Tag Archives: WorldNews

Facebook Identifies New Influence Operations Spanning Globe

Thousands and thousands of troll posts everyday come from a much larger network that I fear Facebook will downplay because clicks=profits. The social network removed hundreds of fake accounts and pages targeting people in different countries and regions that originated in Iran and Russia.

If Google goes to China, will it tell the truth about Tiananmen Square?

Nope, no profit in truth for what Google has become.

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The company’s controversial plan to relaunch search is a chance to stand up for truth in the age of disinformation

Google’s plan to relaunch search in China, the world’s largest market, is facing pushback from employees, human rights defenders and politicians. With good reason. The Chinese government will insist that the search engine suppress results related to the Tiananmen democracy protests of 1989, in which several hundred peaceful protesters were shot by the army.

But international norms oblige companies to treat human rights atrocities such as the Tiananmen Square massacre differently. Suppressing information about these atrocities undermines the individual and collective right to truth that is increasingly recognized in human rights law.

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Asia Argento Denies Sexual Assault Allegations & Claims Anthony Bourdain Paid Accuser

Asia Argento Denies Sexual Assault Allegations & Claims Anthony Bourdain Paid Accuser

Actress Asia Argento has strongly denied accusations that she sexually assaulted a former co-star when he was underage. Argento made her first statement since the NY Times reported on Sunday that she had paid $380,000 to Jimmy Bennett, who once played her son in a movie. “I am deeply shocked and hurt by having read news that is absolutely false,” she wrote. “I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett.” [ more › ]

Scheer going to India to ‘repair’ relationship after ‘disastrous’ Trudeau trip

Neo-fascist Modi and the “conservative” leader in Canada could be big buddies in fear mongering…? Andrew Scheer going to India

Six months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s foreign policy prowess was pummelled by a disorganized state visit to India, his chief opponent is heading to New Delhi to try to “repair and strengthen” Canada-India relations.

This isn’t just a culture war – we need a radical anti-fascist movement right now | Ash Sarkar

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Support from musicians is all very well, but the far right must be fought on the ground in communities too

My mum was an anti-racist activist in the 70s and 80s. She fought the National Front in Newham, Wood Green and New Cross; she helped organise marches after the murder of Altab Ali in Whitechapel; she participated in neighbourhood police-monitoring groups, at a time when the Metropolitan police faced intense criticism from black and Asian community groups for its failure to adequately investigate racist murders, its protection of the NF from counter-protesters, and inflammatory “swamp” style policing. I grew up listening to her stories with the sense of awe you might feel when hearing about the labours of Hercules: these feats are impressive, but ultimately consigned to the past. Skinheads, swastikas, Paki-bashers – such monsters had long been laid to rest. The past felt so distant, it may as well have been myth.

These days I find myself punished for my childhood complacency. Antisemitic incidents are at the highest recorded level since 1984; reports of racially motivated hate crime have increased since the EU referendum; and as public discourse has become poisoned towards refugees and asylum seekers, these vulnerable migrants have become targets for violence and verbal abuse.

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Author of Trump-Russia dossier wins libel case in US court

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Suit against Christopher Steele by three Russian oligarchs thrown out by judge

The former MI6 officer Christopher Steele has won a legal battle in the United States against three Russian oligarchs who sued him over allegations made in his dossier about the Trump campaign and its links with Moscow.

The oligarchs – Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan – claimed that Steele and his intelligence firm, Orbis, defamed them in the dossier, which was leaked and published in early 2017. The Russians own stakes in Moscow-based Alfa Bank. All are billionaires.

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Anti-vaxxers are still spreading false claims as people die of measles | Helen Stokes-Lampard

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We still don’t have a full uptake of the MMR vaccine. As a GP I know how vital it is to regulate online misinformation and reassure parents

In the early 2000s, after the link between the MMR vaccine and autism was thoroughly debunked, healthcare professionals, including GPs and our teams, worked hard to re-establish public confidence in vaccinations. It took years to restore, but uptake rates in children receiving the MMR vaccine began to improve and there was a time, not so long ago, when we thought we had eradicated measles entirely.

That is why recent data about the surge in measles cases across Europe will come as distressing news – even to us here in the UK. However, it backs up concerns that were published last month in the British Journal of General Practice. The World Health Organization has reported that a total of 41,000 people in the European region were infected in the first six months of 2018 – up from 23,927 cases in 2017 and 5,273 in 2016. Of the cases reported so far this year, 37 deaths have been recorded.

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