kengo kuma + OODA to transform porto slaughterhouse into a new cultural complex

japanese architect kengo kuma and portuguese studio OODA have been selected to transform a former slaughterhouse in porto. known as the ‘matadouro’, the existing cluster of buildings is located in campanhã, in close proximity to the home stadium of soccer club FC porto. the project seeks to restore the historic building, allowing it to establish itself as a vibrant part of the community.

Denmark bans wearing the burqa in public

Muslim community members outside the East London Mosque on | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Denmark is the latest European country to pass a law banning face veils, outlawing the burqa and niqab worn by some Muslim women.

Parliament voted on Thursday for the law, proposed by the centre-right government, by 75 votes to 30, with 74 abstentions. It comes into effect on August 1.

Dutch Official Says Russia Must Accept Blame for 2014 Attack on Jet

Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday. Russia, he said, has offered nothing but “denials, distortions of reality and disinformation.”CreditJustin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock

Days after a consortium of international investigators announced that Russia was the source of a missile that shot down a civilian airliner over Ukraine four years ago, the foreign minister of the Netherlands on Tuesday challenged Russia to “accept its responsibility” for the deaths of 298 people killed in the attack.

A Search for MH370, Missing Since 2014, Ends ‘With a Heavy Heart’

The Seabed Constructor, a ship operated by Ocean Infinity, set out in January for the search of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.CreditOcean Infinity, via EPA

The latest search for MH370 — the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared four years ago en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard — has ended in failure, the company behind the search said on Tuesday.

Top Aide to Kim Jong-un Is Bound for U.S., Trump Says

Kim Yong-chol has been at the side of the North Korean leader during a recent whirl of diplomacy and is expected to meet soon with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.CreditAhn Young-Joon/Associated Press

North Korea’s top nuclear weapons negotiator was headed for New York on Tuesday and plans to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as officials race to settle on an agenda for a June 12 summit meeting between the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and President Trump in Singapore.

North Korea Willing to Talk About ‘Complete Denuclearization’

President Moon Jae-in of South Korea met with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, on Saturday inside the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two nations.CreditSouth Korea Presidential Blue House, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, said during a surprise summit meeting that he is determined to meet President Trump and discuss a “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Sunday.

Ireland Votes to End Abortion Ban in Rebuke to Catholic Church

The referendum repeals the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution — a 1983 measure that banned abortion under almost all circumstances.CreditJeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Ireland voted decisively to repeal one of the world’s more restrictive abortion bans, sweeping aside generations of conservative patriarchy and dealing the latest in a series of stinging rebukes to the Roman Catholic Church.

China Tries to Erase Taiwan, One Ally (and Website) at a Time

The changing of the guard at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital. China’s recent efforts to isolate Taiwan, diplomatically and otherwise, have been its most intense in decades, people on the self-governing island say.CreditIsaac Lawrence for The New York Times

Can China use its enormous economic and diplomatic leverage to simply erase Taiwan’s international identity?

Keeping Summit Hopes Alive Suggests Kim Jong-un May Need a Deal

South Korean news coverage on a screen in Seoul, the capital. Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has promised his people a prosperous economy, and President Trump’s cancellation of their summit talks put that goal in jeopardy.CreditAhn Young-Joon/Associated Press

Ever since Kim Jong-un took over as the young, untested ruler of North Korea seven years ago, he has promised his country a future free from deprivation.

Understanding Ireland’s Vote on Whether to Keep Its Abortion Ban

Competing signs in Dublin on Friday.CreditClodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

Voters in Ireland appear to have overturned the country’s abortion ban, according to two exit polls released Friday night.

North Korea Says It Will Give Trump ‘Time and Opportunity’ to Reconsider

Mr. Trump on Thursday.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

Hours after President Trump canceled a summit with its leader, Kim Jong-un, North Korea said on Friday that it was still willing to give Mr. Trump “time and opportunity” to reconsider his decision, saying that Mr. Kim had held great expectations for the meeting.

Trump Pulls Out of North Korea Summit Meeting With Kim Jong-un

President Trump on Thursday pulled out of a highly anticipated summit meeting with Kim Jong-un, accusing the North Koreans of bad faith and lamenting that “this missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.”

Swedish Law Now Recognizes Sex Without Consent as Rape

A demonstration against rape in Malmo, Sweden, last year.CreditJohan Nilsson/EPA, via Shutterstock

“Sex must be voluntary — if it is not, then it is illegal.”

This is the straightforward language of a new Swedish law set to change the way rape and other sexual crimes are prosecuted in the country.

Deep in the Desert, Iran Quietly Advances Missile Technology

An Iranian facility 25 miles from Shahrud, Iran, where missiles testing is believed to be taking place.CreditDavid Schmerler/Center for Nonproliferation Studies; Imagery via Planet Labs Inc.

When an explosion nearly razed Iran’s long-range missile research facility in 2011 — and killed the military scientist who ran it — many Western intelligence analysts viewed it as devastating to Tehran’s technological ambitions.

Italy’s New Government Will Challenge the E.U. at Its Heart

Giuseppe Conte was given the mandate to become prime minister of Italy by President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday.CreditEttore Ferrari/EPA, via Shutterstock

As Italy’s new populist leaders prepare to form a government, European leaders are bracing for potential new confrontations over migration and some of the core principles of the common currency, the euro.

Venezuela Election Won by Maduro Amid Widespread Disillusionment

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela giving a victory speech in Caracas on Sunday night. He made scant mention of the low turnout, telling a cheering crowd, “And here we are again, victorious!”CreditMeridith Kohut for The New York Times

President Nicolás Maduro won a second term as president of Venezuela, a country in the midst of a historic economic collapse marked by soaring prices, widespread hunger, rampant crime, a failing health system and a large-scale exodus of its citizens.

Electoral officials declared Mr. Maduro the victor Sunday night, in a contest that critics said was heavily rigged in his favor.

Malaysia Seizes Najib’s ‘Rather Big’ Trove of Jewels and Handbags

The Malaysian police said they removed 284 boxes of handbags from residences belonging to former Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor.CreditAriffin Jamar/The Straits Times, via Reuters

The police investigating Malaysia’s former prime minister, Najib Razak, said they seized more than 350 boxes and bags containing cash, jewelry and designer handbags early Friday during searches of three residences.

Intel finally made a 10nm processor

Mike Blake / Reuters

Around two years later and Intel is finally shipping its 10nm Cannon Lake CPUs. The chip itself is a bit of a bore, but given its legacy of delays and how long Intel has been talking about it, that they're finally being found in the wild is worth mentioning. The 8th-gen i3-8121U is a dual-core, four-thread CPU with a base clock of 2.2GHz and boost clock of 3.2GHz.

New Samsung ad is all about Apple’s iPhone throttling mess

Months after the controversy made headlines and angered consumers, Samsung is only now getting around to trolling Apple for throttling iPhones. A new commercial tells the familiar tale of many Samsung ads: an iPhone user gradually becomes so fed up with Apple’s phone that they ultimately make the switch to the latest Galaxy device, which in this case is the Galaxy S9.

Facebook adds Voice Posts, Stories archive, and new cloud storage features

Save photos and videos to Facebook Camera.

 Images: Facebook

Facebook, the app you used to use before Instagram, is making three updates that it says will help users better “create and save memories.” The changes will let you save your photos and videos directly to your account in the Facebook cloud, share voice messages with friends, and archive your favorite Facebook Stories. The new features announced today will begin rolling out in India, before hitting the rest of world “shortly thereafter.”

Google’s File on Me Was Huge. Here’s Why It Wasn’t as Creepy as My Facebook Data

Credit: Minh Uong/The New York Times

Google has far more data about us than Facebook. Yet unlike Mark Zuckerberg’s social networking empire, which has been under fire for improperly leaking user data, Google has sidestepped controversy.

You may wonder: Why is that? After all, we turn to Google for not only our internet searches but also for our emails, calendaring, maps, photo uploads, video streaming, mobile phones and web browsers. That’s far more pervasive than the baby photos and comments that we post on Facebook.

Rely on Filipinos, not China, senators tell Duterte

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. TOTO LOZANO / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

President Rodrigo Duterte should depend on the Filipino people, not on China, for his survival in office, several senators said on Thursday.

Understanding Malaysia’s Political Earthquake

Supporters of Mahathir Mohamad outside the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur on May 10, waiting for his swearing-in as Malaysia’s prime minister after his surprise election victory.CreditUlet Ifansasti/Getty Images

The events of recent days in Malaysia have been dizzying.

A former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, 92, returned to power last week after a stunning upset vote, defeating not just his former protégé, but the very party he helped create.

Justice Department and F.B.I. Are Investigating Cambridge Analytica

The London offices of Cambridge Analytica in March. The now-defunct political data firm has faced intense scrutiny since it was revealed to have harvested information from tens of millions of Facebook profiles.CreditDaniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Justice Department and the F.B.I. are investigating Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political data firm, and have sought to question former employees and banks that handled its business, according to an American official and other people familiar with the inquiry.

Israelis Reflect on Gaza: ‘I Hope at Least That Each Bullet Was Justified’

A view of Gaza on Tuesday from the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz. As the protests wound down, kibbutz residents grappled with the killings the day before.CreditJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Daniel Rahamim, 63, had four Palestinians from nearby Gaza at his wedding in 1983. He remembers sunbathing on Gaza’s beaches, and drinking tea at a friend’s antique shop there.

But that was long ago — before Hamas, and the wars that traumatized his children, and the security barrier that now fences off the Gaza Strip like an open-air prison.

On Monday, as gunfire echoed across the wheat, sunflower and jojoba fields stretching several hundred yards to the fence, Mr. Rahamim felt conflicting emotions. “When we hear of the dead, it pains us,” he said the next afternoon. “I hope at least that each bullet was justified.”

From the agricultural hamlets with their backs up against Gaza to the busy sidewalks of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and all the way to Israel’s northern borderlands, Israelis grappled in different ways with the staggering casualty reports from the Gaza protest on Monday: 60 killed, more than 1,700 hospitalized, according to Palestinian officials. It was the worst one-day total since the 2014 Gaza war. Israel said that only a small number of those shot had been armed.

Via: New York Times

North Korea’s Full Statement on Meeting With Trump

North Korean soldiers visiting statues of the former leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang last month.CreditEd Jones/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Here is an official translation of a statement released by the Korean Central News Agency of North Korea on Wednesday.

Kim Kye Gwan, the first vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, made public the following press statement on Wednesday:

Kim Jong Un, the chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, made a strategic decision to put an end to the unpleasant steps for peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the world.

In response to the noble intention of Chairman Kim Jong Un, President Trump stated his position for terminating the historically deep-rooted hostility and improving the relations between DPRK and the U.S.

I appreciated the position positively with an expectation that upcoming DPRK-U.S. summit would be a big step forward for catalyzing detente on the Korean peninsula and building a great future.

But now prior to the DPRK-U.S. summit, unbridled remarks provoking the other side of dialogue are recklessly made in the U.S. and I am totally disappointed as these constitute extremely unjust behavior.

High-ranking officials of the White House and the Department of State including Bolton, White House national security adviser, are letting loose the assertions of so-called Libya mode of nuclear abandonment, “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization,” “total decommissioning of nuclear weapons, missiles and biochemical weapons” etc. while talking about formula of “abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterwards.”

This is not an expression of intention to address the issue through dialogue. It is essentially a manifestation of awfully sinister move to impose on our dignified state the destiny of Libya or Iraq which had been collapsed due to yielding the whole of their countries to big powers.

I cannot suppress indignation at such moves of the U.S., and harbor doubt about the U.S. sincerity for improved DPRK-U.S. relations through sound dialogue and negotiations.

World knows too well that our country is neither Libya nor Iraq which have met miserable fate.

It is absolutely absurd to dare compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya which had been at the initial state of nuclear development.

We shed light on the quality of Bolton already in the past, and we do not hide our feelings of repugnance towards him.

If the Trump administration fails to recall the lessons learned from the past when the DPRK-U.S. talks had to undergo twists and setbacks owing to the likes of Bolton and turns its ear to the advice of quasi-”patriots” who insist on Libya mode and the like, prospects of upcoming DPRK-U.S. summit and overall DPRK-U.S. relations will be crystal clear.

We have already stated our intention of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and made clear on several occasions that precondition for denuclearization is to put an end to anti-DPRK hostile policy and nuclear threats and blackmail of the United States.

But now, the U.S. is miscalculating the magnanimity and broad-minded initiatives of the DPRK as signs of weakness and trying to embellish and advertise as if these are the product of its sanctions and pressure.

The U.S. is trumpeting as if it would offer economic compensation and benefit in case we abandon nuke. But we have never had any expectation of U.S. support in carrying out our economic construction and will not at all make such a deal in future, too.

It is a ridiculous comedy to see that the Trump administration, claiming to take a different road from the previous administrations, still clings to the outdated policy on the DPRK - a policy pursured by previous administrations at the same time when the DPRK was at the stage of nuclear development.

If President Trump follows in the footsteps of his predecessors, he will be recorded as more tragic and unsuccessful president than his predecessors, far from his initial ambition to make unprecedented success.

If the Trump administration takes an approach to the DPRK-U.S. summit with sincerity for improved DPRK-U.S. relations, it will receive a deserved response from us. However, if the U.S. is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceeding to the DPRK-U.S. summit.

Via: New York Times

Putin Opens Bridge to Crimea, Cementing Russia’s Hold on Neighbor

President Vladimir V. Putin climbed aboard a large orange construction truck on Monday and drove it across a new 12-mile bridge to Crimea, inaugurating his latest megaproject and tightening Moscow’s claim to the disputed territory.

The bridge, finished six months ahead of schedule, established a land link from Russia to the Crimean peninsula, which the Russian military seized from Ukraine in 2014.

“This is a remarkable result, which makes Crimea and legendary Sevastopol even stronger, and all of us are even closer to each other,” Mr. Putin told a crowd of cheering workers after completing the roughly 15-minute drive at the head of a convoy of construction vehicles.

The bridge connects the Crimean city of Kerch, on the eastern coast, to the Russian mainland and is fed by local roads. But the opening was more theatrical than real because the main highways feeding the bridge on both the mainland and across Crimea to Sevastopol in the west, long the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet, remain under construction.

Via: New York Times