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TripAdvisor Adds Warnings For Hotels with Reports of Sexual Assault

Jonathan Antonio
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TripAdvisor Adds Warnings For Hotels with Reports of Sexual Assault

Users who browse hotel listings on TripAdvisor will notice a new digital badge, which the travel website will use to point out hotels where a sexual assault took place. The decision follows media reports accusing the company of deleting comments or reviews on the grounds that they were not “family-friendly” or were “off topic.” The company, through a committee, will now make decisions through TripAdvisor community comments and news reports about incidents.

TripAdvisor’s decision to use a digital badge will probably receive pushback from hotels and resorts who advertise and pay for high placement on the website. However, TripAdvisor ultimately decided that maintaining user trust and promoting the safety of its millions of users is a higher priority. Company spokesman Kevin Carter told the New York Times that the badges will not be removed after a complaint.

“These badges will remain on TripAdvisor for up to three months. However, if the issues persist we may extend the duration of the badge. These badges are intended to be informative, not punitive. We want consumers to see good and bad reviews of businesses.”

An investigative report by the Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel, which revealed horrific stories from some Mexico resorts. One such incident includes a college student who died under mysterious circumstances. The report also suggest one TripAdvisor user said she reported being served tainted alcohol, but her review was deleted after being called “hearsay.” Other users claim TripAdvisor deleted their comments, which included first-hand accounts of rapes or other injuries caused by hotel resort employees.

Two Months After Hurricane Maria FEMA Will Transport Puerto Ricans to U.S. Mainland

Jonathan Antonio
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Two Months After Hurricane Maria FEMA Will Transport Puerto Ricans to U.S. Mainland

FEMA is planning to arrange some major relief efforts for stranded Puerto Ricans. With hotels filled to compact, electrical contractor issues, and major problems with basic resources two months following Hurricane Maria decimated the country, the agency is now offering free lights and temporary housing in Florida.

FEMA’s traditional strategies for assisting displaced individuals following a natural disaster are not really working this time around. As a solution, FEMA is working with Florida and New York to organize another relief program. That said, how many Puerto Ricans will take up the offer. Thousands of Puerto Ricans have already left the country, and those who remain may just be determined to remain in the country to save their home and keep their families together.

Recently, Gov. Ricardo Russelló told 60 Minutes about the hard decision that Puerto Ricans are being forced to make as they choose to stay or leave everything behind.

Hispanic Family
NEW YORK CITY – JUNE 12 2016: thousands filled the streets of Manhattan & Brooklyn to celebrate NYC’s 59th annual Puerto Rico Day. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio greets parade watchers (a katz / Shutterstock.com)

“You can see it every day at the San Juan airport,” he said. “There are tearful goodbyes as families break up and head off to start a new life on the mainland. The JetBlue solution they call it. More than 100,000 have left since Maria struck Puerto Rico 46 days ago. Some will return, many won’t.”

For those who are cannot wait or afford to evacuate, the “Air-Bridge” deal is a possibility for people to get a new start. Only 30 of 300 surveyed Puerto Ricans said they were interested to take up FEMA’s offer. But, states like Florida are working to help those affected by the natural disaster. In fact, Orlando schools have made room for 1,300 Puerto Rican students.

Dwayne Johnson May Join The Cast of ‘Suicide Squad 2’

Jonathan Antonio
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Dwayne Johnson May Join The Cast of ‘Suicide Squad 2’

Suicide Squad 2 production is ramping up, and it appears as though Dwayne Johnson will join Will Smith and Margot Robbie in the upcoming sequel.

According to The Wrap, two studio sources told the news outlet that Suicide Squad 2 will feature the squad who are “tasked with tracking down a weapon of mass destruction. That weapon? Black Adam [The Rock] himself.” If true, then Dwayne Johnson may have been hinting this back in May when he told Fandango, “We have a really cool surprise for Black Adam that I can’t reveal, in terms of where we will see Black Adam being introduced.”

Sounds like a hectic production schedule, which is planned to start next October. Especially considering he’s already lined up for a Fast and Furious spin-off with Jason Statham, Disney’s Jungle Cruise, and probably another season of Ballers. Not to mention, press tours for all of the other movies he’s already completed.

That said, sources close to The Wrap claim Johnson’s role in the movie will not take to long to shoot.

Gavin O’Connor is expected to write and possibly direct Suicide Squad 2, according to The Wrap.

The first Suicide Squad, which starred Margot Robbie and Will Smith, earned nearly $750 million worldwide on a $175 million budget, before promotion and advertising. However, critics were not impressed by the movie as the movie has a 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Facebook Wants Your Nude Photos To Stop Revenge Porn

Jonathan Antonio
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Facebook Wants Your Nude Photos To Stop Revenge Porn

With technological advancements, we are always surrounded by cameras. That has led to a world where celebrities private photos are hacked and released online, or upset ex-boyfriends take “revenge” by posting nude pictures of their targets on social media. But, one social network is trying to stop it.

According to The Guardian, in Australia, Facebook is planning to mark your nudes as “do not post.” You send the nude images to Australia’s e-safety commission, which then passes them to Facebook. Facebook then assigns that photo with a digital fingerprint called a “hash,” that allows it to identify it and keep it from being posted instantly.

Facebook
[2016-12-26] Facebook Headquarters, 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California, USA. Facebook “like” sign at the entrance signboard is on this photo (achinthamb / Shutterstock, Inc.)

Julia Inman Grant told ABC that it would allow victims of “image-based abuse” to take action before users share the photos on Instagram, Facebook or Messenger.

“We see many scenarios where maybe photos or videos were taken consensually at one point, but there was not any consent to send the images or videos more broadly,” she told the Australian news outlet.

According to the Guardian, here’s how it works:

In the Australian pilot, users must first complete an online form on the e-safety commissioner’s website outlining their concerns. They will then be asked to send the pictures they are concerned about to themselves on Messenger while the e-safety commissioner’s office notifies Facebook of their submission. Once Facebook gets that notification, a community operations analyst will access the image and hash it to prevent future instances from being uploaded or shared

Facebook will store these images for a short period of time before deleting them to ensure it is enforcing the policy correctly, the company said.

It is important to note that 4% of US internet users have become victims of revenge porn, according to a 2016 study. But it begs the question, how many people are going to send nude photos to the government, and what will a government and a multinational company do with this database of photos?

Study: The U.S. Has Spent Over $5 Trillion On Wars In The Middle East And Asia

Reginald Edward
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Study: The U.S. Has Spent Over $5 Trillion On Wars In The Middle East And Asia

As the United States prepares to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight ISIS and the Taliban, and the speculation of a nuclear war between North Korea continues to spread with every Donald Trump tweet, it is important to understand that the United States has been fighting in several countries in the Middle East and Asia for nearly two decades. According to a new study, over the past 16 years, all of those wars has cost taxpayers $5.6 trillion, which is 300% more than what the Pentagon estimates.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the study, which was conducted by researchers at Brown University and led by Neta Crawford, “aims to reflect costs the Pentagon doesn’t include in its own calculations since war costs aren’t borne by the Defense Department alone.”

“War costs are more than what we spend in any one year on what’s called the pointy end of the spear,” Crawford said in an interview. “There are all these other costs behind the spear, and there are consequences of using it, that we need to include.”

For example, the study’s estimates include recurring expenses such as long-term medical care for veterans and war costs incurred by the State Department. Costs also reflect related spending by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and others.

That said, the study does not include costs for U.S. aid to other countries such as the Philippines or allies in Europe or operations in Africa.

Overall, as costs for the Veterans Affairs Administration continue to rise as Vietnam veterans grow older, those costs will continue to grow from veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan, and possibly other future wars.

Disney Held Talks About Merging with 21st Century Fox

Reginald Edward
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The Walt Disney Company currently owns Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, ABC, ESPN, and now according to MSNBC, the home of Disney World is considering acquiring 21st Century Fox, which includes FX, Nat Geo and the 20th Century Fox movie studio.

21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co., leaving behind a media company tightly focused on news and sports, according to people familiar with the situation. The talks have taken place over the last few weeks and there is no certainty they will lead to a deal. The two sides are not currently talking at this very moment, but given the on again, off again nature of the talks, they could be revisited.

The deal would not include the Fox broadcast network because it could spark a monopoly controversy. As MSNBC points out, “Fox’s sports programming assets in the belief that combining them with ESPN could be seen as anti-competitive from an antitrust standpoint.” As a result, the sale would not include Fox News for Fox’s business channel.

Following the news, Fox’s stock rose by 9%, which cited unidentified insiders. Shares closed at $26.62 on heavy trading volume. Disney stock gained 2% to $100.64 on Monday evening.

The talks have reportedly happened over several weeks, with the motivation being an increase in scale in content and distribution. That said, Disney had previously reported to e talking with several major corporations including Netflix. 

Jessica Chastain Speaks Out on Sexual Harassment in Hollywood

Jonathan Antonio
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Jessica Chastain Speaks Out on Sexual Harassment in Hollywood

Since last month, Hollywood giants including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Brett Ratner and Dustin Hoffman have been accused of sexual harassment and assault allegations. Among the growing number of women who have spoken out on the scandals including Jessica Chastain, who spoke out on Twitter regarding the allegations of abuse caused levied against X-Men franchise writer, director, and producer Bryan Singer.

“Let us not forget,” Chastain tweeted on Friday, along with a link to a report that reviewed many of the accusations against Singer.

During the press tour for Molly’s Game, reporters from The Daily Beast asked Chastain about the tweet, which many saw as surprising since she has been cast in Simon Kinberg’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which Singer is executive producing. She explained:

“I’m going to speak my mind about any injustice that I see. I’m not afraid of anything in terms of that. And I think the greatest myth that an industry can create is to make people feel like they’re easily replaceable. I’m not going to allow that into my life.”

In an interview with Screen Rant, Chastain continued by saying:

My current thoughts and feelings are I want to do whatever I can to support victims and to know that I believe them and that there’s a community of artist that are committed to creating safe work environments. And I think that the industry has not been running the way it should be running. I think it goes beyond gender. It goes to all facets of the industry. We need to be more inclusive and um, yeah. So, the thing I am excited about is I do believe that there’s a generation of [artists] who are done with the old ways of Hollywood with the Fatty Arbuckle, Jack Warner, you know, Louie B. Mayer, that kind of old [fashioned] idea of what Hollywood is, and is more interested in creating an industry that is safe and inclusive.

That said, Chastain never said anything directly about Singer. Instead, she remained “simultaneously diplomatic and forthright” and instead chose to praise Kinberg, whom she said was the main reason why she chose to work on the upcoming X-Men movie.

“He wrote this script,” she explained, “and there are many powerful female roles in this story that Simon is telling. And all of my dealings were with Simon and Hutch [Parker, another producer], who were on set.”

Air Force Error Allowed Texas Shooter to Buy His Gun

Reginald Edward
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Air Force Error Allowed Texas Shooter to Buy His Gun

On Sunday, Devin Patrick Kelly ran into First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and started shooting, killing 26 people and injuring 20 more. kelly, a 26-year-old former Air Force Air Man, had been court-marshaled in 2012 and accused of assault his wife and stepson before being dishonorably discharged. There have been many questions as to how he was able to purchase a gun with a dishonorable discharge, however, a new statement from the Air Force suggest it was a  clerical error that allowed him to get hold of a gun.

According to a statement from the Air Force, they failed to enter Kelly’s domestic violence court-martial into a federal database which would have prevented him from buying a gun.

“The Air Force has launched a review of how the service handled the criminal records of former Airman Devin P. Kelley following his 2012 domestic violence conviction. Federal law prohibited him from buying or possessing firearms after this conviction.”

The statement also claimed, “the service will also conduct a comprehensive review of Air Force databases to ensure records in other cases have been reported correctly.”

This information is arguably important due to the fact that Kelly’s crime was likely motivated by his domestic violence. A new report implies that his grandmother-in-law may have been one of the people he killed and that his mother-in-law was a member of First Baptist Church.

Harvey Weinstein Hired Former Spies to Silence Accusers

Jonathan Antonio
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Harvey Weinstein Hired Former Spies to Silence Accusers

There have been several accusations against Harvey Weinstein in recent weeks, alleging decades of sexual harassment, assault, and rape committed against women in the film industry. Recently, Ronan Farrow, the writer behind a piece for The New Yorker and spoke to a number of women who were willing to go on the record with their own allegations about Weinstein’s behavior. Farrow explained on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that this was to expose “this machine that was so instrumental in keeping this quiet as long as it was quiet.”

Farrow also revealed on Tuesday a new report in The New Yorker detailing the lengths Weinstein went to in order to hide his alleged behavior. According to the report, Weinstein employed an extensive network of investigators and ex-Mossad agents to silence his victims.

“Two private investigators from Black Cube, using false identities, met with the actress Rose McGowan, who eventually publicly accused Weinstein of rape, to extract information from her. One of the investigators pretended to be a women’s-rights advocate and secretly recorded at least four meetings with McGowan. The same operative, using a different false identity and implying that she had an allegation against Weinstein, met twice with a journalist to find out which women were talking to the press. In other cases, journalists directed by Weinstein or the private investigators interviewed women and reported back the details.”

The article goes into detail into Weinstein’s intimidation tactics including using his influence to bully actresses, media personalities, and journalists who had the ability to expose him.

“The explicit goal of the investigations, laid out in one contract with Black Cube, signed in July, was to stop the publication of the abuse allegations against Weinstein that eventually emerged in the New York Times and The New Yorker. Over the course of a year, Weinstein had the agencies “target,” or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focussed on their personal or sexual histories. Weinstein monitored the progress of the investigations personally. He also enlisted former employees from his film enterprises to join in the effort, collecting names and placing calls that, according to some sources who received them, felt intimidating.”

The LAPD and the NYPD are investigating Weinstein following allegations of rape.

Mark Wahlberg’s ‘Mile 22’ Open Casting Call in Atlanta

Jonathan Antonio
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Mark Wahlberg’s ‘Mile 22’ Open Casting Call in Atlanta

Mark Wahlberg’s new movie, Mile 22, is now casting actors, models, and talent to work on scenes filming in Atlanta, Georgia.

According to Project Casting, Central Casting, the extras casting company behind Mark Wahlberg’s new movie, is now hiring actors, stand-ins, child actors, and other film industry professionals to work on the movie.

“Producers are looking for men and women ages 18 and older to make up a fictional town for the movie,” Project Casting explains in the casting call. “Casting directors are seeking people to play Indonesian, Filipino, South American, Cambodian, and Mongolia. All actors will be paid background actors. Filming will shoot between late November through February in the ATL.”

It is important to note and understand Georgia’s growing film industry. Gov. Nathan Deal announced that Georgia filmed movies and TV shows generated an economic impact of nearly $10 billion during the fiscal year 2017. In fact, 320 feature film and TV productions shot in Georgia accounting for $2.7 billion in direct spending in the state.

“Georgia’s film industry supports thousands of jobs, boosts small business growth and expands offerings for tourists,” Deal said last July. “As one of the top places in the world for film, Georgia hosted a remarkable 320 film and television productions during the last fiscal year. These productions mean new economic opportunities and real investments in local communities. We are committed to further establishing Georgia as a top film destination and introducing film companies to the Camera Ready backdrops available across Georgia.”

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