#Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting

[marwahstudios]

Suraj Parkash Marwah Shooting Floor Inaugurated by Dr. L. Murugan, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting

Noida: : In a historic visit to Marwah Studios at Noida Film City, Dr. L. Murugan, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, inaugurated the new Suraj Parkash Marwah Shooting Floor, named in honor of Dr. Sandeep Marwah’s father. This momentous occasion added a new chapter to the legacy of Marwah Studios, an integral part of India’s media landscape.

The Minister’s visit was marked by an in-depth tour of the Marwah Studios campus, where he personally examined the wide array of facilities and departments, including production studios, post-production units, the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) division, Artificial Intelligence (AI) units, the expansive library, amphitheater, screening theaters, fine arts departments and education & training facilities. His keen interest in the infrastructure and its contribution to the Indian media industry was evident throughout the visit.

Dr. Sandeep Marwah, President of Marwah Studios, took the opportunity to present Dr. Murugan with a comprehensive briefing on the achievements of the studios, including a collection of books documenting their numerous accomplishments.

Impressed by the cutting-edge facilities and Marwah Studios’ contribution to the industry, Dr. Murugan expressed his admiration for Dr. Marwah’s visionary role in establishing not only Noida Film City but also in shaping the film, television, and media business in the region.

Dr. L. Murugan said “Marwah Studios stands as a beacon of excellence in the film and media industry, and Dr. Sandeep Marwah’s contributions have significantly advanced this sector. The facilities here are world-class, and the dedication to nurturing creativity and innovation is truly commendable.“

Dr. Sandeep Marwah extended his heartfelt thanks to Dr. Murugan for his encouraging words and for inaugurating the Suraj Parkash Marwah Shooting Floor, which he said will serve as a new hub for creativity and production excellence.

[calabria-mediterranea]

Italy: Public service RAI becomes a “megaphone” of the government

Public service broadcaster RAI has decided to grant ministers and undersecretaries unrestricted airtime on its programs when referring to institutional matters. On 11 April, journalists and news hosts on the main channels of RAI interrupted news programs to read a statement from the Rai Union of Journalists (USIGRai) statement explaining RAI’s new policy, and condemning it, comparing RAI to the government’s “megaphone”. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) together with their affiliate the Federazione Nazionale Stampa Italiana (FNSI) condemn this further attempt to politicise public information services for propaganda purposes and demand that RAI respects fundamental journalistic principles.

“The government majority has decided to transform RAI into its own megaphone,” so began the speech of USIGrai journalists in the aftermath of the policies announced by RAI’s Supervisory Commission. This approved a rule allowing government representatives to “speak in talks without time constraints and cross-examination”.

The statement continued: “This is not our idea of public service broadcasting. Journalists’ work should be central, where they ask questions, even uncomfortable ones, verify what has been said, and point out inconsistencies. For this reason, dear viewers, we inform you that we are ready to mobilise to guarantee you independent, balanced and plural information."

Another rule will allow Rai News to broadcast political rallies at any time, and in full, announced only by a short introduction and without journalistic mediation

RAI’s decision illustrates once again Italy’s government's attempts to make use of public service for personal and propagandistic purposes, and in contravention of the main pillars of journalists' work.

President of FNSI, Vittorio di Trapanisaid: “RAI News risks becoming a deluge of electoral rallies, trampling on the editorial autonomy of its journalists and its editorial team.”

The IFJ/EFJ stated: “We stand in full solidarity with RAI journalists, whose press freedom and ethical principles are being undermined by the Italian government. We remind RAI of its need to respect fundamental journalistic principles as they are stated in the IFJ Global Charter of Ethics for journalists. We ask the Supervisory Commission to review its decision and to allow transparent and pluralistic information in compliance with the principles of cross-examination and the public interest.”l

Source: IFJ

[mariacallous]

In less than a day, prosecutors, police and the government in Serbia reacted to an AI deepfake video of Prime Minister Milos Vucevic allegedly posted on Facebook.

The rapid reaction contrasted with other cases of deepfake content posted in Telegram groups or broadcast on national TV stations about Serbian citizens and opposition politicians.

The Special Prosecution Office for High Tech Crime told the police to collect all “necessary notifications” on the matter, said a prosecutor’s statement on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the government said a Facebook account named Corvus01 had posted the AI-generated video statement in which the PM talked about “non-existent government projects”.

“A criminal complaint has been filed against an NN [anonymous] person and work is being done to establish the identity of the person,” the statement said, adding that police had asked Meta company to send them all data on the account and to remove the fake video.

As the video is not publicly available, it was probably removed after the government’s request.

However, BIRN’s Digital Rights Violations Annual Report 2022-2023 noted numerous other cases of AI-generated videos of politicians being published without sanctions.

In August 2023, Zeljko Mitrovic, owner of pro-government TV Pink, published AI-manipulated footage of Marinika Tepic, vice-president of the opposition Freedom and Justice Party, misrepresenting her remarks.

The same month, Mitrovic did the same with Dragan Djilas, president of the Freedom and Justice Party, airing the video on TV Pink as “satire”. Mitrovic posted the deepfake on X and later showed it on TV Pink without the audience being properly informed that it was fabricated.

Mila Tomanovic, a lawyer handling the Djilas case, told BIRN that Djilas sought a temporary measure that would prohibit the broadcast and re-recording of the video but the Higher Court in Belgrade in November 2023 rejected the call. The Court of Appeal then cancelled the decision of the Higher Court, which is currently considering the temporary measure again.

Tomanovic said Mitrovic defended the edited video as artistic expression. “However, the spread of violence, lies, fraud, deception, misuse of other people’s data, provision of false data and fabrication and presenting a person in a false light cannot possibly be art, or of importance to a democratic society,” Tomanovic said.

Other cases in which Serbian institutions didn’t respond concerned tens of thousands of Telegram users in Serbia who were sharing images of women “undressed” by artificial intelligence, as BIRN reported this week.

Ana Toskic Cvetinovic, executive director at Partners for Democratic Change, an NGO from Serbia and a privacy protection expert, told BIRN that the prosecution in the case of the PM likely reacted to a criminal complaint of the unauthorised publication and display of other people’s files, portraits and video.

“In our country, there is no specifically regulated or sanctioned use of artificial intelligence for the generation of audio and video content, so the use of deepfake can be brought under existing criminal offences, such as unauthorised publication,” she said.

She added that what was specific in the latest case was “the speed of reaction of the prosecution, which is mostly absent in other cases”.

“The prosecution and the police generally state that these crimes are difficult to prove, including collecting evidence from companies that manage social networks,” Toskic Cvetinovic noted.

Nina Nicovic, a lawyer, told BIRN that a direct parallel cannot be drawn between the fake recording of PM Vucevic and the deepfake material circulating on social networks and Telegram groups about “ordinary citizens”.

“If something related to the non-existent projects of the government of any country is really published on a video, then every country … has the right to react urgently because it can lead to consequences for the country,” said Nicovic.

However, she added that her impression is that institutions in Serbia only react fast to rights violations in the digital sphere when politicians are involved.

“If they can react so quickly to everything related to the government and politicians, in certain situations such as the Telegram groups they should have reacted just as urgently,” Nicovic said.

She said one big obstacle is that the courts, prosecutor’s offices and the police do not have enough IT experts to help solve these cases.

thinking about @roycohn's post about AI deepfakes and Ted Cruz...

[transgenderer]

On 20 December 2024, an SUV was driven into a crowd at the Magdeburg Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, resulting in the deaths of 5 people and injuries to at least 205 others

A suspect who was allegedly driving the vehicle was arrested. According to information from the Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff (CDU), the Saxony-Anhalt Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang [de] (CDU), as well as Die Welt and Der Spiegel, the suspected perpetrator is Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old atheist and Islamophobic doctor from Saudi Arabia who lives in Bernburg and who worked as a psychologist and psychiatrist in a correctional facility in a clinic in Bernburg. The suspected perpetrator immigrated to Germany in March 2006, was recognized as a refugee in July 2016 and has a settlement permit and thus a residence permit.

In a 45-minute video interview that appeared on an anti-Islam United States blog of the RAIR Foundation eight days before the attack, Abdulmohsen spread theories that the German state is conducting a "covert secret operation" to "hunt and destroy the lives" of Saudi ex-Muslims around the world, but at the same time Syrian jihadists are receiving asylum in Germany. In the same interview, he describes himself as leftist. On X, Abdulmohsen posted a machine gun with a US-flag as a profile picture and conspiracy theories such as "Germany wants to Islamize Europe." Abdulmohsen also shared similar right-wing ideological content, including content from German politician Alice Weidel (AfD), Alex Jones and Elon Musk.

According to information from several public broadcasters and private media in Germany, people reported Abdulmohsen to the police several times because of threats of violence. According to public broadcaster ARD, Abdulmohsen was sentenced in 2013 by the Rostock District Court to 90 daily rates of ten euros each for threatening criminal offenses. The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) received a report from Saudi Arabia that Abdulmohsen had announced something big in Germany as early as 2023. The responsible state authorities are said to have followed up on this tip. In the fall of 2023, a woman who had been in contact with Abdulmohsen via the Internet attempted to warn the police in Berlin that Abdulmohsen wanted to kill 20 Germans; however, she sent her email to the police in Berlin, New Jersey.

[theophan-o]

Original invitation for the festive premiere of the film "Ogniem i mieczem", which took place in the Polish Grand Theater–National Opera in Warsaw 8.02.1999.

Information about the premiere date, which can be found now in many places, is not entirely precise. 8.02.1999 was organized only a special seance for journalists and then - the official ceremony in the Grand Theater took place. Both were not open to the public. To attend the festive premiere 8.02.1999 the special invitations were required, which were reserved only to the Polish highest state officials (prime minister, etc.) and selected, special guests from the cultural circles. For the rest of the Polish nation was only a broadcasting from the theater foyer in TVP, before and after the seance (from it I remember above all some our politicians, saying, that they would like to be Bohun:-)

So the REAL premiere, so expected by many, took place... 12.02.1999. It was a day, when the film started to be shown in 75 cinemas in Poland (including the biggest two in my family city:-)

As a teenager, I could only dream of such an invitation. I have seen the film much later. For the first time with my parents, for the second - with my school. My real ticket from the second seance I have posted here (the one from the first has not been preserved):

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Hunter Walker and Josh Kovensky at TPM:

NEW YORK — Sunday night offered a sneak preview of what life might be like in President-elect Donald Trump’s second term at the annual black tie gala of Manhattan’s most MAGA political club. It’s a world where fringe media outlets are ascendant, a new wave of religious leaders are mixing politics and prayer, the global right-wing is rejoicing, and more established press are being subjected to a new level of restrictions and derision. 

The New York Young Republicans Club is an organization that’s over a century old. These days, the group embodies the new GOP with a leadership that unapologetically embraces Trump, strident culture war politics, and a bare-knuckled approach to it all. According to the club’s leaders, this strategy has led to an eightfold surge in membership. The group also helped stage at least one memorable event for Trump in New York during his successful campaign.  Trump, who attended the gala last year, was unable to make it this time around. However, in taped remarks from Mar-a-Lago, he credited the club with helping him win last month’s election. “I attribute a lot of it to the people in the room tonight, so I just hope you’re having a fantastic time,” Trump said. “I wish I could be with you, but I’m doing a couple of other things. You probably heard about that, but I’ll be with you, most likely, next year.”

The celebratory crowd included figures from both the American and global far right. Gavin McInnes, the founder of the Proud Boys, mingled in the room ahead of the speeches. He wouldn’t speak with TPM. 

A contingent wearing U.S.-Germany flag pins was (slightly) more talkative. One of them introduced himself as Markus, and declined to give his last name. When asked if they were members of the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), a far-right German political party whose founder once called for a “180 degree change in their politics of commemoration” while referring to Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, they said yes.  “We are not here on AfD’s behalf,” Markus said, before the conversation ended. 

In another conversation, TPM spoke with Marco Spina, an Italian who introduced himself as national secretary of the youth wing of the country’s Republican Party. That was less expected: the Italian Republicans lean towards the center, though Spina became extremely exercised after TPM asked about the country’s current prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. She had made a big mistake in bowing down to Biden, Spina said. At another point, TPM spotted Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) posing for a photo along with Miklós Szánthó, director-general of Hungary’s Center for Fundamental Rights, a nonprofit that is a strong supporter of the country’s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orbán. Gosar and Szánthó, who also delivered remarks on stage, later appeared on Instagram posing together.

The event even featured a representative from a country that does not exist: the New Federal State of China, a supposed Chinese government-in-exile formed by Trump adviser Steve Bannon and indicted billionaire Guo Wengui. Forrest Zhou, the ersatz government’s secretary general, introduced himself to TPM as a friend of Bannon’s, and said he had come to help gin up support for the movement. The audience also included some of the unconventional internet broadcasters who have been seen as a major driver of Trump’s political momentum. Elijah Schaffer is a podcaster who has worked with multiple right-wing news organizations including Gateway Pundit, which is infamous for publishing what CNN has described as “baseless right-wing conspiracy theories.” TPM asked Schaffer about a recent report that a top aide who serves as a “gatekeeper” for information that reaches the president-elect considers Gateway Pundit “one of her go-to news sources.” As he settled in at a table near the stage, Schaffer said he feels the site is clearly having an influence on Trump.

“I think the most important part is that, like, whether or not he talks about it or not, you can hear our original reporting in some of the speeches,” Schaffer said. “So, his speech writers are reading us.” Schaffer’s past use of slurs and mockery of minority groups has led some to brand him a “racist.” It’s a label he doesn’t necessarily shy away from.  “It doesn’t bother me,” Schaffer said. “I mean, racism in and of itself is not inherently bad. Like discrimination and racism are just, there are ways that you can view the world to judge entire groups of people by the common patterns that they exhibit.”

[...] While pro-Trump media outlets were taking the stage and enjoying the catered meal, the rest of the press was given a rather different reception. Lucian Wintrich, who served as a White House correspondent for Gateway Pundit during Trump’s first term, is the NYYRC’s “press chairman.” He sent an email with guidelines for the event to TPM and others who signed up to cover the proceedings. In that message, Wintrich indicated some of the media contingent would receive minders from the club. “Without naming names, it was noted that a few press applicants have previously written stories schizophrenically calling modern Conservatives and ‘Trump supporters’ a number of unfounded names followed by fake news coverage. In spite of that, and in the spirit of an open press and access, we have decided to admit those ‘journalists’ for coverage,” Wintrich wrote. “Such being said, the most egregious offenders will receive the Christmas gift of their own personal ‘elf’ (NYYRC Gala volunteer) escort to make certain they will neither harass nor misquote attendees. Should this be witnessed and reported, credentials will be revoked.” When TPM arrived at the venue we learned that one of our reporters, Hunter Walker, was on this list. Wintrich informed us he was “one of four” to receive an escort.  “You’re particularly shitty and egregious,” Wintrich explained, adding, “My god. It’s a paint-by-the-numbers liberal way of reporting that I’m sure you’re aware of.” Walker was accompanied by an NYYRC volunteer named Ryan throughout the evening. Ryan was incredibly thorough. Ryan switched his cellphone wallpaper to a photo of Walker’s face to help him keep tabs. He even escorted Walker to the bathroom.  “That was my first time watching a reporter pee,” Ryan said after one trip. NYYRC volunteers also downloaded the social media platform Bluesky so they could keep tabs on TPM’s live coverage of the event. 

The New York Young Republicans Club (NYYRC)’s annual gala is a who’s who of MAGA cultists and right-wing populists/fascists.

[tomorrowusa]

Until this month, Bibi Netanyahu was a HŪGE fanboy of Hamas. Their relationship goes back decades. This is not some wacko conspiracy theory. Much of the information about this comes from mainstream Israeli media and high ranking Israeli former officials.

Here are excerpts from an in-depth article at the CBC – Canada's public broadcaster.

Israelis don't agree on much, especially lately, but polling shows they mostly agree that Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is to blame for leaving Israel unprepared for Hamas's onslaught on October 7. The accusations aimed at Netanyahu go beyond merely failing to foresee or prevent the Hamas attack of October 7, however. Many accuse him of deliberately empowering the group for decades as part of a strategy to sabotage a two-state solution based on the principle of land for peace. "There's been a lot of criticism of Netanyahu in Israel for instating a policy for many years of strengthening Hamas and keeping Gaza on the brink while weakening the Palestinian Authority," said Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group. "And we've seen that happening very clearly on the ground." "(Hamas and Netanyahu) are mutually reinforcing, in the sense that they provide each other with a way to continue to use force and rejectionism as opposed to making sacrifices and compromises in order to reach some kind of resolution," Zonszein told CBC News from Tel Aviv.

Bibi and Hamas could be called "frenemies".

Yuval Diskin, former head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, told the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in 2013 that "if we look at it over the years, one of the main people contributing to Hamas's strengthening has been Bibi Netanyahu, since his first term as prime minister." In August 2019, former prime minister Ehud Barak told Israeli Army Radio that Netanyahu's "strategy is to keep Hamas alive and kicking … even at the price of abandoning the citizens [of the south] … in order to weaken the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah." The logic underlying this strategy, Barak said, is that "it's easier with Hamas to explain to Israelis that there is no one to sit with and no one to talk to."

The Bibi-Hamas relationship goes back almost 30 years. In some ways, Hamas helped put Bibi in power in the first place.

Netanyahu first came to power in the 1996 election that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an Israeli extremist opposed to the Oslo Accords. Early polls showed Rabin's successor Shimon Peres comfortably ahead. Determined to sabotage Oslo, Hamas embarked on a ruthless suicide bombing campaign that helped Netanyahu pull ahead of Peres and win the election on May 29, 1996. Today, some of the same extremists who called for Rabin's death hold power in Netanyahu's government.

A reminder that the current Israeli government led by Netanyahu is the most far right in Israel's history. Netanyahu filled it with extremists, religious fanatics, and virulent ethno-nationalists in order to stay in power.

Just two weeks before Rabin's assassination, a young settler extremist posed for the cameras with a Cadillac hood ornament he said he had stolen from Rabin's car. "Just like we got to this emblem," he said, "we could get to Rabin." Today, that young man, Itamar Ben Gvir, is 45 years old and has eight Israeli criminal convictions — including convictions for supporting a terrorist organization and incitement to racism. Once he was rejected by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for his extremist views. Now, Israel's police must answer to him as Benjamin Netanyahu's minister of national security.

Imagine how a second Trump administration would be and you get a hint of what Bibi's pre-October 7th cabinet was like.

The Bibi-Hamas connection only gets worse.

Netanyahu's hawkish defence minister Avigdor Liberman was the first to report in 2020 that Bibi had dispatched Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and the IDF's officer in charge of Gaza, Herzi Halevi, to Doha to "beg" the Qataris to continue to send money to Hamas. "Both Egypt and Qatar are angry with Hamas and planned to cut ties with them. Suddenly Netanyahu appears as the defender of Hamas," the right-wing leader complained. A year later, Netanyahu was further embarrassed when photos of suitcases full of cash going to Hamas became public. Liberman finally resigned in protest over Netanyahu's Hamas policy which, he said, marked "the first time Israel is funding terrorism against itself."

Yep, Bibi actually had a bag man deliver cash to Hamas.

The Palestinian Authority's Ahmed Majdalani accused the Qatari envoy of carrying money to Hamas "like a gangster." "The PLO did not agree to the deal facilitating the money to Hamas that way," he said.

Netanyahu fancies himself as a clever Machiavellian playing one side against the other. He has even bragged of this to members of his party.

On March 12, 2019, Netanyahu defended the Hamas payments to his Likud Party caucus on the grounds that they weakened the pro-Oslo Palestinian Authority, according to the Jerusalem Post: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Israel's regular allowing of Qatari funds to be transferred into Gaza, saying it is part of a broader strategy to keep Hamas and the Palestinian Authority separate, a source in Monday's Likud faction meeting said," the Post reported. "The prime minister also said that 'whoever is against a Palestinian state should be for' transferring the funds to Gaza, because maintaining a separation between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza helps prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state."

Of course Bibi was ultimately being too clever by half.

Netanyahu insisted that neither the money nor the construction material given to Hamas would be diverted to military purposes. But today, the IDF finds itself showing how Hamas has done exactly that — by diverting and converting civilian funds and materials to warlike purposes. The military tried to warn him at the time, former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot told the Ma'ariv newspaper. He said Netanyahu acted "in total opposition to the national assessment of the National Security Council, which determined that there was a need to disconnect from the Palestinians and establish two states."

A lot of radical chic Hamas fans in Western countries will undoubtedly try to obscure the fact that they are cheering the same group which a far right Israeli politician (until recently) has been lavishing with tons of cash.

And the Bibi-Hamas connection is a reminder that while far right politicians in many countries like to portray themselves as tough on security, they will usually put their craven lust for power above all.

[sivavakkiyar]

Bangladesh’s minister of state for information and broadcasting has defended the government’s handling of mass protests, as United Nations experts called for an independent investigation into the government’s deadly crackdown on demonstrators.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday, Mohammad Arafat said the country’s security forces had done everything “to bring back the peace” amid the student protests.

He accused “third-party” actors, including “extremists and terrorists”, of fuelling the unrest.

We’re not referring to the students [as] the terrorists and anarchists. It is the third party, those who intruded into this movement and started doing all this,” Arafat said on Talk to Al Jazeera.

“We tried our best to de-escalate the tension,” he said, adding that “some people are trying to add fuel to the fire, are trying to create a situation where they can take advantage … and topple the government”.

Thousands of Bangladeshi students took to the streets earlier this month to demand reforms to the South Asian country’s quota system, which allocates 30 percent of government jobs to the descendants of veterans who fought for Bangladesh in the 1971 war.

[darkmaga-returns]

Russia and US on the brink of direct military conflict. North Korea vows to stand by Russia. Iran may review nuclear doctrine. Washington state activates National Guard. Treasury Seal Falls Off

Lioness of Judah Ministry

Nov 02, 2024

Russia and US are allegedly on the brink of direct military conflict

The United States and Russia are very close to engaging in 'direct military conflict,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned in an interview published Friday in a Turkey daily, just days ahead of a US presidential race.

'Under the current president ( Joe Biden ), who has taken the downward spiral of Russophobia in the US to its logical conclusion, our countries are on the brink of direct military conflict,' he told the Hurriyet daily, without elaborating.

America’s lack of wisdom and flexibility triggered Ukraine conflict – Medvedev to RT

The US exceptionalist approach will once become its undoing, ex-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev says

The Ukrainian conflict could have been avoided entirely if the US had shown enough “wisdom” and “flexibility” to strike a comprehensive security deal with Russia, former Russian President and current deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has said. The ex-president made the remarks in an exclusive interview with RT, which largely revolved around the situation in Georgia and the outcome of its recent general election. The polls resulted in a defeat of pro-Western opposition parties, with the ruling Georgian Dream party greatly reinforcing its position.

Russia jails ex-US consular employee on security charges

A court in Russia's far east said on Friday it had convicted Robert Shonov, a former US consular employee, of illegally and covertly cooperating with the US government to harm Russia's national security and had jailed him for nearly five years.

Russia's FSB security service detained Shonov, a Russian national, in Vladivostok in May 2023 and accused him of taking money to covertly supply US diplomats with information that was potentially harmful to Russia. The State Department said at the time that his case highlighted Russia's "blatant use of increasingly repressive laws" against its own citizens and said the allegations against Shonov were "wholly without merit".

Zelensky claims 100,000 North Koreans could fight Ukraine

Some 3,000 soldiers are already in Russia, according to the Ukrainian leader, a claim that Moscow has not confirmed

The West has shown “zero” reaction to the alleged movement of North Korean troops into Russia, which means that Pyongyang may send as many as 100,000 troops to fight Kiev, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has claimed. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean troops on its soil, saying merely that its cooperation with Pyongyang proceeds according to a defense partnership treaty. Russian President Vladimir Putin is “testing the reaction of NATO nations” and South Korea, Zelensky said in an interview with South Korean national broadcaster KBS, which was released on Thursday.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.31 (after 1950)

1951 – Cold War: The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Western Europe. 1955 – General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year. 1956 – The Romanian Television network begins its first broadcast in Bucharest. 1961 – RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service. 1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapses, subsequently becoming Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia. 1965 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begin a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko. 1968 – The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-144, the first civilian supersonic transport in the world. 1968 – MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 crashes near Port Hedland, Western Australia, killing all 26 people on board. 1981 – A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. 1983 – The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government. 1983 – Benjamin Ward is appointed New York City Police Department's first ever African American police commissioner. 1983 – In Nigeria, a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Second Nigerian Republic. 1991 – All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date, five days after the Soviet Union is officially dissolved. 1992 – Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. 1994 – This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC−11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC−10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively. 1994 – The First Chechen War: The Russian Ground Forces begin a New Year's storming of Grozny. 1995 – The final comic of Calvin and Hobbes is published. 1998 – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency. 1999 – The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor. 1999 – The U.S. government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties. 1999 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ends after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan. 2004 – The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft). 2009 – Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur. 2010 – Tornadoes touch down in midwestern and southern United States, including Washington County, Arkansas; Greater St. Louis, Sunset Hills, Missouri, Illinois, and Oklahoma, with a few tornadoes in the early hours. A total of 36 tornadoes touched down, resulting in the deaths of nine people and $113 million in damages. 2011 – NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon. 2014 – A New Year's Eve celebration stampede in Shanghai kills at least 36 people and injures 49 others. 2015 – A fire breaks out at the Downtown Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai, United Arab Emirates, located near the Burj Khalifa, two hours before the fireworks display is due to commence. Sixteen injuries were reported; one had a heart attack, another suffered a major injury, and fourteen others with minor injuries. 2018 – Thirty-nine people are killed after a ten-story building collapses in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk, Russia. 2019 – The World Health Organization is informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in Wuhan. This later turned out to be COVID-19, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic.

[woadge]

If you comment this under my posts I will block you. Also: I get all of my posts and info from two primary sources.

The first is the Gaza Now telegram channel (the English version). This is where most of the documenting of the war crimes of the Zionist regime come from and get stored by people who are on the ground in Gaza. It’s an encrypted channel so it’s not prone to being taken down by IOF attempts to do so. It’s not for the faint of heart, so I don’t recommend the average person joins. Lots of gore and blood, but for documenting purposes only.

The second is Resistance News Network, an English speaking telegram channel that broadcasts translations of official statements from representatives of various groups within the Palestine region, including but not limited to Hamas, Hezbollah, the National Assembly of Palestinian Tribes / Clans / Families, and more. This one has far more posts discussing the political events within Gaza and the progress of the genocide as well as counter-attacks made. It is a good place to stay informed.

It is important to remember that Israel has actively sanitized the news they put out into the world, and many American news outlets have a vested interest in supporting the Israeli side, without covering the Palestinian side. It also doesn’t help that the IDF has killed journalists reporting on the Palestinian plight (google it, there’s too many sources to list), actively discouraging the international community from having reporters on the ground.

Remember that Israel HAS said the quiet part out loud: Yoav Gallant, Defense Minister of Israel, has that “After we are done, Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything. If it doesn’t take one day, it will take weeks or months, we will reach all places. There is no way our brothers, sisters, children will die and we won’t react, because we are a state. Hamas wanted a change in the state of things, and it’ll change; it will get to a point they regret ever trying us.”

This is an active call for genocide that was RECORDED ON CAMERA.

You are not antisemitic for calling the attack on the innocent people of Gaza a genocide and shaming the IDF for it. You are simply being honest.

[sunfyre-rider]

A blood-chilling scream pierced the air, echoing from the living room where Sophie was tidying up the dishes from lunch. The TV was on, and she stood frozen, her wide eyes glued to the screen. Flames engulfed a towering building in the broadcast, black smoke billowing into the sky, while photos of several people flashed on the side.

And there, among them, was a familiar face—a photo of Morgan.

“Good evening. We interrupt our regular programming with breaking news of a catastrophic event that has left the global community in shock. A few moments ago, during the G20 summit in Geneva, Switzerland, a coordinated terrorist attack targeted the main conference hall, resulting in the tragic loss of numerous world leaders and high-ranking officials. Among the victims are President Alan Richards of the United States, Chancellor Ingrid Lehmann of Germany, Prime Minister Kenji Nakamura of Japan, and Secretary of State Morgan Pendragon of the United Kingdom. Also among the casualties are Secretary-General Miguel Duarte of the United Nations and Director-General Fatima Hassan of the World Health Organization. Reports indicate that the attack involved an explosion within the conference venue, followed by gunfire, leaving devastation in its wake. Swiss security forces, along with international agencies, are investigating the incident, although no organization has yet claimed responsibility. As nations worldwide react to this tragedy, messages of condolence and condemnation of violence are pouring in from leaders across the globe. We will continue to bring you updates as more information becomes available. Our thoughts go out to the families, friends, and countries mourning their leaders tonight.”

Aegon rushed into the living room as he heard the scream, somehow, deep inside, he knew… He knew no mother could utter a scream like that unless something terrible happened.

Before he could ask, the image on the TV showed Morgan's picture again and he froze, a chill ran down his spine and he felt like the world had stopped spinning. It was a mistake, it had to be.

Tears cloud his vision and he had to lean against the wall not to fall. His right hand reaching for his heart, as if it could give in at any second. The tears rolled down his cheek as his eyes met Sophie's. He knew they wished the same thing: that it was a mistake.

[mariacallous]

Belarusian Paralympic athlete Alexei Talai was waiting on the platform of Minsk’s main train station as a locomotive glided in and dozens of children from Ukraine’s besieged Donbas region spilled onto the platform, where they were greeted with a bunch of brightly colored balloons. According to reports in state media, their journey from eastern Ukraine to Belarus was organized by Talai’s charity with the personal backing of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, a man who has described himself as “Europe’s last dictator.”

A broadcast on the state-owned City TV about the children’s arrival last September painted it as a feel-good humanitarian deed: The children surrounded Talai’s wheelchair, chanting “Thank you, thank you.” To international legal experts and U.S. government officials, it is potentially a war crime.

Of all the atrocities that Russian forces have been accused of since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year—a list that includes mass graves, torture, and the bombing of hospitals—the systematic deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and the territories it occupies was the subject of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin and a top advisor earlier this year. Ukrainian officials estimate that some 20,000 children have been taken to Russia in what researchers at Yale University have described as a systematic program for the forcible adoption and indoctrination of Ukraine’s children.

While Russia’s role in the deportation of Ukrainian children has been well documented, details have only just begun to emerge of a similar operation in Belarus—details that could expose those involved, including Lukashenko, to war crimes charges.

“I think anyone involved could be charged under the same theories,” said a senior U.S. government official, speaking on background under ground rules set by the Biden administration, noting that the deportation of civilians to Belarus followed a similar “fact pattern” as those to Russia.

The arrival of groups of hundreds of children from eastern Ukraine to Belarus, where they are sent to large recreational camps, has been well documented in the country’s state media, which hews closely to the government’s line. But rights advocates and foreign governments are only just starting to grapple with what happens to the children from there.

“Information about those camps is really in short supply,” said Wayne Jordash, a human rights lawyer who is assisting the Ukrainian government’s war crimes investigations.

Parents themselves have been some of the best sources of information about the deportations, said Kateryna Rashevska, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer who is investigating Belarus’s role. As swaths of Ukrainian territory were liberated in a counteroffensive last year, stories began to emerge of desperate parents traveling to Russia in search of their children. But those taken to Belarus have come from regions that are still under Russian occupation and beyond the reach of investigators.

Pavel Latushka, Belarus’s former minister of culture-turned-opposition figure, has the most detailed public accounting of deportations. By tracking posts on social networks, reports in the state media, and from its own sources, his organization, the National Anti-Crisis Management Group, found evidence that at least 2,100 Ukrainian children were taken to Belarus from occupied territories between September 2022 and May of this year. What they found was evidence of “systematically organized, [large] scale war crimes, led by Lukashenko personally and supported by some individuals and so-called NGOs,” he said in an interview.

In June, Latushka handed over a dossier of information about his findings to the International Criminal Court (ICC). A spokesperson for the court declined to comment.

When contacted for comment for this article, the charge d’affaires at the Belarusian Embassy in Washington, D.C., Pavel Shidlovsky, responded with a link to a news article in the Belarusian state media in which Lukashenko dismissed concerns about the deportations as “simply ridiculous” and suggested that Ukrainian children were being trafficked to the West to have their organs harvested. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The public face of the deportations is Talai, a Paralympic swimmer, motivational speaker, and strong supporter of the Belarusian regime. According to the website of his eponymous foundation, they began facilitating the transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarus as early as August 2021, before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. The move was backed by a decree signed by Lukashenko, according to a statement by the presidential press service. Starting last September, reports of the deportations became more frequent. Among the facilities they have been dispatched to is Dubrava, a large children’s summer camp run by the state-owned fertilizer behemoth Belaruskali, which is already under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department. The Talai foundation did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

It can take investigators years to tie battlefield atrocities to senior commanders and a country’s leadership, but efforts to transfer Ukrainian children en masse out of the Donbas into Russia and Belarus have been carried out in plain sight and been widely documented on social networks, in the state media, and in remarks by top government officials in both countries, which is likely why it was the subject of the first ICC arrest warrants.

The deportations to Belarus have been funded by the Union State, an economic and political union between Moscow and Minsk, according to statements by a senior official involved. In October, Dmitry Mezentsev, a Russian official who serves as the head of the union, visited the Dubrava camp. “We are participants in their future,” he said during the visit, according to a Russian government newspaper. The Union State had already given tens of millions of rubles to support Talai’s efforts and would continue doing so, he said.

Social media posts by the Talai foundation and reports in the state media describe the children as being drawn from a variety of backgrounds: orphans, children with disabilities and those from impoverished families, and those living in children’s homes. Latushka’s team claims to have identified at least 50 orphans that were among the children taken to Belarus.

The Geneva Conventions, which serve as the backbone of international humanitarian law, provide detailed provisions regarding the treatment and evacuation of children in wartime: Children are to be evacuated to a neutral third country if possible, and written consent by guardians must be secured when they can be found. The deportations to Russia and Belarus are a flagrant violation of those principles, experts say. “It’s difficult for Belarus to assert that it is a neutral country,” Jordash said, as Belarusian territory was used by the Russian military to launch the assault on Kyiv.

In instances where parents have offered written consent, it’s difficult to argue that they have done so of their own free will. “Cities are under siege, and there is a lot of shelling. And when a man with a gun shows up at your house and offers to send your child to a summer camp, it’s hard to say no,” said Katya Pavlevych, a policy advisor on child deportations to the Ukrainian nonprofit Razom. Parents have sent their children to summer camps in Russia for a few weeks in the hopes of offering them some respite from the war without being told that the children would not be returned.

The Geneva Conventions explicitly prohibit any efforts to change the identity or nationality of children evacuated from war zones. One of the most controversial aspects of Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children has been Moscow’s determination to indoctrinate them, erase their Ukrainian language and culture, and fast-track their Russian citizenship. The smattering of information about the fate of Ukrainian children in Belarus suggests that reeducation efforts may be underway.

An Instagram post by the Talai foundation from last June showed a group of children from the Donbas visiting a unit of the Belarusian security forces that specializes in crowd control. The unit was involved in the violent repression of pro-democracy protests in 2020 after another fraudulent Belarusian election. In an interview last October with Sputnik, the international arm of Russian state media, the head of a Minsk region mining and oil trade union suggested that Ukrainian children from the mining regions of the Donbas were an ideal “target group” to be trained to work in Belarus’ mining industry.

In an interview with Belarusian state TV, Olga Vokova, whose organization “Dolphins” is based in the unrecognized separatist Donetsk People’s Republic and has worked with Talai to bring children from the Donbas to Belarus, described children from newly occupied regions, such as Mariupol in southern Ukraine, as “pre-programmed” for evil. She said that they had to do “everything so as to melt their hearts and show them that we [people from the separatist regions] are not evil.”

Rashevska, the Ukrainian human rights lawyer, said similar efforts were underway in Belarus, as in Russia, to quash their identities.

“In these camps, the national identity of Ukrainian children is eradicated. These children are brainwashed, Russified, militarized,” she said.

[rice-crackerz]

The statements from Israeli officials in this article are wild:

Here's a snip-it of KAN's official statement:

The President of the country emphasized that precisely at a time when our haters seek to push and boycott the State of Israel from every platform – Israel must raise its voice and hold head high and raise its flag in every world forum, especially this year.

-KAN

The Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar, who previously said he didn't want the song changed at all also shared his thoughts:

I hope that Israel will participate in Eurovision. It is not right not to participate because a possible non-participation will damage the name of the country. It is true that many countries are calling for the exclusion of Israel from Eurovision, but this can also lead to a general boycott of Israel. On the other hand, we cannot abandon our principles. We brought a song that expresses the voices of the people and has no political overtones. That’s why I asked for clarification on the matter. We may have to make a certain compromise with the EBU.

-Miki Zohar

This makes me think that I was right in thinking that Israel caught on to people's POV that they were saying they wouldn't change their song so they could get pity points. (This is an idea commonly talked about on the subreddit).

Also, we've gotten more information on what the new song will allegedly be. Apparently, it's called "Hurricane," and it's about someone's "personal struggles." It uses the same melody as the original "October Rain" song, too.

Here's a post on the r/Eurovision subreddit about the new song. I'm adding the reddit post specifically because it has a translation of the article:

[eretzyisrael]

JORDANIAN DISINFORMATION GOES UNCHALLENGED ON BBC RADIO 4

Former Jordanian minister Jawad al Anani told listeners to that programme (which is no longer available online) that: [emphasis in italics in the original, emphasis in bold added]

“Actually, even before 1967 Jordan respected the rights of Jews to go and come to their holy places.”

CAMERA UK submitted a complaint on that topic, pointing out that not only did Jordan not ‘respect’ the religious rights of Jews during its illegal occupation of parts of Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967, it destroyed dozens of synagogues and desecrated the ancient Mount of Olives cemetery. In direct contravention of the 1949 armistice agreements, Jordan did not permit Jews access to their holy sites or to the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives during that period and, notably, Israeli Arabs, were also denied access to the Al Aqsa mosque on Temple Mount.

On April 26th we received an email informing us that it would take more time to address that very straightforward complaint. On May 17th we were told that the time limit for addressing our complaint had expired.

On June 8th we received the following communication from BBC Complaints:

“Thanks for contacting us about The World this Weekend, broadcast on 9 April. We apologise for our delayed response. We have shared your concerns with the senior editorial team at the programme. The focus of this interview was the flashpoints which had occurred in the preceding days in the area around Al Aqsa mosque, and generally across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories, and the response of Jordan and other countries in the region. While we accept the point made may well be contentious, presenters don’t always have the time to try to challenge every point made, or give a wider or opposing viewpoint. This is a complex area about which interviewees often seek to make a variety of historical references to back up their positions and we can’t always examine every point in the time available where it is not central to the subject at hand.” [emphasis added]

On June 10th CAMERA UK submitted a Stage 1b complaint, pointing out that BBC editorial guidelines on accuracy state that in live content, “Significant inaccuracies that may arise should be corrected quickly”. We asserted that the topic of our complaint was indeed a significant inaccuracy which materially misled listeners, concerning a matter of historical fact which has been known for decades.

On June 18th we were once again informed that it would take more time to address our complaint. On July 18th we received the following communication from BBC Complaints:

“Thanks for contacting us again about The World this Weekend, broadcast on 8 [sic] April.  We apologise for our delayed response. We’re sorry your [sic] weren’t satisfied with our previous reply.  We have discussed your further concerns with the senior editorial team at the programme. Our decision not to press Jawad Al Anani on how Jordan maintained access to the holy sites of Jerusalem pre-1967 was a finely balanced one.  Mr Al Awani had been invited on to the programme to discuss the challenges and opportunities for a regional role in conflict resolution – his interview followed a meeting earlier in the day of regional representatives and the US in Jordan.  Although interesting, Mr Al Awani’s comment about access to the Holy sites wasn’t relevant to the developments of the preceding few weeks, which was the focus of the discussion and why we didn’t scrutinise this point during the interview. As we previously said, while we appreciate this area of history may be contentious, our presenters can’t explore every point made.” [emphasis added]

In other words, the BBC claims that Al Awani’s false claims concerning access to holy sites during the 18 years of illegal Jordanian occupation of parts of Jerusalem “wasn’t relevant” to an item about deliberate Palestinian provocations at one of those sites and related attacks on Israeli civilians.

Also worthy of note is that in both those responses, BBC Complaints chose to present historical fact as “contentious”.

As we noted in our second complaint:

“The failure to correct this item makes a mockery both of supposed editorial standards as laid out in the editorial guidelines on accuracy and impartiality and the BBC’s branding of itself as a body which tackles disinformation, including by means of the recently launched ‘BBC Verify’ project. Fighting disinformation should begin at home. When a Jordanian politician is allowed to promote serious disinformation unchallenged on a BBC radio station, audiences will rightly not trust the BBC’s claim to be an ‘antidote’ to disinformation elsewhere.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jason Burke at The Guardian:

Israeli authorities shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera on Sunday, hours after a government vote to use new laws to close the satellite news network’s operations in the country.

Critics called the move, which comes as faltering indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue, a “dark day for the media” and raised new concerns about the attitude to free speech of Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government. Israeli officials said the move was justified because Al Jazeera was a threat to national security. “The incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel,” the country’s prime minister posted on social media after the unanimous cabinet vote. A government statement said Israel’s communications minister had signed orders to act immediately to close al Jazeera’s offices in Israel, confiscate broadcast equipment, cut the channel off from cable and satellite companies and block its websites. The network, which is funded by Qatar, has been critical of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, from where it has reported around the clock throughout the seven-month war.

Al Jazeera said the accusation that it threatened Israeli security was a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that put its journalists at risk. “Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemns and denounces this criminal act that violates human rights and the basic right to access of information,” the company said in a statement. “Al Jazeera affirms its right to continue to provide news and information to its global audiences.” A pre-recorded “final report” listing the restrictions placed on the network by a reporter in Jerusalem was broadcast on the network after the ban came into effect. Al Jazeera has previously accused the Israeli authorities of deliberately targeting several of its journalists, including Samer Abu Daqqa and Hamza Al-Dahdouh, both killed in Gaza during the conflict. Israel has rejected the charge and says it does not target journalists.

[...] The law allows Netanyahu and his security cabinet to shut Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel for 45 days, a period that can be renewed, so it could stay in force until the end of July or until the end of major military operations in Gaza.

Israel Apartheid State suppresses media freedom by ordering the shutdown of Al Jazeera offices under the guise of “protecting national security.”

See Also:

AP, via HuffPost: Israel Orders Al Jazeera To Close Its Local Operation