TDB Top 5 International Stories: Monday 16th January 2017

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5: Facebook Wants to Stem the Flow of Fake News Into Germany Before Election 

The social media giant is trying to learn from its mistakes, it would seem.

Facebook is trying to learn from its mistakes, it would seem, after it was heavily criticized for enabling the spread of “fake news” stories, which some say hijacked the minds of voters in the United States in the run-up to the election.

Amid that criticism, the social media giant developed a feature that essentially “flags” disputed news stories on its site. Now, Facebook plans to bring that feature to Germany, whose major election in September will determine Chancellor Angela Merkel’s future as the nation’s leader.

Vice News

 

4:  THE HORROR OF THE IRAQ WAR, ONE HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW

AFTER SADDAM HUSSEIN, after the U.S. invasion, after the Islamic State, what will Iraq ultimately look like? The future of Iraq, its borders, economy, religious and cultural identity, is a matter of constant speculation for foreign policy experts.

Now there’s a literary response, in the form of a new collection of short fiction, Iraq +100: Stories from a Century After the Invasion. In the book, Iraqi writers who are inside the country and outside it imagine their homeland one hundred years from the fateful month of March 2003, when the U.S. invasion began. Iraq +100 is a fine example of critical dystopia, a genre that the writer Junot Diaz recently described as “not just something that is ‘the bad place.’ It is something that maps, warns, and hopes.”

Iraq +100 was edited by Hassan Blasim, the author of a chilling, excellent book of stories called The Corpse Exhibition, which was published in 2014. Blasim is perhaps the best-known of the writers in Iraq +100. Almost all of the stories in The Corpse Exhibition include a fantastical element, but they are dark and grotesque, and the violence in them is surreal only until you think of what Iraqis have endured in recent decades. In the title story of The Corpse Exhibition, master assassins compete with one another to construct the most elaborate and impressive public displays of the bodies of their victims, describing maiming, splaying, and dismembering as an art form. Those and other stories made for grisly satire not far removed from real atrocities committed by U.S. troops and sectarian militias, and a queasy preview of the theatrical violence of executions carried out by the Islamic State, which swept through Iraq after Blasim’s book came out.

The Intercept

 

3: Francois Hollande: Two-state solution is the only way

A two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the only way to bring lasting peace and security to the Middle East, France President Francois Hollande said as officials and civil society groups from more than 70 countries gathered to discuss ways of bringing the conflict back to the negotiating table.

During Sunday’s conference in Paris, Hollande highlighted the wars in Syria and Iraq and said Middle East peace can only be achieved through a negotiated settlement directly between Palestinians and Israelis.

“How could we expect the Middle East to return to stability if we cannot find a solution for one of its oldest conflicts?” he asked.

Aljazeera

2: Mike Pence insists Trump campaign has not been in contact with Russia

Vice president-elect Mike Pence denied on Sunday that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign had any contacts with Russia, insisting investigations into Russian hacking of political parties are “a distraction”.

Since the election, US intelligence agencies have publicly concluded that the Kremlin orchestrated a series of hacks intended to create chaos, defeat Hillary Clinton and help Trump win the White House.

After weeks of doubting such opinions, Trump this week said: “I think it was Russia.” But he did not answer questions about alleged contacts between advisers and powerful Russians.

The Guardian 

 

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

1: Trump’s Pick for Defense Sec’y Made Millions in Defense Industry After His 2013 Retirement

During the confirmation hearing for retired General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, several senators asked whether he would support Defense Department projects in their home states, including Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). Mattis had a 41-year military career before he retired in 2013, and Politico reports his financial disclosure statement says that he is worth more than $10 million. Some of his wealth was garnered after he retired when he worked for General Dynamics, among other companies. We speak with retired Colonel Andrew Bacevich and Aaron Glantz, a senior reporter at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

Democracy Now