Internet Security

FACT CHECK: SSS has no ongoing scholarship program

SUMMARY This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article. The Social Security System warns the public about fake posts bearing the agency’s logo that contain suspicious links promoting an alleged scholarship program Claim: The Social Security System (SSS) posted an application link for its 2024 scholarship

Published 3 months ago in
FACT CHECK: SSS has no ongoing scholarship program

SUMMARY

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

FACT CHECK: SSS has no ongoing scholarship program
The Social Security System warns the public about fake posts bearing the agency’s logo that contain suspicious links promoting an alleged scholarship program

Claim: The Social Security System (SSS) posted an application link for its 2024 scholarship program offering elementary, high school, and college students allowances of up to P10,000. 

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The claim was uploaded on the Facebook page “Philippine Scholar,” which has been previously fact-checked by Rappler for disseminating false information on student aid supposedly from government agencies. 

The post claims that the 2024 SSS scholarship program offers P4,000 for elementary students, P6,000 for junior high school students, P8,000 for senior high school students, and P10,000 for college students.

The post also included a link to an unverified website where applicants are asked to provide their personal information such as name, email, and phone number. 

While the post was dated January 17, it continues to receive comments and engagements from Facebook users inquiring about the program. As of writing, the post has received 76 reactions, 224 comments, and 12 shares. 

Additionally, the website for the supposed application is still actively posting unverified scholarship programs from various public officials and agencies.

The facts: SSS does not offer the alleged scholarship program, the state-owned social insurance agency said in an advisory on January 18. 

“Walang ongoing scholarship program ang Social Security System para sa mga miyembro at benepisyaryo nito, o maging sa publiko. Huwag maniwala sa mga balita, post o private messages sa social media na nag-aalok nito,” the advisory read.

(The Social Security System has no ongoing scholarship program for its members and beneficiaries, or even for the public. Do not believe the news, posts, or private messages on social media that offer this.)

SSS also warned the public that these misleading posts are likely schemes that may put their personal data at risk.

For SSS-related concerns, the public is advised to direct their inquiries to the official SSS channels or through their verified support ticket system, the uSSSap Tayo Portal.

Educational assistance: What SSS offers is the Educational Assistance Loan Program (EALP), a short-term member loan program for eligible SSS member-borrowers intended to defray educational expenses for undergraduate degrees and technical or vocational courses.

According to the EALP application form on the SSS website, the maximum loanable amount is P20,000 per academic term, or a maximum allocation of P160,000 and P200,000 in full allocation for four and five-year degree programs, respectively. 

Meanwhile, qualified member-borrowers may apply for a maximum amount of between P40,000 and P60,000 for vocational or technical courses.

The loan program is funded by both the national government and SSS. To apply, individuals must submit an accomplished EALP application form and supporting documents to the nearest SSS office.

Debunked: Rappler has published several fact-checks about fake scholarship programs allegedly from government agencies:

  • FACT CHECK: DepEd doesn’t offer up to P10,000 scholarship via online forms
  • FACT CHECK: Link for CHED-UniFast scholarship is fake
  • FACT CHECK: DOLE-NLRC has no scholarship program

Official accounts: For official updates on the programs and services of SSS, refer to its official website, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube accounts.  – Larry Chavez/Rappler.com

Larry Chavez is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

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Internet Security

Fix delivered for tech outage that caused chaos worldwide

The cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has deployed a fix for a software problem that triggered one of the biggest tech outages the world has ever seen, affecting industries ranging from airlines to banking and healthcare worldwide, the company’s CEO said on Friday. All Windows computers affected by the failure will need to be manually rebooted, CrowdStrike

Published 3 days ago in
Fix delivered for tech outage that caused chaos worldwide

The cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has deployed a fix for a software problem that triggered one of the biggest tech outages the world has ever seen, affecting industries ranging from airlines to banking and healthcare worldwide, the company’s CEO said on Friday.

All Windows computers affected by the failure will need to be manually rebooted, CrowdStrike said.

Microsoft said separately that it had fixed the underlying cause for the outage of its 365 apps and services including Teams and OneDrive, but residual impact was affecting some services.

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a post on the social media platform X.

In one communication to a customer reviewed by Bloomberg News, CrowdStrike’s technical supp

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Internet Security

Top UN court says Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are illegal

SUMMARY This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article. INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE. Protesters hold a Palestinian flag as they gather outside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as judges rule on emergency measures against Israel following accusations by South Africa that the Israeli military operation

Published 3 days ago in
Top UN court says Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are illegal

SUMMARY

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Top UN court says Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are illegal

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE. Protesters hold a Palestinian flag as they gather outside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as judges rule on emergency measures against Israel following accusations by South Africa that the Israeli military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide, in The Hague, Netherlands, January 26, 2024.

Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters

(3rd UPDATE) The World Court’s opinion finds that the UN Security Council, the General Assembly, and all states have an obligation not to recognize the occupation as legal and not to give aid or support toward maintaining it

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The United Nations’ highest court said on Friday, July 19, that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there are illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible, in its strongest findings to date on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The findings by judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), known as the World Court, are not binding but carry weight under international law and may weaken support for Israel.

“Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” President Nawaf Salam said, reading the findings of a 15-judge panel.

The court said Israel’s obligations include paying restitution for harm and “the evacuation of all settlers from existing settlements.”

In a swift reaction, Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the opinion as “fundamentally wrong” and one-sided, and repeated its stance that a political settlement in the region can only be reached by negotiations.

“The Jewish nation cannot be an occupier in its own land,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

The opinion also angered West Bank settlers as well as politicians such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose nationalist religious party is close to the settler movement and who himself lives in a West Bank settlement.

“The answer to The Hague – Sovereignty now” he said in a post on the social media platform X, in an apparent appeal to formally annex the West Bank.

Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council, one of the largest settler councils, said the ICJ opinion was “contrary to the Bible, morality and international law.”

‘No complicity’

The ICJ opinion also found that the UN Security Council, the General Assembly and all states have an obligation not to recognize the occupation as legal nor “render aid or assistance” toward maintaining Israel’s presence in the occupied territories.

The United States is Israel’s biggest military ally and supporter.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the opinion “historic” and urged states to adhere to it.

“No aid. No assistance. No complicity. No money, no arms, no trade… no actions of any kind to support Israel’s illegal occupation,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said outside the court in The Hague.

The case stems from a 2022 request from the UN General Assembly, predating the war in Gaza that began in October.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem – areas of historic Palestine which the Palestinians want for a state – in a 1967 war and has since built settlements in the West Bank and steadily expanded them.

Israeli leaders have argued the territories are not occupied in legal terms because they are on disputed lands, but the United Nations and most of the international community regard them as Israeli-occupied territory.

In February, more than 50 states presented their views before the court, with Palestinian representatives asking the court to find that Israel must withdraw from all the occupied areas and dismantle illegal settlements.

Israel did not participate in the hearings but filed a written statement telling the court that issuing an advisory opinion would be “harmful” to attempts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The majority of states participating asked the court to find the occupation illegal, while a handful, including Canada and Britain, argued it should refuse to give an advisory opinion.

The United States had asked the court not to order the unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian territories.

The US position was that the court should issue no decision that could hurt negotiations toward a two-state solution on a “land for peace” principle.

In 2004 the ICJ ga

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Internet Security

The Supreme Court rules for Biden administration in a social media dispute with conservative states

The Supreme Court has sided with the Biden administration in a dispute with Republican-led states over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts on topics including COVID-19 and election security. The justices in a 6-3 v…

Published 4 weeks ago in
The Supreme Court rules for Biden administration in a social media dispute with conservative states

The Supreme Court has sided with the Biden administration in a dispute with Republican-led states over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts on topics including COVID-19 and election security. The justices in a 6-3 v…
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Internet Security

Modernism: A legal analysis of Nigeria’s ranching debacle

The impeccable aspirations of section 14 (1)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) (the “Constitution”), establish that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” Although the purposive intent therein is excellent, however, the practical applicability and enforcement of that provision is at

Published 4 weeks ago in
Modernism: A legal analysis of Nigeria’s ranching debacle

The impeccable aspirations of section 14 (1)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) (the “Constitution”), establish that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” Although the purposive intent therein is excellent, however, the practical applicability and enforcement of that provision is at best variable, and at worst, non-existent, regarding the political dynamite of open cattle grazing in Nigeria by pastoralists.

How can cattle grazing constitute political dynamite in Nigeria in the 21st Century, when the progressive world is at the cutting edge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computational thinking, which traverses transformative healthcare, precision defence systems, innovative fin-techs, robotics, social media, space exploration etc?

The legendary soul music legend, Marvin Gaye, in 1971, 53 years ago, recorded the hit song “What’s going on?” Although the context at the time was social upheaval in the United States, the same question could be posed within the extant subject matter. How is it that Nigeria is unable to effectively grapple with the banal issue of open grazing which commenced in Georgia and Florida, USA, in 1605?

The poser neatly segues into the recurrent lethal clashes between farmers and cattle herders, which has directly triggered loss of lives, displacements of farmers from their ancestral lands and extensive property destruction. Where is the government in all this and what imaginative policies have been executed? Afterall, cattle business is a private enterprise just like fish farming, pig farming, poultry farming, and snail farming in the country and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of farmers nationwide depend on all, not one, of these farming models.

What, then, underpins the ferociously devastating footprints of open cattle grazing in Nigeria? How is livestock farming developed and executed, applying modern practices, in an environmentally sustainable, peaceful and economically beneficial manner in progressive countries?

For starters, the global revenue meat market is approximately $1,460.00 billion in 2024 and market projections forecasting annual growth by 6.12% (compound annual growth rate 2024-2029). According to Statista’s 2024 analysis, China has generated the highest revenue in meat production US$273 billion; United States (US$131.60 billion); Brazil (US$37.07 billion); Canada (US$31.06 billion); United Kingdom (US$30.88 billion); Spain (US$22.70 billion), and Russia (US$22.60 billion).

Plus, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Agency asserts that livestock contributes 40% of the global value of agricultural output, supporting the livelihoods, food and nutrition security of over 1.3 billion people. These are huge numbers and the significance exposes the reality that the global livestock industry is a huge revenue catalyst and employment creator, which alleviates poverty reduction, food security and agricultural development.

In all those countries, modern agricultural practices, tech

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