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Producers of hi-tech connected eyewear are multiplying their innovations with increasingly discreet models in an attempt to make a difference in a highly competitive — and fast-emerging — market.Live translation, GPS, cameras: glasses are quickly adopting new functionalities.”There are so many of these smart wearables, and more of them are going on your face,” said Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where numerous smart glasses manufacturers showcased their latest innovations.The industry has come a long way from its early days. Gone are the conspicuous protrusions of Google Glass and the bulky frames and cables of Epson’s Moverio from the early 2010s.Today’s smart glasses, all paired with smartphone apps, increasingly resemble traditional eyewear. The Ray-Ban Meta, developed by Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant, currently leads the market with this new approach.According to a recent MarketsandMarkets study, the sector’s growth is “driven by advancements in augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and miniaturization technologies, which are pushing the boundaries of what these wearable devices can achieve.” However, integrating technology into fashionable frames requires careful compromise.The Ray-Ban Meta, for instance, can capture photos and videos, play music, and provide information about objects in view, but doesn’t offer augmented reality with superimposed images. Meta representative Robin Dyer explained that while AR capabilities may come later, they would likely double the current price.- 200 dollars -Price is a major battleground in this market, particularly with the entry of Chinese manufacturers.While Google Glass initially retailed for around $1,500 in 2013, today’s smart glasses are approaching the price of premium conventional frames.Meta’s James Nickerson noted that their Ray-Ban collaboration starts at $300, just $50 more than standard Ray-Bans, offering “a cool camera” as a bonus.Chinese startup Vue has pushed prices even lower, offering basic models with voice assistant and music capabilities for $200.Some manufacturers, like XReal, focus on augmented reality, projecting smartphone, computer, or gaming console displays — though this is a market for which Apple’s VisonPro failed to create excitement last year.For AR, recent advances help move away from the bulk of a virtual reality headset towards that of classic sunglasses, even if they require a cable to be connected to the device. Meta’s ambition is to launch its own pared down version, the Orion, currently in the test phase but not expected to be marketed until 2027 at the earliest.- Chasing cool -Companies like Even Realities and Halliday are pioneering ultra-thin frames that look identical to standard glasses while offering basic AR capabilities.”If we want to make a good pair of smart glasses, we must first make a pair of cool glasses,” emphasized Carter Hou, Halliday’s second-in-command. Halliday’s $489 model, launching in March, displays text in the upper corner of the wearer’s vision. Using AI, it can suggest responses during conversations, provide real-time translation, and function as a discrete teleprompter. Even Realities has also taken a minimalist approach.”We got rid of the speaker, we got rid of the camera,” explained the company’s Tom Ouyang. “Glasses are for the eyes, not the ears.”

An illegal drone flying over the fire-wrecked ruins of a Los Angeles neighborhood left a “fist-sized” hole when it collided with a firefighting aircraft, the county’s fire chief said Friday.The Super Scooper — a vital tool in the battle against the devastating blazes — was grounded after the collision and will not be back in the air until Monday, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone told reporters.The pilots who had been flying sorties over the Pacific Palisades burn, had been unaware of the collision and landed safely, he said.Ground “maintenance staff noticed that there was a fist-sized hole in the leading edge of the wing,” he said.”That Super Scooper will be prioritized for repair (and) it should be flying Monday,” Marrone added. “We only have two of them.”Marrone said flying a drone in a wildfire area was illegal and dangerous, creating huge problems for the helicopters and planes trying to quell the massive fires.”The most important thing to know is that if you fly a drone at one of these brush fires, all aerial operations will be shut down.”Marrone said federal agencies were erecting electronic screening systems that would be able to identify who was operating illegal drones, with the county’s district attorney Nathan Hochman pledging to come down hard on offenders.”If you’re thinking that it’s fun to send a drone up in the area… you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted, and you will be punished to the full extent of the law,” Hochman said.Multiple fires raging around Los Angeles have razed over 35,000 acres (14,000 hectares), killing at least 10 people and destroying 10,000 homes and businesses.The fires, which erupted on Tuesday, amount to one of the worst disasters in California history, with one estimate putting the cost of the damage at $150 billion.

US job gains soared past expectations in December, according to government data released Friday, in a sign the labor market remains healthy shortly before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration this month.This indicates he is set to inherit an economy in relatively good shape, despite running an election campaign in which he painted its condition as a disaster.Hiring in the world’s biggest economy stood at 256,000 last month, up from a revised 212,000 in November, the Labor Department said.The December figure was significantly above the market consensus estimate of 154,000, according to Briefing.com.The jobless rate meanwhile crept down to 4.1 percent from 4.2 percent.The latest report marks a solid end to 2024 for the jobs market, which has held up in the face of elevated interest rates, allowing consumers to continue spending.Outgoing President Joe Biden lauded his administration’s performance.”Although I inherited the worst economic crisis in decades with unemployment above six percent when I took office, we’ve had the lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years with unemployment at 4.1 percent as I leave,” he said in a statement.”This has been a hard-fought recovery,” he added.In a separate statement, Biden noted the country saw 21 million new business applications during his administration.The United States “generated 2.2 million jobs in 2024, the slowest pace since 2020, but still above 1.99 million in 2019,” said KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk.Trump’s return to the White House this month could bring uncertainty.He has pledged to cut taxes, raise tariffs on imports and deport undocumented immigrants — many of whom make up a significant part of the US labor force in sectors such as agriculture.- Interest rates steady? -“This is a good report, but not a blockbuster one as it seems at first glance,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union.”A big chunk of the headline number is from post-hurricane recovery, and the range of hiring remains narrow,” he noted.Yet, a surge in job growth could lead the US Federal Reserve to be slower in cutting interest rates this year, as officials work to bring down inflation sustainably.Such expectations sent Treasury yields higher early Friday.”Strength in the labor market, recent stalling in the disinflationary trend in inflation, and the prospect of changes in tariff and immigration policies that could push inflation higher will keep the Fed cautious and patient,” said Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic.”We foresee them keeping rates steady throughout the first half of the year,” she added.For now, average hourly earnings picked up 0.3 percent from the month before in December to $35.69.From a year ago, wages were up 3.9 percent.Among sectors, employment trended up in health care, government, and social assistance, the Labor Department said.Retail trade also added jobs in December after a loss in November.”These data make at least a pause in cuts much more likely, which will push mortgage rates higher in the near term,” said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association.But Samuel Tombs, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, believes that Fed officials are likely to conclude that monetary policy is still restrictive.”Labor market data are so volatile and confidence intervals so wide that trends are best determined from at least six months of data,” he said in a note.

It was, by many measures, a trial like New York had definitely seen before — a panel of citizen jurors finding a real estate mogul guilty of business fraud.But it was anything but ordinary, because when it comes to Donald Trump, the average routinely turns surreal.His criminal sentencing after a conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records caps a roller coaster of delays and legal proceedings that began when the Republican was a former president, and ended on Friday just 10 days before he retakes the White House.What once had the potential to be one of the more dramatic sentencings in modern United States history ended with a tone of banality — via video chat, with Trump calling in from Florida, showing his age by leaning into the camera.Ultimately Trump’s re-election to lead the nation’s highest office spared him potential prison time, leaving him a convicted felon in name only.He was ever-defiant as dozens of journalists, court staffers, the prosecution and the judge gathered on the drafty 15th floor of Manhattan’s criminal court to hear the 78-year-old, wearing a striped red tie, call the proceedings an “embarrassment to New York,” his hometown.”I’m totally innocent” and “I got indicted over calling a legal expense a legal expense,” he said.”I was treated very very unfairly. Thank you very much,” Trump said to close his characteristic rant, which he delivered alongside his lawyer Todd Blanche and flanked by two American flags.- ‘Finality’ -The legal expense in question was hush money to a porn star to prevent word of their alleged sexual encounter from getting out in the days before the 2016 presidential election, which Trump ultimately won.Before he took the mic he fidgeted as prosecutors detailed his crimes as well as his contemptuous conduct before, during and after the trial, saying “the defendant has purposefully bred disdain” for the judicial system while threatening those who are a part of it.”Such threats are designed to have a chilling effect, to intimidate folks who have the responsibility to enforce our laws, in the hopes that they will ignore the defendant’s transgressions because they fear he is simply too powerful,” said prosecutor Joshua Steinglass.And yet, Steinglass agreed with Judge Juan Merchan’s ultimate decision to deliver a sentence of unconditional discharge, a measure that upholds the guilty verdict but does not sanction the convicted defendant.”The American public has the right to a presidency unencumbered by pending court proceedings,” Steinglass said. “Imposing this sentence ensures this finality.”For his part, Merchan took pains to emphasize Donald Trump, average citizen, would have received harsher punishment than President-elect Donald Trump will.”Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” Merchan said.”Yet the trial was a bit of a paradox,” he continued. “Once the courtroom doors were closed, the trial itself was no more special, unique or extraordinary than the other 32 criminal trials that took place in this courthouse at the same time.”The high-profile trial was “conducted pursuant to the rules of procedure and guided by the law,” Merchan said, an indirect takedown of Trump’s insistence that the proceedings amounted to a political “witch-hunt.”And after handing down the unconditional discharge — “the only lawful sentence” that the court deemed would ensure the functionality of the presidency — Merchan bid Trump farewell.”Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office,” he said.And with that, the historic first criminal trial of a US president was over, and the screen went blank.Donald Trump, convicted felon, had logged off.

The United States hiked its reward for information leading to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s arrest to $25 million Friday, saying his swearing-in was illegitimate after he “clearly lost” last year’s election.”The Venezuelan people and world know the truth — Maduro clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, shortly after Maduro took the oath of office for a third term.Blinken called the ceremony “an illegitimate presidential inauguration” as he reiterated Washington’s position that exiled opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was Venezuela’s rightful president-elect.Maximum rewards for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Maduro — as well as his interior secretary Diosdado Cabello — were being raised to $25 million, Blinken said.He also announced a new $15 million reward for Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.All three rewards stem from US narco-trafficking charges announced in March 2020, two years after Maduro’s first re-election that Washington also rejected as illegitimate.In a separate announcement, the US Treasury Department said it was sanctioning eight senior officials who lead “key economic and security agencies enabling Nicolas Maduro’s repression and subversion of democracy in Venezuela.”Those designated include high-level officials from the military and police, and the presidents of the country’s state-owned oil company and airline.”Since last year’s election, Maduro and his associates have continued their repressive actions in Venezuela,” acting Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Bradley Smith said in a statement.”The United States, together with our likeminded partners, stands in solidarity with the Venezuelan people’s vote for new leadership and rejects Maduro’s fraudulent claim of victory,” he added.The United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union were taking “similar actions” on Friday, demonstrating “a message of solidarity with the Venezuelan people,” the Treasury Department said. 

Today’s robots perform safety checks at industrial plants, conduct quality control in manufacturing, and are even starting to keep hospital patients company.But soon — perhaps very soon — these increasingly humanlike machines will handle more sophisticated tasks, freeing up people while raising complex questions about the roles of artificial intelligence that are gaining attention.At a panel hosted by the American Association of Retired Persons at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), experts described the next five years as a period where robots transition primarily from industrial sites to service settings, helping to address a worsening health care labor crunch.Seeing robotics in places like theme parks or universities “will lead to the companion robot probably at the end of the decade,” said Marc Theermann, chief strategy officer for robot company Boston Dynamics.Cris Gardner, a vice president in futurecasting at AARP, predicted robots will provide emotional support as they enter homes and assist with daily tasks.People “will own a generalized humanoid robot the way they would own a car,” she said.- Upheaval ahead? -Dystopian prophesies of a robot-centered future have long featured in the public imagination. However, recent breakthroughs in generative AI have given more credibility to predictions of billions of humanoid robots in everyday life.The centrality of robots in the coming years is “widely underappreciated,” said a report from Abundance 360, a conference and education venture led by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis. Robots could enable an “era of unprecedented abundance,” lowering costs while freeing humans “to focus on creative and fulfilling pursuits,” it said.However, the analysis also identified nine sectors facing potential job displacement, including manufacturing, elder care, agriculture, education, and surgery.”The speed at which multimodal generative AI and humanoid robot development is progressing, paired with the lack of public discourse on this subject, indicates that there will be significant job disruption and societal upheaval,” it said.Disputes over automation have been a recurring factor in labor negotiations, most recently involving US dockworkers, who reached a tentative agreement with a shippers group, averting a strike. The International Longshoremen’s Association permitted ports to add semiautonomous cranes only if more workers are hired, according to the Wall Street Journal.- Worker shortages -At CES, companies described robots as performing tasks that humans either shouldn’t do because they are dangerous, or don’t want to do because they are grueling, tedious, or unpleasant.Hong Kong company R2C2 showcased industrial robots that can perform functions such as inspections at power plants and technician work on trains, according to San Wong, the company’s founder and chief executive.Working on trains involves “lots of grease everywhere, and it’s dirty and hot” so turnover is high, San said.Vehicle and equipment maker Oshkosh has used automation to phase out high-burnout jobs such as the finishing work on firetrucks, which requires workers to wear a mask and often leads to shoulder and elbow problems, said chief executive John Pfeifer.Those workers have been shifted to other assembly line work, such as welding. While these jobs are currently safe, they may “one day” be automated, Pfeifer said.”This has been the evolution of the economy for 250 years,” he said. “People move into more productive ways to help the economy grow.”At CES, US agriculture machinery giant John Deere showcased autonomous vehicles developed partly in response to persistent farm labor shortages.Automation allows farmers to focus on more challenging tasks, such as managing grain movement from a field to a storage area, said Deanna Kovar, president of Deere’s worldwide agriculture and turf division.”We need to continue to make sure we’re evolving the skill sets of our employees, of our customers, so that they can take advantage of the technologies and not see them as a threat,” she said.AARP’s Gardner noted that the aging US population points to a significant labor gap for caring for the next generation of seniors.”The demand is going to be enormous, it can’t be covered by human beings,” said Gardner, who views improved robotics as key to enabling older people to stay independent for longer.

A judge sentenced Donald Trump to an unconditional discharge Friday for covering up hush money payments to a porn star despite the US president-elect’s last-ditch efforts to avoid becoming the first felon in the White House.New York judge Juan Merchan handed down no jail time or fine, but the discharge upholds the jury’s guilty verdict — and confirmed Trump’s infamy as the first former president convicted of a felony.The 34 counts of falsifying business records on which Trump was convicted in May 2024 carried potential jail time.”Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” said Merchan.”The only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching on the highest office of the land is an unconditional discharge.”Trump attended his sentencing virtually, with the judge, lawyers and media packed into the scruffy Manhattan courtroom that was the backdrop to the trial’s high drama, legal wrangling and vitriolic personal attacks by the divisive Republican.”This has been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system,” Trump said in a rambling rant before the discharge was passed.”It was done to damage my reputation, so I would lose the election — obviously that didn’t work.”The former president appeared on screens in the courtroom with two large US flags behind him, wearing a red tie with white stripes and looking on impatiently as the brief proceeding unfolded.- ‘Continuous deception’ – Ahead of the sentencing, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Trump had been convicted of a “premeditated and continuous deception.””The verdict in this case was unanimous and decisive and it must be respected,” he said.The trial saw Trump forced to look on as a string of witnesses testified that he had fraudulently covered up illicit payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to stop her disclosing their tryst ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which he ultimately won.Trump had sought a suspension of the criminal proceedings after a New York State appeals court dismissed his effort to have the hearing delayed.But the Supreme Court ruled that the sentencing could proceed.Prosecutors opposed the effort to stave off sentencing, 10 days before Trump is due to be sworn in for a second term, arguing it was wrong for the high court to hear the case when the mogul still had avenues of appeal to pursue in New York.- First presidential conviction -An unconditional discharge is a measure without any sanctions or restriction that nonetheless upholds the jury’s guilty verdict — and Trump’s infamy as the first former president to be convicted of a felony.The 78-year-old Trump had potentially faced up to four years in prison.”He’s sticking his middle finger at the judge, the jury, the system of justice, and laughing,” said Pace University law professor and former prosecutor Bennett Gershman ahead of the sentencing.Outside the courthouse, Trump supporters held a giant banner emblazoned with his name that was buffeted by high winds. There was also a small vigil of anti-Trump demonstrators behind a hoarding reading “Trump is guilty.”Trump’s counsel had argued sentencing should have been postponed while the Republican appealed his conviction, but New York state Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer rejected that on Tuesday.Trump repeatedly called the prosecution a “witch hunt” which Steinglass said was “designed to have a chilling effect” on the legal cases against him.”This defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system,” the career prosecutor said.Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche rejected that.”I very, very much disagree with much of what the (prosecution) just said,” he said.At the end of the verdict reading judge Merchan wished Trump “godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”Trump was certified as the winner of the 2024 presidential election on Monday, four years after his supporters rioted at the US Capitol as he sought to overturn his 2020 defeat.

Last year set a record for high temperatures across the mainland United States, with the nation also pummeled by a barrage of tornadoes and destructive hurricanes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a report Friday.The announcement came as Europe’s climate monitor confirmed 2024 was the hottest year globally, with temperatures so extreme that the planet breached a critical climate threshold for the first time ever.President-elect Donald Trump, a vocal climate skeptic, is just days away from taking office and has pledged to expand fossil fuel production — the main driver of human-caused warming — while rolling back the green policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden.According to NOAA, the average annual temperature across the lower 48 states and Washington was 55.5 degrees Fahrenheit (13.1 degrees Celsius) — 3.5F above average and the highest in the agency’s 130-year records.It was also the third-wettest year since 1895 and saw the second-highest number of tornadoes on record, trailing only 2004.Annual precipitation totaled 31.6 inches (802.1 millimeters) — 1.7 inches above average — while 1,735 tornadoes struck amid a punishing Atlantic hurricane season that included Hurricane Helene, the second deadliest hurricane to hit the US mainland in more than half-a-century.Wildfires scorched 8.8 million acres, 26 percent above the 20-year average. These included the devastating Park Fire in California, the state’s fourth-largest on record, which consumed nearly 430,000 acres and destroyed over 600 structures.In total, the United States experienced 27 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, second only to the 28 recorded in 2023.Weather extremes battered the country from all sides, with heavy rainfall mid-year and drought conditions covering 54 percent of the nation by October 29.The last two years exceeded on average a critical warming limit for the first time as global temperatures soar “beyond what modern humans have ever experienced,” the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed Friday.This does not mean the internationally-agreed target of holding warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels has been permanently breached, but it is drawing dangerously near.Copernicus also confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record, surpassing 2023 and extending a streak of extraordinary heat that fuelled climate extremes on all continents.A repeat in 2025 is considered less likely, with the onset of a La Nina weather system expected to offer slight relief. China remains the world’s largest current emitter, but the United States is historically the biggest polluter, underscoring its responsibility to confront the climate crisis, according to environmental advocates.But progress remains tepid, with US greenhouse gas emissions dipping just 0.2 percent last year, according to a study by the Rhodium Group — leaving the country dangerously off track to meet its climate goals under the Paris agreement.

Massive wildfires that engulfed whole neighborhoods and displaced thousands in Los Angeles have killed at least 10 people, authorities said, as California’s National Guard soldiers readied to hit the streets to help quell disorder.Swaths of the United States’ second-largest city lay in ruins Friday, with more than 10,000 structures destroyed according to the state’s fire service.”I lost everything. My house burned down and I lost everything,” said Hester Callul, who had reached a shelter after fleeing her Altadena home.Firefighters were battling multiple blazes backed by water-dropping helicopters, thanks to a temporary lull in winds, as the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner announced the death toll had reached 10.With reports of looting, Los Angeles County ordered a nighttime curfew, and the state’s National Guard was on hand to patrol affected areas.Governor Gavin Newsom said the service members were part of a thousands-strong deployment of state personnel.”We’re throwing everything at our disposal -– including our National Guard service members –- to protect communities in the days to come,” he said.”And to those who would seek to take advantage of evacuated communities, let me be clear: looting will not be tolerated.”Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said his officers were patrolling evacuation zones and would arrest anyone who was not supposed to be there.The flames have so far burned more than 35,000 acres (14,160 hectares) in Los Angeles, the state’s fire agency reported.With such a huge area scorched, evacuees feared not enough was being done and some were taking matters into their own hands.Nicholas Norman mounted an armed vigil at his home after seeing suspicious characters in the middle of the night.”I did the classic American thing: I went and got my shotgun and I sat out there, and put a light on so they knew people were there,” he told AFP.- ‘Death and destruction’ -The biggest of the multiple blazes has ripped through almost 20,000 acres of the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, while another fire around Altadena has torched about 13,700 acres.Firefighters said they were starting to get a handle on the Pacific Palisades blaze, with six percent of its perimeter contained — meaning it can’t spread any further in that direction.But after a lull, winds were returning and new fires continued to erupt.One flared near Calabasas and the wealthy Hidden Hills enclave, home to celebrities like Kim Kardashian.The Kenneth Fire exploded to almost 1,000 acres within hours, forcing more people from their homes, with over 180,000 displaced.US President Joe Biden told a White House briefing he had pledged extra federal funds and resources to help the state cope with “the most… devastating fire in California’s history.” Unlike on Tuesday when the multi-pronged disaster roared to life and 100-mile (160-kilometer)-an-hour winds grounded all aircraft, firefighters were able to keep up a steady stream of sorties.Some of those forced out of their homes began to return Thursday to find scenes of devastation.Kalen Astoor, a 36-year-old paralegal, said her mother’s home had been spared by the inferno’s seemingly random and chaotic destruction. But many other homes had not.”The view now is of death and destruction,” she told AFP. “I don’t know if anyone can come back for a while.”- ‘Critical’ -Meanwhile an AFP overflight of the Pacific Palisades and Malibu — some of the most expensive real estate in the world and home to celebrities like Paris Hilton and Anthony Hopkins — revealed desolation.”This is crazy… All these homes, gone,” said helicopter pilot Albert Azouz.On highly coveted Malibu oceanfront plots, skeletal frames of buildings indicated the lavish scale of what has been destroyed.Multimillion-dollar mansions have vanished entirely, seemingly swept into the Pacific Ocean by the force of the fire.In the Palisades, grids of roads that were until Tuesday lined with stunning homes now resemble makeshift cemeteries.The fires could be the costliest ever recorded, with AccuWeather estimating total damage and loss between $135 billion and $150 billion.For millions of people in the area, life was disrupted: schools were closed, hundreds of thousands were without power and major events were canceled or, in the case of an NFL playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Minnesota Vikings, moved somewhere else.Meteorologists have warned that “critical” windy and dry conditions, though abated, were not over.A National Weather Service bulletin said “significant fire growth” remained likely “with ongoing or new fires” into Friday.Wildfires occur naturally, but scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather and changing the dynamics of the blazes.Two wet years in Southern California have given way to a very dry one, leaving ample fuel dry and primed to burn.

There will be “real-world harm” if Meta expands its decision to scrap fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram, a global network warned Thursday while disputing Mark Zuckerberg’s claim such moderation amounts to censorship.Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s surprise announcement this week to slash content moderation policies in the United States has sparked alarm in countries such as Australia and Brazil. The tech tycoon said fact-checkers were “too politically biased” and the program had led to “too much censorship”.But the International Fact-Checking Network, which includes AFP among its dozens of member organizations globally, said the censorship claim was “false”.”We want to set the record straight, both for today’s context and for the historical record,” said the network.Facebook pays to use fact checks from around 80 organisations globally on the platform, as well as on WhatsApp and Instagram. There could be devastating consequences if Meta broadens its policy shift beyond US borders, to programs covering more than 100 countries, the International Fact-Checking Network warned.”Some of these countries are highly vulnerable to misinformation that spurs political instability, election interference, mob violence and even genocide,” the network said.”If Meta decides to stop the program worldwide, it is almost certain to result in real-world harm in many places,” it added.- ‘Real world consequences’ -In Geneva Friday, the United Nations rights chief also insisted that regulating harmful content online “is not censorship”.”Allowing hate speech and harmful content online has real world consequences. Regulating such content is not censorship,” Volker Turk said on X.AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook’s fact-checking scheme.In that program, content rated “false” is downgraded in news feeds so fewer people will see it and if someone tries to share that post, they are presented with an article explaining why it is misleading. Supinya Klangnarong, co-founder of Thai fact-checking platform Cofact, said Meta’s decision could have concrete effects offline.”Understandably this policy from Meta is aimed at US users, but we cannot be certain how it will affect other countries,” she told AFP.”By allowing the proliferation of hate speech and racist dialogue could be a trigger towards violence.”Cofact is not an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network or of Facebook’s fact-checking scheme.- Zuckerberg courts Trump – Meta’s policy overhaul came less than two weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office and it aligns with the Republican Party’s stance.Trump has been a harsh critic of Meta and Zuckerberg for years, accusing the company of bias against him and threatening to retaliate against the tech billionaire once back in office.Zuckerberg has been making efforts to reconcile with Trump since his election in November, meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and donating one million dollars to his inauguration fund.The Meta chief also named Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) head Dana White, a close ally of Trump, to the company board.Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, said Tuesday the decision came after “extreme political pressure.”The move “will hurt social media users who are looking for accurate, reliable information to make decisions about their everyday lives and interactions with friends and family.”Australia said Meta’s decision was “a very damaging development”, while Brazil warned it was “bad for democracy”.Meta’s move into fact-checking came in the wake of Trump’s shock election in 2016, which critics said was enabled by rampant disinformation on Facebook and interference by foreign actors, including Russia, on the platform.