Big business and politics are mass-mining everyday data — from Facebook ‘likes’ to online subscriptions – for profit and power, according to a Netflix documentary released on Wednesday.

“The Great Hack” says personal data has surpassed oil as the world’s most valuable asset, and warns viewers that companies and governments are hacking into way more than computers.

“There are people out there who are trying to figure out how you think. If you don’t understand how you think, they will think for you,” said directors Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim. “It’s not just our computers that have been hacked, it’s our minds,” they said in a statement.

The two-hour documentary — showing on the Netflix streaming video platform — examines the state of privacy in the United States and Europe, where people spend much of their time online, volunteering countless nuggets of exploitable information.

It centers on the Cambridge Analytica affair, which saw an international consultancy target undecided voters in the Brexit referendum and 2016 U.S. election, partly using Facebook data.

Facebook Inc agreed on Wednesday to pay a $100 million fine to settle charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it misled investors about the misuse of its users’ data related to Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook did not admit or deny wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.

“Social media companies harvest millions of people’s personal data and sell it to the highest bidder. Personal data is being used on a mass scale to manipulate and influence people,” said Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, a British civil liberties group.

“Data-driven manipulation of populations is not only the reserve of shady start-ups, disturbingly, it is becoming the modus operandi in modern politics.”

Directors Amer and Noujaim first came to prominence for their Academy Award nominated film “The Square,” which looked at social media as a catalyst for the 2011 Egyptian uprisings.

“We ultimately made a film about whether we have free will. It’s about democracy and it’s about complicity,” they said of their latest documentary. “These are arguably the most important questions of our time.”

Czech President Milos Zeman will decide in August on whether to accept the Social Democrats’ preferred pick for culture minister, a personnel move at the heart of a dispute rattling the ruling coalition.

The Social Democrats, a party Zeman once led before a falling out, are the junior member to Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s ANO party in a center-left minority government that gets parliamentary backing from the Communist party.

They requested in May that Zeman remove Antonin Stanek, whom they accuse of being ineffective, and replace him with their preferred candidate, Michal Smarda.

But Zeman has defended Stanek, angering the Social Democrats and creating a standoff that led to Social Democrat threats of resignations as the president has yet to finalize the change.

Babis met Zeman on Wednesday and said the president confirmed he would remove Stanek by the end of July as the Social Democrats requested.

“He will decide on the [Social Democrats’] nomination for the post of culture minister around the middle of August,” Babis said on Twitter.

Under the Czech constitution, the president is obliged to fire ministers if requested to do so by the prime minister, but Zeman is known for acting independently of the government. In this dispute he has said there is no deadline for taking action.

The Social Democrat leadership confirmed last week Smarda remained their choice for culture minister, calling on Babis to ensure the nomination is respected. The party stopped short of deciding to leave the coalition already although resignations by its ministers remain an option.

Babis has fought to maintain his one-year-old government The Social Democrats’ exit would cost him a parliamentary majority, leaving him few options. Babis has said early elections could hurt the country.

With the Czech economy and public finances mostly on firm footing, markets have been unfazed by the latest government dispute, similar to disputes in ruling coalitions that have marked the country’s politics for over a decade.

Malawi protesters have rejected a call by former President Bakili Muluzi to suspend street action to allow for talks to end further election-related clashes. Protesters have been calling for the Malawi Electoral Commission chairperson to resign over alleged fraud since President Peter Mutharika’s May re-election. 

Muluzi, who was Malawi’s president from 1994 to 2004, urged protesters late Tuesday to halt months of demonstrations so he could mediate with government authorities over May’s contested presidential election. He invited the main protesters’ group, the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, to his home in Blantyre to discuss the issue.

“Please, I want to plead,” he said. “Would you not give me, say, seven days, so that I have time to travel to Lilongwe, meet these people about the issue you are raising? But if you take a hard line, [chuckles] you know, I don’t think it will help anybody.”

But protesters rejected the offer and maintained their call for twice-a-week street action to force Electoral Commission chairperson, Jane Ansah, to resign.

Human Rights Defenders Coalition Chairperson Timothy Mtambo led the talks.

“We respect our former head of state,” he said. “But as we have spoken time without a number we do not believe in manipulative dialogue. We have strongly advised that demonstrations in itself, it’s not a problem it’s a constitutional right. However, the problem is that Jane Ansah is refusing to resign.”  

The protesters accuse Ansah of fraud in declaring Mutharika the winner of the May election with 39 percent of the vote.

Runners-up Lazarus Chakwera and Saulos Chilima are challenging the election results in court, alleging ballot-stuffing and the use of Tipp-Ex correction fluid to change votes.

The MEC maintains the election was free and fair.

But ongoing protests set the stage for further clashes with security. On Sunday, the headquarters of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party in Blantyre, which is seeking annulment of the elections, were burned to the ground.

A dangerous direction

Muluzi told reporters he fears the violence is moving the country in a dangerous direction.

“We must also accept that these demonstrations have caused a lot of economic hardships, you know that,” he said. “The shops get closed, the bank’s not open, there are so many things. I am again appealing to you; could the demonstration on Thursday be postponed?”

Political analyst Vincent Kondowe says with continued protests and no dialogue, Malawi will head toward anarchy. He says Mutharika, Chakwera, and Chilima need to reach a compromise.

“Even if the court came in today and said, ‘well, the elections were conducted in a proper manner’, the political disagreements will continue. So, for me the best way is for the leaders to agree to have a re-run because even Peter Mutharika himself agrees that the elections were messed up. He has been speaking this in different political rallies that he has conducted.”

But Malawi authorities have dismissed re-running the election. 

Meanwhile, protesters plan to hold demonstrations and vigils Thursday in all of the major cities, which city authorities are heatedly rejecting. 

Fifty years ago, the first humans landed on the moon.  Many engineers and scientists have been thinking about what the next 50 years might bring in space travel.  That’s what NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program is all about.  It provides funds to foster ideas that could revolutionize future space missions.  One NASA funded idea is a space habitat that solves the problems that occur with long term space travel.  VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Agriculturist Lauren Goodwin wants children to develop a passion for ethical agriculture. As Ghana’s capital Accra expands, green spaces diminish, and fast food starts to become a norm, Goodwin is teaching kids where their food comes from – and how to grow it themselves.  Stacey Knott reports for VOA, from Accra.

As Ghana’s capital Accra expands, green spaces have diminished and fast food is starting to become a norm; however, agriculturist Lauren Goodwin wants to ensure that children understand where their food comes from – and how to grow it themselves. 

Tucked away in one of Accra’s few green spaces, children are spending their school holiday learning about ethical agriculture and healthy living. 

Ghana, like many nations across the world, is seeing a rise in fast food consumption and the associated health risks. Fried local street food and fast food restaurants are common sights throughout the capital.

Goodwin, founder of the Under the Mango Tree Camp, says she sees people, especially in cities, becoming disconnected from their food source. 

“I know that children need to be a part of this. This can’t be a conversation that we just keep for adults, it can’t be, you know. We are growing and we have our young people that are coming up; it’s so important they are exposed to this thing. They need to know how food grows,” Goodwin said.

This month, the children have been learning about all aspects of ethical agriculture, from composting to creating natural pesticides. The camp is held at a park where the children like Björn Brinkmann have been able to plant herbs and vegetables.

“I have been planting, germinating, sowing, harvesting and also sometimes we taste the herbs and sometimes we brought some of the vegetables home,” Brinkmann said.

Goodwin, who emigrated from the United States to Ghana, worries about the health impact poor diets have on black communities. 

Educating children about the power of plants will also empower their families – and eventually the wider community, she says.  

Parents say the camp is both informative and fun for their children. They come home from the day camp eager to share their new knowledge, says one mother, Aziza Atta.

“I think physically it’s great, socially it’s great. In terms of their understanding of nature and how things work, and how things have a source and cycle, and you need to plant something and it grows, then you harvest it and this is how you do it. You don’t just go to the supermarket and buy things; it’s that thinking process,” Atta said.

Goodwin hopes the seeds the camp plants today will inspire the youngsters to lead the movement for healthy food and ethical agriculture in Ghana.

In the face of two weeks of massive protests calling for his resignation, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello says he has to listen to the people, but made no indication Tuesday he planned to step down.

“When one side speaks legitimately, the other has the responsibility to listen carefully,” Rossello said in a statement.  “The people are speaking and I have to listen.  These have been moments of complete reflection and of taking decisions based on the concerns of the people of Puerto Rico and of their best interests.”

As thousands of protesters again gathered in the streets for demonstrations, Rossello said his future statements will focus on the actions his government carries out.

A number of officials have resigned in connection with a texting scandal that was revealed earlier this month, the latest being Rossello’s chief of staff Ricardo Llerandi who announced his resignation on Tuesday citing threats against his family.

Meanwhile a judge has issued search warrants for the phones of Rossello and 11 of his political allies.

The public fury erupted when the island’s Center for Investigative Journalism published nearly 900 pages of online group chats between Rossello and several top aides and associates that included profane messages laced with contempt for victims of 2017’s Hurricane Maria, as well as misogynistic and homophobic slurs against Rossello’s political opponents.  

The publication of the chats unleashed long-simmering anger among Puerto Ricans who were worn down by years of public corruption and mismanagement that left the U.S. territory under the control of a congressionally-mandated oversight board to guide it out of a multi-billion-dollar debt crisis.  

Rossello stepped down as leader of the New Progressive Party during a televised address Sunday and said he would not seek re-election in 2020. 

U.S. President Donald Trump slammed Rossello Monday for his “totally grossly incompetent leadership” of Puerto Rico. Trump clashed with Rossello and other Puerto Rican officials over the administration’s response to Hurricane Maria, which killed 3,000 people and left the island without power for months.

Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande each received 10 nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) on Tuesday, leading the race in the youth-orientated awards show, which this year includes two new categories, best K-pop and video for good.

Singer-songwriter Billie Eilish scored nine nominations, including video of the year, best pop, best new artist and artist of the year, a category the 17-year-old will compete for against Grande, rapper Cardi B, pop rocker siblings Jonas Brothers as well as singers Halsey and Shawn Mendes.

Grande’s breakup anthem “thank u, next” and Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down,” in which she criticises social media trolls and those who attack LGBTQ people, will contend for prizes including song of the year, best pop and the video of the year.

That major category also includes Eilish’s “Bad Guy”, Jonas Brothers’ “Sucker,” “Old Town Road (Remix)” by rapper Lil Nas X featuring country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and “a lot” by rapper 21 Savage featuring J. Cole.

The 29-year-old Swift, whose acceptance speech at the 2009 awards was famously interrupted by rapper Kanye West, also received nominations for “ME!” her upbeat duet with Brendon Urie, the lead singer of Panic! at the Disco.

“Boy With Luv” a collaboration between boy band BTS, who have won legions of Korean pop music fans outside of Asia, and Halsey is among the nominees in the best K-Pop category. The song also received nods for best collaboration, best art direction and best choreography.

The new video for good category features songs that have raised awareness or given out a wider message. Animated, star-studded or depicting real footage, they include videos for Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down,” Halsey’s female-empowering “Nightmare,” Lil Dicky’s environmentally themed “Earth” and John Legend’s “Preach” about social injustices.

Other nominees include The Killers’ “Land Of The Free,” a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and a remake of Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train,” whose 1993 video featured missing children, by Jamie N Commons, Skylar Grey and Gallant.

Other music stars with several nominations include Lil Nas X with eight nods, Halsey who received six, Shawn Mendes who earned five and last year’s video of the year and artist of the year winner Camila Cabello, who got four.

The VMAs, which are voted for by fans and known for their unpredictable stunts, will be broadcast live on Aug. 26 from Newark, New Jersey.

Spain’s Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez failed on Tuesday in a first attempt to get parliament’s backing to form a government, leaving him two days to try and strike a deal with the far-left Unidas Podemos ahead of a second vote.

Sanchez, who won the most seats in an election in April but fell short of a majority, has faced three months of difficult coalition talks with Podemos, whose votes he needs to be confirmed as prime minister.

He has led the government as a caretaker in the interim, but could be forced to hold new elections if he cannot win confirmation.

After a few tense days where the two parties seemed at turns within reach of a deal or on the point of breaking off talks entirely, Podemos ended up abstaining on Tuesday, rather than voting against Sanchez. Officials in both parties described that as a gesture of good will to allow negotiations to continue.

“We will keep working so that there is a coalition government. Time is running out,” Podemos lawmaker Ione Belarra said after the vote. “Our last gesture was to abstain in order to make the negotiations easier.”

Sanchez was not expected to win Tuesday’s vote, but he lost it by a wide margin, with 124 votes to 170, and 52 abstentions.

Only one lawmaker outside his Socialist party voted for him.

To win Tuesday’s vote, Sanchez would have required an absolute majority of 176 votes in the 350-seat parliament. A second round on Thursday will operate under different rules, requiring only a simple majority excluding abstentions.

Still, he faces an uphill struggle to convert abstentions and some ‘no’ votes into votes in his favor.

All will depend on whether the Socialists and Podemos set aside their differences to strike a deal for a coalition government and also get support from smaller, regional parties.

Socialist spokesperson Adriana Lastra said: “It is the moment to form a government of the left. We have the basis for an understanding.”

Considering how difficult talks have been over the past three months, and tense exchanges between Sanchez and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias in a parliament debate late on Monday, it remains to be seen how stable and united such a government would be.

If Sanchez is not confirmed as prime minister on Thursday, further votes could be held in September. If that failed too, a repeat election would be held on November 10.

Still, the mood appeared to be calmer on Tuesday.

Sources in Podemos and the Socialist party said that the main question was what role Podemos ministers would have.

Rejecting Podemos’ accusations that its ministers would only have a “decorative” role with no power, chief Socialist negotiator Carmen Calvo said Irene Montero, a senior Podemos lawmaker, had been offered the deputy premiership.

Unlike the other Podemos lawmakers, Montero voted ‘no’ on Tuesday. But Podemos officials said this was because Montero, who is pregnant, voted early in the morning from home, before the party changed its mind and decided to abstain.

Kenya’s parliament voted on Tuesday to nationalize the country’s main airline Kenya Airways to save it from mounting debts.

The loss-making airline, which is 48.9% government-owned and 7.8% held by Air France-KLM, has been struggling to return to profitability and growth.

A failed expansion drive and a slump in air travel forced it to restructure $2 billion of debt in 2017. The airline later proposed taking over the running of Nairobi’s main airport to boost its revenue.

Parliament’s transport committee, however, rejected that plan, recommending instead the nationalization of the airline in a report debated by the national assembly on June 18.

In a voice vote taken on Tuesday afternoon, the majority of lawmakers in the chamber voted to accept the report.

Kenya Airways Chairman Michael Joseph told Reuters the vote was “great news.”

“Nationalization is what is necessary to compete on a level playing field. It is not what we want, but what we need,” he said, referring to competitors such as Ethiopian Airlines which are state-run and profitable.

Air France-KLM could not immediately be reached for comment.

The government will now draw up an implementation plan, with clear time lines, said Esther Koimett, the principal secretary at the ministry of transport.

“Parliament is our boss … we will obviously take the recommendations of parliament,” she told Reuters.

Kenya is seeking to emulate countries like Ethiopia which run air transport assets from airports to fueling operations under a single company, using funds from the more profitable parts to support others, such as national airlines.

“The government is keen to take a consolidated view of aviation assets of the country in order to make sure they work in a coherent and efficient way to support the (Nairobi aviation) hub,” Koimett said.

The committee’s report proposes that Kenya set up an aviation holding company with four subsidiaries, one of which would run Kenya Airways. Another arm of the holding company would operate Nairobi’s main international airport.

The committee’s report also recommended the holding company be given tax concessions for a period to be determined and that it be exempted from paying excise duty on all goods, including jet fuel.

Koimett dismissed concerns that nationalization could lead to further mismanagement. Kenya’s state-owned enterprises sector is riddled with corporate corpses and near failures caused by theft and poor management over the decades.

“Implementation is really the key thing … Ultimately all these things have to do really with ensuring that we get the right people in the right places,” she said.

($1 = 103.7000 Kenyan shillings)

Democratic lawmakers accused U.S. President Donald Trump and the Senate’s leading Republican of working to kill legislation designed to protect the upcoming U.S. presidential election from interference by Russia and others.

They also warned that because of Trump and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts, time is running out to get improved security measures in place for the 2020 vote.

“It appears that the majority leader, at the behest of the White House, has made it his goal to kill any meaningful legislation,” Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters during a news conference Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

“Even this president’s top intelligence, law enforcement officials have all indicated that Russia, which successfully intervened in our election in 2016, will be back in force,” Warner added. “I do not understand when we have common sense, bipartisan legislation, why we can’t bring that to the floor of the Senate and let the Senate vote.”

Through aides, McConnell declined to respond directly to the latest allegations. But in remarks earlier this month, he slammed Democrats for using the issue of election security to pursue a partisan agenda.

“Many of the proposals labeled by Democrats to be ‘election security’ measures are indeed election reform measures that are part of the left’s wish list,” he said. “They ignore the great work this administration has done and sweep under the rug the necessary measures this chamber has passed.”

Mueller testimony

The allegations by Democratic lawmakers come a day before U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, charged with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, is set to testify before two House committees.

Mueller’s report concluded Russia conducted what investigators described as a concerted campaign using hackers and disinformation to impact the outcome of the 2016 elections.

“There were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election,” Mueller said in a statement he read to reporters in late May.

But rather than settle political differences, the report has further polarized Democrats and Republicans, who continue to argue over how to interpret the report’s findings and over what action to take.

Last month, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill requiring paper ballots at all polling stations. However, almost all House Republicans opposed the measure, arguing that paper ballots are more susceptible to tampering.

Several Republican-controlled Senate committees have also been looking into election security issues, and the Judiciary Committee approved two election security bills in May.

But Democrats on Tuesday warned that the decision by McConnell to prevent any of the bills from getting a vote was threatening the country’s democracy.

“Hostile foreign actors are going to interfere in the 2020 election in a way that makes what happened in 2016 look like very small potatoes,” said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “It is not just going to be the Russians.”

FBI warning

Earlier Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray repeated warnings that the country’s upcoming elections would again be targeted.

“The Russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere,” he told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying efforts to stop Moscow have failed to have much of an impact.

“My view is until they stop, they haven’t been deterred enough,” Wray said.

This past December, a report by U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Russia, along with China and Iran, targeted the 2018 Congressional elections with influence campaigns.

Under an executive order signed by Trump last year, all three countries could have faced sanctions and other punitive measures.

But a subsequent report by the Justice Department found “no evidence to date that any identified activities of a foreign government or foreign agent had a material impact on the integrity or security of election infrastructure or political/campaign infrastructure.”

Democrats’ bills

Warner and other Democrats said Tuesday said they would continue to push for a series of what they described as common sense, bipartisan measures to improve election security.

In addition to requiring paper ballots at all polling stations, the bills would require social media companies to provide information on who is paying for political ads and require mandatory sanctions for any country found trying to interfere.

A fourth bill would require candidates and campaigns to notify the FBI if any foreign country or entity reaches out to them with “dirt,” or damaging information, on their opponents.

“The response ought to not be to say, ‘Thank you,”’ Warner said. “The response ought to be to tell law enforcement.”

An executive of state-owned EgyptAir said Tuesday that British Airways’ decision to suspend flights to Cairo, the Egyptian capital, for several days was “without a logical reason.”

The vice chairman of EgyptAir Holding Co, Sherif Ezzat Badrous, told reporters at a ceremony marking the delivery of the carrier’s newest Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner that Cairo airport is safe and EgyptAir continues to operate in a “very safe environment.”

British Airways, part of International Airlines Group, suspended flights to Cairo on Saturday for seven days “as a security precaution” as it reviews security at the Cairo airport.

Later Saturday, Germany’s Lufthansa said it had canceled services from Munich and Frankfurt to Cairo, but it resumed flights Sunday.

“What happened three days ago was unexpected completely, and without a logical reason,” Sherif Ezzat Badrous said. “Until now, at this moment, we don’t have any logical reason” for the actions taken by British Airways.

“You can ask them about the true reasons,” he added.

On Sunday, Egypt’s aviation minister, Younis Al-Masry, “expressed his displeasure at British Airways’ taking a decision unilaterally concerning the security of Egyptian airports without referring to the competent Egyptian authorities,” the Aviation Ministry said in a statement.

Other airlines were continuing to operate flights to Cairo.

Air France had decided to maintain its service to Cairo after liaising with French and Egyptian authorities, an airline spokesman said in a statement sent to Reuters. Emirates flights were operating to schedule, a spokeswoman said.

The website for Abu Dhabi’s Etihad showed its services were also operating, and a spokesman said the airline was monitoring the security situation in Cairo.

Colombia has given ride-hailing app Uber Technologies four months to improve its data security, the commerce regulator said on Tuesday, after a 2016 data breach affected more than 260,000 of the South American country’s residents.

Last year, Uber agreed to pay a fine of $148 million in a settlement reached in the United States for failing to disclose the massive breach.

The settlement followed a 10-month investigation into the breach, which exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts, including 600,000 driver’s license numbers.

Uber is popular in Colombia even though the government says its use is illegal. The country has not yet specifically regulated transport services like Uber, but has said it will suspend for 25 years the licenses of drivers caught working for the platform.

Of those whose data was compromised by the breach, some 267,000 are Colombian residents, the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce said in a statement, adding that Uber will have four months to show it is protecting users from fraudulent or unauthorized access to their accounts, among other things.

The company should also develop a protocol for handling future data security breaches, training for its staff on the issue, and put in place a permanent monitoring system to determine whether the new measures are adequate, the regulator said.

The required improvements must be certified by an independent third party chosen by Uber, the statement said, and will continue to be monitored for five years.

Uber’s Colombia office said in a statement it has already shown local authorities that it has “implemented various technological improvements to the security of our systems” in 2016 and after.

“We have also implemented significant changes in our corporate structure, to ensure the respective transparency in front of regulators and users in the future,” it added.

The company said in May it will spend $40 million over five years to open its third Latin American support center in Bogota in September.

U.S. President  Donald Trump said he is now considering a “ban,” tariffs and remittance fees after Guatemala decided to not move forward with a safe third country agreement that would have required the Central American country to take in more asylum seekers.

“Guatemala … has decided to break the deal they had with us on signing a necessary Safe Third Agreement. We were ready to go,” Trump tweeted.

“Now we are looking at the ‘BAN,’ Tariffs, Remittance Fees, or all of the above. Guatemala has not been good,” Trump wrote.

Guatemala, which has been forming Caravans and sending large numbers of people, some with criminal records, to the United States, has decided to break the deal they had with us on signing a necessary Safe Third Agreement. We were ready to go. Now we are looking at the “BAN,”….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2019

….Tariffs, Remittance Fees, or all of the above. Guatemala has not been good. Big U.S. taxpayer dollars going to them was cut off by me 9 months ago.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2019

It was not immediately clear what policies he was referring to. The White House and the Guatemalan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has made restricting immigration a cornerstone of his presidency and re-election campaign. He has pushed Guatemala, Mexico and other countries in the region to act as buffer zones and take in asylum seekers who would otherwise go to the United States.

The Guatemalan government had been expected to hold a summit with Trump during which Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales would sign the safe third country agreement, but the country’s constitutional court blocked Morales from making the declaration.

Power was restored to Caracas while five Venezuelan states were seeing the lights return Tuesday according to a government official, after a blackout across of the South American country Monday.

Venezuela’s latest power outage began Monday afternoon, causing widespread traffic jams and forcing travelers to walk as the nation’s rail system quit.

Venezuelans also lost access to running water and had difficulty buying food, as credit and debit cards became unusable.

Netblocks, an organization that monitors Internet usage across the globe, said Internet connectivity was down to 6% in Venezuela.

In the aftermath of the blackout, the government alleged foul play, claiming that an “electromagnetic attack” had struck a hydroelectric power plant.

On twitter, President Nicolas Maduro called the blackout a “new criminal attack against tranquility and peace of the homeland.”

The political opposition, however, argues that the power outage was caused by government failure.

“They tried to hide the tragedy with rations throughout the country, but the failure is evident: they destroyed the electrical system and have no answers,” wrote opposition leader Juan Guaido on Twitter.

“Venezuelans will not get used to this disaster,” he said.

In March, Venezuela suffered a similar blackout that impacted all of the country’s 23 states. Blackouts are common in some regions of the country.

In recent years, Venezuela has suffered protracted political and economic turmoil, with the nation experiencing high inflation and widespread shortages.

Guaido declared himself president in January, receiving support from over 50 countries but struggling in an attempt to oust Maduro.  
 

Pope Francis named Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Mark Brennan to lead West Virginia’s Catholics on Tuesday following a scandal over the former bishop’s sexual harassment of adults and lavish spending of church money.

The 72-year-old Brennan replaces Bishop Michael Bransfield, who resigned in September after a preliminary investigation into allegations of sexual and financial misconduct.

Last week, Francis barred Bransfield from public ministry and prohibited him from living in the diocese, while also warning that he will be forced to make amends “for some of the harm he caused.” Brennan will now help decide the extent of those reparations as he seeks to restore trust among the Catholic faithful.

Coming on the heels of a new wave of sex abuse allegations in the U.S., the Bransfield scandal added to the credibility crisis in the U.S. hierarchy. Several top churchmen received tens of thousands of dollars in church-funded personal gifts from Bransfield during his tenure in Wheeling-Charleston, which is located in one of the poorest U.S. states.

In his first comments after his appointment, Brennan said he would work to bring “true healing and renewal” to West Virginia. And in comments to the Catholic Review of the archdiocese of Baltimore, he said a main focus would be on rural poverty and victims of the opioid crisis, which has hit West Virginia particularly hard.

”There is immense need which is matched by immense desire and determination to reinvigorate the church here in West Virginia and across our nation,” he said, according to a statement from his new diocese.

Brennan, a Boston native who was ordained in Washington D.C., in 1976, spent time studying Spanish in the Dominican Republic and completed his theology studies at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was named auxiliary bishop of Baltimore in 2016 and has ministered to the city’s Hispanic community.

After Bransfield’s resignation, Francis asked Baltimore Archbishop William Lori to oversee the diocese temporarily and complete a full investigation. The findings, first reported by The Washington Post, determined that Bransfield spent church funds on dining out, liquor, personal travel and luxury items, as well as personal gifts to fellow bishops and cardinals in the U.S. and Vatican.

Lori has said that Bransfield was able to get away with his behavior for so long because he created a “culture of fear of retaliation and retribution” that weakened normal checks and balances in the diocese. The diocese’s vicars have all resigned and been reassigned to parish work, and Lori recently announced new auditing and other measures to ensure church funds are properly administered.

Bransfield had been investigated for an alleged groping incident in 2007 and was implicated in court testimony in 2012 in an infamous Philadelphia priestly sex abuse case. He strongly denied ever abusing anyone and the diocese said it had disproved the claims. He continued with his ministry until he offered to retire, as required, when he turned 75 last year.

He has disputed the findings of Lori’s investigation, telling The Post “none of it is true,” but declining detailed comment on the advice of his lawyers.

The Wheeling-Charleston diocese includes nearly 75,000 Catholics and 95 parishes and encompasses the entire state of West Virginia.

A tenth day of protests in Puerto Rico against embattled Governor Ricardo Rossello ended late Monday with police using tear gas to disperse protesters who had gathered near the governor’s mansion in San Juan.

A massive crowd estimated at 500,000 people, including pop singer Ricky Martin and other Puerto Rican-born entertainers, filled the streets of the capital earlier in the day demanding Rossello resign. 

The public fury erupted nearly two weeks ago when the island’s Center for Investigative Journalism published nearly 900 pages of online group chats between Gov. Rossello and several top aides and associates that included several profane messages laced with contempt for victims of 2017’s Hurricane Maria, which killed 3,000 people and left the island without power for months, as well as numerous misogynistic and homophobic slurs against Rossello’s political opponents.  

The publication of the chats unleashed a long-simmering anger among Puerto Ricans worn down by years of public corruption and mismanagement that left the U.S. territory under the control of a congressionally-mandated oversight board to guide it out of a multi-billion dollar debt crisis.  

Rossello stepped down as leader of the New Progressive Party during a televised address Sunday and said he would not seek re-election in 2020. 

President Donald Trump slammed Rossello for his “totally grossly incompetent leadership” of Puerto Rico Monday at the White House.  Trump clashed with Rossello and other Puerto Rican officials over the administration’s seemingly tepid response to Hurricane Maria. 

Saint Louis, Senegal is home to generations of fishermen, who say they know no other life or way to make a living.  

But rising sea levels and new international regulations are forcing them to change how they work. 

Though most fishermen here learned from their fathers, who learned from theirs, most say the work today is nothing like it was for older generations.

“Our parents were lucky – traditional rules in the fishing community were well established and respected,” fisherman Ousmane Diop told VOA. “But things have changed now. Families are expanding and using new materials.”

According to Diop, the saturation of the market is one of their biggest challenges. Most fishermen in Saint Louis are polygamous – taking multiple wives to have as many sons as possible. The more sons they have, the more they can expand their family staff on their fishing boats.

But other challenges have led to increased market saturation – namely, increased security in the neighboring waters of Mauritania.

For years, many fishermen based in Saint Louis fished in Mauritania’s maritime territory.  But over the past year, the Mauritanians have increased both their own fishing as well as security in their waters. Senegalese fishermen who risk going there are fined, detained, or even shot.

“If you pay them they’ll give you back your equipment and your catch – but if you can’t pay they’ll confiscate everything,” says Malick Fall, a fisherman, who says he was stopped by Mauritanian authorities twice last year.

“Maybe they’ll detain you for a day or two before they let you go,” he told VOA.

Rising sea presents challenge

But despite his difficulties with coast guards in Mauritania, Fall, along with many other fishermen, says the biggest challenge they face is rising sea levels.  

“This is why we can no longer anchor our boats on the beach – we have to come around into the city and leave them along the river,” Fall says.

In Saint Louis, residents call the rising sea levels the “avancé de la mer” – which in French literally means the advancing of the sea. On what used to be beaches, waves crash just feet from buildings – many of which have been damaged or destroyed.

In addition, many operations related to the trade have been pushed inland. Tents under which women used to dry and cure fish on the beach have moved to a cramped space further inland.

“We have suffered huge losses,” Aminta Seck, a fisherman’s widow, who dries fish cured with salt, told VOA.  “The main challenge we face here is how tight our space is.  Between the smell of fish and the heat we suffocate here… when we were on the beach at least we had some fresh air.”

Seck has to continue her work. Her husband died at sea, and her sons are in school. Unlike many children who leave school early to start fishing with their fathers, Seck’s children continued their education. So for now, she alone has to provide for her whole family. 

According to the World Bank, land is receding as much as 10 meters per year in high-risk areas throughout West Africa.  Just last year, the World Bank worked with the Senegalese government to relocate 10,000 people along the coast in Saint Louis.

But fishermen and their families are reluctant to move far from the coast, as their livelihood depends on it.

“We as fishermen, we just have this one activity – from the times of our grandparents to current times,” Moustapha Dieng, secretary general of the Fisherman Union of Senegal, who is also descended from fishermen, told VOA.

“From father to son, we are fishermen. We just have this one job. When it goes well, it goes well. When there are challenges, we suffer, but we continue.”

Trump says he wants Pakistan’s help to end war in Afghanistan peacefully because he did not want to wipe the country “off the face of the earth”

Once upon a time, not too far from Hollywood, two of the world’s biggest movie stars were talking about what it’s like to screw up on set.  

“Messing up the lines in front of the entire cast and crew?” Leonardo DiCaprio said.  “It’s the going to school in your underwear nightmare.”

“It’s awful,” Brad Pitt chimed in. “When a scene’s not working. When YOU’RE not working in a scene…It goes beyond not being able to get the lines. You have 100 people there who are all ready to get on with their day and get home.”

DiCaprio hasn’t exactly had to resort to dunking his head in ice water after a too-late and too-fun night out, as his actor character does in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.”

But Pitt? “Oh I’ve done that,” he laughed.

The two actors, who skyrocketed to fame around the same time more than a quarter century ago, have joined forces for the first time in a major motion picture to take on their own industry, their own town and even their own egos in a time of great change — 1969 Hollywood. Out nationwide Friday, it’s also reunited them with Quentin Tarantino.

Once known only as “Tarantino’s Manson Movie,” the actual film is something very different. Manson is a character, as are his most notorious followers. And of course, Sharon Tate is depicted too and played by Margot Robbie. But as with most Tarantino movies, it’s not exactly what you think.

“The best of what 1969 had to offer you kind of experience through Sharon,” Robbie said.

Like going to the Playboy Mansion with Mama Cass and go-go dancing the night away. Or rolling up to a movie theater to check out your latest matinee and getting a free ticket because you’re on the poster.

“She kind of represented the arms open, doors open sort of policy,” she added. “After 1969 and after her death, things kind of changed in Hollywood and people closed their doors and shut the gates.”

The light and the dark of the imminent end of the ’60s is the backdrop to what is otherwise a classic star-driven two-hander. “Once Upon a Time…” is awash in nostalgia, showbiz lore (and cameos), wistfulness and Tarantino-wit that allows DiCaprio, as a past his prime television cowboy in a moment of crippling self-doubt, and Pitt, as his devoted stuntman, to do what they do best: Charm.

“I don’t think you can completely act that kind of dynamic,” Pitt said.

The change happening in Hollywood around 1969 led to many on-set discussions of what was going on at the time with the new batch of filmmakers upending the establishment and leaving room for the Coppolas and the Scorseses to break in.

“The ‘take and wait,’” Pitt said. “Like, we’ll get the take but we’re getting through this story.” Tarantino does that often.

It also made them all reflect on their own industry at the moment, where streaming is disrupting the old ways but once again ushering in new voices. As producers, Pitt, DiCaprio and Robbie all find it exciting.  

“What’s incredible is this wealth of talent from writers to directors to actors that are getting opportunities now. It’s quite extraordinary,” Pitt said. “You see that we’re not so special.”

DiCaprio is even a little jealous to see some “out of the box ideas” and “really ballsy storytelling” that he tried and failed to get made just a decade ago now not only being financed, but made at a high quality too.

“There’s so many more opportunities,” Robbie added. “I’m very grateful to be playing roles in this day and age than perhaps when Sharon was.”

But it’s not lost on them that they all happen to be promoting a “a big budget art piece like this,” as DiCaprio called it, from one of the major studios whose future is going to depend on people actually going to see films like “Once Upon a Time…” in a movie theater.

“Hopefully it becomes like a concert experience,” DiCaprio said. “People want to get together on the Friday night and feel the energy of the crowd and the excitement of a movie coming out that they’ve been anticipating rather than the isolation of being home. Hopefully that’s not lost in the sauce, because that’s half the fun of it, right?”

“Once Upon a Time…” is Tarantino’s ninth film, and, according to him, his second to last.

Pitt and DiCaprio believe him too.

“I always imagined it as his little box set that he wants to just hang up on the wall and that’s it,” DiCaprio said. “That completes the Tarantino, you know, cinematic experience.”

“The Tarantino 10,” Pitt added.

As with many button-pushing Tarantino projects, “Once Upon a Time…” has been at the center of a few heated public discussions, including the morality of making a movie about Tate and Manson, and the casting of Emile Hirsch, who in 2015 pleaded guilty to assaulting a female studio executive at Sundance.

Then there was that tense moment at the Cannes Film Festival press conference where a reporter asked why Robbie’s character has so few lines and Tarantino curtly responded that he rejected the hypothesis.

Tarantino declined to be interviewed for this article. But his response touched a nerve culturally.

“He’s an incredibly unique filmmaker,” DiCaprio said. “And whatever choices he makes, he’s one of those rare filmmakers in this industry that has retained the right to say, ‘This is a piece of art that I’m going to give to the world. And this is what this character represents, and this is what this character represents. And it’s my piece of work’… That’s why we consistently want to work with somebody like that.”

It’s clear his actors are in awe of him and what he brings to their art form. It’s the kind of admiration that can result in two true movie stars talking like fans.

“You know he’s got a four-hour cut of this?” Pitt said excitedly.
 
“Yeah,” DiCaprio responded. “I’m still waiting to see the four-hour cut of ‘Django.’”