Newsletter Archive

‘Philly Special’ is a term lots of folks want to cash in on. It refers to the trick play that helped the Philadelphia Eagles football team win the Super Bowl. The Eagles want to exclusively own ‘Philly Special’ but several entrepreneurs, including a sandwich maker and gift shop manufacturer, are competing to be awarded a trademark — in other words, exclusive rights — to the phrase. It’s not the first time there’s been a rush to trademark a term after a big event. It’s even got a name — newsjacking.

It’s horror movie material  –  artificial intelligence that runs amok and wreaks havoc, possibly even turning on humans. But that scenario is not necessarily fiction according to 26 of the world’s leading AI researchers, who warn of the dangers that could emerge in the coming decade. As AI systems surpass levels of human performance, one of those dangers could be to take fake news to a whole new — and alarming — level.

A faulty dengue fever vaccine has set off mass panic in the Philippines following the deaths of three children. Philippine media is reporting that dozens have fallen dangerously ill since taking the vaccination, which could cause children to develop a severe form of dengue if they get infected after the vaccination. More than 700,000 schoolchildren were inoculated before the government banned the vaccine. Many Filipinos have quit vaccinating their children fearing that all kinds of vaccine, not just the dengue vaccination, could harm their children.

Haiti’s ambassador to the US is on a mission to reshape the view most of the world has of his country. Paul Altidor is out to prove that Haiti isn’t the sh**hole country that President Trump allegedly thinks it is. So he gathered American celebrities, dignitaries and fashionistas at the Haitian embassy for a little ‘Diplomacy by Design.’

A Bollywood icon was buried in India today. Mourning fans turned out in Mumbai to bid farewell to actress Sridevi Kapoor, four days after she drowned in a hotel bathtub in Dubai, where she had gone to attend a wedding. The 54-year-old was considered Bollywood’s first female superstar. In New Delhi, VOA explores what it was about the megastar that won Indian hearts.