Wednesday Briefing – New York Times

Meta is terminating its fact-checking program

Meta will stop using third-party fact-checkers on Facebook, Threads, and Instagram, a policy put in place to limit the spread of misinformation across the tech company’s social media platforms. Meta will instead rely on users to add feedback to posts that may be false or misleading.

This reversal is a stark sign of how Meta is repositioning herself for the Trump presidency. The company recently gave Trump officials a heads up about the change, according to a person familiar with the conversations. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said Monday that he has added to the company’s board of directors Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a longtime friend of Trump.

Zuckerberg said the shift will begin in the United States in the coming months. “It is time to go back to our roots regarding freedom of expression,” he said. He acknowledged that the decision would lead to more “bad things” on the platforms, calling it a “quid pro quo” to reduce the number of “innocent people’s posts and accounts that we mistakenly remove.”

Feedback: Many digital rights groups condemned the decision, even as Donald Trump and his conservative allies praised the change. The president-elect admitted that the decision was “most likely” related to the threats he made against Meta and Zuckerberg.

Can the United States take Greenland, or Canada?

In a choppy press conference yesterday, Trump refused to rule out use Through military or economic coercion To force Panama to give up control of the canal that the United States built more than a century ago, or to force Denmark to sell Greenland.

His desire to expand his presence in the United States is consistent with his mentality of making everything he controls as large as possible. Going back to his series of real estate acquisitions in the late 1980s, he has suggested that Greenland might be essential to US national security and said: “Maybe you should do something.”

It was not clear how serious the president-elect was in making some of his statements. At one point, he suggested that his administration rename the Gulf of Mexico as America’s Gulf.

Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reacted angrily to Trump’s threat to use “economic might” against Canada to get it, writing on social media: “There’s not much of a chance in hell that Canada will become part of the United States.”

Panama: Few seemed to take Trump’s threats seriously, but Panama’s Foreign Minister, Javier Martinez Acha, He stressed that sovereignty over the canal is “non-negotiable.” “Let it be clear: the canal belongs to the Panamanians and will remain so,” he said.

Related to: A second Trump presidency carries unprecedented potential for conflicts of interest via transactions In real estate, cryptocurrencies and sports.

Dozens of people died in an earthquake in China

Official media reported that at least 126 people were killed and about 200 others were injured in a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Dingri County, near one of the most important historical cities in Tibet, western China. The quake was the country’s deadliest since December 2023, when 151 people were killed in a 6.2-magnitude quake in the northwestern provinces of Gansu and Qinghai.

China’s state broadcaster said at least 1,000 homes were damaged, and rescue efforts were being hampered by logistical challenges. The remoteness of the region, along the Himalayan border with Nepal, made the delivery of resources difficult.

On the ground: With temperatures in the area reaching 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius), rescue workers had to do their best. Short window to locate survivors.

More top news

Snakes compete for the same resources and space as humans, often with disastrous consequences. Poisonous snakes kill about 120,000 people annually, most of them in parts of Africa far from clinics and inhabited by poor people who cannot afford proper care.

The problem has been mostly ignored until recently, but scientists are now trying to measure it better. Read more.

A life he lived: Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary, the folk trio who made sweet songs like “Puff the Magic Dragon” He died at 86.

Start the conversation

• Turn the page: Writers, artists and social workers Share their favorite tips To help you start and maintain a journal.

• Who escaped: To escape fraud charges, Samuel Landy went to sea and evaded extradition treaties. He took advantage From all the outside world To submit.

• Dangerous byproduct: Mining operations in the Roman Empire resulted in widespread lead exposure. This was probably the first case in the world Industrial pollution is widespread.

Arts and ideas

Where are you going this year?

England will honor writer Jane Austen on the 250th anniversary of her birth. New York City will celebrate the reopening of four major museums. In Koh Samui, Thailand, fans of The White Lotus can wander the sandy beaches and forests where the upcoming season was filmed. Exploring Angola’s tropical beaches, waterfalls and national parks has never been easier.

All these places are “52 places to visit in 2025” this year according to our travel bureau. Read the list, And mark destinations You want to go.