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To stop false news from spreading on its platform, Facebook has said it put in place a three-pronged strategy that constitutes removing accounts and content that violate its policies, reducing the distribution of inauthentic content and informing people by giving them more context on the posts they see.

Another part of its strategy in some countries is partnering with third-party fact-checkers to review and rate the accuracy of articles and posts on Facebook, Tessa Lyons, a Facebook product manager on News Feed focused on false news, said in a statement on Thursday.

The social media giant is facing criticism for its role in enabling political manipulation in several countries around the world. It has also come under the scanner for allegedly fuelling ethnic conflicts owing to its failure to stop the deluge of hate-filled posts against the disenfranchised Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.

"False news is bad for people and bad for Facebook. We're making significant investments to stop it from spreading and to promote high-quality journalism and news literacy," Lyons said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday told the European Parliament leaders that the social networking giant is trying to plug loopholes across its services, including curbing fake news and political interference on its platform in the wake of upcoming elections globally, including in India.

Lyons said Facebook's three-pronged strategy roots out the bad actors that frequently spread fake stories.

"It dramatically decreases the reach of those stories. And it helps people stay informed without stifling public discourse," Lyons added.

Although false news does not violate Facebook's Community Standards, it often violates the social network's polices in other categories, such as spam, hate speech or fake accounts, which it removes remove.

"For example, if we find a Facebook Page pretending to be run by Americans that's actually operating out of Macedonia, that violates our requirement that people use their real identities and not impersonate others. So we'll take down that whole Page, immediately eliminating any posts they made that might have been false," Lyons explained.

Apart from this, Facebook is also using machine learning to help its teams detect fraud and enforce its policies against spam.

"We now block millions of fake accounts every day when they try to register," Lyons added.

A lot of the misinformation that spreads on Facebook is financially motivated, much like email spam in the 90s, the social network said.

If spammers can get enough people to click on fake stories and visit their sites, they will make money off the ads they show.

"We're figuring out spammers' common tactics and reducing the distribution of those kinds of stories in News Feed. We've started penalizing clickbait, links shared more frequently by spammers, and links to low-quality web pages, also known as 'ad farms'," Lyons said.

"We also take action against entire Pages and websites that repeatedly share false news, reducing their overall News Feed distribution," Lyons said.

Facebook said it does not want to make money off of misinformation or help those who create it profit, and so such publishers are not allowed to run ads or use its monetisation features like Instant Articles.

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Nations around the world reacted with alarm Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced a halt to the sizable funding the US sends to the World Health Organisation. Health experts warned the move could jeopardize global efforts to stop the Coronavirus pandemic.

Trump said he was instructing his administration to halt funding for WHO pending a review of its role "in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus." The United States is WHO's largest single donor, contributing between $400 million and $500 million annually to the Geneva-based agency in recent years. He has repeatedly labelled COVID-19 the "Chinese virus" and criticised the UN health agency for being too lenient on China, where the novel virus first emerged late last year.

EU 'deeply regrets' move
An investigation by The Associated Press has found that s ix days of delays between when Chinese officials k new about the virus and when they warned the public allowed the pandemic to bloom into an enormous public health disaster. The European Union said Trump has "no reason" to freeze WHO funding at this critical stage and called for measures to promote unity instead of division. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc "deeply" regrets the suspension of funds and added that the WHO is now "needed more than ever" to combat the pandemic.

Stand with WHO: Oz
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he sympathised with some of Trump's criticisms of WHO and China but that Australia would continue to fund the UN health agency. Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Maas, pushed back at Trump's announcement. Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, called said. "This is the agency that's looking out for other countries and leading efforts to stop the pandemic. This is exactly the time when they need more funding, not less. Trump is angry, but his anger is being directed in a way that is going to ultimately hurt US interests."

A selfish decision: Russia
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency TASS, "I's a sign of the very selfish approach of the US authorities to what is happening in the world." Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the country is "seriously concerned" about the US government's decision to suspend funding and hinted at stepping up its monetary contribution to WHO. The WHO did not respond to repeated requests from The Associated Press for comment, but its but Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted, "There is no time to waste".

Now, Trump says states to decide on reopening economy

A day after claiming "total authority" in decision-making, Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would leave it to individual governors to decide on the reopening of the economy in their respective states, which in some cases could be even before May 1. COVID-19 has so far infected over two million people worldwide. In the US, over 25,000 have lost their lives and more than 6 lakhs have tested positive. Over 95 per cent of the 330 million population in the US are under stay-at-home order.

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Washington: Girls her age play Candy Crush or like watching cartoons, but 15-year-old Hita Gupta peps up hundreds of lonely Americans, including the elderly and children, marooned in nursing homes due to the COVID-19 lockdown by sending them gift packs and spirit-lifting notes.

The 10th-grade Indian-American student from Pennsylvania's Conestoga High School has an NGO 'Brightening A Day' and is using it to spread love, hope and joy among America's nursing homes' residents, especially senior citizens, to help them keep at bay their boredom arising from the COVID-19 restrictions.

Gupta brightens up their lives by sending them handwritten notes and gift packs containing puzzle and colouring books and a packet colour pencils.

"It saddens me to think of how lonely or depressed many nursing home residents feel because they cannot see their loved ones. Our seniors are already one of the most isolated groups. A research has shown that more than 40 per cent of seniors regularly feel lonely," Gupta told PTI in an email interaction.

"During this uncertain time, which is causing panic among many seniors, it's our responsibility to let them know that they are not alone. I initially started sending gift packs to nursing homes using self-funding. Now, I have sent them to residents of 16 local nursing homes," she said.

Each gift pack contains one puzzle book, one colouring book, and a pack of colour pencils/crayons, Gupta said. "It also contains an uplifting note written by my 9-year-old brother Divit Gupta," she said.

Her NGO has reached more than 2,700 kids and seniors in 50 hospitals and nursing homes in seven different States in the US with hand-made cards on holidays like Christmas and Valentine's Day. "We have also sent school supplies and cards to orphanages in India," Gupta said.

Gupta's initiative has won her praise from one and all.

"Need some inspiration? 15-year-old Hita Gupta, from Pennsylvania, USA, is brightening the lives of nursing home residents with gift packs through her NGO, Brighten A Day," the US Embassy in New Delhi wrote on its Facebook page.

"She aims to lift the spirits of those who are in need of some cheer by sending them love, hope, and joy through cards and gifts. During the COVID-19 lockdown period, she is sending handwritten notes and gift packs to cheer the residents and help them overcome loneliness and isolation. More power to you Hita!" the embassy said.

Nursing homes throughout the US are limiting the interaction of senior citizens who remain mostly confined to their rooms. Outsiders are also prohibited form visiting them, resulting in feelings of loneliness and isolation in many of them.

The US is the worst affected country from the coronavirus, with 842,000 infections and over 46,000 deaths reported so far. According to Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention, eight in every 10 deaths due to the coronavirus reported in the US are adults, and people who are 65 years old or above.

Globally, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 185,000 lives and infected more than 2.6 million people, according to the Johns Hopkins University data.

With the Coronavirus lockdown being the only pressing issue one can think of right now, one can have a constant fear of contracting the deadly virus and taking precautions to protect oneself from it. The pandemic can even takeover one’s thoughts to an extend that it feels that even asteroids are wearing face masks.

A 1.5 km wide asteroid, which is almost half the size of Mount Everest is set to fly by Earth next week, and its shape has already generated curiosity among netizens. The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico tweeted about the asteroid saying that it looks like it wearing a face mask. The observatory also shared a picture of the asteroid it snapped recently. The team researching about the asteroid in the observatory has been wearing the protective masks while at work as a precaution for the Coronavirus pandemic. They have likening the asteroid’s appearance to themselves in the hilarious tweet.

“#TeamRadar and the @NAICobservatory staff are taking the proper safety measures as we continue observations. This week we have been observing near-Earth asteroid 1998 OR2, which looks like it's wearing a mask! It's at least 1.5 km across and is passing 16 lunar distances away!” read the tweet. The team also shared pictures of their members wear masks and posing against the picture of the asteroid.

#TeamRadar and the @NAICobservatory staff are taking the proper safety measures as we continue observations. This week we have been observing near-Earth asteroid 1998 OR2, which looks like it's wearing a mask! It's at least 1.5 km across and is passing 16 lunar distances away! pic.twitter.com/X2mQJCT2Qg

— Arecibo Radar (@AreciboRadar) April 18, 2020

In a statement to CNN, Anne Virkki, head of the planetary radar at the Observatory said that the small-scale topographic features of the asteroid such as the hills and ridges are 'fascinating scientifically'. "But since we are all thinking about Covid-19, these features make it look like 1998 OR2 remembered to wear a mask," she added.

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Almost 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy, nearly half of the global workforce, face an immediate danger of losing their livelihoods due to the continued sharp decline in working hours because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said. Over 430 million enterprises in hard-hit sectors such as retail and manufacturing risk "serious disruption", the UN agency added. The findings appear in the ILO Monitor third edition released on Wednesday.

Globally, there are some 3.3 billion workers. Two billion have jobs in the informal economy, the most vulnerable workers in the labour market. ILO said 1.6 billion in the informal economy "have suffered massive damage to their capacity to earn a living" as a result of the economic meltdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to lockdowns or because they work in hard-hit sectors, these workers globally have seen a 60 per cent drop in income during the first month of the crisis. This translates into a over 80 per cent decline in Africa and the Americas, 70 per cent in Europe and Central Asia, and 21.6 per cent in Asia and the Pacific, the ILO said.

The ILO called for "urgent, targeted and flexible measures" to support both workers and business, particularly smaller enterprises and those in the informal economy.

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With the Coronavirus outbreak wreaking havoc across the globe with millions of people being infected and scores of lives claimed, government have made wearing face masks mandatory for people. The decision has made face masks a prized commodity for people.

Traffic in California came to brief halt after drivers had stopped to pick up face masks that were littered on the road. Although it is not clear how the masks ended up spilled on the highway, CBS reported that a man was spotted throwing boxes of masks on the road from a white truck.

The California Highway Patrol-Hayward posted pictures of the incident on their Facebook page where scores of masks were found lying on the southbound lanes of Interstate 880. “Multiple individuals stopped in lanes and stepped out of their vehicles to pick up masks,” read the post, adding that debris has been cleared and the lanes were opened.

The post also appealed drivers not to step out of their vehicle on an active freeway. Many users commenting on the post criticized the driver who reportedly threw the mask on the road, instead of donating it. One user said, “Just terrible! That person has no respect.” Another user said, “The highway does not have a need for medical masks. Therefore, I would have donated to an entity that did! A user said, “What a waste of something necessary now.”

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a fertiliser factory completion ceremony, state media reported on Saturday, his first public appearance after 20 days of absence that sparked rumours about his health.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim cut the tape at the ceremony marking the completion of Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory in Sunchon, north of Pyongyang, on Friday. Photos released by KCNA showed Kim, dressed in a dark Mao suit, cutting the red ribbon during the ceremony and talking to accompanying officials with a smile on his face.

"All the participants broke into thunderous cheers of 'hurrah!' extending the greatest glory to the Supreme Leader who has brought about a new change in the development of Juche-based fertilizer industry and has led the grand revolutionary advance for strengthening self-supporting economy to a victory with his outstanding leadership," KCNA said. Juche is the concept of self-reliance.

Kim was also quoted as expressing "satisfaction about the wonderful creation". In a report last week, CNN had said that the US was looking into intelligence that Kim Jong-un was in "grave danger" after surgery.

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Owing to the coronavirus pandemic, tech giants Facebook and Google will allow the majority of their employees to work from home.

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Facebook last month poured in Rs 43,574 crore for a 9.99 per cent stake in India's oil-retail-telecom conglomerate-led Jio Platforms -- the largest investment for a minority stake by a tech giant.

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Norway’s law enforcement institutions have demonstrated commitment and ability in combating foreign bribery using a robust legal framework. Its new Penal Code, however, could create obstacles to enforcement by potentially narrowing jurisdiction over foreign bribery committed by Norwegians abroad.

Bella Thorne really likes to bare it all. The actress took to Instagram to show off some pretty raw behind the scenes photos of herself.

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