All posts by Alec Baldwin

News

Colombian Bishop Plans to Exorcise Entire City from Helicopter

Monsignor Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya, the bishop of Buenaventura plans to take to the skies to exorcise his entire city. The area is plagued by violence, drug smuggling and poverty.

Montoya announced his decision to sprinkle the city with holy water after the murder and torture of a ten year old girl in the city.

He told local radio: “We have to drive the devil out of Buenaventura, to see if we can restore the peace and tranquility that our city has lost due to so many crimes, acts of corruption and with so much evil and drug trafficking that invades our port.

“We want to go around the whole of Buenaventura, from the air, and pour holy water on to it to see if we exorcise and get out all those demons that are destroying our port, so that God’s blessing comes and gets rid of all the wickedness that is in our streets.

Read More: The Guardian 

News

Paris and London Declare “Climate Emergency”

Paris has followed London and hundreds of other cities globally declaring a “climate emergency”. On June 26th New York was the largest city to make such a declaration.

The move is largely symbolic. But the socialist mayor of Paris has already passed a number of laws to show her green credentials. These  include significantly reducing traffic in the city, and implementing traffic bans at peak pollution times.

The new “climate emergency” declaration will see a Climate Academy set up to educate the public on environmental issues; and a team of scientists who will be called upon to  advice on any legislation to be passed that will have an environmental impact.

Paris hosted the 2015 historic signing of the agreement to globally tackle climate change.

Read More: France 24

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US Actors Face Informal Ban in China

The Chinese- US trade war has seen US actors axed from Chinese productions. The Chinese film market has seen tremendous growth in recent years, and many US actors have flocked to the country to fill roles in films as foreigners. However, Chinese agencies have been axing these actors from their books.

“My agency in China ended our contract claiming the trade war with America amounts to force majeure. I can only assume it looks bad for them to be working with an American,” said Matt William Knowles, who was cut from a $75m project last month.

Read More: Business Fast 

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Earthquake Magnitude 6.4 Hits Near Ridgecrest and South China Lake, South California

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit southern California. The epicentre was a few kilometres from the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, Ridgecrest. The weapons station is the Navy’s largest land holding facility of weapons and armaments research, development, acquisition, testing and evaluation.

The region in the Mojave desert is sparsely populated. There were no injuries, but buildings and roads sustained varying degrees of damage. The earthquake is the largest to hit the region in 20 years, and was felt over 100 miles away in Santa Barbara.

Read More: Arlington Cardinal

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French designer Julien Fournier: Witches Were the First Feminists

French  fashion designer Julien Fournier has said he believes that witches were the first feminists, saying they were the first to challenge patriarchy. His comments were made during the opening of his new show, which he staged in a church.

His new collection is called, “First Spell”, in which he derives inspiration from witches who “knew how to control their destiny”.

Read More: Yahoo News

News

Dalai Lama Sorry Comments that a Female Successor Would Need to be Attractive

In a recent interview, with the BBC, the 84 year old Dalai Lama commented that if his successor were female she would have to be “attractive”. After receiving criticism for the remarks he apologised.

In the interview he also discussed the refugee crisis in Europe, and voiced his feelings about US President Donald Trump, saying that  his presidency was marred by a “lack of moral principle.” The Dalai Lama has met every US President since George H.W. Bush, and said he would be open to meet the President, but had never been asked.

Read More: NBC News

News

Georgia’s Heartbeat Bill to Face Legal Challenge

Georgia’s new abortion laws which state that abortion cannot be carried out after a heart beat is detected are being challenged. The lawsuit is being filled by American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of Georgia abortion providers and reproductive rights advocates. They claim the bill is unconstitutional as it effectively cuts the abortion limit to 6 weeks. It is currently 20 weeks.

Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp admitted that he expected his bill not to go unchallenged.

Read More: NBC News

News

Line just went Orwellian on Japanese users with its social credit scoring system

It appears other countries besides China are heading toward a bleak dystopian future where a human being is scored by their online activities. Only this time, it’s a tech company and not a government implementing the social credit score. While not as bleak as China’s social credit system, today Line, Japan’s dominant social media company, introduced a slew of new products—the most alarming among them, Line Score, reports the Verge.

Line Score will use AI to give a social credit score to Line users. The strength of their social credit score will allow them to get access to better special deals and offers that Line users with lower social credit scores will not have access to.

While the new product is unnerving, it’s not completely out of character for Line. Recently the company has been positioning itself as a fintech provider, and its Line Pay digital wallet system is wildly popular in Japan. Line Pay also allows users to shop for insurance and allows them to invest in personal portfolios. Line Score builds on top of Line Pay by offering those with higher scores better perks.

However, before George Orwell rolls over in his grave, it’s important to note that Line stresses Line Score is opt-in only and that the company will never share a user’s Line Score with third parties without the user’s permission and it will not read a user’s online chats to determine their Line Score. Still, it’s unnerving that tech companies seem to think that social credit ratings are the next big thing for now. Hopefully, this is a trend that will not catch on.

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News, Science And Technology

Big Techs Economic Goals: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.

In her new book Shoshana Zuboff, Professor at Harvard Business School, outlines the goals of the tech giants like Google and Facebook. Zuboff argues that their “goal is to automate us” by trading in our personal experiences as their raw material. She says we are now in an age of surveillance capitalism.

In an interview with Democracy Now Zuboff explains what this means:

Read More: The Guardian 

News

Mixed Reaction to Sen. Hawley’s Bill to Crack Down on Big Tech Giants

Sen Hawley has proposed a bill that would force tech companies like Facebook and Twitter to prove they are politically neutral. Conservatives have been seeking ways to stop these tech giants controlling the political narrative and promoting their own agenda.

“Social media companies that have routinely deplatformed conservatives and censored conservative speech should no longer enjoy the protections granted to politically neutral platforms,” Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, said in a statement Wednesday, referring to Section 230. “These tech companies claim they have no ideological bias — it is time they prove it.”

However, some conservatives think Sen. Hawley’s bill could have the opposite affect. They fear that the legislation would cause tech companies to remove political content that they fear would spark controversy, and thus further shut down the conservative voice.

“If social media firms are worried about being liable for user-generated content, they’re likely to be more aggressive in taking down any vaguely political content, out of fear that it could put them in legal jeopardy,” Philip Klein, a writer at the Washington Examiner.

Read More: The Daily Caller