Microsoft is dropping a lot of money to help improve affordable housing in Seattle

Microsoft is spending $500 million to help affordable housing.

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By Johnny Lieu2019-01-17 06:10:57 UTC

Where the tech sector has boomed, affordable housing has suffered.

Now, Microsoft is following other tech giants in wanting to be part of the solution, announcing a $500 million fund targeting homelessness and affordable housing in Seattle on Wednesday.

It’s the biggest pledge in the company’s history, and one of the largest by a private corporation towards housing, according to the Seattle Times.

Seattle, much like Northern California, is facing a lack of affordable housing, as the rapid growth of tech has led to people being priced out of the housing market.

A municipal report from December declared the Seattle region needs 240,000 more affordable housing units by 2040, to ensure low-income households are not spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

“At some level we as a region are going to need to either say there are certain areas where we’re comfortable having more people live, or we just want permanently to force the people who are going to teach our kids in schools, and put out the fires in our houses and keep us alive in the hospital, to spend four hours every day getting to and from work,” Microsoft president Brad Smith told the Seattle Times.

“That is not, in our view, the best outcome for the community.”

Where the money is going

The majority of the funds ($250 million) will go toward market-rate loans to build low-income housing in the King County region, which encompasses the Seattle metropolitan area.

Another $225 million will be loaned to developers at below-market rates for the construction and preservation of middle-income housing, with investments to be initially made in six cities east of Seattle: Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, Renton and Sammamish.

Finally, $25 million will be used for grants to help address homelessness in the Seattle region, such as the Home Base program, which allows people facing eviction from their homes access to flexible funds and legal representation.

Microsoft’s pledge eclipses those made by other tech giants. Down in California, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have put their money towards affordable housing initiatives through their foundation.

Facebook’s soon-to-come Willow Campus, will have 15 percent of its 1,500 homes offered at below-market rates. Google is partnering with a developer and the City of Mountain View to build 6,600 units on its doorstep, with 20 percent to be designated as affordable housing.

Microsoft said it had been working on the plan for the last eight months. It conceded that more money will be needed to solve these issues, as well as public policy changes to help make affordable housing more attractive to build.

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‘Out of control’: Taiwan says won’t bow to China pressure

Taiwan will not bow to Chinese pressure, a presidential spokesperson has said, as the self-ruled island held live-fire military drills aimed at showing its ability to defend itself from Beijing’s threats.

The developments on Thursday came as China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province, has been pressing companies around the world to change the way they refer to the island amid renewed threats to use force to gain control over it.

“As for China’s related out-of-control actions, we need to remind the international community to face this squarely and to unite efforts to reduce and contain these actions,” Alex Huang, the spokesperson for President Tsai Ing-wen, told reporters in Taipei, according to Reuters news agency.

Chinese nationalists fled to Taiwan at the end of the civil war in 1949 when the Communists took control of mainland China, but as the island has transformed into one of the region’s most vibrant democracies it has become increasingly assertive of its own identity.

‘Not merely business’

The mainland’s Civil Aviation Administration has insisted airlines change the listings on their website to show Taipei as part of China. Some, including British Airways and Singapore Airlines, have complied.

Taiwan’s name and president in the balance (2:24)

The Global Times, the tabloid of the party’s People’s Daily, reported on Wednesday that 66 companies including Facebook and Nike continue to list Taiwan as independent from China, citing the work of two Chinese government think-tanks.

One of its authors accused the multinationals of undermining China’s sovereignty by listing the territory separately.

“It’s not merely a business nor a technical issue for those foreign companies to separate Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao from China on their websites,” the Global Times reported Zhi Zhenfeng as saying. “It is a matter of principle involving the one-China principle and China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Taiwan’s military on Thursday conducted live-fire drills [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

Live-fire drills

Beijing has stepped up pressure on Taiwan since independence-leaning Tsai won presidential elections in 2016.

On January 2, Chinese President Xi Jinping said no one could change the fact that Taiwan was “part of China”, adding that Beijing would not give up the use of military force as an option to ensure the island’s “reunification” with the mainland.

On Thursday, Taiwan held live-fire military drills, the first since Xi’s comments some two weeks ago.

Artillery and assault helicopters fired at targets off the west coast city of Taichung, while Mirage fighter jets took off amid rainy conditions from the air base at Hsinchu to the north.

The exercises also followed a new Pentagon report laying out US concerns about China’s growing military might, underscoring Washington’s worries about a possible attack against Taiwan.

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Kyrie Irving Apologized to LeBron James for Behavior When They Were Teammates

Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James, back, talks with Kyrie Irving in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Orlando Magic, Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Tony Dejak/Associated Press

It’s been roughly 18 months since Kyrie Irving decided to move on from LeBron James and request a trade out of Cleveland, but now that his Boston Celtics are struggling, the 26-year-old point guard is beginning to empathize with his former teammate.

Irving revealed Wednesday that he recently called James to apologize for not fully understanding the four-time NBA MVP’s role as a leader while the two were teammates with the Cavs, per the Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang:

Nicole Yang @nicolecyang

Kyrie Irving says he called LeBron James after the Celtics’ loss to the Magic to apologize for “being that young player that wanted everything at his fingertips.” Naturally, there were a lot of follow-up q’s and he told us all to relax. https://t.co/d4zeRKUbA5

After being selected No. 1 overall in 2011, Irving was the franchise player in Cleveland for three years before James decided to return home. The James-Irving duo led the Cavaliers to three consecutive NBA Finals from 2014-15 to 2016-17, delivering the franchise’s first championship in the process.

But in the summer of 2017, Irving decided he was ready to branch out and lead his own team.

The Celtics came within one game of the NBA Finals in Irving’s first season in Boston before James and the Cavs eliminated them in the Eastern Conference Finals. However, both Irving and Gordon Hayward were sidelined by injuries during that postseason run.

Adding two All-Star-caliber players like Irving and Hayward back into the mix figured to make the Celtics heavy favorites in the East now that James has moved West. Instead, Boston sits in fifth place in the East at 26-18.

Irving revealed last week, per ESPN.com’s Tim Bontemps, that the team held a meeting to clear the air amid a three-game losing streak last month. While that led to a 7-2 stretch, the Celtics have gone through some adversity lately.

Most notably, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris had to be separated during a timeout during a game last Thursday. Two days later, Irving was visibly frustrated by Hayward’s decision to pass him up for a last-second shot in a 105-103 loss to the Orlando Magic:

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

Kyrie was frustrated with Gordon Hayward and Celtics’ last shot https://t.co/sqnaW8amkq

That would only set the stage for some controversial postgame comments, which included him calling out his teammates, per ESPN.com:

“We had nothing to lose last year. Nobody had any expectations. … We come into this season with expectations, and it’s real. … That’s new, it’s tough and it’s hard.

“What we’re facing now is nothing compared to being on that stage, trying to get a gold trophy. It’s hard now. What do you think it’s going to be when we get to the Finals? We can’t be comfortable being a fifth [seed]. I’m not comfortable with it.”

After taking a few days to reflect, Irving made it clear that he handled the situation the wrong way.

“I should have kept it in house,” Irving admitted Wednesday, per Stadium’s Jeff Goodman.

“I’ve gotta empower them,” he added, per Jay King of The Athletic. “(Jaylen Brown) was right.”

Playing alongside James comes with immense pressure, as his teams are expected to make it to the Finals every year. Irving may not have always been on the same page as James when the two were teammates, but now that he is on his own, there appears to be a better understanding.

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James Harden Erupts for 2nd Straight 50-Point Game in Losing Effort vs. Nets

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Another night, another big performance out of Houston Rockets star James Harden.

Two days after he dropped 57 on the Memphis Grizzlies, the reigning NBA MVP went off for 58 points in a 145-142 overtime loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday.

Harden shot 16-of-34 from the field, 5-of-19 from three-point range and 21-of-23 from the free-throw line in the loss.

According to ESPN’s SportsCenter, Harden became the first player to drop back-to-back 50-spots since he did so during his MVP campaign in December 2017:

SportsCenter @SportsCenter

James Harden is the first player with back-to-back 50-point games since … he did it himself in December 2017. https://t.co/1zRAFkEmaP

Harden went for 51 in back-to-back games at the Staples Center last season against the Los Angeles Lakers (Dec. 20) and the Los Angeles Clippers (Dec. 22).

Before Wednesday’s game, NBA on ESPN noted that Harden needed 34 points against the Nets to average at least 40 points per game over his last 20 appearances. After his latest 50-burger, he is now averaging 41.2 points since Dec. 8 and has topped 50 three times during that span.

After Wednesday, Harden has scored 30-plus points in 18 consecutive games. According to ESPN Stats & Info, he is now tied with Elgin Baylor for the fifth-longest streak of 30-point games in NBA history. Wilt Chamberlain owns the top four spots, with his 65-game streak in 1961-62 by far the longest ever.

Harden also had 10 rebounds and six assists in the losing effort.

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Cardi B posts angry Twitter video tearing into the government shutdown

Cardi B: Done with the government shutdown.

Image: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

By Johnny Lieu2019-01-17 03:14:47 UTC

Yeah, so you’ve heard plenty of opinions about the U.S. government shutdown, but you haven’t heard someone give them like Cardi B.

In a very sweary video posted to Instagram on Wednesday night, the singer hit out at Trump and the decision to make furloughed workers continue their jobs without getting paid.

And it’s to the point, to say the least.

“Hey y’all, I just wanted to remind you because it’s been a little over three weeks,” she said. “Trump is now ordering, as in summonsing, federal government workers to go back to work without getting paid.”

Cardi B even had a snappy response to people who would inevitably bring up other government shutdowns which have happened, namely one under Obama’s administration in 2013.

“Now, I don’t wanna hear y’all motherfuckers talking about, ‘Oh, but Obama shutdown the government for 17 days,’” she added.

“Yeah, bitch! For healthcare. So your grandma could check her blood pressure, and you bitches could go check your pussies at the gynaecologist with no motherfucking problem.”

She continued: “This shit is really fucking serious, bro. This shit is crazy. Our country is in a hellhole right now, all for a fuckin’ wall.”

“And we really need to take this seriously. I feel like we need to take some action,” she said, acknowledging that she doesn’t know exactly what action is required on the issue.

“Bitch, I’m scared. This is crazy. And I really feel bad for these people that gotta go to fuckin’ work to not get motherfucking paid.”

Call it curt, call it whatever, Cardi B’s take on the government shutdown clearly struck a chord on the internet.

HBO needs to set aside 30 minutes a week for Cardi B to yell at America about a topic of her choosing.

— Caity Weaver (@caityweaver) January 17, 2019

(Trying to decide whether or not to retweet the Cardi B video)

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) January 17, 2019

Maintain the rage, Cardi B.

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B/R Live – Watch live sports online

Stream UEFA Champions League, NBA and much more here on Bleacher Report Live, where we make it easy to find and watch your favorite sports.
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Serena Williams’ daughter’s doll Qai Qai is the real star of the Australian Open

Image: TPN/Getty Images

By Shannon Connellan2019-01-17 02:21:23 UTC

One of the biggest moods of 2018 was a doll.

But not just any ol’ doll – it was Qai Qai, the rather witty and cynical companion of Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., daughter of tennis champion Serena Williams and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

Between engaging in memes and generally pondering life, Qai Qai has embarked upon many an adventure with her human guardian, often sitting courtside at Williams’ many matches — all of it posted to the doll’s total 106K followers on Instagram and Twitter.

And she’s made her most recent splash in Australia, at the Australian Open and Hopman Cup tennis tournaments in January, where the G.O.A.T. has been playing.

When Williams faced off against fellow tennis superstar Roger Federer when Switzerland took on the U.S. in the Hopman Cup mixed doubles in Perth, Qai Qai was there.

Arriving later in Melbourne for the Australian Open, Qai Qai left her hotel in to do a little sightseeing:

And getting that sweet sunset #content:

Travel snaps aside, Qai Qai was quickly was back in the game, even jumping behind the camera at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena:

Gearing up:

And cheering on Williams in her show-stopping, badass green romper and fishnet tights, which she donned playing Germany’s Tatjana Maria on Tuesday.

After winning the match, Williams talked about Qai Qai to reporters.

“I wanted her to have a black doll,” she said during a press conference. “Growing up, I didn’t have that many opportunities to have black dolls. And I was just thinking, like, I want her first doll to be black. And her heritage, obviously she’s mixed, she’s Caucasian and black, but I feel like that was her first doll and I said her second doll would be Caucasian.”

“I definitely want to always teach her love and teach her just basic human — humans should always have love for each other, no matter what colour they are.”

Qai Qai’s jubilant posts on tour in Australia signal a shift in mood for the characteristically nihilistic doll — for a full rundown of Qai Qai’s evolution, read our feature.

Exactly who runs the doll”s social media accounts has been debated, but Qai Qai’s grandad and Reddit founder Ohanian basically admitted to being behind it on Twitter Wednesday, responding to a New York Post article.

“The page, operated by Reddit founder Ohanian…”

SMH. Fake News: I created the account, made the first posts, but I lost the login a little while ago… https://t.co/QO6KYrpzfu

— Alexis Ohanian Sr. (@alexisohanian) January 16, 2019

Qai Qai wasn’t having a bar of it though.

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Nearly 22 million unique passwords leaked in ‘Collection #1’ data breach

It’s time to change your password again.

More than 87GB of passwords and email addresses have been leaked and distributed in a folder dubbed “Collection #1” by hackers in a significant data breach.

As detailed by security researcher Troy Hunt, the trove of nearly 22 million unique passwords and more than 772 million email addresses was hosted on cloud storage service MEGA.

The link to the dump was posted on a hacking forum, but has been since taken down from the service.

New breach: The “Collection #1” credential stuffing list began broadly circulating last week and contains 772,904,991 unique email addresses with plain text passwords (now in Pwned Passwords). 82% of addresses were already in @haveibeenpwned. Read more: https://t.co/BAa3rbgZo4

— Have I Been Pwned (@haveibeenpwned) January 16, 2019

Hunt explains the cache of emails and passwords were built up from numerous data breaches from allegedly thousands of sources, dating all the way back to 2008.

He came across the collection of files after he was alerted by “multiple people” last week, and discovered the breach even includes an email address and password he used years ago.

“Like many of you reading this, I’ve been in multiple data breaches before which have resulted in my email addresses and yes, my passwords, circulating in public,” he wrote.

“Fortunately, only passwords that are no longer in use, but I still feel the same sense of dismay that many people reading this will when I see them pop up again.”

Hunt has loaded the email addresses and passwords into his site, haveibeenpwned, which allows people to be notified when their email has been tangled in a breach, or check if a password has been exposed and is thus unsuitable for use.

After you’re done checking whether if your email address or password has been compromised, it’s worth looking into a password manager, or even an analog one like a notebook, where you can store difficult to remember passwords in.

“It might be contrary to traditional thinking, but writing unique passwords down in a book and keeping them inside your physically locked house is a damn sight better than reusing the same one all over the web,” he added.

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Gregg Popovich Calls Luka Doncic ‘One Hell of a Basketball Player and Person’

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) tries to make an opening against Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2019, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Richard W. Rodriguez)

Richard W. Rodriguez/Associated Press

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich offered lofty praise for Dallas Mavericks rookie Luka Doncic on Wednesday, per Mavs play-by-play announcer Mark Followill:

Mark Followill @MFollowill

Great stuff from Gregg Popovich. Before the game, Pop was asked what stands out to him about Luka https://t.co/gfGPnE8T0L

The 19-year-old Doncic averaged 20.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists entering his game against San Antonio on Wednesday. He’s also helped engineer a significant year-to-year turnaround in Dallas, as the 20-23 Mavs only need five more wins to beat their victory total from last season.

Fans have taken a liking to Doncic as well, as the ex-Real Madrid star has the fourth-most All-Star votes in the league.

You don’t have to go far to find people breaking down Doncic’s accolades, and that fact rings more true of late.

Remarkably, the Mavs’ point forward has averaged 28.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists in the four games leading into Wednesday. Per NBA.com, Doncic also joined some impressive company recently:

NBA.com/Stats @nbastats

Luka Doncic has now scored 25+ PTS in 4 straight games.. the last rookie to do that was Stephen Curry in 2010 (5 games). https://t.co/kcPrS4kF4v

Justin Kubatko of StatMuse provided an eye-popping stat as well:

Justin Kubatko @jkubatko

Luka Doncic is just the third teenager in NBA history to record at least 25 points, five rebonds, and five assists in consecutive games. The others are LeBron James (2x) and Kyrie Irving. https://t.co/Etggs7US3r

And Zach Lowe of ESPN pointed out how clutch Doncic is in tight games:

Zach Lowe @ZachLowe_NBA

Luka Doncic is now 13-of-20, and 4-of-7 from deep, in the last three minutes of games when the score is within three points. (via NBA-dot-com)

The list of Doncic facts is endless, but earning praise from Popovich is a high honor for someone who doesn’t turn 20 years old until February 28. A five-time NBA champion, Popovich has seen a litany of NBA legends up close. He coached the Spurs at the tail end of Michael Jordan’s career with the Bulls and is still leading San Antonio in his 23rd season.

The Spurs and Mavs face each other twice more, including a matchup in the regular-season finale.

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Volcano erupts on Japan’s Kuchinoerabu island

Live images showed thick black smoke billowing out of the mountain [Japan Meteorological Agency/Handout via Reuters]

A volcano has erupted on a remote island in southern Japan, spewing ash and smoke into the air over the sparsely-populated area, but the warning level has been kept below the scale requiring evacuation.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the volcano on Kuchinoerabu island, some 1,000km southwest of the capital, Tokyo, erupted at around 9:20am (00:20 GMT).

Live images showed thick black smoke billowing out of the mountain.

The eruption had released pyroclastic flows, or flows of super-heated ash and gas, Kyodo News said, but the flows had not reached residential areas.

Public broadcaster NHK said there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the eruption. It added that eruptions have taken place intermittently on the island since October last year.

The same peak erupted explosively in 2015, sending ash and smoke thousands of metres into the sky and releasing potentially deadly pyroclastic flows that reached the sea.

The island’s entire population was evacuated at the time but eventually returned. Some 100 people now live there.

Japan has 110 active volcanoes and monitors 47 constantly.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

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