'Biden: Zuckerberg’s decision to end Meta fact-checking is ‘really shameful’'

 Outgoing President Biden weighed in on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to end the fact-checking programs on Meta’s platforms, calling it a “really shameful” choice since “telling the truth matters.” 

“The whole idea of walking away from fact-checking as well as not reporting anything having to do with discrimination regarding…I find it to be contrary to American justice. Telling the truth matters,” Biden told reporters on Friday during an unexpected and rare question-and-answer session in the Roosevelt Room. 

“I don’t know what that’s all about, it’s completely contrary to what America is about,” he added. “We want to tell the truth. The idea that a billionaire can buy something and say that they won’t fact check, and then you have millions of people reading it — I think it’s really shameful.” 

Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday in a video that Meta would axe the fact-checking feature, along with altering other content-moderation policies, on its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads, which all host billions of people daily. 

“First, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.” the tech billionaire said, adding that the 2024 presidential election was the main reason for making the decision. 

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said. “So we’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms.”

Biden said during an outgoing interview with USA Today, which was published on Wednesday, that his biggest regret is failing to counter misinformation, including assertions from his former political rival and successor, President-elect Trump. 

During his appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” Friday, Zuckerberg stated that the current administration’s officials would “curse” and “scream” at Meta employees when they disagreed with the administration’s takedown request regarding COVID-19 pandemic-related content. 

Ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Meta has made some significant internal changes. The tech giant told its workers on Friday that it would also yank its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) team and roll back related programs, citing the evolving “legal and policy landscape” in the country. 

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5080678-joe-biden-mark-zuckerberg-meta-fact-checking/

LA residents call for ‘immediate recall’ of Mayor over wildfires, petitions over 50K signatures

 Angry Angelenos want to filet this bass.

More than 50,000 outraged Los Angeles residents demand the ouster of lefty Mayor Karen Bass in a new petition, ripping her “gross mismanagement” in her disastrous response to the devastating wildfires ravaging the city. 

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Bass’ handling of the fire has come under heavy criticism.County of Los Angeles

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Thousands of people signed a petition demanding Bass’ resignation.change.org

“We . . . urgently call for the immediate recall of [Bass] due to her gross mismanagement and failure to effectively respond to the devastating 2025 fires in and around the city,” reads the Change.org petition created Wednesday, which had amassed 56,000 signatures by Saturday morning. 

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Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered an investigation as firefighters run out of water.Getty Images

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Thousands of structures have been destroyed by the fire.ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA

Bass was 7,400 miles away in Africa, at the inauguration of Ghana’s president, as flames began engulfing the City of Angels.

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“Families have been displaced, homes destroyed, and livelihoods shattered –- yet Mayor Bass has been absent from the frontlines, choosing to travel abroad while her constituents suffer,” reads the petition, which calls for “a full, transparent investigation into the failures in disaster preparedness, response, and resource allocation that left [LA] vulnerable.”

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Firefighters have been working around the clock to calm the flames.ZUMAPRESS.com

Bass slashed $17.6 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year — which critics blasted as “a bad call.”

Nearly 130,000 Californians have been under evacuation orders, and 11 people have perished.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/11/us-news/outraged-la-residents-call-for-immediate-recall-of-mayor-karen-bass-in-new-petition/

NATO Sends Two Ships To Guard Baltic Sea Infrastructure From Russian 'Hybrid Warfare'

 NATO is strengthening its military presence in the Baltic Sea in response to the Christmas Day severing of the Estlink 2 electricity cable and four telecom cables linking Finland and Estonia.

A month prior to that incident, in November, two other submarine telecommunication cables, the BCS East-West Interlink and C-Lion1 fiber-optic cables, were damaged.

Soon after the alleged sabotage the West charged that a Russian 'shadow ship' intentionally dragged its anchor on the sea bed in order to damage the vital telecoms links. The vessel in Finnish custody is the Cook Islands-flagged Eagle S.

European media reported that as of days ago the initial cables which were damaged connecting Estonia and Finland have been repaired. However, another damaged cable, reportedly sabotaged later in December could yet to months more to be up and running.

"Estlink 2, the power cable damaged on December 25, has not yet been repaired, with work expected to take several months, according to Finnish operator Fingrid and Elering of Estonia," DW reports.

On Friday Finland's Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen announced that the NATO military alliance is sending "two vessels and we are also increasing other activities and presence in the area."

Illustrative image via NATO

At the start of this week the the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force had announced it would be ramping up its surveillance of undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

"Finland has long been concerned about the risks to environmental and maritime safety posed by the shadow fleet used by Russia," Valtonen said Friday. "It is clear that the shadow fleet is also a threat to critical underwater infrastructure."

European authorities are still investigating the matter and questioning the crew. There have been reports that the anchor has been recovered from the bottom of the ocean floor.

The West has loudly condemned what it's calling Russia's 'hybrid warfare' targeting key infrastructure in European telecoms. However, officials also still speak in terms of 'assumptions'...

Germany’s defense minister was quick to announce that “no one believes that these cables were cut accidentally,” hammering the point home by adding that “we have to assume … it is sabotage.”

The Kremlin has of course denied all of these allegations and has condemned what it calls a Russophobic witch hunt which blames any and all Western infrastructure failure on Moscow.

The seas of northern Europe have been closely watched ever since the biggest single sabotage event of the Ukraine war - the Nord Stream pipeline explosions. In the case of Nord Stream, the latest consensus is that it was not Russia... but either the CIA or Ukraine.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nato-sends-two-ships-guard-baltic-sea-infrastructure-russian-hybrid-warfare

Meloni: Soros Is Interfering In Democracies, Not Musk

 Via Remix News,

At a press conference in Rome earlier this year, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that Elon Musk’s political posts on X do not pose a threat to democracy; while oligarch George Soros, however, continuously interferes in the politics of other nations, according to Italy’s leader.

“The problem is when wealthy people use their resources to finance parties, associations and political exponents all over the world to influence the political choices of nation states”, Meloni told reporters at an annual press conference.

“That’s not what Musk is doing,” she added.

“Elon Musk financed an election campaign in his country, by his candidate, in a system in which, by the way, I would point out that this is quite common,” Meloni said.

“But I am not aware of Elon Musk financing parties, associations or political exponents around the world. This, for example, is what George Soros does.”

“And yes, I consider that to be dangerous interference in the affairs of nation states and in their sovereignty,” she noted.

Meloni also pointed to other wealthy people actively funding parties and NGOs around the world to influence local policies.

"This is not the first time that famous and wealthy people have expressed their opinions. I have seen many such cases, often against me, and no one was offended then..."

Musk, she said, is a very rich man who expresses his opinion and does not pose a threat to democracy. 

“Is the problem that Elon Musk is influential and rich or that he is not left-wing?” asked Meloni.

She also noted that she and many others on the right are not financially dependent on Musk, unlike many on the left who are funded by Soros, or have been funded by him over the years.

Meloni denied ever taking any money from Musk, “unlike those who have taken it from Soros”.

She also denied various media reports that her government is on the verge of signing a massive deal with Musk’s company SpaceX.

However, even if that were true, signing a business deal is far different than receiving financial aid for political activities, which is behavior that Soros often partakes in with his beneficiaries.

In response to a journalist’s question, Meloni also spoke about Elon Musk’s open support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Meloni stressed that if anyone tried to influence the Italian elections, it was Germany, under the then Social Democratic-Liberal-Green government.

“I would like to remind you of the German side’s interference in the Italian election campaign,” Meloni said, referring to previous German concerns about the right-wing position she represented.

Soros has long been a controversial figure due to his outsized role in the politics of nations around the world, however, few on the left-liberal spectrum ever criticized this interference.

Soros has also long called for the removal of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, with both figures antagonistic towards each other over the years.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/meloni-soros-interfering-democracies-not-musk