Amazon appears to be helping fund anti-vaccine not-for-profit organizations through its charity arm, the AmazonSmile Foundation, the Guardian can reveal.

The AmazonSmile fundraising program – through which Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price of a shopper’s Amazon transactions to an organization of their choice – is promoted on the websites of four prominent anti-vaccine organizations: National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), Physicians for Informed Consent, Learn the Risk, and Age of Autism.

Numerous other anti-vaccine organizations, including American Citizens for Health Choice (ACHC), National Health Freedom Coalition, Michigan for Vaccine Choice, Texans for Vaccine Freedom, A Voice for Choice and the Informed Consent Action Network are also listed by Amazon as eligible for the donations. Amazon’s donations are just the latest example of how US tech companies have – wittingly or not – helped to promote and finance the anti-vaccine movement.

Facebook and YouTube have already faced criticism over the proliferation of anti-vaccine propaganda, which promotes false information casting doubt on the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Misinformation frequently outperforms science on the platforms, and self-serve advertising tools empower anti-vaxxers to target parents with fear-mongering propaganda.(theguardian)…[+]

TRINIDAD – A car­di­ol­o­gist con­sul­tant says Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley is like­ly go­ing to Cal­i­for­nia to take im­por­tant tests to de­ter­mine whether he will need heart surgery. The tests will de­ter­mine whether Row­ley will need in­va­sive surgery or be pre­scribed some­thing as sim­ple as a dosage of med­ica­tion like as­pirin.

The di­ag­no­sis will de­ter­mine the lev­el of plaque build-up in his coro­nary artery – mild 30%, mod­er­ate 31%-69%, se­vere– 70% and over. On Sun­day, Row­ley an­nounced he will leave for Cal­i­for­nia, Unit­ed States where he will un­der­go a se­ries of coro­nary tests and ob­ser­va­tion. Row­ley said in 2016 he sub­ject­ed him­self to a coro­nary test which re­vealed a soft plaque in one of the ar­ter­ies, but a sub­se­quent test in 2017 showed it had grown quite sig­nif­i­cant­ly.

The car­di­ol­o­gist con­sul­tant, who spoke on the con­di­tion of anonymi­ty be­cause of the in­di­vid­ual in­volved, said doc­tors in Cal­i­for­nia will seek to de­ter­mine whether Row­ley is at risk of a heart at­tack. The tests, the con­sul­tant says, will show what state the plaque is in as they will have “dif­fer­ent prop­er­ties.” He likens the buildup of plaque to ce­ment. (Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

The prestigious opera house La Scala in Milan has become embroiled in offstage drama of its own, with its boss under fire over negotiations to the Saudi Arabia culture minister, Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saud, become a member of the board. Alexander Pereira, the Austrian CEO and artistic director credited for bringing in more sponsors and creating a healthier balance sheet since his appointment in 2014, said the new board member would bring in an additional €15m (£12.8m) over the next five years.

Pereira said that the money would either be paid by a Saudi individual or come via a private company or bank. “It’s a great opportunity,” Pereira said. “I’ve discussed it with Giuseppe Sala [the mayor of Milan] and Alberto Bonisoli [Italy’s culture minister], who has met his counterpart. Such economic opportunities don’t come by every day.”

But his negotiations have been described as “unscrupulous” by some board members, who called for the Italian government to intervene in the “complex and delicate” issue. “The [negotiations] are an entirely personal initiative,” the members were quoted in the daily Corriere della Sera as saying. “At this moment Saudi Arabia does not stand out for its democratic balances.”(theguardian)…[+]

Facebook has been accused of abusing a security feature in order to weaken user privacy, after the social network was found using phone numbers initially handed over for account safety for other purposes. The company now faces criticism that it will be harder to convince users to take other necessary security measures if users view this as an abuse of trust.

Since 2011, Facebook has asked users for their phone numbers in order to enable “two-factor authentication”, a common account security feature that sends a text message whenever a login is attempted. The social network even required the feature to be used by the moderators of large Facebook pages, telling them they had to hand over a phone number in order to prevent the page from being easily stolen by a canny hacker.

But in the years after the social network first enabled two-factor authentication, Facebook began to use the phone numbers users had provided for other purposes – eventually, by September 2018, going so far as to update the language used in the prompt, adding the words “and more” to the end of a statement that had previously read, simply: “Add your phone number to help secure your account.” Now, users who once added their phone number for security are faced with a privacy setting that asks them who can look them up using that number. The options are “everyone”, “friends of friends”, or “friends”. There is no choice to ban that use.(theguardian)…[+]

TRINIDAD – Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith is urg­ing all ac­tive po­lice of­fi­cers to turn out for work on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day, not based on con­se­quences, but be­cause of “pa­tri­o­tism and an an­swer to the call to du­ty”.

A to­tal of 6,000 of­fi­cers are ex­pect­ed to re­port for du­ty across the coun­try dur­ing the Car­ni­val pe­ri­od, with some 1,600 po­lice of­fi­cers be­ing ros­tered to work in the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion, to pro­vide blan­ket se­cu­ri­ty for the dis­trict over the next two days.

In a state­ment, the CoP has al­so giv­en the as­sur­ance to all of­fi­cers that Car­ni­val leave for which all of­fi­cers are en­ti­tled, will be grant­ed. Grif­fith al­so com­mend­ed all the of­fi­cers “for their un­stint­ing per­for­mance and ded­i­ca­tion to du­ty,” while en­cour­ag­ing oth­ers to al­so come out and give the sup­port that is nec­es­sary to make the 2019 fes­tiv­i­ties the safest ever. Re­gard­ing safe­ty, po­lice are again ap­peal­ing to mas­quer­aders and spec­ta­tors to stay away from large trucks in mo­tion dur­ing Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions.

Mean­while, cit­i­zens plan­ning on vis­it­ing the coun­try’s beach­es and rivers in the days dur­ing Car­ni­val and un­til Ash Wednes­day can ex­pect to see an in­creased po­lice pres­ence as mu­nic­i­pal po­lice will be de­ployed to as­sist with Car­ni­val safe­ty ef­forts.Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Kaz­im Ho­sein as­sured that the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice of­fi­cers will be out in full force, en­sur­ing that beach-go­ers and tourists alike feel safe and se­cure when vis­it­ing ma­jor beach­es.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

Yannis Behrakis, one of Reuters’ most decorated and respected photographers, has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 58. Behrakis covered many of the most tumultuous events around the world, including conflicts in Afghanistan and Chechnya, a huge earthquake in Kashmir and the Egyptian uprising of 2011.

He narrowly survived an attack on a convoy in Sierra Leone and led a team to a Pulitzer prize in 2016 for coverage of the refugee crisis. The Reuters US general news editor Dina Kyriakidou Contini said “his pictures are iconic – some works of art in their own right – but it was his empathy that made him a great photojournalist”. “My mission is to tell you the story and then you decide what you want to do,” Behrakis has said. “My mission is to make sure that nobody can say: ‘I didn’t know’.”(theguardian)...[+]

Voters took to the polls on Sunday to elect a new leader to represent Italy’s centre-left Democratic party, as the embattled group strives to re-establish itself as a credible force against the country’s rightwing populist government.

The vote is seen as a litmus test for the strength of the party and comes a year after its administration was ousted in an embarrassing defeat in general elections that led eventually to the formation of a coalition government between the far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement(M5S).

One million people are projected to vote on Sunday. There has been a steady flow of people into voting booths in central Rome, while turnout is reported to be strong elsewhere across Italy. Nicola Zingaretti, the president of the Lazio region, is widely tipped to win, but he will need to eclipse 50% of the vote in order to secure the leadership. Polls on Friday put Zingaretti ahead with 47.38%, followed by Maurizio Martina, the party’s former caretaker leader, with 38%, and Roberto Giachetti with 11%.(theguardian)…[+]

A woman, who reportedly collected £4,000 and $140,000 from a woman to make reservation for her and her family to travel from London, England to New York in the United States but failed to do so, is scheduled to return to court on May 6, to pay over half of the amount to the complainant. Charged with fraudulent conversion is Nicola Semester.

The court heard that sometime in 2015, Semester presented herself as a travel agent with World Ventures and collected monies from the complainant to make the reservation for her and her family to travel from London to New York but did not make the reservation and failed to return the complainant’s money to date. The court heard that the money was sent to Semester through Western Union and by way of wire transfer through the bank and that the complainants had the proof.

“I am sorry, she paid £4,000 to travel from London to New York?” Senior Parish Judge Vaughn Smith asked on Thursday after the allegations were outlined in court.

“Sometimes some persons have money to spend,” the prosecutor answered.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]

Riot police have surrounded Algeria’s presidential headquarters and parliament as demonstrators gather for what are expected to be the country’s biggest protests in decades against Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is seeking a fifth term in office.

Thousands angry at the ailing president’s attempt to prolong his 20 years in power began taking to the streets before the end of midday Muslim prayers on Friday, local media reported. His opponents say Bouteflika, 81, who been seen in public only a handful of times since he suffered a serious stroke in 2013, is no longer fit to lead and that Algeria is being ruled in his name by a group of advisers including the president’s brother, Said.

“We’re not against him; he’s sick, he’s resting. We’re against the system,” one protester, Youssef, told Agence France-Presse. Amine, a 23-year-old welder who has been unemployed for four years, said there was “no future in Algeria” and he would regain hope “if the entire system is removed”. Algerian authorities say the president, who came to power in 1999, still has a firm grip on public affairs. “Bouteflika was sick when he sought a fourth term in 2014, but his medical results for the past five years were good,” the prime minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, told parliament on Thursday.(theguardian)…[+]

Shamima Begum and her baby have been moved from a Syrian refugee camp after threats were made against them, according to her family’s lawyer. The 19-year-old and her son were moved from the al-Hawl camp in the north of the country to another site nearer the Iraqi border.

Begum, who left the UK in 2015 with two school friends to join Islamic State in Syria, said last month she wanted to return home for the health of her then unborn child. The home secretary, Sajid Javid, has ordered the British-born woman’s citizenship to be revoked. Begum, who gave birth days after telling a Times journalist of her wish to return, has since said she wished she had kept a low profile.

The Sun reported on Friday that Begum had received death threats since speaking out about her plight. She and her son are said to have been moved to another camp nearer the Iraqi border. Begum’s lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, told the paper: “I can confirm that it is our understanding that Shamima has been moved from al-Hawl due to safety concerns around her and her baby. We further understand that indeed she and her child had been threatened by others at the al-Hawl camp.”(theguardian)…[+]