– A report to Congress alleges that China briefly hijacked a chunk of the world's web traffic, including some from US military facilities, before sending it on its way. (The actual amount rerouted is in dispute.) China denies it, but tech writers are pretty sure it happened. Cause for alarm? A definite maybe. Bob Sullivan, MSNBC: "If there is a grey area between honest mistakes and outright cyber attack, these incidents probably fall right in the middle—if not a pre-planned testing of the waters, then certainly a happy accident with valuable results to be studied by would-be cyber-attackers." Nate Anderson, Ars Technica: "The culprit here was 'IP hijacking,' a well-known routing problem in a worldwide system based largely on trust." But as is usually the case with these things, "it's hard to know if anything bad happened here. The entire thing could have been a simple mistake. Besides, Internet traffic isn't secure and already passes through many servers outside of one's control." Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo: "Perhaps it wasn't a malicious move, but it certainly seems like a test to its network power. In any case, it seems like it can happen again at any time. I don't know about you, but I don't feel comfortable with the idea of China hijacking such a massive amount of information without explanation." Dmitri Alperovitch, McAfee: “This is one of the biggest—if not the biggest hijacks—we have ever seen," the security expert tells National Defense Magazine. "And it could happen again, anywhere and anytime. What happened to the traffic while it was in China? No one knows.”

Expand this summary.

China today denied US allegations that it "hijacked" highly sensitive internet traffic – including emails sent to and from US military websites – earlier this year.

 A state-owned telecoms company in China had access to 15% of global internet traffic, including confidential emails from Nasa and the US army, for 18 minutes in April, according to an annual security report delivered to the US congress on Wednesday.

 The report warned that the capture "could enable severe malicious activities" by China. The state-owned company accused of "hijacking" the encrypted information, China Telecom, today denied "any hijack of internet traffic".

 Online security experts say the capture represents "one of the biggest hijacks" of sensitive information in the history of the internet.

 Relations between China and the US – number one and two in the world, respectively, in terms of internet users – have long been fraught when it comes to the web.

 Earlier this year US technology giant Google said it was to stop censoring results on its Chinese search engine, following a sophisticated and allegedly state-sponsored cyber attack directed at the company. China earlier accused the US of making "groundless accusations" about restrictions on internet freedom against the country.

 The US report said that some 15% of global internet traffic was routed through Chinese servers earlier this year, prompting worries that the country now has access to sensitive correspondence from US government bodies. US commissioner Larry Wortzel raised concerns on Wednesday that China would now "get the internet addresses of everybody that communicated" with the US armed services' chiefs of staff.

 The rerouting began at a smaller Chinese ISP called IDC China before being passed on to China Telecom, the report compiled by the US-China economic and security review commission claimed. Encrypted correspondence from the US senate, the department of defence and "many others" were among the huge amount of traffic captured by China.

 Dmitri Alperovitch, a threat research analyst at internet security firm McAfee, said the capture "is one of the biggest – if not the biggest hijacks – we have ever seen".

 "No one except China Telecom operators" know what happened to the traffic during those 18 minutes, Alperovitch added. "The possibilities are numerous and troubling, but definitive answers are unknown." ||||| In a 300+ page report (PDF) today, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission provided the US Congress with a detailed overview of what's been happening in China—including a curious incident in which 15 percent of the world's Internet traffic suddenly passed through Chinese servers on the way to its destination.

 Here's how the Commission describes the incident, which took place earlier this year:

 For about 18 minutes on April 8, 2010, China Telecom advertised erroneous network traffic routes that instructed US and other foreign Internet traffic to travel through Chinese servers. Other servers around the world quickly adopted these paths, routing all traffic to about 15 percent of the Internet’s destinations through servers located in China. This incident affected traffic to and from US government (‘‘.gov’’) and military (‘‘.mil’’) sites, including those for the Senate, the army, the navy, the marine corps, the air force, the office of secretary of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and many others. Certain commercial websites were also affected, such as those for Dell, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and IBM.

 The culprit here was "IP hijacking," a well-known routing problem in a worldwide system based largely on trust. Routers rely on the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to puzzle out the best route between two IP addresses; when one party advertises incorrect routing information, routers across the globe can be convinced to send traffic on geographically absurd paths.

 This happened famously in 2008, when Pakistan blocked YouTube. The block was meant only for internal use, and it relied on new routing information that would send YouTube requests not to the company's servers but into a "black hole."

 As we described the situation at the time, "this routing information escaped from Pakistan Telecom to its ISP PCCW in Hong Kong, which propagated the route to the rest of the world. So any packets for YouTube would end up in Pakistan Telecom's black hole instead." The mistake broke YouTube access from across much of the Internet.

 The China situation appears to have a similar cause. The mistaken routing information came from IDC China Telecommunications, and it was then picked up by the huge China Telecom. As other routers around the world accepted the new information, they began funneling huge amounts of US traffic through Chinese servers, for 18 minutes.

 As with many things involving cyberattacks and Internet security, it's hard to know if anything bad happened here. The entire thing could have been a simple mistake. Besides, Internet traffic isn't secure and already passes through many servers outside of one's control. Content that is sensitive but still suitable for the public Internet should be encrypted. Still, the Commission points out the many possible problems that such an IP hijack could cause.

 Although the Commission has no way to determine what, if anything, Chinese telecommunications firms did to the hijacked data, incidents of this nature could have a number of serious implications. This level of access could enable surveillance of specific users or sites. It could disrupt a data transaction and prevent a user from establishing a connection with a site. It could even allow a diversion of data to somewhere that the user did not intend (for example, to a ‘‘spoofed’’ site). Arbor Networks Chief Security Officer Danny McPherson has explained that the volume of affected data here could have been intended to conceal one targeted attack.

 What about encryption?

 Perhaps most disconcertingly, as a result of the diffusion of Internet security certification authorities, control over diverted data could possibly allow a telecommunications firm to compromise the integrity of supposedly secure encrypted sessions.

 The proliferation of certification authorities means that "untrustworthy" certification authorities are much harder to police, and there's speculation now that governments are involved in getting access to certificates in order to break encryption.

 China has openly sought all sorts of encryption information for years, including the source code for routers, network intrusion systems, and firewalls. Those rules went into effect in May 2010, and they require foreign firms to submit this information to Chinese authorities before the government will purchase any such products.

 But because the government review panels contain employees of rival Chinese firms, and because providing this information could make a company's worldwide products more susceptible to Chinese hacking or cyberattacks (which would in turn kill sales of said products in most countries), the Commission notes that no foreign firm has yet submitted to the new scheme. ||||| Links Blog Home Archive Edit in Browser /_layouts/images/icxddoc.gif /blog/_layouts/formserver.aspx?XsnLocation={ItemUrl}&OpenIn;=Browser 0x0 0x1 FileType xsn 255 Edit in Browser /_layouts/images/icxddoc.gif /blog/_layouts/formserver.aspx?XmlLocation={ItemUrl}&OpenIn;=Browser 0x0 0x1 ProgId InfoPath.Document 255 Edit in Browser /_layouts/images/icxddoc.gif /blog/_layouts/formserver.aspx?XmlLocation={ItemUrl}&OpenIn;=Browser 0x0 0x1 ProgId InfoPath.Document.2 255 Edit in Browser /_layouts/images/icxddoc.gif /blog/_layouts/formserver.aspx?XmlLocation={ItemUrl}&OpenIn;=Browser 0x0 0x1 ProgId InfoPath.Document.3 255 Edit in Browser /_layouts/images/icxddoc.gif /blog/_layouts/formserver.aspx?XmlLocation={ItemUrl}&OpenIn;=Browser 0x0 0x1 ProgId InfoPath.Document.4 255 View in Web Browser /_layouts/images/ichtmxls.gif /blog/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?listguid={ListId}&itemid;={ItemId}&DefaultItemOpen;=1 0x0 0x1 FileType xlsx 255 View in Web Browser /_layouts/images/ichtmxls.gif /blog/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?listguid={ListId}&itemid;={ItemId}&DefaultItemOpen;=1 0x0 0x1 FileType xlsb 255 Snapshot in Excel /_layouts/images/ewr134.gif /blog/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?listguid={ListId}&itemid;={ItemId}&Snapshot;=1 0x0 0x1 FileType xlsx 256 Snapshot in Excel /_layouts/images/ewr134.gif /blog/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?listguid={ListId}&itemid;={ItemId}&Snapshot;=1 0x0 0x1 FileType xlsb 256 Sponsors

 National Defense > Blog > Posts > Cyber Experts Have Proof That China Has Hijacked U.S.-Based Internet Traffic: UPDATED Cyber Experts Have Proof That China Has Hijacked U.S.-Based Internet Traffic: UPDATED For 18 minutes in April, China’s state-controlled telecommunications company hijacked 15 percent of the world’s Internet traffic, including data from U.S. military, civilian organizations and those of other U.S. allies.

 This massive redirection of data has received scant attention in the mainstream media because the mechanics of how the hijacking was carried out and the implications of the incident are difficult for those outside the cybersecurity community to grasp, said a top security expert at McAfee, the world’s largest dedicated Internet security company.

 In short, the Chinese could have carried out eavesdropping on unprotected communications — including emails and instant messaging — manipulated data passing through their country or decrypted messages, Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee said.

 Nobody outside of China can say, at least publicly, what happened to the terabytes of data after the traffic entered China.

 The incident may receive more attention when the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressional committee, releases its annual report on the bilateral relationship Nov. 17. A commission press release said the 2010 report will address “the increasingly sophisticated nature of malicious computer activity associated with China.”

 Said Alperovitch: “This is one of the biggest — if not the biggest hijacks — we have ever seen.” And it could happen again, anywhere and anytime. It’s just the way the Internet works, he explained. “What happened to the traffic while it was in China? No one knows.”

 The telephone giants of the world work on a system based on trust, he explained. Machine-to-machine interfaces send out messages to the Internet informing other service providers that they are the fastest and most efficient way for data packets to travel. For 18 minutes April 8, China Telecom Corp. told many ISPs of the world that its routes were the best paths to send traffic.

 For example, a person sending information from Arlington, Va., to the White House in Washington, D.C. — only a few miles away — could have had his data routed through China. Since traffic moves around the world in milliseconds, the computer user would not have noticed the delay.

 This happens accidentally a few times per year, Alperovitch said. What set this incident apart from other such mishaps was the fact that China Telecom could manage to absorb this large amount of data and send it back out again without anyone noticing a disruption in service. In previous incidents, the data would have reached a dead end, and users would not have been able to connect.

 Also, the list of hijacked data just happened to include preselected destinations around the world that encompassed military, intelligence and many civilian networks in the United States and other allies such as Japan and Australia, he said. “Why would you keep that list?” Alperovitch asked.

 The incident involved 15 percent of Internet traffic, he stressed. The amount of data included in all these packets is difficult to calculate. The data could have been stored so it could be examined later, he added. “Imagine the capability and capacity that is built into their networks. I’m not sure there was anyone else in the world who could have taken on that much traffic without breaking a sweat,” Alperovitch said.

 McAfee has briefed U.S. government officials on the incident, but they were not alarmed. They said their Internet communications are encrypted. However, encryption also works on a basis of trust, McAfee experts pointed out. And that trust can be exploited.

 Internet encryption depends on two keys. One key is private and not shared, and the other is public, and is embedded in most computer operating systems. Unknown to most computer users, Microsoft, Apple and other software makers embed the public certificates in their operating systems. They also trust that this system won’t be abused.

 Among the certificates is one from the China Internet Information Center, an arm of the China’s Ministry of Information and Industry.

 “If China telecom intercepts that [encrypted message] and they are sitting on the middle of that, they can send you their public key with their public certificate and you will not know any better,” he said. The holder of this certificate has the capability to decrypt encrypted communication links, whether it’s web traffic, emails or instant messaging, Alperovitch said. “It is a flaw in the way the Internet operates,” said Yoris Evers, director of worldwide public relations at McAfee.

 No one outside of China can say whether any of these potentially nefarious events occurred, Alperovitch noted. “It did not make mainstream news because it is so esoteric and hard to understand,” he added. It is not defined as a cyberattack because no sites were hacked or shut down. “But it is pretty disconcerting.”

 And the hijacking took advantage of the way the Internet operates. “It can happen again. They can do it tomorrow or they can do it in an hour. And the same problem will occur again.”

 CLARIFICATION: Alperovitch in a McAfee blog has clarified that 15 percent of the world's routes were directed to China, not 15 percent of the traffic. In an earlier interview he stated: “In terms of the overall traffic they took, it’s very hard to estimate, but it was a lot more than 15 percent of the world’s traffic [that] their pipes were able to handle without crashing.”

 Read more about the increasingly sophisticated nature of cyberespionage and attacks in the January issue of National Defense Magazine.

 For 18 minutes in April, China’s state-controlled telecommunications company hijacked 15 percent of the world’s Internet traffic, including data from U.S. military, civilian organizations and those of other U.S. allies.This massive redirection of data has received scant attention in the mainstream media because the mechanics of how the hijacking was carried out and the implications of the incident are difficult for those outside the cybersecurity community to grasp, said a top security expert at McAfee, the world’s largest dedicated Internet security company.In short, the Chinese could have carried out eavesdropping on unprotected communications — including emails and instant messaging — manipulated data passing through their country or decrypted messages, Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee said.Nobody outside of China can say, at least publicly, what happened to the terabytes of data after the traffic entered China.The incident may receive more attention when the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressional committee, releases its annual report on the bilateral relationship Nov. 17. A commission press release said the 2010 report will address “the increasingly sophisticated nature of malicious computer activity associated with China.”Said Alperovitch: “This is one of the biggest — if not the biggest hijacks — we have ever seen.” And it could happen again, anywhere and anytime. It’s just the way the Internet works, he explained. “What happened to the traffic while it was in China? No one knows.”The telephone giants of the world work on a system based on trust, he explained. Machine-to-machine interfaces send out messages to the Internet informing other service providers that they are the fastest and most efficient way for data packets to travel. For 18 minutes April 8, China Telecom Corp. told many ISPs of the world that its routes were the best paths to send traffic.For example, a person sending information from Arlington, Va., to the White House in Washington, D.C. — only a few miles away — could have had his data routed through China. Since traffic moves around the world in milliseconds, the computer user would not have noticed the delay.This happens accidentally a few times per year, Alperovitch said. What set this incident apart from other such mishaps was the fact that China Telecom could manage to absorb this large amount of data and send it back out again without anyone noticing a disruption in service. In previous incidents, the data would have reached a dead end, and users would not have been able to connect.Also, the list of hijacked data just happened to include preselected destinations around the world that encompassed military, intelligence and many civilian networks in the United States and other allies such as Japan and Australia, he said. “Why would you keep that list?” Alperovitch asked.The incident involved 15 percent of Internet traffic, he stressed. The amount of data included in all these packets is difficult to calculate. The data could have been stored so it could be examined later, he added. “Imagine the capability and capacity that is built into their networks. I’m not sure there was anyone else in the world who could have taken on that much traffic without breaking a sweat,” Alperovitch said.McAfee has briefed U.S. government officials on the incident, but they were not alarmed. They said their Internet communications are encrypted. However, encryption also works on a basis of trust, McAfee experts pointed out. And that trust can be exploited.Internet encryption depends on two keys. One key is private and not shared, and the other is public, and is embedded in most computer operating systems. Unknown to most computer users, Microsoft, Apple and other software makers embed the public certificates in their operating systems. They also trust that this system won’t be abused.Among the certificates is one from the China Internet Information Center, an arm of the China’s Ministry of Information and Industry.“If China telecom intercepts that [encrypted message] and they are sitting on the middle of that, they can send you their public key with their public certificate and you will not know any better,” he said. The holder of this certificate has the capability to decrypt encrypted communication links, whether it’s web traffic, emails or instant messaging, Alperovitch said. “It is a flaw in the way the Internet operates,” said Yoris Evers, director of worldwide public relations at McAfee.No one outside of China can say whether any of these potentially nefarious events occurred, Alperovitch noted. “It did not make mainstream news because it is so esoteric and hard to understand,” he added. It is not defined as a cyberattack because no sites were hacked or shut down. “But it is pretty disconcerting.”And the hijacking took advantage of the way the Internet operates. “It can happen again. They can do it tomorrow or they can do it in an hour. And the same problem will occur again.”Read more about the increasingly sophisticated nature of cyberespionage and attacks in the January issue of National Defense Magazine. 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 Posted: Wednesday, November 17 2010 at 06:48 pm CT by Bob Sullivan

 The cyber cold war between China and the U.S. just got a little chillier. Twice this year, China demonstrated its ability to "substantially manipulate" the Internet, a congressional commission said in a report issued on Tuesday. In one incident, traffic headed to 15 percent of the world's websites was redirected through Chinese servers for about 20 minutes.

 The high-level hijacking included bits and bytes headed for the U.S. Senate, the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, the secretary of defense, NASA, and other government offices, along with commercial entities like Dell, Yahoo, Microsoft, and IBM, the report said.

 Chinese officials disputed the findings. But several technology firms said they charted the hijacking in April.

 In a prior incident in March, the Chinese censorship firewall was temporarily extended to block some U.S. users from visiting websites like Twitter and YouTube, the report said.

 "Computer security researchers observed both incidents but were not able to say conclusively whether the actions were intentional," concluded the report, by the U.S.-China Economic And Security Review Commission. "Nonetheless, each incident demonstrates a capability that could possibly be used for malicious purposes."

 The Internet, we are frequently reminded, is a shockingly fragile creation. These incidents, both of which took advantage of well-known vulnerabilities, are a wake-up call for U.S. authorities, who need to insist on security upgrades to protect U.S. interests, said Dmitri Alperovitch, a security researcher with McAfee. His firm supplied the U.S. government with a list of 53,000 websites that were hijacked for 18 minutes on April 8.

 "This is a troubling development. It could be innocuous, and China is claiming it's an accident, but this has a pretty wide-ranging set of implications," he said. "That traffic could be eavesdropped upon."

 The report comes near the end of a tumultuous year for China and the Internet. Beijing had a very public spat with Google early in the year, and the nation was ultimately accused of spying on Google employees. It was also accused of a sophisticated plot to use the Internet to spy on the Dalai Lama and other detractors.

 The March incident involved a flaw in the way the Internet converts friendly website addresses -- like msnbc.com -- into their reference IP addresses – such as 128.206.11.1. The conversions occur through a system of networked computers called Domain Name Servers. A key tool in China's internal "Great Firewall" censorship tool is the rerouting of Web page requests through Domain Name Servers away from potentially subversive Web sites. Requests for some Web sites are simply dropped; others are redirected to China-friendly sites.

 But domain name conversion tables, when handled incorrectly, can spread themselves upstream on the Internet. In March, some domain servers around the world were "poisoned" with China's censored list, causing some users in Chile and the United State to be blocked from social networking sites for about a day. The problem was readily fixed, and some researchers believe the cause might have been an honest mistake.

 Bad 'route announcements'

 But the April incident is far more mysterious, and consequently makes some security experts more nervous. It involved what are called "route announcements," which are made by telecom providers to the wider Internet. Servers can advertise that they offer the best route for Internet traffic headed to specific destinations, and like obedient bits and bytes, the traffic automatically follows -- even if the advertisements are incorrect. That means an e-mail sent from Congress to the White House could be tricked into traveling through China, if a server were configured that way.

 That's what happened in April, according to the report. A massive amount of Web traffic worked its way around the world through Chinese-controlled computers. According to McAfee’s Alperovitch, only workers at China Telecom know why. But the most disturbing thing about the April incident, he said, is that almost no one noticed. China Telecom absorbed the traffic and redistributed it to its destinations without so much as an Internet blip.

 While it's possible an honest mistake was to blame, it's easy to conjure up other possibilities.

 "That they are able to take in that much traffic without breaking a sweat, I find that almost unimaginable," Alperovitch said. "The capacity built into their networks must be astonishing. ... Things worked miraculously."

 The report speculated that the mammoth data slurp might have been committed to obfuscate a more targeted Web attack. And an entity in possession of that much data might eventually be able to decrypt encrypted Web traffic -- in addition to the fishing expedition that a government agency could enjoy by simply searching all that data for valuable secrets.

 "The spokesman of China Telecom Corp. Ltd. denied any hijack of Internet traffic," Chinese officials said in statement e-mailed Tuesday to the Reuters news service.

 This is not the first time route announcements led to World Wide Web trouble. In 2008, Pakistani censorship efforts of YouTube went awry, leading to a temporary blackout of the video service. In 2004, Turkish servers accidentally told the world that all Web traffic should travel through its borders; widespread outages followed.

 But this the first time such a large traffic rerouting was conducted without noticeable impact on Web traffic.

 "The methods used during these activities are generally more sophisticated than techniques used in previous exploitations," the report concluded.

 The Cold War was full of menacing military exercises and accidental airspace violations. A cyber cold war will naturally produced similar incidents. If there is a grey area between honest mistakes and outright cyber attack, these incidents probably fall right in the middle – if not a pre-planned testing of the waters, then certainly a happy accident with valuable results to be studied by would-be cyber-attackers. Don't expect a cyber cold war thawing any time soon.

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A 10-year-old Houston girl had a brush with death after swallowing a piece of the latest must-have toy — a fidget spinner.

 Britton Joniec underwent emergency surgery on Monday, according to her mom, who described the terrifying ordeal involving the propeller-shaped contraption.

 “On the way home from a fun swim meet, I heard Britton make an odd retching noise in the back seat as I was driving,” Kelly Rose Joniec wrote on Facebook.

 “Looking back in the mirror, I saw her face turning red and drool pouring from her mouth — she could utter noises but looked panicked so I immediately pulled over,” she continued. “She pointed to her throat saying she’d swallowed something, so I attempted Heimlich but there was no resistance.”

 The girl had put one of three bushings from the spinner in her mouth to clean it — but somehow swallowed the metal piece.

 Her mom drove to an urgent care center, where medical workers were unable to determine whether it was lodged in her airway or her esophagus.

 The girl was then rushed to Texas Children’s Hospital in The Woodlands, just north of Houston, where X-rays showed the nickel-size bushing was stuck in her esophagus.

 “The GI doctor was fascinated… he’d only just learned of fidget spinners that morning when he was at the mall with his son, so it was a surprise to be faced with one in a case a few hours later,” Joniec wrote.

 Finally, the doctor used an endoscope to remove the object.

 “Fortunately, we had a positive outcome, but it was pretty scary there for a while,” the mom said.

 Joniec had a word of caution for parents about the toy, which originally was designed as a therapeutic tool for kids with ADHD and autism.

 “Fidget spinners are the current craze so they are widely distributed. Kids of all ages may be getting them, but not all spinners come with age-appropriate warnings,” she said.

 She pointed out that the bushings pop out easily and can pose a potential choking hazard for young children.

 The twirling toys have become so popular lately that they’ve been banned in some schools. ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| They're the flavor of the week, but "fidget spinners" may have spun out of control after a Texas girl swallowed part of hers.

 The toy, which usually features a trio of metal bushings rotating around a central axis, has whipped up a twister of attention this spring, but a Houston-area mom said she was shocked when one of the parts came loose and ended up in her daughter’s throat on Saturday.

 “On the way home from a fun swim meet, I heard Britton make an odd retching noise in the back seat as I was driving. Looking back in the mirror, I saw her face turning red and drool pouring from her mouth,�? Kellie Rose Joniec said on Facebook.

 Her daughter Britton said that she swallowed the metal bit after putting it in her mouth to clean it, and a trip to the hospital showed that the bushing had been lodged in her esophagus.

 Kids love fidget spinner craze, but teachers not so much

 Joniec said she was grateful that surgery removed the bushing, but warned fellow parents about letting their younger children play with the spinners.

 “The bushings pop out easily, so if you have young kids (under 8 yr old) keep in mind that these present a potential choking hazard,�? she said.

 This reporter tried but failed to pop out a bushing from an American-flag themed fidget spinner he bought Wednesday afternoon.

 It is not known exactly how many fidget spinners have been sold in recent weeks, though versions of toy take up the top 14 spots on Amazon’s best-selling toys list.

 Police warn about ‘teddy bear ecstasy’ after 4 teens hospitalized

 Though popular among kids who trade time on their hands for sessions handling the spinners, some of the 500,000 people who shared Joniec’s story on Facebook are likely adults driven nuts by the devices.

 Schools such as PS 29 in Brooklyn have banned fidget spinners in some classrooms and at lunch, with one student’s mom telling the News, “I can see how teachers might hate them.�?

 Some have said that the devices help those with ADHD, though many remain skeptical. ||||| Fidget spinners are taking over the world with their addictive fun, but one mother has warned of an unexpected danger that come with the toys.

 Kelly Rose Joniec posted on Facebook about how she had to rush her daughter to the hospital because of an unfortunate incident with her spinner. Joniec was bringing her daughter, Britton, home from a swim meet on Saturday when she noticed her daughter making a “retching” sound and found out that Britton was choking.

 “She said she’d put part of her fidget spinner in her mouth to clean it and somehow swallowed it,” Joniec said in her post.

 A fidget spinner has weighted bearings, which can be removed and are about the size of a quarter, to help it spin so smoothly. The toys are supposed to be silent, but the bearings should be cleaned regularly to keep them from making noise. That’s how Joniec said her daughter got a bearing stuck in her throat.

 When urgent care couldn’t tell where the bearing was, the mother and daughter were rushed to the Texas Children’s Hospital’s Woodlands location via ambulance. Britton eventually had to have surgery.

 “After multiple, very stressful attempts to place an IV, Britton was taken to surgery to endoscopically locate and remove the object,” Joniec wrote. “Fortunately we had a positive outcome, but it was pretty scary there for a while.”

 Fidget spinners can help channel the restlessness in children sometimes caused by autism or ADHD, but are so distracting that classrooms across the country are banning the toy.

 Joniec’s post has gotten over 500,000 shares and comments as parents thank her for sharing the warning. It’s unclear how old her daughter is, but she mentions that the toys are dangerous for children under 8 years old. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Fidget spinners, the hottest toy on the market, may also pose a serious choking risk. So says a mother in a Facebook post that's gone viral with more than 710,000 shares after her 10-year-old daughter swallowed one of the toy's weighted bearings. Kelly Rose Joniec, a Houston-area mom, had been driving home from a swim meet Saturday when her daughter Britton started to make "an odd retching noise in the back seat," she writes. When Joniec saw Britton's red face and drool in her mirror, she pulled over. After futile attempts to dislodge the piece, Joniec rushed her daughter to an urgent-care facility, which then helped arrange for an ambulance to a children's hospital, reports the New York Daily News. Fidget spinners boast nearly silent operation, but their weighted bearings, roughly the size of a quarter, must be cleaned on occasion, reports HuffPost. Britton had popped one in her mouth and it ended up lodged in her esophagus; she had to have it surgically removed on Monday, per the New York Post, but she's now doing fine. While some claim the toys help students with attention disorders, others are skeptical or at the very least annoyed, and the Daily News notes that some schools have banned them at lunch and in some classrooms. Still, versions of the toy fill the top 20 spots on the list of best-selling toys on Amazon. (See why the toy's inventor isn't making a penny off them.)


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Rocker Ted Nugent, who once referred to Hillary Clinton as a "devilbitch," visited President Donald Trump in the White House on Wednesday night while accompanied by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and professional terrible rapper Kid Rock.

 "So today is the 242nd anniversary of The Shot Heard Round The World is it!," Nugent posted on Facebook, alongside a picture of him grinning and shaking Trump's hand. "Well well well looky looky here boogie chillin', I got your Shot Heard Round The World right here in big ol greazyass Washington DC where your 1 & only MotorCity Madman WhackMaster StrapAssasin1 dined with President Donald J Trump at the WhiteHouse to Make America Great Again! Got that? Glowing all American over the top WE THE PEOPLE gory details coming ASAP!! BRACE!"

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 "A great night at the White House. Thank you to President Trump for the invite!" Palin proclaimed through her Facebook account on Thursday morning. Her post showed three pictures of Palin in the Oval Office, including one of her talking with Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, one of her talking with Trump on her own, and one in which she and Trump are joined by Nugent himself.

 .@POTUS invited @SarahPalinUSA to dinner and told her to bring some friends pic.twitter.com/Okk6wVWpha — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 20, 2017

 .@POTUS invited @SarahPalinUSA to dinner and told her to bring some friends pic.twitter.com/Okk6wVWpha — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 20, 2017

 In another picture retweeted by CNN's Jake Tapper, Palin and Nugent can be seen ridiculing a portrait of Hillary Clinton from when she served as First Lady. This has ominous undertones, given that Nugent once wrote about Clinton during the 2016 presidential election that "the devilbitch hates everything good about America! VOTE TRUMP!" During a concert in August, Nugent told his audience that Clinton was "one toxic bitch. Now why isn’t that bitch in jail?"

 Most ominously, Nugent in January argued that both Clinton and President Barack Obama should "be tried for treason & hung."

 It can't be argued that Trump isn't aware of Nugent's violent commentary. When Nugent aroused controversy in 2012 for proclaiming that "if Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will be either be dead or in jail by this time next year," Trump defended him on Twitter by claiming that Nugent was only using a "figure of speech."

 Of course, Trump wasn't nearly as amused last month when Snoop Dogg released a music video in which a Trump clown is pranked into believing that he will be shot in the head. ||||| Look who came to dinner.

 President Donald Trump entertained former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for dinner at the White House Wednesday night along with musicians Kid Rock and Ted Nugent.

 In a Facebook post Thursday morning, Palin thanked Trump for the invitation and shared photos of herself, Nugent, and Kid Rock around the desk in the Oval Office. Another photo shows Palin chatting with Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner. The trio also posed with a portrait of Hillary Clinton.

 Palin, who rose to national prominence as Sen. John McCain's running mate in the 2008 election, was an early endorser of Trump in January of 2016. Her endorsement bolstered Trump's conservative credentials among Iowa primary voters just weeks before they headed to the polls and was seen as a knock against Sen. Ted Cruz, who many expected to earn her endorsement instead.

 That Nugent was among those standing in the Oval Office shows a major twist of political fate. Merely two years earlier the outspokenly conservative musician, who performed before a 2016 Trump rally in Michigan, called President Barack Obama a "subhuman mongrel." Nugent later apologized, "not necessarily to the President – but on behalf of much better men than myself."

 That was not the first of his anti-Obama rhetoric, though. In 2012, Nugent said that if Obama were to be re-elected "I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year."

 The visit highlights a White House decision last week not to continue the Obama administration policy of releasing its visitor logs. The Trump White House cited privacy concerns as a key reason in the reversal. ||||| Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and hard-rocking Michigan musicians Ted Nugent and Kid Rock met with President Trump at the White House Wednesday evening, and the photos have created the perfect internet firestorm.

 “A great night at the White House! Thank you to President Trump for the invite!” Palin wrote on Facebook and Twitter. The trio of vocal Trump supporters appeared in one photo to be reviewing documents in the president’s hands and in another mockingly posed with a portrait of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

 Palin shared a number of photos showing her in discussion with President Trump and White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

 The purpose of the visit? Nugent channeled Trump’s campaign slogan explaining he dined with Trump “to make America great again” in a Facebook caption.

 Palin and Nugent both campaigned for Trump, while Kid Rock threw in for the Republican nominee in interviews. The White House has not released details about the visit as of Thursday morning.

 The internet had plenty of thoughts on the meeting. |||||

– President Trump assembled a motley crew (though surprisingly no members of Mötley Crüe) for dinner on Wednesday. Time reports the president was visited by a trio of famous supporters: Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, and Sarah Palin, who posed with Trump in the Oval Office and mugged in front of a portrait of Hillary Clinton. While the White House isn't releasing any information about the meeting, Nugent says he met with the president "to make America great again." The rocker's presence in the Oval Office comes just two years after he called then-President Obama a "subhuman mongrel," according to NBC News. Salon notes Nugent has also repeatedly called Clinton a "b----."


News article:

Fiery Exchange At Obama Town Hall

 By Ed Henry

 Fox Chief White House Correspondent

 DECORAH, Iowa – President Obama got into a heated back and forth with a Tea Party activist who demanded to know at the end of a town hall meeting here whether or not Vice President Biden had called members of the Tea Party “terrorists” during the debt ceiling debate.

 In public, Obama did not directly answer the question from Tea Party activist Ryan Rhodes about Biden. But Obama fired back that he knows better than anyone what it’s like to be slammed for his political views and was not about to accept a lecture on the topic.

 “As someone who’s been called a socialist, not born here, taking away freedoms for providing health care, I’m all for lowering the rhetoric,” Obama said.

 Obama did say he would discuss the matter further with Rhodes, founder of the Iowa Tea Party, after the event. And the duo was spotted in an animated conversation a few moments later.

 In an interview later with Fox News, Rhodes claimed that the President insisted that Biden had not made the original comment.

 “He just denied it, he said the Vice President didn’t make any of those assertions,” said Rhodes. “He doesn’t want to even admit what was on TV nationally — all over the place — then how can you have a conversation?”

 Rhodes added that Obama brushed him aside. “Then he said ‘we can’t have a conversation because you’re saying I called you a terrorist,’” recalled Rhodes. “The fact is it demonstrates the deep divide that he is unwilling to negotiate without going after the other side, the whole day was about going after republicans and talking about how unreasonable they are.”

 The private conversation between Rhodes and Obama was partially picked up by a TV camera but the audio was a little tough to make out. But Obama in general did seem to be saying the incident with Biden was misconstrued and that if Rhodes wanted to insist that the word “terrorist” was used then they were never going to see eye to eye.

 The incident stems from a private meeting Biden attended at the height of the debt ceiling debate with House Democrats who were angry that Republicans were not meeting the President halfway. One lawmakers, Rep. Mike Doyle D-Pa.), went so far as to say that Republicans affiliated with the Tea Party had behaved like “terrorists” during the debate.

 Some Democrats familiar with the meeting said at the time that Biden had appeared to agree with the sentiment expressed by Doyle and others as a way of moving the conversation along and convincing Democrats to support the final compromise. But Biden himself denied to CBS News that he had uttered the word “terrorist” in the meeting in the context of the Tea Party.

 Here in Iowa, some people in the Iowa crowd here seemed to be unhappy with Rhodes. One woman was overheard confronting him by saying, “That was extraordinarily rude” to the President.

 A second woman who did not want to be identified by name said she felt the exchange was “over the top aggressive.”

 But Rhodes was not backing down. “I said my piece,” he said. ||||| DECORAH, Iowa – President Obama got into a heated back-and-forth Monday with a Tea Party activist who demanded to know at the end of a town hall meeting here whether Vice President Biden had called Tea Partiers “terrorists” during the debt ceiling debate on Capitol Hill.

 In public, Obama did not directly answer the question from Iowa Tea Party activist Ryan Rhodes about Biden. But Obama fired back that he knows better than anyone what it’s like to be slammed for his political views and was not about to accept a lecture on the topic.

 “Now, in fairness, since I’ve been called a socialist who wasn’t born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms because I passed a health care bill, I’m all for lowering the rhetoric," Obama said.

 Obama did say he would discuss the matter further with Rhodes, founder of the Iowa Tea Party, after the event. And the duo was spotted in an animated conversation a few moments later.

 In an interview later with Fox News, Rhodes claimed that the president had insisted that Biden had not made the original comment.

 “He just denied it. He said the vice president didn't make any of those assertions,” Rhodes said. “If he doesn’t want to even admit what was on TV nationally -- all over the place -- then how can you have a conversation?”

 Rhodes added that Obama brushed him aside. “Then he said, ‘We can't have a conversation because you're saying I called you a terrorist,’” recalled Rhodes. “The fact is it demonstrates the deep divide that he is unwilling to negotiate without going after the other side. The whole day was about going after Republicans and talking about how unreasonable they are.”

 The private conversation between Rhodes and Obama was partially picked up by a TV camera, but the audio was tough to make out. Obama in general seemed to be saying the incident with Biden was misconstrued and that if Rhodes wanted to insist that the word “terrorist” was used then they were never going to see eye to eye.

 The incident stems from a private meeting Biden attended, at the height of the debt ceiling debate, with House Democrats who were angry that Republicans were not meeting the president halfway. One lawmaker, Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., went so far as to say that Republicans affiliated with the Tea Party had behaved like “terrorists” during the debate.

 Some Democrats familiar with the meeting said at the time that Biden had appeared to agree with the sentiment expressed by Doyle and others as a way of moving the conversation along and convincing Democrats to support the final compromise. But Biden himself denied to CBS News that he had uttered the word “terrorist” in the meeting in the context of the Tea Party.

 Here in Iowa, some people in the crowd seemed to be unhappy with Rhodes. One woman was overheard confronting him by saying, “That was extraordinarily rude” to the president.

 A second woman who did not want to be identified by name said she felt the exchange was “over the top aggressive.”

 But Rhodes was not backing down. “I said my piece,” he said. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– President Obama was greeted with some unexpected spice at the end of his town hall meeting in Iowa last night, when the founder of the Iowa Tea Party confronted him about Joe Biden's alleged remark that Tea Party members acted like "terrorists" (the VP denies saying it). Obama didn't directly respond in public, but did tell Ryan Rhodes that "as someone who’s been called a socialist, not born here, taking away freedoms for providing health care, I’m all for lowering the rhetoric." The two then apparently held a brief but "animated" private conversation, reports Greta Van Susteren's GretaWire. In a subsequent interview with Fox News, Rhodes said of his encounter with Obama, "He just denied it, he said the vice president didn’t make any of those assertions. He doesn’t want to even admit what was on TV nationally." Audio of their discussion was not available. Some attendees at the Iowa meeting disapproved of Rhodes' questioning, with one woman telling him it was "extraordinarily rude." Unapologetic, Rhodes said of the exchange, “I said my piece."


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 Please try Yahoo! Help Central if you need more assistance. ||||| Bill Ayers: Yeah, I wrote “Dreams from My Father”

 posted at 9:08 pm on March 28, 2011 by Allahpundit

 Via the American Thinker. I think John Hawkins is spot on in detecting the sarcasm here, but if you’re inclined to believe that Ayers is The One’s ghostwriter, you’re bound to detect a “deeper truth” in his tone. In fact, Ayers has been baiting people with this same corny line about splitting the royalties for ages. Back in October 2009, a conservative blogger spotted him in Reagan Airport and approached him. As soon as she mentioned that she was conservative, he offered, unprompted, that he had written the book, that Michelle Obama had put him up to it, and, yes, that he’d be happy to split the royalties with the blogger if she could prove it. When she countered that she thought he had at least edited it, he egged her on by insisting that no, he had written the darned thing. I think he enjoys mocking people who push this idea and enjoys it doubly when they can’t detect the mockery. In fact, I’d bet that this is his stock response anytime the book is mentioned in his presence — insisting that he wrote it to see if the listener laughs and then toying with them if they seem credulous. But as I say, your mileage may vary.

 Related Posts: |||||
A summary of this is?

– Donald Trump isn’t content with questioning Obama’s citizenship—now he’s questioning his authorial accomplishments, too. In an interview with Laura Ingraham yesterday, Trump espoused the theory that Bill Ayers wrote Obama’s memoir, Dreams of My Father, Aol News reports. Obama is only the president “because he wrote a book that is supposed to be a great genius book,” Trump said. “But now it’s coming out that Bill Ayers wrote it.” Trump’s repeating a rumor that’s been circling in right-wing media. Ayers himself said that he had written the book at a speaking appearance last week, though as Allahpundit at the conservative blog Hot Air notes, it sounded a lot like he was being sarcastic. “Would you believe that I wrote it?” he said when asked about the book. “And if you can help me prove it, I’ll split the royalties.” At that the audience burst out laughing. Ayers has reportedly used the line, complete with the royalties punch line, in the past as well. Click for more.


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A North Carolina woman's 911 call this morning brought an end to a desperate manhunt for Dylann Roof, the alleged gunman authorities say is responsible for killing nine people in a Charleston, South Carolina, church Wednesday night.

 Interested in ? Add as an interest to stay up to date on the latest news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest

 Early this morning, police released pictures from surveillance footage showing Roof, 21, as well as the car he was driving.

 Debbie Dills, a bookkeeper who works at a florist shop in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, was leaving church in her car when she looked over and saw a driver next to her with a bowl haircut, she told ABC News.

 Dills said she then thought there was something about the car that she had heard about somewhere, but couldn't place it. She then spotted the white tag that was in the police description of the shooting suspect.

 The observant good Samaritan called her husband and then 911.

 Police in Shelby -- about 13 miles west of Kings Mountain where Dills works and 245 miles north of the Charleston church -- said they were informed at 10:32 a.m. today "that a business had contacted them of a possible sighting of the suspect from the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting traveling into Shelby."

 At 10:44 a.m., Roof was apprehended at a traffic stop in Shelby. He was taken into custody five minutes later, police said.

 Roof cooperated with the officer who stopped him, according to police.

 "I am so pleased we were able to resolve this case quickly," Charleston police Chief Greg Mullen said at a news conference.

 A court clerk confirmed to ABC News this afternoon that Roof waived extradition in North Carolina and is cleared to return to South Carolina.

 Get real-time updates as this story unfolds. To start, just "star" this story in ABC News' phone app. Download ABC News for iPhone here or ABC News for Android here. ||||| LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — In recent weeks, Dylann Storm Roof reconnected with a childhood buddy he hadn't seen in five years and started railing about the Trayvon Martin case, about black people "taking over the world" and about the need for someone to do something about it for the sake of "the white race," the friend said Thursday.

 Charleston Emergency Management Director Mark Wilbert holds a flier distributed to media, Thursday, June 18, 2015, with surveillance footage of a suspect wanted in the connection of a shooting Wednesday... (Associated Press)

 Images on a flier provided to media, Thursday, June 18, 2015, by the Charleston Police Department show surveillance footage of a suspect wanted in connection with a shooting Wednesday at Emanuel AME Church... (Associated Press)

 Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof is escorted from the Sheby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., Thursday, June 18, 2015. Roof is a suspect in the shooting of several people Wednesday... (Associated Press)

 Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof, center, is escorted from the Shelby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., Thursday, June 18, 2015. Roof is a suspect in the shooting of several people... (Associated Press)

 Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof is escorted from the Sheby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., Thursday, June 18, 2015. Roof is a suspect in the shooting of several people Wednesday... (Associated Press)

 Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof sits inside a police car as he is escorted from the Sheby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., Thursday, June 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) (Associated Press)

 On Thursday, Roof, 21, was arrested in the shooting deaths of nine people during a prayer meeting at a historic black church in Charleston — an attack decried by stunned community leaders and politicians as a hate crime.

 In the hours after the Wednesday night bloodbath, a portrait began to take shape of Roof as someone with racist views and at least two recent run-ins with the law. On his Facebook page, the young white man wore a jacket with the flags of the former white-racist regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia.

 In an interview with The Associated Press, Joseph Meek Jr. said he and Roof had been best friends in middle school but lost touch when Roof moved away about five years ago. The two reconnected a few weeks ago after Roof reached out to Meek on Facebook, Meek said.

 Roof never talked about race years ago when they were friends, but recently made remarks out of the blue about the killing of unarmed black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida and the riots in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, Meek said.

 "He said blacks were taking over the world. Someone needed to do something about it for the white race," Meek said. "He said he wanted segregation between whites and blacks. I said, 'That's not the way it should be.' But he kept talking about it."

 He said that when he woke up Wednesday morning, Roof was at his house, sleeping in his car outside. Later that day, Meek went to a lake with a couple of other people, but Roof hated the outdoors and decided he would rather go see a movie.

 Meek said he didn't see his friend again until a surveillance-camera image of a young man with a soup-bowl haircut was broadcast on television Thursday morning in the wake of the shooting. Meek said he didn't think twice about calling authorities.

 "I didn't THINK it was him. I KNEW it was him," he said.

 The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that tracks hate organizations and extremists, said it was not aware of Roof before the rampage. And some other friends interviewed said they did not know him to be racist.

 "I never thought he'd do something like this," said high school friend Antonio Metze, 19. "He had black friends."

 Roof used to skateboard while growing up in the Lexington area and had long hair back then. He attended high school in Lexington and in nearby Columbia from 2008 to 2010, school officials said. It was not immediately clear whether he graduated.

 "He was pretty smart," Metze said.

 Meek's mother, Kimberly Konzny, said she and her son instantly recognized Roof in the surveillance camera image because Roof had the same stained sweatshirt he wore while playing Xbox video games in their home recently. It was stained because he had worked at a landscaping and pest control business, she said.

 "I don't know what was going through his head," she said. "He was a really sweet kid. He was quiet. He only had a few friends."

 State court records for Roof as an adult show a felony drug case from March that was pending against him and a misdemeanor trespassing charge from April. Authorities had no immediate details. As for any earlier offenses, juvenile records are generally sealed in South Carolina.

 Court records list no attorney for him.

 Meek said Roof's mother and her boyfriend live in Lexington, and his father lives in Columbia.

 Roof displayed a Confederate flag on his license plate, according to Konzny, but that is not unusual in the South.

 His Facebook profile picture showed him wearing a jacket with a green-and-white flag patch, the emblem of white-ruled Rhodesia, the African country that became Zimbabwe in 1980. Another patch showed the South African flag from the era of white minority rule that ended in the 1990s.

 In Montgomery, Alabama, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Richard Cohen, said it is unclear whether Roof had any connection to any of the 16 white supremacist organizations the SPLC has identified as operating in South Carolina.

 But Cohen said that based on Roof's Facebook page, he appeared to be a "disaffected white supremacist."

 In a statement, Cohen said the church attack is a reminder that while the post-Sept. 11 U.S. is focused on jihadi terrorism, the threat of homegrown extremism is "very real." Since 2000, the SPLC has seen an increase in the number of hate groups in the U.S., Cohen said.

 "The increase has been driven by a backlash to the country's increasing racial diversity, an increase symbolized for many by the presence of an African American in the White House," he said.

 ___

 Associated Press writer Jay Reeves in Alabama contributed to this story. |||||

– The man accused of murdering nine people in a church in South Carolina got busted because of a woman who was leaving church in North Carolina. As ABC News explains, Debbie Dills was leaving church this morning when she noticed that the driver in the car next to her matched the description of the shooting suspect in Charleston. His bowl haircut was one giveaway. She called 911, and cops soon pulled over Dylann Roof in Shelby, NC. He had made it about 250 miles from the scene of the crime. Roof, 21, has waived extradition and was being returned to South Carolina. A friend tells AP that Roof, who wore a jacket that bore the flags of the former racist regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia, had been spouting racist talk lately. "He said blacks were taking over the world," recalls Joseph Meek. "Someone needed to do something about it for the white race." Meek says he was with Roof yesterday morning, but Roof opted not to go to a local lake with friends and said he would go to a movie instead. The next time Meek saw him was on surveillance photos released by police. "I didn't think it was him. I knew it was him," says Meek, who called police.


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– HUD proposed a federal mandate Thursday that has some smokers fuming: a ban against lighting up in public housing nationwide, the New York Times reports. If the law passes, more than 3,100 public housing agencies would prohibit smoking in all living units, indoor common areas, administrative offices, and outdoor spaces near those other areas, the Washington Post notes. The reason: to keep residents safe from secondhand smoke, cut down on fire risks, and curb building maintenance expenses, per the Times. "The argument about secondhand smoke is over," HUD Secretary Julian Castro tells the paper. "It's harmful." Since HUD started encouraging public housing groups to implement bans in 2009, more than 600 agencies with at least 228,000 units have gone smoke-free, per the Post—but now the federal housing department wants to make it universal. A study by the CDC backs up the economics, predicting that a nationwide ban would result in annual savings of $153 million. The group that would feel the biggest burn: the NYC Housing Agency, the nation's largest public-housing group, with more than 400,000 residents in about 178,000 apartments, per the Times. But some worry that, without community support, it will be difficult to enforce, and they don't think the cops should be involved. "It should be resident-led," the chairwoman of the NYCHA tells the Times. HUD says it will listen to public comments on the potential law before making a final decision.

This collaborative project is an extension of the 2016 End of Term project, intended to document the federal government's web presence by archiving government websites and data. As part of this preservation effort, URLs supplied from partner institutions, as well as nominated by the public, will be crawled regularly to provide an on-going view of federal agencies' web and social media presence. Key partners on this effort are the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative and the Data Refuge project. This collection is a continuation of the 2016 End of Term web archiving and, as such, is deduplicated against that collection. It allows for the ongoing archiving of publicly nominated websites beyond the "official" end of the End of Term project.

 Interested members of the public, particularly government information specialists, are invited to submit selected web sites to be included in the collection using the public nomination tool.

 For more information on partner institutions, web crawling and past End of Term projects, please visit the End of Term Archive. |||||

 Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro testifies before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on oversight of the Federal Housing Administration on Capitol Hill on Feb. 11. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

 The government is seeking to ban smoking in all of the nation’s 1.2 million public housing units, the latest step in a decades-long crackdown on tobacco products that help kill hundreds of thousands of Americans each year.

 In its proposed rule, announced Thursday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development would require more than 3,100 public housing agencies to go smoke-free within several years. The agencies must design policies prohibiting lit tobacco products in all living units, indoor common areas, administrative offices and in all outdoor areas near housing and administrative office buildings, HUD officials said.

 “We have a responsibility to protect public housing residents from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, especially the elderly and children who suffer from asthma and other respiratory diseases,” HUD Secretary Julián Castro said in a statement announcing the measure. “This proposed rule will help improve the health of more than 760,000 children and help public housing agencies save $153 million every year in healthcare, repairs and preventable fires.”

 Though HUD will not design a final rule until after it hears public comments over the next two months, there seems little doubt that the government is headed toward the smoking ban, since the Obama administration is already moving in that direction. Since HUD strongly encouraged public housing agencies to design anti-smoking policies in 2009, more than 600 have done so. That means that more than 228,000 of the nation’s public housing units are already smoke-free.

 [Banning smoking in subsidized housing could save millions}

 The latest move escalates even further the anti-smoking crackdown that has unfolded in the five decades since the U.S. surgeon general first linked cigarette smoking to deadly diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease. The campaign has seen some successes: cigarette smoking among adults has been cut more than in half from its 42 percent rate in 1965, and the United States now has more former smokers than current ones.

 But cigarette smoking still kills 480,000 Americans each year, making it the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Officials primarily cited that health data in justifying the proposed public housing smoking ban, noting especially the risks to children and the elderly people who live in more than 500,000 public housing units.

 “Everyone – no matter where they live – deserves a chance to grow up in a healthy, smoke-free home,” said U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy. “There is no safe level of secondhand smoke. So, when 58 million Americans – including 15 million children – are exposed to secondhand smoke, we have an obligation to act.”

 Anti-smoking and health groups on Thursday hailed the proposal. “Secretary Castro has taken an important step to improve public health by eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke and creating an environment that discourages smoking in public housing units,” said Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

 American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown said the move would “clear the air in public housing where children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to tobacco smoke exposure. No level of secondhand smoke is safe, and tobacco in any form is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.’’

 But housing authority officials and lawyers, while generally supporting the government’s move, raised a series of concerns, including whether some residents will resist the smoking ban and how it will be enforced. “Obviously, there is a clear public health issue,’’ said Amy M. Glassman, who is of counsel at Ballard Spahr in Washington and represents public housing authorities. “But especially when you’re talking about banning smoking within their housing unit, folks take that as an issue of personal space and freedom, ‘You’re telling me what to do within the confines of my own home.’ That’s the main pushback issue.’’

 In New York City, home to the country’s largest population of public housing tenants, Housing Authority Chairwoman Shola Olatoye said, “The dangers of second-hand smoke have been clearly documented.” The authority bans smoking in public areas, but not in private apartments. The success of the new ban will depend on “peer support and accountability,” she said.

 A 2012 survey of public housing residents showed a smoking rate of 14 percent, in line with the 13.9 percent rate in the city as a whole.

 Olatoye said it was unclear how the ban would be enforced, in part because “we’re at our lowest staffing levels in many years.” She said it likely the housing authority will designate an area where residents can smoke, although officials have not decided whether it would be inside or outside.

 “Reasonable accommodations [for smokers] are going to have to be made,” she said.

 Timothy Kaiser, executive director of the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association, which represents 1,900 housing authorities, said the smoking ban “addresses an important health issue.” But he said local housing authorities have higher-priority concerns, like a shrinking budget for operating expenses and massive cuts to capital spending that’s resulted in a loss of 10,000 apartments a year to decaying conditions.

 “Your average executive director is trying to figure out how to keep the light on and the doors open and operating in the next three to five years,” Kaiser said in an interview.

 He said housing officials also are concerned that the smoking ban will create hardships for elderly and disabled tenants, many of whom light up in their apartments. “We have elderly residents who are addicted to nicotine,” he said. “They will have a very difficult time. They may not be all that ambulatory. They’ll need adjustments to the new rules.”

 The surgeon general’s office, which famously first called attention to smoking’s health dangers in 1964, has continued that campaign into the digital era. In a report release last year, then-Acting Surgeon General Boris D. Lushniak added liver cancer and colorectal cancer to the list of health problems associated with tobacco use.

 [Report links more diseases to smoking, tobacco]

 And in March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention targeted e-cigarettes in its anti-smoking ads for the first time.

 In addition to the health benefits of the smoking ban, the government cited economic gains: officials said it would also help reduce damage and maintenance costs associated with smoking. HUD cited estimates that smoking causes more than 100,000 fires each year, resulting in more than half a billion dollars in property damage, and is the leading cause of fire-related deaths in multifamily buildings.

 The agency also cited a study last year by the CDC that estimated that banning smoking in public housing would save $153 million annually, including $94 million in secondhand smoke-related health care and $43 million in renovation of units where smoking is now permitted.

 Lisa Rein contributed to this post.

 Read more:

 A family in public housing makes $498,000 a year. And HUD wants families like this to stay

 After criticism, HUD says it’s trying give the boot to families who earn too much

 Public housing officials blast Obama administration’s move to oust wealthier tenants from subsidized homes ||||| Web archive data from a crawl of open access PDF URLs provided by Unpaywall. |||||


News article:

The mother of a black child who was featured in a controversial H&M ad for a hoodie that read, “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle,” said that people calling it racially insensitive need to “get over it.”

 In a series of since-deleted Facebook posts, the mom, Terry Mango, of Stockholm, Sweden, said she didn’t support the backlash over the ad — which even prompted The Weeknd to end his partnership with the brand.

 “Am the mum and this is one of hundreds of outfits my son has modelled,” Mango wrote. “Stop crying wolf all the time, unnecessary issue here … get over it.”

 Mango continued: “If I bought that jumper and put it on him and posted it on my pages, would that make me racist? I get pples opinion, but they are not mine.”

 In another message, Mango said she had been to all of her son’s modeling shoots and was with him when he modeled the hoodie in question.

 “Everyone is entitled to their opinion about this,” Mango wrote. “ … I really don’t understand but not coz am choosing not to but because it’s not my way of thinking, sorry.”

 H&M apologized for the ad on Monday.

 “We’re deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print,” the company said in a statement. “Therefore, we’ve not only removed the image from our channels, but also the garment from our product offering.”

 The statement continued: “It’s obvious that our routines haven’t been followed properly. This is without any doubt. We’ll thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.”

 NBA megastar LeBron James and Manchester United forward Romelu Lukaku are among the many who spoke out against the ad.

 “We as African Americans will always have to break barriers, prove people wrong and work even harder to prove we belong but guess what, that’s what we love because the benefits at the end of the road are so beautiful!” James wrote in a post showing the boy wearing a crown accompanied by the words “King of the World.” ||||| The parents of the young black model who posed in a H&M hoodie with the word “monkey” on it say they don’t believe the photograph was intended to be racist.

 The image of five-year-old Liam Mango, a Swedish child model, wearing a green hoodie that reads “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle” went viral last week and caused outrage, with the likes of The Weeknd, Diddy and LeBron James criticizing H&M for the seemingly tone-deaf campaign and social media users deeming it racist. H&M has since apologized for using the photograph.

 On Monday, Liam’s parents, Terry Mango and Frank Odhiambo, addressed the controversy on the U.K.’s This Morning program on ITV.

 “I wouldn’t see such a connection to anything other than my son modeling a shirt,” said Mrs. Mango, speaking about the racial connotations of the advertisement. “With the furore going on, you look back and wonder, if you had noticed it, what would be my initial response to it?”

 Mango went on to say that she doesn’t feel the controversy is an overreaction, however, and supported people speaking out about racism—though she doesn’t necessarily share the same opinion in this instance.

 “Everybody should act differently based on their opinions of what racism is,” said the boy’s mother. “I know what racism is—I’ve had racist remarks directed to me. I’ve been called ‘monkey’ on a cruise ship and my reaction is the same as the world is reacting right now.”

 But, said Mango, “To put the T-shirt and the word ‘monkey’ with racism, maybe that is not my way of looking at it. I’m just looking at Liam, a black, young boy, modeling a T-shirt that has ‘monkey’ on it. I think everyone should respect different opinions on racism.”

 Young Liam’s parents say their son loves modeling and was contracted to the H&M campaign through a modeling agency in Stockholm. Mango or Odhiambo usually accompany Liam to his shoots and told the program they did not recall Liam posing in the hoodie in question until the image surfaced online and caused uproar last week.

 Odhiambo said he worried about his family’s safety after the story received worldwide press attention. “It’s very important that people should understand we have a son, we have other children in the home, and we have an obligation to protect our children,” said the boy’s father.

 The boy’s mother said young Liam isn’t aware of the racism controversy surrounding the image but understood that he had gained some infamy. “He’s aware he’s a superstar. He’s seen images online. He believes people love him for his modeling job, and he’s cool, and [for] his confidence in his job,” said Mango. ||||| Surely the year of Sociopathic Baby Men, 2017 was also the year of pathetic apologies. From random Jay-Z quotes to omitting the actual words “I’m sorry” and implying sexual harassment is fun, misogynistic men (and their lawyers) demonstrated a profound inability to discern between self-absorption and remorse.

 And as 2018 began, it appeared the trend would continue. On Jan. 8, H&M came under fire after a product shot on the Swedish fast-fashion brand’s UK site used a black child to sell a hoodie that says “coolest monkey in the jungle.”

 As Marc Bain explained in Quartz, the image was seen as disgracefully racist. Singer and songwriter The Weeknd, who has collaborated with H&M on a fashion line tweeted that he was “shocked and embarrassed” will no longer work with the company. Drummer and producer Questlove used an Instagram post to write, “all this tells me about @HM is that the seats in the boardroom lack something…wanna take a guess?” Others questioned whether the advertisement was an embarrassing instance of cultural ignorance, given how the racial history of Sweden differs from that of the US.

 H&M says sorry, round one

 Responding to the internet’s rage, H&M swiftly apologized—kind of.

 “We sincerely apologize for offending people with this image of a printed hooded top,” H&M’s PR representative said in a statement sent to Bain. “The image has been removed from all online channels and the product will not be for sale in the United States.”

 Many people were not satisfied with this apology—with good reason. The hoodie was still being sold on its UK site, Business Insider reported. What’s more, this initial apology commits one of the most egregious apology errors: Instead of sincerely apologizing for creating and promoting an offensive product, H&M apologized for “offending people with this image.” The subtle difference between saying “I’m sorry for what I did” and “I’m sorry if you feel badly” is profound.

 As Nicole McCance, a Toronto-based relationship psychologist who works with couples and families, tells Quartz, “Even if they’re well intentioned, saying phrases like ‘I’m sorry if you feel like I was mean’ or ‘I’m sorry if you feel angry,’ will not work because they minimize the other person’s feelings and experience.”

 Instead, McCance advises following “I’m sorry” with genuine expressions of remorse, and phrases like “I can imagine you’re so disappointed.” Most important, make sure “I’m sorry” includes clear and specific examples of what, exactly, you are sorry for.

 “Saying ‘I’m sorry’ alone is fairly empty. It’s just a hollow statement that doesn’t do much for the giver or the receiver of the apology,” Joanne Lescher, a certified non-violent communication facilitator, tells Quartz. “If you are really sorry, maybe it’s because you regret your actions or words, because you’ve seen how whatever you said or did impacted the other person. So you should continue your apology by saying something like, ‘I regret that I said X because I see how deeply it impacted you, and how hurt you are by my words, and that wasn’t my intention.” Apologizing with your regret is deeper and richer than “I’m sorry,” because it shows that you see how much you hurt the other person, she says.

 While removing the hoodie from the US site is a step in the right direction, H&M’s first apology essentially equates to: “Ugh, we’ll take it down, but we don’t regret it.”

 H&M says sorry, round two

 No statement can reverse H&M’s ill-informed advertisement. However, as public figures and companies continue to issue flailing, seemingly fake remorse, the progress H&M demonstrated in their second apology is worth learning from.

 Yesterday (Jan. 10), H&M sent that longer apology to its media list, opening with the stark statement: “Our position is simple and unequivocal—we have got this wrong and we are deeply sorry.” After explaining its full commitment to addressing societal issues such as diversity and environmental protection, H&M admitted “we clearly haven’t come far enough. We agree with all the criticism that this has generated—we have got this wrong and we agree that, even if unintentional, passive or casual racism needs to be eradicated wherever it exists.”

 This second pass, which can be read in full below, models the most essential element of an apology: taking full responsibility for your actions, and not attempting to justify the ways in which your wrongs may have been right. “First and foremost, it’s really important to avoid explaining the reasons behind what you did,” McCance tells Quartz. “There are always reasons behind behavior, but laying out these reasons can come across as excuses. If you do this, the other person will feel like you aren’t sincere and don’t get it.”

 H&M also put action behind their words, removing the hoodie from sale everywhere and committing to recycling the remaining stock. “If the apology doesn’t have that following piece of ‘what I want to do differently,’ then the person may not ever change their behavior,” Lescher says. “Until you take responsibility for your behavior, and create a plan of action on how to improve, most of us fall back into old patterns.”

 H&M’s second apology, in full

 To all customers, staff, media, stakeholders, partners, suppliers, friends and critics.

 We would like to put on record our position in relation to the image and promotion of a children’s sweater, and the ensuing response and criticism.

 Our position is simple and unequivocal—we have got this wrong and we are deeply sorry.

 H&M is fully committed to playing its part in addressing society’s issues and problems, whether it’s diversity, working conditions or environmental protection—and many others. Our standards are high and we feel that we have made real progress over the years in playing our part in promoting diversity and inclusion. But we clearly haven’t come far enough.

 We agree with all the criticism that this has generated—we have got this wrong and we agree that, even if unintentional, passive or casual racism needs to be eradicated wherever it exists. We appreciate the support of those who have seen that our product and promotion were not intended to cause offence but, as a global brand, we have a responsibility to be aware of and attuned to all racial and cultural sensitivities—and we have not lived up to this responsibility this time.

 This incident is accidental in nature, but this doesn’t mean we don’t take it extremely seriously or understand the upset and discomfort it has caused.

 We have taken down the image and we have removed the garment in question from sale. It will be recycled.

 We will now be doing everything we possibly can to prevent this from happening again in future.

 Racism and bias in any shape or form, conscious or unconscious, deliberate or accidental, are simply unacceptable and need to be eradicated from society. In this instance we have not been sensitive enough to this agenda.

 Please accept our humble apologies.

 Read next: This is how to apologize like you really mean it ||||| The parents of the boy at the centre of the “racist” H&M hoodie storm have spoken out about the huge reaction the clothing brand as well as the family have received.

 Liam Mango was pictured in a hoodie on the H&M website which read ‘coolest monkey in the jungle.’

 However after the image was posted online, the company faced a huge backlash, with members of the public calling the decision to use a black child to model the hoodie “racist” and “unacceptable.”

 H&M swiftly apologised and Liam’s parents have now revealed they never saw the hoodie the same way as many members of the public.

 Speaking on This Morning from Stockholm, Sweden, mother Terry and father Frank explained they didn’t even know about the hoodie before the internet erupted.

 But Terry said even if she’d seen the slogan before, she doesn’t think that would have rung alarm bells for her.

 “I wouldn’t see such a connection to anything other than my son modelling a shirt,” Terry explained.

 “Until the controversy now, with the whole furore that is going on, then you kind of look back and wonder if you had noticed it, what would be our, or my, initial response to it.”

 But Terry explained she doesn’t believe the furore has necessarily been unjust.

 “It is not an overreaction when it comes to racism, everyone should act differently based on their opinions of what racism is,” she said, explaining that she’s faced racism and even been called a ‘monkey’ herself.

 “To put the T-shirt and the word ‘monkey’ with racism, maybe that is not my way of looking at it,” Terry added.

 “I’m just looking at Liam, a black young boy, modeling a T-shirt that has the word ‘monkey’ on it.

 “Everybody should respect different opinions based on racism.”

 (This Morning)

 The family have had to move out of their home, and Frank explained that they no longer have their “normal family life.”

 “As much as people have gotten involved in this, for me it’s very important that people understand that me and Teresa, we have a son, we have other children in the home that we are raising, and we have an obligation to protect our children,” he said.

 And the parents added that Liam doesn’t really understand the big fuss around him

 “He’s aware he’s a superstar and people love him,” Terry said. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Terry Mango: "Does the shirt, to me, speak racism? No it doesn't"

 The mother of the five-year-old H&M model caught up in a racism row has told the BBC her family has moved house in Sweden "for security reasons."

 Last week, photos of Liam Mango modelling a "coolest monkey in the jungle" hoodie went viral, with social media users accusing H&M of racism.

 Many were angered when Liam's mother Terry Mango defended the brand and told people to stop "crying wolf."

 In South Africa, protesters vandalised H&M stores over the photos.

 Despite the backlash she has faced, Terry Mango still doesn't believe H&M had a racist agenda.

 "I respect other people's opinion on the issue. I know racism exists, but does the shirt to me speak racism? No it doesn't," she told BBC Outside Source.

 Though Mrs Mango has been a victim of racism and acknowledges it's a huge problem, she's been attacked by other black people for not condemning H&M.

 "I [am] a sell out to them, I [am] an embarrassment to the black and African-American people. I sold my son for money," she told BBC Outside Source.

 The family have moved out of their house in Stockholm following "security concerns" Mrs Mango added.

 Though she did not elaborate on the safety reasons, Mrs Mango said the attacks on H&M stores in and around Johannesburg were one reason for the move.

 The protests, which took place on Saturday, were organised by the radical Economic Freedom Fighters' party (EFF).

 Video footage showed protesters trashing displays, kicking over clothes rails and shoving mannequins while police used rubber bullets to disperse them.

 Theirs was not the only protest.

 Amid calls for a global boycott of H&M, musicians The Weeknd and G-Eazy have cut ties with the company, with the former saying the advert made him feel "shocked and embarrassed".

 Despite the furore, Liam Mango remains oblivious.

 "He has no idea what's going on, he's only five... Liam has not experienced [racism yet]," Mrs Mango said. "I just want him to have innocence." |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Controversy keeps swirling around H&M and an online ad that showed a young black boy in a hoodie with the words "Coolest Monkey in the Jungle." The ad has since been removed, but the family of 5-year-old Liam Mango, the ad's model, now says they had to move out of their home in Sweden for "security reasons," Liam's mom, Terry Mango, tells the BBC. Mango didn't get too much into those reasons for vacating their Stockholm residence, but she did mention violent protests in South African H&M stores as a factor. Mango has come under fire herself for her reaction to the ad: The New York Post reports on a series of now-deleted Facebook posts in which she said she didn't think the ad was racist and told people to stop "crying wolf" over this "unnecessary issue" and to "get over it." She elaborated to the BBC that "I know racism exists, but does the shirt to me speak racism? No it doesn't." Mango and Liam's dad, Frank Odhiambo, appeared on a Swedish morning show this week, where Mango says she was once called a monkey herself on a cruise ship and understands why some might be upset about the ad, per Newsweek. Odhiambo says they had to move because they "have an obligation to protect our children," the Independent reports. The one person kept out of the fray so far: little Liam himself. "He has no idea what's going on, he's only 5," Mango tells the BBC, adding that he "has not experienced [racism yet]." Meanwhile, H&M, which was criticized for its first brief apology, has issued a second, lengthier one, per Quartz. "We agree with all the criticism that this has generated—we have got this wrong and we agree that, even if unintentional, passive or casual racism needs to be eradicated wherever it exists," it reads.