Facebook requested to change rules for journalists, and a barber flies 11,000 km for high-profile client’s haircut.
US will shun countries that do business with Iran, says Trump
US President Donald Trump has said Washington will not do business with nations involved in transactions with Iran, reports CNN.
In the same tweet, he described as “biting” the sanctions the US reimposed on Iran Wednesday. In another tweet, Trump said he was working towards “global peace”.
The Iran sanctions have officially been cast. These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level. Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2018
According to CNN, the reaction could be aimed at the European Union, which has sought to protect the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015 between Iran, US, China, Russia and some European countries. Trump had severely criticised the deal and pulled America out of it, thus fulfilling one of his campaign promises.
On his part, Iran President Hassan Rouhani has thrown up a challenge to Trump, inviting dialogue between the two countries. The sanctions have severely affected the Iranian economy, which is reeling under high unemployment and inflation.
Belgium allows euthanasia for kids aged nine and 11
Two children aged nine and eleven in Belgium have become the youngest in the world to ever be euthanised, The Independent reports. The nine-year-old had a brain tumour, while the 11-year-old suffered from cystic fibrosis.
According to the reports of a panel regulating euthanasia in the country, the deaths of the children occurred between 2016 and 2017. Doctors in Belgium have reportedly administered lethal injections to three children in the last two years, the third being 17 years old.
Belgium amended its euthanasia law in 2014, making it the only country in the world that allows doctors to terminate, on request, the life of a child “in insufferable pain”. It says eligible children must be judged to have the mental capacity to make the decision and receive parental consent, The Telegraph reported.
‘Tariffs on imports will not help US pay off debt’
The Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the country’s national debt by taxing American consumers and businesses when they buy foreign goods under steep US tariffs will not help, an opinion piece in The New York Times argues.
Donald Trump had made a poll promise to reduce America’s debt. However, America’s budget deficit for this fiscal year is estimated at $800 billion by the Congressional Budget Office, while Trump’s own team says it will over $1 trillion by 2019. On the other hand, the amount that may be obtained by America due to higher tariffs is estimated at $40 billion in 2018.
Therefore, even with higher tariffs and greater number of American consumers buying the imported goods, Trump cannot generate such high revenues. Moreover, increase in military spending and significant tax cuts by the administration will further affect the revenue balance sheet for the country, the piece added.
Racism in Italy on the rise after March elections
Instances of violence based on racism have gone up in Italy since the campaign for the presidential elections of March 2018, Al Jazeera reports.
The situation is becoming increasingly tense, with the administration reportedly making no efforts to help.
Those who find themselves at the receiving end of racial abuse say the administration is biased as the people “propagating these notions now possess political power”.
Italy’s interior minister Matteo Salvini has denied ships carrying refugees and migrants docking rights at Italian ports, and called for a census to deport Roma without citizenship.
Deputy prime minister Luigi di Maio is equally dismissive, the report adds, quoting him as saying in recent interviews that “there is no such thing as a racism emergency”.
Facebook gets letters to change rules for journalists and scholars
Facebook has received a request to change rules to grant concessions to journalists and scholars on carrying out research on the social media site, The New York Times reported.
In a letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg Monday, a group of lawyers representing journalists and researchers requested an exemption to create inauthentic accounts and use automated tools to scrape public data of users for large-scale analyses.
By doing so, they would express their political views and gauge what sort of political ads are shown on real Facebook users’ feeds.
However, conducting similar exercises within the current legal norms is a difficult task to consider for Facebook, which faced severe criticism on the Cambridge Analytica scandal and for reportedly failing to curb Russia’s alleged use of fake accounts to meddle in the 2016 US election.
While Facebook has acknowledged the letter’s recommendations, there are no confirmations on whether the company intends to adopt them.
Currently, Facebook allows journalists to analyse their media performance on social media, and is also in the process of enabling them to study political advertising.
Barber flies over 11,000 km to give a haircut
A hairdresser flew over 11,000 km from the United States to South Korea to give a haircut to a baseball player, The New York Times reports.
Henry Garcia is the on-call barber at Nationals Park in Washington, and one of many hairdressers with a clientele comprising wealthy sportspersons.
He has become a close friend and confidant to many, especially several baseball players from the Caribbean, for whom, the report adds, Garcia is a link to the tradition of weekly visits to the barber shop.
Contributed by Sankalita Dey, Avishek Jha and Aastha Singh