Yes, your phone is spying on you and these researchers proved it

It surely says something about the dark side of technology that as time goes on, many of us are increasingly likely to believe the worst of what’s alleged about our devices. That we’re being used, manipulated, spied on, listened to, watched, taken advantage of in service of selling ads — even if evidence is presented to the contrary.

Some academics at Northeastern University recently set out to look into one such long-held assumption, the zombie conspiracy which no one ever seems to be able to kill over whether our phones are secretly listening to us to know which ads to present to us. A conspiracy that no less than Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tried to swat down himself when he was grilled by Congress earlier this year.

What the researchers found: Your phone probably isn’t spying you. At least, not like that.

The study looked at 17,260 Android apps and specifically paid attention to the media files being sent from them. As Business Insider summarizes it, “The researchers found no instance in which these apps turned on the phone’s microphone unprompted and sent audio. But they did find that some apps were sending screen recordings and screenshots to third parties.”

Or — we’re all worried about the wrong kind of spying.

Nigerian police discover bodies of 41 suspected bandits Inside a forest in Zamfara

Police have discovered the bodies of 41 persons suspected to be part of bandits terrorising villages in Zamfara State, north-west Nigeria.
Kenneth Ebrimson, the Commissioner of Police in the state confirmed the figure while briefing reporters in Gusau, the state capital. According to him, police personnel found the men with their throats cut at different locations in the state.

Ebrimson revealed that 18 bodies were discovered in a river on Sunday and 23 others at a forest in the Zurmi area of Zamfara. He added that four suspects were arrested after the bush area was combed while the police recovered machetes and guns during the search. The police commissioner disclosed further that the suspects were identified as members of a local vigilante group who decided to embark on a mission of “extra-judicial killings”.


While residents were unable to identify any of the bodies who they said were not resident in the area, the police said they could be members of a group involved in cattle rustling and kidnapping. Farming and cattle herding communities in Zamfara have for years been terrorised by gangs of cattle thieves and kidnappers who raid villages, steal cows and abduct locals for ransom.

As a hideout, the gangs use the Ruggu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna states. The attacks have prompted villagers to form militia groups for protection but they, too, have been accused of taking the law into their own hands and killing suspected bandits. Those killings attract reprisals from motorcycle-riding criminal gangs, who carry out indiscriminate killings and arson in retaliation.

In April the Nigerian government deployed troops to Zamfara to fight the gangs while the police outlawed the vigilantes to end the tit-for-tat killings.

A woman climbed the base of the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July to protest migrant family separations

A woman who climbed up to the robes of the Statue of Liberty to protest the separation of migrant families was taken into custody after a standoff with police on the Fourth of July.

Authorities had tried to talk the woman down but she refused to leave. For nearly three hours, she crossed the base of the statue, at times sitting in the folds of the statue's dress and under Lady Liberty's sandal. The woman was identified as Therese Patricia Okoumou by a law enforcement source close to the investigation and another source who knows her.
The woman was part of a group of protesters and had declared that she wouldn't come down until "all the children are released," a source with the New York Police Department told us.

A woman who climbed up to the robes of the Statue of Liberty to protest the separation of migrant families was taken into custody after a standoff with police on the Fourth of July.

Authorities had tried to talk the woman down but she refused to leave. For nearly three hours, she crossed the base of the statue, at times sitting in the folds of the statue's dress and under Lady Liberty's sandal. The woman was identified as Therese Patricia Okoumou by a law enforcement source close to the investigation and another source who knows her.
The woman was part of a group of protesters and had declared that she wouldn't come down until "all the children are released," a source with the New York Police Department told us.

Lightning strike injures young man, child before fireworks show in Illinois

Two people were critically injured from a lightning strike before a 4th of July fireworks show in Sheridan, Illinois.

Online newspaper The Times reports that a young man, about 20 years old, and a 3 or 4-year-old girl were taken to OSF St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa by ambulance.

No further details were immediately available.

Wisconsin girl, 16, returns home after being sex trafficked into Chicago, mother says

A missing Wisconsin teen returned home a month after being lured to Chicago by sex traffickers, her mother says.

Armoni Chambers, 16, was found Wednesday after activists received a tip about a Facebook video in which the girl appeared to be assaulted, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Bonnie Bruno, Chambers’ mother, and activist Tory Lowe traveled to Chicago to search for her, the newspaper reported. Chambers was trafficked by several men before going to Chicago, Bruno said.

“Her entire time in Chicago was trauma after trauma after trauma,” she said. “She was afraid. She thought she was going to die.”

Milwaukee police declared Chambers missing June 18, according to FOX6 Milwaukee. Bruno received a tip about video surveillance showing Chambers boarding a Chicago-bound Greyhound bus in Milwaukee. Family and activists used the next several days to track down every lead to find the teen.

Tragic Chinese billionaire falls and dies while trying to take a picture

A Chinese billionaire has died after he fell while trying to take a beautiful picture.

57-year-old Wang Jian, who is the chairman and co-founder of one of China’s largest conglomerates, HNA, was travelling in France when the tragic accident happened, according to the company.

HNA said on Wednesday that Wang Jian had fallen and died from his injuries on Tuesday in Provence, without providing any more details of his death.


French media reported that a 57-year-old Chinese tourist had died after falling down the stairs of a church in the village of Bonnieux on Tuesday while trying to take a photograph. Other reports said Wang had fallen off a cliff while having his picture taken. Police said they were not treating his death as suspicious.

Japanese Rocket Crashes and Explodes in Flames Shortly After Launch

An uncrewed Japanese rocket has crashed only seconds after launch. The MOMO-2 rocket burst into flames shortly after take-off on June 30.
Luckily there were no injuries caused by the short-lived flight. The unfortunate rocket was developed by Japanese start-up company Interstellar Technologies.

The company aims to design and develop small, lightweight, and low-cost rockets that can send satellites into space. This disastrous flight was the second take-off for the company, its first flight was a partial success in that the MOMO did manage to leave the launch pad but communications with it were lost about a minute after it had lifted off.

Second rocket crash for new company
The rocket's booster only managed to reach an altitude of about 12 miles (20 kilometers) before it splashed down into the Pacific Ocean. A video of the 10-meter high rocket launching then crashing is a combination of tragedy and comedy, however, the company won’t be put off saying they are on track to put a satellite into low Earth orbit by 2020.
Interstellar Technologies wants to be able to offer satellite launches for as little as US$440,000 compared to the price the Japanese government offers of US$1.8 million minimum. While it's an ambitious and exciting goal, the fledgling company will need to go some way before it can convince investors it can safely deliver payloads to space.

85 Percent of the Asteroid Belt Is Composed of the Remnants of Ancient Planets

A new study from the University of Florida has found that 85 percent of our solar system's asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is made up of the remnants of five or six ancient small planets.

Lead author on the newly published research paper Stanley Dermott says it's likely that the remaining 15 percent could also end up being from old planets too.

Research into the asteroid belt offers insights into the way our own Earth was formed. It also gives scientists critical information about the formation of the asteroid and offers the opportunity to determine if any matter is going to peel off and head towards earth.
"These large bodies whiz by the Earth, so of course we're very concerned about how many of these there are and what types of material are in them," Dermott said in a press release. "If ever one of these comes towards the earth, and we want to deflect it, we need to know what its nature is."

The study discovered that the size of the asteroid determines its orbit. This discovery suggests that the differences we observe in meteorites found on Earth relate to the evolutionary changes that occurred inside a few large, vanguard bodies that existed more than four billion years ago.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually trace the origins of all asteroids in the main asteroid belt, not just those in the inner belt, to a small number of known parent bodies,” Dermott said. This research helps theoretical astronomers in their quest to investigate where planets like our own might exist in the universe.
But before those questions can be fully understood it is crucial to more fully understand the processes that produced the planet we live on. Last month NASA discovered an asteroid heading on a collision course with Earth.

Google says it's not reading your Gmail, except when....

Google published a blog explaining the terms on which hundreds of app makers are given access to millions of inboxes belonging to Gmail users.
The company was also at pains to point out that "no one at Google reads your Gmail."
But there are a couple of key exceptions to this rule, including when Google needs to go investigate a bug or "abuse" of the platform.
It's not clear whether Gmail users are notified when Google rummages through messages to address these issues.

Google was hauled over the coals this week for reportedly giving hundreds of app makers access to millions of inboxes belonging to Gmail users.

The Wall Street Journal reported that users who signed up for "email-based services" like "shopping price comparisons," and "automated travel-itinerary planners" were most at risk of having their private messages read.

In response to the story, Google published a blog on Tuesday detailing how third-party developers have to go through an involved review process before they are given access to Gmail.

Suzanne Frey, Google Cloud's director of security, trust, and privacy, also said that Gmail's 1.4 billion users hold the keys to their own data and can control permissions.
In the same piece, Frey was at pains to point out that Google itself does not read user emails.

'Dead' woman wakes up in a morgue. Why does this keep happening?

A woman was taken to the morgue and pronounced dead after a car crash near Johannesburg in South Africa.

The only problem? She wasn't dead.
According to the BBC, the unnamed woman woke up in a mortuary fridge after a car pile-up on June 24 which reportedly left two others dead.

The woman was discovered by a morgue worker, according to the news service, and she is now recovering in a hospital east of Johannesburg.

The woman's family declined to comment on the incident to the BBC, but said, "We need answers."

So, how did this happen? An investigation is reportedly underway. Ambulance company Distress Alert, who mispronounced the woman dead, told news publisher Times Live, “Equipment used to determine life showed no form of life on the woman."

"This did not happen because our paramedics are not properly trained," the company's statement added. "There is no proof of any negligence by our crew."

How does this keep happening?
It's not the first time this has happened. In fact, it's not as uncommon as you'd think.

Facebook shutters the teen app it just bought

Facebook is shutting down three apps, including a teen app called tbh, which it bought about eight months ago.
In a blog post, the social network said it would shutter the tbh, Hello and Moves apps due to "low usage." Facebook will delete user data from the apps within 90 days.

"We know some people are still using these apps and will be disappointed," the company said in a blog post late Monday. "But we need to prioritize our work so we don't spread ourselves too thin."

Facebook acquired tbh -- which stands for the popular texting acronym "to be honest" -- for an undisclosed sum last October. The app let users participate in anonymous polls and give positive feedback to friends. It initially was widely popular among teens. Over 5 million people downloaded the app in a matter of weeks.

Woman, 92, allegedly killed son who wanted to put her in a nursing home

A 92-year-old woman allegedly killed her son in Arizona because she did not want to be sent to an assisted living facility, authorities said.

Anna Mae Blessing was charged with first degree murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping after authorities found her 72-year-old son dead Monday at their home in Fountain Hills, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said.
Blessing hid two pistols in the pockets of her robe and shot her son several times in his bedroom, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
Her son's girlfriend was also in the room and said she heard Blessing telling her son she was tired of the way he treated her, court documents said.
"From my understanding, she had thought about it for a few days because there was a dispute regarding her son wanting to put her in an assisted living home," Maricopa County Sgt. Bryant Vanejas told 3m360

How Angelique Kidjo, Omotola Jalade, and other stars turned up at the Afrikan Shrine to party with Emmanuel Macron

Nigerian celebrities turned up at the new Afrikan Shrine to celebrate a night of culture with French President, Emmanuel Macron who was hosted by the Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode.

French President, Emmanuel Macron was in Nigeria yesterday to witness the signing of new deal with the country at the state house Abuja before he made his way to the New Afrika Shrine in Lagos.

During his speech, the French President said he never expected to return to Nigeria under these circumstances almost 17 years after his first stay in the country.

In his words, 'It's very emotional for me to come back to Nigeria 17 years after my stay. I didn't imagine I’d be back in these conditions. Democracy is never written in advance. I'm probably a good example of that'.

Speaking about the shrine and why he chose to visit, he said, 'the Shrine is an iconic cultural hub. And I say with a lot of humility that I recognize the importance of African culture'.

Some of the celebs who were at the event included, Banky W, Omotola Jalade, Dakore Akande, Alexx Ekubo, Rita Dominic, Desmond Elliot, Angelique Kidjo, Yemi Alade, and Ramsey Nouah.

Tina Turner's oldest son commits suicide at age 60

Music legend Tina Turner's oldest son, Craig Raymond Turner, has committed suicide ... according to a report by TMZ. Read below...

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Craig died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Studio City, CA. Authorities arrived at his place just after noon Tuesday and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Craig was born when Tina was 18 ... before she married Ike Turner. Once Tina and Ike wed, Ike adopted Craig. His biological father was a saxophonist named Raymond Hill, who performed with Ike's band.

I went on a Border Patrol ride-along in one of the most heavily crossed areas on the US-Mexico border

I was in Southern Texas covering the immigration crisis and separation of families for nearly a day when I got word that I had secured a Border Patrol ride-along.

"The Rio Grande sector accounts for about 40% of the apprehensions in the United States," a Border Patrol agent named Chris Seiler told me as we drove away from the station a few days later. "The McAllen station specifically is about 20% of the entire nation, and we catch about 300 individuals a day just in this 50-mile span of border."

For nearly five hours last Monday morning, I followed Seiler and another agent, Rene Quintanilla, around as they patrolled on and around the Rio Grande, which separates the US and Mexico.

Here's what happened: