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A powerful talk about the need to do more to counter fake news has opened the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) 2018 conference in Vancouver.

Journalist Olga Yurkova described a false story in which the Ukrainian army had supposedly "crucified" a three-year-old child.

The story, reported by Russian state media, came from a woman claiming to be a refugee.

"The only problem was that the story was not true," explained Ms Yurkova.

That - and stories like it - led her to co-found StopFake, a fact-checking website set up to counter Russian propaganda in Ukraine.

The refugee, Galyna Pyshnyak, was in fact the wife of a pro-Russian militant.

The crucifixion never happened and even the location of the event was made up.

"The story claimed that the army had rounded up the locals in Lenin Square in the city of Seovyansk, but that square did not exist."

The story not only fooled a lot of people in both Ukraine and Russia but also led directly to people "taking up arms", Ms Yurkova claimed.

She told the TED audience that fake news represented a threat "to democracy and society".

"Ukraine has been subject to Russian propaganda for four years and now fake news is happening all over the world," she told the TED audience.

"People no longer know what is real and what is fake and a lot of people have stopped believing anything at all. This is even more dangerous."

StopFake was launched in 2014, specifically to deal with fake news in Ukraine.

It has since evolved into a sophisticated fact-checking organisation covering media sources in 11 languages.

To date, it has revealed more than 1,000 misleading news items in Ukraine and taught more than 10,000 people how to spot similar stories around the world.

Ms Yurkova offered some simple advice for anyone worried about how to distinguish fact from fiction.

"If the story is too emotional, too dramatic, it is likely it is not true. The truth is often boring," she said.

"Do your research, look at other sites. Google names and addresses. Society depends on trust and it is up to all of us to find a way to rebuild it."

Journalist Olga Yurkova described a false story in which the Ukrainian army had supposedly "crucified" a three-year-old child.

The story, reported by Russian state media, came from a woman claiming to be a refugee.

"The only problem was that the story was not true," explained Ms Yurkova.

Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ during her testimony. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States and that her testimony could not be verified.
The Nayirah testimony was a false testimony given before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990, by a 15-year-old girl who provided only her first name, Nayirah. The testimony was widely publicized, and was cited numerous times by United States senators and President George H. W. Bush in their rationale to back Kuwait in the Gulf War. In 1992, it was revealed that Nayirah's last name was al-Ṣabaḥ (Arabic: نيره الصباح‎) and that she was the daughter of Saud Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Furthermore, it was revealed that her testimony was organized as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait public relations campaign which was run by an American public relations firm Hill & Knowlton for the Kuwaiti government. Following this, al-Sabah's testimony has come to be regarded as a classic example of modern atrocity propaganda.[1][2]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of senators will introduce legislation on Wednesday to protect the office of the special counsel, one day after the White House said U.S. President Donald Trump had the authority to fire a special prosecutor investigating Russia and the 2016 election.
[...]
If passed, the legislation would allow the special counsel to be fired only “for good cause” by a senior Justice Department official, with a reason given in writing; provide recourse if the special counsel was fired without good cause; and preserve the staffing and materials of a pending investigation.

“We need to ensure not only that Special Counsel Mueller can complete his work without interference, but that special counsels in future investigations can, too,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons, one of the sponsors of the bill, said in a statement.

It was unclear whether the proposed law would pass.

On Tuesday, the Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said that while he thought Mueller should be allowed to continue his probe, he did not think legislation to protect him was necessary.

McConnell’s spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday.

Trump Says He’s ‘Calm And Calculated’ As Reports Detail His Rage

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes threatened late Tuesday to "impeach" FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if they fail to turn over the document that in 2016 launched the FBI's probe of Russian contacts with the Trump campaign.

"We're not going to just hold in contempt, we will have a plan to hold in contempt and impeach," Nunes said on Fox News.

Fox News and CNN both lost viewers from the first quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2018 — dropping 16 percent and 13 percent, respectively — as did pretty much every major cable network, according to Nielsen. MSNBC, on the other hand, surged to a 30 percent gain in the same period.

The Law Is Coming, Mr. Trump
...Mr. Trump has spent his career in the company of developers and celebrities, and also of grifters, cons, sharks, goons and crooks. He cuts corners, he lies, he cheats, he brags about it, and for the most part, he’s gotten away with it, protected by threats of litigation, hush money and his own bravado. Those methods may be proving to have their limits when they are applied from the Oval Office. Though Republican leaders in Congress still keep a cowardly silence, Mr. Trump now has real reason to be afraid. A raid on a lawyer’s office doesn’t happen every day; it means that multiple government officials, and a federal judge, had reason to believe they’d find evidence of a crime there and that they didn’t trust the lawyer not to destroy that evidence.

Bank of America announced it will stop lending money to manufacturers of military-style guns sold for civilian use, Vice Chairman Anne Finucane said yesterday.

“We want to contribute in any way we can to reduce these mass shootings,” she said, adding that the bank works with “just a handful of manufacturers,” with whom it has had “intense conversations over the last few months.” Bank of America does not intend “to finance these military-style firearms for civilian use,” Finucane said, noting that reactions to the new policy have been “mixed.”

Although Bank of America would not name any of the gun manufacturers it works with, its clients include such brands as the American Outdoor Brands Corporation (which owns the Smith & Wesson brand), Remington (which last month filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection), and Sturm Ruger & Company.

“These are clients we have enjoyed a relationship with,” Finucane said. “There are those I think will reduce their portfolios and we’ll work with them and others that will choose to do something else.”

Finucane stressed that Bank of America will continue to offer banking services to firearms retailers. Asking gun retailers to not sell certain types of handguns or long guns “gets into civil liberties” and is “a ways off,” she said.

A few days ago, which is to say an eternity in our Trump-dilated time, there was a story on NPR about anxious evangelicals’ seeking a meeting with the president.

Trump decries ‘corrupt’ Russia investigation as pressures mount

Scott Pruitt’s ethics problems are conservative ideology in action
Republicans like him because of the scandals, not despite them.