#Upcoming Conferences in Iran

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

WITHIN TEMPTATION's Next Single 'Bleed Out' Addresses Plight Of Women Fighting For Their Rights In Iran

Dutch symphonic metallers WITHIN TEMPTATION will release a new single, "Bleed Out", on August 18. The track, which was first performed by the Sharon Den Adel-fronted outfit in June at Hellfest in Clisson, France, addresses the plight of women fighting for their rights in Iran.

"I lived in Yemen when I was a kid," Sharon says. "My parents lived in several countries in the Middle East, and I've visited them a lot when they were there. Due to my time there, I feel connected to that part of the world. I've been so incredibly impressed by the bravery of the young women there who've been burning their scarves knowing they were going to be thrown in prison or worse. It's heartbreaking."

During a press conference at this year's Hellfest, Sharon spoke about the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for WITHIN TEMPTATION's upcoming studio album. She said: "We always try to evolve musically. And the things we're trying now [are] really challenging for us. The new album is gonna be quite different from what people are used to from us, I guess. It's old and new again, but we are implementing… We're inspired by new bands that are really actually doing a new sound now and trying to implement that in our music. And it's quite technical. It's a little bit more technical, the songs we're gonna release on the new album."

Asked whether WITHIN TEMPTATION would ever consider releasing only singles in the future or they prefer to stick to the album format, Sharon said: "Well, I think, if you look at dance music, and other genres sometimes as well, they only release singles. And I think they have an advantage and they have a disadvantage. For us, the reason that we wanted to [release several singles prior to the new album] is that you have a longer time spent for media to be talking about your music. Because a lot of times, when you bring out a record, it's, like, [you release] three singles and then you bring out the album, and then you have a media span of, well, let's say, a few weeks, and then it's gone. And now we try to drag everything out of you guys [in the media]. [Laughs] Because we've been working on songs also for such a long time, it is nice to have a little bit more media attention towards it. And besides that, I think with the singles, you can also write in the moment and then release it, instead of having to wait two years before it finally ends up on an album."

[jcmarchi]

UK Home Secretary sounds alarm over deepfakes ahead of elections

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/uk-home-secretary-sounds-alarm-over-deepfakes-ahead-of-elections/

UK Home Secretary sounds alarm over deepfakes ahead of elections

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Criminals and hostile state actors could hijack Britain’s democratic process by deploying AI-generated “deepfakes” to mislead voters, UK Home Secretary James Cleverly cautioned in remarks ahead of meetings with major tech companies. 

Speaking to The Times, Cleverly emphasised the rapid advancement of AI technology and its potential to undermine elections not just in the UK but globally. He warned that malign actors working on behalf of nations like Russia and Iran could generate thousands of highly realistic deepfake images and videos to disrupt the democratic process.

“Increasingly today the battle of ideas and policies takes place in the ever-changing and expanding digital sphere,” Cleverly told the newspaper. “The era of deepfake and AI-generated content to mislead and disrupt is already in play.”

The Home Secretary plans to urge collective action from Silicon Valley giants like Google, Meta, Apple, and YouTube when he meets with them this week. His aim is to implement “rules, transparency, and safeguards” to protect democracy from deepfake disinformation.

Cleverly’s warnings come after a series of deepfake audios imitating Labour leader Keir Starmer and London Mayor Sadiq Khan circulated online last year. Fake BBC News videos purporting to examine PM Rishi Sunak’s finances have also surfaced.

The tech meetings follow a recent pact signed by major AI companies like Adobe, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft during the Munich Security Conference to take “reasonable precautions” against disruptions caused by deepfake content during elections worldwide.

As concerns over the proliferation of deepfakes continue to grow, the world must confront the challenges they pose in shaping public discourse and potentially influencing electoral outcomes.

(Image Credit: Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street under OGL 3 license)

See also: Stability AI previews Stable Diffusion 3 text-to-image model

Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.

Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: ai, artificial intelligence, deepfakes, democracy, disinformation, elections, ethics, government, home secretary, james cleverly, misinformation, Society, uk, uk election, usa election, vote, voting

[in4newz]

Qatar Airways Suspends All Flight From Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in QATAR working on a new plan for Hamas to release the hostages and for Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza. Blinken also warned Iran 🇮🇷 from QATAR 🇶🇦 not to respond to Israel 🇮🇱 in the days to come.

"I hope Iran is getting the message very clearly, not just from us but from other countries, directly or indirectly, that any further attacks Iran 🇮🇷 engages in against Israel 🇮🇱 really risk fundamentally its interests," Blinken said at a press conference in Doha, Qatar on Thursday.

Blinken must have WARNED ⚠️ Qatar of the coming Israeli attack on Iran, as Qatar Airways announced that it is suspending flights to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon and is limiting flights to Jordan amid the expanding tensions ongoing with the upcoming Israeli strike on Iran.

Blinken: “We failed to convince Netanyahu. At any moment, events could happen in the Middle East that have not happened in the last hundred years.”

[swldx]

BBC 0422 15 Apr 2024

12095Khz 0358 15 APR 2024 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from TALATA VOLONONDRY. SINPO = 55445. English, dead carrier s/on @0357z with ID@0359z pips and Newsday preview. @0401z World News anchored by Neil Nunes. France is hosting an international conference on Sudan on Monday, exactly a year after war broke out in the northeast African country, leading to a humanitarian and political crisis. France is seeking contributions from the international community, and attention to what officials say is a crisis crowded out of the global conversation by ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. Sudan is experiencing "one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory" and "the largest internal displacement crisis in the world", the United Nations said recently. In a heated UN security council meeting called in the wake of Iran’s attack on Israel, Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan asked the Security Council to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation and to “impose all possible sanctions on Iran before it’s too late.” Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani also addressed the meeting and lashed out at Israel: “It is time for the security council to shoulder its responsibility and address the real threat to international peace and security,” Iravani said. The body “must take urgent and punitive measures to compel this regime to stop a genocide against the people of Gaza.” United Nations secretary general António Guterres urged restraint: “It’s time to step back from the brink,” Guterres said. The White House has warned Israel that the US will not participate in any retaliatory strikes on Iran, senior administration officials have said. The man who went on a stabbing rampage in a Sydney shopping centre appears to have targeted women, police say. Joel Cauchi, 40, sent the crowded Westfield Bondi Junction complex into panic on Saturday when he began stabbing people with a long blade. Five of the six people who died were women. Several others, including a baby, were injured. The upcoming Solomon Islands election will decide if Manasseh Sogavare, its combative, pro-Beijing prime minister can secure a consecutive term and entrench the Pacific island country’s recent shift into China’s orbit. Abortions in Germany should be legalised within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, a government-appointed commission is expected to recommend on Monday. While abortion is rarely punished, it remains illegal in Germany, except for specific circumstances including when a woman’s life is in danger, or she is a victim of rape, while the prerequisite for any termination is a consultation with a state-recognised body. Kazakhstan has evacuated more than 108,000 people since floods began in the Central Asian nation last month, its emergencies ministry said on Monday. Almost 5,000 houses remain flooded, a ministry spokesman told a briefing, although nearly 12,000 people have returned to their homes. Sir Salman Rushdie has spoken in chilling detail to the BBC about what he remembers of the attack two years ago, in which he was stabbed on stage. Sir Salman, who was born to non-practising Muslims and is an atheist, has long been a vocal advocate for the freedom of expression. But he warned it has become "much more difficult". "A lot of people, including a lot of young people, I'm sorry to say, have formed the opinion that restrictions on freedom of speech are often a good idea," he said. "Whereas of course, the whole point of freedom of speech is that you have to permit speech you don't agree with." @0406z "Newsday" begins. 250ft unterminated BoG antenna pointed E/W w/MFJ-1020C active antenna (used as a preamplifier/preselector), Etón e1XM. 250kW, beamAz 315°, bearing 63°. Received at Plymouth, MN, United States, 15359KM from transmitter at Talata Volonondry. Local time: 2258.

[nothingunrealistic]

Throughout the course of Billions, characters have conspired to take down their enemies with comically elaborate schemes. It’s only natural, then, that the series finale, “Admirals Fund,” hinges on one last con. With self-made billionaire Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) shaping up to be the next POTUS, longtime adversaries Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) and Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) work together to take away the one thing that legitimizes Prince’s candidacy: his wealth. As Prince goes to meet with the current (albeit unnamed) president at Camp David—a tacit acknowledgement that he’s the front-runner in the upcoming election—Chuck and Axe set about orchestrating his downfall. At the Southern District of New York’s offices, Chuck tells his staff that they’re now investigating six of the United States’ largest national gas companies for potential collusion with China, Russia, and Iran. Meanwhile, Philip Charyn (Toney Goins), who has the final say on all trades at Michael Prince Capital and has secretly soured on his boss, goes about putting all of the company’s funds into the natural gas sector. Once the SDNY’s investigation is leaked to the press as Chuck intended, the stocks crater and MPC’s risk-management algorithm sells all of the natural gas positions once they become worthless. (Since Prince doesn’t have access to his phone at Camp David, he’s oblivious to all of this going down.) By the time Chuck holds a press conference announcing that the investigation amounted to nothing but hearsay—thereby allowing the natural gas stocks to rebound—Prince’s entire portfolio has been wiped out. As for Axe, he ensures that his former Axe Capital employees are spared from the carnage by siphoning their money into a secret internal fund. In one fell swoop, Prince loses his throne. With that, Billions arrives at its own version of a happy ending: Chuck reclaims his dream job at SDNY, Axe revives his hedge fund, Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff) embraces a new challenge as the CEO of a telehealth company, and Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon) leaves the world of finance for philanthropy. (While Prince’s company is destroyed and his presidential aspirations are extinguished, his consolation prize is the $100 million he tucked away at Black-owned banks to secure Killer Mike’s endorsement.) Still, even as Billions ends, it’s hard to imagine these characters ever winding down—in the spirit of the show’s innumerable pop culture references, the action is the juice. Of course, the world of Billions isn’t going anywhere: as Showtime announced earlier this year, as many as four spinoffs are in development. (The working titles for two of these projects: Millions and Trillions; I’m not kidding.) With the Writers Guild of America strike only just ending—and the Screen Actors Guild still negotiating with studios—there haven’t been any meaningful updates on these spinoffs. But for the time being, series cocreators Brian Koppelman and David Levien are more than happy to break down all things Billions. Below, we discuss the challenge of ending a show with such a deep ensemble, what goes into executing a long con, and the celebrity cameos that could have been.

Good to see you guys again. Brian, I haven’t seen you since you kicked my ass in tennis, but I’ve been trying to work on my game since. Brian Koppelman: Yeah, how’s that been going, man? Actually, it’s been going well. I won a tournament in Brooklyn last month, but it felt very fluky. It didn’t have any heavy hitters in the draw. Koppelman: All deep respect to you, but I’m not optimistic about your chances against me.

[Laughs] Fair enough. First of all, congrats on the finale. When you guys started Billions, did you already have an idea of how long the series would go on for, or were you taking it season by season and assessing after that? Brian Koppelman: I think the only way one can think about this is: Do you think at the beginning of something like this, it sets up to be the kind of story you could tell over a long period of time? Do the characters have enough of a charge in them, and does the world suggest the possibility for enough conflict and story and resonance to the society that you’re living in? For us, the answers to those questions were yes, and so it was like, well, let’s try. Each season, you empty the clip. Each season, you try to tell the absolute best story you can—you don’t save ideas. That’s what David Chase said, and that’s what Matt Weiner said, and that was our approach. But we did it weirdly, we had the first three seasons and we knew, if we can do it— David Levien: The broad strokes were mapped out. Koppelman: So then as you’re doing that, you start to think, OK, two more seasons out, and two more seasons out. In a way, yes, we certainly never felt like more than seven seasons was the right answer. At a certain point, Billions watchers were not casual fans. They were people who watched the show more than once and really invested in the canted world that these characters live in. Getting that kind of response, knowing that if we had a character have an odd enthusiasm or interesting reverence, that there were a lot of people out there to catch what we were throwing, that really does act as fuel.

With a show like this, what’s the biggest challenge in landing the plane? My mind goes straight to just how loaded and talented the ensemble is, and trying to give every character a worthy sendoff. Levien: Yeah, that was a big part of it. We wanted to have a good resolution for so many different characters. Over the course of the final season, we wanted to revisit tons of guest stars, and then for the core group, we had a good amount of people that needed a moment. Also, a lot of different pairings of people that needed to have resolution. It was a question of balancing that valedictory stuff with wrapping up the plot in an exciting way, so that you weren’t sitting there, having stopped moving, basically for the goodbyes. That’s what we spent the most time on: balancing in the final episode how to unfurl the big plot moves, and filtering in all of the more emotional stuff.

The public perception of billionaires has evolved quite a bit since the start of the series—there’s more scrutiny, and even animosity. Did that affect not just your approach to the series, but how you introduced a new foil like Mike Prince? Levien: Yeah, I mean that totally informed it. When we started, we were very focused on these hedge fund billionaires who really didn’t like to be in the spotlight, and they didn’t really advertise that they were building anything for the good of humanity. They all generally did some philanthropy, but even that wasn’t super public. But then after a couple of years as we were into it, we started to realize that there was this new kind of a billionaire who maybe came from venture capital, or was an inventor, or in private equity or something, and they were bringing these ideas to benefit mankind and help everybody. Koppleman: But putting air quotes around [benefiting mankind], we didn’t find that credible. Levien: Maybe they tried, but the idea that by virtue of all the success, they had all the answers in every field, and that politics was a natural extension of that. So yeah, Mike Prince got introduced as this wonderful guy who had all the answers and didn’t even show you that he was competitive. Because he was so warm and cuddly, like a cuddly monster as he calls himself. But then as you spend more time with him, you start to see the darker hues that everybody gets alarmed by. Koppelman: But also, Miles, your question is interesting because it comes from a very particular point of view—of geography, age, profession. In fact, it’s not true, right? It’s true in the microcosm, it’s completely not true in the macro. I mean, look at Shark Tank and Mark Cuban in the world, and yes, one may decry Elon [Musk], but just go online today and say something bad about him. It’s interesting that you asked the question. I would ask you to actually probe that because you stated it like it’s a fact, but it’s a fact for a group of people who feel a certain way. Perhaps we’re in that group of people with you, who have a jaundiced eye toward that kind of power. But one of the things we learned in making the show was that in our minds, Axe was never the hero of the show. From Episode 6 of the first season on, we slowly reveal that Axe is essentially the kind of utilitarian who would let a guy die for a little more money and security. And we were shocked that the audience loved him even more. Levien: They thought he was a badass for that. Koppelman: We were revealing that, yes, this guy’s charming and powerful and charismatic and has great verbal skills and is a winner. But you—us—should regard him with huge amounts of suspicion, and a huge amount of awareness for the destructive power that’s on the flip side of all the gifts. At the same time, that’s when the country elects Trump—at the end of the first season, that’s when that happened. We were watching the culture in a wrestling match about this question. Perhaps for you it’s settled, but I don’t think it’s settled for most of America.

I guess I would counter that with the guild strikes. Obviously, it’s more specific to our industry, but the last time the writers were on strike, there wasn’t as much public support for it. When you lay out the facts for people, fewer will side with the studios and these wealthy executives. We don’t have to get into all that, and maybe it’s not a true consensus, but I feel like— Koppelman: That’s the media. I mean, fans of the show couldn’t help getting some kind of wish fulfillment thing going with Axe. It’s like Tony Soprano or Walter White. People might not get the right message from it. They might just idolize these people. Koppelman: I’m really interested in what we’re going to discover about these kinds of people. I understand why we all would decry them. I’m really interested in why they’re effective so we can learn from it as a society. It’s fascinating to explore it, for me, with curiosity.

Diving into the finale—hopefully it goes without saying that this is a compliment—but seeing all the characters and the way they orchestrated Prince’s downfall, it almost felt like something out of an Ocean’s movie. These long cons—and seeing how all the pieces fall into place—have been one of the show’s biggest calling cards. As the creative architects behind these moments, what goes into making a long con and executing it well? Koppelman: Imperfect information. Levien: To the audience. Koppelman: Right. The thing that makes someone good at poker is understanding how to look at imperfect information, and if you’re telling a story, it’s how to distribute information with holes in it that might lead somebody a certain way. You know, it’s this old [Quentin] Tarantino thing, where he talked about the challenge of audiences being so sophisticated. They’ve ridden the roller coaster so many times that they start leaning left before the roller coaster banks left. Quentin’s point is that, as a creator, you have to find a way to get them leaning left and then whip right.

One thing that struck me this season was the emphasis on self-improvement from the characters. For instance, Chuck chose to help Ira with the cellphone sex tape scandal instead of throwing him under the bus. Characters didn’t necessarily change who they were as much as becoming better versions of themselves. What inspired that shift? Levien: There has to be some kind of evolution. For some characters, they can change more. Taylor can take a stride and finally deploy money in a way that’s going to be philanthropic. For someone like Chuck, he’s not going to change completely elementally, but he can still take steps—small steps. That reflected a reality to us and yet it stayed true to his character. It’s an interesting contrast to Prince. The other characters are willing to acknowledge their flaws and work on them, whereas Prince can only choose to believe that he’s a righteous person. Levien: That’s something that we were working with, which is that the main characters ultimately looked at who they were and knew who they were. He was the one guy who was in denial, and that was his fatal flaw.

The characters on Billions have been driven by constant schemes to acquire more power or money—or both—and it’s hard to imagine that stopping just because the show is ending. Have you put any thought into where you see characters like Axe, Chuck, Taylor, and Wendy in five or 10 years? Koppelman: It’s real intentional what Axe’s last lines are. We don’t really talk in terms of statements we’re trying to make. But he’s someone with all those options in life, all those tools, all that money, all that ability to buy freedom, to have freedom. Yet the only place that he feels really alive is talking to this group of mostly men and saying, “Let’s make some fucking money.” There is something about that that we wanted to leave you with, and have you think about. We hope you’ll consider why that made you feel the way it made you feel. We watched [the finale] in a theater recently and [the audience] was cheering [for Axe], and it’s like, well, why? What are you cheering for, exactly? We’re really interested in that question.

One of the joys of Billions is seeing all the celebrity cameos, and this season you got the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Triple H, and Killer Mike. Are there any celebrities at the top of the wishlist who didn’t appear on the show? Koppelman: Tiger Woods was the only clean turndown. With Tiger, there was nothing we could do. [Woods’s longtime agent Mark Steinberg] just wrote back, “No.” We know from someone that Tiger watches the show and he likes the show. But the answer was no. There is one heartbreak, and we haven’t said this to anyone, but we were really close to getting the great Steve Harvey on our show. Really? Levien: He was extremely difficult to get to. Even considering all the people that we got, he was the toughest. Koppelman: We had a really special thing we’d written for Steve Harvey and we could never quite make it. Sadly, there was a scheduling snafu and he was on a Zoom that we didn’t know about, waiting for us. And you do not make a man like Steve Harvey wait. It’s crushing to us—we hope that whatever we do next, we can find a way to get Mr. Harvey to show up just one day. One day with Mr. Harvey and my entire life would be better.

Showtime already told me that you don’t have any updates on the Billions spinoffs. Instead, I’ve got a pitch for you guys: I’m thinking Maestro Scooter at the New York Philharmonic going full Lydia Tar. Levien: When Scooter gets the baton in his hand, he starts to become a driven maniac. Koppelman: I think you’ll understand, Miles, that under normal circumstances, of course we would welcome you into the writers room. But we can’t poach from Bill Simmons, and that’s the only reason. Otherwise, we would tell you to create that for us under our umbrella. But we have to close that umbrella because we’re under Bill’s umbrella. (Editor’s note: Koppelman and Levien hosted a Billions podcast with The Ringer during Season 5.) Of course, the separation of church and state. I understand. I just wanted to throw it out there, and obviously you’ll be hearing from my lawyers if Maestro Scooter does happen. Koppelman: I feel if you write this without acknowledging the tennis loss, you’re not including your bias in the piece. Levien: It’s going to be one of those profile-y things where it’s like, “Koppelman likes to bully about his tennis.” Wow, you had to bring up the loss again. Koppelman: I think of it as a win.

[summarychannel]

“The Dialogue Disaster” episode of the summary channel... Know the story from the beginning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sets red lines for Iran and Israel and reveals his next plan with Fox News The latest Saudi news today after the statements of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in his upcoming interview with Fox News about Iran and Israel

This new episode of Samri Channel returns to the latest developments in Saudi-Israeli normalization. It begins with the first meeting between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the latter came to power about 9 months ago. In the meeting, Biden affirmed the White House's continued support for the policies of the Jewish state in the Middle East, while promising to deprive Iran of possessing a nuclear bomb, and celebrating the new economic corridor that will connect India and Europe via Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and Israel.

On the other hand, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi said during a press conference held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York, that normalization with Israel is a stab in the back of the Palestinian people and a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

The episode also devotes a significant portion of its time to presenting the details of the televised meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the American network Fox News. Bin Salman confirmed the development of the issue of Saudi-Israeli normalization on a daily basis and under direct American auspices. He also stressed that Saudi interests alone control the decision to reduce oil production within the OPEC Plus bloc, while he pointed out Iran’s inability to use nuclear weapons if it possesses them by virtue of its entry into a conflict. Against all countries of the world that would reject such a step and its consequences.

#Saudi Arabia #America #Israel

[thegoldenstar]

PM Modi meets Xi Jinping on sidelines of BRICS

The two leaders also agreed to direct relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation, the foreign secretary said.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday raised the unresolved issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a brief interaction between the two on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa on Thursday.

“The prime minister underlined that the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas, and observing and respecting the LAC are essential for the normalisation of the India-China relationship,” foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said at a press briefing.

Following this, the two leaders agreed to direct relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation, the foreign secretary added. The two leaders were also seen shaking hands and exchanging courtesies after the joint conference of the BRICS leaders.

However, there was no official word on whether President Xi confirmed his in-person participation in the upcoming G20 Summit in Delhi. In Johannesburg, the leaders of the BRICS nations decided to admit six more countries to the grouping — Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The new members will become part of BRICS with effect from January 1, 2024.

“We have taken the decision to expand this forum. India has always fully supported the expansion as it will make BRICS stronger and effective,’’ said Prime Minister Modi while welcoming the new members. Earlier in the day, Modi held bilaterals with leaders of South Africa, Iran, Ethiopia, the UAE, Mozambique, and Senegal.

Russia will host the next BRICS meet in 2024 in the Russian city of Kazan. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the Johannesburg meet virtually. Putin faces arrest if he travels abroad following an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes.

Meanwhile, among the 94 points that were listed in the Johannesburg Declaration, there were mentions of seeking reforms in the UN, trade in local currencies, the G20 Summit and countering terrorism.

“We support a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more democratic, representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries in the Council’s memberships,’’ said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

No double standards on terrorism: BRICS The BRICS nations on Thursday rejected “double standards” in countering terrorism and vowed to work towards confronting the menace including cross-border movement of terrorists. The grouping called for expeditious adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism within the UN framework

[marwahstudios]

6th Asian Footvolley Championship: A Spectacle of Sportsmanship and Cultural Unity

Delhi, 20th July, 2023: The organizing committee of the much-awaited 6th Asian Footvolley Championship proudly unveiled the commencement of this exhilarating sporting event at the iconic Marwah Studios on the 20th of July, 2023. Anticipation is soaring as the championship, which has gained immense popularity since its inception, promises to be an unprecedented celebration of sport, culture, and unity.

The organizing committee, in partnership with ICMEI- International Chamber of Media and Entertainment Industry and esteemed stakeholders, is delighted to officially announce the launch of the 6th Asian Footvolley Championship, scheduled to take place in Delhi from the 19th to the 23rd of October 2023. This highly anticipated sporting extravaganza is already generating palpable excitement across the Asian continent.

Awe-inspiring in every sense, the championship’s theme, encapsulating the very essence of camaraderie, competition, and cultural exchange, is set to be revealed, adding to the fervor of the upcoming event. Comprehensive marketing campaigns are underway, ensuring fans from every corner of Asia stay informed and engaged.

Participation in this edition of the championship is being extended to a diverse array of nations, including India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Korea, Iran, Iraq, UAE, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, and Cambodia. The organizing committee has formally invited all these countries, fostering an atmosphere of global sportsmanship.

Footvolley has gained impressive traction in India, with over 22 states actively embracing the sport as members and participating fervently. This fervor is indicative of the rapidly growing passion and dedication to footvolley across the subcontinent.

The inaugural day of the championship, 19th October, has been meticulously planned to ensure a seamless initiation for all participants. It will be marked by a press conference and a practice camp, setting the stage for the exhilarating days to follow.

Sandeep Marwah President of Marwah Studios, the organizer of the launch event, expressed his excitement, “Footvolley is not just a sport; it’s a celebration of athleticism, strategy, and beach fun. Hosting the 6th Asian Championship is both an honor and a responsibility. We are committed to delivering an unparalleled experience for both the players and the fans.”

Adding to the fervor, Ram Avtar, the Footvolley President, remarked, “Footvolley is more than a game; it’s a symphony of skill, strategy, and spirit. With the 6th Asian Championship, we aim to elevate this sport to greater heights and showcase the true essence of Asian sporting spirit.”

Echoing this sentiment, Rajiv Kumar Rana, the President of the Delhi Amateur Footvolley Association, stated, “This championship is a testament to the growing popularity of footvolley in Delhi and the larger Asian region. We’re not just hosting a sporting event; we’re weaving a narrative of unity, talent, and passion.”

The launch event witnessed the presence of eminent businessmen, dignitaries, and sports enthusiasts, all eagerly awaiting the forthcoming matches and rooting for their favorite teams.

As the 6th Asian Footvolley Championship draws near, the organizing committee remains committed to making this sporting extravaganza a resounding success, fostering camaraderie, cultural unity, and unparalleled sportsmanship.

For further updates and information on the 6th Asian Footvolley Championship, please visit the official website at www. asianfootvolleychampionship2023 . com .

[conferencealertsnetwork]

Register your self with Conference Alerts Network and get a run down information of all Iran conference alerts 2021 before time runs out. We provide information on upcoming events happening in different location on different subject. For more details, visit our website.

[rjzimmerman]

What Tom Friedman is telling us in this New York Times Op-Ed is plausible. Some of the issues he raises are already starting. Excerpt:

Every so often the tectonic geopolitical plates that hold up the world economy suddenly shift in ways that can rattle and destabilize everything on the surface. That’s happening right now in the energy sphere.

Several forces are coming together that could make Vladimir Putin the king of Europe, enable Iran to thumb its nose at America and build an atomic bomb, and disrupt European power markets enough that the upcoming U.N. climate conference in Glasgow could suffer blackouts owing to too little clean energy.

Yes, this is a big one.

Natural gas and coal prices in Europe and Asia just hit their highest levels on record, oil prices in America hit a seven-year high and U.S. gasoline prices are up $1 a gallon from last year. If this winter is as bad as some experts predict — with some in the poor and middle classes unable to heat their homes — I fear we’ll see a populist backlash to the whole climate/green movement. You can already smell that coming in Britain.

How did we get here? In truth, it’s a good-news-bad-news story.

The good news is that every major economy has signed onto reducing its carbon footprint by phasing out dirtier fuels like coal to heat homes and to power industries. The bad news is that most nations are doing it in totally uncoordinated ways, from the top down, and before the market has produced sufficient clean renewables like wind, solar and hydro.

If you don’t have enough renewables but you want to go green, the next best thing is natural gas, which emits about half as much CO₂ as coal (as long as methane is not released in the extraction process). But there is not enough of this transition fuel to go around. So, everyone is scrambling to get more, which is why the European Union’s biggest pipeline gas supplier — Russia — is now in the catbird seat and prices are skyrocketing along with blackouts.

Don’t get me wrong. I am as green as ever. But I’m not a nice green. I am a mean green. Achieving the scale of clean energy that we need requires not only wind, solar and hydro, but also a carbon tax in every major industrial economy, nuclear power and natural gas as a bridge. If you oppose all those, you’re not serious about what scientists tell us needs to be done right now — put in place enough non-carbon-emitting fuels to manage the destructive aspects of climate change that have become unavoidable, so we can avoid those that would be unmanageable.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Global poverty rates to rise because of coronavirus (NYT) The World Bank says that for the first time since 1998, global poverty rates will rise. By the end of the year eight percent of the world’s population—a half a billion people—could be pushed into destitution, largely because of the wave of unemployment brought by virus lockdowns, the United Nations estimates. While everyone will suffer, the developing world will be hardest hit. The World Bank estimates that sub-Saharan Africa will see its first recession in 25 years, with nearly half of all jobs lost across the continent. South Asia will likely experience its worst economic performance in 40 years.​

About 7-in-10 U.S. adults say they need to take breaks from COVID-19 news (Pew Research Center) An earlier Pew study found that 87% of Americans are following coronavirus news “fairly or very closely,” but new research suggests that many are reaching their limits for news intake. A majority of Americans (71%) say they need to take breaks from coronavirus news, 43% say it makes them feel worse emotionally and about half say they find it difficult to sift through what is true and what is not, according to the new survey.

Is the United States still a party to the Iran nuclear deal? (Foreign Policy) When Washington wants to sanction Iran, it seems to think it is. The Trump administration is looking to its fellow members of the United Nations security council to support the United States in extending an arms embargo against Iran, due to be lifted on October 23. Under the terms of U.N. Security Council resolution 2231, the resolution that endorsed the Iran deal, any country can reimpose sanctions if parties are believed to be in breach of the deal. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has pushed back against the idea that just because the United States withdrew from the agreement it is excluded from enforcing parts of it. “Someone suggested this is fancy lawyering. It’s just reading,” he told a State Department press briefing. Pompeo also called on the European nations who were parties to the Iran deal to join the United States in extending the arms embargo.

Bolsonaro appointee blocked (Foreign Policy) Brazil’s Supreme Court has blocked the appointment of Alexandre Ramagem as Brazil’s new chief of federal police, saying that Ramagem’s close relationship with the Bolsonaro family put him in a compromising position. Bolsonaro had already been criticized for the appointment by Sergio Moro, who recently resigned as justice minister. Moro alleged that Bolsonaro had interfered with federal police investigations prior to stepping down.

Swedish authorities thinking outside the box (Foreign Policy) Authorities in the Swedish city of Lund have devised a novel way to ward off crowds for an upcoming day of national celebration: chicken manure. The Walpurgis festival is usually an all-day, alcohol-fueled party to celebrate the coming of spring, with mass gatherings and bonfires part of the fun. With no formal lockdowns in place across Sweden, Lund’s municipal workers will spread a ton of chicken manure in its central park to deter such revelry. “We get the opportunity to fertilize the lawns, and at the same time it will stink and so it may not be so nice to sit and drink beer.” Gustav Lundblad, chairman of the local council’s environment committee, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

Happy Birthday ‘Colonel’ Tom (Reuters) British World War Two veteran Captain Tom Moore, who has become a national hero after raising almost 30 million pounds for charities that help front-line National Health Service staff, celebrates his 100th birthday on Thursday with an honorary promotion and two military flypasts. Moore was appointed the first Honorary Colonel of the Army Foundation College, based near the town where he grew up, a position that came with the approval of Queen Elizabeth, the defence ministry said. He raised the money by completing laps of his garden with the help of a walking frame, having initially set out to raise just 1,000 pounds. That figure means he now holds the Guinness World Record title for the most money raised by an individual through a walk.

Pandemic Shakes France’s Faith in a Cornerstone: Strong Central Government (NYT) While France’s vaunted health care system has staved off disaster, France has suffered the world’s fourth-biggest death toll—now at 23,660 official deaths, behind the United States, Italy and Spain—a consequence, critics say, of the central government’s failure to anticipate the onslaught of the contagion. That failure and a critical shortage of masks and testing kits—also resulting from gaps in state policies—led to the virus’s rapid early spread, prompting France to impose one of the word’s strictest nationwide lockdowns, now in its seventh week. Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced a tentative plan on Monday to gradually reopen the country starting on May 11. But it was not clear that those steps would halt what polls show is declining confidence in the government’s handling of the pandemic. “Trust in the state has been eroding for some time, since the state is no longer able to respond to the need for security,” said Phillipe Laurent, the mayor of Sceaux and the secretary general of the Association of Mayors of France.

In lockdown, Swiss turn to snooping and snitching (Reuters) A mother checking on her ex-husband’s sexual habits to protect their asthmatic child; a retiree frustrated with a neighbour who talks loudly on late-night conference calls; a woman angry with a family downstairs for hosting large play dates. These are all client requests made to a Swiss private detective since the country imposed coronavirus confinement measures six weeks ago. Christian Sideris, founder of Seeclop, a six-man detective agency in Geneva, has refused all but one of them, urging his callers to seek other solutions in extraordinary times, but the requests reveal the mounting frustration of living together. “We have a lot of these types of cases because people are confined and on top of each other all day,” he said. Normally, Sideris gets between two and four requests a year for such cases. Since lockdown began, he has had two a week. The Swiss are known for complaining about their neighbours, often using rules designed to keep the noise down. These are rigorously enforced in Geneva, where 16th Century protestant reformer John Calvin banned instrumental music when he was in charge.

Greece Has ‘Defied the Odds’ in the Pandemic (NYT) For years, Greece has been seen as one of the European Union’s most troubled members, weighed down by a financial crisis, corruption and political instability. But in the coronavirus pandemic, the country has emerged as a welcome surprise: its outbreak appears to be far more limited than what was expected. As the virus spread across Europe, many Greeks feared the worst: They would be the next Italy or Spain. After all, the country’s health care system had been weakened by a decade-long financial crisis. And Greece has one of the oldest populations in the European Union, second only to Italy, leaving it more vulnerable to the disease. But the number of reported deaths and people in intensive care because of the virus in Greece has remained a tiny fraction of what they are in many other European nations.

Taiwan Emerging From Pandemic With a Stronger Hand Against China (Bloomberg) Few governments around the world are likely to emerge from the pandemic with a stronger standing than before. Taiwan is one of them—and that’s not good for China. Taiwan was forced to contain the outbreak without official help from the World Health Organization and other international bodies, thanks to China’s longstanding push to isolate the democratically ruled island that it claims as its territory. For weeks, leaders in Taipei struggled to evacuate residents from the virus epicenter in Wuhan, as Beijing rejected basic conditions such as having Taiwanese medical personnel aboard the aircraft. Around the same time, the People’s Republic of China flew bombers and fighter jets around the island, prompting President Tsai Ing-Wen to scramble warplanes. Despite those hurdles, Taiwan has led the world in its fight against the virus, with only about 400 infections and six deaths for a population of 23 million. By comparison, New York state—with slightly fewer people—had almost 300,000 cases and more than 22,000 deaths. Taiwan’s success against Covid-19 has shown that democracies could fight the virus without resorting to authoritarian measures, serving as a key rebuttal against Chinese propaganda showcasing the strength of its system against the West.

Packed With Migrant Workers, Dormitories Fuel Coronavirus in Singapore (NYT) Singapore has seen a surge of coronavirus cases among migrant workers, after months of successfully controlling the outbreak. As of Tuesday, coronavirus cases linked to migrant worker dormitories accounted for 88 percent of Singapore’s 14,446 cases, including more than 1,400 new cases in a single day. Many migrant workers live in packed dormitories on the outskirts of the city. These dormitories can house up to 20 people per room, making it almost impossible to follow social distancing guidelines. Migrant workers around the world have been among the most vulnerable groups affected by the pandemic.

Japanese Gangsters Say “No” To COVID-19 aid (Worldcrunch) Japan’s notorious yakuza—gangsters—have displayed a peculiar sense of civic duty in the face of past national disasters, having donated money to victims of the Kobe earthquake in 1995 and the 2011 Fukushima tsunami disaster. Now, Japanese news site News Post Seven reports that yakuza bosses are publicly declining the 100,000 yen ($940) coronavirus relief checks that the government recently agreed to issue to all registered residents. It’s apparently a question of reputation as much as magnanimity. “To put it simply, it’s not worth it taking a mere 100,000 yen if people then turn around and say that I’m profiting from the country during this state of emergency. If the story spread through word of mouth, my reputation would be finished!,” one unnamed leader of a major gang told Tomohiko Suzuki, a writer and noted organized crime expert. We must assume that the yakuza bosses also wouldn’t dare leave the house without wearing a mask.

Protests flare in Lebanon (Foreign Policy) Protesters are out in full force again in Lebanon, where thousands poured into the streets earlier this week to protest the sharp devaluation of the country’s currency, which has worsened a severe economic crisis amid the coronavirus pandemic. The protests turned violent as demonstrators blocked roads, razed banks, and attacked soldiers, injuring 54 military personnel. The turmoil has some experts worried that the country is on the brink of both economic and political collapse.

[eretzyisrael]

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN MARCH 4, 2020 22:43                                                               

With at least 50,000 people in quarantine, the Health Ministry on Wednesday expanded its list of restrictive orders, which will likely lead to thousands more Israelis going into home isolation. By some reports, as many as 100,000 people are currently in isolation.

“We have to understand, we are in the midst of a global epidemic,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a press conference, “the most dangerous of these epidemics in the last 100 years.”                         

He said that Israel is in one of the best positions of any Western country.

“We had to take tough, even very rigid steps to slow the spread of the disease in Israel, and indeed it did,” the prime minister said. “Today we will take similar steps, dozens more steps.

”Those steps include that a person returning to the country from France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain or Austria will be required to enter 14 days of quarantine. This restriction is retroactive and applies from the date that a person landed back in Israel.

On Wednesday, some 19 flights were expected to land in Israel from these European countries, which would put hundreds more Israelis in quarantine, Channel 12 reported. Many of them would not even be aware of the new guidelines upon landing in Israel. Moreover, no foreigners arriving from these countries may enter Israel unless they can prove that they have a place in which they can be quarantined for the requisite time period. Any foreign traveler who has been in Iran, Iraq, Syria or Lebanon for the 14 days prior to arrival in Israel will not be allowed to enter.

As a result of the travel restrictions, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Aviv Kochavi pushed off his upcoming trip to Washington.    

Healthcare workers are forbidden from international travel, and it is recommended that civil workers refrain from travel, too.

Israel will not host international conferences until further notice, and citizens returning from international conferences will be required to enter quarantine as well. Mass events over 5,000 people will also not be allowed, canceling several festive events planned for the upcoming Purim holiday.

Finally, the Health Ministry asks that individuals adhere to a strict personal hygiene and avoid shaking hands.

Magen David Adom reported that it received three times its normal daily amount of calls Wednesday following the Health Ministry briefing, and asked the public to call only if they have symptoms of the virus. All others should call the Health Ministry coronavirus hotline.

As a result of the new restrictions, the Jerusalem Municipality released a statement explaining that it is reviewing the precautions and determining how they might impact the Jerusalem Marathon, which is scheduled to take place on March 20.

Furthermore, a basketball game between Hapoel Jerusalem and Peristeri BC at Jerusalem’s Payis Arena was held without fans. Israel’s National Soccer Cup was also impacted by the announcement.

The press conference took place hours after it was determined that hundreds more Israelis are likely to enter isolation because a newly diagnosed coronavirus patient attended a soccer game at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv.

The Health Ministry said that anyone who entered through gate Seight and sat in certain sections and rows of the stadium should go into home quarantine, after patient No. 13, a high school student from the Brenner Regional Council, visited the stadium on February 24.

On the same day, the ministry announced that the Israelis who had been in home-based quarantine but voted at the Klausner Street “coronavirus voting station” in Tel Aviv were required to extend their isolation by another 14 days. This request came because “patient No. 15” was diagnosed with the novel virus Tuesday night.

Patient 15 returned from Italy on February 29 and had been in self-quarantine – except the hour between 10:15 and 11:15 on Monday morning, when he left his house to vote in the election.

One other person, patient No. 14, was also diagnosed late Tuesday: an elementary school deputy principal from Kiryat Ono.

Patient No. 13 and patient No. 14 both contracted the coronavirus at the Red Pirate toy store in Or Yehuda.

As a result of the student being diagnosed with the potentially lethal virus, some 1,500 high school students, teachers, staff members and even school bus drivers who came into contact with the student were asked to enter home quarantine.

Twenty-seven students from the elementary school have also been quarantined.According to the Health Ministry, all of the newly diagnosed patients have mild symptoms.

“All of the instructions provided by the Health Ministry have prevented the disease from spreading,” said Education Minister Rafi Peretz. “Schools and school principals are receiving clear instructions – we are not leaving anyone to deal with this on their own.

“The decision to put these students in isolation was made by the Health Ministry,” he continued, noting that the Education Ministry would continue to follow the Health Ministry’s recommendation “in hopes that these actions will prevent wider spread.”

Health Ministry director-general Prof. Itamar Grotto, who is currently under quarantine himself, posted on Facebook Wednesday to help inform the public about the spread of the coronavirus in Israel and around the world.

He said that there are currently more than 93,000 cases of the novel coronavirus worldwide, and more than 3,200 people dead as a result. Outside of China, there have been 13,000 cases reported and about 200 deaths.

“At present, the disease is declining in China,” he said, “but in all other countries, we are watching the rise and spread of the disease.”The disease associated with the coronavirus has been named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization.Grotto named South Korea, Japan, Italy, Iran, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland among the countries known to have high rates of the virus, but said that there are other countries about which we don’t have enough information, such as the United States.

“It is estimated that the disease is more widespread than reported, and we need to make decisions based on partial information,” he said, “taking into account the differences between countries and their readiness levels.

”Responding to an inquiry about whether people should forgo all travel or expect to face quarantine upon return to Israel, Grotto said that “travel to countries where an outbreak is already known should now be reconsidered,” and that one should reconsider any travel at all based on necessity and personal health status.

“Older people, over the age of 60, or people who have preexisting conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease or respiratory illness, are advised to take extreme care,” Grotto noted. “The risk for children under the age of 18 is actually lower.”

Among the many recommendations by the Health Ministry is that people who fall into the high-risk category should not have any interaction with people who traveled abroad or have any symptoms similar to those of the coronavirus.

The symptoms of the new coronavirus are fever, coughing and shortness of breath.

Grotto added that the possibility of one returning from a visit and being required to go into isolation is real and should be taken into account.“However, it should be noted, as there is widespread expansion [of the virus] in Israel, the risk of acquiring the disease in Israel will be no different than abroad, and the Health Ministry’s recommendations will focus more on guidelines within Israel rather than travel abroad,” he said.

“We believe that widespread expansion in Israel is inevitable,” Grotto concluded. “We are currently working on estimating the extent of morbidity expected, using mathematical models based on the knowledge we have on the subject from around the world.

“It seems we are looking at dealing with this for at least the next few months, so we need to preserve our energy.

”On Thursday, a conference will take place at Haifa University about the coronavirus. Participants from colleges and universities across Israel are expected to attend. They will receive an up-to-date overview on the world’s coronavirus morbidity and response, as well as review the Health Ministry’s guidelines.

The country has expanded the number of hospitals that can treat coronavirus patients. On Tuesday, Rambam Medical Center opened an isolation unit. On Wednesday, the Rabin Medical Center-Hasharon Campus in Petah Tikva and Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon also announced they were prepared to take in COVID-19 patients. The 15-year-old teenager – patient No. 13 – is being held in quarantine at Barzilai.

Until now, all patients that required hospitalization have been treated at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer.

On Wednesday night, Shimon Dahan, an Israeli who contracted coronavirus while staying aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, was released from the hospital. Dahan was the third Israeli to contract coronavirus while in Japan, and his doctors say he does not pose a risk to anyone.        

[is6621]

Is Facebook Letting Fake News Slide? -Katherine Kyrios

Recently, Facebook and Zuckerberg have faced controversy over their political advertising policies. During a hearing of the House of Financial Services Committee this past week, Facebook was interrogated by the committee about a variety of issues, ranging from Libra to political advertising and privacy concerns. During the hearing, Zuckerberg was questioned about his company's decision not to fact-check political advertisements while it does fact-check other types of advertisements. One incident that stirred the controversy was a recent ad from the Trump campaign that arguably spread misinformation about former vice president Joe Biden. Facebook declined to remove the ad, angering Democrats. Given the spread of misinformation during the 2016 elections, politicians are rightfully concerned about the effect of “fake news” during the upcoming election and the role that Facebook advertisements play in misinforming voters.  

So why is Zuckerberg holding political advertisements to a lower standard than other content on the platform? Many politicians accused Zuckerberg of profiting off of disinformation and suggested that the reason he won't remove political ads is because they offer a financial benefit to the company. Zuckerberg disagreed, responding that "the very small percent of our business that's made up of political ads does not come anywhere close to justifying the kind of controversy." In defending Facebook's policy on political ads, Zuckerberg stated that he believes users should be able to see and evaluate political speech on their own. He also shared that he believes Facebook offers an important platform for low-profile candidates and advocacy groups to share their messages. If Facebook were to ban political ads, it would ban ads that share information about important issues, including healthcare, immigration, and women’s empowerment, he argued.

Is Facebook protecting free speech or enabling fake news? Probably both. On the one hand, it could get messy if Facebook were to closely moderate candidates’ words, and the company could face accusations of making partisan choices about which political ads meet community standards. One could argue, what gives Facebook the authority to oversee political speech? After all, broadcasters must abide by the Federal Communications Act, which includes strict controls over broadcasters picking some political ads vs. others. Facebook is not considered a broadcaster, but perhaps the company should follow similar protocol. Moreover, I do think that if a politician is running a campaign based on lies, users deserve to see the information and decide for themselves. Then again, perhaps Facebook is not a suitable platform for political advertising. Sue Halpern makes a strong argument in the New Yorker about the differences between social media political advertising versus other forms of political advertising, and suggests that it may be difficult for users to see through political lies on social due to the highly targeted advertising capabilities:

Embedded in the First Amendment’s protection of political speech is the assumption that deceptions will be exposed and then rejected in the marketplace of ideas. In Zuckerberg’s view, Facebook, though a private company, is the public square where such ideas can be debated. But when political ads with false claims circulate only among the people who will be most receptive to them, there is little chance that the veracity of those ads will be openly debated. Social media intentionally bypasses the marketplace of ideas.  – Sue Halpern

Facebook has arguably contributed to the polarization in our current political climate by creating echo chambers, and I agree with Halpern that there is less room for open debate due to Facebook’s targeting and algorithms feeding one-sided information to specific users. Increasing polarization and lack of open debate has harmed our democratic process, and Facebook is partially responsible. Ultimately, given Facebook’s issues around data privacy, election interference, etc., it seems the company is in dangerous territory with political advertising. From a public perception perspective, it might be wise for Facebook to ban political advertising from its platform in order to restore some trust in the platform and mitigate concerns of misinformation and foreign influence impacting our elections. More importantly, banning political advertising from Facebook could help protect the integrity of our elections. That said, for better or for worse, Facebook is now a key news source for many users and plans to keep political advertising on its platform. It’s a complicated issue and one that will likely continue to come up during the 2020 election cycle and beyond. I’m curious what others think. Do you agree with Facebook’s political advertising policy, or do you think Facebook should fact-check political ads? Or, do you think Facebook should ban political ads altogether?

Sources:

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-problem-of-political-advertising-on-social-media

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/23/20929350/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-mark-zuckerberg-testimony-green-new-deal

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/10/21/20925872/facebook-political-ads-russia-iran-zuckerberg-press-conference

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/17/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-says-interview-he-fears-erosion-truth-defends-allowing-politicians-lie-ads/?wpisrc=al_news__alert-economy--alert-national&wpmk=1

[freedomisunderrated]

Elected officials have always had their reasons for wanting to end America’s recent unpopular wars, from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. Some cite broad concerns over blood and treasure, others focus on the geo-political and domestic consequences of prolonging quagmire and endless foreign intervention. Many are outright pacifists, they don’t believe in war to begin with.

Conservative Republican Congressman Walter Jones was the only lawmaker I can recall who turned on war out of profound guilt. Life-changing guilt, borne out of watching coffin after coffin return to his North Carolina district draped in the stars and bars and met with the white, blood-drained faces of mothers and wives, fathers and children. For anyone, such a scene—repeated as much as it would in a district that hosts one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the country at the height of war—would be devastating. But for Jones, a man of deep Catholic faith who had come to believe that the Bush administration lied to Congress to get its approval for the Iraq invasion in 2003, it was intensely personal. He wept openly and talked about it. There was no whiff of political contrivance or calculation. In fact, his pain was so visceral it was at times hard to look at directly.

Those of us who did look, saw a brave, brave man who chose the isolation of his peers in the Republican party over compromising his own convictions. Simply put, there was Walter Jones pre-Iraq vote, and Walter Jones, post-Iraq vote. The latter spent the rest of his life—until his passing on Sunday at the age of 76—working towards redemption and a future where America’s sons and daughters aren’t sent into a meat grinder for politicians’ senseless wars of choice.

He told me in 2009 that writing thousands of letters of sympathy to the survivors of dead servicemembers was in part, penance for his vote. “I think I have been forgiven, though all of those letters, I really do,” he said. In addition, he’d joined a small, but stalwart cadre of conservative voices against the wars based on moral and Constitutional grounds (including new interventions in Libya and Syria). He became one of the loudest voices in favor of invoking Congressional war powers, starting with a pair of unsuccessful bills in 2012. He worked across the aisle with anti-war Democrats, as well as tireless independent voices in his own party like Ron and Rand Paul, Thomas Massie, and Justin Amash. He sought, and became a friend and compatriot to activists and non-interventionist media like Antiwar.com and The American Conservative.

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“I would answer the phone and hear, ‘please hold for Congressman Jones.’ It made me feel really great,” Antiwar.com founder and editor Eric Garris told me last night. “(He) was a very sweet and principled man.”

Garris sensed that Jones was animated by his guilt over “sending soldiers to their deaths.” I remember his speech before the TAC’s foreign policy conference in 2017 where he recounted an anguished conversation at the airport with a young woman carrying an American flag folded in accordance with service members or veterans who have died. “It was so sad for me, Jones said, describing how he struggled, even after all of these years, to come up with words that did not sound trite or canned, to soothe her.

It was a lonely burden, this cross he carried. Republican hawks and neoconservatives were the most venomous in their spite and disregard. Just see how they sneered at Ron Paul in the 2008 presidential debates when he suggested that America was creating terrorists, rather than beating them, after bombing Iraq since 1991. In our upcoming TAC print edition, writer Bill Kaufmann describes how the party took away Tom Massie’s committee chairmanship and tried to sabotage his re-election over his anti-interventionist views.

In 2005 Christopher Hitchens, then a darling of the pro-Iraq War, called Jones a “right-wing big mouth…a moral and political cretin.” Years later, in 2014, “Wall Street billionaires, financial industry lobbyists, and neoconservative hawks” tried to unseat Jones (he was in his 12th term when he died), by bankrolling his primary opponent. Turns out much of the “dark money” funneled to defeat him that year came from a PAC called “The Emergency Committee for Israel,” headed by neoconservative Bill Kristol, with the suggestion that Jones’ war views, which have included diplomatic solutions with Iran over confrontation, were anti-Israel.

Daniel McAdams, who worked with Rep. Ron Paul for years on Capitol Hill and now runs the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, recalled to me a vignette that perfectly encapsulates the daily challenges that Jones met, always with fortitude and grace: It was yet another emergency evacuation of the Hill, very common around 2005. A plane had flown too close to the center of Washington—but it was ultimately a false alarm, and members started walking back to their offices.

“As it happened, I spotted Walter Jones walking back up by himself,” McAdams said. “While the other Republican Members greeted each other, walked a bit together, shared stories, and compared notes on the way back up the Hill, no one spoke to Walter Jones. No one smiled at him. No Member extended him that normal courtesy. They looked the other way.

“I watched this play out in astonishment. Again and again. Once Walter Jones exited the war cult he simply ceased to exist. A man alone, wrestling with his guilt, determined to make amends. There are few in life I have admired as much as this brave, decent, and gentle man.”

Jones was indeed a man who viewed every soldier a human being, each a fellow member of God’s family on earth. He loathed to think they were pawns, and died a little more with each of them, every day. There are few people left in public life, particularly politics, who will leave such a legacy for the rest of us to both measure up to, and mourn. No doubt he achieved his redemption.

[icymirss]

The whole conference is an own goal for the Trump administration. Instead of showing unity with its allies it now only demonstrates the depth or their disagreement. Netanyahoo's statement may help him to win some votes in the upcoming election in Israel. But the hoped for alliance with the Gulf Arabs is now as far off as it has ever been.

[timesofocean]

Tehran suggests Qatar most likely venue for Iran-US nuclear deal talks

New Post has been published on https://www.timesofocean.com/tehran-suggests-qatar-most-likely-venue-for-iran-us-nuclear-deal-talks/

Tehran suggests Qatar most likely venue for Iran-US nuclear deal talks

Tehran (The Times Groupe)- Iran and the US will likely hold talks in Qatar, mediated by the European Union, to close the remaining gaps in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal framework, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

An Iranian news outlet affiliated with Iran’s top security body, Nour News, argued on Twitter on Sunday that Doha has a better chance of hosting the forthcoming talks than other Persian Gulf countries since it is “working to resume talks on lifting sanctions.”

Iran and the EU broke a three-month deadlock in the Vienna nuclear talks on Monday after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkani in Tehran.

Top EU diplomats announced in a press conference after the marathon meetings that the next round of talks will be held in a Persian Gulf country in a different format from Vienna.

Washington and Tehran will hold future talks mediated by his EU team, he said, noting that the economic and nuclear aspects of the deal have been resolved and now it’s just a question of “political difficulties.”

“I don’t know if either side will be able to overcome its political difficulties,” he concluded.

A major dispute between Iran and the US stems from the delisting of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-linked organizations and the assurance that the future US administration will not walk out on the agreement again.

Neither the host country nor the exact date of the talks were specified by Josep Borrell, fueling speculation that either Oman or Qatar could be hosting the talks.

Last month, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani visited Tehran and held extensive talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, including nuclear negotiations.

The Qatari leader said his country has “always had a positive view” of Vienna talks and believes dialogue is the only path to resolution.

It led to speculation that the Qatari ruler was trying to mediate to break the stalemate in Vienna talks and unfreeze Iran’s frozen assets.

His trip to Tehran came a day after EU deputy foreign policy chief Enrique Mora held talks with Iranian officials in Tehran.

Qatar has yet to confirm that it will host the upcoming talks, according to the Iranian government.