Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference on March 6, 2018. This year’s gathering comes at an extraordinarily turbulent moment in U.S.-Israeli relations. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The annual conference opens amid a stormy moment in U.S.-Israel relations.
The politics of Israel, anti-Semitism and the 2020 presidential campaign will move to center stage in Washington over the next few days as the powerful pro-Israel group AIPAC holds its annual policy conference and President Donald Trump prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The dual meetings come as Trump pushes his party evercloser to Israel — most recently with a Thursday announcement that the U.S. will recognize Israel’s annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights —and Democrats face an internal debate over their party’s support for arguably the most important U.S. ally in the Middle East.
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This year’s three-day AIPAC forum will include appearances by Netanyahu and his political rival, Benny Gantz. It will also feature speeches from Vice President Mike Pence, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and an array of lawmakers from both parties.
The annual gathering comes at an extraordinarily turbulent moment in U.S.-Israeli relations. Unconditional support for Israel was once sacrosanct in American politics, a topic so touchy that a mere misstep or faint flub could damage a politician’s career.
But with Netanyahu making a critical election-season trip to the United States, Israel has become a partisan football, with Trump’s Republican Party on one side, and a new generation of Democrats, including the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress, on the other.
Under Trump, the GOP has moved in lockstep with Israel and Netanyahu. Just on Thursday, Trump recognized Israeli control over the Golan Heights, a provocative move that no other American president would even dream of doing during the last 50-plus years.
While the White House has signaled the announcement was coming for weeks, it was still seen as a major boost for Netanyahu, who gushed that Trump “is the greatest friend Israel ever had in our entire history” as he stood next to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a press conference in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu will join Trump at the White House next Monday and Tuesday. It’s the Israeli prime minister’s second visit to the White House since Trump took office. The two leaders are scheduled to meet on Monday to “discuss their countries’ shared interests and actions in the Middle East.” On Tuesday, Trump will host Netanyahu for dinner, according to the White House. The Israeli elections are scheduled for April 9, with Netanyahu and Gantz — a former general and Israeli army chief of staff — locked in a tight contest.
Trump, meanwhile, has also seized on anti-Semitic comments by Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to claim “Democrats hate Jewish people,” a raw partisan comment that outraged Democrats. Pompeo even singled out Omar by name during a Thursday interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network, an extraordinary move by an American diplomat engaged in official business overseas.
“The rise of anti-Semitism in the United States and in Europe and in, frankly, all across the world is something that is deeply troubling, and to see someone – a duly elected congressman – behave in that way, to speak about anti-Semitism in that way, is of great concern,” Pompeo said.
And Trump is pushing the so-called “Jexodus movement,” which is aimed at convincing Jewish Democrats to switch parties.
“The ‘Jexodus’ movement encourages Jewish people to leave the Democrat Party. Total disrespect! Republicans are waiting with open arms,” Trump tweeted just last week. There’s no sign that the effort has had any success – surveys show Jewish voters remain overwhelmingly Democratic – but Trump’s efforts are clearly aimed at helping his own reelection effort next year.
Democrats, for their part, are wrestling with the question over U.S. relations with Israel, a disputethat crosses the lines of race, religion and age.
Newly elected Democratic lawmakers such as Omar and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) – the first two Muslim women elected to Congress – have bashed Israel’s harsh treatment of Palestinians. Omar’s criticism of AIPAC and the support Jewish-American voters have for Israel touched off a national furor over anti-Semitism,and Omar later apologized for some of those remarks. The House has twice passed resolutions condemning such comments, yet the controversy overOmar continues to reverberate inside the party.
And while numerous Democratic lawmakers will speak at the three-day AIPAC forum, not one top-tier Democratic presidential candidate will be in attendance.
In fact, Democratic frontrunners — including Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — had no problem highlighting the fact they would be skipping the gathering. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is weighing a presidential bid, will speak at the event.
O’Rourke has said repeatedly that Netanyahu “openly sided with racists” in order to help save his embattled political career, while a Sanders’ spokesman told the Associated Press the Vermont Democrat is “concerned about the platform AIPAC is providing for leaders who have expressed bigotry and oppose a two-state solution.”
But a large bloc of other Democrats remain unquestionably aligned with Israel, despite their queasiness with Netanyahu’s tenure. These Democrats have raised concerns about the tenor of Israel criticism among Democrats, including Omar, both in public and private.
In a statement to POLITICO on Thursday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) signaled that he backed Trump’s announcement on the Golan Heights.
“Israel has controlled the Golan Heights for over 50 years. The Syrian civil war and the resultant presence of extremists on Israel’s northern border, including Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and ISIS, underscores the importance of Israeli control of this strategic area,” Engel said in his statement. “This is the reality of the situation, and there is no circumstance under which Israel should give that strategic advantage to the murderous Assad regime.”
A pair of Jewish Democrats are also pushing a new measure to condemn an international boycott campaign aimed at Israel — the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement — a chance for much of the party to unify around support for the key U.S. ally after weeks of turmoil on the issue.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) introduced a resolution Thursday that denounces BDS efforts as “incompatible” with the official U.S. stance on a two-state solution to end the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a letter to colleagues Thursday, Nadler and Schneider described the global attempt to economically isolate Israel as an “overly-simplistic and one-sided approach.”
“Its goal is Israel’s elimination, not the criticism of any particular policy of Israel,” they wrote of BDS, which has been cheered by some outside progressive groups as the best tool to force a change in Israeli treatment of Palestinians.
The language on a two-state solution — which both parties have stuck by for years — is expected to be widely supported in the House. The resolution includes two GOP cosponsors: Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and Ann Wagner (R-Mo.).
Yet it could also expose a leftward shift among Democrats, with new members like Omar and Tlaib supporting such boycotts.
Getting horny with your partner over text isn’t just great foreplay. For many it can also act as an ideal space for establishing enthusiastic consent, exploring each other’s sexual fantasies, kinks, boundaries, and limitations.
In the age of #MeToo, we’re finally talking about how to change our sexual culture to ensure everyone’s having a great time during a sexual encounter. But often, dissenters frame consent like it’s a contract you have to sign before touching each other. (Those people clearly haven’t seen Fifty Shades of Grey, where the BDSM contract is hotter than the actual sex scenes.)
Far from a binding contract, enthusiastic consent is by definition exciting, sexy, flexible, and an act of discovery. But sometimes — especially in monogamous heteronormative relationships — it’s hard to know what it looks like IRL, or how to avoid the awkwardness of having those conversations in the heat of the moment.
“Sexting can be great for negotiation because you can talk about all of it without looking directly into their eyes. And for many people, that lessens the fear of rejection or feelings of shame,” said psychologist, author, teacher, and sex coach Liz Powell.
Swiping right, but in a sexual way.
Image: vicky leta / mashable
Aside from being a great avenue for enthusiastic consent, SMS thirstiness is already redefining the way we have sexual and intimate relationships. And studies have shown that it can be an essential part to a healthy relationship, including potentially increasing sexual satisfaction.
“Sexting is becoming normative,” said Jeff R. Temple, a behavioral researcher from University of Texas who studies the impact of things like sexting. According to his findings, “over half of emerging adults report sexting, and with the ubiquity of smartphones, that number is only going to increase.”
Let’s make sure sexting stays sexy, not creepy.
Whether or not we like it, sexting is here to stay. And like IRL sex, we need to start talking about ways to do it right, ensuring that we engage in this newer form of intimacy safely, consensually, and positively. Which is to say: Let’s make sure sexting stays sexy, not creepy.
So here’s your guide to having a healthy sexting relationship with your partner(s), as a form of sexual communication that’s still hot and heavy, but also chill and on your own time.
1. Establish rules of engagement
First to state the obvious: Absolutely never assume someone wants a sext from you, even if you’ve had sex before. And even if you’ve talked about sexting before, you need to lay down some ground rules for how you each like to sext. And this guide assumes the reader is of age, since there’s all sorts of legal and safety issues that come into play if you’re a minor.
Before diving head first into a full on sexting relationship, have an explicit and straightforward conversation.
“A lot of the time we wander into the first time we sext our partners …. One of you says, something like, ‘Oh I’m thinking about you’ or, ‘Remember how hot that kiss we had was?’” said Powell. “I suggest checking back in after that first time and saying, ‘What was great for you about that? What are things I can do more, or less next time?’ But also practical things like, “Hey in the future do we need to get explicit consent before? Can I send you sexts any time? Do you want pics?’”
For example, some people like a surprise sext while others feel it’s a total violation. Being considerate is the most important part of this early negotiation process.
“At the beginning, start by initiating late at night or at a time when you know the other person has some privacy,” Vanessa Marin, a psychotherapist who specializes in sex therapy, said.
If you’re worried about being caught while your screen sharing during a meeting, make sure you both turn off “Preview Messages” mode on your phone setting.
No one wants to see their partner’s genitals at the dinner table.
Image: vicky leta / mashable art team
Or try designating Snapchat or another app like Signal as your sexting platform, keeping things separate and so you know what the fuck is up without needing to open anything. It’s important to note that Snapchat does not guarantee your privacy, since pictures you send are stored by the company and are also vulnerable to workarounds so users can save your pictures. Signal has end-to-end encryption and disappearing messages, but someone can always take a screenshot or picture of your sext using another camera.
Both Powell and Marin suggest pacing yourself at the start of any sexting relationship, regardless of how long you’ve been together or how far you’ve gone sexually IRL.
“You don’t want to get carried away because it’s easy to put the other person in an uncomfortable situation before you know how they like it,” said Marin.
That’s not to mention that ramping things up slowly is a totally great tease. If you go too fast, like jumping from super explicit texts right into nudes, you don’t leave enough room for anticipation.
Give each other time to develop a natural sexting cadence. This is about enjoying the (at times agonizingly teasing) journey, rather than racing to the finish line.
2. Initiate by first calling back to a moment of real-life intimacy
There’s one pretty sure-fire way to test the waters with a potential sexting partner.
“If you and your partner have already been intimate in real life, ease in by talking about what a great time you had or why you can’t stop thinking about it,” said Marin. “You’re introducing the topic without being too explicit. It gives your partner the opportunity to respond in a way where you can gauge whether they want to go into more detail or not.”
Also, Marin pointed out, “because you’re referencing something you already know the person was into, there’s a higher chance they won’t be uncomfortable by reliving it through sexting.”
3. Learn more about your own sexuality, body, and desires first
Maybe all this still sounds too fast for you, especially if you’ve never sexted before. That’s why an essential part to developing your sexting skills is understanding your own sexuality on a solo basis.
Checking in with yourself is in important step.
Image: Vicky Leta / Mashable
In Powell’s experience, that’s especially the case for people who were socialized as women, or who are trans, queer, or non-binary.
“Cis-gendered men get a lot of encouragement to explore their own bodies, sexualities, a variety of different types of porn,” she said. Even then, though, they’re still taught to not explore the less traditionally masculine forms of pleasure, like anal or pegging.
“But people who are socialized as women don’t get any of those lessons. We are the sexual objects, not the sexual subjects … You’re given the message that your partner will explore sex for you, so you don’t need to take the time to explore your own pleasure,” she said.
“For people who are trans or nonbinary or when you’re in a body that doesn’t always necessarily match your understanding of your own gender, it can be really complicated to know what embodied pleasure looks like for you.”
That’s why both Powell and Marin believe that everyone — regardless of gender — can up their sexting game by venturing into new forms of self love before bringing a partner into the mix.
“Finding ways to tap into what turns you on when you’re alone is essential to connecting with other people,” said Powell.
“We don’t have a lot of rich sexual language modeled for us in our culture. So having a bank of words that you can pull from so that it’s more like mad libs and less like creative prose can be a lot easier, especially if you’re starting out,” said Powell.
But ideally, you’d find your own sexting voice. Which is where those lessons in self-exploration come in. Read erotica to see what resonates with you and put those sentiments into your own words to develop your own “cheat sheet,” Powell said. You may want to start with Literotica, a free online anthology of textual porn, Marin suggested. Or if you want to peruse more curated and better-written examples, Refinery29 does a weekly erotica roundup.
“Practice your own erotic writing without sending it to your partner so you can figure out what turns you on, what doesn’t,” Marin added.
This practice goes hand-in-hand with the next step, which is creating a sexicon (a lexicon of your own vocabulary, phrases, nicknames, situations, etc.) with your partner. Talk about what kind of nicknames they like (if any) and how you both like to refer to your body parts.
You also need to make peace with the idea that not everything will click. You might say some awkward things that won’t land. That’s all a normal part of sex, and can be a fun bonding experience for figuring out your sexy repertoire.
“Sexting and dirty talk is the most awkward when we’re in a really anxious mental space or trying to phrase it perfectly. We become disconnected from the actual sexual experience we’re trying to communicate,” said Powell.
5. Practicing on your own makes perfect
But what about pictures and videos? That’s a whole other frontier that you can also ease into without your partner at first.
“Taking pictures of yourself can feel really empowering,” said Marin. Getting to know what angles work best for you, what assets you want to emphasize, or how much you’re comfortable showing takes practice. And it’s all about enjoying and discovering what you love about your body.
“So feel free to do that whether or not you plan on sending it to someone else.”
The group chat gets it
Image: vicky leta / mashable
Powell suggests you take a whole bunch of pictures too since, “You’re gonna hate three-quarters of the ones you take at first …. Learn to be OK with a bunch of terrible pictures of yourself too.”
Practice is not only part of the process, but can also be part of the fun. Powell has even seen a recent trend of friends getting involved in helping to up each other’s nude game.
“Set up a supportive sexy selfies group with your friends to talk about how hot each of you is, how you love that angle, or that color on them. Whatever it is, find ways to build each other up,” she said. “It’s a great way to get started that’s low pressure.”
6. Let’s get personal
Bringing it back to your partner, sexting gets really hot when you personally tailor it to that specific lover.
“So many of us have an idea of what sexy is supposed to look like and how we’re supposed to behave to be sexy. But it’s way more about your own unique, individual personality,” said Marin.
Who you are is a huge part of what makes your partner want you. So play into that, not only through the sexual vocabulary you develop with each other but also in your pictures, videos, or even voice memos.
Who you are is a huge part of what makes your partner want you.
Don’t try to emulate glossy pin up shots from the early days of adult magazines because, honestly, that’s not what our culture even finds sexy anymore. WhenPlayboy relaunched its first non-nude magazine issue in 2016, there’s a reason why the cover invoked the casual sext aesthetic of Snapchat. Your partner wants to see you as you are, not as an impossible ideal.
“If you’re someone who’s kind of dorky, for example, that’s also going to be sexy as long as you embrace it and embody it,” said Powell.
Aside from bringing your own personality, it’s incredibly sexy to tailor your sexts to the specific person your texting.
“Make it super personal to every lover. What are the aspects of their particular body that you love? Is there a specific birth mark, or dimple, or way that they laugh? What are the things that are really unique about that person?” said Powell.
In the case of a sexy Snapchat, don’t forget that you can combine visuals and text. And there is something indescribably hot about a nude alongside a message naming your partner and what you want them to do with it. Marin suggested sending videos or pictures where you’re even wearing an outfit or piece of underwear you know the other person likes.
People love to be seen, and sexting can be a great way of helping someone else see their own sexiness through your eyes.
“In particular it’s great to highlight aspects of that person that you love that they may feel uncomfortable about,” Powell said, pointing to common insecurities like belly fat, stretch marks, or scars. Describing how their perceived flaws are sexy to you will make anyone get hot and bothered.
7. Negotiating boundaries can be hot as hell
So far we’ve been assuming that you and your sexting partner are on the same page. But that’s definitely not always the case. But far from being a problem, those instances can become opportunities to get to know each other’s sexuality better.
This is especially true when you’re using sexting to explore new territory, like kinks or desires you haven’t tried before — even when it’s something the other partner doesn’t initially find appealing.
“When someone brings up something you think isn’t your thing, the first question that can be useful to ask is, ‘Tell me what’s hot about that for you,’” said Powell.
That question should open up an honest, judgement-free dialogue for you both about the larger source, sensation, or sexual fantasy that the kink or sexual act represents. Because, “the specific act is never the full story behind what they’re actually into. Figuring out what’s driving that desire helps you renegotiate.”
“The first question that can be useful to ask is, ‘Tell me what’s hot about that for you.’”
You might even find that, after hearing your partner describe what’s hot to them about it, their sheer excitement or desire stirs some of your own. But if you’re still not into doing that specific act or kink, you can find other acts you are comfortable that fulfill their larger desire.
“It’s about treating it like a collaborative activity. Think about it like improv, where it’s always ‘Yes, and.’ That doesn’t mean you always have to say yes to things, but the idea should be understanding where that person is coming from, and meeting them where you can,” said Powell.
But, Powell clarified: “Being able to give your lover an empowered ‘no’ in a way that doesn’t make them feel rejected is a super essential skill.”
And having that negotiation conversation, even if it goes nowhere, allows you both to exercise that skill.
What’s important for both parties, Marin said, is to remember, “You’re allowed to have your own boundaries, you’re allowed to have your own reactions, and share that feedback with your partner.”
8. Safety, trust, and privacy are part of what makes sexting sexy
Even though sexting has become a ubiquitous and often positive experience for many, there’s no denying the inherent risk.
Marin, Powell, and Temple emphasized that unfortunately, there is absolutely no way to ensure your sexts won’t be made public or used in ways you didn’t consent to. But there are helpful ways to frame that problem.
You can’t guarantee a consensual sext will remain consensual.
Image: vicky leta / mashable
“Because it’s the internet and because it’s the age that we live in, don’t ever send pics or videos that you would not be OK with ending up on the internet,” said Powell.
That’s not because it will or you can’t trust anyone. It’s more about considering whether or not that potential outcome would ruin your particular career, like for people who work with kids, for example.
“If you’re going to be sexting someone, just ask yourself, ‘What is the worst that can happen here,’ and set your engagement based on your risk profile. How much risk are you willing to assume?”
Some people avoid this in pictures by never showing their faces in a nude, making it harder to prove it’s you. But again, that’s still fallible. As mentioned, no app guarantees privacy. We wrote previously about some apps that can help protect your nudes, and would also recommend turning off automatic cloud back up.
But also, taking the leap of faith with your partner adds to what can make sexting feel special. It’s something you do with a person you trust, and trust is sexy.
“Sending a naked picture of yourself is scary and makes you vulnerable to the receiver,” said Temple, the behavioral researcher. “You’re trusting the other person to not violate that trust.”
9. Watch out for these bad, or even abusive behaviors
Sexting can be a huge rush of excitement, and it’s easy to get caught up and do something thoughtless. Everyone makes mistakes, especially if they haven’t had a lot of experience.
But there are a few behavioral patterns you can remain vigilant of, either to avoid doing any of them yourself or to not let them unwittingly happen to you.
Marin and Powell raised the issue of an uneven conversation, where one partner is always initiating and volunteering all the ideas during a sexting session. This can not only breed resentment on the part of the initiator, but also is an indication that the receiver might be uncomfortable.
“Text is harder because you can’t see the other person’s facial expression, hear their tone, or read their body language. You don’t get any of that information,” said Marin. “If the person is not responding or fully engaged and you keep insisting, then something is wrong.”
Even if that person seems to be agreeing to your advances, not supplying their own sexting fodder should make you immediately stop and check in.
“It’s about the platinum rule, which is do unto others as they would have you do unto them.”
In his research, Temple found that the most common forms of straight up abusive sexting behavior includes sending explicit visuals and texts without asking first, or any form of pressure when sexts are sent — even with phrases they might’ve intended as an innocent tease like, “Now it’s your turn.”
Of course, forwarding or showing others an explicit picture you receive without the senders permission is absolutely unacceptable. And people should also be aware of sextortion, where a partner demands more pictures by using the previous ones as blackmail.
To avoid any inadvertent pressuring, Powell advocates for going a step above even the “Golden Rule.” It isn’t just doing unto others as you would have done unto you. With sexting, “it’s aboutthe platinum rule, which is to do unto others as they would have you do unto them.”
10. Remember that digital consent and IRL consent still differ
This goes hand in hand with the idea that consenting to stuff during sexting absolutely does not translate to consenting to do it in real life. Part of the fun is creating a fantasy together, and people often don’t want to have what they fantasize about to happen to them IRL.
“Sexting can sometimes trigger unwanted advances from the receiver. A sext might indicate that the person is ready to take it to the next level, but we shouldn’t ever assume,” said Temple. “Even if they sent you 500 pictures of their naked body they still might not want to have anything physical with you. The same courtship and consent rules still apply.”
Any form of IRL sexual exploration still requires an explicit, verbal, enthusiastic “yes” in order for consent to be established.
But sexting makes getting to a point where you’re both ready to give each other that enthusiastic “yes” a whole lot less intimating.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and other conservatives have said that the previous administration’s approach was too lenient and costly to taxpayers. | Alex Wong/Getty Images
Judges have rebuffed the education secretary’s attempts to pause or change a range of Obama-era policies.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ attempts to swiftly roll back major Obama-era policies at her agency are hitting a roadblock: federal courts.
Judges have rebuffed DeVos’ attempts to change Obama policies dealing with everything from student loan forgiveness to mandatory arbitration agreements to racial disparities in special education programs.
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As a result, the Education Department is being forced to carry out Obama-era policies that the Trump administration had been fighting to stop — stymying DeVos’ efforts to quickly impose a conservative imprint on federal education policy over the past two years.
The latest legal blow came earlier this month, when a federal judge ruled DeVos illegally postponed a regulation requiring states to identify school districts where there are significant racial disparities among the students placed in special education programs. And last week, Education Department officials began implementing a sweeping package of Obama-era student loan policies after DeVos lost a lawsuit over delaying them last fall.
The department already had to forgive $150 million in student debt under those policies, which DeVos argues are too costly to taxpayers and unfair to colleges. Department officials also directed colleges to stop requiring students to sign mandatory arbitration agreements, forcing them to implementan Obama-era policy that largely bans the practice.
More legal challenges are in the pipeline. A federal judge allowed a challenge to DeVos’ delay of rules governing online colleges to proceed. And a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s delays of the Obama administration’s signature regulations aimed at cracking down on for-profit colleges is ripe for a decision at any time.
Judges in the cases decided so far have said the Trump administration ran afoul of the Administrative Procedures Act, ruling that the department’s efforts to delay policies were arbitrary or lacked a reasoned basis.
“It speaks to the Department of Education’s unwillingness or inability to follow the basic law around how federal agencies conduct themselves,” said Toby Merrill, who directs the Harvard Law School’s Project on Predatory Student Lending, which has brought some of the lawsuits against DeVos.
Every administration has wins and losses in court, Merrill said, but most have done better at making sure they follow the legal rules of the road for rulemaking.
“At the very least, they cross their Ts and dot their Is and therefore are less vulnerable to some of the procedural challenges that have been the undoing of so many of this Department of Education’s policies,” she said.
In rejecting the Trump administration’s efforts to delay the policies, judges have largely focused on procedural problems. The federal judge striking down DeVos’ postponement of student loan regulations called her delays “unlawful,” “procedurally invalid” and “arbitrary and capricious.” The judge who rejected the delay of a special education rule faulted DeVos for failing to provide a “reasoned explanation” for stopping the policy.
The administration is committed to correcting the regulatory overreach of the prior administration and will continue to make the case for fair and appropriate regulatory reform in the courts,” Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill said.
Many of the policies at issue in the lawsuits have dealt with student loan forgiveness. The Obama administration began forgiving the debts of some students who it determined were defrauded by their college after the collapse of Corinthian Colleges, a massive for-profit chain of colleges.
DeVos and other conservatives have said that the previous administration’s approach was too lenient and costly to taxpayers. But the Trump administration’s effort to scale back the amount of loan forgiveness for some defrauded student loan borrowers has been blocked in court.
The judge ruled in that case that the Education Department violated federal privacy law when it came up with a new formula for loan forgiveness that tied the amount of debt relief a borrower would receive with average graduate earnings at an academic program. The Trump administration has appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit, where it remains pending.
In another case involving Obama-era regulations that call for more consumer disclosures to students of online colleges, a judge chastised the Trump administration’s arguments in favor of delaying them.
The judge wrote in that it “takes chutzpah” for the Education Department to say that it would be too burdensome for colleges to provide the disclosures to students while also arguing that students “should be able to hunt down this undisclosed information on their own.” The judge hasn’t ruled on the merits of the case, which is being brought by a teachers union, but allowed the lawsuit to proceed.
The Obama Education Department also faced legal setbacks to its regulatory agenda. A federal judge dealt a blow to the Obama administration’s first attempt to tighten regulations on for-profit schools and other career colleges, which officials rewrote during Obama’s second term. The Obama administration was similarly forced to redo another set of rules governing online college programs after a federal judge tossed them out. More recently, a federal judge found that the Obama administration’s decision to terminate a large accreditor of for-profit colleges illegally failed to properly consider tens of thousands of pages of evidence.
The Trump administration welcomed that decision, immediately reinstating the college accreditor.
And the Trump Education Department, to be sure, has also had some victories in court. A federal judge last year dismissed most of a lawsuit brought by advocacy groups challenging DeVos’ new guidance for how colleges must address sexual assault.
But the Trump administration overall has been on a particularly noteworthy losing streak in the courts, according to a Washington Post report this week that analyzed data maintained by the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law.
The legal setbacks to DeVos’ efforts to stop Obama-era policies at the Education Department also come as the Trump administration has faced a well-organized coalition of consumer groups, state Democratic attorneys general and oversight organizations run by many Obama administration alumni, all of whom are focused on challenging the Trump administration’s agenda at every turn.
“This administration likes to pretend the rules don’t apply to them,” said Aaron Ament, a former Education Department official during the Obama administration who has brought legal challenges against DeVos as head of the National Student Legal Defense Network.
“The Administrative Procedures Act does not say ‘check with your corporate supporters, and do whatever they ask,’” Ament said. “As long as DeVos keeps on acting based on political expediency instead of what’s best for students, she’ll keep getting challenged and she’ll keep losing in court.”
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Apple is finally ready to jump into the fray with Netflix and Amazon Prime.
One of the worst-kept secrets in tech over the past year or so is that Apple is gearing up to launch a video streaming service akin to Netflix.
It’s one of the few services Apple doesn’t offer at this point, so the news is hardly a surprise.
Still, Apple hasn’t officially announced it just yet. After a long wait, it seems Tim Cook is finally ready to talk about Apple’s streaming plans during a special event on Monday, March 25 at 1 p.m. ET. Like every announcement event Apple has, it can be streamed on Apple’s website.
The tech giant says it’ll be best experienced on an Apple device using Safari, but it should work on Chrome and Firefox on Windows PCs, too.
Normally, Apple holds stage shows at its Cupertino headquarters to show off fancy new hardware products. This time, though, the focus is different. Apple has spent the past week getting various minor hardware announcements out of the way, leaving little room for product talk at Monday’s event.
This week brought us new iPads, new AirPods, and power upgrades for iMacs. All of those things likely would have filled time at a normal Apple event, but this isn’t a normal Apple event.
Oprah is reportedly working on something for Apple.
Image: jb lacroix / WireImage
Apple ordered a huge amount of original content from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, and others last year. It is widely expected that we’ll hear about at least some of those things on Monday, along with information about what the streaming service is called and how much it will cost.
Video streaming isn’t the only thing Apple is supposedly working on. Apple is apparently putting together a subscription news service that could potentially give Apple News users access to content that normally lives behind a paywall on news sites.
Supposedly, there will be an Amazon Prime-like subscription package that includes the news and video services along with Apple Music. Regardless of the specifics, the celebrity-filled event promises to be one of the most interesting Apple events in a while.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – As Ho Chi Minh City’s iconic French colonial architecture fades away and shiny skyscrapers punctuate the new skyline in the Southeast Asia megacity of 13 million people, there is one man who might be the last vestige of Vietnam’s colonial past.
Duong Van Ngo is the only remaining public writer and still pens letters from the grand 19th century Saigon Central Post Office in Ho Chi Minh City, built when Vietnam was still a part of French Indochina.
Saigon was the capital of South Vietnam before the war and the named changed to Ho Chi Minh City after North Vietnam overtook the city in 1975. Many Vietnamese, especially in the south, and foreigners still refer to the city as Saigon.
Duong Van Ngo held various jobs at the post office before becoming a letter writer.
“I began to work for the post office when I was only 16, in 1946,” the 89-year-old told Al Jazeera, speaking at Saigon Central Post Office.
Every morning, he tapes a piece of paper with the words “Public Writer” in French, Vietnamese and English on a panel near his wooden table, completing his makeshift office.
A large painting of Ho Chi Minh hangs on a nearby wall.
The Saigon Central Post Office remains one of the most famous landmarks in Ho Chi Minh City and a symbol of French colonial architecture in the city [Valerie Plesch/Al Jazeera]
Ngo has written letters for hundreds of people in Vietnamese, English and French in the past 28 years.
There were three other public writers when he joined, but they have since all passed away.
He learned French when he was seven years old, which was normal growing up under French colonial rule. English came later, when he was 36 and taught by American instructors.
As he approaches 90, he still travels to work every day on his bicycle.
“Going to work, I feel more joyous than to stay at home,” Ngo said. “I still can serve the public, serve the society.”
But he realises that his profession as a translator and letter writer is becoming redundant given the internet.
“There are many places to make translations but they do not work directly [with people]. Here, I work directly with the people.”
The interior of the Saigon Central Post Office. The building was completed in 1891 when Vietnam was part of French Indochina [Valerie Plesch/Al Jazeera]
At 8am every morning, he unpacks his black leather bag, placing a magnifying glass and a weathered copies of English-Vietnamese dictionaries on his table.
Inside the dictionaries, he has scribbled notes marking his own expressions and meanings next to the words.
He also sells postcards to visitors who want him to write something on the spot for 5,000 dong (around 22 cents). He doesn’t charge for his writing, though most customers give him a generous tip.
Most of his visitors are tourists.
But a few people who have known him for 40 years still come to see him at work, such as 60-year-old Mai Dang Guesdon.
“Chao Chu,” she says, the polite way to address an older man in Vietnamese that is akin to “uncle”.
Guesdon was on holiday from France, where she has made her home.
Duong Van Ngo writes a postcard for a tourist at the Saigon Central Post Office [Valerie Plesch/Al Jazeera]
She used Ngo’s services in the 1990s to write love letters to her French boyfriend, who she had met in Vietnam while working as a tour guide .
She didn’t speak any French and relied on Ngo to communicate with her now husband. She still keeps the letters written at her home in France.
“It was him who translated for me for many years,” she said. “He works with all his heart … He likes to work; he likes words and letters … He loves French words.”
When asked about writing love letters, Ngo laughed and said: “I only translate them. I do not write them myself.”
During the day, curious tourists come to chat to Ngo.
Some ask him to write letters or postcards for friends and family back in their home countries.
Kim Liong, 40, from Malaysia, said: “It’s like back to the 60s, the olden days. That is how I feel and I love it. If you look at the handwriting, it’s beautiful. You can see that he trained a lot.”
Duong Van Ngo prepares his writing desk early in the morning inside the Saigon Central Post Office [Valerie Plesch/Al Jazeera]
Chi Pham, 32, is a tour guide and brings visitors to meet Ngo.
“Every time I take people to the post office, I always try to find him. He’s 89 years old already, and I don’t know how many more times we can see him,” she said.
“As a tour guide, I talk to the people about the city. If there’s something I don’t know, I can ask him, he will explain to me.”
Under Vietnam’s economic and political reforms under Doi Moi in the mid-1980s, Ho Chi Minh City went through a major facelift as foreign investment poured into the city.
“He’s like a witness of Saigon, the one who got the French education during the French era and then before 1975, the democratic time in Saigon or in South Vietnam,” said Pham. “And now, he still appears here in the modern post office. He is the one from the past who still exists here, so it’s very special.”
When asked how much longer he plans on working at the post office office, Ngo said: “I do not know. That depends on God.”
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Apple ordered two seasons of a show executive produced by Reese Witherspoon.
Image: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Apple is rolling out the red carpet for what could be a serious Netflix competitor.
The iPhone maker will broadcast an event from its Cupertino headquarters at 1 p.m. ET on Monday, March 25. Rumors have swirled around the tech world for months about Apple beefing up its services business. Here is what to expect.
It’s widely believed Apple will reveal a Netflix-esque video streaming service. Original video content has not necessarily been Apple’s strong suit over the years, but with big tech competitors like Amazon making moves in the space, Apple is expected to follow suit.
In case it wasn’t obvious enough already, Apple announced the event by declaring “it’s show time.”
Image: Mashable/Apple
From the look of things, Apple will launch its currently unnamed streaming service with a powerful lineup of celebrity talent. Steven Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan, Kristen Wiig, and Jennifer Aniston were just a few of the names linked to Apple’s service when it was reported early last year.
A few of the celebrities — including Reese Witherspoon and JJ Abrams — were invited to the event, according to Bloomberg. That would make it a much more star-studded affair than the usual Apple event.
All the news in one place
Of course, video streaming isn’t the only thing Apple is reportedly working on. It sounds like Apple wants to take advantage of the popularity of its Apple News app with a news-focused paid subscription service. Essentially, users could pay a monthly fee to get access to exclusive Apple News content from third-party publishers. Recently, the New York Times reported that the Wall Street Journal would be one of those publishers.
Image: Apple
The monthly fee could remove paywalls from news outlets that otherwise make you pay for content. Apple boasted back in January that Apple News had 85 million active users, which makes sense considering the app comes pre-installed on Apple devices and is free to use.
These two services will theoretically live alongside Apple Music, but Apple could bundle all of them together, too. The all-in-one subscription package would be Apple’s answer to Amazon Prime. One big difference is Apple might let people subscribe to just the video streaming service or just the news service if they don’t want the rest.
It’s not yet clear how much Apple will charge for all of this. CNBC reported last year that Apple would give away its original content for free to Apple device owners. Netflix charges $12.99 per month for its HD package while Prime is $119 per year, so Apple might stick to that price range for its services.
What about hardware?
Just about the only thing Apple fans shouldn’t expect at the event is big hardware announcements. Apple actually got that out of the way a week ahead of time by launching two new iPad models on Monday. The new iPad Air and iPad mini tablets have been upgraded with Apple Pencil support and the same chips that power the iPhone XS and XS Max.
The fact that Apple took care of those launches a week in advance could be a dead giveaway that the Cupertino event will focus on services. Between Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and the upcoming Disney streaming service, it will be interesting to see if Apple’s alternative can compete — or if it gets left in the dust.
Facebook is all about making the world more open and connected, except perhaps when it comes to sharing its own colossal privacy screw-ups with its more than 2 billion users.
After KrebsOnSecurity first reported that the company had been storing hundreds of millions of users’ passwords in plain text since as far back as 2012, Facebook VP of engineering Pedro Canahuati rushed to publish a blog post noting the error was discovered in January. In other words, three months ago.
That Facebook waited until the news was already out in the world to cop to a seriously negligent security and privacy error shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention, but the lack of shock shouldn’t translate to resignation. Facebook could have notified users early, but chose not to.
Facebook could have notified users early, but chose not to.
The question of why Facebook kept quiet until its hand was forced matters. Was it simply a prudent security decision, or rather an attempt to cover its own ass after an embarrassing error?
We reached out to Facebook in an attempt to answer this question, but unsurprisingly received no response as of press time. Troy Hunt, a security researcher perhaps best known for running the breach disclosure site HaveIBeenPwned, was significantly more willing to chat.
“I suspect Facebook decided not to initially disclose the issue as they had no evidence of the data being used maliciously,” he wrote over Twitter direct message. “I can understand that position insofar as whilst the storage was clearly improper, without a compromise of the stored data the impact on customers would have been zero.”
This, of course, assumes that the passwords weren’t improperly accessed. Facebook claims as much in its blog post, but that requires you to trust Facebook. Which, well, you’d be forgiven for not jumping at the opportunity.
Still, even Hunt admits that by waiting to disclose the password screw up until after the Krebs article dropped, Facebook played itself.
“[The] ‘optics’ of it are bad and with the benefit of hindsight, this is the sort of thing which would very possibly have leaked anyway and proactively disclosing as Twitter and GitHub did last year may have been a wiser course of action.”
Hunt was referring to a similar situation, albeit on a smaller scale, at Twitter in 2018. There, the company said user passwords were stored “unmasked in an internal log,” and that users should change their passwords as a result.
Notably, Facebook is not recommending that users change passwords — a stance that conveniently lines up with the company’s claim that it “found no evidence to date that anyone internally abused or improperly accessed them.” Importantly, finding no evidence to date that something happened is not the same thing as it not happening.
Still, there may be a reason for Facebook’s delay in coming forward that paints the company in a more favorable light.
Patrick Wardle, a security researcher and co-founder of Digita Security, told Mashable over Twitter direct message that he speculates Facebook waited as long as it did for understandable reasons.
“[If] i had to venture a guess, FB probably wanted to understand the full scope of the situation,” he wrote. “[Were] there other DBs? Did anybody access them? etc etc[.]”
He went on to add, while noting that he is not a specific expert on data breaches, that he doubts “there was any malice in waiting so long … perhaps, even the opposite[.]”
So, assuming you take Facebook at its word that no one accessed the plain text passwords over the course of the last 7 years, there’s nothing really to worry about. And, the Mark Zuckerberg-branded “dumb fucks” that we are, we can just keep on going about our daily Facebook business.
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