Jump to content

Social Media

Global Moderator
  • Posts

    7,337
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Social Media

  1. The first female Speaker of the Houses of Commons Betty Boothroyd has died aged 93.

    Before becoming speaker she served as Labour MP for West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000.

    She went on to serve as a baroness in the House of Lords from 2001 until her death.

    The current Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle described her as "an inspirational woman" who was known for her "no-nonsense style".

    "To be the first woman Speaker was truly ground-breaking and Betty certainly broke that glass ceiling with panache.

    "Betty was one of a kind. A sharp, witty and formidable woman - and I will miss her," he said.

     
  2. When Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, one of the biggest successes they achieved initially was in southern Ukraine. Within a few days Russian troops attacking from Crimea had seized an area of Ukrainian territory bigger than Switzerland.

    Ukrainian authorities are yet to explain what went wrong in the south in those early days. To help uncover what happened, the BBC has spoken to military officers, politicians and activists.

    On 22 February 2022 at 19:15, the secretary of Ukraine's security council Aleksey Danilov received a red folder with secret documents. They warned that the president's life was under imminent threat. Immediately, Mr Danilov contacted the head of the security services, the interior minister, prime minister and President Volodymyr Zelensky himself.

    But Ukraine's leadership stopped short of declaring martial law, for now. There was no mobilisation of troops. Just a few weeks before, Ukrainian authorities had described Western warnings of Russian invasion as "manipulation" and called on everyone to remain calm.

    • Like 2
  3. handsome Korean man" and evade the law, local authorities have said.

    Saharat Sawangjaeng, who adopted the alias Jimin Cheong, was caught last week at a condominium in Bangkok.

    Police, who had been on the hunt for the 25-year-old for three months, said "none of his original face was left".

    They tracked him down by tracing the distribution of ecstasy to other sellers and buyers in Bangkok.

    Witnesses described him as a "handsome Korean man" to police. He had also changed his name to a Korean one, and police said he told them he wanted to restart his life in South Korea.

    Sawangjaeng has been charged with the illegal import of narcotics. He admitted to ordering MDMA - also known as ecstasy - over the dark web using cryptocurrencies, the police said last week.

    • Haha 2
  4. Staff working at the European Commission have been ordered to remove the TikTok app from their phones and corporate devices.

    The commission said it was implementing the measure to "protect data and increase cybersecurity".

    TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has faced allegations that it harvests users' data and hands it to the Chinese government.

    TikTok insists it operates no differently from other social media.

    European Union (EU) industry chief Thierry Breton told a news conference that the union's executive is very focused on cybersecurity, declining to provide further details.

    The ban also means that European Commission staff cannot use TikTok on personal devices that have official apps installed.

     
  5. Japanese motor industry giants Toyota and Honda say they have agreed to give their workers in the country the biggest pay rises in decades.

    They are the latest firms in the world's third largest economy to increase wages as prices jump.

    Official figures published last month showed Japan's rate of inflation was at its highest level in over 40 years.

    That has put pressure on businesses and authorities to help people as their spending power shrinks.

    Each year Japanese firms typically hold pay talks with unions for weeks before announcing their decisions around the middle of March.

    The car makers have not said why this year's announcements were made earlier than usual.

     
  6. The development of a new app designed to reduce online viewing of child sexual abuse material has received £1.8m of funding from the EU.

    It will be tested with volunteers who have sought help because they are drawn to illegal images and want to ensure they cannot act on their desire.

    Installed on devices such as phones, the app will identify and block harmful images and videos from being displayed.

    It's hoped it can help combat "growing demand" for child abuse images.

    The Protech project is a collaboration involving organisations from the EU and UK.

    The project's app - called Salus - is intended to work in real-time, using artificial intelligence to identify potential child sexual abuse material and stop users from seeing it. It will also use other more conventional techniques to block content.

     

    The Internet Watch Foundation, an organisation that works to find, flag and remove child abuse material, will help to train the AI technology developed by the UK company SafeToNet.

    Tom Farrell of SafeToNet, who worked for 19 years in law enforcement, told the BBC the app was not intended to be a tool to report users to the police: "People who are voluntarily looking to stop themselves seeing child sexual abuse material quite clearly wouldn't use such a solution if they believe that it was going to report them to law enforcement."

  7. Dick Van Dyke said this week his "beautiful" 51-year-old wife helps keep him feeling youthful at 97 years old. 

    The comedy legend admitted "genes" are probably at play in his longevity, but he joked, "Having a beautiful young wife half my age to take care of me — that works."

    The "Mary Poppins" star married makeup artist Arlene Silver in 2012. The couple first met in 2006 and were friends for years. 

    "My positive attitude, I get that from my wife," Van Dyke told Yahoo! Entertainment in a recent phone interview. 

    • Thumbs Up 1
×
×
  • Create New...
""