Month: January 2021

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World News

revenue possible rose in fourth quarter

profit likely rose in fourth quarter

The Samsung logo can be seen on an Android phone.

Omar Marques / SOPA Pictures | LightRocket | Getty Images

SINGAPORE – Samsung Electronics announced Friday that operating income for the quarter ended December was expected to increase 26% year over year to Korean won 9 trillion (US $ 8.22 billion).

According to Refinitiv SmartEstimate, this was largely in line with analysts’ estimate of 9.1 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics’ shares in South Korea rose 7.12% on Friday.

The company announced that consolidated sales were expected to reach 61 trillion won in the fourth quarter, an increase of nearly 2% year over year. Samsung has not broken down the performance of each business unit, including the main profitable semiconductor business.

Full results for the December quarter are expected later this month.

Korean won and smartphone sales

According to Daniel Kim, senior research analyst at Macquarie Equities Research, Samsung’s forecast fell short of analysts’ expectations for two reasons.

“A strong Korean won against (a) some major currencies like the US dollar and the euro,” he said on CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Friday. The other reason is “disappointing” smartphone sales, which have been quite unpredictable over the past few quarters, Kim said.

But the analyst is bullish about the stock. He pointed out that memory chip prices are expected to change this quarter, and average sales prices are expected to rise – this would benefit the semiconductor business.

“The memory surge is likely to last much longer than many people think. So I’m very pleased with my outperformance rating of the stock,” said Kim, adding that Samsung “remains one of the cheapest semiconductor stocks in the world.” “”

Both operating income and consolidated sales were down from the previous quarter, based on Friday’s guidance.

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Health

A Riot Amid a Pandemic: Did the Virus, Too, Storm the Capitol?

A Riot Amid a Pandemic: Did the Virus, Too, Storm the Capitol?

Three different groups – Capitol Police, rioters, and members of Congress – “spent long periods of time indoors without social distancing,” said Dr. Joshua Barocas, an infectious disease doctor at Boston University. The hand-to-hand combat was likely a super-spreader event, he added, “especially given the highly transferable variants that are in circulation.”

Dr. Barocas was referring to a highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus that was first identified in the UK. It was discovered in several US states but may have spread throughout the country, making events like the Capitol riot even riskier, he said.

The idea that members of Congress may have been exposed during an already difficult transfer of power particularly worried some scholars. “I’m not only concerned that this could lead to super-spread, but also to super-spread in people who are elected as elected officials,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

And infected members of Congress and law enforcement agencies could have spread the virus among themselves if they had protected themselves from the violence, he noted.

The transition of the president

Updated

Jan. 8, 2021, 1:53 AM ET

Kansas Republican Jake LaTurner announced on Twitter early Thursday morning that he had tested positive for the virus. Mr. LaTurner was in the chamber at the monastery with fellow Congressmen for much of the day.

At least a dozen of the roughly 400 lawmakers and staff huddled in a committee room refused to wear masks even after they were offered one or did not wear them properly under their chin, said Susan Wild, Democrat Representative of Pennsylvania.

They gathered in a committee room that quickly overcrowded and made social distancing impossible, she said. Some of the lawmakers were exposed and some shouted, “Tensions were high and people were yelling at each other.”

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Business

Israel’s Covid vaccine rollout is the quickest on the earth

Israel's Covid vaccine rollout is the fastest in the world

A health care worker administers a Covid-19 vaccine at Clalit Health Services in the ultra-Orthodox Israeli city of Bnei Brak on January 6, 2021.

JACK GUEZ | AFP | Getty Images

As the US, UK and Europe try to speed up their own Covid vaccination campaigns, one country is surpassing them all: Israel.

Israel’s vaccination campaign began on December 19 with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first person to be vaccinated in the country. Priority will be given to people over 60, healthcare workers and all clinically vulnerable people – reportedly making up around a quarter of the 9 million population.

It is ahead of other countries that have also started introducing vaccinations. To date, experts have said that around 1.5 million people in Israel received their first vaccine shot as a new lockdown came amid an increase in coronavirus cases.

According to Dr. Boaz Lev, chairman of the Disease Control and Coronavirus Vaccines Advisory Committee, has now vaccinated around 60% of the priority groups for the vaccine, although some of them are difficult to reach, such as those who only live at home by Israel’s Ministry of Health. The country is vaccinating around 150,000 people daily, he added, and intends to have vaccinated most of the country by April.

“The main goal of our vaccination program is to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible,” said Lev.

Lessons for the rest of the world

From logistics to public information campaigns, there are a number of lessons other countries could learn from trying to speed up their own vaccination campaigns.

“First of all … plan ahead. Be prepared, run a big information campaign and gain people’s trust, that’s on one side,” Lev told CNBC on Wednesday.

“Then you create a good flow of vaccines, a good flow of people … with a good administrative background so you can register them and let them know when to come for their next push. So there are a lot of things that which is basically about planning ahead and rolling it out to make it flow. “

In this aerial photo, taken in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday January 4, 2020, people are queuing outside a Covid-19 mass vaccination center in Rabin Sqaure. Israel plans to vaccinate 70% to 80% of its population by April or May. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein has said.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Israeli officials weren’t sure how many vaccinations the country ordered, but vaccine manufacturers reported that they received 8 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and 6 million doses of the Moderna vaccine (the first batch of which was due to it) Arrival Thursday). It was not disclosed how much Oxford University / AstraZeneca vaccine the country ordered.

All of these vaccines require that each have two doses; There are reports that Israel paid higher vaccine prices than it competed to supply larger countries.

Lev said Israel’s ambitious goal of vaccinating the majority of its population through its public hospitals and vaccination centers requires careful planning. “We have to set up the logistics for this, and that takes a huge effort,” he said.

“The next is to be in the correct order in vaccinating people. Unless we have an abundance of vaccines … we need to have a very orderly queue so we know who is being vaccinated, and that should be loud some Principles, “he added. “It should be safe, it should be flexible, it should be as simple as possible, but it should also follow the principle that those who are more vulnerable should get it first … to avoid mortality and morbidity (of the pandemic) . “

Logistics and sales

Public health experts told CNBC that there were a number of factors that made it possible for Israel to vaccinate so efficiently, including the small population and geography and the efficiency of its health system.

Israel has a public health system in which everyone has to belong to one of four health organizations (HMOs) that work a bit like the UK’s National Health Service. Vaccine supplies were distributed to these HMOs, who in turn distributed them to their respective members.

Ronit Calderon-Margalit, professor of epidemiology at Hadassah-Hebrew University’s Braun School of Public Health, told CNBC on Wednesday that the vaccination campaign exceeded their expectations. “It’s amazing, it’s way beyond my wildest dreams and I don’t get to say that often,” she said.

People will receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a Covid-19 mass vaccination center on Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel on Monday January 4, 2020.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

She attributed part of this success to the efficiency of the four HMOs: Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet and Leumit or “Kupot Cholim” as they are collectively known.

“They all have vaccines from the government to vaccinate the population, and they are very good at the logistics of distributing services that vaccines,” she said. Experts told CNBC that at the end of the day, hospitals and clinics are also giving the vaccines to people outside of the priority groups so as not to waste supplies.

The Israeli health system is heavily digitized, so anyone who receives the vaccine is registered as such by the Ministry of Health.

Israel recorded 466,916 cases of the virus and 3,527 deaths as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. As in other countries, there has been an increase in infections over the winter.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu blamed a new, more transmissible strain of virus, first identified in the UK (what he called the “British mutation”), responsible for an increase in cases in the country. Due to the wave of infections, Israel will enter a new strict lockdown for two weeks on Thursday at midnight.

In addition to vaccination centers and clinics, hospitals are of course at the forefront.

Yoel Har-Even is Director of International and Resource Development at Sheba Medical Center, the largest hospital in the Middle East (and by the way, where Netanyahu was vaccinated in December).

He told CNBC on Wednesday that his hospital had vaccinated around 45,000 people in the past two weeks.

These people range from the most at risk, including police officers and Holocaust survivors, an experience that Har-Even said was very moving, to teachers. He said everyone he met was happy to have received the vaccine (sentiment against vaccines is low in Israel) and the mainstream media of all political lines supported the vaccination campaign.

“We understand that this is a crucial time and everyone here agrees,” said Har-Even. “It reminds us a little of a time of war in Israel and when there is war there is unity.”

He added that people’s acceptance and willingness to receive the vaccine is a cause for great pride.

“You just have to see the lines and the queues of people standing still, there is no pushing or screaming,” he said. “The time of the corona means (the vaccination campaign) that it runs faster, quieter and with much, much more order and efficiency in the process.”

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Business

The Pandemic Helped Reverse Italy’s Mind Drain. However Can It Final?

The Pandemic Helped Reverse Italy’s Brain Drain. But Can It Last?

When the engineer Elena Parisi left Italy at the age of 22 to pursue a career Five years ago, in London, she joined the numerous talented Italians who had escaped a sluggish job market and a lack of opportunities at home to find work abroad.

But last year, when the coronavirus pandemic forced employees around the world to work from home, Ms. Parisi, like many of her compatriots, took the opportunity to really return to Italy.

Between the Zoom meetings and her other work for a recycling company in London, she took long walks on the beach near her family’s home in Palermo, Sicily, talking to vendors in the local market about recipes at dawn.

“The quality of life here is a thousand, a thousand times better,” said Ms. Parisi, who is now in Rome.

As with so many things, the virus has a well-known phenomenon – this time Italy’s longstanding brain drain. How much things are changing, and how permanent those changes will be, is a source of debate in the country. But something is clearly different.

According to the European Commission, Italy is one of the European countries, along with Romania and Poland, that send the most workers abroad. And the proportion of Italians living abroad with a university degree is higher than that of the Italian population.

Given the money the country spends on education, Italy’s brain drain costs the country an estimated 14 billion euros (about $ 17 billion) each year, according to Confindustria, Italy’s largest business association.

Italian lawmakers had long tried to win back talented workers with tax breaks, but a bleak job market, high unemployment, baroque bureaucracy, and narrow career opportunities continued to draw many Italian graduates abroad.

Then the virus seemed to do what years of incentives couldn’t.

Last year, the number of Italians between the ages of 18 and 34 returning home rose 20 percent year over year, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry.

The Italian government has welcomed the return of some of the country’s best and brightest countries as a silver lining to a pandemic brutal for Italy, calling the postponement a “great opportunity”. There is also a financial advantage as Italians who spend more than six months in the country have to pay their taxes there.

Paola Pisano, Italy’s Minister for Technological Innovation, said at a conference in October that Italy would have the chance to benefit from the skills and innovation that returning Italians bring with them.

She also said Italy must do its part to keep them there. For one thing, the country needs “a strong, diffuse, powerful and secure internet connection” so that those who have moved abroad can “return to their country and continue working for the company they worked for”.

A group of Italians formed an association called Southworking to encourage remote working from the less developed south of Italy in the hope that returning professionals would devote their free time and money to improving their hometowns.

“Your ideas, your volunteer work and your creativity stay on the land where you live,” said Elena Militello, the association’s president, who returned to Sicily from Luxembourg.

To encourage remote work, the association creates a network of cities with fast internet connections, an airport or train station nearby, and at least one common work area or library with good WiFi.

To map them, the association received help from Carmelo Ignaccolo, a graduate student in urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who returned to Sicily after the coronavirus.

For the past few months, Mr Ignaccolo has been overseeing exams with the Mediterranean in the background of his zoom screen, teaching classes near his great-grandfather’s olive press, and escaping the heat by studying in a nearby Greek necropolis.

“I am 100 percent for an American professional life,” he said, “but I have a very Mediterranean lifestyle.”

Not only the south of Italy benefits from the return traffic.

Roberto Franzan, 26, a programmer who built a successful start-up in London before joining Google, returned to his home in Rome in March.

“You go to the bar and you can just start talking to just about anyone,” he said. “It worked great for me.” He said a number of interesting startups and tech companies had popped up in Italy and he could envision investing in the country.

“That moment has given us all along that getting back to your roots can be a good thing,” he said.

Italy’s business leaders have urged the government not to miss the opportunity.

“Coronavirus, the U-turn of the brain drain,” wrote Michel Martone, a former deputy labor minister, in the Roman newspaper Il Messaggero. He called on lawmakers to find a way to sustain the “extraordinary army of young people who have returned home in the face of the emergency”.

However, some experts say there aren’t really that many benefits to solidify.

While many Italians may have returned to the Tuscan countryside or Sicilian beaches, their thoughts still benefit American, British, Dutch, and other overseas businesses.

“Zoom isn’t going to solve Italy’s problems,” said Enrico Moretti, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley who focuses on labor and urban economics and is part of the Italian brain drain himself.

Brunello Rosa, a London economist who is another member of the diaspora, said returned Italians “produce an activity for a foreign entity – they create value abroad and income abroad.” He added that “the fact that they spend their salary in Italy doesn’t really make a difference.”

A more likely outcome, he said, is that the virus will lead to economic rubble and huge unemployment that will spark another wave of emigration once European countries lift their locks.

To really tackle the problem, Italy and others would need to undertake profound structural and cultural reforms that tighten bureaucracy and improve transparency, rather than relying on “people returning home because the food is bad abroad and the weather is bad “.

Mr. Ignaccolo, the MIT graduate student, plans to return to the US to pursue his academic career and the new company that programmer Mr. Franzan is starting will be based in Delaware.

The disadvantages of working in Italy are also of concern to Ms Parisi, who is concerned that her career advancement would be hampered in what she believes is an Italian business world with limited scope for younger workers. She admitted London’s lack of sun was dreary and British food bad for her skin, but said other things in life were important too.

“I am young, I am a woman and I am in a very high position,” she said, explaining that she would return to her job in London when her office reopened.

“It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I could both keep the job and live in Italy, ”she said of her time there. “But I always knew it would only be temporary.”

Categories
Health

WHO warns of tipping level in Covid pandemic

WHO warns of tipping point in Covid pandemic

A nurse is adjusting her PPE in the intensive care unit at St. George’s Hospital in Tooting, South West London, where the number of intensive care beds for the critically ill had to be increased from 60 to 120, the vast majority of them for coronavirus patients.

Victoria Jones – PA Pictures | PA Pictures | Getty Images

LONDON – The World Health Organization on Thursday warned of a turning point in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic amid mounting fears about more infectious variants of the virus, which have led to a rapid surge in infections.

Countries are trying to find two variants, found in the UK and South Africa, which are much more transferable. Public health experts are concerned about the potential impact on vaccination efforts.

While the variants spread more easily, there is no clear evidence that the mutated viruses are associated with more severe disease outcomes. However, being more communicable means more people can become infected, and that could mean more serious infections and more deaths.

In recent weeks, optimism about the mass rollout of Covid-19 vaccines appears to have been tempered by the resurgent rate of spread of the virus.

“We were prepared for a challenging start to 2021 and that was exactly what we were looking for,” said Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, in an online press conference.

“This moment marks a turning point in the course of the pandemic where science, politics, technology and values ​​must form a united front to drive back this persistent and elusive virus.”

“We are right in the middle”

A year after the Health Department’s first report on Covid-19, Kluge reflected the fact that the WHO European Region had more than 26 million Covid cases and over 580,000 deaths in 2020.

Several countries in Europe have introduced national lockdown measures in the past few days. More are expected to follow in the coming week to ease pressure on already overburdened healthcare facilities.

View of an almost deserted city center on December 15, 2020 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Niels Wenstedt | BSR agency | Getty Images News | Getty Images

As of Wednesday, nearly half of all countries and territories in Europe had a seven-day incidence of over 150 new cases per 100,000 population. The WHO estimated that more than 25% of them reported “very high” incidence rates and stressed health systems.

“I have to say that we are very right in the middle of it right now. We’re not just in the middle of it, we are probably in the most acute phase of transmission in the European region and we continue to see (a) a really big impact on clinics,” said Dr Catherine Smallwood, Senior Emergency Officer at WHO Europe, during the online briefing.

“To change any of this, we really need to reduce transmission and control the spread despite the introduction of vaccinations,” said Smallwood.

The European Commission on Wednesday issued final approval for the use of the Covid vaccine developed by the US company Moderna.

It was the second vaccine to be approved by the EU executive, with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine having previously received the green light.

The EU, which launched its vaccination program on December 27, has been criticized for slowly introducing shocks across the bloc.

Attempts are being made to catch up with Israel and the US, where large numbers of people have already been vaccinated against the virus.

To date, according to the WHO, Europe has registered 27.5 million confirmed Covid cases and 603,563 deaths.

Categories
Politics

‘Maintain the Line, Patriots’: New Scenes From the Capitol Riot

‘Hold the Line, Patriots’: New Scenes From the Capitol Riot

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“Hold the Line, Patriots”: New scenes from the Capitol Riot

Our cameras captured the mayhem, confusion, and mayhem outside the Capitol as Trump supporters entered and disrupted the certification of electoral college results.

“… the police are … I’ll just give you a head. You have already secured the White House. I just give you a head up. Hold the line patriots. Stay tuned. The National Guard is on its way. “” The theft is real. The theft is real. The theft is real. The theft is real. The theft is real. The theft is real. The theft is real. The theft is real. ” [cheering] “You don’t work for us [expletive] Legislation. That is real. And that’s wrong. ” [cheering] “Put the knife away.” “You’re out here, they’re gone. Why are we here? “” Yes, but you’re holding a knife. “” He … just [expletive] jumped in my face, a man. “” That’s a good point, but you have a knife. ” “A man just jumped in my face.” “I know. It’s wrong, it’s wrong.” “Okay, talk well to him. Don’t talk to a woman who jumped in my face. “” You have a lot of people here defending you. Lots of people. “” I will [expletive] kill someone. ” “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! ” [coughing] “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!” “Each of us at the front have been hit very hard by pepper spray. Lots of it. And that pushed us back. But they are still working to get inside the building and take a stand. “” UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! UNITED STATES! “Listen. Hello! Listen! We have to turn off MSNBC, CNN, you know where all this is [expletive] started and put out the fire. They lit the fire. “” We’re not here to be violent. We’re not here to be violent. We are not here to be violent with you. “” Who has water? ” “Me.” “Water water.” “The ones who protected you. The ones who stood by your side when you were attacked. ” “Traitor! Traitor! Traitor! “” Now you’re attacking us. “”[Expletive] Garbage people. Such a [expletive] Shame. “” My five year old son is more like a [expletive] Man than you! ” “Move! Move! Move!”

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Business

Hospital group presses Trump administration for ongoing federal assist with vaccine distribution

Hospital group presses Trump administration for ongoing federal help with vaccine distribution

Seniors 65 years and older wait in line at the Sarasota Department of Health’s COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic in Sarasota, Florida, the United States, Jan. 4, 2021.

Octavio Jones | Reuters

The American Hospital Association on Thursday urged Health Secretary Alex Azar to provide more support and coordination for the federal distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. The slow rollout has raised questions about how quickly they can vaccinate the public.

The group, which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals and health systems across the country, said the rollout “raised concerns about whether the task of vaccinating everyone who is able to take the vaccine will come as soon as it can it was suggested by the federal leaders “. According to a letter sent Thursday to Azar, the secretary of the Ministry of Health and Human Services.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 17.2 million doses of vaccine had been distributed as of Wednesday, but in fact just over 5.3 million doses had been given. This is nowhere near the targets previously set by federal officials to vaccinate 20 million people in December.

Richard Pollack, CEO of the AHA, said in the letter to Azar that the vaccine’s slow initial rollout casts doubt on whether the country will be able to vaccinate enough Americans to achieve herd immunity by the summer. In the first few weeks of the rollout, unforeseen issues arose, he added, calling on Azar to provide more leadership and coordination between states to address the issues.

Representatives from HHS have not returned CNBC’s request for comment.

According to Pollack, some hospitals have received fewer doses than requested, while others have received more than they need “with no explanation for this mismatch”. Pollack added that other differences between the state’s plans are also creating headaches for hospitals and adding to the complexity of the massive vaccination campaign.

“We hear from hospitals and health systems that serve more than one state that it is difficult to manage vaccine distribution when their patients live in jurisdictions with different rules about which patients are prioritized and who have different levels of priority,” wrote Pollack . “As this rollout is evolving rapidly, it is absolutely essential that effective situational real-time guidance is provided at the national level.”

He urged Azar and HHS to communicate more frequently and clearly with state, local, and hospital officials.

And many hospitals across the country are currently overwhelmed with treating Covid-19 patients. Pollack says hospitals cannot vaccinate the public without help. He said hospitals suffer from staff shortages and limited protective equipment such as masks and gloves. Pollack asked for more details about the government’s plan to include pharmacy chains in the wider vaccine rollout.

Pollack stressed that the aim of the vaccination campaign is to achieve herd immunity and bring the outbreak under control. By some estimates, that could be around 246 million Americans, or around 75% of the population.

“That would mean vaccinating 1.8 million people a day between January 15 and May 31, including weekends and holidays,” wrote Pollack of the attempt to vaccinate 246 million Americans by the summer. “There are currently 64 different micro-plans being developed by states, some major cities, and other jurisdictions [HHS] assess whether these plans are overall able to achieve this level of vaccination? “

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Health

One 18-Hour Flight, 4 Coronavirus Infections

One 18-Hour Flight, Four Coronavirus Infections

The versions of the coronavirus that all seven carried were genetically virtually identical – strongly suggesting that one person among them initiated the outbreak. This person, who the report calls Passenger A, actually had a negative test four or five days before boarding, the researchers found.

Updated

Jan. 7, 2021, 7:57 p.m. ET

“Four or five days is a long time,” said Dr. Kamar. “Ideally, you should ask about the results of rapid tests done hours before the flight.”

Even restrictive “Covid-free” flights, international bookings that require a negative result, give people a day or two before departure to get a test.

The results are not final, warned the authors, led by Dr. Tara Swadi, an advisor to the New Zealand Ministry of Health. However, the results “underscore the value of considering all international passengers arriving in New Zealand as potentially infected, even with pre-departure testing, social distancing and separation and personal protective equipment used during the flight,” the concluded Researcher.

Previous studies of the risk of infection in air travel have not clearly quantified the risk and it is believed that on-board air filtration systems reduce the risk of infection among passengers, even if a flight involves one or more infected people. However, at least two recent reports strongly suggest in-flight outbreaks pose a risk: a flight from Boston to Hong Kong in March; the other from a flight from London to Hanoi, Vietnam, also in March.

On the flight to Hong Kong, the analysis found that two passengers boarding in Boston infected two flight attendants. On the flight to Hanoi, the researchers found that 12 out of 16 people who later tested positive were in business class and that proximity to the infectious person strongly predicted the risk of infection.

Airlines’ policies vary widely, depending on the flight and airline. During the first few months of the pandemic, most US airlines had a policy of blocking seats or rescheduling passengers if a flight was nearly 70 percent full. However, during the holidays, those guidelines were largely ditched, said Scott Mayerowitz, editor-in-chief at The Points Guy, a website that covers the industry.

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Business

Trump Is Banned on Fb ‘at Least’ Till His Time period is Over

Trump Is Banned on Facebook 'at Least' Until His Term is Over

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook announced on Thursday that it would block President Trump on its platforms at least until the end of his tenure on Jan. 20, as much of the mainstream online world has vigorously tried to curtail the president after years of inactivity.

But Twitter, which suspended Mr. Trump’s account on Wednesday for posting violating his rules, lifted the ban and allowed the president to tweet. Late Thursday, Mr Trump marked his return to social media by posting a two-minute, 41-second video on Twitter saying he would support a peaceful change of power.

Facebook and Twitter said they made their opposing decisions for different reasons. Mark Zuckerberg, the executive director of Facebook, said in a post that the social network had decided to cut Mr. Trump off because a rampage by pro-Trump supporters in the capital of the country the day before, suggested by the president, had shown that he was trying to undermine the transition to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

“We believe the risk that the president will continue to use our service during this time is simply too great,” wrote Zuckerberg. As a result, Facebook and its photo-sharing website Instagram would expand the blocks first set up on Wednesday for Mr Trump’s ability “until the peaceful transfer of power is complete”.

Twitter said on Wednesday that the company saw a “risk of harm” in Mr. Trump’s news, but would only suspend the president’s account permanently if he continued to break his rules. Mr Trump deleted the tweets that led to the suspension of his account, told Twitter Thursday, and started a countdown to get his access back on.

The various actions showed how social media companies are still grappling with moderating one of their most powerful and popular users. Mr Trump, who used the websites during his presidency to anger his supporters and harass his enemies, has been constantly harassing Facebook and Twitter by moving the envelope on what the world’s leaders are saying online to be ready.

Before Twitter reintroduced Mr. Trump’s account, it and other social media companies had been part of a growing revolt against Mr. Trump. Twitter began restricting online on Wednesday by temporarily suspending Mr. Trump’s account after posting tweets that violated the rules on calling for violence and discrediting voting.

Facebook followed later. Snap, the maker of Snapchat, has also blocked access to Mr. Trump’s Snapchat account. YouTube on Thursday issued a stricter electoral fraud misinformation policy to make it easier for the president to be suspended for posting false election claims. Twitch, a video streaming platform, also suspended Mr. Trump’s account on Thursday.

These actions were a remarkable change for a social media industry that has long refused to disrupt Mr Trump’s posts, which have often been filled with falsehoods and threats. Positioning themselves as defenders of free speech and public debate, Facebook and Twitter said it was in the public’s best interest to see what world leaders posted, even when critics attacked the platforms to denounce the unhindered flow of misinformation and allow toxic content.

Lawmakers and even company employees said the platforms waited too long to take serious action against Mr Trump. On Facebook, dozens of workers found the company only banned Mr. Trump from posting after the Democrats secured the presidency and control of the Senate, according to people familiar with the internal talks.

“I am pleased that social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are taking long belated steps to combat the president’s continued abuse of their platforms to sow discord and violence. However, these isolated actions are too late and by far not enough.” said Senator Mark Warner, Democrat from Virginia.

Derrick Johnson, the president and chief executive of the NAACP, praised Facebook’s decision to suspend Mr. Trump’s account and urged Twitter to do the same.

“The president’s social media accounts are a petri dish of disinformation designed to share and fuel violence at all costs,” said Johnson.

The transition of the president

Updated

Jan. 7, 2021, 8:25 p.m. ET

A White House spokesman said no one has been more successful with digital media than Mr Trump and that it was “incredibly ironic, but not surprising, that when the president spoke to the country at a critical time, Big Tech decided to give it censor and prevent him from doing so. Big tech is out of control. “

Over the past year, Facebook and Twitter had taken some steps to flag Mr Trump’s posts as inaccurate and to point users to reliable information. But they had mostly been unwilling to delete Mr. Trump’s messages or limit his account.

On Facebook, that aversion changed on Wednesday after Mr. Trump attacked his supporters on social media and a mob stormed the Capitol. From home, Mr. Zuckerberg and other executives – including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Head of Politics, Monica Bickert, Vice President of Integrity, Guy Rosen, and Head of International Politics and Communications, Nicholas Clegg – made a video call, to discuss what to do, said two people who were on the phone and were not authorized to speak publicly.

After Twitter suspended Mr Trump’s account late Wednesday, Mr Zuckerberg approved the removal of two posts from the president’s Facebook page, the two people said. By that evening, Mr Zuckerberg had decided to restrict Mr Trump’s Facebook account for the remainder of his tenure – and perhaps indefinitely, they said.

“What we saw and saw in real time on television – it was cruel, a violent riot, deeply troubling,” Zuckerberg said in a conference call with Facebook employees on Thursday that heard the New York Times. “You simply cannot have a functioning democracy without a peaceful change of power.”

Mr Zuckerberg also criticized Mr Trump directly on the phone call, saying the president had “fanned the flames of his supporters as they tried to overthrow the election result”.

Ms. Bickert added that while Mr. Trump’s posts were not direct calls for violence – the standard Facebook uses to remove posts – executives felt that those posts did more to reduce the risk of ongoing violence to decrease than to decrease it.

Alex Holmes, deputy general manager of The Diana Award nonprofit, said outside councils that he was a member of the advisory board on Facebook and Twitter on trust and safety had raised concerns about President Trump’s inflammatory social media posts however ignored.

“What was sometimes lost was understanding how things can lead to offline damage,” he said. “The world is watching now.”

On Twitter, the decision to temporarily suspend Mr Trump’s account on Wednesday came after a discussion among security and policy executives, said a person familiar with the company. They pointed to a clause in Twitter’s policy that said even world leaders could face consequences if they promoted terrorism or made clear and direct calls to violence.

Jack Dorsey, the executive director of Twitter, spent Thursday morning liking and retweeting comments calling for caution over a permanent ban on Mr. Trump, suggesting he would not deviate from the plan to see Mr. Trump again to be included in the service.

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on Mr Dorsey.

The actions of the social media companies went beyond Mr. Trump. Twitter permanently suspended Lin Wood, an attorney who used his account to promote the QAnon conspiracy theory and push the mob on Wednesday. The company also removed a post from Dan Bongino, a Conservative podcast host, on Thursday.

This helped renew right-wing criticism that conservatives were being censored by the platforms headquartered in liberal Silicon Valley. Mr Trump has accused companies of censorship in the past and signed an executive order last year aimed at removing the platforms’ legal protection.

“Speech blocking is going to get worse,” tweeted Mr Bongino before posting the post, which would be removed and result in his account being banned.

Other conservatives railed against Facebook on alternative social media sites such as Parler and Gab, two Twitter-like platforms that the far-right party has joined for its laissez-faire attitude. On Parler, the hashtag #FacebookCensorship was trending on Thursday, while Gab’s “Trending” page featured a full-screen photo of Mr. Zuckerberg headed “Facebook Bans Trump”.

Parler and Gab did not respond to requests for comment.

“The cleanup will only intensify,” wrote a Gab user with the handle @ Winst0n_Smith. “People need to migrate to alternative social media.”

Daisuke Wakabayashi and Sheera Frenkel contributed to the coverage.

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World News

Abu Bakar Bashir, Indonesian Cleric Tied to Bali Bombing, Is Freed

Abu Bakar Bashir, Indonesian Cleric Tied to Bali Bombing, Is Freed

BANGKOK – One of Indonesia’s most notorious terrorists, Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, was released from prison Friday after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for more than 10 years for helping set up a terrorist training camp.

Mr Bashir, 82, is the co-founder and former spiritual leader of a secret terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah, which carried out a series of deadly attacks in the 2000s, including the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing that killed 202 people, many of them them Australian tourists.

The prison authorities said he had reduced his sentence by 55 months for good behavior, Islamic holidays and other cuts. His release was confirmed by his lawyer, Achmad Midan.

In Australia, relatives and friends of the Bali bombing victims expressed their disappointment at the release of Mr Bashir. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne called on Indonesia to closely monitor its activities.

“Our message in Jakarta has made clear our concern that such individuals will be prevented from inciting future attacks against innocent civilians,” Ms. Payne said this week.

Mr Bashir’s release comes as the government tries to fight Another radical Islamic group, the Islamic Defenders Front, whose ardent leader Rizieq Shihab has called for a “moral revolution”. Authorities arrested Mr Rizieq last month for violating coronavirus protocols and ordered his organization to disband.

The country’s counter-terrorism police arrested 23 members of Jemaah Islamiyah last month, including Aris Sumarsono, better known as Zulkarnaen, a leader who had been wanted for 18 years.

Despite Mr Bashir’s long history of terrorist activity, experts said they do not believe he poses a threat in prison given his age and isolation from the extremist movement.

“I don’t think his release will change anything in Indonesia,” said Sidney Jones, director of the Jakarta Institute for Conflict Analysis, who has been following his activities for a long time. “Today’s terrorists can find everything they need for inspiration and guidance on their smartphones. You may respect him, but the world went on. “

Mr. Bashir, whose white hair and grin give him a friendly, grandfather-like appearance, had long tried by all means to establish a caliphate or an Islamic state in Southeast Asia.

In 1972 he co-founded an Islamic school in Central Java that served as a recruiting center for Jemaah Islamiyah.

Dictator Suharto’s crackdown on Islamists forced him to flee to Malaysia, where he lived for many years, and helped build the group into an impressive international network with cells in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

His close associates included his Indonesian clergyman, Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, who was believed to be Al Qaida’s main link with Jemaah Islamiyah and the mastermind of numerous bomb attacks. He has been detained in Guantánamo Bay Prison for 14 years.

After Suharto’s fall in 1998, the two Malaysian clergy returned to Indonesia, and Jemaah Islamiyah began its regional campaign of violence, including bombing churches, the Bali nightclub and the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.

The United States accused Mr. Bashir of being a key agent for al-Qaeda, but the Indonesian authorities had problems upholding the charges. He was acquitted of seven terrorist attacks over the Bali bombing but served 26 months on conspiracy and immigration charges.

Mr. Bashir praised the Bali bombers as “Islamic heroes” but declined any responsibility.

Mr. Bashir was arrested again in 2010 for helping to mobilize and fund a militant group that set up an armed training camp in Aceh province. At the time of his trial, his lawyer alleged that the clergyman only brought charges under pressure from Washington.

He was released 10 years and five months after his arrest.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who was seeking a second term in 2019, was on the verge of granting Mr Bashir an early release as a concession to conservative Muslims. But he withdrew that plan in the face of strong opposition at home and in Australia.

Mr. Bashir “is a household name but is no longer an influence,” said Alto Labetubun, an Indonesian terrorist analyst. “There is always the possibility that he is the patron of a cycle of violence or new acts of terrorism. But I think its era is over. “

Mr Bashir’s family members said they had not planned a big celebration to welcome him home, perhaps after learning a lesson from Mr Rizieq, who was arrested after having self-imposed gatherings of thousands of thousands upon his return Supporters against coronavirus protocols had organized exile in Saudi Arabia.