Vermont vs. Florida St. – March Madness Live | NCAA.com

from Daily Trends Hunter https://ift.tt/2ToHIbg
via IFTTT

Death toll jumps in Mozambique storm as 15,000 await rescue

The death toll from a powerful cyclone that triggered devastating floods in three southeastern African countries has jumped to more than 400 people, according to officials, as thousands of people remained stranded “in very bad shape” on roofs and trees in hard-hit Mozambique.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Celso Correia, Mozambique’s land and environment minister, put the number of dead in the country at 242 but warned that the figure was rising as rescue workers found bodies that had been hidden by now-receding floodwaters.

“Our biggest fight is against the clock,” he said in the flood-ravaged port city of Beira.

“Yesterday, we had counted 15,000 people that still need rescue today – 15,000 people who are in bad shape. They are alive, we are communicating with them, delivering food, but we need to rescue them and take them out.”

Cyclone Idai hit Beira, home to around half a million people, with winds of up to 170 kilometres per hour last Thursday, before moving inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi. It flattened buildings and triggering flash floods that wrecked roads and submerged entire villages across the region.

According to UN estimates, at least 400,000 people could be displaced in Mozambique

In Zimbabwe, state broadcaster ZBC said the death toll had risen to 139, up from 100 on Wednesday, while the World Food Programme (WFP) said 200,000 Zimbabweans would need urgent food aid for three months.

In Malawi, 56 people were confirmed dead, and 82,000 people were displaced.

United Nations officials say this could be the worst ever weather-related disaster to have struck the southern hemisphere.

‘Water as far as the eye can see’: Flying over flooded Mozambique (1:41)

‘Very large number of victims’

In Mozambique, the cyclone’s torrential rains caused the Buzi River and the Pungue River, whose mouths are in the Beira area, to flood their banks. The scale of the flooding is huge, with floodwaters covering 2,165 square kilometres, according to the UN.

In the worst-affected district of Buzi, flooding has created a muddy inland ocean 125km long and 11 metres deep, according to Pedro Matos, emergency aid coordinator for the WFP in Beira.

The district is home to some 200,000 people.

“Either they were able to flee or there are very large number of victims,” he told DPA news agency.

Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller, who joined a helicopter flight over the region, said only the roofs of buildings were visible in some parts of Buzi.

“Stagnant water lies across the horizon, stretching out for as far as the eye can see. There is very little dry land,” she said. “It’s not known how many people made it out safely.”

In one village near the Buzi River, floodwaters have marooned hundreds of people in a basketball stadium, Miller reported.

“People who are stranded are sitting, waiting and sleeping on a battered grandstand – a short, but uncertain reprieve.”

A stranded family sits on top of their home after Cyclone Idai, in Buzi district, outside Beira [Siphiwe Sibeko/ Reuters]

As torrential rain lifted on Thursday, aid groups around Beira continued to rescue families clinging to tree branches and rooftops.

“Yesterday, 910 people were rescued by the humanitarian community,” said Caroline Haga of the International Federation of the Red Cross in Beira. She added that 210 were rescued by five helicopters and 700 were saved by boats.

“We’re hoping to rescue as many as we can today as it is not raining,” she said. “Rescue activities will continue until everyone is brought to safety.”

Correia, the environment minister, said some 65,000 displaced people had taken refuge in transit centres. But some 30 percent of the 88 government-run centres were still without food, he added.

“Our priority now is to make sure we take food, shelter and medicine to the people that are isolated in small islands or in big islands and villages,” Correia said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was sending two emergency units to Beira that would provide drinking water for up to 15,000 people and sanitation facilities for 20,000 people, as well as shelter kits.

“More help is needed, and we are continuing to do all we can to bring in more resources and to reach more people,” said Jamie LeSueur, the IFRC’s operations head in Mozambique.

The WFP said it has stepped up airdrops of high-energy biscuits and water purification tablets to people stranded by the floodwaters.

from Daily Trends Hunter https://ift.tt/2YfqhgY
via IFTTT

White House rebuffs Dem demands for docs on Trump-Putin talks

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin — House Democrats are investigating President Donald Trump’s ties with Russians, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Congress

Key House chairmen have not ruled out issuing subpoenas to try to force the White House’s compliance.

The White House on Thursday rejected congressional Democrats’ demands for documents relating to President Donald Trump’s private discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin — escalating tensions between the Trump administration and Congress over a crucial piece of Democrats’ oversight ambitions.

“The committees’ letters cite no legal authority for the proposition that another branch of the government can force the president to disclose diplomatic communications with foreign leaders or that supports forcing disclosure of the confidential internal deliberations of the president’s national security advisors,” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in a letter obtained by POLITICO to the chairmen of three House committees seeking documents and witness interviews.

Story Continued Below

In his letter to Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), and Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Cipollone cited precedents going back to the George Washington and Bill Clinton administrations to assert Trump’s authority to conduct foreign affairs, and to argue that Congress has no right to information about one-on-one conversations between the president and a foreign leader.

“It is settled law that the Constitution entrusts the conduct of foreign relations exclusively to the Executive Branch, as it makes the President ‘the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations,’” Cipollone wrote.

Cipollone also argued that Congress’ demand for information about a president’s private conversations with foreign leaders could jeopardize similar talks involving future American presidents.

“The president must be free to engage in discussions with foreign leaders without fear that those communications will be disclosed and used as fodder for partisan political purposes. And foreign leaders must be assured of this as well,” Cipollone wrote. “No foreign leader would engage in private conversations with the president, or the president’s senior advisors, if such conversations were subject to public disclosure (or disclosure to committees of Congress).”

The three House Democratic chairman had demanded earlier this month that the White House and the State Department turn over, by last Friday, “all documents and communications, regardless of form and classification, that refer or relate to any communications between President Trump and President Putin, including in-person meetings and telephone calls.”

That deadline came and went without a response from the White House. Administration officials have adopted a hardline approach to the myriad congressional investigations, often ignoring the committees’ deadlines altogether.

But investigating Trump’s ties to Russia is a top priority for Democrats under their new House majority, and they’ve left all options on the table — including subpoenas — to try to force the White House’s compliance.

Democrats were particularly incensed with the president’s posture toward Moscow when he suggested last July after speaking with Putin in Helsinki that he believed the Russian president’s forceful denials of interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Democrats argue that despite some precedents that protect the privacy of a president’s conversations with foreign leaders, Trump’s interactions with Putin might determine whether the Kremlin has “leverage” over the U.S. president.

Lawmakers openly acknowledge the difficulty of obtaining such sensitive information from an executive branch that has vowed to fight Democratic oversight demands, but they’re moving methodically to make their case.

Schiff and Engel have been consulting with House General Counsel Douglas Letter about the best ways to legally compel information about Trump’s private conversations with Putin.

The March 4 letters to the White House and State Department were among the chairmen’s first voluntary requests for documents and witness interviews pertaining to the committees’ wide-ranging investigations.

Aides for the three committees did not immediately return requests for comment.

The chairmen have not ruled out the possibility of issuing subpoenas, and Democrats have in the past demanded to speak with the State Department interpreter who was present for some of Trump’s private conversations with Putin.

from Daily Trends Hunter https://ift.tt/2ToHDEu
via IFTTT

Tierra Whack’s #WhackHistoryMonth Was About Growth And Bold Exploration

(Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Billboard )

When Tierra Whack builds, she builds big. Her 2018 debut album, Whack World, created a vast, often cartoonish, always-engaging realm of sounds explored over just 15 one minute-long songs. But the visual project was just an appetizer to prepare everyone for what would come next. She had to ease listeners into her story though bubbling rain, vast fields of pink grass, and a sea made of purple soda. With her world established, a new path was opened.

Whack announced #WhackHistoryMonth on Twitter weeks before she officially kicked it off in mid-February with the release of “Only Child.” Here, she jumped back into the Whack World universe, only this time, she strayed away from the formal rules she’d established by offering songs of more traditional structure and length rather than one-minute creative explosions. Four more releases followed, one per week, in which Whack completely redefined her artistry and introduced tighter, more impactful versions of the styles shared on Whack World.

These tracks may or may not line the golden road to a new LP; either way, they appear to be a promising indicator of what’s to come. Here’s a breakdown of Whack’s five #WhackHistoryMonth releases of 2019.

“Only Child”

When It Dropped: February 19

How It Sounds: Bubbly yet sad, with a slight twinge of scorn

Standout lines: “You must be the only child because you’re so stingy / I just want to go buck wild when you don’t defend me”

There’s something comical about Whack’s sadness in “Only Child.” Her immediate comparison of a selfish lover to an only child is absurd, telling, and admittedly hilarious. How can you equate cheating with having no brothers or sisters? Rarely is the topic of infidelity approached with this careful balance of charm and scorn, though. The timbre of her voice from frustration and crying leaves her slurred words burning in the chest, but her softer, flitting voice eases the mind. Whack World introduced her ear for stringy melodies, and she confidently expands them here, bringing her range much higher than anything we’ve heard previously. It makes her raps about that other girl getting syphilis sound like delicious poison.
“CLONES”

When It Dropped: February 26

How It Sounds: Heavy, like you need an antacid after scarfing down five cheeseburgers

Standout Lines: “Whack, Whack, damn she killer / Why she got holes in her denim?”

Like a cat tangled in a mess of yarn, Whack World‘s playfulness was its defining characteristic. “CLONES,” meanwhile, is a zoo lion that’s been let out of its cage. Whack immediately makes that clear, demanding her engineer leave a recorded sneeze on the track, twice. Then the bass crashes like colliding trains, a devastating growl left in the aftermath. As the gigantic 808s continuously rumble, Whack digs into another facet of her personality: the straight-faced spitter with something to prove. Her raps here don’t contain any amount of melody. Instead, she opts for a rattling, low-volume dice roll with each word, her voice bouncing off the walls of the track with each curse, comparison, and humblebrag. These aren’t your typical bust-down watches and “Dripping Patek” bars. They’re earthier and emotional, with the true flex being her creative voice control.
“Gloria”

When It Dropped: March 5

How It Sounds: Floaty and slightly sad, with a sharp flute shining through

Standout Lines: “Swear that I work the hardest / Most of y’all dudes are garbage”

If “Only Child” is a bright path, and “CLONES” is a darker take on her spitting ability, “Gloria” wisely walks the middle road to twilight. The production is beautifully simple: A repeating hi-hat massages the track while a flute runs rampant. The song acknowledges its new approaches as Whack constantly changes-up her delivery (“Hit ’em with the new flow”), adding a self-aware shtick and goofy charm to the otherwise straight-faced song about coming up in the world.
“Wasteland”

When It Dropped: March 12

What It Sounds Like: Adding some Sprite to your holy water

Standout Lines: “Can’t be seen with you / You don’t match my fly”

If #WhackHistoryMonth has a unifying theme, it’s that Whack’s collective sound is much darker than on her last outing. Each track’s production is a little bleaker than the last, causing the dry emotions to become clearer each time. “Wasteland” uses a quiet organ to bring some warmth and glue the song together. A weary Whack slurs her rhymes as she swats away interested guys determined to win her attention. You can hear the hint of fear in her voice as she makes a new excuse each time she’s approached — something women face again and again. When she asserts her own agency and flat-out denies someone, saying three different variations of “no” in rapid succession on the chorus, the effect is striking.
“Unemployed”

When It Dropped: March 19

What It Sounds Like: Like a villain with a chest cold

Standout Lines: “Where the cash at? Ayo, pass that / I will stab backs just for bags, racks”

In the past, it’s felt like Whack’s bright, bubbly personality defined her. Quite the contrary here: Whack is just as harsh as the most evil video-game villain. “Unemployed” is bass-heavy destruction, a bold addendum to her Whack World aesthetic. This song is about power; it’s the type of gargantuan tune that comes when there are no challengers in the immediate vicinity. And, lyrically, she flat-out asserts her dominance, connecting puzzle pieces in wrong ways that turn out right. The “at”s and “ah”s hanging on the ends of words are emphasized and glued together to fit even if they don’t make a perfect match.

from Daily Trends Hunter https://ift.tt/2YmFQ6S
via IFTTT

Barack Obama’s annual March Madness brackets are here … but people just want him to come back

How will Obama’s brackets do in 2019? History says, meh.

Image: Getty Images

By Marcus Gilmer2019-03-21 17:17:48 UTC

Once again, former president Barack Obama has released his official March Madness brackets for all to see. But the reaction this year has been a little bit different than in years past.

First, though, the picks. Obama has a history of being just okay with his picks — not great, but passable, like most Americans. And this year, once again, there’s nothing particularly controversial about them.

In the Men’s Bracket, his pick of Duke vs. North Carolina, with a Duke championship, probably mirrors a lot of other brackets. There are a few upset picks, particularly of some No. 12 seeds, but even that isn’t that outlandish given how often it occurs.

It’s pretty much the same on the Women’s Bracket, with the Elite Eight as top seeds except for a surprise from No. 6 seed San Diego State. Obama’s Final Four consists of either No. 1 or No. 2 seeds. This is what’s often referred to as going “chalk.”

There’s always been plenty of reaction to the former president’s picks, whether it be criticism of upset picks or his picking against a preferred school. That’s certainly true again this year.

But something’s different in that much of this first wave of reaction has little to do with basketball. Instead, there’s a lot of love for Obama and a lot of “please come back!” calls. (Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, has refused to submit a public bracket; after all, it’s hard to spin a bad, busted bracket as being “fake news.”)

My hero, a fantastic fair Man. Wish you could run again.

— Cheryl (@Cheryl_Nan) March 21, 2019

Whatever you think of the former president’s bracket, the games have now tipped off. It’s time to follow along and see if Obama can actually get that pick percentage up this year. If not, maybe he should just let Michelle fill out his bracket in 2020.

from Daily Trends Hunter https://ift.tt/2OhOtuz
via IFTTT

Facebook stored passwords in plain text for hundreds of millions of users

Hundreds of millions of Facebook users had their passwords stored in plain text, accessible by company employees, according to an internal security review.

2018%252f06%252f26%252fc2%252f20182f062f252f5a2fphoto.d9abc.b1c04.jpg%252f90x90

By Matt Binder2019-03-21 17:09:28 UTC

Hundreds of millions of Facebook users’ passwords were stored in plain text, completely searchable by Facebook employees for years.

Some users had their passwords stored in plain text as early as 2012, according to a senior Facebook source who spoke to KrebsOnSecurity. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, says that somewhere between 200 million and 600 million Facebook users were affected. More than 20,000 Facebook employees would have had access to these plain text passwords.

Shortly after KrebsOnSecurity published its story, Facebook posted its own statement by its vice president of engineering, security and privacy, Pedro Canahuati. He states that the company first discovered the issue during “a routine security review in January.”

The users most affected by the security lapse are those who use the social network’s “lower connectivity” client, Facebook Lite. The company estimates that hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users and tens of millions of “other” Facebook users had their passwords stored in plain text. Tens of thousands of Instagram users also were also affected.

Tens of thousands of Instagram users also were also affected

Facebook claims that no one outside of the company was able to view the passwords and that it has found no evidence that anyone working at the social network “abused or improperly accessed them.” According to KrebsOnSecurity’s source, around 2,000 engineers or developers queried data that contained plain text passwords approximately 9 million times.

“We have fixed these issues and as a precaution we will be notifying everyone whose passwords we have found were stored in this way,” stated Canahuati.

At this point, Facebook is no stranger to security failures. In one recent breach reported in October 2018, personal information of tens of millions of Facebook users were accessed by hackers. Just two months later, the company shared that millions of its users’ photos leaked to third-party developers who never had permission to view them in a completely separate breach.

Facebook is not forcing affected users to change their passwords at this time.

from Daily Trends Hunter https://ift.tt/2Hyj9qZ
via IFTTT

Yale vs. LSU – March Madness Live | NCAA.com

from Daily Trends Hunter https://ift.tt/2OggQcR
via IFTTT

Instagram tests letting you rethink your terrible new username

Instagram is testing a grace period to allow its users to revert back to their old username after changing it.

By Matt Binder2019-03-21 15:51:29 UTC

Instagram is about to give its users some time to think over that name change.

An automatic username lock feature has been discovered in the latest alpha version of Instagram’s Android application. The change, which is currently in testing, would give the previous owner of an Instagram handle up to 14 days to revert back to their old username after changing it.

Instagram will start locking old usernames for 14 days after changing so the previous owner can revert to it within the grace period

This is the end of username grabber bots pic.twitter.com/mAAgbDYny2

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) March 20, 2019

The feature was discovered by Jane Manchun Wong, a developer well known for reverse engineering apps in order to find unreleased features. Wong recently uncovered a slew of other features currently being tested by Instagram such as video co-watching, public collections, and direct message via Instagram for the web.

Wong pointed out how this new Instagram feature will also affect people who use “username grabber bots.” These bots basically track high-quality handles in case its owner changes usernames, allowing another user to grab the recently available name as soon as possible. Often, these usernames are squat on, unused, until its new owner can find a buyer for the handle on social media black markets.

According to Wong, who is completely unaffiliated with Instagram and its parent company Facebook, she received death threats from Instagram username sellers after posting about the username locking feature.

It should be noted that unless a user decides to revert back to their old name within the grace period, the unused usernames would still eventually make its way back into the pool of names available to register.

The new feature would also not stop Instagram’s ongoing issues with hackers stealing accounts. Instagram users should turn on two-factor authentication to help avoid being hacked.

from Daily Trends Hunter https://ift.tt/2Y9Ylv4
via IFTTT

Annoyed cat shows he’s fed up with owner’s bad singing

By Sage Anderson2019-03-21 15:47:40 UTC

Cats, despite being domesticated, can be absolutely savage sometimes.

YouTuber Greg Molick uploaded a video of his uh, very interesting rendition of “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie. While he’s no Freddie Mercury, he’s clearly having a good time. His cat, Harvey? Not so much.

After 30 seconds, Harvey decides to jump up on the bed and show Greg exactly how he feels about his musical abilities. Ouch.

It’s a great reminder to sing as though no one’s watching, even if your cat might be.

[h/t:Reddit]

The operatic new ‘John Wick 3’ trailer highlights its flawless cast