Facebook will provide the contents of 3,000 ads bought by a Russian agency to congressional investigators.
Facebook will provide the contents of 3,000 ads bought by a Russian agency to congressional investigators.
The move comes amid growing pressure on the social network from members of Congress, who pushed it to release the ads.
Facebook has already handed over the ads to federal authorities investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is «actively working» with the US government in its ongoing Russia investigations.
In a Facebook post and live video Zuckerberg said that he has directed his team to provide the ads, created by fake accounts linked to Russia, to Congress.
But he warned that Facebook is not going to be able to catch all undesirable material before it hits its social network.
«I’m not going to sit here and tell you we’re going to catch all bad content in our system. We don’t check what people say before they say it, and frankly, I don’t think our society shouldn’t want us to,» Zuckerberg said.
«If you break our community standards or the law, then you’re going to face consequences afterwards.
«We won’t catch everyone immediately, but we can make it harder to try to interfere.»
Zuckerberg hinted that the company may not provide much information publicly, saying that the ongoing federal investigation will limit what he can reveal.
«As a general rule, we are limited in what we can discuss publicly about law enforcement investigations, so we may not always be able to share our findings publicly,» he said.
The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee have been seeking to bring Facebook executives before their committee since the company first revealed the existence of the ads two weeks ago. But critics say Facebook should go further. They say the company should tell its users how they might have been influenced by outside meddlers.
AP
Zuckerberg also said that Facebook will make political advertising more transparent.
«When someone buys political ads on TV or other media, they’re required by law to disclose who paid for them. But you still don’t know if you’re seeing the same messages as everyone else,» he wrote in a post.
Top Democrats on the House of Representatives and Senate intelligence panels praised Facebook’s decision.
Congressman Adam Schiff of California and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said the contents of the ads would help their investigations, but stressed that the move was just a first step.
Both have said they want the company and other social media outlets to give evidence in open hearings.
Senate intelligence committee chairman Richard Burr has also called for Facebook to give evidence.
Mr Schiff said his panel should also scrutinise «how rigorous Facebook’s internal investigation has been» and Mr Warner tweeted that Americans «deserve to know the truth about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election».
AP

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Asian stocks fell and the Japanese yen and Swiss franc gained on the mooted possibility of North Korea conducting another hydrogen bomb test, this time in the Pacific Ocean.
TOKYO (Reuters) — Asian stocks fell and the Japanese yen and Swiss franc gained on the mooted possibility of North Korea conducting another hydrogen bomb test, this time in the Pacific Ocean.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said on Friday he believes the North could consider a nuclear test on an “unprecedented scale” in the Pacific Ocean, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan. MIAPJ0000PUS handed back earlier gains and was down 0.4 percent after falling 0.7 percent the previous day.
The index had risen to a decade high on Tuesday, lifted as Wall Street advanced to record levels before falling back after the Fed heightened expectations for a third interest rate hike this year.
Japan’s Nikkei. N225 slipped 0.2 percent and Australian stocks advanced 0.2 percent. South Korea’s KOSPI. KS11 fell 0.5 percent on the latest bout of geopolitical tensions.
Shanghai. SSEC was down 0.5 percent after S&P Global Ratings downgraded China’s long-term sovereign credit rating on Thursday, less than a month ahead of one of the country’s most sensitive political gatherings, citing increasing risks from its rapid debt build-up.
The dollar fell 0.3 percent to 112.140 yen JPY=, pulling away from a two-month high of touched on Thursday 112.725 when U. S. yields spiked on the back of the Fed’s hawkish stance.
The Swiss franc rose 0.2 percent to 0.9687 franc per dollar CHF=. The yen and franc are often sought in time of broader risk aversion.
Safe-haven gold ticked up, with spot prices up 0.2 percent at $1,293.70 an ounce XAU=, after marking its lowest since Aug. 25 at $1287.61 in the previous session on a firmer dollar. [GOL/]
Apart from geopolitical risks, the focus was on how the region’s markets would fare when the Federal Reserve takes a step towards normalising monetary policy, as it projected on Wednesday following its policy meeting.
“It is difficult to pass a verdict on the Fed’s stance until it actually starts its balance sheet reduction and the markets can gauge its effects,” said Kota Hirayama, senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo.
“Fundamentals continue to support emerging markets including those in Asia, although the Fed’s latest stance did add a layer of uncertainty going forward.”
The S&P 500. SPX lost 0.3 percent, snapping a four-day winning streak.
The Dow. DJI fell 0.25 percent and Nasdaq. IXIC dropped 0.5 percent on Thursday as the U. S. equity market braced for a third interest rate hike this year. The United States ordering new sanctions against North Korea was also seen to have weighed on Wall Street. [. N]
In currencies, the Australian dollar was down 0.2 percent at $0.7917 AUD=D4 after sliding 1.2 percent the previous day.
The Aussie was hurt on Thursday when Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said that the central bank does not have to follow a general move globally to raise interest rates.
A sharp drop in the price of iron ore, Australia’s main export commodity, to a two-month low, has also weighed on the currency.
The euro inched up 0.1 percent to $1.1954 EUR= and on track to end the week 0.8 percent lower.
The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was down 0.2 percent at 92.052.
Crude oil prices were little changed amid a wait-and-see mood as ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers meet later on Friday to discuss a possible extension of the 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of supply cuts to support prices. [O/R]
While many analysts expect an extension of the deal beyond next March, a number of them noted that prices have risen high enough to tempt countries to boost production above agreed levels.
Brent crude LCOc1 was down 0.1 percent at $56.37 a barrel after reaching a five-month high of $56.53 overnight.

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New York state would take a $52 billion beating under the latest GOP effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare — the second-largest amount lost in the US,…
New York state would take a $52 billion beating under the latest GOP effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare — the second-largest amount lost in the US, according to a new study released Thursday.
The 32 states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, including New York and California, would get walloped by spending cuts in the bill pushed by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), losing some $180 billion.
States that didn’t expand the program stand to gain $73 billion from 2020 to 2026, the study by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found.
Five states would see a reduction in federal funds of 30 percent or more from 2020-2026.New York would be hit by a 35 percent cut.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blasted U. S. President Donald Trump as «mentally deranged» on Friday and vowed to make him pay dearly for threatening to destroy his country, hours after Trump ordered fresh sanctions over Pyongyang’s weapons programs.
SEOUL/NEW YORK (Reuters) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blasted U. S. President Donald Trump as “mentally deranged” on Friday and vowed to make him pay dearly for threatening to destroy his country, hours after Trump ordered fresh sanctions over Pyongyang’s weapons programs.
Tensions have risen as North Korea has resisted intense international pressure to halt its nuclear and missile programs, with Trump and Kim exchanging ever-more threatening rhetoric.
The U. S. president said in his first address to the United Nations on Tuesday he would “totally destroy” the country of 26 million people if the North threatened the United States and its allies, and called Kim a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.
Kim said the North would consider the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history” against the United States and that Trump’s comments had confirmed his nuclear program was “the correct path”.
Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has launched dozens of missiles this year as it accelerates a program aimed at enabling it to target the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile.
Kim said Trump would face “results beyond his expectation”, without specifying what action North Korea would take next.
“I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U. S. dotard with fire,” Kim said in the rare direct statement carried by the KCNA state news agency, referring to Trump.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho was asked what Kim might do and said Pyongyang could consider a hydrogen bomb test on the Pacific Ocean of an unprecedented scale, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
Ri, who was talking to reporters in New York, however said he did not know Kim’s exact thoughts, according to the report.
The escalating rhetoric came even as U. N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for statesmanship to avoid “sleepwalking” into a war.
South Korea, Russia and China all urged calm.
However, the rhetoric was starting to rattle some in the international community. French Sports Minister Laura Flessel said France’s team would not travel to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea if its security cannot be guaranteed.
The 2018 Games are to be staged in Pyeongchang, just 80 km (50 miles) from the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, the world’s most heavily armed border. MORE SANCTIONS
In his sanctions announcement on Thursday, Trump stopped short of going after Pyongyang’s biggest trading partner, China, praising as “tremendous” a move by its central bank ordering Chinese banks to stop doing business with North Korea.
The additional sanctions on Pyongyang, including on its shipping and trade networks, showed that Trump was giving more time for economic pressures to weigh on North Korea after warning about the possibility of military action on Tuesday.
Asked ahead of a lunch meeting with the leaders of Japan and South Korea if diplomacy was still possible, Trump nodded and said: “Why not?”
Trump said the new executive order on sanctions gives further authorities to target individual companies and institutions that finance and facilitate trade with North Korea.
It “will cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea’s efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to humankind”, Trump said.
The U. S. Treasury Department now had authority to target those that conduct “significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea”.
Trump did not mention Pyongyang’s oil trade.
The White House said North Korea’s energy, medical, mining, textiles, and transportation industries were among those targeted and that the U. S. Treasury could sanction anyone who owns, controls or operates a port of entry in North Korea.
U. S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said banks doing business in North Korea would not be allowed to also operate in the United States.
“Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that going forward they can choose to do business with the United States or with North Korea, but not both,” Mnuchin said.
The U. N. Security Council has unanimously imposed nine rounds of sanctions on North Korea since 2006, the latest this month capping fuel supplies to the isolated state.
On Wednesday, U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said there were “some indications” that sanctions were beginning to cause fuel shortages in North Korea.
Trump’s U. N. address was the most direct military threat to attack North Korea and his latest expression of concern about Pyongyang’s repeated launching of missiles over Japan and underground nuclear tests.
European Union ambassadors reached initial agreement to impose more sanctions on North Korea, going beyond the latest U. N. measures, officials and diplomats said.
“DANGEROUS DIRECTION”
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who met Trump on Thursday and addressed the U. N. General Assembly, said sanctions were needed to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table, but Seoul was not seeking North Korea’s collapse.
“All of our endeavors are to prevent war from breaking out and maintain peace,” Moon said in his speech. He warned the nuclear issue had to be managed stably so that “accidental military clashes will not destroy peace”.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged North Korea not to go further in a “dangerous direction” with its nuclear program.
“There is still hope for peace and we must not give up. Negotiation is the only way out… Parties should meet each other half way, by addressing each other’s legitimate concerns,” Wang said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemned Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear “adventures” but warned “military hysteria is not just an impasse, it’s a disaster”.
The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.
The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.
For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click: here

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On a good day it’s a Caribbean paradise but Puerto Rico looked Thursday like it had been to hell and back after suffering the fury of Hurricane Maria. Roads were turned to mucky brown rivers that people ply with kayaks and small boats.
On a good day it’s a Caribbean paradise but Puerto Rico looked Thursday like it had been to hell and back after suffering the fury of Hurricane Maria.
Roads were turned to mucky brown rivers that people ply with kayaks and small boats. Houses were blown away like matchsticks in the storm’s 155 mph (260 kph) winds. Rubble and downed trees and power lines now block streets everywhere after Wednesday’s pre-dawn taste of Mother Nature’s might.
So far one person has been confirmed dead on the US island territory of 3.4 million people: a man struck by a board he had used to cover his windows. Across the Caribbean, the storm is blamed for a total of 21 deaths.
Electricity and telecommunications services are out across the island and officials say it will be months before power is fully restored.
«We all lived through the worst night of our lives,» said Iris Rivera, 53, who lives in a touristy area of San Juan called Ocean Park.
That is exactly what the neighborhood was on Thursday: water, water and more water, its residents rowing and boating across it to view the storm’s aftermath and check up on neighbors.
«Everyone is helping to clean up, direct traffic and help their neighbor,» said Rivera.
As the storm moved away to the west, its tail is leaving torrential rains that have prompted flash flood warnings. The nightmare is not over.
Despite all the gestures of solidarity, some stores in the center of San Juan have been looted and no strong police presence was visible. Still, authorities said 10 people had been arrested.
«I cannot believe that after helping people of other islands after Hurricane Irma, now we have to deal with looting here,» said Alex Garcia, an Ocean Park man who was taking drinking water to people trapped in their homes. Irma struck the Caribbean and Florida earlier this month.
— Orders to stay home —
Some people have ventured out to try to clear roads that are not flooded but rather just blocked with rubble or trees.
But Governor Ricardo Rossello urged people to stay in their homes and leave clean up and recovery efforts to crews trained to do that kind of work.
«Right now there is nothing you can do outside your homes and the shelters. Practically all the roads are blocked,» said Rossello.
He warned that the island is not out of the woods yet because of forecasts of heavy rains from the tail end of Hurricane Maria.
Since Wednesday night the National Guard has rescued dozens of families in Toa Baja, a San Juan suburb that was flooded when a lake overflowed.
Those waters had gone down somewhat on Thursday but nearby homes ended up full of mud.
The government has imposed a nighttime curfew and banned sales of alcohol until Saturday.
Social media and local radio stations are buzzing with messages and calls from people on the island and Puerto Ricans living abroad who have not heard from loved ones since the storm hit.
«That means everyone,» Rossello said. «I have not been able to speak to my parents, either.»

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