#Or will I be arrested for carrying a terrorist implement?

[theabyssiniancat]

Well... I see you’re packed.

[mariacallous]

Israeli journalist Barak Ravid drew gasps this month when he told the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, “We are much closer to Israeli settlements being built in Gaza than hostages coming home from Gaza.” This is hardly news to anyone paying attention to Israeli governmental policy, but it introduced an unwanted chill into a conference that aimed to focus on “Jewish unity” and unspecified “support for Israel.”

Like other American Jews with strong connections to Israel, and dozens of friends and family members there, I have spent many a sleepless night worrying about the fate of the country, and furiously WhatsApping loved ones there to check on their safety. We may want to believe that Israeli leaders are trying to do what is best for their country and its residents. When we see news of yet another teenage soldier killed in Gaza or Lebanon, we want to believe that their sacrifice is not in vain but is making Israel safer.

But this is not a moment for surprise or for more rousing shows of vague “support for Israel.” It is a moment for anyone who cares about the future of the country and the people who live there to sound the alarm and wake each other up.

The settler movement has achieved a full takeover of the Israeli government, and they make no secret of their intentions: to resettle Gaza and officially annex the West Bank. Israeli leadership views the election of Donald Trump as clearing the path for this goal. Israel’s Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich said as much explicitly earlier this month. This past Sukkot, Likud members of Knesset took part in a conference on resettling Gaza held in a closed military zone meters from the strip, with the IDF protecting participants while pushing back hostage families who had come to protest.

High level Israeli officials have testified that Netanyahu has entirely abandoned the hostages and torpedoed any attempt to free them. Instead, he is continuing the war to advance his political survival and to allow for the reoccupation and resettlement of Gaza. One of his high level aides has been arrested on suspicion of passing information to a German newspaper, allegedly at the  prime minister’s behest, in order to sway public opinion against a hostage deal. Even former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, fired apparently for supporting such a deal, has said publicly that there is no reason for the war to continue and that Israel is on its way to military occupation of Gaza.

There is increasing evidence that the army is implementing the “Generals’ Plan,” which aims to displace all 300,000-400,000 residents of Northern Gaza by preventing any humanitarian assistance from entering, bombarding the territory, preventing residents from returning and re-establishing an Israeli military occupation, followed inevitably by resettlement.

Meanwhile, Gaza itself has become a humanitarian disaster. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed — yes, including militants and terrorists, but also including thousands of children and entire families. The U.N. estimates that women and children make up 70% of those killed. Large-scale hunger and disease will likely only grow worse if and when Israel implements its recently passed laws that would prevent UNRWA,  the main U.N. agency serving Palestinians, from operating there. In the West Bank, settlers carry out near daily violence against Palestinian villagers and farmers, with near complete impunity, often with the protection or assistance of the army.

The news that the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant (along with Hamas’s Mohammed Deif, who is likely dead) engendered the expected cheers from the global left and defensive outrage from the Jewish and Israeli establishment. But for anyone who cares about Israel’s future, these arrest warrants should be cause for deep sadness and alarm. It is a tragic moment when the prime minister of the Jewish state has sunk so low — and brought the country so low — that he can credibly be accused of war crimes, while simultaneously torpedoing any internal inquiry that could have staved off the ICC warrants.

In early 2023, it seemed like the electoral ascendency of Israeli extremist parties, combined with the mass anti-government protests that rocked Israel, might shock mainstream American Jewry out of their usual uncritical support. A September 2023 protest against Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations drew thousands of Israeli expats and American Jews, including prominent rabbis and communal leaders. Even some legacy Jewish organizations, not accustomed to criticizing Israel, registered their disapproval of the attempted judicial overhaul.

The horrific massacres of Oct. 7 moved many American Jews back into the more familiar narrative of “Israel under attack.” The shocking willingness of some pro-Palestine activists to justify or deny Hamas’s atrocities and to dehumanize Israelis, coupled with a rise in violence against Jews and Jewish institutions, channeled communal energy into fighting antisemitism. And the real threat from Iran, including direct missile attacks as well as more than a year of rocket fire from Hezbollah before this week’s truce, has generated existential fear for Israel.

Mourning and fear must not distract us from the reality that the biggest existential threat to Israel, and indeed to Judaism itself, is coming from Israel’s governing coalition. Israel is not an object of worship or vehicle for Jewish identity. It is a real country with an increasingly authoritarian government committed to perpetual war and settlement. This is both a moral travesty and a danger to the state and to Judaism.

More than 50 years ago, the religious Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned, “A calf doesn’t necessarily need to be golden; it can also be a people, a land, or a state.” Jews wearing kippahs and tzitzit who ransack Palestinian villages, sometimes even violating the basic laws of Shabbat to do so, who recite Shema while burning down a mosque, or who build a sukkah in a Palestinian village or in the middle of Gaza, have replaced worship of God with worship of power and sovereignty. They would happily destroy the actual state of Israel in order to achieve their dangerous vision of Jewish control over the entire biblical land of Israel, no matter the human or political cost.

Three decades ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu famously accused the left of “forgetting what it means to be a Jew.” But it is Netanyahu and his allies who have forgotten the basic foundations of Judaism. These include pidyon shevuyim — redeeming captives — considered one of the most important commandments, and the most basic commitment of a Jewish state, not to abandon its own people.

Some American Jews believe that we have no right to comment on matters of Israeli security, or that any criticism of Israel fuels antisemitism. And yet, too much of the American Jewish community gives a pass to organizations that have supported Netanyahu’s drive toward autocracy and settlements, and even refused the pleas of hostage families to call for a deal that will end the war in Gaza and bring their loved ones home. American Jews must not stand by as Israel descends into authoritarianism and messianism which are doing irreversible, generational damage. Supporting Israel can no longer mean sporting flag pins, attending “unity” rallies, or trying to shut down any speech critical of Israel.

Rather, support for Israel and its people must mean standing with the Israelis desperately working to save their country from fanaticism, never-ending war and the settler agenda. Painful though it certainly is, supporting Israel today requires setting aside our disbelief that Israeli leaders could act with total disregard for the wellbeing of Israelis, let alone Palestinians. It means no longer giving Netanyahu and his ministers the endless benefit of the doubt.

American Jews can begin by sending our charitable dollars to the brave Israeli civil society organizations rather than to groups that explicitly or implicitly promote settlement and anti-democratic legislation. It means putting pressure on both the Netanyahu government and the U.S. administrations — outgoing and incoming — to end the war. We can demand that the U.S. follow its own laws and require Israel to adhere to the same guidelines for military aid that other countries do, including ensuring transparency in how aid is used. This includes enforcing the deadline for increasing the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Such measures are not an abdication of the security of Israelis, but rather a means of pressuring Netanyahu to end the war and bring home the hostages, allowing Israel to move toward internal investigations and new elections. And we can insist that our communal organizations stop burying their heads in the sand and instead push back on the Israeli government’s dangerous agenda.

It’s time for American Jews to take a strong moral stance for human life and human rights. This would be the truest expression of support for Israel and Israelis, as well as Torah and Judaism.

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Yesterday, there was an independent terrorist attack carried out, where the terrorist stabbed two people. The terrorist was a 23 year old Israeli Arab from East Jerusalem. He was neutralized. His victims are a young man and woman, 20 and 25 years old. Today, there was another independent terrorist attack, this time the terrorist ran over with his vehicle no less than 4 people, and one of them, a 25 years old man, is in a condition defined as "between moderate to serious." All four of the wounded are in their 20's. The attacker was neutralized. He was 16 years old, from Hebron.

It is now confirmed that in addition to Hamas and the PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad), another Palestinian terrorist organization that participated in the Oct 7 massacre was the DFLP (the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another Palestinian terrorist organization). The terrorist attack for which they're most known in Israel is the 1974 invasion of an Israeli school, holding a group of 100 school girls and their teachers hostage, and then massacring them as Israeli soldiers broke into the school, trying to save the hostages. This terror attack happened before I was born, but I think like many other Israelis, this image of it is forever etched into my brain, Israeli soldiers carrying away bleeding, but saved students:

Along with the drone attack on Israel's north yesterday, there were also rockets that hit Kiryat Shmona, which is in the same area.

In Turkey, 32 ISIS terrorists were arrested for planning to attack local synagogues and churches.

There's been a lot of speculation regarding who knew about the planned Oct 7 invasion and massacre, since clearly a lot of the funding, training and planning was done by Iran. Yesterday, a Hamas senior in Lebanon said that Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy) was only alerted to the plan about to be implemented half an hour before it started. Currently, according to Israel's Minister of Defence, Israel is being attacked on 7 physical fronts (Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen and independent terrorist attacks) and one front online (cyber attacks), BUT it's only fighting a full fledged war with Hamas in Gaza. Had Hezbollah been alerted earlier, would it have joined Gaza's terrorists? Would Israel currently been in a full out war on two fronts? Due to not knowing enough time in advance, Hezbollah lost the element of surprise, and ended up joining in attacks that are far from a full scale war.

I was made aware that antisemites are posting about the existence of Israeli military censorship as some sort of "proof" that Israel is not a free, democratic society (as if other democracies don't apply similar censorship to intelligence and operational details, when they believe publishing the info might endanger lives). So I just wanna point out that there is a LOT of info that isn't being censored, stuff that isn't comfortable for Israel to be published (like the story of the hostages being accidentally shot by IDF soldiers. No one else was there, it could have been so easy to bury that story, but Israel published it. Not any external journalistic source. That's who we are, as a society), and explain how some of the info that IS censored is specifically what can be demonstrated to endanger people's lives. For example, journalists can write about the hostages, but not about certain details regarding their professions or military service, present or past. We KNOW Palestinian terrorists follow the news, and if they find out they hold someone they can try and extract info from, they WILL torture that person. If journalists discuss everyone BUT a specific hostage in terms of this aspect, that's also telling the terrorists who to look at. So that's why they're just censoring all of it in regards to this specific aspect. Or another example, when it comes to rocket attacks, some of the details will be censored, because past experience has shown that the terrorists listen to reports on where their rockets hit, and they use that intel to finetune their aiming at Israeli targets.

Here is a NYT piece on the sexual violence of Hamas during the massacre, and in case this is behind a paywall, here is a report on that piece, which details some of what was published. At what point will the people who screamed for evidence of rape, actually come forward and apologized for the way they victimized those sexually brutalized by Hamas, a second time?

This is a CNN host choking up as he reads the letter of Liora Argamani, as she writes to the US president, begging to see and hug her daughter one last time, before she died of brain cancer:

These are Liora Argamani, and her daughter, Noa:

And these are Gadi Chagai and his wife, Judy weinstein:

I've shared their picture once before, when it was discovered that Gadi was actually murdered on Oct 7, and his body was kidnapped to Gaza. At that point, his wife 70 years old Judy was known to have been wounded on that day, but she was still believed to be alive, and the oldest woman in captivity in Gaza (the oldest man is 86 years old Shlomo Mansour). Yesterday, we got confirmation that Judy wasn't just wounded, she was killed on Oct 7, and her body was also taken hostage. May their memories be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[probablyasocialecologist]

To point out that right-wing culture warriors conflate academic freedom and free speech is, in a sense, to give them too much credit. In practice they subscribe to ‘free speech’ and ‘academic freedom’ only when, and to whichever ideological ends, it suits them. The new Higher Education Act was given royal assent just nine days after the passage of the Public Order Act, which eviscerates the right to peaceful protest in the UK – just in time to empower the Metropolitan Police to arrest six members of the anti-monarchy group Republic on the morning of the coronation, with little outcry from the free speech brigade. Rishi Sunak has defended the police and their new powers, saying that people have the right ‘to go about their day-to-day lives without facing serious disruption’. ‘Serious disruption’ – a phrase that appears 94 times in the Public Order Act – now legally includes many of the mildest tactics used by activist groups from the women of Greenham Common to Extinction Rebellion, including locking on, blocking roads and blockading oil terminals. It also includes, according to the Metropolitan Police, carrying rape alarms, for which three women’s safety volunteers were arrested ahead of the coronation.

Right-wing newspapers unironically celebrated Sunak’s appointment of a free speech tsar as another volley in his war on ‘woke nonsense’ – a campaign, as Sunak described it last year, against objectionable viewpoints that have ‘permeated public life’: that biology doesn’t determine gender, that language is malleable, that Britain must own up to its colonial past. You can seek to eradicate such viewpoints from universities. You can also believe that universities should become no-holds-barred venues for free and open debate. But it takes a certain mental flexibility to think that the one can be a way of achieving the other.

Does the right contradict itself? Very well then it contradicts itself. The new Higher Education Act appears on its face to be in conflict with the ‘Prevent duty’ created by the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, sponsored by Theresa May when she was home secretary. The government guidance on Prevent says that universities should prohibit visiting speakers who are likely to express ‘extremist views that risk drawing people into terrorism or are shared by terrorist groups’, even where the expression of such views is legal. In 2020 the Department of Education issued guidance on implementing the statutory curriculum which included the requirement that ‘schools should not under any circumstances use resources produced by organisations that take extreme political stances on matters,’ and listed as an example of an ‘extreme’ stance the ‘desire to abolish … capitalism’. Under a new speaker vetting scheme introduced by Jacob Rees-Mogg last year, eight people have been disinvited from speaking at government events, including Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert, and Kate Devlin, who studies the interaction between humans and technology. Both were told their invitations had been rescinded because they had criticised the Tories on social media.

The Higher Education Act makes universities and student unions that are derelict in their duty to uphold free speech liable to investigations and fines by the free speech tsar, as well as to civil claims brought by anyone who feels they have suffered ‘adverse consequences’ because of a university or student union’s ‘action or inaction’. It’s not clear just what this covers, but here are some possibilities, ordered from the certainly actionable to the potentially so: a student union voting to no-platform fascists; a university failing to quash student protest at a visit from, say, a war criminal; a student group putting out a statement condemning a professor for being transphobic; faculty changing a syllabus in response to student complaints about its racist content; students peacefully protesting outside a lecture; a geography department voting not to hire a climate change denier. It isn’t difficult to imagine how these could be framed as violations of the new law; it is for this reason that its opponents worried, as the bill made its way through Parliament, about the vexatious claims it seems bound to generate. In a letter sent last year to the secretary of state for education, Gillian Keegan, the president of the Union of Jewish Students, warned that the bill could ‘foreseeably allow a range of extremists, including Holocaust deniers, legal recourse to obtain compensation if they are denied a platform’. ‘Adverse consequences’ is an extremely low bar: anyone who has been picketed or called names on Twitter might feel they have grounds to make a legal claim. Traditionally, it has been thought that a commitment to free expression required universities not to intervene when students protest or when faculty members publicly criticise other academics or politicians. But the new law threatens to redefine such non-intervention as itself a failure to promote free speech.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

The winter storm (NYT) A sprawling storm dumped snow across much of the U.S., including areas that rarely get it. More than 6 inches fell on Austin, Texas—the most in 55 years. Millions of people are without electricity. The cold shattered longstanding records: Temperatures dropped to 17 degrees in Houston and to minus 38 degrees in Hibbing, Minn. At one point Monday, the Weather Service had winter storm warnings issued from Brownsville, Tex., along the U.S.-Mexico border to Caribou, Maine, a distance of more than 2,500 miles. Snow even accumulated on the beach in Galveston, a city where residents are far more accustomed to hurricanes than they are to wintry weather.

Millions endure record cold without power; at least 16 dead (AP) A winter storm that left millions without power in record-breaking cold weather claimed more lives Tuesday, including three people found dead after a tornado hit a seaside town in North Carolina and four family members who perished in a Houston-area house fire while using a fireplace to stay warm. The storm that overwhelmed power grids and immobilized the Southern Plains carried heavy snow and freezing rain into New England and the Deep South and left behind painfully low temperatures. Wind-chill warnings extended from Canada into Mexico. In all, at least 16 deaths were reported. The worst U.S. power outages were in Texas, affecting more than 4 million homes and businesses. More than 250,000 people also lost power across parts of Appalachia, and another quarter million were without electricity following an ice storm in northwest Oregon. Four million people lost power in Mexico. Utilities from Minnesota to Texas implemented rolling blackouts to ease the burden on power grids straining to meet the extreme demand for heat and electricity.

Pelosi says independent commission will examine Capitol riot (AP) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Congress will establish an independent, Sept. 11-style commission to look into the deadly insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol. Pelosi said the commission will “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex … and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power.” In a letter to Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said the House will also put forth supplemental spending to boost security at the Capitol. An independent commission along the lines of the one that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks would probably require legislation to create. That would elevate the investigation a step higher, offering a definitive government-backed accounting of events. Still, such a panel would pose risks of sharpening partisan divisions or overshadowing President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.

Ambassador sweepstakes underway as figures jockey for plum posts (Washington Post) Harry M. Reid’s phone has been ringing a lot lately, with calls from interest groups, friends and potential candidates themselves, all craving one thing: an ambassadorship. The former Senate majority leader then picks up the phone and dials Steve Ricchetti, one of President Biden’s top advisers, who for months has been fielding requests for plum positions. “There’s very few political jobs that bring the dignity of being an ambassador for the United States to a country. It’s a very prestigious position,” Reid said. But he suggested the would-be envoys shouldn’t hold their breath: “I think with the impeachment going on and trying to get the Cabinet filled, I think people should be understanding that things are more important than the ambassadorship right now with the president.” It is a sweepstakes that comes along every four or eight years—intense jockeying in public and private as the well-heeled and well-connected seek coveted positions that come with lavish housing, a staff of chefs and an expectation that the U.S. envoy will put the digs to use for parties. With its mix of famous figures and exotic locales, the competition always attracts interest. But it is under more scrutiny than usual this year as Biden stresses his desire to repair international relationships that frayed under Trump, with ambassadors likely to play a key role in that effort.

A third party (Gallup) Americans’ desire for a third party has ticked up since last fall and now sits at a high in Gallup’s trend. Sixty-two percent of U.S. adults say the “parties do such a poor job representing the American people that a third party is needed,” an increase from 57% in September. Support for a third party has been elevated in recent years, including readings of 60% in 2013 and 2015 and 61% in 2017. Meanwhile, 33% of Americans believe the two major political parties are doing an adequate job representing the public, the smallest percentage expressing this view apart from the 26% reading in October 2013.

Kidnap capital Mexico eyes biometric phone registry, sparking privacy fears (Reuters) A plan by Mexican lawmakers to put millions of cell phone users’ data in a biometric registry, billed as a tool to fight kidnapping and extortion, has sparked a backlash from telecoms companies and rights groups who warn it could lead to stolen data and higher costs. Already approved in the lower house of Congress, the reform is in line with President Andres Lopez Obrador’s vow to counter crime using intelligence methods rather than force, but critics say it reveals the pitfalls of governments seeking to gather more citizen data for law enforcement purposes. Under the plan, America Movil, AT&T Inc and other carriers would be responsible for collecting customers’ data, including fingerprints or eye biometrics, to submit to a registry managed by Mexico’s telecoms regulator. But a telecoms industry group that counts some major companies as members warned in an open letter that the reform could increase phone theft as criminals look to get around the registry by stealing devices and could risk customers’ safety if personal data were misused.

As the virus crisis drags on, hard-hit French youth struggle (AP) On a recent evening, Leïla Ideddaim waited to receive a bag of food, along with hundreds of other French young people who are unable to make ends meet. She saw the chitchat that accompanied the handout as a welcome byproduct, given her intense isolation during the pandemic. The 21-year-old student in hotel and restaurant management has seen her plans turned upside down by the virus crisis. With restaurants and tourist sites shuttered and France under a 6 p.m. curfew, her career prospects are uncertain. Odd jobs that were supposed to keep her going during her studies are hard to come by. “I’m in a fog,” said Ideddaim, who moved to Paris last year and is now struggling to meet both her basic needs and her emotional ones. The pandemic has devastated economies the world over, pushing vulnerable people deeper into poverty or tipping some into it for the first time. In France, the economic fallout has weighed particularly heavily on young people—and their woes have only been compounded by disruptions to their studies and social interactions. Nearly a quarter of French young people can’t find work—two-and-a-half times the national unemployment rate and one of the highest in the European Union’s 27 nations. Many university students now rely on food aid and several organizations have rallied to meet the need.

Separatists grow majority in Catalonia despite Socialist win (AP) The pro-union Socialist Party claimed a narrow win in regional elections in Catalonia late Sunday, but the bloc of parties supporting secession by Spain’s northeastern corner widened their control of the regional parliament. The outcome confirms that pro-separatist sentiment has not waned despite the collective suffering of the COVID-19 pandemic and a frustrated secession bid in October 2017 that left several of its members in prison. Four years on, the wealthy region that has its own language spoken alongside Spanish remains divided down the middle by the secession question. However, it was not clear if the separatist parties would be able to overcome the in-fighting that has plagued their bloc since the dream of an easy breakaway from Spain proved elusive.

Moscow residents get the snow they longed for (Washington Post) The snow started falling late Thursday in Moscow, sticking to car windshields and hiding walking paths. By the time it was over on Sunday, parked cars were buried under heaps of snow. The weekend’s wintery blast was noteworthy even for the Russian capital. A year ago, as Moscow experienced its warmest winter in nearly 200 years of record keeping, Russians longed for the white covering that often makes January and February’s dark days appear brighter. This wallop caused more than 100 flights to be delayed or canceled as some residents traversed downtown in skis.

India arrests student activist (Foreign Policy) New Delhi police have arrested a 22-year-old activist for sedition after she shared and made edits to a document—a Google doc—shared by climate activist Greta Thunberg when she expressed her support for India’s farmer protests. The document provided background on the protests as well as providing advice on nonviolent actions to support the farmers. “The Indian state must be standing on very shaky foundations if Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old student of Mount Carmel college and a climate activist, has become a threat to the nation,” said P. Chidambaram of the opposition Indian National Congress.

India’s dramatic fall in virus cases leaves experts stumped (AP) When the coronavirus pandemic took hold in India, there were fears it would sink the fragile health system of the world’s second-most populous country. Infections climbed dramatically for months and at one point India looked like it might overtake the United States as the country with the highest case toll. But infections began to plummet in September, and now the country is reporting about 11,000 new cases a day, compared to a peak of nearly 100,000, leaving experts perplexed. India, like other countries, misses many infections, and there are questions about how it’s counting virus deaths. But the strain on the country’s hospitals has also declined in recent weeks, a further indication the virus’s spread is slowing. When recorded cases crossed 9 million in November, official figures showed nearly 90% of all critical care beds with ventilators in New Delhi were full. On Thursday, 16% of these beds were occupied.

Myanmar military guarantees new election; protesters block train services (Reuters) Myanmar’s military junta guaranteed on Tuesday that it would hold an election and hand over power, denied its ouster of an elected government was a coup or that its leaders were detained, and accused protesters of violence and intimidation. The junta’s defence of its Feb. 1 seizure of power and arrest of government leader Aug San Suu Kyi and others came as protesters again took to the streets and as China dismissed rumours spreading on social media that it had helped with the coup. As well as the demonstrations in towns and cities across the ethnically diverse country, a civil disobedience movement has brought strikes that are crippling many functions of government. The unrest has revived memories of bloody outbreaks of opposition to almost half a century of direct army rule that ended in 2011 when the military began a process of withdrawing from politics.

Defying Biden administration, Egypt again arrests relatives of Egyptian American activist (Washington Post) Egyptian security forces raided the homes of six relatives of an outspoken Egyptian American activist, arresting and imprisoning two cousins in defiance of calls by the Biden administration for the Egyptian government to improve its human rights record, rights advocates said Tuesday. The targeting of the relatives of Mohamed Soltan, a human rights defender based in Northern Virginia, marks the latest attempt by the government of President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi to silence its critics living abroad, according to political opponents of the former military chief. Sunday’s arrests came roughly three months after five of Soltan’s relatives were released from prison, days after Joe Biden won the presidency. They had been forcibly taken from their homes in June after Soltan filed a lawsuit in the United States against former Egyptian prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi for his role in inflicting torture on Soltan when he was imprisoned in Egypt. Biden highlighted the case during the presidential election campaign, tweeting that torturing Egyptian activists and “threatening their families is unacceptable.” He also warned of “no more blank checks for Trump’s ‘favorite dictator,’” referring to Sissi by a term that Trump once used for him. By going after Soltan’s relatives again, as well as the relatives of other foreign-based critics in recent days, the Sissi government appears to be challenging the Biden administration and its efforts to make human rights a foreign policy priority once again for the United States, activists and analysts said.

Zuma Risks Arrest After Defying South Africa Corruption Inquiry (NYT) Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa whose nearly decade-long tenure was tainted by breathtaking corruption scandals, refused to appear before an inquiry panel Monday, raising the possibility that he would be imprisoned for contempt. The panel’s leader, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, said he was seeking an order from the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, that would “impose a term of imprisonment on Mr. Zuma.” Justice Zondo’s move catapulted the simmering theme of corruption during Mr. Zuma’s term, which lasted from 2009 to 2018, into a tense showdown over the accountability of the former president. His successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, has promised to purge the governing African National Congress of endemic problems of bribery and graft that have severely damaged its credibility in South Africa, one of the continent’s most important economic powerhouses. Mr. Zuma, 78, had been set to appear before the inquiry panel, the Commission on State Capture, starting Monday for a week of testimony about his role in the corruption. The former president sent a letter from his lawyers instead, arguing that he was not legally bound to appear.

[lucas-rygal-universe]

Boycott China

Data leak reveals how China 'brainwashes' Uighurs in prison camps.

Leaked documents detail for the first time China's systematic brainwashing of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in a network of high-security prison camps.

The Chinese government has consistently claimed the camps in the far western Xinjiang region offer voluntary education and training.

But official documents, seen by BBC Panorama, show how inmates are locked up, indoctrinated and punished.

China's UK ambassador dismissed the documents as fake news.

The leak was made to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which has worked with 17 media partners, including BBC Panorama and The Guardian newspaper in the UK.

The investigation has found new evidence which undermines Beijing's claim that the detention camps, which have been built across Xinjiang in the past three years, are for voluntary re-education purposes to counter extremism.

About a million people - mostly from the Muslim Uighur community - are thought to have been detained without trial.

'I spent seven days of hell in Chinese camps'

The leading Uighur geographer who vanished in China

The leaked Chinese government documents, which the ICIJ have labelled "The China Cables", include a nine-page memo sent out in 2017 by Zhu Hailun, then deputy-secretary of Xinjiang's Communist Party and the region's top security official, to those who run the camps.

The instructions make it clear that the camps should be run as high security prisons, with strict discipline, punishments and no escapes.

The memo includes orders to:

"Never allow escapes"

"Increase discipline and punishment of behavioural violations"

"Promote repentance and confession"

"Make remedial Mandarin studies the top priority"

"Encourage students to truly transform"

"[Ensure] full video surveillance coverage of dormitories and classrooms free of blind spots"

The documents reveal how every aspect of a detainee's life is monitored and controlled: "The students should have a fixed bed position, fixed queue position, fixed classroom seat, and fixed station during skills work, and it is strictly forbidden for this to be changed.

"Implement behavioural norms and discipline requirements for getting up, roll call, washing, going to the toilet, organising and housekeeping, eating, studying, sleeping, closing the door and so forth."

Other documents confirm the extraordinary scale of the detentions. One reveals that 15,000 people from southern Xinjiang were sent to the camps over the course of just one week in 2017.

Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, said the leaked memo should be used by prosecutors.

"This is an actionable piece of evidence, documenting a gross human rights violation," she said. "I think it's fair to describe everyone being detained as being subject at least to psychological torture, because they literally don't know how long they're going to be there.

The memo details how detainees will only be released when they can demonstrate they have transformed their behaviour, beliefs and language.

"Promote the repentance and confession of the students for them to understand deeply the illegal, criminal and dangerous nature of their past activity," it says.

"For those who harbour vague understandings, negative attitudes or even feelings of resistance… carry out education transformation to ensure that results are achieved."

Ben Emmerson QC, a leading human rights lawyer and an adviser to the World Uighur Congress, said the camps were trying to change people's identity.

"It is very difficult to view that as anything other than a mass brainwashing scheme designed and directed at an entire ethnic community.

"It's a total transformation that is designed specifically to wipe the Muslim Uighurs of Xinjiang as a separate cultural group off the face of the Earth."

China's hidden camps

Detainees are awarded points for their "ideological transformation, study and training, and compliance with discipline", the memo says.

The punishment-and-reward system helps determine whether inmates are allowed contact with family and when they are released. They are only considered for release once four Communist Party committees have seen evidence they have been transformed.

The leaked documents also reveal how the Chinese government uses mass surveillance and a predictive-policing programme that analyses personal data.

One document shows how the system flagged 1.8m people simply because they had a data sharing app called Zapya on their phone.

The authorities then ordered the investigation of 40,557 of them "one by one". The document says "if it is not possible to eliminate suspicion" they should be sent for "concentrated training".

The documents include explicit directives to arrest Uighurs with foreign citizenship and to track Uighurs living abroad. They suggest that China's embassies and consulates are involved in the global dragnet.

Chinese ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming said the measures had safeguarded local people and there had not been a single terrorist attack in Xinjiang in the past three years.

"The region now enjoys social stability and unity among ethnic groups. People there are living a happy life with a much stronger sense of fulfilment and security.

"In total disregard of the facts, some people in the West have been fiercely slandering and smearing China over Xinjiang in an attempt to create an excuse to interfere in China's internal affairs, disrupt China's counter-terrorism efforts in Xinjiang and thwart China's steady development."

[ageofkings]

Brazil 2018 elections: context and what to learn from it

I'm going to write a long post as a brazilian person who would like people to understand what happened in these elections. The rise of far-right is, obviously, linked to economic and moral crisis, and I believe the given context should help show exactly how this happened in Brazil.

First of all, we lived a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. It was bipartidary as a way to say there was any opposition at all but it made no difference, considering that elections were indirect(that is, not chosen by the actual population, holding power within military hand). It started with a coup d'état lead by the military supported by the USA against the president João Goulart, who while not being a communist at all, was left-wing. However, communist accusations already existed when Juscelino Kubitschek, who actively made it easier for international companies to enter Brazil, was the president. Even if the politician is open to capitalism, they can be painted as a communist for not following exactly USA's plan for them. Remember we're talking about Cold War, and tons of João Goulart's actions affected the USA directly.

While there was strong resistence to the military takeover, some may argue that there was popular support. That's because of the heavily spoken of(at least here) "Marcha da Família com Deus pela Liberdade", translating to March of the Family with God for Liberty: it was headed by people afraid of the "communist danger" in the name of democracy, of all things, and the Catholic Church, then an absolute majority among brazilians. Communism was associated with atheism, and the name of the march might show how big of an influence the Church was in this process.

Fast foward to already existing military dictatorship. While not as many people have died as in, for example, Chile under Pinochet, there was still torture, murder, people dissapearing and exile. And then they might say or you might think: "the only ones who would be murdered or tortured would be those opposing the dictatorship, so if you were not a terrorist, you should be fine!" I know how surreal this sounds but this is an actual thing that has been said on the topic of our military dictatorship more than once. Except one, it isn't ok to murder or torture someone because they oppose a government being overthrown. The direct opposition, like the ones actively fighting militaries, were not the only victims: it is highly suspected that Juscelino Kubitschek(the guy I mentioned earlier that is definitely not a communist) was murdered in 1976, in what was made to look like a car accident. Kubitschek was popular among brazilians and I argue he still is remembered in a good light, which might explain to you why dictators would want to murder such a personality. Now two, there are more reasons to complain considering the dictators sucked at governing?

To counterargument the "bad government" point someone might point out the "Milagre Econômico" or Economic Miracle, a boom in brazilian economy that wasn't real. How so? While our Produto Interno Bruto(PIB, in english known as Gross Domestic Product or GDP) did grow, it was in the hands of the already rich, such as great farmers who increased their production for exportation. You can't even claim it was an attempt to make private companies grow since anything that wasn't already big was forgotten, so neither is private business growing nor are state companies benefitting the population. Just making your GDP grow won't make your economy work! Anyway, inflation grew afterward and even people in the military were complaining(namely poor people who felt it). No matter how much you censor media, when most of the country hates your guts for making them miserable you can't hold on that long, so dictators started to transition to democracy. End. Understand that the elected president Bolsonaro supoorts this dictatorship.

Now let's take a look in 2002. That's when Lula was elected president for the first time, after running a ton of previous times. This man created PT, "Partido dos Trabalhadores" or Worker's Party, came from the working class(and organized strikes!) and is considered the first left-wing candidate after the dictatorship. Say what you will, the guy made some real changes to the country. He ended hunger in Brazil, invested heavily in social programs to remove people from misery, there was an increase in employed people, among other things. Of course, it wasn't perfect; in fact, to be elected, Lula had to align himself with more conservative parties and make himself less radical, otherwise the rich and middle class would not vote for him. Many actions helped the rich, especially great farmers(since economy became, and still is, dependent on commodities).

Conservative parties would not accept so easily to share power with parties so aligned to the left as PT. Internal conflict began and it has been since revealed that there was major bribery involved to make the goverment's social projects be accepted, in what was called the "Mensalão". Either way, Lula got reelected and later elected and reelected Dilma Rousseff as his successor, even if Dilma did not have the same popularity as Lula(and hers only decreased, actually). It is clear to all that Dilma was elected because of PT and especially Lula's legacy.

Dilma faced economic problems, besides protests in 2013 against the raise in bus passes(which isn't responsability of the president but it escalated GREATLY through the whole country and became a generalized protest against the government and corruption) and the disaster that was World Cup in 2014(honestly I don't even remember if it was corruption claims or the fact that people thought it was irresponsible to build stadiums while the country was dying or something). Things slowly turned into "this is PT's fault" and some even asked for military intervention like in the dictatorship, a request carried over to 2018 elections. Dilma just wasn't that popular and the fact she got reelected is, again, mostly because she was Lula's chosen successor. Nowadays, she is treated like a ghost even by the party.

Although she wasn't awful like you'd think, the media painted her as such: a major television station, "Globo", had a big role in this. In fact, the television station is only one of the medias through which it works, and the Globo group actually supported the very dictatorship I've spoken of at the beggining of this text before even having a television station. They have only admited and apologized for this in 2013. They also supported the candidate Fernando Collor de Mello in 1989 by editing the recording of the final debate between him and Lula; Collor won and was impeached later at the discovery of a corruption scandal benefiting himself and others close to him, besides implementing neoliberalism in a disastrous way. As if not enough, Globo viciously spoke of "Operação Lava Jato" or Operation Car Wash, a great corruption investigation that involved inumerous parties. The problem is, PT was clearly a target: everything was done to incriminate its party members, including affirmations that Lula and Dilma knew of all corruption happening and agreed with it. Many of the politicians spoken to were given deals, so that if they gave away someone else's name they might walk out free or have reduced penitences. One particular scandal from this operation, that is still ongoing, regards corruption in Petrobrás, one of the biggest companies of the country(although it has been progressively sold away).

During her second run, Dilma was impeached in 2016 under the claim of "pedaladas fiscais", translated as fiscal pedaling. Not exactly some war crime or corruption scandal, just tactics, and it has been pointed out that it was done in previous governments. Ironically, her vice president Michel Temer(from one of the conservative parties PT had aligned itself for support) wasted no time in making fiscal pedaling legal as soon as he became president. I must also add that Lula was arrested under corruption claims, with one of the fastest trials and investigations we've ever seen, proving that even if the claims are true, the arrest was always of political interest. Funny how corruption always existed in this country but if you may have done it(and in a much smaller scale) and you're left-wing, it's jail time; and for some reason when it is someone from PT being arrested it's big news, but most other arrests from other larties are irrelevant. That's how you throw a coup!

Now, who is Bolsonaro, the now elected president? Jair Bolsonaro has been a federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro(a state heavily associated with factions, gangs and criminality) and part of the city council. He has been thkurgh numerous parties, but spent most of the time in the 21st century in PP, "Partido Progressista" or Progressist Party(fun fact, don't take most of the party names literally because most of them don't align with the party's politics) until switching to PSL, "Partido Social Liberal" or Social Liberal Party for 2018 elections, since PP was involved in corruption scandals that Bolsonaro never addressed. He comes from a military career, having been considered mad by some military members, although others voted for him for his military benefit projects. Essentialy, he was a nobody.

Bolsonaro is a defensor of the torture from the dictatorship, homophobic, racist, misogynistic man, among other things. He has declared such things out loud and his electors either agree with it or believe he "won't really do that". For those who innocently believe in the best of Bolsonaro, why vote for a man who spent 27 years having near to no relevance as a deputy and passing no interesting projects? Simple: even though he has been in politics for so long, he selled himself as renovation by surfing in "antipetismo", the hatred for PT.

Bolsonaro grew through his hate, simply because he was in media. This is a very important part of his whole campaign: he only grew because he was given a platform. Even if most of the people who shared his content did so to say it was hideous, it was spreading him no less. In fact, Bolsonaro went to few debates during elections; while at first it would seem to be because of the stab he was a victim of during elections(yes, he got stabbed by a random guy who used to be linked to left parties so this information was used to turn it into a murder attempt by the left), at one point his doctors said he was allowed to go to debates, but he choose not to. In fact, at one point while there was a debate, Bolsonaro simultaneously gave an interview to another television station, which is illegal(because you're giving more TV time to that candidate when they should be debating with other candidates). Bolsonaro strategically ignored all debates from the middle to the end of the elections because not only his speeches are awful, he has no real knowledge of his own political plans. He claimed that he didn't have to know economy because he won't be an economist, so if anyone wanted to know about it, they should talk to his appointed economist Paulo Guedes(who wants to go for neoliberalism, a fact that attracted many self-proclaimed liberals).

Truly, the only great difference between candidates from PSDB, "Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira" or Brazilian Social Democracy Party and Bolsonaro is outright hate speech and the lack of political knowledge, since PSDB has been running as the main opposition for PT for years with the promise of neoliberalism. So why Bolsonaro instead of PSDB if at least PSDB's candidates have the decency of ignoring the poor without saying it out loud? Things were so bad that even Geraldo Alckmin, a great figure in PSDB and 2018's candidate, said he feared Bolsonaro in power. The television station Globo, even after playing a major role in PT's demonization, was considered a liar; not because of their speech against the left, but for including very shallow talk of LGBTphobia and racism. Even though it still has some influence, it managed to be hated both by conservative right-wingers and the left.

Bolsonaro's image was worshipped as that of a legend. Even if he did barely anything as a deputy, his speeches were seen as fantastic and proof of how he wasn't afraid to say what he thought was best. However, all of Bolsonaro's supporters did not come from here; while it was a high amount(people suspected he could manage 20% of votes), it was not the amount he managed by the end. But after such a growth, and with his name in every media, anyone who wanted to get rid of the big, bad PT could do so by voting in him. Bolsonaro might have been elected, but with much less votes or not elected at all if PT wasn't running, since the great majority who did vote for him just hated PT. I will not really debate if that would be the case as it is still quite the topic among some of the left, but PT has been criticized for trying to go for its 5th mandate in a row; even if it were not a dictatorship, it was easy for the media to sell it as such and demonize PT further. People who tipically voted for center candidates or used to declare vote for no one at all found themselves voting for Bolsonaro.

I find important to notice that in the Northeast region, formed by 9 states, not a single one had Bolsonaro leading. in fact, Haddad won there with values varying from 60% to over 70%, a reality quite different in states more to the south of the country. That's because PT's greatest weakness and strenght is being PT: the party's legacy in Northeast is massive, considering the region was historically ignored by the government. Its countryside is very hit and dry, and lack of water and misery was the rule; the urban cities were not in a much better state, with no investment whatsoever. It doesn't hurt to say that it also concentrates a great amount of black and poor population, due to the great strenght of slavery in this region back in colonial times. PT did a massive job there, so they would easily vote for PT again. Even with all the propaganda against PT, which did influence voters in urban locations, the party is still strong and Northeast in general seems to have a strong conscience regarding candidates of Bolsonaro's type.

That brings us a key problem when we're talking about other regions: historical education. People who allow themselves to ignore Bolsonaro's speech, while majoritarily richer, also include poor people who fell for his neoliberal promises of a better future(it is important to remember that the economic problems Dilma faced included crisis, with people losing jobs and everything) and talk of "good dictatorship times"(which people now won't even bother saying was a dictatorship because "there were elections" and "only terrorists died"). Suddenly, the fact a dictatorship existed was being doubted by growing smaller medias(reforcing the idea that Bolsonaro is an antisystem candidate as well as his speech), and the historic of racism(black people are more likely to be among the poor thanks to slavery and how its end was dealt with, which was by ignoring ex-slaves completely) was laughed at by years of claiming that a diverse country like Brazil couldn't be racist. Racism and homophobia were dismissed because "any more rights would be privilege" when murders are still very real.

I cannot stress enough how much of a role fake news played in these elections: Bolsonaro spread for years that the left and PT were trying to implement "gay kits" including books that taught children as young as 5 or 6 about sex(ironically, the book he appointed barely spoke of gay relations at all). It was repeated over and over and was a strong argument among families against PT, even though PT proved it was a lie many times. Bolsonaro was only forbid to spread the lie at the very end of the elections, when the damage had already been done, and still he spoke of it again and another time after being elected. The electoral justice did nothing about him(and many other problems during this election), proving that the system wanted him elected more than the people did.

Again: Bolsonaro was elected because the media did a really good job in demonizing the left, and especially associating it with communism, the "totalitarian regime that killed millions". It has become common to associate fascism and nazism to the left, because the political spectrum is seen as less state equating right and more state(the great evil!) equating left. If you make a bad government or were associated with corruption scandals, you're left. They made it seem as if the left purposefully gave the poor only enough so that they would be dependent on them. There were also heavy nationalist tones, with people screaming their country's flag would not be red(communism!) and they only want what's best for Brazil. Bolsonaro also brought religious tones along with his moralist ones; in fact, his campaign slogan even mentions Christian God. Catholic Church this time was more left-leaning, but Brazil has Evangelicalism as a strong religion, as well as Bolsonaro's own faith, leading to him grabbing many votes from this population.

The great takeaway from this is: people in Brazil have not learned what is left and right, and it made it easy for the right to exploit it. Even with a dictatorship and corruption scandals so recent, brazilians had their history distorted and were led to Bolsonaro in the most convenient moment. Many of the strategies used are similar to those of Cold War and mirror our dictatorship strongly, which should probably explain to you why Bolsonaro has used the USA as a role model for years and has always been eager to have Brazil linked to Donald Trump. People don't necessarily hate minorities(although some do), they were driven by the narrative of left corruption and excess of minority rights in a still moralist country.

Hopefully this has been enlightening. Give people political education!

[southeastasianists]

Hate speech isn’t a new phenomenon in Myanmar. But it has intensified with the advent of social media, smartphones and affordable SIM cards.

“I’ve been called a k****-lover [and] had my address, my ID card, ethnicity, native city, religion and address leaked,” said youth activist Khin Sandar, describing her experiences on the receiving end of hate speech on Facebook. She’s had to deal with the panic of reporting daily posts of abuse on the site that insult her religion, disclose her personal identity and threaten her safety.

Memes calling Muslims rats or dogs, or using the word k**** – a common racist slur against Muslims and Indians – are just some of the examples of hate speech that continue to be shared on Facebook, despite the scrutiny of activists and promises by the platform. Personal attacks like those Khin Sandar experiences are still slipping by Facebook’s monitoring team, several sources have confirmed to Southeast Asia Globe.

Facebook defines hate speech in its Community Standards as “a direct attack on people based on protected characteristics – race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious disability or disease.” But, while its standards are clear, its detection of breaches falls short, say critics.

The other major problem is that social media is a new information delivery technology with a steep learning curve. In Myanmar, Facebook is so dominant that it’s seen as the internet itself, said one activist. Most Myanmar people use Facebook as a search browser and their primary news source. Internet literacy is extremely low in the country, as a new generation leapfrogs from a time under the military regime when only the elite could afford to buy a SIM card that cost up to an astounding $1,500, to a new generation of smartphone users who can now buy SIMs for just $2 each.

Myanmar is not alone. As one Sri Lankan analyst told the Guardian, while Sri Lanka enjoys high literacy, it suffers from a lack of information literacy: “It means the population can read and write but tends to immediately believe and uncritically respond to that which they see on social media.”

At a peace march in Yangon in May, around 300 activists held signs with doves on them as they called for an end to all military skirmishes in the country between government forces and ethnic minorities like the Kachin in northern Myanmar. The demonstration was shut down after some civilian Buddhist nationalists showed up and started attacking protesters as the police looked on. When police finally decided to intervene, it was to arrest the protesters who were under attack.

Khin Sandar was one of those activists. She pulled up a screenshot of a Facebook post showing a photo of her being arrested by police at the protest. The Burmese comment that went with it translated roughly to: “These people earn dollars and are creating unrest by associating with rebels and kalar.” The post was shared again and again, often with comments calling for violence and even death threats against Khin Sandar.

Khin Sandar said she reported the post to Facebook as hate speech. Twenty-four hours after the protest, she checked her phone to find that the post was still up – and was clocking hundreds of shares. She was scared, so she alerted family and friends.

“I was at risk and my friends were trying to help me,” she said. “Friends were reporting the post through their accounts and others were trying to email Facebook administrators directly to alert them to this serious case.”

It took 48 hours for Facebook to review, respond and delete the post. By then, it had been shared nearly 1,900 times. She felt helpless.

Critics say Facebook’s slow response time to hate speech increases the danger to those at which it’s directed.

Although Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged to commit to a 24-hour review and removal of hate speech at the landmark US Senate inquiry in April, Myanmar activists say the average response time is closer to 48 hours.

“The problem of hate speech has not gone away,” said Htaike Htaike of the Yangon-based Myanmar ICT for Development Organisation (Mido), a group that teaches internet literacy and monitors hate speech. Mido launched its Safe Online Space (SOS) curriculum in 2016 to teach people the basics of social media and the internet, how to report hate speech on Facebook and how to identify hearsay versus actual news. Through its “training of trainers”, Mido is developing a network of people to pass on this knowledge across Myanmar.

Htaike brought out her laptop and showed the data Myanmar activists have been collecting of serious hate speech posts that have been reported to Facebook. Next to each post was a column showing how many hours it took for it to be removed. The most common wait time was 48 hours. But Htaike said these few posts represented a tiny fraction of the thousands of hate-filled posts Mido has tracked.

This slow response time has not improved since March, when the UN called the social media giant a “beast” for its alleged role in fuelling the violence against the Rohingya – in part by allowing hate-speech posts to be shared online.

These Facebook posts included lists of well-known activists and Muslim community leaders who were vocal on the Rohingya issue, with links to their Facebook accounts. Some posts called for activists to be assassinated. One post depicted the purported corpse of a Rakhine Buddhist woman with ripped clothes lying in the grass, with the suggestion that she had been raped and murdered by Muslim men – an old story that led to deadly violence in Rakhine State in 2012.

Two chain messages – one to incite violence against the Muslim community and a separate message mirroring the words of violence against the Buddhist community – were shared hundreds of thousands of times leading up to 9 September last year. They ordered people to take up arms, warned of jihad and encouraged an anti-kalarmovement.

Since the crisis that led to over 700,000 Rohingya fleeing from Rakhine State to Bangladesh – described as ethnic cleansing by the UN – hate speech only continues to escalate.

“We know we’ve been too slow to respond to the developing situation in Myanmar,” admitted David Caragliano, a Facebook content policy manager, during the company’s first visit to Myanmar, in May.

A team of five Facebook staff visited the country for one week for a whirlwind of meetings with Myanmar-based civil society organisations, activists and the government.

The Facebook rep insisted the company is improving as a hate-speech watchdog. Referring to the same protest in Yangon, Caragliano vaguely suggested they were able to respond to some reports during the protests within 24 hours: “We removed numerous pieces of threatening content towards activists within three hours and a video depicting graphic violence.”

These examples are not enough, said Burmese activists.

“Two out of how many hate-speech posts?” asked Ei Myat Noe Khin of the Yangon-based tech accelerator Phandeeyar, which helped Facebook translate its Burmese-language community standards. Despite her group’s repeated requests, she said Facebook had not shared any information or metrics with Myanmar groups to show how it is monitoring posts – or how many posts it had removed and how quickly.

Herein lies the problem at the heart of the hate: no evidence or transparency of country-specific Facebook reports. So activists from Sri Lanka, Vietnam, India, Syria, Ethiopia and Myanmar formed the Global South coalition in May to hold Facebook accountable for failing to put adequate protections in place.

Wirathu, Myanmar’s most notorious hardline Buddhist nationalist monk – who has been charged with inciting anti-Muslim riots – finally had his Facebook account suspended in late January this year after he had been repeatedly caught breaching Facebook’s community standards with hate-filled posts.

Yet Htaike Htaike said monitoring by Mido has found that bad actors like Wirathu are still active on the platform, sometimes using fake names. And even if Wirathu and his ilk are locked out, they have plenty of followers to carry their hate torches high. Wirathu’s hardline nationalist group, the Patriotic Association of Myanmar, abbreviated in Burmese as Ma Ba Tha, thrives on Facebook pages and in multiple groups.

Reporting and deleting of posts is not enough, say activists – better detection is sorely needed. Facebook’s Caragliano said the platform is getting tougher in its approach to hate speech by implementing systems to “proactively detect this kind of content”, but Myanmar cybersecurity groups say they are still seeing these blacklisted figures online.

Caragliano admitted it is hard for artificial intelligence to identify hate speech with the same precision with which the platform identifies nudity, terrorist propaganda and spam. In Myanmar, the challenge for Facebook to build systems that detect hate speech in the Burmese script-based Zawgyi One and unicode fonts isn’t as simple as taking down posts with key words.

When Facebook suddenly banned the slur k**** last year, Htaike Htaike said it was a Band-Aid solution: “When they brought in the blanket ban of the word kalar, it became a joke because it didn’t work.” That ban didn’t establish a process, Htaike explained. It was a shortsighted decision that meant phrases like kalar page (lentil beans) were also suddenly taken down. Facebook said its review system now considers context.

Another roadblock is detecting hate speech on closed pages and in private messages. One improvement Facebook has made is to provide a reporting button in Messenger, but group members of pages are not likely to report hate speech if they are in a group that aligns with their beliefs. To combat this, Facebook said it has “updated our guidelines and now have more nuanced rules that help us take down abusive groups that have bad intent”. But Facebook hasn’t shared any data to back this claim.

Activists say that instead of these narrow policies that target words, Facebook should invest more in a language team in the region that can react in real time.

“We are still doing the reporting, [but] they can’t keep relying on us,” said Htaike. “They ask us for data, which of course we will provide, but for longterm data collecting, they need a better team.”

She stressed that the job of monitoring hate speech is extremely risky in Myanmar: “I am in a dilemma about having a Facebook in-country team as I am very concerned about security aspects, because even community civil society organisations like us are harassed and cyber-bullied just for having a relationship with Facebook.” Her group Mido has been harassed when something goes wrong, as with the “lentil beans” fiasco.

But anyone Facebook hires to do this job should be based in Myanmar, said Htaike, who is concerned that the site recently advertised a position for a Burmese analyst to join its team, but that that person would need to move to Dublin. “They at least need to be in the same time zone,” she said.

Facebook said it is hiring three new people a week, at the time of this writing, to work on Myanmar hate-speech reviews, but would not reveal the size of its Myanmar team.

Caragliano would say only that “we have added dozens more Myanmar-language reviewers and we hope to double that number by the end of this year.”

In July, Facebook announced that it had hired the San Francisco-based nonprofit Business for Social Responsibility to conduct a human rights impact assessment, which Myanmar activists and the Global South welcome. Yet questions remain unanswered about what exactly the report will reveal or how it could help things on the ground.

“We are waiting to know what their methodology will be and what they will actually enforce after the assessment,” said Ei Myat Noe Khin of Phandeeyar.

Without solid sustainable improvements from Facebook to tackle the hate-speech problem, the Global South coalition said that online inequality will continue to widen as Facebook expands to capture emerging markets without proper investment in monitoring and protections.

The Global South is blunt in its assessment of the power held by social media in the nations that make up the coalition: “The coalition countries include the world’s largest democracy, the first social media–enabled genocide, state-sponsored troll armies and the devastation of the Syrian war. In each of our countries, Facebook has been weaponised by bad actors against our citizens.”

In its press release announcing the new coalition, Global South accused Facebook of failing to invest in the “basic contextual understanding, local language skills, and human resources needed to provide a duty-of-care for users in sometimes repressive regimes”.

Myanmar activists seem reluctant to put much hope in Facebook’s promises since it hasn’t been able to tackle a problem that first erupted in 2014 in Mandalay, the country’s second largest city. In July that year, an unsubstantiated story circulated online that claimed a Buddhist employee of a tea shop had been raped by her Muslim employers. The resulting riots spun out of control, taking two lives and shattering the calm of a nation taking baby steps into the promises and dangers of the gilded information age.

[everlarkingjoshifer]

Trump signed an executive order to abolish what he did....

I don’t normally come in here to post long political pieces. However, after the disgusting comments that I’ve read on social media as Democrats held a press conference to speak about children being ripped apart from their parents at the border, is more than I can take. So, because I am pretty fucking annoyed with all the baseless accusations, and major misinformation I would like to dispel erroneous conclusions along with the comments I have been seeing on social media.

Immigrants are taking our jobs!

No Becky, they’re not. Immigrants are bringing in jobs and taking the low wage, often dangerous and non-union jobs that YOU don’t want to take. How about you go pick those strawberries in the blazing heat for as little as 6$ an hour, doesn’t sound very appealing right? So if it’s not good enough for you because you want a cushy job, what makes you think Immigrants want to do it too? They don’t, but they’re so desperate to make a living that they’re willing to do anything so long as they can provide a better future for their own families, something you can easily understand. As a matter of fact, while you enjoy your burrito know that none of it would be possible if it wasn’t for an immigrant who brought in their culture and food to enrich our country. Yeah, that big old Mexican franchised fast food joint? Would not have existed for your high school kids to work at, so while your sitting on your ass enjoying someone else’s culture, know that none of it 

would be possible without an immigrant.

Immigrants are taking our resources and our taxes pay for them to live here!

 Noooo, Immigrant individuals cannot ever receive federal based help such as SSI. They can’t even get health insurance. Some states do hand out some help to aid immigrants but it would only be something as small as being able to use the WIC program which is very limited. (I’ve used it when I had just given birth). As a matter of fact, white citizens are amongst the highest percentage who receive federal assistance and immigrant people pay INTO our social security and taxes without hope of ever getting that money back. If you want to talk about needlessly spending your money on immigrants then you should definitely be against the barbaric procedures that are happening right the hell now. There are companies profiting from your taxpayer money in order to house children that didn’t need to be housed in the first place. It’s all a big scam and those 1 % who don’t really need the money are making millions that you’re paying into JUST because you want to be a paranoid idiot. It’s a pretty simple concept actually, it’s called security theater. Except this theater is of the Third Reich.

They’re bringing in disease!

See, now you just sound like a Nazi, and come on, we’re not exactly one to speak about diseases when you’re refusing to vaccinate your fucking kid because of “big pharma, unfounded conspiracies, and autism”. Cry me a fucking river, Shania. The whole notion of disease comes out of fear of the unknown but we cannot throw a stone at someone else knowing we do the same. We won’t vaccinate and now measles, chicken pox, whooping cough, and many other diseases are on the rise because you’d rather let your kid die than have autism, which by the way has been dispelled at every turn by various scientists.

Obama/ Bush administration were the ones who implemented the law of child separation. 

Oh Brandon, you xenophobic dick. First of all the Obama and Bush administration NEVER placed an order of removal between the parents and their children. What is true is that there is no law saying these current atrocities have to be carried out. Crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor that can get you jailed for up to 20 days or so and then you’re automatically sent to your country of origin. The immigrant parents who are caught with their children are never separated from them and there are no real lasting repercussions. If I was to take your reasoning into account then that would mean people who have had a DUI, or those who have been arrested for public disturbance should have their children taken away as well? Secondly, when the Obama administration implemented certain facilities to house kids it was due to an immense influx of unaccompanied minors who were immigrating to the USA by their damn selves. Most, of these children, were from Central America and were not deemed a threat to the nation after very careful vetting. These kids ranged between the ages of 12-17 years old and they were TEMPORARILY housed or often placed in foster homes with other immigrant adults till the Government could get a hold of their parent. Of course, everything wasn’t always handled perfectly as there were a ton of problems because sometimes the foster parents would refuse to answer their phones to various federally appointed counselors or even gave the Government the wrong information. Some of the facilities in which the children were housed were not as top notch as we expected and there were abuses happening at the time. But by that point, the children were really alone. They didn’t come in with their parents to protect them and sadly things didn’t always go the right way. The few kids who were separated from the adult were either trafficked here or were in deep danger of those adults that surrounded them

They should come here legally if they want to enter the country!

Kathy, you sad simpleton. Looking for Asylum is not against the law. Actually, the ports of entry for refugees are being blocked by ICE agents to deter them from reaching the United States legally. Usually, when an immigrant came to the port of entry looking for asylum they would have to bring proof which then they would be taken to a holding facility where their case was carefully reviewed and then after about a month or so they would either be allowed to stay or leave depending on the severity of their situation. Now, Looking for a way to come to the united states legally especially in countries that are extremely corrupt is very difficult. I myself applied for a visa in order to come to the united states twice and both times it was denied even though I was a 4-year-old child who was about to die of a severe heart condition. If it hadn’t been for a charitable company that had put their name behind me and petitioned for me to travel I would never have even set a foot in the United States and I would never be able to write this because I’d be dead by now. That’s how difficult everything is. The immigration system is so broken and instead of looking for a solution you shining citizens can only proclaim your distaste for a president that hasn’t been in office for over 2 years. Obama, Bush, or Clinton are no longer running the country. Take responsibility for the mistakes YOUR amoral president is making.

But MS-13! 

Ms-13 is a Mexican terrorist group that has been used as a cop out to paint innocent people who are Latino and Hispanic in an unflattering light. Gang members don’t really want to come here, their profit is not here. They are already immensely powerful in Mexico, why leave if things are good for them? It makes no sense and if again I were to take your reasoning into consideration I would say that other countries should never allow an American entry because they could be from the KKK. What makes sense is to have a racist, xenophobic, sexist president using something like gang violence in order to disenfranchise a group of people who don’t match his ideas for the perfect immigrant. Case in point, he very clearly said he would like Europeans (meaning Caucasians) to immigrate here (They wouldn’t. Europe is not perfect but at least it has universal health care among other things.) Mexicans, meaning all Latino because that how you all like to categorize us not realizing that Latinos are very diverse but those of us who are brown in complexion are rapists, killers, we’re infesting the country, we’re bringing disease, we’re animals among other ludicrous things Trump has said about the Latino community and for the record, not all immigrants are Mexican. Most at this point are from Central America. It's the same as not all Asians are Chinese, not all black people are thugs and not all white men who wear penny loafers are entitled pricks who call on their daddies to fix their problems. You see how stereotypes work? Those of you who applaud him while desecrating the flag by wearing it as a shirt or bandana and eating off of flag emblazoned paper plates like to think you’re somehow better and patriotic because you won the lottery by being born here. It’s as simple as that and if you want the immigrants to fix their problems back home maybe tell your government not to meddle in their democratic systems. It’s a cop-out to make yourselves feel better about the atrocities that are happening.  

Build the WALL! 

Yes Brayden, because a wall is gonna stop a bunch of plane riding immigrants to come to the United States. Newsflash, most people who end up here illegally came here legally through a visa but overstayed their welcome. Most of the people who came here otherwise, seek asylum, which is not illegal. There are actually very few people who cross the border illegally and stay here. No one wants to leave their life, culture, and language behind unless it’s absolutely necessary. The wall will stop nothing. Separating kids and now babies from their parents have not deterred the parents from continuing their long arduous trips to the United States. The wall only serves as a trophy for the GOP to pat themselves on the back and say what good little legislators they are. It’s a sign of oppression and a sign of unwelcoming. It’s as if I had a picture of Jesus in my living room but a satanic altar in the next room. It’s counterproductive and we’re the ones who are gonna pay for it. Mexico will pay for nothing even if Trump is holding these children hostages. The procedures are very eerily being carried out in much the same way the Nazi's carried out their atrocities. First, they block all potential legal ways for the marginalized group to carry out their mission legally.  Then, they used false rhetoric and fear monger civilians so that the marginalized group can be dehumanized and therefore easier for the government to carry out whatever it is they are planning without dissent. Then they sanitize the living conditions in which the immigrant group are living in. Finally, they discredit or all accounts that are cited by reputable resources in order to keep the masses confused and ignorant. It's exactly what happened when the Japanese were placed in internment camps.  

Immigrants will never assimilate to our way of life!

Say the people whose grandpappy’s and Nanas never learned English and continued to live their lives the way they did in Poland. English is not a designated American language. No language has been designated to the USA, you morons.

Immigrants should look for a way to legalize their situation.

Ok, how about you fork over $20,000 while working a minimum wage job that you can’t quit from no matter how bad it is because if you do there’s nowhere else for you to work at without breaking the Law. Immigration lawyers are some of the worst wolves in sheep’s clothing I have ever met. I spend about $10,000 just to get a green card while having nowhere else to live but at my Mother in law’s tiny ass house in the middle of the ghetto while pregnant. I slept on the floor with my husband because the place was so small we couldn’t even put a bed in there, much less afford one. When I was about to apply for citizenship my Lawyer up and left after I had paid her the money to file in the citizenship paperwork. She disappeared and I have no way of recuperating my paperwork from her. Thankfully no everything was lost but I am not an isolated incident, there are countless stories of people who have been duped by lawyers and there are more fast food joint in the USA than immigration courthouses. So you guys do the fucking math. It takes so much of you and so long for you to even reach the tip of what American citizens expect from you. 

They broke the law, therefore they should pay the consequences.

We break the law every single day Khayyley, it's not an exaggeration or even something that I'm making up. I live in Connecticut and lord do we have some ridiculous laws like, husbands who cannot kiss their wives on any Sunday. If a cyclist goes above 65 MPH they have be stopped by a police officer and we're not allowed to educate dogs. (lol, what?) Anyway, the point is we don't get citations, incarcerated or even have enforcement carried out for the most menial lawlessness so why should we punish these kids who have done nothing wrong? This used to be the country that was known for checks and balances, the country of separation of church and state. Somewhere along the way, we've lost ourselves and we've become the country of checks and cherry picking. The country that puts babies in cages and we don't allow the staff to offer any comfort. These are not "summer camps" and we shouldn't find a way to sanitize the word cage but we have gone so far off the deep end and our expectations for our leaders are so low that we may as well be licking the ground. These are kids who are screaming for their mothers and fathers who may never see them again just for committing the sin of being born brown, something that they obviously have no control over. It's a harrowing reality but their voices are falling on deaf ears as politicians use the bible to excuse their horrid laws as they smile because they're the ones all cozy with big fat paychecks provided by their citizens. We're duped into thinking that these current politicians have our best interest at heart when in actuality they don't. Just because an abusive parent says they care about you doesn't mean they actually do. The GOP is a cesspool of corrupt, self-serving, amoral group of people with Trump at the head.

 Our Lawmakers are making due with what they were handed.

How, exactly how have we been improving the country? The rich are getting richer while the poor still have to rely on governmental help that is slowly dwindling while those very same poor people have to deal with being called moochers. Our children are dying off at alarming rates because our government wants to continue catering to the NRA's demands as they go about spreading baseless lies and flimsy excuses for mass shootings. Our healthcare system is a fucking joke and we sit idly by as Men in power oppress our women because they don't want to bring a child into a world full of problems that cannot be easily fixed. We cater to our very own terrorists who use the bible in order to justify themselves and call it "freedom of speech" yet we call people color sons of bitches for simply daring to protest peacefully for the flagrant disenfranchisement of his fellow people. We slap the, what about isms and point fingers to others without realizing we're the ones putting them in those positions while simultaneously squashing the education system in order to keep future voters ignorant. Republicans can't be voted in if we have intellectuals willing to question their agendas. It's much easier to have dumb, compliant, narrow-minded morons in order for them to make that money. Can't you see what it is they're doing? They are dehumanizing these people and saying that they're all criminals and or will become criminals in the future so that the white elitists can feel alleviated of all culpability in order for them to be able to sell their soul to the administration that is quietly pocketing civilian's money. Money, that they say will go to charities but never do. It doesn't matter if these kids have television, air conditioners, or even a meal because they have been so traumatized by being ripped apart from their parents that even if they were being housed at the Ritz Carlton the practices would still be inhumane.  

But Trump signed the executive order, stop complaining already.

Wow Tammy, first of all, he didn't need to. Separating children from their parents is not a law, never has been. The separation of children who were accompanied by an adult usually happened if the child was found to have been a product of human trafficking, which by the way, has a very low percentage. Instead, the manner in which these kids are being handled now is more cause for worry because they can fall prey to actual human traffickers. Case in point, the over 1,000 children that were mysteriously lost and haven't been found yet and no one has any clue where or how they might have disappeared. It's insane for you to think that just because these kids are in these prison camps they're somehow being treated correctly. These children only see the light of day for 2 hours and the rest they spend it inside and security measures have been implemented to keep the child from escaping as if they were high-security inmates. They're being treated like prisoners and now they're being forcefully injected with psychiatric drugs in order to keep them from crying. I don't think I need to tell you about the long-term repercussions these drugs can have but I will anyway. It can cause obesity, adult onset diabetes, dizziness, listlessness, and are left incapacitated. Easy prey for any trafficker. it's callously barbaric. These kids are set up for a plethora of mental health problem that will never go away. This new executive order was unnecessary and Trump just needed to feel like a dictator because that's what he truly wants. He doesn't believe in a democracy. He values people like Stalin and Kim Jung Un and insults our allies (sorry Canada!). The paper he signed keeps families together yes, but at the cost of their freedom because they are to be kept in what I would guess to be newly built facilities that will most definitely be paid by us for an indefinite period of time as opposed to deporting them back to their countries after about 20 days. It'll be a real concentration camp and I wouldn't be surprised if gas chambers and fire pits begin to appear all over the United States and all Latino immigrants are rounded up regardless of whether they are legally here or not.

We should worry about our own citizens instead of immigrants who are only a distraction to our own problems. 

You're right up to a point. We should definitely worry about our citizens and maybe worry about our very own problems that plague our nation, yet we don't. We should be working towards implementing Gun control and worrying about human rights abuses towards people of color, but we don't. Instead, we blame those very people that are being needlessly maligned because we'd rather think it's their fault as opposed to us saying that we fucked up, that we cannot do enough to help our own people. Immigrants aren't looking to distract us from our own problems but the GOP sure is using that scapegoat in order to confuse us and turn us into megalomaniacs who claim to care for this country while rationalizing the heinous laws that this administration is implementing. Understand that just because I sympathize with the plight of immigration it doesn't negate my love or even my worries for the problems that are in my country. I love this country and I'm thankful to this country for all its wonderful opportunities. I believe we can be better and I don't think we're perfect but we're definitely capable of being great indeed. It was before and I'm sure we can be now and in the future.

   Listen, all I’m trying to really say is that the things that are happening are beyond horrible and at such an alarming speed that I am scared for the future of my country. This president is giving a pathway for all the fascists to wave their flag and complain about how they suffer at the cost of people they refuse to understand or even get to know. It's giving way for racists to be open about their disgusting assumptions by calling it honesty, and "well I'm just telling it like it is, and everyone else was thinking it, anyway". 

Just like President Snow from the Hunger Games, Trump is using children to shield himself and get what he wants. This is no longer a, “I wonder what a dystopian future would be like.” situation we are there already. This is the Handmaid’s Tale. This the Hunger Games. This is Nazi Germany, and the trail of tears coming to fruition all over again and we’re allowing it. So, come November if you do not vote blue and later regret not doing so then it will be entirely your fault that this once great country will crumble and burn to the ground with only the ashes to left as a reminder of what it once was. Our founding fathers would ashamed of us and we should too. Have a little humanity and compassion but if you're not capable of that, at least know that your stance will follow not just you but your entire lineage till the end of time just like the Nazi regime was because you are most definitely on the wrong side of history.

[lucyllesheltonroi]

The Dark Side of Bitcoin

Though Bitcoin has many advantages – which we have discussed at length – some government warnings against it are not entirely unfounded.  

That is because there are criminal elements that seek to take advantage of all the excitement and media hype surrounding Bitcoin. For instance, there are cyber criminals who launch Ponzi schemes promising astronomical returns on investments. Only after their money has disappeared do people realize they were duped. Many governments are therefore running awareness campaigns advising people to stay skeptical and invest cautiously.

There are also many other ways cryptocurrency is misused:

Because of the anonymity and ease of transfer of Bitcoin, terrorist groups have tried fundraising on social media sites using their Bitcoin addresses. While this has not been very successful in the past, there is no guarantee that the terrorists won’t at some point succeed.However, it’s worth noting that one’s anonymity is restricted to the blockchain network. Once Bitcoin is converted to some other currency, one’s identity and transactions can be tracked via your IP address. And because every transaction on the blockchain is public, it’s very easy to track the movement of funds.

On May 12, 2017, a huge ransomware outbreak, known as the Wannacry attack, occurred around the world. This malware took control of the victims’ computers and demanded money in exchange for relinquishing it.While the ransomware used was not new, one of the distinguishing features of this attack was that the money was demanded in the form of Bitcoin. This incident obviously brought Bitcoin a lot of bad publicity. To understand more about ransomware and malware, check out this article.

There are many online scams that have led to people having their Bitcoin stolen. Typical online banking has several layers of protection, such as a password, two factor authentication, OTP, etc. But in the case of Bitcoin, one only needs to get a hold of a private key in order to completely empty someone’s wallet. Fraudsters steal these keys from people’s computers with keyloggers, Trojan horse hacks, and phishing attacks.Therefore, it’s important to protect your Bitcoin wallet as vigilantly as you would hard cash. Another type of scam is known to be carried out by certain online sellers: They advertise a product with a huge discount, and only accept Bitcoin as payment. Once the buyer pays, the seller ships a very poor quality product – or worse, nothing at all. And since Bitcoin payments are irreversible, there’s no option for recourse.

Another category of scam involves an ICO. Since the cryptocurrency market is highly unregulated, some people deliberately launch fraudulent blockchain projects. They promise some breakthrough innovation and convince investors to contribute capital. But instead of actually developing the project, they simply declare it unsuccessful and take all the invested money for themselves.Since it’s easy to declare bankruptcy, and investing always involves the potential for loss, there is very little that can be done to protect those who back these projects. There are many legitimate ICOs as well, but it can be difficult to differentiate between those and fraudulent ones. So if you do consider investing in a new blockchain project, it’s important to perform due diligence before opening up your wallet.

The Biggest Online Scam In History

Launched in Bulgaria in September 2014, Onecoin eventually became one of the biggest online scams in history, taking in more than $4 billion in just a few years. Onecoin turned out to be a Ponzi scheme designed by its founders, Ruja Ignatova, and Sebastian Greenwood.

Onecoin appeared to be completely legitimate with all the protocols and safeguards, one would expect. Coins were obtained through mining with Onecoin acting as a central network. The coins could later be exchanged for Euros through OneCoin Exchange xcoinx.

According to their YouTube explainer video, Onecoin had Know-Your-Customer (KYC) protocols in place to guard against money laundering. It also laid claim to being the first cryptocurrency with a monthly audit of its blockchain.

In reality, OneCoins weren’t mined using computer resources. Instead, their worth was predetermined by the scammers who programmed the coin to gradually increase from €0.50 ($0.56) to €29.95 ($33.68) in value. They even went so far as to award coins that didn’t exist to their members. Following a lengthy investigation, police determined that there was no true blockchain that was public and verifiable.

Other Implementations of Blockchain

Bitcoin was the first, and remains the most major implementation of blockchain. However, since then, people have come up with various other ways of using the system.

1. Cryptocurrencies

One way people have used blockchain is to create variations on Bitcoin. These often advertise themselves as better or enhanced versions of Bitcoin, and are collectively known as altcoins. Some of the major altcoins are:

Litecoin: Litecoin launched in 2011 and varies only slightly from the Bitcoin system. One difference is that it takes less time to generate blocks. Compared to the 10 minutes it takes Bitcoin, Litecoin generates a block every 2.5 minutes. This means that transactions are verified more quickly. Another difference is the hashing algorithm used. Bitcoin uses SHA256 for the proof-of-work algorithm, whereas Litecoin uses scrypt. One feature of scrypt is that it’s harder to create optimized CPU or GPU hardware to solve the puzzle faster, making the system more fair for miners. That said, today there do exist ASICS that can be used to mine Litecoin.  

Zcash: Zcash was recently launched in 2016. Like Bitcoin it provides secure transactions over a distributed ledger. However, Zcash is different from Bitcoin in that it uses a different proof-of-work algorithm (called zk-SNARK) and employs a different privacy strategy. In the Bitcoin system, the sender, receiver, and the amount of money being transferred are all public, whereas with Zcash they can remain private and shielded. By the end of 2017, Zcash had already crossed a one billion dollar market cap.

Dogecoin:  Dogecoin was actually launched as a joke in response to what some perceive as cryptocurrency mania. Its logo is a coin bearing the face of the dog known from the popular Doge internet meme. It is a complete replica of Bitcoin and offers no differentiation or enhancement, primarily because it was not meant to be taken seriously. Initially the value of the coin was extremely low. However, its value shot up significantly and it began taking on serious investors – recently reaching a two billion dollar market cap. The creators, unhappy with the fact that the coin had become the very thing it was meant to mock, eventually removed themselves from the project. Finally, the value decreased significantly when Ryan Kennedy, the owner of a Dogecoin exchange called Moolah, was arrested for fraud. However, starting in January 2018, the valuation started increasing again.

In late January 2021, Dogecoin’s value suddenly skyrocketed 613% in one week. This resulted in its market cap climbing 380% in just 24 hours – to $6.9 billion.

What was behind this sudden incredible surge? Dogecoin got caught up in the wake of the most famous stock pump and dump scheme in recent memory. In January 2021, an amateur stock trading community on Reddit called WallStreetBets (WSB) decided to take aim at major hedge funds by pumping up stock which the hedge funds had bet would fail. Through it’s subReddit group, WSB rallied enough supporters to target Gamestop and send that stock through the roof, costing the hedge funds a collective $5 billion. The shockwaves reverberated through the financial and political circles. Wall Street establishment called for immediate action, resulting in a lock on Gamestop trading.

Looking for another target for a similar move, WSB turned to Dogecoin. Unfortunately for Dogecoin, the new heights were short-lived. Within days the stock fell approximately 72% to $0.022. The stock would rebound once again in early February thanks to a single tweet by Elon Musk. When Musk tweeted a Vogue parody cover with a picture of a dog under the banner ‘Dogue’, the stock price shot up 50% within 90 minutes of the posting.

B. Non-currency implementations

As mentioned above, the blockchain system is applicable to more than cryptocurrencies. There are many other novel ideas based on the construct that are worth billions of dollars.

Ethereum: Ethereum is to applications what Bitcoin is to currency. It provides an infrastructure for apps to run without a central server. Like Bitcoin, it depends on nodes across the internet. In this case, the nodes provide the CPU necessary for an app to run.  In order to prevent abuse and to eliminate low quality apps, Ethereum requires that applications spend a currency called ether. The code developed in the Ethereum network is run by a software called the Ethereum virtual machine. Developers use smart contracts to develop the application, which are executed automatically whenever specified conditions are met. For example, one smart contract could be to automatically ship a product once payment is received. Ethereum apps are called DAPs (decentralized applications), and hundreds of them have already been successfully launched. Examples are apps that deal with digital signatures, prediction software, electric car charging management, and online gambling sites.

Ripple: While Bitcoin is intended for the public, Ripple is meant for banks and payment networks. Currently, banks employ the protocol SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), which requires the involvement of intermediaries. This, plus fluctuations in currency exchange rates often leads to transactions being delayed. Ripple enables financial institutions to transfer, settle, remit, and exchange payments in real time without incurring large costs. Although it has yet to be officially adopted, many banks have already begun using Ripple in trial phases. One important difference between Ripple and Bitcoin is that not everyone is allowed to join the network. The computers need to identify themselves and need permission to take part. In that sense, it is not truly decentralized or public.

As we have seen, there are some negative aspects of Bitcoin, and these should be addressed. However, that doesn’t mean we should abandon it altogether. Blockchain is a true innovation capable of solving innumerable problems. It is up to us to be wise and use it appropriately.

[mariacallous]

Just days after four Tajikistani citizens were arrested in connection with the recent terrorist attack at a Moscow concert venue, police began carrying out an increased number of raids on Russia’s migrant communities. Russian courts have already deported hundreds of Central Asian citizens, according to human rights activists, who also describe indiscriminate arrests and beatings. With what appears to be Russia’s largest anti-migrant crackdown in over a decade ongoing, many Tajiks are reportedly fleeing the country out of fear for their safety.

After the four suspected gunmen in the terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall were identified as Tajikistani citizens, Russian law enforcement intensified raids on migrants’ homes and workplaces. Russian security forces have already arrested thousands of Central Asian migrants, hundreds of whom were subsequently deported, human rights activist Valentina Chupik told Agenstvo. These are the largest raids on Russia’s migrant communities since 2013, she noted.

On March 29, the human rights group Department One reported that St. Petersburg police were conducting a large-scale operation called “Anti-Migrant.” City courts ordered the deportation of 466 people. The following day, Moscow police raided locations in the city and surrounding region, according to Agenstvo. In Belgorod, officers raided a mosque, while in Samara, police went to 2,080 locations, after which 105 people were deported.

The increase in arrests is also reflected in Moscow court data, which shows an uptick in cases related to violations of Russian entry regulations, reported BBC News Russian. A lawyer who works with clients from Tajikistan told the publication that “police are scooping up almost all migrants on the street, especially if they have Tajik passports.”

“Thousands of people are unlawfully detained, hundreds have been unlawfully deported, hundreds have been beaten by the police,” Chupik similarly told Agenstvo. According to her, law enforcement is indiscriminate in whom they arrest.

Chupik said the largest number of reported raids are in the Moscow region, Moscow city, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, and the Samara region. “The police are trying to pretend that they are actively fighting ethnic crime and preventing terrorist attacks,” she told CNN. “Actually, they’re robbing migrants. I have dozens of complaints about migrants being stopped by police, and [then the police] have stolen whatever they like.”

Tajikistan’s deputy minister of labor, Shahnoza Nodiri, said that many Tajikistani citizens are looking to leave Russia: “We get a lot of calls. These are probably not so much complaints about persecution; our citizens are afraid and panicking, and many want to leave,” she said. According to her, currently, more Tajiks are leaving Russia than entering the country.

On March 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was concerned by divisive rhetoric and statements such as “Russia is only for Russians.” “As soon as we begin to implement these destructive thoughts that everyone else here is a stranger, we will destroy the country,” he said.

[phgq]

Don't put too much faith in ‘assassin units’, Parlade to Reds

#PHnews: Don't put too much faith in ‘assassin units’, Parlade to Reds

MANILA – The Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) should not put too much faith in its "assassin units" or what they call Special Partisan Unit (SPARU) as its members are brutalized by the comrades before they were trained to kill and terrorize.

Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) chief, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr., made the comment in response to CPP founder Jose Maria "Joma" Sison's announcement that they have a basis to conduct armed partisan operations against Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) and its allied units who are allegedly targeting "unarmed activists and civilians in urban areas".

Parlade, who is also National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) spokesperson, said there is a very high probability that these assassin units would just surrender to government forces rather than carry out the missions laid out for them by the CPP-NPA as they were raped and brutalized by comrades.

He cited the case of 13 assassin unit members based in Southern Tagalog who were decimated by a series of surrenders before being able to carry out its mission.

"To supervise the training, the CPP through its ILPS (International League of Peoples' Struggle) network, imported a Fil-Am, Amado Khaya Magalit (Canham) y Rodriguez alias 'Allen'/'Glenn'  and sent him to Laguna and Quezon for the SOG (Special Operations Group) training.  Moving to Mindoro later, the Regional SOG training continued. Of the 13 who graduated last March 2020, five already surrendered to Solcom. Barely a month after training, last April,  Roldan Malucon alias 'Jandie' surrendered," he said in a statement Monday.

Adding to the woes of this particular assassin is that another one of them, a certain Eleuterio Serrano alias "Ritter" was captured shortly afterward while last May Felix Diaz Masong alias "Arjo/Rex/Asga" surrendered to government troops.

"This was followed by the surrender of alias 'Rhino'/'Jhay'. Last October Ankwan Rauyan@Fernan/Temyong surrendered and now alias 'Elsie'," he said.

One alias "Elsie", formally known as 21-year-old Mary Jane Ganay was able to surrender to government troops last December 27 with the help of some friends from the clergy, he said.

"Elsie", resident of Occidental Mindoro, was invited by one Daislyn Castillo alias "Tikya", reportedly the wife of NPA Platoon Leader Marjun Malucon alias "Warren", to attend her wedding when she was 16.

"After that, she was not allowed to go back to her family anymore. Atty. Maria Sol Taule of NUPL (National Union of Peoples' Lawyer), this is called kidnapping. She was forced to join the unit, took party courses and military training in Monteclaro, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro where the STRPC (Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee) was trying to relocate its regional headquarters," he added.

In December 2018, she was impregnated by an NPA identified only as "Zander", who was later killed in an encounter in Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro.

Two months after she gave birth, she was forced to join the NPA Platoon of alias "Kenjie" and was not allowed to take care of her baby. The baby was taken from her designated ward without her consent.

"Judy Taguiwalo and Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, this is another kidnapping of its worst kind!" Parlade said.

This, he said, is not the end of the abuse suffered by "Elsie" from the hands of the hands of the NPA as she was raped by her own platoon leader.

Aside from this, she was also demoted and meted a one-year disciplinary action.

"The victim was meted punishment? How cruel but yes. She was later sent to join the Regional Special Operations Group (SOG) training," he said.

These abuses, he added, are among the reasons why NPA members and their allies are constantly surrendering to government forces.

More surrenders, arrests

Aside from surrenders due to NPA abuses, Parlade said continuing military operations caused the neutralization of RSOG member Juanito Gonzaga alias "Rod/Jun" in Masbate. 

Last December 17, 2020, during the serving of a warrant of arrest to alias "Dads", Head of Finance of Sub-Regional Mil Area 4C in Baras Rizal, three members of the regional murder squad were killed: Niño Alberga, Jonathan Alberga, and Carlito Simon.

"Farmers? No, they were armed to the teeth with two M-16 rifles, one Uzi submachine gun, a caliber .45 pistol, and a revolver. The eight other members of Joma's death squad escaped, with one wounded," he said.

Ongoing pursuit operations by the military troops again encountered fleeing "farmers" in Puray, Rodriguez, Rizal.

"If they are farmers, I suggest that Cristina Palabay of Karapatan present the eight as witnesses to their being 'farmers'," he added.

On December 30, he said Philip Alcantara y Valdez alias "Joshua", Platoon Leader of the Regional SOG of STRPC, was arrested in Guiguinto, Bulacan for multiple frustrated murder.

"He did not resist, so he is alive. Now Tinay has to produce the bail bond of this high-profile terrorist leader. Won't you Tinay Palabay?" he said.

Repercussions

With these prevailing situations within assassin units and NPA ranks, he said how can these terrorist units implement their punitive actions, and should they continue, these will have repercussions in the international community against the CPP-NPA.

"The international community, especially the UN (United Nations) and EU (European Union) surely know the implication of CPP and Jose Maria Sison's annihilative order in the context of international humanitarian laws and conventions. Yet this fool and his colleagues in the NDF (National Democratic Front) refuse to admit that the CPP-NPA are terrorist organizations," he added.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

"Going back to his murderous partisans, how can Sison rely on them? After being raped by fellow NPAs, he expects his hitmen and women to heed? If they can't hit VIPs with that kind of sloppy training (and they won't) soon they will be asked to kill instead, ordinary activists just like what they did with James Durimon alias 'Jurros', who was ordered to kill 17 peasants in Panay,” Parlade said.

He added that they will soon assassinate lowly, genuine activist members of Anakbayan, Kabataan, Gabriela, Bayan Muna, ACT, KMU, etc but will spare the party members running it from Kabataang Makabayan, MAKIBAKA, KAGUMA, and RCTU that are found in the NDFP member organization website ndfp.org.

“Then what? Blame the government?" he said.

He said the Fil-Am trainor for Sison’s assassin units is now dead due to coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) while evading government troops in Mindoro. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Don't put too much faith in ‘assassin units’, Parlade to Reds." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1126507 (accessed January 06, 2021 at 09:06PM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Don't put too much faith in ‘assassin units’, Parlade to Reds." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1126507 (archived).

[newscheckz]

Isaac Andabwa: The Union Has Elevated Kenyan Guards Management Globally

New Post has been published on https://newscheckz.com/isaac-andabwa-the-union-has-elevated-kenyan-guards-management-globally/

Isaac Andabwa: The Union Has Elevated Kenyan Guards Management Globally

“Poor payment, treatment and discrimination of private security workers, having experienced firsthand of its worse,  made me come out of my comfort and use my intelligence, ideas and solutions to form private  security workers’ union that will spearhead and fight for workers’ rights.”

Being a man of his words and determination, full of experience in the private security sector, Isaac GM Andabwa, the CEO and founder of the Kenya National Private security workers Union (KNPSWU), believes that the private security sector plays a big role in both the local and international security.

Over the time, the son of a Chief who was crowned by Nabongo Mumia; has overcome the dark world of hierarchy, fierce power, cartel hurdles and test of life to form a very strong and promising Union that has given the private security officers new hope of life after serving as a security guard just like any other profession, unlike in the past where anytime they were subjected to humiliation, discrimination and poor payment without any reference.

KNPSWU has gained strong authority, trust and civilization to the Kenya private security sector that has seen it become affiliated to COTU (K) and Uni-Global Union to cement its power, hence giving workers more bargaining strength to speak for their rights, conditions of work and privileges.

Since its inception, the Union has achieved tremendous ground and achievements including hiring more than 100 workers, serving at different union offices, across the country.

The Union has set proper structures and facilitation that has enabled it register up to 200,000 active members out of possible 500,000 registered private security officers in the country.

Besides, through collective bargaining (CBA), the union has addressed the workers most challenges with their employers like improved working hours, over time payment, sick leave, annual leave, due process of hiring and termination of workers contracts, discrimination, insurance covers among other good terms and conditions of engagement, whose fruits will be felt as time goes and CBAs gets more effective, and progressive.

Nevertheless, the private security union boss says the journey of compelling employers to sign CBAs has not been easy considering that different employers with different financial strengths and muscles, conditions, clients and preferences employ his members.

“Achieving hundred percent CBA is not easy, and cannot be be achieved overnight, but I assure you, we are heading in the right direction considering where we started from up to now.

We just need persistence, patience and steady improving strategies.”

Insecurity and emerging tactics being used by terrorists, has created an urgent need to discuss and implement laws that will allow private security officers to be armed instead of using the renown “Rungu” and “metal detector gadgets” that will never enable them to confront any danger or terrorist(s) before receiving back up from other security forces.

“In most of time, for example in the case of Dusit2, private security officers (guards) were the first people to be confronted by the terrorists.

I believe if these officers were armed, they could have clogged the terrorist from entering the premises or even killed them before they caused severe damage.

Arming guards isn’t a security menace but beneficial to the country to enhance security.

In some developed nations, security guards are highly trained just like police and highly respected as well armed to tackle any threat that comes across.

This is what we want to see in Kenya,” Bro. Isaac suggests.

CEO Africa heaved a misuse fear factor of the guns if granted, but the Union boss insisted that through their regulators office, they will come up with measures and condition in which a guard can be given a gun to carry among other precautions and therefore there is no need to worry.

However, the suggestion has not gone unchallenged, it is facing opposition from some quarters who thinks the move is pro-reactive than a solution making which might not be the right solution to insecurity.

Only time will tell which way the Government will take concerning arming the private security officers.

Many people may think the vibrant Trade Unionist is a fresh guy in the private security sector, but Mr. Andabwa worked as a guard since he cleared his secondary education in Kakamega high school.

In 1998, Bro. Isaac joined US embassy private security team, after thorough training.

During his service at the embassy, he learned and gained a lot of experience both work wise and lifestyle, including differentiating the feel of working in the embassy and being employed by the Government as the security officer.

Also during this time, he witnessed many police officers abandoning the Government service and join private security service, because the US embassy was paying better at the time; about Sh. 10,400 basic salary compared to Government GSU officers who used to get about Sh. 3,400 basic salary per month without any allowance.

The same year, terrorists bombed American Embassy in Kenya where most lives were lost as well injuries witnessed.

After the bomb blast dark day, the embassy saw there was dire need to train and improve its security personnel as well and equip them enough to easily tackle any security threats.

Bro. Andabwa was among the lucky few security guards that were given trained by the US Security experts as an SDT specialist focused on detecting terror activities, disarming, detecting suspicious activities and objects, safety measures among other intensive security training that later has helped him so much in understanding security, its vulnerability, expectations as well finding solutions.

In 1999, Mr. Andabwa felt that his vast experience in the security sector and leadership gift, will go to waste if he will not do something to improve lives of private security officers who at the time were famously known as “watchmen”, something he felt was not only foul but job inequity that was meant to weaken security officers as lesser beings and useless; yet they were guarding and protecting very valuable goods, services and people who neither appreciated their job or did discriminately.

Same year, the Kenyan Guards’ Union secretary General post was contested. The post attracted 12 contestants of which most of the leadership contestants were drawn from other business sectors who knew nothing or very little about guards and their welfare.

Mr. Andabwa was among the contestants and luckily he was elected unopposed twice during the election by delegates, while still working with KK Security at the US Embassy.

Conversely, over time, greed and corruption saw the guards suffering swell with no one to hear or fight for them.

This devil appetite saw internal leadership wrangles as well guard’s trust to the union tremendously decreasing hence creating space to exploit the guards, leaving them at their God’s mercy.

Being one of the affected guards, Mr. Isaac decided to mobilize guards in the year 2006, against mistreatment and exploitation by the greed leadership which proved to be just money minting organization with no will to support and stand by the guards to better their lives.

Securiy Guards on their internal meeting

Upon registration of the new Kenya National Private Security Workers Union (KNSWU) for the private security officers, he was given temporary registration certificate that was strongly opposed both by the sector players and some few impunity beneficiaries in the government who didn’t like the idea that proved a big threat to their career and Union. By the time of registration, the company registrar Mr. William Langat was on leave and as soon as he resumed he immediately revoked the certificate awarded earlier.

Luckily, good connections from the former President Kibaki’s daughter, Miss. Judy Kibaki’s intervention saw them awarded the certificate once again in 2007.

This was his happiest moments that only lasted shortly. In 2008, KK Security, the company that contracted him as security guard, expelled him from his job that was the only source of income under the ground that he was using the position to campaign and do politics instead of concentrating to his job.

Things got more harder and hot when same year, he was arrested under allegation that he stole money from the guards kitty, but according to him, this was a move to warn him by ensuring that he will not contest for the union leadership.

He is grateful to God he was able to overcome all the hurdles and made it out stronger.

For the entire time after he was sacked, he remained jobless until he was able to secure a temporary where he was paid Sh. 300 per month.

A salary that was not able to sustain his family considering the city life where everything talks by money.

In 2010, Bro. Isaac saw the light of the day after hard work, pain and determination not to succumb to pressure, but give the best fight for a better tomorrow.

He took over the leadership and immediately embarked in making tremendous changes in the Union including disbanding a one-region branch based in Nyanza and replaced with new branches based across the country to ensure services are brought to the people on the ground unlike before.

This saw the Union gain more strength, support and trust from the members who are the private security officers. Also the same year, the union was affiliated to the country’s giant workers movement, COTU (K).

Since then, the rest is history. Over time, the Union is gaining ground across the country, fulfilling its agenda and mission to ensure private security officers gain more respect, justice, fair payment, treatment, over time payment, fair hearing ( in case of misconduct at work), insurance covers, leave and sick-leave among others.

, Isaac GM Andabwa, the CEO and founder of the Kenya National Private security workers Union (KNPSWU), during media address

At the moment, they have already recruited over 200,000 members out of possible 500,000 security guards in the country.

In addition, they are planning to come up with Kenya Private Security Training college where any person interested in security jobs, can join, get trained and equipped with security skills then awarded a certificate when they graduate; that he or she can use to be recruited as a private security officer across the globe.

This training will include gun handling, safety at work, workers job rights, job ethics, savings and empowerment among others.

The caliber of training will be something similar to Police College in Kiganjo according to the KNPSWU boss, with a Government accredited curriculum.

The Union has actively participated in agitating for reforms in the private security sector.

Through active partnership with like minded stake holders, the Union lobbied for the enactment of the Private Security Regulations Act of 2016.

The process was rigorous but ultimately H.E The President Uhuru Kenyatta accented to the act.

The Act establishes the Private Security Regulatory Authority, which will focus on offering regulations to the private security industry in Kenya.

MR., Isaac GM Andabwa, the CEO and founder of the Kenya National Private security workers Union (KNPSWU)

CEO Andabwa believes that the Authority will ensure sanity is restored in the murky private security industry.

He concludes that the battle ahead is still huge, in ensuring the Act is fully followed, and all the private security workers in Kenya reach their desired “canaan”.

He clinches his fist as a solidarity signal of the trade unionists, with the words “Pamoja Twasimama” signifying unity among all private security officers in Kenya.

[adhd-hippie]

[ID: Tweet by David Sugerman “I work in downtown Portland.  Let me be clear about somethings.  The city has not been destroyed. And the terrorists are wearing camo and riot gear. End ID]

I’ve said before Portland is my city.  It’s the big city that’s closest to me, it’s where I go to volunteer, to protest, and where I worked for MANY MANY years.  Portland is LOUD.  When we don’t like something we get LOUD.  That’s what the protests were and are.  People being loud, disagreeing loudly with the sustained terrorism of black people at the hands of white cops.

The violence and “destruction” was nothing, like literally nothing from 5am to about 6pm everyday it was business as usual, maybe a bit more graffiti, maybe some stores (that aren’t open anyway) boarded up, but generally speaking the city was operating as it always has.  Then at 6pm the marches would start and end around 11pm outside the jail house where protestors would throw things over a fence and generally just see how long it took the cops to decide they had sufficient provocation to start firing tear gas into a crowd.  That’s how Portland has been existing for the past 60 days.  We were not in danger, the federal buildings were not in danger, everything was fine.  It was just Portland using all of it’s Portlandness to bring attention to some issues.

What the presence of the federal troops are is an attempt by Trump to use his power to push the USA into a chaotic state where he can declare a state of emergency and start doing things that will push us into a fascist dictatorship. He’s using the excuse of protecting federal buildings (which weren’t in danger in the first place) to put a military presence in all democratic majority cities nation wide.  He’s LITERALLY stated that he’s targeting liberal cities.  He’s trying to bully liberals!  He’s using executive power to cause conflict and chaos in our city and he won’t stop here. 

He’s going to try this everywhere and if it carries on long enough he WILL disrupt the 2020 elections, he WILL prevent people from going to the polls, he WILL implement martial law, and he WILL push us into a dictatorship.  He’s doing EVERYTHING he can to make that happen and if you don’t think he is you’re not paying attention.

He’s attempting to incite fear, he’s trying to push cities into being controlled by federal troops, he’s allowing people to be “arrested” by unknown federal police, he’s creating a boogeyman out of liberals, he’s taking every opportunity he has to display power and control!

Trump is trying to create a fascist dictatorship with himself as the leader and astounding to me my home is the first attempt to roll out this new landscape of fascist America...

[photodustorg]

JAMES HUNTER: ONE COUNTRY, TWO SYSTEMS, FIVE DEMANDS

One country, two systems, five demands

In scenes reminiscent of Tiananmen square, students and fellow citizens resisted the oppressive force that is the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF). Once acclaimed to be “Asia’s Finest”, they serve the wishes of their People's Liberation Army (PLA) overlords. Not Hongkongers. Escalating police brutality only re-enforces a widely held opinion that all cops are bastards. Universities fortified, critical transit arteries shut down, and a united hatred for all that mainland China represents.

It’s November 2019, and the people of Hong Kong are not accepting violation of The Basic Law of Hong Kong.

Alex Chow Tsz-lok has died after falling from the third floor of a car park complex. He fell during a pro-democracy demonstration where police were accused of blocking much needed medical assistance. The following protest against police brutality saw a student shot with live ammunition by the HKPF. Drawing on inspiration from other revolutions such as Ukraine’s Maidan, the people of Hong Kong revolted.

After the Siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) that lasted 13 days, the police changed their stance from such overt applications of violence. In favour of a more subtle, harder to report on, arrest by an undercover officer.

The movement was ignited by the proposition of a bill whereby Hongkongers could be extradited to mainland China for being merely a suspect in a crime. The mainland court system has a conviction rate of 99%. This conviction rate is in absolute violation of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and kick-started the five demands:

1. Complete withdrawal of the extradition bill from the legislative process

2. Retraction of the "riot" characterisation

3. Release and exoneration of arrested protesters

4. Establishment of an independent commission of inquiry into police conduct and use of force during the protests

5. Resignation of Carrie Lam and the implementation of universal suffrage for Legislative Council elections and for the election of the Chief Executive

Currently, foreign journalists have been expelled from China, and on Mother’s Day 2020, local reporters were attacked during a peaceful demonstration, known as “Shop With You” where supporters gather in shopping malls to sing anthems such as “Glory to Hong Kong.” This type of demonstration is similar to “Lunch With You” that encourages office workers to join a peaceful demonstration, stopping traffic on main roads during their lunch break.

A major incident that underscores the distrust for police and their brutality is when the police stormed Price Edward Subway to disperse an authorised protest. Access to the subway was blocked, reporters removed and ferocious rumours and of death circulated. CCTV footage is said to be ‘missing’ and has not been released. If reporters were allowed to continue their legal work, the force's integrity wouldn’t be under such scrutiny with this incident.

This movement has not stopped. The movement will only stop once all five demands have been met.

Hongkongers - Add oil! Five demands, not one less!

Anxious, negative optimism. “Take my picture ‘cos after this; I don’t know if I will still be here.”

Ready

After PolyU was surrounded, citizens took to the streets in an effort to consume police resources and ease pressure on those trapped in the University. The bus was considered collateral damage.

At the back of the frontline, I see two young women console one another whilst expressing hurt and anger. Saline solution was much welcomed for their tear-gassed eyes.

Occupied PolyU has a designated front door with its own immigration, vetting those entering to ensure they’re friendly.

Frontline, Sunday, 17th November 2019. Improvised shields, swimming goggles and gas masks set the tone for PPE. Molotov’s persist as the defensive measure of choice.

 The road is somewhat clear as an armoured vehicle carries the controversial “Long Range Acoustic Device” (LRAD) towards PolyU. An LRAD delivers sound-waves so intense that they cause deafness. The use of the anti-terrorist LRAD is denied by HKPF.

Ever stylish, militant and resourceful. A front-liner observes the threat ahead as those in the background hold shields.

Strategic chaos. Debris forms a makeshift barrier across an internal road at PolyU. Protesters keep a lookout from rooftop vantage points and behind the demonstrator’s multitool, umbrellas.

Critical infrastructure. Protestors keep close watch over the Cross Harbour tunnel road.

A battle-ready archer helps a fellow citizen in preparation of the Hong Kong Police Forces assault.

Pacify the world.

Frontline, check. Molotov, check. Lighter, check. Upturned bricks, check. Let’s do this.

[fallencomrade-a]

Do you truly believe cryostasis was the best answer after Siberia?

          ✗ ✗┆T E L L  T H E  T R U T H             ☛  𝒶 𝒸 𝒸 𝑒 𝓅 𝓉 𝒾 𝓃 𝑔  ( 1 of 5 )

             in the event that Hydra’s asset begins to display signs of DISCORDANCE, immediate efforts need to be carried forth in order to regulate the rate / severity of DEGENERATION. proper actions ( dependent upon the severity ) need to be taken to correct unwarranted conduct. the asset should be immediately placed in cryostasis, which will negate disruptive behavior…

MAINTAINING HYDRA’S ASSET. SUBSECTION : EMERGENCY PROCEDURESFILE : #05.42

  HERR DOKTOR ,      

      — these disruptions are becoming more and more frequent. it is disheartening considering the price we paid to fashion him. 

                                                                             YOU   ARE   A   SHADOW.                                                                                       never to be seen.   never to be heard.                                                                                      П о н и м а ю ?

         The Soldier is a work in progress, Commander.            Upkeep is CRITICAL. He must be maintained. 

               [  du wirst es lernen…                   entsprechen, schmutziger hund.  ]

                                                       еще раз.                                                        еще раз.

                                                                                 you’ll KILL him if you keep this up.                                                                                    he  will  learn  to  be  SILENT. 

                                                       еще раз.

      All  that  effort  &&  research…                    ( his screaming is very distracting, nein?                    shut him up or i’ll remove his vocal cords, mein Gott. )         He  is  far  from  perfect.  

          H E   I S   A N   A B O M I N A T I O N .                   what a fucking mess. get him out my sight.                  this is your doing  ;;  your FAULT.                  COMPLIANCEWILLBEREWARDED.                  FAILUREWILLBEREBUKED. 

                                          does it hurt?  describe it, sergeant.                                                                     the   PAIN.    tell   me … 

                 there is nothing worse than the heat of the WIPE. 

                                                                   … does it hurt? 

                                                    еще раз. 

                           more.  increase  the  VOLTAGE. 

                                                                  does it?   Y E S . Good.                                                    

        MISBEHAVIOR will not be tolerated, soldat.                         DISRUPTIONS are unacceptable.                            DISOBEDIENCE is an affliction.                   — or have you already FORGOTTEN? 

                 DEFECTIVE  ;;  FLAWED  ;;  DAMAGED                  a  disappointment  compared  to… 

                       ERSKINE’S ABERRANT SUCCESS                               (  a  poor,  pathetic  imitation .  ) 

                        ZOLA’S   GREAT   VISION                              ”  the   fist   of   hydra  ?  “                                  he’s NOTHING but a puppet. 

                        THE RED SKULL’S PASSION                            so empty, aren’t you mal’chik?                                 zola  turned  him  inside-out                                 && the russians bled him empty.               secretary pierce, how shall we handle him? 

                      THE  CAPTAIN’S  “ GLORY “                       your work has been a GIFT to mankind.                           hydra’s  DOG   ;;   zola’s  plaything.                     karpov’s good soldat ;; pierce’s PUPPET. 

                          A   S  O  L  D  I  E  R   

                         СТОП!  HÖR AUF!  STOP!                             Ｎ  Ｏ    Ｍ  Ｏ  Ｒ   Ｅ 

   say the words!  shut him down!    REPORT! is anyone still there!?   what the hell happened out there? 

     asset,   report!   answer!      don’t! he’s hydra’s PROPERTY, you idiot.      he just went crazy, sir. completely beyond control.      he’s  M A L F U N C T I O N I N G .        he’s a RISK and a DANGER to himself && hydra.                         

BRAIN-FRIED && more trouble than he’s worth.        should just put a bullet into your empty skull and be done with it.   keep your opinions to yourself, rumlow.           he isn’t your mutt to control. 

     he’s acting out. AGITATED. resisting.      what   should   we   do? 

                       PUT HIM ON ICE.

                              sir, he’s unstable  ;;  ERRATIC.                             i need you to do it one more time. 

                               he’s  D E T E R I O R A T I N G .                       your entire existence is PROBLEMATIC.                       his continued use would be  I L L - A D V I S E D .                              he’s   all   we   have   right   now .                           WIPE    HIM    &&    START    OVER. 

     despite his grand ESCAPE from the binds hydra has used to control him, he is still not FREE. the tortured man turned WEAPON is a victim of deep-rooted conditioning. there is no way to bleed the poison completely from his body. their toxins will forever live inside of him, dormant ( on good days ), FESTERING ( on most days ), and FATAL ( at his worst ). overtime && allowed the chance ( the decency ) to grow, he may HEAL. he might even remember how to LIVE again, the idea of a normal, quiet life piquing the weathered man’s interest. — but this body of his, even with the bastardized serum, can only mend so much && time can only extend so far. the SCARS, physical, mental && emotional will eventually fade into less grotesque blemishes, but they will ALWAYS be a part of him. there is no escaping that truth. hydra lives, a PARASITE which breathes inside of him, a looming shadow which oftentimes ECLIPSES the man, awakening the machine. in everything he does ;; in everything he is - a PRODUCT OF DESIGN. implemented so that if their solider ever was to REBEL, he would unconsciously follow latent protocol ( instinct ) that would unwittingly leave him vulnerable and susceptible to RECAPTURE. 

                     he’s unstable ;; ERRATIC.                      he’s been out of cryofreeze for too long…                      PREP HIM.  WIPE HIM.  FREEZE HIM.                      PREP HIM.  WIPE HIM.  FREEZE HIM.                      xорошая работа, солдат.  AGAIN.                                    S T A R T  O V E R 

     noise.  movement.  choice  ;;  every action generates a ripple across the timeline. cause && effect. his presence lives in INFAMY ( your work has been a GIFT ). even without a NAME or an IDENTITY, his actions are felt throughout history. silent, except when ordered to create CHAOS. for seventy years, they used him to blow craters in the timeline, ripples surging into violent waves that nearly engulfed this world. his very PURPOSE as their asset was to incite chaos. hydra’s chaos had always been unique, however - SYSTEMATIC ;; every action, decision and hit serving a greater goal. he made noise, but only when they deemed it acceptable. unscheduled DISTURBANCES were not tolerated && had always been handled accordingly. 

                    W I P E   H I M .                     D E A C T I V A T E!                     s t e p  i n  s o l d i e r…                    A   G   O   N   Y                     ( ithurts.ithurts.ithurts )                     ORDER only comes with PAIN.                     ARE YOU READY FOR YOURS?                     

     a BRUTALIZED mind will eventually adapt ;; SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. it is against human instinct to welcome death. he had evolved in order to stay alive remain FUNCTIONAL. the wipes burned away memories, yes - but instinct survived and had been carried over. MUSCLE MEMORY ;; PROTOCOLS not to break or suffer. ( you know better, soldier. ) compliance will be rewarded. certain actions warranted CORRECTIVE IMPLEMENTATIONS. he learned if he was SILENT, if he complied, he need only experience the pain of activation. there is SAFETY in ambiguity. silence ( mostly ) went unnoticed && unpunished. — but DISOBEY, attract their attention and you FORCE their hand. disruptions were reprimanded with either the sting of a wipe or the vicious bite of cold sleep. the PRICE to pay for causing them such discourteous disturbances. these beliefs shaped him into the BEAST hydra demanded ;; conditioning that will follow ( HAUNT ) the poor man even after he shakes free from their shackles. hydra is a dying monolith, but their shadow still looms. their influence, their corruption - the results of their EXPLOITATION - continue to devastate. 

     his life ( what semblance he had managed to scrounge together ) in bucharest had been quiet ( SILENT ), mundane ( ACCEPTABLE ). another face in a crowd of many, invisible. some NAMELESS civilian, nothing more - without an IDENTITY, free to discover, to learn. he was neither the winter soldier nor was he james buchanan barnes. he is something different, someone in between. in the beginning he had struggled to stay alive ;; to stay afloat ;; to drift unnoticed, just another overlooked body. he had been LONELY ( is lonely ), tormented and confused, but he had been SAFE in his solitude, as were the people around him. there were no lingering impulses to kill ;; no BURNING demand for revenge. all the asset wanted, all he wants, is to feel SAFE. to watch, observe, learn && grow. he found his oppressed mind to be CURIOUS, a danger and risk he grew more comfortable admitting once he had a chance to stretch his wings. it was a SILENT confession. FOOLISHLY, he believed it might keep him safe. 

                     i   know   you’re   scared…                     &&   you   have   every   right   to   be.                         ＷＩＮＴＥＲ ＳＯＬＤＩＥＲ ＣＡＵＴＡＴ ＰＥＮＴＲＵ                        ＢＯＭＢＡＲＤＭＥＮＴＵＬ ＤＩＮ ＶＩＥＮＮＡ                      i   wasn’t   in   vienna.                      I DON’T DO THAT ANYMORE. 

     someone had used his face to kill a lot of people. ( as if he doesn’t have enough blood on his hands already. ) he had no explanation to offer steve - THE CAPTAIN - when he arrived at his doorstep, suited up as if anticipating a fight. ( that’s good. good strategy ). it wasn’t him though. he wasn’t in vienna. ( it wasn’t me. it wasn’t me. it CAN’T be me. ) but his voice had sounded weak ( DEFEATED ) even in his own ears. because he knew the TRUTH, and steve did too. IT DOESN’T MATTER. he was NAIVE to believe he could be anything else. his fate had already been sealed ;; the decision made - and suddenly he was thrown back into the world, the HEARTLESS terrorist capable of so much BRUTALITY. it was a LIE though. ( IS IT? ) 

                             i   didn’t   kill   your   father.                            THEN WHY DID YOU RUN? 

     the entire world was looking for him. hell, he had even managed to attract the attention of the avengers. suddenly every decision he made spiraled a chain of events he had no control over. his choices had been limited, each one COSTLY && not a single one promising and in that moment, standing across from a SOLEMN captain america in a breached, rundown apartment complex, freedom suddenly felt oppressive, like a CAGE. 

                    buck, stop! you’re gonna kill somebody!                           i’m  not  going  to  kill  anybody. 

     he didn’t RESIST when cruel hands pushed him down onto the gravel. he didn’t fight when they pressed their knees hard against his back, secured their magnetized metal cuffs around his wrists or pointed their deadly weapons at his chest ;; when they secured him in their CELL. it wouldn’t be long now… capturing him was the most DANGEROUS thing they could have done. hydra was still hunting him && his arrest had been broadcast. it would only be a matter of time before they would come to collect their property. they were everywhere and they wouldn’t leave him in a cage to RUST. his old friend was trying to help, james soon realized, vouching for him ( the MEMORY of him ) despite the damning evidence. what about a lawyer? steve had missed the soldier’s cynical, disbelieving frown, too busy staring down his CIA captor. surely, the captain wasn’t naive enough to actually believe — and like a light bulb flickering on, buck realized he recognized that tone. biting sarcasm. rogers hadn’t been asking a question. no, the mouthy punk had been making a STATEMENT. —some things never change. SENTIMENT had flooded his hollow chest. a single parting glance and james knew steve would do everything in his power to help his old friend.  ( — startling - this sudden swell of CONCERN. )

                          — but he is not JAMES BARNES.                       steve was only setting himself up to be                      D  I  S  A  P  P  O  I  N  T  E  D

     the INESCAPABLE TRUTH lies dormant, just beneath the surface, waiting to be released, UNLEASHED. this face is nothing but a MASK, pulled tightly over the decay && old bones hiding underneath. the face of a GHOST, whose memory he TARNISHES by simply existing. he saw the memorial in washington, the plaque made in HONOR of james barnes, with his face && history etched in the glass. he also watched as that memorial was vandalized after hydra’s files became public. people used what they could - cracking, scuffing and denting the memorial. TERRORIST spray painted across his name. the last time he visited the smithsonian, there had been yellow tape blocking his section, a sign which read UNDER RENOVATION convincing him it was time to disappear. steve wants to help him because he has the same face as a man he once knew, but he is not james buchanan barnes…  

               why don’t we discuss your home? - - - not romania. certainly not BROOKLYN, no.                  Y O U R   R E A L   H O M E .    HAIL HYDRA.  

                                      к т о   т ы ?

                                         you  are  NOTHING.                                          you are a WEAPON.                                           you  are  a  GHOST.                                              you   are  ——                          WHATEVER WE TELL YOU TO BE.   

                              Я ГОТОВ К ОТВЕТУ.

               — && helmut zemo PROVES this cruel TRUTH.                 in  the  worst  way  imaginable. 

                           желание                                  живой                                         –no.                     семнадцать                          рассвет                                     –stop                                печь                                 девять                                      – STOP!                        добросердечный                  возвращение на родину                                         please.                                о д и н                        грузовой вагон

                          freedom is a LIE.                 he will always be SHACKLED                  to the BEAST hydra birthed               from james barnes’ TORMENT. 

                     which bucky am i talking to?                        WHO ( WHAT ) ARE YOU?        SOLIDER. WEAPON. VICTIM. HUMAN. MACHINE.       SOLIDER. WEAPON. VICTIM. HUMAN. MACHINE.              — the left over SCRAPS of              too many SHATTERED souls.              — the nuclear SHADOW of a              life BURNED away.              — the gutted, hollowed out SHELL             of a man turned MACHINE.                  A  T R A V E S T Y                   A  T R A G E D Y            DANGEROUS ;; DEADLY.            oh god. i knew this would happen.           everything hydra put inside me is still there. 

     he thought … he could have ( choose ) a NAME ( my name is bucky ), a face, his own voice, his own life — away from the violence && constant, endless fighting. he thought if he tried, he could be something different. his own self, even if he had no idea who that person was. if he could only separate himself from all of it - but the winter soldier lives inside of him, fused && entwined, tangled together with the shredded remains of his TATTERED soul. there is no escaping it ;; he is UNDESERVING of such MERCY. not when he denied it to so many others… 

                                                  what did i do?                                                   E N O U G H.                           your old war buddy killed innocent people.                          people are DEAD.  i need you to do better…

     it was in that filthy auto-shop, rubbing the blood off his hands that he made the decision. he recognized the tremors of war, could sense it in the rigidity of steve’s shoulders ;; the hardened look on wilson’s fixed stare. hushed whispers and weary glances. his presence here had created a RIFT between friends && teammates, strained even heavier by the politics trying to police them. he sat there in silence, wondering if steve REGRETTED his choice, but still too much of a COWARD to ask. i’m not sure i’m WORTH all this… zemo had to be stopped. he focused instead on trying to RIGHT that wrong, minimizing the DAMAGE in the only way he knew how. more people would die if they didn’t stop him from activating those soldiers. 

                                                                             they all turn out like you?                                                                                     —  W O R S E 

     the scathing comment was not lost on him. wilson didn’t trust him && he couldn’t blame him for it. he didn’t trust himself either. i can’t trust my own mind. two years, a silent shadow and now he had a TARGET on his back. && it wasn’t just ross who had him in his sights. vienna, bucharest, berlin, his entire existence was screaming, BLARING - his movements tracked. he could feel the heat of their eyes, BURNING blisters into his skin ;; their HATRED and HORROR and DISGUST condemning him. ( it wasn’t me. it wasn’t me. i’m trying to make this RIGHT. ) he need not say a word. his actions had created enough NOISE. steve seemed to be his only ally, but his DEVOTION to the sergeant created tension between his new comrades. animosity that soon bled into all out HOSTILITY. 

                         you’re gonna turn barnes over                         && you’re gonna come with us                         NOW because it’s US. 

     US. sam was busy locating the quinjet, but buck was listening. there was a TIMEWORN connection he shared with the captain. undeniable no matter how hard he tried to BURY it. ( you’re steve. i read about you in a museum. YOU’RE LYING. ) james barnes found himself CURIOUS. he had learned that steve spent the better part of the last seventy years encased in ice, not so different from the soldier’s grim fate but unlike james, steve had developed relationships with these people. connections ;; alliances ;; friendships. a new TEAM. a FAMILY, one he was not a part of. the AVENGERS. bonds forged. bonds that were being tested. bonds that would eventually SHATTER ( thanks in part to him ). if only they had known that all of it was just some elaborate plan for the avengers own SELF-DESTRUCTION, maybe some of those bonds could have been saved. he, the WEAPON used to foster this FISSURE, used to irritate ;; used to rip open old wounds… 

                 i don’t know if i’m worth all this, steve.            it wasn’t your fault. you didn’t have a choice.                    i know.    — but i still did it. 

                            MISSION REPORT.  

                                         December 16th, 1991.                                            — please.  no.  i’m sorry.  

                                            HOWARD STARK.                                              male target. level four.                                              MARIA  STARK.                                    female target. civilian. non-combative.

                                                Sergeant Barnes? 

                                             — did you know?                                        don’t bullshit me rogers.                                            DID YOU KNOW?       

                                                                                                                        YES. 

     SIBERIA… god, what a mess. siberia had been a DISASTER. prepared for one fight only to get caught in another. every last one of them had played into zemo’s ruse, like rats clamoring through a maze. a turning point that would go down in the history books. any laughable thoughts of REDEMPTION ( heroism doesn’t suit you, barnes ) were quickly shattered, blasted into dust. ( did you honestly believe you could be anything else than what you are? ) 

                        DO YOU EVEN REMEMBER THEM?                                 monster. murderer. abomination. terrorist.                                 monstrosity. savage. villain. beast. pariah.                                                —  it  wasn’t  your  fault.                                                           i  still  did  it.

     the situation had HEMORRHAGED, spiraling quickly into violent CHAOS. stark wasn’t stopping and no matter what steve tried to do or say, nothing was getting through to him. the BETRAYAL that twisted his features bled into RAGE, and he ignited like a BOMB, determined to disperse the same SORROW && ANGUISH killing him onto everyone else. Go! Get out of here! …something OLD bristled inside of him. the weak voice of a dying man echoed inside the pulse of his heartbeat, making him pause and hesitate. not without you. — but he is not james barnes and surely steve rogers has realized this by now. 

     stark had attempted to separate them and buck likes to think it was because tony didn’t want the captain interfering and getting caught up in the blast. he was indeed angry with steve, but barnes was the TARGET, the catalyst, the PROBLEM. if he could just REMOVE himself from the equation ;; if he could d i s a p p e a r , fade away like black smoke against a dark sky, maybe this CATASTROPHE could still be salvaged. maybe things, bonds && friendships, could still be FIXED.  r  u  n  … why did you run? he didn’t blame stark, nor fault him for his RAGE, but when the man backhanded steve, something burst, like a dam breaking inside of him. james barnes ROARED to life with a vengeance. zemo had proven that despite his separation from hydra, the winter soldier still lived inside of him. steve rogers however revealed that pieces of james buchanan barnes SURVIVED as well. 

     it doesn’t matter though. it isn’t enough. he is a chemical compound of unstable minds - volatile, erratic, COMBUSTIBLE. he knows he is dangerous. unless they figure out a way to PURGE these triggers from his mind, he will always be a THREAT. — && honestly, after everything… all the violence, death and NOISE… would it not be better? would it not be easier? 

     stark had lost half his team, friends ;; his parents. these were CRIMES james could never fix, but if he was to disappear, never to be heard of again… maybe they could pretend… the avengers, steve’s team ( a FAMILY ) had fragmented, and despite steve’s attempts to conceal the hole this battle had blasted through him, the pain of it was clear in those sad eyes. his part in all this - it had provoked such devastating DISTURBANCES. he had breached into steve’s new life like a speeding bullet, destroying so many different pieces of the life the other man had created in his absence. ripping his team apart, turning him CRIMINAL, abandoning the shield. he’d been forced to leave his home. his friend’s were captured && detained. steve had lied to stark in an attempt to save him. he is a WANTED man, everything he stood for lost.  

           — && all barnes can hear in his head are their voices… 

                         your  entire  existence  is                          P R O B L E  M A T I C.                            PUT HIM ON ICE.               DISRUPTIONS ARE UNACCEPTABLE.                     PUT HIM ON ICE.  

                         he’s unstable, volatile.                         a RISK  ;;  a DANGER                     PUT HIM ON ICE.   

                       B R A I N F R I E D ,                        && more trouble than you’re WORTH.                    PUT HIM ON ICE.   

              he’s been out of cryofreeze for too long…                            F  I  X   H  I  M                      W  I  P  E  H  I  M                            еще раз.                           еще раз.                     PUT HIM ON ICE.   

                   he’s acting out.               what a fucking mess.                R E M O V E  h i m .                what should we do?                 it’s better this way…            how shall we handle him?                    …for everyone. 

            (   do you honestly believe cryostasis was the best option?   ) 

                              P U T  H I M  O N  I C E .  

                                         ❛  —— yes.  ❜                                    what other CHOICE did he have? 

        ——HERR DOKTOR?          i believe we are finally getting somewhere…