Last May, Facebook promised to create a "Clear History" function it said would give users more control over their data. Nine months later it's nowhere to be found and sources say it's a key example of the company's "reactionary" way of dealing with privacy concerns. Facebook spent most of 2018 embroiled in one scandal or another. But there was a point early on in the year when Mark Zuckerberg thought he could turn down the heat by offering a fix for the public's privacy concerns. It was just weeks after the news broke that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica had surreptitiously obtained and employed the personal data of millions of people. And as the company headed into its annual F8 developers conference in May, the chief executive proposed a dramatic change ahead of a rehearsal for the keynote address: What if they announced a tool that let users clear web-browsing information that Facebook uses to target users with ads?

The suggestion caught people involved in the event's production, where planning begins at least six months in advance, off guard. "Clear History" didn't exist; it was barely an idea. But organizers still scrambled to build its announcement into Zuckerberg's F8 keynote address. They'd already scrapped plans to unveil Portal, a video calling device that Facebook's leadership thought might be seen as too invasive given the company's predicament.

It was a bold public relations play. And for those familiar with the origins of the Clear History announcement, it demonstrated not only Zuckerberg's unilateral power over product direction, but also Facebook's long history of prioritizing optics and convenience over substantive protections for the people who use it. Company sources who spoke to BuzzFeed News characterized Zuckerberg's proposal as "reactionary," a response intended to ease the negative attention on the company following the Cambridge Analytica firestorm. They also said it might explain why the Clear History tool, whose announcement was proposed on the fly by Zuckerberg, is still not available nearly a year after he introduced it on stage at F8.

Billionaire Warren Buffet has issued a warning that there is an upcoming "megacatastrophe" on the horizon. Buffet says that when this apocalyptic scenario plays out, our losses will be immeasurable.

In his annual letter, Buffet warned of a "megacatastrophe," which he said will cause unprecedented havoc not just to victims but to the financial world as well. "A major catastrophe that will dwarf hurricanes Katrina and Michael will occur - perhaps tomorrow, perhaps many decades from now," the Berkshire Hathaway CEO wrote. "'The Big One' may come from a traditional source, such as a hurricane or earthquake, or it may be a total surprise involving, say, a cyber attack having disastrous consequences beyond anything insurers now contemplate."

When the home of Nikki Joly burned down in 2017, killing five pets, the FBI investigated it as a hate crime.

After all, the transgender man and gay rights activist had received threats after having a banner year in this conservative town.

In the prior six months, he helped open the city's first gay community center, organized the first gay festival and, after 18 years of failed attempts, helped lead a bruising battle for an ordinance that prohibits discrimination against gays.

For his efforts, a local paper named him Citizen of the Year.

As I recently reported, Facebook announced that it would begin exploring ways to fight anti-vaccine messaging after receiving a letter from Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Schiff and others of his ilk are doing their best to blame the measles outbreak in the U.S. on social media systems that offer anti-vaccine messaging in their "recommended reading and groups" areas.


In the above report about the letter that Schiff sent off to the heads of Facebook and Google, YouTube (owned by Google) was specifically mentioned as being illustrative of "the problem."

Israel has been hiding 300,000 documents about its massacres of Palestinians, thousands of them dating back to the 1800s, a report says.

According to the +972 Magazine, Israel's "State Archives" declassified secret documents last summer, but some 300,000 documents, which antedate the 1948 establishment of the regime, remained classified.

"The very existence of the 300,000 classified files-their names, dates, and origin within the state bureaucracy - had been kept a secret, until now. One-fifth of the files, deemed too sensitive still by the regime, were excluded from the disclosure," the report by Israeli Jewish journalist Asaf Shalev said.

"There were many people who were concerned about the opening of this catalog," Israel's "State Archivist" Yaacov Lozowick was quoted by the website as saying in a statement accompanying the release.

Some of the files, which were kept secret, reportedly date back to 1821, while 125 of them date back to the 19th century and nearly 2,000 papers predate the Nakba (Catastrophe Day). Files on the two most notorious Israeli massacres of Deir Yassin and Kafr Qasim are among the hidden documents, the website said.

You probably have felt afraid to speak your mind freely at some point. Whether it is in a university class, a meeting at work, or amongst friends online, it's likely that you have remained silent when you have had ideas or opinions that haven't conformed to received wisdom.

This is not an unusual or maladaptive response. In fact, knowing when to stay quiet and knowing how to avoid conflict is a necessary and important part of being an adult. Most arguments are pointless and there is no reason to get into fights with people whom we otherwise want to cooperate with and build mutually beneficial relationships.

Nevertheless, I worry that intellectual self-policing is happening more and more often, particularly for those living in tight-knit and politically homogenous communities. In such environments, challenging the prevailing ideological orthodoxy - even if it's only to plead for more tolerance of diverse viewpoints - can lead to reputational damage, harassment, and, in some cases, career suicide.

The CIA drew a hail of ridicule and incomprehension when it unexpectedly posted a Twitter thread dedicated to the hit superhero film Black Panther. Some Twitter users even suspected the spy agency had been hacked.

The Central Intelligence Agency's Twitter account launched into the bizarre thread during Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, quizzing their 2.5 million followers on all things Wakanda - the fictional, high-tech, African country in the Marvel movie.

The agency announced that they had enlisted the help of a mysterious "top CIA scientist" named "Rebecca" to discuss Wakanada's technological advances and the feasibility of translating them to real life.

The Debt Settlement Fund has announced that Dh361 million worth of loans of 3,310 Emiratis have been waived off in cooperation with 13 banks.

Jaber Mohammad Ganem Al Suwaidi, general-director of the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi and chairman of the Supreme Committee of the Debt Settlement Fund, said that the gesture is part of the UAE leadership's keenness to ensure a decent life for all Emiratis and the highest possible level of social stability.

The national banks that waived the debts included Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, RAKBANK, Al Hilal Bank, Union National Bank, Noor Bank, Emirates Islamic, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Sharjah Islamic Bank, and Arab Bank for Investment & Foreign Trade (Al Masraf).

Al Suwaidi noted that the initiative is especially important as it coincides with the 'Year of Tolerance' announced by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, pointing out that it aims to make tolerance a sustainable institutional work expressed through practical initiatives.

The Venezuela 'regime change' bandwagon rolls on, with the Western media doing its best to create the 'reality' where millions of Venezuelans are starving or fleeing the country, no one supports the Maduro government because he is a 'brutal dictator', and everyone loves the new US-appointed leader Juan Guaido. This is 'Iraqi WMDs' redux, it's Qaddafi 'bombing his own people' rehashed, Assad 'using chemical weapons against his own people', all revisited and retooled for Venezuela.

The first physical salvos in this latest chapter of the globalists' war on normal human beings were fired yesterday when US stooges set fire to 3 trucks carrying 'humanitarian aid' at the Colombia-Venezuela border crossing. For good measure, a handful of 'defectors' from the Venezuelan Gendarmerie rammed border barriers with armored vehicles, seriously injuring several people. Western media outlets tried to claim that the trucks were set on fire by Venezuelan security forces firing tear gas canisters, but the culprits were undoubtedly US/Guaido agents tasked with creating the right 'optics' to support the bogus narrative that the Western media has been pushing for months. In the southeast of the country, near the border with Brazil, clashes broke out between opposing factions and 4 people were killed as 'unknown gunmen' fired on the crowds. In short, for anyone familiar with the details of the previous 68 coups carried out by US governments around the world, the situation in Venezuela is following the worn-out playbook, line for line.

Meanwhile in France, the 15th consecutive weekend of Yellow Vest protests took place with no sign of diminishing numbers. The much-hated Macron government has repeatedly tried and failed to tarnish the image of the protestors. First they were labeled 'far-right extremists', then they were denounced as 'Russian agents', but now the 'big guns' have been brought out and, according to much of the Western media, the Yellow Vest protestors are, to a man and woman, 'dirty anti-semites'. Someone should tell Macron that when you have to resort to such discredited canards, you really should cut your losses and admit defeat. There's little chance of the 'Princes of Paris' doing that, however; they (and most of the Western elite) have spent many years increasing and consolidating their power, and the very last thing they will do at this stage is relinquish even a small part of it.

On this week's NewsReal podcast, Joe & Niall discuss the 'revolutions' in Venezuela (1st hour) and France (last 20 minutes).


Running Time: 01:19:17

Download: MP3

A police force which rejected a potential star recruit because he is a white heterosexual male has been found guilty of discrimination.

Matthew Furlong, 25, whose father is a serving detective inspector in Cheshire Police, had hoped to follow in his footsteps when he applied to join the force in 2017.

After making it through to the interview stage, he said he was told "it was refreshing to meet someone as well prepared as yourself" and that he "could not have done any more".

But he was later told he had lost out to other candidates, leading his father to lodge a complaint.