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FMD600 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: In a statement that was attempting to appeal to the left and to the worst conspiracy theorists on the right, Donald Trump accused his female opponent of raping the country with a trade deal.In a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, the GOP frontrunner ranted about free trade agreements. He wants to force Canada and Mexico to renegotiate NAFTA and he wants to renegotiate the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).Trump s words were tailored to his audience, many of whom have personally suffered from the collapse of the American steel industry: I m going tell our NAFTA partners that I intend to immediately renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better deal for our workers. And I don t mean just a little bit better, I mean a lot better, Trump said in Pennsylvania.If Canada and Mexico do not agree to renegotiate the pact, Trump said he would notify them under the agreement s terms that America intends to withdraw from the deal. Source: Huffington PostOf course, most of the steel industry has moved to China, a country with whom we have no trade agreement, but why let inconvenient facts get in the way of a good narrative.In yet another speech, this time in Ohio, Trump spoke of the TTP, calling it a death blow for American manufacturing. He said it was just a continuing rape of our country. Trump is right in that the trade deals have been bad for the American people and that they should be renegotiated, but Trump s claim that he s a savior for American trade is disingenuous. Much of Trump s fortune has been built on the backs of those in foreign countries. In other words, the Trump of today would probably not have been possible without the trade agreements he loves to criticize. AFL-CIO s President Richard Trumka agrees: Trump embodies everything that is wrong with our current trade policy. He has consistently sent American jobs overseas to line his own pockets. Beyond that, though, is something more insidious and sexist. It s long been a Republican meme that Bill Clinton is a rapist and that Hillary Clinton is somehow complicit in these crimes (they aren t actually crimes because no one has ever found any criminal activity). Trump may or may not choose to be overt in rattling off the hundreds of Clinton conspiracy theories, but you can bet he ll continue with the more subliminal accusations, like one of rape. Ironic, since he s been accused of the same.Featured image via Jeff Swensen at Getty Images. | 0 | [
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FMD601 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A federal agency on Monday released final rules on how employers can offer workers financial incentives of up to 30 percent of the cost of their cheapest health insurance plans to participate in wellness programs without violating federal laws protecting the confidentiality of medical information. The move from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission aims to clear up confusion over the way two federal laws protecting employees’ medical privacy apply to the popular programs, which are designed to control medical spending by reducing obesity, smoking and other risk factors. The rules, which were first proposed in November, mark a compromise with U.S. businesses that opposed the EEOC’s previous stance that providing incentives for voluntary wellness programs rendered them involuntary, and thus illegal. The 2010 Affordable Care Act allowed U.S. employers to increase the rewards they offer to employees who participate in wellness programs. But in a series of 2013 lawsuits against companies, including Honeywell International Inc, the EEOC said requests for medical information related to incentive-based wellness programs violated the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. Under the new rules, incentives for wellness programs are open only to employees, not their families, and are capped at 30 percent of the cheapest individual health insurance premium offered through the employer. The new rules are more restrictive than those passed under the ACA, which allowed incentives of up to 30 percent of the actual cost of an employee’s insurance plan and 50 percent for programs approved by the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services. Only smoking-cessation programs received that approval. Senator Lamar Alexander (R.-Tennessee), chair of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said he would push legislation, along with House Republicans, to reverse the rules. The National Business Group on Health, a non-profit organization advocating for large healthcare employers, said that although it would have “hoped for some additional flexibility... the rules do what the EEOC was asked to do.†Some health and workers’ rights groups say the rules, which take effect next year, penalize employees who decline to join wellness programs and hand over private medical information. Maxwell Mehlman, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said lower-income employees could be unduly pressured to join wellness programs. “It’s hard to say that that’s a voluntary program for a lot of people,†he said. | 1 | [
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FMD602 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that despite his differences with President Barack Obama, he has no interest in shutting down the government or causing it to default on its debt.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned Congress on Friday that on March 16 the government would no longer have authority to take on debt to pay for spending Congress has already approved. If lawmakers don't raise the so-called "debt ceiling" by then, Lew said the Treasury Department can take "extraordinary measures" to continue government operations for a short time.
"I made it very clear after the November election that we're certainly not going to shut down the government or default on the national debt," McConnell said, speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Defaulting on the debt would not only shut down the government; economists say it could have catastrophic financial consequences. The Obama administration has previously refused to bargain with Republicans who wanted policy concessions from Democrats for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling.
Nevertheless, McConnell suggested Republicans could try to get some policy initiatives out of a debt ceiling hike -- even though demands could lead to a standoff with the Obama administration.
"We'll figure some way to handle it and hopefully it might carry some other important legislation that we can agree on in connection with it," McConnell said. | 1 | [
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FMD603 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. President Donald Trump urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to do more to relax Indian trade barriers on Monday during talks in which both leaders took great pains to stress the importance of a strong U.S.-Indian relationship. At a closely watched first meeting between the two, Trump and Modi appeared to get along well. Modi pulled in Trump for a bear hug on the stage as the cameras rolled in the Rose Garden. “I deeply appreciate your strong commitment to the enhancement of our bilateral relations,†Modi told him. “I am sure that under your leadership a mutually beneficial strategic partnership will gain new strength, new positivity, and will reach new heights.†Trump was also warm but made clear he sees a need for more balance in the U.S.-India trade relationship in keeping with his campaign promise to expand American exports and create more jobs at home. Last year the U.S. trade deficit with India neared $31 billion. Trump said he would like a trading relationship that is “fair and reciprocal.†“It is important that barriers be removed to the export of U.S. goods into your markets and that we reduce our trade deficit with your country,†he said. Trump said he was pleased about an Indian airline’s recent order of 100 new American planes and that the United States looked forward to exporting more energy, including major long-term contracts to purchase American natural gas. These energy contracts “are being negotiated and we will sign – trying to get the price up a little bit,†Trump said. Modi came to Washington looking to revitalize a relationship that thrived under former President Barack Obama but has appeared to flag as Trump courted India’s rival China in an effort to persuade Beijing to do more to rein in North Korea. Modi effusively praised Trump, hailing his “vast and successful experience in the business world†and “great leadership†for U.S.-India ties, which he said should “lend an aggressive and forward looking agenda to our relations.†Trump accepted Modi’s invitation to visit India, the White House said in a statement, but no time frame was given for the trip. Modi harked back to Trump’s “Make America Great Again†campaign slogan to stress that his agenda for his country was little different than Trump’s. “I am sure that the convergence of my vision for “New India†and President Trump’s vision for making America great again will add new dimensions to our cooperation,†he said. Trump did not mention U.S. differences with India on immigration and the Paris climate accord. “The future of our partnership has never looked brighter,†Trump said as both leaders underscored the importance of the defense and security relationship. As they met, a Pentagon agency said the U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale to India of a Boeing C-17 transport aircraft with an estimated cost of $366 million. The United States also has offered to sell a naval variant of the Predator drone made by U.S. defense contractor General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the White House said in a statement, a deal that would be worth more than $2 billion. The United States has become the leading supplier of defense equipment to India, signing contracts worth more than $15 billion since 2008. On Monday evening, Trump and Modi had a working dinner, the first time Trump has played host to a foreign dignitary at a White House dinner. Trump administration officials have pointed to both leaders’ impact on social media | 1 | [
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FMD604 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Was it a Republican organization responsible for putting up billboards in Minnesota that were critical of Trump? Claim summaries: The billboards are real, but the so-called Republican group has an interesting donor behind it.
contextual information: An eye-catching billboard in the state of Minnesota caused some controversy in the early days of January 2018. Purportedly sponsored by "Republicans for Honesty in Government," the billboard showed a photograph of President Donald Trump accompanied by the words "Big Mistake." billboard We received several inquiries from readers about the authenticity of the billboard, and whether it was actually produced by Republicans. The billboard is real, as is another similar one found elsewhere in Minnesota. However, the group behind it"Republicans for Honesty in Government"is run by a Democratic donor and businessman in the state, suggesting there is more to the campaign than meets the eye. On 2 January 2018, the left-wing Facebook page Occupy Democrats posted a photo of the billboard, along with a message emphasizing the apparent party affiliation of its sponsors: photo REPUBLICANS erected this billboard in Minnesota...speaks volumes about the current state of our Liar-in-Chief's presidency, doesn't it? That post was shared almost 25,000 times within three days. The photo appears to have originally been posted to Facebook in October 2017 by Rosemary Rocco, who said the billboard was located along U.S. Route 52, in the state's second congressional district, which includes parts of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Wabasha County. She wrote: posted Seen on MN Highway 52 south-CD2! Proof there are Republicans who care about our country. Note the disclaimer on the billboard. This is what country first looks like. Earlier in October, a Reddit user posted another photograph of a billboard bearing a photograph of Trump along with the word "Clueless." It was also purported to have been erected by the same group. photograph According to records held by the Minnesota Secretary State, Republicans for Honesty in Government was first registered as a non-profit corporation in Minnesota in 2006, as reported by the regional news web site Bluestem Prairie. Its registered agent is Robert Johnson, founder and director of the Minnesota real estate investment firm AEI Capital. records Bluestem Prairie AEI Capital Republicans for Honesty in Government shares its address with that of AEI Capital. The group was dissolved in 2009, but was reinstated in March 2017. However, despite being the man behind a non-profit organization that labels itself Republican, Johnson is a prolific donor to Democratic candidates and the Minnesota branch of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party (DFL). Federal Election Commission records show that a "Robert P. Johnson," "Robert Johnson" or "Bob Johnson" at "AEI Fund Management" or related company names in Minnesota has donated a total of $43,830.50 in federal campaign funding since 2004. All of it went to DFL and Democratic candidates or political action committees. records Johnson told the Minnesota news web site GoMN that he had leaned towards the Republican party in the past, but switched allegiances after what the web site described as a shift to the right within the GOP. GoMN "My political position was staked out decades ago and has not changed," he told GoMN. "What has changed is the positions of the parties and their platforms." Federal Election Commission records show that in 1980, Johnson did donate $500 to the Minnesota Independent-Republican Finance Committee, his only non-Democratic federal election donation. records However, Johnson registered "Republicans for Honesty in Government" in 2006, two years after he began donating exclusively to Democratic and DFL candidates, including $7,000 to former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, and more than $10,000 to the Minnesota DFL party. $7,000 We asked Johnson questions about his involvement with Republicans for Honesty in Government, his party affiliation, his political donations, and the purpose of the billboards. We did not receive a response. He told GoMN that the billboards were intended to provoke Minnesotans to think more carefully about their electoral choices"to maybe rub their chin metaphorically a little bit and wonder, what kind of decisions are we making?" Sorenson, Sally Jo. "Is Billboard on Highway 52 for Real?; Or, Who Are Those 'Republicans for Honesty in Government'".
Bluestem Prairie. 2 January 2018. McLaughlin, Shaymus. "Who is the Group Behind the Donald Trump 'BIG MISTAKE' Billboard?"
GoMN. 3 January 2018. | 2 | [
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FMD605 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Anthony Scaramucci’s swift exit as U.S. President Donald Trump’s communications director on Monday has no bearing on the pending sale of the firm he founded, SkyBridge Capital, parties involved in the deal said. “The transaction remains on track and is expected to close by the end of the summer,†said Robert Rendine, a spokesman for HNA Capital U.S., a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group. HNA, along with holding company Ron Transatlantic EG, in January announced an agreement to purchase a majority stake in SkyBridge, the New York-based hedge fund investment firm. The sale came as Scaramucci planned to join the Trump administration, although it took months for a role to materialize and was not the one he initially anticipated. A representative for Ron was not immediately available, but a person familiar with the company, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said the transaction was on track. Woomi Yun, a spokeswoman for SkyBridge, also said the deal was proceeding as planned and was expected to close by the end of the summer. She declined to comment on Scaramucci’s exit from the White House and whether he would return to the firm. Scaramucci did not respond to an email and phone call seeking comment. Trump fired Scaramucci on Monday just over a week after naming him to the job. The move followed an obscene tirade by the Wall Street financier and the appointment of retired Marine Corps General John Kelly as White House chief of staff, sources familiar with the decision said, in the latest staff upheaval to hit the Republican president’s six-month-old administration. The sale of SkyBridge is under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS. A spokesman for the Treasury Department, which chairs CFIUS, did not respond to an email request for comment. HNA has been on a multibillion-dollar international acquisition spree, scooping up stakes in companies including Deutsche Bank , Old Mutual Asset Management and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc . HNA’s chief executive officer, Adam Tan, recently pushed back against media reports that the aviation-to-financial services conglomerate faces mounting pressure from its bankers and regulators, even as the pace of its acquisitions slows. | 1 | [
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FMD606 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Members of Venezuela’s opposition took the streets of the nation this weekend to protest a move by the Supreme Court to usurp federal legislative power, nullifying the National Assembly. [While the court ultimately backtracked on Wednesday’s ruling calling for legislators to be stripped of immunity and fully granting itself lawmaking authority, the judiciary has not restored the National Assembly’s powers, nor has it rescinded its demand that three opposition legislators be stripped of their powers due to socialist accusations of “fraud. †Venezuelans protested Wednesday’s ruling every day for the past week, with the most violent protests occurring in Caracas, many before the judiciary themselves. reports that, on Friday, the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) “fired buckshot and swung batons†at unarmed protesters in front of the Supreme Court. The GNB fighters remained in riot gear during the protests and shoved protesters. Tensión violenta en las calles de #Venezuela pic. twitter. — Yusnaby Pérez (@Yusnaby) April 2, 2017, La lucha es todos los dÃas y en todos los espacios, nuestros jóvenes diputados recorren centros comerciales activando a venezolanos #2Abril pic. twitter. — VenezuelaSomosTodos (@ComandoSB) April 2, 2017, Nuestros dip @JuanRequesens, @joseolivaresm, @Miguel_Pizarro y @MarialbertBs, junto a @jovenespj protestan en Centros Comerciales de Caracas pic. twitter. — Juan Miguel Matheus (@JuanMMatheus) April 2, 2017, In one incident, they attacked a credentialed journalist. GNB officers corralled Elyangelica González, a reporter for Univisión and Caracol News, dragging her by the feet and hair away from the Supreme Court. Video circulated on social media of the attack, and González shared it on her own Instagram account. Hoy quiero darle gracias infinitas a ese angel que capturó el momento preciso en que ésto estaba pasando. Tuviste la valentÃa de grabar después de ver cómo me dieron patadas y me tumbaron, por eso tu video comienza conmigo en el piso, ya golpeada y sin teléfonos. Gracias en nombre de todos los periodistas, a ti y a todos quienes me han escrito, me han llamado, y me dan su solidaridad. SÃ, ésta soy yo. Confieso que al ver ese video lloré mucho, aún me siento triste después de varias horas. Me duele todo el cuerpo y más el alma, jamás pensé que esto me podrÃa pasar. Ésta soy yo, pero eso no es mi paÃs, eso no somos nosotros, ese odio, esa violencia, esa saña no dice quienes somos. Ésta soy yo, pero soy también todos los periodistas de mi paÃs que salimos a diario a buscar las historias impostergables, las urgentes, las que todos deben conocer. Ésta soy yo, una mujer, madre, esposa, hija, hermana y afortunadamente periodista enamorada de lo que hace porque creo firmemente en nuestro poder de construir y ayudar. Ésta soy yo, luchando por mi derecho a informar, con las únicas armas que tengo, mi teléfono, mi micrófono, mi libreta, mi grabador y mi voz. La única manera de que evitar que hable es que me arranquen las cuerdas vocales. #SOYPERIODISTANODELINCUENTE, A post shared by Elyangelica Gonzalez (@elyangelicanews) on Apr 1, 2017 at 2:32pm PDT, González wrote to the unidentified person who recorded the incident: “thank you to the angel who captured this moment … on behalf of all journalists. †She later accused the GNB before reporters of attacking her for being present as they used rubber bullets to shoot at unarmed protesters and keep them away from the building. members of the opposition also accused the socialist government of dictator Nicolás Maduro of intimidating them into silence. Henry Ramos Allup, the former head of the opposition in the National Assembly, accused unidentified Secret Police (Sebin) officers of following him on a highway on Saturday, apparently waiting to arrest him. Ramos Allup wrote on Twitter, “[The officers] attempted to apprehend me in an abusive manner and told me I did not have parliamentary immunity. †As in González’s case, Ramos Allup thanked citizens who recorded the incident on their phones, using the publicity to prevent his arrest. @verdadesofenden @hramosallup Venezuela’s President of Congress @hramosallup followed by a Police Car without a registration plate. Intimidation? pic. twitter. — Sir Arnold Robinson (@uk_expat) April 2, 2017, Ya estamos circulando. Cobardes GNB y SEBIN no pudieron consumar atropello. Gracias a ciudadanos que con su actitud lo evitaron. pic. twitter. — Henry Ramos Allup (@hramosallup) April 1, 2017, AHORA:Asà transcurre la movilización a la DefensorÃa del Pueblo, exigiendo respeto a la Constitución #1abril pic. twitter. — VenezuelaSomosTodos (@ComandoSB) April 1, 2017, Contrary to what officials reportedly told Ramos Allup, the Supreme Court has not stripped the nation’s legislators of immunity. On Saturday, the Supreme Court clarified this in a statement that some are reporting as the undoing of the usurpation of legislative power. The court, the statement read, “has not stripped the Parliament of its functions, just as it has not dissolved or annulled it, and recognizes legislative immunity as a guarantee of the legislative functions with the limits prescribed by the Constitution. †This statement differed from its original ruling: “While the contempt scenario persists and the National Assembly remains invalid, this institution will guarantee that the parliamentary duties be executed directly by this institution or whatever institution it wishes. †It, nonetheless, insisted that these guarantees would not be in place until the National Assembly “reassumed the legal, valid, and legitimate exercise of its constitutional powers by abiding by the judiciary’s decisions. †The Supreme Court had already rendered the National Assembly void in January 2016, following the opposition’s electoral victory a month earlier, claiming that three opposition legislators had acquired their positions through fraud, according to Maduro. Until those three legislators were removed, the National Assembly’s laws would all die at the feet of the Supreme Court. The National Assembly, which argues there is no evidence for the claims of fraud, has considered the reworked Supreme Court ruling an insufficient correction of its original claims, noting that their refusal to accept the fraud claims still denies them their authority. On Sunday, the legislature’s Vice President Freddy Guevara issued a statement calling for more protests against the socialist government. “The destruction of separation of powers concluded when the Supreme Court attempted to strip the Assembly of its powers,†he said. “The government’s intention now is to demobilize the people in their just demands and stop the pressure from the international community. †“This is just beginning,†he promised. “The struggle for freedom will not cease until the constitutional order is restored. †Julio Borges, the president of the National Assembly, gave a statement Sunday insisting that the modified ruling changed little. “Nothing has changed, the coup continues,†he said. “In Venezuela, there is no separation of powers, no democracy, no justice. †On the Thursday following the passage of the ruling, Borges stood on the steps of the Supreme Court and tore up a copy of the ruling. “This is garbage,†he told reporters. Another opposition legislator, Richard Blanco, demanded on Monday the arrest of the Supreme Court’s justices. “These gentlemen should be behind bars to fulfill their duty to the people, who are currently wounded by this constitutional violation. †The official position of the legislative opposition is that the justices should step down, not be arrested. On Monday, 51 Venezuelan NGOs issued a joint letter supporting that demand and calling for the “immediate resignation†of the justices. | 1 | [
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FMD607 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is Snapchat creating a database of facial recognition for the government? Claim summaries: Online conspiracy theorists claim Snapchat's image filter feature called "Lenses" is covertly amassing a database of users' faces to share with law enforcement agencies.
contextual information: One of the more whimsical messaging options offered by Snapchat a social media app for mobile devices introduced in 2011 is the ability to personalize selfies in real time and share them instantly with other users, a feature that has at once contributed to the app's immense popularity (Snapchat boasts an estimated 166 million users daily) and raised privacy concerns among some of its customers. Snapchat's rotating toolbox of image filters, called Lenses, enables users to manipulate photos and videos to humorous effect, as seen in these examples shared publicly on Instagram by celebrity Snapchatter Chrissy Teigen: Cute and innocent though it may appear, the feature has become the target of conspiracy theorists claiming that Snapchat's corporate owner, Snap Inc., uses it to collect facial recognition data which it allegedly stores and shares with law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and CIA. We've found examples of such rumors dating back to Fall 2015 (soon after the Lenses feature was officially rolled out): you guys are all swooning over the snapchat filters... And The FBI is getting the most extensive facial recognition library ever TEENWOLF (@TEENWOLFREMIX) October 3, 2015 October 3, 2015 It wasn't until April of the following year that the rumors reached takeoff speed, however, thanks largely to a tweet composed by hip hop artist, songwriter, and unabashed flat-earth theorist B.o.B to his roughly two million followers: tweet flat-earth when you realize all the snap chat filters are really building a facial recognition database ? B.o.B (@bobatl) April 16, 2016 April 16, 2016 In May 2016, with civil cases already pending against Facebook and Google alleging unauthorized use of facial recognition technology, a class action lawsuit was filed by two Snapchat users in Illinois complaining that the app violated their rights under the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by failing to obtain adequate permission before gathering and storing their "biometric identifiers and biometric information". lawsuit BIPA The company flatly denied it: denied Contrary to the claims of this frivolous lawsuit, we are very careful not to collect, store, or obtain any biometric information or identifiers about our community. The class action suit was eventually dismissed in favor of arbitration in September 2016, but as of this writing the case remains unresolved. Crucial to Snapchat's defense is their position, as stated in the Privacy Center of the company's web site, that the app relies on object recognition, not facial recognition, to make Lenses work: arbitration stated Have you ever wondered how Lenses make your eyes well up with tears or rainbows come out your mouth? Some of the magic behind Lenses is object recognition. Object recognition is an algorithm designed to understand the general nature of things that appear in an image. It lets us know that a nose is a nose or an eye is an eye. But object recognition isnt the same as facial recognition. While Lenses can recognize faces in general, they can't recognize a specific face. If it's true that Lenses can't recognize (i.e., identify) specific faces, then the claim that the app produces anything qualifying as a "biometric identifier" under Illinois law is seriously in doubt. (The district judge in Illinois overseeing the Google facial recognition case previously defined "biometric identifier" as "a set of biology-based measurements ... used to identify a person.) case As to the wider claim that Snapchat is building a "facial recognition database," the distinction between object and facial recognition, at minimum, places a burden of proof on those trumpeting the claim to show that the app is capable of identifying specific faces in the first place. If this explanation (provided by the web site Vox) of how the software works is accurate, Snapchat doesn't need to be able to identify specific faces to accomplish the task. It has to recognize a face as a face, and identify the parts of a face as the nose, eyes, ears, chin, etc., but it doesn't have to recognize who the face belongs to: this Moreover, Snapchat's Privacy Policy states that the company neither collects nor permanently stores user-created content (meaning photos and videos) let alone preserves such items in a database: states Snapchat lets you capture what its like to live in the moment. On our end, that means that we automatically delete the content of your Snaps (the photo and video messages that you send your friends) from our servers after we detect that a Snap has been opened by all recipients or has expired. And although the policy further acknowledges that Snap Inc. may share users' personal information "to comply with any valid legal process, governmental request, or applicable law, rule, or regulation" (and transparency reports show that the company has indeed complied with such requests in the past), they can't grant the FBI (or any other agency) access to a "facial recognition database" that doesn't exist. reports Some rumors die hard, however. An updated variant that cropped up in early 2017 brought two new claims to the mix: one, that the FBI literally created Snapchat's image filtering software (and alleged facial recognition database); and two, that there is a smoking gun to prove it namely U.S. patent #9396354: granted According to an analysis by Sophos' Naked Security blogger Alison Booth, the patent proposes using facial recognition software to identify individual subjects in photos, whereupon the latter would be modified and/or their distribution restricted in accordance with the subjects' pre-established privacy settings. analysis There is a catch. Implementation of the process would, of course, require amassing a facial recognition database. "For facial recognition to work," writes Booth, "Snapchat would need to store images of all users that sign up to the feature as a reference image to compare photos against." So, there it is a "facial recognition database" of the sort conspiracy theorists have been going on about since 2015, except that Snapchat has not, to date, implemented such a feature (a fact we were able to confirm with the company), nor is there evidence that the FBI (or any other law enforcement agency) was involved in creating it, nor does the patent itself mention sharing facial recognition data with government entities. Despite finding no legitimate basis for the claim that Snapchat is currently engaged in collecting, storing, or sharing facial recognition data on its users, we do not wish to downplay the increasing prevalence of facial recognition technology in both commercial and government applications, nor the privacy issues this raises. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) articulated some of these issues in a statement announcing the release of a 2015 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the privacy implications of the technology: report The newly released report raises serious concerns about how companies are collecting, using, and storing our most sensitive personal information. I believe that all Americans have a fundamental right to privacy, which is why it's important that, at the very least, the tech industry adopts strong, industry-wide standards for facial recognition technology. But what we really need are federal standards that address facial recognition privacy by enhancing our consumer privacy framework. The tech industry has yet to address these concerns to the satisfaction of consumer privacy watchdogs, however, nor has Congress made progress toward establishing the federal standards Franken called for. Thus far, issue has been dealt with primarily in the court system via cases such as the aforementioned BIPA class action lawsuits against Facebook and Google. watchdogs lawsuits One of the ironies of the false alarms about Snapchat's alleged sharing of facial recognition data with the FBI is that the agency already maintains a biometric data network comprising the facial images of more than 117 million Americans (about half the U.S. adult population, and growing), mostly drawn from state DMV databases and other non-criminal sources. A 2016 report by the Georgetown Law Center for Privacy and Technology warned that the technology is both error-prone, with a disproportionate impact on communities of color, and almost totally unregulated. already report disproportionate In testimony before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing chaired by Sen. Franken in 2012, Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Jennifer Lynch urged Congress to act sooner rather than later to protect the biometric privacy of all Americans: testimony Face recognition and its accompanying privacy concerns are not going away. Given this, it is imperative that government act now to limit unnecessary biometrics collection; instill proper protections on data collection, transfer, and search; ensure accountability; mandate independent oversight; require appropriate legal process before government collection; and define clear rules for data sharing at all levels. This is important to preserve the democratic and constitutional values that are bedrock to American society. Booth, Alison. "Snapchat Turns Facial Recognition Technology on Its Head."
Naked Security. 20 July 2016. Danley-Greiner, Kristin. "Snapchat Defends Procedures After Facial Recognition Class Action."
Legal Newsline. 2 September 2016. Garvie, Clare et al. "The Perpetual Line-up: Unregulated Police Face Recognition in America."
Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology. 18 October 2016. Graham, Meg. "Illinois Biometrics Lawsuits May Help Define Rules for Facebook, Google."
Chicago Tribune. 13 January 2017. Korte, Amy. "Federal Court in Illinois Rules Biometric Privacy Lawsuit Against Google Can Proceed."
Illinois Policy. 8 March 2017. Maass, Dave. "Memo to the DOJ: Facial Recognition's Threat to Privacy Is Worse than Anyone Thought."
Electronic Frontier Foundation. 18 October 2016. Mathies, Daven. "The Incredible Underlying Technology of Snapchat's Selfie Lenses."
Digital Trends. 1 July 2016. Nelson, Steven. "Half of U.S. Adults Are in Police Facial Recognition Networks."
US News & World Report. 18 October 2016. Roberts, Jeff John. "Tech Industry's Facial Recognition Plan Bashed by Privacy Groups."
Fortune. 16 June 2016. Thielman, Sam. "FBI Using Vast Public Photo Data and Iffy Facial Recognition Tech to Find Criminals."
The Guardian. 15 June 2016. Trujillo, Mario. "Facial Recognition Quietly Taking Hold."
The Hill. 1 August 2015. Welinder, Yana. "EFF Urges Congress to Protect Privacy in Face Recognition."
Electronic Frontier Foundation. 18 July 2012. Yakowicz, Will. "Snapchat Sued Under Illinois Biometric Information Usage Law."
Inc. 18 July 2016. Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Testimony of Jennifer Lynch to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law."
18 July 2012. Google. "Patent: Apparatus and Method for Automated Privacy Protection in Distributed Images - US 9396354 B1."
19 July 2016. Government Accounting Office. "Facial Recognition Technology: Commercial Uses, Privacy Issues, and Applicable Federal Law."
20 June 2015. U.S. Senate. "Sen. Franken: New Report on Facial Recognition Technology Highlights Lack of Privacy Standards."
30 July 2015. U.S. Senate. "Sen. Franken Releases Extensive Report Detailing Concerns with FBI Facial Recognition Program."
15 June 2016. | 0 | [
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FMD608 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did Clint Eastwood's Net Worth Leave His Family 'in Tears'? Claim summaries: A strange online death hoax about Clint Eastwood's net worth purportedly leaving his family "in tears" circulated in online advertisements late in 2020.
contextual information: Clint Eastwood's Academy Award-winning work includes four Oscars: Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role for both 1993's "Unforgiven" and 2004's "Million Dollar Baby." Eastwood's work spans decades, and some of his roles were uncredited. For example, he briefly appeared in 1995's "Casper." Additionally, since at least September 2020, he appeared uncredited in an online advertisement that read: "Clint Eastwood's Net Worth Left His Family In Tears." Of course, Eastwood had nothing to do with the dubious ad. Furthermore, he was not dead. As of December 2020, Clint Eastwood was alive and filming a new movie during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 90-year-old actor was born on May 31, 1930. The misleading advertisements that falsely claimed Eastwood's net worth "left his family in tears" led readers to a seemingly endless, multi-page story on refinancegold.com. The headline for the slideshow-style article read: "Special Celebs & Their Incredible Net Worth." Clint Eastwood's name finally appeared on page 225 after readers had clicked "Next" 225 times, right before the end of the story. The page included no mention of his family being left "in tears." Clint Eastwood ~ $375 Million (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for AFI) Clint Eastwood is Hollywood's star from the 70s who has had a long and fruitful acting career in succeeding decades, mostly portraying rough-and-tough characters in Western settings. These days, he is a highly accomplished director. He is best known for his roles in the Dollars Trilogy and Dirty Harry films. With a $375 million net fortune in his bank account from his long career as an actor, producer, and director in show business, he will never need to ask for a loan in his life again. We previously covered other misleading net worth advertisements for Alex Trebek, Sean Connery, Jaleel White, and Richard Gere. On the TrustPilot.com reviews website, a user named Paul H. posted a one-star review for refinancegold.com, the website that created the misleading Clint Eastwood advertisement: "Hurtful Misleading Ad to Draw You In." Their morally despicable ad to draw you to their website should warn you right off about having anything to do with this company. The hook was: "Clint Eastwood's Net Worth Left His Family in Tears" (accompanied by a picture of Clint looking distraught and at death's door - the sort of picture we could all be caught with at the wrong time of the day). I'm not particularly a fan of Clint Eastwood, but as far as I know, he's very much alive and not going bankrupt any time soon. I'm sure he doesn't need me to defend him, but this sort of ad is hurtful to those who love him, deceitful, and without conscience. Avoid this company like the plague; how far can you trust people who are willing to draw you in with that sort of ad? Snopes debunks a wide range of content, and online advertisements are no exception. Misleading ads often lead to obscure websites that host lengthy slideshow articles with many pages. It's called advertising "arbitrage." The advertiser's goal is to make more money on ads displayed on the slideshow's pages than it costs to show the initial ad that lured them to it. Feel free to submit ads to us, and be sure to include a screenshot of the ad and the link to where the ad leads. | 0 | [
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FMD609 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Veteran newscaster Tom Brokaw called out political hack Andrea Mitchell on her ridiculous Comey narrative. He said, deal with facts in to Mitchell in an effort to snap her back into reality. Her judgement is so clouded by her hate for all things Trump that she can t see that Comey needed to be fired ASAP. Brokaw even said he didn t know anyone who thought Comey was doing a good job! Brokaw is a left-leaning journalist so his judgement isn t clouded with a pro-Trump agenda:Tom Brokaw: One of the things that I learned during Watergate is that we dealt with it every day on a factual basis. There was not a lot of speculation. Now, of course, the media landscape has changed a lot, and we have that going on 24/7. I do think, however, that all of us as reporters have to take a deep breath and say let s deal with the facts as we know them at this point. Our obligation I think is to sort it out, truth from fact, and deal with the truth. Amen! Thank you Mr. Brokaw! | 0 | [
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FMD610 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Publix Coupons Facebook Scam Claim summaries: A free Publix grocery coupon Facebook offer is just another version of the ubiquitous survey scam.
contextual information: In September 2018, Facebook users began seeing posts advertising a "Get $75 off any purchase of $80 or more" coupon offer for the Publix supermarket chain. Later, in July 2019, an $80 version also circulated. These posts were the latest iterations of the common "free coupon" or "free gift card" scams that frequently plague social media. Publix has previously taken to social media to warn customers that these coupon offers are not authorized promotions and to advise them not to visit sites promoting them. These fake coupon offers are a form of survey scam that typically instructs shoppers to follow "three simple steps" in order to receive a free gift card. Once the steps are completed, however, users are not greeted with a coupon code; instead, they are asked to fill out a survey and provide personal information such as their home address, telephone number, email address, and date of birth. Users are also required to sign up for credit cards or enroll in subscription programs to obtain their "free" gift cards. These fraudulent surveys are quite popular on Facebook. If you frequently use Facebook, there is a good chance that you'll encounter one of these survey scams again. A July 2014 article from the Better Business Bureau listed key factors for identifying fraudulent Facebook posts. Don't believe what you see. It's easy to steal the colors, logos, and headers of an established organization. Scammers can also make links look like they lead to legitimate websites and emails appear to come from a different sender. Legitimate businesses do not ask for credit card numbers or banking information on customer surveys. If they do ask for personal information, like an address or email, be sure there's a link to their privacy policy. When in doubt, do a quick web search. If the survey is a scam, you may find alerts or complaints from other consumers. The organization's real website may have further information. Watch out for rewards that are too good to be true. If the survey is legitimate, you may be entered in a drawing to win a gift card or receive a small discount off your next purchase. Few businesses can afford to give away $50 gift cards for completing just a few questions. | 0 | [
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FMD611 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is there an anticipation of an asteroid colliding with Earth near Christmas? Claim summaries: The Earth is constantly surrounded by "near-earth objects."
contextual information: On Oct. 23, 2019, the U.K. tabloid Express published an article that left some readers believing they need not make Christmas plans that year because Earth was in danger of being hit by a large asteroid. The article was entitled "Asteroid Terror: NASA Spot Mammoth Space Rock to Hit Earth's Orbit Five Days Before X-mas." The subheading gave earthlings an even smaller chance of survival: "AN ASTEROID the size of the World Trade Centre is on a dangerous Earth-bound orbit that could see the rock smash the planet during Christmas festivities." When the article was regurgitated by even less reputable websites, the fear-mongering title morphed into a factually inaccurate claim. For instance, the website Digital Wise rehashed this article under the title "NASA Issues Warning Over Asteroid Predicted To Hit Earth Five Days Before Christmas!" Digital Wise has made no such announcement, and Earth is not in danger of being hit by an asteroid around Christmas. These articles are all based on a real asteroid (known as 216258 2006 WH1) and its holiday approach toward Earth. However, these articles present the information as if this asteroid is particularly dangerous. But there's nothing unusually threatening about asteroid 216258 2006 WH1. NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) currently lists 26 near-Earth objects that are scheduled to pass by our planet within the next 60 days. While asteroid 216258 2006 WH1 (which was discovered in 2006) will truly be passing by Earth around Christmas, CNEOS reports that the asteroid is expected to safely pass by Earth at a distance of about 15.19 LD (lunar distance), approximately 3.6 million miles. Dr. Paul W. Chodas, the Director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, told us in an email that there is "nothing unusual or dangerous" about asteroid 216258 2006 WH1: "No, there is nothing unusual or dangerous about this asteroid. It is simply making a close approach to the Earth. Astronomers have been observing this asteroid's position for 13 years; we know its orbit very accurately, we can predict its close approaches accurately for the next 200 years, and we know with certainty that it cannot hit our planet." Lindley Johnson, NASA's Planetary Defense Officer and Program Executive of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), also told us that this asteroid "poses no hazard to impacting Earth." NASA and other U.S. agencies are lead players in the international effort to develop plans to respond to a possible Near-Earth Object (NEO) impact. In 2018, the White House released the National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan, which identifies key steps that U.S. agencies need to take to better prepare the United States and the world for detecting and responding to a possible impact. NASA has been directed by Congress to catalogue and characterize all NEOs bigger than 140 meters, the ones that could be catastrophic. NASA is approximately 35% complete for NEOs 140 meters and larger, and approximately 96% complete for those 1 km and larger. Strategic investments in our space-based programs will benefit all of humanity as we continue to catalogue any NEOs that pose a potential threat. This particular asteroid's trajectory has been well tracked by NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies since its discovery 13 years ago and poses no hazard to impacting Earth. Here's a little more information about near-Earth objects from CNEOS. The organization writes on its website (emphasis ours): "On a daily basis, about one hundred tons of interplanetary material drifts down to the Earth's surface. Most of the smallest interplanetary particles that reach the Earth's surface are the tiny dust particles that are released by comets as their ices vaporize in the solar neighborhood. The vast majority of the larger interplanetary material that reaches the Earth's surface originates as the collision fragments of asteroids that have run into one another some eons ago. With an average interval of about 10,000 years, rocky or iron asteroids larger than about 100 meters would be expected to reach the Earth's surface and cause local disasters or produce tidal waves that can inundate low-lying coastal areas. On an average of every several hundred thousand years or so, asteroids larger than a kilometer could cause global disasters. In this case, the impact debris would spread throughout the Earth's atmosphere so that plant life would suffer from acid rain, partial blocking of sunlight, and from the firestorms resulting from heated impact debris raining back down upon the Earth's surface. Since their orbital paths often cross that of the Earth, collisions with near-Earth objects have occurred in the past, and we should remain alert to the possibility of future close Earth approaches. It seems prudent to mount efforts to discover and study these objects, to characterize their sizes, compositions, and structures, and to keep an eye on their future trajectories. No one should be overly concerned about an Earth impact of an asteroid or comet. The threat to any one person from auto accidents, disease, other natural disasters, and a variety of other problems is much higher than the threat from NEOs. Over long periods of time, however, the chances of the Earth being impacted are not negligible, so some form of NEO insurance is warranted. At the moment, our best insurance rests with the NEO scientists and their efforts to first find these objects and then track their motions into the future. We need to first find them, then keep an eye on them. NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program is constantly monitoring the skies for approaching asteroids and meteors. So far, the program has discovered more than 19,000 NEOs. When NASA discovers an NEO, it works to determine as much information as possible about the object, such as its size, speed, and orbit, so that the agency can calculate when it will approach Earth and how close it will come when it does. But the 19,000 NEOs in NASA's database aren't really what we have to worry about. The organization writes that thousands of NEOs have yet to be discovered: "Asteroid impacts are a continuously occurring natural process. Every day, 80 to 100 tons of material falls upon Earth from space in the form of dust and small meteorites (fragments of asteroids that disintegrate in Earth's atmosphere). Over the past 20 years, U.S. government sensors have detected nearly 600 very small asteroids a few meters in size that have entered Earth's atmosphere and created spectacular bolides (fireballs). Experts estimate that an impact of an object the size of the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013—approximately 55 feet (17 meters) in size—takes place once or twice a century. Impacts of larger objects are expected to be far less frequent (on the scale of centuries to millennia). However, given the current incompleteness of the NEO catalogue, an unpredicted impact—such as the Chelyabinsk event—could occur at any time. Still, the chances of an asteroid larger than 140 meters hitting Earth in the next 100 years are minimal. The current congressionally directed objective of the NEO Observations Program is to find, track, and characterize at least 90 percent of the predicted number of NEOs that are 140 meters and larger in size—larger than a small football stadium—and to characterize a subset representative of the entire population. Objects of this size and larger pose a risk to Earth of greatest concern due to the level of devastation an impact would cause and should continue to be the focus of global search efforts. While no known asteroid larger than 140 meters in size has a significant chance to hit Earth for the next 100 years, less than half of the estimated 25,000 NEOs that are 140 meters and larger in size have been found to date. Asteroid 216258 2006 WH1 will pass by Earth a few days before Christmas. However, NASA has issued no warnings about a catastrophic impact, and CNEOS reports that this asteroid will get no closer than 3 million miles from Earth during its approach." | 0 | [
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FMD612 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did a Noted Pathologist Write This Viral Coronavirus Advice Letter? Claim summaries: Amid an outbreak of coronavirus in 2020, an email from pathologist James Robb was heavily memed and exaggerated.
contextual information: In late February 2020, as a new coronavirus spread worldwide, a letter providing advice on avoiding a viral infection was shared and memed heavily. The letter is attributed to pathologist James Robb who described himself as "one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses." The letter itself provides common-sense solutions to preventing disease transmission: letter shared memed 1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc. 2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove. 3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip - do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors. 4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts. 5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been. 6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home's entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can't immediately wash your hands. 7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more! The portion of the missive that garnered the most attention, however, was the pathologist's recommendation of zinc lozenges: Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available. This portion of the letter apparently resulted in memes suggesting the product Cold-Eeze was a "silver bullet" that would "kill coronavirus": We reached out to Robb to ask if he was the author of this letter. Via email, he told us that he did indeed write it, but that it was never meant to be for anyone besides family and close friends, and that it was not intended to be an advertisement for any specific product: It was my email to my family and close friends ONLY. Someone put it on their Facebook page. It was intended to be a monologue - not a dialogue. I do not use any social media and may have been too naive about what "sharing" means today. His history with coronaviruses is accurately recounted. In the late 1970s, as professor of pathology at the University of California, San Diego, Robb published some of the earliest descriptions of coronaviruses. He also published a book chapter on this class of viruses for "Comprehensive Virology." earliest descriptions book chapter While Robb does recommend zinc lozenges (of any brand, he told us), he would not describe the product as the silver bullet solution to the outbreak: In my experience as a virologist and pathologist, zinc will inhibit the replication of many viruses, including coronaviruses. I expect COVID-19 [the disease caused by the novel coronavirus] will be inhibited similarly, but I have no direct experimental support for this claim. I must add, however, that using zinc lozenges as directed by the manufacturer is no guarantee against being infected by the virus, even if it inhibits the viral replication in the nasopharynx. In general terms, research suggests that zinc may be able to inhibit the spread of some viral infections, but the question remains scientifically unsettled. A 2010 study using cell cultures published in PLOS One found evidence that increasing intracellular zinc concentrations "can efficiently impair the replication of a variety of RNA viruses" including coronaviruses. According to the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, "trials conducted in high-income countries since 1984 investigating the role of zinc for the common cold symptoms have had mixed results." The common cold is, in some cases, caused by a virus also classified as a coronavirus. 2010 study According common cold Because the letter was written by him, we rank this claim as Correctly Attributed" to Robb. For more tips on protecting against the coronavirus, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tip sheet here. tip sheet Bond, Clifford W., et al. "Pathogenic Murine Coronaviruses II. Characterization of Virus-specific Proteins of Murine Coronaviruses JHSMV and A59V."
Virology. 30 April 1979. Robb, James A. and Clifford W. Bond. "Coronaviridae."
Comprehensive Virology. 1979. te Velthuis, Aartjan J. W., et al. "Zn2+ Inhibits Coronavirus and Arterivirus RNA Polymerase Activity In Vitro and Zinc Ionophores Block the Replication of These Viruses in Cell Culture."
PLOS Pathogens. 4 November 2010. Singh, Meenu and Rashmi R. Das. "Zinc for the Common Cold."
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.   18 June 2013. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Common Human Coronaviruses."
Accessed 2 March 2020. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Prevention and Treatment."
Accessed 2 March 2020. Correction [13 March 2020]: Clarified that human coronaviruses are just one of several potential causes of the common cold. | 1 | [
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FMD613 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: US Hypocrisy: Bombing of Aleppo is no Worse than what Happened in Gaza and Iraq By Gareth Porter " MEE " - The Russian-Syrian bombing campaign in eastern Aleppo, which has ended at least for the time being, has been described in press reports and op-eds as though it were unique in modern military history in its indiscriminateness. In an usual move for a senior US official, Secretary of State John Kerry called for an investigation of war crimes in Aleppo.
The discussion has been lacking in historical context, however. Certainly the civilian death toll from the bombing and shelling in Aleppo has been high, but many of the strikes may not be all that dissimilar from the major US bombing campaign in Iraq in 2003, nor as indiscriminate as Israels recent campaigns in densely populated cities.
The impression that the bombing in Aleppo was uniquely indiscriminate was a result of news reporting and commentary suggesting, by implication, that there are no real military targets in east Aleppo.
But in fact, al-Nusra Front turned Aleppo into the central hub of a massive system of conventional warfare in Aleppo province in late January 2016 when it sent an enormous convoy of at least 200 vehicles with troops and weaponry into eastern Aleppo. A dramatic three-minute al-Nusra video shows what appears to be hundreds of vehicles full of troops and trucks with weapons mounted on them.
The Russian command in Syria has drones observing the routes in and out of Aleppo, so it certainly knew where many of those military sites were located. Syrian opposition sources also revealed that Nusra began immediately to put the military assets at its disposal underground, digging deep bunkers to protect troops, military equipment and tunnels through which troops and weapons could be moved unseen.
The move underground explains the Russian use of bunker-buster bombs for the first time in the war. As the Guardian reported , Justin Bronk of the British defence think tank Royal United Service Institute concluded that the Russians have high-grade intelligence of the whereabouts of Syrian opposition positions, mainly because bunker buster bombs are too expensive to use simply to destroy buildings at random.
But like Hamas fighters in Gaza in 2014, the Nusra Front-led command in Aleppo has moved its troops, weapons and command centres around in the tunnels that they have built. So many of the Russian and Syrian air strikes are almost certainly hitting targets that have already been abandoned. And in other cases, the wrong target has undoubtedly been hit.
The Aleppo Health Directorate, a local monitoring group, estimated that 400 civilians had been killed in the first three weeks of bombing in east Aleppo. The United Nations put the death toll at 360 .
Drop the superiority act As terrible as that toll of civilian lives is, the United States should drop the stance of moral superiority. When the US military invaded Iraq in 2003, it made no effort to keep track of how many civilians were killed in its bombing and artillery fire, claiming it had no way to tell who was civilian and who was not.
And the best estimates of civilians killed in US and Israeli urban wars dont provide any basis for moral superiority. A survey of Baghdads hospitals by the Los Angeles Times in May 2003 produced an estimate of at least 1,700 civilians killed in the first five weeks of American war. The estimate included those who had died in ground fighting and from unexploded ordnance, but even with those contributing factors subtracted from the total, it would still be far greater than those killed in the assault on east Aleppo on a weekly basis.
The three-week Israeli war on Gaza City in 2009 and the seven-week war on Gaza in 2014 were also far deadlier than Aleppo. The former killed 773 civilians, according to an investigation by the Israeli human rights organisation BTselem. The latter killed 1,473 Palestinian civilians, according to the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs .
Attacks on hospitals The one feature of the Russian-Syrian air offensive on east Aleppo that seems most clearly to violate the laws of war is the targeting of hospitals. Media accounts have referred to air strikes with barrel bombs that have hit two major hospitals in the rebel-held part of the city.
The Syrian government has been acting as though it regards the hospitals in eastern Aleppo as serving the Nusra Front command, and the hospitals, which are under intense pressure from the militants who run that part of Aleppo, have fed the governments suspicions.
As a detailed report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on the air strikes that hit the Al Quds hospital on 27 April explains, the local organisation that created a new system of hospitals in 2011 decided not to declare the hospitals openly but to keep them underground meaning secret from the government.
In fact, of course, the government knows perfectly well where all 10 hospitals in east Aleppo are located. The 27 April air strike that damaged the Al Quds hospital shows how the government has responded. It began with an air strike that destroyed a building across the street from the hospital. The building was a school, but former residents of east Aleppo who have gotten out have confirmed that organisations associated with the al-Qaeda-dominated command have located their offices in schools to try to hide their staff.
Within a few minutes of the initial strike, according to the MSF account, Al Quds hospital staff were pulling survivors out of the rubble and taking them across the street to the emergency room, whereupon the Syrian air force dropped a barrel bomb at the entrance to the emergency room, killing several of the hospital staff, including one doctor. Then it dropped one close enough to the side of the hospital to hit the emergency room and, minutes later, hit a building down the block where hospital staff were staying.
Such attacks on those who try to save the lives of survivors of bombing attacks sometimes called double tap attacks - are rightly condemned as violations of humanitarian law. And the belief that the staff at the hospital are operating in effect as medics for the adversarys military does not justify attacking it and the wounded sheltered there.
But such violations of the laws of war are hardly unique to Aleppo or Syria.
Hardly unique US drone strikes in Pakistan have hit rescuers or mourners after hitting their initial targets in numerous documented cases . In the 2009 Gaza attacks, the Israeli military argued that Hamas fighters were using hospitals to hide from Israeli bombing, but offered no valid evidence to support it, as the Goldstone Report showed .
In 2014, the Israelis completely destroyed the Al-Wafa hospital in an air strike recorded for public release after claiming falsely that it had been fired on by Palestinian gunmen.
In its wars in Gaza and in Lebanon, the IDF has gone well beyond the Russian and Syrian Aleppo campaign in refusing to recognise any distinction between civilian targets. It not only targeted civilian offices in both Gaza wars, but treated entire areas of the city as a legitimate target, on the premise that all civilians had been ordered to leave.
And in both Gaza and in Beirut suburb of Dahiya , it levelled several high-rise buildings where they believed Hezbollah had offices. The IDF called it the Dahiya doctrine, and threatened great damage and destruction on any adversary in any future war in the region.
Heavy bombing in a city is inherently fraught with moral risk, and attacks on genuine civilian targets can never be excused. But such practices have been carried out and legitimised in the past by the very government that is now claiming the role of moral and legal arbiter. That hypocrisy needs to be recognised and curbed as well.
- Gareth Porter is an independent investigative journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism. He is the author of the newly published Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare . | 0 | [
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FMD614 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: $100 JCPenney Coupon Scam Claim summaries:
contextual information: FACT CHECK: Can Facebook users get a $100 JCPenney coupon for liking and sharing a post? Claim: Facebook users can get a $100 JCPenney coupon for liking and sharing a post. Origins: In August 2015 a link began circulating on Facebook that promised users a $100 JCPenney coupon in exchange for liking and sharing a post (with a seemingly ticking deadline clock impressing upon them the need to hurry up and do so). Users who clicked through those shared links were greeted by a page titled "Back to School with a $100 JCPenney Coupon," which mimicked the style of Facebook-based content (despite being hosted outside that social network): However, those who looked closely at the embedded link may have noticed one prominent red flag. As seen in the example at the top of this page, the URL pointed to "JCPeeney.net" and not JCPenney.com, the official website of JCPenney. Users who shared the link to the real JCPenney's Facebook wall to ask if the attractive offer was legitimate received replies from chain representatives stating: Facebook I do apologize that I have to disappoint you. The $100 off $110 coupon offer that has been posted to some social media sites is not a valid JCPenney coupon. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused. Please stop by jcpenney.com to view offers that are currently available online and in our stores. Currently we are offering our Friends and Family discount. Happy Shopping. At this point most regular Facebook users have encountered (and will continue to see) similar survey scams; Kohl's, Costco, Home Depot, Lowe's, Kroger, Best Buy, Macy's, Olive Garden, Publix, Target, and Walmart are among retailers previously used as bait by scammers aiming collect personal information and page likes from social media users. Kohl's Costco Home Depot Lowe's Kroger Best Buy Macy's Olive Garden Publix Target Walmart scammers A July 2014 article from the Better Business Bureau described common hallmarks of social media coupon scams: article Don't believe what you see. It's easy to steal the colors, logos and header of an established organization. Scammers can also make links look like they lead to legitimate websites and emails appear to come from a different sender. Legitimate businesses do not ask for credit card numbers or banking information on customer surveys. If they do ask for personal information, like an address or email, be sure there's a link to their privacy policy. When in doubt, do a quick web search. If the survey is a scam, you may find alerts or complaints from other consumers. The organization's real website may have further information. Watch out for a reward that's too good to be true. If the survey is real, you may be entered in a drawing to win a gift card or receive a small discount off your next purchase. Few businesses can afford to give away $50 gift cards for completing a few questions. Legitimate coupons for JC Penney (and a large variety of other retailers) can be found on sale aggregators such as RetailMeNot, but even the largest discount codes never approach the $100+ savings promised by Facebook coupon scammers. RetailMeNot Last updated: 10August 2015 Originally published: 10August 2015 | 0 | [
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FMD615 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Do Abortion Rates Fall During Democratic Administrations, Rise During Republican Ones? Claim summaries: Abortion rates have risen and fallen throughout presidencies of both parties, making drawing a direct correlation between the two untenable.
contextual information: In 1969, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began collecting nationwide data on the numbers of abortions, the abortion ratio (abortions versus live births), and the abortion rate (abortions versus the US population of women aged 15-44 years old). collecting While these data are not perfect due to inconsistent (and sometimes non-existent) reporting from different states, they can be used to analyze relative changes in abortion rates during the presidencies of different presidential parties, as we will do here using numbers from the CDCs annual abortion surveillance study. Red portions of the lines show the ratio and rates of abortions occurring under Republican administrations, and blue under Democratic administrations: not perfect numbers Before delving into the specific relationship between abortions and the political party affiliation of the President, the complete data set should be analyzed as a whole to provide context. This is how the CDC describes the overall trend in their data: describes Following nationwide legalization of abortion in 1973, the total number, rate (number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 1544 years), and ratio (number of abortions per 1,000 live births) of reported abortions increased rapidly, reaching the highest levels in the 1980s before decreasing at a slow yet steady pace. However, the incidence of abortion has varied considerably across demographic subpopulations. Moreover, during 20062008, a break occurred in the previously sustained pattern of decrease, but in all subsequent years has been followed by even greater decreases. The large uptick in legal abortions though the 70s is related to the the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that a womans right to an abortion is protected under the right to privacy of the Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment. Roe v. Wade It is plain to see that abortion rates have risen (prior to their peaking in the mid-1980s) and fallen under both Democratic and Republican administration, suggesting little to no correlation with whichever political party controls the White House. The overall trend since the 1980s has been a fairly consistent decline across through administrations of both parties. It would be easy to demonstrate that abortion rates have not risen under Democratic administrations in the last several decades, but it would be false to argue that declines in abortion rates are an exclusive feature of Democratic presidencies. The claim that abortion rates fall under Democrats, while true, ignores the fact that rates have also continued to decline through Republican administrations as well. The claim, then, that abortion rates (at least since their mid-1980s peak) have risen when Republicans have held the White House is therefore equally false. At most, one can argue that the rate of decline appeared to slow during the presidency of George W. Bush before increasing under President Barack Obama's administration, but such an observation would be based on a comparison between only two administrations and would do nothing to demonstrate causation. In fact, causation between the presidency and abortion rates would be difficult to demonstrate in any case because it is hard to draw a straight line between federal government policy (let alone presidential policy) and abortion procurement. Nearly all challenges to open access to abortion have come at the state, and not the federal, level. According to a 2013 report by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute: report Twenty-two states enacted 70 abortion restrictions during 2013. This makes 2013 second only to 2011 in the number of new abortion restrictions enacted in a single year. To put recent trends in even sharper relief, 205 abortion restrictions were enacted over the past three years (20112013), but just 189 were enacted during the entire previous decade (20012010). At the federal level, legislators have had more trouble passing abortion restrictions into law, making it difficult to argue that any presidential policy, specifically, has had an effect on abortion rates. The only relevant federal legislation that has been signed into law are the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which prohibited federal money from funding (most) abortions, and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which criminalized abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy and was upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in 2007. 1976 Hyde Amendment Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 What one can say, though, is that federal or myriad state-level regulations put in place do not appear to produce much of a change in abortion rates, according to a 2014 study by the Guttmacher Institute: study Forty-four laws intended to restrict access to abortion were implemented in 18 states between 2008 and 2010; an additional 62 were implemented in 2011 in 21 states. Some of these laws, such as those that added information to existing counseling requirements, would not necessarily be expected to have a measurable impact. In turn, we found no indication that they affected state-specific trends in abortion incidence. [...] Finally, a number of states that did not enact any new abortion restrictions and that are generally supportive of abortion rightsfor example, by allowing state Medicaid funds to pay for abortions for eligible womenexperienced declines in their abortion rates comparable to, and sometimes greater than, the national decline (e.g., California, New Jersey and New York). That these states also experienced a slight drop in the number of clinics offering abortion services may reflect a decline in demand as opposed to the imposition of legal barriers. According to the CDC, multiple factors can affect abortion rates, including those such as contraception and demographic changes that have an effect on the demand for (as opposed to availability of) abortions: CDC Multiple factors influence the incidence of abortion including the availability of abortion providers; state regulations, such as mandatory waiting periods, parental involvement laws, and legal restrictions on abortion providers; increasing acceptance of nonmarital childbearing; shifts in the racial/ethnic composition of the U.S. population; and changes in the economy and the resulting impact on fertility preferences and access to health care services, including contraception. | 0 | [
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FMD616 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Our businesses have created jobs every single month since (Obamacare) became law.
contextual information: President Barack Obama touted the success of Obamacare during his final State of the Union address. He said the Affordable Care Act has led to nearly 18 million more people gaining health insurance and has helped to slow health care cost inflation. He added that the law didnt destroy the job market,despite pessimistic predictionsfrom critics. Our businesses have created jobs every single month since it became law, Obama said on Capitol Hill on Jan. 12, 2016. We hadnt heard that particular Obamacare talking point before, so we decided to take a look. Because Obama referred specifically to our businesses, we looked atprivate-sector employment datafrom the Bureau of Labor Statistics starting in March 2010, when Obama signed theAffordable Care Act. Of the 70 months since, Obama is correct that every single one has seen positive job growth. Thats a record for uninterrupted job growth, according to our friends at theWashington PostFact Checker. This graph from BLS shows monthly change in private-sector job growth (in thousands) since the start of 2010: From early 2010 on, the data is above the zero line, showing positive job growth. The fact that the country has gained jobs despite the health care law also might not assuage critics argument that job growth, and other aspects of the economy, would have been stronger absent the law. For example, in aJanuary 2015 fact-check, we found that the law might have caused many thousands of employees to have their hours cut from full-time to part-time. But independent studies havent backed up claims that the law would end up reducing employment. In 2011, we rated a claim from former Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., that Obamacare is job killingFalse. Former Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in 2014 that Obamacare is expected to destroy 2.3 million jobs. We rated that claimMostly False. Our ruling Obama said, Our businesses have created jobs every single month since (Obamacare) became law. The private sector has seen job growth every single month since Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in March 2010. Theres room for argument over what the growth would have looked like absent the health care law, but Obamas statistic is on target. We rate this claim True. | 1 | [
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FMD617 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did Paul Ryan Say Women Who Use Birth Control Are Committing Murder? Claim summaries: A statement supposedly made by House speaker Paul Ryan on CNN in which he asserted that women who use birth control are committing murder originated with a "hybrid" satire site.
contextual information: On 3 March 2017, the website USPOLN published an article that contained several quotes ostensibly uttered by Senator Paul Ryan, including one statement in which he supposedly asserted about birth control that "If there was a legitimate way to have intercourse and not get pregnant, God would have included it in His holy books." This article was framed as presenting portions of a discussion between Ryan and CNN host Jake Tapper, and the introductory paragraph replicated a legitimate exchange between Ryan and Tapper about health care reform and birth control that took place on 13 November 2016. During this exchange, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) refused to say if some women would lose access to birth control benefits after Republicans repealed | 0 | [
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FMD618 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did Babe Ruth Replace George Halas in the Yankees' Outfield? Claim summaries: The answer to the trivia question "Whom did Babe Ruth replace as the Yankees' right fielder?" is less legendary than claimed.
contextual information: "Papa Bear" George Halas is a legend in the world of professional football. A member of the charter group of inductees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Halas was one of the co-founders of the National Football League (NFL) in 1920, and he is most famous for his long tenure as owner and head coach of the Chicago Bears franchise, which he led to multiple championships during a coaching career that spanned 40 seasons. George Halas is a legend in the world of professional football However, Halas actually began his professional sports career as a baseball player, piquing the interest of the New York Yankees while playing college ball and signing with the team after he was discharged from the U.S. Navy at the end of World War I. Halas reported to the Yankees for spring training in 1919 and made the remarkable jump from college player to big-league outfielder. That one season was the extent of Halas' major-league baseball career, however, as a hip injury limited his performance. He was sent down to the minors, and he opted not to return to pro baseball the following year. By the end of 1919, he was playing professional football, and in 1920 he took part in the meeting that formed the American Professional Football Association (which became the NFL in 1922). In the process, Halas purportedly gained another measure of sports immortality as the answer to the trivia question, "Whom did Babe Ruth replace as the Yankees' right fielder?" But Halas couldn't have been "replaced" by Babe Ruth -- or anyone else -- in the Yankees' outfield (as he reportedly claimed for the rest of his life) because he had never been a regular in the first place. In his single season with the New York club, Halas took part in only a dozen games, and half of those appearances were as a pinch-runner or pinch-hitter. He played the outfield in only six games (five in right and one in center) before he was sent down, never to return. reportedly claimed played the outfield In 1919, the Yankees' primary outfielders were Ping Bodie, Duffy Lewis, and Sammy Vick. After New York acquired Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox during the 1919-20 off-season and installed him as a full-time outfielder, the player who suffered the greatest curtailment in playing time was Sammy Vick, who started 96 games in right field for the Yankees in 1919 but only 24 games in 1920 (and was then shipped off to the Red Sox at the end of the 1920 season). primary outfielders Sammy Vick All of us who eventually have to give up our jobs in favor of newer and better arrivals may like to think we were supplanted only by someone of world-class talent, but in this case, that notion was more wishful thinking than reality. | 0 | [
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FMD619 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: At least six members of the Super New England Patriots have said they will not visit the White House for the traditional meeting that championship teams have with the president. Running back LeGarrette Blount, defensive end Chris Long and defensive tackle Alan Branch on Thursday became the latest to announce that they would skip the visit. Long posted on Twitter that he “planned on skipping†in response to a column in The Daily News that urged him to skip. Blount revealed his decision on Fox Sports in a radio interview on “The Rich Eisen Show†later in the afternoon. “I just don’t feel welcome in that house,†Blount said. “I’m going to just leave it at that. †Branch told Sirius XM Radio that he planned to spend time with family. A day earlier, the Pro Bowl linebacker Dont’a Hightower bowed out when he told ESPN, “Been there, done that,†having visited with a championship Alabama team. Tight end Martellus Bennett told reporters after the Super Bowl that he would not go: “It is what it is,†he said. “People know how I feel about it. Just follow me on Twitter. †The outspoken Bennett had joked that he might move to outer space after Donald J. Trump was elected. The Pro Bowl safety Devin McCourty, a team captain, told Time magazine: “Basic reason for me is I don’t feel accepted in the White House. With the president having so many strong opinions and prejudices, I believe certain people might feel accepted there while others won’t. †Bennett and McCourty were in the news for their activism last fall, when they raised their fists in protest during the national anthem for one game. At the time, athletes in various sports were protesting racial oppression in the country. The number of Patriots absences may well increase. Running back James White said he had not made up his mind whether to go. “I’ll wait till the time comes and decide then,†he said. No date has been scheduled for this year’s ceremony honoring the Patriots. The ceremony for last year’s champions, the Broncos, took place in June. Perhaps no other team has as close an association with Trump as the Patriots. Just before the election, Trump claimed that he had the support of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Coach Bill Belichick. Brady, who displayed a “Make America Great Again†cap in his locker during the campaign, never explicitly endorsed Trump, but he spoke favorably of him and they have socialized. Trump also cited a supportive letter he had received from Belichick, and several news media accounts confirmed the letter was authentic. The team’s owner, Robert K. Kraft, has said he has considered Trump a longtime friend. Brady did not attend his team’s visit with former President Barack Obama at the White House, in 2015, citing family issues. But some athletes who have skipped the trip over the years have explicitly given politics as a reason. Bruins goalie Tim Thomas declined to visit the Obama White House with his teammates in January 2012, saying in a statement: “I believe the federal government has grown out of control, threatening the rights, liberties and property of the people. “Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a free citizen, and did not visit the White House. †Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk cited his opposition to abortion as the reason for skipping a 2013 visit. A number of other athletes have skipped the ceremony while citing scheduling conflicts or family commitments. Presidents for years have invited sports figures to the White House, but the tradition of honoring championships teams there solidified under Ronald Reagan. Major professional champions and many college champions stop by for a presentation and a photo opportunity. Six Patriots, so far, won’t make the trip this year. | 1 | [
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FMD620 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: This is especially monumental since the Wall Street Journal is a conservative newspaper.Donald Trump is running out of supporters, and that includes his supporters within the media.The straw that appears to have broken the camel s back is Trump s accusation that President Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 Election. Of course, Trump offered zero evidence to back up his claim then and he still hasn t provided any now.But when FBI Director James Comey testified to Congress under oath that Trump s wiretapping accusation is complete bullshit, whatever shred of credibility Trump had left imploded in an instant and now some right-wing media outlets are backing away from him.Fox News began distancing themselves from Trump after he threw them under the bus because Sean Spicer repeated a claim that President Obama enlisted British intelligence to wiretap Trump, which was basd o a conspiracy theory offered up by Fox legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, who has since been refuted by the network and removed from all programming indefinitely.And now the Wall Street Journal appears to also be coming to their senses.In a piece published on Tuesday, the Journal slammed Trump for clinging to his lies about Obama like a drunk person clinging to an empty bottle. The President clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle, rolling out his press spokesman to make more dubious claims, the Journal wrote. Sean Spicer who doesn t deserve this treatment was dispatched last week to repeat an assertion by a Fox News commentator that perhaps the Obama Administration had subcontracted the wiretap to British intelligence. The Journal then pointed out that Trump did this all the time during the election and that he was able to get away with it at the time because his supporters did not care about the truth. As Trump said during the campaign, he could have murdered someone in broad daylight on the street and his supporters would have still voted for him.But Trump is in the White House now, and that means his usual tired rhetoric and outrageous accusations horrify more people than it amuses because the American people as a whole are watching. And most of them despise Trump and are terrified of what he will do next.Trump s credibility has imploded here and abroad as he has caused international incidents between us and some of our strongest allies. For instance, he insulted Great Britain and Germany in the week alone and has also insulted Mexico, Australia, and China. How is Trump going to convince other nations to support our foreign policies if he can t even get along with the nations we get along with the most? All of this continues the pattern from the campaign that Mr. Trump is his own worst political enemy, the Journal continues. He survived his many false claims as a candidate because his core supporters treated it as mere hyperbole and his opponent was untrustworthy Hillary Clinton. But now he s President, and he needs support beyond the Breitbart cheering section that will excuse anything. As he is learning with the health-care bill, Mr. Trump needs partners in his own party to pass his agenda. He also needs friends abroad who are willing to trust him when he asks for support, not least in a crisis. The Journal then concluded by calling attention to the fact that Trump s poll numbers are in the toilet and that Americans think he s a fraud. Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump s approval rating at 39%. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn t show more respect for the truth most Americans may conclude he s a fake President. Frankly, it s too late for Trump to rebuild his credibility, assuming he had any to begin with. He refuses to admit he was wrong and refuses to apologize even when he is proven wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt. He has lied so much in just the first 60 days of his presidency that even Richard Nixon would be embarrassed.At this point, Trump needs to resign or he should be impeached. America cannot afford to put up with his lies any longer. He is going to cause an international incident someday that could get us all killed because he couldn t keep his big mouth shut. He s a disgrace to the nation and out Constitution and he must be stopped before he humiliates America worse than he has already.Featured image via Olivier Douliery Pool/Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD621 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: ISTANBUL — Standing atop a bus outside his mansion in Istanbul on Saturday night, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, victorious after putting down a coup attempt by renegade factions of the military, told his followers, “We only bow to God. †The symbolism was stark. The informal rally harked back to his days as an populist and Islamist leader who often spoke from the tops of buses. And his message, cloaked in the language of Islam, underscored how much Turkey has changed in recent decades. Members of the military, once the guardians of the country’s secular traditions who successfully pulled off three coups last century, were being rounded up and tossed in jail, and other perceived enemies were being purged from the state bureaucracy. The Islamists, meanwhile, were dancing in the streets. That is where, Mr. Erdogan said on Sunday, they would remain. “This week is important,†he told a crowd gathered at Istanbul’s Fatih Mosque for a funeral for a person killed in the violence over the weekend. “We will not leave the public squares. This is not a affair. †The coup attempt seems to have been decisively quashed, with nearly 6, 000 military personnel in custody. Funerals for many of the at least 265 people who died in clashes were taking place across Turkey on Sunday. Now the country is left to consider what the lasting consequences of the uprising will be. While Mr. Erdogan has fended off a coup, the most urgent question is this: Has he emerged even more powerful, or is he now a weakened leader who must accommodate his opponents? That much of the country, including those who have bitterly opposed his government, stood against a military coup as a violation of democracy has raised hopes that Mr. Erdogan will seize the moment to reach across Turkey’s many political divides and unite the country. Yet as the weekend progressed, it was becoming clearer that for Mr. Erdogan and his religiously conservative followers, the moment was a triumph of political Islam more than anything else. While secular and liberal Turks generally opposed the coup, it was Mr. Erdogan’s supporters who flooded the streets and gathered at Istanbul’s airport Saturday morning to push out the occupying army. They mostly yelled religious slogans and chants in support of Mr. Erdogan, not of democracy itself. After Mr. Erdogan’s speech on Saturday, thousands of his supporters marched down Istiklal Street in Istanbul to Taksim Square, mostly waving Turkish flags and shouting in support of their president. It felt like a rollicking street carnival. Women in head scarves filled the square, a truck played a song about Mr. Erdogan, and passing motorists honked and waved flags. That they were able to gather in public at all was significant, ample evidence that Turkey is, these days, for Mr. Erdogan and his supporters. When other groups, like gay and lesbian organizations or labor unions, try to gather in public spaces in central Istanbul, the streets are sealed off. Armored vehicles with water cannons suddenly materialize, as do police officers with tear gas canisters. “It was nice here today,†said Ali Tuysuz, 19, who was selling watermelon slices on Saturday in Taksim. “People are happy and buying watermelon. My tray was emptied three times. President Erdogan will protect the country. †The mosques’ role in mobilizing citizens to gather in the streets as the coup was unfolding was decisive, but it nonetheless unsettled many secular Turks. They called it a historic sidestep of Turkey’s secular principles, in which religion is meant to be separate from politics. On Sunday, Turkey’s nearly 85, 000 mosques, in unison, blared from their loudspeakers a prayer traditionally recited for martyrs who have died in war and called for people to continue to rally against the plotters of the coup. “Most of the people who went out in the streets to oppose the coup d’état did not use democratic language,†said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, the director of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a research organization. “There are people for whom Islam plays a big role in their lives in Turkey,†he added. “And there are people for whom Islam plays no role. †As Turks waited to see in which direction their mercurial and powerful leader would steer the country in the wake of the coup attempt, Mr. Erdogan struck some conciliatory notes on Sunday. Yet he has also raised the possibility that Turkey would reinstate the death penalty, which it had abolished as a part of its pursuit to join the European Union. “If they have guns and tanks, we have faith,†said Mr. Erdogan, who also attended a funeral of a friend who was killed, and was seen crying. “We are not after revenge. So let us think before taking each step. We will act with reason and experience. †Nigar Goksel, a senior Turkey analyst for the International Crisis Group, said there were two possible directions. “Either Erdogan utilizes this incident to redesign institutions in Ankara to his own benefit,†she said, “or he takes the opportunity with the solidarity that was extended to him by the opposition and different segments of society to reciprocate by investing more genuinely in rule of law and legitimate forms of dissent. †Mr. Erdogan’s history suggests the latter possibility is unlikely. Each time he has faced a challenge to his power, from street protests three years ago to a corruption investigation that went after his inner circle, he has sidelined his enemies and become more autocratic. Already, even as the government has arrested thousands of soldiers and officers who allegedly took part in the failed coup, there were signs that it was using the moment to widen a crackdown on perceived enemies. Alongside the military, the government also dismissed thousands of judges, who seemingly had no role to play in a military revolt. “Now the government has a free hand to design the bureaucracy as they like, and they will,†Mr. Unluhisarcikli said. “All in all, Turkey will become a country where power is more consolidated and dissent will be more difficult. †As the purge of the military continued on Sunday, one of those arrested was Gen. Bekir Ercan Van, the chief of Incirlik Air Base, from which the United States military flies missions over Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State. Over the weekend, General Van approached American officials seeking asylum but was refused, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who spoke anonymously because of the sensitive nature of the subject. The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, told Mr. Erdogan that the government would swiftly examine asylum claims by eight Turkish officers who fled to northern Greece in a helicopter and were detained on charges of illegal entry. Turkey has demanded their extradition. As the drama of the coup attempt played out Friday and into Saturday morning, it looked for a moment as if Mr. Erdogan was on the verge of being toppled from power. The president spoke to the nation via the FaceTime app on his iPhone after he narrowly escaped being captured by mutinous soldiers, who arrived in a helicopter at a seaside hotel where he was vacationing — just after he had departed. Then, around 3:30 a. m. he landed in Istanbul, after a dangerous flight undertaken while the plotters still had fighter jets in the air — the surest sign that the revolt was failing. But more than his dramatic arrival at the Istanbul airport, his confident speech on Saturday on top of the bus seemed to emphatically declare that he was back in charge. Celebrations by his supporters continued on Sunday, with jubilant crowds marching through the streets of Istanbul. “Look around you,†one of the supporters, Eytan Karatas, 37, a mechanic, said. “Look at these people. We are the real soldiers of this country, and we have a chief. †| 1 | [
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FMD622 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A U.S. congresswoman urged the Labor Department on Monday to investigate Chipotle Mexican Grill for possible wage theft, another potential hurdle for the burrito chain as it seeks to rebound from food-safety problems last year. U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, said the department should probe allegations from about 10,000 current and former Chipotle employees who have joined a federal lawsuit that alleges the company did not properly pay them for hours worked. Such actions, if true, would contradict federal law, DeLauro said in a letter to the department, “depriving workers of the wages and earnings to which they are legally entitled.†Chipotle said her call for an investigation was “misdirected.†“We have maintained from the outset that this case is without merit and will vigorously defend our employment practices,†company spokesman Chris Arnold said. The Labor Department had no immediate comment. Chipotle has been working to revive sales growth after outbreaks of E. coli, norovirus and salmonella linked to its restaurants sickened more than 500 people last year and drove away customers. Last week, activist investor William Ackman disclosed that his hedge fund had purchased a 9.9 percent stake in the company, saying it was undervalued. The case over unpaid wages began two years ago when Leah Turner, who worked as a manager at a Chipotle restaurant in Colorado, alleged in a lawsuit that the company routinely required hourly paid employees to work “off the clock,†according to court records. The company used timekeeping devices that automatically punched employees off the clock, even if they were still working, the lawsuit said. Since then, about 10,000 others from across the country have joined the lawsuit seeking to recover unpaid wages, said Andrew Quisenberry, an attorney representing the workers for law firm Bachus & Schanker. The large number of plaintiffs is “significant to us, showing that it’s widespread across Chipotle,†Quisenberry said. The case is Tuner et al vs Chipotle Mexican Grill, U.S. District Court, District of Colorado, No. 14-cv-02612. | 1 | [
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FMD623 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: The Bennett Bridge Murder Case Claim summaries: The story of a woman who killed her husband over a misplayed bridge hand.
contextual information: It is wisely said there are three activities a married couple should never attempt to undertake together: play bridge, hang wallpaper, or learn how to drive. The disagreements so provoked can all too often prove to be murder. Literally, as in the case of the infamous Bennett Bridge Murder. play bridge On the evening of 29 September 1929, John and Myrtle Bennett of Kansas City were hosts to their friends Charles and Myrna Hofman for a friendly game of rubber bridge. (A mere 1/10th of a cent a point was at stake.) The Bennetts were well-to-do and lived in a large apartment with Mrs. Bennett's mother. The Hofmans lived in the same apartment building. rubber bridge Like so many married couples who are fool enough to play as bridge partners, the Bennetts formed a far from ideal partnership. They were a far from ideal married couple as well, John Bennett being in the habit of slapping his wife during moments of frustration. That night, these factors would combine to bring about Bennett's undoing. For the first hour or two, the Bennetts were trouncing the Hofmans. As the evening wore on, however, the Hofmans managed to catch up, and at the time of the fatal hand were leading by a small margin. The tables had been turned; the commanding lead of earlier in the evening had evaporated like dew before the morning sun, leaving the two couples locked in a sprint for the wire. Although the precise composition of the fatal hand was not remembered, the bidding was recalled in a consistent manner by all the surviving parties: John Bennett opened one spade, Charles Hofman overcalled two diamonds, and Myrtle Bennett ended the auction with a jump to game in spades. After Mr. Hofman made the opening lead, Mrs. Bennett spread as dummy a collection of cards Myrna Hofman later would term "a rather good hand." Though Myrtle Bennett clearly believed the dummy she'd laid out, added to the values her husband had to have had for his opening bid, should easily have produced game, Mr. Bennett managed to fail in his contract by two tricks. During the finger-pointing that followed, Mr. Bennett was revealed to have opened on less than full values. Non-bridge players may fail to appreciate this point, but in the pasteboard jungle it is well understood that if one is in the habit of opening light, one had better be able to play the spots off the cards. To both open light and fail to make the resulting contract adds up to a bridge crime just a cut below trumping partner's ace or raising one's own pre-empt. After Bennett played the hand to its inglorious conclusion, his wife gave voice to her opinion of his play by calling him "a bum bridge player." Then, according to the testimony of Myra Hofman: He came right back at her. I don't remember the exact words. This kept up for several minutes. We tried to stop the argument by demanding the cards, but by this time the row had become so pronounced that Bennett, reaching across the table, grabbed Myrtle's arm and slapped her several times. We tried to intervene, but it was futile. While Mrs. Bennett repeated over and over in a strained sing-song tone "Nobody but a bum would hit a woman," her husband jumped up and shouted, "I'm going to spend the night at a hotel. And tomorrow I'm leaving town." His wife said to us: "I think you folks had better go." Of course, we started to go. John Bennett went off to the bedroom and began to pack his suitcase. Myrtle dashed to her mother's room to fetch her mother's loaded gun. Charles Hofman had turned back to have a word with John Bennett before departing and thus was standing near him when an armed Mrs. Bennett came upon them. Upon seeing the gun, Bennett immediately hurried into the bathroom, bolting the door behind him. Mrs. Bennett was not to be deterred by a closed door: she shot through it twice, each time missing her husband. Bennett hastily exited the bathroom through another door which opened onto a small hallway. He fled down the hallway, out into the living room, and was trying to open the front door of the apartment when his wife felled him with two more shots. The police were summoned, and Myrtle Bennett was charged with first degree murder for the shooting death of her husband in what became known as the Bennett Bridge Murder. The trial of Myrtle Bennett did not go down in the annals of jurisprudence as one of the more fair and even-handed examples of justice in action. Mrs. Bennett wept copiously throughout the proceedings, at one point avowing that she'd "rather have been dead" than to have caused the death of her husband. (This line of defense was much facilitated when the judge declined to admit into evidence Mrs. Bennett's original statement to the police, in which she had told a rather different story.) At the trial, a new spin was placed on the events of that night. Bennett's "... and tomorrow I'm leaving town" was transformed from an "I'm leaving you forever" statement into an announcement that he had business the next day in St. Joseph, Missouri. According to Mrs. Bennett's testimony (supported by her mother's testimony about what Mrs. Bennett had said when she came to fetch the gun), Mr. Bennett had instructed his wife to bring him the pistol. Mrs. Bennett claimed that he routinely carried it with him on out-of-town business trips. Mrs. Bennett further claimed that while bringing the gun to her husband, she stumbled into a chair, causing the pistol to go off accidentally, wounding Mr. Bennett. Bennett then grabbed her arm, either to help her regain her balance or to take the gun away from her, at which time the gun went off again, mortally wounding him. Mrs. Bennett was acquitted. The jury chose to ignore the physical evidence of two bullet holes found in the bathroom door, and of Bennett's body lying by the front door without a suitcase in sight. Despite having chased her husband through the apartment, having shot at him four times, and having hit him twice, Mrs. Bennett was acquitted on the grounds that her shooting of her husband was accidental. Myrtle Bennett then collected on her husband's $30,000 life insurance policy, a far from insignificant sum in those Depression years. Although some now recall the case being ruled one of justifiable homicide based on John Bennett's bidding and play, in truth his death was deemed to have been brought about by accidental discharge of a firearm. Though Myrtle Bennett had succeeded in getting off scot-free for the murder of her husband, she failed to set the precedent that would have made the shooting of a bridge partner justifiable in the eyes of the law provided it could be proved the victim's play had provoked a murderous response. In his 1934 collection While Rome Burns, drama critic and essayist Alexander Woollcott had this to say of the fair murderess in her post-acquittal years: Myrtle Bennett has not allowed her bridge to grow rusty, even though she occasionally encounters an explicable difficulty in finding a partner. Recently she took on one unacquainted with her history. Having made an impulsive bid, he put his hand down with some diffidence. "Partner," he said, "I'm afraid you'll want to shoot me for this." Mrs. Bennett, says my informant, had the good taste to faint. The famed Bennett Bridge Murder Hand will forever remain a mystery. None of the three survivors remembered its exact composition, and the cards themselves were sent flying during the altercation between the Bennetts, making it impossible that any of the police called to the scene would have had a chance to view it. As such, the hand widely believed to have been Mr. Bennett's Waterloo is likely as much a fiction as the tale told by his wife on the stand. Nevertheless, a "reconstruction" of the infamous hand began to circulate in periodicals shortly after the crime: The bidding, as you will recall, had gone one spade by Bennett, two diamonds by Hofman, and four spades by Mrs. Bennett. Four spades was a makeable contract on the layout shown above. (Only bridge players are likely to care about this part, but the opening lead against this fictional hand was the ace of diamonds, followed by a shift to the jack of clubs at trick two. According to lore, after winning the king of clubs, Bennett was supposed to have misguessed the location of the trump queen and from there have gone on to establish but cut himself off from dummy's good clubs, ending up down two. It was a badly played hand, but I've seen many a layout butchered much worse by declarers who lived to tell about it.) At the time of the Bennett murder, America was a country gone crazy over bridge. That someone sooner or later was going to get shot over it was a given; it was just a question of when. That the first bridge murder happened in the heartland of America with a wife shooting her husband seemed only right countless spouses had by that time dreamed of doing the same thing to their loved-one-turned-bridge-partner-monster. Just as Lorena Bobbitt would decades later be seen as having struck a blow for the wives of cheating husbands everywhere, so was Myrtle Bennett placed on a similar pedestal by beleaguered bridge players across the land. Notice had been served that mishandling the dummy might lead to more than one stiff being dropped at the bridge table. Speculation over what the layout of the cards had actually been (and thus how deserving Bennett had been of his fate) quickly gave way to dueling analyses of the hand as touted in the newspapers. Several bridge authorities (most notably Sidney Lenz and Ely Culbertson) were called upon to analyze the bidding and the play. In the final analysis, though Bennett was deemed to have not played the cards as well as he could have, nothing in his line of play was so seriously flawed that his locating the errant queen of trumps wouldn't have overcome it. "My kingdom for a horse," said Richard III. "My life for a queen," was what Bennett should have said. Daniels, David. The Golden Age of Contract Bridge.
New York: Stein and Day, 1980. ISBN 0-8128-2576-4 (pp. 179-184).
Chicago Tribune. "Slaps Wife in Bridge Game; She Kills Him."
1 October 1929 (p. 1).
The New York Times. "Wife Kills Husband in Bridge Game Spat."
29 September 1929 (p. 5).
The New York Times. "Says Bennett Murder Followed Bridge Row."
27 February 1931 (p. 3).
The New York Times. "Wife Is Acquitted in Bridge Slaying."
7 March 1931 (p. 5). | 1 | [
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FMD624 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Gilad Atzmon
It occurred to me in recent years that the act of being progressive is not a political position but rather a mental state.
The incapacity of the entire American progressive and left establishment to foresee Trump’s landslide victory suggests that we are dealing with people who are institutionally detached
Just three days ahead of the presidential elections, the Huffington Post pathetically criticised star pollster Nate Silver of “Unskewing Polls in Trump’s direction,” for suggesting that a Trump victory was realistic. Ryan Grim wrote: “HuffPost Pollster is giving Clinton a 98 percent chance of winning, and The New York Times’ model at The Upshot puts her chances at 85 percent.”
“There is one outlier, however, that is causing waves of panic among Democrats around the country and injecting Trump backers with the hope that their guy might pull this thing off after all. Nate Silver’s 538 model gives Donald Trump a heart-stopping 35% chance of winning as of this weekend.”
The Huffington Post went as far as accusing Silver of “making a mockery of the very forecasting industry that he popularized.”
In perspectives, Nate Silver and his 538 were obviously spot on. The Huffington Post and The New York Times were totally off the mark. Is it a coincidence?
How is it possible that the Democratic Party, the mainstream media and Wall Street have managed to totally miss the level of anger that unites the American masses. These questions go far beyond polling strategy or the science of statistics. We are dealing with a state of being aloof on the verge of total detachment.
Left and progressive thinking is shaped like a dream. It tells us what the world ought to be. Progressives often seem to forget what the world really is and what its people are really like. Hillary Clinton and her campaign, just like the New York Times and The Huffington Post, were in a state of denial. Boasting in righteous hubris, they failed to read the map.
But this shouldn’t take us by a complete surprise. Detachment wasn’t invented by Clinton and her team. Detachment and alienation are ingrained in progressive thought. To be a progressive is to believe that some of the ‘other’ people are simply a bunch of unaware ‘reactionaries.’ Progressive thought is the secular manifestation of ‘chosenness.’ It is inherently Jewish, a fact that explains why Hillary Clinton’s top five donors were Jewish billionaires .
Since being progressive is a form of supremacy. I would go as far as suggesting that progressives’ antagonism towards ‘white supremacy,’ is at large, a form of projection. The progressive attributes to ‘whiteness’ his own exceptionalist inclinations.
Americans vs. Identitarians
On election day, we learned that the Democratic Party was hanging on a thread, hoping to be saved by Florida’s ‘Hispanic vote.’ Clinton’s political future depended upon the hope that Trump had managed to upset enough Latinos. This peculiar development in which a national party is dependent on group politics shouldn’t take us by surprise anymore.
The 2016 American presidential election divided America into two camps: The Americans on one side and the Identitarians on the other. The Americans are those who see themselves primarily as American patriots. They are driven by rootedness and heritage. For them, the promise to make ‘America great again’ confirms that Utopia is nostalgia and that the progressive reality is nothing short of dystopia. The Identitarians, on the other hand, are those who subscribe to progressive sectarian politics. They see themselves primarily as LGBTQ, Latino, Black, Jews, Women, and so on. Their bond with the American national or patriotic ethos is secondary and often non-existent. The future of the Democratic Party, in its current form, depends upon the hope that American subscriptions to sectarian ideologies will gradually increase and, as a result, will eventually strengthen the context of identity or group politics. The progressive agenda banks on the divestiture of the national and patriotic ethos. Needless to mention that half of America voted for Clinton. Hence, this political agenda is far from being farfetched or delusional.
But the Identitarian agenda backfired. It was only a question of time before the so-called ‘whites’ or ‘rednecks’ grasped that their backs have been pressed to the wall. They also started to act and think as an identitarian political sector. Hillary Clinton calling Trump’s voters a “basket of deplorables” was a clear sign for white poor Americans that Hillary wasn’t exactly their ally. However, Hillary was far from being alone. Almost every Jewish writer within the American press didn’t miss the opportunity to attribute the “White Supremacist” label to Trump’s voters. For Cheryl Greenberg, Trump’s popularity was “the final gasping of white supremacy.” For T alking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall , Trump’s closing ad was packed with “anti-Semitic dog whistles, anti-Semitic tropes, and anti-Semitic vocabulary.” For Marshall and Goldberg, half of the American people were dogs obeying their master’s whistle.
It shouldn’t take us by surprise that half of the American people would eventually react. They became weary of Jewish progressives like Marshall and Goldberg seeing them as dogs and white supremacists. The time was ripe for a revolution.
So is the revolution here? I’m not holding my breath. The people who crowned Trump are certainly exhausted. They are ready for a change. Can Trump introduce such a change? No one knows. He is certainly going to keep us entertained.
Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli jazz musician, author and political activist. His new book, “The Wandering Who,” may be ordered from amazon.com or amazon.co.uk . | 0 | [
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FMD625 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Dr Can Erimtan 21st Century WireDid Donald J. Trump have any idea about the impact his words would have across the world?!? Did he have any idea that the whole wide world, including the United Nations, would turn against him?On Wednesday, 6 December 2017, in the White House s Diplomatic Reception Room the President of the United States proceeded to make history, or, proceeded to leave his personal mark on the flow of world events as his words set a whole chain of global events in motion: I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering. In his preamble to this potentially explosive and arguably rather disconcerting statement, Trump explained that [i]n 1995, [under Bill Clinton s watch, that is] Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Act, urging the federal government to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize that that city and so importantly is Israel s capital. This act passed Congress by an overwhelming bipartisan majority and was reaffirmed by a unanimous vote of the Senate only six months ago. In this way, the 45th U.S. President showed himself to have been cut from a completely different cloth indeed, as he uttered words that neither Bill Clinton, nor George W. Bush or, more importantly perhaps, Barack Obama had dared speak.Yes, Trump openly came out and made plain the deep love that dare not speak its name in spite of the vehemently pro-Israel stance taken by the U.S. ever since the time of President Eisenhower (1953-61) and particularly, ever since the Six Day War (5-10 June 1967), in spite of the ceaseless activities of AIPAC and J Street, no previous incumbent had dared bestow a bona fide U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem as a physical token of the deep and ardent bonds between the New World and the Promised Land. Only, Donald J. Trump had the gall to deliver, doing what Clinton had promised yet none of his successors had been able to realise . . . until now, that is.In true Aristotelian fashion Trump took the potentiality that was Jerusalem (known as Al Quds or the Sacred City in the Muslim world) and turned it into an actuality by means of pledging full ambassadorial honours for the ancient city. Following these presidential words, outspoken Israeli voices did not take long to heap praise on the White House. Mark Regev, the erstwhile spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem (2004-7) and frequent Israeli apologist appearing on various mainstream media, and currently even active as Israeli Ambassador in London (since 2015) blurted out that he think[s] this was a just move and a good move for peace. His boss, Bibi or Benjamin Netanyahu (fourth premiership, 2015 present) was equally forthcoming, talking to the press on the same day the U.S. President made his performance in the Diplomatic Reception Room: Thank you President Trump for today s historic decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. The Jewish people and the Jewish state will be forever grateful. The PM in the next instance also echoed his ambassador s words, declaring that [t]here is no peace that doesn t include Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The idea that Jerusalem should be at the heart of the Jewish people s land and nation namely has its roots in the Bible, in 2 Chronicles 6:5-6, to be precise: Since the day I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built so that my Name might be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be ruler over my people Israel. But now I have chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, and I have chosen David to rule my people Israel, as worded in the New International Version. And Bibi knows that too.Bibi even took his words of praise abroad. First to Paris, where he met with President Emmanuel Macron, who had urged his U.S. counterpart to preserve the city s status quo prior to Trump s Diplomatic Reception Room performance (10 December 2017). Bibi disagreed volubly with the Frenchman, characterising as absurd anyone not willing to recognise the millennial connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem. Next, even proceeding to refer to God s word that had elevated Jerusalem to its lofty position as site for his temple: [y]ou can read it in a very fine book it s called the Bible. The following day he went to Brussels, where he attended a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers (11 December 2017). The Israeli PM told the gathered EU FM as well as the assembled press corps that Trump s Jerusalem declaration makes peace possible because recognizing reality is the substance of peace, the foundation of peace. The Invention of the Jewish People and the Position of Jerusalem in IslamThe state of Israel, as a Jewish nation state implanted on Middle Eastern soil in 1948, employs nationalist myth and religious tradition as credible arguments justifying its mere existence. The Israeli journalist and author Daniel Gavron, for example, states that most Israelis [regard it as] axiomatic that the celebrations for the 3,000th anniversary of the conquest of Jerusalem by King David [in 1995] mark[ed] a real and tangible event, even though he himself doubts its authenticity. In other words, the Jewish people, as a shorthand for the Israeli citzenry, have apparently already been following the political and ideological leanings currently exhorted by Bibi for quite a while. But, as I explained at length some time ago, the mere mention of the term nation or even just people is a problematic issue in its own right the point that I am trying to get across is that nations or people cannot be perceived as natural or even organic phenomena, but rather as contrived and constructed social units consisting of individuals who willingly become part of a larger artificial whole through the manipulation and management of larger forces and structures leaders of men and their organisations. It has been nearly ten years now that the historian Schlomo Sand published his groundbreaking text The Invention of the Jewish People, which attempted to popularise the theoretical constructs of writers and thinkers like Benedict Anderson and Ernst Gellner, amongst others, but, as seems blatantly apparent from looking at Bibi s recent proclamations, his message has clearly failed to penetrate the academic bubble, in spite of having topped Israeli bestseller list for nineteen weeks. With regard to the city of Jerusalem, on the other hand, archeological evidence appears to prove conclusivedly that the site has been continuously occupied for some 5,000 years, signalling the urban centre s pre-Jewish roots. But the notion that King David conquered the place to establish the one true god s temple seems rather shaky. Gavron explains that the biblical account of the capture of the city is the only one we have, and in the opinion of most modern scholars, the Bible is not an entirely reliable historical document. Still, archeological excavations carried out in the summer of 1993 appear to have produced evidence that a certain David indeed founded a dynastic live in the 10th century BCE namely, a small triangular piece of basalt rock . . . subsequently identified as part of a victory pillar erected by the king of Syria and later smashed by an Israelite ruler carrying an Aramaic inscription talking about a Beit David ( House or Dynasty of David ). But the Jewish conquest of Jerusalem did not mark the end of the city s story of military takeover and/or occupation: remaining in ancient times, the Assyrian King Sennacherib laid siege to the city in the year 701 BCE, whereas the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar captured the city in the seventh year of his reign (598 BCE), but of greater importance is the sack and destruction of the city and its temple at the hands of Titus, son of the Roman Emperor Vespasian (70 CE), in response to the Jews Great Revolt against Rome that had sprung up in 66 CE. The ultimate outcome of Rome s harsh response was the Diaspora, as explained by the American rabbi, lecturer, and author Joseph Telushkin, who estimates that as many as one million Jews died as a result, while carrying in its wake the almost two-thousand-year span of Jewish homelessness and exile. With the majority of Jews apparently dispersed from the land and city, Jerusalem was eventually conquered by the Caliph Umar (reign 634-44) in the year 638, an event which seems to have taken place following a peaceful siege, no blood was shed, in the words of Zia H Shah, a New York-based physician and the Chief Editor of the Muslim Times. The addition of Jerusalem to the Dar al-Islam (or, the abode of Islam) was important. Though the city s name does not appear specifically in the Quran (containing only a reference to al-Masjid al- Aqsa or the Furthest Mosque, 17:1), it is the locus of the Prophet s miraculous Night Journey (or Mi raj). The story, as related in various prophetic traditions (or hadith), tells how the figure of the Prophet travelled from Makkah to the Furthest Mosque (in Jerusalem), from whence he ascended Heaven, so that Allah might show him of Our signs. As a result, the Masjid al- Aqsa, arguably built by the Caliph Umar though no historical records exist to this effect, is regarded as the third most sacred mosque in Islam, following the Masjid Al-Haram in Makkah, and Al Masjid An-Nabawi in Madinah.A Pseudo-Ottoman Gambit: Diverting Attention for a PurposeAs a result, Donald Trump s Diplomatic Reception Room stunt far supersedes the thorny Palestinian issue, the life-and-death matter of peace in the Middle East, or even the real estate division between East and West Jerusalem. The English-language pan-Arab television channel Al Jazeera English matter-of-factly point out on its website that [v]iolence, protests and arrests have followed US President Donald Trump s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. All across the globe Muslims have taken to the street to voice their disapproval of Trump s latest attempt to act like a real president, a president unlike any of his predecessors: [r]allies against Trump s decision also took place in the Indian city of Mumbai, the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, and the Japanese capital, Tokyo. But also in Turkey where President Recept Tayyip Erdo an (aka the Prez) has been at pains for years to appear as a rightful heir to the Ottoman sultans of old after all, Sultan Selim I (1512-20) took hold of the city of Jerusalem in 1517, remaining part of the Ottoman fold till the onset of the British Mandate (1917-48). On Thursday and Friday, (7-8 December 2017), spontaneous meetings took place throughout the whole of the country, from Istanbul over Bursa, Ankara, and Mersin, to Hatay, Gaziantep, Tatvan, Adana, Van, and Kahramanmara . More importantly, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held a meeting in Istanbul on 13 December 2017, and the Prez employed this platform to portray himself as the ultimate champion of Islam, defying not just the United States of America and Israel, but also the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the nominal Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. As I have written quite some time ago, the Prez is more than determined to challenge his erstwhile friend and ally King Salman and see himself as the rightful Calip of the world of Islam, in true pseudo-Ottoman fashion.The OIC meeting dutifully released its Istanbul Declaration on Freedom for Al Quds' : [a]ppreciating the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish people for hosting the Extraordinary Islamic Summit regarding this important cause of Ummah, especially the call for this Extraordinary Summit made by His Excellency Recep Tayyip Erdo an (image, left), President of the Republic of Turkey . . . We reject and condemn the US Administration s unlawful statement regarding the status of Al Quds . . . Just like the fact that Israel s decision to annex Al Quds and its actions and practices therewith are never accepted, we declare that this statement is identically null and void from the point of view of conscience, justice and history. We invite all members of the UN, the EU and the international community to remain committed to the status of Al Quds and all related UN Resolutions. Rather than accomplishing anything much at all, the extraordinary OIC meeting primarily served to heighten Tayyip Erdo an s prestige, at home as well as abroad. As such, a cynic would say that Trump s timing was impeccable, as 17/25 December marks the anniversary of the scandal variously known as #AKPgate that erupted in 2013, and that presently was very much on people s minds in Turkey given that the Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab (or R za Sarraf, in Turkish) was appearing in court in New York. The court case investigates breaches of the sanctions placed upon Iran and many Turks eagerly followed the proceedings on Twitter. One Istanbul-based writer Kareem Shaheen described the accusations as follows: [i]n a case that has strained relations between Turkey and the US, Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, described a sprawling money laundering network that allowed Iran access to international markets from 2010 to 2015 in violation of sanctions over its nuclear programme. He told jurors in New York on Thursday [30 November 2017] that [Tayyip] Erdo an, who was prime minister of Turkey at the time, had personally authorised a transaction on behalf of Iran. Zarrab said he had [also] bribed the then Turkish economy minister Zafer a layan and the former head of the state-owned Halkbank. As a result, given that the Zarrab case all but exacerbated the dire Turco-American relationship, Trump s Jerusalem declaration must have come as a welcome bolt from the blue for Erdogan. The decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel s capital finally absolved the Erdogan from any attempts to salvage the cross-Atlantic relationship, and instead emboldened him to announce publicly that the Republic of Turkey is now the rightful heir to the Ottoman Empire and the only hope left for Muslims across the world, Muslims that have been victimised by years and years of oppressive U.S. foreign policy. And, putting a cherry on top of the proverbial cake of discontent, Erdo an announced on Thursday, 17 December 2017, that he would establish a Turkish Embassy in Jerusalem, representing Ankara in Palestine, to be clear. Speaking to an audience of faithful followers in the city of Karaman, the Prez declared God willing, the day is close when officially, with God s permission, we will open our embassy there, in Jerusalem.All the while, the Palestinian people continue to suffer and Israel employs any and every pretext available to stage military assaults on the Gaza strip and crack down on Palestinian protesters But, Trump has done his deed, leaving his indelible mark on the Middle East, while the Prez, in turn, can now rightfully claim that he alone is able to represent the Muslim world on the international arena.*** 21WIRE special contributor Dr. Can Erimtan is an independent scholar who was living in Istanbul for some time, with a wide interest in the politics, history and culture of the Balkans and the Greater Middle East. He attended the VUB in Brussels and did his graduate work at the universities of Essex and Oxford. In Oxford, Erimtan was a member of Lady Margaret Hall and he obtained his doctorate in Modern History in 2002. His publications include the book Ottomans Looking West? as well as numerous scholarly articles. In the period 2010-11, he wrote op-eds for Today s Zaman and in the further course of 2011 he also published a number of pieces in H rriyet Daily News. In 2013, he was the Turkey Editor of the stanbul Gazette. He is on Twitter at @theerimtanangleREAD MORE PALESTINE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Palestine FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 | [
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FMD626 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: According to reports, Ronald Reagan rescinded the biggest tax reduction in the world and increased taxes when the collected revenues fell short of projections.
contextual information: Stephen Colbert has intervieweda slew ofpresidential candidates in the first weeks of his new job hosting CBSThe Late Show, including Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. His time with Cruz on Sept. 21 stood out for a fact-filled back and forth about a major Republican role model, President Ronald Reagan. Colbert asked Cruz if he could agree with Reagans support of amnesty for undocumented immigrants and record of raising taxes amid budget shortfalls. Cruz said of course not before pivoting to Reagans most conservative accomplishments, one being that he signed the largest tax cut in history and spurred economic growth. You know, when Reagan came in, from 1978 to 1982, economic growth averaged less than 1 percent a year. Theres only one other four-year period where thats true. Thats true from 2008 to 2012, Cruz said. Colbert jumped in, saying But when conditions changed in the country, he reversed his worlds largest tax cut and raised taxes when revenues did not match the expectations. So its a matter of compromising. PolitiFact explored Cruzs point about economic growth inanother fact-check. We wondered if Colberts retort was on the money or overstated. (Its our first fact-check ofColbertin his new role and the first one in five years, period.) Did Reagan really shift course on tax cuts when the growth stopped? A CBS press contact did not return an email for comment. Reagans tax cut As Cruz said, the Gipper really did cut taxes with the help of Congress in his first year as president. The largest tax cut in history that Cruz mentioned is in reference to the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, a $38 billion phased-in cut ($99 billion in 2015 dollars). Put in the way that economists prefer to discuss tax cuts, it represented 1.91 percent of the countrys gross domestic product. This law included across-the-board cuts of about 30 percent to statutory income tax rates. As Colbert said, Reagan raised taxes, too. Two laws, one in 1982 and another in 1984, were especially dramatic. These laws generally raised taxes by removing tax loopholes, not by raising the tax rate, said Dean Baker, a liberal economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Still, Baker said, the loopholes were big ones. Reagans tax increases 1982:The most significant tax increase Reagan signed was also the first. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (yes, another law with a very sexy name) increased taxes by almost 1 percent of GDP. The 1982 tax increase was probably the largest peacetime tax increase in American history, said economist Bruce Bartlett, who advised Reagan on domestic policy and then worked as Treasury deputy assistant secretary for economic policy in the George H.W. Bush administration. (An analysis by Jerry Tempalski, an analyst in the Office of Tax Analysis with the U.S. Department of the Treasury,agrees.) This law was driven by pressure to attack the federal budget deficit, as well as the impression that Reagans tax-cutting was partially responsible for lower-than-expected tax revenues. Bartlett, who reviewed Reagans tax record forTax Notesin 2011, cited aTreasury estimatethat the 1982 law raised taxes by almost 1 percent of GDP, or about $150 billion in modern dollars. Specifically, it rolled back some but not all of the 1981 tax cut for writing off equipment, and it repealed 1981 safe harbor leasing provisions, said Stephen J. Entin, senior fellow at the Tax Foundation and former deputy assistant secretary for economic policy in the Reagan administration. 1983:A law Reagan signed in 1983 aimed to keep Social Security afloat by increasing payroll taxes and taxing Social Security benefits for some high-earners. This cost $24.6 billion, or almost $50 billion in 2015 dollars, through 1988, according to an administrationestimate. 1984:The Deficit Reduction Act that Reagan signed rolled back part of the 1981 cut on buildings, Entin said, with the idea that Congress would enact spending cuts. But many of those cuts were either never enacted or were later restored, Entin said. This led to $25 billion in tax receipts. Reagan also signed tax increases in 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988 (as well as a couple other laws with revenue reductions). So where does that leave Reagans tax record on the whole? Its mixed. On one hand, revenues were lower as ashare of GDPin his last year in office (17.6 percent of GDP in 1988) compared to the year before he took office (18.5 percent of GDP in 1980), according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. However, the thrust of the 1981 tax cut that Cruz touted on Colberts show didnt prove to have lasting effects on the whole. A 2006 Treasury Departmentanalysisoffers another view of the plunge after the 1981 law and the subsequent changes that wound it back. Reagans staff tallied up the effect of major legislation on tax receipts over his tenure for his final budget proposal (page 4-4). The 1981 tax cuts comprised most of the total $275 billion in tax relief, but the other side of the ledger listed $133 billion in cumulative tax increases. Thus, Reagan took back about half the 1981 tax cut with subsequent tax increases, Bartlett wrote. Our ruling Responding to Cruzs assertion that Reagan signed the largest tax cut in history, Colbert said he reversed it and raised taxes when revenues did not match the expectations. Legislation that Reagan signed over his time in office and raised taxes did not completely reverse the 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act. But the broader point Colbert makes is on point. Reagan agreed to raise taxes to deal with budget deficits, even if he wasnt enthusiastic about it. We rate the claim Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD627 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Legislation regulating energy usage through a system of cap and trade. Claim summaries: The 'Cap and Trade energy bill' requires that all real estate must meet new energy standards before it can be sold?
contextual information: Claim: The "Cap and Trade energy bill" requires that all existing real estate must meet new energy standards before it can be sold. Examples: [Collected via e-mail, November 2009] For those of you who have real estate for sale or rent, be advised that the Cap and Trade energy bill that passed Congress has the following provisions: Before any real estate, new or old, commercial or residential, can be sold or rented, the building must meet the new energy standards set forth in the Bill. These standards are about a general 35% increase in what is now required in building codes. It requires such things as requiring solar reflective roofs, double pane windows, energy efficient appliances and lighting, increased insulation, leak test, and on and on and on. In order to sell or rent any building, you will be required to have a certificate of efficiency issued by a federal building efficiency inspector (new division of the US Dept. of Energy). No certification, no sell or rent, simple as that. [Collected via e-mail, August 2010] A License Required for your HOUSE? Thinking about selling your house. Take a look at H.R. 2454 (Cap and Trade bill), that has passed the House of Representatives and being considered by the Senate. Home owners take note & tell your friends and relatives who are home owners! Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Cap and Trade Act, you won't be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of this Act. H.R. 2454, the "Cap & Trade" bill will be the largest tax increase any of us has ever experienced. The Congressional Budget Office (supposedly non-partisan) estimates that in just a few years the average cost to every family of four will be $6,800 per year. No one is excluded. A year from now you won't be able to sell your house. The caveat is, that if you have enough money to make required major upgrades to your home, then you can sell it. But, if not, then forget it. Even pre-fabricated homes ("mobile homes") are included. In effect, this bill prevents you from selling your home without the permission of the EPA administrator. To get this permission,you will have to have the energy efficiency of your home measured. Cost $200 to start. Then the government will tell you what your new energy efficiency requirement is and you will be forced to make modifications to your home under the retrofit provisions of this Act to comply with the new energy and water efficiency requirements, which easily could cost over $50,000. Then you will have to get your home measured again and get a license (called a "label" in the Act) that must be posted on your property to show what your efficiency rating is; sort of like the Energy Star efficiency rating label on your refrigerator or air conditioner. If you don't get a high enough rating, you can't sell. And, the EPA administrator is authorized to raise the standards every year, even above the automatic energy efficiency increases built into the Act. The EPA administrator, appointed by the President, will run the Cap & Trade program (AKA the "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009") and is authorized to make any future changes to the regulations and standards he/she alone determines to be in the government's best interest. Requirements are set low initially so the bill will pass Congress; then the Administrator can set much tougher new standards every year. The Act itself contains annual required increases in energy efficiency for private and commercial residences and buildings. However, the EPA administrator can set higher standards at any time. Sect. 202 Building Retrofit Program mandates a national retrofit program to increase the energy efficiency of all existing homes across America. The label will be like a license for your car. You will be required to post the label in a conspicuous location in your home and will not be allowed to sell your home without having this label. And, just like your car license, you will probably be required to get a new label every so often - maybe every year. The government estimates the cost of measuring the energy efficiency of your home should only cost about $200 each time. Remember what they said about the auto smog inspections when they first started: that in California it would only cost $15. That was when the program started. Now the cost is about $50 for the inspection and certificate; a 333% increase. Expect the same from the home labeling program. Origins: HR 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (also known as the "cap-and-trade energy bill"), is a bill intended to "create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy." The bill was passed by the Houseof Representatives in June 2009, but it has not yet been voted upon by the Senate. HR 2454 The version of the bill passed by the House sets energy efficiency standards benchmarks that must be met by new buildings, both residential and commercial, constructed after the bill takes effect (i.e., after the bill was passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law). Contrary to what is claimed above, however, HR 2454 contains no provisions requiring that existing homes "must meet the new energy standards" before they can be re-sold. Likewise, the bill includes no requirements that an existing residential property undergo an energy usage-related audit or inspection and be assigned a "certificate of efficiency issued by a federal building efficiency inspector" before it can be re-sold or rented. This misinformation about mandatory energy standard retrofits and licensing requirements has been promulgated primarily through a misunderstanding of Section 202 of HR 2454, which is headed "Building Retrofit Program" and calls for the establishment of "standards for a national energy and environmental building retrofit policy." However, those standards are specifically indicated as being part of the Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP) program, a program intended to establish state programs to provide cash incentives to property owners who voluntarily choose to make their buildings more energy efficient. REEP The House Energy and Commerce Committee, who has jurisdiction over the implementation of cap-and-trade legislation, notes in their section-by-section explanation of HR 2454 that Section 202: explanation Establishes the Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance program to provide allowances to states to conduct cost-effective building retrofits. Provides that states may use local governments or other agencies or entities to carry out the work and may use flexible forms of financial assistance providing up to 50% of the costs of retrofits, with funding increasing in proportion to efficiency achievement. Provides additional assistance for the retrofitting of historic buildings. Directs the Administrator of EPA to establish standards and guidelines for the program, in consultation with the Secretary of DOE. Allows federal funds provided to disaster victims to qualify as a building owner's contribution toward matching requirements. Requires states to offer preferential access to at least 10% of dedicated program funding to public and assisted housing. Nothing would require a homeowner to audit or retrofit their home to ensure that it meets building code requirements. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) also noted of that section of HR 2454: NAR [HR 2454] does not require that buildings be retrofitted. Rather, it provides federal funding for states to offer financial incentives, such as loans or grants, for property owners to voluntarily decide to improve energy efficiency. In order to receive the funding, there are conditions on how states can spend the money, such as verification of energy improvements performed by private contractors, but that is only to ensure that taxpayer dollars are actually spent on the purpose for which it is intended (building efficiency improvements). There is no point-of-sale guideline or any other requirement of any sort in the House passed bill. Nowhere does this bill create a federal requirement that a property owner would have to retrofit a property to any guideline at any time let alone at point of sale. The bill does stipulate federal guidelines to ensure that states spend and verify that bill funding goes to financial incentives for property owners to voluntarily make improvements. An entirely separate bill would have to be drafted, introduced, passed by committees and both houses of Congress, and signed by the President into law in order for the Federal government to go beyond [HR 2454's] financial incentives for voluntary energy improvements. Last updated: 7 September 2010 <!-- Ellen, Daryn. "Guide to Tipping." O, The Oprah Magazine. December 2002. | 2 | [
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FMD628 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Ted Cruz s presidential campaign has pulled an ad featuring a softcore adult film star. The ad, titled Conservatives Anonymous, was an attack ad focused on Senator Marco Rubio. In the production, a support group for conservatives talks about being betrayed by Rubio and his flip-flop on immigration.One of the conservatives in the group is played by actress Amy Lindsay, who tells the group, maybe you should vote for more than just a pretty face next time. When they were asked about Lindsay, the Cruz campaign apparently panicked.Lindsay has appeared in several softcore porn films, including Erotic Confessions, Carnal Wishes, Secrets of a Chambermaid, and Insatiable Desires.BuzzFeed News, after learning of Lindsay s prior filmography, requested comment from the Cruz campaign. Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told BuzzFeed News in a statement that the campaign is taking the ad down and replacing it with a different one. The actress responded to an open casting call. She passed her audition and got the job. Unfortunately, she was not vetted by the production company. Had the campaign known of her full filmography, we obviously would not have let her appear in the ad, Tyler said.The revelation comes at a bad time for Cruz. He came in third place in the New Hampshire primary after winning the Iowa caucuses, and hopes to capitalize on social conservative support in order to win the South Carolina primary.Cruz was supported by the right-wing conservative Family Leader, who in the past has called for opposition to pornography which it lumped in with abortion and prostitution as a type of coercion or stolen innocence. The ad had received praise from conservatives and journalists when it was released on YouTube earlier on Thursday.Now the YouTube page for the ad shows that the video has been removed by the user. Featured image via screen capture | 0 | [
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FMD629 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: What is going on with WikiLeaks? 28/10/2016 tweet WikiLeaks director and founder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism Gavin MacFadyen has died at age 76. The cause of death is yet unknown. His ‘fellows in arms’ have flocked online to post their farewells, including WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange.
“ We are extremely sad to announce the death of Gavin MacFadyen, CIJ’s Founder, Director and its leading light ,” the Centre for Investigative Journalism team wrote on its Twitter. We are extremely sad to announce the death of Gavin MacFadyen, the CIJ’s Founder, Director and its leading light. http:// tcij.org/gavin-macfadyen
— CIJ (@cijournalism) 10:59 PM – 22 Oct 2016
MacFadyen was a pioneering investigative journalist and filmmaker, who back in 2003 founded the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ), an organization that helped break several major stories and has trained a number of prominent journalists. Gavin Macfadyen was mentor to Assange (and his closest friend in London), to WikiLeaks’ Sarah Harrison, Joseph Farrell and many others.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 4:03 AM – 23 Oct 2016
He was a mentor and friend to famous whistleblower and co-founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange, as well as the director of the publication. Paying tribute to their head, WikiLeaks published a post on the group’s Twitter account saying MacFadyen “ now takes his fists and his fight to battle God .” Gavin Macfadyen, beloved director of WikiLeaks, now takes his fists and his fight to battle God. Sock it to him, forever, Gavin. -JA pic.twitter.com/7zyzs1Qxxk
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 3:33 AM – 23 Oct 2016
The post is signed “ JA ,” indicating that the phrase belongs directly to Julian Assange, with WikiLeaks claiming that, despite the whistleblower being deprived of internet access in his suite in the Ecuadorian embassy for a week now, he has been able to contact them and is “ still in full command. ”
The CIJ team also published an address from MacFadyen’s wife and member of Julian Assange’s Defense Fund, Susan Benn, who described her husband as a “ larger-than-life person, ” with gratitude and respect.
“ He was the model of what a journalist should be… He spearheaded the creation of a journalistic landscape which has irrevocably lifted the bar for ethical and hard-hitting reporting. Gavin worked tirelessly to hold power to account.
“His life and how he lived it were completely in sync with the principles that he held dear and practiced as a journalist and educator – to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, ” Benn wrote .
Recounting her husband’s achievements, she said he had produced and directed more than 50 investigative documentaries covering diverse and multiple countries and problems. She also noted that he had been banned from apartheid South Africa and the Soviet Union for his investigative work, and was also attacked by British Neo-Nazis.
In his professional career, MacFadyen shed light on topics like child labor, pollution, the torture of political prisoners, neo-Nazis in Britain, UK industrial accidents, Contra murders in Nicaragua, the CIA, maritime piracy, election fraud in South America, South African mines, as well as many others. He worked on investigative television programs for PBS’s Frontline, Granada Television’s World in Action, the BBC’s Fine Cut, Panorama, The Money Programme, and 24 Hours, as well as Channel 4’s Dispatches.
The cause of MacFadyen’s death has not yet been made public. In the original post from his wife Susan, she wrote that he had died from “ a short illness, ” but that line has now been removed. Did you know: Gavin Macfadyen was arrested with Bernie Sanders, was a body double for Nick Nolte & was banned from South Africa & the USSR?
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks)
Twitter has been full of tributes from his colleagues and like-minded people. Even the hacktivist organization Anonymous has spoken out. Our deepest condolences Gavin MacFadyen, we’ll never forget your investigative journalism https:// twitter.com/wikileaks/stat us/789878110816702464 …
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) RIP, Gavin Macfadyen. You were larger than life, truly one of a kind. https:// twitter.com/gijn/status/78 9925620784439296 …
— Sheila Coronel (@SheilaCoronel) Gavin MacFadyen, purest and bravest human I’ve ever met. The countless people that love you are with you now, sending u our love and thanks! pic.twitter.com/ypPSn0jrwR
— Matt Kennard (@KennardMatt) We send our loving thoughts to Gavin MacFadyen and his family at this very difficult time. pic.twitter.com/hZKiIlujaA
— The Whistler (@Whistler_News) Gavin MacFadyen, always kind & supportive of young journalists & filmmakers. Can never forget your booming laugh. Thank you my friend. — Kevin Pina (@AcrossMediums) | 0 | [
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FMD630 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Sarah Palin Calls to Boycott Mall of America Because 'Santa Was Always White in the Bible' Claim summaries: A story that the former Alaska governor called for the boycott after discovering that the mall had hired its first black Santa Claus is a hoax.
contextual information: On 3 December 2016, Politicops published an article reporting that Alaska's former governor and 2008 vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin, called for a boycott of the Mall of America after it hired a black man to play Santa, arguing that the character was always "white" in the "Bible." The announcement that the Mall of America was welcoming its first black Santa Claus was greeted in many quarters as a positive development. However, as might be expected in a country that has become increasingly comfortable expressing racist sentiments, many were highly offended. Among those who were upset by this decision was former half-term governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. The sharp-tongued Republican wasted no time in condemning the company's actions, taking to social media to post comments calling for a boycott and urging people to run the Mall of America into the ground, based on the belief that Santa had always been white in the Bible. "No, I refuse to believe that they went this far in trying to cater to minorities. I thought the company had some backbone, but I guess I was wrong," Palin told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. She also argued that hiring a non-white Santa Claus was the last straw in corporate America's distortion of traditional conservative Christian values, claiming that they realized they couldn't make any more money off the usual scams and techniques they had been using. She added, "That's why they had to come up with something new and out of the box, or at least something that appeared that way in their minds. But this proves that they have no morals and that they won't shy away from even the most blatant twisting of traditional Christian values, just so they can make more money. I understand the need to make a profit to get by and have a good life, but I don't understand stomping on things that are holy and sacred to accomplish that." Palin concluded, "Americans, especially white ones, need to boycott the company and run it into the ground, so that they never come up with such an offensive and sacrilegious idea again." Like all items published by Politicops (and sister sites Religionlo, Politicalo, and Politcops), the article's first paragraph referenced a real debate over the Mall of America's black Santa. However, Palin made no such remarks about a boycott, and the fabricated addition is standard for this particular family of fake news outlets. Articles from Newslo and its sister sites typically begin with a paragraph of fact-based information before launching into fabricated details. Newslo's fake news sites often display under the lesser-known Politicops domain on social media, but all include a button allowing readers to "show facts" or "hide facts" to highlight the truthful material in the article. However, all articles display by default in "hide facts" mode, so most readers view articles (or their headlines on social media) without the embellishments marked. Prior Newslo fabrications included claims that Chris Christie thought a female Viagra would cause an uptick in "lesbianism" (and separately that he voted down a gender pay parity bill for Bible-based reasons), an Alabama politician tried to implement saliva-based "hunger tests" for food stamp recipients, Ted Cruz affirmed he'd run as a Democrat if something affected Hillary Clinton's candidacy, Mike Pence said that if abortion was legal in cases of rape, women would try to "get raped" to obtain an abortion, the father of Brock Turner lamented the absence of punishment for the victim in his son's sexual assault case, and that televangelist Pat Robertson claimed David Bowie did not die but was kidnapped by demons. | 0 | [
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FMD631 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: SAN FRANCISCO — Google and Facebook have been taking steps to curb the number of false news articles propagated across their sites. On Wednesday, the Silicon Valley companies showed that they were still in the early stages of their battle to limit misinformation online. In a blog post, Google said it had permanently banned nearly 200 publishers from its AdSense advertising network near the end of last year, after putting into effect a policy in November to choke off websites that try to deceive users from its online ad service. On the same day, Facebook introduced changes to its Trending Topics feature — a part of the social network that some have blamed for spreading false information — to better promote reliable news articles. Yet taken together, the efforts showed how the fight against fake news remains a work in progress. Google’s bans were a drop in the bucket compared with the almost two million publishers that use AdSense. Facebook’s new measures were part of a continuing series of small experiments by the company to find out what worked best in displaying news to its users. “We genuinely asked Google and Facebook for ‘moonshots,’†said Jason Kint, the chief executive of Digital Content Next, an online publishing industry group. “We appreciate the work, but based on the numbers, that’s hardly even running in place. †Google and Facebook have been in something of a situation in recent months when it comes to fake news. Both companies have been grappling with a widespread backlash over how their sites may have spread rumors on a vast scale, and how little responsibility they take for any of the content that appears on their platforms. The issue came to a head after the American presidential election, when commentators accused Facebook in particular of swaying voters to President Trump through misleading and untrue news articles. In response, both companies have tried various measures to limit fake news. Google in November said it would ban sites that spread misinformation from AdSense as a way to impair how such sites make money. That same month, Facebook updated some of its policy language, which already said it would not display ads on sites that show misleading or illegal content, to include fake news sites. Facebook has since introduced other changes, including consulting news organizations like The Associated Press and ABC News about the accuracy of articles that users report as being false. Google’s blog post on Wednesday was the first time the company explained the results of its moves against publishers that spread misinformation. The search giant said it reviewed 550 sites “suspected of misrepresenting content to users, including impersonating news organizations†in November and December. It took action against 340 of those sites and kicked nearly 200 publishers off its network permanently. Google was careful not to say that these were fake news sites, only sites that deceive users by misrepresenting themselves or their content. This month, Media Matters noted that Google changed the language of its advertising policy, removing the words “fake news. †Google said the language change noted by Media Matters involved examples that help explain its policy but were not changes to the actual policy. Google declined to identify the sites or publishers it banned. Before taking steps to thwart fake news publishers, Google had an existing policy that outlawed publishers of “misrepresentative content,†such as websites peddling schemes or counterfeit goods. It expanded this policy to include sites impersonating news organizations. Google was pulled into the fake news debate when Mediaite reported that, in the days after the election, the top result on a Google search for “final election vote count 2016†was a link to an article that incorrectly stated that Mr. Trump, who won the Electoral College, was ahead of his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, in the popular vote. Google said that its search algorithms fell short but that the company would continue to work to improve its results. The AdSense system is a major revenue driver for independent web publishers who rely on the network to deliver display advertising on their sites. The publishers are paid when a reader views or clicks on those ads, with a portion of the proceeds going to Google. AdSense is one of the largest advertising networks on the web with nearly two million publishers using the system. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the number of sites it has banned since November. Trending Topics is a feature on the social network that tells people what popular topics are being discussed on the site. Apart from more transparency around headlines, the changes to the feature on Wednesday included identifying popular topics through the number of publishers posting articles on Facebook about a piece of news, rather than engagement around a single article. “Today’s update may also help prevent hoaxes and fake news from appearing in Trending because the updated system identifies groups of articles shared on Facebook instead of relying solely on mentions of a topic,†the company said in a blog post. Still, industry watchers remain skeptical about the efficacy of these moves. “Nothing drives clicks better than when the headline is exactly what people want to hear or believe,†Ian Schafer, the chief executive and founder of Deep Focus, a digital advertising agency, referring specifically to Google. Mr. Schafer said that without significant changes to the economics and technology of online ads, banning individual sites would not produce change in the long run. | 1 | [
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FMD632 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. President Donald Trump intends to nominate Textron Systems Chief Executive Ellen Lord for the position of under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday. Lord, who must be confirmed by the Senate, would become the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer. In May, Trump proposed a budget that would boost Pentagon spending by $52 billion to $574.5 billion for fiscal year 2017. Textron Systems Corp, a defense contractor, is a unit of Textron Inc. | 1 | [
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FMD633 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Donald Trump rooted for the housing crisis, because he knew he could make money off of it.
contextual information: During Donald Trumps recent fundraising trip to San Diego, Democratic Congressman Scott Peters had some harsh words for the GOP nominee. His economic policies are dangerous, Peters, who represents much of 'America's Finest City,' told reporters on a conference call. He will say or do anything that benefits him. We cant fact check that statement because its the congressmans opinion. But Peters repeated one critique thats open to examination: This is a guy, he said of Trump, who rooted for the housing crisis, because he knew he could make money off of it. Congressman Scott Peters, D-San Diego, campaigns at a town hall in October 2014. AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi Hillary Clinton lodged the same attack in a Maycampaign video. In 2006, Donald Trump was hoping for a real estate crash, the ad says, showing a picture of Trump giving two thumbs up. The ad goes on to list consequences from the Great Recession, which peaked in 2008. It lists 9 million jobs lost and 5 million families who lost their homes. This campaign ad from Hillary For America includes 2006 audio from Donald Trump about the housing market. That's followed by audio, identified as being from 2006, of Trump saying, I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy ... If there is a bubble burst, as they call it, you know, you could make a lot of money. And the man who could be our next president was rooting for it to happen, the ad contends. Peters statement that Trump rooted for the housing crisis, clearly draws on the Clinton ad. His office referred us to the Democratic National Committee, which supplied the Clinton ad with Trumps I sort of hope that happens audio. Our national PolitiFact team checked the original claim made in May by the Clinton ad andrated it Mostly True. Heres why: I sort of hope that happens Trumps statement comes from the audiobook How to Build a Fortune, created as part ofTrump University, which has been the subject of three lawsuits from former students who allege they were ripped off by the billionaire. In 2006, real estate values had peaked and there was concern that they were overpriced, creating a bubble that could burst, producing a rapid fall in values. The man interviewing Trump for the audiobook says, There's a lot of talk, which you've no doubt heard too, about a so-called real estate bubble. What's your take on that pessimism? Well first of all, I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy. You know, if you're in a good cash position which I'm in a good cash position today then people like me would go in and buy like crazy, he says in a portion of the audiobookposted by CNN. If there is a bubble burst, as they call it, you know, you can make a lot of money. Whether the bubble burst that Trump was hoping for deserves to be called a crash, especially a crash on the scale of what occurred during the Great Recession, is open to debate. Trump, in the audiobook, adds: At the same time, I don't think that (real estate bubble burst) will happen because if interest rates stay fairly low, if the dollar stays pretty much where it is or even goes a little bit higher, but basically if you have a weak dollar, this is tremendous amounts of money pouring in, so I don't think that's going to happen. I'm not a believer that the interest market, that the real estate market, is going to take a big hit. Obviously, he would turn out to be wrong. A year later, in 2007, Trump wastelling the Toronto Globe and Mailthat he was ready to invest in real estate because the market was starting to head down. People have been talking about the end of the cycle for 12 years, and I'm excited if it is, he told the paper. I've always made more money in bad markets than in good markets. The Trump campaign didn't respond to PolitiFact's emails. Our ruling Rep. Scott Peters, D-CA, said Donald Trump rooted for the housing crisis, because he knew he could make money off of it. His statement parallels a claim in Hillary Clintons May campaign ad: In 2006, Donald Trump was hoping for a real estate crash. Trump said on more than one occasion that he welcomed a downturn in the real estate market because it would give him a chance to buy properties at a bargain and sell them at a higher price later. What's far less clear is whether Trump was rooting for something on the scale of the Great Recession, a suggestion made in the Clinton ad, or a housing crisis, as suggested by Peters. In fact, Trumps comments in his audiobook and to the Globe and Mail show he didn't envision the financial meltdown that followed. PolitiFact rated Clintons statementMostly True, saying it was accurate but needs clarification or additional information. For the same reason, we rate Peters statement Mostly True. MOSTLY TRUE The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Click here formoreon the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/20b849c5-4175-4117-a150-6010ffdaec89 | 1 | [
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FMD634 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Ethnic Cleansing? California Town Now Less Than 10 Percent White Ethnic Cleansing? California Town Now Less Than 10 Percent White By 0 25
Ethnic cleansing used to be a bad thing. But in America, when it happens to white people, it’s called progress and the “ new face of California .”
The town of Santa Ana has been almost 100% purged of white people. They were pushed out not by tanks and machine guns, but by a massive influx of people speaking a different language and bearing a different culture who expected everyone to adapt to their norms.
Today Santa Ana is nearly 80% Hispanic and less than 10% white. We have a city in America that now demographically perfectly mirrors many cities in Mexico.
Vicente Sarmiento remembers when the local Republican Party here posted uniformed guards at polling stations in a closely fought State Assembly race three decades ago and they hoisted signs in English and Spanish warning that noncitizens were prohibited from voting. The guards were removed after state elections officials threatened legal action.
Such tactics would never take place today in this city 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles, where Mr. Sarmiento is now the mayor pro tem.
Everyone votes now, whether citizen or non-citizen, living or otherwise.
Immigrants living illegally in California are entitled to driver’s licenses. Their children can receive state-funded health insurance. Local law enforcement officials generally do not provide information to federal immigration authorities.
1) Illegals get instant legitimacy with driver’s licenses.
2) Illegals eagerly suck on the welfare teat.
3) Illegals in… | 0 | [
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FMD635 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did Keanu Reeves Say, 'Grief Changes Shape but It Never Ends?' Claim summaries: Quotes seen as deep and thoughtful are often attributed to the widely loved actor.
contextual information: Actor Keanu Reeves has a reputation for being one of the nicest guys in Hollywood, and, as a result, many statements considered to be thoughtful or kind articulations of profound emotions often get attributed to him. Not all of those attributions are correct, as weve covered in the past. nicest guys covered However, one very popular quote lapping the internet was indeed pulled from an old interview with the actor. Spreading on Reddit and numerous blogs, he reportedly said, Grief changes shape, but it never ends. [...] People have a misconception that you can deal with it and say, 'It's gone, and I'm better.' They're wrong. Reddit numerous blogs Reeves did indeed say this in a 2006 interview with Parade magazine, speaking with author and playwright Dotson Rader. For that reason, we rated this fact check "Correct Attribution." say 2006 interview In the interview, Reeves was talking largely about grief in his own life. He had experienced the deaths of his former girlfriend Jennifer Syme in a car crash and friend River Phoenix due to a drug overdose, among other challenges. We found an archived copy of the interview on newspapers.com: car crash River Phoenix newspapers.com 'Grief changes shape, but it never ends,' [Reaves] told me. 'People have a misconception that you can deal with it and say, 'It's gone, and I'm better.' They're wrong.' 'When the people you love are gone, youre alone,' he added quietly. 'I miss being a part of their life, and them being a part of mine. I wonder what the present would be like if they were herewhat we might have done together. I miss all the great things that will never be.' 'Damn it! Its not fair! Its absurd,' he said angrily. 'All you can do is hope that grief will be transformed and, instead of feeling pain and confusion, you will be together again in memory, that there will be solace and pleasure there, not just loss.' I asked if loss had changed him. 'Much of my appreciation of life has come through loss,' he said. 'Life is precious. It's worthwhile.' Here's a screenshot of the Parade article via newspapers.com, showing the relevant quote: newspapers.com Articles by Dotson Rader. Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays, https://parade.com/author/dotsonrader. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022. Did Keanu Reeves Say No One Has the Right To Judge You? Snopes.Com, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/keanu-reeves-judge-quote/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022. Fry, Naomi. Keanu Reeves Is Too Good for This World. The New Yorker, 3 June 2019. www.newyorker.com, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/keanu-reeves-is-too-good-for-this-world. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022. Inside Keanu Reeves Private World: Love, Motorcycles and Epic Movie Stardom After Tragedy. E! Online, 2 Sept. 2022, https://www.eonline.com/news/1042084/inside-keanu-reeves-inscrutable-private-world-tragedy-motorcycles-and-epic-movie-stardom. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022. Keanu Reeves: I Want to Get Married. Peoplemag, https://people.com/celebrity/keanu-reeves-i-want-to-get-married/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022. The Modesto Bee 11 Jun 2006, Page 100. Newspapers.Com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/698247275/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022. | 1 | [
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FMD636 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: In response to the U.S. withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement earlier this month, the Energy Department is shutting down the Office of International Climate and Technology, a department that works with other countries to develop clean energy technology.An agency spokesman tried to justify the Energy Department shutting down the office by stating that the DOE is looking for ways to consolidate the many duplicative programs that currently exist within DOE, thus the Office of International Climate and Technology is getting the chop.The 11-person office has been in operation since 2010, operating as a means for the U.S. to work with international partners on energy sector technology in an effort to reduce greenhouse gases. The employees of the Office of International Climate and Technology also play a large part in the Clean Energy Ministerial, a conference for high-polluting nations to focus on making the energy sector greener.DOE spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said there are numerous international offices within the Energy Department that could take on the work of the Office of International Climate and Technology, however, she failed to acknowledge whether one actually would. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has an International Affairs team, while the International Affairs Office has a renewables team, Hynes said. The Department is looking for ways to eliminate this kind of unnecessary duplication just like any responsible American business would. The closing of this particular office is most likely a direct result of Trump s 2018 budget proposal, which slashes funding for both the DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency, particularly cuts for climate change initiatives and research efforts. Naturally, environmentalists are horrified by the news of the international office s closure. Willfully ignoring the climate crisis is recklessly and unnecessarily dangerous for families and communities across the country, and it s clear that Trump will stop at nothing to completely isolate the United States and irreparably damage our reputation with the rest of the world, said John Coequyt, the global climate policy director at the Sierra Club. Ignorance is not diplomacy, and if Trump were acting like a leader, he would know that. Hynes responded by saying that the Trump administration is not bringing an end to its clean energy efforts, drawing particular attention to Energy Secretary Rick Perry s support for carbon capture storage and nuclear energy efforts at a recent Clean Energy Ministerial.Featured image via Kevin Frayer/Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD637 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The new leader of Italy s anti-establishment 5-Star movement says it is not a populist party and will make cutting waste and reducing debt its priority. 5-Star, which leads most opinion polls ahead of national elections due early next year, has been trying to shed its maverick, populist image and reassure foreign capitals that it can be trusted with power. Luigi Di Maio, the 31-year-old lawmaker picked on Saturday to lead the movement, told Reuters on Sunday that 5-Star stood for post ideological common sense, and was opposed to right-wing and left-wing extremism. I reject populism as a label for 5-Star, he said in an interview on the sidelines of the party s annual gathering in Rimini, on the Adriatic coast. 5-Star, founded by comedian Beppe Grillo nine years ago as a protest movement, bases its appeal mainly on opposition to corruption and vested interests. Boyish-looking and usually immaculately turned out in suit and tie, Di Maio presents a more moderate image than Grillo, who is famous for raucous tirades against the ruling elite. He had been groomed for the leadership by Grillo, who is 69 and now plans to withdraw gradually from his figurehead role. Di Maio said many of the party s proposals, such as a public bank to fund investments, had been adopted with success by mainstream parties in Northern Europe which he wanted to emulate. He said that, if 5-Star won next year s election, due by May, he would try to negotiate changes to European Union fiscal rules to allow Italy to invest more to boost its stagnant economy. However, he said he would also cut waste, arguing that this was the best way to bring down Italy s huge public debt, forecast to be just under 132 percent of GDP this year, the highest in the euro zone after Greece s. We have brought down debt in every town and city where 5-Star governs. We will do that at the national level too, he said. 5-Star has rowed back from a pledge to hold a referendum on Italy s membership of the euro and now says this would only be a last resort if the EU rejects any reforms to current budget rules. Di Maio, who comes from Italy s poor south and entered parliament at 26 five years ago, after mostly doing odd jobs and internet marketing, dismissed the suggestion that he was too inexperienced to be prime minister. I came from a part of Italy with 60 percent youth unemployment, and people who sneer at my background are sneering at thousands of young Italians who are trying to create a future for themselves, he said. The ability to build a competent team was the most important quality for a prime minister, Di Maio said, vowing to present a full cabinet line-up before the election. Asked to name three priorities that would mark his leadership of the party, Di Maio listed universal income support for the poor, cutting wasteful public spending and increasing forms of direct democracy. | 1 | [
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FMD638 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did Taylor Swift Say 'We Should FORGIVE' YouTube's Logan Paul? Claim summaries: A Twitter account posing as the E! cable network fabricated "forgiveness" statements by both Swift and Mariah Carey.
contextual information: Amid an outpouring of criticism against YouTube personality Logan Paul, who broadcast a video of a man who had committed suicide, a fake news Twitter account leapt to his defense with made-up statements of support purporting to be from pop music star Taylor Swift. On January 5, 2018, the user @enewsatnight, which falsely presents itself as E! News, the news component of the E! entertainment network, posted: "Taylor Swift on Logan Paul: There are some points he has made; he's hilarious; we should FORGIVE." Swift's social media accounts have never mentioned Paul, though he tried (unsuccessfully) to generate interest in December 2017 for a request that they work together. While the quotes were fabricated, the link attached to the tweet leads to an actual E! story about Paul's puerile excursion to Japan, during which he not only filmed the body of someone who took his own life but also attempted to "catch" bystanders in the manner of a Pokémon game and threw raw fish at others. Though that tweet had been shared around 700 times as of January 8, 2018, a separate user's post spreading it with the dismissive caption, "Bitch we hate you too lmaoo," received more than 68,000 retweets, thus giving it even more exposure. The footage of Paul's Tokyo visit has drawn criticism not only against him but also against YouTube itself for continuing to allow Paul to profit from his off-kilter and often ill-mannered content. Paul has taken a hiatus from broadcasting after releasing written and video apologies for his actions. E! News (which is actually @enews on Twitter) did not comment on the fabricated story. We also contacted police in the Yamanashi Prefecture of Japan concerning reports that they are seeking to question Paul. The fake E! account also posted a tweet containing fake statements attributed to another singer, Mariah Carey: "Mariah Carey on Woody Allen: 'He's made mistakes, sure... But so have we all, it's time for forgiveness.'" However, that tweet also redirects readers to the network's January 5, 2018, story about Paul. Heller, Corinne. "Logan Paul's Whole Trip to Japan Was Pretty Disrespectful." E! News. January 5, 2018. Matsakis, Louise. "The Logan Paul Video Should be a Reckoning for YouTube." Wired. January 3, 2018. Akbar, Jay. "YouTube Star Logan Paul Wanted by Cops Over Japan 'Suicide Forest' Video Where He Filmed a Hanging Body." The Sun. January 3, 2018. Entertainment Tonight. "Watch Logan Paul's Hilarious Plea to Collaborate with -- and Marry -- Taylor Swift!" December 5, 2017. Update [January 8, 2018]: Added accurate retweet totals for a user who spread the original post. | 0 | [
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FMD639 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: More than 300 Baloch separatist militants have surrendered over the past few months, Pakistani government officials said, after a ceremony to mark the downing of guns and militants return to civilian life. The surrenders are part of government efforts to end a decade-long insurgency in the southwestern Baluchistan province by offering amnesties and financial rewards to soldiers and commanders to help them re-integrate into the society. In a high-profile ceremony on the lawn of the Baluchistan provincial assembly in the western city of Quetta, the regional capital, some 313 militants from three separatist movements handed over weapons to Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, the Chief Minister of the province. I will hug all that who believe in integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan but will not tolerate (those) who will challenge the writ of the State, Zehri said at the ceremony on Saturday. Pakistani government officials say about 2,000 militants have surrendered over the past 18 months. In April, the government held a similar ceremony where about 400 militants handed over their guns. The latest ceremony saw surrenders by 143 militants from the Baloch Republican Army (BRA), 125 fighters from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and 17 from Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), according to officials. Under the agreement, foot soldiers are given 500,000 rupees ($4,700) and the top-level commanders receive about 1 million rupees ($9,500) to help them and their families build a life after militancy. Baluchistan s government and the powerful army, which has a huge say in the running of Pakistan s poorest province, tout the amnesties as an effective way to reduce the power of separatists who accuse Islamabad of exploiting Baluchistan. While security has improved in Baluchistan over the past few years, critics and human rights groups say the army has crushed dissent and free speech, while separatists accuse security officials of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances. The military denies abuse claims. Pakistan s desire to dismantle the insurgencies has grown in urgency amid vast Chinese investment from Beijing s Belt and Road infrastructure splurge. China has frequently urged Pakistan to improve security, especially in Baluchistan. A new transport corridor (CPEC) through Baluchistan, linking Western China with Pakistan s Arabian Sea port of Gwadar, is due to become operational in late 2018. Separatists have vowed to disrupt CPEC, and earlier this week China warned its citizens of a security threat inside Pakistan. | 1 | [
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FMD640 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Europe is struggling with the greatest mass-movement of people across its borders since World War II. And the crisis has exposed the limitations and gaps in its immigration system.
A Greek riot police officer (r.) stands guard as migrants and refugees wait a registration procedure at the national stadium of the Greek island of Kos on August 12.
Europe is experiencing the largest movement of people across its borders since World War II, and it is struggling. It’s not just wrestling with capacity and enforcement, as the crush of Middle Easterners and Africans take to the Mediterranean and trek across frontiers, but also testing the limits of its humanitarianism.
The human tide has weighed heavily on some countries and inundated swaths of European countryside or urban space – eliciting fortitude and generosity of spirit, which has been undercovered. It has also revealed a dark side to the continent: fences, tear gas, riots, and hate speech.
Today’s migrants are as poor or traumatized as those refugees during World War II, but many are also black or Muslim. They stand out in communities that have long known nothing but homogeneity. And they are entering at a time when EU citizens question what it really means to live in the 28-member union.
These questions have been brewing for years, but the sheer scale of migration has thrust them suddenly from abstract scenarios into a situation demanding answers now. Through July of this year, some 340,000 have attempted to reach Europe’s doorstep according to EU statistics, nearly three times the same period of last year. And so far nearly 2,440 have died trying.
In an ongoing series called Seeking Refuge, the Monitor has searched for themes and lessons learned in the midst of one of the European Union's greatest modern tests.
When a boat capsized in April off of Libya, killing nearly 800 migrants on board, the argument that the EU should scale back patrols to deter migration – as they were doing at the time of the tragedy – was flipped on its head.
Rescue patrols and walls factor into a migrant’s choices to attempt the trip, but it doesn’t deter his or her decision to leave war or poverty. Life is still better in Europe.
That has been put in sharp focus in Greece. We kicked off the series on the island of Kos, where migrants were steadily streaming in amid an economic crisis that sapped the Greek state's capacity – or appetite – to house and care for thousands of newcomers. Since then tens of thousands have arrived anyway, with 21,000 showing up in one week in August alone.
2. Much of Europe see the migrants as 'the other guy's' problem
Greece and Italy face the physical crush of arrivals, while Germany, Sweden, and Britain are where most migrants want to go. Germany announced this week that it expects 750,000 asylum claims this year, four times more than last year.
Yet in between are nearly two dozen countries that do not see migration as their problem. An EU plan to relocate and resettle some 60,000 migrants has sent much of Europe into an emotional tailspin. One of the countries feeling the brunt of criticism for not doing its part is Britain.
Central and Eastern Europe, meanwhile, which have almost no experience with this type of migration, condemned Brussels for placing a burden on their shoulders where they say it doesn’t belong – even though emigration has long been that region's only escape valve. In the end, a broad, mandatory relocation plan was torpedoed in favor of a smaller, voluntary one – which nonetheless continues to rile.
"There is no incentive for central European countries to accept relocation. They don’t see it as their problem,â€Â said Elizabeth Collett, director of the Migration Policy Institute Europe in Brussels.
For all of the anger directed at Brussels, critics make a valid point too. Europe's system for accepting migrants doesn’t work. The policy that’s been most tested is the Dublin Regulation, the European treaty that stipulates that refugees must have their asylum applications processed by the EU country they first set foot in. Though the convention is meant to be mandatory, overloaded periphery countries are turning a blind eye to the migrants who wish to move on, as virtually all do.
So the migrants easily leave, and take advantage of another European rule that applies to most countries in the bloc: the passport-free Schengen zone.
Earlier in the summer, France started checking passports at its frontier with Italy to dissuade migrants from entering – a violation of Schengen rules, particularly as it happened just as Europeans kicked off the summer vacation season.
“This is a much wider problem than Schengen, but Schengen is the victim because it becomes a symbol of all the fears, that we are defenseless,†explained Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar on European policy at Carnegie Europe in Brussels.
Now many of those same migrants who crossed the Italian-French border are amassing in Calais, at France’s northern edge. This time they face a harder task moving onto their final destination, Britain, both because of geography and because Britain is not part of Schengen. Thousands have stormed the Eurotunnel this summer, leaving at least nine dead.
4. Some Europeans have been magnanimous
This migration crisis has given a high-profile platform to xenophobia. It has led Hungary, where numbers of migrants entering has dramatically spiked, to start building a wall. The Slovakian government said it would accept refugees from Syria but only Christian ones, not Muslims.
And yet, there are European citizens who are trying to rise above the fear. As the newest flashpoint has appeared in the Balkans, at Greece’s border with Macedonia, authorities have tried to keep them back with batons. Meanwhile, one group waits for their arrival – with supplies.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,†said Gabriela Andreevska, a young Macedonian who spends most nights at the border, helping the migrants trying to reach the EU. “So many people sleeping on concrete. They’re there, and you can’t turn a blind eye.â€
In the heated discussion about Europe’s migration crisis, which can bleed into the wider debate over security and terrorism, it’s easy to forget the most important lesson of all. Each migrant is a person, with families back home and a lifetime of aspiration and regret behind him or her.
The Monitor captured the human element by following the path of two Syrians through Europe’s borders until they finally reached northern Europe. Living in a tidy apartment in Germany, well-housed and fed and nearly guaranteed to be granted refugee status, one of them was still anxious; his mother and sister were still in war-ravaged Syria.
“I want to bring my family, and I’m just wasting time,†he said. “I don’t want to see one of them in [the news] someday.†| 1 | [
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FMD641 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Was there a report stating that Kurt Russell shared a poem expressing opposition to defunding the police? Claim summaries: A poem titled "The Badge" circulated on social media in June 2020 following nationwide protests calling for the defunding of police.
contextual information: Rumors surged in the wake of George Floyd's death and the resulting protests against police violence and racial injustice in the United States. Stay informed. Read our special coverage, contribute to support our mission, and submit any tips or claims you see here. A widely circulated poem dedicated to the work of law enforcement was shared more than 125,000 times in late summer 2020 after the original user insinuated that actor Kurt Russell had shared it, along with his alleged opposition to defunding the police. "The Badge" went viral in the months following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while in police custody. Protesters in the wake of Floyd's death called for the defunding of police in an effort to redirect funds to make law enforcement training more robust and to increase social services for communities that face a greater risk of police brutality and incarceration. We looked into the poem and found no evidence that Russell is connected to it in any way or that he had made political statements opposing the defunding of police. Russell is known for his distaste for social media and, despite dozens of fake profiles pretending to be the veteran actor, does not have verified accounts on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In general, Russell is not active on social media and had not recently appeared in public making such declarations. In fact, since the poem's original posting in June 2020, the language and imagery shared alongside it underwent several changes that show the kind of manipulation a social media post may experience in a short amount of time. "The Badge," a poem that recognizes police officers and their efforts to help society, was originally credited to an anonymous source and was first posted to social media on June 7. It begins: "This badge ran towards certain death as the Towers collapsed on 9-11. This badge ran into the line of fire to save the people in the Pulse Night Club. This badge sheltered thousands as bullets rained down from the Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas. This badge protected a BLM rally that left five officers dead in Dallas. This badge ran into the Sandy Hook School to stop a school shooter." The poem goes on to highlight other roles and responsibilities of law enforcement officers, including escorting the elderly across the street and helping to return crying children to their mothers. However, since it was originally shared on Facebook, the 22-line composition underwent several iterations. A second version of the poem surfaced in a post shared to the Victor Valley News Facebook page, a media outlet in Victorville, California, with an additional introduction that read: "Yes ... let's all join in the hatred of all police for the sins of a few. Let's defund one of the most important public institutions in our country's history. Let's have all badges removed and allow people to tend to their own safety and security." This wording appears to have originated in a blog post titled "In Honor of Uncle Bob Roberts Killed in the Line of Duty," posted on June 14 by a self-described entrepreneur. The post in question that Snopes readers asked us about added the above introduction, and in its most recent iteration, social media users included a headshot of Russell accompanied by the following: "Amazing Post!! Kurt Russell." The additional wording insinuated that the actor had an affiliation with the August 6, 2020 post. In less than a week, the post had been shared over 125,000 times on Facebook. The libertarian actor has been at the heart of several viral claims falsely linking him to supporting U.S. President Donald Trump, including a 2016 image that showed him and partner Goldie Hawn wearing photoshopped pro-Trump shirts. In 2018, a fake Twitter account using Russell's face as a profile picture incorrectly quoted the actor as having called Trump relentless, dedicated, and determined. The following year, a right-leaning Facebook page posted a meme that falsely insinuated Russell referred to Democrats as enemies of the state. | 0 | [
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FMD642 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: 21st Century Wire says Based on their own reports and public statements, it was clear that both Google and Facebook, and others, were engaged in formulating a wide program of censorship in order to tackle what the corporations deem as offensive speech or hate speech . Although based on the political biases of members of these corporations, the actual administration of this will be done by fully hidden and unaccountable automated computer algorithms. According to new reports, the new methods are not merely the manipulation of metrics used to downplay content. These are incredibly clandestine and very sinister measures: without visibly shutting down an account, this new automated censorship process will simply make an account holder s posts invisible to their friends, fans and followers, in what Google/YouTube is calling a limited state in order to isolate and contain a targeted user even if they have NOT violated the user terms of services. This is designed not only to disappear important opinions and information but also to frustrate users, in the hopes that they will eventually abandon the platform as a viable content distribution network.We believe that Facebook may also be implementing similar restrictions on political speech. Mark Zuckerberg s admission to Angela Merkel that Facebook was working on eliminating hate speech was an early indicator, and undoubtedly the election of Donald Trump, and the subsequent scapegoating of fake news by Clinton supporters, has since pushed many progressive Silicon Valley executives over the edge. However, things may have advanced considerably since then. On August 5th, 21stCenturyWire.com Editor Patrick Henningsen had his personal Facebook newsfeed for 21WIRE articles disappeared : UPDATE: Sunday afternoon GMT, it seems that the invisible admins at Facebook has (quietly) re-opened his profile s newsfeed which seems to be visible to some of my friends now, although yesterday s posts are still HIDDEN (you can see them by scrolling down his timeline). They did not respond to Henningsen s written complaint via customer service however no surprise there, as they never have done before. The important aspect to focus on here is that these secretive measures are all part of a wider political agenda. With Silicon Valley corporations clearly determined to preside over an all-encompassing social media monopoly, such restrictive politicized policies become even more dangerous. The following story which broke yesterday details an apparent backlash from a Google employee against the company s diversity policies has gone internally viral at the company. This was reportedly filed by VICE magazine s tech section, Motherboard: The person who wrote the document argued that the representation gap between men and women in software engineering persists because of biological differences between the two sexes, according to public tweets from Google employees. It also said Google should not offer programs for underrepresented racial or gender minorities, according to one of the employees I spoke to. The 10-page Google Doc document was met with derision from a large majority of employees who saw and denounced its contents, according to the employee. But Jaana Dogan, a software engineer at Google, tweeted that some people at the company at least partially agreed with the author; one of our sources said the same. While the document itself contains the thoughts of just one Google employee, the context in which they were shared Google is currently being investigated by the Department of Labor for its gender pay gap and Silicon Valley has been repeatedly exposed as a place that discriminates against women and people of color as well as the private and public response from its workforce are important. See Gizmodo s review of the 10 page Google Doc.Listen to this incredible analysis by Mister Metokur exposing the highly unethical, discriminatory, collusive and ultimately illegal practices which are being implemented by Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social media cartel platforms in order to erase political speech which they seek to suppress: SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 0 | [
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FMD643 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: This year America has seen an interesting and terrifying new technique for dealing with protesters. Republicans, buoyed by their base s enthusiasm for physically harming people who inconvenience them, took a hard look at all of the things being protested across the country. They saw natives at Standing Rock, young African-Americans at Black Lives Matter rallies, and a pretty wide assortment at Donald Trump s inauguration, and they decided the best way to deal with it was to hit them with cars.That s not hyperbole. I guarantee you have had at least one argument on Facebook with a relative or old high school friend who sees pictures of protests and jokes about running over the people in the streets. The GOP decided to codify that behavior by writing laws that would reduce or remove penalties for drivers who do just that.Beginning with North Dakota, lawmakers in six states began to pen a series of proposals that all looked very similar to each other. House Bill 1203 would set the tone:Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a driver of a motor vehicle who unintentionally causes injury or death to an individual obstructing vehicular traffic on a public road, street, or highway, is not guilty of an offense.Similar laws cropped up in Florida, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Texas. These heartless laws were part of a larger effort by Republicans to stifle dissent on a larger scale; a proposal in Oregon would have required schools to expel protesters even peripherally involved in a riot, while one in Ferguson, Missouri the heartland of the Black Lives Matter movement would have created an offense called unlawful traffic interference with which protesters could be charged if they stood in the path of any important white people on their way to do important white people things.It took until the murder of Heather Heyer for Fox Nation to take down a video posted in humor on their website entitled Here s A Reel Of Cars Plowing Through Protesters Trying To Block The Road. I guess this like what a conscience looks like on Fox?But even after the events of this last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, those GOP legislators are still defending their bills. On Sunday, Texas Rep. Pat Fallon was wondering if the far left knew the difference between a street and a highway. He deleted his social media posts, but his proposal remains:A person operating a motor vehicle who injures another person with the motor vehicle is not liable for the injury if, at the time of the injury:(1) the person operating the motor vehicle was exercising due care; and (2) the person injured was blocking traffic in a public right-of-way while participating in a protest or demonstration.Any wild guesses what it might take in Texas to prove you were exercising due care when you hit that troublesome agitator?Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD644 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is Elon Musk in possession of a Bachelor's degree in Physics? Claim summaries: The truthfulness of Musk's claim that he received a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Pennsylvania has been challenged by critics.
contextual information: A thread authored by the Twitter account "Capitol Hunters" went viral in December 2022 when it alleged that billionaire Elon Musk lied about his educational background, specifically regarding a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as his claim of briefly attending a Ph.D. program at Stanford. This article explores the controversy surrounding the physics degree. In early biographies, Musk stated he received degrees in economics and physics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995. In a 2002 SEC filing for the company PayPal, for example, Musk provided information regarding his educational and professional background: Mr. Musk co-founded Zip2 Corp. in 1995, where he worked in various roles, including Chairman, CEO, and CTO from 1995 to February 1999. Mr. Musk received a B.S. in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1995. In a 2007 lawsuit alleging that Musk stole business secrets, internet advertising entrepreneur John O'Reilly sued Musk over allegedly false statements Musk made to secure a business meeting with him in 1995. In that filing, O'Reilly claimed that Musk falsely claimed to have a degree in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania that he obtained in 1995, when in fact he had no such degree and the only degree he held was obtained later. Upon information and belief, Musk's only known undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Science in Economics, obtained from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. The suit, which ended with a ruling in Musk's favor, entered into the public record copies of Musk's diplomas. These documents were then used in a 2009 lawsuit filed by Tesla founder Martin Eberhard, who accused Musk of "taking control of the company [Tesla], orchestrating his ouster in 2007, and attempting to 'rewrite history' to take credit for developing the pioneering electric Roadster that the two men worked together to create." The case was settled out of court, but Musk spoke about his academic background during a deposition compelled by this case. Musk, in that instance, equivocated about the timing of when he actually received these degrees. Musk stated, "I should be clear about that. So, I obtained one graduate degree in Business and Physics but had an agreement with the University of Pennsylvania. They said that I could complete the English and History credit when I was no longer a student at Stanford. So they would delay transmitting the degree until I had done that." This explanation also appears in an early edition of a biography of Musk written by reporter Ashlee Vance. Vance was unable to confirm the specific academic timeline in Musk's early biographies. In an appendix, however, Vance explained his research on the topic and included Musk's explanation for the discrepancy in dates and degrees. While playing detective, O'Reilly unearthed some information about Musk's past that is arguably more interesting than the allegations in the lawsuit. He found that the University of Pennsylvania granted Musk's degrees in 1997, two years later than what Musk had cited. I called Penn's registrar and verified these findings. Copies of Musk's records show that he received a dual degree in economics and physics in May 1997. Musk had an explanation for the unusual timing of his degrees from Penn. "I had a History and an English credit that I agreed with Penn I would do at Stanford," he said. "Then I put Stanford on deferment. Later, Penn's requirements changed so that you don't need the English and History credit. So then they awarded me the degree in '97 when it was clear I was not going to go to grad school, and their requirement was no longer there." "I finished everything that was needed for a Wharton degree in '94. They'd actually mailed me a Wharton degree. I decided to spend another year and finished the physics degree, but then there was that History and English credit issue. I was only reminded about the History and English requirement when I tried to get an H-1B visa and called the school to get a copy of my graduation certificate, and they said I hadn't graduated. Then they looked into the new requirements and said it was fine." The explanations for the delay in degree granting are not entirely consistent, the Capitol Hunters Twitter account noted, and that account has also called into question the existence of the "new requirements" regarding History and English that would have facilitated Musk's being granted a degree after the fact. Another area of controversy concerns the appearance and nature of the physics degree. Certificates of both a Penn economics degree and an alleged physics degree are included in documents filed as part of the O'Reilly and Eberhard lawsuits. While the economics diploma filed as evidence specifically indicates the academic discipline, name, and other details involved in the degree, the physics diploma appears to be largely blank and indicates no specific concentration. The University of Pennsylvania Department of Physics and Astronomy does describe Musk as an alumnus. In 2009, the same year the dispute with Eberhard was litigated, Musk gave Penn's Center for Particle Cosmology a "generous endowment," allowing for an annual "Elon Musk Public Lecture." The Elon Musk Public Lecture is made possible through a generous endowment gifted to the Center for Particle Cosmology in 2009 - its inaugural year. Mr. Musk is an alumnus of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Penn and a proud advocate for the preparation that a physics education provides in many different careers. In 2019, Aaron Greenspan, owner of the legal website Plainsite, as well as a frequent critic of and litigant against Elon Musk, asked Penn for a statement on Musk's degrees. In response, the university's public affairs office stated that Elon Musk earned a B.A. in physics and a B.S. in economics (concentrations: finance and entrepreneurial management) from the University of Pennsylvania. The degrees were awarded on May 19, 1997. The University of Pennsylvania considers Musk to be a graduate of both the economics department and the physics department. Musk's past statements about his educational background, however, have been, at best, imprecise. He has claimed on several occasions to have received a physics degree in 1995, a claim that was never fully true but which may have aided Musk's early business career. | 1 | [
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FMD645 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Donald J. Trump has reversed course and agreed on Friday to pay $25 million to settle a series of lawsuits stemming from his defunct education venture, Trump University, finally putting to rest fraud allegations by former students, which have dogged him for years and hampered his presidential campaign. The settlement was announced by the New York attorney general just 10 days before one of the cases, a federal lawsuit in San Diego, was set to be heard by a jury. The deal averts a potentially embarrassing and highly unusual predicament: a on trial, and possibly even taking the stand in his own defense, while scrambling to build his incoming administration. It was a remarkable concession from a real estate mogul who derides legal settlements and has mocked fellow businessmen who agree to them. But the allegations in the case were highly unpleasant for Mr. Trump: Students paid up to $35, 000 in tuition for a programs that, according to the testimony of former Trump University employees, used sales tactics and employed unqualified instructors. The agreement wraps together the outstanding Trump University litigation, including two federal cases in San Diego, and a separate lawsuit by Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general. The complaints alleged that students were cheated out of thousands of dollars in tuition through deceptive claims about what they would learn and sales tactics. “I am pleased that under the terms of this settlement, every victim will receive restitution and that Donald Trump will pay up to $1 million in penalties to the State of New York for violating state education laws,†Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement. “The victims of Trump University have waited years for today’s result, and I am pleased that their patience — and persistence — will be rewarded by this $25 million settlement. †The settlement is a significant reversal from Mr. Trump, who had steadfastly rejected the allegations and vowed to fight the lawsuits, asserting that students filled out evaluations showing they were mostly happy with what they had learned in seminars. When political opponents pressed him on the claims during the campaign, Mr. Trump doubled down, saying he would eventually reopen Trump University. “It’s something I could have settled many times,†Mr. Trump said during a debate in February. “I could settle it right now for very little money, but I don’t want to do it out of principle. †He added, “The people that took the course all signed — most — many — many signed report cards saying it was fantastic, it was wonderful, it was beautiful. †But the position of Mr. Trump and his legal team appeared to soften soon after his election victory on Nov. 8. At a hearing last week, Daniel Petrocelli, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, expressed interest in moving toward a settlement. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s lawyers were seeking to delay the trial in one of the California cases until after his inauguration on Jan. 20, while also requesting that he be allowed to testify on video. At a hearing on the case in San Diego on Friday, Mr. Petrocelli said Mr. Trump had settled the case “without an acknowledgment of fault or liability. †The judge overseeing the two California cases, Gonzalo Curiel, was thrust into the limelight of the campaign in May when Mr. Trump spent several minutes at a rally denouncing the judge’s decisions in the case, calling him a “hater†and questioning his impartiality because of his Mexican heritage. After he faced days of criticism for his remarks on the judge, Mr. Trump released a statement saying his words had been “misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage. †He also asserted that he was justified in questioning the fairness of his trial, given various rulings in the case that went against him. Still, he concluded, “we will win this case!†Judge Curiel said in court Friday that he hoped that the settlement agreement — and the end of the presidential campaign — would begin “a healing process that this country very sorely needs. †Under the agreement, Mr. Trump will pay $21 million to settle the two California suits and $4 million to settle with the New York attorney general. The lawyers for the plaintiffs waived their attorneys’ fees. The deal still has to be approved in court, which could take months. About 7, 000 students will share in the settlement, according to their lawyers. The customers will be eligible to recoup at least half of what they spent at Trump University, and some could receive a full refund, the lawyers said. Even before he was in the throes of his presidential bid, Mr. Trump began mounting a vigorous public defense of himself and Trump University. A website, 98percentapproval. com, touted high marks it received from students. A New York Times report in March, though, showed how some students recalled being pressured to give positive reviews. Trump University, which operated from 2004 to 2010, included free introductory seminars across the country, focusing largely on real estate investing and learning Mr. Trump’s secrets. Students could then purchase more expensive packages costing up to $35, 000. Documents made public through the litigation revealed that some former Trump University managers had given testimony about its unscrupulous and exploitative business practices. One sales executive testified that the operation was “a facade, a total lie. †Another manager called it a “fraudulent scheme. †Other records showed how Mr. Trump had overstated the depth of his involvement in the programs. Despite claims that Mr. Trump had handpicked instructors, he acknowledged in testimony that he had not. In addition to the financial rewards, the conclusion of the Trump University cases brings vindication to former students, mostly ordinary people across the country who felt they had been robbed of their savings by Mr. Trump, a successful businessman they respected and admired. One student, Jeffrey Tufenkian, who enrolled with his wife to pursue a real estate career, told The New York Times in 2011 that the experience “was almost completely worthless. †“Trump University has no interest in taking care of its customers,†said Mr. Tufenkian, who paid $35, 000 for a “Gold Elite†class, which he said at the time wiped out much of his savings. Alan Garten, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, said Friday that his side was “pleased†with the settlement. “While we have no doubt that Trump University would have prevailed at trial based on the merits of this case, resolution of these matters allows Trump to devote his full attention to the important issues facing our great nation,†he said in a statement. | 1 | [
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FMD646 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Muhammad Ali, the world heavyweight boxing champion who helped define his turbulent times as the most charismatic and controversial sports figure of the 20th century, died on Friday in a hospital. He was 74. His death was confirmed by Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman. The cause was septic shock, a family spokeswoman said. Ali, who lived near Phoenix, had had Parkinson’s disease for more than 30 years. He was admitted to the hospital on Monday with what Mr. Gunnell said was a respiratory problem. Ali was the most thrilling if not the best heavyweight ever, carrying into the ring a physically lyrical, unorthodox boxing style that fused speed, agility and power more seamlessly than that of any fighter before him. But he was more than the sum of his athletic gifts. An agile mind, a buoyant personality, a brash and an evolving set of personal convictions fostered a magnetism that the ring alone could not contain. He entertained as much with his mouth as with his fists, narrating his life with a patter of inventive doggerel. (“Me! Wheeeeee! â€) Ali was as polarizing a superstar as the sports world has ever produced — both admired and vilified in the 1960s and ’70s for his religious, political and social stances. His refusal to be drafted during the Vietnam War, his rejection of racial integration at the height of the civil rights movement, his conversion from Christianity to Islam and the changing of his “slave†name, Cassius Clay, to one bestowed by the separatist black sect he joined, the Nation of Islam, were perceived as serious threats by the conservative establishment and noble acts of defiance by the liberal opposition. Loved or hated, he remained for 50 years one of the most recognizable people on the planet. In later life Ali became something of a secular saint, a legend in soft focus. He was respected for having sacrificed more than three years of his boxing prime and untold millions of dollars for his antiwar principles after being banished from the ring he was extolled for his gallantry in the face of incurable illness, and he was beloved for his accommodating sweetness in public. In 1996, he was trembling and nearly mute as he lit the Olympic caldron in Atlanta. That passive image was far removed from the exuberant, talkative, vainglorious who bounded out of Louisville, Ky. and onto the world stage in 1964 with an upset victory over Sonny Liston to become the world champion. The press called him the Louisville Lip. He called himself the Greatest. Ali also proved to be a — a public figure who kept reinventing his persona. As a bubbly teenage gold medalist at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, he parroted America’s Cold War line, lecturing a Soviet reporter about the superiority of the United States. But he became a critic of his country and a government target in 1966 with his declaration “I ain’t got nothing against them Vietcong. †“He lived a lot of lives for a lot of people,†said the comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory. “He was able to tell white folks for us to go to hell. †But Ali had his hypocrisies, or at least inconsistencies. How could he consider himself a “race man†yet mock the skin color, hair and features of other most notably Joe Frazier, his rival and opponent in three classic matches? Ali called him “the gorilla,†and long afterward Frazier continued to express hurt and bitterness. If there was a supertitle to Ali’s operatic life, it was this: “I don’t have to be who you want me to be I’m free to be who I want. †He made that statement the morning after he won his first heavyweight title. It informed every aspect of his life, including the way he boxed. The traditionalist fight crowd was appalled by his style he kept his hands too low, the critics said, and instead of allowing punches to “slip†past his head by bobbing and weaving, he leaned back from them. Eventually his approach prevailed. Over 21 years, he won 56 fights and lost five. His Ali Shuffle may have been pure showboating, but the “ †— in which he rested on the ring’s ropes and let an opponent punch himself out — was the stratagem that won the Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman in 1974, the fight in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in which he regained his title. His personal life was paradoxical. Ali belonged to a sect that emphasized strong families, a subject on which he lectured, yet he had dalliances as casual as autograph sessions. A brief first marriage to Sonji Roi ended in divorce after she refused to dress and behave as a proper Nation wife. (She died in 2005.) While married to Belinda Boyd, his second wife, Ali traveled openly with Veronica Porche, whom he later married. That marriage, too, ended in divorce. Ali was politically and socially idiosyncratic as well. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the television interviewer David Frost asked him if he considered Al Qaeda and the Taliban evil. He replied that terrorism was wrong but that he had to “dodge questions like that†because “I have people who love me. †He said he had “businesses around the country†and an image to consider. As a spokesman for the Muhammad Ali Center, a museum dedicated to “respect, hope and understanding,†which opened in his hometown, Louisville, in 2005, he was known to interrupt a meeting with an ethnic joke. In one he said: “If a black man, a Mexican and a Puerto Rican are sitting in the back of a car, who’s driving? Give up? The . †But Ali had generated so much good will by then that there was little he could say or do that would change the public’s perception of him. “We forgive Muhammad Ali his excesses,†an Ali biographer, Dave Kindred, wrote, “because we see in him the child in us, and if he is foolish or cruel, if he is arrogant, if he is outrageously in love with his reflection, we forgive him because we no more can condemn him than condemn a rainbow for dissolving into the dark. Rainbows are born of thunderstorms, and Muhammad Ali is both. †Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born in Louisville on Jan. 17, 1942, into a family of strivers that included teachers, musicians and craftsmen. Some of them traced their ancestry to Henry Clay, the representative, senator and secretary of state, and his cousin Cassius Marcellus Clay, a noted abolitionist. Ali’s mother, Odessa, was a cook and a house cleaner, his father a sign painter and a church muralist who blamed discrimination for his failure to become a recognized artist. Violent and often drunk, Clay Sr. filled the heads of Cassius and his younger brother, Rudolph (later Rahman Ali) with the teachings of the black separatist Marcus Garvey and a refrain that would become Ali’s — “I am the greatest. †Beyond his father’s teachings, Ali traced his racial and political identity to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a black from Chicago who was believed to have flirted with a white woman on a visit to Mississippi. Clay was about the same age as Till, and the photographs of the brutalized dead youth haunted him, he said. Cassius started to box at 12, after his new $60 red Schwinn bicycle was stolen off a downtown street. He reported the theft to Joe Martin, a police officer who ran a boxing gym. When Cassius boasted what he would do to the thief when he caught him, Martin suggested that he first learn how to punch properly. Cassius was quick, dedicated and gifted at publicizing a youth boxing show, “Tomorrow’s Champions,†on local television. He was soon its star. For all his ambition and willingness to work hard, education — public and segregated — eluded him. The only subjects in which he received satisfactory grades were art and gym, his high school reported years later. Already an amateur boxing champion, he graduated 376th in a class of 391. He was never taught to read properly years later he confided that he had never read a book, neither the ones on which he collaborated nor even the Quran, although he said he had reread certain passages dozens of times. He memorized his poems and speeches, laboriously printing them out over and over. In boxing he found boundaries, discipline and stable guidance. Martin, who was white, trained him for six years, although historical revisionism later gave more credit to Fred Stoner, a black trainer in the Smoketown neighborhood. It was Martin who persuaded Clay to “gamble your life†and go to Rome with the 1960 Olympic team despite his almost pathological fear of flying. Clay won the Olympic title and came home a professional contender. In Rome, Clay was everything the sports diplomats could have hoped for — a handsome, charismatic and black . When a Russian reporter asked him about racial prejudice, Clay ordered him to “tell your readers we got qualified people working on that, and I’m not worried about the outcome. †“To me, the U. S. A. is still the best country in the world, counting yours,†he added. “It may be hard to get something to eat sometimes, but anyhow I ain’t fighting alligators and living in a mud hut. †Ali would later cringe at that quotation, especially when journalists harked back to it as proof that a merry had been misguided into becoming a hateful militant. Of course, after the Rome Games, few journalists followed Clay home to Louisville, where he was publicly referred to as “the Olympic nigger†and denied service at many downtown restaurants. After one such rejection, the story goes, he hurled his gold medal into the Ohio River. But Clay, and later Ali, gave different accounts of that act, and according to Thomas Hauser, author of the oral history “Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times,†Clay had simply lost the medal. Clay turned professional by signing a contract with 11 local white millionaires. (“They got the complexions and connections to give me good directions,†he said.) The Louisville Sponsoring Group supported him while he was groomed by Angelo Dundee, a top trainer, in Miami. At a mosque there, Clay was introduced to the Nation of Islam, known to the news media as “Black Muslims. †Elijah Muhammad, the group’s leader, taught that white people were devils genetically created by an evil scientist. On Allah’s chosen day of retribution, the Mother of Planes would bomb all but the righteous, and the righteous would be spirited away. Years later, after leaving the group and converting to orthodox Islam, Ali gave the Nation of Islam credit for offering a message at a time of low and persecution. “Color doesn’t make a man a devil,†he said. “It’s the heart and soul and mind that count. What’s on the outside is only decoration. †Clay enjoyed early success against prudently chosen opponents. His outrageous predictions, usually in rhyme — “This is no jive, Cooper will go in five†— put off many older sportswriters, especially since most of the predictions came true. (His fight against the Englishman Henry Cooper did end in the fifth round at Wembley Stadium in 1963, although Cooper, who had knocked Clay down in the fourth, did not “go down. â€) The reporters’ beau ideal of a boxer was the laconic Joe Louis. But they still wrote about Clay. Younger sportswriters, raised in an age of Andy Warhol, happenings and the “put on,†were delighted by the hype and by Clay’s friendly accessibility. In 1963, at 21, after only 15 professional fights, he was on the cover of Time magazine. The winking quality of the prose — “Cassius Clay is Hercules, struggling through the twelve labors. He is Jason, chasing the Golden Fleece†— reinforced the assumption that he was just another boxer being sacrificed to the box office’s lust for fresh meat. It was feared he would be seriously injured by the baleful slugger Liston, a betting favorite to retain his title in Miami Beach, Fla. on Feb. 25, 1964. But Clay was joyously comic. Encouraged by his assistant trainer and “spiritual adviser,†Drew Brown, known as Bundini, Clay mocked Liston as the “big ugly bear†and chanted a battle cry: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, rumble, young man, rumble. †The Beatles, on their first American tour, were in town and showed up for a photo op at Clay’s training gym. Malcolm X, a leading minister for the Nation of Islam and a worrisome presence to many white Americans, was there, too, with his family members as guests of Clay, whom they saw as a big brother. To the shock of the crowd, Clay, taller and broader than Liston at 6 feet 3 inches and 210 pounds and much faster, took immediate control of the fight. He danced away from Liston’s vaunted left hook and peppered his face with jabs, opening a cut over his left eye. Clay was in trouble only once. Just before the start of the fifth round, his eyes began to sting. It was liniment, but he suspected poison. Dundee had to push him into the ring. Two rounds later, Liston, slumped on his stool, his left arm hanging uselessly, gave up. He had torn muscles swinging at Clay in vain. Clay, the new champion, capered along the ring apron, shouting at the press: “Eat your words! I shook up the world! I’m king of the world!†(More than a year later, in May 1965, he would retain his crown in fashion in a rematch with Liston in Lewiston, Me. Within two minutes of the first round, Ali threw what became known as the phantom punch, sending Liston sprawling and resulting in a disputed decision to end the fight.) The morning after the Miami Beach fight, a calm Clay affirmed his rumored membership in the Nation of Islam. He would be Cassius X. (A few weeks later he became Muhammad Ali, which he said meant “Worthy of all praise most high. â€) That day he harangued his audience with a preview of what would, over the next few years, become a series of longer and more detailed lectures about religion and race. This one was about, as he put it, “staying with your own kind. †“In the jungle, lions are with lions and tigers with tigers,†he said. “I don’t want to go where I’m not wanted. †The only prominent leader to send Ali a telegram of congratulations was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “I remember when Ali joined the Nation of Islam,†Julian Bond, the civil rights activist and politician, once said. “The act of joining was not something many of us particularly liked. But the notion he’d do it — that he’d jump out there, join this group that was so despised by mainstream America, and be proud of it — sent a little thrill through you. †The thrills gave way to darker thoughts. After Malcolm X left the Nation and was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965, by members of the group, there was talk that Ali had been tacitly complicit. Jack Newfield, a political journalist with an interest in boxing, wrote, “If Ali, as the new heavyweight champion, had remained loyal to his mentor, and continued to lend his public support to Malcolm, history might have gone in a different direction. †On Feb. 17, 1966, a day already roiled by the Senate’s televised hearings on the war in Vietnam, Ali learned that he had been reclassified 1A by his Louisville selective service board. He had originally been disqualified by a substandard score on a mental aptitude test. But a subsequent lowering of criteria made him eligible to go to war. The timing, however, was suspicious to some the contract with the Louisville millionaires had run out, and Nation members were taking over as Ali’s managers and promoters. “Why me?†Ali said when reporters swarmed around his rented Miami cottage to ask about his new draft status. “I buy a lot of bullets, at least three jet bombers a year, and pay the salary of 50, 000 fighting men with the money they take from me after my fights. †But as the reporters continued to press him with questions about the war, the geography of Asia and his thoughts about killing Vietcong, he snapped, “I ain’t got nothing against them Vietcong. †The remark was news around the world. In America, the news media’s response was mostly unfavorable, if not hostile. The sports columnist Red Smith of The New York Herald Tribune wrote, “Squealing over the possibility that the military may call him up, Cassius makes himself as sorry a spectacle as those unwashed punks who picket and demonstrate against the war. †Most of the press refused to refer to Ali by his new name. When two black contenders, Floyd Patterson and Ernie Terrell, insisted on calling him Cassius Clay, Ali taunted them in the ring as he delivered savage beatings. On April 28, 1967, Ali refused to be drafted and requested status. He was immediately stripped of his title by boxing commissions around the country. Several months later he was convicted of draft evasion, a verdict he appealed. He did not fight again until he was almost 29, losing three and a half years of his athletic prime. They were years of personal and intellectual growth, however, as Ali supported himself on the college lecture circuit, offering medleys of Muslim dogma and boxing verse. In the sessions that followed, Ali was forced to explain his religion, his Vietnam stand and his opposition (unpopular on most campuses) to marijuana and interracial dating. Now the “onliest boxer in history that people asked questions like a senator†developed coherent answers. During his exile from the ring, Ali starred in a Broadway musical, “Buck White,†one of several commercial ventures. There was a chain called Champburger and a mock movie fight with the popular former champion Rocky Marciano in which Ali outboxed the slugger until being knocked out himself in the final round. The broadcaster Howard Cosell, one of Ali’s most steadfast supporters in the news media, was responsible for keeping him on television, both as an interview subject and as a commentator on boxing matches. As Ali’s case made its way to the United States Supreme Court, he returned to the ring on Oct. 26, 1970, through the efforts of black politicians in Atlanta. The fight, which ended with a quick knockout of the white contender Jerry Quarry, was only a tuneup for Ali’s anticipated showdown with Frazier, the new champion. But it was a night of glamour and history as Coretta Scott King, Bill Cosby, Diana Ross, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Sidney Poitier turned out to honor Ali. The Rev. Ralph Abernathy presented him with the annual Dr. King award, calling him “the March on Washington all in two fists. †“The Fight,†as the Madison Square Garden bout with Frazier on March 8, 1971, was billed, lived up to expectations as an epic match. With Norman Mailer ringside taking notes for a book and Frank Sinatra shooting pictures for Life magazine, Ali stood toe to toe with Frazier and slugged it out as if determined to prove that he had “heart,†that he could stand up to punishment. Frazier won a decision. Both men suffered noticeable physical damage. To Ali’s boosters, the money he had lost standing up for his principles and the beating he had taken from Frazier proved his sincerity. To his critics, the bloody redemption meant he had finally grown up. The Supreme Court also took a positive view. On June 28, 1971, it unanimously reversed a lower court decision and granted Ali his status. It was assumed now that Ali’s time had passed and that he would become a “opponent,†the fighter to beat for those establishing themselves. But his time had returned. Although he was slower, his artistry was even more refined. “He didn’t have fights,†wrote Jim Murray of The Los Angeles Times, “he gave recitals. †He won 13 of his next 14 fights, including a rematch with Frazier, who had lost his title to George Foreman, a bigger, more frightening version of Liston. Ali was the underdog, smaller and seven years older than Foreman, when they met on Oct. 30, 1974, in Zaire, then ruled by Mobutu Sese Seko. Each fighter was guaranteed $5 million, an extraordinary sum at the time. The fight also launched the career of the promoter Don King and was the subject of Leon Gast’s documentary “When We Were Kings,†which was released more than 20 years later. (Ali attended a special screening, along with performances, at Radio City Music Hall.) The film won a 1997 Academy Award. Ali reveled in the African setting, repeating an aphorism he had heard from Brown, his assistant trainer: “The world is a black shirt with a few white buttons. †As the fight progressed, the crowd chanted, “Ali, bomaye!†(“Ali, kill him! â€) first out of concern as Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed Foreman’s sledgehammer blows on his arms and shoulders, and then in mounting excitement as Foreman wore himself out. In the eighth round, in a blur of punches, Ali knocked out Foreman to regain the title. He leaned down to reporters and said, “What did I tell you?†On Dec. 10, 1974, Ali was invited to the White House for the first time, by President Gerald R. Ford, an occasion that signified not only a turning point in the country’s embrace of Ali but also a return of the Lip. Ali told the president, “You made a big mistake letting me come because now I’m going after your job. †Ali successfully defended his title 10 times over the next three years, at increasing physical cost. He knocked out Frazier in their third match, the Thrilla in Manila in 1975, but the punishment of their 14 rounds, Ali said, felt close to dying. In 1978 he lost and then regained his title in fights with Leon Spinks. Ali’s longtime ring doctor, Ferdie Pacheco, urged him to quit, noting the slowing of his reflexes and the slurring of his speech as symptoms of damage. Ali refused. In 1980, he was battered in a loss to the champion Larry Holmes. A year later, he fought for the last time, losing to the journeyman Trevor Berbick in the Bahamas. Ali was soon told that he had Parkinson’s syndrome. Several doctors have speculated that it was brought on by too many punches to the head. The diagnosis was later changed to Parkinson’s disease, according to his wife, Lonnie. She said it had been brought on by Ali’s exposure to pesticides and other toxic chemicals at his training camp in Deer Lake, Pa. After retiring from the ring, Ali made speeches emphasizing spirituality, peace and tolerance, and undertook missions to Africa and Iraq. Even as he lost mobility and speech, he traveled often from his home in Berrien Springs, Mich. Product and corporate endorsements brought him closer to the “show me the money†sensibilities of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, the heirs to his global celebrity. In 1999, Ali became the first boxer on a Wheaties box. On Dec. 31 that year, he rang out the millennium at the New York Stock Exchange. In 2003, a $7, 500 art book celebrating his life was published. His life was the subject of a television movie and a feature film directed by Michael Mann, with Will Smith as Ali. (Both productions sanitized his early religious and political viewpoints.) The same licensing firm that owned most of Elvis Presley’s image purchased rights to Ali’s. Thomas Hauser, his biographer, decried the new “commercialism†surrounding Ali and “the rounding off the rough edges of his journey. †In a book of essays published in 2005, “The Lost Legacy of Muhammad Ali,†Hauser wrote, “We should cherish the memory of Ali as a warrior and as a gleaming symbol of defiance against an unjust social order when he was young. †In 2005, calling him the greatest boxer of all time, President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Freedom to Ali in a White House ceremony. In recent years, Parkinson’s disease and spinal stenosis, which required surgery, limited Ali’s mobility and ability to communicate. He spent most of his time at his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz. often watching Western movies and old TV shows. He ventured out mostly for physical therapy, movies and concerts. He rarely did TV interviews, his wife said, because he no longer liked the way he looked on camera. “But he loved the adoration of crowds,†she said. “Even though he became vulnerable in ways he couldn’t control, he never lost his childlike innocence, his sunny, positive nature. Jokes and pranks and magic tricks. He wanted to entertain people, to make them happy. †| 1 | [
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FMD647 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: In a joint sting, Serbian and Croatian police have detained 17 people suspected of smuggling dozens of migrants into the European Union, Serbia s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday. Serbia was at the center of the migrant crisis in 2015 and 2016 when hundreds of thousands of people fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East and Asia journeyed up through the Balkans to reach the European Union. That route was effectively closed last year, but a steady trickle of migrants, arriving mainly from Turkey via neighboring Bulgaria, has continued. Many migrants use smugglers to reach the EU. In a statement, the Interior Ministry said the group detained in Belgrade and four northern towns comprised 12 Serbians and one Afghan man. The police in neighboring Croatia have detained four more suspects, it said. It is suspected that this criminal group facilitated the illegal crossing of the border and transit ... to a total of 82 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, from whom they took 1,500 euros ($1,800) per person, it said. Official data show there are up to 4,500 migrants stranded in government-operated camps in Serbia. Rights activists say hundreds more are scattered in the capital Belgrade and towns along the Croatian border. ($1 = 0.8442 euros) | 1 | [
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FMD648 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: What We Know About the Cancer-Detecting Blood Test Claim summaries: The revolutionary large-scale trial is a world first.
contextual information: In September 2021, British health officials announced the launch of the worlds largest trial of a blood test capable of detecting more than 50 types of cancer before symptoms appear. 50 types of cancer Headed by The Cancer Research UK, the National Health Service (NHS) in England, and Kings College London, the so-named Galleri trial aims to recruit 140,000 volunteers across eight areas of England. Galleri checks for the earliest signs of cancer. If it's successful, its ability to catch cancer during its earliest stages could be a game-changer in the fight against the disease. NHS Kings College London This quick and simple blood test could mark the beginning of a revolution in cancer detection and treatment here and around the world, said NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard in a news release. By finding cancer before signs and symptoms even appear, we have the best chance of treating it and we can give people the best possible chance of survival. news release While its early cancer detection ability holds promise, Galleri does not diagnose cancer and does not detect all forms of the disease. Blood drawn from a participant is tested for chemical changes in fragments of the bloods genetic code known as cell-free DNA (cfDNA), which leaks from tumors into the bloodstream. Previous research conducted by Galleri founding company Grail showed that the test was effective at finding cancers that are difficult to identify early on, like head and neck, bowel, lung, pancreatic, and throat cancers. As of this writing, Galleri is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but was granted a breakthrough device designation in 2019 under a government-led voluntary program for certain medical devices "that provide for more effective treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions." The test joins two other similar tumor-testing tests that were approved in the U.S., according to the consumer publication Evaluate. Galleri is available in the U.S. for $949, and is available for prescription only. Because it is new to the market and does not have FDA approval, the test is not covered by health insurance. Galleri granted breakthrough device Evaluate prescription only Galleri is designed to detect more than 50 types of cancer. Grail Grail Galleri doesnt rule out cancer, but instead helps providers to evaluate and confirm whether and where cancer may exist. It is intended to be used in coordination with other screening practices and is not a replacement but rather a method to inform the next steps of diagnosis. For the British trial, tens of thousands of recruitments between the ages of 50 and 77 those most at risk for cancer will be asked to give blood samples at mobile testing clinics across the country. Regardless of their results, the test is designed to detect cancer signals such as cfDNA and predict where in the body those signals exist. Half of the participants in the randomized control trial will have blood samples screened with the test right away, while the other half will have their sample stored and tested in the future. This will allow researchers to compare the stage at which cancer is detected between the two groups. Regardless, study participants will be notified if their test signals potential cancer. Early cancer detection during stage one or two allows for more treatment options, some of which can be less aggressive and harmful. Patients whose cancer is identified at the earliest stage may see up to ten times the survival rate compared to a person who learned of cancer at stage four. Those who give blood as part of the British trial will be invited to participate in later stages of the trial one and two years later. Initial results are expected by 2021 and if successful, researchers plan to extend the rollout to 1 million people by 2025. Sources GRAIL Announces Significant Progress with Multi-Cancer Early Detection Test Including FDA Breakthrough Device Designation. GRAIL, https://grail.com/press-releases/grail-announces-significant-progress-with-multi-cancer-early-detection-test-including-fda-breakthrough-device-designation/. Accessed 13 Sept. 2021. Grail Launches Pan-Cancer Screen for Those Who Can Pay out of Pocket. Evaluate.Com, 4 June 2021, https://www.evaluate.com/vantage/articles/news/snippets/grail-launches-pan-cancer-screen-those-who-can-pay-out-pocket. Health, Center for Devices and Radiological. Breakthrough Devices Program. FDA, Jan. 2021. www.fda.gov, https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/how-study-and-market-your-device/breakthrough-devices-program. Kings Leads the Worlds Largest Trial of Cancer Blood Test. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/kings-leads-the-worlds-largest-trial-of-cancer-blood-test. Accessed 13 Sept. 2021. NHS England NHS Launches World First Trial for New Cancer Test. https://www.england.nhs.uk/2021/09/nhs-launches-world-first-trial-for-new-cancer-test/. Accessed 13 Sept. 2021. https://www.england.nhs.uk/2021/09/nhs-launches-world-first-trial-for-new-cancer-test/. Accessed 13 Sept. 2021. Our Products. GRAIL, https://grail.com/our-products/. Accessed 13 Sept. 2021. | 1 | [
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FMD649 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Andrea Mitchell is annoyed with President Trump and Mike Barnicle is sick of seeing him . How do we know? They openly displayed a disgust for our president ON THE AIR TODAY! Mitchell s beef is with the supposed poor treatment of the San Juan mayor at a meeting today on recovery efforts in Puerto Rico. We think the leftist media is officially losing it over a president who calls out liars like Mayor Cruz who tried to politicize disaster response by the feds. Can you blame Trump for skipping over her even though he officially greeted her? She lied through her teeth to make Trump and the feds look bad. A couple other things also peeved the left. They hated the comment from Trump claiming Puerto Rico has thrown our budget a little out of whack . Chuck Schumer and other Dem leaders came out admonishing Trump. Can you blame Trump for commenting on the expense when Puerto Rico is $72 billion dollars in debt? The second thing Trump did was to toss out paper towels to people in the crowd during the day. The left was horrified. Yes, they are using every single thing to criticize him. Here s Andrea Mitchell below and Mike Barnicle expressing their dislike for Trump. HOW CAN THEY REMAIN EMPLOYED IF THEY ARE SO BIASED AND OPEN ABOUT THEIR BIAS??? Mike Barnicle looks like he s going to pass out when he dramatically criticizes President Trump. Why is he still employed after his total lack of decorum? I m sick of seeing him Really? That s what toddlers who have no filter say Andrea Mitchell annoyed with Trump:Here s why she s annoyed Trump called out the Mayor and thanked the governor:Mitchell said it was notable that Cruz was the only elected official who never got the opportunity to speak at the meeting to her knowledge. It was very pointed that she said, It s not about politics when she was shaking his hand there and then when they went to sit down, he opened his remarks by thanking the governor for not playing politics from the start, but did not give her any kind of thank you for what she s doing for her people or give her an opportunity to speak, she said. That s a pretty deliberate slight, politically, Mitchell added.Here s video of the meeting: Trump was on target! | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD650 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did the Kalinin K-7 Heavy Bomber Appear in Actual Color Photos? Claim summaries: The pictures in question purportedly showed the Kalinin K-7 heavy bomber, an old Russian aircraft developed in the 1930s.
contextual information: Since at least 2010, a set of awe-inspiring pictures has been shared in email forwards and on social media. The color photographs purportedly show the Russian Kalinin K-7 heavy bomber. One of the pictures was even displayed in a paid online advertisement. The massive aircraft certainly looked quite heavy. However, while the Kalinin K-7 was once a real aircraft from the 1930s, the color pictures in question showed 3-D artist renderings. The Kalinin K-7 heavy bomber is seen from another angle in a 3-D rendering. We were able to find the original website that hosted the original images, but it wasn't easy. At first, we thought it might be a fan-created 3-D model for the "Battlefield V" video game, as one of the color pictures appeared in the /r/BattlefieldV/ subreddit. However, this was incorrect. Lots of reading of old blogs and message boards, combined with reverse image searching, finally led us to the original source. Thanks to a tip from englishrussia.com, we found the source to be a person using the handle "Levin." On the original page, which appeared to be from 2007, Levin wrote that his work had been misunderstood. In view of the fact that this work is discussed at various serious forums on aviation and military affairs, and it is being discussed, apparently, without a clear understanding of the purpose of this work and the attitude of the author himself (i.e., me) to what he did here, I want to warn you in advance—everything that lies below is nothing more than the usual techno-fantasy, techno-utopia, if you like—techno-absurdity. There are no serious applications on my part for something that can fly, and there cannot be. This work is an attempt to reproduce, quite possibly taking place in reality in the 30s, an attempt by some hypothetical and not quite healthy and poorly educated designer to build such an absurdity with state money. I can even assume that as a result, this hypothetical poor fellow-designer was again hypothetically arrested and soon shot for senseless waste of folk funds on an especially large scale. And the main task from the point of view of technical reliability here was only to comply with the technical style of those years, so that the engines and other parts did not look taken from other eras. So if there is something worth discussing for aviation connoisseurs, then only this moment is the correspondence of the appearance of the parts and the whole structure in general to the level of aviation development in the early 30s of the 20th century. Levin also confirmed that Adobe Photoshop was not used in the process to make the renders. "This is not Photoshop. This is 3-D, three-dimensional models." WarHistoryOnline.com published the history of the real Kalinin K-7 heavy bomber, which was smaller than what was displayed in the 3-D renderings. "The Kalinin K-7 was a heavy experimental aircraft designed and tested in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s," the website read. "It was of unusual configuration with twin booms and large underwing pods housing fixed landing gear and machine gun turrets." The real Kalinin K-7 was large, but not as massive as the aircraft seen in the 3-D renderings. Unfortunately, the aircraft had a brief history. On Nov. 21, 1933, the aircraft crashed. A flight crew stands in front of a Kalinin K-7 heavy bomber. According to WarHistoryOnline.com, the accident "killed 14 people aboard and one on the ground." The K-7 first flew on 11 August 1933. The very brief first flight showed instability and serious vibration caused by the airframe resonating with the engine frequency. The solution to this was thought to be to shorten and strengthen the tail booms, little being known then about the natural frequencies of structures and their response to vibration. The aircraft completed seven test flights before a crash due to structural failure of one of the tail booms on 21 November 1933. The project was eventually scrapped in 1935. No known color photographs of the aircraft exist today. Levin, the 3-D artist, published more of his computer-generated work on his old website. One of them showed quite the battle in the skies: The Kalinin K-7 heavy bomber battles an unidentified foe in this 3-D rendering. In sum, the Kalinin K-7 heavy bomber was real. However, color pictures that appeared in email forwards, social media, and ads were nothing more than 3-D renderings. Snopes debunks a wide range of content, and online advertisements are no exception. Misleading ads often lead to obscure websites that host lengthy slideshow articles with lots of pages. It's called advertising "arbitrage." The advertiser's goal is to make more money on ads displayed on the slideshow's pages than it cost to show the initial ad that lured them to it. | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD651 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Romanians living in the Bukovina region of Ukraine are demanding autonomy. | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD652 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The US will likely start openly blackmailing Belarusian authorities over the nuclear power plant. Their ultimatum will demand that Belarus either shuts down the station or imports nuclear fuel from the U.S.
The U.S. will use the Belarusian NPP as a political tool for blackmailing and pressing Lukashenka. If he does not comply with the US' ultimatum, he will likely face a new package of economic sanctions. | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
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] | 0 |
FMD653 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Beto O'Rourke's 'Reality Check' can be paraphrased as "A thorough evaluation of the facts by Beto O'Rourke." Claim summaries: A widely-shared Facebook meme offered allegations about a rising Democratic politician in Texas.
contextual information: Democratic congressman Beto O'Rourke of Texas came to national prominence in 2018 through his high-profile campaign to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. senator Ted Cruz. During the course of his campaign, the Democratic candidate has been confronted with various claims and allegations about himself and his family. One such meme, entitled "'Beto' Reality Check," was shared widely on Facebook in August 2018:A spokesperson for O'Rourke's campaign described the meme as "factually incorrect in countless ways" and largely referred us to several existing news reports about the allegations. The following is our breakdown of the five sections contained in the meme.O'Rourke adopted the name "Beto" to appeal to Latino voters: The meme claimed:NOT HISPANIC"Robert O'Rourke" became "Beto" for his political campaigns and on the ballot, a tactic that gives the false impression he's Latino, misleading voters in a state with many Hispanics.In fact, O'Rourke was known as "Beto" long before he entered political life, although his birth name is Robert and he appears to use both first names interchangeably. (For example, his July 2018 Federal Election Commission "Statement of Candidacy" lists his name as "Robert Beto O'Rourke.")O'Rourke told CNN that his parents referred to him as Beto "from day one," and that it "just stuck." Others have noted that the name is likely derived from a pronunciation of the Spanish "Roberto," and O'Rourke himself described it as "a nickname for Robert in El Paso." (According to the U.S. Census Bureau, around 78 percent of El Paso county residents listed themselves as being of Mexican heritage in 2016.)O'Rourke's family is of Irish heritage. According to the New York Times, his family "came over from Ireland four generations ago to work on the railroad." His father Pat O'Rourke was a prominent El Paso County official during the 1980s.A 1986 article about Pat O'Rourke in the El Paso Times referred to his then 14-year-old son as "Beto O'Rourke." In 1999, six years before O'Rourke ran for El Paso city council, the same newspaper referred to "web site designer Beto O'Rourke" in a short article about his I.T. business Stanton Street Design.After checking the archives of the El Paso Times, we found multiple references to "Beto O'Rourke" between 1986 and 2004, when O'Rourk was either a child or a businessman and had never run for political office.In March, the campaign of O'Rourke's Republican opponent, Ted Cruz, launched a radio jingle that poked fun at the name "Beto" and included the following lyrics: "I remember reading stories/Liberal Robert wanted to fit in/So he changed his name to 'Beto'/And hid it with a grin ...":FIRST LISTEN: our new 60-second statewide radio ad introducing our liberal opponent, Congressman Robert ORourke, to Texas voters.Help #KeepTexasRed: https://t.co/PVsiCtbbyL #CruzCrew #TXSen pic.twitter.com/OxK61gZ0ek Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 7, 2018The next day, O'Rourke posted a photograph of himself as a young boy, wearing a sweater with the nickname "Beto" stitched into it, establishing that, contrary to false accusation, he did not "change his name" for political reasons:pic.twitter.com/1IO1dgmCkv Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) March 7, 2018O'Rourke used his father's connections to avoid trial for two felonies: UNPROVENThe meme claimed:FELONY ARREST RECORDAs an adult in his mid-20s, O'Rourke was caught breaking into the University of Texas El Paso. Charged with breaking and entering and burglary, he mysteriously avoided trial. A few years later, arrested for drunk driving, he again walked with a "deal." Being the song of a powerful, politically connected County Judge apparently has benefits. O'Rourke dismisses his felony convictions as "youthful pranks" and "mistakes"; it's old news, move along, nothing to see here.O'Rourke has indeed been arrested for burglary and drunk driving, a history which he has discussed several times over the course of his political career, as his spokesperson told us: "While charges were dismissed, this is something that Beto has always publicly addressed -- during his initial run for the city council, his run for Congress, in profiles written about him, during dozens of interviews, and at town halls across the state during this campaign."In a 27 August 2018 op-ed for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, O'Rourke himself wrote:Twenty-three years ago I was arrested for attempted forcible entry after jumping a fence at the University of Texas at El Paso. I spent a night in the El Paso County Jail, was able to make bail the next day, and was released. Three years later, I was arrested for drunk driving -- a far more serious mistake for which there is no excuse.According to El Paso county jail records, O'Rourke was arrested for attempted burglary on 19 May 1995, when he was 22 years old. He was released from custody the same day. Court records show that the prosecutor dropped the charge in February 1996.O'Rourke was also arrested for driving while intoxicated on 27 September 1998, the day after his 26th birthday. He completed a "misdemeanor diversion program" (namely "DWI school") in October 1999, and the charge was dropped.In August 2018, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News cited police reports, including a witness account, which suggested that the incident leading to O'Rourke's DWI arrest was relatively serious and involved a collision with another vehicle and a possible attempt by O'Rourke to leave the scene:State and local police reports obtained by the Chronicle and Express-News show that ORourke was driving drunk at what a witness called a high rate of speed in a 75 mph zone on Interstate 10 about a mile from the New Mexico border. He lost control and hit a truck, sending his car careening across the center median into oncoming lanes. The witness, who stopped at the scene, later told police that ORourke had tried to drive away from the scene. O'Rourke recorded a 0.136 and 0.134 on police breathalyzers, above a blood-alcohol level of 0.10, the state legal limit at the time.In the case of his DWI arrest, O'Rourke did not face prison time because he completed an alternative adjudication program. It's not clear why the attempted burglary charge was dropped in 1996 (we asked the O'Rourke campaign about this but didn't receive a response to that particular question in time for publication). However, we could find no evidence that O'Rourke's father had any role in either case, nor did the meme offer any evidence.Congressman O'Rourke's father Pat was the El Paso County judge until 1986 -- a kind of chief executive of the county's governing body, the Commissioners Court -- so he had not held office for nine years by the time of his son's attempted burglary arrest.O'Rourke violated 'insider trading' laws: The meme claimed:INSIDER TRADING VIOLATIONSAfter being sent a memo specifically prohibiting investment in Twitter's IPO [initial public offering], O'Rourke made a tidy one-day profit on it. When uncovered by a government watchdog, he quickly turned himself in. This violation of the STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) is apparently a habit, as there are several other instances of this behavior; he characterizes them as mistakes.Despite the meme's claim, O'Rourke has never been charged with, or convicted of, violating any laws related to insider trading, including the STOCK Act, which bars members of the U.S. Congress from benefiting from financial transactions made on the basis of information they received in their capacity as members of Congress.But this section of the meme does contain elements of truth in that -- after the matter was brought to light by a third party -- O'Rourke reported his potential violation of rules to the House Ethics Committee (for stock transactions he maintained were executed by his broker without his knowledge), and the matter was resolved without any charges being brought against him:U.S. Rep. Beto ORourke alerted the House Ethics Committee that he might have violated a new law restricting members of Congress from engaging in certain stock transactions.It is the first case to come before the committee involving a 2012 law that prohibits members of Congress from participating in initial public offerings, or IPOs, other than what is available to members of the public generally, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Committee for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, a watchdog group.ORourke, a Democrat whose district covers a portion of western Texas, reported the possible violation after Legistorm, an online news site that tracks congressional issues, informed him that his Nov. 15 disclosure saying he participated in the Twitter IPO earlier in the month might indicate a violation of a 2012 law called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act.The freshman congressman also reported that, through his stockbroker, he participated in six other initial public offerings this year. In an interview, ORourke said he didnt see a Nov. 5 memo from the House Ethics Committee warning members of Congress about participating in IPOs.On 27 November 2013, O'Rourke wrote on Facebook that the ethics committee had informed him they would consider the issue resolved once he sold off any remaining shares that he bought during any IPOs, and sent the U.S. Treasury a check equal to the amount he earned in profits from those IPO-related shares:Upon receiving the letter from the Committee today I instructed my broker to sell all remaining shares, which he did. I then sent a check for the full amount of the profit from all IPO trades this year to the U.S. Treasury by overnight mail. Copies of the trades and the check have been sent to the Ethics Committee.I apologize to the House of Representatives and to the people I represent for not exercising due diligence. I will be much more thorough in the future concerning financial transactions and do my best to ensure that I am in full compliance with all rules covering members of Congress.Records filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives show that O'Rourke bought between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of shares in Twitter on 7 November 2013 (the first day the company was traded on the stock market), before selling off between $1,000 and $15,000 in shares later that day.Records also indicate that on 27 November 2013, O'Rourke again sold off between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of Twitter shares "pursuant to the recommendations made by House Ethics Committee in a letter from 11/27/13."A condom full of "white powder" was found in O'Rourke's father's car: trueThe meme claimed:FATHER'S DRUG SCANDALO'Rourke's father, while county judge, had a 2-way radio installed in his Jeep. Installers discovered a condom packed with a "white powder" concealed in his vehicle and called police. Much to the dismay of investigating officers, the Captain on duty, a friend and political ally of O'Rourke, flushed the evidence down the toilet and dropped the charges. The Captain was subsequently suspended and tried for tampering with evidence.This section of the meme relates to incidents which took place in 1983, when Beto O'Rourke was 10 years old, and which had absolutely nothing to do with him.Nevertheless, it's true that in February 1983, El Paso County Sheriff's Captain Willie Hill told two police officers to get rid of a condom full of white powder which they had found in Pat O'Rourke's car while they were installing a radio in it. The officers suspected the powder to be heroin or cocaine, but the substance was never tested to determine its true nature.Hill was temporarily suspended but was reinstated after being acquitted on a misdemeanor charge of evidence tampering. (The prosecutor had earlier dropped a charge of misconduct against him.) Hill testified that he made a snap decision about the discovery of the powder, which he strongly suspected had been planted there to embarrass or undermine either O'Rourke or one of the officers installing the radio.O'Rourke and Hill were friends, as O'Rourke (then county judge) told the El Paso Times: "Because he's a good man, it would be an injustice if Willie were to suffer grievous consequences from this whole episode. You have an honest and honorable man implicated by pure fluke. And that's just damn right not fair."O'Rourke was involved in a family business that was prosecuted for tax violations: The meme claimed:FAMILY BUSINESS FEDERALLY PROSECUTEDO'Rourke's family business "Charlotte's Furniture," a store "Beto," his mother and sister are involved with, was charged in 2010 with altering records to avoid IRS reporting. Investigators found they accepted cash payments, in one instance over $630,000 from an unnamed individual (that's a LOT of furniture)! Found guilty on 15 counts, the sentence was a $250,000 fine and 5 years' probation. Around the time O'Rourke announced as a senate candidate, the business was shuttered and its records became unavailable. O'Rourke passes the prosecution off as a "mistake"; it's been covered, move along, nothing to see here.The meme got the basic facts right about the federal tax case against Charlotte's, but it falsely claimed that Congressman O'Rourke was personally "involved" in the company. He was not.In 2010, Charlotte's Inc., an El Paso furniture store company started by O'Rourke's grandmother in 1951, was convicted of "structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements, a tax-related felony. The company was charged as a corporate entity, but the Congressman's mother, Melissa O'Rourke, acted as its authorized representative.The company pled guilty to accusations that it had restructured transactions in order to present relatively large cash payments as having been made in installments of less than $10,000. Anti-money laundering provisions of U.S. law require that a business reveal the identity of any individual who makes a cash payment above that threshold.In total, Charlotte's and its employees illegally restructured $630,000 in payments, all from one customer, in this way between May 2005 and October 2006. The identity of that customer is not known. U.S. District Court judge Kathleen Cardone gave a sentence of five years' probation and a $500,000 fine, with $250,000 of that suspended.In 2017, Melissa O'Rourke announced that she intended to close down the business but denied the decision was connected to her son's U.S. Senate campaign or the 2010 conviction.According to Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts records for 2017, Congressman O'Rourke had no formal role with Charlotte's Inc., whose directors were Melissa O'Rourke and the Congressman's sister Charlotte O'Rourke.Records for 2005 and 2006 (when the I.R.S. reporting violations took place) as well as 2010 (when the conviction happened) show that Congressman O'Rourke had no formal role with the company at those times, either.The Congressman is part owner of the property where Charlotte's was located. According to O'Rourke's 2013 congressional financial disclosure, his mother gifted him an ownership stake worth between $1 million and $5 million in Peppertree Square, a shopping center on North Mesa St. in El Paso.However, his part ownership of the Peppertree Square property (which does not appear to entail any management function in any of the businesses located there) did not accrue until 31 December 2012, more than six years after the conclusion of the I.R.S. reporting violations at Charlotte's. One such meme, entitled "'Beto' Reality Check," was shared widely on Facebook in August 2018: meme A spokesperson for O'Rourke's campaign described the meme as "factually incorrect in countless ways" and largely referred us to several existing news reports about the allegations. The following is our breakdown of the five sections contained in the meme. The meme claimed: NOT HISPANIC "Robert O'Rourke" became "Beto" for his political campaigns and on the ballot, a tactic that gives the false impression he's Latino, misleading voters in a state with many Hispanics. In fact, O'Rourke was known as "Beto" long before he entered political life, although his birth name is Robert and he appears to use both first names interchangeably. (For example, his July 2018 Federal Election Commission "Statement of Candidacy" lists his name as "Robert Beto O'Rourke.") Statement O'Rourke told CNN that his parents referred to him as Beto "from day one," and that it "just stuck." Others have noted that the name is likely derived from a pronunciation of the Spanish "Roberto," and O'Rourke himself described it as "a nickname for Robert in El Paso." (According to the U.S. Census Bureau, around 78 percent of El Paso county residents listed themselves as being of Mexican heritage in 2016.) CNN noted listed O'Rourke's family is of Irish heritage. According to the New York Times, his family "came over from Ireland four generations ago to work on the railroad." His father Pat O'Rourke was a prominent El Paso County official during the 1980s. New York Times A 1986 article about Pat O'Rourke in the El Paso Times referred to his then 14-year-old son as "Beto O'Rourke." In 1999, six years before O'Rourke ran for El Paso city council, the same newspaper referred to "web site designer Beto O'Rourke" in a short article about his I.T. business Stanton Street Design. article article After checking the archives of the El Paso Times, we found multiple references to "Beto O'Rourke" between 1986 and 2004, when O'Rourk was either a child or a businessman and had never run for political office. In March, the campaign of O'Rourke's Republican opponent, Ted Cruz, launched a radio jingle that poked fun at the name "Beto" and included the following lyrics: "I remember reading stories/Liberal Robert wanted to fit in/So he changed his name to 'Beto'/And hid it with a grin ...": FIRST LISTEN: our new 60-second statewide radio ad introducing our liberal opponent, Congressman Robert ORourke, to Texas voters. Help #KeepTexasRed: https://t.co/PVsiCtbbyL #CruzCrew #TXSen pic.twitter.com/OxK61gZ0ek #KeepTexasRed https://t.co/PVsiCtbbyL #CruzCrew #TXSen pic.twitter.com/OxK61gZ0ek Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 7, 2018 March 7, 2018 The next day, O'Rourke posted a photograph of himself as a young boy, wearing a sweater with the nickname "Beto" stitched into it, establishing that, contrary to false accusation, he did not "change his name" for political reasons: pic.twitter.com/1IO1dgmCkv pic.twitter.com/1IO1dgmCkv Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) March 7, 2018 March 7, 2018 The meme claimed: FELONY ARREST RECORD As an adult in his mid-20s, O'Rourke was caught breaking into the University of Texas El Paso. Charged with breaking and entering and burglary, he mysteriously avoided trial. A few years later, arrested for drunk driving, he again walked with a "deal." Being the song of a powerful, politically connected County Judge apparently has benefits. O'Rourke dismisses his felony convictions as "youthful pranks" and "mistakes"; it's old news, move along, nothing to see here. O'Rourke has indeed been arrested for burglary and drunk driving, a history which he has discussed several times over the course of his political career, as his spokesperson told us: "While charges were dismissed, this is something that Beto has always publicly addressed -- during his initial run for the city council, his run for Congress, in profiles written about him, during dozens of interviews, and at town halls across the state during this campaign." In a 27 August 2018 op-ed for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, O'Rourke himself wrote: op-ed Twenty-three years ago I was arrested for attempted forcible entry after jumping a fence at the University of Texas at El Paso. I spent a night in the El Paso County Jail, was able to make bail the next day, and was released. Three years later, I was arrested for drunk driving -- a far more serious mistake for which there is no excuse. According to El Paso county jail records, O'Rourke was arrested for attempted burglary on 19 May 1995, when he was 22 years old. He was released from custody the same day. Court records show that the prosecutor dropped the charge in February 1996. records records O'Rourke was also arrested for driving while intoxicated on 27 September 1998, the day after his 26th birthday. He completed a "misdemeanor diversion program" (namely "DWI school") in October 1999, and the charge was dropped. arrested In August 2018, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News cited police reports, including a witness account, which suggested that the incident leading to O'Rourke's DWI arrest was relatively serious and involved a collision with another vehicle and a possible attempt by O'Rourke to leave the scene: cited State and local police reports obtained by the Chronicle and Express-News show that ORourke was driving drunk at what a witness called a high rate of speed in a 75 mph zone on Interstate 10 about a mile from the New Mexico border. He lost control and hit a truck, sending his car careening across the center median into oncoming lanes. The witness, who stopped at the scene, later told police that ORourke had tried to drive away from the scene. O'Rourke recorded a 0.136 and 0.134 on police breathalyzers, above a blood-alcohol level of 0.10, the state legal limit at the time. In the case of his DWI arrest, O'Rourke did not face prison time because he completed an alternative adjudication program. It's not clear why the attempted burglary charge was dropped in 1996 (we asked the O'Rourke campaign about this but didn't receive a response to that particular question in time for publication). However, we could find no evidence that O'Rourke's father had any role in either case, nor did the meme offer any evidence. Congressman O'Rourke's father Pat was the El Paso County judge until 1986 -- a kind of chief executive of the county's governing body, the Commissioners Court -- so he had not held office for nine years by the time of his son's attempted burglary arrest. judge governing body The meme claimed: INSIDER TRADING VIOLATIONS After being sent a memo specifically prohibiting investment in Twitter's IPO [initial public offering], O'Rourke made a tidy one-day profit on it. When uncovered by a government watchdog, he quickly turned himself in. This violation of the STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) is apparently a habit, as there are several other instances of this behavior; he characterizes them as mistakes. Despite the meme's claim, O'Rourke has never been charged with, or convicted of, violating any laws related to insider trading, including the STOCK Act, which bars members of the U.S. Congress from benefiting from financial transactions made on the basis of information they received in their capacity as members of Congress. STOCK Act But this section of the meme does contain elements of truth in that -- after the matter was brought to light by a third party -- O'Rourke reported his potential violation of rules to the House Ethics Committee (for stock transactions he maintained were executed by his broker without his knowledge), and the matter was resolved without any charges being brought against him: violation U.S. Rep. Beto ORourke alerted the House Ethics Committee that he might have violated a new law restricting members of Congress from engaging in certain stock transactions. It is the first case to come before the committee involving a 2012 law that prohibits members of Congress from participating in initial public offerings, or IPOs, other than what is available to members of the public generally, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Committee for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, a watchdog group. ORourke, a Democrat whose district covers a portion of western Texas, reported the possible violation after Legistorm, an online news site that tracks congressional issues, informed him that his Nov. 15 disclosure saying he participated in the Twitter IPO earlier in the month might indicate a violation of a 2012 law called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act. The freshman congressman also reported that, through his stockbroker, he participated in six other initial public offerings this year. In an interview, ORourke said he didnt see a Nov. 5 memo from the House Ethics Committee warning members of Congress about participating in IPOs. On 27 November 2013, O'Rourke wrote on Facebook that the ethics committee had informed him they would consider the issue resolved once he sold off any remaining shares that he bought during any IPOs, and sent the U.S. Treasury a check equal to the amount he earned in profits from those IPO-related shares: wrote Upon receiving the letter from the Committee today I instructed my broker to sell all remaining shares, which he did. I then sent a check for the full amount of the profit from all IPO trades this year to the U.S. Treasury by overnight mail. Copies of the trades and the check have been sent to the Ethics Committee. I apologize to the House of Representatives and to the people I represent for not exercising due diligence. I will be much more thorough in the future concerning financial transactions and do my best to ensure that I am in full compliance with all rules covering members of Congress. Records filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives show that O'Rourke bought between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of shares in Twitter on 7 November 2013 (the first day the company was traded on the stock market), before selling off between $1,000 and $15,000 in shares later that day. filed Records also indicate that on 27 November 2013, O'Rourke again sold off between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of Twitter shares "pursuant to the recommendations made by House Ethics Committee in a letter from 11/27/13." indicate The meme claimed: FATHER'S DRUG SCANDAL O'Rourke's father, while county judge, had a 2-way radio installed in his Jeep. Installers discovered a condom packed with a "white powder" concealed in his vehicle and called police. Much to the dismay of investigating officers, the Captain on duty, a friend and political ally of O'Rourke, flushed the evidence down the toilet and dropped the charges. The Captain was subsequently suspended and tried for tampering with evidence. This section of the meme relates to incidents which took place in 1983, when Beto O'Rourke was 10 years old, and which had absolutely nothing to do with him. Nevertheless, it's true that in February 1983, El Paso County Sheriff's Captain Willie Hill told two police officers to get rid of a condom full of white powder which they had found in Pat O'Rourke's car while they were installing a radio in it. The officers suspected the powder to be heroin or cocaine, but the substance was never tested to determine its true nature. Hill was temporarily suspended but was reinstated after being acquitted on a misdemeanor charge of evidence tampering. (The prosecutor had earlier dropped a charge of misconduct against him.) Hill testified that he made a snap decision about the discovery of the powder, which he strongly suspected had been planted there to embarrass or undermine either O'Rourke or one of the officers installing the radio. being acquitted O'Rourke and Hill were friends, as O'Rourke (then county judge) told the El Paso Times: "Because he's a good man, it would be an injustice if Willie were to suffer grievous consequences from this whole episode. You have an honest and honorable man implicated by pure fluke. And that's just damn right not fair." El Paso Times The meme claimed: FAMILY BUSINESS FEDERALLY PROSECUTED O'Rourke's family business "Charlotte's Furniture," a store "Beto," his mother and sister are involved with, was charged in 2010 with altering records to avoid IRS reporting. Investigators found they accepted cash payments, in one instance over $630,000 from an unnamed individual (that's a LOT of furniture)! Found guilty on 15 counts, the sentence was a $250,000 fine and 5 years' probation. Around the time O'Rourke announced as a senate candidate, the business was shuttered and its records became unavailable. O'Rourke passes the prosecution off as a "mistake"; it's been covered, move along, nothing to see here. The meme got the basic facts right about the federal tax case against Charlotte's, but it falsely claimed that Congressman O'Rourke was personally "involved" in the company. He was not. In 2010, Charlotte's Inc., an El Paso furniture store company started by O'Rourke's grandmother in 1951, was convicted of "structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements, a tax-related felony. The company was charged as a corporate entity, but the Congressman's mother, Melissa O'Rourke, acted as its authorized representative. felony The company pled guilty to accusations that it had restructured transactions in order to present relatively large cash payments as having been made in installments of less than $10,000. Anti-money laundering provisions of U.S. law require that a business reveal the identity of any individual who makes a cash payment above that threshold. restructured provisions In total, Charlotte's and its employees illegally restructured $630,000 in payments, all from one customer, in this way between May 2005 and October 2006. The identity of that customer is not known. U.S. District Court judge Kathleen Cardone gave a sentence of five years' probation and a $500,000 fine, with $250,000 of that suspended. sentence In 2017, Melissa O'Rourke announced that she intended to close down the business but denied the decision was connected to her son's U.S. Senate campaign or the 2010 conviction. announced According to Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts records for 2017, Congressman O'Rourke had no formal role with Charlotte's Inc., whose directors were Melissa O'Rourke and the Congressman's sister Charlotte O'Rourke. records Records for 2005 and 2006 (when the I.R.S. reporting violations took place) as well as 2010 (when the conviction happened) show that Congressman O'Rourke had no formal role with the company at those times, either. Records The Congressman is part owner of the property where Charlotte's was located. According to O'Rourke's 2013 congressional financial disclosure, his mother gifted him an ownership stake worth between $1 million and $5 million in Peppertree Square, a shopping center on North Mesa St. in El Paso. disclosure However, his part ownership of the Peppertree Square property (which does not appear to entail any management function in any of the businesses located there) did not accrue until 31 December 2012, more than six years after the conclusion of the I.R.S. reporting violations at Charlotte's. O'Rourke, Robert Beto. "Statement of Candidacy."
Federal Election Commission. 9 July 2018. Bradner, Eric. "With Primary Ending, Cruz Takes Opening Shot at Beto O'Rourke's Name."
CNN. 7 March 2018. Stanton, John. "Juarez's Biggest Booster Is an Irish-American Congressman."
BuzzFeed News. 14 October 2014. Draper, Robert. "Texas, Three Ways."
The New York Times. 14 November 2014. Scharrer, Gary. "O'Rourke Goes Out Talking."
The El Paso Times. 8 December 1986. The El Paso Times. "Consumers Dial Up Web Site."
16 June 1999. O'Rourke, Beto. "Texas Should Lead the Way on True Criminal Justice Reform."
The Houston Chronicle. 27 August 2018. Diaz, Kevin. "Police Reports Detail Beto O'Rourke's 1998 DWI Arrest."
The Houston Chronicle. 31 August 2018. Cruz, Laura. "Friends, Family Say Goodbye to O'Rourke."
The El Paso Times. 7 July 2001. The White House. "Fact Sheet: The STOCK Act -- Bans Members of Congress from Insider Trading."
4 April 2012. The El Paso Times. "Congressman May Have Broken Ethics Rules with Twitter Stock Purchase."
26 November 2013. Landis, David. "Jurors Decided Hill Negligent, Not Criminal."
The El Paso Times. 23 December 1983. Scharrer, Gary. "O'Rourke Expresses Sorrow Over Charge."
The El Paso Times. 29 October 1983. Legal Information Institute. "U.S. Code, Title 31, Subtitle IV, Chapter 53, Subchapter II, Section 5324 -- Structuring Transactions to Evade Reporting Requirement Prohibite."
Cornell Law School. Accessed 31 August 2018. U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, El Paso Division. "U.S.A. vs Charlotte's Inc. -- Information."
4 May 2010. U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, El Paso Division. "U.S.A. vs Charlotte's Inc. -- Amended Judgment."
8 June 2010. Villa, Pablo. "Charlotte's Furniture Store to Close This Year, Owner Says."
The El Paso Times. 4 August 2017. Correction [4 September 2018]: This article has been updated to more accurately describe the role of El Paso County judge. | 2 | [
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FMD654 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Hydrogen Beer Claim summaries: Are those crazy Japanese getting high on hydrogen beer?
contextual information: Claim: A few sips of hydrogen beer enables Japanese karaoke nuts to sing soprano parts and shoot blue flames out of their mouths at dramatic moments. Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1994] January 1, 1994TOKYO (AP) Here in the chic pubs of the Aoyama district, the latest fad inspired by beer makers struggling through a sluggish economy is the flammable suds of the new Hydrogen Beer. The latest craze among the environmentally conscious crowd of twentysomethings, the "Suiso" beer made by the Asaka Beer Corporation has been extremely popular at karaoke sing-along bars and discotheques. Hydrogen, like helium, is a gas lighter than air. Because hydrogen molecules are lighter than air, sound waves are transmitted more rapidly; individuals whose lungs are filled with the nontoxic gas can speak with an uncharacteristically high voice. Exploiting this quirk of physics, chic urbanites can now sing soprano parts on karaoke sing-along machines after consuming a big gulp of Suiso beer. The drink comes in a transparent hexagonal bottle imported from the maker of the new American drink, Zima," according to Hideki Saito, marketing director of Asaka Beer Corp. While the bottles are imported from Tennessee, the labels are made with a 100% biodegradable polymer. The bottle caps are equipped with a safety valve to prevent excess build-up of pressure in high temperatures. The flammable nature of hydrogen has also become another selling point, even though Asaka has not acknowledged that this was a deliberate marketing ploy. It has inspired a new fashion of blowing flames from one's mouth using a cigarette as an ignition source. Many new karaoke videos feature singers shooting blue flames in slow motion, while flame contests took place in pubs everywhere in Tokyo on New Year's eve. So far, Asaka beer has insisted that the quantities of hydrogen used in the drinks is too low to create potential for bodily harm. In the factory, the carbon dioxide that is dissolved in the beer is partially extracted and replaced with hydrogen gas. Mr. Saito maintained that the remaining carbon dioxide mixed with hydrogen prevents the rate of combustion from increasing dramatically. Carbon dioxide is a nonflammable gas that is naturally contained in the exhaled breath of humans. However, the company has hesitated from marketing the product in the US due to legal complications. Each bottle of Suiso beer sells for approximately 1,200 yen, or 11 US dollars. The bottles are packed in special crates lined with concrete to prevent chain explosions in the event of a fire. Origins: Initially making the rounds in 1994, this bit of fiction is still in circulation on the Internet and continues to pop up in the media. Additional spurious details about an injured participant engaging in a lawsuit against the brew's manufacturer and a karaoke bar wereadded to the story in late 1998. Folks will believe most anything, provided someone sticks "AP" at the front of it. Though it was decked out to look like it, the above wasn't a real wire service story. (Even so, this tale has suckered a fine selection of highly-respected newspapers, including The New York Times in March 1996, the Boston Globe in November 1997, and The Washington Post in September 1999. It has also appeared in a widely-used introductory-level college chemistry textbook.) There is no Asaka Beer Corporation. Due to tight government regulations, there are only five beer companies in Japan: Kirin (40.6% market share), Asahi (37.6%), Sapporo (15.8%), Suntory (5%) and Orion (1%). Nor is there a Suiso beer. Both these names are made up, nothing more than wonderful bits of embroidery employed to give a fanciful tale an aura of believability. Proving yet again that no story is too good not to be improved upon, the following version appeared in inboxes everywhere in late 1998: TOKYO (AP) The recent craze for hydrogen beer is at the heart of a three way lawsuit between unemployed stockbroker Toshira Otoma, the Tike-Take karaoke bar and the Asaka Beer Corporation. Mr Otoma is suing the bar and the brewery for selling toxic substances and is claiming damages for grievous bodily harm leading to the loss of his job. The bar is countersuing for defamation and loss of customers. The Asaka Beer corporation brews "Suiso" brand beer, where the carbon dioxide normally used to add fizz has been replaced by the more environmentally friendly hydrogen gas. A side effect of this has made the beer extremely popular at karaoke sing-along bars and discotheques. Hydrogen, like helium, is a gas lighter than air. Because hydrogen molecules are lighter than air, sound waves are transmitted more rapidly; individuals whose lungs are filled with the nontoxic gas can speak with an uncharacteristically high voice. Exploiting this quirk of physics, chic urbanites can now sing soprano parts on karaoke sing-along machines after consuming a big gulp of Suiso beer. The flammable nature of hydrogen has also become another selling point, even though Asaka has not acknowledged that this was a deliberate marketing ploy. It has inspired a new fashion of blowing flames from one's mouth using a cigarette as an ignition source. Many new karaoke videos feature singers shooting blue flames in slow motion, while flame contests take place in pubs everywhere. "Mr Otoma has no-one to blame but himself. If he had not become drunk and disorderly, none of this would have happened. Our security guards undergo the most careful screening and training before they are allowed to deal with customers" said Mr Takashi Nomura, Manager of the Tike-Take bar. "Mr Otoma drank fifteen bottles of hydrogen beer in order to maximise the size of the flames he could belch during the contest. He catapulted balls of fire across the room that Gojira would be proud of, but this was not enough to win him first prize since the judgement is made on the quality of the flames and that of the singing, and after fifteen bottles of lager he was badly out of tune." "He took exception to the result and hurled blue fireballs at the judge, singeing the front of Mrs Mifune's hair, entirely removing her eyebrows and lashes, and ruining the clothes of two nearby customers. None of these people have returned to my bar. When our security staff approached he turned his attentions to them, making it almost impossible to approach him. Our head bouncer had no choice but to hurl himself at Mr Otoma's knees, knocking his legs from under him." "The laws of physics are not to be disobeyed, and the force that propelled Mr Otoma's legs backwards also pivoted around his centre of gravity and moved his upper body forward with equal velocity. It was his own fault he had his mouth open for the next belch, his own fault he held a lighted cigarette in front of it and it is own fault he swallowed that cigarette." "The Tike-Take bar takes no responsibility for the subsequent internal combustion, rupture of his stomach lining, nor the third degree burns to his oesophagus, larynx and sinuses as the exploding gases forced their way out of his body. His consequential muteness and loss of employment are his own fault." Mr Otoma was unavailable for comment. As well he might be, since he doesn't exist. There's still no Suiso beer, no Asaka Beer Corporation, and certainly no such lawsuit. The names used in the piece give an additional clue to its being a leg-pull: Takashi Nomura and Toshiro Mifune are both actors in classic Japanese films, and Otoma comes from Katsuhiro Otomo, a modern director. This newest version makes more of a story out of the tale, turning what purported to be a staid news article about a karaoke innovation into a bemusing report about yet another silly lawsuit. Merely the mental picture of a drunken Japanese hurling blue fireballs at the judges who'd passed him over is enough to keep one entertained for hours. Karaoke is weird enough without anyone having to blow blue flames as part of it. Barbara "Molson Dry wit" Mikkelson Last updated: 7 October 2006 Sources: Pollack, Andrew. "Fleeting Fame Sells in Asia ." The New York Times. 11 March 1996 (p. D1). Reucroft, Stephen and John Swain. "Dinosaur Birds." The Boston Globe. 3 November 1997 (p. C4). Schwarcz, Joe. "Hydrogen, the First Element; What a Blast!" The Washington Post. 8 September 1999 (p. H1). Zumdahl, Steven and Zumdahl, Susan. Chemistry. Boston; Houghton-Mifflin, 2000 ISBN 0-39598-581-1 (p. 524). PC Week. "Spark Me Up." 18 April 1994 (p. A5). Also told in: Fiery, Ann. The Complete and Totally True Book of Urban Legends. Philadelphia: Running Press Books, 2001. ISBN 0-7624-107404 (pp. 77-80). The Complete and Totally True Book of Urban Legends | 0 | [
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FMD655 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Moldova s Prime Minister Pavel Filip said on Monday he was confident of meeting all the conditions to get funding next year under a 100-million-euro ($117-million) agreement with the European Union. A reduction in red tape and better fiscal governance had already improved public finances, allowing it to get by without the EU cash this year, he told Reuters. The European Union agreed in June to provide 60 million euros in loans and 40 million euros of grants in 2017-18 to help the former Soviet republic to stabilize its economy and promote reform. One condition for receiving it was respect for democratic process and the rule of law, the EU added. Moldova this year introduced a new electoral law that the Venice Commission, a pan-European rights body, said could make the system more susceptible to undue influence by vested interests. Last week Filip said Moldova would receive no tranches this year, but he was more upbeat on 2018 in emailed comments to Reuters on Monday. The EU has a serious partner in Chisinau and we are eager for EU financing in 2018 | 1 | [
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FMD656 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A Quincy, Il, man was shot in the hourly hours of Thursday morning and then right after, did an interview while smoking a cigarette, in what appears to be one of the most interesting interviews of the year.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_wMhAFL188]The Quincy man, Devon, was in the room, kicking like I usually do, drinking, when someone fired bullets through his apartment, striking him in the chest.Despite the danger, Devon said that he wasn t trippin, it was a petty wound and sh*t. The first thing he thought about wasn t his wound though. His main concern was to get his son out of the way. Luckily, his son wasn t hurt.During the interview, Devon lifted his shirt to show his bandages from the wound, casually shrugging off the event, saying some people probably want [him] dead and are on some other stuff. One can t help but notice how unaffected, calm, and desensitized Devon seems to be, at least while conducting the interview. Even the journalist, Reyna Harvey, who was interviewing him is calm, which lead Chad Douglas a broadcaster at the studio to lament that the entire event was incredible. While the event is indeed incredible, there seems to be something quite eerie about the desensitization of all involved in this almost tragic event. Let s hope that Devon makes a full recovery from his wounds.Feature Image Via YouTube Screenshot | 0 | [
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FMD657 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Back in June, I first saw Mr. Trump announcing his candidacy for president. What he said about unauthorized immigrants seemed ridiculous so I laughed. I showed the video to friends, and I laughed again. His words were poorly chosen.
But something worse happened. People interpreted Trump’s words in the most awful and offensive ways.
In one of my courses, at the University of Texas at Austin, I asked my students: “What has Donald Trump said that you found most offensive?†One student raised her hand high: “He said that all Mexicans are rapists.†I asked a coworker the same question. He replied: “He said that all Mexican immigrants are rapists.â€
I explained that Trump said no such thing. This is what Trump said:
You might well dislike Trump’s words. I did. But let’s not make it worse. He did not say that all Mexicans are rapists. Yet that’s what many commentators did. For example, Politico misquoted Trump by omitting his phrase about “good people.†They said he was “demonizing Mexicans as rapists.†They argued that Mexicans do not really commit more rapes in the U.S. than whites. But that’s not what Trump claimed.
Similarly, other news sources misrepresented his words in offensive ways:
Compare such words with Trump’s words. Which is worse? Writers excerpted the phrase: “they’re rapists,†as if it were about all Mexican unauthorized immigrants, or worse, about all Mexican immigrants, or even worst, about all Mexicans. But that’s not what he said. That’s not what he meant. It was just a remark about some of the criminals crossing the border.
The trick for misrepresenting Trump’s words can be used against anyone.
For example, on October 7, at a Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton answered the question: “Which enemy are you most proud of?†She replied: “In addition to the NRA, um, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, um, the Iranians.â€
If you do to her what the media did to Trump, then you should believe that Hillary Clinton is proud to be the enemy of 77 million citizens of Iran, plus millions more living outside Iran, including mothers, children, and disabled people. But that’s not what she meant.
On November 6, at the MSNBC Democratic Candidates Forum, Bernie Sanders said: “we have to pass a constitutional amendment that everyone in America who is 18 years old or older is registered to vote.†He said everyone. Someone might then write: “He proposed that everyone who is in the U.S. should vote, everyone who is 18, even illegal immigrants, tourists, and terrorists.†But that’s not what he meant.
It is no wonder that many people think the media is grossly dishonest. No wonder Mr. Trump’s critiques of the media make his followers cheer.
Trump was discussing crimes committed by unauthorized immigrants. Is it true that some people who illegally cross the border from Mexico are good? Yes. Is it true that some others commit crimes? Yes. Is that a problem? People disagree. Some conjecture that unauthorized immigrants don’t commit more crimes than U.S. citizens. But crimes by unauthorized immigrants, even murders, would not have happened if those individuals had not entered the U.S.
Time for a disclosure. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. Spanish is my first language. I voted for Obama. I live in liberal Austin, Texas, where I work as a tenured professor of history. I’ve never voted for a Republican. My preferred candidate for U.S. president would be Elizabeth Warren. Since she is not running, my preferred candidate is Bernie Sanders.
Anyhow, discussions about illegal immigration are ruined by lack of data. I asked my friends, university faculty: “How many people do you think are deported per year in the U.S.?â€
There are two kinds of deportations: some are caught near the border and “returned,†others are “removed†by a court order. Consider the border patrol agents, personnel, the bureaucracy, the lawyers, the resources needed to find people and deport them. How many were deported in 2014?
One of my friends guessed 3,000. Another guessed 10,000. Another guessed 50,000—which would really be a lot of people, imagine.
Actually, in fiscal year 2014, the U.S. deported a total of 893,238 foreigners! That’s a huge number. It includes 577,295 deported by the Department of Homeland Security, plus 315,943 deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Among the latter, 2,802 were classified as suspected or confirmed gang members.
Since 1990, the average is 1.2 million deportations per year. The highest in U.S. history was 1.86 million foreigners deported in the year 2000. That’s astonishing.
How many were criminals?
We don’t know because most criminals are not caught. Plus, many who are accused are not convicted because of a lack of evidence. Still, in 2014, the U.S. deported 177,960 convicted criminals. Surprisingly, 91,037 were already convicted criminals before they even entered the U.S.
At the University of Texas at Austin, the football stadium can seat 100,119 people. I have seen it full. I’ve see more than 100,000 people at once—it’s an incredible sight. It’s a staggering swarm of people. I have seen them yelling all at once.
It is utterly astonishing to me that this stadium would fail to seat all the convicted criminals deported in a single year. Back to Mr. Trump. Did he unfairly single out Mexicans when complaining about crimes by unauthorized immigrants? By far, most Mexicans are good people. However, since Mexico shares a large frontier with the U.S., and many Mexicans face economic hardships, most of the reported illegal immigration into the U.S. is from Mexico. Accordingly, in recent years roughly 76% of criminal unauthorized immigrants are from Mexico. What kinds of crime? It is strangely difficult to find national statistics on homicides, sexual assaults, and thefts, by unauthorized immigrants. But there is relevant data for some states. The Texas Department of Public Safety identified 207,076 foreign aliens who were booked into Texas county jails from October 2008 through August 1, 2014. Their term “foreign aliens†includes both foreigners who are in Texas legally and foreigners who entered illegally. They were accused of 357,884 crimes in those 70 months, including these charges: 4,413 terroristic threats, 60,973 robberies and larcenies, 6,636 vehicle thefts, 78,682 assaults, 12,869 sexual assaults and offenses, 1,113 kidnapping, and 3,089 homicides. That includes, an average of 1,383 charges of sexual assaults per year, in Texas alone. The real number of rapes and sexual assaults is larger since many victims do not report these crimes. According to the National Crime and Victimization Survey, 2008-2012, approximately 68% of sexual assault crimes are not reported. So I estimate that foreigners commit roughly 4,000 sexual assaults in Texas each year. In Texas, roughly 529 foreigners per year were accused of committing murder. Plus, the FBI reports that 36% of homicides nationwide remain unsolved. These crime rates are staggering and offensive. None of the women and men who were killed in by unauthorized immigrants in Texas would have died if the murderers had not entered the U.S. illegally. These are not just words. Pause for a moment to think about a Texas woman whose husband was murdered one night. Think about parents who never saw their son again because he was murdered. Think of the thousands of families standing at the cemeteries. I’ve only summarized murders and sexual assaults. Consider drugs and drug violence. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, most illegal drugs come from Mexico, including most cocaine and heroine. Most methamphetamines also are smuggled from Mexico. The 2015 National Drug Threat Survey finds that methamphetamines are the drugs that most contribute to property crimes and violent crimes. You get the point. There are tremendous problems of drugs, murders, and rapes caused at the porous border. Without knowing the data, it was easy to be offended by Mr. Trump’s crude words when he announced his candidacy. However, seeing the data above, I understand his concerns. Here’s what Trump said right after his words quoted above: “And it only makes common sense, it only makes common sense: they’re sending us not the right people, and it’s coming from more than Mexico, it’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably, probably from the Middle East. But we don’t know because we have no protection, and we have no competence. We don’t know what’s happening. And it’s gotta stop. And it’s gotta stop fast.†We can disagree about some points. Is the Mexican government really sending criminals to the U.S.? On July 5, Trump said: “The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.†This claim might be false if Mexico does not intentionally send criminals to the US. At its best, this statement seems plausible if Trump meant that conditions generated in Mexico by its government lead some criminals to the U.S. In any case, Trump proposes to secure the southern border by implementing various security measures. His most recurring proposal is to build a wall, along areas of the border lacking natural barriers. His proposal has been widely criticized. Some people construed it as a sign of racism, xenophobia, etc. However, I can understand why many of Trump’s followers actually cheer: “Build the Wall! Build the Wall!†First, there are the worries about murders, drugs, crimes, and terrorism. Presently, countless many unauthorized immigrants walk into the country, unchecked. In fiscal year 2014, the Border Patrol made 468,407 apprehensions along the southwest border. By comparison, the Border Patrol only made 18,244 apprehensions in all other regions. But one point sticks in my mind. Namely this: there already exist a long series of fences and walls between Mexico and the U.S. These fences and walls span parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. As of early 2012, the Department of Homeland Security had completed 652 miles of fences and walls. Trump did not build all that. It was mandated by Congress. Walls are common along many countries’ borders, such as Spain, China, France, Greece, Pakistan, Israel, etc. The border between the U.S. and Mexico spans roughly 1,950 miles. Trump wants a wall that will be 1,000 miles long, including areas already covered. I’m not trying to convince you about a wall. My point is just that it’s neither impossible nor ridiculous. A main reason why many border areas have fences instead of walls is just that walls are more expensive. Trump says that everyone who didn’t enter the U.S. legally should return to their countries. “They have to go.†We might well disagree. But his view is closer to Immigration law. If you prefer amnesty then lawmakers have to create a law to that effect. Trump insists: “I want people to come in, but they have to come in legally.†Regardless, countless many people think that Trump is racist against Mexicans. I suggest that anyone who thinks that should count how many times Trump has praised Mexicans. Most unauthorized immigrants are good people. But still, the media wrongly blamed Mr. Trump for their own misrepresentations. | 1 | [
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FMD658 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: NAIROBI, Kenya — By 9 a. m. on Monday, clouds of black smoke blotted out the sky. A mountain of tires burned. Roads were blocked. Young men poured into the streets of a slum in Nairobi, gleefully carrying huge, jagged pieces of concrete. In Kisumu, a city on Lake Victoria, witnesses said police officers had fired on a crowd. A boy was in critical condition after being shot in the back. A demonstrator was killed. For the past several weeks, Kenya’s opposition leaders have turned Mondays into protest days. Now they are threatening to hold demonstrations twice, and soon four times, a week. Many Kenyans are shaking their heads with a sense of fatigue and dread, saying, Here we go again. Kenya is a relatively prosperous, developed and politically tolerant African nation. But elections have not been its strong suit. In the past 25 years, almost every presidential race has been marred by violence the worst one was in when ethnic rivalries cracked open and more than 1, 000 people were killed, many in deadly protests. Kenya spent years trying to heal its wounds and recover from the devastation, culminating in a tense but more peaceful election in 2013. Despite widespread distrust of the results, the country held together, helping it recapture its image as a bastion of stability in the region. Now, with another election scheduled for next year and the opposition already mobilizing thousands of people, many Kenyans are worried about recent economic gains’ being reduced to char blowing in the wind. “It’s getting very nervy,†said Satchu, an investment adviser in Nairobi. “The economy crashes and burns when we fumble these elections. What’s worrying is that this is happening so early, that we already have this degree of contestation. †Each Monday, now known as Tear Gas Monday, many businesses close. Parents do not send their children to school. Motorists stay off the streets, afraid of rocks being thrown through their windshields. The opposition leaders are aware of this part of their leverage is the ability to slow down the economy. A watchman in Nairobi spoke of his “inside fear†of even coming to town on Mondays. The opposition’s rallying point has become Kenya’s election commission. Raila Odinga, a former prime minister who has been angling for president for much of the past two decades, has demanded that the government disband the commission, which is widely viewed as biased and corrupt. A British court recently convicted two British businessmen of bribing Kenyan election commissioners to get contracts for printing ballots. But in Kenya, those same commissioners have not even been charged. This is another problem in Kenya. Almost all corruption cases against powerful people languish for months. Then they quietly disappear. “The government needs to throw out that commission,†said Paul Shida, a welder in the Kibera slums in Nairobi, where the protests began Monday. “Street protest is the only language the government understands. †The election commission controversy has progressed from an annoyance to a major crisis for Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta. He is not believed to be especially close to any of the election commissioners, but they were the same ones who validated his victory in 2013 amid allegations of rigging. He has refused to disband the commission, and his security services have threatened to crack down on protesters. But as the protests grind on, a game is being played between Mr. Kenyatta’s government and Kenya’s judiciary, which many Kenyans regard as independent. Last week, police officials banned an opposition rally in the city’s historic Uhuru Park a court promptly overturned that ban. This weekend, police officials declared again that it was illegal for the opposition to protest and warned that they were ready to use lethal force. They did so in Kisumu on Monday. Witnesses said the police fired indiscriminately at a crowd, hitting the boy and leaving him in critical condition, and killing a protester. Also on Monday, a court ruled that the opposition had a right to protest and that the police had a duty to protect demonstrators. Though the violence in the past few weeks has been nothing compared with the paroxysm of bloodshed that swept the country in 2007 and 2008, the dynamics are similar. The nation, and especially its economy, are being held hostage by the relationship between Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Odinga, who will most likely face off in the election next year. Last week, tensions suddenly lifted after the two met and a picture of them walking together, smiling, appeared on the front pages of the leading newspapers. But the two were soon at loggerheads again, and the protests were back on. Mr. Satchu estimated that at least $5 million was lost every Monday because of interruptions, closed businesses, property destruction and petty crime. On Monday afternoon, Bharat Shah, who runs a Nairobi curio shop, held up a pad of paper with the number 360 scribbled on it, for 360 shillings, less than $4. “That’s what I’ve sold today,†he said with a wry laugh. “One packet of beads. †Just as in business leaders have been discreetly meeting with government and opposition leaders, urging them to compromise, for the sake of the economy. “Among international investors, there remains a strong commitment to Kenya as a gateway to this region, and that hasn’t been shaken yet,†Mr. Satchu said. “But surely it will be shaken if this malarkey continues. †| 1 | [
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FMD659 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Video Does Not Show Electric Scooter Bikes Abandoned in a 'Graveyard' Due to High Cost of Batteries Claim summaries: Here's how we solved the mystery of what this viral video truly showed.
contextual information: On Nov. 28, 2022, the@Xx17965797N Twitter accounttweeteda video with a misleading caption that claimed the clip showed a sea of lined-up electric scooter bikes that were abandoned because of the high cost of electric vehicle (EV) battery replacement. The tweet read, "Electric green scooters that have reached end of battery life. Due to the batteries being so expensive to replace, electric scooters are abandoned because disposing of them any other way is dangerous and expensive." tweeted This was not true, despite the tens of thousands of combined retweets and likes that the tweet received. The same video upload from @Xx17965797N was also misleadingly reshared by accounts including@PeterDClack, @JamesMelville, and @MillerForTexas. The former two tweets received thousands of engagements, despite the fact that the information pushed in the original tweet was not true. @PeterDClack @JamesMelville @MillerForTexas In cases like these where a caption is incorrect but the picture or video is real, we issue a fact-check rating of "Miscaptioned." Days before the @Xx17965797N tweet was posted, the@ElevaBrasilES account also misleadingly tweeted that the same video was shot in France. The tweet went up on Nov. 21 with an incorrect caption that read, "Green energy Cemetery of electric motorcycles in France. Now designated as a 'biohazard zone.'" (Note: This mention of France reminded us of other rumors we've debunked in the past, in particular about two photosof other car graveyards. The two pictures showed false captions that claimed the cars had been abandoned due to the high cost of battery replacement, just like the video we're looking at in this fact check.) tweeted two photos The oldest upload of the video that we could find came from TikTok user @smartsetting. The video was uploaded on Nov. 7 and by the end of the month had received nearly 5 million views. Based on watching the video, the scooters appeared to be parked in a parking lot near a basketball court, perhaps in a university complex or public park. Several blurry Chinese characters were visible on the side of the bikes. At the end of the clip, a tall building could be seen on the right-hand side of the frame. Other than those pieces of information, we didn't have much to go on. In order to find the truth behind this video, we first used Adobe Media Encoder to export a JPEG file for each and every frame from the video. The results of this export were 440 individual images from the 14-second video. We then performed numerous reverse image searches with these picture files using Google Images and TinEye.com. These reverse image searches provided several clues as to where other users had reposted the video. However, we did not find any further details from these searches. Next, we tried several searches on Google, Twitter, and YouTube with phrases such as "electric scooter China" and "electric bike graveyard China," among other terms. This helped to find several repostsof the video. The searches alsoshowedresults for many of the sites in China that are the final resting placesfor massive stacks of bicycles dumped by bike-sharing companies with failed business models. Perhaps the most striking video we found was titled, "No Place To PlaceThe Wonders of Shared Bicycle Graveyards in China." several reposts showed results sites final resting places failed business models video At one point in our research, we stumbled upon an AFP videofrom 2021 that appeared to show the same yellow color and model of electric scooter bike. The caption for the clip said that it was captured "outside the city of Shenyang." The end of the video showed a stadium with special colors for seating zones. video model After an exhaustive search, we were able to find this same stadium by using the map tools on the Chinese website Baidu.com. Unlike Google Maps, Baidu.com has street-level views of nearby roads. However, this part of our effort wasn't very helpful. It remained unclear if this was the same location where the viral clip was shot. Baidu.com In the end, it was going back to TikTok that helped us find the origins of the video. A search on TikTok for "electric share bike China" brought us to this video from @evstevepan. The video showed the same kind of yellow electric scooter bike with a similar logo. A scan of the logo using a mobile phone camera and Google Translate revealed the company name Meituan, which is known as an "all-encompassing platform for local services." this video We then searched the internet for Meituan and electric scooters, which produced plenty of pictures on Shutterstock.com. For a moment, the two large characters on the side of the scooter didn't seem to match those from the viral video. We then horizontally flipped a still-frame from the viral video, which led us to discover that it had been mirrored, meaning that all words and numbers were backward. plenty of pictures All of these developments in our research led us to news articles that helped to show our findings were lining up. In April 2018, news broke that Meituan had purchased the company Mobike for $2.7 billion. According to the story, Mobike is "a Chinese startup that helped pioneer bike-sharing services worldwide." broke But by November of that same year, TechCrunch reported that Meituan would be "[walking] away from bike-sharing and ride-hailing," as there wasn't enough demand from customers for the supply of its bike-sharing venture: reported In April, Meituan entered the bike-sharing fray after it scooped up top player Mobike for $2.7 billion to face off Alibaba-backed Ofo. Over the past few years, Mobike and Ofo were burning through large sums of investor money in a bid to win users from subsidized rides, but both have shown signs of softening their stance recently. Mobike is downsizing its fleets to "avoid an oversupply" as the bike-sharing market falters, Meituan's chief financial officer Chen Shaohui said during the earnings call. Ofo has also scaled back by closing down many of its international operations... During its third quarter that ended September 30, Meituan posted a 97.2 percent jump on revenues to 19.1 billion yuan, or $2.75 billion, on the back of strong growth in food delivery transactions. The firm's investments in new initiatives including ride-hailing and bike-sharing took a toll as operating losses nearly tripled to 3.45 billion yuan compared to a year ago. Meituan shares plunged as much as 14 percent on Friday, the most since its spectacular listing. Just as so many electric bicycles from bike-sharing companies had piled up across China, so had electric scooters like the ones seen in the viral video. In sum, social media users falsely claimed that a video showed tons of lined-up electric scooter bikes that were abandoned in a "graveyard" due to the high cost of EV battery replacement. All evidence pointed to a simple answer: supply and demand. The number of electric scooter bikes and bicycles far outnumbered the number of people who requested to use them (or else they went missing or were stolen), which resulted in downsizing by some companies, and the closure of others.The clip appears to have been shot in China, although its precise location is unclear. far outnumbered went missing or were stolen We reached out to Meituan for comment on Nov. 29 but did not receive a response in time for publication. 25 2022 . ELDORADO, https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gbI2Bo2xKCc. A Veces Hay Cosas Que Duelen y Desesperan. Lamenta, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmV5lBEYEMU. @Atomicfact. Twitter, 14 Aug. 2018, https://twitter.com/atomicfact/status/1029352130086424576. Baidu. https://map.baidu.com/. @BBC. "The Problem of China's Huge Bike Graveyards." Twitter, 20 May 2018, https://twitter.com/bbc/status/998231947359997952. @ElevaBrasilES. Twitter, 21 Nov. 2022, https://twitter.com/elevabrasiles/status/1594826198831570947. @evstevepan. "Share Electric Scooter in China #electricscooter #china #vlog." TikTok, 25 Sept. 2022, https://www.tiktok.com/@evstevepan/video/7147290373868506411. Freer. "Meituan Electric Shared Bikes on the Street." Shutterstock, 19 May 2020, https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/zhongshan-guangdong-chinamay-19-2020meituan-electric-1736816009. Google Images. https://images.google.com/. Google Translate. https://translate.google.com/. "Graveyard of the Bikes: Aerial Photos of China's Failed Share-Cycle Scheme Show Mountains of Damaged Bikes." The Straits Times via AFP, 21 Apr. 2021, https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/graveyard-of-the-bikes-chinas-failed-share-cycle-scheme-from-above. "Graveyard of the Bikes: China's Failed Share-Cycle Scheme from Above." Techxplore.com via AFP, 21 Apr. 2021, https://techxplore.com/news/2021-04-graveyard-bikes-china-share-cycle-scheme.html. @JamesMelville. Twitter, 29 Nov. 2022, https://twitter.com/jamesmelville/status/1597532727338639360. Liao, Rita. "Meituan, China's 'everything App,' Walks Away from Bike Sharing and Ride Hailing." TechCrunch, 23 Nov. 2018, https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/23/meituan-scale-back-ride-hailing-and-bike-sharing/. @mbrennanchina. Twitter, 4 Dec. 2018, https://twitter.com/mbrennanchina/status/1069940186786775042. @MillerForTexas. Twitter, 28 Nov. 2022, https://twitter.com/millerfortexas/status/1597346555111280640. No Place To PlaceThe Wonders of Shared Bicycle Graveyards in China. Guoyong Wu, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDfLWFv3ixk. @PeterDClack. Twitter, 28 Nov. 2022, https://twitter.com/peterdclack/status/1597371847397761024. Russell, Jon. "Chinese Bike-Sharing Pioneer Mobike Sold to Ambitious Meituan Dianping for $2.7B." TechCrunch, 3 Apr. 2018, https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/03/chinese-bike-sharing-pioneer-mobike-sold-to-ambitious-meituan-dianping-for-2-7b/. Shared Electric Bikes Roll into Changsha in Central China. CGTN, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkSUN-FSuNI. Siqi, Ji. "Taxpayers Foot the Clean-up Bill for China's Bike-Sharing Bust." South China Morning Post, 2 Oct. 2020, https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3103908/what-happens-discarded-bikes-chinas-sharing-boom-taxpayers. Sprawling Bike Graveyard from China's Failed Share-Cycle Scheme. AFP News Agency, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N1Qxs_KOYo. TinEye Reverse Image Search. https://tineye.com/. u/silvertomars. "A Graveyard for Electric Scooters the Batteries Have Reached the End of Their Life-Time, but Are Too Expensive to Replace and Safely Disposing or Recycling the Batteries Is Also Too Expensive." r/Wallstreetsilver via Reddit.com, 28 Nov. 2022, https://www.reddit.com/r/Wallstreetsilver/comments/z7i7ng/a_graveyard_for_electric_scooters_the_batteries/. @vegastarr. Twitter, 28 Nov. 2022, https://twitter.com/vegastarr/status/1597338236472659968. @Xx17965797N.Twitter, 28 Nov. 2022, https://twitter.com/xx17965797n/status/1597310309139873792. Yan, Alice. "Chinese Bike-Share Firm Closes after 90 per Cent of Cycles Stolen." South China Morning Post, 21 June 2017, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2099293/chinese-bike-share-firm-closes-after-90-cent-cycles-stolen. | 0 | [
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FMD660 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Email
If there’s one thing that the rise of Donald Trump and Britain’s Brexit has proven, it’s that the people have had it with the establishment. No matter what side of the aisle you’re on, you are likely sick and tired of the outright corruption prevalent in every aspect of the system.
Over the last decade we have seen several movements try to take the initiative to create real, lasting change by upending the business-as-usual behavior of entrenched politicians, corporate lobbyists and mainstream media. All have thus far failed and were eventually absorbed by the power structure.
The Tea Party was co-opted by the establishment right. The 99% Protesters were co-opted by the establishment left. And according to recent Wikileaks releases, the Black Lives Matter movement has been sucked up by the Clinton camp and Soros-funded globalists.
Joe Joseph of The Daily Sheeple explains how politicians, including Hillary Clinton, have used these grass roots movements for their own nefarious purposes and to push forth their own agendas:
If you remember back in 2006-2007 there was something called the Ron Paul Revolution that took off… at one point in time there was a million man march that took place and there was close to a million people that marched on Washington… it was a tremendous grass roots effort and uprising that took place… and after that you had the Tea Party take off… and then it got co-opted. The-Powers-That-Shouldn’t-Be put their operatives in there.. they got in there and totally took it over… and now the Tea Party today is nothing but your mainstream Republican operation that advances the Republican Party platform… certainly not what Ron Paul was doing… certainly doesn’t have the Constitution in mind…
Article reposted with permission from SHTF Plan Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook , Google Plus , & Twitter . You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here . | 0 | [
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FMD661 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: The disparity in income between males and females in Texas remains at 18%, as women earn only 82% of what men make.
contextual information: Texas women are paid less than men, Wendy Davis stresses. In a March 10, 2014, tweet, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee pointed out that her Republican opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbott, passed up a chance to say whether he would have vetoed a Davis-sponsored measure related to ensuring equal pay for Texas women that did not make it into law. Davis, a Fort Worth state senator, wrote: "While @GregAbbott_TX dodges questions on the Texas Equal Pay Act, women are still paid 82 cents for every dollar a man earns in Texas." We'll leave it to Abbott and Davis to debate the 2013 measure vetoed by Gov. Rick Perry. But we wondered: Are Texas women still paid 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man? We found that pay gaps persist, though comparisons can be tricky.
In August 2013, we rated as Mostly False a related Davis claim: Texas women make an average of $8,355 less per year than men doing the very same job. That's not necessarily correct for individuals doing the same job. In 2010, $8,355 was the general gap between median salaries of full-time working Texas men and women, according to federal estimates, and the 2012 gap was nearly $500 less than that. Significantly, the research cited by Davis did not drill down to salaries for men and women doing the same jobs. In contrast, 2013 survey results indicated a $2,000 gap between the median pay for Texas men and women with comparable professional experiences holding the same or similar jobs.
But Davis's recent 82 cents claim wasn't specific to people doing the same jobs. Responding to our request for backup information, Davis spokeswoman Rebecca Acuña pointed us to an April 2013 fact sheet from the National Partnership for Women & Families, an advocacy group for workplace fairness and other issues. The sheet states: "In Texas, on average, a woman who holds a full-time job is paid $35,301 per year while a man who holds a full-time job is paid $43,160 per year. This means that women in Texas are paid 82 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to a yearly gap of $7,859 between men and women who work full time in the state." That statement is footnoted to the one-year American Community Survey undertaken in 2011 by the U.S. Census Bureau and a bureau chart indicating median earnings in the past 12 months by sex and work experience for residents 16 and older. These aligned with the partnership's fact sheet.
Kliner pointed out, too, that comparable results based on the 2012 ACS were posted online by the bureau in September 2013. The 2012 estimates indicate that median earnings for Texas men who worked full time year-round in the past 12 months were $44,802; for Texas women meeting these criteria, median earnings were $35,453—or 79 cents for every dollar earned by men who worked full time. Because Davis said women still earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, we calculated the comparable figure for previous years, according to the bureau's surveys. We found the comparable figure to be 80 cents in 2006, 2009, and 2010; 79 cents in 2007; and 78 cents in 2008. Separately, we downloaded a bureau chart showing slightly different estimated median earnings for full-time male and female civilian workers in Texas based on the bureau's 2012 survey. The resulting chart indicated a median wage for full-time working men of $45,166 and $35,518 for women. By this metric, we calculated that civilian full-time female workers in Texas earned an estimated 79 cents for each dollar earned by full-time male workers. In 2011, a bureau chart suggests that the comparable figure was 81 cents.
Kliner told us the partnership relies on bureau estimates not limited to civilian workers because it believes that delivers a more complete view of the workforce. It is also the chart that has been used historically, so it allows for comparisons over time, she wrote. The latest available estimate is that Texas women working full time earned 79 cents for every dollar earned by such men in 2012. That was a penny better than in one of the previous six years, the same or a penny less than the result in four of the years, and three cents less than the 82 cents estimated for 2011 and relied upon by Davis.
Experts we queried agreed with our math while offering caveats. By email, Lloyd Potter, the state demographer, pointed out that any focus on earnings for full-time workers leaves out part-time workers. Women, he wrote, are more likely to be employed part-time. Still, Potter said, if we just looked at part-time workers, again, you'd probably find women earn less. In our 2013 fact check, we noted there's a range of how many hours full-time workers log, and men are more likely than women to be on the job for 41 hours or more per week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because more men work overtime, that should translate into higher earnings for them—either because they are paid more or because their longer hours lead to more job success—and contribute to the wage gap. Though more nuanced analysis shows that job differences explain much of the pay gap, experts agree that much of it still cannot be accounted for. That's where sexism comes in, some say.
Finally, Potter said, the differential quoted probably is not adjusted for educational attainment or work experience. If it were, we'd probably find the differential would shrink (toward equality) as women tend to have less work experience than men, though educational attainment is fairly comparable among adults across sex. Austin economist Stuart Greenfield similarly said by email: "In the aggregate, Sen. Davis's statement is absolutely, positively correct," though he noted that when one controls for work experience, education, and other factors, the earnings differential is reduced.
Greenfield also pointed out a Dec. 2, 2013, Bureau of Labor Statistics press release summarizing median-pay changes among full-time workers over the years: In Texas, the ratio of women's to men's earnings trended upward from 1997 to 2004. It then fluctuated from 2005 to 2009 before climbing to a series high of 85.6 percent in 2010. However, in the last two years, the Texas women's to men's earnings ratio has declined by 6.0 percentage points to its lowest level since 2001. According to the 2012 survey results, Texas women fared better compared to men in their state than women in 24 states. Arizona placed first; women working full time earned 87 cents for every dollar earned by men. For more than a decade, the graph indicates, Texas women fared better than their male counterparts in the state compared to women versus men in the nation as a whole, though conditions dipped in Texas compared to the nation in 2011 and 2012.
Jennifer Lee, a researcher for the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities, which focuses on programs serving low-income Texans, said of the 79-cent pay difference estimate suggested by the 2012 survey: "This is how the wage gap is usually calculated. If you expand who you're looking at to include all employed individuals (whether or not they work full-time or year-round), women earn 71 cents for every dollar that a man earns," Lee said by email. Lee reminded us of a February 2007 paper by Cornell University labor economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn, "The Gender Pay Gap: Have Women Gone Far Enough?" The paper states that 53 percent of the gender wage gap stems from variation in job, industry, and union status between the genders. According to the paper, major reasons for such wage gaps include:
Occupational and industry category (49% of the reason). Lee said that many women are concentrated in particular occupations. Occupations that are heavily female, such as health care support or personal care and service occupations, tend to pay low wages, she said. For example, home health aides in Texas, who are largely female, earn on average $17,430 per year, Lee said, while women also represent 63% of workers earning minimum wage or less in Texas. When you break down earnings data by occupation, she said, this gap persists in almost all occupations.
Labor Force Experience (10.5%). A portion of the gap is explained by factors related to work experience, such as interruptions in work for child care, Lee said.
Unexplained (41%). Lee said a large portion of the gap is unexplained by women's choices. This could be because of conscious or unconscious biases (research shows this is particularly acute against mothers), Lee wrote, while other research shows that different attitudes around wage negotiations may contribute to the gender wage gap. Lee added: "A lot of people see occupational choices and time off from work as women's choices. And while this is true, I think it's important to realize that the choices we make are heavily influenced by the environment in which we make choices, the choices that are available, and how those choices are presented. So while it's true that more women work in low-wage jobs, there may be reasons why women don't choose to work in some higher-wage occupations. Similarly, mothers may choose to take time off work to care for young children, but perhaps they wouldn't if child care were more available or affordable."
Davis said that Texas women are still paid 82 cents for every dollar a man earns in the state. Her figure, based on a 2011 federal survey, reflects median earnings for adults who worked full time in the past 12 months, leaving out part-time workers. It's also outdated in that, according to the latest available survey taken in 2012, Texas women earned 79 cents for every dollar earned by men (again working full time in the past 12 months), less than what Davis said. We rate this claim as Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD662 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: What occurred silently on January 1, 2015? Claim summaries: This claim about taxes quietly imposed as part of the Affordable Care Act has been circulating for years.
contextual information: An item about a collection of U.S. tax increases which were supposedly enacted as of 1 January 2016 due to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as "Obamacare") was circulated widely at the beginning of 2016, but it was merely an updated version of identical claims circulated in previous years that set 2014 or 2015 as the imposition date for those tax increases: Although the tax increases listed in this item did come to pass, they took effect at the beginning of 2013 (not 2014 or 2015 or 2016), were completely unrelated to the Affordable Care Act, applied only to very high-income earners, and have been overstated in this list. These tax hikes were enacted through the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, a compromise bill pushed through Congress as a partial resolution to the then-looming "fiscal cliff" crisis. Under the provisions of that bill: American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 fiscal cliff The top marginal federal income tax rate increased from 35% to 39.6% The top marginal tax rate on long-term capital gains increased from 15% to 20% (not 28%). The top marginal tax rate on dividends increased from 15% to 20% (not 39.6%). Estate taxes increased from 35% of an estate's value in excess of $5,120,000 (in 2012) to 40% of the value above $5,340,000 (in 2014). It's important to note that the increase in marginal tax rates for federal income tax, capital gains, and dividends affected only those persons with taxable incomes over a $400,000 (single)/$450,000 (married) threshold. It's also important to note that the previous estate tax rate of 0% was a special rule that applied only to the estates of persons who died in 2010 (the estate tax has since been increased to 35% for those who died in 2011 and 40% for those who died in 2012 and thereafter), and even today an estate tax filing is required only for estates with gross assets in excess of $5 million (indexed for inflation). estate tax The tax rate for dividends has also not increased from 15% to 39.6%: it appears someone has confused qualified dividends with nonqualified dividends. Qualified dividend earnings are tax-free for those in the 10% and 15% brackets, taxed at a 15% rate for those in the 25% up to 35% tax brackets, and taxed at a 20% rate for higher income taxpayers whose income surpasses the 35% tax bracket. Nonqualified dividends only are taxed as ordinary income. (Theoretically, a taxpayer with nonqualified dividend earnings who reached the top marginal federal income tax rate would be paying 39.6% tax on those earnings, but that's a condition that only applies to persons earning over several hundred thousand dollars per year.) dividends The list's reference to an "income payroll tax" increase from 37.4% to 52.2% is something of a mystery, as this is not a standard term for any type of government income- or payroll-related tax. The only adjustment to payroll-related taxes resulting from the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was that a two-year old cut to payroll taxes which had previously reduced the rate from 6.2% to 4.2% for 2011 and 2012 was not extended. Additionally, this item's coda claiming that "not one Republican voted to do these taxes" is completely false. The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 passed Congress by a margin of 89-8 in the Senate with 40 Republican votes in favor, and a margin of 257-167 in the House with 85 Republican votes in favor. (The original claim undoubtedly refers to the House or Representatives' voting in 2010 to pass the health-care reform bill without a single Republican vote in favor, but that association is moot because, as noted, the tax increases listed above had nothing to do with that bill.) 89-8 257-167 health-care reform bill | 0 | [
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FMD663 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The leader of Italy s far-right Northern League said on Thursday he was suspending contacts with his main political ally, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, because of a disagreement over how tough courts should be on murderers and rapists. The public fight over law and order delighted the rightists opponents just as campaigning picked up ahead of a national election that look certain to be held in early March. I always said the (right) as a coalition didn t exist, said Luigi Di Maio, the prime ministerial candidate of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. We are getting ever closer to government. The right bloc, which includes Berlusconi s Forza Italia! (Go Italy), is ahead in the polls, with 5-Star in second place. Pollsters predict no-one will win an outright majority, raising the specter of political instability in the euro zone s third-largest economy. Northern League leader Matteo Salvini has regularly sparred with Berlusconi, but his anger bubbled over this week after Forza Italia lawmakers voted against efforts to prevent courts from offering sentence reductions for murder and rape. We are receiving hundreds of calls and emails from men and women angry and disappointed by Forza Italia s astonishing decision to protect rapists and murderers, Salvini was quoted as saying by AGI news agency. As far as we are concerned ... we are suspending all our contacts and discussions with Forza Italia and Berlusconi until there is an official clarification, he added. Berlusconi promised to talk to Salvini shortly, saying he was unsure why his parliamentarians had spurned the reform. Support for the right bloc has risen steadily in recent months with Berlusconi returning to frontline politics after years of sex and finance scandals. However he has failed to paper over divisions between himself and Salvini who has pushed the Northern League to the far-right of European politics, aligning himself with Marine Le Pen s National Front in France. Whereas the right is committed to running together in the forthcoming election, the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) has split from its traditional leftist allies, who have refused to form any electoral alliance. (The right) will argue before, during and, above all, after the election, but on the day itself they will pretend to be united to scrape together a few more seats, PD leader Matteo Renzi wrote on Facebook on Thursday. This is pure hypocrisy because everyone knows the truth but pretends not to see. | 1 | [
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FMD664 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Markets might want more clarity on exactly when interest rates will go up, but they're not likely to get it from Fed Chair Janet Yellen. In a closely watched speech on Friday, Yellen provided a more detailed view of her economic outlook but at the same time raised new questions about what the Fed will do next. The Wall Street Journal's Pedro da Costa summed up her stance on interest rates perfectly:
Yellen isn't being difficult here. She has good reasons for being so vague. After more than six years of trying to boost the economy with interest rates near zero, the central bank is still battling stubbornly flat inflation and a slow labor market recovery. Nothing like this has happened in at least 80 years, and experts disagree about the best course for the Fed to take.
Given those uncharted waters, the Fed can't really telegraph right now when it will raise rates; what it can do (and what Yellen did) is emphasize just how much uncertainty the Fed faces — and try to help markets understand the Fed's approach to dealing with this dilemma.
At some points in her speech, Yellen seemed to say interest rates could rise soon. She indicated that inflation won't necessarily have to take off before she's comfortable raising interest rates — it just can't fall any further. She also indicated that she and her Fed colleagues might still bump up interest rates this year.
Yet Yellen was also careful to also point out that the economy isn't all that strong — in fact, it's weaker than it looks right now:
In assessing the actual strength of the labor market and the broader economy, we must bear in mind that these very welcome improvements have been achieved in the context of extraordinary monetary accommodation. While the overall level of real activity now appears to be much closer to its potential than it was a year or two ago, the economy in an "underlying" sense remains quite weak by historical standards, for the simple reason that the increases in hiring and output that have been achieved thus far have required exceptionally low levels of short- and longer-term interest rates, reflecting a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy. Interest rates have been, and remain, very low, and if underlying conditions had truly returned to normal, the economy should be booming. ...
The speech provided details to how Yellen sees the current economic landscape. And while it seemed to give conflicting messages, that's sort of the point.
Under ordinary circumstances, central banks can work from a standard playbook that helps them decide when to adjust policy. For example, economists have developed a model called the Taylor Rule that gives guidelines for how to set interest rates based on GDP growth and inflation rates. But as Yellen herself said on Friday, these are not ordinary circumstances — there's so much slack in the labor market that the Taylor Rule just wouldn't work right now.
The reality is that the Fed simply doesn't know when it can raise rates ... and it may not know until it's time. Speaking to senators in February, Yellen said the Fed is going to take interest rate hikes on a "meeting-by-meeting basis."
If economic conditions continue to improve, as the Committee anticipates, the Committee will at some point begin considering an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate on a meeting-by-meeting basis. Before then, the Committee will change its forward guidance. However, it is important to emphasize that a modification of the forward guidance should not be read as indicating that the Committee will necessarily increase the target range in a couple of meetings. Instead the modification should be understood as reflecting the Committee's judgment that conditions have improved to the point where it will soon be the case that a change in the target range could be warranted at any meeting.
Rather than giving specific guidance (which she can't really do), Yellen is trying to help markets understand why the Fed can't be more specific about its future actions. There's simply not a playbook for what the Fed should do right now, so what Yellen seems to be saying is that the central bank will know an improved economy when it sees it. | 1 | [
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FMD665 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: One thing Donald Trump is really great at is delivering one-liners that resonate with people because they re true. This is why Trump will win in a landslide! Americans are so sick of the pandering politicians who sugar-coat everything. Trump is a refreshing change and oh so witty. Here s an epic one-liner on the PGA move from Miami to Mexico: I hope they have kidnapping insurance. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is responding to the PGA moving the 2017 World Golf Championship to Mexico instead of holding it at Trump Doral in Miami. They move the World Golf Championships from Miami to Mexico City, Trump commented. They moved the PGA Tour, moved the World Golf Championships from Miami, where they re furious to Mexico City. If I become your president, this stuff is all going to stop, Trump added. He went on to criticize the U.S. economy for being taken advantage of by Mexico.The PGA Tour said the move happens because it couldn t find sponsors, according to BBC.Trump argued the PGA put profit ahead of thousands of American jobs. Timothy Finchem, PGA Tour commissioner, suggested Trump s profile made it difficult to get sponsors. It s fundamentally a sponsorship issue, Finchem added. Donald Trump is a brand, a big brand, and when you re asking a company to invest millions of dollars in branding a tournament and they re going to share that brand with the host, it s a difficult decision. Finchem insisted the move isn t political.Trump slammed the decision, saying it s a sad day for Miami, the U.S. and the game of golf. This decision only further embodies the very reason I am running for president of the United States. I hope they have kidnapping insurance, Trump stated during an interview with Fox News.Via: Breitbart | 0 | [
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FMD666 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Ben Carson has had a very strange couple of weeks. Let’s take a moment to review precisely what the arguable front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination has undergone since the CNBC debate in late October. At that debate, he was challenged on his relationship with a shady nutritional supplement company that sells fart pills to very sick people. Carson denied any relationship existed, despite the many paid speeches and promotional videos he did for the group. In the days that followed, it was revealed that Carson thinks the Great Pyramids of Egypt were built by Joseph to store grain – a biblical literalist view that is supported by precisely zero historical or archaeological evidence.
But hey we’re not done yet. The day after the pyramid thing, Carson got into a fight with CNN when the network reported that childhood friends and acquaintances of the candidate don’t remember Carson being the violent and troubled youth he claims to have been. This led to the bizarre spectacle of Carson, a candidate for the presidency, forcefully insisting that he did in fact try to stab a person, and any suggestion that he didn’t try to murder someone with a knife is a “smear.â€
This string of scarcely believable events culminated on Friday with a Politico report that Carson’s oft-repeated claim to have been offered a “full scholarship†to West Point was untrue. West Point doesn’t offer “full scholarships.†Everyone accepted to West Point has their entire room, board and tuition covered. But saying you were enticed with a “full scholarship†is a great, almost-honest way to make it look like the military academy was beating down your door.
All this follows months and months of other weird Carson behaviors – his repeated and inappropriate invocations of the Nazis and slavery to attack policies he doesn’t like, his Bible-based tax plan, his “book tour†in the middle of the campaign, his insistence that a Muslim should not be president, his ignorance of basic economic matters, his plan to have the government investigate “propaganda†on college campuses, and the fact that his “campaign†increasingly resembles an elaborate direct-marketing scam. And that’s only a few select tiles from the rich mosaic of Ben Carson’s strangeness.
One might think that a candidate with this many warning lights and trouble signs would have crashed fairly quickly, or never even taken off in the first place. But the Republican Party and its voters have declared war on the very concept of competent, reliable governance, which has provided space for “outsider†candidates who are manifestly unfit for the office of the presidency to seize the GOP electorate and retain a firm hold on it. Now that he’s at the top of the GOP 2016 polling, he’s facing a great deal more scrutiny, and people are starting to wonder whether Carson will survive as a front-runner for the presidential nomination.
The obvious impulse for conservatives is to rally around Carson and protect him from the nasty liberal media and its pernicious biases. The derpier corners of the conservative media are already doing exactly that, arguing that media scrutiny of Carson’s past is motivated by racial hatred and part of a broader scheme to attack black conservatives. Others found themselves harshly criticizing Carson after the Politico story and predicting his demise, only to reverse course and turn their fire back on Politico for overselling the story and toning down some of the more incendiary language in its initial report. It would be very easy for Carson to escape from this in the minds of conservatives as just another victim of what they see as a biased and antagonistic press.
But when you look at the entire Ben Carson experience to date, what’s really needed is more scrutiny, and more and better explanations for why, exactly, he thinks he’s ready to serve as president. Carson rose to prominence based on his inspiring life story and his willingness to be harshly critical of President Obama. But, as Paul Waldman notes, the more we hear from Carson on policy matters and issue of national importance, the more it becomes clear that he frequently has no idea what he’s talking about, is “impervious to evidence,†and is unwilling to entertain the notion that his convictions may be wrong. His policy platform is stuffed with grandiose and insane proposals that are completely untethered to the reality of how governments work and violate principles of basic mathematics, but he argues that he’ll accomplish them anyway because he believes in himself. It feels safe to assume, given the mood of the Republican electorate, that Carson won’t have too difficult a time enduring these unwelcome probes into his background and bugnuts worldview. Donald Trump’s enduring popularity in the Republican primary already stands as a stinging indictment of the direction the GOP has taken. The Ben Carson phenomenon has thus far endured in spite of his whacky ideas, offensive remarks, flirtations with authoritarianism, and shady campaign practices. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he continues his rise, abetted by conservatives who want to shield him from the scrutiny he deserves. Watch to find out what we know about Carson’s alleged violent incidents: | 1 | [
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FMD667 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: An unprecedented pre-presidential inauguration feud between Donald Trump and intelligence agencies that soon will be under his command could harm U.S. security if not quickly defused, current and former government officials said. They said morale at the CIA and other agencies was already sagging because of disputes with Trump over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered interference in the U.S. election and over leaks about an unsubstantiated dossier compiled by a private security firm suggesting Moscow had compromising information on Trump. Unless addressed, the disputes could prompt the departure of personnel and lead those who remain to take fewer risks to counter security threats, the officials said. In the last few months, Trump has expressed his willingness to deal with Putin and denigrated the work of the intelligence agencies. This week, the President-elect accused agencies of leaking the dossier’s information to the media, but Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he did not believe intelligence officials were responsible for the leak. “People shooting at (the CIA) is pretty common. But usually it’s not the president,†one former senior U.S. official said. Trump’s transition team did not reply to email messages seeking comment. “I think it’s a recipe for disaster,†said Daniel Benjamin, who served in senior White House and State Department counter-terrorism posts under Democratic presidents. Benjamin, now at Dartmouth College, said there was a “strong chance†people would leave and they have “tremendous value†to the private sector. Complicating the situation just a week before Republican Trump is sworn in, two of his nominees for top security posts set a different tone at their Senate confirmation hearings, heaping praise on the men and women who work in the secret world of intelligence gathering. Republican congressman Mike Pompeo, nominee for Central Intelligence Agency director, said on Thursday that he has seen CIA personnel “walk through fire.†Separately, Trump’s nominee for U.S. defense secretary, James Mattis, told senators that he had a “very, very high degree of confidence†in U.S. intelligence agencies. Mattis also put Russia at the top of a list of threats to U.S. interests. A top official at one intelligence agency said a growing number of intelligence officers over the age of 50 and with at least 20 years of service, including at least five years overseas, have drafted and in many cases signed but not dated their resignation letters. “There is great anxiety here about the President-elect’s apparent disdain for the work we do and the dangers we face,†a second senior intelligence official, at another agency, said. He and others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters and morale at their agencies. The latest round of rancor began with a CNN report that Trump had been briefed Jan. 6 by intelligence and law enforcement chiefs on a two-page memo summarizing the unverified claims in the dossier. In blaming intelligence agencies for the leak, Trump wrote on Twitter: “One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?†Spy chief Clapper called Trump before dinnertime on Wednesday to calm the waters. Trump and Clapper differed on what was said in the phone conversation. On Friday, Trump appeared to again blame U.S. spies for the leak. “Probably released by ‘intelligence’ even knowing there is no proof and never will be,†he said on Twitter. U.S. intelligence agency personnel “are kind of shell-shocked at being accused of being Nazis and intentionally leaking this stuff,†the former senior official said. The 17 U.S. intelligence agencies have combined budgets of more than $70 billion and tens of thousands of employees. They are responsible for everything from warning of terrorist attacks to supporting American troops on the battlefield and analyzing the impacts of global trends such as climate change. Several former U.S. officials said the tensions with Trump were the worst they could recall since President George W. Bush and the CIA traded blame in 2003 and 2004 over the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But Douglas Wise, a former senior CIA official, said it will be harder for Trump to “beat up†on his own intelligence chiefs once they are in place instead of officials appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama. “I think things are going to change,†Wise said. Still, tensions seem likely to persist after Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who will be Trump’s national security adviser, led the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency until he was fired by Clapper. He has a long-time suspicion of the CIA, according to Wise and others who have worked with him. “What Pompeo said was somewhat reassuring, but it’s not at all clear whether that matters, or whether Trump’s apparent attitude and Flynn’s bitterness toward us is what counts,†the second senior intelligence official said. | 1 | [
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FMD668 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Michael D'Antonio is the author of the new book , "The Truth About Trump." The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
(CNN) Like a football team that must shake off defeat in order to prepare for the next game, Donald Trump has a short time to get over his drubbing in the first presidential debate and get ready for the next. He has, instead, been whining like a kitchen blender about the moderator, the microphone and his opponent while continuing to draw attention to the worst parts of his performance.
Advisors who want Trump to win the next debate, on October 9, must get him to change. But to do this, they must overcome the candidate's 40-plus years of doing things his way. To appreciate the daunting nature of this task, consider just 10 things Trump could do to prepare for the next debate, and why it's likely he won't be able to do any of them.
1) Accept your defeat in the first debate
Trump likes to say "I'm a winner" and is not accustomed to losing, which may explain the poor sportsmanship he has shown since Hillary Clinton defeated him . Ignoring real poll results that show he was swamped, Trump has ordered aides to stop saying he lost. Of course, this kind of denial means that no one can ask the emperor to put on some clothes. He won't look down to see his own nakedness.
When he was asked in the first debate what he would say to African-Americans about his scandalous role in the "birther" controversy that questioned President Obama's citizenship, Trump replied , "I say nothing." You will search in vain for an example of Trump ever taking responsibility for the damage he has done to any individual, community or nation, though examples abound. He is not going to learn how to do it now.
Manners may not count when you fire people on reality TV, but they matter in a two-way presidential debate. Trump looked like a 6-year-old as he interrupted with witticisms such as "Wrong!" as Clinton spoke during the first debate. But as Trump told me, he believes he is the same person he was in first grade. His advisers are not going to get him to mature into an adult now.
4) Act like you want the job
One of the oddest moments in the first debate saw Trump say that if he loses the election he'll still get to Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington because he has a new hotel there. Someone who wants to occupy the White House shouldn't suggest he'd be satisfied with a hotel down the street. But Trump is first and always a salesman -- not a statesman -- and he will never pass up an opportunity to get free advertising for his business.
During the first debate Trump's cringe-worthy moments included bragging about not paying any federal taxes and about betting on a housing crisis. As he crowed about his wealth, he added that he was speaking "not in a braggadocious way." But of course he was bragging. Boasting and bragging are off-putting to debate watchers but they are essential elements of Trump's personality and he will not stop.
On the day after the first debate, body language experts noted Trump's negative body language and timid facial expression. (These signals were enough for one reporter to call Trump the loser after viewing the contest with the sound turned off.) Advisers may want Trump to control his exaggerated nonverbals, but this is not something this rubber-faced man can do.
Always ready to use a little gamesmanship, Trump allowed his campaign staff to broadcast the fact that he was taking a confidently casual approach to the first debate. He said himself, "I believe you can prep too much for these things." The result was obvious, as Trump seemed ill-equipped with either arguments or rhetorical parries to use against his opponent. Could he do differently? Trump told me that he doesn't like to read and prefers to depend on instinct, which makes it's hard to imagine he will suddenly become open to training. Another person might turn a debate defeat as a moment to learn. This is not Trump's way.
In the first debate Trump referenced Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who died in 1964, to make a point about America's pursuit of the ISIS terror organization. Those who got As in history, know of MacArthur, but the reference surely bypassed millions who watched the debate. Trump must have heard a lot about the general when he attended a military school in the 1960s, but he needs to update himself. Given the evidence that he doesn't understand the workings of our most vital technology, the internet, modernizing his knowledge base would be a big challenge.
Despite the evidence showing that recent cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and others emanated from Russia, Trump told the first debate audience, "She's [Clinton] saying 'Russia, Russia, Russia,' but I don't." This stand is consistent with Trump's earlier sloughing off of Russia's invasion of the Ukraine and his expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin. Because everything is personal for him, Trump likes Putin in part because Putin has said he likes him. Don't expect him to change his mind about the Russians on the basis of geopolitics. They are going to have to insult him personally before he does that.
In the first debate, Clinton pointed out his penchant for insulting people and Trump talked about "somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds." After the debate, Trump decided to make veiled threats about using President Bill Clinton's sex scandal against her. Nastiness doesn't play well in a general election when a candidate must appeal to those beyond his or her base. However being nasty has always been a key element of Trump's repertoire, as shown by his feuds with Cher, Bette Midler, Rosie O'Donnell and others. Trump once told me that he doesn't respect most people because they don't deserve it. He is not likely to become respectful overnight.
Among Trump's advisers there is one, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who shares much in common with him. Like Trump, he poses as a tough man and wants the world to believe that his meanness is a virtue. He is also, like his candidate, a thrice-married man who feels entitled to criticize Hillary Clinton's lifelong marriage.
Consider Giuliani's persona and you see someone who understands Trump on a gut level. | 1 | [
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FMD669 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Putin Tells Russian Army To Prepare For WWWIII With U.S While Obama whines about Trump campaigns for Hillary Is our Community Organizer In Chief actually willing to put our nation s security at risk because he believes Putin is responsible for Hillary s email hacks? What kind of sick, reckless and vengeful clown do we have running our nation? The Obama administration is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia in retaliation for alleged Russian interference in the American presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.Current and former officials with direct knowledge of the situation say the CIA has been asked to deliver options to the White House for a wide-ranging clandestine cyber operation designed to harass and embarrass the Kremlin leadership.The sources did not elaborate on the exact measures the CIA was considering, but said the agency had already begun opening cyber doors, selecting targets and making other preparations for an operation. Former intelligence officers told NBC News that the agency had gathered reams of documents that could expose unsavory tactics by Russian President Vladimir Putin.Vice President Joe Biden told Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on Friday that we re sending a message to Putin and that it will be at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact. When asked if the American public will know a message was sent, the vice president replied, Hope not. Retired Admiral James Stavridis told NBC News Cynthia McFadden that the U.S. should attack Russia s ability to censor its internal internet traffic and expose the financial dealings of Putin and his associates. NBC NewsFULL REPORT: @NBCNews has learned the CIA is preparing a major unprecedented cyber-strike against Russia. @CynthiaMcFadden reports pic.twitter.com/MjxKrdL7zS NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) October 14, 2016Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a flamboyant veteran lawmaker known for his fiery rhetoric, told Reuters in an interview that Trump was the only person able to de-escalate dangerous tensions between Moscow and Washington.Americans should vote for Donald Trump as president next month or risk being dragged into a nuclear war, according to a Russian ultra-nationalist ally of President Vladimir Putin who likes to compare himself to the U.S. Republican candidate.By contrast, Trump s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton could spark World War Three, said Zhirinovsky, who received a top state award from Putin after his pro-Kremlin Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) came third in Russia s parliamentary election last month.Zhirinovsky s comments coincide with deep disagreements between Washington and Moscow over Syria and Ukraine and after the White House last week accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations.Even as WikiLeaks released another trove of internal documents from Clinton s campaign on Wednesday, Putin insisted his country was not involved in an effort to influence the U.S. presidential election. Via: Reuters | 0 | [
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FMD670 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: BIRSTALL, England — The police in Britain on Saturday charged a man with murdering Jo Cox, the lawmaker whose death shocked Britons and led to a suspension of campaigning in a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union. In a statement issued early Saturday, Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen of the West Yorkshire Police said that officers had charged a man with murder and several other offenses, including grievous bodily harm and possession of a firearm. The suspect, Thomas Mair, of Birstall, a town in West Yorkshire county, is expected to make an initial court appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Saturday. Once charges have been made, British media law prevents any reporting about the case that might prejudice a trial. The shooting and stabbing death of Ms. Cox, 41, a member of the opposition Labour Party, left Britain stunned and set off a debate about the tone of Britain’s increasingly fractious politics ahead of the plebiscite regarding the European bloc. Ms. Cox was killed early Thursday afternoon after getting out of her car outside the public library in Birstall where she had been scheduled to hold a meeting with constituents, the police said on Friday in their most detailed description of the attack. Some media accounts, citing witnesses, said on Thursday that Ms. Cox had been coming out of the library after the meeting when she was attacked. Issues of immigration and national identity have been central to the occasionally bitter clashes over the referendum on European Union membership and have resulted in a tone that critics say verges on racism and xenophobia. Ms. Cox’s death was the first killing of a sitting member of Parliament since 1990. Her death brought Prime Minister David Cameron, a Conservative, and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, together to the site of the killing to honor her. Both sides in the European Union debate suspended campaigning on Thursday out of respect for Ms. Cox, though Vote Leave, which supports departure from the bloc, said Friday that it would resume campaigning over the weekend. Speaking in Birstall, Mr. Cameron said he first met Ms. Cox in 2006 in the Darfur region of Sudan at the time, she worked for the humanitarian organization Oxfam. “Parliament has lost one of its most passionate and brilliant campaigners,†he said. Mr. Corbyn called Ms. Cox’s killing “an attack on democracy,†blaming “the well of hatred. †Kathryn Pinnock, a Liberal Democrat councilor from Birstall who was appointed to the House of Lords in 2014, said she was scheduled to campaign with Ms. Cox on Thursday afternoon for Britain to remain in the European Union. There has been growing concern about threats British lawmakers have received in the line of their work, and Ms. Pinnock said Ms. Cox had mentioned receiving some “very unpleasant†messages on social media. The West Yorkshire police said Ms. Cox had gotten two threats in the past, including “one of a sexual nature†at her offices in London. The Metropolitan Police, who protect the capital, said Ms. Cox had alerted them in March to “malicious communication†by a man, whom officers detained and released with a warning. That man was not the murder suspect, the police said. Ms. Cox, who would have turned 42 on Wednesday, was elected to Parliament for the district of Batley and Spen in May 2015. In just over a year, she had already established a strong reputation, speaking on behalf of refugees, children in poverty and children with autism. Hundreds of people packed St. Peter’s Church in Birstall on Thursday night for a memorial service. Ms. Cox’s husband, Brendan Cox, said on Friday that a charitable fund had been set up in her memory. | 1 | [
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FMD671 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Are Sink-Toilet Combinations Common in Japan? Claim summaries: One might say they serve a double duty.
contextual information: A fixation on toilets took over the internet in mid-June 2021 when a social media user posted a photo to Reddit that claimed to depict a Japanese toilet with a hand sink attached to the top of it. According to the post, water from the sink is used to wash a persons hands before it is reused in the toilet bowl for future business. toilets Reddit Screengrab/Reddit Reddit An internet search for the toilet-topping sinks revealed that there are several options available for less than $100. Product descriptions claim that the sink can be installed on a toilet in less than five minutes simply take the already existing reservoir lid off of the toilet and replace it with the sink addition. A valve connects the faucet to the toilet and, according to customer reviews, water used to wash hands is then automatically drained into the toilet bowl and reused during flushing. customer reviews Similar products have been on the market in recent years and have been advertised as not only something to save water but a method that encourages men to wash hands. In 2013, NPRs "All Tech Considered" featured the toilet-sink and toilet-urinal addition, noting that the combination has been around in Japan since at least 1956. According to an excerpt from Leonard Korens book, 283 Useful Ideas From Japan, the Japanese inspired combo is both practical and budget-friendly: encourages men to wash hands All Tech Considered 283 Useful Ideas From Japan "This system costs less than conventional toilets and comes in eight- and-16-liter sizes and a rainbow of colors. Also available for bathrooms are artificial flushing-sound generations that people can use to cover up the sound of what they're doing without wasting water." The toilet review site, Toilet Found! noted that the toilet-sink systems became popular in Japan after World War II when the real estate came with a hefty price tag. The design was meant for small bathrooms and living quarters, where creativity and innovation were key to comfortability. In addition to space constraints, the system also conserves and reuses water and does not require a heater to warm the water, potentially lowering utility bill expenses as well. Toilet Found! The design is such that water from the supply line channels through the faucet for you to wash your hands. And then drained out through the sink drain and into the tank. The water will keep flowing to fill up the tank, until it gets shut off by the float, wrote the review site. This way water is not wasted. Compare to the usual when you have to wash your hands on a separate sink with clean water. And it adds up to more water used for each visit to the toilet. | 1 | [
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FMD672 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: President-Elect Donald Trump must ensure continued efforts toward a Palestinian state
WASHINGTON DC – The American Muslims for Palestine , a national education organization advocating for Palestinian human rights, expresses deep concern over President-Elect Trump’s potential plans for U.S. policy in the Middle East. Though it is still unclear what Mr. Trump will do as president, AMP’s concerns stem from comments and promises he made during his campaign.
Specifically, AMP asserts the status of Jerusalem has not been resolved and supports Palestinians’ rights to Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. AMP rejects the promises Mr. Trump made to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September to declare Jerusalem as the “undivided capital of Israel.” AMP strongly opposes moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and also is deeply troubled by comments suggesting a Trump administration would forgo the idea of a Palestinian state.
If Mr. Trump follows up on his campaign promises, it would be a departure from the position of previous administrations, Republican and Democrat alike, which always understood such actions would undermine U.S credibility and influence throughout the world in general, and in the Middle East in particular.
Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett said yesterday the notion of a Palestinian state would not have to be considered under Trump’s administration. “Trump’s victory is an opportunity for Israel to immediately retract the notion of a Palestinian state in the center of the country, which would hurt our security and just cause. … This is the position of the president-elect… The era of a Palestinian state is over,” Bennett was quoted as saying.
“At the beginning of his candidacy, Mr. Trump insisted he would be even-handed in his dealings with the Palestinians and Israelis,” said Dr. Osama Abuirshaid, expert analyst and national director of policy for AMP. “We already are in a weakened position in the Middle East because of some current U.S. policies. Mr. Trump’s promises are not in the best interest of the United States.”
He added, “If Mr. Trump’s promises were to be implemented, it could hurt our stance throughout the world. They certainly would not have the backing of our global partners and could hurt our national security.”
AMP continues to call for an end to Israel’s military occupation of Palestine, including its 10-year siege on the Gaza Strip.
“We hope the Trump administration will be open to working to ensure justice for everyone in the Middle East,” Abuirshaid said. “Barring that, we will continue during the next four years to build our base among progressive elements in society, as well with those who work on social justice issues in the interfaith community and communities of color. AMP will continue to advocate for Palestinian human rights by providing accurate information and through contextualizing the Palestinian struggle as one that is just and in accordance with international humanitarian law and international law.” Related Posts: | 0 | [
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FMD673 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Obama and HUD want to give one last freebie to the Dem voters this Fall using YOUR tax dollars! This is a last big push to make the suburbs less white and less wealthy. Stanley Kurtz has written a book on this scheme and goes into great detail on the plan by Obama to force a fundamental change in how we live. This is evil and doesn t work. It was tried in Dallas with disastrous results! Once again, Obama s agenda comes before the American people. Although HUD s demonstration project may have improved the lives of some who moved, it s ended up harming the lives of many of their new neighbors. And now Castro wants to roll it out nationwide. Soon he will give Section 8 recipients money to afford rent wherever they choose and if they don t want to move, he ll make them an offer they can t refuse. Hillary s rumored running mate, Housing Secretary Julian Castro, is cooking up a scheme to reallocate funding for Section 8 housing to punish suburbs for being too white and too wealthy.The scheme involves super-sizing vouchers to help urban poor afford higher rents in pricey areas, such as Westchester County, while assigning them government real-estate agents called mobility counselors to secure housing in the exurbs.Castro plans to launch the Section 8 reboot this fall, even though a similar program tested a few years ago in Dallas has been blamed for shifting violent crime to affluent neighborhoods.It s all part of a grand scheme to forcibly desegregate inner cities and integrate the outer suburbs.Anticipating NIMBY resistance, Castro last month threatened to sue suburban landlords for discrimination if they refuse even Section 8 tenants with criminal records. And last year, he implemented a powerful new regulation Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing that pressures all suburban counties taking federal grant money to change local zoning laws to build more low-income housing (landlords of such properties are required to accept Section 8 vouchers).Castro is expected to finalize the new regulation, known as Small-Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMR), this October, in the last days of the Obama presidency.It will set voucher rent limits by ZIP code rather than metro area, the current formula, which makes payments relatively small. For example, the fair market rent for a one-bedroom in New York City is about $1,250, which wouldn t cover rentals in leafy areas of Westchester County, such as Mamaroneck, where Castro and his social engineers seek to aggressively resettle Section 8 tenants.[The Section 8 reboot] is all part of a grand scheme to forcibly desegregate inner cities and integrate the outer suburbs. In expensive ZIP codes, Castro s plan which requires no congressional approval would more than double the standard subsidy, while also covering utilities. At the same time, he intends to reduce subsidies for those who choose to stay in housing in poor urban areas, such as Brooklyn. So Section 8 tenants won t just be pulled to the suburbs, they ll be pushed there. We want to use our housing-choice vouchers to ensure that we don t have a concentration of poverty and the aggregation of racial minorities in one part of town, the poor part of town, the HUD chief said recently, adding that he s trying to undo the result of discriminatory policies and practices in the past, and sometimes even now. A draft of the new HUD rule anticipates more than 350,000 Section 8 voucher holders will initially be resettled under the SAFMR program. Under Obama, the total number of voucher households has grown to more than 2.2 million.The document argues that larger vouchers will allow poor urban families to move into areas that potentially have better access to jobs, transportation, services and educational opportunities. In other words, offering them more money to move to more expensive neighborhoods will improve their situation.But HUD s own studies show the theory doesn t match reality. President Bill Clinton started a similar program in 1994 called Moving to Opportunity Initiative, which moved thousands of mostly African-American families from government projects to higher quality homes in safer and less racially segregated neighborhoods in several counties across the country.The 15-year experiment bombed.A 2011 study sponsored by HUD found that adults using more generous Section 8 vouchers did not get better jobs or get off welfare. In fact, more went on food stamps. And their children did not do better in their new schools.Worse, crime simply followed them to their safer neighborhoods, ruining the quality of life for existing residents. Males were arrested more often than those in the control group, primarily for property crimes, the study found.Dubuque, Iowa, for example, received an influx of voucher holders from projects in Chicago and it s had a problem with crime ever since. A recent study linked Dubuque s crime wave directly to Section 8 housing.Of course, even when reality mugs leftists, they never scrap their social theories. They just double down.The problem, they rationalized, was that the relocation wasn t aggressive enough. They concluded they could get the desired results if they placed urban poor in even more affluent areas.HUD recently tested this new theory in Dallas with disastrous results.Read more: NYP | 0 | [
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FMD674 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: As a member of the Arctic Council, the United States has signed onto two agreements that include efforts to protect the Arctic from climate change, linking it to human activity and calling on global efforts to reduce its effects, including enforcement of the Paris Agreement. [“The Arctic Council, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, has proven to be an indispensable forum in which we can pursue cooperation,†Tillerson said in remarks to the council. “I want to affirm that the United States will continue to be an active member in this council. †“Foreign ministers of the eight Arctic States signed the third binding agreement negotiated under the auspices of the Arctic Council, the ‘Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation,’ which will help to facilitate entry and exit of persons, equipment, and material access to research infrastructure and facilities access to research areas the use of traditional and local knowledge and education, career development, and training opportunities for students and scientists,†the council press release said. The ministers, including Tillerson, also signed the Fairbanks Declaration, which states, in part: Reaffirming our commitment to the of the inhabitants of the Arctic, to sustainable development and to the protection of the Arctic environment, Recognizing the rights of Arctic indigenous peoples and the unique role of the Permanent Participants within the Arctic Council, as well as the commitment to consult and cooperate in good faith with Arctic indigenous peoples and to support their meaningful engagement in Arctic Council activities, Acknowledging the contributions of local authorities, and the interests of all Arctic residents and communities in the work of the Arctic Council, Further recognizing that activities taking place outside the Arctic region, including activities occurring in Arctic States, are the main contributors to climate change effects and pollution in the Arctic, and underlining the need for action at all levels, Noting with concern that the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of the global average, resulting in widespread social, environmental, and economic impacts in the Arctic and worldwide, and the pressing and increasing need for mitigation and adaptation actions and to strengthen resilience, Noting the entry into force of the Paris Agreement on climate change and its implementation, and reiterating the need for global action to reduce both greenhouse gases and climate pollutants. The White House has not taken an official position yet as to whether it will stick with the Paris Agreement or withdraw, and Tillerson did not comment directly on the matter while in Alaska, the New York Times reported, despite his signing the document in favor of it. “No decision is imminent, and in his remarks on Thursday, Mr. Tillerson presented the delay as necessary to gain the viewpoints of parties outside the White House and even outside the United States, including the other Arctic nations,†The Times reported. “We are taking time to understand your concerns,†Tillerson told the members of the council, which in addition to the U. S. is comprised of Canada, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Russia. “But we’re not going to rush,†Tillerson said. “We’re going to work to make the right decision for the United States. †“The council members approved, with little fuss, an agreement on scientific cooperation in the region,†The Times reported. “But the meeting’s closing statement, known as the Fairbanks Declaration, had been the subject of a flurry of negotiations on Wednesday. †“We came here to Fairbanks believing that the declaration language was agreed,†Rene Soderman, the senior Arctic official for Finland, said, noting that the U. S. objected to some language, but that the overall council prevailed in its efforts. “We were able to push the U. S. back as much as possible,†Soderman said. “And they were able to go back as much as possible. †“It’s a decent declaration and contains all the essential issues for all the eight countries,†Soderman said. Protesters were on hand at the venue chanting slogans, The Times reported, noting Tillerson’s previous job as CEO of ExxonMobil. Terry Chapin, a climate scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was one of the protesters who is critical of the council’s need for unanimous decisions on matters. “They’re constrained in the action they can take because they depend on the consensus from participating countries,†Chapin said. “So if the United States is not going to provide consensus on the climate action that’s needed, their hands are tied. “I think we really need to speak to people like Tillerson to say that this is the kind of action that’s needed,†Chapin said. “While the council only has the power to issue advisories, the language in the statement signed by Tillerson comes in stark contrast to statements and promises made by President Trump about climate change,†ABC reported, noting at the same time that Tillerson “endorsed†the Fairbanks Declaration. The Associated Press describes the Arctic Council as “an advisory body that promotes cooperation among member nations and indigenous groups,†and a “focus is sustainable development and environmental protection of the Arctic. †“It does not make policy or allocate resources, and its decisions must be unanimous,†according to AP. The gathering marked the end of the U. S. chairmanship of the council, which was passed on to Finland. | 1 | [
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FMD675 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did most of the new jobs in February 2021 consist of waiters and bartenders? Claim summaries: Some online observers critical of U.S. President Joe Biden sought to undercut a broadly positive employment update in March 2021.
contextual information: In March 2021, new employment figures showed that the U.S. economy added 379,000 jobs in February, the first full month of Joe Biden's presidency. The news was greeted with cautious optimism, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the gains had "set up a stronger recovery" for the spring of 2021, and The Washington Post reporting that the figures had "surpassed analysts' estimates." Politico wrote that: Wall Street Journal Washington Post Politico U.S. employers added a robust 379,000 jobs last month, the most since October and a sign that the economy is strengthening as confirmed viral cases drop, consumers spend more and states and cities ease business restrictions.The February gain marked a sharp pickup from the 166,000 jobs that were added in January and a loss of 306,000 in December. Yet it represents just a fraction of the roughly 10 million jobs that were lost to the pandemic. On social media, other observers in particular those more broadly opposed to Biden sought to undercut the significance of the jobs figures, claiming that a large majority of the increased employment came in one sector, namely food and beverage services. On Twitter, the libertarian economics blog Zerohedge wrote: wrote Of the 379K jobs added, 286K were waiters and bartenders. The stockbroker and financial commentator Peter Schiff tweeted: tweeted 75% of the 379k jobs "created" in Feb. were waiters and bartenders returning to work. Since many restaurants and bars that closed will never reopen there's a limit to how long this can last... The right-wing British blog Guido Fawkes tweeted: tweeted "US economic recovery sees 379,000 jobs added this week, 286,000 were waiters and bartenders. God bless America and cheers!" Those figures were accurately stated, although "waiters and bartenders" was a reductive description of the occupations in question. As a result, we're issuing a rating of "true." The standard measure of job growth is "total nonfarm payroll employment, seasonally adjusted," a metric that is collated and published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), each month. On March 5, the BLS published figures for the preceding month, February 2021, writing that: "Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 379,000 in February..." In effect, this means that there were 379,000 more jobs in the United States in February than there were in January. published The BLS provides in-depth breakdowns of job gains or losses, and unemployment, including details on the demographic and sectoral contours of each month's data. According to the same set of figures, the "leisure and hospitality" sector gained 355,000 of the 379,000 total new jobs in February (Summary Table B). Summary Table B Of those, 285,900 jobs were specifically in "food services and drinking places" (Table B-1). That's the source of the "286K" figure presented by Zerohedge. Those 285,900 jobs made up 75.4% of the total number of new jobs added in February, the percentage figure provided by Schiff in his tweet. Table B-1 However, the "food services and drinking places" subsector is made up of more than just "waiters and bartenders." The following is how that subsector is defined in the official North American Industry Classification System: defined Industries in the Food Services and Drinking Places subsector prepare meals, snacks, and beverages to customer order for immediate on-premises and off-premises consumption. There is a wide range of establishments in these industries. Some provide food and drink only; while others provide various combinations of seating space, waiter/waitress services and incidental amenities, such as limited entertainment. The industries in the subsector are grouped based on the type and level of services provided. The industry groups are full-service restaurants; limited-service eating places; special food services, such as food service contractors, caterers, and mobile food services; and drinking places. The BLS figures for February 2021 don't specify the proportion of those 285,900 jobs composed of specific occupations, but it's highly unlikely they were all "waiters and bartenders." In 2019, the most recent year for which figures are available, the following was the breakdown of occupations within the "food services and drinking places subsector": breakdown As can be seen from those figures, "waiters and waitresses" made up less than one-third of workers within that subsector. If the distribution of occupations was even broadly similar among the 285,900 new "food services and drinking places" jobs added in February, then it would appear highly unlikely that even a majority of those 285,900 new jobs were made up of "waiters and bartenders" alone. | 1 | [
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FMD676 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did Trump Tweet That South Dakota Should Close Its Border with California? Claim summaries: A fake tweet fooled some.
contextual information: Snopes is still fighting an infodemic of rumors and misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and you can help. Find out what we've learned and how to inoculate yourself against COVID-19 misinformation. Read the latest fact checks about the vaccines. Submit any questionable rumors and advice you encounter. Become a Founding Member to help us hire more fact-checkers. And, please, follow the CDC or WHO for guidance on protecting your community from the disease. fighting Find out Read Submit Become a Founding Member CDC WHO In early July 2020, social media users shared a purported screen shot of a tweet that was made to look like it had been written by U.S. President Donald Trump. The tweet called on South Dakota to "keep there [sic] border with California closed!" Trump did travel to South Dakota to give a speech at Mount Rushmore on July 3, but he did not post the above tweet, which incorrectly states that the states of South Dakota and California share a border. The purported tweet doesn't appear on Trump's Twitter timeline on July 4, 2020, nor does it appear in a database that collects Trump's tweets or an archive that stores his deleted tweets. database archive Because we found no evidence that Trump posted the above tweet, we rate this claim | 0 | [
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FMD677 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Could This Internet Joke Show Racial Prejudice in Cases of Tax Evasion Prosecution? Claim summaries: What do these four examples have in common? Nothing of significance, as far as we can tell.
contextual information: One of the more unusual political memes we've come across presented four different cases of tax-related financial improprieties to suggest that tax-evasion prosecutions were somehow influenced by racial bias against non-blacks. However, the "Tax Racism" meme offered examples, not all of which were actual cases of tax evasion, so widely spaced in time and differing in circumstances as to be unhelpful in making any point at all about either tax fraud or race. Martha Stewart, the entrepreneur who rose to prominence as the author of books on cooking, entertaining, and decorating, was not charged with or imprisoned for non-payment of income taxes. Stewart was found guilty in March 2004 of felony charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators in a case related to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into insider trading activity. On June 4, 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed securities fraud charges against Martha Stewart and her former stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic. The complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that Stewart committed illegal insider trading when she sold stock in a biopharmaceutical company, ImClone Systems, Inc., on December 27, 2001, after receiving an unlawful tip from Bacanovic, who was then a broker with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated. The Commission further alleges that Stewart and Bacanovic subsequently created an alibi for Stewart's ImClone sales and concealed important facts during SEC and criminal investigations into her trades. In a separate action, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York obtained an indictment charging Stewart and Bacanovic criminally for their false statements concerning Stewart's ImClone trades. Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and also settled a civil suit with the SEC by paying a $195,000 fine, a penalty that reflected four times the amount of stock value loss she avoided by taking advantage of inside information, plus interest. Stewart did engage in a dispute with the state of New York in 2002 over unpaid property taxes that she contended she didn't owe because she hardly spent any time in that state, and she was eventually ordered by a judge to pay $220,000 in back taxes plus penalties. But contrary to the false impression created by this meme, she was not prosecuted or jailed over that issue; the time she spent in prison was solely related to a later insider-trading case, not to tax evasion. By the mid-1920s, notorious Chicago mobster Alphonse Gabriel Capone was reportedly taking in nearly $60 million annually ($878 million in 2018 dollars) from a variety of illegal activities, primarily Prohibition-era bootlegging. Capone was dubbed "Public Enemy No. 1" after the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, in which gunmen allegedly hired by him posed as police officers to murder seven members of a rival gang, leading to increased public pressure on the government to rein Capone in. Federal authorities had difficulty gathering sufficient hard evidence to convict Capone on any substantial criminal charges, so they took what was then a novel approach: Even if they couldn't prove Capone was making his millions illegally, they could prove he wasn't paying income tax on his ill-gotten gains. Despite his obviously lavish lifestyle, Capone never filed a federal income tax return and claimed he had no taxable income, reportedly boasting at one point that, "They can't collect legal taxes from illegal money." He was proved wrong. IRS and Treasury agents gathered evidence that Capone had made millions of dollars in untaxed income, and the mobster was eventually indicted on 22 counts of federal income tax evasion. After conviction, he was sentenced in 1931 to 11 years in prison, fined $50,000, and ordered to pay back taxes in the amount of $215,000. Capone was released from prison in 1939 with time off for good behavior and retired to Florida, where he died in 1947 at the relatively young age of 48. In a literal sense, Capone was indeed jailed for non-payment of income taxes, but the tax evasion charges were essentially a proxy for prosecuting the mobster over the multitude of vastly worse and violent crimes with which he was connected, as well as the immense profits he derived from those criminal activities. Capone was by no means an otherwise upright and law-abiding citizen who was thrown in prison simply because he didn't pay his income taxes. At this point in our narrative, we need to distinguish between different forms of tax evasion. At one end of the spectrum are those who haven't engaged in any fraudulent behavior but simply didn't or can't pay their taxes for any number of reasons—maybe they didn't plan or withhold prudently, they received poor financial advice, they had legitimate confusion or dispute over what constituted taxable income, or they simply overspent and ended up in debt. Although non-payment of taxes is a crime, the IRS will not usually seek prosecution in these types of cases and will instead work with offenders to facilitate payment of their back debts, rather than making repayment difficult or impossible by incarcerating them. At the other end of the spectrum are those who actively engage in fraud to evade the full payment of taxes: They fail to disclose their full income, hide financial transactions, claim deductions to which they are not entitled, disguise monies earned as something other than income, or otherwise file falsified tax returns. The IRS will, at their discretion, seek prosecution in egregious cases of these forms of tax evasion. Leona Helmsley, derisively known as the "Queen of Mean," was a billionaire who, along with her husband, real estate investor and broker Harry Helmsley, owned a vast portfolio of real estate and other assets, including a chain of hotels and the iconic Empire State Building. Leona Helmsley, who once reportedly asserted that "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes," fell into the latter class of tax evader, falsely manipulating her personal finances, business expenses, and dealings with third parties to avoid paying immense sums of taxes. Some of Helmsley's luster was tarnished in 1986 when court documents and law enforcement officials said she had failed to pay sales taxes in New York on hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry she purchased at Van Cleef & Arpels, the exclusive Manhattan store. Two senior store officers were indicted on charges that they operated a scheme by which customers with out-of-state addresses could have their purchases recorded as being mailed to them, thus avoiding city and state taxes. In 1987, a series of adverse articles in The New York Post about the Helmsleys, set off by one of their disgruntled employees, led to a broad investigation. The following year, Harry and Leona Helmsley were indicted by federal and state authorities on charges that they had evaded more than $4 million in income taxes by fraudulently claiming as business expenses luxuries they purchased for Dunnellen Hall in Greenwich, Conn., a 28-room Jacobean mansion on 26 acres with a sweeping view of Long Island Sound that they bought in 1983. In 235 counts in state and federal indictments brought by Robert Abrams, then the New York State attorney general, and Rudolph W. Giuliani, then the United States attorney and later mayor of New York, the Helmsleys were accused of draining their hotel and real estate empire to provide themselves with such extravagances at Dunnellen Hall as a $1 million marble dance floor above a swimming pool, a $45,000 silver clock, a $210,000 mahogany card table, a $130,000 stereo system, and $500,000 worth of jade art objects. Nothing was too small or personal to be billed to their businesses, from Mrs. Helmsley's bras to a white lace and pink satin dress and jacket and a white chiffon skirt—the dress and skirt were entered in the Park Lane Hotel records as uniforms for the staff. Mrs. Helmsley was also charged with defrauding Helmsley stockholders by receiving $83,333 a month in secret consulting fees. She was convicted of 33 felony counts related to her evasion of $1.2 million in federal income taxes. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison (reduced to four years on appeal), fined $7.1 million for tax fraud, and ordered to pay some $1.7 million in back federal and state taxes. She began serving her sentence in 1992 and was released from federal prison in Connecticut in 1994 after having served less than half her sentence. Where along the tax-evader spectrum between "legitimate dispute" and "willful tax fraud" civil rights activist Al Sharpton might fall is difficult to determine. Claims were made in the press in 2014 that Sharpton owed some $4.5 million in unpaid taxes, but the accuracy of that number and how much of the money owed might already have been repaid by Sharpton were unclear, and his tax-troubles narrative involved a muddied mixture of personal, business, and non-profit finances, as well as liabilities for federal taxes, state taxes, payroll taxes, and personal income taxes. Much of the dispute over the "why" and "how much" of Sharpton's unpaid tax bill stemmed from the operations of the National Action Network, a not-for-profit civil rights organization founded by Sharpton in 1991. Sharpton contended in a 2014 New York Times account that he incurred an unexpected tax liability because he was taxed personally for income he had given to the non-profit organization, and that he was up to date on repayment plans. Officials contested that the amount he was in arrears for unpaid taxes had actually grown larger, though. Today, Mr. Sharpton still faces personal federal tax liens of more than $3 million and state tax liens of $777,657, according to records. Mr. Sharpton said the federal liens resulted from a demand by the IRS that he pay taxes on earnings from speaking engagements that he had turned over to the National Action Network. He said he was up to date on payment plans for both the federal and state liens, so, he said, the outstanding balance was much lower than records showed. But according to state officials, his balance on the state liens is actually $220,000 greater now than when they were first filed during the years 2008 through 2010. A spokesman for the State Department of Taxation and Finance said state law did not allow him to provide any further details. Sharpton then contested that news account, asserting that it referenced "old taxes" and insisting again that his tax liens had been paid down below the $4.5 million debt claimed in the New York Times report. During a news conference at the headquarters of his National Action Network in Harlem, Mr. Sharpton sought to refute the assertion that there were $4.5 million in state and federal tax liens outstanding against him and the for-profit businesses he controls. He said that the liens had been paid down, although he declined to say by how much, and that he was current on all taxes he was obligated to pay under settlement agreements with tax authorities. "We're talking about old taxes," he said, adding, "We're not talking about anything new. So all of this, as if I'm not paying taxes while I'm doing whatever I'm doing, it reads all right, but it just is not true." The accuracy of Mr. Sharpton's assertion that the amount he owes the federal government is much lower than the $3.6 million shown in records could not be verified. A spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service said federal law prohibited the agency from divulging any details about individual taxpayers. As for the state tax liens, Mr. Sharpton's assertion that he had paid them down conflicts with information provided by state officials. State authorities filed tax liens against Mr. Sharpton in 2008 and 2009, and again in 2010 against a for-profit business he controls, Revals Communications, all totaling $695,000. But a spokesman for the State Department of Taxation and Finance said the amount due had actually increased to $916,000. Regardless of the numbers, Sharpton wasn't put in prison because tax officials did not deem his case to be an exceptional one of scofflaw tax fraud or evasion that merited prosecution, instead working with him to facilitate his paying down the debt. The conclusion here is a simple one: Cherry-picking four very disparate cases of financial wrongdoing spanning several decades, while ignoring the many other instances of tax evasion successfully prosecuted by the U.S. government, documents nothing about any purported racial bias in such prosecutions. | 0 | [
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FMD678 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Hillary Clinton faces the last major contest of the primary campaign on Tuesday having already been declared the Democratic presidential nominee, making her the first woman in history to lead a major party bid for the White House.
The declaration that Clinton had won the support of the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the nomination came from the Associated Press late on Monday, before voting was due to commence in primaries in California and five other states.
The legitimacy of AP’s declaration, which was announced 24 hours earlier than her campaign expected, was immediately called into question by Clinton’s rival, Bernie Sanders.
The Vermont senator’s campaign issued a defiant statement that condemned the media’s “rush to judgment†and signalled that the Vermont senator was willing, if possible, to contest the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in July.
However, as voters headed to the polls in California, New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and New Mexico, it was clear that the mathematics were squarely on the side of the former secretary of state.
The unexpected and somewhat anti-climactic twist in the race appeared to surprise the Clinton campaign, which has not altered its plan and is waiting until voting concludes on Tuesday before declaring her the Democratic nominee-in-waiting at a victory party in New York.
Clinton made reference to the AP declaration during a campaign event in Long Beach, California, on Monday night. “I got to tell you, according to the news, we are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment, but we still have work to do, don’t we?†she said.
On Tuesday Clinton secured the endorsement of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and, according to US media reports, aides to Barack Obama are in discussion with her campaign with a view to the president formally backing her soon. He is understood to have called Sanders on Sunday to inform him.
Obama remained on the fence on Tuesday. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said: “There is at least one superdelegate – the one who works in the Oval Office – who is not prepared to make a public declaration about his endorsement at this point, but stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated.â€
Clinton’s candidacy, years in the making, will cap a long and bruising campaign against Sanders, a self-described socialist who has electrified the progressive wing of the Democratic party and pulled its frontrunner to the left.
Her graduation to presumptive nominee will also mark the start of a momentous general election campaign against the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
Clinton gave a foretaste of the type of campaign she plans to wage against the real estate mogul last week when she used a speech in San Diego to brand her adversary too dangerous and unstable to be entrusted with nuclear codes and warning of economic crisis if he were to reach the White House.
“Donald Trump’s ideas aren’t just different, they’re dangerously incoherent. They’re not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies,†she said in that speech, widely agreed to be one of her best of the campaign. “He is not just unprepared. He is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility.â€
At a fundraising concert in Los Angeles on Monday where celebrity supporters included Stevie Wonder, Ricky Martin, Cher, Magic Johnson and Christina Aguilera, Clinton told the crowd: “We’re going to come out of the primary even stronger to take on Donald Trump. Enough with the fear, enough with the anger, enough with the bigotry, enough with the bullying!â€
Her supporters argue she has unparalleled qualifications for the job after a lifetime in public service in which she has served as first lady, New York senator and secretary of state under Barack Obama.
The US president, who defeated Clinton’s first bid for the Democratic nomination in 2008, is widely expected to endorse Clinton in the coming days.
The sense that the nomination was within Clinton’s grasp had been growing in recent days and the candidate has been looking increasingly relaxed and confident on the campaign trail.
Earlier on Monday, in an exchange with reporters in Compton, Clinton made clear she believed Sanders should withdraw from the race after Tuesday’s vote, pointing out it would be “eight years to the day†since she withdrew and endorsed then-senator Obama.
Unusually for Clinton, who has carefully avoided appearing to take the nomination for granted, she also conceded she was “very touched†by the belief among her supporters that she was on the verge of making history.
“My supporters are passionate. They are committed. They have voted for me in great numbers across our country for many reasons,†she said.
“But among those reasons is their belief that having a woman president will make a great statement, a historic statement about what kind of country we are, what we stand for. It’s really emotional.â€
However, Clinton’s readiness for the looming general election battle still rests, in part, on the outcome of Tuesday’s primary in California, a large and diverse state that she had been expected to win easily until just a few weeks ago.
Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have campaigned tirelessly in the state in recent days after polls showed her formidable lead in the polls shrink in the face of a stiff challenge from Sanders.
The senator had hoped to use an upset in California to shift momentum in the race and convince superdelegates to switch sides.
Conversely, a defeat for Sanders in California, which could potentially mean his rival amounting sufficient pledged delegates to seal the nomination without the help of superdelegates, would fundamentally undermine his case for remaining in the race until July.
Appearing before thousands of supporters in front of a fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge late on Monday, Sanders implored supporters to turn out for a contest he described as “the most important primary that we’ve had in the entire Democratic nomination processâ€.
He repeated his argument that he is consistently performing better against Trump in the polls than Clinton and stands a better chance of keeping him out of the White House. The senator made no mention of the reports declaring Clinton the nominee, but the news had by then percolated through the crowd.
Some supporters began trickling out of the rally before it had concluded while others sniped at reporters over what they complained was biased media coverage and a premature and undemocratic declaration of Clinton as the victor.
AP said its announcement was based on “a burst of last-minute support from superdelegates†– the party officials who get a vote at the national convention that is not bound by the results of elections.
Clinton appeared to be on the very cusp of amassing the number of delegates to win the nomination after convincing wins in the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico by the end of the weekend.
By then Clinton had 1,812 pledged delegates, compared with Sanders’ 1,521. When those were added to her overwhelming support from superdelegates the frontrunner appeared to be just shy of the target.
But the declaration, by AP’s count, that Clinton had actually met the target appeared to catch both campaigns off guard, upending carefully choreographed plans to react to a denouement not expected until Tuesday.
Sanders’ spokesman, Michael Briggs, immediately released a statement accusing the media of “ignoring the Democratic National Committee’s clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summerâ€.
“Secretary Clinton does not have and will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to secure the nomination,†he said. “She will be dependent on superdelegates who do not vote until 25 July and who can change their minds between now and then.â€
Even Clinton’s campaign appeared to believe the declaration was premature. “We can’t say the primary is over,†Bill Clinton told reporters at a rally in San Francisco. “Let people vote. Let them have their say.†Other Clinton campaign officials indicated that, while the news reports were welcome, they did not plan to declare victory in the overall race until Tuesday.
Clinton spoke only briefly at the concert-rally in Hollywood. “It is not an overstatement for me to say that we have a really important election ahead of us now,†she said, smiling broadly. | 1 | [
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FMD679 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Over the last few years, more Virginians are moving away from Virginia than are moving to Virginia from the other 49 states.
contextual information: Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin says recent Democratic governors have pushed Virginia into economic decline and people are moving out. Over the last few years, more Virginians are moving away from Virginia than are moving to Virginia from the other 49 states, he said during aMay 21 interviewon WRVA radio in Richmond. Youngkin holds two Democrats responsible: Current Gov. Ralph Northam and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who led the state from 2014-2018 and is Youngkins opponent this year. Virginia is the only state that bars governors from serving successive terms. We fact-checked Youngkins talking-point claim that more people are leaving Virginia than coming in and found it to be correct, although the reasons for the outward migration go far beyond any governors control. The numbers The Internal Revenue Service publishes annual statistics on the number of households that moved and filed federal tax returns from a different state than the one in which they lived the previous year. Demographers and economists use these figures to track the net migration of families in the U.S. from year to year. Thedatashow that from 1991 through 2012, Virginia always had more households coming in than going out. That changed in 2013, when there was a net loss of 4,270 households. Virginia had fewer filing households in each of the next five years - an average annual loss of 5,600 families. In 2018, the last year for which figures are available, Virginia lost a net of 4,707 households. This doesnt mean theres been a massive flow out of Virginia. To give some perspective, about4 millionVirginia households annually file federal taxes. The net losses to other states in 2018 came to less than one-eighth of 1% of households. The U.S. Census Bureau also tracks net migration. Itestimatesthat Virginia lost a net 11,994 people through domestic migration during the 12-month period that ended July 1, 2019. The reasons Jobs were the main reason people left Virginia for other states at the start of the last decade. That switched to the rising cost of living at the end of the decade, according to economic and demographic studies. Virginia is home to large military bases, and a fleet of defense and government contractors and federal workers that drive the states economic engine in Northern Virginia. The region was hurt by sequestration programs beginning in 2013 that automatically cut defense and domestic spending when Congress could not agree on a budget. The result was that many Virginians whose paychecks were dependent on federal spending, particularly for defense, left the state to find new jobs, according to a2016 reportby Old Dominion University. More recently, the migration has been mainly triggered by people escaping the high cost of living in Northern Virginia, according to Hamilton Lombard, a demographer at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. They are largely young professionals seeking to buy first homes and raise families. Many are heading South to growing regions in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Texas. Lombard also said that Virginia is losing retirees, mostly to Southern states. Youngkin blames the migration losses on McAuliffe and Northam.He prefaced his claim by saying he is frustrated with what the Democratic leadership had done to Virginia over eight years. But Lombard said the governors have had little control over the economic trends that have caused losses. Think of the cost of housing; the state has little control of that, he said. If you could point to anything that could have been done on the state level over the years, maybe it could have focused on making more of Virginia (economically) competitive outside Northern Virginia, Lombard said. Our ruling Youngkin said, Over the last few years, more Virginians are moving away from Virginia than are moving to Virginia from the other 49 states. IRS data backs him up. But Youngkin wraps the data in a questionable political context. He blames the last two Democratic governors for the net migration loss when research shows most of the drop has been caused by problems largely beyond any governor's control: federal budget cuts and high prices for buying a home in Northern Virginia. Youngkins statement is accurate but needs clarification. So, we rate it Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD680 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Posted on October 31, 2016 by Dr. Eowyn | 2 Comments
Christians are one of the main targets of the Islamic State as they cut a murderous swath through Syria and Iraq. And yet, Christians constitute only 0.5% of the Syrian refugees whom the Obama administration has admitted into the United States.
On October 21, 2016, in his concurrent opinion in the case of Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security , Judge Daniel Manion , a federal appellate court judge for the U.S. Seventh Circuit, issued a sharp rejoinder to the Obama administration over the almost complete lack of Syrian Christian refugees being admitted to the U.S. Note: Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center is a “progressive” liberal advocacy organization. The Heartland Alliance v. DHS case has nothing to do with Christian refugees, but pertains to Heartland Alliance’s FOIA request to the DHS for information on Tier III terrorist organizations.
While concurring in the 7th Circuit Court’s ruling, Judge Daniel Manion explains why he’s writing separately. On pages 7-8 of U.S. Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit No. 16-1840 Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security , Judge Manion writes: “I write separately for a second, critical reason, which is my concern about the apparent lack of Syrian Christians as a part of immigrants from that country . It is possible that our case bears a direct link to this enigma. It is well‐documented that refugees to the United States are not representative of that war‐torn area of the world. Perhaps 10 percent of the population of Syria is Christian, and yet less than one‐half of one percent of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States this year are Christian. ¹ Recognizing the crisis in Syria, the President in 2015 set a goal of resettling 10,000 refugees in the United States. And in August the government reached this laudable goal. And yet, of the nearly 11,000 refugees admitted by mid‐September, only 56 were Christian. To date, there has not been a good explanation for this perplexing discrepancy.”
Judge Manion also noted that while the Obama administration is bringing Syrian refugees into the country by the thousands, it is concealing basic information about those refugees behind a wall of government secrecy, including whether terrorists are among the refugees. The administration refuses to tell the American public or the states how it is making its decisions on who are accepted for resettlement in the U.S., or even what steps it is taking to ensure there are no terrorists among the refugees. Nor is Congress exercising its oversight functions.
As Manion writes in his concurrent opinion: “The good people of this country routinely welcome immigrants from all over the world. But in a democracy, good data is critical to public debate about national immigration policy. When we demand high evidentiary burdens for states seeking to keep their citizens safe, and then prevent the states from that evidence, we create a Catch-22.² […] And yet, Congress, through the exemptions to FOIA, has consciously made the decision to limit what governmental information is available to the public. If Congress is concerned about how immigration officers are making their decisions related to the designation and application of the Tier III terrorist organization affiliation, Congress has the authority to act. Congress has its own oversight capabilities and subpoena power, and Congress could choose to amend our nation’s sunshine laws or our immigration laws. Until that time, however, many of us remain in the dark as a humanitarian catastrophe continues.”
Daniel Manion , 74, is a senior jurist on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit whose chambers are located in South Bend, Indiana. He was an Indiana state senator (R) from 1978-82. In 1986, Manion was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the 7th Circuit Court. | 0 | [
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FMD681 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Part of the problem is that organizations are registering people without any proof they are legal American citizens .Leaked funding documents reveal an effort by George Soros and his foundations to manipulate election laws and process rules ahead of the federal election far more expansively than has been previously reported.The billionaire and convicted felon moved hundreds of millions of dollars into often-secret efforts to change election laws, fuel litigation to attack election integrity measures, push public narratives about voter fraud, and to integrate the political ground game of the left with efforts to scare racial minority groups about voting rights threats.These Soros-funded efforts moved through dozens of 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) charities and involved the active compliance with civil rights groups, government officials, and purportedly non-partisan groups like the League of Women Voters.The leaked documents also reveal deliberate and successful efforts to manipulate media coverage of election issues in mainstream media outlets like the The New York Times.IF YOU LIVE IN ONE OF THE STATES BELOW, PLEASE DEMAND THAT VOTER ID IS ENACTED: Although some states require some form of ID before voting, California, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C. all require no identification before voting.Please contact True the Vote for any and all information regarding voter fraud. Via: Info WarsHere s Obama essentially telling illegal aliens it s okay to vote, no one will catch you: | 0 | [
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FMD682 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Police Interview Room Suicide Claim summaries: Video shows a suspect in a police shooting committing suicide in an interview room.
contextual information: Claim: Video shows a suspect in a police shooting committing suicide in an interview room. Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2004] Is this video real? GRAPHIC IMAGE WARNING: Video shows a suicide by gunshot. Origins: Movies and television have planted sensationalized images of certain phenomena into the public consciousness, to the extent that when most of us see the real thing, we're disappointed that it seems so mundane. In films and television programs, automobile crashes are always slam-bang affairs that inevitably end with one or more cars bursting into flames and exploding; thunder is always a very loud, sharp, and short report that occurs simultaneously with a bolt of lightning (rather than a slow, distant, gradually increasing rumbling that arrives well after the lightning flash); and gunshots are usually depicted as producing ear-splitting volumes of sound and, when aimed at another human being, resulting in plenty of gore and splatter. It's no wonder, then, that when the above-displayed video of a detainee shooting himself while in police custody began to circulate, many viewers were skeptical of its authenticity. By Hollywood standards, it's so tame as to be almost surreal. As depicted in the video, an uncuffed suspect enters an interrogation room and sits down in a chair, followed by an officer who dumps some keys and sunglasses on a table, checks his cell phone, and leaves the room momentarily. The officer returns several seconds later with a bottle of water and a cup of coffee, then hands the water bottle to the suspect, checks his cell phone again, picks up the coffee, and exits the room a second time, leaving the suspect alone and unrestrained, with the door open. The suspect takes a couple of swigs of water, then calmly reaches into his pants with his other hand, pulls out a large-caliber handgun, and shoots himself in the left temple. But what we see in the video is nothing like what most of us might expect. The soon-to-be suicide victim is neither visibly nervous nor distraught as he freely pulls out a gun and places it against his head. (He even replaces the cap on the water bottle before pulling the trigger.) The weapon does not produce an ear-shattering concussive sound in the small room; blood and brain matter don't splatter all over the walls, and the victim's body isn't hurtled out of the chair and onto the floor. The gun makes a sharp popping sound as the suspect shoots himself, blood streams from the victim's head and mouth, his hands drop the gun and water bottle to the floor, and his body slumps slightly in the chair. Even more unusual to many viewers is the officer's reaction to this event. He doesn't respond with any of the emotions most of us might feel, such as fear, panic, terror, or disgust. Nor does he rush to the victim's aid, check him for signs of life, summon help, or otherwise raise an alarm. "Oh, fuck," he exclaims as he re-enters the room, puts his coffee down on the table, and surveys the scene for a second or two, then adds, "Holy fuck." When a second (unseen) officer inquires, "What did he do?" he responds with, "Nobody shook him" (i.e., nobody searched the suspect for weapons), then calmly retrieves the keys and sunglasses and leaves the room. Throughout the short video, the officer's actions seem almost nonchalant: he doesn't act the least bit shocked or horrified that a human being has just died a violent death right in front of him. Instead, the foremost thought on his mind seems to be concern that someone's going to get into big trouble for the oversight of allowing a detainee to retain a weapon. (We realize, of course, that all of this would be viewed quite differently from a police perspective. Officers undergo thorough instruction in the handling and use of firearms, they generally see far more blood and violence on the job than most of us will experience in our lifetimes, and they're trained to respond to emergency situations by following proper procedure rather than reacting with fear or panic. We're simply presenting the average person's reaction to this video, as reflected in the e-mail we've received from readers who have viewed it.) The circumstances behind this video took place on 19 December 2003, when 47-year-old Ricardo Alfonso Cerna was stopped for a traffic violation at about 9:30 A.M. in Muscoy (a residential suburb of San Bernardino County, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles). Cerna fled the scene (in his car and then on foot) before shooting the pursuing officer, sheriff's deputy Michael Parham, twice in the abdomen. (Deputy Parham survived the shooting.) Cerna was soon arrested by San Bernardino police and taken to sheriff's headquarters on Third Street, where he was placed in an interview room just before 11 A.M. in preparation for questioning by Bobby Dean, head of the San Bernardino County sheriff's homicide unit. When Dean stepped out of the room briefly to speak with a detective in the hallway, Cerna pulled the .45-caliber handgun out of his pants and shot himself in the head. Evidently, a chain of mistakes led to Cerna, a shooting suspect, being taken into custody without either the arresting officers or the booking officers discovering he had a large, heavy handgun concealed on his person: [Sheriff Gary] Penrod said deputies failed to adequately search Cerna before he was put in a car, and again when he was transferred to the homicide division office. Each receiving deputy may have wrongly assumed the previous officer adequately searched the man, he said. Penrod said confusion among the three agencies involved—the Highway Patrol, San Bernardino police, and the Sheriff's Department—may have contributed to the oversight. "Obviously there was a mistake made," Penrod said by phone. "It was hectic, and it was a guy who was cuffed by somebody other than the transporting officer." (This apparently egregious oversight led to conspiracy-theory speculation in some quarters that Cerna had been "executed" by the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department, or that the sheriff returned the gun to Cerna and urged him to commit suicide with it—the completely implausible scenario of officers deliberately handing a loaded gun to a suspect who had already shot one policeman notwithstanding.) As to how the video of Cerna's suicide made it onto the Internet, sheriff's spokesman Chip Patterson said: [A] ranking official at the department was authorized to show the video during a presentation on officer safety at the FBI's training academy in Quantico, Va., several months ago. Following the presentation, dozens of copies of the video were made at the request of law-enforcement agencies across the country. Officials of those agencies wanted the copies for training purposes. Sheriff's officials do not know who might have leaked the video to the public. Some of the officers involved in Cerna's arrest and handling were subjected to disciplinary action, but sheriff's officials wouldn't comment on the specifics of that action or identify the officers involved. Last updated: 19 January 2014 Nelson, Joe. "Sheriff's Detainee's Suicide Put on Web." San Bernardino County Sun. 21 December 2004. Associated Press. "Arrestee Pulls Hidden Gun, Kills Self." CNN.com. 20 December 2003. | 1 | [
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FMD683 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A very pregnant Kerry Washington appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday, and crushed Donald Trump in a way only a mother could.The Republican nominee is hoping that women will vote for him because he introduced a child care initiative that supposedly gives paid maternity leave to new mothers. The big problem is that Trump doesn t even offer paid maternity leave to his own employees, forcing them to use vacation days and sick days as their unpaid leave. Furthermore, Donald Trump himself is not a fan of pregnancy, once calling it an inconvenience. So when Washington sat down at the table, she was ready to rip Trump a new one. There s been a lot of talk about it being insulting to women, but I actually think it s insulting to families and to workers because there s no paternity leave, there s no family leave! Washington said. For Hillary Clinton, these issues and these policies are not about women s policies. this is about economic policy, because we understand in this country that if families are able to take care of each other, we do better as a nation. I choose that candidate over the guy who brags about having never changed a diaper. He has literally bragged about never having changed a diaper! That s crazy. Indeed, Trump made it clear in 2005 that he has never changed a diaper for any of his five kids and claimed that it s because husbands shouldn t do that sort of thing. There s a lot of women out there that demand that the husband act like the wife, and you know, there s a lot of husbands that listen to that. So you know, they go for it. If I had a different type of wife I probably wouldn t have a baby, ya know, cause that s not my thing. I m really, like, a great father, but certain things you do and certain things you don t. It s just not for me. In fact, Trump would rather not do anything to take care of children except provide money. I mean, I won t do anything to take care of them, he added. I ll supply funds and she ll take care of the kids. Washington wasn t finished with Trump yet, however, going on to explain that voting for him would against our best interests. There s a bigger problem, which is right now, we are in a political climate where we are being led by the media no offense to vote for the loudest candidate and the meanest, bulliest candidate in the playground, and that we are voting based on a cult of personality or a cult of celebrity rather than voting in our own best interest. I think if we really look at policy, voting for Trump is voting against our best interests as Americans as workers, as people of color, as women. Not voting is voting against ourselves. She also explained why she supports Hillary Clinton. I would rather vote for the candidate who is willing to address mistakes, address issues, take responsibility, be accountable, be a part of a changed solution rather than a candidate who continues to perpetuate fear and hate in the present moment. Here s the video via YouTube.Donald Trump can t be trusted do what he says he will do for the country when he can t even be bothered to do those things for the people who work for him.Featured image via screen capture | 0 | [
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FMD684 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Mark Anderson The Truth HoundThe danger-ridden, tyrannical goal of creating an all-consuming corporate-ruled world superstate dubbed One World Ltd. -incrementally advanced since Bilderberg first met in Holland in 1954 under the auspices of Jesuit-trained European consolidator Joseph Retinger and his agent, Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands explains why Bilderberg goes to such lengths to keep the details of its inner-workings so secret, while functioning as an off-the-grid world networking and planning forum for private governance benefitting the banking and general corporate classes. A core tactic is to parallel but eventually supersede the nation state itself, thereby canceling effective, genuine nationhood altogether.Bilderberg s gatherings, for the record, consist of about 140 mainly North American and European corporate moguls (including select big media), government ministers, treasury officials, parliament members, high-technology leaders, certain royalty (including Bernhard s daughter, Netherlands Queen Beatrix) and central bankers who annually skulk into the world s top hotels, in order to cross-pollinate to pursue One World Ltd. and related financial and political dealings.McMASTER, TWO U.S. SENATORS ATTENDINGIt s highly notable that President Donald Trump s National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, is listed as an attendee for this year s Bilderberg meeting June 1-4 in Chantilly, Va., at Westfields Marriot. Other U.S. officials attending who are currently serving in public office are Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). While Graham jetted to last year s Bilderberg meeting in Dresden, Germany, Cotton evidently is attending his first-ever Bilderberg meeting.SEE ALSO: BILDERBERG: What s The Big Deal?The 65th Bilderberg gathering this year has 131 participants from 21 countries having confirmed their attendance. The entire attendee and official topic lists (but not necessarily complete) can be found at this link [note on this list the large amount of serving Trump Administration officials, and this year s Bilderberg features more active duty US officials than any other previous meeting].McMaster, Graham and Cotton all share a neo-conservative ideology of aggressively patrolling the world, in conjunction with the UK and the EU, to push Western democracy and monopoly capitalism, while fostering hostility toward Iran, Russia and Syria, for the benefit of Zionism, among other things. This fits the Bilderberg credo of using one might say leasing U.S. military power and other influence to control the natural resources and economic machinery of as many nations as possible, while co-opting or overthrowing those nations that stand firm with their own sovereignty.The Virginia gathering marks Bilderberg s first North American meeting in five years. Last year in Germany, according to the group s officially shallow press release, they discussed (in their own words): Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Chemical Weapons Threats, Current Economic Issues, European Strategy, Globalisation, Greece, Iran, Middle East, NATO, Russia, Terrorism, United Kingdom, USA and U.S. Elections.The group s press releases, a marvel of revealing simplicity, typically present bluntly-worded topics, such as Russia, Iran United Kingdom, European Strategy and so on. Such topics are clearly indicative of Bilderberg s objectives and concerns for maintaining Western hegemony over Russia and its allies, Iran and Syria, which could include war or the risk of war with Iran and does include targeting Syria under the guise of fighting ISIS Continue this story at The Truth HoundNOTE: The May 24 North American premiere of Bilderberg, the Movie, produced by researcher and author Daniel Estulin and covered exclusively by The TRUTH HOUND among national mainstream and alternative news outlets, stressed one point that cannot be overstressed: The Bilderberg Group above all is in pursuit of One World Ltd. On that note, the movie s promotional flyer asked: What do people who have $1,000,000,000,000,000 talk about in private? While the Estulin movie itself, of course, could not be filmed, videographer Ron Avery shot footage of Estulin s question-and-answer session immediately afterwards. WATCH: READ MORE BILDERBERG NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Bilderberg FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 | [
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FMD685 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The Trump administration has blocked a rule requiring U.S. employers to report detailed pay data broken down by gender and race, echoing business groups by saying it would not have the intended effect of addressing wage gaps. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission adopted the requirements last year under President Barack Obama, saying the information was necessary to identify and address discriminatory wage gaps. But the White House Office of Management and Budget in a memo on Tuesday said the rule was burdensome to companies and could pose privacy and confidentiality issues. The rule would have required businesses to begin reporting the information in March 2018. Currently, employers must report about 130 different categories of wage data to the EEOC each year. Under the new rule, they would have been required to report more than 3,300 categories. It was the Trump administration’s latest bid to undo Obama-era policies designed to help workers or unions. The administration has also moved to scrap rules extending mandatory overtime pay to millions of workers and expanding reporting requirements for companies when they respond to union campaigns. EEOC Acting Chair Victoria Lipnic in a statement on Tuesday said the move by the White House would not affect the commission’s efforts to enforce anti-discrimination laws against individual employers and that the agency was reviewing its options. Lipnic, a Republican, voted against the reporting requirements last year. She was appointed to the five-member commission by Obama and made acting chair by President Donald Trump earlier this year. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, said in a statement that the EEOC requirements would not have helped address discrepancies in pay for men and women. She said the administration supports “robust policies aimed at eliminating the gender wage gap.†The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Republicans in Congress praised the decision to block the rule. Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, said the EEOC should focus on resolving complaints of discrimination filed by individual workers. Some workers’ rights groups condemned the move. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights said the Trump administration had “surrendered to corporate special interests†and undermined efforts to close pay gaps between men and women and white workers and minorities. | 1 | [
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FMD686 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: EDITOR'S CHOICE | 08.11.2016 NYT Admits Key Al Qaeda Role in Aleppo Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s As much as The New York Times and the mainstream U.S. media have become propaganda outlets on most foreign policy issues, like the one-sided coverage of the bloody Syrian war, sometimes the truth seeps through in on-the-ground reporting by correspondents, even ones who usually are pushing the “propo.” Such was the case with Anne Barnard’s new reporting from inside west Aleppo, the major portion of the city which is in government hands and copes with regular terror rocket and mortar attacks from rebel-held east Aleppo where Al Qaeda militants and U.S.-armed-and-funded “moderate” rebels fight side-by-side. Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, addresses the Security Council meeting on Syria, Sept. 25, 2016. Power has been an advocate for escalating U.S. military involvement in Syria. (UN Photo) Almost in passing, Barnard’s article on Sunday acknowledged the rarely admitted reality of the Al Qaeda/”moderate” rebel collaboration, which puts the United States into a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda terrorists and their jihadist allies, fighting under banners such as Nusra Front (recently renamed Syria Conquest Front) and Ahrar al-Sham. Barnard also finally puts the blame for preventing civilians in east Aleppo from escaping the fighting on a rebel policy of keeping them in harm’s way rather than letting them transit through “humanitarian corridors” to safety. Some of her earlier pro-rebel accounts suggested that it wasn’t clear who was stopping movement of civilians through those corridors. However, on Sunday, she reported: “We had arrived at a critical moment, as Russia said there was only one day left to pass through a corridor it had provided for people to escape eastern Aleppo before the rebel side was flattened, a corridor through which precious few had passed. The government says rebels are preventing civilians from leaving. Rebels refuse any evacuation without international supervision and a broader deal to deliver humanitarian aid.” Granted, you still have to read between the lines, but at least there is the acknowledgement that rebels are refusing civilian evacuations under the current conditions. How that is different from Islamic State terrorists in Mosul, Iraq, preventing departures from their areas – a practice which the Times and other U.S. outlets condemn as using women and children as “human shields”– isn’t addressed. But Barnard’s crimped admission is at least a start. Barnard then writes: “Instead [of allowing civilians to move through the humanitarian corridors], they [the rebels] are trying to break the siege, with Qaeda-linked groups and those backed by the United States working together — the opposite of what Russia has demanded.” Again, that isn’t the clearest description of the situation, which is stunning enough that one might have expected it in the lede rather than buried deep inside the story, but it is significant that the Times is recognizing that Al Qaeda and the U.S.-backed “moderates” are “working together” and that Russia opposes that collaboration. She also noted that “Three Qaeda-linked suicide bombers attacked a military position with explosive-packed personnel carriers on Thursday, military officials said, and mortar fire was raining on neighborhoods that until now had been relatively safe. It was among the most intense rounds in four years of rebel shelling that officials say has killed 11,000 civilians.” While she then throws in a caveat about the impossibility of verifying the numbers, the acknowledgement that the U.S.-backed “moderate” rebels and their Al Qaeda comrades have been shelling civilians in west Aleppo is significant, too. Before this, all the American people heard was the other side, from rebel-held east Aleppo, about the human suffering there, often conveyed by “activists” with video cameras who have depicted the conflict as simply the willful killing of children by the evil Syrian government and the even more evil Russians. More Balance With the admission of rebel terror attacks on civilians in west Aleppo, the picture finally is put into more balance. The Al Qaeda and U.S.-backed rebels have been killing thousands of civilians in government-controlled areas and the Syrian military and its Russian allies have struck back only to be condemned for committing “war crimes.” The second plane about to crash into the World Trade Center towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001 Though the human toll in both sides of Aleppo is tragic, we have seen comparable situations before – in which the U.S. government has supported, supplied and encouraged governments to mount fierce offensives to silence rockets or mortars fired by rebels toward civilian areas. For instance, senior U.S. government officials, including President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, have defended Israel’s right to defend itself from rockets fired from inside Gaza even though those missiles rarely kill anyone. Yet, Israel is allowed to bomb the near-defenseless people of Gaza at will, killing thousands including the four little boys blown apart in July 2014 while playing on a beach during the last round of what the Israelis call “mowing the grass.” In the context of those deaths, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who has built her career as a supposed humanitarian advocating a “responsibility to protect” civilians, laid the blame not on the Israeli military but on fighters in Gaza who had fired rockets that rarely hit anything besides sand. At the United Nations on July 18, 2014, Power said , “President Obama spoke with [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning to reaffirm the United States’ strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself…. Hamas’ attacks are unacceptable and would be unacceptable to any member state of the United Nations. Israel has the right to defend its citizens and prevent these attacks.” But that universal right apparently does not extend to Syria where U.S.-supplied rockets are fired into civilian neighborhoods of west Aleppo. In that case, Power and other U.S. officials apply an entirely different set of standards. Any Syrian or Russian destruction of east Aleppo with the goal of suppressing that rocket fire becomes a “war crime.” Perhaps it’s expected that the U.S. government, like other governments, will engage in hypocrisy regarding affairs of state: one set of rules for U.S. allies and another for countries marked for U.S. “regime change.” Statements by supposed “humanitarians”– such as Samantha Power, “Ms. R2P”– are no exception. But double standards are even more distasteful when they come from allegedly “objective” journalists such as those who work at The New York Times, The Washington Post and other prestige American news outlets. When they take the “U.S. side” in a dispute and become crude propagandists, they encourage the kind of misguided “group thinks” that led to the criminal Iraq War and other disastrous “regime change” projects over the past two decades. Yet, that is what we normally see. A thoughtful reader can’t peruse the international reporting of the U.S. mainstream media without realizing that it is corrupted by propaganda from both government officials and from U.S.-funded operations, often disguised as “human rights activists” or “citizen journalists” whose supposed independence makes their “propo” even more effective. So, it’s worth noting those rare occasions when The New York Times and the rest of the MSM let some of the reality peek through. When evaluating the latest plans from Hillary Clinton and other interventionists to expand the U.S. military intervention in Syria – via prettily named “safe zones” and “no-fly zones”– the American people should realize that they are being asked to come to the aid of Al Qaeda. | 0 | [
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FMD687 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Was This McDonald's Burned During Floyd Protests? Claim summaries: Grease fires are an occupational hazard at restaurants, protests or no protests.
contextual information: As protests over the May 2020 police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis swept across the U.S., resulting in the burning of structures in many cities, the Breaking9ll Twitter account tweeted a picture of a blazing McDonald's restaurant along with the caption "BREAKING: McDonald's Has Fallen": burning This tweet did not feature a real photograph of a McDonald's set afire during protests over Floyd's death, however. The image was a repurposed photograph of a restaurant in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, that burned in November 2016 after a grease fire started in its kitchen: repurposed The McDonald's at 757 E. Cumberland St. in Lebanon is deemed a complete loss by Lebanon Fire Commissioner Duane Trautman after a grease fire started in the kitchen and spread toward the roof Friday night. Crews were dispatched just after 8 p.m., and according to dispatch reports, a fully involved kitchen fire is what they arrived to. The Breaking 911 Twitter account, which described itself as a "parody account," mimicked the appearance of the real Breaking 911 news site's Twitter feed. The former account has since been suspended by Twitter. Breaking 911 Breaking 911 Asroff, Chris. "McDonald's East Complete Loss After Grease Fire."
Lebanon Daily News. 18 November 2016.
| 0 | [
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FMD688 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Following the recent media firestorm around former Breitbart Senior Editor MILO, people have begun scrutinizing past similar comments and actions of liberal celebrities. [In the wake of MILO’s departure from Breitbart News, a number of instances have come to light where those on the left have discussed or joked openly about pedophilia. Unlike in MILO’s case, the media has been largely silent in response. 1: George Takei, In a 2006 interview on The Howard Stern Show, actor George Takei spoke about being molested by an camp counselor as a at summer camp. In the excerpt, what many seem to find most shocking about Takei’s comments is that he insists he wasn’t molested because he found the perpetrator “attractive. †At 2:20 mark @GeorgeTakei promotes pedophilia with 13 year old boys to Howard Stern. #tcot #Milohttps: . — John Cardillo (@johncardillo) February 21, 2017, George Takei Amazing how this doesn’t trend. No liberal outrage! Nothing from #pizzahut or #tacobell, — gab. 🸠(@HillaryNo1sPres) February 22, 2017, 2: Bill Maher, HBO host and comedian Bill Maher can be seen in a clip from 1998 on Maher’s previous TV show Politically Incorrect defending an adult teacher who had sexual relations with her student. “Basically, they’re having a family and they’re keeping the mother in jail because she won’t conform to the perfect American family,†he says. Later in the clip, Maher asks, “How can a woman rape a man?†if bill maher thinks sunlight is the best disinfectant then here’s him saying the same shit as milo, that it’s ok for adults to fuck kids pic. twitter. — warrior cop (@wyatt_privilege) February 22, 2017, In 2016 Maher once again defended the relationship between an adult and a minor when he called out “social justice warriors†for attacking a relationship between singer David Bowie and Lori Mattix. “If there’s a victim here, it’s the guy who had to fuck Lori Mattix next,†said Maher. “How do you follow David Bowie in a kimono?†3: Roman Polanksi, Roman Polanski, the acclaimed liberal director of films such as Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown, pled guilty to engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor after being accused of drugging and raping old Samantha Geimer in 1977. Polanski fled the United States before he could be sentenced and has been living in France ever since. Since then Hollywood celebrities such as Meryl Streep have openly defended Polanski, with Streep stating that she’s “very sorry that he’s in jail†and Polanski receiving a standing ovation from Hollywood stars following his Oscar win in absentia for Best Director for The Pianist. 4: Lena Dunham, Lena Dunham, writer and star of HBO TV show Girls, wrote in her memoir Not That Kind Of Girl of inappropriate sexual activity with her younger sister. Dunham writes in her autobiography of “casually masturbating†while in bed next to her younger sister and bribing her with “three pieces of candy if I could kiss her on the lips for five seconds … anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl I was trying. †Dunham also spoke of touching her sister’s genitals, saying, “Grace was sitting up, babbling and smiling, and I leaned down between her legs and carefully spread open her vagina. She didn’t resist,†Dunham wrote. “This was within the spectrum of things I did,†she added. Dunham also admitted to sharing the same bed with Grace until she was seventeen, and that sometimes she “slipped my hand into my underwear to figure some stuff out†while sleeping next to her. Rather than experiencing outrage and anger from fans and the media for these actions, Dunham was instead invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention on the topic of women’s rights. At the DNC, Dunham introduced herself saying: “I am a feminist, sexual assault survivor with a chronic reproductive illness. †| 1 | [
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FMD689 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled new oil well control rules to prevent the kind of blowout that happened six years ago on a BP Plc (BP.L) rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement announced the finalized regulations, which include more stringent design requirements and operational procedures for offshore oil and gas operations. The new standards come nearly six years after a deadly explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the cost of Louisiana, which led to the worst oil spill of all time. The Macondo well blowout and the fire on April 20,2010 killed 11 workers. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told reporters the rule took six years to complete because the agency wanted to understand the root cause of the disaster. “There are a number of things that went wrong,†she said. “It was important that we understood those things and the evolution of technology.†The Interior Department said it took into account industry and other stakeholder feedback since it first proposed the rule last April. To improve the “culture of safety†on oil rigs and prevent future spills or blowouts, the new rule tightens requirements for blowout preventers, well design, well control casing, cementing and sub-sea containment. It also calls for real-time monitoring, third party reviews of equipment, regular inspections and safe drilling margin requirements. The agency estimates the new rule would cost the industry $890 million over a 10-year period, but would yield $1.5 billion in benefits. Republican Louisiana Senator David Vitter slammed what he called an “overarching†rule that would “kick our oil and gas industry while it’s down.†Industry lobby group the American Petroleum Institute said it is still reviewing the document, but said technical problems in the initial proposal could cause unintended consequences if they remain. Offshore drilling has seen at least 1,066 injuries, 496 fires and explosions, 22 losses of well control, 11 big oil spills and 11 fatalities since the Deepwater Horizon accident, according to the Interior Department. Jacqueline Savitz, vice president of the ocean protection advocacy group Oceana, said the new standards were “a significant improvement over the status quo†since Congress has not passed legislation to improve offshore drilling safety but are “absolutely not sufficient to protect our oceans.†Earlier this month, a federal judge in New Orleans approved BP’s $20 billion settlement, paving the way for Gulf restoration to begin. | 1 | [
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FMD690 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Sanders was on ‘Meet the Press’ again Sunday touting his polling advantage against Trump. He’s right, but there’s a key reason Hillary does worse in head-to-head matchups.
On Meet the Press, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to endorse the Republican presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, saying he would disclose his position on the presidency at a later date. On CNN, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said he would support Trump because he so strongly opposes Hillary Clinton. And on ABC’s This Week, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said it was time for Bernie Sanders to consider ending his campaign for the Democratic nomination.
In an interview on Meet the Press, Sanders sounded as if had no intention of dropping out anytime soon. Sanders said he believes he still has a chance to win the Democratic nomination by winning the California primary against Clinton.
"Right now,†Sanders said, “in every major poll, national poll and statewide poll done in the last month, six weeks, we are defeating Trump, often by big numbers, and always at a larger margin than Secretary Clinton is."
For example, the most recent poll, the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, showed Clinton beating Trump by 3 points and Sanders beating Trump by 15 points. That means Sanders bested Clinton’s performance by 12 points. In other polls, Sanders’s lead on Clinton was less but never fell below a margin of 3 points.
Clinton has been scrutinized and attacked as a public figure for a quarter century, but Sanders—even after running for president for a year—is a relatively new figure to voters nationally. It remains to be seen how open voters will be to supporting Sanders once Republicans start airing negative attacks, especially ones that note his identification as a democratic socialist. (According to polls, being a socialist is a less attractive quality for voters than being an atheist.)
“General election polls don’t mean much until the conventions are over and you get to late summer or early fall,†said Kerwin Swint, a political scientist at Kennesaw State University. “A lot of voters don’t look at Sanders as a legitimate threat. It’s almost like he’s an imaginary candidate.â€
And it’s worth adding, as Meet the Press host Chuck Todd noted, that Clinton can be expected to poll better against Trump after she officially secures the nomination and many former Sanders supporters come to her side.
Sanders also said he will continue to make the case that his positions are more in line with the Democratic base than Clinton’s.
“Our campaign is about defeating Secretary Clinton on the real issues,†he said. “I want to break up the Wall Street banks. She doesn’t. I want to raise the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour. She wants $12 an hour. I voted against the war in Iraq. She voted for the war in Iraq. I believe we should ban fracking. She does not. I believe we should have a tax on carbon and deal aggressively with climate change. That is not her position. Those are some of the issues that I am campaigning on.â€
Sanders is right about Clinton’s Iraq war vote and where she stands on breaking up the banks, a $15 minimum wage, and fracking. But is he also right about their differences on carbon tax and climate change? That claim rates Mostly True.
There’s no doubt that Sanders’s rhetoric on climate change and his plan to deal with it are aggressive and, unlike Clinton, he has advocated for a carbon tax. Clinton does, however, have a climate change plan. While some environmentalists have said it isn’t tough enough, others have given it positive reviews.
Both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns referred us to each candidate’s climate change plan. Sanders’s climate change plan is long and comprehensive. Beyond a tax on carbon, it includes an array of proposals such as banning certain drilling and mining practices; cutting tax subsidies for oil and gas companies; investing in clean energy, alternative fuels, and energy efficiency programs; and improving the national public transit system.
But some are skeptical of Clinton’s “boldness.†Pulitzer Prize-winning website InsideClimate News called Clinton’s plan ambitious but said it “falls short of bold.†The Washington Post’s editorial board said her ideas are “second best.†Environmental news magazine Grist summed up her plan as not bad but “not quite the climate hawkishness we need.†| 1 | [
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FMD691 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did Deutsche Bank provide funding for Auschwitz, Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and ISIS? Claim summaries: The suggestion that working from home is a "privilege" led some on social media to dig into the bank's past.
contextual information: On Nov. 11, 2020, Bloomberg reported that strategists at Deutsche Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, recommended levying a tax against people who plan to continue working from home, arguing that "remote workers should pay a tax for the privilege. At least on Twitter, this was a poorly received take. One particularly viral response alleged that the bank "funded Auschwitz, Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and ISIS." reported response As we show below, the tweet is a largely accurate recounting of history, though the assertion that the bank funded ISIS overstates what is publicly known at this time. In 1999, during negotiations to merge with the New York-based Bankers Trust, the Germany-based Deutsche Bank disclosed that it had helped finance the construction of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. As reported by Reuters at the time, Deutsche Bank's historian, Manfred Pohl, described the bank's loans to companies involved in multiple aspects of Auschwitz, including loans for construction of the camp and its incineration units, as well as to a company involved in the production of the deadly Zyklon-B gas, which the Nazis used to murder millions: reported Manfred Pohl, head of Deutsche Banks historical institute, said newly uncovered documents showed the bank had links with firms that built the camp in Poland. It also had credit links to one company that made incineration units and funded another whose subsidiary made the Zyklon-B gas used in the camp. On examination of credit records, we determined that branches . had credit links to local companies which were active at the construction site . in Auschwitz, Pohl said at a media briefing in Frankfurt. Pohl told reporters that the existence of these loans would have been known to high-ranking managers of the bank. "It is clear that this was known as high up at the main office in Katowice. It is not certain whether it was known in Berlin," Pohl said, though he added these loans would have had to be approved in Berlin to go ahead. Deutsche Bank has had a relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump since 1998. As reported in The New York Times, "Over the course of two decades, the bank lent him more than $2 billion so much that by the time he was elected, Deutsche Bank was by far his biggest creditor." Speaking to Reuters in November 2020, one bank official said that the Trump Organization currently has around $340 million in outstanding debt from the bank: reported Reuters Deutsche Bank has about $340 million in loans outstanding to the Trump Organization, the presidents umbrella group that is currently overseen by his two sons, according to filings made by Trump to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in July and a senior source within the bank. The three loans, which are against Trump properties and start coming due in two years, are current on payments and personally guaranteed by the president, according to two bank officials. According to that Reuters report, the bank is looking to distance itself from the president moving forward. Their relationship with Trump "cemented Deutsche Banks reputation as a reckless institution willing to do business with clients nobody else would touch," they wrote. "It has made the company a magnet for prosecutors, regulators and lawmakers hoping to penetrate the presidents opaque financial affairs." Regardless, Trump's history with Deutsche Bank is factual and well known. Reuters According to a 2019 report by the New York State Department of Financial Services, "the relationship between Deutsche Bank and Mr. Epstein officially began on August 19, 2013" and eventually involved his opening and funding "more than 40 accounts at the Bank." 2019 report Controversially, they entered into business with Epstein after his 2008 arrest for the solicitation of a minor and after other media revelations about Epstein's alleged trafficking of underage women for sex. Some of these Deutsche Bank accounts were involved in suspicious transactions including, according to The New York Times, "suspiciously large cash withdrawals and 120 wire transfers totaling $2.65 million to women with Eastern European surnames and people who had been publicly identified as Mr. Epsteins co-conspirators." according In July 2020, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $150 million to the New York State Department of Financial Services "to settle allegations that it maintained weak internal controls, including processing hundreds of transactions for Jeffrey Epstein despite the billionaires troubled history." The bank has since apologized for its association with Epstein. apologized In the banking world, Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) are notifications made by financial institutions to the United States government about potentially suspicious or illegal activity. A transaction labeled suspicious in these reports does not necessarily indicate illegal activity, however. SARs issued about transactions involving Deutsche Bank have been used to link them to ISIS in multiple investigations. made In December 2017, BuzzFeed News reported on SARs showing that Deutsche Bank had been engaged in business with a corrupt Cyprus bank named FBME that "served as a major conduit to terrorism, organized crime, and chemical weapons." The SARs revealed that "Deutsche processed hundreds of millions of dollars of suspicious transactions for FBME clients including a Kremlin-linked network of Russian slush funds funneling money to financiers of the Syrian regime and a businessman trading oil with ISIS." The reports do not indicate, however, that Deutsche Bank knowingly participated in illegal activity. reported In September 2020, the existence of an even larger trove of SARs obtained by BuzzFeed News and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) was announced. The collaboration a project named the FinCEN files led to hundreds of stories in newsrooms across the world. One story, published by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), identified further transactions that could point to a potential involvement of Deutsche Bank in the movement of funds to, from, and within ISIS held territory. FinCEN files story The files, ARIJ said, "reveal suspicious money transfers of at least $4 billion flagged by Deutsche Banks US branches and Bank of America to a number of Iraqi banks between June 15, 2014 and June 30, 2015." Though the files do not indicate which bank branches were used, they reported, "the transactions were sent and received during the height of the Islamic States reign and its control over several Iraqi bank branches." The report notes that "many of the banks in northern Iraq were in areas of IS [Islamic State] influence, and such transfers could be the proceeds of the illicit oil and gas trade that the organisation largely relied on in its areas of control." said While suggestive of an at least unwitting role for Deutsche Bank in ISIS related finances, these reports are not strong enough evidence to support the statement that Deutsche Bank "funds" ISIS. Because there is some truth to the ISIS claim, and because the other assertions are true, we rank the overall claim made in the viral tweet as "true." | 1 | [
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FMD692 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Bush Jogs with One-Legged Soldier Claim summaries: Does a photograph show President Bush jogging with a serviceman who lost a leg in Afghanistan?
contextual information: Claim: Photograph shows President Bush jogging with a serviceman who lost a leg in Afghanistan. Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2004] Attached is a picture of Mike McNaughton. He stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan on Christmas 2002. President Bush came to visit the wounded in the hospital. He told Mike that when he could run a mile, they would go on a run together. True to his word, he called Mike every month or so to see how he was doing. Well, last week they went on the run, one mile with the president. Not something you'll see in the news, but seeing the president take the time to say thank you to the wounded and to give hope to one of my best friends was one of the greatest things I have seen in my life. It almost sounds like a corny email chain letter, but God bless him. Origins: On 9 January 2003, 31-year-old Staff Sergeant Mike McNaughton of Denham Springs, Louisiana, a member of the Louisiana Army National Guard, was serving with the 769th Engineer Battalion in Afghanistan, scouting for land mines. Suddenly, according to Sgt. McNaughton, "I closed my eyes for a second going up in the air and then landing on the ground, and that's when I just knew exactly what happened." Sgt. McNaughton had stepped on an anti-personnel mine, and in the resulting blast, he lost his right leg, as well as the middle and ring fingers of his right hand and a chunk of his left leg. Sgt. McNaughton was evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for immediate treatment and later flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for follow-on care. In the months since his wounding, Sgt. McNaughton has undergone at least 11 separate operations as a result of his injuries and has been fitted with a thin, robotic prosthetic shaft to replace his right leg. While recuperating at Walter Reed, Sgt. McNaughton was honored to receive a visit from President Bush. One of the subjects of common interest they discussed was running, and the President extended an invitation to Sgt. McNaughton to come running with him once he was up and about. The President's invitation posed something of a dilemma for Sgt. McNaughton: "He said give him a call and we'll go running. How are you supposed to just call the president?" Fortunately, Sgt. McNaughton's doctor at Walter Reed was also a doctor for the President, and the two men were able to keep in touch through her. In April 2004, Sgt. McNaughton and his family made the trip to Washington, and true to his word, the President went for a run with him. According to Baton Rouge television station WAFB, Sgt. McNaughton described his return visit with President Bush thus: "It rained a little bit. I didn't care if it was storming or lightning all around, I didn't care. It was nice to run with him. "He has a weight room upstairs in the White House. We worked out for about 45 minutes; we tried different equipment. He said I couldn't do it, so I had to prove him wrong. "This goes back to my military training. I never once stopped something and said I can't do it or quit. Just because I lost my leg, why should I start now?" Sergeant McNaughton says the president was more interested in his new leg than even his own children. McNaughton says the president couldn't stop looking at it or asking questions about it. Additional information: Wounded Guard Soldiers Visited (The Army National Guard) Last updated: 13 August 2007 Sources: Marshall, Peter. "P-769th Soldier." WBRZ-TV [Baton Rouge]. 5 August 2003. WAFB-TV [Baton Rouge]. "Denham Springs Man Goes Jogging with the President." 23 April 2004. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD693 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The attack on Russian envoy Andrey Karlov, who died of gunshot wounds received during an official event in the Turkish capital, Ankara, is qualified by Moscow as a terrorist act, the Foreign Ministry says. This is a tragic day in the history of Russian diplomacy. Today, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov died after being shot at during a public event in Ankara, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.The topic of the killing of the Russian diplomat will be raised at the UN Security Council on Monday, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.The Russian Foreign Ministry will issue a statement later in the day, she added. The shooter claimed he did it for Aleppo and shouted Alahu Akbar! immediately after the shooting. The media will do what they always do and claim that this is a disturbed individual who acted alone. Deflecting the truth that this is Islamic terrorism is what the media does but we know what this is WARNING DISTURBING VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPt25Gk1Z88 | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD694 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Will the name of Trump be printed on COVID-19 stimulus checks? Claim summaries: While the unprecedented move could potentially delay these payments, U.S. Treasury officials insist the checks "are scheduled to go out on time and exactly as planned."
contextual information: Snopes is still fighting an infodemic of rumors and misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and you can help. Find out what we've learned and how to inoculate yourself against COVID-19 misinformation. Read the latest fact checks about the vaccines. Submit any questionable rumors and advice you encounter. Become a Founding Member to help us hire more fact-checkers. And please, follow the CDC or WHO for guidance on protecting your community from the disease.
In April 2020, millions of Americans who lost income due to circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic were waiting for promised relief payments from the United States government. So when news broke that U.S. President Donald Trump was making the "unprecedented" move of having his name added to these stimulus checks—a decision that could potentially delay their arrival by several days—many citizens took to social media to voice their displeasure. Trump's name is indeed being added to the COVID-19 stimulus checks, otherwise known as Economic Impact Payments. As of this writing, however, officials at the U.S. Treasury Department insist this will not result in any delays.
The Washington Post first reported on Trump's decision on April 14, 2020. According to the news outlet, Trump's name is expected to appear in the memo line of the check, not as the payment's official signatory, and this will be the "first time that a president's name appears on an IRS disbursement." The Treasury Department has ordered President | 1 | [
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FMD695 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Posted on October 30, 2016 by Tim Brown
On Monday, a man who voted for Donald Trump was arrested for wearing a T-shirt that referenced Hillary Clinton ‘s comments about Trump supporters being “ deplorables ” to the polls.
Brett Mauthe, 55, was arrested after he went to the polls wearing a pro-Trump hat and a shirt that read, “ basket of deplorables .”
According to KSAT 12, Mauthe removed his hat at the request of those who were overseeing the polls. However, since the t-shirt did not violate the election code, he refused to turn it inside out nor remove it.
Subsequently, he was arrested and charged with electioneering.
KSAT 12 reports :
Bulverde police Chief Gary Haecker confirmed the arrest but declined to release details. Instead, he deferred to Comal County’s election coordinator, Cynthia Jaqua.
Jaqua said the offense of electioneering isn’t limited to people who stand outside polling places holding signs. Violations can be committed by voters as well.
“It can mean a T-shirt, a button, a hat, you know?” she said. “Anything related to the voting, the party, the candidate.”
Jaqua declined to release specific details about Mauthe’s arrest.
Jaqua is quoted by My San Antonio :
It’s in the election code. Electioneering is prohibited within a 100-foot marker. You cannot express views for or against a candidate or political party by wearing buttons, T-shirts, hats, whatever else or carrying signs,” she said.
Most people who make the mistake manage to avoid going to jail, she added.
“Every election we have to advise people. Even if it’s a school bond issue. They wear candidates’ shirts and we just have to remind them. ‘Please go into the restroom and turn it inside out.’ This is the first time I recall someone getting arrested,” she said, during two decades working at the county election office.
“A gentleman did walk in a little while ago with a slogan for Trump, and when I asked him to please take it off, he was real nice, and took it off,” she added, while working a polling site Thursday afternoon in New Braunfels.
So, according to this nonsense, a perfectly legal shirt could be worn to the polls one day, but if a politician makes reference to the phrase on that shirt it becomes illegal to wear it to the polls the next day? This is utterly ridiculous.
My question on all of that is, what happened to free speech? Is that recognized as a God-given right in the First Amendment? I mean, I realize that the Constitution is to restrict the federal government, but honestly, shouldn’t the states recognize the right of free speech, even in a polling place? Seems to me those kinds of laws stifle the very thing you are electing representatives to ensure are protected.
Other voters agree with me.
“I don’t feel like you should be preaching to anybody, but I do feel like you should be able to wear a shirt if you want and if it has the candidate,” Georgina Pereida said after casting her vote. “I’m kind of shocked, because I think that’s part of the freedoms that we’re voting for.”
Jose Tovar claims that you should know the rules and regulations if you are 18 and vote. Again, I ask, why are there laws and regulations restricting this freedom of speech? It’s not inflammatory. It isn’t a lie. It isn’t slander. What’s illegal about it?
I’ll tell you, politicians want to control people, and this is one of many means they use to do that. This is what happens when you don’t hold your elected officials accountable for the stupid regulations they impose.
Mauthe decided to not comment anymore after his story began to be altered in the media.
“The reason I’m not going to talk any more to the media is that the story gets twisted around, and I don’t want to give you any comment,” he said .
The charged of electioneering is a class C misdemeanor.
Courtesy of Freedom Outpost
Tim Brown is an author and Editor at FreedomOutpost.com , SonsOfLibertyMedia.com , GunsInTheNews.com and TheWashingtonStandard.com . He is husband to his “more precious than rubies” wife, father of 10 “mighty arrows”, jack of all trades, Christian and lover of liberty. He resides in the U.S. occupied Great State of South Carolina. Tim is also an affiliate for the Joshua Mark 5 AR/AK hybrid semi-automatic rifle . Follow Tim on Twitter . Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 0 | [
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FMD696 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: On May 20, on behalf of the North Atlantic Alliance, territorial claims were presented to Russia by the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Air Chief Marshal Stuart Peach. NATO has demanded that Russia "come out of Crimea". And, moreover, that it "return back NATO bases" in Crimea.
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FMD697 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Palestinians seethed with anger and a sense of betrayal over U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Many heard the death knell for the long-moribund U.S.-sponsored talks aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. They also said more violence could erupt. Trump wants to help Israel take over the entire city. Some people may do nothing, but others are ready to fight for Jerusalem, said Hamad Abu Sbeih, 28, an unemployed resident of the walled Old City. This decision will ignite a fire in the region. Pressure leads to explosions, he said. Jerusalem specifically its eastern Old City, home to important shrines of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli captured Arab East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War then later annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians want it to be the capital of a future independent state and resolution of its status is fundamental to any peace-making. Trump is due to announce later on Wednesday that the United States recognizes the city as Israel s capital and will move its embassy there from Tel Aviv, breaking with longtime policy.. This is insane. You are speaking about something fateful. Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine and neither the world nor our people will accept it, said Samir Al-Asmar, 58, a merchant from the Old City who was a child when it fell to Israel. It will not change what Jerusalem is. Jerusalem will remain Arab. Such a decision will sabotage things and people will not accept it. Palestinian newspapers also decried the move. Trump Defies the World, thundered Al-Ayyam. Another, Al-Hayat, roared Jerusalem is the Symbol of Palestinian Endurance in a red-letter headline over an image of the city s mosque compound flanked by Palestinian flags. Palestinian leaders have also warned the move could have dangerous consequences. Although winter rains dampened protests called for East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip, few doubted fresh bloodshed now loomed. Israeli security forces braced for possible unrest but police said the situation in Jerusalem was calm for now. That could quickly change, given the religious passions that swirl around the Old City, where Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam s third-holiest shrine, abuts the Western Wall prayer plaza, a vestige of two ancient Jewish temples. Palestinians mounted two uprisings, or intifadas, against Israeli occupation from 1987 to 1993 then from 2000 to 2005, the latter ignited by a visit by then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the shrine area, known to Jews as Temple Mount. Violent confrontations also took place in July when Israel installed metal detectors at an entrance to Al-Aqsa compound after Arab gunmen holed up there killed two of its policemen. Four Palestinians and three Israelis died in ensuing violence. In the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza, demonstrators chanted Death to America , Death to Israel and Down with Trump . They also burned posters depicting the U.S., British and Israeli flags. Youssef Mohammad, a 70-year-old resident of a refugee camp, said Trump s move would be a test for Arab leadership at a time of regional chaos and shifting alliances. Let him do it. Let s see what Arab rulers and kings will do. They will do nothing because they are cowards, the father of eight said. The Jerusalem uproar could affect Egyptian-brokered efforts to bring Gaza, which has been under Islamist Hamas control for a decade, back under the authority of U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who favors negotiation with Israel. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said Trump s planned moved showed the United States was biased. The United States was never a neutral mediator in any cause of our people. It has always stood with the occupation (Israel), he said. He said Abbas administration should rid itself of the illusion that rights can be achieved through an American-backed deal . (Corrects Ariel Sharon s title to opposition leader) | 1 | [
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FMD698 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Hillary Clinton Waiting In Wings Of Stage Since 6 A.M. For DNC Speech PHILADELPHIA—Saying she arrived hours before any of the members of the production crew, sources confirmed Thursday that presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been waiting in the wings of the Wells Fargo Center stage since six o’clock this morning to deliver her speech at the Democratic National Convention. Depressed, Butter-Covered Tom Vilsack Enters Sixth Day Of Corn Bender After Losing VP Spot WASHINGTON—Saying she has grown increasingly concerned about her husband’s mental and physical well-being since last Friday, Christie Vilsack, the wife of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, told reporters Thursday that the despondent, butter-covered cabinet member has entered the sixth day of a destructive corn bender after being passed over for the Democratic vice presidential spot. DNC Speech: ‘I Am Proud To Say I Walked In On Bill And Hillary Having Sex’ A friend of the Clinton family describes a Hillary who America never gets to see: the one he saw having sex. Trump Sick And Tired Of Mainstream Media Always Trying To Put His Words Into Some Sort Of Context NEW YORK—Emphasizing that the practice was just more evidence of journalists’ bias against him, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stated Thursday that he was sick and tired of the mainstream media always attempting to place his words into some kind of context. Who’s Speaking At The DNC: Day 4 Here is a guide to the major speakers who will be addressing attendees on the final night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention Bound, Gagged Joaquin Castro Horrified By What His Identical Twin Brother Might Be Doing Out On DNC Floor PHILADELPHIA—Struggling to free himself from the tightly wound lengths of rope binding his wrists and ankles together, bruised and gagged Texas congressman Joaquin Castro was reportedly horrified by what his identical twin brother, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, might be out doing on the floor of the DNC Thursday. Obama: ‘Hillary Will Fight To Protect My Legacy, Even The Truly Detestable Parts’ PHILADELPHIA—Emphasizing the former secretary of state’s competence and tenacity during his Democratic National Convention address Wednesday night, President Barack Obama praised Hillary Clinton as someone who would work tirelessly to defend and advance the legacy he had built, even the “truly repugnant parts.” Tim Kaine Clearly Tuning Out In Middle Of Boring Vice Presidential Acceptance Speech PHILADELPHIA—Describing the look of total disinterest on his face and noting how he kept peering down at his watch as the speech progressed, sources at the Democratic National Convention said that Virginia senator Tim Kaine clearly began tuning out partway through the boring vice presidential acceptance address Wednesday night. Cannon Overshoots Tim Kaine Across Wells Fargo Center PHILADELPHIA—Noting that the vice presidential nominee had been launched nearly 100 feet into the air during his entrance into the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, sources reported that the cannon at the back of the Wells Fargo Center had accidentally overshot Tim Kaine across the arena, sending him crashing to the stage several dozen feet beyond the erected safety net. Biden Regales DNC With Story Of ’80s Girl Band Vixen Breaking Hard Rock’s Glass Ceiling PHILADELPHIA—Devoting a large portion of his speech to the “pioneering, stiffy-inducing” all-female quartet, Vice President Joe Biden regaled the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night with the rousing story of the metal band Vixen breaking hard rock’s glass ceiling in the late 1980s. | 0 | [
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FMD699 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Hezbollah’s Candidate Becomes Lebanese President After Sunni Compromise Posted on Nov 1, 2016
By Juan Cole / Informed Comment
Lebanon finally has a president, Michel Aoun . In accordance with the country’s national pact, he is a Maronite Christian (a Catholic uniate church), and happens to be a former general. The US and Israel won’t be pleased that he is a strong ally of the Shiite Hizbullah party-militia and a backer of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. (Most Levantine Christians are either neutral or pro-Assad; virtually none support the Syrian rebels, now mainly fundamentalists).
Well, Americans who are eager for their own presidential election to be over with should imagine what it would be like for the contest to go on another 2.5 years before it was resolved. That’s what Lebanese have had to put up with. Of course, it has a parliamentary form of government, so most power is anyway in the hands of the prime minister and the cabinet. But still and all, not being able to elect a president has been a black mark on the parliament. The parliament, which hasn’t been able to supply the Lebanese with water, electricity or garbage collection, and which has twice extended its term of service since 2013, so that it is well past its sell-by date, could hardly take more black marks.
Lebanon has been deeply polarized since 2004, when it was occupied by thousands of Syrian troops who had originally come during the civil war of 1975-1989. Syria liked the then president, and wanted to see his term extended for three years without a new election, which contravened the constitution. Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri angrily resigned over this Syrian pressure, and then, it is likely, the Syrian secret police or a Lebanese client of same, blew Hariri up on 14 February 2005.
Maronite Christians and Sunni Arabs (Hariri was Sunni) then mobilized in vast crowds to demand that Syria withdraw from Lebanon beginning March 14 (which became their name). They were countered by the Shiite Hizbullah, which had demonstrated in favor of Syria on March 8. But in the end Syria couldn’t stay, and withdrew its troops.
In a great irony, one of the demands of March 14 was that Gen. Michel Aoun be allowed to return to Lebanon, which he did. But after a while he left the coalition and allied instead with Hizbullah and Syria.
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Politics in Lebanon is kaleidoscopic.
In the past nearly two and a half years, Hizbullah has been trying to get Aoun elected. But the election of the president is by parliament and it needs a 2/3s majority to prevail. Anti-Hizbullah forces just stayed away from scheduled votes and denied the chamber a quorum. There are 128 members of parliament ordinarily, but one resigned last year and so there are only 127 (since no new parliamentary elections have been held since 2013). On Monday, Aoun fell short of the required 86 votes for a 2/3s majority on the first ballot. After that, the candidate could be elected with a simple majority. The next two votes were voided because they turned up 128 ballots, meaning someone voted twice. On the fourth ballot the box was brought in the center of the parliamentary chamber and a close eye was kept on it, so only 127 votes were cast. Aoun received well over the required majority at that point, with 83 votes. Another 36 protest votes were case blank, and 7 were voided because of unspecified irregularities.
Aoun succeeded because he was not boycotted by the Future Bloc of Saudi-backed Sunni politician Saad Hariri (son of the slain former PM). Hariri had had his own candidate, Sleiman Frangieh, who, however, is just as pro-Syrian as Aoun.
Hariri used to be fabulously wealthy (his father had worked in Saudi Arabia and built the family fortune there), but the rumors are that his wealth is largely gone. He has had trouble paying his employees, from all accounts. Saudi Arabia considers Lebanon to be too pro-Iranian, and cut it off from a $3 bn grant, and Hariri had depended deeply on Saudi backing. He faces opposition in his own party. So some analysts (see the al-Jazeera clip below) think that Hariri has been so weakened that he finally agreed to let Aoun become president.
Aoun’s platform is strengthening the Lebanese army to fight ISIL and al-Qaeda and doing something about the burden of 1.5 million Syrian refugees (Lebanon is only a country of 4 million).
His election is a win for Hizbullah, his long-time ally, but since Hariri joined in backing him, it isn’t really a loss for the Sunni Arabs of Lebanon, who may be making their peace with the likelihood that the al-Assad regime will survive in some form. Lebanon’s Sunnis had strongly supported the Syrian revolution of 2011 and after, and tend to be favorable toward the remnants of the Free Syrian Army. But many of them have to be concerned about the influence among the rebels of an al-Qaeda-linked group, the Levantine Conquest Front, and the continued challenge of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). Both al-Qaeda and Daesh had footholds in Syrian villages along the Lebanese border.
Aoun says his first order of business is to have parliament change the country’s unwieldy electoral law, which distributes seats on a sectarian basis (and on the basis of an outdated set of statistics going back in some cases to the 1930 census).
Lebanon held successful municipal elections last spring. But most Lebanese are not holding their breath that governmental gridlock will end any time soon. And with Depression-style unemployment, the country has other problems than the political ones. TAGS: | 0 | [
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