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Facebook to dial back political content on platform

Lexi Lonas
The Hill
Wed, 27 Jan 2021 07:42 UTC
Zuckerberg
© UnknownFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on Wednesday that the company is looking to lessen the amount of political content users see on their platform.

"[O]ne of the top pieces of feedback we're hearing from our community right now is that people don't want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services," Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.

Users will still be allowed to join political pages or join movements, but the political content popping up in users' main news feed will be reduced.

Zuckerberg did not explain how Facebook plans to implement this directive. Facebook did cut back on political content during the election season. Recommendations for political groups or pages will lessen on the platform.

"We have to balance this carefully because we do have deep commitment to free expression," Zuckerberg said on a call with investors, Axios reported. "If people want to discuss [politics] or join those groups, they should be able to do that. But we are not serving community well to be recommending that content right now."

The call also emphasized that despite all the criticism Facebook gets with politics, politics takes up less than 6 percent of a user's news feed.

Facebook has recently received blowback, along with other social media platforms, for banning former President Donald Trump indefinitely from their website after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.

Comment: The timing of this stratagem is obvious. Cui bono?

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Star of David

'The sound of death': How Israel terrorizes Lebanon from the skies

Belen Fernandez
Middle East Eye
Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:52 UTC
Israeli drone
© AFPIsraeli drone downed in Lebanon, 2019
Continuing Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace come as the country is still reeling from the Beirut explosion and economic disaster.

In the wee hours of Christmas morning, I received a text message from a Lebanese Palestinian friend in Beirut, sent from the hallway of his apartment. He had run there after being jolted from his sleep by the sound of Israeli jets - later reported to be Israeli jets and/or missiles en route to targets in Syria - and the sensation that something in the vicinity was about to explode.

Of course, Israeli breaches of Lebanese airspace are nothing new. Israel has long been notorious for violating not only Lebanon's skies - and territory in general - but also Lebanese eardrums and mental and emotional wellbeing.

In his book Pity the Nation about the Lebanese civil war of 1975-90, late journalist Robert Fisk describes the terrific noise generated during an episode circa 1978 in which two Israeli jets "broke the sound barrier as they flew at low level over west Beirut, shattering the shop-front window panes on [the city's iconic] Hamra Street with their sonic booms".

And it's been pretty much nonstop ruckus ever since. Granted, it's not a subject that generates much media attention, but if one puts in a bit of time on Google, the issue does turn up. There's a 2017 Reuters dispatch about the sonic booms that "broke windows and shook buildings" in the southern Lebanese city of Saida, while also causing "panic".
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Clipboard

Cuomo under fire as probe finds Covid-19 nursing-home deaths in NY were undercounted by up to 50%


RT
Thu, 28 Jan 2021 18:19 UTC
Covid patient/Cuomo
© Reuters/Carlo Alegri/Lucas JacksonNew York elderly COVID patient • New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
New York's state attorney general has said Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration drastically undercounted Covid-19 nursing-home deaths, something he has long been accused of doing.

Investigating a sample of 62 of the state's approximately 600 nursing homes, Attorney General Letitia James found that the state reported only 1,229 nursing-home deaths from those facilities, while the homes themselves reported 1,914 deaths from Covid-19.

If that same discrepancy holds true statewide, that would mean deaths in nursing homes from the virus are being underreported by a whopping 56 percent. That would put the state's reported 8,711 deaths closer to 13,000.

"As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate," James said on Thursday.

More than 20 nursing homes are currently under investigation for underreporting numbers and not enforcing Covid-19 prevention guidelines.

Comment: Governor Cuomo's hubris will come back to bite as outraged New Yorkers grapple with statistical updates:
See also:

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No Entry

Despite harsh lockdown UK's Covid-19 infection rate unchanged - ONS


RT
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 14:41 UTC
mask london bridge
© REUTERS / Henry NichollsJust 851.2 people per 100,000 died last month - the lowest figure since the ONS started recording mortality rates in 2001
The national lockdown has not resulted in a drop in Covid-19 cases during past seven days, according to the latest weekly infection survey by the Office for National Statistics, as numbers remain largely unchanged.

While infection levels and hospital admission rates in England have fallen slightly, official statistics show that they still remain at a high level across the country, with around one in 55 people, 1.9 percent of the population, estimated to have had the virus between January 17 and 25.


Comment: The NHS has clearly stated that those admitted to hospital are primarily in for other issues, and it's also clear that people who need critical care are avoiding hospitals because the government and propaganda media told them to.


This is the fourth week in a row that the ONS has estimated that more than a million people in England were infected with Covid-19 and showed that the new, highly infectious variants of the virus are making lockdown measures - which helped in the past - less effective.

Comment: Lockdowns don't work against the relatively harmless coronavirus. Moreover, it's highly likely that any rise in deaths is actually because of the lockdown, as has been the case in every other lockdown, and that has proven to be the case all over the world where they implemented lockdowns. But we won't see a change in strategy, because this isn't about a virus, this is about the pathocrats and their minions pursuing a totalitarian agenda: The Inanity of RNA Vaccines For COVID-19

And for more insight into just what's going on with this manufactured crisis, check out SOTT radio's NewsReal #34: Covid By Numbers:



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Bizarro Earth

Russia's epidemic of 'trash-streaming' tragedies continues as another person dies on camera for entertainment of viewers

Jonny Tickle
RT
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 18:21 UTC
trash-streaming
© (R) Screenshot from stream Mellstroy; (L) Screenshot from stream ReeflayLive broadcasting of misogyny, violence & even death: The growth of 'trash-streaming’, a disturbing Russian internet sub-culture
Two months after a Russian livestreamer's girlfriend died on YouTube, the country's internet community lost another popular character. On Thursday, a man known as "Grandfather" passed away on air in front of around 150 viewers.

According to Smolensk-based online outlet Readovka, Yury Dushechkin was a regular feature on 'First Step to YouTube' - a channel that became well known locally for live footage taking advantage of the vulnerable. It falls under the now-infamous category of 'trash streams,' in which people do whatever is asked of them in return for a donation. These dares are often humiliating, and target those desperate for money. The website first reported on the channel in 2017, when the owner would pay homeless people to drink alcohol or hot sauce on camera.

Quoting the channel's viewers, Readovka suggests that Dushechkin died after drinking around one and a half liters of low-quality vodka, provided by the stream's host, who goes by the name Zheka. After the death, the video was promptly deleted.
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Stock Down

Best of the Web: Ortex data shows losses on short positions in US hedge firms top $70 billion - not many crying

Sujata Rao
Reuters
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:53 UTC

Comment: "H-h-how much?!"

This is probably the single largest wealth transfer DOWNWARDS in all history...


gamestop
© REUTERS/Jim Young/File PhotoA sign is seen outside a GameStop store in Niles, Illinois, U.S. May 23, 2016.
Short-sellers are sitting on estimated losses of $70.87 billion from their short positions in U.S. companies so far this year, data from financial data analytics firm Ortex showed on Thursday.

The hefty losses come as shares of highly-shorted GameStop jumped more than 1,000% in the past week without a clear business reason, forcing short-sellers to buy back into the stock to cover potential losses -- defined as a short-squeeze -- while retail investors then piled in to benefit from the surge.

Comment: There's not much love for the predatory funds' predicament. 'Kamikaze' small investors vow their losses are not as important as punishing Big Money.







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Yellow Vest

Students & teachers protest in Athens against education reforms despite lockdown ban


Ekathimerini
Thu, 28 Jan 2021 15:04 UTC
athens protest
© Dimitris Tosidis/ANA-MPAUniversity and school students participate in a protest march in Thessaloniki over proposed changes to tertiary education, on 28 Thursday 2021. [
Thousands of students and teachers in Greece held demonstrations in Athens and second-largest city Thessaloniki on Thursday against proposed education reforms, defying a weeklong public ban on protests imposed as part of measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

About 4,000 people, wearing masks to protect against the virus, marched through the streets of Athens, while another roughly 1,500 protesters demonstrated in Thessaloniki. Students and teachers oppose education reforms that include plans to set up a state security division at university campuses.

On Tuesday, the government announced a ban on protests attended by more than 100 people until Feb. 1, as part of measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Violations are punishable by fines of up to 3,000 euros ($3,650) for individuals organizing rallies or demonstrations, and 5,000 euros (about $6,000) for groups or organizations.

Comment: See also: Lockdown protests continue in Lebanon, Israel, and the Netherlands

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Light Saber

GameStop strategy spreading: Australia's most-shorted stocks surge upward

Jackie Edwards
Bloomberg News
Thu, 28 Jan 2021 17:35 UTC
gamestop
© REUTERS/Jim Young/File PhotoA sign is seen outside a GameStop store in Niles, Illinois, U.S. May 23, 2016.
A surge in GameStop Corp. and other heavily-shorted U.S. stocks has investors targeting some Australian names with large amounts of bearish bets.

Investors are snapping up companies that have a high short interest as a percentage of equity float after the U.S. video game retailer became a flash point between short sellers and retail traders. Some of Australia's most-shorted stocks like travel firm Webjet Ltd. and funeral-home operator InvoCare Ltd. are among the top performers on the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index on Thursday.

Comment: Let's hope the Australian on-line trading community is taking notes from what is happening to their counterparts in the U.S.

Video game retailer GameStop stock doubles again with no let-up in amateur interest - UPDATES: Discord bans r/WallStreetBets outright, RobinHood bans buying more stock

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Fire

Vienna apartment building partially collapses after apparent explosion and fire


RT
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:24 UTC
explosion apartment building austria
© REUTERS / Alexandra Schwarz-GoerlichRescue workers are seen at the site of an explosion of a house in Langenzersdorf, Austria January 29, 2021.
An apartment building in Langenzersdorf near Vienna partially collapsed on Friday morning after an apparent explosion started a fire that ripped through the top of the four-story building.

A witness reported hearing a blast around 8am local time, which was confirmed by a police spokesperson, who stated that "it appears to have been an explosion." While there has been no information as to the cause of the incident, the State Criminal Police Office are looking into whether it was a gas leak.
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Black Cat

Here we go: Facebook BANS 'Robinhood stock traders group' with 150k+ members over 'sexual exploitation' amid GameStop craze


RT
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 15:15 UTC
gamestop facebook ban trade group robin hood
© euters / Dado Ruvic
A popular stock trading chat group has been booted off Facebook due to alleged violations of its "sexual exploitation" rules, claims the page's founder, who accused "major institutions" of trying to avenge the GameStop debacle.

The Robinhood Stock Traders group boasted more than 157,000 members before it was taken offline on Wednesday, its 23-year-old founder, Allen Tran, told Reuters, adding that the social media giant cited its policies surrounding "adult sexual exploitation." A notification of the ban seen by Reuters included no further reasoning for what prompted the move.

The page has no formal affiliation with the stock trading app of the same name.

Comment:

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