Friday, March 30, 2018
China uses economic muscle to bring N Korea to negotiating table - Financial Times
China uses economic muscle to bring N Korea to negotiating table
Data reveal how Beijing has drastically cuts exports of key materials to Pyongyang
Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju with China's Xi Jinping during the North Korean leader's visit to Beijing this week © AP
James Kynge in London - 30/3/2018
China virtually halted exports of petroleum products, coal and other key materials to North Korea in the months leading to this week’s unprecedented summit between Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
The export freeze — revealed in official Chinese data and going much further than the limits stipulated under UN sanctions — show the extent of Chinese pressure following the ramping up of Pyongyang’s nuclear testing programme. It also suggests that behind Mr Xi’s talk this week of a “profound revolutionary friendship” between the two nations, his government has been playing hard ball with its neighbour.
“China has effectively turned off the petroleum taps flowing into North Korea,” said Alex Wolf, economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments and a former US diplomat in China. “From the data available . . . it appears that the North Korean economy is under a great deal of pressure and this has undoubtedly contributed to North Korea’s change in policy.
“It is Chinese ‘maximum pressure’ that may be bringing a change in North Korean policy.”
Since its September test of a nuclear weapon, North Korea has launched a highly unusual series of diplomatic forays. Mr Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jung, was dispatched to the Winter Olympics held in South Korea in February. Mr Kim then shocked many by inviting Donald Trump to an summit — an offer that the US president accepted. Following the visit to Beijing this week, North and South Korea announced a historic summit scheduled for later this month.
China wants to play a central role in resolving this crisis, but it wants to do it on its own terms
Alex Wolf, Aberdeen Standard Investments
Debate has swirled over the motivations behind North Korea’s shift in strategy. Some analysts believe that Pyongyang has achieved its nuclear and ballistic missile goals and now wants to negotiate recognition as a nuclear power. Others say that it is seeking detente with South Korea to weaken the US alliance structure. In the US, some attribute Mr Kim’s new approach to pressure from Mr Trump’s White House.
But evidence of a partial Chinese export freeze adds a further perspective. Official Chinese statistics show that the monthly average of refined petroleum exports to North Korea in January and February was 175.2 tons, just 1.3 per cent of the monthly average of 13,552.6 tons shipped in the first half of 2017.
The level of reduction went far beyond the 89 per cent cut in petroleum product exports stipulated by the UN sanctions.
Chinese coal exports to North Korea were also cut to zero in the three months to the end of February, after running at a monthly average of 8,627 tons in the first half of 2017. Exports of steel ran at a monthly average of 257 tons in the first two months of this year, down from a monthly average of 15,110 tons in the first half of 2017.
Shipments of motor vehicles also dried up, with just one unit being exported in the month of February, official Chinese statistics show. Concerns over the accuracy of China’s statistics are common, but analysts said that such consistent and bold drops in export volumes are unlikely to have been the result of official massaging.
The Big Read
North Korea: Why Kim Jong Un came in from the cold
It is more likely, analysts said, that Beijing is seeking to remind Pyongyang of the economic leverage it wields over North Korea as Mr Kim prepares his diplomatic forays. A senior Chinese official, speaking anonymously before Mr Kim’s diplomatic flurry, said that Beijing wanted to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table.
It is important that the US and other countries realise that Pyongyang’s objective is not aggression but to win security guarantees for North Korea, the Chinese official said, adding that North Korea had in the past shown a willingness to negotiate but US inflexibility had precluded progress.
The evidence of China’s strong sanctioning of North Korea stands in contrast to Beijing’s longstanding policy of resisting US pressure for stiffer restrictions on economic engagement with North Korea. In one example, Mr Xi told former US president Barack Obama in 2016 that North Korea had little to lose from sanctions, such was the poverty already in the country.
Mr Wolf said: “China wants to play a central role in resolving this crisis, but it wants to do it on its own terms.”
Bill Gates: We will have another financial crisis like the one in 2008—it's a 'certainty' - CNBC News
Bill Gates: We will have another financial crisis like the one in 2008—it's a 'certainty'
Kathleen Elkins | @kathleen_elk 8:00 AM ET Wed, 7 March 2018
Bill Gates
The 2008 financial crisis led to the Great Recession and millions of jobs lost. It took years for America to recover and many citizens still feel the ripple effects. According to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, though, we should be braced for another one.
During a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" last week, when Gates was asked if, in the near future, the U.S. will have another crisis similar to the one in 2008, he offered a blunt response: "Yes. It is hard to say when but this is a certainty."
He added, "Fortunately, we got through that one reasonably well. Warren has talked about this and he understands this area far better than I do."
Despite the warning, both Gates and his longtime friend Warren Buffett are generally optimistic about the U.S. economy. In an essay for Time magazine, Buffett stated that years of growth "certainly lie ahead," and "most American children are going to live far better than their parents did."
Here's how much the U.S. stock plunge costs the world's wealthiest people Here's how much the U.S. stock plunge costs the world's richest people
Gates concluded his AMA response by saying, "Despite this prediction of bumps ahead, I am quite optimistic about how innovation and capitalism will improve the situation for humans everywhere."
As for how you, the investor, should react if the market tanks, keep a level head and stay the course, says Buffett. In response to wild market fluctuations back in 2016, he told CNBC that buy-and-hold is still the best strategy.
"Don't watch the market closely," he advised those worried about their retirement savings at the time. "If they're trying to buy and sell stocks, and worry when they go down a little bit … and think they should maybe sell them when they go up, they're not going to have very good results."
Rather, think long term and leave your investment alone, says Buffett: "If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes."
Kathleen Elkins | @kathleen_elk 8:00 AM ET Wed, 7 March 2018
Bill Gates
The 2008 financial crisis led to the Great Recession and millions of jobs lost. It took years for America to recover and many citizens still feel the ripple effects. According to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, though, we should be braced for another one.
During a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" last week, when Gates was asked if, in the near future, the U.S. will have another crisis similar to the one in 2008, he offered a blunt response: "Yes. It is hard to say when but this is a certainty."
He added, "Fortunately, we got through that one reasonably well. Warren has talked about this and he understands this area far better than I do."
Despite the warning, both Gates and his longtime friend Warren Buffett are generally optimistic about the U.S. economy. In an essay for Time magazine, Buffett stated that years of growth "certainly lie ahead," and "most American children are going to live far better than their parents did."
Here's how much the U.S. stock plunge costs the world's wealthiest people Here's how much the U.S. stock plunge costs the world's richest people
Gates concluded his AMA response by saying, "Despite this prediction of bumps ahead, I am quite optimistic about how innovation and capitalism will improve the situation for humans everywhere."
As for how you, the investor, should react if the market tanks, keep a level head and stay the course, says Buffett. In response to wild market fluctuations back in 2016, he told CNBC that buy-and-hold is still the best strategy.
"Don't watch the market closely," he advised those worried about their retirement savings at the time. "If they're trying to buy and sell stocks, and worry when they go down a little bit … and think they should maybe sell them when they go up, they're not going to have very good results."
Rather, think long term and leave your investment alone, says Buffett: "If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes."
How the U.S. and North Korea Are Preparing for the Trump-Kim Summit - New York Magazine
March 28, 2018
5:11 am
How the U.S. and North Korea Are Preparing for the Trump-Kim Summit
By
Margaret Hartmann
@MargHartmann
At the start of 2018, the prospects for a breakthrough in the North Korea crisis seemed slim. While Kim Jong-un extended a rare olive branch to South Korea, expressing hopes for “peaceful resolution” in his New Year’s Day address, he also warned that North Korea’s missiles could reach any point in the U.S., and “a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office.” President Trump responded with his own bellicose rhetoric, declaring in a tweet that his “nuclear button” is bigger and better than Kim’s.
Then, shortly after a North Korean charm offensive during the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Trump shocked the world on March 9 by announcing that he’d agreed to meet with Kim — seemingly on a whim, and without the understanding that Pyongyang has always wanted a face-to-face meeting with the U.S. president.
The summit is tentatively scheduled for May, though recent actions by the U.S. and North Korea have stirred doubts about the potential for a solution, and it’s unclear if the summit will actually take place. Here’s what the two sides have been up to since the announcement.
How Trump Is Preparing
Firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
Both of Trump’s major staff shakeups in the last month seemed to increase the likelihood of war with North Korea. First he dismissed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was one of the administration’s biggest proponents of a diplomatic approach to North Korea. He replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who has publicly hinted at the need for regime change in North Korea, and suggested that the U.S. should act as if nuclear aggression by Kim is imminent. Pompeo is also the only Trump official who has openly encouraged Trump to decertify the Iran nuclear deal, which would signal to Kim that the U.S. won’t necessarily honor any denuclearization agreement.
Making Ultrahawk John Bolton National Security Adviser
Last week Trump replaced National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster with John Bolton, the former ambassador to the United Nations and unrepentant architect of President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq. There are many, many reasons why Bolton’s appointment is deeply troubling; somewhere near the top is his advocacy for a preemptive strike against North Korea.
As The Atlantic notes, Bolton has been dismissive of all prongs of Trump’s North Korea strategy: international economic sanctions, exerting diplomatic pressure against Kim, and the summit. Last month Bolton told Newsweek that Trump’s latest sanctions are pointless, since “we’ve tried for 25 years, through pressure and diplomacy, and it’s failed.” Several days later he penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed arguing in favor of a preemptive strike against North Korea:
Pre-emption opponents argue that action is not justified because Pyongyang does not constitute an “imminent threat.” They are wrong. The threat is imminent, and the case against pre-emption rests on the misinterpretation of a standard that derives from prenuclear, pre-ballistic-missile times. Given the gaps in U.S. intelligence about North Korea, we should not wait until the very last minute. That would risk striking after the North has deliverable nuclear weapons, a much more dangerous situation.
In a Journal piece published last summer, Bolton argued that while the “U.S. should obviously seek South Korea’s agreement (and Japan’s) before using force,” we should not be hindered by their opposition to a military action that could kill hundreds of thousands of their people, as “no foreign government, even a close ally, can veto an action to protect Americans from Kim Jong-un’s nuclear weapons.”
Rushing Through Summit Preparations
Under normal circumstances, lower-level diplomatic staffers from the U.S. and North Korea would spend months negotiating the terms of a potential agreement, and a meeting between the nations’ respective leaders would come at the end. Instead, it appears Trump’s plan is to get in a room with Kim and show off his famous negotiation skills (though so far, he’s demonstrated little dealmaking ability as president).
Some argue that in this case, that isn’t the worst strategy. Frank Aum, a former senior adviser on North Korea at the Department of Defense, told NPR that North Korea has preferred top-down negotiations in the past:
I think that the one positive of going big like this is that North Korea has a tendency and a preference to prefer big agreements, working through summits. They’re a top-down regime. Their lower-level officials don’t have the authority to negotiate.
Remember; in 1994, it took a meeting between Jimmy Carter and Kim Il Sung to lay the foundation for the agreed framework, and then later on lower-level officials hammered out all the details. So I think if we’re going to hope for something big, it’s better to do it at the highest levels.
It still seems far from ideal that Trump is working with a decimated State Department, new hires at the top of various agencies, and no South Korean ambassador. While the May timeframe isn’t set in stone, in his first interview since being named national security advisor, Bolton argued that the talks must occur sooner rather than later.
“Although it’s certainly true that the normal route is months and months and months of preparation, that would simply play into the North Korean playbook, what they’ve done many times before,” he said.
Starting a Trade War With China, While Cutting a Trade Deal With South Korea
Since China is North Korea’s most important ally, some might think it prudent to avoid antagonizing them right before the start of talks between Washington and Pyongyang. Instead, Trump has continued making moves expected to set off a trade war, hitting China with $50 billion in tariffs last week. While this doesn’t fundamentally change China’s interest in seeing a peaceful solution to the nuclear crisis on its border, it may make Beijing less eager to help secure an outcome that’s advantageous to the U.S.
Trump did remove a potentially divisive trade issue with South Korea ahead of the Pyongyang summit. The White House confirmed on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to overhaul the existing South Korea-U.S. trade deal. In exchange for an exemption from Trump’s new 25 percent tariff on imported steel, South Korea has agreed to limit its steel exports to the U.S. and open its auto market to American manufacturers.
How North Korea Is Preparing
Holding Meetings Between North and South Korean Leaders and Diplomats
During the Olympic games Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, became the first member of the North’s ruling dynasty to set foot in the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953. While visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in, she invited him to meet with her brother in Pyongyang later in the year.
In early March, days before Trump agreed to a North Korea summit, Kim met with South Korean officials for the first time since he took office six years ago, holding talks in Pyongyang with a delegation from Seoul. During the visit the two nations agreed to hold a summit meeting between Kim and Moon in late April. The two leaders plan to meet in the Peace House, a South Korean building in the border village of Panmunjom.
“The North Korean side clearly stated its willingness to denuclearize,” Moon’s office said in a statement. “It made it clear that it would have no reason to keep nuclear weapons if the military threat to the North was eliminated and its security guaranteed.”
South Korean President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with Kim Yo-Jong during a performance of North Korea’s Samjiyon Orchestra on February 11, 2018 in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Handout/Getty Images
Negotiating the Potential Release of Three Americans Held Captive in North Korea
While he was in Stockholm earlier this month, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho reportedly held talks with his Swedish counterpart about the potential release of the three Americans imprisoned in North Korea. Kim Hak-song, Kim Sang-duk, and Kim Dong-chul are all being held for allegedly committing vague “hostile acts” against the regime. Sweden serves as “protecting power” for the U.S. in talks with North Korea, as the two nations do not have diplomatic ties.
The prisoner release has reportedly been at the center of negotiations between Sweden and North Korea for several months, but last week Heather Nauert, the State Department spokesperson, suggested a deal was not imminent.
“We would love to have our American citizens brought home — a huge priority for this administration — but as far as we’re concerned there’s nothing underway,” she said.
Kim Jong-un Meeting With Xi Jinping
Chinese and North Korean state media confirmed on Wednesday that Kim Jong-un met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this week, marking his first trip outside North Korea since taking power, and his first meeting with a foreign leader.
Rumors of the meeting kicked off on Monday, when a mysterious armored train, like the one Kim’s father and grandfather used for foreign trips, arrived in the Chinese capital.
China’s state-run news agency Xinhua said Kim told Xi that he is committed to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, and open to a summit with Trump. (North Korea has yet to publicly confirm that Kim invited Trump to a summit meeting.)
“If South Korea and the United States respond with good will to our efforts and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution,” Kim said, according to Xinhua.
Kim’s relations with Xi had cooled in recent years, but it appears he was successful in strengthening their alliance. While China described the trip as an unofficial visit, they welcomed Kim and his wife with a banquet and a tour of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. After Kim headed back to Pyongyang, Xi praised his recent diplomatic overtures.
“This year there have been promising changes in the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and we express our appreciation for the major efforts that North Korea has made in this regard,” Xi said.
Starting Up a New Reactor
Though Kim has repeatedly claimed that he’s interested in denuclearization, satellite images taken in recent weeks show a North Korean reactor coming online, according to the New York Times. The new reactor in the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which has been under construction for years, produces bomb fuel, and could be a significant issue in the upcoming negotiations. Even if Kim agrees to freeze nuclear and missile testing while talks are underway, he could continue making the fuel needed to expand his nuclear arsenal.
Kim Jong-un's visit to China fails to hide strain in relations - Guardian
Kim Jong-un's visit to China fails to hide strain in relations
Kim and his wife were treated to a banquet, a performance and a lesson in Chinese tea culture
Lily Kuo
Wed 28 Mar 2018 19.40 AEDT First published on Wed 28 Mar 2018 19.09 AEDT
Kim Jong-un with Xi Jinping in China
Kim Jong-un was treated to a banquet at the Great Hall of the People where he met the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
When the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, visited Beijing this week they were treated to a banquet at the stately Great Hall of the People, a performance, and a lesson in Chinese tea culture, given by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and his wife, Peng Liyuan. The event was “overflowing with a harmonious and intimate atmosphere from its beginning to the end”, North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, breathlessly reported.
The pageantry of Kim’s surprise visit to Beijing, confirmed only after he left China on Wednesday, obscures a strained relationship between the two long-time communist allies. China’s state news agency, Xinhua, was careful to describe the visit as “unofficial”.
“It was ‘unofficial’ probably because Xi is still angry and frustrated that Kim has shown an utter lack of respect for China’s interests and for Xi personally,” said Michael Kovrig, senior adviser for north-east Asia at the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict-prevention organisation. “Kim is not out of the doghouse yet.”
Jean H. Lee
✔
@newsjean
Introducing #KimJongUn, international statesman. Front page of #NorthKorea party paper #로동신문. Making #China his 1st visit abroad allows Kim to repair frayed relations with Beijing — and calm concerns at home about tensions w/#DPRK’s most important ally.
5:26 PM - Mar 28, 2018
Since taking power in 2011, Kim has conducted more than 85 missile tests, one of which was believed to be deliberately timed to upstage a Brics summit in China last September.
As a result of North Korea’s provocations, China has backed increasingly tough international sanctions on Pyongyang as well as cut coal and other imports from the country. China accounts for more than 90% of North Korea’s overall trade and also provides food aid and energy assistance to Pyongyang. This was Kim’s first invitation to meet with Xi in China since coming to power.
Kim’s visit doesn’t so much mark an improvement in ties as it does China’s determination not to be sidelined. The trip comes ahead of talks in April between Kim and the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, and the US president, Donald Trump, possibly in May.
“By being the first leader to meet Kim, Xi is decisively showing who is boss in north-east Asia. In the past, China might have let the US drive the process as long as it was consulted. Clearly, Xi has decided China needs to shape the process early and discuss directly with Kim how he thinks that should go,” Kovrig said.
President Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un and their spouses having lunch
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Xi Jinping and his wife host Kim Jong-un and his wife to a lavish lunch in Beijing. Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images
China has often said it does not have as much leverage over North Korea as many believe. Kim’s visit to China before meeting Trump and Moon indicates just the opposite.
“Next time, the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs says the real issue is between the US and North Korea, and that China is just a mediator or just wants stability, we will know they are lying,” Robert E Kelly, the associate professor at the department of political science and diplomacy at Pusan National University in South Korea, wrote in a blogpost for the Lowy Institute.
Just how unified the two countries are over North Korea’s nuclear programme is unclear. Xinhua reported Kim saying he was “committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula”, but Korean state media failed to mention such comments, analysts said.
For Kim, the trip not only bolsters his image at home as a powerful statesman – negotiating with the world’s great powers – it also opens avenues for limited reform.
Oliver Hotham
@OliverHotham
28 Mar
Replying to @OliverHotham
Some preliminary details coming through: notably, Kim Jong Un reportedly reaffirmed his desire for talks with the U.S. - albeit through Xinhua https://www.nknews.org/2018/03/chinese-state-media-confirms-kim-jong-un-xi-jinping-meeting-in-beijing/?c=1522196891061 … pic.twitter.com/ilCaXVEkko
Oliver Hotham
@OliverHotham
Kim having a whale of a time, clearly pic.twitter.com/fAESmiFxjO
11:47 AM - Mar 28, 2018
Kim was taken to see an “innovation exhibition” at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. During the previous generation of Chinese and North Korean leadership, Kim Jong-il, Kim’s father, also toured industrial sites in China, a sign that Beijing hoped to push its ally toward Chinese-style economic reforms.
“It’s what the Chinese seem to want for Kim Jong-un – a tangible realisation that ‘opening up and reform’ along Dengist lines with special economic zones and foreign investment while maintaining iron parameters on civil society, is one pathway to relative wealth and power,” Adam Cathcart, a researcher in Chinese-North Korean relations at the University of Leeds, said, referring to the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who helped open the Chinese economy by designating areas of the country for capitalist market-driven reforms.
Kim and his wife were treated to a banquet, a performance and a lesson in Chinese tea culture
Lily Kuo
Wed 28 Mar 2018 19.40 AEDT First published on Wed 28 Mar 2018 19.09 AEDT
Kim Jong-un with Xi Jinping in China
Kim Jong-un was treated to a banquet at the Great Hall of the People where he met the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
When the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, visited Beijing this week they were treated to a banquet at the stately Great Hall of the People, a performance, and a lesson in Chinese tea culture, given by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and his wife, Peng Liyuan. The event was “overflowing with a harmonious and intimate atmosphere from its beginning to the end”, North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, breathlessly reported.
The pageantry of Kim’s surprise visit to Beijing, confirmed only after he left China on Wednesday, obscures a strained relationship between the two long-time communist allies. China’s state news agency, Xinhua, was careful to describe the visit as “unofficial”.
“It was ‘unofficial’ probably because Xi is still angry and frustrated that Kim has shown an utter lack of respect for China’s interests and for Xi personally,” said Michael Kovrig, senior adviser for north-east Asia at the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict-prevention organisation. “Kim is not out of the doghouse yet.”
Jean H. Lee
✔
@newsjean
Introducing #KimJongUn, international statesman. Front page of #NorthKorea party paper #로동신문. Making #China his 1st visit abroad allows Kim to repair frayed relations with Beijing — and calm concerns at home about tensions w/#DPRK’s most important ally.
5:26 PM - Mar 28, 2018
Since taking power in 2011, Kim has conducted more than 85 missile tests, one of which was believed to be deliberately timed to upstage a Brics summit in China last September.
As a result of North Korea’s provocations, China has backed increasingly tough international sanctions on Pyongyang as well as cut coal and other imports from the country. China accounts for more than 90% of North Korea’s overall trade and also provides food aid and energy assistance to Pyongyang. This was Kim’s first invitation to meet with Xi in China since coming to power.
Kim’s visit doesn’t so much mark an improvement in ties as it does China’s determination not to be sidelined. The trip comes ahead of talks in April between Kim and the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, and the US president, Donald Trump, possibly in May.
“By being the first leader to meet Kim, Xi is decisively showing who is boss in north-east Asia. In the past, China might have let the US drive the process as long as it was consulted. Clearly, Xi has decided China needs to shape the process early and discuss directly with Kim how he thinks that should go,” Kovrig said.
President Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un and their spouses having lunch
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Xi Jinping and his wife host Kim Jong-un and his wife to a lavish lunch in Beijing. Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images
China has often said it does not have as much leverage over North Korea as many believe. Kim’s visit to China before meeting Trump and Moon indicates just the opposite.
“Next time, the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs says the real issue is between the US and North Korea, and that China is just a mediator or just wants stability, we will know they are lying,” Robert E Kelly, the associate professor at the department of political science and diplomacy at Pusan National University in South Korea, wrote in a blogpost for the Lowy Institute.
Just how unified the two countries are over North Korea’s nuclear programme is unclear. Xinhua reported Kim saying he was “committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula”, but Korean state media failed to mention such comments, analysts said.
For Kim, the trip not only bolsters his image at home as a powerful statesman – negotiating with the world’s great powers – it also opens avenues for limited reform.
Oliver Hotham
@OliverHotham
28 Mar
Replying to @OliverHotham
Some preliminary details coming through: notably, Kim Jong Un reportedly reaffirmed his desire for talks with the U.S. - albeit through Xinhua https://www.nknews.org/2018/03/chinese-state-media-confirms-kim-jong-un-xi-jinping-meeting-in-beijing/?c=1522196891061 … pic.twitter.com/ilCaXVEkko
Oliver Hotham
@OliverHotham
Kim having a whale of a time, clearly pic.twitter.com/fAESmiFxjO
11:47 AM - Mar 28, 2018
Kim was taken to see an “innovation exhibition” at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. During the previous generation of Chinese and North Korean leadership, Kim Jong-il, Kim’s father, also toured industrial sites in China, a sign that Beijing hoped to push its ally toward Chinese-style economic reforms.
“It’s what the Chinese seem to want for Kim Jong-un – a tangible realisation that ‘opening up and reform’ along Dengist lines with special economic zones and foreign investment while maintaining iron parameters on civil society, is one pathway to relative wealth and power,” Adam Cathcart, a researcher in Chinese-North Korean relations at the University of Leeds, said, referring to the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who helped open the Chinese economy by designating areas of the country for capitalist market-driven reforms.
Distant galaxy with no dark matter suggests our understanding of the universe could be wrong - Independent
28/3/2018
Distant galaxy with no dark matter suggests our understanding of the universe could be wrong
‘Bizarre’ phenomenon means ‘there may be more than one way to form a galaxy’, say astronomers
Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent 2
The NGC 1052-DF2 galaxy, which resides about 65 million light years away from Earth, has surprised scientists owing to its lack of dark matter
In a world first, astronomers have found a galaxy that lacks the enigmatic substance known as dark matter – long considered one of the universe’s fundamental building blocks.
Its discovery challenges well-established ideas about how galaxies form, and the nature of dark matter itself.
Located 65 million light years away, the snappily named NGC 1052-DF2 galaxy – or DF2 for short – is a “complete mystery” according to the scientists who found it.
Scientists find nearby ‘ghost galaxy’ made up of dark matter
While dark matter has yet to be directly observed by scientists, it is generally considered a vital ingredient in the birth of galaxies.
“We thought all galaxies were made up of stars, gas and dark matter mixed together, but with dark matter always dominating,” said Professor Roberto Abraham, an astronomer at the University of Toronto who co-authored the paper describing the discovery.
“Now it seems that at least some galaxies exist with lots of stars and gas and hardly any dark matter. It is pretty bizarre.”
DF2 is known as an “ultra-diffuse” or “ghost” galaxy, an extremely low-density variety, recognisable due to its large size and faint appearance.
However, this one is “an oddity, even among this unusual class of galaxy”, according to Shany Danieli, a Yale University graduate student who contributed to its discovery.
Out of control space station hurtling towards Earth
The astronomers realised something about DF2 was amiss when telescope observations revealed that 10 clusters of stars within it were moving far slower than would normally be expected.
The velocities of stars and other objects in faraway galaxies can be used to measure their individual masses.
By performing these calculations, the research team found that all the mass in the galaxy could be attributed to the visible stars, gas and dust. There was essentially no remaining room in this galaxy for dark matter.
“If there is any dark matter at all, it’s very little,” said Professor Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University, the study’s lead author.
The analysis of this new galaxy was published in the journal Nature.
The discovery was unexpected because while dark matter remains largely mysterious, it is nevertheless considered by many to be the most dominant substance in the universe.
In the Milky Way, for example, scientists have suggested there is around 30 times more dark matter than normal matter.
Dark matter is also thought to have a hand in the birth of galaxies.
“For decades, we thought that galaxies started their lives as blobs of dark matter. After that everything else happens: gas falls into the dark matter halos, the gas turns into stars, they slowly build up, then you end up with galaxies like the Milky Way,” said Professor Van Dokkum.
Nasa's most stunning pictures of space
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No previous theory has predicted the discovery of a galaxy like DF2, and its discovery calls into question these fundamental ideas about galaxy formation.
“The galaxy is a complete mystery, as everything about it is strange. How you actually go about forming one of these things is completely unknown,” said Professor Van Dokkum.
“This result also suggests that there may be more than one way to form a galaxy.”
Counterintuitively, Professor Van Dokkum and his colleagues suggest the lack of dark matter in DF2 is actually good evidence for its existence.
While this substance plays a central role in our understanding of the universe, its intangible nature means alternate theories have been suggested to account for the gap in scientific understanding of what is currently known as dark matter.
These theories consider the dark matter signature that astronomers measure to be an unavoidable consequence of ordinary matter.
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Black holes may offer a route to another universe
Therefore, the existence of a galaxy that has lots of matter, but no dark matter, suggests dark matter does indeed exist elsewhere as a substance in its own right.
“This discovery shows that dark matter is real – it has its own separate existence, apart from other components of galaxies,” said Professor Van Dokkum.
The astronomers suggest that DF2’s dark matter could have been swept away by the birth of many massive stars, or the presence of a giant galaxy nearby.
However, for the time being they can only speculate about how it came to be in its current state, and they are now undertaking a survey to look for more dark matter-deficient galaxies and unravel this mystery.
Distant galaxy with no dark matter suggests our understanding of the universe could be wrong
‘Bizarre’ phenomenon means ‘there may be more than one way to form a galaxy’, say astronomers
Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent 2
The NGC 1052-DF2 galaxy, which resides about 65 million light years away from Earth, has surprised scientists owing to its lack of dark matter
In a world first, astronomers have found a galaxy that lacks the enigmatic substance known as dark matter – long considered one of the universe’s fundamental building blocks.
Its discovery challenges well-established ideas about how galaxies form, and the nature of dark matter itself.
Located 65 million light years away, the snappily named NGC 1052-DF2 galaxy – or DF2 for short – is a “complete mystery” according to the scientists who found it.
Scientists find nearby ‘ghost galaxy’ made up of dark matter
While dark matter has yet to be directly observed by scientists, it is generally considered a vital ingredient in the birth of galaxies.
“We thought all galaxies were made up of stars, gas and dark matter mixed together, but with dark matter always dominating,” said Professor Roberto Abraham, an astronomer at the University of Toronto who co-authored the paper describing the discovery.
“Now it seems that at least some galaxies exist with lots of stars and gas and hardly any dark matter. It is pretty bizarre.”
DF2 is known as an “ultra-diffuse” or “ghost” galaxy, an extremely low-density variety, recognisable due to its large size and faint appearance.
However, this one is “an oddity, even among this unusual class of galaxy”, according to Shany Danieli, a Yale University graduate student who contributed to its discovery.
Out of control space station hurtling towards Earth
The astronomers realised something about DF2 was amiss when telescope observations revealed that 10 clusters of stars within it were moving far slower than would normally be expected.
The velocities of stars and other objects in faraway galaxies can be used to measure their individual masses.
By performing these calculations, the research team found that all the mass in the galaxy could be attributed to the visible stars, gas and dust. There was essentially no remaining room in this galaxy for dark matter.
“If there is any dark matter at all, it’s very little,” said Professor Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University, the study’s lead author.
The analysis of this new galaxy was published in the journal Nature.
The discovery was unexpected because while dark matter remains largely mysterious, it is nevertheless considered by many to be the most dominant substance in the universe.
In the Milky Way, for example, scientists have suggested there is around 30 times more dark matter than normal matter.
Dark matter is also thought to have a hand in the birth of galaxies.
“For decades, we thought that galaxies started their lives as blobs of dark matter. After that everything else happens: gas falls into the dark matter halos, the gas turns into stars, they slowly build up, then you end up with galaxies like the Milky Way,” said Professor Van Dokkum.
Nasa's most stunning pictures of space
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No previous theory has predicted the discovery of a galaxy like DF2, and its discovery calls into question these fundamental ideas about galaxy formation.
“The galaxy is a complete mystery, as everything about it is strange. How you actually go about forming one of these things is completely unknown,” said Professor Van Dokkum.
“This result also suggests that there may be more than one way to form a galaxy.”
Counterintuitively, Professor Van Dokkum and his colleagues suggest the lack of dark matter in DF2 is actually good evidence for its existence.
While this substance plays a central role in our understanding of the universe, its intangible nature means alternate theories have been suggested to account for the gap in scientific understanding of what is currently known as dark matter.
These theories consider the dark matter signature that astronomers measure to be an unavoidable consequence of ordinary matter.
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Therefore, the existence of a galaxy that has lots of matter, but no dark matter, suggests dark matter does indeed exist elsewhere as a substance in its own right.
“This discovery shows that dark matter is real – it has its own separate existence, apart from other components of galaxies,” said Professor Van Dokkum.
The astronomers suggest that DF2’s dark matter could have been swept away by the birth of many massive stars, or the presence of a giant galaxy nearby.
However, for the time being they can only speculate about how it came to be in its current state, and they are now undertaking a survey to look for more dark matter-deficient galaxies and unravel this mystery.
What is the historical evidence that Jesus Christ lived and died? - Guardian
What is the historical evidence that Jesus Christ lived and died?
Today some claim that Jesus is just an idea, rather than a real historical figure, but there is a good deal of written evidence for his existence 2,000 years ago
Dr Simon Gathercole
Fri 14 Apr 2017 23.07 AEST Last modified on Wed 20 Dec 2017 02.57 AEDT
… Robert Powell as Jesus of Nazareth in the 1977 TV miniseries.
Christ alive … Robert Powell as Jesus of Nazareth in 1977. Photograph: ITV/Rex
How confident can we be that Jesus Christ actually lived?
The historical evidence for Jesus of Nazareth is both long-established and widespread. Within a few decades of his supposed lifetime, he is mentioned by Jewish and Roman historians, as well as by dozens of Christian writings. Compare that with, for example, King Arthur, who supposedly lived around AD500. The major historical source for events of that time does not even mention Arthur, and he is first referred to 300 or 400 years after he is supposed to have lived. The evidence for Jesus is not limited to later folklore, as are accounts of Arthur.
What do Christian writings tell us?
The value of this evidence is that it is both early and detailed. The first Christian writings to talk about Jesus are the epistles of St Paul, and scholars agree that the earliest of these letters were written within 25 years of Jesus’s death at the very latest, while the detailed biographical accounts of Jesus in the New Testament gospels date from around 40 years after he died. These all appeared within the lifetimes of numerous eyewitnesses, and provide descriptions that comport with the culture and geography of first-century Palestine. It is also difficult to imagine why Christian writers would invent such a thoroughly Jewish saviour figure in a time and place – under the aegis of the Roman empire – where there was strong suspicion of Judaism.
What did non-Christian authors say about Jesus?
As far as we know, the first author outside the church to mention Jesus is the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote a history of Judaism around AD93. He has two references to Jesus. One of these is controversial because it is thought to be corrupted by Christian scribes (probably turning Josephus’s negative account into a more positive one), but the other is not suspicious – a reference to James, the brother of “Jesus, the so-called Christ”.
About 20 years after Josephus we have the Roman politicians Pliny and Tacitus, who held some of the highest offices of state at the beginning of the second century AD. From Tacitus we learn that Jesus was executed while Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect in charge of Judaea (AD26-36) and Tiberius was emperor (AD14-37) – reports that fit with the timeframe of the gospels. Pliny contributes the information that, where he was governor in northern Turkey, Christians worshipped Christ as a god. Neither of them liked Christians – Pliny writes of their “pig-headed obstinacy” and Tacitus calls their religion a destructive superstition.
Did ancient writers discuss the existence of Jesus?
Strikingly, there was never any debate in the ancient world about whether Jesus of Nazareth was a historical figure. In the earliest literature of the Jewish Rabbis, Jesus was denounced as the illegitimate child of Mary and a sorcerer. Among pagans, the satirist Lucian and philosopher Celsus dismissed Jesus as a scoundrel, but we know of no one in the ancient world who questioned whether Jesus lived.
How controversial is the existence of Jesus now?
In a recent book, the French philosopher Michel Onfray talks of Jesus as a mere hypothesis, his existence as an idea rather than as a historical figure. About 10 years ago, The Jesus Project was set up in the US; one of its main questions for discussion was that of whether or not Jesus existed. Some authors have even argued that Jesus of Nazareth was doubly non-existent, contending that both Jesus and Nazareth are Christian inventions. It is worth noting, though, that the two mainstream historians who have written most against these hypersceptical arguments are atheists: Maurice Casey (formerly of Nottingham University) and Bart Ehrman (University of North Carolina). They have issued stinging criticisms of the “Jesus-myth” approach, branding it pseudo-scholarship. Nevertheless, a recent survey discovered that 40% of adults in England did not believe that Jesus was a real historical figure.
Jesus was on the side of the poor and exploited. Christian politicians should remember that
Brad Chilcott
Read more
Is there any archaeological evidence for Jesus?
Part of the popular confusion around the historicity of Jesus may be caused by peculiar archaeological arguments raised in relation to him. Recently there have been claims that Jesus was a great-grandson of Cleopatra, complete with ancient coins allegedly showing Jesus wearing his crown of thorns. In some circles, there is still interest in the Shroud of Turin, supposedly Jesus’s burial shroud. Pope Benedict XVI stated that it was something that “no human artistry was capable of producing” and an “icon of Holy Saturday”.
It is hard to find historians who regard this material as serious archaeological data, however. The documents produced by Christian, Jewish and Roman writers form the most significant evidence.
These abundant historical references leave us with little reasonable doubt that Jesus lived and died. The more interesting question – which goes beyond history and objective fact – is whether Jesus died and lived.
Simon Gathercole is Reader in New Testament Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Today some claim that Jesus is just an idea, rather than a real historical figure, but there is a good deal of written evidence for his existence 2,000 years ago
Dr Simon Gathercole
Fri 14 Apr 2017 23.07 AEST Last modified on Wed 20 Dec 2017 02.57 AEDT
… Robert Powell as Jesus of Nazareth in the 1977 TV miniseries.
Christ alive … Robert Powell as Jesus of Nazareth in 1977. Photograph: ITV/Rex
How confident can we be that Jesus Christ actually lived?
The historical evidence for Jesus of Nazareth is both long-established and widespread. Within a few decades of his supposed lifetime, he is mentioned by Jewish and Roman historians, as well as by dozens of Christian writings. Compare that with, for example, King Arthur, who supposedly lived around AD500. The major historical source for events of that time does not even mention Arthur, and he is first referred to 300 or 400 years after he is supposed to have lived. The evidence for Jesus is not limited to later folklore, as are accounts of Arthur.
What do Christian writings tell us?
The value of this evidence is that it is both early and detailed. The first Christian writings to talk about Jesus are the epistles of St Paul, and scholars agree that the earliest of these letters were written within 25 years of Jesus’s death at the very latest, while the detailed biographical accounts of Jesus in the New Testament gospels date from around 40 years after he died. These all appeared within the lifetimes of numerous eyewitnesses, and provide descriptions that comport with the culture and geography of first-century Palestine. It is also difficult to imagine why Christian writers would invent such a thoroughly Jewish saviour figure in a time and place – under the aegis of the Roman empire – where there was strong suspicion of Judaism.
What did non-Christian authors say about Jesus?
As far as we know, the first author outside the church to mention Jesus is the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote a history of Judaism around AD93. He has two references to Jesus. One of these is controversial because it is thought to be corrupted by Christian scribes (probably turning Josephus’s negative account into a more positive one), but the other is not suspicious – a reference to James, the brother of “Jesus, the so-called Christ”.
About 20 years after Josephus we have the Roman politicians Pliny and Tacitus, who held some of the highest offices of state at the beginning of the second century AD. From Tacitus we learn that Jesus was executed while Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect in charge of Judaea (AD26-36) and Tiberius was emperor (AD14-37) – reports that fit with the timeframe of the gospels. Pliny contributes the information that, where he was governor in northern Turkey, Christians worshipped Christ as a god. Neither of them liked Christians – Pliny writes of their “pig-headed obstinacy” and Tacitus calls their religion a destructive superstition.
Did ancient writers discuss the existence of Jesus?
Strikingly, there was never any debate in the ancient world about whether Jesus of Nazareth was a historical figure. In the earliest literature of the Jewish Rabbis, Jesus was denounced as the illegitimate child of Mary and a sorcerer. Among pagans, the satirist Lucian and philosopher Celsus dismissed Jesus as a scoundrel, but we know of no one in the ancient world who questioned whether Jesus lived.
How controversial is the existence of Jesus now?
In a recent book, the French philosopher Michel Onfray talks of Jesus as a mere hypothesis, his existence as an idea rather than as a historical figure. About 10 years ago, The Jesus Project was set up in the US; one of its main questions for discussion was that of whether or not Jesus existed. Some authors have even argued that Jesus of Nazareth was doubly non-existent, contending that both Jesus and Nazareth are Christian inventions. It is worth noting, though, that the two mainstream historians who have written most against these hypersceptical arguments are atheists: Maurice Casey (formerly of Nottingham University) and Bart Ehrman (University of North Carolina). They have issued stinging criticisms of the “Jesus-myth” approach, branding it pseudo-scholarship. Nevertheless, a recent survey discovered that 40% of adults in England did not believe that Jesus was a real historical figure.
Jesus was on the side of the poor and exploited. Christian politicians should remember that
Brad Chilcott
Read more
Is there any archaeological evidence for Jesus?
Part of the popular confusion around the historicity of Jesus may be caused by peculiar archaeological arguments raised in relation to him. Recently there have been claims that Jesus was a great-grandson of Cleopatra, complete with ancient coins allegedly showing Jesus wearing his crown of thorns. In some circles, there is still interest in the Shroud of Turin, supposedly Jesus’s burial shroud. Pope Benedict XVI stated that it was something that “no human artistry was capable of producing” and an “icon of Holy Saturday”.
It is hard to find historians who regard this material as serious archaeological data, however. The documents produced by Christian, Jewish and Roman writers form the most significant evidence.
These abundant historical references leave us with little reasonable doubt that Jesus lived and died. The more interesting question – which goes beyond history and objective fact – is whether Jesus died and lived.
Simon Gathercole is Reader in New Testament Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Plaster rains down from the ceiling of St. Peter's Basilica hours after The Pope was forced to deny saying 'Hell does not exist' - Daily Mail
Plaster rains down from the ceiling of St. Peter's Basilica hours after The Pope was forced to deny saying 'Hell does not exist'
Chunks of plaster fell from ceiling of St. Peter's Basilica on Thursday
Hours earlier newspaper ran interview with Pope saying 'Hell doesn't exist'
The Vatican has denied that Pope Francis ever made the comments to journalist
By Sara Malm for MailOnline
PUBLISHED: 17:55 AEDT, 30 March 2018 | UPDATED: 21:26 AEDT, 30 March 2018
The Vatican has had to seal off part of St. Peter's Basilica after chunks of plaster fell from the ceiling just hours after Pope Francis is alleged to have proclaimed that 'Hell' does not exist.
Bits of the ceiling rained down over worshippers near Michelangelo's famed Pieta statue to the right of the main entrance, although no one was injured.
A Vatican spokesman said the basilica remains open with the affected areas sealed off until later today.
The sky is falling: Parts of the ceiling in the St. Peter's Basilica fell in on Thursday +2
The sky is falling: Parts of the ceiling in the St. Peter's Basilica fell in on Thursday
It comes after the Pope was sensationally quoted as saying that hell does not exist and souls not worthy of heaven merely disappear instead of being tormented.
Vatican denies Pope Francis said 'there is no Hell' during...
Charles delivers his first ever Easter message: 'Deeply...
But the Vatican quickly denied the apparent dramatic theological shift, accusing atheist reporter Eugenio Scalfari of 'reconstructing' his words.
Catholic teaching dictates that 'immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell'.
Scalfari, 93, in his fifth interview of Pope Francis published in La Repubblica, asked what happened to 'bad souls' after their bodies died.
Denial: Hours before the incident in the Basilica, Pope Francis had to deny that he had told an Italian journalist that hell did not exist +2
Denial: Hours before the incident in the Basilica, Pope Francis had to deny that he had told an Italian journalist that hell did not exist
'They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear,' he quoted the Pope as replying.
'There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls.'
The Vatican on Thursday said the Italian journalist and the Pope had a private meeting but claimed it was 'without giving him any interview'.
Holy Week sees floods of pilgrims and tourists visiting St. Peter's, taking part in Pope Francis' ceremonies, which are capped by Easter Sunday celebrations outside in St. Peter's Square.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5561483/Plaster-rains-ceiling-St-Peters-Basilica.html#ixzz5BE92ZMNY
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Chunks of plaster fell from ceiling of St. Peter's Basilica on Thursday
Hours earlier newspaper ran interview with Pope saying 'Hell doesn't exist'
The Vatican has denied that Pope Francis ever made the comments to journalist
By Sara Malm for MailOnline
PUBLISHED: 17:55 AEDT, 30 March 2018 | UPDATED: 21:26 AEDT, 30 March 2018
The Vatican has had to seal off part of St. Peter's Basilica after chunks of plaster fell from the ceiling just hours after Pope Francis is alleged to have proclaimed that 'Hell' does not exist.
Bits of the ceiling rained down over worshippers near Michelangelo's famed Pieta statue to the right of the main entrance, although no one was injured.
A Vatican spokesman said the basilica remains open with the affected areas sealed off until later today.
The sky is falling: Parts of the ceiling in the St. Peter's Basilica fell in on Thursday +2
The sky is falling: Parts of the ceiling in the St. Peter's Basilica fell in on Thursday
It comes after the Pope was sensationally quoted as saying that hell does not exist and souls not worthy of heaven merely disappear instead of being tormented.
Vatican denies Pope Francis said 'there is no Hell' during...
Charles delivers his first ever Easter message: 'Deeply...
But the Vatican quickly denied the apparent dramatic theological shift, accusing atheist reporter Eugenio Scalfari of 'reconstructing' his words.
Catholic teaching dictates that 'immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell'.
Scalfari, 93, in his fifth interview of Pope Francis published in La Repubblica, asked what happened to 'bad souls' after their bodies died.
Denial: Hours before the incident in the Basilica, Pope Francis had to deny that he had told an Italian journalist that hell did not exist +2
Denial: Hours before the incident in the Basilica, Pope Francis had to deny that he had told an Italian journalist that hell did not exist
'They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear,' he quoted the Pope as replying.
'There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls.'
The Vatican on Thursday said the Italian journalist and the Pope had a private meeting but claimed it was 'without giving him any interview'.
Holy Week sees floods of pilgrims and tourists visiting St. Peter's, taking part in Pope Francis' ceremonies, which are capped by Easter Sunday celebrations outside in St. Peter's Square.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5561483/Plaster-rains-ceiling-St-Peters-Basilica.html#ixzz5BE92ZMNY
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Facebook Is Releasing a New Tool to Delete Your Data. Here’s How to Do It - TIME
Facebook Is Releasing a New Tool to Delete Your Data. Here’s How to Do It
Posted: 28 Mar 2018 07:03 AM PDT
Facebook Inc. said it will make it more straight-forward for users to change their privacy settings and delete data they’ve already shared with the social-media company.
The announcement is part of Facebook’s efforts to answer the firestorm of criticism that’s arisen in the wake of revelations that data from 50 million people was accessed by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica without their permission. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify in front of the U.S. Congress in the coming weeks, and the company has delayed unveiling a new home speaker product to reevaluate how it uses user data, according to people familiar with the matter.
Shares were up 1.9 percent in early trading at 7:36 a.m. in New York. The social-media giant’s stock has fallen 18 percent since the Cambridge Analytica news broke earlier this month.
Most of the security page updates have been in the works for some time, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan and Deputy General Counsel Ashlie Beringer wrote in a statement Wednesday, “but the events of the past several days underscore their importance.” The new system will allow users to access settings from a single place instead of having to go to some 20 different screens.
Facebook has produced multiple iterations to its privacy settings pages over the years, often in response to criticism that the system is too complicated for most people to understand what they are and aren’t sharing. From the new setting page, people will be able to delete specific things they’ve shared or liked in the past, stopping advertisers from having access to that information.
Facebook shares rise in pre-market trading after announcing a new privacy tool to allow users to delete data https://t.co/TnZfNvFYHT pic.twitter.com/3IWdJvuMvM
— Bloomberg (@business) March 28, 2018
Users still won’t be able to delete data that they had given third-party apps on the platform previously, even if it was used for reasons other than what users agreed to. That data, downloaded over years of Facebook users freely giving apps such as games and personality quizzes access to their information, is largely still stored outside of Facebook’s grasp by the private individuals and companies who built those applications.
Posted: 28 Mar 2018 07:03 AM PDT
Facebook Inc. said it will make it more straight-forward for users to change their privacy settings and delete data they’ve already shared with the social-media company.
The announcement is part of Facebook’s efforts to answer the firestorm of criticism that’s arisen in the wake of revelations that data from 50 million people was accessed by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica without their permission. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify in front of the U.S. Congress in the coming weeks, and the company has delayed unveiling a new home speaker product to reevaluate how it uses user data, according to people familiar with the matter.
Shares were up 1.9 percent in early trading at 7:36 a.m. in New York. The social-media giant’s stock has fallen 18 percent since the Cambridge Analytica news broke earlier this month.
Most of the security page updates have been in the works for some time, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan and Deputy General Counsel Ashlie Beringer wrote in a statement Wednesday, “but the events of the past several days underscore their importance.” The new system will allow users to access settings from a single place instead of having to go to some 20 different screens.
Facebook has produced multiple iterations to its privacy settings pages over the years, often in response to criticism that the system is too complicated for most people to understand what they are and aren’t sharing. From the new setting page, people will be able to delete specific things they’ve shared or liked in the past, stopping advertisers from having access to that information.
Facebook shares rise in pre-market trading after announcing a new privacy tool to allow users to delete data https://t.co/TnZfNvFYHT pic.twitter.com/3IWdJvuMvM
— Bloomberg (@business) March 28, 2018
Users still won’t be able to delete data that they had given third-party apps on the platform previously, even if it was used for reasons other than what users agreed to. That data, downloaded over years of Facebook users freely giving apps such as games and personality quizzes access to their information, is largely still stored outside of Facebook’s grasp by the private individuals and companies who built those applications.
As Facebook Struggles With Privacy, Adobe Announces It’s Helping Companies Track People Across Devices- TIME Business
As Facebook Struggles With Privacy, Adobe Announces It’s Helping Companies Track People Across Devices
Posted: 28 Mar 2018 05:10 PM PDT
Some 60 companies including such leading brands as Subway, Sprint and the NFL are joining forces to help each other follow you around online.
Adobe, a company better known for Photoshop and PDF files, says the new Device Co-op initiative it is organizing will help companies offer more personalized experiences and make ads less annoying by filtering out products and services you have already bought or will never buy. Under the initiative, Adobe can tell you’re the same person on a home PC, a work laptop, a phone and a tablet by analyzing past sign-ins with member companies.
The initiative comes amid heightened privacy sensitivities after reports that Facebook allowed a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, to harvest data on millions of Facebook users to influence elections. Facebook also has been criticized for collecting call and text logs from phones running Google’s Android system.
Adobe’s initiative underscores the role data plays in helping companies make money. Many of the initial uses are for better ad targeting.
The company timed Wednesday’s announcement to a digital marketing conference it is hosting this week in Las Vegas. Adobe executives said they believed their initiative offers strong privacy safeguards and weren’t worried about a backlash in light of the Facebook scandal.
“With this stuff coming out now around Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, the bar has to be so high in terms of privacy,” Adobe executive Amit Ahuja said.
Adobe says no personal data is being exchanged among participating companies, which also include Allstate, Lenovo, Intel, Barnes & Noble, Subaru and the Food Network. Adobe says the program links about 300 million consumers across nearly 2 billion devices in the U.S. and Canada.
The program would let Sprint, for instance, know that Bob is already a customer when he visits from a new device. Bob wouldn’t get a promotion to switch from another carrier, but might get instead a phone upgrade offer. Or if Mary has declared herself a Giants fan on the NFL’s app, she might see ads with Giants banners when visiting NFL.com from a laptop for the first time.
All this might feel creepy, but such cross-device tracking is already commonly done by matching attributes such as devices that from the same internet location, or IP address. Consumers typically have little control over it.
Adobe says it will give consumers a chance to opt out of such tracking. And it’s breaking industry practices in a few ways. Adobe says it will honor opt-out requests for all participating companies and for all devices at once. It’s more typical for such setups to require people do so one by one. All companies in the initiative are listed on Adobe’s website, a break from some companies’ practice of referring only to unspecified partners.
“We’re doing everything we can not letting brands hide themselves,” Ahuja said.
But in taking an opt-out approach, which is common in the industry, Adobe assumes that users consent. And it places the burden on consumers to learn about this initiative and to figure out how they can opt out of it.
Facebook 'ugly truth' growth memo haunts firm - BBC News
30/3/2018
Facebook 'ugly truth' growth memo haunts firm
Andrew Bosworth says his memo was intended to be provocative
A Facebook executive's memo that claimed the "ugly truth" was that anything it did to grow was justified has been made public, embarrassing the company.
The 2016 post said that this applied even if it meant people might die as a result of bullying or terrorism.
Both the author and the company's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, have denied they actually believe the sentiment.
But it risks overshadowing the firm's efforts to tackle an earlier scandal.
Facebook has been under intense scrutiny since it acknowledged that it had received reports that a political consultancy - Cambridge Analytica - had not destroyed data harvested from about 50 million of its users years earlier.
So we connect more people.
That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack co-ordinated on our tools.
And still we connect people.
The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good. It is perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story as far as we are concerned.
That's why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it.
The memo was first made public by the Buzzfeed news site, and was written by Andrew Bosworth.
Mr Bosworth - who co-invented Facebook's News Feed - has held high-level posts at the social network since 2006, and is currently in charge of its virtual reality efforts.
Mr Bosworth has since tweeted that he "didn't agree" with the post at the time he had posted it, but he had shared it with staff to be "provocative."
"Having a debate around hard topics like these is a critical part of our process and to do that effectively we have to be able to consider even bad ideas," he added.
Facebook privacy settings revamped after scandal
Cambridge Analytica files spell out election tactics
Data row: Facebook's Zuckerberg will not appear before MPs
Facebook's chief says that Facebook does not believe connecting people is "enough by itself"
Mark Zuckerberg has issued his own statement.
"Boz is a talented leader who says many provocative things," it said.
"This was one that most people at Facebook including myself disagreed with strongly. We've never believed the ends justify the means."
A follow-up report by the Verge revealed that dozens of Facebook's employees have subsequently used its internal chat tools to discuss concerns that such material had been leaked to the media.
By Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent
What immediately struck me about this leaked memo was the line about "all the questionable contact importing practices".
When I downloaded my Facebook data recently, it was the presence of thousands of my phone contacts that startled me. But the company's attitude seemed to be that this was normal and it was up to users to switch off the function if they didn't like it.
What we now know is that in 2016 a very senior executive thought this kind of data gathering was questionable.
So, why is it only now that the company is having a debate about this and other dubious practices?
Until now, Facebook has not been leaky. Perhaps we will soon get more insights from insiders as this adolescent business tries to grow up and come to terms with its true nature.
Fact checking
The disclosure coincided with Facebook's latest efforts to address the public and investors' concerns with its management.
Its shares are trading about 14% lower than they were before the Cambridge Analytica scandal began, and several high profile figures have advocated deleting Facebook accounts.
The company hosted a press conference on Thursday, at which it said it had:
begun fact-checking photos and videos posted in France, and would expand this to other countries soon
developed a new fake account investigative tool to prevent harmful election-related activities
started work on a public archive that will make it possible for journalists and others to investigate political-labelled ads posted to its platform
In previous days it had also announced a revamp of its privacy settings, and said it would restrict the amount of data exchanged with businesses that collect information on behalf of advertisers.
The latest controversy is likely, however, to provide added ammunition for critics.
CNN reported earlier this week that Mr Zuckerberg had decided to testify before Congress "within a matter of weeks" after refusing a request to do so before UK MPs. However, the BBC has been unable to independently verify this claim.
Facebook 'ugly truth' growth memo haunts firm
Andrew Bosworth says his memo was intended to be provocative
A Facebook executive's memo that claimed the "ugly truth" was that anything it did to grow was justified has been made public, embarrassing the company.
The 2016 post said that this applied even if it meant people might die as a result of bullying or terrorism.
Both the author and the company's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, have denied they actually believe the sentiment.
But it risks overshadowing the firm's efforts to tackle an earlier scandal.
Facebook has been under intense scrutiny since it acknowledged that it had received reports that a political consultancy - Cambridge Analytica - had not destroyed data harvested from about 50 million of its users years earlier.
So we connect more people.
That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack co-ordinated on our tools.
And still we connect people.
The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good. It is perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story as far as we are concerned.
That's why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it.
The memo was first made public by the Buzzfeed news site, and was written by Andrew Bosworth.
Mr Bosworth - who co-invented Facebook's News Feed - has held high-level posts at the social network since 2006, and is currently in charge of its virtual reality efforts.
Mr Bosworth has since tweeted that he "didn't agree" with the post at the time he had posted it, but he had shared it with staff to be "provocative."
"Having a debate around hard topics like these is a critical part of our process and to do that effectively we have to be able to consider even bad ideas," he added.
Facebook privacy settings revamped after scandal
Cambridge Analytica files spell out election tactics
Data row: Facebook's Zuckerberg will not appear before MPs
Facebook's chief says that Facebook does not believe connecting people is "enough by itself"
Mark Zuckerberg has issued his own statement.
"Boz is a talented leader who says many provocative things," it said.
"This was one that most people at Facebook including myself disagreed with strongly. We've never believed the ends justify the means."
A follow-up report by the Verge revealed that dozens of Facebook's employees have subsequently used its internal chat tools to discuss concerns that such material had been leaked to the media.
By Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent
What immediately struck me about this leaked memo was the line about "all the questionable contact importing practices".
When I downloaded my Facebook data recently, it was the presence of thousands of my phone contacts that startled me. But the company's attitude seemed to be that this was normal and it was up to users to switch off the function if they didn't like it.
What we now know is that in 2016 a very senior executive thought this kind of data gathering was questionable.
So, why is it only now that the company is having a debate about this and other dubious practices?
Until now, Facebook has not been leaky. Perhaps we will soon get more insights from insiders as this adolescent business tries to grow up and come to terms with its true nature.
Fact checking
The disclosure coincided with Facebook's latest efforts to address the public and investors' concerns with its management.
Its shares are trading about 14% lower than they were before the Cambridge Analytica scandal began, and several high profile figures have advocated deleting Facebook accounts.
The company hosted a press conference on Thursday, at which it said it had:
begun fact-checking photos and videos posted in France, and would expand this to other countries soon
developed a new fake account investigative tool to prevent harmful election-related activities
started work on a public archive that will make it possible for journalists and others to investigate political-labelled ads posted to its platform
In previous days it had also announced a revamp of its privacy settings, and said it would restrict the amount of data exchanged with businesses that collect information on behalf of advertisers.
The latest controversy is likely, however, to provide added ammunition for critics.
CNN reported earlier this week that Mr Zuckerberg had decided to testify before Congress "within a matter of weeks" after refusing a request to do so before UK MPs. However, the BBC has been unable to independently verify this claim.
Palestinians mass in thousands for protest at Gaza-Israel border - BBC News
30/3/2018
Palestinians mass in thousands for protest at Gaza-Israel border
Palestinians march to mark Land Day east of Gaza City
Palestinians in Gaza have marched in their thousands to the Israel border at the start of a six-week-long protest.
Palestinian officials say a number have been wounded by Israeli gunfire, after earlier reporting the death of a farmer due to tank fire.
The Israeli military reported "rioting" at six places and that it was "firing towards main instigators".
Palestinians have pitched five camps near the border for the protest, dubbed the Great March of Return.
Who are Hamas?
Has Hamas changed?
Will unity deal end Palestinian feud?
What is the latest at the border?
Palestinian media are reporting about 7,000 people are protesting along the border.
Palestinian sources say five people have been wounded by gunfire from the Israeli military, three near Jabaliya in northern Gaza and two near Rafah in the south. Tear gas has also been fired.
Other reports put the number of wounded as high as 50.
Image caption
Map showing the position of the five protest camps. Source: Haaretz
Before the protest started, Palestinian officials said Israeli tank fire had killed 27-year-old farmer Omar Samour and injured a second man near Khan Yunis in the south.
Witnesses say the two men were collecting parsley in a field, BBC Gaza producer Rushdi Abualouf reports.
Relatives of the dead Palestinian grieve at a hospital in southern Gaza
Hamas, the militant group that dominates the Gaza Strip, has accused Israel of trying to intimidate Palestinians by killing the farmer and by urging them not to participate in the protests.
Addressing protesters, Hamas senior political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said "we will not concede a single inch of the land of Palestine".
What have the Israelis said?
The Israeli military oversees a no-go zone along the Gaza border, citing security concerns, and has doubled its troop presence for the protest.
Israeli security forces take position as Palestinians gather at Beit Hanoun
It fears the protest could be an attempt at a mass breach of the border.
The military said that a tank had fired at two suspects after suspicious activity near a security fence near Khan Yunis and that it was aware of the reports of the death.
The Israel Defense Forces later said troops were "firing towards the main instigators" to break up rioting.
IDF
✔
@IDFSpokesperson
Update from the Gaza Strip: Thousands of Palestinians are rioting in 6 locations in the Gaza Strip, rolling burning tires and hurling stones at the security fence and at IDF troops, who are responding with riot dispersal means and firing towards main instigators
8:30 PM - Mar 30, 2018
The Israeli foreign ministry has said the protest was a "deliberate attempt to provoke a confrontation with Israel" and that "responsibility for any clashes lies solely with Hamas and other participating Palestinian organisations".
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman took the unusual step of tweeting in Arabic, accusing Hamas of playing with citizens' lives and warning people not to take part.
What is the protest about?
Palestinians have erected five main camp areas along the Israel border for the protest, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah near the Egyptian border.
The Great March of Return protests were starting on Friday, as 30 March marks Land Day, which commemorates the killing of six protesters by Israeli security forces during demonstrations over land confiscation in 1976.
The protest is scheduled to end on 15 May, which Palestinians call Nakba (catastrophe) and which marks the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.
Palestinians have long demanded their right to return but Israel says they should settle in a future Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.
Palestinians mass in thousands for protest at Gaza-Israel border
Palestinians march to mark Land Day east of Gaza City
Palestinians in Gaza have marched in their thousands to the Israel border at the start of a six-week-long protest.
Palestinian officials say a number have been wounded by Israeli gunfire, after earlier reporting the death of a farmer due to tank fire.
The Israeli military reported "rioting" at six places and that it was "firing towards main instigators".
Palestinians have pitched five camps near the border for the protest, dubbed the Great March of Return.
Who are Hamas?
Has Hamas changed?
Will unity deal end Palestinian feud?
What is the latest at the border?
Palestinian media are reporting about 7,000 people are protesting along the border.
Palestinian sources say five people have been wounded by gunfire from the Israeli military, three near Jabaliya in northern Gaza and two near Rafah in the south. Tear gas has also been fired.
Other reports put the number of wounded as high as 50.
Image caption
Map showing the position of the five protest camps. Source: Haaretz
Before the protest started, Palestinian officials said Israeli tank fire had killed 27-year-old farmer Omar Samour and injured a second man near Khan Yunis in the south.
Witnesses say the two men were collecting parsley in a field, BBC Gaza producer Rushdi Abualouf reports.
Relatives of the dead Palestinian grieve at a hospital in southern Gaza
Hamas, the militant group that dominates the Gaza Strip, has accused Israel of trying to intimidate Palestinians by killing the farmer and by urging them not to participate in the protests.
Addressing protesters, Hamas senior political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said "we will not concede a single inch of the land of Palestine".
What have the Israelis said?
The Israeli military oversees a no-go zone along the Gaza border, citing security concerns, and has doubled its troop presence for the protest.
Israeli security forces take position as Palestinians gather at Beit Hanoun
It fears the protest could be an attempt at a mass breach of the border.
The military said that a tank had fired at two suspects after suspicious activity near a security fence near Khan Yunis and that it was aware of the reports of the death.
The Israel Defense Forces later said troops were "firing towards the main instigators" to break up rioting.
IDF
✔
@IDFSpokesperson
Update from the Gaza Strip: Thousands of Palestinians are rioting in 6 locations in the Gaza Strip, rolling burning tires and hurling stones at the security fence and at IDF troops, who are responding with riot dispersal means and firing towards main instigators
8:30 PM - Mar 30, 2018
The Israeli foreign ministry has said the protest was a "deliberate attempt to provoke a confrontation with Israel" and that "responsibility for any clashes lies solely with Hamas and other participating Palestinian organisations".
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman took the unusual step of tweeting in Arabic, accusing Hamas of playing with citizens' lives and warning people not to take part.
What is the protest about?
Palestinians have erected five main camp areas along the Israel border for the protest, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah near the Egyptian border.
The Great March of Return protests were starting on Friday, as 30 March marks Land Day, which commemorates the killing of six protesters by Israeli security forces during demonstrations over land confiscation in 1976.
The protest is scheduled to end on 15 May, which Palestinians call Nakba (catastrophe) and which marks the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.
Palestinians have long demanded their right to return but Israel says they should settle in a future Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.
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