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Jimmy Wales is one of the masterminds behind Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that describes itself as "a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project".

Since launching in 2001, Wikipedia has become an internet colossus, reaching around 1.4 billion users accessing some 46 million articles in 300 languages each month.

Last year, Wales turned his attention to a new project, 'WikiTribune', a news website, which was set up to promote what it calls "evidence-based journalism" in an attempt to combat fake news.

"I had been thinking about the idea for quite a long time ... but what really provoked me was the sense during the last US election, all the talk about fake news, about [a] "post-truth" world and all those kinds of things," he says.

Wales initially planned to wait until President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office had passed but decided to put his plan into action earlier, after presidential aide Kellyanne Conway made reference to "alternative facts" regarding the number of people in attendance at Trump's inauguration.

"I was just like 'You know what? The 100 days is up'. This is not acceptable behaviour, facts do matter ... it wasn't just that but that was the last straw, that was the thing that made me say "I'm gonna do this now".

WikiTribune combines the work of journalists with volunteers, who contribute by proofreading, fact-checking and adding sources to the journalists' articles.

"The idea is to say let's replicate and let's build a healthy, strong community, much like the community that creates Wikipedia.

It's not wide open to everyone, we want people who are thoughtful and kind, interested in contributing in a positive way and I want that community to work side by side with the paid, professional journalists as equals."

While Wales acknowledges that journalists have specialist knowledge and skills in areas such as interviewing and gaining access to sources, he feels that a wider community can contribute to news in a meaningful way.

He points to "slow" news stories, which unfold over a long period of time, and local news as areas where the community model might work well.

But the venture has also had its critics, from those who say the platform undermines professional journalists by having volunteers fill the roles of copy editors for free, to those that question whether Wales' optimism about the wisdom of crowds is naive.

"Maybe it is a bit naive," he concedes, "But I hope not insanely so, Wikipedia has proven, largely, that there are a lot of nice people out there and they just want to help out and do something useful.

"We can't be silly and ignore potential problems ... but the existence of dark places on the internet doesn't disprove the existence of places of great light and joy".

Palestinians gathered for the third consecutive Friday at the Gaza-Israel border fence for what was labelled "burning the flag of Israel day".

In five different locations, Israeli flags were burned and Palestinian flags hoisted in their places.

It's all part of what is called the Great March of Return which will continue until May 15th, the day Palestinians refer to as the Nakba or Catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced off their land in the conflict that culminated in the creation of Israel in 1948.

Israeli soldiers are using live ammunition to fire at the protesters.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says 33 people have died during the last two weeks, including three children and a journalist. 3,000 people have been wounded.

Despite the risks, the Palestinians are refusing to give up. But what can they achieve?

Ten years ago, the Australian government apologised to a stolen generation of indigenous people. As children, they'd been victims of national policies that saw them systematically removed from their families.

But today, more indigenous children are being removed than ever before, leading some to ask... is this a new stolen generation?

In this episode of 101 East, a mother reveals the devastating impact of having her four children taken from her. The youngest was 15 months old. "They take your young from you and you have so many taken, you are not whole," says Helen Eason. "Even when they come home as much as they're all there, all the pieces can never ever be put back together."

After a long legal battle, Helen's family was reunited just over a year ago, but she says the scars remain. Meanwhile, a 16-year-old girl tells 101 East how she has grown up in a cycle of abuse, first at home and then in residential care.

In the past decade, the number of indigenous children being removed from their families has almost doubled. They're almost 10 times more likely to be placed in out-of-home care than non-indigenous children.

With the debate over how best to care for children at risk creating bitter divisions in Australia, 101 East investigates the crisis facing indigenous families and the child protection system in charge of removing children.

The US, UK and France have launched air strikes ''on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities'' in Syria, US President Donald Trump announced early on Saturday.

The strikes come after a suspected chemical weapons attack in the former rebel stronghold of Douma last weekend.

Al Jazeera's Senior Political Analyst Marwan Bishara discusses the US strikes.

In an UpFront Middle East special and in the wake of a suspected chemical attack in Syria, journalist and cofounder of The Intercept Glenn Greenwald and Eli Lake, a columnist for Bloomberg View, debate whether attacks by the United States are an effective response or one that deepens the crisis in the region.

And in the Arena, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel Danny Ayalon and Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, debate Israel's use of force in the occupied Gaza Strip, which has killed dozens and injured thousands of Palestinian protesters.

A group of scientists is campaigning for a preemptive ban on autonomous weapons technology that may someday power what they call "killer robots”.

Those who support the development of lethal autonomous weapons say using independently thinking machines could make wars more efficient and result in fewer civilian deaths, provided that the systems are programmed to make ethical decisions and follow international law.

With no international regulations and the world’s superpowers eagerly pursuing military uses for artificial intelligence, the primary concern is that humanity is headed toward a future where armies of autonomous robots will fight man's wars with limited human oversight.

In this episode, we’ll look at the debate over banning killer robots and examine the ethical issues of using artificial intelligence in warfare.

 After a five-hour long testimony before the US congress on Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg managed to walk a fine line as he came underfire from lawmakers. He apologised for a range of problems that have beset Facebook including the lack of data protection, but did not promise to support new regulations.

Zuckerberg is being questioned by US Congress committee members over two days. He is to answer questions on how his company handled data in the wake of a massive users' privacy breach.

But what can come out of his testimony? And what steps can be taken to ensure better privacy for social media users?

On The Listening Post this week: A viral video raises concerns about America's biggest TV news network - which might become bigger. Plus, Britain's poverty porn industry.

The monopolisation of local news in the US

It may not be a household name, but the Sinclair Broadcast Group is the biggest local TV news network in the US, with 173 stations.

Sinclair stumbled somewhat clumsily into the limelight this week after it ordered its local TV anchors across the United States to read from a script accusing other news outlets of trying to control "what people think".

The irony, it seems, was lost on the company, which is now trying to expand its reach to 70 percent of Americans.

Getting that deal past the regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, probably won't be an issue. Sinclair has a friend in the White House in Donald Trump, whose administration is currently binging on deregulation.

"Revolutionary", "rebel", "Mother of the Nation" - these are just some of the terms used to describe Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. The iconic South African politician and anti-apartheid activist died on 2 April at the age of 81, sparking debate about her life and legacy.

For many South Africans, Madikizela-Mandela is a hero - a warrior whose indomitable fight against oppression positioned her as "a pillar" of the movement to end apartheid. To her critics, Madikizela-Mandela was a divisive figure - a corrupt "bully" who was willing to engage in criminal activity to achieve her goals. But others, like political analyst Lebohang Pheko, say she was a complex figure who lived in "difficult times".

"People can be all sorts of things at all sorts of moments and often the best and worst of us happens concurrently. The attempts to then force us into a binary of a person, being either virtuous or completely sinful, is neither true", she says. "The worst we can do to her is to force her into a box in her death because she was a woman who transgressed."

So, what will be the enduring legacy of "Mama Winnie's" activism?

Ahead of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's memorial on Wednesday, The Stream speaks with South Africans - including people who knew her - to learn how her work helped to end apartheid and influenced the country's political landscape.

Libya has been riven by a plethora of problems ever since Muammar Gaddafi was removed: central authority has broken down - and the country has a myriad of militias with a multitude of tribal loyalties.

Add to that the outside players, the foreign powers with their own interests in Libya and you have a recipe for chaos. Several rounds of peace talks have resulted in little.

Libya is divided with two governments, one in the West and the other in the East. But a new UN-backed consultative aims to break the stalemate.

From oil revenues to powers of future government and disarming militias, Libyans are having their say on the major issues that divide them, in public consultations organized by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

It is hoped this process could pave the way for elections by the end of this year.

But can a consensus be reached? And what impact are foreign powers having on the process?