#Global Leader Magazine

[theleadersglobe]

Keanu Reeves Loses Control in Thrilling Racing Debut at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Hollywood star Keanu Reeves made his professional auto racing debut on Saturday during an event in which The Matrix star spun out at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Reeves spun off into the grass without making contact as he exited Turn 9, just past the halfway mark of the 45-minute race. He rejoined the race and continued driving, indicating he was unhurt.

Reeves, who qualified 31st out of 35 cars, climbed as high as 21st and successfully dodged a first-lap crash in Turn 14. He eventually finished in 25th position.

Reeves, who was raised in Toronto, is racing at Indianapolis in the Toyota GR Cup, a Toyota spec-racing series and a support event for the Indy 8 Hour sports car race taking place this weekend. He is set to race again on Sunday.

Read More: https://theleadersglobe.com/entertainment/keanu-reeves-loses-control-in-thrilling-racing-debut-at-indianapolis-motor-speedway/

[luminarytimesmedia]

OneTap Loyalty Secures Major Investment for Global Expansion

VAustralian technology startup, OneTap Loyalty, has made significant strides towards global expansion after securing major investments from high-profile international retail leaders. The innovative platform, designed by Carly Neubauer and Jodie Wilson, has garnered the interest of multinational retailers, with a new company, OneTap Group Ltd, being established in the UK to introduce the technology to international markets.

Revolutionary Loyalty Solution

One Tap Loyalty simplifies the customer experience by allowing shoppers to link their payment cards directly to loyalty programs. This enables automatic accrual of loyalty points and rewards whenever a payment card is used, even without the physical loyalty card present. The versatile platform works with any existing loyalty program, making it a seamless solution for both customers and retailers.

Read More:  https://luminarytimes.com/onetap-loyalty-secures-major-investment-for-global-expansion/

[ultimate-media-insights]

A recent study published in Nature Climate Change reveals that global dietary emissions could be reduced by 17% if more people adopt plant-based diets. The research, conducted by an international team of scientists, suggests that over half of the global population, currently over-consuming, could contribute significantly to this reduction by shifting to the planetary health diet proposed by the EAT-Lancet Commission. The study highlights that this dietary change would offset the 15.4% increase in emissions expected from under-consuming populations (43.1% of the global population) as they move towards healthier diets. Read more

[eurocioleaders]

https://eurocioleaders.com/

Global Business Leaders Magazine: Capturing Leadership Across world

[ciooutlookmagazine]

Adobe Executive Frustrated with Regulatory Approval for Figma Deal

Adobe’s $20 billion acquisition of Figma is facing regulatory scrutiny, prompting questions about the lengthy approval process. David Wadhwani, President of Adobe’s digital media business, expressed concerns about the time-consuming nature of regulatory reviews during the WSJ Tech live event. The acquisition, announced 13 months ago, has been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and regulatory bodies in the U.K. and E.U. Microsoft recently faced a similar situation with its $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, taking almost 21 months to secure approval. Adobe expects to hear back from regulators in the next few months, aiming to close the Figma deal in 2023. Wadhwani emphasized the importance of a more efficient regulatory process to enable quick innovation. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority has set a statutory deadline for the inquiry stage by December 31, 2023.

Adobe has agreed to pay Figma $1 billion if regulators reject the deal or if it isn’t completed by mid-March 2024. Wadhwani highlighted the growth opportunities in creative expression, documents, and marketing for Adobe, positioning Figma as the fourth pillar. Since the announcement, Adobe has focused on generative artificial intelligence tools that respond to human input, indicating potential for Figma in AI-driven design creation.

However, Wadhwani clarified that they are not a combined company yet. The Competition and Markets Authority is assessing whether the deal would substantially reduce competition. Despite Adobe’s X.D. screen-design tool competing with Figma, Adobe contends that X.D., even in “maintenance mode,” cannot be considered a “material” competitor to Figma in the innovative and dynamic market. The prolonged regulatory process raises questions about its impact on companies’ ability to swiftly execute strategic acquisitions and innovations.

Read More: https://ciooutlookmagazine.com/adobe-executive-frustrated-with-regulatory-approval-for-figma-deal/

[entrepreneurinsights]

Entrepreneur Insights | Magazine for Managing Directors

Entrepreneur Insights Magazine for Managing Directors. Entrepreneur Insights Magazine aims to be the navigator to promote your entrepreneurial story. We desire to be the digital navigator to bring your product/service to all. Through our website, magazine social media, and more, we strive to provide all sorts of latest and important information about technology, sports, health, fashion, real estate, and many more that you need to make a decision.

[ciolookindia]

10 Best Online Business Ideas from Home | ciolookindia Post-pandemic, internet business from home or online businesses is a growing trend. Many budding youngsters, employed, unemployed professionals, moms, middle-aged people & even seniors are increasingly opting for internet or online entrepreneurship.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Harris stretched her coalition into incoherence. Inhumanly—as well as fruitlessly—she attempted to score points from the right on immigration, accusing Trump of insufficient dedication to building the wall. Her cack-handed performances of sympathy with Palestinians accompanied an evident commitment to follow Benjamin Netanyahu into a regional war. The Harris campaign featured a grab bag of policies, some good, some bad, but sharing no clear thematic unity or vision. She almost always offered evasive answers to challenging questions. And she adopted a generally aristocratic rather than demotic manner, which placed the candidate and her elite friends and allies at the center rather than the people they sought to represent. In these ways, Harris repeated not only Hillary Clinton’s errors but many of the same ones that she herself had made in her ill-starred 2019 presidential campaign, which opportunistically tacked left rather than right, but with equal insincerity and incoherence. Who remembers that campaign’s biggest moment, when she attacked Biden for his opposition to busing and what it would have implied for a younger version of herself, only to reveal when questioned that she also opposed busing? Or when she endorsed Medicare for All, raising her hand in a debate for the idea of private insurance abolition, only to later claim she hadn’t understood the question? Voters, then as now, found her vacuous and unintelligible, a politician of pure artifice seemingly without ideological depths she could draw from and externalize. She often gave the sense of a student caught without having done her homework, trying to work out what she was supposed to say rather than expressing any underlying, decided position. Even abortion rights, her strongest issue, felt at times like a rhetorical prop, given her own and her party’s inaction in the years prior to Dobbs. How many times before had Democrats promised to institutionalize and expand the protections of Roe, only to drop the matter after November?

[...]

The Democrats, in other words, comprehensively failed to set the terms of ideological debate in any respect. Their defensiveness and hypocrisy served only to give encouragement to Trump while demobilizing their own voters, whom they will no doubt now blame—as though millions of disaggregated, disorganized individuals can constitute a culpable agent in the same way a political party’s leadership can. But the party’s leaders are to blame, not that many in the center have cared or even seemed willing to reflect on a decade of catastrophe. Has anyone who complained that the 2020 George Floyd rebellion would cost Democrats votes due to the extremism of its associated demands reckoned with the empirical finding that the opposite proved true? That the narrow victory of Biden in 2020 was likely attributable to noisy protests that liberals wished would be quieter and calmer? Has anyone acknowledged the unique popularity of Sanders with Latinx voters, a once-core constituency that the Democrats are now on the verge of losing outright? The pathologies of the Democrats, though, are in a sense not the result of errors. It is the structural role and composition of the party that produces its duplicitous and incoherent orientation. It is the mainstream party of globalized neoliberal capitalism, and at the same time, by tradition anyway, the party of the working class. As the organized power of the latter has been washed away, the commitment has become somewhat more aspirational: Harris notably cleaned up with the richest income bracket of voters. The only issues on which Harris hinted of a break with Biden concerned more favorable treatment of the billionaires who surrounded her, and her closest advisers included figures like David Plouffe, former senior vice president of Uber, and Harris’s brother-in-law Tony West, formerly the chief legal officer of Uber, who successfully urged her to drop Biden-era populism and cultivate relations with corporate allies.

8 November 2024

[lueurjun]

guitarist boyfriend! jay

popstar!reader x guitarist boyfriend jay! in which you’re supplied with a new guitarist who just so happens to end up falling hopelessly in love with you. a/n—if this is bad, don’t blame me. it was a spur of the moment spark of motivation.

gather around and hold hands because this is everything to me

YOU GUYS are everything to me

that micheal scott meme where he’s holding jim and pam’s hands… that’s what it looks like. me holding you guys by the hands because i just love u both so much. i am apart of this relationship. i am the captain of this ship. the leader of- okay you get it

guitarist jay and his global popstar partner?? stop before i cry

okay ! let’s get started with how you guys came to be

it all started because your guitarist decided to seize an opportunity to permanently work for another pop star

traitor. i’ll set them on fire. ( for legal reasons that’s a joke ).

and you’re all for new opportunities and such but they happened to leave smack bang in the middle of your world tour

three hours before your concert

someone hand me a lighter rn-

so not only are you set to perform in front of a sold out stadium, in a country you’re not too familiar with, but you’re left with no guitarist either

cue the emotional meltdown backstage with all your stylists and staff around trying to calm you down

imagine you’re filming a documentary and they put in the scene where you’re sat on the floor just sobbing whilst people rush around you- the way i’d sue my own team

anyways lucky for you, yang jungwon is on your team — and he has a friend who has exceptional talent on the guitar, who also happens to be in the area

how convenient, it’s almost like this was written in the stars

jay arrives but he doesn’t even get to say hi to you before he’s carted off by your manager to be coached for the performance

so you really only saw the back of his head through teary eyes

but according to your stylist, he’s one hell of a babe

stylist is me btw lemme wipe away your tears. come here, pretty

you take their word for it and just try to mentally prepare for the concert ahead after the shock of being blindsided

it’s not until 5 minutes before you go on that you officially get to meet jay

and suddenly the concept of workplace crushes makes sense to you because bro looks like he’s just stepped out of a vogue magazine

models should be thankful he picked the idol industry

he looks super nervous as he shakes your hand, he’s all jittery and it makes your heart swell

of course, he’s polite as ever as he compliments your work and all that you do and expresses how much of an honour it is to play for you

he’s laying it on thick but i would too if i was in your presence tbh- you’re everything embedded in gold

there’s not much time for conversation before the pair of you are being ushered into position, but you catch the wink he gives you before he stalks away with the rest of the band

and you certainly don’t miss the knowing grin you receive from your drummer, sunoo

suddenly, you’re taking deep breaths to ease your pounding heart which is going crazy

not because of the thousands that are about to watch you perform live, but because of the small interaction you just shared with jay

oh you are so cooked- but personally, if i was jay, i’d never wash my hand again after shaking yours

anyways the performance goes smoothly, and jay excels just as jungwon said he would

you were surprised at how easy it was for him to get into the swing of things

and your fans seemed to love the new addition given ‘y/n’s guitarist’ trends on twitter afterwards

needless to say, concert one with jay is a great success so much so that he secures a permanent spot as your brand new guitarist

yesss bros getting a major bag and YOU? he’s living the dream fr

as the shows progress, you and jay seem to gravitate closer both on stage and off

if you’re not hanging out constantly, then you’re sharing winks and subtle glances across the stage whilst you’re performing

and as expected: a ship begins to set sail

your fans are begging for it to happen. your friends are begging for it to happen.

i’m begging for it to happen

and finally, it does.

jay bites the bullet and asks you out on a date

what’s the worst that can happen? you say no, oh wow-

we’re on a floating rock lovelies. shoot your shot 🫨

luckily for jay, you didn’t say no. in fact, you were more than delighted to say yes

onto the relationship because this is so long, i always do this

right off the bat he is OBSESSED with you

but would he swim across the ocean to get to you? i would. i would, y/n.

heart eyes constantly

so much so that fans literally have 30 min compilations on youtube of him just staring at you as though you were an aurora dancing across the sky

blowing kisses at him as you’re performing

alexa play that should be me

your discography is so shamelessly dedicated to him

everyone eats it up

iconic paparazzi photos

jay having you sat on his lap to teach you the guitar and him leaving gentle kisses against the nape of your neck

sighhhhh genuinely why do i do this to myself? someone take over because i am DEPRESSED

if you’re already able to play guitar, i can see the pair of you doing a little duet where you just stare at each other all 😍😍 whilst playing at each other

wearing one of his picks on a necklace

him having your name written on his guitar

also you get special treatment and your band members make sure you know it

“i moved his guitar out of the way so it didn’t get trampled on and he grabbed sunoo’s drum stick and threatened to shove it down my throat but you touch it and all of a sudden roses grow from his eyes? disgusting.”

sunghoon has had enough

yapping about him during interviews with the brightest smile on your face

this would be me as a celeb- i would not be able to keep my life private i’m a certified yapper

if you want to go for the more private approach

subtle exchanges on stage

it would be like private but not secret

cuddles backstage !!!

being seen wearing each others tour jackets when leaving the venue

crawling into his bunk on the tour bus late at night after everyone has fallen asleep but also being the last to wake up so everyone knows you’re in there anyway

him shielding your face from all the flashes of the camera

protective jay is everything to me.

he’ll definitely be your plus one to any event

and the two of you absolutely steal the show every single time

he also supplies your fandom with memes of you and they thank him for it

i better stop here because i’m getting too carried away shsjsjsk and i’m pretty sure i strayed off the prompt 😭

overall, you and jay? dream couple ☁️🤍

[reality-detective]

I've been asked to share my opinion on the recent Economist magazine cover that depicts a very interesting symbolic collage type of image. In no particular priority order, here are my impressions:

1. Saturn, which has profound occult meaning, sits atop the world order, above all world leaders and changing international dynamics. They are saying that regardless of changing conditions in the world ultimate authority will remain with Saturn and the cult of Saturn.

2. The image is dyed with black and red which is especially significant in 2025 because black is the traditional color of Saturn and red is the classical color of Aries where Saturn is heading in 2025. In other words, the dominant colors of the image reflect Saturn's astrological entry into Aries next year which the "elites" are aware of and planning with (Saturn centric strategy).

3. The value of the U.S. dollar will rise, perhaps as sharply as a rocket, through President Trump's leadership. Currency speculators should take this very seriously as I believe he's on a mission to save the USD through extraordinary means and measures like gold.

4. Zelensky holds the lowest hierarchical rank within the image which resonates with my recent prediction that 'Zelensky the Aquarius' will be falling after the next new moon in Aquarius which comes on January 29th, 2025.

5. Nuclear and radiological imagery conveys the message of crisis of this nature that dark forces intend to amplify and exploit to negatively change power dynamics within the world. The eye with the radiation symbol correlates with Pluto's entry into Aquarius.

6. The other eye to the right appears to be the same from the pyramid on the USD, an easy read here is "watch what we do with the USD" which has of course been used as an economic weapon for a long, long time. President Trump can 'game change' this with gold. The hour glass next to the 'dollar eye' says that the dollar will have more time or that the clock on it will be refreshed.

7. The Japanese Yen appears forecasted (or plotted) to decline along with the power and influence of Ursula Von Der Leyen who is likely to be axed by Saturn in '25.

8. There is a certain city beneath Saturn that seems unaffected in a negative way, a city above President Trump and perhaps the USA which he represents. The "City of Saturn" is a concept that should be kept in mind, especially a new "City of Saturn" as Saturn will be transitioning into Aries, the house of all things new.

9. President Putin, the great Christian hope and power of the East, is placed beneath a globe showing his region in emergency red beside a syringe which inclines me to think of a new biological threat in his area. I pray that his new cancer vaccine hasn't been tampered with.

10. EV battery supply issues also appear forecasted, with Saturn entering Aries battles for land, territory and raw materials will definitely be intensifying globally.

11. The white rocket next to President Trump seems to be an admission that 'Trump world' will be taking off. The rocket can also symbolize @elonmusk who has (thank God) propelled President Trump's ambitions.

12. The red communist fist at the bottom of the image implies a series weakening of communist social power.

13. I'm not quite sure who the woman is at the bottom but I feel inspired to think of Marine Le Pen as a new power player on the global chessboard. Watch her.

14. Xi and Putin are 'to the right' of Saturn (implying that they are philosophical good actors) while Ursula and Zelenksy are 'to the left' of Saturn (implying that they are bad actors). Trump is in the middle, between worlds, where he'll be tested in his 'bridge making' ability in '25.

15. The eyes to the left and right of Trump convey a message that he is being watched in an "all seeing" manner by shadow powers. Saturn above Trump, in a 'third eye' position, inspires me to think that he has a blind spot for Saturn, especially the astrological Saturn, which he should learn to see through his inner eye.

16. President Xi is depicted with a higher status than President Trump although the imagery near Trump implies a 'rise to the occasion' type of momentum and challenge that Trump will pose to Xi and China in economic terms. Between this and the Yen decline imagery I get chills for the Asian market in general.

17. Imagery for the secret AI arms race is suspiciously missing although the text reads, "crunch year for AI, will the $1T gamble pay off?" In other words, look at this and look at that but don't think of the secret AI arms race.

In closing I must state, as I have repeatedly through the years, that 'world elites' use astrology in secret and here they are putting Saturn at the top of their 2025 agenda.

Watching wisely,

Astrologer Salvador Russo

It's a pretty good description 🤔

[theleadersglobe]

Trump Media Eyes Major Growth with $247M Funding Boost

Trump Media & Technology Group has announced a significant development. The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved its filing for the resale of certain shares and warrants. This approval could potentially provide the company with $247 million in proceeds.

With these new funds, Trump Media plans to enhance its platform. This includes TV streaming, platform upgrades, and potential mergers and acquisitions. However, this news caused a 14% drop in extended trading due to potential equity dilution concerns.

Trump Media currently has over $200 million in unrestricted cash. Additionally, $40 million in restricted cash will become unrestricted. This change is due to the registration statement on Form S-1 becoming effective.

Read More:(https://theleadersglobe.com/business/trump-media-eyes-major-growth-with-247m-funding-boost/)

[luminarytimesmedia]

UN Calls for Global Al Fund to Support Developing Nations

The United Nations has proposed the creation of a global artificial intelligence (AI) fund, urging both governments and private companies to contribute. This fund would provide developing nations with essential Al technologies, training, and resources, ensuring they are not left behind in the rapidly evolving Al landscape. The recommendation comes from the UN Secretary-General's high-level Al advisory body, which emphasised the importance of inclusivity in Al development.

The proposed fund aims to provide developing nations with access to Al models, computing power, and training programs. These resources are critical for helping these countries achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as eradicating poverty and improving education. The fund would address the growing gap between wealthier nations that are advancing in Al and those that lack the means to invest in this transformative technology.

Read More: https://luminarytimes.com/un-calls-for-global-ai-fund-to-support-developing-nations/

[aettuddae]

business matter — profiles 1.

↳ synopsis: two of the most important kpop companies covet a partnership with a huge global brand, only to be surprised when the deal is extended to both labels. fearing potential sabotage and cynical strategies to secure exclusivity for just one of them, both CEOs resort to desperate measures. in a bid to maintain trust and prevent betrayal before the signing, they come up with a pact: forcing a fake relationship between the leaders of their star girlgroups. if one side attempted to fail the other, they threaten to expose it all to the conservative south korea.

masterlist | profiles 2 | chapter 1

HeAVEN. a 5 member girlgroup under olympia entertainment. they debuted in may 2018 with the mini album "arrival." global success came with their first full album released in august 2019, "promised land."

priv | vibe

SERIM. leader, main vocalist, lead dancer, face of the group and center of HeAVEN. a popular guest on variety shows, even being a fixed cast member on TvN's maze-solving program: "azza time!" she is loved for her charisma and witty humor, as well as her leadership and golden voice.

YVES | ha sooyoung. main dancer and lead rapper of HeAVEN. certified extrovert of the group, she's the official call for solo promotion. well known for her fashion sense and unique visuals, also gets a lot of modeling gigs.

MINNIE. main vocal of HeAVEN. when we say "it girl," we mean her. fashion icon of her generation, the commercials and ads offers keep coming, so is very difficult to avoid her perfect face with all the brands she represents.

CHAEYOUNG. main rapper and visual of HeAVEN. "summer beauty," that face is on every magazine you open. newer idols' favorite senior, she's the sweetest girl out there ! that's probably the reason why every group wants to promote on her youtube drinking show: chaeng's bar.

YUJIN. lead vocalist and maknae of HeAVEN. when koreans think of the perfect maknae, they think of ahn yujin. if you watch dramas or have ears, you probably heard one of her osts.

[beardedmrbean]

The women of Iran are dancing. Women blinded, with one eye, or one arm, are dancing. Iranian Kurds are dancing. Across Europe, Iranian dissidents are dancing. Iranians – often, relatives of the regime’s victims – are drinking to show their joy. The daughters of Minoo Majidi, a mother shot dead by security services during the 2022 protests, shared a video of them raising a glass to President Raisi’s death. 

Dark humour – the jokes of an oppressed people – are circulating. “Mr Raisi, you surprised us. We have no tapas for our drinks,” chuckles one Iranian in a celebratory video on social media. There was the gag about how a Mossad agent called “Eli Copter” had caused the crash. People have handed out cakes and sweets in public squares – an act of symbolic importance in Persian culture, often associated with joyous events. Celebratory fireworks filled the skies in Iranian cities.

Such courage is all the more impressive given how little Raisi’s death is likely to change anything in this closed prison of a society. It may somewhat alter the succession, since he had been one of the men tipped to succeed Khamenei, but the Ayatollahs retain their stranglehold. The bravery of anyone involved in any celebration or act of civil disobedience such as removing a headscarf, is astounding. Those letting off fireworks or handing out sweets are risking their lives. 

History will remember Raisi as a squalid tyrant who took a twisted pride in human suffering. He was involved in the torture and extrajudicial murder of thousands of political prisoners held in Iranian jails and the mass killings of opponents in 1988, when as many as 30,000 are believed to have lost their lives. As Mariam Memarsadeghi wrote in a chilling article for Tablet magazine, “virgins were systematically raped before their execution, to circumvent the Islamic prohibition on killing virgins and to prevent women and girls from reaching heaven”. 

And yet, the BBC posted about “President Ebrahim Raisi’s mixed legacy in Iran”. You can imagine the 1945 headlines about the mixed legacy of “motorway-builder, vegetarian rights enthusiast and dog-lover” Adolf Hitler, or that of “inspirational plus-size influencer” Hermann Goering. Reuters described how Raisi “rose through Iran’s theocracy from hardline prosecutor to uncompromising president, as he burnished his credentials to position himself to become the next supreme leader”. 

Reading such things you would think Raisi was, at worst, a slight renegade. A cheeky chappie in a kaftan whose loss will be felt by light entertainment for generations. They tweeted like he was Rod Hull – rather than, you know, someone nicknamed “the Butcher of Tehran”. But in the real world, faced with the real consequences of the regime he ran, people are dancing. 

It wasn’t just the BBC in its classic “tightrope walk” mode, either. Things were getting a bit Candle in the Wind at the UN, as the entire Security Council (including both the UK and US representatives) stood to observe a minute of silence for President Raisi. Goodbye Tehran’s rose. 

European Council president Charles Michel tweeted out his sincere condolences, while the “European Commissioner for Crisis Management” committed the EU’s Copernicus satellite system to help locate Raisi’s helicopter, in the name of “#EUSolidarity”. 

Lest we forget, Johan Floderus, a young EU official from Sweden, has been incarcerated at Iran’s notorious Evin prison for more than two years. We don’t see much “#EUSolidarity” coming from the other direction. Not to be undone, President Higgins of Ireland channelled the spirit of Eamon de Valera c.1945, by offering his “deepest sympathies” upon the death of a tyrant. 

Such statements go well beyond basic diplomacy. Nobody asked anyone to gush; they chose to. The message it sends is a slap in the face to those bravely putting their lives on the line for freedom. But it’s par for the course in what is (sometimes optimistically) termed the “international community”. 

Speaking of which, on Monday, the International Criminal Court put out joint bids for arrest warrants for the leaders of Hamas and the prime minister and defence minister of Israel. Given that the ICC has no jurisdiction, nor power of its own to arrest anyone, there was something bleakly comic about the manner of the announcement. Chief prosecutor Karim Khan delivered his statement flanked by a couple of glaring bureaucrats. The ICC appeared to be putting on its best “don’t mess with us” face. It looked like a geriatric version of Bugsy Malone.

The ICC application refers, pointedly, to the “territory of Israel” and the “state of Palestine”, which makes it clear which side its bread is buttered. It notably ignores Hamas’s use of human shields, surely a factor when assessing the civilian death toll. It even holds Israel entirely responsible for “closing the three border crossing points” after October 7. 

Yet Hamas destroyed the Erez crossing, murdering its operators and blowing up the barriers separating it from the Gaza strip. Small wonder border checkpoints weren’t up and running immediately. Condemning Israel for this is grotesque; gaslighting on an international scale. 

The timing is also telling. We have known about the crimes of October 7 from day one, thanks to the body-cams Hamas terrorists so proudly wore to document their butchery. Yet the ICC waited until May 2024 to condemn both Israel and Hamas on the same day. The effect is to suggest a moral equivalence between a democratic state and a genocidal terrorist group that says it wants to repeat the atrocities of October 7 indefinitely. You don’t have to believe Israel is above criticism – and nor should we – to recognise this. 

Multinational organisations like the ICC are often held up as moral arbiters in themselves, when they will only be as virtuous or corrupt as their component member states, and reflecting the same biases. The World Health Organisation has long excluded Taiwan from its membership due to Chinese pressure. A ruinous decision, when Taiwan’s early warnings about the risks of human-to-human transmission of Covid in late 2019 were ignored. Something is rotten in the state of many international bodies and moral courage is in short supply. 

Given such a clear-cut case of evil as Raisi, the mealy-mouthed global response does not bode well. For genuine bravery, we can look to the people at the sharp end of such regimes. Because still, in the midst of it all, the women of Iran dance. 

[eretzyisrael]

by Seth Mandel

Some details from the intel report viewed by the Journal: “Intelligence estimates shared with the U.S. conclude that around 1,200 of Unrwa’s roughly 12,000 employees in Gaza have links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and about half have close relatives who belong to the Islamist militant groups.”

But here’s the true kicker: “Two officials familiar with the intelligence said the Unrwa employees considered to have ties with militant groups were deemed to be ‘operatives,’ indicating they took active part in the organization’s military or political framework. The report said 23% of Unrwa’s male employees had ties to Hamas, a higher percentage than the average of 15% for adult males in Gaza, indicating a higher politicization of the agency than the population at large.”

To repeat that last stat: Men in Gaza who work for the UN are more likely to be involved with Hamas than those who don’t have jobs at the UN agency.

A quarter of UNRWA’s male staff have taken part in Hamas’s “military or political framework.” A quarter!

Several Western countries paused additional funding for the agency in the wake of the allegations, but that is far from sufficient. The problems at UNRWA have long been known, but the larger problem for its defenders is that the agency’s budgeting structure hid all of its corruption and violence in plain sight.

This morning, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the leader of an unceasingly anti-Zionist faction of Democratic representatives, tweeted that it was “unacceptable” to reduce aid to UNRWA in the wake of the initial allegations. But by the time she’d tweeted, the number of “bad apples” in UNRWA had gone from 12 to 1,200. Whether out of genuine ignorance or dishonesty, UNRWA’s defenders have already lost the argument on their own terms.

-

UNRWA is a vehicle for Hamas to steal the majority of money donated globally for Palestinian relief. Anyone who wants to see Palestinians suffer will continue to advocate for funding UNRWA. Everyone who wants to solve, rather than perpetuate, the conflict must sideline UNRWA’s radicalization factory.