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Sunday, December 20

When RT has a breaking news report from USA before Google News, that's a problem UPDATED 4X

I stopped by RT 10-15 minutes ago; it carried a "breaking news" report  about a vehicle that had jumped the sidewalk outside the luxurious Paris Hotel in Las Vegas and plowed into a large group of people, and that there were at least 20 victims although not known at that point whether there were any deaths. 

I went to Google News in the hunt for more details. Reports on the incident hadn't been posted yet. At the top of Google News is a report on what Donald Trump said about Hillary Clinton.

I've seen this kind of situation before since I started following RT and Sputnik. Russian press is watching the world more closely than the beings or bots that manage Google News.

Just returned to Google. The Trump-Clinton report is still at the top. Still nothing about the Paris Hotel crash; the second story at Google News is several hours old -- ancient news -- about a Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria. 

Speed it up people. Focus less on your bots and more on what's happening. You have only one job; right? Bring us breaking news. Just do your job.      

UPDATE 11:00 PM EST

Sputnik is carrying a report not posted yet at Google News: Drug Overdose Deaths Reach Record High in the US.

UPDATE 11:16 PM EST

Finally, finally, Google notices. Just posted -- underneath the Trump-Clinton report, of course:
  
DEC 20 2015, 11:04 PM ET - NBC News

Multiple Injuries as Car Drives Into Pedestrians on Las Vegas Strip

UPDATE 11:32 PM EST

CNN report 11:27 has a few more details

UPDATE 11:48 PM EST

Speaking of the airstrike, which again was breaking news several -- no, many -- hours ago. DEBKAfile has a blurb in their Breaking News Box that "Damascus" -- meaning the Syrian gov -- is claiming Quntar/Kuntar was killed in a 'terrorist strike.'  Meaning he wasn't killed in an airstrike or by the Israelis.

DEBKA is just passing along the claim. Is it within the realm of possibility? Well, a lot of terror orgs/ rebel groups fighting the Syrian Army are hopping mad at Hezbollah for fighting on the side of the army. But the residential building that was struck was pretty much totaled. Could ground-fired rockets have done that? I don't know.

Here's the DF blurb

Damascus claims terrorist organization killed Samir Quntar
DEBKAfile December 20, 2015, 1:03 PM (IDT)

The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad issued an announcement on Sunday claiming a terrorist group attacked the home of Samir Kuntar and caused his death. The announcement did not blame Israel, but said that this kind of attack helps Israel. Unlike Damascus, Hizballah directly accused Israel of carrying out the attack.


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