#Classrooms in Afghanistan

[kommabortsig]

School_Classroom_Empty_DVIDS271711.jpg

[mariacallous]

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Bahara Rustam, 13, took her last class at Bibi Razia School in Kabul on Dec. 11 knowing it was the end of her education. Under Taliban rule, she is unlikely to step foot in a classroom again.

In September 2021, a month after U.S. and NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan following two decades of war, the Taliban announced that girls were barred from studying beyond sixth grade.

They extended this education ban to universities in December 2022. The Taliban have defied global condemnation and warnings that the restrictions will make it almost impossible for them to gain recognition as the country’s legitimate rulers.

Last week, U.N. special envoy Roza Otunbayeva expressed concern that a generation of Afghan girls is falling behind with each day that passes.

Last week, an official in the Education Ministry said Afghan girls of all ages are allowed to study in religious schools known as madrassas, which have traditionally been boys-only. But Otunbayeva said it was unclear if there was a standardized curriculum that allowed modern subjects.

Bahara is holding onto her education and pores over textbooks at home. “Graduating (from sixth grade) means we are going to seventh grade,” she said. “But all of our classmates cried and we were very disappointed.”

There was no graduation ceremony for the girls at Bibi Razia School.

In another part of Kabul, 13-year old Setayesh Sahibzada wonders what the future holds for her. She is sad she can’t go to school anymore to achieve her dreams.

“I can’t stand on my own two feet,” she said. “I wanted to be a teacher. But now I can’t study, I can’t go to school.”

Analyst Muhammad Saleem Paigir warned that excluding women and girls from education will be disastrous for Afghanistan. “We understand that illiterate people can never be free and prosperous,” he said.

The Taliban have barred women from many public spaces and most jobs, all but confining women to their homes.

[beardedmrbean]

Women training as midwives and nurses in Afghanistan have told the BBC they were ordered not to return to classes in the morning - effectively closing off their last route to further education in the country.

Five separate institutions across Afghanistan have also confirmed to the BBC that the Taliban had instructed them to close until further notice, with videos shared online showing students crying at the news.

The BBC has yet to confirm the order officially with the Taliban government's health ministry.

However, the closure appears to be in line with the group's wider policy on female education, which has seen teenage girls unable to access secondary and higher education since August 2021.

The Taliban have repeatedly promised they would be readmitted to school once a number of issues were resolved - including ensuring the curriculum was "Islamic".

This has yet to happen.

One of the few avenues still open to women seeking education was through the country's further education colleges, where they could learn to be nurses or midwives.

Midwifery and nursing are also one of the only careers women can pursue under the Taliban government's restrictions on women - a vital one, as male medics are not allowed to treat women unless a male guardian is present.

Just three months ago, the BBC was given access to one Taliban-run midwife training centre, where more than a dozen women in their 20s were learning how to deliver babies.

The women were happy to have been given the chance to learn.

“My family feels so proud of me," a trainee called Safia said. "I have left my children at home to come here, but they know I’m serving the country."

But even then, some of the women expressed fear about whether even this might be stopped eventually.

What will happen to those women - and another estimated 17,000 women on training courses - is unclear.

No formal announcement has been made, although two sources in the Ministry of Health confirmed the ban to BBC Afghan off the record.

In videos sent to the BBC from other training colleges, trainees can be heard weeping.

"Standing here and crying won’t help," a student tells a group of women in one video. "The Vice and Virtue officials [who enforce Taliban rules] are nearby, and I don’t want anything bad to happen to any of you."

Other videos shared with the BBC show women quietly protesting as they leave the colleges - singing as they make their way through the hallways.

One Kabul student said she had been told to "wait until further notice".

"Even though it is the end of our semester, exams have not yet been conducted, and we have not been given permission to take them," she told the BBC.

Another student revealed they "were only given time to grab our bags and leave the classrooms".

"They even told us not to stand in the courtyard because the Taliban could arrive at any moment, and something might happen. Everyone was terrified," she said. "For many of us, attending classes was a small glimmer of hope after long periods of unemployment, depression, and isolation at home."

What this means for women's healthcare also now remains to be seen: last year, the United Nations said Afghanistan needed an additional 18,000 midwives to meet the country's needs.

Afghanistan already has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with a report released last year noting 620 women were dying per 100,000 live births.

[ghuleh-witch]

And We Are Tied As One Eternally-IV

Fandom: Ghost Rating: Explicit Warnings: (For Future Chapters) NSFW, 18+, unprotected sex, p in v sex, oral sex, mentions of past abuse and domestic violence, references to suicide Relationships: Papa Emeritus IV/Copia x OFC Additional Tags: soft!dom Copia, eventual smut, developing relationship, kind of a slow burn, no beta reader Chapter Word Count: 2112 Summary: Ellie Moran just wanted to make a new life for herself. Running to escape the people in her past, she ends up in a small town in the middle of nowhere that happens to be home to a Satanic church. She never expected her life to change again after she started attending the public masses at said church.

Ao3

Chapters: 4/?

Tag list: @sodoswitchimage

Chapter Four

Oh, my Elenor, look what you’ve become: A blasphemous heathen! Hanging around those devil worshippers? They’ll drag you to Hell!

Ellie could hear her mother’s voice in her ear as she looked over the schedule of activities and events Gemma sent her. Throughout the week the Ministry hosted everything from cooking classes to group therapy. Ellie was interested in going to one of the support groups; a group for people like her who came from religious backgrounds and were struggling with those former beliefs and indoctrinations. Since Ellie began studying Satanism and the Ministry’s beliefs, she’d been hearing her mother’s voice more and more. The woman whispered the same thing in Ellie’s ear every time. Melissa Moran loved to remind her that she was going to hell and wasn’t worthy of God’s glory and the eternity of Heaven. 

It’s been nearly ten years since Ellie last saw or spoke to her mother. As soon as Ellie could get away, she did. She could still remember the last words she said to the woman: God isn’t real and if He was, He’d be ashamed of you. 

But despite the certainty that God wasn’t real, Ellie still doubted herself every day. What if she died and found out she was wrong? What if she was going to spend an eternity in Hell suffering? Was she even loved by God?

Ellie found herself pulling up to the Ministry gates ten minutes before the support group started. She punched in the gate code that was given to her and parked in the lot. She made her way inside and down one of the corridors on the first floor that led to a small classroom. Inside were five Siblings who were mingling around a table with snacks and drinks. One of them looked up as Ellie came in.

“Oh, you’re Sister Gemma’s charge,” they said. “Welcome! Papa Secondo will be here soon and then we’ll get started.”

Ellie nodded. So she’d be meeting Secondo today? She hadn’t seen the former Papa since that very first time at mass. Gemma said no one was really sure what he was up to these days. 

“We ready to get started?”

Ellie looked up to see a bald man with sunglasses and a thin mustache walk into the room. He took off the sunglasses and folded them up into his breast pocket. He had the same white and green eyes as Copia. He scanned the room and nodded to each of the Siblings as they took a seat. Then his eyes landed on Ellie. He looked her up and down. “You’re a new face,” he said.

“Ellie,” Ellie introduced herself. “I-um-Sister Gemma said I was allowed to come to these.”

“Ah Sister Gemma,” Secondo smiled fondly. “You’re the new potential. She’s right, you are welcome here.”

Ellie smiled and relaxed back into her chair as the meeting began. 

She was glad she wasn’t the only one who felt the way she did. After hearing some of the Siblings talk about how they were raised and their fears and doubts, Ellie had enough courage to talk about her own upbringing. 

“We didn’t start going to church until after my dad was killed in Afghanistan,” Ellie said. “My mother thought it would help us heal. That church sucked her in and therefore me. When I left for college, my mother had my whole life planned out for me. She and that church were sending me to a Christian university where I could find a good God-fearing husband and have an education to fall back on in the event my husband was not around to provide for me and our children.” She let out a snort and looked around at the group. “I was 17. I didn’t want to get married or have kids. I just wanted to get a degree in something I was interested in and get a good job.”

“Christians love to have complete control over women,” Secondo said, looking over to her. “Their men think they hold all the power. They’re afraid of strong women and fear the power women hold. Without women, their way of life would never continue. There’s nothing I can say that will erase the pain and damage inflicted on you, Ellie, or any of you for that matter. But in time you will see just how strong and powerful you are. For what it’s worth, I believe you made the right steps in that direction just by coming here.” 

Ellie chewed on the inside of her cheek as she thought about what he said. 

“And we’ll end that there this week,” Secondo said. “Same time next week?”

“Sounds good,” one of the Siblings said as everyone began to rise.

“We’ll see you again?” Secondo asked Ellie as she stood.

Ellie nodded. “Yea…thanks.”

“No thanks necessary.” He replied before slipping his sunglasses back on and leaving the classroom. 

Ellie left the room a minute later, her mind on what everyone said during the meeting. She wasn’t paying attention as she turned the corner and ran right into…a tricycle. She didn’t have time to process what she was seeing as her shin collided with the front wheel and she went down to the floor. 

“Cazzo! I am so sorry!”

Ellie blinked and refocused. She saw Copia standing up straight from a red tricycle complete with a little brass bell. Copia was kneeling next to her as she sat up and winced. 

“Ellie I am so sorry,” Copia said again. “I should have looked before coming around the corner.”

“I’m okay,” Ellie reassured her wincing again. She pulled up the leg of her jeans and looked at her shin. It was already turning into a bruise and a small scrap was leaking blood. “Just a scratch. I’ll be fine.”

“Let me clean that up,” Copia said looking at her leg. “It’s the least I can do.” 

He stood, extending a hand to help her up. Ellie grabbed his leather-clad hand and pulled herself back to standing, the ache her in leg throbbing. “What were you doing riding a tricycle around anyway?” She asked, taking a step forward and wincing when she put pressure on her leg. 

“Oh, eh, it’s a thing I just enjoy,” Copia said, looking embarrassed as he picked the tricycle up in one hand and held out his other arm for her to take. Ellie took his arm and he slowly led her back down the corridor. “There’s a small infirmary just down here. We have a doctor and a nurse who live and work here in the Ministry.”

“It’s really not that bad,” Ellie insisted. “I don’t want to cause any hassle.”

“It’s not a hassle,” Copia responded looking at her. “You’re injured and should be attended to.”

Ellie didn’t argue as she limped down the hall with him. When they got to the infirmary, the door was closed and the lights were off inside. “Must be on their breaks,” Copia muttered looking at his watch. “I have some bandaids and some ointment in my rooms. I could clean your leg up there. If you are okay with that, that is.” 

“It’s fine,” Ellie said. “As long as I’m not interrupting anything. It’s just a scratch, Papa.” 

“Eh, I was just fucking around. I’m done with all my Papa duties for the day,” Copia said guiding them towards an exit. “And call me Copia. It’s just the two of us right now.” 

“Sure,” Ellie said as they walked outside and towards the house that stood behind the abbey. She looked over the house. It was a charming stone house with flowers surrounding the outside. “It’s a really nice house,” she said. “Was it part of the abbey when you all bought the place?” 

“Si, we think it was the priest’s home before. It was remodeled and all the Papas live here now. We all have our own rooms and bathrooms and we share a kitchen and living room.” Copia said pulling out a set of keys from his pocket and unlocking the door. 

“Are you sure this is okay?” Ellie asked. “I really don’t want to be a bother.” She knew Copia was just trying to help, but she had gotten so used to taking care of herself that the idea of someone else looking after her was foreign and slightly terrifying. She always felt like a burden. Her mother always made her feel like she was a hassle, and then there was her ex-

“Tesoro, you are not a bother,” Copia said turning to her and interrupting her train of thought. “Please let me do this for you. It’s my fault you got hurt.”

Ellie bit her lips and nodded. “Okay,” she said softly, giving in to his offer.

He smiled and led her inside. Ellie stepped into a small foyer where a coat rack stood filled with coats and hats. To her left was a living room with a leather sofa and a couple of armchairs. A large screen TV was mounted to the wall above a fireplace. The large bay window filled the room with natural light and made the dark wooden floors gleam. To her right was a kitchen with stainless steel appliances, granite counters, dark-colored cabinets, and a smooth tiled floor. Straight ahead was a staircase that led to the second floor. Passed the staircase were two doors at the end of a small hallway. 

“It’s not a lot, but it’s home,” Copia said as he watched her look around. 

“It’s lovely,” Ellie said. “Cozy.”

Copia smiled and led her up the stairs, taking each step slow as Ellie gingerly put weight on her hurt leg. The top of the stairs led them into a hallway with four doors—two on each side of the staircase. “My rooms over here,” Copia said, leading Ellie to the left and then to a door on the right side of the hall. He unlocked the door and pushed the door open.

Copia’s room was small but comfortable. He had a queen-sized bed covered in red linens and quilts. A loveseat sat at the end of the bed and faced an entertainment stand with a small tv and retro game systems. There were two doors along one of the walls that Ellie guessed were a closet and a bathroom. On the opposite side was a large window that overlooked the gardens and the forest that boarded the Ministry’s land. In the corner of the room was a large metal cage with—

“Rats!” Ellie exclaimed, limping her way over to the cage. “Oh my god, they’re so cute!” She looked over the four rats who scurried to the bars of the cage, curious about their new visitor. Ellie looked over her shoulder at Copia. “Do they have names?”

“O-oh? Si, yes,” Copia stammered as though stunned by her interest in the animals. “The white one in Alfredo. The black and white one is Pepper. The big gray one is Meatball, and the small gray one is Rigatoni.” 

“They’re so cute” Ellie giggled as she held a finger up to the bars for the rats to sniff. “Could I hold one?”

“How about after I patch you up?” Copia agreed, opening one of the two doors on the opposite wall. It led to a small white tiled bathroom. Ellie could hear him opening a cabinet and routing around before stepping back into the bathroom with a small first aid box. “Sit down on the bed for me, cara.”

Ellie nodded and stepped over to the bed, sitting on the plush linens and mattress. She watched Copia walk over to her and kneel before her. She watched as he gently took her leg and pushed up her jeans to reveal the red and purpling bruise and dried blood of the scraps. “It looks like it hurts,” he said. 

“A little,” Ellie confessed as Copia opened the first aid kit and took out a prepackaged wipe to clean the dried blood. “But it’s not so bad.”

He hummed in response as he gently cleaned the area. He reached for a small tube of antibiotic cream and dabbed a little on before opening a bandage. “It’ll be sore for a couple of days,” he said before applying the bandage. 

“I’ve had worse,” Ellie said, playing with the sleeve of her sweater, remembering the scars it hid from view. “Nothing a couple of ibuprofen can’t handle.”

He nodded and looked up at her, his hands lingering on her leg for a second before gently pulling the leg of her jeans back down. “All patched up. Now, you wanted to hold the babies?”

Ellie grinned and nodded. 

[mugiwara-lucy]

In light of Louisiana passing a Law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms and universities, I figured I'd give my two cents on this cesspool of shit.

And of course it didn't take long for this nonsense to make its way to the Supreme Court:

I figured I'd explain why SO MANY PEOPLE are up and arms about this. The reason is because NO ONE WANTS A CONVICTED FELON to be lecturing them about "Christian Values". And when I say that I acknowledge there's a difference between TRUE, HONEST, GENUINE CHRISTIAN people and FAKE, BIGOTED people who use Christianity, God and Jesus as a shield to be evil. And the latter is for the piece of shit below this text:

You really wanna listen to someone like THAT about Christian Values? Pfft, it's like listening to Ted Bundy talking about Table Manners.

Also keep in mind, it was at a "Christian Convention" where he was talking about HAVING MIGRANTS FIGHT EACH OTHER IN A TOURNAMENT!

WHAT IN THE EVER LASTING FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS SENILE OLD FUCKER??

This sounds like some God Valley Cleansing Festival from One Piece type of shit!

And THIS is the man that wants to make American into a Christian Theocracy where EVERYTHING will be governed by religion and you can be KILLED if you do anything even REMOTELY AGAINST that religion.

And the ONLY WAY to ensure America DOESN'T become like Isreal, Iran and Afghanistan is to VOTE BLUE PLEASE. NON VOTING WILL NOT work and as MUCH as I would LOVE Dr. Cornell West to be president....sadly....third party votes have NEVER WORKED and won't work now so PLEASE VOTE BLUE.

[without-ado]

F. Dilek Yurdakul's Photo Project

Kalash Schools' Co-Education: In Pakistan, which is normally an Islamic Republic, there is no co-education in public schools. Boys and girls receive Islamic education in separate classrooms and schools.

The Kalash, who live within the borders of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, have not assimilated despite the conservative geography they live in and do not believe in the three major religions. Their schools are still co-educational.

Gender diversity and unity are nothing to fear. On the contrary, according to most experts, it is not advisable to segregate children by gender from an early age. A project from Kalash schools, where children are not segregated by gender, identity, and religion but are educated equally and together. (x)

[hay-389]

A little snippet of something I’m working on. It’s mainly supposed to be from Morgan’s POV, but there will be a little of Tony’s, Pepper’s, and Peter’s added in the full story.

So, at the end of the school day, roughly around 12:00 pm, she sat coloring at a table waiting to be picked up. It was a Friday which meant her dad would be getting her. Usually Uncle Happy and her dad rotated shifts and on occasion when her mommy didn’t have any work she would show up and surprise her. Morgan knew the schedule like the back of her hand so she wasn’t surprised when her dad strolled into the classroom like clockwork wearing his usual pair of black shades and baseball cap.

“Daddy!”

“Hey there Morgana, ready to make a prison break?” He knelt down to her level, eyeing the picture she had all her focus on before he interrupted.

“Whatcha got there, kiddo?”

Tony picked it up off the table and held the slightly crinkled paper up to the light to get a better look.

“That’s you daddy,” Morgan informed him, slightly rolling her eyes and huffing because it was obviously him dressed up as Iron Man. She used the perfect shade of red and yellow to color his suit in. How could he not tell?

“Right, of course, that’s me. And I’m totally kicking those guy’s butts because they’re the super villains hell bent on ruining the day.”

Geez, did she have to explain everything to him?

“No daddy, you aren’t fighting them, you’re flying away.”

“Now why would I fly away from them when I have perfectly good repulsors on my hands that can blast them into next Sunday? Hmm.”

“Because, those are the bad people who took you away. That’s you escaping them.”

For just a moment Morgan watched as the wide grin across her father’s face fell into a grim expression. It didn’t last very long, just a few seconds, but she knew she saw it because it was very similar to the one he sometimes wore when telling her stories about her dead brother.

“Who told you that, Morgan?”

“Ethan.”

“Well,” her father spoke, exchanging his rather sad look for a smile. Morgan thought it looked kind of fake. “I think Ethan is too nosey for his own good. Let’s get out of here.”

Her father didn’t say anything else, instead grabbing her book bag and lunchbox from her cubby, then waving goodbye towards her teacher and helper as they left the classroom. She held his hand as they walked to the car and occasionally looked up to see her dad staring down at her drawing. It didn’t seem he liked it all that much. Had she upset him by coloring it?

Morgan stayed quiet as she was buckled into her car seat and even when they pulled away from the school and started heading towards the ice-cream shop she knew he was taking her to. It was normal every Friday for them to stop—it was their own little secret. She would get two big scoops, one cotton candy and one chocolate, in exchange to keep quiet about it from her mommy who didn’t like it when she had loads of sugar.

“What’s wrong, Mo? You're usually bursting my eardrums with all the talk about how school went. Why so quiet?”

“Daddy,” she asked, a serious expression on her face she clearly inherited from her mother. “Did I make you sad?”

Tony startled at the question, his fingers drum, drum, drumming on the steering wheel trying to think back on why she would assume such a thing.

“When you saw my drawing you looked unhappy.”

Huh, maybe she had inherited Pepper’s scary ability to be able to read him like an open book too.

“No kid, your picture didn’t make me sad. I love your drawing. I just…I haven’t thought about that in a really long time.”

“How come?”

That was certainly a good question. A complicated one asked by someone way too young that if she really understood the horrors that went on in that cave in Afghanistan, then she probably wouldn’t have asked it in the first place.

It’s been over a decade since Tony found himself clawing his way out of there, about 13 years now. Since then he’s had so much happen in between that time. He became an avenger then fought aliens. He watched his son grow up into this bright brilliant teenager only to lose him in his arms not long after. He got married to Pepper and had Morgan. He gave up being Iron Man and moved upstate to a quiet little cabin in the middle of the woods. Those were just the major events, not even including all the other shit he had to deal with along the way.

[theskee]

Lately, as my child has started school, I've reflected on a lot of bad experiences I had where the system failed me entirely. But... I also started thinking about Mr. Ellison a lot.

When I was in 6th Grade I had a Geography teacher, and his name was Mr. Ellison. He had a very large collection of Chucks in various colors with various embellishments, and the two pairs I recall with the most clarity were the POW*MIA chucks, and his bubble gum pink ones.

On the first day of middle school when I walked into his class, he had a guitar in the corner and a POW*MIA flag on the wall. I was familiar with these things, as they were things my grandfather also had. But my grandfather was a deeply religious republican, and very pro military.

Mr. Ellison was not.

Mr. Ellison had this air of Quirky Hippie about him, with his salt and pepper mullet and his goatee, playing guitar in class sometimes. But It's been over 20 years since I was in that classroom, and he, of any teacher I ever had, stuck with me.

Day one, he was wearing his pink chucks, a pink button down, and said pink was his favorite color. He said you couldn't chew gum in his class unless it was Asper Gum and I don't think any of us knew what that was. He was light hearted fun and then one day, he made us design a US Flag with 51 Stars on it, and while we did this, he explained Puerto Rico. A subject that I had never once heard mentioned by the adults in my life. Prior to this lesson, I didn't know that Puerto Rico was a US territory, let alone that the citizens living there couldn't vote in Federal elections and weren't represented in congress. And then he mentioned how much they contribute to our military. And he asked us, a bunch of 12 year olds, if we thought that was fair.

And that was the first time I was ever encouraged to think critically about our country.

He pulled out his guitar one day and began singing the official state song of Florida (our state)-- "Old Folks at Home", otherwise known as "Swanee River". And this was pre-2008. The original lyrics hadn't been revised yet. So the second he got to a single mention of plantations, his fingers squeaked on the strings and strummed to a halt and he showed outward disgust. And asked us if we understood why it was already disgusting and then let us read the rest of the lyrics through the overhead projector while he introduced us to the concept of Racism.

It wasn't critical race theory by any means, but he urged us to be aware that racism is everywhere.

He showed us a video set to "Let the Bodies hit the Floor" that showed the horrifying aspects of the war in Afghanistan and after to we discussed Islamophobia, and the horrors of war.

Mr. Ellison was the first and to this day, only teacher I ever had that talked about American Imperialism, about colonization in a negative way, about the real impact that war has on soldiers, and how the country fails to care for the people who fight for it.

I must emphasize that this was a Geography Class and I think we looked at a map maybe 3 times the entire school year.

But in Ellison's mind, if we were going to talk about the world around us, it seemed like he felt that the thing worth knowing was our impact on it. He discussed climate change, geonicide against the natives, and how the land we sat on was stolen and soaked with the blood of people who cared for it far better than we do.

And all of these things were presented in questions posed to us: "What do you think about this?"

He challenged the concepts of masculinity and decried violence so often, showing the boys in the class that pink is just a color, that being soft is okay, and that there's nothing cool about being a war hero. But never so directly. He did it by offering up a chance to think about these things that were so widely accepted to be true.

I can't say for certain if Mr. Ellison was a leftist or a centrist or something else.  What I can say, is that I don't think I would have become a leftist myself, if he hadn't primed me to think critically about everything I know, and seek to form opinions based on what I believe to be right. Mr. Ellison was strange, but one thing I'm certain of: he hated the idea of human suffering more than anything else.

He was just some middle aged white guy with pink shoes and a guitar for some of the students around me, I know that. But for me, he was an important figure that helped shape me into the person I've become today.  He was the first openly anti-war and anti-racist person I'd encountered in my life. I come from a military family that watched Fox News and listened to Rush Limbaugh on road trips. I'd been inundated my whole childhood with ideas that ran completely counter to what Mr. Ellison taught me. And he taught me not by convincing me with arguments to agree with him, but presenting the chance to think about how things made me feel with the facts I'd been previously denied.

And then to decide what I was going to do with those feelings.

What kind of person I wanted to be.

And if I could go back and thank any teacher I've ever had, it would be him. I think I'm a better person for those lessons he taught.

But I cannot find jack shit on a map.

[dzthenerd490]

News Post

Israel war on Gaza updates: Health Ministry declares polio epidemic in Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

Palestine Is a Core Election Issue, and We Won’t Let Our Politicians Ignore It | Truthout

Turkey threatens to ‘enter’ Israel to protect Palestinians – POLITICO

14 Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Fatah, sign China-brokered deal: Why it matters | Explained News - The Indian Express

Ukraine

US will send $1.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine | AP News

Tuaregs photographed with Ukrainian flag after defeating Wagnerites in Mali | Ukrainska Pravda

‘Nowhere is safe in Belgorod’: Fears grip Russian region bordering Ukraine | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

Ukraine's hopes and challenges after long wait for F16s (bbc.com)

Sudan

Khartoum: Women and girls subjected to widespread sexual violence by warring parties, HRW report finds | CNN

https://sudantribune.com/article288840/

South Sudan Considering Oil Pipeline Shutdown Amid Economic Crisis | Pipeline Technology Journal (pipeline-journal.net)

Sudan civil war hits close to home for CT’s Sudanese community | Connecticut Public (ctpublic.org)

Other

Egypt warns of dangers of new war in Lebanon | Arab News

Prosecution calls for 25 death sentences in DR Congo rebellion trial (voanews.com)

Mike Kalambay: Nine die in DR Congo gospel concert chaos (bbc.com)

The Taliban say they no longer recognize Afghan diplomatic missions set up by the former government | AP News

In Afghanistan, Taliban ban on girls’ education leaves thousands of classrooms empty | Arab News

Ethiopia boat disaster kills 19 in Amhara region (bbc.com)

Horror, grief, trauma in Ethiopia’s Gofa a week after deadly landslides | Environment News | Al Jazeera

The Silent Winner of Myanmar’s Northern Conflict – The Diplomat

China and neighbors pressure Myanmar as regime reels from battle losses - Nikkei Asia

Under siege in Myanmar’s cyber-scam capital | Crime News | Al Jazeera

Russia's Wagner has deadliest loss in Africa’s Sahel, highlighting the region's instability | AP News

[meandmybigmouth]

The Taliban are working to woo tourists to Afghanistan

The Taliban are working to woo tourists to Afghanistan (msn.com)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) —

Around 30 men are crammed into a Kabul classroom, part of the debut student cohort at a Taliban-run institute training tourism and hospitality professionals.

YOU GOTTA BE ONE SICK MOFO TO GO THERE FOR THAT!. UNLESS YOUR'RE A REPUBLICAN CHRISTIAN LOOKING FOR TIPS ON GOVERNING AND THE FURTHER ENSLAVEMENT OF WOMEN!

[maaarine]

Afghanistan: Taliban sends abused women to prison - UN (Nicholas Yong, BBC News, Dec 15 2023)

"The Taliban government in Afghanistan is putting women abuse survivors in prison and claiming it is for their protection, according to a UN report.

The UN said the practice harms the survivors' mental and physical health.

There are also no more state-sponsored women's shelters as the Taliban government sees no need for such centres, the report noted.

The Taliban's suppression of women's rights in Afghanistan is one of the harshest in the world. (…)

Taliban officials told UNAMA there was no need for the shelters as the women must be with their husbands or male family members. One said such shelters were "a western concept".

The officials said they would ask for male members of the family to make a "commitment" to not harm the woman survivor.

In instances where she had no male relatives to stay with, or where there were safety concerns, the survivor would be sent to prison "for her protection". This would be similar to how some drug addicts and homeless people are housed in the capital Kabul, noted UNAMA.

But UNAMA said this "would amount to an arbitrary deprivation of liberty". (…)

The complaints are mostly handled by male personnel, and UNAMA noted that the absence of women personnel "discourages and inhibits survivors from lodging complaints".

Survivors are now no longer guaranteed redress for their complaints, including civil remedies and compensation. They are reportedly more afraid of the Taliban government and their arbitrary actions and thus choose not to seek formal justice, said UNAMA.

While there were efforts to advance women's rights between 2001 and 2021 - including law and policy reforms - these have "all but disappeared".

Since retaking power in 2021, the Taliban government have all but broken their earlier promises to give women the right to work and study.

Girls in Afghanistan are only allowed to attend primary school. Teenage girls and women have also been barred from entering school and university classrooms.

They are not allowed in parks, gyms and pools. Beauty salons have been shut, while women must dress in a way that only reveals their eyes. They must be accompanied by a male relative if they are travelling more than 72km (45 miles)."

[australianwomensnews]

Dozens of young Afghan women have been detained by the Taliban over the past week in a crackdown targeting those accused of violating the group’s strict hijab rules.

Girls as young as 16 have been seized from markets, private classrooms and the streets of Kabul as well as other provinces for “bad hijab”.

Several girls have reported being lashed by their Taliban captors.

Since taking over Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban has banned girls from higher education, and restricted their access to the workforce.

The presence of women in public spaces is also tightly controlled, with an order requiring their faces to be covered, and restrictions on how far they can travel alone. The group also enforces bans on wearing make-up, or attending English classes.

Multiple girls who said they were seized on the streets and arrested despite adhering to modesty rules.

Lina, 17, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, said she had been “dressed very appropriately” when she was picked up by Taliban.

“I was waiting for my sister at the market; we had planned to go shopping for gifts for Mother’s Day when many Taliban members arrived there,” she said.

“A female police officer among them grabbed my hand and pulled me into the street and pushed me into a police truck. I was so scared”.

Lina said 22 other girls were arrested alongside her, all of whom were told their clothes were “inappropriate”.

“They took us to a nearby police station, collected our cell phones and then asked us to call our family members one by one,” she said.

“They told us our clothes were inappropriate. They were cursing everyone, especially those who confronted them,” she added.

The latest arrests evoked criticism from international agencies, including the UN’s Afghan mission (UNAMA) that has been documenting the Taliban’s increasing restrictions on the country’s women.

Lina was released in the hours following her arrest after signing a letter guaranteeing that she would adhere to Islamic dress codes.

“They talked to our parents and told them to bring a photo, Tazkira [national ID card], and a legal representative,” she said.

The impact has been longer lasting. She said: “They told me if I was caught in a bad hijab again, they will take me to the prison because my name is already registered with them as an offender.

“I was told that there won’t be any chance of freedom then”.

She is all the more afraid, because, she insisted: “I was dressed very appropriately that day, so were the other girls; none of us had make-up on.”

The incident has left Lina disconsolate about her future. “I cannot even explain how terrible I felt at that time. I was extremely scared and hopeless, and I thought I would lose my family.”

Lina, who, like all other girls, was banned from high school after the Taliban takeover, had since been taking private English classes. She has given them up since her arbitrary arrest.

“I can no longer imagine a future, not for myself, not for my country,” she said, adding that the recent spree of arrests has already left a mark in the capital city.

“I went outside, and there were very few women on the streets, and they had very tight hijabs on. I am not sure if I would be going out as much any more,” she said.

[taiwantalk]

I salute them. That’s who you want in any army. Not war hawks or to avert poverty like those who served Russian military with no sense of world affairs except by their own propaganda.

It’s no small conviction to sell everything one has just to go fight a war on the other side of the world just for good vs evil.

To some extent, American soldiers actually do remember & do thank how ukrainians actually helped during war on terrorism in the past.

And so no self respecting Americans would ever be indifferent about what’s happening to ukraine.

Despite that democrats were the incumbent with bill clinton being the potus who orchestrated for ukraine to give up nuclear arsenals, democrats were never naive to think that Russia can be trusted. That is self evident in the nato expansion and the persistent criticism of human rights violations under putin.

American foreign policies had consistently transcended beyond one president’s term limit.

A single president, like trump, might be able to steer things away from supporting ukraine, but as you can see, American military and contractors were never fooled by putin and were ready to do what they can to quickly repair the damages done by trump in terms of diminishing american troop level in Europe and Syria and Afghanistan, which, now is very apparent in hindsight totally favoring Russia as if to allow Russia to eventually invade ukraine freely.

[rockislandadultreads]

Libby Spotlight: New Thriller eBooks 

Did you know you have free access to eBooks, eAudiobooks, and magazines with your library card? Check out Libby, a service from the Rock Island Public Library (RIPL) that can be accessed with your RIPL card number! You can log in to Libby through our website or download it as an app from the Apple Store or Google Play Store.    

Night Flight to Paris by Cara Black

Three missions. Two cities. One shot to win the war.

October 1942: it’s been two years since Kate Rees was sent to Paris on a British Secret Service mission to assassinate Hitler. Since then, she has left spycraft behind to take a training job as a sharpshooting instructor in the Scottish Highlands. But her quiet life is violently disrupted when Colonel Stepney, her former handler, drags her back into the fray for a risky three-pronged mission in Paris.

Each task is more dangerous than the next: Deliver a package of forbidden biological material. Assassinate a high-ranking German operative whose knowledge of invasion plans could turn the tide of the war against the Allies. Rescue a British agent who once saved Kate’s life—and get out. Kate will encounter sheiks and spies, poets and partisans, as she races to keep up with the constantly shifting nature of her assignment, showing every ounce of her Oregonian grit in the process.

This is the second volume in the “Kate Rees” series.

It’s One of Us by J.T. Ellison

Olivia Bender designs exquisite home interiors that satisfy the most demanding clients. But her own deepest desire can't be fulfilled by marble counters or the perfect rug. She desperately wants to be a mother. Fertility treatments and IVF keep failing. And just when she feels she's at her lowest point, the police deliver shocking news to Olivia and her husband, Park.

DNA results show that the prime suspect in a murder investigation is Park's son. Olivia is relieved, knowing this is a mistake. Despite their desire, the Benders don't have any children. Then comes the confession. Many years ago, Park donated sperm to a clinic. He has no idea how many times it was sold—or how many children he has sired.

As the murder investigation goes deeper, more terrible truths come to light. With every revelation, Olivia must face the unthinkable. The man she married has fathered a killer. But can she hold that against him when she keeps such dark secrets of her own?

Shadow State by Frank Sennett

Ex-Army Ranger sniper Rafe Hendrix leads the Secret Service detail of President Wyetta Johnson. Rafe and Wyetta became close when they served together in Afghanistan and he saved her life during a recon misadventure that cost her a leg.

The President’s wife visits a D.C. private-school classroom, and Hendrix is on sniper duty when a suicide bomber heads toward the First Lady. Hendrix disobeys a direct order and an unthinkable disaster unfolds. Though Hendrix may have saved the First Lady, he’s blamed for the carnage. And the violence hits harder than he ever could have imagined.

Rafe is cast adrift after the incident and he leaves D.C. for Fort Stockton, Texas. His prospects brighten when he meets veterinarian Melody Sanchez and their romance begins to bloom. But there’s still unfinished business waiting in the wings. Someone from the past is bent on revenge—and he has Rafe firmly in his sights. His plan is as twisted as they come—grisly recreations of some of the most terrible events from the past. And now it’s up to Rafe to learn from history—or be doomed to repeat it.

The Wife Before by Shanora Williams

Samira Wilder has never had it easy, and when her latest lousy job goes south, things only promise to get harder. Until she unexpectedly meets a man who will change her life forever. Renowned pro golfer Roland Graham is wealthy, handsome, and caring, and Samira is dazzled. Best of all, he seems to understand her better than anyone ever has. And though their relationship moves a bit fast, when Roland proposes, Samira accepts. She even agrees to relocate to his secluded Colorado mansion. After all, there's nothing to keep her in Miami, and the mansion clearly makes him happy. Soon, they are married amid a media firestorm, and Samira can't wait to make a fresh start—as the second Mrs. Graham...

Samira settles into the mansion, blissfully happy—until she discovers long-hidden journals belonging to Roland's late wife, Melanie, who died in a tragic accident. With each dusty page, Samira comes to realize that perhaps it was no accident at all—that perhaps her perfect husband is not as perfect as she thought. Even as her trust in Roland begins to dwindle and a shadow falls over her marriage and she begins to fear for her own life, Samira is determined to uncover the truth of Melanie's troubled last days. But even good wives should know that the truth is not always what it seems...

[miles-of-heart]

A petite Asian woman with a sharp chin and a sharper gaze opened the door and gave them an unimpressed once-over before saying, “Can I help you?”

“I’m Special Agent Song Lan, this is my partner, Special Agent Xiao Xingchen,” he introduced them as they both flashed their badges. “We’re hoping to speak with Mr. Wen Ning. We’re have some questions about the school shooting at Yiling Elementary 13 years ago that we’re hoping will help us shed light on a homicide we’re investigating.”

The woman frowned at them. “I’m not sure how we could be of much help. A-Ning doesn’t need visitors today.”

“Jiejie?” called a voice from behind her. “I don’t mind, show them in.”

The woman’s lips pursed in disagreement, but she held the door open and gestured for them to enter. She led them into a modest living room and offered them a seat on the overstuffed couch. Bookshelves lined one wall of the room, with photos displayed on many of them. A newspaper left on the coffee table was open to a page with the headline: “More Questions than Progress in Capitol Hill Murders.”  

Movement drew Song Lan’s eye to the doorway to the kitchen, where a man in a wheelchair was wheeling himself into the room with a tray settled across the arms. Song Lan noted that the man’s left leg ended at the knee, and he frowned.

The man smiled warmly at them.

“I’m Wen Ning. My sister, Wen Qing, you’ve met already. Would you like some tea?”

Xiao Xingchen returned his smile easily. “Thank you. That’s very kind of you.”

Wen Ning poured a cup of tea and handed it across. “My sister is protective, but she means well.”

The sister in question had settled herself into a straight-backed chair, but still held herself stiffly as she glared disapprovingly at them.

Song Lan shook his head at the offer of tea and pulled a small notepad from his pocket.

Wen Ning’s open face clouded. “You have a few questions for me? I’m not sure how much help I can be; I don’t remember much from the day of the shooting.”

“But you were there that day?” asked Xiao Xingchen gently.

“Yes.” Then He smiled, but there was something tragic in the curve of it. “I served a tour in Afghanistan, you know. Jiejie worried constantly; she was terrified the entire time I was in the service. People see my leg and assume it’s cause I’m a vet, that I was wounded in action.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t. Jiejie was so relieved when I made it home without a scratch. After I got out, I started working as a teacher’s aide at an elementary school in Florida, and that's when I got shot and ended up losing my leg. Now does that make any kind of sense to you, that a kindergarten classroom put me in more danger than being in a literal warzone?”

“No,” said Xingchen simply. “It’s all kinds of wrong. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“One of the other victims shared your surname,” said Song Lan. “Wen Yuan.”

Pain crossed Wen Ning’s face, and his sister’s lips pinched tighter. “Our cousin. He was six years old. He meant everything to us.”

Wen Ning wheeled himself across the room to the bookshelves and retrieved a framed photo, handing it to Song Lan. “That’s him in the middle there.”

The photo looked like it was taken at a park, maybe a birthday party. It was a group photo with two little kids in the front, one of them holding Wen Ning’s hand. The sister stood beside him, and three other women stood in a row behind.

“The other little boy is Jin Ling, they were in the same class. The woman behind him is Jiang Yanli – Jin Ling’s mother. She was the room mother for their class, volunteering that day. She was killed too.”

“Jiang Yanli was a saint among mortals,” said Wen Qing softly, her eyes unfocused and distant. “For someone so sweet and so impossibly lovely to die so violently…” her words trailed off as she looked away and blinked back tears.

“Jin Ling survived,” said Wen Ning. “He’s a good kid.”

The smiling faces in the photo were painful to look at, knowing how much grief and pain came to these people so soon after this picture must have been taken. As he looked it over carefully, Song Lan realized one of the women in the back row was a familiar face.

He looked up at Wen Ning. “You know Lan Wangji?”

Xiao Xingchen looked over at the question, taking a closer look at the photo. He looked up at Song Lan, surprise and questions in his eyes.

“Sure, although we haven't spoken much since she left the Yiling area years ago. You know her?” he asked curiously.

Xiao Xingchen nodded. “She’s provided some insight into some recent cases we’ve been investigating.”

“I didn’t realize she was from Yiling,” said Song Lan neutrally.

“She grew up in the next county over, but since her mother taught at Yiling Elementary School, she was in town often. Our families became close after I started teaching at the same school.”

Xiao Xingchen met Song Lan’s eyes. That was a bit of trivia Lan Wangji had neglected to mention.

“You didn’t know? I’m not surprised she didn’t mention it. Lan Wangji has always been a very private person, and the loss of her mother was devastating. It was for everyone, really. Mrs. Lan was everyone’s favorite third grade teacher. She was a mentor to me, too. I don’t know how I would have gotten through my first year teaching without her.”

Song Lan handed the picture back to him and said as sincerely as he could, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Wen Ning took the picture and touched the smiling faces fondly, grief evident in his eyes as he smiled sadly. “Me too,” he said.

Song Lan glanced around the room at other pictures on display. One across the room caught his eye – Wen Ning and a woman, both in uniform, arms slung around each other’s shoulders. Song Lan thought she might even be the last woman in the park photo, but he couldn’t be sure without looking more closely.

“How long were you in the service?” he asked, gesturing at the photo.

Wen Ning looked up at it and smiled. “Four years active duty, two more in the reserves. My friend there, she’s the one who designed my prosthetic.” He nodded to the futuristic looking a prosthetic leg on a stand in the corner. “It’s uncomfortable to wear all the time while I’m at home, but it’s a damn good prosthetic.”

“He’s won a 10K with that leg,” added Wen Qing proudly.

Xiao Xingchen smiled. “How wonderful!”

Song Lan’s mind, however, was turning. If the prosthetic made him so agile, what else might he be capable of? “What kind of special weapons training did you have while you were in the service?”

“Wait,” said Wen Qing, her eyes narrowing. They all looked at her and she stared between the two FBI agents for a moment. “That sounds like Wen Ning a suspect. What is this really about?”

“As I said, we’re looking for information that may shed light on a current case.”

Wen Qing glanced down at the newspaper on the coffee table, then back up at Song Lan, suspicious. “This is about the assassinations, isn’t it?”

Wen Ning frowned at her, as if not following her sudden change in topic.

Wen Qing continued before anyone else could respond. “Lan Wangji’s last article in the Sentinel was about the irony of how the two top gun rights politicians in congress were gunned down. Are you thinking their murders are connected somehow to the Yiling massacre?”

“It’s one angle we’re exploring,” Xiao Xingchen said neutrally.

Wen Qing’s eyes narrowed further, and she cocked her head to the side. “You think someone has a lingering grievance they might like to take out against some gun-toting politicians? Someone who has enough experience with weapons to carry out multiple assassinations without getting caught?”

She stood suddenly. “You know my brother is far from the only person in this country with weapons training, right?” She was angry now. “You’ve got the wrong man. My brother served because he’s a patriot and loves his country and wanted a chance to go to college. But he’s a cinnamon roll! He would never do something like this.”

“Jiejie…”

Xiao Xingchen stood and held out his hands in a reassuring gesture. “We’re not making any accusations. We’re just exploring the leads as we find them and gathering all the information we can. We’re just trying to understand the full picture.”

“We’ve answered your questions. You can leave now. Don’t come back unless you call ahead so we can make sure to have a lawyer present.”

[back-and-totheleft]

The Metrograph Interview

MICHAEL M. BILANDIC: I was just telling our friend Gabe that you were the first person to speak to my class at NYU, two weeks after 9/11.

OLIVER STONE: I really spoke to your class two weeks after?

MB: Yeah. Maybe not exactly two weeks, but shortly after. I moved to New York for film school in August, 2001. Then, all of a sudden, this historic event happens. Everything gets cancelled. It’s total chaos. And when they finally bring classes back, they tell us our first visiting lecturer is Oliver Stone. You showed up, you’d come straight from Ground Zero.

OS: Was it a small class?

MB: It was pretty small. Everyone was arguing about geopolitics, Afghanistan, commando units, Bin Laden. And the late underground filmmaker Nick Zedd stormed in and made some unclear accusation about Natural Born Killers (1994) ripping off War is Menstrual Envy (1992). I have no idea what his angle was, but the whole experience was a memorable introduction to film school. Are you still involved with NYU?

OS: I gave a screenwriting scholarship to NYU. Every year people get a certain amount of money if they win the prize as a screenplay writer. I was trying to develop the screenplay aspect of NYU because when I was there, no one took a screenwriting class, except me, maybe five other people. They never had screenwriting as an understanding. Cameras, yeah, but they were not into screenwriting. Anyway.

MB: Education, and particularly the teaching of history, has been a major theme throughout your career. I especially love The Untold History of the United States. In the intro, you describe the disappointment you felt reading your kids’ history textbooks as a catalyst for embarking on your own American history survey. Simultaneously, I’ve been dying to ask you about Dream School (2013-2014), the reality show you were on, where celebrities like you, David Arquette, 50 Cent, and Suze Orman teach a group of high school dropouts in a highly experimental classroom environment. You’re trying to explain the nuances of World War II and Vietnam to these disaffected zoomers. I’m curious about your thoughts on teaching history. Also, what was it like being on a reality show, when it’s a genre you’re so critical of?

OS: I did that years ago! Is it still on the air?

MB: It’s floating around.

OS: It was very strange. That was not satisfactory. I tried.

For Untold History, I came under the influence of my friend, Peter Kusnick, who is a teacher of American history for 30, 40 years now at American University. He’s a very bright man, and a liberal—a real liberal, not a phoney liberal. He’s not a Hillary Clinton liberal, he’s—he studied history. Unfortunately, America has not studied its role in World War II. [In the show] we made the point about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan; it’s crucial to understand why we did that, and how that happened. And we’ve been lying about it for 60, 70 years, just lying about it… This history is crucial. And as you can see, I stopped making movies at a point, and Untold History took three, four years to make. It was just a mess, trying to put it into a film version. I’m very proud of that, I’m glad you pointed it out. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done, trying to tell the true history of the United States from 1898 to now.

MB: It’s so ambitious. I can’t even imagine the process of putting it together.

OS: The 12 parts take us from 1898, up to Obama [being re-elected] in 2012. People always say, “Why don’t you do Trump?” Well, you know, it’s not that simple to go back in. It takes money and time. But I do think it’s clear we’re on the wrong path. It just didn’t have to be this way, you understand? We have a strain of aggressiveness in this country. I don’t know that we can overcome ourselves, control ourselves.

MB: Metrograph is about to screen Natural Born Killers. I love movies like this where there’s a sense of chaos in front of the camera and behind the camera, and you can just feel it, you know? The prison break scene is a perfect example. It’s explosive. You’re watching it and you’re enjoying it, but also trying to imagine the reality of Tom Sizemore, Robert Downey, Jr., Woody Harrelson, and all these actual inmates playing it out in the moment. What draws you to creating these chaotic scenarios? And how do you feel when you’re in them? Do you feel blissed out and calm, or is it a frenzied adrenaline rush?

OS: I love chaos, and I love energy, chaotic energy. And when you can control it to some degree, it makes for a powerful picture. It’s in The Doors, too, if you see it. It’s in the war scenes, and in several movies, Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July. The chaos, the madness of the situation—rock ’n’ roll breeds that, mob scenes breed that, public frenzies, like the January 6 insurrection. We saw it in Born on the Fourth of July where they’re having civilian protests against the Vietnam War. I love that stuff. And I love to get an entire movie set up to this level of madness where you sense the crowd, and the extras sense it, “Wow, it’s really happening.” So many of those people who did The Doors in ’91 said to me, “Wow, this is my first time experiencing the ’60s.” [Laughs.] I can’t say it was the ’60s but certainly it felt like it was a Jim Morrison concert, right?

Now, I saw a movie a few days ago, Babylon (2022) which, it’s ridiculous because [Damien Chazelle] lost touch with reality. I’ve read a lot about the 1920s, they didn’t have orgies like that. I mean, orgies existed, orgies happened for a reason, Cecil B. DeMille did the best orgies we know, in The Ten Commandments (1956), but Damien Chazelle—I liked the movie, it had many good things in it, but that opening was overdone. It was [hands gesture dramatically outward] everybody’s fucking everybody, it doesn’t work like that. A reason has to be established. You shouldn’t lead with the chaos. The chaos should come later, is what I think.

MB: On the topic of orgies, there’s a great movie someone’s going to have to make, and I would love for it to be you—about the FTX drama. These polyamorous nerds in the Bahamas, wreaking havoc on the crypto market, everyone theoretically scamming each other, and with so many political implications. Wall Street and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) reflected their moments so perfectly. I don’t know how much you’ve been up on this scandal; is it a story you would be interested in pursuing?

OS: I mean, I’ve done two Wall Street movies, and I don’t see myself going back into that. And it takes a lot of energy to make a movie, you can’t do it lightly. Also, you can’t chase the news. Never chase the news, it’s ridiculous. I came very close because of Snowden (2016), because of 9/11 with World Trade Centre (2006), and my George Bush movie [W, 2008]. I mean, I never gave up on following the news, but I don’t want to follow it too closely.

MB: I’d like to go back to the idea of prison breaks for a moment. I’m interested in the part of your autobiography where you describe living in the East Village in the late ’60s on 9th Street between Avenue B and C, in an apartment painted entirely red. At the time, you were writing a script called Break, the title being inspired by The Doors’ “Break On Through (To the Other Side).” Supposedly it has a crazy prison break in it, which is something you would explore in later work, like Midnight Express, and Natural Born Killers.

OS: Have you ever read it? Did you see the script?

MB: I haven’t.

OS: Oh, man. It’s a script. It’s insane! It’s my first script I ever wrote. At the end—I wrote two, three versions, and the last one, I think, was the most surreal. He goes to Vietnam [as a soldier]; he dies in Vietnam—he gets killed, by American soldiers. He goes to the underworld, the Egyptian underworld. And he’s judged the old way by the Egyptian gods, very tough. He ends up, I forget how exactly, but in a prison in California, facing smuggling charges—which I did. And from there comes “the break.” There’s no hope in going through society’s methods; there’s no hope listening to conventional thought, because in conventional thought all the bad guys were in Vietnam as soldiers, you see? So he ends up in the American prison. And he breaks out of the American system, all of them break out, and that’s sort of his liberation. So I suppose I’m a rebel at heart. I’ve lived that role, to some degree as a moviemaker. And it’s been tough, because, you know, at times, they’ve given me praise, but at times they really hate me because I am trying to say things as they are.

MB: You certainly took a lot of heat for the tone of Natural Born Killers. It was really interesting re-watching it and thinking about the challenges of satire. Entertainment and politics, these days, seem to have morphed into one. We had Trump doing a borderline Andrew Dice Clay impersonation, and even Zelensky’s a former late-night comedian. Natural Born Killers, and W, really succeed in finding humor in all the madness, but it feels like such a challenge to approach serious issues from a satirical angle today when everything’s blurred into entertainment or “content.”

OS: Well, first of all, it may seem that way to you, but it’s always been that way. We had Ronald Reagan in 1980, who was an actor, and people were saying the same thing you’re saying now: if an actor can get elected—and a B-actor, according to many people—then what’s the meaning of politics? So they always say that. Trump is an aberration—but no more so than Reagan was. They made much too much of a frenzy out of Trump; they blew up everything he did into this massive disaster for the country. It’s all hype. I agree Trump had many failings, but we feasted on it. And as a result, we don’t think. This is, again, the control of the media—they tell you what to think, and they tell you how to think. Well, if you really think this through, Trump is a minor inconvenience compared to what Bush Jr. did to this country. What he did in 2000, by setting up the War on Terror, starting a war across the globe with some 70 fucking countries, to create this concept, the United States is going to be the dominant country in the world, and “you’re either with us or against us.” That is a stupid fucking policy, completely self-destructive. We’ve spent more and more money chasing more and more bullshit, starting little brushfire wars everywhere we can, sending troops everywhere. It’s been a nightmare. It all goes back to Bush and his group. To ignore that is to miss the whole point of what’s going on in the 21st century, to me; to concentrate on Trump is ridiculous.

Going back to Natural Born Killers, at the time I said it’s a satire because it’s not realistic. In the sense that, if you look at the violence—I was criticized repeatedly for the violence—the violence is ridiculous, it’s absurd, it’s comic violence. In Born on the Fourth of July I showed what one bullet can do to a spine; it can destroy a spine and destroy a man’s life. So I’ve been very realistic in my violence, in Platoon, and Salvador (1986). But in this one case, I exaggerated everything in the movie to make the point that our society was completely fucked. At the time it was the O.J. Simpson trial, and I was disgusted with it. There had been a series of things that happened in the ’90s that had been sensationalized in the media—murders, a woman cutting off a man’s dick was all over the headlines—it was National Enquirer stuff that was being put on the front pages. I noted that; I read this draft by Tarantino; I bought it—I bought it from the producers, not from him. And I changed a lot of it because it was shallow—to my mind, it was shallow and I wanted to go deeper. But I thought it was a very good surface story. The film was controversial from the beginning because Tarantino was always objecting to anybody who changed a word of his script—you know, his bullshit, he is the greatest of all time, and no one can touch what he does. But we changed it because he’d sold it, he didn’t own it. So anyway, we made the movie. And it was misunderstood from the beginning, misunderstood completely—partly that’s because of PR, partly because Tarantino was attacking the movie. But if you look at the movie—now is a good time to look at it—you’ll see a lot of what we were talking about has certainly come true in our media.

MB: It’s undeniable.

OS: The American media has glorified violence all my life. To begin with—before Natural Born Killers—on television, the emphasis, the ratings, were on violence for the most part. Shows, Westerns, where people bang, bang, you’re dead. That was the most popular form of communication in America, killing somebody. It got out of hand in the ’90s. And it’s gotten worse, and worse, and worse… The American media is the most dominant, pervasive, controlling nanny state I’ve ever seen. I can’t stand it. As you know, I’ve been fighting the media for most of my life.

MB: At the time you were also critiquing a culture of gossip and a culture of surveillance. And this is before social media?! Then that arrives and everything you’re arguing just gets exploded; every little thing becomes sensationalized, and whatever goes viral is always anger inducing. You’re on Instagram and Twitter, what’s your relationship with social media been like?

OS: I follow it to a degree, I’m not a hound. It tires me. I’m older, man, I just, I can’t follow all the bullshit. I thought it was interesting when Musk took it over, because he did purge the—the whole thing on Twitter is its government, the government got involved in media. They’ve been heavily involved with Facebook, telling them who the enemy is, what to think, how to think, and telling the same thing now to the Twitter people. Everyone’s cowed by the government, because it’s hard to say no to the big boss. We’re basically a form of social dictatorship, maybe, in the sense that you’re shamed if you don’t go along with the group. Sure, they attack some big targets, but they also scare off the smaller people who like to think for themselves.

MB: Have you been following the Twitter Files stuff? It ties in, I feel, to a lot of themes you’ve explored in your work.

OS: The investigative journalist Matt Taibbi, he’s done a lot of good work. And people like Glenn Greenwald. Many of them have pointed out that the Twitter Files has been government propaganda in this war in Ukraine. And it has. It’s taken all the information that comes to the people who want to make Twitter a freeway for democracy; you can put out information about what the Ukrainians are doing, what the Russians are doing, but anything negative about the Ukrainians is removed by censorship. And you cannot say anything positive about the Russian position, or what even the Russian position is. So we’re telling the people, “This is what you have to think about Ukraine.” This is very dangerous, because we’re not telling the truth to our people. You’re not able to hear it. And this is disgusting. This is not what Twitter was made for. So I go back to my first point that this whole country has been locked up in a kind of social dictatorship. It’s like, you cannot think certain things.

MB: It’s interesting thinking about all of this in the context of the lockdown.

OS: Everybody’s got to have the same attitude about Covid—which is nonsense.

MB: I kept thinking about Talk Radio (1988), with Eric Bogosian playing the controversial radio personality, another of your films which feels relevant to current times. With podcasts, we’re almost back to AM talk radio, or a ham-radio type thing, where people are listening to wild stuff and developing these para-social relationships. It’s funny, I also just watched a documentary about Rockets Redglare; I had totally forgotten he was the killer in Talk Radio, and the guy on the phone.

OS: You saw a documentary about him where?

MB: It took a lot of work to find it, but I can send it to you. It’s from 2003, Rockets Redglare!

OS: It’s funny, I didn’t know about that. But Bogosian, he was very talented. A very good actor. The picture was unfortunately released at the wrong time, at Christmas. It didn’t belong at Christmas. It’s gone the way… but many people like you remember it so hopefully it’ll have some new life.

MB: I have to bring this up. The deleted scene in Natural Born Killers with the bodybuilding brothers is really one of my favorite scenes in a movie. I watch it all the time on YouTube.

OS: I’ve forgotten the scene, describe it to me.

MB: These two identical twin bodybuilders [Peter and David Paul, aka the Barbarian Brothers] are being interviewed by Robert Downey Jr. in a gym, and they’re describing how they had an encounter with Mickey and Mallory. The couple usually only let one person survive, but they let both survive in this case because the couple were fans of the brothers and only realized who they were halfway through chain-sawing their legs off. It’s revealed they’re in wheelchairs now—but they’re not mad because Mickey and Mallory passed “The Edge” onto them and they can workout harder than anyone else in the gym now because of their disability. I love it. I know you worked with Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian (1982), and in Natural Born Killers the brothers reference Pumping Iron (1977) to Downey. I was wondering if you had any thoughts about bodybuilding, that scene, and working with the Barbarian Brothers?

OS: [Laughs] I enjoyed it. There were a lot of cuts—I don’t know what version you have, but there is an R-rated version, and there’s an unrated version. Do you have the unrated version?

MB: Yeah.

OS: We had tremendous problems with it. Warner Brothers wanted an R version, and they really broke my chops. I had to go back to the MPAA several times, always making more and more [cuts]—it didn’t make any sense. I would say, “What you’re really objecting to is the chaos. You’re not objecting to the physical violence because it’s not really there. You’re objecting to the madness of the movie.” And, you know, that’s not right! Because it is a mad movie, you have to accept that it is a mad movie, like Clockwork Orange (1971) was. But they just couldn’t see the bigger picture. I was already in trouble, of course, with JFK; and I’d done Scarface (1983), as a writer, but I saw all that shit go down. They got crazy on Scarface, and they got crazy on Natural Born Killers. I make this point because they’re haggling over bullshit. When in reality, it’s the madness of our society that they’re not really dealing with. As I said to the press at the time—and they couldn’t understand what I was talking about—I said, “You know, the two killers are not so bad compared to Tommy Lee Jones, who’s the warden of a fucking madhouse, and runs it like a madhouse. Or take a look at Downey, the Downey character is insane. He wants to be a killer. He lives it. He’s living it through Mickey and Mallory, and that’s the media! I said, that’s what’s wrong! And look at the cop, the cop played by Sizemore. So of course I piss off everybody. [Laughs] I said, our cops, our prisons, our media are more fucked up than the two killers. They thought I was crazy.

MB: You see this with the censorship on Twitter, too, where you can’t even put a finger on why they ban certain things. Is it just because this is chaos or… ?

OS: I want to tell you a quick story, because my favorite deletion, and I really wish it were in there, is the courtroom scene in Natural Born Killers with [Woody Harrelson and] Ashley Judd. I think that’s hilarious. Have you ever seen the outtakes on that?

MB: Remind me.

OS: It’s the one where he goes, “Bills and bills and bills.” He gets permission to cross-examine her, Ashley Judd is one of the victims. It’s a touching scene because she is a very good actress and very convincing. And Woody—it’s just beautifully done. You got to watch it, man. It fits beautifully. The reason I took it out was length, and violence. It was too much at the time. But it really belongs in the movie, it’s in the middle—they get busted, and before they go to jail they have this trial. But he wants to be his own lawyer. He cross-examines her—and he stabs her in the heart! And of course [laughs], it’s the worst thing you can do! I mean, they’re going to throw them in the dungeon now! Ashley Judd is a sweetheart—she gets killed, oh my God. How bad can these people be? Right? I love it. I love it. [Laughs] That’s the greatest scene to me, that’s the one I miss.

MB: I just watched JFK Revisited (2021). It sounded like last week they were supposed to release the final files, then it didn’t happen.

OS: They just postponed it in another year. Or something like that. They won’t release the key files. But even then, I don’t know what would be in there. These are CIA people. They all were dealing with Cuban groups, people like [George] Joannides, [David Atlee] Phillips, Bill Harvey. Those are the guys you really want… [Allan] Dulles if possible, but there’s no files on Dulles. The CIA is where, in my opinion, you really got to look, because they were running the whole show, including [Lee Harvey] Oswald.

MB: Alright, last thing. So as we are entering 2023, I’ve been reading all these year-end lists, wrapping up the year. I was curious what your summary of 2022 would be? And what are you looking for in 2023?

OS: Let’s talk film first. As a filmmaker, I finished a very complicated documentary, a scientific one called Nuclear Now, which is on the need for bringing back nuclear energy now, and pushing it because it is the only way we’re going to close the gap with the vast amount of energy we’re going to need by 2050. Hopefully it will be out in the New Year, very early, and people will see it, but it’s a very important thing to me, it’s the most important subject on Earth. So that’s where I am at. Secondly, I co-wrote a screenplay with a partner, which I think is—I cannot tell you what the subject is, it’s not that I don’t reveal what I’m about to or hope to do, and if all goes well I’ll be able to make it in 2023, but it hasn’t been an easy business, that’s for sure. I haven’t done a feature film since 2016: Snowden. I did JFK Revisited in 2019, and Putin [The Putin Interviews] in 2017, so I’ve been busy with documentaries more than features. I’m looking forward to making one more—I hope—as well as releasing Nuclear Now.

MB: Nice.

OS: On the world front, it’s always unstable, the world has always been in change. People over-exaggerate, it’s always a dark time, you know? Americans have a very limited view of the world because they live subjected to the American media.

Now, for 2023, we’re in a shithole. As a country, we keep backing the military, we keep putting a fortune into military spending—and now we’re paying for the Ukraine war, which is insane. Because we started the war, we trapped the Russians into going in there with our policies. In other words, most of the instability in the world is created by us. And we won’t admit it. People in America don’t know about that because they have no idea we’re the provokers—we’re the most provocative country in the world. And as long as we can’t see it, we’re hypnotized. We’re hypnotized by our media. We don’t see beyond our little American periscope.

-Michael M. Bilandic interviews Oliver Stone, Metrograph, Dec 2022 [x]