Plastic Oceans International (POI) acknowledges the profound impact “Participant” has had on the landscape of social impact cinema.
Malibu, California, April 20, 2024, Participant’s closure after twenty years of transformative storytelling is a significant milestone. Plastic Oceans International (POI) recognizes the profound impact this studio has had on social impact cinema. They have not only shed light on global issues but also shown how narratives can inspire action. Films like “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Food Inc.” have paved the way for organizations, like POI, to continue the critical mission of ocean conservation.
Jeff Skoll has demonstrated a groundbreaking approach by combining activism and filmmaking, proving that it’s feasible to educate and captivate worldwide audiences in a profit-oriented industry. At POI, the team is deeply influenced by Participant’s visionary concept and are enthusiastic about carrying forward its legacy through POI’s own endeavors.
Their commitment lies in seamlessly integrating filmmaking and activism throughout the entire process, from production to consumption, in order to amplify opportunities for both local and global change. They are driven to make a significant impact on ocean conservation and beyond.
Ocean conservation is more important than ever in today’s fast-paced digital age. The constant advancements in media technology bring both new possibilities and obstacles. As the world comes together to discuss critical global initiatives such as the Global Plastic Treaty, it becomes vital to effectively communicate the intricacies of policy-making and the unique challenges faced by different communities.
That’s where POI’s film-activism model comes in. It not only serves as a valuable educational platform but also as a powerful advocacy tool. By empowering stakeholders, it enables them to actively participate in shaping and influencing policies that promote ocean conservation.
Plastic Oceans International centers their efforts on creating content that goes beyond just raising awareness. Their goal is to inspire action and make a real impact on ocean conservation. They achieve this by actively involving participants in the filmmaking process. By incorporating their feedback, they ensure that their films tackle important issues and help policymakers understand and address specific challenges faced by communities.
As POI pushes forward with this model, the enduring impact of Participant’s legacy serves as a constant reminder of the immense influence that film possesses in driving meaningful change. With the advent of advanced technologies, POI now has the ability to amplify these endeavors, allowing nonprofits worldwide to engage in the production, distribution, and consumption of films more easily.
This evolution in the world of filmmaking empowers POI to tackle pressing global issues such as plastic pollution, climate change, and gender equality with even greater efficacy. By leveraging this progress, POI can make significant strides in the realm of ocean conservation and safeguarding marine ecosystems.
POI would like to express their utmost appreciation to Jeff Skoll and Participant for their groundbreaking contributions to both the film industry and making a positive social impact. Their incredible legacy will forever serve as a source of inspiration and guidance for our work at Plastic Oceans International. Through the impactful medium of film, POI is committed to driving significant change in ocean conservation. Together, we march onward with renewed determination to transform the world, one compelling story at a time.
Anti-Israel activists at Yale University in Connecticut set up a “liberation zone” in solidarity with Columbia University in New York City on Saturday.
This comes after protesters at Columbia University were heard shouting pro-Hamas slogans, resulting in more than a hundred arrests as they set up an encampment on campus Thursday that continued into Friday.
Protesters at Yale were also seen setting up an encampment, laying down a banner that read, “Liberated Zone.”
The video starts out with students holding the banner and placing it on the ground in front of several students. Surrounding the students are other banners that read “Stop Investing in Genocide,” “Jews for Ceasefire Now,” “Yale is Complicit,” and “Stop the Genocide.”
A man trying to record the protest at Yale University on April 20, 2024, was hounded by activists who used umbrellas and flags to prevent him from seeing the activity.(FNTV)
The man wearing the shirt attempted to record the protest while walking among the protesters, but they began to hound him by blocking his view and shoving flags and umbrellas in his face.
Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson, who has been studying the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for about 15 years, told Fox News Digital the protests at Ivy League universities like Columbia and Yale are reminiscent of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. During the movement, protesters raised issues with economic inequality, corporate greed and how money influenced politics, while setting up an encampment in Zuccotti Park in the financial district in New York City.
“It’s kind of a different topic here, but it’s really the same topic. I mean, it’s an anti-capitalist movement. It’s about the movement. It’s a ‘tear down our society’ movement,” Jacobson said. “I think it’s essentially a similar phenomenon which has been directed toward Israel as the object of their hate, instead of Wall Street or instead of something else.”
Protesters at Yale University set up an encampment on campus on April 20, 2024.(FNTV)
While protesters at Yale established a “Liberated Zone” it really did not mean they were liberated from anything because they still rely on the system to provide water, food and other things, he said.
Jacobson also said he thinks the protests are the result of 20 plus years of “gross dehumanization” of Israeli Jews on campuses, through the BDS movement as well as through radical faculty members found on most campuses across the U.S., particularly at Columbia.
While covering the BDS movement, Jacobson found the boycott was just a tactic. He said he never understood how it was just a tactic at first, but then it clicked.
Yale protesters setup an encampment to boycott the occupation of Gaza by Israel.(FNTV)
“They don’t really care if you boycott Chablis in the dining hall. They don’t really care about those things,” Jacobson said. “What they care about is having the entire campus spend 3 or 4 months debating how evil Israel is, and if they lose the vote, they declare victory anyway.”
Ultimately, he said the anti-capitalist movement focuses on Israel, which results in the dehumanization of Jews because Jews support Israel.
With that, though, there are other factors feeding into the protests, according to the Cornell law professor.
There could be a psychological aspect affecting students because they are told they have to go deeply into debt to attend elite colleges, only to find out their dreams were crushed by a system that lured them into taking on enormous debt.
Pro-Palestine protesters demonstrate along NYPD police lines outside of Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Multiple students were arrested as officers cleared an encampment on the campus’ lawn.(Peter Gerber for Fox News Digital)
Then there are those who did not take on debt but cannot find a solid career path.
“I think there’s a bunch of different things going on, and Israel and Jews are the convenient scapegoat, as historically has been the case,” Jacobson said.
Nearly 500 students were seen protesting at Columbia University on Saturday night, just two days after tensions reached a breaking point when the New York City Police Department arrested 108 people who refused to leave an encampment created on the main lawn.
The daughter of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Isra Hirsi, was also arrested during the protest on Thursday. According to sources, Hirsi was taken into custody, put into flex cuffs or zip ties and will face trespassing charges.
Earlier that day, Hirsi said she was suspended from Barnard College, located near Columbia, for “standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”
The Columbia Spectator, a student newspaper, reported, “While suspended Columbia students may remain in their individual rooms in their residence halls, suspended Barnard students have been evicted from their college housing.”
Social media posts also show several New York City council members arriving to check out the ongoing protest.
While protests continue at Columbia, Jacobson said a BDS referendum was sent to the Cornell University student body for a vote, though the results were not immediately known to the faculty.
Still, movements like those seen at Columbia, Yale and several other campuses across the U.S. are, as Jacobson said, “dead end movements.”
“I don’t think there’s really a future for them because they’re built around tearing things down,” he said. “They have no positive agenda. Their agenda is to tear things down, and I think what people need to understand is that these protesters, who ostensibly are anti-Israel, are also anti-American.
“It’s almost a complete overlap between the anti-Israel, anti-American and anti-capitalist protesters,” he added. “That’s what this movement is about. It’s not just about the war in Gaza.”
Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson, Louis Casiano, Alexis McAdams and CB Cotton contributed to this report.
Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.
Story tips and can be sent to Greg.Wehner@Fox.com and on Twitter @GregWehner.
They opened the box on a Sunday in late March, getting their first look at Asfan Mohammed since he departed India for Russia four months earlier.
He was better dressed than when he’d left – a black suit, white shirt, tie and shoes replacing the casual attire he’d worn when family and friends saw him off.
But he had to be buried in line with his Muslim beliefs, so his body would need to be prepared; the neat clothes removed.
It was then Imran Mohammad, 41, saw the extent of what had happened to his 31-year-old brother while fighting for the Russian armed forces in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I saw holes on the back of his shoulder, his ribs right down till his lower back,” Imran told CNN.
“There were six to seven holes caused by a drone attack. It ripped through his body. There was internal damage. Two teeth were broken.”
And now this tight-knit family in Hyderabad, southern India was broken too. A husband, father and provider gone.
Imran’s business was also in ruins, rotted by neglect as he’d focused all his energies on finding out what happened to his brother on the battlefield of Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Second World War.
Imran noted the time.
“I opened the box at 11 a.m. Sunday. When I saw his body for the first time, it hit me that he’s no more,” he said.
“My efforts to look for my brother, my two-month fight for my brother, came to a painful end. I wanted to react looking at his corpse, but I just couldn’t. I went totally numb.”
A dream lost
Asfan met an unlikely fate – one his family could never have imagined when Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
At the time, the father of two managed a clothing store, one of almost 300 across India in the homegrown Allen Solly chain, selling kids’ clothes, wedding tuxedos and just about everything in between.
He’d been there eight years, his brother said.
It wasn’t the worst job, but Asfan wanted more for his wife and two children, ages 2 and 8 months. And he dreamed of taking them out of Hyderabad.
“He wanted to work in Australia,” where his sister-in-law and her family lived, Imran said. “They were calling him and his family there.”
But that meant Asfan would need a high score on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), which gauges proficiency of non-native speakers.
“He wrote his IELTS. He didn’t do well,” Imran said. “He felt demotivated. He tried again.”
It didn’t work, Imran said.
Asfan Mohammed’s remains are returned to India in March. – Mohammed Imran
But videos on YouTube about job opportunities in Russia gave Asfan new hope, and he contacted an employment agency, his brother said.
“He was going to work as a taxi driver or delivery boy in Russia – that process was on,” Imran said.
“Then a couple of days later the agents said there are vacancies for helper and security jobs in the Russian army. The agents assured him that this was the best job. They said he could get a Russian passport and national card within a year through which you could move around neighboring countries.”
Asfan thought that could be a stepping stone to his family’s dream life in Australia, his brother said.
Instead, his choice took him to the frigid, battle-scarred landscape of Ukraine.
Brainwashed
Asfan kept his plans secret from family and friends until it was too late to turn back, according to Imran, who said he only learned his brother was leaving three days before he set off for Russia on November 9 last year.
By that time, Asfan had paid more than $1,800 to the recruiters, who asked him not to speak to anyone, even his family, about his intention to travel.
“They had brainwashed him so much … They warned him he could be deported from Russia, from the airport,” Imran said. “I tried my level best to stop him.”
After a multi-stop route that took him through other Indian cities and the United Arab Emirates, Asfan arrived in Moscow on November 12.
A day later, he signed papers – in Russian, which he couldn’t read – committing him to the work, his brother said.
“He trusted the agents a bit too much,” Imran said.
A Ukrainian soldier holds an artillery shell as he prepares to fire a howitzer towards Russian troops near the town of Kreminna, Ukraine March 4, 2024 – Inna Varenytsia/Reuters
Foreign fighters in Putin’s war
By some estimates, Russia has been sending thousands of foreign men to fight in Ukraine since Putin ordered the invasion.
Many of them are young men from South Asia, enticed by the prospect of steady employment and higher salaries in Russia. In Nepal, prominent opposition lawmaker and former foreign minister Bimala Rai Paudyal told parliament earlier this year that between 14,000 and 15,000 Nepalis were fighting on the front lines, citing testimony from men returning from Ukraine.
The Russian government last year announced a lucrative package for foreign fighters to join the country’s military, including a monthly salary of at least $2,000 and a fast track to Russian citizenship – but the Kremlin has not said how many foreigners it has recruited under the plan.
New Delhi has strong ties with Moscow dating back to the Cold War and has largely steered clear of condemning outright the invasion by Russia, which remains India’s biggest arms supplier.
India has also become a major purchaser of Russian energy, bolstering Moscow’s coffers by a record $37 billion of crude oil purchases last year alone and providing Russia’s sanctions hit economy with vital revenue.
Meanwhile, India, which has no law preventing its citizens from serving in a foreign state’s military, has acknowledged that a number of its nationals have been fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
In a statement in February, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said getting those Indians an early discharge from the Russian military was a “top priority.” The ministry told CNN last month it has been in continuous contact with Russian authorities to make that happen.
But for some, those efforts would come too late. A ministry spokesperson told CNN at least two Indians have died in the conflict.
In early March, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it had busted major human trafficking networks that were duping men into Russian military jobs, with 35 such cases identified.
“The trafficked Indian Nationals were trained in combat roles and deployed at front bases in Russia-Ukraine War Zone against their wishes,” the CBI statement said.
To the front line
Asfan didn’t tell his brother when he was going to be sent to Ukraine, Imran said, but he did get in contact on December 1, just as he was heading to the battlefield.
Asfan was seeking a way out, Imran said.
“He asked me to speak to the agents,” Imran said. “I did promise him that I’d try my best.”
It was the last time they spoke to each other.
“The military personnel were not in touch with these agents,” Imran said.
“These brokers duped the boys and put their lives in danger,” he said, referring to Asfan and other Indians sent to war.
Weeks of uncertainty, then disbelief
On January 23, Imran received a voice message from one of those Indian men deployed alongside Asfan.
The man, who said he had been injured in combat, told Imran he had found Asfan, who’d also been injured, inside a house in Ukraine a day earlier.
Imran said the man told him he couldn’t pick his brother up “because of the drones around them,” but had passed word of Asfan’s condition to a Russian medical team.
Ukrainian forces have used converted commercial drones against their Russian opponents with devastating effect on the frontlines, either by dropping grenades from above or by using them as remote controlled bombs.
Two days later, Imran said he visited his member of parliament to try to get Indian officials to help his injured brother. But pleas to the government went unanswered, he said.
The Indian Embassy in Moscow eventually replied that it was looking into the case.
On a March 6 visit to his MP’s office, Imran got the news he had dreaded.
Asfan Mohammed, right, and his brother Imran are pictured with Asfan’s children before Asfan left for Russia. – Mohammed Imran
“We called the emergency number at the Indian Embassy (in Moscow). As soon as I mentioned Asfan’s name on the phone, they told me he’s dead. I didn’t have the strength to talk to them,” he said.
“I didn’t want to believe what they were saying.”
He still had no visual proof of Asfan’s death, but he had to pass on what he’d learned to the rest of the family.
Asfan’s wife “was unconscious for three hours,” Imran said. “She cried through the night.”
Asfan’s family has buried his body, but they are scarred by a war far away.
Imran says it pains him to look at his brother’s young children, who will never know their dad. And he says his own future feels uncertain.
“This has been on for four months, for 24 hours a day,” he said. “This has been the worst phase I’ve ever been through. There’s no personal life anymore. No friendship left. I’ve only been taking care of my family.”
And one of them, his brother, is forever gone.
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You may feel confident in your ability to avoid becoming a victim of cyber scams. You know what to look for, and you won’t let someone fool you.
Then you receive a phone call from your son, which is unusual because he rarely calls. You hear a shout and sounds resembling a scuffle, making you take immediate notice. Suddenly, you hear a voice that you are absolutely certain is your son, screaming for help. When the alleged kidnappers come on the line and demand money to keep your son safe, you are sure that everything is real because you heard his voice.
Unfortunately, scammers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to mimic the voices of people, potentially turning these fake voices into things like kidnapping scams. This particular scam seems to be rare, but it’s happening.
An illustration of a scammer.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How frequent are fake kidnapping calls enhanced with AI?
Such fake emergency scams occur frequently enough that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provided warnings and examples for consumers. Hard numbers that indicate the frequency of these calls aren’t readily available, though, especially for calls known to make use of AI.
Such scams are certainly possible with current AI technology. Fake video and audio of politicians and other famous people are appearing with regularity. Aided by AI, these clips are frighteningly believable.
You may recall the incident in late 2023 involving a fake dental plan advertisement that featured Tom Hanks. AI technology created the video. Hanks had to make a social media post calling out the fake advertisement.
Empty warehouse with a chair.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
The AI technology creates a fake by analyzing a sampling of an audio clip of the person it wants to mimic. It uses its ability to interpret incredible amounts of data to take note of multiple characteristics of the person’s voice, allowing it to make a highly realistic fake.
Once the AI is able to create the fake audio, programmers then tell it what to say, creating a personalized message designed to sell dental plans or to convince you that your loved one is in trouble with kidnappers.
Some AI programmers that use the fake audio for helpful purposes — such as for allowing people with medical problems like ALS to regain their “speech” — claim they can mimic a voice with as little as a few minutes of audio clips. However, the more audio that’s available, the more realistic the mimicked voice should sound. Twenty minutes of audio is far better than three, for example.
As AI’s capabilities continue to expand at breakneck speed, you can expect the time requirements to shrink in future years.
Do I have to worry about falling for a fake AI audio kidnapping scheme?
Realistically, the vast majority of people don’t have to worry about a fake kidnapping scheme that originates from AI-generated audio. If your loved one has a lot of video and audio on social media, though, the scammers may be able to find enough source audio to create a realistic fake.
Even though AI makes this type of scam easier to perform, the setup process still remains too time-consuming for most scammers. After all, scammers in this type of scheme are relying on your rapidly expanding fear at receiving this type of call to cause you to miss obvious clues that would tell you it’s a fake.
The scammers may simply have a random child scream and sob uncontrollably, while allowing you to rapidly jump to the conclusion that it’s your child. This is far easier than using AI to try to source and generate audio … at least for now.
A woman surrounded by data.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
Steps you can take to protect yourself from a fake kidnapping scam
Even though the scammers try to gain the upper hand with the suddenness of the fake kidnapping call and by catching you off guard, you have some steps you can take before and after you receive this type of call to prepare and protect yourself.
1. Ask your loved ones to keep you informed about trips: Fake kidnappers may try to convince you that the abduction is taking place outside your city. However, if you know that your loved one did not leave town, you can be confident that the call is probably a fake.
2. Set up a safe word or phrase: Set up a safe word that your loved ones should use if they ever are calling you because of a dangerous situation or because they are under duress. A scammer is not going to know this safe word. If you don’t hear the safe word, you know it’s probably a fake call.
4. Try to text your loved one: Either during or immediately after the call, send a text message to your loved one without telling the caller. Ask your loved one to text you back immediately, so you can converse without tipping off the scammers. If you receive a text back, you can be confident the call is a fake. Consider creating a code word that you can use with the entire family. When you send this code word in a text, everyone knows it’s a serious situation that requires an immediate response.
5. Stay calm and think things through: Finally, although it is incredibly difficult to stay calm when you receive this kind of call, it’s important to keep thinking clearly. Do not panic. Regardless of whether it’s a real call or a scam call, panicking is never going to help. Listen for clues that make it obvious the call is a scam. Try to gather some information that can help you make a clear-headed judgment about the legitimacy of the call.
Kurt’s key takeaways
As AI continues to become more readily available and gains sophistication, scammers will be ready to take advantage of it. Perhaps by then, AI will even the playing field by coming up with ways to help us protect ourselves. Until then, taking steps to protect your family, such as by setting up a safe word, can give you some peace of mind.
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:
– Meghan Trainor’s will ensures her voice can’t be used by ‘spooky’ technology after her death – US Air Force confirms first successful AI dogfight – Ever-evolving generative AI brings new, game-changing element to sports landscape
Meghan Trainor at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards held at the Dolby Theatre on April 1, 2024, in Los Angeles.( Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images)
‘THAT’S SPOOKY’: Meghan Trainor is one of many stars wary of artificial intelligence. Earlier this month at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, Trainor shared her thoughts on the technology with Fox News Digital.
AI DOGFIGHT: The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday publicly confirmed the first successful dogfight between a fighter jet piloted by artificial intelligence and a human-piloted aircraft.
LOOKING AHEAD: Sports leagues and brands are constantly exploring advancements in technology and its potential impact on their respective end products. Many sports properties work within the content management and distribution space.
A sea of Masters chairs at the 18th green during the final round of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 14, 2024, in Augusta, Georgia.(Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)
WAR TECH: Some of Israel’s most advanced military technology was on display over the weekend when its multi-level aerial defense array led the way in striking down an estimated 99% of the more than 350 drones, rockets and missiles that were fired by Iran in an unprecedented attack on the Jewish state.
JUST SAY NO: The Department of Homeland Security and the Customs and Border Protection Agency can leverage the power of artificial intelligence to identify the trucks, boats and planes trying to sneak fentanyl into the country.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken on June 23, 2023. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)
Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future with Fox News here.
In the mid-fifth century BCE, Pericles called upon the city to embark upon a new construction program: three temples, and later the Theater of Dionysus and the Theater of Herodes Atticus, were built on the promontory overlooking the city. The Theater of Herodes Atticus was restored in 1955 and is used as an outdoor concert venue.
Although the famous sculptures of the Parthenon, the Elgin Marbles, are controversially still held at the British Museum in London, the Parthenon still affords views of ancient sculptures, particularly on the east pediment. Make sure to visit the olive tree that Athena planted to compete with Poseidon.
The National Archaeological Museum
During the ravages of World War II, this museum’s precious treasures were divided up and buried underground to protect them from destruction. After the museum reopened in 1946, top experts began the painstaking process of reorganizing and displaying the formidable collection.
Heavy on sculpture, pottery and jewelry, it is divided into seven collections: Neolithic and Cycladic, Mycenaean, Geometric and Archaic Sculpture, Classical sculpture, Roman and Hellenistic sculpture, pottery, and the Thira frescoes. Not to be missed are the gold Mask of Agamemnon and the iconic bronzes “Horse with the Little Jockey” and “Poseidon.”
Monastiraki
This lively and active area serves as the city’s flea market, with the streets of Areos, Ifaistou and Pandrosou abounding with interesting and varied shops specializing in a variety of antiques, like books, jewelry, furniture, artwork, tools, and metal and leather goods.
The heart of the market is the Plateia Avyssinias, which is booming with business on Sundays. In addition to antiquing, many shops sell items of interest to tourists, and there are numerous cafés and restaurants nearby to take a break from shopping.
Athens is the economic and cultural hub of Greece.(Reuters/Louiza Vradi)
Samaria Gorge
Tucked away on the southern island of Crete, the 10-mile-long Samaria Gorge runs from Omalos in the White Mountains down to Agia Roumeli on the Libyan Sea.
Its towering mountains and lush forests make for a once-in-a-lifetime hiking experience. Located on the southeastern corner of the island, hikers should bring plenty of water and good footwear, and be prepared for a five- to eight-hour excursion.
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is not merely the name for the highest point in Greece, the home of the Greek panoply of gods, but for the entire mountain massif, 12 miles across.
Located in northern Greece, the Olympus National Park is roughly a two-hour drive south of Thessaloniki. The flora and fauna feature more than 1,700 plant species as well as chamois, boars and deer.
Only experienced hikers should attempt to summit Mytikas Peak, the highest point in Greece. It’s a 12-mile round-trip hike with a particularly steep and exposed final ascent and a grueling 6,200 feet of vertical gain.
The Aegean Sea has long drawn tourists from the U.S., Canada and Europe, who prize its beautiful beaches and extravagant nightlife.(Associated Press)
Corinth
Located just 50 miles west of Athens, Corinth makes for a perfect day trip.
The city’s most impressive feature is the Acrocorinth, a castle fortress atop a massive rock overlooking the city. The American School’s Corinth Excavations began here in 1929, and it is widely regarded as one of the most important medieval castles in Greece.
Nearby, one can walk the ruins of the Temple of Apollo and view the dramatic Corinth canal, passing through two rocky cliff faces.
The Blue Caves of Zakynthos are a bit off the beaten track but well worthy of a visit.
Located on an island off the nation’s southwest coast, they feature some of the most stunning blue water and rugged rock formations in Europe. The nearby beach resorts of Tsilivi and Alykes offer fun in the sun and ample water sports opportunities, while Laganas is famed for its spirited nightlife.
David Unsworth reports on Latin America. You can follow David Unsworth on Twitter @LatinAmerUpdate
Many Americans are getting too little sleep and have too much stress.
A new Gallup poll revealed 57% of adults would “feel better if they got more sleep,” while 42% said they get “as much sleep as they need.”
These findings have nearly reversed in the last decade, Gallup noted in a press release. The last measurement in 2013 found that 56% of Americans got the sleep they needed while 43% did not.
Overall, however, Americans are getting fewer hours of sleep than they did in past decades.
In 1942, 59% of Americans were getting eight hours or more of sleep per night, while only 3% were getting five hours or less.
Fifty-seven percent of adults said they would “feel better if they got more sleep,” a new Gallup poll revealed.(iStock)
In 2024, only 25% of Americans get an average of eight hours of sleep, and 20% reported sleeping for five or less.
Young women are the least likely to get enough sleep, according to the study — with 36% of females versus 48% of males reporting getting enough shuteye.
Sleep amounts for both men and women showed “significant declines from previous readings in 2013 and 2004,” according to Gallup — and are the lowest measured for each group to date.
The decline was found across all age groups, although young adults between ages 18 and 29 saw the smallest difference.
Stress-sleep connection
Gallup suggested that an uptick in stress could be driving this downward trend in sleep, as the American Psychological Association reports a “strong connection between stress and sleep quality.”
Women are most likely to frequently experience stress, the Gallup poll found.(iStock)
“Over the past 30 years, the number of Americans who are stressed has been on a steady incline after a sharp drop in 2003,” Gallup reported.
“The most recent data show that nearly half of all Americans, 49%, report frequently experiencing stress — up 16 points over the past two decades and the highest in Gallup’s trend to date.”
Young women are also most likely to frequently experience stress, “exceeding men their age by 14 points,” according to Gallup.
Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, confirmed this relationship between sleep and stress, calling it the “cycle of worry” during a Thursday appearance on “America’s Newsroom.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, discussed the relationship between sleep and stress during a Thursday appearance on “America’s Newsroom.” He noted that exposure to the blue light of smartphone screens can keep people awake, among other issues.(Fox News)
“They’re connected,” he said.
“If you get more stressed, you don’t sleep; if you don’t sleep, you get more stressed.”
Siegel explained that “all of this spirals out of control,” since sleeplessness is often remedied with caffeine — yet caffeine “interferes with your sleep cycle.”
“If you get more stressed, you don’t sleep; if you don’t sleep, you get more stressed.”
The same goes for drinking alcohol before bed to induce sleep, which “wears off and you wake up in the middle of the night,” the doctor warned.
Exposure to the blue light of smartphone screens can keep people awake, Siegel said.
“All of this is very bad for health,” he said. “It leads to heart disease, it increases your risk of stroke, it causes you to gain weight.”
For young women in particular, several factors could be causing them to lose sleep, including the use of social media, which can “feed anxiety,” Siegel said.
A potential fix to ending the sleep-stress cycle is practicing “sleep hygiene,” said one doctor, which includes sleeping in a dark room away from your cellphone.(iStock)
A potential fix for the sleep-stress cycle is practicing “sleep hygiene,” Siegel suggested, which includes sleeping in a dark room away from your cell phone.
“I treat stress and sleeplessness as the same thing,” he said. “That’s why I don’t believe in sleeping pills … You’re just covering up the problem.”
He added, “I want to get at why you’re worried and what I can do about the worry.”
Dr. Wendy Troxel, a Utah-based sleep expert and senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation, told Fox News Digital in an interview that stress levels have remained “very high” since the COVID pandemic.
“[For] populations navigating multiple demands, including young people who are going to school or starting new jobs in this topsy-turvy world, it’s understandable that they are experiencing increases in stress, and that’s manifesting increases in sleep disturbances,” she said.
Dr. Wendy Troxel, senior behavioral scientist at RAND Corporation, is also the author of “Sharing the Covers: Every Couple’s Guide to Better Sleep” and scientific advisor for sleepfoundation.org. “As a culture,” she said, “we’ve become more aware of the importance of sleep over the past 10 years, which is a great thing.”(Diane Baldwin)
In some instances, Troxel pointed out, lack of sleep has been worn as a “badge of honor” to prove that people are busy or productive.
“But I think that that cultural misconception is starting to wane,” she said.
“The reality is, as a culture, we’ve just become more aware of the importance of sleep over the past 10 years, which is a great thing.”
To break the “vicious cycle” of stress impacting sleep and vice versa, Troxel offered several tips, including maintaining a consistent sleep and wake schedule to ensure that stress doesn’t “invade your life.”
Incorporating a wind-down routine prior to bed can also bring down stress levels, the sleep expert noted.
These routines can involve relaxing activities such as deep breathing exercises, cuddling with a partner, journaling, doing gentle yoga or listening to music.
Wind-down activities before bed can include deep breathing exercises, cuddling with a partner, journaling, doing gentle yoga or listening to music.(iStock)
“It’s just about finding something that you can ritualize and do on a nightly basis to set the stage … to put aside all the demands and stress of the day and prepare for winding down and [going] to sleep,” Troxel said.
For people who wake up in the middle of the night due to stress, she advised getting out of bed, performing a wind-down activity and then returning to bed.
This technique, called stimulus control, prevents the brain from forming the habit of waking up at a certain time to ruminate on stressful thoughts.
“We all have occasional stress-related sleep disturbances, but if that starts happening night after night, it becomes habit-forming,” she said.
“And that’s where we see more chronic problems like insomnia. So, if you see that happening, treat it as a habit that your brain is learning — and break it.”
What would you think if I told you that there is technology available today that could make you vanish?
It’s true. Thanks to optical engineering, it’s possible to become invisible to the naked eye.
This isn’t just a fantasy. It’s a reality crafted by the U.K.’s Invisibility Shield Co., which has introduced the impressive Invisibility Shield. This 6-foot-tall shield offers a new dimension to the concept of invisibility.
At the heart of this technology lies a precision-engineered lens array. Picture this: You’re standing behind the shield, and instead of being a conspicuous figure, the light reflecting off you is cleverly redirected.
This array, composed of vertically oriented lenses, scatters the light horizontally, causing your image to dissolve into the backdrop. It’s like a magic trick, where the magician vanishes not with a puff of smoke but with a whisper of light.
The Invisibility Shield.(Invisibility Shield Co.)
Invisibility shield dimensions
Small Shield: 7.9 inches x 12 inches
Standard Shield: 2-feet-3 inches x 3-feet-3 inches
A man stands behind the Invisibility Shield.(Invisibility Shield Co.)
A closer look at the optical engineering of the invisibility shield
Now, let’s delve deeper into the science. The lenses are not just any lenses; they are elongated, convex lenses meticulously embossed onto a polymer sheet. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill magnifying glasses; they are the result of rigorous testing and fine-tuning — shaped to perfection to manipulate light just right.
But what about the backdrop? Ah, that’s where the magic amplifies. The background light, brighter and broader, passes through the shield and gets refracted towards the observer. From their point of view, it’s as if the background itself has stretched out, masking your presence.
The shields aren’t just a one-trick pony, though. They excel against a variety of backdrops — be it the lush green foliage, the rough texture of sand or even the smooth expanse of the sky. And for those who appreciate the finer details, the shields work wonders against horizontal lines, whether painted by nature’s brush or the human hand.
A man disappears behind the Invisibility Shield.(Invisibility Shield Co.)
But let’s not forget, these shields are not armor. They won’t protect you from harm, but will make you virtually invisible. And they’re built to last, with materials that withstand the elements and the test of time.
A person partially disappears behind the Invisibility Shield.(Invisibility Shield Co.)
Who is purchasing the invisibility shield?
The company tells us that “generally, we find customers who have previously ordered a small version just like to play around with hiding items on their desks and experiment with the material.
“With respect to the large models, our shields have been used for all sorts of things: paintball, stalking wildlife, pranks, stage magic, making ‘invisibility windows’ and interior screening in apartments.”
You will be able to pre-order a shield for $870 via a Kickstarter campaign. A less expensive, smaller version, measuring 7.9 inches in height, is available for $67. This will help fund the first large production run of the new shields. The company tells us the Kickstarter campaign exceeded the initial goal of around $12,600 by almost 10 times, which would be close to $125,000.
Kurt’s key takeaways
The Invisibility Shield Co.’s creation takes us a step closer to the stuff of daydreams, allowing us to vanish on a whim. With the support of a thriving Kickstarter initiative, this piece of tech could one day reshape our interaction with the visible world. It’s a leap into a future where being unseen is just a matter of choice, a shield’s width away.
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
New York City, New York, April 19, 2024, Fanmire® is a fan engagement platform that connects fans to the creators, artists, and athletes that they love. Fanmire® harnesses the power of technology to equip content creators and influencers with the necessary tools to curate authentic experiences in order to monetize their fanbase. Their core values revolve around fostering community and meaningful relationships, so they take fandom a step further by sponsoring in-person events and premium experiences for fans and creators to meet face-to-face.
Fanmire is proud to share that they were recently accepted to the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub gaining access to Azure, OpenAI GPT, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, GitHub, LinkedIn Premium, and Visual Studio Enterprise Cloud, enabling the company to significantly enhance their technology.
4/20 marks the day that Fanmire and Grammy-nominated Jadakiss partners up to take fan engagement to the next level. Born and raised in Yonkers, New York, the artist has six studio albums, one collaborative album, six mixtapes and 12 singles. Fanmire’s CEO, Jamel Anderson, says “Jadakiss’ leadership, strategic partnership and business acumen will take Fanmire to new heights.”
Fanmire has attracted notable creators like Yandy Harris, DJ Drewski, Zoe Spencer, Kaiya Cenat, Bobby Shmurda, and Bianca Golden just to name a few. Fanmire empowers creators by providing support and enabling them to express themselves freely, authentically, and inclusively with their fan base. Fanmire stands by their core values which include no sex, no negatively, and no cyber bullying that enables creators and users to have an amazing experience. Anderson created Fanmire® with the intention of ensuring that fans can maintain their excitement and connection long after the game or concert ends.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is pushing the judge in former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud case to void the $175 million bond that Trump previously posted to appeal his New York civil lawsuit.
In her 26-page filing obtained by Fox News Digital, James questions whether the insurance company has sufficient funds to back it up.
Trump’s bond was posted by California-based Knight Specialty Insurance Company (KSIC), but James argued that the insurer was “not authorized” to write business in New York, stating it is a small insurer that is not authorized to write business in New York and is not regulated by the state’s insurance department, had never before written a surety bond in New York or in the prior two years in any other jurisdiction, and has a total policyholder surplus of just $138 million.
The company has a total policyholder surplus of just $138 million, the filing states. According to New York state law, smaller businesses like KSIC are not permitted to expose themselves to liabilities, like a bond, or any potential loss greater than 10 percent of their surplus.
New York Attorney General said she is “prepared” to ask the judge to seize former President Donald Trump’s assets if he cannot pay the $354 million judgement handed down in his civil fraud case. (ABC News/Screenshot/Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images)
“Based on KSIC’s policyholder surplus in its most recent annual financial statement of $138,441,671, the limitation of loss on any one risk that KSIC is permitted to write is $13.8 million,” the lawyers wrote. “The face amount of the bond exceeds this limitation by $161.2 million.”
James also wrote in the filing that “KSIC is not qualified to act as the surety under this standard because its management has been found by federal authorities to have operated affiliated companies within KSIC’s holding company structure in violation of federal law on multiple occasions within the past several years.”
“KSIC does not now have an exclusive right to control the account and will not obtain such control unless and until it exercises a right to do so on two days’ notice,” the filing read.
James also wrote that the Court should not rely on KSIC’s financial summary attached to the bond as evidence that KSIC has sufficient capacity to justify writing a $175 million bond.
“That is because KSIC sends 100% of its retained insurance risk to affiliates in the Cayman Islands, where lax regulations allow KSIC to use this risk transfer to reduce the liabilities it carries on its books in a way that artificially bolsters its surplus, a practice New York regulators have dubbed “shadow insurance” and about which they have sounded the alarm,” the filing read.
For these reasons, James writes that the Court should deny the Motion and require Defendants to post a replacement undertaking within seven days of the Court’s ruling.
Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James and former President Donald Trump.(Getty Images)
In September, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization had committed fraud while building a real estate empire by deceiving banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.
The judge also prohibited Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or legal entity in New York for two years.
The former president has repeatedly slammed the case against him and denied any wrongdoing, calling it a “witch hunt.”
James brought the lawsuit against Trump, accusing Trump and the Trump Organization of fraudulent business practices. James claimed Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, as well as his associates and businesses, committed “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” on their financial statements.
The judge is expected to hold a hearing Monday to discuss the issues raised by the attorney general’s office. The hearing is set to run in conjunction with opening statements in Trump’s New York criminal trial.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.
