Facebook unlikes 'likes

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Facebook has begun hiding "like" counts from its users, in a test aimed at curbing the site’s potential negative impacts on mental health. The experiment makes the number of likes, reactions and views on a post only visible to its author. It's so far just testing in Australia, following a similar trial on Instagram which began in July. The move is part of the social media giant's plan to limit the role of approval metrics on its platform, but it has yet to decide whether the experiment goes beyond Australia.

Lebanese Protest in Beirut over Deteriorating Economic Crisis

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By Asharq Al-Awsat --  Hundreds of Lebanese protested in Beirut on Sunday against an economic crisis that has worsened over the past two weeks, with a drop in the local currency for the first time in more than two decades. Some of the protesters in the capital’s downtown blasted Lebanese political leaders, blaming them for widespread corruption in the country of four million. Lebanon has one of the highest debt ratios in the world standing at $86 billion or more than 150% of the country's gross domestic product. Last week, the local currency reached 1,650 pounds to the dollar at exchange shops after it had been stable at 1,500 since 1997. The protesters gathered Sunday in the central Martyrs Square then marched toward the government headquarters were riot police were deployed. The National News Agency (NNA) reported scuffles between them and the security forces. "The people want to bring down the regime," some of the protesters chanted as riot police stopped them from marching toward the government headquarters. The slogan echoed that of the so-called Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. Other protesters chanted "peaceful" and tried to stop the young men who clashed with security forces.

The protest was called for by activists from the civil society, as well as individuals. NNA reported that angry protesters briefly closed the road in the eastern town of Masnaa that leads to the Syrian capital of Damascus. The agency also reported road closures in the northeastern regions of Baalbek and Hermel. Despite tens of billions of dollars spent since the 15-year civil war ended in 1990, Lebanon still has crumbling infrastructure including daily hours-long electricity cuts, trash piles in the streets and often sporadic, limited water supplies from the state-owned water company. Last week, amid fears that there will be an open-ended strike at gas stations, people waited for long hours to get vehicles filled. Because of the shortage in hard currency, there have been complaints by importers of fuel, medicine and wheat, that they buy the products from abroad paying in US dollars and when they sell in Lebanon they do so in the local currency. Lebanon's central bank is scheduled to issue instructions to regulate ways to fund imports of fuel, medicine and wheat on Tuesday.

Amazon Could Be Your Healthcare Provider Sooner Than You Think - Are they going to succeed?

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This is an opinion article does not represent khazen.org 

by Jeremy Bowman -- fool.com -- Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) has become a trillion-dollar company for one reason above all others: its strength as a disruptor. Starting out with traditional retail, Amazon has waged war on established industries including book publishing, supermarkets, enterprise computing, cable TV, and logistics. Now, healthcare seems to be securely in its sights. For a while, Amazon's intention to disrupt healthcare has been coming into focus. The company acquired online pharmacy PillPack last June and launched a joint venture last year with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) (NYSE:BRK-B) that is focused on health insurance. But Amazon just made its biggest move yet to break into the $3.7 trillion healthcare industry.

It just introduced Amazon Care, a virtual and in-person clinic currently only available to Amazon employees in Seattle and their families. The service provides help with issues like colds and infections, preventive-care visits, and tests for things like sexually transmitted infections. Amazon is partnering with Oasis Medical, a family practice clinic in Seattle, to provide the service. Though this is just a pilot program for now, it's clear from the company's history where it's going with Amazon Care. It's also evident why Amazon has a better chance of disrupting the industry than anyone else does.

A time-tested start-up formula

After a number of adventures -- successful and unsuccessful -- into different industries, Amazon has developed a playbook for disruption. The company puts the customers first, inventing on their behalf, and then tests its ideas internally, building the new business for Amazon employees before opening it up to the general public. The best example of this is Amazon Web Services (AWS), by far the company's most important business outside of e-commerce. AWS started almost accidentally as the company began building the internal cloud infrastructure to handle its own massive computing demands. By 2003, the tech giant began to realize it had built a group of infrastructure services that would be desirable to outside developers and companies. The AWS team developed the idea over the next few years before formally launching what's now known as AWS in 2006.

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US denied Iran's Javad Zarif permission to visit a colleague in the hospital

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New York City (CNN)The US has denied permission for Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to visit a colleague receiving treatment in a New York City hospital. But it would have been allowed if Iran released a US citizen held in detention, a US administration official tells CNN Friday. The Iranian Foreign Minister is under tight US travel restrictions while in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly. "Foreign Minister Zarif would like to visit a colleague who is in the hospital receiving world class care. Iran has wrongfully detained several US citizens for years, to the pain of their families and friends they cannot freely visit. We have relayed to the Iranian mission that the travel request will be granted if Iran releases a US citizen," the official said.

CNN has reached out to the Iranian mission for an official comment. Alireza Miryousefi, the mission's press officer has also tweeted, "Travel!! It is just a few Min walk," and attached a map locating the proximity of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's proximity to the United Nations. Iranian diplomats have complained about difficulty of getting visas before this week's UNGA.

How many job offers did you get? Reason why President Trump will get re-elected

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The proportion of consumers surveyed by the central bank who reported receiving three or more job offers this summer is the biggest since records began in 2014. Of those polled by the New York Federal Reserve Bank in July, 2.8% reported the multiple job offers, while almost 16% received one or two offers of employment — also a relatively high proportion. The data point to the historic tightness in the labor market, even as the longest U.S. economic expansion on record shows signs of flagging.

Will Lebanese wait hours in gas lines as fuel crisis bites?

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al-monitor.com -- Hanan Hamdan -- BEIRUT — A scarcity of US dollars is causing a crisis for Lebanese citizens. In a Sept. 25 statement, the Syndicate of Gas Station Owners reiterated its commitment to uphold the 48-hour deadline it had given to the concerned parties to find a solution for fuel traders to the dollar shortage. “Any new deadline would be tantamount to a declaration of bankruptcy of all station owners,” the statement warned. This comes against the backdrop of a Sept. 24 statement by the governor of the central bank, Riad Salameh, confirming that he would issue a circular next week regulating the financing and importation of wheat, medicine and fuel in dollars. Salameh took his decision after consulting President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and other ministers. The hydrocarbons sector had threatened to stage a sudden and open strike if the consultations with Hariri and the concerned parties fail to provide the dollar liquidity needed by fuel traders to buy their goods.

Fadi Abu Shakra, the representative of the union for fuel distributors and gas stations in Lebanon, told Al-Monitor that consultations are ongoing to avoid the strike. Yet he also pointed out that “97% of gas stations abided by the one-day strike carried out by the hydrocarbons sector in Lebanon on Sept. 18, with a full abidance by oil importers.” Hariri met delegations from the Association of Petroleum Importing Companies, the Syndicate of Gas Station Owners and the Syndicate of Tankers on Sept. 23. At a press conference following the meeting, association President Georges Fayad announced that Hariri promised to meet with other officials and was inviting the delegations to discuss the proposed solution Sept. 25. Fayad said that as a result, "We will freeze our strike for 48 hours.”

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