Hotels around the world at the centre of sexual assault allegations are continuing to be promoted on TripAdvisor, despite some complainants contacting the travel company to warn them of alleged attacks by staff members. TripAdvisor is the largest travel site in the world, with 456 million people visiting the site every month to search for accommodation and other hospitality sites ranked according user reviews.

But two women who alleged they were raped by staff employed by businesses currently promoted on TripAdvisor said the company is failing its “duty to public safety” in the way it handles such complaints. They said they fear others are at risk without information about prior alleged incidents being made visible on the business page.

In emails seen by the Guardian, a woman called “K” approached TripAdvisor to say she had been raped by a tour guide whose business was being promoted on the website. After contacting the hotel where he worked and reporting him to the police, K wanted to warn other tourists. TripAdvisor responded by suggesting K could leave a first person review detailing her sexual assault on the website.(theguardian)…[+]

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)…[+]