Things You Might Not Know About Bubbly Bitcoin

Bitcoin blasted past $11,000 to hit a record high for the sixth day in a row on Wednesday after gaining more than $1,000 in just 12 hours, stoking concerns that a rapidly swelling bubble could be set to burst in spectacular

fashion.

Here are some facts that you might not know about the largest and best-known cryptocurrency.

HOW MANY ARE THERE?

Bitcoin’s supply is limited to 21 million — a number that is expected to be reached around the year 2140. So far, around 16.7 million bitcoins have been released into the system, with 12.5 new ones released roughly every 10 minutes via a process called “mining,” in which a global network of computers competes to solve complex algorithms in reward for the new bitcoins.

ENERGY DRAIN

These mining computers require a vast amount of energy to run. A recent estimate by tech news site Motherboard put the energy cost of a single bitcoin transaction at 215 kilowatt-hours, assuming that there are around 300,000 bitcoin transactions per day. That’s almost enough energy as the average American household consumes in a whole week.

BITS OF BITCOIN

Bitcoin’s smallest unit is a Satoshi, named after the elusive creator of the cryptocurrency, Satoshi Nakamoto. One Satoshi is one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin, making it worth around $0.0001 at current exchange rates.

BITCOIN BILLIONAIRES

Bitcoin has performed better than every central-bank-issued currency in every year since 2011 except for 2014, when it performed worse than any traditional currency. So far in 2017, it is up around 1000 percent. If you had bought $1,000 of bitcoin at the start of 2013 and had never sold any of it, you

would now be sitting on $80 million. Many people consider bitcoin to be more of a speculative instrument than a currency, because of its volatility, increasingly high transaction fees, and the fact that relatively few merchants accept it.

EXCHANGE HEISTS

More than 980,000 bitcoins have been stolen from exchanges, either by hackers or insiders. That’s a total of more than $10 billion at current exchange rates. Few have been recovered.

MYSTERY CREATOR

Despite many attempts to find the creator of bitcoin, and a number of claims, we still do not know who Satoshi Nakamoto is, or was. Australian computer scientist and entrepreneur Craig Wright convinced some prominent members of the bitcoin community that he was Nakamoto in May 2016, but he then refused to provide the evidence that most of the community said was necessary. It is not clear whether Satoshi Nakamoto, assumed to be a pseudonym, was a name used by a group of developers or by one individual. Nor is it clear that Nakamoto is still alive — the late computer scientist Hal Finney’s name is sometimes put forward. Developer Nick Szabo has denied claims that he is Nakamoto, as has tech entrepreneur Elon Musk more recently.

INFLATED CHINESE TRADING

Until earlier this year, it was thought that Chinese exchanges accounted for around 90 percent of trading volume. But it has become clear that some exchanges inflated their volumes through so-called wash trades, repeatedly trading nominal amounts of bitcoin back and forth between accounts. Since the Chinese authorities imposed transaction fees, Chinese trading volumes have fallen sharply, and now represent less than 20 percent, according to data from website Bitcoinity.

“MARKET CAP”

The total value of all bitcoins released into the system so far has now reached as high as $190 billion. That makes its total value — sometimes dubbed its “market cap” — greater than that of Disney, and bigger than the market cap of BlackRock and Goldman Sachs combined.

CRYPTO-RIVALS

Bitcoin is far from the only cryptocurrency. There are now well over 1,000 rivals, according to trade website Coinmarketcap. 

“SHORTING”

It is already possible to short bitcoin on a number of retail platforms and exchanges, via contracts for difference (CFDs), leveraged-up margin trading or by borrowing bitcoin from exchanges without leverage. But a number of big financial institutions — including CME Group, CBOE and Nasdaq — have

recently announced that they will offer bitcoin futures, which will open up the possibility of shorting the cryptocurrency to the mainstream professional investment universe.

Reporting by Jemima Kelly.

Facebook to Give Relief Groups Data on Users’ Needs

Facebook is giving disaster-relief organizations such as the Red Cross access to data on what users need and where they are as part of an expansion of tools available for relief and charitable giving.

While Facebook users can already see individual pleas and offers for help during a crisis, relief groups will get a broader set of data similar to what Facebook sees. That includes real-time maps showing where people need help.

Facebook is also expanding its fundraising tools beyond the U.S. and eliminating the fees it had been charging for people using its service to raise money for various causes.

The company announced the new features Wednesday during its Social Good Forum in New York, a gathering for nonprofits and others using the site.

 

India Unveils New Recommendations to Reinforce Strict Net Neutrality

India has strongly backed a free and open Internet, with its telecom regulator recommending stringent regulations on net neutrality – the concept of ensuring equal access to the web — saying it is important the Internet is not “cannibalized.”

 

India’s push for net neutrality comes at a time when the United States has unveiled plans to roll back regulations on it.

 “The core principles of net neutrality, non-discriminatory treatment of all content, we’ve upheld them,” R.S. Sharma, Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI, told reporters as he unveiled recommendations following a year-long debate.

These proposals seek to prohibit any service provider from blocking or offering preferential data speeds which essentially means that telecom providers cannot create “fast lanes” for higher paying customers or speed up or slow down websites and apps.

Equal access

Advocates of net neutrality, who have led an impassioned battle to ensure equal web access, welcomed the latest recommendations, saying that these would ensure that India is among countries with the strictest net neutrality rules in the world. Last year India put in place rules that prohibited telecoms from differential pricing.

India’s IT industry lobby, NASSCOM, in a statement, said the reaffirmation of net neutrality would be a “shot in the arm” for the country’s digital economy.

Nikhil Pahwa, one of the founders of Internet Freedom Foundation, which has campaigned for strict net neutrality, says open access to the Internet is critical for India.

“This is really, really essential. It is important for India because we are at the cusp of great Internet growth and innovation with lots of start-ups coming up and students and people developing things online,” he said.

India’s stand on net neutrality had last year effectively blocked efforts by Facebook to offer free but limited access to the web in the country’s fast growing Internet market.

The company said it wanted to expand access to the net in poor, rural areas but digital rights activists had slammed the plan as “poor Internet for poor people” and said it would create a “walled garden” in which Facebook would control the content it offered users. A Facebook spokesperson at the time said the company was disappointed by the outcome but would continue its efforts to “eliminate barriers.”

80 million users

Supporters of an open Internet point out that India’s experience demonstrates that net neutrality rules are not hampering access to the Internet in a country where many people are still not connected to the web.

“In the last year alone we have added about 80 million Internet users. There has been a substantial increase in Internet access in the country and it is increasing rapidly despite net neutrality. So this notion that net neutrality is adversarial to growth of Internet access or to sustainability of mobile operators is incorrect,” said Pahwa.

India’s position on ensuring an open Internet is in contrast to the U.S., where last week the U.S. Federal Communications Commission unveiled plans to repeal net neutrality rules, saying they discourage Internet service providers from making investments in their network to provide better and faster online access.

India’s strict net neutrality rules have disappointed private telecom providers, who had hoped for some leeway in the latest recommendations.

In an oblique reference to the U.S. position, a statement from the telecom industry’s main lobby group, the Cellular Operators Association of India, said that at a time when, globally, countries are adopting a more “market oriented, and market driven approach to net neutrality in order to not stifle development, innovation, proliferation and growth of the Internet, we believe TRAI should have adopted a light touch approach to net neutrality.”

Pope Speaks of Need for ‘Forgiveness’ in 1st Myanmar Mass

Pope Francis spoke of the need for “forgiveness” and avoiding “revenge” at a mass attended by tens of thousands of people in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, on Wednesday.

He skirted direct mention of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority for the second time in his four-day visit, after talking generally of religious tolerance at a meeting with diplomats Tuesday.

Some 150,000 Catholics from across the country gathered at Kyaikkasan sports ground for the service, some arriving the night before to ensure their places.

“Today I am very blessed — not only me but all of Myanmar,” said Sister Lucy, a 22-year-old nun from far-flung Chin state, who got to the area at 5 a.m.

“We never dreamed that we would see his Excellency, but today we can see him,” she said.

In his first public mass in the country, Francis spoke of the many people in Myanmar who “bear the wounds of violence, wounds both visible and invisible.

“We think that healing can come from anger or revenge. Yet the way of revenge is not the way of Jesus,” he said.

The pope, an outspoken advocate for refugees, has defied the expectations of many in the West, who anticipated he would make public remarks on the Rohingya crisis.

More than 620,000 Rohingya, members of a long-persecuted Muslim minority, have fled to Bangladesh since August following a massive army crackdown.

Myanmar dismisses their stories of mass rape and killings as exaggerated, and the army has cleared itself of any abuses.

Previously, Francis has been an advocate for the minority, referring to them on occasion as “our Rohingya brothers and sisters.”

But papal advisers have counseled him not to speak about the issue while in Myanmar, for fear of a backlash against the some 650,000 Catholics in the country.

“This is the first time the pope is coming,” said Robert Nathan, one of about 70 Catholics born in Myanmar who traveled back for the celebrations.

He said Francis was right not to raise the plight of the Rohingya. “The government needs to sort out that problem,” he said.

But human rights advocates have urged him to speak out on behalf of the Rohingya, who are widely reviled as illegal immigrants within Myanmar.

“If the pope doesn’t use the word Rohingya, racist nationalists will see it as a victory, if he does, they will be upset and may protest. Which is better?” Mark Farmaner, head of Burma Campaign UK, said on Twitter.

Many in the audience in Yangon were happy he chose not to reference the crisis. He has said his primary purpose for the visit was to support the Christian population. The country recently established diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

Sister Lucy, the nun from Chin state, said she was happy Francis endorsed the charity work of Catholics in the country in his speech on Wednesday.

“He’s encouraging and appreciating. It helps us to keep up our work,” she said.

WATCH: Pope Francis in Myanmar

European, African Leaders Meeting on Economic Cooperation and Security

European and African leaders are gathering Wednesday in Ivory Coast for a summit focused on issues that affect both continents, including economic cooperation, job creation, migration, and peace and security.

The two-day European Union-African Union summit in Abidjan is bringing together heads of state from 55 AU member states and 28 in Europe.

“We strive to enhance societal and political resilience on the continent for the benefit of current and future generations,” AU Commission Deputy Chairperson Kwesi Quartey said at a ministerial meeting ahead of the summit.

Governments on both continents have in the past few years faced the challenge of migrant flows through North Africa and across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, with debates over resettlement and how to improve safety along the route that leaves thousands of people dead each year.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Tuesday that the summit is not itself a meeting on migration, but that the issue has to be addressed.

“We cannot close our eyes on the common responsibility we have to protect lives, save lives, open also regular channels for migration and mobility, offering economic alternatives to our young people in Africa, but first and foremost to dismantle the criminal networks that are making money out of sometimes slavery,” she said.

The EU said the summit will address a commitment to preparing young people for job opportunities by investing in education, science and skills development. There will also be a focus on promoting trade within Africa, as well as peacebuilding and preventing conflict

“I think that today the security challenges we are facing, starting from radicalism and terrorism to trafficking and criminal organizations, are binding us together and there are only common solutions if you want to have effective solutions,” Mogherini said.

Mexico Ruling Party Hopeful Attacks Rival’s ‘Hunger for Power’

A newly unveiled presidential contender for Mexico’s ruling party attacked his main leftist rival on Tuesday, accusing him of being obsessed by power, afraid of debate and unable to tackle corruption when he held public office.

Jose Antonio Meade, who resigned as finance minister on Monday to run for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), sought to discredit former Mexico City mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the early front-runner in the July 2018 election.

“I’m not afraid of Andres Manuel, I’m sure I’m going to beat him … because there’s a fundamental difference,” Meade told Mexican radio. “What he’s about is hunger for power, and with me it’s about wanting to serve and construct.”

Graft scandals have battered the PRI’s credibility under President Enrique Pena Nieto, and senior officials regard Meade as a strong candidate because he has avoided the taint of corruption in office – and does not belong to the party.

The PRI does not begin registering candidates until Dec. 3 and will not elect its contender until Feb. 18. However, all the indications are that Meade will run to replace Pena Nieto, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.

Lopez Obrador, runner-up in the past two elections, has spent years railing against graft, which promises to be a key campaign issue. Right after Meade signaled his intention to run, Lopez Obrador branded the PRI as corrupt and predictable.

Meade offered little detail of how he planned to root out corruption beyond pledging to strengthen institutions, echoing the rhetoric of Pena Nieto, whose approval ratings plumbed multi-year lows, partly due to failure to tackle the issue.

Instead Meade, 48, accused Lopez Obrador of seeking to avoid debate, and argued that his rival failed to root out corruption when he had the chance, as mayor of the capital.

“Whoever thinks that the answers to Mexico’s problems are about one person … (or) are about being messianic … is simplifying the complexity of building institutions that give us a nation of laws,” he said in another radio interview.

Meade, who has held most of the top cabinet jobs across two rival administrations, was at pains to stress his honesty, and said he had no skeletons in his closet.

“That’s why I feel very proud to look my children in the eyes, with them knowing that their dad has worked for Mexico with integrity and honor,” he said.

Tillerson Condemns Russia’s Aggression, Affirms US Commitment to Europe

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has condemned what he called Russia’s continued behavior toward its neighbors, especially Russia’s interfering in election processes and promoting non-democratic ideals. An analysts tells VOA’s Zlatica Hoke that the U.S. president’s support is crucial for the success of Tillerson’s mission.

Syrian Government Expected to Join Geneva Peace Talks

Syrian government negotiators are expected Wednesday in Geneva to join U.N.-led peace talks aimed at ending nearly seven years of fighting.

The talks began Tuesday with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura meeting with the opposition delegation. He said afterward the two sides would have a chance for direct negotiations in Geneva.

“We are going to offer it. We will see if this takes place. But we will be offering that,” he said.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said the delayed arrival for the government delegation was due to the opposition’s demand that President Bashar al-Assad step down as part of any political transition.

That issue has lingered as a sticking point in years of U.N. attempts to get the government and rebels to agree on a roadmap for Syria’s future.

De Mistura said ahead of the talks he believes it is possible for the two sides to narrow their differences as they negotiate under a framework approved by the U.N. Security Council that calls for a new constitution and elections. But he reiterated his mediation team will not accept either side entering the talks with preconditions.

“This crisis, one of the worst in the history of the United Nations, now has the potential to move towards a genuine political process,” the envoy said. “We see the emergence of international consensus, and we must begin to stitch the process into concrete results, enabling Syrians to determine their own future freely.”

University of New South Wales senior lecturer Anthony Billingsley says with the gains the Syrian military has made with the backing of Russia and Iran, rebel hopes of toppling Assad are not realistic at this point.

“Everybody apart from some of the opposition groups, and perhaps the U.S., has accepted that Assad need not necessarily go. So there’s a fundamental problem there if the Geneva talks are going to make any progress,” Billingsley told VOA.

The Syrian government, meanwhile, agreed Tuesday to a cease-fire in rebel-held rebel-controlled Eastern Ghouta, according to de Mistura.

Eastern Ghouta, located east of Damascus, is among the last remaining opposition strongholds in Syria and one of four “de-escalation zones” that were established to reduce violence.

The fighting in Syria began in 2011 with peaceful protests against Assad and a government crackdown, eventually leading to a multi-party conflict that has left more than 400,000 people dead and 13 million in need of humanitarian aid.

Pope Preaches Forgiveness in First Public Mass in Myanmar

Pope Francis urged Myanmar’s long-suffering people to resist the temptation to exact revenge for the hurt they have endured, preaching a message of forgiveness Wednesday to a huge crowd in his first public Mass in the predominantly Buddhist nation.

Local authorities estimated some 150,000 people turned out at Yangon’s Kyaikkasan Ground park for the Mass, but the crowd seemed far larger. Catholics had to apply to attend through their local churches to enter the park venue, and many dressed in matching outfits or with hats bearing the pope’s image.

Francis has said his aim in coming to Myanmar is to minister to its Catholic community, which numbers around 660,000 people, or just over 1 percent of the population of about 52 million.

​His trip has been overshadowed, though, by Myanmar’s military operations targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state. The crackdown, which has been described by the U.N. as a campaign of “textbook ethnic cleansing,” has drawn international condemnation.

In his first public comments on Tuesday, Francis told Suu Kyi and other government authorities that Myanmar’s future lay in respecting the rights of all its people – “none excluded” – but he refrained from mentioning the Rohingya by name. The violence, including the looting and burning of Rohingya villages, has resulted in more than 620,000 people fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh in Asia’s worst refugee crisis in decades.

In his homily Wednesday, Francis referred to the suffering that Myanmar’s ethnic and religious groups have endured, a reference to the decades of conflicts between Myanmar’s ethnic minorities and the military that continue today in parts of the country. Myanmar recently emerged from nearly half a century of military dictatorship, but minorities including the Kachins are still subject to discrimination and other forms of violence.

“I know that many in Myanmar bear the wounds of violence, wounds both visible and invisible,” Francis told the crowd in Italian that was translated into Burmese. Although he said the temptation is to respond with revenge, he urged a response of “forgiveness and compassion.”

“The way of revenge is not the way of Jesus,” he said, speaking from an altar erected on a traditional Buddhist-style stage.

Before Mass, Francis looped around the park in his open-sided popemobile, waving to the flag-waving crowds that continued to pour in as the service began. Local government officials and senior members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party were on hand, as were members of Myanmar’s mostly Christian Kachin minority, many of whom traveled two days by train from Kachin state to see the first pope ever to visit Myanmar.

Despite the high humidity, the scene at the park was joyous.

“I can’t express how happy I am,” said Henery Thaw Zin, a 57-year-old ethnic Karen from Hinthada, a four-hour drive from Yangon. “I can’t imagine, or can’t expect to get a chance like this again, not just in this life, but in my next life as well.”

The country’s first-ever cardinal, Charles Bo, told Francis that his visit had changed Catholics in Myanmar forever.

“A miracle has been enacted today,” Bo said at the end of Mass.”Thank you. And this little flock prays for you.”

Later Wednesday, Francis is to meet with Myanmar’s Buddhist leadership and then speak to the country’s Catholic bishops. He celebrates a Mass for young people Thursday and then heads to Bangladesh for the second leg of his weeklong South Asia tour.

Honduran Presidential Candidate to Review US Troops Presence

The Honduran presidential candidate leading after a partial count of votes said he would review whether to keep a base stationed with U.S. troops if he  wins the election, but also promised to deepen security cooperation.

Honduras has been slow to release the results of Sunday’s election. Although U.S.-friendly President Juan Orlando Hernandez had been tipped to win, partial results show an upset, with gregarious television star Salvador Nasralla leading.

One of the poorest nations in the Americas with one of the world’s highest murder rates, Honduras has been blighted with years of gang violence. Nasralla has tapped into widespread disillusionment about the country’s future, particularly among exasperated young voters.

But his win is not yet certain. As results started flowing on Tuesday evening, Nasralla’s original five-point lead had narrowed to under 3 percent, with about two-thirds of ballot boxes counted.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, the 64-year-old Nasralla said, if he did triumph, he would talk to the United States about 500 U.S. troops stationed at the Soto Cano air base, also known as Palmerola, two hours’ drive from the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

“I need to see what benefit there is for Honduras from having a base like Palmerola,” Nasralla said.

The U.S. presence at the base was established in the 1980s to help the United States in its fight against left-wing insurgencies in Central America.

In 2008, former President Manuel Zelaya said he would turn the base into a civilian airport to serve the coffee-exporting country of 9 million people.

A year later, Zelaya was ousted in a coup that his ally, former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said was orchestrated from the base. U.S. officials denied any involvement in the coup.

Nasralla, a self-described centrist, said he would deepen security ties with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, and that Honduras would remain the United States’ best ally in Central America.

“When the United States passes me its list of people it wants to extradite … I’m not even going to look at it. I’m simply going to sign it and give the order,” he said. “I’m willing to extradite ex-presidents, lawmakers, ministers.”

Honduras is riddled with corruption that breeds on rampant impunity, drug trafficking and gang violence.

U.S. officials were aware of his economic and social policy positions, he added.

“I’m certain that I won’t have any problems with the United States,” he said.

The United States has longstanding military ties to Honduras and few ideological allies among the current crop of Central American presidents. In Mexico, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador leads opinion polls for next year’s presidential election.

Zelaya Returns?

Nasralla said that Zelaya would be an influential person in his government and that the former president’s wife, Xiomara Castro, would serve as his vice president.

Zelaya, widely viewed as a traditional Latin American leftist due to his previous friendship with Chavez, commands considerable concern in Washington. Many observers believe him to be the true power behind Nasralla’s coalition.

Nasralla said concerns were unfounded, and that he would not pursue a close relationship with Venezuela.

But he also hinted that Zelaya could return to the presidency in the future.

He said he did not want to change new rules allowing presidential re-election, apparently contradicting his previous opposition. His alliance was formed specifically to block Hernandez’s bid for a second term.

Nasralla said that he would not run for a second term, but that Zelaya could choose to run in 2022 and benefit from the lack of term limits.

Ironically, Zelaya was ousted in 2009 after he proposed a referendum on those re-election rules.

Earlier on Tuesday, Hernandez told supporters he still expected to win the election, but urged people to wait for the official results to come through.

Given the nearly two-day lag in releasing results, a Hernandez victory would be certain to enrage the opposition, and could spark tensions.

“They’re doing everything they can to take away our triumph,” Nasralla wrote on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, as the lead started narrowing.

Venezuela’s Maduro Swears In Military ‘Man of the People’ to Lead PDVSA

Venezuelan leftist President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday evening held a ceremony to swear in a military officer as the new head of state oil company PDVSA in the presence of the military’s top brass and cheering red-shirted oil workers.

In a surprise move, the unpopular Maduro on Sunday tapped Major General Manuel Quevedo to lead both PDVSA and the Oil Ministry, giving the already powerful military control of the OPEC nation’s dominant industry.

“He’s a man of the people … and, most importantly, he’s honest!” said Maduro, as workers cheered and chanted that they wanted a “clean up in PDVSA!” after a series of corruption scandals.

Maduro also announced he was naming Ysmel Serrano, the head of the trade and supply division, as vice president of PDVSA, which oversees the world’s largest crude reserves. Maduro said he would seek to name the country’s former energy minister, Ali Rodriguez, as “honorary president” of PDVSA.

More military officers are set to be named to senior management posts as part of a shakeup the government says is aimed at fighting corruption, two company sources told Reuters on Monday.

Sources in the sector also said Quevedo’s appointment could quicken a white-collar exodus from PDVSA and worsen operational problems at a time when production has already tumbled to near 30-year lows of under 2 million barrels per day.

 

Facebook Reports Progress in Removing Extremist Content

Facebook said on Wednesday that it was removing 99 percent of content related to militant groups Islamic State and al-Qaida before being told of it, as it prepared for a meeting with European authorities on tackling extremist content online.

Eighty-three percent of “terror content” is removed within one hour of being uploaded, Monika Bickert, head of global policy management, and Brian Fishman, head of counterterrorism policy at Facebook, wrote in a blog post.

The world’s largest social media network, with 2.1 billion users, has faced pressure both in the United States and Europe to tackle extremist content on its platform more effectively.

In June, Facebook said it had ramped up use of artificial intelligence, such as image matching and language understanding, to identify and remove content quickly.

“It is still early, but the results are promising, and we are hopeful that AI (artificial intelligence) will become a more important tool in the arsenal of protection and safety on the internet and on Facebook,” Bickert and Fishman wrote.

“Today, 99 percent of the ISIS and al Qaeda-related terror content we remove from Facebook is content we detect before anyone in our community has flagged it to us, and in some cases, before it goes live on the site.”

ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State.

The blog post comes a week before Facebook and other social media companies such as Alphabet’s Google and Twitter meet with European Union governments and the EU executive to discuss how to remove extremist content and hate speech online.

“Deploying AI for counterterrorism is not as simple as flipping a switch. … A system designed to find content from one terrorist group may not work for another because of language and stylistic differences in their propaganda,” Facebook said.

The European Commission in September told social media firms to find ways to remove the content faster, including through automatic detection technologies, or face possible legislation forcing them to do so.

FCC’s Pai, Addressing Net Neutrality Rules, Calls Twitter Biased

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, accused social media company Twitter of being politically biased  Tuesday as he defended his plan to roll back rules intended to ensure a free and open internet.

Pai, a Republican named by President Donald Trump to head up the FCC, unveiled plans last week to scrap the 2015 landmark net neutrality rules, moving to give broadband service providers sweeping power over what content consumers can access.

“When it comes to an open internet, Twitter is part of the problem,” Pai said. “The company has a viewpoint and uses that viewpoint to discriminate.”

He pointed to Twitter’s refusal to let Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, advertise a campaign video with an anti-abortion message.

“To say the least, the company appears to have a double standard when it comes to suspending or de-verifying conservative users’ accounts as opposed to those of liberal users,” Pai said.

A spokesperson for Twitter said that at no time was Blackburn’s video censored and that her followers would have been able to still see it.

“Because advertisements are served to users who do not necessarily follow an account, we therefore have higher standards for their content,” the Twitter spokesperson said.

Twitter in October declined a campaign video advertisement by Blackburn, who announced she was running for the U.S. Senate, saying that a remark by Blackburn about opposing abortion was inflammatory. Twitter later reversed its decision.

Internet-based firms’ letter

Pai’s criticism came a day after Twitter and a number of other internet-based companies — including AirBnb, Reddit, Shutterstock, Tumblr and Etsy — sent a letter urging the FCC to maintain the net neutrality rules.

Trump is a prolific user of Twitter, often posting his thoughts on the news of the day. He used Twitter throughout his presidential campaign to circumvent traditional media and talk directly to voters.

Pai has also been a frequent user of the website — acknowledging during the speech, “I love Twitter” — to push his case in favor of the rule changes. On Tuesday afternoon, he even posted a link to his remarks critical of Twitter on his own Twitter account.

Following Pai’s remarks on Tuesday, at an event organized by the libertarian-leaning R Street Institute, two other FCC commissioners said they would support his proposal when they vote on December 14.

Big internet service providers such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon Communications have favored a repeal of net neutrality. On the other side, websites such as Facebook and Alphabet’s Google have favored the rules.

The rules prohibit broadband providers from giving or selling access to speedy internet, essentially a “fast lane,” to certain internet services over others.

“So when you get past the wild accusations, fearmongering and hysteria, here’s the boring bottom line,” Pai said. “The plan to restore internet freedom would return us to the light touch, market-based approach under which the internet thrived.”

Honduran Election Still Unresolved, After TV Star Poised to Win

The result of Honduras’ presidential election was in limbo on Tuesday, with diplomatic sources saying closed-door negotiations were holding up the announcement of a winner despite clear signs that a gregarious TV host was on course for a surprise victory.

Among the poorest nations in the Americas, Honduras has been blighted by years of gang violence, giving it one of the world’s highest murder rates.

Incumbent Juan Orlando Hernandez, who won praise in the U.S. government for helping tackle the flow of migrants and deporting more drug cartel leaders, had been expected to win before the vote.

But a delayed, partial count on Monday morning pointed toward a victory for TV entertainer Salvador Nasralla, 64.

Inexplicably, election authorities have not given any more results since.

Official results may not come until Friday or Saturday, one diplomat said, a lag that risks stoking tension in a violent country that suffered a coup in 2009.

Nasralla, a self-described centrist, headed a left-right coalition called the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, and claimed victory on Monday – as did Hernandez.

Election official Marcos Ramiro Lobo told Reuters on Monday afternoon that Nasralla was leading by a margin of five points, with about 70 percent of ballots counted.

The only results officially released so far came out early on Monday morning and showed a similar lead for Nasralla with 57 percent of ballots counted.

Lobo said Nasralla appeared certain to win, signaling that experts at the electoral body regarded his lead as irreversible.

Difficult Negotiations

Even so, Honduran officials still seemed far from declaring an official winner. On Tuesday, Hernandez reiterated that he had won, and refused to concede, telling supporters they should wait for final results.

“Nobody can call it an irreversible trend,” he said, “Not even 60 percent of the ballots are counted.”

The election tribunal’s delay in publishing results was due to difficult negotiations between Hernandez’s National Party, which had assumed it would win, and Nasralla’s outsider alliance, according to two European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Behind closed doors, the parties are discussing immunity from prosecution for current officials and how to carve up positions in government, the diplomats said.

Hernandez’s National Party appears set to retain control of Congress in the election, giving it the second-most important perch in the country.

The European Union’s chief observer for the election, Marisa Matias, urged officials to maintain an open channel of communication as they finalized the results.

“After two days without announcing new results, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal must establish a more fluid communication, making public balances of partial results,” she said.

The electoral body was so certain that Hernandez would win that it showed unprecedented transparency during the contest, one of the diplomats said. That left the body with little room to maneuver when Nasralla came from nowhere to take a strong lead.

Nasralla’s lead appears too large for Hernandez to overcome, Lobo told Reuters on Monday. He did not say what percentage of the vote Nasralla secured. The initial tally encompassing more than half of ballots early on Monday gave Nasralla 45 percent and Hernandez 40 percent.

With a booming voice and finely coiffed hair, Nasralla is one of the country’s best known faces as the host of game shows that feature scantily-clad women by his side.

He is backed by former President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a 2009 coup after he proposed a referendum on his re-election. The possible return to a position of influence for one-time leftist Zelaya risks fuelling concern in Washington.

The United States has longstanding military ties to Honduras and few ideological allies among the current crop of Central American presidents. In Mexico, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador leads opinion polls for next year’s presidential election.

Hernandez, 49, was credited with lowering the murder rate and boosting the economy, but he was also hurt by accusations of ties to illicit, drug-related financing that he denies.

His bid for a second term, which was made possible by a 2015 Supreme Court decision on term limits, divided opinion in the coffee-exporting nation of 9 million people.

Bolivian Court Clears Way for Morales to Run for Fourth Term

Bolivia’s highest court struck down limits on re-election in the country’s constitution and election laws on Tuesday, paving the way for socialist President Evo Morales to run for a fourth term in 2019.

In September, Morales’ Movement to Socialism (MAS) party asked the South American country’s highest court to rescind legal limits barring elected authorities from seeking re-election indefinitely, arguing that these violate human rights.

“All people that were limited by the law and the constitution are hereby able to run for office, because it is up to the Bolivian people to decide,” Macario Lahor Cortez, head of the Plurinational Constitutional Court, wrote in the ruling.

In the decision, the court cited the American Convention on Human Rights, a multilateral treaty signed by many countries in the Americas.

The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.

Morales, who took power in 2006, had previously accepted the results of a 2016 referendum, when 51 percent of Bolivian voters rejected his proposal to reform the constitution to end existing term limits.

He later reversed course and said that while he would happily give up office, his supporters were pushing for him to stay.

The landlocked Andean country has enjoyed relative prosperity and calm under Morales, the country’s first indigenous president.

But his efforts to extend term limits have set off protests across the country, with opponents arguing Morales was trying to tighten his grip on power in the vein of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a leftist ally.

Opposition leader Samuel Doria Medina said on Twitter that the court decision was “a blow to the constitution.”

Turkish Iranian Gold Trader Pleads Guilty, Cooperates with Prosecutors

Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab has pleaded guilty to unspecified charges in connection with an Iran sanctions busting scheme and is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, officials said on Tuesday.

“I can confirm that the defendant has pleaded guilty,” said Nick Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Zarrab was arrested last year and charged with conducting hundreds of millions of dollars of business transactions on behalf of the Iranian government and other Iranian entities between 2010 and 2015.

Eights others, including a former Turkish economy minister, Mehmet Zafer Caglayan, and a former deputy general manager of Halkbank, one of Turkey’s largest banks, Mehmet Atilla, have been indicted in the case.

All but Atilla remain at large. Atilla’s trial started on Monday with jury selection.

Zarrab has agreed to testify at Atilla’s trial as part of his guilty plea. Biase said Zarrab’s testimony could come as early as Tuesday.

Zarrab was released from a federal detention facility to an undisclosed location on November 8, sparking speculation he was cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for leniency.

The case has become a flashpoint in increasingly strained relations between the U.S. and Turkey. Turkish officials have called the case politically motivated and demanded Zarrab’s release.

Zarrab is alleged to have close ties to the governments of Turkey and Iran.

Sentencing has not been scheduled.

Prince Harry, Markle to Wed in May at Windsor Castle

Britain’s Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle will be married at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in May next year, Kensington palace said Tuesday.

“Her Majesty The Queen has granted permission for the wedding to take place in the chapel. The Royal Family will pay for the wedding,” the palace said in a statement, adding that further details about the wedding would be released “in due course”.

The couple officially announced their engagement a day earlier, posing for photographs on the grounds of Kensington Palace hours after the announcement. The two were engaged in London earlier this month, according to a statement.

Markle is best-known for her work in the television drama “Suits”.

The prince and the actress made their first public appearance in September in Toronto at the Invictus Games, a sports event for wounded veterans.

WATCH: How London reacted to news of royal engagement

UK Hails New Royal Couple as Country Awaits Wedding Details

The engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dominated newspaper front pages and morning news shows in Britain on Tuesday, as royal-watchers awaited details of the couple’s spring wedding and royal relatives offered congratulations.

The grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and the American actress have announced they will marry in 2018. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says they have chosen a church wedding, and the palace is expected to reveal details of the venue later Tuesday.

Markle’s future sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge, who is married to Prince William, said she was “absolutely thrilled.”

 

“It’s such exciting news,” Kate said as she visited a museum in London. “It’s a really happy time for any couple and we wish them all the best and hope they enjoy this happy moment.”

Prince Charles’ wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, said she was “delighted” her stepson was marrying the U.S. actress.

 

“America’s loss is our gain,” she said.

 

Markle’s divorced status would once have barred her from marrying the prince in church. Harry’s father Prince Charles, who is heir to the British throne, married Camilla in a low-key civil ceremony in 2005 because both bride and groom were divorced.

 

Newspapers hailed news of the engagement as a breath of fresh air and symbol of a modernizing monarchy.

 

The Daily Telegraph said in an editorial: “A divorced, mixed-race Hollywood actress who attended a Roman Catholic school is to marry the son of the next king. Such a sentence could simply not have been written a generation ago.”

 

The Daily Mail, which devoted its first 17 pages to the engagement, said the couple would give the royal family “the injection of vigor and exuberance it so desperately needs.”

 

In the couple’s first joint interview Monday, 33-year-old Harry said Markle immediately fitted in with his family. He said when she visited Buckingham Palace to meet the queen, “the corgis took to her straight away.”

WATCH: How Harry met Meghan

The ex-soldier prince and the 36-year-old star of TV show “Suits” revealed that Harry proposed over a roast chicken dinner at his London home, after months in which they tried to keep their long-distance relationship out of the public eye.

 

Clearly happy in each other’s company, the beaming couple recounted how they met on a blind date set up by a mutual friend, and immediately clicked.

 

“The fact that I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly was sort of confirmation to me that everything, all the stars were aligned, everything was just perfect,” Harry said.

 

“It was this beautiful woman just sort of literally tripped and fell into my life. I fell into her life.”

 

 

World Economy Growing Faster Than in Years, But Not for Long

The world economy is growing faster than it has in seven years and more and more people are working — but the high growth isn’t expected to last long, and wages remain stubbornly stagnant.

 

That’s according to forecasts Tuesday from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which urged governments to do more to ensure longer-term growth and better living standards across the board.

 

The group, which recommends policies for leading economies, predicts sustained growth in the U.S. this year and next and a sharper-than-expected increase in the countries that use the euro currency.

 

For 2019, however, the OECD forecasts “a tempering of growth rather than continued strengthening.”

 

Chief Economist Catherine Mann urged faster re-training of workers amid drastic technological changes, extending retirement ages, investing in renewable energy and simplified tax rules to reduce risks of a new downturn.

 

“We’ve got wind under the wings but we’re flying low,” she said at the OECD headquarters in Paris.

 

The agency slightly raised its global growth forecast to 3.6 percent this year — the highest since the post-crisis upturn in 2010 — thanks to rising industrial production, trade and technology spending.

 

But that “remains modest by past standards,” the OECD said.

 

Globally, it forecasts 3.7 percent growth next year with a slight drop to 3.6 percent in 2019.

 

In the United States, the OECD inched up its outlook, predicting 2.2 percent growth this year and 2.5 percent in 2018 thanks to “buoyant asset prices and strong business and consumer confidence.” It expects U.S. growth to fall back to 2.1 percent in 2019.

 

The OECD cautioned that its forecasts are clouded by uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tax policies and risks of protectionist trade moves. Trump campaigned to protect manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and renegotiate international trade deals he sees as unfair.

 

The long-troubled eurozone enjoyed another boost as the OECD became the latest group to raise its forecasts for the 19-country region. Tuesday’s report foresees 2.4 percent growth this year and 2.1 percent for next year, but predicted growth will sink back below 2 percent in 2019.

 

The main trouble spot is Britain, whose economy will continue to be hobbled by uncertainty surrounding its exit from the European Union. Economic growth “will continue to weaken” and be just above 1 percent in 2018 and 2019, it said.

 

Another big concern of the OECD: employment is rising across most rich economies, but people’s wages aren’t.

 

“It’s against intuition, it’s against basic principles of economics, and normally it should have been otherwise,” OECD chief Angel Gurria said. “Clearly growth has to be made more inclusive.”

 

“The ongoing digital revolution should be unlocking efficiencies and allowing workers to produce more,” he said. But “nobody will be able to produce more if they don’t have the skills to get the most out of the machine.”

 

The report also warned of the risks of high corporate debt in China and spiking housing prices in some U.S. cities and rising household debt.

 

 

Security, Youth High on Macron’s Agenda in Burkina Faso

French President Emmanuel Macron met with university students in Burkina Faso Tuesday, as he kicked off a three-day trip to West Africa.

He is the first French president in three decades to visit Burkina Faso.

President Emmanuel Macron spent three hours on Tuesday at the University of Ouagadougou, discussing migration, climate change and terrorism with a room full of students.

In his remarks, the French president said he would pursue equal partnership with African nations, breaking with the more paternalistic relationship of old, a relationship between France and its former colonies known as the “francafrique.”

Many in Ouagadougou welcome the change.

Patigadawende Kaboré, a government worker enjoying his lunch in a canteen near Ouagadougou’s city hall, said times have changed. He says he would like to tell Macron that the generation you are dealing with today is different from the ones that went before.

Security was a key concern during Macron’s visit. Police and army patrolled around all the main arteries, including the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, scene of two major terrorist attacks in the past.

In his university address, President Macron was full of praise for the regional French anti-terrorist force Barkhane. The force has been criticized by Burkinabe civil society groups, who call it an example of neo-colonialism.

“The best policy is of course when a country runs its own security, said “Burkina Faso government spokesman Rémi Fulgano Dandjénou. “But the fact remains that the problems that are happening in the Sahel region concerns not only the countries in that region. This means that not only the Sahel countries but also France, the EU, the United Nations play their part.”

France has been busy drumming up international support for the newly created G5 force, which it hopes can take over the war on terror in the Sahel. The G5 is comprised of troops from five African nations, including Burkina Faso.

Back at the university, Macron engaged in a lively debate with students following his speech.

The students, inevitably, brought up names from the past: Thomas Sankara, the slain revolutionary leader and a national hero, and Norbert Zongo, the journalist allegedly killed on the order of Francois Compaore, the younger brother of ex-president Blaise.

Macron said all remaining documents on the murder of Thomas Sankara in the 1987 coup that brought Blaise Compaore to power would be declassified. However, he said he could not guarantee the extradition of Francois Compaore, who is currently in France but was recently charged in Burkina Faso for his alleged role in Zongo’s murder.

Macron will head to Ivory Coast on Wednesday for a European Union-African Union summit expected to address migration. The French president will then wrap up his trip to the region Thursday in Ghana.