TASK DEFINITION: Given a document, generate a short title of the document. The title should convey the main idea/event/topic about which the document is being written. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
PROBLEM: Itâs not as if fake news in America came into existence alongside the tide known as the Trump presidencyâthe hucksters  foreign propagandists  conspiracy theorists  and fabricators have always been hereâbut if ever there was a year when purposefully misleading or false stories hit their stride  2017 might have been it.  We  were told that an ISIS leader was captured at a US airport  and that Shariah law was instituted in Utah and other states. A study found that 25 million votes for Hillary Clinton were âcompletely fraudulent â and the Las Vegas massacre was carried out by antifa  or ISIS  or the Illuminati  or somehow all three. The lies went on and on  picking up where 2016âs catalogue of nonsense left off. (Remember Hillary Clintonâs child sex trafficking ring run out of a pizzeria  or Sarah Palin banning Muslims from âenteringâ her daughter? How about Alec Baldwin dying  and Trump winning the electoral vote and the popular vote?)
But now  we âre at the dawn of a fresh year  privy to the forces that seek to sow confusion and outrage. Can American society overcome the fake news phenomenon?
Wellâ¦ âThereâs probably a strong case to be made that  we  are chemically addicted to fake news â says  Amy Webb   an author and futurist who founded the Future Today Institute. âWhen youâre seeing your angers and fears and anxieties being validated externally  you get a shot of dopamine.â Thinking about the upcoming year and beyond   she  says   we  may have âa huge problem on  our  hands.â And though the propaganda is coming at  us  from all directionsâfrom Kremlin-backed misinformation campaigns and Twitter troll armies to publicity hounds and political malcontentsâfalling for it  and spreading it  is to some degree our own fault.
In the spring of 2017   Webb  wrote a piece for Mother Jones that detailed not only the manner of 21st-century fake news and the speed with which it travels  but also how we are all accomplices to its proliferation âas we click and repost without considering the storyâs source and its agenda.â  She  noted that the democratization of the internet back in the 1990s meant that âeveryone would get to participate regardless of their agendas.â Information became free and free-flowing. But  problematically  âwe didnât plan ahead as the internet matured â when consumers of information were left to contend with not only âhuman arbiters of factsâ but also code and algorithms that propel certain types of content to the fore  based on our own online behavior. Innocently sharing a cat video put out by Russia Today  a Kremlin-backed propaganda machine that elevates fringe âexpertsâ and attempts to sow distrust  means youâll see a lot more of their content in the future.
Complicating matters more is that in our politicized climate  the term fake news itself came to mean different things to different people. It had a literal meaning that  seemingly overnight  became a hashtag and an epithet to hurl at anything or anyone that one disagrees with. âIf we canât even come to some kind of convergence and talk about something as insidious and as threatening to our future as the spread of misinformationâotherwise known as fake news in the literal senseâthen donât we have sort of a catastrophically huge problem on our hands?â asks  Webb .
As someone who studies current and past trends to try to anticipate what the future may hold   Webb  likes to end these conversations with a reminder that  for however doomed things appear  âWe are not living in the middle of Westworldâthe future has not been preordained. There is something we can do in the year 2018 and beyond  and that is be smarter consumers of news.â

SOLUTION: Can American Society Overcome the Fake News Phenomenon? â Mother Jones

PROBLEM: President Donald Trump’s eldest son  Donald Trump Jr.   declined to discuss with lawmakers on Wednesday a conversation  he  had with  his  father about emails related to a June 2016 meeting  he  attended with Trump associates and Russians  a congressional panel member said.
Representative Adam Schiff  the top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee investigating allegations of Russian interference in last year’s U.S. election  said  Trump Jr.  answered the “overwhelming majority” of questions from committee members in  his  hours of testimony.
But  Trump Jr.  claimed attorney-client privilege in declining to respond to queries about that discussion with  his  father because a lawyer was in the room when it took place. The discussion between then-Republican candidate Trump and  his  son took place after the emails became public  Schiff said. Trump Jr. released the emails in July.
Representative Mike Conaway  the Republican leading the investigation  said  Trump Jr.  had answered all of  his  questions.
 Trump Jr.  arrived and left without being seen by reporters.
Lawmakers said they want to question  him  about a meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York at which  he  had said  he  hoped to get information about the “fitness  character and qualifications” of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton  the Democrat who was  his  father’s presidential election opponent.
It was at least the second time  Trump Jr.  has testified to a congressional committee investigating any Russian meddling in the election and possible collusion with Moscow by the  Trump  campaign.
 He  arrived shortly before 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) and was questioned for most of the next eight hours by members of the intelligence panel.
A person familiar with knowledge of Trump Jr’s testimony said  Trump  had said repeatedly he did not remember things he was asked about  including some details about information provided by Russians during the Trump Tower meeting.
Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller is also investigating. He has announced the first charges of  Trump  associates  and  Trump’s  former national security adviser  Michael Flynn  has pleaded guilty to lying to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.
The House intelligence panel also released on Wednesday a transcript of testimony last week of Erik Prince  a  Trump  supporter and founder of the Blackwater military contractor. A focus of that testimony was a report that Prince tried to set up a “back channel” for communications between  Trump  associates and Russia. Prince denied such a plan.
Trump Jr.’s appearance coincided with criticism of the Russia probes from some of his father’s fellow Republicans  who control both houses of Congress and accuse investigators of bias against  Trump . Other lawmakers  Republicans as well as Democrats  say the goal of the investigations is to guarantee the integrity of U.S. elections  not to target  Trump  and  his  associates.
Trump Jr.  like  his  father  denies collusion with Russia. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 campaign to boost  Trump ’s chances of defeating Clinton. Moscow denies any such effort.

SOLUTION: Donald Trump Jr. Declines to Answer Key Russia Question

PROBLEM: While Klay Thompson closed the game with the final seven points to give Golden State the victory  the head-to-head battle between Durant and LeBron James  the best players in the sport  will be analyzed and dissected most.
Twice in the final two minutes   James  tried to drive past Durant. Both times   James  lost the ball out of bounds  resulting in Cleveland turnovers that essentially iced the game for Golden State.
Replays left the impression that both plays could have been called fouls  though  James  only took issue with the second one â when Durant blocked a shot off Jamesâs hands and out of bounds  giving the ball back to the Warriors after a replay review with 24.5 seconds left. Durantâs play prevented Cleveland from getting a shot at tying the score.
âI lost it on the left wing â  James  said. â He  got me a little bit  but I lost that one. But obviously the overturned one   he  fouled me twice. But whatever. What are you going to do about it?â
Durant  not surprisingly  saw it a bit differently â particularly the debate about whether he fouled  James  that was ongoing on social media in the moments after the plays.

SOLUTION:
Warriors fend off Cavaliers in renewal of NBAâs marquee rivalry