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Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp is blocking outbound links to Telegram, the secure messaging service that has grown in popularity since the Edward Snowden leaks. 

Reddit user Shlagger noticed the problem, which affects anyone trying to send a link a Telegram domain — such as telegram.me or telegram.org — resulting in a dead link that cannot be copied and pasted out of the app. 

It’s unclear why WhatsApp has taken this step, which effectively blocks anyone who wants to use the service to facilitate a conversation on Telegram. 

The feud has been a long time coming, however. Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on-stage that he was “not … a big fan of WhatsApp about three years ago, and I’m not sure I am now.” 

The Verge confirmed with Telegram that change was a result of a silent update which downloaded to user’s phones yesterday morning. The update also blocked Telegram.com, an unrelated domain owned by a newspaper in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Facebook has a history of blocking links, including those to torrenting site Pirate Bay and the social network Tsu.co. These links are blocked within Facebook’s main app, not WhatsApp, however.

Business Insider has reached out to Facebook to clarify why Telegram is blocked. We will update the post when we hear back.  

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Kinshasa (AFP) – Fierce fighting between UN peacekeepers and Ugandan rebels raged in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, a day after a deadly attack by the rebel group.

UN General Jean Baillaud, acting commander of the UN’s MONUSCO force, told AFP that the peacekeepers had tracked down the rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and attacked them at dawn using combat helicopters.

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Samsung is making some big changes at the top of its smartphone business as growth continues to stall — despite the release of several well-received new handsets in 2015.

By: Michael Rundle,

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Via Dave Lutz at JonesTrading, here’s a quick guide to what traders are talking about on Tuesday morning:

Good Morning!   December Seasonality helping equities, as the S&P finds itself marked 40bp higher to start this Tuesday.   Expectations of more stimulus from the European Central Bank had propelled EU equities higher early, but the DAX finds itself just under water on a sharp retreat in the materials sector.   Euro Stoxx are mixed, torn between higher Tech and Fins, but Energy and Industrials weigh.   In London, the FTSE is climbing 60bp as those Fins leap after positive stress-test results, but the Mining complex continues to lag.    Over in Asia, Data from China’s manufacturing sector disappointed, causing doves to bid up Shanghai 1% off lows with China property outperforming on news of price increases for 4th straight month, helping Hong Kong climb 1.8%.   The Nikkei ended up 1.3%, closing above 20,000 for the first time since August, KOSPI rebounded 1.6% from yesterday’s smackdown, and Aussie jumped nearly 2% on the back of heavy covering in the Miners as the RBA left rates unchanged.   Emerging Markets all managed a solid close into the Green across Asia as India stays unchanged, as expected. 

The US 10YY is adding 3bp and nearing a challenge of yesterday’s peaks as November Pension rebalancing abates, while those Fed Funds are moving slightly dovish, “only” projecting a 74% chance of liftoff in 2 weeks.  That “Policy Sensitive” 2YY continues to climb however, breaking towards its highest close since 2010.    The DXY is retreating from a 8month peak with the Euro popping upside 1.06 as EU Manufacturing improved and Eurozone unemployment pushes to 3-year low – while that $/Y whipped around on reports that the GPIF was hedging currency.  With the lower $, we have tailwinds for Commodities, and the Metals complex continues yesterday’s rally – led by a 1.2%+ pop in Copper and Platinum.   The Oil complex is holding a tentative bid into Inventory data later today, while Gasoline is jumping 3%+ as traders dissect yesterday’s renewable fuels headlines which should buoy the complex.   

We get Light vehicle sales for November throughout the session, and expect headlines about Puerto Rico’s $355mln payment due today.  At 8:30 we get Canadian GDP, followed by Markit US Manufacturing PMI at 9:45.  10am brings us ISM Manufacturing and Construction Spending, and at 12:45 Fed’s Evans (2015 Voter) Speaks on the Economy and Policy.  At 4:30 tonight we get the API data for Crude, and at 6pm Fed’s Brainard (voter) Speaks.   Down in Washington, the Senate meets at 10am; may begin consideration of budget reconciliation legislation to repeal key parts of Obamacare, and the Senate Natural Resources Cmte holds hearing on Well Control Rule, other regulations affecting offshore oil and gas.  At 4pm, Zhu Guangyao, China’s vice finance minister, speaks at Peterson Institute for International Economics on China, global economy.

SEE ALSO: 10 things you need to know before the opening bell

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There was a bounty of brilliant ads in 2015. 

From viral campaigns to Super Bowl classics, we have picked out the 10 best ads of the year. If there was a theme to be woven between the top ads of 2015, it would seem that the advertising trend of the year was tugging on the heartstrings of viewers or promoting the idea of empowerment.

As with last year, some of the ads in our rankings will be familiar, but others you may not have seen.

Our ranking is entirely subjective: We looked at originality, entertainment value, and success stories. These were the brands and the campaigns that stood out. Congratulations to everyone whose work made the list.

Learn how to improve your mobile marketing strategy by listening to the podcast below.

NOW SEE: A Google TV commercial starring fluffy animals has become the most shared ad of all time

10. Women’s Aid — “Look At Me.” This digital billboard used facial recognition technology to recognize when people were looking at the ad. The more people paid attention, the more the bruises and cuts on her face appeared to heal.

9. Extra Gum — “The story of Sarah and Juan.” This touching love story set to a cover of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” showed the romance between a young couple as they grew older. The romantic 2-minute spot reduced people to tears.

8. Chevy — Super Bowl. The automaker’s TV spot, which ran right ahead of the Big Game was evil genius. Chevy successfully made millions of people think their TV had died right before the Super Bowl was about to kick off in order to promote the chevy Colorado’s in-built 4G WiFi capabilities.

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Good morning. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Chinese manufacturing activity was below expectations in November. The official purchasing manager’s index (PMI) was 49.6, missing expectations for an unchanged print of 49.8. A reading below 50 indicates contraction. The non-official Caixin-Markit reading rose 0.3 points to 48.6 (48.3 expected). A stabilization of output volumes, and export orders expanding at the fastest pace in 13 years, inched up the index, although domestic demand was still weak according to Markit. The services sector was more robust, with the non-manufacturing PMI at 53.6, the highest level since July.
2. Germany’s unemployment rate fell to a record low last month. The rate fell to 6.3% from 6.4%. The Bundesbank said Germany’s economic momentum was “quite strong”, and the labor market was driving domestic demand even though exports were slowing down, according to Bloomberg. 
3. South Korean exports dropped 4.7% in November year-on-year. This was better than the expected 9% plunge. Korean exports essentially represent the world’s imports, and the data are based on hard transactions instead of surveys. The headline bump was boosted by a jump in exports of shipping vessels (totaling $2.19 billion of $44.4 billion), which Barclays economists speculated was because of a large order from a European country. 
4. Barring a major drop in December, US auto sales are set for a record year. The latest data from the big carmakers are due today, and the forecast is for growth at an annualized pace of 18.10 million vehicles, according to Bloomberg. The prior annual peak was set in 2000 at 17.4 million. Sales are being driven by an aging fleet that needs replacement, cheap gas, easier credit, and the availability of jobs, among other things. 
5. The Chinese yuan is now a global reserve currency. The International Monetary Fund made it official on Monday, placing the yuan alongside the dollar, yen, euro, and pound in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket. It will make up 10.92% of the basket, slightly lower than the 14% to 16% estimate previously made by IMF staff. IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said the yuan’s inclusion was “a clear indication of the reforms” China has implemented. This could benefit the yuan, as big money managers move their holdings to the currency.
6. Morgan Stanley may layoff a quarter of its fixed-income trading staff within the next two weeks, according to Bloomberg. The investment bank’s bond-trading revenues fell 42% year-on-year in the third quarter, and CEO James Gorman described it as the worst three months for fixed income, currencies, and commodities since he took the position in 2010. 
7. Mattress Firm is buying its rival Sleepy’s for $780 million. The deal would make the new company the country’s largest specialty retailer of mattresses, and is expected to close during the first half of fiscal 2016. The combined company would operate about 3,500 stores in 48 states, and achieve cost savings of about $40 million by the third year from the deal, Reuters reported. 
8. The Cyber Monday sales estimates are trickling in, and they’re looking good. Adobe Digital Index estimated that sales were up 12% year-on-year to $2.98 billion. The websites of Target, PayPal, Walmart, and Victoria Secret, among a few others, experienced periodic outages or slow checkout times. In a press release, Amazon said the holiday weekend was the best ever for its own devices.  
9. Global stock markets are mostly green. At 7:00 a.m. ET, China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.36%, or 12 points, while the Euro Stoxx 50 was up 0.1%, or 5.5 points. Germany’s Dax was down 7 points, or 0.08%. Dow futures were up 72 points. 
10. Besides auto sales, US manufacturing PMIs from ISM and Markit, and construction spending numbers, are due this morning. The American Petroleum Institute’s weekly inventories data are expected after the close. 

SEE ALSO: The most creative thing central banks have done since the financial crisis has had ‘unspectacular’ results

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PARIS (AP) — A ranking French member of the Islamic State group goes on trial in charges he ran a network to recruit fighters to Syria.

Salim Benghalem, who has featured repeatedly in IS propaganda and is believed to be in Syria, will be tried in absentia along with six in France on allegations of running the network, which the government considers a major source of European fighters.

His wife, who left Syria with their children, has told investigators that he would return to France only to carry out an attack “with a maximum of damage.” She has said he believed bombs were not enough, that “a series of killings is recommended.” Benghalem, 35, has been linked with Cherif Kouachi, who along with his brother attacked the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January.

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Four European central banks have set technical or “policy” interest rates that are negative, in the hope of discouraging people from storing money inside bank accounts. The banks want people to pull their money out of savings and spend it or invest it, to juice the economy.

But until recently we hadn’t seen much a real-world effect from negative rates. Now, thanks to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Citi, we’ve got some hard numbers showing that negative rates are indeed having an effect.

First, here is a chart summarising the negative rates imposed by the central banks of Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden and the European Central Bank:

Now here is a chart from Citi’s Willem Buiter and his team. It shows that after those negative rates were imposed, more cash did appear in circulation:

One fear was that banks might simply lock away cash in strongboxes to hide it from negative-rate accounts. That didn’t happen. But Buiter isn’t convinced the increased volume of cash is all to do with the negative rate policy:

Growth in currency in circulation — a bearer instrument that pays a zero nominal return — has picked up somewhat but so far remains within historical norms (see Figure 27). It is possible that moral suasion by the central banks, supervisors and regulators in Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland may have convinced banks in these countries not to invest heavily in large safety deposit boxes. 

So time will tell.

But the effect on mortgage pricing in Switzerland (below) seems clearer. Switzerland may be furthest down the path of transferring the cost of negative rates to consumers. One consumer bank, Alternative Bank Schweiz (ABS), has already told people it will apply negative interest to customer accounts in 2016. The fear around negative rates is that they might have the opposite effect of that which is intended — that banks are afraid of charging consumers negative interest so they will impose those costs in other formats.

This chart shows how the interest rate on mortgages in Switzerland has gone up since central bank rates went negative:

So, yes, banks are responding to central bank negative rates by taking more money from their customers. In Switzerland that may be a good thing — there have been fears in the past couple of years that the housing mraket there was approaching bubble territory.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Linda Ellerbee, a veteran newswoman who wrote an irreverent best-seller about her time on television and built a second career at Nickelodeon explaining tough stories to youngsters, says that she’s signing off the air for good.

Ellerbee, 71, said Tuesday she’s retiring from TV after Nickelodeon airs a one-hour retrospective of her work on Dec. 15.

“It’s really nice to be one of the few who walks away from television news on their own time and of their own choice and I’m really lucky in that,” she said. “That really didn’t happen for so many of my contemporaries, didn’t happen because of age or cutbacks in news … I go smiling.”

The outspoken Texan and multiple award winner was among the first prominent women in TV news and a model for the sitcom character Murphy Brown after actress Candice Bergen studied her work. Ellerbee — and later Murphy Brown — survived breast cancer.

Ellerbee began a television news career after being fired by The Associated Press in 1972. On the night desk in Dallas, she wrote a gossipy letter to a friend that was inadvertently sent on the wire to three states. A news director at Houston’s KHOU-TV saw it, thought Ellerbee was a funny writer, and hired her.

She quickly moved on to local news in New York and then NBC, where she covered politics and co-hosted the prime-time newsmagazine “Weekend” with Lloyd Dobyns. She hosted weekly news segments on the “Today” show and, later, “Good Morning America.”

Her network news highlight came in the wee hours when she and Dobyns wrote and co-hosted the nightly news program “Overnight” from 1984 to 1986 on NBC. When honored by the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, judges called it “possibly the best-written and most intelligent news program ever.”

“There’s never been anything plastic or blow-dried about Linda,” said Cheryl Gould, a creator and senior broadcast producer on “Overnight.” ”She has always been the antithesis of your stereotypical, perfectly coiffed anchorwoman. Her emotions are not manufactured for the on-air effect. Linda is as real as they come.”

Ellerbee’s 1986 book, “And So it Goes” — named for her signature sign-off — was climbing the best-seller lists when she was told her contract would not be renewed.

“I wrote it predicated on the assumption that my bosses at NBC News had a sense of humor,” she said. “I turned out to be wrong on that.”

After a stop at ABC, Ellerbee and partner Rolfe Tessem opened a production company and what became their biggest job happened by chance. The new kids’ network Nickelodeon asked her to make a show explaining to youngsters the U.S. war with Iraq in the early 1990s.

She was Nick News head for 25 years, making programs tied to events like the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing and Hurricane Katrina. The show delved into social issues like same-sex marriage and AIDS. She won Emmys for shows on AIDS, children of alcoholics, kids living with cancer, the adjustment of parents returning from war, autism and ethnic cleansing. After a decade of trying, she produced a special this year with dying children talking to their peers.

The guiding philosophy was not to talk down to young viewers. Children in a wired world are aware of news events, but might not always have reliable information, she said.

“The days are long past, if they ever existed, where kids live in some happy little childhood protected by elves and fairies,” she said.

Cyma Zarghami, president of the Viacom Kids and Family Group, said Ellerbee has “helped multiple generations of kids understand the issues of the day, and she helped a lot of parents navigate how to talk about the tough topics as well. We are deeply grateful for her immeasurable contributions.” The network isn’t replacing Ellerbee, but promised to continue a dialogue with viewers on current issues.

While leaving television, Ellerbee said she’ll continue to write and travel.

“I can hold my head up, look in the mirror and I didn’t have to be ashamed of anything I ever did or wrote,” she said. “I fought some battles and I won some and lost some. But I get to walk out the door and look back feeling good about it.”

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is on the brink of losing the support of his shadow cabinet, after being forced into a U-turn on Syrian airstrikes, and the details of how it happened are pretty wild.

At 2 p.m. on Monday afternoon, Corbyn called a shadow cabinet meeting to discuss the party’s position on Syrian airstrikes, and tell shadow ministers that while they would be allowed a free vote, the Labour party’s official position would be that it opposes any aerial attacks on the so-called Islamic State.

By 4 p.m., Corbyn had been forced to change that official line. Labour MPs would allow an unqualified free vote. The reversal means Corbyn has failed in his bid to persuade MPs to vote against action in Syria, by all but guaranteeing PM David Cameron the majority he wants for military action. Only a few Conservative MPs are expected to vote against the government’s pro-bombing line. 

Accounts from inside the meeting, published by the Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, and the Guardian shed light on how Corbyn’s colleagues almost staged a full-scale revolt over his treatment of the Syrian issue.

Corbyn apparently started the meeting by reading a prepared statement about the party’s position on Syria, which would have essentially meant that the vote would be free in name only — MPs voting against it might have it counted against them.

Seven minutes into the meeting, while Corbyn was trying to explain the new position, some shadow cabinet members got push notifications from the Guardian on their phones, telling them exactly what Corbyn was reading out.

“Hang on — that’s already on Twitter” one MP apparently shouted at Corbyn. In one of the most embarrassing moments of the meeting, Corbyn apparently told his shadow ministers to “stop tweeting” details of the meeting, before being told that the info the Guardian had was actually given to them by Corbyn’s advisers.

The “farcical” moment sparked “one of the most heated shadow cabinet meetings in Labour’s history,” according to the Daily Telegraph.

Over the course of a chaotic two hours, Corbyn was subject to scathing criticism from all directions, and a threat from the shadow cabinet that they “would not leave the room” until allowed a totally free vote, and a changing of the party’s official position.

Below are a selection of the things that happened in the meeting, which almost sparked a full-scale revolt in the upper echelons of the Labour party.

• Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn threatened to resign from cabinet if he was not allowed to close the debate on airstrikes, as is traditional for shadow foreign secretaries. When Corbyn said that he planned to be Labour’s last speaker, Benn said, “If you do that I will do it from the backbenches.”
• Andy Burnham also threatened to resign, saying he wouldn’t be part of a “sham shadow cabinet”.
• Burnham then accused Corbyn of “throwing people to the wolves” by allowing a free vote in name only.
• Corbyn was accused of showing his shadow ministers a “lack of respect.”
• His actions were described as “embarrassing”, “deplorable”, and “disgraceful” by various members of the shadow cabinet.
• One MP said they had “never been so ashamed” of the Labour Party.

If you want to know all of what went on in the shadow cabinet meeting, you can read full accounts in the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, and the New Statesman.

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