US election: Trump calls Brexit hardliner Farage “King of Europe”

October 29, 2020October 29, 2020 by drbyos

Do we know on election night who won?

Millions of Americans have voted, but every state has different rules about when to vote Counting these voices may be started. This will mean that some results are available at different times – possibly first Days or even Weeks after the actual election day.

In some places, the election workers can start evaluating the ballot papers weeks before November 3rd. That means they can review voter information and get the ballot papers out of the envelopes so they are ready to be counted on election day. In some of the hotly contested so-called swing states, however, the laws prohibit the early evaluation of the ballot papers. On November 3rd, officials there must both hold an election and work their way through an unprecedented number of postal ballot papers.

This is likely to delay the final results. In addition, the results of personal voting could be turned upside down by the counting of postal ballot papers.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned of the alleged vulnerability of postal votes to fraud without producing any evidence. Therefore, it is feared that he will use delays in the counting of votes to judge results as illegitimate. But if results come in later than usual this year, it’s because of the way people vote – not because of fraud.

Here’s another sticking point: nationwide delay in the Delivery of the post raise concerns that voting papers will not arrive in time to be counted. The Republicans, including Trump’s campaign team, have filed a lawsuit to prevent ballot papers arriving after election day from being counted.

As things stand, swing state Pennsylvania counts ballot papers that arrive in the mail three days after November 3rd. The decision was preceded by a lawsuit that made it to the highest US court last week. The Republicans have filed another lawsuit against it. Pennsylvania also bans preprocessing postal ballot papers, which complicates the process.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, another highly competitive US state, an appellate court has conceded a 14-day extension of the count – prompting election officials to ask voters to vote in person rather than by mail. Similar extensions in Wisconsin and Indiana have also been rejected by courts.

When computer programs become authors

October 28, 2020 by drbyos

NUsually, computer scientists are not impressed when a computer program can add up a few numbers and make mistakes. But that’s exactly what happened this summer. The Californian software company “OpenAI” presented its program “GPT-3”. It can add and subtract small numbers. But the trick is: it was never intended for that. It is actually a language model. It doesn’t do anything other than look at a text and determine which word should come next. We know such systems from the proposals for a smartphone keyboard. If you type in “Dear”, she recommends “Mr.” next. GPT-3 can do that too. However, it has learned human language so well that it has – quite incidentally – taught itself to solve small arithmetic problems. And not only that.

The G in the name stands for “Generative”. The model can generate, that is to say here: select a word which, according to its logic, should follow next. It has learned this ability in advance, which is why the P stands for “pre-trained”. To this end, GPT-3 scoured texts with hundreds of billions of words: newspaper articles, Wikipedia entries, cooking recipes, tweets, poems, song texts – whatever you can find on the Internet. After all, the T stands for “Transformer”. This type of machine learning recognizes which parts of the previous text are particularly important in order to determine the next word. It can thus relate formulations that are sometimes separated by several paragraphs. This idea is not new, it dates back to 2017. The size of GPT-3 is new: while it was rummaging through the texts, it set 175 billion parameters inside – small adjusting screws that determine exactly how the system works. The most elaborate system to date had just a tenth of that.

Erdogan cartoon: “Charlie Hebdo” heats up dispute between France and Turkey

October 29, 2020October 28, 2020 by drbyos

Dhe new edition of the French satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” will not appear until Wednesday. But since the magazine published the new front page in advance on Tuesday evening on Twitter and Instagram, the assumption has been made that the tensions between NATO partners France and Turkey will not be resolved anytime soon. Rather, thanks to “Charlie Hebdo”, the next level of escalation threatens.

Their new caricature shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sitting on the sofa in white underwear and baring the buttocks of a woman who is made up and veiled. The woman carries a tray with glasses, both figures seem to be enjoying themselves. “Erdogan: He’s very funny in private,” it says on the edge. And in Erdogan’s speech bubble: “Ooh! The Prophet!”

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At the beginning of October, French President Emmanuel Macron declared war on what he said was “Islamist separatism” that was spreading in France. After the murder of the teacher Samuel Paty in mid-October, he announced a tough policy against Islamism. Erdogan then accused Macron of “Islamophobia” and recommended that he seek psychological treatment. On Monday Erdogan added: “Just as France is calling not to buy Turkish products, I am now appealing to my people: Just don’t pay attention to French brands, don’t buy them.” In fact, there has been no call for a boycott from the French either before or after . Erdogan has so far not mentioned the murder of Samuel Paty with a single syllable.

The teacher in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine had drawn the wrath of devout Muslim parents because he had discussed the subject of freedom of expression in school lessons, including the Mohammed caricatures from “Charlie Hebdo”. The father of a schoolgirl then posted several videos online and called for Paty to be stopped.

The reaction of “Charlie Hebdo” to the Franco-Turkish conflict is roughly what one might expect from the satirical magazine: funny, crude to the brink of bad taste and also a little surprising.

Politicians in Turkey have not always been so humorless

Turkish politicians have not always been so humorless. This shows the handling of the “Girgir”. This satirical magazine, which is somewhat reminiscent of “Charlie Hebdo” in form and content, was founded in 1972 and reached a sold circulation of half a million copies per week in the 1980s, when the aftermath of the military coup of 1980 was still ongoing. One of her favorite motifs was the then conservative-liberal head of government and later President Turgut Özal. “Girgir” showed him in all possible poses, also with a mason décolleté. Özal never filed a criminal complaint – but he had front pages that he considered particularly successful framed and decorated his study with them.

Erdogan, on the other hand, took action in 2005 against the draftsman of the “Girgir” successor “Penguen”. After the terrorist attack on “Charlie Hebdo” in January 2015, the then Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu took part in the memorial service in Paris. In Turkey, however, attempts were made to prevent the distribution of the Mohammed cartoons. Journalist Hikmet Cetinkaya and journalist Ceyda Karan were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for “sedition” for reprinting some of the Charlie Hebdo caricatures in their columns in the Cumhuriyet newspaper in response to the Paris attack. The Court of Cassation is currently negotiating the case in the third and decisive instance.

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On the other hand, those who are on the side of the Turkish government enjoy unlimited freedom. For example, the AKP-affiliated satirical magazine “Misvak”. On Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before “Charlie Hebdo”, the newspaper tweeted a cartoon showing Emmanuel Macron in baby diapers in the arms of a skeletonized woman – a reference to his wife Brigitte, who is 25 years older than the French president. In the drawing, Emmanuel Macron sucks on a baby bottle with the inscription “Hate”, on the edge of the picture is the word “Freedom of opinion”. So far nobody in France has been upset about it.

Google, Facebook and Twitter on protective law: ‘Collapse’ looms | NOW

October 27, 2020 by drbyos

The directors of Google (Sundar Pichai), Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg) and Twitter (Jack Dorsey) testify again in Washington on Wednesday. Due to the corona crisis, they are this time virtually in line with the aim of convincing a committee of the US Senate of the importance of a law that has made and protects tech companies: section 230.

This part of the law protects internet companies: it states that they cannot be held responsible for what users upload on their platforms. For example, the messages, images and videos that people share via YouTube (part of Google), Facebook and Twitter.

Section 230 is under attack from both the Republican and Democratic parties. Critics argue that the section of the law ensures that companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google cannot be properly held accountable when it comes to removing illegal messages.

Pichai, Zuckerberg and Dorsey will argue for the importance of section 230 on Wednesday, according to statements inspected by news agency Reuters.

‘Collapse’ looms, Congress must be ‘very aware’

According to Twitter CEO Dorsey, the erosion of the article leads to “the collapse of the way we communicate online”. He suspects that this will only leave large, rich tech companies.

“Section 230 made it possible for every major internet service (that exists today, ed.) To emerge,” said Facebook director Zuckerberg. He also argues that the US Congress must reform the law to ensure it works as intended.

Google director Pichai thinks Congress should be cautious about this. Lawmakers should be “very much aware of the consequences” of changes to section 230.

The interrogation of Pichai, Zuckerberg and Dorsey starts at 3 p.m. (Dutch time) and can be followed here. In addition to section 230, the role companies play in news distribution and user privacy will likely be discussed.

Dispute with France: Few countries follow Erdogan

October 29, 2020October 27, 2020 by drbyos

In the Islamic world, reactions to French President Emmanuel Macron’s call to fight Islamist extremism and defend freedom of expression have been muted. The Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had tried to put himself at the forefront of an Islamic outrage by sharply criticizing Macron and calling for a boycott. Few governments followed him either.

Iran hired the French chargé d’affaires to protest the insult to the Prophet of Islam. Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif wrote on Twitter that France is fueling extremism. The insult to the Muslims and the Prophet is an opportunistic abuse of freedom of expression. Criticism of Macron’s defense of cartoons in the context of freedom of expression was also expressed by Qatar, Pakistan, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Hamas in Gaza.

The biggest protest took place in Bangladesh. In the capital Dhaka, 40,000 people followed the call of an Islamist party. There were smaller rallies in Istanbul, Gaza and the Libyan capital Tripoli. The French tricolor was burned in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor.

Only Erdogan demanded a boycott of French goods from the leading politicians. In Qatar and Kuwait, retail chains cleared shelves with French products. In Saudi Arabia, the boycott against France was a topic on social media. More significant, however, is the boycott of Turkish products, which the Saudi chamber association has called for.

The Saudi reluctance is striking. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned cartoons insulting the Prophet and rejected any connection between Islam and terrorism. However, Muhammad bin Abd al-Karim al-Issa, one of the kingdom’s most senior religious scholars, warned Muslims not to overreact. It only benefits those who hate Islam and it gives “obscure draftsmen” international fame without having to do anything of their own.

The head of the Muslim World League recalled a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights on October 25, 2018, according to which the insult to the Prophet was not covered by freedom of expression. The judges had ruled in the case of an Austrian who Mohammad had called a pedophile. They had come to the conclusion that their insults exceeded the permissible limits of an objective debate.

Erdogan calls for a boycott of French goods

October 26, 2020 by drbyos

Dhe Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calls for a boycott of French goods. The reason is the dispute between France and Islamic countries over the debate about showing and publishing Mohammed cartoons. “Just as some in France say ‘don’t buy Turkish brands’, I address myself to my nation: Don’t pay attention to goods labeled in French, don’t buy them,” Erdogan said in a televised address on Monday.

Erdogan accused European politicians of being hostile to Islam. “You are, in the truest sense of the word, fascists,” he said. “Today Muslims are experiencing a similar lynching campaign as was waged against Jews in Europe before the Second World War.”

Other countries had already started a boycott on Sunday. In Kuwait, according to the newspaper “Al-Kabas”, 50 consumer cooperatives declared that they had removed all French goods from their branches. In Qatar, too, supermarket chains have announced that they will be taking French goods off their shelves until further notice.

Videos could be seen on social networks of employees at a supermarket in Amman, the capital of Jordan, removing French dairy products from the refrigerated shelves. Users spread the names of French brands on the Internet and called for a boycott, and hashtags were also making the rounds.

Merkel is behind Macron

The largest French trade association, Medef, has backed the government in Paris in the face of calls for boycotts against products from France in several Arab countries. It is out of the question to give in to blackmail, Medef boss Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux told BFMTV on Monday. “There are times when we have to put principles before the opportunity to expand our business.”

Medef is “in full solidarity with the French government,” said the head of the association. “I urge the companies to resist the blackmail and unfortunately to endure this boycott for the time being.”

The German federal government also stood behind Macron. “These are defamatory statements that are completely unacceptable,” said government spokesman
Steffen Seibert in Berlin. “We stand by France’s side in solidarity,” said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD). The
Personal attacks by President Erdogan against President Macron “are a new low point, and they are total
unacceptable”. Anyone who “simply equates the fight against Islamist extremists with racism and Islamophobia is acting no differently than irresponsible, and is playing into the hands of those who want to divide our society”.

The dispute between France and the other countries was inflamed over the debate about showing and publishing cartoons of Mohammed. The background is statements by French President Emmanuel Macron after the brutal murder of a teacher in France.

Macron had defended freedom of expression and sided with those who want to show or publish cartoons. France will not “do without caricatures and drawings, even if others withdraw,” said Macron at a memorial service in honor of the killed Samuel Paty. He had shown Mohammed cartoons in class and was killed in the street and then beheaded. Islamic tradition forbids depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

Election campaign in America: “I don’t read Trump tweets”

October 26, 2020 by drbyos

Mr. Fibig, as a German manager in America, how did you experience the two television debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden?

The second was better than the first, but the bar was low. Trump was a disaster in the first debate, but I didn’t think Biden was okay with calling the incumbent president a “clown,” though I could understand him in some ways. The second debate was not only better in form but also in content, but the bottom line was that I found it disappointing. I would have liked more substance on important topics. For example, how to bring the economy forward again or how to contain the second corona wave. It also bothers me when it gets so personal, for example Trump’s allegations about Biden’s son. They should talk about their programs, but that was rather thin.

In your opinion, does the debate still have an impact on the outcome of the election?

I don’t think much. Around 50 million Americans have already voted. And the positions were still the same. Trump is Trump. Biden is not a strong candidate, but managed to get through without dropouts.

How do you think the election will turn out today?

I’d rather not give a prognosis, like many others I’m a burned child. I think anything is possible and who knows what will happen in the next few days.

How is your balance of Trump’s tenure from an economic point of view?

There are good and bad. In any case, it is negative that America sought conflict with Europe. For example, with import duties or restrictions on visas, which have made it more difficult to bring skilled workers to America.

And what do you see positively?

First of all, the tax reform. I would like to see corporate tax reform in Germany as well. I also think the deregulation under Trump is good, whereby I explicitly exclude environmental issues. I think you had to start addressing the topic of China at one point or another, even if I don’t necessarily agree with how Trump did it.

What should he have done differently in dealing with China?

As always with him: Less erratic, more with a clear strategy. Less in public, more with negotiations. We should try to find a balance on how we can defend intellectual property in China on the one hand and open the country to foreign companies, but not completely block the local market with tariffs and import restrictions.

Keyword China: How did you find the events surrounding the Tiktok smartphone app? So first the threat of a ban and then the forging of an alliance with American companies?

That too was too erratic for me, and the government exercised too much influence in the takeover negotiations. I also generally have a problem with simply banning something, and I think that things shouldn’t be carried out too much in public. I think the Chinese would react better if you did it without public pressure.

When you say that there are positive and negative economic aspects: What is the bottom line of your balance sheet?

It was positive until the Corona crisis. America had solid economic growth, low unemployment rates, and good stock market development. With the pandemic, of course, everything was put into perspective. It is common knowledge that this has not been handled very well here.

And would you also attribute the good development up to the corona crisis to the Trump administration and not just see it as a continuation of Barack Obama’s legacy?

As far as politics can be said to affect the economy, Trump has already done some good things. Especially the tax reform. It has helped a lot in America that the maximum tax rate has dropped from 35 percent to 21 percent.

Podcast: When and for what should media apologize?

October 26, 2020 by drbyos

media Podcast

When and for what should media apologize?

Stand: 26.10.2020 | Reading time: 2 minutes

"The media week" is a podcast about the world of media and its makers — “The Media Week” is a podcast about the world of media and its makers

Source: world

The editor-in-chief of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” has just apologized for an article about the pianist Igor Levit. In the media podcast we ask ourselves when the media should ask for forgiveness for alleged or actual missteps.

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An article by the music critic Helmut Mauró in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” caused high blood pressure this media week. In this article, Mauró attacked the star pianist Igor Levit – not only does he see Levit as an overrated artist, he also accuses him of spreading himself via Twitter. Levite is part of a “diffuse world judgment” there, which claims “absolute moral integrity”.

The main reason for outrage was that in his article Mauró associated the Jewish pianist Levit with a not specifically addressed “victim claim ideology”. In the current edition of “Medien-Woche” we deal with the Levit article, the reaction in social media and the apology that the editors-in-chief of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” published after a few days.

Gurley touchdown gaffe enables Lions to win last minute

October 27, 2020October 26, 2020 by drbyos

Munich / Atlanta – If you score a touchdown and the opposing team suddenly stands next to you cheering, something must have gone fundamentally wrong.

Todd Gurley was also aware of this when he gave his Atlanta Falcons a 20:14 lead in the home game against the Detroit Lions.

The final phase of the game was already under way, but the score simply came too early. The guests knew that. Gurley knew that too. The three-time pro bowler wanted to stop his run over ten yards before the goal line, but he couldn’t do this in a full sprint.

Gurley is pissed off after faux pas

“I’m pissed off”, Gurley admitted self-critically a little later: “I tried to prevent it, but could no longer slow my swing.”

If he had plopped to the ground in time at the first down, the Falcons would have let the clock run down and in the end secured victory with a very short field goal.

As it was, the Lions around Matthew Stafford had a good minute after the subsequent two-point conversion to turn a six-point deficit.

What they succeeded: The passer threw three long passes over 13, 22 and 29 yards to finally send tight end TJ Hockenson on “National Tight End Day” with two seconds on the clock from eleven yards into the end zone. The winning extra point by Matt Prater at 23:22 was then only a matter of form.

Gurley takes responsibility

Gurley would have liked to sink into the ground at this point at the latest. “I’m man enough to take responsibility for it. I shouldn’t have scored,” emphasized the first-round pick of the 2015 draft.

On the internet, the once best-paid running back of the NFL was of course directly ridiculed. A comparison to the stumbling block of Giants quarterback Daniel Jones in the Thursday Night Game against the Philadelphia Eagles could not be missing.

I often said it in school. It was mostly the 3rd. That would have been absolutely satisfying for the Falcons today. https://t.co/eIfFDwdD4h

– Christian Schimmel (@ Chris5Sh) October 25, 2020

Ryan commends Gurley: “Great runs” shown

Matt Ryan defended his running back: “It’s a tough situation for any player. When you rush off and pick up the pace, it’s always difficult. It’s just disappointing that the game ended like this.” “Matty Ice” also praised Gurley for “working his ass off” and “doing some great runs”.

Head Coach Raheem Morris added to the touchdown, which no one in Atlanta was really happy about: “We knew that it would be the ideal opportunity for them if we got into the end zone and they had the chance to hit back. That’s why we wanted to go down at the one yard line and he obviously tried, but fell into the end zone at the last second because he tripped easily. “

Gurley “should have done better”

The unfortunate runner then looked ahead again: “You can blame yourself for this, blame yourself for it. But I’m not that kind of person. I tried to go down, but I haven’t. To ask for it is not good enough. I should have done better. “

The next chance is already in the Thursday Night Game at division rival Carolina Panthers. Gurley has probably never been so happy about a short break.

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Ariana Grande’s fans think she’s calling out her ex Pete Davidson on her new single

October 24, 2020 by drbyos

She released her new single Positions the day before.

And Ariana Grande shared the cover for her upcoming album of the same name on social media on Friday.

The reveal comes as fans of the 27-year-old pop superstar speculated on Twitter that she might have slipped a dig at her ex-boyfriend Pete Davidson on her new single.

New look: Ariana Grande, 27, revealed the final art for her upcoming album Positions on Friday via Twitter

Like her previous albums Sweetener and Thank U, Next, Ariana chose a closeup of her face on the cover, though this time she opted to keep it right-side up.

In place of her usual ponytail, she wore her brunette locks straight and fanned out under a headband.

She wore flower-shaped earrings and held her hands up to her face, showing off the tiny tattoos on her finger.

The photo appeared to be from the same photoshoot that produced the cover for her single Positions.

‘positions the single out now. positions my 6th album out friday the 30th,’ she wrote in the tweet.

Switched out: The cover was from the same photoshoot as her artwork for her single Positions, which was initially shown on links to pre-save the album on streaming services

Ariana’s cover appeared to be from the same photoset that produced her Positions single cover.

The songstress highlighted her toned tummy in a sheer miniskirt and a barely there long-sleeve crop top that showcased her cleavage.

She had previously used the single cover on links to pre-save her album on streaming services, leading some to believe it was the cover for both the song and album.

Secret message? As her fans have settled in with the new single, some have theorized on Twitter that she’s calling out her ex Pete Davidson in the second line of Positions; shown in 2018

Clever: Her fans singled in on the word ‘repeat,’ which sings with a lengthy and noticeable pause between ‘re’ and ‘peat.’ They suggested she was referencing Pete’s name in the line

Approval: One fan on Twitter joked that Ariana was a ‘SHADY B***H’ for referencing Pete in that way

In on the joke: Another person wrote out the line and included a gif of Pete laughing sarcastically

As her fans have settled in with the new single, some have theorized on Twitter that she’s calling out her ex Pete Davidson in the second line of Positions.

After singing, ‘Heaven sent you to me,’ she adds in the second line, ‘I’m just hoping I don’t repeat history.’

Her fans singled in on the word ‘repeat,’ because she sings it with a lengthy and noticeable pause between ‘re’ and ‘peat.’

Multiple fans suggested on social media that she was intentionally referencing Pete’s name in the line.

‘Wait wait wait. did ariana say “I’m just hopin I don’t re…PETE history” SHADY B***H,’ tweeted on user.

Another repeated her line while posting a gif of Pete Davidson sarcastically laughing.

After singling out the ‘repeat’ line, another fan added, ‘ain’t no way she paused for no reason???? GO BACK AND LISTEN TO THAT LINE OMG.’

On the same page: Another fan joked, ‘don’t get me wrong no shade, but I wouldn’t want to repeat Pete either’

Deep cut: One person even noticed a connection between the line in Positions and Ariana’s earlier song Pete Davidson, named after her then-boyfriend

‘#Ariana: I don’t re * long a** pause * peat (PETE) history,’ wrote one social media fan while adding a gif of Señor Chang from Community saying, ‘I’ll allow it.’

Another fan joked, ‘don’t get me wrong no shade, but I wouldn’t want to repeat Pete either.’

One person even noticed a connection between the line in Positions and Ariana’s earlier song Pete Davidson, named after her then-boyfriend.

‘well idk if this is obvious but: when Ariana says: “Heave sent you to me/I’m just hoping I don’t re-PEAT history” PEAT = PETE, and in pete davidson song she says: “Fell from the sky into my lap” soo yeah that kinda relates i guess.’

Flash in the pan: The couple started their relationship in May of 2018, before announcing they had gotten engaged in June, but the two split by October of that year; shown in 2018

Despite all the focus on Pete, he and Ariana only dated for five months.

The couple started their relationship in May of 2018, before announcing they had gotten engaged in June, but the two split by October of that year.

Ariana celebrated the publicity surrounding her upcoming album release with some gorgeous photos posted Friday to her Instagram.

She looked ready for winter with a thick pale pink headband that looked as if it could be a set of ear muffs, while she had her dark locks back in her trademark ponytail.

The singer was dressed in a flowing white dress with baggy sleeves and thick buttons running up the front.

She completed her look with a pair of short white heels.

‘Tis the season: Ariana celebrated the publicity surrounding her upcoming album release with some gorgeous photos posted Friday to her Instagram

Woman in white: She looked ready for winter in a white button-up dress with baggy sleeves and a pale pink headband that could have doubled as ear muffs