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Angela Merkel this week warned that fake news and bots may influence Germany’s national elections next year, days after she announced plans to seek a fourth term as the country’s chancellor. In a speech to parliament on Wednesday, Merkel said that fake news and bots have “manipulated” public opinion online, adding that lawmakers must “confront this phenomenon and if necessary, regulate it," the AFP reports. "Something has changed — as globalization has marched on, [political] debate is taking place in a completely new media environment. Opinions aren't formed the way they were 25 years ago," Merkel said. "Today we have fake sites, bots, trolls — things that regenerate themselves, reinforcing opinions with certain algorithms and we have to learn to deal with them." “Opinions aren't formed the way they were 25 years ago.” Donald Trump’s victory in this month’s presidential elections has sparked a debate over the rol...

President-elect Donald Trump says he told Tim Cook in a phone call recently that he intends to get Apple to build its products in the US. “I said, ‘Tim, you know one of the things that will be a real achievement for me is when I get Apple to build a big plant in the United States, or many big plants in the United States, where instead of going to China, and going to Vietnam, and going to the places that you go to, you’re making your product right here,’” Trump recounted  during a wide-ranging interview with   The New York Times  yesterday. Apple did not respond to multiple requests for comment or confirmation that the call took place. “THOSE JOBS AREN’T COMING BACK.” Convincing Apple to move its manufacturing stateside won’t be easy. Manufacturing jobs have been  disappearing by the millions  for a decade and a half, and the potential to get Apple to build products in the US appears to have gone out with them. Back in 2011, Steve Jobs  is reported...

Jill Stein has called for a vote recount in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The Green Party candidate has also already raised the over $3 million dollars needed to fund the recount, the Guardian  reports. In a statement posted on her website, Stein said, "After a divisive and painful presidential race, in which foreign agents hacked into party databases, private email servers, and voter databases in certain states, many Americans are wondering if our election results are reliable. That's why the unexpected results of the election and reported anomalies need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified. We deserve elections we can trust." Stein's campaign says it is seeking the recount in order to have “protecting our democracy and ensuring that [Americans] an have confidence in reported results.” Stein's call for a recount comes after reports that a group of activistsencouraged Hillary Clinton's cam...

If you controlled a media publishing platform that connected to millions of people, it'd make you a pretty powerful individual. Not so, according to Mark Zuckerberg, who has come out against the notion that Facebook helped win it for Trump.  TechCrunch reports that the CEO was challenged about his social network's laissez-faire policy towards stopping the flood of fake, bubble-reinforcing propaganda. He thinks that the notion that the torrent of fabricated stories "influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea." Zuckerberg believes that it's wrong to suggest that the diet of false stories,much of it generated in Macedonia, influenced things. Instead, he said that "voters make decisions based on their lived experience," and that you "don't generally go wrong when you trust that people understand what they care about." In addition, the Zuck says that the company studies fake news and analyzes how it can be improved, and feels tha...

Donald Trump's election has occasioned major civil unrest. Protesters took to the streets across the nation after a contentious election that many Clinton supporters say could mean a major blow to America. Though the most prominent of these protests was at Trump tower New York City, that was far from the only one. A quick look at Periscope will show protests streaming live fromDallas, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a host of other cities around the country.  Police responded to reports that five people were reportedly shot downtown after or during an anti-Trump rally in Seattle, according to The Seattle Times . We don't know at this time whether the violence was related to the rally, exactly who did the shooting, or whom was shot.  Chants arose, expressing both anger and plans for action going forward. These included: "Fuck your wall," "Rapist," "Shut it down," "Pussy grabs back," "Fuck Trump," ...

Those hoping for another woman Presidential candidate have refocused their energies on the sitting First Lady, Michelle Obama. She and husband Barack have been more than clear about their reluctance to return to the White House. That hasn't stopped the twitterati from wishing her name onto the next Presidential ballot. That energy has been particularly strong in the wake of Donald Trump's surprise victory. Many feel that he will be a disaster for women's rights, and are using that as motivation to court Obama. Michelle had been a vigorous campaigner for Hillary Clinton, notably refusing to use Donald Trump's name during official speeches. Michelle Obama currently has an approval rating of 64%, according to Gallup. That's higher than Barack Obama's or Donald Trump's. But to read online posts, you'd think the rating was even higher. See posts below

Donald Trump wins the election  what next  for blacks and immigrants in the US

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi troops including elite counter terrorism forces resumed an offensive on the eastern front of Mosul on Monday, a military statement said, targeting the eastern bank of the Tigris river which divides the northern Iraqi city.

TOKYO  - Japan may accelerate around $1 billion of planned spending to upgrade its ballistic missile defenses in the wake of rocket tests suggesting North Korea is close to fielding a more potent medium-range missile, three government sources told Reuters. SOURCE:REUTERS 

Barely a day after Delta began investigating whether a flight crew member discriminatorily declined on-board care from Dr. Tamika Cross because she's Black, another doctor of color has reported a similar incident with the airline. Resident family physician Dr. Ashley Denmark says that during Delta flight 2215 from Seattle to Hawaii, she responded to a flight crew intercom request for medical assistance. But when she approached the flight attendants and offered her services, Dr. Denmark says her medical credentials were doubted and she was repeatedly rebuffed. "I was greeted by two Caucasian women and a [Delta] flight attendant," Denmark recounted in a post on Melanin in Medicine, a blog about the experiences of doctors of color. "I quickly asked 'What’s going on?' Then, I stated, 'I’m a doctor. How can I help?'" Ultimately, Denmark couldn't help at all, despite showing her hospital badge as proof of her medical credentials. As she describ...

The billionaire investor, the only prominent supporter of the Republican candidate in the tech community, joins a very short list of large Trump contributors. SOURCE : NYT

Wambach, now six months sober, revealed in a memoir her struggles with depression and her abuse of painkilling medications and alcohol.

The head of the federal domestic intelligence service indicated that the likely target was a Berlin airport and that the suspect had ties to ISIS.

The head of the federal domestic intelligence service indicated that the likely target was a Berlin airport and that the suspect had ties to ISIS.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey and Russia signed an agreement on Monday for the construction of a major undersea gas pipeline and vowed to seek common ground on the war in Syria, accelerating a normalization in ties nearly a year after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane.

How does the new Pixel XL compare to its predecessor from 2015? The Nexus 6P is likely to be the last phone ever made with the Nexus brand, and the new Pixel XL is here to carry on as the successor. But the 6P was (and even a year on still is) a great phone, and it left big shoes to fill. The Pixel XL builds on a lot of what the Nexus 6P had, and is clearly meant to be a proper replacement — naturally, with a higher price this year. So if you have a Nexus 6P in your pocket right now and have to make a call a year on whether or not the Pixel XL is the right phone for a replacement, we have you covered. Let's talk about upgrading. Hardware and specs The most interesting thing to note when looking at these phones is how similar they are in size but also in specs. Though the Nexus 6P and Pixel have different manufacturers and were developed a year apart, it really seems a lot of the Nexus's DNA made it over to the Pixel XL. The Pixel XL design clearly bor...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose around one percent on Monday, approaching one-year highs, as speculators raised bets that oil prices would gain on the back of a landmark agreement among OPEC producers to rein in record output levels.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund's member countries on Saturday pledged to revive flagging global trade, boost government spending and remove barriers to business to fight weak growth that has left too many people behind. SOURCE:Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Facebook said its main UK subsidiary generated an 11-million-pound tax credit in 2015 even as revenues soared, thanks to its tax efficient structure, accounts published on the weekend showed. SOURCE:Reuters

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. The offensive remarks about womenby Donald Trump that have been dominating the headlines this weekend sparked major clashes just minutes into the second presidential debate. Trump was pressed on the 2005 recording of his lewd comments about his sexual advances and exploits by moderator Anderson Cooper, who said Trump's remarks about "kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals — that is sexual assault." The GOP nominee responded by saying he was embarrassed by and sorry for his remarks, but repeated that he felt it was "just words" and "locker-room talk." When asked repeatedly by Cooper about whether he had ever groped or forced himself sexually on women, Trump said, “I have not." “I have great respect for women,” he said. Clinton, meanwhile, said the controversy reinforces her view that Trump is "not fit" for president. “What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about w...