Monthly Archives: July 2017

Where is precision medicine headed? – ModernMedicine

Posted: July 19, 2017 at 3:44 am

Physicians have practiced precision medicine, defined as the tailoring of medical treatment by taking into account individual differences in peoples genes, environments and lifestyles, for decades. The main difference today is that technological advances have given us greater power to combine comprehensive data collected over time about an individual to help provide appropriate care.

The precision medicine initiative, now known as the All of Us Research Program, launched by the National Institutes of Health, is an ambitious effort to gather data for over a million people living in the U.S. It will likely accelerate precision medicine research with the goal of eventually benefiting everyone by providing information that healthcare providers can use in the clinic. However, there are aspects of precision medicine that have emerged, or are beginning to emerge, in different clinics across the country and are being used to benefit patients today.

Pharmacogenomics (PGx), the study of genetic variations that cause individuals to respond differently to medications, is the most widely used form of precision medicine today. Virtually all of us harbor at least one genetic change that predisposes us to metabolize a common medication differently than the average person. A PGx panel with multiple genes can provide gene-drug guidelines for dozens of medications, including common ones like Warfarin, Clopidogrel or various antidepressants.

In addition to government initiatives, PGx and precision medicine is being fueled by the decreasing cost of genomic testing and growing consumer interest in it. More than 50% of adults are interested in genetic testing, and 6% indicate that they have already undergone it, according to patient surveys[1].

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Where is precision medicine headed? - ModernMedicine

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Promising therapy for fatal genetic diseases in children nears human trials – Medical Xpress

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July 18, 2017

Researchers at University of Massachusetts Medical School and Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine are nearing human clinical trials on a genetic therapy for two rare neurological diseases that are fatal to children.

The scientists are seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to test a gene therapy treatment for Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases, genetic disorders in a category known as lysosomal storage diseases.

Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff are inherited neurologic diseases that occur when genetic mutations prevent cells from producing enzymes needed to break down and recycle materials. Without these enzymes, the materials accumulate to toxic levels, slowly destroying the nervous system. The researchers are working on a gene therapy to correct the enzyme deficiency using adeno-associated virus, or AAV, vectors.

The average life expectancy for children with infantile Tay-Sachs or Sandhoff disease is only 3 to 5 years. There is currently no treatment. The gene therapy in development has shown promise in animal models of these diseases by extending lifespans by up to four times those of untreated animals.

"The proof-of-concept studies in affected animals are compelling, and the FDA provided a clear path of remaining experiments needed to seek approval for human clinical trials," said Douglas R. Martin, a professor at Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine. "We now need the funding to complete the studies."

The animal phase of toxicity studies necessary to demonstrate the safety of the gene therapy for Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases has been completed with the support of the National Tay-Sachs & Allied Disease Association and the Cure Tay-Sachs Foundation.

"Too many children with Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff have died since we started this project. The time has finally arrived to push back on these diseases," says Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD, associate professor of neurology at UMass Medical School. "Our single-minded goal is to get a safe and potentially effective therapy to patients and their families as quickly as possible."

"Hopefully, once the news gets out that we are this close to human clinical trials, fundraising efforts will be sufficient so we can complete the IND-enabling studies and proceed to human clinical trials," said veterinarian Heather Gray-Edwards, an assistant professor at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Additional funding of $1.2 million is being sought to complete the safety studies, fund the production of clinical grade AAV, and complete regulatory filings.

Explore further: Promising results with new gene therapy approach for treating inherited neurodegenerative diseases

Transplantation of therapeutic stem cells directly into the central nervous system (CNS) is a promising new approach to treating the neurological effects of lysosomal storage diseases (LSD), a group of at least 50 different ...

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Promising therapy for fatal genetic diseases in children nears human trials - Medical Xpress

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Gene increases the severity of common colds – Phys.Org

Posted: at 3:44 am

July 18, 2017 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Researchers funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) have discovered mutations that worsen respiratory infections among children. Their study explain the mechanism involved.

Colds that are not linked to influenza are generally benign. Still, 2 percent of each generation of children have to go to hospital following a virulent infection. "These respiratory problems are responsible for 20 percent of child mortality around the world", says Jacques Fellay, who has held an SNSF professorship since 2011. "It is truly a silent epidemic."

An international research collaboration coordinated by Fellay has discovered the reason for some of these infections: they are caused by mutations of a gene that plays a part in recognising certain cold-inducing viruses.

"We have been able to confirm that a gene, called IFIH1, plays an important role in defending the body against the principal viruses responsible for respiratory infections among children", he explains. This gene normally helps in identifying the virus's RNA, a type of genetic information related to the DNA. "We have been able to isolate the mechanisms that prevent the immune systems of children with an IFIH mutation from successfully combating the viral infection."

Hospitals in Switzerland and Australia

The researchers collaborated with various paediatric wards in Swiss and Australian hospitals to study cases of children who needed intensive care after a severe respiratory infection (bronchiolitis or pneumonia) caused by a virus. They excluded premature babies and children with chronic illnesses in order to focus on the genetic causes. The result: of the 120 children included in the study, eight carried mutations of the IFIH1 gene.

"This gene encodes a protein which recognises the presence of a certain number of cold-inducing microbes in a cell, such as the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or rhinoviruses", explains Samira Asgari of EPFL, who designed the experiments. "They attach themselves to the germ's RNA and trigger a cascade of molecular signals that provoke an effective immune reaction." The researcher has been able to show that three different mutations of IFIH1 render the protein incapable of recognising the virus, thereby preventing the body from defending itself against the infection.

In 2015, Jacques Fellay had already studied the genome of more than 2000 patients and statistically shown which genetic variations influence our capacity to defend ourselves against common viral infections. "The two approaches are complementary", says Fellay. "A study covering a large number of subjects, like the one in 2015, makes it possible to identify the relevant genes across the entire population; but their variations have only a limited impact on individuals. In contrast, a study focusing on carefully selected patients enables you to investigate mutations that are more rare but also more critical for the patient, and to pinpoint the mechanisms in play."

Prevention and therapy

These results should prove useful for setting new therapeutic and preventive targets: "At their parents' request, we also tested the siblings of some of the children carrying the mutation to see if they too are more fragile when it comes to infections. If this is the case, parents may decide to keep their child at home during an epidemic, or to go to hospital double-quick if the child catches a cold."

For Jacques Fellay, this research work aptly illustrates the methods and objectives of personalised medicine or 'precision medicine': "Our bodies' capacity to ward off illnesses can vary greatly. A better understanding of the genetic mechanisms that create these differences will lead to more targeted prevention and therapy. One scenario might involve genetic screening to determine the degree of susceptibility to infections; this could be included in the blood tests that are routinely performed just after birth. But society would need to have a say in deciding which genetic tests are desirable."

Explore further: Genetic immune deficiency could hold key to severe childhood infections

More information: Samira Asgari et al. Severe viral respiratory infections in children with IFIH1 loss-of-function mutations, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1704259114

Christian Hammer et al. Amino Acid Variation in HLA Class II Proteins Is a Major Determinant of Humoral Response to Common Viruses, The American Journal of Human Genetics (2015). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.09.008

Sharks don't have tongues to move food through their mouths, so instead some use their... shoulders?

From the tiny chihuahua to the massive Saint Bernard, domestic dogs today trace their roots to a single group of wolves that crossed the path of humans as long as 40,000 years ago, researchers said Tuesday.

Genes provide instructions to cells in the body telling them what to do and not do in order to function optimally. Small changes in genes, called mutations, can have major consequences. Similar to a glitch in a computer's ...

Bornean orangutans living in forests impacted by human commerce seek areas of denser canopy enclosure, taller trees, and sections with trees of uniform height, according to new research from Carnegie's Andrew Davies and Greg ...

Male live-bearing fish are evolving faster than female fish, according to a Kansas State University study, and that's important for understanding big-picture evolutionary patterns.

Researchers led by Martin Jinek of the University of Zurich have found an unprecedented mechanism by which bacteria defend themselves against invading viruses. When the bacterial immune system gets overwhelmed, the CRISPR-Cas ...

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Genetic sequencing unravels rare disease mysteries – UCLA Newsroom

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When Audrey Lapidus 10-month old son, Calvin, didnt reach normal milestones like rolling over or crawling, she knew something was wrong.

He was certainly different from our first child, said Lapidus, of Los Angeles. He had a lot of gastrointestinal issues and we were taking him to the doctor quite a bit.

Four specialists saw Calvin and batteries of tests proved inconclusive. Still, Lapidus persisted.

I was pushing for even more testing, and our geneticist at UCLA said, If you can wait one more month, were going to be launching a brand new test called exome sequencing, she said. We were lucky to be in the right place at the right time and get the information we did.

In 2012, Calvin Lapidus became the first patient to undergo exome sequencing at UCLA. He was subsequently diagnosed with a rare genetic condition known as Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, which is most commonly characterized by developmental delays, possible breathing problems, seizures and gastrointestinal problems.

Though there is no cure for Pitt-Hopkins, finally having a diagnosis allowed Calvin to begin therapy. The diagnosis gave us a point to move forward from, rather than just existing in that scary no-mans land where we knew nothing, Lapidus said.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people living in that no-mans land, desperate for any type of answers to their medical conditions, saidDr. Stanley Nelson, professor of human genetics and pathology and laboratory medicine atthe David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Many families suffer for years without so much as a name for their condition.

What exome sequencing allows doctors to do is to analyze more than 20,000 genes at once, with one simple blood test.

In the past, genetic testing was done one gene at a time, which is time-consuming and expensive.

Rather than testing one sequential gene after another, exome sequencing saves time, money and effort, saidDr. Julian Martinez-Agosto, a pediatrician and researcher at theResnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA.

The exome consists of all the genomes exons, which are the coding portion of genes. Clinical exome sequencing is a test for identifying disease-causing DNA variants within the 1 percent of the genome which codes for proteins, the exons, or flanks the regions which code for proteins.

To date, mutations in the protein-coding parts of genes accounts for nearly 85 percent of all mutations known to cause genetic diseases, so surveying just this portion of the genome is an efficient and powerful diagnostic tool. Exome sequencing can help detect rare disorders like spinocerebellar ataxia, which progressively diminishes a persons movements, and suggest the likelihood of more common conditions like autism spectrum disorder and epilepsy.

More than 4,000 adults and children have undergone exome testing at UCLA since 2012. Of difficult to solve cases, more than 30 percent are solved through this process, which is a dramatic improvement over prior technologies.Thus, Nelson and his team support wider use of genome-sequencing techniques and better insurance coverage, which would further benefit patients and resolve diagnostically difficult cases at much younger ages.

Since her sons diagnosis, Lapidus helped found the Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome Research Foundation. Having Calvins diagnosis gave us a roadmap of where to start, where to go and whats realistic as far as therapies and treatments, she said. None of that would have been possible without that test.

Next, experts at UCLA are testing the relative merits of broader whole genome sequencing to analyze all6 billionbases that make up a persons genome.The team is exploring integration of this DNA sequencing with state-of-the-art RNA or gene expression analysis to improve the diagnostic rate.

The entire human genome was first sequenced in 1990 at a cost of $2.7 billion. Today, doctors can perform the same test at a tiny fraction of that cost, and believe that sequencing whole genomes of individuals could vastly improve disease diagnoses and medical care.

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Obstacles to peace: a politically-incorrect diagnosis – Canada Free Press

Posted: at 3:43 am

Will contemporary policy-makers avoid--or repeat--severe blunders?

Political-correctness suggests that the resolution of the Palestinian issue is predicated upon a dramatic Israeli land-concession and the establishment of a Palestinian state: the two state solution.

Moreover, political-correctness has subordinated Middle East reality and long term national security to the achievement of the holy grail of peaceful-coexistence between Jews and Arabs west of the Jordan River. In the process, the holy grailers have oversimplified the highly-complex, unpredictable, violent, intolerant, fragmented Middle East. This is the same school of thought, which applauded the 1993 (Oslo Accord) and 2005 (uprooting all Jews from Gaza) sweeping Israeli concessionswhich, in fact, escalated terror, war and hate educationand misperceived the Arab Tsunami, in 2011, as an Arab Spring, the Youth Revolution and the transition towards democracy.

Political-correctness has preferred talk and assessment-based subjective hope over centuries-old, well-documented, objective walk-based realism.

While political-correctness has failed to advance peaceful-coexistence, it has forced the Arabs to outflank Western pressure (on Israel) from the maximalist side, radicalizing their demands, and further intensifying the obstacles to peace.

Political-correctness resembles a surgeon, who focuses on the spot of the surgery, ignoring the complex medical history of the entire body and its bearing upon the surgery.

For instance, the sustained Arab war against the Jewish State has taken place in the Middle East, which has featured a systematic, regional state-of-war, terrorism, subversion, provisional one-bullet-regimes, tenuous policies and agreements, short-lived ceasefires and the lack of civil liberties since the seventh century appearance of Islam. These have been almost entirely intra-Islamic, intra-Arab wars, reflecting the (so far) unbridgeable ethnic, tribal, cultural, religious, historical, ideological battles, which has dominated the region, totally unrelated to Israel.

The Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian issue are not the Middle East conflict or the top priorities for Arab policy-makers, irrespective of the Arab talk, which has, historically, deviated from the Arab walk.

Contrary to political-correctness, the Palestinian issue has never been the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict, a crown-jewel of Arab policy-makers, nor a core-cause of regional turbulence; but for Arab talk, unsubstantiated by Arab walk.

Political-correctness has assumed that everyone wishes peace, prosperity and civil liberties, ignoring the fact that the dictatorial Arab regimes have systematically denied their people such prospects. While most Arabs may hope for regional peace, and are not preoccupied with Israel, the concept of the majority-rule is yet to assert itself in Middle East political reality.

Political-correctness has considered Islam to be another religion of peace, overlooking its fundamental tenets. For example, the constant battle between the Abode of Islam and the eventual subservience of the Abode of the Infidel; the determination to spread Islam, preferably peacefully, but via war if necessary; the duty to dedicate ones life to Jihad (Holy War) on behalf of Islam; the option to conclude provisional agreements - and to employ double-speak (Taqiyya), when negotiating - with the infidel; etc.

Arab attitudes toward Israel derive from the fourteen-century-old Islamic intolerance of Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and other infidels, who claim sovereignty in the abode of Islam. The key issue has never been the sizebut the existence - of the infidel Jewish State on land, which is, supposedly, divinely-ordained to be ruled by believers.

Political-correctness has ignored, or down-played, another chief-obstacle to peace: the Palestinian track record from the wave of terrorism of the 1920s, through their alliance with Nazi Germany, the Soviet Bloc, Irans Ayatollahs, Saddam Hussein, North Korea and Venezuela, their training of international terrorists in Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen, and their current hate-education, incitement and terrorism. Such a track record attests to the anti-US impact of the proposed Palestinian state.

Would it be reasonable to assume that Israels withdrawal from the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria (which would drastically erode its posture of deterrence, unlike Israels substantial land concession to Egyptthe Sinai Peninsula) would cause the Arabs to grant to the infidel Jewish State peaceful-coexistence, which they have denied fellow believers since the seventh century?!

Would it be reasonable to assume that the Arab Middle East, which has been merciless towards weak, vulnerable fellow-Arabs, would display compassion towards a highly vulnerable infidel Jewish State, if it is reduced to a 9-15 mile-wide sliver along the Mediterranean, over-towered by a mountainous Palestinian state?!

The unfathomed gap between Middle East reality and the two-state-solution was demonstrated in 1993 when Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, promoted the two-state-solution and his vision of peace in The New Middle East (Henry Holt publishing). Attempting to rationalize Israels dramatic concession of its most strategic mountain ridge to the PLO, Peres asserted: Arafat is a national symbol, a legend in his own time (p. 17).... The international political setting is no longer conducive to war (p. 80).... We must focus on this new Middle East reality wars that will never be fought again (p. 85).... We must strive for fewer weapons and more faith. You could almost hear the heavy tread of boots leaving the stage. You could have listened to the gentle tiptoeing of new steps making a debut in the awaiting world of peace (p.196)....

In 1994, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Arafat, Peres and Rabin for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East. It was praised by the political, academic and media establishments, which chose to ignore Arafats track record, underlined by his 1959 and 1964 founding of Fatah and the PLO terror organizations, calling for the liberation of Palestine eight years and three years before the 1967 War, respectively.

In other words, the Palestinian focus has been the de-legitimization and destruction of the pre-1967 Israel, as highlighted by the 2017 Palestinian Authority K-12 school curriculum (established in 1993 by Mahmoud Abbas), Palestinian media and Friday sermons in Palestinian mosques.

The two-state-solution gospel is a miniaturized replica of the 1938 hope-driven Anglo-German peace-for-our-time initiative of the British Prime Minister Chamberlain, who sacrificed national security clarity on the altar of a peaceful holy grail. He appeased a rogue regime, yielded the most strategic Czechoslovakian land to Germany, reflected feebleness and whetted the aggressive appetite of Hitler; thus producing a robust tailwind for the Second World War.

Will contemporary policy-makers avoidor repeatsevere blunders?

Ambassador (Retired) Yoram Ettinger is an insider on US-Israel relations, Mideast politics and overseas investments in Israels high tech. He is a consultant to members of the Israeli Cabinet and Knesset, and regularly briefs US legislators and their staff. His OpEds have been published in Israel and the US he has been interviewed in both Australia and the U.S. A graduate of UCLA and undergraduate at UTEP, he served amongst other things, as Minister for Congressional Affairs at Israels Embassy in Washington. He is the editor of Straight from the Jerusalem Cloakroom and Boardroom newsletters on issues of national security and overseas investments in Israels high-tech.

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Texas business leaders call on lawmakers to drop ‘bathroom bill’ – Reuters

Posted: at 3:43 am

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A group of Texas business leaders urged state lawmakers on Monday to abandon plans to pass a bill to restrict bathroom access for transgender people, calling such a measure bad for the economy.

The Republican-dominated legislature begins a 30-day special session on Tuesday with 20 items on the agenda, including one of the "bathroom bills" that have been a flashpoint in U.S. culture wars.

Supporter of the legislation have said it is a common-sense measure that protects public safety. Critics call it discriminatory.

Texas, the most powerful Republican-controlled state, could lose about $5.6 billion through 2026 and businesses could find it difficult to recruit top talent if such a measure is enacted, according to the state's leading employer organization.

"The distraction of a bathroom bill pulls us away from being competitive as a state," Jeff Moseley, chief executive of the Texas Association of Business, told a rally outside the Capitol.

"On this discussion, conservatives can disagree with conservatives," said Moseley, whose group has typically aligned itself with the state's Republican leaders.

The legislation restricts access to places like bathrooms and locker rooms based on the gender listed on people's birth certificates and not the gender with which they identify.

A similar law in North Carolina, partially repealed in March, prompted the relocation of sporting events and economic boycotts that was estimated to have cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

The stakes are higher in Texas, which has an economy larger than Russia's.

A bill similar to North Carolina's passed the Texas Senate in the regular session and was killed by pro-business Republican leaders in the House, who ran out the clock on the measure.

The bathroom bill's main backer, Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a social conservative who sets the state Senate's legislative agenda, has said economic losses would be inconsequential.

"(The Texas Republican majority) want to maintain separate restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities for men and women and boys and girls, and they dont care if the media thinks it is politically incorrect," his political campaign said in a statement on Monday.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker Joe Straus and companies including IBM, American Airlines, Apple and Southwest Airlines have spoken out against the bill.

"On the bathroom bill, there is no real compromise because even the most mild bill is going to be interpreted as discriminatory," said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston.

Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Peter Cooney

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Comment: Ground shifts for president as spin on Russia meeting leaves him turning circles – Independent.ie

Posted: at 3:43 am

Comment: Ground shifts for president as spin on Russia meeting leaves him turning circles

Independent.ie

There's a transition point that comes in many scandals when the facts make it impossible to sustain the argument the administration's allies had been using. Specifically, it requires them to go from saying, "these accusations are false; it never happened" to saying, "sure, it happened, but there's nothing wrong with it".

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/north-america/president-trump/comment-ground-shifts-for-president-as-spin-on-russia-meeting-leaves-him-turning-circles-35945481.html

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/article35945480.ece/f95f3/AUTOCROP/h342/2017-07-19_wor_33003156_I1.JPG

There's a transition point that comes in many scandals when the facts make it impossible to sustain the argument the administration's allies had been using. Specifically, it requires them to go from saying, "these accusations are false; it never happened" to saying, "sure, it happened, but there's nothing wrong with it".

That is where Republicans now find themselves, and there's a deep irony at work. Donald Trump rode into office on the widespread belief that politics is corrupt and only an outsider like him could clean it up. Now, it looks like his all-purpose excuse for his own misdeeds and those of his family and advisers will be: "Hey, don't blame me - we all know politics is corrupt."

You can see it in this tweet Mr Trump sent: "Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That's politics!"

As numerous politicians and political professionals from both parties have attested since the story of the meeting between Don Jr, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a group of Russians who were explicitly presented to them as acting on behalf of the Kremlin, that's not just untrue, but absurd. When a hostile foreign government offers you help in your campaign, what you do is call the FBI.

The idea animating Mr Trump's position is that during a presidential campaign there is virtually no sin or even crime that can't be justified on the grounds that it's a campaign. As Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro said in defending Trump: "As someone who's run for office five times, if the devil called me and said he wanted to set up a meeting to give me opposition research on my opponent, I'd be on the first trolley to Hell to get it." Or in the words of Fox News host Sean Hannity: "It always happens. And if anyone says it doesn't, it's a lie."

So having spent months claiming the accusation the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government in its attempt to swing the election to Mr Trump was ridiculous, now the position is there's nothing wrong with collusion.

This can become a handy excuse for almost anything. Did Mr Trump fire FBI director James Comey to shut down the Russia investigation? It's politics! Is Mr Trump using the office of the presidency to enrich himself and his family? It's politics!

Read more: Trump defiant in face of defeat on Obamacare

Having convinced his supporters Washington is an irredeemable swamp of corruption that he will clean up, Mr Trump now holds himself blameless for any malfeasance, because look at what a swamp this place is. The people who actually have experience in politics agree there are ethical limits to what you may do in pursuit of your political goals. But Mr Trump, believing his own caricature of what politics is, feels constrained by no limits whatsoever. He approaches governing as though it was professional wrestling, not something with any substantive meaning but a series of staged fights you perform so your side cheers. Sure, there are "rules" but they're no more important than the rule that you're not supposed to hit your opponent with a folding chair. If it's part of the show, you do it.

In the context of that show, there's no such thing as a political opponent with whom you still share some things in common, like a commitment to the country's founding ideals. There are just enemies, and the war against them has to be total. If Russia wants to help you fight your true enemy (Hillary Clinton), then you welcome the help.

And there are a number of Mr Trump's supporters for whom the fight is its own reward, just as his 2016 campaign was its own reward even before he won. It was thrilling and liberating, allowing them to stop hiding their thoughts and give vent to their feelings, no matter how "politically incorrect" they might be. No need to worry about some liberal calling you racist or sexist - just put on your 'Trump That Bitch' T-shirt, tell somebody with a Spanish accent what you think of immigrants, and let it rip. Who cares if he actually accomplishes anything on policy? As one Republican voter tells the 'Des Moines Register': "I just want him to annoy the hell out of everybody, and he's done that."

Just to be clear, there are Republicans criticising the Don Jr/Jared/Manafort meeting and no doubt dreading what the next revelation will bring. Mr Trump's approval is down to the mid-30s, and when the latest 'Washington Post'/ABC News poll asked about the meeting, only 48pc of Republicans said it was appropriate, hardly unified support for the White House's position.

There's a great risk for Trump and his allies in using the "it's politics" defence. As pollster Guy Molyneux said in the 'American Prospect', while we use the word "populism" to describe both Mr Trump's appeal to working-class voters and that of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, unlike those Democrats, Mr Trump made an argument focused not on economic elites but on politicians and "Washington", and his voters responded. But he's now saying he's no different from any other politician, and the people he brought with him are simply adopting the standards of Washington.

Even if that excuse was to fly, it wouldn't leave him a lot of room to claim in 2020 he had transformed politics, drained the swamp and fulfilled the promise of his campaign.

Most of his supporters might decide it's enough for him to have the right enemies. But they may not be as excited to get out to the polls again if he keeps telling them what he does is just politics. ( Washington Post)

Irish Independent

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China users report WhatsApp disruption amid censorship fears – ABC News

Posted: at 3:43 am

Users of WhatsApp in China and security researchers have reported widespread service disruptions amid fears that the popular messaging service may be at least partially blocked by authorities in the world's most populous country.

WhatsApp users in China reported Tuesday on other social media platforms that the app was partly inaccessible unless virtual private network software was used to circumvent China's censorship apparatus, known colloquially as The Great Firewall.

WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and offers end-to-end encryption, has a relatively small but loyal following among users seeking a greater degree of privacy from government snooping than afforded by popular domestic app WeChat, which is ubiquitous but closely monitored and filtered.

Questions over WhatsApp's status come at a politically fraught time in China. The government is in the midst of preparing for a sensitive party congress while Chinese censors this week revved up a sprawling effort to scrub all mention of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died Thursday in government custody.

A report this week by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab detailed how Chinese censors were able to intercept, in real time, images commemorating Liu in private one-on-one chats on WeChat, a feat that hinted at the government's image recognition capabilities.

It appeared that pictures were also the focus of the move to censor WhatsApp. Late Tuesday, users in China could send texts over WhatsApp without the use of VPNs, but not images.

Nadim Kobeissi, a cryptography researcher based in Paris who has been investigating the WhatsApp disruption, said he believed The Great Firewall was only blocking access to WhatsApp servers that route media between users, while leaving servers that handle text messages untouched. He said voice messages also appeared to be blocked.

But there was no evidence to suggest that Chinese authorities were decrypting WhatsApp messages, Kobeissi added.

A Chinese censorship researcher known by his pseudonym Charlie Smith said authorities appeared to be blocking non-text WhatsApp messages wholesale precisely because they have not been able to selectively block content on the platform like they have with WeChat, which is produced by Shenzhen-based internet giant Tencent and legally bound to cooperate with Chinese security agencies.

Because WhatsApp content is encrypted, "they have moved to brute censor all non-text content," Smith said in an email. "It would not be surprising to find that everything on WhatsApp gets blocked, forcing users in China to use unencrypted, monitored and censored services like WeChat."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had no information on the issue when asked by reporters on Tuesday.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. WhatsApp is one of the world's most widely used messaging services, with over 1.2 billion users.

Signal, another encrypted messaging service, appeared to also have patchy service with significant delays.

China has long blocked Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with officials arguing that foreign social media services operating beyond their control pose a threat to national security. But authorities in China, as with other governments, are paying increasing attention to encrypted messaging apps.

After Beijing waged its largest-ever crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists in 2015, the People's Daily newspaper, the ruling Communist Party's official mouthpiece, singled out Telegram as the platform where lawyers the coordinated their activities. And in closely orchestrated and televised trials, the arrested lawyers read scripted confessions explaining how they used the apps to communicate freely with collaborators overseas.

Telegram has since been blocked, with many Chinese dissidents switching in recent months to WhatsApp.

The progressive tightening of messaging apps forces Chinese users to resort to domestic apps such as WeChat "to simply function and have day-to-day communications," said Kobeissi, the security researcher. "Then they can be monitored en masse."

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Chinese censorship cracks down on WeChat, Weibo, WhatsApp – ZDNet

Posted: at 3:43 am

(Image: Citizen Lab)

Researchers at Citizen Lab have noticed a censorship crackdown on WeChat and Weibo in wake of the death of Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights campaigner Liu Xiaobo last week.

The research group within the University of Toronto used a set of phones registered to WeChat with mainland Chinese phone numbers, and another set registered with numbers outside China.

By sending a number of messages to test which words were blocked, Citizen Lab concluded censorship from Beijing was "more expansive and blunt".

"Before his death, messages were blocked that contained his name in combination with other words, for example those related to his medical treatment or requests to receive care abroad," it said. "However, after his death, we found that simply including his name was enough to trigger blocking of messages, in English and both simplified and traditional Chinese."

"In other words, WeChat issued a blanket ban on his name after his death, greatly expanding the scope of censorship."

Citizen Lab also found Tencent-owned WeChat was blocking images referencing Liu Xiaobo throughout its services, and for the first time censoring messages between users.

The group's results showed 74 images were blocked on WeChat Moments, 26 blocked within group chats, and 19 blocked in direct messaging between users.

"It is unclear why only a subset of the images blocked on group chat were also blocked on one-to-one chat," Citizen Lab wrote. "It would be technically convenient to enforce censorship of the same sets of images in chat functions."

"One possible explanation is that censorship in smaller, more private spaces is most disruptive and noticeable to users as opposed to ones with larger audiences."

In all instances of censorship occurring on WeChat, the user is not informed that content is removed, Citizen Lab said.

The Chinese equivalent of Twitter, Weibo was found by Citizen Lab to be even more heavily censored.

Meanwhile, AP is reporting WhatsApp is partially blocked in China, with users unable to send images or voice messages via the service.

One service already banned in China, Telegram, had the prospect of a ban in Indonesia floated last week by Jakarta.

Telegram had too much content promoting radicalism, extremism and "hatred belief", and needed to be blocked to safeguard the "integrity" of the republic, Indonesia's communication ministry announced on Friday.

The web version of the messaging service can no longer be accessed in the archipelago, with preparations to also shut down the application if the company does not prepare standard operating procedures, the government said.

Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov said on Sunday the ministry had contacted them with a list of public channels with terrorism-related content but his team was "unable to quickly process" them.

Those channels are now blocked and it is forming "a dedicated team of moderators with knowledge of the Indonesian language and culture to be able to process reports of terrorist-related content more quickly and accurately".

Telegram, he added, had "several million" users in Indonesia.

As for the western world, Australia has made the running for the Five Eyes nations -- the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand -- on the topic of encryption and the problems it poses for law enforcement in recent weeks.

Last week, Australian Attorney-General George Brandis said draft legislation was being written to compel technology companies to turn over the content of end-to-end encrypted messages by the end of the year.

"Last Wednesday, I met with the chief cryptographer at GCHQ ... and he assured me this was feasible," Brandis said.

"What the government is proposing to do is to impose upon the companies an obligation conditioned by reasonableness and proportionality."

Brandis stated he believes the process of breaking into end-to-end encrypted messages can be done in almost real time, since GCHQ has told him it is possible.

On Friday, Turnbull told ZDNet that the laws produced in Canberra are able to trump the laws of mathematics.

"The laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that," he said. "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia."

With AAP

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Chinese censorship cracks down on WeChat, Weibo, WhatsApp - ZDNet

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Ari Shaffir Moves from Censorship to Creative Control with ‘Double Negative’ – Splitsider

Posted: at 3:43 am

Ari Shaffirs new two-part special Double Negative hit Netflix today. Presented in two episodes, Children and Adulthood, the special is a sprawling look at where the comedian is at in life right now. Hes getting older, exploring his sexuality, and dealing with pressure from family and friends, all in front of the backdrop of a world that is kind of fucked. He breaks down the overarching message of the special like this: One side is what Im against, the other side is what Im for in this life Ive chosen. Ari and I had an in-depth chat about the development of the material, the business side of shooting your own special, and the difficult dance between comedy purism and Comedy Centrals censorship.

Your new special Double Negative is divided into two parts: Children and Adulthood. What led to you dividing this release into two separate sections?

Generally I try to have some kind of through line in my specials. Otherwise, I find it just becomes sort of a collection of bits, which is fine, but its sort of more like a Van Halen album than awhat is it, Sea Change by Beck?

Right.

Yeah, thats a breakup album. Theres a reason theyre all together. If you add another song in thereits like, Im going to save this one for myself because it doesnt fit. So I just need a through line, even if its just in my head. With this one I couldnt really center on a through line. The bits were sort of everywhere, unlinked. I had all this stuff on children and then I had all this other stuff that wasnt quite enough for a special. At the time, I was listening to a lot of Smashing Pumpkins because me and Big Jay (Oakerson) saw them at Rock on the Range in Columbus a few years before. It was so bad. It was just Billy Corgan. He had people that looked like the regular band and he played all of his old songs at double speed just to get through them. He just did it for the money. He walked half the crowd. I dont even know if I stayed for the whole thing. I was mad at him for a couple of years. Then I was like, Well, let me remember what I liked about them. So I started listening to the old albums: Gish, Siamese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. That one is such a good album. I listened to it over and over again. As I was listening to it I thought, I could apply this to my special and have like a double album.

Then I started thinking about how to break this down in a twofer kind of way. One is all about children because thats the pressure Im getting from my family a little bit and my friends, who are like, Come on, man. Why arent you having a kid yet? Im getting more and more in my thoughts about why I dont want that. Theyre like, Why? Well, let me tell you why. The screaming and you being tired all the time is a negative. Plus, this positive thing that Im going through, you cant do if you have a wife and kids. You cant go to Thailand for two weeks and explore your homosexuality. Youre not going to have STD call drama with random girls. This is a life youve given up. Some of its good, some of its bad. It really started to form in my head that way. One side is what Im against, the other side is what Im for in this life Ive chosen.

Once the segments started to become clear in your head, how did you structure them for the stage, being that its essentially two shows worth of material?

I really worked it. I took it to Edinburgh. I started taking intermissions at the ones I did in Scandinavia. I wanted to see what it felt like to close on each one. Ive seen people do this thing when theyre getting ready for their late night sets where they do their five that theyre going to do for late night and then they keep going and do the rest of their 15-minute set. But you dont know what it feels like to close on your closer joke. So I was doing that. I would flip flop nights, doing adulthood first or children first and then take an intermission. It was going well, but then I talked to (Joe) Rogan about it and he said, Thats all well and good, but thats a Scandinavian crowd who might be used to that stuff. You try to do that in America and theyre going to revolt. Youve got to do it in America before you tape the special. So I started running it like that with little intermissions. I told the clubs to book me a 10 or 15-minute opener and then I ran an hour-and-a-half to an hour-and-45 until I felt like I had two strong closers and two completely free-standing, yet together, specials.

How much did the material change once you brought it back to the States?

It needed more jokes in there for sure. Edinburgh audiences are hoity-toity smart people who are willing to see things like that. I learned that the attention span here is not quite as long and I needed to throw some more tags in there. Theres also other things, like abortion material. Out there it didnt play very well. The attitude here that Ive found in people who are going to comedy clubs is that theyre for a womans right to choose, but then they also think something is wrong with you if youre doing it. You know what its like: I heard she had four abortions. Oh, what?! In the UK and Scandinavia its more just like a procedure if you have to get one, just get one, no big deal. So those jokes didnt hit as hard there, but when I got back here people were more shocked by them.

Where did you record these two sets?

Cap City.

Any reason in particular that you chose Austin?

I have a list of all of my favorite clubs and I want to shoot at all of them. My CD, my first release, was at the Comedy Works in Denver, one of the best clubs in the country. Then I went back to the original room at The Comedy Store, which is probably my favorite room. Then Cap City.

The two sections of Double Negative have slight variations in aesthetic, plus a wardrobe change.

I had to decide how I was going to shoot it. I didnt want two separate locations because I didnt want two separate specials. I wanted it more like a front side and back side. Chappelles special was two separate specials recorded years apart. I dont know why they put those together, to be honest. But theres a George Carlin album FM & AM. It was right after he became dirty and he was exploring his clean side and his dirty side. He had one clean album and one dirty album, like two sides of the coin. So I decided to do it at the same location, but make it a little different. Change the wardrobe, change the color scheme of the set.

This is your first time working with Netflix, which means you probably had to front the whole production and then shop it and sell it, right?

Yeah, it was a risk for sure. I was at the point where I didnt want tothe last special I did I got a call about two weeks before I shot. I was in Appleton, Wisconsin. I try to go up at really shitty clubs for two or three weeks beforehand. Sometimes I dont even tell people Im going, no promoting it at all. Ill just be like, Give me the minimum you would give somebody with no draw. Im not going to tell anybody Im here. I just want to get this stuff real sharp in front of people who dont know me.

So anyway, I was doing that in Appleton, which is actually a really good room, and I get this call saying, Hey, your closer that youre planning on doingwe cant show it. At first they were like, We have notes. I was like, I dont want notes. I dont want them. Keep them to yourself. If you want to cut stuff, cut stuff. They were like, Youre going to need to hear this. We cant show your whole closer. I was like, Why? They said it was just an S&P rule. It was some rule about how you cant describe the smell of a vagina or something like that. I had already worked on it the way I wanted to, so I had to figure out what I was going to close with. When they told me that, right then I thought, I cant ever let you have control over what I do again. As long as I have enough money where Im not destitute, Ive got to do it myself with no notes. Its my special, not anyone elses.

So I talked to my agent and manager and told them what I wanted to do and they said, You might lose a lot of money. I was like, Im willing to. I live like a fucking pauper. So I saved up enough money. This is why I saved up money not so I could take a vacation, but so I can do this, build my special the way I want. I figured if it didnt work I could make $10,000 of it back in iTunes sales and then, lesson learned, I cant do that anymore. But I did sell it. So now this is the way Im always going to do it. Get out of my way, let me do what I want, and then Ill show you what I have. Its like a painter or an artist. They just say, Heres my work.

I remember when Paid Regular came out on Comedy Central it was advertised as uncensored. It sucks to hear the backstory of you having to drop your closer. Your special was censored before it was even finished.

Its not the way comics are supposed to do things. Its like the show I did, This Is Not Happening. The first day we had a meeting where we had to go over the stories with the comics. I remember raising my hand in the meeting and being like, Well, we could go over their stuff with them or we could trust professional comedians to be prepared on their own when theyre doing comedy. They all kind of laughed. I was like, Its not funny. Let them do what they want. We shouldnt be giving them any notes. Im a comedian and I dont want to give them notes. Anyone else who is not doing it should never tell anyone. Get out of peoples way and let them be who they are. If they make a mistake, fine, thats on them.

I saw that you were doing an Off-JFL thing in Montreal. They have your show listed as Ari Shaffirs Renamed Storytelling Show. I assume that Comedy Central is keeping the rights to This Is Not Happening as they are bringing Roy (Wood Jr.) in. But what are your plans to continue doing the show the way you created it? Will you be taking it back to stages and

Ive always done it on stages. I never really stopped doing it throughout the year. I do it at the Bell House, different spots, festivals. Its like, whatever, man. Theyre not going to stop me from being a comic. Its like, fine, do whatever you feel that you have to, but Im going to keep going.

What are your plans once the special drops? Are you going to beef up touring or are there any other big projects in the works?

Im trying to build my next hour. Im trying to do it all about Judaism. Im building that slowly. Im writing stuff. I want to do a travel book. I want to do a roast battle in the Belly Room. You know, just fun stuff. I want to be home for a while. Im not going to start touring again until December or January. I want to build my new hour here in the city.

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Ari Shaffir Moves from Censorship to Creative Control with 'Double Negative' - Splitsider

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