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WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - They built their services for sharing, allowing users to reach others around the world. Now they want people to hold back.

Facebook and other social media companies battled their own services on Friday as they tried to delete copies of a video apparently recorded by the gunman as he killed 49 people and wounded scores of others in the attack on two New Zealand mosques Friday.

The video was livestreamed on the suspect's Facebook account and later reposted on other services.

According to news reports, Facebook took down the livestream of the attack 20 minutes after it was posted and removed the suspect's accounts. But people were able to capture the video and repost it on other sites, including YouTube, Twitter and Reddit.

YouTube has tweeted that it is "working to remove any violent footage." A post from one user on Reddit asks others not to "post the videos. If you see the videos, bring it to themoderators' attention."

Criticism of pace

Despite the companies' quick actions, they still came under fire for not being fast enough. Critics said the platforms should have better systems in place to locate and remove content, instead of a system that helps others facilitate its spread once something is posted.

One critic, Tom Watson, a member of the British Parliament and deputy leader of the Labor Party, called for YouTube to stop all new videos from being posted on the site if it could not stop the spread of the New Zealand video.

Resistance to censorship

The companies' race to stamp out the New Zealand video highlighted the dilemma that social media companies have faced, particularly as they have allowed livestreaming.

Built on users' content, Facebook, YouTube and others have long resisted the arduous task of censoring objectionable content.

At hearings in Washington or in media interviews, executives of these firms have said that untrue information isin itself notagainst their terms of service.

Instead of removing information deemed fake or objectionable, social media companies have tried to frame the information with fact checking or have demoted the information on their sites, making it harder for people to find.

That is what Facebook appears to be doing with the anti-vaccination content on its site. Earlier this month, Facebook said it would curtail anti-vaccination information on its platforms, including blocking advertising that contains false information about vaccines. It did not say it would remove users expressing anti-vaccination content.

But sometimes the firms do remove accounts. Last year, Facebook, Twitter and others removed from their platforms Alex Jones, an American commentator, used for spreading conspiracy theories and stirring hatred.

More monitors

In the past year, some social media companies have hired more people to monitor content so that issues are flagged faster, rather than having to wait for other users or the firm's algorithms to flag objectionable content.

With the New Zealand shooting video, Facebook and other firms appeared to be in lockstep, saying they would remove the content as quickly as they found it.

But there have been more calls for human and technical solutions that can quickly stop the spread of content across the internet.(VOA)

At least 49 people were killed during Friday prayers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Young children are among the 48 people wounded in the attack and are being treated for gunshot wounds. Forty-one people were killed at one mosque, and seven people were killed at the second mosque.

The victims of Friday's shooting included immigrants from Pakistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The suspects 

Three men and one woman are in custody. New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said none of them were on security watch lists.

A 28-year old man has been charged with murder. The attacker has not been named, but Australia's prime minister said he was an Australian citizen and described him as an "extremist right-wing violent terrorist."

The gunman live-streamed the assault on Facebook from a head-mounted camera, and the footage showed how victims were killed inside one of the mosques. The shooter broadcast the live footage after publishing a manifesto in which he called immigrants "invaders."

Prime Minister Ardern called the shooting a "terrorist attack," and authorities advised all mosques in Christchurch to shut down until further notice.

World reaction 
U.S. President Donald Trump extended condolences on Twitter to New Zealanders and said, "The U.S. stands by New Zealand for anything we can do."

The attack has been condemned across the globe, with leaders from Pakistan, Turkey, Britain, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Japan and the European Union sending their condolences and offering support to New Zealand.

Violent crimes rare

Mass shootings, and violent crime in general, are rare in New Zealand, a country of nearly 5 million people. The country's worst mass shooting was in 1990 when a lone gunman killed 13 people in the small town of Aramoana. (VOA)

CANBERRA, LELEMUKU.COM - Tens of thousands of Australian and New Zealand school children have skipped classes for a global day of action on climate change. In New South Wales, opposition politicians have encouraged students to take part, insisting the world is at a "real crossroads.”

Australia’s School Strike 4 Climate movement wants the nation to commit to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 and to ban a giant India-owned coal mine in Queensland.

Rallies in Australia and New Zealand were part of a global day of action across almost 100 countries. The movement was inspired by Greta Thunberg, a teenager from Sweden, who last year skipped school to protest with a hand-painted banner outside the Swedish parliament.

Strikes were planned at 60 towns and cities across Australia and New Zealand.

Protesters say they are frustrated with the apparent inability of adults to take action to prevent catastrophic climate change, and that they fear for their futures.

Australia has just recorded its hottest summer since records began.

In the nation’s most populous state, New South Wales, opposition leader Michael Daley has urged students to skip classes to join climate change rallies.

“They are inheriting from us a world that is at best precarious. They do not have a microphone but they do have a democratic right to assembly. They do have a right to protest. I support these young people and their action. [I] think there is a real opportunity for young people to realize their own personal power,” Daley said.

New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Daley’s support for striking students was “grossly irresponsible.”

Other conservative critics said the children were victims of "politically correct teaching" and the campaign was a ploy to “weaponize children for political purposes.”

Education officials said all students at government schools were expected to be in class and could face disciplinary action if they attended Friday’s rallies.

In New Zealand, a rally by school children in Christchurch was called off following mass shootings at two city mosques that killed dozens of people. (VOA)

TOKYO, LELEMUKU.COM - Inpex Corporation announced that the LNG Tanker Oceanic Breeze called for the first time at Inpex’s Naoetsu LNG Terminal (the Terminal) located in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, delivering a cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG Project (the Project) in Australia.

Oceanic Breeze is owned by Oceanic Breeze LNG Transport S. A. (OBLT), a joint venture between Inpex Shipping Co., Ltd. (Inpex Shipping) (30%) and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (K-Line) (70%), and designated to transport the 0.9 million tons per year of Ichthys LNG entitled to INPEX.

Oceanic Breeze’s transportation and delivery of Ichthys LNG to the Terminal marks a significant milestone in Inpex’s development of a global gas value chain business, positioned as one of the company’s business targets outlined in Vision 2040 announced in May 2018.

Going forward, Inpex will continue to strive to serve its customers with safe and stable supplies of natural gas, an environmentally friendly fuel.

Inpex Corporation is Japan’s largest exploration and production (E&P) company, and a mid-tier E&P player just behind the world’s oil majors.

Inpex is currently involved in approximately 70 projects across more than 20 countries, including the Ichthys LNG Project in Australia as Operator. Inpex aims to become a leading energy company and continue providing a stable and efficient supply of energy to its customers. (Inpex)

CANBERA, LELEMUKU.COM- Evacuation efforts continue Monday in the Australian city of Townsville in the tropical northeast state of Queensland, after authorities decided to fully open the gates of a dam Sunday.

The floodgates of the city's dam were opened to prevent the Ross River from breaking its banks, flooding some suburbs.

Many homes in Townsville had been left without power and cut off by flooded roads.

Rescue teams, using boats and helicopters have evacuated thousands of Townsville's 82,000 homes, while 400 army personnel have been working to distribute sandbags to properties at risk of inundation.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued a "major flood warning," late Sunday and urged people to seek shelter on higher ground.

"Dangerous and high velocity flows will occur in the Ross River Sunday night into Monday. Unprecedented areas of flooding will occur in Townsville," a statement by the bureau said, adding there was a "risk to life and property".

Speaking to reporters Monday, Queensland state Prime Minister Anastasia Palaszczuk warned that more rain in Townsville and the surrounding area over the next two days could cause flash flooding.

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill described the rainfall as a "one-in-100-year event.''

Some 1,012 millimeters of rain was dumped there during the past week, compare to 886 millimeters in all of 1998, which held the previous record for rainfall.

January was the hottest month on record for all of Australia, and southern parts of the country remain in a state of severe drought.

CANBERRA, LELEMUKU,COM - Tens of thousands of Melbourne homes and businesses lost power Friday as air-conditioners taxed the power supply on what was forecast to be the hottest day in a decade for Australia’s second-largest city.

The Victoria state capital, with a population of 5 million, is set to reach 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit). That would be Melbourne's hottest day since Feb. 7, 2009 — a day of catastrophic wildfires that is remembered as Black Saturday.

That day, the temperature soared to 46.4 C (115.5 F). Wildfires killed 173 people and razed more than 2,000 homes in Victoria.

Scores of wildfires are raging in heat wave conditions across much of drought-parched southeast Australia, with authorities warning the fire risk is high.

Audrey Zibelman, chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator, which manages the national electricity grid, said three heat-stressed coal-fired generators had failed in Victoria and a fourth was expected to shut downFriday.

The grid began loading-sharing as temperatures climbed in the early afternoon, with 30,000 households and businesses at a time being switched off for as long as two hours so that supply could keep up with demand, Zibelman said. Essential services such as hospitals were quarantined.

Alcoa, the state’s largest power user, agreed to power down its aluminum smelter. Several other businesses also agreed to wind down their operators during the period of extraordinary demand to spare the city’s power.

Black Saturday had been the hottest day ever recorded by a major Australian city until Adelaide reached a searing 46.6 C (115.9 F) on Thursday.

The South Australia state capital of 1.3 million people — 640 kilometers (400 miles) west of Melbourne — beat its previous 80-year-old record of 46.1 C (115 F) set on Jan. 12, 1939, and records tumbled in smaller towns across the state.

The South Australian town of Port Augusta, population 15,000, topped the state at 49.5 C (121.1 F).

The Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne invoked its extreme-heat policy Thursday and closed the main stadium's roof during a women's semifinal match.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Rob Sharpe said he would not be surprised if this January becomes Australia's hottest January on record with heat wave conditions likely to persist.

Last year was Australia's third-warmest on record. (VOA)

CANBERRA, LELEMUKU.COM - The Australian government has confirmed that a dual Chinese-Australian dissident and writer has been detained in his native country.

Yang Hengjun, a former Chinese diplomat turned democracy activist and novelist, was detained by security agents at the airport in the southern city of Guangzhou last Friday after arriving with his wife and stepdaughter after a flight from New York. The family was set to catch a connecting flight to Shanghai.

In a statement issued Thursday, Foreign Minister Marise Payne called on Beijing to treat Yang’s case “transparently and fairly.” She said embassy officials will meet with Chinese authorities there “to seek further clarification” on Yang’s case and arrange consular access with him as soon as possible.

Yang is currently a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York. His detention in China occurs amid the detention of two Canadian nationals in China in apparent retaliation for the arrest of a senior Chinese executive in Canada.

Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer for Chinese telecom giant Huawei, was arrested in Vancouver on December 1 on behalf of the United States, which is seeking her extradition over alleged violations of U.S. trade sanctions on Iran.

Yang may also be the latest in a string of activists and human rights lawyers who have been detained in a sweeping crackdown on dissidents since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012. (VOA)

CANBERRA, LELEMUKU.COM - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has wrapped up a three-day trip to the South Pacific to reassure vulnerable island nations that Canberra is serious about tackling climate change.

Morrison told Pacific Island leaders that Australia would meet its international obligations to reduce carbon emissions in line with the Paris climate change agreement.

Many low-lying communities fear that rising sea levels will force them from their homes. In Samoa, coastal villages are already making plans to relocate to higher ground in the nation’s volcanic interior.

Morrison’s three-day trip to Vanuatu and Fiji has been described by foreign policy experts as mostly a success.

Coal a sticking point

But climate change remains a source of friction between Australia and its smaller neighbors. Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama criticized Canberra for not doing more to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the economy’s reliance on coal. Australia has some of the world’s highest per capita rates of carbon pollution.

Australia is also eager to counter China’s growing strategic influence in the South Pacific, although Morrison insists all countries should work together.

“We are here because we are for the independent sovereignty and prosperity of Vanuatu because they are our Pacific neighbors and family. That is why we are here,” he said. “Our objectives and our motives here, I think, are very transparent to our family and friends here in the Pacific, particularly here in Vanuatu. This question is put to me all the time. I mean, we do not have to choose. We just have to work cooperatively together.”

Australia has also mended a previously fraught relationship with Fiji. Prime Minister Bainimarama is a former commander of the Fijian military who deposed an elected government in 2006. Democracy was restored to Fiji, an archipelago of about 900,000 people, in 2014.

Countering China

Pacific nations have debts of about $4 billion. Creditors include the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, while $1 billion is owed to China.

Experts say that some South Pacific countries have preferred to take out loans from China rather than accept grants from Australia because the process was simpler and less bureaucratic. (VOA)

CANBERRA, LELEMUKU.COM - It was all a bit overwhelming for the latest opponent who could do nothing to slow Serena Williams at the Australian Open. So Dayana Yastremska, an 18-year-old from Ukraine, found herself wiping away tears as she walked to the net.

Williams knows what it’s like to be the one weeping after a loss. She put her right hand on Yastremska’s shoulder and consoled her by saying, “You’re so young. You did amazing. Don’t cry.” Then they embraced, and Williams patted Yastremska on the back.

“I could tell she was quite upset. I kind of liked that. It shows she wasn’t just there to play a good match — she was there to win. She wanted to win. That really broke my heart,” Williams said. “I think she’s a good talent. It’s good to see that attitude.”

Maybe she will be tested in the fourth round, because no one has come close to making her work too hard so far, including the 6-2, 6-1 victory on Saturday.

Next up, though, is a far more accomplished player, No. 1-ranked Simona Halep, who took control by reeling off six consecutive games in one stretch and advanced by beating Williams’ sister, Venus, 6-2, 6-3.

After two tough three-set tussles, Halep had a much easier time of things, making only 12 unforced errors while Venus had 33. Halep played with her left thigh taped, but moved around the court well.

“She played pretty flawless,” said Venus, who exits before the fourth round at a fifth consecutive Grand Slam tournament.

Looking ahead, Halep said: “It’s going to be a bigger challenge. I am ready to face it.”

She’s lost eight of her past nine matches against Serena.

Might Venus offer her sibling any tips?

“I don’t know if Serena needs my help or not,” Venus said. “If she does, I’ll be there.”

Not only has Serena won every set she played this week — and 20 in a row at Melbourne Park, dating to the start of her 2017 run to the title (she sat out last year’s tournament after having a baby) — but Williams has ceded a total of only nine games through three victories.

Unlike any of Serena’s foes until now, Halep has won a major title, last year’s French Open. She’s been to three other Grand Slam finals, including a year ago at the Australian Open.

That resume pales in comparison to Serena’s, of course.

Whose doesn’t?

She is bidding for an eighth trophy at the Australian Open and record-tying 24th Grand Slam title in all.

As for the prospect of playing the Williams sisters in back-to-back matches, Halep called it “the toughest draw I’ve ever had.”

“I just want to try to play my best tennis,” Halep said, “because I have nothing to lose.”

Other women’s fourth-rounders set up for Monday: Naomi Osaka, the woman who beat Serena in last year’s chaotic U.S. Open final, against No. 13 Anastasija Sevastova; 2017 U.S. Open runner-up Madison Keys against No. 6 Elina Svitolina; and two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza against 2016 U.S. Open runner-up Karolina Pliskova, who beat No. 27 seed Camila Giorgi 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 on Saturday night.

Men’s matchups Monday with a quarterfinal berth at stake will be: No. 1 Novak Djokovic against No. 15 Daniil Medvedev; No. 4 Alexander Zverev against 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic; 2014 U.S. Open finalist Kei Nishikori against No. 23 Pablo Carreno-Busta; and No. 11 Borna Coric against No. 28 Lucas Pouille, who eliminated 19-year-old Australian wild-card entry Alexei Popyrin 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-7 (10), 4-6, 6-3.

Serena complimented Yastremska in the locker room after their match.

“She said, like, ‘You’re young, you’re very good and you will be a good player in the future.’ It’s nice to hear those words from a legend,” said the 57th-ranked Yastremska, who eliminated 2011 U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur in the first round and 23rd-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro in the second.

“If she thinks so,” Yastremska added about Williams, “then maybe that’s true.”

Williams grabbed a pair of service breaks and a 4-0 lead after less than 15 minutes and was well on her way to yet another easy-looking win.

Right from the start, Yastremska appeared a bit jittery, missing 9 of 10 first serves and double-faulting three times while getting broken in each of her opening two service games. By the end of the first set, the teenager had 13 unforced errors, nine more than Serena.

It didn’t get much better in the second set, and Serena wound up with eight aces while facing zero break points, and a 20-13 ratio of winners to unforced errors.

Yastremska was born in 2000, the year after Serena won her initial major, and grew up cheering for someone she calls “a legend.” Yastremska recalls swinging her racket in the living room at home while watching on TV at age 8 as her favorite player competed.

Surely, everything felt a tad different up-close-and-personal with the 37-year-old American in Rod Laver Arena.

What separates Williams from other top players?

“Everything. Small details. Her discipline. Her quality of the shots. How (committed) she is to every ball,” Yastremska said. “She (is) completely different. I don’t know how to describe that. It’s just there’s something special. What I’m trying to do is to go to the level that people are going to talk about me the same, that I have something special.” (VOA)

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - With temperatures of 48 Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) in the New South Wales outback, records are falling as an extreme heat wave grips eastern Australia.

Even in a land used to nature's extremes, this heat wave is punishing. The blistering conditions are affecting much of eastern Australia, but New South Wales has felt it most.

Last year was Australia's third-warmest year on record, and 2019 has got off to a scorching start.

Residents in White Cliffs, 1,000 kilometers northwest from Sydney, have endured heat of 48.2 Celsius. Other parts of Australia have also set new heat records, including the town of Noona, which hit a nighttime temperature of 35.9 Celsius (96.6 Fahrenheit), the highest ever documented across the nation.

"The heat wave across New South Wales over the past week has actually broken 14 all-time maximum temperature records,” said Graham Creed, a TV weather expert. “It is all a combination of weather patterns that have led to the buildup of heat, including the influence of climate change increasing the potential of these events.

“Now we currently have (a) near-record late start to the monsoon across northern Australia. That is leading to the clear skies and very little rainfall that is allowing the heat to continue to build across the northern and central parts of the continent," he added.

Heat waves are Australia's deadliest natural hazard, but there was relief for a distressed sheep found abandoned in the New South Wales outback. It was rescued by the police, and allowed to recover in an air-conditioned patrol car.

Cooler conditions this weekend are expected to give way to more extreme heat in the coming days. Authorities say the hot weather will worsen the risk of serious bushfires. Emergency crews in drought-hit New South Wales continue to battle about 80 blazes.

Australia's hottest recorded temperature was 50.7 Celsius (123 Fahrenheit) in South Australia in January 1960. (VOA)

CANBERRA, LELEMUKU.COM - Australia’s Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer said Saturday she will quit politics for personal reasons at this year’s election, adding to the list of female politicians to leave the ruling party, some citing disunity, bullying and intimidation.

Women in Australia make half of the population, but they make up less than a quarter of federal politicians in the Liberal party, the senior partner in the governing coalition.

O’Dwyer, who is also minister for jobs and industrial relations, said her reasons for not seeking re-election to her seat at the next national election, which is due in May, were personal.

“I no longer want to consistently miss out on seeing my children when I wake up in the morning and when I go to bed at night,” O’Dwyer, flanked by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, told reporters. Morrison said he supported O’Dwyer’s decision.

In November, backbench MP Julia Banks said she was quitting the Liberal party immediately to sit as an independent over disunity, its treatment of women and its policies on energy and climate change.

She referred to last year’s toppling of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, which angered voters, as “the dark days of August” and said the party was riven by personal ambition.

Ann Sudmalis said in September she would not contest the next election, citing a culture of “bullying, intimidation” in the Liberal party in her electorate of New South Wales state. (VOA)

SYDNEY, LELEMUKU.COM - Researchers in Australia have begun an ambitious task to learn more about the long-term impacts of head injuries suffered by athletes. This week, the Australian Sports Brain Bank was launched in Sydney, and experts are encouraging players who have participated in all levels of sport - whether or not they've had a head injury - to donate their brains to the cause after they die.

The Brain Bank has been set up to investigate links between concussion, head injuries and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE. It is a neurodegenerative disease found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma.

The Australian study is being supported by American researchers, who set up a similar brain bank a decade ago.

Dr. Chris Nowinski, head of the Boston-based Concussion Legacy Foundation which has examined the brains of deceased National Football League players, says the presence of CTE among them is pervasive.

“Any contact sport where you receive repetitive brain trauma puts you at risk for this disease. We do not know at what risk but we have seen CTE in 110 of the first 111 players that we have studied, which has really surprised us.”

Nowinski believes energy from blows to the head during competition causes brain tissue to move. Symptoms of CTE include depression, aggression and memory loss, and can take years or decades to appear.

The cause of CTE has yet to be established, but the disease has prompted a class action lawsuit in the U.S.

Australia’s Brain Bank is a joint venture between Sydney University and the city’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. It hopes to obtain 500 brains over the next 10 years. (VOA)