylviane Diouf, a noted historian of the African diaspora.
"It’s the best documented story of a slave voyage in the Western Hemisphere," says Diouf, whose 2007 book, Dreams of Africa in Alabama, chronicles the Clotilda’s saga. "The captives were sketched, interviewed, even filmed," she says, referring to some who lived into the 20th century. "The person who organized the trip talked about it. The captain of the ship wrote about it. So we have the story from several perspectives. I haven’t seen anything of that sort anywhere else."
It began with a bet
Clotilda’s story began when Timothy Meaher, a wealthy Mobile landowner and shipbuilder, allegedly wagered several Northern businessmen a thousand dollars that he could smuggle a cargo of Africans into Mobile Bay under the nose of federal officials.
Importing slaves into the United States had been illegal since 1808, and southern plantation owners had seen prices in the domestic slave trade skyrocket. Many, including Meaher, were advocating for reopening the trade.
Meaher chartered a sleek, swift schooner named Clotilda and enlisted its builder, Captain William Foster, to sail it to the notorious slave port of Ouidah in present-day Benin to buy captives. Foster left West Africa with 110 young men, women, and children crowded into the schooner’s hold. One girl reportedly died during the brutal six-week voyage. Purchased for $9,000 in gold, the human cargo was worth more than 20 times that amount in 1860 Alabama.
After transferring the captives to a riverboat owned by Meaher’s brother, Foster burned the slaver to the waterline to hide their crime. Clotilda kept her secrets over the decades, even as some deniers contended that the shameful episode never occurred.
After the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, the Africans longed to return to their home in West Africa. Lacking the means, they managed to buy small plots of land north of Mobile, where they formed their own tight-knit community that came to be known as Africatown. There they made new lives for themselves but never lost their African identity. Many of their descendants still live there today and grew up with stories of the famous ship that brought their ancestors to Alabama.
"If they find evidence of that ship, it's going to be big," descendant Lorna Woods predicted earlier this year. "All Mama told us would be validated. It would do us a world of good."
Mary Elliott, a curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, agrees.
"There are many examples today—the Tulsa race riots of 1921, this story, even the Holocaust—where some people say it never happened. Now, because of the archaeology, the archival research, the science combined with the collective memories of the community, it can't be refuted. They are now connected to their ancestors in a tangible way, knowing this story is true." (Their ancestors survived slavery. Can their descendants save the town they built?)
The hunt for lost history
Several attempts to locate Clotilda’s remains have been made over the years, but the Mobile-Tensaw Delta is rife with sloughs, oxbows, and bayous, as well as scores of shipwrecks from more than three centuries of maritime activity. Then in January 2018, a local journalist reported that he had discovered the remains of a large wooden ship during an abnormally low tide. The AHC, which owns all abandoned ships in Alabama’s state waters, called in the archaeology firm Search, Inc., to investigate the hulk.
The vessel in question turned out to be another ship, but the false alarm focused national attention on the long-lost slaver. The incident also prompted the AHC to fund further research in partnership with the National Geographic Society and Search, Inc.
Researchers combed through hundreds of original sources from the period and analyzed records of more than 2,000 ships that were operating in the Gulf of Mexico during the late 1850s. They discovered that Clotilda was one of only five Gulf-built schooners then insured. Registration documents provided detailed descriptions of the schooner, including its construction and dimensions.
"Clotilda was an atypical, custom-built vessel," says maritime archaeologist James Delgado of Search, Inc. "There was only one Gulf-built schooner 86 feet long with a 23-foot beam and a six-foot, 11-inch hold, and that was Clotilda."
Records also noted that the schooner was built of southern yellow pine planking over white oak frames and was outfitted with a 13-foot-long centerboard that could be raised or lowered as needed to access shallow harbors.
Based on their research of possible locations, Delgado and Alabama state archaeologist Stacye Hathorn focused on a stretch of the Mobile River that had never been dredged. Deploying divers and an array of devices—a magnetometer for detecting metal objects, a side-scan sonar for locating structures on and above the river bottom, and a sub-bottom profiler for detecting objects buried beneath the mucky riverbed—they discovered a veritable graveyard of sunken ships.
Most were easily eliminated: wrong size, metal hull, wrong type of wood. But one vessel, labeled Target 5, stood out from the rest. It "matched everything on record about Clotilda," says Delgado, including its design and dimensions, the type of wood and metal used in its construction, and evidence that it had burned.
Samples of wood recovered from Target 5 are white oak and southern yellow pine from the Gulf coast. The archaeologists also found the remains of a centerboard of the correct size.
Metal fasteners from its hull are made of hand-forged pig iron, the same type known to have been used on Clotilda. And there’s evidence that the hull was originally sheathed with copper, as was then common practice for oceangoing merchant vessels.
No nameplate or other inscribed artifacts conclusively identified the wreck, Delgado says, "but looking at the various pieces of evidence, you can reach a point beyond reasonable doubt."
A national slave ship memorial?
The wreck of Clotilda now carries the dreams of Africatown, which has suffered from declining population, poverty, and a host of environmental insults from heavy industries that surround the community. Residents hope that the wreck will generate tourism and bring businesses and employment back to their streets. Some have even suggested it be raised and put on display.
The community was recently awarded nearly $3.6 million from the BP Deepwater Horizon legal settlement to rebuild a visitor center destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. But what’s left of the burned-out wreck is in very poor condition, says Delgado. Restoring it would cost many millions of dollars.
But a national slave ship memorial—akin to the watery grave of the U.S.S. Arizona in Pearl Harbor—might be an option. There visitors could reflect on the horrors of the slave trade and be reminded of Africa’s enormous contribution to the making of America.
"We are still living in the wake of slavery," says Paul Gardullo, director of the Center for the Study of Global Slavery at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and a member of the Slave Wrecks Project that was involved in the search for Clotilda. “We continue to be confronted by slavery. It keeps popping up because we haven’t dealt with this past. If we do our work right, we have an opportunity not just to reconcile, but to make some real change.”
The Alabama Historical Commission will release the official archaeology report at a community celebration in Africatown on Thursday, May 30.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/last-american-slave-ship-is-discovered-in-alabama/ar-AABKIR0?li=BBnb7Kz
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