Sydney- The head of Australia’s competition watchdog warned on Monday that tough new regulation of tech giants like Google and Facebook was needed to protect the future of independent journalism. Rod Sims, chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), said the market power wielded by Google and Facebook has had a devastating impact on Australian news media. While the number of journalists employed by Australian newspapers fell 20 percent from 2014 to 2017 as print advertising revenues dwindled, Sims said, Google and Facebook between them captured nearly 70 per cent of all online advertising spend. “This shift in advertising revenue online, and to digital platforms, has reduced the ability of media businesses to fund news and journalism,” Sims said in remarks prepared for delivery to Sydney’s International Institute of Communications. “We cannot simply leave the production of news and journalism to market forces,” added Sims, whose agency has been carrying out a lengthy probe of the impact of digital platforms on the news industry in Australia. While the platforms capture the vast majority of advertising revenue, they do not create any original news, Sims said. “Rather they select, curate, evaluate, rank and arrange news stories produced by third parties,” he said, noting that this market power increased the “risk of filter bubbles and unreliable news on digital platforms”. “Holding such critical positions in both the media and advertising markets results in special responsibilities,” he said. The ACCC launched its inquiry into the power of digital platforms a year ago, and is accepting final submissions from industry players until the end of this week, before issuing its final report in June. But Sims signalled on Monday that the final recommendations would include calls for broad new regulations on the digital behemoths and the opaque algorithms they use in disseminating news and advertising. “Virtually no media regulation applies to digital platforms and this contributes to regulatory disparity between media sectors that would appear to provide the digital platforms with an unfair advantage,” he said. A media regulator, he said, should have the power to compel platforms to reveal how news is ranked in search results, including whether advertiser-funded content is ranked higher than paid content, or if original news content is outranked by copycat stories and so-called clickbait. The ACCC could also recommend that platforms provide a “quality” badge alongside content produced by recognised news media as a counter to disinformation. Finally, Sims suggested a series of proposals to support local and independent journalism, including tax offsets for people who subscribe to news media which meet a set of quality standards....

Dubai- Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched and some burnt US flags on Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of the triumph of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Shi’ite cleric who toppled the Shah in an Islamic Revolution that rattles the West to this day. On Feb 11, 1979, Iran’s army declared its neutrality, paving the way for the fall of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East. State TV showed crowds defying cold rainy weather and carrying Iranian flags while shouting “Death to Israel, Death to America,” trademark chants of the revolution which ousted the United States’ most important ally in the Middle East. “Much to the dismay of America, the revolution has reached its 40th year,” read one banner. Soldiers, students, clerics and black-clad women holding small children thronged streets across Iran, many carrying portraits of Khomeini, who died in 1989, and Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The large turnout in state-sponsored rallies came as Iranians face mounting economic hardships. Last year, Iran cracked down on protests over poor living standards in over 80 cities and towns that posed the most serious challenge to its clerical leadership since a 2009 revolt over disputed elections. Prices of bread, cooking oil and other staples have soared since President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the 2015 nuclear deal last year and reimposed sanctions. In January, President Hassan Rouhani said Iran was facing its worst economic crisis since the Shah was toppled. But he remained defiant as Iranians recalled the end of a monarch who catered to the rich and unleashed secret police on dissenters. In a speech at Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) square, Rouhani said US efforts to isolate Iran would fail. “We will not let America become victorious… Iranian people have and will have some economic difficulties but we will overcome the problems by helping each other,” he said. Marchers carried cardboard cut-outs of dogs. One had the face of Trump and the other the face of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Iran displayed its ballistic missile capabilities during a parade, including the Zolfaqar, a ground-to-ground missile with a 700 km (435 miles) range and the Qiam, with a range of 800 km, according to Tasnim news agency....

Caracas- Opposition leader Juan Guaido, recognised by some 50 countries as Venezuela’s interim president, has warned the military that blocking humanitarian aid from entering the country is a “crime against humanity.”               The warning came on Sunday as international aid has taken center stage in a test of wills between Guaido and President Nicolas Maduro in which Venezuela’s armed forces are seen as the pivotal player. Medicine and food sent by the United States has been blocked for three days on the border in Cucuta, Colombia after Venezuelan soldiers closed a bridge linking the two countries. On the Venezuelan side of the border, dozens of doctors protested Sunday demanding the aid be allowed in—including surgeon Jose Luis Mateus de la Riva, who accused Maduro of sinking Venezuelan medicine back to the “medieval era.”                 “There are people responsible for this and the regime should know it,” Guaido said after attending Sunday mass with his wife and 20-month-old baby. “This a crime against humanity, men of the armed forces.” Accusing those blocking aid of being “almost genocidal,” he likewise warned that the military would be held responsible for the deaths of protesters—and reaffirmed his call for a mass march on Tuesday in memory of the estimated 40 people killed in disturbances since January 21. Guaido has offered amnesty for any members of the armed forces who disavows Maduro—but the military leadership still publicly backs the president. On Sunday, the Venezuelan military announced it had started conducting exercises, set to run until February 15 across the country, to “reinforce the country’s defensive capacity.”             Maduro has rejected humanitarian aid as a US ploy to intervene in Venezuela, calling the deployment of aid a “political show” and blaming US sanctions for the country’s widespread shortages of food and medicine. Guaido countered that the regime was refusing to acknowledge a “crisis that they themselves generated,” while Venezuelans were working to deal with the humanitarian emergency. Speaking to AFP Friday, Guaido vowed to do “whatever necessary” to “stop the usurpation” of power and “save lives”—without ruling out the possibility of authorizing foreign intervention. And on Sunday, he said hundreds of volunteers had signed up over the weekend to help bring aid into Venezuela—with further shipments set to arrive in neighboring Brazil and on a Caribbean island. Suffering the worst crisis of its modern history, Venezuelans have had to grapple with life-threatening scarcities amid eye-popping levels of hyperinflation that have rendered salaries and savings worthless. According to the United Nations, some 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2015. But Guaido on Sunday reiterated that he would not negotiate with Maduro—as he believes Maduro would use such talks to buy himself time. “Democracy is closer than ever before, the future is ours,” he said. An international Contact Group, made up of European and Latin American countries, called for snap presidential elections following a meeting in Montevideo this week. But Maduro, who has asked Pope Francis to act as a mediator, rejected what he said was “bias” by the group. Last week Maduro also rejected a call by European Union countries to hold elections, prompting them to recognize Guaido. Guaido, the 35 year-old head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly,...

New York- A lawyer has denied allegations by Jeff Bezos that the National Enquirer tabloid had tried to extort and blackmail him, insisting that embarrassing photographs were obtained from a “reliable” source. “It absolutely is not extortion and not blackmail,” Elkan Abramowitz, who represents National Enquirer parent company American Media Inc (AMI)’s chief executive David Pecker, told ABC television’s “This Week.” “What happened was the story was given to the National Enquirer by a reliable source that had been given information to the National Enquirer for seven years prior to the story. It was a source that was well known to both Mr Bezos and Miss (Lauren) Sanchez.” Last month, the supermarket tabloid reported that Bezos, 55, had an extramarital affair with a former news anchor, publishing a trove of private text messages. The report appeared days after Bezos and his wife MacKenzie announced their divorce. When asked if the Enquirer’s source was Sanchez’s brother Michael, as reported by some media outlets, Abramowitz declined to confirm. “It was a person that was known to both Bezos and Ms Sanchez,” he said. “I can tell you it’s not Saudi Arabia, it’s not President Trump, it’s not Roger Stone. But I cannot tell you who the source is.” The attorney was responding to Bezos’s stunning claims published on online platform Medium on Thursday. Bezos hinted he may have been targeted by pro-Trump forces in part because of coverage by The Washington Post, which he owns, of the murder of its contributor Jamal Khashoggi, strangled and dismembered by Saudi agents in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in October. But Abramowitz insisted that the Enquirer’s exchanges with Bezos, which the billionaire released in his online post, were simply journalistic negotiating practices rather than extortion. “The story was already published... it was part of a legitimate negotiation,” the lawyer said. “I think both Bezos and AMI had interests in resolving their differences. Bezos didn’t want another story written about him or those pictures published, AMI did not want to have the libel against them that this was inspired by the White House, inspired by Saudi Arabia or inspired by The Washington Post.”...

Washington- The Trump administration signalled on Friday it was unlikely to meet a deadline to report to Congress on whether it intends to impose sanctions on those responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, prompting an angry backlash on Capitol Hill. Republican and Democratic lawmakers triggered a provision of the Global Magnitsky human rights act in October, giving the administration 120 days until Feb. 8 to report on who was responsible for the death of Khashoggi and whether the United States would impose sanctions on that person or persons. Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote for The Washington Post, was killed at a Saudi consulate in Turkey in early October, sparking global outrage. In Saudi Arabia, 11 suspects have been indicted in the murder, and officials have rejected accusations that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing. Congressional aides said they had not received a report from the White House by early evening on Friday. Some said they still hoped to receive it by early next week, but the administration said President Donald Trump did not feel the need to send one. “The President maintains his discretion to decline to act on congressional committee requests when appropriate,” a senior administration official said in an emailed statement. “The US Government will continue to consult with Congress and work to hold accountable those responsible for Jamal Khashoggi’s killing.” Some lawmakers responded angrily and said they intended to punish whoever was responsible. “The administration’s refusal to deal with this issue and keep Congress informed underscores the need to get to the bottom of what is motivating the Trump foreign policy,” Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. The New York Times reported on Thursday that the Saudi crown prince had said a year before Khashoggi’s death that he would use “a bullet” on Khashoggi if he did not return home and end his criticism of the government. Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told reporters on Friday the prince did not order Khashoggi’s killing but declined comment on the Times story. Al-Jubeir said he wanted Congress to let the Saudi legal process conclude before taking action on sanctions. “We are doing what we need to do in terms of acknowledging the mistake, investigating, charging and holding people accountable,” he said. Al-Jubeir said he believed some congressional criticism was “driven by politics.” ‘The law is clear’ Juan Pachon, a spokesman for Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump was breaking the law by failing to send the report. “The law is clear,” Pachon said. “It requires a determination and report in response to the letter we sent with (former Foreign Relations Chairman Bob) Corker. The president has no discretion here. He’s either complying with the law or breaking it.” Members of Congress, including many of Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, have clamored for a strong response to Khashoggi’s murder as well as the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Ahead of the deadline, a group of Republican and Democratic senators on Thursday renewed their push to penalize Saudi Arabia, unveiling legislation to bar some arms sales and impose sanctions on those responsible for Khashoggi’s death. Trump has resisted such legislative efforts, viewing weapons sales as an important source of U.S. jobs and standing by the Saudi crown prince. He is also reluctant to disturb the strategic relationship with the kingdom, seen as an important regional...