The Democratic frontrunner will speak at a Fox News town hall. He says it’s necessary to speak to Trump voters. Others disagree
Bernie Sanders will finish a four-day tour of Trump Country on Monday, with a town hall on the president’s favorite network: Fox News.
Related: Ilhan Omar has had spike in death threats since Trump attack over 9/11 comment
Continue reading...Exclusive: President says he has it in writing from UK that WikiLeaks co-founder’s rights will be respected
Julian Assange repeatedly violated his asylum conditions and tried to use the Ecuadorian embassy in London as a “centre for spying”, Ecuador’s president has said in an interview with the Guardian.
Lenín Moreno also said he had been given written undertakings from Britain that Assange’s fundamental rights would be respected and that he would not be sent anywhere to face the death penalty.
Continue reading...Thousands having difficulty accessing social networks, says tracking site
Facebook was inaccessible to some users on Sunday, according to Downdetector, a website that monitors outages.
The site showed there had been more than 7,700 incidents of people reporting issues with Facebook at its peak.
Continue reading...Sending the WikiLeaks founder to face charges in the US would be a disaster for press freedom
It’s not difficult to despise Julian Assange. For seven years, he has attempted to evade rape and sexual assault charges in Sweden by seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He has dismissed the charges as a “radical feminist conspiracy” and tried to smear the complainants as acting on behalf of the CIA. His excuse for refusing to face trial in Sweden – that he would then face extradition to the US – has always been hogwash. He is no safer from extradition in Britain than he would have been in Sweden, as he may soon discover.
There are questions to be asked about WikiLeaks, too. The organisation has been invaluable in allowing whistleblowers to safely publish documents that the authorities would rather have kept hushed up, from the truth about the commodity trader Trafigura’s devastating dumping of chemical waste in Ivory Coast to videos of US helicopter attacks on Iraqi civilians. It is, or certainly was in its early days, an important tool in cutting down to size those in power who would abuse their power.
Continue reading...The post said the Zaha Hadid-designed buildings brought bad luck to tenants
A blog operator must pay $29,000 to a real estate developer for “defamation”, a Chinese court has ruled after alleging a building complex had bad energy.
Published on the WeChat social network in November, the text said an office complex in Beijing brought bad luck to its business tenants because it does not respect feng shui principles.
Continue reading...Murdoch-owned paper published front page that Yemeni American Merchants Association says ‘provoked hatred’
A group of New York corner-store owners has announced a boycott on the sale of the New York Post, arguing that the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper’s attacks on the congresswoman Ilhan Omar are making Muslim Americans less safe.
On Thursday, the Post published a front page featuring an image of the World Trade Center towers in flames on 11 September 2001 and a quote suggesting that Omar, a Somali American congresswoman from Minnesota who wears a hijab, had minimized the seriousness of the terror attacks in a speech last month.
Continue reading...Security costs for the tech billionaire and his family more than doubled last year, as an outcry over Facebook’s practices grew
Facebook more than doubled the money it spent on top executive Mark Zuckerberg’s security in 2018 to $22.6m, a regulatory filing has showed.
Zuckerberg drew a base salary of $1 for the past three years, and his “other” compensation was listed at $22.6m, most of which was for his personal security.
Continue reading...Authorities investigating whether Ola Bini was working with WikiLeaks and Assange as part of attempt to ‘destabilise’ Ecuador
A judge in Ecuador has jailed a Swedish software developer whom authorities believe is a key member of WikiLeaks and close to Julian Assange, while prosecutors investigate charging him with hacking as part of an alleged plot to “destabilise” the country’s government.
Ola Bini, 36, was ordered to held in preventive detention on Saturday pending possible cyber-attack charges and his bank accounts were frozen. Prosecutors were examining dozens of hard drives and other material he had in his possession, according to local media reports.
Continue reading...Former prosecutor says it would be ‘uphill task’ even if rape inquiry is reopened
Swedish lawyers have said they doubt Julian Assange will ever stand trial in Sweden even if prosecutors decide to reopen an investigation into a rape accusation.
The WikiLeaks founder was arrested in London on Thursday after being dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he had stayed since 2012 in order to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations, which he has always denied.
Continue reading...Academics and fans say groundbreaking fantasy series has paved way for future shows
It brought us dragons, a red wedding, nudity and sudden death. The final season begins on Monday, but Game of Thrones and its memorable scenes will have a lasting impact on the broader TV landscape, according to industry experts and fans.
Related: Tyrion, Daenerys ... Hot Pie? The greatest Game of Thrones characters
Continue reading...WikiLeaks founder’s removal from London embassy brings seven-year diplomatic stalemate to an end
Julian Assange is facing extradition to the United States and up to five years in prison after he was forcibly dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday, bringing an extraordinary seven-year diplomatic stalemate to an end.
After 2,487 days in the embassy, the 47-year-old was arrested after Ecuador revoked his political asylum and invited Metropolitan police officers inside their Knightsbridge premises, where he has stayed since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations which Assange has always denied.
Continue reading...Minister lists reasons for Assange’s eviction from London embassy, including threats, skateboarding and health concerns
Ecuador’s decision to allow police to arrest Julian Assange inside its embassy on Thursday followed a fraught and acrimonious period in which relations between the government in Quito and the WikiLeaks founder became increasingly hostile.
In a presentation before Ecuador’s parliament on Thursday, the foreign minister, José Valencia, set out nine reasons why Assange’s asylum had been withdrawn. The list ranged from meddling in Ecuador’s relations with other countries to having to “put up with his rudeness” for nearly seven years.
Continue reading...Assange arrested following the withdrawal of asylum by the Ecuadorian government
Assange gave photographers a thumbs up as he was driven a way in a police van from the embassy.
A scuffle broke out outside the Ecuadorian embassy between embassy security and a reporter from Chile’s el Ciudadano who tried to challenge the ambassador as he was taken into a car.
Patricio Mary, the reporter, said he had wanted to ask ambassador, Jaime Martín, about promises he had made to respect Assange’s asylum.
Continue reading...Material that originated from Ecuadorian embassy was reportedly offered for sale
WikiLeaks has said it has uncovered a surveillance operation against Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy and that images, documents and videos gathered have been offered for sale.
Spanish police were said to have mounted a sting operation against unnamed individuals in Madrid who offered the material for sale in what lawyers and colleagues of Assange said on Wednesday was an attempt at extortion.
Continue reading...Algorithmic features have sent suggestions to wish happy birthday to those who’ve died
Facebook has promised to use artificial intelligence to stop suggesting users invite their dead friends to parties.
The site’s freshly emotionally intelligent AI is part of a rash of changes to how Facebook handles “memorialised” accounts – pages whose owner has been reported deceased, but that are kept on the social network in their memory.
Continue reading...Not responding to notification could cost companies 4% of their revenue under EU law
Internet companies will be fined up to 4% of their revenue if they fail to remove terrorist content within one hour of being notified by authorities, under legislation approved by MEPs.
The civil liberties committee approved the move by 35 to one, with abstentions, but removed an obligation on companies to monitor uploaded content or use automated tools.
Continue reading...Laleh Shahravesh was arrested in March and faces up to two years in jail, according to campaign group
A British woman is facing two years in jail in Dubai for allegedly using disparaging language about her ex-husband’s new wife on Facebook, campaigners have claimed.
Laleh Shahravesh, 55, of Richmond, south-west London, was arrested together with her teenage daughter at Dubai airport in March. She faces up to two years in jail and a fine of £50,000 for two Facebook posts she made while living in the UK in 2016, according to the Detained In Dubai campaign group.
Continue reading...John Edwards calls out social media giant after Christchurch attack for refusing to accept responsibility for harm
New Zealand’s privacy commissioner has lashed out at social media giant Facebook in the wake of the Christchurch attacks, calling the company “morally bankrupt pathological liars”.
The commissioner used his personal Twitter page to lambast the social network, which has also drawn the ire of prime minister Jacinda Ardern for hosting a livestream of the attacks that left 50 dead, which was then copied and shared all over the internet.
Continue reading...Colleagues pay tribute to ‘hilarious writer’ and ‘troubled soul’
The journalist Pete Cashmore, who wrote for the Guardian and Observer among a range of British newspapers and magazines, has died at the age of 45.
Cashmore, who also worked at the NME and men’s magazines Loaded and Nuts, was remembered as a talented and funny writer who possessed a quick wit, a sharp tongue and a troubled soul.
Continue reading...Fears that WikiLeaks founder will be extradited to the US if he leaves London embassy
Supporters of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gathered outside the Ecuadorian embassy in central London after the organisation said its sources in Ecuador had revealed he could be removed from the building “within hours to days”.
Ecuador’s foreign ministry released a statement saying it “doesn’t comment on rumours, theories or conjectures that don’t have any documented backing”, but a senior Ecuadorian official said no decision had been made.
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