The United States has approved a $2.3 billion deal on attack helicopters for Egypt, but an official insisted Friday that Washington was still pressing on human rights concerns.

Apollo 11, Take Your Pills, Pandemic: How to prevent an outbreak, and Icarus are all great documentaries available to stream at the moment

In what now seems like a galaxy far, far away, Republican lawmakers routinely talked up the idea of raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. In fact, we were in that galaxy just three...

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday made an indirect dig at President Donald Trump's Navy Blue Angels flyover this weekend, saying that political leaders have 'no right to praise them and then ignore their needs.'

Rivers, lakes and forests around the world are being recognised as if they were legal persons. It sounds strange, but could it effectively protect the planet?

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Saturday that Saudi Arabian authorities recently detained and are holding incommunicado Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, who had previously been netted in an anti-corruption drive and released in late 2017.

Gene-edited pigs and brain implants are blurring the lines of what it means to be human, so our morals and laws may need to change to include beings that are “substantially human”

Julia Ebner infiltrated the hidden forums that extremists use. Her experiences lay bare how they hijack social media and video games to spread hate – and how to beat them

From surveillance to healthcare, artificial intelligence is getting personal. As companies join the AI race, the technology is also raising ethical concerns.

Julia Ebner infiltrated the hidden forums that extremists use. Her experiences lay bare how they hijack social media and video games to spread hate – and how to beat them

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday made an indirect dig at President Donald Trump's Navy Blue Angels flyover this weekend, saying that political leaders have 'no right to praise them and then ignore their needs.'

Apollo 11, Take Your Pills, Pandemic: How to prevent an outbreak, and Icarus are all great documentaries available to stream at the moment

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday made an indirect dig at President Donald Trump's Navy Blue Angels flyover this weekend, saying that political leaders have 'no right to praise them and then ignore their needs.'

Home buyers or sellers normally face many difficulties and obstacles that need time and effort to overcome. To save time, avoid risks and make the purchase faster and smoother, most people hire real estate agents for effective advice and assistance.

Publisher Playism and developer FYQD-Studio announced Bright Memory: Infinite will launch for Xbox Series X alongside the previously announced PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC versions.

View the Xbox Series X trailer below:

Here is an overview of the game:

A Rich Sci-fi Story

Bright Memory: Infinite is set in a sprawling, futuristic metropolis in the year 2036.

The player will take on the role of Shelia, a member of the Supernatural Science Research Organization (SRO), an organization in possession of more advanced science and technology than even the military. Bright Memory: Infinite is full of breathtaking fun and exciting action, such as navigating a spaceship that can travel through time, battling ancient samurai displaced from 1000 years ago to the present, and exploring a wormhole that has appeared on Earth.

High-Speed 3D Combat

By now I’m sure everyone has seen Bright Memory: Infinite‘s appearance on Inside Xbox. In addition to the deep and rich story, another main feature of the game is its adrenaline-pumping gameplay design. With the way I’ve designed the battle system, players can experience lightning-fast combat using a variety of skills to create their own personalized style of fighting. Basically, any skills can be combined and will generate different effects when utilized and it’s up to the player to figure out how to best use these skills both in and out of battle. Some skills can be used to overcome certain obstacles or solve certain puzzles, be it in combat or while exploring the futuristic world.

Stunning Visual Effects

The quality of the graphics of Bright Memory: Infinite for the Xbox Series X is the aspect I focused most on throughout the game’s development, in order to truly harness and show off the abilities of the next-gen system. This can particularly be seen in the wormholes appearing in the game. I’ve also made use of the dramatic visual effects made possible by the Xbox Series X, which can be seen in dynamic scenes in which wind, rain, leaves, and pebbles are visibly sucked toward a wormhole as the player explores their surroundings. These stunning visual effects are all possible thanks to DirectX Raytracing (DXR) on the Xbox Series X.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/443426/bright-memory-infinite-headed-to-xbox-series-x/

Julia Ebner infiltrated the hidden forums that extremists use. Her experiences lay bare how they hijack social media and video games to spread hate – and how to beat them

“HOLY MOTHER OF GOD.” 

That’s how epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding began a since-deleted 14-tweet thread on Jan. 25 warning about the “thermonuclear pandemic level bad” infectiousness of the coronavirus that broke out in Wuhan, China.

The first confirmed U.S. case had been announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) days earlier outside Seattle. But the disease was not widely understood to be a potentially nightmarish pandemic. Many infectious disease experts had been ignored despite warning for years that the U.S. was not prepared for a seemingly inevitable health crisis. Feigl-Ding, a visiting scientist at Harvard’s Department of Nutrition, wanted to help ensure their message was heard.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A strange supernova that’s 100 times brighter than it should be has long been a mystery, but it may be explained by the explosion slamming into a cloud of gas

Astronomers have spotted a star that is exploding with a brightness 100 times less than expected – and it’s a mystery exactly why the explosion is so dim

When Mars was young, parts of the planet may have been able to sustain RNA, a molecule that probably played a key role in the beginnings of life on Earth

A star that swoops close to the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole has a strange, looping orbit that proves Einstein was right about the gravity of black holes

The Platform, What Lies Beneath, The Witch, and more.

The actor said wearing a fat suit for the 2001 movie taught her what it is like to be humiliated as an obese person. Why are TV and film characters so rarely treated with dignity and respect?

‘Disaster” is how Gwyneth Paltrow has summed up her role in the 2001 film Shallow Hal, which will surprise few people who have actually seen it. Jack Black plays Hal, a man so shallow he has to be hypnotised in order to date a fat woman, who, through his boggled eyes, he sees as a very thin woman.

The nastiness of Shallow Hal, which has long appalled critics and fans alike, was front and centre in the trailer, where Hal’s friend attempts to “rescue” him from speaking to a fat woman, Rosemary, who is, in fact, willowy Paltrow dressed in a fat suit. But because he cannot see what she looks like, he falls for her “inner beauty”. It is an uncomfortable mix – a film that pretends to preach body acceptance while simultaneously inviting laughter at bodies that don’t fit into jeans size six and under. Take the scene where she is called a “rhino”, or the one where she cannonballs into a swimming pool causing a tidal wave. The message built into the script’s DNA is simple: fat is funny; it is OK to laugh at fat people.

Misogynistic campaign against Safoora reiterates that gender equality in our country is a distant dream.

Five prominent labour activists have returned to their homes more than a year after they were arrested in coordinated raids in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, according to people close to them and a Hong Kong-based rights group.

Graphic viral video shows a praying mantis snatch a murder hornet from behind, hold its deadly stinger at bay and chew through its entire head.

Gay rights pioneer Phyllis Lyon has died aged 95.

An international team of scientists said two massive stars could have merged before exploding to create the "the most light we have ever seen emitted by a supernova".

Follow our live coronavirus updates HERE Coronavirus: the symptoms

Read our live coronavirus updates HERE

Key questions about furlough answered by David Barzilay from tax, accounting and business advisory firm Blick Rothenberg

A family who were stopped by police while driving to Brighton during the coronavirus lockdown told officers they were "bored of staying in and wanted some fresh air".

The coronavirus pandemic is fast becoming a human rights crisis as "structural inequalities" are impeding access to public services, the United Nations has said.

You can donate here virginmoneygiving.com/fund/FoodforLondonNOW

A pug has become the first dog to be diagnosed with coronavirus in the US, an animal rights organisation has reported.

Security minister James Brokenshire said a top scientist "made the right decision" in resigning from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage ) after he broke lockdown restrictions.

Police have released CCTV footage of a man they want to trace after an NHS doctor was attacked on her way home from work.

The track is the Mumbai-based acoustic outfit’s first release this year

The post Exclusive Premiere: See ANC Become One with Nature in New Video For ‘Be Alright’ appeared first on My Site.

Brenda Francis settled into the Kingdom Hall in Calhoun, Georgia, in mid-March, surrounded by dozens of familiar faces. Signs cautioning against shaking hands and hugging were posted around the room. It felt weird to her but was certainly understandable with the threat of an outbreak looming. She herself already had stocked up on some masks and gloves.When it came time for members to comment on the Bible readings, Francis noticed the microphones typically passed around the room were now attached to the end of long poles.That was the moment Francis, a 69-year-old widow living in a small, semirural community in the South, realized just how dramatically the coronavirus pandemic was about to reshape her spiritual life, more than anything ever had in the 47 years since she was baptized as a Jehovah's Witness.A few days after the boom mics came out in the Kingdom Hall, word came down from the group's headquarters that, in the interest of safety, Jehovah's Witnesses should stop witnessing, its practice of in-person attempts at converting people to the group."People would be so receptive right now," she said of her ministry, "and we can't knock on doors."Across the country, most religious groups have stopped coming together in large numbers to pray and hold services, in keeping with stay-at-home orders. They have improvised with online preaching and even drive-in services as the faithful sit in cars. Mormons have stopped going door to door in the United States and called home many missionaries working abroad.Jehovah's Witnesses -- with 1.3 million U.S. members who hand out brochures on sidewalks and subway platforms and ring doorbells -- are one of the most visible religious groups in the nation. Members are called on to share Scriptures in person with nonmembers, warning of an imminent Armageddon and hoping to baptize them with the prospect of living forever.The decision to stop their ministries was the first of its kind in the nearly 150 years of the group's existence. It followed anguished discussions at Watchtower headquarters, with leaders deciding March 20 that knocking on doors would leave the impression that members were disregarding the safety of those they hoped to convert."This was not an easy decision for anybody," said Robert Hendriks, the group's U.S. spokesman. "As you know, our ministry is our life."It was for Francis, who became a Jehovah's Witness when she was in her 20s with a newborn and a member knocked on her door in Tennessee and persuaded her to attend a Kingdom Hall meeting. She converted. Her family was angry that she no longer came to holiday gatherings; the group doesn't believe in celebrating holidays or birthdays. Jehovah's Witnesses became her new family.The more she studied the Bible, the more she came to believe it led to eternal life. She needed to spread the word.Showing up cold on someone's doorstep didn't come naturally. She was so shy that once, she recalled, her high school principal -- "this huge Goliath guy" -- stood on her foot in a crowded hallway; she didn't say a word but waited in pain for him to move. She had considered a career going door to door as a Mason Shoes saleswoman, but after receiving a catalog, she never mustered the courage to even try to make a sale.To her, witnessing was different. Her faith had helped her stop smoking. It gave her meaning. She had seen people clean up their lives after attending meetings at Kingdom Hall."By the time I did go to doors, I was so convinced this was the right thing to do that I had no nervousness," Francis said.Through the years, she learned to build her pitch around a theme -- a Bible verse or a current event -- and tried not to sound rehearsed."You don't want to sound like a robot," she said. "You work from the heart. You want enthusiasm."Early this year, Francis had been seeing reports on Facebook about the virus sweeping through Wuhan, China. The host of a show she watched on YouTube, Peak Prosperity, had been warning that the outbreak could spread internationally.She bought masks and face shields, just in case. She started using plastic grocery bags to cover the gas pump handle when she filled up her tank.By early March, the virus still hadn't hit Gordon County, where Francis lives. But the possibility was weighing on her mind. The message on her favorite YouTube show was getting more dire as the host, Chris Martenson, a financial guru-turned-pandemic early warner, ratcheted up his pleadings for viewers to prepare themselves.Francis' 27-year-old granddaughter has a compromised immune system. As a senior citizen, she herself was vulnerable. She did what she always has done and channeled her own feelings into her door-knocking ministry. Do you think, she would ask people as she carpooled with other members to canvass the county, that the virus is a sign of the end of the world?"No one was paying much attention," she said.Elsewhere, in places like New York where infections were starting to climb, Jehovah's Witnesses members were feeling the pinch on their ministries.One of them, Joe Babsky, had been easing into conversations with members of his Planet Fitness gym in the Bronx for weeks. He knew them by first name only: Jerry, who had lost more than 100 pounds; Jason, who seemed to spend an hour on each body part; Bernie, a 78-year-old who was more fit than men half his age. Babsky had shown a few of them Bible verses and had made progress recently with Bernie discussing the logic behind the existence of an intelligent creator.Then the gym closed."All those conversations and others were cut short," Babsky said.Life continued as normal in Francis' town of Calhoun. She was convinced things were about to change, but she was too embarrassed to wear a mask -- until an encounter in Costco when a passing shopper coughed without covering her mouth.In mid-March, her Kingdom Hall meetings went virtual. Members logged into Zoom to share Bible Scriptures. Francis settled on one that she thought would resonate as she knocked on doors in her neighborhood across the county, which had by then registered a handful of COVID-19 cases.At the doorstep, Francis would start her pitch by asking people if they could make one thing in the world go away, what would it be? If the answer had to do with the pandemic, she would recite a couple of verses from the book of Luke:"There will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another food shortages and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs."All the signs were clear, she would announce. Armageddon was near. Her message finally seemed to be resonating with people.And then she got word to stop knocking on doors."This has been so much a part of our lives, so it was like, wow," she said. "I have often envisioned in paradise where going door to door would not be a thing because everyone knows God."This was not paradise.But Francis was convinced that the end of the world was not far away. There were just too many signs, she said. And so she and many other Jehovah's Witnesses members were more compelled than ever to witness any way they could. Many began writing letters or making phone calls to anyone whose numbers they had managed to collect before the pandemic hit.Masked and gloved, Francis hands out pamphlets and cards with her phone number on them to fellow shoppers at the grocery store.Last week, she sent a text to a woman in Hawkinsville, Georgia, a few miles away, whom she had been contacting from time to time. The woman said her restaurant had to close because of the pandemic and her brother-in-law was sick with the virus. A couple of days later he died.Francis texted Scriptures to the woman and told her that soon all the sickness on Earth would be over; all sins would be forgiven; paradise was near.The next day she received a written response: "Thank you so much for the information. It was such a comfort."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

The largest, brightest full moon in nearly seven decades started to show on Tuesday evening over Europe, Latin America, the US and the Middle East. This year, the supermoon was expected to come nearer to Earth than at any time since 1948, astronomers have said. A supermoon occurs when the timing of a full moon overlaps with the point in the moon's 28-day orbit that is closest to Earth, and about every 14th full moon is a supermoon. If skies are clear, this time the full moon will appear up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than usual, according to Nasa

A video interview with Canada’s AI secretary general on crisis and opportunity. 

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