Category Archives: Fake News

Sorry to be the one to break the news but, the image you saw and liked of Anushka Sharma looking at her precious baby girl? Yeah, its not real and definitely not of the freshly minted mother-daughter duo. Our weird and twisted obsession with pictures of stars doing anything and everything had gotten its way when somebody had leaked a picture of Kareena Kapoor Khan and new-born Taimur back in the day. But thankfully no one has breached the privacy of new parents Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli. Not, yet anyway!

So whats the fuss about this supposedly viral image? The doing of an over-excited and over-zealous fan page(s) that shared a close-up image of uncannily similar looking woman holding a baby!

Baby Girl #JuniorVirushka#viratkholi #ViratKohli @imVkohli#AnushkaSharma @AnushkaSharma#virushka pic.twitter.com/NUea6XrjCY

Phir kya? Others lapped it up without checking twice and soon the first picture of the Sharma-Kohlis baby was everywhere.

.Congratulations @AnushkaSharma & @imVkohli on ur beautiful baby girl! Lots of love & good health to all of u

#ViratKohli #AnushkaSharma #Virat pic.twitter.com/tkaAoK0akh

#ViratKohli & #anushkasharma blessed with

baby girl..! ! Jan 11 ! Princess#Virushkababygirl #Virushka pic.twitter.com/9aCMcPMbMr

While that is that, the other half who are still aww-ing over the picture of baby feet, posted by Kohlis brother Vikas Kohli, is a random one too.

SEE ALSO: Anushka Sharma And Virat Kohli Welcome Baby Girl

Cover Image: Twitter

Excerpt from:

Fake News Alert! The Viral Picture Of Anushka Sharma With Her Newborn Is A Stock Image - Mashable India

By Nicola Daniels 110s ago

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Cape Town - The National Office of the Apostolic Faith Mission church has cautioned its constituency not to be misled by fake news, combined with one or two Bible verses, interpreted out of context and presented as fact when it comes to Covid-19 vaccines.

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize recently announced that the first of 1.5 million vaccines would arrive in the country this month. More would arrive by the end of February.

However, the spread of misleading information has created doubts and fear in the minds of the public which could sabotage that effort because citizens need to give their consent for the vaccine to be administered.

The church said considering the serious nature of the allegations it aimed to give guidance on the matter.

There is a pandemic caused by a real virus. All people, inclusive of pastors, church members, health workers, politicians, high placed individuals, as well as ordinary human beings can be infected. Some get very sick and some even die.

We need to resist evil, in whatever form it manifests itself. To focus on and spread the different (and greatly conflicting) conspiracy theories is in itself playing into the hands of evil. Not only does it take our focus from where it should be as Christians, but it also results in fear, panic, desperate hopelessness and lies, all of which is not from God.

The church said vaccines were nothing new.

In 1796 the first successful vaccine against smallpox was developed. New techniques make the development of vaccines over shorter periods of time possible. Instead of exposing the body to a (weakened) virus so it can build a defence, the so-called mRNA-based vaccines allow our bodies to create a protein that simulates the virus, which then causes the human body to create antibodies.

Quality Assurance manager in the Overberg, Sister Dieudonne Le Grange, said: Read up on the vaccine and make an informed decision. In my opinion, the risk of not being vaccinated is far greater than the risk of not getting it.

Of the tens of thousands of people who have already been vaccinated, some have reported short-term symptoms and a few have reported minor reactions. Compare that to the virus itself, which has infected more than 90million people globally and killed approximately 1.9million people. The overwhelming benefits of vaccines to individuals and society significantly outweigh the risks for adverse reactions, she said.

Cape Times

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Church cautions constituency not to be misled by fake news over Covid-19 vaccine - Independent Online

Prasar Bharati on Wednesday clarified that no All India Radio (AIR) station is being closed anywhere in any state across India.

Taking a serious note of the false reporting and fake news claiming closure of All India Radio (AIR) stations by various media outlets across India, Prasar Bharati made it clear that these reports are baseless and factually incorrect.

Prasar Bharati further stated, no AIR station is being downgraded or converted anywhere in any state or union territory.

Also, all AIR stations will continue to originate local programming in line with linguistic, socio-cultural and demographic diversity furthering the mission of AIR to nurture local talent, said a statement issued on Wednesday by the ministry of information & broadcasting.

Prasar Bharati said it is moving ahead with its plans to strengthen the Akashvani, All India Radio, AIR Network with several key projects ready for implementation during 2021-2022, expanding its network with more than 100 new FM radio transmitters across India.

The AIR Network, comprising few hundreds of stations and several hundreds of radio transmitters, is one of the worlds largest public service broadcasting networks.

It operates in multiple modes Terrestrial analog radio (FM, MW, SW), Satellite DTH Radio (DD Free Dish DTH), Internet Radio (NewsOnAir App on iOS/Android).

With 48 Satellite Radio channels available on DD FreeDish DTH Service, local and regional voices on radio stations from across India now have a nation-wide platform to make themselves heard, the ministry stated.

Around 200 live radio streams on the NewsOnAir App, Prasar Bharati has given Vocal for Local a new global meaning with over 2.5 million users accessing these 200+ live radio streams from different countries across the world with over 300 million views during 2020.

Prasar Bharati is also moving ahead with its plans to introduce Digital Terrestrial Radio in India. Select AIR channels are already available through Digital DRM technology to the listeners in many cities/regions on an experimental basis, the I&B ministry stated.

Listeners in these cities/regions can experience the power of Digital Radio through a choice of multiple radio channels available on a single radio frequency in digital mode, it said.

Specialised digital radio services of Akashvani available on DRM transmitters include AIR News 247 dedicated to news and current affairs, AIR Raagam 247 dedicated to classical music apart from local/regional radio services and Live Sports, it said.

Prasar Bharati is also in advanced stage of testing Digital Technology options for FM Radio and a standard for the same will be finalised soon to herald the rollout of Digital FM Radio in India, the ministry added.

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Media reports on closure of All India Radio stations are fake news: Prasar Bharati - Northeast Now

ACTING PRIME MINISTER CAUGHT ACTING LIKE A PRIME MINISTER

While PM Scott Morrison holidays in an undisclosed Hawaii, acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack has gotten into strife comparing the January 6 attack on the US Capitol with margarine.

Nutter is better than Marge, he said.

These are unfortunate events, said McCormack. Many people dont remember how you rode the horse; they remember how you dismount the horse.

This sparked a horserace riot.

The Ultra-National Party leaders comments outraged Amnesty International and other inner-city finger-knitting Arts students.

Meanwhile, McCormack has remained staunchly behind (and a little to the right) of Liberal goose-stompers Craig Kelly and George Christensen.

After disseminating non-information about the US election and hydroxychloroquine hair tonic, these two Sky News hopefuls have been accused of sharing ludicrous codswallop and other fish recipes.

The Acting PM said, Facts are sometimes contentious, which he asserted as a fact.

TRUMP TO FORM NEW PARTY: THE REPUBLICATS

Drumming bunny US President Donald Trump will form a new political party that is way more animated.

The new political party is Trumps way of going quietly as loudly as possible.

A new movie, The Republicats, features Trump licking his wounds and his back fur.

Trumps legal challenges over election fraud were laughed out of courts, proof the President has lost none of his entertainment value.

In other cat news, Trump has warned US Vice-President Mike Pence that he will go down in history as a pussy.

Pences security agents are prepared for a grab attack.

Without Trump, the media will have nothing to talk about apart from the inevitable return of Trump.

A White House spokesman who admitted to being a White House spokesman said, Trump is the first US president to be impeached twice, so hes proud of that.

VEGANUARY ADMITS CRUELTY TO LANGUAGE

Vegan stars have thrown their weight (or as much of it as their depleted strength allows) behind Veganuary.

Sir Paul McCartney, Joaquin Phoenix and Kim Kardashian are promoting a vegan diet through January, or as long as vegans can go without mentioning it to everybody.

(Kardashian admits to dipping in and out of veganism between meals.)

Meanwhile, a vegan from a wealthy country sent pictures of beef, egg and cheese to a starving child in a poorer country. This is what I dont eat, said the vegan. What dont you eat?

The starving child replied, I wont swallow pontificating twaddle.

Veganuary will be followed by Proteinuary, when we can all go back to talking about something interesting.

In other news

Tim Ferguson is a widely acclaimed comedian, writer, TV host, and a member of the Doug Anthony Allstars. You can follow him on Twitter at@RealTimFerguson

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The Ferguson Report: Fake news you can trust - The New Daily

Image Source : PTI

CBSE Board Exam 2021: Only those passing Pre-Board to get admit card? Here's the truth

A news report claiming that only those who will pass the Pre-Board exams will be given the admit card to appear for the CBSE Board 2021 has been circulating in the social media. This has created a lot of confusion among students as well as the teachers.

The said article, being shared on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, claims that the Pre-Board exams would be conducted twice and students would need to pass in both to get the admit card for final board exams scheduled to be held from May 4 till June 10in offline mode.

FACT CHECK

The fact check department of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) dismissed the news as 'fake' anddescribed it as baseless.

"In a news, it is being claimed that those students who pass pre-board exams will get the admit card for board exams. This claim in false. CBSE has not made any such announcement," a tweet by PIB Fact Check said.

Board exams for Class 10 and Class 12 will begin May 4 onwards, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had announced on December 31. Results of the key examinations will be declared by July 15, Nishank said.

ALSO READ:CBSE Class 10, 12 Board Exam 2021 datesheet to be released this week? Here's how to download

Schools will be allowed to conduct the practical project/internal assessment of Class 10 from March 1 to the last date of conduct of theory exams.

The CBSE Class 10 and 12 exams are scheduled to be conducted next year through the paper-pen mode. Officials from the CBSE board have clarified that there is no proposal to conduct online exams.

Latest Education News

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CBSE Board Exam 2021: Only those passing Pre-Board to get admit card? Here's the truth - India TV News

New Delhi, December 25

As the social media platforms and governments battle the spread of coronavirus-related fake news, a new study has revealed that information on Covid-19 spreads quickly and misinformation or misleading information can take on a life of its own in social media channels.

The consequences can be fatal, since often during a crisis, people are forced to make snap decisions while trying to take care of their mental health, said the researchers from an Estonian-led international network.

The scientists agreed that governments should not be afraid to distribute official announcements on social media but rather make the most of social media for effective communication.

"In the context of the pandemic, information with varying levels of proof and verifiability is being spread, and often this information is distributed via social media," explained network head Mart Susi, a professor of human rights at Tallinn University in Estonia.

The main recommendation to both civil society and social media channels, Susi added, is to create methods for fact-checking and to release the results of such checks consistently.

"Deleting information indiscriminately might seem like an easy way out, but in reality, it's a slippery slope," he said in a statement.

Up to this point, the focus of attention among scientists and practitioners has been on critiquing the relaying of information on what's going on in online media portals and the process of users assessing posts - and blame is being cast on the lack of clear standards and transparency.

Now the focus has shifted from process to outcome: the content of the information that's being relayed.

"We aren't asking how social media can battle misinformation, but whether it's even capable of doing so in the first place," said Susi.

If it is, the 'how' is no longer as important.

"We call this phenomenon the normalisation of arbitrary assessments and of the lack of standards and transparency. What might have taken 10 years under the 'old normal' has taken place in less than a year during the crisis," the authors noted.

The study comes at a time when Facebook, Twitter and Google etc are working hard to fight the Covid-19 related misinformation on their platforms via various means, inducing making the users aware of the consequences.

The study involved 40 scientists and experts from 19 countries in and outside of the European Union.

--IANS

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Covid fake news can be fatal, govts need to step in: Study - The Tribune India

An analysis of Twitter data suggests that conservatives are the top spreaders of fake news about the COVID-19 crisis. The findings were published in the Journal of Computational Social Science.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed a deep political divide when it comes to the handling of the crisis. A wide variety of ideas and opinions circulate on social media, including a multitude of pandemic-related conspiracy theories. As study author Nicholas Francis Harvey of UCLA says, belief in these conspiracy theories is linked to reduced adherence to COVID-19 safety measures, and it is important to consider who is most susceptible to spreading such misinformation.

My research focuses on how social media influences political polarization and vice-versa, particularly for students, Harvey told PsyPost.

I pursued this study as a result of my ongoing qualitative, on-the-ground (though now via Zoom) work with politically engaged college students, which has consistently revealed a rejection of science and public health recommendations as being a method of governmental control.

I was primarily concerned, as the pandemic was in its infancy, that this sort of stance might negatively impact both students and the greater public by facilitating the rejection of public health recommendations like wearing masks and social distancing, Harvey said.

Twitter is a hotspot for false information, Harvey wrote in his study, calling the platform an echo chamber where users typically encounter one-sided views and little back and forth between opposing ideologies. By analyzing Twitter data, the researcher hoped to gain insight into how ideology relates to the sharing of false information about COVID-19.

Harvey focused on six different misinformation topics: hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, bleach as a defense against COVID-19, Bill Gates having purposefully introduced the virus, 5G causing the virus, the Chinese Communist Party having created the virus, and the Deep State having created the virus.

By searching for specific keywords, Harvey accessed the latest tweets related to these subjects stemming from April 23 to April 30, 2020 the final data set consisted of 4101 tweets. The researcher then estimated each of the Twitter users political standing, based on their association with politically elite Twitter accounts (e.g., Barack Obama, Glenn Beck).

The analysis showed that in every topic except for bleach as a defense against the virus, conservatives were dominating the discussion on Twitter. A closer look at individual tweets shed light on the nature of these discussions. As Harvey reported, conservatives openly criticized both their liberal counterparts and the mainstream media for criticizing the presidents response to the pandemic and not seeing the true cause of the virus: Bill Gates, the Deep State, China, or 5G, depending on whose tweet you read.

Using something called sentiment analysis, Harvey was able to analyze whether the tweets conveyed positive, neutral, or negative emotion. Sentiment analysis is centered on two things: opinion extraction and sentiment classification, he explained.

While conservatives were more predominant in the discussion of hydroxychloroquine than liberals, the evidence did not suggest they were more likely to support the use of the drug in the treatment of COVID-19 the main sentiments behind hydroxychloroquine tweets were neutral and informative. But the fact that conservatives were more involved in the conversation suggests that they were ready to spread such misinformation.

The key takeaways from this study is that the COVID-19 conspiracy theories I identified are being discussed, supported, and amplified by conservatives to a much greater degree than by liberals, whose conversation mostly revolves around sarcasm, critique, and attempts to debunk the conspiracy theories presented, Harvey told PsyPost.

This is a direct threat for public health, as states with conservative leadership continue to face less stringent regulations and restrictions against the public health threat COVID-19 presents and individual conservatives tend to comply with public health recommendations, when available, to a lesser extent than their liberal peers.

According to the researcher, social media tends to strengthen belief in conspiracy theories while squandering belief in public health information. To counter this, Harvey suggests that platforms like Twitter take action. Twitter could act by either suspending accounts deemed to spread such false information or by removing certain topics from discussion. On a broader level, Harvey suggests that the public would benefit from education on how to differentiate between trusted information and #FakeNews.

But Harvey noted that sentiment analysis includes some limitations. While the method facilitates analysis of more massive sets of data (such as tweets), it does not perfectly align with qualitative approaches that may be better suited to detect sarcasm or more accurately parse the sentiment of a tweet, he explained.

While I performed qualitative / manual validity checks, the data presented may actually be even more skewed than it already seems, as a large amount of the neutral data was purely informative (and could thus be argued to be critical of the conspiracy theories) and much of the liberal discussion was sarcastic or satirical.

Future research should also consider the information flows and spread of topics like these, as my analyses did not pursue how information like conspiracy theories spread and whether that spread was as participation as the initial discussion appears, Harvey added.

While conservatives may be more vocal with respect to rejecting public health recommendations, this does not mean that they are the sole perpetrators of disobeying public health guidelines to the detriment of the general community. Everyone needs to be vigilant and work together to reduce infections and deaths.

The study, Partisan public health: how does political ideology influence support for COVID19 related misinformation?, was authored by Nicholas Francis Harvey.

(Image by Thomas Ulrich from Pixabay)

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Conservative Twitter users dominate the discussion of fake news about the coronavirus, study finds - PsyPost

THE CLAIMS1 After there were reports of two persons developing allergies after taking the vaccine in the UK, there was a fear among people that anyone with any allergy cannot take the vaccine. 2 Some people also put up on their social media pages that the body can fight the virus much better than the vaccine. SO, WHATS THE TRUTH?1 Dr Faheem Yonous, who has been dispelling covid myths on his Twitter feed regularly, writes that the only absolute contraindication to covid vaccine is a severe allergy/anaphylaxis to these mRNA vaccines. People with any other allergy (drug, food, environment etc) have a path to the vaccine. 2 The World Health Organization (WHO) has long maintained that the development of a vaccine would be crucial to fighting the virus. WHOs figures show that vaccines which protect against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, influenza and measles save the lives of up to three million people each year.

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Originally posted here:

Fake News Buster: Vaccines have only helped to save lives - Bangalore Mirror

Donald Trump not only changed much about campaigning, governing and the ways of Washington, even the language of American politics has altered during the Republicans tenure. Trumps rollicking rally speeches and manic Twitter feed conjured new slogans and insults or revived incendiary words with long histories; his allies, opponents and chroniclers searched for new phrases to describe the indescribable. Here is a glossary of some of them from the past five years:

alternative facts

Coined by Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor, during a Meet the Press interview in January 2017 to defend press secretary Sean Spicers the false assertion that Trump drew the biggest inauguration crowd ever. Together these formed the original sin of the Trump presidency, culminating in his coronavirus and election denialism.

alt-right

A far-right movement based on white nationalism and antisemitism. One of its leaders, Richard Spencer, described it as identity politics for white people. When Steve Bannon was running Breitbart News, he called it the platform for the alt-right. Bannon went on to become Trumps chief strategist during his first race for the White House.

American carnage

In his inaugural address, Trump painted a dark picture of poverty in inner cities, rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones and crime and gangs and drugs, promising: This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. But the phrase came back to haunt him, especially when the coronavirus pandemic killed hundreds of thousands of people.

America first

Trumps central promise of self-interest galvanised his base and dismayed critics. He followed through on withdrawing from the Paris climate accords, renegotiating trade deals and leaving the US isolated on the global stage. The phrase also had jarring associations with a 1940s movement to keep the US out of the second world war that came to be accused of antisemitism.

Antifa

An amorphous and leftwing anti-fascist movement demonised by Trump and fellow Republicans. Its followers have used aggressive tactics including physical confrontations to intimidate groups they regard as authoritarian or racist. Joe Biden remarked during a presidential debate: Antifa is an idea, not an organization.

bigly

Legend has it that Trump first deployed this word during the first presidential debate against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Im going to cut taxes bigly, and youre going to raise taxes bigly, he said, or at least that was how some people heard it. Others reckoned he must have said big league. But the word bigly does appear in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

China virus

Trump complained that Covid-19 had multiple names but more often than not settled on the racist terms China virus and kung flu, putting Asian Americans at risk of hostility and persecution. He insisted: Asian Americans are VERY angry at what China has done to our Country, and the World. But even Conway rejected the term China virus as wrong and highly offensive.

collusion

The first half of Trumps presidency was dominated by special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into his campaigns alleged collusion with Russia. In the end, Mueller stopped short of asserting that collusion took place prompting Trumps defenders to cry collusion delusion but did make a persuasive case that the president obstructed justice.

deep state

Trump pushed the conspiracy theory that bureaucrats within the political system effectively run a secret government that plots against democratically elected officials. Others came to see civil servants, judges and national security personnel as a bulwark of democracy. Thank God for the deep state, John McLaughlin, a former deputy and acting director of the CIA, remarked last year.

disinformation

Typically defined as the dissemination of deliberately false information, it took flight with Russias social media attack during the 2016 election. Trump pushed disinformation about the economy, coronavirus, election and countless other topics. The willingness of Republicans and conservative media to do likewise raised fears of a fundamental breakdown in trust in government institutions and the media.

enemy of the people

In a characteristic shock tactic, Trump used this historically loaded phrase regularly to attack the media. Its lineage dates back to 1789 when French revolutionaries threw it at those who opposed them. In the 20th century it was embraced by autocrats from Stalin to Mao to justify their bloody purges. The danger of such rhetoric was evident in Trump supporter T-shirts that said: Rope. Tree. Journalist.

fake news

The term was popularised by BuzzFeed News media editor Craig Silverman to describe unverified claims and online rumours. But in January 2017, Trump, then president-elect, told CNNs Jim Acosta at a press conference: You are fake news. From that moment on, he coopted and weaponised the phrase to dismiss media reports he did not like.

failing

One of Trumps favourites on Twitter and elsewhere, particularly when referring to the New York Times. In fact the Times thrived during his presidency and now has more than 7 million paid subscribers. He remained obsessed with the coverage of him in his home town paper.

false and misleading

This became frequent media shorthand for Trumps distortions. The Washington Posts fact checkers even kept count: by 11 September, it noted, he had made 23,035 false or misleading claims. But from January 2017 onwards, when the New York Times ran the headline, Meeting With Top Lawmakers, Trump Repeats an Election Lie, media outlets became bolder about calling a lie a lie.

globalist

This was the dark side of America first. Trumps defenders claimed he was using the term to condemn globalisation and its devastating effects on American workers. But critics heard a dog whistle for racist, antisemitic and antigovernment conspiracy theorists including the alt-right. George Soros, a billionaire philanthropist, was among the targets of anti-globalist bigotry.

hoax

Trump described climate change, the Russia investigation and his impeachment as a hoax. Brian Stelter, host of CNNs Reliable Sources programme, noted in August that the president had already used the word more than 250 times this year. When Stelter published a book, he naturally called it Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth.

Javanka

A conflation of Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump, both senior advisers to the president, both lightning rods for scorn and ridicule. Hopes that, as supposed New York liberals, they would restrain Trumps worst impulses were dashed over and over. They are the Faustian poster couple of the Trump presidency, wrote Frank Bruni in the New York Times.

lock her up!

Along with build that wall, this became the classic chant at Trumps rallies in 2016, when he ran against Hillary Clinton and, more unexpectedly, persisted through to 2020, when Joe Biden proved harder to categorise. The phrase was condemned for normalising the idea of a president seeking to jail his opponent.

loser

This is one of Trumps go to insults, slung at everyone from the media to the Lincoln Project to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. But it rebounded on him last September when the Atlantic magazine reported that he had referred to Americas war dead as losers and suckers. Two months later, Trump, who was all about winning, became a loser himself in Novembers election.

Maga

Short for Make America great again, a slogan borrowed from Ronald Reagan that Trump made his own at rallies, on hats and on endless other merchandise. The Maga nation became a way to describe a country within a country, one that was seething with anger, nativist populism and contempt for liberals and fact-based reality.

Never Trumper

The Never Trump movement was a failed attempt among Republicans and other conservatives to deny Trump the partys nomination in 2016. But it marched on through his presidency and found expression in groups such as the Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump that opposed him in 2020.

norms

Trump bent, broke, shattered, shredded and trampled on norms from start to finish, prompting the lament: This is not normal. It was another way of saying that he crossed every line, pushed every envelope and violated every unwritten rule. It led some commentators to suggest that at least some of those rules should now be written down.

owning the libs

A symptom of negative partisanship, this political performance art is all about goading, shocking and outraging liberals, especially on social media. Its patron saint was Trumps son Don Jr. He is there only to engage in that performative dickery that is lib owning in the Trump world, said Rick Wilson, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project.

quid pro quo

The Latin phrase, which means something given or received for something else, was uttered frequently during Trumps impeachment hearings. He denied promising to unfreeze military aid to Ukraine in return for that country announcing an investigation into Biden.

resistance

The resistance to Trumps presidency made a stunning debut with the womens march in January 2017 and just kept going, energising grassroots groups such as Indivisible, diverse political newcomers such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and protests over Trumps supreme court picks. The Resistance also happened to be the name of the good guys in the new Star Wars trilogy.

sad!

Another familiar Trump refrain, as in Governor Cuomo has completely lost control. Sad!, Biden will also raise your taxes like never before. Sad! and These are Organized Groups that have nothing to do with George Floyd. Sad! History will surely judge he did more for exclamation marks that any other president.

seriously not literally

[T]he press takes him literally, but not seriously, wrote Salena Zito in the Atlantic magazine in September 2016, his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. This phrase hovered over much early debate about the meaning of Trump, although critics came to argue that his malign conduct should be taken both literally and seriously.

soul

In 2018 historian Jon Meacham wrote the book The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels. Biden, an admirer of the book, characterised his presidential campaign as a battle for the soul of America (Meacham reportedly had a hand in his speeches) and tweeted on 16 December: In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed. Right on cue, the latest Pixar animated film is called, simply, Soul.

split screen

A well-worn phrase that captured the division, partisanship and polarisation of the Trump years, especially the notion of two distinct media bubbles. There were moments when CNN and Fox News seemed to occupy different universes. Carl Bernstein, whose reporting on the Watergate scandal with Bob Woodward helped bring down Richard Nixon, said America had entered a a cold civil war.

triggered

This word became a football in the Trump-fuelled culture wars. People have legitimate reasons to feel triggered by examples of racism or other abuses. But rightwing trolls seized on terms like triggered and woke to mock liberals as snowflakes. Donald Trump Jr penned a book called Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us.

unprecedented

Arguably the most overused word of the past five years. A CNN book chronicling the 2016 campaign was entitled Unprecedented: The Election That Changed Everything; just last week, on 15 December, Biden accused Trump of an unprecedented assault on democracy. Weary journalists were left scrambling for synonyms.

witch-hunt

The phrase, which conjures images of women being put on trial and thrown into water amid hysteria reminiscent of Arthur Millers play The Crucible, became a staple of Trumps defence against the Russia investigation and Ukraine-related impeachment. Casting himself as a perpetual victim, more than one tweet simply yelled: Witch-hunt!

See the original post here:

Alternative facts, witch-hunt, bigly: the Trump era in 32 words and phrases - The Guardian

Photo: Getty/Gallo Images

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has denied posts widely spread on social media that its members' leave had been cancelled due to rising Covid-19 numbers during the festive season.

According to the fake alert, all SANDF members who are on leave are expected to report for duty on Tuesday, 29 December to assist the police in monitoring Covid-19 compliance.

"A command was given yesterday that all uniform members of the SANDF... must report back on the 29th to start with preparations of giving the SAPS support on the streets, for the minimization of the spread of Covid-19," the fake alert read.

"That is 22:00 every civilian must be at home, all gatherings, clubs, parties or entertainment areas must be closed down by 22:00."

READ |No money to modernise current SANDF equipment, Parliament hears

However, SANDF spokesperson Brigadier General MPM Mgobozi has denied the allegations, saying the social media alert is fake.

"The South African National Defence Force is aware of reports that are currently doing the rounds on social media about the cancellation of leave of members," Mgobozi said.

He said the SANDF once again cautioned the public not to spread "incorrect and irresponsible" information.

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FAKE NEWS | SANDF denies claims that members' leave is cancelled due to Covid-19 surge - News24