Text,title,id,source
"Presented by Facebook To view past editions of The Hill's 12:30 Report, click here: http://bit.ly/1M1mIfw To receive The Hill's 12:30 Report in your inbox, please sign up here: http://bit.ly/1Tt4hqN --> A midday take on what's happening in politics and how to have a sense of humor about it.* *Ha. Haha. Hahah. Sniff. Haha. Sniff. Ha--breaks down crying...

Presented by Facebook To view past editions of The Hill's 12:30 Report, click here: http://bit.ly/1M1mIfw To receive The Hill's 12:30 Report in your inbox, please sign up here: http://bit.ly/1Tt4hqN --> A midday take on what's happening in politics and how...

Presented by Facebook To view past editions of The Hill's 12:30 Report, click here: http://bit.ly/1M1mIfw To receive The Hill's 12:30 Report in your inbox, please sign up here: http://bit.ly/1Tt4hqN --> A midday take on what's happening in politics and how to have a sense of humor about it.* *Ha. Haha. Hahah. Sniff. Haha. Sniff. Ha--breaks down crying hysterically. The Hill’s 12:30 Report: Biden reverses Trump limits on transgender protections | Biden to meet with McConnell, McCarthy, Pelosi and Schumer | Infrastructure plan negotiations | Plans Thursday meeting with GOP senators | House hearing on Jan. 6 attacks | Cicadas appear in Bethesda NEWS THIS MORNING",The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Biden reverses Trump limits on transgender protections,tweets_news_0,tweets_news
"Having seen both the unedited footage of President Donald Trump's interview with ""60 Minutes"" he released preemptively last week and the edited broadcast on CBS Sunday night, you simply have to wonder what Trump was thinking.

Paired in the same show with a substantive interview with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the differences between the two could not have been more stark. Or less flattering to Trump.

This is not a political observation. It's a television one.

Trump and his supporters will claim - and have already - that Lesley Stahl was rude and out to get Trump. She wasn't. She simply dared to ask him tough questions about his performance as president.

Trump got tough questions. So did Biden

Those same people will claim CBS Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell's interview with Biden was a series of softballs lobbed by a sympathetic reporter. It wasn't, at all - O'Donnell also asked tough questions. But Biden just answered them. Not always accurately, either: In a cutaway, O'Donnell noted that Biden had misstated the potential cost of free public college. She also asked about hot-button issues like court packing and the supposed controversy around Hunter Biden's laptop.

Biden didn't get angry. And he stuck around.

So if that",'60 Minutes' interviews stark study in contrasts,tweets_news_1,tweets_news
"

Jan 05, 2021( Conservative Daily News: http://conservativedailynews.com Delivered by Newstex) 'Populism' is a term that, since the modern era, has generally been trotted out to mean a political attitude that reflects widespread anger and resentment against powerful elites, while among stenographers for the powerful, it has been used reflexively to warn against the passions of the mob. Who is using that word and projecting it onto the endless array of evolving political constituencies tells us a lot about the political moment we are in. Since the financial crises of the post-Reconstruction era, it was a term embraced by reformers and democratically-minded movements to argue for universal social programs and public-interest regulation at the federal and state level. In the early part of this century, we saw populism used to describe the nationalist counter-politics that emerged in response to the European integration process, from Italy to Hungary to Poland.

In the past 10 years, we have seen a new entrant make use of populism to further its political mission.A cohort of leading conservatives in the U.S.[1] has increasingly adopted the term as part of a wider sales pitch to seize on the steady deterioration of the working-class bloc that underwrote Democratic party",Is There a Case for Principled Populism From the GOP?,tweets_news_2,tweets_news
"As President Donald Trump continued to assert without evidence Tuesday that the presidential election was undermined by voter fraud, social media users falsely claimed that people had cast extra votes using the identities of dead people in Pennsylvania and Michigan.

There’s no evidence that this happened.

The false claim that deceased voters cast votes “comes up every election,” said Jason Roberts, a professor of political science at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Experts told The Associated Press that it is common for state voter rolls to include voters with birthdates that make them appear impossibly old, but these are usually explained by human error, software quirks or voter confidentiality issues.

Here’s a closer look at this dubious claim:

CLAIM: Dead people in Pennsylvania and Michigan voted in the 2020 presidential election.

THE FACTS: There is no proof of foul play involving deceased voters in the election, according to officials in both states.

One tweet that repeated the false claim stated: “These are some of the people who voted in #PA...840 were 101 years old or older, 39 lived through the Civil War, 45 were born in the 1800s.” The tweet had over 18,000 retweets.

“A similar complaint was brought before a PA court -- and",Election breathes new life into false 'dead voter' claims,tweets_news_3,tweets_news
"Mike Pence and Kamala Harris do not have a tough act to follow.The vice presidential debate set for Wednesday night follows the disorderly prime-time spectacle last week that had viewers of President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden's matchup bemoaning the moderator's inability to shut off a candidate's microphone.

As vice president Pence has worked to level Trump's roughshod style and steer his response to the coronavirus pandemic. He will face a U.S. senator known for sharp questioning who has made it clear she wants to invoke her prosecutorial chops on the debate stage.The handling of the pandemic and the contraction of COVID-19 by the president, along with several others in the White House, will almost literally be center stage.The debate starting at 9 p.m. EDT at the University of Utah is the only matchup scheduled between Pence and Harris. Here's a preview:

How to watch

The 90-minute debate will be divided into nine 10-minute segments without commercial breaks. It will be aired on major networks and cable news channels, including ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, PBS, NBC, MSNBC and C-SPAN. Most of the networks will offer a way to watch the debate live online starting at","Viewer's Guide: Virus response on stage with Pence, Harris",tweets_news_4,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Republican Sen. Susan Collins was leading Democratic challenger Sara Gideon in initial voting results late Tuesday in a record-setting U.S. Senate race with national implications.

Results from many towns were still outstanding late Tuesday - particularly among more populous communities in southern and coastal Maine - but Collins was maintaining a sizable lead over Gideon. With 41 percent of precincts reporting as of 11:30 p.m., Collins was leading Gideon 52 percent to 41 percent while independents Lisa Savage and Max Linn were at 5 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

With control of the U.S. Senate at stake, outside groups have spent more than $100 million on the race in Maine.

The campaigns were bracing for a long - and potentially inconclusive - night as local election clerks processed unprecedented numbers of votes, many of them cast via absentee ballot because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Collins' lead over Gideon was shrinking late Tuesday as additional coastal towns in southern and midcoast Maine reported their results. But Gideon was not performing as well as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in some towns, which could complicate her ability to overcome Collins' sizable victory margins in more rural areas of interior, eastern and northern Maine.

In Kennebunkport,",Incumbent holds the edge in closely watched contest But results from many larger Maine towns have yet to be tabulated.,tweets_news_5,tweets_news
"It's been said that asking a working writer what he or she thinks about critics is like asking a lamp post how it feels about dogs.

What writers dislike far more than critics is being in terrogated by government of ficials. That's what happened to Ezra Levant when he pub lished a book which criticized Trudeau during the last federal election. However, the twen ty-five pro-Trudeau books that were printed during the same time period did not receive similar treatment by the gov ernment.

But that's not all.

Taxpayers were billed more than $130,000 in lawyer fees for the failed attempt to prevent reporters from Rebel Media and True North from attending televised leaders' debates during the election. All because those re porters put forth questions no one else was asking.

And now we should be hearing a loud cry from Cana dians to stop the Liberal gov ernment's proposed media takeover, and their committee appointed to regulate the Inter net. One of the report's propos als requires all companies that deliver ""audio, audiovisual and news content"" to be regulated by the Canadian Radio-Televi sion and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), through a license or registration.

Conservative MP Michele Rempel Garner expressed con cerns with another submission",The right to say what others don't want to hear; Check It Out,tweets_news_6,tweets_news
"The following is a selection of quotes from articles published in the 16 November editions of Russian newspapers, as available to the BBC at 0100 gmt on 16 November:

Today's Russian newspapers discuss prospects for the Open Skies treaty from which the US is scheduled to withdraw, Covid-19 vaccination plans, the establishment of the left-wing coalition Pobeda, and the Russian media watchdog's recommendations for media outlets against using YouTube.

Open Skies Treaty

Kommersant (influential business daily) www.kommersant.ru - ""Six months ago the US authorities announced that the [Open Skies] treaty no longer met their national interests and initiated withdrawal which is to be completed on 22 November. Now Russia has to decide whether to stay in the treaty or pull out from it as well. There are three possible scenarios, one of them will lead to the treaty's collapse, another may result in its temporary paralysis, whereas the third one may save the treaty but, under the current circumstances, such a development would be almost a miracle...

""According to this scenario, on 21 November at 23:55 the countries comprising the Open Skies treaty 'freeze time', that is pretend that 22 November for the treaty does not come and the USA does not leave it.",Russian press views Open Skies treaty's prospects,tweets_news_7,tweets_news
"The following information was released by Consumers Union (CU):

Consumer Reports released the following statements in response to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's stated intention to proceed with rulemaking on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that shields companies from legal liability for user-generated content posted on their platforms. Consumer Reports has previously opposed the FCC's consideration of rulemaking on Section 230 in public comments submitted in September.

Justin Brookman, director of technology policy for Consumer Reports, said, ""Social media companies have historically failed their responsibilities to consumers to police bad faith abuses of their platforms. Weakening Section 230's Good Samaritan protections would cause tech companies to do even less to address the rampant fraud, misinformation, and abuse that exists today. We are disappointed by the FCC's decision to act on the NTIA petition.""

Laurel Lehman, policy analyst for Consumer Reports, added, ""Clarifying Section 230 is clearly outside the scope of the FCC's authority. Congress passed the law, and separation of powers demands that it is squarely, and solely, within Congress' domain to amend itor the courts', to interpret it. Certain reforms to Section 230 may not be amiss and should be carefully consideredbut such reform must come at the",CONSUMER REPORTS OPPOSES FCC RULEMAKING ON SECTION 230 OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT,tweets_news_8,tweets_news
"W hen Sen. Amy Klobuchar broke through in the New Hampshire primary, relegating Sen. Elizabeth Warren to single digits and fourth place, the Massachusetts Democrat could not have been more gracious toward her party rival from Minnesota.

“I … want to congratulate my friend and colleague, Amy Klobuchar,” Warren declared, “for showing just how wrong the pundits can be when they count a woman out.”

It was part of an eloquent call for party unity in which Warren warned Democrats not to engage in “a long bitter rehash of the same old divides in our party,” and spoke with concern about a willingness “to burn down the rest of the party in order to be the last man standing.”

A speech that Democrats needed to hear got almost no coverage. So given what gets play (and Warren’s longstanding skepticism of financial institutions), it’s unsurprising that Warren directed some sharp criticism toward former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday. Warren excoriated Bloomberg for once saying that anti-redlining laws prohibiting discrimination against minority neighborhoods had helped cause the great financial crash of 2008.

“Anyone who thinks that,” she said, “should not be the leader of our party.”

So much for unity, you might say. Nonetheless,",Democrats face factionalism,tweets_news_9,tweets_news
"

Aug 04, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/Delivered by Newstex) When U.S. GDP dropped 9.5 percent, multiple[1] media outlets and journalists fired off on Twitter and their headlines that second quarter GDP actually fell 32.9 percent, which was false. The 32.9 percent figure is the annualized rate of decline in GDP.The Washington Post[2] understood that there was confusion on the interpretation of the data in a July 30 piece headlined, 'Did a third of the economy really vanish in just three months?[3]' It's sub-headline noted that '[t]he second quarter GDP report confused many.'

But instead of holding its media competitors to account for pushing a false narrative, The Post actually hinted that Trump administration's Commerce Department is to blame for the confusion. [Emphasis added.]After citing the Commerce Department's[4] 'eyeball-blistering observation' that real GDP 'decreased at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter,' Post economic reporter Andrew Van Dam[5] quipped: 'That 32.9 percent represents the loss of a third of the economy. Let that sink in. Now let it wriggle back out again it is not exactly true.'Why is that exactly? Van Dam said, 'The Commerce Department reports quarterly GDP at an annual rate to allow easy comparisons to other time periods.","WashPost Admits Broad Q2 Report Confusion, Insinuates Trump Commerce Dept to Blame",tweets_news_10,tweets_news
"

Nov 18, 2020( Mediaite: http://www.mediaite.com/ Delivered by Newstex) [embedded content] The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur openly mocked Joe Biden after a report surfaced[1] that President-elect and his team would likely opt not to move forward with any effort to prosecute President Donald Trump, choosing instead to unify a bitterly divided country.Uygur shared disappointment but not surprise at this news, noting that Biden is merely continuing policies established during his time in the Obama administration. NBC News spoke with multiple sources[2] close to the Biden team who say he's 'wary' of launching federal investigations into his opponent, fearful it'll undermine his attempts to reunite the country. Instead, Biden reportedly wants to reset the relationship between the White House and the Justice Department and move away from directing federal law enforcement in terms of what to focus on.

'The historical context all led to the conclusion that Biden was going to do this,' Uygur says. 'The Obama-Biden administration, as soon as they got into office, said, 'We look forward, we don't look backwards.' Well, that's a great relief to all criminals because all crimes are in the past, not in the future That's why Obama didn't hold Bush and Cheney accountable for","Cenk Uygur Mocks Biden's Reported Plans Not To Prosecute Trump: 'Who are You Going to Unify With, QAnon!?'",tweets_news_11,tweets_news
"Five deaths have been linked to 'boogaloo' rhetoric, but there's still confusion over how to label the developing ideology

Men showing up to protests wearing Hawaiian shirts and carrying military-style rifles. Facebook groups full of intense discussions about imminent civil war.

Over the past year, online conversations about the ""boogaloo"", an ironic term for a second civil war, have begun to coalesce into the beginnings of an actual movement, according to experts who monitor American extremists. Facebook has designated a network of ""boogaloo"" groups as a dangerous organization similar to the Islamic State, and banned them from both Facebook and Instagram. At least 15 arrests and five deaths have been publicly linked to ""boogaloo"" rhetoric, including the murders of two law enforcement officers in California.

But there's still plenty of confusion over how to accurately label this still-developing ideology. Here's a guide to what we know, and what we don't, about the politics of the ""boogaloo"".

Why experts classify 'boogaloo' supporters as 'rightwing' or 'far-right'

In response to a news story about the potential threat ""boogaloo"" attacks posed to people in Washington DC, Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent a tweet denying that the ""boogaloo"" is ""a leftwing OR rightwing"" movement, and claiming:",White supremacists or anti-police libertarians? What we know about the 'boogaloo',tweets_news_12,tweets_news
"The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation issued the following statement:

* * *

Ahead of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's hearing ""Disinformation Nation: Social Media's Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation,"" the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation released the following statement from ITIF Policy Analyst Ashley Johnson:

Section 230 has come under the regulatory microscope as Congress evaluates the impact of harmful online activity like disinformation and the role of online platforms in preventing and addressing this activity. Section 230 continues to be instrumental in enabling innovative online business models that rely on user-generated content and providing companies the liability protection necessary to allow them to moderate user content.

At the same time, users would benefit from increased accountability and transparency.

ITIF has proposed a three-pronged approach to Section 230 reform that would expand federal criminal law around certain forms of harmful online activity, establish a good faith requirement to prevent bad actors from taking advantage of Section 230(c)(1)'s liability shield, and establish a voluntary safe harbor provision to limit financial liability for online services that adhere to standard industry measures for addressing illegal activity.

Congress should enact targeted changes to Section 230 to ensure companies are taking responsibility for addressing harmful content and","Section 230 Needs Thoughtful Reform, Says Information Technology & Innovation Foundation",tweets_news_13,tweets_news
"The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday granted bail to a cleric charged with uploading a viral video containing derogatory, contemptuous and scandalous language against the institution of the judiciary and judges, especially Supreme Court's Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

A division bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamer Farooq conducted hearing of the petition and accepted his petition seeking post arrest bail.

Mirza Iftikharuddin, in his petition, contended that he never even thought of disrespecting the judiciary but was implicated in a false case. He said he is a cardiac patient and may be released till the decision in the pending trial.

The court noted, 'We are, therefore, satisfied that the petitioner is entitled to extension of concession of bail. This petition is allowed and the petitioner is admitted to bail, subject to furnishing bail bonds in the sum of Rs.1,000,000/- (Rupees one million) with one surety in the like amount to the satisfaction of the learned trial court.'

Pakistan reports 603 COVID-19 cases in one day

The bench added, 'It is noted that the concession of bail granted through this order will stand recalled if the petitioner repeats the acts which have been alleged in the FIR or","IHC grants bail to cleric in case of threatening, maligning judiciary",tweets_news_14,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Trump's rhetoric has changed the way hundreds of kids are bullied in classrooms

FULL TEXT

Two kindergartners in Utah told a Latino boy that President Trump would send him back to Mexico, and teenagers in Maine sneered ''Ban Muslims'' at a classmate wearing a hijab. In Tennessee, a group of middle-schoolers linked arms, imitating the president's proposed border wall as they refused to let nonwhite students pass. In Ohio, another group of middle-schoolers surrounded a mixed-race sixth-grader and, as she confided to her mother, told the girl, ''This is Trump country.''

Since Trump's rise to the nation's highest office, his inflammatory language - often condemned as racist and xenophobic - has seeped into schools across America. Many bullies now target other children differently than they used to, with kids as young as 6 mimicking the president's insults and the cruel way he delivers them.

Trump's words, those chanted by his followers at campaign rallies and even his last name, have been wielded by students and school staff members to harass children more than 300 times since the start of 2016, a Washington Post review of 28,000 news stories found. At least three-quarters of the attacks were directed at kids who are Hispanic, Black, or",Trump's rhetoric has changed the way hundreds of kids are bullied in classrooms,tweets_news_15,tweets_news
"Most web browsers access your geographic location via your IP address to serve local search results. Your browser may also have permission to use your device's built-in camera and microphone. It's certainly convenient, but it's a huge security risk.

Browser cookies, extensions, and software bugs can slow your internet connection speeds to a crawl.

A browser is your gateway to the web and the cybercriminals looking to take advantage of you. If you're ready to make a move to a more privacy-focused browser or to see if yours makes my list, keep reading.

Best overall browser for privacy: Brave

If you're fed up with trackers, ads, and data-hungry bits of code that follow you across the internet, Brave is the browser for you. Brave's servers don't see or store your browsing data, so it stays private until you delete it. That means your info is never packaged up and sold to advertisers.

The browser's default settings block harmful junk such as malware, phishing, and malicious advertising and plug-ins that could harm your computer.

Advertising and trackers are blocked by default. Because of all it stops, Brave says it is three times faster than Chrome overall and loads major sites up to six times faster than its",These are the best web browsers for privacy,tweets_news_16,tweets_news
"Rioters try to break through a police barrier Jan. 6 at the Capitol in Washington. People charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol left behind a trove of videos and messages that have helped federal authorities in building cases. John Minchillo/AP

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - In a text message, a radicalized Trump supporter suggested getting a boat to ferry ""heavy weapons"" across the Potomac River into the waiting arms of their members in time for Jan. 6, court papers say.

It wasn't just idle talk, authorities say. Investigators found invoices for more than $750 worth of live ammunition for a firearm designed to look like a cellphone at the Virginia home of Thomas Caldwell, who's charged with conspiring with members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group in one of the most sinister plots in the U.S. Capitol siege.

Right-wing extremists, blessed by Donald Trump, were unleashed last month, and their menacing presence has reignited the debate over domestic extremism and how law enforcement should be handling these groups.

Their talk of civil war, traitors and revolution mirrored fighting words echoed by right-wing social media personalities and websites for months as Trump spread bogus claims about a rigged presidential election.

In nearly half of",Extremist talk flowed before riot,tweets_news_17,tweets_news
"

May 27, 2020( The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/ Delivered by Newstex) President Donald Trump floated the idea of shutting down certain social media platforms Wednesday after claiming they are biased against Republicans. Twitter added a fact-check label to Trump's false tweets about mail-in ballots on Tuesday, marking the first time the social media platform has done so for the president's tweets. 'Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices.

We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can't let a more sophisticated version of that happen again. Just like we can't let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!' he wrote[1] in a series of tweets. Regulation of social media companies would require action by the FCC or Congress. A representative for Twitter didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap. Also Read: Why Twitter Hasn't Deleted Any of President Trump's Tweets (Yet)[2] 'The Tweets contain potentially misleading",Trump Suggests Shuttering Social Media Platforms After Twitter Adds Fact-Check to His Tweets,tweets_news_18,tweets_news
"A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here. Usually, when social media executives are brought to testify in front of Congress, the hearings are centered on specific policies and types of content, misinfo and foreign interference, antitrust issues, and privacy concerns. What doesn’t quite get...

A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here. Usually, when social media executives are brought to testify in front of Congress, the hearings are centered on specific policies and types ...

A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here. Usually, when social media executives are brought to testify in front of Congress, the hearings are centered on specific policies and types of content, misinfo and foreign interference, antitrust issues, and privacy concerns. What doesn’t quite get as much attention are the engines that drive these platforms: their algorithms. That’s what makes Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary hearing with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube different. The hearing is entirely focused on social media algorithms. “Nearly all social media platforms — including the three companies represented",Social media algorithms to face scrutiny as lawmakers look to ‘curb the amplification of misinformation’,tweets_news_19,tweets_news
"Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, issued the following news release:

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a bill to empower Americans to sue Big Tech companies who act in bad faith by selectively censoring political speech and hiding content created by their competitors. Cosponsored by Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) Senator Hawley's bill would prohibit Big Tech companies from receiving Section 230 immunity unless they update their terms of service to promise to operate in good faith and pay a $5,000 fine (or actual damages, if higher) plus attorney's fees if they violate that promise.

""For too long, Big Tech companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook have used their power to silence political speech from conservatives without any recourse for users. Section 230 has been stretched and rewritten by courts to give these companies outlandish power over speech without accountability. Congress should act to ensure bad actors are not given a free pass to censor and silence their opponents.""

Senator Josh Hawley

Senator Rubio said, ""Recent actions by Big Tech call into question the legal immunities that social media companies enjoy under Section 230 and whether these firms live up to their obligations. It is time",Sen. Hawley Announces Bill Empowering Americans to Sue Big Tech Companies Acting in Bad Faith,tweets_news_20,tweets_news
"By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter image copyright Social media firms will have to remove harmful content quickly or potentially face multi-billion-pound fines under new legislation. The government's Online Safety Bill, announced in the Queen's Speech, comes with a promise of protecting debate. It is ""especially"" geared at keeping children safe and says ""democratically important"" content should be...

By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter image copyright Social media firms will have to remove harmful content quickly or potentially face multi-billion-pound fines under new legislation. The government's Online Safety Bill, announced in the Queen's Speech, ...

By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter image copyright Social media firms will have to remove harmful content quickly or potentially face multi-billion-pound fines under new legislation. The government's Online Safety Bill, announced in the Queen's Speech, comes with a promise of protecting debate. It is ""especially"" geared at keeping children safe and says ""democratically important"" content should be preserved. But campaigners say the plans will lead to censorship, while others warn fines do not go far enough. What is covered in the bill? The draft legislation, previously known as the Online Harms Bill, has been two years in the making. But it goes much further, taking in terrorism, disinformation, racist",Government lays out plans to protect users online,tweets_news_21,tweets_news
"The following information was released by the Cato Institute:

By John Samples

The United States Supreme Court has it easy. No doubt their job is difficult, but at least they know what they should be doing: interpreting and applying the Constitution and other laws. Social media content moderators have a harder task. No one wrote and ratified a Constitution, no legislature passed Community Standards. Content moderators created Community Standards in resolving cases as judges did with the common law.

But content most American moderators lack the legitimacy accorded common law judges.

For example, most Americans think content moderators are biased. If content moderators were thought to be applying rules independent of their employers' interests and their own political commitments, the task of judging online speech would become easier. International human rights law (IHR) seems to offer such independent rules. But can IHR be legitimate for billions of social media users? Legal professors Ilya Somin and John McGinnes raise interesting questions about the legitimacy of international law.

McGinnis and Somin distinguish between ""domesticated"" and ""raw"" international law. Congress and the president have expressly made ""domesticated"" international law ""part of our law."" In contrast, ""raw"" international law ""has not been endorsed by the domestic political process."" The","DOES SOCIAL MEDIA HAVE A ""DEMOCRACY DEFICIT""?",tweets_news_22,tweets_news
"FACEBOOK pushed adverts linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory into its users' feeds as many as 2.4m times this spring and summer, profiting from the movement and helping it grow even as employees investigated its potential for violence.

The social media giant first removed a network of fake accounts seeking to spread QAnon's beliefs in April this year, and finally banned all QAnon groups, pages and Instagram accounts from its services last week.

However, between those two points, Facebook's online advertising archive shows that it approved at least 204 adverts using the hashtags, symbols or slogans of the movement, which has been a key incubator of coronavirus denialism, as well as violent attacks and plots.

The adverts, seen as many as 2.4m times, ranged from online merchants seeking to capitalise on the phenomenon with branded T-shirts, through ardent believers organising marches, to a Lithuanian addiction counsellor and hypnotherapist who described coronavirus as a Satanic plot to control the world. Some of the adverts were bought by candidates running for office in the US, while one advertiser selling QAnonbranded T-shirts, which managed to briefly bypass Facebook's advertiser verification checks, paid for its promotion with rubles.

The real number of adverts and views is likely to",Facebook approved 200 'dangerous' QANON ads,tweets_news_23,tweets_news
"India, Nov. 17 -- B

randing and advertising on social media has its perks and tapping into the same are television celebrities, who enjoy huge popularity on platforms such as Instagram, and are now using the medium to not only stay connected and interact with fans but also post about various brands and products - thus making good money.

A number of popular actors including Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya, Hina Khan, Rashami Desai, Karan Wahi, among others, often post about various brands.

The appeal of a celebrity is measured by their number of followers and actors can get anywhere between Rs.1.5 lakh to Rs.5 Lakh for a post or story. ""Charges for an Instagram story, post, repost from the client's handle differ. Clients keep an eye on the post likes and the reach it has in 24 hours to gauge the celebs worth,"" says an industry insider.

Shantanu Maheshwari, who has 1.2 million followers on Instagram, uses the medium to promote products that he too can use and aren't harmful. ""People are using the digital space a lot more than ever before. From showcasing products to promoting new businesses, the space is being widely used for reaching out to people, as it has most eyeballs",Raking in the moolah - the social media way!,tweets_news_24,tweets_news
"Link to Image

A lobbying firm representing some of the largest online tech companies filed a federal lawsuit Feb. 18 against the state of Maryland over the first digital ad tax passed in the United States.

The Internet Association, which includes members like Amazon, Facebook, and Google, alleges that the Maryland tax is unconstitutional because it violates the Commerce Clause. The United States Chamber of Commerce is also listed as a plaintiff on the lawsuit.

IA joins the @USChamber, @NetChoice, and @ccianet in filing a lawsuit to challenge Maryland's digital ad tax. Read the full statement here: https://t.co/VFUNpGTeir - Internet Association (@InternetAssn) February 18, 2021

IA joins the @USChamber, @NetChoice, and @ccianet in filing a lawsuit to challenge Maryland's digital ad tax. Read the full statement here: https://t.co/VFUNpGTeir

- Internet Association (@InternetAssn) February 18, 2021



The Maryland digital ad tax would raise about $250 million a year by taxing firms that make over $100 million in digital advertising revenue, according to the Washington Post. The Maryland state legislature overrode a veto by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who was concerned about the law's constitutionality. The tech companies argue that the law “burden[s] and penaliz[es] purely out-of-state conduct and interfering with foreign affairs.”

Democratic Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh",Big Tech Lobbying Group Sues Maryland Over Online Ad Tax,tweets_news_25,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - A group of top Republican U.S. Senators on Tuesday ramped up pressure on TikTok, asking the Trump administration to assess the threat that the popular Chinese-owned video sharing app might meddle in U.S. elections.

In a letter dated Tuesday, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton and other lawmakers cited alleged censorship by TikTok of sensitive content, including a video critical of China's treatment of its Uighur minority, as well as alleged attempts by Beijing to manipulate political discussions on social media apps.

""We are greatly concerned that the (Chinese Communist Party) could use its control over TikTok to distort or manipulate (political) conversations to sow discord among Americans and to achieve its preferred political outcomes,"" the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODHI), the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

A spokesperson for the company said that TikTok, though not a ""go-to"" for political news, was ""proactively investing to safeguard our app"" and taking cues from the experience of peers during the last election.

""TikTok already has a strict policy against disinformation, and we don't accept political ads,"" the person said, adding that content",U.S. Republicans worry China might use TikTok to meddle in election,tweets_news_26,tweets_news
"Mercury News Letters to the Editor for December 27, 2020

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more .

Managing Delta requires collaborative approach

Your Dec. 13 editorial ("""") correctly notes that ""preserving the health of the Delta should be one of the state's highest priorities."" However, doing so based on outdated science and data won't get you there. A ""flows-only"" approach that rejects critically important water storage projects will fail. Unfortunately, that's the approach called for by the editorial.

Govs. Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown deserve credit for pursuing collaborative, watershed-wide approaches to restoring the Delta and at-risk species. They have also invested in large-scale infrastructure projects to deliver a safe, reliable water supply for California's environment and its communities. With the state's population expected to top 50 million by 2050, California cannot simply conserve its way out of its water woes.

Previous efforts to protect at-risk species by limiting water supplies have failed. Crafting a new, more collaborative approach based on the latest science and technology is California's best opportunity for a successful water solution.

Dan Keppen Family Farm Alliance Klamath Falls, Ore.

Mining has drawbacks, but resources needed

I believe that humans have an obligation to preserve and protect our planet's natural",Letters: Collaborate on Delta | Necessity of mining | Facebook silences protest | Speaking for landlords,tweets_news_27,tweets_news
"Washington, May 27 (BNA): Twitter issued a fact check of some of Donald Trump's tweets on Tuesday, marking the first time the US president's favoured social media platform has pushed back against him spreading falsehoods.

The move, which almost immediately heightened tensions between Trump and the social media giant, came in the form of a label under two of the president's tweets, which claimed that mail-in voter ballots are subject to extreme fraud, Deutsche press agency (dpa) reported.

The label says ""Get the facts about mail-in ballots,"" and then redirects users to news articles and a bulleted list refuting Trump's claims.

Shortly after Twitter issued the fact check, the president accused the company of ""interfering"" in the November presidential election and impinging on free speech.

""Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!"" he tweeted while doubling down on voter fraud claims.

It is unclear how Twitter will treat Trump's future tweets that promote false information.

On Tuesday, Trump issued separate tweets promoting a baseless conspiracy theory about Joe Scarborough, a liberal television news host and former congressman, which were not fact-checked by Twitter.

Nick Pacilio, a Twitter spokesman, would not comment on whether the company will continue to",Twitter issues fact check of Trump tweets,tweets_news_28,tweets_news
"

Jul 08, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Facebook's top executives met Tuesday with civil rights groups, hoping to address their concerns about the company's approach to hate speech on its platform.But the groups called the meeting a ""disappointment"" and said it became clear that Facebook is ""is not yet ready to address the vitriolic hate on their platform.""""We didn't get commitments or time frames or clear outcomes. We expected specifics and that's not what we heard,"" Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said on a call with reporters.Facebook told Business Insider it will release a civil rights audit started in 2018, and has invested resources into combating hate, made adjustments to its policies, and banned hate groups.The groups called for advertisers to boycott Facebook last month, saying the company has been unwilling to make substantive changes for years — and more than 500 companies have joined[1].Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[2]. Facebook still hasn't convinced civil rights groups that it's doing enough to combat hate speech on its platform.On Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, and Chief Product Officer Chris Cox met with the leaders of the NAACP, Color of Change, Free Press, and the",Civil rights groups called their meeting with Facebook execs a 'disappointment' and said the company isn't ready to address the platform's 'vitriolic hate',tweets_news_29,tweets_news
"Twitter says sorry after it is found that it's ad tool allowed for discriminatory terms to be used for targetted adverts

The issue of micro-targetting of adverts to certain sections of people by social media firms is once again the headlines.

An investigation by the BBC discovered that Twitter's ad tool allowed for the use of discriminatory terms for targeted adverts.

Its investigation found that it was possible to target those Twitter users who had shown an interest in keywords including ""transphobic"", ""white supremacists"" and ""anti-gay"".

Targetted adverts

To be clear, the BBC probe found that Twitter allowed adverts to be directed at users who have posted about, or searched for, specific topics.

But Twitter has now apologised for failing to exclude discriminatory keyword terms, amid concern that certain type of adverts could be targetted at selected audiences, in order to spread intolerance.

Twitter like other social media firms creates profiles of users based on the data it collects, about the the things they post, like, watch, or share.

Concern about micro-targetting of adverts is growing.

Late last year former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates when asked about about his stance on political adverts, said he was more concerned by the targeting of these ads at various sections of the",Twitter Apologises For Adverts For Neo-Nazis,tweets_news_30,tweets_news
"Experts who monitor online hate speech and misinformation worry that the encrypted messaging apps could become far-right hotbeds.

<figure class=""embed-base image-embed embed-0"">

<figcaption>

Billionaires Brian Acton and Pavel Durov have seen their encrypted message apps explode in popularity as conservatives explore alternatives to mainstream social media sites.

Robert Gallagher; Albert Gea/Reuters/Newscom

</figcaption> </figure>

In 2018, Brian Acton, the billionaire WhatsApp cofounder, committed several fateful actions. He had quit Facebook a few months earlier, and in March, he took his rift with the company public byfiring off an angry tweet It is time. #deleteFacebook just as the company that had bought his app descended into scandal over its data-sharing practices and status as a hotbed for conservative misinformation. Nearly at the same time, Acton was funneling $50 million into a new nonprofit, the Signal Foundation, naming himself its executive chairman. The group s overriding goal: Finance a three-year-old app called Signal, which allowed users to send end-to-end encrypted messages.

Signal offered easy communication and secure, total anonymity. With the new funding, it wouldn t need to cave to commercial interests and sell ads, something Acton hated about Facebook. Grandly, he envisioned Signal making private communication accessible and ubiquitous, he told in 2018, and the app has largely lived","Meet The Billionaires Behind Signal And Telegram, Two New Online Homes For Angry Conservatives",tweets_news_31,tweets_news
"Over the past few years, the QAnon movement, a baseless conspiracy theory referring to the belief in a cabal of deep state leftist pedophiles, has gained tremendous traction - and extremist researchers believe it's largely been due to social platforms turning a blind eye to such content.

That seems to be changing, however, now that Facebook announced in a press release on Tuesday that it would be removing ""any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content.""

The announcement is an update of a policy rolled out back in August, when Facebook announced that it would be removing more than 1,500 pages and groups related to QAnon. The company said the initiative was part of a new set of measures designed to ""disrupt the ability of QAnon and militarized social movements to operate and organize on our platform.""

Its efforts, however, fell short, according to critics, with the New York Times reporting last month that 100 QAnon groups it was tracking had seen growth by more than 13,000 followers in the month following the implementation of the new policy. The explosive popularity of#SaveTheChildren, an anti-child trafficking movement that helped mainstream the QAnon community, also contributed to",Facebook Just Issued a Massive QAnon Ban,tweets_news_32,tweets_news
"

Mar 24, 2021( Techdirt: http://www.techdirt.com Delivered by Newstex) There have been rumors for ages that former President Donald Trump might ""start"" a social network of his own, and of course, that talk ramped up after he was (reasonably) banned[1] from both Twitter and Facebook. Of course Trump is not particularly well known for successfully ""starting"" many businesses. Over the last few decades of his business career, he seemed a lot more focused on just licensing his name[2] to other businesses, often of dubious quality. So it was no surprise when reports came out last month that, even while he was President, he had been in talks with Parler[3] to join that site in exchange for a large equity stake in the Twitter-wannabe-for-Trumpists.

For whatever reason, that deal never came to fruition. But, over the weekend, Trump spokesperson (and SLAPP suit filer[4]) Jason Miller told Fox News that Trump was preparing to launch his own social network[5] in the next few months. Amusingly, right before Miller made this claim, he noted exactly what I had said about how Trump being banned from Twitter and Facebook wasn't censorship, since Trump could get all the press coverage he wanted:'The president's been off of social","If Trump Ever Actually Creates A Social Network Of His Own, You Can Bet It Will Rely On Section 230",tweets_news_33,tweets_news
"

Mar 23, 2021( Jewish Business News: https://jewishbusinessnews.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Donald Trump to Start His Own Social Media Network There is also talk of Trump being indicted. https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/01/10192708/Donald-Trump-Video-clip.jpg You can't keep Donald Trump[1] out of the public eye for long. The man was banned by Twitter and is under suspension from Facebook.

People have speculated as to how he can even live without being able to mouth off every ten minutes of social media. Well now we have an answer: Donald Trump is starting his own social media company. It is not clear yet, however, what form the new company will take. Will it be another Twitter? Facebook? Will it be just for Trump and his minions? Or will it be like conservative social media platforms such as Telegram. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Telegram did not censor its users' posts after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. It was because of this, in part, that major companies denied it use of their servers. Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told Fox News' '#MediaBuzz' on Sunday about it. 'I do think that we're going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here, with",Donald Trump to Start His Own Social Media Network,tweets_news_34,tweets_news
"The president met in the White House with Federal Trade Commission Chair Joseph Simons, who has expressed skepticism about policing complaints of anti-conservative bias in Silicon Valley.

President Donald Trump has personally pushed the head of the Federal Trade Commission to aid his crusade against alleged political bias in social media, according to two people familiar with the conversations - an unusually direct effort by a president to bend a legally independent agency to his agenda.

Trump's efforts have included at least one meeting in recent months in the Oval Office with Republican FTC Chair Joseph Simons, in which the president said he wanted the agency to take action on social media companies' alleged censorship of conservatives, according to a person familiar with the conversation. A second person confirmed that Trump and Simons met in the White House and discussed the executive order, but declined to describe the tone of the conversation.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the private discussions.

Earlier this month, Simons told senators he didn't plan to act on the president's May 28 executive order on social media because he considers it outside the agency's jurisdiction.

The FTC and Simons declined to comment on the chairman's",Trump pressures head of consumer agency to bend on social media crackdown,tweets_news_35,tweets_news
"Even though President Donald Trump has tried to ban Tik Tok in the U.S. for months, the social media app actually aided the president after the first debate by spreading false information about Democratic nominee Joe Biden. 

On Tuesday night, posts circulated on social media with low-quality footage from the debate suggesting that the former vice president wore a wire under his jacket.

The clips were shared across social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok. The grainy video was viewed more than 2 million times on Twitter and more than 290,000 times on Facebook by Wednesday morning. The videos also racked up more than half a million views on Tik Tok. 

The videos were being promoted by conservative-leaning pages on Facebook and were briefly trending on Twitter with the hashtag #JoeWired with more than 60,000 tweets.

However, multiple media outlets show the controversial moment where (https://twitter.com/TaraLaRosa/status/1311189560685203456) Biden adjusts his suit jacket , revealing a crease on his shirt, not a wire.

Some posts zoomed in on Biden's shirt near his lapel and others used photos and videos to (https://twitter.com/MarkRaiche/status/1311396707574468617/photo/1) capture something sticking out from under his shirt cuff . 

Biden was actually wearing his late son Beau's rosary beads on his",#JoeWired: Social Media Shares False Info On Biden After Debate.,tweets_news_36,tweets_news
"The company has started adding tags to a few of the president's tweets, but it left alone a false post about an older man injured by the police in Buffalo.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- President Trump aimed his Twitter feed on Tuesday toward a 75-year-old man who had been shoved to the sidewalk and badly injured by the police in Buffalo.

Mr. Trump speculated that the man, Martin Gugino, could be a provocateur affiliated with an anti-fascist movement. The president also wondered if the man had been trying to sabotage police equipment, or fell intentionally to generate outcry over police brutality.

The president's tweet, which was not factual, provoked instant outrage. Many users wondered why Twitter, which last month said it had added labels to a handful of Mr. Trump's tweets because they contained election misinformation and glorified violence, did not intervene.

The simple answer: The tweet did not violate the company's rules, a spokesman said. What Mr. Trump posted about Mr. Gugino, a peace activist who was still in the hospital recovering from a serious head wound, did not cross into narrow areas of content that the company has staked out for closer scrutiny.

Twitter adds fact-checking labels to tweets that contain misinformation about civic",Why Twitter Didn't Label Trump's Tweet on Protester,tweets_news_37,tweets_news
"Back when he could post on Facebook. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Facebook announced on Friday that former President Trump’s ban from the website, put into place in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot, would last through at least January 7, 2023...

Back when he could post on Facebook. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Facebook announced on Friday that former President Trump’s ban from the website, put into place in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot, would last through at least January 7, 20...

Back when he could post on Facebook. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Facebook announced on Friday that former President Trump’s ban from the website, put into place in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot, would last through at least January 7, 2023 — making it two years at the minimum. In a lengthy statement , Nick Clegg, the company’s vice-president of global affairs, explained Facebook’s reasoning and what will happen when that two-year mark rolls around: Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. At the end of this",Facebook Extends Trump Ban Until 2023,tweets_news_38,tweets_news
"

May 27, 2020( International Business Times News: http://www.ibtimes.com Delivered by Newstex) US President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to shutter social media platforms after Twitter for the first time acted against his false tweets, prompting the enraged Republican to double down on unsubstantiated claims and conspiracy theories.Twitter tagged just two of Trump's tweets in which he'd claimed that more mail-in voting would lead to what he called a ""Rigged Election"" this November.There is no evidence that attempts are being made to rig the election and under the tweets Twitter posted a link which read ""Get the facts about mail-in ballots.""For years, Twitter has been accused of ignoring the president's breaking of platform rules with his daily, often hourly barrages of personal insults and inaccurate information sent to more than 80 million followers.But Twitter's slap on the wrist was enough to drive Trump into an early Wednesday morning meltdown -- on Twitter -- in which he claimed that the right-wing in the United States is being censored.""Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,"" he said.He dived right back into his narrative that an",Trump Threatens To 'Close Down' Social Media After Tweets Tagged,tweets_news_39,tweets_news
"Google is earning tens of millions of pounds every year by allowing unregulated and fraudulent investment schemes to advertise on its search engine to unwitting savers.

But the internet giant, now worth more than $1 trillion (£760bn), holds on to the cash even when it discovers that advertisers are misleading or potentially defrauding investors.

Scam victims, consumer groups and Telegraph Money are calling on Google to use the money it makes from banned advertisers to help savers directly or donate it to relevant charities. The firm has so far declined to hand any money back or help in any way apart from removing ads that break its rules.

Unscrupulous firms are free to bid for the top spot in search results via paid-for adverts. Savers have piled huge sums into high-risk schemes even when they have searched for terms such as ""safe investments"".

Telegraph Money is aware of at least 20 cases in which suspected scam websites have been reported to the financial regulator already this year. In each case, the websites were promoted above legitimate firms by Google.

Rogue firms can manipulate the system so that cautious consumers who search for safe investments and ""protected"" savings bonds are led to high-risk ventures or entirely",Savers' fury as Google clings on to millions earned from scam financial ads,tweets_news_40,tweets_news
"The suspensions mean some Twitter users will lose followers, in some cases by the thousands

Twitter has announced it has suspended more than 70,000 accounts associated with the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory following last week's US Capitol riot.

The social media company said that given the events last week in Washington DC, where a mob of pro-Trump loyalists tried to violently storm the Capitol building, it was taking action against online behaviour ""that has the potential to lead to offline harm"".

In many cases, a single individual operated numerous accounts, driving up the total number of affected accounts, the company said in a blog post.

""These accounts were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory across the service,"" the company said.

Twitter's sweeping purge of QAnon accounts, which began on Friday, is part of a wider crackdown that also includes its decision to ban President Donald Trump from the service over worries about further incitement to violence.

The suspensions mean some Twitter users will lose followers, in some cases by the thousands, the company said.

The QAnon conspiracy theory is centred on the baseless belief that Mr Trump is waging a secret campaign against ""deep","Twitter suspends 70,000 accounts after Capitol riot",tweets_news_41,tweets_news
"After Twitter was forced to suspend handles branded “objectionable” by the Union government, the Supreme Court on Friday sought the social media platform's response to a PIL seeking a direction to the government to frame a legal mechanism to weed out communal, casteist and divisive content freely circulated on the platform.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian didn't require much persuasion to entertain the PIL filed by Vinit Goenka, a member of the governing council of the Centre for Railway Information Systems in the ministry of railways. The bench issued notices to the Centre and Twitter Communications Private Ltd, Mumbai.

Goenka referred to Articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), mistakenly substituting the word 'political' with 'personal' and also referring to the covenant as an Act in his PIL, and said they imposed similar restrictions on free speech as provided under Article19(2) of the Indian Constitution, namely protection of others' reputation, national security, public order, health and public morals.

He said Germany in 2017 enacted the Network Enforcement Act to stop hate speeches and advertisements with separatist agenda, seditious material, communal, instigative and divisive messages and",Centre's reply sought to curb online hate speech,tweets_news_42,tweets_news
"WELLINGTON - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Saturday that world leaders and tech firms looking to stamp out violent extremism online would need to focus efforts on understanding social media algorithms that drive content.

Ardern was speaking at a virtual summit to mark the second anniversary of the global initiative to end online hate, called the Christchurch Call, launched by Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron in 2019 after a white supremacist killed 51 people at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch while live-streaming his rampage on Facebook.

Since then more than 50 countries, international organizations and tech firms have supported the initiative including firms like Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft.

""The existence of algorithms themselves is not necessarily the problem, it's whether or not they are ethically used. That is one of the biggest focus for the community over the next year alongside expanding the network itself,"" Ardern said a news conference after the forum.

Ardern said major tech firms expressed a real desire at the forum to use algorithms for positive interventions. She, however, did not elaborate on how firms would change the use of algorithms that drive harmful content and lead to radicalisation.

The Christchurch Call","New Zealand PM says to fight hate, study social media algorithms",tweets_news_43,tweets_news
"SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook IncFacebook said on Wednesday (Aug 19) it had removed nearly 800 QAnon conspiracy groups for posts celebrating violence, showing intent to use weapons, or attracting followers with patterns of violent behavior, expanding its policy on groups that the company believes pose risks to public safety. The world's biggest social network also imposed some restrictions on the remaining 1,950 public and private QAnon groups it could find, no longer recommending them to users and making them less likely to be discovered in searches. At least hundreds of thousands of Facebook users belong to one or more QAnon groups, though Facebook declined to give more precise figures.

Facebook also removed 980 groups that it said encouraged rioting, a majority seen as generally right-wing militias but a substantial number identified as part of the leftist antifa movement. The long-anticipated takedowns come amid sustained criticism as QAnon activity has surged on Facebook this year in tandem with political gains. A vocal QAnon supporter last week won the Republican congressional primary in a conservative Georgia district, drawing praise from President Donald Trump. Asked publicly about QAnon beliefs, the Republican president would not fault them. Twitter previously removed hundreds of QAnon accounts. ""PIZZAGATE"" CONSPIRACY,","Facebook removes hundreds of QAnon groups, cites risk to public safety",tweets_news_44,tweets_news
"Facebook has referred its decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account to its independent oversight board for review, the first big test of th... Facebook has referred its decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account to its independent oversight board for review, the first big test of the social media company’s newly formed “Supreme Court” appeals body. The social...

Facebook has referred its decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account to its independent oversight board for review, the first big test of th...

Facebook has referred its decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account to its independent oversight board for review, the first big test of the social media company’s newly formed “Supreme Court” appeals body. 

The social media platform suspended Mr Trump’s account “indefinitely” this month over fears he could wield it to incite further violence following the storming of the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

Nick Clegg, Facebook’s head of global affairs, wrote in a blog post on Thursday that the suspension was “necessary and right”. 

But he added: “Given its significance, we think it is important for the board to review it and reach an independent judgment on whether it should be upheld.”

Facebook will also encourage recommendations from the board more",Facebook ‘Supreme Court’ to review Trump ban,tweets_news_45,tweets_news
"There is a growing bipartisan consensus that the Big Tech platforms are not acting in the public interest. The problem is this means completely different things to different people.

Last week's confused ruling by Facebook's internal oversight board over the platform's permanent ban on Donald Trump highlights those divisions without providing anything approaching a credible path through. For Trump supporters it green-lights an assault on free speech by refusing to overturn Facebook's decision to ban their hero from the platform following the assault on the US Capitol in January.

For those of us who think platforms should be accountable for the impact of their conduct with enforceable rules on platform engagement, the ruling smacks of fence-sitting that kicks ultimate accountability down the road, while the free-for-all continues unabated.

Both sides are left to ponder what a bunch of internally appointed so-called ""experts"" are doing passing judgment on the operations of this global corporation and what impact the decision will have without any enforcement powers anyway.

Ultimately Facebook's objective is to maximise the number of people on its platform and - critically - to engage them online for as long as possible so as to extract as much behavioural data as they can in order",Facebook trumped by ABC for 'civic role',tweets_news_46,tweets_news
"When anti-government protests started in Tunisia at the end of 2010 and quickly spread to other parts of the Middle East, it appeared as though the dreams of cypherpunks and crypto-anarchists were finally coming to fruition - namely, that the internet would enable the spread of information and foster democratic discourse, which would lead to the downfall of repressive regimes worldwide. The reality turned out to be much different.

The Arab Spring failed to bring democracy to the Middle East, and in the West, the internet, and particularly social media, has devolved into a cesspool of misinformation and hateful rhetoric. Perhaps it was somewhat apt, then, that last week saw the antithesis of the Arab Spring - let's call it the Washington Winter - take place at the United States Capitol.

A group of protesters, organized on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and fuelled by lies about the outcome of the recent presidential election, stormed the Capitol building, causing death and destruction. Afterwards, the internet giants went on an unprecedented censorship spree that saw the sitting president of the United States booted off Twitter and Facebook, and an entire social network, Parler, taken offline.

This was not a violation of",Jesse Kline: Capitol riots show how Twitter and Facebook poison democracy and free speech,tweets_news_47,tweets_news
"Twitter removed a video tweeted by two of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign accounts for copyright infringement Thursday, leading the president to once again accuse the social platform of censoring him.

As first reported by Politico, the video was a Trump-narrated tribute to George Floyd, the Black man killed by Minneapolis police officers last week whose death sparked massive protests across the globe. In the four-minute video, Trump calls Floyd’s death a “grave tragedy” before railing against “left-wing groups … terrorizing the innocent.”

While Twitter left up the posts, it removed the video content for copyright violation. In response, @TeamTrump, one of the two violating accounts along with @TrumpWarRoom, tweeted that Twitter and CEO Jack Dorsey are “censoring this uplifting and unifying message” and linked to the video on YouTube. YouTube, which has not taken down the video, did not respond to a request for comment on whether it violated its rules.

A spokesperson for Twitter said the social platform will “respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives” and confirmed the tweet was affected by a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claim. 

A Facebook spokesperson told Adweek on Friday afternoon that it had also removed",Twitter Removes Trump Video for Copyright Infringement,tweets_news_48,tweets_news
"The Liberal government's controversial new amendment to its broadcasting bill that would open up user- generated content on social media platforms to government regulation could find support among some opposition parties. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Tuesday he was open to supporting the bill with the new amendment, which critics have said amounts to an attack on free expression rights. ""We will take a close look at the amendments and a close look at the bill before giving our final position,"" he said, adding that the NDP supports measures to target online hate.

Those measures will actually be tackled in a separate bill, which is set to be introduced by the government soon. The party's deputy critic for heritage, Heather Mc- Pherson, said in a followup email statement that the party's priority is to ""level the playing field between the web giants and Canadian companies."" She added that the ""NDP will always stand up for freedom of expression and we will ensure as this bill goes forward that the government presents a strong plan to defend it in the context of the new law.""

The aim of Bill C-10 is to strengthen the Canadian content system by ensuring the CRTC can force","Liberals find support for YouTube regulation; NDP on board as Tories, Bloc opposed",tweets_news_49,tweets_news
"'I feel like there is no spotlight on that at all. And, if anything, it's being shunned, and it's just always like, 'Oh, that's right-wing.' Label everything 'right-wing,' and then everybody will look away from it.'""

— Kevin Pazmino

Up until the moment he was accused of inciting violence at the U.S. Capitol, Twitter was Donald Trump's personal megaphone.

The former president used it for everything — riling up his base, targeting political enemies, and even for firing several executive branch employees.

That all changed after the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill — an insurrection attempt law enforcement says was led by Trump supporters, and what many political leaders from both sides of the aisle say the president himself incited. Twitter finally suspended Trump's account, silencing his digital voice to millions of followers.

Yet, Twitter is not completely out of the political conversation just yet — at least as far as the March 23 city council special election race is concerned.

One of the six candidates looking to fill Andrew Cohen's final year, Kevin Pazmino, shared Trump's love of the social media platform. And just like the former president, his account, too, was suspended by Twitter. Pazmino doesn't know why he, too, was silenced —",Newest council candidate under fire over Twitter account,tweets_news_50,tweets_news
"

Nov 13, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Twitter labeled 1 in 500 tweets related to the US election in the week before and after Election Day as containing ""disputed"" and ""potentially misleading"" content, it said Thursday. But around a quarter of people that saw these tweets did so before they were flagged, Twitter said. It also prevented users from retweeting, liking, and replying to 456 of these tweets, including some from President Donald Trump.

In a blog post, Twitter said that encouraging users to share tweets with a comment — ""quote tweeting"" — rather than retweeting had slowed the spread of election misinformation. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1].Twitter labeled 300,000 tweets for being ""disputed"" and ""potentially misleading"" about the 2020 election, it said in a blog post[2] Thursday.But around a quarter of people that saw these tweets did so before they were flagged, Twitter said.The platform said it flagged 1 in every 500 tweets about the election between October 27 to November 11. It flagged them under its Civic Integrity Policy[3], which states users can't use the site to manipulate elections and share misleading information.Twitter estimated a 29% drop in the number of times these tweets",Twitter flagged 1 in every 500 election tweets as 'potentially misleading' — but 1 in 4 people saw them before the labels were added,tweets_news_51,tweets_news
"District Judge Carl Nichols heard arguments on the free-speech and national security implications of the Trump ban on the Chinese-owned app in a rare Sunday telephone hearing.

Link to Image

Washington: A US federal judge late Sunday halted a politically charged ban ordered by the Trump administration on downloads of the popular video app TikTok, hours before it was to go into effect.

District Judge Carl Nichols issued a temporary injunction at the request of TikTok, which the White House has called a national security threat alleging that its Chinese parent firm is tied to the Beijing government.

The opinion was sealed, so no reason for the decision was released in a one-page order by the court in Washington.

The Trump administration order sought to ban new downloads of the app from midnight (0400 GMT Monday) but would allow the use of TikTok until November 12, when all usage would be blocked. The judge denied TikTok's request to suspend the November 12 ban.

Nichols heard arguments on the free-speech and national security implications of the Trump ban on the Chinese-owned app in a rare Sunday telephone hearing.

TikTok lawyer John Hall said a ban would be ""punitive"" and close off a public forum used by tens of",US judge suspends Trump ban on TikTok downloads,tweets_news_52,tweets_news
"Big Tech's ban of former President Donald Trump persisted Wednesday even as his term ended.

Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube exiled Mr. Trump from their services, and the tech giants have no intention of reversing the banishments anytime soon.

YouTube said ahead of Wednesday's inauguration of President Biden that it extended the seven-day ban it enacted last week against Mr. Trump for at least another seven days.

""In light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, the Donald J. Trump channel will be prevented from uploading new videos or livestreams for an additional minimum of seven days,"" said Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokeswoman, wrote in an email. ""As we shared previously, comments will continue to be indefinitely disabled under videos from the channel.""

In addition to its block on Mr. Trump, YouTube removed some of his content, including a video message posted during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The video features Mr. Trump telling his supporters to ""go home"" and he called them ""very special.""

He also repeated his false claim that Democrats ""stole"" the Nov. 3 election, which coincided with the pro-Trump mob attacking Congress during the count of Electoral College votes that showed Mr. Biden had won the White",Social media companies' ban on Donald Trump poised to continue after end of presidency,tweets_news_53,tweets_news
"AUSTIN (KXAN) — As social media giants Facebook and Twitter elected to become more proactive in flagging misinformation ahead of the 2020 election, several users say they're abandoning them in favor of ""unbiased social media.""

Facebook and Twitter's tightening of rules on posting unsubstantiated claims and/or misleading articles, has been lauded by many and derided by others, namely conservatives, who claim the platforms are only flagging their content.

That includes conservatives like Pres. Donald Trump, whose Twitter account displays more flags than an Olympics ceremony.

In fact, Trump's first tweet on Sunday morning blasting an alleged ""Rigged Election Hoax!"" was labeled: ""This claim about election fraud is disputed.""

Now, many other users with often-labeled posts are flocking to Parler.

The app has shot into the forefront of right-wing culture — with the platform touting itself as a place where users can ""Read News. Speak Free.""

What is Parler? Here's why it's the top app after the election

The app was launched in 2018 and is owned by right-wing commentator Dan Bongino, a frequent guest on Alex Jones' Infowars show, who says his ""entire life"" is about ""owning the libs.""

Bongino aims to make Parler a Twitter alternative, while his other platform, Rumble, positions itself as a far-right YouTube.

Parler","Parler right-wing social media platform attracts users after FB, Twitter tighten misinformation rules",tweets_news_54,tweets_news
"Ex-moderators tell the Guardian Facebook underpays and mistreats contractors responsible for policing hate speech

Alison Trebacz, a former Facebook content moderator based in Arizona, remembers the day of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, which killed 58 people and injured more than 800 others, almost as if she were there.

She came into work that morning expecting to see graphic content, but nothing could have prepared her for the queues full of videos of dead and dying victims waiting for her when she arrived.

Trebacz, who worked at Facebook from 2017 to 2018, was paid just $15 an hour, or around $30,000 a year before taxes, to watch footage such as this - thousands of hours of graphic content, including suicides and injuries.

After six months on the job, family and friends noticed she had started to become intensely cynical, a stark shift from the positive and upbeat person she once was. At bars with friends she would frequently burst out crying, seemingly without warning. Most days she would go to bed at 6pm after getting home from work.

""I was really starting to lose myself, just seeing the worst of humanity every day,"" she said.

Trebacz is one of two former moderators who came forward",Former Facebook moderators sound alarm over treatment of workers ahead of US election,tweets_news_55,tweets_news
"Islamabad, Nov. 20 -- Technology companies threatened to pull out of Pakistan if government regulations which will define how social media is to be governed in the country are allowed to stay on which they said would make it increasingly difficult for them to continue their operations in the country, Dawn reported.

The rules titled, ""Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules 2020,"" have been framed under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (Peca).

In a statement the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) expressed alarm over the scope of the new law which targets internet companies, and also the government's ""opaque process"" by which these rules were developed.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had promised earlier this year that he will initiate a ""broad-based"" consultation on content regulation after a strong backlash from stakeholders over the release of formally known as the Citizen Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020.

""The consultation that was announced in February never occurred,"" AIC managing director Jeff Paine said in the statement.

The tech companies warned that the rules would make it extremely difficult for AIC members to make their services available to users and businesses in Pakistan.

Under the new rules, social media companies are to",New social media rules in Pakistan are draconian: Tech giants,tweets_news_56,tweets_news
"https://www.investors.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/stock-apple-01-shutter.jpg

Once traders become familiar with vertical spreads, the next natural progression is to move on to iron condors. Here's how you could set up an iron condor for Apple stock.

What Is An Iron Condor In Options Trading?

An iron condor is a neutral trade that is a combination of a bull put spread and a bear call spread. As always, the success of the trade depends on how the stock moves. Over the course of any trade, a stock can move one of five ways:

Up a lot

Up a little

Sideways

Down a little

Down a lot

Let's take Apple as an example. Investors in Apple stock make money in the first two of the above five scenarios. But iron condors make money in the middle three situations. With certain stocks and indexes, those scenarios can happen a lot.

The idea behind this option trade is to profit from time decay. The expectation is that the stock won't move too much in either direction.

Apple Stock: How To Build An Iron Condor

So how do we set up an iron condor option trade for Apple stock?

First, we take the bull put spread. Using the July 17 expiration, we could sell the 290 put and buy the 280 put. That",Sideways In Apple Stock Could Make Iron Condor Option Trade Profit,tweets_news_57,tweets_news
"The selection of Harris marks the first time in history a black woman and a South Asian American has taken on the role

Kamala Harris has been named as the running mate for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Harris is the first black woman and South Asian American in history to take on the role.

This is everything you need to know about Kamala Harris - including what Donald Trump said when the news of her selection broke.

Who is Kamala Harris?

Kamala Harris is a Californian Democrat who was born in Oakland, California on 20 October 1964.

Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a breast cancer scientist and her father, Donald Harris, a Stanford University emeritus professor of economics.

Harris was raised in Berkeley with her younger sister, Maya.

She attended college in the US, spending four years at Howard University, where she double majored in political science and economics.

Following her time at Howard University, Harris went on to earn a law degree at the University of California, and began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’ Office.

She became the top prosecutor for San Francisco in 2003, after being elected the first woman and first black person to serve as California’s attorney general.

During this time in office,",Who is Kamala Harris? The woman Joe Biden selected as his VP candidate - and what Trump has said about her,tweets_news_58,tweets_news
"

Oct 22, 2020( EUR/Electronic Urban Report: http://www.eurweb.com Delivered by Newstex) https://i2.wp.com/eurweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Aja-Smith-with-sign.jpg?ssl=1 *Aja Smith, a Black Republican running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, has filed a complaint against Facebook, Twitter and Google. In her grievance dated Oct. 6, 2020, and addressed to U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, Smith accuses the three California-based tech companies of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act by supporting Democratic candidates.

Smith, who is on the ballot to represent California's 41st congressional district, which covers an area in Western Riverside County, also claims that those companies engaged in 'shadow banning' of her and other conservatives. Shadow banning, she says, involves manipulating a digital platform's algorithm to hide certain posts from end users. 'We're seeing more censorship when people post their own opinions, and they're good opinions,' Smith said. 'I see them getting shadow banned on Twitter and Facebook.' Smith said she first noticed the practice around the last presidential election. 'I saw this starting back in 2016 as conservatives were getting more active on Facebook. A lot of things were being censored when we started talking about being pro-life, the First Amendment, the Second Amendment. And I saw it beginning to happen more and","Black Republican Running for Congress Files Complaint Against Facebook, Twitter and Google",tweets_news_59,tweets_news
"Parler, the social-media app popular among Trump loyalists and right-wingers, was removed from the Google Play Store late Friday - with the internet giant alleging Parler failed to remove ""egregious content like posts that incite violence.""

Also Friday, Apple warned Parler, which styles itself as a ""free speech"" alternative to Twitter or Facebook, that the app faces a ban from the App Store within 24 hours if it didn't remove content that ""encourages illegal activity."" Parler was the No. 1 trending app in Apple's App Store as of Saturday morning in the news category.

The moves came as Twitter permanently banned Donald Trump, citing the potential risk that the aggrieved lame-duck president will foment additional violence among his supporters. Trump accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch and other platforms also have been indefinitely or permanently blocked after his role in organizing and supporting the insurrectionist mob that occupied the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a deadly clash with police.

In a statement, Google said that ""to protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence."" It continued, ""We're aware of continued posting","Parler App Booted Off Google Store, Apple Also Threatens Ban After Pro-Trump Violence",tweets_news_60,tweets_news
"India, July 3 -- Amid row over the 'outsider versus insider' debate in the wake of Sushant Singh Rajput's death, Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor had restricted her comments section on Instagram.

Sonam, who comes from a family of Bollywood producers and actors, has been sharing screenshots of the expletives-laden messages, directed towards her, veteran actor father Anil Kapoor, producer sister Rhea, among others in the next of her kin.

The actress shared a screenshot of an alleged 'death threat' her sister Rhea had reported to Instagram and revealed that they refused to take it down. Lashing out at the photo-sharing app, she wrote, ""Instagram, seriously? Now let's have a look at the comment. This has happened multiple times,""

"" Of course, I will block this individual but are you doing your part go keep this 'community' safe? Tap to see the comment.""

""Instagram doesn't think death threat is a violation. Or their India team can't read Hindi,"" she added.

Sharing the screenshot of the 'death threat', she wrote, ""Just Charming, of course. I'm happy to block most unnecessarily hateful people without giving it a thought but what pisses me off is a death threat isn't against your 'community guidelines', Instagram?""

Earlier, Sonam Kapoor took to Twitter",Sonam Kapoor slams Instagram,tweets_news_61,tweets_news
"

May 27, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; The GOP has ignored this and us for far too long. We are what stands between victory and defeat.

Social media is the last frontier, the only place we can share ideas and we are being shadowboxed, suspended, censored and scrubbed. Trump understands this.Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is correct. Big action to follow! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020[1]Donald Trump Threatens Regulation or Shutdown of Social Media CompaniesBy: Charlie Spiering, 27 May 2020: President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned social media companies to stop silencing conservatives on their platforms or face a stiff penalty. 'Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,' he wrote. 'We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.' The president said that despite attempts by tech companies to stop him from winning in 2016, he still won but warned that the companies would try again in 2020.'We can't let a more sophisticated version of that happen again,' he wrote.Trump commented on social media companies after Twitter on Tuesday branded one of his",President Trump Threatens Regulation or Shutdown of Social Media Companies' 'Big Action To Follow',tweets_news_62,tweets_news
"

Oct 13, 2020( The Dawn: http://www.dawn.com Delivered by Newstex) ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Delegated Legislation on Monday criticised the telecom regulator for banning[1] TikTok and noted that Pakistan has to pace up with global development and take corrective measures instead of adopting isolationist approach. The Senate committee that met under the chairmanship of Senator Kauda Babar at the Parliament House discussed the ban on the short video-sharing platform by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). After receiving complaints from different segments of society over immoral and indecent content being shared on the app, the PTA gave several warnings to TikTok before finally slapping a ban on the Chinese app on Oct 10. However, members of the Senate committee maintained that blocking of social media platforms and restricting IT companies was not the answer to check the spread of questionable material. Asks govt to take corrective measures instead of adopting 'isolationist' approach Such an approach by the regulator would push Pakistan off the development bandwagon, Senator Babar said.

'It was essential to regulate content if that was violating the laws of the country instead of imposing a blanket ban on the whole application or platform,' he remarked. The committee asked the PTA",Senate committee slams blanket ban on TikTok,tweets_news_63,tweets_news
"Instagram is recommending anti-vaccination and coronavirus misinformation to potentially millions of users, a new report has claimed.

A study from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and charity Restless Development says the social media platform is suggesting content to users that includes conspiracy theories about Covid-19 as well as anti-Semitic and other harmful content.

It claimed that as well as health misinformation and anti-Semitic content, conspiracy theories tied to QAnon and false claims about the US presidential election were also being promoted by Instagram's algorithms.

The report said posts and accounts were recommended to test accounts created by researchers to study Instagram's recommendation features, which serve content and accounts to users based on their interests.

CCDH and Restless Development warned ``millions'' of Instagram users may be receiving the same recommendations, being exposed to harmful misinformation as a result.

Instagram said it had previously taken steps to slow the spread of the types of misinformation raised in the report and added the research was ``five months out of date''.

Social media platforms - including Facebook which owns Instagram - have pledged to clamp down on misinformation and other harmful content which circulates on its networks following repeated criticism on the issue.

However, the report said its test","INSTAGRAM RECOMMENDING MISINFORMATION TO USERS, STUDY SAYS",tweets_news_64,tweets_news
"Fabricated claims targeting George Floyd remain on Facebook despite pledges by the social media giant to take them down, a new investigation by human rights group Avaaz has found.

USA TODAY reported in January that Facebook had not removed racist falsehoods, stereotypes and tropes about Floyd and other victims of police brutality that had been debunked by fact-checkers.

Two-thirds of the content is still online and nearly a third is not labeled false, said Avaaz campaign director Fadi Quran.

Avaaz uncovered 65 posts pushing 15 false narratives on Floyd's murder, including that his death was staged or was filmed before COVID-19, that he died of an overdose and those involved in his arrest were crisis actors, that had an estimated 3.4 million views. It flagged the posts for Facebook in September.

A review this week after the guilty verdicts in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin showed that 43 of the posts and 14 out of 15 false narratives remain on the platform, Avaaz told USA TODAY.

For example, the claim that Floyd is still alive and arresting officers were ""crisis actors,"" 1 out of 5 posts were removed as of Wednesday. Of the remaining four posts, one was labeled ""false",Lies about Floyd's death still on Facebook,tweets_news_65,tweets_news
"Twitter on Wednesday announced that it would now let users retweet the way they did before. This means that Twitter will remove the Quote Tweet prompt from the Retweet menu. As per the changes made in August, Twitter users were met with two options including retweet and quote tweet whenever they pressed the retweet button.

However, now the company is going back to the basics. Announcing the changes, Twitter posted a series of tweets from its official platform that read, ""After learning from this product experience, we're sharing an update: today Retweet functionality will be returning to the way it was before. Our goal with prompting QTs (instead of Retweets) was to encourage more thoughtful amplification. We don't believe that this happened, in practice. The use of Quote Tweets increased, but 45% of them included single-word affirmations and 70% had less than 25 characters."" ""The increase in Quote Tweets was also offset by an overall 20% decrease in sharing through both Retweets and Quote Tweets. Considering this, we'll no longer prompt Quote Tweets from the Retweet icon. We'll continue to focus on encouraging more thoughtful amplification. We believe this requires multiple solutionssome of which may be more effective than others. For",Twitter removes Quote Tweet prompt after decrease in sharing ,tweets_news_66,tweets_news
"The following information was released by the World Jewish Congress (WJC):

The World Jewish Congress was pleased to hear from TikTok this week that it has removed antisemitic content shared by users after the WJC flagged such content for the social media company.

The WJC has worked closely with TikTok to identify specific examples of harmful content and learned this week that TikTok had removed 98 of 100 flagged videos and banned nine of 12 users. TikTok has now followed YouTube and Facebook in banning Dieudonn MBala MBala, a French extreme political activist notorious for spreading antisemitic hate speech, Holocaust denial, and violent ideology.

In a letter to WJC sharing its report of removed content and accounts, TikTok wrote, We look forward to working with you and your organisation closely in future so that we can continue to learn and improve as we tackle antisemitism on our platform. We welcome this cooperation. Please do continue to alert us to any videos that violate our guidelines against hate speech and holocaust denial. We also welcome any reports or research that can help guide us as we develop our policies and continually improve our enforcement.

World Jewish Congress Executive Vice President Maram Stern responded, The World",WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS THANKS TIKTOK FOR PROMPT REMOVAL OF ANTISEMITIC CONTENT,tweets_news_67,tweets_news
"It has been over a week since Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., said that “…America is not a racist country” in the Republican response to President Biden’s address to Congress. For making that statement, he was the recipient of vitriolic racist attacks. Unfortunately, there has been no condemnation of such attacks by Black political and civil rights leaders....

It has been over a week since Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., said that “…America is not a racist country” in the Republican response to President Biden’s address to Congress. For making that statement, he was the recipient of vitriolic racist attacks. Unfortun...

It has been over a week since Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., said that “…America is not a racist country” in the Republican response to President Biden’s address to Congress. For making that statement, he was the recipient of vitriolic racist attacks. Unfortunately, there has been no condemnation of such attacks by Black political and civil rights leaders. Their silence is shameful and disgraceful! Scott forced both the President and Vice President to admit that he was right. However, his attackers did not condemn them. They referred to Scott as “Uncle Tim” but did not call Harris “Aunt Kamala” for agreeing with him. An",Black Silence on Racist Attacks Against Tim Scott Is Disgraceful,tweets_news_68,tweets_news
"Mumbai, July 15 -- Mumbai's cyber police have arrested a 28-year-old man from Nallasopara, who in a video allegedly issued rape threats to a city-based comedienne. The woman had recently courted controversy after a video of her stand-up act performed last year went viral, in which she has been accused of insulting Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Later, she apologised on social media and deleted the video.

On Monday, Umesh Dada alias Imtiyaz Shaikh was arrested by Mumbai Police, informed home minister Anil Deshmukh through his Twitter handle. On Sunday, a YouTuber, Shubham Mishra, was arrested from Vadodara on charges of threatening and abusing her. Shaikh is a friend of Mishra.

""We have taken suo motu action and have arrested Shaikh from Nallasopara. We are investigating who helped him make the video. We are probing if Mishra and he decided to put up the objectionable video together. He has been booked under sections 294, 354A, 354, 354D, 504 and 34, 505, 506, 509 of the Indian Penal Code and 67A of Information Technology Act. He would be produced in court tomorrow [Tuesday],"" said Rashmi Karandikar, deputy commissioner of police (Cyber), Mumbai Police's crime branch.

Two more people have been identified, who are friends of Shaikh",Nallasopara man held for rape threat to comedienne,tweets_news_69,tweets_news
"Trump can't use Facebook's services to spread lies and incite racists, but the ban does little to repair the company's hate-for-profit business model.

WASHINGTON Recently, the Facebook-funded Oversight Board ruled that the platform giant should continue its suspension of Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts.

The former president can no longer use Facebook's services as a megaphone to spread lies and incite racists. Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts were suspended indefinitely on Jan. 7, after he continued to post hateful rhetoric and election disinformation in the aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

When Facebook forwarded the case to the Oversight Board, the entity had only a narrow authority to review individual pieces of content that the company had removed and then deemed ""appealable"". The board has rendered its decision based on limited information provided by the tech company. (See Free Press' statement).

Throughout the 2020 election season, the Trump campaign used paid ads to spread myriad racist falsehoods. After mounting pressure from advocates, Facebook finally removed three ads that featured Nazi imagery, false claims about African refugees and assertions that the election was ""stolen"" - a patently anti-Black trope that is currently being used to justify voter-suppression laws in",Media 2070: Upholding the Tramp Ban Won't Stop Facebook from Inciting Racist Violence,tweets_news_70,tweets_news
"The far-Right can be funny, in their way. Julia Ebner remembers when she pretended to be one of them. The first time she attended a meeting, it was in Mayfair, at a little pub called Ye Grapes. As she walked into the back room, the group were chatting about holidays in Hungary (""I only give my money to free nations"") and having to hide their political views (""You get fired here if you're a Nazi""). The food at Ye Grapes is Thai.

""There were so many surreal moments,"" Ebner says about the two years she spent undercover, infiltrating a range of extremist movements both online and in the flesh. ""It was hard, because I would sometimes think they were joking, but they were serious about things where it seemed too absurd to be true.""

Ebner has written about her experiences in a new book, Going Dark. By day, she works at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, an anti-extremism think-tank. By night, she was doing what she calls ""completely separate"" work. (As she puts it in the book: ""During my working hours I was the cat, but in my spare time I joined the mice."")

The ironies, she found, were exquisite. After the Mayfair",My double life among the alt-Right: 'Taking a punch was something that I mentally prepared for',tweets_news_71,tweets_news
"QAnon researchers have long suggested that 8kun's owner and operator were involved in the theory.

QAnon began with posts an anonymous figure who most recently posted on 8kun, Jim Watkins' website.

There is also speculation on the involvement of Watkins' son Ron, a former operator of the platform.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

For years, Jim Watkins has occupied a dark role on the internet.

The owner of the fringe message board 8kun - formerly 8chan, best known as a forum for violent extremists and mass shooters - has been a prominent voice advocating for limitless protections for speech online, even when it veers into hate.

In 2019, Watkins testified in front of Congress, saying his platform ""has no intent of deleting constitutionally protected hate speech,"" doing nothing to assuage fears that spaces like 8kun would continue to serve as breeding grounds for extremism.

8kun's role in the QAnon conspiracy-theory movement, for instance, became increasingly clear in the last year. The movement, which revolves around the belief that a ""deep state"" cabal of human traffickers exists in the top levels of power in the US, grew and spread out of a series of posts on the message board, and eventually contributed to many rioters storming the",Who is Q? Why QAnon's ringleader may have been hiding in plain sight all along,tweets_news_72,tweets_news
"Black Lives Matter protests led many people to want to do something useful to reduce racial injustice. Racial justice groups are being flooded with money.

Big companies made multimillion-dollar donations.

""Bad idea,"" says Black radio host Larry Elder in my new video.

""It is condescending... and not helpful. I urge white people to chill. Stop helping us, because you're making things worse!""

Making things worse, he says, because it supports the activists' claim that ""Blacks are victims of racism. (But) if racism were in America's DNA, Obama never could have got elected. Racism has never been more insignificant a factor in one's success than right now.""

I push back. ""It must be a huge problem or there wouldn't be all this protest!""

""Well, they're being lied to,"" Elder responds. Teachers, Black activists and the media give ""young people the impression that racism remains this huge problem in America when it is not.""

It's not, he says, because today any person who does three things can succeed: ""Finish high school, don't have a kid until you get married, get a job. Do those things, you will not be poor.""

The biggest problem facing the Black community today, says Elder, is the absence of fathers. In the 1960s, most Black",Anti-Racist Racists,tweets_news_73,tweets_news
"Shadow Justice Secretary David Lammy has urged Twitter to get ""faster at stamping out racist threats"" after again facing abuse online.

The Labour frontbencher, who is black, reported a user to the police on Sunday after being attacked with a racial slur and told he would ""hang from a lamppost"".

But the user's account was not suspended by the social media platform until Monday - prompting Home Secretary Priti Patel to call for ""decisive action"" against abuse on the site.

The post asked Mr Lammy if he was ""hanging from a tree"", before branding him ""monkey boy"". It added: ""You will hang from a lamppost if you are not careful.""

While some of the Twitter user's posts were removed shortly after they were posted, a number of them remained online for days.

Directly addressing Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey after the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation, Mr Lammy said: ""Tell me racist abuse is not welcome on your platform. You need to get much faster at removing hate.""

Joining the condemnation of the platform, Ms Patel said: ""I am sorry you have faced this awful racist abuse @DavidLammy.

""I have asked the @metpoliceuk to keep me updated on their investigation.

""As I have said before, @Twitter must take decisive",David Lammy demands action from Twitter after latest racist abuse,tweets_news_74,tweets_news
"The app has helped fuel democracy movements in Iran and Belarus but now faces scrutiny as extremists and conspiracy theorists flock to it amid crackdowns by Facebook and Twitter on disinformation.

The app has helped fuel democracy movements in Iran and Belarus but now faces scrutiny as extremists and conspiracy theorists flock to it amid crackdowns by Facebook and Twitter on disinformation.

The messaging app Telegram has long been an engine of resistance and an annoyance for tyrants. Authoritarian leaders in Russia and Iran have tried to ban it. When protests broke out recently in Belarus and Hong Kong, Telegram was the glue that held democracy movements together in the face of violent onslaughts by powerful security services.

These days, though, Telegram is quickly becoming an online refuge for a different kind of resistance.

Far-right conspiracy theorists, racists and violent insurrectionists have been flocking to Telegram in recent weeks after being banished from the big American social media platforms following the storming of the Capitol building in Washington by a mob supporting President Donald J. Trump, who himself was cut off from Facebook and Twitter.

Twenty-five million new users flooded Telegram in the days after Twitter and Facebook, reacting to the Jan. 6 mayhem at","Telegram, Pro-Democracy Tool, Struggles Over New Fans From Far Right",tweets_news_75,tweets_news
"A new Australian law irking social media companies prompted the proposal from an Aussie think tank



Link to Image



Australian Broadcasting Corporation | Social Media Timeline Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images



Many of the worst ills of social media - from its addictive nature to its psychological effects to its corporate surveillance capabilities - emerge because of its status as a for-profit, capitalist enterprise.

But if social media has become a public good - the digital equivalent of a public forum - does it make sense to consign it to the private sphere? And in turn, couldn't those ills be cured by making a publicly-owned alternative?

Some Australians think so.

An Australian think tank is proposing that the government-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation create a publicly-funded social network to compete with corporate giants like Facebook and Google. This proposal is being made in the event that those companies retaliate against the Australian people over recent laws that protect local news outlets.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian equivalent of the BBC, is primarily funded by direct grants from the Australian government. This is in contrast to the Americans ""public"" broadcasting station PBS, which is funded through multiple methods such as member station dues, pledge drives, private donations and",Australians are being urged to consider a publicly-funded alternative to Facebook,tweets_news_76,tweets_news
"As the pols take the fight out back to the web, will the dank memes prevail?

As the pols take the fight out back to the web, will the dank memes prevail?

WASHINGTON — In a meta master stroke, Tina Fey made an epic teen movie, “Mean Girls,” in 2004, then turned it into a Broadway musical and is now making a movie out of the musical.

She should do her first casting call here. Politics has never been filled with so many mean girls.

How’s this for a bitchyyy lunch table? Mitch McConnell, Rudy Giuliani, Don Jr., Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo, Lindsey Graham, John Bolton, Jim Jordan, Kellyanne Conway, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

Of course Donald Trump, who uses Twitter like the Burn Book, takes the form of Regina George, Queen Bee.

Now comes the new kid in school: Mike Bloomberg, who wants to topple the Queen Bee and is aiming to get there with mean girl — and meme girl — tactics.

Many rivals have struggled to spar with Trump in debates and on Twitter but have found it difficult, demeaning and self-destructive to sink to his level.

They don’t seem authentic when the claws come out and the fur flies. Who can",A Meme Girl Mash-Up,tweets_news_77,tweets_news
"

Feb 02, 2021( The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/ Delivered by Newstex) As the U.S. enters the second year of a deadly pandemic, newsrooms across the country are forced to reflect on their revenue strategies following the bloodbath of layoffs in 2020[1]. Publishers will have to abandon old ways of thinking even though there isn't a single, magical solution to the industry's financial struggles. 'It's not going to get worse before it gets better,' Elizabeth Osder, principal of the media consulting firm The Osder Group, told TheWrap. 'It's going to continue to get worse until it gets to be something else.' The news industry is not a monolith, with each publication from local newspapers to national media outlets having its own distinct set of challenges.

But as the pandemic has only accelerated the urgency with which publications need to adjust course, a few lessons have become abundantly clear: Revenue cannot be dependent on a single source, whether that be advertisers, hedge funds and venture capital, or reader subscriptions. A strong future for news organizations involves both editorial and business-model changes. Also Read: These California 'Local Papers' Are Part of a Shadowy Conservative Pay-for-Play Network[2] Implementing these changes will look different for every news organization.",3 Lessons for Newsrooms to Survive 2nd Year of the Pandemic,tweets_news_78,tweets_news
"The free speech social media site was booted offline after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Topline

Alternative social media platform Parler announced its return Monday morning, more than a month after it was forced offline for its accused role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

<figure>

<figcaption>

This illustration picture shows social media application logo from Parler displayed on a smartphone in Arlington, Virginia on July 2, 2020. - Amid rising turmoil in social media, recently formed social network Parler is gaining with prominent political conservatives who claim their voices are being silenced by Silicon Valley giants. Parler, founded in Nevada in 2018, bills itself as an alternative to ""ideological suppression"" at other social networks. (Photo by Olivier DOULIERY / AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

</figcaption></figure>

Key Facts

Parler s interim CEO Mark Meckler announced the platform s return, explaining that it has been rebuilt on robust, sustainable, independent technology and will no longer rely on the big tech companies that booted it off the internet in early January.

When Parler was taken offline in January by those who desire to silence tens of millions of Americans, our team came together, determined to keep our promise",We Will Not Be Canceled : Parler Relaunches After Month Offline In Wake Of Capitol Attack,tweets_news_79,tweets_news
"Timeline of the riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6 What started as a congressional and democratic exercise in the peaceful transfer of power, devolved into death, destruction and chaos. Facebook’s oversight board is slated to announce the fate of...

Timeline of the riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6 What started as a congressional and democratic exercise in the peaceful transfer of power, devolved into death, destruction and chaos. Facebook’s oversight board is slated to announce the fate of former Pres...

Timeline of the riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6 What started as a congressional and democratic exercise in the peaceful transfer of power, devolved into death, destruction and chaos. Facebook’s oversight board is slated to announce the fate of former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts on Wednesday at 9 a.m. ET. The social media giant indefinitely suspended Trump the day after the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — concerned Trump would incite further violence while refusing to accept Joe Biden’s election victory. Twitter made a similar move by deactivating Trump’s personal and presidential accounts. Initially, Twitter’s suspension was to last 12 hours. But two days after the Capitol riot, Twitter moved","Oversight board to announce fate of Trump's Facebook, Instagram accounts on Wednesday",tweets_news_80,tweets_news
"According to recently uncovered emails, former President Donald Trump called Karen Fann, the Republican president of Arizona's state Senate, personally thanking her for ordering a recount of the state's 2020 presidential votes and ""pushing to prove any fraud.""

Rudy Giuliani, Trump's aide de camp, called her at least six times, or so she said in one of her emails. That may help explain why a partisan company with zero relevant experience is conducting a dubiously competent and seemingly interminable recount of Maricopa County's votes inside Phoenix's Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Here is a puzzle. What do Trump and his allies hope to accomplish? The partisan recount lacks all credibility. The county's Republican recorder and all five of its supervisors, four of them Republicans, have denounced it as a sham.

It is unnecessary.

The Maricopa vote had already been checked twice, then independently audited twice, then certified by the Republican governor. The investigators are reportedly pursuing laughable conspiracy theories, such as looking for bamboo fibers in case fake ballots were smuggled from China. And even if the partisan audit finds serious errors, they would not change the 2020 election result.

Why go to so much trouble to stage a three-ring circus? Answer: the real goal is to",Losing patience,tweets_news_81,tweets_news
"Twitter temporarily disabled the account of President Trump's campaign Wednesday over a post containing misinformation about the coronavirus, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The post in question showed a clip of Trump claiming during a Fox News interview that children are ""almost immune"" from COVID-19.

A spokeswoman with Twitter, Liz Kelley, told the paper that Twitter hid Team Trump's video and that @teamtrump wouldn't be allowed to tweet until it was deleted. After almost 12 hours without any activity, Team Trump tweeted again shortly after 9 p.m. EST.

Facebook deleted the same post from President Trump's page earlier in the day, saying Wednesday that the ""video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation.""

Twitter has been quicker than Facebook in recent months in labeling posts from the president that violate its policies against misinformation and abuse.

This was the first time that Facebook has removed a post from Trump entirely, rather than labeling it, as it has done in the past.

Several studies suggest, but don't prove, that children are less likely to become infected than adults and more likely to have only mild symptoms. But this is not the",Report: Twitter bans Trump campaign from tweeting over COVID misinformation,tweets_news_82,tweets_news
"The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday that the virtual hearing will occur March 25.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have agreed to testify remotely next month at a House hearing on misinformation and disinformation - the latest in what has become a series of Capitol Hill grillings for major Silicon Valley executives.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday that the virtual hearing will occur March 25.

The session comes weeks after the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which fueled a Democratic uproar over the amount of planning that transpired openly on both major and fringe online platforms. During that riot, supporters of then-President Donald Trump attempted to stop lawmakers from certifying the election win of President Joe Biden.

The House committee's Democratic leaders singled out bogus claims of election fraud in their statement announcing next month's hearing, but also pointed to broader concerns about misinformation.

""Whether it be falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine or debunked claims of election fraud, these online platforms have allowed misinformation to spread, intensifying national crises with real-life, grim consequences for public health and safety,"" Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said in a joint","Facebook, Google and Twitter CEOs testifying again before Congress next month",tweets_news_83,tweets_news
"

Jan 27, 2021( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; Righteous. Calls from the fraudulent party to pack the court in ..321..,.Quick note: Tech giants are snuffing us out. You know this. Facebook, Twitter, Google et al have shadowbanned, suspended and in some cases deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here. Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here it's free and it's critical NOW more than ever. [1] Supreme Court dismisses suits against Trump alleging he illegally accepted foreign giftsThe cased centered on the Emoluments Clause, which bans foreign officials from receiving gifts or profit while in office. By Joseph Weber[2], Just The News, January 25, 2021:The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed lawsuits against former President Trump that argued he violated the Constitution by accepting gifts from foreign officials.The cased centered on the Emoluments Clause, which bans foreign officials from receiving gifts or profit while in office, according to the Washington Times. The lawsuits claimed Trump's commercial businesses received profits from foreign officials during his time as president in violation of the law. Have a tip we should know? Your anonymity is NEVER compromised. Email tips@thegellerreport.com [3] The Truth Must be Told Your",Supreme Court dismisses lawsuits against President Trump,tweets_news_84,tweets_news
"

Nov 04, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/Delivered by Newstex) Twitter delivered on its promise[1] to censor tweets that it believed constitutes misinformation. Overall, the platform censored at least six conservatives' verified accounts, including President Donald Trump.In five of the six instances, the platform placed an interstitial, or filter, over the tweets, and in five of the six cases, it turned off comments and likes. Twitter still allowed quote tweets for the posts, however.The interstitial placed over the tweets said, 'Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.

Learn More[2].' Users then had to click 'view' in order to see those particular tweets.1. Trump[3] was censored early in the day. Twitter censored[4] Trump's tweet[5], in which he stated, 'The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!' The New York Times found[6] that 'Before Mr. Trump's tweet was labeled, it was shared or replied to about 827 times a minute. After it was labeled, that dropped to 151",EXCLUSIVE: Twitter Censors Tweets from 6 Conservatives' Verified Accounts,tweets_news_85,tweets_news
"The Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee plans to subpoena Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey after the social media platform blocked a disputed article about Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz said the committee will issue the subpoena, compelling Dorsey to speak before it, because Twitter is ""abusing their corporate power to silence the press and to cover up allegations of corruption.""

The social media giant on Wednesday blocked users from sharing or linking to a controversial New York Post article amid concerns that it could be linked to a disinformation campaign weeks ahead of the presidential election.

The article was based on emails obtained from the laptop of Biden's son Hunter that were provided to Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, according to the New York Post.

Giuliani has previously spread false information about a discredited theory that accuses the former vice president of pressuring Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor to benefit a Ukrainian natural gas company that employed Hunter Biden.

Biden has denied all wrongdoing, saying that he did not speak to his son about his business.

Questions have also been raised about the article's sourcing.

Twitter late Thursday appeared to clarify their policy going forward by saying they will no longer block hacked",US Republicans to subpoena Twitter CEO over blocking disputed article,tweets_news_86,tweets_news
"A federal judge Thursday urged the Trump administration to consider delaying a ban on new downloads of the popular video app TikTok and hinted he might block the government's order set to take effect on Sunday.

Judge Carl Nichols made the comments at a hastily called telephone hearing where TikTok argued a ban, even if temporary, could cause irreparable harm to the video-sharing application with some 100 million US users.

The judge agreed with TikTok lawyers to an expedited hearing schedule and said he would make a decision before the ban takes effect at 11:59 pm Sunday (0359 GMT Monday).

Nichols said he disagreed with government lawyers' claims that the ban -- which would not immediately prevent usage of TikTok but prevent downloads by new users and updates -- ""merely preserves the status quo.""

""I would like the government (Justice Department) to confer with its client,"" Nichols said.

He asked the Justice Department lawyers to indicate by Friday if they were willing to postpone a ban; if not he would review briefs from both sides and make a ruling on TikTok's request for a temporary injunction on President Donald Trump's order.

The Chinese-owned app -- which is wildly popular with US teenagers in particular -- has",TikTok urges US court order to block Trump ban,tweets_news_87,tweets_news
"February 19 -- Pakistan's government has approved new rules for regulating cyber space which opponents say could be used to stifle dissent and free speech. Under regulations that were approved by the cabinet late last month but were not immediately made public, social media companies will be obliged to help law enforcement agencies access data and to remove online content deemed unlawful. Companies that do not comply with the rules risk being blocked online, according to a copy of the regulations seen by Reuters. The approval of the new rules follows accusations by opposition parties that Prime Minister Imran Khan's government has sought to intimidate and silence its opponents and allegations of media censorship. Pakistan's military has also faced accusations of cracking down on media and free speech. But Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqi, the top official at the ministry of information technology that authored the regulations, said the new rules would help ""identify and weed out unwanted and slanderous online content."" ""We needed to do it to uphold the integrity, decency and respect of individuals and sanctity of institutions,"" he said. The new rules on social media are described by the authors as intended to prevent live streaming of online content","Pakistan has 'new rules' for Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies",tweets_news_88,tweets_news
"(Somerville, NJ) On Friday, October 16th, Representative Tom Malinowski will host a virtual forum to discuss the threats posed by white nationalism, anti-Semitism and other forms of extremism online. Rep. Malinowski will be joined by Elizabeth Neumann, who served in the Trump administration as Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Members of the public can RSVP here: https://ggle.io/3Vk4.

""Extremist groups spreading hate and disinformation online threaten the safety of Americans and the integrity of our democracy,"" said Rep. Malinowski. ""I look forward to sharing with constituents how I am taking concrete action at the federal level to address this growing problem, and hearing from constituents about their concerns.""

Rep. Malinowski has been an outspoken critic of large social media platforms and their algorithmic amplification of harmful, conspiratorial content. Earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan resolution introduced by Rep. Malinowski to condemn QAnon, a movement promoting a collection of unfounded conspiracy theories that have spread widely on the internet since 2017. In September, he hosted a public forum with leading experts to discuss the proliferation of conspiracy theories and misinformation online, and how to guard against them.

Since his first days in",REPRESENTATIVE MALINOWSKI TO HOST FORUM ON THE SPREAD OF EXTREMISM ONLINE,tweets_news_89,tweets_news
"Vice President Mike Pence is in a familiar spot: standing by President Donald Trump. With Trump hospitalized with a virus that he spent months downplaying, his ever-loyal No. 2 will play an increasingly prominent role in the weeks ahead. Pence will take a leading role in campaigning around the country in the final stretch before the Nov. 3 election, aiming to keep the president's supporters energized and deflecting criticism of his handling of a virus that has killed over 205,000 Americans. The president's positive diagnosis on Friday has intensified scrutiny of the administration's cavalier approach to the pandemic.

The spotlight on Pence will be especially bright tomorrow when he will participate in the vice presidential debate with California Sen. Kamala Harris. Pence will almost certainly be pressed to explain shifting accounts of the president's health over the weekend and justify Trump's decision to hold large in-person campaign rallies during a pandemic - events that often flouted public health guidelines by congregating thousands of mostly mask-less supporters. ""Normally, the vice presidential debate is inconsequential. That is not the case in 2020,"" said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who worked on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential bid. ""The public has so many",Trump's defender | Pence's campaign role grows at key moment,tweets_news_90,tweets_news
"Enough is enough. Silicon Valley tech executives have no right to decide what Alabamians read and listen to.

The Alabama Legislature needs to follow Florida's lead and put sensible rules into place regulating big tech censors.

Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, the sponsor of HB 7013, said the measure is needed to protect Floridians from arbitrary sanctions from social media companies, such as removal from their platforms or censorship, because they've grown so large and dominate modern discourse.

The bill includes a measure to fine social media platforms that blacklist political candidates: $100,000 a day for statewide candidates (governors, senators, and presidential candidates) and $10,000 a day for ""other candidates.""

The bill also includes extensive measures aimed at constraining tech companies' ability to prioritize content. It includes a definition of ""shadow banning"" action by a social media platform, through any means, to limit or eliminate the exposure of a user or content or material posted by a user to other users of the social media platform.

The bill would also mandate a period of 60 days for banned users of social media platforms to ""access or retrieve all of the user's information, content, material, and data.""

The big tech companies would also be required by the bill to",Alabama should follow Florida's example and fight big tech's censors,tweets_news_91,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Facebook and Instagram took down video tributes to George Floyd posted by the Trump campaign over copyright complaints on Friday, following a similar decision by Twitter - broadening the latest skirmish over the policing of online messages from President Donald Trump and his allies.

Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram removed posts by official Trump campaign accounts that included videos narrated by Trump discussing Floyd's death in Minneapolis. The narration is played over a series of photographs and videos that appear to have been taken during recent protests around the country over Floyd's killing, Politico reported.

We received a copyright complaint from the creator under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and have removed the post,"" Facebook Spokesperson Andy Stone told POLITICO in an email, adding, ""Organizations that use original art shared on Instagram are expected to have the right to do so.

The move by the companies follows a parallel action by Twitter, which on Thursday morning disabled the same video included in a pair of tweets by @TeamTrump and @TrumpWarRoom 2020 campaign accounts, also citing an unspecified complaint under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The company left up the tweets but placed an overlay on the videos that reads, This media has been","United States: Facebook, Instagram Join Twitter in Removing Trump Campaign Videos over Copyright Complaints",tweets_news_92,tweets_news
"

Jan 11, 2021( Digital Journal: http://www.digitaljournal.com Delivered by Newstex) The conservative social network Parler was forced offline Monday, tracking websites showed, after Amazon warned the company would lose access to its servers for its failure to properly police violent content.The site's popularity soared in recent weeks, becoming the number one free app in Apple's App Store after the much larger Twitter banned US President Trump from its platform for his role in inciting a riot at the US Capitol last week.Messages of support for Wednesday's attack in Washington DC -- along with calls for new demonstrations -- had flourished on the platform, leading Google to remove it from its app store on Friday, followed by Apple on Saturday.Amazon then confirmed it would suspend the platform from its cloud hosting services for allowing ""threats of violence.""In a letter to the Parler's owners, the web giant said it would suspend service by 11:59 PM on Sunday (0759 GMT Monday).Tracking website Down For Everyone Or Just Me showed Parler offline just after midnight, suggesting its owners had not been able to find a new hosting partner.In a series of posts on Parler on Saturday, CEO John Matze said the site would go down",Conservative website Parler forced offline: web trackers,tweets_news_93,tweets_news
"Facebook may finally stop lending its enormously powerful microphone and amplifier to deceitful politicians and manipulative campaigns.

And in doing so, it would also block truthful candidates who are just trying to correct the record, outline their policies or encourage people to get out and vote.

It's a fair trade as far as I'm concerned.

Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner reported Friday afternoon that officials at the social networking giant were discussing a temporary ban on political advertising to reduce the spread of misleading, questionable or false material on the site in the run-up to the November election. The report came two days after Facebook released a damning audit of its ""reactive and piecemeal"" efforts to keep its network free of hate speech and voter suppression, among other objectionable practices.

Oh, and by the way, a small but growing number of major advertisers are boycotting Facebook over a similar set of issues.

A ban would answer those complaints only where advertising by pols and their campaigns is concerned. But it would relieve the company of the responsibility that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has famously resisted, which is to factcheck political ads the same way it does every other advertisement.

Please, park your ""censorship"" complaints outside.

Pols and campaigns would",What a wonderful world it would be if Facebook stopped running political ads,tweets_news_94,tweets_news
"

Mar 12, 2020( Tubefilter: http://www.tubefilter.com Delivered by Newstex) News came down this week that legal tussles are already breaking out[1] between the callow kids claiming crucial roles in the creation of the highly hyped TikTok Hype House[2], just a few weeks after its existence first became public knowledge. About 20 creators now call the house a home, along with goodness knows how many cease-and-desist orders. But more importantly, the increasingly popular concept of a House Full Of Influencers has me thinking about its potential in so many other parts of our lives, all documented by short karaoke videos, IGTV streams, and the occasional still image or Twitter post. Of course, putting a bunch of perhaps slightly self-absorbed people into close quarters together, ideally with little opportunity to escape each other, and then letting cameras roll is a tradition that goes back a long time in mass media.

One early example was the U.S. space program, where Right Stuff astronauts spent most of their time beyond Earth's atmosphere under constant video surveillance from millions of viewers. By the mid-1990s, the space program had become rather pass, mostly focused on quick jaunts into near-Earth orbit to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.",Insights: Taking TikTok Hype Houses Mainstream—What Could Go Wrong?,tweets_news_95,tweets_news
"•From October 27 to November 11, 0.2 percent of election tweets were flagged•Under 500 were given a warning message and unable to be liked or retweeted•Notifications that results were likely to be delayed and that voting by mail is safe were viewed 389 million times•Twitter says it will continue to closely monitor election-related tweets into 2021

From October 27 to November 11, 0.2 percent of election tweets were flagged

Under 500 were given a warning message and unable to be liked or retweeted

Notifications that results were likely to be delayed and that voting by mail is safe were viewed 389 million times

Twitter says it will continue to closely monitor election-related tweets into 2021

Twitter labeled 300,000 tweets related to the US presidential election 'potentially misleading' in the week before and after Election Day, the company has announced.

That represented 0.2 percent of all US election-related tweets during the two-week period between October 27 and November 11 - and some of those flagged were posted or retweet by President Donald Trump.

A separate report found nearly half of Trump's tweets had been flagged by between November 3 and November 5, The Independent reports.

On election day, one-sixth of his 55 tweets were deemed to contain 'misinformation' and","Twitter labeled 300,000 election-related tweets 'potentially misleading' in the 16 days surrounding Election Day - with one sixth of Trump's posts being labeled in just three days",tweets_news_96,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) - Over 48 hours in America, the official death toll from the coronavirus pandemic topped 100,000, the number of people who filed for unemployment during the crisis soared past 40 million, and protests erupted in major cities after the death of George Floyd.

It's the kind of frenetic, fractured moment when national leaders are looked to for solutions and solace. President Donald Trump instead threw a rhetorical match into the tinderbox. ""When the looting starts, the shooting starts,"" he declared ominously in a late-night tweet.

Trump's words were so jarring that Twitter attached a warning to his post - as well as to an identical message from an official White House account - saying that the president of the United States was ""glorifying violence."" It's the first time the social media giant has taken such a step with any world leader, prompting new claims of bias from Trump and some of his conservative allies.

The episode encapsulated Trump's approach to the presidency and to this time of national crisis, which has upended nearly every aspect of American life and put his November reelection prospects at risk. He's latched on to personal grievances and cast himself as a victim, while making only",Analysis: Trump fuels new tensions in moment of crisis,tweets_news_97,tweets_news
"Site has potential to become a lovefest for the ex-president and not much else.

A few decades ago, when people got their news from printed sources and a handful of TV and radio stations, we had a minimum daily diet of common facts. Sure, in some cities there may have been a liberal-leaning morning paper and a competing conservative afternoon one or vice versa, but for the most part, the news pages carried similar facts. Like

nearly everyone at the time, I grew up watching the news on three national TV networks and a handful of local newscasts, which, in the misquoted words of Dragnet's Joe Friday, featured ""Just the facts, ma'am,"" though, to digress, an internet search just informed me that he actually never said that. It was a 1953 spoof from satirist Stan Freberg, but I'll write that off to parody rather than fake news.

Magid: Google maps features you already have or will soon get Magid: Wellness, social media and online safety Magid: Tech will become new 'normal' after getting us through tough year Larry Magid: Take steps to protect against identity theft

Today, our media diet is more like a Las Vegas buffet - there are a lot of tempting",Larry Magid: A Trump branded social network is a bad idea,tweets_news_98,tweets_news
"From the birth of YouTube to the rapid growth of TikTok, ordinary people have been able to garner attention on social media apps with just a smartphone and an idea. The term ""influencer"" was coined to describe the creators in these positions that have the ability to influence the behavior or opinions of their followers.

While most influencers start off with supportive fanbases, the more attention they receive, the more their flaws and mistakes are emphasized. The phenomenon of promoting the ""canceling"" of people, brands, and companies due to offensive or problematic remarks or ideologies is referred to as Cancel Culture. The intention behind Cancel Culture is to hold celebrities and influencers accountable for their mistakes and call them out for their problematic behavior. However, the motivation and means of Cancel Culture have become tainted as many use it as an excuse to bully celebrities rather than bring to light their mistakes. Major reform is needed - on both a personal and social level - in order to achieve the originally intended goal of accountability.

TikTok content creators Charlie and Dixie D'Amelio were recently criticized for their behavior in a YouTube video where many claimed that they acted ungrateful and rude toward",Canceling Cancel Culture,tweets_news_99,tweets_news
"

Oct 21, 2020( Michael Geist: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/ Delivered by Newstex) Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, who says his top legislative priority is to 'get money from web giants'[1], has discussed creating a new mandated licence[2] for social media linking to news articles. Guilbeault calls the practice 'immoral'[3] and envisions using the Copyright Board of Canada to create a tariff for linking to news articles accompanied by new government powers to levy penalties for failure to comply. Last week, I looked at a single Toronto Star article[4] to see its engagement on Facebook. Using the CrowdTangle Chrome extension[5], I found that virtually all public engagement with the article came from a Facebook post that the Toronto Star posted itself.

Today's post expands on that approach by examining a larger group of articles all taken from single day. This post looks at 36 original articles posted to the Star's website on the morning of October 14, 2020. The day was selected at random and while most Facebook posts take place within the first 24 hours, I waited five days before examining the social media engagement with the articles to give time for potential posts and shares. The Star's website changes throughout the day, so","How Can Linking to an Article be Immoral When the Media Source Itself Does the Posting, Part 2: A Day in the Life of the Toronto Star on Facebook",tweets_news_100,tweets_news
"A Norwegian journalist wondered whether Americans who voted Trump in 2016 are going to regret it as much as the Germans who voted for Hitler in 1933 did in 1945, as the Third Reich came tumbling down.

Journalist Helge Simonnes, the former editor-in-chief of the Christian newspaper Vårt Land, has ruffled many feathers by drawing a startling parallel between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler.

In his opinion piece in the newspaper Dagsavisen, titled ""A Tarzan Against Corona"", Simonnes wondered whether Americans who voted Trump in 2016 are going to regret it as much as the Germans who voted for Hitler in 1933 did in 1945, as the war ended in bitter defeat.

""What did the Germans think at the time of defeat about what they had done 12 years prior? In the 1933 parliamentary elections, nearly 44 percent of German voters supported Adolf Hitler's party. A good number of them were active churchgoers. The consequences were terrible for Germany and for the the entire world. In May 2020, it is relevant to ask a similar question. What do American voters think about the support they gave to Donald Trump in November 2016?"", Simonnes wrote.

Simonnes expanded his comparison and further narrowed the question to","Outrage as Senior Norwegian Journo Likens Trump to Adolf Hitler, Tarzan",tweets_news_101,tweets_news
"Tens of thousands of Twitter accounts operated on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party have been removed for spreading misinformation

Twitter has revealed it has shut down more than 173,000 accounts from its platform, that were tied to the Chinese government.

The Twitter accounts removed were linked to ""state-linked information operations"", namely the spread of propaganda and misinformation.

Twitter of course is one of the tech firms still banned in mainland China, and the microblogging platform revealed that in addition to the blocked Chinese accounts, it had also blocked over 1,152 accounts tied to state-backed political propaganda for Russia, as well as 7,340 accounts linked to Turkey.

Chinese propaganda

But it is the Chinese accounts that by far accounted for the majority of deleted Twitter accounts.

Those accounts tweeted mostly about the political situation in Hong Kong, but also other content favourable to the Chinese government.

Of the 173,000 accounts linked to the People's Republic of China (PRC), there was a ""core network"" of 23,750 highly active accounts, along with another 150,000 ""amplifier accounts"", designed to boost the content of the ""core network"" accounts.

""In general, this entire network was involved in a range of manipulative and coordinated activities,"" Twitter wrote in a blog post on the matter.

""They","Twitter Clamps Down On 170,000 Pro-China Accounts",tweets_news_102,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — With just days to go until Election Day, senators grilled big tech CEOs about political fairness on their platforms.

The CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google faced a panel of angry senators. Republicans like Sen. Cory Garner (R-CO) say the companies are biased against conservatives.

""Mr. Dorsey, do you believe the Holocaust really happened, yes or no?"" Garner asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

""Yes,"" replied Dorsey.

""It's strange to me you flagged the tweets from the president but haven't hidden the Ayatollah's tweets on Holocaust denial or calls to wipe Israel off the map,"" said Garner.

""For misleading information, we're focused on those three categories only,"" said Dorsey.

Twitter's CEO said the platform only monitors misinformation related to the election, the pandemic and manipulated media. Facebook's CEO said it's difficult to please everyone.

""Democrats often say we don't remove enough content and Republicans say we remove too much,"" said Mark Zuckerberg.

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz said social media companies are giving in to Republicans' bullying.

""You have institutionally bent over backwards and over-compensated, you've hired Republican operatives, hosted private dinners with Republican leaders,"" Schatz said.

Zuckerberg said to stop the spread of misinformation in the days after the election, Facebook will flag content or candidates that","Senators grill Twitter, Facebook, Google CEOs on political fairness",tweets_news_103,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON -- In blistering language denouncing Republican efforts to subvert the election, the attorneys general for Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to reject a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the victories in those states by President-elect Joe Biden, calling the audacious effort an affront to democracy and the rule of law.

The lawsuit, filed by the Republican attorney general of Texas and backed by his GOP colleagues in 17 other states and 106 Republican members of Congress, represents the most coordinated, politicized attempt to overturn the will of the voters in recent American history. President Donald Trump has asked to intervene in the lawsuit as well in hopes that the Supreme Court will hand him a second term he decisively lost.

The suit is the latest in a spectacularly unsuccessful legal effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results, one so lacking in evidence that judges at all levels have mocked or condemned the cases as without merit. Legal experts have derided this latest suit as well, which makes the audacious claim, at odds with ordinary principles of federalism, that the Supreme Court should investigate and override the election systems of four states at",4 battleground states denounce Texas' lawsuit,tweets_news_104,tweets_news
"QAnon is running out of major online platforms where it can spread its conspiracies.

In a statement to NPR , the viral video app TikTok has confirmed that it bans accounts spreading QAnon disinformation.

QAnon is a far right conspiracy theory based on the unfounded belief that President Donald Trump is secretly battling a satanic global child-trafficking ring run by the Democrats and liberal Hollywood elites.

""Content and accounts that promote QAnon violate our disinformation policy and we remove them from our platform,"" a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to Mashable. ""We've also taken significant steps to make this content harder to find across search and hashtags by redirecting associated terms to our Community Guidelines.""

TikTok had already updated its policies over the past few months in order to limit the spread of disinformation on the platform. The company began to impose stricter policies on what was allowed, specifically when it came to election and coronavirus-related misinformation. Those rule changes came about as the company struggled with its own battle in the United States, as the Trump administration sought to ban the app over its connections to its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

As TikTok mentioned in its statement, the account ban policy isn't the",TikTok makes it clear: QAnon is prohibited on the platform,tweets_news_105,tweets_news
"India, May 4 -- Twitter on Tuesday said it has permanently suspended the account of Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut for repeatedly violating the platform's rules.

""We've been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behaviour that has the potential to lead to offline harm. The referenced account has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of Twitter Rules specifically our Hateful Conduct policy and Abusive Behaviour policy,"" a Twitter spokesperson said.

In her recent tweets, the 'Queen' star demanded President's rule in West Bengal after Mamata Banerjee-led TMC defeated BJP in the recent elections in the state. Taking to her Twitter handle, the National Award-winning actor used demeaning words against Mamata.

In a series of controversial tweets, Kangana also called her an ""unleashed monster"".

From calling out on nepotism, farmer protests to people asking for oxygen due to the COVID-19 crisis, she was involved in all the recent controversies.

Reacting upon the same, Kangana in an official statement, said, ""Twitter has only proved my point they are Americans and by birth, a white person feels entitled to enslave a brown person, they want to tell you what to think, speak or do, fortunately, I have many platforms I can use to raise my voice",Twitter suspends account of Kangana Ranaut; 'I have many platforms to use' says actress,tweets_news_106,tweets_news
"

Nov 13, 2020( Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Some Democrats have spilled tea claiming they couldn't survive the party's limited association with socialists and police defunders. However, non-Trump Republicans seem to have done just fine last week despite party leaders embracing wackjobs Marjorie Taylor Greene[1] and Lauren Boebert, [2]who are just two members away from their own QAnon Squad in the House.House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who strongly criticized Greene during the primaries, [3]now says we should give the new representatives from Georgia and Colorado a chance.[4] Our party is very diverse. You mentioned two people who are going to join our party, and both of them have denounced QAnon, so the only thing I would ask for you in the press — these are new members.

Give them an opportunity before you claim what you believe they have done and what they will do."" Yes, the GOP defines 'diversity"" as two white women with emotional problems. Boebert has tried to distance herself from the bonkers QAnon conspiracy theory, but she's found a new conspiracy drug: She's combatting the selective ""voter fraud""[5] that stole the presidency from Donald Trump but somehow still elected her. Republicans are very generous with their new","Marjorie Taylor Greene Surrenders To COVID-19, Wears Mask Like A Loser Who Doesn't Want To Die",tweets_news_107,tweets_news
"•Department of Health using Twitter to denounce reporters and news outlets•Has branded stories 'false', 'inaccurate', 'misleading' and 'complete fabrications'•Was likened to Donald Trump's 'fake news' war against the media by MPs today

Department of Health using Twitter to denounce reporters and news outlets

Has branded stories 'false', 'inaccurate', 'misleading' and 'complete fabrications'

Was likened to Donald Trump's 'fake news' war against the media by MPs today

The UK Government has today been accused of 'taking a leaf out of Donald Trump's playbook' after using social media to publicly denounce journalists.

Ministers have come under increasing scrutiny from the press during the pandemic for a series of failings which have led to the UK suffering the worst death toll in Europe.

The latest tactic has seen the Department of Health use its official Twitter account, which has 700,000 followers, to dispute negative newspaper articles highlighting shortcomings it doesn't agree with.

Officials have lashed out at a number of credible outlets and reporters, branding their stories 'false', 'inaccurate', 'misleading' and 'complete fabrications'.

The strategy was today likened to that of the US President, who has often accused journalists of writing 'fake news' and being 'enemies of the people' in a bid to undermine the media and silence his critics.

Liberal Democrat",Ministers are accused of 'taking a leaf out of Donald Trump's playbook' with attempts to undermine the media by taking 'bizarre' decision to dispute stories on Twitter,tweets_news_108,tweets_news
"The U.S. 2020 election will be a ""test"" for Facebook, said chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on the company's third-quarter earnings call. And he again warned of the potential for delayed election results because of increased use of mail-in ballots. ""I'm worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or weeks to be finalized, there is a risk of civil unrest across the country,"" he said. ""Given this, companies like ours need to go well beyond what we've done before.""

Facebook has faced criticism for its handling of the 2016 election, when it became clear in the weeks following that Russian and other foreign entities had used the platform to attempt to influence the election. This time around, Zuckerberg said that the company had built best-in-class technical systems over the last four years to tackle threats, and had created new policies in anticipation of civil unrest during the election. The company will label posts with premature declarations of victory to authoritative information. It has blocked new political ads in the week before the election and all political ads during the week after, and said it estimates that Facebook helped more than 4.4 million people to register to",Facebook CEO Zuckerberg calls 2020 election 'test',tweets_news_109,tweets_news
"New Delhi, Sept. 13 -- The Delhi Assembly's peace and harmony committee has summoned Facebook India vice-president and managing director Ajit Mohan in connection with complaints about the social media company's ""deliberate and intentional inaction "" in controlling hateful content on its platform -- the second time in weeks that the Facebook executive will be appearing before a government panel to justify the company's behaviour.

The panel, headed by Aam Aadmi Party legislator from Rajendra Nagar, Raghav Chadha, has issued a notice, asking Mohan to appear before it on September 15 at the Delhi Vidhan Sabha premises. ""The summons were issued on the basis of scathing depositions of key witnesses as well as incriminating material submitted by them on record,"" the committee said in an official statement Saturday.

The notice came weeks after the committee, in its second hearing on August 31, said that prima facie, it has found that Facebook was allegedly complicit in aggravating the February riots in north-east Delhi that left 53 dead and at least 400 injured. These primarily have to do with posts on its platform ahead of and during the riots.

The committee is investigating the matter after it took cognisance of ""several complaints"" received from people",Key FB executive summoned before Delhi House panel,tweets_news_110,tweets_news
"Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a bill to empower Americans to sue Big Tech companies who act in bad faith by selectively censoring political speech and hiding content created by their competitors. Cosponsored by Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) Senator Hawley's bill would prohibit Big Tech companies from receiving Section 230 immunity unless they update their terms of service to promise to operate in good faith and pay a $5,000 fine (or actual damages, if higher) plus attorney's fees if they violate that promise.

""For too long, Big Tech companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook have used their power to silence political speech from conservatives without any recourse for users. Section 230 has been stretched and rewritten by courts to give these companies outlandish power over speech without accountability. Congress should act to ensure bad actors are not given a free pass to censor and silence their opponents.""

Senator Josh Hawley

Senator Rubio said, ""Recent actions by Big Tech call into question the legal immunities that social media companies enjoy under Section 230 and whether these firms live up to their obligations. It is time to take a fresh look at the",Senator Hawley Announces Bill Empowering Americans to Sue Big Tech Companies Acting in Bad Faith,tweets_news_111,tweets_news
"I must necessarily begin this piece by expressing my appreciation to the devoted readers of this column, in particular those who wrote to express concern over my absence in the last two weeks. My illness is not over; indeed, it is chronic. But I am sufficiently recuperated to be able to resume writing again. The body is still weak and fatigued but the spirit is strong. Indeed, this is how I would put the matter: in spite of the chronic nature of the illness, life does not seem about to give up on me; why should I give up on life?

Appropriately, I start here from where I ended the column three weeks ago, that is in the spectacular failure of the president of the US, Donald Trump, to impose martial law on the country in response to the nationwide protests and demonstrations around Black Lives Matter - actually the most important revolutionary movement in the world at the present time about which I shall have much to write in this column in the weeks ahead. So, Trump tries but fails to impose martial law on the country? Very well, think of the following details of a complete contempt for the","Fascism, at the heart of liberal democracy - what does it portend?",tweets_news_112,tweets_news
"Twitter took enforcement action on Thursday morning to block a racist trending topic that disparaged U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) after he delivered the GOP response to President Joe Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress. During his rebuttal Wednesday evening, Scott declared that ""America is not a racist country"" and condemned divisive...

Twitter took enforcement action on Thursday morning to block a racist trending topic that disparaged U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) after he delivered the GOP response to President Joe Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress. During his rebuttal...

Twitter took enforcement action on Thursday morning to block a racist trending topic that disparaged U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) after he delivered the GOP response to President Joe Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress. During his rebuttal Wednesday evening, Scott declared that ""America is not a racist country"" and condemned divisive rhetoric on race in politics. He said that he's experienced intolerance even from self-proclaimed liberals and progressives who have called him an ""Uncle Tom"" or used slurs like the n-word to attack him. ""I have experienced the pain of discrimination,"" Scott said. ""I know what it feels like to be pulled",Twitter blocks racist 'Uncle Tim' slur against Sen. Tim Scott — but not til several hours after it started trending,tweets_news_113,tweets_news
"Facebook has come under attack for plans to secure people's private messages by using stronger encryption.

The company is considering adding end-to-end encryption, of the kind already used on WhatsApp, to Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct.

Privacy advocates and Facebook itself have argued that adding such encryption ensures that messages cannot be intercepted as they are passed between phones, and that personal and private communications stay secure.

But many of the world's biggest child protection organisations have written to the company arguing that such protections would increase the threat to young people by allowing for abusive communications to be more easily hidden. The letter, organised by the NSPCC - which has repeatedly agitated against Facebook's plans - was signed by more than 100 international groups and academics.

It also received the backing of home secretary Priti Patel, who gave her support to the NSPCC and said that ""tech companies like Facebook have a vital responsibility to balance privacy with the safety of vulnerable children"". In recent years, members of the government have repeatedly pushed for weaker security for people's messages, citing concerns about terrorism as well as child abuse.

The NSPCC says it understands the value encryption plays in keeping people's data safe but said",Facebook under attack for plan to secure people's private messages with encryption,tweets_news_114,tweets_news
"Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is rightfully being criticized for claiming that the US Capitol riots were ""largely organized"" on other social media platforms ""that don't have our abilities to stop hate and don't have our standards and don't have our transparency."" Despite her attempts to deflect blame, Facebook as well as other social media companies played a crucial role in fueling the mob that stormed the Capitol building.

The compartmentalization of users in echo chambers where only extreme - and often false - viewpoints can travel is probably the single-most important driver of political polarization. Absent a social media landscape that incites outrage and division, the Capitol riots likely never would've happened.

With so much damage already done and just a handful of days left in the Trump presidency, social media and technology companies finally banned Trump and the apps some white supremacist followers used to incite violence. But these decisions were made too late and now risk emboldening conspiracy theorists who still believe the election was stolen. They also raise legitimate questions as to why we let profit-driven companies set the rules of democratic engagement online in the first place.

It is troublesome that we've turned over the rules of online deception,",Social media fueled the Capitol mob. Now Biden and Congress must crack down,tweets_news_115,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled House on Tuesday approved a wide-ranging defense policy bill, even as President Donald Trump renewed his threat to veto the bill unless lawmakers clamp down on social media companies he claims were biased against him during the election.

Trump tweeted Tuesday that he will veto ""the very weak National Defense Authorization Act,'' or NDAA, unless it repeals so-called Section 230, a part of the communications code that shields Twitter, Facebook and other tech giants from content liability. Trump also wants Congress to strip out a provision of the bill that allows renaming of military bases that now honor Confederate leaders.

Congressional leaders vowed to move ahead on the hugely popular bill — which affirms automatic 3% pay raises for U.S. troops and authorizes other military programs — despite the veto threat.

The House approved the bill, 335-78, more than the two-thirds required to override a potential veto. The measure now goes to the Senate.

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of the House Republican leadership, urged Trump not to follow through on his veto threat, but added that if he does veto it, ""We should override.''

If Trump vetoes the bill, ""we will come back to vote to override,” said",House approves defense bill amid Trump veto threat,tweets_news_116,tweets_news
"A Capitol Police officer is being hailed as a hero for drawing an angry mob away from the entrance to the Senate floor Wednesday as rioters smashed their way into the U.S. Capitol.

In viral video from the scene, the officer is seen glancing to his left and notices the unobstructed hallway to the Senate as he was chased up a flight of stairs. The officer, identified by CNN as Eugene Goodman, at first tried to block an open door before realizing he was alone and being pursued.

Goodman, armed with a baton, pushes the leader of the pack, a man wearing a black QAnon shirt later identified as Doug Jensen from Des Moines. Jensen was focused on Goodman and appeared not to notice the open hallway leading to the Senate chambers.

Jensen chased Goodman, who led him and the mob away from the Senate floor. The group, all white men, followed the Black officer into a group of police in a back corridor outside the Senate.

“His name is USCP Officer Eugene Goodman. Remember his name. He almost certainly saved lives on Wednesday,” tweeted CNN reporter Kristin Wilson. “My thanks, Officer Goodman. THANK YOU.”

Jensen was later arrested by the FBI on five federal",Officer praised for drawing angry mob away from Senate,tweets_news_117,tweets_news
"

Apr 21, 2021( Deutsche Welle Asia: http://www.dw.de/top-stories/asia/s-12758 Delivered by Newstex) Dozens of Chinese feminist social media channels have been abruptly deactivated over the past few days, triggering anger and fears that women's rights activists will be systemically denied online presence.China's feminist movement has been facing another wave of crackdowns, with dozens of social media accounts of feminist activists being abruptly shut down in recent weeks.The accounts have been removed from the popular micro-blogging site Weibo as well as the online platform Douban, which claimed the suspended accounts contain ""extreme and ideological content."" It all began with a post shared by prominent Chinese feminist activist Xiao Meili on Weibo in March. In the post, Xiao recounted how she tried to stop a customer from smoking inside a hotpot shop, but the man became agitated and threw a cup of hot liquid at her and her friends.She uploaded the videos to the internet and wrote about the incident.

While she reached a settlement with the customer in private, she began to receive threatening messages on Weibo, with many of them including personal attacks against her.She was even accused of being supportive of ""Hong Kong independence,"" which she blatantly denied. However, Weibo still decided","China feminists face clampdown, closure of online accounts",tweets_news_118,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

New research shows that when far-right figures are booted off Facebook and Twitter, they quickly find a new home - and potentially, a more susceptible audience.

FULL TEXT

Ever wonder where far-right identities such as Katie Hopkins, Milo Yiannopoulos and Blair Cottrell wind up when Facebook and Twitter ban them? What will happen to those QAnon believers who have been forced to ""decamp"" from Facebook? While people might celebrate the bans or ""de-platforming"" of various commentators as a way of preventing the spread of extreme views on either the left, right or just plain loopy sides of politics, the reality is that there are digital sites that will allow extreme voices to publish their views with minimal or no forum moderation. The sites include Gab, an equivalent for those who have been punted from Twitter or Facebook, and Parler, which is an alternative to Twitter. Then there's Telegram, the messaging service that has seen use by far-right extremists rocket over 12 months during which bans were imposed on far right accounts. Researchers Aleksandra Urman from the University of Bern and Stefan Katz from the Bern University of Applied Sciences looked closely at the way in which far-right extremists have drifted to Telegram","When extremists are de-platformed, where do they go? To another platform",tweets_news_119,tweets_news
"NPR selected an inaccurate photo for a story about attacks on protesters.

Donald Trump Jr. called out NPR via Twitter this week for what ultimately turned out to be a bad job of matching a photo to a story. That mistaken photo selection created an inaccuracy that fueled an overblown political narrative captured by the hashtag #defundNPR.While the details of how this happened matter, the mistake itself was inexcusable and demonstrates how credibility erodes when attention to detail falters. Trump Jr., known for his propensity to speak to the fringes of the political spectrum, seized on the moment to perpetuate a second falsehood: NPR intends to mislead the public in its coverage of the protests. Here's what happened: On Sunday, June 21, NPR published a story on its website about a number of cases of people, including known right-wing extremists, ramming cars into protesters.

This story had been accurately reported by NPR investigative reporter Hannah Allam on NPR's airwaves on June 12, as well as by several other news outlets, including The Washington Post on June 15 and USA Today on June 1.NPR editors were emphatic: Both Allam's radio story and her digital story were airtight. The text and the headline of","In Choosing The Wrong Photo, NPR Editors Paved The Way For Partisan Attack",tweets_news_120,tweets_news
"When I was little, I was fond of a book called Girls Can Be Anything. It is about two friends. Adam insists only boys can be pilots and doctors, and Marina sets out to prove him wrong. When Adam's preposterous boast every U.S. president has been a man turns out to be true, Marina resolves to become the first female president.

""This is the book that made me a feminist,"" begins a review on Goodreads.com, which captures my feelings.

The cherished 1973 children's story by Norma Klein helped lay the foundation, but the book that cemented my identity as an unapologetic feminist was Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth. Her polemic awakened me to the crippling strictures of the male gaze, and its pervasive impact in the workforce and on campus. I developed strong opinions about high heels, and saying yes to dessert.

The impact of her work was not isolated. The Beauty Myth was listed among the New York Times'70 most influential books of the 20th century. Wolf was celebrated as a pioneer of third-wave feminism.

Any lingering feelings of hero worship crashed hard last week when Wolf was suspended by Twitter, after using the platform to spread misinformation about vaccines.

It's become clear the",Twitter vaccine myths crackdown overdue,tweets_news_121,tweets_news
"Warren wants to ""create civil and criminal penalties for knowingly disseminating false information about when and how to vote in U.S. elections.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday unveiled a plan to combat the spread of election-related disinformation, which proposes criminal and civil penalties for online voter suppression efforts and urges social media companies and campaigns to bolster their policies against deception.

What would the plan do?

The plan includes three parts, outlining what 2020 presidential campaigns and tech companies should do and the steps a Warren administration would take to limit the spread of false and misleading information aimed at deceiving voters.

Warren (D-Mass.) pledged that her campaign ""will not knowingly use or spread false or manipulated information, including false or manipulated news reports or doctored images, audio, and videos on social media."" And she called on other campaigns to make the same commitments.

The plan calls on major platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to label any state-controlled organizations on their platforms, set clear punishments for accounts that ""attempt to interfere with voting,"" take ""meaningful steps"" to alert users about disinformation campaigns and take steps to increase transparency around their data and algorithms.

As president, Warren said she would push to ""create civil and criminal",How Warren would fight election disinformation,tweets_news_122,tweets_news
"Conservative-backed Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly raised more than double the amount of liberal-backed opponent Jill Karofsky in the last half of 2019, and he garnered President Donald Trump's endorsement at a rally Tuesday evening.

As the state nears the Feb. 18 primary, preliminary reports show Kelly raised $556,184, compared with $227,553 for Karofsky, a Dane County Circuit Court judge. The other liberal-supported candidate in the race, Marquette Law School professor Ed Fallone, hasn't yet provided detailed fundraising figures for the last half of the year, but his campaign says he raised $150,000 during all of 2019.

Fundraising numbers are important because they can give an indication of general support and a campaign's organizing ability.

Voting along party lines, Assembly fails veto override of reduced training for nursing assistants

Kelly also reported spending $221,700 to end the period between July and December with $572,968 in available cash. Karofsky during that same time spent $157,190 and ended the year with $181,274.

Kelly, who was appointed to the court by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2016, will compete against Karofsky and Fallone in a February primary. The top two vote-getters will advance to the general election in April, which coincides with the presidential primary in",Incumbent Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly outraises rivals as he gets nod from Donald Trump,tweets_news_123,tweets_news
"A Queen Creek Town Council member running for the Arizona Legislature was suspended by Twitter and the marketing firm he runs was banned by Facebook for violating the platforms' rules.

Jake Hoffman's Twitter account now shows as suspended; Twitter told The Republic it is permanently suspended.

Hoffman has said he is the president and CEO of Rally Forge, the firm that was banned, which he called ""one of the nation's top conservative digital and communications agencies"" in the Center for Arizona Policy's voter guide.

The firm created accounts that were engaging in ""coordinated inauthentic behavior"" - essentially trolling by posting comments that appeared to be real people commenting on news and sharing right-wing opinions.

The Washington Post broke the story on what some experts characterized as a ""troll farm"" where teenagers wrote posts on social media on behalf of Turning Point Action, a conservative group working to elect Republicans and led by Charlie Kirk.

Both Rally Forge and Turning Point are based in Arizona.

The story led to investigations by Twitter and Facebook of this activity, which led to the bans, according to subsequent reporting by the Washington Post.

The moves to suspend the accounts come as social media platforms work to crack down on accounts spreading",Candidate for Arizona Legislature gets suspended by Twitter,tweets_news_124,tweets_news
"Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, will not block critics from seeing his official Twitter account to resolve a lawsuit alleging he used the social media website’s block function to violate a constituent’s First Amendment rights, the plaintiff’s attorney said.

The resolution calls for Calvert to unblock critics, including Corona resident Trevor Farragut, who sued the congressman April 28 in federal court. Calvert, who represents much of western Riverside County, also will post a new policy “that will not permit him to block anyone on the basis of their views,” said Jason Harrow, Farragut’s attorney.

“Twitter and Facebook are this era’s public forums, and the First Amendment applies,” Harrow said via a Twitter direct message. “Politicians must stop trying to silence people they disagree with. Thankfully, Congressman Calvert won’t be able to do so going forward.”

In an emailed statement, Jason Gagnon, Calvert’s spokesman, said the congressman’s office “will be updating its social media policies and will no longer utilize any platform’s block features.”

The office will report posts “that are threatening, abusive, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, or indecent to the appropriate social media company for violating their terms of service and urge them to take appropriate action,” Gagnon said, adding that violent threats on social",Politics,tweets_news_125,tweets_news
"NEW DELHI (AP) — The messaging app WhatsApp has sued the Indian government seeking to defend its users’ privacy and stop new rules that would require it to make messages “traceable” to external parties. WhatsApp filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the Delhi High Court. It is arguing that the government rules regarding the...

NEW DELHI (AP) — The messaging app WhatsApp has sued the Indian government seeking to defend its users’ privacy and stop new rules that would require it to make messages “traceable” to external parties. WhatsApp filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the Delhi Hig...

NEW DELHI (AP) — The messaging app WhatsApp has sued the Indian government seeking to defend its users’ privacy and stop new rules that would require it to make messages “traceable” to external parties. WhatsApp filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the Delhi High Court. It is arguing that the government rules regarding the traceability of messages are unconstitutional and undermine the fundamental right to privacy. The company currently uses end-to-end encryption for its messaging service, which encrypts messages in such a way that no one apart from the sender and receiver are able to read the messages sent between them. The lawsuit follows sweeping regulations for",WhatsApp sues Indian government over new internet rules,tweets_news_126,tweets_news
"Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, issued the following news release:

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), and Congresswomen Jackie Speier (CA-14), introduced a House resolution recognizing violence against women in politics is a global phenomenon and that more research should be conducted to examine its extent and effects in the United States. The resolution, endorsed by League of Women Voters of the United States, also calls on the U.S. government to adopt policies that promote women's political participation and help mitigate violence against women in politics in the United States and abroad.

""...women have been on the frontlines of social justice movements around the world and throughout our Nation's history...[and]...violence against women in politics is a specific, gendered phenomenon stemming from a resistance to women's increased political participation and intending to undermine women as political actors,"" portions of the resolution read.

The introduction comes after a Republican candidate for the U.S. House posted a threatening photo holding a gun alongside images of Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez, and Omar. According to the 2018 Violence Against Women in Politics Report by UN Women and UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, women of color appear to",Rep. Omar Co-Leads Introduction of Resolution Calling for Government Action to Mitigate Violence Against Women in Politics,tweets_news_127,tweets_news
"

Jan 12, 2021( International Business Times News: http://www.ibtimes.com Delivered by Newstex) KEY POINTSTwitter announced Friday that it is permanently suspending President Donald Trump's personal accountSocial media users criticized Twitter over the action, claiming itrestricts free speech and exposes a threat posed by Big TechLawyers, however, saidTwitter's ban didn't violate Trump's rights While President Donald Trump's social media eviction was celebrated[1]online over the weekend, some netizens are not happy with Twitter permanently suspending his account, accusing the platform ofsilencing free speech.On Friday, Twitter[2] announced that it had decided to permanently suspend Trump's account, which had 88 million followers, over concerns that his posts would incite further violence following Wednesday'sCapitol riot. The move drew criticism from some social media users, who aired their concerns over platforms allegedly violating Trump's right to free speech and potentially doing the same to other users.""If Twitter blocks everybody they disagree with, where is the freedom of speech? I disagree that they banned Donald Trump.

All speech should be allowed,"" one tweeted[3].""I am not a @realDonaldTrump supporter, but Twitter's explanation for banning him should scare anyone who values #freespeech. If they will ban someone because they think fringe wackos might read something between the lines, then anyone can","Twitter Criticized For Donald Trump Ban, Accused Of Violating President's Free-Speech Rights",tweets_news_128,tweets_news
"Much needed upgrades to the Kings Meadows Bowls Club have been promised by the Labor party if elected into government.

The building is owned outright by the club, with repair work needed to ensure the club can continue to host both local and national events.

Club president Maxine Viney said the club had been working for four years to try and get the funding needed to get the works done.

""We also host disability sports here as well, we've got the Transplant Games coming here next year ... we've got school groups that come ... so we well and truly would love this all to be up to scratch,"" she said.

""We have over 3000 through here every given year.""

The work is estimated to cost $340,000.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Fire survivor a 'walking miracle' returns home after months in hospital

Suspicion thrown on Finlay's raffle fundraiser

Latest Labor fumble directs candidate's callers to Liberal MP

Couple star in Grand Designs with stunning Tamar home

Labor spokeswoman and incumbent Bass MHA Michelle O'Byrne said the funding would also go towards managing ""issues around lighting and some ceiling work"" to make the premises fit for purpose.

""This was the first indoor bowls club in operation in Launceston and Tasmania, and this is a",Labor's $340k commitment for Kings Meadows,tweets_news_129,tweets_news
"The Information Commissioner has put tech firms on notice that they need to clean up their act to protect children from online harms

Tech firms have been put on a year's notice to introduce reforms that will protect children from harmful content-or face multi-million pound fines.

Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, has told firms including Facebook, Google and Twitter they have a year to ensure they adhere to a new legally-enforced code that bars them from serving children any content that is ""detrimental to their physical, or mental health or well being.""

The Government-backed code will be enforced by fines potentially worth billions of pounds and is designed to prevent a repeat of the case of Molly Russell, the 14-year-old who killed herself after viewing self-harm images on Instagram and other sites.

It will also require the companies to safeguard children's privacy to prevent them being groomed by paedophiles, to curb ""addictive"" features like notifications that keep them online and to restrict the firms' from using personal information for commercial ends.

In what is significant milestone in The Daily Telegraph's campaign for duty of care laws, Ms Denham said: ""A generation from now we will all be astonished that there was ever a time when",Tech firms given a year's notice to reform to protect children online-or face huge fines,tweets_news_130,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

President Biden’s much-vaunted efforts to secure bipartisan support for his coronavirus package have laid bare fault lines in the Democratic caucus and among centrist Republicans.

The White House has repeatedly said it believes the package is “designed for bipartisan support.” Still, under pressure Monday following a weekend call between top White House aides and congressional lawmakers, Biden said he was “open to negotiate” as he seeks Republican backing.

Biden predicted that talks could take a “couple of weeks,” but the bill faces political and logistical hurdles, including early pushback from lawmakers and former President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, which is expected to begin the week of Feb. 8.

“Each and every challenge faced by a Biden administration will be exacerbated by the fact that [Biden] will be the head of a coalition government,” according to Trump White House Deputy Legislative Affairs Director Michael McKenna, pointing to the different coalitions within the Democratic Party. “That means that everything will take longer and be more complicated than usual.”

Reed Hundt, a former Clinton administration official and member of the transition teams for former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, suggested the process may take a while.

“I don’t think this will be resolved until after",Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 bill is in trouble,tweets_news_131,tweets_news
"Kinzen, the media tech start-up founded by Mark Little and Áine Kerr, has closed a new $2.2 million (EUR 1.84 million) investment round led by Danish start-up accelerator FST Growth.

The move comes as Kinzen positions itself as ""an early warning system in the fight against misinformation"", as Mr Little describes it.

He said the start-up has ""two major content platforms"" among its clients and is revenue producing.

Kinzen has accelerated its work with publishers during the Covid crisis and the US election to protect users from organised campaigns of harmful deception.

""Right now, we're busy getting new clients. We are talking to major global communications agencies who are advising corporates and also to some public bodies. We're also in discussion with a whole range of other players who initially didn't even realise they had a problem with misinformation,"" said Mr Little.

Kinzen was originally envisaged as a digital news subscription service when it launched in early 2019.

However, more recently, the start-up has focused on detecting misinformation by analysing audio and video content.

'Editorial algorithms'

The company has developed technology that combines artificial intelligence with human judgment to create what Mr Little called ""editorial algorithms"" that can find patterns in content to create what the company describes",Kinzen raises $2.2m in fight against 'global infodemic',tweets_news_132,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

as the week begins. So, a mainly dry start to next week, still on the cool side, some chilly nights around, and it may well be later in the week we see it turning more unsettled again, a weather system trying to feed rain down from the north-west. But moving in to the high pressure, it may well weaken as it does so. But it may also briefly bring those temperatures back up again a few degrees.

So, weather on the way back as we start a new month, and meteorologically speaking, a new season. That's your forecast, bye-bye. A new prospect. Think he's ready? The day the DEA has enough to move on that cartel is the day I walk away. That world has crashed into my world and that was not supposed to happen. You're in this now. No getting out, not until the DEA gets what it wants. It's the only thing in",Joins BBC News - 11:45 PM GMT,tweets_news_133,tweets_news
"Bhubaneswar, Oct. 29 -- New Delhi: The Supreme Court has severely criticised the growing trend of police in different States summoning individuals from far corners of the country over social media postings. Hearing a petition concerning a Delhi resident Roshni Biswas who was reportedly summoned by Bengal Police for posting objectionable content on Facebook, the Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee noted that police's power to issue summons under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) cannot be used to intimidate, threaten and harass.

As per reports, the apex court's comment was prompted by Bengal Police issuing summons to the 29-year-old woman who, in a Facebook post, had criticised the Mamata government for non-enforcement of lockdown norms.

The FIR which relies on FB links contains a statement that the posts implied the State administration was going soft on the violation of the lockdown at Rajabazar as the area is predominantly inhabited by a particular community and that the administration is complacent while dealing with lockdown violations caused by a certain segment of the community.

Mahesh Jethmalani, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that the petitioner has stated on oath that she disclaims any association with",SC Slams Police For Misusing Law To Harass People Over 'Critical' Social Media Posts,tweets_news_134,tweets_news
"

Aug 07, 2020( VentureBeat: http://venturebeat.com/ Delivered by Newstex) VB Transform Watch every session from the AI event of the year On-Demand Watch Now[1] It's been a month since U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said[2] the Trump administration was considering banning TikTok. Plenty has happened since, but the situation really accelerated last weekend. In the span of a couple hours, we learned that President Trump was planning[3] to sign an order directing China's ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok and that Microsoft and ByteDance had offered[4] the White House a deal to keep TikTok in the U.S. Chaos ensued. Trump gave[5] Microsoft 45 days to seal a TikTok deal.

Microsoft confirmed[6] it was interested in TikTok's U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand operations. Trump issued[7] a September 15 sell-by deadline for TikTok and declared[8] he was fine with Microsoft buying TikTok, but that the U.S. government should get a 'substantial amount of money' as part of the deal. Finally, yesterday we learned that Microsoft might[9] be pursuing TikTok's global operations, and Trump signed[10] an executive order to block all U.S. transactions with ByteDance (and Tencent) starting September 20. What is all this really about? It's about AI, data, and power[11].Why",ProBeat: Microsoft wants TikTok for the same reason the U.S. fears China,tweets_news_135,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump delivered a strong warning Tuesday to protestors in Washington, vowing to use force if they tried to create a police-free ""autonomous zone"" in the U.S. capital.

In a series of tweets that earned the U.S. leader his own warning from Twitter for ""abusive behavior,"" Trump also threatened stiff prison sentences for ""anarchists"" who damage national monuments during a wave of nationwide demonstrations.

""I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison,"" Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.

""There will never be an 'Autonomous Zone' in Washington, D.C., as long as I'm your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!"" he wrote.

Protestors in central Seattle created an ""autonomous zone"" two weeks ago, sparking outrage among conservatives.

Twitter announced that Trump's use of threatening language violated its policies, and placed a warning tag on the ""serious force"" tweet that required users to click on it to be able to see Trump's words.

""This tweet violated the Twitter rules about abusive behavior,"" the company said.

The threats came one day after police used pepper spray to disperse demonstrators who tried to topple",Twitter puts warning notice on Trump tweet for 'abusive behavior',tweets_news_136,tweets_news
"The Australian eSafety Commissioner is turning up the heat on the Chinese social media giant to remove harmful material targeting children.

TikTok has been forced to removed harmful content from its platform in Australia, with the eSafety Commissioner turning up the heat on the Chinese social media giant to take down cyber bullying material targeting children.

The social media platform, which has 1.6 million users in Australia, received six notices from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner last year to remove material that was focused on children between the ages of 13 to 15 and mainly related to impersonation accounts and mean videos posted about targeted individuals.

One complaint was from parents of an eleven-year old child who wanted assistance because they thought their child would be cyber bullied for material their child had posted.

The eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in the last financial year complaints relating to TikTok made up approximately 7 per cent of all cyber bullying complaints received by the agency.

""Apps like TikTok, which have chat functions, need to be managed carefully by parents,"" she said.

""Be aware and make use of any built-in safety features, such as making an account private and locking contacts to people who are already",Cyber bullying content targeting children pulled from TikTok,tweets_news_137,tweets_news
"Washington: Office of the Senator Tim Scott has issued the following news release:

Today, U.S Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) released the following statement on the National Defense Authorization Act vote: “The U.S military is our nation’s first and last line of defense and the consequences of not funding our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Coast Guard, Airmen, and Guardians would jeopardize national security,' said Senator Scott. 'Simply put, our unpreparedness would allow adversaries—both foreign and domestic—to take advantage of our compromised situation. And while I vote to fund America’s military today, I also will vote with President Trump to rein in Big Tech when Section 230 reform is on the Senate floor. ”The FY21 NDAA authorizes $740.5 billion to support our servicemembers. The funding includes a three percent pay raise for all members of the armed forces for the second year in a row, includes oversight measures to ensure previous reforms to military housing are implemented as intended, continues investments in 5G technology, and prioritizes support for family readiness, spouse employment, and child care.Below is a list of provisions championed by Senator Scott:

An increase of $27 million over the President’s budget for the Department of Defense’s HBCU Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation program",Scott Statement on the NDAA Vote,tweets_news_138,tweets_news
"

Dec 10, 2020( Inside Search Blog: http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Since the outbreak of COVID-19, teams across Google have worked to provide quality information and resources to help keep people safe, and to provide public health, scientists and medical professionals with tools to combat the pandemic. We've launched more than 200 new products, features and initiatives including the Exposure Notification API[1] to assist contact tracing and have pledged over $1 billion to assist our users, customers and partners around the world.As the world turns its focus to the deployment of vaccines, the type of information people need will evolve. Communities will be vaccinated at an unprecedented pace and scale.

This will require sharing information to educate the public, including addressing vaccine misperceptions and hesitance, and helping to surface official guidance to people on when, where and how to get vaccinated.Today, we're sharing about how we're working to meet these needs through our products and partnering with health authorities while keeping harmful misinformation off our platforms. Raising authoritative information Beginning in the United Kingdom, we're launching a new feature on Search so when people look up information for COVID-19 vaccines, we will surface a list of authorized vaccines in their location, as",How you'll find accurate and timely information on COVID-19 vaccines,tweets_news_139,tweets_news
"Google-owned YouTube suspended former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's channel for a second time, claiming that he violated the platform's policies surrounding the election.

YouTube confirmed to news outlets that the ban isn't permanent. Giuliani won't be able to upload videos for two weeks.

""We removed content from the Rudy W. Giuliani channel for violating our sale of regulated goods policy, which prohibits content facilitating the use of nicotine, and our presidential election integrity policy,"" a YouTube spokeswoman said in a statement to Bloomberg and other outlets.

""Additionally, in accordance with our long standing strikes system, we issued a strike against the Rudy W. Giuliani channel, which temporarily restricts uploading or live-streaming.""

The ""nicotine use"" portion could be in reference to Giuliani's promotion of cigars and cigar companies during his YouTube videos.

The Epoch Times reached out to YouTube and Giuliani for comment.

Giuliani, a former prosecutor, served as former President Donald Trump's lawyer as his team unsuccessfully challenged the results of the election in several states. Giuliani and lawyer Jenna Ellis also held hearings with several state lawmakers about election integrity

YouTube previously suspended Giuliani's account in January, citing his content about the 2020 election. If he is suspended again for a third time, the","YouTube Suspends Rudy Giuliani Over 'Election Integrity Policy,' Nicotine Use",tweets_news_140,tweets_news
"NEW DELHI - A regional party governing India's West Bengal state has accused Facebook Inc of bias towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), adding to the clamor of opposition voices which have called out the social media giant for its content regulation practices.

In a letter to Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, West Bengal's ruling party, the Trinamool Congress, said the company's recent blocking of pages and accounts in the state pointed to the links it had with the BJP.

The letter became public just hours before Facebook's India boss Ajit Mohan was due to appear before a parliamentary panel, to explain his company's content regulation policies.

""There is enough material now in the public domain, including internal memos of senior Facebook management, to substantiate the bias,"" Trinamool Congress spokesman Derek O' Brien wrote in an Aug. 31 letter to Zuckerberg.

""Please do all it takes to urgently work towards maintaining the integrity of your platform in the Indian electoral process.""

Facebook did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

West Bengal will hold state assembly elections early next year.

The Trinamool letter piles more pressure on Facebook, which is the midst of a PR crisis and a political storm, following a recent Wall",Key Indian regional party accuses Facebook of favoring Modi's BJP,tweets_news_141,tweets_news
"

Feb 18, 2021( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; Totally disgusting, but entirely predictable.Quick note: Tech giants are snuffing us out. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense permenently banned us. Facebook, Twitter, Google search et al have shadowbanned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds.

They are disappearing us. But we are here. Help us fight. Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here it's free and it's critical NOW more than ever. Share our posts on social and with your email contacts. [1] 'I'm Glad Rush Limbaugh Lived Long Enough To Get Cancer And Die.' Blue-Check Leftists Celebrate Rush Limbaugh's DeathBy Daily Wire[2], February 17, 2021 Following an unfortunately familiar pattern in the aftermath of the death of a conservative figure, Leftists rushed to mock Rush Limbaugh and celebrate news of his death after a year-long battle with lung cancer. Among those cheering Limbaugh's death were a host of blue checkmarks on Twitter, including celebrities, political commentators, and journalists. Here are just a few examples.Rush Limbaugh was a coward and white supremacistCharlotte Clymer, whose Twitter bio states that she works for the pro-abortionCatholics for Choice, took to the social media platform and described Limbaugh as a 'coward and","Democrats, Leftists Celebrate Rush Limbaugh's Death with heinous death tweets",tweets_news_142,tweets_news
"Facebook While podcasts and live audio have been outlets for racism and misinformation, Facebook says its rules on abuse will apply By Barbara Ortutay • Published 1 min ago AP Photo/Noah Berger Facebook is launching podcasts and live audio streams in...

Facebook While podcasts and live audio have been outlets for racism and misinformation, Facebook says its rules on abuse will apply By Barbara Ortutay • Published 1 min ago AP Photo/Noah Berger Facebook is launching podcasts and live audio streams in the U...

Facebook While podcasts and live audio have been outlets for racism and misinformation, Facebook says its rules on abuse will apply By Barbara Ortutay • Published 1 min ago AP Photo/Noah Berger Facebook is launching podcasts and live audio streams in the U.S. on Monday to keep users engaged on its platform and to compete with emerging rivals . Facebook says it is allowing public figures with verified accounts to start live audio rooms and invite anyone else to speak. A handful of podcasts will be available to people in the U.S. at first and the company plans to add more down the line. Download our NBC DFW mobile app for Apple or Android to get alerts for","Facebook Launches Podcasts, Live Audio Service",tweets_news_143,tweets_news
"GALLIPOLIS, Ohio - I thought I knew everything about where I grew up. Then I met a group of people who've taken over my family's legacy - and the country road I grew up on here in the rolling hills of southeast Ohio.

My childhood home no longer has electricity, but people live there. A thick Bible sits atop a wooden table in the family room, where my dad's mammoth HDTV used to set. A horse named ""Champ"" grazes and poops next to where our pool used to be.

My parents' defunct DirecTV satellite is still in the backyard, the lone sign that technology did exist in the house at one time.

What's up with all the Amish in Gallia County?

I happened to ask former county Sheriff Dave Martin that question while hanging on the top deck of his majestic sternwheeler at the Gallipolis Boat Club on a September evening. As two young Amish men built new boat docks below, I was unprepared for Martin's response.

""I wish they'd vote,"" he said. ""They love Trump.""

I knew exactly where to start to learn about Amish culture and their affinity for President Trump - my old house.

An Amish family bought my parents' 100-acre farm in February.",Going Home: A day with the Amish in SE Ohio,tweets_news_144,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON: Bots on major social media platforms have been hyping up GameStop and other ""meme"" stocks, according to an analysis by Massachusetts-based cyber security company PiiQ Media, suggesting organized economic or foreign actors may have played a role in the Reddit-driven trading frenzy. Shares in GameStop soared last month after Reddit users banded together to squeeze hedge funds that had bet against the video game retailer and other companies. Reddit Chief Executive Steve Huffman told Congress this month that bots, artificial or fake accounts with automated content, had not played a ""significant role"" in GameStop Reddit message traffic.

PiiQ Media's analysis of Twitter Inc, Facebook Inc, Instagram and YouTube posts, however, found that bots used the platforms to push GameStop and other ""meme"" stocks, although it is unclear how influential they were in the overall saga. A startup that focuses on social media risks, PiiQ said it examined patterns of keywords such as ""Hold the Line"" and GameStop's stock symbol, ""GME"" across conversations and profiles prior to the Jan. 28 frenzy, through Feb. 18. For comparison, it also assessed posts on an unrelated set of stocks. PiiQ said that it identified very similar daily ""start and stop patterns"" in the GameStop-related","Bots hyped up GameStop on major social media platforms, analysis finds",tweets_news_145,tweets_news
"SAN FRANCISCO (NewsNation Now) — Twitter permanently suspended the @realDonaldTrump account ""due to the risk of further incitement of violence"" Friday night. Later, President Trump tried to use the @POTUS and @TeamTrump accounts to post a statement. Those tweets were removed and Twitter permanently suspended the @TeamTrump account.

Twitter said it made a decision after a review of recent tweets from President Donald Trump and the context around them.

""Specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter,"" Twitter said in a statement.

After his personal Twitter account was banned, President Trump appeared to send some tweets Friday evening from the official presidential Twitter account @POTUS, but those tweets were eventually removed and the account was suspended.

NewsNation took screenshots before that happened and Trump said:

""As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me — and you, the 75,000,000 great…patriots who voted for me. Twitter may be a private company but without the government's gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long. I predicted this would",Twitter permanently suspends President Donald Trump's accounts,tweets_news_146,tweets_news
"The Never Trump super PAC makes entertaining ads that get under the president's skin-but progressives should take a closer look at their agenda.

https://live-thenation.pantheon.io/article/politics/lincoln-project-trump-militarism/

The Lincoln Project is producing the strangest and most memorable ads in the 2020 election cycle because it has a unique goal: to troll the president. Founded by Republicans who hate the Trumpian takeover of their party, the super PAC has so far been focused on creating ads that don't really persuade voters, but do rile up Trump and entertain journalists and political insiders. The ads air in Washington, D.C., which is not a locale where you can reach swing voters who could shift the Electoral College. But Washington is the place to run ads if you want to get Trump to see them and get steaming mad.

Leading members of the Lincoln Project include George Conway (a longtime fixture of the conservative legal establishment and husband of presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway), Steve Schmidt (senior campaign strategist for John McCain in 2008), John Weaver (who oversaw McCain's 2000 bid), and Rick Wilson (a veteran of many Republican campaigns). These are men who have a visceral hatred for Trump, seeing him as an interloper who has ruined their party. They","Trolling Trump, the Lincoln Project Also Peddles Militarism",tweets_news_147,tweets_news
"The election was stolen. Are the American people to have no recourse? Judicial Watch: Documents Show CA State Officials Coordinated with Big Tech to Censor Americans’ Election Posts Used Biden for President’s Communications Firm to Identify ‘Misinformation’ By: Judicial Watch , April 27, 2021 | (Washington, DC) Judicial Watch announced today that it received 540 pages and...

The election was stolen. Are the American people to have no recourse? Judicial Watch: Documents Show CA State Officials Coordinated with Big Tech to Censor Americans’ Election Posts Used Biden for President’s Communications Firm to Identify ‘Misinformation...

The election was stolen. Are the American people to have no recourse? Judicial Watch: Documents Show CA State Officials Coordinated with Big Tech to Censor Americans’ Election Posts Used Biden for President’s Communications Firm to Identify ‘Misinformation’ By: Judicial Watch , April 27, 2021 | (Washington, DC) Judicial Watch announced today that it received 540 pages and a supplemental four pages of documents from the office of the Secretary of State of California revealing how state officials pressured social media companies (Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube)) to censor posts about the 2020 election. Included in these documents were “misinformation briefings” emails that were compiled by communications firm SKDK, that",Documents Reveal CA State Officials Coordinated with Big Tech to Censor Americans’ Election Posts,tweets_news_148,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - Today, Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) joined Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester and 42 Members of Congress in a letter to Facebook Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, calling on the company to address the proliferation of hate speech and white supremacy across the platform, in addition to a lack of diversity within the company. The letter comes as civil rights groups have continuously asked Facebook to work toward eliminating systematic racism both on the platform and within the company.

""As the country reckons with the twin pandemics of the novel coronavirus and civil rights injustice, it is more important than ever that companies like Facebook reflect values like justice and equality. These values are necessary for our society to heal from the injustices experienced by Black Americans every day, including police violence and the health disparities made clear by the coronavirus that devastate Black and minority communities,"" wrote the Members. ""Each day, millions of Americans rely on Facebook to communicate with family and friends, organize groups of people, share information widely with a push of a button and advocate for issues of importance. Given the role that Facebook now plays in our society, the company must pay the highest level of",Casten Calls on Mark Zuckerberg to Address Civil Rights Issues on Facebook,tweets_news_149,tweets_news
"""Twitter employees have coordinated with Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me,"" President Donald Trump claimed using the @POTUS account after Twitter banned his primary account.

President Donald Trump briefly tweeted from a secondary Twitter account he has rarely used after the social media platform banned his primary account for inciting violence on Friday.

Twitter deleted the series of tweets within minutes, where were made using the @POTUS account. That account is reserved for any sitting U.S. president, but Trump has rarely used it.

The tweets complained about the ban, baselessly accusing the company of colluding in a conspiracy with Democrats and ""the Radical Left"" while repeating some of the same rhetoric that caused the platform to ban him hours earlier.

Trump also promised that a ""big announcement"" would be coming soon concerning his future on social media, saying that he had been ""negotiating with various sites"" and could start his own platform.

""As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me – and YOU,",,tweets_news_150,tweets_news
"CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian regulators have ruled out prosecuting TikTok over an apparent suicide video under tough new laws prohibiting some forms of violent online images, but the prime minister urged social media companies on Wednesday to take more responsibility for offensive content.

The Chinese-owned social media platform says it is working to remove videos of a man apparently taking his own life with a gun and banning users who keep trying to spread the clips through the app.

It’s the latest example of the ongoing struggle by big tech companies to police their platforms for harmful content amid increasing pressure from regulators.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s online watchdog, is taking “strong action” against what he described as a “disgraceful video.”

“Those who run these organizations have a responsibility to those who are watching and particularly when it comes to children,” Morrison said in a video released by his office.

“My message to those social media companies is, yes, your products are changing the world, but with that comes a great responsibility and you need to be accountable and you need to be responsible for making sure that your product does not harm Australians, and my government",Australian prime minister criticizes TikTok suicide video,tweets_news_151,tweets_news
"The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to issue a subpoena on Tuesday to Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey after the social media company blocked a pair of New York Post articles that made new allegations about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, which his campaign has denied.

The subpoena would require the Twitter executive to testify on October 23 before the committee, according to the Republicans who announced the hearing.

GOP politicians are singling out Twitter because it prevented users from posting links to the articles, which the Post said were based on email exchanges with Hunter Biden, the Democratic candidate's son, provided by allies of President Donald Trump. Those people in turn said they received them from a computer repair worker who found them on a laptop, according to the Post.

""This is election interference, and we are 19 days out from an election,"" said senator Ted Cruz, a committee member who discussed the subpoena with Senate Judiciary Committee chair Lindsey Graham. ""Never before have we seen active censorship of a major press publication with serious allegations of corruption of one of the two candidates for president."" A Twitter spokesman declined to comment. Twitter and Facebook separately took steps to limit the distribution of","Republican fury after Twitter, Facebook check facts",tweets_news_152,tweets_news
"On the last day of the 13th International Urdu Conference on Sunday, literary figures in a session contemplated what kids, years from now, might need in terms of content consumption and what Urdu literature, in particular, holds for them.

The last hundred year of Urdu literature for children weren't hopeless as new writers and poets kept emerging, maintained the participants of the session titled 'Bacho ka Adab [Literature for children]. The discussion was moderated by the editor of children's magazine 'Jungle Mangle' and writer Ali Hassan Sajid.

Writer Nayar Rubab discussed the role of the technological revolution in Urdu literature. 'The literature for children has always remained in the form of stories,' she said adding that fantasies they fostered in their childhood held little to no difference than fantasies of children today.

Back then, she said there used to be fairies or jinn (spirits or demons) 'but now they have Superman and Captain Planet'. If not a flying carpet, she added, they have had space shuttles.

'Fantasies are the same. It's just the genre that has transformed,' she said. Rubab advised the writers to use contemporary phenomenon relatable to the children of this age.

As for the future of Urdu literature, she expressed hope but",Literary figures contemplate future of literature for children,tweets_news_153,tweets_news
"OAKLAND, Calif. - Facebook has banned an extremist anti-government network loosely associated with the broader ""boogaloo"" movement, a slang term supporters use to refer to a second Civil War or a collapse of civilization.

But the platform didn't try to name the group, underscoring the difficulty of grappling with an amorphous network linked to a string of domestic terror plots that appears to obfuscate its existence. Among other complications, its internet-savvy members tend to keep their distance from one another, frequently change their symbols and catch phrases and mask their intentions with sarcasm.

The move by Facebook designates this group as a dangerous organization similar to the Islamic State group and white supremacists, both of which are already banned from its service. The social network is not banning all references to ""boogaloo"" and said it is only removing groups, accounts and pages when they have a ""clear connection to violence or a credible threat to public safety.""

The loose movement is named after ""Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo,"" a 1984 sequel to a movie about breakdancing. ""Boogaloo"" supporters have shown up at protests over COVID-19 lockdown orders, carrying rifles and wearing tactical gear over Hawaiian shirts - themselves a reference to ""big luau,"" a",Facebook bans violent 'boogaloo' groups,tweets_news_154,tweets_news
"

May 11, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/Delivered by Newstex) Nine fact-checkers, selected by the liberal, Soros-funded Poynter Institute, control what news stories are suppressed on Facebook.For LifeNews.com, this means that stories that label Planned Parenthood as an 'abortion business[1]' are singled out and fact-checked by liberal outlets like USA Today[2]. '[T]o call it an abortion business is a stretch, as the organization provides other services far more often,' said Haley BeMiller, a local government reporter for the USA Today-owned Green Bay Press-Gazette. The fact-checker rated LifeNews.com's story as 'partly false.'The story published was not even recently written. 'Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Wants to Force Residents to Fund Planned Parenthood Abortion Business[3]' was published on Feb.

21, 2019. However, the May 5, 2020, fact-check still suppressed content posted to the LifeNews.com page.'Facebook makes it clear that when pages get a strike from a factcheckers that it will throttle the page's content,' said LifeNews.com editor Steven Ertalt in a statement to the Media Research Center. 'After USA Today released its false strike against the LifeNews.com story, our traffic has clearly declined. It's ridiculous that Facebook censors content and limits views based on false and misleading 'factchecks' from liberal media factcheckers with a history of supporting",USA Today Fact-Checker Slams LifeNews: 'Stretch' to Call Planned Parenthood 'Abortion Business',tweets_news_155,tweets_news
"

May 28, 2020( VentureBeat: http://venturebeat.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Mark Zuckerberg rarely offers an on-the-record opinion about anything to do with Twitter, though it's not entirely without precedent[1]. Yesterday, however, he walked right into the flames that have engulfed his company's social media rival since it appended fact-checking labels to tweets issued by President Donald Trump. According to Fox News[2], Zuckerberg responded to the incident in an interview by saying that private companies such as Facebook 'shouldn't be the arbiter of truth' for everything people say online, echoing similar comments he has made in the past[3]. But Facebook has a long history of removing, labeling, and 'downgrading' content, and Zuckerberg's latest comments come in the very month that his company unveiled[4] an 'independent' content oversight board — dubbed its 'Supreme Court' — that will be able to overturn the company's decisions[5] on whether individual pieces of content should be allowed to remain on Facebook and Instagram. The Twitter episode kicked off on Tuesday, when Trump tweeted about California's vote-by-mail plan for the upcoming presidential elections. The president opined that the state's mail-in ballots would be 'substantially fraudulent' and asserted that 'mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged &#38; even","Facebook is an arbiter of truth, whether Mark Zuckerberg likes it or not",tweets_news_156,tweets_news
"

Oct 09, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Twitter is temporarily changing a number of its features to prevent the spread of political misinformation on the platform as the 2020 presidential election draws near. Twitter will prompt users to post a comment on a tweet before retweeting it and will prevent tweets liked by people you don't follow from being recommended to you in your timeline, among other changes. The changes are designed to have people to think twice before they amplify a tweet that could contain misleading information ahead of and during the November election.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1].Twitter will start implementing changes in an effort to limit the spread of political misinformation on the platform leading up to the November 3 presidential election.Twitter said in a blog post[2] it will start encouraging users to post a comment on a tweet before they can retweet it, a move designed to prompt more consideration and thought regarding the tweet's topic and to limit how easily a tweet can reach more people. The company said it will start testing this feature for some Twitter users on Friday.Twitter will also start preventing tweets that were liked by people",Twitter is changing some of its features to crack down on political misinformation leading up to the 2020 presidential election,tweets_news_157,tweets_news
"Facebook and Alphabet's YouTube took down a video from President Donald Trump on Wednesday that continued to make the baseless claim the election was fraudulent as he told supporters who had stormed the U.S. Capitol to go home.

Twitter restricted users from retweeting the video ""due to a risk of violence,"" as hundreds of protesters sought to force Congress to undo the president's election loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. Twitter restricted a later tweet from Trump that again falsely alleged he had won the election.

Later Wednesday night, Twitter locked the president's account for 12 hours over ""repeated and severe violations"" of the social media platform's civic integrity rules and threatened permanent suspension.

Facebook Vice President of Integrity Guy Rosen tweeted that it believed the video ""contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence,"" saying the action was part of ""appropriate emergency measures.""

Google-owned YouTube said the video violated its policy against content that alleges ""widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Election."" YouTube spokesman Farshad Shadloo added the company does allow copies that include additional context.

Social media companies have been under pressure to police misinformation on their platforms around the election. Trump and his allies have","United States: Facebook, YouTube Pull Trump Video; Twitter Locks Trump Account",tweets_news_158,tweets_news
"LONDON — Twitter has slapped another label on a tweet by President Donald Trump, this time warning that a video he shared was doctored and escalating the social media company's crackdown on one of its most widely followed users.

After Trump tweeted the video late Thursday, Twitter took the rare step of adding a warning that it was “manipulated media"" and linked to a page that said multiple journalists confirmed the clip was edited to make it look like a CNN broadcast. The video remains visible in Trump's timeline.

The doctored clip used footage from a video that went viral last year of two toddlers, one black, one white, which CNN used for a story it did on the boys' friendship.

The video Trump shared begins with footage of the boys running set to ominous music, with a fake misspelled CNN caption reading, “Terrified todler runs from racist baby."" Then it cuts to other footage from the original video of the boys excitedly running to each other and hugging, which formed the basis of the original CNN story, before showing the message, “America is not the problem. Fake news is.”

It's the latest salvo in the battle between Trump and tech companies, which he",Twitter flags Trump's tweet of doctored 'racist baby' video,tweets_news_159,tweets_news
"February 23, 2021 at 9:00 AM Proposed Mexican legislation that would require operating licenses for social media platforms and regulate content moderation practices could violate U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement rules on non-discrimination, intermediary liability and cross-border data flows, according to industry sources.

Ricardo Monreal, the Senate leader of Mexico's ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), earlier this month published a proposal for a bill that would obligate social media platforms with more than a million users to request authorization from the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, Mexico's telecoms regulator, to continue providing services in the country. It would also require that social media companies clear with regulators any revisions to their terms of service before adopting them.

In addition, the proposal would create a mechanism for users to dispute platforms' decisions to remove content or accounts by appealing to the IFT and allow the government to fine companies for violations of the proposed rules.

Monreal's proposal, which has not yet been introduced in the Senate, comes after President AndrŽs Manuel L—pez Obrador last month slammed social media companies for blocking former President Trump. Twitter and Facebook locked the president's accounts after a mob of Trump's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol building last month. The platforms claimed Trump",Mexican proposal to regulate social media companies sparks USMCA concerns,tweets_news_160,tweets_news
"Videos released under court order provide a chilling new look at the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including body camera footage that shows a man charging at a police officer with a flagpole and tackling him to the ground. Federal judges ordered the release of the videos after media organizations, including The Associated Press,...

Videos released under court order provide a chilling new look at the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including body camera footage that shows a man charging at a police officer with a flagpole and tackling him to the ground. Federal judges ordered the...

Videos released under court order provide a chilling new look at the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including body camera footage that shows a man charging at a police officer with a flagpole and tackling him to the ground. Federal judges ordered the release of the videos after media organizations, including The Associated Press, went to court to request that the Department of Justice provide access. The videos are being presented as evidence in prosecutors’ cases against three men charged with assaulting police. The new videos show a Marine Corps veteran and former New York City",Fierce Capitol attacks on police in newly released videos,tweets_news_161,tweets_news
"New Zealanders and struggling media companies are paying the price for an unwillingness to tax the tech giants' local profits.

The New Zealand government's recently announced NZ$50 million subsidy package to support local media was necessary and urgent - even if it came too late to save the Bauer magazine titles from closing.

But the injection of government cash did not address the underlying cause of the decline of New Zealand's media, which predates the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the internet has created new opportunities for media and audiences alike, those opportunities have come at a price. Traditional media organisations now compete with giant digital platforms, not only for the attention of readers, but also for the advertising revenue that was once their lifeblood.

Adding insult to injury, the digital platforms compete for audiences' attention partly by distributing the news content that was first created and published by those now-struggling media organisations.

This not only damages the media and public discourse, it is harmful to taxpayers.

A carefully designed digital service tax (DST) could redress the balance and help level the playing field for the New Zealand media. Such a tax would compensate New Zealand for revenue lost by its failure to tax the profits of non-resident",Google and Facebook pay way less tax in New Zealand than in Australia - and we're paying the price,tweets_news_162,tweets_news
"BORIS JOHNSON is being urged to form stronger bonds with US Presidential hopeful Joe Biden amid claims Donald Trump's chances of making it back to the White House have been ""written off"".

Fears are growing that Britain could be isolated by Washington if the Democratic candidate defeats Mr Trump at the ballot box next month and the latest polls suggest the former vice-president is heading for a landslide. Downing Street sources said private polling and computer models shown to No 10 put Mr Biden's chances of victory at more than 70 percent.

Related articles

The 77-year-old now has a double-digit lead and over Mr Trump and one model based on the latest polling gives him an 85 percent chance of winning.

And analysts suggest the Democrats could wake up on November 4 with control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Mr Johnson spoke to Mr Trump last week and wished him well for the election.

But one senior Tory said: ""They're writing off Trump in Number 10 now.""

The cost of a Democrat victory could be high for the UK with Mr Biden already declaring he would not sign off a trade deal with the UK if Northern Ireland became ""a casualty",Boris urged to dump Trump as polls show Biden heading for landslide victory in US election,tweets_news_163,tweets_news
"India, May 10 -- TikTok has become immensely popular worldwide including India. The short-video sharing platform, however, has not been without its share of controversies, especially around user privacy and security. The social networking company is once again under scanner. The Dutch privacy watchdog has said it will now probe how the Chinese company handles data of its young users.

""For many users this is an important way of staying in touch with friends and spending time together, particularly during the current coronavirus crisis,"" the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) is quoted as saying. ""The rise of TikTok has led to growing concerns about privacy.""

The watchdog said it will ""examine whether TikTok adequately protects the privacy of Dutch children."" The DPA further said it will investigate whether app explicitly tells that the app needs parental consent for TikTok to collect, store, and use kids' personal data.

As said earlier, TikTok has faced scrutiny around the world. For instance, the US Navy banned the application in December last year from its government issued smartphones. The app was also briefly banned in India over objectionable content on its platform. Last year in February, it was hit with $5.7 million fine in US for violating",Dutch watchdog to probe TikTok over how it handles children's data,tweets_news_164,tweets_news
"

Feb 12, 2020( Voice of America: http://www.voanews.com Delivered by Newstex) Facebook on Wednesday said it had suspended a network of accounts used by Russian military intelligence to seed false narratives online targeting Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe.""Although the people behind this network attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to Russian military intelligence services,"" Facebook said in a statement.Facebook, which has struggled to stop governments and political groups using its platform to spread false or misleading information, regularly announces it has shut down disinformation campaigns from countries including Russia.The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moscow has previously denied Western allegations of political meddling, including findings by U.S. Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller that it used social media accounts in an attempt to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential vote.Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said the latest Russian operation used more than 100 accounts on Facebook and its Instagram photo-sharing platform to create fake personas, often posing as journalists in the targeted countries.These accounts then contacted local media and politicians to plant false stories about politically divisive issues, such as corruption allegations, ethnic tensions in the Russian-annexed peninsula",Facebook Says It Dismantles Russian Intelligence Operation Targeting Ukraine,tweets_news_165,tweets_news
"Now that Harry and Meghan have relinquished their royal titles, we the British taxpayer should not be expected to fund them special measures regarding security.

After all, isn't it their intention to be plain, down to earth, ordinary folk? So why should they expect privilege afforded to the upper echelons which they have chosen to escape from? Which leads me to ask the question regarding memorabilia and souvenirs: are we being taken for royal mugs?

Lyndon Morgan

Gelli, Rhondda

Almost 7,000 children/young people are in care in Wales and that number is increasing every year, up almost seven per cent in the past 12 months. We estimate fostering services across the UK need to recruit at least a further 8,600 foster families in the next 12 months alone.

That's why Barnardo's Cymru has launched an appeal this week to try to find more loving, stable foster families to help those young people thrive despite the traumas they have been through.

If you really want to make a difference then consider if fostering could be for you. There will be challenges along the way but the rewards can be life changing - both for you and the child/young person you foster. There is a particular need for","South Wales Echo letters: Thursday, January 23, 2020",tweets_news_166,tweets_news
"Ofcom will be askedto police tech firms under government plans to crack down on harmful online content.

A major shake-up, to be unveiled on Wednesday, will see online companies asked to sign up to a new ""duty of care"" towards users.

This will be overseen by the communications watchdog, which will be able toorder them to quickly take down content promoting violence, terrorism, child abuse and cyber-bullying.

Platforms will also be asked to ""minimise the risks"" of the content appearing at all, and the Government will hold out the prospect of fines for firms that do not comply with the new rules.

The plans come in the Government's first response to the Online Harms consultation, which was launched last year and vowed to tackle ""illegal and unacceptable content"" and ""make companies more responsible for their users' safety online, especially children and other vulnerable groups"".

It will see Ofcom - which already regulates television and radio broadcasters - draw up guidelines telling companies which content they can and cannot have on their sites.

The Financial Times reports that the watchdog could then be given the power to force firms to take down content deemed harmful, with the regulator asked to decide whether fines or legal prosecution should",Ministers will ask Ofcom to police the internet in bid to combat 'unacceptable' bullying and terror content,tweets_news_167,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news, with reports from BBC correspondents worldwide.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

Reeta, as you allude to, one of the most most complex and you could argue that Facebook is the most and least democratic of all channels, social media has lowered the barriers of entry to everyone, but it has also given enormous power to the few, whether that means masters of the megaphone like Donald Trump, or the masterclass here in the bay area. And as we will say, that now includes the former MP for Sheffield Hallam. We have to have peace, we have to have law and order. It was an extraordinary moment in modern American democracy.

In the judgment of many independent observers disputed by his supporters and outgoing President incited a mob. As a result, his megaphones were taken away. Twitter banned him. YouTube suspended his account, and Facebook did the same. They've created an oversight board to give independent advice on such editorial judgements. Last month, it upheld",BBC News at Ten - 9:15 PM GMT,tweets_news_168,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news stories from the BBC News team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

who will believe in you? from, no matter our age. Natalie Pirks, BBC News, Paris. with Matt Taylor. Time for a look at the weather Crisp and cold here, but where is that?

Our quiet where is Spain's stormy weather at the moment. Storm Gloria has been raging away. Take a look at these scenes on the Spanish coast, some of the highest waves ever recorded, 80 mph winds and some parts of Spain have seen more rain in two days then Birmingham sees in an entire half a year and snow has been falling too. That will continue through much of this week. For us high pressure is in charge keeping things largely dry. Tonight more cloud pushing southwards and the short term, some mist and fog patches. Overall though not as cold as last night, just some frost into the morning. Milder the further north you are. Whilst the cloud will",BBC News at Six - 6:25 PM GMT,tweets_news_169,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI Director Christopher Wray bluntly labeled the January riot at the U.S. Capitol as ""domestic terrorism"" Tuesday and warned of a rapidly growing threat of homegrown violent extremism that law enforcement is scrambling to confront through thousands of investigations.

By ERIC TUCKER and MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI Director Christopher Wray bluntly labeled the January riot at the U.S. Capitol as ""domestic terrorism"" Tuesday and warned of a rapidly growing threat of homegrown violent extremism that law enforcement is scrambling to confront through thousands of investigations.

Wray also defended to lawmakers his own agency's handling of an intelligence report that warned of the prospect for violence on Jan. 6. And he firmly rejected false claims advanced by some Republicans that anti-Trump groups had organized the deadly riot that began when a violent mob stormed the building as Congress was gathering to certify results of the presidential election.

Wray's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, his first before Congress since the insurrection, was one in a series of hearings centered on the law enforcement response to the Capitol insurrection. Lawmakers pressed him not only about possible intelligence and communication failures ahead of the riot but also about the threat of",FBI chief warns violent 'domestic terrorism' growing in US,tweets_news_170,tweets_news
"

Sep 29, 2020( Axios: https://link.axios.com/join/am-signup?source=aci Delivered by Newstex) On the eve of the first presidential debate, the Biden campaign is pressing Facebook to remove posts by President Trump — and slamming the social media company as ""the nation's foremost propagator of disinformation about the voting process."" Why it matters: By publicly escalating the conflict, the campaign is pressing Facebook to enforce its policies against misinformation more aggressively.Details: ""Rather than seeing progress, we have seen regression,"" campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a three-page letter obtained by Axios.

""Facebook's continued promise of future action is serving as nothing more than an excuse for inaction,"" the letter says.""We will be calling out those failures as they occur over the coming 36 days."" The other side: Andy Stone, a Facebook company spokesperson, tells Axios in a statement: ""While many Republicans think we should take one course, many Democrats think we should do the exact opposite. ""We've faced criticism from Republicans for being biased against conservatives and Democrats for not taking more steps to restrict the exact same content,"" he said.""We have rules in place to protect the integrity of the election and free expression, and we will continue","Biden campaign blasts Facebook for ""regression""",tweets_news_171,tweets_news
"27 March 2020 (Voice of America) Top U.S. adversaries appear to be coming together, using social media and other cyber means to amplify disinformation regarding the coronavirus, with the intent of harming the United States and hindering efforts to curb the global pandemic.

The accusation, from senior State Department officials, focuses on efforts by Russia, China and Iran. No longer content to simply pump out their own false narratives, the three countries have now formed a sort of axis of disinformation, officials say, by echoing and magnifying each other's information operations.

'We're seeing Russian, Chinese and Iranian state information operations converging around the same disinformation narrative about COVID-19,' Lea Gabrielle, head of the State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC), told reporters in a telephone briefing Friday.

'We're also seeing Russia's [disinformation] ecosystem promoting narratives advanced by China and Iran,' she said.

On the rise

U.S. officials declined to say whether the virtual collaboration was intentional or just opportunistic. But officials, including those in the Pentagon and in the U.S. intelligence community, have previously accused each of the countries of ramping up disinformation operations.

'The COVID-19 crisis has really provided an opportunity for malign actors to exploit the information space for harmful purposes and really been providing","US Pushes Back Against Russian, Chinese, Iranian Coronavirus Disinformation",tweets_news_172,tweets_news
"Shutdown again. An account has been suspended by Twitter for sharing the posts from Donald Trump's new communications mouthpiece

Shutdown again. An account has been suspended by Twitter for sharing the posts from Donald Trump's new communications mouthpieceTwitter has reacted quickly to accounts that have attempted to evade the platform's permanent ban on former US President Donald Trump. Twitterpermanently banned Trump from its platform in January for his role in inciting a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol building on Wednesday 6 January, which resulted in the deaths of five people (including one police officer who was beaten to death). Facebook and YouTube followed with indefinite bans on Trump, and this week Facebook's Oversight Board ruled the firm can keep suspending Trump on Facebook and Instagram, but it must review the decision within six months. Link to Image

Trump mouthpiece

Trump this week lashed out at Facebook and other social networking platforms over his continued ban from their services, calling the bans a ""total disgrace and an embarrassment to our country"". Donald Trump also this week launched a website to publish content 'straight from the desk' of the former president of the United States. The new 'communications' website, found here,",Twitter Suspends Account Sharing Trump Posts,tweets_news_173,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

The former Liberal MP, trapped in political limbo by his online quackery, is getting help from digitally savvy fringe-dwellers with equally loony ideas.

FULL TEXT

Independent federal MP Craig Kelly has been working with a couple of young YouTubers who've previously promoted conspiracy and fringe theories -- including accusing Australian politicians of running a paedophile ring and calling COVID-19 a ""scamdemic"". Since the maverick MP left the Liberal Party room, he has begun dabbling in more video content that he shares to social media with video production help from Dougal Cameron and Joel Jammal, who each produce fringe video content on YouTube and Facebook. Kelly tells Crikey both men have assisted him at times -- including when he signed them into Parliament House on the morning of the federal budget for a stunt where Kelly printed a pallet of trillion dollar notes to represent Australia's government debt -- but says they are not employed staff. Kelly has long embraced fringe ideas and sources of misinformation, but what both Cameron and Jammal do online goes far beyond this. World of conspiracy and far-right ideas Both Jammal and Cameron produce online video content where they interview conspiracy theorists. Jammal's YouTube channel mostly consists of","Meet the conspiracy-theory-touting, far-right YouTubers helping Craig Kelly",tweets_news_174,tweets_news
"There are no laws to shield people from misinformation. So, as the nation chugs toward the final stretch of the presidential campaign season, Americans need to take a good look at where they gathered the information that forms their political opinions.

If your news flows primarily from social media sources such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, you are not alone. A Pew Research survey shows that 78% of residents under 50 get their news from these sites, mostly from Facebook, which as more than 2.7 billion active users.

But given the way Facebook aggregates information, it is likely consumers have been manipulated away from alternative viewpoints viewpoints that might have changed minds, had the user been exposed. Few realize the depths to which Facebook analytics and human monitors restrict, delete and fact-check the information they receive.

There has been a stream of complaints from both Republicans and Democrats about the way social media operates and how it has permeated the national psyche. Yet internet operators enjoy extraordinary legal protections that have helped sites reap huge benefits. In 2019, Facebook's revenue was a staggering $70.7 billion.

Critics of the status quo claim that since social media sites have now begun to edit content in much",Fact-checking your social media,tweets_news_175,tweets_news
"

HOUSTON -- A majority of people who live in the Texas coastal communities of Brownsville, Corpus Christi and Port Arthur are brown and Black. These communities are also locations for proposed terminals to load liquefied natural gas on tankers bound for overseas markets.

This correlation is not unusual. Discrimination in housing forced Black and brown people into areas near polluting industries that threatened their health and safety and continue to do so.

I documented this pattern in my book ''Dumping in Dixie'' more than three decades ago, finding that ''toxic-waste dumps, municipal landfills, garbage incinerators and similar noxious facilities'' tended to be in minority neighborhoods with little access to the levers of government power.

The consequences have been devastating. A study published in April in the journal Science Advances, for instance, found that ''racial-ethnic minorities in the United States are exposed to disproportionately high levels of ambient fine particulate air pollution, the largest environmental cause of human mortality.'' The researchers found that ''because of a legacy of racist housing policy and other factors, racial-ethnic exposure disparities have persisted even as overall exposure has decreased.''

Now President Biden has the opportunity to change that dynamic. A vacancy looms on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which",Stopping Ecological Racism,tweets_news_176,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - An advocacy group backed by the tech industry sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday over his executive order that would weaken a law protecting online platforms including social media companies that label or fact-check his posts.

The Washington-based Center for Democracy &; Technology (CDT)said in its lawsuit that Trump's executive order violates the First Amendment rights of social media companies. It noted that the order was issued after Twitter Inc amended one of Trump's tweets and called it ""plainly retaliatory.""

The lawsuit argues that Trump's executive order will ""chill future online speech by other speakers"" and reduce the ability of Americans to speak freely online.

Trump, in an attempt to regulate social media platforms where he has been criticized, said last week he will introduce legislation that may scrap or weaken a law that has protected internet companies, including Twitter and Facebook.

The proposed legislation was part of an executive order Trump signed on Thursday. Trump had attacked Twitter for tagging his tweets about unsubstantiated claims of fraud about mail-in voting with a warning prompting readers to fact-check the posts.

Trump said he wants to ""remove or change"" a provision of a law known as Section 230 that shields social media companies from",Tech advocacy group's lawsuit says Trump's order on social media is unconstitutional,tweets_news_177,tweets_news
"

Nov 20, 2020( The Hindu Business Line: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ Delivered by Newstex) While Cong MP says Lekhi has overstepped her brief by questioning Twitter, theBJP MP says she has not broken any rule Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh on Friday wondered whether a parliamentary panel headed by the BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi had extended its brief by grilling social media giant twitter about comedian Kunal Kamra's objectionable tweets on the Supreme Court and a judge.The Joint Committee on Data Protection Bill, 2019, chaired by Lekhi had demanded an explanation from Twitter on Thursday about why it did not remove stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra's tweets on India's top court and judge.The panel asked Twitter to submit a reply with a week.Tharoor heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology and Lekhi heads a special Joint Committee on the Data Protection Bill, which has been preparing a draft Bill for some time. According to Tharoor, Lekhi had overstepped her mandate by grilling Twitter on issues other than those required for the purpose of preparing the draft for the Data Protection Bill.'Dear @M_Lekhi, as far as I am aware, your Committee was formed for consultations on the Data Protection Bill and its mandate","Tharoor, Meenakshi Lekhi in serious spat over stand-up comedian's tweets",tweets_news_178,tweets_news
"A former Greens candidate who ran at last year's federal election has been charged with three child sex abuse offences after the Australian Federal Police executed a warrant at the climate activist's home in Sydney.

The Australian can reveal Greens member Jonathan Peter Doig, who ran in the southern Sydney seat of Cook against Scott Morrison, was arrested at his Gymea Bay home by AFP officers on Tuesday afternoon following a lengthy investigation.

Mr Doig will appear in Sydney's Central Local Court on Wednesday accused of allegedly paying more than $120,000 over 10 years for child sex abuse -material, including the live-streaming of child abuse from The Philippines.

The 57-year-old was charged with procuring a child to engage in sexual activity outside Australia, using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material and possessing child abuse material obtained or accessed through a carriage service. The alleged offences carry maximum sentences of 15 years' imprisonment.

An AFP spokesman said Mr Doig, who also ran in the seat of Cronulla at last year's NSW election, had been arrested at his home as part of an ongoing investigation.

Police will allege the child sex abuse offences were committed over a 10-year period and included possession of child-abuse material",Greens activist arrested over alleged child sex abuse offences,tweets_news_179,tweets_news
"QAnon believers claim the US president is fighting a secret war against satan-worshipping politicians and Hollywood stars who drink the blood of babies - and the online cult shows signs of turning violent

A bizarre pro-Trump conspiracy theory group that brings together offbeat ideas about vaccines, satanism, child abuse and the end of the world is becoming increasingly influential as America gets closer to the most bitterly-fought election in its history.

The core of the QAnon theory is that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a satanic, child-molesting conspiracy of leading Democrats and Hollywood stars.

And QAnon believers have been organising rallies and Facebook groups under the anti-paedophile Save the Children banner as a way to ease their theories into the mainstream.

The President's recent positive Covid-19 test will only serve to stir up more wild conspiracy theories among the group.

If he were to become severely ill, or even die from the illness, it would inevitably spark rumours that he had been deliberately infected by shadowy forces within government.

Many QAnon cultists are also members of armed militias threatening civil war if President Trump were to lose in November.

QAnon are distributed widely across the US, and would be very hard to contain or",Inside QAnon: Bizarre conspiracy theory says satanic paedos are plotting against Trump,tweets_news_180,tweets_news
"India, May 11 -- The Delhi government on Monday informed the high court that a showcause notice has been issued to chairman of the state's minorities commission for his alleged remarks on social media.

Delhi government's counsel Anupam Shrivastava informed the court that Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had written to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on April 30, directing him to initiate action against Zafar-ul-Islam Khan for his Facebook post.

The letter by Baijal said that the content of the social media post prima facie appears to be disturbing communal harmony in the city.

""The matter is particularly serious considering that one of the functions of the DMC (Delhi Minorities Commission) is to make recommendations for ensuring, maintaining and promoting communal harmony in Delhi,"" the letter read.

It also asked the chief minister to direct the administrative department to initiate action against Islam.

The counsel also told the court that a showcause notice has already been issued to Islam on May 8 based on the Lieutenant Governor's letter.

The court was hearing a plea by an advocate named Alok Alakh Shrivastava who had sought directions to the Delhi government to remove Islam from the chairman's post.

Following submissions, the court said that since the Delhi government is taking","Notice issued to Delhi minorities panel chief over controversial social media post, court informed",tweets_news_181,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON Lobbyists for Facebook and Google threw their weight against new U.S. legislation that seeks to aid struggling news publishers by allowing them to negotiate collectively against the tech companies over revenue sharing and other deals. U.S. lawmakers introduced the plan in Congress on Wednesday to address a perceived power imbalance between news outlets and the tech giants. Critics accuse the companies of using content to drive traffic and ad revenue to their platforms without fairly compensating the publishers.

The move adds to pressure on the tech firms, which are facing antitrust lawsuits and the threat of more regulation.

Google, which declined comment on the proposal, launched a website on Thursday asserting it is ""one of the world's biggest financial supporters of journalism"" by virtue of the ad revenue and content licensing fees it provides to media.

Google said its search engine sends readers to publishers'websites 24 billion times per month.

Also opposing the bill are two technology industry trade groups that Facebook and Google belong to - the Computer &; Communications Industry Association and NetChoice.

""Objective news coverage is a public good, but we don't think the way to fund that public good is by constructing a cartel,"" said CCIA President Matt Schruers.

The group","Facebook, Google fight U.S. bill aimed at helping news industry; Tech",tweets_news_182,tweets_news
"

Jan 09, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images The authors Stephen King and Don Winslow are offering to donate $175,000 to St. Jude's Children's Hospital if White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham holds a one-hour briefing that's open to the entire White House press corps. CNN's Jake Tapper asked Grisham about the offer[1], and she responded, ""If you have $200,000 to play with, why not just help children because it's a good thing to do?

Donations to charity should never come with strings attached."" Grisham was promoted to press secretary last year following Sarah Huckabee Sanders' departure from the role. Thursday marks 304 days since Grisham took on the position, and she has yet to hold a single briefing, though she frequently appears on the Trump-friendly Fox News to lambaste the president's critics. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[2]. The authors Stephen King and Don Winslow are offering to donate $175,000 to St. Jude's Children's Hospital if White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham gives a one-hour briefing to the entire White House press corps. ""To @PressSec[3] Stephanie Grisham,"" Winslow wrote on Twitter[4]. ""I'm upping my offer to $100,000. @StephenKing[5] has agreed","Authors Stephen King and Don Winslow offer to donate $175,000 to St. Jude's Children's Hospital if Stephanie Grisham gives a 1-hour White House press briefing",tweets_news_183,tweets_news
"TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 27 -- The University of South Florida issued the following news:

Researchers with the University of South Florida have released the results from a statewide survey that measures Floridians' use of Facebook to engage with the presidential election, as well as their attitudes regarding the political information they encounter online.

Here are key findings:

DESPITE RECENT CONTROVERSIES, FLORIDIANS RELY HEAVILY ON FACEBOOK TO STAY INFORMED ABOUT THE ELECTION. More than half of Floridians (58%) say that they have relied on Facebook at least a ""A Little"" to stay informed about the presidential election, while nearly a third (31%) say they have relied on it ""A Lot"". More than half say that they collect information about the election on Facebook at least ""Once a Week"", while just under a quarter (22%) do so ""Every Day"".

DESPITE THEIR RELIANCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA, MOST DON'T TRUST THE INFORMATION THEY ENCOUNTER THERE. Nearly two-thirds of Floridians (63%) say that they are ""Not Very Confident"" (33%) or ""Not at All Confident"" (30%) in the accuracy of the political information that they encounter on Facebook. Only 13% indicated that they are ""Very Confident"" in this regard.

WHEN IT COMES TO POLITICS, FLORIDIANS DESCRIBE SOCIAL MEDIA AS ""ONE-SIDED"", ""FRUSTRATING"",",UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA RESEARCHERS RELEASE SOCIAL MEDIA FINDINGS FROM STATEWIDE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SURVEY,tweets_news_184,tweets_news
"When Nikki Haley, former United Nations ambassador, came to Michigan last week to stump for U.S. Senate candidate John James, it was hard to miss that they looked like a dream team presidential ticket.

Republicans like them are the future of the party. They bring youth, diversity and a message that could resonate with a broader swath of voters.

Yet while Haley, 48, has developed her political resume (she also served as governor of South Carolina), James, 39, is now a twice failed Senate candidate. Although he came extremely close to beating first-term incumbent Democrat Gary Peters, James couldn't quite pull it off. As of Thursday, James still hadn't conceded, with his campaign citing voting irregularities and other transparency concerns with the Wayne County vote count. The latest tallies have 49.9% for Peters to James' 48.3%, a difference of roughly 87,000 votes, after James had boasted a sizable lead in early results.

So what is the future for John James?

""He's lacking a platform from which to launch himself,"" says David Dulio, a political science professor at Oakland University. ""His trajectory is upward, but he's lost twice. How many more bites of the apple does he get?""

That doesn't mean it's over for James, the","Jacques: After two losses, what's the future for John James?",tweets_news_185,tweets_news
"The congregation was in the middle of an online service when a longtime churchgoer in her 60s texted her pastor to complain that his prayer lamenting the riot the U.S. Capitol in January was ""too political.""

The woman later unloaded a barrage of conspiracy theories. The election of Joe Biden was a fraud. The insurrection was instigated by Black Lives Matter and antifa activists disguised as Donald Trump supporters. The FBI was in on it all. The day would soon come, she said, ""when all the evil, the corruption would come to light and the truth would be revealed.""

Startled and moved to tears, Pastor David Rice told the woman she had been ""tricked by lies.""

""You need to know how crazy this is,"" he said to his congregant at the Markey Church in Roscommon County, Michigan, a rural region of 25,000 residents that voted 2-to-1 for Trump. ""You have been with my family and in my home and I care for you but you are dabbling in darkness. You are telling me it's giving you hope. I'm telling you as your pastor that it's evil.""

The two haven't spoken since.

Details emerging from investigations into hundreds of Capitol rioters have cast an unsettling light",QAnon and conspiracy theories are taking hold in churches,tweets_news_186,tweets_news
"

Mar 05, 2020( Benzinga: http://www.benzinga.com/news Delivered by Newstex) A district judge on Wednesday quashed Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard's case against Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL[1]) (NASDAQ: GOOG[2]) subsidiary Google LLC.What HappenedGabbard had alleged that Google violated her right to free speech under the first amendment by shutting down the advertisement account of her campaign in the aftermath of the first Democratic debate ahead of the 2020 elections last year. Stephen Wilson, the judge presiding over the case in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, dismissed[3] Gabbard's argument that Google is a ""state-actor"" by virtue of offering political advertisements in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.

""Google is not now, nor (to the Court's knowledge) has it ever been, an arm of the United States government,"" the judgesaid. ""The text and original meaning of those Amendments, as well as this Court's [long-standing] precedents, establish that the Free Speech Clause prohibits only governmental abridgment of speech."" ""Google does not hold primaries, it does not select candidates, and it does not prevent anyone from running for office or voting in elections. To the extent Google ""regulates"" anything, it regulates its own private speech and platform,"" Wilson noted.Why It",Judge Quashes Tulsi Gabbard's Case Against Google Alleging Free Speech Violation,tweets_news_187,tweets_news
"Pakistan, June 30 -- The TikTok ban imposed by the Sindh High Court (SHC) has met with great criticism from the Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry. The verdict states that the ban will remain till July 8. The minister termed it as ""judicial activism"".

The high court issued an order Monday to suspend the video-sharing app TikTok across Pakistan till July 8, nearly three months after the country had lifted a ban imposed on it.

Chaudhry took to twitter to warn of consequences that Pakistan will face in case it did not carry out judicial reforms.

""Pakistan will never come out of its economic crisis if judicial reforms are not undertaken,"" he tweeted.

""I'm baffled after reading yesterday's verdicts on suspension of TikTok and the removal of the NBP president, and can't help but wonder: what are our courts doing?"" asked the information minister.

Chaudhry noted that Pakistan, already, was suffering from losses worth billions of dollars due to ""judicial activism"".

This is not the first time the minister has criticised the court's verdict, especially those concerning digital apps in Pakistan.

In February, the minister had said judicial activism in the past set back Pakistan's technological progress.

Speaking at the International Media Conference in February, Chaudhry had lamented that","Fawad terms TikTok ban 'judicial activism', lashes out at SHC",tweets_news_188,tweets_news
"

May 28, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Two satirical websites are testing Facebook's stance that it shouldn't be the ""arbiter of truth.""The websites shared satirical articles with fictional headlines about CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Facebook on Wednesday.The posts came just as Zuckerberg had reiterated the company's stance on freedom of expression during broadcast news interviews before Trump signed a new executive order aimed at social media companies.Facebook has in the past refused to take down a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a fake video purporting to show Zuckerberg that appeared on Facebook-owned Instagram.Facebook's rules on removing manipulated media do not apply to parody or satire.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1]. A couple of satirical websites are putting Facebook's stance that it shouldn't be the ""arbiter of truth"" to the test.The Shovel[2] and The Chaser[3], both satirical websites based in Australia, shared parody stories on Facebook with headlines that are filled with false claims about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The Shovel's headline incorrectly said the Facebook CEO had died, while The Chaser's headline falsely called Zuckerberg a ""child molester.""The fictional headlines serve as a challenge to Zuckerberg's recent comments regarding company's stance on freedom",Satirical websites are testing Facebook's policy on not being the 'arbiter of truth' by running false headlines claiming Mark Zuckerberg is dead or abusive,tweets_news_189,tweets_news
"•PM is the latest public figure to criticise Wiley and social networks' lack of action•Tracy-Ann Oberman has led thousands into 48-hour boycott of Twitter•Lord Sugar, TV presenter Rachel Riley and many politicians are also taking part•UK's chief rabbi has written to Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg over inaction•Follows posts from London rapper Wiley blaming Jews for the slave trade•Wiley posted videos on anti-Semitic theories on Instagram - they're untouched

PM is the latest public figure to criticise Wiley and social networks' lack of action

Tracy-Ann Oberman has led thousands into 48-hour boycott of Twitter

Lord Sugar, TV presenter Rachel Riley and many politicians are also taking part

UK's chief rabbi has written to Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg over inaction

Follows posts from London rapper Wiley blaming Jews for the slave trade

Wiley posted videos on anti-Semitic theories on Instagram - they're untouched

Boris Johnson today laid into Wiley after thousands boycotted Twitter for 48 hours over its failure to close his account while Instagram declined to remove any of the rapper's anti-Semitic and racist posts at all.

The Prime Minister believes the grime artist's messages were 'abhorrent' and warned that 'social media companies need to go much further and faster in removing hateful content. The message is","Boris Johnson slams Twitter's slow response to Wiley's 'abhorrent' anti-Semitic rant as Lord Sugar, Rachel Riley and Gary Lineker lead 48-hour boycott of the site - but rapper's racist posts are STILL up on Instagram after two days",tweets_news_190,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - After five months of hearings, investigations and cascading revelations about President Trump's dealings with Ukraine, a divided U.S. Senate acquitted him Wednesday of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress to aid his own reelection, bringing an acrimonious impeachment trial to its expected end.

In a pair of votes whose outcome was never in doubt, the Senate fell well short of the two-thirds margin that would have been needed to remove the 45th president. The verdicts came down - after three weeks of debate - almost entirely upon party lines, with every Democrat voting ""guilty"" on both charges and Republicans uniformly voting ""not guilty"" on the obstruction of Congress charge. Only one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, broke with his party to judge Trump guilty of abuse of power.

It was the third impeachment trial of a president and the third acquittal in American history, and it ended the way it began: with Republicans and Democrats at odds. They disagreed over Trump's conduct and his fitness for office, even as some members of his own party conceded the basic allegations that undergirded the charges: that he sought to pressure Ukraine to smear his political rivals.

But in a",Americans evenly divided on Trump impeachment,tweets_news_191,tweets_news
"New Delhi, Aug. 17 -- The Opposition is up in arms over allegations that Facebook, the social media company, has been lenient while censoring content that amounts to hate-speech by members of the ruling party Bharaitya Janata Party (BJP) surfaced on Saturday.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Sunday alleged that the BJP and its ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh control Facebook and WhatsApp in India. ""They spread fake news and hatred through it and use it to influence the electorate. Finally, the American media has come out with the truth about Facebook,"" Gandhi tweeted.

In a press conference, Congress leaders Ajay Maken, Praveen Chakravarty and Rohan Gupta, demanded the creation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to look into the issue.

The BJP categorically denied the allegations, stating that Congress needs to look within.

Information Technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit back at Gandhi saying that ""Losers who cannot influence people even in their own party keep cribbing that the entire world is controlled by BJP & RSS. You were caught red-handed in alliance with Cambridge Analytica & Facebook to weaponise data before the elections & now have the gall to question us."" His reference is to a 2018 controversy surrounding a massive",Political slugfest over FB intensifies,tweets_news_192,tweets_news
"U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr on Wednesday blasted big tech, raising the specter that Silicon Valley might soon be held accountable for a wide array of dangerous, harmful content that critics say has flourished on their sites and services. At an event that laid bare tech's broad troubles — including the spread of terrorism, illicit drug sales and child sexual exploitation online — Barr said it may be time for the government to seek sweeping changes to a key portion of federal law, known as Section 230, that long has spared tech companies from liability for content posted by their users. ""No longer are tech companies the underdog upstarts,"" Barr said in a speech, reflecting on the origin of the statute. ""They have become titans.""

Barr's shot at Silicon Valley offers the latest evidence that regulators in Washington — Democrats and Republicans alike — believe some of the federal safeguards that helped incubate the Internet have become hinderances, preventing law enforcement and aggrieved web users from obtaining justice when people are harmed. For all their ability to connect people across borders, Facebook, Google and other popular sites and services also have served as conduits for hate speech and extremism. They've","Barr blasts big tech, raises regulatory questions Tech: EU taking lead in clamping down",tweets_news_193,tweets_news
"•The pop hunk, 26, made history as the first ever solo male over star of US Vogue in its 127-year history, and opted to shake things up with his sartorial choices•Conservative commentator Owens, 31, took umbrage to the star's shoot, writing on Twitter: 'There is no society that can survive without strong men'•Concluding her fiery tweet, the right wing media personality, a supporter of Donald Trump, asserted: 'It is an outright attack. Bring back manly men'•Olivia Wilde, 36, who is currently directing Harry in her new movie, Don't Worry Darling, spoke out in defence - labelling Owens 'pathetic'•Shockingly, Owens then referenced Olivia's recent split from Jason Sudeikis when she hit back: 'You're single for a reason.' The tweet was soon deleted•Owens founded the 'Blexit' campaign to encourage black voters to 'exit' the Democrats as a play on Brexit, the term for Britain leaving the European Union•The right wing media personality is now married to British-born Peter Farmer, whose father Lord Farmer was a major supporter of Brexit

The pop hunk, 26, made history as the first ever solo male over star of US Vogue in its 127-year history, and opted to shake things up with his sartorial choices

Conservative commentator Owens, 31,",'You're pathetic!' Olivia Wilde defends Harry Styles after conservative commentator Candace Owens says 'no society can survive without strong men' after he wore a dress in Vogue,tweets_news_194,tweets_news
"The head of a national conservative group that is spending $24 million to push new voting restrictions told supporters it secretly helped draft legislation in Republican-controlled statehouses across the country. Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action, made the claim during a recent meeting with supporters in Arizona. A recording of the event was released by the...

The head of a national conservative group that is spending $24 million to push new voting restrictions told supporters it secretly helped draft legislation in Republican-controlled statehouses across the country. Jessica Anderson, executive director of Her...

The head of a national conservative group that is spending $24 million to push new voting restrictions told supporters it secretly helped draft legislation in Republican-controlled statehouses across the country. Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action, made the claim during a recent meeting with supporters in Arizona. A recording of the event was released by the liberal investigative website Documented, which made a copy available for The Associated Press to review. Heritage Action confirmed its authenticity. “In some cases, we actually draft them for them,” Anderson said of legislation written for state lawmakers. “Or we have a sentinel on our behalf give them the model legislation, so it",Conservative group boasts of secret role in voting laws,tweets_news_195,tweets_news
"Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack says Twitter has gone too far in removing Donald Trump from its platform.

Federal ministers have criticised social media companies for suspending Donald Trump's accounts in a growing debate over censorship following last week's mob violence at the United States Capitol.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he was ""uncomfortable"" with Twitter's decision to take down the US President's account and acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack blasted the move as censorship of political speech when the company had not suspended other views on its site.

While both leaders condemned the violence in Washington DC, Mr McCormack triggered an attack from Labor after he likened the events last Thursday to the Black Lives Matter protests of recent months.

The comments signal the government's concern about the power of the social media companies to silence political speech, as federal Parliament prepares to debate draft laws to take down ""abhorrent violent"" online material.

The public draft of the Online Safety Bill, released on December 23 for community comment, includes tougher sanctions against online abuse but also extends federal powers over content that incites violence.

While social media companies are under no government obligation to explain how they decide to cancel free expression, Australian Competition and Consumer",Senior ministers take aim at Trump social media silencing,tweets_news_196,tweets_news
"

Nov 11, 2020( How Appealing: https://howappealing.abovethelaw.com Delivered by Newstex) ;;;;;; '#8216;There's no indication it will succeed': Legal analysts weigh in on Trump team's election challenges.' Dugan Arnett and Travis Andersen of The Boston Globe have this report[1]. Posted at 9:47 PM [2] by Howard Bashman[3] 'A Supreme Court that still backs Obamacare won't endorse Trump's cockamamie coup': Columnist Dana Milbank has this essay[4] online at The Washington Post. Posted at 9:42 PM [5] by Howard Bashman[6] 'The Latest Obamacare Case Is Too Crazy for Brett Kavanaugh; During Tuesday's oral arguments, the new median justice seemed reluctant to dismantle the landmark health care law': Mark Joseph Stern has this jurisprudence essay[7] online at Slate. Posted at 9:41 PM [8] by Howard Bashman[9] 'Supreme Misjudgment on ObamaCare; Texas and Trump run into a skeptical majority at the High Court': This editorial[10] will appear in Wednesday's edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Posted at 9:05 PM [11] by Howard Bashman[12] Access online the November 2020 issue of the Harvard Law Review: Via this link[13]. It's the always interesting U.S. Supreme Court[14] Term-in-Review issue. Posted at 8:50 PM [15] by Howard Bashman[16] 'Philly isn't why Biden won Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania probably isn't why Biden won",'#8216;There's no indication it will succeed': Legal analysts weigh in on Trump team's election challenges.',tweets_news_197,tweets_news
"Twitter removed a ""misleading"" tweet downplaying the efficacy of masks posted by a top coronavirus adviser to President Donald Trump, while U.S. cases surged before the Nov. 3 election, Trend reports citing Reuters.

As the Trump administration fends off accusations that its mixed messaging on wearing masks hampered the fight against the coronavirus, Dr. Scott Atlas continued to minimize the importance of masks with a Twitter post on Saturday, saying, ""Masks work? NO.""

Twitter Inc removed the tweet on Sunday, saying it violated its misleading information policy on COVID-19, which targets statements that have been confirmed to be false or misleading by subject-matter experts.

The White House had no immediate comment on the decision.

New infections have been rising fast in the United States, according to a Reuters analysis, with more than 69,400 reported on Friday, up from 46,000 a month ago. Total U.S. cases have surpassed 8 million.

Trump, who was hospitalized with the disease for three nights in early October, has been criss-crossing the country in a surge of 11th-hour campaigning as he lags in many public opinion polls. His rallies draw thousands of supporters in close quarters, with many not wearing masks despite federal coronavirus guidelines.

Despite data showing otherwise, Trump has said",Twitter raps Trump COVID-19 adviser as U.S. cases rise,tweets_news_198,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Amazon kicked Parler off its Web-hosting service, and the social media app promptly sued to get back online.

BODY

Google yanked Parler's smartphone app from its app store Friday for allowing postings that seek ""to incite ongoing violence in the US."" Apple followed suit on Saturday.

The conservative-friendly social network Parler was booted off the Internet Monday over ties to last week's siege on the US Capitol, but not before hackers made off with an archive of its posts, including any that might have helped organize or document the riot.

Amazon kicked Parler off its Web-hosting service, and the social media app promptly sued to get back online, telling a federal judge that the tech giant had breached its contract and abused its market power.

It was a roller coaster of activity for Parler, a two-year-old magnet for the far right that welcomed a surge of new users and became the No. 1 free app on iPhones late last week, after Facebook, Twitter, and other mainstream social media platforms silenced President Trump's accounts over comments that seemed to incite Wednesday's violent insurrection.

The wave of Trump followers flocking to the service was short-lived. Google yanked Parler's smartphone app from its app store Friday for allowing postings",Right-wing app Parler booted off Internet over ties to siege,tweets_news_199,tweets_news
"Australia's ambassador to the US during the Trump presidency writes that Joe Biden will be the change that Americans want and need.

America is used to political disruption. It's an enormous country that was born out of a revolutionary war and was indelibly scarred by a horrific civil war that tore its people apart. Interestingly, the biggest external threats to the United States over the past 50 years, Russia and China, have endured very similar histories - revolutionary war followed by a brutal civil conflict. However, the parallels end when it comes to managing civil unrest.

Authoritarian countries have weak state infrastructure. They rely on fear and the threat of overt state power to keep the peace. There is no freedom of speech or movement. Fair elections are a fiction and justice is the exception rather than the rule. While many around the world have been rattled by the events of the past few weeks, the American formula has delivered a solution. Joe Biden is exactly the right person at the right time to heal the nation.

Biden's calm but firm response to the attack on the Capitol is the leadership that most Americans want. At this moment, it is what America needs.

Over",Why Joe Biden is exactly the right man to mend America,tweets_news_200,tweets_news
"We need to step up and reject the division and distrusted peddled by the President as he tries to undermine America's upcoming elections

Despite tweets today suggesting postponing the American presidential election in November, Trump does not have the power to postpone the election. Our institutions are strong and only an Act of Congress can do that. He also won't be able to hole up in the White House once he's been voted out of office. But that's not necessarily why I'm concerned about his incendiary tweets.

Each day it becomes increasingly difficult to stand by and watch as my country looks like it's teetering on the wrong side of chaotic. With each press of the tweet button, Trump is sowing the seeds of illiberalism into the fabric of American culture. With each ill-thought through message he sends, what's heard by dictators like Communist China's Xi or Russia's Putin is that they can actually get away with worse.

In the continuation of his campaign against mail-in voting for the 2020 general election (not absentee votes because that's what the military uses and they're special!), Trump has suggested that the election is delayed until it is safe to vote in person.

This is comical considering","Trump's election complaints aren't just the talk of a loser, but a wannabe despot",tweets_news_201,tweets_news
"Aides said they hoped to draw bipartisan interest by focusing the session on structural issues in how companies approach content moderation.

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter executives are slated to testify at a Senate Judiciary hearing on algorithmic amplification next week, according to congressional aides, setting up a marquee session on a practice that's facing mounting scrutiny from Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Who's on tap: Monika Bickert, vice president of content policy at Facebook; Alexandra Veitch, public policy lead for the Americas at YouTube; and Lauren Culbertson, head of U.S. public policy at Twitter, will appear Tuesday before the panel's privacy and technology subcommittee, said the aides. They'll testify on a panel alongside two outside experts: Tristan Harris, president of the Center for Humane Technology; and Joan Donovan, a leading scholar on misinformation and research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media.

Why algorithms: Democratic lawmakers are increasingly sounding the alarm about how digital platforms' algorithms can contribute to the spread of misinformation, hate speech and extremist content by boosting the visibility of harmful material to users.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), chair of the subcommittee hosting the hearing, told POLITICO last month that he plans to make social media and algorithmic accountability a top issue","Facebook, YouTube, Twitter execs to testify at Senate hearing on algorithms",tweets_news_202,tweets_news
"January 29, 2021 at 3:33 PM The Biden administration has given fellow World Trade Organization members its first indication of its approach to the beleaguered organization, promising it is ""fully committed"" to constructive engagement on WTO reform and saying the selection of a new director-general -- a significant priority for many members -- is ""under active consideration"" in Washington.

To date, the Biden administration's statements in Geneva have upheld the status quo and noted the U.S. is in transition. Although a significant change in approach is unlikely until President Biden's pick for U.S. Trade Representative, House Ways & Means Democrats chief trade counsel Katherine Tai, is confirmed, the U.S. statement at Friday's mini-ministerial foreshadowed a U.S. more open to multilateral cooperation than under the Trump administration. The mini-ministerial is traditionally held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos every January.

""The United States is also fully committed to positive, constructive, and active engagement with all Members to find paths forward to achieve necessary reform of the WTO,"" David Bisbee, charge d'affaires at the U.S. Mission to the WTO, said, according to a copy of the statement.

In particular, Bisbee finally made mention of the issue members have been most anxiously",Biden administration strikes 'constructive' tone in first word on WTO approach,tweets_news_203,tweets_news
"Miami's three House Republicans aren't supporting a growing effort to expel Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said in 2018 that the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was a ""false flag planned shooting"" to bolster support for gun control.

Greene, a Republican and supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, was elected to Congress earlier this year in a conservative Northwest Georgia district. She has also expressed support on social media for executing congressional leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and videos from 2018 recently resurfaced showing her harassing March For Our Lives co-founder David Hogg as he spoke to politicians about gun control on Capitol Hill.

Reps. Carlos Gimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart said Monday they are opposed to kicking Greene out of Congress due to her social media activity, though they criticized her conduct. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar said ""no comment"" when asked about Greene and efforts to remove her.

""The issue of removing someone from Congress is a very serious one and I would be hesitant to put myself in place of the people of Georgia who elected her,"" Gimenez said in an interview with WLRN, arguing that many of her social media posts were known to the public",Miami Republicans oppose expelling lawmaker who called Parkland shooting a false flag,tweets_news_204,tweets_news
"Facebook will appear before South Africa’s Parliament on 25 May, after being asked by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to...

Facebook will appear before South Africa’s Parliament on 25 May, after being asked by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to explain how it intends to stop the spread of misinformation. “The reason for inviting Facebook was with the view of ascertaining what step...

Facebook will appear before South Africa’s Parliament on 25 May, after being asked by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to explain how it intends to stop the spread of misinformation. “The reason for inviting Facebook was with the view of ascertaining what steps the tech giant will be taking in tackling harmful misinformation, particularly as we inch towards the 2021 Local Government Election,” said DA Member of Parliament Phumzile Van Damme. The protection of data of users of WhatsApp and payment for news content carried on Facebook will also be discussed. Amy MacIver interviewed Van Damme. The initial request was motivated after scenes at the US Capital after their election. Social media played a pivotal role in the misinformation that led to that attack. Phumzile Van Damme, Member of Parliament - Democratic Alliance We see a lot of misinformation about foreign nationals,","DA to haul Facebook before Parliament about misinformation, new WhatsApp terms",tweets_news_205,tweets_news
"

Jun 05, 2020( The Volokh Conspiracy: http://reason.com/volokh Delivered by Newstex) From today's decision by Judge John M. Younge in Hepp v. Facebook, Inc.[1] (E.D. Pa.), which I think is likely correct (and which follows Ninth Circuit law but rejects the contrary view from two federal district courts in New Hampshire and New York):Plaintiff is a newscaster [and co-anchor] who has worked for the Philadelphia-based Fox 29 news team since November 2010. Plaintiff alleges that ""[a]pproximately two years ago, [she] discovered through her co- workers and managers, that, without her consent, a photograph of her taken by a security camera in a convenience store in New York City was being used in online advertisements for erectile dysfunction and dating websites."" : ""[Her] photo was featured in a Facebook advertisement soliciting users to 'meet and chat with single women.'""""[Her] photo was featured on Imgur under the heading 'milf,' which is a derogatory and degrading slang acronym that refers to a sexually attractive woman with young children.""""[Her] photo was featured on Reddit titled 'Amazing' in the subgroup r/obsf ('older but still $#^@able') and posted by a user known as 'pepsi_next.' There is a hyperlink for the photograph which links to the Imgur site.""

[Title",47 U.S.C. 230 Preempts State Right of Publicity Claims,tweets_news_206,tweets_news
"The actor Nick Cannon, who said he is ""atoning"" for anti-Semitic comments made on his podcast, revealed on Monday that he has Jewish ancestry — a Sephardic great-grandfather who was a rabbi.

Cannon was talking to Rabbi Noam Marans, director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations at the American Jewish Committee, about the process of making up for the remarks he made, which has included both apologizing and study.

""My great-grandfather was a Spanish rabbi, a Sephardic Jewish man,"" Cannon said. ""As much heat as I've been catching from the public and the outside, this hit home in a real way, because I come from a Black and Jewish family on my mother's side.""

Cannon is one of three Black public figures — along with the rapper Ice Cube and the NFL player DeSean Jackson — who were accused of anti-Semitism, the latter two for making social media posts with anti-Semitic content.

He talked with Marans about what it was like to understand the origins of the anti-Semitic tropes he invoked; the books he's been reading about Judaism and atonement; Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan; and his own family's Jewish history.

Cannon said that he was initially reluctant to apologize, but was convinced to do",Nick Cannon reveals Jewish ancestry as he 'atones' with rabbi for anti-Semitic podcast episode,tweets_news_207,tweets_news
"Of all the Twitter attacks on President Trump — and there are thousands every day — one stood out on election eve. It was a photo of a woman sitting with the president in the Oval Office. It read: ""Trump leaned in and said, ‘You know it's I who released you, don't you? I succeeded and Obama failed.'

In the most vulnerable moment of my life, 48 hours after releasing me from prison. It was never about me like it was never about us. It's about his ego. We deserve better. #VoteBiden."" The tweet was sent by a woman named Aya Hijazi. Here is her story, and the story of the tweet: Hijazi is an Egyptian-American activist who grew up in Falls Church, Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. She went to college at George Mason University. In 2011, after graduation, she moved to Egypt and founded the Belady Foundation, ""an organization that aims to shelter and rehabilitate marginalized street children,"" according to a Washington Post profile. In 2014, Egyptian police raided the office of the Belady Foundation and arrested Hijazi. She was held without charge and eventually accused of ""operating an unlicensed organization, inciting street children to join pro-Muslim",Trump good deed gets its punishment,tweets_news_208,tweets_news
"""If you want to try someone, try me,"" said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on January 27 as he hit out at Iran's hardline judiciary over the prosecution of the country's telecommunications minister for an alleged refusal to block Instagram and impose restrictions on other foreign social media and messaging platforms.

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi was summoned for prosecution last week. Rouhani, a centrist and pragmatic politician, spoke out against that move at a cabinet meeting, saying that an effort to improve internet bandwidth in Iran was under way because of his orders, partly to help improve business and assist an anti-corruption campaign. Both a ""lack of control on content"" as well as the ""closure"" of social media were wrong, he added.

""These days, the internet is like oxygen for people... to want to restrict it would be absolutely wrong.... How else can we expect people to do everything from home and teach their children online during the [coronavirus] pandemic?"" Rouhani asked.

Jahromi has been released on bail. His prosecution is seen as part of a political struggle between the more reform-minded politicians and conservative hardliners in Iran ahead of the presidential election in June. Rouhani will not run in that poll, as he","""Try me"" not telecoms minister Iran's president tells hardliners in internet row",tweets_news_209,tweets_news
"ByteDance is currently embroiled in a US national security inquiry into TikTok's handling of user data

The viral short video app TikTok, under scrutiny in the US over privacy and censorship concerns in recent months, said it would complete the transfer of the app's content moderation to locations outside China ""within a few weeks"".

The work done by a team under the Trust & Safety department ""primarily helping with overnight coverage for some non-US regions"" will be transferred to ""local teams in the markets they cover within a few weeks,"" a TikTok spokeswoman said in an emailed response on Monday.

The app's owner ByteDance is now ""working to find job options within the company for the China-based employees,"" she said. The restructure will affect more than 100 employees in China, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier, citing people familiar with the matter.

TikTok, the overseas version of China's Douyin, was the world's most downloaded non-game app over the past two months, according to Sensor Tower. It has however drawn attention from regulators in different markets. ByteDance is currently embroiled in a US national security inquiry into TikTok's handling of user data.

TikTok unveiled a plan last week to open a Transparency Centre in Los Angeles",TikTok nears moving all its China-based content moderation outside the country amid US pressure,tweets_news_210,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) — Lloyd J. Austin, a West Point graduate who rose to the Army's elite ranks and marched through racial barriers in a 41-year career, won Senate confirmation Friday to become the nation's first Black secretary of defense.

The 93-2 vote gave President Joe Biden his second Cabinet member; Avril Haines was confirmed on Wednesday as the first woman to serve as director of national intelligence. Biden is expected to win approval for others on his national security team in coming days, including Antony Blinken as secretary of state.

Biden is looking for Austin to restore stability atop the Pentagon, which went through two Senate-confirmed secretaries of defense and four who held the post on an interim basis during the Trump administration. The only senators who voted against Austin were Republicans Mike Lee of Utah and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Before heading to the Pentagon, Austin wrote on Twitter that he is especially proud to be the first Black secretary of defense. “Let's get to work,” he wrote.

And a short time later he arrived at the Pentagon's River Entrance, where he was greeted by holdover Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist, who has been the acting secretary since Wednesday, and Army Gen. Mark",Austin wins Senate confirmation as 1st Black Pentagon chief,tweets_news_211,tweets_news
"Montana Gov. Steve Bullock really had no interest in running for the Senate. He made that very clear for months and months. Over and over again.

In May 2019, in the days following his decision to run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Bullock said that he ""was never going to run for the Senate ... I have great respect for the senators, but this is something that never really got me excited.""

In August, Bullock told CNN's Alisyn Camerota that a Senate bid was an ""absolute no"" for him

In December, Bullock reiterated his previous stance. ""I said it before, I said it during, I said it when I got out. I am not running for Senate,"" he said.

On Monday, Steve Bullock filed to challenge Republican Sen. Steve Daines in November.

""After hearing from Montanans and talking to Lisa and our kids, we decided now is no time to be on the sidelines, and that's why I'm running so we can make Washington work more like Montana,"" he said in a statement.

Visit CNN's Election Center for full coverage of the 2020 race

While there's no debate that Bullock's decision is a major boon for Senate Democrats hoping to win back the majority in the",Here's how you know Democrats are feeling very good about their chances in November,tweets_news_212,tweets_news
"Top O’ the Briefing Happy Tuesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. I’m about five pounds away from noticeably curving spacetime. The liberal media bias universe used to be a lot more predictable. There was a comfortable order over in Hackdom. Or as Andrew Breitbart liked to call it: the Democrat Media Complex. The worst of the worst...

Top O’ the Briefing Happy Tuesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. I’m about five pounds away from noticeably curving spacetime. The liberal media bias universe used to be a lot more predictable. There was a comfortable order over in Hackdom. Or as ...

Top O’ the Briefing Happy Tuesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. I’m about five pounds away from noticeably curving spacetime. The liberal media bias universe used to be a lot more predictable. There was a comfortable order over in Hackdom. Or as Andrew Breitbart liked to call it: the Democrat Media Complex. The worst of the worst — and it still number one — is The New York Times . Most of the other coastal media bubble outlets take their marching orders from the Times . For the longest time, second place belonged to The Washington Post . That was until the",The Morning Briefing: Pathetically Biased CNN's Ratings Are In Free Fall,tweets_news_213,tweets_news
"Canadian companies are joining a growing list of top international brands vowing not to advertise on Facebook Inc. in July because of the company's refusal to deal with the spread of hateful content on its platform.

Vancouver athletic wear companies Lululemon Athletica Inc.,

Mountain Equipment Co-op, Arc'teryx and Moosehead Breweries are pulling their paid ads from Facebook and joining a boycott that is being supported by Coca-Cola, Unilever, Honda America, Patagonia and more.

Champions of the #StopHateForProfit boycott - led by civil-rights and advocacy groups including the Anti-Defamation League and National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People - say Facebook has not done enough to keep racist, false and dangerous content or white supremacists off its platform.

They are also disappointed that Facebook has allowed users to call for violence against protesters fighting for racial justice in the wake of the deaths of several Black Americans.

MEC's boycott came into effect on June 25, when it pulled its content and paid ads from Facebook and Instagram until the end of July. The company said it wants to raise ""awareness of the harmful, racist content and misinformation that is shared on these social platforms.""

""We ask that Facebook strengthen their contentmoderation policies and enforce them consistently,""","Lululemon, MEC, Moosehead join Facebook ad boycott",tweets_news_214,tweets_news
"The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges and an asset freeze and other emergency relief against an Irvine, California-based trader who used social media to spread false information about a defunct company, while secretly profiting by selling his own holdings of the company's stock.

According to the SEC's complaint, which was filed under seal in federal court in the Central District of California on March 2, 2021 and unsealed today, Andrew L. Fassari used the Twitter handle @OCMillionaire to tweet false statements about Arcis Resources Corporation (ARCS), a defunct Nevada company with publicly traded securities, during December 2020. Specifically, the complaint alleges that, on Dec. 9, 2020, Fassari began purchasing over 41 million shares of ARCS stock shortly before tweeting false information about ARCS to his thousands of Twitter followers, including falsely claiming that ARCS was reviving its operations, expanding its business, and being backed by ""huge"" investors. The complaint further alleges that, between Dec. 9 and 21, 2020, Fassari made approximately 120 tweets that referenced ""$ARCS,"" dozens of which were false and misleading. For example, he tweeted, ""$ARCS 380,000 indoor cultivation 1 Million+ sq ft processing. WEEEEEEEEE This CEO has big plans for us"" and ""a ton of","United States: SEC Obtains Emergency Asset Freeze, Charges California Trader with Posting False Stock Tweets",tweets_news_215,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (Nexstar) — The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey next week to testify on allegations the company is stifling conservative viewpoints.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is leading the fight. He says Twitter blocked him from sharing a New York Post article about Hunter Biden.

""I hit send and immediately it came up blocked,"" Cruz said.

The article alleged Hunter Biden introduced his dad, Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden, to Ukrainian officials. But Cruz says no one could share it on social media.

""Suddenly Jack Dorsey and a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires are deciding that no criticism, no allegations, no evidence of corruption concerning Joe Biden is permissible,"" Cruz said. ""That is blatant election interference.""

But Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) applauded Twitter for cracking down on disinformation ahead of November's election.

""Facebook and Twitter have policies to not spread things that are utterly unreliable,"" Coons said.

""They are trying even harder this election,"" he continued. ""I'm glad that they are managing the content of their own websites.""

Dorsey announced Twitter changed its policy Friday morning. He said in a tweet, ""Straight blocking of URLs was wrong.""

Dorsey says Twitter will no longer remove hacked content unless it is shared by hackers. Twitter will",Senate to vote to subpoena Twitter CEO over blocking content close to November election,tweets_news_216,tweets_news
"Ahead of the November elections, Facebook is continuing to tweak its advertising policies. 

The social media company announced Wednesday evening that it will ban ads that executives believe “delegitimize the outcome of an election” and will formally ban ads that promote QAnon conspiracy theories.

Ads on Facebook and Instagram that call voting methods “inherently fraudulent or corrupt or [are] using isolated incidents of voter fraud to delegitimize the result of an election,” will also not be allowed, said Facebook director of product management Rob Leathern.

This is the latest change Facebook has made to its political ads policies. It recently allowed users to opt out of seeing political ads and announced it will reject ads that prematurely claim victory after the election. It had also announced it would stop running new political ads a week before Election Day, though critics said this could hurt get-out-the-vote efforts.

The new rule does not outlaw organic posts that also seek to undermine the election, though the company indicated earlier this month that it will add an “information label” on these types of posts. Any posts suggesting “people will get Covid-19 if they take part in voting” will be banned outright.

While some competitors like Twitter have banned",Facebook to Ban Ads That Delegitimize the Election or Promote QAnon Conspiracy Theories,tweets_news_217,tweets_news
"Got a question for Facebook? Contact DA Member of Parliament Phumzile Van Damme. Facebook will appear before South Africa’s Parliament on...

Got a question for Facebook? Contact DA Member of Parliament Phumzile Van Damme. Facebook will appear before South Africa’s Parliament on 25 May, after being asked by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to explain how it intends to stop the spread of misinformati...

Got a question for Facebook? Contact DA Member of Parliament Phumzile Van Damme. Facebook will appear before South Africa’s Parliament on 25 May, after being asked by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to explain how it intends to stop the spread of misinformation. “The reason for inviting Facebook was with the view of ascertaining what steps the tech giant will be taking in tackling harmful misinformation, particularly as we inch towards the 2021 Local Government Election,” said DA Member of Parliament Phumzile Van Damme. The protection of data of users of WhatsApp and payment for news content carried on Facebook will also be discussed. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (right) with a Facebook employee. © Kobby Dagan/123rf.com Amy MacIver interviewed Van Damme. The initial request was motivated after scenes at the US Capital after their election. Social media played a pivotal",Parliament hauls Facebook before committee about new WhatsApp terms,tweets_news_218,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

Thanks for doing that report for us. Hello and welcome to the Week in Tech. It was the week Twitter announced plans to ban and suspend accounts linked to the conspiracy theory QAnon, whose supporters believe there are people plotting against the president of the USA. Campaigners suggested that the Test and Trace programme in the UK breaks GDPR data rules, as it was launched without carrying out an assessment of its effect on privacy.

The UK Government stated that there was no evidence of data being used unlawfully. Music treaming service Spotify has launched podcasts, but with video. It is only with a selection few podcasts for now. And Apple has announced plans for the tech giant and its entire supply chain to become carbon neutral by 2030. Those of you with a craving for fancy futuristic food with a smaller carbon impact than the original, the bacon and pork belly in this sandwich isn't",Joins BBC News - 03:41 AM GMT,tweets_news_219,tweets_news
"Facebook has said it will hire 1,000 more people in the UK, as it attempts to cut down on spam and abuse.

The social media platform is looking to shed a reputation for allowing misuse of its platforms, for everything from cyberbullying to election interference.

Most of the recruits will work in technology-focused roles, the company said as it announced the jobs ahead of a new office being established in London. The roles include software engineering, product design and data science, as well as developing the WhatsApp app and Workplace, its business-centred version of Facebook.

Many of the staff will work as part of Facebook's Community Integrity team, which builds the tools used to detect and remove harmful content across Facebook's platforms, addressing issues from spam and abuse to violence and personal safety.

London is Facebook's biggest engineering hub outside of the US, and the platform is currently building new office space, due to open in late 2021, in King's Cross.

The latest additions will bring its total employee count in the UK to more than 4,000 by the end of the year, the company said.

Positions will also expand on Facebook's artificial intelligence, augmented/virtual reality and engineering infrastructure teams in the capital.

Boris Johnson said the","Facebook to hire 1,000 new UK staff as it tries to crack down on spam and abuse",tweets_news_220,tweets_news
"The remarks came amid a standoff with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who was determined to bring up complaints about censorship on Twitter.

<figure class=""embed-base image-embed embed-0"">

<figcaption>

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appears on a monitor as he testifies remotely during the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing 'Does Section 230's Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior?', on Capitol Hill, October 28, 2020.

Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images

</figcaption> </figure>

Jack Dorsey, the CEO and founder of TwitterTWTR, told Congress Wednesday that he doesn t believe his social media platform influences elections.

Dorsey made the comments during testimony before the Senate Commerce Commmittee, a session that also included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. He made those remarks amid a verbal standoff with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who spent his entire time during Wednesday s Senate Commerce Committee hearing interogating Dorsey and ignoring the other two tech executives.

We are one part of a spectrum of communication channels that people have, Dorsey said. People have a choice of other channels.

Dorsey s argument seems to be: There are enough competing sources of information out there for Twitter not to be a threat to unduly sway an election. And while Twitter certainly does compete with new media companies",Jack Dorsey Insists That Twitter Doesn t Influence Elections In Senate Testimony,tweets_news_221,tweets_news
"

May 09, 2020( PA Pundits: http://papundits.wordpress.com/ Delivered by Newstex) By Corinne Weaver ~ The first half of the conspiracy documentary, Plandemic, was removed several times from YouTube, according to The Washington Post[1]. Twitter and Facebook also made statements to other media outlets confirming that both platforms were suppressing hashtags and content related to the documentary. A YouTube spokesperson told The Post that the company takes down 'content that includes medically unsubstantiated diagnostic advice for covid-19.' This includes Plandemic.

The 26-minute long clip featured an interview with Judy Mikovits[2], a former medical researcher and critic of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci. In the interview, Mikovits touted a medical paper that she had written that eventually was retracted. She also claimed that the coronavirus was not a 'natural occurrence,' according to CNET. The video found a home on Vimeo until that platform took it down as well. Vimeo told The Post that the company 'stands firm in keeping our platform safe from content that spreads harmful and misleading health information. The video in question has been removed by our Trust &#38; Safety team for violating these very policies.' According to CNET, Facebook also confirmed that it","YouTube, Facebook, Twitter Censor Controversial Documentary",tweets_news_222,tweets_news
"Facebook does not fact-check political adverts, thereby allowing misinformation to spread

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that the social media company does not allow misinformation in adverts , despite Facebook continually allowing misinformation in adverts.

Answering a question by Chair Schakowsky, who asked whetherFacebook thinks that when it ""take[s] money to run advertisements to promoted disinformation that [it is] exempt from liability"".

Mr Zuckerberg responded: ""Congresswoman, I don't know the legal answer to that but we don't allow misinformation in our ads, and any ads that has been fact checked as false we do not allow to run as an ad.""

Facebook does allow misinformation to run in ads, because the company does not fact-check political adverts.

In a blog post from September 2019, former deputy prime minister and current Facebook VP of Global Affairs and Communications Nick Clegg wrote : ""We rely on third-party fact-checkers to help reduce the spread of false news and other types of viral misinformation, like memes or manipulated photos and videos.""

""We don't believe, however, that it's an appropriate role for us to referee political debates and prevent a politician's speech from reaching its audience and being subject to public debate and scrutiny. That's why Facebook exempts politicians from",Zuckerberg says Facebook doesn't allow misinformation in ads - despite repeatedly allowing politicians to lie,tweets_news_223,tweets_news
"SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc said on Thursday it would start promoting content from public Facebook Groups in users' news feeds and in search engine results, defying calls by watchdog groups to limit algorithmic recommendations ahead of U.S. elections next month. In a blog post, Facebook app chief Fidji Simo said the company would surface recommendations in news feeds by showing ""related discussions"" from public groups next to a link or post. Facebook Groups are communities that form around shared interests, and public groups' posts can be viewed by any user. Simo said Facebook would also start showing conversations from public groups outside the app, such as in web searches. Facebook declined to specify when the changes would be rolled out, with a spokesman saying only that U.S. tests would begin ""in a very limited capacity"" in the coming weeks. The company, which made groups a strategic priority last year, also said it was adding new moderation tools for the more than 70 million people running those communities to help them reject posts, lead discussions and arrange paid sponsorships. According to an internal memo seen by The Verge https://www.theverge.com/21444203/facebook-leaked-audio-zuckerberg-trump-pandemic-blm, the groups push this year has been a success for engagement on","Facebook steps up promotion of groups content in feeds, around the web",tweets_news_224,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) ─ The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google testified remotely on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, defending their business practices as lawmakers questioned how they wield their power over American consumers.

The CEOs ─ Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg ─ fielded questions from lawmakers during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, which comes after a yearlong bipartisan investigation into unfair business practices by the tech giants.

Rep. David Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, argues that their power over the marketplace is killing small businesses across the country.

""Simply put: They have too much power,"" Cicilline said. ""Any single action by one of these companies can affect hundreds of millions of us.""

""Why does Google steal content from honest businesses?"" he asked while questioning Pichai.

""We support 1.4 million small businesses,"" Pichai answered. ""We see many businesses thrive.""

But lawmakers argue there's little room left for competition. The CEOs pushed back, however, arguing that there's still plenty of room for competition and opportunity on their platforms.

""We nurture entrepreneurs and startups,"" Bezos said.

""If Apple is a gatekeeper, what we have done is open the gate wider,"" Cook said.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, questioned Zuckerberg on his company's efforts to crack down on fake accounts spreading misinformation.

Zuckerberg",Lawmakers grill tech giants over their influence on consumers,tweets_news_225,tweets_news
"U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to stop looters in Minneapolis with deadly military force, after that city weathered a third night of arson and rioting over the police killing of an unarmed black man.

Some congressional Democrats denounced as racist Trump's Twitter threat, which called the looters ""THUGS"" and warned ""when the looting starts, the shooting starts."" Twitter for the first time hid the Trump tweet behind a warning banner that accused the president of ""glorifying violence.""

That came after Trump signed an executive order on Thursday threatening new regulations on social media firms. He relies heavily on Twitter to bring his message directly to his 80 million followers on the site, but also has repeatedly accused it and other social media sites of censuring conservatives.

Trump, a Republican who is running for re-election in November, has a history of inflaming racial tensions. He blamed ""both sides"" for violence between white supremacists and left-wing counter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and has called illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border rapists.

....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all","Twitter hides Trump's 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts' tweet for glorifying violence",tweets_news_226,tweets_news
"DONALD TRUMP was left a series of discouraging messages by Barack Obama's party guests, it is claimed.

The former US President was due to be inaugurated when Mr Obama's guests purportedly left notes in the White House. Comedian Dave Chappelle said the messages, dubbed ""dirty notes,"" were ""all over"" the executive residence.

Mr Chapppelle recounted laughing upon hearing news reports regarding the messages, which purportedly predicted that Mr Trump would ""fail"".

Speaking in a YouTube podcast with model Naomi Campbell, Mr Chappelle said: ""Remember when the Trump administration moved in they said, 'the Obama staff left dirty notes for us'.""

He added: ""I saw this happening. I'm not going to say who did it, but it was celebrities writing all this crazy sh*t and putting them all over there.

""And I saw them doing it so when I saw that on the news I laughed real hard.

""It was one of the last big parties the Obamas threw and I'm not gonna say those celebrities' names.""

Following his White House stint, Mr Trump left the White House on January 20 alongside his family and has since been spotted at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Lately, the former president has seen himself at the centre of speculation regarding his",Obama's celebrity guests left 'dirty messages' for Donald Trump - 'You will fail',tweets_news_227,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Pro-Trump group pays teens to post online

BODY

Singer Ricky Martin looked on Tuesday as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke at an event in Kissimmee, Fla., at which he played a song on his cellphone.

On his first visit to Florida as a presidential nominee on Tuesday, Joe Biden whipped out his cellphone to play ""Despacito,"" as a tribute to its singer, Luis Fonsi, who introduced the former vice president at the event. The moment exploded on social media, inspiring jokes, memes, and a surprise resurgence of the 2017 single onto Twitter's trending topics.

Early on Wednesday morning, President Trump joined the fray — but in the video he tweeted, it wasn't ""Despacito"" playing from Biden's phone. It was N.W.A.'s notorious 1988 single ""F--- tha Police.""

""What is this all about?"" Trump asked over the manipulated video.

Trump and his conservative allies have ramped up a campaign of online disinformation in recent weeks, as The Washington Post's Ashley Parker reported, with the president in particular tweeting out numerous false claims and misleadingly labeled videos. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump shared a tweet baselessly accusing Biden of being a pedophile.

Twitter has repeatedly labeled videos shared by Trump and his campaign as ""manipulated"" and in several cases removed",Trump's latest false tweet: Biden airing anti-police song,tweets_news_228,tweets_news
"(CNN Business) -- With Sen. Kamala Harris ascending to become former Vice President Joe Biden's running mate, Silicon Valley can breathe a little easier, at least for now.

For nearly four years, top Democrats and Republicans have attacked the tech industry with allegations of antitrust violations, political bias and criticisms of how large online platforms handled privacy and misinformation. Biden himself is among Big Tech's harshest critics --- needling Facebook over misinformation and political advertising, and calling for the repeal of a key legal shield for the industry.

But his selection of Harris for vice president is already giving some who operate in and around the tech industry cause for optimism. A California senator whose constituency includes Silicon Valley, Harris has experience working on technology issues. Her connections to technology execs include powerful donors such as Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. On Tuesday, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote that Harris's presumptive nomination ""is a huge moment for Black women and girls all over the world -- and for all of us.""

""She's a great pick for the tech industry,"" said Matt Tanielian, co-founder of Franklin Square Group, a Washington-based lobbying firm that represents Apple, Dropbox, eBay and others.",What Kamala Harris as VP would mean for Silicon Valley,tweets_news_229,tweets_news
"The group says it intentionally dressed in black on the day of the riot

The Proud Boys are celebrating their role in the US Capitol insurrection on Wednesday by taking a virtual victory lap on social media.

The group -a Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group that was told to ""stand back and stand by"" by Donald Trump during a presidential debate earlier this year -posted messages boasting and taking credit for the riot.

""For several hours, our collective strength had politicians in Washington in absolute terror. The treacherous pawns (cops) were also terrified,"" a Proud Boy wrote on the group's Telegram social media page.

On Parler, another social media platform that welcomes extremists banned from Twitter and Facebook for violating those sites Terms of Service agreements, the Proud Boys openly supported the Capitol insurrection.

""Doesn't look like they're destroying the capital. Looks like they're liberating it,"" the group wrote. ""God bless America and all her patriots.""

Prior to the rally, the leader of the Proud Boys, Henry ""Enrique"" Tarrio was arrested for burning a Black Lives Matter sign that was stolen from a church in Washington DC. He was also found in possession of high capacity firearm magazines.

A DC judge banned Mr Tarrio from",Proud Boys boast they caused 'absolute terror' during Capitol riot,tweets_news_230,tweets_news
"On Jan. 6, pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, damaging the building and clashing with local police, resulting in the death of four rioters and one officer.

Among those demonstrating was the co-owner of Momma Rabbit's Nibbles and Sips, a Lexington cafe.

In social media posts and a subsequent interview with WIS-TV, Sarah Grace Allen said she did not participate in the trespassing and violence that followed the initial protest.

""I would 100 percent do it again,"" she told WIS-TV. ""There was nothing there that I witnessed, or that I was a part of, that I'm ashamed of at all. I certainly don't condone any of the vandalism that we heard about after the fact. At all.""

The result of her attendance at the demonstration that became a riot was a slew of negative online reviews on various websites and biting comments left on her personal social media pages and those of her restaurant. A Facebook group named No More Momma Rabbits appeared, and has since accrued more than 700 members.

""MAGA Rabbits. Supporting traitors every day,"" one user posted on Jan. 10, responding to a Facebook post from Jan. 5 announcing a ""Pita Cottontail"" special.

Other users have chimed back, supporting the restaurant. 

""The pure",Backlash for Lexington cafe after owner went to DC protest. How do others handle politics?,tweets_news_231,tweets_news
"Pakistan, July 7 -- Internet censorship in Pakistan is not new, from over two decennium people of Pakistan are agonized with retrogressive settlements by government organizations in the field of digital development.

Undoubtedly, Pakistan being the IT nimble in Asia jumped through a lot of hoops in order compete with digital pyramids, the ascent of e-sports and competitive gaming is becoming popular than ever generating livelihood for youngsters, but sad to say our decisions makers left no stone unturned to demoralize the spirit of gaming community and dismay their effort they've made in all these years in building digital impression. The demographics of the government's past suspensions are a clear example that our previous actions only resulted in nothing but decrease in digital advancement.

On July 1, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) temporarily suspended famous mobile game PUBG with an intention to improve mental and physical health of children, but was this ban necessary during this lockdown? Can the government ensure the 'Stay Home, Stay Safe' formula after such a decision? Let's dig in further.

In May 2010, the PTA imposed a ban on multiple websites, including YouTube, for sharing ""blasphemous"" content, later the ban was lifted in 2016 after six years when",Is banning something the only option?,tweets_news_232,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — Top executives of Twitter, Facebook and Google testified on social media protections and censorship issues before a Senate committee Wednesday.

Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai, the CEOS of Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet-owned Google respectively, appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee for a hearing on a federal internet law.

All three executives agreed to testify remotely Wednesday after being threatened with subpoenas. The committee took an unplanned brief break when Zuckerberg had technical difficulties connecting virtually, bringing a moment of levity to the start of the hearing.

Reflected in their written testimonies, the company leaders defended Section 230, a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, as legislation that's critical to free expression on the internet.

Section 230 gives social media companies permission to moderate and regulate content on their platforms without being legally responsible for the information they host. It also gives the tech giants permission to remove lawful but objectionable posts.

Twitter's Dorsey warned the committee that eroding the foundation of Section 230 could significantly hurt how people communicate online. Pichai said the company operates without political bias.

""We approach our work without political bias, full stop,"" Pichai said. ""To do otherwise would be contrary to both our business","Twitter, Facebook, Google CEOs testify on social media protections amid censorship claims",tweets_news_233,tweets_news
"FACULTY Q&A

Since the Nov. 3 election, people-particularly President Trump supporters-have been flocking to social media platforms Parler and MeWe, which promise ad-free or uncensored experiences.

MeWe's promise is ""Your private life is not 4Sale: No ads. No Spyware. No BS."" Parler calls itself ""the world's town square,"" inviting participants to ""speak freely and express yourself openly.""

Libby Hemphill,

Libby Hemphill

associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, studies politicians and others to learn how people use social media to organize, discuss and enact social change. She explains the new platforms, their business models and approaches to freedom of expression, at a time when claims about fake news and election fraud abound.

Hemphill also is a research associate professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research and directs the Resource Center for Minority Data within ISR's Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.

What can you tell us about these new platforms MeWe and Parler?

First, neither of these platforms is all that new. MeWe has been around in some form for about eight years, and Parler for two. What's new is that they're both growing in terms of active users. They both emerged as challengers to Facebook and Twitter, primarily, and claimed that their","Ad-free, censorship-free social sites MeWe, Parler see surge in interest postelection",tweets_news_234,tweets_news
"The chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter will be hauled in front of Congress again this afternoon to faceThe post Big Tech hearing: Facebook, Google and Twitter face Congress grilling appeared first on CityAM.

The chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter will be hauled in front of Congress again this afternoon to face questions about misinformation and extremism on their platforms.

Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey will appear before a virtual joint hearing of two subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

It follows a highly-publicised antitrust hearing last July and marks the first time they have appeared on Capitol Hill since rioters stormed the Capitol on 6 January.

Former President Donald Trump, who has been accused of inciting the violence, has been banned by both Facebook and Twitter over his role in the incident. He remains temporarily suspended by Google-owned Youtube.

Republicans on the panel are likely to criticise the tech giants over what they consider to be efforts to stifle conservative voices.

Debate has been raging in the US over potential reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects platforms from liability over user content. Some politicians, including President Joe Biden, support this move.

The three tech","Facebook, Google and Twitter face Congress grilling over misinformation",tweets_news_235,tweets_news
"ALLOWING tech giants to sign a voluntary code to police misinformation and disinformation was slammed on Monday as ""pointless and shameless"", as commentators said opt-in conditions would make little difference to false information regularly served up to unknowing social media users in Australia.

Companies including Facebook, Google and TikTok signed up to the voluntary code on Monday, fulfilling another recommendation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's 18-month inquiry into digital platforms.

But the code will come into place just as Facebook removed all fact-checked Australian and international news from its platform, along with content from many non-government organisations, support groups and charities, which experts said was likely to increase the spread of fake news.

The Digital Industry Group (DIGI) released the voluntary code of practice for tech platforms on Monday, with managing director Sunita Bose saying it had been developed with help from the University of Technology Sydney and First Draft News.

Twitter, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Redbubble and TikTok signed up to the code, which describes seven ""objectives"" including tackling disinformation in advertisements, prioritising fact-checked news content, improving political advertising, and funding research into disinformation.

""Companies are committing to robust safeguards against harmful misinformation and disinformation that also protect privacy, freedom of expression and",'Shameless' voluntary code won't stop social media fake news,tweets_news_236,tweets_news
"CONTENT: TRUMP, BAN, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, MISINFORMATION

GRAPHICS: SOCIAL MEDIA TAKES A STAND

GRAPHICS: TWITTER AND FACEBOOK BLOCK TRUMP POSTS AMID CAPITOL CHAOS

MICHAEL STRAHAN (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) We are back now with a social media crackdown on President Trump in the wake of yesterday's Capitol siege. Both Twitter and Facebook temporarily blocking the President's accounts. Let's go to Rebecca Jarvis with the latest on that. Good morning, Rebecca.

REBECCA JARVIS (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) Good morning to you, Michael. These social media accounts have been the President's preferred mode of communication. They go one direction out, and now he has been shut out of his Twitter account, his Facebook account and his Instagram account with nearly 150 million followers. They have been temporarily shut down as well as a video being removed from both of those platforms as well as YouTube, a video the President posted yesterday afternoon praising rioters at the Capitol, repeating unfounded claims about the election, telling his supporters he loves them.

REBECCA JARVIS (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) That video has been removed from all of the platforms. And they have now called this an emergency. That is the language Facebook is using based on what occurred yesterday at the Capitol.

REBECCA JARVIS (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) They are removing",SOCIAL MEDIA TAKES A STAND,tweets_news_237,tweets_news
"Facebook plans to spend $2M to fund research to enrich its understanding of the ""challenges related to misinformation, polarization, information quality, and conflict on social media and social technology platforms,"" according to its RFP.

The goal is ""to minimize the effects of negative experiences people encounter on our platforms.""

The RFP lists areaS of exploration as:

Health Misinformation.... ""Proposals around how to categorize and detect such content, how it spreads, the motivations that drive creation/distribution.""

Quantifying harms of information... ""Factors including its perceived credibility, resistance to correction after exposure, and downstream consequences.""

Information processing of sensational, hateful, divisive or provocative content.... ""Understanding how people across different backgrounds, communities, and cultures interact with, are affected by, and decide to promote or share the spectrum of possibly problematic content.""

Dangerous speech, conflict and violence... ""Projects that focus on actors, content, and behaviors related to sharing inflammatory, offensive, or dangerous content are encouraged.""

Misinformation, multimedia and formats...""We are interested in cognition and susceptibility in the face of either simple or advanced manipulated multimedia.""

News, trust and information quality... ""Proposals that examine news consumers' and non-consumers' exposure to, interaction with, and understanding of qualities of information.""

Digital literacy, demographics and misinformation... ""Proposals that explore the relation between digital literacy and vulnerability to misinformation.""

The",FACEBOOK FLOATS $2M RESEARCH RFP,tweets_news_238,tweets_news
"The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) has called upon social media platforms to adopt no-tolerance policies against antisemitism and anti-Israel content, in accordance with the international working definition of antisemitism.

Questioning why Twitter allowed calls by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the destruction of the Jewish people to remain on its site while taking action against President Trump for violating its ""hateful content policy,"" the NCYI further challenged the social media sites over an apparent double standard when it comes to antisemitism.



""Advocating the obliteration of the Jewish people and the state of Israel is inflammatory and incites a degree of antisemitism and anti-Israel animosity that has no place on Twitter's platform,"" NCYI President Farley Weiss said.

Furthermore, the NCYI reiterated calls it has made previously to remove Holocaust survivors from its site. In 2018, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the company's policy of allowing Holocaust denial to remain on the site, saying in an interview: ""I'm Jewish, and there's a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened. I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don't believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different",NCYI calls on social media to adopt international antisemitism definition,tweets_news_239,tweets_news
"The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) said that the government will soon share its response to Twitter blogpost, it said on the indigenous micro-blogging platform Koo.

""Upon the request of Twitter seeking a meeting with the Govt., the Secretary IT was to engage with senior management of Twitter. In this light a blog post published prior to this engagement is unusual. Govt. will share its response soon."" MEITY statement on Koo, dated February 10, 2021

Koo is a social media platform that was developed in early 2020 to compete with Twitter. It won the government's Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge alongside other Indian apps like Zoho and Chingari, the local version of TikTok. In light of the latest spat between Twitter and the government, prominent government officials, politicians and government departments have joined Koo in the last few days.

These include: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Law & IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Members of Parliament such as Tejasvi Surya and Shobha Karandlaje. The Union IT Ministry, India Post and the Niti Aayog are some of the government entities with accounts on Koo.

Earlier: Twitter Inc. has suspended 500 accounts that were engaged in ""platform manipulation and spam"", it said in a blogpost","Twitter blocks some accounts flagged by MEITY, exploring legal options to keep others up",tweets_news_240,tweets_news
"Sometime in 2023, Donald Trump will presumably make the most momentous decision by a single person affecting the fate of the Republican Party in decades. Trump will decide whether or not to run for president again, and that will determine who's the frontrunner (obviously Trump, if he's a go), the shape of the field, and the contours...

Sometime in 2023, Donald Trump will presumably make the most momentous decision by a single person affecting the fate of the Republican Party in decades. Trump will decide whether or not to run for president again, and that will determine who's the frontru...

Sometime in 2023, Donald Trump will presumably make the most momentous decision by a single person affecting the fate of the Republican Party in decades. Trump will decide whether or not to run for president again, and that will determine who's the frontrunner (obviously Trump, if he's a go), the shape of the field, and the contours of the press coverage and of the internal GOP debate. If Trump runs, he will, one assumes, blot out the sun. Everything will be about him — his record, his pronouncements, his animosities. Much of the conservative mass media will happily get on board, while",How Trump Hurts GOP Populism,tweets_news_241,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — Top executives of Twitter, Facebook and Google testified on social media protections and censorship issues before a Senate committee Wednesday.

Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai, the CEOS of Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet-owned Google respectively, appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee for a hearing on a federal internet law.

All three executives agreed to testify remotely Wednesday after being threatened with subpoenas. The committee took an unplanned brief break when Zuckerberg had technical difficulties connecting virtually, bringing a moment of levity to the start of the hearing.

Reflected in their written testimonies, the company leaders defended Section 230, a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, as legislation that's critical to free expression on the internet.

Section 230 gives social media companies permission to moderate and regulate content on their platforms without being legally responsible for the information they host. It also gives the tech giants permission to remove lawful but objectionable posts.

Twitter's Dorsey warned the committee that eroding the foundation of Section 230 could significantly hurt how people communicate online. Pichai said the company operates without political bias.

""We approach our work without political bias, full stop,"" Pichai said. ""To do otherwise would be contrary to both our business","Twitter, Facebook, Google CEOs testify on social media protections amid censorship claims",tweets_news_242,tweets_news
"Donald Trump has appeared to drop his strongest hint yet at another presidential run in 2024, responding to news of his two-year ban from Facebook on Friday by saying he would not invite Mark Zuckerberg to dinner “next time I’m in the...

Donald Trump has appeared to drop his strongest hint yet at another presidential run in 2024, responding to news of his two-year ban from Facebook on Friday by saying he would not invite Mark Zuckerberg to dinner “next time I’m in the White House”. It has ...

Donald Trump has appeared to drop his strongest hint yet at another presidential run in 2024, responding to news of his two-year ban from Facebook on Friday by saying he would not invite Mark Zuckerberg to dinner “next time I’m in the White House”. It has also been widely reported this week that Trump believes he will be reinstated in the presidency by August. Related: Facebook to suspend Trump’s account for two years He will not. But in his statement on Friday he did not say if he thought he would return to the White House because he would be reinstated or because he would run for the Republican nomination again and then",Donald Trump responds to Facebook ban by hinting at return to White House,tweets_news_243,tweets_news
"

Feb 21, 2020( The Huffington Post: https://www.huffpost.com/ Delivered by Newstex) 'Star Wars' legend Mark Hamill[1] hilariously skewered the president's boast that he is America's top law enforcement officer with a mocking appeal for a pardon for the embarrassingly bad 'Star Wars Holiday Special[2],' which aired in a galaxy far, far away — aka American TV in 1978.Hamill took a swipe at Donald Trump by making fun of the program, which featured many of the 'Star Wars' cast, including Hamill as Luke Skywalker.Hamill — who often bashes the president — demanded in a tweet Wednesday, 'Hey, 'Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the Country' ... Pardon THIS.'Hey ""Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the Country""... Pardon THIS: pic.twitter.com/gBYSWqKObj[3] — Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) February 19, 2020[4] Trump raised the specter of a pardon for his longtime pal — and seven-time felon — Roger Stone[5] after he slammed a proposed sentence for Stone, later calling himself the 'chief law enforcement officer of the country[6].'Stone was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in prison for felonies[7] including lying under oath to Congress and witness tampering. Prosecutors initially recommended seven to nine years for Stone, until Attorney General William Barr dialed back the suggestionafter Trump complained[8].As for 'Star","Mark Hamill Mocks Law 'Chief' Trump, Demands Pardon For Bad 'Star Wars' TV Special",tweets_news_244,tweets_news
"Doctors in B.C. could face investigation or penalties from their regulatory body if they contradict public health orders or guidance about COVID-19, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. says.

Some doctors are spreading ""misinformation that promotes anti-vaccine, anti-mask wearing, anti-physical distancing and anti-lockdown stances,"" the college said in a joint statement with the First Nations Health Authority.

There's also a concern that certain doctors are promoting COVID-19 treatments ""not supported by widely accepted scientific evidence,"" it said.

The public tends to place great weight on doctors' opinions, while misinformation breaches public trust and violates a doctor's ethical obligations, said the statement dated May 6.

""Physicians must be guided by the laws that govern them, regulatory practice standards and guidelines, the Code of Ethics and Professionalism, and scientific evidence when giving their opinions about COVID-19.""

Dr. Heidi Oetter, registrar and CEO of the college, said public statements from doctors that contradict accepted COVID-19 public health orders and guidance are ""confusing and potentially harmful to patients.""

Doctors who veer from the guidelines could face an investigation or regulatory action, if the college considers it warranted, she said.

The harm caused by misleading and unsupported information is evident across B.C., particularly in Indigenous communities, the statement said.

Indigenous people",B.C. doctors could face penalty for veering from COVID-19 health guidelines: College,tweets_news_245,tweets_news
"On Monday evening, Facebook scrubbed a viral video showing a group of doctors making misleading and false claims about the coronavirus pandemic after more than 14 million people had watched it. Hours later, President Donald Trump tweeted out multiple clips of the same video to his 84.2 million followers.

Trump shared the video - which claims that face masks and lockdowns are not needed to stop the disease - in 14 tweets, over a half-hour span, defending the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that the president has repeatedly promoted, and attacking Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious-diseases expert.

Twitter soon followed Facebook and YouTube in removing the videos, deleting several of the tweets that Trump shared, and even adding a note to its trending topics warning about the potential risks of using hydroxychloroquine.

""Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,"" Liz Kelley, a spokeswoman for Twitter, told The Washington Post.

Trump's decision to share the misleading video comes amid mounting criticism, from opponents and allies alike, over his handling of a pandemic that has now killed at least 145,000 people in the U.S. The president spent months obstinately denying the severity of the crisis, refusing to wear","Facebook deletes video for false COVID-19 claims, then Trump shares it on Twitter",tweets_news_246,tweets_news
"Ivanka Trump joined the backlash against an anti-Trump boycott of Goya foods with a tweet showing her holding an iconic can of black beans from the Hispanic-owned food company.The Twitter post comes on the heels of a GoFundMe account set up to buy Goya products and distribute them to the poor as well as a Goya announcement Monday that it has begun distributing two million pounds of food to families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.The backlash is a response to the boycott spurred by Goya chief executive Robert Unanue when he stood by President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday and praised him, saying, ""We are truly blessed, at the same time, to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder."" Unanue, grandson of the founder of the New Jersey-based Goya, stood by his words Friday in a Fox&Friends appearance.Almost immediately, #BoycottGoya, #GoyaFoods and #Goyaway began trending on social media platforms. Former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Hamilton writer Lin-Manuel Miranda joined the boycott calls.

The United Farm Workers posted a video on Twitter contrasting Trump's words deriding some Latinos as criminals and rapists against images of them working hard in the fields.Some",Ivanka Trump pitches Goya products to counter anti-Trump boycott,tweets_news_247,tweets_news
"The filmmaker Ava DuVernay and the former children's laureate Malorie Blackman were among thousands of Twitter users accusing the platform of failing to protect women and minority users from abuse, The Guardian reported.

Many people have tweeted messages to wish the president well, including his election opponent, Joe Biden, while others have expressed the opposite sentiment.

On Friday, Twitter confirmed that users who wish death upon the president were violating its terms of use.

Its abusive behaviour policy prohibits users from ""wishing or hoping serious harm on a person or group of people"".

""Tweets that wish or hope for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against *anyone* are not allowed and will need to be removed,"" the company said in a tweet. It added that the breach would not ""automatically mean suspension"".

The statement, which has been shared more than 18,000 times, has drawn criticism from many figures who stated they themselves had been targeted with similar abuse but received no support from the platform.

Blackman, the author of the acclaimed Noughts & Crosses series, tweeted, ""Weeks of death threats and serious threats against my family when I was children's laureate [from 2013 to 2015] resulted in Twitter doing bugger all about it.""

Earlier, a Twitter",Twitter Accused of Double Standards over Ban on Tweets Wishing Death on Trump,tweets_news_248,tweets_news
"https://www.investors.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/stock-trump-angry-shutter.jpg

Facebook on Friday said it will continue to suspend Donald Trump's account for a two-year period. After that, the social media giant will reevaluate whether to lift the Facebook ban.

The effective starting date of the Facebook ban is Jan. 7 this year, which followed the U.S. Capitol siege on Jan. 6. The suspension also applies to Instagram.

Facebook stock edged up 1.3%, closing at 330.35 on the stock market today.

The decision by Facebook was announced in a blog post by Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs. It comes in response to the independent and recently created Facebook Oversight Board, which supported the ban. However, the board also criticized the Facebook ban of Trump for using an arbitrary punishment.

It questioned the ""indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension"" and said the company must find a ""proportionate response.""

""We are today announcing new enforcement protocols to be applied in exceptional cases such as this, and we are confirming the time-bound penalty consistent with those protocols which we are applying to Mr. Trump's accounts,"" Clegg said in written remarks. ""Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump's suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit",Facebook's Suspension Of Trump Remains But Could Be Lifted In 2023,tweets_news_249,tweets_news
"

Jun 30, 2020( Benzinga: http://www.benzinga.com/news Delivered by Newstex) Amazon Inc's (NASDAQ: AMZN[1]) Twitch, a live-streaming service, and Reddit, an online discussion platform, have banned[2] channels and forums related to President Donald Trump, citing hate speech.What HappenedTwitch's temporary ban[3] was stirred by a stream that included footage from the rally, where Trump said that Mexico was sending rapists to the United States, as well as other content. A Twitch spokesperson told the Verge, 'Like anyone else, politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content, and will take action on content reported to us that violates our rules.'

On Monday, Reddit shut down the r/The_Donald, a forum frequented by the supporters of the president. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that users promoting hate would not be allowed on the platform. He said Reddit was banning 2,000 subreddits, of which the majority are inactive. A Trump campaign spokesperson urged supporters to download the campaign app and 'to hear directly from the president.'Why It MattersThe r/The_Donald forum has 7,780 daily active users, reported Reuters. On Sunday, the president shared[4] a video of his supporters chanting 'white power' on Twitter Inc's","Amazon's Twitch, Reddit Ban Trump Related Content And Forums",tweets_news_250,tweets_news
"Councillors have turned down a proposed pay rise – and suggested the Government change the rules on how such things are decided.

Elected members of Durham County Council are entitled to a ‘basic allowance’ worth £13,300 every year.

But proposals by an independent panel to increase it by less than one per cent to account for inflation have been rejected, meaning the payout will remain at the same level it has been at for more than a decade.

The decision had cross party backing, with Conservative opposition leader Richard Bell telling councillors: “Given that there hasn’t been an increase since 2009, a modest increase of 0.7% is not undeserved.

“But clearly now is not the time, given the effects of COVID on the finances of many of our residents and businesses.”

Cllr Bell was speaking at a meeting of Durham County Council on January 20, which was held by videolink and broadcast via YouTube.

The council’s Independent Remuneration Panel suggested an increase in the allowance linked to inflation over the previous year, which would have seen payments rise by 0.7%, from £13,300 to £13,393.

However, there was no ‘attempt to address backdated inflation’ from the last time last time allowances were set, which could have seen the",Durham councillors reject suggested pay rise - and call for the decision to be taken out of their hands,tweets_news_251,tweets_news
"The introduction of Social Media Bill in the Senate last year was greeted with torrents of condemnations, with many commentators saying the aim was to muzzle the social media, which has emboldened the citizenry to hold government and its agencies to account. But despite the calls for its withdrawal, the bill scaled second reading in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, chaired by Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central) for further legislative work. Daily Trust on Sunday looks at arguments for and against the proposed legislation.

The Senate, last Monday, opened discussions on the 'Protection from Internet Falsehoods, Manipulations and other Related Matter Bill, 2019' which has continued to generate controversy since its introduction.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Mohammed Sani Musa (Niger East), proposes to criminalise the use of social media in peddling false or malicious information and prescribes fines ranging from N150,000 up to N10 million and a three-year jail term or both for breaching its provisions when signed into law.

The proposed act would also allow the Police to cut off internet access or block specific social media platform, where false information is being transmitted.

AND

AND

'The Police may issue an access blocking order directing",Social Media Bill: Will Senate bow to pressure?,tweets_news_252,tweets_news
"Despite internal research finding that Facebook's platform encouraged polarization, Mark Zuckerberg and other execs nixed proposals to fix things.

REUTERS/Erin Scott

Facebook's internal research found that it encouraged polarization, but Mark Zuckerberg and other top executives rejected ideas aimed at fixing the problem, The Wall Street Journal reported.

One report concluded that Facebook's algorithms ""exploit the human brain's attraction to divisiveness,"" according to The Journal.

But Zuckerberg and Facebook's policy chief, Joel Kaplan, repeatedly nixed proposed solutions because they feared appearing biased against conservatives or simply lost interest in solving the problem, The Journal reported.

Facebook responded to the story in a blog post Wednesday, saying that it has taken steps like recalibrating its news feed and prohibiting harmful content to fight polarization on its platform.

Facebook has come under increasing pressure to address harmful content and misinformation on its platform during the coronavirus pandemic and before the 2020 presidential election.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook had evidence that its algorithms encourage polarization and ""exploit the human brain's attraction to divisiveness,"" but top executives including CEO Mark Zuckerberg killed or weakened proposed solutions, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The effort to better understand Facebook's effect on users' behavior was a response to the Cambridge","Facebook reportedly had evidence that its algorithms were dividing people, but top executives killed or weakened proposed solutions (FB)",tweets_news_253,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

Paul Hawkins reports. The famous Pentagon, home to the US Department of defence. Its budget for the year, once passed by both houses of Congress, is usually signed off by the president. At least that's what has happened for the past 59 years.

But this year he vetoed it. So instead we had the rare sight of a New Year's Day session in Congress, specifically the Senate, controlled by President Trump's Republican Party, voting to overturn his veto. The bill on reconsideration is past. The objection to the president of the United States to the contrary. This was the first time Congress had overturned a veto by President Trump. It's a big deal. This is the first and probably last veto override that President Trump will face. Republicans have mostly avoided crossing trouble for most of his term but this was a rare bipartisan rebuke with Republicans joining Democrats. The president had refused to sign off",Joins BBC News - 05:01 AM GMT,tweets_news_254,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

a lot more sophisticated. And we are already all-too-familiar with how false information can cause real harm, and has damaged people's trust in news. And even though most of the conversations have been centred around Facebook, YouTube has also been a big contributor to the spread of misinformation. Now the upcoming US election is going to place even more emphasis on this issue.

And so the BBC's specialist disinformation reporter Marianna Spring has been finding out more. YouTube has an incredibly smart algorithm. At least smart enough to make the company a lot of money. More eyeballs on a video and more engagement equals more cash. It's simple. But what is not simple is how potent this combination has become. Videos from fringe groups with extreme ideas surfacing to the top and influencing users' views. The pandemic has pushed the issue to new levels, with false information about the coronavirus often finding a much larger audience",Joins BBC News - 03:36 AM GMT,tweets_news_255,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

With Trump banned from Twitter, his supporters have turned to darker corners of the web.

FULL TEXT

Eyes across the world may be on the newly inaugurated US President Joe Biden, but there are still 75 million Americans that voted for Donald Trump -- and some of them will be looking for a digital soapbox to continue disputing the election. The obvious focus for some Trump supporters over the past three weeks has been the ban of their standard bearer from Twitter following the Capitol insurrection. Twitter suspended Trump's account and either punted or amended other accounts the former president was attempting to use to rally his followers. This marked an exodus from Twitter to other social media platforms where Trump loyalists have been able to rant without having posts deleted or be subject to warnings. Conservative social media platform Parler was an obvious congregation point given its lower level of moderation and an existing following among prominent conservative commentators, but Apple and Google play removed the application from their stores and Amazon kicked it off its servers. Parler has since found a new home, and chief executive officer John Matze expects to be back up by the end of the month.","Ardent Trumpists find new places to 'shitpost', plot and moan",tweets_news_256,tweets_news
"

Jun 02, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) ; Some fellow tech workers are encouraging Facebook employees that are unhappy with the company's handling of President Trump's controversial post to step down from the company.The comments come as Facebook employees have been voicing their concerns with Facebook's policies by speaking out and holding a virtual walkout.One Facebook engineer has already resigned over the company's recent decision.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1]. As some Facebook employees are voicing their opposition to the company's handling of a post published by Donald Trump, some in the tech community are urging Facebook employees to step down from the company in protest.Facebook employees held a virtual walkout[2] on Monday in protest of the company's decision not to take action[3] against President Trump's post about the protests being held over the death of George Floyd. The post in question included the phrase ""when the looting starts, the shooting starts."" Twitter placed a warning[4] for the same post on its platform for glorifying violence.The walkout came after several current Facebook employees took to Twitter to voice their disapproval[5] of Facebook's lack of action.Now, some fellow tech workers are encouraging employees to step down from",Tech workers are urging Facebook employees to quit their jobs in protest of the company's controversial decision to keep up Trump's post about the George Floyd protest,tweets_news_257,tweets_news
"'I think this is a most interesting development,' Chairman Wicker says

In a humorous twist of irony, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had trouble connecting remotely to his hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Wednesday, forcing an irked Chairman Roger Wicker to recess the hearing for two minutes.

Mr Zuckerberg was slated to deliver his opening statement last among Wednesday's witnesses, a panel that also included Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

The trio of Big Tech CEOs is facing a grilling on Wednesday by Republican senators who have made unfounded accusations that they show anti-conservative bias. All three companies have flagged tweets, Facebook posts, and news stories containing false, misleading, and inflammatory statements by Donald Trump in recent months.

But Mr Zuckerberg briefly threw the hearing off its tight schedule on Wednesday with connectivity issues.

""At this point, we are unable to make contact with Mr Mark Zuckerberg. We are told by Facebook staff that he is alone and attempting to connect with this hearing and that they are requesting a five-minute recess at this point to see if that connection can be made. I think this is a most interesting development,"" Mr Wicker said, suppressing his annoyance",Mark Zuckerberg delays Big Tech hearing over 'connection issues',tweets_news_258,tweets_news
"The White House's nominee for a top position at the Pentagon has a history of making Islamophobic and inflammatory remarks against prominent Democratic politicians, including falsely calling former President Barack Obama a Muslim.

Retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, a frequent guest on Fox News and ardent defender of President Donald Trump, was nominated to become the under secretary of defense for policy.

If confirmed by the Senate, Tata would become the third highest official in the Pentagon overseeing the Defense Department's policy shop, including its national security and defense strategy, nuclear deterrence and missile defense policy, and security cooperation plans and policies. The policy chief also closely advises the secretary of defense on national security and supports the Department of Defense's program and budget decisions.

In several tweets from 2018, Tata said that Islam was the ""most oppressive violent religion I know of"" and claimed Obama was a ""terrorist leader"" who did more to harm the US ""and help Islamic countries than any president in history."" Following the publication of this story, Tata deleted several of his tweets, screenshots of which were captured by CNN's KFile.

Tata, in one radio appearance, speculated the Iran deal was born out of Obama's ""Islamic roots"" in",Top Pentagon policy nominee has a history of Islamophobic and offensive comments,tweets_news_259,tweets_news
"

Sep 19, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) ; The US Commerce Department issued an order prohibiting downloads or updates to the Chinese messaging app WeChat starting on Sunday. WeChat will also be rendered unusable to US users, as internet hosting services are disallowed from ""enabling the functioning or optimization of the mobile application in the US."" For many Americans, particularly Chinese Americans, WeChat is their main way of keeping in touch with family and friends in China since apps like Facebook, Gmail, and WhatsApp are banned. The ban means they must scramble to find alternatives.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1].For Robbie Li, who graduated from Berkeley a year ago and is now working at a tech startup, the Chinese messaging app WeChat is his only way of video chatting with his family in China, including his grandmother who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer about two months ago.But on Friday, the US Commerce Department issued an order[2] stipulating that beginning on Sunday, WeChat will not only become unavailable to download and unable to process payments, it will also be rendered unusable for US users. The order prohibits internet hosting services from ""enabling the functioning or optimization","Trump's ban on WeChat leaves many people, especially Chinese Americans, scrambling to find ways to stay in contact with loved ones in China",tweets_news_260,tweets_news
"

Sep 23, 2020( Axios: https://link.axios.com/join/am-signup?source=aci Delivered by Newstex) Four people affected by the violence during the Kenosha, Wisc., protests in August are suing Facebook, charging that the social media company enabled violence to take hold there. Driving the news: As BuzzFeed News reports[1], the allegations against Facebook focus on its failure to remove an event titled 'Armed Citizens to Protect our Lives and Property,' created by the self-described militia group the Kenosha Guard.

The page was filled with violent comments including posts celebrating the deaths at the protests. The plaintiffs in this case are Hannah Gittings, whose partner was killed in the Kenosha protests; Christopher McNeal, a Black resident of Kenosha; Nathan Peet, a Kenosha resident who assisted one of Rittenhouse's alleged victims; and Carmen Palmer, a Milwaukee resident who went to march against racial injustice with her children and church group.Kenosha Guard had ties to Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old who is now charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count each of attempted homicide, recklessly endangering the safety of two people, and possessing a weapon while under the age of 18.The complaint says the four plaintiffs were 'terrorized, assaulted, harassed, and placed in so much fear when facing the",People hurt in the Kenosha protests are suing Facebook,tweets_news_261,tweets_news
"Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake accused AZFamily political editor Dennis Welch of running a hit piece against her after Welch pressed the GOP candidate about her contributions to Democrats. Lake did not like Welch’s line of questioning in her first major local interview since launching her first campaign for office. Welch asked about Lake’s contribution to John Kerry’s campaign for president in 2004. “If there’s a story with a conservative in it, it always has a negative slant and people are on to it, Dennis,” she said.

“You know you guys do that. ” Lake calls herself the most conservative candidate in the race, which makes her contribution to Kerry stand out. Lake’s husband, Jeff Halperin, also gave money to both of Barack Obama’s presidential runs. Welch’s data from Center for Responsive Politics shows a “K Halperin” also contributed to Obama, but Lake denied it was her and said it must have been her husband. FEC records show Lake only gave money to Kerry ($500), while her husband gave Obama roughly $4,500 across his two campaigns for president. He spent $100 on the DSCC in 2012 and then did not contribute anything until 2020, when he gave $500 to WinRed, a",ANOTHER POLITICIAN TELLS REPORTER HOW TO DO HIS JOB,tweets_news_262,tweets_news
"A new outside report found that Facebook has allowed groups - many tied to QAnon, boogaloo and militia movements - to glorify violence during the 2020 election and in the weeks leading up to the deadly riots on the US Capitol in January.

Avaaz, a nonprofit advocacy group that says it seeks to protect democracies from misinformation, identified 267 pages and groups on Facebook that it says spread violence-glorifying material in the heat of the 2020 election to a combined following of 32 million users, The Associated Press reported.

More than two-thirds of the groups and pages had names that aligned with several domestic extremist movements, the report found. The first, boogaloo, promotes a second US civil war and the breakdown of modern society. The second is the QAnon conspiracy, which claims that Donald Trump is waging a secret battle against the deep state and a sect of powerful Satan-worshipping pedophiles who dominate Hollywood, big business, the media and government. The rest are various anti-government militias. All have been largely banned from Facebook since 2020.

But despite what Avaaz called clear violations"" of Facebook's policies, it found that 119 of these pages and groups were still active on the platform as of March",United States: Report: Extremist Groups Thrive on Facebook Despite Bans,tweets_news_263,tweets_news
"After President Trump's fevered conspiracy tweets about Joe Scarborough's former intern Lori Klausutis, her widower, T.J. Klausutis, begged the company to delete them. It was a heartbreaking plea (one that Trump himself should listen to), but CEO Jack Dorsey made the right call. The tweets were a living record of the nation's president, and the company wasn't going to take them down.

But then, later on Tuesday, Twitter decided on what is considered a compromise. It would flag Trump's tweets for ""misinformation,"" beginning with his rants against mail-in voting.

Dorsey should have stuck to his hands-off approach.

This isn't a free-speech issue, as Trump claimed last night. Twitter is a private company and can decide what's published on its platform. But Dorsey understands that Twitter is documenting history here. If he bans Trump, he's making a political statement — not providing the neutral forum for ideas that the company invented.

But now Dorsey walked into the trap he was trying to avoid. What will be labeled misinformation? Will liberals, too, get warning labels? Who decides? Will every user be read and reviewed, or just Trump?

Already, one sees that the ""fact-checking"" services of social-media giants such as Facebook are more about stifling the conversation than",Fact-checking Trump’s tweets,tweets_news_264,tweets_news
"On Monday evening, trustees at Ottawa's main public school board had before them a 151-page report about a 37-word tweet.

151 pages? I mean, a murder verdict isn't that long. On that bit of evidence alone, one has to wonder if they've lost their minds at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. The taxpaying public, surely, should be losing theirs.

The tweet in question was by trustee Lyra Evans, sent out Aug. 26. Unlike the report, it only takes a second to read:

""Tonights board meeting: OCDSB Trustees voted 8-3 in favour of putting extra police in high needs, low income, disproportionately racialized schools. Instead of community supports. Shoutout to @justinegbell( https://twitter.com/justinegbell ) and @SchoolZone6( https://twitter.com/SchoolZone6 ) for joining me in opposing systemic racism.""

Related

School board dismisses code of conduct complaints against two trustees( https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/school-board-dismisses-code-of-conduct-complaints-against-two-trustees )

Ottawa school board to revisit 'defunding' police at two high schools( https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-school-board-to-revisit-defunding-police-at-two-high-schools )

The tweet has an edge to it, for sure. Evans is a self-described progressive and ""socialist"" and was duly elected to the board to, presumably, push for change in that direction. Fine. Is politics not about taking positions and stepping on toes? How else does anything change?

There is nothing very offensive in the message. There is some slant","Egan: The 37-word tweet, the trustee tussle, the test of characters",tweets_news_265,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that could open the door for the U.S. government to assume oversight of political speech on the internet, a broadside against Silicon Valley that a wide array of critics derided as a threat to free speech. The new directive seeks to change a federal law that has spared tech companies from being sued or held liable for most posts, photos and videos shared by users on their sites. Tech giants herald these protections, known as Section 230, as the bedrock of the internet. But Trump repeatedly has argued they allow Facebook, Google and Twitter to censor conservatives with impunity — charges these companies deny.

""We're here today to defend free speech from one of the greatest dangers,"" Trump said before signing the document. The order signed Thursday encourages the Federal Communications Commission to rethink the scope of Section 230 and when its liability protections apply. The order also seeks to channel complaints about political bias to the Federal Trade Commission, an agency that the White House has asked to probe whether tech companies' content-moderation policies are in keeping with their pledges of neutrality. The order additionally created a council in",Trump signs social media order,tweets_news_266,tweets_news
"As Facebook moves to ban new election ads in the final week of the U.S. election in November, the company will be monitoring the effects of these policies closely as it prepares for a potential election in Canada.

The new measures are part of an effort to stop the spread of misinformation on the platform and currently apply only to the U.S. but the company will assess their impact for use in a future Canadian election, said a Facebook source, who wasn't authorized to talk publicly about the company's plans.

That could happen sooner rather than later. Minority governments, like the one headed up by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have an average shelflife of about two years in Canada and can be brought down by the opposition parties at a moment's notice.

Some critics have questioned whether the rules are necessary or if they are a sign that Facebook has too much power over the political discourse.

""Facebook has been a problem and banning political ads from registered parties in the final week is a ridiculous step because at least with political parties, we can see who's paying for what,"" said NDP MP Charlie Angus, who was vice-chair of the House of Commons privacy",Facebook to assess U.S. political ad ban for use in next Canadian election,tweets_news_267,tweets_news
"Stories being covered today by BBC Monitoring from Ukrainian broadcast, press and social media sources. Please contact Monitoring's News Desk (+44-20-361-43943) for queries or more information.

Ukrainian plane crash in Iran

""There is no chance"" that any of the 180 crew and passengers have survived the crash of a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 in Iran, the news-based Pryamyy TV reported this morning, quoting Iran's Red Crescent.

Everyone on board the airliner died, Interfax-Ukraine reported later, quoting the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took to Facebook at 0543 gmt to express his condolences to the near and dear of the passengers and the crew over the ""terrible news from the Middle East"".

Iranian rocket attack on US bases

""Iran's revenge"" was the caption of Pryamyy TV's report on an Iranian attack on US airbases in Iraq. The report quoted US President Donald Trump tweeting that ""all is well"" while the damage is being assessed.

The rolling news channel Ukrayina 112 highlighted Trump's announced plans to address the nation over the attack, also mentioning public fears of a new global war.

""Iran has delivered a strike on US military bases in Iraq. And also [a blow] to Trump's impeachment,"" Ukrainian army support volunteer and popular blogger Yuriy",BBCM Ukraine Watchlist for 8 January,tweets_news_268,tweets_news
"AUSTIN (KXAN) -- As social media giants Facebook and Twitter elected to become more proactive in flagging misinformation ahead of the 2020 election, several users say they're abandoning them in favor of ""unbiased social media.""

Facebook and Twitter's tightening of rules on posting unsubstantiated claims and/or misleading articles, has been lauded by many and derided by others, namely conservatives, who claim the platforms are only flagging their content.

That includes conservatives like Pres. Donald Trump, whose Twitter account displays more flags than an Olympics ceremony.

In fact, Trump's first tweet on Sunday morning blasting an alleged ""Rigged Election Hoax!"" was labeled: ""This claim about election fraud is disputed.""

Now, many other users with often-labeled posts are flocking to Parler.

The app has shot into the forefront of right-wing culture -- with the platform touting itself as a place where users can ""Read News. Speak Free.""

What is Parler? Here's why it's the top app after the election

The app was launched in 2018 and is owned by right-wing commentator Dan Bongino, a frequent guest on Alex Jones' Infowars show, who says his ""entire life"" is about ""owning the libs.""

Bongino aims to make Parler a Twitter alternative, while his other platform, Rumble, positions itself as a far-right YouTube.

Parler","Parler right-wing social media platform attracts users after FB, Twitter tighten misinformation rules",tweets_news_269,tweets_news
"Liberal commentator Keith Olbermann announced Tuesday he is leaving ESPN for a third time so that he can focus his efforts on political commentary ahead of the November election.

Mr. Olbermann, a former MSNBC host and GQ correspondent who once penned ""176 Reasons"" why Mr. Trump shouldn't be president, said he will no longer be restricted by ESPN's rules restricting political commentary during his new daily show on YouTube.

""I have adhered, I hope, to their desire for their sportscasters to refrain from purely political commentary, which is an approach with which I largely agree with anyway,"" he said in the video, naming ESPN President James Pitaro and top executive Norby Williamson.

""They have now agreed with my desire to go and serve my country the best way I know how, which is by focusing my energy on political commentary,"" he continued. ""I'll be doing a new, live daily commentary series with YouTube, focused on the presidential election called, 'The Worst Person in the World.'""

""You didn't really think I was going to sit out this election, did you?"" he added in the video before bursting into a fit of laughter.

The show will air live on Mr. Olbermann's YouTube channel every weeknight at 5",Keith Olbermann quits ESPN in order to 'serve my country' with anti-Trump commentary,tweets_news_270,tweets_news
"The billionaire co-founder of PayPal donated $10 million to a newly formed political action committee backing a potential U.S. Senate bid by J.D. Vance in 2022.

Peter Thiel, a billionaire who was also one of the earliest investors in Facebook, donated $10 million to the Protect Ohio Values PAC, according to Bryan Lanza, the communications director for the PAC.

Protect Ohio Values was created to support Vance's bid for the U.S. Senate, the group's website states. The formal paperwork was filed late last month.

""We're a network of grassroots conservatives committed to electing a Senator who will stand for and defend Ohio's values in Washington, DC. We believe J. D. Vance is the right man for the job and we are signing up supporters and raising funds to demonstrate a groundswell of support in the Buckeye State,"" the website states.

Thiel has donated to dozens of American figures on the political right, including former President Donald Trump. Thiel was one of the California delegates for Trump's nomination. He announced a $1.25 million donation to Trump in October 2016 and was subsequently named to the executive committee on Trump's transition team.

Like Trump, Vance is an outsider to politics. Vance amassed a fortune as a venture",PayPal Co-founder Gives $10 Million to Super PAC Backing Potential Senate Bid by JD Vance,tweets_news_271,tweets_news
"Global leaders will be asked to back Australia in a fight with Facebook after the social media giant silenced news, health and emergency services in a bid to halt a federal law.

Global leaders will be asked to back Australia in a fight with Facebook over its market power after the social media giant silenced news, health and emergency services in a bid to halt a federal law.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison raised the shock tactic with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Thursday night in the first step of a plan to mobilise global support to stop Facebook ""bullying"" elected governments.

The government thinks Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg will resume talks on the law despite his sudden move to shut down content for millions of his own customers, but it is also preparing for a drawn-out battle if needed.

""They may be changing the world, but that doesn't mean they should run it,"" Mr Morrison said of big tech companies on Thursday, posting his comments on Facebook.

""We will not be intimidated by this act of bullying by BigTech, seeking to pressure parliament as it votes on our important News Media Bargaining Code.

""I am in regular contact with the leaders of other nations on these",‘We will not be intimidated': PM takes Facebook fight to India and the world,tweets_news_272,tweets_news
"People buy products and are incentivised to leave positive reviews with offers of refunds

Facebook receives plenty of criticism for not cracking down on rogue content on the platform, yet it's taking steps to rectify this. Between April and June, the platform removed over seven million pieces of harmful and fake Covid-19 content and it's finally tackling posts containing depictions of blackface and anti-Semitic stereotypes.

One thing it's failing to do enough on at the moment is fake review trading, according to a new investigation by Which?. The consumer rights organisation found that the platform is hosting the ""blatant trading of fake reviews"", with dozens of groups filled with hundreds of thousands of members are using the site to boost products on Amazon.

By searching 'Amazon review' on the social network, Which? found that 16 of the top 25 groups were trading in reviews, with more than 200,000 members between them. In one group with 27,000 members, there were as many as 6,406 posts in a day.

People join these groups and then are directed to products which they buy, leave a positive review for it, and then are refunded the money. The types of products range from children's toys, headphones, speakers, vacuum cleaners",There's a big issue with fake review trading on Facebook according to Which? investigation,tweets_news_273,tweets_news
"Lead

The scenes were familiar, even as the location was a shock. Images of a mob of Donald Trump supporters, some of them armed, storming the U.S. Capitol building recalled the type of political unrest that occasionally plagues parts of Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Usually, it's the U.S. government that leads the calls for calm in such situations, often demanding that all sides respect the result of an election. But on Wednesday, the chaos filling TV screens was emanating from Washington - a fact that generated statements of alarm from U.S.

Texte/Text

allies, and something bordering on glee from some of the countries used to being on the receiving end of American lectures about democracy.

Veteran diplomats and journalists took to social media to debate which previous crisis was best evoked by the violence at the Capitol building. Did it look most like Baghdad, Belgrade or Bishkek? To some, the anarchic scenes of rioters briefly capturing the heart of U.S. government best mirrored the seizing of government buildings in Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, by Russianbacked fighters five years ago.

The clearest snapshot of a world turned upside down was provided by Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency, which reported, while guns were drawn and","World greets turmoil in the U.S. with mix of shock, amusement",tweets_news_274,tweets_news
"The controversial subreddit is struggling under an influx of new users.

Discord has banned the server used by the controversial subreddit r/WallStreetBets for what it says are repeated violations of the company's hate speech policies. The ban comes as the subreddit's moderators briefly took the group private, saying they were struggling to keep up with an influx of new users.

A spokesperson for Discord said the ban was not a result of 'financial fraud related to GameStop or other stocks,' but added that the company is 'monitoring this situation' and will 'cooperate with authorities as appropriate.'

'The WallStreetBets server has been on our Trust and Safety team's radar for some time due to occasional content that violates our Community Guidelines, including hate speech, glorifying violence, and spreading misinformation,' a spokesperson said in a statement. 'Over the past few months, we have issued multiple warnings to the server admin.

'Today, we decided to remove the server and its owner from Discord for continuing to allow hateful and discriminatory content after repeated warnings. To be clear, we did not ban this server due to financial fraud related to GameStop or other stocks. Discord welcomes a broad variety of personal finance discussions, from investment clubs and day",Discord Bans Reddit's Wallstreetbets For Hate Speech As Scrutiny Intensifies,tweets_news_275,tweets_news
"As the coronavirus spread through Brazil this year, ominous stories began filtering out through social media, often via federal lawmakers wi... As the coronavirus spread through Brazil this year, ominous stories began filtering out through social media, often via federal lawmakers with hundreds of thousands of followers. In the northeastern state of Ceará, one viral message claimed...

As the coronavirus spread through Brazil this year, ominous stories began filtering out through social media, often via federal lawmakers wi... As the coronavirus spread through Brazil this year, ominous stories began filtering out through social media, often via federal lawmakers with hundreds of thousands of followers. In the northeastern state of Ceará, one viral message claimed...

As the coronavirus spread through Brazil this year, ominous stories began filtering out through social media, often via federal lawmakers wi...

As the coronavirus spread through Brazil this year, ominous stories began filtering out through social media, often via federal lawmakers with hundreds of thousands of followers.

In the northeastern state of Ceará, one viral message claimed that local authorities were burying empty coffins in order to exaggerate the scale of the pandemic, claim relief funds and keep people under control.

The information was bogus, but its mass dissemination — in",Spread of fake news adds to Brazil’s pandemic crisis,tweets_news_276,tweets_news
"I remember when I was younger and President Bush was president.

There were Americans who felt uncomfortable with the fact that we were in Iraq and Afghanistan bringing the fight to terrorist groups in the area.

My own biological father was one of the anti-war hippies who used this opportunity to relive the Vietnam-era protests that he himself was too young to participate in when he was a kid.

Since I lived with my conservative mom, I was raised on a steady stream of Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

That's right, I'm a Rush Baby by birth.

And I remember the common sentiment from these circles was ""If you don't like it, leave.""

Anti-war protesters were treated and seen as a foil to the troop-supporting patriots that backed the president's wars and the protesters themselves had to defend their actions over and over again saying that their attempts to keep soldiers from dying in war actually was patriotic.

Then President Barack Obama got elected.

Almost overnight, I saw a switch in positions.

The tea party sprung up, seemingly out of nowhere, and demanded that we cut federal spending because we've gone too far for too long.

And the reply I saw from people I knew on","Jelalian: If you don't like this column, stop reading it",tweets_news_277,tweets_news
"The annual Ranking Digital Rights report showed the three Chinese internet giants in the middle of a pack of 26 Big Tech firmsThe report said 'China's system of authoritarian internet control has inescapable consequences' for domestic companies in the ranking

Chinese internet giants Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings - the triumvirate known as BAT - rank among the lowest in terms of ensuring user privacy and freedom of expression on their platforms, according to a new survey comparing such policies by leading Big Tech companies.

The annual Ranking Digital Rights index, a research project under Washington-based think tank New America, published its latest report on Wednesday. It evaluated the practices of 26 major online platforms and telecommunications companies, including Apple, Facebook and AT&T.

E-commerce provider Alibaba, parent company of the South China Morning Post, was included in the report for the first time and tied with online search service Baidu in tenth place. Tencent, operator of WeChat and the world's largest video games business by revenue, was ranked 13th.

Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.

Despite the low ranking, it was not all BAT's fault. ""China's system of authoritarian internet control","Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent rank low in protecting digital rights, but it's not all their fault, study finds",tweets_news_278,tweets_news
"Politicians in the UK and across the rest of the world have been warned to ``take heed'' of the impact of their words after a crowd of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, leaving four dead.

Right-wing supporters of the president invaded the historic centre of US democracy on Wednesday, driven by his false claims that November's election had been illegally stolen from Mr Trump by opponents.

The events were no surprise to experts who have studied the spread of false information online, such as Dr Paul Reilly, senior lecturer in social media and digital society at the University of Sheffield.

``There's been several months of disinformation spread on social media, alleging that the election has been stolen from Donald Trump, amplified by Donald Trump,'' he told the PA news agency.

``And unfortunately, the scenes we saw last night were perhaps an inevitable consequence of this.''

Mr Trump received further criticism after releasing a video during the riots repeating his false election claims and telling the demonstrators ``we love you''.

It was later censored by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for its potential to incite violence.

``I think Donald Trump's role in amplifying this content is in large part responsible for what we saw last night,'' Dr",UK POLITICIANS WARNED AFTER TRUMP 'INCITES' RIOTS AT CAPITOL BUILDING,tweets_news_279,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

and they all need to work together. Donald Trump believes there is only one side of the triangle that appears to be important, and that is Brexit Britain. There are members of the Conservative Party to look at the world through a very narrow prism of Brexit and think Donald Trump has been the best thing since sliced bread. That is a bizarre way of looking at the world.

If one opens the aperture even slightly and considers literary interests of the UK, I think one would have to conclude, for reasons we have to get into, Biden administration is much better news, on climate, multilateralism, China, sanctions, et cetera. But the EU will be a major focus, because this president has done so much to undermine our relationship with an essential partner. I was at the centre of it for four years, almost four years. And I saw that even without the UK, the EU",Joins BBC News - 04:41 AM GMT,tweets_news_280,tweets_news
"NEW DELHI, June 17 -- The Special Cell of Delhi Police has registered an First Information Report (FIR) against a unnamed man for allegedly hurting the sentiments of various religions and trying to stir communal disharmony among the people through his post on social media giant Instagram.

Police said that the FIR was registered on Tuesday after a complaint over an email was received by the cyber crime unit (CyPAD) from Manjeet Singh Chugh, a resident of Delhi's South Extension area.

According to the FIR, an Instagram account, '@valorious.hindu.21'posted objectionable content related to three Gods of different religions which the complainant came to know through a message which he received on his WhatsApp on June 7.

""There are four Instagram accounts including '@valorious.hindu.21' which contain vulgar, abusive and objectionable content against various religions,"" stated the FIR.

""Police have registered an FIR under section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth,residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and further investigation is going on,"" said a senior police official.

Last week, a Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician, Manish Singh, had filed a complaint with Delhi Police against Instagram",FIR against Instagram account for 'promoting religious enmity',tweets_news_281,tweets_news
"ANKARA

US Capitol Police will continue to maintain enhanced security as intelligence suggests that extremists can mount an attack during President Joe Biden's first address to Congress, a top official said.

""We know that members of the militia groups that were present on Jan. 6 have stated their desire that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union, for which we know the date has not yet been identified,"" Yogananda Pittman, acting chief of the US Capitol Police, told Congress members on Thursday.

""So based on that information, we think that it's prudent that Capitol Police maintain its enhanced and robust security posture until we address those vulnerabilities going forward.""

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also warned Thursday that a number of people involved in the Capitol riots are ""still at large"" and asked citizens for help.

""If you recognize this individual, submit a tip,"" the agency said on Twitter, posting a close facial photo of a woman wearing a beanie inscribed with a message in support of former US President Donald Trump.

Five people were killed when Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to thwart a",Militia groups want to blow up US Capitol: Police chief,tweets_news_282,tweets_news
"The Center Square

""The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.""

– John Gilmore The Roaring Twenties was a period of gaiety, novelty and modernity made possible by many new inventions. It was a decade of growth and prosperity that brought us new technologies like moving pictures, new communication devices and the radio. These inventions changed our lives forever. After World War I, manufactured and homemade radios could be found in almost every home in the world.

By 1927, when radio dominated public information forums, Congress passed the Radio Act. This was to protect the public’s interests. As stations expanded and with TV on the horizon, in 1934 the Federal Communications Commission was created. It issued licenses, monitored aired content for decency, and ensured all forms of electronic communication co-existed under implicit guidelines.

By 1947, when KTLA TV in Hollywood made its first 21 minute broadcast, the FCC told founder Gene Autry that the same FCC guidelines for radio would apply to commercial television.

Although during World War II all radio stations freely donated air time to support the war, in 1949 the FCC bowed to political pressure and passed the Fairness Doctrine. This obligated TV and radio stations to grant equal air",Internet censorship is the left’s Fairness Doctrine,tweets_news_283,tweets_news
"(NEXSTAR) - Donald Trump unveiled what his team is calling a new ""communications platform"" Tuesday. The subsection of his existing website is called ""From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,"" and it relays the former president's thoughts in a blog format.

According to team Trump, the outlet will enable the former president to continue sharing his thoughts and opinions despite being blocked indefinitely from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

""In a time of silence and lies, a beacon of freedom arises. A place to speak freely and safely. Straight from the desk of Donald J. Trump,"" text on a video announcing the launch reads.

According to Fox News, the tool allows Trump to post, which followers can share to Facebook and Twitter, though they're unable to reply or post themselves.

Twitter locks President Trump's account, deletes tweets about Capitol rioters

""This is just a one-way communication,"" one source familiar with the platform told Fox News. ""This system allows Trump to communicate with his followers.""

On social media, many were quick to point out that the ""platform"" is no more than a blog.

Trump was blocked from the above social media sites in January, following the Capitol insurrection. The social media sites said Trump's tweets relating to",Trump debuts new 'communications platform' after social media bans,tweets_news_284,tweets_news
"Bhubaneswar, May 25 -- San Francisco: In a bid to make Messenger safer, Facebook has introduced a new feature that will help millions of people, especially minors, avoid potentially harmful interactions and possible scams without compromising their privacy.

The Messenger users will now see safety notices popping up in a chat and provide tips to help them spot suspicious activity and take action to block or ignore someone when something doesn't seem right.

Facebook started rolling this feature out on Android in March and would bring this to more people around the world on iOS this week.

""Privacy, safety and security are fundamental to Messenger. We work hard to ensure Messenger is a safe place to connect with the people who matter most while also protecting their privacy,"" according to By Jay Sullivan, Director of Product Management, Messenger Privacy and Safety.

As Facebook Messenger moves to end-to-end encryption, it is investing in privacy-preserving tools to keep people safe without accessing message content.

""We developed these safety tips with machine learning that looks at behavioral signals like an adult sending a large amount of friend or message requests to people under 18,"" informed Sullivan.

Facebook said that keeping minors safe on its platforms is one of the",New Facebook Messenger tool to protect minor users from harmful chats,tweets_news_285,tweets_news
"Today, at an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing focused on social media's role in promoting extremism and misinformation, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) pressed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on their commitment to transparency related to the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol.

""We've seen that the real-world costs of this unchecked spread of disinformation is in lives, and like my colleagues, I worry that the structure of many social media companies, including those we have before us today, prioritize engagement--including engagement with provocative or extremist content--over responsible corporate citizenship,"" Fletcher noted during the hearing.

She continued: ""One of my greatest concerns regarding how extremist content and disinformation is allowed to spread on your platforms is the lack of data transparency when it comes to independent analysis. Everyone has claimed they have an internal system... but we have no way to verify how effective those systems are, and that's a huge part of the challenge before us... We all would agree that we need data and information to make good policy, and to write good legislation, which will be coming out of this committee.""

Congresswoman Fletcher specifically asked all three CEOs the following questions:

*","Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher Questions Social Media CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai on Disinformation Leading to January 6th Capitol Attack",tweets_news_286,tweets_news
"

May 18, 2021( Ridenbaugh Press: http://www.ridenbaugh.com/ Delivered by Newstex) I'm not fan of Liz Cheney. Too close to the edge of the flat, far-right earth for me. So saying, her fellow Republicans have screwed her over in steam-roller style.

She's right. They're wrong. Very wrong. The depth of willingness of millions of Americans to follow that horse's patoot in Florida, astride his golden elephant, is both stunning and embarrassing. But, that's what many Republican office holders - and the great 'unwashed' - are apparently doing. If you look at the short game, the Cheney episode is likely the first of many purges to come. Purity has always been the Achilles heel of the far right. That's why there are so many spinoffs and splintering. Our political landscape is awash with little Republican factions because, sooner or later, someone in the group is deemed 'unworthy' so he/she is exiled. And a new group is formed. 'King' Trump and current Royal Jester, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have sent Cheney to GOP purgatory so they can install a willing replacement who buys into Trumps fantasy of his 'shadow presidency.' In the short game, it seems Trump and his deliberately ignorant followers are ahead. But,",They done her wrong,tweets_news_287,tweets_news
"Twitter fact-checked the president on one of his tweets for the first time Tuesday.

TOPLINE

President Trump threatened action against social media companies one day after Twitter, for the first time,fact-checkedone of his tweetson mail-in voting.

KEY FACTS

Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices, the presidenttweetedWednesday without providing evidence, adding that the companies should either be strongly regulated or shut down. 

On Tuesday, Twitter hit Trump with a fact-check for thefirst time ever, for tweets the president wrote claiming that mail-in ballots are rife with fraud: Get the facts about mail-in ballots, the note below Trump s tweetsaid.

Hours later, the president responded by accusing the company of interfering in the 2020 election, stifling free speech and using fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post.

Republicans have longralliedbehind the idea that social media platforms stifle conservative free speech online, though experts say there s no evidencebearing out the idea Silicon Valley is working behind the scenes to deliberately limit the reach of conservatives. 

On the flip side, social media platforms have also faced backlash for their hands-off approach to combating misinformation; Twitter s dramatic pivot on Tuesday to fact-check the president comes after years of mounting criticism as the",Close Them Down : Trump Threatens To Shut Down Social Media Platforms,tweets_news_288,tweets_news
"New measures would slow down the flow of information and make election misinformation less visible, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook is planning to enact new measures to make it more difficult for election misinformation to spread virally across its platform, two people with knowledge of the matter said Thursday, as the outcome of the presidential race remained uncertain.

Facebook plans to add more ''friction'' -- such as an additional click or two -- before people can share posts and other content, said the people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The company will also demote content on the News Feed if it contains election-related misinformation, making it less visible, and limit the distribution of election-related Facebook Live streams, the people said.

The measures, which could be rolled out as soon as Thursday, are a response to heightened strife and social discord on Facebook after the election on Tuesday, these people said. They said there had been more activity by users and Facebook groups to coordinate potentially violent actions over issues such as voter fraud. President Trump has falsely claimed on social media and in remarks from the White House over the",Facebook Throws Up More Hurdles,tweets_news_289,tweets_news
"A bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from more than three dozen states and territories including New York, California and Texas on Monday urged Facebook to shut down potential plans to roll out a version of Instagram for children under 13, slamming the social media giant for ""historically failing"" to protect the privacy and safety of kids online....

A bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from more than three dozen states and territories including New York, California and Texas on Monday urged Facebook to shut down potential plans to roll out a version of Instagram for children under 13, slamming ...

A bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from more than three dozen states and territories including New York, California and Texas on Monday urged Facebook to shut down potential plans to roll out a version of Instagram for children under 13, slamming the social media giant for ""historically failing"" to protect the privacy and safety of kids online. Facebook-owned Instagram confirmed in March that it was ""exploring"" the idea of developing a version of the popular photo-sharing platform that would enable children under 13 ""to safely use Instagram for the first time."" The National Association of Attorneys General called on Facebook to ""abandon"" those",44 AGs Urge Facebook To Scrap Plan For 'Instagram Kids',tweets_news_290,tweets_news
"PHOENIX - Unsubstantiated claims alleging some votes cast for President Donald Trump were not counted in Maricopa County, Arizona - an important battleground in the 2020 U.S. election - because voters used Sharpie pens began spreading among right-wing social media accounts on Tuesday night as election results trickled in.

Dubbed ""Sharpiegate"" by conservatives on social media, the allegations could be used to try to undermine election results in the historically Republican state of Arizona, which the Associated Press called for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden with 51% of the vote.

Similar rumors about Sharpies or other writing tools and ballots have circulated in Chicago, Michigan, Massachusetts and Connecticut in recent days.

Maricopa County officials were trying to inform voters that Sharpies did not interfere with ballots.

The county - which includes Arizona's biggest city, Phoenix - last year rolled out new tabulation equipment that made Sharpie pens the best option on Election Day because they have the fastest drying ink, said Megan Gilbertson, the Maricopa County Elections Department's communications director.

The department posted a video on Election Day clarifying that Sharpies would not interfere with ballots.

""The Sharpies are just fine to use,"" Gilbertson said in an interview. ""They do not impact tabulation, and we encourage",'Sharpiegate' allegations fuel unproven claims of voter fraud in Arizona,tweets_news_291,tweets_news
"Facebook on Thursday said it will roll out a new campaign in India in the coming weeks to ""educate and inform people"" about how to detect misinformation related to Covid-19, and encourage users to check the information they receive against an authentic source. The social networking giant has removed over 12 million pieces of ""harmful"" misinformation on...

Facebook on Thursday said it will roll out a new campaign in India in the coming weeks to ""educate and inform people"" about how to detect misinformation related to Covid-19, and encourage users to check the information they receive against an authentic sou...

Facebook on Thursday said it will roll out a new campaign in India in the coming weeks to ""educate and inform people"" about how to detect misinformation related to Covid-19, and encourage users to check the information they receive against an authentic source. The social networking giant has removed over 12 million pieces of ""harmful"" misinformation on Covid-19 globally from Instagram and its own platform during the pandemic, including falsehoods about approved vaccines. It also put warning labels on over 167 million posts that were marked as false by third-party fact checkers. The social media giant, which counts India among its biggest",Facebook plans campaign in India to fight COVID-19 related misinformation,tweets_news_292,tweets_news
"

Mar 25, 2021( MarketBeat: https://www.marketbeat.com/ Delivered by Newstex) This combination of 2018-2020 photos shows, from left, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The CEOs of social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Google face a new grilling by Congress, Thursday, March 25, 2021, one focused on their efforts to prevent their platforms from spreading falsehoods and inciting violence. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, LM Otero, Jens Meyer)WASHINGTON (AP) — The CEOs of social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Google face a new grilling by Congress Thursday, one focused on their efforts to prevent their platforms from spreading falsehoods and inciting violence. That's been a familiar theme for lawmakers over the past few years.

But the pressure is even higher following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the rise in COVID vaccine misinformation and united Democratic control of Congress and the White House. The latter could make legislative action more likely, although it remains far from a sure thing. As malicious conspiracy theories continue to spread, lawmakers are pounding the social media companies over their market dominance, harvesting of user data and practices that some believe actually encourage the spread of engaging but potentially harmful","Congress to press Big Tech CEOs over speech, misinformation",tweets_news_293,tweets_news
"Silicon Valley is building a powerful influence industry in Brussels, which has “never seen this kind of money” spent this way.

Silicon Valley is building a powerful influence industry in Brussels, which has “never seen this kind of money” spent this way.

A leaked document jolted the European Union capital of Brussels in October, laying out in painstaking detail plans by Google to undermine new legislation that could severely damage its digital advertising business.

“Academic allies” would raise questions about the new rules. Google would attempt to erode support within the European Commission to complicate the policymaking process. And the company would try to seed a trans-Atlantic trade dispute by enlisting U.S. officials against the European policy, according to a copy reviewed by The New York Times and confirmed by Google.

For many officials in Brussels, the document confirmed what they had long suspected: Google and other American tech giants are engaged in a broad lobbying campaign to stop stronger regulation against them.

As the European Union has become the global leader in tech regulation, these companies have increasingly focused on Brussels in hopes of choking off even stiffer rules before they spread. American lawmakers and regulators have already become much more aggressive. Last week,","Big Tech Turns Its Lobbyists Loose on Europe, Alarming Regulators",tweets_news_294,tweets_news
"The existential question that every big tech platform from Twitter to Google to Facebook has to wrestle with is the same: How responsible should it act for the content that people post?

The answer that Silicon Valley has come up with for decades is: Less is more. But now, as protests of police brutality continue across the country, many in the tech industry are questioning the wisdom of letting all flowers bloom online.

After years of leaving President Trump's tweets alone, Twitter has taken a more aggressive approach in recent days, in several cases adding fact checks and marks indicating the president's tweets were misleading or glorified violence. Many Facebook employees want their company to do the same, though the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said he was against it. And Snapchat said on Wednesday that it had stopped promoting Mr. Trump's content on its main Discover page.

In the midst of this notable shift, some civil libertarians are raising a question in an already complicated debate: Any move to moderate content more proactively could eventually be used against speech loved by the people now calling for intervention.

''It comes from this drive to be protected -- this belief that it's a platform's role to",Crack Down on Posts? Platforms Weigh a Risk,tweets_news_295,tweets_news
"Facebook plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site, according to several news reports. The company's rationale for that policy held that the speech of political leaders is inherently newsworthy and in the public interest even if...

Facebook plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site, according to several news reports. The company's rationale for that policy held that the speech of political l...

Facebook plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site, according to several news reports. The company's rationale for that policy held that the speech of political leaders is inherently newsworthy and in the public interest even if it is offensive, bullying or otherwise controversial. The social media giant is currently mulling over what to do with the account of former President Donald Trump, which it “indefinitely” suspended Jan. 6, leaving it in Facebook limbo with its owners unable to post. The change in policy was first reported by the tech site The Verge and later confirmed by the New",Reports: Facebook to end rule exemptions for politicians,tweets_news_296,tweets_news
"More than 50 million pieces of content were given warning labels on Facebook for being misleading in relation to coronavirus, the social network has revealed.

Publishing its latest Community Standards Enforcement Report, Facebook said that since March 1 it had removed more than 2.5 million pieces of content linked to sale of medical items such as masks and Covid-19 test kits.

The social network also revealed its Covid-19 Information Centre, which shows health and virus information from official sources, had now directed more than two billion people to resources from health authorities.

Social media platforms, including Facebook, have been repeatedly criticised over the amount of disinformation and harmful content linked to the Covid-19 outbreak which has spread online.

A number of charities and online safety organisations have warned that with people - particularly children - spending more time online during lockdown, more stringent monitoring of online platforms is needed.

In its Enforcement Report, Facebook said its detection technology was now finding around 90% of the content the platform removes before it is reported to the site.

The millions of pieces of content given warning labels was based on around 7,500 articles which had been analysed by fact-checking groups working with the site.

Facebook flags 50 million misleading",Facebook flags 50 million misleading coronavirus posts,tweets_news_297,tweets_news
"

Sep 03, 2020( TheNextWeb.com: http://thenextweb.com Delivered by Newstex) In 2018, WhatsApp introduced a limit on forwarding messages[1] to only five contacts at a time. Now, Facebook is bringing that limit to Messenger, starting today.

The company thinks it's an 'effective way to slow the spread of viral misinformation and harmful content.' And it's not entirely wrong. Often misinformation is spread through people sending messages without really checking information. After the company rolled out limits on forwarding viral messages in WhatsApp, it observed a 70% drop in these kinds[2] of messages. In a statement, the company said the new limit will help control misinformation: We are introducing a forwarding limit on Messenger to help curb the efforts of those looking to cause chaos, sow uncertainty, or inadvertently undermine accurate information.We want Messenger to be a safe and trustworthy platform to connect with friends and family. Messenger has more than 1.5 billion users around the world, and it's probably the second most popular messaging app in the world after WhatsApp, which has 2 billion users on its platform. Did you know we have an online event[3] about product design coming up? Join the Sprint track at TNW2020[4] to explore the latest trends and",Facebook Messenger wants to curb misinformation by limiting forwards to 5 contacts at a time,tweets_news_298,tweets_news
"As Twitter and Facebook continue to dominate conversations about social media and the 2020 presidential election, TikTok is quietly becoming a political force.

Teenagers in America - many of them too young to vote - are forming political coalitions on TikTok to campaign for their chosen candidates, post news updates and fact check opponents. They are sharing real-time commentary for an audience that is far more likely to watch YouTube videos than turn on a cable news channel.

In a sense, these TikTok users are building short-form TV networks, each with a cast of talking heads.

On TikTok they're called hype houses, named after the high-powered influencer collab house in Los Angeles. These political houses are not physical homes, but virtual, ideological ones represented by group accounts.

There are conservative-leaning houses (@conservativehypehouse, @theconservativehypehouse, @TikTokrepublicans and @therepublicanhypehouse, which amassed more than 217,000 followers in under a month) and liberal ones (@liberalhypehouse, @leftist.hype.house). There are also bipartisan houses, for users who love discourse, and undecided houses, for those who aren't sure what or whom they love.

""I do feel like TikTok is cable news for young people,"" said Sterling Cade Lewis, 19, who has nearly 100,000 followers. ""CNN and Fox and big-name news media, those are all",Political pundits of the future are on TikTok,tweets_news_299,tweets_news
"Timeline of the riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6 What started as a congressional and democratic exercise in the peaceful transfer of power, devolved into death, destruction and chaos. Facebook’s oversight board is slated to announce the fate of...

Timeline of the riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6 What started as a congressional and democratic exercise in the peaceful transfer of power, devolved into death, destruction and chaos. Facebook’s oversight board is slated to announce the fate of former Pres...

Timeline of the riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6 What started as a congressional and democratic exercise in the peaceful transfer of power, devolved into death, destruction and chaos. Facebook’s oversight board is slated to announce the fate of former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts on Wednesday at 9 a.m. ET. The social media giant indefinitely suspended Trump the day after the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — concerned Trump would incite further violence while refusing to accept Joe Biden’s election victory. Twitter made a similar move by deactivating Trump’s personal and presidential accounts. Initially, Twitter’s suspension was to last 12 hours. But two days after the Capitol riot, Twitter moved","Oversight board to announce fate of Trump's Facebook, Instagram accounts on Wednesday",tweets_news_300,tweets_news
"Facebook will change a policy that has protected politicians from the social media network’s content moderation rules,...

Facebook will change a policy that has protected politicians from the social media network’s content moderation rules, which could change how politicians use the platform, The Verge reports. The decision comes after the Oversight Board, an outside group th...

Facebook will change a policy that has protected politicians from the social media network’s content moderation rules, which could change how politicians use the platform, The Verge reports. The decision comes after the Oversight Board, an outside group that reviewed Facebook’s suspension of former President Donald Trump, criticized their granting politicians special treatment, saying that the “same rules should apply to all users.” The board wrote: “While the same rules should apply to all users, context matters when assessing the probability and imminence of harm. When posts by influential users pose a high probability of imminent harm, Facebook should act quickly to enforce its rules. Although Facebook explained that it did not apply its ‘newsworthiness’ allowance in this case, the Board called on Facebook to address widespread confusion about how decisions relating to influential users are made. The Board stressed that considerations of newsworthiness should not",Facebook Changing Special Exception for Politicians,tweets_news_301,tweets_news
"Dr. Anthony Fauci has an upcoming book about the lessons he's learned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The book, ""Expect the Unexpected: Ten Lessons on Truth, Service, and the Way Forward,"" was developed by National Geographic Books and is scheduled to be released on Nov. 2.

Some online have criticized Fauci over the book, claiming that he's cashing in on it while Americans continue to suffer.

""Tony Fauci will make millions off of a new book about 'Truth' while Americans continue to suffer because of his endless stream of lies over the past year,"" reads a June 1 tweet by Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative nonprofit Turning PointUSA.

""The highest paid employee of the federal government is set to profit even more off this pandemic. What a disgrace.""

Kirk got one thing right as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, Fauci is the highest paid employee of the federal government.

But he isn't going to profit from the book.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook's efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

National Geographic Books developed the 80-page book in connection with an upcoming National Geographic documentary film about Fauci.

National",Fauci isn't profiting off new book,tweets_news_302,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump’s angry insistence in the last minutes of Tuesday’s debate that there was no way the presidential election could be conducted without fraud amounted to an extraordinary declaration by a sitting American president that he would try to throw any outcome into the courts, Congress or the streets if he was not reelected.

His comments came after four years of debate about the possibility of foreign interference in the 2020 election and how to counter such disruptions. But they were a stark reminder that the most direct threat to the electoral process now comes from the president of the United States himself.

His unwillingness to say he would abide by the result and his disinformation campaign about the integrity of the American electoral system went beyond anything President Vladimir Putin could have imagined. All Putin has to do now

is amplify the president’s message, which the Russian leader has already begun to do.

Everything Trump said in his faceoff with Joe Biden he had already delivered in recent weeks, in tweets and rallies with his faithful. But he had never before put it all together in front of such a large audience as he did Tuesday night.

He began the debate with a",analysis,tweets_news_303,tweets_news
"A MINISTER has threatened to hit social media giants with ""fines worth billions"" unless they root out vicious online trolls. Caroline Dinenage says despite pledging to tackle the scourge, networks allow bullying and harassment.

Writing exclusively for the Daily Express, which is campaigning to unmask the trolls, Ms Dinenage today spells out her bid to wipe out the web assassins with the Online Safety Bill. The digital and culture minister said: ""It will protect Brits using the internet and tackle trolling, regardless of whether it is anonymous or not. ""Big tech firms will no longer mark their own homework and will have to keep their promises.

Related articles Garage owner's 50-year-old telephone number given to someone else Andrew Neil savages BBC presenter who 'mocked Union Jack'

""There could be fines worth billions of pounds for companies such as Twitter, Facebook or TikTok if they don't up their game.""

Commentators including Daily Express columnist Richard Madeley and Victims' Commissioner Dame Vera Baird want social media firms to compel users to prove their identities before posting by insisting on ""verified"" accounts.

But Ms Dinenage warned: ""Any action around online anonymity needs to take into account the benefits for many vulnerable groups such as whistleblowers and victims of","Social media giants fined billions if they don't stop online trolls, says Minister",tweets_news_304,tweets_news
"A movement in the United States to pull advertising from social media platform Facebook over its perceived failure to rein in misleading and hateful content appears to have gained a foothold in Finland.

According to Riikka-Maria Lemminki, CEO of lobby group Marketing Finland, some firms have cut back on advertising with the social media giant.

""To my knowledge there about a dozen or so firms that have recently reduced advertising on Facebook, or put it on hold, precisely due to the recent discussion,"" Lemminki told Yle.

The purpose of the boycott campaign is to force Facebook to intervene in the hate speech and racist content that many say is largely unregulated on the platform.

""Facebook does not have sufficient control over content and it has permitted racist discourse. They need to change that,"" Lemminki declared.

Fear of ""greenie"" label

Many US companies have moved to ""unlike"" Lacebook and have said that they will not resume spending on advertising on the platform unless it takes decisive action to more effectively crack down on the spread of hateful content. They include large companies such as teleoperator Verizon, ice cream firm Ben & Jerry's and active wear company The North Face, as well as well-known global brands such as",Finnish firms boycott Facebook,tweets_news_305,tweets_news
"•The woman who started the debate about Hilaria Baldwin's Spanish roots has said that she should 'own what she did,' exclusively speaking to DailyMail.com•The woman posts under the Twitter handle @lenibriscoe and posted the tweet on December 21st out of boredom•The tweet went viral and led to people finding examples of Baldwin using a Spanish accent, a jarring contrast to her childhood in Boston•She said: 'When it got bigger I thought it was embarrassing for the Baldwins'•'People were asking me don't you have anything better to do and the answer is: no I don't. It's a pandemic, it's cold outside and I don't celebrate Christmas'•Briscoe, who lives in New York, explained: 'It's offensive and wrong to pretend you're an immigrant and that you speak English as a second language'•She added: 'It's not really necessary. She could be a hot white influencer. Plenty of people do that'•When asked what she would say to Hilaria, she said: 'I would say she should say sorry to all the immigrants and English second language learners and moms of color who are actually mistaken for their children's nannies'

The woman who started the debate about Hilaria Baldwin's Spanish roots has said that she should 'own what",EXCLUSIVE: 'She should own what she did': Woman who 'exposed' Hilaria's 'Spanish grift' - a white Vassar grad - says she was offended by Baldwin 'taking opportunities from genuine Hispanics',tweets_news_306,tweets_news
"Facebook's (US:FB) shares have been coming under increasing pressure over the past week, as a growing list of more than 100 companies have already, or plan to, temporarily stop advertising on the social network. The biggest drop came on Friday 26 June - the shares tumbled by more than 8 per cent after telecommunications giant Verizon (US:VZ) and consumer goods group Unilever (ULVR) announced that they would also be halting their ad spending on the platform.

The exodus is being driven by the 'Stop Hate For Profit' campaign, organised by US civil rights groups including the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). Insisting there is ""hate and misinformation across Facebook's products, which are supported by paid advertisements"", it is urging corporations to pause ad spending on the platform in July to push Facebook to improve its policing of racist, hateful and violent material.

Verizon's move is not directly linked to the campaign. But after one of the organisers, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), uncovered a Verizon advert next to a video from conspiracy group QAnon, it decided to halt spending ""until Facebook can create an acceptable solution"". According to data analytics provider Pathmatics, Verizon had splurged $850,000 (£689,000) on Facebook",Will the Facebook boycott have any impact?,tweets_news_307,tweets_news
"

May 05, 2021( JonathanTurley.org: http://jonathanturley.org Delivered by Newstex) https://i1.wp.com/jonathanturley.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/440px-official_portrait_of_president_donald_trump.jpg?ssl=1https://i1.wp.com/jonathanturley.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/200px-facebook-svg1.png?ssl=1Facebook's Oversight Board just voted that the company may want to give Trump back his boots. The decision of the board to uphold the decision to ban Trump but reconsider his lifetime ban may seem transparently convenient for many. However, there is precedent.

One of my favorite trial accounts is from Ireland where an Irishman was accused by an Englishman of stealing a pair of boots. The guilt of the defendant was absolutely clear but the Irish jury could not get itself to rule for the Englishman. Instead, it acquitted the Irishman but added a line, 'We do believe O'Brien should give the Englishman back his boots.' Case closed. Few people thought that, after expanding the censorship of political figures like Trump for years, Facebook could ever summon the courage to declare itself wrong in the ban first imposed on January 7, 2021. Instead, the board ruled that it was absolutely right to suspend Trump but it may want to reconsider the permanent ban given the absence of any objective standard to support it. So Trump will still get the boot for now. It may be too harsh to expect anything more from",Facebook Upholds Trump Ban But Admits Permanent Ban Lacked Any Objective Standard,tweets_news_308,tweets_news
"Defense lawyers have complained that some charges do not apply to what unfolded on Jan. 6, and one argues it will be impossible to get a fair trial in Washington.

Three months after the attack on the Capitol, the frantic federal effort to prosecute the members of the mob that stormed the building has started shifting gears.

After a nationwide flurry of arrests, defense lawyers are homing in on what they describe as fundamental weaknesses in the government's case.

Some have challenged the marquee indictments against members of the Oath Keepers militia and the far-right group the Proud Boys, saying that the evidence so far does not support claims that their clients conspired to plan an attack against Congress.

Others have complained about prosecutors' use of an unlawful entry statute and a 1960s-era law intended to silence leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And at least one lawyer has filed a motion to move her client's case out of Washington, saying it will be impossible to get a fair trial in the city where the insurrection occurred.

Still others have questioned the relevance of a federal obstruction law used to charge dozens of people, saying that it does not technically cover a",How Capitol Riot Suspects Are Challenging the Charges,tweets_news_309,tweets_news
"(CNN Business) -- Facebook has taken its first steps to curb highly-convincing videos known as deepfakes that have been manipulated using artificial intelligence.

The social media platform announced the change in a blog post, saying it would remove videos that have been manipulated using artificial intelligence or machine learning to make it appear that the subject has said words they did not.

But Facebook stopped well short of a comprehensive ban for deepfakes, carving out exemptions for parody or satire, and videos that have been ""edited solely to omit or change the order of words."" And the approach immediately ran into criticism from some experts and politicians, who argued the company should go much further.

Facebook has been slammed many times in the past for its failure to stop the spread of misinformation and hate speech. Deepfakes represent a new challenge for the company ahead of the 2020 US presidential election, a contest that is expected to breed huge amounts of fake news and disinformation that could mislead voters.

Hany Farid, a professor of digital forensics at the University of California, Berkeley, said that Facebook's attempt to create a coherent policy on misinformation was a ""positive step."" But he said the new policy was",Facebook tries to curb deepfake videos as 2020 election heats up,tweets_news_310,tweets_news
"Spotify is hoping to use a library of high-profile podcasts and its advertising technology to create a significant new revenue stream

Joe Rogan is an unusual kind of kingmaker. A comedian who is fond of smoking cannabis in his studio, his anarchic podcasts have inspired great loyalty among millions of otherwise disenchanted young men.

His influence has buoyed the campaign of US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders and wiped more than $3bn (£2.3bn) from the market capitalisation of Tesla.

His latest beneficiary? Spotify, whose value jumped by $1.7bn in 23 minutes after announcing that it now had exclusive rights to Rogan's output in a $100m deal.

But Spotify isn't stopping with Rogan. The company has also signed up Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian West and the seminal documentary show This American Life.

Meanwhile, Spotify is developing its own targeted advertising infrastructure to make podcast promotions as precise, and therefore lucrative, as Facebook's or Google's - a long-awaited milestone that could both galvanise and upend the industry.

All these efforts seem to be paying off. On Wednesday, the Swedish music streaming service announced that it has 299 million monthly active users, a 29pc increase from the second quarter last year. It also reported revenues of (EURO)1.89bn, a 13pc year-on-year",Spotify's grand plan to turn podcasts into riches,tweets_news_311,tweets_news
"Employers in the U.S. just got more latitude to fire employees who speak up about harassment and discrimination. They can already legally terminate people for almost any reason, including what they say at work. One of the few exceptions to that rule has been U.S. labor law protections for people protesting unfair workplace conditions. Now, companies have wider legal authority to ax those employees, too.

New rules for employers come from a sweeping National Labor Relations Board ruling on the punishment of a Black employee at General Motors Co. who alleges he was speaking up about discriminatory behavior. In 2017, GM suspended Charles Robinson, a Black electrician and union representative at a Kansas City plant, after he allegedly referred to a manager as ""master,"" using what a supervisor referred to as a ""southern slave voice."" Robinson, who brought claims to the NLRB challenging this suspension and others, says he was highlighting the inappropriate conduct of a company official who reprimanded him for speaking too loudly. ""The way they were talking to me was racist,"" he said in an interview with Bloomberg News. ""They always made me out like I was threatening and intimidating them in meetings because I'm Black, and because",It's now even easier to fire U.S. workers for what they say,tweets_news_312,tweets_news
"Last month, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, an international coalition of 35 children’s and consumer groups, called on Instagram to stop its plans to create a version of the app for users under the age...

Last month, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, an international coalition of 35 children’s and consumer groups, called on Instagram to stop its plans to create a version of the app for users under the age of 13 . Now, dozens of state prosecutors...

Last month, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, an international coalition of 35 children’s and consumer groups, called on Instagram to stop its plans to create a version of the app for users under the age of 13 . Now, dozens of state prosecutors are doing the same. In a letter (via NYT ) addressed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, attorneys general for 44 states and jurisdictions called on Facebook to stop its plans to create a version of Instagram for young children, citing concerns over mental and emotional well-being, exposure to online predators, and cyberbullying. This letter quotes three main reasons why children under 13 shouldn’t be able to have an Instagram account: Social media can be harmful to the physical,",44 states want to put Facebook’s ‘Instagram for Kids’ in timeout before it launches,tweets_news_313,tweets_news
"Facebook and Twitter restricted the spread of a disputed New York Post article on Wednesday.

The article in question, which makes claims about former Vice President Joe Biden's work in Ukraine, is supposedly based on a hard drive that was abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop in April of last year. Twitter is actively blocking users from both tweeting and direct messaging the article link. Facebook, for its part, is ""reducing [the article's] distribution"" for the time being.

We reached out to Facebook in an attempt to determine what, exactly, that means, but received no immediate response. Twitter's action, however, is hard to miss. Attempts to either tweet a link to the New York Post article, or send it via Direct Message, are currently being blocked.

When reached for comment, a Twitter spokesperson responded, ""In line with our Hacked Materials Policy, as well as our approach to blocking URLs, we are taking action to block any links to or images of the material in question on Twitter.""

Twitter insisted that, because the source of the material is dubious, it falls under the aforementioned Hacked Materials Policy. That policy reads, in part: ""we don't permit the use of our services to directly distribute content",Twitter and Facebook restrict sharing of disputed 'NY Post' article ahead of election,tweets_news_314,tweets_news
"Facebook made “vexing and heartbreaking” decisions over the past nine months that constituted “serious setbacks for civil rights”, according... Facebook made “vexing and heartbreaking” decisions over the past nine months that constituted “serious setbacks for civil rights”, according to a damning report into the company’s practices published on Wednesday. The audit, which was commissioned by the social...

Facebook made “vexing and heartbreaking” decisions over the past nine months that constituted “serious setbacks for civil rights”, according... Facebook made “vexing and heartbreaking” decisions over the past nine months that constituted “serious setbacks for civil rights”, according to a damning report into the company’s practices published on Wednesday. The audit, which was commissioned by the social...

Facebook made “vexing and heartbreaking” decisions over the past nine months that constituted “serious setbacks for civil rights”, according...

Facebook made “vexing and heartbreaking” decisions over the past nine months that constituted “serious setbacks for civil rights”, according to a damning report into the company’s practices published on Wednesday.

The audit, which was commissioned by the social media platform, involved a two-year investigation led by civil rights leader Laura Murphy and Megan Cacace from law firm Relman Colfax, and looked at the way the company handled a range of issues","Facebook has caused ‘serious setbacks’ for civil rights, report finds",tweets_news_315,tweets_news
"BEIJING, April 23 (Reuters) – More than 70 Chinese film and television show makers and associations called for short video platforms...

BEIJING, April 23 (Reuters) – More than 70 Chinese film and television show makers and associations called for short video platforms to immediately take down any of their content which was being used without authorisation, China’s national broadcaster repo...

BEIJING, April 23 (Reuters) – More than 70 Chinese film and television show makers and associations called for short video platforms to immediately take down any of their content which was being used without authorisation, China’s national broadcaster reported. Attracted by visual content excerpts taken from films or TV shows, often without authorisation, hundreds of millions of Chinese internet users have turned to short video platforms as a source of both humour and information. The group, which includes video streaming platforms iQIYI , Tencent Video and Alibaba’s Youku, published a list of demands calling on short video platforms to immediately purge any unauthorised content, CCTV reported on Friday. They also urged platforms to step up content moderation efforts to prevent future infringements, such as deploying technologies including keyword filtering. Two weeks ago, the same group warned short video platforms it would take","Film, TV firms call for content purge by China’s short video platforms",tweets_news_316,tweets_news
"Deputy press secretary claims Trump had not heard the racist language of video he tweeted that was posted for nearly four hours

Donald Trump has deleted a tweet he sent featuring video of a Trump supporter shouting, ""White power! White power!"" after an outpouring of grief and outrage at racist language flowing directly from the White House once again.

The tweet was deleted after it drew fierce criticism from across the political spectrum, including from Tim Scott of South Carolina, the sole African American Republican in the Senate.

""There's no question that he should not have retweeted it and he should just take it down,"" Scott told CNN's ""State of the Union"" program.

""It was so profanity laced, the entire thing was offensive. Certainly, the comment about the white power was offensive. It's indefensible. We should take it down.""

Trump had left the tweet, featuring video of arguments among residents of The Villages, a predominantly white and conservative retirement community in Florida, posted on his Twitter feed for nearly four hours.

""Thank you to the great people of The Villages,"" Trump tweeted about the footage, which begins with a white man driving a golf cart with a ""Trump 2020"" sign spouting racist rhetoric at white anti-Trump",Trump deletes tweet of supporter shouting 'white power' after outrage,tweets_news_317,tweets_news
"Michael Johnson was part of a group that believed antifa was coming to Leitchfield, Kentucky, when a resident organized a Black Lives Matter rally. He said the sign on his truck was meant to say that all people's lives should matter equally.Claire Galofaro/AP

LEITCHFIELD, Ky. - The group gathered around the town square, waiting for the arrival of what has become a new American boogeyman: antifa.

Michael Johnson and others were certain that school buses full of radical left-wing extremists from big cities were coming to Leitchfield, Kentucky, where about 50 of their neighbors had gathered on the courthouse lawn to chant, ""Black lives matter!"" and wave signs in solidarity with the nation's surging protest movement.

The June 10 protest ended peacefully with no sign of any antifascist activists in the town of fewer than 7,000 people, but Johnson and his son sat awake outside their house all night, armed with a shotgun, just in case the rumors online were true.

""There's no reason not to believe it after you watch TV, what's going on,"" said Johnson, 53.

It's a scene that has unfolded in many other cities and small towns this year, the product of fear and conflict stoked by bogus posts on social",'There's no reason not to believe it',tweets_news_318,tweets_news
"LISA LAFLAMME: The federal government today vowed not to infringe on the individual cyberspace of Canadians. Proposed changes to the broadcasting act to include streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube are being criticized as a veiled attempt to control the message, and not just regulate the medium. John Vennavally-Rao explains.

JOHN VENNAVALLY-RAO (Reporter): When it comes to Canadians' pet videos on YouTube, or Instagram videos of their kid's hockey game, today the government insisted those videos are not about to be regulated by the CRTC.

JULIE DABRUSIN (Parliamentary Secretary to Heritage Minister): We do not want to regulate your cat videos. The CRTC does not want to regulate your cat videos.

VENNAVALLY-RAO: That comment follows more than a week of intense criticism by some experts and politicians who've been warning Canadians their social media videos and podcasts are in danger of being controlled and monitored by the nation's broadcasting regulator.

LAURA TRIBE (Open Media): The power they're putting in the bill itself is immense, and that no matter what their best intentions might be, you never know what's going to happen in any future government, and how they might use those powers as well.

VENNAVALLY-RAO: BillCc-10 is an attempt at modernizing the broadcast act so",Proposed Changes to Broadcasting Act,tweets_news_319,tweets_news
"Eric Utne, Minnesota native and visionary founder of the Utne Reader, didn't intend to write a memoir but that's what happened. ""Far Out Man: Tales of Life in the Counterculture"" (Random House, $28), tells Utne's personal story, forever intertwined with the magazine he says ""captured the zeitgeist for a lot of people,"" after it was [...]

Eric Utne, Minnesota native and visionary founder of the Utne Reader, didn't intend to write a memoir but that's what happened. ""Far Out Man: Tales of Life in the Counterculture"" (Random House, $28), tells Utne's personal story, forever intertwined with the magazine he says ""captured the zeitgeist for a lot of people,"" after it was founded in 1984. (Zeigeist in German means ""the spirit of the times."")

Utne and his life partner, Jeri Maeve Reilly, are moving from St. Paul to a new home two miles outside Taylors Falls, not far from the St. Croix River that Utne has loved since he was a boy. They were still surrounded by boxes when he took time to talk about ""Far Out Man,"" the title of which is a play on words.

Utne's name is derived from his ancestral Norwegian village of Utne, which loosely translates as ""far out.""",Utne Reader founder Eric Utne shares his 'Far Out' life in new memoir,tweets_news_320,tweets_news
"Twitter has ""temporarily limited"" the account features of Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward after determining she violated its policy on spreading misleading and ""potentially harmful"" information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision by Twitter came after she shared the viral video of a group of physicians making false and misleading comments about the pandemic. Twitter's decision to limit Ward's account came after the social media giant also punished Donald Trump Jr. for posting the same video.

Ward, a physician, has downplayed the severity of the virus's spread in Arizona, even as caseloads skyrocketed and the state spiraled into a national hot spot.

The Arizona Republican Party drew attention to Twitter's decision with a tweet Tuesday that accused the platform of engaging in ""Election interference!""

""#BIGTECH CENSORSHIP: @Twitter has suspended the account of @AZGOP Chairwoman @kelliwardaz - one week before Arizona's August 4th Primary - for tweeting a #COVID19 video featuring doctors discussing the benefits of using #Hydroxycholoroquine as prophylaxis. Election interference!""

In a written statement, Greg Safsten, the state party's executive director, said social media companies such as Twitter value ""manufactured consensus"" above the right to free speech.

""... With one week to go until Arizona's primary election, suspending the chairwoman's account - thereby limiting",Twitter limits state GOP chair Ward's account over COVID-19 misinformation,tweets_news_321,tweets_news
"AKRON The Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump are releasing a video advertisement called “Goodyear” that attacks President Donald Trump for calling for a boycott of the Akron tiremaker.

Trump called for the boycott this week following news reports showing a Goodyear tire factory training slide out of Topeka, Kan., saying employees can’t wear MAGA or Blue Lives Matter attire or other political materials in the workplace but can show support for Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ pride.

The Lincoln Project ad, which will air digitally and via broadcast, is part of an ongoing partnership in Ohio: Operation Grant. The Lincoln Project said it plans to spend $425,000 airing “Goodyear” starting Friday through next week in Northeast Ohio media markets of Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown.

Trump has been roundly criticized by Democrats, union leaders and others in the Greater Akron area for calling for a Goodyear boycott. Goodyear is one of Akron’s oldest and largest employers with about 3,000 people at its corporate headquarters and about 60,000 other employees around the world.

“The president’s attacking an American company that provides well-paying jobs. Operation Grant couldn’t be more needed,” Tim Miller, political director of Republican Voters Against Trump, said in a news release.

Reed Galen,",Anti-Trump Lincoln Project to air ‘Goodyear’ ad attacking president over call for boycott,tweets_news_322,tweets_news
"April 15 -- Ofgem issued the following news release:

From 25 March we temporarily paused the publishing of new information on our website, with the exception of legally required releases only. The information that follows falls within this category.

* InterGen sent misleading signals to National Grid in 2016 about how much energy it would supply during peak winter hours to make a substantial profit.

* Breaches demonstrated weaknesses in InterGen's procedures, management systems and internal controls with respect to REMIT compliance.

* Ofgem places large penalty on InterGen to send strong message that it will not tolerate such market manipulation.

Ofgem has imposed payments amounting to 47.8 million (reduced to payments of 37.2m after settlement discount on the penalty levied) on InterGen after an investigation found that InterGen sent misleading signals to National Grid Electricity System Operator (1) in winter 2016 about the energy it could supply to make substantial profits.

In May 2017 Ofgem launched an investigation into InterGen, which owns four power stations in the UK, following an alert from another market participant that was suspicious of activity it had observed in the market in October/November 2016.

Ofgem's investigation found that InterGen staff manipulated the market during four days in winter 2016, when they",Ofgem requires InterGen to pay 37m over energy market abuse,tweets_news_323,tweets_news
"Meaningful democracy cannot stand without a free press. People vote on what they read or hear.

The institutional function of the press is to investigate, unearth and publish all the facts - to enable people to hold those in power to account.

Our Constitution entrenches this safeguard for democracy by vesting people with fundamental rights to impart and to receive information.

This is anathema to fascists. Brazil's President Bolsonaro is seeking to prosecute award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald (without any evidence or judicial support) because Greenwald exposed the close co-operation that existed between the judge, Sergio More and the prosecution during the trial of Bolsonaro's political opponent, former president Luiz ""Lula"" da Silva.

Lula, Brazil's most popular president in history, was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment by More.

Before Bolsonaro was elected, in 2018, Lula had led in all the polls; but he was disqualified from standing in the election by his conviction.

Bolsonaro awarded More with a cabinet appointment as minister of justice. The president is now working to destroy meaningful democracy in Brazil. He does not believe in it.

But he needs to convince the population of his own narrative.

He cannot afford for them to exercise informed choices in a milieu where journalists expose true facts.

But",Press freedom under threat across the world,tweets_news_324,tweets_news
"Facebook has deleted a post by President Donald Trump for violating its policy against spreading misinformation about the coronavirus.

The post in question featured a link to a Fox News video in which Trump says children are “virtually immune” to the virus.

Facebook said Wednesday that the “video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation.”

A few hours later, Twitter temporarily blocked the Trump campaign from tweeting from its account, until it removed a post with the same video. Trump's account retweeted the video. The company said in a statement late Wednesday that the tweet violated its rules against COVID misinformation. When a tweet breaks its rules, Twitter asks users to remove the tweet in questions and bans them from posting anything else until they do.

Twitter has generally been quicker than Facebook in recent months to label posts from the president that violate its policies against misinformation and abuse.

This is not the first time that Facebook has removed a post from Trump, Facebook said, but it's the first time it has done so because it was spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. The company has also labeled his","Facebook, citing virus misinformation, deletes Trump post",tweets_news_325,tweets_news
"Videos released under court order provide a chilling new look at the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including body camera footage that shows a man charging at a police officer with a flagpole and tackling him to the ground. Federal judges ordered the release of the videos after media organizations, including The Associated Press,...

Videos released under court order provide a chilling new look at the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including body camera footage that shows a man charging at a police officer with a flagpole and tackling him to the ground. Federal judges ordered the...

Videos released under court order provide a chilling new look at the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including body camera footage that shows a man charging at a police officer with a flagpole and tackling him to the ground. Federal judges ordered the release of the videos after media organizations, including The Associated Press, went to court to request that the Department of Justice provide access. The videos are being presented as evidence in prosecutors’ cases against three men charged with assaulting police. The new videos show a Marine Corps veteran and former New York City",Fierce Capitol attacks on police in newly released videos,tweets_news_326,tweets_news
"Facebook Inc.'s independent oversight board issued its first round of rulings Thursday, overturning four out of five of the company's decisions to remove posts with controversial content.

""None of these cases had easy answers and deliberations revealed the enormous complexity of the issues involved,"" the board said in a statement on its ruling.

Two of the cases concerned hate speech. In one case, Facebook removed a post that included widely shared images of a Syrian toddler who drowned attempting to reach Europe. The user, based in Myanmar, said there was something wrong with Muslims either psychologically or with their mindset. The board said that while the post might be offensive, it didn't reach the level of hate speech.

In the second case, a post used a Russian word, which Facebook considered a slur, to describe Azerbaijanis. The board upheld Facebook's decision, confirming that the term is a ""dehumanizing slur attacking national origin.""

Other cases the board overturned concerned a post about breast cancer symptoms that was taken down for violating standards on nudity. The board said it was an example of a ""lack of proper human oversight.""

Another criticized the lack of health strategy in France and included claims that a cure for COVID-19 exists.",Facebook oversight board reverses decision to take down breast cancer post deemed nudity,tweets_news_327,tweets_news
"

Feb 09, 2021( Axios: https://link.axios.com/join/am-signup?source=aci Delivered by Newstex) A majority of Americans think social media ""has played a role in radicalizing people,"" according to a new poll from Accountable Tech and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner shared exclusively with Axios.The big picture: As misinformation proliferates online about COVID-19, vaccines and politics, social platforms are walking a tightrope between protecting freedom of speech and tamping down the flow of misleading content. Online platforms have taken major steps to reduce the amount of misinformation and extremist content online, especially since the Jan.

6 Capitol riot, but it's a never-ending challenge. By the numbers: In an online poll of 1000 registered voters[1] taken Jan. 28-31, 44% of respondents strongly agreed and 41% somewhat agreed with the statement that social media has played a role in radicalizing people. 71% of respondents said the federal government should impose stronger regulation on social media platforms, and 74% said misinformation on social media is an extremely or very serious problem.On the suspension of former president Donald Trump from Twitter, Facebook and other platforms, 47% of respondents said it came too late, 16% said it came at the right time, and 37% opposed the suspensions altogether.76% said social media platforms are",Exclusive: Majority polled believe social media radicalizes people,tweets_news_328,tweets_news
"KENOSHA - Prosecutors on Thursday charged a 17-year-old from Illinois in the fatal shooting of two protesters and the wounding of a third in Kenosha during a night of unrest following the weekend police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Kyle Rittenhouse faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide, one count of first-degree reckless homicide, one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment. He would face a mandatory life sentence if convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, the most serious crime in Wisconsin.

The attack late Tuesday - largely caught on cellphone video and posted online - and the shooting by police Sunday of Blake, a 29-year-old Black father of six who was left paralyzed from the waist down, made Kenosha the latest focal point in the fight against racial injustice that has gripped the country since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.

Kenosha police faced questions about their interactions with the gunman on Tuesday night. According to witness accounts and video footage, police apparently let the gunman walk past them and leave the scene with a rifle over his shoulder and his hands in the air, as members of the crowd yelled for him to",ILL. TEEN CHARGED IN MULTIPLE SHOOTINGS,tweets_news_329,tweets_news
"

Feb 20, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/Delivered by Newstex) New York Times political reporter Maggie Astor noted Sen. Elizabeth Warren's fierce takedown of late entry Mike Bloomberg Thursday morning after the fiery Las Vegas debate, and betrayed both pro-Warren cheerleading and grievous gaps in her knowledge of popular political analysts: 'Elizabeth Warren, Criticizing Bloomberg, Sent a Message: She Won't Be Ignored[1].'The Times probably didn't want the Fatal Attraction echo[2] that headline might cause. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts took the stage Wednesday night in Las Vegas with one task: to reassert herself in a race where attention had slipped away from her.

And she did not wait to be called on. From the first minutes of the Democratic debate, when she leapt into an exchange about general-election appeal and went forcefully after Michael R. Bloomberg's record of sexist comments, Ms. Warren made two things clear: She would not be ignored, and she would not hide her anger, so often a liability for women in politics. .... Her performance seemed, at least in the immediate aftermath, to shift the conversation surrounding Ms. Warren after she finished third in the Iowa caucuses and fourth in New Hampshire. Her allies noted that despite finishing ahead of",Maggie Astor at New York Times Cheers Liz Warren Vs. 'Conservative'... Jennifer Rubin?,tweets_news_330,tweets_news
"Facebook is launching podcasts and live audio streams in the U.S. on Monday to keep users engaged on its platform and to compete with emerging rivals . Facebook says...

Facebook is launching podcasts and live audio streams in the U.S. on Monday to keep users engaged on its platform and to compete with emerging rivals . Facebook says it is allowing public figures with verified accounts to start live audio rooms and invite ...

Facebook is launching podcasts and live audio streams in the U.S. on Monday to keep users engaged on its platform and to compete with emerging rivals . Facebook says it is allowing public figures with verified accounts to start live audio rooms and invite anyone else to speak. A handful of podcasts will be available to people in the U.S. at first and the company plans to add more down the line. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has appeared on the video streaming app Clubhouse in the past, hosted his own live audio room on his Facebook page last week. “Live Audio Rooms and podcasts rolling out in the US is just the beginning of our audio journey,” wrote Fidji Simo, head of the Facebook app, in a blog","Facebook launches podcasts, live audio service",tweets_news_331,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dealt President Donald Trump a major setback on his hardline immigration policies, blocking his bid to end a program that protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants - often called ""Dreamers"" - who entered the United States illegally as children.

The justices on a 5-4 vote upheld lower court rulings that found that Trump's 2017 move to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, created in 2012 by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, was unlawful.

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's four liberals in finding that the administration's actions were ""arbitrary and capricious"" under a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act.

The ruling means that the roughly 649,000 immigrants, mostly young Hispanic adults born in Mexico and other Latin American countries, currently enrolled in DACA will remain protected from deportation and eligible to obtain renewable two-year work permits.

The ruling does not prevent Trump from trying again to end the program. But his administration is unlikely to be able to end DACA before the Nov. 3 election in which Trump is seeking a second four-year term in office.

""We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies. We",U.S. Supreme Court blocks Trump bid to end 'Dreamers' immigrant program,tweets_news_332,tweets_news
"YouTube has already implemented a large number of different policies that have helped to maintain that in a responsible way, Susan Wojcicki said.

Topline

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said in an interview Monday that the company is looking at its QAnon policy, but stopped short of committing to an outright ban as Facebook did last week.

<figure class=""embed-base image-embed embed-2"">

<figcaption>

Susan Wojcicki speaks onstage at the WIRED25 Summit in San Francisco.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for WIRED25

</figcaption> </figure>

Key Facts

In an interview on the Boss Files podcast with CNN anchor Poppy Harlow, WojcickisaidYouTube is looking very closely at QAnon and has already implemented a large number of different policies that have helped to maintain that in a responsible way.""

As it stands, YouTube, which is owned by Google, only removes QAnon content when it violates other policies related to hate or harassment, and instead tries to de-amplify borderline content that doesn t explicitly break its rules.

On why YouTube takes a less aggressive approach than Facebook, Wojcicki said: ""I think the way to approach it is by actually having the policies implemented in the right way. And our platform is very different from how Facebook works. And so I think each of us will take an approach that makes",YouTube CEO Doesn t Commit To Banning QAnon,tweets_news_333,tweets_news
"People protesting outside of the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. A White House report is labeling the riot as a ""domestic terrorist attack."" The White House on Tuesday released a report that designates the Jan. 6 Capitol riot a “domestic terrorist attack” and endorses an internet purge of “extremist” content. The description is likely to draw...

People protesting outside of the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. A White House report is labeling the riot as a ""domestic terrorist attack."" The White House on Tuesday released a report that designates the Jan. 6 Capitol riot a “domestic terrorist att...

People protesting outside of the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. A White House report is labeling the riot as a ""domestic terrorist attack."" The White House on Tuesday released a report that designates the Jan. 6 Capitol riot a “domestic terrorist attack” and endorses an internet purge of “extremist” content. The description is likely to draw stiff disagreement from allies of former President Donald Trump who say that the riot, which disrupted certification of President Biden’s victory, has been used to facilitate political censorship. The Biden administration report also calls for beefed up cooperation between the feds and private internet companies","White House calls Capitol riot ‘terrorist attack,’ endorses ‘extremist’ internet purge",tweets_news_334,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

The social media company fails to prevent the spread of misinformation and incitement of violence. Democracy continues to suffer the consequences.

BODY

For years, experts have warned that misinformation and conspiracy theories can spread like wildfires on social media platforms like Facebook, and indeed they have: Foreign governments have been able to interfere with elections around the world by spreading misinformation, and social media platforms have been some of their main conduits; in the United States, public officials all the way up to the president — perhaps the worst offender — have used their accounts to spread dangerous lies that undermine democracy and incite violence. Facebook had years to build safeguards to prevent this kind of misuse from unleashing another disaster in the 2020 election. Instead, it made some piecemeal adjustments that often seemed to address its own public relations concerns rather than protect democracy. Now, two weeks after the latest presidential election, American democracy is suffering the consequences of Facebook's failures — failures, it should be noted, that were born of inaction on the company's part and of government inaction.

In order to prevent bad-faith actors from spreading misinformation, for example, Facebook said it would not accept new political ads in the",Facebook failed American democracy — again,tweets_news_335,tweets_news
"

Apr 08, 2020( Law and Crime: https://lawandcrime.com/ Delivered by Newstex) The Department of Justice is seemingly doing all it can to deter people from falsely claiming that they have the coronavirus and intend on spreading it to others, even if that means federally prosecuting them for empty threats they make on Facebook. According the DOJ, San Antonio-area man Christopher Charles Perez, 39, is in federal custody after he allegedly perpetrated a 'COVID-19-related hoax.' Perez is accused of claiming on Facebook that he paid a person to spread coronavirus at grocery stores in order to prevent the spread of the virus.

Seriously. Per the press release[1]: Perez allegedly posted a threat on Facebook in which he claimed to have paid someone to spread coronavirus at grocery stores in the San Antonio area because he was trying to deter people from visiting the stores, purportedly in order to prevent the spread of the virus. A screenshot of that posted threat was sent by an online tip to the Southwest Texas Fusion Center (SWTFC) on Sunday. The SWTFC contacted the FBI office in San Antonio for further investigation. To be clear, the alleged threat was false; no one spread coronavirus at grocery stores, according",Texas Man Charged for Perpetrating a Coronavirus-Related 'Hoax' on Facebook: DOJ,tweets_news_336,tweets_news
"

May 27, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; Who watches the watchman?Social media giants are out of control. By: Aaron Klein,[1] 27 May 2020: Twitter for the first time put a fact-check label on tweets from President Trump, using the controversial tactic on messages in which the president complained there is 'no way' that 'mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.'

It may be instructive that Twitter seized on the mail-in balloting tweets as the first issue from Trump's rapid fire social media feed to slap with a fact-check label. Twitter did not disclose in its so-called fact-check it is partners with two groups financed by leftist donors that engage in voter participation efforts, including drives pushing mail-in balloting. Twitter sits on the 'Premier Partner' list of one of those groups alongside ViacomCBS, the merger of Viacom and CBS. Twitter's so-called fact-check[2] about Trump's mail-in balloting cited CBS political reporter Grace Segers vouching for mail-in voting. Analysts have posited such proposals help the Democratic Party. Republicans specifically fear[3] the prospect of voter fraud, since mail-in voting would be harder to authenticate. Yesterday, Trump tweeted the following, earning him the badge reading 'Get the facts about mail-in",Twitter's Trump 'Fact Check' Leaves Out Ties to Groups Pushing Cheat-by-Mail,tweets_news_337,tweets_news
"Walmart, Amazon and other corporate giants donated money to the reelection campaign of a Tennessee state lawmaker who had used social media to amplify and promote the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to an Associated Press review of campaign finance records and the candidate's posts.The corporate support for a QAnon-promoting politician is another example of how the conspiracy theory has penetrated mainstream politics, spreading beyond its origins on internet message boards popular with right-wing extremists.Dozens of QAnon-promoting candidates have run for federal or state offices during this election cycle. Collectively, they have raised millions of dollars from thousands of donors. Individually, however, most of them have run poorly financed campaigns with little or no corporate or party backing. Unlike state Rep. Susan Lynn, who chairs the Tennessee House finance committee, few are incumbents who can attract corporate PAC money.Though she repeatedly posted a well-known QAnon slogan on her Twitter and Facebook accounts, Lynn told the AP in an interview Sept. 18 that she does not support the conspiracy theory.

Walmart did not respond to repeated requests for comment made by email and through its website. An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for another donor to Lynn's campaign, Kentucky-based distillery company","Walmart, Amazon among donors to QAnon-promoting lawmaker",tweets_news_338,tweets_news
"Brussels: International Federation of Journalists has issued the following press release:

The Arab Center for the Development of Social Media (7amleh) documented 500 violations of digital rights in Palestine between 6 and 29 May. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) expressed deep concerns over the role of social media platforms in enabling the censorship and threats during the recent events in Palestine and Israel and demanded urgent explanations from the companies.

The report, “The Attacks on Palestinian Digital Rights”, published on 21 May, documents how, since May 6th, when the Israeli supreme court announced its decision to forcibly displace Palestinians living in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and following the attacks on Al-Aqsa mosque, large amounts of Palestinian content and accounts were removed or restricted on social media platforms.

According to the report, content and accounts were removed, reduced and restricted, hashtags were hidden, and archived content deleted. 50% of the reported incidents involved Instagram, 35% Facebook, 11% Twitter and 1% Tik Tok. 3% of the complaints did not include sufficient information to be reported to companies.

7amleh reported that, in most of the cases, social media companies did not provide a clear justification for the deletion of",Palestine: Digital rights massively violated since May 6,tweets_news_339,tweets_news
"For parents of young children, the question of ""screen time"" is often a vexed one. How much is too much? Is it OK to let them sit quietly, eyes glued to the screen? Earlier this year, a leaked memo revealed Facebook was considering making phones even more enticing for children by potentially developing a version of Instagram...

For parents of young children, the question of ""screen time"" is often a vexed one. How much is too much? Is it OK to let them sit quietly, eyes glued to the screen? Earlier this year, a leaked memo revealed Facebook was considering making phones even more ...

For parents of young children, the question of ""screen time"" is often a vexed one. How much is too much? Is it OK to let them sit quietly, eyes glued to the screen? Earlier this year, a leaked memo revealed Facebook was considering making phones even more enticing for children by potentially developing a version of Instagram catering to and targeted at under 13s. The response, as you might expect, was a general outcry. A global list of prominent public health and child advocacy experts promptly co-signed a letter expressing their concern. Mark Zuckerberg has received letters","Instagram for kids looms, as research suggests screen time impacts child brain development",tweets_news_340,tweets_news
"As a major advertising publication covering Facebook, we often ask whether brands will leave the platform over the latest scandal: the Cambridge Analytica data leak, inflated video metrics or its do-nothing approach on President Donald Trump’s incendiary posts.

More often than not, the answer we hear from brands and media buyers is “no.”

Facebook holds a commanding presence in the digital marketing space. It not only owns the second-largest slice of the digital ad pie, according to eMarketer, but marketers frequently say it’s the most affordable and effective way to target people online. Simply put, it’s hard to quit.

But the gravity of a decision by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to leave up Trump’s “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” post is resonating differently in media buying circles. The platform is facing calls for a new advertising boycott in July that has quickly grown larger than any before.

Major brands have been joining the boycott every day for about a week, putting pressure on Facebook to root out hate speech and misinformation by average users and world leaders alike.

After a number of smaller brands said they would stop giving ad dollars to Facebook over the past few weeks, The North Face became the first",Why This Facebook Boycott Is Different,tweets_news_341,tweets_news
"Text of report by website of leading English-language Pakistani daily Dawn

A report by The Wall Street Journal that Facebook Incs content regulation policies favoured Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis party shows that the social media giant is ""no longer impartial"" and it must take practical steps to redeem its independence, Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Aminul Haque said on Thursday.

The world's largest social network is battling a public relations and political crisis in India after WSJ reported last week that Facebook's top lobbying executive in India, Ankhi Das, opposed applying its hate-speech rules to a member of Modis party and at least three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence.

A statement issued by the IT ministry said Haque had expressed ""serious concern"" over Facebook's alleged policies favouring Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

It quoted the minister as saying that the company had continuously ignored hate speech and sectarian content shared by BJP leaders and workers.

Haque said a proof of the allegation that Facebook ""holds a soft corner for the BJP and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)"" was that it had flagged as ""hate speech"" posts put up by users across","Facebook 'no longer impartial', says Pakistan minister",tweets_news_342,tweets_news
"•Time magazine's latest cover is a fawning picture of Joe Biden with Vladimir Putin reflected in his aviators•It came as Biden prepares to meet with Putin at a summit in Geneva next week•Twitter users ripped the art with snippy critiques, gifs, memes and jokes about the 78-year-old Biden's age•'What in the hell kind of fan fiction comic book is this cover?' one user said•Some played off Donald Trump's advice for Biden: 'Good luck to Biden in dealing with President Putin - don't fall asleep during the meeting'

Time magazine's latest cover is a fawning picture of Joe Biden with Vladimir Putin reflected in his aviators

It came as Biden prepares to meet with Putin at a summit in Geneva next week

Twitter users ripped the art with snippy critiques, gifs, memes and jokes about the 78-year-old Biden's age

'What in the hell kind of fan fiction comic book is this cover?' one user said

Some played off Donald Trump's advice for Biden: 'Good luck to Biden in dealing with President Putin - don't fall asleep during the meeting'

Time magazine's fawning cover of Joe Biden looking younger with Vladimir Putin in his aviator sunglasses is Twitter's newest meme playground, with the president's critics ripping into the",'What kind of fan fiction comic book is this?' Time magazine is mocked for its fawning cover with wrinkle-free Biden in aviators 'taking on Putin' ahead of their meeting at Geneva summit,tweets_news_343,tweets_news
"Facebook Inc on Friday suspended former U.S. President Donald Trump from its platform until at least January 2023 in a decision that has been watched closely for signals on how the company will treat rule-breaking world leaders in the future.

The social media giant's independent oversight board in May upheld its block on Trump, which was enforced in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol over concerns that his posts were inciting violence.

However, the board ruled it was wrong to make the ban indefinite and gave it six months to determine a ""proportionate response.""

Trump's suspension was effective from the initial date in January and will only be reinstated if conditions permit, Facebook said in a blog post.

""Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump's suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols,"" Facebook said.

The decision came on the same day as Europe and Britain launched formal antitrust investigations into whether Facebook misuses its vast trove of customer data.

Social media companies have grappled in recent years with how to handle world leaders and politicians that violate their guidelines.

Facebook has come",Facebook suspends former U.S. President Trump's account for two years,tweets_news_344,tweets_news
"Tensions flared in Tehran as anti-government demonstrators protested the regime`s stunning admission that it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian jetliner, killing all one hundred seventy-six people on board. On Twitter, President Trump urged Iran`s leaders ""do not kill your protesters.""

ELAINE QUIJANO: Now to the latest on Iran. The today, the country`s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei called for greater cooperation in the region and blamed the U.S. for a, quote, ""corruptive presence."" In Washington, Defense Secretary Mike Esper appeared to contradict President Trump`s justification for killing Iran`s top general, taking both countries to the brink of war. Here`s Nikole Killion.

(Begin VT)

(Crowd protesting)

NIKOLE KILLION (CBS News Correspondent): Tensions flared in Tehran as anti- government demonstrators protested the regime`s stunning admission that it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian jetliner, killing all one hundred seventy- six people on board. On Twitter, President Trump urged Iran`s leaders ""do not kill your protesters.""

MIKE ESPER (Secretary of Defense; FACE THE NATION): The Iranian people are standing up and asserting their rights.

NIKOLE KILLION: On FACE THE NATION, Defense Secretary Mike Esper insisted the U.S. is safer since taking out Iran`s top General Qassem Soleimani, but saw no specific evidence that Iran was planning attacks, targeting four American embassies",Iran`s supreme leader calls U.S. as corruptive presence,tweets_news_345,tweets_news
"James Domen, a self-described ""former homosexual"" who formed an organization called ""Church United"" as a non-profit religious corporation in California to promote conversion therapy, has lost his lawsuit against Vimeo, which cancelled Church United's account and deleted its videos. The Manhattan-based US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled on March 11, in a decision on a question not previously decided in the Second Circuit — that Section 230(c)(2) of the federal Communications Decency Act (CDA) protects the right of internet service providers to decide whom to host on their platforms, preempting state anti-discrimination laws. Vimeo has a policy barring the promotion of conversion therapy (which its practitioners call ""sexual orientation change efforts,"" or SOCE) from its platform.

Circuit Judge Rosemary Pooler wrote for the court that Vimeo's policy ""fell within the confines of the good-faith content policing immunity that the CDA provides to interactive computer services.""

Domen describes himself as the president and founder of Church United, claiming that he ""was a homosexual"" for three years but ""because of his desire to pursue his faith in Christianity, he began to identify as a former homosexual."" He started Church United in 1994, intending to ""equip pastors to positively impact the political","""Former Homosexual"" Kicked Off Vimeo",tweets_news_346,tweets_news
"Vice President Mike Pence made campaign stops in Pennsylvania on Monday - the last day residents in the battleground state could register to vote - to make a closing argument for President Donald J. Trump, who is trailing in the polls with 15 days until the general election.

Pence spent most of his hourlong speech at Capital City Airport near New Cumberland by revisting what worked in the past.

The Trump campaign in 2016 narrowly won Pennsylvania by little more than 44,000 votes, or less than 1 percentage point. But the upset victory in Pennsylvania and other blue-collar Rust Belt states helped Trump turn ""reliably blue"" states red and win the presidency.

Trump won on promises to bring back coal and steel jobs that once helped Pennsylvania small towns flourish. When those jobs were lost to automation, low demand and global trade deals, many working-class communities were forced to reinvent themselves.

Despite the highest unemployment levels in Pennsylvania since the early 1980s, when the steel industry collapsed, Pence said Trump made America great again.

""And then the coronavirus came,"" said the vice president, who heads the White House task force that oversees the pandemic.

""We're one day closer to being done with the coronavirus,"" Pence said.

His",VP Pence campaigns near New Cumberland,tweets_news_347,tweets_news
"The 100-page report claims Facebook has made a ""seesaw of progress and setbacks"" on civil rights

Facebook has been accused of ""painful"" failings in civil rights in a damning self-commissioned audit into its policies and practices.

The report found the social network, which owns WhatsApp and Instagram, made ""vexing and heartbreaking"" decisions by prioritising free speech over other values, such equality.

Auditors highlighted several ""serious issues"", saying that the company has made a ""seesaw of progress and setbacks"" on civil rights despite pressure from lawmakers.

The 100-page audit was commissioned two years ago by Facebook from Laura Murphy, a civil rights activist, and the law firm Relman Colfax.

It comes as Facebook faces anunprecedented boycott by nearly 1,000 advertisers. The boycotting firms include companies such as Unileverand Starbucks,that spendtens of millions of pounds on social networking sites.

Civil Rights leaders spoke to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday. However, leaders have accused the executives of answering concerns with ""spin"".

""Unfortunately, in our view Facebook's approach to civil rights remains too reactive and piecemeal,"" the report said.

Among other issues, the audit found Facebook was not sufficiently dealing with concerns around how its ""algorithms used by Facebook inadvertently fuel extreme and polarising content"".

Auditors singled out criticism for a",Facebook accused of 'heartbreaking' civil rights failings by own audit,tweets_news_348,tweets_news
"Sir Ed used a piece in the Independent to condemn the horror tragedy of last week's gunning down of a passenger plane by Iran. The downed flight killed 176 people after it was shot down and crashing in Tehran. In his piece, Sir Ed claimed Mr Johnson needed to stand up to US President Donald Trump after the attacks.

Related articles

However, people on Twitter were quick to criticise the interim Lib Dem leader for his party's role in Mr Johnson's rise to Government.

On the social media platform, Sir Ed initially wrote: ""We all know there's an elephant in the room when it comes to Boris Johnson's foreign policy: a Republican elephant.

""Liberal Democrats will challenge this Conservative government to uphold the rules-based international system.""

It was posted alongside the Independent article.

On Twitter, many were critical of Sir Ed's comments.

One wrote: ""There will be an elephant in the room when Ed Davey gives his first full speech.""

Another said: ""Lol you guys are in Dreamland you can't do anything!""

And a third added: ""Delusions of competency.

JUST IN: Luvvie actor MOCKED on Twitter after failing to help Lib Dems win

Related articles

""And given that it was you and Swinson that HANDED the election to the Tories, it's your",Lib Dem humiliation: Sir Ed Davey sparks Twitterstorm after controversial tweet backfires,tweets_news_349,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not ""backpedal"" on the number of deaths caused by COVID-19, reducing the figure from nearly 154,000 to just over 9,000, as social media posts claimed.

The term ""Only 6%"" trended widely on Twitter over the weekend as supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory promoted tweets that falsely suggested the CDC had updated its records to show that only 6% of U.S. deaths tied to COVID-19 were legitimate.

President Donald Trump was among those who tweeted the information, which was later taken down by Twitter for violating platform rules.

Twitter removes QAnon conspiracy theory claiming CDC 'quietly' updated COVID-19 numbers

The posts, which received hundreds of thousands of shares online, were based on a regularly updated CDC data table showing underlying conditions for those who died of COVID-19. The conditions included high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, as well as problems that are caused by COVID-19 itself, such as respiratory failure and pneumonia.

The CDC data table is based on an analysis of death certificates that mention COVID-19 as a cause. For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned, the CDC notes.

The other 94% list COVID-19 and other conditions together. Among those","No, the CDC has not reduced the death count related to COVID-19",tweets_news_350,tweets_news
"Two more Republicans have joined the 2020 race for Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District, which includes Scott County and is represented by Democrat Angie Craig.

Tyler Kistner, a reserve officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and new Prior Lake resident, joined the race this month and said Wednesday he wants to bring a servant-leader and limited-government perspective to Congress.

Kerry Zeiler has also filed for the seat with the Federal Election Commission. His website describes him as a small businessman and attorney, though he doesn't appear in the Minnesota Attorney Registration System. He didn't respond to messages requesting comment this week to his website and campaign Facebook page.

The pair join Rick Olson, a Prior Lake Rotary Club member and former Michigan state legislator, who announced his run for the Republican candidacy in September. Primary voters in August will choose which represents the party against Craig, who has said she plans to run for a second term.

Kistner, 32, said he graduated from Champlin Park High School in Brooklyn Park and the University of Minnesota before joining the Marine Corps and its special operations regiment for almost a decade.

He shifted to a reserve position last year and moved to Prior Lake from Camp Lejeune a",Three Republicans vie for chance to run against Craig (copy),tweets_news_351,tweets_news
"Simi Sasagi won't be the player on any Knights' fans lips this week.

He won't feature on the club's team sheet for Friday night's season-opener against the Bulldogs at McDonald Jones Stadium.

If truth be known, he's hardly featured on any team sheet at all over the past two seasons. But the prodigiously talented young Knights utility back is aiming to finally change all that in 2021.

He's out to make up for lost time after a frustrating long-term injury and the COVID shutdown basically put him out of action over the past two seasons.

Outside of an eye-catching senior debut for the Knights at the NRL Nines in Perth during the 2020 pre-season, only the most devout Knights fan would have even seen him play.

Before his Nines appearance, the Auckland-born 19-year-old's only previous game in the past two years was an Under 20's clash against Manly in early 2019 in Newcastle. It was a game the young Knights won in a canter with Sasagi and Bradman Best scoring four tries each in a 60-plus point drubbing of the Eagles.

But having starred for the club in just about every position on the field from prop to wing the previous year in the S G",Knights young gun ready to make up for lost time,tweets_news_352,tweets_news
"BENGALURU: Popular short-videos platform TikTok has expanded its community guidelines to further ban 'misleading' information that causes harm, content that sexually objectifies minors, promotes 'hateful' ideologies, and hate speech based on immigration status and caste. TikTok said in a blog post on Wednesday that the changes offer clarity around how it defines harmful or unsafe content not permitted on the platform. It is important that users get an insight into the philosophy behind its moderation decisions and the framework for making such judgments, the Chinese startup ByteDance-owned platform said.

TikTok has come under fire globally for hosting content that is seen as harmful to children. The updated guidelines are longer and more detailed than the previous version. ""Another way to view our mission is this: spending time on TikTok is meant to be rewarding and fun. That doesn't mean serious or controversial content doesn't have a place on our platform; ultimately, the platform is built to support our users and their diverse thoughts, experiences, and interests,"" said Lavanya Mahendran and Nasser Alsherif, Global Trust and Safety, TikTok. TikTok said it does not permit misinformation that could cause harm to its community or the larger public. It added that users must not","TikTok updates community guidelines, bans 'misleading' information, 'hateful' ideologies",tweets_news_353,tweets_news
"How dare Donald Trump? He's done it again! As he did four years ago, the outgoing and certainly most controversial President of the United States is not following the lead of opinion pollsters, analysts and journalists. Because just under 50 percent of Americans voted for a man whom just under 100 percent of the media people in his country, but also in ours, had declared absolutely ineligible, the Democratic saviour did not achieve the firmly booked landslide victory.

The Twitter universe was hailing with reckoning with reality: Why are the Americans so stupid? Why the hell doesn't this stubborn race of people stick to morals and world conscience? And why were four years with the chaotic anti-democrat Trump not a lesson in democracy for over 70 million of his electoral backsliders? While Donald Trump and his own irresponsibly blather about stolen victory and total war, his arrogant opponents are forced to beat their breasts. They have, as in 2016, assessed the mood completely wrong and have made it almost impossible for the citizens to form an opinion - not only about Trump, who has become a populist, but above all about the divided electorate. Jake Tapper, moderator of the CNN election",Media failure,tweets_news_354,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Encrypted app Telegram is the platform of choice for extremist groups.

FULL TEXT

Many Trump supporters have turned to the encrypted app Telegram as an ongoing contact point, as major tech companies act to limit the spread of the kind of violent rhetoric that led to the storming of the US Capitol and the deaths of five people. The indefinite removal of Donald Trump from Twitter and Facebook initially resulted in the migration of Trump supporters to Parler, an alternative platform that is less stringently moderated. Parler was used by Trump supporters to rally support for the Washington DC riots and to propagate the lie of a stolen election. The platform also featured a remark from Lin Wood, a pro-Trump lawyer, calling for the execution of Vice-President Mike Pence. This has only just been removed. Over the weekend, Parlerites saw their platform bumped off Google Play (the app store for Android devices) and Apple's application hub. The site also had its server access to Amazon removed as a result of posts that incited the riot. This has left Trump supporters with little option but to establish their network on Telegram. Telegram is the platform of choice for extremist groups, arms dealers and","After Twitter, Facebook and Parler, Trumpists head to a new platform",tweets_news_355,tweets_news
"Unidentified flying objects are 'convenient distraction for Deep State to turn our attention away from important issues,' conspiracy theorists claim

QAnon conspiracy theorists are now convinced that the recent uptick in revelations and interest in UFOs is a way to distract the public from the so-called ""Big Lie"" pushed by former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Followers of QAnon also believe that the renewed interest in the extraterrestrial world is being used to pull attention away from conspiracy theories about theCovid-19 pandemic.

""There's no doubt that this mainstream UFO disclosure push is offering a convenient distraction for the Deep State to turn our attention away from important issues like the Scamdemic and the election fraud getting exposed,"" UFO and QAnon conspiracy theorist Jordan Sather wrote on social media platform Telegram on 19 May.

Mr Sather has argued that the renewed attention being paid to UFOs is a way for left-wing ""social justice warriors"" to ""virtue signal"". His response is typical of the QAnon crowd, The Daily Beast reported.

InfoWars, a gathering place for conspiracy theorists, has published numerous articles about UFOs, but the outlet has recently started to view possible new revelations about alien",QAnon followers now convinced UFOs are being used to distract from Trump's 'Big Lie',tweets_news_356,tweets_news
"As much as half of money doled out through pandemic unemployment benefit programs may have gone to scammers , says Axios . ""Unemployment fraud during the pandemic could easily reach $400 billion,"" it adds, ""and the bulk of the money likely ended in the hands of foreign crime syndicates."" That's an insanely high—and disturbing—estimate, as well as...

As much as half of money doled out through pandemic unemployment benefit programs may have gone to scammers , says Axios . ""Unemployment fraud during the pandemic could easily reach $400 billion,"" it adds, ""and the bulk of the money likely ended in the han...

As much as half of money doled out through pandemic unemployment benefit programs may have gone to scammers , says Axios . ""Unemployment fraud during the pandemic could easily reach $400 billion,"" it adds, ""and the bulk of the money likely ended in the hands of foreign crime syndicates."" That's an insanely high—and disturbing—estimate, as well as one that seems to vindicate the worst fears about fraud in U.S. unemployment insurance programs. It's also pretty thinly sourced, coming from one dude—ID.me CEO Blake Hall—with a vested interest in fearmongering around identity theft. His company is in the business of online",Massive Unemployment Spending Attracts Scammers and Criminals,tweets_news_357,tweets_news
"Mumbai, Feb. 28 -- Maharashtra minister of state for information technology (IT) Satej Patil on Saturday criticised the Central government's regulations for social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter and over-the-top (OTT) players such as content streaming platforms, calling them ""dictatorial"" and a threat to democracy and freedom of expression.

Patil clarified that this is his personal stand and he is yet to discuss the issue with his colleagues in the state government. He told Hindustan Times, ""The regulations curtail freedom of expression. With these regulations, privacy of individuals will be threatened. As of now, if the government wants anything which is anti-national and objectionable taken off the social media platforms, the social media companies cooperate. So there is no need to bring these regulations, unless the government wants access to everyone's social media.""

He added, ""We saw what happened in the United States; former president Donald Trump's Twitter account was deactivated. This shows that even presently in the law, there are mechanisms to ensure such type of content can be removed. What the government is seeking to do through these new regulations is gain control of the content, which is not acceptable.""

Patil also said that some bureaucrats deciding on what",Centre's new social media regulations dictatorial: Maharashtra IT minister Satej Patil,tweets_news_358,tweets_news
"Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc on Tuesday suspended several recently created right-leaning news accounts posting information about voting in the hotly contested U.S. election for violating their policies.

Twitter said the accounts had been suspended for violating its policy against ""coordination,"" posting identical content while appearing independent or engaging in other covertly automated behaviour. Facebook suspended them for inauthentic behaviour.

One of those suspended, SVNewsAlerts, had more 78,000 Twitter followers, after adding more than 10,000 in the past week.

The account frequently warned of election-related unrest and highlighted issues with voting safety and reliability. It pointed to fraud claims about Democrats and called attention to Republican President Donald Trump's rallies and speeches.

Other accounts suspended by Twitter included FJNewsReporter, Crisis_Intel and Faytuks.

A Facebook page also named SVNewsAlerts, which was suspended on Tuesday afternoon, had more than 20,000 followers. Facebook declined to comment further.

False or exaggerated reports about voting fraud and delays at the polls circulated on social media throughout the day, in some cases helped along by Republican accounts and online publications.

Election Day 2020 barely begun and Pennsylvania Republicans let loose with first lawsuit( https://nationalpost.com/news/world/election-day-2020-barely-begun-and-pennsylvania-republicans-let-loose-with-first-lawsuit )

Pollsters say Trump can still win despite what their numbers show( https://nationalpost.com/news/world/ballot-shock-repeat-of-2016-polling-miscue-that-predicted-trump-loss-possible-experts-say )

The FBI and the New York attorney","Twitter, Facebook suspend right-leaning accounts for suspicious behaviour surrounding U.S. election",tweets_news_359,tweets_news
"Shareable online images of chimpanzees, elephants and other animals are threatening their conservation and welfare.

Limbani the chimpanzee has about 650,000 Instagram followers. In recent months the account has featured viral photos and videos of the captive young ape playing the guitar, bouncing on a trampoline and wearing a giant banana costume.

Fans are also offered real-life encounters with the chimp at a Miami facility, paying US$700 for a ten-minute session.

Experts, including renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall, have raised concerns about Limbani's care. They question why he is not in the company of other chimpanzees, and say his exposure to humans could cause stress and other health issues.

So before you click on or share wildlife content online, it's worth considering how you might affect a species' welfare and conservation in the wild.

Smiling chimps are actually stressed

Chimpanzees are frequently depicted in greeting cards, advertisements, film, television and internet images. They are often clothed, in human-like poses and settings. These performing animals are usually taken from their mothers as infants, physically disciplined in training, and can spend their retirement in poorly regulated roadside attractions or breeding facilities.

For example the chimpanzee, who appeared with Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Streethas reportedly since been","Before you hit 'share' on that cute animal photo, consider the harm it can cause",tweets_news_360,tweets_news
"After weeks of enduring concrete jersey walls, barbed wire fences surrounding federal buildings, and large swaths of streets cordoned off to traffic in my adopted hometown of Washington, D.C., the city now seems eerily empty.

The U.S. capital had to plead for help from the National Guard to defend itself against the deadly Jan. 6 attack by white nationalists and other racist, extremist groups invited here by former President Donald Trump and his ardent defenders. Two-thirds of the 21,000 armed National Guardsmen who enabled us to survive the worst attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812 are returning home, though some have come in contact with the raging pandemic and must be quarantined here for a few more weeks.

The national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., the apostle of nonviolence, came a couple of days before President Joe Biden's inauguration. Normally this day is observed in Washington and elsewhere with ceremonies, parades and acts of selfless service such as volunteering at soup kitchens, visiting with isolated aging citizens in nursing homes, and cleaning trash from overgrown empty lots.

Instead, with the insurrectionists planning more violence for Inauguration Day, terrified Washington residents were huddled in their homes behind locked doors. Businesses",Peaceful civil rights protests show way forward for US,tweets_news_361,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced this week that he would fine social media companies that ban political candidates. Every outlet from Fox News to MSNBC fired off missives about the bill. What got lost in the news coverage is that Silicon Valley deplatforms very few politicians, save shock-jocks like Donald Trump and Laura Loomer (if you want to call her a politician). The same cannot be said for sex workers.

This month, Centro University released a study estimating that 46 percent of adult influencers reported losing access to Twitter or Instagram in the last year. The bans put a permanent dent in the stars’ income, with Centro estimating sex workers lose $260 million a year due to social media bans. You won’t hear DeSantis, Fox News, Glenn Greenwald, or any other so-called free speech warriors decrying porn stars’ lost incomes, so let me break down how social media companies are screwing over porn stars (and not screwing them in a good way!).

Silicon Valley titans have revoked my social media access multiple times. Take my recent Snapchat ban. The Santa Monica-based app barred me from posting on my public account, so I lost the means to communicate with fans who would",Think Conservatives Are Censored on Social Media? Try Being a Porn Star.,tweets_news_362,tweets_news
"The following information was released by the Cato Institute:

By Matthew Feeney

Earlier this week, the New York Post published articles containing information about alleged emails between Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and employees at Chinese and Ukrainian energy firms. Twitter and Facebook both took steps to limit the spread of the articles, prompting accusations of ""election interference."" Prominent Republican lawmakers took to social media to condemn Twitter's and Facebook's decisions. These accusations and condemnations reveal a misunderstanding of policy that could result in dramatic changes to online speech.

According to Twitter, the company restricted access to the New York Post's articles because it violated the company's policies against spreading personal and private information (such as email addresses and phone numbers) and hacked materials. Twitter cited the same policy when it prohibited users from sharing 269GB of leaked police files. Twitter users who click on links to the two Post articles face a click"" though ""this link may be unsafe"" warning. The articles in question include such information in images of the leaked emails. Those accusing Twitter of a double standard because the company allows users to share the recent New York Times article based on the president's","ACCUSATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ""ELECTION INTERFERENCE"" PUT ONLINE SPEECH AT RISK",tweets_news_363,tweets_news
"As allies abandon the president, his favorite network revives familiar villains for the Biden era. And the prospects for a Trump TV media venture are “greatly diminished.”

As allies abandon the president, his favorite network revives familiar villains for the Biden era. And the prospects for a Trump TV media venture are “greatly diminished.”

His president reeling, his cable network at a crossroads, Tucker Carlson began his show on Thursday night asking a question that has echoed for weeks among anchors and producers at Fox News: “What is life going to be like for us on Jan. 21?”

“Who has got your concerns top of mind? Who wakes up in the middle of the night worried about your family?” Mr. Carlson asked his flock, acknowledging that Mr. Trump would be gone in two weeks “and we cannot change it.”

“The rest of us — and this is the key — will still be here,” he continued. “We’ve got nowhere to go.”

The imminent end of the Trump presidency has presented a challenge to the enormously popular, enormously profitable Fox News — the crown jewel of Rupert Murdoch’s American empire — whose right-wing stars yoked themselves to Mr. Trump more tightly than any other mainstream pundits","As Trump Reels, Fox News Has a Message for Viewers: Stick With Us",tweets_news_364,tweets_news
"Facebook Inc set up a 24-7 “special operations center” last week to respond to content posted on its platform about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict amid violence in the region, the company said on Wednesday. Misinformation, hate speech and calls for violence about...

Facebook Inc set up a 24-7 “special operations center” last week to respond to content posted on its platform about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict amid violence in the region, the company said on Wednesday. Misinformation, hate speech and calls for viole...

Facebook Inc set up a 24-7 “special operations center” last week to respond to content posted on its platform about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict amid violence in the region, the company said on Wednesday. Misinformation, hate speech and calls for violence about the conflict have circulated on social media platforms amid the deadly fighting. “This operations center allows us to closely monitor the situation so we can remove content that violates our community standards faster, while also addressing possible errors in enforcement,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president of content policy, told reporters on a conference call. Facebook has previously set up similar operations centers to focus on situations like global elections. Facebook spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters that Facebook’s head of global",Facebook Deploys Special Team As Israel-Gaza Conflict Spreads Across Social Media,tweets_news_365,tweets_news
"The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - On the day when some of former president Donald Trump's supporters swore he would return to power - and the House suspended its business because of perceived threats to the U.S. Capitol - the District of Columbia looked on Thursday morning much the way it has for the past two months.

National Guard members armed with M4 rifles braced for rebellion that never came. Razor wire lined miles of steel fencing that went unbreached. Trump remained in South Florida, where it was 70 degrees and sunny.

The angst stemmed from another misguided belief within QAnon, the extremist ideology that claims Trump has been working in secret to overthrow a cabal of blood-drinking, Satan-worshipping Democratic pedophiles. After repeated unfulfilled prophecies, the group's supporters declared in recent weeks that Trump would retake office on March 4, the country's original Inauguration Day.

That did not happen, but on Wednesday, the U.S. Capitol Police announced that they had identified a potential plot by a militant group to breach the U.S. Capitol, as hundreds of insurrectionists did on Jan. 6. The threat was apparently credible enough for the House to suspend a Thursday session, though the Senate still convened. And it came just before",March 4 threat from militant Trump supporters proves to be a mirage,tweets_news_366,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

too late. Authorities in Iraq have created a city in the desert to bury the record number of people who have died from coronavirus there. Doctors have issued a stark warning that returning to normal life would be premature, as Covid cases continue to soar. And daily Black Lives Matter protest in Brazil are continuing in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody in the US city of many applets.

Demonstrators say they want to see changes there in policing, deployment and housing. Those are the latest headlines from BBC News. Now on BBC News it's time for Click. This week, hate for sale. The ultraviolet cleaning squad. And Halo, will you be joining team Xbox? Hey, welcome to Click. Now, as more and more places start to open up here in the UK there are some people who are starting to think about whether travelling or going abroad for a summer holiday is",Joins BBC News - 00:30 AM GMT,tweets_news_367,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the second time in a week, President Donald Trump has suffered a withering defeat at the Supreme Court. The decisions that blocked the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and delivered a landmark opinion in favor of LGBTQ workers caused the embattled President to blast out his disappointment.

""Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn't like me?"" Trump asked his Twitter followers.

""These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives,"" he said.

The decisions, coming down as the election heats up, wave a warning flag to Trump's base, which has largely looked past his previous chaotic tweets and other antics since the beginning of his tenure because they believed his implicit promise to win at the Supreme Court.

Instead, Trump has suffered two losses -- one delivered by his own nominee Neil Gorsuch. The decisions come as the presidential candidates prepare to emerge after the Covid-19 quarantine onto the public stage.

Heading out on the trail, Trump might have some explaining to do.

Instead of the Supreme Court, bolstered by two of his nominees, taking",Another bad day for Trump at the Supreme Court,tweets_news_368,tweets_news
"PR Newswire

Researchers from Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC), inventor of the Digimarc Platform for digital identification and detection, will present details of a system for mitigating the problem of Deepfake news videos using digital watermarking at Electronic Imaging 2020 in Burlingame, CA, on Tuesday, January 28, 2020.





The Digimarc research paper describes how watermarking technology can be used to prevent proliferation of Deepfake news. In the proposed system, digital watermarks are embedded in audio and video tracks of video clips of trusted news sources at the time the videos are captured or before they are distributed. The watermarks are detected at social media networks' portals, nodes and back ends. The embedded watermark imparts a unique identifier to the video that links it to a blockchain. The watermarks also allow video source tracking, integrity verification and alteration localization. The watermark detectors can be standalone software applications, or they can be integrated with other applications. The watermark detectors are used to perform three main tasks: (1) alert the internet user when they watch an inauthentic news video, so that they may discard it, (2) prevent a Deepfake news video from propagating through the network, and (3) perform forensic analysis to help track and remove",Digimarc Describes System for Mitigating Problem of Deepfake News Videos Using Digital Watermarking,tweets_news_369,tweets_news
"

Oct 30, 2020( WayneDupree.com: https://www.waynedupree.com Delivered by Newstex) President Donald Trump let loose on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) during a rally in Michigan on Friday, claiming that the freshman congresswoman 'loves' Yemen but 'doesn't love our country.' While speaking at the rally, Trump was pondering if Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would run for president again when he shifted his attention to Omar.

More from Wayne Dupree 'I don't know,' Trump said, pointing out that Sanders 'fights like hell' before questioning if he would be a better opponent than 'Sleepy Joe' Biden. TIRED OF THE ADS? BECOME A PREMIUM USER TODAY!![1] 'Joe has a bigger base but zeroenergy, right?' Trump said. 'We have a big base and we havemore energy than anybody.' The president then shifted to talking about immigration policy, telling the crowd that Biden wants'a700% increase in refugeesfrom the most dangerous terrorist spots anywherein the world including Syria,Somalia, where Omar,Omar — that's the other reason I'm gonna win, Il-han, Il-han Omar.' The crowd began booing as soon as Trump said the radical liberal congresswoman's name. 'She loves ourcountry very much,' he added sarcastically. 'And Yemen, right?Noshe's going to help me win.She's going to protest when I go upthere. And I'll",[VIDEO] Trump Puts Ilhan Omar in the Hot Seat: 'She Loves Yemen But She Doesn't Love Our Country',tweets_news_370,tweets_news
"•The latest Gallup polling, done between October 18 and November 1, found that 58% of Americans are now willing to get an FDA-approved coronavirus shot•That's up from just 50 percent who wanted to get vaccinated in September•Nearly 70% of Democrats are now willing to get vaccinated - but the share of Republicans who would get a shot remains unchanged at 49%•Most people who were unsure if they would get a shot feared vaccines have been rushed•The survey was conducted before, but released just after Pfizer announced its shot is more than 90% effective and Moderna says its blocks 94.5% of infections

The latest Gallup polling, done between October 18 and November 1, found that 58% of Americans are now willing to get an FDA-approved coronavirus shot

That's up from just 50 percent who wanted to get vaccinated in September

Nearly 70% of Democrats are now willing to get vaccinated - but the share of Republicans who would get a shot remains unchanged at 49%

Most people who were unsure if they would get a shot feared vaccines have been rushed

The survey was conducted before, but released just after Pfizer announced its shot is more than 90% effective and Moderna says its blocks 94.5% of","Nearly 60% of Americans WOULD get a coronavirus vaccine, reveals poll taken shortly before it was revealed PFizer's and Moderna' shots are more than 90% effective",tweets_news_371,tweets_news
"The comedian reveals why he chose that title for his first special for the streamer and ruminates on his return to stand-up and why representation matters.

George Lopez returned to stand-up with his Netflix comedy special We'll Do It for Half released on June 30. 

In the special - Lopez's first for Netflix, having previously worked with HBO - the 59-year-old comedian is in fighting form and takes on the pressing issues facing the Latino community during the Trump era, including immigration, the brutality of ICE and the border wall. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lopez explained how he came up with the title of the show, a phrase that has a special significance for the Latino community, revealing that he decided on using the title after his own joke-gone-bad controversy that led to a run-in with the Secret Service.

In January, Lopez responded to an Instagram post that erroneously claimed Iran had offered an $80 million bounty on President Trump as revenge for the assassination of an Iranian general with the words, ""We'll do it for half."" Soon enough, conservatives were looking to the FBI to investigate Lopez for making a threat on the president's life, and the hashtag",George Lopez Talks New Netflix Special 'We'll Do It for Half',tweets_news_372,tweets_news
"The next high stakes election is in Georgia, and the Jewish community is ready for it.

Local synagogues and political groups are planning efforts to get people who will turn 18 before the vote to register. The Republican Jewish Coalition has raised money and is sending staff over from Florida. The Anti-Defamation League is monitoring for an expected uptick in antisemitic social media messages related to the campaigns.

""We don't get a moment to rest in Georgia,"" said Allison Padilla-Goodman, vice president of the ADL's Southern offices. ""It's gonna get ugly.""

Both of Georgia's Senate seats are in play in two Jan. 5 runoffs. The close margin of Georgia's presidential contest — about 12,000 votes, as of Monday evening — has led some to wonder about the role the state's Jewish community could play in helping decide the runoff, which most political observers see as all-or-nothing for either party.

Since runoffs generally have depressed turnout, political observers and organizers say, securing a better edge from the Jewish community, with its consistently high voting rate, could be what puts either party in control over the Senate.

In Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Nevada, President-elect Joe Biden's margin of victory amounted to fewer votes than the number",Georgia's election-weary Jewish community is ready for another fight,tweets_news_373,tweets_news
"Washington: Donald Trump has become the first president in US history to be impeached twice after the US House of Representatives found him responsible for inciting last week's deadly riot at the Capitol.

The House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump yesterday with a week remaining until the end of his presidency and the start of the Biden administration.

The impeachment vote took place in a dramatically fortified Capitol, where hundreds of National Guard troops slept on the floor overnight.

Ten Republicans crossed the aisle to vote to impeach Trump for the ""incitement of insurrection"", a contrast to December 2019 when all House Republicans voted against impeaching Trump over his dealings with Ukraine.

In a statement after the bipartisan House vote, President-elect Joe Biden said he hoped the Senate could balance a second impeachment trial with ""other urgent business"" as the coronavirus pandemic rages but did not take a position on whether the Senate should convict Trump. He previously blamed Trump for the ""armed insurrection"" by his supporters calling it ""an unprecedented assault on our democracy . . . unlike anything we have witnessed in the 244-year history of our nation"".

After the vote, Trump issued a statement via the White House's Twitter account, saying ""America",Another first for 'dangerous' Trump,tweets_news_374,tweets_news
"Apology came after the extremist Republican congresswoman visited Washington's US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the extremist Republican congresswoman, has apologized for her comments comparing the required wearing of safety masks in the US House to the horrors of the Holocaust.

""I'm truly sorry for offending people with remarks about the Holocaust,"" Taylor Greene told reporters outside the Capitol on Monday, saying she had visited Washington's US Holocaust Memorial Museum earlier in the day. ""There's no comparison and there never ever will be.""

Greene's comments were a rare expression of regret by the conservative, who has a record of racist and Islamophobic remarks, as well support for QAnon and other antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Her apology came more than three weeks after appearing on a conservative podcast and comparing Covid-19 safety requirements adopted by Democrats controlling the House to ""a time and history where people were told to wear a gold star"". She said they were ""put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany. This is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about"".

Her comments sparked widespread outrage across the political spectrum, and were condemned by Republican leaders, including the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, who called the",Marjorie Taylor Greene apologizes for comparing House mask rule to the Holocaust,tweets_news_375,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says Mexico is paying for the wall , health care choice for veterans came from him and his tax cut stands as the biggest in American history .

These are among his touchstones — the falsehoods that span his presidency — and he's giving them another go in the final days of his relentless campaigning.

He's got fresher false material, too, claiming “incredible” numbers in the pandemic response despite record infections, rising deaths and a statement from his chief of staff Sunday that the government cannot bring the coronavirus under control. He warned darkly of voting fraud in the Nov. 3 election without offering evidence that malfeasance is in play.

In weekend rallies, Trump also portrayed Democratic rival Joe Biden as the helmsman of a Marxist party who lined his own pockets with $3.5 million via Moscow. This didn't happen.

A look at rhetoric from the weekend:

THE VIRUS

TRUMP: ""Even without vaccines, we’re rounding the turn. It’s going to be over."" — on C-SPAN, Sunday.

TRUMP: ""We’re rounding the turn. It’s going to be over.” — New Hampshire rally Sunday.

TRUMP: “We’re rounding the turn, we’re doing great. Our numbers are incredible.” — North Carolina rally Saturday.

THE FACTS: The numbers have turned",AP FACT CHECK: Trump and his familiar falsehoods,tweets_news_376,tweets_news
"Credlin, Bolt and Jones displaced on the regional broadcaster. Plus: News Corp's Campbell Reid on 'provocative opinions'

Sky News Australia will lose a large chunk of its audience in July after it was dumped by regional broadcaster Win, which has carried the pay TV channel in Tasmania, regional Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland and southern NSW since August 2018. The deal saw Sky After Dark beamed into unsuspecting free-to-air households which had previously been immune to Andrew Bolt, Peta Credlin and Alan Jones unless they had a Foxtel subscription.

Three years ago, Sky was trumpeting this larger footprint when it signed the historic deal with Win to launch in 30 markets to a potential audience of 8 million people.

But along came Nine Entertainment last week to ruin the party by inking a new seven-year deal to broadcast its metropolitan free-to-air television channels 9, 9GO!, 9GEM and 9Life into the regional markets, displacing Sky because it has no room.

Sky News did not respond to a request for comment.

ABC pops up in the west

In an attempt to broaden its coverage beyond the inner Sydney suburb of Ultimo, ABC news reporters and radio broadcasters will work out of a ""pop-up studio"" in Liverpool, in Sydney's south-western",Sky News dumped in the regions as Win welcomes Nine,tweets_news_377,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON, D.C. – Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook and Instagram will continue to block President Donald Trump from his accounts until he leaves office on Jan. 20, and possibly even longer.

In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg says his company believes the risks of allowing Trump to continue to use their services to spread misinformation in the final days of his presidency are too great.

""Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete,"" wrote Zuckerberg.

Like many others, Zuckerberg believes Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden.

In addition to Facebook and Instagram, Twitter has also blocked Trump from using his account on that platform after he repeatedly posted false accusations about the integrity of the election.

The breaking point seems to have been on Wednesday, when Trump encouraged his supporters to protest Congress' certification of Biden's Electoral College win. That led to extremists storming the U.S. Capitol during the counting process, prompting a lockdown.

""His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of","Facebook and Instagram to ban Trump until he leaves office, possibly longer",tweets_news_378,tweets_news
"India, May 25 -- In 2018, Katana Fatale posted a picture she took of herself in Hawaii. Fatale has been posting and advocating for plus-sized bodies on Instagram since 2014.

""It got amazing traction. I felt so beautiful. I remember I was just on the beach and I went to go check it again and I had this alert pop up that it had been removed,"" she told BuzzFeed News.

While Fatale was nude in the photo, she had followed Instagram's community guidelines that ban female nipples, sexual acts, genitals and close-ups of nude butts. As long as your photo does not show any of these things, it's good to go. Instagram does allow images of breastfeeding, post-mastectomy scarring and nudity in paintings and sculptures though.

Fatale was confused as to why she was being told that further violations would lead to her account being taken away, especially when there were other women posting similar images with no issues whatsoever.

However, it is not just Fatale. There have been numerous reports of people like Fatale, other plus-sized influencers, who had their photos and videos flagged and removed from the platform. Famous women aren't spared either. Performer Lizzo complained that TikTok was taking down posts",Is Instagram biased against plus-size bodies? Influencers think so,tweets_news_379,tweets_news
"The social network wrongly bowed to government demands to take down content in the countries, employees said, in more signs of internal dissent.

SAN FRANCISCO -- When India's government ordered Facebook and other tech companies to take down posts critical of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic in April, the social network complied on some posts.

But once it did, its employees flocked to online chat rooms to ask why Facebook had helped Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India stifle dissent. In one internal post, which was reviewed by The New York Times, an employee with family in India accused Facebook of ''being afraid'' that Mr. Modi would ban the company from doing business in the country. ''We can't act or make decisions out of fear,'' he wrote.

Weeks later, when clashes broke out in Israel between Israelis and Palestinians, Facebook removed posts from prominent Palestinian activists and briefly banned hashtags related to the violence. Facebook employees again took to the message boards to ask why their company now appeared to be censoring pro-Palestinian content.

''It just feels like, once again, we are erring on the side of a populist government and making decisions due to politics, not policies,'' one worker wrote in an","At Facebook, Post Policies Rile Workers",tweets_news_380,tweets_news
"

Dec 03, 2020( Conservative Daily News: http://conservativedailynews.com Delivered by Newstex) The Department of Justice announced today that it filed a lawsuit against Facebook Inc. for discriminating against U.S. workers. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook refused to recruit, consider, or hire qualified and available U.S. workers for over 2,600 positions that Facebook, instead, reserved for temporary visa holders it sponsored for permanent work authorization (or 'green cards') in connection with the permanent labor certification process (PERM). The positions that were the subject of Facebook's alleged discrimination against U.S. workers offered an average salary of approximately $156,000. According to the lawsuit, and based on the department's nearly two-year investigation, Facebook intentionally created a hiring system in which it denied qualified U.S. workers a fair opportunity to learn about and apply for jobs that Facebook instead sought to channel to temporary visa holders Facebook wanted to sponsor for green cards.

The department's lawsuit alleges that beginning no later than Jan. 1, 2018, and lasting until at least Sept. 18, 2019, Facebook employed tactics that discriminated against U.S. workers and routinely preferred temporary visa holders (including H-1B visa holders) for jobs in connection with the PERM process. Rather than conducting a genuine search for qualified",Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Facebook for Discriminating Against U.S. Workers,tweets_news_381,tweets_news
"An advantage that OTT platforms have over other online video streaming platforms is brand safety as the content that goes live on OTT platforms is already checked.

In India's increasingly crowded online video space, brands are constantly competing for consumers' attention. To get in front of their core audience, brands are reaching them where they spend a lot of their time: on OTT platforms. From appointment viewing to binge-watching, the way people consume content has changed a lot over the past few years. As more and more people turn to OTT platforms, the number of brands advertising on OTT platforms has gone up as well, which raises the question of brand safety on OTT platforms.

An advantage that OTT platforms have over other online video streaming platforms is brand safety for a simple reason - the content that goes live on OTT platforms is already checked and authorized. Issues with ads appearing in offensive content or next to videos containing hate speech is why advertisers avoid spending on such platforms. OTT solved this issue by simply guaranteeing and ensuring quality content to their advertisers.

Amongst the other issues, YouTube has faced unrelenting questions on ad misplacement. More recently, the online video sharing platform",Why advertising on premium quality content platforms ensures better brand safety,tweets_news_382,tweets_news
"Document links may not lead to an active page. Page maintenance is at the discretion of the publisher.

Hello and welcome to The Download, The Australian's technology blog for the latest tech news.

2pm: Mark Zuckerberg's spectacular Facebook own goal

COMMENT: Facebook's action to ban not only news sites in Australia but some health news services, weather, indigenous media, charity, and utility sites albeit inadvertently shows it is both unreliable and unworthy as a channel for supplying important information to the public.

Facebook instead will become the home of fake news and conspiracy theories in Australia.

There will be a cost for news organisations, with fewer direct links to news posted on the platform in general feeds.

However the internet's history is one of big players that regard themselves as the gateway to the internet and indispensable falling away over time and being replaced. Sites like MySpace, Yahoo and AOL (America Online) come to mind. AOL still bills itself as an American web portal but Americans are unlikely to agree.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was reported recently as wanting to ""inflict pain"" on Apple for its decision to require users to opt into app tracking on Apple mobile devices. Facebook stands to lose the ability to know",Facebook 'not the place for credible news',tweets_news_383,tweets_news
"February 10 -- Algorithms can be weird at times. In a newly discovered glitch, if you happen to turn on 'content restriction' on your iPhone then Apple may block all words related to 'Asian' on Safari. Be it 'Asian', 'Asian food', 'Asian Institute of Gastroenterology' or 'Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties', Apple will automatically block search results from appearing on Safari. This was first reported by the Independent. 

 

If you have set the search engine of Safari to Chrome then all search keywords which include the term 'Asian' automatically get blocked. In case you are using Microsoft Bing, then some words related to 'Asian' get blocked and not all. 

Most iPhone users are unaware that Apple had introduced something called content filters with iOS 12, two years back. And you need to do some digging inside the Settings menu to enable it. It is only after you have enabled content filtering that you will face this problem. Under Settings go to Screen Time - Content & Privacy Restrictions - Content Restrictions - Web Content - Limited Adult Websites. 

This option is primarily meant to restrict users from surfing pornographic content on Safari.

But strangely, it is blocking the",Apple 'thinks' the word 'Asian' has something to do with adult websites,tweets_news_384,tweets_news
"

Apr 28, 2020( JD Supra: http://www.jdsupra.com Delivered by Newstex) In November 2018, the European Commission adopted a new version of what started as the 'Television without Frontiers Directive' in 1989, and is now known as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive 2018/1808/EU ('AVMS Directive'). This new AVMS Directive adds obligations for video-sharing platforms. The Netherlands, which is known to be liberal when it comes to media and advertising regulations initially voted against the AVMS Directive because of the new obligations for video-sharing platforms. Nevertheless, the AVMS Directive was passed and also The Netherlands will have to implement the new set of rules by 19th September 2020.In this article, we will discuss the obligations and restrictions regarding advertising for video-sharing platforms under the AVMS Directive. What qualifies as a video-sharing platform?

As the line between traditional television and modern online audiovisual services has become thinner, the European Commission decided that video-sharing platforms should also be regulated under the AVMS regulatory framework. However, video-sharing platforms have as their principle purpose the sharing of videos to the general public without the provider having any editorial control. With video-sharing platforms the organization of the videos, is generally controlled automatically, by means of algorithms or otherwise, which",New advertising rules for video-sharing platforms,tweets_news_385,tweets_news
"The Supreme Court on Monday restricted the scope of a federal anti-hacking law, with the majority of justices saying the government’s “breathtaking” interpretation of the statute could make criminals of “millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens.” The 6 to 3 decision split the court in a way never before seen: The three justices nominated by President Donald Trump...

The Supreme Court on Monday restricted the scope of a federal anti-hacking law, with the majority of justices saying the government’s “breathtaking” interpretation of the statute could make criminals of “millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens.” The 6 t...

The Supreme Court on Monday restricted the scope of a federal anti-hacking law, with the majority of justices saying the government’s “breathtaking” interpretation of the statute could make criminals of “millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens.” The 6 to 3 decision split the court in a way never before seen: The three justices nominated by President Donald Trump joined with the court’s three liberals to form the majority. If the court’s normal procedures prevailed during deliberation, that would mean liberal Justice Stephen G. Breyer, as the senior member in the majority, gave the writing assignment to rookie Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The immediate beneficiary was Nathan Van Buren,","Supreme Court narrows anti-hacking law, worries about criminalizing common behavior",tweets_news_386,tweets_news
"PHOENIX -- Freshly cleared of violations by the chair of the House Ethics Committee, Rep. Mark Finchem is now turning the tables on some of his accusers and political foes.

The Oro Valley Republican has filed his own complaint against 28 House Democrats and 14 Senate Democrats charging them with having conspired to punish him for exercising his First Amendment right to ""peaceably assemble and contest the legitimacy of the recent presidential election.'' He contends that the decision of those Democrats to sign a letter asking the FBI and Department of Justice to look into his activities before and during the Jan. 6 demonstration in Washington and the insurrection that followed runs afoul of not only House ethics rules but also is libelous and violates federal law.

Rep. Athena Salman, D-Tempe, told Capitol Media Services the Democrats were well within their rights -- and had enough evidence, direct or circumstantial -- to ask for a federal investigation. And she dismissed Finchem's new complaint against them as ""retribution'' for their own complaint to the Ethics Committee.

That original complaint was dismissed last week by Rep. Becky Nutt, R-Clifton, who chairs the committee. Nutt said the Democrats presented no evidence to back their charges that",Finchem files ethics complaint against all Democrats over FBI referral,tweets_news_387,tweets_news
"Kamala Harris looks like California.

She is Black and Asian American, born in Oakland to a mother from India and a father from Jamaica who met in graduate school at UC Berkeley. She is Baptist, with a Sanskrit name that means “lotus” from her Hindu heritage, but is known to her Jewish stepchildren as “Momala,” a play on her first name and an endearing Yiddish term for “little mama.”

She also looks like the future of America, where demographers say, by 2043 white people are expected to be a minority group. The number of multiracial Americans is expected to triple by 2060 to about 26.7 million.

Yet, it took less than 48 hours from Joe Biden’s naming Harris his running mate for her blended

background to become a campaign issue. While Democrats quickly celebrated what former President Barack Obama called Harris’ “life story … that I and so many others can see ourselves in,” President Donald Trump stoked an incendiary claim that questioned Harris’ eligibility to serve as vice president because her parents were born outside the U.S.

“I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements,” Trump said Thursday. “I have no idea if that’s right. I would have assumed that the Democrats",Kamala Harris looks like California.,tweets_news_388,tweets_news
"The NSPCC says plans to defer criminal liability for senior managers at tech firms will mean children remain at risk.

The Government has been urged to reconsider plans to hold back criminal sanctions for senior managers at social media firms for breaking proposed internet safety laws.

The Online Safety Bill, published earlier this week, aims to give Ofcom the power to fine companies and block access to sites, but the power to make senior staff liable for rule breaches is being deferred for at least two years.

Children's charity the NSPCC said this fails to properly hold social media platforms to account and misses the opportunity to better protect children from abuse online, and urged ministers to reconsider.

Giving evidence to the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the sanction had been deferred because he believed potential fines would be more damaging to platforms that breached the proposed rules.

This is a unique chance to move beyond the status quo that sees action taken only after serious harm has occurred, but deferring liability for senior managers misses the opportunity to finally put children first

Andy Burrows

""I think most (social media) companies are much more motivated by financial",Government urged to consider criminal charges for tech bosses over online safety,tweets_news_389,tweets_news
"

Mar 30, 2021( 9to5Mac: http://9to5mac.com Delivered by Newstex) Earlier this year, some users noticed unfortunate behavior in iOS 14 that blocked any web searches in Safari containing the word 'Asian' when adult content restrictions were enabled. Luckily, it seems that Apple has finally addressed this issue with iOS 14.5, which is currently available to developers and public beta users.

As noted by Mashable[1], the latest iOS 14.5 beta release once again lets users search for 'Asian' in Google or other search providers using Safari with adult content restrictions enabled. In previous versions of iOS 14, any searches with 'Asian' resulted in an error if the user had enabled parental controls to block adult websites. The problem became more noticeable when users with the content restrictions enabled tried to search for things like 'Stop Asian Hate,' which became a trend online after a recent mass shooting in Atlanta. The report mentions that developer Steven Shen alerted Apple about this issue in December 2019, but nothing has been done until now. For those unfamiliar with the option, iPhone and iPad users can enable adult content restrictions by going to the Screen Time menu in the Settings app. This is part of the content",iOS 14.5 no longer blocks web searches for 'Asian' in Safari with content restrictions enabled,tweets_news_390,tweets_news
"

Jun 23, 2020( The Moderate Voice: http://www.themoderatevoice.com/ Delivered by Newstex) I used to think conservatives were funny. Now, they're only funny inadvertently. The basis for all Republican humor, especially for those in the Trump cult, is cruelty.

Republicans think it's hilarious to put immigrant children in cages. They laughed their asses off when Border Patrol agents destroy jugs of water left for immigrants in the desert. They love cracks at the appearance of an elderly woman if that woman is a Democrat. When Donald Trump calls a woman 'nasty,' entire arenas roar. Those arenas aren't as full as they were, but still. 'Send them back' still slays 'em. MAGAts love cruel humor because they're cruel people themselves. There are two qualifications to be a Trump supporter: You have to be OK with racism and you have to be an asshole. That comes pretty easy for Trump supporters because it's the cruelty and racism that appeals to them. Try this test: Ask any one of them to explain details of any Trump position. Nine times out of ten, the answer will contain the word 'Obama.' During Donald Trump's Tulsa hate rally that was a huge flop, he said he told his people",MAGA FUNNY (Cartoon and Column),tweets_news_391,tweets_news
"BRUSSELS For years, Facebook lobbied governments against imposing tough regulations, warning in some cases that they could harm the company's business model.

Now, it's pleading for new rules for the good of its business.

In a white paper published Monday, Facebook detailed its push for internet regulation, calling on lawmakers to devise rules around harmful content, a different model for platforms'legal liability and a ""new type of regulator"" to oversee enforcement.

""If we don't create standards that people feel are legitimate, they won't trust institutions or technology,"" Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in an op-ed in the Financial Times on Monday. That and the publication of the white paper coincided with a visit to Brussels, home of the European Union institutions that have crafted some of the toughest rules in recent years.

Silicon Valley firms have suffered from what's been dubbed as a ""tech lash,"" with users frustrated over how web platforms profit from their data. Facebook has borne the brunt of that disenchantment following a series of missteps including privacy breaches and accusations it didn't do enough to stop election manipulation on its platform.

Meanwhile, Facebook's user growth is stagnating in the U.S. and Canada - its most important markets.

""I believe good regulation",Facebook CEO urges new internet regulations,tweets_news_392,tweets_news
"FACEBOOK and Instagram users will be able to opt out of seeing political adverts in the run-up to the US election, the company has confirmed as it aims to better protect the electorate before November's vote.

Millions of Americans will also be encouraged to register to vote on their social media platforms thanks to a new ""Voting Information Centre"" that will be flagged up on feeds. The two new measures, confirmed today, are part of a concerted effort by Facebook - which also owns Instagram - to take steps to ensure disinformation cannot impact the election in 2020, as it did in 2016.

Other measures already being taken include blocking all adverts during the election campaign which come from state-controlled media organisations in overseas countries.

Sir Nick Clegg, the former Liberal Democrat leader who is now Facebook's vice-president for global affairs and communications, outlines the changes in an article for today's The Daily Telegraph.

""What happens in America - politically, economically, culturally - has a huge knock-on effect on the rest of the world,"" Sir Nick writes. ""It promises to be a heated campaign; and it will play out on social media as both sides seek to get their messages out and fire up",Facebook lets US users block political adverts,tweets_news_393,tweets_news
"PRESIDENT Trump rightly faced the wrath of the world for triggering an assault on a bastion of democracy, but that Twitter should ban a democratically elected leader who recently won 74 million votes is more worrying for the long term health of democracy.

Increasingly, a handful of big tech billionaires based in California are deciding who and what can be discussed on their global social media platforms. Quick to silence Trump and his followers, they have been far less keen on muzzling Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei when he called for the genocide of Israel and Jewish people.

Questioned about this disparity, a Twitter spokesperson dismissed the Ayatollah's threats as ""foreign policy sabre-rattling"", prompting a human rights lawyer to say ""Calling for genocide on Twitter is OK, but commenting on political situations in certain countries is not OK?""

The Iranian leader's shared tweets calling Israel a ""deadly, cancerous growth"" have gone unchecked on Twitter, but the California-based media empire was spurred into limited action last week when the Ayatollah said vaccines imported from the UK and US were ""completely untrustworthy"", but still his account was not permanently suspended.

T

HE political angle of this was made clear when former Democrat First Lady Michelle Obama",Social media barons strike at the very core of free speech,tweets_news_394,tweets_news
"Florida is fast becoming the MAGA movement's home in exile.

PALM BEACH, Fla. - The center of gravity for the MAGA universe is moving zip codes with President Donald Trump.

In anticipation of Trump setting up permanent residence at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach after leaving the White House in January, Trump allies, conservative media firebrands and MAGA-boosting activist groups are setting up the next Trumpy hub of GOP power.

Some Trump supporters have settled in South Florida, drawn by Florida's friendly tax climate and the state's current GOP leadership. Other prominent MAGA groups, like the student organizing outfit Turning Point USA, are holding events in the area. And the next Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering of the GOP's most conservative factions, will even be held a couple hours drive north, in Orlando.

Meanwhile, the president and First Lady Melania Trump are renovating their private quarters at Mar-a-Lago to prepare for a permanent return. And, with an eye toward their political future, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have reportedly bought a multi-million dollar property in an exclusive part of Miami. The Trump kids plan to spend more time in Palm Beach, unless Eric's wife Lara Trump ends up running for Senate",The new center of Trump's political world: Palm Beach,tweets_news_395,tweets_news
"Ever wonder exactly how prominent QAnon was on Facebook's social networks, prior to the company banning the conspiracy from its platforms? We now know.

In an update to a blog post discussing Facebook's Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, the company shared how many QAnon pages, groups, and accounts it removed from both Facebook and Instagram.

According to Facebook, the company has removed 1,700 Pages, 5,600 Groups and around 18,700 Instagram accounts ""representing QAnon"" since August, when it first began rolling out policies pertaining to QAnon content.

The company also provided additional information regarding those numbers. Facebook explained that while the QAnon Instagram accounts were larger in numbers than Facebook Groups related to the conspiracy, the Groups had many more followers than the Instagram accounts.

Facebook classifies QAnon as a ""violence-inducing conspiracy network"" under its policy. The company originally prohibited these pages and groups if they promoted violence during the summer. The social network broadened its policy to ban QAnon outright in early October.

Those who believe the conspiracy think that President Trump is secretly battling a global satanic pedophile ring made up of Hollywood elites, Democrats, and others. Regardless of the fact that the claims are completely unfounded, QAnon believers have engaged in slander and",Facebook shares specifics on how many QAnon accounts it banned,tweets_news_396,tweets_news
"Trump did not elaborate on what actions he could take. But the threat is Trump's clearest expression of intent to use the power of government to target his perceived political enemies in the private sector.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to ""strongly regulate"" or even shut down social media platforms after to two of his tweets this week.

Trump did not elaborate on what actions he could take. But the threat is Trump's clearest expression of intent to use the power of government to target his perceived political enemies in the private sector - businesses that already enjoy wide latitude under the law to moderate their platforms as they see fit. And it raises the stakes for Twitter and Facebook as they grapple with Trump's misleading claims about mail-in voting and his that a cable TV news host had a hand in an aide's death decades ago.

""Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,"" Trump tweeted Wednesday. He went on to accuse the tech industry of trying to interfere in the 2016 election, before repeating an unfounded claim about voter fraud stemming from",President Trump threatens to 'strongly regulate' or shut down social media platforms after Twitter labels his tweets,tweets_news_397,tweets_news
"A lawyer for President Donald Trump's reelection campaign said Chris Krebs -- the former U.S. cybersecurity chief who defended the integrity of the 2020 election -- should be executed.

Trump fired Krebs, a lifelong Republican and former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in November after Krebs called this year's election the most secure in the country's history, contradicting the president's baseless claims that the election was fraudulent.

In a Nov. 17 post later flagged by Twitter as ""disputed,"" Trump said Krebs had been terminated and the president continued to push unfounded claims that the election was rigged against him.

Krebs, a Trump appointee, stood by his comments, tweeting he was ""honored to serve"" and that ""we did it right.""

In a Monday interview on ""The Howie Carr Show,"" Joe diGenova, part of the Trump campaign's legal team, called Krebs a ""moron"" for saying the election was secure and said he should be killed.

""Anybody who thinks that this election went well like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity -- that guy is a class A moron,"" he told Carr. ""He should be drawn and quartered, taken out a dawn and shot.""

Carr is a host on Newsmax, a",Trump lawyer calls for execution of ex-cybersecurity chief who called election secure,tweets_news_398,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON: Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg laid out steps to reform a key internet law on Wednesday, saying that companies should have immunity from liability only if they follow best practices for removing damaging material from their platforms. In testimony prepared for a joint hearing before two House Energy and Commerce subcommittees on Thursday, Zuckerberg acknowledged the calls from lawmakers for changes to a law called Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives companies like Facebook immunity from liability over content posted by users. The hearing titled 'Disinformation Nation: Social media's role in promoting extremism and misinformation' is designed to address concerns Democrats have had about the spread of misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic and the presidential election.

It is also likely to discuss ways to hold tech platforms accountable by reforming the internet law. The chief executives of Google and Twitter will also testify at the hearing. Google's Sundar Pichai will make suggestions to reform the law but, unlike Zuckerberg, will not advocate for adoption of a set of best practices, according to his testimony. Twitter's Jack Dorsey will lay out steps the platform has taken to tackle misinformation. Zuckerberg and Pichai will also urge caution as Congress","Facebook, Google CEOs suggest ways to reform key internet law",tweets_news_399,tweets_news
"In a first, Congress overrides Trump veto of defense bill

WASHINGTON — Congress on Friday overrode President Donald Trump's veto of a defense policy bill, a first by lawmakers since he took office nearly four years ago, ensuring that the measure becomes law.

In an extraordinary New Year's Day session, the Republican-controlled Senate easily turned aside the veto, dismissing Trump's objections to the $740 billion bill and handing him a stinging rebuke just weeks before he leaves the White House.

Trump lashed out on Twitter, saying the Senate missed an opportunity to eliminate protections for social media platforms that he said give ""unlimited power to Big Tech companies. Pathetic!!!''

Trump also slammed lawmakers for rejecting his call to increase COVID-19 relief payments to $2,000: ""Not fair, or smart!''

The 81-13 vote in the Senate on the widely popular defense bill followed an earlier 322-87 override vote in the House. The bill affirms a 3% pay raise for U.S. troops and guides defense policy, cementing decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, personnel policy and other military goals.

___

GOP torn over Trump's Electoral College challenge of Biden

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's extraordinary challenge of his election defeat by President-elect Joe Biden is becoming",AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST,tweets_news_400,tweets_news
"Stephen Miller, Trumps former top aide, launched a new group on Wednesday with the goal of using the legal system to challenge US President Joe Bidens policies, and fight back against the latter administrations attempts to dismantle Trumps previous initiatives and the overall conservative agenda.

The America First Legal (AFL) group launched its website with blessings from Trump and a board of directors which include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, as well as others from the conservative movement.

As we know, the Radical Left has been relentless in waging their battles in court. Conservatives and America First supporters badly need to catch up and turn the tables, which is why I applaud Stephen and Mark Meadows for rushing to fill this critical void, Trump wrote in a statement.

The era of unilateral legal surrender must endand I hope all America First patriots will get behind America First Legal.

According to CBS News , the legal organization plans to use attorneys who worked in the Trump administration, as well as partner with state attorneys general to help mount their legal battles.

In its mission statement, AFL claims that our security, our liberty, our sovereignty, and our",Former Trump Aide Launches America First Legal Group to Combat Biden Administration Policies,tweets_news_401,tweets_news
"

Apr 23, 2020( Foundation for Economic Education: https://fee.org Delivered by Newstex) Soon, YouTubers will be silenced if they don't agree with the United Nations on public health. As The Verdict[1] reports:YouTube will ban any content containing medical advice that contradicts World Health Organisation (WHO) coronavirus recommendations, according to CEO Susan Wojcicki.Wojcicki announced the policy on CNN on Sunday. WHO is an agency of the UN, charged with overseeing global public health. The Verdict report continues:Wojcicki said that the Google-owned video streaming platform would be 'removing information that is problematic'. She told host Brian Stelter that this would include 'anything that is medically unsubstantiated'. 'So people saying 'take vitamin C; take turmeric, we'll cure you', those are the examples of things that would be a violation of our policy,' she said.

'Anything that would go against World Health Organisation recommendations would be a violation of our policy.' While the decision has been welcomed by many, some have accused the streaming giant of censorship.To be clear, for American YouTubers, this kind of censorship is not a violation of their constitutional right of free speech. The First Amendment protects citizens against government censorship, and YouTube is a private platform. Were the US government to","YouTube to Ban Content That Contradicts WHO on COVID-19, Despite the UN Agency's Catastrophic Track Record of Misinformation",tweets_news_402,tweets_news
"Recent spate of disgusting anonymous abuse on online platforms 'shows need for independent watchdog'

Fianna Fáil is calling for social media companies' self-regulation to end and for the immediate recruitment of an independent online safety commissioner.

Bosses from Facebook, Twitter and TikTok were all in Leinster House today to face questions in light of the recent explosion of anonymous abuse online in Ireland.

Members of the Oireachtas Media Committee faced the senior managers and listened to their promises to do whatever they can to help.

But, as always, the social media companies fell back on the excuses that they are online hosts, not publishers.

In light of this, Fianna Fáil Senator Malcom Byrne is immediately calling for the role of an independent watchdog -the new online safety commissioner -to be filled without delay.

Mr Byrne said: ""We want the Minister to start recruitment for this new office now.

""It can begin in a non-statutory way so that when we pass legislation that will give it powers, it can hit the ground running to tackle the dark side of social media.

""There is an urgency to this as we know that online abuse, harassment and bullying has a really negative impact on people's lives.

""It is very clear that the","Facebook, Twitter and TikTok bosses in Leinster House to face questions as Fianna Fail calls for Online Safety Commissioner",tweets_news_403,tweets_news
"The change is designed to 'curb the efforts of those looking to cause chaos, sow uncertainty or inadvertently undermine accurate information'

Facebook is imposing a forwarding limit on Messenger in a bid to slow the spread of viral misinformation and harmful content.

Users of the chat platform will only be able to send content to five people or groups at a time, mirroring similar efforts on the social network's other messaging app WhatsApp.

The move comes amid continued concern about misinformation around coronavirus, with a recent report claiming social media giants are failing to remove dangerous anti-vaccination posts even when it is flagged to them.

""We are introducing a forwarding limit on Messenger to help curb the efforts of those looking to cause chaos, sow uncertainty or inadvertently undermine accurate information,"" Jay Sullivan, director of product management for Messenger privacy and safety, wrote.

Facebook said the decision is ""critical"" as the global pandemic continues and with elections in the US, New Zealand and other countries on the horizon.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has also revealed wider steps to protect elections, including restrictions on new political ads in the week before the US election and removing posts that claim people will get Covid-19 if they take part",Facebook changes Messenger to stop the spread of fake news,tweets_news_404,tweets_news
"Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz reportedly asked then-President Donald Trump for ""blanket preemptive pardons."" Andrew Harnik/AP 2019

Hey, we've got our first political sex scandal of the spring. Not as charming as an Easter basket, but maybe livelier. What would you guess the most common response was?

A) ""Oh my God, not Rep. Matt Gaetz!""

B) ""Matt who?""

C) ""Is that the guy who they say keeps passing around pictures of naked women?""

I would go with C, but it's perfectly possible a lot of people are still perplexed when the name comes up. Which is sort of a shame. If Americans love a sex scandal, they prefer it to involve somebody who's reasonably important.

""Nancy Pelosi once defended President Bill Clinton after he got an intern to fellate him in the Oval Office,"" Gaetz argued in an opinion piece in The Washington Examiner. This is true, and we would hope the congressman gets the same kind of loyal support the very second he presides over one of the longest economic expansions in American history.

As it stands, Gaetz is a spectacularly unproductive Florida Republican who never managed, during his first two terms in the House, to get a single bill that he sponsored signed into law. (We",Gaetz is spectacularly unproductive,tweets_news_405,tweets_news
"INDIA, Jan. 7 -- Press Information Bureau issued the following press release:

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) notified the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Liquidation Process) (Amendment) Regulations, 2020 on 6th January 2020.

The amendment clarifies that a person, who is not eligible under the Code to submit a resolution plan for insolvency resolution of the corporate debtor, shall not be a party in any manner to a compromise or arrangement of the corporate debtor under section 230 of the Companies Act, 2013. It also clarifies that a secured creditor cannot sell or transfer an asset, which is subject to security interest, to any person, who is not eligible under the Code to submit a resolution plan for insolvency resolution of the corporate debtor.

The amendment provides that a secured creditor, who proceeds to realise its security interest, shall contribute its share of the insolvency resolution process cost, liquidation process cost and workmen's dues, within 90 days of the liquidation commencement date. It shall also pay excess of realised value of the asset, which is subject to security interest, over the amount of its claims admitted, within 180 days of the liquidation commencement date. Where the secured creditor fails","IBBI amends the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2016",tweets_news_406,tweets_news
"Princess Diana arrives at the Royal Geographical Society in London for a speech on the dangers of landmines in this file picture taken on June 12, 1997. — Reuters pic Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on news you need to know. LONDON, May 21 — The British government vowed today to examine how...

Princess Diana arrives at the Royal Geographical Society in London for a speech on the dangers of landmines in this file picture taken on June 12, 1997. — Reuters pic Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on news you need to know. LONDON...

Princess Diana arrives at the Royal Geographical Society in London for a speech on the dangers of landmines in this file picture taken on June 12, 1997. — Reuters pic Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on news you need to know. LONDON, May 21 — The British government vowed today to examine how the BBC was run after a damning inquiry into how the broadcaster got its bombshell 1995 interview with Princess Diana and unprecedented criticism from her son Prince William. An independent investigation concluded yesterday that journalist Martin Bashir had lied and used deceit",BBC under pressure over Diana interview after princes launch scathing attack,tweets_news_407,tweets_news
"It's bad enough that our ballots are being pawed through by a bunch of amateurs who don't know what they're doing.

Bad enough that the Senate's now-infamous audit of the 2020 election is being run not by independent elections professionals but by a Trump supporter who promoted conspiracy theories that the election was stolen

Bad enough that media has been locked out and until late Tuesday could not report on what they are doing with Maricopa County's 2.1 million ballots or the Dominion Voting Systems machinery that was used to count them or voter registration files containing information on every voter in the county

Now Senate Republicans and their auditors want to prevent you from knowing what procedures they are using to determine whether Arizona really elected Joe Biden and Mark Kelly.

If this is a joke, Senate President Karen Fann, Arizona is not laughing.

The Senate and its auditor, Cyber Ninjas, are now asking a judge to allow this audit to continue on, shrouded in secrecy, and even to close the public out of a court hearing to determine whether the counting should continue.

The Arizona Democratic Party sued the Senate on Friday to stop the recount, contending state laws are being trampled as ballots",What kind of bogus election audit is this?,tweets_news_408,tweets_news
"Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, issued the following news release on March 5:

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) joined Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) to introduce bipartisan legislation to encourage the tech industry to take online child sexual exploitation seriously.

The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (EARN IT Act) creates incentives for companies to ""earn"" liability protection for violations of laws related to online child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

The legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

""Technological advances have allowed the online exploitation of children to become much, much worse over recent years,"" said Feinstein. ""Companies must do more to combat this growing problem on their online platforms. Our bill would allow individuals to sue tech companies that don't take proper steps to prevent online child exploitation, and it's an important step to protect the most vulnerable among us.""

""The internet is infested with stomach-churning images of children who have been brutally assaulted and exploited, and who are forced to endure a lifetime of pain after these photographs and videos are circulated online,"" said Blumenthal. ""Simply put, tech","Sens. Feinstein, Blumenthal, Graham, Hawley Introduce Bill to Encourage Tech Industry to Take Online Child Exploitation Seriously",tweets_news_409,tweets_news
"Academia is so dominated by progressive dogmas that most students and professors who hold conservative views keep them on the ""down low"" to avoid being censured by the thought police. But a diminishing few still boldly thrust their heads above the parapet.

We find an example of this endangered species in Arjun Singh, a University of Toronto political science student whose extracurricular activities include work as a compliance analyst with the U of T-affiliated G7 Research Group( http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/about/index.html ) and serving as the deputy director of the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect( http://ccr2p.org/ ). He's clearly a highly intelligent and ambitious young man.

Yet Singh may be at risk of losing the David Rayside Undergraduate Scholarship that he was awarded by the department of political science, which gives preference to ""students who have demonstrated commitment and leadership in co-curricular activities, on or off campus,"" and who have contributed ""to greater public understanding of social and cultural diversity and enhanced inclusion of historically marginalized populations.""

The latter criterion is where the canker gnaws for the U of T Equity Studies Student Union. It is calling for the revocation of the scholarship and urging students to sign a Change.org( https://www.change.org/ ) petition to",Barbara Kay: U of T student's scholarship at risk because he is a conservative,tweets_news_410,tweets_news
"If he triumphs in the election on 3 November, Biden’s approach could come as a rude awakening for some Europeans.

If, as polls strongly suggest, the US presidential election on 3 November produces a victory for Joe Biden, many of the country’s international allies will breathe a huge sigh of relief. As president, Donald Trump has been unpredictable, unreliable and undiplomatic. His “America first” mantra has aligned him less with democratic partners than with strongmen autocrats, for whom he has displayed an alarming affinity.

Biden is the very opposite. As a former head of the Senate foreign relations committee and an internationally focused vice-president under Barack Obama, his foreign policy instincts are familiar and reassuring. It is a contrast that Biden himself has been only too happy to draw. “The Biden foreign policy agenda will place America back at the head of the table, working with our allies and partners,” he said last year. In an essay in Foreign Affairs magazine he wrote of “rebuilding confidence in our leadership” and the need to “renew our core values”. His foreign-policy slogan is “Restoring American leadership”.

Renew, restore, rebuild… the Democratic candidate’s language seems riddled with expressions of fealty to pre-existing arrangements and norms, promising",How Joe Biden’s foreign policy would not be a total departure from that of Donald Trump,tweets_news_411,tweets_news
"The Union government has published detailed guidelines for digital media and OTT (Over the Top) platforms. Though social media is now among the preferred information sharing pedestals, mainly on glaring societal issues, there is an undeniable risk of misuse attached. While Facebook and Google have agreed to comply with the new rules, some intermediaries are not on...

The Union government has published detailed guidelines for digital media and OTT (Over the Top) platforms. Though social media is now among the preferred information sharing pedestals, mainly on glaring societal issues, there is an undeniable risk of misus...

The Union government has published detailed guidelines for digital media and OTT (Over the Top) platforms. Though social media is now among the preferred information sharing pedestals, mainly on glaring societal issues, there is an undeniable risk of misuse attached. While Facebook and Google have agreed to comply with the new rules, some intermediaries are not on board. BJP’s spokespersons even declared this as a tussle between the ‘law of the land’ and social media platforms’ own regulations. WhatsApp has moved the Delhi High Court on these rules. The Centre has warned that these giants might lose their immunity as intermediaries which make them responsible for",Issues in new social media rules,tweets_news_412,tweets_news
"Even after Jan. 6, Facebook didn’t want to deal once and for all with President Donald Trump’s poisonous lies, so it punted, first by suspending him “indefinitely,” and then by asking its blue-ribbon Oversight Board to review the decision. On Wednesday, the Oversight Board punted back. Over to you, Mark Zuckerberg.

We still don’t know whether Trump will ever be allowed back on Facebook and Instagram. But the board’s report tells us a great deal about Facebook’s ability to deal with hard questions honestly. It’s not promising.

“The Board sought clarification from Facebook about the extent to which the platform’s design decisions, including algorithms, policies, procedures and technical features, amplified Mr. Trump’s posts after the election and whether Facebook had conducted any internal analysis of whether such design decisions may have contributed to the events of January 6,” the oversight panel said in its 35-page report. “Facebook declined to answer these questions.”

This is the fundamental and inconvenient question that Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, has never wanted to face: To what extent did Facebook create the monster it now asks others to tame?

Seriously grappling with the answer might threaten the company’s wildly successful business model. Facebook has amassed an astounding 2.8 billion",Eugene Robinson: Some hard decisions ahead for Facebook,tweets_news_413,tweets_news
"A new podcast on the billion-dollar mom influencer industry looks at the pressures on women who make a living posting ever-alluring photos and content about their lives and family.

Bay Area mom influencer Katie Sorensen didn't just open herself up to criminal charges in December, she also flung open the door onto a billion-dollar industry and some of the ways it shapes the way we view women and consume media in 2021.

Sorenson posted two videos of herself to her @motherhoodessentials Instagram account on Dec. 13, telling a harrowing but allegedly false story about a Latino couple who tried to kidnap her two young children in the parking lot of a Michael's craft store in Petaluma.

Questions soon raged about the Sonoma mother's report to police and her videos, primarily whether she tried to exploit the parental fear of stranger abduction - in a town traumatized by the 1993 murder of Polly Klass - to gain attention for her lifestyle and parenting brand.

But after investigating Sorensen's claims, officials have since charged the mom influencer with two misdemeanor counts of providing false reports to police.

Sorensen's case is addressed in a recent episode of a new podcast, ""Under the Influence"" which more generally explores the",Bay Area mom influencer faces new scrutiny over fake kidnapping charges,tweets_news_414,tweets_news
"June 17 -- Facebook on Wednesday joined hands with The Healthy Indian Project (THIP) -- a health specialised fact-checking site -- as part of its third-party fact-checking programme in India to combat Covid-19 and all other health related misinformation on the social media platform.During the pandemic, Facebook removed more than 18 million pieces of harmful misinformation across its platform and Instagram and labelled over 167 million fake news posts on Covid-19 with the help of third-party fact-checkers.The partnership with THIP ""will enhance its capabilities to understand and curb health-related misinformation on the platform"", the social media giant said in a statement.THIP Media works with verified medical professionals to fact check misleading news and claims about health, medicines, diet and treatment in English, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and Gujarati.Globally, Facebook is working with 80 fact-checking partners that help in content monitoring in more than 60 languages. Facebook's fact-checking partners have been certified through the independent, non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network.In India, Facebook has 10 fact-checking partners, one of the largest after the US. This includes India Today Group, Vishvas News (Dainik Jagran), Factly, Newsmobile, Fact Crescendo, BOOM live, AFP, NewsChecker and Quint who fact-check in 11 Indian languages along with English. The Indian",FB selects new partner for health fact checks in India,tweets_news_415,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Under a new law in France, Facebook, Twitter and similar online platforms will need to remove illegal content quickly or face large fines. Some critics say the law puts private companies in charge of policing speech.

Legislation that passed the National Assembly on Wednesday gives platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat a one-hour deadline to remove terrorism and pedophilia-related content after being instructed to do so by the authorities. If the companies fail to comply, they can face fines of up to 4% of their global revenue.

When it comes to other ""manifestly illicit"" - such as hate speech, racist comments, or religious bigotry - the companies would be required to remove it within 24 hours of it being reported by the users.

Users to 'think twice'

The law seeks to ""induce responsibility"" from the creators of online platforms who argue ""that the tool they themselves have created is uncontrollable,"" Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told lawmakers on Wednesday.

The law also sets up a prosecutor specialized in digital content and a government unit to observe online hate speech.

""People will think twice before crossing the red line if they know that there is a high likelihood that they will be held to",France: France passes disputed law on online hate speech,tweets_news_416,tweets_news
"State Senator Jill P. Carter.Joshua McKerrow/Capital Gazette

The volunteers, about two dozen of them, were jammed into a small Hampden office that's the headquarters of the Jill Carter for Congress campaign. They were tired and hungry after a long day of door-knocking. In walked Carter, considered the most liberal Democrat in a crowded field to succeed the late Elijah Cummings, and their vigor returned.

""Jill on the Hill!"" the volunteers clapped and chanted. ""Jill on the Hill! Jill on the Hill!""

Progressive groups in Maryland are rallying around Jill P. Carter, 55, a 2016 Bernie Sanders delegate who shares their vision of sweeping change: a ""Green New Deal"" to fight climate change, ""Medicare for All"" to help the uninsured, and ending foreign wars. She's picked up the endorsements of notable progressives, such as 2018 gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous.

When the members of the Sanders-affiliated Our Revolution Maryland picked which of the 32 candidates in the field to back, the vote was about 88% for Carter.

""She's clearly the most progressive candidate in the race,"" said Sheila Ruth, the co-chairwoman of Our Revolution Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

Beyond her vision, there's more to Carter's pitch. There's her tale of an underdog.

In the crowded campaign office, Carter",Progressives stumping for,tweets_news_417,tweets_news
"Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, issued the following news:

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society has indefinitely halted its ads on Facebook to urge the social media platform to demonstrate a commitment to ending its role in the dissemination of violent rhetoric, racial discrimination, and disinformation.

""Sigma Xi's Facebook ad restriction is aligned with our mission to promote evidence-based messages to the public, free from misinformation and discrimination,"" Jamie Vernon, Sigma Xi executive director and CEO, said. ""Facebook has become a source of false and misleading information on a range of issues that have grave impacts on the health and well-being of society, which conflicts with our goal of improving the human condition.""

In June, Sigma Xi revised its agreement with NPS Media Group, which oversees audience development for the Society's premiere publication, American Scientist, by suspending all advertising activities on the social media platform. In order to resume advertising on Facebook, Sigma Xi calls for the social media giant to demonstrate a substantive and robust commitment to quelling the spread of misinformation and restricting the use of the platform for inciting violence and promoting discrimination.

Facebook recently announced results of their civil rights audit and said that they are beginning the",Sigma Xi: World's Largest Research Honor Society Halts Facebook Ads,tweets_news_418,tweets_news
"Google has banned Parler from the Play Store for allowing content ""that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the US,"" a spokesperson told Business Insider on Friday.

""In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app's listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues,"" Google told Parler.

Google said it had reminded Parler of its policies recently, which ""require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence.""

Google's move followed after Apple issued a similar warning to Parler on, giving the company 24 hours to address policy violations.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google has removed the far-right social media app Parler from its Play Store for continuing to allow violence-inciting content in violation of the company's policies, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

""We're aware of continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the US. We recognize that there can be reasonable debate about content policies and that it can be difficult for apps to immediately remove all violative content, but for us to distribute an app through Google Play, we do require that apps implement robust moderation for",Google has banned Parler from its app store for failing to remove violent content,tweets_news_419,tweets_news
"They have branded them as ""liberal lawbreakers,"" ""never Trump insiders,"" ""illegal immigrant freeloaders"" and ""never Trumper Mitt Romney"" supporters.

They have depicted them as being ""friends with child porn felons"" and squandering your tax money.

One featured a photograph of a newborn baby. It said if a candidate had her way, ""THIS BABY COULD HAVE BEEN ABORTED Just Because She's a Girl.""

These are just some of the mail-in fliers attacking Republicans running for public office, paid for by their Republican rivals - or political action groups supporting those rivals.

With the primary election ending with in-person voting Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on creating and mailing these fliers. They have been landing in mailboxes and recycling bins over the past few months.

One registered Republican voter in Fort Myers received 58 fliers over the past four weeks. The bulk of them were for three races:

The nine-candidate District 19 Congressional seat. Casey Askar, William Figlesthaler, Byron Donalds and Dane Eagle have been leading this race, both in fundraising and in being the subject of fliers.

The District 27 Florida Senate race between Heather Fitzenhagen and Ray Rodrigues. Fitzenhagen has painted a picture of her opponent as tool of U.S. Sugar, while Rodrigues",Mudslinging mailers reach fever pitch in Fla. primary contests,tweets_news_420,tweets_news
"Cruz did not say he was abandoning sites like Facebook.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is announcing Thursday he is joining Parler, a social media platform that bills itself as an ""unbiased"" alternative to the likes of Facebook and Twitter, which Cruz and other prominent conservative officials have accused of stifling their viewpoints.

In a YouTube video announcing the move, shared with POLITICO, Cruz rails against industry giants for ""flagrantly silencing those with whom they disagree, from conservative media organizations to the president of the United States - and millions of Americans in between.""

""That's why I'm proud to join Parler,"" Cruz adds. ""This platform gets what free speech is all about, and I'm excited to be a part of it. Let's speak. Let's speak freely. And let's end the Silicon Valley censorship.""

Cruz becomes the latest high-profile Republican to set up an account on the platform as tensions rise between the party and Silicon Valley. Others to recently make the move include Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

On its website, Parler describes itself as ""an unbiased social media focused on real user experiences and engagement.""

Cruz did not say he was",Cruz joins alternative social media site Parler in swipe at big tech platforms,tweets_news_421,tweets_news
"A New York Times headline last week read “Climate Change Batters the West Before Summer Even Begins.” In a tweet that summarized the current conditions, the Times noted: “Lake Mead is at its lowest point since the 1930s. It's more than 100 degrees in Vegas at night. Wildfires are burning in Utah, Arizona and Montana. And it's...

A New York Times headline last week read “Climate Change Batters the West Before Summer Even Begins.” In a tweet that summarized the current conditions, the Times noted: “Lake Mead is at its lowest point since the 1930s. It's more than 100 degrees in Vegas...

A New York Times headline last week read “Climate Change Batters the West Before Summer Even Begins.” In a tweet that summarized the current conditions, the Times noted: “Lake Mead is at its lowest point since the 1930s. It's more than 100 degrees in Vegas at night. Wildfires are burning in Utah, Arizona and Montana. And it's not even summer.” Leading climate activist and thought leader Bill McKibben pointed out that “Headlines like this would have been impossible in the mainstream media as little as 5 years ago. It comes very late, but at least we're starting to tell the",Heatwaves don't lie: Telling the truth about climate change,tweets_news_422,tweets_news
"Court also rules in a separate decision that the president does not have to turn over his financial records to CongressFollow US politics live

The supreme court has ruled that a Manhattan grand jury may have access to some of Donald Trump's financial documents, dealing a major blow to the president in his fight to keep his tax records secret - although the records were not expected to become public ahead of the November election.

Prosecutors in New York had sought the documents as part of an investigation into whether Trump had improperly handled hush payments, including one to the pornographic film actor star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

""This is a tremendous victory for our nation's system of justice and its founding principle that no one - not even a president - is above the law,"" Cy Vance Jr, the Manhattan district attorney, said. ""Our investigation, which was delayed for almost a year by this lawsuit, will resume, guided as always by the grand jury's solemn obligation to follow the law and the facts, wherever they may lead.""

Legal analysts warned, however, that the subpoena issued by Vance was not likely to be enforced anytime soon, and said Trump's tax records","Trump's taxes may be released to Manhattan grand jury, supreme court rules",tweets_news_423,tweets_news
"A Nebraska priest who was in Washington, D.C., at a Jan. 6 rally in support of then-President Donald Trump told a videographer that he had performed an exorcism at the U.S. Capitol because a demon is ""dissolving the country.""

The Rev. David Fulton, a pastor at St. Michael in Central City and St. Peter in Fullerton, was featured in a video shot by Eddie Becker on YouTube called ""Voices from the Capitol Insurrection."" It shows snippets of a five-minute conversation between Becker and Fulton.

Fulton is shown standing in a street with the U.S. Capitol in the background and a large crowd milling around and waving Trump flags.

Fulton didn't return several phone calls and emails asking for comment. Deacon Tim McNeil, the chancellor for the Archdiocese of Omaha, said Friday that Fulton's opinions do not reflect the views of the archdiocese.

McNeil said Fulton was given no sanctions or punishments for attending the rally or purporting to perform an exorcism. McNeil noted that Fulton is not a trained exorcist.

""Fulton did not break any civil or ecclesial laws while in Washington, D.C.,"" the archdiocese said in a statement. ""He attended the rally as a private citizen.""

McNeil said, however, that Omaha Archbishop George Lucas is",Nebraska priest at Jan. 6 D.C. rally said he performed exorcism at U.S. Capitol,tweets_news_424,tweets_news
"EN E-000865/2021 Answer given by Mr Breton on behalf of the European Commission (10.5.2021) The Commission is aware of the Polish plans to regulate social media at...

EN E-000865/2021 Answer given by Mr Breton on behalf of the European Commission (10.5.2021) The Commission is aware of the Polish plans to regulate social media at national level, but no 1 draft has been notified yet under Directive (EU) 2015/1535 . There ...

EN E-000865/2021 Answer given by Mr Breton on behalf of the European Commission (10.5.2021) The Commission is aware of the Polish plans to regulate social media at national level, but no 1 draft has been notified yet under Directive (EU) 2015/1535 . There is a need to establish clear responsibilities and accountability structures for online platforms and other intermediaries in the digital space. Today, the lack of harmonised EU rules on content moderation may affect the exercise users’ fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and information. This is why the Commission adopted in December 2020 a proposal for the Digital Services 2 Act , which aims to provide a horizontal legal framework for intermediary services, tailored to their respective role, size and impact, while ensuring protection of fundamental rights and",Polish Government attempts to achieve increased freedom of speech and opinion on social networks - E-000865/2021(ASW),tweets_news_425,tweets_news
"Earlier this month, Hamza Ali Abbasi called out Netflix over one of their recent ventures, Cuties.

The French film is a 2020 coming-of-age comedy-drama, written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré as her directorial debut. It follows the story of Amy, an 11-year-old girl who originally hails from Senegal and grows up in a working-class area of Paris. She eventually defies her 'conservative' family when she ""becomes aware of her burgeoning sexuality,"" according to the film's description.

""Things turn swiftly as Amy is fascinated by her disobedient neighbour Angelica's twerking clique called Cuties,"" it reads.

Netflix had earlier chosen an image showing the four young stars posing in tight costumes baring their legs and midriffs to promote the upcoming film. Following the promotional content and released trailer, tens of thousands signed a petition demanding the removal of the film altogether from the platform. Many described it as 'disgusting' and 'for the viewing pleasure of pedophiles'.

One of them was Abbasi. ""It's horrifying to see a show in the mainstream blatantly sexualising 11-year-old kids. If this show is still there by the next month, I am canceling my Netflix subscription and so should you."" said the Alif actor.

Its horrifying to see a show in the mainstream",Hamza Ali Abbasi cancels Netflix subscription over 'Cuties' release,tweets_news_426,tweets_news
"

Aug 12, 2020( The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Neil Young is removing Facebook and Google logins from his archival website Neil Young Archives, saying that the tech companies are 'screwing with our election.' In an email to subscribers on Tuesday, the rock star explained that the decision to remove buttons allowing users to login through Facebook or Google will cost the site 'almost $20,000 to disengage.' Young is now asking users who login using their social media accounts to transition to login simply with an email address and password.

'We have been working on this project for a couple of months. Trying to disengage from the corrupt social platform is a costly and time-consuming process for NYA,' Young wrote in an article that was shared to subscribers. 'Facebook knowingly allows untruths and lies in its political ads to circulate on the platform, while bots sow discord among users. Sowing dissent and chaos in our country via political disinformation is something we can not condone. Simply put, Facebook is screwing with our election.' Also Read: Neil Young Sues Trump Campaign Over Use of Songs at Tulsa Rally[1] Young's Neil Young Archives includes links to just about everything Young has recorded dating",Neil Young Dumps Facebook and Google Logins From Archive Site for 'Screwing With Our Election',tweets_news_427,tweets_news
"WILMINGTON, Del. (NewsNation Now) — President-elect Joe Biden pledged to protect the Affordable Care Act Tuesday, just hours after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over the health care law's future.

Biden defended the signature health care law of President Barack Obama's administration in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, alongside Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

He called the Republican-backed challenge to the ACA in the Supreme Court ""cruel and needlessly divisive.""

The high court ruled eight years ago to leave intact the essential components of the law known as ""Obamacare,"" but President Donald Trump and his Republican allies are arguing to have it overturned. If the 6-3 conservative court agrees with the GOP, millions of Americans could lose their health care coverage.

Biden promised on Tuesday that, regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit, he will enact reforms to expand coverage when he's in office in January.

But the president-elect also acknowledged issues with the ACA, promising to fix them.

He said his transition team is working to develop a plan to get Americans universal health care and lower health care costs ""as soon as humanly possible.""

Supreme Court weighs future of Affordable Care Act

Following his speech, Biden's transition team issued a statement on Twitter, saying ""It's wrong",President-elect Biden pledges to protect Affordable Care Act as Supreme Court considers its fate,tweets_news_428,tweets_news
"The video-sharing site deleted Church United’s account for violating its policies on promoting sexual orientation change efforts.

Vimeo was entitled to delete the account of a pastor who posted videos about sexual orientation change efforts, according to a federal appeals court, which affirmed a decision that the video-sharing site is protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

James Domen and Church United in June 2019 sued video-sharing site Vimeo for allegedly censoring and discriminating against him based on his “preferred” sexual orientation and religious beliefs. The pastor, who says he identifies as a “former homosexual,” posted a series of videos in an effort to challenge a California Assembly bill that would have expanded laws that ban sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE). Vimeo sent a warning letter, explaining that it doesn’t allow videos that promote SOCE, and threatening to delete the videos or the entire Church United account if Domen didn’t remove the offending content.

U.S. District Judge Stewart D. Aaron in January dismissed the suit, finding Section 230 gave Vimeo immunity from such a suit because it restricted the content in good faith. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed and affirmed the decision.

While there’s been",Vimeo’s Section 230 Win in Pastor’s Discrimination Suit Affirmed by Appeals Court,tweets_news_429,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

A socialist group has been left furious after its official account was banned on Facebook and dozens of activists were removed without giving ""a reason"".

The new rules have meant Facebook has also disabled the accounts of more than 45 left-wing activists and 15 Facebook pages in Britain, The Express reported.

But this has included the Socialist Workers Party, who ""fight against racism, exploitation, oppression and environmental destruction"".

A spokesman told The Express, ""Facebook has given no reason for disabling the accounts, and has not given any genuine way of appealing what has happened.""

""The activists involved have expressed concern that it amounts to a silencing of political activists and left-wing views on Facebook,"" he said.

""Those who have had their accounts disabled have said they are going to challenge the decision, and demand they are reinstated,"" he added.

The group also shared their fury over the ban in a blog post for The Socialist Worker, which was sent to The Express.

They criticised ""social media bosses for not being on our side"".

They said, ""While it's understandable to feel cheered that [Donald]Trump is being denied a platform, it does throw up questions about the precedent it sets.""

""Online platforms are now huge players in the publication of",United Kingdom: Facebook Bans UK Socialist Workers Party as Dozens of Activists Removed,tweets_news_430,tweets_news
"ANKARA

US President Donald Trump threatened to ""close down"" social media platforms on Wednesday after Twitter fact checked two of his tweets.

""Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,"" Trump tweeted.

His remarks came a day after Twitter labeled two of his tweets as ""potentially misleading.""

The president claimed such social media platforms had attempted a similar campaign for him to lose the 2016 presidential elections, adding that his administration would not allow similar efforts in the November vote.

""We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can't let a more sophisticated version of that happen again,"" he said.

Trump took a swipe at mail-in ballots, saying his government would not allow ""cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots.""

""Just like we can't let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!"" he said.

Democrats are pushing to expand vote-by-mail to secure social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic, but the idea drew fire from",Trump threatens social media platforms' closure,tweets_news_431,tweets_news
"Millennials and political commentary go together like teenagers and sweatpants. The convenience of having political commentators at our fingertips on YouTube has turned uneducated millennials into expert political analysts. As a Conservatrian (Conservative-Libertarian), I find political commentary on YouTube channels that enforce my ideologies, and others that stand in opposition. I consider myself well-grounded in my political ideology, grounded enough to write about it frequently. However, in political debate and discourse, opposition research is key in expertly presenting any political perspective. With the heavy decline in cable news and the distrust of the mainstream media, millennials often find their primary news from online articles and YouTube commentary. 

The American Press Institute conducted a study titled, ""How Millennials Get News: Inside the habits of America's first digital generation."" According to the study, ""adults age 18-34-so-called Millennials-do not visit news sites, read print newspapers, watch television news..."" (1). With the rise of social media, podcasting and YouTube, millennials find it more convenient to get news from their phones, rather than TV stations. Social media is increasingly the place where young people get news and political advice. The same study continues in their findings. ""Fully 88 percent of Millennials get news from Facebook",Just chilling: political commentary YouTube channels,tweets_news_432,tweets_news
"The goal is to disrupt Russia's well-honed information-warfare systems, whether they are poised to hack election systems or influence the minds of voters.

Over the past two weeks, United States Cyber Command and a group of companies led by Microsoft have engaged in an aggressive campaign against a suspected Russian network that they feared could hold election systems hostage come November.

Then, on Monday, the Justice Department indicted members of the same elite Russian military unit that hacked the 2016 election for hacking the French elections, cutting power to Ukraine and sabotaging the opening ceremony at the 2018 Olympics. And in Silicon Valley, tech giants including Facebook, Twitter and Google have been sending out statements every few days advertising how many foreign influence operations they have blocked, all while banning forms of disinformation in ways they never imagined even a year ago.

It is all intended to send a clear message that whatever Russia is up to in the last weeks before Election Day, it is no hoax. The goal, both federal officials and corporate executives say, is to disrupt Russia's well-honed information-warfare systems, whether they are poised to hack election systems, amplify America's political fissures or get inside the minds of voters.

But",Collaborative Push Against Vote Attacks By Russia (and Trump),tweets_news_433,tweets_news
"Facebook Inc has taken down a network of hundreds of fake accounts and pages targeting people in Ukraine and linked to individuals previously sanctioned by the United States for efforts to interfere in U.S. elections, the company said on Thursday.

Facebook said the network managed a long-running deceptive campaign across multiple social media platforms and other websites, posing as independent news outlets and promoting favorable content about Ukrainian politicians, including activity that was likely for hire. The company said it started its probe after a tip from the FBI.

Facebook attributed the activity to individuals and entities sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department including politician Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian lawmaker who was blacklisted by the U.S. government in September over accusations he tried to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election won by President Joe Biden. Facebook said it removed Derkach's accounts in October 2020.

Reacting to the investigation, Derkach said big firms were building a ""dictatorship in the name of liberal values"" and that he was preparing to submit draft legislation to Ukraine's parliament to regulate global social media companies.

""I proceed from the fact that no one has the right to restrict basic human rights and freedoms. Neither Facebook nor the state,"" he",Facebook removes Ukraine political 'influence-for-hire' network,tweets_news_434,tweets_news
"From deleting videos to accepting follower requests, research released by cybersecurity research firm Check Point Research (CPR) on January 8 exposed security flaws in the popular video-sharing mobile app TikTok. CPR also mentioned that it had informed TikTok of the vulnerabilities and that TikTok had deployed solutions to all these problems.

Key findings



* It was possible to send any message to any phone number on behalf of TikTok (SMS spoofing): TikTok's main website allows users to send an SMS message to themselves in order to download the application. Attackers could capture such a request made by a user and change parameters for their own purposes. For instance, this made it possible to send malicious links to any phone number on behalf of TikTok.

* Hackers could send requests on behalf of the users: CPR found that the Android version of the app has a ""deep links"" functionality that makes it possible to invoke intents in the app via a browser link. Attackers could use the SMS spoofing vulnerability to send links to the users which then made it possible for attackers to send requests on behalf of the user.

* Hackers could redirect the victim to a malicious website by sending a legitimate-looking",Research exposed multiple security vulnerabilities on TikTok: Report,tweets_news_435,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Each small step towards regulation makes possible a future that seemed unimaginable just a year ago.

FULL TEXT

Every galah in the regulatory pet shop right now is talking about big tech. But will it lead to the sort of big break-up that Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg says he fears or the light-touch rap on the knuckles he's been pleading for? Well, it may be bad news for Mark. Hidden in the tsunami of budget and Trump news last week were two reports from key committees in the US Congress and European Union. These called for draft legislation to ""structurally separate"" the big platforms (that is, break 'em up) and restrain them from operating in adjacent lines of business. Sure, it's just another step in the process -- more tech slog than tech-lash, says The Economist -- but each step makes possible a future that seemed unimaginable just a year ago. In the short term this makes some financial arrangement between Google and global news publishers, as per last year's report on digital platforms by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), more likely. In France, last week, the court of appeal ordered the search engine to talk money with publishers. The US","The tech slog is on: slowly but surely, the walls are closing in on big tech",tweets_news_436,tweets_news
"

Jun 19, 2020( International Business Times India: http://ibtimes.co.in Delivered by Newstex) John Bolton's FIVE Flaky Allegations Against Trump Facebook on Thursday removed adverts placed by the US President Donald Trump' re-election team that has similarity with symbols used by the hate groups of Nazis against political prisoners in concentration camps. Facebook[1]in its statement said that the adverts violated the company's policy against organised hate. Adviolated the company's policy ""We don't allow symbols that represent hateful organisations or hateful ideologies unless they are put up with context or condemnation,"" the social network's head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

He continued, ""That's what we saw in this case with this ad, and anywhere that that symbol is used we would take the same actions,"" BBC[2]reported. Around 88 odd ads were released by the ""Team Trump"" in the wake of his reelection campaign on Wednesday. The ads contained a sign of an inverted red triangle along with text warning of ""Dangerous MOBS"" and asking Trump supporters to sign a petition about Antifa, a far-left group who the president has sought to link with recent violence all over the country. Click here to read all Facebook-related[3]stories Reuters",Facebook removes Donald Trump's ads with the Nazi symbol,tweets_news_437,tweets_news
"Dose. Dance. Dose. Repeat.

Reinforced by movies from It's All Gone Pete Tong to Turn Up Charlie, the idea of EDM-fuelled hedonists descending on unsuspecting communities from Goa to Ibiza to spread nothing but trash and trouble is universal. But there is another side to club culture.

Years before most major music events even considered showing respect for First Nations traditions, B.C.-based Bass Coast was the first festival on the planet to ban Native American headdresses and war bonnets as dress-up gear.

Across Canada, DJ-centred events were ahead of North American trends to introduce drug testing to protect customers, and considerable funds have been raised to support environmental, social and political causes from raves worldwide.

One such bit of good work toward improving the world through exposing the work of artists in the electronic music genre is the non profit place( http://place.airtexture.com/ )label formed by long-running NYC label Air Texture( https://stores.airtexture.com/ ) in collaboration with Cologne-based Kompakt( https://kompakt.fm/ ).

Through a series of geographically specific regional compilations curated by active artists in local scenes, place releases have focused on scenes in Georgia, Netherlands, Colombia and Ecuador. All proceeds of each release go toward a specific organization in each territory. These have ranged from Open Closet",Electronic beatmakers join with Pacific Wild for place:vancouver collection,tweets_news_438,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders forcefully condemned GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday, calling her comments comparing COVID-19 safety measures like mask-wearing to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany “appalling.” “Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,"" House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders forcefully condemned GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday, calling her comments comparing COVID-19 safety measures like mask-wearing to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany “appalling.” “Marjorie is wrong, and he...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders forcefully condemned GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday, calling her comments comparing COVID-19 safety measures like mask-wearing to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany “appalling.” “Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,"" House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a statement, which stopped short of calling for Greene to face disciplinary measures. “The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling."" Greene, a conservative firebrand from Georgia and ally of former President Donald Trump, has thrived on stirring controversy, pushing conspiracy theories and forcefully confronting",GOP leaders condemn Greene over Holocaust comments,tweets_news_439,tweets_news
"This is the first in a series of articles on Big Tech's damage to democracy, public safety and consumers.

The biggest heist in business history began quietly in August 2004 when search engine Google, now Alphabet, went public.

People were already addicted to Google and I wanted to buy shares, but not until I understood how it could make money by giving away free information.

When I realized its business model was similar to ours in the news business - ads wrapped around content it had taken from newspapers and others - I bought lots of stock and wrote a memo to my CEO advising that the company do the same, in order to try and stop the looming apocalypse. He did nothing. I bought more stock.

Sixteen years later, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and many other social media sites have eaten newspapers alive. A 2018 report from Zenith, a company that tracks ad spending, found that advertising in newspapers plummeted to only US$48 billion ($65 billion) globally in 2018, from US$107 billion in 2000, and estimated that it would drop to US$44.5 billion by the end of this year. Meanwhile, internet ad spending soared from less than US$8 billion to US$227 billion in 2018",It's time to rein in tech giants; Analysis,tweets_news_440,tweets_news
"Dec. 14—BELLAIRE — State officials contend a report penned by a Texas-based cyber security consulting firm as part of a lawsuit claiming election malfeasance in Antrim County, relies on false and misleading information to claim Michigan's election results should be overturned.

The report completed by Allied Security Operations Group and released Monday on behalf of local realtor Bill Bailey, accuses Dominion Voting Systems of purposefully creating systemic fraud in order to influence election results — a claim the state not only denied but connected to President Donald Trump.

""If the Trump campaign had any actual evidence of wrongdoing — or genuine suspicion thereof — they could have requested a hand recount of every ballot in the state,"" said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. ""They did not, instead choosing to allow shadowy organizations claiming expertise to throw around baseless claims of fraud in an effort to mislead American voters and undermine the integrity of the election. Their actions are a corruption of the courts and the rule of law, as the release of today's report clearly demonstrates.""

A statement released by Dominion Voting Systems said claims regarding the company's role in Antrim County were part of a widespread disinformation campaign aimed at eroding public",State officials: Texas firm's report relies on false claims in Antrim County election lawsuit,tweets_news_441,tweets_news
"Insider found over 90% of LGBTQ characters in children's cartoons are behind a paywall.

Experts say it's because of the rise of cable, which resulted in low-income kids having less access.

Still, families, shows, and distributors are trying to help kids have greater access.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Most millennials remember PBS' animated hit ""Arthur,"" about a glasses-wearing aardvark and his animal friends and family. What they may not have seen is its spinoff, ""Postcards from Buster,"" which aired one of the earliest LGBTQ representation moments in kids' TV.

The live-action-animation hybrid, aimed at 4-to-8-year-olds, followed Arthur's best bunny friend Buster as he traveled around the world, introducing young viewers to diverse communities and the kids who lived in them.

In 2005, ""Postcards to Buster"" aired ""Sugartime"" a 26-minute-long episode where Buster goes to Vermont to learn how maple sugar is made. He also pays a visit to a local family with two moms.

""We just wanted to showcase how there are so many different kinds of kids - how they can learn something from that,'"" Carol Greenwald, ""Arthur"" and ""Postcards"" executive producer, told Insider.

While a few stations ran the episode, commissioned by PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of an effort",Kids' cartoons have more LGBTQ representation than ever before - but only if you pay for it,tweets_news_442,tweets_news
"I was always worried when I had to enter the Green Zone in Baghdad at a time when its entrances were under frequent attack by suicide bombers driving vehicles filled with explosives.

Being blown up by al-Qaeda in Iraq was not the only danger. The soldiers guarding the outer checkpoints of the zone were understandably nervous and would shoot at any vehicle they thought was coming too close to them. Once, I had to cower down behind a concrete barrier as they fired at a battered old car which had stalled just in front of their position.

I recalled the old Baghdad Green Zone this week as 25,000 National Guards established a well-defended area with the same name in the centre of Washington. The overt purpose was to protect the inauguration of Joe Biden as president and US security agencies, caught on the hop by the invasion of the Capitol on 6 January, were busy slamming the stable door long after the immediate crisis was over.

The Democrats and the largely Trump-hating media want to portray the alt-right rioters as ""domestic terrorists"" who had staged an abortive ""insurrection"" in order to stop Biden taking office. Clearly, some members of the mob would have",The Capitol riot could be as politically significant as 9/11,tweets_news_443,tweets_news
"Apr. 12—The Weatherford Democrat recently reached out to candidates running in contested races in the May 1 election. Featured below are candidates running for the Aledo ISD board Place 2 — Laura Morrow and Jennifer Loftin.

Candidates were given a platform to provide information about themselves and answer questions regarding their priorities, challenges and why they are running for office. Each candidate's response is published in the order their name will appear on the ballot.

_______

Name: Laura Morrow

Age: 39

Occupation: Financial Analyst

Education/experience: Aledo High School — Class of 2000 Salutatorian; B.B.A. (majoring in finance and accounting) from TCU in 2003; Master's degree in Accounting from TCU in 2004; M.B.A. from TCU in 2008; CPA License

Family: I have been happily married to James for 12 years, and we have a 9-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. I am the daughter of Austin and Joyce Eckstein.

QUESTION: Why are you running for office?

ANSWER: I am running for school board because I want to make a positive difference in the lives of the 6,600 students in our district. I am also running because I want more representation for elementary students, and I want to be a voice for them. Currently, 49% of Aledo ISD students are in",MEET THE CANDIDATES: Aledo ISD Place 2,tweets_news_444,tweets_news
"The Democratic presidential candidate has pledged to choose a woman, and recent BLM protests increase the chances she will be black

Joe Biden said he would pick a woman as running mate. Getty

Never in recent US election history has the vice presidential pick carried as much attention and intrigue as with the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

If he wins in November, Mr Biden would be the oldest president to take office, at age 78, making it uncertain that he would seek a second term in 2024.

This has put more emphasis on his choice for running mate as both someone who is ""ready on day one"" and the likely nominee for the Democratic Party in four years.

Last March, Mr Biden pledged to pick a woman for the vice-presidential spot and his campaign is vetting almost a dozen.

This process will conclude in a matter of weeks and Mr Biden is expected to announce his choice in early August, before the party convention in Wisconsin on August 17.

Recent protests in the US would make a black woman an unsurprising guess.

The main contenders for the position can be ranked as follows:

Kamala Harris



Senator Kamala Harris. AP

The senator from California is seen as a front-runner, a status",US Election: The 10 women who could be Joe Biden's running mate,tweets_news_445,tweets_news
"San Francisco

Coca-Cola, a major force in global advertising, announced Friday it would suspend ads on social media for at least 30 days, as platforms face a reckoning over how they deal with racist content. ""There is no place for racism in the world and there is no place for racism on social media,"" James Quincey, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, said in a brief statement.

He said social media companies -- which other major brands have boycotted to force changes in how they deal with hateful material -- need to provide ""greater accountability and transparency."" Coca-Cola will use the pause to ""reassess our advertising policies to determine whether revisions are needed,"" Quincey said.

The beverage giant told CNBC that the ""break"" does not mean it is joining the movement launched last week by African American and civil society groups. The coalition, which includes the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), has been urging companies to stop advertising on Facebook, using the #StopHateForProfit hashtag.

It aims to achieve better regulation of groups inciting hatred, racism or violence on the platform. Unilever, home to brands including Lipton tea and Ben and Jerry's ice cream, said it would stop advertising on",Coca-Cola says pausing social media advertising,tweets_news_446,tweets_news
"

May 27, 2020( Tubefilter: http://www.tubefilter.com Delivered by Newstex) YouTube automatically deleted comments criticizing the Chinese governmentbecause its enforcement systems were not looking at the remarks with the proper context, the platform tells Tubefilter. 'Upon review by our teams, we have confirmed this was an error in our enforcement systems and have rolled out a fix,' YouTube says. The deletions were pointed out in a new report[1] from The Verge, which noted that users had begun flagging the removals in YouTube's community forums back in October 2019[2]. Scrubbed comments contained '共匪' and/or '五毛,' which are both derogatory terms for people affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party,the ruling political entity of China[3]. English-language translations and Romanized Chinese versions of these terms were reportedly not deleted.#YouTube[4] 'automatically' deletes a comment in Chinese, 'Gongfei', which means 'communist bandit', in 15 seconds.This person tested 3 times, same result.

#油管[5] 15秒內自動刪除「共匪」留言，網友連試三次皆如此。他們找了個比李飛飛更厲害的AI專家？ pic.twitter.com/MLCeko0SIY[6] — Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) May 13, 2020[7]Some users theorized[8] that these two terms were marked for autodeletion because Chinese government affiliates had made an organized effort to mass-flag them as violative of the platform's Community Guidelines. YouTube wouldn't tell us exactly why the phrases were added to its comment enforcement systems,but did say bulk","Deletion Of Comments Criticizing Chinese Government Was A Contextual Error, YouTube Says",tweets_news_447,tweets_news
"New York, May 30 -- The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has welcomed steps taken by social media companies to prevent their platforms from being used to promote hatred, violence and misinformation, Spokesperson Rupert Colville said on Friday.

The statement comes in the wake of a decision by Twitter to flag tweets by United States President Donald Trump earlier this week, which warned against potential electoral rigging this year, through states' extending voting by mail.In response, President Trump on Thursday signed an Executive Order aimed at preventing online censorship, upholding free speech as ""the bedrock of American democracy"", and protected by the country's Constitution.On Thursday evening, he posted another tweet which the social media company flagged for violating its rules against ""glorifying violence"".In commenting on ongoing protests in the city of Minneapolis following the death this week of George Floyd, an African American man, while in police custody, the President tweeted that "".when the looting starts, the shooting starts.""'No simple fixes'Asked by a journalist about the developments involving the President and Twitter, Mr. Colville responded that OHCHR has repeatedly called for action to address how social media platforms have contributed to human rights violations, including through hate speech, incitement to violence",UN human rights office welcomes moves to curtail spread of hatred and violence online,tweets_news_448,tweets_news
"

Jan 11, 2021( Bookworm Room: http://www.bookwormroom.com/ Delivered by Newstex) A theatrical deus ex machina will not appear in the next week to save us. We're on our on but there are things we can do to save ourselves. The news is clear about what's happening today in America: The American private sector social media, internet search engines, web hosting engines, 14,000 American companies[1], banks[2], media outlets[3] is systematically working to silence and destroy anyone who opposes the Democrat political agenda. For example, Mozilla's leftist leadership, apparently finally over the 'guilt by association' horrors of the McCarthy era (an era leftists still use as a rallying point[4]), is reinstating guilt by association[5]. It's CEO, Mitchell Baker published a statement entitled 'we need more than deplatforming.'

After applauding shutting down Trump, he had some specific prescriptions: Changing these dangerous dynamics requires more than just the temporary silencing or permanent removal of bad actors from social media platforms. Additional precise and specific actions must also be taken: Reveal who is paying for advertisements, how much they are paying and who is being targeted. Commit to meaningful transparency of platform algorithms so we know how and what content is being amplified, to whom, and the",Conservatives   we have to be our own deus ex machina,tweets_news_449,tweets_news
"Executives from Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube were pressed by lawmakers on April 27 on how user content is shared and highlighted on their platforms through algorithms that one senator said can be misused, “driving us into poisonous echo chambers”. Senator Ben Sasse, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s panel on Privacy,...

Executives from Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube were pressed by lawmakers on April 27 on how user content is shared and highlighted on their platforms through algorithms that one senator said can be misused, “driving us into poisonous ...

Executives from Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube were pressed by lawmakers on April 27 on how user content is shared and highlighted on their platforms through algorithms that one senator said can be misused, “driving us into poisonous echo chambers”. Senator Ben Sasse, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s panel on Privacy, Technology and the Law, made the comment as members examined algorithms – the lines of software code that determine how user-generated information is displayed and who gets to see it. “Algorithms, like almost any technologies that are new, have costs and benefits” and can be abused,","Facebook, Twitter, YouTube pressed on ‘poisonous’ algorithms",tweets_news_450,tweets_news
"During his 20 years in the U.S. Senate, Jeff Sessions was a solid conservative who was right on issues such as stopping illegal immigration. He was the first U.S. Senator to endorse Donald Trump for President and was rewarded with one of the most coveted appointments in the new administration. Trump appointed Sessions to be U.S. Attorney General.

Unfortunately, Sessions was a cowardly leader of the Department of Justice.

He permitted Deep State operatives to remain in key positions. He recused himself from the Russia investigation, allowing his Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, to appoint Robert Mueller as a Special Counsel.

The resulting investigation cost almost $40 million and lasted 22 months. It was a travesty of justice as the Mueller team, dominated by Democratic Party attorneys and activists, found no Russian collusion, and could not prove the President or his associates obstructed justice in any way.

This did not stop them from harassing the President and forcing several of his campaign operatives into guilty pleas on charges that had nothing to do with Russia.

Sessions unleashed this holy hell upon President Trump by recusing himself and allowing the appointment of Mueller.

The investigation was a partisan attempt to overturn the 2016 election results, in effect,",Jeff Sessions Failed His Biggest Test,tweets_news_451,tweets_news
"

Feb 24, 2021( The Nation Blogs: http://www.thenation.com/blogs Delivered by Newstex) https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/zuckerberg-close-up.jpgFacebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in April 2018. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!

Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? The Trump presidency will be remembered as the era when the absurdity of reality outpaced satire. Even with Trump out of the White House, it's hard for any caricature to be quite as grotesque as what actually happens. On Monday, The Onion ran one of its typical attempts[1] to parody the daily news with a story that began, 'In an",Facebook Remains a Threat to Democracy,tweets_news_452,tweets_news
"With his term winding down, President Trump's possible future in conservative media may not be damaged even after last Wednesday's riots at the U.S. Capitol. Evan Vucci/AP

WASHINGTON - Facebook and Twitter banned him. Cabinet officers have abandoned him. And members of Congress want to impeach him again.

But even as Silicon Valley and Washington drew the line with President Donald Trump after he encouraged supporters to descend on the U.S. Capitol last week - leading to a deadly clash - his potential future in conservative media looks largely unharmed.

""Donald Trump is a money-making commodity in media,"" said Sam Nunberg, a former campaign adviser. ""There will always be a space for him. He will always have a tremendous audience. Even people who hate him will watch him.""

Other social media companies also are taking steps against Trump, blocking his favorite avenues to reach supporters. But with a love for the limelight, he is expected to pursue media opportunities of some kind after he leaves office, according to many observers, whether it's a book deal, a lucrative role at a news channel or his own media venture.

Hicks Equity Partners, a private equity company, has reportedly tried to raise money to create a right-leaning channel",Trump's future in right-wing media still intact after riots,tweets_news_453,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON — State Sen. Pat Fallon was elected Saturday afternoon by 144 Republican officials from northeast Texas to replace Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe as the GOP nominee on the ballot for Texas’ 4th Congressional District, likely sending the Prosper Republican to Washington as the district’s next representative.

Fallon, who represents District 30 in the Texas Senate, beat out 17 other candidates with 82 votes from the 144 voting GOP county and precinct chairs who live in the district, needing only one round to secure a majority. The chairs gathered Saturday afternoon at the Hopkins County Civic Center in Sulphur Springs for more than three hours to vote in the unusual election.

“This is a unique district, this is a district rich in history, this is a district of giants,” Fallon told the crowd after being declared the winner. “I see several hundred giants in this room. I am a better person for the experience of the last 90 days. I didn’t get 82 votes. I had 82 friends who supported me, and I am humbled.”

Fallon will face Democratic nominee Russell Foster in November, but the conservative will be heavily favored running in a district where Ratcliffe received more than three-quarters",Fallon to take Ratcliffe’s spot,tweets_news_454,tweets_news
"Scott Morrison, Australia's terminally tin-eared prime minister, goes by an inspired sobriquet while his country burns. ""Scotty from Marketing,"" they call him now, an acerbic reference to his former career in charge of the nation's tourism council, where he coined the slogan: ""Where the b-----hell are ya?"" The question has proved neatly prophetic of the man himself, given that just before Christmas, with much of New South Wales ablaze amid devastating bushfires, he decided to go on holiday to Hawaii. While an area the size of Denmark was being razed to the ground, Morrison was pictured sipping sundowners near Waikiki beach.

This week, when taking a detour to the ruined community of Cobargo, Morrison received the welcome he deserved, with dispossessed residents hounding him out of town. And yet still his catalogue of misjudgments rolls on. On New Year's Day, with Canberra, the seat of government, so choked with smoke that it ranked as the most polluted city on Earth, the premier saw fit to host a backyard cricket match at Kirribili House, his official residence in Sydney. Even worse, he invoked the third Test between Australia and New Zealand, which began last night, as an illustration of his compatriots' resilience.

""Australians",Australia's prime minister is shameless - how dare he use cricket as his crutch while his country burns,tweets_news_455,tweets_news
"New Delhi, Jan. 28 -- Union Minister Anurag Thakur was caught on camera on Monday chanting the first half of the slogan to which the people present at a rally in Delhi concluded saying ""gun down traitors.""

In the video, which has been widely shared, Thakur was heard saying: ""desh ke gaddaron ko"", to which the crowd enthusiastically replied ""goli maaro sa***n ko"" which means the ""traitors of the country should be shot down.""Thakur is the BJP candidate in North West Delhi.

But controversy has been raised since Thakur was present at the rally where this kind of chant was heard and that the Union Minister remained unfazed by them.

The Election Commission has told NDTV that they would take necessary action against a video speech received from Rithala constituency.

Earlier BJP leader Kapil Mishra made an alleged communal tweet against those protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act ahead of the Delhi assembly polls.

The poll body had then asked micro-blogging site Twitter to remove the post that called the protest areas in Delhi against CAA as ""mini-Pakistans.""

The EC had slammed the comment as ""highly objectionable"" and that it ""appeals to communal feelings.""

In another post, he had termed the Delhi Assembly Election as ""India vs Pakistan""",Delhi polls: 'Shoot down traitors' chants emerge at Anurag Thakur's rally,tweets_news_456,tweets_news
"Facebook Inc has suspended the former US president from the platform until at least January 2023

Donald Trump has said he will not be inviting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to dinner ""next time"" he is in the White House.

Facebook Inc on Friday suspended the former US president from the platform until at least January 2023 and announced changes to how it will treat world leaders who break the rules on its site.

Facebook suspended Mr Trump's account the day after the deadly January 6th Capitol Hill riot, determining he had incited violence. That suspension will last at least two years from the date of the initial block and would only be lifted if the risk to public safety has receded, Facebook said on Friday.

Next time I'm in the White House there will be no more dinners

Mr Trump criticised the decision as a form of censorship and an insult to his voters. He also repeated false claims of voter fraud in his statement on Friday.

Advertisement""Facebook's ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election,"" he said.

""They shouldn't be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we",Trump: No more dinners with Mark Zuckerberg 'next time' I'm in the White House,tweets_news_457,tweets_news
"ORLANDO, Fla. - Two Florida men, including a self-described organizer for the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, were arrested Wednesday on charges of taking part in the siege of the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, authorities said.

Joseph Biggs, 37, was arrested in central Florida and faces charges of obstructing an official proceeding before Congress, entering a restricted area on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol and disorderly conduct.

According to an arrest affidavit, Biggs was part of a crowd on Jan. 6 that overwhelmed Capitol Police officers who were manning a metal barrier on the steps of the Capitol. The mob entered the building as lawmakers were certifying President Joe Biden’s election win.

Biggs appeared to be wearing a walkie-talkie during the storming of the Capitol, but he told FBI agents that he had no knowledge about the planning of the destructive riot and didn’t know who organized it, the affidavit said.

Ahead of the riot, Biggs told followers of his on the social media app Parler to dress in black to resemble the far-left antifa movement, according to the affidavit.

Biggs had organized a 2019 rally in Portland, Oregon, in which more than 1,000 far-right protesters and anti-fascist counter-demonstrators faced off.

The Proud",Proud Boy organizer arrested in Florida over riot at Capitol,tweets_news_458,tweets_news
"In case you somehow hadn’t heard that Sen. Josh Hawley’s new book was canceled by its first publisher, he’s eager to remind you. It’s right there in the first line, like a point of pride. It’s proof, he says, that corporate America wants to silence any voices that question its power over society. Simon & Schuster abandoned...

In case you somehow hadn’t heard that Sen. Josh Hawley’s new book was canceled by its first publisher, he’s eager to remind you. It’s right there in the first line, like a point of pride. It’s proof, he says, that corporate America wants to silence any voi...

In case you somehow hadn’t heard that Sen. Josh Hawley’s new book was canceled by its first publisher, he’s eager to remind you. It’s right there in the first line, like a point of pride. It’s proof, he says, that corporate America wants to silence any voices that question its power over society. Simon & Schuster abandoned Hawley’s book, “ The Tyranny of Big Tech ,” after the Missouri Republican challenged the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, the same day pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol. The publisher cited “his role in what became a dangerous threat to","In Josh Hawley’s book on Big Tech, his persona risks undermining his arguments",tweets_news_459,tweets_news
"The nation was transfixed on Wednesday by the dramatic and unsettling scenes of Washington DC protests and mob-like behavior that occurred, disrupting Congress' process of certifying President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College win.One person was shot and died during the chaos and rioting Wednesday in Washington DC.Facebook and Twitter took dramatic action to limit content shared by President Trump in response to Wednesday's protests.Here's one of many depressing indicators of just how bad the DC protests got on Wednesday, temporarily disrupting the congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. Things devolved to such a degree that Facebook actually found a spine and did something it pretty much never, ever does, fearing the wrath of its legions of conservative users - the biggest social network actually took down the bizarre video President Trump shared to his social accounts, in which he at one point told the Trump-loving mob that stormed the US Capitol complex that ""We love you. You're very special.""

Facebook vice president of integrity Guy Rosen explained in a tweet why the social giant decided to remove Trump's video: ""This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump's video. We removed it",The DC protests attacked one final American bedrock on Trump's behalf,tweets_news_460,tweets_news
"As Twitter looks overseas for growth, India stands out as its fastest-growing major market, one filled with opportunity - and increasingly thorny political -challenges.

The San Francisco company in recent weeks blocked, unblocked and then blocked again hundreds of accounts in the South Asian -nation for posting material New Delhi called inflammatory amid long-running protests by farmers. Twitter's moves came after the government threatened the company with legal action, which could have resulted in a fine or -jail for Twitter executives if it didn't remove the handles.

Twitter finds itself in an awkward position, analysts say, as it publicly stands by its commitment to allow individuals to express opinions while also abiding by New Delhi's increasing assertiveness over social media. Twitter's balancing act highlights a growing conundrum for social-media companies as they run up against governments in key markets where they seek growth as developed countries become saturated.

""The problem they face is striking the right balance between ideology and being pragmatic,"" said Ashutosh Sharma, a New Delhi-based vice-president at research firm Forrester. ""Should they be taking sides? They have to be consistent."" Twitter said in a statement earlier this month that it remained ""committed to safeguarding the health of the conversation occurring",Twitter's hopes for India waver under a heavy hand,tweets_news_461,tweets_news
"In an effort to reverse the flood of abuse on the platform, Twitter is rolling out a new feature which will show a self-moderation prompt to users who compose replies that the platform’s algorithms recognise to be abusive. The prompt effectively asks users to think twice before posting an abusive message. Because it compels users to rethink...

In an effort to reverse the flood of abuse on the platform, Twitter is rolling out a new feature which will show a self-moderation prompt to users who compose replies that the platform’s algorithms recognise to be abusive. The prompt effectively asks users...

In an effort to reverse the flood of abuse on the platform, Twitter is rolling out a new feature which will show a self-moderation prompt to users who compose replies that the platform’s algorithms recognise to be abusive. The prompt effectively asks users to think twice before posting an abusive message. Because it compels users to rethink and reflect on abusive tweets, Twitter’s new self-moderation prompt could be a promising step away from fast and furious social media posting and towards a more considered slow media – or “ slowcial media ”. Twitter’s new feature This isn’t the first time Twitter has",Twitter to ask users to rethink abusive messages – a promising step towards ‘slowcial media’,tweets_news_462,tweets_news
"

Jul 09, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Most major US airlines[1] require passengers to wear masks[2] on board to help prevent the spread of COVID-19[3] on planes.While most passengers follow the rule, some refuse to wear the masks — leading to flight delays, confrontations, and aggravated passengers.Face coverings help prevent the wearer from spreading the coronavirus[4] to others, if they unknowingly have the virus.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[5]. It's the new reclined backrest; the window shade, the emotional support animal.The latest source of tension in the skies: face masks.As travel demand has slowly ticked up during the pandemic, leading to fuller planes and some airlines ending efforts to facilitate social distancing, most US airlines have mandated crew and passenger masks as a way to limit the spread of COVID-19 on flights.However, just as in many other public settings such as stores and restaurants, some people are refusing to follow airlines' requirements — and it's leading to confrontation.Masks have been shown to help prevent the wearer — who may have the virus without knowing it or showing symptoms — from spreading it to others. The more people who go mask-less, the higher the chance of an","People are refusing mandatory orders to wear masks on flights, and it's causing mayhem with other passengers",tweets_news_463,tweets_news
"•Manchester City take on League Two Port Vale in the FA Cup on Saturday night•Vale striker Tom Pope has become a Twitter sensation and is now a cult hero•He just 'tries to have a laugh' but was caught out poking fun at John Stones•Pope criticised Stones on Twitter and described him as '#soft' and '#weakasp*ss'•Once the draw was made, Pope apologised and said Stones had since improved

Manchester City take on League Two Port Vale in the FA Cup on Saturday night

Vale striker Tom Pope has become a Twitter sensation and is now a cult hero

He just 'tries to have a laugh' but was caught out poking fun at John Stones

Pope criticised Stones on Twitter and described him as '#soft' and '#weakasp*ss'

Once the draw was made, Pope apologised and said Stones had since improved

For someone under a self-imposed social media ban, Tom Pope has been a busy man in the build-up to Port Vale's FA Cup tie with Manchester City on Saturday night.

Not satisfied with resurrecting - in typically brusque, light-hearted fashion - his one-way Twitter 'feud' with City centre half John Stones, the Vale striker has barely stopped tweeting since being drawn against the Premier League champions.

Whether tweeting about his","The social media menace! Port Vale cult hero Tom Pope on poking fun at John Stones and Stoke on Twitter, his bromance with Robbie Williams and facing Man City in the FA Cup",tweets_news_464,tweets_news
"

Jul 22, 2020( International Business Times News: http://www.ibtimes.com Delivered by Newstex) In a move to crack down on what the social media company deems to be harmful behavior, Twitter on Wednesdaybanned 7,000 accounts linked to the 'QAnon' conspiracy theory and placed limitations on 150,000 other accounts. The banned accounts have been accused of engaging in harassment and breaking Twitter's rules against platform manipulation, spamand ignoring the ban.The accounts affected by the limitations[1] will no longer be recommended by Twitter's algorithms, in an attempt to prevent QAnon content from spreading.

These accounts and terms associated with QAnon will also be featured less in searches and trends.A Twitter spokesperson confirmedthat while the rules being broken are not new, the designation of QAnon-affiliated content as ""harmful"" is new for the platform.QAnon is a fringe right-wing conspiracy theory that originated on the controversial online message board 4Chan. It is based on posts from an anonymous user, called 'Q' by followers, claiming without proof to be a government employee with 'Q-Level' clearance. The posts claim thatPresident Trump is leading a secret campaign against 'deep state' figures —largely composed of left-wing politicians, progressive celebritiesand business leaders —that are allegedly engaged in child abuse, pedophiliaand Satanism.The anonymous user","Twitter Bans 7,000 Account Linked To 'QAnon' Conspiracy, Limit Thousands More",tweets_news_465,tweets_news
"The Issue: Twitter and Facebook's suppression of The Post's reporting on Hunter Biden's personal e-mails.

If you weren't sure that Big Tech companies like Twitter and Facebook are biased against conservatives, their actions in shutting down The Post's story about Joe and Hunter Biden is proof enough (""Censored,"" Oct. 15).

I'm calling on all conservatives to get off those social-media outlets immediately and sell any stock you may have in these companies. The only way to fight back is to hit them where it will hurt the most - their pocketbooks.

If this was a story about President Trump and his family, they would never take it down or the Democrats would be screaming about free speech.

Stephen Colasacco, The Bronx

I want to thank you for your continued effort to disseminate the facts regarding Hunter Biden.

The article highlighted my concerns not only regarding corruption of our government officials, but also about media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook.

I'm extremely alarmed about the suppression and censorship of free speech. Our free speech as Americans is being controlled, if not dominated, by these companies. Keep up the great work.

Brian Pancza, Beechwood, NJ

So much of the so-called mainstream media has become nothing but a propaganda outlet for",,tweets_news_466,tweets_news
"As the new Biden-Harris administration assumes power, the most basic American freedom of speech and expression is under unprecedented threat.

For the first time ever, I am concerned about my freedom to do my work, to run a policy institute addressing issues of culture, race and poverty from a conservative perspective.

Technology - the internet - which was largely nonexistent just 25 years ago, now plays a huge role in our lives as a tool of communication.

In a survey just published by the Pew Research Center, 86% say they ""often"" or ""sometimes"" get their news from a digital device - smartphone, tablet or computer. This compared with 68% who say they ""often"" or ""sometimes"" get their news from television, 50% who get it from radio and 32% who get it from print publications.

According to Statista.com, the United States has 223 million Facebook users, almost the size of the entire U.S. population over age 18. Per Pew, 22% of U.S. adults use Twitter.

These developments have put enormous power at the disposal of technology firms over what we see and read.

Power alone doesn't worry me. Exclusive power, power to control, does.

The decision by Twitter to kick the president of the United States off of",Our freedom to speak is now seriously threatened,tweets_news_467,tweets_news
"

Jun 27, 2020( Business 2 Community.com: http://www.business2community.com Delivered by Newstex) Sure, the stock market might surge on any given day, but, the stock market is not the economy. We're in a recession, folks. Don't believe me, I've covered my bases here Liberals: NPR says we've been in a recession since February[1]. Conservative: WSJ says[2] 'the U.S. officially entered a recession in February, marking the end of the 128-month expansion that was the longest in records reaching back to 1854.' Let's focus on that WSJ quote for a second. 128 months is a long time.

That's over 10 years of expansion. In fairness, we can't say that the entire 10 years have been gravy for every company out there. Still, there has been a ton of money and lots of growth for small, medium, and large companies. The growth has been across most market segments. So, what's my point? My point is that businesses have enjoyed a robust economy for a long time. Marketing efforts can tend to slack in good times. 'Why do we need to invest in marketing, we're making tons of money.' This attitude is short-sighted and can get you in trouble in a - gulp - recession. Well,",A Recession is the Perfect Time to Invest in SEO,tweets_news_468,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from the BBC.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

soon. This is BBC News LIVE from Washington and London. It's been five days since the United States went to the polls and we still don't have a result. But the key state of Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden is currently in the lead, is due to give an update on the numbers.

The eyes of the world are on election counters in the state. If Joe Biden manages to secure victory in Pennsylvania - he wins the White House. Joe Biden has been calling for calm and unity - and says he'll soon have a ""mandate for action"". We don't have the final declaration of victory yet. The numbers tell us it's clear, tell us a clear and convincing story. We're going to win this race. Meanwhile Donald Trump continues to allege fraud without providing evidence, Twitter blocks his four most recent tweets, as his lawyers prepare for a media conference. As the count drags on",BBC News - 4:00 PM GMT,tweets_news_469,tweets_news
"

Jan 13, 2021( Mediaite: http://www.mediaite.com/ Delivered by Newstex) https://www.reddit.com/submit Representative Jason Crow (D-CO) said he is looking at ways for Congress to possibly censure Majorie Taylor-Greene over her 'depraved' conspiracy theories.

As a member of the House Committee on Armed Services, Crow gave an interview to CNN's John Berman on Wednesday to address Congress's upcoming attempt to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting the insurrectionist mob that laid siege to the U.S. Capitol. Berman turned the conversation toward Taylor-Greene, a QAnon acolyte who claims 'President Trump will remain in office. 'This Hail Mary attempt to remove him from the White House is an attack on every American who voted for him,' she tweeted. 'Democrats must be held accountable for the political violence inspired by their rhetoric.'Berman was 'shocked' that Taylor-Greene still has a Twitter account with all of her conspiracy theories, and Crow said she's one of several people in Congress who are 'morally bankrupt, depraved, frankly dangerous individuals.' 'We're looking at our options within the House as to how we stop this,' Crow said. 'And whether this is an expulsion proceeding, a censure, we can't let this stand because this is exactly my point. Donald Trump is one thing, he's",Congressman Says House is Considering Expelling 'Dangerous' and 'Depraved' QAnon Congresswoman,tweets_news_470,tweets_news
"

Nov 12, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) If this election is not fully audited, you can put a lid on the United States.More Than 10,000 Dead People Cast Ballots in Michigan, Analysis ShowsMore than 10,000 people confirmed or suspected dead have returned their mail-in ballots to vote in Michigan[1], according to an analysis of the state's election data. By: By Petr Svab, November 10, 2020:About 9,500 voters confirmed dead through the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) are marked in the state's mail voting database as having returned ballots. Another nearly 2,000 are 100 years old or more and aren't listed as known living centenarians.The analysis was provided by Richard Baris, director of Big Data Poll. The data indicates that somebody else was trying to vote on behalf of these people.

The Michigan Department of State denied knowledge of such instances. 'It's also entirely possible that some of them aren't even real people,' Baris told The Epoch Times via email. 'If someone is 110 or some ridiculous age, we should have their death record but do not.' Americans older than 110 are exceedingly rare; only a handful of such seniors are known[2] to live in Michigan. According to the","More Than 10,000 Dead People Cast Ballots in Michigan, Analysis Shows",tweets_news_471,tweets_news
"Social media regulatory threats will loom large in 2020, with a focus on antitrust, data privacy, and tax avoidance. Facebook is likely to be hit the hardest, but will not be the only company to suffer. Any change to the ability of companies to gather and store user data will undermine their core business model of monetising this data through ads.

Listed below are the top social media regulatory trends, as identified by GlobalData.Data securityData security is a key issue for social media firms. In late 2018, Facebook announced that a data breach had affected 50 million users. 2020 will see regulators step-up their scrutiny of social media companies' data security. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires all organisations with more than 250 staff to appoint a data protection officer.

Data privacyData privacy has emerged as a key challenge for social networks and a significant area of scrutiny for regulators, governments, and watchdogs worldwide. Current regulation, including GDPR, has established clear obligations and penalties for social networks. 2020 will see a surge in both regulations on data privacy and the enforcement of such regulations. These attacks will target companies' ability to collect, store, and sell users' data. The role of social",Social media regulatory trends and threats 2020,tweets_news_472,tweets_news
"

Nov 04, 2020( International Business Times Australia: http://www.ibtimes.com.au/ Delivered by Newstex) Twitter labeled two of President Donald Trump's tweets as misleading Wednesday as a battle over the knife-edge US election spilled into social media. The latest action came when a tweet from the president claimed ballot irregularities during the vote-counting process. Trump alleged that there had been ""surprise ballot dumps"" in states where he had been leading Democrat Joe Biden in the race for the White House.

Twitter's action made the comments less visible, and users seeking to read the post were required to click through a warning that ""some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading."" A Twitter spokesperson said the action was taken ""in line with our Civic Integrity Policy,"" and would ""significantly restrict engagements"" with the tweet. A similar action was taken against an earlier tweet by the president suggesting the Democratic nominee was seeking to ""steal"" the election. Facebook and Twitter were both on alert for misinformation and manipulation efforts around the 2020 US election, hoping to avoid the problems seen in 2016 AFP / Denis Charlet The Twitter spokesperson said it took action on a number of other",Twitter Flags Trump Tweets As Battle Spills To Social Media,tweets_news_473,tweets_news
"In its short life span, it was one of the fastest growing groups in Facebook's history and a hub for those trying to delegitimize the election.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The first post in the new Facebook group that was started on Wednesday was innocuous enough. ''Welcome'' to Stop the Steal, it said.

But an hour later, the group uploaded a minute-long video to its Facebook page with a pointed message. The grainy footage showed a crowd outside a polling station in Detroit, shouting and chanting ''stop the count.'' Below the video, which was quickly shared nearly 2,000 times, members of the group commented ''Biden is stealing the vote'' and ''this is unfair.''

The viral video helped turn the Stop the Steal Facebook group into one of the fastest-growing groups in Facebook's history. By Thursday morning, less than 22 hours after it was started, it had amassed more than 320,000 users -- at one point gaining 100 new members every 10 seconds. As its momentum grew, it caught the attention of Facebook executives, who shut down the group hours later for trying to incite violence.

Even so, the Stop the Steal Facebook group had done its work. In its brief life span, it became a",The Rise and Fall of the 'Stop the Steal' Facebook Group,tweets_news_474,tweets_news
"""To be clear: I do not support the statements from Attorney Lin Wood.""

Topline

 In the final days of Trump s presidency and amid his increasingly desperate efforts to hold onto power his legal supporters are beginning to turn on one another after the latest unhinged tweets from L. Lin Wood, a lawyer behind a series of failed pro-Trump lawsuits challenging the election results.

<figure class=""embed-base image-embed embed-1"">

<figcaption>

Attorney Lin Wood speaks during a rally on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020, in Alpharetta, Ga. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

</figcaption> </figure>

Key Facts

Wood went after Vice President Mike Pence after Pence askeda district court to throw out a suit brought by several congressional Republicans forcing him to alter the election on Jan. 6, when Congress is scheduled to count the Electoral College votes (the case was eventually thrown out). 

Wood, who has has filed lawsuits seeking to overturn the results in his home state of Georgia, took to Twitter Friday with bizarre conspiracies about Pence.

WoodcalledPence a coward who would eventually be arrested and, facing execution for treason, would eventually sing like a bird & confess ALL.

Wood then shifted his target, tweeting: ""whenarrests for treason begin, put Chief Justice John Roberts and Mitch McConnell at the top of",Trump s Legal Allies Attack Each Other After Lin Wood Tweets Wild Conspiracies,tweets_news_475,tweets_news
"Washington: US President Donald Trump says he will pick a woman to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and expects to reveal his nominee within days.

Trump vowed to move rapidly to start the replacement process, telling a campaign rally in North Carolina yesterday: ""I will be putting forth a nominee next week.""

Trump and Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell have both vowed to move quickly to fill Ginsburg's seat, but have not said if they intend to force an appointment before the November 3 presidential election.

The confirmation process for a Supreme Court justice typically takes about three months, but there are just over six weeks remaining until election day. Even if they lose the White House and their Senate majority, Republicans could still fill the seat in the ""lame duck"" session that runs until January 3.

""It will be a woman - a very talented, very brilliant woman,"" Trump said at the rally in Fayetteville.

""We haven't chosen yet, but we have numerous women on the list.""

Amy Coney Barrett, whom Trump previously appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, is seen as the frontrunner.

Barrett is a devout Catholic who has criticised",Nominee to be 'brilliant woman',tweets_news_476,tweets_news
"What happens online has real-world implications – we need to consider this going forward

The violence and anger seen in Washington DC last night was all too real. But for years, discontent and conspiracies have festered online, with most people paying little attention. The reason is simple: too many of us think of the online world and the offline world as two distinct areas with very little overlap. We neglect to think of social media platforms as true public squares – and don’t acknowledge that what happens there has real-world implications.

That misplaced belief is worsened by lax enforcement from social media platforms, which seemingly prefer to prioritise making money over upholding public decency. Donald Trump is a Twitter construct, someone who repeatedly dallied with launching US presidential campaigns on previous occasions but decided not to because he knew he’d lose, and badly – until social media propelled him to some sort of relevancy.

And since taking power, he’s ruled by tweet, rather than legislation. It’s notable that – at the height of the chaos – he took to the platform to egg on his hordes of deplorables (that’s what, half a decade since the word was shunned, we should call them), rather","If those who stormed the Capitol yesterday are charged with sedition, social networks should stand alongside them",tweets_news_477,tweets_news
"COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Relishing in Democrats' jumbled primary in the wake of a fractious debate, President Donald Trump offered stinging criticism of his rivals as he sought to take advantage of the moment.

Making a rare four-day swing through the West, Trump was exuding reelection confidence Thursday at a campaign rally in Colorado, after taking in the prior night's prize fight of a debate in Las Vegas. He reveled in the intra-party squabbling and the weak debut debate performance turned in by former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, according to aides and allies.

""I don't know if anyone watched last night's debate,"" Trump told an arena of raucous supporters. ""It got very big ratings, and you know what, Mini Mike didn't do well last night. I was going to send him a note, saying it's not easy doing what I do is it?""

He offered other biting assessments of the Democratic contenders, contrasting them to his own performance in debates four years ago.

""I became president because of the debates because unlike Mini Mike I could answer questions,"" Trump said.

Feeling reelection odds rising after his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial and his campaign's record fundraising, Trump seized on the deep","Trump savoring scrambled Dem race, Bloomberg's debate debut",tweets_news_478,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

FBN INTERVIEW WITH REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO)

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

SPEAKERS: REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO)

NEIL CAVUTO, FBN ANCHOR

[*] NEIL CAVUTO, FOX BUSINESS ANCHOR: In the meantime, I want to go to Congressman Ken Buck, the Republican Colorado congressman, sits on the House Antitrust Subcommittee, the ranking member there.

Congressman, good to have you back.

I'd be remiss if I didn't get your thoughts on this teleconference that the Treasury secretary's going to have with all the heads of the major regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve.

So, she's concerned about she's called this market mania. Are you enough for these guys to get involved and want to do something?

REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO): Well, we will see. I don't know what she's defining market mania as.

I am concerned whenever the government interferes in the marketplace. I also think that we have seen some things in the last few weeks that don't make much sense. And I'm concerned about protecting the small investors. The hedge fund managers obviously have protected themselves. So, I'd be interested to see what the end result is.

CAVUTO: Do you think, Congressman, that, sometimes, people have to take their own punishment; if they get greedy or they get too far, and they",FBN INTERVIEW WITH REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO),tweets_news_479,tweets_news
"(TNSRep) -- The Coalition To Stop Gun Violence issued the following news release on Oct. 21:

Three million Americans carry loaded handguns in public every day. 47 states allow for open carrying of guns in public places, with many states allowing individuals to carry assault rifles at protests, into state capitol buildings, and in front of polling places.

These are among the disturbing facts presented in a new report from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence demonstrating that weak public carry laws are fueling gun violence across the United States. If unchecked, the report's introduction warns, these laws will continue to act as the catalyst for political violence and insurrectionism, threatening the future of the country.

The report, ""Guns in Public: A Threat to Safety and Democracy,"" outlines the scope of public carry laws in America. The report provides guidance to U.S. policymakers to protect the country from violence and armed intimidation, emphasizing the importance of passing laws that disarm extremism by banning open carry and strengthening concealed carry laws.

As the United States approaches Election Day, and with early voting underway in several states, the report urges Americans to vote for officials up and down the ballot who support strong gun violence prevention",Coalition To Stop Gun Violence Report -- Guns in Public: A Threat to Safety and Democracy,tweets_news_480,tweets_news
"

May 06, 2021( Android Headlines: http://androidheadlines.com Delivered by Newstex) <nl/ > Twitter[1] announced on May 5 that it wants users to Tweet with consideration. Twitter wants to discourage rudeness with its prompts that the company began testing in 2020. The social media company says that based on feedback they have made some improvements to help them reach their goal. <nl/ > The prompts[2] that pop up give users a chance to fix their tweet by asking if they want to review it before tweeting.

The idea is to show users that their tweets can potentially harmful to others. Users can receive this prompt if their tweet has insults, strong language, or hateful remarks. <nl/ > Twitter has improved the accuracy of this algorithm by tests and analyzing the results from users. The company found a few things that helped them revamp the algorithm. They learned that 34% of users revised or did not send their initial reply. <nl/ > The company also learned that after being prompted once users composed fewer offensive replies in the future. With this knowledge, Twitter was able to tweak the algorithm in a few key ways. These include making the algorithm consider the nature of the",Twitter Wants To Discourage Rudeness With Its New Prompts,tweets_news_481,tweets_news
"Taking Cara Babies has been ""life-changing"" for parents trying to get their newborns and toddlers to sleep. For years, social media users have raved about the Arizona-based parenting influencer - Cara Dumaplin in real life and @TakingCaraBabies on Instagram - and her online courses.

Fans recently learned that Dumaplin made a steady stream of donations over several years to then-President Donald Trump's re-election campaign.

As the news circulated across the Internet and through social media communities - fueled by BuzzFeed News reporting - some followers said they felt ""betrayed"" and were asking for refunds.

Here's how the controversy erupted.

What is Taking Cara Babies?

Cara Dumaplin is a registered neonatal nurse in the West Valley. Since 2013, she has offered online classes, an e-book and phone consultations that cost $39-$319 through her company, Taking Cara Babies.

According to Dumaplin's Taking Cara Babies website, ""My passion is teaching parents how to help their babies sleep with the science of a nurse and the heart of a mama so they can reclaim the joy of parenthood.""

Dumaplin has garnered 1.3 million Instagram followers with her pastel infographics and videos with tips for handling swaddling, sleeping and spit-up. From 2018 to 2020, she gained more than 1 million followers, according",Controversy erupts over nurse's Trump donations,tweets_news_482,tweets_news
"HONG KONG - Twitter users here deleted their accounts en masse. Political parties disbanded, including the one founded by democracy activist Joshua Wong. Restaurants and cafes removed posters showing their support for the movement. Even before Hong Kong residents had full details on Beijing's new national security law Tuesday, a chilling effect was underway - silencing residents who have fought to preserve the territory's autonomy and keep its freedoms. The developments hastened the erosion of rights Hong Kong has known for generations, as the Communist Party moves to bring the city under its grip after anti-government protests began last year.

China adopted the measures Tuesday despite Western objections, and annexed the new codes to Hong Kong's mini-constitution without first publishing it publicly. The details - finally released shortly before midnight in Hong Kong and without an English translation - called for a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those found to be guilty of four broadly defined crimes of ""separatism,"" ""subversion"" as well as ""terrorism"" and ""collusion with foreign forces."" Punishments and leniency would be lowered for citizens who provided incriminating information about others, legislation noted. The legislation would establish a new national security council in Hong Kong led by officials",China's security law sends chill through Hong Kong 23 years after handover,tweets_news_483,tweets_news
"The couple in the website videos could be hawking any number of products.

“You’re going to love owning the platinum package,” Charlene Bollinger says, as a picture of a DVD set and other products flashes on screen. Her husband, Ty, promises a “director’s cut edition.”

Click the orange button, his wife says, “to join in the fight for health freedom” — or more specifically, to pay $199 to $499 for the Bollingers’ video series, “The Truth About Vaccines 2020.”

The Bollingers are part of an ecosystem of for-profit companies, nonprofit groups and social media accounts that stoke fear and distrust of COVID-19 vaccines, using what medical experts say is often misleading and false information.

An investigation by The Associated Press has found that the couple works closely with others prominent in the anti-vaccine movement — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Children’s Health Defense — to drive sales through affiliate marketing relationships.

According to the Bollingers, there's big money involved. They have said that they have sold tens of millions of dollars of products and paid out $12 million to affiliates.

“This is a disinformation industry,” said Dorit Reiss, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, who specializes in vaccine",Inside one network cashing in on vaccine disinformation,tweets_news_484,tweets_news
"Fuming at Facebook for deleting your post? Having a temper tantrum over a Twitter takedown? You could sue for cold, hard cash if Chris Sevier has his way. The Tennessee conservative legal activist with a flair for publicity stunts – as a means of protesting same-sex marriage, he sued the state of Alabama for refusing to recognize...

Fuming at Facebook for deleting your post? Having a temper tantrum over a Twitter takedown? You could sue for cold, hard cash if Chris Sevier has his way. The Tennessee conservative legal activist with a flair for publicity stunts – as a means of protestin...

Fuming at Facebook for deleting your post? Having a temper tantrum over a Twitter takedown? You could sue for cold, hard cash if Chris Sevier has his way. The Tennessee conservative legal activist with a flair for publicity stunts – as a means of protesting same-sex marriage, he sued the state of Alabama for refusing to recognize his “marriage” to his laptop computer – is behind legislation introduced in a handful of states that seeks to regulate comment moderation. Lawmakers in North Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Louisiana and Hawaii are considering identically titled Stop",Half-baked bills target tech giants,tweets_news_485,tweets_news
"

Apr 06, 2021( Mediaite: http://www.mediaite.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Sean Rayford, Getty Images Ex-President Donald Trump put out a statement on Monday night that shows he's not in a forgiving mood when it comes to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, despite the GOP in the state passing, and Kemp signing into law, a sweeping election reform bill.

'Too bad the desperately needed election reforms in Georgia didn't go further, as their originally approved Bill did,' Trump writes in the statement, which came out late in the evening, 'but the Governor and Lt. Governor would not go for it.' 'The watered-down version, that was just passed and signed by Governor Kemp, while better than before, doesn't have Signature Matching and many other safety measures, which were sadly left out,' he said. The bad blood between Trump and Georgia's Republican leadership seems to have no immediate end in sight. And that theme dominated a lot of the tweeting.Everyone Hates Brian Kemp, Episode 42 pic.twitter.com/ONJzI0s0D0[1] — Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) April 6, 2021[2] INBOX: Ex-Pres Trump critiques new Georgia election law for being 'The watered-down version' and not going far enough. But he back boycotting of 'all of the woke companies that don't want Voter I.D .",Trump Burns GA Gov. Brian Kemp Over State's Controversial New Election Laws Because They Didn't 'Go Further',tweets_news_486,tweets_news
"YouTube announced Thursday that it had made updates to its hate and harassment policies that resulted in a further purge of videos about the QAnon conspiracy theory.

In a blog post on Thursday, YouTube said it was updating the policies ""to prohibit content that targets an individual or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence.""

The social media platform said the new policy would ban videos that ""threatens or harasses someone by suggesting they are complicit in one of these harmful conspiracies, such as QAnon or Pizzagate.""

It's unclear how many videos, users or channels would be removed from the platform due to the policy changes.

YouTube is the latest social media platform to crack down on content that espouses the conspiracy. In July, Twitter eliminated thousands of QAnon-linked accounts and limited others from spreading content linked to the conspiracy. Last week, Facebook said it would ban any page, group or Instagram account that represents QAnon.

QAnon is a conspiracy theory that began on anonymous imageboard 4chan in 2017, which alleges that President Donald Trump is fighting a secret cabal of pedophiles and Satanists run by his political opponents, A-list celebrities and other global leaders. After jumping from 4chan to","YouTube cracks down on QAnon conspiracy theory by expanding hate, harassment policies",tweets_news_487,tweets_news
"The backlash against social media against the disgraceful events in Washington DC was swift, fierce and richly deserved.

It played a key role in enabling the ugly scenes that shook the world and left America's friends and allies aghast as they were played out on Wednesday night.

They were the culmination of Donald Trump's four years of misrule during which the US was wrapped in a tissues of lies. Boxes of Kleenex were held open by Twitter, Facebook, YouTube.

They all have terms and conditions. The taking down of lies, misinformation, hatred and toxicity disseminated by the US president and his facilitators, would not have raised an issue with America's beloved First Amendment, protecting free speech, because they are private corporations that operate private platforms.

And yet their much vaunted ""community standards"" are only selectively enforced. The picture of an amputee, nude but posed no more provocatively than you'd see in ad for shower gel running before the watershed, resulted in the Ability Access group getting temporarily blocked from Facebook.

Trump spread misinformation and bile with virtual impunity until the US election results made clear Joe Biden's victory, and started the countdown to his impending departure. And he will have to depart.

The indefinite block on",Social media has finally locked Trump out but the pushback doesn't stop here,tweets_news_488,tweets_news
"Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, issued the following news release on Oct. 28:

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) today participated virtually in a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing entitled ""Does Section 230's Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior?"" During the hearing, Senator Capito and Committee members heard from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The hearing examined legislative proposals to modernize the decades-old law, increase transparency and accountability among big technology companies for their content moderation practices, and explore the impact of large ad-tech platforms on local journalism and consumer privacy. The hearing also provided an opportunity to discuss the unintended consequences of Section 230's liability shield and how best to preserve the internet as a forum for open discourse.

Last week, Senator Capito spoke directly with Mark Zuckerberg about these issues, as well as broadband deployment in West Virginia. As a result of Senator Capito's consistent efforts, Facebook has begun building fiber optic cable across the state to connect data centers in Columbus, Ohio and Ashburn, Virginia. Click here (https://www.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases/capito-discusses-broadband-deployment-free-speech-with-facebook-founder-and-ceo) for more details.

HIGHLIGHTS:

ON CONTENT MODERATION: ""The topic today is on objectionable content and how you make those judgements...In","Sen. Capito Questions Big Tech CEOs About Freedom of Speech, Section 230",tweets_news_489,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - Two aides to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who were at the center of the ""Bridgegate"" scandal engaged in corruption and abuse of power but not criminal acts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday as it unanimously threw out their convictions and placed new limits on political corruption prosecutions.

The justices sided with Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, both convicted for their roles in a scheme to engineer traffic chaos in September 2013 on the world's busiest bridge to punish a local Democratic mayor who refused to endorse Republican Christie's gubernatorial re-election bid.

""The evidence the jury heard no doubt shows wrongdoing - deception, corruption, abuse of power. But the federal fraud statutes at issue do not criminalize all such conduct,"" liberal Justice Elena Kagan wrote on behalf of the court in the 9-0 ruling.

The decision marked the latest instance in which the court hemmed in prosecutors in political corruption cases. The court in 2016 threw out Republican former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell's bribery conviction in another ruling that narrowed the types of conduct that can warrant prosecution.

Kelly, a former Christie deputy chief of staff, and Baroni, a former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of",New Jersey 'Bridgegate' scandal convictions tossed by U.S. Supreme Court,tweets_news_490,tweets_news
"MONTREAL, Sept. 2, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - Desjardins Investments Inc. (""DI""), the manager of the Desjardins Funds, today announced a number of changes to its mutual funds. The changes, described in detail below, include fund name change, portfolio sub-manager appointments, investment strategies change and fee reductions. DI regularly reviews its mutual fund's offer to ensure they continue to meet the evolving investment needs of financial advisors and investors.

(New) Global balanced growth investment strategy

The existing Desjardins Tactical Balanced Fund will be renamed Desjardins Global Balanced Growth Fund effective October 13, 2020 to better reflect its new mandate and investment strategy.

Wellington Management will become the fund's new portfolio sub-manager effective October 13, 2020. With over USD 1.1 trillion in client assets under management as of 30 June 2020, it is one of the world's largest independent investment management firms. With multi-asset investors in Asia, Europe, and the US, Wellington Management brings diverse perspectives to investment research with more than 100 multi-asset investment professionals, including specialist portfolio managers and analysts.

""Successful multi-asset investing is not just a function of capabilities, it's about culture. We believe in the power of sharing and collaboration as this can deliver a constant flow of innovative and differentiated investment",Desjardins Investments makes changes to its mutual fund lineup,tweets_news_491,tweets_news
"President Trump risks losing a valuable megaphone. Facebook risks nothing much at all.

<figure class=""embed-base image-embed embed-0"">

<figcaption>

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, in Portsmouth, southern England, on June 5, 2019. (Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

</figcaption> </figure>

President Trump has, momentarily at least, lost an important friend: Facebook. The estrangement will likely matter much more to him than to the social media site.

The platform, where he has 35 million followers, has been one of the president s most important political tools, a place he s used to dispense conspiracy theories and spread misinformation. To volley insults against opponents and heap praise on supporters. And a place he used to encourage violence and chaos at the Capitol Building on Wednesday.

A day later, Facebook said it was indefinitely barring him from its app and from Instagram and that the ban would last at least through Joe Biden s presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, a step Facebook hopes will cut down on the likelihood of more destruction during the presidential transition s final days.

While it's not clear how long Trump s Facebook",Trump Ban: Why The President Needs Facebook More Than It Needs Him,tweets_news_492,tweets_news
"

Nov 22, 2020( indieWIRE: http://indiewire.com Delivered by Newstex) 'The Mandalorian[1]' star Gina Carano[2] has stirred both pushback and support from 'Star Wars[3]' and Disney[4] fans alike on social media after posting a number of controversial tweets, including about mask-wearing and hypothetical voter fraud. The actress, who plays Cara Dune in the Disney+ series, was also previously accused of mocking trans pronouns on social media. See some of the tweets below.

The #FireGinaCarano[5] hashtag began picking up steam last week, but has continued to build momentum after Disney+ dropped the 'Chapter 12' episode of 'The Mandalorian' on Friday, in which Carano stars. But at the same time, #StandWithGinaCarano[6] has also begun trending on Twitter in response from fans who feel the plea to cast Carano out of the show is another example of censorship, and cancel culture gone too far. 'It's amazing how the #FireGinaCarano folks, don't even see that their cancelation campaigns only verify many of the things she's fighting against,' one fan tweeted[7]. 'Bullies. I #StandWithGinaCarano and I'm no conservative.' 'Now I have to watch @themandalorian with the knowledge that Gina Carano is a Trumpy nut, a transphobe, and an anti masker?' another wrote[8]. 'Can ya just #FireGinaCarano, Disney?' Other",'Star Wars' Fans Urge 'Mandalorian' to #FireGinaCarano After Controversial Tweets,tweets_news_493,tweets_news
"SAN FRANCISCO - Washington state's attorney general filed a second lawsuit against Facebook Inc over political ads on Tuesday, saying the social media giant once again failed to make disclosures required under the state's campaign finance laws.

Facebook already paid $238,000 in 2018 to resolve a previous dispute over political advertising in Washington state.

The company announced later that year that it would stop accepting political ads related to state or local initiatives in Washington, although it still permitted advertisements around ""issues of national importance"" targeting people in the state.

In a statement on Tuesday, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said that Facebook had continued selling hundreds of ads to at least 171 state political committees since 2018, in violation of its own policy.

Ferguson says the company's Ad Library, a searchable database aimed at providing transparency around political advertising, provides some information about those ads but does not include details required under Washington law such as the name of the person paying for the ads or their precise cost.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the company aimed to work with authorities in Washington to resolve the dispute.

Social media companies have been sharing more information about political advertising since U.S. intelligence agencies found that Russia targeted",Washington AG sues Facebook over political ads,tweets_news_494,tweets_news
"PR Newswire

 Callagy Law, P.C., one of the country's leading law firms, last week filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court (No. 20-632) that challenges the 1996 Communications Decency Act (""CDA""), Subsection 230 (c)(2)(A), questioning the limits of big technology's ""blanket immunity"" rights and arguing that social media companies should not have unfettered ability to shape, censor and distort information on their platforms.



Together with Jeffrey Greyber, Esq., Michael Smikun, Esq., and Constance Yu, Esq. (of Putterman / Yu, LLP.), Callagy Law is representing Jason Fyk, in Fyk v. Facebook. A former information provider, Fyk sued Facebook after the social media giant removed his pages for decency reasons. At the time, Fyk, who had amassed roughly 25 million organic followers, had opted out of a paid promotional program. But after Fyk sold his content to a competitor who was paying Facebook tens of millions in advertising, Facebook deemed the formerly objectionable material no longer objectionable.

""Social media companies can have limited, narrow immunity under the CDA because they are not, typically, the primary publishers of content,"" said Sean Callagy, founder and president of Callagy Law. ""The impetus of the CDA, when enacted 24 years ago, was to protect children from internet",Callagy Law Files Petition With The U.S. Supreme Court Seeking To Overturn Big Tech's Blanket Immunity Rights,tweets_news_495,tweets_news
"New Delhi, Dec. 5 -- India on Friday summoned Canada's envoy Nadir Patel and told him that remarks by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canadian lawmakers on the farmers' protest had the potential to ""seriously"" damage bilateral ties.

The move signalled India's ire over remarks by the Canadian leadership that have been perceived in New Delhi as interference in the country's internal affairs.

Trudeau triggered a diplomatic row on Tuesday when he told a Facebook video interaction organised to mark the 551st birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, that his government conveyed its concerns over the farmers' protest to New Delhi.

The external affairs ministry dismissed the remarks as ""unwarranted"".

On Friday, the Canadian high commissioner was summoned to the external affairs ministry and served a demarche or formal diplomatic representation that said the ""comments by the Canadian Prime Minister, some Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament on issues relating to Indian farmers constitute an unacceptable interference in our internal affairs"", according to an official statement.

""Such actions, if continued, would have a seriously damaging impact on ties between India and Canada,"" the statement said.

The statement further said the comments by the Canadian leadership had ""encouraged gatherings of extremist activities",India summons Canada's envoy,tweets_news_496,tweets_news
"Sometimes law-making in Congress seems as easy as boiling water. You fill the pot, turn on the gas and calmly wait a few minutes for the bubbles.

That's not what happened with the $900 billion COVID-19 relief package that was patched together over the weekend by congressional bipartisan leaders such as Rep. Josh Gottheimer, the Wyckoff Democrat and co-chair of the House Problem Solvers Caucus.

This bill was more like making sausage.

In short, the process was messy.

But now observers point to this arduous effort as a template for when President-elect Joe Biden moves into the White House and attempts to push major pieces of legislation through a Congress that is still evenly divided in the Senate and House between Republicans and Democrats. The reason: For COVID-19 relief, Republicans and Democrats actually found a way to compromise.

In a statement late Sunday, Biden said he was ""heartened"" that Republicans and Democrats could ""reach across the aisle, and work together."" Biden called the process ""a model for the challenging work ahead for our nation.""

A backstory of moderates

The backstory of the last-chance-before-Christmas COVID-19 aid bill - with its much-needed funding to boost unemployment benefits and keep small businesses, schools and hospitals afloat - turns out to",How bipartisan group controlled Congress' COVID-19 relief package,tweets_news_497,tweets_news
"

Aug 23, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Twitter on Sunday placed a ""public interest notice"" on a tweet President Donald Trump sent earlier in the day in the latest example of the platform fact-checking his tweets.Just after 7 a.m. on Saturday, Trump tweeted unsubstantiated claims about ballot drop off boxes, which have been implemented by states to allow residents to drop off mail-in ballots without relying on the postal service.""We placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our Civic Integrity Policy for making misleading health claims that could potentially dissuade people from participation in voting,"" Twitter said.After Twitter began to flag some of Trump's tweets in May, he joined other conservatives in calling social-media platforms biased against conservatives, and he signed an executive order to regulate Twitter and similar companies.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1]. Twitter on Sunday placed a ""public interest notice"" on a tweet sent by President Donald Trump earlier in the day that claimed without evidence that ""Mail Drop Boxes"" for ballots would lead to voter fraud and carry a risk of coronavirus transmission.""So now the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster,"" President Donald",Twitter placed a 'public interest notice' on Trump's tweet that peddled unsubstantiated claims about ballot drop off boxes,tweets_news_498,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

A Moscow court on Wednesday night outlawed the organizations founded by Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny by labeling them extremist, the latest move in a campaign to silence dissent and bar Kremlin critics from running for parliament in September.

The Moscow City Court's ruling, effective immediately, prevents people associated with Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his sprawling regional network from seeking public office. Many of Navalny's allies had hoped to run for parliamentary seats in the Sept. 19 election.

The ruling, part of a multipronged Kremlin strategy to steamroll the opposition, sends a tough message one week before President Vladimir Putin holds a summit meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva.

The extremism label also carries lengthy prison terms for activists who have worked with the organizations, anyone who donated to them, and even those who simply shared the groups' materials.

Navalny, Putin's most ardent political foe, was arrested in January upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin - an accusation that Russian officials reject. In February, Navalny was given a 2 1/2-year prison term for violating the terms of a suspended sentence from a 2014 embezzlement",Russia: Russian Court Outlaws Opposition Leader Navalny's Groups,tweets_news_499,tweets_news
"White House not bending to pressure from progressives to condemn Israel

President Joe Biden and the White House are showing little willingness to bend to pressure from liberal Democrats calling for more robust condemnation of Israel's actions amid the worst regional violence in years.

Speaking at the White House, Biden said he did not detect a disproportionate response to Hamas' rocket attacks from Israel, which has launched airstrikes in Gaza that have so far killed at least 87 people, including 18 children and eight women, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

Later, press secretary Jen Psaki declined to say whether Biden pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the growing Palestinian civilian death toll in a telephone conversation on Wednesday.

""In our view, attacks from Hamas into civilian neighborhoods is not self defense, so he certainly reiterated that, but also reiterated the need to move to de-escalate the situation on the ground,"" she said.

Behind the scenes, officials have been more forceful with their Israeli counterparts, including urging against evicting Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, according to officials familiar with the matter. And a readout of Biden's phone call with Netanyahu said he ""shared his conviction that Jerusalem, a city of such",Nation,tweets_news_500,tweets_news
"Following the end of the Trump Administration, the Republican Party appeared at a crossroads: build off his fervent fanbase or distance themselves from it. There has been a gulf between far-right politicians and more moderate members of the party.

Enter Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has disrupted the foundations of traditional politics and presented herself as the Trumpian torch bearer after just a month of being in office.

The House voted to remove Greene from her committee assignments on Feb. 4, citing her history of violent sentiments, such as liking a Facebook comment that said ""a bullet to the head would be quicker"" in removing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and claiming that the 2018 California wildfires were caused by a ""Jewish space laser.""

The congresswoman, who represents Georgia's 14th district, has become the political representative of right-wing conspiracy theorists. She has embraced QAnon, a group that promotes an internet-based conspiracy that Trump will take down a child sex-trafficking ring made up of the world's elite. QAnon has since evolved into the base of many far-right extremist conspiracy theories and ideologies.

These claims have been disproven and discredited. However, they have continually sparked violent far-right supporters, many of whom led the Jan. 6 Capitol",Marjorie Taylor Greene's conspiracies pose threat to politics,tweets_news_501,tweets_news
"""The Republican candidate for governor is fighting an upstream battle of human instincts to stay divided. That's why our nominee must show up on Day One.""

Doug Steinhardt Former state Republican chairman

Gov. Phil Murphy is hoping to shake off a curse that has gripped the Democratic Party for more than 40 years.

And Jack Ciattarelli, now the Republican candidate for governor, is hoping to shake off the shadow of former President Donald J. Trump.

As the general election began in earnest Wednesday, odds are in Murphy's favor to become the first New Jersey Democrat to win a second term as governor since Brendan T. Byrne in 1977.

This is Murphy's race to lose. He begins with a 26-point lead in the first head-to-head poll and with a sizable 2-to-1 advantage in Democratic Party registration. And he emerged from relative anonymity in 2017 to become a generally well-regard crisis commander of the COVID-19 pandemic - with notable caveats.

The governor's job approval rating - in the stratosphere at the height of the pandemic - has come back to earth over the past month. Still, it remains strong. And, of course, he has the distinct advantage of not being a member of a party that remains mesmerized",Ciattarelli will dodge shadow from Trump,tweets_news_502,tweets_news
"Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard threatened to boycott the team Monday after a photo surfaced of head coach Mike Gundy wearing an Only America News Network T-shirt.

""I will not stand for this,"" Hubbard posted on Twitter. ""This is completely insensitive to everything going on in society, and it's unacceptable. I will not be doing anything with Oklahoma State until things CHANGE.""

As a sophomore in 2019, Hubbard led the nation with 2,094 rushing yards and topped the Big 12 with 21 rushing touchdowns. He was the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and a consensus All-American. Hubbard, who is Canadian, finished eighth in Heisman Trophy voting in 2019.

OAN is a conservative network frequently cited by President Donald Trump. CNN recently called OAN a ""little-watched channel that arguably has more in common with a state-run propaganda network than a credible news organization.""

""What OAN does offer viewers is a diet of right-wing conspiracy theories and pro-Trump commentary mixed in with wire video news packages that are sometimes skewed to fit its editorial viewpoint through the text placed by the network in the lower-thirds portion of the screen,"" CNN Business wrote in an article published May 8. ""The network would be mostly","RB Hubbard demands 'change' from Gundy, OK State",tweets_news_503,tweets_news
"As Bob Hall tells it, God brought him to hydroxychloroquine.

“It’s interesting how God arranged where you are at certain times,” said the 78-year-old Republican state senator from Edgewood, 60 miles east of Dallas. “It just turned out for a totally unrelated reason, my wife and I were in a doctor’s office, and it was just after the pharmacy board issued an order prohibiting the use of hydroxychloroquine. And the physician was very upset over it, because she had been treating patients and seen them turn around in hours and days.”

That physician was Ivette Lozano, who on May 9 told attendees at a rally in Dallas: “Where and how did I learn to treat COVID patients? Well I’m going to tell you. I learned it from the president of the United States, Donald Trump.”

“For some reason, those bureaucrats standing next to our president who think they know more about the president than I do are telling me I can’t use it,” said Lozano, who runs a family medical clinic in Dallas and is active in the local Republican Party.

Hall became convinced that hydroxychloroquine was a coronavirus silver bullet, joining other Republicans, including Trump, in the promotion of a drug that has",State senator pushing unproven virus cure,tweets_news_504,tweets_news
"July 23, 2020 House Democrats have approved policy riders to EPA's fiscal year 2021 funding bill limiting the implementation of Trump administration environmental policies while creating new rules for emerging contaminants and boosting water infrastructure funds, signaling Democrats' early priorities for EPA if Joe Biden wins the 2020 presidential election.

Lawmakers in a series of July 23 votes approved the riders as amendments to H.R. 7608, an FY21 appropriations measure that would fund EPA and several other agencies, with a final vote on passage expected on July 24.

But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) noted during floor debate that the bill faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate, where senators have yet to introduce their versions of FY21 spending bills.

The policy rider votes in the lower chamber offer some early insight into some likely Democratic environmental priorities should former Vice President Biden -- the presumptive Democratic nominee for president -- win the 2020 election. Such priorities would likely face stiff opposition from the Senate if the GOP retains control of it after the election, but Democrats could push through their goals if they are able to win back control of the upper chamber.

The riders include a mix of provisions barring",House Democrats' FY21 Bill Votes Signal Post-Election Priorities For EPA,tweets_news_505,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

With the 2020 elections over, and Democrats having secured yet another majority in Augusta in both chambers, it's far past time for Maine Republicans to start planning for the 2022 elections. The president's party tends to do poorly in midterm elections, and now that Joe Biden has been declared the winner, Maine Republicans face the golden opportunity of a midterm election cycle in the opposition. The last time they faced this situation, in 2010, Republicans not only won back the Blaine House but also took full control of the Legislature. If they have any hope of repeating that performance, they'll need to address some serious issues first - both nationally and here in Maine.

At every level of government, both parties missed prime opportunities thanks to a massive failure of polling - both internal and public polls. Here in Maine, at the federal level, Dale Crafts barely lost to 2nd District incumbent Jared Golden, getting 47 percent of the vote to Golden's 53 percent, when public polls suggested Crafts would lose by double digits. One would hope that internal party polls would be better, but the National Republican Congressional Committee didn't spend anywhere near the amount it did in 2018,",Maine GOP should start planning for 2022,tweets_news_506,tweets_news
"This year's wave of new voting restrictions across the South may seem a response to the 2020 election, but its origins stem in no small part from the Supreme Court, which over the last decade has reshaped election law to elevate the power of state lawmakers over the rights of their voters.

The sum of the court's rulings on elections could give the Republican Party a significant edge as it seeks to recapture control of Congress in 2022 and the White House in 2024.

Under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the Supreme Court threw out the part of the Voting Rights Act requiring states with histories of discriminating against Black voters to clear election rule changes with the U.S. Justice Department. Writing for a 5-4 majority in 2013, Roberts called the the section outdated and said it did not fit with ""current conditions.""

The Constitution in the view of the Roberts court also allows lawmakers to draw gerrymandered districts to keep themselves in power, forbids limits on how much wealthy donors and incorporated groups can spend on campaigns and may be even permit state lawmakers, not the voters, to decide who will be the president.

It's a view that proved helpful to Republican-leaning",Analysis: How the Supreme Court has tilted election law to favor the Republican Party,tweets_news_507,tweets_news
"The President was slapped down for claiming coronavirus is ""far less lethal"" than seasonal flu, which is entirely incorrect

Social networks have cracked down on misinformation about coronavirus, targeting a Donald Trump post claiming Covid-19 is less deadly than flu.

A Facebook post, which was removed under the social network's anti-misinformation rules, claimed: ""Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from Flu.

""Are we going to close down our country No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!""

Twitter added a note to the same post on their platform noting that it was misinformation.

Among reported COVID-19 cases in the US, nearly 6% have died -some 210,000 people this year.

In comparison, the death rate of seasonal Flu is around 0.1%. Covid-19 has killed more Americans than the last five years' worth of Flu.

During the 2019-20 Flu season, there were just 22,000 Flu-related deaths in the United States.

Meanwhile, Facebook announced that it had classified the QAnon conspiracy theory movement as dangerous and began removing Facebook groups and pages as well as Instagram accounts that hold themselves out as representatives.

The step escalates",Facebook and Twitter crack down as Donald Trump claims Covid-19 less deadly than flu,tweets_news_508,tweets_news
"

Jun 25, 2020( Conservative Daily News: http://conservativedailynews.com Delivered by Newstex) A Facebook moderator who works at one of the company's third-party contractors explained why he uses his authority as a censor to target President Donald Trump's supporters in an undercover video from a Project Veritas operative released Thursday. The video shows[1] a Facebook content moderator working for Cognizant, noting that he focuses on Trump's supporters because they scare him. The video footage also shows content moderators etching out exceptions to Facebook's hate speech policies to favor the LGBTQ community during Pride Month.

'Trump supporters are f*cking crazy *ss *ssholes, that every other f*cking word out of their mouth is, you know, 'Come take it,' 'Seal the border,'' a moderator named Israel Amparan said at one point in the operative's undercover video, which is the second of two videos[2] Project Veritas rolled out since Tuesday. Amparan also noted that he targets Trump supporters because they scare him. 'I hate government as much as the next f*cking person, but you're not gonna catch me riding over the f*cking. It's like impeachment. It's like a PRAW. Trump called it a f*cking coup — and it's like, that should scare you more than anything,' Amparan","Project Veritas Rolls Out Another Video Showing Facebook Moderators Discussing Why They Target Trump, Conservatives",tweets_news_509,tweets_news
"•A scathing new report released by hedge fund Hindenburg Research claims that start-up Nikola is an 'intricate fraud' based on years of lies and fake products•Hindenburg claimed to have 'extensive evidence' that the company's proprietary technology was purchased from another company•The fund also accused Nikola's founder Trevor Milton of making countless false statements over the last decade and faking a product promotional video•When filming the Nikola One ad, the truck reportedly didn't have an engine•So the company reportedly rolled the prototype along a downhill stretch of a highway and filmed it as if it was being driven•In a tweet, Milton called the report a 'hit job' and asked the public to 'give me a few hours to put together responses to their lies'•Nikola's stock prices plummeted as much as 13 percent Thursday

A scathing new report released by hedge fund Hindenburg Research claims that start-up Nikola is an 'intricate fraud' based on years of lies and fake products

Hindenburg claimed to have 'extensive evidence' that the company's proprietary technology was purchased from another company

The fund also accused Nikola's founder Trevor Milton of making countless false statements over the last decade and faking a product promotional video

When filming the Nikola One ad, the","Electric truck start-up Nikola - that has received $2bn in funding from GM - is an 'intricate fraud' that faked an ad by rolling one of its trucks downhill because it didn't have engine - and edited footage to make road look flat, report claims",tweets_news_510,tweets_news
"Social media and journalists alike amplify the president’s lies and propaganda.

Social media and journalists alike amplify the president’s lies and propaganda.

To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Every few months the same debate re-emerges: Should Twitter ban Donald Trump? Usually, it’s because of something particularly egregious, conspiratorial, untrue or geopolitically reckless that the president tweeted. Many of these tweets would result in a takedown or a temporary suspension if they came from a normal user’s account, but Twitter has made an exception for heads of state, citing a “newsworthiness” clause that allows the company to evade responsibility.

The debate gained new relevance this week after Twitteradded a link to two presidential tweets that made false claims about mail-in ballots. It was the first time that Twitter had taken a step like this. The link, labeled “Get the facts,” directed users to a page with links to a CNN article about the president’s unsubstantiated claims as well as additional debunking tweets for context. Twitter’s move prompted Mr. Trump to claim that it was interfering in the 2020 election and to threaten to “strongly regulate, or close” the platform down. (It’s not clear",What Would Happen if Twitter Banned Trump?,tweets_news_511,tweets_news
"By Don Lattin Given the chance, would San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone deny Holy Communion to Joe Biden, only the second Roman Catholic president in U.S. history? Would he weaponize the wafer? On June 18, His Excellency issued a brief missive — more like a missile — supporting the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ recent vote that...

By Don Lattin Given the chance, would San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone deny Holy Communion to Joe Biden, only the second Roman Catholic president in U.S. history? Would he weaponize the wafer? On June 18, His Excellency issued a brief missive ...

By Don Lattin Given the chance, would San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone deny Holy Communion to Joe Biden, only the second Roman Catholic president in U.S. history? Would he weaponize the wafer? On June 18, His Excellency issued a brief missive — more like a missile — supporting the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ recent vote that could result in Biden being barred from taking communion because the president supports a woman’s right to choose an abortion. Cordileone made it clear that he was flying with a group of right-wing bishops who are determined to use the sacrament of communion as a political",Weaponizing the wafer: Why San Francisco Archbishop opposes communion for Biden,tweets_news_512,tweets_news
"Nov. 27—A Gov. Mifflin School Board member's online comment about Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania secretary of health, has drawn criticism from community members and the board president, who said he'll discuss the matter with the board when it next meets.

A Nov. 18 Facebook comment from board member Andrew Pannafino's account read, ""How much longer are we to put up with Wolf and his boyfriend Levine?"" referencing Gov. Tom Wolf and Levine, a transgender woman.

Some in the community complained to district officials that the comment was transphobic and insensitive to constituents and students. Some called for Pannafino to apologize or to be removed from the board.

The organization Berks Stand Up posted on its Twitter page that the comment was hateful and included the hashtag #FirePannafino.

On Nov. 20, board President Jim Ulrich sent a message to parents, which was also posted on the district's website in which he called Pannafino's comment irresponsible and in contrast to the district's culture of equality.

When asked by the Reading Eagle whether the board will take further action before or during its Dec. 7 meeting, Ulrich said, ""I have not spoken to Mr. Pannafino. ... I will not make a decision on calling for a resignation until",Facebook comment from Gov. Mifflin board member about Dr. Rachel Levine draws condemnation,tweets_news_513,tweets_news
"Google may have complied with the new IT Rules in India, which became effective from last month. But it has now told the Delhi High Court that the new guidelines didn't apply to it.&#xA0;

Just to clarify, this claim of Google has come in a different case, and quite unlike WhatsApp, the search engine giant is not challenging the government. But it has just filed an appeal in a case in which it was classified as a &quot;social media intermediary&quot;. Google's contention is that it is just a search engine.

WhatsApp's woes in India continue - Its case is thrown out by court

Indian alternatives to WhatsApp, Twitter get going - They're Sandes & Koo

What's the case?

A woman had approached the court claiming her photographs and images, though not in themselves obscene or offensive, were taken from her Facebook and Instagram accounts without her consent, and uploaded on a pornographic website with suggestive captions added to them. The court ordered the removal of the pics, but as it happens these days, the photographs could not completely be removed in its entirety from the internet. The offensive pics were reposted in other sites.

It is here the Court considered Google's search engine to be an",Google now takes the fight to the court in India - Here's why,tweets_news_514,tweets_news
"Indore: Vaccine is an 'Elixir' for preventing the third wave of COVID-19 and every dose is precious.

Working on the same lines, district health officers have saved over 29,449 doses from being wasted by administering it to people through an onsite registration facility.

Department had started administering vaccine doses which were left as people didn't show up at the centres even after booking online slots from May 15 and over 29,000 doses were saved till June 5.

""It was painful to see the doses going to waste as we cannot keep the vial of the vaccine in the open after 4 hours. The government had directed us to save the doses anyhow after which we started creating virtual IDs in the last hour of the session to inoculate people through onsite registration with the leftover vaccines,"" district immunization officer Dr Pravin Jadia said.

He added that earlier only fresh vials were used but later they started using all the leftover vaccine doses for the people waiting through onsite registration.

.Bhopal: Youth arrested for creating fake Facebook profile of girl, posts objectionable content to take revenge.

The department could save the highest number of doses on May 2 i.e. over 4,307 which were administered to the people","Indore: Saving precious vaccine by onsite registration, over 29K shots saved in 20 days",tweets_news_515,tweets_news
"Pappas dismissed the notion of competition from TikTok-like services from other companies including Facebook and Google, noting that ""you can certainly copy a feature, but you can't copy a community, and I think what's really unique about TikTok is this awesome community that has found a home on the platform"", NBC News reported. But the president has said that.

TikTok's legal challenge pertains to an earlier executive order, which Trump issued on August 6, the sources said.

Multiple companies have expressed interest in acquiringTikTok's U.S. business since President Trump issued an executive order earlier this month requiring the app's Chinese owners to shutdown operations in America.

Oracle and Microsoft are vying to purchase Tiktok's operations not only in the U.S. but also in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, withMicrosoft expressing interest to manage operations in Europe and India as well.

Pappas saidTikTok will remain in the U.S. regardless of the Trump administration's threats, and believes it has ""multiple paths forward"" depending on what happens.

TikTok has repeatedly denied allegations that it provides user data to the Chinese government. ""It's an extremely turbulent time, so our message is really just, 'let's focus on the things that you can control, the things that matter, '"" she said.","TikTok removes 380,000 videos in U.S. for violating hate speech policies",tweets_news_516,tweets_news
"India, July 23 -- Congress senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh on Thursday complained that popular micro blogging site Twitter has been blocking his tweets saying it ""includes potentially sensitive content"". The Congress leader said his tweets were being blocked by the social media giant without specifying what was ""potentially sensitive"" in his tweets. He has demanded a response from the country head of the company.

""Twitter has been blocking my tweets saying it ""includes potentially sensitive content"" such as these without telling me what is ""potentially sensitive content"" in my tweets? I need to have the response of Twitter Country Head of India,"" Digvijaya tweeted on Thursday.

Digvijaya Singh added that classifying criticism of Central government leaders as ""sensitive content"" was an act of political bias.

""If saying something against Narendra Modi or Amit Shah you find to be of ""sensitive content"" then you are being politically biased against me which you have no right to be. I have earlier complained to your Management of your biased attitude against me but without any response,"" Digvijaya said in another of his tweets on the matter.

In his defence, he said he was a ""responsible"" Indian citizen with an extensive record of public","I am responsible, Digvijaya Singh tells Twitter after some posts blocked",tweets_news_517,tweets_news
"

Jul 16, 2020( Conservative Daily News: http://conservativedailynews.com Delivered by Newstex) Topics in this post: hackers[1] Twitter[2] Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri urged Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to call in the Department of Justice and the FBI to take 'any necessary measures' to secure the social media site after some of its most prominent users were compromised by suspected bitcoin scammers Wednesday afternoon. The twitter accounts of former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg were among the many accounts compromised by the hackers, who posted messages on the accounts asking users to send money to a bitcoin address.

'I am giving back to the community,' read a now-deleted tweet posted to Biden's account. 'All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled!' The bitcoin address linked in the tweets has racked up at least $115,000 since the start of the attack, according to NBC News[3], citing a public register of bitcoin transactions. 'I am concerned that this event may represent not merely a coordinated set of separate hacking incidents but rather a successful attack on the security of Twitter itself,' Hawley wrote in the letter[4]. 'As you know, millions",Josh Hawley Urges Twitter To Call In FBI To Help Stop Massive Cyberattack,tweets_news_518,tweets_news
"US Presidential Election 2020 LIVE news updates: In the book, 'Rage', Woodward claimed that Trump during several interviews to him said that he downplayed the coronavirus threat.

US Presidential Elections 2020 LIVE news updates:US President Donald Trump ""deliberately misled"" Americans on coronavirus, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris has said, referring to the Trump's comments on the issue pointed out in a forthcoming book authored by a renowned investigative journalist.Authored by American journalist Bob Woodward, the book 'Rage' that is scheduled to be launched on September 15 has stirred several controversies around Trump's presidency, weeks before the November 3 elections.

In the book, Woodward claimed that Trump during several interviews to him said that he downplayed the coronavirus threat.

Trump, on his part, accused his Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden of being ""weak"" on China and alleged that his family was ""selling"" the country directly to the Chinese military.

Meanwhile, Twitter on Thursday said that starting next week, it will label or remove misleading claims that try to undermine public confidence in elections. The policy will apply to tweets that attempt to undermine people's faith in the electoral process itself, such as false claims about election rigging or ballot tampering, or about the outcome","US Presidential Elections 2020 Live Updates: Trump 'deliberately misled' Americans on Covid-19, says Kamala Harris",tweets_news_519,tweets_news
"When Alexi McCammond, the newly appointed editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, stepped down after the resurfacing of several racist and homophobic tweets from her teen years, parents had a host of reactions.

Some were aghast that someone who'd uttered such things would, even 10 years later, be given a top-notch job at a publication known for its anti-racist coverage. (It didn't help that her apology when the tweets were unearthed in 2019 left some doubting her sincerity.)

Others were more forgiving, pointing to her age at the time of the offensive tweets: 17. ""I did and said so many insensitive and offensive things when I was young, but had the chance to learn and do better,"" they said. ""How can I make sure my own kids don't make McCammond's mistakes?""

Whatever your opinion on McCammond and others like her, who lose jobs or slots at college because of their hurtful and inappropriate public language on social media, it's clear that children and teenagers need to learn how to safely, pro-socially communicate online. Children and teens use social media more than anything else on their phones, and 95% of teens have access to a smartphone.

""We have wholeheartedly adopted social media without considering the consequences,"" said",How to prepare kids for social media use,tweets_news_520,tweets_news
"The social media giant Twitter on Wednesday blocked users from sharing or linking to a controversial New York Post article about the Democratic nominee for president, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden.

Users attempting to share the article received a warning message that their request could not be completed ""because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.""

Twitter users who tried to click on a link to the article also received a warning.

The New York Post reported that its primary Twitter account had been locked because its articles about Biden broke the social network's rules against ""distribution of hacked material.""

White House press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany's personal Twitter account was also locked after she shared the article.

""Censorship should be condemned,"" she wrote from her government Twitter account.

The article alleged that Biden's son Hunter introduced a Ukrainian businessman to his father when he was leading US relations with Ukraine as vice president, and that the elder Biden had tailored his diplomacy with Kiev to assist his son's business interests.

Biden has denied all wrongdoing and claims that he did not speak to his son about his business.

Experts also say that the allegations are false, and questions have",Twitter prevents sharing of controversial article about Joe Biden,tweets_news_521,tweets_news
"(Bloomberg) - President Donald Trump claimed that he's unfamiliar with the Proud Boys, a right-wing vigilante group he advised to ""stand back and stand by"" during Tuesday's debate, and said they should step aside to let police regulate protests.

""They have to stand down and let law enforcement do their work,"" Trump told reporters before departing the White House for a fundraiser and rally in Minnesota on Wednesday, after saying he didn't know who the Proud Boys are.

Trump has drawn criticism for declining to directly condemn white supremacy at the invitation of the debate moderator, Fox News host Chris Wallace. After Wallace suggested Trump tell groups like the Proud Boys to ""stand down,"" Trump responded, ""Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.""

Members of the group celebrated the remark on social media.

On Wednesday, the White House and some GOP allies Trump's remarks on white supremacy, noting that he said ""sure,"" ""I'm willing to do that"" and ""I'm willing to do anything"" in response to Wallace's entreaties to condemn the groups.

But the only Black Republican senator called on the president to ""correct"" his comments.

""I think he misspoke,"" Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina told reporters Wednesday at the Capitol. He added, curtly: ""I","Trump now claims he's unfamiliar with Proud Boys, says they should 'stand down'",tweets_news_522,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

As you might expect in the final weeks of an election, there seems to be some confusion about what is news, what is manipulation and what is censorship. Let me see if I can help sort things out.

First, there has been a lot of speculation about a much-discussed New York Post story alleging, without much evidence, that Joe Biden's son Hunter may have arranged for a meeting between his father, then the vice president, and a Ukrainian businessman.

And then there is some confusion about what social media companies owe their audiences when it comes to distributing these stories.

Here is what you need to know about the New York Post story: We are supposed to accept that Los Angeles resident Hunter Biden dropped off his laptop at a Wilmington, Delaware, computer shop in 2019 and never retrieved it, despite probably knowing that its contents would ruin him and his father.

Makes perfect sense.

We are supposed to accept that nothing is odd about the prospect that the shop owner then called the FBI, but not before making a copy of the hard drive and giving it to Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, defender and top Biden-hunter, so to speak.

Could happen, I suppose.

And","Sowing confusion in the weeks before an election The story was thin, Big Tech's reaction was overzealous and conservatives are upset for the wrong reasons.",tweets_news_523,tweets_news
"The ""Stop Hate for Profit"" campaign will begin calling on major companies in Europe to join the boycott, Jim Steyer, chief executive of Common Sense Media, said in an interview with Reuters.

Since the campaign launched earlier this month, more than 160 companies, including Verizon Communications and Unilever Plc, have signed on to stop buying ads on the world's largest social media platform for the month of July.

Free Press and Common Sense, along with US civil rights groups Color of Change and the Anti-Defamation League, launched the campaign following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by Minneapolis police.

""The next frontier is global pressure,"" Steyer said, adding the campaign hopes to embolden regulators in Europe to take a harder stance on Facebook. The European Commission in June announced new guidelines for tech companies including Facebook to submit monthly reports on how they are handling coronavirus misinformation.

The outrage in the United States over the death of Floyd has led to an unprecedented reaction from corporations around the world. Its impact has been felt beyond US borders.

The global campaign will proceed as organizers continue to urge more US companies to participate. Jessica Gonzalez, co-chief executive of Free Press, said she","Facebook ad boycott campaign to go global, organisers say",tweets_news_524,tweets_news
"The advent of binge-watching has bred the cultural phenomenon of hate-watching, but what is hate-watching? According to Merriam-Webster, it means ""to watch and take pleasure in laughing at or criticizing (a disliked television show, movie, etc.).""

Now, this isn't a new thing and has been around since the early 2010s. Yet, the act of hate-watching can actually benefit what is being hate-watched, because despite reasons for watching, they are still boosting the viewer count. This frequently leads to content renewal, or even sequel creations.

A great example of this is Netflix's ""Emily in Paris."" With a current 63 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it mainly received pretty mediocre ratings and reviews, which made its subsequent two Golden Globe nominations quite controversial. The show blew up on Twitter but, overwhelmingly, the tweets were not positive. Still, since the show was trending, more and more people watched to see what all the fuss was about and found they couldn't turn it off.

Twitter user @allisonantram put it best in a tweet that read, ""last night I set out to hate-watch 1 (one) episode of emily in paris and instead watched the ENTIRE THING IN ONE SITTING; the self-loathing today cannot be overstated.""

All of the attention",Hate-watching: Helpful or hateful?,tweets_news_525,tweets_news
"Bob Dylan's famous interrogatory asks the listener to decide whether or not the time has come to address the questions of inequality and violence. Written in 1962, and memorialized by Peter, Paul and Mary at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, DC. ""Blowin' in the Wind"" became a touchstone of the Civil Rights Movement.

Fifty-eight years later, we are still struggling to answer those basic questions:

""How many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man; and,

How many seas must a white dove sail before she can sleep in the sand; and,

How many times must the cannon balls fly before they are forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind; the answer is blowin' in the wind.""

If George Floyd's death doesn't tell us that the time has come, I honestly don't know what will.

Barry J McCall, Bonita Springs

Distance rules

Reading Wednesday's newspaper, I was astonished that numerous articles demanded, insisted, that we humans keep six feet away from one another in all cases, or risk penalty from the state, in addition to verbal and physical assault from our liberal peers. Really?

The entire world just witnessed massive, shoulder to shoulder protesters, looters and arsonists, all bunched together,",Time has come today,tweets_news_526,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

The social media platform Twitch temporarily banned President Trump's account.

A spokesperson for Twitch told the Hill on Monday that the temporary ban was implemented over the promotion of ""hateful conduct."" The person said that two posts, in particular, are what led to the ban, including a rebroadcast of a 2015 speech in which Trump referred to Mexicans as ""rapists"" and a clip from his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, slightly more than a week ago.

""Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch,"" the Twitch spokesperson said. ""In line with our policies, President Trump’s channel has been issued a temporary suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending content has been removed.""

The spokesperson stated that ""politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines"" and explained that the company made this clear to the president's team when he joined the platform.

The White House has ramped up its outcry against social media censorship in recent weeks.

Trump signed an executive order last month to combat what he sees as unfair censorship of conservative voices on such platforms. The directive is designed to have the Federal Communications Commission review social media companies and the protections they are granted",Twitch temporarily bans Trump account over 'hateful conduct',tweets_news_527,tweets_news
"By dpa correspondents WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Billionaire Mike Bloomberg on Wednesday dropped out of the Democratic party's presidential race after underperforming on Super Tuesday, and endorsed front-runner former vice president Joe Biden. 'Three months ago, I entered the race for president to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump - because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult,' the former New York City mayor said in a statement. Bloomberg said Biden, his 'friend and a great American,' had the 'best shot' to beat the Republican president in November. Tuesday marked Bloomberg's first real test after he skipped earlier nominating contests. But after pouring more than 500 million dollars of his own fortune into his campaign, the 78-year-old failed to win in any of the 14 states that cast votes and secured a victory only in American Samoa, a small outlying territory. 'After yesterday's results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible - and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists,' Bloomberg said. He had sought to take on Biden as the moderate front-runner who was able to spend his almost","Bloomberg drops out, narrowing Democratic race to Biden and Sanders",tweets_news_528,tweets_news
"Actor John Cena has apologised to China for referring to Taiwan as a country.

The WWE star made the statement while promoting the latest Fast And Furious film.

Speaking in Mandarin, Cena reportedly said: ``Taiwan is the first country that can watch.''

China considers the self-ruled Taiwan to be part of its territory.

Cena, who plays Jakob Toretto in F9, shared an apology video on Chinese social network website Weibo and said he made a ``mistake''.

He said: ``Now I have to say one thing which is very, very, very important: I love and respect China and Chinese people.''

Cena added: ``I'm very sorry for my mistakes. Sorry. Sorry. I'm really sorry.''

Cena was criticised for the apology by major conservative figures in the US.

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state under Donald Trump, tweeted: ``Yeah, John, you were correct. On your bowing to the Chinese Communist Party... I don't see you! We must stand with Taiwan and for freedom.''

Rick Scott, US senator from Florida, described Cena's apology as ``insane''.

He said: ``Instead of kowtowing to the Communist Party of China - how about we stand up for our democratic ally Taiwan as they face increasing threats and aggression from General Secretary Xi?''

China is a massive market for",JOHN CENA APOLOGISES TO CHINA FOR CALLING TAIWAN A COUNTRY,tweets_news_529,tweets_news
"•SEC is investigating social media and message boards over 'meme stock' frenzy•It wasn't clear what they hoped to find, as promoting a stock is legal•Only sharing materially false claims to manipulate the market is a violation•On Reddit, WallStreetBets users jeered the move and greeted 'SEC interns'•GameStop shares rose a modest 2.7% on Wednesday after two days of losses

SEC is investigating social media and message boards over 'meme stock' frenzy

It wasn't clear what they hoped to find, as promoting a stock is legal

Only sharing materially false claims to manipulate the market is a violation

On Reddit, WallStreetBets users jeered the move and greeted 'SEC interns'

GameStop shares rose a modest 2.7% on Wednesday after two days of losses

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing social media posts for signs of potential fraud in frenzied trading of GameStop and other companies' shares, according to a new report

The SEC's examination of online posts is being done in tandem with a review of trading data to assess whether such posts were part of a manipulative effort to drive up share prices, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The 'meme stock' rally fueled by the Reddit forum WallStreetBets inflated stock prices for a",SEC investigators hunt through posts on social media and Reddit looking for signs of fraud in 'meme stock' frenzy - as GameStop shares RISE slightly after plunging 70% earlier this week,tweets_news_530,tweets_news
"

May 07, 2020( TheNextWeb.com: http://thenextweb.com Delivered by Newstex) Facebook today revealed the first 20 members of its Oversight Board, an independent body that can pass judgement on Facebook's policies, assist in content moderation, and hear appeals on existing decisions. In theory, it's a committee that can help Facebook navigate difficult decisions of what's okay to have on the platform, and can overrule even CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Let's see what they actually do in practice. In case you don't remember— because it's been over a year since Zuckerberg first mentioned the plan — the idea behind this group is that it'll be able to overrule Facebook's upper management in policy decisions and content moderation.

There will be 40 members in total, from a variety of different backgrounds, none of whom have any connection to Facebook itself. It'll also be funded by an independent $130 million trust. The board will hear cases in five-person panels and make final rulings, saying on its site[1] that 'Facebook must implement our decisions, unless implementation could violate the law.' Zuckerberg said in 2018[2] that the independent board would 'be focused only on our community,' adding: 'The purpose of this body would be to uphold the principle of","Facebook names its Oversight Board, a 'supreme court' that can overrule Zuckerberg",tweets_news_531,tweets_news
"Document links may not lead to an active page. Page maintenance is at the discretion of the publisher.

Trying to navigate the pandemic in the age of social media has one oscillating between two schools of thought: 'everyone has a right to an opinion' and 'this narrative is scientifically inaccurate and should be censored.'

Once upon a time, misinformation-peddling fringe-dwellers from the United States wouldn't be familiar to the average Australian. But COVID-19 has enabled uptake of conspiracy theories, breeding an epidemic in scientific illiteracy. It's gotten worse with time, and boosted by social media, it continues to grow.

While 77 per cent of us feel it's crucial to have a Prime Minister who nurtures a good relationship with the US president, only 32 per cent feel the Trump administration has been good for Australia. So, it has been surprising to see many Australians embrace the theories QAnon propagated, considering its foundational belief is Donald Trump's fight against a cannibalistic, paedophilia-driven satanic 'deep state' network.

Fear porn

Australians tend to have a more cynical view on leaders, requiring them to prove themselves before we accept them as an authority. Perceptions around a lack of transparency over the current epidemic followed by censorship by tech platforms",Removing QAnon accounts 'not the answer',tweets_news_532,tweets_news
"CORONAVIRUS has created a three-fold ""perfect storm"" for abusers to groom children online by taking advantage of the crisis, the NSPCC has warned.

The charity said while tech firms have had to scale back on moderators who combat sexual abuse, offenders are seeing an unprecedented opportunity to target children who are spending more time on the internet at home, and may be feeling increasingly lonely or anxious because of the lockdown.

Last week Europol said they were seeing 'increased online activity by those seeking child abuse material'.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak will see children spending more time at home than ever before, with much of their day being spent online.

Much of this activity will be helping to educate them, stay in touch with their friends and provide entertainment, but it could also lead to an increased risk of sexual abuse and exposure to harmful content.

And with social media companies forced to send their outsourced moderators home, meaning they are relying primarily on artificial intelligence (AI) for child safeguarding purposes, the NSPCC is concerned that conditions are ""rife"" to be exploited by abusers.

The charity said it is worried that while AI is normally used to identify and triage harmful content, grooming and abuse,","Coronavirus has created 'perfect storm' for abusers to groom children online, warns NSPCC",tweets_news_533,tweets_news
"Twitter said Wednesday it was launching an initiative on ""responsible machine learning"" that will include reviews of algorithmic fairness on the social media platform.

The California messaging service said the plan aims to offer more transparency in its artificial intelligence and tackle ""the potential harmful effects of algorithmic decisions.""

The move comes amid heightened concerns over algorithms used by online services, which some say can promote violence or extremist content or reinforce racial or gender bias.

""Responsible technological use includes studying the effects it can have over time,"" said a blog post by Jutta Williams and Rumman Chowdhury of Twitter's ethics and transparency team.

""When Twitter uses (machine learning), it can impact hundreds of millions of tweets per day and sometimes, the way a system was designed to help could start to behave differently than was intended.""

The initiative calls for ""taking responsibility for our algorithmic decisions"" with the aim of ""equity and fairness of outcomes,"" according to the researchers.

""We're also building explainable ML solutions so you can better understand our algorithms, what informs them, and how they impact what you see on Twitter.""

Williams and Chowdhury said the team would be sharing what it learns with outside researchers ""to improve the industry's collective understanding of",Twitter unveils algorithmic fairness initiative,tweets_news_534,tweets_news
"A family takes part in a shiva call, a Jewish mourning period, in a Zoom videoconference. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images via JTA)

By Jonathan A. Greenblatt | JTA

Just a few weeks ago, most Americans were not familiar with the concept of Zoombombing. But as the COVID-19 pandemic forced many business, community, and even social meetings online, Zoom increasingly became the platform of choice for videoconferencing. The rapid growth in its use came with a steady increase in reports of intrusions by people spouting racism, anti-Semitism, and hate.

Over the last couple of weeks, reports of Zoombombing have increased exponentially. At the Anti-Defamation League, we have counted at least 80 such interruptions into online meetings across the country, and the number rises daily.

After trolls started to barge in on these sessions, ADL's Center on Technology and Society reached out to Zoom at its corporate headquarters to encourage the company to make some product modifications to prevent this from happening. We've been working with its team to address these concerns, and these talks are now bearing fruit.

Since we first reached out, Zoom has been responsive to the very real threats that have materialized on its service and receptive to our concerns. The company",Voices | ADL Director: Here's How to Make Your Zoom Meetings More Secure,tweets_news_535,tweets_news
"(NEXSTAR) — House Democrats unveiled a proposal Monday that rejects capping the individual income threshold at $50,000 and would provide $1,400 stimulus payments to Americans making $75,000 a year.

Joint filers making less than $150,000 annually would be eligible for a $2,800 payment, according to the plan from Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, and Americans would receive an additional $1,400 in their stimulus checks per dependent.

The payments phase out between $75,000 and $100,000 of adjusted gross income – for people filing jointly that range is between $150,000 and $200,000.

The proposal by the Ways and Means Committee, which plans to vote on it by week's end, would also expand tax credits for families with children, for lower-earning people and for Americans who buy health insurance on marketplaces created by former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. It would also provide health care subsidies for some unemployed workers.

Spending by Ways and Means, one of Congress' most powerful committees, is expected to exceed $900 billion, nearly half of Biden's overall plan. The House Education and Labor Committee also previewed its plans on Monday, a roughly $350 billion package that includes $130 billion to help schools reopen safely, $40 billion for colleges","House Dems call for $1,400 stimulus checks, no change to income thresholds in new plan",tweets_news_536,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

The updated guidelines spell out 10 categories of videos that aren't allowed on the Chinese-owned social media app.

FULL TEXT

Link to Image

WASHINGTON - TikTok on Wednesday released a set of new, more detailed rules about the videos it permits and prohibits, seeking to respond to concerns that its policies to protect users failed to keep pace with its meteoric rise in popularity.

The updated guidelines spell out 10 categories of videos that aren't allowed on the Chinese-owned social media app, including those that glorify terrorism, show illegal drug use, feature violent, graphic or dangerous content, or seek to peddle misinformation that's designed to deceive the public in an election, the company said.

TikTok previously maintained a set of broader community standards that banned a wide range of short-form videos that could cause users harm. But the app's swift growth spawned questions - in Congress and elsewhere - about how exactly the company enforced those vague rules, particularly in the United States, where free speech values differ greatly from the censorship laws that govern TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, in China.

Adding to its woes, former employees previously told The Washington Post that they often felt pressured at TikTok to take a more conservative view about","TikTok revamps content rules, aiming to clear up which videos it allows or blocks",tweets_news_537,tweets_news
"

May 02, 2020( How Appealing: https://howappealing.abovethelaw.com Delivered by Newstex) ;;;;; 'D.C. judge: U.S. courts' administrative agency can't bar employees' political speech.' Alison Frankel's 'On the Case' from Thomson Reuters News &#38; Insight has this post[1]. Posted at 10:58 PM [2] by Howard Bashman[3] '771 lawsuits — and counting: Wave of virus litigation hits businesses across the U.S.' Shayna Jacobs of The Washington Post has this report[4]. Posted at 9:18 PM [5] by Howard Bashman[6] 'Opioid Update: Judge Kethledge Reclaims Solitude — and Civil Procedure.' Benjamin Beaton has this post[7] at the 'Sixth Circuit Appellate Blog.' The post contains a link to Sixth Circuit[8] Judge Raymond M. Kethledge[9]'s recent TEDx Talk at the University of Michigan titled 'Reclaim Solitude[10].' Posted at 7:50 PM [11] by Howard Bashman[12] 'At long last, the Supreme Court is going live on air': Bruce Collins, general counsel for C-SPAN, has this essay[13] online at The Washington Post.

And online at Freedom Forum, Tony Mauro has an interview with Collins titled 'C-SPAN and the Supreme Court's Big Step Toward Live Broadcast of Arguments[14].' Posted at 7:39 PM [15] by Howard Bashman[16] 'The Futility of Originalist Analysis in Second Amendment Cases': Eric Segall has this blog post[17] at 'Dorf",'D.C. judge: U.S. courts' administrative agency can't bar employees' political speech.',tweets_news_538,tweets_news
"

May 23, 2020( Conservative Daily News: http://conservativedailynews.com Delivered by Newstex) ;; Rep. Adam Schiff is calling for the declassification and release of a transcript of phone calls between Michael Flynn and former Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak. 'We need to ensure a transparent and complete public record free of political manipulation,' wrote Schiff. The request marks a dramatic shift for the California Democrat.

Throughout the Trump-Russia probe, Schiff led the charge to oppose the release of FBI documents regarding the Steele dossier and FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Friday called for transparency in the release of a transcript of former national security adviser Michael Flynn's phone calls in late December 2016 with a Russian ambassador. 'We need to ensure a transparent and complete public record free of political manipulation,' Schiff wrote in a letter to Richard Grenell, the acting director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). In making the request, Schiff follows on the heels of Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who first called for the release of the transcript and other Flynn-related materials in February 2017 and again in May 2018. But Schiff's call for transparency marks a shift in",Analysis: Schiff's Radical Transparency Shift,tweets_news_539,tweets_news
"Guardian investigation finds the Facebook communities are gaining followers as Twitter cracks down on QAnon content

New and established QAnon groups on Facebook are growing at a rapid pace and helping to spread the baseless and dangerous conspiracy theory to new countries around the world, a Guardian investigation has found.

The Guardian has documented more than 170 QAnon groups, pages and accounts across Facebook and Instagram with more than 4.5 million aggregate followers. The Guardian has also documented dedicated communities for QAnon followers in at least 15 countries on Facebook.

The growth in the QAnon Facebook communities has come as rival social media platform Twitter undertook a broad crackdown on content and accounts dedicated to the conspiracy theory, citing the movement's ""clear and well-documented informational, physical, societal and psychological offline harm"".

At the time of Twitter's crackdown, anonymous sources told the New York Times that Facebook was planning to take ""similar steps"" at some point this month. In the meantime, Facebook's recommendation algorithm has continued to promote QAnon groups to users and some groups have experienced explosive growth.

QAnon is a baseless internet conspiracy theory whose followers believe that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a ""deep state"" cabal of Democrats and Hollywood",Revealed: QAnon Facebook groups are growing at a rapid pace around the world,tweets_news_540,tweets_news
"Jan. 25-- Jan. 25--Plans for a Muslim retreat in Walkersville were hotly debated throughout a large chunk of 2007.

At the heart of the discussion was a plan from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, who attempted to buy about 275 acres of land to both build a recreational center for 20 local families and also host an annual three-day religious convention, the Jalsa Salana festival, that would draw 5,000 to 10,000 people.

The plan drew criticism from some who believed that building the center in Walkersville might attract ""terrorist activity"" in the area, as the Frederick News-Post wrote in August of that year. As a result, Ahsan Zafar, president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, told residents at a summer town hall meeting that his community were ""not extremists,"" and they were ""not violent.""

""We are not here to disrupt life, we are here to be a part of life,"" Zafar also told the crowd while also noting that the center would be open to people of all faiths.

His words would ultimately fall on deaf ears however, as after an 11-day hearing in early 2008, the Walkersville board of Zoning Appeals denied the group's proposal to build at 8939 Woodsboro Pike, which at the time",Hindsight 2020: Walkersville residents debate Muslim community center throughout 2007,tweets_news_541,tweets_news
"Posts and pages spreading Holocaust denial and fascism are being ""actively recommended"" to Facebook users, research has found.

The social media giant defended its policy on what it called ""lies or content that is inaccurate"", but the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) think tank said such content must be recognised as a form of antisemitic hate speech.

Researchers used a popular keyword used by Holocaust deniers to uncover 28 Facebook groups and eight pages that had almost 370,000 followers in total.

""From clicking through to these pages, Facebook's recommendation algorithm led ISD researchers to further Holocaust denial pages,"" the report said. ""Facebook also appears to promote content on the extreme right to those demonstrating an interest in Holocaust denial content.

""The platform recommended to researchers to visit Australian pages supportive of Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, and the works of a fascist Italian philosopher.""

Recommendations also included pages dedicated to the British Holocaust denier David Irving and publishers selling revisionist literature.

One of the most popular pages claimed it was expressing ""intellectual freedom"", while others claimed they were conducting a ""scientific investigation of historical events"". The ISD said 13 of the pages or groups were dedicated to conspiracy theories, nine were",Holocaust denial posts recommended on Facebook,tweets_news_542,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

Now on BBC News - Click. This week: cleaning up the social network. Getting your mask on. And... Breaking Bad with Giancarlo Esposito. Hey, welcome to Click and wear a mask. That's the advice you are given, just do it, it's not a problem.

Hey, welcome to Click and wear a mask. That's the advice you are given, just do it, it's not a problem. In fact in some part of the world it is just the norm anyway. So do it. Hey, Lara. Hello. I hope you have been bending the metal bit over your nose, now I know about it seems really obvious. Absolutely right and I didn't know that, until recently, and it does help it to sit in place so it is very useful information. It does help but it still doesn't fit perfectly although I may have a solution for that later in the programme. It has been a busy week",Joins BBC News - 02:31 AM GMT,tweets_news_543,tweets_news
"Washington: Center for Strategic and International Studies has issued the following press release:

This commentary is part of a new CSIS project exploring the impact of Russian and Chinese information operations in democratic nation-states. Part I of the project examines Russian disinformation campaigns in the United Kingdom and Germany and Chinese disinformation campaigns in Australia and Japan. Read the first piece on Japan here.

In today’s conflicts, nonmilitary tools are becoming as prevalent as military ones. Cyberattacks, information operations, and the leveraging of economic investment for political influence have all become instruments of some countries’ foreign and security policies. The world has watched in disbelief at Russian intelligence operatives attempts to hack the computers of international organization such as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, meddle in other countries’ elections, or assassinate former Russia military officers and intelligence agents.

As U.S and European leaders try to analyze and anticipate information manipulation operations and other malign activities by actors such as Russia and China, a look at the manifestations of recent Russian information manipulation in the United Kingdom provides a helpful case study in understanding Russian objectives, measures countries can take to reduce vulnerabilities that make them more susceptible to influence operations,",Mind the Gaps: Russian Information Manipulation in the United Kingdom,tweets_news_544,tweets_news
"

Oct 12, 2020( The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/ Delivered by Newstex) President Donald Trump may insist he's immune to COVID-19, but Jim Carrey is painting a different picture. In his latest cartoon, the actor and comedian-turned-artist depicted Trump as a Regeneron-hungry science-denier claiming to be 'immune' from the deadly virus. The painting, posted Monday afternoon, shows a sickly-green version of the president squinting and bulging out of his shirt-collar, his mouth open and teeth exposed.

Also Read: COVID-19 Whistleblower Says Trump's Immunity Claim Is 'Absolutely Not True' (Video)[1] 'I'm cured of the Covid. I'm totally immune. Who you gonna believe, me or some scientific test results? Regeneron is great. Every senior's gonna get some and Mexico's gonna pay for it!' Carrey wrote[2] in the caption of his tweet. Trump tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 1 and was briefly hospitalized last weekend before being released back to the White House. During his stay at Walter Reed Medical Center, he was treated with a number of medications, including an antiviral drug Remdesivir, the steroid dexamethasone, and an unapproved experimental antibody produced by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. He has since said that he is 'immune' from the virus and cannot spread it to others and proceeded to",Jim Carrey Paints Regeneron-Hungry Trump Seeing Green,tweets_news_545,tweets_news
"Washington, May 20 (IANS) The independent Oversight Board on Thursday overturned Facebook's decision to remove a comment intended to criticise the Turkish government. ""This case highlighted inconsistencies in how Facebook applies its rules and a lack of transparency...

Washington, May 20 (IANS) The independent Oversight Board on Thursday overturned Facebook's decision to remove a comment intended to criticise the Turkish government. ""This case highlighted inconsistencies in how Facebook applies its rules and a lack of tr...

Washington, May 20 (IANS) The independent Oversight Board on Thursday overturned Facebook's decision to remove a comment intended to criticise the Turkish government. ""This case highlighted inconsistencies in how Facebook applies its rules and a lack of transparency in how its regulations and exceptions are communicated to users,"" the board said in a statement. On December 24, 2020, a Facebook user in the US posted a comment with an adaptation of the 'daily struggle' or 'two buttons' meme. This featured the split-screen cartoon from the original 'two buttons' meme, but with a Turkish flag substituted for the cartoon character's face. The cartoon character has its right hand on its head and appears to be sweating. Above the character, in the other half of the split-screen, are",Oversight Board overturns Facebook's decision to remove comment,tweets_news_546,tweets_news
"The madness and treason that's consumed the Party of Trump has a face: And it belongs to a former Pennsylvania state lawmaker.

On Wednesday, on a day that thugs and domestic terrorists bent on overthrowing the results of a lawful election stormed the United States Capitol with laughable ease, Rick Saccone, who once swore an oath to uphold the law and the constitution, tried to justify the unjustifiable.

""We are storming the Capitol,"" Saccone, a former state House member who hails from outside Pittsburgh, brayed in a now-deleted Facebook post. ""Our vanguard has broken through the barricades. We will save this nation. Are you with me?""

Just a couple of years ago, Saccone staged an unsuccessful bid for Congress, losing to Democrat Conor Lamb. A man who once aspired to walk the halls of the Capitol now proposed to sack it.

We know what resulted from the brain-dead posturing of Saccone and his fellow extremists: It resulted in Capitol Police, their guns drawn, guarding the doors to the House chamber, as people desperately hid behind desks and chairs. It resulted in an angry mob swarming, seemingly unchallenged, through the halls of the Capitol. And it resulted in the deaths of four people. It was",Democracy was pushed to brink,tweets_news_547,tweets_news
"Twitter and Facebook have both frozen Donald Trump out, while Amazon, Google, and Apple cut access to right-wing app Parler.

The EU's digital chief Thierry Breton has branded the insurrection at the US Capitol the ""9/11 moment for social media"".

In the aftermath of the violence in Washington DC, President Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter over violations of its civic integrity policies.

Facebook, too, took action against Trump, locking his account until there is a peaceful transition of power.

Meanwhile, Amazon, Google, and Apple cut access to Parler, an app that hails itself as a ""free-speech alternative"" to other platforms.

""Parler is basically a Twitter alternative,"" Dr Jen Golbeck, computer scientist and director at the University of Maryland's social intelligence lab, told Euronews.

""It was set up to take in the people who felt like they couldn't share their views on Twitter because they violated their terms of service against threats, harassment, calls to violence and so on"".

It was a platform popular with right-wing commentators and users, Dr Golbeck said, and also where ""a lot of the plans for the insurrection that we saw on [January] the 6th took place"".

""It was very clear leading up to that event that they were planning to storm",Trump loyalists 'driven deeper into internet' after social media bans,tweets_news_548,tweets_news
"TikTok is taking steps to limit the spread of videos with information that cannot be confirmed by its fact-checking partners.

Product manager, trust and safety Gina Hernandez said in a blog post Wednesday that the platform removes videos that have been identified as misinformation by fact checkers at Lead Stories, PolitiFact or SciVerify.

She added, “Sometimes, fact checks are inconclusive, or content is not able to be confirmed, especially during unfolding events. In these cases, a video may become ineligible for recommendation into anyone’s For You feed to limit the spread of potentially misleading information. Today, we’re taking that a step further to inform viewers when we identify a video with unsubstantiated content in an effort to reduce sharing.”

Starting Wednesday in Canada and the U.S. and to be extended worldwide in the coming weeks, TikTok users will see a banner over videos where content has been reviewed but cannot be conclusively validated.

The video’s creator will also be notified that their video was flagged for unsubstantiated content.

If someone attempts to share a video that is flagged for this reason, a prompt will appear, asking, “Are you sure you want to share this video?,” and reminding them about why the video was flagged.

At this",TikTok: ‘Are You Sure You Want to Share This Video?’,tweets_news_549,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump drew immediate rebukes across the political spectrum yesterday after floating the prospect of delaying the November election and claiming without evidence that widespread mail balloting would be a ""catastrophic disaster"" leading to fraudulent results.

The suggestion represented Trump's latest, and most dramatic, attempt to undermine public faith in US elections, which have grown more regular as polls have shown his political fortunes declining. The president has attacked mail voting nearly 70 times since late March in interviews, remarks and tweets, including at least 17 times this month, according to a tally by The Washington Post.

Yesterday's tweet came on the heels of a devastating report showing that the economy shrank nearly 10 per cent from April through June, the largest quarterly decline since the government began publishing such data 70 years ago.

But Trump encountered an unprecedented measure of pushback from senior Republicans in Congress, conservative leaders outside government and, of course, Democrats. Former president Barack Obama, speaking at the funeral of the late civil rights icon John Lewis in Atlanta, weighed in to say that ""even as we sit here, those in power who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting"". Obama, who has avoided public comments",GOP officials rebuff Trump suggestion to delay election,tweets_news_550,tweets_news
"In previous years, Mark Zuckerberg has built a robot butler, learned Mandarin, and only eaten meat from animals he killed himself.

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is ditching his tradition of setting himself annual challenges.

The 34-year-old billionaire exec said that he's now handling more ""social responsibility"" and is raising a family.

In previous years, his challenges have ranged from making an AI assistant to only eating meat from animals he killed himself.

""While I'm glad I did annual challenges over the last decade, it's time to do something different,"" he wrote. ""This decade I'm going to take a longer term focus.""

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is ditching his long-running tradition of setting himself sometimes-wacky annual challenges.

Over the past decade, the 34-year-old billionaire chief executive has welcomed in the new year with pledges and projects ranging from an attempt to build his own AI-powered robot assistant to a promise to only eat meat from animals he killed himself for a year.

But on Thursday, Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post on Facebook that he is abandoning the tradition. Instead, he wrote, he's trying to ""take a longer term focus,"" penning a 1,500 piece mulling over how the next decade may look for technology and society",Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is ditching his tradition of setting himself wacky New Year's resolutions (FB),tweets_news_551,tweets_news
"CLAIM: A photo from this week shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi huddled with other members of Congress and none are wearing masks.

THE FACTS: Social media users making the false claim shared a December photo from The Associated Press to suggest Pelosi and other members of Congress are not following current guidelines for wearing masks and social distancing when meeting.

""This photo is from this week. They are in private and don't know they are being photographed. SOMETHING IS MISSING. WHAT IS IT??( And ask yourself WHY?),"" stated posts being shared Wednesday on Facebook. A Twitter account that supports QAnon, a conspiracy theory centered on the baseless belief that President Donald Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the 'deep state,' first made the false claim, which was shared as a screenshot and posted on Facebook. The AP photo being misrepresented was taken on Dec. 18, 2019, and shows Pelosi speaking to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal in a private room after the House voted to impeach Trump. AP photographer Andrew Harnik captured the photo of the four huddled in conversation reflected in",On Pelosi not wearing a mask,tweets_news_552,tweets_news
"Pakistan, March 3 -- The buzz is that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will soon be replaced. Here's why:

1) Jack Dorsey, as CEO, banned political advertising on Twitter in October in an attempt to quell fake news at a time when the US presidential election campaigns had begun full swing. That has not gone down well with Republican donor billionaire Paul Singer whose investment firm Elliot Management Corp has picked up substantial stake in President Donald Trump's favourite social media platform.

2) Republicans believe that the social media company is unfairly suppressing right-wing views while magnifying liberal thought.

3) Besides, since July 2015 when Dorsey was reinstated as CEO after initially losing his position since founding the micro-blogging site, the company's shares have fallen 6.2%, while Facebook's have gained more than 121% during that time, Bloomberg reported. On the contrary, Twitter did report quarterly revenue above USD 1 billion recently for the first time.

4) Dorsey also doubles as the CEO of payments startup Square Inc, which too he founded. And this makes him a target of criticism whenever Twitter performs poorly.

5) What's more his plan to work in Africa for a part of the year has also not been received well by investors.",Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's job on the line ahead of US elections,tweets_news_553,tweets_news
"With Joe Biden on the verge of victory, Donald Trump, his sons and his supporters are spewing lies and spreading conspiracy theories at every opportunity in a desperate bid to undermine the legitimacy of the US election

Donald Trump and his supporters have been slapped down for spreading false voting fraud claims and conspiracy theories amid America's agonising wait for election results.

Bogus or misleading posts have gone viral on social media, and some of them have been boosted by the Republican president himself and his sons in a desperate bid to cling to power.

Trump's Twitter account, which has 88 million followers, is covered in warning labels after he tweeted false or inaccurate claims.

In Arizona, Trump supporters -some of them armed with assault rifles or handguns -surrounded a polling centre amid unsubstantiated rumours that votes for the real estate mogul were deliberately not being counted.

to follow all the latest US election updates in our live blog.

These are just some of the conspiracy theories and voting claims that have been debunked in the aftermath of Tuesday's vote.

Trump's 'cheating' claims

At every opportunity, Trump has tried to undermine the legitimacy of the election and drum up claims about voting fraud without providing any evidence to",Trump conspiracy theories and US election vote claims that have been debunked,tweets_news_554,tweets_news
"CONTENT: BOYD, EP, ""BLACK HISTORY ALWAYS"", INFINITY SONG

AMY ROBACH (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) Welcome back, everyone. Our next guest is a new artist who is part of a band consisting of her five siblings, called Infinity Song and their talents have impressed a few names you might have heard of in music such as, oh, Jay-Z, who signed them to Roc Nation and Kanye West who said they're the future of music.

T.J. HOLMES (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) And today, she is joining us to perform a spoken word piece she has created for the ""Black History Always"" EP, Momo Boyd. Momo, Hello. There's that big smile.

THALIA ""MOMO"" BOYD (INFINITY SONG)

Hi.

T.J. HOLMES (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) How are you doing?

THALIA ""MOMO"" BOYD (INFINITY SONG)

I'm good. How are you?

T.J. HOLMES (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) We are great today. It's good to see you, and you had, tell us now, there's so much emphasis focused on Black History and Black History specific this or that. You've created a piece of art here, if you will. But, your point is also Black History is happening all the time. It's not between February 1st and February 28th.

THALIA ""MOMO"" BOYD (INFINITY SONG)

Yes, yes absolutely. A lot of times, we, especially in school, growing up,","THALIA ""MOMO"" BOYD",tweets_news_555,tweets_news
"The majority of more than 140,000 tips sent to the FBI about the attack have come from friends and family of those involved

When Alison Lopez discovered her uncle’s sister had been part of the mob that breached the Capitol doors on 6 January, she immediately reported her to the FBI. “I had no second thoughts,” she said.

Lopez found out about her in-law’s participation when the woman in question called her aunt from inside the Capitol to brag about “taking back the election”. Lopez, who is 42, said she had known the relative her whole life but had “no qualms” about reporting her.

“If I saw my grandmother making bombs in her basement, or my aunt breaking into a home, I would have to intervene as well – it’s just about doing what’s right,” she said.

In the week after the attacks on the Capitol, there has been a concerted effort to “unmask” rioters online, with self-styled detectives investigating who’s who in videos and photos posted from the attack. Outing family members – either online or to authorities – has marked a new frontier of the rift Trumpism has created in the US.

Lopez said she was horrified but not surprised to see a",'I had no qualms': The people turning in loved ones for the Capitol attack,tweets_news_556,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This is BBC News. The headlines: President Trump says he won't put the US into lockdown, despite a surge in Covid-19 cases. Mr Trump came close to admitting he's leaving the White House next year, saying he didn't know which administration would be in charge in the future. Meanwhile, Joe Biden is projected to win the state of Georgia.

The result gives Mr Biden a victory of 306 Electoral College votes to Trump's 232 - far more than the 270 needed to secure the presidency. It puts increasing pressure on Mr Trump to admit defeat. The UK Prime Minister's most senior adviser Dominic Cummings has quit his job after days of political turmoil. He was the man who ran the Brexit campaign in 2016. Infighting at the heart of the government spilled out into the public eye this week as Downing Street's director of communications Lee Cain resigned. Tory MPs have urged an entire government relaunch.",Joins BBC News - 01:30 AM GMT,tweets_news_557,tweets_news
"Republicans push through Amy Coney Barrett appointment ... structural racism 'behind Covid's BAME impact' ... Joni Mitchell fights back to health

Top story: Coney Barrett swings supreme court to right

Hello, I'm Warren Murray, a new day has dawned with new stories to gaze upon.

The majority of senators have voted to confirm Donald Trump's supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. US lawmakers voted almost entirely along party lines with a sole Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, joining the Democrats to vote against Barrett's confirmation.

Barrett, 48, secures a 6-to-3 conservative majority on the nation's highest court. Long term, her appointment could have a major impact on a range of policies governing abortion rights, immigration and LGBTQ rights. Immediately, she is expected to rule on a number of cases on whose votes will count, and how they will be counted in the election. Soon after election day she could be a deciding vote in an ongoing legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act - which the Trump administration is seeking to dismantle.

Coney Barrett has refused to say whether she accepts humans are causing climate change, calling it a ""contentious matter of public debate"" despite the scientific evidence. Her take on the constitution is that",Tuesday briefing: Trump gets way in court,tweets_news_558,tweets_news
"

Jun 17, 2020( Mediaite: http://www.mediaite.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Joe Scarborough expressed a level of frustration, disgust, and anger Wednesday morning, and the motivating source behind his high-volume screed was curiously not President Donald Trump, but instead Facebook, and its founder Mark Zuckerberg and CEO Sheryl Sandberg. Coming out of a commercial break, Scarborough went solo in an on-air tirade, the level of which one rarely sees in this piqued political divide of opinion media, blasting the Facebook leaders for the role they play that seemingly allows conspiracy theories that have deadly results.

What set Scarborough off was the report of the arrest[1] of an alleged 'Boogaloo' extremist named Steven Carillo charged in the killing of a federal officer during George Floyd protest. Carrillo wrote in a Facebook group on May 28 that the unrest is 'on our coast now, this needs to be nationwide' and that 'it's a great opportunity to target the specialty soup bios,' according to the complaint. The previous Morning Joe segment featured NBC News reporter Ben Collins in a segment dedicated to this story, and the curious relationship between Facebook and extremists communities like the one Carillo was ostensibly a member. Online Boogaloo communities reportedly post memes",Joe Scarborough EXPLODES Over Facebook 'Promoting' Extremism; Mark Zuckerberg is 'LYING' to You!,tweets_news_559,tweets_news
"Fox News’ Chris Wallace was excoriated on social media by right-wing pundits for his performance moderating the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Tuesday night. 

Fox News’ Chris Wallace was excoriated on social media by right-wing pundits, including former and current colleagues at his own network, for his performance moderating the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Tuesday night.

Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday and part of the news side of Fox News, as opposed to the partisan opinion side habited by the likes of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, was accused of rampant bias against the president by not allowing Trump to talk at length, cutting him off mid-rant and trying to steer the conversation back to the topic.

Wallace was also accused of letting Biden off at certain moments, especially in the discussion about the Green New Deal and laughing along at some of the former vice president’s zingers.

Among those who criticized Wallace were former Fox News colleague Bill O’Reilly and current The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld and Fox & Friends’ Brian Kilmeade, as well as Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy.

O’Reilly was most strident in his criticisms, tweeting, “Good line",Right-Wing Pundits Slam Fox News’ Chris Wallace Over First Debate Bias,tweets_news_560,tweets_news
"All the latest national and international news stories brought to you by the BBC news team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

in the next few days and say if he isn't, they'll start the process of impeachment. Here's our North America correspondent Peter Bowes. President Trump has been widely blamed for inciting the violence behind last week's assault on the US Capitol, egging on his supporters, an insurrection at the heart of American democracy. Mr Trump has one and a half weeks of his term in office remaining.

But Democrats, and some senior members of his own party, want him out now. The House of Representatives is to vote on a resolution urging the vice-president, Mike Pence, and the cabinet, to declare President Trump unfit for the job. I like the 25th Amendment because it gets rid of him, he's out of office, but there is strong support in the Congress for impeaching the president a second time. The impeachment process could start by the middle of the week and",BBC News at One - 1:15 PM GMT,tweets_news_561,tweets_news
"

Oct 13, 2020( Michael Geist: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/ Delivered by Newstex) In recent months, Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault has emerged as the de facto digital policy lead minister in Canada with Navdeep Bains largely silent[1] on the race to regulate everything from online linking to how Canadian content is promoted on digital streaming services. New legislation is still forthcoming, but recent comments to industry town halls and press reports[2] provide a good sense of what Guilbeault has in mind. In short, it appears the government will establish an extensive regulatory structure for digital services with registration or licensing requirements and mandated payments for a host of online activities. The amounts payable will be established through hearings at the CRTC and the Copyright Board of Canada.

The government would retain the power to fine companies that fail to comply with the payment requirements and use a policy direction to the CRTC to make its policy intentions clear. The likelihood of the CRTC leading the charge to regulate online streaming services has been readily apparent for some time, particularly since the Commission made clear its support for a new regulatory model in 2018[3]. Guilbeault has confirmed that his top priority is 'get money from",The Guilbeault Internet Plan: Leave it to the CRTC and Copyright Board of Canada to Get Money from Web Giants,tweets_news_562,tweets_news
"Section 230 created the modern internet, and the legislation is now at the center of Presiden Trump's war on social media companies.

Section 230 is a part of federal legislation passed more than 20 years ago. It runs only 26-words long short and to the point. But it has had an outsize affect on life as we know it.

They are the 26 words that created the Internet, says Jeff Kossett, a cybersecurity law professor at the U.S Naval Academy and one of the foremost experts on Section 230.

Most fundamentally, Section 230 provides immunity to social media companies like Facebook and Twitter <fbs-ticker data-name=""TWTR"" data-href=""https://www.forbes.com/companies/twitter""> TWTR</fbs-ticker> against being sued over the content on their site. This allows them to operate and flourish without needing to moderate content.

Section 230 set the legal framework for the internet that we know today that relies heavily on user content rather than content that companies create. Without Section 230, companies would not be willing to take so many risks, Kosset says.

President Trump now wants to change Section 230. Hesigned a new executive orderon Thursday that will try to curb how social media sites use the legislation to prevent legal action. We re here today to defend free",What Is Section 230 And Why Does Trump Want To Change It?,tweets_news_563,tweets_news
"A split has emerged inside the House Freedom Caucus over its members' use of delaying tactics on the floor to protest Democratic policies.

A group of House ultra-conservatives who rose to power by making life hell for GOP leaders is now facing cracks in its once-united front - which some worry could foreshadow an even wider rift if Republicans win back the majority next year.

A notable split has emerged inside the House Freedom Caucus in recent weeks over its members' use of delaying tactics on the floor to protest Democratic policies. That effort has grabbed attention and ruffled leadership, two hallmarks of the Freedom Caucus, but it's also snarled legislative proceedings enough to breed frustration among some members of the far-right crew.

Some in the caucus criticize the legislative slowdown, led by Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and several others, as a failure to act strategically. Conservatives should challenge a select few bills rather than a wide swath, these Republicans argue, to avoid diluting the potency of moments when they choose to tie the House in procedural knots. Internal critics also warn that their fellow Freedom Caucus members' antics could backfire if Democrats respond by starting to block the GOP from",Freedom Caucus frets over how far to push its rebellion,tweets_news_564,tweets_news
"A Metropolitan Police Department patrol officer was promoted to sergeant less than two months after the department’s internal affairs bureau began investigating his actions on Jan. 6, the day of the deadly U.S. Capitol siege.

Police spokesman Aden OcampoGomez confirmed Friday that the investigation into the officer, Christopher Cooney, is closed. But the result of the investigation and when it was closed are unknown. OcampoGomez declined to release further details.

The probe was triggered after Cooney changed his profile photo on Facebook to a shot of himself outside the Capitol building on the day a four-hour riot left five dead, including a Capitol Police officer.

It appears to have been taken before the mob broke into the Capitol.

At the time, Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas police union, said the officer “had no involvement or engagement in any illegal activity.”

Cooney whose credibility had previously been called into question during court proceedings in an attempted murder case against his mother would receive his promotion the following month, on Feb. 20.

In the photo shared by Cooney on Facebook, the officer is wearing a gray baseball cap featuring the logo of SilencerCo, a manufacturer of firearm suppressors. The Capitol, surrounded by a sea of right-wing",This officer was investigated after the Capitol riot. Now he’s a sergeant.,tweets_news_565,tweets_news
"NBC Nightly News (10/18, story 2, 0:20, Snow, 2.91M) reported Twitter ""removed a message from a Trump medical adviser about masks."" NBC's Kelly O'Donnell: ""Dr. Scott Atlas, who is not an infectious disease expert but is advising the President on COVID, tweeted, 'Masks work? No.' That was taken down. Other Trump health officials say masks are necessary and effective.""

The AP (10/18, Bussewitz) reports Atlas' message ""suggested that masks do not work to stop the spread of the coronavirus,"" and that Twitter blocked it on Sunday. A company spokesperson indicated the message ""violated a Twitter policy that prohibits sharing false or misleading misinformation about COVID-19 that could lead to harm."" The AP says researchers say ""masks can control the spread of the virus, and public health experts have urged the public to wear them. But Trump and his team often go without masks while campaigning.""

Reuters (10/18, Chiacu) reports the incident came amid a surge in COVID-19 cases as ""the Trump administration fends off accusations that its mixed messaging on wearing masks hampered the fight against the coronavirus."" Reuters says Atlas ""has downplayed the wearing of masks,"" though it ""has been widely endorsed by health experts but not enthusiastically promoted by the",Twitter Blocks Message About Masks From Atlas,tweets_news_566,tweets_news
"The latest novel coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Monday (this file will be updated throughout the day). Web links to longer stories if available.

10:45 a.m.: It's been 100dDays since Canada's first confirmed case of COVID-19. Our lives have been forever changed. Here's a timeline of the early warnings, missteps and key moments in the coronavirus pandemic.

9:45 a.m.: Canada has pledged $850 million to bolster international efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and treatment, as well as aid for developing countries.

The European Union organized the pledge conference in an effort to fill the World Health Organization's funding gaps.

The goal is to raise $11.5 billion for vaccine and treatment options for COVID-19 and make them available and affordable worldwide.

The EU says this is just the first wave of funding that will be needed.

9:30 a.m.: As businesses around the world begin to reopen and Doug Ford offers more specifics on when and how Ontario will get back to work, one big question remains unanswered: What, exactly, will our workplaces look like when we return?

Read the story from the Star's Joseph Hall.

9 a.m.: Ontario's move to ease COVID-19 restrictions on a limited number of outdoor-based businesses, starting Monday, is being praised","Ontario, Quebec take first steps to loosening restrictions; Longo's requires customers to wear masks",tweets_news_567,tweets_news
"LONDON - Facebook on Wednesday said it had suspended a network of accounts used by Russian military intelligence to seed false narratives online targeting Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe.

""Although the people behind this network attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to Russian military intelligence services,"" Facebook said in a statement.

Facebook, which has struggled to stop governments and political groups using its platform to spread false or misleading information, regularly announces it has shut down disinformation campaigns from countries including Russia.

The Russian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moscow has previously denied Western allegations of political meddling, including findings by U.S. Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller that it used social media accounts in an attempt to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential vote.

Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said the latest Russian operation used more than 100 accounts on Facebook and its Instagram photo-sharing platform to create fake personas, often posing as journalists in the targeted countries.

These accounts then contacted local media and politicians to plant false stories about politically divisive issues, such as corruption allegations, ethnic tensions in the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea and the downing of a Malaysian",Facebook says it dismantles Russian intelligence operation targeting Ukraine,tweets_news_568,tweets_news
"Video footage shows a medical professional downplaying the significance of young girls making the “life altering” decision to get “chest surgery.” “Actually, people make life altering decisions in adolescence all the time, and honestly most of them are good, it’s just the bad ones that we talk about,” said Dr....

Video footage shows a medical professional downplaying the significance of young girls making the “life altering” decision to get “chest surgery.” “Actually, people make life altering decisions in adolescence all the time, and honestly most of them are goo...

Video footage shows a medical professional downplaying the significance of young girls making the “life altering” decision to get “chest surgery.” “Actually, people make life altering decisions in adolescence all the time, and honestly most of them are good, it’s just the bad ones that we talk about,” said Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, an associate professor at the University of Southern California. “So what we do know is that adolescents actually have the capacity to make a reasonable, logical decision. And here’s the thing about chest surgery. If you want breasts at a later point in your life, you can go and get them,” Olson-Kennedy said. The video was first posted by conservative commentator",Watch This ‘Transyouth’ Doctor Downplay The Significance Of ‘Life Altering’ Chest Surgery For Young Girls,tweets_news_569,tweets_news
"The threat appeared to be connected to a far-right conspiracy theory that former President Trump would rise again to power on March 4 and that thousands would come to Washington to try to remove Democrats from office.

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and ASHRAF KHALIL | Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Law enforcement was on high alert Thursday around the U.S. Capitol after authorities said intelligence had uncovered a ""possible plot"" by a militia group to storm the iconic building again. The alert came two months after Donald Trump supporters smashed through windows and doors to try to stop Congress from certifying now-President Joe Biden's victory.

The threat appeared to be connected to a far-right conspiracy theory, mainly promoted by supporters of QAnon, that former President Trump would rise again to power on March 4 and that thousands would come to Washington to try to remove Democrats from office. March 4 was the original presidential inauguration day until 1933, when it was moved to Jan. 20.

There were no signs of disturbance Thursday at the heavily secured building, with Capitol Police and National Guardsmen on duty and a large fence around the perimeter that was put in place after the Jan. 6 riot. The Pentagon is reviewing",Law enforcement on alert in D.C. after plot warning at US Capitol,tweets_news_570,tweets_news
"In his primary against Rep. Joe Kennedy III, the Democratic senator is forced to run like a challenger.

BOSTON - The Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary faded into the background here in recent months as the coronavirus pandemic overshadowed everything else. But if the most recent Senate debate between Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Joe Kennedy III is any indication, that's about to change.

The incumbent senator derided Kennedy on Monday as a ""progressive in name only"" and called him out for working for a conservative Republican district attorney early in his career. Markey also slammed the four-term congressman for failing to lead on any number of issues, ranging from Medicare-for-All to climate change to the militarization of law enforcement.

Markey didn't have much choice but to let it rip. He's trailed Kennedy in most public polls taken this year, has less money in the bank and the Covid-19 crisis has served to complicate his task of capturing attention against the scion of the state's most prominent political family.

""Everyone's going to pull out the stops now - on both sides - for the rest of this race, all the way to Sept. 1. And there's not a lot of time left,"" said Democratic strategist",Markey lets it rip in 'Massachusetts family fight',tweets_news_571,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - The FBI warned law enforcement agencies ahead of last week's breach of the U.S. Capitol about the potential for extremist-driven violence, U.S. officials said, contradicting earlier statements that they were caught off guard by the assault by supporters of President Donald Trump.

Nearly a week after the riot, officials said they were combing through mountains of evidence and vowed to aggressively seek out those who perpetrated the brazen attack on the U.S. Capitol. Though most of the charges brought so far have been misdemeanours, acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin said Tuesday the Justice Department was considering bringing sedition charges against some of the rioters, effectively accusing them of attempting to overthrow or defeat the government.

“This is only the beginning,” Sherwin said. “We’re going to focus on the most significant charges as a deterrent because, regardless of it was just a trespass in the Capitol or if someone planted a pipe bomb, you will be charged and you will be found.”

The Justice Department has created a specialized strike force to examine the possibility of sedition charges, which could carry up to 20 years in prison. Officials said they were utilizing some of the same techniques in the riot probe as",FBI says it warned about prospect of violence ahead of riot,tweets_news_572,tweets_news
"The 35-year-old Air Force veteran's family says they plan to sue the Capitol Police for wrongful death. WASHINGTON — Amid the chaos on January 6 as thousands of pro-Trump rioters clashed with police and stormed into the U.S. Capitol building, only a single shot was fired – striking and killing a 35-year-old Air Force veteran named Ashli...

The 35-year-old Air Force veteran's family says they plan to sue the Capitol Police for wrongful death. WASHINGTON — Amid the chaos on January 6 as thousands of pro-Trump rioters clashed with police and stormed into the U.S. Capitol building, only a single...

The 35-year-old Air Force veteran's family says they plan to sue the Capitol Police for wrongful death. WASHINGTON — Amid the chaos on January 6 as thousands of pro-Trump rioters clashed with police and stormed into the U.S. Capitol building, only a single shot was fired – striking and killing a 35-year-old Air Force veteran named Ashli Babbitt. Video shows Babbitt, who had traveled to D.C. from California because of her fervent belief in the lie that the 2020 election had been stolen from former President Donald Trump, was attempting to climb through a broken window into the Speaker’s Lobby outside the","'No legal justification' for shooting of Ashli Babbitt during Capitol riot, attorney says",tweets_news_573,tweets_news
"TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Ron DeSantis' call for punishing social media sites that deplatformed former President Donald Trump narrowly cleared a Senate committee Monday and soon will be ready for a full vote in the Legislature.

Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, was the lone Republican who argued against the proposal by fellow Republican Sen. Ray Rodrigues of Naples. Brandes labeled it a ""big government bill.""

""This Senate is currently filled with small government Republicans who do believe that government shouldn't be in the lives of businesses,"" Brandes said.

He added: ""This is the exact opposite of the things that we stand for.""

But Rodrigues argued back that the measure doesn't defy free market principles. The bill (SB 7072) orders social media companies to publish standards with detailed definitions of when someone would be censored or blocked, and makes companies subject to as much as $100,000 fines for deplatforming a Florida candidate.

""I'm bringing you good policy supported by your constituents,"" Rodrigues said.

The measure was approved 10-9 by the Appropriations Committee, its last stop before going to the Senate floor. A similar measure is ready for a full House vote.

State and federal courts have generally taken a hands-off view involving regulating online platforms. Congress also has not",Fla. bill to punish social media sites advances,tweets_news_574,tweets_news
"Reading between the lines of his manifesto for 2030.

Every year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg writes a letter outlining his goals for the coming year, including personal challenges. These missives talk about his own growth, as well as acting as a manifesto for Facebook in the coming year. Often, you need to spend a little time reading between the lines to understand what's really being said here. This year, Zuckerberg highlighted five issues he sees dominating the next decade of tech. Let's dig in.

Generational Change

Zuckerberg began with a section talking about how Facebook hasn't ""yet brought about the generational change in addressing important issues [he] had hoped for."" He goes on to say that many important institutions aren't doing enough to address the issues facing young people. That includes climate change and the skyrocketing cost of education, housing and healthcare.

It's surprising to read that Zuckerberg is disappointed at the rate of change around what could be called progressive issues. Solving these problems will require a massive structural change in society, especially in the US where such issues are entrenched. But change like this needs a political mandate that Facebook has worked, intentionally or not, to prevent. Its refusal to hold political",A Closer Look At Mark Zuckerberg's 'Next Decade' Manifesto,tweets_news_575,tweets_news
"TikTok has proposed a global coalition of social media firms for early identification and removal of harmful content, the company said on Tuesday, as networking apps face a barrage of criticism over issues ranging from misinformation to data privacy.

The company, owned by China's ByteDance and at the center of a political battle between Washington and Beijing, said it had sent letters to nine companies for a memorandum of understanding on content moderation.

Individual content review efforts by each platform can be advanced through a formal and collaborative approach, the short-video app said.

TikTok did not name the companies it had reached out to but said it had proposed a meeting between the firms to discuss the matter.

Separately, TikTok said on Tuesday it had removed over 104 million videos from its platform globally in the first half of the year for violating its terms of service.

""Of those videos, we found and removed 96.4% of videos before a user reported them, and 90.3% were removed before they received any views,"" TikTok said.

The company said it received 1,768 requests for user data, with 290, or 16.4%, of those from U.S. law enforcement agencies.

ByteDance has been racing to avoid a crackdown on Tik-Tok after being at",TikTok proposes social media coalition to curb harmful content,tweets_news_576,tweets_news
"The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has issued a public notice stating that anyone wishing to publish information online must be licensed ahead of a 5 October deadline.

It is the latest blow to the right to freedom of expression in Uganda ahead of 2021 elections, following guidelines issued in June restricting public gatherings for electoral processes, in compliance with COVID-19 prevention measures. This means that election campaigning will only be allowed through media and social media platforms.

""The requirement for people to seek authorisation before posting information online is retrogressive and a blatant violation of the right to freedom of expression and access to information. With restrictions on public gatherings already in place, the Ugandan authorities are shutting off a vital channel for people to express their political opinions and share critical information about COVID-19,"" said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International's Director for East and Southern Africa.

""Freedom of expression does not need a license.""

The Communications Commission cited Section 27 of the 2013 Uganda Communications Act, among others, which prohibits broadcasting content without a broadcasting licence. By applying this law to those sharing content on the internet and on social media platforms, the authorities are effectively criminalizing the right to freedom of expression online.

The",Uganda to License Online Posts in Fresh Assault on Freedom of Expression,tweets_news_577,tweets_news
"OTTAWA - There were no big tent events, employee pricing offers or inflatable flailing tube men, but the government managed to sell 575 cars in 2018 and 2019, after buying them for just a few days as part of the 2018 G7 summit.

The sale of 575 vehicles brought the government $19.5 million after it initially spent $23 million to have the vehicles for the two-day summit.

The government purchased 631 brand new vehicles for the summit in Charlevoix, Que., and when the red carpets had been rolled up they kept just a few dozen. The remaining 575 vehicles were put up for sale on the government's online auction site and sold to customers in the Quebec City, Montreal and Ottawa areas.

The total cost of the two-day event was $600 million and is best remembered for ending with a Twitter tirade from U.S. president Donald Trump directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7( https://twitter.com/G7?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw ) meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ""US Tariffs were kind of insulting"" and he ""will not be pushed around."" Very dishonest &; weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his",Feds rake in $19.5M by selling 575 vehicles originally purchased for $23M,tweets_news_578,tweets_news
"

Feb 04, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; And the Democrat party supports the women's oppressors #8212; led by hijabi Ilhan Omar. Unreal.By Mary Kay Linge, NY Post,[1] February 1, 2020: In the summer of 2017, a social-media movement was encouraging Iranian women to tear off their mandatory hijabs and share their moments of #8216;stealthy freedom#8217; online.Girls were routinely rejecting the rules of #8216;good hijab#8217; by wearing their veils so loosely that strands of hair could escape. Women posted photos of themselves hiking or driving with their locks flowing free, using the hashtag #whitewednesday to show their contempt for Iran's strict modesty laws.#8216;The veil was an ideological pillar of the revolution#8217; that overthrew Iran's shah in 1979, writes Kim Ghattas in #8216;Black Wave[2]#8217; (Henry Holt), a history of that year's twin regional crises — the Iranian Revolution and the siege of Mecca in Saudi Arabia — and the resulting tsunami of religious zealotry that flooded every corner of the Middle East. For most of four decades, she writes, Iran's required head covering has shrouded the entire nation, enforcing #8216;a semblance of homogenous unity#8217; aimed at keeping all its people, women and men alike, in line.

But that homogeneity",How Iran's women are using their hijabs to fight the Islamic regime,tweets_news_579,tweets_news
"New Delhi, Jan. 9 -- Minutes after Donald Trump accused Twitter of conspiring with his political enemies to silence him after the social media platform permanently suspended his account, the micro-blogging site on Saturday (IST) quickly deleted new tweets from the US President from an official government account.

Trump tweeted, ""Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me -- and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me.""

In a series of tweets from the official @POTUS account, Trump said, ""Twitter may be a private company, but without the government's gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long. I predicted this would happen. We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future.""

""We will not be SILENCED!"" Trump tweeted from the @POTUS government account, with 33.4 million followers, after Trump's @realDonaldTrump personal account was permanently banned by Twitter.

""Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH,"" the US President wrote in the now-deleted tweets.

Published by","After banning Trump permanently, Twitter deletes tweets from his official account",tweets_news_580,tweets_news
"BBC 1 Programming.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

but also helping to look at this history of nuclear weapon testing and the exposure of populations to radiation, looking at it as a global history. It's previously mostly been looked at as various different national histories, people may be victims of UK nuclear testing, US nuclear testing, when they are silent like that it is very easy to think of this as a small group of people but when you look globally at this history, as a collective history for human beings, you begin to realise millions of people are affected by radiation throughout the Cold War. We tend to think of the Cold War is a time when nuclear weapons were not used but with 2000 nuclear weapon tests there was a nuclear weapon detonating every 8.6 days in the Cold War with the people exposed to the radiation were not people living in London, New York, Moscow, Paris places like that. As you study this history and you",BBC 1 Programming - 08:46 AM GMT,tweets_news_581,tweets_news
"YouTube will reduce the amount of content spreading conspiracy theories about links between 5G technology and coronavirus that it recommends to users, it has said, as four more attacks were recorded on phone masts within 24 hours.

The online video company will actively remove videos that breach its policies, it said. But content that is simply conspiratorial about 5G mobile communications networks, without mentioning coronavirus, is still allowed on the site.

YouTube said those videos may be considered ""borderline content"" and subjected to suppression, including loss of advertising revenue and being removed from search results on the platform.

""We also have clear policies that prohibit videos promoting medically unsubstantiated methods to prevent the coronavirus in place of seeking medical treatment, and we quickly remove videos violating these policies when flagged to us,"" a YouTube spokesperson said.

""We have also begun reducing recommendations of borderline content such as conspiracy theories related to 5G and coronavirus, that could misinform users in harmful ways.""

The company's decision to reduce the visibility of content linked to the false theory came as Vodafone said that two of its own masts, and two it shares with O2, were targeted. Three other masts were subjected to arson attacks last week.

Nick Jeffery, Vodafone",YouTube moves to limit spread of false coronavirus 5G theory,tweets_news_582,tweets_news
"Closed messaging apps popular among Michigan's immigrant communities and those with families living abroad are crawling with misinformation.

It is a hard problem to capture.

Closed and encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp make it cheap and easy for users to send texts and make phone calls. But, many of the app's group chats are hidden, which makes it hard for fact checkers to monitor.

""It's good to remember that WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and Facebook promised there would be some measures in WhatsApp for the election and it did not happen,"" said Daniel Acosta-Ramos, an investigative researcher with First Draft, a nonprofit coalition that investigates online information.

Acosta-Ramos researches misinformation in Latino communities. WhatsApp is popular among people from Latin America, where unlimited texting isn't common in cellphone plans, he said.

Facebook and other platforms have been sluggish when it comes to removing or correcting misinformation in Spanish compared with posts in English, according to a Reuters report.

These gaps in countering misinformation may allow false claims to flourish in immigrant and non-English-speaking communities, Acosta-Ramos said.

WhatsApp isn't the only messaging app with this issue.

Tack-Yong Kim, publisher of Michigan Korean Weekly and MI Asian, said many of his readers use KaKaoTalk, a Korea-based messaging app.",Immigrants hit with false claims in apps,tweets_news_583,tweets_news
"

Apr 03, 2021( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) Islam and a machete (no guns) -Democrat media criminal complex will never see the light of day.Facebook Quickly Scrubs Capitol Assailant's Facebook Page Praising Farrakhan As JesusBy Jon Brown • Daily Wire Apr 2, 2021 • DailyWire:Facebook quickly removed self-described 'follower of Farrakhan' Noah Green's profile page shortly after media identified him Friday as the assailant who was shot dead after driving into U.S. Capitol Police officers and lunging at them with a knife. Describing himself on the since-deleted page as a follower of the Nation of Islam, the 25-year-old Green effusively praised the radical Farrakhan and his predecessor, Elijah Muhammad, as incarnations of Jesus Christ whose teachings changed his life.Explaining the social media's company's reason for the deletion, a spokesperson for Facebook told The Daily Wire: 'After this horrific event, our thoughts are with the Capitol Police and their loved ones. We have designated the incident under our Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, which means we have removed the suspect's accounts from Facebook and Instagram, and are removing any content that praises, supports, or represents the attack or the suspect.

We are in contact with law enforcement as they conduct",Facebook IMMEDIATELY Scrubs NATION OF ISLAM Capitol Attacker's Facebook Page Praising Farrakhan As Jesus,tweets_news_584,tweets_news
"Instagram's algorithm recommended new users following COVID-19 misinformation to more of the same amid the pandemic, a report said Tuesday.

The Center For Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit company with offices in Britain and Washington, D.C., founded in 2018 by Imran Ahmed, published the report, on Tuesday, titled ""Malgorithm.

Instagram's algorithm has been ""pushing radicalizing, extremist misinformation to users,"" Ahmed said in the report.

Researchers set up new Instagram profiles for the report that followed a range of accounts from health authorities to anti-vaccine posts.

The report found that new users who were following health authorities did not receive misinformation, but users who followed conspiracy accounts received further misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines. And users who followed anti-vaccine accounts received recommendations for anti-Semitic content, QAnon conspiracy theories and COVID-19 misinformation often displayed next to advertisements.

Instagram recommended users to misinformation, conspiracy theories or hate through the platform's ""explore"" page, which suggests posts based on the algorithmic analysis of users habits, and ""suggested post"" feature for users who reach the end of their news feed, which was introduced last August.

""It is beyond belief that as the pandemic swept the world, Instagram launched a new feature encouraging users to view conspiracy theories and lies about COVID and",Report: Instagram's algorithm pushes certain users to COVID-19 misinformation,tweets_news_585,tweets_news
"1) Republicans such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas call it censorship when Twitter flags President Donald Trump's posts that falsely claim he won his re-election bid. PHOTO: Bill Clark/Getty Images

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz set conservative Twitter on fire as he tore into Jack Dorsey, the platform's CEO, during a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, creating the sort of viral moment senators crave from such high-profile exchanges.

""Facebook and Twitter and Google have massive power. They have a monopoly on public discourse in the online arena,"" Cruz told Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whom the Texas Republican and other GOP members of the committee had subpoenaed to address what they view as ""censorship"" and ""suppression"" by Big Tech during the 2020 election.

""Your policies are applied in a partisan and selective manner,"" Cruz said, demanding that Dorsey and Zuckerberg produce data showing how often they flag or block Republican candidates and elected officials as opposed to Democrats.

""What a moment,"" right-wing commentator Dinesh D'Souza tweeted, sharing a clip from the hearing with his 1.9 million followers.

""This is almost TOO GOOD,"" tweeted Dan Bongino, another conservative commentator, urging his 2.7 million followers to ""Watch Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey absolutely squirm in","Cruz digs in for battle with Big Tech; As social media companies attempt to control misinformation, Republicans claim censorship",tweets_news_586,tweets_news
"NEW DELHI: Facebook and its top lobbying executive in India, Ankhi Das, are facing questions internally from employees over how political content is regulated in its biggest market, according to sources with direct knowledge and internal posts seen by Reuters. The world's largest social network is battling a public-relations and political crisis in India after the Wall Street Journal reported that Das opposed applying the company's hate-speech rules to a politician from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party who had in posts called Muslims traitors. In the United States and around the world, Facebook employees are raising questions about whether adequate procedures and content regulation practices were being followed by the India team, sources familiar with discussions told Reuters. An open letter written to Facebook's leadership by 11 employees on one internal platform, and seen by Reuters, demands company leaders acknowledge and denounce ""anti-Muslim bigotry"" and ensure more policy consistency.

The letter also demanded that Facebook's ""policy team in India (and elsewhere) includes diverse representation."" ""It is hard not to feel frustrated and saddened by the incidents reported ... We know we're not alone in this. Employees across the company are expressing similar sentiment,"" said the letter. ""The Muslim community at Facebook",Facebook employees internally question policy after India content controversy: Memos,tweets_news_587,tweets_news
"(TNSRep) -- The Parents Television and Media Council issued the following news release on June 8, 2021:

Following its Virtual Town Hall held today, the Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) is calling for Congress and the FCC to help enact reforms to the streaming media industry, in light of increasingly explicit programming on streaming platforms that children can access due to inadequate parental controls.

""It is abundantly clear that Congress and the FCC must help improve the streaming landscape for American families in order to prevent children from accessing harmful and explicit programming that proliferates in streaming media. We are urging the FCC to follow through on the promises that Congress made to families when it unanimously passed the Child Safe Viewing Act. And we are urging Congress to update the Family Movie Act of 2005 to enable content filtering technology on streaming media platforms,"" said Tim Winter, president of the PTC.

Top streaming companies (Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock) were invited to the PTC's Virtual Town Hall on June 8 to discuss key improvements that should be made to better serve families and protect children from harmful adult content, and to develop industry best","Parents Television & Media Council Urges FCC, Congress to Enact Streaming Media Reform",tweets_news_588,tweets_news
"For the next debate, some Trump supporters want the president's demeanor to undergo a wholesale makeover.

President Donald Trump spent his first 2020 presidential debate heckling his opponent at every turn. His supporters are hoping he got it out of his system - for good.

Trump aides and allies saw Tuesday night's event, a 90-minute schoolyard brawl featuring incessant interruptions from the incumbent Republican and pleas from his Democratic opponent to quit the ""yapping,"" as an avoidable tragedy in the president's quest for reelection.

As the dust settled in Cleveland and the Trump campaign claimed victory over a ""weak"" performance by former Vice President Joe Biden, others involved in his reelection effort were less convinced the president did himself any favors. If anything, they said, he might have done more harm than good.

Indeed, the leading complaint from some of Trump's top allies after the opening debate was not the perceived unfairness of moderator Chris Wallace - though they took repeated issues with the Fox News anchor's performance - or Biden's evasive answer to a question related to the Supreme Court, but the president's own demeanor. Overcome with scorn for Biden, Trump jabbed and jeered his way through the night without ever giving his",'A huge misstep': Trump allies see a lost opportunity in first debate,tweets_news_589,tweets_news
"

Mar 30, 2021( Global Voices: http://globalvoicesonline.org Delivered by Newstex) EPOCA 2020 content regulations are used to undermine digital rights [ Image removed: ] A mobile money agent waits for clients in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Under 2020 content regulations, individual expression is restricted by exorbitant fees and the government's power to remove 'prohibited content.' Picture credit by Fiona Graham[1]/WorldRemit via Flickr, CC BY SA 2.0[2]. In early March, as Tanzanians began to speculate about the health and location[3] of President John Magufuli, many citizens took to social media with their queries and concerns. In response, the government issued threats of mass arrests to anyone who used social media to share false information about the president.

Authorities swiftly referred to Tanzania's 2015Cybercrimes Act,[4]and the 2020Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations[5] to arrest and detain those who violated its rules. The government has often used cybercrime laws and online content regulations to undermine and clamp down on digital rights and freedom of expression in Tanzania, this time was no different. On March 17, then-Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan revealed on state TV[6] that John Magufuli had died. Soon after, Hassan was sworn in as the sixth president of Tanzania. By then, at","Post-Magufuli, will Tanzania review its repressive online content regulations?",tweets_news_590,tweets_news
"Editor's note: John Avlon is a senior political analyst at CNN. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

(CNN) -- Fact checks are not censorship. But that's what President Donald Trump is claiming in his new assault on social media platforms: an over-reaching executive order targeting social media companies, signed shortly after Twitter applied fact checks to two of Trump's tweets.

He's become an easily triggered orange snowflake of a man, desperate in his attempts to distract us from over 100,000 coronavirus deaths by ratcheting up his lies on Twitter.

This week, Twitter took a long overdue step toward sanity by adding a fact check to his repeated baseless claims about voter fraud.

This is a modest thing to flag against the backdrop of Trump repeating false suggestions that a cable news host committed murder, but we'll take it as a sign of progress.

But the president's comments about mail-in voting are especially insidious because they're another attempt to reduce confidence in the integrity of our elections. He's said that ""voting by mail is wrought with fraud and abuse.""

No, it's not.

Let's put aside that the president voted by mail in 2018 and in March of this year, and","Trump is at war with the truth, not Twitter",tweets_news_591,tweets_news
"Is it wise to attack the lone female voice in your leadership caucus? Is it wise to make the daughter of a former vice president - and one of the most conservative political dynasties in modern Republican Party history - a pariah for not kissing Trump's ring? And supporting ""the message"" as House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy put it - the message that by the way seems to be as follows: Trump won the 2020 election. Joe Biden is not president.

My favorite female politician from history is the late U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, Republican of Maine. She stood up against the Republican ""boys club"" in the 1950s when she condemned and called out another GOP authoritarian, misinformation-spreading, smearing, cancel culture warrior, Wisconsin's Sen. Joe McCarthy.

Sound familiar?

Fast-forward to 2021, and Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney (daughter of our 46th Vice President Dick Cheney) is Smith reborn. Like Smith, she is the lone Republican woman in leadership in a caucus run by gray-haired white men. Smith had it much harder, though, as she was the only woman in the U.S. Senate in 1950, when she became the first member of the Senate to denounce McCarthyism, in what has become known as her",US Rep. Cheney is courageous,tweets_news_592,tweets_news
"Regulators have opened an investigation into Facebook amid concerns it is using its vast troves of personal data to push its own shopping and data tools.

The probe by the UK's competition regulator will examine whether it is abusing its dominant position in online advertising.

It comes amid growing antitrust concerns about the way many technology companies - not just Facebook but others such as Apple - have been able to use their vast size and hold on the market to unfairly benefit themselves.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will look into how the social network gathers and uses certain data and whether it may provide an unfair advantage over rivals in the online classified ads and online dating space.

As well as Facebook's advertising services, Facebook Login, a feature that allows people to sign into other websites and apps, will also form part of the probe.

The regulator said it will assess whether data from both offerings enable the firm to benefit Facebook Marketplace, a part of the platform where users can place classified ads, and Facebook Dating.

The announcement comes as the European Commission (EC) launched its own investigation into the company's use of data.

""We intend to thoroughly investigate Facebook's use of data",Facebook to be investigated over whether it is unfairly using personal data to push dating and shopping tools,tweets_news_593,tweets_news
"At least three nail salons in California — including one in in the Bay Area — received racist, hateful letters in the mail this week from an anonymous sender.

The contents of the letters were identical, invoking all manner of racist stereotypes about Asian people and alluding to language used by former President Donald Trump.

""GO BACK TO YOUR NASTY S—T-HOLE COUNTRY!!"" read the letter. ""YOU DON'T BELONG HERE! NOONE WANTS YOU HERE!!!""

The letter was sent without a return address, but was made to appear as if it were sent by a city's ""Department of Health and Human Services."" Both letters were postmarked March 19 from San Bernardino, Calif., three days after the horrific Atlanta shootings left eight dead — six of whom were Asian.

Vicky Mai, the owner of All Polish Nails in Healdsburg, received the letter last week. So did Jackie Vu, whose family owns Top 10 Nail in Riverside.

""I can't believe this is happening, with everything going on right now,"" Mai told the San Francisco Chronicle Thursday. ""It was shocking. I was so surprised."" (SFGATE and the Chronicle are both owned by Hearst, but operate independently of one another.)

Vu, a nail technician, decried the letter in an Instagram post published","Asian-owned businesses in Calif., including Bay Area salon, targets of racist anonymous letter",tweets_news_594,tweets_news
"Twitter is currently testing the feature for Android users in English only and it wants them to read articles before actually retweeting them.

Link to Image

Twitter has begun experimenting with a new feature that would prompt its users to read articles before they retweet it, in a bid to contain the spread of hateful and fake content and promote meaningful discussions on the micro-blogging site. The company is currently testing the feature for Android users in English only and when a user decides to retweet an article before reading it, the company might prompt them to read it before they do so.

""Twitter Sharing an article can spark conversation, so you may want to read it before you Tweet it. To help promote informed discussion, we're testing a new prompt on Android -- when you Retweet an article that you haven't opened on Twitter, we may ask if you'd like to open it first,"" Twitter support tweeted late on Wednesday.

""We wanted to test a way to improve the health of a conversation as it gets started. And to see if reminding people to read an article before they share it leads to more informed discussion,"" the company posted in another tweet.

For this",Twitter wants users to read articles before retweeting them and here's what it has in store,tweets_news_595,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

'SovCits' have been around for decades, but COVID-19 has provided the perfect breeding ground for the movement to spread.

FULL TEXT

""It's all about rights ... Stay together, arm yourself with the truth, become aware of what the law says, and record everything."" This message was beamed out in a Facebook live video this month by Melbourne gym owner Nick Patterson, conspiracy theorist and anti-mask proponent. Patterson has built a following on Facebook, passionately sharing conspiracy theories -- from the ""hoax"" coronavirus pandemic to mandatory face masks being an unlawful ""restriction on your right to breathe"". Nick Patterson's live-streamed video (Image: Facebook) The video, in which Patterson appeared to offer followers casual ""legal advice"" against COVID-related fines, came shortly after another live-streamed video in which a Victoria Police officer confronts Patterson about needing to wear a mask. Patterson confronted by Victoria Police (Image: Facebook) ""If you arrest me it will be a false arrest and I'll be taking you for deprivation of liberty,"" Patterson tells officers. He refuses to give his name. In July, he shared a photo of an indoor gathering which he described as people who refused to ""bow down to ... oppressors"". He claimed the group was also addressed","Under COVID-19, sovereign citizens are pulling other conspiracy theorists in",tweets_news_596,tweets_news
"The latest news, sport, business and weather from the BBC's Breakfast team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

concern, possibly, they may have the virus. In Thailand, of course, there are 33 cases of coronavirus they are. A concerning situation, with a lot of people living in confined men in a very close area that the virus, if it is there, could spread very easily. A very worrying picture.

Andy Moore, thank you. Meanwhile, the number of people infected with the virus on a cruise ship quarantined in Japan has risen to 174. The cruise ship has been quarantined outside Yokohama since last Wednesday. It's the biggest single outbreak outside mainland China. Ofcom is expected to be given powers to make it Britain's first Internet watchdog, giving it powers to punish tech companies over harmful or illegal material. Firms like Facebook and YouTube will need to ensure that illegal content is removed quickly. It's not yet known what penalties Ofcom will be able to impose on those who fail to comply.",Breakfast - 08:04 AM GMT,tweets_news_597,tweets_news
"Utah Governor Spencer Cox signs legislation that mandates all cellphones and tablets sold in the state to install porn filters

Spencer Cox, the Republican governor of Utah , on Tuesday signed a legislation that makes it mandatory for all cellphones and tablets sold in the state to automatically filter porn sites.

The move, critics say, is an intrusion on free speech while those who are in support of the legislation claim that this is an important step in protecting children from porn. Last week, the House committee sparred over the proposal that the state's conservative governor signed into law.

Governor Cox had till March 25 to veto the porn bill.

Local Utah reporters tweeted that he also vetoed the social media moderation bill that, ""would have required social media companies to more clearly state their moderation terms and explain why posts are removed for violating them.""

The porn filter legislation requires that all cell phone and tablet manufacturers that intend to sell in Utah use content filters to block porn. This means that manufacturers who don't use filters could now face up to $2000 in fines, according to reports. The manufacturers can also face a penalty if any child is exposed to ""harmful material.""

Read more:

•Border",Utah passes law to ban porn from all phones,tweets_news_598,tweets_news
"

Dec 09, 2020( How Appealing: https://howappealing.abovethelaw.com Delivered by Newstex) ;;;;; 'Ken Paxton asks Supreme Court to block Joe Biden victory in 4 battleground states': Chuck Lindell of The Austin American-Statesman has this report[1]. Dave Boyer of The Washington Times reports that 'Trump says he'll join Texas' election challenge at Supreme Court[2].' Erik Larson and Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News report that 'Trump Fans Embrace Texas Suit as Last Hope to Flip Election[3].' And Evie Fordham of Fox News reports that 'Trump touts Texas Supreme Court case as 'the big one,' says 'we will be intervening'; At least 3 more states are backing challenge to results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin[4].' Posted at 11:06 AM [5] by Howard Bashman[6] 'Justice Hagedorn is the only actual conservative on the Wisconsin Supreme Court': The Cap Times of Madison, Wisconsin has published this editorial[7]. Posted at 11:00 AM [8] by Howard Bashman[9] 'Court rules San Jose church in contempt for defying COVID-19 safety orders; Calvary Chapel attorney says they will appeal finding and fines issued by Santa Clara County judge': Robert Salonga of The San Jose Mercury News has this report[10]. Posted at 10:56 AM [11] by Howard Bashman[12] 'Churches' lawyers challenge 50-person occupancy",'Justice Scalia's Legacy as Irony: Reviewing Ed Purcell's Antonin Scalia and American Constitutionalism.',tweets_news_599,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — President Donald Trump Wednesday announced 20 additional names to his list of Supreme Court candidates he's pledged to choose from in the event of future vacancies.

Trump also called on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to do the same.

""Apart from matters of war and peace, the nomination of a Supreme Court justice is the most important decision an American president can make,"" Trump said. ""For this reason, candidates for president owe the American people a specific list of individuals they consider for the United States Supreme Court.""

Most of the names on the new list are judges who Trump already has appointed to lower federal courts.

The following names were added to the list:

* Bridget Bade of Arizona, United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

* Daniel Cameron, Kentucky Attorney General

* United States Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas)

* Paul Clement, former United States Solicitor General

* United States Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

* Stuart Kyle Duncan of Louisiana, United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

* Steven Engel, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice

* Noel Francisco, former Solicitor",Pres. Trump adds 20 names to his list of Supreme Court candidates,tweets_news_600,tweets_news
"Tuesday : US president insults top infectious disease expert as global infections top 40 million. Plus: why did Celeste Barber's copycat post get blocked?

Good morning, this is Tamara Howie bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 20 October.

Top stories

Donald Trump has attacked the top US public health expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, calling him a ""disaster"" and claimed that ""people are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots"" in a conference call to his campaign staff. The president later went on Twitter to criticise Fauci over his TV appearance on 60 Minutes. The comments come as infections rise above 40 million globally and many European countries are bringing in localised lockdowns. A two-week national lockdown will be imposed in Wales, which the government hopes will give the NHS breathing space before winter. Poland will open a temporary hospital at Warsaw's national stadium and a surge in infections in the Czech Republic has made it one of Europe's worst-hit countries. Elsewhere, Iran reported a big spike in the daily number of coronavirus deaths, with a rise from 252 to a new record of 337.

Journalists and environmental and human rights groups could face compulsory questioning by Asio as part of","Morning mail: Trump calls Fauci a 'disaster', Russian Olympics cyberattack, Instagram censorship",tweets_news_601,tweets_news
"In an interview with CNN, Netflix CEO has revealed the decision to remove an episode of the Patriot Act which had very harsh criticism of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. Netflix's executive's comments stirred many reactions among online commentators, who described it as ""a cheap bargain"" allowed by the conservative kingdom.

At the end of his interview with CNN, Reed Hastings faced a question over the movie sharing platform's decisions when it comes to censorship. The presenter had specifically named an episode of the comedy show Patriot Act, in which Hasan Minhaj linked the brutal killing of a dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to policies of the de facto ruler Mohammad Bin Salman often referred to as MBS; suggesting that MBS had ordered the killing of Khashoggi.

The episode in which MBS was referred to as ""Abu Rasasa"" or father of the bullet was shortly removed off Netflix in Saudi Arabia but remained on the show's YouTube channel so far. Removal of the episode had prompted many strong reactions back then as it was considered a Saudi attempt to ""cover-up MBS's involvement in the Khashoggi case.""

عرفنا السبب لماذا الفيلم المسيء للأطفال الذي صورهم بصورة جنسية يعرض في السعودية بكل ترحاب بل",Netflix Has Kept 'Sexual Content' in Saudi Arabia in Exchange for the Patriot Act's Episode Critical of MBS,tweets_news_602,tweets_news
"Firms in talks with govt and conducting internal review to decide whether to keep posts blocked

The government has directed social media platforms like Twitter to block close to 100 posts in order to “prevent obstructions” to the fight against the pandemic and escalation of crimes against public order, government officials told ET.

They said certain people were using social media platforms to spread fake or misleading information and create panic about the situation in India by using “unrelated, old and out of the context” images or visuals, communally sensitive posts and misinformation about the Covid-19 protocols.

The government welcomes criticism, genuine requests for help as well as suggestions in the collective fight against Covid-19, but it is necessary to take action against those users who are misusing social media during this grave humanitarian crisis for unethical purposes, one of the people said.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information

Technology (MeitY) ordered blocking of the posts on a recommendation from the Ministry of Home Affairs. On Saturday, it was reported that Twitter had removed around 50 tweets allegedly criticising the central government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic on MeitY's instructions. These included tweets of Congress MP Revanth Reddy, West Bengal minister Moloy Ghatak, actor Vineet",Platforms Told to Block 100 Posts for Covid Misinfo,tweets_news_603,tweets_news
"NO MENTION OF WHITELIST WEBSITES IN ORDER

After seven months, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday revoked the ban on social media although mobile Internet speeds would be restricted to 2G till further orders.

The absence of whitelist websites with the latest order –– which the administration used to publish with similar orders earlier—meant that all websites, including social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms could be accessed.

“If there is no white or black list with the government's order, it means every website can be accessed now,” Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar told ET. The last government order issued on February 25 included a list of 1,674 whitelisted websites that could be accessed. Kumar, as per the government order, has been asked to ensure communication of these directions to service providers and ensure implementation of the directions. J&K government's principal secretary (Home) Shaleen Kabra stated in an order that Internet speed would be restricted to 2G but Internet on pre-paid mobile phones will not be made available unless the connections are verified as per the norms applicable for post-paid connections. “On fixed lines (broadband), Internet connectivity shall continue to be made available with Mac-Binding,” read the","J&K Lifts Ban on Social Media, 2G Internet Speed Remains",tweets_news_604,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

and YouTube as well. Facebook is saying, this isn't a perfect answer and they introduced this oversight board in the absence of any government regulation. They said it is a fairly unprecedented move they took to try to get some consistency in these decisions. They themselves admit it is not perfect but it is better than what is out there at the moment.

What do you make of the oversight board and how it is working? I think the most important thing that came out of this oversight board decision today is the fact that Facebook refused to give the oversight this allegedly independent oversight board - requested information from Facebook about how its algorithms operate and whether its algorithms were amplifying Donald Trump's racist and harmful content. Facebook refused to give their own oversight board that information. And again to me that points to the fact that this is not about some partisan bickering back",Joins BBC News - 03:19 AM GMT,tweets_news_605,tweets_news
"The Winnipeg Sun takes you straight to the heart of the action.

Whether it's local news, provincial or national politics, or the worlds of celebrity and sports, we have you covered. Some stories set the world on fire. These are the most popular online stories from the past seven days, clicked on by Sun readers like you.

Here are our top stories:

McBRAWL: WOMAN GOES BALLISTIC AFTER MCDONALD'S REFUSES DRINK ORDER A woman in Ohio did not like the service she was getting at a McDonald's, so she decided to do it herself.

""I heard her ask for a slushie with all three flavours mixed into one,"" said another customer, Brian Allen, who happened to record the entire incident. ""The manager informed her that they could not do that, and she became increasingly irritated and combative and decided that she would go behind the counter and fix her own drink.""

Expletives were exchanged, punches were thrown, all to the amazement of the other customers who just wanted their McNuggets.

Turns out, volunteering to create your own drink doesn't get you very far. Cherysse Helena Cleveland was arrested and charged with two counts of misdemeanour assault. BARTENDER'S 'RECEIPT'SAVES TWO WOMEN FROM GROSS CUSTOMER It's always reassuring to","Top clicks; You can't pour your own drink, but don't worry - the bartender is here to help",tweets_news_606,tweets_news
"Ibrahim Halawa's head is full of Facebook. Well known for spending more than four years of his life in an Egyptian prison, he is now a Facebook content moderator. But he does not work for Facebook, and he dare not speak its name. It is simply ""the client"".

Ibrahim is one of thousands of outsourced workers across the world who view and remove violent and graphic content for the social media giant.

""We are expected to take care of the people on the social platform. And we want to do that,"" Ibrahim told Prime Time. ""We want to create a safe platform for my nephews to use, for your kids to use, for everyone to use.""

But though content moderation is core to its business, Facebook outsources this work. Workers feel left to carry the burden of rapidly processed graphic content without proper care or support, and are bound to secrecy in their contracts.

Ibrahim has decided to speak out. Today, he will be one of the workers’ representatives who meets Tánaiste and Minister for Trade, Enterprise & Employment, Leo Varadkar.

The workers, and a London-based digital justice group that advocates on their behalf, Foxglove, believe it will be the first time a government politician",Facebook moderators on the things they can't unsee,tweets_news_607,tweets_news
"DONALD TRUMP is returning to the campaign trail after his doctor claimed he is no longer contagious with coronavirus.

The US president is not considered a transmission risk by 'currently recognised standards' because tests had shown there was 'no longer evidence of actively replicating virus' in his body, according to a memo from his physician Dr Sean Conley.

But Dr Conley raised eyebrows on Saturday when he said the president had been 'fever free for well over 24 hours', which suggested Mr Trump's temperature had risen again within the previous day.

Mr Trump took to Twitter yesterday boasting he had been given 'a total and complete sign off', adding: 'That means I can't get it (immune), and can't give it. Very nice to know!!!' The tweet was later flagged by Twitter for 'spreading misleading and potentially harmful information' about Covid-19.

His diagnosis came hours after he removed his mask on a White House balcony and told supporters: 'I'm feeling great.' He was seen with a plaster on his right hand, causing speculation that it could be from an IV drip.

Mr Trump spent four days at Walter Reed Medical Center. He had considered acting frail when he left before ripping off his shirt to reveal","I am immune, boasts Trump as he returns to campaign",tweets_news_608,tweets_news
"

Jan 09, 2021( PA Pundits: http://papundits.wordpress.com/ Delivered by Newstex) By Tim Graham ~ Critics of liberal media bias are often accused of 'whataboutism.' We're accused of diverting everyone's attention from some conservative or Republican scandal or offense by changing the subject to the media's performance. After a pro-Trump crowd breached the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to flee, my friend and former colleague Dan Isett tweeted: 'Yeah, the media covered for left-wing riots last year.

So what? We aren't children and we don't use misbehavior by those we disagree with to excuse the misbehaviors of those we do. Personal responsibility is a hallmark of our philosophy.' Amen. If we were raised right, our parents told us two wrongs don't make a right.This is not a time for calling out double standards. This is a time for standards. Respecting the home of our Congress is the lowest possible standard for American civilization.You don't Make America Great Again by shoving cops and breaking glass on Capitol Hill. It's not hard to find prominent voices on the left who are suddenly finding lawlessness inexcusable, after suggesting it was excusable if it forwarded their agenda. They used words like 'rebellion' to glamourize unrest. But this is not",The Road To Ruin In Riots,tweets_news_609,tweets_news
"America has chosen Democrat Joe Biden as its 46th president, CNN projects, turning at a time of national crisis to a man whose character was forged by aching personal tragedy and who is pledging to restore calm and truth after Donald Trump's exhausting and manic single term.

In a victory speech Saturday night in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said he was humbled by the trust America had placed in him and reached out to those Americans who did not vote for him.

""I understand the disappointment tonight. I've lost a couple of times myself. But now, let's give each other a chance,"" Biden said. ""This is the time to heal in America.""

California Sen. Kamala Harris, his running mate, who will make history as the first woman, the first Black person and the first person of South Asian descent to become vice president, noted the significance of her place on the stage Saturday night.

""While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,"" Harris said.

Earlier in the day, the vice president-elect posted a video on Twitter of her victory call with",Biden defeats Trump in an election he made about character of the nation and the President,tweets_news_610,tweets_news
"WARM SPRINGS, Ga. — One week until Election Day, Joe Biden went on offense Tuesday, heading to Georgia, which hasn’t backed a Democrat for president since 1992 and pushing into other territory where President Donald Trump was once expected to easily repeat his wins from four years ago.

The Democratic presidential nominee planned to travel to Iowa, which Trump took by 10 points in 2016, later in the week. His running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, is hitting Arizona and Texas, where Republicans haven’t lost any statewide office since 1994 — the nation’s longest political winning streak.

The aggressive schedule is a sign of confidence by the Biden team, which is trying to stretch the electoral map and open up more paths to 270 electoral college votes. Trump is countering by focusing on the Democrats’ “blue wall” states that he flipped in 2016 and maintaining a far busier travel schedule that will take him to more of the country.

He was traveling to the Michigan capital of Lansing and visiting West Salem, Wisconsin, just three days after holding a rally in the state. First lady Melania Trump was on the road, too, making her first solo campaign trip of the year.

Why was Biden","WARM SPRINGS, Ga. — One week until Election Day, Joe Biden w",tweets_news_611,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at social media companies on Thursday, two days after Twitter issued a fact check on two misleading tweets authored by the president.

The executive order lifts liability protection for websites such as Facebook and Twitter, opening the platforms to lawsuits. He did so in response to being fact checked by Twitter.

Trump frequently has used Twitter since before his presidential campaign, and has used the platform to make official announcements. But Trump seemed to suggest he could do without the platform.

""There's nothing I'd rather do than get rid of my whole Twitter account,"" Trump said on Thursday. But Trump says that he keeps Twitter account as a way to give his spin to the news.

""If we had fair press in this country, I would do this in a heartbeat,"" Trump said.

""But I'm able to get to I guess 186 million people when you add up all the different accounts, and add Facebook and Instagram,"" Trump added.

On Tuesday, Twitter flagged several tweets containing misleading information about claims Trump made on Tuesday involving mail-in ballots.

Trump issued an angry response to Twitter's move.

""Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election,"" Trump tweeted. ""They are saying","President Trump signs executive order, which will open social media companies to lawsuits",tweets_news_612,tweets_news
"

Nov 25, 2020( International Business Times News: http://www.ibtimes.com Delivered by Newstex) KEY POINTSTrump legal adviser Jenna Ellis was ridiculed for a tweet with a quote falsely attributed to Teddy RooseveltEllis clarified that the ""ifea"" was more important than actual accuracy, only enhancing the irony of the postEllis was once a sharp critic of Trump, but she changedher tune after his nomination. Trump's legal adviser Jenna Ellis was the subject of ridicule Wednesday after tweeting out a quote falsely attributed to Teddy Roosevelt about how much conservatives value the truth. She followed up to explain that she shared it because the sentiment behind the quote was true, not because the quote itself was.'To anger a conservative, lie to him,' the quote in question reads.

'To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.'The replies were quickly mobbed with people mocking Ellis for the false attribution and noting the irony of sharing a false quote claiming one's political group values the truth. Ellis' explanation did nothing to calm the crowd, especially given her misspelling of 'idea' as 'ifea.'Teddy Roosevelt was trending high throughout the day as commenters unleashed a stream of responses, many containing real quotes from Teddy Roosevelt that ran counter Ellis' politics",Trump Legal Advisor Jenna Ellis Falsely Attributes Quote Praising Conservatives To Teddy Roosevelt,tweets_news_613,tweets_news
"Former President Donald Trump will find out whether he gets to return to Facebook on Wednesday, when the social network’s quasi-independent Oversight Board plans to announce its ruling in the high-profile case. The decision likely to stir up strong feelings no matter which way it goes. If the board rules in Trump's favor, Facebook has seven days...

Former President Donald Trump will find out whether he gets to return to Facebook on Wednesday, when the social network’s quasi-independent Oversight Board plans to announce its ruling in the high-profile case. The decision likely to stir up strong feeling...

Former President Donald Trump will find out whether he gets to return to Facebook on Wednesday, when the social network’s quasi-independent Oversight Board plans to announce its ruling in the high-profile case. The decision likely to stir up strong feelings no matter which way it goes. If the board rules in Trump's favor, Facebook has seven days to reinstate his account. If it upholds Facebook’s decision, Trump will remain “indefinitely suspended.” That means he’ll remain banned from the platform for as long as Facebook sees fit. Here’s how the process works and what might happen after Wednesday’s announcement. ___ WHY DID TRUMP GET SUSPENDED? Trump’s",EXPLAINER: Will Donald Trump return to Facebook?,tweets_news_614,tweets_news
"•The Apple CEO was forced to defend an update to the iPhone which will make it more difficult for companies to run targeted commercials on phones and iPads•Apps will need to get express permission from users to be served personal ads•It will shrink apps' advertising audience size and could shrink their profits•Cook said he wants to 'supply the tools' so people can make their own decisions about what data to share•He also discussed Apple's 'nutrition labels' which detail app's privacy practices•Apple say the new rollout is to protect consumers; Facebook is fighting the move•Its CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called the update 'self-serving' and claims it will harm not only Facebook but small businesses, too

The Apple CEO was forced to defend an update to the iPhone which will make it more difficult for companies to run targeted commercials on phones and iPads

Apps will need to get express permission from users to be served personal ads

It will shrink apps' advertising audience size and could shrink their profits

Cook said he wants to 'supply the tools' so people can make their own decisions about what data to share

He also discussed Apple's 'nutrition labels' which detail app's privacy practices

Apple say the new rollout is to",Apple CEO Tim Cook says targeted Facebook ads are 'manipulating' people as he's forced to defend privacy update in which Apple decides what's 'healthy' for you in battle with Mark Zuckerberg,tweets_news_615,tweets_news
"Parler, a social media service popular with American right-wing users that virtually vanished after the U.S. Capitol riot, re-launched on Monday and said its new platform was built on ""sustainable, independent technology.""

In a statement announcing the relaunch, Parler also said it had appointed Mark Meckler as its interim Chief Executive, replacing John Matze who was fired by the board this month.

Parler went dark after being cut off by major service providers that accused the app of failing to police violent content related to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by followers of then-U.S. President Donald Trump.

Despite the relaunch, the website was still not opening for many users and the app was not available for download on mobile stores run by Apple and Alphabet-owned Google, which had earlier banned the app.

While several users took to rival Twitter to complain they were unable to access the service, a few others said they could access their existing account.

Parler, which asserted it once had over 20 million users, said it would bring its current users back online in the first week and would be open to new users the next week.

Founded in 2018, the app has styled itself as a ""free",Social media app Parler crawls back online on 'independent technology',tweets_news_616,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

The week that was had several monumental stories take over the news cycle, ranging from the start of the George Floyd murder trial to the WHO/China report on the origins of COVID-19 to corporate America's reaction to Georgia's voting reform, culminating in Major League Baseball pulling the All-Star Game and draft from the Peach State.

It also contained absurd moments, led in large part to April Fools' Day, a rogue First Dog of the White House, and the bizarre Matt Gaetz scandal.

Here are some of the top quotes of the week.

""You will learn that on May 25, 2020, Mr. Derek Chauvin betrayed this badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of Mr. George Floyd. That he put his knee upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him until the very breath, no, ladies and gentlemen, until the very life was squeezed out of him.""

- Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell at the start of the Derek Chauvin murder trial

“Let me say clearly that as far as WHO is concerned, all hypotheses remain on the table. This report is a very important beginning, but it is not the end. We have not yet found the source of the",'The ice cream bars ... were delicious': Quotes of the week,tweets_news_617,tweets_news
"Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Florida, issued the following news release:

Over the last several years, there has been an alarming increase in antisemitic incidents across the globe, with many originating online. As social media posts do not stop at international borders, members of the national legislatures of the United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom have come together across party lines to launch the Inter-Parliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism.

Members of the Task Force include: Congressman Ted Deutch (Democrat, United States), Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Democrat, United States), Congressman Chris Smith (Republican, United States), Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (Republican, United States), Member of Knesset Michal Cotler-Wunsh (Blue and White, Israel), Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather (Liberal, Canada), Member of Parliament Marty Mortantz (Conservative, Canada), Member of Parliament Josh Burns (Labour, Australia), Member of Parliament Dave Sharma (Liberal, Australia), Member of Parliament Andrew Percy (Conservative, United Kingdom), and Member of Parliament Alex Sobel (Labour and Cooperative, United Kingdom).

The launch of the Task Force follows campaigns working to expose online antisemitism, including the #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate campaign that served as a global call to action to combat the virulent antisemitism that goes unaddressed or inadequately addressed on social media platforms.

The Task Force has the",Rep. Deutch: Announcing the Formation of an Inter-Parliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Anti-Semitism,tweets_news_618,tweets_news
"

Mar 25, 2021( Techdirt: http://www.techdirt.com Delivered by Newstex) Yesterday, in a (deliberately, I assume) well-timed release, the Tech Transparency Project released a report entitled Facebook's Militia Mess[1], detailing how there are tons of ""militia groups"" organizing on the platform (first found via a report on Buzzfeed[2]). You may recall that, just days after the insurrection at the Capitol, that Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg made the extremely disingenuous claim that only Facebook had the smarts to stop these groups[3], and that most of the organizing of the Capitol insurrection must have happened elsewhere. Multiple reports debunked that claim, and this new one takes it even further, showing that these groups are (1) still organizing on Facebook, and (2) Facebook's recommendation algorithm is still pushing people to them:TTP identified 201 Facebook militia pages and 13 groups that were active on the platform as of March 18. These included 'DFW Beacon Unit' in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, which describes itself as a 'legitimate militia' and posted March 21 about a training session; 'Central Kentucky Freedom Fighters,' whose Facebook page posts near-daily content about government infringing on people's rights; and the ""New River Militia"" in North Carolina, which posted about the need to 'wake up",Militias Still Recruiting On Facebook Demonstrates The Impossibility Of Content Moderation At Scale,tweets_news_619,tweets_news
"Protests against covid-related government restrictions continued to spread on Friday as a coalition of gun activists, vaccine opponents and anxious business owners used the organizing power of social media to build increasingly visible and vocal opposition movements in several states. Crowds waving signs, honking horns, and demanding an immediate relaxation of measures imposed to slow the pandemic gathered in Chicago, Raleigh, North Carolina, Los Angeles and Sacramento, California, on Friday. More protests were planned for the weekend, including in the state capitals of Kentucky, Oregon and New Hampshire, despite polling consistently showing that most Americans support public-health restrictions by governors and mayors even as the economic toll mounts. The protests at first were mostly small and scattered, often organized by a few ardent gun-rights activists, but the events drew mainstream attention and support this week, and dozens more are planned for the coming days. Hundreds of protesters in Michigan - many of them carrying guns and wearing military gear and some shouting at officers wearing protective face masks - entered the state Capitol in Lansing on Thursday.

""What an incredibly beautiful and freedom-invoking vision,"" said Karen Kirkpatrick Hoop, 49, a consultant in the insurance industry who drove two hours to attend","Protests spread, fueled by economic woes and Internet subcultures",tweets_news_620,tweets_news
"U.S. and world leaders have a chance to craft an international system that works for this era. But they have to avoid the mistakes of the past.

International orders seldom change in noticeable ways. Just as Rome wasn't built in a day, the Pax Romana was not a passing phase: it persisted for centuries. The order that arose from the 1815 Congress of Vienna didn't fully unravel until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

But at rare moments, confidence in the old order collapses and humanity is left with a vacuum. It is during these times that new orders are born-that new norms, treaties and institutions arise to define how countries interact with each other and how individuals interact with the world.

As the most far-reaching global disruption since World War II, the coronavirus pandemic is such a moment. The post-1945 world order has ceased to function. Under a healthy order, we would expect at least good faith attempts at international coordination to confront a virus that knows no borders. Yet the United Nations has gone missing, the World Health Organization has become a political football and borders have closed not only between countries but even within the European Union. Habits",The World Order Is Dead. Here's How to Build a New One for a Post-Coronavirus Era.,tweets_news_621,tweets_news
"Facebook on Friday suspended former US President Donald Trump from its platform until at least January 2023 in a decision that has been watched closely for signals on how the company will treat rule-breaking world leaders in the future. The social media giant's independent oversight board in May upheld its block on Donald Trump, which was enforced in the wake of the

January 6 riot at the US Capitol

over concerns that his posts were inciting violence. However, the board ruled it was wrong to make the ban indefinite and gave it six months to determine a ""proportionate response.""

Trump's suspension was effective from the initial date in January

and will only be reinstated if conditions permit, Facebook said in a blog post.

ALSO READ | Trump launches new communications platform after getting banned from Facebook, Twitter

""Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump's suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols,"" Facebook said. The decision came on the same day as Europe and Britain launched formal antitrust investigations into whether Facebook misuses its vast trove of customer data.

ALSO READ | Donald Trump egged on Capitol rioters,",Facebook suspends Donald Trump's account for two years,tweets_news_622,tweets_news
"The Lok Sabha member also suggested developing an Indian version of Twitter to prevent 'digital colonisation' of the country.

BJP MP and Lok Sabha member Anantkumar Hegde has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, raising concerns about Twitter Inc.'s alleged interference in free-speech by targeting nationalistic accounts. Calling the micro-blogging site ""detrimental to India's strategic interest & democratic fabric of society,"" Hegde presented six points to be considered by the PMO while investigating Twitter.

These points include selective targeting of nationalistic Twitter accounts and pro-Indian handles; suspension of handles belonging to elected representatives without notice; promotion of slanderous handles ""spewing poison"" about the Prime Minister, Home Minister and CMS via paid ads; no action against handles spreading discontent, fake news and objectionable content against any religion or the country.

He also pointed out that Twitter didn't receive pro-Khalistan tweets as harshly as the nationalistic ones. He also attached a Wall Street Journal tweet that said civic liberties were at stake in India under PM Modi, which wasn't removed despite repeated complaints.

He also suggested developing an Indian version of the micro-blogging site with the help of NIC, CDAC or CDOT to preserve transparency and prevent ""Digital colonisation"" of the country by Twitter.

Hegde also stated",Anantkumar Hegde writes to PMO against Twitter Inc.s anti-national acts,tweets_news_623,tweets_news
"Prez Tweets ‘Biden Won Because Election Was Rigged’, Then Says Defiantly ‘I Concede Nothing’

“He won because the Election was Rigged,” defeated President Donald Trump conceded on Sunday in the first acknowledgment, albeit qualified, that he has lost the US presidential election and may be reconciling to leaving the White House. Hours later, after the hashtag #TrumpConceded began to trend, he defiantly tweeted: “He (Biden) only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!”

Trump's conflicting responses amid global recognition that Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the election and is now President-elect surfaced even as Washington DC was rocked by bloody violence in clashes between Trump's MAGA supporters, who rallied in the capital in support of the president's view that the election was “stolen,” and Antifa activists who believe it is Trump who is trying to subvert the mandate of the people. A series of tweets in which the president accused Antifa of instigating violence while glorifying retaliation led to demands that his account be deactivated by Twitter.

Both sides — Trump's MAGA flock and Antifa activists — posted videos to show the other side triggered the","Trump concedes defeat, briefly",tweets_news_624,tweets_news
"Cheerleader Brandi Levy looks at her phone in April outside her high school in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. Danna Singer/ACLU

In a landmark First Amendment opinion, the Supreme Court has limited schools' ability to punish students for off-campus speech. In a case involving a cheerleader who was suspended from her team after criticizing her coaches and the cheer program in a profane Snapchat post, the court held that the school had gone too far.

While the court said that some off-campus speech - like bullying and harassment - could still be regulated by schools, it laid out general guidelines that were intended to protect students from having their online speech monitored and regulated 24/7 by the schools they attend.

Part of what makes the decision so important is that it reaffirmed the core holding of the famous 1969 case of Tinker v. Des Moines School District, where the justices for the first time recognized that students had free speech rights in school. That case said, essentially, that students were entitled to free speech in school provided they were not disrupting the school's legitimate activities.

Since then, the court has gradually chipped away at the Tinker precedent, granting schools greater and greater latitude to regulate student",Cheerleader's case protects students,tweets_news_625,tweets_news
"House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney denounced the baseless, far-right QAnon conspiracy theory Thursday after President Trump embraced its proponents the day before.

""QAnon is dangerous lunacy that should have no place in American politics,"" said Ms. Cheney, Wyoming Republican and third-ranking member of the GOP in the House of Representatives.

Ms. Cheney's unequivocal condemnation of QAnon, first reported by Politico, made her the highest-ranking Republican on Capitol Hill so far to reject the fringe conspiracy theory.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska were among the first elected Republicans in Congress to slam QAnon after Mr. Trump gave its believers his blessing.

Asked about QAnon during a White House press briefing Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he appreciates the support its proponents have for his presidency but does not know much about it.

Mr. Trump later failed to denounce QAnon when a reporter informed him its followers believe he is personally saving the world from a ""satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals.""

""I haven't heard that. But is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing? I mean, you know, if I can help save the world from problems, I'm willing to do it,"" Mr. Trump.

""And we are, actually.",Liz Cheney slams QAnon as 'dangerous lunacy' after Trump embraces followers of conspiracy theory,tweets_news_626,tweets_news
"Before you share... SHARE Think before you like, comment or share online and use the SHARE checklist to make sure you're not contributing to the spread of harmful content about coronavirus.

SOURCE Rely on official sources for medical and safety information. check the facts about the coronavirus on the www.NHS.uK website and www.GOV.uK.

HEADLINE Headlines don't always tell the full story. Always read to the end before you share articles on coronavirus.

ANALYSE Analyse the facts. if something sounds unbelievable, it might very well be.independent fact-checking services are correcting false information about the coronavirus every day.

RETOUCHED Watch out for misleading pictures and videos in stories about coronavirus. They might be edited, or show an unrelated place or event.check to see who else is using the photo.

ERROR look out for mistakes. Spelling and other errors might mean the information is false.official guidance about coronavirus will always have been checked carefully.

Government checklist to help you protect yourself from cyber crime Just take a breath - a moment - before you part with your money or personal information. it sounds simple - remember, there's no rush.

Make sure you're using the latest software, apps and operating systems on your phones, tablets and laptops, and update them regularly.

if",Don't fall for corona cons,tweets_news_627,tweets_news
"This article will be updated with need-to-know voting and election information from the San Antonio area throughout the early voting period and Election Day.

RELATED: Early voting sites and totals in Bexar County

October 27

Project Veritas activists release S.A. video: A heavily edited video released Tuesday by a conservative activist group purports to show a Republican campaign employee in San Antonio interfering as an elderly woman fills out her absentee ballot in Texas. In the video, released by Project Veritas, the campaign employee also appears to discuss unlawful voter influence tactics, including assisting people at the polls.

Texas election update: On Tuesday, NBC News moved Texas, which hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1976, from ""lean Republican"" to ""toss-up"" on its battleground map. In August, NBC's political team launched the map to gauge which state is leaning toward either Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the presidential race. The map is based public and private polling, as well as conversations with Democratic and Republican strategists watching the race.

Election Day troops update: Gov. Abbott's office has not responded to questions about his plan to have National Guard members on hand to quell any post-election disturbances. The Guard said Monday it would send",S.A. election updates: Project Veritas activists release video of alleged voter fraud in San Antonio,tweets_news_628,tweets_news
"The numbers are staggering. Facebook has 35,000 people working just on safety and security issues. In 2019, it removed more than 6.5 billion fake accounts. And in March 2020 alone, it removed more than 65,000 instances of voter-suppression content related to COVID-19.

This is impressive, and still it isn't enough.

The reality is that while Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms do a lot to try to weed out false and harmful content, the forces intent on using these vehicles for nefarious purposes are working just as hard.

So the battle continues 24/7/ 365 between players seeking to spread discontent, disinformation and hatred with platforms intent on keeping their communication channels free of filth and falsehoods. It is a battle that cannot end as long as there is evil in the world.

The Dispatch commends Facebook for its work to root out lies and voter suppression efforts. Further, through our parent company, Gannett, we are proud to be part of the independent fact-checking program that Facebook is partnering with to independently verify content posted on Facebook and Instagram.

It's a broad and necessary endeavor to help prevent false information from spreading. Or to keep from stirring up social unrest, like a widely criticized Kenosha","As Facebook seeks out fakes, so must we",tweets_news_629,tweets_news
"TOLEDO - President Donald Trump will try to put his bout with COVID-19 behind him with a return to the campaign trail in Florida on Monday, while his rival Joe Biden is back in Ohio, a must-win state for the Republican incumbent where polls are showing a tight race on Nov. 3.

Trump's rally at an airport in Sanford, Florida, will be his first since he disclosed on Oct. 2 that he tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus, and will kick off a three-week sprint to Election Day.

Trump, who spent three nights in a military hospital for treatment, said on Sunday he had fully recovered and was no longer infectious, but did not say directly whether he had tested negative for the coronavirus.

Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday, his campaign said in a statement. The Democratic former vice president has tested negative a number of times since Trump announced his positive test.

Trump, 74, is seeking to change the dynamics of a race that national opinion polls and some state polls show he is losing to Biden, who is 77.

For months, Trump had worked furiously to shift public attention away from the virus and his handling of the",Trump to resume campaign in Florida as Biden shoots for the moon in Ohio,tweets_news_630,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON — The dear and wise leader wants you to know that whatever good the government does for you is actually being done by him and him alone, since his authority is ""total.""

No, we are not North Korea and don't yet live under a totalitarian system. But Donald Trump's demand that his name be affixed to the stimulus checks authorized by Congress to ease the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis tells us three things.

First, everything he does is self-serving. (He doesn't mind if he delays your check.) Second, his instincts are authoritarian. Third, his bravado, designed to conceal, only highlights his awareness of the deep political trouble he's in because of his ""corruption, carelessness, self-dealing, disinformation, ignorance and just plain meanness."" After all, ""pandemics have a way of cutting through a lot of noise and spin to remind us of what is real and what is important.""

Former President Barack Obama used those words in his Tuesday video endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden and didn't even have to mention Trump's name.

This week will thus be remembered not for any of Trump's antics but as the moment when Democrats rediscovered the Spirit of 2018, the year that gave them control",E.J. Dionne: Trump's bank of illusions has gone bust,tweets_news_631,tweets_news
"

Feb 19, 2021( International Business Times News: http://www.ibtimes.com Delivered by Newstex) KEY POINTSBill Gates wants Facebook to lift ban on TrumpThe Microsoft co-founder believes placing a ban would be 'polarizing'The Oversight Board is expected to make a decision 90 days from Jan. 21 Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Wednesday urged social media companies to consider allowing former President Donald Trump back on their platforms despite his baseless election fraud theories.The billionaire philanthropist weighed in on the impending decision and argued that social media companies, including Facebook, should give Trump access again. He also warned that permanently banning the former president would cause 'polarization' among users.'I think at some point he probably will be allowed back on and probably should be allowed back on,' Gates said during an interview with CNBC[1]. 'If he's spreading lies about the integrity of the election, does that need to be labeled?

Is he actually less important in terms of causing trouble in the future than he was in the past?'""But it'd be kind of a shame if they have to use such an extreme measure,"" he added.Facebook indefinitely suspended Trump[2] in January after he used the platform to incite his supporters on the daythe U.S. Capitol",Bill Gates Wants Trump Back On Facebook: It's 'A Shame',tweets_news_632,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed a key defense bill that the House and Senate passed by overwhelming margins, setting the stage for Congress to override his veto for the first time, just weeks before he leaves office.

Trump said he was vetoing the annual National Defense Authorization Act because it does not repeal a 30-year-old federal rule, known as Section 230, that shields online platforms from liability for statements made by users; he and allies claim Twitter and other social media platforms censor conservatives, which the companies deny. Trump cited an unspecified threat from foreign disinformation.

""Section 230 facilitates the spread of foreign disinformation online, which is a serious threat to our national security and election integrity,"" Trump said in his veto message.""

He also opposed allowing the renaming of military bases now named for Confederate generals and complained that the bill would limit troop withdrawals and movements from Afghanistan and other foreign locations.

The bill's massive scope, authorizing $741 billion for Pentagon programs and powerful defense contractors' job-creating projects in virtually every state and congressional district, makes it unlikely that enough Republicans would vote to sustain Trump's veto and risk delaying the funding into next year.

The Republican-controlled Senate passed the bill by",Trump hits defense bill with veto,tweets_news_633,tweets_news
"The wildly popular TikTok is hoping to maintain its success by taking innovative steps to ease concerns of some US lawmakers and intelligence agencies. At issue is the Chinese social media app’s handling of user data, and whether it censors content at Beijing’s request — an allegation the company flatly denies. To quell these concerns, the ByteDance-owned firm […]



The wildly popular TikTok is hoping to maintain its success by taking innovative steps to ease concerns of some US lawmakers and intelligence agencies.

At issue is the Chinese social media app’s handling of user data, and whether it censors content at Beijing’s request — an allegation the company flatly denies.

To quell these concerns, the ByteDance-owned firm has announced plans to launch a content moderation transparency center in its Los Angeles office in a renewed effort to earn the trust of users and policymakers, Caixin Global reported.

The new facility, which will open in early May, will give external experts a panoramic view of TikTok’s daily operations, including how its employees apply TikTok’s guidelines to review content uploaded onto its platform, and how concerns of users and creators are processed, the company said in a statement.



TikTok also expects the transparency center to double as",TikTok offers solution to US lawmakers and users,tweets_news_634,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - An advocacy group backed by the tech industry sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday over his executive order that would weaken a law protecting online platforms including social media companies that label or fact-check his posts.

The Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT)said in its lawsuit that Trump's executive order violates the First Amendment rights of social media companies. It noted that the order was issued after Twitter Inc amended one of Trump's tweets and called it ""plainly retaliatory.""

The lawsuit argues that Trump's executive order will ""chill future online speech by other speakers"" and reduce the ability of Americans to speak freely online.

Trump, in an attempt to regulate social media platforms where he has been criticized, said last week he will introduce legislation that may scrap or weaken a law that has protected internet companies, including Twitter and Facebook.

The proposed legislation was part of an executive order Trump signed on Thursday afternoon. Trump had attacked Twitter for tagging his tweets about unsubstantiated claims of fraud about mail-in voting with a warning prompting readers to fact-check the posts.

Trump said he wants to ""remove or change"" a provision of a law known as Section 230 that shields social media companies",Tech advocacy group's lawsuit says Trump's order on social media is unconstitutional,tweets_news_635,tweets_news
"The Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Raj Parekh, issued the following news release on March 25, 2021:

The United States has seized ""r-m-n.net"" and ""Almaalomah.com,"" two websites that were unlawfully utilized by Kata'ib Hizballah, a Specially Designated National and a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

""The internet must not be used as a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations to promote violent extremism and spread their hateful rhetoric,"" said Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. ""We stand committed with our law enforcement partners to use all available resources to combat terrorism.""

""Special Agents with the Bureau of Industry and Security's Office of Export Enforcement will use all of the tools at our disposal to protect American citizens, including our military service members, from terrorist acts of violence inspired and directed via online platforms,"" said Kevin J. Kurland, who is performing the non-exclusive duties of the Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the Bureau of Industry and Security. ""We will continue to aggressively disrupt Foreign Terrorist Organizations such as Kata'ib Hizballah and their efforts to utilize U.S. cyber infrastructure to harm U.S. national security.""

On July 2, 2009, the U.S. Secretary of Treasury designated Kata'ib Hizballah, an Iran-backed terrorist",Acting Va. U.S. Attorney: U.S. Seizes Websites Used by Foreign Terrorist Organization,tweets_news_636,tweets_news
"The following information was released by the office of Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky:

U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Chairwoman of the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, and, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection, subcommittees responsible for oversight of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), called on the agency to assert its political independence following President Trump's recent ""Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship,"" which directs federal agencies to investigate and retaliate against online platforms over purported political bias.

""The President's executive order is a transparently unconstitutional scheme to coerce private companies for political purposes, and has no interest in freedom of expression or consumer protection,"" wrote Schakowsky and Blumenthal in a letter to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons. ""We urge you to show leadership against the President's attempts to undermine its independence and act to defend the FTC's consumer protection and competition mission.""

Schakowsky and Blumenthal expressed serious alarm over the President's order threatening the agency's ability to enforce the law, especially as Big Tech continues to pursue anticompetitive practices and action is needed. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers have faced an onslaught of fraud, malware, and other financial",SCHAKOWSKY AND BLUMENTHAL CALL ON FTC TO ASSERT POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE AS TRUMP ATTEMPTS TO HIJACK COMMISSION FOR POLITICAL RETALIATION,tweets_news_637,tweets_news
"Harvard Law School issued the following news:

More than a year before the U.S. presidential election, a team of researchers from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society joined forces to study and map political media coverage. In the months leading up to the election, they tracked and analyzed significant topics, including the politicization of the pandemic and false claims about mail-in voter fraud.

Led by Yochai Benkler and Rob Faris, the team followed political discourse online, uncovering media strategies and shedding light on the media ecosystem in the United States. Benkler, the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies and co-director of BKC, and Faris, a senior researcher at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, spoke about their work at a recent event moderated by Jasmine McNealy, a faculty associate at BKC and associate professor at the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications.

The team's studies are grounded in their previous work on the 2016 election, which showed using linking patterns between online news sources that media sources from the right exist in a cluster, isolated from the media outlets from the center and left. The resulting network structure illustrates asymmetric polarization in the U.S. media ecosystem.",Harvard Law School: Political Discourse and the 2020 U.S. Election,tweets_news_638,tweets_news
"Washington: Library of Congress has issued the following news release:

The permeation of misinformation and disinformation relating to any conceivable issue, particularly on social media platforms, isrampant. This problem has become particularly acute with the advent of theCOVID-19global pandemic. A policy document issued by theOrganization for Economic Co-operation and Development(OCED)describedthe ubiquity of false information and the challenge it presents in fighting the pandemic as follows:

The harmful effects of disinformation about COVID-19 cannot be overstated.Datafrom Argentina, Germany, Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States show that about one in three people say they have seen false or misleading COVID-19-related information on social media.Researchhas also shown that COVID-19 disinformation is disseminated significantly more widely than information about the virus from authoritative sources like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By calling into question official sources and data and convincing people to try bogus treatments, the spread of dis- and misinformation has led people to ingest fatal home cures, ignore social distancing and lockdown rules, and not to wear protective masks, thereby undermining the effectiveness of containment strategies.

While some countries have focused more onawareness campaignsto counter this problem, others have gone further. A",New Report Examines Restrictions on Freedom of Expression during COVID-19 in Select Jurisdictions,tweets_news_639,tweets_news
"Rise in number of teachers resigning and students pulling out of school to emigrate, survey shows, as concerns over new 'red lines' growSlew of directives to schools leaves some teachers worried about what they can and cannot teach now

Veteran primary school teacher Eva* will be leaving Hong Kong with her husband and child by summer to start a new life in Britain.

Changes in the city's education scene since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong last June prompted the family's decision to move.

""My husband and I originally planned to send our child overseas while we continued working in Hong Kong, or maybe I would retire early and accompany our child there,"" said Eva, whose child is in primary school.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

She lamented that teachers now had limited autonomy in the classroom and that some educators were practising more self-censorship following guidelines issued by the authorities.

Schools and universities have been told to promote national security education among their students in keeping with","Will national security law force exodus of Hong Kong's teachers, students over fears of shrinking academic freedom?",tweets_news_640,tweets_news
"

Mar 21, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; This is how Rep. Tlaib was raised. This is what Bernie Sanders brought into his campaign. This is what is being legitimized by the Squad and other Democrats.

#Jexodus! Related: Palestinian Leaders Use Coronavirus to Attack Israel[1] WATCH: 'Jihadi' Who Killed 13 Israelis Celebrated as Palestinian Hero By United For Israel[2], March 19, 2020: While murdering innocent people could not be more reprehensible, a notorious Palestinian suicide bomber was recently lauded on Lebanese television. On a recent broadcast by Palestinian Islamic Jihad's Lebanon-based Al-Quds Al-Youm TV, two commentators championed the heinous murder of 13 Israelis in the 1996 suicide bombing at Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv. Not only were the terrorists who carried out this attack praised, they claimed that this suicide bombing, which injured another 130 Israels, and similar attacks 'bring a lot of joy to the Palestinian people.' The two then fondly discussed how Palestinians hand out candies and sweets to celebrate murders like this, calling on the populace to continue these barbaric crimes.[embedded content] The Truth Must be Told Your contribution supports independent journalism Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are",WATCH: 'Jihadi' Who Killed 13 Israelis Celebrated as Palestinian Hero,tweets_news_641,tweets_news
"The California Republican Party once spawned American presidents and held sway in Sacramento. These days, it seems to produce a disturbing number of wannabe fascists.

The party that once preached smaller government and lower taxes now promotes a twisted faith in Donald Trump's white supremacist cult of personality. After last week's violent attack on the United States Capitol, it's not clear whether the GOP is a political party or a terrorist group. On Monday, ABC News reported that the FBI has issued a memo warning that ""armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols from 16 January through at least 20 January.""

The GOP's slide into anti-democracy extremism has some deep roots in Sacramento. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield served in the California StateAssembly and held the position of minority leader before going to Congress. Last week, McCarthy -- now the House minority leader -- voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election.

The Republican disinformation campaign to terrify its base into believing that Democrats stole the election resulted in a violent attack that left five people dead. In its aftermath, McCarthy had the gall to decry violence and call for unity. Yet it's impossible to",These fascist Republican Party leaders have deep roots in California's state Capitol,tweets_news_642,tweets_news
"Good morning and welcome to the CQ Tech newsletter, your guide to where emerging technologies intersect with policy and the powerful. It is Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020.

TOPLINES

1. Biometric doubts: The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency failed to protect its database of hundreds of thousands of facial images prior to a data breach, raising doubts about expanding the agency's biometric data collection.

2. No privacy, no tech: The absence of federal data privacy legislation is contributing to the erosion of people's trust in technologies and potentially harming the emergence of new ones.

3. IRS surveillance: The tax agency's criminal investigations unit used a surveillance database to track Americans, potentially violating U.S. law, and must be investigated, Sens. Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren say.

4. Silicon Valley summoned, again: A pair of Senate committees this week will ratchet up the heat on tech companies by summoning the top CEOs for a hearing on content moderation policies, while also pushing legislation aimed at curbing the freedoms tech companies currently enjoy.

FULL BRIEFING

1. Safety of biometric data in DHS hands in doubt, inspector general says

A new inspector general's report is casting doubt on the Homeland Security Department's ability to protect its massive repository of personal data from",Privacy of DHS biometric data may not be so safe,tweets_news_643,tweets_news
"Video website to launch 'supervised experience' accounts for under-13s

YouTube is to let parents see what their children are searching for and watching for the first time as part of new safeguards ahead of incoming Duty of Care laws.

The video-sharing website is launching ""supervised experience"" accounts for under-13s that will allow parents to set limits on what content their children can see.

YouTube already has a Kids app that has a number of controls for parents. However, it said the supervised accounts would be the first on the main YouTube website.

The Government will soon bring a Bill before Parliament that proposes huge fines for tech firms that do not shield children from harmful content.

YouTube's new accounts are aimed at children from nine upwards and will help filter what they see and search for.

They will have three levels of settings: the first will allow children to select only child-friendly topics and videos; the second will show content generally suitable for viewers aged over 13; and the third will only block subjects considered suitable for adults.

The accounts will also allow parents to monitor a list of videos their children have been watching and searching for, something that could only be done before if they",YouTube gives parents control over what their children can view,tweets_news_644,tweets_news
"The Liberal-dominated House of Commons Heritage committee has cleared the way for the federal government to regulate video content on Internet social media, such as YouTube, the same way it regulates national broadcasting, under a new amendment made to a bill updating the Broadcasting Act.

Critics denounced the move to give the country's broadcast regulator the ability to oversee user-generated content, and said it amounted to an attack on the free expression of Canadians, particularly in light of Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault's recent plans to give Ottawa power to order take-downs of online content it deems objectionable.

""Granting a government agency authority over legal user generated content - particularly when backed up by the government's musings about taking down websites - doesn't just infringe on free expression, it constitutes a full-blown assault upon it and, through it, the foundations of democracy,"" said Peter Menzies, a former commissioner of the CRTC.

""It's difficult to contemplate the levels of moral hubris, incompetence or both that would lead people to believe such an infringement of rights is justifiable,"" said Menzies.

Last Friday afternoon, MPs on the committee made changes to the government's bill updating the Broadcasting Act. Bill C-10 was introduced by Guilbeault in November, to clarify",Ottawa targets YouTube content; Critics warn of 'infringement of rights',tweets_news_645,tweets_news
"Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

someone like Lyndon Johnson. They can put their arms around the shoulder take a Congress men or Congress woman Senator to one side just whisper in the area and convinced them to follow a particular line of policy given the animosity frankly there is from the Republicans towards the Democrats and on the Democrat side in some forms as well. Do you think he can actually do that with the Congress that he had I think Joe vice President Karzai Harris President Biden he is the only one and she is the only one who can unite us right now and we need that. So, very much one of the first things I remember then Senator Biden saying to me, decades ago, is you never back a person into a corner, that you don't give them a way out.

He has always been a United not a divider. I think it's time we do reach across the aisle and I believe so many Republicans.",BBC World News: Inauguration Special - 8:15 PM GMT,tweets_news_646,tweets_news
"Eric Lin, who claimed that President Trump would start a “racial war,” sent a barrage of gruesome Facebook messages to a Florida woman.

Eric Lin, who claimed that President Trump would start a “racial war,” sent a barrage of gruesome Facebook messages to a Florida woman.

A Maryland man who idolized Hitler and claimed that President Trump would start a “racial war” pleaded guilty on Tuesday to threatening to kill Hispanic people, including a South Florida woman he barraged with hateful Facebook messages.

The man, Eric Lin, 35, of Clarksburg, Md., pleaded guilty in United States District Court in South Florida to a felony charging him with knowingly and intentionally transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce, federal prosecutors said.

Mr. Lin, who is scheduled to be sentenced on March 30, faces up to five years in prison. His lawyer, Christian Dunham, declined to comment on Wednesday.

Mr. Lin was charged last year with inundating a South Florida woman with gruesome Facebook messages, in which he threatened to slaughter her, her family members and other Hispanic people. The messages, which were sent from May 30, 2019, to Aug. 14, 2019, also contained expressions of support for Hitler and Mr. Trump.

“I will stop at Nothing until",Nazi Sympathizer Pleads Guilty to Threatening to Kill Hispanic People,tweets_news_647,tweets_news
"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is meeting with EU lawmakers in Brussels - and they're not giving him an easy ride.

Getty

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is meeting with EU lawmakers in Brussels this week, and they're not making things easy for him.

Zuckerberg is speaking to competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, internal market commissioner Thierry Breton, and justice chief Vera Jourova.

On Wednesday, Vestager and Breton are set to announce proposals to create a single European data market aimed at challenging the dominance of US tech giants like Facebook.

The EU has fined Facebook before, slapping it with a (EURO)110 million ($120 million) penalty in 2017 after Facebook gave it misleading information about its purchase of WhatsApp.

On Saturday, the head of the European People's Party also met with Zuckerberg and claimed Facebook had helped spread misinformation about the coronavirus.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is meeting with EU lawmakers in Brussels, and his mission to curry favor has had mixed results.

Zuckerberg is speaking to the likes of competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, internal market commissioner Thierry Breton, and justice chief Vera Jourova.

Vestager is one of the most powerful antitrust regulators in the world, having penalized Amazon, Google, and Facebook with billions of dollars","Mark Zuckerberg struggles to curry favor with the EU, with skeptical lawmakers questioning Facebook's dominance and the spread of coronavirus misinformation",tweets_news_648,tweets_news
"Social media networks have been under scrutiny for the spread of election misinformation before the Capitol riots.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai are testifying Thursday before House lawmakers in a hearing focused on disinformation and extremism online.

<figure>

</figure>

March 25, 2021 2:49 PM EST

Zuckerberg Doubles Down, Insists Facebook Wasn't Primarily Used By Rioters To Coordinate Capitol Attack

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the company s content moderation policies when asked if Facebook allowed rioters coordinate the Capitol attack on the platform.

There was content on our services from some of these folks and I think that was problematic. But by and large I also think that putting in place policies banning QAnon, banning militias, banning other conspiracy networks, we generally made our services inhospitable to a lot of these folks and that had the unfortunate consequence of having those folks not use Facebook and use other places as well, Zuckerberg said.

March 25, 2021 2:02 PM EST

Both Parties Worry About Facebook and YouTube Apps For Kids

Lawmakers of both parties expressed concern that Facebook iscreatinga separate Instagram app specifically for children under 13. When asked if Instagram Kids will have endless scrolling or the ability to use filters, Zuckerberg",Live Updates: Zuckerberg Deflects Blame For Capitol Attack At Congressional Disinformation Hearing,tweets_news_649,tweets_news
"BHABUA, Jan. 21 -- Two people were arrested for making a police official's fake social media account to spread communal hatred in Bhabua on Monday.

The accused had uploaded obscene pictures and posts to spread religious hatred from the Facebook account of Kaimur superintendent of police (SP) Dilnawaz Ahmad.

The accused have been identified as Ankur Mahadev of Ailai village under Chand police station and Shubham Pandey of Jamuaon village under Bhabua police station. Both had been putting up at rented locations in Bhabua.

Police seized three mobile phones and multiple SIM cards used in the crime.

During probe, police found that the Facebook (FB) ID was fake and registered a case under Section 153A (promoting enmity on ground of religions and disturbing harmony between different religions) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act at the Bhabua station.

Accused Mahadev is an associate of jailed criminal Uttam Patel, a self-proclaimed cow vigilante. Mahadev was Patel's social media cell in-charge and used to upload posts spreading religious hatred and communal tension online. After Patel's arrest, Mahadev created a fake FB account of the SP and Pandey helped him, said the police.

""Several",2 held for creating fake profile of SP to trigger hatred,tweets_news_650,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Where do you go to get the news? For most people in the United States, a primary source is social media, which really means that you're getting your news from everywhere.

Thanks to your baby boomer uncle, you see some Breitbart headlines, your hippie neighbor puts Mother Jones in your feed, and your wine-mom aunt across the pond makes sure you see Daily Mail's latest scandal du jour. Your favorite political commentators are no longer Ivy League-educated trust fund babies whose parents bribed legacy media outlets for jobs. On the Left and on the Right, they're increasingly sharp up-and-comers who earned their followers with incisive reporting and relentless intellectual honesty. And when an article is patently bogus, the masses call them out, either in the comment sections or across Twitter.

But President Trump wants to take us back to the previous century, when we relied on an oligopoly of privileged media denizens, with no platform for the rest of the public to call out fake news. That's because his crusade against Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a move to get revenge against Twitter (a private company) for fact-checking what technically constituted an official government statement, would make social media",Trump's social media regulations would silence conservatives and give legacy media all the power,tweets_news_651,tweets_news
"US President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to shutter social media platforms after Twitter for the first time acted against his false tweets, prompting the enraged Republican to double down on unsubstantiated claims and conspiracy theories.

Trump will sign an executive order ""pertaining to social media"" on Thursday, aides to the president said, without offering more detail about its contents.

Twitter tagged two of his tweets in which he claimed that more mail-in voting would lead to what he called a ""Rigged Election"" this November.

There is no evidence that attempts are being made to rig the election, and under the tweets Twitter posted a link which read: ""Get the facts about mail-in ballots.""

For years, Twitter has been accused of ignoring the president's violation of platform rules with his daily, often hourly barrages of personal insults and inaccurate information sent to more than 80 million followers.

But Twitter's slap on the wrist was enough to drive Trump into a tirade - on Twitter - in which he claimed that the political right in the United States is being censored.

""Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,"" he",Trump threatens to 'close down' social media after tweets tagged,tweets_news_652,tweets_news
"

Sep 23, 2020( International Business Times News: http://www.ibtimes.com Delivered by Newstex) The Trump administration unveiled legislation Wednesday aimed at limiting the liability shield of online services for content they host, the latest in a series of proposals motivated by a backlash against Big Tech platforms.The Justice Department said its proposal seeks to reform a law known as Section 230 which protects internet services from liability from third-party content.""For too long Section 230 has provided a shield for online platforms to operate with impunity,"" said Attorney General William Barr.""Ensuring that the internet is a safe, but also vibrant, open and competitive environment is vitally important to America.""Barr said the bill would make platforms liable if they ""unlawfully censor speech and when they knowingly facilitate criminal activity online.""The proposal is among several being considered in Congress on Section 230, which some call the cornerstone of the open internet but which critics say enables harmful content to circulate. An administration proposal to curb the liability shield of online services comes after President Donald Trump accused tech platforms of political bias Photo: AFP / Denis Charlet A Justice Department statement said its proposal ""is aimed at incentivizing platforms to address the growing amount of",US Administration Unveils Bill To Limit Online Liability Shield,tweets_news_653,tweets_news
"

Jul 22, 2020( Conservative Daily News: http://conservativedailynews.com Delivered by Newstex) Facebook and Instagram announced it will develop teams to analyze potential racial bias on the social media platforms to see if the platforms differently affect minority users, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The teams were created partly in response to advertiser boycotts of the company due to internal policies and employee dissatisfaction with official responses to social issues, and the company previously hesitated to study whether the platforms have a different impact on minorities, the WSJ reported[1]. The Instagram 'equity and inclusion team' will study how the algorithm is applied to black, Hispanic, and minority users versus how it applies to white users, while the Facebook 'inclusivity product team' will consult with black users and experts on race, according to the WSJ. 'The racial justice movement is a moment of real significance for our company,' Instagram's head of product Vishal Shah said, the WSJ reported.

'Any bias in our systems and policies runs counter to providing a platform for everyone to express themselves.' Last year, company officials restricted employees from examining racial impacts on the social media platform without permission from a group of senior executives including Chief Executive Mark",Facebook Forms 'Equity And Inclusion' Teams To Analyze How Minority Users Are Affected By Its Algorithm,tweets_news_654,tweets_news
"

Mar 11, 2021( Mondoweiss.net: https://mondoweiss.net/ Delivered by Newstex) Some day historians will scratch their heads over the fact that for the better part of 20 years U.S. presidents were engaged as a leading foreign policy question in how to restrain Iran, a small country half the world away that has not attacked the U.S., that does not have nuclear weapons, that is the seat of ancient civilization, and whose contribution to regional instability doesn't look any worse than Israel's or Saudi Arabia's. It is hard to see any American interest at all in Iran, and yet four presidents have now expended an immense amount of political capital on the country. The answer to this question is actually simple. It is in Israel's interest for the U.S. to treat Iran as a supposed 'existential' threat to the world. Having the U.S. so engaged in Israel's cold war with Iran serves Israel by keeping the world's attention on a supposed dire threat to world peace instead of on the Israeli apartheid system for Palestinians.

And it serves a master Israeli politician Benjamin Netanyahu in his effort to stay in power and out of jail by manufacturing one enemy after another and bragging of",Iran's supposed threat to the U.S. is a scam Israel and its lobby promote to change the subject from Palestine,tweets_news_655,tweets_news
"The opposition leader takes the extraordinary step of advising Scott Morrison to ring the US president to ask him to respect democratic processes.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has made an extraordinary call for Scott Morrison to contact Donald Trump and tell him democratic processes must be respected.

Albanese's proposal goes against all the usual conventions of not intervening in other countries' internal affairs.

Morrison has been careful in comments he has made on the election, just generally expressing confidence in the strength of American democracy.

""I'm not a participant in the US political process. I am a partner, "" Morrison said on Thursday.

""I have great confidence in the democracy of the United States and I have great confidence in their institutions. And the thing about great institutions in democracies is they deal with whatever challenges come, just like our own does,"" Morrison said.

Albanese told a Friday news conference our leaders should always speak out for democratic values.

""Australia should consistently argue for free and fair elections, where every vote is counted,"" he said. ""And Scott Morrison must do so consistently.""

He said Morrison ""has a close relationship with President Trump.

""We saw that when he attended the de facto campaign rally in Ohio with President Trump. He",Albanese calls on Morrison to contact Trump and tell him to respect 'democratic processes',tweets_news_656,tweets_news
"I hate to raise a sensitive topic, but I'm worried about our government, especially since they lied to us for so many years about UFOs. Can we believe anything they tell us?

My trust was shattered after I watched that History Channel series, ""Project Blue Book"" about the work of Dr. Allen Hynek, who investigated cases of UFOs where aliens practically landed on the White House lawn, looking for photo opportunities in the Lincoln Bedroom ... and all the government would say, to paraphrase Sgt. Schultz, was ""We see nothing. We hear nothing. We know nothing."" And don't you find it suspicious that the series was canceled after two seasons?

For years, only the Weekly World News was courageous enough to report on UFOs, but now there's coverage everywhere, from the ""New Yorker"" to ""60 Minutes."" Pretty soon, Andrew Lloyd Webber will be producing a musical a la ""Cats"" and call it ""Aliens.""

As an investigative humorist, I have an ethical, professional and capitalistic responsibility to find out what's going on and write some fake news about this national security issue.

After the government denied this stuff for decades, suddenly there's a Pentagon report, Congressional hearings, declassified memos and footage of flying saucers buzzing",Commentary; Beware extraterrestrials in disguise,tweets_news_657,tweets_news
"A Conservative councillor has apologised after sharing racist comments on social media following the wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the world sparked by the death of George Floyd in the US.

Debbie Young, a Tory on Stroud District Council, retweeted a post from far-right media commentator Katie Hopkins and another from a US-based Donald Trump supporter branding protesters ""anti-fascist terrorists"".

Hopkins had commented on Twitter about protests in London, saying ""the sad truth is that the real Minority Ethnic in London is White Brits"".

Ms Young also shared a post which suggested protesters were ""bone idle"" and the ""mindless thugs' solution"".

Copies of the posts, which have since been deleted, were passed to the PA news agency.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Ms Young said she ""sincerely apologised for any offence caused"".

She wrote: ""On June 4 in response to the mass protests taking place as a result of the tragic death of George Floyd, I used social media to promote equality.

""I stated that all lives matter and that I had never taken race into account.

""At the same time, I said I understood there was anger following George Floyd's tragic death, but urged protests involving large numbers of people to stop in order",District councillor Debbie Young apologises for sharing racist tweets,tweets_news_658,tweets_news
"A group of right-wing militia members arrived in Washington bent on breaching the U.S. Capitol and booked a room for two in a motel in Arlington, Virginia, for at least six fellow Oath Keepers.

“This is a good location and would allow us to hunt at night if we wanted to,” commander Thomas E. Caldwell, 65, of Virginia, said via Facebook on the eve of then-President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally at the Capitol.

Meanwhile, attorney McCall Calhoun Jr. was on the road heading from Americas, Georgia, to Washington. The FBI had gotten a call on Nov. 12 from an alarmed tipster who quoted a Calhoun social media post as saying, “We are going to kill every last communist who stands in Trump’s way.”

On Jan. 2, John Earl Sullivan (known on social media as Jayden X), one of the few left-wing extremists identified and arrested so far as a Capitol invader, told his followers: “Time to burn it all down.” His post featured the hashtags “blm” and “antifa” and the goal “abolish capitalism.” (Black Lives Matters and Antifa want an end to capitalism.)

These snapshots of rioters are found in scores of law enforcement affidavits, the government’s first rough official","Capitol rioters trail of videos, media posts revealed in affidavits",tweets_news_659,tweets_news
"

Oct 07, 2020( Axios: https://link.axios.com/join/am-signup?source=aci Delivered by Newstex) The Russian troll farm central to Moscow's 2016 U.S. election interference campaign appears to be behind a new operation targeting U.S. voters on Gab and Parler, social media platforms favored by the far right.Why it matters: The shift by Russia's Internet Research Agency to more marginal platforms may signal that the techniques and strategies that paid off for Russia in 2016 are seeing declining returns. If Moscow is trying to influence a broad swath of U.S. voters, being relegated to platforms unknown to 99% of Americans simply won't get the job done.Driving the news: The move to Gab and Parler was documented in a report from social media analytics firm Graphika[1] and an accompanying Reuters investigation[2] late last week. This is Russia's first known use of these platforms.Details: The fake network described by Graphika revolved around an ostensibly Europe-based website called the Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens (NAEBC). NAEBC's stated purpose was to provide news and commentary about Europe and North America from a conservative perspective, but the vast majority of its content was U.S.-oriented and ""focused on racial tensions and violence and always presented minorities and liberals in a",Russia eyes far-right U.S. social media networks,tweets_news_660,tweets_news
"A suburban Canberra father is facing the prospect of time in jail after police busted him with more than 21,000 unusual examples of child abuse material.

There were no real children depicted in the files, which were all ""computer-generated images, cartoon strips, or comics"".

The man, who is in his 50s and cannot legally be named, pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday to one count of possessing child abuse material and two counts of accessing it.

Federal prosecutor Amy Macdonald withdrew several other charges.

A summary of agreed facts shows the ACT Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team became aware of the offender's illicit online activities when his IP address was identified as having accessed child abuse material on a network called ""eDonkey"".

Officers raided the man's home in August last year, seizing five electronic devices including a laptop and tablet.

Analysis revealed 21,149 objectionable files, which were mostly pictures but also included hundreds of videos.

""The [child abuse material] possessed by the offender is all computer-generated images, cartoon strips, or comics,"" the agreed facts say.

""No real children appear in the material.""

Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker on Thursday committed the offender to the ACT Supreme Court for sentence.

The man, who is on bail, will have his case","Suburban dad caught with child abuse comics, cartoons",tweets_news_661,tweets_news
"•Facebook chief said there was 'no tolerance on our platform for hate speech'•Steve Hatch claimed debates around such issues were 'extremely challenging'•BBC host Nick Robinson said social media giant refused to change algorithms•Ford, Adidas, HP, Coca Cola, Unilever, and Starbucks have boycotted the site•Companies around the world have joined the 'Stop Hate for Profit' campaign

Facebook chief said there was 'no tolerance on our platform for hate speech'

Steve Hatch claimed debates around such issues were 'extremely challenging'

BBC host Nick Robinson said social media giant refused to change algorithms

Ford, Adidas, HP, Coca Cola, Unilever, and Starbucks have boycotted the site

Companies around the world have joined the 'Stop Hate for Profit' campaign

Facebook's European vice president was today ridiculed today for a disastrous interview in which he attempted to defend the platform's attempts to stop the sharing of 'hate speech' amid a growing boycott from firms halting advertising.

In a car crash BBC interview, Steve Hatch said there was 'no tolerance on our platform for hate speech' but claimed debates around such issues were, 'extremely challenging'.

But Radio 4's Today host Nick Robinson accused Mr Hatch of allowing 'hate speech' on Mark Zuckerberg's social media behemoth and profiting from such content.

Robinson pointed to a post by","Mark Zuckerberg's European head is slammed for car crash interview defending social media giant's handling of 'hate speech' and claiming 'when there's hate in the world, there will be hate on Facebook'",tweets_news_662,tweets_news
"""It doesn't pay to be extreme"" was the headline on a recent Enquirer story about a highly competitive statehouse race in suburban Cincinnati.

It sure doesn't.

But that didn't stop Democratic incumbent Jessica Miranda from taking a swipe at the police on social media amid nationwide protests and civil unrest - opening the door for her opponent to use it against her in the race for Ohio's 28th House district.

And that's exactly what Republican Chris Monzel is doing in an effort to make public safety a defining issue in perhaps the state's most competitive House race.

In August, Miranda posted on Instagram: ""Blue lives don't exist. Stop drawing equivalence between racial identity and a job. Your career is a choice. Being Black isn't.""

The post angered one of Miranda's Greater Cincinnati colleagues in the statehouse. Republican state Rep. Cindy Abrams, a former Cincinnati police officer, alerted Monzel. His campaign is using a screenshot showing just the ""Blue lives don't exist"" portion of the post in a mailer hitting 50,000 mailboxes across northern Hamilton County.

Miranda stood by her post, saying she is ""thoroughly disappointed"" that the Glendale conservative cropped the original post. ""As the daughter of a fallen sheriff's deputy, I am personally offended by","'Blue lives don't exist,' Dem says. Will post backfire in the 'burbs?",tweets_news_663,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — Top executives of Twitter, Facebook and Google testified on social media protections and censorship issues before a Senate committee Wednesday.

Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai, the CEOS of Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet-owned Google respectively, appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee for a hearing on a federal internet law.

All three executives agreed to testify remotely Wednesday after being threatened with subpoenas. The committee took an unplanned brief break when Zuckerberg had technical difficulties connecting virtually, bringing a moment of levity to the start of the hearing.

Reflected in their written testimonies, the company leaders defended Section 230, a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, as legislation that's critical to free expression on the internet.

Section 230 gives social media companies permission to moderate and regulate content on their platforms without being legally responsible for the information they host. It also gives the tech giants permission to remove lawful but objectionable posts.

Twitter's Dorsey warned the committee that eroding the foundation of Section 230 could significantly hurt how people communicate online. Pichai said the company operates without political bias.

""We approach our work without political bias, full stop,"" Pichai said. ""To do otherwise would be contrary to both our business","Twitter, Facebook, Google CEOs testify on social media protections amid censorship claims",tweets_news_664,tweets_news
"(NewsNation Now) — Parler CEO John Matze says he's been terminated by the social media company's board.

The announcement was made on Matze's LinkedIn account Wednesday afternoon. He confirmed the move in a text message to Reuters.

Parler became popular with right-wing users but virtually vanished after the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6. Users flocked to Parler, along with other apps such as Telegram and social site Gab, citing a more aggressive policing of comments on mainstream platforms such as Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc, which intensified after the riot.

Matze previously told news outlets the social media company had been dropped by nearly all of its business alliances after Amazon, Apple and Google ended their agreements with the social media service.

In his LinkedIn post which thanked Parler employees, users and supporters, Matze said, ""This is not a goodbye. Just a so long for now.""

Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, previously requested that the FBI conduct an investigation into the social media platform and its role in the attack on the Capitol.

Parler, which was founded in 2018, has styled itself as a ""free speech-driven"" space. The app has largely attracted U.S. conservatives who disagree with",Parler CEO says he's been terminated by the company's board,tweets_news_665,tweets_news
"A day after being suspended from Facebook for another two years , former President Donald Trump returns to the political arena Saturday night, poised to get back into his comfort zone speaking from the kind of platform he seems to enjoy most. He’s making a speech before the North Carolina Republican Party convention, kicking off what’s likely...

A day after being suspended from Facebook for another two years , former President Donald Trump returns to the political arena Saturday night, poised to get back into his comfort zone speaking from the kind of platform he seems to enjoy most. He’s making a...

A day after being suspended from Facebook for another two years , former President Donald Trump returns to the political arena Saturday night, poised to get back into his comfort zone speaking from the kind of platform he seems to enjoy most. He’s making a speech before the North Carolina Republican Party convention, kicking off what’s likely to be a spree of summer campaigning. It’s his first public speech since his address at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. Trump called it “a great honor to be speaking” before the group. “I understand the place will be packed, all","Silenced On Facebook And Twitter, Trump Is Set To Speak Out Again On Campaign Trail",tweets_news_666,tweets_news
"

Mar 01, 2020( Bluestem Prairie: http://www.bluestemprairie.comDelivered by Newstex) https://www.bluestemprairie.com/.a/6a00d834516a0869e2025d9b37a75d200c-popup On Saturday, Minnesota Senator Majority Leader Paul Gazelka posted a Facebook video of himself shooting what looks to be one of those contemporary hunting rifles. Ben Dorr, Executive Director of Minnesota Gun Rights[1], responded with a screengrab of the Nisswa Republican rebranded as ""Mr. Rogers.""

The exchange followed the DFL majority House [passing] firearm-removal request measure [2]and House [okaying] contentious gun background check bill [3]on Thursday. The exchange marks the latest high-profile rumble on the right between the Republican Party of Minnesota, the Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus and the Minnesota House Republican Caucus that Bluestem Prairie first reported in Who owns Trump brand in MN?: MN GOP, #mnleg caucuses' battle Dorr Bros, MAGAsota ""scams"" on new website; MAGASota fights back[4]. Readers can visit the RPM, SRC and HRC site, Minnesota Scammers Exposed here.[5] While MAGASOTA is a separate grassroots self-described movement. [6]An Alpha News staff report,Tensions Flare after MNGOP Calls Pro Trump MAGASOTA a Scam, [7]posted on February 25, after Bluestem's coverage, appears sympathetic to the independent conservative activists in MAGASOTA, but says little about the Dorr Brother groups. The Dorr brothers have long been aggressive critics of party Republicans and other",Putting the mess in messaging: Paul Gazelka shoots rifle; Dorr Bro calls him Mr. Rogers,tweets_news_667,tweets_news
"One day when I was lying on the top bunk of my bed in a cell off D-Wing in HMP Isis, South London, I wondered out loud to my cellmate: if there was some kind of fatal epidemic outside, the return of the Black Death, would we be safer here behind these thick steel doors? My cellmate, a Russian hacker who siphoned off millions from compromised bank accounts, said we would: surely if the guvs (staff) were ill they wouldn't be allowed in? I agreed. That was one of the few upsides of being banged-up (the others being free dinner and gym passes).

We were wrong. We're now seeing how the pandemic's playing out in New York, on Rikers Island, where inmates have beenoffered $6 an hour for digging mass graves. And it's spreading in the UK, too. On Saturday, justice secretary Robert Buckland announced up to 4,000 low-risk prisoners would be released across England and Wales in an effort to stem the outbreak.

That's good, but I think we can do better. Historically, wars, plagues and other calamities have helped produce a fairer society: for instance, it took the First World War for women to win the right to vote. This","When I was in prison, I thought about how a pandemic might play out for convicts. Turns out I was wrong",tweets_news_668,tweets_news
"Twitter said Thursday it may remove unverified postings claiming electoral victory as part of a stepped-up effort to protect democracy, less than two months ahead of the US presidential vote.

The social media firm said that under a new policy in effect from next week, ""we will label or remove false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in an election or other civic process.""

This will include ""false or misleading information that causes confusion about the laws and regulations of a civic process,"" as well as ""disputed claims that could undermine faith in the process itself, e.g. unverified information about election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or certification of election results.""

The move comes amid rising concerns about when results will be verified for the November 3 presidential election, in view of an expected large volume of mail-in ballots and criticism of that process by President Donald Trump.

The new policy also bans ""misleading claims about the results"" or interference with the electoral process such as ""claiming victory before election results have been certified, inciting unlawful conduct to prevent a peaceful transfer of power or orderly succession.""

Some analysts have suggested that Trump, who has a large social media following, may reject the",Twitter may remove unverified election result claims,tweets_news_669,tweets_news
"US President Donald Trump announced a major clampdown on social media companies

yesterday as he ordered a review of a law that gives companies like Twitter and Facebook legal protection for content posted on their platforms.

In a significant escalation of his battle with Twitter, Mr Trump signed an executive order calling for new regulations under Section 230 - a key provision of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 which exempts social media companies from liability for content published on their platforms.

""We're here today to defend free speech from one of the greatest dangers,"" he said, as he denounced the ""unchecked power"" of tech ""monopolies"".

""The choices that Twitter makes when it chooses to suppress, edit, blacklist, shadow-ban are editorial decisions, pure and simple,"" he said. ""In those moments Twitter ceases to become a neutral public platform and becomes an editor with a viewpoint,"" adding that his comments also applied to Google and Facebook.

He said censorship and bias are ""a threat to freedom itself"", stating social media companies have ""vastly more power and more reach"" than any phone company, newspaper or traditional forms of communication.

""Imagine if your phone company silenced or edited your conversations. Social media companies have vastly more power and more",Trump announces clampdown on social media companies,tweets_news_670,tweets_news
"

Oct 19, 2020( The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Twitter and Facebook's decision last week to block the New York Post's reporting on Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, has made their arbitrary and capriciously-enforced moderation policies into a joke. It's also put the legal safeguards they enjoy in jeopardy. For both companies, the goal was to not be the story in 2020, much as they were following the 2016 election. That has backfired spectacularly.

Instead, their decisions last week have made them an even bigger story heading into this year's election. That's a direct result of having rules that few understand, are enforced seemingly at random and can appear to change on a whim. What's at stake? User confidence in their platforms, for one thing. Some users could ultimately ditch Facebook or Twitter if they believe the companies are playing political favorites. Regulatory crackdowns are also in play. The FCC has announced it's looking to 'clarify' the framework of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which is the broad legal shield that allows tech companies to moderate content as they see fit. Any changes to this quarter-century old legislation could severely dent Twitter and Facebook's businesses.",How Twitter and Facebook Moderation Rules Are Set Up to Fail,tweets_news_671,tweets_news
"

Jul 10, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; What's his slogan? Make America Great Again? Joe Biden is a globalist. He supported trade deals that allowed China, Mexico, and Europe to fleece America's great industrial sector.

If elected POTUS he will do the same thing. Watch Biden's record below.Joe Biden's Dangerous &#38; Foolish Record[1] Joe Biden has been Dangerous &#38; Foolish on trade deals for DECADES. He's destroyed MILLIONS of American jobs.‬ ‪NAFTA‬‪ China Trade‬‪ TPP‬‪Biden has been an economic disaster for 47 years!‬ Posted by Team Trump[2] on Thursday, July 9, 2020Biden pushes populist 'made in America' plan to pump up economy By Fox News[3], July 9, 2020 SCRANTON, PA — Presumptive Democratic presidential nomineeJoe Biden[4]returned to his childhoold hometown in Pennsylvania on Thursday during a trip where heproposed spending$700 billion on American products and research - in the hopes of bringingback millions of jobs lost by aneconomy[5]flattened bythe coronavirus pandemic[6]. The former vice president[7]unveiled his populist plan during a speech at a metal works factory inDunmore, Pa.,[8]just minutes from his childhood home in Scranton. Biden made a stop at his old home in Scranton today. He was greeted by a crowd of supporters. pic.twitter.com/pvivAqipXW[9] — Madeleine",STEALING from Trump: Plagiarist Biden pushes 'made in America' plan to pump up economy,tweets_news_672,tweets_news
"Remember how the CBC brought a copyright infringement suit against the Conservative party with about 10 days left to go in the 2019 federal election campaign? We were so young then! The proceeding has not received much attention lately, but it is still underway, and I noticed this week that it has taken some turns while we have been cowering in our dens from a virus.

The CBC claimed back in October that Conservative campaign ads had made improper use of short clips from panel shows and from a party leader's debate. The allegedly questionable ads were just like any other repulsive political ad of the last 50 years, and the ""fair dealing"" principle in copyright obviously ought to have the broadest possible latitude in such a situation. But the CBC had the chutzpah to argue that the campaign ads might lead people to think that the corporation was biased in favour of the Conservatives.

Yes, it's the single funniest legal argument ever made, but the topic is serious. The Conservatives took down the offending clips when the CBC began squawking, but the broadcaster went ahead and filed the copyright application with the Federal Court anyhow, not choosing to wait until after",Colby Cosh: CBC versus CPC lawsuit takes an odd turn,tweets_news_673,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's push for bigger $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks stalled out in the Senate as Republicans blocked a swift vote proposed by Democrats and split within their own ranks over whether to boost spending or defy the White House.

The roadblock mounted Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may not be sustainable as pressure mounts. Trump wants the Republican-led chamber to follow the House and increase the checks from $600 for millions of Americans. A growing number of Republicans, including two senators in runoff elections on Jan. 5 in Georgia, have said they will support the larger amount. But most GOP senators oppose more spending, even if they are also wary of bucking Trump.

Senators will be back at it Wednesday as McConnell is devising a way out of the political bind, but the outcome is highly uncertain.

""There's one question left today: Do Senate Republicans join with the rest of America in supporting $2,000 checks?"" Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said as he made a motion to vote.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said some of the $600 payments might be sent by direct deposit to Americans' bank accounts as early as Tuesday night. Mnuchin tweeted that paper checks","Trump's $2,000 checks stall in Senate as GOP blocks vote",tweets_news_674,tweets_news
"On this day in 1954, Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes. Let’s Get More Smarter; if you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast....

On this day in 1954, Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes. Let’s Get More Smarter; if you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of ...

On this day in 1954, Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes. Let’s Get More Smarter; if you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter. CORONAVIRUS INFO… *Colorado Coronavirus info: CDPHE Coronavirus website *Daily Coronavirus numbers in Colorado: http://covid19.colorado.gov *How you can help in Colorado: COVRN.com *Locate a COVID-19 testing site in Colorado: Colorado Department",Get More Smarter on Thursday (May 6),tweets_news_675,tweets_news
"

Mar 06, 2020( Western Free Press: http://www.westernfreepress.com/Delivered by Newstex) It's been pretty clear that the New Green Deal would be a disaster for businesses and for consumers. Now a newstudy[1]confirms just how disastrous the environmental and wealth-redistribution plan would be for Wisconsin. Wisconsin families would be shackled with $40,000 in new costs, and the Dairy State's struggling agricultural sector would be crippled, according to the multistate analysis authored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute andPower the Future.[2] The Green New Deal as championed by liberals such as Reps.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and many of the Democratic presidential candidates calls for shifting energy consumption entirely to electric current from today's primary sources, principally fossil fuels. Doing so, the report finds, wouldcause $200 million in losses to Wisconsin farmers, while clobbering the state's iconic dairy industry with $2.5 billion in additional costs. Estimates say the dramatic carbon-free shift alone would cost trillions of dollars. The report notes that energy research firm Wood Mackenzie estimates that the greening of the U.S. power sector would come with a $4.7 trillion price tag,including around $1.5 trillion to add 1,600 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity and $2.5 trillion of investments in 900 gigawatts","Green New Deal Would Ruin America's Dairyland, Study Warns",tweets_news_676,tweets_news
"

Feb 12, 2020( WayneDupree.com: https://www.waynedupree.com Delivered by Newstex) Advertisement There is nothing better than watching the fake news peddlers over at MSNBC and CNN get a dose of reality.Once they step out of that D.C. bubble, the 'real world' smacks them right in the face. That's exactly what happened when Trump-hater Nicole Wallace went to New Hampshire to report on the primary.

RELATED: [VIDEO] Chris Wallace Had his Own 'Leg Tingle' Moment, Says He Got 'Goosebumps' After Dems Voted on Impeachment Inquiry[1]Advertisement She decided to find a 'random' man on the street and ask him who he voted forAnd wouldn't yup know it - the one guy she picks had just voted for Donald J. Trump! Aha ha ha. Here's how the talk went:AdvertisementMore from Wayne Dupree Nicole: 'Can you tell us who you voted for?' Man: 'Donald John Trump.' Nicole: 'Bernie is not appealing?' Man: 'The whole ideology would be destructive to the country 'It's anti-growth. It's anti-family. It's anti-American. And, as a Roman Catholic, it's anti-life.' Watch the video below:""Can you tell us who you voted for?""""Donald John Trump."" ""Bernie is not appealing?"" ""The whole ideology would be destructive to the country ""It's anti-growth. It's anti-family. It's anti-American. And,",[VIDEO] MSNBC's Wallace Asks Random NH Man Who He Voted ForHis Answer Ruins Her Day.,tweets_news_677,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

An Arizona sheriff defended President Trump against what he saw as unfair attacks against the president’s use of the term “coyotes” during last week’s debate.

“Border security is a big issue for us,” Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb said in a video posted on Twitter. “Now, this week during the presidential debate, they talked about border security. And President Trump talked about how important it was to secure America.”

“And he talked about coyotes,” Lamb continued. “Now, there’s a lot of you, even some with blue checkmarks, who think you’re smarter than all of us, that were making fun of the president for using the term coyote.”

“So I’m going to give you a little education today. You see this, is a coyote,” Lamb said while holding up a picture of an actual, wild coyote. ""Not what the president was referring to. We have plenty of these out here in Arizona.”

“This is what the president was referring to,” Lamb said while holding up a picture of border smugglers often referred to as “coyotes."" “These are also coyotes, paid by the cartel to bring people and drugs into our country.”

“Well, this might be a joke to some of you, this is not a",Border town sheriff mocks liberals for 'coyote' ordeal: 'This is not a joke to us out here',tweets_news_678,tweets_news
"Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is scheduled to testify on Tuesday before the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is scheduled to testify on Tuesday before the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and a central figure in the government’s response to the coronavirus, plans to deliver a stark warning to the Senate on Tuesday: Americans would experience “needless suffering and death” if the country opens up prematurely.

Dr. Fauci, who has emerged as perhaps the nation’s most respected voice during the worst public health crisis in a century, is one of four top government doctors scheduled to testify remotely at a high-profile — and highly unusual — hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He made his comments in an email to a New York Times reporter late Monday night.

“The major message that I wish to convey to the Senate HLP committee tomorrow is the danger of trying to open the country prematurely,” he wrote. “If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines to ‘Open America Again,’",Fauci Plans to Use Hearing to Warn of ‘Needless Suffering and Death’,tweets_news_679,tweets_news
"JOE BIDEN'S choice of Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate raised the temperature in the US election race today as Donald Trump went on the attack.

The president branded the 55-yearold California senator ""nasty"" and ""disrespectful"", in a sign he plans to turn his campaign against the Democrats into a mud-slinging brawl. Mr Trump said he was surprised at the choice of Ms Harris, the first black woman and the first Asian American on a major US party's presidential ticket, and he labelled her ""the most liberal person in the US Senate"". A Trump campaign advert launched today says Mr Biden ""is handing over the reins to Kamala while they jointly embrace the radical Left"".

Democrat party leaders believe Ms Harris will help win over female and black voters in the election on November 3. Revealing his choice for vice president yesterday, Mr Biden said she was ""a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country's finest public servants"". Former president Barack Obama said: ""She is more than prepared for the job."" He added: ""Now let's go win this thing.""

There was unexpected support for Ms Harris from former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. She and Democrat Geraldine",Historic pick for Democrat Biden's running mate sparks Trump rant,tweets_news_680,tweets_news
"Twitter is only bringing more attention to the president's tweets, and Facebook's strategy has been to do nothing.

While Twitter and Facebook dithered over whether to append warning labels on outrageous and dangerous posts from Donald Trump, the president continued to tweet and post.

Twitter took the plunge last week with a fact-checking link on two misleading and false tweets about mail-in voting and, later, an admonition that the president's tweet warning protesters that they risked being shot had violated its rules. Rather than blunt the president's message, the effect of Twitter's knuckle-rapping has been to draw even more attention to it.

Twitter executives deserve credit for at least calling out President Trump, even if it took them two years to finally decide to do so. Despite Twitter's measured approach, its solution only amplifies the problem. And Twitter's boss, Jack Dorsey, has fallen victim to the Streisand Effect, the internet phenomenon where attempts to censor or excise information instead backfire, causing the information to be cast even more widely.

Mark Zuckerberg, under the guise of free speech rights, has in the meantime given the president carte blanche to say what he pleases. Though he wrote he had a ""visceral negative reaction"" to the president's",Facebook and Twitter Must Do More About Trump's Tweets,tweets_news_681,tweets_news
"The United States government has intervened as Australian MPs consider proposed laws that would force Google and Facebook to pay publishers for news.

US officials told parliamentarians examining the bill that the reforms could lead to long term negative consequences for American and Australian companies, and Australian consumers.

They urged the MPs to reconsider the proposed laws, which follow findings from the competition regulator that tech giants held a bargaining power advantage over news publishers.

""The US government is concerned that an attempt, through legislation, to regulate the competitive positions of specific players in a fast-evolving digital market, to the clear detriment of two US firms, may result in harmful outcomes,"" they said.

US trade representatives Daniel Bahar and Karl Ehlers wrote to Senator Alex Gallacher, chair of the committee considering the proposals, urging changes to the bill.

""Given the United States' significant outstanding concerns, we urge Australia not to rush the passage of this legislative proposal,"" the officials said.

They said the proposal gave the government broad discretion to decide what companies would be subject to the ""highly prescriptive and burdensome"" new rules.

The bill targeted Google and Facebook and would apply to companies without establishing a violation of law or a market failure, the officials","US government intervenes as MPs consider rules forcing Google, Facebook to pay for news",tweets_news_682,tweets_news
"NEW YORK — President Donald Trump has ordered a sweeping but vague ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of popular social media apps TikTok and WeChat on security grounds, a move China's government criticized as ""political manipulation.""

The twin executive orders Thursday — one for each app — add to growing U.S.-Chinese conflict over technology and security. They take effect in 45 days and could bar the apps from the Apple and Google app stores, effectively removing them from U.S. distribution. U.S. experts expressed skepticism about its legal authority.

China's foreign ministry said it opposed the move but gave no indication whether Beijing might retaliate.

""This is a pretty broad and pretty quick expansion of the technology Cold War between the U.S. and China,"" said Steven Weber, faculty director for the Berkeley Center for Long Term Cybersecurity.

Earlier, Trump threatened a deadline of Sept. 15 to ""close down"" TikTok in the United States unless Microsoft Corp. or another company acquires it.

TikTok, owned by Beijing-headquartered ByteDance Ltd., is popular for its short, catchy videos. The company says it has 100 million users in the United States and hundreds of millions worldwide. WeChat, known in Chinese as Weixin, is a critical communications app with more","Trump bans dealings with Chinese owners of TikTok, WeChat",tweets_news_683,tweets_news
"

Jul 14, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Former Attorney General and US Senator Jeff Sessions andformer Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville are competing in the Republican primary runoff for US Senate.The race has largely played as a fight over which candidate is more loyal and would best serve Trump, who won the state[1] by a margin of 27 percentage points in 2016.The winner of the runoff will face Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, the most vulnerable Democratic US Senator in 2020, this fall.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[2]. The stakes: Former Attorney General and US Senator Jeff Sessionsis vying against former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tubervillefor the Republican nomination for US Senate to face DemocraticSen. Doug Jones.Jones was elected in a December 2017 special election to replace Sessions, who vacated the seat he represented for over 20 years to become President Donald Trump's attorney general. Now, as Jones is up for re-election for a full term, Sessions is fighting for his old US Senate seat in what could make or break his political career.Sessions and Tuberville advanced to a runoff, which was delayed to July 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after the March 3",LIVE UPDATES: Follow the results of the Republican runoff between Jeff Sessions and Tommy Tuberville for US Senate in Alabama,tweets_news_684,tweets_news
"It may look nice outside, but there's a chill in the air - especially after Dr. Debra Bogen, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, expressed concern that as we get later in the year, people will be spending more time indoors, where the coronavirus likes to mingle.

Staff writer Adam Smeltz returned last week with a COVID-19 warning from the county's top health official.

""It is everywhere,"" Dr. Bogen said. ""So you have to behave as if it is everywhere you go.""

While presidential candidates were seeing their voting numbers increase, health officials were watching the COVID-19 numbers do the same. State officials said there were 3,384 cases reported Friday, the highest daily total since the start of the pandemic.

Those people who said you wouldn't hear any more about COVID-19 after the election? They were wrong. And we will continue to keep you updated on the numbers and the recommendations of experts.

The county is offering free COVID-19 testing at 455 Industry Road in McKeesport. Appointments can be made online through the county website - alleghenycounty.us - or by phone at 412-209-2262. You can always count on people disagreeing

It didn't take long for people to get fired up about the vote count. Staff",THE WEEK IN REVIEW,tweets_news_685,tweets_news
"Facebook Inc. faces a criminal complaint in France from a press-freedom group that accuses the social network of illegally allowing the spread of disinformation and hate speech on its platform.

Reporters Without Borders, known as RSF, said it filed the case with the Paris public prosecutor on Monday, alleging that the U.S. giant allows ""the large-scale proliferation of hate speech and false information on its networks"" despite its promise of a ""safe"" and ""error-free"" online environment.

If a probe is opened, it could lead to sanctions of as much as 10 per cent of the company's revenue in Europe, Antoine Bernard, RSF's adviser for international litigation, said by phone Tuesday.

Facebook and Alphabet Inc.'s Google have come under intense scrutiny for the dissemination of hate speech and terror propaganda, alongside failing to halt the spread of disinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the U.K.'s Brexit vote. The European Commission in December proposed new rules that could punish companies with fines of as much as six per cent of global revenue if they don't comply with orders to remove illegal content, including violent hate speech.

Facebook said in a statement that ""it has zero tolerance for any harmful content on our platforms.""

""Over the",Group files criminal complaint against Facebook in France,tweets_news_686,tweets_news
"""Over 50 percent of American adults-regardless of age, education, or political preference-believe the JFK assassination was the work of more than one person, according to a 2017 poll.""

A smart conspiracy theorist never wears a tinfoil hat. According to research by Massachusetts Institute of Technology students in 2005, tinfoil can actually amplify mobile communication and satellite frequencies, including those used by the Federal Communication Commission. Based on these findings, the researchers (jokingly) speculated that tinfoil hats were a ploy propagated by the government to track the thoughts of U.S. citizens.

So remove the headgear_ Thanks to evolution, you're probably curious about dozens of conspiracies-even in the face of logic and reason. Conspiracies are fun to dissect and debate, but there's a deeper appeal: Humans have a natural skepticism toward authority and power.

""We descended from primates that tended to notice dangerous, hidden things, like a predator in the grass,"" says Michael Shermer, Ph.D., presidential fellow at Chapman University and bestselling author of Why People Believe Weird Things. ""Our ancestors were the paranoid ones who assumed the worst and survived.""

According to Shermer, a conspiracy theory concerns two or more people plotting in secret to gain an immoral/illegal advantage over someone else. Whether rooted in",You've Been Conditioned to Believe Conspiracy Theories. or Have You?!,tweets_news_687,tweets_news
"February 18, 2021 (PPI-OT)

Following is the text of press release issued by Kashmir Media Service

Quote

More than 40 lawyers of south Asian descent have written an open letter to the US President Joe Biden, asking him to take note of the farmers' protests in India and the methods of repressing it taken up by the Modi government.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the letter is also marked to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Gregory Weldon Meeks, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jim Risch, Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Chairmen James P McGovern and Christopher H Smith, and Chair of US Commission on International Religious Freedom Gayle Manchin.

The letter notes the scale of the protests and the way the laws against which they are being done were rushed through parliament and highlights how the Narendra Modi government has been keen to repress the peaceful protests by violent and illegal means, including arrests and censorship.

The letter highlights the infringement of human rights in the cases of labour activist Nodeep Kaur who was tortured in","US Lawyers Write to President Biden on Indian Farmers' Protests, Modi Govt's Repressive Tactics - Press Release issued by Kashmir Media Service",tweets_news_688,tweets_news
"

Oct 07, 2020( Prairie Pundit: http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Mark Hemingway:[1] Last week, a Senate Intelligence Committee report detailed how the son of a major presidential candidate, who has an extensive history of shady foreign business dealings, received a $3.5-million wire transfer from the wife of a Russian politician. The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, and most major media outlets[2] didn't cover the wire-transfer story at all. Four years ago, not reporting such a story was a possibility too absurd to even contemplate — but then again, no one would have predicted the candidate with the shady Russia ties is not Donald Trump, but Joe Biden.People often talk about how Trump is responsible for destroying political norms, and that's a valid concern. One of the truly frightening things about the Trump era, however, is how institutions have exploited a perceived crisis in truth-telling to justify abandoning their own standards by blaming it on Trump.

Increasingly, we see major stories break where the media establishment decides on a collective omert because the story undermines its own credibility or might sway voters in directions it doesn't approve of. When that happens, no news is good news. The problem with hiding the",Media attempts to cover up Biden corruption allegations,tweets_news_689,tweets_news
"Classes are out and so is class, apparently.

An offensive viral video shows a Sacramento State University professor screaming at his neighbours, while his clearly intoxicated wife hurls racial slurs.

In the May 1 video, economics professor Tim Ford and his wife Crystal scream at their downstairs neighbour Mikaela Cobb and her boyfriend.

Cobb said the incident started after Crystal came to Cobb's window to complain about the smell of bacon grease that she said was coming from Cobb's apartment.

Crystal utters a racial slur several times, calls Cobb a ""b--"" and flips off the camera while Cobb talks to her.

""You look like you're going in and out of it right now,"" Cobb's boyfriend says on the video. ""Are you 100% here with me right now?"" Crystal says: ""Yeah, I'm 100% with you, I see you. I see your b--. I see you, n---.""

Tim is shown with a beer in his hand saying: ""I'm a professor at Sac State, dude. I have a PhD. I don't need to be dealing with s--like this."" Later, Tim throws a beer.

Crystal also pushes against Cobb's window and yells: ""Your house stinks ... It reeks.""

The video was posted on Facebook by Cobb before going viral. Cobb said in",Prof's wife spews racial slurs; Sacramento State prez says he's 'deeply offended',tweets_news_690,tweets_news
"Stories being covered today by BBC Monitoring from Turkish broadcast, press and social media sources.

CORONAVIRUS

To read the best of our Covid-19 coverage please click here. To set up thematic feeds of our content on the pandemic, please see here for details.

Covid-19 measures to be eased from 1 June

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the easing of many Covid-19 restrictions including the lifting of inter-city travel bans, the opening of restaurants, cafes, beaches and gyms, and the return of public sector workers to ""normal"" working hours starting from 1 June.

Weekend curfews in 15 major cities will continue, as well as the curfew on people aged over 65 and under 18, Erdogan said after a cabinet meeting yesterday.

Social media users have criticised the continued closure of entertainment venues, including bars.

A piece on Turkey's ""new normal"" after the coronavirus outbreak will be published today.

Congregational Friday prayers to restart today

Congregational Friday prayers will be held today for the first time since a ban was announced due to Covid-19 on 16 March.

The Interior Ministry had announced that it would allow afternoon, mid-afternoon and Friday prayers starting from 29 May. The doors and windows of mosques will be kept open at all times and the",BBCM Turkey Watchlist 29 May,tweets_news_691,tweets_news
"The competence embodied in Merkel provokes loathing from the US president

Donald Trump has declared war on Germany. In a manner of speaking. Europe's most important country, potentially America's most valuable partner, has in the mind of the president become an adversary. Of all Trump's many foreign policy disasters, this is perhaps his most significant.

In late July, it was announced that retired army colonel Douglas Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran, would become the next ambassador to Berlin. Macgregor is a regular contributor to Trump's favourite channel of information, Fox News. He has variously suggested that the US border guard should shoot people if they tried to enter illegally from Mexico; described eastern Ukrainians as ""Russians""; defended Serbia's actions against a ""Muslim drug mafia"" in Kosovo; and criticised Germany for giving ""millions of unwanted Muslim invaders"" welfare benefits rather than providing more funding for its armed services.

Most painfully for his new hosts, Macgregor seems to have sided with the far right in talking down Nazi crimes. He described the concept of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with history), which has underpinned culture and politics since the war, as a ""sick mentality that says that generations after generations must atone sins of what happened",Why Germany would be especially happy to see the back of Trump,tweets_news_692,tweets_news
"The police chief of Bellevue, Washington, was patrolling downtown on a Sunday afternoon late last month as a crowd of what appeared to be peaceful protesters gathered with signs bearing the name of George Floyd, the black man who had died days earlier at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

Police in the wealthy Seattle suburb had tracked discussion on social media and seen intelligence from federal agencies that gang members known to investigators were planning to descend on the city, so Chief Steve Mylett positioned himself and his department to respond to a possible riot. Over a matter of minutes, and with apparent coordination, the crowd of two dozen swelled to some 300 people, most of whom appeared to have no connection to the protest movement, Mylett said in an interview.

""It was like a tsunami coming at us of people,"" he said. ""They took over the intersection, they dropped the George Floyd signs, there was no more protesting.""

Scores of businesses were looted and destroyed in the ""well-coordinated attack"" that night, Mylett said, totaling millions in dollars of stolen property and damages and mirroring scenes of destruction seen nationwide.

For police departments and prosecutors across the country, the thousands of riot-related","Police point finger at gangs and local groups for riot damages, contradicting Trump's claims",tweets_news_693,tweets_news
"cms, ry

As national attention swirls around controversial social media postings and comments from Marjorie Taylor Greene's recent past, the congresswoman representing Northwest Georgia hosted a town hall Wednesday night in Dalton, where her supporters stood behind her despite the mounting backlash.

Greene has come under intense pressure after comments she ""liked"" on Facebook were recently dug up that indicated support for executing prominent Democrats.

In a post from January 2019, Greene liked a comment that said ""a bullet to the head would be quicker"" to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In other posts, Greene liked comments about executing FBI agents who, in her eyes, were part of the ""deep state"" working against then-President Donald Trump, according to screenshots by CNN.

At Wednesday's town hall, Greene largely avoided the social media posts and instead discussed what she is focusing on as a congresswoman, including gun rights, anti-abortion legislation and passing a law designed to prevent transgender individuals from playing sports with teammates of any gender except their gender at birth.

Greene also described in detail what it was like to be at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. She said it was ""honestly one of the scariest days of my life.""

The riots started after",Supporters stand by Marjorie Taylor Greene at town hall; TV reporter kicked out for asking question,tweets_news_694,tweets_news
"Updated throughout the day on Tuesday, Dec. 8. Questions/comments: ariga@postmedia.com( ariga@postmedia.com )

Top updates

Trump could try to limit Canada's access to COVID vaccine

No plans for stricter lockdown in Quebec, Legault says

Quebec reports 1,564 cases, 36 deaths as hospitalizations rise

Maimonides will be among first CHSLDs to get vaccine

French schools are not allowed to install air purifiers, Liberal MNA says

Opinion: Unlock our cellar doors, Mr. Legault, and give restaurateurs a lifeline

Sign up for our free nightly coronavirus newsletter( http://view.ceros.com/postmedia-network/cv-montreal-gazette/p/1 )

12:50 p.m. Video: What are François Legault's holiday plans? 12:30 p.m. Trump could try to limit Canada's access to COVID vaccine

From The Canadian Press:

Canada is waiting to see whether President Donald Trump tries to limit its access to COVID-19 vaccines in the name of ""America First.""

Trump is expected to sign an executive order today to ensure U.S. citizens are first in line for vaccine doses manufactured in the United States, but it's unclear how much impact it will have.

Trump is under political pressure following reports the White House passed up a chance to secure 500 million extra doses of Pfizer's vaccine, the first to be used outside a clinical trial.

""We're very confident that Pfizer and other vaccine manufacturers that are contractually obligated to deliver","Coronavirus live updates: Quebec reports more than 1,500 cases for fourth consecutive day",tweets_news_695,tweets_news
"Tech Stocks



General Commentary Updated: 11-Jan-21 16:22 ET Consumer discretionary and tech stocks weighed on the market to open the week, pushing the major averages off last week's all-time highs. Pressure began over the weekend when more tech companies began banning or suspending accounts related to President Donald Trump. All told, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite turned in the worst losses, down 165.54 points (-1.25%) to 13,036.43. The S&P 500 shed 25.07 points (-0.66%) to 3,799.61, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 89.28 points (-0.29%) to 31,008.69. The S&P 500 information technology index (-0.94%) ended in the bottom half of S&P 500 sectors. Today's action in social media showed some of the worst losses in the group.

Shares of Baidu (BIDU 219.55, -20.70, -8.62%), after topping two-year highs in the morning, faded into the close owing to some likely profit-taking. The company confirmed on Sunday night plans to produce electric vehicles as part of a strategic partnership with auto manufacturer Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (GELYY 82.71, -2.93, -3.42%). For their part, Twitter (TWTR 48.18, -3.30, -6.41%) shares were on watch most of the day following news out over the weekend that the company had permanently suspended President Donald Trump's account as well",Briefing.com: Tech Stocks,tweets_news_696,tweets_news
"HOW we laugh. Donald Trump could be re-elected!

If true, it's the sweetest victory of all, against the bullies and elites who most needed to be thrashed. The result is still too early to call.

Both Trump and rival Joe Biden say they'll win. But Trump is slightly ahead and, either way, this is nothing like the Biden walkover we were told to expect. How we now laugh at the pollsters, who tried to tell us Biden would beat Trump like a drum.

How we laugh at the mainstream media, too, for hysterically demonising Trump for four years, peddling one ""bombshell"" fake claim after another to destroy him. He'd colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election! He'd bribed Ukraine to destroy Biden! He'd called white racists ""good people""! How we laugh at the race-baiters who insisted Trump was a racist, only to see him winning over many black and Latino voters.

How we laugh at Facebook and Twitter, who must now face an inquiry after shamelessly suppressing posts that hurt Joe Biden and censoring ones by Trump. How we laugh at the Democrats for picking a candidate so old, frail and forgetful that they hid him in his basement for days during the",President defies the polls as US votes,tweets_news_697,tweets_news
"Trump has finally ""Made America Great Again!""

Marv Curry, Port Rowan

If you have symptoms, stay home

We followed the rules and still got COVID-19 (Nov. 7)

With all due respect, I would suggest this author did not follow all the rules with respect to COVID-19. He had symptoms, but made the decision to visit family and play tennis. Thankfully and in your words, ""no one we were in contact with contracted the virus."" Public health advises anyone with symptoms to remain at home and self-isolate unless you are going to an assessment centre.

Nancy Dingwall, Hamilton

COVID fatigue has us on a dangerous course

It's obvious to me that COVID fatigue is upon us. On two different occasions while shopping in Grimsby there were individuals without masks. I spoke to the staff about it and they didn't seem to care. The manager suggested on one occasion there was nothing he could do about it despite a sign saying masks are mandatory. I myself confronted a young mother at the time about not wearing a mask and she simply said no thank-you.

So as you can read there are still individuals out there who have the Trump mentality and are self centred and have no regard for anyone",Readers write,tweets_news_698,tweets_news
"Detailed weather forecast.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

And I made it clear and they accepted me for just who I was. Four hours. This is fascinating... A four-hour meeting. Did anybody ever say to you, Halima, you have got something, you're incredible but you can do so much more, for example, if you are prepared to model without the headscarf?

No, that was never even a question. Four-hour meeting to talk about wardrobe - how is this going to work? Because I am the first hijab-wearing model. It has never happened in the industry and so with that it is not as simple as just put her on the runway. What happens backstage? I need to have a private dressing space to change in. Because we know that for most models the environment is very open. Yeah, yeah. And most models... Are very comfortable, yeah. ..with exposing quite a lot of flesh and it is a pretty relaxed backstage. Yeah. I am guessing that when you emphasise modesty as",Weather for the Week Ahead - 00:40 AM GMT,tweets_news_699,tweets_news
"

Mar 10, 2021( DC Forecasts: https://www.dcforecasts.com Delivered by Newstex) Ripple and YouTube settle the lawsuit over scammers impersonating CEO Brad Garlinghouse and both companies will make charitable donations so let's read more in our latest Ripple news[1] today. Ripple sued youTube over a flood of videos in which scammers impersonated the CEO and the settlement will see the companies donate money to a non-profit organization. Garlinghouse tweeted on Tuesday that Ripple and YouTube settled the lawsuit over the flood of videos in which scammers uploaded videos of Garlinghouse to promote different things crypto-related.

The phenomenon of scammers using social media to steal the names and images of the prominent executives that were pervasive in the crypto space but also in the business world in general. The imposters wanted to impersonate other high-profile CEOs like Elon Musk[2] and Richard Branson on social media just to make some extra money from the public.Last year, @Ripple[3] and I sued @YouTube[4] for failing to enforce its own policies by allowing fake accounts (impersonating my/Ripple's verified accounts) to conduct XRP giveaway scams. We've now come to a resolution to work together to prevent, detect and take down these scams. 1/3 — Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) March 9,",Ripple And YouTube Settle The Lawsuit And Will Make Charity Donations,tweets_news_700,tweets_news
"

Apr 27, 2020( Voice of America: http://www.voanews.com Delivered by Newstex) BEIJING - Three Beijing-based internet activists have disappeared and are believed to be detained by police for archiving censored coronavirus news stories online, according to a relative.China has faced criticism over its handling of the outbreak, including punishing whistleblowers who tried to warn about the new virus.Chen Mei, Cai Wei and his girlfriend surnamed Tang who contributed to the crowd-sourced project on the software development platform GitHub went missing on April 19, according to Chen's brother Chen Kun.The volunteer-driven project, named Terminus2049, preserved articles that were blocked or removed from mainland news outlets and social media by China's aggressive online censorship.Two of the volunteers, Cai and Tang, were charged with ""picking quarrels and provoking trouble"" and are currently under ""residential surveillance at a designated location,"" according to a notice from Beijing's Chaoyang District police received by their families, and seen by AFP.Chen Kun said that he is still waiting on official confirmation from Chaoyang police that his younger brother, aged 26, has been detained.""I understand that Cai and Tang disappeared around the same time as Chen Mei,"" Chen told AFP.""Given that both Chen and Cai were contributors to the Terminus2049",Beijing-Based Trio Disappeared for Archiving Censored Coronavirus News,tweets_news_701,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON • Four months after Facebook suspended Trump’s accounts, having concluded that he incited violence leading to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the company’s quasi-independent oversight board upheld the bans. But it told Facebook to specify how long they would last,...

WASHINGTON • Four months after Facebook suspended Trump’s accounts, having concluded that he incited violence leading to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the company’s quasi-independent oversight board upheld the bans. But it told Facebook to specify how lo...

WASHINGTON • Four months after Facebook suspended Trump’s accounts, having concluded that he incited violence leading to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the company’s quasi-independent oversight board upheld the bans. But it told Facebook to specify how long they would last, saying that its “indefinite” ban on the former president was unreasonable. The ruling, which gives Facebook six months to comply, effectively postpones any possible Trump reinstatement and puts the onus for that decision squarely back on the company. That could leave Facebook in the worst of all possible worlds — one in which Trump’s supporters remain enraged over the bans, his critics pushing for broader social-media regulation and the company stuck with a momentous issue it clearly hoped the","Facebook board upholds Trump ban, just not indefinitely",tweets_news_702,tweets_news
"Borat's daughter played by actress Maria Bakalova was filmed gaining access to several events inside the White House. The character was filmed standing just metres away from Donald Trump in the explosive new footage

Borat's 'daughter' was able to gain access to the White House and even had a conversation with Donald Trump's son, Don Jr, while they were filming the upcoming movie.

The actress that stars in Sacha Baron Cohen's new mockumentary, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, was just metres away from Donald Trump when she was allowed into the White House after getting through security checks, claimed Borat.

Sharing a teaser of the new film on Borat's official Twitter page, he revealed that his 'daughter', Tutar Sagdiyev -played by Maria Bakalova -infiltrated the White House while chatting to controversial OAN correspondent Chanel Rion.

In the clip, Bakalova was shadowing Rion while posing as a 15-year-old budding journalist.

Borat then points out in the footage that she did not receive a Covid test and there was ""no need for security checks,"" in order to gain access.

""Trump very careful who he let into his events and house. No Covid test necessary -High 5!"" he penned in the caption.

Love celebrity gossip Sign up for the Mirror's daily newsletter",Borat's 'daughter' metres away from Donald Trump after gaining access to White House,tweets_news_703,tweets_news
"For true aficionados of nude relaxation, there are no parts of the body ""where the sun don't shine.""

And with appropriate protection -- a liberal layer of sun screen, face masks where required -- there are plenty of places around the world where it's safe and legal to shed the burden of clothing and offer your skin up to some delicious warming rays.

UK swimwear brand Pour Moi has created a new map revealing the 39 countries that permit topless and nude sunbathing and the 38 countries where it's too risky.

The team spent weeks researching the individual laws of countries and cross-referencing them with travel forums, blogs and social media posts.

The resulting map categorizes countries into four colors: green, red, amber and gray.

Europe is the continent that most embraces stripping off, with the green-lit lands of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark and Germany being some of the many countries where you can easily find beaches that welcome birthday suits. Even in the buttoned-down UK, topless sunbathing is completely legal -- if done discreetly.

Countries colored red are ones where public nudity of any kind is completely unacceptable or illegal. Think twice before throwing your scanties to the wind in Morocco, Grenada, Bahrain or Belarus.

You'd",Where you can sunbathe nude or topless around the world,tweets_news_704,tweets_news
"The books, TV shows, albums, and other things we're excited about this month, from DC and beyond

#1 Rage by Bob Woodward

Books

There has long been a familiar rhythm to a Woodward book launch: a splashy excerpt in the Post, a dishy drip-drip-drip of you-were-there anecdotes, the ensuing DC-insider speculation about the identities of the legendary reporter's anonymous tipsters. But this time, some of the most shocking material comes from a source who was actually on the record: Trump himself. The President, who sat for 18 interviews with Woodard for the book, was calling Rage FAKE on Twitter even before the damning specifics started to trickle out.

#2 Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story, 1975-1993, Various Artists

Music

This ten-track compilation documents the late Black Fire Records, a DC label devoted to capturing Afrocentric sounds. The vibe here is more wind chimes than congas, but you can still hear the roots of go-go. Perhaps the biggest treat is Experience Unlimited's ""People,"" a groovy slice of astral soft rock that couldn't be further from their 1988 hit ""Da Butt.""

#3 What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era by Carlos Lozada

Books

Few people have read more books about the Trump era than",The Culture 10,tweets_news_705,tweets_news
"NEW YORK - Before President Donald Trump stepped into the White House briefing room on Thursday to provide an update on the coronavirus, an opening act was broadcast across cable news of another chief executive calmly reciting statistics and safety tips.

For the second straight day, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's matter-of-fact and slightly scolding demeanour from an epicenter of the pandemic was a stark contrast to the often haphazard and hyperbolic messages coming from Trump.

""I tell my daughters: Make decisions based on risk versus reward,"" the Democrat said at his Thursday briefing. ""For young people to go out in crowds on spring break is so unintelligent and reckless, I can't even begin to express it. Stay home. Stop the spread. Save lives.""

Through daily briefings and scores of media appearances, Cuomo has emerged as one of the key faces responding to the pandemic. He is one of several governors thrust into the spotlight as cases surge, forcing a reordering of American life without schools, sporting events or large crowds. The decisions to cancel events and help overburdened hospitals have often fallen to governors, like Ohio's Mike DeWine, a Republican, who postponed the state's primary this week, and Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer, a",Cuomo emerges as Democratic counter to Trump virus response,tweets_news_706,tweets_news
"

Nov 04, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; They know. They cheated, so of course they know! Chaotic scene at Detroit vote tally site as protesters chant 'Stop the count!A chaotic scene erupted in Michigan on Wednesday as protesters converged on a vote-counting location after President Trump's campaign filed suit to halt the process[1]. Video clips posted on Twitter[2] show dozens of people chanting[3] 'Stop the count!' outside the TCF Center in Detroit. An unconfirmed report said some protesters described being sent to the TCF Center by unidentified Republican 'contacts.' Conflicting, unconfirmed reports also said both that the tabulation had been suspended and that it was expected to be finished by 6 p.m. In a statement earlier Wednesday, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said the president's political operatives have 'not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law.' 'We have filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted,' Stepien said. 'We also demand to review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access.'Have a tip",Chaotic scene at Detroit vote tally site as protesters chant 'Stop the count!,tweets_news_707,tweets_news
"

Jul 07, 2020( EUR/Electronic Urban Report: http://www.eurweb.com Delivered by Newstex) D.L. Hughley talks to TMZ about having COVID-19 *D.L. Hughley appears to be bouncing back from the coronavirus rather swiftly. You recall less than two weeks ago, the comedian passed out during one of his stand-up show's and less than 24 hours later, claimed he tested positive for the deadly contagion. Earlier, we posted news of him collapsing on-stage during a comedy show in Nashville.

The following day, he posted a video on Instagram, saying he received the coronavirus diagnosis after a series of tests at Nashville's Saint Thomas Hospital. 'I was what they call asymptomatic,' Hughley said in the video (see below). 'I didn't have flu-like symptoms, I didn't have shortness of breath, I didn't have difficulty breathing, I didn't have a cough, I didn't have a low-grade fever. I still don't have a fever. I didn't have a loss of smell or taste, apparently I just lost consciousness.' OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:Ray Leonard Jr: The Total Package Entrepreneur, TV Star, Author, Motivational Speaker and Radio Host[1]Hughley is now back on the press circuit promoting his latest book 'Surrender, White People!: Our Unconditional Terms for Peace[2],' which is",Keisha Lance Bottoms: Atlanta Mayor Announces Testing Positive for Coronavirus / VIDEO,tweets_news_708,tweets_news
"

Jun 30, 2020( International Business Times News: http://www.ibtimes.com Delivered by Newstex) YouTube on Monday shut down six far-right channels for violating rules against ""supremacist"" content, booting videos by David Duke, Stefan Molyneux and Richard Spencer.The video sharing platform pulled the plug on the channels as online social media platforms face increasing pressure to crack down on hateful rhetoric.""We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies,"" YouTube said in response to an AFP inquiry about the move.Since updating guidelines a year ago to better address supremacist content, YouTube saw a fivefold spike in video removals and has terminated more than 25,000 channels for violating hate speech policies, the spokesperson added.YouTube said that the channels removed Monday included Duke, Molyneux, Spencer and American Renaissance.All the terminated channels broke YouTube rules by alleging that members of protected groups were innately inferior to others, according to the Google-owned video platform.Some of the nixed channels also violated rules against linking YouTube videos to hateful content hosted elsewhere on the internet, the company said. Spencer confirmed the suspension of his account in a tweet that included a screen-capture of a message from YouTube citing",YouTube Shuts Down Far-right Channels Over Hate Speech,tweets_news_709,tweets_news
"TALLAHASSEE, Fla., May 28 -- The Governor of Florida issued the following press release:

On May 26 in Miami, Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Judge Renatha Francis and John Couriel to the Florida Supreme Court. Judge Francis' appointment fills the vacancy of former Florida Supreme Court Justice Robert Luck and Mr. Couriel's appointment fills the vacancy of former Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Lagoa. Francis will officially take her seat on the Supreme Court on September 24, 2020.

Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez said, ""The appointments of Renatha Francis and John Couriel to the highest court in our state are historic. Francis, the first Jamaican-American appointed to the Florida Supreme Court and Couriel, the son of Cuban immigrants, will be an extraordinary addition to our judicial system with their dedication to fairness and the rule of law.""

Senate President Bill Galvano said, ""Justice Francis and Justice Couriel come to the bench with inspiring life stories that reflect a deep pride for the constitutional freedoms we cherish. I am confident both will respect the separation of powers and the limited role of the Judiciary contemplated in our Constitution. I congratulate Governor DeSantis on making these significant appointments in the midst of such a challenging time for",WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: FLORIDA LEADERS APPLAUD GOV. DESANTIS' APPOINTMENTS OF JUDGE RENATHA FRANCIS AND JOHN COURIEL TO THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT,tweets_news_710,tweets_news
"Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, issued the following news release:

Rep. Seth Moulton is sending a letter to the heads of several technology companies demanding their assistance in tracking down as many of the domestic terrorists responsible for breaching the United States Capitol during Wednesday's failed coup attempt. Moulton, noting that many of the rioters documented their actions both before and after the events online, called upon the social media platforms to cooperate with federal law enforcement so that the perpetrators of the attack can be brought to justice.

""The domestic terrorists who perpetrated Wednesday's attack may have walked out of the building, but they will not escape justice,"" Moulton said. ""The technology companies whose platforms were used to plan and broadcast the attack have an obligation to assist the pursuit of justice. For too long, these same companies have willingly provided a platform to the extremists, nationalists and conspiracy theorists who showed up on Wednesday. It is too late to prevent this attack, but it's never too late to do the right thing.""

In his letter, Rep. Moulton notes that social media companies ""have the responsibility to preserve evidence of crimes on your platform and cooperate with the investigations"" and demanding that they",Rep. Moulton Demands Social Media Companies Cooperate With Law Enforcement,tweets_news_711,tweets_news
"Byline: Lucy Britner

Consumers' growing concerns about their health are not only well documented, but they're also a natural reaction to a global health crisis. But, several soft drinks and supplements companies are getting their messages wrong. Lucy Britner investigates.

Last week, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority banned a social media ad for a product linking its ingredients to a cure for COVID-19. Revival Drinks, trading as Revival Shots, used both Facebook and Instagram to advertise its product, a vitamin C-laden 'stick', along with the text: ""Vitamin-C has been proven to boost immunity by many global studies - it is now being tested in the USA & China as a possible cure for COVID-19.""

The ASA said the ads were in breach of advertising rules because they imply that ""consuming Revival Shots could, through their vitamin C content, help to cure COVID-19"". Under the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) code, claims that state or imply a food could prevent, treat or cure human disease are prohibited for foods; this includes food supplements and drinks. The ads also featured the 'staysafe' hashtag, which is commonly associated with the pandemic.

Revival isn't alone - two weeks prior, UK-based Chuckling Goat, which makes gut health-boosting kefir, saw",Why COVID-19 is making soft drinks walk an advertising tightrope - comment.,tweets_news_712,tweets_news
"Hafiz Mohammed Naseerudin says that after a police officer assaulted him for being a Muslim and blamed him for spreading the coronavirus, he was left lying on the road for almost an hour.

Naseerudin, 44, had gone to pick up some vegetables from his friend's house in Humnabad, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, when he says an officer stopped him on his scooter.

Other vehicles were on the road, Naseerudin says -- he believes he was stopped because of his religion.

""I am an Imam, so I look and dress very Muslim. I also have a long beard,"" he says. ""The cop started hitting me and saying that it is because of me and my community that this disease is spreading.""

Nagesh D L, police superintendent of Bidar district where Humnabad is located, says the officer has been suspended while an inquiry was conducted into the incident. Naseerudin says he called the police from hospital to make a statement, but Nagesh claims they did not receive any complaint.



Naseerudin is not alone. As fears of a widespread coronavirus outbreak mount in India, some of the country's Muslims, who make up roughly 200 million of the country's 1.3 billion population, have been targeted in",India's Muslims feel targeted by rumors they're spreading Covid-19,tweets_news_713,tweets_news
"SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon has accused Parler, the social network known as a conservative alternative to Twitter, of trying to conceal its ownership amid a legal dispute between Amazon and Parler stemming from the U.S. Capitol riots.

Angelo Calfo, an attorney representing Parler, disputed Amazon's claim and argued that the burden was on Amazon to prove who owns Parler, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday.

“This is a ginned-up effort to try to throw mud at Parler, when Parler has been completely clear about its ownership,” Calfo said.

The legal dispute began in January after Amazon Web Services, the Seattle company's cloud-computing division, stopped working with Parler, temporarily wiping the platform off the internet. Amazon said Parler was unable to moderate a rise in violent content before, during and after the January insurrection.

Parler asked a federal judge in Seattle to force Amazon to reinstate it on the web. That effort failed. Parler then filed a new complaint over the same argument against Amazon in King County Superior Court.

Amazon immediately dragged the case back into federal court, where it was assigned the same judge who had ruled against Parler. Parler objected to the move, arguing the court has no jurisdiction over the case since both",Amazon claims social network Parler trying to conceal owners,tweets_news_714,tweets_news
"According to the officials, use of social media can be detrimental to the health and well-being of children, who are not equipped to navigate the challenges of having a social media account. U.S. officials representing 44...

According to the officials, use of social media can be detrimental to the health and well-being of children, who are not equipped to navigate the challenges of having a social media account. U.S. officials representing 44 states and territories on Monday u...

According to the officials, use of social media can be detrimental to the health and well-being of children, who are not equipped to navigate the challenges of having a social media account. U.S. officials representing 44 states and territories on Monday urged Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg to abandon plans to launch a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13. According to the officials, use of social media can be detrimental to the health and well-being of children, who are not equipped to navigate the challenges of having a social media account and added that an Instagram platform for young children is harmful for ‘myriad reasons’. “The attorneys general have an interest in protecting our youngest citizens, and Facebook’s plans to create","Abandon Instagram for kids plan, U.S. states urge Facebook",tweets_news_715,tweets_news
"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just released new national climate normals, and no, it's not your imagination. Your city really is getting warmer. Here's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. (You can also get ""5 Things You Need to Know Today"" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just released new national climate normals, and no, it's not your imagination. Your city really is getting warmer. Here's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. (You can also get ""...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just released new national climate normals, and no, it's not your imagination. Your city really is getting warmer. Here's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. (You can also get ""5 Things You Need to Know Today"" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.) President Biden has a new Covid-19 goal: at least one vaccine dose to 70% of US adults and . That would mark a sharp slowdown in vaccination pace, something that's already happening across the country. So far, about 145 million people","5 things to know for May 5: Covid-19, Facebook, Mueller probe, Afghanistan, Israel",tweets_news_716,tweets_news
"

Jan 22, 2021( Prairie Pundit: http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Red States:[1]'No speculation is needed. Those who wield power are demanding it. The only question is how much opposition they will encounter.' So reads the subhead of veteran journalist Glenn Greenwald's latest article, titledThe New Domestic War on Terror is Coming[2].In the two-and-a-half months since the presidential election, events have seemingly moved at warp speed.

Supporters of then-President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in protest of the election results, the Left has moved in blatant fashion to crack down on the rights of conservatives, including Twitter's permanent suspension of Donald Trump's account and more than 70 others, and Amazon has de-platformed the right-leaning website, Parler.As Greenwald sees it, we conservatives ain't seen nothin', yet.'The last two weeks have ushered in a wave of new domestic police powers and rhetoric in the name of fighting 'terrorism' that are carbon copies of many of the worst excesses of the first War on Terror that began nearly twenty years ago.'This trend shows no sign of receding as we move farther from the January 6 Capitol riot. The opposite is true: it is intensifying.Greenwald then ticked through some of the specifics behind his belief that the",The left in the US outsourced speech suppression efforts to Big Tech,tweets_news_717,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Republicans are fighting to seize control of Congress. Just don't ask what they'd do if they win.

BODY

Former president Donald Trump announced his endorsement of North Carolina Representative Ted Budd (left) for the 2022 North Carolina US Senate seat as he spoke at the North Carolina Republican Convention on Saturday in Greenville, N.C.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Republicans are fighting to seize control of Congress. Just don't ask what they'd do if they win.

Look no further for evidence of the GOP's muddled governing agenda than battleground North Carolina, where party leaders packed into a convention hall Saturday night to cheer former president Donald Trump. Even with a high-stakes US Senate election looming, the Republicans there were united not by any consistent set of conservative policies or principles, but by Trump's groundless grievances about the 2020 election and his attacks against critics in both parties.

The lack of a forward-looking agenda stands in stark contrast to successful midterm elections of past years, particularly 1994 and 2010, when Republicans swept into power after staking clear positions on health care, federal spending, and crime, among other issues. Without such a strategy heading into 2022, Republicans on the ballot risk allowing themselves to be wholly defined by Trump,",Trump grievances cloud GOP agenda,tweets_news_718,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Maine's junior senator says President Trump is too dangerous to allow to stay in office and should be removed immediately.

Independent says president too dangerous to stay

Sen. Angus King announced Tuesday that he is supporting the impeachment of President Trump, saying the president needs to be removed from office immediately for his role in the fomenting the insurrection against Congress last week.

“After the events of January 6th, it is more clear than ever that President Trump poses a danger to the Republic, and that if he is allowed to remain in office for the next eight days, this intemperate and impulsive person could use his powers in ways that further jeopardize our national security and the safety of the American people,” King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said in a statement. “That is why President Trump should be immediately removed from office — either through his own resignation, the 25th Amendment, or, if necessary, impeachment.”

With King’s announcement, Sen. Susan Collins is the only member of Maine’s delegation not to have committed to impeaching Trump for a second time. Collins, the only remaining Republican in New England’s congressional delegation, has said she will not comment on impeachment efforts on",Sen. King supports Trump’s removal,tweets_news_719,tweets_news
"

Dec 29, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/ Delivered by Newstex) On Monday's Morning Joeon MSNBC, fill-in host Kasie Hunt and contributor Mike Barnicle trashed Senator Marco Rubio after the Florida Republican sent out a tweet on Sunday complaining that Dr. Anthony Fauci has a history of conflicting statements about pandemic-related issues, and recently suggesting he delayed ""the truth"" until the public could handle it.Barnicle called Rubio's reaction to Fauci ""an obscenity"" and wrongly suggested that the Florida Senator had opposed mask-wearing.At 7:25 a.m. Eastern, Hunt played a clip of Dr. Fauci from Sunday's State of the Union on CNN in which he claimed that he recently changed his projections to call for a higher percentage of Americans to be vaccinated, suggesting that it was just because of new scientific discoveries.Hunt then showed a tweet[1] Senator Rubio sent out Sunday, and then disapprovingly called out Senator Rubio for alleged ""hypocrisy"" as she recalled his tweet'scriticism of Dr. Fauci KASIE HUNT: Not everyone, though, isaccepting Dr. Fauci's revisedestimate on just how manyAmericans should take thecoronavirus vaccine.Republican Senator Marco Rubioof Florida accused Dr. Fauci ofquote, ""lying about masks"" andquote, ""distorting the level of vaccination needed for herdimmunity."" Many on Twitter pointed out Senator Rubio's hypocrisy.",'OBSCENITY'? 'Morning Joe' Uncorks on Rubio for Saying Dr. Fauci Lied About Masks,tweets_news_720,tweets_news
"In brief Driver dies in crashOne person is dead after a single-vehicle crash in Palmerston North yesterday. The crash occurred on Cardiff St in Awapuni before 7am and there were no other occupants in the vehicle. The Serious Crash Unit was examining the scene yesterday.

Heat on social media firms Pressure on social media giants from investors is mounting to do more after Christchurch's mosque attacks. The NZ Super Fund and a range of Kiwi investors have encouraged others across the globe - representing trillions of dollars in assets - to write an open letter to Facebook, Alphabet and Twitter. NZ Super Fund chief executive Matt Whineray says the shootings on March 15 last year spread across social media platforms - adding to the horror of the attack. He says the NZ Super Fund is not happy with responses so far. Whineray says they need to strengthen controls over objectionable content - or they are creating a significant business risk, beyond the harm caused to the global community. Moves to cut food waste The Government wants a broader strategy to tackle waste but says food scraps are low on the priority list. The Environment Committee has reported back to the House",,tweets_news_721,tweets_news
"

Jan 30, 2021( Deutsche Welle World: http://www.dw.de/top-stories/world/s-1429 Delivered by Newstex) Javid Dehghan was arrested in 2015 and later convicted of being one of the leaders of the Pakistan-based Jaish al-Adl militant group, which has been involved in several violent attacks in Iran.Iranian authorities on Saturday hanged Javid Dehghan Khalad, a suspected terrorist, for murder, abduction and links to the Sunni militant Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) group, according to the Iranian judiciary's website.Dehghan was put to death early in the morning in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, the local Mizan Online news agency reported.Dehghan, also knows as Mohammad Omar, had been found guilty of carrying out ""armed action against the state,"" the website said. He was also found to have been involved in the killing of two Revolutionary Guards' members in 2015, as well as leading a raid to abduct five border guards, one of whom was killed, it added.Who is Jaish al-Adl?

Pakistan-based militant group Jaish al-Adl has been involved in a number of deadly attacks on the Shiite country's soldiers and installations in the past few years, including the February 2019 suicide attack that killed 27 Iranian security forces along the Iran-Pakistan border.The group previously claimed responsibility for",Iran hangs ethnic Baluch for 'killing two Revolutionary Guards',tweets_news_722,tweets_news
"

Feb 27, 2020( WayneDupree.com: https://www.waynedupree.com Delivered by Newstex) It's amazing to me how so-called 'strong feminist women' are so weak. All they do is complain about how big, strong, and better men are than them. They whine about it on TV, movies, and even in music videos.

So, I guess my question to these feminist women would be: If you're so strong and amazing, why do men constantly beat you at everything?Feminists believe that they have a right to nose-into every area of a man's life and be treated as 'equal,' and when it inevitably fails and they fall short they become frustrated and angry and lash out and shout things like 'boys club,' and 'men are misogynists.' Or worse, they start a #MeToo movement and take revengeLook, men are better at a lot of things, just like women are better at some things. It's how we are made. But you don't see men trying to nose their way into knitting circles or cookie-decorating groups. If they did, they'd likely suck at it. MORE NEWS: Report: George Clooney's 'Nespresso' Coffee Beans Picked by Poor Guatemalan Children Who Earn $6 Dollars a Day[1]But feminists, like every other progressive group, must be full-fledge",[VIDEO]Taylor Swift Transforms Herself Into a 'Misogynist Male' in New Man-Bashing Feminist Music Video,tweets_news_723,tweets_news
"In a swift turn of events, Mr. Buttigieg and Ms. Klobuchar quit the presidential race and endorsed Mr. Biden on the eve of Super Tuesday to try to boost him against the liberal front-runner, Mr. Sanders.

DALLAS -- In a last-minute bid to unite the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, Senator Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg on Monday threw their support behind a presidential campaign rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., giving him an extraordinary boost ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries that promised to test his strength against the liberal front-runner, Senator Bernie Sanders.

Even by the standards of the tumultuous 2020 campaign, the dual endorsement from Ms. Klobuchar and Mr. Buttigieg -- and their joint appearances with Mr. Biden at campaign events in Dallas on Monday night -- was remarkable. Rarely, if ever, have opponents joined forces so dramatically, as Ms. Klobuchar and Mr. Buttigieg went from campaigning at full tilt in the South Carolina primary on Saturday to joining on a political rescue mission for a former competitor, Mr. Biden, whom they had once regarded as a spent force.

Ms. Klobuchar, who sought to appeal to the same moderate voters as Mr. Biden and Mr. Buttigieg, and focused her campaign",Rivals Swiftly Back Biden In a Push to Stop Sanders,tweets_news_724,tweets_news
"

Jul 29, 2020( Axios: https://link.axios.com/join/am-signup?source=aci Delivered by Newstex) Antitrust laws don't need updating, big isn't bad and American success should not be punished, argues a new conservative coalition pushing back on Republicans who view antitrust action as the remedy for their grievances with Big Tech.Why it matters: A fragile bipartisan consensus that there's too much power concentrated in Silicon Valley is helping to propel federal and state antitrust investigations of major tech firms. Right-leaning groups troubled by that development are looking to rally like-minded conservatives to their side.Driving the news: The Alliance on Antitrust officially launches today, the same day the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook are set to testify in a major antitrust hearing[1]. The new group brings together more than a dozen right-of-center groups and individuals and is spearheaded by the Committee for Justice, a Republican group that promotes conservative judicial nominees. The coalition formed in response to calls to weaponize antitrust for broader purposes, Ashley Baker, director of public policy at the Committee for Justice, told Axios.

Context: Some Republicans in the Trump administration, Congress and state AGs' offices say antitrust action can help address concerns like their claim that tech platforms are biased against conservatives.",Conservatives aim to cool GOP's newfound antitrust fervor,tweets_news_725,tweets_news
"The coronavirus relief enacted by Congress more than three weeks ago is barely reaching Americans in need.

Checks of up to $1,200 are being delivered through direct deposit filings with the Internal Revenue Service. But low-income people who have not directly deposited their taxes won't get these checks for weeks or months. Worse yet, the Treasury is allowing banks to seize payments to satisfy outstanding debts.

Meanwhile, most of the promised $600 weekly extra unemployment benefits remain stuck in state unemployment insurance offices now overwhelmed with claims.

None of this seems to bother conservative Republicans, who believe all such relief creates what's called ""moral hazard"" - the risk that government benefits will allow people to slack off.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, for example, says state unemployment offices are overwhelmed because the extra $600 is ""incentivizing people to leave the workforce."" Hello?

When it comes to big corporations and their CEOs, however, Republicans don't worry about moral hazard. They should.

Before the coronavirus, corporations were borrowing money like mad, capitalizing on the Fed's bargain-basement interest rates. Total corporate debt topped $16 trillion last year.

Corporations used much of this debt to buy back their own shares of stock. This raised the earnings of each remaining share, creating a","Bail out people, not corporations",tweets_news_726,tweets_news
"Facebook has updated its hate speech policy to ""prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust"".

Why is this surprising? This is a u-turn from Facebook's earlier stance on Holocaust denial. In October 2018, Zuckerberg himself had defended the company leaving such content online because ""there are things that different people get wrong"" and that he didn't believe that Holocaust deniers ""are intentionally getting it wrong"". He had clarified that Facebook's goal with fake news was ""not to prevent anyone from saying something untrue"", but to stop fake news and misinformation from spreading. Essentially, he said that Facebook should not and would not intervene when it came to Holocaust denial content.

Holocaust deniers either completely deny or downplay the fact that Nazis systematically murdered 6 million Jews. Holocaust denial is closely associated with other forms of anti-Semitism such as theories that Jews control governments and the media.

Why now? The policy change was prompted by rising anti-Semitism globally and the ""alarming"" level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people, Facebook said. In Mark Zuckerberg's own words, his thinking ""has evolved"" because he saw data proving an increase in anti-Semitic violence.

Other genocides will stay: However, posts disputing other genocides can remain",Facebook will now remove posts that deny or distort the Holocaust,tweets_news_727,tweets_news
"Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont on Wednesday confronted Neera Tanden, President Biden’s pick to lead the White House budget office, over her “vicious attacks” on progressives including himself.

“Of course, your attacks were not just made against Republicans. There were vicious attacks made against progressives, people who I have worked with, me personally,” Mr. Sanders said at Ms. Tanden’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee.

Ms. Tanden said she feels bad about her past social media habits, as she did Tuesday when she was confronted by members of a different committee about her attacks on Republicans.

“I apologize to people on either the left or right who are hurt by what I’ve said,” she said. “Social media does lead to too many personal comments and my approach will be radically different.”

Mr. Sanders, the new chairman of the committee, also said he was concerned about the millions of dollars in corporate donations the Center for American Progress, Ms. Tanden’s liberal think tank, has received in recent years.

She said those donations would have no effect on her decision-making as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the panel, read some of Ms. Tanden’s",Bernie Sanders confronts Neera Tanden on 'vicious attacks' against progressives,tweets_news_728,tweets_news
"FRAUDSTERS are targeting people across Scotland with new COVID-19 scams, including fake vaccines, consumers have been warned.

Both the Test and Protect scheme and the support fund for self-isolation have been used by criminals trying to steal people's personal information, according to evidence collected by Trading Standards Scotland.

The organisation's Scam Share has also warned that organised crime networks may try to advertise and sell fake Covid-19 vaccines, both physically and online.

Interpol, the international criminal police organisation, has warned that, as governments roll out vaccination programmes, criminals may attempt to target the public through scam websites and adverts for fake cures.

Its cybercrimes unit analysed about 3,000 websites suspected of selling illicit medical products and found that over half of them contained phishing or spamming malware.

The vaccine distribution system is already under way in the UK, where the first doses are being administered to high-risk recipients like health care providers and elderly citizens.

The UK approved Pfizer's vaccine candidate on December 2, making it the first nation in the West to begin vaccinating the general population. China and Russia have also released vaccines on accelerated timetables.

Scam Share has highlighted two text message scams in relation to the Test and Protect Scheme and the support",Fraudsters targeting Scots with fake coronavirus vaccine scams,tweets_news_729,tweets_news
"SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - If there is going to be a comeback for California's traumatized Republican Party - a so-called ""red recovery"" that could threaten Democratic control of the U.S. House - Mike Garcia wants to be part of it.

The former Navy combat pilot turned Republican congressional candidate is cut from conservative cloth. He supports a strong military, lower taxes and backs President Donald Trump. And even in the Democratic bastion of California, he thinks there are enough voters like him in the swing 25th District north of Los Angeles to win back the seat the party lost in 2018.

""I don't want my country to turn into what my state has become,"" the candidate told supporters gathered last week in the back room of a tavern festooned with U.S. flags and campaign posters.

If that happens, ""that's when things will go to hell in a handbasket,"" he said.

His denunciation of his home state, notorious for high taxes, homelessness and clogged freeways, earned him a round of applause. But to claim the seat vacated by Rep. Katie Hill - a rising Democratic star who resigned last year amid a House ethics probe into an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of her",Fight for California House may be barometer for November,tweets_news_730,tweets_news
"If you're looking for a productive and child-friendly summer project, this just might be it.

The Latin word ""vermi"" means worm, and vermicomposting is the process of using worms to create compost. It's a small-scale recycling process that converts kitchen waste to ""garden gold."" Most horticulturalists consider worm compost to be the best soil amendment, since it's full of beneficial microorganisms and a long list of nutrients essential to plant growth and development.

The final product of the vermicomposting process is a crumbly, rich, dark brown, earthy material. A thin layer of this compost can be used to top-dress the soil of potted plants. It can be worked into garden soil to improve its texture and nutrient content. And it's especially useful in the vegetable garden, where it helps feed food-producing plants and encourages the development of healthy roots.

Here's how to get started.

The worms

Red worms or red wigglers (Eisenia foetida)—often sold as bait—are the best species to use for vermicomposting. In their natural environment, they feed on organic matter that accumulates on the soil surface, and they're content to live in crowded conditions with frequent disruptions (like feeding and harvesting). Other common worm species aren't suitable for vermicomposting. The night crawler—often used",The hows and whys of vermicomposting,tweets_news_731,tweets_news
"The Chicago Dyke March allegedly posted and later deleted an advertisement showing the American and Israeli flags engulfed in flames. The group later posted a purported new advertisement where the flags were covered by flame graphics and another where the flags were completely blank. In the one Instagram post, the organizers asked...

The Chicago Dyke March allegedly posted and later deleted an advertisement showing the American and Israeli flags engulfed in flames. The group later posted a purported new advertisement where the flags were covered by flame graphics and another where the ...

The Chicago Dyke March allegedly posted and later deleted an advertisement showing the American and Israeli flags engulfed in flames. The group later posted a purported new advertisement where the flags were covered by flame graphics and another where the flags were completely blank. In the one Instagram post, the organizers asked anyone interested in supporting their agenda to “Abolish” the Chicago Police Department, the “Isra*li Occupation Forces,” and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to “Please screen shot this and share to prevent any attempts by Z10N1ST and Instagram to censor our account. We will see you there regardless of if our account is still active.” The Chicago","Chicago Dyke March Appears To Delete Ad Showing Burning American, Israeli Flags",tweets_news_732,tweets_news
"Officials are bracing for the coronavirus to hit Iowa's state revenues hard, but no one knows how bad the impact will be.

The answer seems to be: It depends on how long this all lasts.

With COVID-19 causing the government to close down public-facing businesses and ban social gatherings, Iowa's unemployment numbers are skyrocketing and small businesses are asking for $148 million to mitigate the damage.

Those factors mean that income and sales taxes - which together make up about 90% of state revenues - are likely to take a big hit. The longer the virus continues to spread and prevent the economy from reopening, the bigger the losses.

Iowa officials are working to understand how much money Iowa will receive from the federal CARES Act stimulus package and what it can be used for, and they're monitoring the state's economy to see how bad things get.

""We expect it's going to have some rather drastic impact going forward to state revenues, but we don't know yet at this point what impact that's going to have,"" said Rep. Gary Mohr, R-Bettendorf, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee.

For the moment, assessing what sort of shape Iowa's state revenues are in ""is an impossible question to answer,""",Outbreak will have 'drastic impact' on state's budget,tweets_news_733,tweets_news
"The AP (3/24, Miller, Superville) reports President Trump ""said Tuesday he is hoping the United States will be reopened by Easter as he weighs how to relax nationwide social-distancing guidelines to put some workers back on the job during the coronavirus outbreak. ... 'I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter,' he said during a Fox News virtual town hall. Easter is just over two weeks away - Apr. 12."" On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted, ""Our people want to return to work. They will practice Social Distancing and all else, and Seniors will be watched over protectively & lovingly. We can do two things together. THE CURE CANNOT BE WORSE (by far) THAN THE PROBLEM! Congress MUST ACT NOW. We will come back strong!""

Trump's comments are greeted skeptically in the media, with analyses saying a mid-April resumption of normal activity would be either unlikely or reckless, and marks a shift from the Administration's stance that the fight against COVID-19 will be a long haul.

ABC World News Tonight (3/24, lead story, 3:25, 7.04M) reported on what it described as ""conflicting messaging today on the coronavirus"" from Trump, who on Tuesday ""signaled he wants","Media, Health Experts Skeptical As Trump Says He Would Like US ""Opened Up"" By Easter",tweets_news_734,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

we're pushing at all. We're covering this as straight news. And, Stephen, the American people are responding. Newsmax's app, which your viewers can download, but people all over the world can download, we have four million downloads of that app since Election Day.

It's been an incredible experience. And then on cable news we are beating Fox in some of our ratings. We just beat in the key demo one of their major shows on the evening time. So there is a phenomenon where people want straight news that's factually based and that's what we're delivering. Yeah, well, it's interesting. Your ratings have gone up the more you have included, in your line-up of contributors, people like the attorney Lin Wood who, on your airwaves just a few days ago, said this - ""If the US Supreme Court does not act,"" and, of course, we know it didn't act in terms of helping Mr Trump legally,",Joins BBC News - 04:35 AM GMT,tweets_news_735,tweets_news
"

Feb 16, 2021( National Law Review: https://www.natlawreview.com Delivered by Newstex) Article By Erica Abshez Moran[1] Teresa A. Griffin[2] Faegre Drinker[3] Faegre Drinker on Products[4] The exact dollar amount that third-party investors infuse in U.S. lawsuits every year is unknown, but conservative estimates begin around $2.3 billion, with agreement that the industry has room to grow. With the ongoing pandemic stretching litigation timelines and straining budgets, the litigation funding industry remains highly active. Despite the importance of litigation funding to all parties involved (lawyers, plaintiffs, and defendants), regulation varies by state, and litigation funders are largely left to self-regulate.In the absence of clear direction on this significant issue, the ABA, in August 2020, provided much- needed guidance by adopting Best Practices for Third-Party Litigation Funding.SeeAmerican Bar Association Best Practices for Third-Party Litigation Fundinghttps://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/directories/policy/annual-2020/111a-annual-2020.pdf(referred to herein as 'Best Practices').The Best Practices 'are written to assist lawyers considering litigation funding . . .' and consist of 'issues that should be considered before entering into a litigation funding arrangement.'

According to the ABA, 'these Best Practices should not be read as recommended standards of professional conduct or as a basis for attorney discipline. . . . Jurisdictions where the attorney practices may have standards that",Considerations from the ABA's Best Practices for Litigation Funding,tweets_news_736,tweets_news
"Federal law prevents internet companies from being sued for removing posts and federal law trumps state law when there is a conflict Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that seeks to punish social media platforms that remove “conservative ideas” from their sites, though it is not clear if it would pass constitutional muster...

Federal law prevents internet companies from being sued for removing posts and federal law trumps state law when there is a conflict Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that seeks to punish social media platforms that remove “conse...

Federal law prevents internet companies from being sued for removing posts and federal law trumps state law when there is a conflict Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that seeks to punish social media platforms that remove “conservative ideas” from their sites, though it is not clear if it would pass constitutional muster because it might violate the First Amendment. The new law will enable the state to fine large social media companies $250,000 a day if they remove an account of a statewide political candidate, and $25,000 a day if they remove an account of someone running for","DeSantis Signs Big Tech ‘Censorship' Law, But Experts Question Whether Florida Can Enforce It",tweets_news_737,tweets_news
"Antitrust lawsuits filed Wednesday against Facebook focused on what plaintiffs say is the improper use of consumer data by the social media giant and a monopolistic strategy of squashing competition.

But while Facebook's use of data has come under scrutiny over the years — including after the 2018 Cambridge Analytical scandal, during which users learned that their data had been harvested for targeted political advertisements without their knowledge — most of the recent public pressure on the company has concerned the proliferation of hate speech, incitement to violence and disinformation on its platforms.

Now, experts say the antitrust lawsuits might help push Facebook to take a harder line on hate speech — but not to count on it.

While the lawsuits by the Federal Trade Commission and 48 state and territorial attorneys general may not have concrete implications for Facebook's handling of Holocaust denial, vaccine disinformation, QAnon conspiracy theories, voter suppression and other social ills, some think that increased competition could help solve the problem.

""Having a plurality of competitors can drive good behavior,"" said Imran Ahmed, the founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. ""When someone is able to act with impunity and is the only player in the market, it means",What the Facebook antitrust lawsuits might mean for hate speech,tweets_news_738,tweets_news
"CANBERRA, Australia - Australian regulators have ruled out prosecuting TikTok over an apparent suicide video under tough new laws prohibiting some forms of violent online images, but the prime minister urged social media companies on Wednesday to take more responsibility for offensive content.

The Chinese-owned social media platform says it is working to remove videos of a man apparently taking his own life with a gun and banning users who keep trying to spread the clips through the app.

It's the latest example of the ongoing struggle by big tech companies to police their platforms for harmful content amid increasing pressure from regulators.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Australia's online watchdog, is taking ""strong action"" against what he described as a ""disgraceful video.""

""Those who run these organizations have a responsibility to those who are watching and particularly when it comes to children,"" Morrison said in a video released by his office.

""My message to those social media companies is, yes, your products are changing the world, but with that comes a great responsibility and you need to be accountable and you need to be responsible for making sure that your product does not harm Australians, and my government will",Australian prime minister criticizes TikTok suicide video,tweets_news_739,tweets_news
"Sri Lanka, Jan. 6 -- The Leader of the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna, Minister Wimal Weerawansa states that he is keeping an eye on the role and activities of the government elected by 69 lakhs of people.

He stated this while participating in a press conference convened at the party headquarters today.

There he expressed his views in this manner.

""Azad Sally is a political scoundrel who really needs to be in jail. The Presidential Commission has revealed who Azad Sally was on the phone with in order to rescue Saharan's henchmen. Thanks to the CID such people are still outside boasting on false claims. This Azad Sally says that we will have to pay compensation in the future if dead bodies are not allowed to be buried and instead cremated. Are compensations paid by people like Azad Sally becoming bombers? Have 69 lakhs in this country voted us for people like Azad Sally to talk nonsense like this? For us to watch and wait until the next Saharans are created?

I cannot be satisfied with the way the police are currently operating in relation to the activities of extremists. We are worried about that. Because there is hope in the people of this country",Wimal says that they are keeping an eye on the role and activities of Govt. (Video),tweets_news_740,tweets_news
"If there is one golden rule that political professionals of all stripes, parties and ideologies embrace, it is that the only poll that matters is the one on Election Day. It actually is possible to put a precise time on the moment when any lingering doubts about the utility of this rule were swept away. It was 10:53 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. That's when Donald J. Trump was awarded Florida's 29 electoral votes and his path to the White House became clear and, as it turned out, unimpeded.

So no, the polls cannot tell you who will win the November election. And you don't need public-opinion polls to know that the principal question in the 2020 election won't be whether former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. deserves to be president, but whether Trump deserves a second term, and a second chance.

But if there is some value in examining polls in late June, it is to shine light on the issues on which the two men will stage their campaigns, and how the voters break on those issues. And in that regard, already there are strong, possibly immutable signals.

The area where the public's assessment of two","Polls don't predict winners, but they do highlight issues",tweets_news_741,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - U.S. lawmakers are coming to grips with what experts warned Thursday is a dangerous and escalating threat of homegrown violent extremism following last month's riots on Capitol Hill.

Members of the House committee on homeland security heard chilling warnings about a ""high likelihood"" of domestic terror attacks fuelled by the divisions that were on such stark display on Jan. 6.

That date was an inflection point in the nature of the terror threats faced by the U.S., said Elizabeth Neumann, a counterterrorism expert and former Department of Homeland Security official.

Prior to the riots, terrorism was largely an international threat, Neumann said. Afterward, it became a domestic one.

""There is a high likelihood of violence in the coming months on a range of softer targets associated with their perception of the deep state, including infrastructure, mainstream media, law enforcement, big tech and elected officials,"" Neumann told the committee.

""Sadly, I do believe that we will be fighting domestic terrorism that has its roots and inspiration points from Jan. 6 for the next 10 to 20 years.""

Neumann called it ""paramount"" that Congress establish a bipartisan commission on domestic terrorism to establish a ""shared understanding"" of the threat and to prevent discussions from being co-opted","After Canada's Proud Boys decision, U.S. lawmakers confront white supremacy threat",tweets_news_742,tweets_news
"1 Law &; Order: Organized Crime Debut

After leaving the Special Victims Unit in 2011, Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) returns to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss in this anticipated Law &; Order spinoff. Ahead of the premiere, Stabler will reunite with Mariska Hargitay's Captain Olivia Benson on SVU. ""It's not a case of the week, because organized crime doesn't work that way,"" executive producer Ilene Chaiken tells EW. When: Thursday on NBC, Citytv 2 Clarice New Episode

After nearly dying at the hands of serial killer Marilyn Felker, Clarice (Rebecca Breeds) goes to Attorney General Ruth Martin to be reinstated and gets roped into a dinner that forces her to relive her harrowing Buffalo Bill experience. When: Thursday on CBS, Global Aldis Hodge (left) and Kevin Bacon in City on a Hill. ERIC OGDEN/SHOWTIME 3 City on a Hill Season 2

The sophomore season of the drama pits an attorney (Aldis Hodge) against a corrupt FBI vet (Kevin Bacon) in a storyline set in a Boston housing project that is plagued with drug violence and distrust in local law enforcement. When: Sunday on Crave 4 Q: Into the Storm New Episode

Charting a labyrinthine journey to unmask",The must sees,tweets_news_743,tweets_news
"President Trump's taking aim at Twitter for fact-checking his tweets is part of a long tradition upheld by aggrieved internet trolls. The stakes are high.

As a teen in the early 2000s, I spent a lot of time on online message boards. They were funny, chaotic places where my fellow nerds and I spent hours arguing about everything under the sun: sports, music, video games, the latest episode of ""Buffy the Vampire Slayer.""

No matter the topic, there was one universal experience: On every board, some divisive issue would inevitably erupt into conflict, and an angry group of users - often led by a single, vocal one who felt they were being treated unfairly - would lead a rebellion against the ""mods,"" the moderators who had the privileges to delete posts, ban unruly users and set the rules of the board.

Sometimes, the mods quelled the fight or struck a compromise, and brought the board back into harmony. Other times, the angry users broke off and started their own forum, or the board simply became so intolerable that everyone left.

That internet is long gone now. Social media apps killed the messy, unruly message boards and replaced them with slick personalized feeds. The new",The President Versus the Mods,tweets_news_744,tweets_news
"

Aug 19, 2020( The American Prospect Blogs: http://prospect.org/blogs Delivered by Newstex) The Democratic presidential ticket is set and the kids are not alright. Despite everything, Trump voters continue to eagerly look forward to Election Day, when they'll vote for their candidate of choice. By contrast, Biden voters will be pulling his lever come November primarily because he isn't Trump, and many will be doing so grudgingly.Many of those disenchanted voters are young people, who overwhelmingly sided with Bernie Sanders during primary season (I'm using 'young' liberally here, it includes anyone under 50). As has been chronicled at length, the age splits in the Democratic primary were profound; Biden banked less than one-fifth of voters under 45. For under-30 nonwhite voters, the margin was even greater, with millennials and Gen Zers, arguably the most politically animated demographic in the country right now, backing Sanders nearly unanimously. Biden had a chance to close some of that youth enthusiasm gap with a vice president who appealed to their progressive, criminal justice reform-minded politics.

He picked Kamala Harris.More from Alexander Sammon[1]Now that the Democratic convention is under way, one of the most important questions heading into November is what party leadership will do to bridge",Democrats' Ridiculous Celebrity Fixation,tweets_news_745,tweets_news
"https://www.investors.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/INCOME-RETIRE-011020-adobe.jpg

Pundits are pounding the 4% Rule. They claim the legendary investing tenet doesn't work anymore for retirement planning and setting a safe maximum withdrawal. But the 4% Rule is alive and well, experts say.

The near-gospel 4% Rule is simple. It says you can withdraw 4% of your portfolio the year you retire — and increase the amount annually by the rate of inflation — and not run out of money for at least 30 years.

But here's the rub. Interest rates on safe income-generating securities are low, well below 4%. Critics argue you can't withdraw 4% a year from your retirement savings and expect that nest egg to last decades, unless your nest egg is huge — millions and millions of dollars.

But of course it is not realistic to expect a regular worker, white collar or blue collar, to amass millions, without inheriting a bundle from a rich uncle or winning the Mega Millions lottery.

4% Rule: Does The 4% Rule Still Work?

Yet the main reason 4% Rule doubters are wrong is that your ability to pull 4% of your retirement savings balance out each year does not depend on your portfolio generating 4% in yield.

Yes, rates are painfully low. Yield on",The '4% Rule' Still Works: Its Critics Are Wrong,tweets_news_746,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Some pundits and a whole lot of excited Democrats project the once fiery-red Lone Star State to be on the verge of going blue — or at least turning a shade of purple. Such a flip would upend national politics and threaten to put Republicans out of reach of the White House for a generation; Texas’s 38 electoral votes put it just behind California, which has 55, for the most. But the battle for Texas is likely to be a prolonged affair, a multiyear war of attrition that both parties are gearing up for.

Texas has long been on the list of Democratic holy grails, usually on the premise that Hispanic immigration and in-migration from blue states will make a Democratic shift inevitable. In recent years, however, high-profile elections in the state have been close enough to raise red flags, presaging this year’s close polling between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

In 2018, Republican incumbent Ted Cruz won his Senate race against Democrat Robert O’ Rourke, 50.9% to 48.3%. Democrats also flipped 12 state House seats that election, cutting into the Republican advantage. In 2019, a Texas Tribune article predicted, “Democrats could gain control of the Texas House [in",The battle for Texas,tweets_news_747,tweets_news
"The European Union unveiled strict regulations on Wednesday to govern the use of artificial intelligence, a first-of-its-kind policy that outlines how companies and governments can use a technology seen as one of the most significant, but ethically fraught, scientific breakthroughs in recent memory.

The draft rules would set limits around the use of artificial intelligence in a range of activities, from self-driving cars to hiring decisions, bank lending, school enrollment selections and the scoring of exams. It would also cover the use of artificial intelligence by law enforcement and court systems - areas considered ""high risk"" because they could threaten people's safety or fundamental rights.

Some uses would be banned, altogether, including live facial recognition in public spaces, though there would be several exemptions for national security and other purposes.

The 108-page policy is an attempt to regulate an emerging technology before it becomes mainstream. The rules have far-reaching implications for major technology companies including Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft that have poured resources into developing artificial intelligence, but also scores of other companies that use the software to develop medicine, underwrite insurance policies, and judge credit worthiness. Governments have used versions of the technology in criminal justice and allocating public services like",EU proposal sets limits on artificial intelligence,tweets_news_748,tweets_news
"History hasn't been kind to Chrysler over its decision to use the goodwill earned by its most popular brand to dress up its most lowly. The execrable ""mall-rated"" Dodge Caliber-based Compass and Patriot represent a low point in Jeep's storied history and one best consigned to the scrap heap. So you'd think Ford would have taken note of this when bestowing the iconic Mustang badge upon their four-door, electric powered crossover.

If you subscribe to the theory that ""no publicity is bad publicity"" well then, the new Mustang Mach-E's launch certainly didn't go unnoticed. Marketing minions aren't known for subtlety when it comes to capitalizing on past successes, but surely ""Mach-E"" was a pretty cool name on its own. Was it really necessary to saddle a new vehicle with 55-plus years of history and the collective anger of generations of fans?

Nevertheless, the very first Ford designed on an electric-only platform has generated a lot of interest among prospective buyers looking for a Tesla alternative. There's a lot of pressure on the Mach-E to succeed, as it will test the waters for an eventual all-electric F-150 debut. Brand loyalty may make it difficult to accept such a radical departure from traditional gasoline",A very different take on iconic brand,tweets_news_749,tweets_news
"I see fellow Citizen columnist Randall Denley is talking trash, as it were.( https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/denley-ottawa-council-cant-indulge-in-magical-thinking-about-garbage-disposal ) Allow me to toss my compost onto the pile.

The news is, of course, grim. Our city's landfill will reach capacity sometime around 2036 or 2038, officials say, and we must find a way to deal with this that does not involve anything too expensive, stinky or deleterious to the environment. If you're keen to read the details, you can find them on the city of Ottawa's website under Solid Waste Master Plan( https://engage.ottawa.ca/solid-waste-master-plan ).

The gist of it is simple. Either we find ways to decrease how much trash we produce, even taking into consideration population growth, or we spend a fortune in money and environmental costs to bury or burn all this junk.

My colleague appears unimpressed by the recommendations put forward by city staff, including the vision that aims for a ""zero-waste Ottawa achieved through progressive, collective and innovative action."" He calls this magical thinking.

He's got a point - if by that he means we can't reach zero-waste just by wishing for it. I don't know about you but I have no reason to believe people will voluntarily change their habits for the benefit of","Pellerin: To reduce Ottawa's waste, make tossing trash more expensive",tweets_news_750,tweets_news
"In the attack on American democracy to advance Donald Trump's lies of a ""stolen"" election, Florida occupies a shameful place.

Twelve members of the state's congressional delegation joined Sen. Rick Scott in rejecting the lawful votes of millions of Americans who voted for Joe Biden in Arizona, Pennsylvania or both. Only one other state - Texas, with its 16 traitorous Trumpers - had so many members of Congress perpetrating a fraud on the people that encouraged mass violence by the president's delusional far-right supporters.

The congressional gang of 12 is from all over the state, from big cities and small towns. They are all Republicans who put party before country, who lacked the courage and common sense to uphold the Constitution when it mattered most.

Introducing Florida's Hall of Shame:

Kat Cammack, R-Gainesville

Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami

Byron Donalds, R-Naples

Neal Dunn, R-Panama City

Scott Franklin, R-Lakeland

Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach

Carlos Giménez, R-Miami

Brian Mast, R-Palm City

Bill Posey, R-Rockledge

John Rutherford, R-Jacksonville

Greg Steube, R-Sarasota

Dan Webster, R-Clermont

Know these names. Remember them. These are the Sunshine State Seditionists. Part of the Treason Caucus. They promoted the big lie of the stolen election. They tried to subvert the will of the people and substitute Trump for the true winner, Joe Biden, who won Arizona",Florida's Hall of Shame,tweets_news_751,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

I think that we said they were both right and wrong, they were right to take the stuff down, they were right to stop him because he was a clear and present danger at a time of great volatility in the United States, but it was wrong then to go on and say, well, you are banned indefinitely because indefinitely is not a word that appears anywhere on Facebook's own rulebook, and it is an arbitrary thing, and so we've just gone back and said, you know, ""Well done forgetting the original decision right, but can you think more carefully about defining what what this period of ban is, and why?"" I've been speaking to Evan Greer who's a digital rights activist and I asked her what she made of the decision made by the Facebook oversight board. I think when we focus on these individual moderation decisions, especially ones about high profile individuals like",Joins BBC News - 03:16 AM GMT,tweets_news_752,tweets_news
"•Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue thanked AOC for supporting the boycott•Claimed Goya sales shot up 1,000% after controversy over the summer•Celebrities joined call for boycott after Unanue voiced support for Trump•Goya is privately owned and does not disclose financial records publicly•AOC on Tuesday denied that she had called for a boycott of Goya products

Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue thanked AOC for supporting the boycott

Claimed Goya sales shot up 1,000% after controversy over the summer

Celebrities joined call for boycott after Unanue voiced support for Trump

Goya is privately owned and does not disclose financial records publicly

AOC on Tuesday denied that she had called for a boycott of Goya products

The CEO of Goya Foods has credited Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for apparently boosting the company's sales by joining calls for a boycott, proclaiming her an honorary 'employee of the month.'

The controversy in July came after CEO Bob Unanue after he said Americans are 'truly blessed to have a leader' like President Donald Trump, leading to outcry from celebrities and liberal figures who demanded a boycott of the company.

Ocasio-Cortez voiced her support for a boycott by declaring she would make her own version of a popular Goya seasoning, tweeting: 'Oh look, it's the sound of","Goya CEO says he named AOC 'employee of the month' because she 'increased sales by 1,000%' after she supported call to boycott the brand when he said Americans are 'truly blessed to have a leader' like Trump",tweets_news_753,tweets_news
"Surrey's Harjit Singh Gill visits his family's ancestral farm in India almost every year.

The farm, like most in India, is small, with crops of wheat and rice. Some of it's leased to his brother-in-law, Parminer Singh Rangian, and others in the 3,400-person village of Maksudra in the state of Punjab.

""Punjab feeds the tummies of the rest of India. Punjab feeds 500 million people,"" says Gill, standing in his large yard in the Panorama Ridge neighbourhood. This is where he began 25 years ago as an immigrant taxi driver, before becoming a builder and eventually constructing his own mansion.

Despite the states of Punjab and adjacent Haryana forming the breadbasket of India, many of its farmers make meagre livings and are in debt, Gill says. Things are even worse for farmers in other parts of India, where 60 per cent of the population of 1.3 billion relies on agriculture to make a living. But the sector only accounts for one-sixth of the country's GDP.

Three free-market reforms proposed in September by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - designed to end government-guaranteed crop prices and ostensibly improve productivity - have provoked hundreds of thousands of farmers from the state of Punjab and Haryana to",Farmers' mass protests in India cut deeply across Canada,tweets_news_754,tweets_news
"When I was 29 (almost 30), I got my dream job — television critic! A job I’d been inadvertently training for all my life by watching way too much TV.

Now I’m 59 (almost old enough for special grocery store shopping hours), and I’m still writing about TV. It’s still my dream job. And on Tuesday, it will be 30 years since I began.

Three decades is a little bit more than half my life. It’s also an eon in TV time. In 1990, almost everybody was watching the three major networks — ABC, CBS and NBC. Fox was just getting up and going; it expanded from two nights to five that fall, but still wasn’t programming Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Cable had but a handful of original shows — most of them bad — and streaming services weren’t even on the horizon.

I once wrote a column begging the networks to produce more bad shows because — who had time to watch all the good shows? I never imagined a world with more than 500 original, scripted shows in a year and way too much great content for anyone to even sample all of it.

Back in 1990, it was still possible to watch","Scott D. Pierce I’ve been writing about TV for 30 years, and I’m not done yet",tweets_news_755,tweets_news
"Legislation that would require Canadians to verify their age before they could look at online pornography could result in a number of privacy concerns, the federal privacy commissioner said Thursday.

Bill S-203, introduced by Sen. Julie Miville-Dechêne last fall, doesn't specify what that verification would look like. Options under consideration include presenting some type of ID to a third-party company or organization, or the use of technologies such as biometrics or artificial intelligence to estimate age.

If adequate privacy measures aren't taken, the age verification process ""could increase the risk of revealing adults' private browsing habits,"" privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien said.

He told the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee that current digital age verification systems are all different, but what they have in common is that ""the user will ultimately be required to provide some amount of personal information."" That brings up questions about how secure that information is.

""On the other hand, the use of biometrics or facial recognition to verify or estimate a user's age raises unique privacy concerns,"" Therrien said, noting biometric technology is ""generally very intrusive"" and how accurate it is in verifying an individual's age still hasn't been proven. He said there's a considerable margin of error, and","Requiring proof of age to look at online porn raises privacy issues, Senate committee hears",tweets_news_756,tweets_news
"KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 -- Local actor and TV host Fizo Omar calls out a Covid-19 vaccines conspiracy theorist.

This happened after a video of a man attaching a magnet to his friend's arm who was just vaccinated claiming that the vaccines contained microchips surfaced.

The Adellea Sofea actor who just got vaccinated himself took to Instagram and posted his own video to point out the misleading information regarding the ""magnet"" video.

Fizo can be seen bringing his own magnet and attaching it to his arm where he was injected.

The magnet fell off his arm instantly.

""Can you please think logically, how can you say there's a chip in the vaccine to trace us, please use your brain.""

""I'm sorry but I cannot accept this kind of thing. All of us want is to end this Covid-19, we don't need these kinds of elements that could jeopardise our own mission,"" he wrote in the post.

Fizo also pointed out that there were no side effects from the vaccines as it had been five days since he and his mother got their injections.

Besides that, Fizo also extended his gratitude to his fans who had shared his video and called on them to work together in spreading the",Covid-19: Local actor Fizo Omar calls out conspiracy theorist using magnet in trying to prove there's microchip in vaccine,tweets_news_757,tweets_news
"DONALD TRUMP denied a charge of incitement to insurrection ahead of his impeachment trial, claiming he was exercising his right to free speech when he told his supporters to ""fight like hell"" before they invaded the US Capitol.

The former president also main tained that he was entitled to question the results of the election, and no jury could say his claims of voter fraud were wrong. In a 14-page legal filing denying the charge, lawyers for Mr Trump also argued Congress had no authority to try him because he is now a private citizen, and had no power to ban him from seeking future office.

They wrote: ""It is denied that President Trump incited the crowd to engage in destructive behaviour. He exercised his First Amendment right under the Constitution to express his belief that the election results were suspect.""

The lawyers added: ""Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th President's statements were accurate or not, and he therefore denies they were false.""

Mr Trump's defence was filed hours after Democrat prosecutors, known as ""House managers"", outlined their case against him in a detailed 77-page document. In it they claimed he aimed a mob at the Capitol",Trump cites right to free speech in defence against impeachment,tweets_news_758,tweets_news
"BREXIT trade talks could end without ""war being declared"" and a free trade agreement struck between the two sides, a former Minister for Europe has claimed despite recent events further complicating the negotiations.

On Monday, the House of Commons voted on a controversial new bill published by the Government. The UK is currently in a transition period that keeps it bound to the EU's rules until December 31. The two sides are trying to negotiate a new trade deal that would come into effect once this period ends, but talks have been characterised by perpetual deadlock.

Sticking points in the talks include the rights of European fleets in British waters and the so-called level playing field.

With the new Internal Market Bill, the Government is essentially seeking to prevent disruption to trade between the four nations of the UK if no deal is reached with the EU.

Downing Street has described it as a ""vital legal safety net"".

However, the move has enraged the EU and prompted a fresh rebellion within the Conservative Party.

Brussels has set Prime Minister Boris Johnson a three-week deadline to ditch his plans or face financial and trade sanctions, with the clear suggestion that negotiations over a future relationship will fail",Brexit breakthrough: Hope for deal as 'Barnier and Frost tipped to compromise',tweets_news_759,tweets_news
"Sandor Szmutko/Shutterstock Millions of kidnapped children are imprisoned in underground tunnels, being sexually abused and tortured by a shadowy global cabal of paedophiles. That, at least, is some of the misinformation about child sex trafficking being spread on social media. You’ll also see such ideas being promoted at protests from Los Angeles to London, with hashtags such...

Sandor Szmutko/Shutterstock Millions of kidnapped children are imprisoned in underground tunnels, being sexually abused and tortured by a shadowy global cabal of paedophiles. That, at least, is some of the misinformation about child sex trafficking being s...

Sandor Szmutko/Shutterstock Millions of kidnapped children are imprisoned in underground tunnels, being sexually abused and tortured by a shadowy global cabal of paedophiles. That, at least, is some of the misinformation about child sex trafficking being spread on social media. You’ll also see such ideas being promoted at protests from Los Angeles to London, with hashtags such as #saveourchildren and #endchildtrafficking emblazoned on shirts and placards. The thought of a child being abused, exploited or trafficked for sex elicits a powerful emotional response. These lurid tales have proven to be a potent gateway for mothers (and others) to “go down the rabbithole”. The tragedy is that misinformation is",Want to save the children? How child sexual abuse and human trafficking really work,tweets_news_760,tweets_news
"If you took a walk around campus on a Sunday morning, it is not likely that you would see students lounging around on Upper Quad reading the morning paper over a piping cup of Camino coffee. Instead, a vision of computer screens glaring against glasses lenses and the sound of fingertips tapping speedily against smartphone screens would greet you with open arms.

The technology-obsessed college student trope has been an insult used by political cartoonists to target the intellect of younger generation by political cartoonists for years now (Ben Garrison, I am looking at you). And, honestly, it has got to go. 

Gen Z is not the only generation who utilizes social media on a regular basis. In fact, a large number American citizens utilize some form of social media to get their daily news coverage. A Pew Research Center report published in 2018 states that 55% of U.S. adults now get their news from social media ""often"" or ""sometimes"". So, essentially, if my grandma reposts one more ""book good, phone bad"" meme onto her Facebook timeline, I am going to pull the world's fastest Uno reverse card on her. 

The fact of the matter is, older Americans are also part",Spreading of misinformation impacts US politics,tweets_news_761,tweets_news
"India, June 24 -- The Kerala police on Wednesday booked the controversial activist Rehana Fathima for posting a video on social media in which two minor children were seen painting on her semi-naked body.

After the post triggered outrage the activist said both were her children and it was a work of art.

The case was filed after a woman BJP leader in Kottayam filed a complaint saying these posts come under child pornography and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). Police in Pathanamthitta booked her under Section 67 of the IT Act (electronically transmitting sexually explicit material) and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act. They said they will also examine whether provisions of POCSO can be applied in the case.

Initially Fathima had posted the video clip on Facebook and later she uploaded it on YouTube. She justified her act saying her kids did the painting while she was resting and it was a beautiful art work. ""Just as beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, so is porn in the eyes of the beholder,"" she wrote in the post.

Fathima, who was working as a junior technician with BSNL in Ernakulam, was dismissed from the service",Kerala activist booked for posting video of kids painting on her body,tweets_news_762,tweets_news
"Former Vice President Joe Biden raised significant doubts about whether the Democratic National Convention will be held as planned in suggesting that the party s major gathering, slated for Milwaukee, may need to be altered or postponed.

Biden: It s hard to envision that. We should listen to the scientists.

Biden noted that one reason the convention has been scheduled for mid-July was to accommodate the Olympics, which had been scheduled to begin July 24. Given that the Summer Games have been postponed to next year, Biden raised the possibility that the DNC could postpone the convention, saying, there is more time now. ( Washington Post )

Biden has begun to court progressives and young voters in the past weeks, shifting his stances on key progressive policies, such as tuition-free college. Biden now supports making public college tuition-free for families whose incomes fall below $125,000, a proposal that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) included in his 2017 College for All Act. Progressive leaders who spoke to National Journal agreed that his initial steps have taken him on the right track, but they also stressed the need for additional outreach to generate enthusiasm in his race against Trump in November. The current pandemic, they said,",Biden Raises Doubt About July Convention,tweets_news_763,tweets_news
"Australia has reached a ""tipping point"" in its tolerance for online hate speech, with an overwhelming majority of people calling for new laws to tackle the growing problem.

Australia has reached a ""tipping point"" in its tolerance for online hate speech, with a large majority of people calling for new laws to tackle the growing problem.

A nationally representative survey of 3737 adults found seven out of 10 respondents would support further legislation to stop the spread of hateful content online.

Most people acknowledged legislation alone would not be enough, with nearly eight of 10 adults also calling for social networks to do more to tackle the problem.

The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, who ordered the research, said she was not surprised by the strong support for action.

""We've reached a tipping point societally,"" Ms Inman Grant said. ""Technology is becoming integrated into our everyday lives ??? and people are tired of the negativity, they're tired of the targeted hate.""

The research found one in seven adults had been targeted by online hate speech in the 12 months to August 2019. A further one in four had witnessed it happen to someone else.

People identifying as LGBTQI or as Indigenous experienced online hate speech at more",A 'seismic shift' as community backs new laws to fix online hate,tweets_news_764,tweets_news
"John McCain once said, “May the words I utter today be tender and sweet, because tomorrow I may have to eat them.” The current White House has served up a buffet, with the president as head chef.

John McCain once said, “May the words I utter today be tender and sweet, because tomorrow I may have to eat them.” The current White House has served up a buffet, with the president as head chef.

WASHINGTON — “Will you please like me?”

This was President Trump on Tuesday night, in Pennsylvania. “Please, please,” he pleaded. “I don’t have that much time.”

Mr. Trump’s exhortation carried a certain abrupt desperation. It was reminiscent of Jeb Bush’s “please clap” to an audience before the New Hampshire presidential primary in 2016 or President George Bush’s “Message: I care” in 1992. Both were utterances that in retrospect served as epitaphs for doomed campaigns.

Whether that proves true in Mr. Trump’s case is not yet known. But “will you please like me?” — which immediately went viral — seemed especially germane to the president’s predicament. To begin with, the appeal was directed at suburban women, who polls show have been particularly repelled by Mr. Trump compared with four years ago.

Shortly after",A President Whose Words Have Not Aged Well,tweets_news_765,tweets_news
"•Ban announced on 26 European countries but Trump excluded UK because doctors doing 'good job'•But he then said Britain's 'numbers have gone up fairly precipitously over the last 24 hours'•The official number of those infected in the UK hit 798 yesterday, with 11 deaths so far•And at Heathrow Terminal 5, passengers seen waiting in large queues for flights back to the US

Ban announced on 26 European countries but Trump excluded UK because doctors doing 'good job'

But he then said Britain's 'numbers have gone up fairly precipitously over the last 24 hours'

The official number of those infected in the UK hit 798 yesterday, with 11 deaths so far

And at Heathrow Terminal 5, passengers seen waiting in large queues for flights back to the US

Passengers are frantically queuing to get back to the US before President Donald Trump bans flights from the UK in the latest efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Mr Trump announced a ban on all travellers coming from Europe but excluded Britain because he believed the UK authorities were doing a 'good job'.

But he then said on Friday Britain's 'numbers have gone up fairly precipitously over the last 24 hours', causing him to rethink his strategy of fighting",Chaos at Heathrow as huge queues of people try to get back to the US while Donald Trump considers adding UK to list of European countries locked out of America over coronavirus,tweets_news_766,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Section 230 is back in the spotlight. After two months of Congress slinging regulation after regulation onto the World Wide Web, Twitter and Facebook are once again feeling the heat. In a widely criticized move, the tech giants had obstructed user sharing of an explosive and salacious New York Post story about Hunter Biden.

The following maelstrom forced Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s hand, causing him to issue a statement intending to clarify the meaning of Section 230 through proposed rule-making. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley and loads of other politicians on both sides of the aisle see this as the opportunity to overhaul Section 230 finally.

All of this could end very badly for the rest of us who value an internet that’s actually useful. For a law so deeply misunderstood by politicians, Section 230’s premise is actually quite simple: Websites are not liable for third-party content. The idea isn’t necessarily new. For example, newspaper publishers are typically liable for the articles they choose to disseminate to the world. Offline laws typically impose liability on the responsible party. It’s why telephone companies aren’t liable for the conversations their customers have over the phone.

But Republicans see Section 230 as merely",Twitter hid the Hunter Biden story. That’s not a good reason to nuke Section 230,tweets_news_767,tweets_news
"Link to Image



Link to Story

New Delhi, Nov 8 (IANS) The Delhi Assembly's Committee on Peace and Harmony will on Tuesday examine digital strategist and former journalist Mark S. Luckie, a key witness in continuation of the proceedings against Facebook.The proceedings of the committee will be streamed live to get new points against Facebook over its alleged inaction in tackling harmful content on its platform. There were allegations against Facebook over its conduct on various instances, including the conduct of free and fair elections, and the Delhi riots.The committee has sent a formal notice to Luckie to appear before it on Tuesday. The move is in continuation of the previous proceedings of the Committee under the chairmanship of Raghav Chadha.An employee at Facebook 2017-18, Luckie has led media partnerships for some of the influential social platforms in the world, including Facebook, Twitter and Reddit -- an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website.He had left Facebook in November 2018 after claiming that it inculcates a ""misguided work system"" which has led to division in communities, especially by the actions and inactions of the company.Highlighting the ""rampant racism"" operating within the company's framework, Luckie has published a memo where",Facebook case: Delhi Assembly panel to examine ex-employee,tweets_news_768,tweets_news
"

Oct 14, 2020( TheNextWeb.com: http://thenextweb.com Delivered by Newstex) Anti-vaxxers must be steaming. In an effort to curb health misinformation amidst the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook has revealed it'll start purging ads that discourage vaccines and immunization on its platform and Instagram.

As the Wall Street Journal notes[1], this is hardly the first time the Zuckerberg empire has promised to crack down on vaccine misinformation[2]. Last year, the company made a similar pledge, but later acknowledged it had failed to remove paid ads from a prominent anti-vax group that suggested evil doctors are conspiring to hide evidence of alleged harm to children. 'Today, we're launching a new global policy that prohibits ads discouraging people from getting vaccinated,' Facebook said in a statement[3]. 'Our goal is to help messages about the safety and efficacy of vaccines reach a broad group of people, while prohibiting ads with misinformation that could harm public health efforts.' The move comes amidst increased criticism from health professionals bemoaning Facebook for undermining the importance of immunization by giving platform to anti-vax groups. That said, the company will still allow ads that advocate for or against legislation concerning vaccines, including one for COVID-19. 'We regularly refine our approach around ads that",Facebook is finally banning anti-vax ads from its platform and Instagram,tweets_news_769,tweets_news
"•Retailers across the country boarded up their windows and some are closing early on Tuesday night•The NYPD's Strategic Response Group of roughly 600 officers are 'preparing for the worst'•Deputy Chief John J. D'Adamo said looters had become 'emboldened' which creates an 'unprecedented' scenario for officers•One NYPD cop said officers were having bottles and bricks thrown at them during clashes with protesters•The Sergeants Benevolent Association - the largest NYPD union - said public safety was 'on the line'•Restaurants are mainly staying open and will gauge the situation on Wednesday as it unfolds•A small number of offices, dentists and doctors practices have already decided to close•Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday there was no specific threat, despite the intensified police preparations•Similar scenes are unfolding in California and WashingtonDC, where businesses are boarding up•Australia is telling residents not to travel to the US because of the potential unrest; it is one of the few countries people are still allowed to travel from•Many retailers and small businesses are terrified they will be looted like in June, when unrest swept the nation

Retailers across the country boarded up their windows and some are closing early on Tuesday night

The NYPD's Strategic Response Group of roughly 600","Sad face of Election 2020: Cities (and White House) board up and brace for election riots, looting and a drawn-out vote count as Australia and Canada tell their citizens to steer clear - except they're already banned because of COVID!",tweets_news_770,tweets_news
"Facebook releases community standard enforcement report regarding content removal from October 2019 to March 2020.

Facebook releases new report on content removals

Facebook releases Community Standards Enforcement Report, providing metrics on how well we enforced our policies from October 2019 through March 2020 regarding content removal. We've spent the last few years building tools, teams, and technologies to help protect elections from interference, prevent misinformation from spreading on our apps, and keep people safe from harmful content.

When the COVID-19 crisis emerged, we had the tools and processes in place to move quickly and we were able to continue finding and removing content that violates our policies. When we temporarily sent our content reviewers home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we increased our reliance on these automated systems and prioritized high-severity content for our teams to review in order to continue to keep our apps safe during this time.

This report includes data only through March 2020 so it does not reflect the full impact of the changes we made during the pandemic. We anticipate we'll see the impact of those changes in our next report, and possibly beyond, and we will be transparent about them. For example, for the past seven weeks, we",Facebook releases new report on content removal,tweets_news_771,tweets_news
"On 27 February 1860, Abraham Lincoln spoke at Cooper Union in New York City. Concluding that ""right makes might"" and that slavery must not be allowed to expand, the little-known lawyer from Illinois took a giant leap to becoming the first Republican president.

Exactly 160 years later, members of the Lincoln Project came to the same venue, stood on the same stage and spoke from the very same lectern. Their aim : to bring a Republican president down.

In his book on Lincoln's appearance at Cooper Union, the prize-winning historian Harold Holzer quotes Mayson Brayman, a Democrat from Lincoln's home town who stood at the back of the hall.

""At each finished period"" of his address, Brayman said, Lincoln cast ""a timid, sidelong glance at the formidable array of reporters who surrounded the table at his elbow, as if conscious that after all the world was his audience"".

On Thursday night, the Lincoln Project sought to tell the world about its attempt to defeat Trump. The evening was broadcast on YouTube but a small and not particularly formidable array of reporters sat in the first two rows.

In front of a New York audience, had the floor been opened for questions, some members might have",'Right makes might': Lincoln Project takes aim at Trump from Cooper Union,tweets_news_772,tweets_news
"Loeffler will soon choose between defense funds for her state and Trump's personal spite for social media companies



Link to Image



Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) Dustin Chambers/Getty Images



Earlier this week, the House approved a $740 billion defense spending bill by an overwhelming margin, in defiance of President Trump's threat to veto if Congress didn't use the opportunity to strip internet platforms of a special legal shield - an unrelated issue that Trump has shoehorned into the debate under the guise of a national security risk.

The Senate, which already passed an earlier version of the annual resolution - the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) - will now have to take up the measure again, setting up a showdown with Trump that puts additional pressure on a pair of Georgia Republicans headed for runoff elections: They can side with the military and risk Trump's wrath, just weeks before the Jan. 5 election, or give Trump the votes he needs to ensure his veto stands.

Georgia itself has skin in the game: The bill funds upgrades to Robins Air Force Base, for instance, and includes a provision to help modernize combat equipment.

Both of the above provisions were requested by Georgia's unelected multimillionaire Sen. Kelly Loeffler, former","Loeffler sides with Trump against ""Big Tech"" - after building a massive fortune in the industry",tweets_news_773,tweets_news
"

Jun 30, 2020( Tubefilter: http://www.tubefilter.com Delivered by Newstex) Amid a firestorm of controversy, YouTube confirms toTubefilter that it has suspended monetization on all three of Shane Dawson's channels. Dawson operates flagship hub Shane[1] (22.5 million subscribers, 35 million monthly views), Shane Dawson TV[2] (8.4 million subscribers), and a newer beauty channel, Shane Glossin'[3] (3.7 million subscribers, 2 million monthly views). YouTube tells Tubefilter it takes such action in rare circumstances where a particularly newsworthy creator's bad behavior could have a negative impact across its collective community of creators, viewers, and advertisers. In opting to demonetize Dawson, the platform took into account both the impact and nature of his previous videos, as well as his off-platform behavior.Demonetization was initiated last night on June 29. The length of the punishment is indefinite, though not permanent[4]. In recent days, Dawson has apologized for numerous reprehensible videos[5] that have surfaced from his past, including one where he pretended to masturbate to a photo of Willow Smith, as well as other instances of blackface, using the N-word, and playing racist stereotypes of Asian and Hispanic people in skits.

The videos in question were on Dawson's first channel, Shane Dawson TV, which has now been wiped clean",YouTube Has Suspended Monetization On All 3 Of Shane Dawson's Channels,tweets_news_774,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from the BBC.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

voicing their concerns. Catherine knows better than most what that is like. Nowadays, she lives a quiet life in the Isle of Wight with her family but she used to be an ardent believer in conspiracy theories including that vaccines are part of a sinister global plot to kill millions of people. I felt extremely part of a club when I was a conspiracy theorist.

And I do see it as, sadly, a bit of a cult. I hate to refer to and even access as cult-like because I know myself what it is like to be on that side and I would have hated to be referred to as that. Her believe in conspiracy theories stem from the antiestablishment upbringing but then along came social media and it opened up a whole new world of anti-vaccine content. There were hundreds of YouTube videos, facebook videos, means, videos, facebook videos, memes, articles, clips that will catch",BBC News - 2:20 PM GMT,tweets_news_775,tweets_news
"Twitter plans to urge amendments to aspects of the regulations ""that inhibit free, open conversation"" and ""strive to comply with applicable law."" New Delhi: In the midst of its feud with the government over the ""Congress toolkit"" row, Twitter today broke its silence on new digital restrictions, expressing concern about ""the potential threat to freedom...

Twitter plans to urge amendments to aspects of the regulations ""that inhibit free, open conversation"" and ""strive to comply with applicable law."" New Delhi: In the midst of its feud with the government over the ""Congress toolkit"" row, Twitter today broke i...

Twitter plans to urge amendments to aspects of the regulations ""that inhibit free, open conversation"" and ""strive to comply with applicable law."" New Delhi: In the midst of its feud with the government over the ""Congress toolkit"" row, Twitter today broke its silence on new digital restrictions, expressing concern about ""the potential threat to freedom of expression"" and ""the use of intimidation tactics by the police"". According to a sharply worded statement, while the social media giant would ""strive to comply with applicable law,"" it plans to urge amendments to aspects of the regulations ""that inhibit free, open conversation."" This is the first time the",Twitter Expresses Concerns Over Erosion of Freedom of Expression and Police Intimidation Tactics,tweets_news_776,tweets_news
"Donald Trump's indefinite band from Facebook has been upheld by the social media giant's oversight board.

The former US president saw his social media accounts blocked following violent clashes in the US Capitol on January 6, which saw five people die as a result.

Mr Trump was blamed for inciting the ugly scenes as videos shared across the 74-year-old's social accounts called those who stormed the Capitol ""patriots"" and said: ""We love you.""

Despite the ban being upheld the group raised concerns about the indeterminate duration of the measure.

The board concluded that two posts by Mr Trump ""severely violated"" Facebook's Community Standard but said it was ""not appropriate"" for the social network to impose ""the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension"".

""Given the seriousness of the violations and the ongoing risk of violence, Facebook was justified in suspending Mr Trump's accounts on January 6 and extending that suspension on January 7,"" the board said.

""However, it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose an 'indefinite' suspension.

""It is not permissible for Facebook to keep a user off the platform for an undefined period, with no criteria for when or whether the account will be restored.""

Facebook's vice president of global affairs and communications, Sir Nick Clegg,",Donald Trump's Facebook suspension upheld after US Capitol violence,tweets_news_777,tweets_news
"

Feb 11, 2021( Prairie Pundit: http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Ned Barnett:[1]Immediately after the Jan.6 demonstrations at the Capitol, the cabal of ""woke"" Silicon Valley communications platforms led by Twitter banned President Donald J. Trump from ever posting again. This was meant to be punitive. After all, Amazon did roughly the same thing by banning Parler, a civil liberties alternative to Twitter, from the giant firm's pervasive server farms.

That was clearly punitive.But was the move against Trump really hurtful?With the impeachment trial now going on in the Senate, and because a super-majority is highly improbable, this exercise in manufactured outrage is a farce. A non-starter. DOA. However, if the president hadn't been banned from virtually all social media platforms, it's almost inconceivable that he wouldn't be back in the fray on a daily basis. Instead, he's been quiet for the past month, something almost equally inconceivable, considering the Twitter track record President Trump has created since he first announced his candidacy, way back in 2015.In many ways, Donald Trump is a remarkable populist, a billionaire ""everyman"" who not only didn't profit from his presidency, but even gave back his annual salary as president, nearly half a million dollars. However, his one",Did Silicon Valley unknowingly help Trump?,tweets_news_778,tweets_news
"New York leaders denounced violent protests and an attempted insurrection on Washington's Capitol Hill by President Donald Trump supporters where one person was shot and at least one improvised explosive device was found Wednesday in objection to Congress voting to cement President-elect Joe Biden's win in the 2020 presidential election.

The National Guard and federal police were deployed to combat the violent breach on Capitol buildings and offices, which followed earlier messages of hope from lawmakers to mark the start of the state's 2021-22 legislative session.

The halls of New York's state Capitol in Albany were quiet while scores of protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington after some congressional Republicans attempted to object the Electoral College vote certifying Biden's victory in support of Trump.

Protesters breached security perimeters at the U.S. Capitol, putting the building on lockdown shortly after proceedings began. Lawmakers inside the House chamber were told to wear gas masks and lay on the floor as Capitol police released tear gas, then evacuated from the building.

Biden, who will be inaugurated Jan. 20, addressed the nation from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

""At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault unlike anything we've seen in modern times,"" he said. ""...It borders",NY leaders denounce violent U.S. Capitol unrest,tweets_news_779,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Australia's Parliament will debate making Google and Facebook pay for news after a Senate committee on Friday recommended no changes to the world-first draft laws.

FULL TEXT

Link to Image

CANBERRA, Australia - Australia's Parliament will debate making Google and Facebook pay for news after a Senate committee on Friday recommended no changes to the world-first draft laws.

The Senate Economics Legislation Committee has been scrutinizing the bill since it was introduced in Parliament in December.

The senators rejected Facebook and Google's arguments that the so-called media bargaining code, which would force the digital giants to negotiate payment to Australian news media for the news content that the platforms link to, was unworkable.

""The committee agrees that public interest journalism is more than just an ordinary consumer product that has been undermined or 'disrupted' by new technology,"" the committee's report said.

""Rather, public interest journalism is a cornerstone of democracy and its survival is imperative in a society increasingly vulnerable to misleading information that can so easily be spread on the internet,"" the report said.

But the committee also recognized that the legislation carried risks and should be reviewed after a year.

""The committee accepts that there remains the possibility that not all risks have been taken into account,",Australia report says make Google and Facebook pay for news,tweets_news_780,tweets_news
"Platforms such as Google and Facebook are undermining credible journalism

The recent announcement that Australian Associated Press will close is not only terrible news for AAP journalists, credible news reporting and transparency, it is also a strong example of what happens when digital platforms take too much of the value of journalists' work.

AAP provides a vital service, available to us all. It is often invisible to the public, but its value is illustrated by pictures circulating on Twitter, capturing a lone AAP journalist at a press conference.

The stories these journalists produce are packaged up and published across any one of the many news organisations that subscribe to AAP. This symbiotic relationship delivers readers a diverse range of coverage from court cases to sporting events.

AAP chairman Campbell Reid described the service as ""journalism's first responders"". The Guardian called it ""Australian democracy's safety net"". I'd add it is ""bloody productive"" - last Thursday, AAP's top 10 news stories were republished more than 2500 times.

The sad demise of AAP is partly attributable to the fact the value created by original news content now is appropriated by digital platforms. Such companies use news content to attract customers, to collect and analyse the biggest data set",TIME FOR THE DIGITAL BEHEMOTHS TO PAY FOR NEWS CONTENT,tweets_news_781,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is trashing Facebook and Twitter’s response to the harassment of pregnant women on their platforms, calling it “out-of-date, worn-out, and woefully inadequate.”

“Vague content moderation policies, ineffective fact checking, inconsistent enforcement, and meaningless labels are cold comfort to the women continuously assailed by vile anti-vaccine hate and life-threatening falsehoods,” the senator said in a statement to The Daily Beast.

Blumenthal sent letters to both Facebook and Twitter last month in response to a Daily Beast report that found women who had miscarriages after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine were being targeted and harassed by anti-vaxxers on social media.

Much of the harassment was coordinated on Facebook and Instagram pages and played out on Twitter. In response, Blumenthal sent letters to both Twitter and Facebook (which owns Instagram), asking how they planned to address the issue.

Both companies responded by citing their COVID-19 misinformation policies, such as the ability to remove misleading information about the vaccines, and highlighted general policies against bullying and harassment. But neither specifically addressed the targeting of pregnant women. Accounts that The Daily Beast identified as spreading vaccine misinformation, like the Instagram page cv19vaccinereactions, remained live.

In his statement, Blumenthal said he saw “little in their responses that","Senator: Facebook, Twitter Failing Pregnant Women Besieged by Anti-Vax Lies",tweets_news_782,tweets_news
"Facebook groups spread conspiracy theories and shield abuse. Here are ways to make them less toxic.

Facebook groups spread conspiracy theories and shield abuse. Here are ways to make them less toxic.

This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.

The QAnon conspiracy theory, promotions of bogus health treatments and calls for violence based on false claims of election fraud have a common thread: Facebook groups.

These forums for people with a shared interest can be wonderful communities for avid gardeners in the same neighborhood or parents whose children have a rare disease. But for years, it’s also been clear that the groups turbocharge some people’s inclinations to get into heated online fights, spread engrossing information whether it’s true or not and scapegoat others.

I don’t want to oversimplify and blame Facebook groups for every bad thing in the world. (Read my colleague Kevin Roose’s latest column on suggestions for how to target polarization and engage people in purposeful activities.) And mitigating the harms of Facebook is not as simple as the company’s critics believe.

But many of the toxic side effects of Facebook groups are a result of the company’s choices. I asked several experts",How to Fix Facebook Groups,tweets_news_783,tweets_news
"Former President Donald Trump stands trial before the Senate this week on an impeachment charge that accuses him of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol

Former President Donald Trump stands trial before the Senate this week on an impeachment charge that accuses him of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

His lawyers in a 78-page memorandum on Monday detailed a range of legal and factual arguments that they intend to make at trial.

Some of the highlights:

___

ARGUMENT: TRUMP DID NOT INCITE THE INSURRECTION

Defense lawyers are adamant that Trump did not incite the riot when he addressed a huge crowd of supporters at a rally that preceded it.

They accuse House impeachment managers of cherry-picking Trump's statements from an hourlong speech by highlighting only those that Democrats see as helpful to their case, pointing out repeatedly that he had told his supporters to ""peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.""

They argue that even the statement that has attracted the most notoriety - ""If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore"" - was figurative in the general context of election security, not an invocation to violence. And they suggest Trump couldn't have",Key arguments by Trump's lawyers ahead of impeachment trial,tweets_news_784,tweets_news
"Short Url



https://arab.news/bneaa

Donald Trump greets Joe Biden and Barack Obama after being sworn in as the 45th president of the U.S., Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2017.

The US election did not disappoint after all. It threatened to be ugly, dirty and frantic with minimum civility, and with truth being at best an option, and it lived up to these promises.



Donald Trump lost, leaving Joe Biden, who kept his calm throughout the campaign, to pick up the pieces of what the US has become. It is his task now to start the long process of bringing the nation together, and in his first speech after he was projected to win, unity and healing were his focus. It is probably the hardest task any peacetime leader has faced for a very long time.





As Biden is likely to serve only one term, his three acute and urgent tasks are: To restore some modicum of sanity to the political process in Washington and across the country, to strategize the country's response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its impacts, and to heal the divisions and wounds in American society.



President Biden and Vice President Harris will have to address the toxic legacy of the last four",Key takeaways from US election,tweets_news_785,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

or injecting bleach, or imbibing bleach, did you take action against those bits of misinformation? Something like _InjectDisinfectant was blocked from trending. This is weekend, we blocked a website that was not safe because it was harmful. Action had been taken against political leaders.

We may have a policy where there may be a time in the public interest -- We do have a policy where there may be a time in the public interest to be aware that a world leader has shared a tweet. But if it does break our rules, we will hide it and note that it is harmful and does break the rules. Julia Knight clearly unhappy at that response. Another MP quoted a Facebook post. ""Are there any 5G masks where we live?"" ""I need to go out and, it might cause the virus."" That was 26 days ago. We believe it is not Facebook's place with this. without organisations",Joins BBC News - 04:53 AM GMT,tweets_news_786,tweets_news
"DENVER (AP) — A federal judge ruled last week that Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert does not have to unblock a former Democratic Colorado state lawmaker from her personal Twitter account.

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico said in his decision Thursday that Boebert, who represents the state's 3rd Congressional District, did not violate the free speech rights of former state Rep. Bri Buentello because Boebert blocked Buentello from her personal Twitter account — and did not block Buentello from Boebert's official government account, The Colorado Sun reported.

“Blocking a Twitter user on an account created before she was elected to office is something Ms. Boebert could do before she was in office and could do after she leaves office,” said Domenico, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

Buentello filed her lawsuit in January after she was blocked by Boebert after calling for Boebert's recall following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Buentello’s lawyers argued that since Boebert uses her personal Twitter account to share official policy positions, it is unlawful for her to block constituents from seeing the account.

Although Domenico denied in his ruling a preliminary injunction for Boebert to unblock Buentello from the Twitter account, it’s not",US judge: Rep. Boebert can block people on personal Twitter,tweets_news_787,tweets_news
"BY HYUNG-JIN KIM

and KIM TONG-HYUNG

The Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea - The missing mayor of South Korea's capital, reportedly embroiled in sexual harassment allegations, was found dead early today, more than half a day after giving his daughter a will-like message and then leaving home,

police said.

Police said they located Park Won-soon's body near a traditional restaurant in wooded hills in northern Seoul, more than seven hours after they launched a massive search for him.

Choi Ik-su, an officer from the Seoul Metropolitan

Police Agency, told reporters there were no signs of foul play and no suicide note had been found at the site or in Park's residence. He refused to elaborate on the cause of Park's death.

Choi said rescue dogs found Park's body, and police had recovered his bag, cellphone and business cards.

His daughter called police on Thursday afternoon and said her father had given her ""a will-like"" verbal message in the morning before leaving home. She didn't explain the contents of the message, said an officer at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency who was responsible for the search operation.

Police said they mobilized about 600 police and fire

officers, drones and tracking dogs to search for Park in the hills, where his cellphone signal",Missing South Korea mayor's body found after massive search,tweets_news_788,tweets_news
"PHILADELPHIA - President Donald Trump's legal team suffered yet another defeat in court Friday as a federal appeals court in Philadelphia roundly rejected the campaign's latest effort to challenge the state's election results.

Trump's lawyers vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court despite the judges' assessment that the ""campaign's claims have no merit.""

""Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,"" 3rd Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote for the three-judge panel, all appointed by Republican presidents.

The case had been argued last week in a lower court by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who insisted during five hours of oral arguments that the 2020 presidential election had been marred by widespread fraud in Pennsylvania. However, Giuliani failed to offer any tangible proof of that in court.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann, another Republican, had said the campaign's error-filled complaint, ""like Frankenstein's Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together"" and denied Giuliani the right to amend it for a second time.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called any revisions ""futile."" Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith and",Court rejects Trump case,tweets_news_789,tweets_news
"(GlobeNewswire) - Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report ""Content Moderation Solutions Market: Global Industry Analysis, Trends, Market Size, and Forecasts up to 2026"" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05954504/?utm_source=GNW

9% over the forecast period from 2020-2026. The study on content moderation solutions market covers the analysis of the leading geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW for the period of 2018 to 2026.

The report on content moderation solutions market is a comprehensive study and presentation of drivers, restraints, opportunities, demand factors, market size, forecasts, and trends in the global content moderation solutions market over the period of 2018 to 2026. Moreover, the report is a collective presentation of primary and secondary research findings.

Porters five forces model in the report provides insights into the competitive rivalry, supplier and buyer positions in the market and opportunities for the new entrants in the global content moderation solutions market over the period of 2018 to 2026. Further, IGR- Growth Matrix gave in the report brings an insight into the investment areas that existing or new market players can consider.

Report Findings

1) Drivers

Rising digital marketing and online business trends

The rising popularity of social media with the growing importance of the customer service channel

Stringent community guidelines and online business",Global content moderation solutions market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 10.9% over the forecast period from 2020-2026,tweets_news_790,tweets_news
"QAnon adherents called it “the storm”. At midday on Wednesday, there were supposed to be blackouts across the US, military tribunals led by ... QAnon adherents called it “the storm”. At midday on Wednesday, there were supposed to be blackouts across the US, military tribunals led by Donald Trump and the mass execution of Democrats in...

QAnon adherents called it “the storm”. At midday on Wednesday, there were supposed to be blackouts across the US, military tribunals led by ...

QAnon adherents called it “the storm”. At midday on Wednesday, there were supposed to be blackouts across the US, military tribunals led by Donald Trump and the mass execution of Democrats in the streets.

It did not happen. Instead, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th US president and the day of reckoning anticipated by the pro-Trump conspiracy cult failed to materialise, dismaying the faithful.

“QAnon believers invested all their remaining hopes in false beliefs that Trump would take action validating their theories before or during inauguration,” said Jared Holt, a research fellow focused on extremism at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. “For some followers, watching Biden and (Vice-president Kamala) Harris sworn into office was a breaking point in their beliefs.” 

QAnon",QAnon in crisis as day of reckoning fails to materialise,tweets_news_791,tweets_news
"Focus on conflict. Feed the algorithm. Make sure whatever you produce reinforces a narrative. Don’t worry if it is true.

To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

In 2018, a far-right activist, Tommy Robinson, posted a video to YouTube claiming he had been attacked by an African migrant in Rome.

The thumbnail image and eight-word title promoting the video indicated Mr. Robinson was assaulted by a Black man outside a train station. Then, in the video, Mr. Robinson punched the man in the jaw, dropping him to the ground.

The video was viewed more than 2.8 million times, and it prompted news stories across the right-wing tabloids in Britain, where Mr. Robinson was rapidly gaining notoriety for his anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic views.

For Caolan Robertson — a filmmaker who worked for Mr. Robinson and helped create the video — it was an instructional moment. It showed the key ingredients needed to attract attention on YouTube and other social media services.

The video played into anti-immigrant sentiments in Britain and across Europe. It also focused squarely on conflict, cutting rapidly between shouts and shoves before showing Mr. Robinson’s punch. It also misrepresented what had actually happened.

“We",Feeding Hate With Video: A Former Alt-Right YouTuber Explains His Methods,tweets_news_792,tweets_news
"I just fired off an email to Sam, the guy who runs the bakery in town. And I'm feeling pretty good about it.

You see, I saw a friend's Facebook post saying Sam is switching half his inventory to gluten-free and low-fat items. I don't really shop there, but that's BS, right? Why's he pushing that lifestyle agenda? So here's what I wrote him:

""Do me a favor: Go kill your ****ing self, please, you ****ing worthless piece of ****. I hope your building blows up and burns down with all you ******s in it. YOU are the problem. Burn in hell, ******s.""

What? That's not appropriate?

Welcome to the life of a journalist in 2021. That's a condensed version of an actual comment sent to MLive's branded Facebook account last week.

And it's not a one-off. Here's an email to a reporter last summer, after the journalist noted that reports of federal agents detaining protesters in Portland were unsubstantiated:

""Allegedly detaining protestors? You're a ****ing coward. **** your ****** apartment and that worthless life of yours that you think you should be protecting, scumbag. Die slow.""

Find that shameful? Apparently the author didn't – the email included his real name. Both aspects are growing trends –",Letter from the Editor: It's time for reasonable people to push hate-filled trolls back under the bridge ,tweets_news_793,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration is expected to announce Monday that it is designating an ultranationalist group based in Russia as a terrorist organization, according to officials. It is the first time the government will apply the label to a white supremacist group.

While the label of specially designated global terrorist has been frequently used for Islamist extremists, there have been growing concerns among U.S. officials about violent white supremacists with transnational links over the past five years. In 2018, the White House added that threat to the government's National Strategy for Counterterrorism.

""These designations are unprecedented,"" said Ambassador Nathan A. Sales, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator. ""This is the first time the United States has ever designated white supremacists as terrorists, and this illustrates how seriously this administration takes the white supremacist terrorist threat. We are doing things no previous administration has done to counter this threat.""

The State Department's designation for the organization, the Russian Imperial Movement, sets up the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to block any American property or assets belonging to the group. It will also bar Americans from financial dealings with the organization and make it easier to ban its members from traveling to the","For the first time, U.S. to label a white supremacist group as terrorists",tweets_news_794,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

insulted Jewish people and compared the community to the Ku Klux Klan. We've chosen not to show the comments because of their content. The musician has now been dropped by his manager, although Wiley maintains it was his decision to leave the company. Look at this, you liar.

Look at this, man. I cut ties with you, you fool. That's why we're here. Twitter says abuse and harassment have no place on the site, adding that Wiley's account has been temporarily locked for violating the hateful content policy. Facebook, which owns Instagram, says there is no place for hate speech there either. It says it has deleted content that violates policies and is continuing to investigate. But offensive comments are still visible. He needs some help. What it's doing is encouraging others to put out hatred as well. With others weighing in, including far-right fascist groups. I'm outraged on a daily basis... People have been banned from Twitter before.",BBC Weekend News - 5:50 PM GMT,tweets_news_795,tweets_news
"RIGHT FROM WRONG

According to a Channel 13 poll, most Israelis support the coalition deal signed on Monday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz. The numbers (62% in favor and 22% opposed) are not surprising.

Following three Knesset elections that ended in deadlock and numerous negotiations that led to nowhere, the public is both fed up and beaten down. The prospect of returning to the ballot box for a fourth time - particularly with the country in the throes of the coronavirus crisis - made the very inking of the Netanyahu-Gantz agreement for an ""emergency national unity government"" palatable. Under any other circumstances, the deal in question would be cause for dismay, if not outrage.

With more than a quarter of the workforce unemployed and small businesses bankrupt due to forced closures, the provision for 36 ministers and up to 16 deputy ministers - not to mention a second official Prime Minister's Residence - is pretty shocking to taxpayers of all ideological stripes. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the deal, which requires the changing of Basic Laws, will pass muster with the Supreme Court.

In other words, when all is said and done, another round of elections",Hell hath no fury like Bibi-haters scorned,tweets_news_796,tweets_news
"Twitter is ``not doing enough'' to address abuse, it has been claimed - as it emerged the man at the centre of the Alastair Stewart row has been inundated with hate tweets.

Martin Shapland's Twitter exchange with the veteran broadcaster is thought to have led to his departure from ITN, in which he quoted a Shakespeare passage including the phrase ``angry ape''.

The quote, which was taken from the play Measure For Measure, was sent during a disagreement on January 13.

Breaking his silence on the matter, Mr Shapland said on Twitter that he had been ``on the receiving end of a torrent of abuse''.

One tweet threatened Mr Shapland to ``be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life'', which has remained on the platform since 7am on Thursday, while other tweets contain racist insults.

The Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) organisation described the tweets as ``absolutely disgusting'' and said Twitter has become a ``toxic place''.

``Twitter aren't doing enough to fix it,'' Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the CCDH, told the PA news agency.

``We would expect Twitter to take those tweets down as quickly as possible, and to take decisive action against the people that tweeted them in the first place,",TWITTER BRANDED 'TOXIC' AMID ABUSE AIMED AT MAN IN ALASTAIR STEWART ROW,tweets_news_797,tweets_news
"By Emma McIntosh, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, National Observer

New Conservative Party Leader Erin O'Toole says he didn't issue a statement about an offensive tweet from one of his MPs because it was taken down before he saw it.

MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay, the party's environment critic, retweeted a video Saturday morning of Liberal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland interviewing George Soros, a billionaire philanthropist who is often the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, in 2009 when Freeland was a journalist. Canadians should be ""alarmed"" by Freeland and Soros' closeness, Findlay wrote in the since-deleted post.

""When I found out about it, the tweet was already down and Ms. Findlay had apologized for it,"" O'Toole told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday when asked why he didn't make a statement about the incident.

O'Toole didn't answer when asked if he had spoken to Findlay about it. But he said he did call ""some leaders from the Jewish community,"" and said Conservatives under his leadership would continue to be strong advocates against anti-Semitism.

Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre retweeted Findlay's post Saturday, but hasn't commented publicly.

Findlay apologized in a followup tweet, but didn't address her comments about Freeland and Soros. ""Earlier today, I thoughtlessly shared content from what I","After MP's offensive tweet, O'Toole says Tories will counter anti-Semitism",tweets_news_798,tweets_news
"All the latest national and international news stories brought to you by the BBC news team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

Dame Rachel de Souza says children have paid a high price in the pandemic, and that now was the time to re-imagine the support they needed. Branwen Jeffreys reports. Playing with friends at school. Children have missed so much this year, so a huge survey of children is planned in England to understand their experiences.

The Children's Commissioner argues for children in government. The new woman in the job says families still need support. She told me free school meals should stay through the summer. I absolutely want to see free school meals extended, and I'm very concerned about suggestions of dropping Universal Credit. If Universal Credit was dropped down again, I would like to see services provided in that place, but I'd rather it wasn't dropped. Do you think they were too slow to listen to Marcus Rashford? Yes. These sixth formers save the pandemic had affected all",BBC News at One - 1:20 PM GMT,tweets_news_799,tweets_news
"A new outside report found that Facebook has allowed groups — many tied to QAnon, boogaloo and militia movements — to glorify violence during the 2020 election and in the weeks leading up to the deadly riots on the U.S. Capitol in January.

Avaaz, a nonprofit advocacy group that says it seeks to protect democracies from misinformation, identified 267 pages and groups on Facebook that it says spread violence-glorifying material in the heat of the 2020 election to a combined following of 32 million users.

More than two-thirds of the groups and pages had names that aligned with several domestic extremist movements, the report found. The first, boogaloo, promotes a second U.S. civil war and the breakdown of modern society. The second is the QAnon conspiracy, which claims that Donald Trump is waging a secret battle against the “deep state” and a sect of powerful Satanworshipping pedophiles who dominate Hollywood, big business, the media and government. The rest are various anti-government militias. All have been largely banned from Facebook since 2020.

But despite what Avaaz called “clear violations” of Facebook’s policies, it found that 119 of these pages and groups were still active on the platform as of Feb. 24 and had just",Report: Extremist groups thrive on Facebook amid bans,tweets_news_800,tweets_news
"ALBANY — A Trump supporter attending a rally outside the Capitol on Wednesday was stabbed multiple times and underwent emergency surgery to repair an eviscerated bowel at Albany Medical Center Hospital.

The suspect, 37-year-old Alexander S. Contompasis of Albany, is accused of stabbing two people during a melee that erupted in East Capitol Park between a group that gathered to support President Donald J. Trump and a smaller group of counter-protesters who showed up, several of them allegedly armed with weapons.

Contompasis was arraigned Thursday morning in Albany City Court on charges that include first-degree assault, a high-level felony. City Court Judge Holly A. Trexler set bail at $30,000 cash or $60,000 bond.

State Police recovered the knife they suspect was used in the stabbing from Contompasis's vehicle, which was parked near the Capitol. They also were searching his vehicle on Thursday. Several other people were charged with minor offenses and given appearance tickets, including two counter-protesters that police said were armed with expandable batons.

Melissa A. Carpinello, an attorney for Contompasis, said the victims in the stabbing identified themselves to police as members of the ""Proud Boys"" and that her client was defending himself from an attack. The FBI has labeled Proud Boys",Suspect in Albany Capitol assault allegedly stabbed victim five times,tweets_news_801,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

here which of course could he just tell the House what is the current advice to members of the public about the use of facemasks? about these outbreaks is that people Because one of the things are being taken and what people look at what measures where the disease has taken hold, are doing in countries here, ""Well, why aren't and then ask the authorities we doing the same?"" in anticipation presumably, And it would be helpful to know by the Chief Medical Officer. this will be guidance given to put forward proposals We try very much only which are clinically appropriate.

deemed quickly necessary now. And the wearing of facemasks is not review and we will be Of course, we keep that under guided by the science. as we probably all will have, I have a number of constituents and many of them, Chinese constituents, English is difficult. information to Chinese So, when we are",Joins BBC News - 02:35 AM GMT,tweets_news_802,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

If - and it's still a big if - Facebook carries out its threat, it will hurt Australians much more than it will hurt itself.

FULL TEXT

Facebook's threat yesterday to stop Australians sharing news content on its platforms if the government forced big companies to pay local media outlets could leave us less well-informed and allow misinformation to flourish, experts have warned. That shakedown leaves a lot of questions unanswered. We still don't know what kind of content will qualify as news. And, most worryingly, we don't know what social media platforms already rife with fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories will look like when the legitimate stuff is gone. A newsfeed without news There's a good chance that if Facebook carries through with its threat, most Australians won't notice a huge change to their newsfeed in the short term at least. How much actual news a person might see on their feed tends to be influenced by a bunch of variables: what pages they like, what their friends engage with, even the time of day they're scrolling. Instead the impacts could hit particular demographic groups. Plenty of Australians do still rely on Facebook for news. The most recent Digital News",'Bad for democracy': Facebook's news ban could leave only the garbage behind,tweets_news_803,tweets_news
"Since the formal ""normalization"" agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel was announced in August, more than 50,000 Israelis have popped off to visit the Emirates, with many Emiratis doing the same in Israel.

Social media feeds in Israel are overrun by ads and articles encouraging ties on every level: religious, cultural, business, political, health. Most noteworthy is that these words are reinforced by action that is strongly supported by the Israeli and Emirati governments; encouraging what is referred to in foreign policy circles as the development of ""people-to-people"" ties.

Among the many negative lessons learned from the now decades-old peace treaties between Israel, Egypt and Jordan is that without interpersonal connections and relations there is no meaningful peace. Those treaties were forged and based solely on security concerns, with many Jordanian and Egyptian leaders and influencers very openly and vociferously broadcasting their continued loathing of Jews and Israel. To this day it is illegal in Jordan to sell property to a Jewish person (as well as Israelis). Jordanian and Egyptian media tend to portray Israel and Jews as nothing short of diabolical, to the point that a leading Egyptian newspaper in that country of 100 million has blamed pretty much","Vivian Bercovici: A momentous shift in the Middle East, brought by the people who actually live there",tweets_news_804,tweets_news
"The Trump administration's battle with Silicon Valley over content moderation escalated this month when the Justice Department urged Congress to strip some immunity protections from social media platforms for content they host.

The move followed a largely symbolic executive order President Trump signed after Twitter — for the first time — slapped a fact check on two of his false tweets, a move the president tried to frame as a crackdown on conservative speech. On Tuesday, Twitter took action for the fifth time against the president, hiding a Trump tweet threatening ""serious force"" against protesters who tried to establish an autonomous zone in Washington, D.C., saying it violated Twitter's rules on abusive behavior.

There is much disagreement within and among social media companies about what to do about politicians' lies and misleading or false political ads. (Twitter has banned political ads, while Facebook allows them, though it said in mid-June it would soon allow all users to opt out of them. And on Friday, Facebook, faced with a growing advertiser boycott, outlined a broader category of hateful content it would ban in ads.) Four years after the Russians exploited the platforms to sow division and boost Trump's candidacy, there also remains little",Congress should pass Rep. Eshoo’s bill restricting microtargeting of political ads,tweets_news_805,tweets_news
"America's crisis of political segregation – we increasingly don't live alongside, associate with or even marry people who think differently from us – is leading conservatives to congregate together on social media outlets designed specifically for people who think like them.

The recent rise of Parler – as well as other social media alternatives that appeal primarily to conservatives and that got their start largely by attracting the far right – raises the specter of further political polarization through digital means. Parler and others, like MeWe and Gab, are gaining momentum with a promise not to censor their users for behavior that might violate the policies of such rivals as Facebook or Twitter.

Parler said in its Nov. 7 “community guidelines” that it won’t decide what content will be “removed or filtered, or whose account will be removed, on the basis of the opinion expressed within the content.”

Supporters say Parler is preserving free speech and is correcting for the overreach of the mainstream social media platforms, which applied labels to or limited the reach of many of President Donald Trump’s misleading posts during the week of the election.

“Constantly jumping in and correcting things for the record and feeling like it’s one way",Alternative social media attracting conservatives,tweets_news_806,tweets_news
"As Los Angeles slowly begins opening back up amid the coronavirus pandemic, citizens throughout the area are venturing out more and more for various errands.

Though, Caitlyn Jenner flouted city rules requiring face masks in public on Tuesday as she stepped out for coffee in Thousand Oaks.

The 70-year-old reality TV star, looked sporty in a short black and a short sleeve white top, with sneakers.

She looked casual as she grabbed coffee from a local Starbucks, with dark brown sunglasses covering her eyes.

Caitlyn carried a black handbag in her hand as she headed back to her car.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that civil rights law protects gay and lesbian people from discrimination in employment, a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a conservative court.

And Caitlyn joined celebrities who to social media to support the move which went against President Donald Trump's wishes.

She recorded herself talking during an Instagram video where she said 'trans lives matter' while Taylor Swift added 'this is a beautiful step forward' and Selena Gomez shared, 'great news.'

'Victory yes, victory for the LGBT [an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] community in the Supreme court today this is great news,' said an ecstatic Jenner, who came",Caitlyn Jenner chooses not to don a face mask while looking sporty in a skirt and sneakers for coffee run,tweets_news_807,tweets_news
"The Trump campaign is criticizing ‘anti-fracking activist’ Lady Gaga, who will be joining Joe Biden at a rally in Pittsburgh this week.

The Donald Trump and his campaign are calling out “anti-fracking activist” , who will be to show her support for him at a drive-in rally in Pittsburgh, Pa., the day before the general election.

Gaga talked up those plans, and the Democratic presidential nominee, over the weekend: “I LOVE THIS STATE. I'm here now! This place is filled with good hearted people-good hearted people that @JoeBiden loves. He's a good friend. He's the President this country needs to bring us back together.”

Tim Murtaugh, director of communications for Trump’s campaign, about the pop star’s alignment with Biden on Sunday (Nov. 1): “Nothing exposes Biden's disdain for the forgotten working men & women of PA like campaigning with anti-fracking activist Lady Gaga,” he wrote. “This desperate effort to drum up enthusiasm is actually a sharp stick in the eye for 600,000 Pennsylvanians who work in the fracking industry.”

The statement continues, “Biden repeatedly promised left-wing activists he would end fracking, which would be an economic death sentence and financial Armageddon for families in Pennsylvania and across the country,” and it and says Trump","Trump Calls Lady Gaga an ‘Anti-Fracking Activist,’ Member of ‘Artists Against Fracking’: See the Reactions",tweets_news_808,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - As President Donald Trump prepares to accept the GOP nomination at next month's Republican National Convention, he is facing a reinvigorated effort from the ""Never Trump"" movement that fought unsuccessfully to block his bid for the Oval Office four years ago.

What was once a loosely organized movement led by a select group of conservative activists in 2016 has since re-emerged as a network of well-funded Republican political action committees aimed at thwarting Trump's reelection bid and promoting the candidacy of former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

The list of anti-Trump groups run by disaffected Republicans includes Right Side PAC, a group formed last month that counts Long Island native Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director, as one of its advisers. Meanwhile, the group Republican Voters Against Trump has launched a $10 million TV and online ad campaign in swing states featuring Republican voters sharing testimonials about why they won't vote for Trump.

The Lincoln Project, a political action committee formed in December by a group of prominent conservative operatives including George Conway, the husband of Trump's top aide Kellyanne Conway, has drawn the ire of Trump on Twitter for its series of viral ads taking",Never Trumpers revive campaign,tweets_news_809,tweets_news
"All the latest national and international news stories brought to you by the BBC news team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

The hospitality sector has also had immense challenges. Pubs and restaurants have reopened for outdoor service. Indoor socialising will be allowed in the next phase of easing lockdown, currently set for the 24th of May. Ministers have indicated they could bring that date forward if all goes well with this stage.

Chris Page, BBC News. Many leading football clubs and other sports bodies begin a four-day boycott of social media this afternoon, to highlight the issue of online racial abuse. It's hoped the protest will encourage social media companies to do more to prevent harmful content from being posted, and punish those behind it. Nestor McGregor reports. Taking the knee, slogans, banners, big campaigns, now football's latest attempt to stamp out racism is digital silence. Do I think it will make a difference? Probably not, but what it does do is it sends a warning to these companies, to",BBC News at One - 12:25 AM GMT,tweets_news_810,tweets_news
"•President Jail Bolsonaro announced chloroquine will be given to patients who have lighter symptoms of COVID-19•The Health Ministry said some of the light symptoms include stomach ache, cough or fever•There is no proven clinical evidence that shows that administering the prescription drug on coronavirus patients is effective•The ruling comes less than a week after health minister Nelson Teich resigned over disagreements with Bolsonaro over the use of chloroquine on patients•Interim health minister Eduardo Pazuello agreed with Bolsonaro, who in turn said he will be keeping Pazuello at his post for 'a long time'

President Jail Bolsonaro announced chloroquine will be given to patients who have lighter symptoms of COVID-19

The Health Ministry said some of the light symptoms include stomach ache, cough or fever

There is no proven clinical evidence that shows that administering the prescription drug on coronavirus patients is effective

The ruling comes less than a week after health minister Nelson Teich resigned over disagreements with Bolsonaro over the use of chloroquine on patients

Interim health minister Eduardo Pazuello agreed with Bolsonaro, who in turn said he will be keeping Pazuello at his post for 'a long time'

President Jair Bolsonaro signed off on expanding the prescription of chloroquine for coronavirus patients despite a","Brazil's President Bolsonaro, who previously joked about the use of chloroquine, approves expanded use of the unproven prescription drug to treat coronavirus patients with light symptoms",tweets_news_811,tweets_news
"

Feb 15, 2021( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Monday. Sign up here[1] to get this email in your inbox every morning.Have an Amazon Alexa device?

Listen to this update by searching ""Business Insider"" in your flash briefing settings. Facebook is creating a smartwatch. The firm plans to start selling the device to consumers sometime in 2022, The Information[2] reported on Friday.Mark Zuckerberg wanted 'to inflict pain' on Apple. The Wall Street Journal[3] reported that Zuckerberg made the remarks in 2018, when the battle between Apple and Facebook over privacy began to heat up.Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey may testify before Congress. Politico reported[4] that Zuckerberg and Dorsey may testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.A venture capitalist reportedly suggested doxxing 'vulnerable' journalists. Balaji Srinivasan made the suggestion in 2013 in an email[5] to far-right blogger Curtis Yarvin, the New York Times reported[6] Saturday.A profile of popular blog Slate Star Codex has divided the US tech community. The New York Times drew a connection[7] between Slate Star Codex, the ""Rationalist"" community, and secretive figures in Silicon Valley such as Peter Thiel.Exclusive: Publicly traded streaming firm Gaia is",10 things in tech you need to know today,tweets_news_812,tweets_news
"

Feb 26, 2021( The Nation Blogs: http://www.thenation.com/blogs Delivered by Newstex) https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Debra-Haaland-gt-img.jpg Rep. Debra Haaland, D-N.M., arrives to testify before a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on her nomination to be Secretary of the Interior on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. (Sarah Silbiger via AP) Deb Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo tribal citizen and President Joe Biden's pick to lead the Interior Department, is on the brink of history.

If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Native American Cabinet Secretary. Interior manages one-fifth of the nation's land and vast supplies of natural resources, all taken from Native people, as well as the lion's share of Federal Indian policy. This makes Haaland's appointment even more significant not just symbolic, but a true restoration of power to a people who nearly lost everything. Related Article Yet, despite this remarkable moment, the public is still largely unfamiliar with the Congresswoman representing New Mexico's First Congressional District. A poll of over 1,100 likely voters fielded in late January by Data for Progress, the think tank where I work, found that about 50 percent of respondents had not heard of her. That meant many Americans would get to know",Republicans Failed to Sink Deb Haaland's Nomination And Looked Like Fools in the Process,tweets_news_813,tweets_news
"Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian has stepped down from the company s board of directors in what he described as a long overdue move to do the right thing by ending his involvement with a site that has been long been criticized for providing a forum for racist and misogynistic hate speech. I m writing this as a father who ... Continue reading Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian just quit the company s board in a long overdue move to do the right thing, distancing himself from a site famous for racist content

Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian has stepped down from the company s board of directors in what he described as a long overdue move to do the right thing by ending his involvement with a site that has been long been criticized for providing a forum for racist and misogynistic hate speech.

I m writing this as a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: What did you do? , Ohanian said in a blog post on Friday.

Ohanian, who is married to tennis star Serena Williams, founded Reddit 15 years ago with his college roommate. The privately-held social news aggregation site is now valued at","Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian just quit the company s board in a  long overdue  move to do the right thing, distancing himself from a site famous for racist content",tweets_news_814,tweets_news
"The ABC and SBS would receive compensation under a revision to the media bargaining code the Morrison government is considering, risking dissent among backbenchers to assist the legislation's passage through Parliament.

Some government backbenchers are opposed to the public broadcasters, and the ABC in particular, receiving compensation under the code to force Google and Facebook to pay media companies for using their news content - but their inclusion would increase the chances of the government gaining the support of the crossbench.

""It would be a brave person who stands up in the partyroom and argues in favour of the ABC's inclusion. You'd have a better chance of selling ice to eskimos than convincing the partyroom to support the ABC at the moment,"" one Liberal MP said.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is expected to unveil the final version of the code to a backbench committee as early as next week, before taking it to the party room ahead of introducing the legislation into Parliament in the final sitting fortnight of the year.

After months of intense lobbying by the tech giants and media companies, the Morrison government has kept its negotiations over the code's final wording under tight wraps, forcing the negotiating parties to sign strict",ABC's inclusion risks backbench revolt,tweets_news_815,tweets_news
"Many Americans’ feeds are nightmares. I know because I spent weeks living inside two of them.

In mid-October I asked two people I’d never met to give me their Facebook account passwords for three weeks leading up to and after Election Day. I wanted to immerse myself in the feeds of a type of person who has become a trope of sorts in our national discussion about politics and disinformation: baby boomers with an attachment to polarizing social media.

I went looking for older Americans — not full-blown conspiracy theorists, trolls or partisan activists — whose news consumption has increased sharply in the last few years on Facebook. Neither of the two people I settled on described themselves as partisans. Both used to identify as conservatives slowly drifting leftward until Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party offered a final push. Both voted for Joe Biden this year in part because of his promise to reach across the aisle. Both bemoaned the toxicity of our current politics.

The feed goes on like this — an infinite scroll of content without context. Touching family moments are interspersed with Bible quotes that look like Hallmark cards, hyperpartisan fearmongering and conspiratorial misinformation. Mr. Young’s news feed",What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers,tweets_news_816,tweets_news
"The draft Online Safety Bill will help safeguard young people and clamp down on racist abuse, while upholding democratic debate online.

New internet laws will be published today [Wednesday 12 May 2021] in the draft Online Safety Bill to protect children online and tackle some of the worst abuses on social media, including racist hate crimes.

Ministers have added landmark new measures to the Bill to safeguard freedom of expression and democracy, ensuring necessary online protections do not lead to unnecessary censorship.

The draft Bill marks a milestone in the Government’s fight to make the internet safe. Despite the fact that we are now using the internet more than ever, over three quarters of UK adults are concerned about going online, and fewer parents feel the benefits outweigh the risks of their children being online – falling from 65 per cent in 2015 to 50 per cent in 2019.

The draft Bill includes changes to put an end to harmful practices, while ushering in a new era of accountability and protections for democratic debate, including:

New additions to strengthen people’s rights to express themselves freely online, while protecting journalism and democratic political debate in the UK.

Further provisions to tackle prolific online scams such as romance",Landmark laws to protect children and stop abuse online published,tweets_news_817,tweets_news
"This means war.

With the presidential election only 44 days away, the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has shaken the race between President Trump and Joe Biden - along with 33 Senate battles across the country - to the core.

A new Trump-nominated justice would cement a commanding conservative majority on the Supreme Court for the first time since the 1960s, a long-sought goal of the right that would have far-reaching effects on questions of abortion, religious freedom, gun rights and more.

""I will be putting forth a nominee next week - it will be a woman,"" Trump promised cheering supporters at a Saturday night rally in Fayetteville, NC.

""A very talented, very brilliant woman who I haven't chosen yet,"" he added, to chants of ""Fill the seat!""

But senators are sure to spar over when to confirm a replacement for Ginsburg, who died Friday of pancreatic cancer, and campaign issues like Trump's response to the coronavirus - which Biden has made a centerpiece of his attack - are already in the rear-view mirror.

""This will prevent Biden from focusing entirely on COVID from now until Election Day,"" GOP strategist Luke Thompson told The Post.

But the prospect of Trump's lightning-fast nomination of the third Supreme",NOW IT'S A BATTLE TO REIGN SUPREME,tweets_news_818,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) - Spend what it takes, Washington said as it confronted the coronavirus. Well over $2 trillion later, it's unclear where that spending will end.

One of the lasting legacies of the coronavirus pandemic will be staggering debts and deficits on the U.S. balance sheet, with shortfalls hitting levels that would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago.

It's a fiscal clamp that is likely to persist for a generation, or even into perpetuity, with debt levels having passed the point of easy return in a capital where lawmakers are increasingly incapable, or unwilling, to constrain them.

The latest, and dire, projection from the Congressional Budget Office, released Friday, states the U.S. deficits will mushroom to $3.7 trillion in 2020, fueled by the four coronavirus relief bills signed into law by President Donald Trump. A fifth bill is already in the works, and will be ""expensive,"" according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

The deficit for 2021 is estimated to tally $2.1 trillion, double previous CBO estimates.

The report predicts a devastating hit to the economy this quarter at an annualized rate of decline of 40% - probably the sharpest economic shock ever - accompanied by a 15% unemployment rate this spring and",Coronavirus relief pushing US deficits to staggering heights,tweets_news_819,tweets_news
"The Senate will control the cameras during the impeachment trial, limiting what viewers see, and reporters will be confined to roped-off areas.

News coverage of President Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate began last week with a Republican senator calling a CNN reporter ''a liberal hack'' in the halls of Congress and laughing about it later that night during a Fox News interview.

Things haven't improved much since.

Journalists are up in arms about new restrictions on their movement inside the Capitol, which they say will prevent them from easily interviewing lawmakers about the proceedings. The rules, negotiated by Republican Senate leadership, have yet to be written down, causing confusion among reporters and the Capitol Police expected to enforce them.

Even sedate C-SPAN is aggrieved, calling on the Senate to allow its television crews to document the trial, instead of the government-controlled cameras that -- as was the case during Bill Clinton's trial 21 years ago -- will limit what viewers see and hear inside the Senate chamber.

Hurling insults at journalists is standard fare for officials at the White House. But Congress, with its protocols and rituals, was considered a relatively safe space for reporters, where cordiality was prized.

The pretrial tensions suggest that the",Media Fights Senate Limit On Coverage,tweets_news_820,tweets_news
"Facebook Inc on Friday suspended former U.S. President Donald Trump until at least January 2023 and announced changes to how it will treat world leaders who break the company's rules on postings on its site.

Facebook had suspended Trump's account the day after the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot, determining he had incited violence. That suspension will last at least two years from the date of the initial block and would only be lifted if the risk to public safety has receded, Facebook said on Friday.

Trump criticized the decision as a form of censorship and an insult to his voters.

This new timeline denies Republican Trump a major social media megaphone ahead of the November 2022 congressional elections. However, it means he may be able to return to Facebook well before the next presidential election in late 2024.

Trump has been permanently banned by Twitter and remains suspended by Alphabet's YouTube after the riot. Trump, who this week shut down his recently-launched blog, has teased plans to start his own platform.

""Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump's suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement","Facebook suspends Trump for two years, shifts rules for world leaders",tweets_news_821,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

unable to hold back the rampaging crowd. At 1413, Vice President Mike Pence, who was overseeing the election certification, was evacuated from the Senate floor by the Secret Service. At 1424, a tweet from the president criticized Mike Pence for lacking the courage to stop the certification.

During the assault on the Capitol, extremists reportedly coordinated online and discussed how they could hunt down the vice president. Journalists in the Capitol reported they heard rioters say they were looking for Pence in order to execute him. Trump's supporters had erected a gallows on the lawn in front of the Capitol Building. Donald Trump had made Vice President Pence a target. He attacked the vice president at the rallies, in speeches and on Twitter. And during President Trump's speech that morning of the attack, he ramped it up again, after privately pressuring Mike Pence. In front of thousands in the crowd, he called Mike Pence out 11",Joins BBC News - 02:40 AM GMT,tweets_news_822,tweets_news
"BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Republican Julia Letlow easily won a Saturday special election for the northeast Louisiana-based U.S. House seat that her husband, Luke, couldn’t fill because of his death from complications related to COVID-19.

With the victory, Julia Letlow becomes the third woman ever elected to the U.S. House from Louisiana, the first Republican woman elected to Congress from the state and the only woman among its current congressional delegation.

She trounced 11 other contenders to capture the 5th District seat in the primary.

“This is an incredible moment, and it is truly hard to put into words. What was born out of the terrible tragedy of losing my husband, Luke, has become my mission in his honor to carry the torch and serve the good people of Louisiana’s 5th District,"" Julia Letlow said in a statement.

Former President Donald Trump congratulated Letlow on what he said was an “incredible victory” because she avoided a runoff election despite running in a crowded field.

“I am thrilled for Julia and the entire Letlow family,” Trump said in a statement put out by his Save America PAC. “Luke is looking down proudly from above.”

Farther south, the race to fill a second vacant congressional seat for",Julia Letlow wins northeast Louisiana-based US House seat,tweets_news_823,tweets_news
"MyMilitia users have posted threats against protesters and lawmakers, and experts say it's a dangerous recruitment tool

Pressure is mounting on tech companies to ban MyMilitia, a website used by far-right extremists and armed groups to organize, after it was linked to threats of violence against US protesters and lawmakers this week.

On Tuesday, police arrested Brian Maiorana after he allegedly posted online threats targeting Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the US Senate, and threatened to ""blow up"" the FBI. Maiorana is also alleged to have used MyMilitia, as well as an unnamed mainstream social media platform, to make threats to kill protesters and discussed building his own weapons, according to the complaint. Maiorana, a registered sex offender, is barred from legally purchasing firearms.

The arrest has put more pressure on internet companies that control the infrastructure supporting MyMilitia, including GoDaddy and Cloudflare to ban the platform from their services.

""This is a very dangerous game they are playing, giving people the ability to recruit extremist militias during a perilous political time in our country,"" said Matt Rivitz, the co-founder of the online activism and anti-bigotry group Sleeping Giants. ""It is shocking to see these companies not only supporting but actively monetizing",Tech companies under pressure to ban far-right forum used for militia organizing,tweets_news_824,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

After saying that he would recuse himself from ruling on a case that has the potential to knock more than 200,000 people off the voter rolls, GOP-endorsed candidate for Supreme Court Dan Kelly went back on his word and signaled last week that he’d green-light the purge if re-elected on April 7.

If it goes through, the implications of the voter purge would be enormous for Wisconsin’s democracy. Up to 17% of voters in some communities would be removed from voter rolls. Young people and people of color would be among the communities most affected.

Looking at this case, it’s obvious that the far-right litigants are trying to do everything they can to give Republicans and Republican-backed candidates an unfair advantage in upcoming elections. They know that their easiest path to victory is to cheat and rig the system to their benefit and suppress Democratic votes along the way.

We saw this strategy in action when Kelly went back on his word and said he’d rule in favor of the purge. But the truth is that the voter purge is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to partisan attacks on our democracy launched by Republicans and their allies in",Cheating and Rigging Their Way to Power,tweets_news_825,tweets_news
"It is no secret that social media has dominated much of our lives in the past few years, whether it's using these platforms as a means of communication, staying informed on the latest news or simply waiting on the next popular meme. The COVID-19 pandemic has only served to elevate the use of platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok and many more apps during an unprecedented time that relies heavily on the virtual format. However, while new additions to social media are not necessarily uncommon or unusual given the current times, there is one possible platform that will likely take the world by storm if it becomes a reality.

 Former President Donald Trump has been under the spotlight like no other president before him, even overshadowing some Hollywood celebrities. While he had been a notable figure in the entertainment world long before his presidency, part of the reason he had received a massive amount of attention was due to social media, notably Twitter. Trump was not shy of voicing his opinion about a wide array of topics through retweets and, admittedly sometimes, funny tweets. However, following the horrific events of the Capitol Riot on Jan. 6, Trump faced",Trump and Social Media: The Never-Ending Saga,tweets_news_826,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

A growing body of research suggests universal mask-wearing in public could dramatically reduce the spread of coronavirus. Getting people to comply is another matter.

Research suggests universal mask-wearing in public could dramatically reduce spread of coronavirus

Bob Cargill had barely exited his vehicle when he looped the elastic around his ears and fitted the cloth mask over his mouth and nose.

“I always wear it,” the 69-year-old from South China said Wednesday before entering the Walmart Supercenter in Augusta. “I don’t understand people who don’t.”

In the same shopping plaza, Barbara Jablon, 70, of Augusta was maskless and proud coming out of T.J. Maxx.

“I won’t wear one,” she said. “I’ve only worn one once, and that was to get my hair cut. They wouldn’t let me in otherwise.”

There is growing scientific consensus that wearing face coverings in public, coupled with other measures such as physical distancing and hand washing, dramatically reduces the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus.

But that has not led to universal compliance. The percentage of people wearing masks in public appears to vary widely from place to place. At the same time, mask wearing is increasingly seen as a partisan issue. Some cities and states have made masks mandatory in","Masks may be required, but rules rarely enforced",tweets_news_827,tweets_news
"On Saturday morning between 11 am and 12 pm, as Nigerians woke up to the reality of a Twitter ban, and downloading Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to access Twitter, the Nigerian government, through the office of the Presidency, reached out to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to discuss plans to build an internet firewall, FIJ reports.

The government officials present at the meeting include Ibrahim Gambari, the Chief of Staff to the President, and Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture.

The internet firewall is a way of having a separate network for the Nigerian Internet that will give the government control over social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

This is similar to the internet filtering system China operates, called the Great Firewall.

Cost Of Twitter Ban

Meanwhile, SaharaReporters learnt that Nigeria loses over N2 billion to Twitter shutdown in the country on a daily basis.

This was disclosed by NetBlocks, which put the total cost impact of the shutdown at $6, 014, 390 and it naira equivalent at N2, 177, 089,051. See Also Internet Nigeria Dying, Loses Over N2billion Daily To Twitter Ban Amid Massive Unemployment, Economic Downturn 0 Comments1 Week Ago

The NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool (Cost) estimates the economic impact","Like China, Buhari&#039;s Government Moves To Block Nigerians From Using VPN For Twitter, Others, Build Internet Firewall",tweets_news_828,tweets_news
"(Adds Google comment in par 8)

By Avi Asher-Schapiro

Nov 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Nearly a decade has passed since Safiya Noble googled ""Black girls"" and found the search results were mostly pornographic - a discovery that drove her to explore how algorithms can perpetuate discrimination and inequality.

Google went on to fix that search engine issue, but Noble said the problem is far from solved. Research this year found Google's advertising platform linked the search phrases ""Black girls,"" ""Latina girls,"" and ""Asian Girls"" to adult content ads.

""The Black girl search is the thread on the sweater we are trying to unravel. It's a way into a larger conversation about the future of knowledge,"" said Noble, who will speak on a digital rights panel at the Thomson Reuters Foundation's annual event, Trust Conference, being held online on Wednesday.

Noble, a leading technology scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), went on to coin the term ""algorithms of oppression"" and has written a book with the same name.

""Algorithms of oppression are everywhere,"" she said. ""I'm talking about computational software that might be embedded in large-scale platforms - or even household brands - that are used to disenfranchise, marginalize, and misrepresent.""

That Google's search",'Algorithms of oppression': Big tech urged to combat discrimination,tweets_news_829,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

If approved shipments could begin within 24 hours. Pressure is increasing on the UK government to revise its relaxation of Covid restrictions in England over Christmas. Days before the changes are due to take effect, two leading medical journals are saying they would be a mistake and could cost countless lives. Now on BBC News, it's Tuesday in Parliament.

Hello and welcome to Coming up on this programme: The government sets out new plans to protect children from online harms. A 13-year-old should no longer be able to access pornographic images on Twitter. MPs hear from the senior midwife who led an inquiry into Britain's worst maternity scandal. There was also a culture of well, this is your fault to the mother, if you had not done X, then your baby may have lived. And there's a call for the UK to take action against China over claims it's using forced labour to produce cotton. The",Joins BBC News - 02:30 AM GMT,tweets_news_830,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON — Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban on Monday urged Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to “have some balls for once” after the Republican criticized him — but not by name, at first — over his support for players taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality.

Cruz’s retort? His own taunt about testicular fortitude.

“Speaking of balls, tell us what you think about China?” the senator said to Cuban, referring to how the owner and other NBA figures have declined to criticize Beijing for, among other things, its crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. “I’ll wait.”

The schoolyard social media squabble took off from there.

Cruz, mocking Cuban as a “tough guy,” asked the owner if he would say “Free Hong Kong.” And if he would allow his players to put that phrase on their jerseys. And if he would condemn China’s “concentration camps w/1 million Uyghurs,” a Muslim minority group.

Cuban fired back.

“I can say Black Lives Matter,” he wrote, side-stepping Cruz’s specific questions. “I can say there is systemic racism in this country. I can say there is a Pandemic that you have done little to end. I can say I care about this country first and last.”

The billionaire","Cuban, Cruz hit below belt",tweets_news_831,tweets_news
"Just hours before one of the worst mass shootings in state history, Wisconsin leaders reminded voters that deadly incidents like Wednesday's aren't going to spur action on firearms anytime soon.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, made clear that the state's gun laws would not change under a Republican-controlled Legislature despite a call for a review from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

""We're going to have that discussion about the Second Amendment forever,"" Fitzgerald told reporters in Franklin, before the shooting at the Molson Coors brewery. ""A lot of the provisions that are in place already, people are satisfied with.""

Police officials said five people were killed, in addition to the gunman, who has not been identified.

Fitzgerald later called the shooting ""an act of evil.""

""My heart goes out to the victims and their families,"" Fitzgerald said in a statement. ""I'm thankful for law enforcement and emergency response personnel on-scene working tirelessly.""

In November, Evers called lawmakers into special session to take up legislation to expand background checks and establish a so-called red-flag law. Within moments of opening the session, Republican leaders ended it without taking action.

Fitzgerald said at the time that any changes to current gun laws could be an erosion of constitutional rights guaranteed",Shooting not likely to bring new gun laws,tweets_news_832,tweets_news
"Airlines faced a tough reception at the House of Commons health committee Monday as MPs grilled them on the lack of refunds for customers whose flights were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parliamentarians from the three main opposition parties demanded to know why Canadians who paid for a service that was never delivered have yet to get their money back.

Conservative health critic Matt Jeneroux said the lack of refunds was ""unfathomable,"" while Bloc Quebecois member Luc Theriault highlighted the $2.61 billion in advance ticket sales Air Canada reported in its quarterly results last month.

""It's not your money & - there's been no transaction. Where are the funds being kept? Where are the funds?"" Theriault asked a company executive.

Representatives from Air Canada, WestJet Airlines Ltd. and Transat AT defended the dearth of reimbursements by citing store credit valid for at least two years and statements by Canada's transportation regulator.

The committee session came hours after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said public health trumps airline and tourism sector concerns around ongoing travel restrictions due to the coronavirus crisis.

""I understand how difficult this is and how frustrating this is for some people, but we know that reopening too quickly or carelessly would lead to","Airlines face MPs' frustration over health concerns, lack of refunds",tweets_news_833,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

The coronavirus is forcing those on the right to face up to some difficult truths.

FULL TEXT

Good God. It's really happened.

For years, those of us who believe in, y'know, science, have cursed the fact that climate change deniers would never be fully confronted with the consequences of global warming. Even as the horizon of catastrophic occurrence has gotten closer, you just know that mass glacial melts, sudden methane releases from permafrost thaws, sharp heat upticks in the tropical belt, etc, etc can all be dismissed as unprovable consequences.

If only, one thought, there was a way in which the consequences would be so utterly direct as to...

Well, last month, the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) staged its annual mega-conference at DC's Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. It's a Woodstock/Deadhead gathering for every right-wing loon in the country (it's also where Donald Trump hugged and kissed the flag like it was a contestant in one of his beauty contests).

There, then-White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney chuckled for a fawning crowd as he told them that coronavirus was just another attempt by the Democrats to get Trump because ""they couldn't do it with impeachment"". Trump followed up later, calling it the latest",Pandemic gives the right a dose of its own medicine,tweets_news_834,tweets_news
"The social media company says it will ban ads that praise 'militarized social movements'

Facebook has announced that it is banning all adverts in support of QAnon.

Since September, Qanon content had been down-ranked by Facebook's algorithm, but not removed.

The social media site says it is now ""prohibiting anyone on our platform from running ads that praise, support or represent militarized social movements and QAnon.""

Facebook will also direct users to ""credible"" child safety resources should they come across Qanon hashtags.

That is because QAnon uses phrases like ""#savethechildren"" to recruit and organise, due to its conspiratorial ideology that President Trump is secretly working to save the world from a satanic cult of paedophiles and cannibals.

""In addition, content about QAnon and child safety is eligible for fact checking through our third-party fact-checking program,"" Facebook said.

""Content that is debunked will be reduced in News Feed and filtered from Explore and hashtags on Instagram will receive a label (so that people who see it, try to share it or already have, will see more context), and it will be rejected as an ad.""

The FBI has deemed QAnon a threat, and considers the theory a strong motivator for extremist violence.

In one example from earlier this year, a",QAnon: Facebook bans adverts pushing far-right conspiracy theory,tweets_news_835,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - A vocal contingent of Republicans, from Congress to state capitals, fell in line Friday after pressure from President Donald Trump's sons and allies to echo the president's claims of a ""rigged"" election and voter fraud, an early sign that Trumpism will continue to have a hold on the party even if he loses reelection. Signaling their willingness to go to the mat for the president, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., declared falsely on Fox News Thursday night that ""President Trump won this election,"" while Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., donated to a new Trump legal fund and parroted Trump's dangerous claims of foul play at the polls while providing no evidence whatsoever. Even some Trump supporters are battling among themselves about how hard they are fighting for the president to reverse the vote counts in states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, which flipped to Joe Biden early Friday. Rep.

Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, tweeted in agreement with Trump's claims that ""irregularities have been flagrant"" in the vote counting but opened the door slightly to a concession, suggesting that Republicans ""must accept the final results"" if they eventually consider it a fair review process. He was immediately denounced by Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor","Under pressure, some in GOP echo Trump's claims of vast electoral fraud",tweets_news_836,tweets_news
"The latest news, sport, business and weather from the BBC's Breakfast team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

way that the sport has been going so far. There is always room to grow and improve and find better alternatives and better ways and I think everyone is open to that. There was controversy at the Masters snooker, as Ali Carter scrapped his way to a surprise win over the two-time champion John Higgins at Ally Pally last night. The referee called a foul shot when Carter missed the yellow - he insisted he'd hit it, though, and she overturned her decision - but the replay showed the balls didn't touch.

There's no suggestion of dishonesty on Carter's part. He went on to win 6-3 to reach the semi-finals, where he'll play Shaun Murphy. The thing about that, it is similar to the etiquette and the principles of golf. An honest person's game. When it is all on camera they are not going to try to lie, are they? It is like",Breakfast - 07:40 AM GMT,tweets_news_837,tweets_news
"20:41 IST outlookindia.com (Eds: Adds details) New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) The government on Thursday slammed as ""baseless and false"" a statement by Twitter that had alleged intimidation by police over the ''manipulated media'' tags issue and threat to freedom of expression, with IT Ministry terming the company''s stance as an attempt to dictate terms to the...

20:41 IST outlookindia.com (Eds: Adds details) New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) The government on Thursday slammed as ""baseless and false"" a statement by Twitter that had alleged intimidation by police over the ''manipulated media'' tags issue and threat to freedom...

20:41 IST outlookindia.com (Eds: Adds details) New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) The government on Thursday slammed as ""baseless and false"" a statement by Twitter that had alleged intimidation by police over the ''manipulated media'' tags issue and threat to freedom of expression, with IT Ministry terming the company''s stance as an attempt to dictate terms to the world''s largest democracy. The ministry asserted that representatives of social media companies, including Twitter, ""are and will always remain safe in India"", and that there is ""no threat to their personal safety and security"". In a hard-hitting statement, the ministry said India has a glorious tradition of free","Govt slams Twitter''s statement on concerns over threat to free speech, intimidation tactics",tweets_news_838,tweets_news
"QAnon is an online right-wing ""deep state"" conspiracy theory.

TOPLINE

Eric Trump, President Trump s middle son and a campaign surrogate, promoted QAnon whose followers the FBI has deemed conspiracy theory-driven domestic terrorists in an Instagram post ahead of the president s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday, providing a massive platform for the right-wing conspiracy for about two hours to his 1.5 million followers.

KEY FACTS

The post showed an American flag with the message, Who s ready for the Trump Rally tonight? and the letter Q, the symbol for the conspiracy theory.

At the bottom of the photo was an acronym for the slogan of the conspiracy theory followers: Where We Go One, We Go All.

With the post, Trump was promoting his father s Tulsa, Oklahoma rally on Saturday, the first rally the president has held since the pandemic began and asource of controversyever since it was announced: TULSA OKLAHOMA HERE WE COME!!! Eric Trump s caption read.

Eric Trump has never publicly endorsed the theory and it s not clear the president s son was explicitly trying to lend credence to QAnon with his post on Saturday, though he and his brother,Donald Trump Jr., frequently use their Instagram accounts to post political memes",Eric Trump Promotes QAnon Conspiracy On Instagram While Plugging Tulsa Rally,tweets_news_839,tweets_news
"London: UK Government has issued the following news release:

Government issues guidance to help tech companies better protect users online

Advice for businesses will provide a ‘one stop shop’ on child online safety

Comes after research shows smaller companies are less confident of measures needed

Safety by design guidance, published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), will help businesses such as start-ups find the information they need so they can build safe products from the development stages right through to the user experience.

Research has shown small companies are less confident in their ability to find information on child online safety compared to medium and large companies.

The guidance advocates putting safety at the heart of platform design to minimise the risk of online harm occurring. It advises companies about providing an age-appropriate experience for children using tools such as age assurance and age verification methods.

This includes encouraging adults to set services’ safety measures to high by default so they can’t be changed by children, recommending that firms make it easier for users to report harmful content or behaviour, and for companies to block high-risk search terms - for example around illegal terrorist content.

A ‘one stop shop’ with child safety advice will",New guidance for tech companies to protect people online,tweets_news_840,tweets_news
"No, Angela Merkel is not about to don a MAGA hat.

But the German chancellor raised more than a few eyebrows on Monday when, through her spokesperson, she criticized Twitter for its problematic ban of President Trump and suggested the move was a threat to the right to freedom of opinion.

Trump s supporters unsurprisingly seized on Merkel s remarks. And it wasn t just Merkel a top EU commissioner, France s finance minister, Mexico s president, and Australia s acting prime minister each criticized, to varying degrees, big tech s crackdown on Trump and his most rabid followers in the wake of last Wednesday s assault on the U.S. Capitol, which most observers believe was incited by Trump and inflamed by years of disinformation spread across the internet ecosystem.

Few of these world leaders have previously been fans of Trump or his movement. And many on this side of the Atlantic were perplexed and troubled by Merkel s willingness to weigh in against Silicon Valley s belated effort to scrub violent pro-Trump rhetoric from their platforms.

I don t find these comments particularly helpful or relevant, nor do I think they re accurate, said Jessica González, co-CEO of the progressive tech group Free",Why Angela Merkel condemned Twitter's Trump ban,tweets_news_841,tweets_news
"Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, who was sacked from his command following a book he wrote and comments he made about a growing influence of what he called “neo-Marxist-based” race and diversity programs in the military, has a powerful new ally on Capitol Hill: the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma has joined a growing list of GOP lawmakers who say they are concerned they are witnessing an increasingly politicized environment developing in a Department of Defense that seems to target service members making conservative or traditional statements that would have received little attention before the Biden administration.

Col. Lohmeier’s abrupt dismissal earlier this month, which is now being investigated by the Air Force’s own inspector general, is providing Exhibit A for those with questions of whether political correctness, “critical race theory” and anti-conservative biases are finding a home at the Pentagon.

“I have many questions about how the [Air Force] has handled the case of Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier,” Mr. Inhofe said. “Members of our military should not only be able to speak out against Marxism, but they should be encouraged to do so as long as they follow the rules and laws already",Space Force firing case proves touchstone for raging debate over conservatives and the military,tweets_news_842,tweets_news
"In 1962, conservative journalist William F. Buckley flew to Florida to meet with Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater. His main goal was to persuade Goldwater to run for president on the Republican ticket in 1964. But he also wanted the senator to distance himself from the John Birch Society, which had already indicated support for Goldwater.

And that was bad news for the GOP, because the Birchers were -- in Buckley's term -- nuts. Their leader, a candy manufacturer named Robert Welch, charged that over half of the American government was ""communist-controlled."" Most notoriously, Welch insisted that former President Dwight Eisenhower was a ""dedicated, conscious agent of the communist conspiracy.""

Like Goldwater, Buckley shared the strong anti-communism of the John Birch Society. But the Birchers' claims were ""so far removed from common sense"" that they threatened to undermine the cause, Buckley wrote. ""The underlying problem is whether conservatives can continue to acquiesce quietly in a rendition of the causes of the decline of the Republic and the entire Western world (that) is false.""

The same problem faces the Republican Party this fall, but in a different form. It's called QAnon, and it's as removed from reality as the Birchers were. It, too, imagines that",QAnon may be fatal for Trump and GOP,tweets_news_843,tweets_news
"Facebook on Friday announced that its North American user base shrunk by 2 million people. The news comes after the social media site saw an ad boycott and just two days after facing tough questions from Congress over its content moderation policies. 

Overall, Facebook's userbase went from 198 million in the second quarter to 196 million. Facebook attributed the decline to a surge of users in the early days of the pandemic who have since moved on. Also, it cautions that the losses could continue through the fourth quarter, (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/29/facebook-fb-earnings-q3-2020.html) CNBC reported.

European user numbers stayed the same, hovering at 305 million for the third-straight quarter.

An (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/30/facebook-q2-2020-earnings-report-says-ad-boycott-will-impact-q3.html) ad boycott , meanwhile, organized by StopHateForProfit drew widespread attention but failed to leave much of an impact. While 1,000 advertisers pulled their funding from Facebook in the summer, it was a small portion of the network's 10 million active advertisers. The 10 million active advertisers are actually up from 9 million last quarter, with ad revenue climbing 22%.

Less ambiguous was the (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/28/twitter-facebook-google-senate-hearing-live-updates/) tongue-lashing that CEO Mark Zuckerberg - along with Google's Sundar Pichai and Twitter's Jack Dorsey - received Wednesday from a congressional hearing on content moderation.

Representatives on both sides of the aisle",Facebook Reports Fewer Users Since Start Of Pandemic.,tweets_news_844,tweets_news
"

Jan 22, 2021( Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Is it a good sign when the judge refers to your evidence as ""dwindlingly slight and disputed""? How about ""the scantest speculation""? Or ""faint and factually inaccurate speculation""?

Asking for a bunch of dipshits who set themselves up as a rightwing Twitter knockoff and didn't bother to read the terms of service in their web-hosting contract.You will be shocked, shocked to find that Parler did not get that ex parte restraining order forcing Amazon to continue hosting the site on its servers back on January 11. After the company finally worked out how to serve Amazon Web Services (AWS) with a copy of its complaint, US District Judge Barbara J. Rothstein decided to interpret their motion as a request for a preliminary injunction forcing Amazon to turn the lights back on. And, hey Spoiler Alert: They didn't get that one either.Parler originally filed suit[1] claiming breach of contract, tortious interference with a business expectancy, and, most bizarrely, a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. In the first instance, the site points to Section 7.2(b)(i) of its contract with AWS, which allows for termination if a ""material breach remains uncured for a period of",Judge Declines To Force Private Web Company To Host Murderous Threats We Mean 'Free Speech',tweets_news_845,tweets_news
"The return of the iconic Muppet Show now coming with a serious, new warning. Streaming platform Disney plus, which released all five seasons of the show, adding a content disclaimer at the beginning of eighteen episodes, warning viewers of the program`s negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures, adding, ""These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.""

SHEINELLE JONES (08:18:34): Good morning to you guys. We have a jam-packed POPStart for you this morning. But first up, The Muppet Show. All five seasons of the classic program are now streaming on Disney+. But it now includes an offensive content disclaimer on select episodes. The streaming giant acknowledging some of the negative cultural stereotypes once depicted in the popular show for a new generation of viewers.

(Begin VT)

(08:18:58): (Excerpt from The Muppet Show) SHEINELLE JONES (08:19:02): The return of the iconic Muppet Show now coming with a serious, new warning. Streaming platform Disney plus, which released all five seasons of the show, adding a content disclaimer at the beginning of eighteen episodes, warning viewers of the",The New Change Coming To The Muppet Show That Has People Talking,tweets_news_846,tweets_news
"India, Oct. 16 -- Shahid Kapoor's wife, Mira Rajput, has just finished watching the Emmy award-winning show Schitt's Creek. Taking to Instagram stories, she showered praises on the show and called it a 'gem'. She also called co-creator and actor Dan Levy her 'new crush'.

Mira said that the series finale made her emotional. ""Finished Schitt's Creek last night and I've never been sadder at a show's finale.. This one is a gem. Brilliant writing, characterisations, setups, COSTUMES and screenplay. But it's the show's message that is it's crowning glory. The best part is, that it's different for everyone. @instadanjlevy is a genius and my new crush,"" she wrote.

In the final episode of Schitt's Creek, David Rose (Dan Levy) marries the man of his dreams, Patrick Brewer (Noah Reid). It is a bittersweet ending, with the Roses going their separate ways.

David has decided to stay in Schitt's Creek with his husband and run their store together. Alexis Rose (Annie Murphy) has made it as a publicist and will take up a job offer with the streaming service Interflix in New York.

Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy) has reinvented himself as a businessman and will move to California with his wife, Moira Rose (Catherine","Mira Rajput reveals her new crush, gets emotional after watching Schitt's Creek finale",tweets_news_847,tweets_news
"•Donald Trump Jr. penned a gushing tribute to girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle on Tuesday, as the former Fox News host celebrated her 52nd birthday•He referred to Guilfoyle as 'everyone's favorite MAGA princess', insisting 'no one is more steadfast and loyal' as she is•It's not immediately clear how the couple celebrated Guilfoyle's birthday this year, but the last two have involved lavish dinner parties at Mar-A-Lago•Celebrations may have been derailed by Don Jr. accompanying his father on a two day trip to Trump Tower, before flying back to Florida Tuesday afternoon•The couple first began dating in 2018, after being friends fora number of years

Donald Trump Jr. penned a gushing tribute to girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle on Tuesday, as the former Fox News host celebrated her 52nd birthday

He referred to Guilfoyle as 'everyone's favorite MAGA princess', insisting 'no one is more steadfast and loyal' as she is

It's not immediately clear how the couple celebrated Guilfoyle's birthday this year, but the last two have involved lavish dinner parties at Mar-A-Lago

Celebrations may have been derailed by Don Jr. accompanying his father on a two day trip to Trump Tower, before flying back to Florida Tuesday afternoon

The couple first began dating in 2018, after being friends fora",'Happy birthday to everyone's favorite MAGA princess': Don Jr. wishes 'loyal and steadfast' girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle a happy 52nd birthday in gushing Instagram post,tweets_news_848,tweets_news
"For years some conservative pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention have directed criticism at popular Bible teacher Beth Moore, the denomination's best-known woman

Emily Snook is the daughter of a Southern Baptist pastor. She met her husband, also a pastor, while they attended a Southern Baptist university

Yet the 39-year-old Oklahoma woman now finds herself wondering if it's time to leave the nation's largest Protestant denomination, in part because of practices and attitudes that limit women's roles.

""Every day I ask that,"" Snook said. ""I don't know what the right answer is.""

She's not alone. Among the millions of women belonging to churches of the Southern Baptist Convention, there are many who have questioned the faith's gender-role doctrine and more recently urged a stronger response to disclosures of sexual abuse perpetrated by SBC clergy.

For many SBC women, even those committed to staying, the topic of gender became more volatile this month when popular Bible teacher Beth Moore said she no longer considered herself Southern Baptist. Moore, perhaps the best-known evangelical woman in the world, had drawn the ire of some SBC conservatives for speaking out against Donald Trump in 2016 and suggesting the denomination had problems with sexism.

Karen Swallow Prior, a professor of English",New doubts over Southern Baptists' limits on women's roles,tweets_news_849,tweets_news
"Tech giants such as Facebook and Google were asked to come up with a code to regulate misinformation on their platforms.

Australia's media regulator says a draft voluntary code that the tech giants created to tackle disinformation has failed to meet expectations as Google and Facebook await legislation that will force them to pay news outlets for use of content on their websites.

Technology giants were asked by the federal government last year to create a code to help manage the spread of misinformation on their websites, an issue that became more prevalent during the national bushfire crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.

But the draft version of the code, made public last week on the tech giants' industry body website, DIGI, does not provide any detail on how they specifically intend to combat the issue.

""The ACMA set out its expectations of a voluntary code on misinformation and news quality in our position paper,"" Australian Communications and Media Authority chair Nerida O'Loughlin said.

""The draft code released by DIGI for public consultation is a long way from the model that we proposed to address these important issues.""

Under the proposed model, a tech company would agree to measures to address the ACMA's concerns, which are based",ACMA: Tech giants' code to handle fake news fails to meet expectations,tweets_news_850,tweets_news
"Eds: UPDATES: With AP Photos.; Adds note about protest planned for Sunday night. With AP Photos. Eds: MAJOR UPDATE: Updates with the name of the victim, adds tweet about it from Trump. With AP Photos. UPDATES: With AP Photos. Eds: UPDATES: With AP Photos. EDITS: Changes headline.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A supporter of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer was fatally shot in Portland late Saturday, capping a chaotic and volatile 24 hours in which supporters of President Donald Trump clashed with left-wing protesters on the streets of the liberal Oregon city, Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson identified the victim as Aaron ""Jay"" Danielson. He called the victim a ""good friend"" but provided no further details. Danielson apparently also went by the name Jay Bishop, according to Patriot Prayer's Facebook page.

""We love Jay and he had such a huge heart. God bless him and the life he lived,"" Gibson said in a Facebook post. Trump retweeted the victim's name and wrote, ""Rest in peace Jay!"" The shooting occurred about 15 minutes after a caravan of about 600 vehicles packed with Trump supporters left the city. It wasn't clear if the shooting was related to the clashes between Trump supporters and counterprotesters in",Protester killed in Portland Killing: Portland police say they're still gathering evidence,tweets_news_851,tweets_news
"The latest news, sport, business and weather from the BBC's Breakfast team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

1999 to 2018 there were 310 suicides outside of the army. All I can say is we have huge respect for you, your composure and how you are talking in the immediate aftermath of such a terrible thing happening. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you, Jo and Dan as well, good luck with the work you are doing. The Veterans' Minister Johnny Mercer has told us that he's determined to tackle this issue and make sure veterans know where they can turn to in times of need. If you or someone you know is feeling emotionally distressed, you can find details of organisations that offer help and support at the BBC Action Line. Time now to get the news, travel and weather where you are. Good morning from BBC Look North Breakfast. Victims of sexual harassment will get a chance to shape how the government tries to stamp it out. Louth",Breakfast - 08:27 AM GMT,tweets_news_852,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

President Trump has Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s full support in terminating Section 230.

“@realDonaldTrump I fully support you on this. Please don’t back down. The freedom and future of our country is at stake,” Gabbard tweeted Thursday.

Tweet

The tweet came in response to Trump's writing, “Section 230, which is a liability shielding gift from the U.S. to ‘Big Tech’ (the only companies in America that have it - corporate welfare!), is a serious threat to our National Security & Election Integrity. Our Country can never be safe & secure if we allow it to stand.”

“Therefore, if the very dangerous & unfair Section 230 is not completely terminated as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), I will be forced to unequivocally VETO the Bill when sent to the very beautiful Resolute desk. Take back America NOW. Thank you!” he continued.

Trump and his allies have railed against Big Tech censorship, saying platforms such as Twitter and Facebook censor conservative voices and views. Since the election, Trump’s criticisms of technology firms have increased as Twitter and Facebook repeatedly flag his posts concerning election fraud.

On Tuesday, Trump said the National Defense Authorization Act, a yearly bill that funds military expenditures, “must” include",'Don’t back down': Tulsi Gabbard tells Trump he has her full support in terminating Section 230,tweets_news_853,tweets_news
"Pakistan on Friday banned the wildly popular video-sharing app TikTok, as authorities press their clampdown on “immoral” content. Chinese-owned TikTok, which has become a global sensation with its short video clips, has a huge user base among young Pakistanis, with some attracting millions of followers. But it has come up against backlash in the ultra-conservative Islamic country, where […]



TikTok’s 90 days in the cooking pot





Pakistan on Friday banned the wildly popular video-sharing app TikTok, as authorities press their clampdown on “immoral” content.

Chinese-owned TikTok, which has become a global sensation with its short video clips, has a huge user base among young Pakistanis, with some attracting millions of followers.

But it has come up against backlash in the ultra-conservative Islamic country, where in recent months several dating apps including Tinder and Grindr have also been banned and YouTube threatened with shutdown.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday said TikTok had failed to adhere to two warnings, which had demanded it block “immoral, obscene and vulgar” content.

“The application failed to fully comply with the instructions, therefore, directions were issued for blocking of TikTok application in the country”, the PTA said in a statement.



Pakistanis were unable to access the app on Friday evening.

Arslan Khalid,",Pakistan bans TikTok over ‘immoral content’,tweets_news_854,tweets_news
"Marjorie Taylor Greene has turned herself into one of the most visible Republicans in the country — stoking an endless stream of controversies that has caused headaches for a defeated party trying to find its footing while she rakes in campaign cash without fear of consequences. Her most recent incendiary comments have followed her home to Georgia’s...

Marjorie Taylor Greene has turned herself into one of the most visible Republicans in the country — stoking an endless stream of controversies that has caused headaches for a defeated party trying to find its footing while she rakes in campaign cash withou...

Marjorie Taylor Greene has turned herself into one of the most visible Republicans in the country — stoking an endless stream of controversies that has caused headaches for a defeated party trying to find its footing while she rakes in campaign cash without fear of consequences. Her most recent incendiary comments have followed her home to Georgia’s 14th Congressional District in the northwest corner of the state and the publicity hasn’t been welcome. “Greene defends controversial Holocaust comments” read a banner front-page headline in a newspaper box outside the Oakwood Café in Dalton. Greene’s political security in the district — where 75%","Marjorie Taylor Greene may be politically safe, but her conservative Georgia constituents have concerns about her tactics",tweets_news_855,tweets_news
"A viral claim by a conservative activist group that voter registration numbers in Iowa are suspiciously large ahead of the first U.S. presidential nominating contest on Monday is false, a senior state government official said, and called on the group to end its ""misinformation campaign.""

Iowa's Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, said the claim by Washington D.C.-based group Judicial Watch that total registration numbers for caucuses in eight Iowa counties were larger than the eligible voter population had been disproven by official data.

""It's unfortunate this organization continues to put out inaccurate data regarding voter registration, and it's especially disconcerting they chose the day of the Iowa Caucus to do this,"" Pate said in a news release posted on Twitter, criticizing their data as flawed.

""They should stop this misinformation campaign immediately.""

Democrats start their hunt for a challenger to President Donald Trump in the November general election at the Iowa caucuses.

Judicial Watch's Facebook post on Monday garnered 10,000 shares and, on Twitter, a tweet on Sunday from conservative student group Turning Point USA's president Charlie Kirk sharing the same information has been retweeted more than 40,000 times.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called Pate's denial of its claim ""shameful.""

""It is shameful that",Iowa official slams viral claim of suspicious voter registration activity as false,tweets_news_856,tweets_news
"Sen. Michael F. Bennet, D-Colorado, issued the following news release on Feb. 24:

* * *

- Bennet Writes That Facebook's Actions to Date Fall Far Short of What its Unprecedented Global Influence Requires

* * *

ColoradoU.S. Senator Michael Bennet responded to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's comments last week in the Financial Times with a letter calling on the company to assume greater responsibility for the damage its platforms have caused to fundamental democratic values around the world. Citing examples from Brazil, the European Union, the Philippines, and Myanmar, Bennet described Facebook's inadequate steps to limit misinformation in elections, attacks on journalists, and hate speech that has led to violence. Bennet also asked Facebook to describe its policies and resources to address the concerns outlined in the letter.

""In dozens of countries, Facebook has unparalleled power to shape democratic norms and debate, and as a result, elections. I am concerned that Facebook, as an American company, has not taken sufficient steps to prevent its platforms from undermining fundamental democratic values around the world,"" said Bennet. ""As we approach critical elections in 2020, not only in the United States, but also in countries such as Egypt, Georgia, Iraq, and Sri Lanka, Facebook must swiftly adopt",Sen. Bennet Responds to Facebook Calling for More Responsibility for Its Damage to Democratic Values Around World,tweets_news_857,tweets_news
"ANALYSIS -- An epic race for Senate control is now underway, with two pivotal runoffs on Jan. 5 in Georgia to determine whether President Joe Biden has a Democratic Congress to work with, or a giant obstacle in a GOP Senate.

But even if Democrats go two for two in Georgia, Biden's progressive platform -- widely considered the most liberal ever put forth by his party -- may never get through the Democratic House.

With several races still uncalled, Speaker Nancy Pelosi could have a majority as narrow as 222-213, giving her four votes to spare when Republicans are united in opposition. Presuming Democrats elect her to return as their leader, Pelosi will have a monumental task in keeping the caucus together. The speaker's job is all the more complicated because moderates are fearful that Democrats will lose seats in the 2022 midterm elections, considering Republicans have unified control of the process that will redraw district lines in more states than Democrats do.

Progressive dreams of a sweeping, liberal agenda ""will have to be tempered by the reality of this election,"" says Rick Boucher, a former 14-term representative from southwest Virginia and moderate Democrat. Boucher lost his seat in the tea party wave","For progressives, the House is as big a problem as the Senate",tweets_news_858,tweets_news
"Apple on Saturday followed Google and removed the Parler app from its mobile store for allowing ""threats of violence,"" after the deadly attack on the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.

The Parler social network has become a haven for conservatives who say they have been censored by other social media platforms.

It had soared in popularity in recent months, becoming the No. 1 free app on Apple's App Store on Saturday after Twitter's decision hours earlier to permanently ban Trump from its platform.

""We have always supported diverse points of view being represented on the App Store, but there is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal activity,"" Apple said in a statement.

""Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people's safety. We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues.""

Apple's move came one day after Google pulled Parler from its app store for allowing ""egregious content"" that could incite deadly violence like that seen at the US Capitol on Wednesday.

Angry Trump supporters swarmed the building as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden's November 3 election win, leaving five people -- including a policeman -- dead.

Other",Apple follows Google in yanking Parler for 'threats of violence',tweets_news_859,tweets_news
"The alleged plot to kidnap Michigan's governor has put a focus on the security of top state officials, who have been the subject of threats and protests across the country this year

A plot to kidnap Michigan's governor has put a focus on the security of governors who have faced protests and threats over their handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

While the alleged plot against Gretchen Whitmer is the most specific and highest-profile to come to light, it's far from the first threat against state officials, particularly Democrats who imposed business closures and restrictions on social gatherings.

In New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said this week that news of the arrest of 13 men accused of planning the overthrow of Michigan's government rattled members of her family.

""I started to get calls from both my daughters who were terrified and who were often included in some of the negative messaging,"" Grisham said this week. ""Early on in this pandemic. one of the threats that we got was 'I hope your grandchildren, get COVID.' ""

In August, a man pleaded guilty to making threats against the Democratic governor on social media and was sentenced to 14 months in prison.

During the pandemic, the state Capitol that","Plot puts focus on governors' safety amid threats, protests",tweets_news_860,tweets_news
"Let's start here. Let's acknowledge that what happened at the Capitol building on Wednesday was not a demonstration or a protest. It was a coordinated domestic terrorist attack.

Many of the mob came outfitted for a riot. They had weapons to break down doors and windows as they stormed the building. They had riot gear. Some waved the Confederate flag — which represents a government that tried to overthrow ours. None of this is opinion. Domestic terrorism is defined by the FBI as ""violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.""

If the people forcing their way into the Capitol wore turbans instead of MAGA hats, what transpired would not be described as a protest.

The death of Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was reportedly shot and killed by Capitol police, was the result of her participation in the insurrection. She should not be the subject of sympathetic media profiles as if she were merely someone who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Babbitt was a trained solider who tweeted ""Nothing will stop us. … they can try",Column: Tougher police response is needed after Wednesday's attack,tweets_news_861,tweets_news
"IN the wake of the global Wuhan coronavirus (2019-nCov) outbreak, the authorities are increasingly concerned about the dangers of medical hoaxes.

Social media is rampant with misinformation and disinformation on the new strain of coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan city, China.

Up to Thursday, there were 9,480 confirmed cases and 180 deaths.

Coronavirus (CoV) is a large genus of virus that causes sickness ranging from the common flu to critical conditions such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV).

This new strain has not been identified in humans.

Little is known about it except that it is fatal if not treated well. This uncertainty is causing much speculation among the public, which is worsened by the sharing of unverified information on the disease.

Scientists worldwide are working hard to find a cure. The people should play their part by adhering to the recommendations made by professionals and not rely on online posts.

Over the past two weeks, much unverified information on the virus has been shared on social media, stirring public discussion and causing panic.

Medical misinformation and disinformation are two components of information disorder that need the attention of the government.

False content ranges from sharing wrong information on vaccines to",Set up agency to check information disorder,tweets_news_862,tweets_news
"Oct. 24—Commodity prices moved lower during the week, hobbled by the potential for increased crude supplies and ongoing worries about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

West Texas Intermediate on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell below the $40 level Friday, dropping 79 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $39.85, down from Monday's close of $40.83 per barrel. The posted price ended the week at $36.25 per barrel.

Natural gas prices crossed the $3 per Mcf barrier on the NYMEX because of consecutive 12 cent and 11 cent jumps Tuesday and Wednesday. But the price could not hold those gains, ending the week at $2.971 per Mcf. That's still higher than the $2.795 at Monday's close.

WPX Energy, which is in the process of merging with Devon Energy, has a number of gas wells in Loving County. Kelly Swan, director of communications and community relations with the company, told the Reporter-Telegram by email, ""Higher prices are always good, but there are no plans to drill more. We're operating on a reduced capital budget this year following the impacts from Covid-19 and we're absolutely, positively going to stick within that tighter, reduced budget.""

Low prices and oil demand will hamper near-term growth in the Permian, according to the",Commodity prices have down week,tweets_news_863,tweets_news
"In a rapidly intensifying regional backlash to the Trump administration's killing of a senior Iranian general, Iran declared Sunday that it was tossing aside a pledge to limit the production of nuclear fuel, and the Iraqi parliament voted to expel U.S. troops from the country.

Adding to a pileup of unwelcome consequences of Friday's lethal airstrike, the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq said it was suspending operations against Islamic State in order to concentrate on force protection, thus placing a moratorium on a mission that was once one of America's core priorities in the Middle East.

In Washington, meanwhile, congressional Democrats voiced deep doubts about President Trump's leadership and decision making, with some senior lawmakers warning that erratic and bellicose behavior on Trump's part was pushing the country closer to a full-scale conflagration with Iran.

""We do not need this president either bumbling or impulsively getting us into a major war,"" Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York said on ABC's ""This Week.""

Trump spent another day at his Florida golf resort, dispatching Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo to appear on every major news-talk show to defend the administration's actions. Trump himself lobbed online insults that appeared aimed simultaneously at congressional adversaries",Repercussions are stacking up after killing of Iranian general,tweets_news_864,tweets_news
"Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, issued the following news release:

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee Personnel Subcommittee, joined Senate colleagues in calling on retired Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata to withdraw his nomination to serve as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Department of Defense (DoD) and resign his current position as a senior advisor to the secretary of defense. Years of bigoted, sexist, and conspiratorial comments by Tata -- on matters including Islam, President Barack Obama, and members of Congress -- have recently emerged. Gillibrand and her colleagues expressed concern that such offensive comments disqualified Tata from serving as the third-highest ranking DoD official and principal advisor to the secretary on the department's policies and activities.

""The comments made by Brigadier General Tata are unacceptable and should be disqualifying for any public servant, let alone a top ranking Pentagon official,"" said Senator Gillibrand. ""He has repeatedly made dangerous comments that have made clear his character is not in line with the values of our military or our country. I urge Brigadier General Tata to immediately withdraw his nomination and resign from the Pentagon to ensure that our nation's top public servants reflect",Sen. Gillibrand Joins Call on Anthony J. Tata to Withdraw Nomination for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy,tweets_news_865,tweets_news
"The following information was released by the Heartland Institute:

By Jim Lakely

Coalition letter first posted at MRC

'Free speech was controlled like this in East Germany and the Soviet Union. This should not be happening in America.'

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL (January 11, 2021) -- Media Research Center (MRC) President Brent Bozell, Heartland Institute Vice President Jim Lakely, and more than 30 conservative leaders issued the following statement Monday calling for the breakup of Big Tech companies including Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple after their sweeping acts of censorship against conservatives and President Donald Trump this past week.

""Big Tech has declared war on free speech and is now an existential threat to democracy. The tech tyrants began to systematically shut down the conservative movement over the weekend. This is an all out assault on our republic from within like we've never seen before. We will not stand idly by as they cancel conservatives for daring to speak freely.

Big Tech is using the violent riot at the Capitol last week even though it was immediately condemned by all conservatives as an excuse to do what they have always wanted to do: banish conservatives from the internet. Over the last 72 hours, Big Tech proved they","HEARTLAND JOINS CONSERVATIVE LEADERS: TECH COMPANIES POSE EXISTENTIAL THREAT, MUST BE BROKEN UP",tweets_news_866,tweets_news
"

Jan 04, 2021( MarketBeat: https://www.marketbeat.com/ Delivered by Newstex) A group of Google engineers announced Monday they have formed a union, creating a rare foothold for the labor movement in the tech industry. About 225 employees at Google and its parent company Alphabet are the first dues-paying members of the Alphabet Workers Union. They represent a fraction of Alphabet's workforce, far short of the threshold needed to get formal recognition as a collective bargaining group in the U.S. But the new union, which will be affiliated with the larger Communication Workers of America, says it will serve as a 'structure that ensures Google workers can actively push for real changes at the company.""

Its members say they want more of a voice not just on wages, benefits and protections against discrimination and harassment but also broader ethical questions about how Google pursues its business ventures. Google didn't immediately return an emailed request for comment Monday. Unionization campaigns haven't historically been able to gain much traction among elite tech workers, who earn big salaries and other perks like free food and shuttle rides to work. But workplace activism at Google and other big tech firms has grown in recent years as employers call","Google workers form new labor union, a tech industry rarity",tweets_news_867,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO) IS INTERVIEWED ON VARNEY AND CO.

JULY 27, 2020

SPEAKERS: REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO)

STUART VARNEY, FBN HOST

[*] VARNEY: Next we have this. What have we got here? OK, there's a car has driven through a crowd of protesters. You can see that. That was in Arura, Colorado, I believe. Another protester was shot. Look, lots of events going on there in Colorado over the weekend.

Congressman Ken Buck, Republican from Colorado, is with us right now.

Look, sir, this is shaping up as a clash between local Democrat authorities and federal authorities. Those are the two sides here. Seems like impossible to bring them together.

BUCK: Well, I think it is very difficult to bring them together. And one thing that I think people have to understand is when -- when folks are protesting peacefully, we've got to respect that distance, we've got to respect their voice. When they commit crimes, it is the job of the police officers, whether they're property crimes or crimes against people, jobs of the police officers to make sure that those folks are arrest and brought to justice.

VARNEY: What's going on here, Congressman? I mean we've pitched battles in the streets all across America",REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO) IS INTERVIEWED ON VARNEY AND CO.,tweets_news_868,tweets_news
"DONALD TRUMP

Ever since he announced a run for the White House in 2015, former President Donald Trump dominated headlines in the United States and around the world.

Many attributed Trump's surprise victory in 2016 partly to the media's obsession with the real estate billionaire and reality television star. His popularity continued to grow throughout the four years in office, evidenced by the tens of millions of followers on social media and the record number of votes-74 million-cast for an incumbent president.

But in the aftermath of the election, Trump lost his social media megaphone and the media attention that comes with being the president of the most powerful country in the world. The former president committed to continuing his involvement in politics, raising the question of what, if anything, he should do in order to stay top-of-mind with voters, influential with the Republican Party, and of interest to the news media.

Some argue the former president doesn't have to do much to remain popular due to the success of his agenda, which will inevitably be viewed in contrast with the policies of the administration of President Joe Biden.

""He is going to remain popular because his agenda and his policies were successful,"" Jim McLaughlin,","Out of the White House, What Can Trump Do to Stay Popular?",tweets_news_869,tweets_news
"SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter says it has begun labeling tweets that include misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines and using a “strike system” to eventually remove accounts that repeatedly violate its rules.

The company said Monday that it has started using human reviewers to assess whether tweets violate its policy against COVID vaccine misinformation. Eventually, the work will be done by a combination of humans and automation, it said.

Twitter had already banned some COVID-related misinformation in December, including falsehoods about how the virus spreads, whether masks are effective and the risk of infection and death.

“Through the use of the strike system, we hope to educate people on why certain content breaks our rules so they have the opportunity to further consider their behavior and their impact on the public conversation,” Twitter said in a blog post Monday.

People with one violation — or strike — will see no action. Two strikes will lead to an account being locked for 12 hours. Five or more will get a user permanently banned from Twitter.

Facebook has also stepped up its vaccine misinformation fight after years of half-hearted enforcement. It announced an expanded policy last month that includes all vaccines — not just those against COVID-19.

San",Twitter cracks down on COVID vaccine misinformation,tweets_news_870,tweets_news
"Two-hundred-and-sixty-three days remain until Americans vote to re-elect Donald Trump. I've reached this woeful conclusion after listening to coverage and reading about Democratic primaries where 57 candidates (minor exaggeration) tear each other, and the party apart, reinforcing the trope Democrats eat their own. They're doomed.

There is levity among the dark clouds, including a Rolling Stone headline, ""Large Majority of New Hampshire Democrats Prefer Death by Meteor Than to See Trump Win Again.""

Sixty-four per cent of those polled chose ""a giant meteor strikes the Earth, extinguishing all human life"" over the president's re-election, according to a new poll from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

The poll found 28 per cent of conservatives would also rather see mankind wiped out than deal with another four years of Trump.

Sixty-eight per cent of women polled, more than any other group, would welcome a fireball of death over the president remaining in the White House.

Before you dismiss anyone who voted for the meteor, remember, this was hypothetical.

Much like Trump claiming credit for every positive economic development is hypothetical, from the rocketing US stock market, to low unemployment rates, to job growth.

Economists (not to be trusted, according to conservatives, because most attended university) say correlation is",Woefully the Democrats are doomed,tweets_news_871,tweets_news
"

Apr 23, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; No media coverage of the Obama administration's treason. FBI reportedly falsified documents in last presidential election: John Solomon [Fox Business Videos][embedded content] Fox Business VideosApril 17, 2020 FOX Business contributor and investigative journalist John Solomon argues the FBI allegedly conducted a misinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential election.Have a tip we should know? Your anonymity is NEVER compromised. Email tips@thegellerreport.com[1] The Truth Must be Told Your contribution supports independent journalism; Please take a moment to consider this.

Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more. Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers' contributions make that possible. Geller Report's independent,",FBI reportedly falsified documents in last presidential election,tweets_news_872,tweets_news
"The US government has filed a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Google alleging that the tech giant used its search engine to create -monopolies and undermine rivals.

The historic move by the -Department of Justice has enormous potential implications for other companies such as Facebook and Amazon and sets up a major battle between Washington and Silicon Valley.

It is the culmination of growing anger in Washington over the lack of regulation covering Google's operations as the company amassed power through a lucrative system of search advertising.

""Absent a court order, Google will continue executing its anti-competitive strategy, crippling the competitive process, reducing consumer choice, and stifling -innovation,"" the DoJ said.

""For the sake of American consumers, advertisers, and all companies now reliant on the internet economy, the time has come to stop Google's anti-competitive conduct and restore competition."" The DoJ alleges Google used its murky business practices to capture almost 90 per cent of all search queries in the US and that this ""grip on distribution"" has stymied other search engines from competing.

""Ultimately it is consumers and advertisers that suffer from less choice, less innovation and less competitive advertising prices,"" the lawsuit states. ""So we are asking the court to break Google's grip on",US out to break Google's grip on net,tweets_news_873,tweets_news
"Trump ponders future on new platform after being silenced by social media networks

Donald Trump suggested he could start his own social media platform in order to reach the 88 million followers he can no longer talk to on Twitter.

Many of the president's supporters were moving to other lesser known forums which are less stringent on policing inflammatory political comments.

After his personal Twitter account was banned, Mr Trump used the official presidential one-@POTUS-to promise them he would be in touch shortly.

He said: ""We have been negotiating with various other sites and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibility of building out our own platform in the near future...STAY TUNED!""

Since Twitter began adding warnings to Mr Trump's tweets claiming election fraud his advisers had been warning that a permanent ban could be coming, and have been working on contingency plans.

In a statement Twitter said it had closely reviewed the president's recent tweets ""and the context around them-specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter.""

The social media giant said it had acted ""in the context of horrific events this week"" and ""due to the risk of further incitement of violence"".

Specifically, it cited Mr",Donald Trump promises to create his own social media platform after Twitter bans president permanently,tweets_news_874,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

""He is prepared to lose everything,"" said economist Sergei M. Guriev, a confidant of Navalny who fled to France in 2013 after coming under pressure from the Kremlin. ""That makes him different from everyone else.""

FULL TEXT

Link to Image

MOSCOW - While waiting out the coronavirus lockdown in his two-bedroom apartment last spring, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny seemed uncharacteristically idle, with his most potent weapon against the Kremlin - street protests - off the table.

And yet, Navalny felt that President Vladimir Putin's grip on power might be slipping. Operating from his living room, rather than the slick Moscow studio he had used before, he cranked out videos haranguing Putin for failing to manage the coronavirus crisis and leaving Russians struggling as the economy suffered. Confirming his hunch that the pandemic could become a political catalyst, the audience for Navalny's YouTube videos tripled, to 10 million viewers per month.

""Putin can't handle all this madness, and you can see that he is totally out of his depth,"" Navalny said in an interview by Zoom in May. ""We are continuing to hit them where it hurts.""

Methodical and uncompromising, Navalny, 44, has spent almost half his life trying to unseat Putin. Often deemed rude, brusque",A life in opposition: Navalny's path from gadfly to heroic symbol,tweets_news_875,tweets_news
"February 23 -- Congressional Democrats have started discussions with the White House on ways to crack down on Big Tech, including making social media companies accountable for the spread of disinformation on matters such as the US Capitol riots and addressing the abuse of market power to harm corporate rivals. The conversations, described by a lawmaker and congressional aides, have included the contentious topic of what to do with a measure called Section 230, part of a 1996 law called the Communications Decency Act, that shields social media platforms from lawsuits over much of the content posted by users. Democratic President Joe Biden as a candidate last year called for revoking Section 230, and his Republican predecessor Donald Trump unsuccessfully pressed Congress to repeal it. Many lawmakers in recent years have called for laws and regulations to rein in dominant tech companies such as Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc., Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. Democratic lawmakers also have expressed alarm over social media's role in the lead-up to a pro-Trump mob's attack on the US Capitol on 6 January. The conversations between lawmakers and Biden aides represent the first sign that the White House has begun actively getting involved in",Democrats start talks with White House to crack down on Big Tech,tweets_news_876,tweets_news
"The former deputy prime minister has come out swinging against Facebook's critics. There are just a few things he leaves out...

Sir Nick Clegg is going on the offensive. Facebook's global head of policy and PR, and the former deputy prime minister, has written a 5,000-word article rebutting claims that the company's algorithms are damaging society and usurping human beings' control of their lives.

The article explains how Facebook's news feed works, arguing that tech giants must give users more control and transparency over algorithms such as Facebook's.

It also exemplifies Facebook's new talking points, which were previously on display in chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's testimony to Congress last week and in a leaked internal briefing designed to help employees to ""go home and have dinner"" with sceptical friends and family.

But his lengthy blogpost also manages to avoid certain less favourable issues.

Facebook won't share its own (scary) research

Sir Nick spends a lot of time tackling the idea that Facebook divides society, and lists studies that contradict that. ""What evidence there is simply does not support the idea that social media [is] the unambiguous driver of polarisation that many assert,"" he writes.

One question: what about Facebook's own research? The past year has seen a",Five things missing from Nick Clegg's defence of Facebook,tweets_news_877,tweets_news
"Social media companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram “may become liable for criminal action” in India and lose their status as “intermediaries” that grant them certain exemptions if they do not comply with new rules notified by the government by May 26, official sources said on Monday. They said the electronics and information and technology ministry...

Social media companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram “may become liable for criminal action” in India and lose their status as “intermediaries” that grant them certain exemptions if they do not comply with new rules notified by the government by ...

Social media companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram “may become liable for criminal action” in India and lose their status as “intermediaries” that grant them certain exemptions if they do not comply with new rules notified by the government by May 26, official sources said on Monday. They said the electronics and information and technology ministry notified the rules in the gazette on February 25 and asked social media companies to comply within three months. Except Indian company Koo — which has a user base of above 50 lakhs — significant social media intermediaries have not appointed grievance officers or nodal contact","Major Social Media Firms Yet To Comply With Govt Rules As Deadline Nears, May Invite Action",tweets_news_878,tweets_news
"The secretary of state praised the British government for recent actions on China as the Trump administration tries to build a global coalition against Beijing.

The secretary of state praised the British government for recent actions on China as the Trump administration tries to build a global coalition against Beijing.

LONDON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday cheered the hardening British posture toward China and appealed for a global coalition against the country, blaming the Chinese Communist Party for what he described as exploitation of the coronavirus pandemic “to further its own interests.”

Mr. Pompeo made the remarks on a visit to Britain, which in itself was something of a victory lap for the Trump administration. It had previously indicated that Britain had to choose whether to side with Beijing or Washington on matters like China’s role in telecommunications infrastructure.

The secretary of state heaped praise on Dominic Raab, Britain’s foreign secretary, for his government’s decision last week to ban equipment supplied by the Chinese technology giant Huawei from the country’s high-speed wireless network, among other things.

“I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the British government for its principled responses to these challenges,” Mr. Pompeo said. “Well done.”

The two men dismissed",Pompeo Praises Britain for Getting Tough on China,tweets_news_879,tweets_news
"UNITED STATES SENATE

Sen. Ted Cruz Press Office

Cruz Press Office: 202-228-7561

Lauren Aronson: laurenaronson@cruz.senate.gov

Maria Jeffrey: mariajeffrey@cruz.senate.gov

June 24, 2020

Sen. Cruz: By Providing Transparency, the FCC Can Transform Congress' Ability to Address Big Tech's Pattern of Political Bias and Censorship

WASHINGTON, D.C. - With Big Tech at it again - this time censoring President Trump's tweet against violent anarchists taking over the nation's capital - today U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Commerce Committee, urged members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to provide real transparency on Big Tech's pattern of political bias and censorship. This comes after Sen. Cruz blasted Google in a letter for its ""transparently politically motivated"" move to target the conservative media outlet, The Federalist.

On Big Tech's bias against conservatives, Sen. Cruz said:

""We have been seeing in recent years, recent months, and even in recent weeks, growing assertions of power from Big Tech to censor, to shadow ban, [and] to silence views with which they disagree. Just within the last two weeks, we saw Google, at the behest of a foreign advocacy group, threaten to 'demonetize' The Federalist, a conservative online journalistic outlet.""

""Yesterday, we saw Twitter decide to censor and block a tweet from the President of the","Sen. Cruz: By Providing Transparency, the FCC Can Transform Congress' Ability to Address Big Tech's Pattern of Political Bias and Censorship",tweets_news_880,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump on Thursday accelerated his efforts to interfere in the nation’s electoral process, taking the extraordinary step of reaching out directly to Republican state legislators from Michigan and inviting them to the White House on Friday for discussions as the state prepares to certify President-elect Joe Biden the winner there.

For Trump and his Republican allies, Michigan has become the prime target in their campaign to subvert the will of voters backing Biden in the recent election. Trump called at least one GOP elections official in the Detroit area this week after she voted to certify Biden’s overwhelming victory there, and he is now set to meet with legislators ahead of Michigan’s deadline on Monday to certify the results.

The president has also asked aides what Republican officials he could call in other battleground states in his effort to prevent the certification of results that would formalize his loss to Biden, several advisers said. Trump allies appear to be pursuing a highly dubious legal theory that if the results are not certified, Republican legislatures could intervene and appoint pro-Trump electors in states Biden won who would support the president when the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14.

The Republican effort to",Trump targets Michigan in his ploy to subvert vote,tweets_news_881,tweets_news
"

Sep 05, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, in a video Friday targeted TikTok, which is less than two weeks away from facing a ban in the US under his father's executive order. In a video posted to Triller, a video-sharing app that has expressed interested in purchasing TikTok, Trump Jr. claimed TikTok could be ""turning on your kid's video, listening in, turning on their mic at any random time not just when they're using the app.""

TikTok has repeatedly denied allegations that it provides any of its user data to the Chinese Communist Party, which in August took actions complicating its plans to sell US operations as a result of President Trump's executive orders against it. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1].Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Donald Trump, on Friday posted on video-sharing app Triller, peddling unsubstantiated theories that TikTok is turning on users' cameras and microphones even when the app is closed, arguing TikTok is ""something that could haunt your kids forever.""""When you have an app like TikTok where the Chinese government could be turning on your kid's camera, turning on your kid's video, listening in,","Trump Jr. joins Triller and lashes out against TikTok, claiming the app is 'something that could haunt your kids forever'",tweets_news_882,tweets_news
"International news from the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This This is This is BBC This is BBC World News. This is BBC World News. The headlines. The United headlines. headlines. The has headlines. The United States headlines. The United States has ordered has ordered China to close has ordered China has ordered China to close its has ordered China to close its consulate consulate in Houston prompting consulate in a furious consulate in Houston prompting a a furious reaction in Beijing.

a furious reaction a furious reaction in a furious reaction in Beijing. Diplomats Diplomats have been seen Diplomats have been Diplomats have been seen burning burning documents in the burning documents burning documents in the courtyard. courtyard. The State Department courtyard. The State courtyard. The State Department said said it said it was acting to protect said it was acting to said it was acting to protect intellectual intellectual property intellectual property and intellectual property and private information. private The The British Prime Minister The",BBC World News - 2:30 PM GMT,tweets_news_883,tweets_news
"A White Lives Matter rally promoted in leaflets touting the Ku Klux Klan was vastly outnumbered on Sunday by Black Lives Matter supporters and others who showed up at the Huntington Beach Pier to condemn hate speech.

At the peak, at least 500 people gathered on either side of Pacific Coast Highway, and a series of skirmishes broke out. Shortly after 2:30 p.m., police declared an unlawful assembly at Fifth Street and Walnut Avenue to disperse what law enforcement officials described as an unruly crowd.

The dispersal followed what started as a peaceful Black Lives Matter rally but

exploded into chaos as apparent counterprotesters arrived, throwing insults and, at times, punches.

But while the KKK fliers that appeared last week drew widespread revulsion and fear of an outbreak of large-scale violence, the event mostly resulted in small fights. The Huntington Beach “White Lives Matter” rally was one of dozens in cities around the country that reportedly drew far fewer people than expected.

Its mission, according to posts on Telegram: “To revive the White Racial Consciousness and to unify White People against White hate. A show of support for White victims of interracial crime.”

That drew the ire of organizations throughout the U.S. that monitor white supremacy.

“We",huntington beach,tweets_news_884,tweets_news
"Top creators and platform execs will discuss the ways that technology and innovation are transforming Hollywood during Variety's annual Entertain­ment Summit at CES, set for Jan. 8 during the massive Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, CBS Interactive CEO Marc Debevoise, Imax president Megan Colligan, Fox Entertainment's SideCar Content Accelerator chair Gail Berman and Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, are among the speakers scheduled for the Jan. 8 event at the Aria Resort & Casino. Many of the sessions will attempt to make sense of the exploding number of content platforms as more and more companies enter the streaming fray, pitching content directly to consumers. 

""We're in an exciting period of evolution for the media business, and making a direct connection with your customer has never been more important,"" says Sean Kisker, exec VP and chief strategy officer of Otter Media and WarnerMedia Direct-to-Consumer, who will speak at the summit panel on building fandom around projects and products. ""We expect to share our perspectives on how various businesses understand this challenge, and how each thinks about the concept of fandom as a driver to their model.""

Oren Katzeff, Conde Nast president; Shay Mitchell, ""Dollface""","Mark Cuban, Dawn Ostroff to Speak at Variety's CES Summit",tweets_news_885,tweets_news
"Canada and its Western allies have been thrust between ""a rock and a hard place"" in their relations with Iran, following revelations that an Iranian missile is believed to have shot down a Ukrainian aircraft near Tehran, killing all 176 passengers on board including 63 Canadians.

Citing intelligence from multiple sources on Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau( https://nationalpost.com/news/world/missile-attack-collision-engine-explosion-terrorism-ukraine-investigating-possible-causes-of-iran-crash?video_autoplay=true ) told reporters that evidence indicated the plane was struck by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.

Canada and its Western allies now face the difficult task of balancing a need to take a ""strong stance"" on the matter while not aggravating an already tense Iranian regime, said Christian Leuprecht, a political science professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen's University in Kingston. The European Union has been criticized for its slow response to the crisis that ignited last week after a U.S. air strike on Iraq killed Iran's top military commander Qassem Suleimani.

After the attack, Iran said it would no longer abide by uranium enrichment limits in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal struck with the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China. However, Iran has not said it will withdraw from the regular inspections that are part of",'No good options': All eyes are on Trudeau as West faces dilemma in dealing with Iran,tweets_news_886,tweets_news
"SEATTLE — Following days of violent confrontations with protesters, police in Seattle have largely withdrawn from a neighborhood that protesters have transformed into a festival-like scene that has President Donald Trump fuming.

Trump taunted Gov. Jay Inslee and Mayor Jenny Durkan about the situation on Twitter and said the city had been taken over by “anarchists.""

“Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will,” Trump tweeted.

The “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” sprung up after police on Monday removed barricades near the East Precinct and basically abandoned the structure after officers used tear gas, pepper spray and flash bangs over the weekend to disperse demonstrators they said were assaulting them with projectiles.

The president has sparred before with Inslee and Durkan — both liberal Democrats. Inslee previously sought his party's presidential nomination.

Inslee tweeted Thursday that state officials will not allow threats of military violence from the White House.

“The U.S. military serves to protect Americans, not the fragility of an insecure president,” he tweeted.

The zone set up by protesters stretches across several blocks on Capitol Hill, where dozens of people show up to listen to speakers calling for police reform, racial justice and compensation for Native groups on whose land the city",Trump fumes as protesters stake out festive zone in Seattle,tweets_news_887,tweets_news
"Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can also make lasting damage. GLAAD’s new Social Media Safety Index breaks down how cyberbullying and hate speech can hold up a system of discrimination that threatens LGBTQ+ lives. ""The amount of dehumanizing and dangerous anti-LGBTQ hate on social media platforms is astounding,"" said GLAAD Senior Project Consultant...

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can also make lasting damage. GLAAD’s new Social Media Safety Index breaks down how cyberbullying and hate speech can hold up a system of discrimination that threatens LGBTQ+ lives. ""The amount of dehumaniz...

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can also make lasting damage. GLAAD’s new Social Media Safety Index breaks down how cyberbullying and hate speech can hold up a system of discrimination that threatens LGBTQ+ lives. ""The amount of dehumanizing and dangerous anti-LGBTQ hate on social media platforms is astounding,"" said GLAAD Senior Project Consultant Jenni Olson. ""Research shows that social media companies have effective solutions they could be implementing, but they continue to prioritize profits over public safety. Ongoing pressure like GLAAD's Social Media Safety Index is necessary until LGBTQ people are safe on these platforms.” More than two thirds","Whether it's Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok or Twitter — GLAAD says all social media is unsafe for LGBTQ+ users",tweets_news_888,tweets_news
"Story Stocks (R)

Updated: 19-Feb-21

Quotes at time of story, top stories today: 12:59 | 11:52 | 10:54 | 10:26

12:59 ET

The Trade Desk is finding plenty of bids after delivering another blowout quarterly report:

It seems fitting that both The Trade Desk (TTD) and Roku (ROKU) reported 4Q20 earnings after the close yesterday since the companies are capitalizing on the same powerful secular trend. Namely, marketers are increasingly pouring more advertising dollars into connected TV (CTV) channels as streaming services explode in popularity. As anticipated, this migration towards CTV facilitated blow out results once again for both companies.

During the quarter, CTV revenue surged by over 100% for TTD. As an agnostic provider of programmatic ad buying, TTD is ideally positioned to benefit from rising subscriber counts across multiple streaming services, including ROKU, Disney+ (DIS), and Amazon Prime (AMZN).

Furthermore, TTD is appealing to marketers who are looking to steer away from platforms that rely on sometimes controversial user-generated content, like Twitter (TWTR) or Facebook (FB). This approach was vividly illustrated in Pinterest's (PINS) remarkable Q4 report from February 4. PINS' platform is generally seen as ""safer"" for advertisers since most people use it for specific reasons, such as finding a recipe or looking for",Briefing.com: Story Stocks (R),tweets_news_889,tweets_news
"Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

just deemed to be to unsafe and the current climate. Donald Trump has floated the suggestion that he might make his acceptance speech from the White House, raising all sorts of questions about blurring the lines about official presidential activity and political campaigning. A short while ago the White House Chief of Staff mark Meadows was asked about this on CNN and he said that one way around it might be for the President to make this speech from the east wing of the White House which is officially the private residence, rather than somewhere like the Oval Office, but it is, of course, a taxpayer funded building and even some Republicans have expressed disquiet about the President accepting the nomination from their. Facebook and Twitter have penalised US President Donald Trump and his campaign for posts in which he claimed children are almost immune to coronavirus.

Facebook deleted the post - a clip from an interview the president gave to Fox News -",BBC News Programming - 00:10 AM GMT,tweets_news_890,tweets_news
"A California man charged with joining anti-government extremists in rioting at the U.S. Capitol told the IRS last year that he formed a charity called the American Phoenix Project to defend “human and civil rights” and educate the public about vaccines. Instead, Alan Hostetter used his tax-exempt nonprofit as a platform to oppose COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, protest...

A California man charged with joining anti-government extremists in rioting at the U.S. Capitol told the IRS last year that he formed a charity called the American Phoenix Project to defend “human and civil rights” and educate the public about vaccines. In...

A California man charged with joining anti-government extremists in rioting at the U.S. Capitol told the IRS last year that he formed a charity called the American Phoenix Project to defend “human and civil rights” and educate the public about vaccines. Instead, Alan Hostetter used his tax-exempt nonprofit as a platform to oppose COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, protest that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and advocate for violence against political opponents, according to an eight-count indictment secured by the U.S. Justice Department. He's already charged with conspiracy to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidency, but Hostetter also could","Capitol rioter used charity to promote violence, feds say",tweets_news_891,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump displays numbers on personal protective equipment supplies Tuesday at a press briefing.Evan Vucci/AP

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's attempt to project a more serious tone about the coronavirus lasted for about a week.

On Tuesday, he resumed spreading misinformation about how to fight the virus and amplifying criticism of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, who said he would keep his head down and do his job.

Social media platforms worked to remove multiple versions of a video promoted by Trump that included unproven claims about treating people who test positive for the virus.

As he often does, the president used Twitter, where he has more than 84 million followers, to sow fresh doubt about the most effective ways to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and risked undermining his own recent admonitions to wear masks and maintain a social distance while hoping a vaccine will emerge in the coming months.

Trump retweeted a series of tweets advocating for the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to be used in COVID-19 patients, including a video of a doctor claiming to have successfully used the drug on hundreds of patients.

Numerous studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine is not effective, and the U.S.",Trump again touts disproven drug,tweets_news_892,tweets_news
"A Hamilton County Commissioner vacationing in Mexico is irked he'll be required to get tested for COVID-19 at a cost of about $45 before his return home, inaccurately claiming it's unfair because asylum seekers aren't tested at the border under President Joe Biden's administration.

In a Facebook post Sunday, longtime Republican Commissioner Steve Dillinger took a swipe at the newly elected Democratic president's immigration policy.

""I have a question Mr President and all you Liberals Why do I have to have a Covid-19 test, at a cost of $950 pesos, before I come back from Vacation in Mexico but you let thousands of Mexicans cross the Border illegally with no test?"" he wrote.

Nine hundred and fifty Mexican pesos is just under $46.

Biden announced on Feb. 12 that the United States will begin allowing in about 25,000 migrants who sought asylum under the Trump administration but sat in Mexico as they awaited a judicial hearing. All the asylum seekers, however, will be tested for COVID-19 at three ports of entry, the administration announced.

Those seeking asylum are entering the country under a legal process.

The CDC has recommended against travel to Mexico and said if one does, a test less than 72 hours before returning",Virus test for Mexico travel irks vacationing area official,tweets_news_893,tweets_news
"

Aug 25, 2020( The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/ Delivered by Newstex) YouTube removed nearly twice as many videos during Q2 as it did during the first quarter, the Google-owned company said on Tuesday, as it shifted away from human moderators and towards artificial intelligence tools to spot videos that break its rules. Between April and June, YouTube removed 11.4 million videos, compared to the 5.6 million videos it removed during the first three months of the year. Back in March, YouTube warned creators there could be a potential surge in Q2 removals[1] because it had to rely less on human moderators, who were sent home due to the coronavirus pandemic; that prediction ended up being on the money.

'When reckoning with greatly reduced human review capacity due to COVID-19, we were forced to make a choice between potential under-enforcement or potential over-enforcement,' YouTube said in its Q2 Transparency Report. 'Because responsibility is our top priority, we chose the latter — using technology to help with some of the work normally done by reviewers.' Also Read: Annabelle Doll Has Not Escaped, Owner Says: 'Annabelle's Alive - Well, I Shouldn't Say Alive' (Video)[2] YouTube's 'over-enforcement' spurred the video giant taking down plenty of videos that",YouTube Removes Twice as Much Content After Shift Away From Human Moderators,tweets_news_894,tweets_news
"KATHMANDU, Nov. 22 -- The dispute seen among top leaders within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) in Kathmandu has started surfacing at the local level with rival faction cadres starting to obstruct the programs of their leaders.

A group of NCP cadres allegedly belonging to Prime Minister K P Oli were involved in hootings and obstructing a program attended by NCP leader Surendra Pandey, who is considered close to senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, in Chitawan on Saturday. Pandey was one of the six members of the task force formed earlier by the party to recommend measures to resolve the intra-party dispute seen in the NCP.

Local-level leaders and youth activists close to Prime Minister Oli had chanted strong slogans against Pandey, expressing dissatisfaction over various allegations made against Oli. He was addressing a program organized in Birendranagar in Rapti Municipality in the district.

The agitating cadres had tried to chase Pandey away from the program venue, alleging that he was against the party unity. They had chanted slogans like 'long live party unity' and 'let's stand against party split'.

Senior leaders Jhala Nath Khanal and Madhav Kumar Nepal have separately demanded stringent action against those trying to obstruct the program and changing",NCP dispute at the center reaches to the local level,tweets_news_895,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - President Trump's administration plunged deeper into crisis Thursday as more officials resigned in protest, prominent Republicans broke with him, and Democratic congressional leaders threatened to impeach him for encouraging a mob that stormed the Capitol a day earlier. What was already shaping up as a volatile final stretch to the Trump presidency took on an air of national emergency as the White House emptied out and some Republicans joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a cascade of Democrats calling for Trump to be removed from office without waiting the 13 days until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. The prospect of actually short-circuiting Trump's tenure in its last days appeared re

mote. Despite a rupture with Trump, Vice President Pence privately ruled out invoking the disability clause of the 25th Amendment to sideline the president, as many had urged that he and the Cabinet do, according to officials. Democrats suggested they could move quickly to impeachment, a step that would have its own logistical and political challenges. But the highly charged debate about Trump's capacity to govern even for less than two weeks underscored the depth of anger and anxiety after the invasion of the Capitol that forced lawmakers to","Calls grow to oust Trump as allies fall away, White House aides resign",tweets_news_896,tweets_news
"

Jul 02, 2020( International Business Times Australia: http://www.ibtimes.com.au/ Delivered by Newstex) Eight major Canadian banks said Thursday they would heed a call by other major global advertisers to boycott Facebook, demanding the social network do more to tackle racist and other hate speech. Scotiabank, RBC, CIBC, TD, BMO, National Bank of Canada, Desjardins and Laurentian Bank confirmed to AFP that they support the #StopHateForProfit movement launched by social justice activists.

That means they will pull their ads from Facebook and its sister photo-sharing platform Instagram. ""We have temporarily paused paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram,"" a TD spokeswoman said. ""TD is committed to the fight against racism and hate speech and to the work needed to help create a safer and more inclusive society."" An RBC spokesman said the bank wanted to work towards ""eliminating systemic racism and unconscious bias, and enhance diversity, equity and inclusion.""""One way we can do that is by standing against misinformation and hate speech, which only make systemic racism more pervasive,"" he added. More than 400 companies including Adidas, Coca-Cola, Puma and Starbucks have suspended their ad buys on Facebook, which has more than 1.7 billion daily users. The #StopHateForProfit campaign was launched by pressure groups",Eight Major Canadian Banks Join Facebook Ad Boycott,tweets_news_897,tweets_news
"Lawyers who have handled numerous high-profile, controversial and political clients and cases say they'll defend the Antioch teen charged in fatal shootings this week in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In statements on Twitter, attorneys L. Lin Wood and John Pierce said they'll represent 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who's accused of killing two people and wounding a third during protests that followed the shooting of a Kenosha man by police. According to the website for a nonprofit group they formed, the attorneys' client list includes: Nicholas Sandmann, a high school student who sued media organizations last year after a confrontation with protesters in Washington, D.C.; the late Richard Jewell, who was exonerated after being suspected in the bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta; and Carter Page, a former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump. The lawyers' nonprofit group, the #FightBack Foundation, is collecting donations for Rittenhouse's defense. The foundation's website says it exists to ""bring lawsuits to check the lies of the left."" ""The radical left works overtime to lie and attack conservatives -- with little or no one willing to #FightBack,"" the site states. ""We're always ready to go to court to do what no one else wants to do: hold",High-profile lawyers to defend Antioch teen charged in Kenosha shootings,tweets_news_898,tweets_news
"The scent of charcoal and delicious meats and marinades cooking on the grill are sure signs of summertime. As we spend more time cooking outdoors, it is important that we also remember food safety and nutrition.

Food safety ensures that food is prepared and cooked in a way that kills harmful bacteria that cause food-borne illness. Many grilling food safety practices are the same as with indoor food preparation.

Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm water before and after handling all food. Do not cross-contaminate raw and cooked foods. Wash cutting boards, utensils and dishes before preparing each new item and always use a clean platter when removing foods from the grill.

Safely defrost frozen foods in the refrigerator, microwave or in cold water. Never thaw food at room temperature.

If your recipe requires you to marinate your food, do so in the refrigerator. Make enough marinade to divide between raw meats and the sauce. Do not reuse marinade that was placed on raw meats as a sauce on cooked foods. Juices from raw meats can contaminate cooked food.

When grilling, use a meat thermometer to make sure the meat is cooked to a high enough temperature to kill","Important to remember safety, nutrition when grilling",tweets_news_899,tweets_news
"Kabul, March 27 -- Even as Islamic State terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the attack in a Sikh Gurdwara (temple) in Afghanistan capital Kabul city, which has claimed 25 lives so far, Intelligence sources have pointed to a Pakistan ISI link to the bloody episode which left the world shocked in the middle of a global war against coronavirus.

Sources said that Pakistans militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba and Haqqani network is reported to have attacked the gurdwara to scarce the minuscule Sikh community of Afghanistan. It is believed that the militants were based in Khurram and Hangu districts of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, sources said. Shocking the nation, which is also witnessing the devastating consequence of COVID 19 outbreak, Islamist militants having roots in Pakistan bombed and fired at the gathering at Gurdwara Har Rai Sahib in Afghanistan on Wednesday. According to reports, a group of armed gunmen entered the gurdwara complex, while the local congregation was offering prayers for the well-being of mankind from the curse of coronavirus, and began shooting indiscriminately among them with a few hurling bombs in the gurdwara complex. Immediately after the attack a Sikh, who lives in the Gurdwara complex, uploaded a video giving details about the",Kabul Sikh Gurudwara attack: Hand of Pakistani spy agency ISI suspected,tweets_news_900,tweets_news
"LOS ANGELES, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Video-sharing social networking company TikTok on Monday filed a lawsuit against U.S. President Donald Trump's administration over Trump's Aug. 6 executive order banning any U.S. transactions with TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance, starting in 45 days. In the 39-page indictment acquired by Xinhua, Trump, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and the Department of Commerce (DOC) were listed as defendants. ULTRA VIRES According to the document, TikTok accused the U.S. authorities of stripping the rights of the company without presenting any evidence to justify the extreme action, and issuing the order without any due process as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution while banning the company with no notice or opportunity to be heard.

Meanwhile, the document cited Trump's remarks on this issue, such as those proclaiming in a campaign-style news conference that TikTok had ""no rights"" and that he would ban the popular software if the company did not pay money to the government to secure its approval for any sale, saying that those words are unconstitutional. ""By demanding that Plaintiffs make a payment to the U.S. Treasury as a condition for the sale of TikTok, the President has taken Plaintiffs'",5th LD: TikTok files lawsuit against Trump administration's executive order,tweets_news_901,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

If Ottawa moves forward with the Broadcasting and Telecommunications panel s recommendations, will the CRTC succeed in getting notoriously unco-operative media giants to come to the table?

FULL TEXT

You have to hand it to Janet Yale and her team of crackerjack lawyers and policy wonks: After years of bland talk and false starts from various functionaries, their thorough review of Canada's broadcasting and telecommunications legislation is both brave and practical. If implemented, it would completely rewrite the Canadian content regime and bring foreign players to the table.

But first things first: No, the report of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel released Wednesday does not recommend a ""Netflix tax."" That is to say, since there is much confusion over that purposefully misleading term, they are not suggesting foreign streaming services pay a cultural levy that would direct a percentage of their Canadian revenue toward funds that underwrite Canadian programming.

However, the panel is recommending that the foreign services be required to collect the HST from their Canadian subscribers. (At long last.) And, more controversially, that they be made to spend a percentage of revenue on genuinely Canadian content: That's stuff written, directed, performed and produced by Canadians; U.S. shows that happen to","The Broadcasting and Telecommunications panel s recommendations: brave, practical and with no  Netflix tax ",tweets_news_902,tweets_news
"The Associated Press

An Indiana woman on Wednesday became the first defendant to be sentenced in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and avoided time behind bars, while a member of the Oath Keepers extremist group pleaded guilty in a conspiracy case and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in a major step forward for the massive investigation.

The two developments signal that the cases against those charged in the deadly siege are slowly advancing, even as the U.S. Department of Justice and the courthouse in Washington struggle under the weight of roughly 500 federal arrests across the U.S. And it comes as Republicans in Washington attempt to downplay the violence committed by members of the mob supporting former President Donald Trump.

Graydon Young, who was accused alongside 15 other members and associates of the Oath Keepers of conspiring to block the congressional certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory, pleaded guilty to two counts: conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding. It was the first guilty plea in the major conspiracy case brought against members of the group.

Anna Morgan Lloyd, 49, of Indiana, was ordered by a federal judge to serve three years of probation, perform 120 hours of community service and",No jail time in 1st riot sentence,tweets_news_903,tweets_news
"The latest international news from the BBC.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

and care home workers. Staff here expect to be offering jabs 12 hours a day, seven days a week. All appointments are by invitation only at this stage. We felt it would be really appropriate to offer this space up as a place where people could come and feel safe and secure, a place that they know.

It's part of a UK-wide drive to vaccinate the 15 million people most at risk from Covid by the middle of next month. The Minister's also set a new target today, saying all those over 18 years old should be invited to get the jab by the autumn. The adult population, entire adult population we want to have been offered a first jab by September. That's the road map. We think we've got the capacity to deliver it. Obviously if it can be done more swiftly than that, then that's a bonus. It comes as pressure on hospitals in parts of",BBC World News - 00:05 AM GMT,tweets_news_904,tweets_news
"___

Aunt Jemima brand retired by Quaker due to racial stereotype

NEW YORK (AP) — America’s painful struggles over racism have finally caught up with Aunt Jemima, that ubiquitous fixture served up at breakfast tables for 131 years. Quaker Oats announced Wednesday that it will retire the Aunt Jemima brand, saying the company recognizes the character’s origins are “based on a racial stereotype.” Other brands are also reconsidering racist stereotypes in their branding, the latest signal of the powerful cultural moment unleashed by the Black Lives Matter protests. But reconsideration of the images also raises questions about why they have endured for so long in the first place.

___

Powell: A stronger job market is key to combating inequality

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said one of the most important things the central bank can do to fight income inequality is to get back to full employment. “There is nothing like a tight labor market for low income communities,” Powell said during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. He said the central bank wanted to do everything possible with its interest-rate policies “to get back as quickly as we can to a tight labor market.” The unemployment rate stood at a",Business Highlights,tweets_news_905,tweets_news
"

May 28, 2020( The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/ Delivered by Newstex) A commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday criticized President Donald Trump's planned executive order on social media, saying any attempt to turn the Federal Communications Commission into the 'President's speech police' is 'not the answer.' 'This does not work. Social media can be frustrating.

But an executive order that would turn the Federal Communications Commission into the President's speech police is not the answer,' Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement[1]. 'It's time for those in Washington to speak up for the First Amendment,' added Rosenworcel, a Democrat first appointed to the FCC in 2012. 'History won't be kind to silence.' Also Read: Trump Seeks to Curb Legal Protections for Twitter, Facebook Amid Accusations of Political Bias[2] According to unnamed officials speaking to the Washington Post[3], the order would seek to roll back legal protections for social media companies regarding the content that is posted on their respective platforms by reinterpreting Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.[4] Currently, the law states that social media companies shouldn't be 'treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.' In short, the law has been","Trump's Social Media Executive Order Would Turn FCC Into 'President's Speech Police,' Commissioner Says",tweets_news_906,tweets_news
"Jan. 27--In anticipation of President Donald Trump’s rally in Wildwood on Tuesday, here’s everything you need to know to about the event.

Where is the rally?

It will be held at Wildwoods Convention Center, 4501 Boardwalk. The venue is in South Jersey’s Second Congressional District, represented by Jeff Van Drew, who in December switched political parties to become a Republican and will accompany Trump at the rally.

When will it begin and end?

Doors to the event will open at 3 p.m., and although the rally officially will begin at 5 p.m., the president will not go on stage until 7 p.m. It will likely finish at about 9 p.m.

How can I get a ticket?

Go to donaldjtrump.com and click on the banner on the top of the site, or the “Events” tab. There is a two-ticket-a-person limit and tickets are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Does a ticket guarantee admission?

Unfortunately, no. Admission is first-come, first-served, so eager viewers need to get to the venue early. The venue has a 10,000-person occupancy limit, and with staging equipment, its capacity will likely go down.

Will there be any road closures? And where can I park?

The roads surrounding the venue will close starting at noon, according to Wildwood police.","President Trump’s rally in Wildwood: What to know about the venue, tickets, and road closures",tweets_news_907,tweets_news
"Is Trump mentally unstable? Mental health professionals, historians, George Conway & the Mooch say yes in a new doc



Link to Image



""#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump"" proposes that his public comments, such as on Twitter, offer a basis for psychological diagnosis outside of the clinical setting because they are observable behavior Courtesy of #Unfit



Let us presume that if you intend to watch ""#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump"" you probably agree with director Dan Partland's angle. That also means nothing the firm's experts have to say about their impressions of the man or his fitness to govern is particularly revelatory.

Instead, think of the film as an 83-minute warning against handing another four years of the presidency to Trump, spelled out by an assortment of mental health professionals, historians, experts on authoritarianism, a former intelligence officer . . . and Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway and former Trump super pal Anthony Scaramucci.

Right about now maybe you need to hear from these people about as much as you may be hankering for another four days of the GOP's lie-tastic tent revival.

For those who remain curious, Partland has assembled a chorus of voices to deliver their expert confirmation of an alarmingly common assessment","""#Unfit"" delivers a Trump diagnosis we all know and warns of dire consequences for ignoring it",tweets_news_908,tweets_news
"TOPLINES

1. Pushing to slow down: A surprising jobs report could bolster Republican efforts to trim the size of future coronavirus aid.

2. White House departure: A key administration budget negotiator is heading to the State Department.

3. Airing fraud concerns: A departing inspector general warned of the risk of fraud in expanded unemployment benefits.

4. Aid spent quickly: Most of the direct cash aid for COVID-19 relief has already been spent, an analysis found.

FULL BRIEFING

1. Pushing to slow down

Some top Republicans see more reasons to pump the brakes on efforts to pass another multi-trillion-dollar pandemic relief package after Friday's surprisingly positive jobs numbers.

The Labor Department's report of a modest decline in the unemployment rate to 13.3 percent in May -- instead of a rise to Depression-era levels many economists had been expecting -- gave Republicans fresh ammunition to move slowly on a new aid package or at least scale back its scope.

""The jobs report underscores why Congress should take a thoughtful approach and not rush to pass expensive legislation paid for with more debt before gaining a better understanding of the economic condition of the country,"" said Michael Zona, spokesman for Senate Finance Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley's panel has jurisdiction over",Pushing to slow down,tweets_news_909,tweets_news
"•ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski was reportedly suspended from the company late Saturday night•This follows Wojnarowski's apology to Missouri GOP Senator Josh Hawley for replaying 'f*** you' to an email the politician sent on Friday•The duration of Wojnarowski's reported suspension is unknown, but it is reportedly without pay•NBA players like Lou Williams of the Los Angeles Clippers shared #freeWoj messages on Twitter•Hawley criticized NBA for 'kowtowing' to China and not supporting the police, as well as the US military•The NBA plans to let players wear social justice-themed uniforms this season•It will also paint 'Black Lives Matter' on its basketball court in Orlando•Conservatives criticized NBA for not supporting protesters in Hong Kong

ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski was reportedly suspended from the company late Saturday night

This follows Wojnarowski's apology to Missouri GOP Senator Josh Hawley for replaying 'f*** you' to an email the politician sent on Friday

The duration of Wojnarowski's reported suspension is unknown, but it is reportedly without pay

NBA players like Lou Williams of the Los Angeles Clippers shared #freeWoj messages on Twitter

Hawley criticized NBA for 'kowtowing' to China and not supporting the police, as well as the US military

The NBA plans to let players wear social justice-themed uniforms this season

It will also",ESPN suspends reporter Adrian Wojnarowski after he sent a profane letter to GOP Senator Josh Hawley who blasted NBA for 'Kowtowing' to China,tweets_news_910,tweets_news
"High-speed broadband in southeastern

Ohio would provide much-needed boost

The Feb. 7 article ""The lost corridor"" informed readers of the struggles families endure in southeastern Ohio.

I believe that an infrastructure plan, making high-speed broadband available and affordable, would certainly be beneficial to this forgotten part of our state. It would be an opportunity to make higher education available through online courses.

Our state government and Ohio-based corporations would then have a bank of qualified personnel who would be able to work from home. If necessary there could be an incentive for corporations to hire in these areas of high unemployment. The benefits would be great, because the economic status would be improved and the ultimate effect will be an investment in these communities.

We would all benefit tremendously while also spreading the wealth and prosperity to all Ohio citizens. Thanks to The Dispatch for printing this fine article that will bring needed attention to this area of our state.

George Morris, Circleville

Removal of 'Redskins' nickname could

provide teaching moment of empathy

I am responding to Christopher A. Dalheim's Saturday letter ""Area school district should be applauded for not caving, keeping 'Redskins' nickname.""

What if instead of teaching children ""not to cave"" we would teach them to listen to","Letters: Rural broadband, Trump ban",tweets_news_911,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Monday berated the nation’s governors during a conference call, describing them as “weak” in the face of growing racial unrest and urging them to take an aggressive stand against unruly protests.

Trump told governors that if they do not take back the streets and use force to confront protesters they will look like “fools,” alarming several governors on the call as they communicated privately.

“You have to dominate; if you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time,” he said. “They’re going to run over you. You’re going to look like a bunch of jerks.”

The Washington Post obtained a recording of the call.

The call followed nights of unrest and mass protests in cities across the country over the death of another black man in police custody, George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Many of the protests have featured violent clashes with the police, as well as the destruction of private property and looting.

In West Virginia, where protests have been limited and peaceful compared to other areas of the country, Gov. Jim Justice said Monday he supports and understands those who have spoken out in anger and frustration over Floyd’s killing. He described the call between Trump and governors","Trump calls governors 'weak,' urges them to use force against unruly protests",tweets_news_912,tweets_news
"With Australia moving to make the tech companies pay for news, Facebook took a hard line, while Google has struck deals to pay publishers.

SAN FRANCISCO -- For months, Facebook and Google have been locked in a stare-down with news publishers and lawmakers in Australia.

At the heart of the fight is whether the tech giants should pay news organizations for the news articles that are shared on their networks. Under a proposed law from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, both Google and Facebook would be required to negotiate with media publishers and compensate them for the content that appears on their sites.

Facebook and Google have fought hard to prevent the Australian law -- which is expected to pass this week or next -- from forcing their hands. But on Wednesday, the two companies sharply diverged on how to head off that regulatory future.

Google began the day by unveiling a three-year global agreement with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to pay for the publisher's news content, one of several such deals it has announced recently where it appears to be effectively capitulating to publishers' demands. Hours later, Facebook took the opposite tack and said it would restrict people and publishers from sharing",Tech Giants Split on How To Head Off Content Law,tweets_news_913,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has repeatedly said there's one place he wants to determine the outcome of the presidential election: the U.S. Supreme Court. But he may have a difficult time ever getting there.

Over the last two days, Trump has leaned in to the idea that the high court should get involved in the election as it did in 2000. Then, the court effectively settled the contested election for President George W. Bush in a 5-4 decision that split the court's liberals and conservatives.

Today, six members of the court are conservatives, including three nominated by Trump. But the outcome of this year's election seemed to be shaping up very differently from 2000, when Florida's electoral votes delivered the presidency to George W. Bush.

Then, Bush led in Florida and went to court to stop a recount. Trump, for his part, has suggested a strategy that would focus on multiple states where the winning margins appear to be slim. But he might have to persuade the Supreme Court to set aside votes in two or more states to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president.

Chief Justice John Roberts, for his part, is not likely to want the election to come down to",Trump faces tough road in getting Supreme Court to intervene,tweets_news_914,tweets_news
"•The anti-vaxxer and COVID-19 conspiracy theorist, 47, believes Facebook has 'shadow-banned' his page•'Shadow-banning' is an alternative to permanently blocking someone from a website, and involves making a user's content harder to find•The method is supposedly so subtle that people often don't realise they have been 'shadow-banned'•The social media giant is cracking down on misinformation and fake news during the coronavirus pandemic•Evans believes COVID-19 is a 'hoax' and encourages people to ignore government safety measures•He expects to be banned from Facebook and Instagram eventually, and has set up his own platform, Evolve Network, and joined Telegram messenger•Evans' documentary The Magic Pill, which falsely suggests the Paleo diet can cure cancer, diabetes, autism and heart disease, was recently pulled from Netflix

The anti-vaxxer and COVID-19 conspiracy theorist, 47, believes Facebook has 'shadow-banned' his page

'Shadow-banning' is an alternative to permanently blocking someone from a website, and involves making a user's content harder to find

The method is supposedly so subtle that people often don't realise they have been 'shadow-banned'

The social media giant is cracking down on misinformation and fake news during the coronavirus pandemic

Evans believes COVID-19 is a 'hoax' and encourages people to ignore government safety measures

He expects to be banned from Facebook and Instagram",Pete Evans is 'BANNED' from Facebook: Disgraced celebrity chef says his 'reach is disappearing' as the social media giant cracks down on COVID-19 misinformation,tweets_news_915,tweets_news
"

Apr 21, 2020( VTDigger: http://vtdigger.org Delivered by Newstex) A demonstrator holds a sign demanding the firing of Jeb Spaulding, the chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges, while joining several hundred people in more than 100 cars as they participate in a honking protest parade in downtown Montpelier on Monday. Demonstrators are opposed to a plan to close three VSC campuses in Johnson, Lyndon and Randolph. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger The Vermont State Colleges are rapidly running out of cash and will need at least an extra $25 million to avoid insolvency, officials in the chancellor's office told trustees on Monday. And that's whether or not they approve a radical proposal to close three VSC campuses[1] or put the plan on ice for a year, as top lawmakers have urged[2]. But Jeb Spaulding, the system's chancellor, argued it still might not make sense to press pause.

That $25 million price tag is likely to climb as students decide to transfer out of schools threatened with closure and tuition revenues decline even further. 'To say well we're going to put it on hold for awhile, with the uncertainty - I don't think that's realistic,' he said. The figure the state colleges say they",Vermont State Colleges need $25 million now — even if three campuses close,tweets_news_916,tweets_news
"

Jan 26, 2021( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) A former US ambassador is suing Apple and Google for hosting messaging app Telegram. Millions migrated to the service following bans on conservative platform Parler. In two lawsuits, Marc Ginsberg claims Telegram has been used to incite racist violence.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1].A former US ambassador is suing Apple and Alphabet for hosting the encrypted messaging platform Telegram on their app stores, claiming it is ""being used to intimidate, threaten and coerce members of the public.""Marc Ginsberg, once US ambassador to Morocco, filed the suits on behalf of his organization, the Coalition for a Safer Web[2], which advocates for greater regulation of extremist content online.The move comes weeks after both firms banned Parler[3], the alternative messaging service popular with conservatives, for continuing to allow ""violence-inciting content"" in the wake of the storming of the US Capitol[4].Encrypted messaging apps Telegram and Signal each saw a significant uptick in downloads[5] after the Parler bans occurred, peaking at 9 million and 7.5 million a week, respectively.Unlike Facebook or Twitter, private messages on Telegram face little risk of moderation. The firm was founded in 2013 by Pavel Durov and is based in",A former US ambassador is taking Google and Apple to court for hosting messaging service Telegram on their app stores,tweets_news_917,tweets_news
"

Apr 13, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Screenshot/YouTube Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont officially endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday. Sanders dropped out of the race on Wednesday after failing to pick up momentum in a series of vital primary elections, making Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee. Since Sanders dropped out, Biden's campaign has made an effort to reach out to Sanders' base.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1]. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont officially endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race on Monday. ""We have to make Trump a one-term president, and we need you in the White House,"" Sanders said in a livestreamed video with Biden. Sanders, a progressive firebrand who hit the ground running with a series of wins in early primary and caucus states, dropped out of the race[2] on Wednesday after failing to pick up momentum, making Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee. Biden also praised Sanders on Monday and said he would need Sanders ""not just to win, but to govern."" ""You've been the most powerful voice for a more fair and just America,"" Biden told his former competitor. ""You don't get enough credit, Bernie, for",Bernie Sanders endorses Joe Biden after dropping out of the 2020 race,tweets_news_918,tweets_news
"The Supreme Court's move rightward makes the Chief Justice's role less relevant, but don't underestimate Roberts' ability to maneuver.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is smart, shrewd and funny. His mastery as a D.C. appellate lawyer—the best of his time, arguing 39 times before the Court—led admirers to say his middle initial stood for God. (Alas, it's ""Glover."") His rulings in controversial cases—including when he was the decisive vote in 2012 to uphold Obamacare—play the long game, planting the seeds for larger conservative triumphs his opponents now don't realize. Only weeks after he was confirmed in 2005, when a light bulb exploded in the courtroom during argument, he quipped, ""It's a trick they play on new chief justices all the time!"" But for all his talents, few at the Court profess to really know him. Although he'll chat with colleagues at lunch about last night's game, that's about all anybody learns about what's inside.

So it was astonishing several years ago that Roberts let his guard down. Law clerks were taking him to lunch a few blocks from the building. On the walk there, to make small talk, one asked, ""How do you like the job?"" Instead of pablum like, ""It's",,tweets_news_919,tweets_news
"Several civil rights and other advocacy groups are calling on large advertisers to stop Facebook ad campaigns during July because they say the social network isn't doing enough to curtail racist and violent content on its platform.

The groups in the ""#StopHateforProfit"" campaign, launched Wednesday, include Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color Of Change, Free Press and Common Sense.

""It is clear that Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, are no longer simply negligent, but in fact, complacent in the spread of misinformation, despite the irreversible damage to our democracy. Such actions will upend the integrity of our elections as we head into 2020,"" said NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson in a statement.

The groups say that Facebook amplifies white supremacists, allows posts that incite violence and contain political propaganda and misinformation, and doesn't stop ""bad actors using the platform to do harm."" They want to apply public pressure on Facebook to ""stop generating ad revenue from hateful content, provide more support to people who are targets of racism and hate, and to increase safety for private groups on the platform.""

Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment.

The big tech companies have struggled over how to manage the floods of posts and",Civil rights groups call for 'pause' on Facebook ads,tweets_news_920,tweets_news
"Washington, D.C: Council on American-Islamic Relations has issued the following press release:

On Tuesday, January 19, the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, will hold a press conference to call for the termination of Fraternal Order of Police President, John Catanzara in advance of the police board hearing scheduled for Thursday evening in which the board will make a determination. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) has also called for his termination.

SEE:CAIR-Chicago Calls for Firing of Chicago Police Union President After Islamophobic Social Media Post Surfaces

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference Calling for Termination of John Catanzara

WHERE: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6309302987?pwd=MEFueVh5SjN4RW9lMzNUZzk2d0I1Zz09

WHEN: Tuesday, January 19th 2021 at 11:45 AM

WHO: CAIR-Chicago, ACLU-IL, IL Muslim Civic Coalition, Muslim Advocates and CIOGC

Background:

Catanzara has a history of making headlines for all the wrong reasons, from disparaging Muslims and other communities to defending the recent storming of the Capitol by a Trump-incited mob, describing the incident as “trespassing” and as “voicing” legitimate “frustration. ” Catanzara also reportedly has a record of misconduct, misogyny, and classism.

SEE: CAIR-Chicago Urges Termination of Chicago Police Union President After Statements Defending Violent Capitol Coup Attempt

Some of his past posts inciting hatred and fear of",CAIR-Chicago to Hold Press Conference Calling for Termination of Chicago Police Union President Over Prejudiced Posts,tweets_news_921,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a long-shot lawsuit by Texas and backed by President Donald Trump seeking to throw out voting results in four states, dealing him a crushing setback in his quest to undo his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden.

The justices in a brief order said Texas did not have legal standing to bring the case against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Together with a case from Pennsylvania it was the second time this week that the conservative-majority court spurned the attempt to overturn the will of voters.

The Texas case was filed on Tuesday by the Republican attorney general of the state, a Trump ally. The Republican president on Wednesday filed a motion to intervene and become a plaintiff.

The Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump and none of them commented in the unsigned order. Before the Nov. 3 election, Trump said he expected its outcome to be decided by the Supreme Court and he cited that as a reason for the Republican-controlled Senate to quickly confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett, one of his appointees, before the election.

""Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which",U.S. Supreme Court swiftly ends Trump-backed Texas bid to upend election results,tweets_news_922,tweets_news
"Joe Biden and his advisers on Sunday were working on plans to tackle the crises facing a divided America, first and foremost the raging coronavirus pandemic, a day after the Democrat won enough states to clinch the U.S. presidency.

Republican Donald Trump, the first U.S. president to lose a re-election bid in 28 years, gave no sign of conceding, instead pressing ahead with legal fights challenging the outcome.

Top Republicans in Congress likewise had not acknowledged Biden's victory, in a sign of the charged partisan atmosphere he will face when he takes office on Jan. 20, although some members of Trump's party and a bipartisan group focused on the transition urged the president to co-operate.

Biden delivered a message of unity and conciliation in a speech in his home state of Delaware on Saturday, saying it was ""time to heal"" the nation.

""The work starts right away,"" Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said on Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.

Bedingfield said Biden planned to launch a coronavirus task force on Monday, led by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler.

More than 237,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 and coronavirus cases have spiked to record numbers in","'The work starts right away'; Biden to launch covid task force on monday, readies to choose cabinet",tweets_news_923,tweets_news
"Twitter has permanently suspended President Donald Trump's account two days after five people died following violent protests at the U.S. Capitol Building.

""After a close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,"" Twitter said.

When it comes to the White House and POTUS accounts, Twitter said in an email to EW Scripps Friday evening that they won't suspend those two accounts, but ""will take action to limit their use.""

""As we've said, using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules,"" Twitter said in a statement. ""We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the @POTUS account. For government accounts, such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, we will not suspend those accounts permanently but will take action to limit their use.""

On Friday, Twitter also suspended accounts they say are ""solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content.""

The accounts included General Michael Flynn, Trump attorney Sidney Powell, and 8kun co-owner Ron Watkins.

QAnon is a group of loosely connected conspiracy theories associated with the far-right on the political spectrum. The president has retweeted some of these baseless conspiracies.

In",Twitter permanently suspends President Trump's account,tweets_news_924,tweets_news
"Sri Lanka, Nov. 30 -- Education has become probably the most bedeviled issue in the age of Covid. Big powers such as the USA and emerging economies such as ours are contemplating the same poser: Open schools or continue with distance learning for a longer period.

In the US too, uncannily as it is here, Teacher Unions have come out in protest of the resumption of normal schooling. Predictably, in both countries these unions have come in for fierce criticism from intellectuals and civil society organisations for being less than cooperative, because children are said to be the least vulnerable demographic segment in relation to Covid.

Distance-learning during the pandemic has been novel, but has the issue been looked at with reference to all its bearings and ramifications? A photograph has been doing the rounds on social media of children in a rural community studying by the side of a street drain with their tiny cellular phones, because they could not link to online classes due to lack of a proper cellular signal in their homes.

So, it is said, these children had to resort to trooping to town in batches to study. They apparently had to sit by a municipal drain because",Learning through Covid,tweets_news_925,tweets_news
"Mary Michelet is an ordinary suburban mum. She loves makeup, gardening, keeping up with the latest on Netflix — and lately, organising street protests to end child sex trafficking.



Mary Michelet is an ordinary suburban mum. She loves makeup, gardening, keeping up with the latest on Netflix — and lately, organising street protests to end child sex trafficking.

The 28-year-old mother of one is part of a Facebook community in her native New Orleans, dedicated to the #SaveTheChildren movement — though the hashtag has recently evolved into #SaveOurChildren.

Made up of hardcore conspiracy theorists and concerned mums, those posting these hashtags and joining the growing number of protests are concerned with the that in the United States each year — a figure they have described as ""the real pandemic"".

""The majority of women that I have talked to have some kind of story that involves child kidnapping or child sex trafficking,"" Michelet says.

""Child porn is so much more accessible, and that's why I feel it's getting worse.""

Save Our Children has garnered headlines in the United States and beyond — but the movement's origins, and basis in fact, is more troubling than its seemingly noble goals.

Movement 'extremely harmful' for victims

The movement was birthed by conspiracy",Inside the Save The Children conspiracy theory that's targeting suburban mums in the US,tweets_news_926,tweets_news
"

Jan 16, 2021( Conservative Daily News: http://conservativedailynews.com Delivered by Newstex) The Lincoln Project has stayed silent on allegations of sexual misconduct against one of its co-founders, John Weaver. The organization has scrubbed references to him from its team page but has not addressed the allegations after numerous requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Journalist Ryan Girdusky announced earlier this week that multiple young men sent him screenshots of allegedly predatory messages from Weaver. Girdusky said the messages showed that Weaver committed 'predatory actions' and groomed young men. The Lincoln Project has not commented on allegations of sexual misconduct against one of its cofounders, though the organization has scrubbed some references to him from its website. Conservative writer Ryan Girdusky announced Jan. 9[1] that multiple young men had sent him screenshots of allegedly predatory messages from Lincoln Project cofounder John Weaver. The Lincoln Project cofounder formerly worked for former presidential candidate John McCain's campaigns and on former Ohio Gov. John Kasich's presidential campaign.Maybe I should start talking about one of the founding members of the Lincoln Project offering jobs to young men in exchange for sex his wife is probably interested https://t.co/vAtUS9aPPl[2] Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) January 9,",Lincoln Project Silent On Cofounder Accused Of Sexual Misconduct After Scrubbing Him From Team Page |,tweets_news_927,tweets_news
"Saudi Arabia and Russia have led an alliance of oil-producing countries into an unprecedented agreement to reduce collective output by nearly 10m barrels/day in an attempt to offset the similarly historic demand collapse and corollary price slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The US reversed its traditional opposition to such market interference to lobby for the cut in order to protect the domestic shale industry, while G20 energy ministers issued an approbatory statement-but neither committed to any concrete support.

Renewed co-operation between the world's two largest oil exporters-Saudi Arabia and Russia-was main positive takeaway from a flurry of international energy diplomacy.

China and India, two of the world's largest crude importers, are planning to buy up oil for strategic reserves, and others may follow suit, providing some modest demand-side support-also helped by China's gradual easing of disease-containment measures.

Our view is that the strong sign of renewed producer co-operation will put a floor under prices but that compliance with the cuts will be patchy and even the full headline reduction will fall well short of offsetting the demand downturn during the second quarter, after which a rebound is expected. We had already revised our forecast upwards from US$32.1/barrel to US$36/b on the assumption that",OPEC+ returns with record production cut,tweets_news_928,tweets_news
"What's going on with our neighbor to the east, Bedford County? Has someone slipped a nefarious substance into the water supply that hijacks minds and transports victims to the alternate universe?

Those questions are worth raising for a couple of reasons. One's an event that occurred May 22. Another is happening Saturday in Montvale.

The first was touted in a half-page ad in a May edition of the weekly Bedford Bulletin.

""Wake Up Sleepy Church!"" proclaimed the headline, which was promoting a free showing of a three-hour video, ""Fall of the Cabal,"" at Apple Valley Community Church, which is near Peaks of Otter.

""Arise from your stupor,"" the ad continues. ""Open your bleary eyes. Enlighten your confused minds. EDUCATE YOURSELF.""

I called the listed phone number and spoke with a helpful woman who took my reservation for the event. I didn't make it, though, because the weather that Saturday afternoon was far too nice to waste three hours indoors watching anything.

Then I found the whole ""documentary"" on YouTube. I watched the first 30 minutes, then skipped around for another 15 or so. It doesn't document much, aside from lunacy.

It's a QAnon indoctrination video, produced by Dutch ""researcher"" Janet Ossebaard,whose other work includes investigation of crop",Column: Virginia church's QAnon event and upcoming militia 'muster' stoke questions,tweets_news_929,tweets_news
"Doha is offering mediation between Tehran and Washington over the landmark nuclear deal.



T h e



A r a b



W e e k l y



The Arab Weekly

TEHRAN--Qatar's foreign minister met his Iranian counterpart Monday, after Doha signalled its intent to offer mediation between Tehran and Washington over the landmark nuclear deal.

The move allows Doha to hedge its bets with both Tehran and Washington, especially as the new US administration continues to consider how to effectively deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The meeting comes as the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers limiting Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for international sanctions relief is hanging by a thread.

Doha, a close US ally, also has good relations with Tehran.

Qatari Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met in Tehran with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Iran's presidency said the minister also met with President Hassan Rohani, to whom he delivered a message from Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Last week, the Qatari foreign minister said ""the State of Qatar is working on de-escalation through a political and diplomatic process to return to the nuclear agreement.""

The remarks came in briefing notes about two separate calls earlier in the week between Thani and US Special Representative for Iran","Hedging its bets with US, Qatar reaches out to Tehran",tweets_news_930,tweets_news
"Shame on us.

We should cover our faces in disgrace for the horrors and humiliations heaped on our frail elderly in long-term-care homes.

A provincial Conservative government that slashed $34 million from those facilities in its first budget after coming to power under Premier Doug Ford. But also governments of all political stripes that preceded the Tories.

Inspections, reduced, that clearly haven't met their most basic duties.

Sloppy and stroppy staff and lack of management oversight.

Even families that have parked their parents and grandparents in facilities with scarcely any continuing attention. Out of sight and out of mind. Though many, likely most, have tried, too often failed, to advocate for their loved ones. Impotent and helpless, banging their heads against the anvil of bureaucracy.

Clearly, not allowing family members into long-term-care homes that have suffered outbreaks during the coronavirus pandemic removed a crucial membrane of intimate vigilance when it was most urgently needed. In every way possible, including public health directives, we've failed our most vulnerable population. Because, as much as we feign concern, perhaps actually mean it, the institutional will and public funding hasn't been there to make a whit of systemic difference.

""Aggressiveness when changing incontinence product, not stopping or slowing when resident complained",Rosie DiManno: The military's report details the horrors of long-term-care homes. Shame on all of us for letting it happen,tweets_news_931,tweets_news
"Document links may not lead to an active page. Page maintenance is at the discretion of the publisher.

Welcome to the column where you provide the content. Recently returned US correspondent Cameron Stewart wondered if an entire city could suffer from PTSD: ""Maybe not, but something is sadly amiss in my hometown of Melbourne seven months after the city suffered a long Covid lockdown. My beloved Melbourne now resembles a poorly run police state."" Evan agreed:

""This explains it all and why lightning has struck more than once in the same place - no accountability in a woke state: 'And the families of the 768 people who lost their lives after the hotel quarantine fiasco continue to grieve quietly, having never got a satisfactory answer as to who was responsible for the tragedy.'""

Comment of the week goes to Tori:

""I am utterly defeated. I had my first baby last August at the height of the second lockdown. We were pulled over by police for breaking curfew, as we headed to hospital for her imminent birth. She met her grandparents in a random car park, swinging about in her car seat in the open in the depths of winter. I think even that was",'No accountability in a woke state',tweets_news_932,tweets_news
"Like many of you I was astonished and horrified by what I saw on January 6th when fascist mobs stormed the United States Capitol Building in order to overturn the election results. This was an act that has been condemned by people all over the political spectrum as an act of terrorism. The attack left five people dead, and produced images almost too surreal to believe.

The scariest thing to me however is something so innocent and innocuous it is easy to overlook and ignore. While this attack was happening ""As a Canadian"" was trending on Twitter with people essentially claiming that Canada is better than the United States of America and that this sort of thing could never happen here. This could not be further from the truth.

The same rhetoric, the same things that Donald Trump used to inflame his supporters and divide their nation are present here in Canada, namely racism, bigotry, and the same mistrust of the media. It all exists here and it is spreading.

In mid-January, we saw the Canadian government consider labeling the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization. For those of you who do not know, the Proud Boys was founded by a man named",This should be a watershed moment,tweets_news_933,tweets_news
"Will President Biden trim his infrastructure proposal enough to bring Republicans aboard, or will he and his fellow Democrats go it alone? Will playing Santa Claus with the surplus allow Gov. Gavin Newsom to put down the recall for good, or will drought and other disasters beat him to the polls? Will we have to wear masks to the office or not?

More to the point, given that these might be the last days of American democracy, who cares?

This is hyperbole, of course. Roads, bridges and transit matter; so do California's governorship and workplace safety. But most of the issues that occupy our politics and lives are minor compared with our right to have a say in these and other matters. And that right is in serious jeopardy.

Republican legislators introduced hundreds of bills to restrict voting in nearly every state after Biden was elected, and now some of them are law. As of a week ago, 14 states had enacted 22 laws to make voting harder, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, mainly by making mail-in ballots more difficult to obtain and return. Eighteen legislatures are considering an additional 61 bills to suppress absentee voting, increase voter identification requirements, raise",America s democracy on the line,tweets_news_934,tweets_news
"New Delhi, Feb. 28 -- Video-sharing app TikTok was the most engaging mobile application in India in 2019, according to a report by data analytics firm App Annie. India accounted for 44%, or 323 million, of all TikTok downloads in 2019, up 27% from the previous year. Nikhil Gandhi, India head of TikTok, talks about what makes the app from China's ByteDance tick in India. Edited excerpts: What makes TikTok engaging to Indian users? Increased content consumption on smartphones and the trend of people having a shorter attention span, driven by millennials and GenZ, has led to an explosion in the creation and sharing in the vertical short-format content.

TikTok offers a unique opportunity for its users to be their authentic selves and present their fun side. In addition, it offers an unprecedented experience of content creation and consumption.

TikTok's personalized content recommendations result in users having a great experience while consuming content of their interest. The platform's easy-to-use tools have democratized creativity for the creation of content for a global audience.

What is the strategy and focus for TikTok in India in 2020? TikTok's mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok offers a free platform to create, share and connect",TikTok is a preferred destination for brands to creatively engage with audiences,tweets_news_935,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is alleging Google targeted Get Out the Vote reminders on its homepage to liberal users in late October, saying it ""could shift millions of votes,"" but technology experts say the claim is not true.

Johnson, R-Oshkosh, and U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, sent a letter to Google on Nov. 5 because big tech companies are not admitting the power and impact they have over Americans or ""the threats they pose to our society, to our economy, to our freedoms,"" Johnson said during a phone interview last week.

""But at a minimum, they have to admit, they can use or misuse their platforms, and they can have a dramatic impact on people's preferences, and that includes election preferences as well, candidate preferences,"" Johnson said.

While experts agree that Google and other companies gear content toward users, they say that Johnson's allegations are unfounded.

Erik Nisbet, a professor of policy analysis and communication at Northwestern University and director of the School of Communication Center for Communication and Public Policy, said that claims of Google search manipulation are thinly veiled attempts to tarnish the election's legitimacy.

""Republican Party and Republican leaders in Congress and Trump are trying to",Sen. Ron Johnson alleges Google sways elections for Democrats. Even Google critics say that's false,tweets_news_936,tweets_news
"When one signs up to Koo, an Indian microblogging platform similar to Twitter, the user is onboarded with a video featuring a woman dressed in a yellow sari to match the app's logo of a chick.

""Hello and welcome to Koo, the place where you get to hear the voices of India,"" she says, her palms joined together in a namaste.

The firm gained prominence last month during a face-off between the government and Twitter, when ministers and other senior politicians from the Bharatiya Janata Party propped it up as a domestic alternative to the San Francisco-based firm, both in a bid for digital self-reliance as well as an effort to exert greater control on social media.

Twitter found itself in the government's cross hairs last month after it refused to ban certain accounts that the government had flagged, citing freedom of expression.

But as the unexpected tailwind from the fracas ebbs, Koo is now banking on Indian voices - in languages other than English - that it says remain unheard on Twitter, to sustain its growth.

""There are many in the country who are not using Twitter because they have not been given an immersive experience in their languages,"" Koo co-founder Mayank Bidawatka told",Indian app Koo eyes growth after sudden rise to prominence,tweets_news_937,tweets_news
"On Monday, Snapchat introduced a feature called Spotlight that will give more prominent promotion to public posts from its users.

TikTok's influence is extending to rival platform Snapchat.

On Monday, Snapchat introduced a feature called Spotlight that will give more prominent promotion to public posts from its users. Spotlight is available in 11 countries including the U.S. and Canada and will roll out in more markets over time.

In a marketing video for Spotlight, Snapchat highlighted the type of short, music-driven videos that have become popular on TikTok. Snapchat users have long posted similar videos for their small circle of friends on the app, but largely had to cross-post those clips onto other platforms like Instagram and TikTok if they wanted to reach a wider audience. With Spotlight, which appears as a new hub within the app, Snapchatters will be able to reach more people with their posts without having to leave for another platform.

Any Snapchatter can opt into sharing a Snap on Spotlight. At first, the post will be shared with a small group of users. Snapchat's content algorithm will then determine whether a post should be shared more widely by taking into account indicators like how long people watch the video",Snapchat Adds Feature to Spotlight User-Generated Content,tweets_news_938,tweets_news
"LOVES PARK — A Back the Blue event on the grounds of Loves Park City Hall on Saturday afternoon doubled as a campaign rally for Republican Party candidates on the Nov. 3 election ballot.

About 200 people were in attendance. Many carried signs, waved American flags and wore bright red hats emblazoned with the slogan “Keep America Great.”

“This is the most important election in our lifetimes,” said Winnebago County Republican Central Committee Chairman Eli Nicolosi, who emceed the rally and introduced candidates for local, state and federal office.

Winnebago County Sheriff Gary Caruana implored the crowd to participate in the upcoming election.

“If you like our United States Constitution and you like having freedom, you better get out and vote,” Caruana said. “Remember, each one of you statistically affect 250 people and they affect 250 people. So start talking. Don’t sit on your hands. Let’s not be the quiet minority. Let’s be the loud majority.”

Caruana, who was first elected sheriff in 2014, then urged the crowd to applaud the law enforcement officers in Rockford, Winnebago County and the entire region.

Saturday’s event marked the third pro-law enforcement rally in the area in recent weeks designed to counter the numerous demonstrations against police brutality and",LOVES PARK — A Back the Blue event on the grounds of Loves P,tweets_news_939,tweets_news
"Hello and welcome to today's live coronavirus pandemic coverage with me, Andy Riga. Check this post throughout the day on Thursday, April 30. Questions/comments? ariga@postmedia.com( ariga@postmedia.com )

Top updates

'The men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces stand tall,' Trudeau says

Opposition to grill minister about back-to-school plan

Some see reopening of Quebec's economy as a risk worth taking

Federal deficit could top $252 billion due to pandemic

Postal union urges Canadians to clean mailboxes, keep dogs at bay

Across Canada, more than 50,000 cases, almost 3,000 deaths

11:40 a.m. 'The men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces stand tall,' Trudeau says

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is speaking in Ottawa. His briefing will focus on the crash of a Canadian military helicopter off the coast of Greece( https://montrealgazette.com/pmn/news-pmn/politics-news-pmn/canadian-military-helicopter-crashes-in-mediterranean-nato/ ), but he is expected to talk also discuss federal COVID-19 efforts, as well.

Trudeau said an RCAF helicopter flying from the HMCS Fredericton went down yesterday. One body has been recovered and five other people are missing.

They are heroes, Trudeau said. He offered his condolences to family and friends.

The prime minister noted that soon, more than 500 members of Canada's military will be working at 13 long-term care facilities facing outbreaks of COVID-19 in the Montreal area.

""These people are","Coronavirus live updates: 'The men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces stand tall,' Trudeau says",tweets_news_940,tweets_news
"TV is starting off its new decade with ""Little Fires,"" prime-time karaoke and the one-and-only Al Pacino.

Broadcast networks, cable channels and streaming services are premiering TV shows to try to start the year off right, and in the glut of content, 10 rose to the top right away. Some have A-list stars (Pacino, Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Daniel Radcliffe), while others feature young kids you've never heard of. Some are comedies with elaborate musical numbers, and another focuses on the trauma incurred by the Holocaust.

Their common theme: Even remakes or adaptations feel like something we haven't seen before. And considering that the new decade will bring us more TV than ever, it's always refreshing to find something that genuinely surprises.

'Sanditon'

PBS, Jan. 12 (Sundays, 8 p.m.)

Jane Austen's final, unfinished novel is brought to life in this miniseries, created by Andrew Davies, who brought us Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 TV version of ""Pride and Prejudice."" Based on just a few dozen pages of the author's writing, ""Sanditon"" introduces a new Austen heroine, Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams). Miss Heywood learns her own naïveté after arriving at the burgeoning seaside resort of Sanditon, a place full of capitalist intrigue and",The best new shows to warm your winter,tweets_news_941,tweets_news
"(CNN) -- The old cliché that a picture is worth 1,000 words really undersells two iconic photos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: One from Tuesday's State of the Union speech by President Donald Trump, the other from the same speech a year ago.

Each photo will be remembered long after Trump's specific words from the speeches are forgotten. And both pictures serve as a potent Rorschach test of our fraught political moment.

Let's start with the photo from Tuesday night.

Yes, that's Pelosi tearing Trump's speech in half even as the din of applause from overjoyed Republicans is still echoing through the House Chamber. Asked to explain why she did what she did, Pelosi said that it was ""a courteous thing to do considering the alternative. It was such a dirty speech.""

Within seconds, Twitter flooded with reactions to the rip.

Liberals celebrated Pelosi's move as an act of defiance -- a demonstration of the frustration, annoyance and contempt with which she (and they) viewed Trump's heavily political (and theatrical) speech. Conservatives (and Trump allies) seized on the moment as a sign of the petulance and childishness of both Pelosi and her party, still unable to come to grips with the fact that Trump is",These 2 Nancy Pelosi photos perfectly describe the state of our union,tweets_news_942,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

PETE BUTTIGIEG, BIDEN TRANSITION TEAM MEMBER IS INTERVIEWED ON FOX NEWS SUNDAY

NOVEMBER 8, 2020

SPEAKERS: PETE BUTTIGIEG, BIDEN TRANSITION TEAM MEMBER

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST

[*] CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Joining us now, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a member of the Biden transition team.

Mayor, congratulations and welcome back to ""FOX News Sunday"".

PETE BUTTIGIEG, BIDEN TRANSITION TEAM MEMBER: Thank you. Good to be back with you.

WALLACE: So, the president-elect claims that the American people gave him a, quote, mandate for action, but the fact is that there is still a likelihood that there is going to be a blue -- rather, a Republican Senate. There certainly was no blue wave in the Senate and House Democrats holding onto an even slimmer majority in the House.

So the question is, what mandate?

BUTTIGIEG: Well, I think he has a mandate to deliver on the winning campaign agenda that the Biden-Harris ticket offered the country. This not only earned the support of a majority of Americans who voted for him to be the next president, but also, we should remember that those who supported him and a remarkable number of President Trump supporters support the agenda that Joe Biden is going to lead our country","PETE BUTTIGIEG, BIDEN TRANSITION TEAM MEMBER IS INTERVIEWED ON FOX NEWS SUNDAY",tweets_news_943,tweets_news
"Alberta's pipelines are about to get hit with a double regulatory whammy from Justin Trudeau in Ottawa and Donald Trump in Washington.

Nonetheless, the Canadian pipeline industry is still cautiously optimistic about success in the coming decade. Its more positive outlook may well be the right mindset for success but that doesn't mean more hardship isn't coming soon.

It's already never been harder to build a pipeline in Canada. From 2009 to 2016, the time it took to get a permit for an oil or gas pipeline increased here to 681 days from 357 days. In Trump's America, however, the time it took peaked at 561 days in 2015 and dropped to as low as 336 days by 2017, says the Canadian Energy pipeline association.

But now Trump wants more pipelines and less successful legal challenges opposing them. The New York Times and Washington Post report that the Trump administration will instruct federal agencies to no longer take climate change into account when measuring the impact of major infrastructure projects.

The Trudeau Liberals, meanwhile, regularly preach we have a catastrophic global climate crises, so much so that a clause stipulating consideration of greenhouse gas emissions is a major piece of its new industrial project",Pipeline Industry Faces Double Trudeau And Trump Whammy,tweets_news_944,tweets_news
"CONSERVATIVES made their feelings clear when Dr Catherine Calderwood and Professor Neil Ferguson were found to have gone against lockdown guidance - but so far their silence over Dominic Cummings's 250-mile trip while sick with Covid-19 is deafening.

There is currently a chorus of calls for the Prime Minister's top adviser to resign or be sacked after it emerged he travelled from his London home to his parents' farm in County Durham at the end of March, while he and his wife were both sick with the coronavirus. He has briefing journalists to say he defends the decision as he needed childcare for his young son, but questions remain.

READ MORE: Dominic Cummings investigated by police after flouting lockdown rules

If Cummings and his wife were too sick to look after their child, how did they travel the 250-miles to County Durham? Was there nobody else in London who could have offered childcare? Surely the family had to stop for bathroom breaks etc while on such a long journey? Is there one rule for the Tories and one rule for the rest of us?

While Laura Kuenssberg works overtime to defend Cummings on Twitter; we haven't forgotten the statements and posts made by Tories",Five Tory tweets that prove Dominic Cummings must go after flouting the lockdown,tweets_news_945,tweets_news
"•Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said it's not able to fact-checking political ads•Sandberg's comments mark a shift in narrative from previous statements•Facebook has claimed that fact-checking political ads violates free speech

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said it's not able to fact-checking political ads

Sandberg's comments mark a shift in narrative from previous statements

Facebook has claimed that fact-checking political ads violates free speech

Facebook has provided another reason for its decision not to fact-check political ads that appear on its platform.

In an interview with NBC News' Byers' Market podcast, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg claims that the platform simply isn't capable of fact-checking the ads even if they wanted to.

'If you look at political ads and fact-checking political ads,' she said during the interview.

'That's really not something anyone is capable of doing. And we don't think we can make ourselves the arbiter of the truth.'

The claim marks a shift in the narrative from Facebook which previously took a stance against fact-checking political ads by citing ideals about censorship.

In September the platform gave false claims that appear in paid political ads an exemption from its misinformation policies saying that 'newsworthiness' took precedent.

Zuckerberg has also defended the company's policy both in a speech at Georgetown University and again","Sheryl Sandberg says Facebook 'isn't capable' of fact-checking political ads even if it wanted to, and the platform isn't the 'arbiter of truth'",tweets_news_946,tweets_news
"

Jun 29, 2020( The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/ Delivered by Newstex) President Donald Trump's Twitch account is temporarily suspended from posting because of 'hateful conduct,' Twitch said Monday. Trump's Twitch account is another social platform for his campaign to distribute videos, including rebroadcasts of older events and rallies. One of the offending videos was a recording of the now-infamous rally where Trump said Mexico was 'sending rapists' to the United States.

Gaming reporter Rod Breslau first reported the news.[1] Also Read: Reddit Bans Popular Trump Community After Updating Hate Speech Rules[2] Twitch told TheWrap, 'Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch. In line with our policies, President Trump's channel has been issued a temporary suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending content has been removed.' Twitch also provided TheWrap a copy of the offending statements. In addition to his statements regarding Mexicans entering the United States, Trump also broke Twitch's content guidelines with comments at a recent Tulsa rally[3]. During the Tulsa gathering, Trump made the following remarks regarding people calling the police: 'Hey, it's 1:00 o'clock in the morning and a very tough, I've used the word on occasion, hombre, a very tough hombre is breaking into the",Twitch Suspends Donald Trump's Account for 'Hateful Conduct',tweets_news_947,tweets_news
"Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has unloaded on Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, accusing the media company of being ""utterly liberated from the truth"" and campaigning against his government with a ""crazy agenda"" to restore Tony Abbott to the Liberal leadership.

Appearing before the Senate inquiry into media diversity, Mr Turnbull said the company acted like a ""mafia gang"" as it pursued its own corporate interests and held vendettas against politicians and other opponents.

""News Corp now is like a political party, but with just one member, or one family of members and that is an absolute threat to our democracy,"" he said.

""This is the fundamental problem that we're facing: the most powerful political actor in Australia is not the Liberal Party, or the National Party or the Labor Party. It is News Corporation and it is utterly unaccountable.""

As an example of how the Murdoch empire acted in its own interest, he cited how News Corporation had pressured the government to then coerce Facebook and Google to pay Australian media companies for content.

Top Facebook executives told the committee the government's pursuit of the bargaining code cost media outlets by diverting it from negotiating deals.

The company reached agreements with six publishers, including a letter",Turnbull slates agenda of media 'mafia gang',tweets_news_948,tweets_news
"It's not always easy to be a progressive student at Notre Dame. Some of our school's rules, like the lack of available birth control and parietals, can be difficult to explain to those who haven't gone to ""Catholic Disneyland."" Trying to argue that Notre Dame is in fact a progressive space, deeply rooted in a call to social justice, can become even more difficult when Notre Dame crafts its national image around an ex-football coach spouting hate speech at the RNC and putting forward a conservative Supreme Court Justice, while simultaneously having its University president attend and contribute to a Trump-endorsed Covid superspreader event in the Rose Garden (two birds, one stone!). And lest we forget the image of a massive ""God, Country, Notre Dame"" flag at the Capitol Hill insurrection just a few weeks ago. So the question arises: How does a university which claims to be ""one of the most powerful means of doing good in this country"" end up so firmly on the wrong side of history? A deep dive into the institutional structure of our University will only cement the narrative of our University not as one of a social-justice centered, progressive space, but rather as",The power of Notre Dame's Christian left,tweets_news_949,tweets_news
"Lead

A senior analyst at the federal Privy Council Office in Ottawa is facing an internal investigation after allegations that anti-Semitic comments were posted on his social-media account.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre recently told the Privy Council Office, which supports the prime minister and the federal cabinet, that the Facebook page of one of its senior officials contained anti-Semitic posts.

Texte/Text

The two groups say that posts on the Facebook page of Nizam Siddiqui, who is listed as a senior analyst at PCO, make disparaging comments about the genetic background of Jewish people and claim many Jews participated in or enabled Nazi atrocities.

A statement from the two Canadian Jewish groups said the ""Facebook page also includes a multitude of libels against Israel, referring to it as a 'parasitic, racist, apartheid state,' and indicates 'likes' for over a hundred extremist anti-Israel groups around the world.""

The statement quotes one post as saying Israel has ""prospered by leeching off American taxpayers"" and alleging that the Jewish state engages in ""ethnic cleansing"" and harbors pedophiles. The comments were first reported by Israellycool, one of the largest English-language blogs in Israel.

Mr. Siddiqui did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment.",Federal official faces investigation over alleged anti-Semitic comments on social media,tweets_news_950,tweets_news
"Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

the government Chief Whip, the man responsible for party discipline in the Tory party who said the allegations were being treated very seriously but he wanted to ensure the alleged victim was not identified, which brings us to the question you might be reasonably asking. Why is this MP not being named? The police have not given his name and also, any alleged victim in a case like this has an automatic right to life long anonymity. In this case, the MP, if it was known, it could be easier to work out who the alleged victim is.

The MP in question is due to return to speak to the police in a couple of weeks. Thank you for joining us. Let's take a brief look at some of today's other news. The National Crime Agency is investigating the hacking of an email account belonging to the Conservative MP Liam Fox. It's thought classified trade documents were obtained from the former minister's account, before",BBC News Programming - 7:22 PM GMT,tweets_news_951,tweets_news
"Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

We are using about 300 and 400 masks a day, so as you can appreciate, it is a lot. We've hit our peak early. So it has been extremely difficult for myself, my staff and residents. The families.

The good that has come out of everything, everyone trying to help has been amazing. And there is hope out there just for other care homes. As the coronavirus spreads, so too does misleading information. From fake health advice to speculation about government actions. Here's BBC presenter and journalist Zeinab Badawi sharing tips on how to ensure the facts you're getting are reliable. In the midst of the corona pandemic, passing on information can feel like one way we can support our families and friends. Here at the BBC, we are working very hard to make sure that everything we broadcast and publish is accurate and up-to-date. But there is a whole load of information out there that isn't. And misinformation can spread fast. If a",Pointless - 4:50 PM GMT,tweets_news_952,tweets_news
"Key stories in the Iranian media from BBC Monitoring. For more information on our coverage of Iran, or to sign up to our newsletter, email monitoring@bbc.co.uk

Lethal floods in Iran's south

Heavy rains have caused floods in the country's southern provinces, killing seven in Hormozgan and Bushehr.

Fars, Khuzestan and Kerman provinces have also been affected, with Imam Khomeini Port in Khuzestan flooded, state radio channel (VIRI) reported.

A legal case has been launched to look into the port's flooding, Prosecutor Shirvanizadeh has said, according to VIRI. Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi has ordered a relevant probe, Channel One (IRTV1) reported.

A ""red alarm situation"" has been announced in Fars and Bushehr provinces, with 26 towns and villages inundated, VIRI said.

Pictures of the devastation were featured on the front pages of today's papers, with hardline Keyhan focusing on rescue efforts by the Basij volunteer militia of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Iran-Venezuela ties

Iran has se,t 10 fuel tankers to Venezuela, Bloomberg has reported. Meanwhile, the USA has expressed concern over possible arms trade between the two countries, US administration's special representative for Iran and Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, warning that the USA would act if Iran sends missiles to Venezuela. The USA intercepted four oil tankers carrying",BBCM Iran Watchlist for 7 December,tweets_news_953,tweets_news
"Dr. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician who is running for Congress as a Republican in Texas, is embracing the right-wing conspiracy, promoted by President Donald Trump without offering proof, that then-President Barack Obama spied on Trump's campaign -- angering some of the Obama aides who served alongside him in the White House.

The turn has left some officials from the last administration a little perplexed because Jackson was considered even-minded, apolitical -- and friendly with Obama, who he is now accusing of grave crimes.

""President Obama weaponized the highest levels of our government to spy on President Trump. Every Deep State traitor deserves to be brought to justice for their heinous actions,"" Jackson wrote Tuesday on Twitter, without offering any proof.

The message sparked some rebukes from former Obama aides.

""Ronny Jackson was friends with Obama and his entire staff. I never heard him make a partisan statement,"" tweeted Tommy Vietor, a former National Security Council spokesman under Obama. ""So it's really been sad to watch him debase himself by lying for Trump and promoting this toxic bullshit to win a Congressional primary. Truly shameful.""

One former Obama official said Jackson and Obama got along well and had gotten to know each other",Former White House physician Ronny Jackson dives headfirst into 'Obamagate' and angers former colleagues,tweets_news_954,tweets_news
"A top adviser and lawyer for President Donald Trump's re-election campaign has a history of pushing anti-gay positions, including linking the legalization of same-sex marriage to bestiality and pedophilia.

Jenna Ellis, an attorney who previously served as the director of public policy at the socially conservative James Dobson Family Institute, has also repeatedly attacked the Supreme Court's 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which overturned state laws that criminalized homosexual activity between consenting adults.

Ellis' comments, reviewed by CNN's KFile, were made between 2014 and 2019, before she emerged from relative obscurity to join the Trump campaign in November 2019. Ellis criticized the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, and predicted it would lead to societally accepted and even legalized bestiality and pedophilia. ""We are saying any sexual urge is valid,"" Ellis said in 2016. ""So pedophilia, why is that any different than any other form of love? Love is love, right?""

She has since become a prominent surrogate for the President on TV and radio, defending him during the impeachment trial and praising his handling over the coronavirus pandemic. She drew attention this week when she defended the President from criticism on Monday after a terse exchange","Top Trump campaign aide pushed anti-gay positions, said legalizing same-sex marriage would lead to bestiality and pedophilia",tweets_news_955,tweets_news
"Editor: One nation under authoritarian rule. American citizen voices and opinions stifled. These are the nightmarish fears that American citizens consider when they hear the word ""censorship.""As a teenager, I believe that free speech is a core value of American democracy.

America is about freedom, and censorship is supposedly about infringing on human rights. Or is it?What if censorship actually keeps us free? What if censorship is what we all need?I'm a TikTok user. In our current pandemic, my school has been closed, so I've especially been a fan of the ability to connect with friends. Scrolling on my phone, cracking up, and jamming to music brightens my day; TikTok is a way for teenagers and children to escape from the problems brought on by isolation.That being said, I am not naive enough to disregard the security risks that TikTok imposes.Today, security is digital. This comes with a lot of problems, as many hackers and opportunists can acquire personal information and use it for material gain or for foreign enemy intelligence.TikTok is currently downloaded on 100 million American cell phones and has been accused of using and taking people's private information overseas. Our government is attempting to censor TikTok to protect",Letter: A modest amount of censorship is not a bad thing,tweets_news_956,tweets_news
"An Indiana woman on Wednesday became the first defendant to be sentenced in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and avoided time behind bars, while a member of the Oath Keepers extremist group pleaded guilty in a conspiracy case and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in a major step forward for the massive investigation. The...

An Indiana woman on Wednesday became the first defendant to be sentenced in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and avoided time behind bars, while a member of the Oath Keepers extremist group pleaded guilty in a conspiracy case and agreed to coope...

An Indiana woman on Wednesday became the first defendant to be sentenced in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and avoided time behind bars, while a member of the Oath Keepers extremist group pleaded guilty in a conspiracy case and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in a major step forward for the massive investigation. The two developments signal that the cases against those charged in the deadly siege are slowly advancing, even as the U.S. Department of Justice and the courthouse in Washington, D.C., struggle under the weight of roughly 500 federal arrests across the U.S. And it",No jail time in 1st riot sentence; Oath Keeper pleads guilty,tweets_news_957,tweets_news
"For a month, the federal government has been under fire over its broadcasting bill C-10 and its implications for free speech. Peter Menzies, a former commissioner of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, said the bill ""doesn't just infringe on free expression, it constitutes a full-blown assault upon it and, through it, the foundations of democracy."" The National Post's Anja Karadeglija examines the issues and what's at stake.

WHAT'S THE BIG CONTROVERSY WITH BILL C-10? The bill was introduced last fall to set up the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to start regulating online platforms like Netflix the way it does traditional TV and radio broadcasters. It was moving through the legislative process pretty snappily until about a month ago, when the government removed section 4.1, which exempted user-generated content.

Critics said that infringed free speech rights, because it put social media posts by Canadians under the authority of a government regulator.

After about 10 days of controversy, the government proposed, and the Commons Heritage committee then passed, an amendment that would limit the CRTC's powers over user-generated content.

But the amendment does not eliminate the CRTC's ability to regulate social media, and critics say that means the legislation still infringes on free expression",Is C-10 a bill too far?,tweets_news_958,tweets_news
"MUMBAI, Dec. 27 -- With barely any skin donations made since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the nodal skin bank National Burn Centre (NBC) at Airoli has been forced to turn back patients. Before the lockdown, NBC received around 20 skin donations a month and this monthly average has now come down to approximately four.

In the last nine months, NBC has received 22 skin donations compared to 200 donations received between March and November in 2019. This year in March, NBC got nine skin donations. Between April and August, not a single donation was recorded at the skin bank. In September, five skin donations were registered, followed by three in October and five in November. ""People are fearful of contracting Covid-19 so they avoid donating the skin of their loved ones after their death,"" said Dr Sunil Keswani, medical director, NBC. ""Since the lockdown, we have been forced to turn away burnt patients from other states who need skin transplants. We are trying to reserve the limited resources for patients from Maharashtra,"" he said. Being the nodal burn centre in India, NBC gets burn patients from across the country. Donated skin is processed and stored in a skin bank",Pandemic brings down donations at skin bank,tweets_news_959,tweets_news
"Roger Stone, 67, is set to go to prison this month. In November, a jury convicted him on seven felonies.Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Facebook said it was removing the personal accounts of Roger Stone, President Donald Trump's friend and ally, because they had ties to numerous fake accounts that were active around the 2016 presidential election.

The company made the announcement Wednesday as part of its monthly report on removing disinformation. Stone's personal accounts on Facebook and Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, were entwined with a U.S.-based network of accounts that had links to the Proud Boys, a group that promotes white supremacy, the company said. The social network banned the Proud Boys group in 2018.

""We first started looking into this network as part of our investigation into the Proud Boys' attempt to return to Facebook after we had designated and banned them from the platform,"" Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, wrote in a company blog post announcing Facebook's takedown. ""Our investigation linked this network to Roger Stone and his associates.""

Stone, 67, is set to go to prison this month. In November, a jury convicted him on seven felonies, including lying to federal investigators, tampering with a witness and impeding",Facebook removes Roger Stone account for ties to phony ones,tweets_news_960,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) — One month from Election Day, President Donald Trump is facing a credibility crisis as yawning as his health crisis, at a moment when he needs the public’s trust the most.

The president’s coronavirus infection, as well as the illnesses of several aides and allies, has imperiled the highest levels of the U.S. government. The White House’s efforts Saturday to project calm backfired in stunning fashion, resulting in a blizzard of confusing and contradictory information about the health and well-being of the commander in chief. A cleanup effort on Sunday did little to increase confidence, with Trump's doctor saying he was trying to project an “upbeat attitude"" while also revealing new details about the president's condition that he had not previously disclosed.

It’s a moment months in the making, the collision of Trump’s repeated defiance of his own administration’s guidelines for staying safe during the pandemic and his well-known disregard for facts. The result: deep uncertainty for Americans over whom and what to believe about the health of the nation’s leader at a perilous moment in U.S. history.

“This is bigger than Donald Trump. It’s about the institution of the presidency,” said Robert Gibbs, who served as President Barack Obama’s first",Analysis: Trump faces credibility crisis over health scare,tweets_news_961,tweets_news
"Online supporters of President Donald Trump are scattering to smaller social media platforms, fleeing what they say is unfair treatment by Facebook, Twitter and other Big Tech firms looking to squelch misinformation and threats of violence.

Those efforts, prompted by the deadly rampage Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol, will likely succeed, according to social media and misinformation experts. But the crackdown could send some of Trump's fiercest supporters retreating to spaces on the internet where conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric run rampant.

""We're going to see less opportunity to radicalize new people"" on mainstream platforms, Kate Starbird, a leading misinformation expert at the University of Washington, said last week. ""But for those who are already radicalized, or already down the rabbit hole with conspiracy theories, this might not make a difference if the places they go become echo chambers.""

For years, mainstream tech companies had been the target of conservative ire, with complaints that Facebook and Twitter enforce their policies with a political bias. The platforms also have been criticized for allowing harmful conspiracy theories and hate speech to thrive on their sites.

Then came an unprecedented response from the tech companies to the Capitol riot, fueled in part by false and misleading",Trump backers seek new sites after online backlash,tweets_news_962,tweets_news
"Finally a retort to one of my many letters. A man in Lake Placid took umbrage to my last letter about a money matter. It never surprises me at the amount of people with either no sense of humor or don't understand ""tongue-in-cheek,"" comments. So be it. I want to correct a couple of issues the gentleman had about my comments. They are: (1) I am not a card-carrying, left-wing, bleeding-heart liberal socialist. That should tell you what party I don't belong to, and (2) social security is not my sole source of income.

Furthermore, I do not hate millionaires and their money, after all they are the ones that create jobs for millions of others and they should be commended.

While I am at it, on another subject, I have been getting snide remarks about my obvious lack of support for Donald J. Trump. When Trump was campaigning he said all the right things, better health plans, strong military, better immigration laws, tax reform and more jobs, and got out of endless wars in the Middle East. To date there appear to be more jobs. His finger on his Twitter machine has caused disruption in the Middle East and he has","Ego, Twitter machine deter his direction",tweets_news_963,tweets_news
"(Alliance News) - Here is what you need to know before the European market open on Wednesday:

----------

MARKETS

----------

CAC 40: called 16.38 points lower at 5,001.3

DAX 30: called 56.26 points lower at 12,467.5

FTSE 100: called 26.72 points lower at 6,293.4

----------

S&P/ASX 200: up 0.4% at 5,975.30

Hang Seng: up 0.1% at 24,921.28

Nikkei 225: down 0.1% at 22,531.39

----------

DJIA: closed up 131.14 points, 0.5%, at 26,156.10

Nasdaq Composite: closed up 0.7% at 10,131.37

S&P 500: closed up 0.4% at 3,131.29

----------

EUR: lower at USD1.1316 (USD1.1325)

GBP: lower at USD1.2512 (USD1.2526)

USD: higher at JPY106.54 (JPY106.37)

GOLD: higher at USD1,768.00 per ounce (USD1,765.19)

OIL (Brent): lower at USD42.42 a barrel (USD43.58)

(changes since previous London equities close)

----------

ECONOMIC CALENDAR

----------

08:00 CEST EU New Commercial Vehicle Registrations in Europe statistics

10:00 CEST Germany Ifo Business Climate Index

08:50 JST Japan Services Producer Price Index

14:00 JST Japan Indexes of Business Conditions

10:00 SAT South Africa CPI

13:00 SAT South Africa Retail Trade Sales

07:00 EDT US MBA Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey

09:00 EDT US Monthly House Price Index

10:30 EDT US EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report

----------

TOP ECONOMIC NEWS

----------

US government health experts led by Anthony Fauci warned Congress Tuesday that the country faces ""historic"" challenges with the coronavirus and that Americans should brace for a lengthy battle against the pandemic. Fauci, testifying in the wake of Donald","GLOBAL BRIEFING: Trump Threatens ""Serious Force"" Against Protesters",tweets_news_964,tweets_news
"India, Jan. 12 -- US President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his January 6 speech that has been blamed for storming of the US Capitol as ""totally appropriate"" and said a move underway to impeach him had caused ""tremendous anger"". He sought to characterise it as part of the ""witch hunt"" that had led to his first impeachment.

Democrats in the House of Representatives are planning a vote to impeach Trump on Wednesday for ""incitement of insurrection"", amid tightening security countrywide following FBI's warning of ""armed protests"" at the US Capitol and all 50 state capitols in the days leading up to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20.

""If you read my speech, and many people have done it and I've seen it both in the papers and in the media, on television, it's been analysed and people thought that what I said was totally appropriate,"" he told reporters.

In another interaction with reporters earlier in the day, the first since the January 6 riots, he had said, ""The impeachment is really a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics. It's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous.""

He added: ""This impeachment is causing tremendous anger . I think it's causing tremendous",Trump slams impeachment move as Democrats press ahead,tweets_news_965,tweets_news
"Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 15, the 350th day of 2020. There are 16 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Dec. 15, 2013, Nelson Mandela was laid to rest in his childhood hometown, ending a 10-day mourning period for South Africa’s first Black president.

On this date:

In 1791, the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, went into effect following ratification by Virginia.

In 1890, Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, South Dakota, during a confrontation with Indian police.

In 1944, the U.S. Senate approved the promotions of Henry H. Arnold, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur and George C. Marshall to the five-star rank of General of the Army and the nominations of William D. Leahy, Ernest J. King and Chester W. Nimitz as Admirals of the Fleet.

In 1965, two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6A and Gemini 7, maneuvered toward each other while in orbit, at one point coming as close as one foot.

In 1967, the Silver Bridge between Gallipolis (gal-ih-puh-LEES’), Ohio, and Point Pleasant, West Virginia, collapsed into the Ohio River, killing 46 people.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist",Today in History,tweets_news_966,tweets_news
"

Dec 31, 2020( Hunt Huey PLLC: Accessibility Defense: http://accessdefense.com Delivered by Newstex) Here's a toast to the end of a bad year. I don't know anyone who won't be happy to see 2020 behind us, but it's worth looking back at how the law of accessibility developed in the last year. Fair Housing Act developments were bracketed by two events, one of which was scarcely noticed but could be important. In February, to considerable fanfare, HUD rolled out its new Guidance on requests for accommodation concerning animals.

Its many disclaimers about not being a regulation and not having any binding effect were not enough for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which opined on December 17, 2020 that the Guidance violated the Congressional Review Act because it was not submitted to Congress for approval before it took effect. It is not surprising that HUD ignored the law, but HUD often ignores both science and the law, so to the extent the Guidance reflects what HUD's investigators will do it provides some useful information on staying out of trouble in a HUD investigation even if it isn't helpful as a guide to complying with the FHA. A couple of months before the GAO",Happy New Years - 2020 ADA and FHA retrospective,tweets_news_967,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

The global coronavirus pandemic has reified divisions, inequity, and injustices rooted in systems of domination such as racism, sexism, neoliberal capitalism, and ableism. Feminist scholars have theorized these interlocking systems of domination as the “continuum of violence.” Building on this scholarship, we conceptualize the U.S. response to and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic as reflective of the continuum of violence. We argue that crises like pandemics expose the antidemocratic and exclusionary practices inherent in this continuum, which is especially racialized and gendered. To support our argument, we provide empirical evidence of the continuum of violence in relation to COVID-19 vis-à-vis the interrelated issues of militarization and what feminists call “everyday security,” such as public health and gender-based violence. The continuum of violence contributes theoretically and practically to our understanding of how violence that the pandemic illuminates is embedded in broader systems of domination and exclusion.

FULL TEXT

As states started introducing plans to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, feminist activists and scholars, among others, began sounding the alarm about the deleterious effects that the pandemic would have on women, communities of color, and other oppressed groups (see, e.g., Enloe 2020; UN Women 2020). These warnings proved prescient: during the",Antidemocratic and Exclusionary Practices: COVID-19 and the Continuum of Violence,tweets_news_968,tweets_news
"Link to Story

NEW YORK CITY - July 30, 2020 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The more than 1,000 U.S. and other companies participating in the ""Stop Hate for Profit"" Facebook campaign should broaden their focus to include demanding action on the sexual violence committed on the Facebook platform by child predators, according to an open letter issued today by concerned Facebook shareholders. A major concern cited by the shareholders is that Black and Hispanic children suffer a disproportionate amount of child sexual abuse and exploitation. According to the open letter issued by shareholders: ""Today, we are appealing to the hundreds of companies that have joined the 'Stop Hate for Profit' campaign to expand their focus as they engage with Facebook and help make Facebook the safe place it should be. Here is the sad (but little known) truth: Facebook (including Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp) is the world's #1 hub of reported child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and the company is not doing enough to stop the problem. In 2019 there were nearly 17 million reports of child sexual abuse material online, and of that, nearly 16 million - or 94 percent - came from the Facebook platform.

We are urging the advertisers who have",Shareholders: Companies in Stop Hate for Profit Campaign Should Also Insist Facebook Address Violence of Child Sexual Abuse,tweets_news_969,tweets_news
"

Oct 31, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/Delivered by Newstex) Shhhh! Poppy, what were you thinking when you spoke out loud on CNN the very inconvenient truth just days before the election that there would be fewer fracking jobs in a Biden administration? Here's the quote: ""One thing that is clear is that there would be fewer fracking jobs under a Biden administration than under another Trump administration.""Although it seems improbablethat anybody in Pennsylvania, and elsewhere,could now believe Joe Biden's pledge not to ban fracking in that state since there are numerous videos of him in the recent past promising to get rid of fracking, it is still not a good idea to highlight what will really happen to workers involved in that industry under a President Biden.It would not be surprising to find out that CNN producers were screaming into poor Poppy's earpiece as she uttered the fatal words that can't help but cost Biden votes in the Keystone State. The brutal, unwanted (at CNN) truth was blurted out by Harlow during a Newsroom interview with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown on Friday.It isinteresting to note that Brown did not dispute Harlow's observation about fewer fracking jobs under a possible Biden administration.She also",Wow! CNN's Poppy Harlow: 'Fewer Fracking Jobs Under a Biden Administration',tweets_news_970,tweets_news
"By MINLU ZHANG in New York | China Daily Global | Updated: 2021-03-25 09:44

People walk through the streets of Chinatown in New York City on March 23, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

Asian Americans experienced the biggest spike in serious incidents of online hate and harassment compared with other groups, according to the Anti-Defamation League's annual survey published Wednesday.

About 17 percent of Asian Americans surveyed said that they experienced severe online harassment compared with 11 percent last year, the largest uptick in comparison to other groups, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors the activities of domestic and international hate groups. The survey defines severe online harassment as sexual harassment, stalking, physical threats, swatting, doxing and sustained harassment.

Half of the Asian American respondents who were harassed said it was because of their race or identity. Overall, 21 percent of Asian American respondents said they were harassed online.

The ADL survey of 2,251 individuals conducted by YouGov, a public opinion and data analytics firm, shows that racist incidents against the Asian community aren't just happening offline.

""The spike in physical violence against Asian-Americans across the nation was whipped up in large part by bigotry and conspiracy theories that grew online, fanned by national leaders, including former",Online attacks against Asians in US rising this year,tweets_news_971,tweets_news
"1) Schumer

WASHINGTON - Under fire from President Donald Trump and Republican senators who accused him of threatening two conservative Supreme Court justices, Sen. Chuck Schumer said on Thursday he ""should not have used the words"" he did Wednesday in a fiery speech warning of the consequences of their rulings. But Schumer, who chalked up his sharp tongue to his Brooklyn upbringing, refused to apologize for the spirit of his remarks, saying that Republicans would pay a political price if the court struck down abortion rights.

""They didn't come out the way I intended,"" Schumer said of his remarks a day before that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh - both installed by Trump - would ""pay the price"" if a contentious Louisiana case the court was hearing ended up reducing access to abortion in the state and across the country. ""You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,"" he warned Wednesday at a rally on the steps of the Supreme Court. Schumer, D-N.Y. and the minority leader, said those remarks were not meant as a threat of bodily harm against the justices, but instead as a warning to Trump and the Republicans who supported his",Schumer panned for 'pay the price' threat to justices,tweets_news_972,tweets_news
"aw_201025_media the needle

^$^NEW YORK - The one thing most likely to conjure nightmares of the 2016 election night for opponents of President Donald Trump is the Needle.

A graphic on the New York Times' website, the Needle measured in real time the probability of victory for Trump or Hillary Clinton as votes were counted. Its steady movement triggered anxiety for Clinton supporters, who repeatedly refreshed the page, and elation for Trump fans.

There's no sign the Needle will be making a reappearance on Nov. 3, which would be one change in the world of election probability gurus following the unexpected 2016 result. Nate Silver's influential FiveThirtyEight blog used a number, not a needle, for the same task four years ago but won't on election night 2020.

Silver said the change had more to do with uncertainties created by the high volume of early voting this year than any failures in 2016.

""I just think people need to be exceptionally careful,"" he said.

Silver has been a pioneer in the specialized field of statistic experts who crunch the growing number of public opinion polls to put them in a broader context. Nate Cohn of the Times and his blog The Upshot is also a leader.

They amplified",Beyond the Needle: Probability experts assess 2020 race,tweets_news_973,tweets_news
"(Recasts headline, adds more comments) By Elizabeth Culliford May 5 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s oversight board on Wednesday upheld the company’s suspension of former U.S. President Donald Trump but said the company was wrong to make the suspension indefinite and gave it six months to determine a “proportionate response.” In the much-awaited verdict that has been watched...

(Recasts headline, adds more comments) By Elizabeth Culliford May 5 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s oversight board on Wednesday upheld the company’s suspension of former U.S. President Donald Trump but said the company was wrong to make the suspension indefini...

(Recasts headline, adds more comments) By Elizabeth Culliford May 5 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s oversight board on Wednesday upheld the company’s suspension of former U.S. President Donald Trump but said the company was wrong to make the suspension indefinite and gave it six months to determine a “proportionate response.” In the much-awaited verdict that has been watched for signals on how world’s largest social network will treat rule-breaking world leaders in the future, the board said Facebook had inappropriately imposed an indeterminate suspension without clear standards and that the decision required a company review. The Board said Facebook should determine a response that is consistent with",Trump Facebook ban remains but oversight board rips company policies,tweets_news_974,tweets_news
"

Sep 01, 2020( Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Donald Trump had a little sitdown with Fox News host Laura Ingraham last night, and near the end of a long segment in which he insisted that Black Lives Matter is a Marxist plot and that Democrats just love violence and rioting, the Leader of the Free World explained that there are very scary doings afoot. Trump spun out an extremely vague story about ""somebody"" who recently ""got on a plane from a certain city"" and the plane was simply packed full of scary leftist thugs headed to riot at the Republican National Convention in Washington DC. But he couldn't go into any detail because it's all still under investigation, you see. Even for a guy who lies 20 to 25 times a day, it was a pretty out-there story.

So expect him to be talking about it from now until November, even though the few particulars are virtually identical to a bogus Facebook story from June,[1] which involved scary black-clad antifa terrorists pouring into Boise, Idaho. Those guys were so stealthy that they never showed up at all. Here's Trump, who apparently thinks everyone watching Fox News is an idiot, and may",How Did Imaginary Planeloads Of Antifa Supersoldiers Get From Boise To Trump's Head?,tweets_news_975,tweets_news
"More than 100 protesters defying stay-at-home orders gathered in the heart of downtown Huntington Beach on Friday afternoon, rallying for an end to restrictions on businesses and public gatherings that health officials say are needed to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mobilized largely through social-media posts, several dozens of protesters gathered at Main Street and Walnut Avenue shortly before 1 p.m.

Many had signs, such as “Live free or die.” Some wore masks. The group periodically chanted “U.S.A” as some passing vehicles honked in support.

Nicole Brown, 50, of Costa Mesa, said she sympathizes with those who have the virus and understands why some might want to quarantine, but she believes it should be an option.

“Our freedom has been taken away from us, people are locked in their homes,” she said.

Some protesters leaned political; there were Trump banners. Others lamented the impact on daily lives, including a man wearing a Cowboys jersey and bandanna and holding a sign that said, “Save football, wear a mask.”

One protester, wearing a mock white CDC suit, held a sign describing the coronavirus as a “lie.”

Paula Doyle, 62, of Costa Mesa was one of the first to arrive.

She came out because she felt the shutdown was aiding",coronavirus,tweets_news_976,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON >> Making Juneteenth, the anniversary of the day news of emancipation finally reached enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, a national holiday is a victory. But it is a hollow one at a moment when the political party that won the Civil War and made that freedom a permanent reality is now moving heaven and earth to keep African Americans from voting.

All but 14 House Republicans were happy to vote for the long-overdue legislation adding June 19 to the holiday calendar, signed Thursday by President Joe Biden. Doing so allows them to portray themselves as opponents of racial oppression, which they prefer to leave in the past — rather than as contemporary racism’s enthusiastic enablers.

In the Senate, the Juneteenth legislation even had the sponsorship, no less, of the likes of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who infamously raised his fist in solidarity with the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Their aim, which Hawley endorsed, was to overturn the 2020 election by invalidating swing-state votes cast largely by people of color in cities such as Atlanta, Philadelphia and Phoenix.

This is not to diminish the accomplishment of the lawmakers, led by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Tex., who worked long and tirelessly to create the new",From the desk of ...,tweets_news_977,tweets_news
"A. News headlines

B. Home news

1. 0207 President Ghani seriously rejects the proposal on formation of an interim administration in Afghanistan and calls on the Taliban to cut ties with Pakistan. He also says relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are not clear. An Afghan negotiator in Doha says they are ready to launch the second round of talks. Saudi foreign minister voices readiness to cooperate with Afghanistan. Video shows Ghani, a negotiator, ministry spokesman speaking. (see separate MR)

2. 0512 UNICEF report shows that Afghanistan has the highest number of children suffering from malnutrition in South Asia. Video shows parents of sick children speaking.

3. 0820 In two separate security incidents, three people have been killed in Kabul. The people criticize the government for failing to ensure security in the capital. Video shows people speaking,

4. 1113 Governor of Balkh Province says the government has signed an agreement with Nezamoddin Qaisari. Qaisari, a former Uzbek district governor in northern Fariab Province, who is accused of disrupting public order. Based on the agreement, Qaisari will never interfere in government's law enforcement and obey the law. Video shows the governor, Qaisari, an observer speaking. (see separate MR)

5. 1354 Clashes are under way between the Afghan forces",Programme summary of Afghan Tolo News TV in Dari 1330 gmt 22 Jan 21,tweets_news_978,tweets_news
"When the New York Times’ leadership recently apologized to the paper’s staff for running an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., the enemies of “fake news” high-fived and Free Speech collapsed from embarrassment.

Heaven forbid an opinion on a newspaper’s op-ed page should offend someone. It’s one thing to disagree on the merits of an opinion; it’s quite another to have published an opinion column, then criticized the column and then made a senior personnel decision in part because the column was published in the first place.

The Times’ editorial page editor James Bennet, once a potential executive editor candidate, resigned over what should have been a blip on the continuum of lessons learned. This unnecessary spectacle isn’t only disappointing but portends the gradual shrinking of the free marketplace of ideas.

Rather than defending a U.S. senator’s right to speak his mind, the Times bowed to outrage — an overindulged emotion in the age of safe spaces and trigger warnings. So many Times’ staffers were appalled by Cotton’s op-ed endorsing military intervention to quell unrest that they, in part, succeeded in pressuring the paper into issuing an apology and then making a change in its editorial leadership. And on a related note, the",The New York Times’ self-inflicted fiasco,tweets_news_979,tweets_news
"•President Joe Biden will not dismantle the Space Force, press secretary Jen Psaki said at Wednesday's press briefing•Her response comes one day after she attracted criticism from conservatives for laughing at a question about the future of the Space Force•House Armed Services Committee ranking member, Rep. Mike Rogers, said Psaki should 'immediately apologize' for insulting a branch of the military•President Donald Trump considered Space Force one of his favorite legacy projects and spoke about it frequently at political rallies•Despite that, the branch's creation had bipartisan support in Congress, which Psaki referenced during a statement on Space Force Wednesday•Because of Trump's backing, the left mocked Space Force, with Netflix even creating a fictional comedy about it starring Steve Carell

President Joe Biden will not dismantle the Space Force, press secretary Jen Psaki said at Wednesday's press briefing

Her response comes one day after she attracted criticism from conservatives for laughing at a question about the future of the Space Force

House Armed Services Committee ranking member, Rep. Mike Rogers, said Psaki should 'immediately apologize' for insulting a branch of the military

President Donald Trump considered Space Force one of his favorite legacy projects and spoke about it frequently at political rallies

Despite that, the branch's creation",Joe Biden will NOT dismantle Space Force and gives it 'full support' says press secretary Jen Psaki after she raised questions over its future by laughing about it at White House briefing,tweets_news_980,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

TikTok, like Huawei, as a national security threat, giving China access to the precious data and attention of American citizens. President Trump's demand that it be sold to a non-Chinese company and that the US Treasury get a cut might be illegal. It's unprecedented in the US, but such assertions of sovereignty are already standard practice in China, where platforms like YouTube and WhatsApp are blocked along with foreign sources of news and religious instruction, and where the web is a tool of surveillance. In a sense, then, President Trump is merely borrowing from China's playbook.

And these new methods of control go further than just the US and China. In India, for example, Narendra Modi's government has banned TikTok and other Chinese-owned mobile apps. And other states have used various social media controls, monitoring and censorship. TikTok, then, isn't just a platform for video pranks. It proves that there is a battle for the soul of the internet",BBC Weekend News - 9:15 PM GMT,tweets_news_981,tweets_news
"U.S. President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Friday overrode his veto for the first time in his nearly four years in office, pushing through a defence policy bill against his strong objections weeks before he leaves office. Meeting in a rare New Year's Day session, the Senate voted 81-13 to secure the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto with bipartisan support. Eight previous vetoes were upheld. The Friday session, widely seen as the last before a new Congress is sworn in on Sunday, also appeared to end for now a push by Democrats to increase COVID-19 relief cheques from $600 to $2,000 sought by Trump.

Senator Bernie Sanders again joined Democrats in a bid to force a vote on higher payments, only to be blocked by Republicans. Republican lawmakers have largely stood by the president during his turbulent White House term. Since losing his re-election bid in November, however, Trump has lashed out at them for not fully backing his unsupported claims of voter fraud, for rejecting his demand for bigger COVID-19 relief checks, and for moving to override his veto. The vote in the Republican- led Senate followed a similar override vote in the Democratic-controlled",Republican senators override trump veto; Defiant move revives defence policy bill,tweets_news_982,tweets_news
"Bloomfield Township - Braving the 90-degree heat, about 25 demonstrators gathered outside the Bloomfield Township Police Department to ""Back the Blue"" and show their support for police.

Marian Sheridan's husband is a former police captain. She said the event, was meant to show appreciation for police at a time when some are calling for police departments to be defunded in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.

""What's happening to our police department is they're becoming demoralized,"" said Sheridan, one of the organizers of the demonstration. ""These are the same guys, the same men and women, who just 20 years ago for 9/11 were held up on a pedestal for their bravery.""

Mindy Albright, 67, a crisis intervention specialist who works with first responders and schools in Oakland County to help them process trauma, attended the demonstration with her service dog, an Australian Cattle named Sydney.

The Farmington Hills-resident said when she works with police after they've experienced a traumatic event, she tries to prevent officers from quitting their jobs by giving them tools to help them process what they've experienced.

""It's not just been in the last month, since George",Demonstrators withstand heat to show support for police in Bloomfield Township,tweets_news_983,tweets_news
"

Sep 28, 2020( Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/ Delivered by Newstex) ; Sunday was supposed to be the beginning of the end for TikTok in the United States. At midnight, the app was supposed to be banned from all app stores, per an order from the Trump administration, but the company was given a last minute reprieve from Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court for the District of Columbia. In an emergency hearing on Sunday morning, lawyers representing TikTok argued that banning the app was a First Amendment issue.Via AP:[1] In arguments to Judge Nichols, TikTok lawyer John Hall said that TikTok is more than an app, since it functions as a ""modern day version of a town square.""

""If that prohibition goes into effect at midnight, the consequences immediately are grave,'"" Hall said. ""It would be no different than the government locking the doors to a public forum, roping off that town square"" at a time when a free exchange of ideas is necessary heading into a polarized election.Trump's excuse for wanting to ban the app is that he claims that it is a national security threat because TikTok is a Chinese company. Weirdly, he had no problem with his daughter",Trump's War On TikTok Not Going Well,tweets_news_984,tweets_news
"The impeachment hearings in Washington on Thursday pivoted to global opinion, with Texas Rep. Julian Castro saying that the mayhem at the Capitol Jan. 6 could cost America its lead in democratic respect worldwide.

In order to secure a conviction of inciting insurrection, which requires a two-thirds majority vote, Democrats must convince a minimum of 17 Republicans to vote against Donald Trump. Defence arguments begin today.

On the last of two days of prosecution arguments, Castro reminded the House that the world was watching. ""Even our allies are speaking up,"" the CBC quoted him as saying. He brought up Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's comments.

On Jan. 8, Trudeau pointedly criticized his counterpart to the south, saying political leaders'choice of words have a direct impact on individuals'behaviour and institutions, and that everyone heard what the president said before the ""horrific"" events unfolded.

""What we witnessed was an assault on democracy by violent rioters, incited by the current president and other politicians,"" Trudeau said in public comments.

""As shocking, deeply disturbing, and frankly saddening, as that event remains, we have also seen this week that democracy is resilient in America, our closest ally and neighbour.

""Violence has no place in our societies, and extremists will not succeed in",Trudeau's remarks cited at Trump trial; Capitol attack,tweets_news_985,tweets_news
"Bomb-sheltered: People take refuge Tuesday in a bomb shelter in Stepanakert in the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Armenia accused Azerbaijan of firing missiles into the capital of the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, while Azerbaijan said several of its towns and its second-largest city were attacked.Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

OAKLAND, Calif. - Facebook said it will ban groups that openly support QAnon, the baseless conspiracy theory that paints President Donald Trump as a secret warrior against a supposed child-trafficking ring run by celebrities and ""deep state"" government officials.

The company said Tuesday that it will remove Facebook pages, groups and Instagram accounts for ""representing QAnon"" - even if they don't promote violence. The social network said it will consider a variety of factors to decide if a group meets its criteria for a ban, including its name, the biography or ""about"" section of the page, and discussions within the page, group or Instagram account.

Mentions of QAnon in a group focused on a different subject won't necessarily lead to a ban, Facebook said. Administrators of banned groups will have their personal accounts disabled as well.

The company said it started to enforce the policy Tuesday but cautioned that it ""will take time and will continue",Facebook banning groups that openly support QAnon,tweets_news_986,tweets_news
"

Aug 09, 2020( WayneDupree.com: https://www.waynedupree.com Delivered by Newstex) This subdivision in Ft. Collins, Colorado is great. Everyone who lives there looks like members of 'Bikers For Trump.'

It's gotta be one of the safest communities in America! It certainly was the wrong place for Antifa to try and infiltrate, that's for darn sure More from Wayne Dupree MORE NEWS: [VIDEO] Man Beats a 72-Year-Old Disabled Vet Unconscious in a Hotel Lobby Over a Mask Dispute[1] As you can imagine, when the spindly beanstalk commies lumbered into the neighborhood, these burly and very manly Americans were waiting for them. At first, the effeminate commies put up a bit of a fightand by 'fight' I mean whining with their high-pitched girly voices and saying things like 'hey, you're not allowing me to express myself bla bla bla' Towards the end of the clip though, an actual massive fight breaks out and those 'commie bastards' got their butts kicked on someone's side lawn. I like the one guy you can hear yelling, 'Everyone keep your hands off your weapons and just keep punching them in the face.' You can watch the video below:ANTIFA made the mistake of pulling their shit in Ft. Collins, CO,",[VIDEO] Antifa Makes Major Mistake Entering Ft. Collins Suburb.Burly Residents Beat their Butts on Someone's Front Lawn,tweets_news_987,tweets_news
"The White House issued the following statement on National Stalking Awareness Month:

* * *

Millions of Americans each year are victims of stalking, a disturbing crime that restricts an individual's ability to live a productive, peaceful, and fulfilling life. Throughout National Stalking Awareness Month, we recognize this form of bullying and intimidation and recommit to addressing and preventing this harmful behavior that devastates so many individuals and their families and friends.

Today, 1 in 6 women and 1 in 17 men experience stalking in their lifetime, and nearly 7 in 10 victims report knowing their stalker. Stalkers commonly target young people, with 54 percent of female victims and 41 percent of male victims experiencing stalking before age 25. Even if the offender relents, many victims of stalking experience long-lasting mental and physical aftereffects, resulting in prolonged depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Stalking is a course of conduct directed at a specific person to instill torment, fear, control, and uncertainty. Behaviors include unwanted contact, harassing family members or friends, leaving unwanted items, and lurking or appearing at places without invitation and/or a legitimate purpose. Increasingly, perpetrators are using social media platforms and technology to terrorize their victims. Cyber stalkers post private information, send illicit",President Trump Issues Statement on National Stalking Awareness Month,tweets_news_988,tweets_news
"Clinging to notions of widespread vote rigging that his own attorney general has disputed, President Donald Trump repeated a litany of baseless assertions Wednesday of political corruption, machine tampering and mysterious votes appearing out of nowhere that allowed Joe Biden to steal the election.

“This election is about great voter fraud, fraud that has never been seen like this before,” Trump said in a 46-minute address posted on social media.

“It’s about poll watchers who were not allowed to watch. So illegal. It’s about ballots that poured in and nobody but a few knew where they came from. ... It’s about machinery that was defective, machinery that was stopped.”

None of those assertions are true.

A look at the claims and reality:

VOTER FRAUD

TRUMP: “You can’t let another person steal that election from you.”

THE FACTS: To be clear, no election was stolen from Trump.

One month after the Nov. 3 election and as states begin certifying their votes, Trump is clinging to false notions of voter fraud. But others in his administration have already said the election was secure. Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department had seen no evidence of widespread fraud to overturn Biden’s margin of victory.

Biden earned 306 electoral votes to Trump’s",AP FACT CHECK: Trump's claims of vote rigging are all wrong,tweets_news_989,tweets_news
"One of the easiest things to predict about the end of Donald Trump's presidency was that anti-Trump journalists would eventually feel a heated rush of nostalgia about their heroic crusade to keep democracy from dying. But it came earlier than expected.

Alexander Nazaryan of Yahoo News wrote a piece for the Democrat-endorsing website The Atlantic that was originally headlined ""I Miss the Thrill of Trump."" He unintentionally caused laughter when he wrote: ""Covering the administration was thrilling for many journalists, in the way that I imagine storming Omaha Beach must have been for a 20-year-old fresh from the plains of Kansas. He hadn't signed up for battle, but there he was, liberating France. … This was our Omaha Beach. I, for one, would have rather been in Hawaii.""

Critics were quick to mock the idea that zinging Trump at a briefing was like the Omaha Beach scene in ""Saving Private Ryan."" CNN host Jim Acosta and the rest were all GI Joe with a kung-fu grip on the microphone. Reporters do risk their lives in war zones, countries with dictatorships and terrorist neighborhoods. That's what makes this kind of prose from Washington-based reporters sound so wildly exaggerated. But it ably illustrates the",Tim Graham: Reporters glorify themselves into GI Joe,tweets_news_990,tweets_news
"CNN's Jim Acosta said Americans will interpret President Trump's acknowledgment of the coronavirus' origins Wednesday evening as ""smacking of xenophobia.""

The network's chief White House correspondent told colleague Chris Cuomo that he would be ""asking questions"" as to why a nationally televised address referred to the virus, which originated in China's Wuhan province, as a ""foreign"" virus.

""Stephen Miller, who is an immigration hard-liner who advises the president, is one of his top domestic policy advisers and speechwriters, was a driving force in writing this speech,"" Mr. Acosta said. ""And I think it's going to smack, it's going to come across to a lot of Americans as smacking of xenophobia to use that kind of term in this speech, Chris.""

""Well, look. Sometimes we can answer the questions and the answer is he's doing it to put blame somewhere else,"" Mr. Cuomo replied.

At issue is the opening of Mr. Trump's remarks to Americans, which began as follows:

""My fellow Americans, tonight I want to speak with you about our nation's unprecedented response to the coronavirus outbreak that started in China and is now spreading throughout the world. Today the World Health Organization officially announced that this is a global pandemic. We have been in",Jim Acosta: Trump's reference to coronavirus origins 'smacking of xenophobia',tweets_news_991,tweets_news
"

Oct 06, 2020( Axios: https://link.axios.com/join/am-signup?source=aci Delivered by Newstex) The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday laid out Democrats' vision of a U.S. antitrust policy built to rein in Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook and other giant tech firms.Why it matters: The long-awaited staff report[1] on antitrust and Big Tech, which sprawls over 450 pages, outlines legislative and enforcement fixes that Democrats could enact should they hold the White House and both houses of Congress after November.Driving the news: The report finds that Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple all hold monopoly power of various kinds. It proposes a variety of updates to antitrust law to help reverse this concentration of power, including: limiting companies' ability to compete unfairly against third parties on their own platforms by either requiring online marketplaces to be independently run businesses or establishing rules for how such marketplaces can be organized;blocking online platforms from giving themselves preferential treatment or playing favorites with other content providers;requiring social networks to be interoperable so that people can communicate across platforms and carry their data over from one platform to another;directing antitrust enforcers to assume that an acquisition by a dominant tech firm is anticompetitive unless proven otherwise; andallowing news publishers to",House Judiciary's tech antitrust report urges sweeping legal changes,tweets_news_992,tweets_news
"JILL COLVIN

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - When former President Donald Trump was asked to list those he considers the future leaders of the Republican Party, he quickly rattled off names including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Conspicuously absent from the list: Mike Pence.

The former vice president is steadily re- entering public life as he eyes a potential run for the White House in 2024. He's joining conservative organizations, writing op-eds, delivering speeches and launching an advocacy group that will focus on promoting the Trump administration's accomplishments.

But Trump's neglect in mentioning Pence during a podcast interview earlier this month signals the former vice president's unique challenge. For someone who built a reputation as one of Trump's most steadfast supporters, Pence is now viewed with suspicion among many Republicans for observing his constitutional duty in January to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power to the Biden administration, a decision that still has Trump fuming.

To prevail in a Republican presidential primary, Pence may have to reinforce his loyalty to Trump while defending his decisions during the final days of the administration when the president falsely alleged widespread voter fraud, contributing to a deadly riot at the U. S. Capitol.","Pence re-emerges, lays groundwork for 2024 run",tweets_news_993,tweets_news
"Major sports including football, rugby and cricket will unite in a social media boycott over lack of action on online abuse. The boycott across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter channels will start at 3pm on Friday through until 11.59pm on Monday night. Athletes, broadcasters and sponsors are involved in the plans too, which comes amid a rising tide...

Major sports including football, rugby and cricket will unite in a social media boycott over lack of action on online abuse. The boycott across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter channels will start at 3pm on Friday through until 11.59pm on Monday night. Athl...

Major sports including football, rugby and cricket will unite in a social media boycott over lack of action on online abuse. The boycott across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter channels will start at 3pm on Friday through until 11.59pm on Monday night. Athletes, broadcasters and sponsors are involved in the plans too, which comes amid a rising tide of racist and sexist abuse directed on various social media platforms. Many are calling on the platforms to do more to stamp out abuse, with harsher punishments for those found guilty. Here is a look at some of those involved. Football The sport’s authorities kicked off",Sports and athletes unite to boycott social media over abuse,tweets_news_994,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

about it, she did the same. There are several occasions where questions were dodged. I think we had lots more about a wide variety of policy. The moderator still had a tricky job. There were interruptions, not as many as last week, but there were times when Mike Pence went on longer than he should have done.

He said in the beginning, Susan Page, the moderator, that they would have time to speak uninterrupted, she meant that. And when questions went completely unanswered, there wasn't any follow-up, even from her. I think it was a much more normal debate, and perhaps more of what people have been hoping for. The fact checkers will go all the way through and check these statements made by each of the individual candidates, to check exactly what was true. I think in terms of who one, it felt like a tie. Of course, we don't have the spin doctors here",Joins BBC News - 02:45 AM GMT,tweets_news_995,tweets_news
"

May 09, 2021( Prairie Pundit: http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/ Delivered by Newstex) <nl/ > Breitbart:[1] <nl/ >https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/html/SB00012I.htm <nl/ >Texas Senate Bill 12[2], a proposed law aimed at limiting the power of Big Tech companies to censor users in the Lone Star State, has won praise from Prof.

Adam Candeub, who was former President Donald Trump's point man on tech censorship. <nl/ >The bill, introduced by State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Tyler), declares big tech companies 'akin to common carriers.' It also includes a straightforward ban on viewpoint-based censorship by online platforms. <nl/ >Senate Bill 12, which haswon the support of Gov. Greg Abbott (R)[3], takes into account the modern practice of social media companies using both the online and offline speech of users as grounds for account termination. It bans censorship on the basis of viewpoints expressed both on-platform and off-platform, and censorship based on the expression of another person's viewpoint. <nl/ >Under the bill, users will also be able to obtain injunctive relief against the tech giants, overturning bans and other acts of censorship deemed to be in violation of the act. <nl/ >... <nl/ >This bill appears to follow the suggestion of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas by labeling the companies as common",Texas Senate passes bill to control Big Tech censorship,tweets_news_996,tweets_news
"A group of state attorneys general led by Texas are likely to file an antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc's Google and are working on potential litigation for later this year, a person familiar with the situation said on Friday.

The Justice Department is also moving toward bringing a case as soon as this summer, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Shares of Alphabet fell about 1.5% in after-hours trading.

Google - along with Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc - are under a series of probes into allegations that the tech behemoths use their clout to unfairly defend their market share, including one by the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel.

Opinion: Online giants Facebook and Google should pay their fair share for news content( https://nationalpost.com/news/world/online-giants-facebook-and-google-should-pay-their-fair-share-for-news-content )

Australia to force Google, Facebook to pay domestic media to use content( https://business.financialpost.com/technology/australia-to-force-google-facebook-to-pay-domestic-media-to-use-content-2 )

Google, Facebook and Apple stocks are getting slammed by reports of antitrust probes( https://business.financialpost.com/technology/alphabet-falls-to-lowest-in-five-months-as-doj-considers-antitrust-probe )

The federal probe of Google focuses on search, advertising and management of its Android operating system. The Federal Trade Commission settled an antitrust investigation of Google in 2013 with a reprimand.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading the multi-state investigation, said they were talking to companies who said that",Google likely to face antitrust lawsuits by U.S. Justice Department and state attorneys general: WSJ report,tweets_news_997,tweets_news
"Four Gungahlin town blocks sold for a combined $22 million on Wednesday with two bidders going halves in the available land.

The Canberra Business and Technology College paid $4.3 million and $5.1 million for property it intends to develop into an education facility, while plans for the remaining sites are relatively unknown.

During an at-capacity auction this week, Core Developments took ownership of two hotly contested blocks, after director Ryan Cappello engaged in a fairly fierce bidding war.

The developers paid a cool $6.85 million for the biggest site to go under the hammer on the day and more than $5.1 million for an adjacent block. The new owner of the 10,510 square metre and 6,822 square metre sites now owns a sizeable chunk of a vacant block within walking distance of the light rail.

Mr Cappello said it was too early to say what would be developed for the blocks, confirming a mix of commercial and residential projects.

""We're going to supply what the market needs, it could be a combination of townhouses, a little medium-density and it could be a high-rise,"" he said. ""It's early stages.""

Currently providing training at four sites across Canberra, the vocational training college will look to consolidate teaching at",High-rise not ruled out for Gungahlin centre,tweets_news_998,tweets_news
"(CNN) -- While most of the nation was largely fixated over the past week on President Donald Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, the President and his allies in right-wing media have been engrossed with something else entirely.

Trump, with the help of outlets like Fox News, has been pushing a dishonest narrative in touting intelligence documents that his administration declassified last month on the eve of the first presidential debate. They claimed the information was a supposed smoking gun proving that Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration sought to frame Trump with a Russian collusion scandal.

But when examined closely the documents indicate no such thing. In fact, by the Trump administration's own admission, they are based on unverified Russian intelligence that could be totally bogus. Which is to say that the President and Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are hyping and disseminating information that originates from a foreign adversary to bludgeon top Democratic officials.

Trump and his allies have even gone so far as to demand or suggest that President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden should be charged with actual crimes -- again, resting much of their case on unverified Russian chatter and other cherry-picked material",How Team Trump used Fox News as a laundromat for unverified Russian information about top Democrats,tweets_news_999,tweets_news
"India, June 15 -- A former Canadian minister of Indian origin has publicly apologised for having supported in the past a proposed bill that would have banned Muslim women in the country from wearing the niqab, a face-covering veil, while taking their citizenship oath.

Conservative Party MP Tim Uppal, a Sikh, was the minister of state for multiculturalism in the government of then PM Stephen Harper in 2015 when he had backed the controversial bill.

His apology has come at a time when terror charges have been slapped on Nathaniel Veltman, a 20-year-old who had mowed down four members of a Muslim family in the city of Hamilton in Ontario on June 6 in an act of Islamophobia.

Uppal is currently an MP from Edmonton Mill Woods.

Uppal's mea culpa has come following the attack. In a Facebook post, he said he was the spokesperson for the proposed bill in 2015, but after his party was defeated in that year's general election by the Justin Trudeau-led Liberals, he spoke with Canadians outside the ""partisan political bubble"" and realised ""how this ban and other campaign announcements during the 2015 election alienated Muslim Canadians and contributed to the growing problem of Islamaphobia"".

He posted, ""When it came",Canada: Indian-origin ex-minister 'sorry' for backing proposed anti-Muslim bill,tweets_news_1000,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Joe Biden’s threat to revoke liability protections for social media companies in the name of combating ""fake news"" should concern us all.

In an interview with the New York Times, the 2020 front-runner endorsed the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which ensures that users and not the platform itself are legally responsible for what they post on social media websites.Tweet

Akin to ensuring that telecommunications companies aren’t held responsible for the content of phone conversations, Section 230 is a commonsense policy that allows for free discourse on the internet, subject to standards imposed by individual online platforms. Ironically, Biden’s stance echoes conservative politicians such as Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, who have also called for Section 230’s repeal. In their case, the two Republicans are looking to punish companies such as Facebook for what they perceive as censorship of conservatives.

While liberal critics such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi describe the law as a “gift” to Big Tech companies, the opposite is true. Repealing Section 230 would also affect smaller platforms and independent websites, especially those allowing comments on articles. Unlike Facebook or Google, these companies typically don’t have the necessary resources to moderate or",Biden just endorsed destroying social media as we know it,tweets_news_1001,tweets_news
"WATCHING the UK Government's ungainly wading through an unpleasant treacle of its own making, as it has continued its negotiations with the European Union on the post-Brexit relationship, has been nothing short of excruciating.

In spite of the whole Dad's Army or Laurel and Hardy vibe, there is nothing at all funny in the perpetually unfolding mess.

After all, the national embarrassment that this farce represents cannot be left behind when the curtain comes down on December 31 on the UK's very valuable membership of the European single market. Quite the opposite because it is at that stage that the country will have to pay the full price for the Tory Brexit folly, which has already weighed so heavily on growth and living standards in recent years.

The Cabinet's seeming lack of worry over a no-deal scenario must not be taken by people as a signal that this Brexit farce is just some sort of buffoonery. This is a real thing, and its effects on the economy and people's living standards over years and decades have been made clear by a vast array of experts. Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove said in 2016 that ""people in this country have had enough",Brexit farce is excruciating to view but this is UK's sad reality,tweets_news_1002,tweets_news
"•The tweet in question was shared by Dr Scott Atlas and reads: 'Masks work? No'•Atlas also shared places where he says 'cases exploded even with mandates'•Twitter subsequently removed the tweet, saying it violated the platform's Covid-19 Misleading Information Policy

The tweet in question was shared by Dr Scott Atlas and reads: 'Masks work? No'

Atlas also shared places where he says 'cases exploded even with mandates'

Twitter subsequently removed the tweet, saying it violated the platform's Covid-19 Misleading Information Policy

Twitter has removed a 'misleading' tweet from White House adviser Dr Scott Atlas who claimed that masks don't work.

In the tweet shared on Saturday, Atlas wrote: 'Masks work? No.'

Atlas, who has been on the coronavirus task force since the pandemic began in the US, then used examples of areas where he said 'cases exploded even with mandates'.

Atlas included the following locations in the tweet: Los Angeles, Miami, Hawaii, Alabama, France, Philippines, United Kingdom, Spain and Israel.

Masks and facial coverings are used to prevent people who have the virus from infecting others.

Twitter subsequently removed the tweet, but Atlas followed up with a response to the censorship.

'That means the right policy is @realDonaldTrump guideline: use masks for their intended purpose - when close to others, especially",Twitter removes 'misleading' tweet from top Trump Covid adviser Dr Scott Atlas that said masks don't work,tweets_news_1003,tweets_news
"US President Donald Trump threatened to impose regulations on social media platforms on Wednesday and is planning to sign an executive order related to social media on Thursday.

The president's ire with social media companies has been focused on his favourite platform, Twitter, which this week added a fact-check label to Trump's tweets, widely deemed to have been a false claim, about fraud in mail-in ballots.

""Republicans feel that social media platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,"" said Trump in a tweet.

Later on Wednesday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump will sign an executive order ""pertaining to social media"" without providing any specifics.

It is unclear what exactly Trump will aim to do, or if the president has an executive authority to regulate the companies under current laws.

Late on Wednesday, Twitter CEO and founder Jack Dorsey indirectly responded to the president, saying that the company would continue to point out ""incorrect or disputed information about elections globally.""

""This does not make us an ""arbiter of truth,"" Dorsey tweeted. ""Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can","Trump threatens social media with regulation, plans executive order",tweets_news_1004,tweets_news
"

Apr 24, 2021( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Facebook failed to stop far-right groups from planning to storm the Capitol, an internal report said. It showed that insurrection plans continued even after the ""Stop the Steal"" group was banned. ""Hindsight is 20/20, at the time,"" the report said, adding the company will ""do better next time.""

See more stories on Insider's business page[1].Facebook failed to prevent far-right groups from planning the US Capitol riots on its platform, according to an internal report.In January, pro-Donald Trump extremists broke into the House and Senate chambers[2] to disrupt the confirmation of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. The riots led to five deaths[3] and dozens of arrests.An internal report seen by BuzzFeed News[4] showed that numerous groups who gathered on Facebook continued to plan the insurrection even after the far-right ""Stop the Steal"" group was banned.Stop the Steal became the most popular Facebook group, accumulating more than 365,000 members in less than two days[5] before the social media site removed it for making ""worrying calls for violence.""The report, which was shared with Facebook employees in March, said Facebook users in the Stop the Steal group and other pro-Trump groups contributed","Facebook failed to prevent far-right groups from planning the US Capitol siege, according to an internal report",tweets_news_1005,tweets_news
"The margin between former Vice-President Joe Biden and Incumbent President Donald Trump is still razor thin with five states still too close to call. The states still in question are winner take all electors so if a candidate only wins by one vote, he or she would collect all electors according the to the Electoral College. A Canadian research has been done on screen time by teenagers and say that young people that spend more time watching TV, streaming videos, playing video games are more depressed and anxious than those that participate in extracurricular activities.

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Welcome one and all to CNN 10. My name is Carl Azuz. It`s always good to have you watching. If you watched yesterday`s show, this map might look kind of familiar. In the 2020 U.S. presidential race, votes were still being counted Thursday evening and there were several states in which CNN still had not projected a winner. Now that might have changed in the overnight hours and CNN.com will have the latest, but the candidates themselves were both saying victory was within reach. Yesterday, former Vice-President Joe Biden said he had no doubt that when the count was finished, he`d",Two U.S. Candidates Discuss the Vote; Study Into Teens` Screen Time; Company Aims to Improve Bees` Nutrition; Baby Rhino Makes His Debut. Aired 4-4:10a ET,tweets_news_1006,tweets_news
"

Jul 01, 2020( The Brad Blog: http://bradblog.com Delivered by Newstex) In case you need something to celebrate this July 4th, it will be just 200 days exactly from that date until Donald Trump will no longer be the President of the United States next January! ... Presuming he is not able to somehow steal a second term anyway. Let's not let him. Therefore, go celebrate Independence Day in advance this Saturday on July 4th!

In the meantime, as we work our way towards that glorious day, a few related news items of note on today's BradCast[1] [Audio link to full show follows summary below]... Wyoming Republicans are beating themselves up over...well, apparently being Republicans. Literally! A fist-fight broke out[2] over the weekend at the Wyoming Republican Party state convention in Gillette, as the party's extremist and less extremist factions duke it out, with one County Party chair who wielded an ax-handle and a pistol, versus another drunk County Party chair who ended up unconscious and in need of surgery as the whole debacle is investigated by local police. Grab your popcorn, because it's as insane as it sounds. We've got the blow-by-blow details!; As to the battle between the Democratic Party's",GOP Fistfight in WY; Dem Senate Primary Called in KY; Trump v. Democracy Everywhere: 'BradCast' 6/30/2020,tweets_news_1007,tweets_news
"THE US Justice Department moved swiftly to bring federal charges against 53 individuals accused of violence during nationwide protests that swept across the United States calling for an end to police brutality.

The US attorney general William Barr promised a crackdown on members of the anti-fascist movement known as antifa and other ""extremists"" he blamed for helping to drive the violence.

But a Reuters examination of federal court records related to the charges, social media posts by some of the suspects, and interviews with defence lawyers and prosecutors found mostly disorganised acts of violence by people who have few obvious connections to antifa or other left-wing groups.

Reuters reviewed only federal cases, both because of the allegations by the Justice Department about the involvement of antifa and similar groups, and since federal charges generally carry harsher penalties. In some of the charging documents reviewed by Reuters, no violent acts are alleged at all.

The US Department of Justice declined to comment on the findings and referred to an interview that Barr gave to Fox News on Monday. He said there that while his department had some investigations under way into antifa, it was still in the ""initial phase of identifying people.""

Looting and violence broke",Little evidence linking suspects to extremism,tweets_news_1008,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - A motorist rammed a vehicle into U.S. Capitol police on Friday and brandished a knife, killing one officer and injuring another and forcing the Capitol complex to lock down in an attack that police said did not immediately appear to be terrorism-related.

Police responded by firing on the suspect, who died.

Yogananda Pittman, acting chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, told a news conference that the suspect drove into the officers, then hit a barricade and got out of the car, lunging at them with a knife in his hand.

""It is with a very, very heavy heart that I announce one of our officers has succumbed to his injuries,"" she said, her voice choked with emotion.

The other officer was injured, she said.

The Capitol Police later identified the slain officer as William ""Billy"" Evans, an 18-year veteran of the force.

U.S. Capitol Police Officer William ""Billy"" Evans is pictured in an undated photograph.

""It does not appear to be terrorism-related but obviously we'll continue to investigate,"" said Robert Contee, acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington.

President Joe Biden said he was heartbroken by the attack and ordered flags at the White House be lowered to half-staff. In a statement, he said",Police officer killed in vehicle attack on U.S. Capitol,tweets_news_1009,tweets_news
"Donald Trump's ""alternative facts"" worked. A third of American adults still believe he won the election and he remains a threat to US stability, but Australia needs to embrace a new era anchored in reality.

In the face of a sceptical reporter, a senior Republican White House operative dismissed his views. Guys like you were ""in what we call the reality-based community"", he sneered. ""That's not the way the world really works anymore.""

That comment could very well have come from the Donald Trump White House. It did not. It was delivered by a senior aide to the previous Republican president, George W. Bush, more than a decade before Trump declared his candidacy.

But it was Trump who brought it closest to fulfilment. By creating an alternative reality so powerful that many tens of millions of Americans believe that fiction is fact. By creating a mass delusion so persuasive that he tried to establish himself as America's first dictator on the strength of it.

Even now, even after the mob invasion of the US Capitol and Trump's fall in disgrace, even after the unanimity of the courts' rulings, a third of American adults believe Trump actually won the election, according to the scrupulously non-partisan",Trumpist fantasy still captivates the odd Australian politician,tweets_news_1010,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

website. And it is not just information that has got in the ISD worried. What are the main conspiracy theories that are being spread on TikTok, regarding the election? What we're seeing here is a lot of conversations around the potential for through mail-in ballots, we have also seen Covid-19 conspiracy is of bleed over to political discussions.

One hype house account had a video two days ago, saying they can't wait for Covid-19 to disappear after November three, kind of left it hanging there, and the logical leap that people made in the comments made was Covid-19 has been used and manipulated by the Democrats to bash and criticise President Trump, and that after November three, it's going to simply disappear. This video was uploaded two days ago and by last count has 440,000 views, which are more than some news organisations could ever hope for some of their content. This video was posted by",Joins BBC News - 03:51 AM GMT,tweets_news_1011,tweets_news
"Perhaps you've heard that for the first time since its debut in 1966, ""It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"" won't be shown on network TV this year. That's a shame, especially now. If ""A Charlie Brown Christmas"" is a story of hope and growth, ""Great Pumpkin"" is a tale of failure and despair. Nobody really gets what they want. It's practically a horror movie. In other words, now's a great time to watch. I got a rock, indeed.

It is possible to see ""Great Pumpkin"" (and later, the Christmas show). They've been snatched up by the streaming service Apple TV+, and it will let non-subscribers stream it for free from Oct. 30-Nov. 1.

Why you should watch

'Great Pumpkin' on Apple TV+

Take advantage of that offer. If you haven't seen ""Great Pumpkin"" in a while, you may be surprised at how bleak a picture it paints. Sure, there are lots of things we associate with the holiday - costumes, trick-or-treating, carving a jack o' lantern, a Halloween party, bobbing for apples.

All of them wind up bad for someone.

Often it's Charlie Brown, of course, the Job of children's animated specials. In one of the show's most famous bits, Lucy goads him into kicking the",Cynicism of 'Great Pumpkin' comfortingly contemporary,tweets_news_1012,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news stories from the BBC News team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

and he is now in prison, serving four and a half years. Cath's son discovered far right material on his computer as a teenager. The more time he spent online, the worse things were getting. He was coming up with things like that the Holocaust didn't happen, and that Hitler was right.

How many of you have experienced or seen far right, racist material online? All of you? Yes. These students say online extremism is easy to find. How young were you when you first came across far right material online? Yeah I don't know, probably around 11, 12. 11? Yeah, but you spend a lot of time at a young age, online. I can imagine myself going down a different path, if I stayed ignorant and didn't make an effort to educate myself and naturally think about what I'm saying, then I would be a very different present if I am today.",BBC News at Six - 6:20 PM GMT,tweets_news_1013,tweets_news
"After one of the closest contests in American history, the House must now decide whether to unseat Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican.

Three months after its count of the presidential election results set off a riot at the Capitol, Congress has plunged once again into a red-hot dispute over the 2020 balloting, this time weighing whether to overturn the results of a House race in Iowa that could tilt the chamber's narrow balance of power.

At issue is the outcome of November's election in a southeastern Iowa district, where state officials declared Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican, the winner in one of the closest contests in American history. Ms. Miller-Meeks prevailed by only six votes out of nearly 400,000 cast in the state's Second Congressional District; in January, she took the oath of office in Washington.

But her Democratic opponent, Rita Hart, has refused to concede the race, pointing to 22 discarded ballots she says would have made her the winner if counted. Now Democrats, who hold the majority in the House and spent months pushing back on President Donald J. Trump's falsehoods about a stolen election -- including his claim that Congress had the power to unilaterally overturn the results -- are thrust",Review of Close House Race in Iowa Puts Democrats in Awkward Spot,tweets_news_1014,tweets_news
"Shortly after former Vice President Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, a crowd of roughly 150 demonstrators took to the Montana Capitol in Helena on Saturday to protest the vote count and voice support for President Donald Trump.

""We have to stand for Trump and just keep pushing and pushing and pushing until we are heard,"" Elias Waldner of Helena shouted while standing on the base of the Thomas Francis Meagher statue outside the Capitol building.

As the protesters chanted slogans such as ""four more years"" and ""hold the line,"" some held signs that read ""Justice,"" ""Honest Elections"" and ""Stop the Steal."" The Associated Press reported that Facebook recently banned a large group called ""Stop the Steal"" after some members called for violence and claimed without evidence that Democrats are stealing the election from Republicans.

One of the demonstrators at the Helena rally said he would remain peaceful unless anyone tried to take away his rights or burn the flag, and many repeated the claim that the election is being stolen from Trump.

Waldner accused Facebook, Instagram and other media of trying to silence Republican views and encouraged those at the rally to speak up in favor of conservative",Trump supporters protest in Helena after Biden declared winner,tweets_news_1015,tweets_news
"(GlobeNewswire) - TELUS announced today that TELUS International, a leading global customer experience and digital solutions provider, was named to the Constellation ShortList for Customer Experience (CX) Operations Services: Global in Q3 2020. The technology vendors and service providers included in this program deliver critical transformation initiative requirements for early adopter and fast follower organizations.

This third-party recognition from Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research reinforces our teams longstanding commitment to providing outstanding customer experiences on a global basis, whilst simultaneously advancing the digital transformation solutions that drive such significant competitive differentiation for our customers in our increasingly digital world, said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO, TELUS. The entire TELUS organization is setting an inspiring example of what it means to truly care about putting our customers first and ensuring citizens have access to the tools and resources they need to stay connected to the people and information that matter the most.

TELUS International harnesses the power of next-gen technologies, digital accelerators and automation to create the best high-tech, high-touch omnichannel experiences that exceed customer expectations. Taking ownership of the end-to-end digital CX journey through the design, build and deliver phases to the optimization of results, TELUS International strategically partners with clients to drive",TELUS International Named to Constellation ShortList for Customer Experience (CX) Operations Services: Global,tweets_news_1016,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON: Twitter hid a tweet from President Donald Trump on Friday (May 29), accusing him of breaking its rules by ""glorifying violence"" in a message that said looters at protests in Minneapolis would be shot. Twitter's decision to step in, at a time of racially charged civil unrest in cities across the United States, escalates a feud between Trump and tech companies. It came just hours after Trump signed an executive order threatening Silicon Valley social media firms with new regulations over free speech. ""...These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen.

Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"" Trump's tweet read. Trump's message can now be seen only after clicking on a notice which says: ""This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."" READ: Minnesota calls in National Guard to quell unrest over black man's death in police custody Trump responded with another tweet about six",Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet about Minneapolis protests for 'glorifying violence',tweets_news_1017,tweets_news
"But it&#39;s not clear how Facebook should deal with them or how we should deal with Facebook.

I was on my iPhone the other day when I heard the first furtive whispers about Big Tech’s silencing of Senator Josh Hawley. Since Jan. 6, when the Missouri Republican was photographed fist-pumping his support for some of the very fine people who would later storm the United States Capitol, Hawley has been all but banished from the media. Other than his frequent appearances on some of the most popular cable news shows in the country, his biting Twitter account, the Instagram account where he posts family snapshots and clips from cable hits, and his YouTube page collecting his nearly every utterance on the Senate floor, Hawley has suffered the worst fate known to a modern American politician: cancellation.

But as Nelson Mandela wrote while imprisoned on Robben Island, “Difficulties break some men but make others.” Hawley, in that spirit, has only been stiffened by his battle with what he calls “the titans of woke capital.”

When Simon &amp; Schuster dropped plans to publish Hawley’s book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech,” in the wake of the Capitol riot, the senator was undeterred. He bravely weathered nearly",Josh Hawley and Donald Trump Haven’t Been ‘Silenced’,tweets_news_1018,tweets_news
"

Mar 05, 2020( AmmoLand.com: http://www.ammoland.com/ Delivered by Newstex) OpinionLAPD Has No Excuse for Not Arresting DA's Husband for BrandishingLos Angeles, CA --(Ammoland.com)-[1] Embattled Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey has all but locked up a third term in office. She has been battling against reform candidates George Gascón and Rachel Rossi. Gascón is a former L.A. cop with an outlook of the police that has changed since leaving the force.

He planned to help perpetrators change their lives instead of 'just listening to victims' which has drawn condemnation from police organizations. Rossi called the current justice system 'archaic' and wants to bring 'humanity' to the prosecutor's office. She also stated she wants to 'stop being tough on crime' while looking for more way to reach those that commit the crimes. Lacey needed to get over 50% to avoid a runoff. She is currently sitting at just over 50%. Gascón has stalled out at 26%. With only provisional ballots left to count, there is probably is not enough votes to put Lacey under the required total off a runoff.In the days leading up to the election, Black Lives Matter protesters showed up at Lacey's house a little bit before 6:00 AM on",Los Angeles D.A.'s Husband Pulls Gun on Black Lives Matter Protesters,tweets_news_1019,tweets_news
"How do you respond when a family member participates in an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol?

""Is it the truth?""

— Rotary International's ""Four Way Test"" of the things we think, say and do.

On a week when the country should be coming together for the peaceful transfer of power and the inauguration of a new president, the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol reminds us that a majority of Republicans across the nation still believes the bizarre falsehood that Donald Trump won the election.

Many of us have Republican relatives and friends who continue to believe this big lie, contending that the election was stolen due to widespread voter fraud. The schism between fact and fiction, reflected in the widening rifts between families and friends, is painful for anyone who values truth, justice and the American rule of law.

I am sorry to say that my niece's husband was involved in the insurrection on that infamous day. I wrote the following letter to him in hopes that he will eventually embrace the truth: that he was manipulated by a corrupt autocrat attempting to overthrow American democracy.

Dear Louis,

Like most Americans, I was horrified to see our nation's Capitol overrun by domestic terrorists seeking to","Commentary: Trumpism fracturing families, friendships",tweets_news_1020,tweets_news
"•The letter was sent to to the director of human resources in the AG's office•Seven senior lawyers wrote that they reported Republican Paxton to 'the appropriate law enforcement authority' for potentially breaking the law•It does not offer specific allegations against conservative Christian Paxton•It is likely to deepen legal trouble for Paxton, who has spent nearly his entire five years in office under felony indictment for securities fraud•That case has stalled for years over legal challenges

The letter was sent to to the director of human resources in the AG's office

Seven senior lawyers wrote that they reported Republican Paxton to 'the appropriate law enforcement authority' for potentially breaking the law

It does not offer specific allegations against conservative Christian Paxton

It is likely to deepen legal trouble for Paxton, who has spent nearly his entire five years in office under felony indictment for securities fraud

That case has stalled for years over legal challenges

Several top deputies of Texas' attorney general have reported to law enforcement that their boss engaged in crimes including bribery and abuse of office, according to an internal letter.

In a single-page letter to the director of human resources in the attorney general's office, the seven senior lawyers wrote that they reported Republican",Top aides to Texas AG Ken Paxton - who is leading the attorneys general antitrust lawsuit against Google - accuse him of bribery and abuse of office in bombshell letter sent to TV station,tweets_news_1021,tweets_news
"The great historian Adam Tooze says yes, largely because recent events have made a tidy memory of that era come in handy.

Maybe we misunderstand all great events, as well as being blind to the consequences that flow from them.

Britain is telling itself that fighting COVID-19 has been very much like a domestic-only version of the war, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson alone in finding himself Churchillian, with PPE (personal protective equipment) being hustled on the black market and, remarkably, a gauze being cast over poverty as if it were a patriotic mission to endure it.

And, as Tooze writes in Foreign Policy magazine, green activists are seeking another New Deal, presumably post-Trump, which is unlikely, while both right and left refer to the wartime Bretton Woods Conference as if it were a kind of sunlit upland.

Equally, the anniversary of VE-Day (Victory in Europe) on Friday was celebrated, as always the underlying notion being that such a thing could be repeated.

What they forget, Tooze suggests, is the war and what it was.

It's one thing for China and Russia to use it as an emblem of revived nationalism, but ""the weird thing in the West is the peculiarly bloodless quality of people's collective",Do we remember the Second World War wrong?,tweets_news_1022,tweets_news
"U.S. climate policy hung a U-turn yesterday, with President Biden using his Inauguration Day to launch a domestic and international response to climate change that is diametrically opposed to that of his predecessor. The new administration marked the day by rejoining the Paris climate agreement, revoking the Keystone XL oil pipeline's federal permit and pledging to ""review"" a laundry list of Trump administration regulatory actions aimed at propping up high-emitting industries. The breadth of day one actions on climate change is in line with Biden's promise that the issue would be a top-tier priority for this administration, along with inequality, systematic racism and the coronavirus pandemic. Global action After an inaugural address in which Biden pledged to ""repair our alliances and engage with the world once again,"" his State Department sent the necessary paperwork to the Paris Agreement. The U.S. will rejoin the deal on Feb.

19 -- 107 days after it withdrew. The new administration in a press statement promised to ""exercise global leadership"" in advancing Paris' objectives. That said, the U.S. still must formulate a 2030 pledge that tracks with the Paris objective of containing warming to ""well below 2 degrees Celsius"" with efforts at a 1.5 C limit.",WHITE HOUSE: All the climate actions Biden took on Day 1,tweets_news_1023,tweets_news
"In the second instalment of our series recapping an unprecedented presidency, Joe Sommerlad looks at Trump’s early run-ins with the FBI as it examined his ties to Moscow

With his sons Don Jr and Eric left behind to run the family’s portfolio of hotels and golf courses and Melania staying in New York with their teenager Barron while he completed the school year (a separate security detail coming at no little expense to the taxpayer), Donald Trump entered the White House.

Riding roughshod over grave security concerns, the president was joined by his beloved daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner – like himself, a Big Apple real estate scion – and immediately set about tearing up policy he took exception to like a puppy savaging a Sunday newspaper.

Trump’s first week saw him set the stage for his proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act – bitter revenge for Barack Obama ridiculing him at the 2011 White House correspondents’ dinner over his “birther” conspiracy theory alleging the first black president was born in Kenya rather than Hawaii – and withdrawal from Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

Trump said he preferred to “deal directly” with other nations, an approach that would ultimately not serve him at",A travel ban and the Russia probe,tweets_news_1024,tweets_news
"As if Burr had caught the virus himself, fellow Republicans are maintaining a strict social distance. Thom Tillis, North Carolina's junior senator who's up for reelection this year, said last month that Burr 'owes everybody in North Carolina and the United States an explanation.'""

It's equally true in politics and firefighting: The smoke can kill you quicker than the flames.

Whether or not Sen. Richard Burr faces insider trading charges, and whether or not he's ultimately convicted, the scandal from his February stock dump is enough to effectively end his career on Capitol Hill.

Burr resigned his Senate Intelligence Committee chairmanship Thursday after the FBI seized his cellphone for a widening probe into his stock trades. The North Carolina Republican is suspected of having used privileged information to prevent steep losses as the coronavirus pandemic spread to the United States.

Burr sold between $628,000 and $1.7 million in stocks on Feb. 13, according to financial disclosures first reported by ProPublica. On the same day, brother-in-law Gerald Fauth unloaded stocks valued between $97,000 and $280,000.

A week later, the market tanked amid dire predictions that COVID-19 would derail America's high-octane economy. Burr's sale included holdings in two hotel chains whose share prices plunged as virus fears",Burr won't recover from stock scandal,tweets_news_1025,tweets_news
"TORONTO - Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday said the United States had blocked the delivery of nearly three million face masks at the American border over the weekend.

Ford said restrictions on shipments at the U.S. border have left the province with just one more week's worth of personal protective equipment for health-care workers fighting the coronavirus outbreak in Ontario.

In a statement today, he says Ontario is ramping up its own production of personal protective equipment, but most of those supplies are weeks away from being in the hands of front-line health workers.

At least 451 health-care workers in Ontario have tested positive for COVID-19, representing about 10 per cent of all cases in the province.

In all, Ontario reported 309 new COVID-19 cases today, including 13 new deaths. There have now been a total of 4,347 cases in the province, including 1,624 patients who have recovered and 132 deaths.

Allies of the United States are complaining about its ""Wild West"" tactics in outbidding or blocking shipments to buyers who have already signed deals for medical equipment.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sidestepped reporters' questions about the incident on Monday, saying his government was in productive talks with the United States and adding: ""We expect",COVID-19 live: Doug Ford says U.S. blocked delivery of three million face masks to Canada,tweets_news_1026,tweets_news
"No need to wait until tomorrow morning to see what's in the papers - tune in for a lively and informed conversation about the next day's headlines.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

China, and authorities all over the world are trying to batten down the hatches. In the US you have passengers coming from the province being checked and those coming from the UK are reporting that they have been handed leaflets. How do authorities reacted to clamp down on this? Currently up to 10,000 people are meant to be infected in China alone and the death toll has been about 17 and the origins are said to be from snakes.

Reminiscent to SARS which happened a few years ago and that was said to be caused by bats, in the caves of China, so this is another animal respiratory problem. But given that thousands of people infected, it is noteworthy that thankfully the fatality rate is only in the dozen or so, comparatively low. Hopefully fingers crossed, the headlines",The Papers - 10:45 PM GMT,tweets_news_1027,tweets_news
"Letters to the editor, February 3, 2021

SD deserves a full-time governor

Most American taxpayers get to freely choose if they want to contribute to a political campaign, but not the hard-working taxpayers who reside in South Dakota. Kristi Noem decided that we should spend $100,000 to $500,000 (we don't know which figure is correct because she refuses to publicly disclose the actual amount) to fund her trips in behalf of the failed campaigns of Donald Trump and the Republican candidates for the two Georgia Senate seats.

Representative Taffy Howard had the sheer audacity to ask for a public accounting of the taxpayer's money that was spent, and for her efforts all she got was an illegal text sent to the voters in her District that compared Her to Joe Stalin, and a not so thinly veiled threat from the Governor's Office that any legislation that she sponsored or supported would be summarily defeated.

The story in last week's Journal revealed that Noem was away from Pierre between 30 and 40 days last fall, most of us are lucky to get 2 weeks paid vacation a year. We all want more transparency in all levels of Government, a good start would be a full","Letters to the editor, February 3, 2021",tweets_news_1028,tweets_news
"Twitter was wrong to block we-blinks to an unverified political story, CEO Jack Dorsey said Friday, as the company responded to criticism over its handling of the story that had prompted cries of censorship from the right.

Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement to fix, he tweeted. Our goal is to attempt to add context, and now we have capabilities to do that.

After initially blocking people from sharing links to the story Wednesday, on Friday Twitter was letting its users post the link. It served as a demonstration of how quickly things can change when it comes to social media, misinformation and the U.S. election as companies try to navigate unprecedented times.

Dorsey was weighing in after an executive at the social media company announced changes late Thursday to its policy on hacked content following an onslaught of criticism.

Twitter will no longer remove hacked material unless it s directly shared by hackers or those working with them, the company s head of legal, policy, trust and safety, Vijaya Gadde, said in a Twitter thread. Instead of blocking links from being shared, tweets will be labeled to provide context, Gadde said.

We want to address the concerns",ELECTION 2020; CEO says Twitter was wrong to block links to critical Biden story,tweets_news_1029,tweets_news
"

Nov 11, 2020( Dissident Voice: http://www.dissidentvoice.org Delivered by Newstex) https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/09/the-war-on-populism-the-final-act/51dopsjmwsl-_sx322_bo1204203200_/Okay, so, that was not cool. For one terrifying moment there, it actually looked like GloboCap was going to let Russian-Asset Hitler win. Hour after hour on election night, states on the map kept turning red, or pink, or some distinctly non-blue color.

WisconsinMichigan Georgia Florida. It could not be happening, and yet it was. What other explanation was there? The Russians were stealing the election again! But, of course, GloboCap was just playing with us. They're a bunch of practical jokers, those GloboCap guys. Naturally, they couldn't resist the chance to wind us up just one more time. Seriously, though, while I enjoy a good prank, I still have a number of liberal friends, many of whom were on the verge of suffering major heart attacks as they breathlessly waited for the corporate media to confirm that they had successfully voted a literal dictator[1] out of power. (A few of them suffer from IBS or other gastrointestinal disorders, so, in light of the current toilet paper shortage caused by the Return of the Apocalyptic Plague, toying with them like that was especially cruel.) But, whatever. That's water under the bridge. The",The War is Over GloboCap Triumphs!,tweets_news_1030,tweets_news
"The remarks by the Delaware Democrat signal the panel is poised to make social media accountability a top priority in its oversight efforts under Democratic control.

Sen. Chris Coons said Thursday he's ""very likely"" to call on tech executives - including the CEOs of Twitter and Facebook - to testify before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy and technology, which he was recently tapped to lead.

Key context: The remarks by the Delaware Democrat signal the panel is poised to make social media accountability a top priority in its oversight efforts under Democratic control. Coons and other members of his subcommittee are expected to play a major role in coming months in congressional debates about content moderation, online misinformation and data privacy.

Planning to get answers: Coons said he expects the panel will push to bring in top Silicon Valley executives for hearings, including the chiefs of Twitter and Facebook.

""We held hearings in the full committee last year that included one - particularly, famously - [with] Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg from Twitter and Facebook, and I think there's reason for us to ask them to come before us again,"" he said in an interview.

Coons said his hearing plans aren't final and that","Coons considering hauling in Facebook, Twitter CEOs for hearing",tweets_news_1031,tweets_news
"While India has not slipped further on the World Press Freedom Index 2021 published by the international journalism not-for profit body, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), however, it continues to be counted among the countries classified ""bad"" for journalism and is termed as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their jobs properly.

The latest index released on Tuesday ranks 180 countries, topped, yet again, by Norway followed by Finland and Denmark, while Eritrea is at the bottom. China is ranked 177, and is only above North Korea at 179 and Turkmenistan at 178.

India is ranked 142, same as last year, after it had consistently slid down from 133 in 2016. In the South Asian neighbourhood, Nepal is at 106, Sri Lanka at 127, Myanmar (before the coup) at 140, Pakistan at 145 and Bangladesh at 152.

The report released on Tuesday stated that India shares the ""bad"" classification with Brazil, Mexico and Russia.

For India, the latest report has blamed an environment of intimidation created by BJP supporters for any critical journalist, who, the report said, is marked as ""anti-state"" or ""anti-national"".

It said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ""tightens his grip on media"". With ""four journalists killed in connection","World Press Freedom index: India retains 142 of 180 spot, remains 'one of the world's most dangerous countries' for journalists",tweets_news_1032,tweets_news
"

Mar 24, 2020( The ASPI Strategist: http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/ Delivered by Newstex) Sea state The US Navy has sent[1] a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to test a Royal Australian Navy task group's air defences. The deployment and exercise were part of the RAN's fleet certification period. The aircraft is based in Japan with the US 7th Fleet and it worked alongside an Australian P-8A and a New Zealand P-3 Orion to test the task group. Australia is acquiring[2] 15 P-8As to replace its own Orions, 12 of which have already been delivered.

Thales and L3Harris will develop[3] unmanned surface vessels for military, security and offshore energy applications. The companies say the vessels would be well suited for clearing sea mines, a job which has historically been personnel-intensive, slow and dangerous. The first two of the Thales/L3Harris USVs will[4] enter service with the British Royal Navy and France's Marine Nationale this year. Flight path The UK's Farnborough International Airshow[5], one of the largest aerospace technology showcases in the world, has been cancelled[6] due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The cancellation of the biennial event, which was due to start in July, will have broad economic implications for the aerospace industry. In 2018, $286 billion",The five-domains update,tweets_news_1033,tweets_news
"

May 11, 2021( Bearing Drift: http://bearingdrift.com Delivered by Newstex) With Monday night's dramatic vote tally officially nominating Glenn Youngkin as the Republican nominee for Governor, it's time to take a quick stock of winners and losers during this process. Losers - Virginia Republicans This has to be said at the top: the idiotic choices made by the State Central Committee have only hurt, not helped, the Republican Party of Virginia. The twists and turns have been well-covered[1], so I won't rehash here. Instead, let's focus on the numbers.

Just over 30,000 votes were cast on May 8th (out of 50,000 filed, but that number is largely meaningless). There were 1.9 million Trump voters in Virginia in 2020. This means the convention attracted just 1.6% of Republican voters to participate in the Republican Party. Granted, a primary turnout wouldn't be in the millions either; but the last GOP Governor primary (in 2017) had 366,000 votes - over TEN times as many that participated in the GOP nomination this year. Consider that 366,000 a low-water mark, as well. The 2017 Primary was a one-sided affair with Corey Stewart launching attacks from the right and Gillespie (assuming the nomination was safely in hand) largely",Winners & Losers from the GOP Convention,tweets_news_1034,tweets_news
"

Feb 21, 2021( Techdirt: http://www.techdirt.com Delivered by Newstex) This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is That One Guy[1] offering up a definition of cancel culture[2]:Ooh, ooh, I know that one! It's another way of describing the mysterious and totally unfair phenomenon of applying consequences for being an asshole, especially if the person being so persecuted has money/power/fame.In second place, it's an anonymous commenter responding to complaints that Facebook blocking news in Australia has brought the country to its knees[3]:If an entire country is brought to its knees because of a single corporation, that is a sign of a bigger and entirely different problem than a link tax.For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with virusdetected[4] and a comment about the North Dakota lawmaker who clearly does not understand Section 230[5]:""Even though I don't understand this problem, or whether there is a problem, I was elected to solve it..."" I continue to be disgusted by the ignorance continually demonstrated by those we elect to positions where they can directly influence the instantiation of new laws and regulations. I suspect that the ranks of elected officials would be severely reduced if each one had to",Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt,tweets_news_1035,tweets_news
"•Protesters have reported finding large stashes of the makeshift weapons•Videos from New York City, Kansas City, Dallas and Fayetteville in North Carolina all appear to show piles of bricks unattended in the middle of protests•The footage has led to suggestions the slabs were either planted by police or by extremists to overshadow peaceful protests after the death of George Floyd•'Looks like a set up to me,' tweeted protest supporter and rapper ICE T•Officials are investigating whether extremist groups have infiltrated the protests

Protesters have reported finding large stashes of the makeshift weapons

Videos from New York City, Kansas City, Dallas and Fayetteville in North Carolina all appear to show piles of bricks unattended in the middle of protests

The footage has led to suggestions the slabs were either planted by police or by extremists to overshadow peaceful protests after the death of George Floyd

'Looks like a set up to me,' tweeted protest supporter and rapper ICE T

Officials are investigating whether extremist groups have infiltrated the protests

Pallets of bricks have 'randomly' appeared during protests across the US this weekend, sparking theories they were planted to stoke violence.

Those taking part in demonstrations against police brutality and the death of black man George Floyd have reported","Pallets of bricks 'randomly' appear during protests in NYC, Kansas City, Dallas and North Carolina sparking theories they were planted by cops or extremists to stoke violence",tweets_news_1036,tweets_news
"

Jan 27, 2021( The Huffington Post: https://www.huffpost.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Poor Maria Bartiromo[1]. The Fox Business[2]and Fox News[3] personality complained Tuesday about losing followers on Twitter after her guest, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), called for conservatives not to 'bow down to the woke mob.' (Watch the clip below.)Hawley, a diehard fan of ex-President Donald Trump, has been harping about an imagined liberal plot [4]to silence Republicans since a mob of Trump-supporting extremists stirred in part by Hawley himself attacked the U.S. Capitol.

He lost a book contract because of his election denialism and wrote in a New York Post op-ed[5]that he was being muzzled.Bartiromo who had several tweets flagged by Twitter for 'misleading' content about the election, Newsweek noted [6]commiserated with Hawley in a segment on Fox News titled 'The Left's Censorship Obsession.''Yeah, I had right around the election 1 million followers on Twitter,' Bartiromo said. 'Now I have under 900,000. Literally in a couple of weeks. I don't know what's going on there!'Please say a prayer for Maria Bartiromo tonight pic.twitter.com/YffMyVjXqH[7] Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 27, 2021[8] Bartiromo, whose Twitter following stood at 894,000 as of Wednesday morning, was likely feeling the effects of the social media company'sbanning of QAnon",Maria Bartiromo Complains She's Losing Twitter Followers,tweets_news_1037,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Lip service to the 'freedom of speech' crusade has morphed into a declaration of loyalty (or of submission) to the right.

FULL TEXT

""Look! Over there! Freedom of speech under attack!"" That's the shouting you can hear from Australia's right as they desperately try to divert attention from the failed insurrection by their Trumpian allies over the Pacific. It's part distraction, part bullying and part trolling. And apparently it's a smart ploy, as plenty of traditional media have fallen for it. The Nine mastheads front-paged the concerns all week, perhaps over-excited about finding unlikely allies in their continued war against the big tech platforms. Big tech still has many, many problems but the current deep cleanse promises a better, more human, social media. It looks like the platforms have been waiting for an opportunity as Trump fades. They've got it, and they're not going to waste it. Australia's right (in parliament and in the media) has been actively complicit in normalising Trump and injecting his white supremacist populism into Australian politics. Now, in the US backlash to the Trump-inspired revolt, they've been found out. The recent social media bans directly confront that normalisation: it's too much for Twitter, but it's OK for",Distraction and trolling: Australia's right and its freedom of speech diversion,tweets_news_1038,tweets_news
"The Trump administration's suit is the most concrete manifestation yet of Washington's growing bipartisan anger at the tech giants' heft and wealth.

The Justice Department and several Republican-led states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on Tuesday, unleashing the might of the U.S. government against one of Silicon Valley's most powerful companies.

Attorney General William Barr hailed the complaint as a ""monumental case."" Eleven Republican attorneys general - representing Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina and Texas - signed on to the complaint, which was filed in Washington, D.C., federal court.

The Trump administration's suit, coming just two weeks before Election Day, is the most concrete manifestation yet of Washington's growing bipartisan anger at tech giants' heft and wealth. But with no Democratic attorneys general joining DOJ's case, the lawsuit could face an uncertain future in a potential Joe Biden administration.

Dozens of states - both Republican and Democratic - have been investigating Google on a range of antitrust allegations. DOJ and the states had spent months attempting to find common ground.

The suit and the ask: DOJ's complaint accuses Google of abusing its command of the online search market to stifle competitors. The complaint itself does not say exactly",Trump administration launches antitrust salvo against Google,tweets_news_1039,tweets_news
"2020 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY

OLDMACHER New York Times News Service

MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA - A nearly yearlong run of goodwill between two of the leading progressives in the 2020 presidential race, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, appears to be evaporating in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses.

On Sunday, Warren said she was ""disappointed"" that Sanders' campaign had been using a call script for volunteers that suggested she was appealing mainly to highly educated voters and would not be able to expand the Democratic Party coalition.

""I was disappointed to hear that Bernie is sending his volunteers out to trash me,"" Warren said. ""I hope Bernie reconsiders and turns his campaign in a different direction.""

After months of studiously avoiding any negative words about Sanders, Warren went on to cite the divisiveness of the 2016 primary between Sanders and Hillary Clinton, suggesting it helped President Donald Trump. ""We all saw the impact of the factionalism in 2016, and we can't have a repeat of that,"" she warned. ""Democrats need to unite our party, and that means pulling in all parts of the Democratic coalition.""

The volunteer call script was first reported by Politico, and its authenticity was not disputed by the Sanders campaign. It begins:",Warren says Sanders sent volunteers 'out to trash me',tweets_news_1040,tweets_news
"The board said Donald Trump ""created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible"" with his comments regarding the January 6 rampage by his supporters at the US Capitol. FILE: Former US President Donald Trump. Picture: . | WASHINGTON - Facebook's independent oversight board on Wednesday upheld a ban on former US president Donald Trump...

The board said Donald Trump ""created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible"" with his comments regarding the January 6 rampage by his supporters at the US Capitol. FILE: Former US President Donald Trump. Picture: . | WASHINGTON - Face...

The board said Donald Trump ""created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible"" with his comments regarding the January 6 rampage by his supporters at the US Capitol. FILE: Former US President Donald Trump. Picture: . | WASHINGTON - Facebook's independent oversight board on Wednesday upheld a ban on former US president Donald Trump while ordering further review of the case, in a decision with a potentially far-reaching impact on the regulation of online speech. The board, whose decisions are binding on the leading social network, said Trump ""created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible""",Facebook oversight board upholds Trump ban,tweets_news_1041,tweets_news
"Two Texas judges say their religious beliefs give them the right to refuse to perform weddings for same-sex couples, and they’re taking their arguments to court.

They are suing a state judicial oversight agency for determining that a refusal to officiate at such weddings violates a rule on impartiality.

It’s the latest battle in a heated war between religious freedom and civil rights in the U.S. that is being waged in courts across the nation.

Brian Keith Umphress, the county judge of Jack County, about an hour northwest of Fort Worth, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The Republican says the U.S. Constitution does not require him to officiate at same-sex weddings, even if he chooses to do so for heterosexual couples. Umphress says the First Amendment protects his decision because of his religious faith. And his lawsuit argues that the judicial canon, or rule, at issue is unconstitutionally vague.

The state agency’s misinterpretation of that canon, the lawsuit says, subjects Umphress and other Texas judges to discipline if they “express views critical of same-sex marriage or homosexual conduct” or refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

The commission did not respond to a request for comment.

Umphress presides over the Jack County",2 judges sue for right to refuse to perform same-sex wedding,tweets_news_1042,tweets_news
"Key stories in the Iranian media from BBC Monitoring. For more information on our coverage of Iran, or to sign up to our newsletter, email monitoring@bbc.co.uk

CORONAVIRUS

To read the best of our Covid-19 coverage please click here. To set up thematic feeds of our content on the pandemic, please see here for details.

Rising infection rate among young

Deputy Health Minister Qasem Janbabaei has reported a ""worrying"" increase in the number of Covid-19 infections among Iranians under age 50, rolling news channel IRINN and Radio Iran (VIRI) reported. He did not give specific numbers.

Discussing ways of combating the pandemic in Bukan, West Azarbayjan Province, he reiterated government calls to take the virus seriously and warned that the disease will spread further if the public fails to observe social distancing and sanitary protocols.

No 'corona police'

In a statement, Iran's Law Enforcement Force denied having established a ""corona police"" force in country.

It came in response to a remark by the governor of the south-western city of Abadan, Zeinolabedin Mousavi, who had said that ""a health police force has been established to deal with people who do not observe home quarantine rules"", VIRI reported.

Abadan is located in the oil-rich Khuzestan Province and has seen an alarming increase",BBCM Iran Watchlist for 11 June,tweets_news_1043,tweets_news
"Continued from Page 1

ers soon moved across the street near the Thread City Crossing bridge.

"" All Democrats want to do is riot and destroy stuff,"" said Colchester resident Chris Tommasi. "" Trump is making the economy better, he's closing the borders. He's done a lot.""

The two groups occasionally bickered back and forth across the street, shouting over car horn honks and whistles.

Anti- Trump activists outnumbered the amount of Trump supporters.

"" I believe in democracy, science and justice,"" said Mansfield resident Beth Hudson. ""I don't believe Trump has represented himself well with any of those things.""

The events brought multiple audiences, men and women, young and old.

Columbia resident Lisa Napolitano attended the event wearing a "" Women for Trump"" cap.

Napolitano said Trump is not sexist or racist, as the media and Trump's opponents often make him out to be.

""The narrative that he's anti-women is nonsense,"" Napolitano said. "" Just because people say it's so, doesn't mean it is. They try to make like because you're a woman, you have to be a Democrat. Well, I don't think so. I never have been, never will be. I'm a person first.""

Across the street, several Eastern Connecticut State University students supported the liberal movement.

"" I","Trump supporters, opponents rally",tweets_news_1044,tweets_news
"

Aug 31, 2020( DownWithTyranny: http://downwithtyranny.com Delivered by Newstex) https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GJBZlLebfTg/X0wAMf893UI/AAAAAAAB09w/o1y0Qv-LZDAIZyho776mDYgC6sUp5sK4QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/KKKTrump.jpeg A new poll[1] for ABC News by Ipsos, isn't indicating that the conventions changed anyone's mind about Trump or Biden. Ipsos concluded that among all all Americans who watched at least some of the GOP convention-- about half of the voters-- responses to the RNC are more negative than the DNC. ""Slightly more than one in three Americans (37%) approve of what the Republicans said and did at their convention, compared to 59% who disapprove.

After the DNC, 53% approved of the Democrats' message... Biden's and Trump's standings, along with their running mates, remains unchanged from after the DNC. Currently, 31% of Americans feel favorable toward Donald Trump, unchanged from last week (32%) and similar to his standing before both conventions (35%). The same is true for Joe Biden: 46% feel favorable, virtually the same as last week (45%). However, more Americans feel positive toward Biden than negative, an improvement from earlier in August. Just over a third of Americans (35%) approve of how Trump is handling the response to the coronavirus, unchanged from the end of July (34%).""So what's a Republican operative class gonna do? Fear's worked for them in the",It's All About The Racism... And Fear,tweets_news_1045,tweets_news
"From the mid-2000s onwards, the digital revolution raised hopes of democratic transformation and strengthening in Africa. But it hasn't quite turned out like that. Now, almost a decade after the ""Arab Spring"", techno-optimism has given way to techno-pessimism.

African leaders have proved able to blunt the transformative potential of smart phones through censorship and internet shutdowns. When the internet is on, social media attracts more attention for spreading fake news than preventing election rigging.

What was once thought of as ""liberation technology"" has turned out to be remarkably compatible with the maintenance of the status quo. Or has it? Does this more pessimistic reading overlook genuine progress?

A new publication I co-edited with Lisa Garbe – Decoding #DigitalDemocracy in Africa – draws together the latest research on the extent to which digital technology has changed Africa … and the ways in which Africa is changing digital technology.

The articles show that we should not miss the wood for the trees: despite disappointment, digital technology has had profound impacts on African politics and society. But, they also highlight how much more needs to be known about digital technology on the continent.

Digital access and inclusion

A lot of recent analysis has focused on the digital divide in",Digital democracy is still a long way off in Africa: it takes more than technology,tweets_news_1046,tweets_news
"Conflicts - between journalists, editors and management - are the subatomic particles of journalism, without which not much journalism appears. But there has rarely been an internal editorial process so public as ABC managing director David Anderson's decision to delay an upcoming Four Corners episode about the Prime Minister and his connections to a QAnon conspiracy theorist.

Once again friction between the ABC and the federal government has thrown the national broadcaster into turmoil. As veteran investigative reporter Andrew Fowler, the last person to have a Four Corners episode delayed by ABC management, puts it: ""Four Corners is the single most important investigative unit in Australia. It's powerful visual impact has the kind of political clout that really worries governments.""

Yet for its detractors, staff at the program are operating as a journalistic vigilante unit whose overzealous reporting and intemperate tweets have plunged the ABC once again into crisis.

Four Corners' decision to pursue the QAnon links story about Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the shadow of a defamation suit involving Industry Minister Christian Porter - with the same reporter, Louise Milligan, at the helm - has placed an already irate government on a war footing with the public broadcaster.

After weeks of ignoring",44 Cornered,tweets_news_1047,tweets_news
"CNN —

The Justice Department has unveiled new criminal charges against two alleged Capitol rioters.

Kevin Strong of California was charged with three crimes related to the attack, including knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building without lawful authority, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. He confessed to breaching the Capitol in an interview with investigators and was arrested on Friday, according to the Justice Department. Strong told law enforcement he hadn't done any damage or attacked law enforcement, according to the affidavit.

Strong works for the Federal Aviation Administration and is a follower of the QAnon conspiracy movement, according to court documents. A day after the insurrection, an employee in the FAA's internal investigation branch contacted the FBI and reported Strong to law enforcement.

Prosecutors said a tipster told the FBI that Strong had been ""stockpiling items and telling others to get ready for martial law."" Based on that report, the FBI opened an investigation into Strong on Dec. 30, according to the affidavit. The FBI says it searched Strong's home on Jan. 16 and seized two guns owned by Strong's uncle and multiple digital devices, and that investigators found QAnon items during a search of his home.

Andrew Ericson",FAA employee and Snapchat live-streamer among two facing new charges in connection with Capitol riot,tweets_news_1048,tweets_news
"A veteran employee at the exam authority who stepped down last month following an outcry over a question on Sino-Japanese ­relations has said he was made a scapegoat and that he resigned under ""political pressure"".



In an interview with the Post, more than six months after the controversy erupted, Hans Yeung Wing-yu also defended the controversial university entrance exam question, which had asked students if they agreed with the statement that Japan did ""more good than harm to China"" in the first half of the 20th century.



""The whole incident was some kind of political manoeuvring,"" the former history subject assessment development manager said.



Back in May, the self-financing Hong Kong Examinations and ­Assessment Authority (HKEAA) scrapped the compulsory history question, posed to some 5,000 test takers, acquiescing to an unprecedented request from the Education Bureau after raising the ire of Beijing's foreign ministry office in the city and local pro-establishment figures.



The exam body was slammed for ""seriously hurting the feelings"" of Chinese people who suffered during the occupation in the second Sino-Japanese war, with the education minister stressing there was no room for discussion over the question.



An inquiry by the Education Bureau concluded last month that there were lapses in the exam","I was made a scapegoat, former exam official says",tweets_news_1049,tweets_news
"REUTERS: A US federal judge on Thursday (Jan 21) rejected Parler's demand that Amazon.com Inc restore web hosting services for the social media platform, which Amazon had cut off following the Jan 6 storming of the US Capitol. US District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle said Parler was unlikely to prove Amazon breached its contract or violated antitrust law by suspending service on Jan 10, and that it was ""not a close call."" She also forcefully rejected the suggestion that the public interest would be served by a preliminary injunction requiring Amazon Web Services to ""host the kind of abusive, violent content at issue in this case, particularly in light of the recent riots at the US Capitol.""

""That event,"" she added, ""was a tragic reminder that inflammatory rhetoric can - more swiftly and easily than many of us would have hoped - turn a lawful protest into a violent insurrection."" Parler and Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Amazon had said Parler ignored repeated warnings to effectively address growth in violent content, including calls to assassinate prominent Democratic politicians, leading business executives and members of the media. Researchers have said far-right groups at the Capitol had a",Parler loses bid to require Amazon to restore service,tweets_news_1050,tweets_news
"

Aug 06, 2020( International Business Times Australia: http://www.ibtimes.com.au/ Delivered by Newstex) Facebook and Twitter took aim at US President Donald Trump and his campaign Wednesday over a video post in which he contended that children are ""almost immune"" to the coronavirus, a claim they said amounted to ""misinformation."" In an extraordinary move, Facebook removed the clip from the president's account -- the first time it has taken down one of his posts for violating its content rules. The video -- an excerpt from a Fox News interview -- ""includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation,"" a Facebook spokesperson told AFP.

Twitter meanwhile said it had blocked Trump's official campaign account over a tweet containing the same video, in which Trump made the case for reopening US schools come September. A spokesperson for the San Francisco-based service told AFP the tweet was ""in violation of the Twitter rules on COVID-19 misinformation,"" adding that the campaign would have to remove it before being allowed to tweet again. Soon thereafter, the @TeamTrump account was active, suggesting the contested video had been taken down. ""Another day, another display of","Facebook, Twitter Take Aim At Trump 'Misinformation'",tweets_news_1051,tweets_news
"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's approval ratings are taking a hit from Canada's lacklustre COVID-19 vaccine rollout, according to a poll released Monday.

The Angus Reid Institute survey( https://angusreid.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021.02.19_Federal_Feb.pdf ) found Trudeau's approval rating dropped five points since January to 45 per cent, with a majority of Canadians believing the Liberal government has done a bad job procuring the coronavirus vaccines.

""One key determinant in the coming months will be whether a long-promised arrival of significant vaccine supply enables the Trudeau government to emerge from this period without major damage to its electoral prospects,"" said the report detailing the findings.

Thirty-three per cent of respondents in the self-commissioned survey said they strongly disapproved of Trudeau's performance, while nine per cent said they strongly approved.

About 36 per cent moderately approved of the Liberal leader, while 19 per cent said they moderately disapproved.

Ottawa has been abuzz with speculation that Trudeau, who leads a minority Liberal government, might call a spring election.

Canada has inked contracts with vaccine manufacturers for more than enough doses for each Canadian. Delivery, however, has been rocky, with both Pfizer and Moderna experiencing production delays that meant reduced or no deliveries to Canada in recent weeks.

Nearly one year into the pandemic, the poll",COVID-19: Trudeau's popularity dips due to vaccine rollout: poll,tweets_news_1052,tweets_news
"Other prominent users include members of the Trump campaign team and family, and Katie Hopkins

The social media app Parler is seeing an uptick in users including many Conservative MPs

The platform, which was launched in August 2018, markets itself as an alternative to Twitter.

It describes itself as an ""a non-biased free speech driven entity.""

Recently, Twitter has been criticised for its policy towards the tweets of tweets of president Donald Trump, which has included hiding his inflammatory content behind a warning label or fact-checking them.

However, Parler hosts many far-right figureheads who have been removed from other platforms.

What is Parler?

Parler is used similarly to Twitter. Users post ""Parleys"" that can be commented on, ""echoed"" (like retweets) and voted on.

It is available on the web, as well as on the App Store for Apple users and the Google Play Store for Android users.

In May 2019, founder John Matze said the site had approximately 100,000 users in total. In June, 200,000 Saudi Arabian users joined the site to protest claimed censorship from Twitter.

Twitter had approximately 326 million users at the time.

How is Parler different from Twitter?

The most prominent difference between the social media sites, apart from their size, is their attitudes towards content on their",Parler: What is the app that MPs and right-wing celebrities are joining?,tweets_news_1053,tweets_news
"LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and a Los Angeles-based political action committee have reached a settlement that bars the Georgia Republican from blocking anyone from her public Twitter account or other social media while she's in office.

Greene also agreed to pay $10,000 to cover legal fees for MeidasTouch LLC, which plans to donate the money to two nonprofit groups, according to Ben Meiselas, the PAC's co-founder and a lawyer whose clients have included former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

The deal was approved last Friday, he said.

“This was a swift and impactful resolution we are proud of,” Meiselas said in an email.

A telephone message seeking comment on the settlement was left at Greene's Washington, D.C., office Thursday.

Greene doesn't acknowledge any wrongdoing in the agreement, which says all parties reached the deal to avoid “the risk, inconvenience and expense of litigation.”

MeidasTouch sued Greene in February, contending that she violated its First Amendment rights by blocking it from one of her Twitter accounts after the PAC posted critical comments.

MeidasTouch bills itself as being “dedicated to exposing and opposing anti-democratic politicians.” It has posted numerous videos, many of them excoriating former President Donald Trump, and has more than a half-million Twitter",Rep. Greene agrees not to block critics from Twitter account,tweets_news_1054,tweets_news
"When talking about the complexities of news, or how information is distributed in the 21st century, the word ""bully"" might seem out of place. But as Facebook threatens to cut off access to sharing news in response to a proposed Australian law, it's hard not to think that bullying might be exactly what is going on.

Here's the (slightly complicated) situation: in April of this year, after an 18-month inquiry into the role of digital platforms, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was asked by the government there to develop a code to address the imbalance in power between digital platform businesses such as Facebook and news organizations.

In July, the ACCC announced that its solution was to enforce a set of rules in which Facebook and Google would have to negotiate prices to have news pieces from vetted news organizations shared on their platforms.

If they cannot, a panel will arbitrate a final, binding price. Finally, Facebook or Google would have to inform news companies of any changes to their algorithms that would negatively impact the news business. In response, Facebook threatened to simply ban the sharing of news links on its platform in the country. Hence the justified use of the",Facebook's threat to stop distributing news in Australia is the act of a bully - and sometimes the only way to stop bullies is to use force,tweets_news_1055,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

the world has effectively been banned. Without directly referencing the flag, the US Defense Secretary Mark Esper issued a memo prohibiting what he called ""divisive symbols"". Recent protests have renewed calls to ban the flag across the US. China is preparing for a weekend of heavy rain as 15 million people in central and southern China experience their worst flooding in decades. More than 140 people are missing since the floods began last month.

Now on BBC News, it's time for Click. This week: cleaning up the social network. Adding your mask on. And... Breaking Bad with Giancarlo Esposito. Hey, welcome to Click and wear a mask. It is the advice you are given, just do it, it's not a problem. In fact in some part of the world is just the norm anyway. So do it. Hey Lara. Hello. I hope you have been bending the metal bit over your nose, now I know about",Joins BBC News - 00:30 AM GMT,tweets_news_1056,tweets_news
"A child safety campaigner has questioned Instagram's ability to keep children safe on a new version of its app designed for under-13s, given its failures to protect young people on its existing platform.

Ian Russell's 14-year-old daughter, Molly, took her own life in November 2017 after viewing suicide and selfharm content on Instagram, leading him to say the app had ""helped to kill my daughter"". Molly, who attended Hatch End High School in Harrow, north-west London, had started viewing disturbing posts without her family's knowledge.

While the company made changes to its community guidelines after details of Molly's death were made public in 2019, including banning graphic self-harming images and video and adding 'sensitivity screens' to blur images, there was ""still too much harmful content available on the platform"" three years on, he said.

""Judging by their track record, it's very hard to see how they could guarantee a platform to be safe enough for under-13s to use,"" Mr Russell (inset) told i.

""Some of the platforms have made attempts to remove harmful content, but it's still there and still too easy to find. I accept it's a very difficult task, but I'm sure there must be something more that could be done.""

Instagram confirmed","Instagram still has too much harmful content, says father of Molly Russell",tweets_news_1057,tweets_news
"""I put the dishes in the dishwasher,"" my son said to me recently, as if it was a favour rather than something he should do just because.

This prompted me to write to you, Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook chief executive, with all the irritation of a mother whose last nerves were worked a long time ago when it comes to the abuses that thrive on your platform. I'd like to let you know: You get zero claps for doing a tiny right thing after doing the wrong thing for far too long.

You recently announced you are finally labelling the most egregious dreck that is broadcast on Facebook by President Donald Trump, after years of his escalating behaviour. But it's too little, too late. And it's too calculating. You and other Facebook executives keep hauling out the tired line: ""We know we have more work to do."" It's irksome. And you won't like me when I am irked.

You seem to be shifting towards labelling - after insisting recently to your employees that you would not budge on this - in reaction to a campaign to persuade advertisers to boycott your company, a movement known as ""Stop the Hate for Profit"". After years","Clean up your act, Facebook, or we're leaving",tweets_news_1058,tweets_news
"Cos that don’t pay at least 28% tax in any country to be impacted; US plan to come in conflict with 15% tax offered by India to co setting up unit here

The Biden administration's plan to slap additional levies on major multinationals is set to hit India's new tax regime.

Multiple changes were introduced in the tax mechanisms in 2019 to attract fresh investments in the manufacturing sector.

The Biden government is looking to introduce a new regime whereby global profits of multinationals, including US tech giants, will face domestic levies if they aren't paying a certain percentage of taxes anywhere in the world.

This would essentially mean that any American company that doesn't pay at least 28% tax on their profits in any country, will face additional levies in the US.

This is set to come in conflict with India's tax regime announced in 2019. It offered a 15% tax rate to any company that sets up a new manufacturing facility in India.

A key point to note will be how the additional levies will be calculated, according to tax experts.

“While the normal corporate tax rate in India is not low, this could impact any US MNC if its Indian subsidiary is availing India's",Biden's Additional Levy Plan for MNCs may Hit India's Tax Regime,tweets_news_1059,tweets_news
"Manila, Nov. 20 -- Every day, 1.82 billion people access Facebook. They come from all around the world, speak thousands of different languages and dialects, and post billions of pieces of content every day - from photos to videos, to text.

Over a decade ago when Facebook started reviewing content, they relied on the users to report posts they thought were inappropriate. The report would then head over to Facebook's Global Operations team to manually review them and remove the posts if it has indeed broke the social media's policies.

As Facebook's users grew, this kind of approach is no longer sustainable. Facebook then developed how to moderate the content posted in their platform by having three teams, each with a vital role.

Facebook itself is a technology, used for communications for people around the world. And so, it is only natural as a piece (albeit, a massive piece) of technology, Facebook needs to further improve, specifically in areas where they can detect harmful content without relying on reports alone.

Some of the other ways technology works to moderate content include:

The vast majority of content Facebook removed is now detected proactively.

Between April and June this year 99.6% of fake accounts, 99.8% of spam, 99.5%",Using New Technology to Address Harmful Content on Facebook,tweets_news_1060,tweets_news
"-- While many Americans were stunned as they watched rioters descend on the Capitol and clash with police, there has been chatter for days on various social media platforms about the prospect of Wednesday's protests turning violent.

Ahead of protests organized to contest the formal counting of electoral votes in Washington DC, calls for violence could be found in discussions on Twitter, TikTok, right-wing platform Parler and an online forum formed last year in support of Donald Trump, according to research from nonpartisan nonprofit Advance Democracy.

On Wednesday afternoon, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, pushing through barriers set up around the building and tussling with officers in full riot gear. One woman was shot. Windows were broken. At least one Trump supporter was pictured standing at the Senate dais, while another breached House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. A Capitol police officer in the House chamber told lawmakers that they may need to duck under their chairs.

Before the protest, several TikTok videos promoting violence racked up thousands of views, with one user advocating for protestors to take their ""mother-[expletive] guns"" to DC, according to Advance Democracy. One TikTok video containing violent rhetoric had nearly 280,000 views.

TikTok removed two of the offending videos","Before rioters stormed the US Capitol, Trump supporters called for violence online",tweets_news_1061,tweets_news
"Documents link U.S. Congressional candidate Robert Hyde to an alleged campaign to surveil the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant

A Massachusetts prosecutor has asked a judge to jail Robert F. Hyde, a Simsbury man tied to an apparent surveillance operation of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

In the Massachusetts case, pending in District Court in Malden and unrelated to the Ukraine controversy, Hyde is accused of violating a protective order issued by a judge in Washington, D.C. on behalf of a political consultant with whom Hyde worked. The woman obtained a civil order of protection against Hyde, 40, last summer after a judge found that Hyde harassed and stalked the woman, called and texted her relatives and clients with disparaging comments, and tried to blackmail her, according to court records.

Hyde, a Republican candidate for Connecticut's 5th congressional district who lives in Simsbury, is facing national scrutiny following the release of documents by House Democrats this week which linked him to Yovanovitch and an alleged campaign to harass and threaten her.

He is free on a personal recognizance bond in the violation of a protective order case.

The Courant is not naming the woman because she fears for her safety.

Hyde",Prosecutor asks judge to jail Hyde for violating protective order,tweets_news_1062,tweets_news
"New Delhi, May 3 -- The world is coming together, and we are no more socially aloof. The great philosopher Aristotle said, ""Man is a Social Animal"". Indeed, this statement has time and again been proved appropriate. Human beings, from time immemorial, have worked their ways to become more and more involved together. Human beings have indeed come a long way. Once we had no clue who lives beyond our rivers.

Our society was limited to only one side of the rivers. Some dared to cross those rivers and met the people living on the other side. Soon we navigated across the seas and oceans and met people from other continents. Slowly and gradually over the centuries we travelled the whole world and learnt about each other. More and more we travelled, more and more we understood that we all are similar in some or the other way. Empires and dynasties came and went and World Wars were fought, which helped develop an understanding that all humans are equal and their rights have to be valued. We passed several phases such as slavery, apartheid, colonization, etc., which made us realize that we need to respect each other more. The world now",Moving ahead towards a unified and cohesive society,tweets_news_1063,tweets_news
"eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she was aware of ""distressing reports"" about a suicide video circulating social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok.

Australian parents have been advised to supervise their children's social media use as a graphic suicide video from the United States is being shared widely online.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she was aware of ""distressing reports"" about the video circulating social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Principals across multiple NSW and Victorian schools sent emails to parents on Tuesday suggesting they monitor their children's social media use or keep students offline for a few days until websites removed the content.

One school has prohibited students' access to computers or phones for the rest of the day, while others warned the video was being shared with seemingly innocent images of puppies and kittens to lure children.

Chief executive of eSafety provider Safe on Social, Kirra Pendergast, was presenting on the topic at a school on Tuesday when multiple students, about 12 and 13 years old, approached her afterwards to tell her about the video.

""This was not being discussed,"" she said. ""Parents don't know what to do, because there is no way to be notified instantly about things that",Parents told to supervise social media use as graphic video circulates,tweets_news_1064,tweets_news
"In normal times, Gof Thomson would head down to Puempel's Olde Tavern to watch as his party's candidate is sworn in as president.

But these aren't normal times.

The nation remains in the grips of a pandemic that has claimed more than 400,000 lives. Washington, D.C., is locked down under the watch of more than 20,000 troops after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, while state capitols are heavily fortified amid fears of more social unrest.

""I'm buying champagne, and I'm not sharing it,"" Thomson said.

The retired banker and former Democratic Assembly candidate planned to toast the new president privately, then join a handful of other progressives driving through downtown New Glarus Wednesday afternoon honking their horns in a socially distanced parade.

After four years of tumult under Republican President Donald Trump, punctuated by 78 days of false claims of a rigged election, Democrats watched and celebrated President Joe Biden's inauguration in the way that so much of life happens now: alone, online or outdoors.

""Obviously, people want to get together and celebrate this,"" said Jeanette Kelty, vice chair of the Green County Democratic Party, which hasn't held an in-person meeting in a year. ""Right now we just can't do it.""

UW-Madison professor Rachelle","AT HOME, ALONE, ONLINE, VIEWERS WATCH HISTORY PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION | WISCONSIN BEARS WITNESS",tweets_news_1065,tweets_news
"In a moment that feels biblical, the implacable virus has come to the president's door.

WASHINGTON -- Fate leads the willing, Seneca said, while the unwilling get dragged.

For his entire life, Donald Trump has stayed one step ahead of disaster, plying his gift for holding reality at bay.

He conjured his own threadbare reality, about success, about virility, about imbroglios with women, even about the height of Trump Tower.

As president, he has created a bubble within his bubble, keeping out science and anything that made him look bad. He has played a dangerous game of alchemizing wishes to facts, pretending that he was a strong leader, pretending that the virus will magically disappear and that it ''affects virtually nobody,'' pretending that we don't have to wear masks, pretending that dicey remedies could work, pretending that the vaccine is right around the corner.

Now, in a moment that feels biblical, the implacable virus has come to his door.

This was the week when many of the president's pernicious deceptions boomeranged on him. It was redolent of the ''Night on Bald Mountain'' scene in ''Fantasia,'' when all the bad spirits come out in a dark swarm.

The man whose father told him there are only killers and",Reality Bursts The Trump World Bubble,tweets_news_1066,tweets_news
"RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — It's been nearly three decades since Virginia's only woman to win a statewide race held political office. That drought will end in November when voters decide whether Democratic Del. Hala Ayala or former Republican legislator Winsome Sears will be their next lieutenant governor. Either will make history as the first woman of color...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — It's been nearly three decades since Virginia's only woman to win a statewide race held political office. That drought will end in November when voters decide whether Democratic Del. Hala Ayala or former Republican legislator Winsome S...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — It's been nearly three decades since Virginia's only woman to win a statewide race held political office. That drought will end in November when voters decide whether Democratic Del. Hala Ayala or former Republican legislator Winsome Sears will be their next lieutenant governor. Either will make history as the first woman of color to serve statewide. In interviews this week, after Ayala's win in the Democratic primary Tuesday, both Democratic and Republican women expressed excitement about the race and frustration that it's taken so long to get here. “I'm thrilled we will be saying ‘Madam President' come next year,” Republican",2 women vie to make history as Virginia lieutenant governor,tweets_news_1067,tweets_news
"David Peachey might joke it's only those Rabbitohs fans ""who have a long memory"" that remember him in the famed cardinal and myrtle colours, but reverence from supporters goes hand-in-hand with being a South Sydney player.

The passion of Rabbitohs fans and their fanatical support reaches comedic heights at times, with many keen to find that ""random Souths guy"" in one of the club's jersey in all sorts of unlikely locations and scenarios.

But it just shows the commitment of the fans who have been through so much.

Dubbo product Peachey reached icon status during 11 years with the Cronulla Sharks but he also became a key figure at South Sydney.

The fullback was one of the major signings at the club when Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes &#xE0; Court took over in 2006 and while he only spent two seasons with the Rabbitohs the fans never forget.

""That's one thing that's special about the Rabbitohs supporters though,"" Peachey told the Daily Liberal.

""They're there through the ups and downs, and sometimes there's been more downs then ups.

""But when you look at it they're the most successful club in the competition overall in terms of premierships won.

""They do recognise their past players and that was one",Running into a 'random Souths guy' is something former players cherish,tweets_news_1068,tweets_news
"The decision to allow the Chinese company to build part of the UK's 5G network is risky for Boris Johnson, both domestically and internationally.

London: Huawei Australia was quick off the blocks, warmly praising UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to allow the Chinese telecommunications company to supply parts of Britain's 5G network.

The decision was made despite fierce lobbying from the Trump administration, which said such a move could threaten UK access to intelligence shared with the Five Eyes network comprised of Australia, the UK, US, New Zealand and Canada.

While there is no doubt Donald Trump's lobbying was ineffective, given the British public is largely hostile to the President and it was constantly rolled up in the trade war with China, the same motives cannot be assigned to Australia, which has also warned against the move citing the potential for foreign interference.

As Liberal Senator James Paterson said this week, nobody regretted the decisions of Labor and Coalition governments - since as long ago as 2012 - to ban Huawei from building Australia's critical infrastructure.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull presented this case to the UK, arguing that Australia's intelligence agencies assessed that is was necessary to block the Chinese company from the","Britain thumbs nose at Australia, US, with Huawei 5G decision",tweets_news_1069,tweets_news
"A coordinated effort on Twitter to influence the upcoming U.S. presidential electionusing trolls (fake personas that spread hyper-partisan themes) and super-connectors (highly-networked accounts)aims to sow distrust, exacerbate political divisions and undermine confidence in American democracy, according to a new RAND Corporation report .

While researchers say they cannot definitively attribute this year's election interference to a specific actor, the tactics they observed on Twitter mirror Russia's longstanding strategy of playing off existing partisan tensions to create a sense of disunity among U.S. voters, and they also further Russia's interests.

Social media has made it cheaper and easier for foreign actors to mount increasingly sophisticated attacks on our democracy and our political discourse, said William Marcellino , the study's lead author and a social and behavioral scientist at RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group. Many Americans are immersed in online conversations that have been shaped artificially, and that are giving them a false and distorted picture of the world.

The RAND report is the second of a four-part series intended to help policymakers and the public understandand mitigatethe threat of online foreign interference in national, state and local elections. The first report concluded that the main goal of foreign interference is to paralyze the",Coordinated Efforts on Twitter to Interfere in the U.S. Presidential Election Are Likely Foreign,tweets_news_1070,tweets_news
"The Georgia debacle is a perfect example of the rolling collective action problem of our democracy. A collective action problem, simply put, is when there is a goal that would benefit everyone - in this case, confidence in our machinery of democracy - but the incentive structure for the individual players makes it impossible to cooperate to reach the goal.

The Georgia electoral mess goes back to the 2018 Georgia governor's race - and every faction in that state has made it worse over the last three years.

Former state Rep. Stacey Abrams ran for governor against then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who oversaw the legal but aggressive updating - critics say ""purging"" - of the voter rolls. Abrams claimed this was a racist attempt to disenfranchise Black voters.

When Ms. Abrams lost, she refused to formally concede, claiming Mr. Kemp had won the election because of ""voter suppression."" The charge is almost surely false. It was a huge turnout year, including among Black voters. Even if all of Ms. Abrams' specific claims were true, most experts think it wouldn't have come close to overcoming her losing margin of 55,000 votes. But her claim became gospel among Democrats and liberal pundits.

In 2020, Georgia",Incentive structures muddy Ga. election law,tweets_news_1071,tweets_news
"

Nov 23, 2020( Foreign Policy: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/ Delivered by Newstex) For many Americans who work in tech, Taiwan has become a model for the fight against disinformation. Like the United States, Taiwan is sharply divided on major issues, including national identity, China policy[1], and the legalization of same-sex marriage[2]. Urban-rural divisions[3] have further split Taiwanese society, and two major parties, whose relations have grown increasingly acrimonious, dominate Taiwanese politics. Yet unlike the United States, Taiwan is getting disinformation under control. Partly, that success is due to government crackdowns on groups that spread disinformation, Taipei's initiatives to improve media literacy, and President Tsai Ing-wen's decision to prioritize the problem, exemplified by her appointment of Audrey Tang, a software engineer, as digital minister in 2016. But the crux of Taipei's approach lies elsewhere: namely, in its ability to harness the power of its civil society and tech industry through a robust public-private partnership initiative.

In looking to Taiwan, the United States and other Western countries should focus on how the country has harnessed the power of partnerships—especially those between the government, third-party fact-checkers, and social media platforms—to hold back the tide of disinformation. There's no better example of this kind of coordinated action than",How One Social Media App Is Beating Disinformation,tweets_news_1072,tweets_news
"The following information was released by the Heartland Institute:

By David L. Applegate

With a more supine Congress, President-elect Joe Biden need not stretch his executive powers in the manner of at least the last two administrations, and his opportunity to get all the cabinet picks he wants just increased dramatically

Almost lost in the universal furor of President Trump's rally on the National Mall, the assault on the U.S. Capitol, and the second Trump impeachment is the GOP's loss of both United States Senate run-offs in Georgia. With two razor-thin runoff margins (1.0 percent for Ossoff; 1.8 percent for Warnock) Democrats once again have at least nominal control of the White House and both Houses of Congress for at least the next two years.

Over the four years of the Trump administration, Republicans and conservatives made great gains in federal appeals courts, including the Supreme Court. But because conservatives and conservative judges alike believe that the judiciary's job is to say what the law is and not what it should be, the courts are likely to be less active and more reactive than they have been the past four years.

With a more supine Congress, President-elect Joe Biden need not stretch his executive powers",WHO LOST GEORGIA AND USHERED IN DEMOCRAT DOMINANCE IN WASHINGTON?,tweets_news_1073,tweets_news
"The troubled lender helped the disgraced financier move money outside the U.S. for years.

Good Wednesday. Robert Mueller testifies before Congress today, and Facebook’s F.T.C. settlement may finally be announced — more on those stories below. (Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.)

Deutsche Bank’s Jeffrey Epstein moment

The German lender was already having a tough year. Now it has another headache: dealing with revelations that it helped Mr. Epstein move money outside the U.S. for years, David Enrich and Jo Becker of the NYT report.

Mr. Epstein became a client of the bank in 2013, after JPMorgan Chase dropped him, five years after pleading guilty to state prostitution charges. Deutsche Bank provided wealth-management services — including several dozen banking accounts — and loans.

Compliance officials raised alarms about Deutsche Bank’s relationship with the financier in 2015 and 2016, the NYT reports. They also flagged potentially illegal activity in one of his accounts, including the movement of money outside the U.S.

The bank didn’t dump Mr. Epstein until late last year, after The Miami Herald published an investigation into sexual abuse accusations against him. Even then, the bank’s antiquated systems made it hard to figure out how many accounts he had.

It’s the latest black",DealBook Briefing: Deutsche Bank’s Latest Scandal Is Jeffrey Epstein,tweets_news_1074,tweets_news
"International news from the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

been a target. There have been people who believe in this French conspiracy Fury called QAnon who believe that the US government. The US media. The Hollywood is led by the scab out of paedophiles and who one individual called cue is trying to expose and that President Donald Trump's former President on Trump is the only person who can take down the entire network.

Okay, Larry. Thank you for that and you're monitoring things and I'm sure we will speak to you over the coming minutes But just to bring our viewers up-to-date so if we take you to the US Capitol police Twitter feed they have sent they have tweeted an update and they are saying that the press staging area will be a two up a Senate Park near the fountain we are planning a two 45 pm briefing. So that's two 45 local time, Washington time, so that in around for no 15 minutes",BBC World News - 6:30 PM GMT,tweets_news_1075,tweets_news
"Platform fights suspension by service provider Amazon amid claims it was used to incite storming of US Capitol

More than a dozen Tory MPs including Cabinet ministers have joined Parler , the banned social media network favoured by Trump supporters and right-wing activists, according to a report.

The platform, which was launched in August 2018 and markets itself as an alternative to Twitter, reportedly has accounts linked to Michael Gove, the Cabinet office minister, James Cleverly, the foreign office minister, and Nadine Dorries, the health minister, among others.

The Observer, which first reported the story , said at least 14 Tory MPs were on the platform but there was no evidence any of them had posted content that could be considered inappropriate or far-right.

Milo Comerford, senior policy manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told the newspaper that platforms like Parler were attracting “a motley crew of ultra-libertarians, violent extremists and conspiracy theorists, as well as more mainstream ‘free speech fundamentalists’”.

A number of MPs allegedly joined the app last summer when protests against racial inequality were sweeping the world. At the time, Donald Trump became embroiled in a free speech row with Twitter which saw the site remove a Trump campaign video tribute",Tory MPs joined right-wing ‘free speech’ platform Parler – report,tweets_news_1076,tweets_news
"

Mar 22, 2021( How Appealing: https://howappealing.abovethelaw.com Delivered by Newstex) ;;;;; 'The Supreme Court of Georgia, A Retrospective': The Federalist Society recently posted this video[1] on YouTube. Posted at 8:16 PM [2] by Howard Bashman[3] 'Reconsidering Times v. Sullivan: An influential judge says the 'actual malice' standard needs revision.' This editorial[4] will appear in Tuesday's edition of The Wall Street Journal. Posted at 8:11 PM [5] by Howard Bashman[6] 'Professional services face losing junior staff to burnout; Mental health problems on the rise as Covid brings greater workloads coupled with a shift to solitary working': Kate Beioley of Financial Times has this report[7]. And Tim Kiladze and Tamsin McMahon of The Toronto Globe and Mail have an article headlined 'Working from home is causing breakdowns; Ignoring the problem and blaming the pandemic is no longer an option[8]' that begins, 'By conventional measures, last year was stellar for Erin Durant.

The pandemic had been tough, but as a litigator in Ottawa now working from home, her practice was busier and more profitable than ever.' Posted at 7:25 PM [9] by Howard Bashman[10] 'U.S. judges reject 'cut and paste' appeal in fight over default on federal loan for Harrisburg restaurant': Matt Miller of The","'Capitol Officer Brian Sicknick shared a central N.J. upbringing, support of Trump with the men now charged with attacking him before his death; A Jan. 6 encounter among three men from Middlesex County pitted them on opposite sides during the Capitol riot; Sicknick ended up dead; George Tanios and Julian Khater are now charged in his attack'",tweets_news_1077,tweets_news
"WALL LAKE, Iowa — On the heels of a June primary election loss that likely ended his lengthy career in the U.S. House, Rep. Steve King has stepped up his advocacy for keeping Confederate symbols in the public sphere.

The outspoken Iowa 4th District congressman also has repeatedly denounced the Black Lives Matter movement, which was rekindled across the country in the aftermath of a video showing a Minneapolis police officer killing an unarmed George Floyd in May.

King, a conservative Republican, has honed a national reputation for a series of incendiary comments on race and immigration during his nine terms representing a GOP-friendly district in western Iowa.

Floyd's death has sparked widespread protests calling for a series of police reforms, as well as the removal of public symbols that pay tribute to the Confederacy. Protesters have vandalized or torn down a series of statues and memorials to Confederate soldiers and generals.

Black Lives Matter and other groups also have spoken out against the ""Stars and Bars,"" the flag some Confederate troops carried into battle during the Civil War, arguing it has long been a symbol or racism and bigotry.

Until a few years ago, King kept a small Confederate flag on his desk in",Iowa Rep. Steve King defends Confederate flag as 'symbol of Southern Pride',tweets_news_1078,tweets_news
"A basket of deplorables, lowlifes, morally corrupt, socialists, communists, idiots, zealots, and nut jobs. The short version of a long list. This is the political language commonly found across the United States. In the not too distant background of these labels are stereotypes, class divisions, racism, and misogyny, which magnifies the intensity of the words.

Strong and vindictive language has always been present on the American scene but it has gained outsized purchase in recent years. During Obama's eight years and the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, many conservatives felt ignored, mistreated. and abused. During Trump's four years, liberals felt a harsh and cruel assault on the country's institutions and all they hold dear. Two sides at each other's throats. In this environment, are the calls for unity in any way possible?

Psychological research done over 60 years ago by social psychologist Muzafer Sherif and others may provide some insight into what might bring us a little closer together.

In their study, 11-year-old boys were sent to a remote summer camp and divided into two groups. During the first week, the researchers created an atmosphere of strong bonds within each group and intense competition between groups. Animosity, both physical and verbal, between the two",How we can really heal,tweets_news_1079,tweets_news
"BERLIN -- Far-right extremists tried to storm the German parliament building Saturday after a protest against the country's pandemic restrictions, but they were intercepted by police and forcibly removed.

The incident occurred after a daylong demonstration by tens of thousands of people opposed to the wearing of masks and other government measures intended to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Police ordered the protesters to disband halfway through their march around Berlin after participants refused to observe social distancing rules, but a rally near the capital's iconic Brandenburg Gate took place as planned.

Footage of the incident showed hundreds of people, some waving the flag of the German Reich of 1871-1918 and other far-right banners, running toward the Reichstag building and up the stairs.

Police confirmed on Twitter several people broke through a cordon in front of Parliament and ""entered the staircase of the Reichstag building, but not the building itself.""

""Stones and bottles were thrown at our colleagues,"" police said. ""Force had to be used to push them back.""

Earlier, thousands of far-right extremists threw bottles and stones at police outside the Russian Embassy. Police detained about 300 people throughout the day.

Berlin's regional government tried to ban the protests, warning extremists could use them", German police break up virus restrictions protest,tweets_news_1080,tweets_news
"VIENNA - Austrian police raided 18 properties and arrested 14 people in a massive manhunt on Tuesday for possible accomplices of a convicted jihadist who shot dead four people and injured 22 others in a late-night rampage in the center of Vienna.

The gunman, who was killed by police minutes after opening fire on crowded bars on Monday, had been released from jail less than a year ago. He was identified as Kujtim Fejzulai, a 20-year-old Austrian who also held North Macedonian nationality.

It was the first such militant attack in Vienna in a generation, and the government pledged robust action.

""We will defend our fundamental values, our way of life and our democracy with all our strength,"" Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in a national address about what he branded an Islamist terror attack.

""We will find and hunt down the perpetrators, those behind this and their associates and mete out a just sentence. And we will pursue all those who have anything to do with this outrage with all available means.""

Swiss police also arrested two men on Tuesday near Zurich in an investigation of possible links to the gunman.

Speaking later to broadcaster ORF, Kurz urged European nations to take more decisive action against",Austrian police arrest 14 in manhunt after gunman's deadly rampage,tweets_news_1081,tweets_news
"Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians to ignore calls to boycott next month’s presidential election. — AFP file pic Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on news you need to know. TEHRAN, May 27 — Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today urged Iranians to ignore calls...

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians to ignore calls to boycott next month’s presidential election. — AFP file pic Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on news you need to know. TEHRAN, May 27 — Supreme leader Ayatollah ...

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians to ignore calls to boycott next month’s presidential election. — AFP file pic Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on news you need to know. TEHRAN, May 27 — Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today urged Iranians to ignore calls to boycott next month’s presidential election, after several hopefuls were barred from running against ultraconservative candidates. Iranians are set to elect a successor to President Hassan Rouhani on June 18 amid widespread discontent over a deep economic and social crisis, and after the violent repression of waves of protests in the winter of 2017-18 and in 2019. The exiled",Khamenei urges Iranians to ignore calls to boycott election,tweets_news_1082,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

The contents of the cache were changing and growing. Someone was editing the cache live. That is not good! What it proved was that despite concerted attempts to clear extremist and terror content from the internet, and claims by various agencies that they had been largely successful in doing so, ISIS is not defeated.

It is still there, alive online. VOICEOVER: This is al-Khilafa, in all its glory, remaining and expanding... So Moustafa alerted the counterterrorism prosecutors in New York, as well as the Met Police and Home Office in London towards the end of last year. Ten months on, he is yet to hear back. There are thousands of schools for our cubs... Getting it removed became a passion for Moustafa and his team. They understand how not just to game platforms, they understand the power of the content that is contained within the Caliphate Cache. While the documents remain up, the traffic going to",Joins BBC News - 00:35 AM GMT,tweets_news_1083,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump and his supporters are intensifying efforts to shame — and potentially remove — members of their party who are seen as disloyal to the former president and his false claims that last year’s election was stolen from him. On Capitol Hill, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican in the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump and his supporters are intensifying efforts to shame — and potentially remove — members of their party who are seen as disloyal to the former president and his false claims that last year’s election was stolen from him. On Ca...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump and his supporters are intensifying efforts to shame — and potentially remove — members of their party who are seen as disloyal to the former president and his false claims that last year’s election was stolen from him. On Capitol Hill, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican in the House, risks losing her leadership post amid her increasingly public dispute with Trump. In Utah, Sen. Mitt Romney, a rare Trump foe in the GOP, faced the indignity over the weekend of reminding a booing crowd that he was once their presidential standard-bearer.",Whose ‘Big Lie’? Trump’s proclamation a GOP litmus test,tweets_news_1084,tweets_news
"MISSISSAUGA, ON, Oct. 27, 2020 /CNW/ - Panasonic, an industry-leading manufacturer of air conditioning, heating and indoor air quality systems, today announced the ClimaPure XE Series ductless mini-split system that includes built-in, patented nanoe X air purification technology has received Zero Ozone Verification by Intertek, a leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide. Intertek's Zero Ozone Verification Program reaches beyond enforced limits to ensure the ductless mini-split system's ozone emission is below federal requirements in Canada and the U.S., including those from the Environment and Climate Change Canada, U.S. Food and Drug administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). With this verification, Panasonic has demonstrated that the ClimaPure XE Series meets ozone emission concentration limits of .005 ppm or below.

According to the Government of Canada and the EPA, ground-level ozone can cause a variety of health problems, which is why reducing ozone emissions is critical. Although some common products have a small amount of ozone generation, Intertek considers emissions of .005 ppm or less to be negligible per UL 2998, the industry standard for ozone testing in North America. 

""Intertek is a trusted quality assurance provider recognized worldwide, and we are thrilled to have received its Zero Ozone",Panasonic Announces Intertek Zero Ozone Program Verification For Nanoe  X Air Purification Technology,tweets_news_1085,tweets_news
"What do Chuck Norris, an MMA fighter from Baltimore and a neo-Nazi from Tennessee have in common?

Amateur internet detectives identified each one as a participant in the storming of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6. Each suspected participant was then harassed online. And each subsequently could prove he was hundreds of miles away at the time of the riot.

The misidentifications were hiccups in the massive crowdsource effort that may be among the largest internet-based manhunts in history. The FBI said this week it has collected more than 100,000 digital photos, videos and fragments of social media in an effort to track down and charge participants in the riot.

That singular event had all the ingredients to attract a massive, global, ""open-source intelligence,"" or OSINT, effort to compile digital breadcrumbs and pass them to law enforcement. Thousands of people attended the Jan. 6 rally and ensuing riot, which received widespread media coverage and produced a mountain of evidence.

The FBI declined to discuss how much it has relied on citizen researchers to fuel its effort to arrest the perpetrators of the riot. But a USA TODAY analysis of court documents so far shows that at least 25 of the 40 people charged in federal",Internet researchers work to ID rioters,tweets_news_1086,tweets_news
"Facebook announced Friday that the accounts belonging to former President Donald Trump would remain suspended for at least two years.

Trump's suspension is effective Jan. 7, 2021, meaning he is eligible for reinstatement on Jan. 7, 2023.

Facebook says at the end of the two-year period, it will look to experts to ""assess whether the risk to public safety has receded.""

""We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest,"" the company said in a statement. ""If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded.""

Facebook also said that upon Trump's reinstatement ""there will be a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions that will be triggered if Mr. Trump commits further violations in future, up to and including permanent removal of his pages and accounts.""

Facebook suspended Trump's accounts on Jan. 7, the day after thousands of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a deadly riot. In a Facebook post, company founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Trump would initially be suspended through Jan. 20 over ""his decision to use",Facebook says Trump's accounts will remain suspended until at least January 2023,tweets_news_1087,tweets_news
"Conversations get lively at news-journal.com, where commenters are encouraged to weigh in on stories via Facebook. Here are some recent comments:

Regarding, ""Gohmert, other Texas officials speak at QAnon-affiliated event,"" Wednesday:

n

""SMH. William F. Buckley called it right 21 years ago when he predicted that populism would destroy conservativism and demagogues would replace quality leaders. RIP the Republican Party.""

— Matthew Nehrling

""Wait? Q is still a thing? After all the failed events ... I thought everyone heard by now that it was all an elaborate game to troll Trumpers.""

— Sean Swanson

""Here's the sad part, while it's easy to dismiss Gohmert as a fool believing a fringe conspiracy theory (which was likely started by a dad son pair in Japan for increased traffic to their website 4chan, 8kun), Gohmert is no fool. He's well educated, went to A&M and Baylor. He probably knows QAnon is absurd, and probably has inside intelligence on who Q is (it's likely a random dad/son pair in Philippines/Japan, Jim and Ron Watkins). But he peddles this nonsense to his flock, who desperately want to believe this nonsense, in exchange for keeping his seat, or basically in exchange for political power. He's playing ya'll. He's basically taking advantage of the",Comments from readers at news-journal.com,tweets_news_1088,tweets_news
"

Jan 16, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Russia's prime minister and cabinet abruptly resigned on Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin[1] outlined proposed constitutional changes that could increase his power after his presidency. The changes would limit and decrease the power of future presidents after Putin's term ends in 2024. Though Putin has painted the changes as a pro-democracy move, they can be seen as Putin's trying to keep his grip on the country he has essentially ruled since 1999. The resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was likely planned with Putin and will be a boost to the president, rather than as an act of protest. Putin has also named Medvedev's successor. Here's what we know about Putin's plans and what his pick for Medvedev's replacement means.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[2]. The Russian government headed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev resigned en masse on Wednesday moments after President Vladimir Putin proposed constitutional changes[3] that could extend his power after his presidency ends. Putin proposed changes that would weaken the powers of the presidency for future presidents, as he is expected to vacate the role in 2024, and strengthen the role of the country's parliament, where",Russia's entire cabinet resigned en masse in a plan that would help Putin keep power indefinitely. Here's everything we know.,tweets_news_1089,tweets_news
"

Jan 30, 2021( The Huffington Post: https://www.huffpost.com/ Delivered by Newstex) https://ksdk.com/embeds/video/63-ce063138-c332-4edb-b723-11288dcff7d4/iframe[1] The Capitol decked out in a fur hat with horns is now willing to testify against his former hero Donald Trump[2] at the former president's impeachment trial, according to his lawyer.Jacob Chansley[3] of Arizona, who calls himself the 'QAnon[4] Shaman,' feels that he has been 'betrayed' by Trump, who failed to pardon him and others who attacked the Capitol, said attorney Al Watkins, The Associated Press reported.Watkins said in a statement Thursday that Chansley is willing to discuss 'whether the words of former President Trump were understood by Mr. Chansley to be nothing short of an invitation to go to the Capitol[5]with the president to fight like hell,' the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.Chansley also known as Jake Angeli had been 'horrendously smitten' with Trump, and believed he was following the then-president's orders in the insurrection at the Capitol, Watkins explained.Watkins said he hasn't yet spoken to any member in the Senate since announcing his offer Thursday.Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate is set to begin the week of Feb. 8. Testimony from someone like Chansley, who believes he was following orders, could be critical in determining if Trump is",Viking Horned 'Shaman' Who Stormed Capitol Now Willing To Testify Against Trump,tweets_news_1090,tweets_news
"If you are concerned about the way smears, lies, character assassination and disinformation have polluted the conversation of American civic life, brace yourself. It's going to get worse starting this week as Team Trump punches back on Facebook and YouTube against the digital Democratic National Convention and the ticket of former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris.

The New York Times was the first to report an advertising buy made by the president's campaign team to saturate Facebook, YouTube and other digital sites with pro-Trump, anti-Biden content. The tab could run as high as $10 million for an effort that will include taking over the banner on the YouTube homepage and forcing YouTube users to wade through pre-roll, Trump-bought content before getting to play the video they came to see. That campaign starts Tuesday, the second day of the convention, and will run for 96 hours, according to the newspaper.

But you didn't have to wait until Tuesday to see what Team Trump would be saying on Facebook and YouTube. A crush of ads paid for by Donald Trump for President, Inc. appeared on Facebook over the weekend.

""Joe Biden MEANS 11 MILLION Illegal Immigrants competing for American jobs. They will",Ugliness of the presidential campaign,tweets_news_1091,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

like National Action were very visible on Britain's streets. Now the neo-Nazi movement is online and underground, hiding behind aliases to form networks and add to their ranks. I wanted to delve deeper into this dark world. I created fake identities so I could search online platforms and join groups in encrypted messaging apps undetected.

One platform that is very, very relevant to this area is Telegram, the encrypted messaging application. You've got one here which every day just produces endless propaganda and glorification of violence. What's quite shocking, really, is that this is completely open. There's no hiding these accounts. The more I follow these accounts, the more disturbing content is recommended to me, search algorithms creating echo chambers. It's easy to see how you can get drawn in. Got a fake account on Instagram, and then I've been able to follow a load of extremist accounts. I'm not looking for these. They are just",Joins BBC News - 02:41 AM GMT,tweets_news_1092,tweets_news
"The hit collaboration between the two rappers has become a belated song of the summer, empowering women and enraging prudes along the way

The release was highly anticipated.

Two rap powerhouses, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, had united to create a mysterious single, and the internet waited with bated breath. There was just a title, WAP, a pink background, and the two stars with their tongues out (a shared signature of sorts) appearing in shared high-teased updos and gold hoop earrings. Even with communal dance spaces essentially banned due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the collaboration between the two rappers was almost guaranteed to be a hit. Shortly before its release, Cardi admitted YouTube would not accept the more explicit cut of the song and even the ""clean version"" was almost too sexually explicit for radio, adding to building speculation of what the song might sound like.

With the famed Baltimore house producer and former Atlanta radio DJ Frank Ski's voice booming in the background, the song reveals its content: it's about sex. The video doesn't conceal this, beginning with Cardi and Megan as fountain statues posed in a manner reminiscent of Lil Kim.

While the video's audio tones down the sexual content -","Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's WAP should be celebrated, not scolded",tweets_news_1093,tweets_news
"A group of Republican senators introduced a resolution Thursday to formally rebuke Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer over his threatening rhetoric against Trump-appointed justices.

Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, sponsored a motion to censure the New Yorker, calling on senators to respect the independence of the judiciary. Censure is a formal reprimand condemning the remarks.

Mr. Hawley told reporters he ""hopes"" his motion will get a vote, but Majority Whip John Thune, South Dakota Republican, said it would first have to move through committee.

""Our members are going to continue to point out that this is what you get if you get a Democratic majority,"" Mr. Thune said. ""They are going to want to reshape the court. They have talked openly about adding seats to the Supreme Court, so I think it will be something our members will probably address that way.""

The back-and-forth between Republicans and Mr. Schumer began after the New York Democrat rallied pro-choice activists outside the Supreme Court Wednesday while the justices heard arguments over a Louisiana law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Critics of the law say it is only aimed at burdening a woman's access to abortion.

Directing his comments to Justice",More than a dozen Republican senators move to censure Schumer,tweets_news_1094,tweets_news
"Pakistan, Oct. 23 -- Celebrated Pakistani-American economist Dr Atif Mian's scheduled online has been canceled by the host Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, allegedly due to pressure by ""extremists"".

""Dr Atif R. Mian's lecture 'Why has economic growth fallen behind in Pakistan?' scheduled on November 5, 2020, has been canceled. Inconvenience is highly regretted,"" read a brief post by the IBA Karachi's official Twitter account.

In a tweet, Mian said he was sorry to report that the seminar, which was to take place over Zoom, had been canceled ""due to threats that the university administration was facing from extremists"". ""My very best wishes and prayers are with the students of IBA,"" the Princeton University economist wrote.

A spokesperson for IBA Karachi declined to comment.

Dr Mian became a widely discussed name in Pakistan in 2018 after the PTI government appointed him to the Prime Minister Imran Khan-led Economic Advisory Council (EAC), an 18-member panel set up to advise the newly-formed government on economic policy.

Less than a month after taking office, however, the government asked Mian to step down from the EAC amid mounting pressure from religiopolitical parties and a smear campaign launched on social media seeking his removal over his Ahmadiyya faith.

In protest",Extremists' threats force IBA to cancel Dr Atif Mian's lecture,tweets_news_1095,tweets_news
"January 29, 2020 at 1:15 PM President Trump on Wednesday signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement into law at the White House, while House Democrats, who were not included in the ceremony, touted their contributions to the trade deal from Capitol Hill.

During the signing ceremony, Trump made no mention of the House Democrats who for months negotiated changes to USMCA with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, winning stronger environmental provisions, labor enforcement upgrades and the removal of protections for biologic drugs. The House negotiators, appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), pressed USTR Robert Lighthizer to make sure USMCA's labor provisions were enforceable. Those changes ensured overwhelming bipartisan support for the deal and the endorsement of the AFL-CIO and Teamsters.

""Mexico and Canada have agreed to new labor protections that my administration negotiated. The USMCA is the first trade deal in nearly two decades endorsed by the AFL-CIO,"" Trump said.

Trump, who during the 2016 presidential election promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, said ""I'm not like those other politicians, I guess in many ways. I keep my promises and I'm fighting for the American worker.""

Lighthizer, during his remarks, thanked congressional Democrats and Republicans but avoided naming specific lawmakers, saying",Trump signs USMCA into law as Democrats continue to claim credit for upgrades,tweets_news_1096,tweets_news
"The president’s “American Families Plan,” which he will detail this week, will be offset in part by a tax enforcement effort that administration officials believe will raise $700 billion over a decade.

The president’s “American Families Plan,” which he will detail this week, will be offset in part by a tax enforcement effort that administration officials believe will raise $700 billion over a decade.

WASHINGTON — President Biden, looking to pay for his ambitious economic agenda and shift more of the nation’s tax burden to the wealthy, will propose giving the Internal Revenue Service an extra $80 billion and more authority over the next 10 years to help crack down on tax evasion by high-earners and large corporations.

The additional money and enforcement power will accompany new disclosure requirements for people who own businesses that are not organized as corporations — like many law firms and real estate partnerships — and for other high-earners who could be hiding income from the government. Mr. Biden’s goal is to raise hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for child care, education and other programs while making it harder for high-earning Americans to evade or avoid taxes.

If the president is successful, individuals who earn more than",Biden Seeks $80 Billion to Beef Up I.R.S. Audits of High-Earners,tweets_news_1097,tweets_news
"Towering seamer turned out for England in 2014 after playing 37 ODIs and 15 T20Is for Ireland - then returned to play for Ireland and took the nation's first wicket in Test cricket; Rankin also calls time on inter-provincial cricket Ireland and former England bowler Boyd Rankin has announced his retirement at...

Towering seamer turned out for England in 2014 after playing 37 ODIs and 15 T20Is for Ireland - then returned to play for Ireland and took the nation's first wicket in Test cricket; Rankin also calls time on inter-provincial cricket Ireland and former Engl...

Towering seamer turned out for England in 2014 after playing 37 ODIs and 15 T20Is for Ireland - then returned to play for Ireland and took the nation's first wicket in Test cricket; Rankin also calls time on inter-provincial cricket Ireland and former England bowler Boyd Rankin has announced his retirement at the age of 36 after an 18-year career. The 6ft 8in paceman - who counts Warwickshire, Derbyshire and Essex among his former clubs - bagged 161 international wickets across the three formats. Rankin stepped away from Ireland duty in 2012 and went on to play seven ODIs, two T20Is and a solitary Test for",Rankin retires having 'loved every minute',tweets_news_1098,tweets_news
"In the final days of this presidential campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden is awash in donations.

Throughout the presidential campaign, Biden has benefitted from Wall Street and Hollywood support and massive donations from billionaires like Mike Bloomberg.

In this campaign, the difference between Biden and President Donald Trump is dramatic. Combined with the Democratic National Committee, Biden outspent Trump and the Republican National Committee by a total of $200 million. Biden enjoyed an even more significant advantage of $343 million when the political action committees and outside groups affiliated with the two campaigns were compared.

Yet, these advantages do not come close to the massive benefits that Biden has received from the mainstream news media and the ""big tech"" social media giants. Every day, President Donald Trump is pummeled with unfair media coverage and questions by reporters who are incredibly biased. His news conferences and media opportunities are always combative with reporters trying to manufacture controversies for the President.

In contrast, former Vice President Joe Biden is protected by reporters who do his bidding. For example, Biden was recently asked what flavor milkshake he bought, but not aggressively questioned about his son's ""laptop from hell.""

This week, Biden briefly took media questions after he",Corrupt media are biggest Biden donors,tweets_news_1099,tweets_news
"

Mar 27, 2021( Florida Phoenix: https://www.floridaphoenix.com Delivered by Newstex) Pumpjacks on the horizon underneath a partly cloudy beautiful sky. These pieces of equipment are crucial to oil field and fracking operations. Credit: Getty Images, Daily Montanan. Interior Department officials indicated this week the Biden administration would change some federal oil and gas policies in an effort to roll back the aggressive fossil fuel agenda of former President Donald Trump.

Interior leaders at an online forum said that rates the oil and gas industry pays for leasing, royalties and bonding could be due for increases, as the administration makes multiple moves to combat climate change. During the forum, environmental groups also repeated their request to President Joe Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to make permanent a temporary ban on new leases for fossil fuel development on federal lands. But oil and gas industry representatives cautioned a permanent ban would hurt national security and job opportunities and urged a speedy return to regular leasing. Interior leaders during the forum were noncommittal on future leases. The department billed the forum more as an opportunity to hear from groups that have a stake in oil and gas than a policy rollout. In her opening","Increases in royalties paid by oil and gas producers, lease rates targeted in Biden review",tweets_news_1100,tweets_news
"St. Charles alderman candidate Richard Artz has called out opponent Kim Malay as ""unfit"" for office because she shared images from the controversial right-wing conspiracy theory group QAnon on her personal Facebook page before the 2020 presidential election.

""I don't think it's acceptable for someone who wants to hold public office to have those QAnon images,"" Artz said. ""I know the 5th Ward deserves better. I think the people of St. Charles deserve an apology.""

Artz shared the two images from Malay's personal Facebook page in a news release Monday. Artz, Malay and Steve Weber are running in the April 6 election for the 5th Ward alderman seat currently held by Maureen Lewis, who is running for St. Charles mayor.

Malay acknowledged posting the images, saying at some point in the last several months she deleted them. She said she agreed with some of QAnon's concerns but did not agree with the QAnon belief that Democrats, Hollywood celebrities and other prominent figures were pedophiles, Satan worshippers or involved in human trafficking.

One image shared on Jan. 3, 2020, showed an altered version of the yellow Gadsden flag known for its ""Don't Tread On Me"" Revolutionary War-era message and a coiled rattlesnake. The Facebook image,",St. Charles City Council candidate admits to posting QAnon images to Facebook,tweets_news_1101,tweets_news
"Moscow/Sputnik: The US food and beverage giant PepsiCo is set to pull its adverts from Facebook, joining a range of firms that have started a boycott of the social media platform due to concerns over its inability to monitor and police hateful content, the Fox News broadcaster reported on Sunday, citing sources in the company.

PepsiCo has yet to make an official announcement confirming the move, the broadcaster said. The food and beverage company is set to join several major firms, including the Coca-Cola Company, US telecommunications firm Verizon, and consumer goods giant Unilever, in pulling its advertisements from the platform. The growing boycott prompted Facebooks shares to plunge 8.3 percent during Fridays trading. Companies have cited the ongoing presence of misinformation and hate speech on the platform, amid a campaign launched by several prominent US civil rights organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Minority rights groups began the campaign on June 17, amid the ongoing wave of civil rights protests in the US following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. The organizations state that Facebook has enabled content that incited violence against protesters, and urged companies to remove all their adverts",PepsiCo joins growing advertising boycott of social media site Facebook: Reports,tweets_news_1102,tweets_news
"

Dec 12, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/ Delivered by Newstex) Star Wars star Gina Carano's politically incorrect Twitter persona might cost her an upcoming Disney show if she doesn't apologize.Apparently, Carano has found herself in more controversy for social media posts. Pop culture outlet[1] 'We Got This Covered' cited the claim from one reputable Hollywood insider that The Mandalorian actress has been threatened with the cancellation of her upcoming Star Wars spin off show if she doesn't apologize for being critical of liberal groupthink.The actress, who plays a former Rebel mercenary-turned-freedom fighter on the massively popular Disney+ series, has routinely attacked current cultural narratives she disagrees with. She's gone after what she believes have been overbearing and job-killing COVID[2] lockdown orders, has rebuked online trans activists[3] who have gone after her for refusing to put her pronouns in her Twitter bio, and pushed back against those that have called her a 'fuckin' racist[4]' for not publicly-endorsing the tenets of Black Lives Matter.Of course, Carano is well within her rights to post her opinions online, and these certainly aren't the most right-wing perspectives in the world.

Honestly, most of the cases seem to be her defending her position from aggressors who think her opinions",Report Says Disney Threatening to Cancel 'Mandalorian' Spinoff Over Actress's Tweets,tweets_news_1103,tweets_news
"From a congressman shouting ""You lie!"" to the Speaker of the House tearing the speech to pieces, here are some of the most memorable and regrettable SOTU moments

The State of the Union is one of the most choreographed events in American politics. We all know the drill: The president walks down down the House chamber, shakes a lot of hands (pre-Covid), takes his place in front of the vice president and the speaker of the House, and delivers a carefully prepared speech. Overall, it's a pretty bland affair.

But some moments have stood out. Every once in a long while (or more often in the Trump years), something happens that is so bizarre, or unscripted, or just uncomfortable, that it manages to break through the tedium and become memorable. Below, starting with the most recent, are some of those moments.

2020: Trump gives Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom

Donald Trump's State of the Union addresses, much like his presidency, were generally packed with abnormal moments. But his 2020 speech was special. Over and over again, the formerApprentice star introduced special guests and elaborate stunts - at one point orchestrating a surprise reunion between a soldier and his family - that seemed better",State of the Union: The five most bizarre moments over the years,tweets_news_1104,tweets_news
"

Aug 14, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) Finally, it begins ..Durham probe: Ex-FBI lawyer to plead guilty in first criminal case arising from review, sources say=Clinesmith was referred for potential prosecution by the Justice Department's inspector general's office By Brooke Singman, Bill Mears | Fox News Ex-FBI lawyer to plead guilty in first criminal case arising from Durham review of Russia probe Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith will plead guilty to making a false statement in U.S. Attorney John Durham's review of the Russia investigation.Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith will plead guilty to making a false statement in the first criminal case arising from U.S. Attorney John Durham's review of the investigation into links between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign, two sources close to the matter tell Fox News. placeholderClinesmith was referred for potential prosecution by the Justice Department's inspector general's office, which conducted its own review of the Russia investigation. Specifically, the inspector general accused Clinesmith, though not by name, of altering an email about former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page to say that he was 'not a source' for another government agency.

Page has said he was a source for the CIA. The DOJ relied",Durham probe: FBI lawyer to plead guilty in first criminal case arising from Russia-hoax review,tweets_news_1105,tweets_news
"

Jan 14, 2021( TheNextWeb.com: http://thenextweb.com Delivered by Newstex) Stanford researcher Michael Kosinski, the PhD behind the infamous 'Gaydar' AI[1], is back with another phrenology-adjacent (his team swears it's not phrenology) bit of pseudo-scientific ridiculousness. This time, they've published a paper indicating that a simple facial recognition algorithm can tell a person's political affiliation. First things first: The paper is called 'Facial recognition technology can expose political orientation from naturalistic facial images.' You can read it here[2]. Here's a bit from the abstract: Ubiquitous facial recognition technology can expose individuals' political orientation, as faces of liberals and conservatives consistently differ.

Second things second: These are demonstrably false statements. Before we even entertain this paper, I want to make it completely clear that there's absolutely no merit to Kosinski and his team's ideas here. Facial recognition technology cannot expose individuals' political orientation. [Related: The Stanford gaydar AI is hogwash[3]] For the sake of brevity I'll sum up my objection in a simple statement: I once knew someone who was a liberal and then they became a conservative. While that's not exactly mind blowing, the point is that political orientation is a fluid concept. No two people tend to 'orient' toward a specific political",Stanford team behind BS gaydar AI says facial recognition can expose political orientation,tweets_news_1106,tweets_news
"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has become a sort of Donald Trump without the Twitter tantrums.

As Republicans debate their party's future after four tumultuous years of President Trump, Mr. DeSantis has flashed a refined brand of Trumpism that captures the hard-charging policies of Mr. Trump but with fewer self-inflicted rhetorical wounds.

It’s proving popular with members of the MAGA movement and Republican establishment figures who aren’t rarin’ to go full-Trump.

“He has become an absolute rock star among center-right voters and conservative voters,” said Peter Feaman, a member of the Republican National Committee from Florida. “All I have to do is mention his name, and the rooms immediately burst out in applause.”

Mr. DeSantis was met with a rousing ovation over the weekend at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Conference in Orlando.

“Welcome to the freest state in the United States,” Mr. DeSantis told the crowd. “And quite frankly, we were in many respects over the last year the focus of freedom in the entire Western world.”

When he entered office, Mr. DeSantis said, he was “not going to settle for merely being the controlled opposition to leftism.""

“Instead, we were going to fight big battles, and we were going to win,” he said.

Mr.",How 'rock star' DeSantis positioned himself as a Trump successor,tweets_news_1107,tweets_news
"The Taliban have read the secret annexes of the recently signed peace deal. But most Americans haven't, nor have many of their elected representatives.

WASHINGTON - In a secure facility underneath the Capitol, members of Congress stopped by all last week to review two classified annexes to the Afghan peace accord with the Taliban that set the criteria for a critical element of the agreement: What constitutes enough ""peace"" for the United States to withdraw its forces?

The Taliban have read the annexes. Nonetheless, the Trump administration insists that the secret documents must remain secret, though officials have struggled to explain why to skeptical lawmakers.

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, in congressional testimony, appeared unaware of - or seemed unwilling to discuss - the secret annexes just days before the agreement was signed. And lawmakers who have paid the most attention to the peace plan also openly express frustration with the lack of a mechanism for verifying compliance that they believe Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had promised.

At the core of the two documents, according to people familiar with their contents, is a timeline for what should happen over the next 18 months, what kinds of attacks are prohibited by both sides and,",A Secret Accord With the Taliban: When and How the U.S. Would Leave Afghanistan,tweets_news_1108,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

As President Trump reshapes the federal judiciary with staunch conservatives and controversial picks, some Harvard Law School students appear to be thinking twice about applying for clerk jobs with them, and traditionally plum positions are being passed up.

FULL TEXT

Link to Image

Used to be that the promise of earning a sterling line on a resume and connections to stars of the legal profession was enough to lure Harvard law students to federal clerkships.

But recently, when Harvard Law School was urging its students to apply to work for one of President Trump's newly appointed judges, it felt the need to offer further incentives: ""Next to Lake Tahoe and great skiing!,"" the job alert read.

But that apparently wasn't enough. Two days later, in mid-December, the law school again nudged its students to apply for clerkships with federal judges, noting that some judges, including two Trump appointees, had received no Harvard applications - calling them ""wasted opportunities.""

As Trump reshapes the federal judiciary with staunch conservatives and controversial picks, some Harvard Law School students appear to be thinking twice about applying for clerk jobs with them, and passing up what are generally considered plum positions.

""Five or 10 years ago, people would be in a rush","At Harvard Law, reluctance to apply for clerkships with Trump-appointed judges",tweets_news_1109,tweets_news
"Willie, The U.S. Senate sent Trump a veto-proof defense bill and guess who wasn't present for the vote? Our esteemed Sen. Lindsey ""Spineless"" Graham. Maybe he didn't think it was important to support our men and women in the military. Maybe he was in the bathroom during the vote. No, Mr. Tough Guy was concerned he'd make his BFF and No. 1 golf partner Trump angry if he voted ""yea."" The bill funds the military and gives raises and support to our troops, but the bill calls to rename military bases named after Confederate generals and the bill didn't include a totally unrelated provision governing protections of certain internet companies from liability - something Trump demanded. If Senator Spineless voted against the bill, he'd be seen as not supporting the military. If he did vote for it, he'd be on Trump's poop list and lose his BFF golfing buddy. Willie, I'd have sent this to the letters to the editor, but given the idiots surrounding officials' houses, brandishing guns, threatening families and their kids with death, planning to kidnap elected officials, etc., I've deferred to your column.

Willie says: I can't read minds. I do know that President Trump vetoed the",I can't read minds,tweets_news_1110,tweets_news
"LONDON - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to the intensive care unit of a London hospital after his coronavirus symptoms dramatically worsened Monday, just a day after he was admitted for what were said to be routine tests.

Johnson was admitted to St. Thomas' Hospital late Sunday, 10 days after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, the first major world leader to be confirmed to have the virus.

The 55-year-old Conservative was conscious and did not require ventilation, but he was moved into intensive care in case he needs it later, his office said in a statement.

Britain has no official post of deputy prime minister, but Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been designated to take over should Johnson become incapacitated.

A grave-looking Raab said Johnson was ""in safe hands"" at the hospital, which is treating many virus patients.

""The government's business will continue,"" Raab said. He said Johnson had asked him ""to deputize for him where needed in driving forward the government's plans to defeat coronavirus.""

The deterioration of Johnson's health took many in Britain by surprise. Hours earlier, he had tweeted that he was in good spirits and thanked the National Health Service for taking care of him and others with the disease.

""On",British PM Boris Johnson moved to intensive care after virus diagnosis,tweets_news_1111,tweets_news
"Prime Minister Scott Morrison claims the waterfront dispute is delaying 40 cargo ships from docking, and that you can see them ""lining up"" at Port Botany. Here are the facts.



CoronaCheck is RMIT ABC Fact Check's weekly email newsletter dedicated to fighting the misinformation infodemic surrounding the coronavirus outbreak.

You can read the latest edition below, and to have the next newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.

CoronaCheck #42

In this week's newsletter, we've used marine tracking websites to check a claim made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison that 40 ships, some carrying essential medical supplies, were ""lined up"" at Port Botany as industrial action prevented them from unloading at the port.

We've also looked at the stats around mental health in Victoria, as well as the UK, which is battling a second wave of COVID-19.

Were boats with medical supplies prevented from unloading in Sydney?

As the pandemic puts global supply chains , Prime Minister Scott Morrison has claimed medical stocks were being delayed by industrial action on Sydney's waterfront, with ""militant"" unions preventing 40 ships from unloading at Port Botany.

""There are 40 ships, and I'm told there's some 90,000 containers out there. That includes medical supplies,"" Mr Morrison on September 29, referring to a pay",Scott Morrison said 40 cargo ships were being prevented from delivering supplies to Australia by industrial action. Is that correct?,tweets_news_1112,tweets_news
"Each year generates new words or expressions but a year of pandemic perhaps more than others, whether debating ""herd immunity"", monitoring the ""R rate"", or sharing a ""quarantini"" on Zoom.

Most people will have added several new words to their vocabulary in 2020, many – but not all – coronavirus-related. Some have been around for centuries but have acquired new meaning or resonance, while others were the creations of a new world where ""Zooming"" and ""doomscrolling"" became popular pastimes.

Covid-19 pandemic

There is little doubt that 2020 will be remembered as the year of the novel coronavirus, or SARS-Cov-2, the ""severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus"" that spawned the deadly Covid-19 disease. The World Health Organization formally declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at the end of January, then a full-blown pandemic on March 11. Still, countries around the world – including some of the wealthiest Western democracies – were caught woefully unprepared.

Derived from the Greek words ""pan"" (all) and ""demos"" (people), pandemic proved to be a fitting term for a virus that truly impacted people across the globe, infecting hundreds of millions, upending the global economy, exacerbating inequalities, and exposing the catastrophic consequences of mankind's exploitation of nature.

Lockdown

One of","From doomscrolling to zooming, the words we picked up in 2020",tweets_news_1113,tweets_news
"Misinformation amplified on Chinese language social media, in chat groups and video blogs has found a footing among the pro-Trump Chinese community abroadProminent members have rallied behind Trump's failed efforts to overturn his electoral defeat

The tempestuous weeks following Joe Biden's election as US president gave rise to numerous fact-free conspiracy theories. Among them: a claim the CIA director was captured by US special forces and flown to Guantanamo Bay to face charges relating to election interference; weeks later, an accusation that left-wing activists conspired with police officers to orchestrate the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Of the many corners of Donald Trump's support base where this tsunami of misinformation has found a willing audience, one contingent has stood out: pro-democracy Chinese dissidents living overseas.

Amplified on Chinese language social media, in chat groups and video blogs, such claims have found a footing in a community ostensibly unified by a reverence for democratic norms, but which has seen numerous prominent members rally behind Trump's failed efforts to overturn his electoral defeat.

Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.

Other members of the dissident community are growing increasingly worried that misinformation and","Conspiracy theories fracture Chinese dissident community abroad, find footing among those who support Donald Trump",tweets_news_1114,tweets_news
"President-elect Joe Biden will take over the official @POTUS Twitter handle when he takes office next month - but will start out with no followers because President Trump won't agree to roll over the 33 million users who follow the feed.

""Twitter has informed us that as of right now the Biden administration will have to start from zero,"" Rob Flaherty, a Biden transition official, tweeted Tuesday.

The same scenario is expected to apply to @FLOTUS, @VP and @PressSec, all of which have millions of engaged followers.

Twitterati who follow Biden or Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be prompted to follow @WhiteHouse, another official handle.

Twitter spokespeople say they are still working out the details of the Twitter handover that is complicated by Trump's ongoing efforts to overturn the election results.

It's a 180-degree shift from the first-ever social media handover in 2017, when President Barack Obama left office and his staff urged Twitter to flip all his followers into the accounts controlled by Team Trump.

Trump will remain in total control of @realdonaldtrump. The personal Twitter handle is his biggest social media bullhorn of all, with 83 million followers.

Though Trump will remain a powerhouse on Twitter, the rules of the social media game will change",Biden will start at zero on @Potus Twitter feed,tweets_news_1115,tweets_news
"Today is Tuesday, Nov. 10, the 315th day of 2020. There are 51 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 10, 1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress.

On this date:

In 1766, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, had its beginnings as William Franklin, the Royal Governor of New Jersey, signed a charter establishing Queen's College in New Brunswick.

In 1919, the American Legion opened its first national convention in Minneapolis.

In 1928, Hirohito (hee-roh-hee-toh) was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.

In 1938, Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's ""God Bless America"" on her CBS radio program.

In 1944, during World War II, the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploded while moored at the Manus Naval Base in the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific, leaving 45 confirmed dead and 327 missing and presumed dead.

In 1951, customer-dialed long-distance telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, New Jersey, called Alameda, California, Mayor Frank Osborne without operator assistance.

In 1975, the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution equating Zionism with racism (the world body repealed the resolution in Dec. 1991). The ore-hauling ship SS Edmund Fitzgerald mysteriously sank during a storm in Lake Superior with the",Today in history,tweets_news_1116,tweets_news
"

Feb 11, 2021( StopFake.org: http://stopfake.org/en/ Delivered by Newstex) ;;; Photo byOcean Ng[1]onUnsplash[2] Plus: A thorough report on why social media is not biased against conservatives, and TikTok takes new steps to reduce the spread of unverified videos.ByLaura Hazard Owen, for NiemanLab[3]The growing stream of reporting on and data about fake news, misinformation, partisan content, and news literacy is hard to keep up with. Thisweekly roundup[4]offers the highlights of what you might have missed.Debunking > prebunking.If you want someone tonotbelieve that false or misleading headline they just read, when's the best time to correct it? We hear a lot about inoculating people against fake news or'prebunking'[5]it, but new research shows that the best time to fact-check a false headline and have subjects remember the fact-check a week later isafterthe subject has already read the headline. Presenting corrections after and during exposure to false headlines decreased belief one week later.

While all three treatments increased belief in true headlines one week later, supplying corrections after exposure was most effective. 4/10 pic.twitter.com/pFqNQvbM9O[6] Nadia Brashier (@nadiabrashier) January 26, 2021[7]Nadia Brashear, Gordon Pennycook, Adam J. Berinsky, and David G. Randwrite[8]in PNAS:[The] key challenge is making corrections memorable. Debunking was more effective than labeling, emphasizing the power","When's the best time to correct fake news? After someone's already read it, apparently",tweets_news_1117,tweets_news
"Sri Lanka, Nov. 5 -- Amidst a backdrop of uncertainty, Hatch and London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) SL successfully completed the fourth iteration of the KICKASS Bootcamp, a one-month long development program designed to address fundamental business development skills and gender-specific elements faced by women thereby empowering a whole new batch of future women leaders.

KICKASS Series 4 saw 12 startups and 13 founders take part in all its sessions, which were curated to address both product and service-driven businesses with the latest cohort including women leaders from a vast array of industries, to cover a wide range of topics relevant to today's business climate. Facilitated by Naomi Gunnels, Entrepreneur Coach at Hatch based out of Florida, USA, programme partners included LSEG SL and TNL Radio.

Topics covered included business plan and cash flow statements, marketing basics, and social media management; while both Erangi De Costa, Product Manager, Surveillance (LSEG Technology) and Randima Perera, Manager, Talent Acquisition at LSEG Sri Lanka spoke about 'Leadership in Your Career and Business' and on 'Establishing the Right Hiring Culture', respectively.

Commenting on this initiative, Sara Sadoon, Associate Manager - Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability at LSEG Sri Lanka said ""Both locally and globally, LSEG continues to",KICKASS Bootcamp 4th edition uplifts skills of women entrepreneurs,tweets_news_1118,tweets_news
"NEW DELHI, Feb. 5 -- A day after Swedish teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg tweeted about toolkit, while supporting the farmers' protest, the Delhi Police has lodged a First Information Report (FIR) in connection with the matter which contained information on how to back the farmers' protests. The toolkit has been doing the rounds on social media and police have also booked toolkit creators. The climate activist deleted that tweet and later reposted an updated version of the toolkit.

Praveer Ranjan, the Special Commissioner of Police, Crime, along with Chinmoy Biswal, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Crime, and Anyesh Roy, the DCP, Cyber Crime, addressed a Press conference on Thursday where he said the police are monitoring social media in connection with the kisan agitation and police have also identified more than 300 accounts which have been used for pushing hateful and malicious contents.

""These handles are being used by some organisations and individuals having vested interest and they are spreading disaffection against the government,"" said the Special CP.

""One document titled toolkit was uploaded through one of the handles on a particular social media platform. Preliminary enquiry has revealed that the toolkit in question appears to have been created by",FIR over Greta 'toolkit' tweet on how to back farmers' stir,tweets_news_1119,tweets_news
"Gov. Ron DeSantis' call for punishing social media sites that deplatformed former President Donald Trump narrowly cleared a Senate committee Monday and soon will be ready for a full vote in the Legislature.

Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, was the lone Republican who argued against the proposal by fellow Republican Sen. Ray Rodrigues of Naples. Brandes labeled it a ""big government bill.""

""This Senate is currently filled with small government Republicans who do believe that government shouldn't be in the lives of businesses,"" Brandes said.

He added: ""This is the exact opposite of the things that we stand for.""

But Rodrigues argued back that the measure doesn't defy free market principles. The bill (SB 7072) orders social media companies to publish standards with detailed definitions of when someone would be censored or blocked, and makes companies subject to as much as $100,000 fines for deplatforming a Florida candidate.

""I'm bringing you good policy supported by your constituents,"" Rodrigues said.

The measure was approved 10-9 by the Appropriations Committee, its last stop before going to the Senate floor. A similar measure is ready for a full House vote.

State and federal courts have generally taken a hands-off view involving regulating online platforms. Congress also has not weighed into",Bill to punish social media sites advances,tweets_news_1120,tweets_news
"When the Supreme Court ordered California to allow places of worship to open their doors during the coronavirus pandemic, it may also have signaled a shift in the legal boundaries between church and state.

More than 30 years ago, the court, in an opinion by one of its most conservative justices, said states can impose restrictions on religious institutions and their followers under laws that apply to other individuals and institutions.

In a late-night ruling Feb. 5, a 6-3 majority said Gov. Gavin Newsom's ban on indoor worship services in counties hard-hit by COVID-19, an edict that covered most of California, was unconstitutional because it treated houses of worship more severely than retail businesses. The court was unmoved by the state's scientific witnesses who said indoor worship services pose a far more severe threat of spreading COVID-19 than grocery stores.

""Once more, we appear to have a state playing favorites during a pandemic,"" said Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito as part of the splintered majority ruling. He noted that the state has allowed retail stores to admit shoppers up to 25% of their building's capacity, lets masked hairstylists treat customers, and even allows singing in movie studios",Supreme Court’s ruling on indoor worship may signal shift in church-state boundaries,tweets_news_1121,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House for a historic second time Wednesday, charged with ""incitement of insurrection"" over the deadly mob attack on the Capitol in a swift and stunning collapse of his final days in office.

With the Capitol secured by armed National Guard troops inside and out, the House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump. The proceedings moved at lightning speed, with lawmakers voting just one week after violent pro-Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol after the president's calls for them to ""fight like hell"" against the election results.

Ten Republicans fled Trump, joining Democrats who said he needed to be held accountable and warned ominously of a ""clear and present danger"" if Congress should leave him unchecked before Democrat Joe Biden's inauguration Jan. 20.

Trump is the only U.S. president to be twice impeached. It was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in modern times, more so than against Bill Clinton in 1998.

The Capitol insurrection stunned and angered lawmakers, who were sent scrambling for safety as the mob descended, and it revealed the fragility of the nation's history of peaceful transfers of power. The riot also forced a reckoning among some Republicans, who have stood by Trump",Trump impeached after Capitol riot in historic second charge,tweets_news_1122,tweets_news
"Twitter now has a birdwatch that will help keep a check on misinformation. In an effort to crack down on misinformation on the platform, Twitter is looking to crowdsource a solution with its new feature Birdwatch. Birdwatch taps...

Twitter now has a birdwatch that will help keep a check on misinformation. In an effort to crack down on misinformation on the platform, Twitter is looking to crowdsource a solution with its new feature Birdwatch. Birdwatch taps into a network of engaged t...

Twitter now has a birdwatch that will help keep a check on misinformation. In an effort to crack down on misinformation on the platform, Twitter is looking to crowdsource a solution with its new feature Birdwatch. Birdwatch taps into a network of engaged tweeters to add notes to misleading tweets. The platform has announced that they are rolling out Birdwatch notes to pilot participants on desktop, Android, and iOS. The pilot version of TwitterBirdwatch was launched earlier in January this year and the platform had described it as a way to add context to misinformation in real-time. Hey there! Exciting news ð. Now, when you’re browsing Twitter on Android, iOS, or https://t.co/lEjTtR4BGM, you may see Tweets with Birdwatch notes. Notes",Here’s How Twitter’s Birdwatch Will Help Keep A Check On Misinformation,tweets_news_1123,tweets_news
"

Feb 19, 2020( PolitiCal: https://www.latimes.com/politicsDelivered by Newstex) This is not the gracious welcome billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg who has poured towering piles of cash into liberal causes and candidates for more than a decade has come to expect from prominent Democrats.No, the former New York mayor's debut in the top tier of the presidential race has turned brutal.His rapid rise in the polls has brought Bloomberg a spot on the Democratic debate stage Wednesday in Nevada a state where he is not even[1] on the ballot[2]. It has also earned him the start of a punishing vetting. Each day now, rivals unveil another ghost from his past.Wednesday night's debate and the outcome of the March 3 Super Tuesday primaries in California and 13 other states could turn on how effectively Bloomberg can respond to those allegations about his past when he is confronted with them in person, without a script and before a television audience of millions. Advertisement So far, he's endured a tough stretch in which his campaign has had to do a lot of explaining.Explaining why colleagues in the late 1980s attributed so many misogynistic remarks to him that in 1990 they memorialized the comments in a commemorative","As his first debate nears, Bloomberg is having to answer about his past",tweets_news_1124,tweets_news
"As states across the U.S. release vote totals for the presidential election, some social media users are falsely claiming that ballots are being invalidated in Arizona. The supposed culprit: Sharpie markers.

In what's come to be known as #Sharpiegate, social media posts suggest that election officials in Maricopa County provided voters with Sharpie pens, which interfered with ballots being recorded, specifically those for President Donald Trump.

Arizona election officials say that voting with a Sharpie would have no impact on the votes being recorded by tabulation machines, and if there was an issue, there is a process that would keep the ballots from being canceled out.

Here’s a look at the facts:

CLAIM: Votes were eliminated in Arizona because people were made to use Sharpie pens to mark their ballots. This caused the tabulation machine to cancel the vote.

THE FACTS: As Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential vote in the Republican stronghold of Arizona, social media posts circulated falsely suggesting that votes for Trump were canceled because people were told to use Sharpies to fill out their ballots.

Arizona election officials confirmed that Sharpies were used in voting, but they said that would not invalidate a ballot. The Maricopa",Claim that Sharpie pens ruin Arizona ballots misses the mark,tweets_news_1125,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

House Republicans could vote to remove Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney as soon as next week, sources told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.

The increasingly embattled Cheney survived a move to oust her earlier this year after she voted to impeach President Donald Trump, but a new round of anti-Trump comments, as well as her foreign and domestic policy positions, have put her further at odds with the GOP conference, Republicans told the Washington Examiner.

“She’s out of sync,” a Republican leadership source told the Washington Examiner. “She’s not helping Republicans win back the House.”

PELOSI TAUNTS GOP OVER CHENEY INFIGHTING

The vote on whether to remove Cheney could occur as early as May 12, a GOP source told the Washington Examiner.

Sources told the Washington Examiner that New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik is jockeying to replace Cheney as conference chairwoman and appears to be favored by GOP leaders.

Another possible candidate, Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks of Indiana, will not run for the position, an official in his office confirmed.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has grown increasingly frustrated with Cheney, who holds the No. 3 leadership position in the House GOP.

Leaders had hoped Cheney would refrain from criticizing Trump and other conservatives who support",'She’s toast': Embattled Cheney could be ousted from GOP leadership next week,tweets_news_1126,tweets_news
"My New Year's resolution for 2021 was to avoid buying anything made in China. I see no reason to willingly send money to a country that practices hostage diplomacy, runs re-education camps for minorities, treats human rights with contempt and may be guilty of genocide and forced labour.

It takes a bit of effort, especially if you spend much time in Walmart or Costco, but it's not impossible. There are COVID masks made in the U.S., hand sanitizer made in Canada, televisions sets from Taiwan and lots of inexpensive clothing from India, Thailand or Vietnam. If you demand cheap, China is often cheapest, but the price gap for something slightly costlier, and often better made, isn't that great.

If an individual Canadian can live without Chinese imports the country could probably get by as well, but that would require a sea change in the mindset of the country's Liberal establishment. Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil offered a prime example( https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/lets-go-learn-not-for-canada-to-tell-china-its-wrong-ns-premier-stephen-mcneil-says/ar-BB1dJjVf ) of that when he indicated the thrill of shipping a billion dollars a year of goods across the Pacific was more than enough to offset any sense of discomfort he might feel over the fate of the two Michaels - Spavor",Kelly McParland: Toothless declarations achieve nothing. It's time for a 'don't buy China' campaign,tweets_news_1127,tweets_news
"The internet, and social media in particular, have lowered barriers to participation in the public realm. They have strengthened our democracy by giving individuals new ways of making themselves heard, engaging politically and holding power to account.

It used to be said freedom of the press was guaranteed only to those who owned one. Today, anyone can own a corner of the internet. But, as we saw at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and in Charlottesville, Christchurch and at Quebec City's Islamic Cultural Centre, there is a dark side to the internet. Governments the world over have been tentative as hate and disinformation seep into our body politic.

Democratization being used against democracy represents one of the central paradoxes of our times. The internet has become a propagandist's dream, loosening the grip on reality of tens of millions of people, as we saw in the aftermath of the Nov. 2 U.S. presidential election.

Last spring, the Public Policy Forum asked seven eminent Canadians - a former chief justice of the Supreme Court, a free speech scholar, an anti-hate activist, a former television executive, a citizen engagement advocate, a former political organizer and a law dean - to examine how to reduce harmful",Steering the internet back on course for democracy's sake; Internet platforms must have a legal duty to act responsibly Edward Greenspon says,tweets_news_1128,tweets_news
"Advertisement There has lately been an uptick of articles in the media , particularly the Western media, warning about the impending end of India’s democracy. Concurrently, many officials in India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have engaged in illiberal rhetoric toward minorities. The government has acted in authoritarian ways toward social media, most recently attempting to intimidate...

Advertisement There has lately been an uptick of articles in the media , particularly the Western media, warning about the impending end of India’s democracy. Concurrently, many officials in India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have engaged in illib...

Advertisement There has lately been an uptick of articles in the media , particularly the Western media, warning about the impending end of India’s democracy. Concurrently, many officials in India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have engaged in illiberal rhetoric toward minorities. The government has acted in authoritarian ways toward social media, most recently attempting to intimidate Twitter in an attempt to censor voices critical of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. India’s rank in democracy indexes has subsequently dropped. For example, a recent article in Responsible Statecraft stated that the Modi government “demolished the secular foundations of Indian democracy, replacing it with a Hindu",Why India’s Democracy is Not Dying,tweets_news_1129,tweets_news
"State and Federal Governments are facing growing backlash from HomeBuilder applicants who say they have missed out on a grant of up to $25,000 because of ""glitches"" or technical issues with the online application process. Clint Calman, from Southport, Queensland , bought his $599,000 townhouse off the plan from developers on December 23 last year. The added...

State and Federal Governments are facing growing backlash from HomeBuilder applicants who say they have missed out on a grant of up to $25,000 because of ""glitches"" or technical issues with the online application process. Clint Calman, from Southport, Quee...

State and Federal Governments are facing growing backlash from HomeBuilder applicants who say they have missed out on a grant of up to $25,000 because of ""glitches"" or technical issues with the online application process. Clint Calman, from Southport, Queensland , bought his $599,000 townhouse off the plan from developers on December 23 last year. The added incentive of a $25,000 HomeBuilder grant was one of the main reasons he decided to build a new home, he says. ""It was a mad rush at the time because if you hadn't executed your contract by the 31st of December the grant would drop down from $25,000",HomeBuilder applicants miss out on $25k grant because of 'technical 'glitches',tweets_news_1130,tweets_news
"Due to virus fears, the show airs for the first time without an audience

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

On a day when ""The View"" aired without a studio audience for the first time, conservative panelist Elisabeth Hasselbeck returned to the show on Wednesday and - surprise - got right back to arguing with liberal co-host Joy Behar.

What was the disagreement about this time? President Trump's much-criticized response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Hasselbeck insisted that the public ""shouldn't be in a state of panic"" before backing the administration's actions.

""We're on the very front end of this right now, and I feel comfortable and confident that because of strong leadership,"" she said before getting cut off.

""Where's the strong leadership?"" Behar wondered.

""Well, he's actually proposing a middle-class tax halt right now,"" Hasselbeck replied, referring to Trump's economic stimulus proposals.

Co-host Sunny Hostin interjected at this point, saying, ""There are only 12 states, plus D.C., that have paid leave. Then you have one in four Americans that don't have paid leave, especially low wage workers. They are going to work when they don't feel well because it makes the difference for their family. So when you look at the response, Elisabeth, from","'The View': Elisabeth Hasselbeck returns, defends Trump's response to coronavirus",tweets_news_1131,tweets_news
"LETHBRIDGE HERALD

tkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com

As the contentious Heritage Committee debate continues in Ottawa surrounding the federal government's Bill C10, Lethbridge MP and Official Opposition Critic for Digital Government Rachael Harder says many Canadians aren't fully aware what's at stake if the bill passes-particularly since section 4.1, which exempted social media and Internet creators from strict Canadian content laws, has now been removed.

""Bill C10 is being put through under the guise of modernizing the Broadcasting Act, but, in fact, what this bill is actually about is regulating the Internet,"" says Harder.

And Harder is not alone in her concerns as several legal experts and former CRTC officials have stated that they feel the bill is a vast overreach into the individual lives of Canadians, and likely in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which guarantees freedom of expression and the right to be heard.

Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, buoyed by committee support for the bill from the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP, has dismissed these concerns, stating, ""I mean, to think that we would somehow adopt legislation that would be counter to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is a pure fabrication.""

However, Guilbeault has so far declined to submit the bill to",Harder has concerns over Bill C10 regulating Internet,tweets_news_1132,tweets_news
"

Feb 03, 2021( The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Parler CEO John Matze has been fired by the company's board, according to a memo sent to staffers on Wednesday. 'On January 29, 2021, the Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler. I did not participate in this decision,' Matze wrote to staffers in the memo obtained by Fox News[1]. 'I understand that those who now control the company have made some communications to employees and other third parties that have unfortunately created confusion and prompted me to make this public statement.'

Parler did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment. In his memo to staffers, Matze said he's 'met constant resistance' from the board in recent months over his vision for the app and his 'strong belief in free speech.' Mercer, the daughter of billionaire hedge fund investor Robert Mercer, co-founded and funded Parler. Like her father, she has been active in right-wing causes like Breitbart News and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Also Read: Apple CEO Tim Cook Defends Parler Shutdown: 'Free Speech and Incitement to Violence' Has No 'Intersection'[2] Matze had become the public face of Parler, especially after",Parler CEO John Matze Fired by Board,tweets_news_1133,tweets_news
"Three Billings residents behind a complaint against a sitting judge are calling for the judge's removal, saying a public censure isn't enough.

Billings attorneys Elizabeth Halverson and Jacquelyn Hughes, and retired federal law clerk Karen Jarussi are also objecting to Yellowstone County District Judge Ashley Harada's admission to six counts of misconduct, saying the explanations she offered for her misconduct are insufficient or misleading.

The complainants argue in recent filings that if the Montana Supreme Court follows the recommendation to censure Harada and does not order a more serious discipline, then it will embolden other judicial candidates to violate the Montana Code of Judicial Conduct.

""There will be 'no holds barred' in future judicial campaigns if Harada's unethical, illegal, and tortious conduct is endorsed and essentially rewarded by imposition of only a censure,"" Jarussi wrote.

The Judicial Standards Commission receives dozens of complaints a year that it must review. Most are dismissed, and the vast majority remain confidential.

Those that rise to the level of a formal complaint have been investigated by the commission and deemed serious enough for public proceedings. Eight judges in Montana have faced formal complaints since 1990.

Retired District Judge Russell Fagg, who is serving as Harada's attorney, issued a statement from",Billings attorneys ask Montana Supreme Court to remove censured judge,tweets_news_1134,tweets_news
"MANCHESTER, New Hampshire: Hours before polls closed in New Hampshire, Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's campaign manager cautioned supporters that her expansive organising operation would steadily collect delegates as the race proceeded no matter what happened in the state's primary. Then Warren walked away with none from New Hampshire. It was a stinging tumble for the US senator from Massachusetts, who as recently as September led polls in the state that neighbours her own. Coupled with a third-place finish in Iowa, the candidate best known for having a plan for everything now faces pressure to recalibrate on the fly to remain competitive.

The Democratic contest to pick a candidate to take on President Donald Trump in November moves on to Nevada and South Carolina later this month, followed by 14 states on Mar 3 ""Super Tuesday,"" a critical juncture for Warren. With more than 1,000 staff across 31 states, she controls the most extensive campaign infrastructure of any candidate aside from former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who skipped the early states and is dumping millions into Super Tuesday advertising. But Warren's enormous staff could also put financial pressure on a campaign funded entirely by grassroots enthusiasm. ""Warren is playing","As Warren aims for Super Tuesday rebound, will she alter her plan?",tweets_news_1135,tweets_news
"

Sep 30, 2020( How Appealing: https://howappealing.abovethelaw.com Delivered by Newstex) ;;;;; 'Pennsylvania Legislators Invite Some Extra SCOTUS Chaos this Election season': Justin Levitt has this post[1] at the 'Take Care' blog. Posted at 10:33 PM [2] by Howard Bashman[3] 'Are Trump's Justices Tainted?' Michael C. Dorf has this post[4] at his blog, 'Dorf on Law.' Posted at 10:18 PM [5] by Howard Bashman[6] 'Amy Coney Barrett wouldn't transform the court more than any other justice': Law professor Michael W. McConnell[7] has this essay[8] online at The Washington Post.

Posted at 10:06 PM [9] by Howard Bashman[10] 'Ginsburg was a champion of voting rights, but mostly in dissent': Richard Hasen has this post[11] at 'SCOTUSblog.' Posted at 8:56 PM [12] by Howard Bashman[13] 'Harry Reid on the Senate, the Supreme Court, and a Time for Major Change': Jeffrey Toobin has this post[14] online at The New Yorker. Posted at 8:53 PM [15] by Howard Bashman[16] 'Trump offered Barrett Supreme Court nomination same day he met the judge, according to questionnaire': Seung Min Kim, Felicia Sonmez, and Robert Barnes of The Washington Post have this report[17]. And Madison Alder and Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson of Bloomberg Law report that 'Trump Offered Barrett Seat Three Days",'Amy Coney Barrett wouldn't transform the court more than any other justice',tweets_news_1136,tweets_news
"/ The Washington Post

The Senate's presumed confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court would finally hard-wire the ""McConnell rule"" into American politics: Elections matter, and the party that wins them can do anything it wants.

Not surprisingly, some Democrats anticipating a sweep in next month's election are eager to use the McConnell rule to justify ending the Senate filibuster and add to the Supreme Court two or even four new justices appointed by a potential new Democratic president and confirmed by a possible new Democratic Senate.

There is, however, a better way for Democrats to achieve their policy goals without responding to Republican court-packing with court-packing of their own. For if Democrats are able to expand the Supreme Court, then they could just as well use the same legislative power to overturn many of the worst decisions of the Rehnquist and Roberts courts over the last 30 years and stymie a new conservative majority on the court in its quest to dismantle the regulatory state.

Indeed, one sweet irony of such a strategy is that it would use the oft-professed judicial philosophy of Barrett and the court's other ""textualists' — that courts should leave policymaking to elected officials and stick to",Comment: Democrats shouldn't retaliate; they should legislate,tweets_news_1137,tweets_news
"In four days, a once-obscure social network that's been around since 2018 saw its user base swell by 4.5 million people, claimed the top spot on smartphone app download charts and trolled Twitter, the platform it hopes to supplant, by becoming a trending topic.

Bristling over fact checks and warning labels applied to voter fraud claims on Facebook and Twitter, conservatives are flocking to Parler, an alternative that promises free-flowing dialogue and political neutrality in content moderation. Its post-Election Day success is building even more buzz as the news spreads from talk radio to The New York Times.

""Facebook and Twitter's suppression of election information was a catalyst, causing many people to lose their trust. But the movement away from these platforms was already well underway,"" CEO John Matze wrote in an open letter to Parler users.

Twitter labeled dozens of President Donald Trump's tweets with the message ""This claim about election fraud is disputed."" Trump supporters say Twitter moderators are betraying their political bias.

Facebook removed a group called ""Stop the Steal,"" which alleges Democrats committed voter fraud to benefit President-elect Joe Biden. Parler rolled out the red carpet, applying a ""verified"" badge to the group's profile picture.

Co-owned by right-wing commentator Dan Bongino",Parler falls short on lofty free speech promises,tweets_news_1138,tweets_news
"Britain, the United States and Canada on Thursday risked worsening fraught diplomatic ties with Russia by accusing Moscow-linked hackers of targeting labs in their countries conducting coronavirus vaccine research.

The three governments pointed the finger at the Kremlin, saying that a hacking group called APT29 was ""almost certainly"" linked to Russian intelligence.

In a separate claim, London said ""Russian actors"" sought to disrupt last year's UK general election by circulating leaked trade documents between Britain and the United States.

Both accusations came even before the publication in the coming days of a long-awaited British parliamentary report into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit vote.

Russia quickly rejected the accusations as ""groundless.""

The United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE) said Thursday that APT29 was ""a cyber espionage group, almost certainly part of the Russian intelligence services,"" adding their the assessment was endorsed by their U.S. counterpart.

""Throughout 2020, APT29 has targeted various organizations involved in COVID-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines,"" it said.

The group was ""likely to continue to target organizations involved in","UK, U.S. and Canada Accuse Russia of Vaccine Research Hacking",tweets_news_1139,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's last-minute move to reject a sweeping coronavirus relief package is escalating confusion and panic among Republicans while setting the stage for an uncomfortable confrontation Thursday that could lead GOP lawmakers to object to their own president's demand for larger stimulus checks for Americans. The chaos is unfolding against the backdrop of another threatened government shutdown, with funding set to lapse starting Tuesday unless a spending bill to keep federal operations running is signed into law along with the virus aid bill. While the president hasn't explicitly threatened a veto, his defiance of a deal negotiated by his own administration could spark a standoff that could conceivably last until Joe Biden is inaugurated Jan. 20. The continued mayhem Wednesday threw into doubt how quickly help would get in the hands of millions of Americans struggling under the economic weight of the pandemic, including the direct payments that had become one of the most visible provisions of the relief package. In a video that caught lawmakers by surprise, Trump decried some items as too costly while advocating larger, $2,000 stimulus checks for individuals rather than the current $600 level.

The fight also handed Democrats in two vital Senate",Trump's last-minute tantrum throws pandemic relief effort into chaos,tweets_news_1140,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

in a Republican party TV ad. Joining me now is our North America correspondent Peter Bowes. Tell me what it was used, how it was used and how Doctor Anthony Fauci has criticised its use. It included words of Dr Fauci who were very positive.

Seemingly in the context of the ad about the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus the reason he is angry is he says his words have been taken out of context and he did not give his permission. In fact, the words that were used were from an interview that he gave about six months ago when he says he was talking in a broader context in terms of the US response and more specifically about the White House coronavirus task force. So he says, and he goes on to add, that in his five decades of public service, he has never endorsed a political candidate. It seems to have been",Joins BBC News - 01:05 AM GMT,tweets_news_1141,tweets_news
"On Monday a Morrisdale man got crimes for leaving a doubtful package outside of his former wifes lawyers office that closed downtown Clearfield.

The offender got accused by Officer Dylan R. Kahley of the Clearfield Borough police with doubtful public inconvenience and wrongdoing. He is 26 year old Tyler Daniel Thompson.

On Tuesday he got litigated and detained at the Clearfield County Jail with of $25,000 bond. On 17 June he will face initial lawsuit.

On Monday at 7:27 a.m. the police got a case regarding doubtful package outside of the law offices at 207 E. Market St.

The package was a military-style crate and there wasnt a note left with it and the lawyer who saw it was concerned that it had a bomb or other harmful agent.

The police there got to know that 57 issues were on the schedule at the Clearfield County Courthouse thats seen directly across the street.

Due of the packages close ness to the courthouse and the volume of cases on the schedule that day, police closed East Market Street, obstructing the juncitons at both Second and Third streets.

County sheriffs officials helped with the streets close as Police Chief Vincent McGinnis asked for response from a bomb squad.

The police",A 26 year old wrongdoer got accused for cases of doubtful package outside his former wifes lawyers office.,tweets_news_1142,tweets_news
"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Iran on Saturday executed an exiled journalist over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017, a little more than a year after authorities tricked him into travelling to Iraq where he was abducted.

Ruhollah Zam, 47, was one of several opposition figures successfully seized by Iranian intelligence operatives abroad in recent months as Tehran struggles under the weight of U.S. sanctions.

Kidnapping and executing Zam, who lived in Paris under what Iran described as French government protection, likely will further chill an already-scattered Iranian opposition across the West. It also comes as Iran tries to pressure France and other European nations over the collapsed atomic accord in the waning days of President Donald Trump's administration.

Zam's ""execution is a deadly blow to freedom of expression in Iran and shows the extent of the Iranian authorities' brutal tactics to instil fear and deter dissent,"" warned Diana Eltahawy of Amnesty International.

Iranian state television referred to Zam as ""the leader of the riots"" in announcing his execution by hanging early Saturday. In June, a court sentenced Zam to death, saying he had been convicted of ""corruption on Earth,"" a charge often used in cases involving espionage or",Iran executes exiled journalist who encouraged 2017 protests,tweets_news_1143,tweets_news
"Mar. 11—Norman residents saw the first case of COVID-19 in March 2020 and joined fellow Americans whose daily lives were upended by a foe not seen since the influenza pandemic of 1918.

Following guidance from state and local health officials, Mayor Breea Clark declared a state of emergency and issued a temporary stay-at-home order. Soon after, she would impose restrictions for businesses and eventually a mask mandate. One year later, many of these measures remain in effect.

In a state whose cities depend solely on sales tax revenue and a city whose businesses feed on festivals and tourism, the future did not seem bright to city officials and business leaders.

Business owner and then-Ward 5 City Councilor Sereta Wilson said limiting merchants was not an easy measure to consider.

""It was very hard to make the decisions that, as a business owner myself, I knew could possibly devastate some folks,"" Wilson said. ""But I could not live with myself if we didn't try to protect human life. The shutdowns were incredibly difficult to decide on. The mask mandate, however, is the most basic thing we can all do to help another human being. So, I had no problem with that part of the decision.""

Ward",Norman officials look back on pandemic anniversary,tweets_news_1144,tweets_news
"PR Newswire

 SiriusXM and Kia Motors America announced today an expansion of their long-term agreement. The two companies are extending their relationship through 2025, and over the course of the agreement Kia will significantly broaden the installation of SiriusXM throughout Kia models and trims produced in North America. This increased penetration rate will begin with model year 2022 vehicles and means SiriusXM is targeted to become a standard feature on nearly all of Kia vehicles sold at retail in the U.S.



Kia customers purchasing or leasing SiriusXM equipped vehicles will continue to receive a three-month subscription to SiriusXM All Access, SiriusXM's most robust programming package. SiriusXM All Access delivers to consumers SiriusXM's full lineup of varied content, plus access to SiriusXM outside their vehicles on the SiriusXM app and on connected devices and speakers in their homes. Customers who purchase or lease Kia Certified Pre-Owned vehicles will also continue to receive a three-month subscription to SiriusXM All Access.

""Our customers love SiriusXM and we're excited to be announcing our plans to make it a standard feature across the vast majority of all vehicles sold at retail,"" said Bill Peffer, vice president, sales operations, Kia Motors America. ""When you come to our dealerships",Kia Motors America and SiriusXM Expand and Extend Their Long-Term Agreement,tweets_news_1145,tweets_news
"INDIANA, Pa., Jan. 14 -- Indiana University of Pennsylvania issued the following news release:

Some people say President Trump is responsible for what happened in Washington, DC, on January 6. But all he did was speak. He has the right to say what he wants, doesn't he?

Yes, but there are some exceptions to the First Amendment, such as inciting violent unlawful actions. Speech that incites imminent, violent unlawful action is not protected. But the unlawful action being called for must be very serious, and the speech has to be the direct cause of the action.

Twitter took away President Trump's account. Isn't that a violation of his First Amendment rights?

No. The First Amendment says Congress will not impede your freedom of speech. It's always meant that the government can't take away your speech or punish you for your speech. Twitter is simply a company, not a government entity. Legally, he has not been denied his First Amendment rights. Here's an example that I teach in my classes: Let's say the Pennsylvania legislature decided that there's too much violence in video games, so it passed a law that you can't buy violent video games until you're 21. That would be a First Amendment","TRUMP, TWITTER, AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH: CONSTITUTION IN CRISIS",tweets_news_1146,tweets_news
"When it comes to both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump and the political hot water each is currently flailing about in, there are garbage barges full of family dysfunction on display.

In the high heat of the summer of our disease and discontent, they stink.

Reminds one of British poet Philip Larkin's blunt immortal words:

""They f--k you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.""

After exhibiting admirably tough, competent and compassionate leadership through the worst public-health crisis of our time, Trudeau's current conflict-of-interest difficulties in the WE charity mess are so ridiculous and unnecessary that even one of his elderly and most ardent fans in my family exploded over the phone as if she were admonishing her own children. ""That is just plain STUPID,"" she said of the leader she had faithfully watched on television every single day during lockdown to approvingly receive his ""how we're going to help you"" briefings during the height of the COVID-19 crisis.

Trudeau, now caught in an apparently blatant not to mention boundlessly inane conflict-of-interest imbroglio when his Liberal government awarded a juicy, multimillion, sole-source contract","Judith Timson: Justin Trudeau's a better leader than Trump, but family dysfunction has ensnared them both",tweets_news_1147,tweets_news
"Forget libel-proof plaintiffs. In the era of “fake news,” it’s all about the libel-proof defendant. Just ask Tucker Carlson and Barstool Sports.

Consumers of news are increasingly trained to be skeptical of what they read and hear from the media and political leaders. With a country increasingly divided in its political choices and media consumption, everything is “fake news” to someone else.

Suffice to say, this puts a great strain on defamation law. Judges - hardly the most media savvy - are forced to grapple with cultural products they hardly understand.

In defamation law, a defendant can prevail a number of ways. They can argue truth. They can argue opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment. They can argue lack of harmfulness. However, in rare cases, defendants can use the plaintiff's reputation against them. There are certain public figures whose actions are so outrageous that any claim about them, no matter how outlandish, is plausible. Pop culture guru Bill Simmons calls it the Tyson Zone, in honor of boxer Mike Tyson, who owned tigers, bit someone's ear off and got a face tattoo.

The legal equivalent of the Tyson Zone is the ""libel-proof plaintiff,"" a doctrine positing that certain disgraced individuals' reputations are",Rhetorical Hyperbole Is the Defamation Defense Du Jour (Guest Column),tweets_news_1148,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department's internal watchdog launched an investigation Friday after revelations that former President Donald Trump's administration secretly seized phone data from at least two House Democrats as part of an aggressive leaks probe. Democrats called the seizures a “shocking"" abuse of power. The announcement by Inspector General Michael Horowitz came shortly after Deputy...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department's internal watchdog launched an investigation Friday after revelations that former President Donald Trump's administration secretly seized phone data from at least two House Democrats as part of an aggressive leaks ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department's internal watchdog launched an investigation Friday after revelations that former President Donald Trump's administration secretly seized phone data from at least two House Democrats as part of an aggressive leaks probe. Democrats called the seizures a “shocking"" abuse of power. The announcement by Inspector General Michael Horowitz came shortly after Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco made the request Friday. Horowitz said he would examine whether the data turned over by Apple followed department policy and “whether any such uses, or the investigations, were based upon improper considerations.” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and another Democratic member of the panel, California","Congress, Justice Dept. probing Trump seizures of Dems' data",tweets_news_1149,tweets_news
"

Feb 23, 2020( The Cheat Sheet: http://www.cheatsheet.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Meghan McCain is one of five co-hosts on The View[1]. She is the most conservative panelist on the talk show and continuously makes headlines[2]. The Republican supporter is hard on her convictions and is not afraid to stand behind an idea that is not the most popular. McCain not only riles up liberals[3] but she recently made fellow conservative women upset. Meghan McCain and Donald Trump | Lou Rocco/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images / Mario Tama/Getty ImagesHow did Meghan McCain offend conservatives?

Florida congressman Matt Gaetz was a guest on The View this week. If you follow politics, you know he's one of Donald Trump's biggest supporters. During his interview, McCain brought up the issue of how the POTUS was going to bring in conservative women to rally behind him.'The thing that I don't understand because I'm not a Trumper — I think that everyone knows that very clearly,' McCain said. 'Policy-wise [Trump's] been great on many things -life, military, economy- but his character issues are still what holds me, and especially so many conservative women, back from going full-throttle with him.'The part that Republicans had an issue with was",'The View': Meghan McCain Gets Slammed by Conservative Women for Trump Comments,tweets_news_1150,tweets_news
"

Apr 13, 2021( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/ Delivered by Newstex) On Sunday's Reliable Sources, CNN host Brian Stelter organized another session in demanding Fox News cancel Tucker Carlson's show or perhaps the entire channel should be cancelled by cable providers. The whole first half-hour of the show was an attack on Fox News, as if these attacks are going to help CNN in the ratings.First, Stelter turned to Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, who insisted Carlson was a white supremacist menace who had to be removed from Fox: CNN's @BrianStelter[1] leads with guest, @JGreenblattADL[2], who demands 'Tucker has got to go' and urges cable operators to drop FNC.

'If Fox won't act...it may be time for...the cable companies to act to finally, once and for all, say that America is, simply put, no place for hate.' pic.twitter.com/VFy1kUd8qI[3];— Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) April 11, 2021[4]Then Stelter turned to CNN analyst Amanda Carpenter (a former conservative turned incessant Trump hater) and Washington Post reporter Philip Bump. Carpenter insisted ""immigration and voting rights, it all goes together in a powerful nationalist way that Republicans should reject. But if you let the strongest voices in the room like Tucker control the conversation, it's only going to",NEW NewsBusters Podcast: Stelter's Latest Call to Get Tucker Cancelled,tweets_news_1151,tweets_news
"Forget politics or money. Racism explains why the country lacks the safety net its citizens deserve.

The weirdest thing about the Democratic primary is how un-American it sounds.

For all their differences, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden -- the last men standing -- both call for a robust expansion of government programs. Mr. Sanders wants ''Medicare for all''; Mr. Biden wants a ''public option'' to compete against private insurance. Both call for a vast increase in Section 8 housing vouchers. Mr. Sanders wants to build 10 million affordable housing units.

So far, the debate around these ideas has focused on the fiscal and political obstacles (Mitch McConnell, ahem). But there's a bigger problem. Americans have repeatedly rejected expansions of the social safety net because it inevitably collides with one of the most powerful forces shaping the American experience: uncompromising racism.

Racism has forever been a forbidding obstacle to the development of a welfare state, at least of the sort that Europe enjoys and many Americans aspire to. By standing in the way of solidarity, it has produced an exceptional country that accepts without flinching the most extreme wealth alongside deprivation that has no place in the industrialized world.

Why does the United States suffer the",Why America Will Never Get Medicare for All,tweets_news_1152,tweets_news
"SOCIAL media firms including Facebook and Instagram have been warned to remove ""vile nonsense"" about the dangers of the Pfizer vaccine or face a government clampdown.

Ministers have told tech firms they must do more to take down wild con spiracy theories that threaten the UK's ability to ""bounce back"" from Covid-19.

It comes after the Pfizer announcement yesterday was followed within hours by thousands of widely shared social media posts claiming the vaccine was dangerous and part of a conspiracy led by Bill Gates to control the world.

Last night, a senior government source suggested that tech firms would face a reckoning if they failed to tackle anti-vaccination content sweeping the internet. In the coming months, ministers are expected to introduce an ""online harms bill"" to hold firms accountable for harmful content online.

""Vaccine disinformation is a menace which risks our ability to bounce back from this virus,"" a senior government source said. ""We've been putting the onus on social media firms to knock down and remove vile nonsense about Covid on their sites, but they must step up their efforts in this critical phase.""

Within hours of the news that the Pfizer vaccine had been approved for use in the UK, The Daily","Remove vaccine lies or face action, firms told",tweets_news_1153,tweets_news
"System can be improved

To the Editor:

I was thrilled to see in your newspaper today a new website to register to get the COVID-19 vaccine. First, I typed in on my computer the website address. All I saw there were a bunch of comments from people who had either successfully registered or couldn't register. There was also a place to type my name which only resulted in a search — which if you wanted that information — you had to pay for it. It had absolutely nothing to do with signing up.

Secondly, I called the phone number: 941-861-8297. I got a recording saying ""We are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The office is now closed."" Granted, I did call on a Saturday, but it was at 12:45 p.m.

In this COVID crisis, wouldn't one think they would be open seven days a week?

I don't know whose running this ""show,"" but it could certainly be improved. I'm soon to be 84 years of age and I want a vaccine. Do you have any other information where I can register to get one?

Ardis E. Boch

Venice

Process smooth after registration

To the Editor:

After being frustrated for weeks trying to register any way possible to receive",Letters to the Editor:,tweets_news_1154,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Summer Taylor, 24, died Saturday night, a hospital spokeswoman said, and a second demonstrator was in serious condition. The driver was in custody, authorities said.

BODY

A protest sticker marked a handrail above Interstate 5 in Seattle, where two protesters were struck by a car. Police charged the driver with vehicular assault.

President Reagan spoke in Baltimore at the unveiling ceremony for the statue of Christopher Columbus.

One of two people who were seriously injured over the weekend when a car drove into a protest on a closed section of Interstate 5 in Seattle has died, authorities said Sunday.

Summer Taylor, 24, of Seattle died Saturday night at Harborview Medical Center, said a UW Medicine spokeswoman. The other injured protester, Diaz Love, 32, of Portland, Ore., was hospitalized in serious condition, the spokeswoman said.

Both had livestreamed the protest before they were injured, The Seattle Times reported.

During the early hours of Saturday, a small group of protesters gathered on a section of Interstate 5 that had been blocked off by authorities, said Trooper Chase Van Cleave of the Washington State Patrol. It was one of many protests that have been organized in Seattle and across the country since the killing of George Floyd in police custody",Seattle protester dies after being struck by car,tweets_news_1155,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

GUNFIRE. As the airlift got under way, there was no letup in the eruption itself. Lava streams from a vent low the crater flowed down to the sea the east of the island, away from the town for the time being. It could start flowing again at any time.

The Russians heralded their new generation space station with a spectacular night launch, they called it 'Mir' - the Russian for peace. This is BBC News, our main headline this hour. In Myanmar the internet has been suspended and a curfew imposed as protests against the military coup continue. Western ambassadors have warned the Burmese military not to harm civilians. Here in the UK more than 15 million people have now received their first dose of coronaviurs vaccine. But the BBC's Panorama programme has been investigating the people trying to derail the rollout. Conspiracy theorists are targeting people who have fears about the vaccine. Some have gained",Joins BBC News - 03:14 AM GMT,tweets_news_1156,tweets_news
"Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

because I think there's a tonne of things that the BBC does that I can't see really a subscription service doing. I can't see anyone else doing. Most primary schools in the country watch Newsround now, which is absolutely brilliant. I can't see anybody making that for them for free.

There's loads of programming that we all know of that's absolutely brilliant that the BBC does, so I think we have to be careful. Nobody should give the BBC a sort of free pass, and we should engage in our national support... National sport, rather, of complaining about the telly, and even shouting at it. I'm sure people do that at this programme. I know they do. I'm sure they do, but I would say, let's all be a bit careful, because the BBC is an incredible national institution, like the National Health Service. APPLAUSE. Pretty unique to this country, and I can't see a paid for subscription service doing some of the things",Question Time - 11:25 PM GMT,tweets_news_1157,tweets_news
"DAVID GREENE: The tech industry has enjoyed decades free of major regulation, but there's a growing techlash (ph) over how much power these big companies have and also their ability to amplify disinformation. So will President-elect Biden take on the tech industry? Before we dig into that question, we do just want to note that Facebook, TikTok are both financial supporters of NPR.

Let's turn to NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn. Bobby, good morning.

BOBBY ALLYN: Good morning, David.

DAVID GREENE: So big picture - what should Silicon Valley expect from a Biden White House?

BOBBY ALLYN: Yeah. So in short, big tech will be in Biden's crosshairs. Look; like you mentioned, for years, tech companies have avoided government regulation, and that's let Big Tech prosper and become integral in our daily lives. I mean, just look at the pandemic. We really know how much we need and use tech every single day, and that's made the tech companies larger and richer. There have been many loud calls in Washington to take on the tech sector. But in the Trump administration, there have been, you know, very few new regulations.

I talked to Darrell West at the Brookings Institution, and he says that could start",How Will Tech Policy Change In The Biden White House? Here's What You Need To Know,tweets_news_1158,tweets_news
"The brother of a top Centers for Disease Control official is former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein



Link to Image



U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, right, speaks at a news conference in Baltimore, Wednesday, March 1, 2017, to announce that seven Baltimore police officers who worked on a firearms crime task force are facing charges of stealing money, property and narcotics from people over two years. Standing alongside Rosenstein is Baltimore Police Department Commissioner Kevin Davis. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) AP



Conservatives have spread a baseless coronavirus conspiracy theory alleging that a top official at the Centers for Disease Control could be part of a ""deep state"" plot to ""bring down"" President Donald Trump, because her brother is former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Trump was reportedly ""furious"" after Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, undercut his attempts to downplay the risk posed by the coronavirus by issuing a public warning that an outbreak in the U.S. now appears inevitable.

""She never should have said that,"" a senior administration official told CNBC. ""It's bad.""

Messonnier is the sister of Rosenstein, who appointed former special counsel Bob Mueller and reportedly discussed removing Trump from office,","Conservatives push coronavirus conspiracy theory alleging a ""deep state"" plot to ""bring down"" Trump",tweets_news_1159,tweets_news
"Joe Biden and Donald Trump will go head to head for the White House on 3 November, with polls showing Biden's lead widening

Democratic challenger Joe Biden is currently leading Donald Trump in the national polls as the US approaches its 2020 presidential election.

Currently, the 10-poll average indicates that just over half of Americans intend to back Joe Biden while Mr Trump's support trails this by around five or six points.

Americans will vote on Tuesday 3 November 2020 in order to elect their next President, either giving Mr Trump another four years or handing over the keys to the White House to Mr Biden.

However, on 2 October 2020 the President was taken to hospital with Covid-19. Though the President now appears to have recovered, it is unclear what effect, if any, this will have on the presidential race.

Mr Trump's age, gender and weight put him into a relatively high-risk category for the virus's worst effects. His recuperation will hamper his ability to hold the mass rallies that fire up by his most loyal supporters.

On the other hand, the first world leader to test positive for Covid-19, Boris Johnson, saw a remarkable increase in his personal approval rating during his illness. YouGov",US election polls tracker: Will Donald Trump or Joe Biden win 2020 presidency?,tweets_news_1160,tweets_news
"Usually a formality, this year's Electoral College vote took on a new symbolic power because of Donald Trump's refusal to concede defeat.

Washington: In the end, American democracy passed its stress test.

On Tuesday (AEDT) the members of the Electoral College met in state capitals across the US to officially certify Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election.

It's a moment that would usually be regarded as a formality, and attract little attention. But this year, it took on a new symbolic power because of Donald Trump's refusal to accept defeat.

The Electoral College vote came on the same day the US administered its first COVID-19 vaccinations outside of clinical trials. Americans watched two major stories playing out split-screens: a testament to the power of science alongside an affirmation of democracy.

The sight of healthcare workers being vaccinated offered hope that the pandemic - which has claimed 300,000 American lives - will eventually be brought under control.

The images of electors casting their ballots offered reassurance that America's democratic institutions were strong enough to withstand Trump's efforts to overturn the result.

To be sure, there has been much to be troubled about in the six weeks following election day.

Trump has continued to make baseless and",Electoral College confirms Trump's defeat and proves American democracy's strength,tweets_news_1161,tweets_news
"Document links may not lead to an active page. Page maintenance is at the discretion of the publisher.

Australians could soon see ""in-your-face"" TV ads akin to the 1980s AIDS campaign, this time warning the public about the harms of social media apps such as China-owned TikTok and ByteDance.

Home Affairs, ASIO and the Australian Signals Directorate have provided the federal government with a confidential review as the basis for a strategy to combat risks of personal data theft and fraud by foreign-owned app entities.

They have noted the ""lack of transparency"" about the data the apps collect and pass on to other entities, as well as the potential for misuse.





Critically it notes there is a limit to how much government and agencies can do and responsibility rests with Australians to be aware and protect themselves against cyber fraud by both foreign state actors and criminals.

Home Affairs has been given specific funding for a public awareness campaign on the risks attached to social media apps, specifically those foreign owned, like the video-sharing app TikTok (China) and the photo filter FaceApp (Russia).

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has indicated the government is unlikely to ban TikTok but said consumers should understand where their data is going.





Senate",Aussie crackdown on China's TikTok,tweets_news_1162,tweets_news
"WE all know that children across Jersey could spend hours and hours watching their favourite vloggers, popstars and other content on YouTube.

But sometimes they can stumble across something that is inappropriate, or find something upsetting in the website's comment section.

There is a site more suitable for youngsters called YouTube Kids, which is a child-friendly version of the videostreaming service. It is aimed at those aged up to 12 years.

Unlike the regular site, YouTube Kids uses a mixture of filters, human reviewers and parent feedback to minimise the risk of your children or grandchildren seeing something inappropriate or harmful.

While these three counter measures are very effective, there is no way of guaranteeing that your child won't come across anything inappropriate because of the vast amounts of content uploaded. I believe it is crucial that your children know they can always speak to you if they do see something that worries or upsets them.

One of the many safety features you will find on YouTube Kids is that parents can disable the search feature and set an age level for different types of videos, helping your youngsters avoid coming across anything they're not supposed to. You can also subscribe to channels together, which",Appropriate content for children,tweets_news_1163,tweets_news
"By BBC Monitoring

Observation of Covid-19 restrictions, development of a coronavirus vaccine, and the aftermath of the US presidential election were among the main topics covered by Latvian newspapers and websites on 10 November 2020.

Covid-19: requirements and challenges

In Latvia, it is necessary to introduce fines for appeals not to comply with the requirements developed by the government to combat Covid-19, BB.lv news portal cited lawyer MP Andrejs Judins as tweeted. ""Administrative liability for a public call for non-compliance with epidemiological safety rules would be a proportionate response of the state to public health concerns; such a restriction would not be contrary to the right to freedom of expression,"" Judins has said. (BB.lv, 10 November)

In an article for the liberal Ir weekly, Kristians Bredermanis, head of the military equipment company SRC Brasa, says the prediction that the Covid-19 pandemic would have a significant impact on the defence and military industry is still too early to confirm. He emphasises that, given the challenges of Covid-19, local companies developing value-added products have a key role to play in strengthening a comprehensive national defence system, and investments are an essential precondition for an effective collective planning process and comprehensive capacity building. Latvia's involvement in cooperation","Highlights from Latvian press, websites 10 Nov 20",tweets_news_1164,tweets_news
"Spring is here, folks! I know things aren't really normal yet. But they seem to be coming around. Picnics! Movies! Sooner or later we'll all actually be going to work at ... work. And before your socializing gets into full swing, let's make sure you're caught up on everything that's been going on in the wonderful world of politics.

1. Donald Trump celebrated his post-presidential Easter by ...

A. Hiding some eggs where Eric and Don Jr. couldn't find them. B. Claiming the election was rigged. C. Donning bunny ears and passing out treats along our southern border.

2. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., took a trip to view the immigrant problems on the Mexican border and bemoaned the flood of drugs coming into the country. Daines said that back in his home state, methamphetamine, or ""meth,"" used to be ...

A. Sometimes confused with ""math."" B. Nonexistent. C. Homemade.

3. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is in trouble for his extremely bouncy sex life. Colleagues in the House reportedly claimed Gaetz used to ...

A. Try to sign them up for the Billie Eilish fan club. B. Wander around the House floor showing off nude photos of women he said he'd slept with. C. Sell them",Are you caught up in the wonderful world of politics?,tweets_news_1165,tweets_news
"

Feb 16, 2021( Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Conservative donor Fred Eshelman is a sucker. The Washington Post is a little nicer about it[1] than I am but the facts are still there in black and white, clear as crystal.[2] Like many Trump supporters, conservative donor Fred Eshelman awoke the day after the presidential election with the suspicion that something wasn't right. His candidate's apparent lead in key battleground states had evaporated overnight. The twice-impeached thug never had an 'apparent lead in key battleground states.""

There was a brief 'red mirage"" because of how votes were counted. We knew this going into Election Day, and the insurrectionist in chief even announced[3] his election theft scheme well in advance. He's just the kind of asshole who would spoil a big plot twist.Eshelman refused to accept what months of polling[4] and the actual, comprehensive vote count revealed: Joe Biden had defeated the one-term loser. Instead, he embraced delusional conspiracy theories like a less foxy Fox Mulder. ""I thought about the range of possibilities around vote fraud,"" Eshelman said in an interview with The Washington Post. ""There was already noise around cities like Detroit, Milwaukee, Atlanta and Philadelphia."" He added: ""I wanted to determine",GOP Donor Parted With $2.5 Million In Failed Quest For Holy Grail Of Voter Fraud,tweets_news_1166,tweets_news
"RE: 'The Hate U Give'

The Jan. 14, issue of the Belmont Citizen Herald contained a letter titled ""Is BHS teaching extremist violent behavior?"" In 2019 I was made aware of the book titled ""The Hate U Give"" which was listed among other books as required reading for summer ninth grade honor students and ninth grade college preparatory students. Following my curiosity regarding that particular book, I took the time to inform myself concerning its contents. Quite frankly, I was surprised at what I was reading. In December 2019 I sent a letter to Dr. John Phelan, the superintendent of schools, related to the book titled ""The Hate U Give."" I ended that letter with the following and I quote from that letter:

""As far as I know, there is not a scintilla of evidence that racism is a problem in Belmont. I do note the suggestion by an English teacher that ""The Hate U Give"" should be read in conjunction with reading ""To Kill a Mockingbird."" In my opinion reading the book and then writing a paper on its contents may be a worthwhile exercise if each paper written by each student is critiqued with the student by the teacher. I",Letters to the Editor,tweets_news_1167,tweets_news
"YouTube’s attempts to stay apolitical has kept it tied up in knots, focusing decisions on small technicalities

In the fall of 2018, I released a research report warning of a growing trend of far-right radicalization on YouTube. Specifically, I identified a loosely connected network of reactionary YouTubers, ranging from mainstream conservatives and libertarians all the way to overt white supremacists and neo-Nazis, who were all broadcasting their political ideas to young audiences. Tethered together by a shared opposition to “social justice warriors” and the mainstream media, they frequently collaborated with each other and amplified each other’s content. In the process, they made it extremely easy for a viewer to move bit by bit into more extremist content.

The following March, I watched in horror along with much of the rest of the world, as a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people and injured 40 more at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand. Throughout the chaos of the day, researchers parsed his manifesto and found that under the layers of irony and memes, the message was quite clear. He had been radicalized to believe in the Great Replacement, a white nationalist conspiracy theory that claims that",I warned in 2018 YouTube was fueling far-right extremism. Here's what the platform should be doing,tweets_news_1168,tweets_news
"Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

paperwork they need The environment secretary George Eustice said the French were overreacting. That threat was majors absolutely disproportionate and is obviously unacceptable. I mean, we are working through the agreement Jersey all realise is over 40 vessels if you are a pragmatic there was been clear that some they'll process the remaining 17 or so the players, seen as a footballer. The data so I think it's really unacceptable to make those sorts of comments.

The G7 countries meeting in London have issued a statement criticising both China and Russia in the group's final communique Beijing was condemned for its treatment of minorities, a Moscow for destabilising behaviour, the group didn't commit any new money to the Cove at scheme to help worldwide co vaccination political leaders have spent the day making their final appeals before tomorrow's elections in England, Wales and Scotland. Voters will decide the Hartlepool by-election every seat in the Scottish and Welsh parliament police and crime commissioners in England",BBC Radio 4 - 8:00 PM GMT,tweets_news_1169,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump used a late-night tweet over the weekend to criticize Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, continuing to push election conspiracies in the waning days of his presidency.

The tweet prompted replies from Nessel, including one line where she told Trump to ""stop obsessing about those women from Michigan. You're not our type.""

Trump has repeatedly criticized Nessel, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, all of whom are Democrats. Earlier this year, he called Whitmer ""the woman in Michigan."" Whitmer embraced the term, as have Nessel, Benson and many of their supporters in the state.

Trump took to Twitter Sunday morning, just past midnight, to engage in what has become a hallmark of his time in office: attacking political opponents on social media. He linked to a story about Nessel's recent comments that she planned to seek sanctions against some attorneys filing election-related lawsuits.

""These lawyers are true patriots who are fighting for the truth and, obviously, getting very close. AG should be sanctioned. Fight on!"" Trump tweeted.

Nessel questioned the president's patriotism in response, while joking about the late-night nature of the Twitter attack.

""Can't a random state AG from the Midwest sleep in on a Sunday morning without waking",Nessel replies to Trump: 'You're not our type',tweets_news_1170,tweets_news
"By Maeve Reston | CNN Former President Donald Trump's lies and his insistence that the November election was rigged against him may have turned out to be a bridge too far for the attorneys who were slated to defend him in his upcoming Senate impeachment trial in a little more than a week. But his [...]

By Maeve Reston | CNN

Former President Donald Trump's lies and his insistence that the November election was rigged against him may have turned out to be a bridge too far for in his upcoming Senate impeachment trial in a little more than a week.

But his party has largely . After a brief flirtation with reason and sound judgment in the weeks following the January 6 siege at the Capitol, the Republican Party has decided to honor their deep and often blind allegiance to Trump, choosing to overlook his role in inciting the deadly insurrection rather than pay the price of crossing him and his base next year at the ballot box.

The collapse of Trump's legal team amid a disagreement over legal strategy, which CNN first reported the attorneys who were slated to defend him stuck with him Saturday night, stood in stark contrast to the","Analysis: As GOP loyalty falters, Trump loses his impeachment defense team",tweets_news_1171,tweets_news
"Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Wednesday is asking Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session of the Texas Legislature in June to advance three pieces of GOP-backed legislation that died in the Texas House at midnight on Tuesday. The bills sought to ban transgender students from playing on sports teams based on their gender identity, prohibit...

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Wednesday is asking Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session of the Texas Legislature in June to advance three pieces of GOP-backed legislation that died in the Texas House at midnight on Tuesday. The bills sought to ban transgend...

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Wednesday is asking Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session of the Texas Legislature in June to advance three pieces of GOP-backed legislation that died in the Texas House at midnight on Tuesday. The bills sought to ban transgender students from playing on sports teams based on their gender identity, prohibit local governments from using taxpayer funds to pay for lobbyists and punish social media companies for ""censoring"" Texans based on their political viewpoints. ""The TxHouse killed these conservative bills that majority of Texans in both parties support,"" Patrick tweeted. Asking @GregAbbott_TX to call",Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants special session over 3 failed bills,tweets_news_1172,tweets_news
"India, Dec. 17 -- A US defence spending legislation that has been cleared by both chambers of the US Congress expresses ""significant concern"" with Chinese aggression along the border with India, and urges Beijing to settle the dispute through ""existing diplomatic mechanisms"" and ""refrain'' from using force and coercion.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), 2021 seeks to convey this message as an expression of the ""sense of Congress"". Though it is neither a demand nor a threat tagged with enforceable consequences, it is a significant show of support for India and solidarity, passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and Republican-controlled Senate.

The legislation is now awaiting the signature of President Donald Trump. He has until December 23 to sign the bill into law or veto it, as he has threatened to. However, since the legislations passed both the House and Senate with two-thirds majorities, the measure has enough support to override a presidential veto.

In Section 1206 of the bill titled ""Sense of Congress on the aggression of the government of China along the border with India and growing territorial claims"" the bill says, ""Continued military aggression by the Government of China along the border with India is a significant concern.""

And",US defence bill slams China on LAC aggression,tweets_news_1173,tweets_news
"By BBC Monitoring

The school shooting in the city of Kazan has prompted a chorus of calls from officials and pro-Kremlin talking heads on state-controlled media about the dangers posed by the internet, particularly to the young, and the need to bring it under control.

The barrage of calls - usually intermingled with advocacy for tighter gun controls and tougher security at school entrances - has prompted concerns among liberal commentators that the tragedy in Kazan is being used to pave the way for further clampdown on web freedom.

The starting gun was fired by Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, who within hours of the school shooting said his legislators would look into the role of the internet in prompting such incidents, alongside firearms regulations.

""Let's do all we can to stop such things happening again,"" he told a session of the State Duma, in remarks broadcast by state rolling news channel Rossiya 24.

""We will instruct the committee for security to analyse our laws,"" he continued. ""We are sometimes criticised for them, saying that on extremism, on preventing various kinds of involvement of children in unlawful activity, we are introducing overly harsh penalties, but as life has shown, [it's]",Russia school shooting prompts pro-Kremlin calls for web curbs,tweets_news_1174,tweets_news
"There's one Google executive who handles a large chunk of the tech giant's trickiest and most controversial issues. It's Kent Walker, the company's senior vice president for global affairs and its chief legal officer.

US anti-trust action? That's Kent. EU competition fines? That's Kent, too. Trust and safety issues? Once again, Kent.

So there's a lot on his plate. This week, he opened Google's new Safety Engineering Centre in Dublin, which will ramp up the company's efforts to tackle 'harmful' content, such as child safety and violent extremism, as well as other matters of concern, like ad transparency and botnet research.

The idea is to give regulators and policymakers - from Ireland and Europe - a closer, more open look at what (and why) Google makes the decisions it does around content, from workflow and engineering perspectives. It comes ahead of the appointment of Ireland's new Online Safety Commissioner, which will have substantial powers to fine or sanction Google and other big tech firms around content-safety issues.

Right now, it might be argued that Google's highest-profile trust and safety content issue comes in the form of a former US president, said to be seething in Florida. Like other big tech platforms, Google won't let",Google's top legal gun on Trump and content calls,tweets_news_1175,tweets_news
"Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

That's all from me, thank you for watching. Until next Sunday, goodbye. Well, Mr President, that's an act of war. The incredible inside story... I didn't know what he was going to do. Trump looks not orange but red.

He flipped. ..of a president who tore up the international rule book. They will be met with fire and fury. Trump Takes On The World: INDIE DANCE BEAT BUILDS TO CRESCENDO MUSIC STOPS It comes down to who blinks first. MUSIC RESUMES _ I'll make you happy, baby _ Just wait and see _ For every kiss... _ It's Sunday, it's ten o'clock and that means it's time for the Politics Midlands Podcast. Hello and welcome to the programme. Joining me today is the Conservative MP for Kenilworth and Southam. He's also a former Attorney General and has also previously held the job Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. A very good morning to Jeremy Wright. Also joining me down the line is",Politics London - 10:00 AM GMT,tweets_news_1176,tweets_news
"Friday : Calls to get security guards out of quarantine hotel corridors. Plus: Collingwood players say sorry

Good morning, it's Friday 5 February, and Imogen Dewey here bringing you the latest on the virus-that-need-not-be-named, Trump's impeachment trial and still more about Craig Kelly.

Epidemiologists say we need to get guards out ofquarantine hotel corridors and get fresh air and CCTV in - pointing out, reasonably, that it doesn't make sense to man corridors given they could spread more infectious variants of Covid-19. The warning comes after an Australian Open quarantine hotel worker in Melbourne tested positive for coronavirus four days after another guard tested positive in Perth (where it's still masks on outdoors, please ). Authorities aren't ruling out airborne transmission, but Daniel Andrews doesn't expect the outbreak to affect the Australian Open - though the draw has been pushed back. Meanwhile, as our borders stay shut to most others, international students are starting to look elsewhere for their studies.

Controversial Liberal MP Craig Kelly's rocky week continues, with posts disappearing from his Facebook timeline almost as quickly as the prolific correspondent has been posting. He is currently under fire for sharing Covid misinformation, especially from Labor , but even if the Liberals","Morning mail: Quarantine hotel risks, Craig Kelly's disappearing posts, Trump's revenge",tweets_news_1177,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

For a short period in the late summer months of 2018, it was nearly impossible to avoid images of Maria Butina.

The photogenic Russian gun advocate — her American boyfriend, Yale graduate Paul Erickson, was a well-connected GOP operative — was seemingly everywhere, instantly recognizable from her fiery red hair, no-nonsense look, assault weapon slung over her shoulder and — later — her orange prison jumpsuit.

Butina’s story is now the subject of a six-part Wondery true-crime podcast called “Spy Affair,” produced and narrated by documentary filmmaker Celia Aniskovich, who was raised in Branford.

Liz Yale Marsh, Aniskovich’s close friend and a fellow filmmaker, initially sent her an article about Butina. Aniskovich was immediately sold on the story.

“I thought: how fascinating,” Aniskovich said. “Here we are, two young women who represent the two stakeholders in the story, Russia and America. How is it that a woman who is just a couple of years older than me ends up in prison at the center of an international scandal?”

In 2018, Butina was convicted of conspiring to act as a foreign agent within the United States.

But the podcast begins years earlier: at Freedom Fest 2015 in Las Vegas, an overflowing, arch-conservative conference in the heart","CT native hosts ‘Spy Affair,’ a new Wondery podcast about gun-toting Russian operative Maria Butina",tweets_news_1178,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Calling out disinformation pushed by Fox News and other Trumpy outlets—you know, the guys who make up Black Lives Matter “mobs,” have “white power hours” and publish headlines like “Would you rather your daughter have cancer than feminism?”—is no easy feat. But in Episode 17 of The New Abnormal, Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast talk to someone trying to do it, one screenshot at a time.

Sleeping Giants’ Matt Rivitz talks about what it’s like to take on Brietbart, Bill O’Reilly, and Tucker Carlson—and win. He’s been pushing advertisers from Kellogg's to Mars to drop the race-baiters, and they’ve responded.

“This is like the Super Bowl... It's like, OK, brands finally get it. What they choose to support with their media dollars really drives the conversation,” he says. “No media planner is like going to get all fired up about doing a Pepe campaign.”

But there’s still work to do, as extreme right-wing network One America News (aka OANN) exists, which Rick describes perfectly: “It's like Breitbart and Alex Jones had a love child with no editorial standards.”

Then, former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu joins the duo and goes deep on policing and his long fight to take down confederate monuments.

“Those monuments",Can You Force Fox News to Be Less Racist?,tweets_news_1179,tweets_news
"

Sep 30, 2020( Naked Capitalism: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ Delivered by Newstex) This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 1195 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page[1], which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why we're doing this fundraiser,[2] what we've accomplished in the last year,[3] and our current goal, burnout prevention[4]. Time: 9:00PM-10:30PM Eastern Time (with no commercial breaks) Place: Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion, part of a joint health campus between Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic Host: Fox Moderator: Chris Wallace, Fox News.

Candidate line-up: Donald Trump (President of the United States) Joe Biden (former Vice President of the United States) Topics[5], fifteen minutes each: The topics for the debate are 'The Trump and Biden Records,' 'The Supreme Court,' 'Covid-19,' 'The Economy,' 'Race and Violence in our Cities' and 'The Integrity of the Election,' according to the Commission on Presidential Debates. How to watch[6]: The debate [will be] aired on all major US networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC. It will be played on CNN and MSNBC, as well as Amazon Fire, Android,","Live Blog: Presidential Primary Debate #1 in Cleveland, OH.",tweets_news_1180,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

THE arrest of 13 people, including members of a self-described militia group who were allegedly training for civil war, plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and discussing abducting Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, shocked many Americans. Those who have studied and combated violent extremist movements were horrified but not surprised.

In March, while serving as assistant secretary of homeland security for counterterrorism and threat prevention, I asked my team to research how pandemic mitigation efforts might exacerbate violent extremism. For decades, the Secret Service, the FBI and academic researchers have examined the backgrounds and pre-attack behaviors of mass-attack perpetrators. Some of the risk factors of violent extremism they identified are increasing nationwide: social isolation, financial stress, job loss, loss of loved ones and significant changes or uncertainty in life.

My team also found that some groups would perceive public-health measures as government overreach infringing on rights and liberties, which might encourage anti-government extremists. And we observed foreign actors and domestic violent extremists spreading disinformation about the pandemic to foment discord and encourage violence.

These findings were included in the recently released 2020 Homeland Threat Assessment, which concluded: “Domestic Violent Extremists [present] the most persistent and lethal threat. . . . Violent extremists",Trump's rhetoric encourages violence,tweets_news_1181,tweets_news
"Republicans argue that liberal voices are 'censored' more than liberal ones

At Wednesday’s Senate hearing concerning content moderation policies on major social media platforms, Republican Senator Mike Lee said that fact-checking is a form of censorship.

The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation was questioning the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook, and Google via video chat about online censorship, with Republicans voicing concerns that the companies discriminate against conservative viewpoints.

Senator Lee argued that content moderation policies were deployed disproportionately against users with conservative ideologies.

Defining what he meant by censorship, the Utah lawmaker said: “When I use the word 'censor' here, I'm meaning blocked content, fact check, or labeled content, or demonetised websites of conservative, Republican, or pro-life individuals or groups or companies.â€

He added that he does not see the same suppression of high-profile liberal groups or individuals.

CEOs Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Sundar Pichai of Google, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, all defended their policies, stating that they apply to anyone that violates platform rules, no matter their political affiliation.

Incredulous Twitter users were quick to pounce on the idea that a sitting Senator believes that flagging untruths or falsities constitutes censorship. Others declared themselves less surprised.

it is absolutely insane that we have a U.S.",Senator Mike Lee says fact-checking is form of censorship,tweets_news_1182,tweets_news
"The first half of the TikTok video shows a muscular Russian man with a shaved head doing push-ups, jumping out of a plane, and staring down the scope of a rifle. The second half shows a brightly animated U.S. Army ad telling the true story of Cpl. Emma Malonelord, a soldier who enlisted after being raised by two mothers in California and graduating at the top of her high school class.

The U.S. Army said its ad showcases the ""the deeply emotional and diverse"" backgrounds of its soldiers. But to Sen. Ted Cruz, who retweeted the TikTok on Thursday, the contrast with Russia's campaign instead made American soldiers ""into pansies.""

""Holy crap,"" Cruz said in his viral tweet. ""Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea.. .""

His jab did not sit well with critics, including many former service members, veterans groups and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who is a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel.

""Holy crap,"" Duckworth tweeted Thursday, mimicking Cruz's words. ""Perhaps a U.S. Senator shouldn't suggest that the *Russian* military is better than the American military that protected him from an insurrection he helped foment?"" In the hours after Cruz's quip, #emasculaTED trended on Twitter.

""Ted Cruz attacks a","Sen. Ted Cruz insulted a 'woke, emasculated' U.S. Army ad. Angry veterans fired back",tweets_news_1183,tweets_news
"Rep. Tomaz Malinowski, D-New Jersey, issued the following news release on Oct. 20:

Today, Congressman Tom Malinowski (NJ-7) and Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo (CA-18) introduced the Protecting Americans from Dangerous Algorithms Act, legislation to hold large social media platforms accountable for their algorithmic amplification of harmful, radicalizing content that leads to offline violence.

The bill narrowly amends Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to remove liability immunity for a platform if its algorithm is used to amplify or recommend content directly relevant to a case involving interference with civil rights (42 U.S.C. 1985); neglect to prevent interference with civil rights (42 U.S.C. 1986); and in cases involving acts of international terrorism (18 U.S.C. 2333). 42 U.S.C. 1985 and 1986 are Reconstruction-era statutes originally designed to reach Ku Klux Klan conspirators, and are central to a recent suit alleging Facebook facilitated militia violence in Kenosha, WI. 18 U.S.C. 2333 is implicated in several lawsuits, including an earlier suit against Facebook, alleging its algorithm connected terrorists with one another and enabled physical violence against Americans. The bill only applies to platform companies with 50 million or more users.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. 230) immunizes ""interactive computer services"" from legal","Reps. Malinowski, Eshoo Introduce Bill to Hold Tech Platforms Liable for Algorithmic Promotion of Extremism",tweets_news_1184,tweets_news
"What is it like when a city abandons a neighborhood and the police vanish? Business owners describe a harrowing experience of calling for help and being left all alone.

SEATTLE - Faizel Khan was being told by the news media and his own mayor that the protests in his hometown were peaceful, with ""a block party atmosphere.""

But that was not what he saw through the windows of his Seattle coffee shop. He saw encampments overtaking the sidewalks. He saw roving bands of masked protesters smashing windows and looting.

Young white men wielding guns would harangue customers as well as Mr. Khan, a gay man of Middle Eastern descent who moved here from Texas so he could more comfortably be out. To get into his coffee shop, he sometimes had to seek the permission of self-appointed armed guards to cross a border they had erected.

""They barricaded us all in here,"" Mr. Khan said. ""And they were sitting in lawn chairs with guns.""

For 23 days in June, about six blocks in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood were claimed by left-wing demonstrators and declared police-free. Protesters hailed it as liberation - from police oppression, from white supremacy - and a catalyst for a national movement.

In",Abolish the Police? Those Who Survived the Chaos in Seattle Aren't So Sure,tweets_news_1185,tweets_news
"May 7, 2021 The U.S. International Trade Commission on Thursday announced revisions to the title, scope and schedule of a recently launched fact-finding investigation into the effects of foreign censorship on U.S. businesses and instituted a second, related probe.

The ITC in January launched the investigation into the impact of foreign censorship pursuant to Section 332 of the Tariff Act of 1930, following a request from then-Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

""Foreign governments use many tools to carry out censorship, including technological measures that restrict digital trade,"" Grassley wrote in a Jan. 4 letter to ITC Chairman Jason Kearns. ""These tools, and the policies that enable them, allow authorities in foreign markets to limit speech by controlling the flow of information and services.""

The probe launched in January, ""Foreign Censorship: Trade and Economic Effects on U.S. businesses,"" was designed to ""analyze the effects of censorship policies and practices in key foreign markets on businesses in the United States,"" according to an ITC statement at the time.

The commission on Wednesday said it was expanding the investigation into two parts, renaming and revising the ongoing investigation and instituting a second one. The ongoing investigation, renamed ""Foreign Censorship Part 1: Policies and Practices Affecting","ITC revises, expands Section 332 probe into censorship as a non-tariff barrier",tweets_news_1186,tweets_news
"NEW DELHI: Facebook is a non-partisan platform which denounces hate and bigotry, the company's India head said on Friday, amid a controversy over how the U.S. social media giant regulates political content in its biggest market by number of users. Facebook and its top lobbying executive in India, Ankhi Das, have faced criticism after a news report said she opposed applying hate-speech rules to some Hindu nationalist individuals and groups, and to a politician from India's ruling party who had called Muslims traitors in Facebook posts. ""The decisions around content escalations are not made unilaterally by just one person ... the process comes with robust checks and balances,"" Facebook's India head, Ajit Mohan, wrote in an online post titled ""We are open, transparent and non-partisan"". Reuters this week reported that some Facebook employees in the United States and beyond had raised questions in internal forums about whether adequate content regulation practices were being followed by the India team. In an internal open letter to Facebook's leadership, 11 employees demanded that company leaders acknowledge and denounce ""anti-Muslim bigotry"" and ensure more policy consistency.

One source had said there was a debate happening internally at Facebook about content moderation processes. The controversy has","Facebook denounces hate, bigotry, its India chief says amid content row",tweets_news_1187,tweets_news
"‘Trump’s likely RBG replacement, Amy Coney Barrett, is a Catholic extremist with 7 children who does not believe employers should be required to provide healthcare coverage for birth control. She wants the rest of American women to be stuck with her extreme lifestyle.”

That’s a now-deleted tweet from a documentary filmmaker named Arlen Parsa, which earned some backlash for what I can only assume is its rank and vicious anti-Catholic bigotry. After all, imagine replacing “Catholic” with “Muslim” or “Orthodox Jewish,” for example, and it isn’t hard to see why this so offended.

And if it’s any forewarning of what’s to come if Barrett is indeed President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, we’re undoubtedly in for more of this — a fact that should trouble anyone who is hoping Trump loses in November.

Barrett’s association with a charismatic Catholic sect called People of Praise has become the left’s go-to attack line on the conservative judge. It’s what led Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Dick Durbin to question her objectivity in 2017 during her confirmation to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Feinstein said she was concerned that “the dogma lives loudly” within Barrett, while Durbin asked whether she was an “orthodox Catholic.”",Attacks on Barrett will help get Trump re-elected,tweets_news_1188,tweets_news
"“What’s to stop them from silencing you?” Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, replied on Twitter.

“What’s to stop them from silencing you?” Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, replied on Twitter.

Lawmakers lashed out at the ruling by Facebook’s oversight board on Wednesday to uphold the social network’s ban on former President Donald J. Trump, at least for now.

Driving the discontent was that the oversight board, a quasi-court that confers over some of Facebook’s content decisions, did not make a black-and-white decision about the case. Mr. Trump had been blocked from the social network in January after his comments online and elsewhere incited the storming of the Capitol building.

While the oversight board said on Wednesday that Facebook was justified in suspending Mr. Trump at the time because of the risk of further violence, it also said the company needed to revisit its action. The board said Facebook’s move was “a vague, standardless penalty” without defined limits, which needed to be reviewed again for a final decision on Mr. Trump’s account in six months.

That angered both Republicans and Democrats. Republican lawmakers have pointed to Mr. Trump’s ouster by Facebook, Twitter and others as evidence of an alleged anti-conservative campaign by tech companies,",Lawmakers slam Facebook oversight board’s decision to uphold Trump ban.,tweets_news_1189,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump's doctor said on Saturday (Oct 10) the president is no longer at risk of transmitting the coronavirus. In a memo, Dr Sean Conley says Trump meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for safely discontinuing isolation and that by ""currently recognised standards"" he is no longer considered a transmission risk. The memo follows Trump's first public appearance since returning to the White House after being treated for the coronavirus. Hundreds of people gathered on Saturday afternoon on the South Lawn for a Trump address on his support for law enforcement from a White House balcony. READ: 'I am feeling great,' Trump tells supporters at White House public event Trump took off a mask moments after he emerged on the balcony to address the crowd on the lawn below, his first step back onto the public stage with just more than three weeks to go until Election Day.

He flouted, once more, the safety recommendations of his own government just days after acknowledging that he was on the brink of ""bad things"" from the virus and claiming that his bout with the illness brought him a better understanding of it. His return was a brief one.",Trump is no longer a COVID-19 'transmission risk': White House doctor,tweets_news_1190,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

the future of clinical advertising? We will win our freedom... TikTok uses are young. Around two-thirds are under the age of 30. Let me switch up real quick.

Topher is 29. By TikTok standards that is ancient. People are saying ""OK boomer""... Topher is an unusual mix. This is to all my Trump supporters. He is a rapper and conservative commentators. This is what President Trump meant by when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Until about six months ago he didn't have much of a social media following. Now he has exploded, followed by nearly half a million users, his videos have generated millions of likes. _ What you've got to lose... A lot of the time it is reimagining what people think about news, it allows us to have green screen video and photo, allows us to put up sources as we talk about current events, and one minute videos are almost like popcorn",Joins BBC News - 00:35 AM GMT,tweets_news_1191,tweets_news
"YouTube has removed a recording of a roundtable discussion on public health that was held by Gov. Ron DeSantis last month after the video-sharing platform said it included information on mask-wearing that ""contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities.""

The March 18 roundtable discussion featured a panel of physicians who appeared to be hand-picked because their views aligned with DeSantis' handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Among them was Dr. Scott Atlas, a radiologist who was a pandemic adviser to former President Donald Trump, as well as Dr. Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University, Dr. Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, of Stanford Medical School -- all of whom have been critical of lockdowns and certain other measures amid the pandemic.

At one point during the nearly two-hour discussion, DeSantis asked panelists whether children needed to wear face masks in school. Kulldorf responded that ""children should not wear face masks. No. They don't need it for their own protection and they don't need it for protecting other people, either."" Bhattacharya added that he thought it was ""developmentally inappropriate"" for children in school to wear face masks.

YouTube pointed to those comments as examples of content that violated its standards about","YouTube removes video of DeSantis pandemic roundtable with Atlas, other panelists",tweets_news_1192,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

President-elect Joe Biden said Connecticut's education chief and life-long champion of public schools is the right pick to lead the department as the nation struggles to educate students safely during the pandemic.

FULL TEXT

Link to Image

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - President-elect Joe Biden introduced Miguel Cardona as his pick for education secretary on Wednesday, saying Connecticut's education chief and life-long champion of public schools is the right pick to lead the department as the nation struggles to educate students safely during the pandemic.

The selection delivers on Biden's promise to nominate someone with experience working in public education and would fulfill his goal of installing an education chief who stands in sharp contrast to President Donald Trump's Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Unlike DeVos, a school choice advocate whom Biden says is an opponent of public schools, Cardona is a product of them, starting when he entered kindergarten unable to speak English.

During remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden called Cardona a ""brilliant"" educator who would help further his administration's commitment to re-opening schools safely.

""We can do it if we give school districts, communities and states the clear guidance and resources that aren't already in their tight budgets,"" Biden said, adding that addressing the issue ""requires someone",Biden introduces Miguel Cardona as pick for education secretary,tweets_news_1193,tweets_news
"

Apr 24, 2020( Moonbattery: http://www.moonbattery.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Hydroxychloroquine is bad because Trump said it offered hope in treating the ChiCom virus. Anyone who deviates from this line is a thought criminal. This includes even Democrat Woman of Color Karen Whitsett, a state representative from Detroit.

Due to an underlying condition, COVID-19 nearly killed her. After hydroxychloroquine brought her back from the edge, she thanked Trump for making her aware of the drug that saved her life. Now she must face the music[1]: [T]he 13th Congressional District Democratic Party Organization plans to vote Saturday via Zoom on a resolution to censure Whitsett, a first-term lawmaker representing the 9th Michigan House District. The admonition means she will not get the group's endorsement for this year nor will she be able to engage in the group's activities for the next two election cycles. In effect, they have kicked her out of the Democrat Party for thanking someone for saving her life. Liberal tolerance takes no prisoners. The political future of Tavia Galonski[2] remains bright. She is the state rep in Ohio who proclaimed that Trump should be tried before the International Criminal Court for 'crimes against humanity' for saying that hydroxychloroquine offers hope.",Stern Punishment for State Rep Saved by Hydroxychloroquine,tweets_news_1194,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is not yet on a clear path to recovery from COVID-19 and some of his vital signs over the last 24 hours were very concerning, a person familiar with his health said on Saturday.

The source's assessment of the Republican president's medical status seemed to be at odds to that of a team of doctors who said at a press conference earlier on Saturday that he was ""doing very well.""

One of those doctors said Trump had told them ""'I feel like I could walk out of here today.'""

The source, who asked not to be identified, said the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of Trump's care.

Trump left the White House and was moved to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington on Friday just hours after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.

White House doctor Sean P. Conley told reporters outside the hospital on Saturday that Trump had not experienced difficulty breathing, and currently was not on supplemental oxygen.

""The team and I are extremely happy with the progress the president has made,"" Conley said.

Conley would not provide a timetable for Trump's possible release from the hospital.

The White House has said Trump, 74, will work in","Trump's COVID-19 symptoms 'very concerning', next 48 hours critical -source",tweets_news_1195,tweets_news
"HUNTERNET's new chief executive officer Ivan Waterfield believes the Hunter has the ""smarts, skills and technology"" to continue to reinvent itself and grow in the pandemic setting.

On Monday the region's peak manufacturing body announced the appointment of Mr Waterfield, chairman of the HunterNet Group Training Company board since 2009.

Mr Waterfield, who has held general manager roles locally with WesTrac, UGL and Downer, and globally with Alstom and Bombardier, replaces Tony Cade, who died suddenly in December, 2020.

The 58-year-old said there was a ""groundswell"" of sentiment at the federal government level and within the broader community to bring manufacturing back onshore and he believes the next five to ten years will be crucial to the sector.

""The pandemic has made it very obvious that we are very much an island but out of that adversity there's been a switch from the traditional line of 'Liberals save money, Labor spends it' ...there has been an alignment, if you like, and [governments] are now spending and it's because we've seen ... we have to look after ourselves,"" he said. ""Time and again, out of adversity comes opportunity and that's what COVID-19 has done. It's triggered people's mindset to be opportunist and they are saying,","'I understand, whether in a shop floor or boardroom. I am quite a chameleon.'",tweets_news_1196,tweets_news
"When Joe Biden finally moves into the White House and takes stock of the political wreckage from so much warfare in Washington and across the nation, he might take a page out of the playbook of former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean.

In December 2002, Kean, then retired from politics and seemingly comfortable in his second act as president of Drew University in Madison, was summoned to the White House to untangle a national crisis that was rapidly deteriorating into a partisan firefight.

President George W. Bush asked Kean to pull together the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, otherwise known as the 9/11 Commission. The White House and Congress appointed five Democrats and five Republicans, all of them partisan warriors.

Instinctively - and perhaps because he spent so much time in the partisan quicksand of Trenton - Kean knew he had to tone down the potential turf battles between Democrats and Republicans.

He called a meeting. He sensed that Democrats and Republicans would likely arrive as separate teams, with Republicans on one side of a conference table, Democrats on the other.

Kean devised a simple scheme to bring everyone together. He asked the staff to design place cards with assigned seats","Biden: To heal, he will face many obstacles",tweets_news_1197,tweets_news
"At the end of the year, the Journal of the San Juans takes a look at the biggest headlines of the past 12 months. We chose the top stories from our most-read online articles and events we feel impacted our communities. Here is part two.

6. Missing person cases solved with help from SJC

In early December, San Juan County Coroner Randy Gaylord reported that three men discovered along the water over the course of several years in San Juan County have been identified using DNA genetic profiles developed with the assistance of the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's office.

The success in each case occurred after the DNA of the unidentified person was submitted to a database in Canada and matched against DNA from the relative of a missing person. The identity was then confirmed through circumstances that enhanced each identification.

According to Gaylord, many methods are used to identify human remains including fingerprints, basic characteristics, circumstances, medical devices and dental charting. Dozens of people in local and federal agencies were involved in putting together a profile of information that was shared widely through computer databases.

Gaylord added that every case presents a puzzle to be solved, and the family members are looking for comfort",Top stories of 2020 | Part 2,tweets_news_1198,tweets_news
"TORONTO - Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday said the United States had blocked the delivery of nearly three million face masks at the American border over the weekend.

Ford said restrictions on shipments at the U.S. border have left the province with just one more week's worth of personal protective equipment for health-care workers fighting the coronavirus outbreak in Ontario.

In a statement today, he says Ontario is ramping up its own production of personal protective equipment, but most of those supplies are weeks away from being in the hands of front-line health workers.

At least 451 health-care workers in Ontario have tested positive for COVID-19, representing about 10 per cent of all cases in the province.

In all, Ontario reported 309 new COVID-19 cases today, including 13 new deaths. There have now been a total of 4,347 cases in the province, including 1,624 patients who have recovered and 132 deaths.

Allies of the United States are complaining about its ""Wild West"" tactics in outbidding or blocking shipments to buyers who have already signed deals for medical equipment.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sidestepped reporters' questions about the incident on Monday, saying his government was in productive talks with the United States and adding: ""We expect",COVID-19 live: Doug Ford says U.S. blocked delivery of three million face masks to Canada,tweets_news_1199,tweets_news
"

Sep 06, 2020( International Business Times News: http://www.ibtimes.com Delivered by Newstex) Police arrested dozens of people and used tear gas against hundreds of demonstrators in Portland late Saturday as the western US city marked 100 days since Black Lives Matter protests erupted against racism and police brutality.Police quickly declared the rally a ""riot"" after protesters hurled Molotov cocktails at them, and they responded with a barrage of tear gas to disperse the crowd.At least one person was injured by the fire bombs, police said.Officers arrested dozens of protesters in an ensuing game of cat-and-mouse through a residential district of east Portland.""It was Day 100 for Black Lives Matter protests in Portland since George Floyd's murder and they wanted to prevent us from marching,"" said 20-year-old protestor Jay, her eyes red from the tear gas.""It's our constitutional right to be here and to express ourselves.""Police said people were ""engaging in tumultuous and violent conduct thereby intentionally or recklessly creating a grave risk of causing public alarm."" ""This is a riot. Police are giving announcements to disperse.

People are throwing Molotov cocktails,"" Portland Police said on Twitter.The nightly protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis","Tear Gas, Fire Bombs As Police Declare Portland Protest A 'Riot'",tweets_news_1200,tweets_news
"

Jan 23, 2021( Activist Post: http://www.activistpost.com Delivered by Newstex) ; https://www.activistpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/5G-cow.jpgBy B.N. Frank[1] In 2019, Activist Post reported about a 60 Minutes segment[2] featuring companies implementing high-tech agriculture methods which include cows wearing activity trackers. All activity trackers emit harmful radiation[3] and these defenseless cows are not likely going to be able to effectively convey to their handlers when they are being shocked or otherwise irritated by them.

[embedded content] [embedded content] [embedded content]Samsung sponsored a 2020 article about 5G which also glorified cows wearing activity trackers as well as being exposed to other harmful radiation-emitting technology.Become an Activist Post Patron for just $1 per month at Patreon[4].From MetroUK[5] Technology is adding a sprinkle of 5G magic to the way we produce food, powering weird and wonderful innovations such as printers which print out vegan steaks. A new podcast, 'Whatever Next?' starring mathematician Dr Hannah Fry and comedian Suzi Ruffell, explores some of the tastiest innovations coming from the frontiers of food technology. Hannah and Suzi explore technologies including 5G cows with 'connected collars' and meet the innovators behind ideas such as layered 'vertical farms' which might save the planet. Along the way, they even find time for a delicious glass",Sponsored Article for 5G Promotes Cows Wearing Activity Trackers Despite Health Issues Reported by Humans Wearing Them,tweets_news_1201,tweets_news
"

Apr 01, 2020( The Huffington Post: https://www.huffpost.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Conservative attorney George Conway[1] went after Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell[2] (R-Ky.) in his latest Washington Post op-ed[3], admonishing him for his claim[4] that impeachment created a distraction from coronavirus preparations.'There should have beenshame enough[5]in orchestrating the acquittal of an impeached president who, in order to extort help for his reelection campaign, unlawfully withheld security aid to an ally,' wrote Conway, who is an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump despite his wife Kellyanne Conway serving in a senior advisory role in the administration.'But it turns out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was just getting started.'In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Tuesday, McConnell said that coronavirus first 'came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial,' which he claimed 'diverted the attention of the government.'In the column published later that day, Conway labeled this sentiment 'gaslighting of the highest order.'Walking through the coronavirus and impeachment trial timelines, the attorney pointed out that Trump blew off[6] the outbreak as nothing to worry about numerous times during the trial, and had time to hold five campaign rallies and play golf in Mar-a-Lago during the early and even",George Conway Goes To Town On McConnell's 'Gaslighting Of The Highest Order',tweets_news_1202,tweets_news
"PR Newswire

The results of a new national poll released today from American Family Voices and Athena found that more than 70 percent of Americans want Congress to take immediate action to break up Amazon, Google, and Facebook's monopolistic power over the American economy and end the chokehold these companies have over workers and small businesses.

The poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, underscores growing concerns that the spread of misinformation, hate speech, and propaganda across social media are tempering the support many Americans once had for Big Tech companies. At a time when millions of Americans have lost their jobs and small businesses are closing at an unprecedented rate as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans feel that Big Tech is making problems worse.

The survey's key findings include:

81 percent of voters say they are concerned about consolidation among Big Tech corporations hurting small businesses and consumers 78 percent of Republicans either strongly or somewhat agree that government needs to rein in Big Tech, while a total of 89 percent of Democrats agree 74 percent of Americans want stronger regulations to hold Big Tech companies responsible for harmful content posted on their platforms, including hate speech and false information about elections",New Poll Shows Bipartisan Majority Of Americans Want Congress To Rein In Big Tech,tweets_news_1203,tweets_news
"Nobody is talking about raising taxes these days. Not with the country in the midst of a pandemic-induced recession that risks getting worse if the rising infection rate forces new lockdowns.

Governments and central banks are focused on getting us through this and mitigating the long-term economic damage as best they can. Ottawa is running up deficits at a rate not seen since the Second World War in an effort to support businesses and individuals.

The Bank of Canada has joined the Federal Reserve Board and other central banks in slashing interest rates to near zero and using quantitative easing to provide liquidity through the purchase of securities like bonds and, in some countries, even ETFs and equities. No one seems very concerned about what happens down the road. But the time will come when the pandemic will be behind us and the emphasis will shift to dealing with the massive debts we're incurring.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the federal deficit is approaching $400 billion and the national debt is on track to reach $1 trillion by year's end.

""Ottawa has a massive deficit, so now is the time to focus spending on the highest priorities instead of shopping around for nice-to-haves that",Canadians will pay the bill for pandemic,tweets_news_1204,tweets_news
"SOCIAL MEDIA

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (DMass.) has raised concerns about Facebook over its decision to uphold its ban on former President Donald Trump, saying the social media giant has become too powerful and should be broken up.

Warren was interviewed on Yahoo Finance and Cheddar News on May 5, the day that Facebook's oversight board-an advisory body some have dubbed the ""Supreme Court""-said that the continued suspension of Trump ""was necessary to keep people safe.""

Commenting on the ban, Warren told Cheddar News she was glad Trump remains off the platform, but that Facebook's move was worrying.

""I'm glad that he's not on Facebook,"" Warren said. ""I think that he poses a real danger. But I don't think that Facebook ought to have this kind of power.""

She then called for Facebook to be broken up, arguing that social media giants ""are crushing competition, and in cases like Facebook, they're acting like they're bigger than government.""

""We need to break up these giant tech companies,"" Warren said. ""And Facebook is one of them.""

In remarks to Yahoo Finance, Warren struck a similar tone in criticizing the heavy footprint of Big Tech.

""This is just further demonstration that these giant tech companies are way, way, way too powerful,"" she",Warren Weighs In on Trump Facebook Ban: 'They're Acting Like They're Bigger Than Government',tweets_news_1205,tweets_news
"

Jun 28, 2020( DESIblitz: http://www.desiblitz.com Delivered by Newstex) Indian actor Arshad Warsi commented on superstar Shah Rukh Khan's latest picture on Twitter in a rather unexpected way. SRK shared a black and white sultry picture on Twitter to mark completing 28 years in the Bollywood industry. As expected, the picture received a lot of praise and love from his fans.

Alongside sharing the picture, SRK wrote: 'Don't know when my passion became my purpose and then turned into my profession. 'Thank u all for so many years of allowing me to entertain you. 'More than my professionalism I believe my passionalism will see me through many more years of service to all of you.' Don't know when my passion became my purpose and then turned into my profession. Thank u all for so many years of allowing me to entertain you. More than my professionalism I believe my passionalism will see me through many more years of service to all of you. pic.twitter.com/svjEDYZ0TU[1] — Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) June 28, 2020[2] He further added: '28 years and counting and thank u @gaurikhan for capturing this moment.' However, it was Arshad Warsi's comment which expressed too much love for King Khan. Taking",Arshad says SRK's latest picture can 'make any man turn Gay',tweets_news_1206,tweets_news
"

Jul 31, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/Delivered by Newstex) Chris Cuomo was the same CNN talking head who callously and half-wittedly mocked coronavirus testing[1] with brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) back in May, while he was facing criticism over his foolish decision to pack coronavirus patients into nursing homes (and was facing bipartisan calls for an investigation). But during Thursday's PrimeTime, the former Cuomo blamed President Trump for the death of conservative businessman and former presidential candidate Herman Cain from the virus, even claiming the President felt no remorse for his friend's death.After declaring Trump the 'splendid marriage of ignorance and arrogance,' Cuomo noted that the virus had claimedCain. And seemingly talking down a rabid CNN audience, Cuomo explained that they wished him peace. 'Yes, he supported the President. The President says he was a good friend of his.

We wish his family well, and we wish that he rest in peace,' he said.Without evidence, he then blamed the President and his 'maskless masses' at the Tulsa, Oklahoma rally for killing Cain: And I wish that this President have no peace, until he thinks about what he's exposing people to. He didn't even mention that Mr. Cain was at his rally","Cuomo Blames Trump for Cain's Death, Claims Pres. Feels No Remorse",tweets_news_1207,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

I never thought it would get to this.

By “this”, I mean the horrific performance of President Trump and pro-Trump supporters on Wednesday when seemingly-commonplace demonstrators amped up into a full-blown riot and rampaged into the United States Capitol building.

Any regular reader of mine will know my Trump opinions — he’s completely and utterly incompetent and unable to perform the duties of his office. A narcissistic, egotistical vulgarian who should never have been elected to the nation’s highest office, Trump cares about nothing more than himself, ramifications be damned.

He is a complete poser who, when it came to standing up against violent protesters, chose to send a mixed message of lies while also telling rioters to go home from the safety of the heavily-guarded White House.

It would be reasonable to suggest, however, that Trump’s time in the national stage is done. (Although his most-fevered supporters might argue otherwise.) His irresponsible behaviour since the election has amplified considerably, particularly compared to his “normal” behaviour. Normal, of course, is a loaded word when it comes to Trump, one so incredibly unsuited to public service.

What do the coming days look like?

Given the unpredictable nature of Trump, it is impossible to predict. He still","DC Riots, not a new concept",tweets_news_1208,tweets_news
"(Jade McIntyre / Daily Titan) 

By Jade McIntyre

In the age of social media, many politicians have turned to Twitter and other popular platforms to connect directly with their audience and gain more support. 

However, when these same politicians use their large following to influence violent events or spread false information, it can cause irreparable damage if nothing is done to stop it. 

After being freed from a temporary suspension on Twitter, Donald Trump tweeted hopeful messages to his supporters and stated that he wouldn't attend Joe Biden's inauguration. On Jan. 8, Trump was permanently banned from Twitter due to his tweets being possibly misconstrued as encouragement for further violent action after Biden's inauguration.

The day before Twitter's decision, Facebook and Instagram put an indefinite ban on Trump's accounts at least through the course of the transfer of power. His social media ban became more widespread when it was announced that apps including YouTube, Snapchat, Amazon Web Services, Reddit, Pinterest, Google and more had suspended his account activity, restricted online forums and prohibited hashtags due to policy violations. 

Social media platforms can be a positive space for its 3.8 billion users across the globe to voice opinions, share interests and connect with",A social media ban does not equate censorship,tweets_news_1209,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

It’s a bad week to be Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

The 2020 Democratic presidential aspirant was resoundingly mocked for her cringe-worthy comments about “ghosting” meant to be relatable to millennials, or something. A poll showed the socialist-lite candidate struggling in New Hampshire despite being from neighboring Massachusetts. And now, Facebook has officially rejected Warren’s campaign clamoring and calls for censorship with its newly-released political advertisement policy.

Warren is a long-time critic of social media companies and purposely posted a false political ad to call attention to the fact that Facebook does not “fact-check” paid political advertisements. She’s since repeatedly blasted the company for supposedly holding democracy “hostage to their desire to make money.” Warren says Facebook “already helped elect Donald Trump once. Now, they're deliberately allowing a candidate to intentionally lie to the American people.”

Long story short, Warren wants Facebook to censor her political opponents. Thankfully, though, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has rebuffed her demands, refusing to be the “arbiter of truth” and rightfully pointing out that “people [don’t] want to live in a world where you can only say things that tech companies decide are 100 percent true.” And Facebook released its official updated political advertisements policy on Thursday, with only",Facebook is right to reject Elizabeth Warren's censorship demands,tweets_news_1210,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump is right in believing most Americans don't want violence in their streets. But it's America's profound tragedy and grave danger that he, Trump, seems to want more of it.

That Trump wants chaos and mayhem is not a secret. It has been confirmed repeatedly by his team. In one of her last Fox News appearances, his now-former strategist Kellyanne Conway confirmed what we all knew: ""The more chaos, anarchy and vandalism reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who's best on public safety and law and order,"" she said. Lara Trump, daughter-in-law and campaign adviser, later told Fox that the violence is bringing voters to Trump.

His Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, pushed back on Monday, calling Trump a ""toxic presence.""

""You know me,"" Biden said, ""Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters?"" vowing he will work for ""safe America, safe from Covid, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence.""

The response was needed because Trump is trying to blame the Democrats as he stokes chaos.

That is why he is insisting on going to Kenosha where an apparent supporter faces homicide charges for the killing of",Trump's depraved plan to try to win reelection,tweets_news_1211,tweets_news
"Gov. Ron DeSantis did what he needed to do in signing Florida's new Big Tech law, even though the statute fairly shouts its unconstitutionality.

The Constitution's very First Amendment, the cherry on top of the whole Bill of Rights, says the government can't infringe on freedom of the press or freedom of speech. If they could have foreseen Facebook, Twitter and the sewer that so much of social media has become, the Founders probably would have written it differently.

But they didn't.

So as much as we might wish to make those information giants stop ""de-platforming"" those whose ideas they find false or dangerous, we can't. It's their platform.

The bill DeSantis signed would impose fines of $250,000 a day on tech giants for removing statewide political candidates from their platforms. The fine would be $25,000 a day for a non-statewide candidate.

Individual users stifled by the companies can sue them, under the law DeSantis signed Monday. Users must be notified when their postings are censored or tagged with a warning of false or disputed information.

An odd part of the law provides an exemption for companies owning theme parks like Walt Disney Co., which owns the Disney+ streaming service. A skeptic might wonder why, if",DeSantis will lose fight with cyber censors,tweets_news_1212,tweets_news
"Facebook removed more than 78,000 profiles on both Facebook and Instagram, saying they had posted QAnon content and content related to ""militarized social movements"" since August 2020.

""We continue to strengthen our enforcement by identifying additional militarized social movements, new terms associated with QAnon and how people attempt to skirt our detection, including focusing more on Facebook profiles used to organize and promote these movements and groups on our platform,"" Facebook said in an update on Jan. 19.

The company added that ""these groups are constantly working to avoid our enforcement and we'll continue to study how they evolve in order to keep people safe.""

Facebook added that ""as of January 12, 2021, we have identified over 890 militarized social movements to date and in total, removed about 3,400 Pages, 19,500 groups, 120 events, 25,300 Facebook profiles and 7500 Instagram accounts. We've also removed about 3,300 Pages, 10,500 groups, 510 events, 18.300 Facebook profiles and 27.300 Instagram accounts for violating our policy against QAnon.""

A Facebook spokesperson told Fox Business last week that in all, about 78,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts were deleted as of Jan. 12 of this year.

Other Big Tech companies such as Twitter and Google's YouTube have also removed tens of","Over 78,000 Facebook, Instagram Users Removed for QAnon, 'Militarization' Policy Violations",tweets_news_1213,tweets_news
"The Conservatives have taken control of Nottinghamshire County Council for the first time in 12 years. Labour group leader Alan Rhodes also lost his seat in a bad day for the party. The local authority had been in no overall...

The Conservatives have taken control of Nottinghamshire County Council for the first time in 12 years. Labour group leader Alan Rhodes also lost his seat in a bad day for the party. The local authority had been in no overall control since 2017, when the To...

The Conservatives have taken control of Nottinghamshire County Council for the first time in 12 years. Labour group leader Alan Rhodes also lost his seat in a bad day for the party. The local authority had been in no overall control since 2017, when the Tories fell three seats short of a majority. It is only the second time since 1977 the Conservatives have won control of the authority. The Tories now have 37 seats on the 66-strong council, up from the 31 they won four years ago. Labour has lost seven seats, with its total of 15 being less than half the number of the 34 councillors it had in 2013. Who won in my",Elections 2021: Conservatives retake control of Nottinghamshire,tweets_news_1214,tweets_news
"Ahead of Ecuador's Feb. 7 presidential elections, Vijay Prashad describes the measures the U.S. and local oligarchy have taken to suffocate any progressive government.

By Vijay Prashad

Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

In 2019, 613 million Indians voted to appoint their representatives to the Indian parliament (Lok Sabha). During the election campaign, the political parties spent Rs. 60,000 crores (around $8 billion), 45 percent of which was spent by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the governing party; the BJP won 37 percent of the vote, which translated into 303 of the 545 seats in the Lok Sabha. A year later, a massive $14 billion was spent on the U.S. presidential and congressional elections, with the winning Democrat Party dominating the spending. These are massive amounts of money, whose grip on the democratic process is quite clear by now. Is it possible to talk about ""democracy"" without being candid about the erosion of the democratic spirit by this avalanche of money?

Money floods the system, eats into the loyalties of politicians, corrupts the institutions of civil society, and shapes the narratives of the media. It matters that the dominant classes in our world own the main communications outlets and that these outlets shape the way",In Search of Tomorrow,tweets_news_1215,tweets_news
"Robert Redford could easily land the part of a Democratic presidential candidate. After all, HBO's ""The Watchmen"" made him president for 26 years and up in the dramatic miniseries.

He's an Oscar winner, co-founded the Sundance Film Festival and, at 84, still has acting chops.

Redford makes a good surrogate Joe Biden.

Because while we believe that there are those who hinge or shore up their beliefs of who should get their vote in November based on star power of a particular celebrity endorsement, Redford's opinion piece for CNN.com, ""This is who gets my vote in 2020,"" does more than merely give Biden a thumb's up.

It's a speech Biden should give, if he wasn't Biden.

Redford starts with a look back at his childhood, particularly moments spent listening to FDR on the radio. ""Americans were facing a common enemy -- fascism -- and FDR gave us the sense that we were all in it together. Even kids like me had a role to play: participating in paper drives, collecting scrap metal, doing whatever we could do."" Good stuff -- nostalgia for those who remember FDR, without using the word malarkey.

He goes on about American leadership, the need to get it back, and then lobs",Will Robert Redford endorsement carry weight for Biden?,tweets_news_1216,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - When former special agent Tom O'Connor held a training session for new recruits this month at the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Virginia headquarters, he turned to a key example to underscore the threat of domestic extremist attacks: the October 2018 mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The shooting, which killed 11 worshippers making it the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history, came a little more than a week before congressional elections.

The fact that the alleged gunman was not known to police serves as a stark reminder of the difficulties facing U.S. law enforcement agencies around next Tuesday's general election when Republican President Donald Trump will seek to fend off Democratic challenger Joe Biden, former law enforcement officials said.

Law enforcement, which has warned of potential violence around the Nov. 3 vote, must prepare for a range of potential threats, from spontaneous acts of violence to more organized, planned attacks, according to officials. Authorities also face a disparate range of potential perpetrators from lone actors to a growing threat from extremist groups, including those that are racially motivated, anti-authority and militias.

Federal agents this month foiled a plot by a group of 14 alleged conspirators, including right-wing","As election looms, U.S. authorities seek to separate bluster from threats",tweets_news_1217,tweets_news
"

Aug 10, 2020( PA Pundits: http://papundits.wordpress.com/ Delivered by Newstex) By Tim Graham ~ Former Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of Donald Trump's rivals in the 2016 presidential campaign, wrote a piece for Friday's Wall Street Journal on 'The Biden Bait-and-Switch.'[1] He says Biden is running on normalcy and nostalgia, but he's quietly promising the Bernie Bros to enact radical policies once elected. What made it interesting is how Jindal emphasizes the role of the media in setting the table of our national conversation.

Everything that's a horrible headache now will suddenly vanish into an oasis of calm once that Orange Obstacle to the Left is removed: Voters weary of lurching from one sensational crisis to the next are promised a respite. The international condemnation, Twitter tirades and polarization can be swept away simply by voting for inoffensive, bland Mr. Biden. Media coverage of the nation's standing would change dramatically after a Biden victory, even if the reality does not. Mr. Biden promises increased federal coronavirus spending, but as president he couldn't override governors' authority to restrict economic activity, and he doesn't propose to alter Mr. Trump's program to accelerate vaccine and treatment development. With Mr. Trump embracing masks and trillions in federal","Bobby Jindal: President Biden Would Be Radical, With Media Enablers Braking On Corona-Panic",tweets_news_1218,tweets_news
"Are the sunny days coming to an end for major US technology firms? After surviving multiple scandals, some wonder whether the sailing is going to get even tougher for Facebook, Twitter and other companies as the US political year heats up.

Are the sunny days coming to an end for major US technology firms? After surviving multiple scandals, some wonder whether the sailing is going to get even tougher for Facebook, Twitter and other companies as the US political year heats up.

For the longest time, US technology giants like Google and Facebook could count on loose regulations and generally favourable reactions, at least from politicians in their domestic market. They tended to be seen as dynamic, flagship companies that secured America's place in the world of tomorrow.

Those times are gone.

In 2019, ""techlash"" struck the large Silicon Valley platform technology companies with full force, reshaping their relationship with US authorities. When Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is called before committees of the US Congress these days, he's often met with open hostility.

Google, Facebook and Amazon are subjects of an antitrust investigation by the US Justice Department. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic Party candidate in the 2020 presidential election, advocates breaking up big",'Techlash' puts top digital companies under pressure from all sides,tweets_news_1219,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Under questioning from the US senate, social media giants showed a new nervousness surrounding how content should be regulated in the dying age of Trump.

FULL TEXT

Big tech wants to be rescued from its content problem: hate speech and fake news, driven by bots and trolls gaming the algorithms and polluting the social media eco-system. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg repeated his plea to the US Senate in its hearings last night: save us from ourselves. Tell us what to do. Regulate us! It makes a change from the usual corporate fulmination against red tape, but it shows the difference between the social media giants and the traditional media they've supplanted: these modern content channels don't care what content they end up channelling. As Zuckerberg said last night, we cannot easily transfer our understandings of old tech (newspapers, phones) to social media: ""It deserves and needs its own regulatory framework"". Both the US parties seem happy to oblige. Should be an easy win for that much-loved US bi-partisanship trope. And Australia, as a rule-taker in global tech, will end up with the processes that the US regulators put in place, mediated through the continuing work of the e-Safety Commissioner. But, hold on.",Save us from ourselves pleads Zuckerberg as social giants attacked for calling out Trump,tweets_news_1220,tweets_news
"Masks became a political cause for some in the early months of the pandemic. A growing set of Republican leaders are suddenly pushing Americans to wear them.

Masks became a political cause for some in the early months of the pandemic. A growing set of Republican leaders are suddenly pushing Americans to wear them.

CHICAGO — Protesters marched on the State Capitol in Texas, holding signs declaring that masks equal “medical tyranny.” Lawsuits filed in Florida courts argue that mask laws violate constitutional rights. President Trump mocked former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for wearing a mask and has rarely worn one himself.

But even as some conservatives and libertarians have made opposition to masks a political cause, Republican governors and others in their party are suddenly trying to send a different message as the pandemic has hit hard in their home states, ending any notion that the coronavirus is not a real menace.

Vice President Mike Pence has abruptly begun regularly wearing and recommending a mask. Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, facing an uncontrolled outbreak of the coronavirus in his state, made a plea this week: “Arm yourself with a mask.” And Representative Liz Cheney of Wyomingtweeted a photograph of her father,","Amid Virus Surge, Republicans Abruptly Urge Masks Despite Trump’s Resistance",tweets_news_1221,tweets_news
"Still much on the line for online conventions // The outcome is predetermined, and the pandemic will change the optics. But voters will likely still be viewers anyway.

CAMPAIGN 2020

The crises are real.

But the campaign is virtual.

Including the next determinative event - the Democratic National Convention, which begins on Monday.

COVID concerns have moved it from Wisconsin to the World Wide Web. Some of the conventional convention optics, like boisterous delegates and balloon drops, will be missing.

Viewers may not be, however.

In fact, interest in the election across the country and here at home seems higher than ever. Minneapolis, for instance, had the highest primary turnout in half a century on Tuesday, with a record number using a mailbox instead of a ballot box to cast their votes.

Ratings are already high for cable news coverage of coronavirus and economic and election news, among other top topics. And on network TV, the most-watched show is often the evening news.

There's also been an ongoing TV test case on whether the lack of a live audience deadens viewer interest: sports. For the most part, the return of major league sports has been a major hit, as fans crowd their couches in lieu of packing the stands.

The",RASH REPORT,tweets_news_1222,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump and Democrat Pete Buttigieg recently offered radically different stands on abortion, as both attempted to reach out to Catholic and evangelical swing voters trapped between their parties.

Trump made history as the first president to speak in person at the national March for Life, which marks the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

""All of us here understand an eternal truth: Every child is a precious and sacred gift from God. Together, we must protect, cherish and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life,"" said Trump, who for years backed abortion rights and Planned Parenthood. He insists that his views have evolved, like those of Republican hero Ronald Reagan.

""When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God's creation. ... When we watch a child grow, we see the splendor that radiates from each human soul. One life changes the world,"" he said.

While commentators stressed that Trump attended the march to please his conservative evangelical base, this massive event in Washington, D.C., draws a complex crowd that is hard to label. It includes, for example, Catholics and evangelicals from groups that have been critical of Trump's personal life and ethics,",Candidates find it hard to compromise on abortion,tweets_news_1223,tweets_news
"

Apr 28, 2020( Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Because this timeline only gets worse and worse, Donald Trump has nominated Justin Reed Walker to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. And Walker has given us a great (not great!) demonstration of why he's a darling of the Right. Right now, Justin Walker is a judge in the Western District of Kentucky — a position he was confirmed to just six months ago after being recommended by Mitch McConnell.

His main claim to fame is taking to the press to help Brett Kavanaugh get confirmed to the Supreme Court (both before and after Kegs was credibly accused of sexual assault).Just after Trump announced Walker's promotion, Walker wrote his most noteworthy opinion to date: a partisan screed that quotes the Old Testament. Meanwhile, McConnell has announced[1] that he will not let something like a global pandemic stop him from rubber-stamping Trump's judicial picks. Who with the what now?Justin Reed Walker, now a Trump judicial nominee for the second time, isn't just a favorite of Trump — both Mitch McConnell and Kegs Kavanaugh also sing his praises. And he sure fits the bill for a Trump judge. Like two-thirds[2] of Trump's",If Mitch McConnell And Brett Kavanaugh Had A Weird Christianist Baby They Were Grooming For The Supreme Court,tweets_news_1224,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Today's athletes speaking their minds and not worrying about backlash

THEY COULD stay quiet. They could stay home.

Instead, as protests turn violent in the middle of a 100-year pandemic, a number of athletes have chosen to write and march and post. They are the core of millennials and Generation Z, groups often dismissed as uninterested. Perhaps they recognize that, between the diseases of racism and COVID-19, their futures are in peril. So they are interested. And they are inspiring.

So many athletes with so much to lose are saying and doing so many things that mean so much to America. They risk losing endorsements and fans and friends. They risk their futures. If they march, as many have done, they risk their lives.

They are Bryce Harper and Carson Wentz and Zach Ertz, posting messages of unity and peace rooted in their religious beliefs.

They are Phillies cleanup hitter Rhys Hoskins, who admits he's dumbstruck by the anguish of black people.

They are Ben Simmons, who called out President Donald Trump's cowardice after peaceful protesters were tear-gassed to clear a walkway from the White House to a nearby church, where he staged a photo opportunity. The tear gas affected a priest at the church who",IGNORING THE RISKS,tweets_news_1225,tweets_news
"LEADERS of the region's services responding to gendered violence have raised concerns about the federal government's capacity to make the necessary changes to protect and support women.

It comes after an extraordinary press conference from Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week, during which he promised to ""do better"" to address injustices women faced, while also making what's reported to be a false harassment allegation against a media organisation after his leadership was questioned.

Mr Morrison has since apologised for his comments.

Related:

Chastened PM again promises to do better PM promises to get house in order on women Centre Against Sexual Assault Central Victoria chief executive Kate Wright appreciated aspects of Mr Morrison's speech, which acknowledged the misogyny and discrimination women experienced in the Australian community and in workplaces.

But Ms Wright said the Prime Minister's response to questioning suggested he still saw the issue as a political one, rather than about deep-rooted gendered issues.

""Which concerns me about his ability to enact change and lead true reform about gendered violence and gender equality,"" Ms Wright said.

Centre for Non-Violence chief executive Margaret Augerinos said Mr Morrison's words needed to be followed by meaningful action - and there was a lot to do.

""What we really need from",'Do better': Service heads say political leaders need to address inequality,tweets_news_1226,tweets_news
"Lead

NEW YORK One is a triple-amputee Iraq war veteran who ran news sites stoking right-wing rage, often with exaggerated stories. Another owns a company that sells Donald Trumpthemed energy drinks. And the third is an ex-columnist for Breitbart and an entrepreneur who has left a trail of failed businesses.

The men charged along with former White House strategist Steve Bannon in a scheme to skim hundreds of thousands of dollars from a crowdfunded project to build a border wall came together through a shared devotion to Mr. Trump and a rich, sometimes checkered, history of trying to make money off his political movement.

Texte/Text

Prosecutors say their promises not to take even a penny from the more than US$25million in donations turned out to be lies, allowing them to make such purchases as a luxury Range Rover, a fishing boat, home renovations and cosmetic surgery.

Some court observers believe at least some of the participants believed they could get away with it because their man was in the White House.

""This cast of characters was using Bannon as a front to get the people behind them,"" said David S. Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami. ""Him thinking he wasn't going to get caught -",BANNON'S PARTNERS HAD A HISTORY OF CASHING IN ON THE TRUMP MOVEMENT,tweets_news_1227,tweets_news
"The internet has revolutionised the world. Its impact on civilisation has been as fundamental as that of the invention of fire or the wheel or the rise of the machines. Just as structures of governance of the feudal age had to give way to structures of the industrial age, we are in the process of a transition...

The internet has revolutionised the world. Its impact on civilisation has been as fundamental as that of the invention of fire or the wheel or the rise of the machines. Just as structures of governance of the feudal age had to give way to structures of the...

The internet has revolutionised the world. Its impact on civilisation has been as fundamental as that of the invention of fire or the wheel or the rise of the machines. Just as structures of governance of the feudal age had to give way to structures of the industrial age, we are in the process of a transition from the industrial to the internet age. This churn affects how we see economics, politics, society, governance, democracy and our fundamental rights. In many cases, the same would require redefinition, in other cases reorientation. The biggest example is free speech and",The law applies to all — including big tech,tweets_news_1228,tweets_news
"

Sep 21, 2020( Business 2 Community.com: http://www.business2community.com Delivered by Newstex) With the virus-that-shall-not-be-named still very much in play, there's a lot of uncertainty. No one knows what the 'new normal' looks like or will look like — and anyone who says differently is selling something. Here's the thing: now could be the perfect time to start that side hustle you've been thinking about for months (or years). Why? If you're not a parent, you have more time than ever.

If you are a parent, you probably still have more time — you'll just have to give up those reruns of The Office. Everything is in flux anyway. So, like, why the hell not? How nice would it be to build out a buffer for your 9-5 income? It's 2020 — there are more free and affordable tools than ever. You could build out a newsletter or consulting gig for practically zero dollars. The online professional community game is strong these days. You can use LinkedIn, RevGenius and 'micro-communities' to bootstrap your idea and pull in feedback.The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. It doesn't matter if you're looking at launching a",It's Time to Start That Side Hustle. Here's How.,tweets_news_1229,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news stories from the BBC News team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

-- a new administration. Any new meeting between a Prime Minister and the US president would fill a page on our history, and these two men have talked with conviction about the values they share. But that's not the same as what their partnership might achieve, nor does it mask any areas where they might disagree. And this time round, American displeasure over Northern Ireland is very real.

EU leaders will be on these shores soon too. The mood over the so-called protocol, how the Brexit deal is being delivered in Northern Ireland, is darkening. Northern Ireland still has to follow some EU rules, and if America can provide cover for a compromise, Brussels doesn't sound in the mood to use it. The EU has been very critical of what the UK has been doing. Can you honestly say you are keeping your promise to cause the minimum possible disruption to the people",BBC News at Six - 5:05 PM GMT,tweets_news_1230,tweets_news
"If you were a kid in the 1990s, you likely fell into one of two camps of cartoon worship. You either kneeled at the altar of ""Ren & Stimpy,"" or you looked up to the Warner Bros. water tower that housed Wakko Warner, Yakko Warner and their sister Dot.

No disrespect to Nicktoons' crude masterpiece, but I was personally an ""Animaniacs"" kid. The three dog-like troublemakers, alongside sidekicks like Pinky and the Brain, not only hit me with relentless punch lines, but also taught me my state capitals. They hit the sweet spot between smart and absurd, with a gentlemanly tone rooted in the classic Warner animation of yesteryear and humor that flew over the heads of most kids. A lot of that has to do with the name hovering over the intro credits: executive producer Steven Spielberg.

Now rebooted by Hulu, Spielberg still has his name over the logo and just as much influence.

""He read every single outline, script, he looked at the storyboards, everything. He's the steadiest leveler of our tone, he determines our tone,"" says Wellesley Wild, showrunner and executive producer.

""He's our North Star,"" adds Gabe Swarr, co-executive producer.

The film director polish is part of what makes it one",Inside Steven Spielberg’s 'Animaniacs' reboot for Hulu,tweets_news_1231,tweets_news
"Civil servant Cherrie spends an hour every morning travelling by bus and MTR from her home in Ma On Shan to her office in Sheung Wan.



Although most civil servants have been told to work from home, she has to be at the Information Services Department, where she sits by a telephone ­handling press inquiries.



If her department provided her with a laptop and headset, she could work from home.



Before the coronavirus pandemic, she did not mind the daily commute. Now, it is different.



""Social distancing is impossible on packed trains. You don't know whether the person next to you has the virus. I can see fear in everyone's eyes,"" said Cherrie, who is in her late 20s.



A dozen civil servants who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity complained that the government's attempts to get them working from home had not panned out for everyone.



They blamed three major ­obstacles: poor technology infrastructure; the conservative mindset of managers; and a lack of guidelines for implementing the work-from-home policy.



The civil service first asked staff not providing essential or urgent services to work from home from January 29.



When daily Covid-19 infections dropped to single digits, most public services resumed in early March. But then",HK Civil Servants call working at home impossible,tweets_news_1232,tweets_news
"DALLAS (NEXSTAR) -- If you check out Apple's App Store on Monday, you'll notice Parler is the most popular app in the country.

That has many wondering: What the heck is it?

Parler is a social media app that bills itself as a place of ""free speech,"" and it's become particularly popular with conservatives following the presidential election -- particularly since Facebook and Twitter started flagging untrue posts by President Donald Trump.

On Sunday, Parler owner Dan Bongino told the BBC his app was adding ""thousands to users per minute.""

Newsweek reported the platform picked up about 2 million new users Sunday.

Pres. Donald Trump fires Defense Secretary Mark Esper

While Trump hasn't yet joined the social platform, it includes top conservative names like Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Each already has more than 2 million followers on the platform.

Last week, Maria Bartiromo of Fox News said she planned to abandon Twitter and switch over to Parler after some of her updated were hidden.

Additionally, Newt Gingrich has been using his Twitter account as a promotional tool to try and get people to follow him over to Parler.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson tests positive for coronavirus

While you may not be familiar with Parler, it's",What is Parler? Here's why it's the top app after the election,tweets_news_1233,tweets_news
"

Jan 25, 2021( Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/ Delivered by Newstex) There are only two rules to GOP politics. Rule One: Republicans are always the victim. Rule Two: When in doubt, see Rule One. So it's no surprise that GOP Senator Josh Hawley has penned an opinion piece for the New York Post[1] mourning the real victim of the Capitol Riot.Spoiler Alert: It's Josh Hawley, whose ""social credit score"" has ""taken a nosedive this month.""Hmmmm, did anything else happen this month, Senator?

In the cover story for a major tabloid catering to a city of eight million people with a nationwide online readership, Hawley explains why ""It's time to stand up against the muzzling of America."" Because if there's anyone who's muzzled, it's a guy with his own press secretary[2] and carte blanche to air his bullshit on every Rupert Murdoch platform this side of the Atlantic.""Everyone knows what a credit score is. But social credit scores are new,"" Hawley opens. ""They're the latest corporate import from Communist China, where government and big business monitor every citizen's social views and statements."" Because when corporate donors exercise their right of association and quit subsidizing politicians who flogged the ""stop the steal"" fascist Big Lie about","Pour One Out For Josh Hawley, The REAL Victim Of The Capitol Riot",tweets_news_1234,tweets_news
"The latest news, sport, business and weather from the BBC's Breakfast team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

the Welsh Government announced their decision yesterday. We will announce the outcome of considering these measures next week, but the measures are in place in England just as they are in Wales. I do not think it is very likely that these measures are going to be changed given we are just starting to see them have an effect. We would review them and it is only prudent that we look at them after three weeks.

Reviewing them is not saying that somehow they will just stop now ahead of the review. They remain in place until they change, and the roomies in -- and the reason why they remain in place, and you are seeing me from my house, I am remaining at home in order to save lives and protect the NHS and I am thinking of all those hard-working NHS staff who are making such huge sacrifices. We need to",Breakfast - 06:35 AM GMT,tweets_news_1235,tweets_news
"CONTENT: TWITTER, BANS, PRESIDENT, VIOLENCE, INCITEMENT, RISK

EVA PILGRIM (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) And we start this half hour with more on the announcement by Twitter that it's permanently banning President Trump. Other social media outlets also blocking his communications following the deadly riot at our nation's Capitol. ABC's Deirdre Bolton is here with the details and what this could mean for the president. Deidre, good morning.

DEIDRE BOLTON (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) Good morning. That's right. Some tech experts are surprised that the social media companies have actually gone this far. Others are not, but either way, the president has lost some of his biggest megaphones.

DEIDRE BOLTON (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) In the aftermath of the Capitol Hill attack, private companies are taking action against President Trump, with Twitter permanently suspending his account.

JENNIFER GRYGIEL (ASST PROFESSOR OF COMMS

These are corporations. Currently there really aren't any laws that require them to manage presidential tweets and it's essentially up to them.

DEIDRE BOLTON (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) It's the highest profile punishment the company has ever imposed. The president aimed to get the last word in through his government account @POTUS but the company shut that down too. Other companies are making similar decisions. Facebook has suspended the president and Reddit has",TWITTER BANS PRESIDENT TRUMP,tweets_news_1236,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Swiss-based IWG PLC, which operates under the Regus and Spaces brands, filed for creditor protection for many of its offices in Canada

FULL TEXT

The world's largest co-working office space provider has filed for creditor protection for many of its offices in Canada, exposing a weakness in the shared office business model during a severe economic downturn.

Swiss-based IWG PLC, which operates under the Regus and Spaces brands, has provided flexible office space for businesses and entrepreneurs for three decades. It has about 3,000 locations globally, including 137 in Canada.

IWG was viewed as a safer and more conservative company than its main rival, WeWork, which was launched after the 2009 financial crisis and expanded quickly, only to fail when it tried to go public last year.

But this week, 39 of IWG's Canadian office affiliates filed for bankruptcy protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. Each of the affiliates holds one or more leases in Canada that are guaranteed by a U.S.IWG entity, which have provisions that allow Canadian landlords to terminate the lease if the U.S. guarantor files for insolvency as it did in mid-August.

That includes Regus locations in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, according to the filing with the Ontario",Co-working space provider Regus files for creditor protection in Canada,tweets_news_1237,tweets_news
"We've all heard it. I've heard it - on doorsteps, in the back of cabs and in cafes. ""Politicians,"" people will say, ""you're all the same."" Now, I balk at anyone who compares me to the blond baboon who is our current prime minister, but there is no doubt that trust in politics - and in politicians - is at an all-time low.

People just don't believe we'll deliver what we say we will. They don't believe we want to listen or to understand their lives. And they don't believe we are able to do much to make their lives better. Lots of factors have contributed to this: the expenses scandal, the rise of fake news and, let's be honest, too many politicians either telling lies (don't get me started on the £350m for the NHS) or not giving a straight answer when they're asked a straight question.

If people are to trust our electoral process, we urgently need to combat fake news during campaigns

A decade of Tory austerity has stripped away vital services and hollowed out high streets. Millions of people have simply lost faith in the ability of government to make their lives better. They're angry about decisions made far",My six-point plan to restore trust in politics,tweets_news_1238,tweets_news
"New York's attorney general has filed a lawsuit seeking to disband the National Rifle Association after claiming an 18-month investigation has revealed ""greed, abuse and brazen illegality"" among some of its executives.

Letitia James claimed that mismanagement by the pro-gun organisation's leadership contributed to a loss of more than $64 million (NZ$95.7m) over three years as she announced the move at a press conference yesterday.

She singled out four current or former executives, including Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's chief executive and the public face of the body, while detailing allegations of ""corruption"" at the top of the group, founded in 1871.

Among the claims was that LaPierre spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in NRA funds on private plane trips for himself and his family, including eight trips to the Bahamas.

James was able to make the move because the NRA is registered as a charity in the state of New York.

There were also allegations of expenses being signed off in bulk without proper approval and NRA money being spent on ""lavish trips"", expensive dinners, travel agents and private security.

James said the NRA's funds, which given its charitable status should be used to benefit its five million members, had instead been turned into a",NY lawsuit seeks to end NRA,tweets_news_1239,tweets_news
"Thanks for all Americans

have done for Australia

To the Editor:

As an Australian with dual citizenship with America, I want to sincerely thank the people of America who have come together to show their concern for the people and animals effected by the fires down under. You are truly the best of the best.

Children have held lemonade sales or collected money one way or another to show their feelings for the animals who have suffered terribly, be it death or injury. It is truly inspirational to have these children involved in sending money to Australia for their cause.

Then there are the Inmates at a Florida jail sewing cloth pouches for orphaned marsupials, my thanks to them for wanting to be part of helping the animals in Australia.

Again In Pennsylvania, The Handwork Studio in Narberth hosted two free workshops in which volunteers of all ages created comfort items for orphaned and injured animals. These acts of kindness are so appreciated.

To those who have donated to help out Australia through such a really rough time, I can tell you Australia is deeply appreciative to know they have your back. Thank you all for what you have done in Australia's time of need.

I know there",Letters to the Editor,tweets_news_1240,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to encourage people in North Carolina to vote twice -- once by mail and once in person -- during the November general election to purportedly double check that their initial vote was counted, which is already receiving push back from state election officials.

Americans can only vote once per election.

When Trump was asked by local news station WECT in Wilmington, North Carolina, whether he was confident in the state's absentee voting system, the President launched into a somewhat rambling answer.

""Well, they'll go out and they'll go vote, and they're going to have to go and check their vote by going to the poll and voting that way, because if it tabulates, then they won't be able to do that,"" Trump said on the tarmac in front of Air Force One. ""So, let them send it in, and let them go vote, and if the system is as good as they say it is, then obviously they won't be able to vote. If it isn't tabulated, they won't be able to vote. So that's the way it is. And that's what they should do.""

The President later told people to send in their ballots, saying, ""Send them",Trump appears to encourage North Carolinians to vote twice to test the system,tweets_news_1241,tweets_news
"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - When the coronavirus pandemic slammed the U.S. economy this spring, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther became an overnight symbol of rebellion against lockdown measures, spending two days in a Texas jail for refusing to close her doors.

By PAUL J. WEBER

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - When the coronavirus pandemic slammed the U.S. economy this spring, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther became an overnight symbol of rebellion against lockdown measures, spending two days in a Texas jail for refusing to close her doors.

Nearly $500,000 poured into a donation fund set up by conservative activists. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz made a show of getting his hair cut at Luther's salon. She flew to Michigan to rally with shutdown protesters and launched a run for the Texas Senate, hammering Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over virus restrictions.

Her race in a deeply red and rural district is now a small test of what other Republican candidates nationwide are counting on with just five weeks before Election Day - lingering voter resentment of lockdown orders to help boost them into office, at a time when President Donald Trump's reelection may hinge on persuading voters that the worst is behind America.

""I stood up for you,","Lockdowns are fading, but GOP outrage isn't in campaigns",tweets_news_1242,tweets_news
"Bhubaneswar, May 27 -- Washington: For the first time, Twitter put a warning label under two posts by Donald Trump, prompting the US president to accuse the popular social media platform of ""interfering"" in the presidential election scheduled in November.

Twitter highlighted two of Trump's tweets on Tuesday that falsely claimed mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud in the elections, appending a message the social media giant has introduced recently to fight misinformation or unverified claims.

""There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Main-in Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone...,"" Trump tweeted.

Twitter's notification displays a blue exclamation mark underneath the two tweets, suggesting readers ""get the facts about mail-in ballots"".

..living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

Trump, who",Twitter labels Donald Trump tweets with a fact check for the first time,tweets_news_1243,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

There is one view of President Trump on which you can find widespread agreement: He is the disruptor in chief. He disrupted the Republican Party to win the nomination, and, since his election, he has disrupted the conventional wisdom about everything from tariffs and free trade to international organizations and what he calls “endless wars.” Whereas liberals and conservatives each had standard positions on these issues from which policy debates proceeded, Trump has disrupted the back and forth by implementing policies outside that box.

Disruption creates new opportunities, and conservatives, in particular, should be taking advantage of this chance to rethink their positions on basic policy issues. Whenever the Trump presidency ends, conservatives need to be prepared to restate and even redefine what conservatism means, an opportunity that rarely comes along.

For example, are Republicans still the party of free trade, or are tariffs now the new normal? Long supporters of free markets and free trade, Republicans have watched Trump impose tariffs on a number of goods (solar panels, washing machines, steel, aluminum) and launch a trade war with China through extensive tariffs on the imports of their goods. It is unclear whether Trump sees these as temporary disruptive measures leading","What comes after Trump, disruptor in chief?",tweets_news_1244,tweets_news
"Sydney: University of New South Wales has issued the following news release:

People need to be aware that posting videos of victims to social media can cause distress to loved ones, says UNSW’s Alyce McGovern.

“Because of the immediacy of social media, posts often go online before people even know what’s happening to family members or friends,” Associate Professor McGovern, an expert in criminology at UNSW Arts & Social Sciences, says.Alyce McGovern

UNSW's Alyce McGovern

“If you think about the families or the victims, having this content uploaded online is incredibly distressing.”

A/Prof. McGovern’s comments come after footage emerged of a knife attack in the UK suburb of Reading in March, prompting local police and other government officials to request the material not be shared on social media.

Three men died and three other people were injured in the attack allegedly carried out by a 25-year-old man, police later confirmed.

A/Prof. McGovern says having this distressing content circulating online during or after a tragic event also poses the question about what the onus should be for social media platforms.

“We even saw it after the Christchurch attack with the live streaming,” says A/Prof. McGovern, when a far-right extremist shot worshippers in two mosques in Christchurch in 2019. As",Sharing to social media: is it sensationalism or social good?,tweets_news_1245,tweets_news
"Lord Kilclooney has been accused of racism for describing vice president-elect Kamala Harris solely as ``the Indian''.

There were calls for action against the former Ulster Unionist Party deputy leader over his tweet about Ms Harris, who is the first black and Asian-American person to be elected to the role.

The crossbench peer, who previously deleted a tweet describing then-Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar as a ``typical Indian'' after condemnation, insisted there was ``nothing racist'' in his latest message.

Ms Harris, a senator from California, also made history by being the first woman to be elected vice president when voters chose her and Joe Biden to replace Donald Trump in the White House.

On Monday, Lord Kilclooney tweeted: ``What happens if Biden moves on and the Indian becomes President. Who then becomes Vice President?''

Conservative MP Simon Hoare, who is chair of the Commons Northern Ireland affairs select committee, wrote that the message is ``Bad. Rude. Racist. Appalling'' and said he had submitted a formal complaint to the Lord Speaker's office.

Labour shadow minister Wes Streeting said ``action must be taken'' over the peer's tweet.

``He did it before to Leo Varadkar and now he's done it to Kamala Harris. This sort of racism would be unacceptable from",LORD KILCLOONEY ACCUSED OF RACISM OVER TWEET ABOUT KAMALA HARRIS,tweets_news_1246,tweets_news
"•Mark Zuckerberg sent Facebook moderators home last week due to coronavirus•During a press conference he raised concerned about their mental health•Facebook offers them mental health support and resiliency training•Without these resources, the CEO worries they will become depressed at home•Facebook is shifting some of the moderation to full-time staff and automation

Mark Zuckerberg sent Facebook moderators home last week due to coronavirus

During a press conference he raised concerned about their mental health

Facebook offers them mental health support and resiliency training

Without these resources, the CEO worries they will become depressed at home

Facebook is shifting some of the moderation to full-time staff and automation

Although CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes closing the doors to all Facebook offices during the coronavirus outbreak was necessary, he is concerned about the firm's moderators who spend their days sifting through extreme content while in isolation.

The tech tycoon spoke during a press conference Wednesday about the emotional challenges this group faces while combating posts that contain everything from suicide to self-harm to child exploitation.

Facebook has internal resources for staff to receive mental health support and resiliency training, and without these programs, Zuckerberg fears it could lead to depression and health issues.

The firm is now moving moderation of its most sensitive",Mark Zuckerberg worries Facebook moderators working from home because of coronavirus will suffer from depression as they sift through posts about suicide and child exploitation,tweets_news_1247,tweets_news
"CONSERVATIVE MPs have urged Boris Johnson to stop copying Nicola Sturgeon - as the UK's rolling seven-day average for coronavirus cases rose for the fifth day in a row. THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED.

Tory MPs hit out at the Prime Minister after a U-turn on face masks in schools. Former minister Steve Baker told the Daily Mail: ""It is alarming to see yet another U-turn. I know from my own postbag that the credibility of the Government is being damaged. In a situation like this, we need a little ideological keel to hold on course. THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED. Click HERE for your latest updates

""Instead of worrying about focus groups first and following Nicola Sturgeon, the Government should be focusing on doing the right thing. Then we can worry about how to present it.""

Speaking to Times Radio, Sir Charles Walker, vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs, added: ""Things now just seem to change on a daily basis and there is growing concern that they tend to change three days after Nicola Sturgeon makes a decision.""

The criticism of Mr Johnson comes as the rolling seven-day average of coronavirus cases increased to 1,090 on Wednesday.

FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE",Coronavirus map LIVE: Cases rise for fifth day - Boris compared to rival in bitter attack,tweets_news_1248,tweets_news
"Conflicting research and questionable policies raise questions about pandemic public health response

Does wearing a cloth or paper face mask protect you from a virus? Is the PCR test a reliable method for identifying an infection? Do lockdowns help slow the spread? Are there any safe medicines that have successfully treated or prevented COVID-19? Ask these questions to a random selection of people and you'll probably get very conflicting answers. That's because there's a lot of confusion surrounding the COVID pandemic. Health experts have always emphasized that science guides their public health orders, but many doctors, lawmakers, and scientists have challenged these rules on the lack of science that supports them.

Even the origin of the virus has been fraught with scientific controversy. Since the dawn of the pandemic, officials nsisted that SARS-CoV2, the virus said to cause COVID-19, emerged from nature, jumping from bat to human in one fell swoop. Despite evidence suggesting that a Chinese virology lab might have been the true source a February 2020 statement in the prestigious Lancet journal panned the man-made virus conjecture as a wild conspiracy theory. Thereafter, the idea was routinely met with criticism, social media censorship, and worse.

Former CDC Director Robert Redfield told",Combing Through the Science of COVID,tweets_news_1249,tweets_news
"Achild would ask two questions of the Trump trial: one, why did they impeach him when he had already left office and, two, why did they acquit him when all evidence points to his guilt?

The answer, Jimmy, is that impeachment is a political process. Trump's lawyers were right when they called it an act of revenge, the equivalent of sticking a dead pope on trial. But in the course of flogging the corpse, we did discover that the Capitol invasion of January 6 was worse than reported, that Trump probably knew this and that when Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy begged him to intervene, Trump allegedly said: ""Who the f--k do you think you're talking to?""

Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell called Trump ""practically and morally responsible"" for the violence. He voted against impeachment. So did McCarthy. Politics, Jimmy, has nothing to do with justice. If it did, Jesus would have died in his bed.

The seven Republican senators who voted to convict were seasoned rebels at or nearing retirement. Those who voted to acquit either believe Trump is innocent or they are terrified of his base, which remains enthusiastic despite the Capitol attack, and of the man himself, who",Republicans need Trumpism without Trump,tweets_news_1250,tweets_news
"The media is abuzz with menacing headlines about the Trudeau government wanting to regulate your social media posts. This hysteria is groundless, but an army of pro Silicon Valley academics, pundits, and advocacy groups is nonetheless screaming from the rooftops( https://nationalpost.com/news/full-blown-assault-on-free-expression-inside-the-comprehensive-liberal-bill-to-regulate-the-internet ) about a ""full-blown assault"" on Canadians' right to free expression. Some even warn( https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jesse-kline-china-and-india-censor-the-internet-and-canadas-liberals-are-jealous ) that ""Trudeau and the CRTC are coming for your cat videos.""

These critics are wrong about Bill C-10, but blame for this mess lies squarely with the government, which tabled a sloppy Bill under the stewardship of a rookie minister incapable of defending his own legislation.

First, the backstory. Bill C-10 would modernize the Broadcasting Act for the first time since 1991. The firestorm erupted when the House of Commons Heritage Committee removed a provision that would have exempted companies like Facebook from any future regulation, simply because their content is user-generated. The Committee upheld another provision that unequivocally protects Canadian social media users from regulation. But you don't hear about that much.

Sloppy drafting and Minister Guilbeault's faltering defence of Bill C-10 have created an opening for critics who oppose any and all regulation of anything that happens online to conjure up the spectre of",Daniel Bernhard: Free expression panic over Bill C-10 entirely avoidable,tweets_news_1251,tweets_news
"This file photo taken on July 24, 2019, shows the US live streaming video platform Twitch logo application on the screen of a tablet. (Photo by AFP)

US social news aggregation website Reddit shuts down 'The Donald,' a pro-Trump subreddit as video live streaming service Twitch temporarily suspends US President Donald Trump.

""All communities on Reddit must abide by our content policy in good faith. We banned r/The_Donald because it has not done so, despite every opportunity,"" Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in a post on the site on Monday.

Amazon's Twitch, meanwhile, cited his ""hateful conduct"" for the suspension.

Facebook removes Trump ads over Nazi symbolFacebook Inc said Thursday it took down posts and ads run by the Trump campaign for violating its policy against organized hate.

""In line with our policies, President Trump's channel has been issued a temporary suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending content has been removed,"" a Twitch spokesperson told TechCrunch. ""Like anyone else, politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content, and will take action on content reported to us that violates our rules.""

At a recent rally in Tulsa,",'The Donald' shut down by Reddit as Twitch suspends Trump,tweets_news_1252,tweets_news
"Covington Catholic High School graduate Nick Sandmann stood before the Lincoln Memorial and introduced himself to the nation.

""Good evening everyone. My name is Nick Sandmann, and I'm the teenager who was defamed by the media,"" Sandmann said as he opened his remarks at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, Aug. 25.

Sandmann in 2019 found himself in the middle of a nationwide controversy after a video of him and a Native American elder facing each other in a crowd went viral.

On Aug. 25 before a national audience, Sandmann recounted that fateful confrontation and lambasted the media for its coverage. ""How could I have possibly imagined the simple act of putting on that red hat would unleash hate from the left and make myself the target of network and cable news networks nationwide,"" Sandmann said.

An opening montage prior to Sandmann's remarks recapped the Jan. 2019 incident that made Sandmann famous. It included clips from comedians Bill Maher, Trevor Noah and other commentators mocking Sandmann.

Sandmann had been on a trip with Covington Catholic classmates for the March for Life on Jan. 18, 2019. Then video circulated online showingSandmann wearing a red Make America Great Hat and facing Native American elder Nathan Phillips in",Nick Sandmann addresses the RNC,tweets_news_1253,tweets_news
"Text of speech by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the Republican response to President Joe Biden's address to Congress, as provided by the office of the Senate minority leader:

Good evening. I’m Senator Tim Scott from the great state of South Carolina.

We just heard President Biden’s first address to Congress. Our President seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words. But President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership. He promised to unite a nation. To lower the temperature. To govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted. That was the pitch. You just heard it again.

But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that bring us closer together. But three months in, the actions of the President and his party are pulling us further apart.

I won’t waste your time tonight with finger-pointing or partisan bickering. You can get that on T.V. any time you want. I want to have an honest conversation. About common sense and common ground. About this feeling that our nation is sliding off its shared foundation, and how we move forward together.

Growing up, I never dreamed I’d be standing here tonight. When I was",Text of Sen. Tim Scott's GOP response to Biden speech,tweets_news_1254,tweets_news
"Pence has a spotty record when it comes to health crises and continues to face criticism over his handling of an HIV outbreak in Indiana as governor.

Carlos Barria/Reuters

Vice President Mike Pence was tapped to lead the government's response to the coronavirus because President Donald Trump said he didn't ""have anything else to do,"" The New York Times reported. 

The Trump administration's approach to the coronavirus so far has faced bipartisan criticism in Washington, and Democrats have slammed Trump's decision to put Pence in charge.

Pence continues to face criticism over a bungled response to an HIV outbreak in Indiana while he was the state's governor. 

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump told people he put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the government's response to the coronavirus because he didn't ""have anything else to do,"" The New York Times reported, citing people familiar with the president's comments. 

The Trump administration has faced bipartisan condemnation over its approach to the coronavirus so far, as public-health experts excoriate the president for contradicting warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Amid apparent concerns over the impact that panic over coronavirus will have on the stock market, the White",Trump reportedly put Pence in charge of the coronavirus because the VP didn't 'have anything else to do',tweets_news_1255,tweets_news
"

Jan 28, 2021( Yall Politics: http://www.yallpolitics.com Delivered by Newstex) https://yallpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ParchmanGateNewPhoto-e1548855175382.jpgAuthored by Senators Juan Barnett, Brice Wiggins, Robert Jackson (11th), Sampson Jackson (32nd), Daniel Sparks and Albert Butler, a bill to clarify the conditions of parole eligibility and provide limitation on inmates who could petition for parole from the sentencing court is moving through the Mississippi Senate. The bill is SB 2795.[1] Those who will not be considered for parole under this bill include habitual offenders, sex offenders, murderers, and traffickers.A very similar bill was authored last year in SB 2123, and passed in the Legislature but was vetoed by Governor Tate Reeves[2]. He also vetoed HB 658 which would revise the number of felony convictions eligible for expungement.

While the members did overturn some vetoes made in 2020, the Mississippi Correctional Safety Rehabilitation Act of 2020 was not one of them. It made similar parole provisions for non-violent offenders. 'The same goes for Senate Bill 2123 - well-intentioned but too far. For example, it says a criminal can get parole if they're convicted of crimes that could get them the death penalty but they get sentenced to life imprisonment instead. Another example: Right now, you're eligible to get out of prison",Senators take another shot at Criminal Justice Reform after 2020 veto,tweets_news_1256,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

there is a lot of concern here of course, as we have mentioned previously, about coronavirus here and the White House, the new White House chief of staff has warned that the coronavirus death toll in the United States which has already surpassed 400,000 could be as high as half a million by the end of next month. A lot of criticism, of course, of the handling of Donald Trump and the rollout of the vaccine. As for Mr Trump himself, what of he and what of his future? We know he is currently in Florida and there has been talk of him setting up his own political party.

But this is a man who commanded the support of more than 70 million Americans last November and when they went to the polls, many conservatives support him. They see him as a strong man and they would like to see him return to some form of",Joins BBC News - 02:51 AM GMT,tweets_news_1257,tweets_news
"

Jun 18, 2021( Conservative Daily News: http://conservativedailynews.com Delivered by Newstex)

The Department of Justice argued in court filings Thursday that transgender legislation passed in West Virginia and Arkansas is unconstitutional. The DOJ filed statements of interest supporting lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against West Virginia's House Bill 3293[1] and Arkansas' 'Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act,' otherwise known as the SAFE Act.[2] The West Virginia bill bans biological males at public schools from participating in women's sports in middle school, high school, and college.

The SAFE Act prohibits physicians[3] from performing gender transition procedures, such as puberty blockers or 'top' and 'bottom' surgeries, on minors. The DOJ said that both Arkansas's and West Virginia's laws violated the Equal Protection Clause and that the West Virginia law also violated Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972. 'The State claims that H.B. 3293 will protect athletic opportunities for girls,' the DOJ said of HB 3293, according to the court filing[4]. 'Neither the facts nor the law supports that assertion. To be sure, there remain significant barriers to providing full equity in athletics for female students. But by permitting participation by transgender girls, who make up 'approximately on half of one","Biden's DOJ Comes Out Swinging Against West Virginia, Arkansas Trans Laws",tweets_news_1258,tweets_news
"The actions came after the former presidential advisor called for the heads of government officials to be put on spikes

The official account for Steve Bannon's YouTube show was suspended from Twitter last night, after the far-right commentator said the heads of infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray should be put on spikes.

YouTube also deleted the episode from its site but the channel, Steve Bannon's War Room which has 205,000 subscribers, remains available.

The comments were made when Bannon, a former presidential advisor in the Trump administration, was discussing what Trump should do if he was to return as President for a second term with co-host Jack Maxey.

He said: ""I'd actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I'd put the heads on pikes, right, I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats.""

pic.twitter.com/37uelqzzpg- Jack Maxey (@JackMaxey1) November 5, 2020

Twitter said the account @warroompandemic was ""permanently suspended"" because it violated the platform's rules on the glorification of violence.

Permanent suspensions however are not always permanent and Bannon will have the right to appeal, according to the site's rules.

As well as removing the video which contained the",Steve Bannon pulled off YouTube and Twitter after calling for 'heads on pikes' like in Tudor England,tweets_news_1259,tweets_news
"Protesters gathered at the foot of Ouellette Avenue in Dieppe Gardens Sunday to protest COVID-19 restrictions and highlight their concern for the survival of local businesses.

Derrick Souilliere led a number of speakers who objected to their ""freedom of choice"" being curtailed and their rights being restricted when it comes to wearing masks. Many in the crowd that numbered almost 50 said growing constraints on gatherings and physical distancing requirements were hurting local businesses and restaurants as well.

Souilliere told the small crowd of closely congregated participants, none of whom were wearing masks, that the province had cut the threshold for COVID-19 positive tests in half and forced the region in the ""red"" zone, which increased restrictions.

He said hospitalizations for ""influenza-type illnesses"" such as severe colds, flus and pneumonia and ""all the things that usually will kill people if they are older ... are at historical lows right now.

""Basically what seems to have happened is COVID is killing very old people but spares practically everyone else,"" he said. ""So ... weirdly it's been a boon to our health overall.""

Approximately 50 demonstrators gather at the foot of Ouellette Avenue to protest what they call harmful and unnecessary measures to combat COVID-19, Sunday, Dec.",Anti-mask rally Sunday draws small crowd to riverfront to protest restrictions,tweets_news_1260,tweets_news
"SAN FRANCISCO -- Jack Dorsey, Twitter's chief executive, was working remotely on a private island in French Polynesia frequented by celebrities escaping the paparazzi when a phone call interrupted him on Jan. 6.

On the line was Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's top lawyer and safety expert, with an update from the real world. She said she and other company executives had decided to lock President Trump's account, temporarily, to prevent him from posting statements that might provoke more violence after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol that day.

Mr. Dorsey was concerned about the move, said two people with knowledge of the call. For four years, he had resisted demands by liberals and others that Twitter terminate Mr. Trump's account, arguing that the platform was a place where world leaders could speak, even if their views were heinous. But he had delegated moderation decisions to Ms. Gadde, 46, and usually deferred to her -- and he did so again.

Mr. Dorsey, 44, did not make his misgivings public. The next day, he liked and shared several tweets urging caution against a permanent ban of Mr. Trump. Then, over the next 36 hours, Twitter veered from lifting Mr. Trump's suspension to shutting down his account",How Twitter Coaxed Its Boss On Trump Ban,tweets_news_1261,tweets_news
"

Apr 09, 2020( Western Free Press: http://www.westernfreepress.com/Delivered by Newstex) With so many in the U.S. and abroad at home and onlineduring this COVID-19 pandemic, homeland security, counterterrorism, and lawenforcement officials have kept an eye on self-radicalization and extremistrecruitment over the Internet. The Trump administration demonstrated it is keepingits eye on the ball with the StateDepartment's new designation[1] of the Russian ImperialMovement as a terrorist organization and its leaders, Stanislav AnatolyevichVorobyev, Denis Valliullovich Gariyev, and Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov asSpecially Designated Global Terrorists. The designation, the first of itskind for a white supremacist group, follows growing concern in the administrationthat such transnational groups can recruit all over the world and train tocarry out racially or ethnicallymotivated terrorism. The Russia Imperial Movement provides paramilitary-style training towhite supremacists and neo-Nazis and tries to radicalize Europeans andAmericans against their perceived enemies.

It is led by Vorobyev, its founder; Gariyev, the head of its paramilitaryarm, the Imperial Legion; and Trushchalov, the coordinator for externalrelations. In 2016, two Swedish individuals who attended training courses at oneof the group's St. Petersburg facilities went on to commit a series of bombingsin Gothenburg, Sweden, targeting a refugee shelter, a shelter for asylumseekers, and a caf. They were convicted in Sweden, and",State Department's Terrorist Designation of Russian Imperial Movement Is Important Step in Keeping America Safe,tweets_news_1262,tweets_news
"JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi filed papers Friday to run for reelection, emphasizing her loyalty to President Donald Trump on border security and other issues.

Speaking to more than 100 supporters at the state GOP headquarters, Hyde-Smith recalled how she backed Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018, when Kavanaugh faced accusations of sexual misconduct as a young man.

""Guys, we got through that, and right won,"" Hyde-Smith said.

She said Trump told her that she ""went through the fire"" for Kavanaugh, and she said she told the president that he goes through fire all the time.

""You know what we've got to do? We've got to march through that fire,"" Hyde-Smith said. ""We cannot let the liberals win.""

A Democratic challenger in this year's Senate race, Mike Espy, has been reminding voters about a ""public hanging"" comment Hyde-Smith made in 2018 that dredged up Mississippi's painful racist history.

Hyde-Smith was the state agriculture commissioner when Republican Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her in early 2018 to temporarily succeed longtime Sen. Thad Cochran Cochran, who retired amid health concerns. She is the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress.

Bryant leaves office when his second term ends",Trump-loyal Mississippi senator qualifies for reelection,tweets_news_1263,tweets_news
"

Jan 03, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Barbara Corbellini-Duarte The US Food and Drug Administration recently continued its crackdown on vaping, issuing a ban[1] on flavored e-cigarette pods, excluding tobacco and menthol varieties. While the new rule prohibits the sweet and fruity pods popular among young vapers, it still allows for open-tank systems and e-liquids — the preferred choice for a large number of vapers who've held rallies protesting their right to vape. Vaping activists believe vaping saves lives by curbing cigarette use, and have become spurred into political action over their right to vape. A Closer Look,[2] Business Insider's new weekly show on Facebook Watch, spoke to vapers who are trying to build a bloc of voters that cannot be ignored.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[3]. Following the US Food and Drug Administration's most recent crackdown on flavored e-cigarette pods, vaping activists have a new goal: to become a bloc of voters that cannot be ignored. FDA officials announced on Thursday[4] it planned to prohibit on the sale of sweet and fruity flavored e-cigarette pods, excluding tobacco and menthol varieties. The new rule would still allow open-tank systems and e-liquids popular among vapers who've held","As the FDA cracks down on e-cigarettes, vapers are starting to become one-issue voters",tweets_news_1264,tweets_news
"

Jul 20, 2020( EU Reporter: http://www.eureporter.co Delivered by Newstex) https://www.eureporter.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Antisemtic-Belgian-festival.jpgA caricature of a Chinese person is coughing on Uncle Sam, infecting the United States with COVID-19. A German celebrity chef and author, Attila Hildmann, asks in a poll on his Telegram channel with over 60,000 subscribers: 'Who financed the Holocaust? A. The Japanese B. The Zionists C. The Arabs' - 87% of nearly 6,000 votes went to 'the Zionists', writes Israel Minister of Strategic Affairs and National Security Cabinet Member Orit-Farkash-Hacohen.

A cleric on Twitter deemed my country a 'deadly, cancerous growth' which needs to be 'destroyed'. The world today is infected with two pandemics: COVID-19, infecting people, and online hate and antisemitism, as in the examples above, infecting all major social media platforms. Like COVID-19, online hate starts with a few infected individuals and spreads, oftentimes unnoticed, to the mainstream. Sometimes its symptoms are mild or innocuous; and in certain cases, they are deadly. Along with other minorities, Jews have been speaking out and warning about this virus of hate for over a decade and, like LGBT, Blacks, Asians and Muslims, are bearing its brunt for years. Just measuring the scope of online hate speech has daunted researchers. According to",#Antisemitism - The second pandemic,tweets_news_1265,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - Rep. Mo Brooks is strictly an armchair insurrectionist.

On. Jan. 6, the Alabama Republican incited Trump followers to sack the Capitol. ""Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass!"" he told the crowd at a pre-riot rally. ""Now, our ancestors sacrificed their blood, their sweat, their tears, their fortunes, and sometimes their lives. ... So I have a question for you: Are you willing to do the same? My answer is yes. Louder! Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? Louder!""

But when it came time to be held to account for inciting the deadly insurrection, Brooks chose flight, not fight.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., sued Brooks, along with former President Donald Trump and others, for the damage caused by the insurrection. But Brooks, unlike the other defendants, refused to accept service of the court papers - prompting Swalwell to hire a private investigator to hunt him down. A weekslong cat-and-mouse game ensued, and Brooks proved so elusive that the judge granted his pursuers a 60-day extension.

On Sunday, the process servers finally caught Brooks (or, rather, his wife, Martha). The aggrieved lawmaker fired off a tweet accusing Swalwell's P.I. of ""sneaking",Mo Brooks is so offended,tweets_news_1266,tweets_news
"

Jul 30, 2020( WayneDupree.com: https://www.waynedupree.com Delivered by Newstex) I have a feeling that the MSNBC host was thinking 'reclaim my time! reclaim my time!' after he asked this absolutely demeaning question to a black Democrat Trump supporter.

Georgia Rep. Vernon Jones - a Democrat - has announced his support for President Trump, claiming that the Democrat Party has left him behind. More from Wayne Dupree However, MSNBC can't seem to comprehend that line of thinking - they don't understand why everyone isn't excited to belong to a political party of blue-haired communists who burn down buildings and shoot people who disagree with their politics. MORE NEWS: I Clicked 'Play' on This Video and Didn't Hear a Word Trump SaidI Was Too Distracted by How Fit, Strong, and Healthy He Looks[1] As a matter of fact, the MSNBC host was so flabbergasted that there was actual black Dem supporting Trump, that he actually asked Rep Jones if Trump was PAYING him for his support. How insulting. Needless to say, Rep. Jones absolutely humiliated him with his perfect response. 'You need to accept that many other African Americans and others support this president Why can't I be like white liberals or other whites,",[VIDEO] MSNBC Host Savagely Humiliated After Asking Black Dem Trump Supporter a Question He'd Never Ask a White Liberal,tweets_news_1267,tweets_news
"

Feb 27, 2021( LouisianaVoice: http://www.louisianavoice.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Sometimes a writer gets a story dropped into his/her lap that is like manna from heaven. Oftentimes, they tend to write themselves.Such is the 2021 CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL ACTION CONFERENCE[1] (CPAC) that is off and running in Orlando, that oh-so-appropriate selection, being, as it is, the home of Mickey Mouse and Goofy.There are so many stories tied to this collection of cretins, this assemblage of airheads, this meeting of muttonheads that literally drip with irony, contradiction and delusion that it's difficult to know which angle to pursue first.After some consideration, I've decided to violate the first principle of journalism by saving the best for last - that being the not-so-subtle flaunting of the Golden Idol by the party that seeks, yea thrives, off the unqualified adoration of the evangelical Christians.Spoiler alert: for reasons yet to fully explained, there are several notable speakers not on the program this year. No Sidney Powell (go figure). No John N. Kennedy (how could they overlook a cartoon character for an event staged at the cartoon capital of the universe?). No Rudy Giuliani (ditto). No Marjorie Taylor Greene (thank God). No Bobby Jindal (likewise). No Clay Higgins (what","Deranged speakers, a golden idol and the home of 'toons Mickey and Goofy make 2021 CPAC most bizarre one yet",tweets_news_1268,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

The Justice Department's internal watchdog launched an investigation Friday after revelations that former president Donald Trump's administration secretly seized phone data from at least two House Democrats as part of an aggressive leaks probe.

FULL TEXT

Link to Image

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department's internal watchdog launched an investigation Friday after revelations that former President Donald Trump's administration secretly seized phone data from at least two House Democrats as part of an aggressive leaks probe. Democrats called the seizures ""harrowing"" and an abuse of power.

The announcement by Inspector General Michael Horowitz came shortly after Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco made the request for an internal investigation. Horowitz said he would examine whether the data subpoenaed by the Justice Department and turned over by Apple followed department policy and ""whether any such uses, or the investigations, were based upon improper considerations.""

Horowitz said he would also investigate similar Trump-era seizures of journalists' phone records.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and another Democratic member of the panel, California Rep. Eric Swalwell, said Apple notified them last month that their metadata had been subpoenaed and turned over to the Justice Department in 2018, as their committee was investigating the former president's ties to Russia. Schiff","Justice Dept., Congress probing Trump seizures of Dems' data",tweets_news_1269,tweets_news
"Facebook has removed an interview between Donald Trump and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, from the latter's Facebook and Instagram accounts, with the social-media giant citing its suspension of the former president.

On Jan. 7, the day after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol, Facebook said it was suspending Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely. CEO Mark Zuckerberg cited the risk of ongoing violence for the decision. Twitterbanned Trump permanently on Jan. 8, and other internet companies have taken similar actions to ""deplatform"" Trump.

Lara Trump, who is married to Eric Trump, on Tuesday had announced that Donald Trump would be joining her online news show ""The Right View"" (which was previously produced by the Trump 2020 campaign) that evening.

But shortly after the episode went up on her Facebook and Instagram pages, the video was pulled down. Lara Trump posted messages her team evidently received from the company explaining the removals.

""We are reaching out to let you know that we removed content from Lara Trump's Facebook Page that featured President Trump speaking,"" one of the messages read. ""In line with the block we placed on Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts, further content posted in the voice of Donald Trump will be","Facebook Pulls Donald Trump Video From Lara Trump's Accounts, Citing Suspension of Ex-President",tweets_news_1270,tweets_news
"Breast cancer and commentary about French massacres are among the first issues to be investigated by Facebook's newly formed independent oversight board.

A member of a new oversight board that will scrutinise decisions by Facebook to remove posts from its main platform and Instagram has said the social media giant must do more to eliminate hate speech and misinformation.

Katherine Chen, former commissioner at Taiwan's national communications commission, is one of 20 members of Facebook's new Oversight Board which also includes representatives from Australia, Taiwan, Pakistan, the United States and the United Kingdom and was first announced by founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2018.

The newly formed board will initially scrutinise six cases of hate speech, nudity and violence in Facebook's first attempt to develop stronger standards. ""The cases may change Facebook policy,"" Ms. Chen said. ""If we make a decision on a case, then Facebook has to follow and respond to our decision.""

The announcement of the board's first six cases comes amid heightened scrutiny of social media policies in Australia and with rival platform Twitter facing a government backlash after failing to remove a fabricated image shared by a deputy director in China's Foreign Ministry.

Twitter was on Monday trying to assess whether the",'Facebook needs to improve': Social media giant to face scrutiny as backlash intensifies,tweets_news_1271,tweets_news
"Much of the world would surely welcome a president who does not use the office as a platform for his own self-interest.

Few US presidents have ever captured such global attention as its incumbent, Donald J. Trump. While Americans prepare to vote in Tuesday's election, and have done so already in unprecedented numbers, the world is watching, and holding its breath.

For someone who had never run for office, and appears barely educated in the principles of political philosophy, Mr Trump has dominated his party, and the broader political discourse with a potent blend of populism, bullying and fervent backing from his base.

In many respects, how he behaved and what he promised during the 2016 campaign is what Mr Trump has delivered during the past four years. He lowered taxes, bolstered the military's budget, cut regulations, clamped down on immigration, pulled out of the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal, aggressively confronted China over trade and, with help of the US Senate, filled the federal and Supreme courts with conservative judges.

Any belief that he would take on a more ""presidential"" demeanour once he entered the Oval Office, was soon dispelled. His penchant for bigotry and deceit, his Twitter tirades pillorying","Time for a US leader who serves the people, not himself",tweets_news_1272,tweets_news
"

Feb 02, 2021( Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/ Delivered by Newstex) We are on the 14th day of Joe Biden's presidency, and we are still not used to this whole ""press secretary does press briefings every day, is not completely full of shit"" thing. Sure, there is spin, because there is supposed to be spin, that is how these things work. But what there isn't is utter bullshit and lies that are just irredeemably easy to factcheck in real time.What's fun, though, is that White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is really starting to get her feet planted in the position, and show us how she deals with crap from reporters who are being idiots because A) they are idiots, or B) they are paid by wingnut networks to be idiots.During Monday's press briefing, Psaki got a question[1] from CBS News's Ed O'Keefe, and it was a dumb question, and both O'Keefe and the question should feel dumb.Psaki calls out a reporter for asking a ""many people are saying"" question he can't back up https://t.co/OyweIQiVwB Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar)1612201385.0[2]O'KEEFE: There are Democrats who are seeing that the first meeting the president is having face-to-face with lawmakers is with Republicans and not Democrats.

Why is",Jen Psaki Is Finished With You Now,tweets_news_1273,tweets_news
"

Jan 15, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; Because we know how successful the United Nations been in norming dictatorships, sharia, and Jew hatred - the central tenets of the Democrat party.Bernie Sanders: 'Our Job Is to Rebuild United Nations' By: Breitbart, [1]January 15, 2020: DES MOINES, IOWA - JANUARY 14: Former Vice President Joe Biden (L) listens as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) makes a point during the Democratic presidential primary debate at Drake University on January 14, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa. Six candidates out of the field qualified for the first Democratic presidential Sen.

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said during Tuesday's Democrat debate in Des Moines, Iowa, that the United States has a duty to 'rebuild the United Nations.' During a question focusing on U.S. foreign policy, Sanders stated that it is America's job to 'rebuild the United Nations.' 'The American people are sick and tired of endless wars which have cost us trillions of dollars,' Sanders said. 'Our job is to rebuild the United Nations and rebuild the State Department, make sure we have the capability of bringing the world together to resolve international conflict diplomatically and stop the endless wars,' he continued. Sanders also lamented",Bernie Sanders: 'Our Job Is to Rebuild United Nations',tweets_news_1274,tweets_news
"NNA - US Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has condemned the recent violence in Portland, blaming US President Donald Trump for fueling tensions.

""The deadly violence we saw overnight in Portland is unacceptable. Shooting in the streets of a great American city is unacceptable. I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right. And I challenge Donald Trump to do the same,"" Biden said in a Sunday statement.

He accused Trump of ""fanning the flames of hate and division"" and ""recklessly encouraging violence.""

""We must not become a country at war with ourselves. A country that accepts the killing of fellow Americans who do not agree with you. A country that vows vengeance toward one another. But that is the America that President Trump wants us to be, the America he believes we are,"" Biden said.

Trump, in his turn, said that Biden could not afford to take a hard stance on issues related to violence because that could cause him to lose supporters.

""He [Biden] must always be weak on CRIME because of the Bernie Sanders Radical Left voter. If he loses them, like Crooked Hillary did, he is 'toast', and many will vote for me because of",Biden Accuses Trump of Fanning the 'Flames of Hate' as Protests Continue,tweets_news_1275,tweets_news
"A Sussex County man whom federal authorities described as a violent far-right conspiracy theorist pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges he stormed the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots and assaulted a police officer.

Scott Fairlamb, 43, of the Stockholm section of Hardyston, was arrested at his home in January after four people tipped off the FBI to videos that purportedly showed the former Butler resident punching an officer's helmet with his bare hand and breaching the Capitol doors.

Fairlamb's attorney, Harley Breite, entered his client's plea via telephone Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, of the District of Columbia. The question of whether Fairlamb should be held in a district jail was put off until a hearing next week.

Fairlamb, who also owned a Pompton Lakes gym that shut down during the coronavirus pandemic, attended by telephone as well, but said little during the hearing.

While Breite has not yet filed his response to prosecutors, he told the New Jersey Herald a day after Fairlamb's arrest that his client went to the Capitol alone and with ""peaceful intent.""

""Any notion he went there to harm anybody in law enforcement simply is irrefutably untrue,"" Briete said at the time. ""He doesn't want",NJ MAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO RIOT CHARGES,tweets_news_1276,tweets_news
"Construction of drought-buster infrastructure in Dubbo has been disrupted by rain but Dubbo Regional Council reports it remains on track to be completed in June.

The $6.82 million non-potable and cross-city pipeline project is now past its halfway point.

Eleven kilometres of the pipeline have been laid with work currently underway along Macquarie Street, between Margaret Crescent and Diane Street, as well as in Regand Park.

""The project remains on track to be completed by June 2021 despite the welcome rains causing some minor delays,"" the council's director infrastructure Julian Geddes told the Daily Liberal.

""Like any large infrastructure project there has been some variations, however these have remained within the expectations of the project.""

Mr Geddes confirmed the pipeline would move non-potable groundwater from the city's established recreational bores and newly-established bores to the John Gilbert Water Treatment Plant.

""The intent is to use the recreational bores during times of severe drought, if required,"" he said.

Four new bores in North Dubbo would be used as needed as part of the reticulation system, the director said.

""The dual pipeline will also have the capacity to move treated effluent from the Dubbo Sewage Treatment Plant to replace the non-potable groundwater used for irrigation, and to Dubbo zoo into",Dubbo's drought-buster project adjusting to rain as it passes halfway point,tweets_news_1277,tweets_news
"Days after it blocked dozens of posts allegedly critical of Covid-19 crisis handling, Twitter has said it will consider more requests from the government to withhold content and will continue to engage ""openly and constructively"" with it. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/ Rediff.com . ""We notify the account holder directly so they're aware that we've received a legal order...

Days after it blocked dozens of posts allegedly critical of Covid-19 crisis handling, Twitter has said it will consider more requests from the government to withhold content and will continue to engage ""openly and constructively"" with it. Illustration: Utt...

Days after it blocked dozens of posts allegedly critical of Covid-19 crisis handling, Twitter has said it will consider more requests from the government to withhold content and will continue to engage ""openly and constructively"" with it. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/ Rediff.com . ""We notify the account holder directly so they're aware that we've received a legal order pertaining to the account by sending a message to the email address associated with the account(s), if available, unless we are prohibited from doing so,"" Twitter said in a blog on Thursday. The microblogging platform had received a number of takedown requests from India over the past few months",Will engage with govt on takedown requests: Twitter,tweets_news_1278,tweets_news
"When I was little, I was fond of a book called Girls Can Be Anything. It is about two friends. Adam insists only boys can be pilots and doctors, and Marina sets out to prove him wrong. When Adam's preposterous boast every U.S. president has been a man turns out to be true, Marina resolves to become the first female president.

""This is the book that made me a feminist,"" begins a review on Goodreads.com, which captures my feelings.

The cherished 1973 children's story by Norma Klein helped lay the foundation, but the book that cemented my identity as an unapologetic feminist was Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth. Her polemic awakened me to the crippling strictures of the male gaze, and its pervasive impact in the workforce and on campus. I developed strong opinions about high heels, and saying yes to dessert.

The impact of her work was not isolated. The Beauty Myth was listed among the New York Times'70 most influential books of the 20th century. Wolf was celebrated as a pioneer of third-wave feminism.

Any lingering feelings of hero worship crashed hard last week when Wolf was suspended by Twitter, after using the platform to spread misinformation about vaccines.

It's become clear the",Twitter vaccine myths crackdown overdue,tweets_news_1279,tweets_news
"The following information was released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC):

This week, staff members at the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote several first-person stories about the recent killings of Black people by racist police and vigilantes, investigated white supremacists, provided analysis on the attacks on peaceful protests and demanded that systems of oppression be dismantled. We're sharing some of their work below:

It's Time to Demand Justice for Black People in America

It's been nearly two weeks since a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, even after Floyd repeatedly said, ""I can't breathe."" I'm still angry.

Read more.

George Floyd, Tony McDade, Sean Reed and Breonna Taylor

The killings must stop. We have seen the impacts of white supremacy's pervasiveness in law enforcement across the country for centuries and we, as a nation, must come together to dismantle the system of oppression.

Read more.

Authoritarian State or Inclusive Democracy? 21 Things We Can Do Right Now

I understand the rage. I was in fourth grade the first time I was chased by police. My best friend got caught; I did not. His life ended up very different from mine, in part because I ran faster than he did.

Read",DEMANDING JUSTICE AND SYSTEMIC CHANGE,tweets_news_1280,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist whose progressive agenda pushed the Democratic Party sharply to the left, ended his White House campaign on Wednesday, clearing the way for a Nov. 3 election battle between former Vice President Joe Biden and Republican President Donald Trump.

Sanders, a former front-runner who promised to lead a grassroots political revolution into the White House, acknowledged he no longer had a path to the nomination after a string of nominating contest losses to Biden but promised to work with the former vice president to oust Trump.

He said he would stay on the ballot in future primaries and continue to gather delegates in order to push the Democratic platform toward his populist anti-corporate agenda, including a government-run healthcare system and tax hikes for the rich.

""Then together, standing united, we will go forward to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history,"" he said in a livestreamed speech to supporters from his hometown of Burlington, Vermont.

The 78-year-old U.S. senator parlayed his massive campaign rallies, anti-establishment message and fervent support from young and new voters into early success in the Democratic race before losing in South Carolina in late February, leading moderate Democrats to unite","Sanders drops out of U.S. election race, setting up Biden battle with Trump",tweets_news_1281,tweets_news
"As a gesture of solidarity with the tens of millions of carrots murdered every year to facilitate #Veganuary,” typed failed mayor Laurence Fox while still in his folk music period and presenting as a flaccid tree, “tonight I forsake vegetables.” Then he uploaded a picture of his steak. As a piece of food photography it was poor;...

As a gesture of solidarity with the tens of millions of carrots murdered every year to facilitate #Veganuary,” typed failed mayor Laurence Fox while still in his folk music period and presenting as a flaccid tree, “tonight I forsake vegetables.” Then he up...

As a gesture of solidarity with the tens of millions of carrots murdered every year to facilitate #Veganuary,” typed failed mayor Laurence Fox while still in his folk music period and presenting as a flaccid tree, “tonight I forsake vegetables.” Then he uploaded a picture of his steak. As a piece of food photography it was poor; as a statement of resistance it was powerful. Last week Fox News apologised after airing a piece titled Up in Your Grill , which claimed Biden wanted to curb meat consumption. This would include, they said, a plan to cut 90% of red meat from",Meat-eaters are showing their teeth in the new culture wars,tweets_news_1282,tweets_news
"The issue of how the social media companies sort through content dominated the hearing.

The issue of how the social media companies sort through content dominated the hearing.

At Tuesday’s hearing on social media and misinformation, much of the discussion focused on the minutiae of how Facebook and Twitter carry out the process of moderating the billions of pieces of content regularly posted to their networks.

Both Democrats and Republicans zeroed in on the issue, according to a tally by The New York Times. Out of 127 total questions, more than half — or 67 — were about content moderation. Democrats asked 12 questions aimed at how Facebook and Twitter could increase their moderation efforts around topics like hate speech, while Republicans asked 37 questions about why some points of view were censored online and how content moderation could be decreased in some areas, according to the tally. (The remainder of the questions about content moderation did not indicate a clear desire for more or less moderation.)

In particular, Republican senators like Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas focused on the unproven idea that Facebook and Twitter unduly moderated posts by conservatives, compared with the amount of",Lawmakers drill down on how Facebook and Twitter moderate content.,tweets_news_1283,tweets_news
"W hat was your lockdown hobby?

Perhaps you started baking sourdough or painting; possibly you taught yourself TikTok dances, or adopted - then dropped - a strict exercise regimen.

Or perhaps you took up a riskier pastime: dabbling in the stock market. 2020 was a perfect storm for amateur investors. Stuck at home, millions turned a hand to trading, enticed by cheap shares and online brokerages with zero commission fees.

For true believers, amateur trading is a way for ordinary people to enter the infamously elitist world of stocks and shares, to generate wealth and become financially independent. But it has a dark underbelly - a realm of adrenaline-fuelled trades, impulsive bets and huge losses.

Welcome to the world of day-trading.

Surging scene

Over the last year, unprecedented numbers of people have turned to the market.

Robinhood - a popular American trading app - registered three million new accounts between January and May 2020. Since March last year, two million new users have signed up to the international firm eToro.

Closer to home, the figures are equally astonishing. According to Australia's financial regulator ASIC, a record 110,000 people opened share-trading accounts in March 2020 alone.

Before COVID-19, first time traders accounted for just 4 per cent of trades on",BLASTING INTO THE MARKET,tweets_news_1284,tweets_news
"""How many Chauvins are there?"" one QAnon conspiracy theorist asked.

Believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory expressed skepticism that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who murdered George Floyd, was actually the ""same guy"" after his sentencing hearing on Friday.

QAnon is a baseless conspiracy theory, which claims that former President Donald Trump has been fighting against a Satanic cabal of Democrats and Hollywood elites who sexually abuse and sacrifice children in bizarre cult practices in their pursuit of world domination. Recent polling by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core found that 15 percent of Americans believe in QAnon—the same amount as some major religions.

After Chauvin's sentencing hearing on Friday, supporters of QAnon posted to a Telegram channel for believers, expressing their skepticism that the former police officer was actually the person that had appeared in court.

""Who the f*** is that? That's not the same guy from the trial,"" one person identifying as Ray A wrote, according to screenshots posted to Twitter.

""How many Chauvins are there?"" another Telegram user going by the handle BeWater wrote.

A user going by the name Rose Watschke wrote: ""His hair color seems to change everytime you see him. Facial features are significantly different",,tweets_news_1285,tweets_news
"By Ramin Mazaheri

(Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of 'Socialism's Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism' as well as 'I'll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China', which is also available in simplified and traditional Chinese.)

Remember in 2010 when Brazil had ""arrived""? That was Lula.

Back then, the United States and Europe were financially imploding, but Brazil — with a strong economy, fresh off the very first BRIC summit in 2009, and with the economic redistribution polices championed by Lula — was looking like a permanent and necessary geopolitical power. Their tourists were trotting the globe while Westerners were mired in bank bailouts and the undemocratic demand of austerity to pay for those bailouts.

Many of the reasons for Brazil's economic demise since then are poorly understood, mainly because journalists prefer political intrigues to the simple math of the ""dismal science.""

The imprisonment of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the impeachment of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, was not solely the result of",Lula's lessons for Iran before Brazil's populist showdown begins,tweets_news_1286,tweets_news
"Copyright 2020 Tribune Content Agency.

President Donald Trump, whether or not he wears that title past Inauguration Day, managed to do something we hadn’t expected before Election Day: He brought in more voters than in 2016.

It’s not that anyone predicted a Joe Biden landslide. But the former vice president’s supporters had expected a more decisive repudiation of a president who has lied repeatedly, pandered to conspiracy theorists and far-right hooligans, undermined science and botched the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in myriad ways. There were indeed people who abandoned Trump he did worse with white males than in 2016, for example but also those who, if they didn’t flock to him, at least saw him as the better option.

Many presidential elections have been won by thin margins, as this one apparently will be. But a presidential campaign with Trump is not a normal presidential election with typical political disagreements. It’s not just a matter of one side believing in lower taxes, less regulation and smaller government, while the other favoring tougher regulation, better social services and more activism from Washington.

We can always debate those issues. But how do we debate whether facts are facts? How do we discuss rationally whether public",The enduring support for Donald J. Trump,tweets_news_1287,tweets_news
"India, July 18 -- There is no shortage of words in the exchanges between India and China over the turquoise blue Pangong lake. Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday delivered a loaded speech at the famed lake. But words fail us when it comes to the cosmic spectacle that unfurls over the lake in the dark when mere mortals sleep and the Gods slip out from the crevices of cosmic infinity.

Those who have viewed that spectacle and are currently locked out of the mountains due to Covid-19 restrictions are revisiting the photographs and videos of the ""good old days when Corona was nothing more than a heavenly beer""! A software engineer with Tata Consultancy, Dipyaman Santra, is a mountain addict. He drove on a motorcycle all the way from Kolkata to Pangong taking nine days in September 2018. He took a photograph of the Aakash Ganga (Milky Way galaxy) over the lake at 11.21 pm.

In his own words, then, are those moments of magical glimpses that uplift the sufferance of human existence to a momentary merger with cosmic divinity. The romantic realisation dawns that we are all made of star dust. Santra recalls the Pangong night sky with a fervid",Wildbuzz: Star Wars over Pangong,tweets_news_1288,tweets_news
"•The documentary is titled Michael Moore Presents: Planet Of The Humans•Moore, 66, has produced a film that tries to pull apart the green movement•His fan club, so loyal for decades, is boiling with fury at what it sees as disloyalty

The documentary is titled Michael Moore Presents: Planet Of The Humans

Moore, 66, has produced a film that tries to pull apart the green movement

His fan club, so loyal for decades, is boiling with fury at what it sees as disloyalty

Don't be fooled by the mild-mannered delivery and shambling, cuddly teddy-bear appearance of the Oscar-winning documentary maker Michael Moore.

Whether he's skewering George W. Bush's 'war on terror', the cynicism of America's gun lobby or railing against the evils of capitalism in general, he's a Left-wing rabblerouser who knows better than anyone in the film world how to stoke the passions of his viewers.

The large and dishevelled American - his messy hair permanently stuffed inside a baseball cap - won an Academy Award for Bowling For Columbine, his 2002 documentary about the Columbine school massacre of 1999, in which 15 were killed, and the terrible ubiquity of guns in the U.S.

He hasn't looked back, with a raft of films about conservative and corporate",A VERY inconvenient truth: Film-maker Michael Moore's latest exposé raises a host of troubling questions about the eco bandwagon... and the green lobby are seeing red,tweets_news_1289,tweets_news
"IRAN is trying to attack the UK's ""constitutional integrity"" by using fake social media accounts to call for Scottish independence.

The Islamic Republic has been accused of ""peddling disinformation"" in an attempt to sway this week's Holyrood elections in favour of Scottish nationalists parties. Polls currently have Nicola Sturgeon's SNP on a knife-edge over whether it will achieve an overall majority.

Related articles

Should this be realised, Mrs Sturgeon has vowed to press Westminster to allow her to hold a second independence referendum.

Experts believe a second vote would likely deliver independence - leading to the breakup of the UK.

This would damage the UK's international standing in many countries' eyes which makes it an attractive proposition for anti-Western powers - of which Iran is a prominent member.

To try and diminish the UK's power, the Middle Eastern country's regime has targeted voters on Facebook and Twitter by creating fake accounts, groups and pages, according to a study by the Henry Jackson Society think tank.

READ MORE: Disneyland Snow White ride slammed for non-consensual kiss scene

It said that they pose as locals sympathetic to Scottish independence, and encourage real users to share pro-separatist material, graphics, memes and cartoons.

Fake accounts shared and promoted the pages, groups and memes",Sturgeon and Salmond's independence dream being aided by Iran 'peddling disinformation',tweets_news_1290,tweets_news
"The UK government has announced future plans to give Ofcom powers to regulate social networks.

Aptly announced on Safer Internet Day last Wednesday, the move will serve to better protect children and vulnerable people online.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “While the internet can be used to connect people and drive innovation, we know it can also be a hiding place for criminals, including paedophiles, to cause immense harm.

“It is incumbent on tech firms to balance issues of privacy and technological advances with child protection. That’s why it is right that we have a strong regulator to ensure social media firms fulfil their vital responsibility to vulnerable users.”

The news was welcomed by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which started campaigning for better regulation of internet sites two years ago.

In 2018/19, Police Scotland recorded 581 crimes of communicating indecently with a child, which included online sexual communication.

And the number of recorded crimes increased by 35 per cent from the previous year.

Through its Wild West Web campaign, the NSPCC has been at the forefront of campaigning for better protection for children online since 2017.

Last summer, the charity revealed that one in 25 young people in the UK, aged from",New regulator to help keep our children safe online,tweets_news_1291,tweets_news
"NIAMEY, Niger & - The World Food Program won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for fighting hunger and seeking to end its use as ""a weapon of war and conflict"" at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has driven millions more people to the brink of starvation.

Announcing the prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it wished ""to turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger.""

The committee also said it hoped that bestowing the prize on the U.N. agency would highlight the need to strengthen global solidarity and co-operation in an era of go-it-alone nationalism.

""We are sending a signal to every nation who raises objections to international co-operation,"" committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen said. ""We are sending a signal to this type of nationalism where the responsibility for global affairs is not being faced.""

The Rome-based agency was established in 1961 at the behest of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower and has brought aid to multiple crises, including Ethiopia's famine of 1984, the Asian tsunami of 2004 and the Haiti earthquake of 2010.

It continues to bring assistance to the world's most dangerous and precarious places, from air-dropping food in South Sudan",World Food Program wins Nobel Peace Prize for hunger fight,tweets_news_1292,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — The four biggest names in technology were in the hot seat on Wednesday during a Congressional hearing.

Lawmakers grilled the heads of Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook about their power over American consumers.

""I wanna leave here today with a more complete picture of how your individual companies use your size, success and power,"" Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) said.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) expressed frustration during the hearing over how these companies buy up competitors.

""Facebook saw Instagram as a threat that could potentially siphon business away from Facebook,"" Nadler said.

Florida Congresswoman and potential VP candidate Val Demings (D-FL) questioned Google CEO Sundar Pichai about how data collection is affecting American's privacy.

""Would you agree that what changed was Google gained enormous market power?"" she asked.

The top tech groups were hit with questions from both sides of the aisle. During their own questioning, Republicans wanted to know if the platforms are biased.

Florida Republican Congressman Greg Steube asked Pichai why Gmail sends emails with conservative content to junk folders.

""Why is this only happening to Republicans?"" Steube asked.

Another Florida Republican, Rep. Matt Gaetz, wanted a promise that public pressure wouldn't lead Google to cancel a partnership with police officers.

""They asked you to stop doing","Florida lawmakers grill Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook on their power over Americans",tweets_news_1293,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — In a long-anticipated development, the Department of Justice filed suit against tech giant Google on Tuesday, in what many analysts believe is just the opening salvo in a battle pitting Washington, D.C. against Silicon Valley.

For years, lawmakers and consumer advocates have accused Google, whose parent company, Alphabet Inc, has a market value of over a trillion dollars, of abusing its dominance in online search and advertising to crush competition.

In its 64-page complaint, the DOJ describes Google as 'a scrappy startup' that went on to become 'a monopoly gatekeeper for the internet.'

Tech policy expert and attorney Carl Szabo of Washington's NetChoice said it's an allegation that may be destined for an early death in court.

""One of the things you need to know about anti-trust law is that it's centered around the notion of consumer harm,"" he said. ""I've read all 64 pages of the complaint, and there is not one piece of consumer harm being cited.""

The company's response came in a lengthy blog post, in which Google called the action ""a deeply flawed lawsuit that would do nothing to help consumers.""

Observers note that the 11 state attorneys general who have signed on to the suit all hail",US Justice Department hits Google with biggest antitrust lawsuit in two decades,tweets_news_1294,tweets_news
"By Justin Catanoso*

World leaders took turns on Earth Day pledging increased ambition to battle climate change during President Joe Biden's virtual Leaders Summit on Climate. But environmentalists — weary of gaping policy loopholes, conservation lapses, and the utter failure of governments to meet Paris Climate Agreement carbon reduction targets — called loudly for the gap to close now between promises and real climate action.

Yes, eco-advocates are thrilled the U.S. is again engaged in climate leadership after four years in which the Trump Administration mocked and undermined climate efforts. But in a flood of statements, the impatience and frustration among activists were as evident as record warming, rising sea levels, and increasingly deadly storms, wildfires and drought.

""The Biden administration's new climate target to halve emissions by 2030 is more ambitious than any previous commitment by the U.S. government,"" said Brandon Wu, ActionAid USA's director of policy and campaigns. ""Yet it is still deeply insufficient to meet the realities of the climate crisis.""

Wu and others called on Biden to up U.S. emission reduction pledges to 70% by 2030 over a 2005 baseline, and to vastly increase its monetary support to help developing nations adapt to, and recover from, escalating climate impacts. The","Leaders Make Bold Climate Pledges, But Is It 'All Just Smoke And Mirrors?' - Analysis",tweets_news_1295,tweets_news
"PARIS (AFP) — Facebook plans to eliminate an exemption for politicians that allows them to post content deemed deceptive or abusive, and will hold them to the same standards...

PARIS (AFP) — Facebook plans to eliminate an exemption for politicians that allows them to post content deemed deceptive or abusive, and will hold them to the same standards as other users, news website The Verge reported Thursday. The controversial exempt...

PARIS (AFP) — Facebook plans to eliminate an exemption for politicians that allows them to post content deemed deceptive or abusive, and will hold them to the same standards as other users, news website The Verge reported Thursday. The controversial exemption, given to politicians under the auspices of their posts being newsworthy, could end as soon as this week on the leading social network, the news site said. Facebook did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on the matter. The policy reversal would come after an independent oversight board said Facebook was right to oust former president Donald Trump for his comments regarding the deadly 6 January rampage at the US Capitol. Trump was suspended from Facebook and Instagram after posting a video during the attack by his fired-up",FB throttling down politicians’ posts,tweets_news_1296,tweets_news
"The following information was released by the office of California Rep. Mark Takano:

The Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus today expressed its appreciation for the steps taken by the Biden Administration to reverse the harmful ban on transgender people serving openly in the military. This policy, which has harmed both the individuals impacted and the nations security, is overdue for reversal.

Anyone willing to serve our country in the Armed Forces should be treated with respect and dignity, said Equality Caucus Chair David N. Cicilline (RI-01). I am happy that President Biden has taken action today to allow transgender Americans to serve openly in the military. This decision brings us closer to ensuring that every American enjoys the same rights and opportunities regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

From day one, former President Trumps ban on transgender troops serving in our military was about discrimination and politics not security, said Equality Caucus Co-Chair Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18). Transgender servicemembers have served our country well and honorably and any suggestion otherwise is just prejudice. This reversal by President Biden is welcome news and shows his commitment to advancing equality for all LGBTQ+ Americans.

No ones gender identity or expression should disqualify them from serving",THE EQUALITY CAUCUS APPLAUDS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FOR THE REVERSAL OF THE TRANSGENDER MILITARY BAN,tweets_news_1297,tweets_news
"Trump, who has complained for weeks about mail-in ballots, escalated his allegations late Thursday, saying at the White House that the ballot-counting process is unfair and corrupt. Trump did not back up his claims with any details or evidence, and state and federal officials have not reported any instances of widespread voter fraud.

By Matthew Daly | Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Key Republican lawmakers, including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, on Friday slammed President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claim that Democrats are trying to ""steal"" the election, even as GOP leaders struck a more neutral tone - and others urged the White House to fight.

Romney, now a senator from Utah, said Trump was within his rights to request recounts and call for investigations where evidence of irregularities exists.

But Trump ""is wrong to say the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen,"" Romney said on Twitter. Trump's claim ""damages the cause of freedom here and around the world ... and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions,"" Romney said.

Romney's comments came as GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania - whose state is a key battleground in the presidential election, where votes are still being tallied - called Trump's claim of fraud ""very disturbing.""

""There's simply no evidence",Romney criticizes Trump's fraud claim as 'reckless',tweets_news_1298,tweets_news
"Social media, the most utilized news source for people 35 and under, and college campuses are two major battlegrounds in the fight against Jew-hatred. Radical hate groups, including the far Left, the alt-right and Muslim extremists, are using these platforms to promote antisemitism to the young and most impressionable. Although these hate groups have very different world views and agendas, they all share a hatred of Jews.

The radical Left and Muslim extremists have formed a dangerous alliance to spread their antisemitism. They cloak Jew-hatred under the guise of social justice by attempting to delegitimize the right of the Jewish State of Israel to exist. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is the main promoter of this tactic with the help of groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

For example, during the latest wave of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests sparked by the unjust killing of George Floyd, BDS proponents attempted to deceivingly co-opt the BLM movement and shift its indignation against Israel, by falsely claiming that Israel trains American law enforcement in racist and repressive policing tactics.

Time after time the false narrative that Israel, which was established only 72 years ago, is an irredeemably corrupt white colonialist project",We must define antisemitism to stop antisemitism,tweets_news_1299,tweets_news
"

Jan 07, 2021( Techdirt: http://www.techdirt.com Delivered by Newstex) It's Thursday, January 7th, one day after a group of thuggish, Trump-supporting hooligans stormed the nation's Capitol building and attempted to take up residence in the vaunted halls of our self-governance. Already there is an effort to paint this attack on democracy as anything other than what it was: an attempt to either disrupt or overthrow a democratic form of government as dictated by the will of the people. Lin Wood, a lawyer who has been independently creating post-election craziness, suggested the rioters were actually Antifa without evidence[1], before heading to Parler to claim that a coup was underway. Sarah Palin suggested likewise on Fox News yesterday, while also taking to Twitter to cast doubt[2] on the support these people had for Trump.

This follows weeks and weeks of Trump supporters, political leaders, and elected members of Congress engaging in different flavors of casting doubt on the 2020 election with reckless abandon. And reckless really is the word here. Lindsey Graham, who cynically took to the floor of Congress last night to give a tearful lecture on the importance of respecting our election process and institutions, was accused[3] of calling Georgia election officials","Wednesday, January 6th: The Day The Game Of Politics Turned Into Insurrection",tweets_news_1300,tweets_news
"

Apr 20, 2021( Law and Crime: https://lawandcrime.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Former USAGM CEO Michael Pack A government whistleblower who was the subject of an internal investigation launched by one of Donald Trump's most controversial political appointees has been cleared of all wrongdoing, according to a Tuesday press release[1] from the Government Accountability Project (GAP). The investigation was initiated by Michael Pack, who was appointed to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). Pack, a conservative filmmaker and ally of former White House chief strategistSteve Bannon, was confirmed by the Senate despite an investigation[2] into whether he had funneled 'at least $1.6 million in donations' from his non-profit directly into the coffers of his production company. USAGM is an independent agency that oversees five international media outlets whose collective mission is to promote the free flow of news, combat censorship, and counter disinformation, particularly in authoritarian countries by providing objective factual reporting, including highly regarded international news organization Voice of America (VOA). During his short tenure at the helm at USAGM, Pack ousted multiple top officials in what came to be known as the 'Wednesday night massacre[3].' Before resigning in January, he also opened an investigation and eventually fired Dr.",Government Whistleblower Investigated and Fired by Trump Administration Has Been Cleared of Wrongdoing and Reinstated,tweets_news_1301,tweets_news
"Business is booming at LoopUp (LOOP:245p), a London-based premium remote conference meetings company.

As millions of firms move to remote working, LoopUp's information secure, reliable and easy-to-use remote conferencing technology is enjoying strong demand from customers in key professional service verticals where data privacy and security is paramount (law, accountancy, investment banking, corporate finance, private equity, asset management, insurance, PR and marketing).

The client base includes more than 20 per cent of both the AmLaw Global 100 firms and the world's top-100 private equity firms. It's growing strongly, too. The professional services segment increased call volume by 90 per cent to 335m minutes in the first half and its revenue contribution shot up by 81 per cent to £16.1m, outpacing the 43 per cent growth in LoopUp's overall revenues to £31.9m. This growth has sent profits and cash flow soaring.

With the benefit of strong operational gearing - administration costs declined by 7 per cent year-on-year to £10.6m - and rising gross margin (up from 67.1 to 71.4 per cent), LoopUp's first half cash profit more than trebled to £12.2m to deliver a 664 per cent rise in operating profit to £9.2m. In turn, LoopUp generated £9.9m of cash from operating activities (more",Business booming at LoopUp,tweets_news_1302,tweets_news
"Progressives in the House were apprehensive when Joe Biden stepped into office — the President was an unabashedly moderate Democrat and ready to cut deals with Republicans, many of whom he had known longer than some progressive members of Congress had been alive. But those same liberals in the House have been struck after more than 100...

Progressives in the House were apprehensive when Joe Biden stepped into office — the President was an unabashedly moderate Democrat and ready to cut deals with Republicans, many of whom he had known longer than some progressive members of Congress had been...

Progressives in the House were apprehensive when Joe Biden stepped into office — the President was an unabashedly moderate Democrat and ready to cut deals with Republicans, many of whom he had known longer than some progressive members of Congress had been alive. But those same liberals in the House have been struck after more than 100 days of the Biden presidency by just how much influence their caucus has had. Multiple progressives in Congress have told CNN they feel that they have more than just an ear with the White House, with multiple meetings, behind the scenes negotiations and a keen President",Progressive House members reflect on wins and losses in Biden’s first 100 days,tweets_news_1303,tweets_news
"Helsinki, June 29 -- Nordic authorities say they detected slightly increased levels of radioactivity in northern Europe this month that Dutch officials said may be from a source in western Russia and may ""indicate damage to a fuel element in nuclear power plant"".

But Russian news agency TASS, citing a spokesperson with the state nuclear power operator, reported that the two nuclear power plants in northwestern Russia haven't reported any problems.

The Leningrad plant near St. Petersburg and the Kola plant near the northern city of Murmansk, ""operates normally, as regards radiation,"" aid Tass.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) oversees a network of hundreds of monitoring stations that use seismic, hydroacoustic and other technology to check for a nuclear weapon test anywhere in the world. That technology can, however, be put to other uses as well.

One of its stations scanning the air for radionuclides - telltale radioactive particles that can be carried long distances by the wind - detected unusually high levels of three radionuclides earlier this week: caesium-134, caesium-137 and ruthenium-103.

The Stockholm monitoring station ""detected 3isotopes; Cs-134, Cs-137 & Ru-103 associated w/Nuclear fission @ higher[ ] than usual levels (but not harmful for human health)"", CTBTO chief Lassina Zerbo said on","High radioactivity seen in Europe, source unknown",tweets_news_1304,tweets_news
"

Mar 05, 2021( Axios: https://link.axios.com/join/am-signup?source=aci Delivered by Newstex) Sign up for our daily briefingMake your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.Stay on top of the latest market trendsSubscribe to Axios Markets for the latest market trends and economic insights. Sign up for free.Sports news worthy of your timeBinge on the stats and stories that drive the sports world with Axios Sports.

Sign up for free.Tech news worthy of your timeGet our smart take on technology from the Valley and D.C. with Axios Login. Sign up for free.Get the inside storiesGet an insider's guide to the new White House with Axios Sneak Peek. Sign up for free.Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everydayCatch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everydayWant a daily digest of the top Denver news?Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios DenverWant a daily digest of the top Des Moines news?Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des MoinesWant a daily digest of the top Twin Cities news?Get a daily digest","""Cat in the Hat"" puts cash in the bank for GOP",tweets_news_1305,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON — FBI Director Chris Wray told lawmakers Thursday that antifa is an ideology, not an organization, delivering testimony that puts him at odds with President Donald Trump, who has said he would designate it a terror group. Hours after the hearing, Trump took to Twitter to chastise his FBI director for his statements on antifa and on Russian election interference, two themes that dominated a congressional hearing on threats to the American homeland. Referring to antifa, the president wrote: ""And I look at them as a bunch of well funded ANARCHISTS &amp; THUGS who are protected because the Comey/Mueller inspired FBI is simply unable, or unwilling, to find their funding source, and allows them to get away with ""murder."" LAW &amp; ORDER!""

The Twitter barbs thrust Wray again into a spotlight that he has spent three years trying to avoid after his predecessor, James Comey, became entangled in politics before being ultimately fired. Though Wray said as recently as Thursday that the FBI made unacceptable mistakes during its investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Trump nonetheless has intermittently lashed out at Wray over the pace of fixing those problems and continues to regard his intelligence community with","FBI director: Antifa is an ideology, not organization",tweets_news_1306,tweets_news
"(CNN) -- It had been weeks since the House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment, and back home senators were getting pushed on what they believed a fair impeachment trial would look like.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins wanted answers from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about the next phase of the impeachment process.

So, on the first day back to Washington after the holiday recess -- Monday, January 6 -- Collins brought a copy of the Senate's 1999 Clinton impeachment resolution to the floor of the chamber, and handed it to McConnell's staff. She wanted more than a promise that McConnell was going to follow the 1999 Clinton impeachment trial model, something he'd said over and over against publicly and behind closed doors. Collins wanted to see it in writing.

What transpired has been weeks of negotiations between the leader's office and aides to Collins, McConnell and Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, according to people involved. The group painstakingly dissected each word of the Clinton resolution, discussing what -- if anything -- would change, as moderates pushed for language that would require a vote on whether senators want to hear from witnesses after the House managers and the President's defense",McConnell tries to set trial rules as pressure building on vulnerable senators,tweets_news_1307,tweets_news
"Human beings are capable of great evil. Evil doesn't have a grotesque face, resplendent in some Leviathan garb rising from the depths of hell. It walks beside us all the time, unremarkable in its banality.

The Hathras case is a reminder of one such evil.

The evil is not only in the incident where four Thakurs allegedly raped and brutally murdered a Dalit girl but also in the aftermath of the heinous crime which saw her body cremated in the dead of the night, seemingly without her family's approval, with petrol and kerosene.

There's also a video of a police officer allegedly telling the victim's family that they should admit their mistake.

Despite claims to the contrary, family members reiterate they weren't present during her hasty cremation.

Ironically, the family voted for the BJP in the last assembly elections, a 'mistake' they said they wouldn't repeat.

The hastened cremation was alarming to say the least, more so, when the cops even refused to answer the reporter there, with one person saying that he was a 'third class officer' who couldn't say more.

Even now, an attempt is underway to claim that the victim wasn't raped.

As a realist, one has always believed that society is built on the","Opinion: Why do some rapes, lynchings and suicides get more coverage than others?",tweets_news_1308,tweets_news
"PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - One person was shot and killed late Saturday in Portland, Oregon, as a large caravan of President Donald Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters clashed in the streets, police said.

PORTLAND, Ore. - One person was shot and killed late Saturday in Portland, Oregon, as a large caravan of President Donald Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters clashed in the streets, police said.

It wasn't clear if the shooting was linked to fights that broke out as a caravan of about 600 vehicles was confronted by protesters in the city's downtown.

An Associated Press freelance photographer heard three gunshots and then observed police medics working on the body of the victim, who appeared to be a white man. The freelancer said the man was wearing a hat bearing the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a right-wing group whose members have frequently clashed with protesters in Portland in the past.

Police did not release any additional details and were at the scene investigating late Saturday.

""Portland Police officers heard sounds of gunfire from the area of Southeast 3rd Avenue and Southwest Alder Street. They responded and located a victim with a gunshot wound to the chest. Medical responded and determined that","1 killed as Trump supporters, protesters clash in Portland",tweets_news_1309,tweets_news
"The United States on Monday pressed Saudi Arabia to take further measures regarding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as Washington faced growing criticism that it did not directly target Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. President Joe Biden on Friday released an intelligence report that found that Prince Mohammed approved the 2018 killing of Khashoggi, […]



The United States on Monday pressed Saudi Arabia to take further measures regarding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as Washington faced growing criticism that it did not directly target Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

President Joe Biden on Friday released an intelligence report that found that Prince Mohammed approved the 2018 killing of Khashoggi, a US-based contributor to The Washington Post who was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he was strangled to death and dismembered.

The report – classified under former president Donald Trump, a close ally of the Saudis – found that seven of the 15 members of the hit squad that flew to Istanbul came from the Rapid Intervention Force, which it said “exists to defend the crown prince” and “answers only to him.”

“We have urged Saudi Arabia to disband this group and then adopt institutional, systemic reforms and controls to",US under pressure to punish Saudi murderer-prince,tweets_news_1310,tweets_news
"The information war we are living through, heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic, has grown to the point where it too is considered a pandemic — an infodemic. But the term infodemic implies the information war is a disease that must be eradicated, without acknowledging that inherent to the war is the contestation of ideas. There’s a similar...

The information war we are living through, heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic, has grown to the point where it too is considered a pandemic — an infodemic. But the term infodemic implies the information war is a disease that must be eradicated, without ac...

The information war we are living through, heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic, has grown to the point where it too is considered a pandemic — an infodemic. But the term infodemic implies the information war is a disease that must be eradicated, without acknowledging that inherent to the war is the contestation of ideas. There’s a similar problem with the term “fake news”. Branding something fake news implies the article as a whole is fake, but that is not how propaganda functions. Propaganda buries disinformation among factual information to make the disinformation more believable. In August 2019 the Global Disinformation Index",Surveillance capitalists overthrow the sovereignty of individuals,tweets_news_1311,tweets_news
"US lawmakers may move next week to impeach President ­Donald Trump for a second time as outrage about the deadly storming of the US Capitol Building by violent pro-Trump ­supporters began to engulf the US leader's administration.



Representative Katherine Clark, a Massachusetts Democrat and assistant House speaker, told CNN that if Vice-President Mike Pence and Trump's Cabinet did not use the US Constitution's 25th Amendment to remove the president from office, lawmakers will move forward with impeachment ""as early as mid next week"".



""Donald Trump needs to be removed from office, and we are going to proceed with every tool that we have to make sure that happens to protect our demo­cracy,"" Clark said.



After inciting his followers until they laid siege to the US legislative building - an attack that led to five deaths, including a police officer battling the protesters - Trump offered his most explicit acknowledgement of defeat in November's election late on Thursday.



In the video posted on his Twitter account, Trump pledged to work with president-elect Joe Biden's transition team and called for national unity. ""We have just been through an intense election and emotions are high,"" Trump said in a pre-recorded video message. ""But now, tempers must be",Aftermath of the chaos,tweets_news_1312,tweets_news
"Oleksii Liskonih/iStockBy CHRISTINA CARREGA, ABC NEWS

Following several weeks of protest that resulted in clashes with law enforcement officials in Oregon, the state's attorney general has launched a criminal investigation into two ""unlawful"" tactics allegedly made by federal agents.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum also announced she filed a federal civil lawsuit on Friday evening against the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to begin the process for a restraining order to stop the agents ""from unlawfully detaining Oregonians.""

The lawsuit asks for a declaration that the federal agents' alleged actions violate the First Amendment as well as the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and ""an injunction permanently restraining defendants from engaging in tactics"" such as the two incidents Rosenblum says were ""unlawful.""

Requests for comment from the named defendants in the civil case were not returned on Saturday.

U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy J. Williams also ordered an investigation into federal law enforcement's actions in Portland on Friday.

On the heels of the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, protests sparked nationwide calling for an end to police brutality against people of color and for reforms to law enforcement. Many of the peaceful protests escalated",Oregon attorney general announces lawsuit against federal agents for their tactics on protesters,tweets_news_1313,tweets_news
"From the beginning, the president has turned mask wearing and other preventive measures into a loyalty test. He and his aides have taken the same approach inside the White House.

WASHINGTON -- ''Covid, Covid. Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid,'' President Trump groused at a rally in North Carolina on Saturday, expressing dismay that the deadly coronavirus pandemic had come to dominate the final days of his struggling re-election campaign. He made up a scenario: ''A plane goes down, 500 people dead, they don't talk about it. 'Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid.'''

But just seven hours later, the White House made its own Covid headlines when officials acknowledged that another coronavirus outbreak had struck the White House, infecting Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff and four other top aides -- and raising new questions about the Trump administration's cavalier approach to the worst health crisis in a century.

''We're not going to control the pandemic,'' Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, said on CNN's ''State of the Union'' on Sunday morning, essentially offering a verbal shrug in response to any effort to prevent an outbreak in the top echelon of the nation's leaders. ''We are going to control the fact that we get",Trump Approach To Virus Faulted In New Outbreak,tweets_news_1314,tweets_news
"A former Fort Wayne police officer will spend two years in prison after pleading guilty to child solicitation and possession of child pornography.

Andrew Beck, 48, was arrested after he was found to be exchanging sexually explicit photos and conversations with a 16-year-old Wayne High School student in April 2019. Police found several photos of Beck on his Snapchat account, and he was naked in one of them, according to court documents. The victim told police the two had talked about meeting outside of school but never did.

Beck was charged with felony child solicitation, dissemination of matter harmful to minors and possession of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to two of the charges in April, but the dissemination charge was dismissed as part of a plea agreement during a sentencing hearing Friday.

The defense asked for a suspended sentence of home detention, and Allen County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tesa Helge asked for a sentence of five years with three of those years being spent in prison on the child solicitation charge.

The sentencing hearing began with defense attorney Robert Gevers submitting a letter of support to Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull, who took a couple of minutes to read the letter. It",Ex-officer receives 2 years for soliciting,tweets_news_1315,tweets_news
"Controversial video app TikTok is poised to reach more than 8.5million users in the UK this year despite growing fears about the Chinese-owned platform.

The rise in users means the app - which is hugely popular among younger people and embraced by celebrities including Amanda Holden - has reached more than one fifth of social network users in this country.

Details of TikTok's astonishing growth, just two years after its UK launch, suggests young social media fans are ignoring the political storm surrounding the app.

Chinese parent ByteDance is racing to avoid a ban in the US. President Donald Trump has set the company a deadline of next Sunday to either find a buyer for its US operation or split it off into a separate firm.

Failure to comply would mean TikTok will be banned from the US due to security concerns.

Critics of the app - including the Trump administration - argue that the Chinese state could get its hands on user data because internet companies based there are legally obliged to hand over such information if their government demands it.

TikTok denies it is a security risk and says it would refuse to give user data to the Communist Party if asked. The company",TikTok on track for 8.5m users: App booms in the UK while Donald Trump ban looms in US,tweets_news_1316,tweets_news
"If ever silence was golden, the lack of incendiary tweets from @realdonaldtrump is it.

But looking at the frightening and direct relationship between social media and the riots at the Capitol puts Twitter's 11th-hour action into perspective. No one should think deplatforming President Donald Trump can solve the problems created and spread by the way this country engages with itself on social media.

If we step back and think through the last four years, it's clear that Trump is not a cause but a terrible symptom of a disease we created in this country during the early days of the internet. This is a disease that we need to cure through the law — not through the arbitrary, capricious and self-serving decisions of major technology companies.

The next Congress must immediately take up social media reform by revising what is known as Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. This clause gives social media companies (and really all internet companies) near-total immunity from liability for what people post on their sites.

The Capitol riot was openly planned, coordinated and executed on social media. It was livestreamed on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and lesser social media sites such as Parler and Gab that specialize","Editorial: To cure society, reform social media",tweets_news_1317,tweets_news
"The second decade of the 21st century began in the second year of the presidency of Barack Obama and ended in the third year of the presidency of Donald Trump. It left the United States more divided and discontented - and diminished, too.

Between 2010 and 2020, Americans suffered severe emotional and political whiplash. How else to explain how hope in the country's leadership turned so quickly to despair? How else to understand how the success of democracy in America at the beginning of the 2010s has turned to fears about its durability today?

How, most pointedly, did Americans go from a president who is a silver-tongued Nobel laureate to a swaggering demagogue said to have acted ""in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law""? This has compelled the House of Representatives to impeach him, a power that it has now exercised just three times in the 243 years of the Republic.

How did Americans go from a president who is a silver-tongued Nobel laureate to a swaggering demagogue?

Obama came to office on Jan. 20, 2009. He was the nation's first black president. His unlikely ascent and resounding mandate were hailed as a new era in a country of","Cohen: A tale of two presidents - In a single decade, America shifted from the optimism of Obama to the harshness of Trump",tweets_news_1318,tweets_news
"1) An aerial view from a drone shows voters waiting in line to enter a polling place in Milwaukee on Tuesday. PHOTO: Scott Olson / Getty Images 2) Robert Forrestal wears a chemical shield for protection against the coronavirus as he votes in Janesville, Wis. PHOTO: Angela Major/Associated Press

MILWAUKEE - Even before voting began, there were lines outside polling locations that stretched for several blocks. Some poll workers wore hazmat suits. Nearly every voter wore a face mask, removing it only to make small talk that reflected a combination of determination and grim humor about the extraordinary experience of voting amid a deadly pandemic. For thousands of people across Wisconsin on Tuesday, fears of the coronavirus outbreak did not stop them from participating in the state's elections, where critical races such as the Democratic presidential primary and a key state Supreme Court seat were being decided.

""It feels bad to have to choose between your personal safety and your right to vote,"" said Dan Bullock, 40, as he waited to vote at Washington High School on Milwaukee's North Side. ""But you have to be heard."" Many others across the state, however, appeared inclined to stay home. Late Monday, Republicans in the","CORONAVIRUS; Voting in Wisconsin during pandemic: lines, masks, fear; State's decision to push on with election during outbreak foreshadows coming legal fights over voters' access to ballots",tweets_news_1319,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

The U.S. military Thursday struck facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in eastern Syria, a decision the Pentagon said President Joe Biden authorized in response to recent attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq.

""Specifically, the strikes destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups,"" including Kataeb Hezbollah and Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

Here is a look at the history and some facts about the two Iranian-backed militant groups:

Kataeb Hezbollah

Kataeb Hezbollah, or ""Brigades of the Party of God,"" is an Iraqi Shiite militia seen as the central nervous system of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force (IRGC-QF) in Iraq.

Although the group was officially founded in April 2007, its leaders have been actively engaged in anti-Western, pro-Iran activities since the 1980s and expanded their influence beginning in 2003 following the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

The U.S. State Department describes Kataeb Hezbollah as ""a radical Shia Islamist group with an anti-Western establishment and jihadist ideology."" The U.S. State Department designated the group as a terrorist organization in July 2009.

On its official website, the group says it is an Islamic jihadist organization striving to, among other objectives, ""foil the",Iran/United States/Syria: Who Are Iran-backed Militants Struck by US in Syria?,tweets_news_1320,tweets_news
"A graphic calling the East Coast fuel supply crunch “Biden’s Gas Crisis.” A tweet speculating that gas stations running dry was an “INSIDE JOB.” A meme depicting the president and vice president cheering about the “Green New Deal” in front of a snaking line at a fuel station. These and thousands of other social media posts along...

A graphic calling the East Coast fuel supply crunch “Biden’s Gas Crisis.” A tweet speculating that gas stations running dry was an “INSIDE JOB.” A meme depicting the president and vice president cheering about the “Green New Deal” in front of a snaking lin...

A graphic calling the East Coast fuel supply crunch “Biden’s Gas Crisis.” A tweet speculating that gas stations running dry was an “INSIDE JOB.” A meme depicting the president and vice president cheering about the “Green New Deal” in front of a snaking line at a fuel station. These and thousands of other social media posts along with conservative websites and commentators this week misleadingly painted President Joe Biden and his administration as catalysts of chaos — who not only mishandled the temporary shutdown of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline on Friday — but engineered it. In reality, a ransom-seeking cyberattack,","Conservatives seize on gas crunch to blame Biden, stir base",tweets_news_1321,tweets_news
"Jan. 27—A federal magistrate judge refused Wednesday to release one of three Sacramento-area residents accused of taking part in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot in Washington, D.C., saying he is ""a man of impulse and poor judgment.""

Jorge Aaron Riley, a Republican activist who has been held in the Sacramento County Main Jail since last week, was ordered to remain in custody and be transferred to Washington, D.C., where he has been charged.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn K. Delaney rejected arguments from Riley's federal defender that the 42-year-old was is not accused of violence at the Capitol, noting that he made one post after the siege that read ""you will all die.""

""The picture that's being drawn for me is a man who was willing to leave the area, travel an extensive distance to be caught up in this situation,"" Delaney said. ""I don't agree with your characterization that he was simply at a peaceful protect making his views known.""

Riley faces a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding, a misdemeanor count of knowingly entering a restricted building and a petty offense alleging disorderly conduct in the Capitol.

""Based upon what I am seeing, I do not find that Mr. Riley is a","GOP activist, one of three from Sacramento area charged in Capitol riot, to stay in jail",tweets_news_1322,tweets_news
"It is time for democratic governments to protect their citizens and restore a free internet.

In 1644 John Milton published Areopagitica, his famous plea for the liberty of printing without the restraints imposed by government licensing. ""Give me the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties,"" wrote Milton. Fittingly, he published the speech without a license.

Today, the threat that Milton faced has changed. Gatekeeping is no longer performed by states, but by Big Tech companies. Like the printing press, the internet initially brought a rapid decentralization and ground-level networking of human communication. But after the initial freedom of the World Wide Web, ""web 2.0"" made us all reliant on centralized operators—Big Tech companies that amass our data for profit.

In Poland, we have watched with alarm as a consortium of ever more powerful, monopolistic Big Tech companies have done what was once unthinkable: de-platforming a sitting U.S. president. For us, this example—which has alarmed presidents and prime ministers across Europe and, indeed, the world—is merely the straw that broke the camel's back. The debate about who and what social media companies should be able to ban is now firmly in the public eye.

For the",,tweets_news_1323,tweets_news
"Just after U.S. President Donald Trump extolled his record on gun rights this past week, his state of the union address took a wild, westward turn into an idea that's long been relegated to the history books.

""In reaffirming our heritage as a free nation, we must remember that America has always been a frontier nation,"" he told members of Congress, about three-quarters of the way through his speech. ""Now we must embrace the next frontier: America's manifest destiny in the stars.""

Minutes later, some people on social media were alarmed. The phrase is anything but politically correct, on the left at least. And Trump and his base enjoy pushing the left's buttons.

""Did @realDonaldTrump just cite manifest destiny to argue we should colonize the moon?"" Abdul El-Sayed, former Democratic candidate for governor of Michigan, asked on Twitter.

As a historical concept, ""manifest destiny"" would be familiar to any student of U.S. history: to make the case for westward expansion, many Americans in the mid-19th century argued that the country had a God-given responsibility to push its territorial footprint farther, lest the American experiment die out.

Back then, it was a kind of veneer to make the whole thing seem more noble: a justification for",Is it destiny or is he just seeing stars?,tweets_news_1324,tweets_news
"The United States and France on Friday warned Iran that time is running out to return to a nuclear deal, voicing fear that Tehran's sensitive atomic activities could advance if talks drag on.

On the first high-level visit to Paris by President Joe Biden's administration, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his French hosts saluted a new spirit of cooperation after four years of turbulence under Donald Trump.

But the two sides said that one key Biden promise -- to return to the 2015 Iran accord that was trashed by Trump -- is at risk if the clerical regime does not make concessions during talks that have been going on for more than two months in Vienna.

Blinken warned that the United States still has ""serious differences"" with Iran, which has kept negotiating since last week's presidential election won by hardliner Ebrahim Raisi.

""There will come a point, yes, where it will be very hard to return back to the standards set by the JCPOA,"" Blinken told reporters, using the acronym for the accord's formal name.

""We haven't reached that point -- I can't put a date on it -- but it's something that we're conscious of.""

Blinken warned that if Iran ""continues to spin ever","US, France warn Iran that time running out to revive deal",tweets_news_1325,tweets_news
"PHOENIX (AP) — If Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly wins a seat in the U.S. Senate, he could take office as early as Nov. 30, shrinking the GOP's Senate majority at a crucial moment and complicating the path to confirmation for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

Kelly has maintained a consistent polling lead over Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat held by John McCain, who died in 2018.

Because the contest is a special election to finish McCain's term, the winner could be sworn in as soon as the results are officially certified. Other winners in the November election won't take office until January.

Trump has pledged to nominate a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon who died Friday, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed that Trump’s nominee “will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”

If Kelly wins, the timing when he formally takes office could be crucial in determining who replaces Ginsburg. It could eliminate a Republican vote in favor of Trump's nominee — the GOP currently has 53 seats in the 100-member chamber — or require McConnell to speed up the nomination process.

With McSally in the Senate, four GOP",Arizona Senate race could play crucial role in confirmation,tweets_news_1326,tweets_news
"Bari Weiss’ resignation letter as an opinion editor and writer at the New York Times was a brilliant biopsy of all that’s wrong with the modern newsroom, especially her own, and society more generally — a “cancel culture” that punishes “wrong thinking” and threatens freedom in the most dangerous ways.

If Weiss’ name is unfamiliar to those who avoid the Times, she would understand for the same reasons she decided to leave the newspaper. The cancel culture has resulted, she says, in the intimidation, bullying and sometimes firing of anyone who dares think or speak outside the narrow confines of the new politically correct orthodoxy.

Weiss’ resignation closely follows the June resignation of her boss and editorial page editor James Bennet, who was pushed out after he published an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in which Cotton advocated using military force to quell violent protests. This was at the height of reaction to the killing of George Floyd and the more-generalized embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Times’ explanation for publishing Cotton, fed in part by complaints by its own staffers, required two days of rumination and two people’s jobs. At first, the Times defended the decision to publish Cotton.","The truth may set you free, if you don’t get fired first",tweets_news_1327,tweets_news
"Sky News has cemented its future in regional Australia's media landscape with the announcement of a new multi-year broadcasting deal. Key points: The future of Sky News in regional Australia has been confirmed A deal to broadcast a dedicated 24-hour Sky News Regional channel has been struck with Southern Cross Austereo Former PM Kevin Rudd says Sky...

Sky News has cemented its future in regional Australia's media landscape with the announcement of a new multi-year broadcasting deal. Key points: The future of Sky News in regional Australia has been confirmed A deal to broadcast a dedicated 24-hour Sky Ne...

Sky News has cemented its future in regional Australia's media landscape with the announcement of a new multi-year broadcasting deal. Key points: The future of Sky News in regional Australia has been confirmed A deal to broadcast a dedicated 24-hour Sky News Regional channel has been struck with Southern Cross Austereo Former PM Kevin Rudd says Sky News is attempting to replicate the approach of Fox News A dedicated 24-hour Sky News Regional channel will become available on free-to-air television to an estimated 7 million rural and regional Australians in August across the Southern Cross Austereo network. It will carry the metropolitan-based channel's","Sky strengthens regional reach, former PM issues 'polarisation' warning",tweets_news_1328,tweets_news
"Oct. 31—Much has been made about the Iron Range becoming more Republican in recent years.

House districts 6A and 6B and Senate District 6 — which voted for Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012 then Republican Donald Trump in 2016 — remain in control of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor-Party.

A trio of Republican candidates are seeking to change that, but on some of the top issues facing the Iron Range, such as copper-nickel mining and Enbridge's proposed Line 3 oil pipeline, the parties are largely the same page.

Teachers vie for House District 6A

Incumbent state Rep. Julie Sandstede, DFL-Hibbing, faces GOP challenger Rob Farnsworth, of Hibbing, for the Minnesota House District 6A seat, which largely covers the western Iron Range.

The opponents are both teachers — Sandstede, 51, is a music teacher in Virginia and Farnsworth, 42, is a special education teacher in Hibbing and a real estate agent — and both are active union members who have served in leadership roles within unions.

It will be the second time they appear on the ballot against each other.

After former DFL Rep. Carly Melin announced she would not seek reelection in 2016, Sandstede defeated Farnsworth by an 18-point margin.

Though the two share views on some of the major",GOP candidates seek to unseat Iron Range DFLers in District 6 races,tweets_news_1329,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Don’t renew Huckelberry’s contract

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry is asking for a raise despite sending most Pima County staff home without pay. County employees are furloughed or working at reduced capacity at no fault of their own for three weeks, perhaps more, at Huckelberry’s discretion and against the Board of Supervisors’ wishes.

Huckelberry wants to raise his $302,000 salary to $315,000 and he has a car allowance. I urge the board to say no to renewing his contract. It is a gross decision and hugely unfair to the staff who are struggling over the holidays while this man has the gall to ask for a raise for four years.

Graham Felter

Midtown

Bravo to Bronson on op-ed article

Re: the Jan. 2 article “Pandemic toll straining Pima County finances.”

Great opinion piece by Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson.

The point, of course, is resources in the form of federal financing for demands placed on county health departments as they wage a fight against COVID-19. Who better than the senior member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors to call attention to the growing number of people contracting the disease.

Supervisor Bronson goes beyond just crying out for money, informing and building the case for additional funds adding",Letters to the Editor,tweets_news_1330,tweets_news
"While coronavirus has tragically affected many people in China, the United States has seen a problematic trend of jokes and internet memes making light of the outbreak and exacerbating a wave of racism and xenophobia targeting Chinese and East Asian people. China is experiencing a public health crisis, but for many people in the United States, the virus is nothing more than a punch line.

At Georgetown University, racism against East Asian people already occurred before the outbreak began. The university is not immune to the current worldwide increase in offensive anti-Asian rhetoric. Though it may be tempting to participate in jokes about the virus, students must realize that their use of words and images matters in a concrete way, and they should be mindful of the humor they choose to engage with.

Offensive rhetoric targeting East Asians in offhand comments, posts or even likes on social media can have real consequences. Online hate speech furthers racist and xenophobic narratives, and prejudice experienced online can lead to increased anxiety and symptoms of depression for marginalized people, according to a study from researchers at Sheffield Hallam University.

Racist rhetoric targeting East Asian people already exists at Georgetown. Jenny Xu (COL '21) has experienced such",EDITORIAL: Avoid Coronavirus Memes,tweets_news_1331,tweets_news
"

Jan 20, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; Boom! There it is. Plans to go 'hell for leather.' Now the EU won't be able to blackmail Great Britain. Thanks to President Trump, a man of his word.

Boris Backs Plans to Pursue Rapid Trade Deal with U.S., Use as Leverage over EU: ReportPrime Minister Boris Johnson is planning to use his pursuit of a U.S. trade deal as leverage when negotiating with the EU post-Brexit. Mr Johnson has approved ministers' plans to go 'hell for leather' for a rapid U.S. free trade agreement, according to sources speaking to The Times. There are reportedly 70 civil servants in Whitehall prepared to work on an American trade deal, while there are smaller teams of 20 to 40 working on trade deals with Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Progress on the U.S trade deal would be used to put pressure on the EU to agree a deal, with a senior government official telling the newspaper: 'If we can do a deal on beef with the US, that is beef we don't need to buy from Ireland, which means we have some leverage with the EU.' Reports emerged on Friday that civil",British PM Boris Approves Plans to Pursue Rapid Trade Deal with U.S.,tweets_news_1332,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was nearly 1,300 miles away in Salt Lake City, where water flowed freely and electricity pumped warm air indoors.

BODY

Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who left Austin for Utah during weather crisis.

Last Wednesday, Austin residents entered their third day of frigid temperatures, powerless homes, and frozen pipes. Shelves in grocery stores were bare, schools had transformed into warming centers, and local hospitals struggled after losing water pressure and heat. Winter storms were battering the state.

But one city homeowner had escaped the misery: Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was nearly 1,300 miles away in Salt Lake City, where water flowed freely and electricity pumped warm air indoors.

Paxton traveled to Utah's capital with his wife, Republican state Senator Angela Paxton, and met with Utah Republican Attorney General Sean Reyes ""various times"" between Wednesday and Friday, a spokesman for Reyes told The Washington Post.

Paxton's trip out of state during the historic crisis has attracted ire from state Democratic leaders, who last week scorned Republican Senator Ted Cruz for his own effort to escape the storms by heading to Cancún with his family.

""They don't believe in governance, and couldn't care less about the people they're",Texas attorney general left state amid weather crisis,tweets_news_1333,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that while his company supports free and open elections, employees will not pressure the firm to interfere in the voting laws of individual states.

“That’s fine. We have the same principles about free and fair and open elections as most other people,"" Dimon said when asked about employees who might want JPMorgan to speak out about political issues such as the recent Georgia voting law. ""Getting into the detail on 50 states, we’re not going to do.""

Dimon, whose financial services firm operates worldwide and has assets of $2.5 trillion, spoke about the role of companies and corporate executives in the political and civic realm during a live interview with the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

The conversation follows a wave of increased corporate activism this year that has focused on the efforts of Republican state legislators to craft bills they say intend to reform voting laws after the chaotic fallout of the 2020 presidential election.

INVESTORS FRET AS CORPORATE ACTIVISM OVERTAKES SHAREHOLDER PRIORITIZATION

Corporate pushback against those efforts culminated in a statement organized by the Black Economic Alliance and signed by more than 500 corporations and individuals that condemns any election legislation that would “restrict” voters from",Jamie Dimon says JPMorgan won't get involved in state voting laws,tweets_news_1334,tweets_news
"New York: The United Nation has issued the following press release:

Based on its estimates that more than 700,000 people, or one-in-100, died by suicide in 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) produced new LIVE LIFE guidelines to help countries reduce that rate by a third, no later than 2030.

“We cannot – and must not – ignore suicide”, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.COVID pressure

From job loss to financial stress and social isolation, the many risk factors triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic make suicide prevention “even more important now”, said the top WHO official.

The WHO guidance “provides a clear path for stepping up suicide prevention efforts”, he added.Suicide breakdown

Among young people aged 15-29, suicide was the fourth leading cause of death after road injury, tuberculosis and interpersonal violence, according to the study: Suicide worldwide in 2019.

While rates varied between countries, regions and gender, the analysis shows that more than twice as many men kill themselves, than women.

Those rates are generally greater in high-income countries, while the highest suicide rates for women were found in lower middle-income countries.

Per 100,000 people, the 2019 global average of suicide rates stood at 9.0, while that number jumped to 11.2 in the WHO Africa region; 10.5","One in every 100 dies by their own hand, each suicide ‘a tragedy’ – WHO",tweets_news_1335,tweets_news
"The former Liberal MP is stripped of a controversial Facebook page, with the social media giant accusing him of breaching its misinformation policies.



Former Liberal MP Craig Kelly has been stripped of a controversial Facebook page, with the social media giant accusing him of breaching its misinformation policies.

Mr Kelly quit the Liberal Party to sit on the crossbench earlier this year after facing backlash from the Prime Minister and health experts for the content he was posting on his Facebook page about COVID-19 vaccines.

While he has lost access to his most high-profile page, Mr Kelly has told the ABC he still retained access to a second Facebook page.

He took aim at the company, accusing it of having ""burnt and torched and incinerated and obliterated"" his page, a move he compared to ""burning books"" to censor him.

But a Facebook spokesperson said Mr Kelly had repeatedly violated the site's policies.

""We don't allow anyone, including elected officials, to share misinformation about COVID-19 that could lead to imminent physical harm or COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts,"" the spokesperson said.

""We have clear policies against this type of content and have removed Mr Kelly's Facebook Page for repeated violations of this policy.""

Mr","Craig Kelly's Facebook page removed, says former Liberal MP breached misinformation policies",tweets_news_1336,tweets_news
"

Jan 03, 2021( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Many minority-owned businesses were left waiting for funds until the final weeks of the Paycheck Protection Program, according to an analysis from The Associated Press[1]. ""Many of our businesses were being turned down in the first and second round of funding. That caused application fatigue and frustration,"" Ron Busby, president of the US Black Chambers, told AP. The new $900 billion coronavirus relief bill includes $284 billion in PPP funds, along with provisions to help minority-owned businesses get loans, saidthe Center for Responsible Lending[2], an advocacy group.

""And a provision for streamlined forgiveness for small loans will prevent a major debt burden from further threatening many of the mom-and-pop firms that are often owned by Black and Latino families,"" said CRL. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[3].Many minority-owned businesses were left waiting for funds until the final weeks of the Paycheck Protection Program, according to an analysis from The Associated Press[4].The program handed out $525 billion in funding from April 3 to August 8. But businesses in mostly white ZIP codes got the lion's share of relief until the final month, when the ""pattern reversed itself,"" according to data the",Struggling minority-owned businesses were kept waiting until the last minute for PPP loans,tweets_news_1337,tweets_news
"Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

Reverend spooner

Just as the bowl of a telepathically bent spoon arcs back ceaselessly towards its own handle, Feedback finds itself magnetically drawn to international man of cutlery Uri Geller. He has graced our pages on numerous occasions since he first rose to prominence, most recently (20 April 2019) when he claimed to be able to influence the UK's Brexit negotiations conducted by Theresa May's government.

Those particular interventions proved about as useful as a gelatin spork, but that hasn't stopped him seeking out the limelight once again. After Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings posted a job advert looking for ""assorted weirdos"" earlier this year, Geller has put himself forward as the ideal candidate. In an interview with Reuters, he said that he is probably the only prospective applicant with genuine telekinetic powers. Good guess, Uri – but your numbers are off by one.

Seacret agents

Iran's alleged move towards nuclear weapon capabilities is much debated. But amid the geopolitical brinkmanship of the past few weeks, Feedback is grateful to Military.com for identifying the country's real super-weapon.

Per the publication, at around the turn of the millennium, Iran acquired a number",Feedback,tweets_news_1338,tweets_news
"Cliff Gephart remembers the man with the bullhorn and his message: Move forward!

A self-described ""hardcore"" supporter of President Donald Trump and owner of the Trump-themed Conservative Grounds coffee shop in Largo, Gephart said he felt compelled to travel to Washington, D.C., to protest Wednesday, the day Congress was set to certify the 2020 presidential election results.

""I thought it would be an interesting moment in history,"" said Gephart, 50, of St. Petersburg.

Bundled against the cold with a Trump beanie on his head, Gephart listened to the president and others speak outside the White House grounds, then joined a throng making its way to the U.S. Capitol.

""By the time I got there, there were several people on the scaffolding that were encouraging people to keep moving forward,"" he said. One of them was the man with the bullhorn.

Gephart was able to position himself about a dozen people back from the last metal barrier on the west side of the Capitol. In a 56-second video Gephart posted to Facebook, the building's majestic façade looms in the background as the crowd chants ""USA! USA, USA!"" and waves slogan-bearing flags: Keep America Great. Gun Owners For Trump. Liberty or Death.

Members of the Capitol police in",Pro-Trump Largo coffee shop owner recounts moment barriers gave way at U.S. Capitol,tweets_news_1339,tweets_news
"U.K., April 28 -- Declaration signed in digital and tech ministerial meeting ahead of June G7 Leaders Summit

Principles to improve online safety include commitments on human rights and protecting young people

Roadmap to digitise outdated paper-based system for global trade among other agreements

Leaders from the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and EU signed a declaration containing a series of shared principles on how to tackle the global challenge of online safety, including that online firms should have systems and processes in place to reduce illegal and harmful activity and prioritise the protection of children.

The principles, which have been shaped by the UK's world-leading approach, say that any steps to improve online safety must support the values of open and democratic societies and respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The joint ministerial declaration was signed at a virtual meeting hosted by UK Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden to fire the starting gun on this year's G7 Summit. The agreements are part of the first of seven ministerial declarations due to be signed this year.

Other measures include plans to turbocharge exports by digitising the cumbersome and centuries-old paper-based system for key international trade transactions and improving the free flow of data.

In a",G7 tech leaders agree bold new proposals to boost online safety worldwide,tweets_news_1340,tweets_news
"article

There's been much debate over President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, and ""Duck Dynasty"" patriarch Phil Robertson said he expects a ""political assassination"" to come.

The president announced his pick for the Supreme Court on Saturday afternoon following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Amy Coney Barrett

Robertson, 74, who has never been shy about his support for Trump and is known for voicing his Christian faith and conservative beliefs, said he believes Americans will come at Trump and his Supreme Court nominee with hatred.

""The attacks about to be unleashed on this nominee will be senseless, faithless, heartless and ruthless,"" Robertson wrote in a lengthy Instagram caption on Friday.

The former A&E star said he feels the backlash toward Trump's Supreme Court pick will be worse than the divide during Brett Kavanaugh's 2018 hearings.

""They're already gearing up for an assault on the nominee's faith, character, values and family,"" Robertson continued. ""They're gearing up for an attack on God.""

Advertisement

Robertson asked his followers to pray for the nominee and noted that no Supreme Court Justice is perfect.

""As I've said many times, there's a vast difference between the Supreme Court and the Supreme Being,"" Robertson added. ""But we need men and women on the court who",'Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson envisions a 'political assassination' on Trump's Supreme Court nominee,tweets_news_1341,tweets_news
"Stock Market Update

Updated: 30-Jun-20

08:51 ET

Market is Closed

[BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: -2.40. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: flat.

The S&P 500 futures trade two points, or 0.1%, below fair value.

Equity indices in the Asia-Pacific region ended Tuesday on a mostly higher note. China passed the new national security law for Hong Kong, as expected. Yonhap reported that Japan may limit its exports to South Korea. China's Manufacturing PMI showed the fourth consecutive month of expansion while Non-Manufacturing PMI expanded for the fifth month in a row.

In economic data: China's June Manufacturing PMI 50.9 (expected 50.4; last 50.6) and Non-Manufacturing PMI 54.4 (last 53.6) Japan's May Industrial Production -8.4% m/m (expected -5.6%; last -9.8%) and May Unemployment Rate 2.9% (expected 2.8%; last 2.6%). May Housing Starts -12.3% yr/yr (expected -15.9%; last -12.9%) and May Construction Orders -6.1% yr/yr (last -14.2%) South Korea's May Industrial Production -6.7% m/m (expected -1.4%; last -6.7%); -9.6% yr/yr (expected -4.5%; last -5.1%). May Retail Sales 4.6% m/m (last 5.3%) and July Manufacturing BSI Index 51 (last 45) Hong Kong's May Retail Sales -32.8% yr/yr (last -36.1%) Australia's May Private Sector Credit -0.1% m/m (expected 0.2%; last 0.0%) and May Housing Credit 0.2% m/m (last 0.2%) New",Briefing.com: Stock Market Update - 08:51 ET,tweets_news_1342,tweets_news
"

Feb 20, 2020( Medical Xpress: http://medicalxpress.com Delivered by Newstex) Intestinal stem cells. Credit: Sam Ogden Deep within the lining of the human intestine lies the source of the organ's ability to renew itself and recover from damage: intestinal stem cells (ISCs), lodged in pockets of tissue called crypts, generate the cells that continuously repopulate the intestinal lining. Even the stem cells themselves have a safety net: when they're damaged, healthy replacements appear in less than a week.

For years, scientists have debated how the ISCs' re-emergence occurs. Some have held that the intestine keeps a pool of ISCs on reserve—a kind of backup-backup supply—to replenish the cache of front-line ISCs that have been lost. Others have maintained that something more involuted is as work: The ISCs, like queen bees, give rise to more specialized, or ""differentiated,"" progeny—in this case, daughter cells[1] that form the inner lining of the intestine. When the ISCs are damaged, this school of thought held, the daughter cells reverse course and ""de-differentiate""—reverting into the ISCs from which they arose. A new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists comes down solidly on the latter option. Published online today by the journal Cell Stem Cell, the researchers found that",Scientists solve long-debated puzzle of how the intestine heals itself,tweets_news_1343,tweets_news
"The regulatory body behind physicians in B.C. is reminding doctors there could be consequences for spreading misinformation during the pandemic.

The message was released in a joint statement from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC and the First Nations Health Authority. Indigenous peoples in B.C. test positive at twice the rate of the general population, and have faced large inequities in the health care system.

""Misleading information adds another barrier at a time when the COVID-19 vaccine needs to be delivered to Indigenous people as quickly as possible,"" said Dr. Nel Wieman, acting deputy chief medical officer at the FNHA.

The college said it has become aware that ""some B.C. physicians are spreading information that contradicts public health orders and guidance,"" noting that health care professionals have a higher than usual responsibility when disseminating pandemic-related information because of the trust placed in them by the public.

""Public statements from physicians that contradict public health orders and guidance are confusing and potentially harmful to patients,"" said Dr. Heidi Oetter, registrar and CEO of the college. ""Those who put the public at risk with misinformation may face an investigation by the College, and if warranted, regulatory action.""

While the college did not specify if their",B.C. doctors could face consequences for spreading COVID misinformation: college,tweets_news_1344,tweets_news
"""Mallard Fillmore,"" meet ""Doonesbury.""

It didn't take long for the decision by Gannett Co. to drop the conservative comic strip ""Mallard Fillmore"" from its newspapers to be decried by conservative websites as just one more example of ""cancel culture.""

""Conservative 'Mallard Fillmore' cartoon canceled by leftists,"" said the Independent Sentinel. The Red Alert declared, ""Cancel culture has claimed another conservative scalp.""

And then there was the tweet by Bruce Tinsley, the cartoonist behind Mallard Fillmore: ""Guess who 'Cancel Culture' got this time?""

Not so fast. This notion that there's suddenly a liberal wave of intolerance out there badly misreads history. This nation has seen decades of backlash against controversial content and provocative views, fueled by both the left and the right. In fact, comic strips have long been prime targets.

History of comics

Every era has examples. Back in the early '50s, Beetle Bailey was excised from an edition of Stars and Stripes for not being adequately respectful of Army officers.Just last August, some newspapers canceled the ""Six Chix"" cartoon because it depicted a white woman who was clueless about both COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter.

The single most targeted comic strip of all time, though, has to be Garry Trudeau's ""Doonesbury."" Throughout its 50-year history, the",So-called 'cancel culture' is a timeless American tradition,tweets_news_1345,tweets_news
"

May 12, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) It is easy to see where all this is tending, although no one seems to have the wit or the will to do anything about it. The social media giants, anxious to make sure that President Trump is not reelected, are moving quickly now to defame and discredit, or silence altogether, all those who dissent from their far-Left agenda. Google recently deep-sixed Jihad Watch from the first page of search results for 'Robert Spencer,' which is now filled entirely with the libels of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Bridge Initiative, and the like, with nothing favorable at all.

Nor am I the only one this has happened to: I noticed it when I saw Daniel Greenfield writing about the same thing having happened to him, and tried it on my own name. The far-Left's favored religion, Islam, will be protected on Facebook, even in its jihadist forms, while Tawakkol Karman and her colleagues will make sure that the social media behemoth, through which most people get their news, is entirely divested of all content critical of the religion of peace. We have been blocked from posting on our Jihad Watch",Facebook names Muslim Brotherhood operative to oversight and censorship board,tweets_news_1346,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that Twitter and Facebook made the wrong decision in blocking President Trump from their platforms.

Lopez Obrador said the move provided a hindrance to freedom of speech in a press briefing on Friday.

""How can you censor someone? Let’s see, I, as the judge of the Holy Inquisition, will punish you because I think what you’re saying is harmful?"" he remarked. ""Where is the law, where is the regulation, what are the norms? This is an issue of government. This is not an issue for private companies.""

In a statement later in the day, spokesman Jesus Ramirez wrote: ""Facebook’s decision to silence the current leader of the United States calls for a debate on freedom of expression, the free exchange of information on the web, democracy and the role of the companies that administer [social] networks.""

On Friday, Twitter made the decision to suspend Trump permanently from its platform, writing: ""After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence. ""

Facebook and",Mexican president slams Twitter and Facebook for blocking Trump,tweets_news_1347,tweets_news
"Trump's campaign has already run ads bragging about Soleimani killing - but Trump can't handle a Middle East war



Link to Image



In the days following Donald Trump's apparently impulsive decision to assassinate Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran's powerful military leader, there was a lot of speculation about why the president would do something so foolish and provocative. Some folks have clung to the idea that there is method to Trump's madness, but reporting since then has made it clear that he didn't spend time contemplating the likely national security consequences before - or after - making this decision. Instead, it seems that, because Trump is motivated strictly by self-interest and ego, his focus was less on the situation in Iran and more on his re-election prospects and creating a distraction from the ongoing impeachment drama.

Late on Tuesday, evidence emerged for the theory that this was, in part, a campaign stunt. After Soleimani's killing, the Trump campaign reportedly conducted a targeted Facebook ad blitz crowing about the assassination. Almost 800 unique ads were written, trumpeting variations of how Trump's actions meant that ""Iranian General Qassem Soleimani is no longer a threat to the United States, or to the world.""

Within hours of this",Trump thought picking a fight with Iran would boost him. It backfired,tweets_news_1348,tweets_news
"Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Infighting, deleted comments, and drama Women like Jocelyn Kopac joined the Boss-Moms Facebook group to network and chat about life as both a mom and business owner, and considering the group has more than 50,000 members from around the world, life inside has been relatively mundane. Up until ... Continue reading Facebook groups are falling apart over Black Lives Matter posts

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Infighting, deleted comments, and drama

Women like Jocelyn Kopac joined the Boss-Moms Facebook group to network and chat about life as both a mom and business owner, and considering the group has more than 50,000 members from around the world, life inside has been relatively mundane. Up until now, that is, while the Black Lives Matter movement is picking up steam around the US and the world. Over this past weekend, Kopac says the group s leader, Dana Malstaff, and her team of moderators deleted people s posts about Black Lives Matter, turned off comments, and failed to respond to members subsequent concerns.

One now-deleted post mentions how disappointed a member is in the group s leadership. I hope that Dana and her team rethinks and learns from many",Facebook groups are falling apart over Black Lives Matter posts,tweets_news_1349,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump sows doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, he’s found a powerful partner in Attorney General William Barr.

Like Trump, Barr has repeatedly sounded alarms about the November vote despite a lack of evidence pointing to pervasive problems with the process.

That’s important — and worrisome to Democrats — because Barr is no ordinary Cabinet member. As head of the Justice Department, he can shape investigations into election interference and voting fraud. Though the department doesn't oversee elections, it could inject itself into court fights over disputed contests. And any statements from America’s top law enforcement officer questioning election results could further shake public confidence in the vote at a time of widespread disinformation and rumors.

“Those who think that Barr is watching over the interests of Trump rather than the interests of the country have reason to be concerned that he would weaponize the Justice Department’s investigative authority to help Trump at least politically, if not legally, in any post-election challenge,” said Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine.

Concerns about Barr among Democrats and election experts outside the department are heightened because he is seen as a loyalist to","In Barr, Trump has powerful ally for challenging mail voting",tweets_news_1350,tweets_news
"

Jun 22, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; Like the social media numbers, the television audience for the Tulsa Trump rally was huge. An incredible 7.7 million total viewers tuned into Fox News to watch the rally. This represents the largest Saturday night audience in the networks history. That's in addition to the 11 million people who watched the rally on social media. President Trump should be extremely pleased with this rally, despite the sabotage tactics from the Left. Let's see what 'Sleepy Joe' Biden can do to respond.'Trump rally gives Fox News largest Saturday night audience in its history' https://t.co/XZaStbbRIp[1] — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2020[2] 11 MILLION people watched @realDonaldTrump[3]'s rally on Saturday.

That does not even include the millions who watched on TV. Biden will never be able to compete with that level of enthusiasm! pic.twitter .com/OqjMEzQfxS[4]; — Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) June 22, 2020[5] While Biden was in his basement, @realDonaldTrump[6] had 5.3 MILLION+ viewers tune in to his rally. If Team Biden can ever figure out how to live stream, the media should broadcast it all in its full incoherence. There will be no enthusiasm, and voters won't like what they see!",Trump rally gives Fox News largest Saturday night audience in its history,tweets_news_1351,tweets_news
"

Jan 14, 2021( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/ Delivered by Newstex) Big Tech and Big Telecom are punishing GOP members in the House of Representatives and the Senate whose politics they don't like.Amazon,[1] Airbnb,[2] AT&#38;T[3], Comcast[4], Verizon[5] (parent company of Yahoo! News[6]) and Intel[7] were all reported[8] to be withholding donations. Their targets were any of the members of Congress who objected to certifying the controversial Electoral College results Jan. 6.That's the same kind of objection that Democrats have used in the past three presidential elections[9] where a Republican won (2000, 2004, 2016), albeit without the same level ofbacklash from the big-name brands.

Apparently, GOP members of Congress representing the interests of the constituents who elected them arenow officially taboo.Liberal Comcast, the parent company of left-wing NBC News, was arguably the biggest hypocrite in feigning righteous indignation. The company released a statement [10]that said in part, 'This year, [the peaceful transitionof power] will take place among some of the most challenging conditions in modern history and against the backdrop of the appalling violence we witnessed at the U.S. Capitol last week. At this crucial time our focus needs to be on working together for the good of the entire nation.'The company then pledged that","Tech, Telecom Ban Donations to GOP Who Objected to Biden Certification",tweets_news_1352,tweets_news
"

May 13, 2021( WayneDupree.com: https://www.waynedupree.com Delivered by Newstex) Remember the amazing Trish Regan? She was another victim of the Fox News globalist 'reset' and was fired after she called out Dems and stuck up for President Trump. TIRED OF THE ADS?

BECOME A PREMIUM USER TODAY!![1]Well, she's back, and she sat down and chatted with conservative pundit Buck Sexton, to discuss the Biden admin and their 'real motives' behind the pork-filled COVID bill. MORE NEWS: [VIDEO] WowWho Gave CNN the 'Okay' To Air This Hit Piece on Biden?[2]As always, Dems have a 'real reason' behind the phony one they tell the publicalways, always, always And Trish Regan has their number. She perfectly explained to Buck how the left is using COVID as a massive 'wealth transfer.' > > >FOLLOW US ON GAB < < <[3]From Buck Sexton[4] 'Democrats are politicizing coronavirus in an attempt to have a massive wealth transfer,' saidTrish Reganthe host of 'Trish Intel Show' on 'Hold the Line' withBuck Sexton. The $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, known asAmerican Rescue Plan, passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives and signed into law byPresident Bidenon Friday. 'I said a year ago they had politicized coronavirus in an attempt to take",[VIDEO] Trish Regan Exposed Dems 'COVID Plot' So Perfectly That Fox Fired HerAnd She Nailed it Again,tweets_news_1353,tweets_news
"PETALING JAYA, Feb. 25 -- Andi Bernadee has been getting heat for his latest music video Shimmy from viewers who saw certain scenes as being ""too sexy"" and ""against Islam"".

The video, which is currently number three on Malaysia's YouTube trending list, depicts Andi as a vampire who lures three beautiful women into becoming his next meal.

Some social media users were especially peeved by the scenes where he is shown biting into the women's necks.

""I love this song and I would like to support Andi as a great singer but this MV is against Islam. I'm sorry bro but this is really not good.

""You should know what your boundaries are,"" wrote YouTube user ainfazwinzzz.

Another commenter said that more modestly-dressed women ought to have been cast for the music video.

""Please choose a less sexy woman, someone who is modest. And the neck-biting? That wasn't necessary, you're a Muslim.

""Sorry, I'm not trying to hate on you but just giving advice since this video will influence Muslims,"" said Myna Syamiela.

Twitter comments were even harsher with one user accusing the Kota Kinabalu-born singer's actions in the video as a metaphor for ""stealing"" a girl's virginity, with the blood acting as a symbol for a torn",Singer Andi Bernadee's vampire-themed MV deemed 'too sexy' by conservative viewers (VIDEO),tweets_news_1354,tweets_news
"Oldest man dies aged 112

The oldest man on Earthhas died at the age of 112 just days after claiming his Guinness World Record certificate. Chitetsu Watanabe, from Japan, passed away on Sunday after catching a fever, reported Mainichi newspaper.

Mr Watanabe was born in Niigata, in northern Japan, in 1907. He graduated from agricultural school and then moved to Taiwan to workon sugar cane plantation contracts. Mr Watanabehad five children andgrew fruit and vegetables on the family farm. Heloved desserts such as custards and cream puffs and also enjoyed growing bonsai trees - evenhavinghis work exhibited. He had said the secret to his longevity was to keep smiling. The oldest living person - Kane Tanaka, a 117-year-old woman - is also Japanese.

Rebuke as Trump attacks liberal justices

Donald Trump yesterday lashed out at two liberal Supreme Court justices and demanded they recuse themselves from cases related to his administration in an extraordinary attack on the judicial system. Mr Trump attacked Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Twitter over perceived slights against himself and his administration.

The president's outburst appeared to be inspired by a Fox News programme in whichhost Laura Ingrahamsaid Justice Sotomayor had accused Republican-appointed justices of being ""biased in",World news in brief,tweets_news_1355,tweets_news
"Major U.S. sports figures and teams, as well as international sports franchises have issued statements regarding the death George Floyd at the hands of police last week that has spawned protests in cities across the nation.

Perhaps the strongest team statement came from the Washington Wizards, the National Basketball Association (NBA) team in the nation's capital. On its Twitter account, late Sunday, the team posted what it said was a united statement from our players.

The statement read We will no longer tolerate the assassination of people of color in this country. We will no longer accept the abuse of power from law enforcement. We will no longer accept ineffective government leaders who are tone-deaf, lack compassion or respect for communities of color. We will no longer shut up and dribble.

The NBA Dallas Mavericks also issued a statement, saying they will NOT stand for injustice, inequity, and disparity.

Legendary Former NBA player Michael Jordan, who famously avoided taking strong political stands as a player, also posted a statement from his Twitter account, saying ""I stand with those who are calling out the ingrained racism and violence toward people of color in our country. We have had enough.""

Overseas, soccer team FC Barcelona issued a","United States: Sports Teams, Figures Express Support for US Protests",tweets_news_1356,tweets_news
"NEW DELHI, April 8 -- Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia on Monday reiterated that ""stigmatizing ethnic or religious minorities"" for the COVID-19 virus is unacceptable.

In a signed post on Twitter, Alice G Wells asserted, ""Stigmatizing ethnic or religious minorities is unacceptable, at any time & at any place.""

""Let's not let anxiety and fear of #COVID19 divide us - especially not when we are united by a threat that knows no borders, ethnicity, or religion,"" she tweeted.

This comes after a Samuel D Brownback, Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Office of International Religious Freedom on Friday said hashtag CoronaJihad trending in India was '""unfortunate.""

Also ReadTaunted over virus spread Tablighi member commits suicide

To a question on the hashtag trending in India, Brownback said, ""We are tracking the blaming of religious minorities for Covid-19 virus, and unfortunately, it is - it's happening in various places. This is wrong by governments to do this.""

""It is - the governments really should put this down and state very clearly that this is not the source of the coronavirus. It's not the religious minority communities,"" he said.

Over the last one week, the number of COVID-19 cases has increased across India and",Stigmatising Muslims unacceptable: SCA on jihad label,tweets_news_1357,tweets_news
"

Jan 17, 2021( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Parler CEO John Matze Jr. and his family have fled their homes after receiving death threats, a new court filing says. Parler was recently removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and Amazon Web Services stopped hosting the platform after it deemed Parler a ""risk to public safety.""

Trump supporters flocked to the platform after the president was banned from Twitter following the siege at the Capitol on January 6. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1].Parler CEO John Matze Jr. fled his home receiving death threats, a lawyer for Matze said in a court filing on Friday.The attorney, David Groesbeck, wrote in the document that Matze had to ""go into hiding with his family after receiving death threats and invasive personal security breaches."" The filing was part of Parler's antitrust lawsuit against Amazon Web Services to put the platform back online.The current filing aimed to seal parts of the suit filed as a safety measure.Amazon Web Services stopped hosting Parler after it said the platform had violent content that was tied to the January 6 siege at the US Capitol. In its own court filing last week,","Parler's CEO fled his home and went into hiding after receiving death threats and security breaches, a court filing says",tweets_news_1358,tweets_news
"March 18 -- China is now blocking encrypted chat app Signal, preventing those in the region from sending messages free of government monitoring. 

On Tuesday, users in the country began reporting they were no longer able to send or receive texts via the Signal app. Access to Signal's official website is also down, according to GreatFire.org, a site that tracks the country's online censorship. 

 

Signal did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the app was one of the last foreign messaging services still available in China. Over the years, the country has also blocked access to WhatsApp, Telegram, Line, in addition to Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Local users have to instead use Chinese-made apps, such as WeChat, to converse with each other online. But the same apps will routinely censor content, and even spy on users' texts. 

 

 

Signal, on the other hand, provides end-to-end encrypted messaging, meaning Signal itself can't view your messages, even as the content travels through its servers. 

Why China only began blocking the Signal app now remains unclear. But in mid-January, the Signal app saw an increase in downloads from users in China right as Tesla CEO Elon Musk encouraged",China Starts Blocking Signal Encrypted Messaging App,tweets_news_1359,tweets_news
"OAKLAND, Calif. —

Facebook is tightening its policy against QAnon, the baseless conspiracy theory that paints President Donald Trump as a secret warrior against a supposed child-trafficking ring run by celebrities and ""deep state' government officials.

The company said Tuesday that it will remove Facebook pages, groups and Instagram accounts for ""representing QAnon"" — even if they don't promote violence. Facebook did not immediately explain what it means for Facebook groups to ""represent"" QAnon.

Less than two months ago, Facebook said it would stop promoting the group and its adherents, although it faltered with spotty enforcement. It said it would only remove QAnon groups if they promote violence. That is no longer the case.

The company said it is starting to enforce the policy as of Tuesday but cautioned that it ""will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks.""

The QAnon phenomenon has sprawled across a patchwork of secret Facebook groups, Twitter accounts and YouTube videos in recent years. QAnon has been linked to real-world violence such as criminal reports of kidnapping and dangerous claims that the coronavirus is a hoax.

But the conspiracy theory has also seeped into mainstream politics. Several Republican running for Congress this year are QAnon-friendly.

By the time",Facebook will remove groups tied to QAnon,tweets_news_1360,tweets_news
"President Trump lost the election, but his bombastic brand of conservative populism lives on, leaving President-elect Joe Biden the momentous task of unifying a land divided over race, immigration, the COVID-19 pandemic and how we see ourselves.

Trump has long been a cartoon-like villain for moderates and progressives. But he resonated with another part of the nation -- one that gave him 70 million votes and for years felt voiceless and disillusioned.

He personified the split in the national spirit, and his presidency revealed how far apart we had grown after decades of a Washington increasingly detached from the lives of those it represented.

Though Biden clinched victory Saturday, the election was at once an underwhelming repudiation of Trump and an endorsement of his overhaul of the Republican Party.

There was no blue wave. Trump has exceeded his total from the last presidential election by more than 7 million votes. Republicans gained seats in the House, held on to state legislatures and could retain the Senate.

In case the 2016 election left any doubt, the 2020 election confirmed that Americans live in parallel universes, each foreign to the other.

On one side are voters like David Merin, who lives in Newport Beach. His early hopes that",ELECTION 2020,tweets_news_1361,tweets_news
"CHICAGO (AP) — Activists widely expected Joe Biden to take swift action against the death penalty as the first sitting president to oppose capital punishment, especially since an unprecedented spate of executions by his predecessor ended just days before Biden took office. Instead, the White House has been mostly silent. Biden hasn't said whether he'd back a...

CHICAGO (AP) — Activists widely expected Joe Biden to take swift action against the death penalty as the first sitting president to oppose capital punishment, especially since an unprecedented spate of executions by his predecessor ended just days before B...

CHICAGO (AP) — Activists widely expected Joe Biden to take swift action against the death penalty as the first sitting president to oppose capital punishment, especially since an unprecedented spate of executions by his predecessor ended just days before Biden took office. Instead, the White House has been mostly silent. Biden hasn't said whether he'd back a bill introduced by fellow Democrats to strike the death penalty from U.S. statutes. He also hasn’t rescinded Trump-era protocols enabling federal executions to resume and allowing prisons to use firing squads if necessary, something many thought he’d do on day one. And this week, his administration asked the",Biden's silence on executions adds to death penalty disarray,tweets_news_1362,tweets_news
"Watch what you tweet – always.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, won her 14th Congressional District primary Tuesday, becoming a virtual lock to win in November. On top of anti-Muslim rhetoric and pro-gun ads deemed too provocative for Facebook, Greene also is a QAnon acolyte.

The Anti-Defamation League defines QAnon's underlying theory: ""Almost every president in recent American history up until Donald Trump has been a puppet put in place by a global elite of power brokers hell bent on enriching themselves and maintaining their Satanic child-murdering sex cult. Q is a reference to 'Q clearance' or 'Q access authorization,' terms used to describe a top-secret clearance level within the Department of Energy.""

The FBI classifies it as a domestic terror threat. Some followers have curious beliefs, such as that John F. Kennedy Jr. faked his death and soon will replace Mike Pence on the GOP ticket.

A Trump tweet congratulating Greene called her a ""future Republican star … strong on everything,"" prompting U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Channahon, to tweet: ""Qanon is a fabrication. This 'insider' has predicted so much incorrectly (but people don't remember PAST predictions), so now has switched to vague generalities. Could be Russian propaganda or a basement dweller. Regardless, no place",EYE ON ILLINOIS: Be wary of anyone claiming belief in outlandish Q conspiracy theory,tweets_news_1363,tweets_news
"When President Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court, organizers of the National Women's March announced a march on Washington, D.C. on Oct. 17.

Aurora resident Jennifer Perkins, a special education teacher for visually impaired students in the Fox Valley, said she waited for news about other local marches that she could join.

""Chicago always signs on, always follows suit – Los Angeles and New York,"" Perkins said. ""Then for a gamut of reasons, they did not want a large march in Chicago, but to focus efforts in local communities.""

So she stepped up and now the Together We Rise Women's March in Kane County is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday along major intersections on Randall Road from Aurora to Algonquin.

The goal is to support women's rights, access to health care, to get the vote out – and to vote out President Trump, Perkins said.

The belief is that Coney, a conservative Catholic, would be the swing vote to end the Affordable Care Act and access to abortion as decided in Row vs. Wade.

Trump Tweeted in 2015, ""If I win the presidency, my judicial appointments will do the right thing, unlike Bush's appointee John Roberts on ObamaCare.""

Also under","Together We Rise Women's March set for Saturday in Kane County, Aurora to Algonquin",tweets_news_1364,tweets_news
"Democrats are furious with Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., for announcing that he will oppose what he called their “partisan voting legislation” and that he will “not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster.” Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., tweeted that Manchin was voting “to preserve Jim Crow,” while Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., called Manchin “the new Mitch McConnell” who threatens to block Democrats’ entire agenda. Even President Joe Biden publicly laid into Manchin last week, declaring he can’t get more done because Manchin is one of “two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends” (the other is Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona).

Democrats should be careful; their Senate majority rests in Manchin’s hands. They need to decide: Do they want Manchin to be their party’s John McCain, R-Ariz. – – a maverick who went his own way on issues but stayed within the party fold? Or do they want Manchin to become their party’s Jim Jeffords, the Vermont Republican who became the first senator in history to hand Senate control to the opposition by switching parties?

In May 2001, Jeffords announced he was leaving the GOP to caucus with the Democrats. Then, as now, the Senate was",Democrats need Manchin more than he needs them,tweets_news_1365,tweets_news
"A top media expert says controversial political bloggers might think twice about what they post after the sentencing of Craig Murray.

Professor Sarah Pedersen, a lecturer in communications and media at Robert Gordon University, made the comments after political blogger Craig Murray was jailed for eight months for repeatedly breaching a court order that protected the identities of the women who accused former first minister Alex Salmond of sexual assault.

Only a day later, pro-independence blogger Stuart Campbell announced his Wings Over Scotland blog is “over”, although he added he will take a “finally-final” decision on the blog’s future in November.

Mr Campbell said it has become “blindingly obvious” there will be no independence referendum in this parliament, and says “five miserable years of déjà vu” lie ahead, despite the pro-independence majority at Holyrood.

Craig Murray sentencing

Following Stuart Campbell’s announcement about the future of Wings Over Scotland, Professor Pedersen says the sentencing of Craig Murray will make a lot of political bloggers consider their position.



Stuart Campbell from Wings Over Scotland.





She said: “Stuart Campbell seems to have shocked quite a lot of people by doing this.

“Blogs in general do come to an end because they are very much driven by a passionate interest, whether it",What does jailing of Craig Murray and end of Wings Over Scotland mean for political bloggers?,tweets_news_1366,tweets_news
"Until last summer, Tsargrad TV, which styles itself as a Russian Orthodox answer to Fox News, was an obscure corner of YouTube. The Russian-...

Until last summer, Tsargrad TV, which styles itself as a Russian Orthodox answer to Fox News, was an obscure corner of YouTube.

The Russian-language online news channel was best known for its priestly presenters and conspiratorial musings about the global financial system plotting against Moscow — suspicions it viewed as confirmed last July when the Google-owned streaming service took the channel down over what it claimed was a US sanctions breach.

Now Tsargrad is poised to strike back after a landmark court ruling that could put Google’s entire Russian business in jeopardy as Moscow steps up attempts to force western technology companies to comply with its laws.

A Moscow court last month ordered Google to reinstate Tsargrad’s YouTube channel globally on the grounds the ban had unfairly discriminated against its owner, Konstantin Malofeev.

Malofeev has been under US and EU sanctions since 2014 over his ties to Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine. But he told the FT that YouTube had continued to pay Tsargrad some $10,000 a month in advertising revenue for years until the ban.

Google filed an appeal against the ruling",YouTube feels heat as Russia ramps up ‘digital sovereignty’ drive,tweets_news_1367,tweets_news
"

Jul 28, 2020( Truth on the Market: http://truthonthemarket.com Delivered by Newstex) Earlier this year the UK government announced it was adopting the main recommendations of the Furman Report[1] into competition in digital markets and setting up a 'Digital Markets Taskforce' to oversee those recommendations being put into practice. The Competition and Markets Authority's digital advertising market study[2] largely came to similar conclusions (indeed, in places it reads as if the CMA worked backwards from those conclusions[3]).The Furman Report recommended that the UK should overhaul its competition regime with some quite significant changes to regulate the conduct of large digital platforms and make it harder for them to acquire other companies. But, while the Report's panel is accomplished and its tone is sober and even-handed, the evidence on which it is based does not justify the recommendations it makes.Most of the citations in the Report are of news reports or simple reporting of data with no analysis, and there is very little discussion of the relevant academic literature in each area, even to give a summary of it. In some cases, evidence and logic are misused to justify intuitions that are just not supported by the facts.

Killer acquisitions One particularly bad",The Furman Report is a Flimsy Basis for a New UK Competition Policy,tweets_news_1368,tweets_news
"Key stories in the Iranian media from BBC Monitoring. For more information on our coverage of Iran, or to sign up to our newsletter, email monitoring@bbc.co.uk

US 'limiting' freedom of expression

The United States yesterday took down dozens of news websites linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran in a move described by an Iranian diplomat as Washington's ""attempt at limiting the freedom of expression"".

Shahrokh Nazemi, the chief media officer at Iran's mission to the United Nations, told the New York Times yesterday that Iran would pursue the issue ""through legal channels"".

There has not been any significant official reaction to the story in Iran, with Nazemi the only prominent figure so far to have commented on the story.

Notices appearing on the websites of Iran's state-run Press TV and al-Alam TV, as well as the Houthis' al-Masirah TV among others, said the domains had been ""seized"" by US authorities. Many of the websites are back online under different domains.

Al-Alam said on its Persian-language website - accessible under a new address - that the move was in line with America's policy of ""cracking down on freedoms and closing mouths and distorting truths"".

(More in social buzz)

Press on Raisi speech

President-elect Ebrahim Raisi's speech in the northeastern",BBCM Iran Watchlist for 23 June,tweets_news_1369,tweets_news
"Pay for news. That's what we always hear. As news organizations see both their revenue and stature shrink, paying for news has become a kind of rallying cry for journalists looking to save their beleaguered industry. Want to save journalism from peddlers of ""fake news"" or media naysayers like Donald Trump? Open your wallet.

But as understandable as it is to ask people to pay for news and thus support the organizations and journalists who cover it - it also carries with it a risk: in an age of rampant misinformation, putting news behind a paywall may cordon it off from the public at large.

Paywalls limit access to high-quality journalism to only those who will - and can - pay for it. In doing so, the public function of journalism - to inform and to hold power to account - suffers.

It's an issue that lies at the edges of a new call from News Media Canada, an organization that represents the print and digital media industry, which this week released a report calling on the government to follow an Australian-style approach to recoup advertising revenue from Facebook and Google.

The report, titled ""Levelling the Digital Playing Field,"" argues that Facebook and Google",Reliable news is essential for democracy,tweets_news_1370,tweets_news
"

Mar 17, 2021( WayneDupree.com: https://www.waynedupree.com Delivered by Newstex) When President Trump was in office, and even during the second sham impeachment, whenever anything came up where we needed all GOP hands on deck, you could always count on two so-called 'Republicans' to be the flies on the ointment that screwed everything up. TIRED OF THE ADS? BECOME A PREMIUM USER TODAY!

![1] Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.They'd always have a third sidekick going along with them to create the trifecta of globalist traitors - either Jeff Flake (when he was still in the Senate) or Mitt Romney would join their little hate group.But it's always those two women working in cahoots to do damage to the America First agenda. And somehow, these two traitors keep winning their elections. MORE NEWS: Ana Navarro Tries to Take Down Piers Morgan, But He Turns The Tables On Her Big Time[2] More from Wayne DupreeThe latest traitor move Murkowski made, when she voted to impeach President Trump, may finally be her undoing. Lisa was just censured by the Republican Party in Alaska and basically rebuked as a troublemaker whose actions have taken attention away from all the good that President Trump did for Alaska. It",Karma Finally Catches Up to Alaska NeverTrumper Lisa Murkowski,tweets_news_1371,tweets_news
"Has there ever been a stranger election year budget than the one President Donald Trump released as Democrats started heading to the polls? Clocking in at $4.8 trillion, it is unlikely to win him many plaudits from the small but vocal contingent of consistent fiscal conservatives who, rather than building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, would prefer to construct a dam to contain the rising tide of red ink. It contains no structural reforms to the spending programs on which retiring baby boomers will rely for income and healthcare in their golden years. Yet at the same time, liberal activists can point to $850 billion in Medicare cuts here and $920 billion in Medicaid cuts there.

The budget has no chance of being adopted, of course. Democrats control the House of Representatives, where all spending and revenue bills must originate (that part of the Constitution is still operative), so the White House's spending blueprint for the next fiscal year is dead on arrival. But the president's opponents may find it useful in the 2020 campaign, and it is certainly as good an illustration of any of the paradox of Trump's approach to budgetary issues.

Trump ran to the left, if that",Will Bernie Roil the Right? What happens to the conservative realignment if Trump is defeated?(Politics),tweets_news_1372,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

crash out on December the 31st? Why is ideology trumping pragmatism? There is no crash out no-deal. We will either leave the EU at the end of the year, with a Canada-style arrangement or with an Australia-style arrangement.

Given that the EU appears determined to bind the UK into the Common Fisheries Policy and its own rules and standards, does the Minister not agree that there would actually be negotiating advantage in not reaching an agreement before the end of the transition period, so that the EU would be forced to accept the reality of the UK as an independent and sovereign state? As the EU grasps that we will not extend the transition period, will they not recognise that it is very much in their own economic interest to set aside ideology and make a free-trade deal? In any case, isn't it absolutely in our interest not to be tied into contributing billions to the",Joins BBC News - 01:45 AM GMT,tweets_news_1373,tweets_news
"

Jul 12, 2020( The Conservative Treehouse: http://theconservativetreehouse.com Delivered by Newstex) Why is it important to understand the duality of purpose for the appointment of the special counsel run by the figure-head (in name only) of Robert Mueller? https://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/mueller-confused.jpgBecause from the outset the seventeen Lawfare lawyers who formed the resistance unit operation took control over the DOJ. That was a large purpose of their installation.

The Mueller resistance unit controlled everything, including every impediment to congress. Despite the fact they should have been aware of this, many individual Senators and congressional representatives now claim they had no idea of this purpose. Setting aside their willful blindness; all that stuff is in the rear-view and only leads to anger in a debate that needs to look forward; the issue now becomes putting indisputable evidence, an actionable trigger, in front of them and forcing public confrontation. Action. Nothing else matters; drive action. Committee chairman Lindsay Graham said today[1] on Twitter he is open to having Robert Mueller appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. [FYI Chuck Grassley is a member] While there is no reason to put any scintilla of projected altruism into the position of Senator tick-tock Graham, there's more behind that statement than",Robert Mueller Was Obama's Shield - Graham Open To Mueller Hearing.,tweets_news_1374,tweets_news
"BBC 1 Programming.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

nuclear weapon tests there was a nuclear weapon detonating every 8.6 days in the Cold War with the people exposed to the radiation were not people living in London, New York, Moscow, Paris places like that. As you study this history and you hear President Trump called the strategic Arms reduction Treaty one of several bad deals as he puts it, that the President -- President Obama signed, how important is it that this treaty is renewed, the USA is part of it? It is essential. President Trump will call any deal that he didn't make himself a bad deal, he only can talk about himself but without this treaty there is no restraint on the number of weapons that either Russia or the US can have in Russia and the United States have always been the ones that had over 90% of nuclear weapons throughout the history of nuclear weapons so for there to be no constraint and no limitations",BBC 1 Programming - 08:47 AM GMT,tweets_news_1375,tweets_news
"Three months before a violent mob breached police barricades and stormed the US Capitol, Nina Jankowicz appeared before Congress members there, testifying to the House Intelligence Committee on the dangers of disinformation.

""Not only have the US Government and social media platforms all but abdicated their responsibility to stop the threat of foreign disinformation over the past four years, domestic disinformation now runs rampant,"" Ms Jankowicz, author of How To Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict, told the committee.

""It does our adversaries' work for them, leaving us vulnerable to continued manipulation and leaving our democracy imperilled.""

By domestic disinformation she meant the patchwork of conspiracy theorists, including QAnon followers, that would ultimately converge on the US Capitol, breach police barricades and storm the corridors of power.

Back in October, she called on politicians and social media platforms to make ""urgent changes"" to reduce the threat, including banning politicians who incite violence and limiting the size of private and secret Facebook groups.

She was largely ignored.

Three months later and speaking from Washington DC, where she is a research fellow with the Wilson Centre, Ms Jankowicz recalls how none of the Republicans turned up to her hearing, while some Democrats","Storming of US Capitol and Donald Trump's Twitter ban will be 'tipping point' for social media regulation, experts say",tweets_news_1376,tweets_news
"The following information was released by the National Association Of Attorneys General:

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is urging Facebook to abandon its plans to launch a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13, citing concerns about the safety and well-being of children and the harm social media poses to young people.

In a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the bipartisan coalition of 44 of state and territory attorneys general contends that social media can be detrimental to children for myriad reasons and that Facebook has historically failed to protect the welfare of children on its platforms. For instance, Facebook's Messenger Kids app contained a glitch that allowed children to circumvent restrictions and join group chats with strangers.

""It appears that Facebook is not responding to a need, but instead creating one, as this platform appeals primarily to children who otherwise do not or would not have an Instagram account. In short, an Instagram platform for young children is harmful for myriad reasons. The attorneys general urge Facebook to abandon its plans to launch this new platform,"" reads the letter.

In their letter, the attorneys general express various concerns over Facebook's proposal, including:

Research that social media can be",ORNEYS GENERAL URGE FACEBOOK TO ABANDON LAUNCH OF INSTAGRAM KIDS,tweets_news_1377,tweets_news
"It all comes down to Pennsylvania.

The state woke up Wednesday without a winner, as its 20 electoral votes are poised to play a decisive role in a close presidential race.

Republican President Donald J. Trump was leading Democratic challenger Joe Biden 55 percent to 43 percent in Pennsylvania, but that could change after more than 1.4 million outstanding mail-in votes are counted.

Those mail-in votes are expected to heavily favor Biden because more Democrats voted by mail, while more Republicans voted in person. Also, the mail-in votes are largely uncounted in counties won by 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton: Philadelphia, Allegheny, Chester, Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery.

Neither Trump nor Biden will get the landslide they hoped for, and their nail-biter contest further amplifies the partisan divide in the state and nation.

The biggest issues of contention were the pandemic, racial justice and the economy, according to exit polls.

More than 90 percent of Biden’s support came from voters who said the pandemic and racial justice were among their top concerns, while more than 80 percent of Trump’s support came from voters who were concerned about the economy.

Election Day marked a record turnout in Pennsylvania and a record number of coronavirus cases. Health officials on Tuesday",It all comes down to Pennsylvania.,tweets_news_1378,tweets_news
"SAN FRANCISCO - Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended his company's ban of President Donald Trump in a philosophical Twitter thread that is his first public statement on the subject.

When Trump incited his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol last week, then continued to tweet potentially ominous messages, Dorsey said the resulting risk to public safety created an ""extraordinary and untenable circumstance"" for the company. Having already briefly suspended Trump's account the day of the Capitol riot, Twitter on Friday banned Trump entirely, then smacked down the president's attempts to tweet using other accounts.

""I do not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump from Twitter,"" Dorsey wrote. But he added: ""I believe this was the right decision for Twitter.""

Dorsey acknowledged that shows of strength like the Trump ban could set dangerous precedents, even calling them a sign of ""failure."" Although not in so many words, Dorsey suggested that Twitter needs to find ways to avoid having to make such decisions in the first place. Exactly how that would work isn't clear, although it could range from earlier and more effective moderation to a fundamental restructuring of social networks.

In Dorsey-speak, that means Twitter needs to work harder to ""promote","Twitter CEO defends Trump ban, warns of dangerous precedent",tweets_news_1379,tweets_news
"NEW YORK (AFP) - Calling Donald Trump a ""clear and present danger,"" a group of scholars and civil rights advocates on Friday (Feb 12) urged Facebook to permanently ban the former US president from the platform.

The group, which includes prominent longtime critics of the social media company, called on Facebook's oversight board to remove Trump from the omnipresent platform after the ex-president's account was frozen in the aftermath of the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Facebook's oversight board has the final say on what is removed or allowed to remain on the world's biggest social network, but the group warned of the dangers of allowing Trump to return.

""Overturning the Trump ban is an invitation to violence, hate and disinformation that will cost lives and undermine democracy,"" the group said in a letter to the board.

""Don't strike the match.""

They described Trump as a serial abuser of social media rules who poses a danger ""to democracy and human life.""

Rival social media giant Twitter banned Trump after Jan 6 and on Wednesday announced the former president will not be permitted back on the network he used constantly, even if he runs for office again.

""Our policies are designed to ensure that people are",Trump critics call for permanent Facebook ban of former US president,tweets_news_1380,tweets_news
"A Kentucky woman that appears to be tied to the fringe QAnon and ""sovereign citizens"" movements has been arrested, police say, on charges of killing a man advising her on how to regain custody.

Police speculated that Neely Petrie-Blanchard allegedly killed Hallett ""due to her belief that the victim might have been working against her, or working to assist the government, in keeping her children away from her,"" according to a police report obtained by The Daily Beast .

A number of confirmed or alleged crimes have been perpetrated by people thought to be QAnon believers.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .

A woman in Kentucky who appears to support the QAnon and so-called ""sovereign citizens"" movements has been accused of killing a legal theorist she had enlisted to help her regain custody of her two daughters, police said.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office in Florida arrested Neely Petrie-Blanchard on Monday in relation to the killing of Christopher Hallett. The sheriff's office said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that Petrie-Blanchard was in custody at the Lowndes County Jail in Georgia and would soon be extradited to Kentucky, where she would be charged. As of Wednesday, Petrie-Blanchard had not yet been extradited to Kentucky,",A woman believed to be a QAnon follower was charged with killing a legal theorist trying to help her regain custody of her daughters,tweets_news_1381,tweets_news
"When Chris Ume unleashed a deepfake video of Hollywood star Tom Cruise, he had no idea the reaction it would provoke.



It only became clear what Chris Ume had unleashed in the days after his TikTok Tom Cruise videos went viral in February this year. Then fear started to set in. 

Suddenly it felt like the whole world was watching. In a few days, one the videos, seemingly showing the Hollywood superstar teeing off at the golf course, already had 2.5 million views. 

Then it kept climbing to 10 million and beyond. TikTok Tom was becoming a global phenomenon.

""In the beginning it was really scary ... we never expected it,"" the Belgian-born graphics artist tells Foreign Correspondent from his current home in Bangkok.

""We started talking about it like, what should we do?"" 

Ume's collaborator fired off an email to Cruise's management, asking if they should take the videos down and offering to hand over the @deeptomcruise TikTok account.

It wasn't that the videos were offensive, or scandalous, or even damaging to Tom Cruise. The actor's management never even wrote back. It's that they were good. Scary good.

On the other side of the world, in Washington DC, TikTok Tom was soon setting off",The Tom Cruise deepfake that set off 'terror' in the heart of Washington DC,tweets_news_1382,tweets_news
"The number of deaths per day from the coronavirus in the U.S. has fallen in recent weeks to the lowest level since late March, even as states increasingly reopen for business. But scientists are deeply afraid the trend may be about to reverse itself. ""For now, it's too soon to be reassured that deaths are going down and everything's OK,"" said Dr. Cyrus Shahpar of Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent epidemics.

Deaths from COVID-19 across the country are down to about 680 a day, compared with around 960 two weeks ago, according to an Associated Press analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The analysis looked at a seven-day rolling average of deaths through Wednesday.

A multitude of reasons are believed to be at play, including the advent of effective treatments and improved efforts at hospitals and nursing homes to prevent infections and save lives.

- Associated Press

Juneteenth: A day of joy and pain - and now action

In just about any other year, Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the day in 1865 that the last enslaved black people learned they had been freed from bondage, would be marked by African American families across the nation with a cookout,",In Brief Decline in new virus deaths may be temporary reprieve,tweets_news_1383,tweets_news
"U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler was initially the favorite to win a special election in Georgia for the seat she was appointed to in December, having consolidated the support of powerful Republicans and conservative groups.

A challenge from Georgia Rep. Doug Collins was met with disdain from the national party establishment that sought to frame the four-term congressman and former member of House Republican leadership as an insurgent disrupter who would spoil the election for the GOP.

However, the revelation last week that Loeffler sold more than $1 million in stocks after she attended a Jan. 24 congressional briefing on the coronavirus has given Collins an unexpected opening.

For the past week he has been hammering Loeffler over the stock sales in interviews and on social networks, and his campaign believes he is now the one with the upper hand against the political novice.

If the contest between the two Republican lawmakers becomes more competitive, it would mean a bigger headache for the GOP establishment that has worked hard to give Loeffler the edge after failing to push Collins out of the race.

Republicans in Washington fear that an ugly fight between Loeffler and Collins could cause the party to lose the Senate seat in a",Georgia senator's stock sales could cause trouble for Republicans in special election,tweets_news_1384,tweets_news
"The timing of a deceptive video, which accuses Ilhan Omar of voter fraud, indicates that several conservatives, including Donald Trump Jr., may have known about it in advance.

A deceptive video released on Sunday by the conservative activist James O'Keefe, which claimed through unidentified sources and with no verifiable evidence that Representative Ilhan Omar's campaign had collected ballots illegally, was probably part of a coordinated disinformation effort, according to researchers at Stanford University.

Mr. O'Keefe and his group, Project Veritas, appear to have made an abrupt decision to release the video sooner than planned after The New York Times published a sweeping investigation of President Trump's taxes, the researchers said. They also noted that the timing and metadata of a Twitter post in which one of Mr. Trump's sons shared the video suggested that he might have known about it in advance.

Project Veritas had hyped the video on social media for several days before publishing it. In posts amplified by other prominent conservative accounts, Mr. O'Keefe teased what he said was evidence of voter fraud, and urged people to sign up at ''ballot-harvesting.com'' to receive the supposed evidence when it came out. (None of the material in the video actually proved voter","Project Veritas Releases Misleading Video, Part of What Experts Call a Coordinated Effort",tweets_news_1385,tweets_news
"https://www.investors.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Stock-biotechLab-01-adobe.jpg

Bluebird Bio temporarily suspended all studies of a sickle cell disease gene therapy on Tuesday — prompting BLUE stock to collapse.

A patient treated more than five years ago with the gene therapy, dubbed LentiGlobin, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Acute myeloid leukemia is a type of blood cancer.

Now, Bluebird is investigating the cause of the patient's leukemia to determine if there is any connection to the gene therapy.

On the stock market today, BLUE stock plunged 37.9% to 28.44.

BLUE Stock Dives On Study Suspensions

Researchers specifically target the lentiviral vector used to make LentiGlobin gene therapy. Lentivirus is a family of viruses responsible for diseases like AIDS. They accomplish this by inserting DNA into the host cells' genome.

LentiGlobin gene therapy takes advantage of this. First, researchers empty the virus of its harmful properties. Then, they instruct it to add functional copies of a modified B-globin gene. That gene makes hemoglobin which is abnormal in sickle cell patients.

Researchers suspect the acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis five years after LentiGlobin treatment to be an unexpected serious adverse reaction. The news sent BLUE stock to a seven-year low on Tuesday.

Further, a second patient in another LentiGlobin treatment group has myelodysplastic syndrome, another type of blood",Bluebird Stock Collapses To 7-Year Low On Safety Concern In Gene Therapy,tweets_news_1386,tweets_news
"Gather 'round, good people. Have I got some news that will change your lives ...

Don't feel like doing your homework or your job or paying your bills or your taxes? Just don't.

Are bosses (or teachers or parents or significant others) on you to do something, or maybe to stop doing something? Pffft, who's gonna make you?

For real, any time you're called to take responsibility for whatever, whenever, don't sweat it. Because who's really held accountable for much of anything anymore? Not treasonous presidents, not seditious Republican lawmakers, not even a Capitol rioter who was given permission to vacation in Mexico while out on bail. (Insurrections can be so exhausting!)

And lately, not our mayor.

Last month it was revealed that Mayor Kenney would only sit for an interview with independent investigators looking into the city's monumental mishandling of police protests if the questions were provided in advance and if followup questions were submitted in writing.

And he declined - declined!? - to appear at a hearing Friday to testify about his administration's central role in the Philly Fighting COVID vaccine debacle.

Not to say I told you so, but I told you so many times that unchecked accountability only leads to more unchecked accountability.",Accountability? Well that's just for suckers,tweets_news_1387,tweets_news
"PUBG Mobile India, which has been banned since September, is reportedly set to release a new relaunch teaser in mid-January.

PUBG Mobile India is in a desperate situation after it was banned in the country in September 2020 by the government. With the official launch of its rival FAU-G (Fearless and United Guards) on January 26, PUBG Mobile India is on the backfoot and they could face severe erosion of their fan base if they are not launched back in the country soon. With FAU-G having plenty of momentum, PUBG Mobile India is doing it's best to stay in the news and ensure they do not stumble. Now, new reports are emerging that PUBG Mobile India is all set to launch a new teaser campaign in the coming days.

According to a report by InsideSport, PUBG Mobile India is all set to release a new teaser by mid-January. According to a Youtube video, the teaser is expected to be released around January 15 to January 19. The video goes on to say, ""The teaser will contain few of the biggest PUBG Content Creators of India."" Does this indicate that the relaunch has once again started gaining in momentum?

Nothing official yet

There has been",PUBG Mobile India update: New teaser in mid-January? Relaunch momentum once again picks up,tweets_news_1388,tweets_news
"By Padmaja Venkataraman

Chinese media are slightly hopeful that some things will change in the tech rivalry between Beijing and Washington under America's new President Joe Biden, but also expect him to continue his predecessor's approach on more contentious issues such as the Huawei ban and 5G rollout.

In his final days in office, former US president Donald Trump launched a crackdown on Chinese technology firms, which he termed a threat to national security. Last month, President Biden said in an interview that he foresees ""extreme competition"" rather than conflict between the US and China, sparking speculation that the two major powers could engage on the tech front.

Technology is ""undoubtedly one of the most important strategic forces"" that will influence ""the game between China and the United States"", state-affiliated news website Sina.com noted in a commentary on 18 February.

See also: Explainer: How do Chinese media view Biden? and Analysis: How will US-China rivalry under Biden play out in East Asia?

Huawei ban

Biden's election has raised hopes that the US ban on Huawei and other Chinese firms could be lifted.

Chinese technology firm Huawei became a flashpoint in the trade war between Washington and Beijing after Trump banned it from doing business with organisations operating",How Chinese media view tech rivalry with the US under Biden,tweets_news_1389,tweets_news
"In this file photo taken on July 01, 2020 an illustration picture shows social media application logo from Parler displayed on a smartphone with its website in the background in Arlington, Virginia. (AFP photo)

A US judge on Thursday rejected Parler's demand that Amazon.com Inc. restore web hosting services for the social media platform, which Amazon had cut off following the Jan. 6 storming of the US Capitol.

US District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle said Parler was unlikely to prove Amazon breached its contract or violated antitrust law by suspending service on Jan. 10, and that it was ""not a close call.""

She also forcefully rejected the suggestion that the public interest would be served by a preliminary injunction requiring Amazon Web Services to ""host the kind of abusive, violent content at issue in this case, particularly in light of the recent riots at the US Capitol.""

""That event,"" she added, ""was a tragic reminder that inflammatory rhetoric can - more swiftly and easily than many of us would have hoped - turn a lawful protest into a violent insurrection.""

Parler was not immediately available for comment.

""We welcome the court's careful ruling,"" an Amazon spokeswoman said in a statement. ""This was not a case",Parler loses bid to require Amazon to restore service,tweets_news_1390,tweets_news
"On the day the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump, U.S. Rep. Greg Steube took to the floor to denounce the ""impeachment charade.""

Moments later, Steube, R-Sarasota, went on Fox News to blast impeachment and later did the same on Fox Business.

The media appearances were among roughly 69 national TV interviews that Steube has done over the last year, many of them touching on impeachment.

Steube argues that impeachment has been terrible for the nation, but it may have been good for his political career. The freshman lawmaker and ardent Trump supporter is emerging from the impeachment drama as a polished public defender of the president.

Like U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, Steube's friend and former colleague in the Florida House who has parlayed his media savvy into national fame, Steube has found there is plenty of appetite within the conservative media for an aggressive young lawmaker who is willing to battle with Trump's critics.

While not approaching Gaetz's level of notoriety, Steube has made regular appearances on conservative programs, including on lesser-known networks such as One America News and Newsmax TV, as he works to boost his profile. He is often on Fox Business, a channel the president is known","Greg Steube says impeachment was bad for the country, but it may have been good for him",tweets_news_1391,tweets_news
"Esther Berg has more than 330,000 Instagram followers. But she's locked out of her @EstherandSasha account.

While the influencer, a registered Republican, normally covers lighthearted issues, on Sept. 14 she posted a story juxtaposing a glam photo of Ivanka Trump with a picture of Chiara de Blasio, the daughter of Mayor de Blasio, curled up on the subway and baring her body, accompanied by the caption: ""On November 3rd, you decide what kind of America you want your daughter growing up in . . . Vote.""

The next day, Berg, who splits her time between Florida and Long Island, discovered her account was disabled for at least 30 days. An Instagram representative told The Post: ""We do not allow people to show intimate images of others without their consent.""

But Berg notes that the same photo of Chiara is still up on other accounts.

""They censored me for my conservative views,"" she says.

Like other right-leaning influencers, she is outraged over what she calls a ""double standard"" of social-media platforms allegedly targeting pro-Trump voices.

Allum Bokhari's new book, ""#Deleted: Big Tech's Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal the Election,"" delves into the issue.

""If you're going to have the rules, you should enforce them evenly,",ELECTION 2020GOP social stars 'Insta-banned',tweets_news_1392,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

In one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of presidential primaries, Joe Biden is now the undisputed leader of the Democratic nomination, with his main competitor, Bernie Sanders, having little chance of catching up on delegates.

The former vice president's win in Michigan, called shortly after all polls closed, solidifies him as the presumptive nominee and demonstrates his ability to build a broad coalition of working-class, suburban, and minority voters in Midwest states once favorable to Sanders. The final margin of Biden's victory has yet to be decided because of the high number of early ballots, but it was decisive enough for the race to be called by 9 p.m. Tuesday.

As early votes began streaming in from Michigan which showed Biden holding a commanding lead in districts where Sanders won in 2016, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, a prominent Biden supporter, said it was time to ""shut this primary down"" and called for the Democratic National Committee to ""step in"" and cancel future debates. The next debate, which would be the first time Sanders and Biden would face-off alone, is scheduled for Sunday.

Michigan was Sanders's political firewall, particularly after his lead in California shrunk considerably as",Joe Biden now the presumptive Democratic nominee,tweets_news_1393,tweets_news
"The Conservatives made huge local election gains at Rotherham Council, with Labour retaining overall control. All council seats were being competed over for the first time in five years, with the Tories jumping from zero councillors to 20. Labour dropped to 32...

The Conservatives made huge local election gains at Rotherham Council, with Labour retaining overall control. All council seats were being competed over for the first time in five years, with the Tories jumping from zero councillors to 20. Labour dropped t...

The Conservatives made huge local election gains at Rotherham Council, with Labour retaining overall control. All council seats were being competed over for the first time in five years, with the Tories jumping from zero councillors to 20. Labour dropped to 32 seats, with the Liberal Democrats and the Rotherham Democratic Party left with three each. After a boundary review, council seats were reduced from 63 to 59, with the number of wards going up from 21 to 25. Speaking at the count at the Magna Science Adventure Centre, Emily Barley, newly-elected Conservative councillor for the Hoober ward, put the party's success down to their ""incredible team"". ""For decades Labour has taken communities in this area for granted, they've",Rotherham: Large Tory gains in council all-out election,tweets_news_1394,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON/HOUSTON: The Trump administration plans to send a special energy envoy to Saudi Arabia to work with the kingdom on stabilizing the global oil market, officials said on Friday, as the U.S. scrambles to deal with a price crash so deep that regulators in Texas considered curbing production there for the first time in nearly 50 years. Oil prices have lost more than half their value in the last two weeks as Saudi Arabia and Russia kicked off a price war and the coronavirus pandemic destroyed demand. U.S. oil now trades at less than US$23 a barrel. The crash has shocked the oil industry as a pact among OPEC and non-OPEC producers to cooperate imploded, triggering a production free-for-all.

The United States is sending a special representative to negotiate with Saudi Arabia, officials said Friday, after the kingdom unleashed production following years of touting its role as a stabilizing force for markets. Saudi Arabia and Russia are locked in a war for global oil market share after their three-year deal to restrain output collapsed this month. The kingdom has vowed to increase production to a record 12.3 million barrels per day, and has chartered numerous tankers to ship oil around the",US to send envoy to Saudi Arabia; Texas suggests oil output cuts,tweets_news_1395,tweets_news
"Lansing - A Michigan senator this week abstained from voting on a bill he sponsored, citing a potential conflict on interest.

The bill is Senate Bill 693, sponsored by Sen. Dan Lauwers, R-Brockway Township. Lauwers is a farmer by trade, and the bill would change requirements for loans offered through the state's agricultural disaster loan program.

The bill would increase interest rates that lenders could attach to loans offered to property owners through the program and would extend the maximum term of the loans from five years to seven years.

When the proposal, which Lauwers introduced Dec. 11, came before the Senate on Tuesday, Lauwers abstained from voting. He cited a ""potential personal financial interest"" in the bill.

""Because my farm may be eligible for the Michigan Agriculture Disaster Loan Origination Program, and out of an abundance of caution, I will not vote on Senate Bill 693,"" Lauwers said, according to a statement printed in the Senate journal.

Senate rules bar senators from voting on bills in which they have a ""personal, private or professional interest.""

While it is normal for state lawmakers to abstain from voting on bills because of a potential conflict, it's much more unusual for lawmakers to abstain on a bill they",Insider: Michigan senator cites potential conflict in not voting on own bill,tweets_news_1396,tweets_news
"Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, faces perhaps the toughest fight of her 20-plus-year career to keep her seat.ANNA MONEYMAKER/The New York Times

It did not take Sara Gideon long to leverage Monday's Supreme Court ruling on abortion in her race against Sen. Susan Collins.

When Collins, R-Maine, cast a decisive vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018, she did so on the premise that he would uphold precedent to preserve abortion rights. But this week, Kavanaugh dissented from a decision that did that, arguing the court should have ruled differently than it did in a nearly identical case four years ago.

""Do you still think Brett Kavanaugh believes Roe v. Wade is settled law, @SenSusanCollins?"" Gideon tweeted.

Collins, a rare Republican who supports abortion rights, is facing the most difficult campaign of her more than 20-year Senate career, in large part as a result of her vote to confirm Kavanaugh. The new ruling has taken what may be one of her biggest vulnerabilities and put it squarely at the center of public attention.

She is not alone: The court's ruling, which struck down a Louisiana law that could have left the state with just a single abortion clinic, reverberated rapidly through",Abortion ruling hurts at-risk GOP,tweets_news_1397,tweets_news
"Mt. Pleasant, SC, March 10, 2021 --(PR.com)-- Social Strata, a provider of online community software for nonprofits, businesses and other organizations, today announced the launch of Crowdstack, an independent group space that combines the functionality of Facebook Groups and Slack.

CMO Rosemary O'Neill said, ""It was time for an independent alternative to some of the big tech social group spaces. People are tired of personal data exchanged for a 'free' service, shady ad metrics, unwritten content moderation rules, shutdowns with no recourse, zero customer support (you're not the customer).""

The new Crowdstack is priced so that small clubs and families can use a free plan (up to 20 members and 2 channels), with higher plans for larger groups ($99/yr for up to 500 members and 5 channels or $199/yr for unlimited members and 30 channels). For new signups, all features are included for the first 7 days.

Key features include public and private channels for posting, direct messaging, and member directory. Admins and moderators can set up content moderation via automation rules, feature specific posts, customize themes, and set up custom profile fields. Members can easily log in to Crowdstack using integrated Crowdstack ID or social credentials.

Crowdstack is an ideal solution for creators",Social Strata Launches Facebook Groups Alternative,tweets_news_1398,tweets_news
"Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush declared his candidacy for Texas attorney general on June 2, challenging fellow Republican Ken Paxton.

Paxton has held the post since 2015 and will be up for reelection in 2022.

Bush is the son of former Florida Republican Gov. jeb Bush and the nephew of former President George W. Bush.

Bush made the announcement during an event at a bar in Austin, Texas. He touted the conservative agenda he implemented at the Texas General Land Office and circumspectly accused Paxton's office of corruption.

""But we've got our own problems in Austin. We have a web of corruption and lies that affect one of the highest offices in our land, and it's time for a change,"" Bush said. ""We have a scandal that is plaguing one of our highest offices, and I believe conservatives should have a choice in the Republican primary.""

Bush appeared to be referring to an anonymously sourced report by The Associated Press published last year that claimed Paxton was under investigation by the FBI. Paxton's office had declined to comment on the report at the time.

The two candidates are vying for an endorsement from former President Donald Trump. Bush is the only member of the family",George P. Bush Announces Run for Texas Attorney General,tweets_news_1399,tweets_news
"

Feb 03, 2021( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Greene moderated a Facebook group that featured content calling for the execution of Democrats. This Mother Jones report is the latest to chronicle her history of promoting political violence. The House will vote on Thursday to strip Greene of her committee assignments.

Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories[1].Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene served as the national director of a far-right Facebook group that expressed support for executing leading Democrats and featured violent memes amplifying conspiracy theories.That's according to Mother Jones[2], which first reported on Greene's long history of involvement with the group, called Family America Project.The freshman congresswoman's biography says she once served as the national director of the group, which was created in January 2018. It has a small following - roughly 1,700 followers - and describes itself as ""the first and only national umbrella organization connecting, uniting, and informing statewide grassroots groups and activists; working together and mobilizing to support President Trump, protect Constitutional rights of Americans, and reinvigorate our American roots and culture.""Mother Jones reported that the group's founder, Genevieve Peters, made headlines last year when she refused to wear a mask at a Trader",Marjorie Taylor Greene was the moderator of a Facebook group that expressed support for executing Democrats and Trump opponents,tweets_news_1400,tweets_news
"

Dec 09, 2020( Tubefilter: http://www.tubefilter.com Delivered by Newstex) Twitch has announced today a significant revamp of its Harassment And Hateful Conduct policies, which it says marks the culmination of months of research, feedback from the community, and consultation with experts as well as the input of its own Safety Advisory Council[1]. Twitch says it also drew heavily on a review of past incidents to identify edge cases and opportunities for further clarification across the board. The new policies which are now broken down into three sections: 'Harassment', 'Hateful Conduct', and 'Sexual Harassment' will start being enforced as of Jan. 22, so that the community has time to digest the new standards.

Content created on or after Jan. 22 will be evaluated under the new guidelines. (You can check out the current guidelines, which will remain in place until then, right here[2]). 'We know that many people on Twitch particularly women, members of the LGBTQIA+community, Black, Indigenous, and people of color unfortunately continue to experience adisproportionate amount of harassment and abuse online, including on our service,' Twitch said in a blog post announcing the changes. 'We developed the new policy to take a clearer and more consistent stance against hate and harassment,","Twitch Institutes Sweeping Changes To 'Harassment And Hateful Conduct' Policies, Beginning Jan. 22",tweets_news_1401,tweets_news
"Kevin Parker says his new album as Tame Impala reflects two major life events.

The first was marrying his girlfriend, Sophie Lawrence, in early 2019 in western Australia, where Parker started his one-man psych-rock band more than a decade ago and where he still lives when he's not spending time in his second home of Los Angeles.

The other was downloading that app that shows you what you'll look like when you get old.

""It sounds stupid, I know,"" Parker, 34, said of FaceApp, which caused a social-media frenzy last summer as users scrambled to post photos of themselves with digitally enhanced wrinkles. ""But coupled with getting married, seeing myself as an old man really made me feel like I was reading the book of my life. I could see exactly which chapter I'd just finished and which chapter was just beginning.""

The result of his musings is ""The Slow Rush,"" Tame Impala's cosmic knockout of a fourth studio LP. Due Friday, the album floats Parker's sage observations on life's forward march -- sample titles include ""One More Year"" and ""Tomorrow's Dust"" -- over trippy, gorgeously detailed arrangements that knowingly juggle sounds from different eras: fuzzy retro-'60s guitars, slick '70s-era disco grooves, ringing piano",POP MUSIC,tweets_news_1402,tweets_news
"She's called the president of Honduras a narco. The president of El Salvador, she said, was a ""narcissistic dictator.""

Norma Torres, the lone member of Congress from Central America, is not afraid to speak her mind - sometimes in surprising ways - about immigration, corruption and the land of her birth. Her blunt talk has drawn so much anger from one Central American leader and his followers that she sleeps with a 9-millimeter pistol at her side.

Torres, a Democrat from Pomona, brings a unique perspective on what drives people to flee their home countries.

When she was a toddler and civil war was raging in Guatemala, her parents had used her as something of a human shield on perilous roads, holding her up to the windshield in hopes that seeing a tiny child would stop gunmen from firing into the family car.

Torres had already survived shootouts and a kidnapping attempt. She was 5 when her parents decided they had to get her out of the country.

So one day in 1970, they bundled her up with an uncle in his well-traveled truck and sent her off to California. She thought she was going on vacation.

Living with her uncle and other relatives in the",Why the only member of Congress born in Central America sleeps with a gun by her bed,tweets_news_1403,tweets_news
"Twenty Democratic representatives wrote that USAID's deputy White House liaison holds positions ""in direct opposition to the work USAID supports.""

House Democrats on Wednesday demanded the resignation of a U.S. Agency for International Development appointee over her reported history of ""homophobic, misogynistic, and xenophobic"" comments.

Twenty Democratic representatives, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, wrote in a letter to acting USAID Administrator John Barsa that the agency's deputy White House liaison, Merritt Corrigan, holds positions ""in direct opposition to the work USAID supports.""

The letter is the latest step congressional Democrats have taken in response to the presence of controversial Trump appointees at USAID, which has sparked tensions among career staff.

In 2019, POLITICO reported on Corrigan's Twitter account and cataloged a number of posts that lawmakers cited in their letter. Corrigan wrote that ""our homo-empire couldn't tolerate even one commercial enterprise not in full submission to the tyrannical LGBT agenda.""

""Liberal democracy is little more than a front for the war being waged against us by those who fundamentally despise not only our way of life, but life itself,"" Corrigan wrote in another post.

""We are left wondering how Ms. Corrigan is able to effectively serve an agency whose principles are so",House Democrats call for resignation of USAID political appointee with history of 'homophobic' comments,tweets_news_1404,tweets_news
"As millions of American children start the school year online, the Trump administration is hoping to convert their parents' frustration and anger into newfound support for school choice policies that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has long championed but struggled to advance nationally.

DeVos and President Donald Trump have repeatedly invoked school choice as the solution to parents' woes. If public schools fail to open, they say, parents should get a cut of the district's federal funding to send their children to private schools or for home schooling, learning pods or other options that have arisen during the coronavirus pandemic.

For Trump, it's seen as a potential lifeline to Black and Hispanic voters, who are more likely to support vouchers and other school choice options, polls have found. Speaking at the White House in July, Trump declared that ""there is nothing that the African American community wants more than school choice."" He has also used the issue as a political weapon against Democratic opponent Joe Biden, who supports stricter accountability measures for charter schools.

For DeVos, however, the pandemic offers a new chance to win support for policies she has spent her career promoting. Before taking office, she spent decades as an advocate for","Trump, DeVos raise school choice in appeal to vexed parents",tweets_news_1405,tweets_news
"For multitudes of people across the globe, the U.S. election is not a far-away happening in a faraway land but an impossible-to-ignore big deal for the entire planet

In one of the towns in Normandy where U.S. Army paratroopers fought and died on D-Day in World War II, a French store owner already has readied the ""Trump 2020"" flag that he plans to unfurl in celebration if the U.S. president wins a second term.

But in Sweden, a scientist alarmed by the increasing signs of global warming she witnessed on her latest Arctic research trip is hoping Trump is voted out, not simply because she believes Democrat Joe Biden will do better against climate change but also because she wants to fall back in love with a country she now finds repellent.

Two voices, from among the multitudes of people across the globe for whom the U.S. election is not a faraway event in a faraway land but an impossible-to-ignore contest with stakes for the entire world. For many, that's especially true in a year in which the scythe of the coronavirus through millions of lives and livelihoods has driven home the need for countries to work together.

Because Trump has had such an","Fascinated and trepidatious, world braces for America's vote",tweets_news_1406,tweets_news
"NetEase is the latest company facing punishment for failing to properly censor comments on a news appOnline service providers use a combination of labour and automated technology to keep content within acceptable boundaries

When people think of censorship in China, they usually think about the Great Firewall and netizens turning to clever images and puns to circumvent restrictions. But users are not the only ones left at the whims of censors. Digital platforms are often on the hook for figuring out how to keep disagreeable content off their services.

The latest big content provider to face the wrath of Chinese censors is NetEase, which was fined this week because of comments on its news app that were deemed inappropriate.

The company had to suspend the commenting function in the app while it undergoes ""rectification"". But NetEase is just one of multiple online platforms that have been called to rectify themselves in recent months.

Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.

The rectification drive is part of a wider crackdown from the Cyberspace Administration as a result of a new regulation that went into effect in March that widens the net for who is responsible",Beyond the Great Firewall: China's vast censorship apparatus ropes in companies to do the work themselves,tweets_news_1407,tweets_news
"It was an impassioned plea from a Point Grey resident that got John Horgan's attention Monday.

I'm a parent of four, the email said. Extending SkyTrain to UBC will change our lives. Why isn't the project on track (as it were)?

Only one problem: The email was sent not to John Horgan, the premier of B.C., but to John Horgan, a psychology professor at Georgia State University and the author of several books on terrorism. If you want to know about the rise of the extremist right, he's your man. SkyTrain extensions, not so much.

So, down in Atlanta, Horgan replied to the correspondent from Point Grey, saying something along the lines of ""Um, good for you for caring, and I applaud your civic engagement, but ....""

He also took to Twitter: ""Canadian friends, those of you writing to me to complain about delays to the proposed SkyTrain project deal - I appreciate your frustration and know there are implications for the whole province, not just UBC, but I am not the John Horgan you seek.""

Canadian friends, those of you writing to me to complain about delays to the proposed SkyTrain project deal - I appreciate your frustration and know there are implications for",Jack Knox: Off-target tweets don't faze Georgia's John Horgan,tweets_news_1408,tweets_news
"Leon Trotsky once supposedly observed, ""You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."" To President Joe Biden I'd say today, ""You may not be interested in Middle East peacemaking, but Middle East peacemaking is interested in you.""

Here's why: All three key players in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been dealt some huge painful shocks over the past year. They know, deep down, that another round of fighting like the one we saw in the past two weeks could unleash disastrous consequences for each of them. Henry Kissinger forged the first real peace breakthrough between Israelis and Arabs after they were all reeling, vulnerable and in pain as a result of the 1973 War. They each knew that something had to change.

Today, if you look and listen closely, you can sense a similar moment shaping up in the wake of the latest Hamas-Israel war.

The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, led by Abu Mazen, was dealt a significant blow when President Donald Trump last year managed to get the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan to each normalize relations with Israel — without waiting for a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal. The message to the West Bank Palestinian",Biden's sudden opportunity to make peace,tweets_news_1409,tweets_news
"Democrat Joe Biden is now president of the United States. Two Democrats defeated two Republican incumbents to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate, swinging the balance of power in the Senate to the Democrats who already control the House of Representatives. Therefore, you would think Georgia Republicans have figured out by now who the enemy is. Chances are you would have thought wrong.

To quote the sage of the Okefenokee Swamp, Pogo the Possum, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” It seems that once again Republicans are showing their penchant for eating their dead.

This one you can lay at the feet of Donald Trump. He has split the party as wide open as a coconut. Angry Republicans who believe the election results were fraudulent write me and avow they intend to get Gov. Brian Kemp defeated should he seek a second term next year. Not to mention Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and beleaguered Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — all Republicans. Trump supporters hold them and Attorney General Chris Carr responsible for the president’s defeat.

They seem to be assuming their actions won’t create such a rift among Republicans that they will be handing the governor’s office on a",Can Trump supporters identify the real enemy,tweets_news_1410,tweets_news
"Seattle police chief Carmen Best said earlier anecdotal claims 'Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone' protesters were extorting businesses are not true.

David Ryder/Getty Images

Seattle police retracted claims that protesters at the ""Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone"" have been extorting local businesses, The Seattle Times reported. 

A police spokesperson said Wednesday that they had heard ""anecdotally"" about the practice, which was then widely reported in the media.

But Seattle's police chief Carmen Best said Thursday they had had no formal reports of extortion happening.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Seattle police on Thursday retracted an earlier claim that protesters camped at what has been dubbed ""Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone"" were extorting nearby businesses, according to The Seattle Times.

Police chief Carmen Best walked back prior statements made by her own department, which have since circulated widely and attracted condemnation from conservative critics of the protesters.

At a Wednesday news conference, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Deanna Nollette had told reporters: ""We've heard, anecdotally, reports of citizens and businesses being asked to pay a fee to operate within this area. This is the crime of extortion,"" Fox News reported.

The report became a headline item in several other right-leaning news and commentary pieces, including on the New York Post, PJ",Police retract claims that Seattle's 'Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone' protesters tried to extort local businesses,tweets_news_1411,tweets_news
"Several Michigan lawmakers pushed back Wednesday against President Donald Trump's threat to veto a major defense spending bill if Congress does not eliminate certain liability protections for internet companies.

""This is not the time or place,"" said Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell of Dryden, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee.

Trump wants lawmakers to end a provision in federal law that provides a legal shield for technology companies so they can't be sued over content posted by users, or over the decisions the companies make about content they remove or leave online.

Trump, who has accused social media companies of bias against conservatives, tweeted late Tuesday that Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act is ""very dangerous"" and unfair and poses ""a serious threat to our National Security & Election Integrity.""

Sen. Gary Peters, a Bloomfield Township Democrat who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, noted that for 59 years there's been strong bipartisan support for passing the National Defense Authorization Act, which provides a pay raise for troops, sets national defense policy, and supports manufacturers and jobs in Michigan and across the country.

""President Trump should not threaten to veto legislation that's critical to our national security and our troops",Mich. lawmakers balk at Trump's veto threat,tweets_news_1412,tweets_news
"According to CPAC, ""It's time to stand up for Americans whose views have gotten them canceled,"" which is why they kicked things off by canceling an appearance from one of their panelists for a history of making anti-Semitic claims. Good - conservatives don't want to be associated with anyone like that. It could sully the good name of the mob with aluminum bats trying to murder Mike Pence.

- Stephen Colbert

CPAC apparently hadn't known about Young Pharaoh's history of anti-Semitism, and called his views ""reprehensible,"" saying they have ""no home"" with their conference. Yes, conservatives would never doubt the existence of Jewish people. Otherwise, who's operating the space laser?

- Stephen Colbert

I didn't know America was canceled. Although, I'm not surprised - the last season was pretty unbelievable.

- Stephen Colbert

Today in Washington, President Biden met virtually with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the first time since taking office. ... Trudeau was like, ""On behalf of Canada, thank you for your friendship, for your support and for taking Ted Cruz.""

- Jimmy Fallon

Trudeau and Biden had a typical video chat between a 49-year-old and a 78-year-old. Trudeau spent the first 20 minutes trying to tell Biden he was on mute.

- Jimmy Fallon

You just",Nightlines,tweets_news_1413,tweets_news
"On March 16, a white man traveled to three Atlanta area spas and took the lives of Soon C. Park, Hyun J. Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong A. Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiajoie Tan and Daoyou Feng. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver wasted no time in jumping into this story - starting with how Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office said the aforementioned white man who killed these eight people - six of them were of Asian descent - was struggling with a sex addiction and was at the end of his rope. Apparently, all of this was the result of a ""bad day"", basically sympathizing and humanizing a white man who went on a shooting spree.

""Absolutely, f*cking not,"" said Oliver in reaction to footage of Baker's press conference. ""You get that this is a press conference about mass murder, right? You don't get to minimize what happened like that.""

Oliver added that Baker said the white man's attack wasn't racially motivated and as details continue to be released about the mass shooting, authorities are still unwilling to call this a hate crime.

""I will say, a white man driving across counties to two different towns,","'Last Week Tonight': John Oliver Addresses Atlanta Mass Shooting, Says ""Anti-Asian Racism Has Long Been A Fact Of American Life""",tweets_news_1414,tweets_news
"When society is divided and tensions run high, those divisions play out on social media. Platforms like Facebook hold up a mirror to society - with more than three billion people using Facebook's apps every month, everything that is good, bad and ugly in our societies will find expression on our platform. That puts a big responsibility on Facebook and other social media companies to decide where to draw the line over what content is acceptable.

Facebook has come in for much criticism in recent weeks following its decision to allow controversial posts by US President Donald Trump to stay up, and misgivings on the part of many people, including companies that advertise on our platform, about our approach to tackling hate speech. I want to be unambiguous: Facebook does not profit from hate. Billions of people use Facebook and Instagram because they have good experiences - they don't want to see hateful content, our advertisers don't want to see it, and we don't want to see it. There is no incentive for us to do anything but remove it.

More than 100 billion messages are sent on our services every day. That's all of us, talking to each other, sharing our",Rooting out hate is like looking for a needle in a haystack,tweets_news_1415,tweets_news
"The former presidential candidate on lessons from the pandemic, his next moves and why Joe Biden needs Latino voters.

The former presidential candidate on lessons from the pandemic, his next moves and why Joe Biden needs Latino voters.

Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host.

Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every weekday.

Julián Castro, one of the highest-profile Latino Democrats to have sought the presidential nomination, doesn’t exactly know what’s next.

Unlike some of his former Democratic presidential primary rivals, Mr. Castro no longer has a day job as an elected official. After nearly two decades in politics, he doesn’t have his eye on a future race. Quarantined at home, his most important constituency is his 5-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter.

What he does know? At a time when many Democrats are increasingly concerned that their party is taking Latino voters for granted, Mr. Castro wants to support the kind of liberal candidates who he believes can connect with communities of color.

Mr. Castro, a former San Antonio mayor and housing secretary, has created a political action committee called People First Future to help elect progressive Democrats running at all levels",Julián Castro: ‘It’s a Totally Porous Safety Net’,tweets_news_1416,tweets_news
"Oct. 18--There’s a shocking real-life plot twist in the middle of The Trial of the Chicago 7 -- Aaron Sorkin’s occasionally flawed but mostly compelling and timely new film that washed across an entertainment-starved nation this weekend -- that I imagine sent a lot of Netflix addicts from Gen Z racing to their Google machine.

One minute the charismatic young Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton (played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is a presence in the late-1969 trial as an daily adviser to his fellow Panther and defendant, Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). The next minute Hampton is disappeared -- riddled, as we see in gruesome black-and-white photos, by bullets fired by cops aided by an FBI informant in a killing that dramatizes the ever-rising stakes for those seeking to air grievances against their government during the Vietnam War era.

What the movie suggests -- and which years of investigations and lawsuits conclusively proved -- is that Hampton didn’t die in “a shootout” as the FBI and prosecutors falsely claimed, but was in fact assassinated as he lie in bed by a federal government that was waging an escalating war against political dissent. Nearly 51 years later, it’s hard to say what",The chilling part about ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’? It’s all happening again in 2020 | Will Bunch,tweets_news_1417,tweets_news
"Mike and Karen Pence have spoken with pride of their three children -Michael, Charlotte and Audrey

Vice President Mike Pence is known to rely on his wife Karen for support -the pair, married for 34 years, are inseparable.

Less, however, is known about their three children -all young adults, beginning to forge their paths independently, but who were all present on August 26 for Pence's address to the Republican National Convention.

""This has always been a family affair for us, from the very first campaign headed out to county fairs,"" Pence said several years ago.

""While Karen and I would be shaking hands at the Republican tent, the kids would be standing out in front of the tent, handing out flyers and shaking hands.""

View this post on Instagram Life en route A post shared by Audrey Ann Pence (@audreyannpence) on Sep 1, 2016 at 7:40pm PDTPence famously sparked fierce debate in Washington when he revealed that he would not dine alone with another woman, and would turn down an invitation to any function where alcohol was served if his wife was not with him.The 61-year-old vice president met Karen while she was playing guitar at Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Indianapolis, a","Mike Pence family: VP is 'inseparable' from his wife, has a 'socially liberal' daughter and a famous rabbit",tweets_news_1418,tweets_news
"At the end of May, as American corporations continued to issue statements on nationwide protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, CBS released its own: ""Black Lives Matter. Black Culture Matters. Black Communities Matter,"" the company stated, adding that it stands in solidarity with black employees and viewers, and condemns acts of racism, discrimination and senseless violence.

The irony of that statement, as several people pointed out, is that the unnamed law enforcement entities committing the acts protested against are often the protagonists of CBS dramas. While also known for its family sitcoms, CBS relies on crime series to make up a hefty portion of its prime-time lineup, whether with long-running institutions such as NCIS and Blue Bloods or newer shows like FBI: Most Wanted. It's not just CBS, though its lineup might be especially notable considering the network was again deemed television's most-watched. It's also silver medallist NBC, which produces Law and Order: SVU, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and all the Chicago series. It's the cable channels and streaming series. It's all the television entering American homes with compelling depictions of good and bad, told through lenses that vary in terms of law enforcement branch, department, gender and, increasingly, race.

With such",TV shows shape how law enforcement is viewed,tweets_news_1419,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This report by Joe Tidy contains details that viewers may find upsetting.(TX) She witnessed a man masturbating, and the man wanted to play truth or dare. It's a site you might not have heard of, but Omegle has been linking up people for random video chats for years, and it's gone viral during lockdown. Traffic to the site has surged globally from 34 million to 65 million visits a month. It claims to be moderated, but has a reputation for being unpredictable and unsafe.

Fuelled by viral videos, and take tack alone there are more than 9 billion views, and it's a site that claims to be moderated, but has a reputation for being unpredictable and unsafe. And 12 hour period during a BBC investigation, we were paired at random with 12 masturbating men, eight naked males and seven porn adverts. The site has no age verification and we found dozens of underage teens, some children",Joins BBC News - 04:15 AM GMT,tweets_news_1420,tweets_news
"MIDDLETOWN - The public school district has removed politically charged images, including the phrases ""Black lives matter"" and ""make America great again,"" from classrooms at Middletown High School North after a social media firestorm erupted around an image of a science teacher's desk.

Lettering on the desk read, in all capital letters and the colors of the rainbow, ""in this class, we believe Black lives matter, women's rights are human rights, no human is illegal, science is real, love is love, kindness is everything.""

Another classroom had a banner that read, ""Trump, the 45th U.S. President, make America great again,"" the last part of which was a frequent campaign slogan for Trump in 2016 and is again this year.

Board of Education President Pam Rogers said the items had been removed. Township resident and district parent Mike Craig posted the photo of the teacher's desk in the ""Middletown TownshipNJ Community and Families"" group, singling out Rogers, who is running for re-election to the school board, for criticism.

""We don't want your progressive views imposed on our children,"" Craig wrote.

""I'm asking everyone to email the principal at North and ask it be taken down.""

The post garnered some 1,600 comments before moderators turned off the comments","BLM, MAGA slogans pulled from schools in Middletown",tweets_news_1421,tweets_news
"US President Donald Trump is trying to turn America's free and fair election into a muddled mess of misinformation, specious legal claims and baseless attacks on the underpinnings of the nation's democracy.

The resulting chaos and confusion that has created isn't the byproduct of Trump's strategy following his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. The chaos and confusion is the strategy.

Trump's blizzard of attacks on the election are allowing him to sow discontent and doubt among his most loyal supporters, leaving many with the false impression that he is the victim of fraudulent voting. That won't keep Trump in office - Biden will be sworn in on January 20 - but it could both undermine the new president's efforts to unify a fractured nation and fuel Trump in his next endeavour, whether that's another White House run in 2024 or a high-profile media venture.

""This is all about maintaining his ego and visibility,"" said Judd Gregg, the former Republican governor and US senator from New Hampshire. ""He's raising a lot of money and he intends to use it.""

The effects of Trump's strategy are already starting to emerge. A Monmouth University poll out on Thursday showed that 77 per cent of Trump supporters said",The real strategy behind Trump's attempt to undermine the election,tweets_news_1422,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump insists there are ""numerous provisions"" in the Constitution to support his view that he has ""total authority"" to order states to open their economies as the coronavirus pandemic roils.

By MICHAEL TACKETT

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump insists there are ""numerous provisions"" in the Constitution to support his view that he has ""total authority"" to order states to open their economies as the coronavirus pandemic roils.

He did not enumerate what they were. And the consensus among constitutional scholars is that's because they don't exist.

Trump's statement on Monday was another head-snapping turn in a presidency filled with them. In the days and weeks before, Trump had laid responsibility for the pandemic response at the feet of the nation's governors. Now, he says he has vast powers as president to compel states to action.

In doing so, he reignited a debate as old as the nation over the division of power and authority between the federal government and the states.

The United States was founded in the late 18th century in part on a profound skepticism of the dangers of power concentrated in a central government. The 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights was designed to apportion authority.",Trump's 'I alone can fix it' view and state powers collide,tweets_news_1423,tweets_news
"

Jan 09, 2021( Conservative Daily News: http://conservativedailynews.com Delivered by Newstex) Apple and Google have now made the case to remove section 230 liability protections from social media companies.On Thursday, Google removed social media app Parler from its app store over disagreements with the content posted on the platform.On Friday, Apple gave Parler just 24 hours to censor its content or be removed from the iStore.Apple and Google evidently believe that a social media company is responsible for the content posted on its platform by users and should be punished when that content does not conform to their idea of societal norms.When you distill this Orwellian message down, Apple and Google believe that social media companies are directly liable for the content posted on their sites and the ideologies of their users. That is in direct contravention of Twitter and Facebook's position that they are open forums and cannot be held liable for what users post.Oddly, the move by the two tech giants also adds mounting evidence that they operate as monopolistic dictators in their respective spaces.If Parler is unable to put its app on the Apple Store or Google Play, it will be basically invisible to the mobile user community",Apple and Google Prove Social Media Should Not Have Liability Protection,tweets_news_1424,tweets_news
"Switzerland: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has issued the following press release:

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed alarm at the clampdown on freedom of expression in parts of the Asia-Pacific during the COVID-19 crisis, saying any actions taken to stop the spread of false information must be proportionate.

Many countries in the region already have laws governing alleged “fake news” and online media that raise human rights concerns and have been used in other contexts to deter legitimate speech, especially public debate, criticism of government policy and suppress freedom of expression.

Measures should adhere to the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, serve a legitimate public health objective and should be the “least intrusive” approach required to achieve that result.

Bachelet said the COVID-19 pandemic had seen a further tightening of censorship in several countries, along with the arbitrary arrest and detention of people critical of their Government’s response or for simply sharing information or views about the pandemic.

Arrests for expressing discontent or allegedly spreading false information through the press and social media, have been reported in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam.

The High Commissioner",Asia: Bachelet alarmed by clampdown on freedom of expression during COVID-19,tweets_news_1425,tweets_news
"BHUBANESWAR, Jan. 15 -- Mosquitoes are a big nuisance as not only they bite and cause irritation but are also responsible for serious illnesses like Dengue and Malaria. That is why most of us try various methods of keeping the mosquitoes at bay. From mosquito-repelling liquids to ointments and sticks, there are a lot of products that help in repelling mosquitoes. But most of them contain toxic chemicals that also lead to breathing problems in animals and humans.

That is why using a natural repellant that does not cause any harmful side effects is the best way to stay safe and keep the mosquitoes away. Here are a few methods to prepare such repellants at home:

1. Coconut Oil & Peppermint Oil Mixture

Take 12 drops of Peppermint oil and add it to 30 ml of coconut oil. Apply this mixture to the exposed area of your body to keep mosquitoes at bay. Mosquitoes mostly become active after the sunset so apply it during the evening and even in the night at bedtime.

Peppermint oil is a natural bug repellant. When you mix it with coconut oil it becomes an ideal concoction for daily application good both for the skin as well as for",How To Prepare Natural Mosquito Repellent At Home?,tweets_news_1426,tweets_news
"

Jun 25, 2020( Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/ Delivered by Newstex) There were some primary elections t'other night, ya hear? And many Americans who have internet have noticed that the guy who won the GOP primary to take Mark Meadows's former seat in North Carolina's 11th District looks like this: Oh good god. And no, that's not some model photo, it's from his fucking Instagram.[1] Meet Madison Cawthorn. He is 24-many years old, and assuming he is elected to Congress in November — it's a red-ass district and he's the Republican nominee — he will be just barely old enough to serve, as he will have just turned 25 by then.

HI, Madison Cawthorn, HI. (Get it out of your system now.) HI, Madison! You're so hot we bet you're garbage HIIIIIIIII Madison! So, he has a story. He was paralyzed in a car accident in 2014, and apparently he almost died, and he's come a hell of a long way since then. And we are GENUINE glad he has come so far!But like so many Republican shitheels do, the once-homeschooled[2] — naturally — Cawthorn has taken his own adversity and sought a larger platform, to spread some adversity to everyone else, especially those","Meet Madison Cawthorn, The Hot Garbage Who Might Replace Mark Meadows In Congress, He's Garbage, The End",tweets_news_1427,tweets_news
"Divisions flared quickly on Wednesday as U.S. Catholic bishops opened a national meeting highlighted by a sensitive agenda item — whether to take initial steps toward a possible rebuke of politicians, including President Joe Biden, who receive Communion while supporting abortion rights.

Some said the issue was so important and contentious that all the more than 260 participating bishops should have an opportunity to address it during the three-day meeting that's being held virtually.

Others derided that proposal as a delaying tactic by those who are skeptical of the initiative. They said bishops would have ample time to comment at a later meeting when the full draft of a new statement on Communion would be presented for consideration.

After an extended exchange, 59% of the bishops voted against a motion by St. Louis Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski to allow more speaking opportunities at this week's meeting.

At stake is a proposal that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' doctrine committee draft a statement on the meaning of Communion in the life of the church that would be submitted for a vote at a future meeting, probably an in-person gathering in November.

Some conservative bishops say such a statement should signal to Catholic politicians that support of",Rift on Communion policy as US Catholic bishops open meeting,tweets_news_1428,tweets_news
"Joe Biden speaks at campaign event Monday at Mill 19 in Pittsburgh.Carolyn Kaster/AP

He's alive!

After watching his widely praised speech at the socially distanced Democratic National Convention, I wondered when Joe Biden would come out of his basement again, even if it was only to give a little balance to the whoppers pouring out of the White House.

If the political rise of President Donald Trump has taught us anything, it is the importance of a candidate expressing his or her beliefs with a passion and commitment that says they're speaking on voters' behalf.

As this year's race comes down to the wire, we know Trump is behind in the polls, but not by much. In fact, he's nail-bitingly close to where the race looked four years ago at this point.

But this time he is burdened by two crises that he didn't create himself: the coronavirus pandemic, and the national racial reckoning and protests that have followed the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

In response, Team Trump turns to his long-established tactics: distractions, deflection and the demonization of his rivals. The result has been the creation of a new Trump-style doublespeak that, for",Biden's straight talk faces Trump's doublespeak,tweets_news_1429,tweets_news
"A look at the first quarter of the year that was 2019.

January 3: China's ""Chang'e 4"" is the first space probe to land on the far side of the moon. January 11: Macedonia is now North Macedonia, ending a row with Greece and paving the way for NATO membership and EU accession talks. The Greek parliament ratifies the historic name agreement on January 25.January 13: The mayor of the Polish city of Gdansk, Pawel Adamowicz, 53, is stabbed to death by a previously convicted bank robber during a fundraiser. January 15: Attackers claimed by the Somalia-based group al-Shabaab storm the upmarket Dusit hotel in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, killing more than 20. January 18: After four months of political deadlock in Sweden, Social Democratic leader Stefan Lofven wins a vote in parliament to form a government.

January 18: At least 109 people are killed when a fuel pipeline explodes in the Mexican city of Tlahuelilpan.

January 22: The EU Commission imposes a fine of 570 million euros on the credit card company Mastercard for artificially pushing up the cost of card payments.

January 23: Juan Guaido, the head of Venezuela's opposition-dominated National Assembly, declares himself the country's interim president.

January 24: Felix Tshisekedi is","Brexit beckoned, protests proliferated and Greenland was not for sale",tweets_news_1430,tweets_news
"The so-called ""blue wave"" that Democrats had expected to wash over Texas turned out to be little more than a ripple.

After spending millions of dollars on campaign advertising in Texas, Democrats made little progress at the voting booths in their efforts to win long-held Republican seats at the state and federal level.

""We're still a red state, in spite of a very unpopular president, and in the midst of a pandemic with the economy in doldrums,"" said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University.

None of the five GOP-held Texas House seats believed to be vulnerable in Tarrant County and surrounding areas changed hands during the election Tuesday. State Reps. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, and Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, were among those who appeared to have a wide enough lead Wednesday morning to secure re-election, although their races hadn't yet been called.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, handily won re-election over Democratic challenger MJ Hegar -- although it was his toughest competition in 18 years.

Ballots are still being counted in several high-profile Congressional races in Dallas-Fort Worth, including the battle for District 24 in Northeast Tarrant County, but as of noon Wednesday it appeared that those seats were on course to remain","They waged big-dollar campaigns in Texas, but Democrats' blue wave was just a ripple",tweets_news_1431,tweets_news
"

Dec 10, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) EXCLUSIVE: YouTube Employs Chinese Communist 'State Secrecy Bureau' Software EngineersBy: Natalie Winters, National Pulse, December 10, 2020 YouTube - the Google-owned video platform making headlines for vowing to censor all content flagging 'election fraud or errors' - employs software engineers with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, The National Pulse can reveal. A host of software engineers for the platform have formerly worked for Chinese Communist Party-run institutions, raising the question as to why a revolving door exists between YouTube and the China-based universities. A software engineer for the video platform since May of 2019,Tai Jinjiang, previously worked as a project manager for Guanghzou Shian Technology. Jinjiang detailed his work for the China-based firm as playing a 'major role in successful PLA certification of ShiAn terminal by Ministry of Public Security, State Secrecy Bureau, and IT Evaluation Center.'

In other words, Jinjiang led software efforts on behalf of the PLA - appearing to reference China's People's Liberation Army - and a host of Chinese government-led intelligence bodies. What's more, he notes he 'garnered numerous staff awards for excellent performance.' Jinjiang's job description.Additionally, Xiao Chen - [1]who lists himself as a software",YouTube Employs Chinese Communist 'State Secrecy Bureau' Software Engineers,tweets_news_1432,tweets_news
"The WHO declared Covid a pandemic in March.

Topline

Congressman-elect Bob Good, a Republican from Virginia, told a rally in support of President Trump that the coronavirus pandemic is phony, a false claim that brought cheers from the crowd in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

<figure class=""embed-base image-embed embed-0"">

<figcaption>

Congressman-elect Bob Good, Republican then-candidate for Virginia's 5th Congressional District, holds a rally at the Appomattox County Courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020. (Photo by Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via

CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

</figcaption> </figure>

Key Facts

Good said the crowd looks like a group of people that gets it, seeming to applaud that the attendees weren t wearing masks, saying, I can t tell you how great it is to look out and see your faces.

He also praised the crowd for standing up against tyranny and saying no to the insanity.

Good claimed that Covid-19 is a serious virus, but somehow did not qualify as a pandemic, even as the U.S. death toll nears 300,000.

Good was one of the featured speakers at amarch for Trumporganized by the group Women for America First, in support of his efforts to overturnthe results of the presidential election.

The rallies included musical performances and also a bizarre religious event","Republican Congressman-Elect Says Covid Is A  Phony Pandemic  As U.S. Deaths Near 300,000",tweets_news_1433,tweets_news
"Northeast Ohioans, whether they voted for Joe Biden or not, have a long list of things they want the 46th president of the United States to accomplish.

Unity, bipartisan cooperation, consequences for those who attacked the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, a better economy, no new taxes on the middle class and equal rights for all.

“Biden definitely has some unique challenges, including the pandemic,” said Matt Brown, who lives in Akron’s Goodyear Heights neighborhood.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — the first woman, the first Black and the first South Asian American elected vice president — take office during uncertain times marked by a raging pandemic, the second impeachment of Donald J. Trump and a sweeping investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump rioters, many of whom refuse to accept Biden and Harris won election.

In the days leading up to his inauguration, Biden made his initial focus clear: To unify the county and to greatly expand the federal government’s role battling COVID-19, helping with everything from testing and vaccine delivery to the battered budgets of state governments and Americans whose finances were upended by the pandemic.

Here are some other things Northeast Ohioans said they want Biden and",What do Northeast Ohio residents want from President Biden?,tweets_news_1434,tweets_news
"Democrats pressed past Republicans’ objections to remove the Georgia freshman from her two committee posts in a vote without precedent in the modern Congress.

Democrats pressed past Republicans’ objections to remove the Georgia freshman from her two committee posts in a vote without precedent in the modern Congress.

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday exiled Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from congressional committees, blacklisting the first-term Georgian for endorsing the executions of Democrats and spreading dangerous and bigoted misinformation even as fellow Republicans rallied around her.

The House voted 230 to 199 to remove Ms. Greene from the Education and Budget Committees, with only 11 Republicans joining Democrats to support the move. The action came after Ms. Greene’s past statements and espousing of QAnon and other conspiracy theories had pushed her party to a political crossroads.

The vote effectively stripped Ms. Greene of her influence in Congress by banishing her from committees critical to advancing legislation and conducting oversight. Party leaders traditionally control the membership of the panels. While Democrats and Republicans have occasionally moved to punish their own members by stripping them of assignments, the majority has never in modern times moved to do so to a lawmaker in the other party.

In emotional remarks","House Exiles Marjorie Taylor Greene From Panels, as Republicans Rally Around Her",tweets_news_1435,tweets_news
"

Jul 13, 2020( Mediaite: http://www.mediaite.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Drew Angerer/Getty Images President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection campaign is coming under fire over campaign fundraising emails which some supporters are calling 'gross' and 'scary.' Most of the emails — which typically claimed to be from the president himself or one of his children — attempted to shame Trump supporters for not donating enough money, and used manipulative language to guilt recipients into giving more, prompting social media users to make comparisons to 'mob collections' and 'slumlord' eviction notices. 'I hate to be the one to tell you, but according to our records, your Trump 100 Club offer has been RESCINDED,' read one email, which was posted on Twitter. 'You've received multiple emails from Team Trump, including my father, inviting you to join this BRAND NEW, prestigious club, and you've ignored every single one of them.'

'President Trump knows that you've always been such a strong supporter in the past, so he agreed to let me reactivate your offer for ONE MORE DAY,' it concluded.when your campaign fundraiser emails read like mob collections 'be a shame if something happened to your trump club membership. my father hears you've been a little ungrateful lately'",Trump Supporters Protest 'Gross' Campaign Fundraising Emails: 'Like Mob Collections',tweets_news_1436,tweets_news
"Once a vaccine is locally approved, the panels will appear on search results and inform users on when, where and how they can get inoculated.

Topline

Google is rolling out new vaccine information panels in its search results as an attempt to counter anti-vaccine misinformation on the web and inform users about locally approved Covid-19 vaccines, as a number of regulators around the world have either approved or are gearing up to approve promising vaccine candidates for emergency use.

<figure class=""embed-base image-embed embed-0"">

<figcaption>

Google search results about Covid-19 vaccines will display information panels about their availability in a user's region along with verified information about them.

NurPhoto via Getty Images

</figcaption> </figure>

Key Facts

The panels are launching first in the United Kingdom which has both approved and has started administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Google will roll them out in other countries after local regulators start approving Covid-19 vaccines, the company announced in ablog post. 

The panels will include information about each of the approved vaccines, with guidance on how, when and where people can receive the shots.

Google will also add information about vaccines to its Covid-19 information panels on YouTube, which has been a major vector of conspiracy theories around the disease and any prospective vaccines.

Additionally,",Google Announces Plan To Tackle Vaccine Misinformation Through New  Information Panels ,tweets_news_1437,tweets_news
"Trump’s begging Chinese dictator Xi Jinping to help him win reelection and his praise for Xi’s detention of 1 million Muslim Uighurs in indoctrination and forced labor camps are the most shocking revelations in former national security adviser John Bolton’s new book. (His disclosures, by the way, do not atone for his failure to testify before Congress when it counted.)

This new information is important not just because it demonstrates that Trump’s “tough on China” rhetoric is hypocritical. And it’s “news” we already knew: that Trump’s only foreign policy concern is to get other countries to advance his personal interests.

These revelations matter because they show that the very heart of Trump’s appeal -- to “Make America Great Again” by putting “America First” -- is a lie all the way down.

Trump never had any interest in the real sources of American greatness. He used an isolationist slogan from the late 1930s and early 1940s to suggest that our problems were with our democratic allies, not with tyrants. And he rejected what our greatest leaders always understood: That American influence in the world rests, finally, on whether our democracy provides an example that others would freely wish to emulate.

Genuine American patriotism has never",Trump’s begging Chinese dictator Xi Jinping to help him win,tweets_news_1438,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump's re-election campaign announced its lineup of Republican National Convention speakers, which includes at least two Wisconsinites, and may also include former Gov. Scott Walker.

The part online, part in-person convention is set to kick off this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, following last week's mostly online Democratic National Convention, which was originally planned to take place in Milwaukee.

The list of RNC speakers includes two Wisconsinites, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: John Peterson, owner and chief executive of metal fabricator Schuette Metals in Rothschild, and Debbie Flood, president of architectural hardware and castings manufacturer Melron Corp. in Schofield.

In addition, a Walker spokesman confirmed Vice President Mike Pence asked Walker to give the RNC nominating speech for the vice president, but provided no other details.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin lauded Wisconsin's role in the convention.

""It has been reported that Gov. Walker will be nominating Vice President Pence, and we couldn't be more proud to have Wisconsin represented in prime time,"" said Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Andrew Hitt. ""Next week's convention is a great opportunity to hear an optimistic message from those who have seen benefits from the conservative policies of President Trump. On top of what's happening in",WISCONSINITES AMONG SPEAKERS AT CONVENTION,tweets_news_1439,tweets_news
"https://www.investors.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MFprof-OlliesBargain-crowd-01-news.jpg

Lots of mutual fund managers bought stocks when share prices dropped during the coronavirus stock market correction. Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Portfolio (AAMOX), one of the industry's best mutual funds, got a head start on many.

Co-manager George Dai, born in China, heard from relatives and friends in his birth country that a new disease was arising. The disease was severe and would likely be disruptive, they told him.

""Starting in early February, we realized that this coronavirus would be more serious than Wall Street appreciated,"" Dai said. ""Thirty years ago I came from China. I still have family and friends in China. Some followed the coronavirus situation closely. They said the situation was far worse than people believed.""

As a result, the still-small $2.04 million fund reviewed its portfolio and made offensive as well as defensive moves. The fund added to its stakes in high-conviction holdings, including Epam Systems, Nevro and Progyny.

Best Mutual Funds: Buys, Sells Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

Epam provides software product development and digital platform engineering services. Nevro is a medical device maker. Progyny is a fertility services business.

The fund also trimmed its position in Wayfair, an e-commerce company that sells furniture and home goods, ""because more than half of its",Links To China Helped This Top Fund Early In Coronavirus Pandemic,tweets_news_1440,tweets_news
"Mark Speakman SC, the New South Wales attorney general, has plenty of fish to fry, which might strike the casual observer as unusual given the tradition of state Liberal attorneys not being overburdened with initiatives.

After passing through numerous security doors to get to his eyrie at the top of Martin Place, the Guardian sat down for a talk with the man leading the charge to update the nation's lopsided defamation laws.

It's by no means the only thing on his plate. Tackling the wave of domestic violence, law 'n' order, behaviour interventions for offenders, the courts and the backlog of criminal cases are among other issues he juggles.

Schooled at Caringbah, the University of Sydney and Cambridge, from which he emerged with a master's degree, he proceeded to a glittering legal career, with a partnership at the big law shop Blake Dawson Waldron, the firm that did much of Rupert Murdoch's legal work in Australia - not that Speakman had his fingers in that salmagundi. Then to the bar in 1991, and commercial work at a top-end set of chambers and a senior counsel gong in 2004.

Politics was always there but took a back seat, what with a young family and carving",Mark Speakman SC: meet the man leading the charge to update Australia's lopsided defamation laws,tweets_news_1441,tweets_news
"The story of her career can be explained, in part, by a series of dramatic moments during congressional hearings and primary debates. Here are five of them.

The story of the political career of Kamala Harris can be told, in part, by videotape. Ms. Harris has risen to public attention -- and more important, risen to the attention of Joseph R. Biden Jr., who picked her as his running mate on Tuesday -- because of a series of often dramatic moments during congressional hearings, town halls and primary debates. Here are five of them, with our commentary.

'That Little Girl Was Me'

Adam: This was in many ways the pivotal moment of Ms. Harris's presidential campaign -- ''that little girl was me'' -- and it shows why Mike Pence is probably worried about facing her in a vice-presidential debate. She is incredibly sharp and piercing. Her challenge to Joe Biden over his opposition to busing during the June 27, 2019, primary debate shows her training as a prosecutor. It's one of those attacks that you don't see coming until it's too late (though I'm not sure there was much Mr. Biden could have done in response. He was left, as you probably recall,",Dissecting Harris's Big Moments,tweets_news_1442,tweets_news
"The White House moved the Supreme Court on Thursday to reverse a lower court order to let the US President block critics on Twitter. Since 2019, Trump has been prohibited from blocking critics on Twitter based on their political views. The ruling was passed by a 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals on the basis that Trump uses Twitter as an official channel of communication.

The main argument kept forth when the case was brought in was that Trump uses his @realDonaldTrump account for official announcements through which he has essentially created a public forum. CNBC cited solicitor general Jeffrey Wall's petition who said that blocking people through Trump's personal account @realDonaldTrump should be a personal choice. He also asserted that users could still view tweets, take screenshots and criticise the president despite being blocked through other accounts. If the order is reversed, Trump will be able to block users from his personal account and not his official account @POTUS. ""President Trump's ability to use the features of his personal Twitter account, including the blocking function, are independent of his presidential office. Blocking third-party accounts from interacting with the @realDonaldTrump account is a purely personal action that does not involve any","Donald Trump is not allowed to block his critics on Twitter, here's why",tweets_news_1443,tweets_news
"

May 08, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/Delivered by Newstex) The first half of the conspiracy documentary, Plandemic, was removed several times from YouTube, according to The Washington Post[1]. Twitter and Facebook also made statements to other media outlets confirming that both platforms were suppressing hashtags and content related to the documentary.A YouTube spokesperson told The Post that the company takes down 'content that includes medically unsubstantiated diagnostic advice for covid-19.' This includes Plandemic.The 26-minute long clip featured an interview with Judy Mikovits[2], a former medical researcher and critic of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci. In the interview, Mikovits touted a medical paper that she had written that eventually was retracted. She also claimed that the coronavirus was not a 'natural occurrence,' according to CNET.The video found a home on Vimeo until that platform took it down as well.

Vimeo told The Post that the company 'stands firm in keeping our platform safe from content that spreads harmful and misleading health information. The video in question has been removed by our Trust Safety team for violating these very policies.'According to CNET, Facebook also confirmed that it was removing the video. 'Suggesting that wearing a mask can make","YouTube, Facebook, Twitter Censor Controversial Documentary",tweets_news_1444,tweets_news
"REUTERS: A US judge dismissed large parts of a lawsuit accusing Zoom of violating users' privacy rights by sharing personal information with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn, and letting malevolent intruders join Zoom meetings in a practice called Zoombombing. In a Thursday night decision, US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, dismissed several claims in the proposed class action including invasion of privacy, negligence, and violations of that state's consumer and anti-hacking laws. She allowed some contract-based claims to proceed.

The judge said the plaintiffs failed to prove that Zoom shared or sold their data without permission, and at best alleged that the San Jose-based company ""disclosed certain other people's data, not necessarily Plaintiffs' data."" She also said Zoom is ""mostly"" immune under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which shields online platforms from liability over user content, for Zoombombing, where outsiders hijack Zoom meetings and display pornography, use racist language, or post other disturbing content. ""Appalling as this content is, Zoom's failure to edit or block user-generated content is the very activity Congress sought to immunize"" under Section 230, which shields online platforms from liability over user content, Koh wrote. The plaintiffs want Zoom to improve its","Judge narrows Zoom lawsuit over user privacy, 'Zoombombing'",tweets_news_1445,tweets_news
"

Oct 17, 2020( Conservative Daily News: http://conservativedailynews.com Delivered by Newstex) President Trump held a rally in North Carolina on Thursday before 15,000 people. He couldn't get over the size of the crowd for a week day afternoon.The first thing Trump did was to tear into Biden's son receiving 10 million a year from a Chinese businessman just for introductions in addition to the three million a year he got from the Russian Mayor's wife and the $180,00 a month he got for sitting on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma which he knew nothing about., 'Biden and his family are corrupt and they got caught. If Biden wins, China wins and China will own us,' Trump told the crowd. Trump went on to say that Biden plans to raise your taxes by 4 times and you will see a depression that is so bad it will make your head spin.'

Trump said Biden's plan will crush America his plan will crush the virus.Trump told the crowd that with the virus we have people working around the clock for a cure and we now have a reduced fatality rate of 85% and will have100 million doses of the vaccine by",Trump Holds Rally In North Carolina and Town Hall In Florida,tweets_news_1446,tweets_news
"""There are so many things that we encounter on social media platforms that are not life-affirming, and really dehumanizing.""

Pinterest has brought in new rules for its 450million users.

To mitigate negativity on social media, Pinterest has taken action with a new Creator Code.

The code was created after a year which has seen celebrities leave social media to take extended breaks for their mental health and others seeking outlets they know will provide them with a positive experience

Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness from Queer Eye totally backs the initiative. He said: ""There are so many things that we encounter on social media platforms that are not life-affirming, and really dehumanizing.

""That is why I love the Creator Code - it really focuses on positivity and inclusion, and that doesn't mean we don't have to talk about difficult things.

""It means that we are not dehumanizing, it's not tearing folks down, it's not negatively oriented, it's not an echo chamber of hate. That is what Pinterest and the Creator Code does - it is allowing us to humanize each other and that is really important.""

CREATOR CODE RULES

The Creator Code is a set of mandatory guidelines that lives within Pinterest, intended to educate and build community",Pinterest brings in new rules and tools for 450million users,tweets_news_1447,tweets_news
"MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to halt the mailing of absentee ballots raised concerns that it could cause delays and confusion in the presidential battleground state.

The decision Thursday, 54 days before the Nov. 3 election, was only temporary. However, it's unclear when the court, controlled 4-3 by conservatives, will make a final ruling that will restart the process of sending ballots to voters. Here's a look at what's known so far:

Q: WHAT DID THE COURT DO?

A: The state Supreme Court ordered an immediate halt to the mailing of absentee ballots to the more-than 1 million voters who had a request on file.

The court also asked for details from the Wisconsin Elections Commission about how many ballots had been requested and mailed already. As of 5 p.m. Thursday, clerks indicated that 380,000 ballots had been sent but that information was incomplete. And clerks indicating in the state's system that ballots had been sent doesn't necessarily mean they're in the mail already.

Any ballots that already went out and that voters complete and send back to the state will be counted. If the court orders a change to the official ballot, voters who already received initial ballots will receive",Wisconsin Supreme Court action on ballots raises questions,tweets_news_1448,tweets_news
"

Jan 27, 2020( Pro Publica: http://www.ProPublica.org Delivered by Newstex) by Rachel Glickhouse[1] We're 10 months away from the 2020 election. While the stakes are incredibly high and the electorate is more polarized than it has been in decades, Americans' faith in the legitimacy of the outcome is low[2] — and not without reason. There's evidence that the forces that sought to influence the electorate in 2016 are at it again, and attempts to shore up the cyber defenses of local election systems have had uneven results. Crucially, in a vacuum of trustworthy facts, questions about election integrity, fraud and security can be answered by dishonest players with a stake in the outcome.

Local newsrooms, reeling from new rounds of belt-tightening and layoffs, are less able to sustain the effort necessary to cover a fast-moving, complex, technical and data-rich story by themselves. That's why we announced Monday that we're running our Electionland[3] project again, to bring together journalists around the country to report on voting barriers and electoral integrity. We'll be on the lookout for some 21st-century problems, such as inauthentic social media posts that spread misinformation about voting and server breaches that seek to prevent one side from voting, to sow",Help Us Cover the Election With Electionland 2020,tweets_news_1449,tweets_news
"Jerusalem's near-deserted Arena COVID-19 vaccination center on February 8, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Israel's world-beating vaccination drive has slowed, dramatically.

Anyone 16 and over has been eligible for vaccination for the past week and, by all accounts, Israel has both plentiful supplies and medical staff waiting to inoculate all comers — an extraordinary privilege, when most of the rest of the world has neither.

Our health maintenance organizations say they have the combined capacity to deliver well over 200,000 shots a day; on January 21, in fact, 230,000 Israelis got their first or second doses, the Health Ministry's Hebrew statistics dashboard shows.

But as eligibility has widened, demand has stalled: Fewer than 700,000 shots were administered in the past seven days (to February 10), which was down from some 850,000 the week before that (to February 3), which was significantly down, in turn, from over 1.25 million the week before that (to January 27).

As of Thursday morning, some 3.7 million of our 9.3 million population (about 40%) have had their first shots, and 2.3 million of those had also had their second. Those numbers could and should have been significantly higher. We could have been entering the final stretch for first doses for eligible Israelis;",Israel's vaccination stagnation: Why we've caught it; how to cure it,tweets_news_1450,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

The fathers got away with it. It was always the woman that was to blame. It was always the woman's fault. And I suppose, then, when you look at other people, I was lucky I got to meet my mother.

If I didn't meet her, I would be blaming her for leaving me in there. There's another reason why PJ thinks he's lucky. At the Tuam Home, nearly 800 children aged up to three died between 1925 and 1961. Investigators believe many were buried at the site in some kind of sewage system. When I go down there and stand there, to think that I could be in there, too. That a religious country, that we are supposed to be, that would do the likes of that to a helpless, little baby. The Irish government has committed to having this site excavated so the children whose remains are beneath this ground can be reburied with some",Joins BBC News - 04:21 AM GMT,tweets_news_1451,tweets_news
"After President Trump became a resident of Palm Beach County late last year, Florida politicos say a conservative awakening in the area has positioned Republicans to pick off a vulnerable blue congressional seat.

The large county north of Miami is composed of three congressional districts, two led by Democrats and one held by a Republican.

Internal polling for a GOP candidate in Florida's 21st Congressional District, home to Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club residence and Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel, suggests it could turn red come November.

""The majority of Democrats, independents and Republicans do not like the way the Democratic Party is misbehaving how they are treating police officers, how Lois Frankel is thanking the looters and the rioters and calling them peaceful protesters,"" said Karen Giorno, chief strategist for Laura Loomer's campaign to unseat the four-term incumbent.

Ms. Loomer, 27, is a conservative activist who gained national renown working for Project Veritas and appearing in its undercover videos to reveal left-wing election and polling shenanigans.

Her notoriety, however, led to her being banned from social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Still, Ms. Loomer's name recognition helped boost her numbers in the district, according to the campaign's data.

She is running in a crowded field",Republicans see chance to flip 21st Congressional District in Florida,tweets_news_1452,tweets_news
"With the upcoming election only a few weeks away, political clubs at Seattle University are employing various tactics to encourage members of the student body to vote in not just the national election, but also state and local ones.

Seattle U sponsors various clubs that encourage political engagement on campus. The Political Science Club provides a space for students to discuss current political issues in the world, understand the political system and participate in social movements. 

Additional clubs, such as the Seattle U Conservative Union , Seattle U Young Democrats and Seattle U Young Democratic Socialists provide safe areas for students with many views to share their opinions on political issues. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for these clubs to meet and hold events to engage students in the political process. The Political Science Club planned to hold a virtual discussion Oct. 15 during the second scheduled presidential debate, but plans changed when the debate got cancelled after President Trump tested positive for COVID-19. 

Political Science Club President Sophia Annest, a third-year political science and strategic communication double major, explained that the club has moved their virtual discussion to Oct. 22 after the third presidential debate. In this discussion,",Students Share Thoughts on Upcoming Political Election,tweets_news_1453,tweets_news
"Presidential debates are outdated. They've outlived their sell-by date. They should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

COVID-19 killed off this week's scheduled presidential debate. Common sense says cancel them for all time. Sixty years after the Kennedy-Nixon debates, they no longer serve any useful purpose. In fact, debates are downright dangerous to democracy.

They hit bottom when the highlight of the vice presidential debate was a fly on Mike Pence's hair.

In that first encounter of the 2024 cycle, Kamala Harris proved herself a formidable debater. Both she and Pence dodged questions. Pence was effective attacking Joe Biden and defending President Trump. But if the Trump-Pence ticket is losing women voters, why did Pence constantly interrupt and talk over the two women on stage?

Even the fly stopped after two minutes.

President Trump's insults and interruptions made the first presidential debate painful to watch. His performance may have been as harmful to his political health as the virus was to his physical health. Polls showed him falling as far as 14 points behind Biden.

One report said Chris Christie (who was hospitalized for Covid) urged Trump to interrupt Biden; that apparently causes people who stutter to lose their train of thought.

Trump did throw Biden",Gary Pearce: No more debates needed,tweets_news_1454,tweets_news
"Nov. 4—PLATTSBURGH — Unofficial results reflected a narrow lead by Republican Scott Beebie in the City of Plattsburgh mayoral race.

As of Tuesday night, the retired City Police lieutenant was 290 votes ahead of opponent Christopher Rosenquest.

""We're cautiously optimistic,"" Beebie told the Press-Republican over the phone from his election headquarters, adding that it was the absentee ballots that would determine the winner.

""I'd much rather be up 290 (votes) than down,"" he said, ""but 290 isn't a mountain.""

TIGHT RACE

Clinton County Board of Elections logged 5,547 votes in the city race by the end of Election Day, including the day's in-person ballots and those cast during the early voting period.

Beebie, 52, was listed on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines, and received 2,875 votes, or 52.51 percent.

Rosenquest, a Democrat and the Working Families Party candidate, scored 2,585, or 47.21 percent.

There were 15 write-ins, equaling 0.27 percent.

The unofficial results did not include the race's absentee ballots.

THOUSANDS OF ABSENTEES

As of Tuesday, the county's Board of Elections said more than 2,220 absentee ballots had been received in the race for Plattsburgh City mayor.

A total of 2,651 ballots were mailed out as of Monday.

Beebie felt that number was high and wasn't sure how those votes would",Unofficial results show Beebie ahead in city mayor's race,tweets_news_1455,tweets_news
"The smell of fresh empanadas wafted through the stands at Portland's Saturday Market. People talked through their masks with artists as others sifted through fork windchimes, crystal necklaces, tie dye dresses and clay mugs.

The weekly event was smaller than in years past, but attendees say it was a sign of life being breathed back into downtown.

Nine blocks away, past businesses still shuttered with plywood boards - the names of Black people killed by police painted onto them - a panhandler leaned against a fence outside the federal courthouse in an area that was choked with tear gas last summer as thousands of protesters seized the streets. It's now overwhelmed by a makeshift homeless camp.

The scenes are from a city trying to emerge from one of its most wrenching periods, one that saw its reputation go from quirky Portlandia to violent dystopia in the minds of many on the outside looking in.

The Pacific Northwest city had best been known in the U.S. for its ambrosial food scene, craft breweries and natureloving hipsters.

But last year, as a portion of its downtown was consumed by protests that often turned violent and resulted in clashes with federal agents, former U.S. President Donald Trump and","Can Portland make a comeback?; After tumultuous year, Oregon city that was labelled 'anarchist jurisdiction' launches revitalization plan",tweets_news_1456,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Telegram, a messaging app favoured by those banned from more mainstream social media platforms, has removed hundreds of thousands of accounts since January.

FULL TEXT

Encrypted messaging platform Telegram has banned more than 350,000 bots and channels belonging to terrorists and child abusers in the first nine months of 2020. The messaging service, which has become the platform of choice for extremist groups banned from Twitter and Facebook, has two channels called ISIS Watch and Stop Child Abuse on which it reports the number of channels or bots they have removed on a daily basis. Jihadist groups had 258,018 bots and channels punted off Telegram's platform between January and September, with a whopping 56,858 accounts getting banned in April. Terrorist groups are known for their use of technology to groom recruits, distribute propaganda and organise acts of political violence. Banning the accounts on a service like Telegram assists in disrupting their activities, but does not mean that the same users will not attempt to jump onto Telegram again to upload the same content. At least one right-wing extremist group boasts that they have ""many private backups to be released if the public go down. Do not worry"". Child abusers have also turned","This dark world: messaging app bans more than 350,000 child abusers and terrorists",tweets_news_1457,tweets_news
"How appropriate that the words best symbolizing the four years of Donald Trump and Trumpism came from a judge appointed by President Donald Trump. In yet another rejection of the lawsuits challenging the recent election filed by the president’s legal team, and others of his supporters, Judge Stephanos Bibas of the United States Court of Appeals wrote that, “calling an election unfair does not make it so.”

What better way to sum up not just such lawsuits but the relationship to facts Trump has displayed over the last four years?

Claiming that Barack Obama was born outside the United States does not make it so. Claiming that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11 does not make it so. Claiming that thousands of people were bused to New Hampshire and elsewhere to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016 does not make it so. Claiming that the sound of windmills causes cancer does not make it so. Saying that we are rounding the corner on the coronavirus pandemic certainly did not make it so.

Now there certainly is nothing unusual about politicians twisting facts. What makes the many things Trump has claimed before and during",Trump-appointed judge perfectly sums up the president’s relationship to facts,tweets_news_1458,tweets_news
"What CNN did to Bernie Sanders in the Iowa Democratic presidential debate - stabbing him with the gender card on behalf of a weakened Elizabeth Warren - was cheap and unfair. And it was shameful. I'm probably the last guy to defend Sanders. He is a man of the far left and I most certainly [...]

What CNN did to Bernie Sanders in the Iowa Democratic presidential debate - stabbing him with the gender card on behalf of a weakened Elizabeth Warren - was cheap and unfair.

And it was shameful.

I'm probably the last guy to defend Sanders. He is a man of the far left and I most certainly am not.

But even a conservative like me can see that Sanders was cheated out of the Democratic presidential nomination the last time, with the Democratic National Committee rigging the whole thing for Hillary Clinton. And now it's happening again.

No wonder the Sanders supporters are angry.

What happened on CNN in Iowa was bad for journalism. But it sure was good for Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden.

Sanders, the authentic candidate on the left in this cycle, as he was in the last, was surging in the Iowa polls. Warren, also on the left, was",John Kass: CNN's shameful treatment of Bernie Sanders,tweets_news_1459,tweets_news
"How's this for cushioning the blow?

Not long after MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell released an infomercial-style movie in which he and a cadre of election truthers hurl false claims about the 2020 presidential race, the movie began to pop up on major social media platforms, including Facebook and YouTube. Such sites have rules that restrict or prohibit the spreading of election-related misinformation, and the pro-Trump Lindell has already been permanently banned from Twitter for spreading debunked claims about election fraud.

The movie, ""Absolute Proof,"" was uploaded to YouTube several times by early afternoon on Friday, but the Google-owned video site said it has been just as quickly taking it down. ""Per our presidential election integrity policy, we remove content uploaded after the safe harbor deadline that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election,"" a spokesperson told Fast Company. ""We removed this video and its reuploads in accordance with this policy.""

Facebook did not go quite as far. Reached for comment, a spokesperson said, ""This video has been rated false by one of Facebook's third-party fact-checkers so it's been labeled and its distribution is being reduced.""

The differing responses underscore a tricky balance that",Social media companies grapple with how to handle MyPillow guy Mike Lindell's 'documentary',tweets_news_1460,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Scott Morrison's friendship with QAnon conspiracy theorist Tim Stewart goes back three decades.

FULL TEXT

Tim Stewart and Scott Morrison go back a long way -- 30 years to be exact. The two met at their local Baptist church in Sydney's Maroubra, with the men's wives (Jenny and Lynelle) becoming best mates. The two couples remained close. Morrison's ascension to the prime ministership in August 2018, however, marked a transformative moment in the lives of the two men. Stewart's embrace of the fringe QAnon conspiracy theory became more and more pronounced as the movement gained in numbers and political influence under US president Donald Trump. Stewart's standing in the Australian and international QAnon community grew exponentially. Unrestricted on Twitter, the Morrison family friend became a leading figure, with his spiritual pronouncements on the ""Great Awakening"" and the ""coming of the storm"" -- end of days concepts that would mean the end of the all-powerful secret group of satanic paedophiles that runs the world, as QAnon has it. (Q is said to be an anonymous senior figure in the former Trump administration providing clues to followers via the dark web's 8chan (since rebranded as 8kun) message board.) By late last year, Stewart had","Dangerous liaisons: a short history of the PM, Tim Stewart and QAnon in Australia",tweets_news_1461,tweets_news
"Participants in Pfizer and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials can't stop blabbing. The media is overflowing with testimonials explaining ""Why I Volunteered"" or ""What It Was Like To Participate In The Clinical Trial For Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine."" Liberal writer Molly Jong-Fast publicly begged for beatification:

""Call Me the Joan of Arc of Coronavirus Vaccine Trials,"" Jong-Fast's ode to herself in The New York Times implored.

A striking number of advocacy journalists milked their status as clinical trial enrollees, including Washington Post staffer Walter Isaacson, CNN affiliate anchor Dawn Baker, USA Today writers Jackie Hajdenberg and Lindy Washburn, BBC science journalist Richard Fisher, Reuters writer Steve Stecklow and John Yang of the ""PBS Newshour."" They describe their experiences in emotional terms \x97 ""empowering,"" ""making history"" and ""a miracle for genetic medicine."" Most did not bother to hide their pro-Big Pharma perspectives.

Given their breaches of journalistic neutrality, it's hard to imagine they were able to contain themselves at the lab, either. They downplayed vaccine side effects and promoted universal immunization. Jong-Fast wrote that a doctor involved in her trial divulged to her that ""people had so few symptoms that they thought they were in the placebo arm of the study.""

The flood of public comments",Malkin: Clinical trials and crusader bias (part two),tweets_news_1462,tweets_news
"

Jan 08, 2020( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) US President Donald Trump has sought counsel amid a mounting crisis with Iran from individuals such as Rudy Giuliani, his personal attorney, reported The Daily Beast.[1] In recent years the MEK, officially the People's Mujahideen of Iran, has cultivated ties with several individuals close to Trump, including Giuliani and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The group was until 2012 classified[2] as a terror group by the US, and has been described by defectors as a cult that demands blind obedience from members. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[3]. In the wake of the US assassination of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, an obscure group of Iranian dissidents once classified as a terrorist organisation by the US celebrated the news. ""In Tehran, Isfahan, Qom and Qaemshahr, among numerous other cities, MEK supporters were celebrating Soleimani's death by throwing parties and handing out pastries,"" the People's Mujahideen of Iran tweeted, with pictures of jubilant supporters.

The MEK — officially the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or the People's Mujahideen of Iran in English — has waged war against the Islamist regime in Iran since it seized power in 1979. Formerly based in Iraq, the group is believed",Trump has been getting advice on Iran from officials and allies linked to a shadowy Iranian dissident group that celebrated Soleimani's death,tweets_news_1463,tweets_news
"

Mar 24, 2020( The Duran: http://theduran.com Delivered by Newstex) Submitted by InfoBrics, authored by Paul Antonopoulos, Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies[1] Russia has encountered problems in delivering humanitarian aid to Italy, with assistance struggling to be reached quickly due to the hostilities of many European Union/NATO countries towards Russia. Yesterday it was revealed that Poland did not let Russian planes pass through its airspace to arrive in Italy, the hardest hit coronavirus country in the world with over 6,200 dead and still climbing.As seen onflightradar24.com[2], you can follow the trajectory of aircraft that departed from Moscow to Rome. The Russian Il-76 was forced to take an alternate course south over the Black Sea and over the airspace of Turkey, Greece and Albania before finallylanding in Rome. This alternate route took 3,000 kilometers while flying over Belarus, Poland, Czechia and Austria would have been 1,000 kilometers shorter.

Russian Senator Alexei Pushkov described this as 'meanness,'saying on Twitter[3]'Poland did not miss Russian aircraft with help for Italy through its airspace. This is meanness at the level of public policy.' The revelation of Poland's behaviour was met with intense scrutiny on social media, some even comparing the situation to 1938 when",Poland Sabotages Russian Coronavirus Relief Efforts for Italy,tweets_news_1464,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON - U.S. counterterrorism prosecutors are probing the crowd of President Donald Trump's supporters who stormed the Capitol last week, initially focusing on at least two men who equipped themselves with plastic zip ties - a common kidnapping tool.

The counterterrorism unit of the Department of Justice's National Security Division has taken a role in prosecuting Larry Rendell Brock of Texas and Eric Gavelek Munchel of Tennessee, who were charged with unlawful entry, violent entry and disorderly conduct after they were photographed in the Capitol wearing tactical gear and carrying plastic restraints, according to a statement and court papers released Sunday and Monday.

Their attorneys could not be immediately identified.

They are just two of at least 20 people so far charged in federal court and about 40 in the District of Columbia's local Superior Court for taking part in the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, which left at least five dead, including a police officer.

Counterterrorism officials are joining the investigation, as evidence mounts suggesting at least some of the rioters openly plotted to kidnap or harm lawmakers to block them from certifying Joe Biden as the country's next president.

The charges so far range from unlawful entry and firearms offenses to",U.S. counterterrorism prosecutors probing Trump supporters' storming of Capitol,tweets_news_1465,tweets_news
"As a public broadcaster, the CBC actually has a greater obligation to carry far-right messages than Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube do.

The same goes for any publicly funded university.

Both public broadcasters and publicly funded universities thrive on tax dollars.

Therefore, all taxpayers have the right to see their views aired or taught (or at the very least debated respectfully) on the airwaves and at the institutions they were forced to pay for.

On the other hand, social media platforms are private companies.

They may choose who may and may not post to their services, because they risk bankruptcy if they become too restrictive.

They have not forfeited their private property rights simply because they have succeeded in making themselves the most effective way for millions of people to communicate their views and experiences to one another.

This has become an issue again since last week's storming of the U.S. Capitol building by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, urged on by Trump as part of his entirely baseless claim the November U.S. presidential election was stolen from him through widespread vote fraud.

Twitter, of course, has banned Trump from its platform forever for the way he used tweets to incite the violence and, later, to excuse",Social media bans show free speech isn't easy,tweets_news_1466,tweets_news
"BILLINGS, Mont. - Vice-President Mike Pence has cancelled plans to attend a Trump campaign fundraiser in Montana following revelations that the event's hosts had expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.

President Donald Trump's reelection campaign told The Associated Press on Saturday that Pence's schedule had been changed, but the campaign did not provide a reason or say whether the fundraiser might be held at a later time. The change comes after the AP reported Wednesday that hosts Cayrn and Michael Borland in Bozeman, Montana, had shared QAnon memes and retweeted posts from QAnon accounts.

The baseless conspiracy theory alleges Trump is battling an entrenched bureaucracy and sex trafficking ring run by pedophiles.

Three Republicans seeking election in Montana also had been scheduled to attend the fundraiser: U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, who faces a November challenge from Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock; U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, a Republican running for governor; and state auditor Matt Rosendale, a candidate for the U.S. House.

Pence, Daines and the other Republican candidates are still scheduled to hold a campaign rally Monday afternoon in Belgrade, near Bozeman. Pence will host a rally earlier in the day in Wisconsin, an event that was added as a substitute for the fundraiser,",Pence drops plan to go to fundraiser hosted by QAnon backers,tweets_news_1467,tweets_news
"The latest news, sport, business and weather from the BBC's Breakfast team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

long they normally last, but they are solar powered and work from the light both inside your house, and solar light. There you go, problem solved. So you don't need any batteries? No, they are rechargeable batteries, so it will pick up light from the lights inside your room... So how long does it say the remote will at last, seven years?

Seven years, apparently. My remote has been around for at least ten years. What, when the moat on one set of batteries? No, the remote has been around ten years. But I'm saying you won't have to worry about changing the batteries. That says the remote. It's the device. It so you don't have to put batteries in, that's all. But you said there were batteries in it. But you don't have to change the batteries. Anyone else confused? The problem with remote controls as the batteries run out, and as",Breakfast - 06:15 AM GMT,tweets_news_1468,tweets_news
"This morning, turmoil in the Republican Party on Capitol Hill. House Republican, leader Kevin McCarthy, condemning Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene after repeated comments comparing mask mandates and COVID vaccines to the holocaust this week. After she responded on Monday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi`s mask mandates on the House floor. GOP leaders did not immediately publicly respond, but Greene continued on twitter, writing Tuesday of a news report, ""Vaccinated employees get a vaccinated logo just like the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star.

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE (07:15:23): And now to the growing chorus in Washington and well beyond, announcing disturbing and outrageous, new comments from one of the most controversial members of Congress. Craig is here with that story. Hi, Craig, good morning.

CRAIG MELVIN (07:15:34): Savannah, Hoda, good morning. Good morning to you, as well. Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, already under fire for pushing some pretty wild conspiracy theories, is now being condemned for comparing COVID safety measures like mask wearing and vaccinations to the actions of the Nazi regime. NBC`s Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt has the very latest on all of it. Kasie, good morning.

KASIE HUNT (NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent) (07:15:58): Craig, good morning to",New Comments From One Of The Most Controversial Members Of Congress,tweets_news_1469,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON, July 20 -- The U.S. Department of State issued the following press release:

""Our two nations are twin pillars for the security of our people, for economic freedom, and for liberal values, the rule of law; all of the things that our two nations hold dear...our commitment to these time-honored principles is unchanging.""

- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, August 7, 2019

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo will travel to London, U.K., from July 20-22, 2020. During his time in London, Secretary Pompeo will meet with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to discuss global priorities, including coordination on COVID-19 recovery and issues related to the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.). He will also discuss the ongoing negotiations for a U.S.-U.K. Free Trade Agreement.

THE UNITED STATES AND THE UNITED KINGDOM HAVE LONG PARTNERED TO PROMOTE DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND MUTUAL PROSPERITY

* The United States has no closer partner than the United Kingdom. The strong relationship between our two countries reflects our common democratic ideals and values, which are reinforced through cooperation on political, security, and economic issues. We truly enjoy a ""special relationship.""

* Our partnership promotes mutual prosperity. U.S.-U.K. trade totals more than $300 billion a year. Eighty-six",SECRETARY POMPEO TRAVELS TO THE UNITED KINGDOM TO DISCUSS TRANSATLANTIC PARTNERSHIP ON GLOBAL,tweets_news_1470,tweets_news
"

Sep 30, 2020( The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Jim Carrey's latest political cartoon offered a fiery critique of Trump's failure to condemn white supremacy and militia groups during Tuesday's night debate. 'Trump's allegiances couldn't have been any clearer in that debate if his hair were on fire — and it was,' the comedian wrote in the caption accompanying his cartoon, which featured Trump's hair in the shape of a swastika while the outline of Adolf Hitler's face gazed from the side amid engulfing flames. At the debate, the moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump if he was 'willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and say they need to stand down and not to add to the violence' in cities like Kenosha and Portland.

Also Read: Proud Boys Celebrate Trump's 'Stand Back and Stand By' Comments During Debate[1] 'Sure, I'm willing to do that,' Trump responded. 'I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace.' 'Well, then do it, sir,' Wallace said. 'What do you want to call them? Give me a name,' Trump said. 'Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left because","Jim Carrey Depicts a Fiery, Swastika-Haired Trump in Latest Cartoon",tweets_news_1471,tweets_news
"The latest news, sport, business and weather from the BBC's Breakfast team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

And under the strict rules coming into force on Monday, she'll now need to spend ten days in a quarantine hotel at a cost of #1,750 when she returns home. It's extortionate. I think it would be really, really depressing on top of being quite miserable anyway. We're coming back not from a nice holiday, but from, you know, grieving for either a lost one or ill families, etc. So I think this needs to be considered in how they treat people.

Under the new measures, all passengers will have to self-isolate for ten days, and be tested on day two and day eight. In England, those arriving from the 33 countries on the government's red list will need to quarantine in a hotel at their own cost. And if people violate the rules, they could face large fines and potentially up to ten years in prison. Scotland has gone one step further,",Breakfast - 07:05 AM GMT,tweets_news_1472,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON -- House Republicans have ousted Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership job, punishing the Trump critic who rebuked his election fraud falsehoods. This is a breaking news update. A previous version of this report is below. House Republicans seem ready to toss Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post after she repeatedly rebuked former President Donald...

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans have ousted Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership job, punishing the Trump critic who rebuked his election fraud falsehoods. This is a breaking news update. A previous version of this report is below. House Republicans seem re...

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans have ousted Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership job, punishing the Trump critic who rebuked his election fraud falsehoods. This is a breaking news update. A previous version of this report is below. House Republicans seem ready to toss Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post after she repeatedly rebuked former President Donald Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in fomenting the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. GOP lawmakers gathered privately in the Capitol Visitor Center on Wednesday and were expected to vote to remove Cheney, R-Wyo., from the party's No. 3 House position, a",House Republicans oust Donald Trump critic Liz Cheney from top post | WATCH LIVE COVERAGE,tweets_news_1473,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Maine Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins both accused President Trump on Friday of potentially eroding public confidence in this month's election, but chose starkly different tones that reflect the partisan differences over Trump's unprecedented actions.

King said Trump's attempts to convince state officials to override election results were ""a direct threat to the fundamental premise of American democracy"" as the president's lawyers repeatedly fail to produce evidence of widespread fraud.

""This man has no thoughts whatsoever about the integrity of our system, the best interests of the country or the best interests of the people of this country,"" King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said in an interview. ""He is willing to take down the democratic system in order to hang onto power.""

Collins, a Republican elected to her fifth term this month, released arguably her strongest-worded statement to date on the Trump team's tactics to reverse President-elect Joe Biden's clear electoral advantage. But while Collins was more forceful than many Republicans, she did not go as far as Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who said Thursday it was ""difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President.""

'undermines' voters' faith

""There is a right way and","In different tones, King, Collins fault Trump bid to subvert vote As many of her Republican colleagues stay silent, Sen. Collins says the 'wrong way is to attempt to pressure state election officials.'",tweets_news_1474,tweets_news
"In difficult times like these, ""collective moments"" are particularly important. That's why we cordially invite you to ""spend the weekend of September 4th to 6th with us "": That's how harmless and friendly the invitation of the ""Soziale Kampfbaustelle Leipzig Connewitz"" (Social Fighting Construction Site Leipzig Connewitz), which is spread in the internet, begins.

Then, however, the organizers quickly get to the point: The Leipzig district Connewitz is in the ""resistance against fascists*, real estate sharks and their protection shakers in uniform "". Therefore it is necessary to consolidate supra-regional references, to form resistance and to find ""collective answers to these attacks"" as impressively as possible by participating in a ""militant demonstration "".

What these collective answers and moments looked like is now known: Three days in a row, masked chaotic people in Leipzig engaged in violent clashes with the police. They threw cobblestones at emergency vehicles and officers, smashed windows, set fire to Bengalos, engaged in car chases with emergency services and set up road barricades. Garbage cans were set on fire, a police car went up in flames, the facade of the police station bears witness to attacks with paint bags and stones. The pilot of a police helicopter was","""Malicious attacks on police officers""",tweets_news_1475,tweets_news
"Chris is a Missourian trying to find news angles in the blank spaces of life. Also go Chiefs!

Author Image

Link to Image

President Donald Trump began his presidency castigating Google for supposedly being biased against conservatives. Now he's leaning on them to help his administration beat back the coronavirus outbreak.

Google and Apple are, for their part, building out websites and apps that help carry information about virus testing to people who might be infected. 

Other Silicon Valley giants are reportedly helping the CDC and the White House collect geolocation data of people who are potentially infected.

Big tech companies began the Trump era as a foil to the president amid concerns the companies are politically biased, but many of them are becoming crucial cogs in the president's virus response.

President Donald Trump kicked off his administration with claims that Google, Facebook, Twitter and other Silicon Valley giants were systematically throttling conservatives. The Department of Justice opened an antitrust investigation in July 2019 targeting the industry's business models.

Trump rarely varnished his opinion on what he considered big tech's bias against him.

“But I tell you what, they should be sued,” Trump said during a Fox Business interview in June 2019, referring to a Google executive who",How Silicon Valley Went From Pariah To A Trump Ally In Less Than A Month,tweets_news_1476,tweets_news
"Document links may not lead to an active page. Page maintenance is at the discretion of the publisher.

Should Facebook, Google and Twitter take action in Australia against ""Mediscare"" style campaigns at election time? What about Clive Palmer's claims of Labor planning to introduce a death tax?

Those types of issues in a bigger US context were the subject of a grilling of the CEOs of Facebook, Alphabet and Twitter by a US select committee examining their policies to remove or flag content posted during the US election campaign. At times the interchanges were hostile.

Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act lets the tech giants remove material considered to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable. The law shields them from liability under the US First Amendment protecting free speech.

The fact the hearing took place within a week of the US election means it is seen as partisan by the Democrats, with one Senator branding it ""a sham"".



The tipping point for the hearing was Facebook's and Twitter's action to block or limit the online distribution of The New York Post's recent story about Joe Biden's son Hunter, and his activities in Ukraine. The Trump team see it",Tech giants grilled during fiery US hearing,tweets_news_1477,tweets_news
"– By Keiran Hardy, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University (YouTube: Friendlyjordies) A producer for YouTube comedian Friendlyjordies was recently arrested for allegedly stalking and intimidating NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, following investigations by the Fixated Persons Investigations Unit (FPIU) of the NSW police. This unit, set up in the wake of the Lindt café...

– By Keiran Hardy, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University (YouTube: Friendlyjordies) A producer for YouTube comedian Friendlyjordies was recently arrested for allegedly stalking and intimidating NSW Deputy Premier...

– By Keiran Hardy, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University (YouTube: Friendlyjordies) A producer for YouTube comedian Friendlyjordies was recently arrested for allegedly stalking and intimidating NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, following investigations by the Fixated Persons Investigations Unit (FPIU) of the NSW police. This unit, set up in the wake of the Lindt café siege, was created to monitor extremists and fixated persons who may not fall under Australia’s counter-terrorism laws but nonetheless pose a risk of serious violence. At the heart of this case will be the charges of intimidation and stalking, but it also will raise questions around what constitutes a “fixated person” and when the use of this",MIL-Evening Report: Friendlyjordies producer arrest: what is the NSW Police Fixated Persons Investigations Unit and when is it used?,tweets_news_1478,tweets_news
"Labor has slammed the suggestion that the Tasmanian salmon industry needs a moratorium on expansion in order to review the industries practices in light of new research.

The research, conducted by the Australia Institute Tasmania from over 1000 people, suggests that most Tasmanians (63 per cent) want a pause on expansion of salmon farms in Tasmania, and hold a widespread (63.5 per cent) concern that the health of Tasmania's coastal waters is declining.

More than one in two (56.3 per cent) Tasmanians agree the state government is not doing enough to protect the health of the state's oceans.

""Our research shows there is widespread community concern at the decline in health of Tasmania's coastal waters and a clear message to put a pause on the expansion of salmon farms in Tasmanian,"" said Eloise Carr, director of the Australia Institute Tasmania.

""There is clear appetite from Tasmanians for more government action on the health of our oceans, in fact our research shows most Tasmanians think the government isn't doing enough to protect the health of our ocean.""

IN OTHER NEWS:

O'Byrne family mourn loss of patriarch Brian

Tens of thousands of half price flights sold to Launceston

Tribunal will investigate Targa after three fatalities

Health, economy Tasmanians' election priority: poll

Based",Labor labels moratorium for salmon fishing 'ridiculous',tweets_news_1479,tweets_news
"Alex Wong/Getty ImagesBY: JACK ARNHOLZ, ABC NEWS

(WASHINGTON) — Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday that he would not vote for freshman GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has come under intense criticism for comments and actions she made before and during her time in office. But Hutchinson stopped short of saying she should be punished for her controversial comments.

""She's long embraced conspiracy theories like QAnon, voiced support for executing Nancy Pelosi. Is she fit to serve?"" ABC's ""This Week"" Co-anchor Martha Raddatz asked Hutchinson.

""I would not vote for her. The second question is, should the House of Representatives make a disciplinary call on her? I'm not going to get in the middle of that. They're going to have to make that judgment,"" the governor said. ""The people of her district elected her and that should mean a lot. They elected her and she's going to run for reelection and she'll be accountable for what she said and her actions.""

CNN's KFile, in a report on her online activity, said Greene allegedly ""liked"" a comment on her Facebook page in 2019 that threatened the lives of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats. ABC News cannot confirm the ""likes"" because",'I would not vote for' Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Gov. Asa Hutchinson,tweets_news_1480,tweets_news
"

Apr 18, 2020( MarketBeat: https://www.marketbeat.com/ Delivered by Newstex) A couple wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the new coronavirus walks in the rain at the Gyeongbok Palace, the main royal palace during the Joseon Dynasty, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. TOP OF THE HOUR: —-French authorities stop a cruise ship from disembarking passengers before reaching Italy —Trump hoping to resume campaign rallies without social distancing.

— Japan surpasses 10,000 virus cases; Abe stresses importance of social distancing. —Africa now has more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19, but WHO warns figures could be higher —South Korea shows lowest daily jump in virus cases since Feb. 20. —-France's parliament approves budget for governement's $120 billion economy rescue plan —- PARIS — French authorities have barred a cruise ship that's been at sea since early January from disembarking more than 1,000 passengers before its final destination in Italy. The regional administration for the Bouches-du-Rhone in southern France cited a",The Latest: Italy-bound cruise can't disembark in France,tweets_news_1481,tweets_news
"

Sep 18, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/Delivered by Newstex) Facebook's left-wing fact-checking network, masquerading as unbiased, censored yet another pro-Trump ad. The ad snarkily suggested that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden 'accidentally' told the truth in stating that Americans taxes would be raised if he is elected. PolitiFact, one of the 10 U.S. fact-checkers for Facebook[1], marked the 30-second ad[2] criticizing Biden's tax policy as 'Mostly False' for missing context, leading to its ban from the platform.'Guess what, if you elect me, you're not your taxes are going to be raised, not cut,' said Joe Biden in one of the advertisement's contested claims.Despite PolitiFact admitting Biden would raise taxes for 'all income groups,' the fact-check[3] says the ad gives the wrong impression.

The critique said Biden's policy would raise taxes on the nation's 'biggest earners' while an increase on the lower-income groups would be 'relatively small.'PolitiFact also disproved its second contested claim that Biden's tax proposal carries more than double the increases proposed by Hillary Clinton in 2016. ''That's accurate,' said Gordon Mermin, a senior research associate at the Tax Policy Center,' the report stated.Facebook's so-called non-partisan and transparent fact-checkers have a history of defending the left while cracking down on the right.Over",Facebook Fact-Checker Censors Pro-Trump Ad for 'Missing Context' on Biden Tax Plan,tweets_news_1482,tweets_news
"Federal regulators have approved the first new drug for Alzheimer’s disease in nearly 20 years, leaving patients waiting to see how insurers will handle the pricey new treatment. Health care experts expect broad coverage of the drug, which was approved Monday. But what that means for patients will vary widely depending on their insurance plan. In some...

Federal regulators have approved the first new drug for Alzheimer’s disease in nearly 20 years, leaving patients waiting to see how insurers will handle the pricey new treatment. Health care experts expect broad coverage of the drug, which was approved Mon...

Federal regulators have approved the first new drug for Alzheimer’s disease in nearly 20 years, leaving patients waiting to see how insurers will handle the pricey new treatment. Health care experts expect broad coverage of the drug, which was approved Monday. But what that means for patients will vary widely depending on their insurance plan. In some cases, that could mean coming up with several thousand dollars to pay for what the insurer didn’t cover. And there’s no guarantee that every case will be covered. Here’s what you need to know: WHAT WAS APPROVED? The Food and Drug Administration said it granted approval to",EXPLAINER: How will insurers cover a new Alzheimer's drug?,tweets_news_1483,tweets_news
"Public disquiet about the conduct of journalists at the Covid-19 press conferences could be reduced if the news cameras were literally turned around and pointed back at the press pack, says an experienced news manager.

Some journalists have repeatedly come under attack for their questions and tone at the 1 pm briefings.

“The way that those daily press conferences have been held, where the journalists are invisible but noisy, has not done anyone any good in terms of journalists not appearing like a baying mob,†Peter Bale told Stuff’s election podcast, Tick. Tick.

“I think having a camera pointing the other way would be a very positive thing.â€

READ MORE: * Tick. Tick podcast: The abiding Kiwi obsession with what the world thinks about us * Tick. Tick podcast: The politics and ethics of mask-wearing policy * Tick. Tick podcast: Are QAnon Covid conspiracies too widespread to tackle?

Bale, a New Zealander who has had a distinguished career at organisations such as Reuters, CNN and as director of the Center for Public Integrity, spoke to the podcast about political fact-checking in a “post-truth†era, and the importance of holding politicians to account.

In New Zealand, he said, journalists had struggled to question Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern","Tick. Tick podcast: 'Hectoring' the prime minister, and political fact-checking in a 'post-truth' era",tweets_news_1484,tweets_news
"CANBERRA, ACT, Feb. 24 -- Treasurer Josh Frydenberg issued the following transcript:

SYLVIA JEFFREYS:

Treasurer, good morning to you. Thank you for your time.

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Good morning.

SYLVIA JEFFREYS:

You've just heard from Mandy there. She is supporting two children, another adopted child, she is desperately seeking work at the moment, $3.50 a day she says is just going to send her broke. What do you have to say to Mandy? What is your message to her this morning?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Well that the Government is doing everything to try to create the jobs for those who are unemployed to get into work. Obviously there is many, many difficult challenges for us in the face of this once in a century pandemic and the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression. These are human stories. These are our friends. These are our neighbours. These are our family members who have been out of work and who need the support. Now, the Government is providing the safety net with JobSeeker, it's not expected to be a payment that somebody is on indefinitely. The whole focus for the Government is to try to create the conditions around mutual obligation but also the other supports that we are providing into","TREASURER FRYDENBERG'S INTERVIEW WITH SYLVIA JEFFREYS ON THE TODAY SHOW, CHANNEL 9",tweets_news_1485,tweets_news
"BRUSSELS Tech giants that break new European Union rules aimed at curbing their powers could face fines, be ordered to change their practices or even be forced to break up their European businesses, the bloc's digital chief Thierry Breton said on Wednesday.

Breton's comments come two weeks before he is due to present draft rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), which are likely to affect big U.S. players Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft.

The DSA will force tech companies to explain how their algorithms work, open up their advertising archives to regulators and researchers, and do more to tackle hate speech, harmful content and counterfeit products on their platforms.

The DMA takes aim at online gatekeepers with a list of requirements, such as sharing certain kinds of data with rivals and regulators; and outlawed practices, such as favouring their own services. It will also include a range of sanctions.

""We start with a fine, then you have a bigger fine, then you may have a temporary remedy, specific remedies, then you may have at the end of the day, what we have also in the competition rules, structural separation,"" Breton told reporters during an online briefing.

""So",Digital titans face penalties if they breach new EU rules; Oversight,tweets_news_1486,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

Governor Charlie Baker on Tuesday said he was glad President Trump and Melania Trump appeared to be on the mend following their COVID-19 diagnoses, but the Republican governor rapped the commander-in-chief for ignoring the advice of health professionals.

BODY

In Salem Tuesday, Governor Charlie Baker expressed confidence in the state's coronavirus testing program.

Governor Charlie Baker on Tuesday said he was glad President Trump and Melania Trump appeared to be on the mend following their COVID-19 diagnoses, but the Republican governor rapped the commander-in-chief for ignoring the advice of health professionals.

""I'm glad the president and first lady seem to be recovering from their episode of COVID,"" Baker said during a press briefing in Salem, where the governor and other officials touted a grant program for improving streets and sidewalks to support outdoor dining and recreation amid the pandemic.

Baker added: ""I think it's incredibly irresponsible for the president or any other public official to ignore the advice of the public health . . . community.""

Trump returned to the White House on Monday night after leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, telling a country where more than 210,000 people have died from COVID-19, ""don't be afraid of it."" The message immediately alarmed infectious disease",Baker happy Trump is on mend,tweets_news_1487,tweets_news
"

Aug 08, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; Obama calls these lawless thugs peaceful demonstrators. Remember that a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for this carnage to go national. Joe Biden will never take significant action against the Antifa terrorists.

He needs their votes.An older woman tried to stop #antifa[1] rioters from continuing their attack on the Portland Police east precinct tonight. She stood in the front and they dumped some white liquid all over her &#38; curse her out. #PortlandRiots[2] pic.twitter.com/fYEu08DOfJ[3] — Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 7, 2020[4] This unknown woman using a walker was confronted by the group currently outside East Precinct and paint was strewn all over her. pic.twitter .com/k1cCVMbNht[5]; — Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 7, 2020[6][VIDEO] Anarchists Just Threw Paint All Over an Elderly Woman Defending Portland PoliceObama must be so proud of his army of peaceful protesters because it takes a lot of courage to douse an old lady in toxic paint By Wayne Dupree,[7] August 7, 2020These are the peaceful protesters that Obama told us all aboutthe delightful little innocent cherubs who are being 'silenced' by Trump's federal agents.aren 't they cute? They just peacefully threw paint all over an",VIDEO: Leftists Threw Paint All Over an Elderly Woman Defending Portland Police,tweets_news_1488,tweets_news
"PHILADELPHIA'S large pro-immigrant community spun into action on Wednesday, sharing information and restarting resistance training following reports that the Trump administration intends to launch pre-Election-Day raids here and in other ""sanctuary cities.""

""Our goal is not to cause panic, but our communities have a right to know and be prepared,"" said Erika Guadalupe Nunez, executive director of Juntos, the South Philadelphia-based Latino advocacy group. ""The recent news, it's a concentrated effort to highlight the 'law-and-order' efforts of the Trump administration ... We're not going to allow these fear-mongering tactics to go unchallenged.""

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday night that ICE officials planned to increase enforcement in three sanctuary cities prior to the election. The campaign is likely to begin in California this week before expanding to Philadelphia and Denver, and would focus on arresting undocumented immigrants who have criminal records beyond their immigration violations.

Calls from community members started coming into Juntos shortly after the news broke. On Wednesday the group was moving to restart its ""community resistance"" training, which alerts residents to their rights and explains how they should respond if ICE comes to their homes.

Advocates advise: If ICE officers knock on the door, don't open it. If the agents say",ICE-men cometh and immigrants are now worried,tweets_news_1489,tweets_news
"In pulling 12,000 US troops from Germany, President Donald Trump is laying bare what has long been clear -- there is no love lost between him and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Trump has clashed with plenty of US allies but he has appeared to have special enmity for Merkel, whose liberal, technocratic approach on issues from the coronavirus to immigration is at stark odds with the New York mogul's in-your-face populism.

After the Pentagon made the cuts official, Trump said he was acting because Germany had failed to meet the NATO goal of spending two percent of GDP on defense -- although Italy and Belgium, which will take some of the US troops, spend even less.

""Germany is delinquent. They haven't paid their fees,"" Trump told reporters.

""The United States has been taken advantage of on trade and on military and on everything else for many years, and I'm here and I've been straightening it out.""

Trump, himself of German ancestry, has long accused NATO's second largest economy of unfairly enjoying US protection while promoting cars and other exports.

- Snub on summit -

Trump first spoke of removing troops in June after Merkel, a scientist by training who has acted aggressively to stop COVID-19, rejected on health","In pulling troops, Trump doesn't hide spite for Merkel",tweets_news_1490,tweets_news
"

Sep 24, 2020( Socratic Gadfly: http://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com Delivered by Newstex) https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-01YHJs78QUU/W_L3aLawf4I/AAAAAAAAJrM/vEJuePh7SIwt4pFM0YZtssNCmIMNkKoBgCPcBGAYYCw/s349/Texas%2BProgressives.jpgLeading off the New World Order (deliberate quasi-punning riff) for many librulz, including most current and former contributors to Texas Progressives, is the death of the ""Notorious RBG,"" aka the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Yours truly, a leftist not a liberal, cuts through the cult of Ruth's hype (and it IS a cult, and that's not just me speaking) to tell you the truth about her being a squish[1] on the First, Fourth and Sixth amendments. As for filling her seat[2]?

Unlikely that Mitch the Turtle tries before Nov. 3, but a lame-duck move is possible.With that, let's head to the rest of state and national news. TexasChristofascist Tim Dunn has given Shelley Luther a $1 million loan[3] in the SD 30 special election. Loans like this are even more interesting than donations, which of course can't be done in this amount. Loans can be held over a candidate's head if they're elected.SocraticGadfly[4] notes that PRO Gainesville, the group protesting the Confederate statue and other things in Cooke County, appears to have shot itself in the PR foot[5], as part of recent updates about events there.Off the Kuff[6] makes",Texas Progs talk cult of RGB and more,tweets_news_1491,tweets_news
"WORLD

LATVIA IMPOSES RESTRICTIONS ON AIR TRAFFIC WITH BELARUS

The Latvian government imposed restrictions on using the Latvian airspace and Latvian airports for the airlines registered in Belarus, the Latvian Transport Ministry said on Tuesday evening.

The ability of Latvian airlines to use the Belarusian airspace and airports has also been limited. The decision took instant effect.

According to the Latvian government's decision, Latvian airports will stop serving planes of other countries transiting Belarus during their flights.

Therefore, Latvia will suspend the flight permit of the Belarusian Belavia airline and will not allow non-regular flights of Belarusian airlines. The AirBaltic permit to fly to and from Minsk will be suspended.

Latvian airlines stopped using the Belarusian airspace in the afternoon of May 23.

The decision followed the landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk forced by the Belarusian authorities.

A Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land at the Minsk airport while passing through Belarus's airspace on May 23.

On President Alexander Lukashenko's orders, Belarus scrambled a MiG-29 fighter jet to accompany it. The Ryanair plane was carrying Roman Pratasevich, former Editor-in-Chief of Nexta and editor of Belarus Golovnogo Mozga (Belarus of the Brain), Telegram channels that are both branded extremist in Belarus, and his companion,",WORLD,tweets_news_1492,tweets_news
"A Conservative MP has accused Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden of ``dodging'' the issues surrounding the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle and called on the Government to intervene.

The Premier League club are the subject of a £300million takeover bid, which if successful would result in Saudi Arabia's public investment fund (PIF) holding an 80 per cent stake.

It would be hugely controversial if the deal is completed given the country's human rights record and also its alleged links to the beoutQ pirate network, something it has consistently denied.

beoutQ was involved in illegally broadcasting sports events, including Premier League football, via streaming and satellite, before switching off its satellite in August last year. The beoutQ set-top boxes still allow content to be accessed illegally however, via internet protocol television (IPTV) apps.

It is understood the final hurdle for the takeover to clear is the Premier League's owners and directors' test, with Dowden having told MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee last month that it was a matter for the league and not the Government to decide if the deal was appropriate.

But Karl McCartney, the Conservative MP for Lincoln, has called on his own Government to step in.

``Saudi Arabia, or its operatives, has",OLIVER DOWDEN URGED TO STEP IN AND DEAL WITH PROPOSED NEWCASTLE TAKEOVER,tweets_news_1493,tweets_news
"Connecticut's 2nd Congressional district is gripped in a dead-heat Republican primary between one candidate who was arrested on the eve of the election on charges related to an alleged domestic assault and his opponent who turned him in to police.

The candidate who was arrested, Thomas Gilmer, 29, of Madison, dropped out of the race the night before the election, party officials anounced — but apparently did not take the legal steps to remove himself from the ballot. That leaves open the question of what will happen if he wins the race.

Gilmer was arrested late Monday night on charges of second degree strangulation and first degree unlawful restraint, in connection with an alleged 2017 incident. He intends to fight those charges and will plead not guilty, he said Wednesday.

As officials in some 2nd District towns — covering eastern Connecticut — counted ballots Wednesday evening, just five votes separated Gilmer, the GOP endorsed candidate, and Republican Justin Anderson of East Haddam.

Anderson is hoping for a win and said Wednesday he wants to keep peace within the state Republican party, but his handling of a video of the alleged assault has created an uproar within the GOP.

If Gilmer wins, the state Republican party","Dead heat, criminal charges sow confusion in 2nd District Congress race",tweets_news_1494,tweets_news
"“Jared Kushner is under federal investigation for diverting money to terrorist organizations according to a guy I met at the gas station who told me he works for the FBI” is something I would never be allowed to publish.

“Donald Trump Jr. has an escalating cocaine dependency problem according to a woman I ran into at the supermarket who told me she’s his dealer” is another sentence my editor would flag.

There is, you see, this thing in the news business called judgment. You may or may not have ever heard of it, though it is supposed to be one of the foundation stones of journalism.

Many of us have spent years pretending otherwise. Which is to say, pretending we are not in the business of deciding what is important and what isn’t, what is authoritative and what is not. Instead, we embrace false equivalence and specious syntactical strategies to spare ourselves from having to draw even the most obvious conclusions.

That’s how you get people hanging nooses and using the n-word and reporters dubbing it “racially insensitive.”

It’s how you get news media creating fake balance between climate scientists and climate change deniers.

It is how, more than 20,000 lies later, you get reports of",Leonard Pitts Living in an era where misinformation is weaponized,tweets_news_1495,tweets_news
"

Mar 08, 2021( MarketBeat: https://www.marketbeat.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at the Austin Police Association on Thursday Sept. 10, 2020. Twitter has filed a lawsuit against the Texas Attorney General. The social media company claims the Republican used his office to retaliate against it for banning the account of former President Donald Trump following the riot at the U.S. Capitol last year. Days after the deadly riot, Paxton announced an investigation into Twitter and four other major technology companies for what he called 'the seemingly coordinated de-platforming of the president.'

Twitter responded Monday, March 8, 2021 with a federal lawsuit claiming Paxton is seeking to punish it for taking Trump's account offline. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)DALLAS (AP) — Twitter has filed a lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, claiming the Republican used his office to retaliate against it for banning the account of former President Donald Trump following the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Days after the deadly January insurrection, Paxton announced an investigation into Twitter and four other major technology companies for what he called 'the seemingly coordinated de-platforming of the President.' The attorney general's office demanded that the companies produce a variety of","Twitter sues Texas AG, claiming retaliation for Trump ban",tweets_news_1496,tweets_news
"Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY), one of the worlds largest beauty companies and the global leader in fragrances, today announced two additions to its Board of Directors with the appointments of Anna Adeola Makanju and Mariasun Aramburuzabala Larregui. Both will join the board from December 18th.

Anna Adeola Makanju is a renowned expert in global policy who brings over fifteen years of experience across U.S. government and leading private sector companies. Currently Global Policy Manager for content regulation at Facebook, Makanju drives the companys approach to emerging regulatory frameworks around the world. She has also practiced international law in the Hague and at Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP and taught at Princeton Universitys School of Public and International Affairs.

Makanju served as a Special Adviser for Europe and Eurasia to then-Vice President, now President-elect, Joseph R. Biden, focusing on policy and engagement strategies with 51 countries, including Russia and Turkey. She has also served as a Senior Adviser to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and as Director for Russia on the U.S. National Security Council.

Mariasun Aramburuzabala Larregui is President of the Board & CEO of Tresalia Capital, a leading global investor with investments and transactional experience throughout Latin America, Asia,",Coty Announces Appointment of New Directors to Its Board,tweets_news_1497,tweets_news
"ANY speculation on whether Pauline Hanson's One Nation's (PHON) Stuart Bonds would have a tilt at state politics in the Upper Hunter by-election have been put to rest.State party leader Mark Latham stated on Monday Mr Bonds wasn't being considered for the upcoming vote.Mr Bonds said while his preference was to stay as the federal candidate, he would be open to discussion with the PHON NSW branch if they showed interest.However, his recent disagreements with senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts over their support of controversial new industrial relations laws, and subsequent threats to quit the party, has made the decision easier for Mr Latham.""Stuart has been a federal candidate and recently was questioning whether he was staying with One Nation so it wouldn't be appropriate for him to run for this by-election,"" Mr Latham told the Leader.The state and federal branches remain quite separate by Mr Bonds own admission, and the fact he has not been contacted has not come as a surprise to the Singleton coalminer.The state-level snub means he will continue to focus on federal matters, as he again eyes up the seat of Hunter at next year's election, which is something he believes will please many",Bonds no chance to run for Upper Hunter by-election: Latham,tweets_news_1498,tweets_news
"ABSTRACT

The singer is revealing he was in agony after testing positive for coronavirus - months after he said the virus was ""not a real pandemic.""

FULL TEXT

Link to Image

Rocker Ted Nugent is revealing he was in agony after testing positive for coronavirus - months after he said the virus was ""not a real pandemic.""

""I thought I was dying,"" Nugent says in a Facebook live video posted Monday. ""I literally could hardly crawl out of bed the last few days,"" adding: ""So I was officially tested positive for COVID-19 today.""

In the video shot at his Michigan ranch, the ""Cat Scratch Fever"" singer repeatedly uses racist slurs to refer to COVID-19 and reiterates his previous stance that he wouldn't be getting the vaccine because he claims wrongly that ""nobody knows what's in it.""

Nugent, a supporter of ex-President Donald Trump, previously called the pandemic a scam and has railed against public health restrictions. He has repeated a narrative pushed by conservative media and disputed by health experts that suggests the official death count from the coronavirus is inflated.

A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in late March found that 36% of Republicans said they will probably or definitely not get","Ted Nugent, who once dismissed COVID-19, sickened by virus",tweets_news_1499,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON-The lady loads her Glock, tucks it into a hip holster, then steps out of her house - wearing skinny jeans and high heels.

Usually she prefers to strap the weapon around her thigh.

Clickety-clickety-clickety through the not-so-mean streets of D.C., at least not this pleasant residential neighbourhood.

She is a mother of four. Owner of a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, Colo.Rifle - too perfect.

Also, a rookie Republican congresswoman, quickly making her bones as a gun-championing lawmaker: Annie Oakley Goes to Washington, circa 2021.

""Government does NOT get to tell me or my constituents how we are allowed to keep our families safe. I promise to always stand strong for our 2nd Amendment rights.""

Lauren Boebert released this digital video a couple of weeks ago - six million views as of the weekend - amidst efforts by some Democrats to ban members of Congress from carrying guns on the grounds of the Capitol. And that was before rioters pillaged the Capitol.

Yet Boebert, fierce ally of Donald Trump, isn't remotely chastened by the violence, the havoc, the threat to legislators posed by the wilding horde. Indeed, fingers have been pointed at the 34-year-old - an admirer of QAnon, by the way - as someone who may",Rosie DiManno: Pistol-packing Republicans in Congress have only themselves to fear,tweets_news_1500,tweets_news
"Trump supporters are angry at what they see as censorship on mainstream social media and defecting to platforms with fewer restrictions. Experts are concerned the trend will polarize US society even further.

For weeks US President Donald Trump has been maintaining that Democrats rigged the election in November and stole the vote. After he whipped his supporters into such a frenzy that some of them stormed the Capitol, Twitter temporarily suspended the account of its most infamous user for an initial period of 12 hours. Shortly afterward, it shut down Trump's account permanently, thereby stripping the president of his primary platform.

In the course of his four years in office, Trump shared his thoughts with some 90 million Twitter followers almost daily, sometimes even hourly. The permanent suspension of his account took the world by surprise. German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the move as ""problematic""and suggested that a private company should not be making decisions on curbs to freedom of expression. US legal experts, meanwhile, have pointed out that the First Amendment only limits governmental actors from curbing freedom of speech.

""The First Amendment doesn't apply to private sector organizations. That's not how this works,"" Chris Krebs told reporters last Sunday. Krebs served",United States: Donald Trump supporters flock to niche social media sites,tweets_news_1501,tweets_news
"NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 7, 2020--

Bernstein Liebhard, a nationally acclaimed investor rights law firm, announces that it is investigating Fastly, Inc. (""Fastly"" or the ""Company"") (NYSE: FSLY) resulting from allegations that Fastly might have issued misleading information to the investing public.

If you purchased Fastly securities, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options please visit Fastly Shareholder Investigation or contact Matthew E. Guarnero toll free at (877) 779-1414 or MGuarnero@bernlieb.com

On August 5, 2020 after market close, Fastly held its second quarter earnings conference call. During the call, Defendants disclosed that ByteDance was Fastly's largest customer in the second quarter of 2020, and that TikTok represented about 12% of Fastly's revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2020.

On this news, Fastly's share price fell $19.28, or approximately 17.7% from the previous trading day's closing price of $108.92, to close at $89.64 on August 6, 2020.

If you purchased Fastly securities, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options please visit https://www.bernlieb.com/cases/fastlyinc-fsly-shareholder-class-action-lawsuit-stock-fraud-302/apply/ contact Matthew E. Guarnero toll free at (877) 779-1414 or MGuarnero@bernlieb.com

Since 1993, Bernstein Liebhard LLP has recovered over $3.5 billion for its clients. In addition to representing individual investors, the Firm has been retained by some of",FSLY SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Bernstein Liebhard is Investigating Fastly Inc For Violations of the Securities Laws,tweets_news_1502,tweets_news
"

Nov 06, 2020( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/Delivered by Newstex) Like millions of his fellow Americans, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough woke up Thursday morning to learn virtually nothing new about the ongoing election. Understandably frustrated on Morning Joe, he ranted his way into a pit of confusion as he tried in vain to understand both conservative Christians and his own friends and relatives who support President Trump.First, MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle gave a surprisingly fair assessment of the minds of conservatives: I was speaking to a personyesterday, a Trump person, loves Donald Trump,loves what he's been doing, and Iask about the other side. 'You know, well Joe Biden, good guy, you know the Democrats,blah blah blah.'And they boil it down to the followingsentence: 'I'm tired of so manypeople telling me what to think,how to live, and now they'retelling me what to eat.'I mean, the take that so manypeople have, about the interference intheir own personal lives, by anoverwhelming apparatus ofgovernment, the flood of socialmedia, the autopsy on this isgonna be among the mostinteresting American experimentswe have ever done and it has tobe done. Blinded by rage, Scarborough lacked Barnicle's perspective: 'Well, there's also, I know you just have to add in there, andI say",Hateful Scarborough Tells Christians: Stop Being a Snowflake!,tweets_news_1503,tweets_news
"MUMBAI, India, Oct. 8 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (201911008802 A) filed by Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab, on March 6, 2019, for 'apparatus for reducing air pollution.'

Inventor(s) include Sandeep Kumar; Manjit Matharu; Divyansh Dixit; Vidhyadhar Biswal; and Bhupinder Singh. The application for the patent was published on Sept 11, under issue no. 37/2020. According to the abstract released by the Intellectual Property India: ""The present invention relates to an apparatus for reducing air pollution comprising; a detachable housing 1 having two ends, a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is connected with a catalytic converter and second end is connected with an exhaust pipe and at least one rod 2 placed inside the housing 1, wherein the rod 2 is coated with a mixture of silica gel and baking soda sponge for adsorbing harmful gases, at least one sensor 4 attached with the housing for detecting a percentage of carbon, at least one controller switch 3 connected with the sensor 4, wherein the controller switch 3 receives a signal regarding percentage of carbon inside the housing 1, an indicating module connected with the controller for providing a signal indicating about a user",Intellectual Property India Publishes Patent Application for 'Apparatus For Reducing Air Pollution' Filed by Chandigarh University,tweets_news_1504,tweets_news
"

May 16, 2021( Prairie Pundit: http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Fox News:[1] ""Joe Biden is the new Jimmy Carter."" That's the comparison being made by Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators as the Biden administration confronted a series of familiar crises last week - specifically, gas shortages and rising consumer good prices.Following the revelation that Colonial Pipeline[2] - the largest gas distributor on the East Coast - videos and images surfaced of cars sitting bumper to bumper, waiting to fill up before gas stations ran out of fuel. The gas shortage had a domino effect, too.

It even prompted a shortage of a fast-food favorite: Chick-fil-A sauce[3].The gas shortage was just one crisis the Biden administration[4] was forced to confront, though. Less than one week after a devastating jobs report, the U.S. Labor Department revealed that the prices of basic goods and services spiked 0.8% in April alone. That's the largest monthly increase the country has experienced in more than a decade.These crisis prompted House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to say that Biden is ""well on his way to creating another Jimmy Carter[5] economy.""TRUMP MOCKS COMPARISONS OF BIDEN TO JIMMY CARTER: THE CURRENT PRESIDENT IS WORSE[6] ...But Carter's efforts to control inflation","Many Republicans compare Biden to Carter, Trump thinks Biden worse",tweets_news_1505,tweets_news
"Once a place for bedtime stories, playdates, and hang out sessions, kids bedrooms have morphed into multi-use spaces during 2020. Never before have these areas in the home taken on so many roles, from remote learning locations to solo entertainment spots. When we tapped home design experts on what's trending in kids and teen rooms for 2021, one theme outshone the rest: comfort. Sarah Dooley, director of upholstery at Sunbrella, says, ""Now more than ever, kids and teens are seeking spaces that make them feel grounded and secure, but also allow for fun and play."" Here are a few kids' bedroom ideas - even when they have to do school work in them.

Value adaptability

for younger kids

Allowing your small child to have a say on his or her room décor allows them to feel like they can control their surroundings in a world where they actually can't (pandemic restrictions and mask mandates, we're looking at you). This also keeps their décor adaptable to their ever-changing whims.

Denise Davies, CEO/founder of D2 Interieurs in Weston, Conn., and co-founder of Smart D2 Playrooms (smartd2playrooms.com), explains, ""We love how today's trends aren't permanent. The items and accessories can be easily switched out as the child",Room to bloom,tweets_news_1506,tweets_news
"BODY

WASHINGTON — President Biden and Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga showcased the alliance between their two countries as well as their shared resolve in dealing with China as they met at the White House on Friday in Biden's first face-to-face talks with a foreign leader as president.

The talks featured unusually frank warnings from a Japanese leader against any effort by China to dominate the Indo-Pacific region by ""force or coercion."" Suga said the visit was meant to ""reaffirm the new and tight bond between us"" as the US and Japan deal with challenges in the region.

Suga and Biden were seeking to challenge messaging from Chinese President Xi Jinping that America and democracies in general are on the decline following the political turmoil and international withdrawal that marked Donald Trump's presidency.

In a news conference afterward, Suga made repeated references to the ""severe security environment"" in East Asia, where China under Xi is exerting its economic and military strength, including with military deployments meant to assert its disputed territorial claims in the region.

Suga broke from past Japanese leaders on Friday by not veiling his comments about China, an important economic partner for Japan. The prime minister said he and Biden held ""serious","Biden hosts Japan's leader, with China on the agenda",tweets_news_1507,tweets_news
"

Jan 28, 2021( The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Video resurfaced on Wednesday shows Marjorie Taylor Greene harassing David Hogg in 2018. Greene is seen following the Parkland shooting survivor as he walks toward the Capitol. She also called him a ""coward"" and said his silence is evidence he can't defend his gun-control stance. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories[1].A recently-resurfaced video shows Rep.

Marjorie Taylor Greene harassing Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg on Capitol Hill shortly after the 2018 attack, calling him a ""coward.""Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was among the 17 people killed in the school shooting, shared the video[2] on Twitter on Wednesday.The video shows Greene tailing Hogg as he walked toward the Capitol in March 2018 to advocate for gun control, just weeks after he survived the February 14 shooting. Hogg was 17 years old at the time. Greene was elected to Congress in November 2020. Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) January 27, 2021[3] The footage shows Greene peppering Hogg with questions, asking why he's using kids to push his anti-gun agenda and telling him that there wouldn't be school shootings if more people carried guns.Hogg ignores Greene's questions and continues walking in silence.""Why are you using",Video emerges of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene harassing a Parkland shooting survivor weeks after the attack,tweets_news_1508,tweets_news
"Health care policy has been a major issue for a long time. It played a big role in Barack Obama's 2008 election victory, his entire presidency and the 2010 GOP takeover of the House of Representatives. Repealing Obamacare was a Republican priority before and after Donald Trump became president. The debate on ""Medicare for All"" dominated the 2020 Democratic primaries.

Now, in the middle of the nation's worst pandemic in 100 years, you would think health care policy would be the object of obsession among politicians and voters. Instead, the issue has gone missing.

Congress is absorbed with economic stimulus and help for the unemployed. The Trump administration's favorite topic is law and order. Racial justice is paramount among Democrats right now.

But the topic may finally get some attention. ""His aides are touting a speech in which Trump will lay out his health care vision,"" Politico reported Sunday. ""White House counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway has been calling Trump 'the health care president.'""

Seriously? In June 2019, he said he would ""produce phenomenal health care"" with a plan he would be announcing ""in two months, maybe less."" We're still waiting for it.

Laying out his health care vision 3 1/2 years into his",Biden's Modest Health Care Plans vs. Trump's Imaginary Ones,tweets_news_1509,tweets_news
"FOR the first time today, Tasmanian voters will be able to read political news in the state's newspapers on the day they head to the polls.

In May 2018, then premier Will Hodgman announced the government would review Tasmania's Electoral Act and associated election laws that prevented newspapers - and newspapers only - covering political news on election day.

In April 2019, the ban was lifted following a campaign by the Mercury. On election day in March 2018, the Mercury raised national awareness of the Tasmania-only ban by publishing a front-page apologising to its readers for its inability to cover politics.

The ban also meant the Mercury was not able to cover the election-eve revelations about the Liberal Party's controversial firearms policy before voters went to the polls.

In their submission to the Tasmanian government's review of the Electoral Act, Professor Richard Eccleston and Nicholas Gribble, from the University of Tasmania's Institute for the Study of Social Change, argued lifting the ban would ensure consistency between print media and digital platforms.

""The original intent of this total ban was to prevent a story from being published without a party or candidate having an ample opportunity to respond,"" the submission said.

""We argue the Tasmanian laws are",News right up to polling,tweets_news_1510,tweets_news
"Canada would face ""an influx of refugee claimants"" and other ""ripple effects"" in the absence of a bilateral pact that stops would-be asylum seekers from making a claim here via the U.S., the federal government is warning.

This country will suffer ""irreparable harm,"" especially amid a global pandemic, if the Federal Court of Appeal does not suspend an earlier lower-court order that struck down the Safe Third Country Agreement, Ottawa argues.

In July, the Federal Court ruled the accord unconstitutional because the United States routinely detained asylum seekers in poor conditions. It gave Ottawa six months - until Jan. 22 - to fix the policy and make sure it complies with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms before the pact becomes invalid.

On Friday, the appeal court will hear a motion by the federal government to extend the deadline until a full appeal can be heard on a later date.

""An influx of refugee claimants will impair the sustainability of the systems that support refugee claimants while their claims are pending. Provincial and municipal governments are struggling to provide housing and social services,"" the government says in its submissions.

""This unpredictability is significantly heightened by the global pandemic. Should the reopening of the border",Federal government asks court to keep Canada-U.S. pact to prevent 'influx of refugee claimants',tweets_news_1511,tweets_news
"Manila, June 18 -- K-Drama enthusiasts, aspiring screenwriters, production students, industry professionals, and general K-Culture followers have another reason and platform to reunite, exchange insights, and learn together as the Embassy of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines will be bringing together some of the most seasoned experts for a free webinar!

Following the success of last year's K-Drama webinar, this year is all about diving deeper into everybody's favorite pastime by learning how to write an actual K-Drama script and then discovering how these amazing dramas are brought out into the global stage through ""Rediscover the Korean Creative Industry: A webinar on K-Drama Scriptwriting and Marketing.""

In partnership with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and APOP Books and media partners, Inquirer.net, POP, and KDrama Pal the webinar will be available for free viewing this June 30 at 1pm via KCC's YouTube Channel.

Screenwriting & Marketing

Facilitating the webinar to add more academic and professional insight is Ms. Amor Aljibe, who has been a media professional for over 30 years now and has worked on box office hits and critically acclaimed works that put the Philippines in the radar of international film festivals. She is",2021 K-Drama Webinar aims to promote K-Drama scriptwriting and marketing techniques,tweets_news_1512,tweets_news
"Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

have. You were across the Himalayas that right. That's why, Yeah. That's 500 miles across the Himalayas legend, that's how I'm Simon Good Growth for if you can get anywhere near Timperley cricket club later I'll give you a high five.

I might buy your cup of tea, just Simon that Simon Hix there in Cheshire, read a book and then cycled 500 miles across the Himalayas and raised 12 and a half Grand for charity jeans, the voice of the UK this is BBC Radio 5 live I've, BBC News, at two o'clock this is my power the Prime Minister has confirmed the will be a full independent statutory inquiry into the government's handling of the COVID outbreak Boris Johnson told MPs the inquiry would have full powers to ensure all relevant materials can be looked at and will be able to compel witnesses to give a wit give evidence under oath. The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged the government to make",BBC Radio 5 Live - 1:00 PM GMT,tweets_news_1513,tweets_news
"Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has threatened to leave the European People's Party (EPP) if new regulations aimed at excluding Fidesz are put to a vote.

Last week EPP group leaders took a step towards new rules that would allow them to penalize an entire member party, rather than just a single MEP. The rules are expected to be approved by the required two-thirds majority at a group meeting on March 3.

Critics of Fidesz within the EPP are confident that once these rules are in place, the EPP group will vote to suspend the 11-strong Hungarian faction. Fidesz MPs will not be allowed to vote as Hungary's rightwing party's membership has been suspended since March 2019.

The approval of the internal regulation could end the long feud between EPP and Fidesz over democratic norms. Up until now Hungary's ruling party has escaped from being thrown out of EPP because of support from Germany's ruling CDU/CSU. 

Hungarian analysts have written that leadership change in the CDU and Chancellor Angela Merkel retiring from politics would impact on how Hungary's ruling party is treated in the EPP. Flourishing economic ties and massive subsidies to German companies have improved Orban's positions even as he had been",Hungarian PM threatens to leave EPP as it prepares to expel Fidesz,tweets_news_1514,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

obviously evidence of rising inflation and increasing cost to businesses within the EU, so for example, we see rising transportation costs around the world, rising commodity prices, and it's that Covid related restrictions as well and the increase of operating businesses, a restaurant has to have tables, it's got more difficulties in its kitchen as well, and every thinking about labour markets as well, there is evidence that labour markets are probably tightening more than we might have expected. Possibly companies are recruiting at the same time so so the issues around skill shortages, also coming into play, so a number of factors. Just very quickly, when do you think we may be in a position in the key economies in the world, US, Europe, to come of this kind of quantitative easing, the ploughing and of money every month from European central banks?

I think we are in a different position around the world, as",Joins BBC News - 04:40 AM GMT,tweets_news_1515,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Some questions about the ‘new norm’

Questions I’d like answers to:

1. If the behavior of current Republican leaders is the “new norm,” what does crazy or inappropriate behavior look like?

2. Should we rethink First Amendment rights in light of new technology? Everyone agrees that yelling “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater is not protected free speech, so why is it OK to publish the same message on social media?

3. If a majority of Americans said they believed George Washington was not this country’s first president, how would you answer the following “True or False” question: “George Washington was the first president of the United States?”

4. Who most benefits from a divided citizenry unable to agree on who won this year’s presidential election?

Doug Salerno

Foothills

Kelli Ward is perfect — for Dems

As a lifelong Democrat, I would like to encourage the Arizona State GOP to continue electing Kelli Ward as its chairperson. She has now lost two Senate seats, the presidential election, and Arizona’s Congressional representation consists of five Democrats and four Republicans.

The next targets are Paul Gosar, whose own siblings don’t support him, Andy Biggs and Debbie Lesko. If Kelli manages to lose those, she will make every MAGA member’s dream come",Letters to the Editor,tweets_news_1516,tweets_news
"•Social network said new recruits this year will work in technology-focused roles•These will include software engineering, product design and data science•Staff will develop WhatsApp and Workplace, its business version of Facebook•Many in Community Integrity will help detect and removes harmful content•Facebook says it is keen to invest in UK despite 'uncertainty' because of Brexit

Social network said new recruits this year will work in technology-focused roles

These will include software engineering, product design and data science

Staff will develop WhatsApp and Workplace, its business version of Facebook

Many in Community Integrity will help detect and removes harmful content

Facebook says it is keen to invest in UK despite 'uncertainty' because of Brexit

Facebook revealed today that it will create 1,000 UK jobs this year in a bid to remove abusive and violent content from the social network.

Its boss Sheryl Sandberg told small business leaders in London this morning that Facebook remained keen to invest in the UK despite 'uncertainty' because of Brexit.

The chief operating officer will meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson today to discuss the new jobs and measures Facebook is taking to tackle harmful content online

The firm said more than half of the recruits will work in technology-focused roles across software engineering, product design and","Facebook vows to create 1,000 UK jobs this year in bid to rid website of abusive and violent content as boss Sheryl Sandberg says Britain still leads the world in innovation and creativity after Brexit",tweets_news_1517,tweets_news
"

Oct 17, 2020( Prairie Pundit: http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Matt Vespa:[1]We've been saying it for weeks now. The 2020polls are trash[2]. Things just don't make sense. Joe Biden cannot be up by 10 points over Trump and be in a dead heat with him in Miami-Dade County, the most populous Democratic county in the Sunshine State.

I've seen polls where college-educated voters are oversampled. Democrats are oversampled. And some firms haven't moved away from registered voter models. Zipcodes where Trump Democrats live are bypassed andsuburban GOP voters are targeted more[3]than rural ones for the obvious reason that the former group is hostile to Trump. Also, yes, there is a shy Trump vote this year. It's projected to be larger, withurban black women[4]likely to fall into this category. Also, not everyone is as forthcoming with these pollsters over the phone. Wehave data on that too[5]. What about young people? Youth interest in this election has dipped to levels not seen since 2000. We could see one million fewer young people vote in this cycle.And if Biden is ahead by that much, he could hunker down in his bunker until Election Day. There's no need for an ad blitz either, but look at",The 2020 polling scam,tweets_news_1518,tweets_news
"Lucknow, June 24 -- With lockdown in place majority of activities came to halt for over two months. What did not stop was the radicalization of gullible youths by alleged terror groups, claimed UP Anti Terror Squad (ATS) officials here on Tuesday.

""The online classes of radicalisation were operational more extensively during this period through different social media platforms, said ATS officials a day after unearthing the network of online radicalising classes on social media.

The ATS arrived on the conclusion after arresting one Salman Khurshid Wani from Ramban, Jammu on Monday and a Uttarakhand-resident Enamul Haque from UP's Bareilly on Thursday.

""As most of the youngsters, who are usually the main target of radicalisation groups, were at home and active on social media, the groups tried to get associated with more and more youths and radicalise them,"" an ATS official, who is privy to the investigation, said.

""Other than the two arrested recently, several other people from across the country are part of this self radicalising groups linked to each other through Facebook, Facebook messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram applications. They even had plans to organise their real meet somewhere but it was postponed due to Covid-19 induced country wide lockdown,"" said UP ATS",'Radicalisation was ongoing in lockdown',tweets_news_1519,tweets_news
"TikTok’s top creators are taking “Triller money” to bring their content over to the app.

TikTok’s top creators are taking “Triller money” to bring their content over to the app.

When talk of a possible TikTok ban began in July, the leaders of a small social video app called Triller saw a growth opportunity.

To attract users, the company set its sights on TikTok’s biggest names. Some of the Sway Boys, a group of TikTok influencers, had been toying with the idea of building their own app to compete with TikTok, but after a discussion with Ryan Kavanaugh, the majority owner of Triller and a veteran entertainment executive, they decided the platform could be good for them.

Triller offered the creators a deal: Tell your audience on TikTok that you’re moving to Triller, and we’ll give you equity and roles within the company. You can still post on TikTok, they were told, but only if you post on Triller more frequently. In turn, of the Sway Boys, Josh Richards, 18, was named Triller’s chief strategy officer, and Griffin Johnson, 21, and Noah Beck, 19, joined as advisers with equity.

Soon, CNBC, Fox News and The Los Angeles Times were writing about TikTok defectors bound for","Fancy Cars, Fine Dining, Creator Mansions, Cash: Triller Is Shelling Out for Talent",tweets_news_1520,tweets_news
"While Donald Trump seeks consolation as the world acclaims Joe Biden this week, he can at least reflect on the fact that he got more voters to the polls than anyone before him. As counting continues, the current total of more than 71 million votes cast for Trump is the second largest in US history - although unfortunately for him, well exceeded by the 75.5 million for Biden, the largest ever.

Joe Biden is indeed the ""good man"" described by former President George W Bush in a characteristically generous statement about a political opponent - not something that Trump will be able to muster. But no one imagines that his record-breaking vote was the product of overwhelming enthusiasm. It is more likely to have been produced by intense hostility to the other side: Trump motivated his Democrat opponents to turn out just as much as his Republican supporters.

A political party faces a particular quandary when it receives a record level of support but loses at the same time, and that paradox now frames the dilemma for Republicans as they try to draw lessons for the future. Does this result show that the Trump version of politics is what works for the",Conservatives need a response to the issues raised by Donald Trump,tweets_news_1521,tweets_news
"Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola carries a police shield Jan. 6 during the Capitol siege. Prosecutors allege he had an earpiece in his right ear. ""This was not simply a march,"" Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough said. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

As members of the Oath Keepers paramilitary group shouldered their way through the mob and up the steps to the U.S. Capitol, their plans for Jan. 6 were clear, authorities say.

""Arrest this assembly, we have probable cause for acts of treason, election fraud,"" someone commanded over an encrypted messaging app some extremists used to communicate during the siege.

A little while earlier, Proud Boys carrying two-way radios and wearing earpieces spread out and tried to blend in with the crowd as they invaded the Capitol led by a man assigned ""war powers"" to oversee the group's attack, prosecutors say.

These extremists that traveled to Washington along with thousands of other Trump supporters weren't whipped into an impulsive frenzy by President Donald Trump that day, officials say. They'd been laying attack plans. And their internal communications and other evidence emerging in court papers and in hearings show how authorities are trying to build a case that small cells hidden within the masses mounted an",DOJ zeros in on organized rioters,tweets_news_1522,tweets_news
"Jan. 27--New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s leading opponent in the Republican primary has decided to run instead in a neighboring district, a change he announced Monday, a day before Trump hosts a rally that Van Drew hopes will gin up support from conservatives in his new party.

“Having the President fully endorse [Van Drew] and embrace him, it just doesn’t make sense for me to continue in this race,” Republican David Richter said. “I have endorsed Jeff Van Drew and will support his re-election campaign.""

Richter stepped aside on the eve of Van Drew’s appearance with Trump at a rally in Wildwood, and three days after the emergence of a voicemail in which Van Drew told a voter, just weeks before he switched parties, that he “will not” vote for Trump.

""I haven’t voted for him, I didn’t support him, I will not vote for him,” Van Drew said in the Nov. 30 voicemail obtained by The Inquirer.

Since Van Drew defected to the GOP and pledged his “undying support” to Trump in December, the national Republican Party has thrown its support behind his candidacy, even though the longtime Democrat has voted with Trump only 7% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. Trump",Jeff Van Drew’s strongest Republican opponent just called it quits and will challenge Andy Kim instead,tweets_news_1523,tweets_news
"He has been to Turkey like phylloxera to the vine. Now, though, there's a paradigm shift afoot in Turkish politics and at long last we have The Tinpot Tyrant Takedown. His time is up and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamofascist era has ended-but it's a revolution in instalments and we haven't seen the final episode yet.

Succeeding where Turkey's political opposition failed is an unlikely revolutionary. The hair is combed low on the forehead. The dress code is gangsta bling. He's fatter than Gandhi, less photogenic than Che and lags a long way behind Trotsky for intellect. No man in history ever looked in the mirror and saw a dishonest face reflected but there must have been moments when Turkey's most notorious mafia boss had his doubts. Speaking to camera, he gives the impression of being half-stoned or in the exuberant stage of drunkenness. Viewers claim his monologues are more easily interpretable if one adjusts the playback speed to 1.5 times faster than normal.

For the past month or so, Sedat Peker's deliberately provocative but inadvertently ludic YouTube vlogs have gripped the Turkish public in a way the soporific, state-controlled media churning out AKP propaganda, religious pabulum and soap operas of",RIMMER: Peker has him in his pocket,tweets_news_1524,tweets_news
"

Nov 10, 2020( Mediaite: http://www.mediaite.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Photo credit: Olivier Douliery, AFP via Getty Images. Dean Browning, a former GOP Lehigh County (Pa.) Commissioner posted a very strange tweet on Tuesday afternoon, in which he, a straight white man claimed to be a 'black gay man' while bashing Democrats in a reply to his own attack on Joe Biden. And thus an online mystery was born The obvious demographic disconnect immediately raised eyebrows and prompted suspicion that the 'proud pro-life &#38; pro-2A Christian conservative' had mistakenly forgotten he was not logged into a sock puppet account when he replied to a two-day-old tweet from Browning's verified account.

'I'm a black gay guy and I can personally say that Obama did nothing for me, my life only changed a little big and it was for the worse,' Browning's blue check account tweeted. 'Everything is so much better under Trump though. I feel respected — which I never do when democrats are involved [sic].'The absurd and obviously misleading post quickly went viral, and not long after was deleted. Nearly 20 minutes later, Browning returned to Twitter to post this explanation: 'Regarding the tweet that is going viral from my account — I",The Very Strange Saga of a Straight White GOP Politician Replying to Himself on Twitter as a 'Black Gay Guy',tweets_news_1525,tweets_news
"The video platform had launched a new campaign with the NHS urging people to get the jab.

YouTube has a ""role to play"" in encouraging younger people to get a Covid-19 vaccine because of the influence it has among those aged under 35, the firm's UK boss has said.

The video site has launched a campaign to encourage young people to get their Covid jab when they become eligible in partnership with the NHS

The campaign, with the tagline Let's Not Go Back, which will run on the video platform as well as on social media and in other outlets, comes as the vaccine rollout in England is set to be opened up to those aged 35 and over this week.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, YouTube UK managing director Ben McOwen Wilson said the platform reached ""98% of the UK's 16 to 34-year-olds"" and as the jab rollout began to reach younger adults it was vital they had ""access to the facts about the vaccine"".

Our policies mirror both the World Health Organisation and, in the UK, the NHS's view on vaccines

Ben McOwen Wilson, YouTube UK managing director

""What our campaign is around is a light-hearted way to ensure that they're reminded to",YouTube has 'role to play' in encouraging young people to get Covid vaccine,tweets_news_1526,tweets_news
"Asian Americans reported the single biggest increase in serious incidents of online hate and harassment as racist and xenophobic slurs blaming people of Asian descent for the coronavirus pandemic spread over the past year, according to a new survey shared exclusively with USA TODAY.

Some 17% of Asian Americans reported sexual harassment, stalking, physical threats and other incidents, up from 11% last year.

Half of them said the harassment was spurred by their race or ethnicity, according to the survey from anti-hate group ADL. Overall, 21% of Asian-American respondents said they were harassed online.

ADLCEO Jonathan Greenblatt says the survey's findings, which come amid a growing outcry over the rapid rise in attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders nationwide, show that efforts to curb surging anti-Asian sentiment by social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube have fallen short.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Sundar Pichai and Twitter's Jack Dorsey are slated to testify on Capitol Hill on Thursday about their handling of misinformation, disinformation and other harmful content. The vast majority of those polled by ADL - 81% - agreed with the statement that social media platforms should do more to combat online hate.

In a statement, Facebook said it does not allow","United States: Asian Americans Report Biggest Increase in Serious Incidents of Online Hate, Harassment During COVID Pandemic",tweets_news_1527,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON – If anyone thought it strange that the top two elected officials in the Navajo Nation were speaking at competing political conventions, Navajo Vice President Myron Lizer said they have not been paying attention.

""There's no secret we are a split ticket,"" Lizer said during a Navajo town hall Tuesday with President Jonathan Nez. ""We are working both sides, and we are well represented in Washington.""

Lizer's comments came as he was getting ready to address the Republican National Convention, just one week after Nez was featured as a ""rising star"" who helped deliver the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention.

In a prerecorded prime-time speech, with Shiprock as a backdrop, Lizer credited President Donald Trump with improving relations between federal and tribal governments.

""For years, we've fought congressional battles with past congressmen and senators that were part of a broken system that ignored us. That is, until President Trump took office,"" Lizer said in his convention address. ""Whenever we meet with President Trump, he has always made it a priority to repair the relationship with our federal family.""

Nez did not touch on tribal affairs in his speech to the DNC, instead focusing on encouraging support for Democratic nominee Joe Biden. But","Politics and bedfellows: Nez, Lizer address Democratic, GOP conventions",tweets_news_1528,tweets_news
"Some of the toughest ads against Donald Trump are driven by lifelong Republicans unable to stomach the direction their party has taken.

Washington: Rick Wilson apologises for running late for our phone interview: it's been a frantic morning for the veteran Republican ad-maker and his colleagues at the Lincoln Project.

The anti-Trump group has just released its latest advertisement, slamming the US President for suggesting that the November 3 election may need to be delayed. In the half hour since the ad ??? titled We Will Vote ??? went live, it has already racked up more than 250,000 views online.

That's nothing unusual for the operatives at the Lincoln Project, who have been pumping out attack ads at a prolific rate over recent months.

""We push really fast all the time,"" Wilson says. ""We drive ourselves and our team very hard because we think we are pursuing a worthwhile endeavour and we know it works.""

The group's co-founders include Steve Schmidt, who ran Republican nominee John McCain's 2008 campaign, and conservative lawyer George Conway, the husband of top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway. Having spent most of their adult lives working to get Republicans elected, they are now producing some of the toughest anti-Trump ads on","Once on life support, Never Trump Republicans enjoy a resurgence",tweets_news_1529,tweets_news
"Through new lesson plans and expensive publishing projects, the government hopes to teach future generations a curated lesson about the city's past.

HONG KONG -- The orders seemed innocuous, even obvious: Primary school students in Hong Kong should read picture books about Chinese traditions and learn about famous sites such as the Forbidden City in Beijing or the Great Wall.

But the goal was only partially to nurture an interest in the past. The central aim of the new curriculum guidelines, unveiled by the Hong Kong government this month, was much more ambitious: to use those historical stories to instill in the city's youngest residents a deep-rooted affinity for mainland China -- and, with it, an unwavering loyalty to its leaders and their strong-arm tactics.

Students, the guidelines said, should develop ''a sense of belonging to the country, an affection for the Chinese people, a sense of national identity, as well as an awareness of and a sense of responsibility for safeguarding national security.''

The Chinese government, in its efforts to quash dissent, has imposed a strict set of restrictions on Hong Kong, including new rules this week to bar any candidates deemed disloyal to the Communist Party from elected office.

But the strategy goes","In Hong Kong, History Edited To Exalt China",tweets_news_1530,tweets_news
"Misinformation, hate speech and calls for violence about the conflict have circulated on social media platforms amid the deadly fighting. The development comes amid reports that social media companies are being asked to remove posts that are critical of the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic....

Misinformation, hate speech and calls for violence about the conflict have circulated on social media platforms amid the deadly fighting. The development comes amid reports that social media companies are being asked to remove posts that are critical of th...

Misinformation, hate speech and calls for violence about the conflict have circulated on social media platforms amid the deadly fighting. The development comes amid reports that social media companies are being asked to remove posts that are critical of the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Reuters Facebook Inc set up a 24-7 ""special operations center"" last week to respond to content posted on its platform about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict amid violence in the region, the company said on Wednesday. Misinformation, hate speech and calls for violence about the conflict have circulated on social media platforms amid the deadly fighting. ""This operations center allows us to closely monitor the situation so we can remove content that",Facebook deploys special team as Israel-Gaza conflict spreads across social media,tweets_news_1531,tweets_news
"The U.S. election and its dramatic aftermath have elevated the debate about how to deal with online misinformation and disinformation, lies and extremism. We saw social media companies permanently kick the president, some of his allies and conspiracy groups off their platforms for election misinformation, raising eyebrows around the world and leading to accusations that they’re being robbed of their First Amendment rights. At the same time, people used social media to communicate plans to commit violence at the Capitol, drawing complaints that platforms don’t do enough to censor extremism.

This has exacerbated calls by politicians and others to regulate online speech by imposing rules on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. Lawmakers are backing various wrongheaded proposals for this. One would change the law to hold tech companies legally liable for the speech they host, by amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — the thought being that platforms will remove harmful speech to avoid multiple lawsuits. Another would give state legislatures power to regulate internet speech. Last but not least, now-former president Donald Trump issued in May an executive order that would essentially insert the federal government into private internet speech, letting government agencies adjudicate platforms’ decisions","Control over online speech should be left to users, not the government",tweets_news_1532,tweets_news
"Mark Zuckerberg is facing a backlash within Facebook, with several senior employees publicly criticising the chief executive for refusing to... Mark Zuckerberg is facing a backlash within Facebook, with several senior employees publicly criticising the chief executive for refusing to take action over controversial posts by President Donald Trump, and other staff staging “virtual walkouts”. As protests...

Mark Zuckerberg is facing a backlash within Facebook, with several senior employees publicly criticising the chief executive for refusing to... Mark Zuckerberg is facing a backlash within Facebook, with several senior employees publicly criticising the chief executive for refusing to take action over controversial posts by President Donald Trump, and other staff staging “virtual walkouts”. As protests...

Mark Zuckerberg is facing a backlash within Facebook, with several senior employees publicly criticising the chief executive for refusing to...

Mark Zuckerberg is facing a backlash within Facebook, with several senior employees publicly criticising the chief executive for refusing to take action over controversial posts by President Donald Trump, and other staff staging “virtual walkouts”.

As protests and rioting over the death in police custody of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, spread through several American cities, Mr Zuckerberg was forced to defend Facebook’s position as — in his words",Facebook employees revolt over Zuckerberg’s stance on Trump,tweets_news_1533,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

When I got TikTok, I was like ""What videos am I going to make?"" What do I talk about the most? Politics! Do you support the cancel... Not really. ..culture, the cosmopolitan elites of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden?

Yes, I do. Do you believe in American greatness? Not really. Believe in yourself? No. In President Trump? Definitely not. In individual and personal responsibility? Yeah, but not in the way that you would've. A lot of people assume that Gen Z isn't politically engaged. So that is not my experience. What we are seeing on TikTok and what we're seeing with 24-hour news and just this constant media storm all the time, I think we are learning and we know more about politics and about the latest news. Gen Z is totally - it's totally passionate and totally - and totally wants to be civically engaged. The product design of TikTok means that the",Joins BBC News - 03:41 AM GMT,tweets_news_1534,tweets_news
"Benjamin Silbermann's performance as Chief Executive Officer of Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) is ranked in the top 5% of BuySellSignals performers for the past week; a percentile ranking of 95.2 out of 3,009 companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Pinterest Inc (NYSE:PINS), NYSE's 9th largest Technology company by market cap, has lifted $4.45 (or 5.6%) in the past week to close at $83.98.

Compared with the S&P 500 Index which rose 50.1 points (1.2%) in the week, the relative price increase was 4.4%.

In the past week the market cap has risen by $2.8 billion to $52.8 billion (USD52.8 billion).

Reinforcing Bullish Signals

- The present value of $1,000 (PV1000) invested 1 year ago is now worth $5,099 for a capital gain of $4,099. This corresponds to annualised shareholder returns of 410%.

- Rises for a second consecutive week: The stock rose for a second consecutive week on Monday bringing its two-week rise to $14.60 or 21.0%.

- Continues significant uptrend: The stock rose 21.8% in the past month.

- Strengthens above MAP: The 200-day Moving Average Price (MAP) is $55.66, up from $54.14 a week ago. A rising MAP over the past week is a bullish signal. The price to MAP ratio is 1.51, up from 1.47","Benjamin Silbermann CEO of Pinterest in top 5% of price performers of NYSE stocks in past week Tuesday April 13, 2021",tweets_news_1535,tweets_news
"Freedom of the press

WASHINGTON

As the progressive campaign to regulate unprogressive speech seeps out of campuses and into mainstream politics, the party whose base includes academia is behaving predictably.

This past week, U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Mike Doyle, D-Pa., of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, convened a hearing for the undisguisable purpose of intimidating streaming services that distribute conservative content, or what nowadays passes for that.

On Feb. 22, two California Democrats, U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo and U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney, sent to AT&T and other entities letters declaring that ""the right-wing media ecosystem"" - they named Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network - has produced ""our current polluted information environment.""

The pollution is undeniable. So are progressives' contributions to it, e.g., their obsession with 2016 ""Russian collusion,"" their ludicrously solemn and extensive interviewing of Stormy Daniels' felonious lawyer, Michael Avenatti, and their beatification of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the pandemic.

Eshoo and McNerney, however, economize their indignation by focusing on the right.

In their letters they demanded to know, among other things, how many of the cable and",There is no government cure for media pollution,tweets_news_1536,tweets_news
"Publishers still haven’t learned how to best monetize online, journalists are getting more political, consumers think “fake news is rampant,” and social media is encroaching on the news, according to this year’s Digital News Report.

The report, from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the University of Oxford, surveyed over 80,000 online news consumers in 40 markets. Those behaviors were, in part, examined during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here are some of the takeaways:

Many readers do not want to pay for online news, a trend that puts a strain on publishers as advertisers struggle to find the best sites on which to place their messaging, given brand safety concerns.

The study also recognized publishers’ struggle to monetize on aggregators like Apple News+, which could increase traffic—but on a platform that doesn’t create a unique relationship between reader and publisher.

That dynamic is at the heart of growing a paid subscription business. Apple News+, for example, splits revenue with publishers based on user engagement.

“There was nothing I couldn’t get for free on Apple News,” said an unnamed 19-year-old quoted in the study, highlighting a major issue for publishers: Consumers are reluctant to spend on news when they can access abundant, free online content.

While",Most Americans Choose News Based on Their Personal Beliefs,tweets_news_1537,tweets_news
"Cardi B had some harsh words Tuesday (June 2) for a reporter who took her words out of context in regards to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.

 Cardi B had some harsh words Tuesday (June 2) for a reporter who took her words out of context in regards to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.

The drama all started when KTLA reporter Doug Kolk ran a segment using part of the rapper’s recent Instagram video. He claimed in his piece that she was using her platform to “promote the violence” of looting and rioting during the ongoing demonstrations.

Here’s what Cardi says in the partial soundbite: “People looting and going extremely outraged, you know, it makes me feel like, ‘Yes! Finally! Finally motherf–kers gonna hear us now. Yeah!’… As much as people is so against it, at this point I feel like I’m not against it, even though it do scare me.”)

It didn’t take long for the razor-tongued rapper to catch wind of the news story, and she quickly took to social media to unleash on the anchor for cherry-picking from her full statement. “@DougKolk why your no lip square head having ass ain't put the part were I said to",Cardi B Calls Out News Anchor Who Claims She Was Promoting Violence During Black Lives Matter Protests,tweets_news_1538,tweets_news
"SAN FRANCISCO (NEXSTAR) – Twitter flagged a tweet by the president Monday evening after Trump warned of ""violence in the streets"" in regards to a Supreme Court decision about mailed ballots in Pennsylvania, and urged, ""Something must be done!""

""Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process,"" the message from Twitter read, with an exclamation mark and a link to election fraud coverage from major media outlets.

The warning also contains a link to Twitter's civic integrity policy, which states, ""You may not use Twitter's services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes.

President Donald Trump and his reelection campaign are signaling they will pursue an aggressive legal strategy to try to prevent Pennsylvania from counting mailed ballots that are received in the three days after the election.

The matter could find its way to the Supreme Court, especially if those ballots could tip the outcome in the battleground state.

The three-day extension was ordered by Pennsylvania's top court. The Supreme Court refused to block it, but several conservative justices have indicated they could revisit the issue after the election.

FBI investigating incident where 'Trump",Twitter flags President Trump's tweet about Supreme Court decision on Pennsylvania voting,tweets_news_1539,tweets_news
"Like any freedom-loving person, I’m awfully glad that there are groups such as the ACLU around to defend unpopular causes — say, American Nazis on parade.

Emphasis on awfully.

Because while such work is important, it’s essentially theoretically important. I am not losing any sleep over a lack of Nazis on parade. On the whole I am more on the side of the actress Mara Wilson, who on Twitter is Mara “Get Rid of the Nazis” Wilson. I am more on the side of Woody Guthrie, who scrawled in large letters on his guitar, “This machine kills fascists.”

Parade the Nazis if you will, but punch one in the nose and you won’t find me writing an angry letter to the editor.

These days you will find a surprising number of people from a political class I don’t recall being vocally upset about the quashing of free speech when civil rights protesters were being beat up by police or anti-war students were having the plugs pulled on their PA’s who claim that we live in an era of unprecedented clamp-down on freedom of expression by a supposedly politically correct cabal of progressives.

Whereas this is first simply not true, it’s more importantly not even supposed",Social media,tweets_news_1540,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Joe Biden may not be Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, but it’s clear his approach to the presidency would fundamentally change America for the worse. Of course, his economic agenda brings a lot of problems that would lead to fewer opportunities for all, but it’s Biden and his fellow Democrats’ approach to our institutions that will bring serious, long-term negative consequences.

Lost in the cacophony of noise during Tuesday’s debate with President Trump was Biden declining to answer a question about whether or not he would seek to add more justices to the Supreme Court and eliminate the filibuster for legislation. “Whatever position I take on that, that’ll become the issue,” Biden said, adding in response to Trump’s prodding, “I’m not going to answer the question.”

Over the past four years, the media have frequently told the public that Trump is undermining “democratic norms.” But Biden’s refusal to answer Chris Wallace’s question suggests that Biden is prepared to seek extreme changes to the way the Senate operates that would get rid of any roadblocks for his domestic policy agenda. How does this not undermine these “democratic norms” that we’ve heard so much about?

The United States is not a direct democracy. The","Democrats don't like the rules, so they're trying to change them",tweets_news_1541,tweets_news
"A school board meeting in Loudon County, Virginia devolved into chaos after religious right protestors screamed at board members to protest a policy that required staff to address transgender students by their names. One man was arrested and another cited for trespassing after the meeting was declared an unlawful gathering. The...

A school board meeting in Loudon County, Virginia devolved into chaos after religious right protestors screamed at board members to protest a policy that required staff to address transgender students by their names. One man was arrested and another cited ...

A school board meeting in Loudon County, Virginia devolved into chaos after religious right protestors screamed at board members to protest a policy that required staff to address transgender students by their names. One man was arrested and another cited for trespassing after the meeting was declared an unlawful gathering. The group also demanded that the school ban the teaching of critical race theory in public schools. The course isn’t taught in elementary schools since it’s a law school course examining the effect of race on legal policies and administration. Related: A mob tried to harass a school board member over LGBTQ rights. So her neighbors responded. Many of the",School board meeting devolves into chaos as religious right protests policy on transgender students,tweets_news_1542,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This is BBC News. The latest headlines: President Trump walks away from negotiations over a multitrillion-dollar Covid relief deal, intended to support the US economy. White House adviser Stephen Miller becomes the latest of over a dozen members of Donald Trump's inner circle to test positive for coronvirus. Facebook has cracked down on QAnon conspiracy groups who lend their support generally to President Trump.

Facebook has classified content linked to QAnon as ""dangerous"" and says it will remove posts from Instagram as well. Followers of QAnon believe President Trump is secretly leading a fight against a worldwide conspiracy of paedophiles. Facebook says it is clamping down more on misinformation campaigns ahead of the US election. Let's speak now to the technologist Chris Messina a technologist and inventor of the hashtag used across social media platforms. Welcome. Why is Facebook doing this now, specifically? I think the big answer is QAnon has moved on from this evasion",Joins BBC News - 01:15 AM GMT,tweets_news_1543,tweets_news
"Members of the violent far-right extremist group the Proud Boys and other supporters of outgoing US President Donald Trump, who this week was dubbed ""loser of the year"", marched on Washington

Far-right supporters of Donald Trump violently clashed with counter-protesters in Washington as hardcore backers of the ""loser of the year"" still refuse to accept defeat.

Video posted on Twitter shows a street fight involving people wearing helmets and gas masks, and carrying homemade plastic riot shields.

That fight and a brawl on the National Mall were said to have involved members of the Proud Boys far-right group as they and other Trump supporters gathered for a march and rally called the Million MAGA March.

Enrique Tarrio, who heads the violent extremist group, claimed he visited the White House on Saturday, posting a photo taken just feet away from an entrance and writing in the caption: ""Last minute invite to an undisclosed location.""

About 200 members of theProud Boys joined the march near the Trump Hotel, with many combat fatigues, ballistic vests, and carried helmets.

Flashing hand signals used by white supremacists, they shouted and exchanged insults with counter protesters at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House.

The two sides were separated by a line",Violent clashes as Proud Boys and Donald Trump fans moan about Biden's crushing victory,tweets_news_1544,tweets_news
"

Mar 01, 2021( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) Biden is not legitimate. American did not vote for this demented destroyer.Joe Biden Restarts Filling U.S. Jobs with Foreign Workers as 17M Americans Are JoblessBy: John Binder,[1] Breitbart News, March 1, 2021: President Joe Biden has restarted allowing companies to fill scarce U.S. jobs with foreign workers after a major lobbying effort by big business interests, even as more than 17 million Americans remain jobless. In April 2020, former President Donald Trump signed[2] an executive order halting a number of employment-based and extended family-based green card categories. The order sought to reduce foreign labor market competition against millions of Americans facing joblessness and underemployment as a result of the Chinese coronavirus crisis.

Two months ago, Trump renewed[3] the order prioritizing unemployed Americans for U.S. jobs while nearly 18 million were unemployed at the time. Corporate interests fiercely opposed the order because the nation's current legal immigration levels help them increase profit margins while cutting overall wage costs.On Wednesday, Biden revoked the order after lobbying[4] from tech corporations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who have sought to continue importing foreign workers rather than recruiting unemployed Americans for jobs.Biden claims the order",Beijing Biden Restarts Filling U.S. Jobs with Foreign Workers as 17M Americans Are Jobless,tweets_news_1545,tweets_news
"The increasingly visible and vocal followers of QAnon promote a bewildering blend of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, worrying everyone from Facebook to the FBI.

Once on the fringes of the internet and focused on US politics, the movement has seen sharp growth on mainstream social media platforms this year, prompting tech firms to tighten controls and ban QAnon followers.

The movement is centred on the unsubstantiated belief that the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles. It has extended that this year to allege, without proof, that the coronavirus is a conspiracy by that group to control people using vaccines and 5G.

Did the pandemic have something to do with it?

Researchers detected sharp spikes in QAnon content and related searches in March, when many countries had started imposing lockdowns and other social distancing measures.

The anxiety, frustration and economic pain caused by the pandemic -- coupled with the increased amount of time people were spending -- online became an explosive mix that drew people to QAnon, experts say.

""QAnon blamed these events on global elites while also increasing distrust in mainstream media, government and organisations such as the WHO,"" said Mackenzie Hart, a disinformation researcher at the London-based ISD think tank.

Core QAnon beliefs were",How did QAnon conspiracies spread so fast in 2020?,tweets_news_1546,tweets_news
"The latest news, sport, business and weather from the BBC's Breakfast team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

solved. So you don't need any batteries? No, they are rechargeable batteries, so it will pick up light from the lights inside your room... So how long does it say the remote will at last, seven years? Seven years, apparently.

My remote has been around for at least ten years. What, when the moat on one set of batteries? No, the remote has been around ten years. But I'm saying you won't have to worry about changing the batteries. That says the remote. It's the device. It so you don't have to put batteries in, that's all. But you said there were batteries in it. But you don't have to change the batteries. Anyone else confused? The problem with remote controls as the batteries run out, and as they run out, you whack the thing because you think that is maybe a connection. Is there a remote that can survive the fudging-macro? They",Breakfast - 06:15 AM GMT,tweets_news_1547,tweets_news
"During his floor speech explaining his vote to convict Donald Trump, Mitt Romney was overcome by emotion and paused to compose himself. The intense moment came when he spoke of his devotion to God, saying: “I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am.” Lump in throat. Long pause. “I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.” The oath, in this case, was the one all 100 senators swore — to do impartial justice as jurors in the trial of the president.

It made me think of a line from Robert Bolt’s play “A Man for All Seasons,” a classic that used to be much quoted by people who now dance as marionettes on Donald Trump’s strings. It’s a play about conscience, politics, the pressure to conform to the group and the sticking point when men of integrity can be pushed so far and no farther. Like reverence for Winston Churchill, admiration for this play used to be nearly universal among conservatives. (The 1966 movie, starring Paul Scofield, is a gem.)

Explaining that he could not falsely swear an oath, as it was a declaration before God, Thomas More says, “When a man takes an oath,",A modern Man for All Seasons,tweets_news_1548,tweets_news
"

Dec 08, 2020( MarketBeat: https://www.marketbeat.com/ Delivered by Newstex) In this Dec. 14, 2017, file photo, the seal of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is seen before an FCC meeting to vote on net neutrality in Washington. The Senate has narrowly approved President Donald Trump's lame-duck nominee, Nathan Simington, on Tuesday, Dec.

8, 2020, to become a member of the Federal Communications Commission. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate has narrowly approved President Donald Trump's lame-duck nominee to become a member of the Federal Communications Commission, setting up the agency for a stretch of partisan gridlock likely to stymie President-elect Joe Biden's policies. The vote Tuesday was 49-46 along party lines to confirm Nathan Simington as one of five commissioners of the independent regulatory agency. Simington is now a senior adviser at the Commerce Department agency that advises the president on telecommunications and information policy. He played a role in the plan by the Republican-majority FCC, announced before last month's election, to reexamine the legal protections enjoyed by social media companies like Facebook and Twitter for content that people post on their platforms. The FCC plan came in response to Trump's executive order in May challenging the long-held protections for social","Senate OKs Trump pick for FCC, adding hurdle to Biden plans",tweets_news_1549,tweets_news
"The following information was released by Chatham House:

Social media giants are increasingly clashing with Asian governments over free expression and censorship as the region lurches towards digital authoritarianism.

Expert Comment

22 March 2021 3 minute READ

Harriet Moynihan

Senior Research Fellow, International Law Programme

Freedom of expression was subject to significant restrictions in Asia even before the pandemic, with several governments having enacted laws that stifle online debate. But since COVID-19, restrictions have increased even further due to a rash of so-called 'emergency measures' introduced by governments across the region.

Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam have all put new laws into place, and many restrictions are already being applied in a draconian fashion, such as in the Philippines and Bangladesh.

As outlined in a new Chatham House research paper, one inspiration behind this trend is China, home to the world's most sophisticated and restrictive system of internet control. The Chinese government's restrictive online regime, which has tightened further under COVID-19, relies on a combination of legal regulations, technical controls, and proactive manipulation of online debates.

This model was an inspiration for Vietnam's cybersecurity law, as well as Myanmar's new draft cybersecurity bill, proposed by the Military-run State Administration Council",BATTLE LINES BEING DRAWN OVER ONLINE FREEDOMS IN ASIA,tweets_news_1550,tweets_news
"The Houston Astros (43-28) and Baltimore Orioles (23-48) open a three-game series Monday at 7:05 p.m. ET at Camden Yards. Let's analyze BetMGM Sportsbook 's lines around the Astros vs. Orioles odds with MLB picks and predictions . RHP Jake Odorizzi is the projected starting pitcher for the Astros. He is 1-3 with a 5.68 ERA, 1.18...

The Houston Astros (43-28) and Baltimore Orioles (23-48) open a three-game series Monday at 7:05 p.m. ET at Camden Yards. Let's analyze BetMGM Sportsbook 's lines around the Astros vs. Orioles odds with MLB picks and predictions . RHP Jake Odorizzi is the ...

The Houston Astros (43-28) and Baltimore Orioles (23-48) open a three-game series Monday at 7:05 p.m. ET at Camden Yards. Let's analyze BetMGM Sportsbook 's lines around the Astros vs. Orioles odds with MLB picks and predictions . RHP Jake Odorizzi is the projected starting pitcher for the Astros. He is 1-3 with a 5.68 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 9.2 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 over 25 1/3 IP spanning seven games (six starts). Odorizzi tossed 4 scoreless innings of bulk relief in his last outing, Tuesday against the Texas Rangers. LHP Keegan Akin is the projected starter for the Orioles. He is","Houston Astros at Baltimore Orioles odds, picks and prediction",tweets_news_1551,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel put a top Google executive on the defensive Tuesday over the company’s powerful position in online advertising as some lawmakers look hopefully toward an expected antitrust case against the tech giant by the Trump administration.

Donald Harrison, Google’s president for global partnerships and corporate development, insisted at a hearing by the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee that Google’s ad business faces ample competition, has benefited consumers, and has kept prices low for advertisers and publishers such as local newspapers.

The Justice Department has pursued a sweeping antitrust investigation of big tech companies, looking at whether the online platforms of Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple have hurt competition, stifled innovation or otherwise harmed consumers. The department is reportedly readying a major case accusing Google of abusing its dominance in online search and advertising to stifle competition and boost its profits.

That expected action “could be the beginning of a reckoning for our antitrust laws,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the panel’s senior Democrat. She said she hoped “there’s a start” at the Justice Department and that also “things are going on” at the Federal Trade Commission, which has carried on a separate antitrust investigation of the Big Tech",Google exec on hot seat in Congress over advertising power,tweets_news_1552,tweets_news
"Jimmy Kimmel:

""Yesterday, our former President, Donald Trump, shared a Father's Day wish, writing, 'Happy Father's Day to all, including the radical left, RINOS, and other losers of the world.' Poor Eric.""

Jimmy Kimmel:

""We are learning how poorly our Kentucky fried commander-in-chief mismanaged the pandemic thanks to a forthcoming book detailing the chaos and infighting that plagued Team Trump's response to the coronavirus. It was written by reporters from the Washington Post who say at the beginning of the pandemic, Trump suggested sending Americans that had been infected with COVID traveling overseas to Guantanamo Bay. You know, he said he wants to send them to 'Geronimo' Bay. He probably sent a camera crew too and called it 'Survirus' or something.""

Stephen Colbert:

""Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo lifted most coronavirus restrictions, calling it a 'return to life as we know it.' So this weekend, New Yorkers could once again play the classic Big Apple guessing game: 'puddle or pee?'""

Stephen Colbert:

""There's also a new tour featuring former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and former President 'The Flag Fondler.' ... The pair are making several public appearances in December that they're calling 'The History Tour.' I assume because their careers are history.""

Stephen Colbert:

""But the tour is",Late Night Political Humor,tweets_news_1553,tweets_news
"A judge in Halle, Germany sentenced Stephan Balliet to life in prison on Monday for the murders he committed and his attempted massacre on a synagogue on Yom Kippur last year. And yet, despite the sentence, the prosecutors failed to address the role that violent white supremacy had played in Balliet's heinous crimes; they did not call a single expert witnesses to testify about the international influences on Balliet. It was a huge oversight, and a sign of a long-overdue reckoning.

Opinion | Violent white supremacy is an international network. We can't afford to ignore it.

The truth is that while Balliet was on trial alone, his antisemitic hatred is shared across the globe by white supremacists in the U.S., Europe, Australia and elsewhere. These bigots communicate with each other through social media, chat rooms, and websites, providing opportunities to share ideas and tactics and recruit new followers. This networking emboldens them and gives them the impression that the white supremacist movement is thriving, which, in turn, encourages white supremacists to believe they have widespread credibility and support.

The hate they post is not harmless drivel. It has driven others to violence, including to the mass murder of ethnic and religious minorities, considered",Violent white supremacy is an international network. We can't afford to ignore it.,tweets_news_1554,tweets_news
"A recent firing at The Associated Press is the latest example of the way in which our digital pasts are never far from the present, despite what early internet evangelists thought.

The internet is a fossil machine. It preserves our thoughts, our political positions, our jokes, our photos, our triumphs and our mistakes in silicon amber, just waiting to be dug up. And that has led to a kind of modern sport: Find an outrageous piece of a person's past that can be weaponized, put it on display for all to see and hope for the worst.

The most surprising thing, though, is that this is still happening.

The latest target of adversarial archaeologists is Emily Wilder, 22, who was fired by The Associated Press just three weeks into the job after the Stanford College Republicans surfaced her pro-Palestine activism and social media posts while in college. Though she was based in Arizona, her old posts caught the attention of national political figures from the right who amplified them, arguing that her views compromised her employer's ability to accurately cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The A.P. contends that the firing was for social media conduct while Ms. Wilder worked for the media outlet, but",Our Digital Pasts Weren't Supposed to Be Weaponized,tweets_news_1555,tweets_news
"Gov. Gavin Newsom repeatedly calls California a ""nation-state,"" employing a phrase not used by any other governor in memory.

President Trump mocks the federal system, first saying emergency responses are up to individual state governors, not the central government, and then saying the opposite, that he has ""total authority."" He first suggests that medical suppliers ignore orders from states whose governors ""don't treat us right"" and then claims he's taking care of everyone.

These are new things in America. They could enlarge the existing, very small movement for a ""Calexit,"" secession from the union by California, the progenitor of the world's fifth-largest economy.

For sure, pandemics don't happen often, but when they become devastatingly large, they can dramatically change the course of human history. So it was when the Antonine Plague of 165 AD killed over 5 million persons and decimated the Roman army, leading to the first barbarian victories over that empire's vaunted legions.

It happened again with the Bubonic Plague of 1348 to 1353, which many historians say delayed the Renaissance a century by killing off many young artists and politicians whose work hinted at what actually came about 100 years later. Smallpox killed off most American Indians, making it far easier",Will coronavirus up chances of Calexit movement?,tweets_news_1556,tweets_news
"

Jun 27, 2020( International Business Times News: http://www.ibtimes.com Delivered by Newstex) Coca-Cola, a major force in global advertising, announced Friday it would suspend ads on social media for at least 30 days, as platforms face a reckoning over how they deal with racist content.""There is no place for racism in the world and there is no place for racism on social media,"" James Quincey, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, said in a brief statement.He said social media companies -- which other major brands have boycotted to force changes in how they deal with hateful material -- need to provide ""greater accountability and transparency.""Coca-Cola will use the pause to ""reassess our advertising policies to determine whether revisions are needed,"" Quincey said. Coca-Cola told CNBC the decision does not mean it is joining the #StopProfitForHate initiative Photo: AFP / Karen BLEIER The beverage giant told CNBC that the ""break"" does not mean it is joining the movement launched last week by African American and civil society groups.

The coalition, which includes the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), has been urging companies to stop advertising on Facebook, using the #StopHateForProfit hashtag.It aims to achieve better regulation of groups",Coca-Cola Says Pausing Social Media Advertising,tweets_news_1557,tweets_news
"India, June 15 -- Netanyahu is out.

A long batting inning is over, and as far as credits are concerned, they are war crimes and corruption for self and the family and not for the country or the people.

That sums up the ex-PM Netanyahu's tenure as PM of Israel. His stature had become too big compared to the military and economic might of his country, Israel, whose geographical importance is that it can keep vigilance on Arab countries. It keeps an eye on reservoirs of natural oil and gas, acting as an outpost of US imperialism.

Even though Netanyahu has been ousted, his replacement is just as right-wing, capitalist, and islamophobic.

He had become a synonym of Zionism, loved by a section of his countrymen. He was part of world leaders, who came up to power due to massive retreat or degeneration of the bourgeois democracy and which accelerated after the demise of the USSR and the start of neoliberalism. The latter unleashed several anti-working-class measures like ending all the welfare measures in education and health services, transport, old-age homes, subsidies for the farmers on electricity, water, seeds & fertilizers, women's safety measures, and children/orphans' care facilities.

Right-Wing Populism And Neo-liberalism

The laws in all",Opinion: Netanyahu And Bennett Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin,tweets_news_1558,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

more about how this government will trace any future outbreaks? And surely, by choosing not to test all care home staff residents, the Welsh government is sending the message that community testing is not that important in the first place? The reason why we do not offer tests to everybody, symptomatic and asymptomatic, is because clinical evidence tells us that there is no value in doing so. Testing people who have no symptoms today, for that to be a reliable message to them, you would have to test them again tomorrow because you can go from being having no symptoms to having the symptoms in 24 hours.

The leader of your party has said we are possibly on track to having one of the worst death rates in Europe. He was referring to the UK, of course, but it is sadly true for Wales. Why have we done so badly compared to some the other countries?",Joins BBC News - 01:50 AM GMT,tweets_news_1559,tweets_news
"Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has issued the following press release:

The OECD has joined the Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online, adding its support to an international coalition of stakeholders working to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting the Internet.

The Christchurch Call is a commitment by governments and technology companies to combat extremist content online, put in place after 51 people were killed at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in a brutal terror attack that was livestreamed on social media.

Since hosting the 2019 meeting of world leaders, tech company CEOs and civil society organisations that resulted in the Christchurch Call, the OECD has been driving a multi-stakeholder process to standardise how online platforms publish information about the terrorist and violent extremist content (TVEC) that appears on their services and the policies and procedures they have in place to address it. Following the Christchurch Call Second Anniversary Summit, co-chaired last week by French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the OECD is today announcing its formal support for the Christchurch Call.

“We have seen all too often the real-world harm that terrorist and violent",OECD joins Christchurch call to action to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online,tweets_news_1560,tweets_news
"DeWine announced the new restrictions as Ohio posted 7,079 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.

Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday announced a three-week, overnight stay-at-home order for Ohioans from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Thursday in a quest to help turn around COVID-19 infections as daily cases tripled in the last three weeks.

DeWine also said most retail businesses are expected to be closed by 10 p.m. under the curfew, with the exception of necessities such as grocery stores, pharmacies and restaurants for carry-out and deliveries.

""Basically, we want people home by 10 o'clock,"" DeWine said, adding that people who have to work late nights and early mornings are permitted to do so.

Emergency and medical travel are permitted, as are grocery shopping and picking up carry-out meals, he said. One also may leave home to care for another in need.

Despite his previous threat to close them beginning Thursday, the governor said restaurants and bars will remain open for carry-out and delivery past 10 p.m., and dine-in service will continue during hours prior to then.

A DeWine spokesman said the order applies to individuals - not businesses. Some businesses will choose to close because people cannot travel to a casino, for example, past 10 p.m.,",DeWine imposes a 3-week curfew,tweets_news_1561,tweets_news
"

Jan 27, 2021( How Appealing: https://howappealing.abovethelaw.com Delivered by Newstex) ;;;;;; 'Defeat in Texas shows how the conservative judiciary can thwart Biden's agenda': Joan Biskupic of CNN has this report[1]. Posted at 10:04 PM [2] by Howard Bashman[3] 'The Trump Era is Over: Prepare for the Supreme Court's Conservative Onslaught.' Eric Segall has this post[4] at 'Dorf on Law.' Posted at 9:25 PM [5] by Howard Bashman[6] 'Most Republicans declare Trump's trial unconstitutional. Here's what that means for conviction.

Just five Republican senators voted against dismissing the trial on legal grounds.' Sahil Kapur of NBC News has this report[7]. Posted at 9:21 PM [8] by Howard Bashman[9] 'Nearly all GOP senators vote against impeachment trial for Trump, signaling likely acquittal': Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post has this report[10]. Posted at 5:23 PM [11] by Howard Bashman[12] 'Senate rejects GOP motion to dismiss Trump impeachment trial': Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press have this report[13]. Posted at 3:36 PM [14] by Howard Bashman[15] 'The Nonsensical Republican Argument for Dismissing Trump's Impeachment': Law professor Neil Kinkopf[16] has this jurisprudence essay[17] online at Slate. Posted at 2:24 PM [18] by Howard Bashman[19] 'How Democrats Can Keep Their Policies Safe From",'Defeat in Texas shows how the conservative judiciary can thwart Biden's agenda',tweets_news_1562,tweets_news
"Interviews with newsmakers and personalities from around the world.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

is kind of rare for a security person, you don't tend to like to get into the politics will be outspoken but there are such a cross section here between the security problem and the politics of the moment that I felt it was important to speak out during the election, but also to speak out after the election and help educate especially those in the Republican party that your rhetoric matters and the way that your viewing the election matters it is having a direct impact on the people of the United States and how they are framing the election and that suggesting anybody that voted for Trump is is a violent extremist it's nothing that obvious is that when you have such a large for people who are leaving what we call the big lie, some small percentage of them made determined that violence is justified. But when you're taking a poor 74",HARDtalk - 04:40 AM GMT,tweets_news_1563,tweets_news
"The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops plans to devote part of its national meeting next month to the sensitive issue of which Catholics are worthy of receiving Communion, despite calls for a delay. Dozens of bishops had requested the USCCB president, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, postpone the debate until a later meeting, when they could meet...

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops plans to devote part of its national meeting next month to the sensitive issue of which Catholics are worthy of receiving Communion, despite calls for a delay. Dozens of bishops had requested the USCCB president, Los...

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops plans to devote part of its national meeting next month to the sensitive issue of which Catholics are worthy of receiving Communion, despite calls for a delay. Dozens of bishops had requested the USCCB president, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, postpone the debate until a later meeting, when they could meet in person rather than virtually. But prompt action is being sought by some conservative bishops who want to signal that President Joe Biden and other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should not receive Communion. The conservatives are now heartened, as Gomez confirmed in a memo",Divided US Catholic bishops will debate Communion policy,tweets_news_1564,tweets_news
"Dear reader,

In this week's edition, you will find an editorial by The Epoch Times Editorial Board on page A13.

Headlined ""Election Fallout Reveals Battle Between Freedom and Communism,"" the editorial discusses how America has come to the brink of falling into a communist abyss.

""When the founders of our newspaper fled a communist regime to come to America, they never expected that this great nation would one day become the focal point of the battle between communism and freedom,"" the editorial reads.

""This cumulative battle for the future of America- and with it, the rest of the world-is now coming to a head in the U.S. presidential election.""

It highlights that, in the face of credible allegations of voter fraud, the conflict has become one that ""transcends the political right and left.""

Instead, it is ""a battle between whether we as Americans can stay true to our founding principles and follow God's will, or whether we will be subjected to forces that seek to control and destroy our most fundamental rights,"" the editorial reads.

It has been two weeks since the Nov. 3 election, and the election results remain unclear as recounts have been requested or initated and lawsuits have moved forward across the country. We",NEWS BRIEFS,tweets_news_1565,tweets_news
"SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook's oversight board on Wednesday (May 5) upheld the company's suspension of former US President Donald Trump but gave the company six months to determine a ""proportionate response"" going forward, a verdict that may chart how social media will treat rule-breaking world leaders in the future. Facebook indefinitely blocked Trump's access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts over concerns of further violent unrest following the Jan 6 storming of the US Capitol by supporters of the former president. ""The board found that, in maintaining an unfounded narrative of electoral fraud and persistent calls to action, Mr Trump created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible,"" it said. ""At the time of Mr Trump's posts, there was a clear, immediate risk of harm and his words of support for those involved in the riots legitimised their violent actions.

As president, Mr Trump had a high level of influence."" The board, whose decisions are binding on the leading social network, however, also said that ""it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension"". ""Within six months of this decision, Facebook must reexamine the arbitrary penalty it imposed on January 7 and",Facebook oversight board upholds Donald Trump's account suspension,tweets_news_1566,tweets_news
"Oct. 08--

Pete Souza is an unlikely film lead. Short and soft-spoken, he blends into the background so as to not draw attention to himself. This is, of course, ideal for someone who made their career as a high-profile photographer capturing moments of intense consequence.

Yet here he is at the center of Dawn Porter’s documentary “The Way I See It.” The film is finishing a Ragtag Cinema run, but premieres on MSNBC Friday night. Check your local listings, as they say.

While his biography is certainly interesting, Souza might not have drawn the interest of the public -- or filmmakers -- had he not removed himself from the background and into the heat of political controversy so forcefully.

Souza is a Kansas boy who went from Chanute to the Chicago Sun-Times Washington D.C. bureau in the 1980s. His big government break came working in the Reagan White House towards the tail end of its second term. The Iran-Contra scandal engulfed all the president’s men and Souza was there to capture it. On reflection, Souza's politics did not mesh with the boss, but now observes there was a “seriousness” and a “reverence” demanded of the presidency.

Nothing says reverence like illegally selling weapons to hostile",Through his lens: Documentary places White House photographer in the picture,tweets_news_1567,tweets_news
"Feb. 19-- Feb. 19--PLATTSBURGH -- When musician and retired librarian Stan Ransom, aka the Connecticut Peddler, plucks his shamisen, he is instantly transported back to Tokyo where he purchased it last year.

The Plattsburgh resident purchased the three-stringed traditional instrument, known as a Japanese banjo, at the Serbico Shamisen Store, which he and his wife, Chris, visited last year on his return trip to Japan after a seven-decade interval.

ARMY OF OCCUPATION

In 1946, Stan was 18 and completing first year studies on a scholarship at Yale University.

His draft number was low, so he enlisted in the U.S. Army and found himself attending boot camp in Louisville, Ky. in the summer of 1946.

In December of 1947, he was a newly minted private in the Army of Occupation in Japan.

""Then, I went to truck driver school and drove troops around that area in Japan,"" Stan said.

""I was on the island of Kyushu, which is the southernmost of Japan's main islands.""

""In Kyushu on the north end was a town called Beppu. That's where I served out most of my time.

""The war was over, and we were since occupied with helping the Japanese recover.""

The Japanese people were friendly, and Stan and his comrades-at-arms taught English to",Stan in Japan,tweets_news_1568,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders have always faced rebels in their ranks. But Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene are presenting top House Republicans with a test of how to handle a new breed of Trump-era, social media-savvy firebrands.

Gaetz, a third-term Floridian, and Greene, a Georgia freshman, have attracted more public attention lately than most junior members of Congress. Much of it hasn't been positive.

That's confronting House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., with questions about whether the two hard-right provocateurs might hurt the GOP’s goal of capturing House control in next year’s elections. Party leaders must decide what, if anything, to do about them, and what impact any action would have on their supporters, who come from the GOP's staunchly conservative base.

“These are folks who operate in their own bubbles,” said former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who headed the House GOP’s campaign operation. “They know how to get press, they don’t worry about being too outrageous.""

“They have absolutely safe seats,” Davis said.

However, the Justice Department is investigating whether Gaetz violated sex trafficking laws and had sex with a 17-year-old girl, and McCarthy has suggested he'll take action if Gaetz is indicted.

And a memo linked to Greene described a proposed America","Gaetz, Greene flaunt new paths to power, testing GOP leaders",tweets_news_1569,tweets_news
"Document links may not lead to an active page. Page maintenance is at the discretion of the publisher.

The United States, and the West, are caught in the slowly asphyxiating grip of a decadence they do not understand, and have been there for 50 years. Donald Trump is the sort of president a decadent society gives you, (as, in my view, would be Joe Biden). And the failures of national US institutions, like the Centres for Disease Control, to respond with even elementary competence in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic is a sign of the enervated, anaemic quality of so many state and private institutions in the age of decadence, even in the richest society in the world.

We are not standing on the cusp of decadence. The US, and Australia, have been decadent for half a century or more. The culture wars of the 1960s have never been resolved but have left us with a paralysed dystopia slowly getting worse. The failure of the Apollo moon landing to lead to an era of space exploration bookmarks the fatal waning of ambition in our culture. Technology has failed its promise. Politics has declined into permanent gridlock.

This challenging, invigorating, in many ways counterintuitive",How the West was wasted,tweets_news_1570,tweets_news
"

Jan 31, 2020( VentureBeat: http://venturebeat.com/ Delivered by Newstex) (Reuters) — The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it will hold a public meeting on Feb. 19 to discuss the future of a federal law which largely exempts online platforms from legal liability[1] for the material their users post.

The meeting will examine the future of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides immunity to companies such as Facebook, Alphabet's Google and Twitter for content posted by users, although companies can still be held liable for content that violates criminal or intellectual property law. The meeting titled #8216;Section 230 #8212; Nurturing Innovation or Fostering Unaccountability?' will explore the expansive interpretation of the law by courts, it's impact on citizens, businesses and will look at whether improvements to the law should be made, the Justice Department said in a statement. #8216;Now that the industry has matured, valid questions have been raised regarding the broad scope of Section 230 and whether the immunity is still required in its current form,#8217; the statement said. Lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties have called for Congress to change Section 230 in ways that could expose tech companies to more lawsuits or significantly increase",U.S. to discuss whether online platforms should be liable for users' posts,tweets_news_1571,tweets_news
"When you’re a black woman in America with a public voice, a trivial math error can lead to a deluge of hate.

When you’re a black woman in America with a public voice, a trivial math error can lead to a deluge of hate.

Late Thursday night, I appeared on TV. On Friday morning, I woke up to a text message from a friend.

“People on Twitter are pathetic,” she wrote. “How are you?”

On MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour With Brian Williams” the night before, we mentioned a tweet, written by someone else, about the enormous amount of money Michael Bloomberg had spent on his failed presidential run, about $500 million. Here’s what I said: “Somebody tweeted recently that actually with the money he spent, he could have given every American a million dollars.”

The math, as a few people have pointed out, was wrong. Overnight, I had become an online sensation, and not in a good way. The video had gone viral, first shared by the right wing, and then by seemingly everyone else, too.

Some people seemed surprised I couldn’t fact-check arithmetic on live TV. Let me assure you that my high school math teachers were not among those people.

Given my history with math,",My People Have Been Through Worse Than a Twitter Mob,tweets_news_1572,tweets_news
"The singer songwriter, whose new album is released this week, has walked into several damaging controversies - but she's had to live with repeated attacks in a culture that prefers women to be uncomplicated, says Fiona Sturges

In 2011, Lana Del Rey released her breakthrough single ""Video Games"". A woozy declaration of love for a man who seemed entirely unworthy, it was our first glimpse of Del Rey's retro fantasy world of bad boys, femme fatales and frolics at the Chateau Marmont. Ten years and seven albums later, Del Rey's preoccupations remain broadly the same. The singles from her new LP, Chemtrails over the Country Club, show that elegantly soaring melodies, plangent orchestration, and videos styled as sun-dappled home movies remain her stock in trade. Desire and darkness continue to bubble under the surface of songs inhabited by atrocious men.

I'll leave it to my brilliant colleague Helen Brown to dig into the new album, but what has become clear is that Del Rey has, over a decade, become a strange and disturbing case study of a career spent battling with other people's ideas of who she is and, more pointedly, who she should be. From the off, the fascination with the",Lana Del Rey's defensive woundings come from a decade of harsh criticism,tweets_news_1573,tweets_news
"At around 1.38am, residents at the converted Fearnley Mill in Huddersfield called the West ­Yorkshire Fire brigade. The mobile phone mast attached to the old mill's huge chimney was ablaze, needing six fire engines to put out the flames.

The incident on Tuesday, which threatened the lives of 37 households and destroyed communications ­equipment used by the emergency services, is one of 40 nationwide arson attacks on mobile phone masts over the last month. Masts have been attacked in Liverpool, Dagenham, Belfast and across the UK.

Police believe these attacks are linked to a false and dangerous conspiracy theory about the link between coronavirus and 5G technology made in rapidly growing social media groups - one of which added half-a-million new followers in the past fortnight.

Some theorists even go as far as suggesting that Thursday night's ""Clap For Our Carers"" and other key workers has been designed to create enough noise to mask the ""loud beeping"" of 5G networks being tested. One conspiracy theorist has called the Nightingale Hospital in London ""a concentration camp of death"".

Worrying

Meanwhile, polling conducted on behalf of HOPE not Hate has revealed some startling statistics about the spread of conspiracy theories surrounding 5G.

A worrying 37% of the public",Anti-5G conspiracy theories linked to far-right antisemitism as arson attacks spread,tweets_news_1574,tweets_news
"THE ISSUES

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 230-199 Thursday evening to remove Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, from the House Education and Labor Committee and House Budget Committee. Greene has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, which bizarrely claims that Democrats and celebrities are part of a satanic cabal of pedophiles that controls the world. Greene’s social media posts have threatened violence against Democrats and have disseminated anti-Semitic, anti-Black and anti-Muslim tropes. She also has promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories. Eleven Republicans, including Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Bucks County, joined Democrats in voting to strip Greene of her committee assignments. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, of Lancaster County, voted in Greene’s favor.

So, this is apparently how things work now.

A member of Congress can undermine an election — hours after a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — and support the cancellation of nearly 3.5 million Pennsylvania Democratic votes, including the ballots cast by 115,847 Lancaster County residents.

And then propose, with a straight face, legislation called the Voter Confidence Act.

The gaslighting is almost impressive.

You’d think Smucker would want to avoid any effort that would remind people of his role in seeking to subvert the November presidential election — at least until some","Sadly surprised, but still ashamed, that US Rep. Smucker of Lancaster County voted in Marjorie Taylor Greene's favor [editorial]",tweets_news_1575,tweets_news
"Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox says the state party will not be backing the campaign of state House candidate Paul M Smith because he has some ""crazy"" theories.

""The Michigan Republican Party is not investing - will not be spending any money or time or energy on his race,"" Cox told reporters on a Monday call.

""He has some very crazy conspiracy theories that do not reflect the beliefs of thousands of Republicans across the state of Michigan.""

Leaders of the House Republican Campaign Committee said it also will not be supporting Smith, a former Sterling Heights City Council member.

The party leaders publicly disavowed Smith days after he questioned the charges against 13 men alleged to have taken part in a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the state government, including talks of storming the state Capitol in Lansing.

""What a totally bogus sham,"" Smith commented on Facebook last week. ""These citizens never did anything illegal. Law enforcement is employed to punish people who COMMIT crimes, not people The Governess simply HATES. You can legally hurt Whitmer by voting out her minions.""

Smith, who is challenging state Rep. Nate Shannon, D-Sterling Heights, said Monday the plot against Whitmer is a ""pre-election stunt""",Michigan GOP cuts ties with Macomb House candidate with 'crazy' theories,tweets_news_1576,tweets_news
"One of the first people to be injected as part of UK human trials for a coronavirus vaccine has said she is ""doing fine"", after a fake article about her death was circulated on social media.

The article claims that microbiologist Elisa Granato, who took part in the trial in Oxford on Thursday, had died following complications after taking the vaccine.

The Government later said the article is ""completely untrue"", and warned people about sharing unsubstantiated claims online.

Vaccine trial participant 'fine' after reports of death twitter 1

Dr Granato was one of two people to take part in the trial, and said she was ""excited"" to support the efforts by volunteering.

Following the article about her ""death"", she tweeted about the news before making her Twitter account private.

She wrote: ""Nothing like waking up to a fake article on your death ... I'm doing fine everyone.""

On Sunday afternoon, the Department of Health and Social Care tweeted: ""News circulating on social media that the first volunteer in a UK coronavirus vaccine trial has died is completely untrue.

""Before sharing unsubstantiated claims online, use the Share checklist to help stop the spread of harmful content.""

Earlier this month, the Government relaunched its Don't Feed The Beast public information campaign",Vaccine trial participant 'fine' after reports of death,tweets_news_1577,tweets_news
"The Greens have attacked the Liberal Party's performance over mental health after they announced a major new policy.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Minister Jeremy Rockliff on Saturday announced an additional $56 million to improve the mental health system, alcohol and drug services, and boost preventative health measures.

This includes $26 million for mental health, including the establishment of an Emergency Mental Health Co-Response Team.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Driver, co-driver killed in second Targa crash

Touching tribute for Tasmania's own 'war heroine'

Man charged with 48 offences following alleged police evasion

Family still haunted by son's death

Mr Rockliff said the initiative was based off a program in the ACT, which resulted in 80 per cent of people seen by the team then able to stay in the community, with only 12 per cent of people requiring transport to the emergency department, compared to 56 per cent previously.

""This initiative will deliver better outcomes for Tasmanians, increase the capacity of police and ambulance services, and reduce hospitalisations,"" he said.

Mental Health Council of Tasmania chief executive Connie Digolis welcomed the approach.

""For far too long we've been focusing solely on providing support to people once they become unwell. Instead, we must now look towards a preventative approach ... rather than reacting when","Preventative approach to mental health welcomed, despite party questions",tweets_news_1578,tweets_news
"A top Trump campaign adviser and lawyer who has criticized voting-by-mail and warned without evidence that it could lead to election fraud previously voted by mail at least three times.

Jenna Ellis voted by mail in Colorado in 2012, 2013 and 2014, according to public records obtained by CNN's KFile.

Colorado is one of five states that conducts its elections entirely by mail. The state sends a ballot to every registered voter by mail and the voter returns a cast ballot in a signed envelope to their local county clerk's office. (Voters can also vote in person at the ballot box if they prefer.)

Multiple studies have confirmed that voter fraud is exceedingly rare, including mail voting. One in four votes in the 2018 election were cast with mail-in ballots, and a number of states are gearing up to send mail-in ballots to voters this November, citing safety concern from the coronavirus pandemic.

Ellis joins a growing list of Trump campaign and White House staffers who have publicly criticized mail-in ballots and voting-by-mail but privately cast an absentee or mail-in ballot themselves, including President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, second lady Karen Pence, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, White House press secretary Kayleigh",Senior Trump campaign lawyer critical of mail-in ballots voted by mail three times,tweets_news_1579,tweets_news
"Boogaloo Bois members planned to attack Washington, DC, landmarks before Joe Biden's inauguration.

""Operation Stormbreaker"" was detailed in police and FBI memos leaked following a ransomware hack.

The memos show law enforcement remained on high alert, though the extremists' plans were scrapped.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Newly leaked intelligence memos demonstrate how concerned law enforcement in Washington, DC, was about the Boogaloo Bois' - a right-wing militia group seeking to incite a second Civil War - plans for violence ahead of President Joe Biden's inauguration.

The plans, called ""Operation Stormbreaker,"" involved targeting landmarks, government buildings, power plants, and other civic institutions in DC on January 19, the memos show.

Members of the Boogaloo movement and QAnon adherents called the date ""National Popcorn Day,"" when they planned to follow up the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol with another wave of violence.

Intelligence memos detailing the Boogaloo movement's plans were prepared by the DC Metropolitan Police Department Intelligence Division and include notes from the FBI. Babuk, a ransomware hacking group, released the memos Thursday in a cache of what it claims are 250 GB of data stolen from MPD.

The FBI declined to comment. MPD didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment, but has commented",Leaked memos show police were concerned about Boogaloo Bois' plans to attack major landmarks in DC ahead of Biden's inauguration,tweets_news_1580,tweets_news
"The B.C. government is touting a new grant that will help small and medium businesses sell products online but critics say the focus should be on repairing the flawed COVID-19 recovery program which continues to sit largely untouched five months after being introduced.

Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation Minister Ravi Kahlon said Wednesday that the Launch Online( https://launchonline.ca/ ) grant program will give B.C. businesses up to $7,500 to create an online store or partner with an e-commerce company to expand their products into new markets. The $12 million program could support up to 1,500 businesses, Kahlon said.

The business must have a GST number, have sales of more than $30,000 in the past year and have a work force of less than 149 employees.

However, Liberal jobs critic Todd Stone said the money comes too late for businesses trying to keep the lights on amid dwindling revenue. Most businesses would have already pivoted to online sales early in the pandemic, he said.

""It's unbelievable to me that one year into a pandemic, the government has discovered the online sales capabilities for businesses,"" Stone said. The program is an attempt to distract from the Small and Medium Business Recovery Grant program( https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/economic-recovery/business-recovery-grant ) which","B.C.'s e-commerce grant program fails to fill gaps left by ""disastrous"" business recovery program: critics",tweets_news_1581,tweets_news
"FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2021

Trump ""reinstated""

A typical day in the Divided States of America: The New York Times is reporting that Donald Trump - in case you've forgotten, the previous president - has been telling friends and associates that he will be ""reinstated"" by August.

""He can simply be reinstated,"" Sidney Powell told a meeting of QAnon, whose slogan is ""Where the inmates run the asylum."" ""Biden is told to move out of the White House, and President Trump should be moved back in,"" she went on. ""I'm sure there's not going to be credit for time lost, unfortunately, because the Constitution itself sets the date for inauguration, but he should definitely get the remainder of his term and make the best of it.""

Never mind that the Constitution sets a four-year term for the presidency, ""reinstate"" is the trending word these days in wild and wacky Trumpworld.

""It is my hope that Donald Trump is reinstated, after all the proof comes out, by the end of August,"" said Mike Lindell, the My Pillow Guy, who has strange dreams. By the way, he first made his declaration on Steve Bannon's podcast. Need I say more?

And Lindell is taking credit for predicting Trump's",By Bob Franken,tweets_news_1582,tweets_news
"

Mar 05, 2021( Consumer Reports: http://www.consumerreports.org Delivered by Newstex) Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. People who are in or have left abusive relationships face very clear threats, including physical violence, sexual violence, emotional abuse, and verbal aggression. They may also come to realize they are being spied on or stalked in person or virtually on their computers, phones, and connected devices. It can be frightening, but Consumer Reports has compiled a list of ways you can take back control.

Security and domestic violence experts say it's critical to figure out how an abuser may be accessing information you haven't shared, such as your physical location, who you've been speaking to, or details of personal conversations. 'You're basically approaching the whole situation like you're a detective,' says Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. People may assume that an abuser has installed stalkerware on their devices when the real explanation is simpler and can be addressed first, says Toby Shulruff, senior technology safety specialist at theNational Network to End Domestic Violence[1]. 'The more common thing is that all of these everyday features of our phones are used for monitoring,' she says. Start out",Shut Stalkers Out of Your Tech,tweets_news_1583,tweets_news
"

Dec 18, 2020( AmmoLand.com: http://www.ammoland.com/ Delivered by Newstex) ;; First, we confiscate your guns and then we put you on trial for opposing us. OK? (Bill Pascrell for Congress/Facebook[1])U.S.A. - -(Ammoland.com[2])-'BREAKING: I'm demanding that the 126 Republicans who have endorsed a malignant lawsuit to overturn the will of the people and undermine our democracy not be seated in Congress,' New Jersey Democrat Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr.

tweeted Friday[3]. He was announcing his letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi[4] in which he made clear his definitions of 'insurrections,' 'treasonous' and 'traitors' extend to anyone he politically opposes. The excuse given for his latest public tantrum was the lawsuit filed by the State of Texas (and joined by 17 states) challenging the legality of voting procedure changes by Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case[5] citing 'lack of standing,' with Justices Alito and Thomas stating they would have 'grant[ed] the motion to file the bill of complaint.' While Roberts being a weasel was no surprise, the decision to punt points to future disappointments we can expect from Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. It also seems to corroborate establishment fears of retaliation by court-packing[6], and to speculation",Pascrell Demands Removing 'Treasonous' Republicans from Congress,tweets_news_1584,tweets_news
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives Tuesday at the Capitol. He has wrestled with keeping the Republican caucus unified in light of President Donald Trump's late demand for an increase in COVID-19 relief. Al Drago/The New York Times

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's push for bigger $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks stalled out Tuesday in the Senate as Republicans blocked a swift vote proposed by Democrats and split within their own ranks over whether to boost spending or defy the White House.

The roadblock mounted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may not be sustainable as pressure mounts. Trump wants the Republican-led chamber to follow the House and increase the checks from $600 for millions of Americans. A growing number of Republicans, including two senators in runoff elections Jan. 5 in Georgia, have said they will support the larger amount. But most GOP senators oppose more spending, even if they are also wary of bucking Trump.

Senators will be back at it Wednesday as McConnell is devising a way out of the political bind, but the outcome is uncertain.

""There's one question left today: Do Senate Republicans join with the rest of America in supporting $2,000 checks?"" Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said as he",Trump's $2K checks stall in Senate,tweets_news_1585,tweets_news
"Manila, May 14 -- CHANGING WORLD

By DR. BERNARDO M. VILLEGAS

Pope Francis could not have been more graphic in condemning the ""throw-away"" culture, especially as it refers to the scandalous food waste that is happening worldwide. In his encyclical Laudato Si (On Care of Our Common Home), he categorically rejects the thesis that population growth in developing countries is to be blamed for widespread poverty.

In paragraph 50 of the Encyclical, he writes: ""To blame population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issue. It is an attempt to legitimise the present models of distribution where a minority believes that it has the right to consume in a way which can never be universalized, since the planet could not even contain the waste products of such consumption. Besides we know that approximately a third of all food produced is discarded, and 'whenever food is thrown out, it is as if it were stolen from the table of the poor.' ""

Some may think that the Pope is being very harsh in talking about food wasted as equivalent to ""stealing from the poor."" This is just part of his over-all premise",Food stolen from the poor,tweets_news_1586,tweets_news
"On the day the Indian government's new rules for social media come into effect, it has emerged that WhatsApp has gone to Delhi High Court against them citing violation of privacy. The rules, the information technology (intermediary guidelines...

On the day the Indian government's new rules for social media come into effect, it has emerged that WhatsApp has gone to Delhi High Court against them citing violation of privacy. The rules, the information technology (intermediary guidelines and digital m...

On the day the Indian government's new rules for social media come into effect, it has emerged that WhatsApp has gone to Delhi High Court against them citing violation of privacy. The rules, the information technology (intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics code rules), 2021 which were notified on February 25 call for new compliances, like traceability of messages to find the first originator of a message. WhatsApp in its case has highlighted that this means going through messages which will be violative of its end-to-end encryption which means messages can't be read except between two users or in a group. In response to a WION question, WhatsApp spokesperson said, ""Requiring messaging apps to “trace” chats is the equivalent of asking us to",WhatsApp goes to court over Indian government's new IT rules,tweets_news_1587,tweets_news
"Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) near a convoy of US troops near Qamishli, in northeast Syria. (File Photo: AFP)

The United States is sending additional military assets to northeast Syria to beef up the protection of its troops and ensure the defeat of ISIS, the US military said Friday.

""Despite the territorial defeat of ISIS, the degradation of its leadership, and the widespread refutation of its idealogy, this violent Islamist extremist group still poses a threat,"" a state from the Combined Joint Task Force said.

Col. Wayne Marotto, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, announced plans to ""position mechanized infantry assets, including Bradley Fighting Vehicles, to Syria to ensure the protection of Coalition forces and preserve their freedom of movement so they may continue Defeat Daesh operations safely.""

On Friday, Marotto admitted that the reemergence of ISIS remained ""a very real possibility.""

The @coalition continues to support our partners bringing the fight to Daesh. Positioning M2A2 Bradley's in North East Syria provides force protection support to the continuing mission to #DefeatDaesh. pic.twitter.com/HM14QCGqgG

— OIR Spokesman Col. Wayne Marotto (@OIRSpox) September 18, 2020

The move comes weeks after a US patrol came under attack by Russian forces in Syria.

US soldiers were injured in northeastern Syria in August after Russian","US beefing up military assets in Syria to defend troops, weeks after Russian attack",tweets_news_1588,tweets_news
"CLAIM: A photo from this week shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi huddled with other members of Congress and none are wearing masks.

THE FACTS: Social media users making the false claim shared a December photo from The Associated Press to suggest Pelosi and other members of Congress are not following current guidelines for wearing masks and social distancing when meeting.

""This photo is from this week. They are in private and don't know they are being photographed. SOMETHING IS MISSING. WHAT IS IT??( And ask yourself WHY?),"" stated posts being shared Wednesday on Facebook. A Twitter account that supports QAnon, a conspiracy theory centered on the baseless belief that President Donald Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the 'deep state,' first made the false claim, which was shared as a screenshot and posted on Facebook. The AP photo being misrepresented was taken on Dec. 18, 2019, and shows Pelosi speaking to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal in a private room after the House voted to impeach Trump. AP photographer Andrew Harnik captured the photo of the four huddled in conversation reflected in",On Pelosi not wearing a mask,tweets_news_1589,tweets_news
"

Jun 16, 2020( Medical Xpress: http://medicalxpress.com Delivered by Newstex) Credit: CC0 Public Domain One of the hallmarks of obsessive-compulsive disorder[1] is contamination fears and excessive hand-washing. Years ago, a patient with severe OCD came to my office wearing gloves and a mask and refused to sit on any of the ""contaminated"" chairs. Now, these same behaviors are accepted and even encouraged[2] to keep everyone healthy. This new normal[3] in the face of a deadly pandemic has permeated our culture and will continue to influence it.

Many stores now prominently post rules mandating face masks and hand sanitizer use and limit the number of customers allowed inside at one time. Walkers and joggers politely cross the street to avoid proximity to each other. Only a few months ago, this type of behavior[4] would have been considered excessive and certainly not healthy. So, where do doctors draw the line between vigilance to avoid being infected with the coronavirus and obsessive-compulsive disorder[5] that can be harmful? This is an important question that I, a psychiatrist[6], and my co-author, a wellness and parenting coach, often hear. Adaptation or internet addiction? Since the start of the pandemic, it has become more challenging to assess behaviors that","Are we all OCD now, with obsessive hand-washing and technology addiction?",tweets_news_1590,tweets_news
"ABC World News Tonight (4/26, story 4, 1:10, Llamas, 6.13M) reported, ""There are concerns in China over a possible second wave of infections, with one city declaring a new quarantine and restrictions in Beijing in place."" ABC added, ""China [is] on edge to avoid a second coronavirus wave, even as it claims major progress on the fist one. ... In Harbin, a city of 10 million people, 1,400 miles from Wuhan, a full quarantine has just been declared. In the capital Beijing, gyms and swimming pools under a shutdown order through next week and temperature checks for shoppers. In both cities, officials point to individuals returning from abroad as the cause of those reportedly small outbreaks.""

China's Diplomatic Efforts In Africa Hit ""Unexpected Speed Bump"" Amid Pandemic.

The Washington Times (4/26, Hill, 492K) reports that China's ""long-developing diplomatic drive in Africa has hit an unexpected speed bump, even as Beijing seeks to curry more favor on the continent with shipments of aid to deal with the mounting COVID-19 threat."" A ""hard line from Beijing on debt repayments for struggling African countries and a viral video depicting the apparent mistreatment of African natives in China are casting shadows"" over China's ""mask diplomacy"" -",China May Be Experiencing Second Wave Of Coronavirus,tweets_news_1591,tweets_news
"BLACKSBURG, Va., Oct. 29 -- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University issued the following news release:

Take a deep dive into the dark web with a bold multimedia theatre performance that weaves together the stories of tech-savvy extremist groups and anonymous users who burn with resentment and unfulfilled self-entitlement as they fall into online worlds of fantasy and violence.

The Moss Arts Center presents writer and performer Javaad Alipoor's newest work, ""The Believers Are But Brothers,"" on Friday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. This private performance is broadcasted live from a theatre in Manchester, United Kingdom, especially for Moss Arts Center patrons, and includes real-time parallel social media interaction with the show. A post-performance conversation will be moderated by Neal M. King, professor in Virginia Tech's Department of Sociology, whose research explores masculinity and violent male heroism.

Ticketholders have access to the performance as it happens and for seven days following the event.

The Islamic State is a terrorist organization with a media presence like no other. Groups like Al Qaeda have broadcasted their acts with grainy handheld video recorders, while ISIS trades on a visual language that owes as much to the television show ""Game of Thrones"" and video game ""Call of Duty""",DIVE DEEP INTO THE DARK WEB OF EXTREMISM WITH MULTIMEDIA THEATRE PERFORMANCE,tweets_news_1592,tweets_news
"If you were surprised to learn there are scores of secret diners dotting the American heartland, where teachers and construction workers sit down to have regular-Joe conversations over bacon and eggs about the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, you are not alone.

But that’s what a Fox host, Pete Hegseth, said to an approving crowd at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, this weekend.

Hegseth insisted, very earnestly, that the people HE sits down with at these diners for his regular Fox segments — presumably the REAL AMERICANS — aren’t talking about “esoteric things” that “the Ivy League talks about or MSNBC talks about.”

“They’re talking about the Bible, and faith, and prayer, and their family, hard work, supporting the police, standing for the national anthem, the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the 10th Amendment.”

Suffice it to say, the idea that anyone, whether a waitress or a tax attorney, was talking about the 10th Amendment, i.e., the fairly esoteric topic of states’ rights, over breakfast at a diner, struck many as highly unlikely.

But no matter, Hegseth wasn’t going for accuracy. Populism doesn’t care about accuracy. ...

Hegseth, like Republican Senators Josh Hawley",Elite pedigrees are normal for the Right’s phony populists,tweets_news_1593,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

The liberal reaction to South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s speech on Wednesday was somewhat predictable because Scott shows that politics go far beyond skin color. Demographics aren’t everything. They certainly aren’t destiny, as we saw in the most recent election.

MSNBC conspiracy theorist and liar Joy Reid misrepresented Scott multiple times to talk about how “embarrassed” she was for him. CNN’s Van Jones said Scott “lost a lot of African Americans by the tens of millions” for saying that America isn’t a racist country. The View co-host Sunny Hostin called Scott a token, and her colleague, Joy Behar, decided that she, as a white woman who has dressed in blackface, understood racism better than a black man who grew up in South Carolina in the 1960s and 1970s.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post offered a “fact check” of Scott’s family history, determining that Scott’s ancestors didn’t really have it that bad in the Jim Crow South because they owned a bit of land. Twitter allowed the phrase “Uncle Tim” to trend for hours, as verified liberal users decided and shared their opinion that Scott isn’t really black. What's sort of incredible is that even as this was going on, President Joe Biden",The liberal reaction to Tim Scott shows they fear that demographics aren't destiny,tweets_news_1594,tweets_news
"For the University of Waterloo alumnus and three business partners, Wednesday was their ""twilight zone moment"" with the official announcement of $6 million in seed funding from various investors and plans to open a new studio to develop video games here in the Waterloo region.

While COVID-19 has hit some industries hard, the video game industry has emerged relatively unscathed; benefiting, in fact.

""Games can have pretty positive impacts on social networks and connections with people, especially with the world shut down, and a lot have people have turned to games,"" said Henkel, 29, whose recent roles as a product lead and producer with Riot Game out of Los Angeles helped put him on Forbes' ""Top 30 under 30"" list for the video game industry.

Henkel was instrumental in developing the popular 'League of Legends', a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games for Microsoft Windows and MacOS.

The funny thing is, he had little to no technical skills to start, and still fancies himself a team leader and people person first.

Featured on the University of Waterloo website as a success story, one might assume Henkel to be a computer engineer or programmer, however he attained a liberal arts",'Twilight zone moment' as Waterloo video game developer comes home with $6M in seed funding,tweets_news_1595,tweets_news
"Dear reader,

On behalf of our entire staff at The Epoch Times, I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

These are trying times. First, our nation was hit by the CCP virus from Wuhan, China, resulting in many deaths as well as lockdowns and restrictions on our freedoms. Then, in November, our country saw massive irregularities during the 2020 election.

Trying as these times may be, we believe they also present an opportunity-an opportunity for each and every single one of us to reflect on our values and strengthen our resolve in what we stand for.

Through these events, it has become crystal clear who is willing to stand up for truth and tradition and who believes the lies and deceit, including from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

This virus was brought upon the world by the CCP, which allowed the virus to spread around the globe. Furthermore, the CCP sought to actively interfere in our elections, as you can read on A1.

The very heart of our nation has been under assault by communist forces both domestic and foreign, forces that want to turn America into a socialist and communist country.

We have now come to see who are",NEWS BRIEFS,tweets_news_1596,tweets_news
"

Jan 09, 2021( International Business Times News: http://www.ibtimes.com Delivered by Newstex) Twitter shut down President Donald Trump's account Friday, booting him from the global service to prevent another attack on the US Capitol building.Trump had fervently used @realDonaldTrump for proclamations, accusations and misinformation unchallenged for his entire time in office.Twitter ' decision to permanently suspend Trump is considered overdue by critics who argue he has gotten away with abuses, but has inflamed members of the far-right who equate fact-checking with stifling free speech.""After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account,"" Twitter said in a blog post explaining its decision, ""we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.""Twitter late Friday blocked efforts by Trump to sidestep the ban.He fired off tweets from the official presidential account @POTUS, accusing the company of conspiring with the ""Radical Left."" The social network quickly deleted the tweets.Trump also tweeted from the @TeamTrump campaign account, which was soon suspended. ""Using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules,"" Twitter told AFP.""We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the @POTUS account.""Twitter blocked Trump temporarily after the deadly attack",Twitter Boots Trump To Stop Violence-sparking Tweets,tweets_news_1597,tweets_news
"BOISE On Sunday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted a Fox News graphic titled “Biden’s Climate Requirements.” The graphic said Biden’s climate plan would “cut 90% of red meat from diet,” allow Americans a maximum of “4 lbs per year” and “one burger per month.”

“Not gonna happen in Texas!” Abbott tweeted.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little soon retweeted Abbott’s post adding, “Idahoans also have beef with this agenda and for dinner!”

A handful of other conservatives also posted the graphic to social media.

“I’m pretty sure I ate 4 pounds of red meat yesterday. That’s going to be a hard NO from me,” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted.

The only problem? None of the graphic’s information was true. Twitter followers quickly pointed out its inaccuracy to Little, but his tweet remains up.

The graphic first aired Friday when Fox News host John Roberts warned its viewers to “say goodbye to your burgers if you want to sign up to the Biden climate agenda.”

Fox News admitted the information was inaccurate on Monday.

“On Friday, we told you about a study from the University of Michigan to give some perspective on President Biden’s ambitious climate change goals,” Roberts said on air. “That research, from 2020, found that cutting back how much",Gov. Little has ‘beef” with fake Biden agenda,tweets_news_1598,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

who know best say his favourite pic to run antitrust in the Department of Justice is Renata Hesser, who used to work for one of the tech giants and in the past has talked about as I'm in a positive way, saying it has added hundreds of billions of dollars to the US economy -- in a positive way. Doesn't sound like Joe Biden's top team will be as in on this as you are. It's a great question. I think we are all eagerly awaiting to see who he picks for that -year-old.

Public advocacy groups in the US I worried it could go to someone who has a history of going and representing those companies. What do you think of Renata Hesse. ""The reason people use Google search is because they like it better."" Which goes back to the argument we were having earlier about consumer choice and about what people actually do. She",Joins BBC News - 04:47 AM GMT,tweets_news_1599,tweets_news
"PR Newswire

BLOOMINGTON, Ill., Aug. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- During the 2019–20 school year, Gaggle was instrumental in saving the lives of 927 students. While this number represents a general increase of 28% over the preceding school year, a significant difference emerged after the COVID-19 pandemic began. The pre-pandemic increase in lives saved was 11%, but during the pandemic, the increase rose to 32%. These are just a few of the startling statistics in Gaggle's annual national student safety report,Through the Gaggle Lens: The State of Student Safety 2019–20 School Year.

""With school now taking place in our students' living rooms and bedrooms, safety is more important than ever,"" said Jeff Patterson, Gaggle's founder and CEO. ""Many educators are concerned that without in-person school, they may not be able to identify students in abusive situations or those suffering from mental illness. We hope Gaggle can be part of your district's plan to help students who are in crisis.""

During the 2019–20 school year, Gaggle reported:

● 64,000 references to suicide or self-harm in students' online activity. Of these, more than 5,600 were serious enough to merit immediate attention by the district.

● 38,000 references of violence toward others. More than 1,600 warranted an immediate call",School Districts Partnering with Gaggle Saved the Lives of Over 900 Students in 2019-20; Severe Domestic Abuse Reports Rose 79% During School Closures,tweets_news_1600,tweets_news
"Twitter, stepping up its enforcement of misleading and harmful coronavirus-related claims, required Fox News host Laura Ingraham to delete a tweet from 10 days ago that misrepresented details of an unproven treatment for coronavirus.

In the now-deleted tweet from March 20, Ingraham, host of the cable network's ""The Ingraham Angle,"" wrote, ""Lenox Hill [Hospital] in New York among many hospitals already using Hydroxychloroquine with very promising results. One patient was described as 'Lazarus' who was seriously ill from Covid-19, already released."" Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial drug that Donald Trump has repeatedly touted as potential COVID-19 treatment.

The tweet was based on Ingraham's interview on Fox News a day earlier with Dr. William Grace, whom Ingraham incorrectly identified as being an oncologist at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital. A correction Fox News appended to an article about the segment said Ingraham had wrongly described Dr. Grace as affiliated with the hospital and that ""his opinions given below are his own.""

According to a Twitter rep, Ingraham's tweet fell under the company's misleading information policy under heightened-risk health claims. On Monday, Twitter required Ingraham to remove the violating tweet in order for her account to not be suspended. A rep for Fox News did not",Twitter Forces Fox News' Laura Ingraham to Delete Post With 'Misleading' Coronavirus Claims,tweets_news_1601,tweets_news
"ORLANDO, Fla. - Taking the stage for the first time since leaving office, former President Donald Trump called for GOP unity, even as he exacerbated intraparty divisions by attacking fellow Republicans and promoting lies about the election in a speech that made clear he intends to remain a dominant political force.

Speaking Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he was hailed as a returning hero, Trump blasted his successor, President Joe Biden, and tried to lay out a vision for the future of the GOP that revolves firmly around him, despite his loss in November.

""Do you miss me yet?"" Trump said after taking the stage to his old rally soundtrack and cheers from the supportive crowd.

Trump, in his speech, tried to downplay the civil war gripping the party over the extent to which Republicans should embrace him, even as he unfurled an enemies list, calling out by name the 10 House Republicans and seven GOP senators who voted to impeach or convict him for inciting the U.S. Capitol riot. He ended by singling out Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, who has faced tremendous backlash in Wyoming for saying Trump should no longer play a role in","Trump calls for GOP unity, repeats lies about election loss",tweets_news_1602,tweets_news
"TOPLINES

1. Health law back in focus on campaign trail -- The Supreme Court vacancy is renewing the focus on health insurance access that had been drowned out by the other crises that 2020 has presented.

2. Pandemic response hearing has something for everyone -- There is no shortage of questions that need asking when top officials from HHS, CDC, FDA and NIH appear before a Senate committee.

3. Another vaccine candidate advances -- The latest COVID-19 vaccine to enter the final phase of human testing could have a key leg up over others in development -- it might only require one dose.

MORNING TAKE

1. Health law back in focus on campaign trail

Throughout 2020, the presidential election has been about a lot of things -- the response to the pandemic, reckoning with institutional racism, the future of democracy -- making it easy to forget that the most prominent theme of the 2018 elections was access to health care.

That basic issue came roaring back into the presidential and Senate campaigns after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mary Ellen McIntire writes. A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 2010 health care law and the insurance coverage it provided to more than 20",Morning Take: Health law focus and pandemic response questions,tweets_news_1603,tweets_news
"Kathy Ishizuka Editor-in-Chief @kishizuka

Online resources for learning are a hot commodity. Since the onset of COVID, educators and parents alike have been mining internet sources in numbers that would impress even the most jaded web mavens.

Curriculum marketplace Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) boasts more than 7.5 million users, including a whopping 85 percent of U.S. teachers. During the peak of the pandemic, searches for ""distance learning"" materials rose by 1,400 percent, says Annie Lohmeyer, a TPT spokesperson.

As to the quality of these lesson plans? It's a question that has long plagued TPT and other sites, including Pinterest, another popular destination for teachers seeking material.

In a December 2019 study of popular online curricula, including TPT and ReadWriteThink, reviewers deemed the material ""mediocre"" or ""probably not worth using"" (bit.ly/3a9ehq0). Authors of the study, USC professor Morgan Polikoff and Jennifer Dean, an educational consultant, found clarity and instructional guidance for teachers particularly lacking, and many TPT lesson plans fell short on adherence to academic standards.

Last month, Jessica Kirkland, a high school teacher, found a lesson plan for sale on TPT that seemed very familiar. ""I'm aware of the issue with plagiarism on TPT but never really looked for myself,"" she posted to Twitter. ""Finally",TPT Needs A Librarian,tweets_news_1604,tweets_news
"President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed limiting how social media companies are protected from being held liable for content on their sites and for practicing what he said was censorship against certain types of political speech.

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed limiting how social media companies are protected from being held liable for content on their sites and for practicing what he said was censorship against certain types of political speech.

At issue is a section of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that gives liability protection to companies that moderate and curate information on their sites that has been created by site users. Trump's order argues that companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Google give selective preference to certain types of political speech and seeks to give the federal government greater authority to oversee how the section of the act is applied to social media companies.

At the White House signing ceremony, Trump said his order will ""make it so that social media companies that engage in censoring any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield.""

The president signed the order two days after Twitter applied fact-check notices to two",Trump signs executive order aimed at social media giants,tweets_news_1605,tweets_news
"

Feb 02, 2021( Medical Xpress: http://medicalxpress.com Delivered by Newstex) Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Low likelihood of accepting a coronavirus vaccine is associated with having ""conspiracy suspicions"" about the pandemic, a new study has found. 15% of the UK public believe that ""reporters, scientists, and government officials[1] are involved in a conspiracy to cover up important information about coronavirus"" but this almost triples, to 42%, among those who say they're unlikely to or definitely won't get vaccinated against the virus. The study finds that this dynamic holds for belief in a number of conspiracy-related statements, and that people from BAME groups are also particularly likely to report believing such claims. Relying on social media[2] for a lot of your information about the pandemic appears to play a role, too, as well as being linked to greater levels of potential concern about getting vaccinated.

The research was carried out by the University of Bristol and King's College London, with the findings based on a survey of 4,860 UK adults aged 18-75 between 21 November and 22 December 2020. Conspiracy suspicions and theories Notable minorities of Britons have so-called ""conspiracy suspicions"" about the COVID-19 crisis, and these are especially widespread among those who are",Belief in COVID conspiracies linked with vaccine hesitancy,tweets_news_1606,tweets_news
"One of Donald Trump's tweets has been given a fact-check label by Twitter for the first time.

The social media giant added the warning phrase to a post from US President calling mail-in ballots ""fraudulent"" and predicted that ""mail boxes will be robbed.""

The warning label was shared under Twitter's new policy on misleading information.

Mr Trump wrote on Tuesday: ""There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.""

Under the tweet, there is now a link reading ""Get the facts about mail-in ballots"" that guides users to a Twitter ""moments"" page with fact checks and news stories about Mr Trump's unsubstantiated claims.

The social media firm said the message may ""contain potentially misleading information about voting processes"".

The company updated its policies on warning labels earlier this month.

Responding to the warning post, Mr Trump again took to social media. He wrote: ""Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!""

The move comes after years in which Twitter has declined to apply its community guidelines and other rules of the road to the 45th US president.

It is too soon to tell whether this action represents a turning point for Twitter in its treatment",Donald Trump tweet tagged with fact-checking warning from Twitter for first time,tweets_news_1607,tweets_news
"Recorded coverage of House of Lords proceedings.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

in China between commercial and military application and as Mr bap cited, General Penfold says that the company is directly aiding the Chinese military and Peter O'Toole, who serves a Mr Zuckerberg as Max Bird at Facebook said that the group activities in China are treasonous. He accused of treason. So why would an American company with American values serve -- so directly able Chinese military but have ethical concerns about working alongside the US military on project Maven, and project matter when there's a specific way to ensure that our troops are safe on the battlefield, and if you have no problem making the J 20 Chinese fighter more effective and is targeting why wouldn't you want to make America as effective? Congressmen, with respect, we are not working with the Chinese military.

That is absolutely false. I had a chance to meet General Dunford personally. We have clarified what we do in China. It is very",House of Lords - 6:28 PM GMT,tweets_news_1608,tweets_news
"NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Naomi Seibt, a 19-year-old German YouTuber whom conservatives have dubbed the ""anti-Greta,"" expressed support Friday for a Canadian alt-right commentator at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Speaking to reporters at a panel sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a right-leaning think tank based outside Chicago, Seibt argued that climate activists amounted to ""climate alarmists."" She said Stefan Molyneux's comments had been misconstrued by his critics.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, has called Molyneux ""a skilled propagandist"" who ""amplifies ‘scientific racism,' eugenics and white supremacist."" Molyneux, who has hundreds of thousands of YouTube followers, ""has encouraged thousands of people to adopt his belief in biological determinism, social Darwinism and nonwhite racial inferiority,"" the group says in an online profile. At the conference outside Washington, a reporter from Business Insider asked Seibt if she still considered Molyneux an inspiration for her work in light of the following remark of his: ""I've always been skeptical of the ideas of white nationalism, of identitarianism and white identity. ""However, I am an empiricist, and I could not help but notice that I could have peaceful, free, easy, civilized, and safe discussions in what is essentially an all-white country."" ""I",Anti-climate activist praises alt-right commentator at CPAC,tweets_news_1609,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump stands trial before the Senate this week on an impeachment charge that accuses him of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

His lawyers in a 78-page memorandum on Monday detailed a range of legal and factual arguments that they intend to make at trial.

Some of the highlights:

___

ARGUMENT: TRUMP DID NOT INCITE THE INSURRECTION

Defense lawyers are adamant that Trump did not incite the riot when he addressed a huge crowd of supporters at a rally that preceded it.

They accuse House impeachment managers of cherry-picking Trump’s statements from an hourlong speech by highlighting only those that Democrats see as helpful to their case, pointing out repeatedly that he had told his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.""

They argue that even the statement that has attracted the most notoriety — “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore” — was figurative in the general context of election security, not an invocation to violence. And they suggest Trump couldn't have himself incited the riot given the indications law enforcement had before Jan. 6 of the potential for violence that day.

But for Democrats, the focus on those",Key arguments by Trump's lawyers ahead of impeachment trial,tweets_news_1610,tweets_news
"FULL TEXT

Police broke up a protest in Central London after thousands of people defied their advice and demonstrated against lockdowns, mass vaccinations, mandatory wearing of face masks and other coronavirus restrictions.

The demonstration, organised by campaign groups including Save Our Rights UK, was called to mark six months since the passage of the Coronavirus Act, which gave the government wide-ranging powers to enact restrictions intended to curb the spread of the virus, The Guardian reported.

Protesters began gathering from about midday, with the first speaker saying the demonstration was meant to be peaceful, and that it had been negotiated beforehand with the Metropolitan police, with a full health and safety impact assessment filed in advance.

However, at about 3 pm, the Met announced the crowds had not complied with the conditions of their risk assessment and are putting people in danger of transmitting the virus.

They stated that the protesters must leave, warning, By leaving now, you can keep yourself safe and avoid any enforcement action being taken by officers.

Officers waded in to break up part of the crowd and seize the sound system just before 3 pm and used batons against protesters, leaving some bleeding with visible head injuries.

The Met said 16 people","United Kingdom: 16 Arrested, 9 Police Officers Injured During Anti-Lockdown Protest in London",tweets_news_1611,tweets_news
"Rocks were thrown at pro-Israeli demonstrators in Montreal. Masked men waving Palestinian flags surrounded and beat a lone middle-aged Jewish man near Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square. And Jewish communities in western Canada are reporting roving vehicles seeking out ""Jews.""

Gazan conflict is always apt to stoke ill will against the Canadian Jewish diaspora, but ever since a new round of Hamas-fired rockets began streaking towards Israel in late April, Jewish leaders are reporting that anti-Semitic hatred has taken a particularly sinister turn.

""There is a very different tone this time,"" said Adam Zepp, an engineer and lifelong member of the Edmonton Jewish community. In a YouTube video, Zepp described being in front of his parents'home over the weekend when two men in a black Audi yelled ""free Palestine!"" before asking ""do you know if any Jews live here?"" Last week, the Hamasled government of the Gaza Strip began firing barrages of untargeted rockets into Israeli territory, prompting Israeli military retaliation.

While many rockets have been intercepted by Israel's ""Iron Dome"" system, the attacks have killed nine civilians to date. Israeli strikes have killed an estimated 200 in the Gaza Strip, of which Israel has said 130 are Hamas militants.

Toronto police laid two charges",'A very different tone this time'; Anti-semitism; Anger over Gaza conflict spilling into Canada,tweets_news_1612,tweets_news
"The next president promises to do for old-line newspaper columnists what Donald Trump did for cable. What a time to be George Will!

One afternoon in the spring of 2009, Jon Meacham sat in front of the freighted wooden bookshelf in his office and talked to me about a job writing for Newsweek.

I was by then not so sure about the future of print, but Mr. Meacham, the magazine's editor in chief, told me that his corporate masters had a plan: Newsweek would rid itself of most of its existing, middlebrow subscribers and charge the remaining ones more for a highbrow product. The plan didn't make much sense to me and, obviously, did not work. The next year, Mr. Meacham, once described as the ''oldest 34-year-old journalist in the world'' (this was praise in the world of newsweeklies) -- left to write and teach at Vanderbilt.

So suffice it to say that if you'd asked me earlier this year who would be the most politically relevant American writer of 2020, I would not have picked Jon Meacham.

But Joe Biden did. The former vice president won the presidency despite reporters' bored skepticism and editorial board snubs. And Mr. Meacham, a Pulitzer-winning historian whose",Biden Aims to Be Boring. Woe Is Media.,tweets_news_1613,tweets_news
"I've been waiting for this moment. The moment when some on the left would react indignantly to journalists doing their job. It was so enthralling and gratifying to assail Donald Trump as a liar and misogynist that it was bound to be jarring when the beast slouched out of town and liberals had to relearn the lesson that reporters don't - or shouldn't - suit up for the blue team.

The moment came on Wednesday in the Capitol basement when Seung Min Kim, a respected Washington Post reporter, asked Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator from Alaska, if she had seen a 2017 Neera Tanden tweet about her.

She hadn't. So Kim showed it to her. Tanden was responding to a Murkowski tweet about lowering the corporate tax rate, calling the senator high on her own supply and dismissing her argument as ""garbage"".

""High on my own supply?"" Murkowski said, reading the tweet on Kim's phone. ""That's interesting.""

Murkowski's reaction to the tweet was relevant because her vote on the Tanden nomination to be President Joe Biden's budget director could sink or save Tanden. And Tanden's tetchy Twitter fingers counted among the reasons that Joe Manchin and Susan Collins had announced their intention to vote",Many on the left don't understand what a reporter is,tweets_news_1614,tweets_news
"NEW DELHI - When news broke Monday that the Trump administration would restrict some types of work visas through the end of the year, software engineer Poorva Dixit was giving a remote presentation from Mumbai to her colleagues at a digital health-care firm in California. She was so distressed that she froze. A co-worker took over the meeting. Dixit, 37, has lived in the United States for 14 years; her two children, 6 and 3, are U.S. citizens.

She had to rush to India in March after her mother had an accident and later died. The country's strict coronavirus lockdown forced the closure of the embassy before her appointment to renew her visa. Monday's announcement was a bombshell that she feared would divide her family and risk her livelihood. ""I'm still speechless,"" she said in a phone interview. ""I don't know what I'll do next."" President Donald Trump's order to freeze a type of visa most often used by software engineers provoked dismay and disbelief in India, citizens of which have come by the hundreds to work on technology projects in the United States. Indians account for 75% of visa applications under the H-1B program for skilled workers, according to the",New U.S. immigration restrictions hit India hard,tweets_news_1615,tweets_news
"May 01--Foes seen and unseen frame bookends of their young lives: first, coordinated terrorist attacks and now a viral pandemic.

Many high school students graduating in the Class of 2020 were born in 2001, a year that changed America forever when an Islamist extremist group hijacked four commercial airplanes Sept. 11 to orchestrate attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., that resulted in nearly 3,000 fatalities and more than 25,000 injuries.

Nineteen years later as they matriculate to adulthood, their senior year will forever be defined by an infectious and insidious disease that has claimed more than 230,000 lives globally.

Novel coronavirus brought the country to an abrupt standstill. For these students, what should have been a heady time of cherished memories -- proms and parties; awards banquets and honors convocations; grand marches and graduations -- now are unfulfilled dreams.

""I think if you look at it philosophically, they're missing out on several big rites of passage in their life. These are things that they can't really get back,"" said Julie Allison of Beaver, a technology integration specialist in the Beaver Area School District and National Honor Society sponsor.

What they are experiencing is nothing short of ""tumultuous,"" she said, and as",Adopt-a-Senior initiatives boost morale of Class of 2020,tweets_news_1616,tweets_news
"Turkish police fired tear gas Tuesday and chased people down narrow Istanbul streets as weeks of student protests against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan witnessed some of their heaviest clashes to date.

Turkey has been hit by rallies across major campuses since Erdogan decided to name a party loyalist as the head of Istanbul's exclusive Bogazici University at the start of the year.

Police detained 159 students after storming a protest staged inside the fenced-off campus on Monday night.

AFP reporters saw plain clothes police drag away dozens of students when they tried to march along a central street in the capital Ankara on Tuesday.

Using anti-riot shields, police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of around 1,000 people -- some carrying LGBT rainbow flags in support of past detainees --- when they tried to stage a demonstration on the Asian side of Istanbul later in the day.

An AFP reporter estimated that 50 to 60 people had been detained in Istanbul by Tuesday evening. One image shared on social media showed protesters hurling objects at the police and officers charging at them with their shields.

The rally had been banned on coronavirus grounds but several opposition lawmakers still turned up.

The sound of clanging pots and",Heavy clashes at Turkey student protests,tweets_news_1617,tweets_news
"•The packed cocktail dinner event gave Trump, 74, a standing ovation while the former president stood and waved to around 500 of his supporters•Pompeo, 57, and DeSantis, 42, smiled as they clapped for Trump - who had been seated in between them•James Golden, a radio personality and producer for Rush Limbaugh radio talk show known by his pseudonym Bo Snerdley, served as master of ceremonies•Trump was filmed deep in conversation with DeSantis while Pompeo was served iced tea•Dessert at the event included chocolate cake with tiny edible portraits of Trump's face with the Space Force logo•A video posted to Twitter shows Trump surrounded by throngs of maskless supporters while he pushed through the crowd flanked by Secret Service agents•Pompeo, the former Secretary of State under Trump, served as the keynote speaker during the event, which was closed to the press•Other special guests to the event included Senator Rick Scott, as well as congressmen Brian Mast and Byron Donalds•Wilbur Ross, Trump's former Commerce Secretary, was also spotted at the event

The packed cocktail dinner event gave Trump, 74, a standing ovation while the former president stood and waved to around 500 of his supporters

Pompeo, 57, and DeSantis, 42, smiled as they clapped",Trump enjoys Lincoln Day fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Florida Gov. DeSantis and Mike Pompeo - who could both be rivals for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination,tweets_news_1618,tweets_news
"Ruling finds no reason to throw out 1.3 million absentee ballots in state.

Georgia was drawn into a vortex of conspiracy theories over the 2020 presidential election on Thursday as President Donald Trump's lawyers and a prominent Atlanta supporter pressed unfounded claims that the state was a hotbed of fraud.

In a hearing late Thursday, a federal judge in Atlanta rejected a request to bar state officials from certifying that former Vice President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Georgia. State law requires election results to be certified by today.

U.S. District Judge Steven Grimberg, a Trump appointee, said he found no evidence of irregularities that affected more than a nominal number of votes. Biden beat Trump by more than 12,000 votes in Georgia.

Grimberg said halting the election's certification could have invalidated 1.3 million absentee ballots cast by Georgia voters.

""It harms the public interest in countless ways, particularly in the environment in which this election

occurred,""Grimberg said at the end of a nearly

three-hour hearing. ""To halt the certification at literally the 11th hour would breed confusion and significant disenfranchisement.""

Grimberg ruled in a case brought by Atlanta attorney L. Lin Wood, who claimed that improper procedures by election officials harmed him not only as a voter",VOTE CHALLENGES,tweets_news_1619,tweets_news
"Northeastern University issued the following news:

A nonprofit organization for Black, Indigenous, and other communities across the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts needs help building a mobile application to keep followers up to date on news and upcoming events, help people find businesses owned by Black and brown people, and connect with others in their communities.

A business conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for minority-owned startups is requesting assistance curating content on its social media platforms, updating its website, and finding new ways to broadcast its news and updates.

And a nonprofit organization of professional and student social workers that works to address the emotional needs of the Black community could use support in building a website that is user friendly, interactive, and easy to manage.

The project requests are listed on a new online platform called Build for Black Lives, launched by students at Northeastern who are members of HackBeanpot, a hackathon based in Boston. Inspired by the activism that transpired in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody in May, the members came together the following month to pool their resources and technology know-how to support Black people, says Nupur Neogi, a fifth-year computer science student, and Ifteda Ahmed-Syed, a fourth-year computer",Northeastern University: Can Technology Reduce Racial Inequity? Build for Black Lives Could Help,tweets_news_1620,tweets_news
"The only thing about American conservatism that all self-described conservatives seem to agree on these days is that it is changing. A series of phenomena have jarred the West in quick succession since the last time American conservatives were enduringly unified--the end of the Cold War, the rise of globalism and the Internet, 9/11 and its subsequent wars, the financial collapse and the Great Recession, the Great Awokening among the global elite, the emergence of nationalism on the global Right, and, finally, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course, people whose politics are grounded in ""the permanent things"" will disagree about how to apply time-tested principles to such roiling times. But for all those disagreements, it is only in those permanent principles that conservatives can seek and produce an answer to the question: what is conservatism today?

In one sense, conservatism today is what it's always been--the political disposition that accepts human nature as fixed and fallen. ""If men were angels,"" James Madison wrote, ""no government would be necessary."" Armed with this deepest of first principles, conservatives advocate a politics which would harness human nature to the common good, rather than pretending to be able to change it.

Thus conservatism today, as always, must be",Skepticism and Gratitude: Rethinking 'Zombie Reaganism' doesn't mean abandoning our best traditions.(What is American Conservatism?),tweets_news_1621,tweets_news
"By Helen Coster and Paresh Dave May 5 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s oversight board said on Wednesday that the company did not answer questions about whether its algorithms amplified inflammatory posts by then-U.S. President Donald Trump and contributed to the deadly siege on...

By Helen Coster and Paresh Dave May 5 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s oversight board said on Wednesday that the company did not answer questions about whether its algorithms amplified inflammatory posts by then-U.S. President Donald Trump and contributed to th...

By Helen Coster and Paresh Dave May 5 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s oversight board said on Wednesday that the company did not answer questions about whether its algorithms amplified inflammatory posts by then-U.S. President Donald Trump and contributed to the deadly siege on the Capitol in January. The board recommended that Facebook review how it might have potentially contributed to the violence and the false narrative of election fraud. Many Democrats and other critics have said Trump’s posts helped fuel the attack, which led to five deaths. Facebook indefinitely banned Trump from posting in the wake of the violence and asked for further guidance from the oversight board, a 20-person panel funded by the company to review content moderation",Facebook won’t say if its algorithms boosted Trump’s violent rhetoric,tweets_news_1622,tweets_news
"ISTANBUL: Turkey's interior minister on Tuesday condemned protesters at a top Istanbul university as ""LGBT deviants"" in a statement which Twitter deemed as hateful conduct. Students and teachers at Istanbul's Bogazici University have held protests for the last month against the appointment of Melih Bulu as rector by President Tayyip Erdogan, which they said was undemocratic. On Monday, scuffles broke out between police and people protesting against the detention of four students after images were shared on social media of them laying a picture on the ground that mixed Islamic images with LGBT symbols.

Police entered campus later in the day to disperse students who were planning an all-night vigil outside the rector's building. They detained 159 in total throughout the day, the governor's office said. Istanbul police said 61 people were still detained and were giving statements on Tuesday. ""Should we tolerate the LGBT deviants who insult the great Kaaba? Of course not,"" Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in a statement on Twitter, referring to Islam's most sacred site which was depicted in one of the images. ""Should we tolerate the LGBT deviants who attempted to occupy the rector's building? Of course not."" In a rare move, Twitter placed a",Twitter says Turkish minister's LGBT comments about protesters 'hateful conduct',tweets_news_1623,tweets_news
"9 July 2020 (Voice of America) Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat set to run against President Donald Trump in the November 3 national election, is making his third run for the White House -- but for the first time stands as his party's presumptive nominee.

If he wins, and is inaugurated next January, Biden would become the country's 46th chief executive. By then, he would be 78, the oldest U.S. president ever, surpassing the 74-year-old Trump.

Biden has said throughout months of campaigning that he is seeking to put an end to Trump's 'aberrant' administration.

'We're in a battle for the soul of America,' Biden says on his campaign web site. 'It's time to remember who we are. We're Americans: tough, resilient, but always full of hope. It's time to treat each other with dignity. Build a middle class that works for everybody. Fight back against the incredible abuses of power we're seeing. It's time to dig deep and remember that our best days still lie ahead.'

Biden has characterized Trump as an unfit leader of the Free World, saying, 'It's time for respected leadership on the world stage-and dignified leadership at home.'

But amid an historic coronavirus pandemic, Biden's campaign through",Former Vice President Joe Biden Making 3rd Bid for US Presidency,tweets_news_1624,tweets_news
"Lara Trump, former President Donald Trump's daughter-in-law and a 2020 campaign adviser, denied knowledge Thursday of his hatching any plan to be somehow reinstated as president amid reports of such conversations.

""As far as I know, there are no plans for Donald Trump to be in the White House in August. Maybe there's something I don't know,"" Mrs. Trump said on Fox News, where she works as a paid contributor.

""I think that that is a lot of folks getting a little worked up about something just because maybe there wasn't enough pushback, you know, from the Republican side,"" added Mrs. Trump, who is married to the former president's son Eric.

""So no, I have not heard any plans for Donald Trump to be installed in the White House in August,"" she said.

Maggie Haberman, a White House reporter for the New York Times, said this week that Mr. Trump ""has been telling a number of people he's in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August.""

Mr. Trump has been ""laser focused"" on efforts in certain states to audit the 2020 election, Ms. Haberman said on Twitter, seven months since losing to President Biden.

Charles C. W. Cooke, a senior writer for",Lara Trump: No plans for father-in-law to be reinstated soon,tweets_news_1625,tweets_news
"Restrictions that prevent schools from providing live, in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools and teachers to rely on technology to close the distance between them and their students.

Schools use a variety of technologies put classes online and allow students and parents to see assignments, review previously recorded lectures and lessons and interact with teachers.

The Butler Area School District allows students to select their “learning pathways,” consisting of in-person, online and hybrid instruction. Hybrid is a combination of in-person and online instruction.

Every student in grades seven to 12 has been issued a Chromebook laptop computer. Most middle school students in grades five and six also have Chromebooks. Those who don’t will gradually receive them and the iPads they use now will be handed down to elementary students, said Megan Ratica, the district’s instructional technology liaison.

Secondary students use the Clever app and elementary students use the Seesaw app to log into the Google Classroom website for attendance and connect with Google Meet for live classes and meetings with teachers.

Google Meet allows students and teachers to share their computer screens and break out into smaller groups, and allows students to review lessons.

“It allows students to still have that connection with their",ROLLING WITH the learning curve Schools face challenges with remote learning,tweets_news_1626,tweets_news
"Experts testified before Congress Thursday that the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories online has contributed to the ""dismantling of democracy"" as well as real-world violence.

During the House intelligence committee hearing, titled ""Misinformation, Conspiracy Theories, and 'Infodemics': Stopping the Spread Online,"" the panel explored the role social media platforms play in spreading such content, how foreign and domestic take advantage of misinformation online and what steps the U.S. government and private sector should take in response.

""This is a threat that is dismantling democracy, as Americans right now exercise their democratic rights it is critical the nation is informed about how disinformation might blunt their voice and their vote,"" said Wilson Center disinformation fellow Nina Jankowicz.

The panel, which Republican members of the committee declined to participate in, specifically expressed concern for exploring misinformation and conspiracy beliefs on social media and elsewhere on the Internet amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the nearing Nov. 3 election.

Following evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, in part through various online misinformation campaigns, Cindy Otis, vice president of the Alethea Group, warned that more countries have adopted similar tactics.

""Perhaps inspired by Russian efforts, more countries than ever are using false information to advance both","Experts testify online conspiracies 'dismantling democracy,' YouTube bans QAnon content",tweets_news_1627,tweets_news
"GOP voters know that Liz Cheney's focus on punishing Trump is a distraction from the real threat: the Biden-Schumer-Pelosi socialist agenda which is destroying America.

A new CBS/YouGov poll makes clear that the overwhelming majority of Republican voters are happy to have Rep. Liz Cheney out of House leadership. The survey found that 80 percent of Republicans support her demotion, compared with just 20 percent who want her to stay. These views are particularly strong among voters ages 45 and up, with voters over 65 supporting Cheney's removal by a margin of 87% to 13%.

According to data analysis by the Market Research Foundation (MRF), ""Republicans aren't just backing the removal of Cheney, they are consolidating in support of former President Trump. Cheney's loss of power is a rejection of the status quo Republican Party and a unification of working class voters demanding the political class put America first."" The poll found that Republicans across the board say the GOP should follow Trump's example on economic issues (89%), immigration issues (88%), leadership (80%) and how to treat the media (77%).

Bill Wilson, MRF Chairman, had this reaction on Twitter to the poll, ""Yes the SWAMP will continue to feed itself but conservatives across",New poll shows GOP was right to dump Cheney,tweets_news_1628,tweets_news
"PR Newswire

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) applauds the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) after it announced it is moving forward with proposed tobacco product standards within the next year to ban menthol in cigarettes, which have been heavily marketed in Black, LGBTQ, and young adult communities.



Menthol cigarettes have been heavily marketed in African-American, LGBTQ, and young adult communities.

Studies have shown that people who smoke menthol cigarettes have a harder time quitting smoking than if they smoke traditional cigarettes. Menthol and other flavors in tobacco can encourage experimentation by youth and first-time smokers as the minty flavor reduces the harshness and irritation of tobacco on the throat. According to the 2018 California Student Tobacco Survey, high school students in LA County who reported smoking cigarettes regularly reported smoking menthol cigarettes.

For years the tobacco industry has intentionally targeted Black/African American, Latino/Latinx, LGBTQ, youth and low-income communities to increase sales of their addictive and deadly products. As part of the community-wide effort to stop these marketing tactics, faith-based organizations joined together to create ""No Menthol Sunday."" This year's event, entitled ""A New Day"" was scheduled for Sunday, May 16th, 2021 and featured faith organizations and churches addressing","Los Angeles County Commends FDA's Commitment to Ban Menthol Cigarettes Which Pose Greatest Risks to Black Communities, LGBTQ and Young Adults",tweets_news_1629,tweets_news
"For county chair

Deb Denys is clearly the most qualified candidate for county chair. Rather than campaigning on what she opposes, she has taken the leadership on some of the most important and, at times, controversial issues confronting Volusia County. Foremost among these has been water policy. She represents the County Council in inter-agency efforts to clean up the Indian River Lagoon. She was very influential in bringing a $2.5 million grant to DeLeon Springs for the installation of a sanitary sewer system to safeguard the water quality of the spring. She strongly supported the action of the County Council to place the referendum on the November ballot to renew the Volusia Forever and ECHO programs, which enhance the quality of life of Volusians in so many ways.

During this pandemic crisis, we are in a period of uncertainty and challenges demanding strong leadership in bringing our diverse communities together. That is a daunting task which Denys, among all of the candidates, is most qualified to lead. As a member of the County Council, she has defended the Volusia County Charter and has mastered the art of compromise where there has often been strong disagreement on matters before the council. As county",For county chair,tweets_news_1630,tweets_news
"

Feb 20, 2021( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/ Delivered by Newstex) Editor's note: David Limbaugh wrote the following column in February 2020, just after his brother's diagnosis. He will have more to say about his brother's passing next week.I am uniquely blessed to be Rush Limbaugh's brother in ways too numerous to count, and I am blessed to be in the special position of witnessing firsthand the outpouring of love and prayers from his, family, friends and fans. His wife, Kathryn, has been amazing and a rock throughout.I could fill a book with the well-wishes I've received. I sent Rush a link to my 'mentions' column on Twitter so he could scroll through it and see for himself what he means to so many people.These tender expressions of goodwill are uplifting and spiritually affirming.

God is at work, and however this plays out, God is good, something Rush has been saying repeatedly in the last few weeks, despite his difficult circumstances.Many of the messages he has received have brought him to tears, which is not typical for him. These are sobering times.When Rush began his nationally syndicated radio show, the liberal media monopolized television news, and his show became an oasis and a lifeline",Rush Limbaugh: A Loving Brother and 'a Friend to Countless Americans',tweets_news_1631,tweets_news
"CHICAGO - As former Vice President Joe Biden's drive for the White House gains momentum, the 77-year-old's political opponents on both the right and left have launched an internet campaign suggesting he's not mentally or physically equipped to serve - sometimes using altered content and other disinformation to make their case.

The effort prompted Twitter on Monday to mark a video of Biden shared by President Donald Trump as ""manipulated media"" - but only after it had been viewed millions of times. Facebook added warning labels to the video and reduced its distribution on its platform after fact checkers rated the video partly false.

The episode highlights the challenges social media companies face in containing the rapid spread of misleading information and raises questions about how prepared the companies are for a likely onslaught of disinformation during the 2020 campaign. It also underscores that trafficking in misinformation is not limited to one political party: Both Sanders' and Trump's backers aggressively promoted the unsubstantiated notion that Biden is in cognitive decline.

""This is the worst kind of misinformation - it can impact a presidential election, and it's being shared by the president with millions of followers,"" said Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communications professor",Edited Biden video portends social media challenges Left and right now targeting 77-year-old,tweets_news_1632,tweets_news
"A teenager in distress turned to a famous novel with the hope of normalizing her situation. Instead, it provided a road map for escape.

It was my uncle who gave me my first copy of “Lolita.” My father had refused to buy it for me at the bookstore we often visited together.

“Why that book?” my father said as he and I arrived home.

“I just want it.” We removed our shoes at the door, where religious superstition required all things unclean to be left. “I wanted to read it.”

I was 15, a sophomore in high school, and had learned of “Lolita” from an English teacher who had summarized the plot, citing it as an example of unreliable narration.

My uncle knew the basics — the trope of the precocious girl, the Japanese fashion subculture, the heart-shape glasses — but he had not actually read the novel when he gave it to me as a gift a few weeks later, after I told him my father wouldn’t buy it.

My uncle liked to buy me gifts both little and lavish: what my parents could not afford, what they forbade me to have. The benefactor role made him feel as if he were filling gaps that",How ‘Lolita’ Freed Me From My Own Humbert,tweets_news_1633,tweets_news
"I want - need - to hear what he has to say, even if it is offensive. Especially if it is offensive

Donald Trump is one of the most potent threats to democracy anywhere in the world. He has appalling views and prejudices, not least towards people of colour and women. Soon he may formally launch his own personal political movement, with a speech at the CPAC conference.

He is a very dangerous man. That is why he should be back on Twitter.

Why do I want him on my Twitter feed? Precisely because Trump is dangerous and because he still matters. He is important, though he does not deserve to be. I want - need - to hear what he has to say, even if it is offensive. Especially if it is offensive.

You can't get rid of Trump by silencing him on one social media platform, particularly the one on which he's most likely to be challenged. The only thing that happens is that he and his followers retreat into more and more extreme virtual echo chambers.

When Twitter banned Trump they had every right to do so, but I thought it wrong at the time. As Twitter had already showed, it was",Twitter must allow Donald Trump back - the ban makes no sense at all,tweets_news_1634,tweets_news
"A day after a deceptively edited video of him spread on social media, Joseph R. Biden Jr. cautioned that the Democratic nominee would be vulnerable to false information in the general election.

A day after a deceptively edited video of him spread on social media, Joseph R. Biden Jr. cautioned that the Democratic nominee would be vulnerable to false information in the general election.

ANAMOSA, Iowa — As the Democratic presidential candidates fanned out across Iowa and New Hampshire on Thursday to address voters still scarred by President Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, Joseph R. Biden Jr. argued that any Democratic nominee would be vulnerable to baseless criticism and disinformation in the general election.

Mr. Biden’s remarks in Iowa, at his first political event of the 2020 election year, came a day after a deceptive video of him circulated online, highlighting how campaigns are still struggling to combat false information on the internet.

“You’re going to see a lot more of not only my statements being taken out of context and lied about or altered, you’re going to see whomever the Democratic nominee is, because that’s how this guy operates,” Mr. Biden said, adding that Democratic candidates would face unfair attacks from Mr.",Biden Warns About Disinformation After Misleading Video,tweets_news_1635,tweets_news
"

Aug 18, 2020( Socratic Gadfly: http://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com Delivered by Newstex) This will be just a short post this week, but I thought that, with some Texas schools having started this past week, and more, with slight delays from their original calendars, starting either this week or next, it needed to be pulled out again.First, are social media doing enough to crack down on disinformation? Probably not. Hucksterman has a ""false news"" flag, but, the ""punishment""?

Putting a screen over someone's post that says it's been determined to be partially, if not fully, false. It's almost never pulled down. Twitter will make people pull stuff down, but doesn't have ""fake news"" as a reporting category.Related to that?From his secondary blog, which primarily focuses on philosophy, culture and other events, SocraticGadfly[1] looked at the ethical and other fallout of Anthony Fauci's Platonic noble lie[2] this spring, when he told people masks didn't work.Nationally, per Worldometers, the curve on daily cases has started going back down again. The daily deaths curve? It has maybe flattened out, but it has not started dropping again, and the rolling average on daily deaths still remains well above where it was in late May. The same is true of","Texas progressives look at coronavirus, week 20",tweets_news_1636,tweets_news
"America is deeply divided, and increasingly, these divisions are playing out through violent street fights in major U.S. cities. An alarming Politico study found that one in three Democrats and Republicans believe that violence may be justified if the other side wins the election. The same poll three years ago found that just 8% of partisan Americans believed violence against their political opponents could be justified.

Now is a time to tread lightly.

But instead of focusing on the things that unite people - the flag, the national anthem, the country's founding principles and institutions - the political left has poisoned the well by claiming these once-uniting symbols now represent hate, violence and oppression.

Even the things we once enjoyed together regardless of our politics - like sports, late night talk shows, pop music, the movies - have all become politicized platforms for celebrities to show off their woke credentials and hector the political right. Conservatives are understandably tuning out, and the political and cultural divisions are becoming more stark.

The responsible thing for leaders in politics and the media to do is remain calm, refrain from dishonest spin and sensationalized news, and focus on the things that unite the country and our society.

Instead,",Let's avoid dishonest spin and focus on what unites,tweets_news_1637,tweets_news
"In Flushing, it's seven against one

A group of seven Democratic candidates running for the New York City Council District 20 seat in Flushing, Queens, have come together to form a coalition against Queens Democratic Party-backed candidate Sandra Ung. Members of the coalition said they want to give people a choice of who to support rather than have the party decide the outcome through its endorsement.

Their coalition is the byproduct of the city's new ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to rank up to five candidates in order of preference. And RCV may be encouraging coalition-building against party-backed candidates all over the city.

On Staten Island, four progressive Democratic candidates in the running for the borough president seat have had conversations about forming an official coalition together, but only have been working together informally so far, one of them told City & State.

Coalition-building is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Former Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Frank Seddio waged petition challenges against five candidates running in City Council District 46. After that, one Democrat in the race, Mercedes Narcisse, told City & State that she reached out to candidates to form a coalition but got no response. Read more here about where candidates in Manhattan",RCV makes strange bedfellows,tweets_news_1638,tweets_news
"

Apr 10, 2021( Newsbusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/ Delivered by Newstex) Justin Opinion, a popular YouTube channel that reviews guns, gears, and ammo, has been demonetized because YouTube deems the content 'harmful.'The channel has racked up more than 23 million total views and over 84,000 subscribers since 2012. Now, the channel is unable to earn money from the advertisements shown in the clips.According to Reclaim the Net, the platform targeted[1] content from the stream of a peaceful protest, since the channel 'show[ed] someone holding, handling, or transporting a firearm.'The platform's reasoning is unfair, said Justin. He says he's never violated any of YouTube's content rules.'From where I sit, it seems extremely arbitrary,' Justin explained[2]. 'There was no information given that was of any use to me. I have always tried to comply with policies and to the best of my knowledge, I do comply with their policies of YouTube and, but they say 'harmful content' is the reason.'Justin noted that because his channel is so small, he doesn't have a way to discuss the decision with the platform or appeal the decision.'#8216;We've made this arbitrary and vague ruling that drastically affects you, good luck with that,'' Justin added.He further noted that since the",YouTube Blasts Popular Pro-Gun Channel with Demonetization,tweets_news_1639,tweets_news
"

Mar 21, 2020( The Geller Report: https://gellerreport.com Delivered by Newstex) ; Jihad transcends age, income, color, education, nationality, everything. It's the ideology, stupid. We are constantly admonished that jihad terror activity is the result of poverty and alienation, as well as a lack of education. Poor Muslims without any opportunities in this world, harassed and discriminated against by the kuffar, and lacking knowledge of the true Religion of Peace, turn to terror out of desperation and as a means to give themselves some occupation and meaning in life.

Reality, however, is quite different. Again and again we have seen educated, affluent Muslims engaging in jihad. It is not poverty, lack of opportunity or hardship that creates jihad killers — the common denominator is Islam. It's the same pattern over and over again. Siful Sujan is further proof of all I have said and refutation of the popular leftist myth that the elites traffic in — that jihadis are poverty-stricken, disaffected, illiterate youths. It's the same pattern over and over again. Muslim doctors[1] in Michigan, US naval officers[2], popular happy Muslim teens [3]in Mississippi, Muslim rappers[4] in Germany[5], Muslim doctors in Glasgow [6]and Australia, [7] Muslim chemical engineering students[8] in Canada, the",Rochester: Muslim Doctor Charged with Aiding Islamic State,tweets_news_1640,tweets_news
"Of course, CBC is launching a new business division aimed at producing branded stories, podcasts and videos for corporate clients because why wouldn't they? The country's supposedly public broadcaster already competes in every other aspect of the media business, including areas that fall beyond the Crown corporation's mandate.

The Broadcasting Act, which sets out CBC's mandate from Parliament, states that the BRIAN LILLEY Opinion public broadcaster ""should provide radio and television services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains.""

I don't see anything in the act about running what amounts to a corporate content production department but that is what CBC will be doing with their new offer called CBC Tandem.

""Tandem will help Canada's strongest brands shape and share inspiring stories across our platforms and across the country,"" Executive Vice-President Barbara Williams said in a news release announcing the project.

What will Tandem offer? Well, a company will be able to go to CBC and pay them to write a nice story about them and post it on the broadcaster's website.

""Tell your story or nurture potential customers with written branded content created by CBC Tandem; stories that work to achieve your campaign goals through written content,"" CBC says on",Cbc's private parts; Public broadcaster strays far from its mandate - once again,tweets_news_1641,tweets_news
"Indigenous Australian and New Zealand TikTok creators say their content has been blocked and hidden when speaking out against racism, despite the company professing support.

Fast-growing Chinese-owned social network TikTok is facing accusations of hypocrisy in its support of the Black Lives Matter movement, with popular Indigenous Australian and New Zealand creators saying their accounts have been blocked and ""shadow-banned"" for speaking out about related issues.

TikTok's global CEO Kevin Mayer and Australian managing director Lee Hunter have both expressed public support for the BLM Movement, but local creators with large followings said TikTok was not following that through with its management of the platform.

The site has previously come under fire for blocking the accounts of posters who spoke out about the detention of Uighur Muslims in China, but has now been called out for suppressing Australian content about racial disadvantage.

Sydney-based youth worker Paniora Nukunuku, a Cook Island Maori who has amassed 88,000 followers and 5 million ""likes"" on TikTok handle @pnuks since last December, said #BLMAustralia posts, and other content that discussed racism, had been taken down without warning, suppressed by being ""hidden"" from other users' discovery pages, and that he had even been temporarily banned from using his account three",TikTok accused of Black Lives Matter hypocrisy,tweets_news_1642,tweets_news
"All the latest national and international news stories brought to you by the BBC news team.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

bills because cladding and insulation, for example, have to be taken down. Those people living in those buildings say they would like a different sort of action from the government, money to fix those problems. Tom, thank you so much. With just hours now until Joe Biden becomes the 46th President of the United States, the 45th President is clearly not going quietly.

With mounting speculation about his choices for Presidential pardons, last night Donald Trump ordered travel bans to be lifted for visitors from most of Europe and Brazil from next week. Joe Biden's spokeswoman countered immediately that would not be happening. Here's our Washington Correspondent Nomia Iqbal. America's capital city is eerily quiet, and so is its president. Mr Trump has been largely silent after Twitter permanently banned him. But there is some last-minute business. He announced a Covid-19 travel ban on much of Europe would be",BBC News at One - 1:10 PM GMT,tweets_news_1643,tweets_news
"The latest national and international news from BBC News.

Speech to text transcript:1This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

This copy is computer generated. Text will vary in accuracy due to speaker dialect and audio quality issues.

backwardness, misogyny, anti-Semitism and genocidal hatred preached in their mosques."" I just wonder, if you are looking for calm, considered rational conversation, do you think your own words there are helping? Well, as you acknowledged, that had the kind of top spin one rope with in the immediate aftermath of September 11. This is my conversation, most other conversation has moved on from there. I wrote a book with margin I was, a fellow Brit, who used to be a fellow extremist who is now a rational and secular person as you could ever hope to find.

And we had a debate that... Converged on a really happy conversation and friendship that became this book. Islam and The Future Of Tolerance, so you can get my most recent framing of issues there. To your point, yes, it is to be to say wherever you happen to stand in culture, whether you are secular or whether you",Joins BBC News - 03:47 AM GMT,tweets_news_1644,tweets_news
"Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Contact: Jackie McGuinness, Jackie.McGuinness@mail.house.gov

Rep. Sewell Applauds Passage of 2021 National Defense Authorization Act

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07), a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and Chair of the Subcommittee on Defense Intelligence and Warfighter Support, praised the House passage of the FY 2021 William M (Mac) Thornberry

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA). Sewell was also selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in November - for the second time in a row - to serve on the conference committee tasked with working out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the NDAA. This bipartisan, bicameral bill complies with the bipartisan budget agreement and authorizes $732 billion in discretionary spending for our national defense for FY 2021.

""Alabama is home to so many talented men and women who play a critical role in our national security, from Maxwell Air Force Base and the 187th Fighter Wing in Montgomery, to the shipbuilding industry in Mobile and missile defense in Huntsville,"" Sewell said. ""I am proud to have represented our state in conference between the House and Senate. The bill the House passed today is reflective of our American values",Rep. Sewell Applauds Passage of 2021 National Defense Authorization Act,tweets_news_1645,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (AP) — On an average day, President Donald Trump sends about 14 posts to the 28 million Facebook followers of his campaign account. His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, delivers about half that many posts to an audience of just 2 million.

The numbers are similarly skewed in other spheres of the social media landscape.

On Twitter, Trump's 82.4 million followers dwarf Biden’s 6.4 million. The president has spent years cultivating a ragtag digital “army” of meme makers and political influencers who retweet campaign messages hundreds of times daily. Trump is outspending Biden on Google and YouTube advertising by nearly 3 to 1.

As his reelection bid faces growing obstacles, his primacy in the dizzying digital world is one of his top advantages, giving him a massive platform to connect with supporters and push a message that ignores his vulnerabilities related to the pandemic, unemployment and race relations. Biden and his allies are now working feverishly to establish a social media force of their own.

For the first time, Biden outspent Trump on Facebook advertising in June, pouring twice as much money into the platform as the president. His campaign is recruiting Instagram supporters to hold virtual fundraisers. And it’s plotting ways to mobilize","Trump, Biden fight for primacy on social media platforms",tweets_news_1646,tweets_news
"Bhubaneswar, Dec. 4 -- Berhampur: The Berhampur Cyber police on Friday arrested a man named Bhagabat Prasad Mishra here on charges of creating fake social media accounts in the name of his wife while exhibiting her as a call girl and circulating her objectionable photos and videos.

As per reports, Bhagabat hails from Kesinga block in Kalahandi district and was residing with his wife in Khallikote area of Ganjam district.

His wife on Friday lodged a complaint with the cyber police station mentioning the fake accounts on her name. Cops investigated the matter and surprisingly found that her husband Bhagabat was behind the operator of those fake accounts.

According to his wife, ""I received a friend request from an ID named 'Renu Sahoo' on my Facebook handle. She claimed to be one of my relatives but I blocked her as she was constantly annoying me with absurd messages.""

""Later I stumbled upon two fake IDs on my name and found my obscene clips circulated on those handles. I asked my husband to lodge a police complaint against the anonymous account holder, but my husband refused every time. At last, I filed a complaint with the cyber police station on my own. Following investigation, police",Man Arrested Over Exhibiting Wife As Call Girl On Social Media,tweets_news_1647,tweets_news
"Every year, I crisscross Southern Missouri, visiting farms, farmers, and families in each of the 30 counties which make up our congressional district. The places I visit are diverse – some plant row crops, some raise bison, some harvest timber, and some are in agri-tourism, but at each I see the humble, honest Missouri values, the fulfillment that comes from working on one's own land, and the pride that comes from feeding communities or producing the raw materials that fuel local economies.

Unfortunately, many on the Left don't see Missouri farmers the same way. Their view of farmers is condescending, derogatory, and simplistic. At a time when rural America faces unprecedented challenges, liberals want to pass new legislation and regulations that would further harm our communities. For instance, just one provision of the proposed 'Green New Deal' would require every farmer to get rid of their equipment that runs on gas or diesel.

President Trump promised to make a national priority combatting cheating by the USA's trading partners. And he has. At a time when corporate, coastal elites such as Lebron James and Google want to kowtow to the Chinese regime, President Trump has stood up for America's farmers and made their",USA Agriculture: A National Priority,tweets_news_1648,tweets_news
"Tuesday night's debate may have been excruciating, but in many ways it exemplified the very essence of American democracy at this particular point in its history, writes Mary Dejevsky

One of the pithiest comments on this week's televised presidential debate came from the American commentator, Andrew Sullivan, while the ill-tempered duel was still going on. It was, he tweeted, ""excruciating in ways I didn't even know I could be excruciated"". Indeed. The most civil - the only civil - moment came when Donald Trump, and his challenger, Joe Biden, first walked on to the platform and acknowledged each other, without actually yelling or raising their fists.

From then on, it was 90 minutes of almost unwatchable, unlistenable torment, with each man talking over the other - all right, more Trump than Biden - and juvenile insults fouling the air. Even a moderator as experienced as Chris Wallace (of generally Trump-friendly Fox News) was unable to hold the line.

The commission that oversees the debates has now moved to ensure that what happened in Cleveland will not be repeated when the two meet again, in Miami, in two weeks' time. It is promising changes to the format. There is also a suggestion that future",Stop complaining about the presidential debate - Trump and Biden showed that US democracy is alive and kicking,tweets_news_1649,tweets_news
"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Nine Twitter users who sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for blocking them on the social media platform have...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Nine Twitter users who sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for blocking them on the social media platform have regained access to the Republican's posts, their attorneys said Thursday. The users blocked by Paxton included college st...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Nine Twitter users who sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for blocking them on the social media platform have regained access to the Republican's posts, their attorneys said Thursday. The users blocked by Paxton included college students, a journalist, a U.S. Army veteran and the leader of a progressive political group. All said in a lawsuit filed last month that Paxton denied them access to his tweets after they criticized his policies. They were represented by the ACLU and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which cheered Paxton's reversal. “It shouldn’t take a lawsuit for Attorney General Paxton to comply with the Constitution,"" Kate Huddleston, an attorney for the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement. Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment. A federal appeals court ruled in",Attorneys: Texas AG unblocks Twitter critics after lawsuit,tweets_news_1650,tweets_news
"EVAN SOLOMON: Well a battle is brewing between streaming sites and the Canadian government, and it could end up costing you more money and determining the news that you read. Look, a widespread review of Canada's broadcasting laws has come with 97 recommendations, including things like forcing sites like Netflix and Amazon Prime to not only pay GST or HST, but to contribute to developing Canadian content. It also wants to regulate websites and determine what a, quote, ""trusted news site"" really is. Is this protecting Canadian culture, or is this government overreach? Is it a back door version of the so-called Netflix tax or not, and would these costs just be passed on to you, the consumer? Let's find out. Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault joins me now. Minister, great to have you on the program, and I want to start with the elements about streaming services like Netflix because that's in the popular lexicon. There are two sides to the recommendations. There seems to be widespread acceptance that companies like Netflix or Facebook should start paying GST/HST, but the panel wants to force them, as part of their licensing rules, to pay part of their revenue to Canadian content.",Interview with Steven Guilbeault,tweets_news_1651,tweets_news
"Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe is reassuring voters conspiracists have no place in his party after one of his candidates resigned Saturday after his history of promoting and engaging with ""strange"" falsehoods online was brought to light.

Moe says former Saskatoon Eastview candidate Daryl Cooper failed to live up to expectations his party has of their nominees after Cooper shared and liked posts supporting a range of conspiracy theories, including one that an expert in far-right extremism says is dangerous.

""This individual has made a choice to align themselves or to share a number of posts in respect to what is a very strange conspiracy theory group."" Moe said. ""We've taken the appropriate action and would again if required.""

Moe announced Sunday that Saskatoon and Region Homebuilders' Association CEO Chris Guérette would replace Cooper less than 24 hours after the former candidate resigned. Guerette does not live in the riding, but says she previously worked there.

Views shared by Cooper included a set of falsehoods linking the COVID-19 pandemic to sunspots, which CBC first reported Friday. Left-leaning outlet PressProgress later reported Cooper had ""liked"" posts related to QAnon, a vast and complex web of online falsehoods that has fuelled extremism and violence in the",Moe condemns conspiracists after ousting candidate,tweets_news_1652,tweets_news
"

Dec 17, 2020( The Cheat Sheet: http://www.cheatsheet.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Micah Plath[1], the Plath family's third-oldest child on TLC[2]'s Welcome to Plathville[3], has been making waves on season 2 of the reality show by pushing back against his family's conservative expectations.The 19-year-old was raised in a Christian fundamentalist homeschooling environment. He was expected to eschew cell phones, social media, pop culture, and immodest clothing. But that all went out the window when Micah decided to pursue a career in modeling, start dating, and move out of the Plath family home in rural Georgia.In a recent interview[4] with Domenick Nati of The Domenick Nati Show on iHeart Radio, Micah opened up[5] about his sexuality, getting nudes from women in his DMs, and whether he would start an OnlyFans account anytime soon. Micah's First Modeling Audition!

| Welcome to Plathville[6] Micah said he was 'straight as a knitting needle' Along with Micah's modeling[7] career came a larger social media following - and plenty of potential dates as well. Nati asked the Welcome to Plathville star if men had ever asked him out along the way.'There have been a lot of guys hitting on me, but I am straight - straight as a knitting",'Welcome to Plathville': Is Micah Plath Planning to Start an OnlyFans?,tweets_news_1653,tweets_news
"It's the Mona Lisa of horrible years. (Her slight smile is for those who expected a normal year.) It's the Boone and Crockett world's largest ten-point bull elk of rotten years.

We think of the coronavirus as the low point of the year, but recall that 2020 started with Jerry Nadler and his colleagues slow-walking articles of impeachment over to the U.S. Senate. In the end, they could only dislodge one Republican vote in the Senate, and that from flip-flopping, now-you-see-him, now-you-don't Mitt Romney, the recipient of the worst vote I ever cast for president.

Don't forget that the State of the Union Speech was delayed this year because of a government shutdown sparked by the debt limit (Surprise!). They finally had the speech, but Donald Trump poured salt in liberal wounds by using the occasion to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh.

Here's a fun thing to try. Those readers who have to prepare an annual budget at work should try telling their boss that instead of a budget this year, you will be submitting a “continuing resolution,” in which you will spend about 30% more than you plan to take in. Go ahead. Give it a try. (Old",It's the Mona Lisa of horrible years. (Her slight smile is f,tweets_news_1654,tweets_news
"Thunk, thunk. The career guillotine at The New York Times was busy Friday, dispatching two men found wanting by the Purity Police.

When the shock wears off, the former employees might consider their departures a blessing. At least they are no longer marooned on an island that evokes ""Lord of the Flies.""

The two cases are unrelated, but Donald McNeil Jr. and Andy Mills share the fact that the Times knew about their specified conduct years ago but took little or no action. It reprimanded McNeil and hired Mills despite Mills' confessing he had engaged in unwanted sexual pestering with co-workers years earlier at NPR.

Yet top editor Dean Baquet, egged on by witch-hunting staff members, suddenly decided to revisit the cases and concluded both offenses could no longer be tolerated, so off with their heads.

This is not moving the goal posts. This is rewriting the rules to satisfy the mob.

Such is life in Wokestan, where notions of misconduct are malleable and arbitrary. Social-justice activists stalk a newsroom that is racialized and radicalized, hunting for reasons to be offended. When they are, the ax falls.

The ax doesn't always fall equally.

A female reporter at the paper got her scoops by sleeping with a government",NYT ties itself in woke knots,tweets_news_1655,tweets_news
"

Apr 02, 2020( The Texas Tribune: http://texastribune.org Delivered by Newstex) This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica's Big [1]Story[2] newsletter[3] to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published.HOUSTON — At least 25 parishioners filed into a beige-brick church here Wednesday evening and were handed rubber gloves at the door. A handwritten sign directed them to designated areas with seats that had been spaced 6 feet apart. Another sign laid out five things people should do to keep from spreading the new strain of coronavirus, including staying away if they felt sick.The founding pastor of City on a Hill, Juan Bustamante, was in a particularly good mood.

A day earlier, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott[4] joined 30-plus other governors around the country in issuing a statewide stay-at-home order — though he declined to refer to it as such — that also designated religious services as essential. Under the order, Texans must stay home unless they work in certain business sectors or are grocery shopping, running must-do errands or exercising outdoors. Or going to church.Abbott's order came the same day the country's top health experts estimated","Despite coronavirus risks, some Texas religious groups are worshipping in person — with the governor's blessing",tweets_news_1656,tweets_news
"Bengaluru: WhatsApp will soon display an in-app banner that will seek to address users' concerns on a controversial privacy policy and start nudging them to accept the update before the rollout begins on May 15 globally.WhatsApp said in a blog post that it is building new ways to chat or shop with a business on the app-a feature that is optional. Personal messages will always be end-to-end encrypted, so it will not be able to read or listen to them. It does not keep a log on who everyone is messaging or calling, and it does share users' contacts with Facebook.""We also think it's important people know how we can provide WhatsApp for free. Every day, millions of people start a WhatsApp chat with a business because it's easier to do so than placing a phone call or exchanging emails. We charge businesses to provide customer service on WhatsApp-not people. Some shopping features involve Facebook so that businesses can manage their inventory across apps,"" it said in the blog post.The move may be seen by the government as Facebook's disregard for its concerns on the privacy of Indian citizens and lawsuits that are currently being heard in the Supreme Court",WhatsApp in-app banner to address privacy policy update,tweets_news_1657,tweets_news
"The US Senate on Tuesday confirmed Antony Blinken as America's top diplomat, tasked with carrying out President Joe Biden's commitment to reverse the Trump administration's ""America First"" doctrine that weakened international alliances.

Senators voted 78-22 to approve Blinken, a longtime Biden confidant, as the nation's 71st secretary of state, succeeding Mike Pompeo. The position is the most senior Cabinet position, with the secretary fourth in the line of presidential succession.

Blinken, 58, served as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security advisor during the Obama administration. He has pledged to be a leading force in the administration's bid to reframe the US relationship with the rest of the world after four years in which President Donald Trump questioned longtime alliances. He is expected to start work on Wednesday after being sworn in, according to State Department officials.

""American leadership still matters,"" Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at his January 19 confirmation hearing. ""The reality is, the world simply does not organise itself. When we're not engaged, when we're not leading, then one of two things is likely to happen. Either some other country tries to take our place, but not in a way that's likely to advance our interests and",United States: New US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vows reversal of Trump's 'America First' foreign policy,tweets_news_1658,tweets_news
"Trump Chides Agency For Saying Kremlin Seeks Biden Loss

TRUMP-PENCE vs HARRIS-BIDEN

“Racially motivated violent extremism,” driven mostly by white supremacists, constitutes a majority of domestic terrorism threats in the US, FBI director Christopher Wray told a congressional panel on Thursday even as US President Donald Trump unveiled plans to rewrite the country's well-chronicled racist history — which he blamed on

left-wing indoctrination — with “patriotic education”.

In another contentious assertion that went against the president's views, Wray also confirmed that Russia continues interfere in the US election and pursue a disinformation campaign against Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, saying “We certainly have seen very active, very active efforts by the Russians to influence our election in 2020...to both sow divisiveness and discord and...to denigrate Vice President Biden”. The twin statements earned an instant rebuke from the revisionist president who tweeted: “But Chris, you don't see any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia, Russia, Russia.” Trump also linked foreign interference to the US electoral process, saying, “They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020 Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam. Check it out!”

Amid growing racial divide and strife in the","FBI warns of white extremism, Russian interference in US poll",tweets_news_1659,tweets_news
"Before Democrat Moe Davis became a candidate for Congress, he freely shared his opinions in salty tweets.

Last September, after former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani took part in a particularly combative exchange on CNN, Davis tweeted: ""To say @RudyGiuliani is bats--- crazy is truly insulting to bats and s---.""

That same month he lashed out at North Carolina Republicans.

""Screw they go low, we go high bullsh*t,"" he tweeted. ""When @NCGOP extremists go low, we stomp their scrawny pasty necks with our heels and once you hear the sound of a crisp snap you grind your heel hard and twist it slowly side to side for good measure.""

His outspoken opinions made the retired Air Force colonel a frequent guest on cable TV. Now they're one of the latest issues to pop up in what's become North Carolina's most heated congressional race. There have also been allegations in the race of sexual misconduct, white nationalism and coddling terrorists.

Davis, 62, faces 25-year-old Republican Madison Cawthorn for the 11th District seat vacated by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. The district includes all or part of 17 western North Carolina counties.

Last month it was Cawthorn's social media posts that drew fire.

In 2017 he posted","Salty tweets, sexual aggression, terror -- welcome to NC's 'ugliest' congressional race",tweets_news_1660,tweets_news
"

Nov 16, 2020( The Cheat Sheet: http://www.cheatsheet.com/ Delivered by Newstex) Rapper[1] Megan Thee Stallion recently shared her thoughts on Deanna Lorraine[2]'s reaction to Megan and Cardi B's song, 'WAP.'In August 2020, Cardi announced that she and Megan worked together on a single, 'WAP.' The song featured several explicit lyrics about the sexuality of women. Once Megan and Cardi released the single and its music video, the pair received several conservative politicians' comments. Megan Thee Stallion|Rich Fury/Getty Images for VisibleMegan Thee Stallion called DeAnna Lorraine Tesoriero 'Some Republican Lady' and shared her thoughts on Lorraine's tweet Shortly after Megan and Cardi released 'WAP,'[3] music lovers began streaming the song on multiple platforms.

The song also caught many of their fans' attention with lyrics like, 'I said certified freak, seven days a week/Wet-*ss p*ssy, make that pullout game weak.' Midnight pic.twitter.com/1uF5C4QI4h[4] — HOT GIRL MEG (@theestallion) August 6, 2020[5]RELATED: Megan Thee Stallion Wasn't Sure Why Politicians Decided To 'Focus' on Her &#38; Cardi B's 'WAP' Lyrics[6]Although 'WAP' was well-received by Megan and Cardi's audience, the song didn't sit well with Tesoriero. In August 2020, Tesoriero criticized Cardi, specifically, and said, 'America needs far more women like Melania Trump and far less like Cardi B.'",Megan Thee Stallion Claps Back at 'Some Republican Lady' (Former Congressional Candidate) DeAnna Lorraine Tesoriero's Tweet Slamming 'WAP',tweets_news_1661,tweets_news
"

May 13, 2020( Deutsche Welle World: http://www.dw.de/top-stories/world/s-1429 Delivered by Newstex) Under a new law in France, Facebook, Twitter and similar online platforms will need to remove illegal content quickly or face large fines. Some critics say the law puts private companies in charge of policing speech.Legislation that passed the National Assembly on Wednesday gives platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat a one-hour deadline to remove terrorism and pedophilia-related content after being instructed to do so by the authorities.

If the companies fail to comply, they can face fines of up to 4% of their global revenue.When it comes to other ""manifestly illicit"" — such as hate speech, racist comments, or religious bigotry — the companies would be required to remove it within 24 hours of it being reported by the users.Read more: France passes law taxing internet giantsUsers to 'think twice'The law seeks to ""induce responsibility"" from the creators of online platforms who argue ""that the tool they themselves have created is uncontrollable,"" Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told lawmakers on Wednesday.The law also sets up a prosecutor specialized in digital content and a government unit to observe online hate speech.""People will think twice before crossing the red line",France passes disputed law on online hate speech,tweets_news_1662,tweets_news
"The campaign by one count has run nearly 800 distinct Facebook ads highlighting the killing, but no one is sure what the political impact will ultimately be.

The campaign by one count has run nearly 800 distinct Facebook ads highlighting the killing, but no one is sure what the political impact will ultimately be.

WASHINGTON — Things were on a clear course as far as President Trump’s re-election campaign was concerned. The impeachment proceedings unfolding on Capitol Hill had proved to be a boost for volunteer recruitment and small-dollar donations. The year ended with a blockbuster jobs report and the unemployment rate falling to 3.5 percent, its lowest level since 1969.

Mr. Trump was ready to aggressively attack a Democratic field he and his advisers viewed as weak across the board. Few if any of the president’s top campaign aides were looking to change the channel.

But Mr. Trump’s decision to authorize the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, which he has described to friends and allies as a necessary action he was forced to take, has opened up a more uncertain political reality as the president enters an election year. That uncertainty was on display Tuesday night when Iran fired missiles at American",Suleimani’s Killing Creates New Uncertainty for Trump Campaign,tweets_news_1663,tweets_news
"A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the real facts:

___

CLAIM: Federal records show George Soros is the biggest funder of the failed app used by the Iowa Democratic Party during Monday's caucuses.

THE FACTS: Following the problems with the app used to report results of the Iowa caucuses, social media began sharing a chart of federal donations to falsely claim that Soros, a liberal financier, donated $2.6 million to Shadow Inc., which created the caucus app for the Iowa Democratic Party. ""And there it is. The single largest donor of Shadow Inc., the company behind the failed Iowa Caucus app, is George Soros,"" one Twitter user wrote, sharing an image of the chart. The chart does not show a donation by Soros to Shadow Inc. Instead, the chart, which was published in a November 2019 story on the investigative news site Sludge, shows Soros gave $2.6 million to the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a Democratic Party-aligned organization focused on legislative redistricting. Federal tax documents confirm the donations were made",NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week,tweets_news_1664,tweets_news
"WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, a prominent conservative in Congress and a close ally of former President Donald Trump, said Tuesday he is being investigated by the Justice Department over a former relationship but denied any criminal wrongdoing.

Gaetz, who represents parts of western Florida, told Axios that his lawyers were informed that he was the subject of an investigation ""regarding sexual conduct with women"" but that he was not a target of the probe. He denied that he ever had a relationship with any underage girls and said the allegations against him were ""as searing as they are false.""

A subject is conventionally thought of as someone whose actions fall within the scope of a criminal investigation, whereas a target is someone whom prosecutors have gathered evidence linking to a crime. But during the course of an investigation, a subject can become a target.

Gaetz is under investigation by the Justice Department about a possible sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, according to a report out Tuesday from the New York Times.

According to the report, which cites three unnamed people briefed on the matter, Gaetz allegedly paid to have her travel with him, which would violate federal sex trafficking",Rep. Matt Gaetz investigated over alleged sexual relationship,tweets_news_1665,tweets_news
"Keith Johnstone: Voting while Black in Trump's America

Sunday, May 10, 2020 - 4:53pm

- Buy this photo

-

Keith Johnstone Columnist

""Give us the ballot and we will fill our legislative halls with men of good will."" - Martin Luther King Jr. 

As my father drove to the California polls on Election Day in 1988, he heard the local radio broadcaster announce that George Herbert Walker Bush would be the 41st president of the United States. Even though he knew the result, he continued on his 30-minute drive and cast his ballot for Michael Dukakis. When I asked him why he would waste his time like that, he indignantly replied: ""Son, our ancestors fought with their lives for the right to vote. The least we can do is sit in traffic and walk into a booth.""

That statement stuck with me as I grew up, because it forced me to remember how much those who came before me sacrificed for my rights. I needed to make their struggle worthwhile by fulfilling my civic duty. Thus, Nov. 8, 2016 shook me to my core - and not because Americans elected a former steak salesman to the presidency. I was shaken because, across the country, my brothers",Keith Johnstone: Voting while Black in Trump's America,tweets_news_1666,tweets_news
"AUDIE CORNISH: This is what it sounded like outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., last week.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: Palestine will be free.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #1: Palestine will be free.

AUDIE CORNISH: One of many protests in cities around the country directed not just at the Israeli government...

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #2: Biden, Harris, you will see. Palestine will be free.

AUDIE CORNISH: ...But at an American president swept into office on a wave of progressive support.

(SOUNDBITE OF DRUMMING)

AUDIE CORNISH: Demonstrators also showed up at a Ford plant in Michigan last week where President Biden was visiting.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

IMAN SALEH: So we know that Joe Biden is in the neighborhood right now.

(BOOING)

AUDIE CORNISH: Iman Saleh helped organize the protest. She told one of our reporters that in her activism, she felt ties to the growing power of racial justice movements in the U.S.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

IMAN SALEH: When we talk about police here and Black lives here, we're also relating that to Palestinian lives in Palestine. We're seeing a lot of the same tactics that they use to oppress the people in these villages or in these cities overseas being used here on the streets in Detroit.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER",What's Behind The Progressive Push To Rethink America's Relationship With Israel,tweets_news_1667,tweets_news
"Once upon a time, President Joe Biden’s spending proposals would have launched mass demonstrations in opposition. Little else would have been talked about in conservative media, and ambitious GOP politicians would have competed with one another to demonstrate the most intense resistance, up to and perhaps including chaining themselves to the US Treasury building in protest. In...

Once upon a time, President Joe Biden’s spending proposals would have launched mass demonstrations in opposition. Little else would have been talked about in conservative media, and ambitious GOP politicians would have competed with one another to demonstr...

Once upon a time, President Joe Biden’s spending proposals would have launched mass demonstrations in opposition. Little else would have been talked about in conservative media, and ambitious GOP politicians would have competed with one another to demonstrate the most intense resistance, up to and perhaps including chaining themselves to the US Treasury building in protest. In 2009, then-President Barack Obama created a spontaneous, hugely influential conservative grassroots movement on the basis of an $800 billion stimulus bill and a health-care plan estimated to cost less than a trillion. In 2021, Biden is proposing to spend about $6 trillion in his first three big bills, and he",Whatever happened to GOP fiscal hawks?,tweets_news_1668,tweets_news
"Vienna, Austria: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has issued the following press release:

The online event on “The rise of artificial intelligence and how it will reshape the future of free speech”, organized by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), concluded today in Vienna. It was followed by a call for feedback from all stakeholders.

The RFoM event provided a platform to discuss the role of AI in shaping and arbitrating online information, and the impact this has on freedom of expression. The event focused on the possible way forward to safeguard free speech when deploying automation and AI. An RFoM Strategy Paper to put a spotlight on AI and freedom of expression (#SAIFE) with preliminary recommendations, which provided the foundation for these discussions, was published ahead of the event.

The event brought together a broad audience of 200 participants, including experts from participating States, civil society, academia, the tech industry and other international stakeholders to enable interactive discussions. The speakers included Nathalie Maréchal (Senior Policy Analyst, Ranking Digital Rights); Andrey Kuleshov (Advisor, Centre for AI Science and Technology, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology); Benoît Loutrel (Former Head of the French Social Network Regulation Task Force); Eliška","OSCE online event on “The rise of artificial intelligence and how it will reshape the future of free speech” concluded, now consultation phase begins",tweets_news_1669,tweets_news
"ONLINE GROOMING OFFENCES IN SCOTLAND 'UP 84% IN LAST FIVE YEARS'

By Douglas Barrie, PA Scotland

Offences of indecent communication with children have risen by more than 80% over the past five years in Scotland, according to new figures.

The data from a Freedom of Information request by children's charity the NSPCC found 651 offences of communicating indecently with a child recorded by Police Scotland in 2019-20.

In comparison, there were 354 such crimes in 2014-15 - an increase of 84%.

Digital communications is reserved to Westminster with the charity now calling on the Prime Minister to deliver legislation to ensure technology firms make their sites safer for children.

Andy Burrows, NSPCC head of child safety online, said: ``The NSPCC's figures show that online grooming offences in Scotland have soared by 80% in the last five years.

``This absolutely underlines why the Prime Minister Boris Johnson now has to personally commit to getting an Online Harms Bill on the statute book in the next 18 months.

``For too long, child abuse has been an inconvenient truth for tech bosses that have turned a blind eye to the risks on their site.

``That's why it's so important that the UK Government now steps up to keep all of our children",comments in pars 15-19),tweets_news_1670,tweets_news
"Pro-Trump forces in Washington and in her home state of Wyoming view her opposition to Donald Trump as a betrayal. Now she faces a reckoning over her leadership role in the Republican Party.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Liz Cheney was getting so many questions from constituents and colleagues about whether she would vote to affirm the 2020 election results that she responded in a way befitting her background as a State Department diplomat and lawyer: She issued a 21-page memo detailing the constitutional and legal reasons Congress should not interfere with certification.

Doing so, she wrote, would set ''an exceptionally dangerous precedent'' that no Republican should want to be associated with.

Ms. Cheney was right about the danger. But she was wrong about the willingness of her fellow Republicans to go along with it. In the House, two-thirds of them voted against certification. A week later, only nine others voted with her to impeach former President Donald J. Trump for encouraging a mob of his supporters to besiege the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Now Ms. Cheney, the lone representative for Wyoming and the No. 3-ranking Republican in the House, is the most visible and imperiled target of the pro-Trump majority in the G.O.P., which wants","Even in Wyoming, Cheney's Stance on Trump Is a Politically Perilous One",tweets_news_1671,tweets_news
"Countries missing opportunities as extremists use new fund-raising techniques hidden from authorities, says think tank

Right-wing extremist Darren Osborne, jailed for life for running down a man outside a mosque in north London in 2017, has highlighted the need for closer links between security officials and van hire firms. AP

The campaign to cut off funds to extremist groups has failed to keep pace with changing tactics employed by terrorists, a new report says Monday.

Counter-terror tactics remain embedded in the era of struggle against Al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and has failed to adequately address the rise in lone-wolf attacks, according to the report by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), a London-based think tank.

Since 2001, terrorist groups have tapped into the technological advances of crowd-funding, social media and encrypted messaging systems to industrialise their fund-raising efforts to launch attacks.

""The global response to terrorist financing remains one-dimensional, despite the multi-faceted risk picture,"" according to the Rusi report, A Sharper Image: Advancing a risk-based response to terrorist financing.

""It is time to develop a more nuanced and risk-specific response to terrorist financing that is not merely rooted in the post-9/11 response to Al Qaeda.""

US President George W.",Terrorist cash tracking operations fail to keep pace,tweets_news_1672,tweets_news