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RICHMOND HILL, Ontario The last time Meisam Salahi talked to his younger brother, Mohsen Salahi, few words were spoken.

Mohsen, 31, and his wife, Mahsa Amirliravi, 30, were returning to Toronto from Iran, where they had been visiting relatives, and had just boarded Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 in Tehran.

Meisam, 34, called Mohsen because he was worried after hearing that Iran had fired a dozen ballistic missiles at two Iraqi air bases hosting U.S. forces.

But Mohsen was in a rush, so Meisam said he would see him when he returned or at Cestar College, where they both taught engineering.

He said, Yeah, yeah for sure, Meisam recalled in an interview. I said bye.

But Mohsen and Amirliravi never made it.

The flight was shot down last Wednesday near Tehran by Irans military, killing all 176 people on board. Iranian officials initially denied the country was responsible, but early Saturday, Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, acknowledged its military had unintentionally shot it down because of human error. Rouhani said an investigation would identify and prosecute those responsible for this great tragedy & unforgivable mistake.

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Protesters in Iran took to the streets Sunday, calling on the countrys Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to step down after the government reversed course and admitted it was responsible.

But thousands of miles away in his adopted country of Canada, where he and his brother had moved more than a decade ago from Iran, Meisam Salahi struggled with unsparing loss and grief. In an interview at Mohsen and Amirliravi's home in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, he was still in shock.

I cant believe it that Im sitting here, in his house and hes not here, Meisam said. Hes supposed to be here.

Meisam learned about their deaths during a sleepless night last week as he worried about what might happen in the aftermath of Irans missile strikes. At around 4 a.m., he switched on his phone.

A friend in Iran had sent him a message on WhatsApp, asking where he was. Confused, he checked with another friend, who told him he hoped this would be the last sad message Meisam would get.

I said, What are you talking about?" He said, 'Call your mom, Meisam recalled. Im like, OK.' Then my hands start shaking.

When he got through to his mother, she was crying. At first he thought his father had died, which gave him some solace because his father had lived a long, well-traveled life. Then she said his brothers name.

I fell on the floor, Meisam said, adding, How am I going to live the rest of my life without him, without her?

Talking with his father-in-law about what may have happened after the plane was struck brought him a measure of comfort. He thought of Mohsen and Amirliravi together, holding hands, saying I love you to each other.

I think that was their last moment, he said. I could imagine that.

Meisam and his wife, Kristin, are expecting a baby boy next month. Before his brothers death, Meisam had run a couple potential names by Mohsen, who wasnt excited about them, but he wasnt negative either.

He said both of them are nice like, 'OK, interesting, and you guys decide, whatever,' Meisam recalled.

So they did. His name will be Mohsen.

Jamie Morrison reported from Ontario and Tim Stelloh from California.

Jamie Morrison

Jamie Morrison is an NBC News producer based in Atlanta.

Tim Stelloh is a reporter for NBC News, based in California.

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Brother of victim in downed Ukrainian plane: 'He's supposed to be here' - NBC News

A Russian state propagandist is casting blame on Ukraine for the recent plane crash near Tehran echoing the disinformation that emerged after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014.

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashed shortly after takeoff on Wednesday. All 176 people on board, including a large contingent of Canadians and Iranians, were killed.

The comments comparing this crash to Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 came from Alexander Malkevich, the chair of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation for the development of media, and the former head of US-focused propaganda site called USA Really.

A Russian-language article from the Federal News Agency reported that Malkevich said, This is the second time Ukraine is placing civilian planes in military conflict.

This was a reference to the downing of MH17 over Ukraine almost six years ago, which set off a wave of disinformation and international investigations.

FANs recent coverage about events in Iran and Iraq floated additional baseless theories, claiming the US was responsible for the plane crash, and that the US was hiding casualties from Irans recent missile strikes on army bases in Iraq.

Any chance that Russia gets theyre going to try to discredit the United States, and try to discredit Ukraine, said Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center and the author of the upcoming book How to Lose the Information War. I dont think its surprising Malkevich is saying this.

Malkevich is a familiar figure to US authorities. In 2018, he attempted to organize a rally outside the White House to promote the website USA Really, an English-language site he ran for FAN. At one point, FAN was based out of the same location in St. Petersburg as the Internet Research Agency, the infamous troll factory indicted for attempting to influence US elections.

Malkevichs interview and FANs other coverage show how Russia is quick to fill any post-disaster information vacuum with confusion, conspiracies, and propaganda, according to Jankowicz. She said it echoes the Russian governments history of sowing disinformation and denying responsibility for the MH17 disaster and the Skripal poisoning.

Theyre always going to be spinning and coming up with crazy stuff, she said. Im certain Sputnik and RT will be spinning these narratives soon and other narratives, as well. Its more of the same.

In the interview with FAN, which was sanctioned by the US for its role in spreading disinformation about the 2016 and 2018 elections, Malkevich also denied Russia was responsible for the shooting down of MH17. Both Dutch authorities and independent investigators concluded Russia was responsible and that the plane was hit by a Russian missile after compiling incriminating radio transmissions and phone calls by Russian soldiers.

Still, Malkevich claimed he had obtained information that would show something different.

In the case of the more recent crash involving the Ukrainian airliner, initial reporting and statements from Iranian authorities pointed to an issue with the plane. But on Thursday, US media reported that intelligence sources had concluded the plane was shot down, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that conclusion in public comments. Trudeau cited intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our own intelligence. He also said the shooting down of the plane may have been accidental, echoing US President Donald Trump, who said "somebody could have made a mistake."

The Iranian government has denied those claims. It has also refused to let outside investigators examine the evidence and has not shared the aircrafts black boxes.

The Ukrainian president, meanwhile, cautioned against speculation and made a plea for evidence.

The dueling narratives about the cause of the plane crash are yet another example of the rumors and falsehoods that have spread about the USs killing of Iranian military general Qassem Soleimani, Irans retaliation, and the plane crash. When news of the crash first spread, many people shared unverified and out of context photos, feeding speculation and conflicting theories.

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Russian Propagandists Are Spreading Conspiracies About The Ukrainian Plane That Was Shot Down - BuzzFeed News

What President Trump Said

By the way, in terms of the money, it got there two or three weeks ahead of schedule, long before it was supposed to be there.

False. President Trump was wrong in asserting that his decision last year to suspend military assistance to Ukraine a key component in his impeachment and upcoming trial did not interfere with the schedule for delivering the aid.

The 2019 federal fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, the date by which all appropriated aid to Ukraine was supposed to be disbursed. But because of the freeze ordered by Mr. Trump, not all of the aid was spent before the deadline.

Congress had appropriated $391 million in military assistance to Ukraine $250 million from the Pentagon and $141 million from the State Department meant to be spent by the end of September. Though the Pentagon announced its plans to provide the aid in June, White House officials blocked its release in July. It remained frozen until mid-September, when Mr. Trump relented after pressure from lawmakers and administration officials.

With just two weeks left in the fiscal year, the Pentagon was unable to fully disburse the funds. According to testimony from Mark Sandy, an official in the Office of Management and Budget, about $35 million was left unspent. Congress then extended the deadline to the 2020 fiscal year to allow for the disbursement of the remaining aid.

Had that provision not been included, then any unobligated funds as of Sept. 30 would have expired, Mr. Sandy said.

What Mr. Trump Said

We have thousands of ISIS prisoners that were keeping right now under lock and key. And we want Europe to take many of these prisoners because they came from Germany, France and other places probably a few from Greece, in all fairness.

This is exaggerated. Estimates from Mr. Trumps own administration show that he is overstating the share of Islamic State fighters who hail from Europe.

James F. Jeffrey, the State Departments special envoy for Syria, said in August that about 8,000 ISIS fighters from Syria and Iraq and another 2,000 foreign fighters were being detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces, the loose coalition of militias fighting the terrorist group.

Of those foreign fighters, about 800 are European and the rest are from former Soviet republics, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, according to a Pentagon inspector general report from August. The report and other analysts have noted that many of those places are hesitant to repatriate their citizens, fearing political backlash or hurdles in prosecution.

As for Mr. Trumps contention that a few ISIS fighters are Greek nationals, the nonprofit Counter Extremism Project concluded that the number was not well documented but said that Greece had been used as a transit point for fighters of European origin. A July report from the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization estimated that women and children affiliated with the Islamic State numbered about 6,600 from Western Europe but none from Greece.

Mr. Trump previously received pushback from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, when he told Mr. Macron in December that many fighters come from France.

Lets be serious, Mr. Macron said accurately. The very large numbers of fighters on the ground are the fighters coming from Syria, from Iraq.

Other claims

Mr. Trump also revived claims that The New York Times has previously fact-checked, including his often repeated falsehood that he opposed the Iraq war in the first place (he did not) and his exaggerated contention that European countries are not contributing assistance to Ukraine (they do).

Curious about the accuracy of a claim? Email factcheck@nytimes.com.

Link:
Trump Falsely Claims That Ukraine Aid Arrived Ahead of Schedule - The New York Times

A Canadian couple meant to board the doomed Ukraine International Airlines flight together on Tuesday was split up after a ticketing mix-up, leaving Mohsen Ahmadipour in the airport, while his wife Roja Azadian boarded the plane. The Ottawa Citizen reports Azadian and Ahmadipour were visiting their families in Iran, and planned to return to Ottawa. However, when they arrived at the airport Ahmadipour found out that his ticket was no longer valid when he went to check in, according to the Citizen. Kevin Manesh, a veterinarian and public relations director of the Iranian Arts and Cultural Society of Ottawa, told the Citizen that Ahmadipour waited at the airport while Azadian got aboard the Boeing 737, where he later learned of the crash from inside the terminal. Right now, he is stuck in the airport. He couldnt get on the plane. His wife could get on the plane, unfortunately, Manesh said. He was the lucky person who didnt get on the plane. Azadian, 43, was among the 63 Canadians who died when Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashed shortly after takeoff, killing everyone on board Tuesday.

See the article here:
Ticket Mix-Up Leaves Wife on Doomed Ukraine Airlines Flight and Husband Inside Tehran Airport - The Daily Beast

Originally published in EthicalSystems.org, December 1, 2019

In 2004, when a webcam was relatively unheard-of tech, Mark Newman knew that it would be the future of hiring. One of the first things the 20-year old did, after getting his degree in international business, was to co-found HireVue, a company offering a digital interviewing platform. Business trickled in. While Newman lived at his parents house, in Salt Lake City, the company, in its first five years, made just $100,000 in revenue. HireVue later received some outside capital, expanded and, in 2012, boasted some 200 clientsincluding Nike, Starbucks, and Walmartwhich would pay HireVue, depending on project volume, between $5,000 and $1 million. Recently, HireVue, which was bought earlier this year by the Carlyle Group, has become the source of some alarm, or at least trepidation, for its foray into the application of artificial intelligence in the hiring process. No longer does the company merely offer clients an asynchronous interviewing service, a way for hiring managers to screen thousands of applicants quickly by reviewing their video interview HireVue can now give companies the option of letting machine-learning algorithms choose the best candidates for them, based on, among other things, applicants tone, facial expressions, and sentence construction.

If that gives you the creeps, youre not alone. A 2017 Pew Research Center report found few Americans to be enthused, and many worried, by the prospect of companies using hiring algorithms. More recently, around a dozen interviewees assessed by HireVues AI told the Washington Post that it felt alienating and dehumanizing to have to wow a computer before being deemed worthy of a companys time. They also wondered how their recording might be used without their knowledge. Several applicants mentioned passing on the opportunity because thinking about the AI interview, as one of them told the paper, made my skin crawl. Had these applicants sat for a standard 30-minute interview, comprised of a half-dozen questions, the AI could have analyzed up to 500,000 data points. Nathan Mondragon, HireVues chief industrial-organizational psychologist, told the Washington Post that each one of those points become ingredients in the persons calculated score, between 1 and 100, on which hiring decisions candepend. New scores are ranked against a store of traitsmostly having to do with language use and verbal skillsfrom previous candidates for a similar position, who went on to thrive on the job.

HireVue wants you to believe that this is a good thing. After all, their pitch goes, humans are biased. If something like hunger can affect a hiring managers decisionlet alone classism, sexism, lookism, and other ismsthen why not rely on the less capricious, more objective decisions of machine-learning algorithms? No doubt some job seekers agree with the sentiment Loren Larsen, HireVues Chief Technology Officer, shared recently with theTelegraph: I would much prefer having my first screening with an algorithm that treats me fairly rather than one that depends on how tired the recruiter is that day. Of course, the appeal of AI hiring isnt just about doing right by the applicants. As a 2019 white paper, from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, notes, AI applied to assessing and selecting talent offers some exciting promises for making hiring decisions less costly and more accurate for organizations while also being less burdensome and (potentially) fairer for job seekers.

Do HireVues algorithms treat potential employees fairly? Some researchers in machine learning and human-computer interaction doubt it. Luke Stark, a postdoc at Microsoft Research Montreal who studies how AI, ethics, and emotion interact, told the Washington Post that HireVues claimsthat its automated software can glean a workers personality and predict their performance from such things as toneshould make us skeptical:

Systems like HireVue, he said, have become quite skilled at spitting out data points that seem convincing, even when theyre not backed by science. And he finds this charisma of numbers really troubling because of the overconfidence employers might lend them while seeking to decide the path of applicants careers.

The best AI systems today, he said, are notoriously prone to misunderstanding meaning and intent. But he worried that even their perceived success at divining a persons true worth could help perpetuate a homogenous corporate monoculture of automatons, each new hire modeled after the last.

Eric Siegel, an expert in machine learning and author of Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, echoed Starks remarks. In an email, Siegel told me, Companies that buy into HireVue are inevitably, to a great degree, falling for that feeling of wonderment and speculation that a kid has when playing with a Magic Eight Ball. That, in itself, doesnt mean HireVues algorithms are completely unhelpful. Driving decisions with data has the potential to overcome human bias in some situations, but also, if not managed correctly, could easily instill, perpetuate, magnify, and automate human biases, he said.

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The Problem with Hiring Algorithms - Machine Learning Times - machine learning & data science news - The Predictive Analytics Times