#Website of The International Go Federation

[watermelllonarchive]

Updated and reorganized the resources post (pinned on my blog) but wanted to share in a separate post as well <3

Resources

To see the most up-to-date version of this post, see my pinned post.

A note on ownership: I don't own these videos. The creators of these videos want me to remove their content, contact me through DM and I'll do so. :)

1. Go Fund Me

I'm making a list of every Go Fund Me or donation link from accounts shared on this blog! If you have interacted with the posts or felt moved by the stories they shared, please consider donating to help them and their families. (Note: not all accounts shared on watermelllonarchive have GFM or other fundraising campaigns.)

Click on names to see their previous posts!

Listed alphabetically by first name

Abdallah Zaqout - GFM for evacuating his family (Link) Update: Abdallah was able to evacuate in March 2024, but his family remains in Gaza.

Abdel Kouta - GFM for Abdel (Canadian citizen) to return to his wife and kids in Canada. (Link) Update: Abdel has left Gaza. The GFM is still open to help cover living expenses.

Ahmed Younis - GFM to help him evacuate Gaza. (Link)

Amir Gharabawi - GFM to help evacuate his family (link) Update: Amir and a few family members have left Gaza. The GFM is still open to cover living expenses and safe passage for his siblings.

Anas Matar - GFM to help rebuild his home (link)

Ashraf and Aboud Almajaida - GFM to help them and their family (link)

Asma Al-shaikh- While Asma has evacuated, there is an ongoing GFM to help her family and fiance leave Gaza. (link)

Bashar Zaneen - GFM to help evacuate him and his mother (link) Update: Bashar evacuated Gaza in May. His family, including his mom, are still in Gaza and the GFM remains open.

Hasan Almoghani - GFM to help Hasan and his family in Northern Gaza afford food and necessities (link)

Hosam Soboh - GFM to help rebuild his home and business (link)

Kholoud Nassar - GFM to support her family in Gaza (link)

Mahmoud Alghrbawi - GFM to help evacuate his family (link)

Maram Alshurafa - GFM for evacuating her family (link)

Medo Halimy- GFM to support his and his family's evacuation. (Link)

Meera Asfour - GFM to support her family and help them evacuate (link)

Nadia Abu Shaban - GFM for evacuating her family (link) Update: Nadia and her family evacuated in May 2024.

Nisreen Shehada - GFM to evacuate her family who remains in Gaza (link) Update: Nisreen left Gaza in late March. Her family is still in Gaza and were scheduled to leave the day IOF took Rafah Crossing.

Nour Elhouda Musabeh (Nouur97) - GFM to help her and her family afford food and other essentials. (Link)

Rahaf Shamaly - GFM for her family to join her in Egypt. (link)

Sami Alsultan - GFM to help Sami and his family rebuild (link)

Shoroq Isawi- GFM to help her family evacuate. (link) Update: Shoroq evacuated March 2024. Her family is still in Gaza and the GFM remains open.

Tala Darwish - GFM to support her studies and evacuation from Gaza (link)

2. Actions

Contacting Representatives

Canada - MPs by Constituencies

CJPME tool to help call representatives

leadnow.ca script and tracker to call your representatives

Amnesty International

United States - Federal, state, and local representatives

5calls website to help call your reps

Action Network form to write to your representatives

USPCR advice and scripts for contacting congress

Jewish Voices for Peace

Need a script?

Humanti Project has some messages for emailing representatives, which you can use or take as inspiration.

Form letters and email campaigns

These links allow you to send a pre-written email. Just enter your contact information!

Jewish Voices for Peace (USA)

Congress: demand Biden reinstate UNRWA finding

President Biden: demand an immediate ceasefire now

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USA)

Email Congress: End the Gaza Genocide

Email universities: Divest now and stop repressing protests

Medial Aid for Palestinians (UK)

Email your MP: Protect Palestinians in Gaza Against Atrocities

Petitions

USCPR: Demand Biden and Congress Acknowledge the ICC’s Authority and Put a Stop to the Genocide in Gaza

Amnesty International: Demand a ceasefire by all parties to end civilian suffering

Buying eSims

Purchase internet access for someone in Gaza with eSims for Gaza

Daily Clicks

Arab.org - Watch an advertisement, and the money goes to the UNRWA. (View their quarterly donation receipts here)

3. Conflicts across the globe

While this blog focuses on Palestine, there are other conflicts that deserve our attention. Please consider donating what you can to one or more of the charities below, or share the links with friends and family.

Democratic Republic of the Congo 🇨🇩

7 million people have been displaced due to violence between armed groups and government. Millions more face disease, starvation, and continued violence.

Focus Congo - founded in 2016 by a Congolese refugee Pappy Orion who escaped the Congo during the first and second Congo Wars of the late 1990s.

Help Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo- This effort, organized and run by Women for Women International, supports Congolese women escape violence and recover through education, job training, access to doctors, and cash assistance.

Sudan 🇸🇩

Violence between opposing factions of the Sudanese security forces have resulted in over 8.5 million people being displaced and millions more struggling to access food, medicine, and safety.

CARE International Switzerland - CARE has been in Sudan before the current conflict and runs programs helping refugees.

International Rescue Committee - IRC has increased their ongoing efforts in Sudan and have launched new programs to address water and sanitation.

[seat-safety-switch]

How many years of your life have you spent hitting refresh on package-tracking websites? Does it make a material difference to your life whether this box leaves Chicago tonight, when you live absolutely nowhere near Chicago (people reading this from Chicago: please substitute for another distant city?) No, but we want to know what's going on with our shit. Maybe, just maybe, there will be an update, and we can imagine what life is like in the distant land of YUEN LONG INTERNATIONAL PACKAGE SORTING. I bet they have crazy ice cream flavours that we don't get here.

As you might expect, I buy a lot of parts for my hoopties. And, because those cars have been "out of print" for several decades, you have to get creative about where you get those parts. How did a crate full of Quadrajets end up in Vietnam? Not my concern, but as long as I can bumblefuck my way through a conversation roughly tantamount to "I give money, you give old machine parts," I'll get something in the mail that I can strap to my engine.

Will it actually be a Quadrajet? Probably not. Sometimes I accidentally bungle into a CIA dead drop. It's happened more than once that some creepy spies operating in another country send me a box full of top-secret microfiche instead of my car parts, which is always a pain in the ass because even after I throw it into the curbside recycling, I'm still stalked by federal assassins for a few weeks demanding to know where it is. Eventually, after dispatching enough of them using a combination of pure idiot's luck and living in a house stuffed to the gills with rusty and/or electrified garbage, I get to talk to a middle manager, who agrees to let me "off the hook," as it is. And then I still don't have my junk. Zero stars on eBay.

What is important is that these parts or microfiche or nuclear secrets, whatever they are, are sent with tracking numbers. Otherwise, I have nothing to ruthlessly push F5 on when I should be concentrating on something more important, like ordering more parts, or emailing foreign agents why my 318 poly heads haven't moved for a few hours. You better not have gotten captured and tortured to death again. This is why I paid for the insurance.

[didalexiabreakupwitholgayet]

https://www.relevo.com/juegos-olimpicos/futbol/athenea-suena-grito-jjoo-descuidos-futfem-20240724162743-nt.html

confirmation that the federation and the players didn’t give the olympics info for their profiles…so the olympics basically outed some players🙃🙃

okay, so relevo's sandra riquelme basically just wrote another version of my previous blog post. i knew we were on the same page! 😅

but yes, some key take aways from sandra's article:

neither the federations nor the athletes were aware of the information that was going to appear on the files on the official website.

the international olympic committee staff were in charge of making the recordings of the players names but not the editing.

laia aleixandri was asked why her voice doesn't appear and she said: "the truth is that it has been something, well, quite funny because i think we thought it was something that they were going to have to, in the end, identify us. the fact that it has been published is funny, in my case, because you don't hear anything directly." 🙃

the olympics haven't even started yet and shambles, i tell you! 😅

but the part in sandra's story about pulling from different articles and then making interpretations of what is and is not coming out is certainly concerning! not cool!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Damita Menezes at NewsNation:

(NewsNation) — A man who allegedly pointed an AK-47-style rifle through the fence at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach on Sunday, while the former president was golfing nearby, has been taken into custody, authorities say. The man, identified to NewsNation by a law enforcement source as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is described as a white male. He is believed to be the suspect who was crouched in bushes near the golf club perimeter, armed with a weapon equipped with a scope. Two backpacks and a Go-Pro camera were also found with the firearm near the perimeter from which the suspect had fled. Local authorities said the gunman was about 400 yards to 500 yards away from Trump. Routh was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, according to online North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg told NewsNation that the suspect was not previously on local law enforcement’s radar. Routh, who reportedly has ties to North Carolina and Hawaii, had made “bizarre” social media posts about Ukraine before the incident. Federal authorities have taken over the case, with Aronberg’s office standing down. The state attorney anticipates Routh will face charges related to domestic terrorism and weapons offenses, though specific charges have not been announced. At approximately 1:30 p.m. local time, authorities received a call reporting shots fired at the golf course where Trump was playing a round of golf. A witness told police the suspect fled the scene in a black Nissan and provided investigators with photos of the suspect’s license plate. Using that photo, authorities say they put out a “a very urgent BOLO (Be On the Lookout) for the suspect’s vehicle and plates. [...]

Routh’s social media posts

Social media posts allegedly belonging to Routh indicate he was a believer in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and he had posted that he had voted for Trump in 2016 but was disappointed with him after the fact, expressing support for Tulsi Gabbard in various posts. Records show Routh moved in 2018 to Kaaawa, Hawaii, where he and his son operated a company building sheds, according to an archived version of the webpage for the business.

In June 2020, he made a post on X directed at then-President Trump to say he would win reelection if he issued an executive order for the Justice Department to prosecute police misconduct. However, in recent years, his posts suggest he soured on Trump, and he expressed support for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. In July, following the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania, Routh urged Biden and Harris to visit those wounded in the shooting at the hospital and to attend the funeral of a former fire chief killed at the rally. Voter records show he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently voting in person during the state’s Democratic Party primary in March 2024. Federal campaign finance records show Routh made 19 small political donations totaling $140 since 2019 using his Hawaii address to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates.

Routh’s Ukrainian ties

The New York Times said it interviewed him for a feature on pro-Ukrainian foreign fighters last year. The Times said Routh traveled to Ukraine in 2022 to recruit ex-Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to fight for the embattled nation. Routh frequently posted on social media about the war in Ukraine and had a website where he sought to raise money and recruit volunteers to go to Kyiv to join the fight against the Russian invasion.

The 2nd Trump assassination attempt shooter was Ryan Wesley Routh.

Routh has expressed political views across the spectrum, such as COVID conspiracies, support for Ukraine and Taiwan, and backing of Donald Trump in 2016 before turning against him in favor of Tulsi Gabbard in 2020 and this year, a Vivek Ramaswamy/Nikki Haley unity ticket.

See Also:

HuffPost: Authorities Begin Probing Life Of Suspect In Apparent Assassination Attempt Against Trump

The Guardian: Who is the man reportedly detained in the Trump ‘assassination attempt’?

Axios: What we know about the suspect in the Trump golf club shooting incident

[intersectionalpraxis]

Heyo! As a Canadian, are there any particular ways we can help Palestine? Also, who are the companies actively shipping shit to israel?

Hello! Thank you so much for the question. I'd first like to take the opportunity to state that the federal government in Canada right now -the Trudeau Government -has been terribly consistent with supporting the IOF. For DECADES -since the creation of the settler state (which should not be a surprise to anyone, of course), Canada has a LONG 'diplomatic' history of being pro-Isnotreal. For folks who don't know/aren't aware, since we often hear about/talk about the US's imperialistic policies and actions against many communities around the world (which, again is understandable given the billions in military aid they give to Isnotreal and the sheer amount of militaristic aggression and violence the US unleashes daily to people they deem a 'threat' to their empire) -but I always remind folks to not forget that Canada is equally awful and problematic.

The Trudeau government, like many MP's across party lines, have supported the IOF and the Trudeau government has denied genocide 'allegations' against Isnotreal at the ICJ. Trudeau is also the one who advocated for a "humanitarian pause," after stumbling on his words a few months ago, and has, from time to time, 'condemned,' the IOF military for going 'overboard' when he trickles in his little empathetic 'we are so concerned for the people in Gaza,' while in the same breath saying the IOF didn't strike hospitals... (side eyes).

These are some recent examples (the first in June, and December of 2023, respectively) -which shows proof that Canada exports weapons to the IOF (but often through the US -the article below addresses this). Since you asked about about which companies are shipping to Isnotreal, the only one I can reference is CN Rail [Canadian National Railway] (which is where some protests have happened), but there aren't any other particular companies I can reference because shipments are done relatively in secret, so there's not a strong/direct paper trail, so to speak. this is an except from the first article below:

"Canada doesn’t normally release many details on defence exports to Israel or other countries. Since 2015, however, the largest annual categories of shipments fall into three categories: bombs, torpedoes, missiles and other explosive devices; aircraft, drones, aero engines, aircraft equipment for military use and electronic equipment; spacecraft and components." "A 2020-2021 study by the House of Commons foreign affairs committee obtained records that shed some light on the goods Canadian firms were seeking permission to export to Israel, including transport vehicles, circuit boards for Israel’s fleet of F-15 and V-22 aircraft and components for radios." "The Canadian-made components that go into each F-35 don’t show up in Ottawa’s records of military goods exports because they are shipped to the United States, where the aircraft’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, is based, and Global Affairs Canada does not publish the full value of annual military exports to the U.S."

It is very concerning how the Canadian government operates this way, and we should all be demanding more transparency about arms transfers to the US. Project Ploughshares, the research committee that they spoke about in the first article, is a resource I would look into if you want to learn more about this. They focus on "disarmament efforts and international security specifically related to the arms trade..." I've attached their website below. You can also access previous webinars, reports, and commentary on their page on these topics.

There were 2 successful direct action protests in Canada, one in Winnipeg and the other in Montreal, in November and December of last year, respectively. Both of whom were blocking railways in an effort to raise awareness about Canada supporting and sending arms to Isnotreal.

This also happened recently:

Now, what can be done on our ends? Plenty -sharing and creating posts about what is happening -and telling the world we won't remain silent on the genocide happening in Gaza.

This is the most updated BDS movement list for you to boycott companies and brands that either profit off of or indirectly support the genocide of Palestinian people:

Oxfam also created this small article about what we can do to help which I find is a great start:

Some of the actions include emailing the Prime Minister (they have a template for you to work with), and I wanted to also include emailing your MP's (Members of Parliament), to demand a ceasefire.

There is also a current petition in parliament right now you can sign -it's a demand to a ceasefire, and also demands an investigation into Canadian arms deals/sells in Isnotreal -and for more transparency into this, generally speaking (you can read everything the MP outlines below). This is open until February 19th, 2024. I may also make a separate post about this too:

There are some petitions on change.org I know people have set up, so you can take a look there of course. There is also a source that Oxfam links -they have a section of current events/resources where you can take action. The most recent national march for Gaza was in December 2023 (it took place in Ottawa, on unceded and un-surrendered Algonquin territory -Parliament Hill), and I am sure more will be planned for those able to attend/what is accessible to you.

I know this was quite long, but I hope this offers some direction and clarity, if not encourages more people to look into some of these topics and issues more deeply. Thank you once again for sharing this today. I will also be updating my page soon.

As always, free Palestine!

[clonerightsagenda]

Getting Involved Locally

Every time I see a post implying the only two politically relevant actions you can take in America are voting or not voting in federal elections, I tell myself I will make this post, so now I am finally doing it.

As an American, it can be frustrating and dispiriting to feel like we're being held hostage by our politicians while the United States continues to be one of the biggest forces for suffering on a global scale. This post is not about what we can do on that scale but instead suggests that, if you're feeling powerless and depressed about your national/international impact, you can take action on the local level. I got involved with a local activist group a few years ago, and we've been able to tangibly help people in our community, get genuine policy passed, and net some legislative wins. It's much easier to influence a smaller system, and a lot more rewarding than doomscrolling on social media.

Disclaimer: I am an American who lives on the outskirts of a fairly large city. This post reflects my experience and not everything in it may be applicable to yours. Take what is useful and leave the rest.

What's out there?

There are a variety of ways to get involved locally depending on your preferences. I'm going to lump them into a few categories:

Local government. City council, school boards, library boards, etc. Many of these orgs have open meetings and allow public comment. They're often sparsely attended and members are frequently elected by small margins, so they're far more likely to listen to what you have to say than federal legislators. Check out your home's website to see if you can find minutes and agendas to learn what they're discussing and how you can weigh in. Great choice if you want to develop a first name basis nemesishood with a local politician.

Volunteering. If you have low bandwidth and just want someone to tell you what to do, but would like to know your actions immediately benefit real people, volunteering gigs might be for you. Lots of organizations need help! Community kitchens, greenspace cleanups, giving immigrants rides to appointments, phonebanking, tutoring, supporting cultural centers, etc. Find orgs connected to something you're interested in and see what they need.

Organizing. Organizing involves long term work to build groups of people who can push for change. Outside of labor unions, there are tenant unions (renters pushing their landlords for better conditions) and groups organizing around a specific issue. (Off the top of my head, in my area I'm aware of multiple groups organizing around abolition/decarceration, minimum wage, environmental justice, transit, and reproductive justice.) These groups require more commitment, but that also means you'll have more input than showing up to volunteer for a nonprofit a few times a month.

(The group I'm currently involved with is organizing-focused, so if you're curious I'm happy to share more details of what that's like, I just don't want this post to be even longer.)

How can I learn about opportunities?

Word of mouth

Local government websites

Library, college, and community center bulletin boards

Local events (I tabled at a music festival last summer)

Protests and rallies

Local news outlets (might be covering actions, etc.)

Social media

Google (try 'mutual aid' and your location)

Start getting involved. I cannot express how much I've learned about the activist landscape in my city just from joining one org. Between partnerships, solidarity requests, etc., so many groups are now on my radar that weren't before. As I said before, I'm in/near a fairly big city, but you might be surprised by how much is going on where you are!

A note on self-interest

Something we talk about in organizing is self-interest. Why are you passionate about this cause? Why are you in this fight? Identifying your self-interest is important for a few reasons. First, it helps you convince other people to care. Second, it keeps you engaged. If you start volunteering out of a vague sense that you're 'helping', it's much easier to lose interest. If you recognize how winning this fight makes your life better, you're more likely to stick with it. I'm not saying you should only get involved in causes that immediately materially benefit you, but it's worth thinking about your personal stake so that you can return to that when you think 'ugh I don't want to get out of bed for this meeting'. You may have seen the quote credited to Lilla Watson and a group of other Aboriginal Rights activists: "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."

In conclusion

This is work. I've spent weekends in campaign retreats and driven 45 minutes across the city to make care packages. I am doing group projects and not even getting paid for it. But when you're frustrated with the state of the world, it's nice to be able to roll up your sleeves and make a visible impact on something you can control. It's also a great way to meet people irl who care about the same things as you and learn ways we can support each other when larger structures let us down.

As yet another American election season draws near with its avalanche of posts about voting, whether you intend to vote or post on tumblr about how much voting sucks or are a long-suffering non-American cursed to always see this shit, I challenge you to take a step* into your community and tackle a problem there. Who knows? You might even help solve it.

*Virtually if necessary. Many orgs try to be accessible. I attend many of my org's meetings on zoom!

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

A new solar power project that will break ground in the Mojave Desert, near two Kern County towns in California, will require thousands of Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) to be removed. The project is also expected to destroy a habitat for desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii), California’s state reptile and a threatened species.

The Aratina Solar Center project, developed by Avantus, is slated to span 2,300 acres in Boron, California and has already been revised once due to local complaints. According to the project website, the solar power site was redesigned to be better disguised from local residents.

But locals are still concerned about how this project can affect Boron and another nearby town, Desert Lake, in addition to the environmental impacts. 

A study on the project highlighted that the area’s soil contains fungal pathogens that can cause valley fever, and now, residents are concerned about how construction could spread these pathogens and other particulate matter by stirring up dust into the air.

“How are kids going to be able to play outside?” Melanie Richardson, a local resident and nurse who has children that attend nearby schools, told the Los Angeles Times. “So many people from our community were begging them not to approve this project, and they passed it regardless.”

The clean energy project, which is expected to power 180,000 homes — with that power estimated to be for wealthy residents along the coast, the Los Angeles Times reported — could also have lasting impacts on the desert ecosystem.

Landscape clearing is expected to begin today, June 3, according to an anonymous source that shared information with the Los Angeles Times. There are 4,722 Joshua trees on the planned project site that could be removed.

According to the project website, Avantus said the new solar project will “offset about 860,000 metric tons of carbon emissions every year, the annual equivalent to planting 14 million trees.” Kern County officials also told the Los Angeles Times that Avantus provided $1.4 million in funding for Joshua tree protections in areas outside of their development site.

Although petitions to protect Joshua trees under the Endangered Species Act in recent years have failed, the plants do have some protections under the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, which took effect in July 2023.  As the Los Angeles Times reported, the solar project was approved before the act took effect.

The desert tortoises, which are the California state reptile, have declined in population in the state by about 50% over the past 20 years, are considered threatened both by the state and under the federal Endangered Species Act. The species is listed as critically endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. The project is also expected to impact Mojave ground squirrels (Xerospermophilus mohavensis), a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act.

However, Kern County officials unanimously approved the new Aratina Solar Center, citing modifications, such as halting construction in the presence of desert tortoises and constructing temporary tortoise-proof fencing around the construction site, that would make any environmental impacts “less than significant,” according to the county’s Final Environmental Impact Report, which also addressed public comments concerned about the project.

[antiporn-activist]

The crisis in American girlhood

Stark findings on the pervasive sadness, suicidal thoughts and sexual violence endured by teen girls have jolted parents and the wider public

By Donna St. George, Katherine Reynolds Lewis and Lindsey Bever

February 17, 2023

When Sophie Nystuen created a website for teens who had experienced trauma, her idea was to give them space to write about the hurt they couldn’t share. The Brookline, Mass., 16-year-old received posts about drug use and suicide. But a majority wrote about sexual violence.

These expressions of inner crisis are just a glint of the startling data reported by federal researchers this week. Nearly 1 in 3 high school girls said they had considered suicide, a 60 percent rise in the past decade. Nearly 14 percent had been forced to have sex. About 6 in 10 girls were so persistently sad or hopeless they stopped regular activities.

The new report represents nothing short of a crisis in American girlhood. The findings have ramifications for a generation of young women who have endured an extraordinary level of sadness and sexual violence — and present uncharted territory for the health advocates, teachers, counselors and parents who are trying to help them.

The data comes from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from a nationally representative sample of students in public and private high schools. “America’s teen girls are engulfed in a growing wave of sadness, violence and trauma,” the CDC said.

“It’s alarming,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Thursday of the report. “But as a father of a 16-year-old and 19-year-old, I hear about it. It’s real. I think students know what’s going on. I think sometimes the adults are just now realizing how serious it is.”

But high school girls are speaking out, too, about stresses that started before the pandemic — growing up in a social media culture, with impossible beauty standards, online hate, academic pressure, economic difficulties, self doubt and sexual violence. The isolation and upheaval of covid made it tougher still.

‘Teens are really good at hiding it.’

When Caroline Zuba started cutting her arms in ninth grade, she felt trapped: by conflict at home, by the school work that felt increasingly meaningless, by the image her friends and teachers had of a bubbly, studious girl. Cutting replaced the emotional pain with a physical pain.

She confided in a trusted teacher, who brought in the school counselors and her mother. But Zuba’s depression worsened and, at age 15, she attempted suicide. That sparked the first of a series of hospitalizations over the summer and subsequent school.

Now a 17-year-old junior at a public high school in Potomac, Md., Zuba relies on therapy, medication, exercise and coping strategies. She started a mental health club at her high school to support classmates also struggling with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

At the lowest point of her depression, she said, she kept many secrets from her friends, parents and teachers because she felt stuck in her role: a cheerful high achiever who had it all together.

“My mom’s like my best friend, and there’s no way she would have ever expected it,” Zuba said. “Teens are really good at hiding it, which is really sad.”

Internalizing conflict, stress and fear

While the teen mental health crisis was clear before the CDC report, the stark findings have jolted parents and the wider public.

“These are not normal numbers,” said Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy. “When you grow up with this, I think the risk is thinking, ‘Well, this is just how it is.’”

The reasons girls are in crisis are probably complex, and may vary by race, ethnicity, class and culture. Harvard psychologist Richard Weissbourd points out that “girls are more likely to respond to pain in the world by internalizing conflict and stress and fear, and boys are more likely to translate those feelings into anger and aggression,” masking their depression.

Weissbourd added that girls also are socialized not to be aggressive and that in a male-dominated culture girls can be gaslit into thinking there is something wrong with them when problems or conflicts arise. “They can be prone to blaming themselves,” he said.

Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of the book “iGen,” said that increases in most measures of poor mental health in the past decade were more pronounced for girls than boys.

She said part of the problem is that digital media has displaced the face-to-face time teens once had with friends, and that teens often don’t get enough sleep. Adding to those influences are the hours teens spend scrolling social media. For girls, she said, this often means “comparing your body and your life to others and feeling that you come up wanting.”

That’s not to say everything that people do on smartphones is problematic, Twenge said. “It’s just social media in general and internet use show the strongest correlations with depression,” she said.

Ben Handrich, a school counselor at South Salem High School in Salem, Ore., said teen girls often feel that “people are watching them — that no matter what they do, there’s this invisible audience judging their movements, their actions, the way they smile, the way they eat.”

Lisa Damour, a clinical psychologist and author of “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers,” said it’s important to note that the CDC data was collected in the fall of 2021, a time when many teens were anxious about returning to in-person school and wearing masks.

“Teenagers were miserable,” Damour said. “It absolutely confirms what we were looking at clinically at that time. We don’t know what the next wave of data will tell us.”

Damour noted that the CDC findings are distressing because today’s teens, in many ways, are in better physical health and more risk-averse than most previous generations.

“We’re raising the best-behaved generation of teenagers on record,” said Damour. “They drive with seat belts, they smoke less, they have less sex, they wear helmets. They do all these things that we did not do.”

And yet they are in crisis.

Whistles and ‘gross comments’

Many girls across the country describe teen cultures of casual slut-shaming, of peers greeting girls with sexist slurs such as “whore” or “ho,” based on what they wear or how they look.

In Los Angeles, Elida Mejia Elias says it’s a no-win situation. “If you’re skinny, they judge you for being skinny and if you’re fat, they judge you for being fat,” explains the 18-year-old, a senior.

In ninth grade, a friend of Mejia Elias’s sent a naked picture of herself to a boy she was dating, at his urging, and he spread it around to his friends. “Everyone was talking bad about her. They were calling her names, like ‘ho,’” said Mejia Elias. “That affected her mental health. She needed to get therapy.”

In Maryland, at her Bethesda public high school, 14-year-old Tulip Kaya said that girls in her friend group hear whistles or “gross comments” about their breasts and are texted unsolicited penis pictures by boys at school. “If there’s anything slightly unique about you, you’re not going to have a fun time, and you will be targeted,” she said.

Social media can be overwhelming. “On Snapchat and TikTok, you see all these pretty girls with tiny waists and a big bottom. I know I’m only 14, but it makes me feel like there’s something wrong with myself,” Kaya said. “When I start to feel like that, I will delete the app for a little while.”

Girls interviewed by The Post expressed uncertainty and self-doubt over everything from what to wear, what to post or comment on social media, what it meant if someone wasn’t following them back on a social platform, and even in daily interactions. When in-person school resumed, during the fall of 2021 for many, routine encounters and moments felt weird after a year or more of separation from peers.

“Sometimes I don’t want to wear shorts because I don’t have the body type I had in middle school,” said Leilah Villegas, of Eastvale, Calif., who ran track before the pandemic. Now in 10th grade, she’s started running again, but her changed body brings pangs of self-consciousness.

Aanika Arjumand, 16, from Gaithersburg, Md., who sits on her county’s Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, said she was not surprised by the increases in sexual violence.

“We deal with a lot of cases on like teen dating violence and kind of informing schools about teen dating violence because the health curriculum right now basically does not cover abuse or sexual violence as much as it should,” she said.

School itself can sometimes be physically unsafe, as happened with Harker, a 13-year-old in Savannah, Ga., who spoke on the condition that her full name not be used because of the sensitivity of the issue.

At school, she received unwanted attention from a boy in sixth grade. He would whisper in her ears and grab her shoulders. Once, he seized her across her chest and did not release her until she screamed. A teacher was nearby, but she said the boy went unpunished and remained in her classes. The teen has resorted to learning at home.

“They didn’t believe me even though there were witnesses,” she said. “A boy in school can get away with something, but if I do one mess-up, I get called out for it.

Unrealistic beauty standards and financial pressure

At the Bronx High School of Science in New York, 17-year-old Najiha Uddin talks about a White beauty standard perpetuated in mainstream and social media, which she says girls of color can’t possibly meet. She and others describe status-oriented peers and media messages about shoes, clothes, styles and experiences that outstrip their families’ means.

For Montanna Norman, 18, a senior at a private high school in Washington during the fall of 2021, the killing of unarmed Black men by police was foremost in her mind after the murder of George Floyd. At the time she was the co-leader of her school’s Black Student Union. “The toll that that took on my mental health was a lot,” she said.

Some of her friends have contemplated, or attempted, suicide, Norman said. “You wish you could do more to help,” she said.

Garvey Mortley, a 14-year-old in Bethesda, Md., who is Black, said she has been teased because of her hair and still feels microaggressions. “Racism can be a stressor for depression or a cause of depression because of the bullying that happens, not just Black kids but Asian kids and Hispanic kids who feel they are unwanted,” she said.

Students who are LGBTQ face some of the highest rates of depressive symptoms and sexual violence, including rape. In 2021, nearly 1 in 4 reported an attempt to take their life.

Rivka Vizcardo-Lichter, a student activist in Virginia, pointed out that high school is a time when many LGBTQ students are still figuring out who they are and solidifying their identity. “Even if you have an accepting environment around you, you are aware that there are millions of people who don’t want you to exist,” she said.

Waking up to a nightmare

Some of the most alarming data collected by the CDC involved the rise in suicidal thoughts among teen girls — 24 percent of teen girls have made a plan for suicide while 13 percent have attempted it, almost twice the rate for boys.

Rich and Trinna Walker, from New Albany, Ind., searched for a therapist for their 13-year-old daughter Ella but struggled to find one in the overloaded mental health-care system during the pandemic. Once Ella finally started treatment, however, her demeanor seemed to improve, they said.

“I really felt like she was doing so much better,” Trinna Walker said. Ella had been asking her dad how she could earn extra money to buy a birthday gift for her sister. She told her mom she wanted doughnuts for breakfast.

“Then we woke up to a nightmare the next morning,” Trinna said.

Ella died by suicide on Jan. 22, 2022. Her parents said they wish someone would have alerted them to the warning signs. Unknown to them, Ella was being bullied, and she was devastated by a breakup, they said.

Now the couple is urging teens to speak up when their peers are in trouble. “It was like a bomb going off,” Rich Walker said. “It’s like it mortally wounded my wife and me and Ella’s two older sisters, and then it reverberated outwardly to her friends.”

Listen to girls

Many of the girls interviewed for this story asked that adults listen to and believe girls, and stop dismissing their concerns as drama. “Adults don’t get all the pressure that teenage girls have to deal with, from appearance to the way they act to how smart they are, to the things they do,” said Villegas, the Eastvale 10th-grader. “It can be very overwhelming.”

Asma Tibta, a 10th-grader in Fairfax County, Va., said she is “close friends” with her mother but doesn’t talk about mental health at home. “I haven’t told her too much. And I don’t plan to.”

In Savannah, Harker took a break from playing “Roblox” with her friend to be interviewed. Before heading back to the game, she had one request: “I want adults to believe young girls.”

They covered every possible angle and factor, except one.

[stateofsport211]

The Challengers Are Real: An Introductory Post to the ATP Challenger Tour

A more compact version in the form of a Twitter thread can be found here.

Mike Faist (left) and Josh O'Connor (right) play Art Donaldson and Patrick Zweig in Challengers, portraying New Rochelle Challenger 2019 (📸 Challengers official trailer on YouTube)

If anyone comes here from the Challengers movie starting Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist, which plot centered on a former Grand Slam tennis champion who registers to compete in a Challenger-level tournament and is somewhat drawn against the former lover of his wife (and coach) after a losing streak, even minus the romance part (which might or might not be true off-court), the plot is reminiscent to the real-life occurrence as a player’s career might have winded down due to a lot of factors (that could even go hand-in-hand), most notably injury and loss of form.

The ATP Challenger Tour was established in 1978 with 18 tournaments (in more limited locations than today) to serve as a feeder system for the ATP Tour, where it often operates 24/7 with more than 180 events in 40 countries nowadays, with the potential to increase this year. Being likened to the Minor Leagues in baseball, with players playing better than the club players (including us), it is characterized as the place where people try to transition from juniors/college to the professional Tour, hanging on due to enormous factors that do not allow them to break through (just yet), and regaining the form they once had (especially for former top players), which are the reasons the Challenger Tour is often dubbed as “the real deal” instead of the main Tour itself.

Beware of the length. This is a possible long read as this fan article aims to introduce non-tennis die-hard/hipster fans or even casual/non-tennis fans to the real-life ATP Challenger Tour. It might be essay-ish, but it can be useful!

How Are the Events Organized?

The tennis tournament hierarchy (📸 self-illustrated)

As an intermediary between the players who are starting, hanging on, and approaching retirement, the ATP Challenger Tour is in the middle of the professional tennis tournament hierarchy. It is the second-tier tour to the ATP Tour tournament structure, hereby referred to as the main Tour, and the ITF World Tour Tennis (formerly Futures). In this regard, the Grand Slams, whose scale is higher than the main Tour tournaments, are overseen by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), as well as the aforementioned ITF World Tour Tennis and the tennis field in the Olympics organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Challenger Tour itself comprised as many as 196 tournaments in 2023 held in 46 countries in comparison to the main Tour's 64 tournaments in 29 countries, while the ITF World Tour Tennis tournaments had a whopping 571 tournaments in 73 countries as of 2023, strengthening its position as the fundamental pillar of the professional tennis for the development of the future tennis stars with the Challenger Tour as its in-between.

On another note, the rankings system in tennis is updated almost weekly (except for the 2-week-long tournaments both in Tour-level and Grand Slams) compared to golf, for example.

The ATP Challenger Tour logo banner that was placed in the net during the Lille Challenger earlier this year (📸 Lille Challenger official website)

Back to how the Challenger Tour works, even though it is frequently averaged between 1-5 tournaments per week, with the least being in the week of the Roland Garros/French Open qualification rounds (1 in 2023, which was the Skopje Challenger), they are currently divided through 5 tiers depending on the points won by the eventual champions according to the most recent reform starting in 2023, which are:

Challenger 50 is the lowest tier;

Challenger 75;

Challenger 100;

Challenger 125;

Challenger 175, usually held on the second week of the 2-week Masters 1000s (the highest Tour-level event after the ITF-sanctioned Grand Slams) and often likened to a 250 (the lowest Tour-level tournament in scale) for their heavy draws.

Compared to the Tour level, the Challenger-level calendar is revealed periodically (usually every 3 months) and is accessible through the ATP’s website. To add, a Challenger season lasts slightly longer than the Tour-level calendar, for example in 2023–which main Tour season concluded with the Nitto ATP Tour Finals on November 20 and the Davis Cup Finals Knockout Stages on November 27–where there are 4 Challenger tournaments in the week of November 27-December 3, which are located in:

Yokkaichi, Japan (outdoor hard)

Maspalomas, Spain (outdoor clay)

Maia, Portugal (indoor clay)

Temuco, Chile (outdoor hard)

Clement Tabur (left) and Marco Trungelliti (right) as the runner-up and champion of the Kigali 2 Challenger, respectively, which took place in the Rwandan capital in the beginning of February 2024 (📸 Imvaho Nshya)

The tournaments themselves take place in a variety of locations, which will be dubbed as "their own swings" by taking into account its frequent differences between the main Tour events, either by location or by surface. For example, looking at the past few years:

2024's Indian swing (a string of Indian Challenger events, in this context) started weeks after the Australian Open with the Chennai Challenger, followed by Pune, Bengaluru, and New Delhi;

Challenger's own indoor (hard/clay) season is separated into two, which are the beginning of the season on par with the Tour's pre-Middle East swing European indoor season (e.g. for 2024, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Quimper, Koblenz, Nottingham 1, Cherbourg, Glasgow, Pau, Lille, and Lugano), with an addition of indoor clay Challengers like in Szekesfehervar (usually in March) and Maia (usually year-end), and toward the end of the season on par with the year-end European indoor season (as of 2023, e.g. Orleans, Bratislava 2, Hamburg, Ortisei, Bergamo, Helsinki, and Danderyd).

In addition, the North American circuit is notably divided into indoors at the beginning of the year (e.g. for 2024. Cleveland; and add Rome, GA Challenger in 2023) and after the US Open (most notably Charlottesville, Knoxville, and Champaign Challengers), and outdoors season with the concluded Indian Wells Challenger between the end of January and the beginning of February 2024, and while the Tour-level grass season came into a close, the outdoor hard-court in Palmas del Mar kick-started the summer hard-court season in 2023, but the Phoenix Challenger stood in between the Indian Wells and Miami Masters 1000s held in the former's second week;

Challenger Tour's own clay season, both European and Latin American, which will be explained in a separate section considering its prevalence and impact to the current tennis landscape;

Other than Tunis, another notable tournament held in Africa was the Kigali Challenger in Rwanda from earlier this year, which became the seventh African country to organize a Challenger-level event;

Challengers' Mexican swing, which differed from the 2 tournament stops on the main Tour as this featured several clay-court and hard-court tournaments;

The Challengers used to have some carpet tournaments based in Eckental and Ismaning, the former which was folded in 2022 due to budget and support constraints, with the latter being the sole carpet tournament of the Challenger Tour since then despite carpet tournaments still being played in the ITF (former Futures) level;

The Challengers' own Asian Swing, which spanned between the South Korean swing spread before the French Open (around April), with parts of the Chinese swing being added to the timeline in 2024 before its second chapter in between/after the US Open (September-November) in line with the main Tour's Asian Swing, added by the Japanese swing to close the year (per the 2023 calendar).

Speaking of the Tour being 24/7, there will be several weeks where tennis visibly never stops. For example, in the second week of April 2024 (Apr 8-14), there are tournaments in:

Busan, South Korea (outdoor hard, which commenced the first half of the Asian Challenger swing);

Split, Croatia (outdoor clay);

Madrid, Spain (outdoor clay);

Sarasota, Florida, United States of America (outdoor green/HarTru clay, which kicked off one-third of the US green clay court circuit pre-French Open);

Morelos, Mexico (outdoor altitude hard, which continued this half of the Mexican Challenger swing, which succeeded the clay-court tournaments of that swing).

Furthermore, there is also a possibility that the 4-5 tournaments held that week will be played on 3 different surfaces, mainly clay, hard, and grass, with the grass-court tournaments being a preparation for the Wimbledon Championships; however, all of the grass-court Challengers solely take place in the United Kingdom. For this year, an example of those weeks is the week of June 3 (the 23rd week of the year), where there are 5 tournaments played on 3 different surfaces, which are located in:

Surbiton, United Kingdom (outdoor grass);

Heilbronn, Germany (outdoor clay);

Prostejov, Czech Republic (outdoor clay);

Zagreb, Croatia (outdoor clay);

Tyler, Texas, United States of America (outdoor hard).

Challenger Tour's Own Clay Season

One of the most prominent Challenger-level clay tournaments in Buenos Aires, with a packed home crowd (📸 ATP official website)

Even though the main Tour events have their own clay swing during the Golden Swing (the South American clay-court events usually held in February before the Indian Wells and Miami Masters 1000s, the latter that is famously called the "Sunshine Double") right after the two said hard-court Masters 1000 tournaments (starting from the end of March until the beginning of June), as well as a mini-clay season after the Wimbledon Championships before the North American summer hard-court swing (between July-August), the clay-court season never stops in the Challenger Tour, especially South America.

Parts of the Challenger Tour in South America were initiated by former World No. 31 Horacio de la Peña called the Legion Sudamericana in 2021 as he pointed out the lack of opportunities for Latin American players to develop their game on their home soil. From there, he brought the South American tennis federations together (such as but not limited to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay) that not only comprised the clay-court Challengers as they mostly grew up on clay but also featured the hard-court Challengers, such as the Brasilia and Temuco Challengers by the end of the last season (2023), leading up to the Australian summer hard-court season to start the following year. This generated a huge impact on the growth of Latin American tennis as this was supported by the immense passion of the local fans as proven by their well-attended events. For instance, in 2022 alone (a year after this initiation), Argentinean players won 23 Challenger titles and 14 South American players partook in the Australian Open qualification rounds, which increased three-fold compared to their 2021 Australian Open qualifications participation rate as there were 20 players from the region in 2023 compared to only 7 in 2021. The number also grew into 10 South American players inside the Top 100 as of April 29, 2024, in a group of 35 Latin American players inside the Top 300 by that time, and could possibly be higher as the year progressed.

On the other hand, the clay season in the other parts of the world (mainly Europe) spanned from before the French Open until almost the end of the year. For example, most of the 24 Challenger-level tournaments held in Italy were clay-court tournaments, which explained the steady rise of Italian tennis as they invested a lot in their players' development from the availability of the lower-level tournaments until the coaching department to add to their passion of sports in general. Some others took place in different parts of Europe, including another possible tennis powerhouse in the Czech Republic, where Challenger tournaments held there are mostly clay-court ones, thanks to their grassroots development as well that cultivates the passion for the game in them (including having tennis courts almost everywhere), hence there are (young) talents from almost everywhere in the country.

Detailed writing about the South American Challenger's clay-court circuit as part of the entire pre-Roland Garros/French Open qualification build-up article, dated from the beginning of the 2023 clay season, can be found here.

Broadcast

The Challenger TV advertisement on the ATP official website (📸 ATP official website)

The ATP Challenger Tour is broadcasted in a dedicated part of the ATP official website, free of charge and repeatable as long as there are no technical problems on their website. People could rewind and document their moments, from the most hilarious ones to the hottest tennis shots and points the players constructed. Starting at the beginning of this year, compared to what is commonly said as the “dodgy CCTV camera” stream that was used back in the day, the current streams have HD cameras, making the moments even more visible.

Interestingly, these past few years, several Challenger tournaments have also been broadcasted on the local televisions of the country (or a specific place) where the competition takes place despite only the main courts or the later rounds. For instance, the tournaments in Latin America are often broadcasted by ESPN (Star+), DirecTV, or TyC Sports (in Argentina), ORR in Austria, L’Equipe TV/BeIN Sports for some French tournaments, and recently, Tennis Channel 2 broadcasts the Phoenix Challenger as part of their attempt to broadcast more US-based Challenger tournaments.

Some upcoming sections might have contained the outline of select players' journey to the author's best knowledge and how the Challenger Tour and the recent enhancements from the ATP play a part in their careers. Out of plethora of tennis players, they are just (tangible) examples of the influence of this circuit before or during breaking through/coming back to the ranks.

Top Players and Emerging Talents

According to the ATP Rulebook, it is stated that within the top players, the Top 10 players 21 days before the first Monday of the ATP Challenger Tour tournament are prohibited from entering by all means possible, be it through direct entry, wild card, or Special Exempts, especially in the 75-175 categories. For those ranked 11-50 by then, they could enter the 175 category per their ranks 3 weeks before the said tournament, and the ATP also has to approve their wild cards should there be a proposal, receiving a limited amount of wild cards depending on the Challenger Tour and the Tour-level schedule for that week. However, those players ranked 1-150 by then are not allowed to enter the 50 category, with the players ranked between 51-150 can receive a wild card upon approval (especially 50-100, where they must have the same nationality as the tournament).

Former World No. 1 Andy Murray (left) with his Surbiton Challenger title (📸 LTA) and former World No. 4 Kei Nishikori (right) with his Palmas del Mar Challenger Title (📸 The Japan Times), all won last year

Usually, former top players partake in the Challenger Tour for numerous reasons, mainly returning from injury (or suspension, if any) and grinding to regain their form back, which often takes forever–or, in some other instances, it's the nearest tournament to say farewell (as a professional player) to the sport that raised them. One of the most prominent examples from the first category was from former World No. 1 Andy Murray, who made his return to tennis with a metal hip in the summer of 2019, where he also rebuilt through the Challenger Tour until he became a permanent fixture again several years later, including his participation in the grass-court Challengers to prepare for the bigger-scale tournaments, as he won the Surbiton-Nottingham Challenger double in 2023–and somehow found himself winning the Aix-en-Provence Challenger on clay months prior, and former World No. 4 Kei Nishikori, who returned from his injuries in Palmas del Mar Challenger 2023 as an unranked player receiving a wild card to partake, winning the whole tournament afterward to mark his comeback to the sport despite his inability to catch a break in between once again. Former World No. 6 Matteo Berrettini, who was sidelined for more than a year due to various injuries, came back to become the runner-up in the Phoenix Challenger weeks before winning his first ATP-level title in two years in Marrakech (250). Recently, Frances Tiafoe hit a rough patch since the end of last year, which extended to this year's clay season, where he takes a wild card to rebuild in the Cagliari Challenger (which is a 175) for the week in hopes of rebuilding the confidence missing from his game, starting his campaign in the next few days as he received a first-round bye.

Ugo Humbert (left) with his Metz (250) 2023 title (📸 Tenis Magazyn) and Jan-Lennard Struff (right) with his Madrid Masters 1000 2023 runner-up trophy (📸 Sport 1 Germany)

There were several other notable stories where they reached new heights after being unable to catch a break regardless of age (for the older players, they are often called "late bloomers"). Ugo Humbert, who repeatedly ended up injured within the past years, marked the beginning of his resurgence with the Rennes Challenger 2022 title, followed by surviving an almost 4-hour match to win the Pau Challenger 2023, as well as the Cagliari Challenger at the same year before making stronger runs in both summer grass and hard-court seasons, ultimately winning the Metz (250) title on his home soil to out-perform his previous career-high ranking of 25 attained back in 2021, now having the best ranking of 13 from April 15, 2024. While it might have been the end of the road for Jan-Lennard Struff, he picked up where he left off last year by reaching 3 Challenger-level semifinals before re-entering the Top 100 thanks to his Monte Carlo Masters 1000 semifinal appearance as a qualifier, followed by becoming the runner-up of Madrid Masters 1000 as a lucky loser. Proving the doubters wrong once again, he finally won his maiden ATP-level title in Munich (250), where he became the third-oldest first-time champion since the ATP Tour was established in 1990.

Pierre Hugues-Herbert (top) won the Quimper Challenger 2024 (📸 Ouest France) and Benoit Paire (bottom) won the Puerto Vallarta Challenger 2023 (📸 Noticias AL Mexico)

However, not everyone had a successful comeback story. While former singles World No. 36 and doubles World No. 2 Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who also completed his career Grand Slam in doubles with Nicolas Mahut rebuilds as this was written, his comeback was plagued by some setbacks and injuries until the middle of 2023, as well as some other issues in between. Right as he started to get the knack again after winning the Quimper Challenger 2024 and becoming the runner-up of the Naples Challenger, another setback occurred in taking care of his youngest son who had just undergone surgery. The struggle can also be felt for former singles World No. 16 Benoit Paire, who fell as low as being ranked 217 on February 2, 2023, due to several losing streaks. Even though he found some knack after winning the Puerto Vallarta Challenger 2023, followed by the San Benedetto del Tronto Challenger months later before closing his season by being the Maia Challenger runner-up, his rollercoaster results comprised the rest of his season, including another string of early exits to start 2024 that prompted speculations of his retirement after the Rome Masters 1000 and the French Open/Roland Garros based on his latest updates.

Patrick Kypson with his Cleveland Challenger 2024 title (left) and Steve Johnson with his Bloomfield Hills Challenger 2023 title (right) (📸 ATP Challenger Tour's official Twitter–1, 2)

Often, which is also applicable to emerging talents, these Challengers are also part of the reciprocal Wild Card Challenge for the countries holding a Grand Slam, for example how the green clay trio of Sarasota-Tallahassee-Savannah Challenger in the United States became an addition to the other red-clay events spread in the different parts of the world for the players from the United States to compete to earn Roland Garros/French Open wild cards as a reward of their performance (as well as for their French counterparts within their system made by their federation) or an equivalent challenge for their summer hard-court season to form the US Open Wild Card Challenge in addition to counting their performances in equivalent surfaces corresponding to the Grand Slams. For instance, this paved the way for Patrick Kypson, who earned both the French Open 2023 and the Australian Open 2024 wild cards thanks to his exceptional performance in the mentioned series of tournaments, backing the latter up with a title in Cleveland Challenger, as well as solid runs in Delray Beach (250) the week after to finally enter the Top 150 for the first time. In contrast, after winning 2 Challenger titles in Bloomfield Hills and Lexington, former World No. 26 Steve Johnson won the US Open Wild Card Challenge last year and received a wild-card to the US Open last year, which turned out to be his last appearance in his home Slam (since he is from the United States), as he decided to hang his racquet during the Indian Wells Masters 1000 earlier this year.

Today, young talents also benefit from the College/Junior/NextGen Accelerator Programs that speed up their rise, which will be explained right in the next section.

The College/Junior/NextGen Accelerator Programs

The Junior/College Accelerator Program diagrams (📸 ATP official website)

For some people who had outstanding junior careers or even collegiate careers (for the latter, it is now for those who attended the US universities, notably playing in the NCAA), they are rewarded with the College/Junior Accelerator Program to try their hands against the best of the game as early as they transition from junior/college to the professional Tour. This partly answered the previous concerns about players having difficulties transitioning between the junior and professional circuit while recognizing their immense potential at times, thus the necessity to promote the rise of young talents to build through these accelerated opportunities.

In this case, the stand-outs from juniors (mostly between 1-30 in the ITF junior rankings, as well as the junior Grand Slam champions and finalists), college (ranks 1-20 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association/ITA rankings), and NextGen (for players aged 20 and under inside the Top 350 ranking range) by the end of each season will be allotted certain occasions (and select tournament levels) to play in the main draw of both the Challenger Tour (in this case, it is for junior and college) and the main Tour-level (which applies to the NextGen players), as well as the ITF World Tour Tennis-level (for the up-and-coming juniors in a certain ranking range as illustrated). This hopes to nurture their talent and improve their pathway to develop their game, thus elevating their progress through the higher ranks of the game.

Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez (top left, 📸 International Tennis Federation), Joao Fonseca (top right, 📸 ATP official website), Martin Landaluce (bottom left, 📸 Tennisnet.com), and Ben Shelton (bottom right 📸 On Running Switzerland) as one of the examples of rapid rises through or influencing the Accelerator Programs

Outside of these, making it more tangible, some people in this category notably received wild cards in their local tournaments that could also help their development as they only allotted limited occasions to use their junior rankings. This might be the case for former junior World No. 1 Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez, who received numerous wild cards in Mexican Challenger and Tour-level events within the past 2 years before finally making his Challenger-level quarterfinal debut this year in Acapulco, or another former junior World No. 1 Joao Fonseca, who also benefited through a combination of his junior rankings/wild-cards/direct entries between 2022 and 2023, paving him the way to become the Asuncion Challenger runner-up and in the main Tour, the Rio de Janeiro (an ATP 500-level tournament) quarterfinals on his home ground before forging his college eligibility (right before starting his academic year) to turn professional. In addition, another former junior World No. 1 in 2023, Martin Landaluce, who notably trained in Rafael Nadal Academy, also has his Challenger and main Tour-level participation a combination between most of the wild cards and direct entry apart from the direct entry when his ranking is sufficient, which started to pay off when he reached his maiden Challenger-level quarterfinals in Alicante last year before reaching his first Challenger-level semifinal in Tenerife 2 just several months ago.

For college, this might not be possible without Ben Shelton's rapid rise, who became a runner-up in 2 Challenger-level tournaments and won 3 back-to-back tournaments (Charlottesville-Knoxville-Champaign) in 2022, some of them through wild cards thanks to his potential being spotted after being crowned the champion of the 2021/22 NCAA Singles Championship when attending the University of Florida, solidifying his rise through his fourth-round appearances in the Australian and US Open before winning his first Tour-level title in Tokyo (500).

Behind the Scenes of the Real-Life Challengers

Billy Harris in front of his van, the vehicle he used to travel between tournaments for three and a half years (📸 The Times)

As of 2017, there are more than 14,000 tennis players (male or female) who tried to make ends meet. However, only a handful of them could make the cut in the world's best, undergoing an arduous journey to the top, and most were unable to continue due to travel and financial difficulties. The latter is crucial not only for them to participate in a tournament (and its related logistics) but also for them to be able to practice (with a coach or more), to recover (e.g. through physiotherapy), as well as numerous other necessities while on Tour. Often, some could not afford traveling coaches for this reason, and finding sponsors could also be a struggle for them to keep moving forward. These are some reasons tennis players are often regarded as independent contractors.

Generally observing, there are various examples from players to manage them, but not everyone can live the life depicted in the movie. Some might have ended up playing select tournaments a year, sleeping in a van for the nearest tournaments compared to any other accommodation options, or regrettably, resorting to match-fixing (which also became an extensive issue for tennis in general) due to the little points and prize money they receive in the lower-level tournaments before the ATP institutes the prize-money-related reforms as part of the Challenger restructuring in 2023, as well as the Baseline initiative (with the financial stability for the Top 150 being the goal) later that year.

Some who could not catch a break, for instance, suffering from continuous injuries, took ages to (re)build from where they left off, and those who could not take it any longer gave up playing the sport due to the "demands" needed to reach the top. In the latter's case, some turned out to be a coach (like Zendaya's character, Tashi Duncan), a real-life case for the example of Gianluigi Quinzi.

These days, thanks to platforms like YouTube (and other social media platforms), some players document their experiences through their vlogs (video blogs) starting from how to win their first ATP point, how to travel in between tournaments, as well as preparing for the said competitions, until analyzing their own matches. Some prominent examples came from such as but not limited to:

Simon Freund

Federico Coria (look up: Fede Coria)

Juan Pablo Paz

Fabien Salle

Felix Mischker (look up: Tennis Brothers)

Karue Sell (look up: My Tennis HQ)

Challenger Doubles

Marcus Willis/Christian Harrison, the winner of this year's Savannah Challenger (📸 WSAV-TV)

In addition to the singles sector, the Challenger Tour typically has a doubles sector. Interestingly, this is another cross-line between up-and-coming doubles specialists, who are the players who only play doubles for several reasons (which also includes doubling the joy, doubling the fun, and doubling the chaos altogether), and those who frequently play singles but frequently/occasionally play doubles as well. While sometimes the consideration comes from the extra prize money they could earn from the latter kind of players, some turned out to have equal potential in doubles just like in singles or vice versa (having their potential also spotted in the doubles scene before singles), often having higher doubles ranking than singles despite playing both (which could be the case for those like Orlando Luz and Daniel Cukierman). Speaking of doubling the fun and mess, the Challenger-level doubles matches can be as hilarious as exhibition matches, which was exemplified by the Little Rock Challenger 2023 semifinals between Alexis Galarneau/Nicolas Moreno de Alboran and Callum Puttergill/Kelsey Stevenson.

Somehow, some rising pairs also started their way here and made their waves, often by winning multiple titles. For instance, before their doubles break-up at the end of the US Open 2023, Julian Cash/Henry Patten notably won 11 Challenger titles, 10 of which were won in 2022 (including the year-end Maia Challenger), the last one being in the Sarasota Challenger 2023. There are also some notable up-and-coming pairs, with some also having their collegiate roots, such as Ryan Seggerman/Patrik Trhac, who won 7 ITF titles before winning 3 Challenger titles since they paired up last year, or Sadio Doumbia/Fabien Reboul, who became more prominent as they partner more often these past few years as proven by their 15 Challenger-level titles since 2019 and 3 ATP Tour-level titles since winning their first title in Chengdu (250) 2023. There is also a “rebirth” lore in former singles World No. 322 Marcus Willis, who announced his retirement in 2021 and decided to give the professional Tour one more go a year later as a doubles specialist, winning 3 Challenger titles by the time this was written with 2 different partners to kick off this season.

Harri Heliovaara/Lloyd Glasspool, one of the most notable Challenger doubles breakout (📸 LTA)

One of the other remarkable doubles breakouts from the Challenger Tour came from Harri Heliovaara/Lloyd Glasspool, who won 4 Challenger titles in 2021 and became a runner-up in 2 other tournaments before breaking out as an alternate in Rome Masters 1000 by reaching the third round before reaching the quarterfinals in the French Open, partnering for at least one more year before splitting after the Shanghai Masters 1000. Currently, Heliovaara plays with another rising doubles player in Henry Patten (who came to the scene with Julian Cash before their split), as Lloyd Glasspool plays with veteran Jean-Julien Rojer. Since watching Challengers is free, it is time to watch more (Challenger) doubles, just like Tennis Tribe campaigns for the main Tour as well.

The Challenger Fandom and How They Stan Players #OnTheRise

The full-house stands during the ATP Challenger Tour tournaments in Shenzhen (top) and Buenos Aires (bottom) (📸 ATP Challenger Tour, the latter via Buenos Aires Challenger)

The tennis fandom extends from the main Tour-level fans, which most people usually are, and the "die-hard" fans, some of whom are dubbed as tennis hipsters, which is a group of passionate fans who adore the players' grind in the lower-level tournaments (Challengers and ITFs), often preferring to watch or follow matches in that level, some of which being unstreamed, than the main professional Tour-level matches. They even have their own definitions of talents (= potential players) and goats (= greatest of all time), where the potential of these players is revealed as the year progresses and as the circuit runs regardless of age.

However, parts of the fandom are still being shadowed by people who occasionally/frequently bet on the outcomes of a game/set/match, some of which influenced match-fixing practices as mentioned in the previous sections. While betting seems tempting, as many warnings on responsible betting as there are, it is not encouraged (especially at the places where it is illegal) not only for financial reasons but also affects self-esteem, relationships, physical and mental health, work performance, and social life, which can harm family, friends, workplace, and communities, as evident in the broader tennis issue.

Interestingly, some tournaments are well-attended, with even the Challenger-level players and tournaments gathering more fans to appreciate the game and the grind. Some such examples are the Latin American events (e.g. in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, among others), the French tournaments (where a famous chant “papapapapapapapapapa ole” is chanted, it must be either in French tournaments or involving French players), the competitions held in Italy and the United Kingdom as there are a handful of fans also watching the Challenger tournaments all the way in Japan and South Korea, as well as the recently-concluded (by the time of this draft) Kigali Challenger in Rwanda. Some tournaments have “free entry” in most parts of the day, while some tournaments have (at their local rates) more affordable tickets to attend the later days of the tournament. Some become passionate fans of a particular player/some players they followed or regularly attend the nearest Challenger tournament near them, and some can also be inspired to pick up the racquet and play several years after their attendance.

From this, the lower-level tennis fandom might not be as prevalent as the main Tour, but even without the gambling element, some become legitimate avid fans for their love of the game. They chase talents, find joy in their respective journeys, and are pleased should they break through or break even after hanging on for several years. This is in line with the ATP Challenger Tour’s #OnTheRise campaign, where they championed what is seen as a repetitive process of grinding, which represented hard work, perseverance, and discipline, paving the way to greatness. This is sometimes overlooked due to the (statistical) comparative nature between one player and another since there is also a perception that life is not a race, and everyone has their own path to the top, which tennis opens the gate to. Ultimately, for some “die-hards,” following the players from the start, all the effort, until they rise or become one of the legends is a pleasure. Sometimes, these fans also made sure “they are there for/until their last dance” when the player’s last-ever professional tournament played to honor their incredible careers, which marked their retirement from playing tennis professionally, took place in their nearby Challenger tournament, or those that made a significance in their careers. All those reasons are believed to be also behind the #WatchChallengersFolks campaign, which has been widespread on Twitter these past few years.

Important Links

ATP Challenger TV (free broadcast of the Challenger Tour matches)

ATP Challenger Tour annual calendar, updated periodically

Entry Lists (for Challenger-level and above to check on the participants of each event)

Live Rankings (real-time ranking estimates before the official rankings come out) (1, 2)

[totallyredacted]

so if you’re in the us and you see this, here’s what you’re gonna do

you’re gonna go to https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

you’re gonna put in your information, find the websites of the people you need to contact (federal) and you are going to contact them.

and if you have the time, Do It Again (i don’t think there’s a limit)

if you don’t know what to write you can copy and paste this updated and revised version of the letter from action network (which i’ve heard Might be kinda shady so i screenshotted it and reworked it a little bit with updated stats just in case):

Hello,

Over 23,210 people in Gaza have been killed since October 7th, 2023. This includes over 6,327 women and 8,663 children, not counting the over 8,000 missing and displaced from their homes.

Over 359,000 homes within the Gaza Strip have been bombed or completely destroyed, along with 370 educational facilities, 221 places of worship, 121 ambulances and 30 of the 35 hospitals. Approximately 15 people are killed every hour, six being children.

As your constituent, I'm requesting your immediate support for the following demands:

1. Call for an immediate ceasefire, protection of civilians, and the

establishment of safe zones in the Gaza Strip.

2. Call to allow the entry of humanitarian assistance, including:

• Safe passage of humanitarian aid, and medical supplies, from Egypt through the Rafah crossing. This must be safeguarded by the international community.

• Protection of, safe, secure and timely delivery of humanitarian assistance to the affected population inside the Gaza Strip.

• Resuming access to water and electricity as well as fuel for medical facilities in the Gaza Strip.

Conditions on the ground are more dire than in any other Israeli aggression on Gaza since the inception of the Israeli blockade in 2007. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a "complete siege on Gaza," which became effective on 7th October, 2023, including cutting off power, water, and fuel to the besieged territory.

Further, the Israeli military bombed the Rafah crossing to prevent the safe passage of food, medical supplies, and humanitarian aid into Gaza, as well as the civilians into Egypt.

Even in previous wars on Gaza, despite the US arming Israel and Congress approving additional military aid during these wars, the US administration has called for a de-escalation of hostilities.

Instead of calling for a ceasefire, President Biden gave a speech that promised direct military aid, a compliant Congress, and increased support from regional allies. These are not gestures to deescalation, but a greenlight for civilian massacres.

We must call for an immediate de-escalation safeguarded by the United States and international community. This entails an immediate ceasefire, and the safe passage of humanitarian aid from Egypt through the Rafah crossing.

[ohbaby-here-we-go-again]

Reread taz’s Instagram statement again, after seeing some people talking about how there was probably a lot of legal stuff going on behind the scenes, and idk I just thought I’d share my some thoughts I had.

First off, I’m not gonna lie, initially when I read the post I was kinda disappointed that it was still relatively vague and neutral when it comes to the Israel-Palestine conflict. But when people pointed out that there was more than likely a lot of legal stuff going on in terms of his job, security at cons, and how probably Netflix will only allow him to say so much and remain working on opla….it made more sense

But then I was reading over the statement again and I thought it was interesting how Taz specifically mentions the Red Crescent in his post. Like when he refers to the fundraiser or growing up in Tenerife he just calls them the Red Cross, I’m assuming because that’s the name he’s been familiar with (Cruz Roja is what the Red Cross is called in Tenerife according to the website - which is the same name but in Spanish obviously), but when explaining that the organisation doesn’t “take sides in hostilities,” in the post he called them “The Red Cross/ Red Crescent.” And like, as someone who’s country uses the term Red Cross I straight up had no idea they were also called the Red Crescent in other places.

I say this because the offical Red Cross branch in Palestine is the “Palestine Red Crescent Society.” And idk I just think it’s interesting that someone, who majority of the time refers to the Red Cross as only ‘the Red Cross’ (and I’m assuming has been most familiar with them with that terminology) and coped shit because of donating to the British Red Cross, also then mention the Red Crescent title.

Because Taz pads the post out a bit talking about “believing in humanitarian aid for innocent people, on both sides of any conflict” and deliberately doesn’t specifically mention Palestine or Israel at all, it does come off as quite neutral. But the fact he specifically mentions the the Red Crescent, chose to write it as “The Red Cross/ Red Crescent movement” (kinda making them seperate instead of saying ‘The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC),’ or ‘the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement”), and stated later in the post that “[his] efforts will never be in aid of supporting any aggression” makes me feel like maybe the statement was a little less neutral than I initially thought, and was potentially being very subtle to navigate any legal situations.

My ramble on the internet has once again ended up being kinda lengthy so sorry about that,, and idk, I might sound like a crazy person haha.

I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind just sharing some thoughts on tumblr.

[shadowfromthestarlight]

The pandemic gaslighting is happening worldwide:

The Prime Ministers of Canada and, most recently, New Zealand, have assured their nation’s citizens that they had never forced anyone to get vaccinated, despite their years-long, well-documented support for vaccine mandates. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins are joined in their elevent-hour rewrite of history by Pfizer executives who said in a recent Australian Senate hearing that “nobody was forced to have a vaccine”. As citizen journalist Rebekah Barnett has quipped, “We are at the ‘no one made you take it, it was your choice’ stage of the pandemic.” The latest round of memory-holing was kicked off by Mr Hipkins last weekend, who was apparently unaware that mandatory and compulsory are dictionary synonyms, when he stated: In terms of the vaccine mandates, I acknowledge that it was a challenging time for people but they ultimately made their own choices. There was no compulsory vaccination. People made their own choices. In case the Kiwi leader was in any way misunderstood, the follow day a radio host asked him if he regretted those remarks. Choosing his language carefully, Hipkins responded, “No one was made to be vaccinated.” “So the person, for example, who made the choice not to get vaccinated, lost their business, laid people off, that’s on them not you?” the host further challenged. “Well, they made a choice,” Hipkins replied, without a hint of irony or contrition. Here’s the same Mr Hipkins in 2021, explaining that the authorities will “go out and look for” people “who haven’t come forward to get their vaccination or have missed their bookings”: At the time, Hipkins was the architect of New Zealand’s strict Covid-19 regime under the prime ministership of Jacinta Ardern, who infamously bragged that New Zealand had become a two-tier society designed to exclude the unvaccinated. Earlier this year in April, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau engaged in almost identical denialism as the New Zealand leader. “Individuals are allowed to make their own choices. There may be all sorts of different reasons why someone is hesitant to get vaccinated,” he said at an event at the University of Ottawa. “While not forcing anyone to get vaccinated, I chose to make sure that all the incentives and all the protections were there to encourage Canadians to get vaccinated.” 18 months earlier, almost to the day, Trudeau announced nationwide vaccination mandates for all federal employees, for international travel, and even for every Canadian travelling by plane or train within the country. “Enforcement measures in place will make sure that everyone is vaccinated,” he said, in a video still available on the Prime Minister’s website. Just this August, at a Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee hearing, Australian Senator Pauline Hanson called out Pfizer’s Head of Regulatory Affairs Brian Hewitt for a similar act of Orwellian doublespeak. She asked: You were in Australia during Covid-19. You must have been fully aware that people, nurses, doctors, people to have their jobs, to keep their jobs, were forced to have the vaccination. Now do you retract your statement that they were not forced? Hewitt replied: Senator, no, I believe firmly that nobody was forced to have a vaccine. Mandates or vaccine requirements are determined by governments and health authorities. I believe everybody was offered an opportunity to get a vaccine or not get a vaccine. I don’t believe that anybody was forced to take a vaccine. You see? Because we didn’t strap you to a bed and inject you as you kicked and screamed, you were not forced. The choice between feeding your family, paying your mortgage and keeping your career — or maintaining your bodily autonomy, your medical freedom and your dignity — was an opportunity, not an act of coercion. Doubtless these are not the last denials we will hear.

[rollsrocker]

Kremlin's Plan for Moldova

Greetings everyone.

The RISE investigative journalism agency published a highly detailed account of the Russian efforts to infiltrate Moldovan politics with a comprehensive strategy to integrate the country firmly in the Russian sphere of influence by 2023, with the side effect of completely alienating Moldova from Romania, the EU, NATO and the wider west.

Bellow I took the liberty of translating it into English, and the hyperlink of the Investigation in Romanian.

If you are Moldovan/Romanian, or if you take interest in the regional geo-politics, I highly recommend this read.

Thank you for your attention and time!

A document leaked from behind the scenes of the Kremlin presidential administration reveals Russia's plan to bring Moldova under its own umbrella by 2030.

The document, which has not been made public, is called "Strategic Objectives of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Moldova" and was created in 2021. Several key points of Moscow's strategy have also appeared over the years on the public platforms of pro-Russian parties and in speeches by politicians. 

"The document is an interesting one, but it shows that they are one step behind the general situation because of the war in Ukraine and because of the regional capacity of EU countries and other international organisations to mobilise and face Russia's intentions to achieve this," Sergiu Diaconu, head of the Moldovan Prime Minister's Office, told us after we showed him the resulting strategy.

Against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the government in Chisinau is increasingly promoting Moldova's rapprochement with the European Union. The head of state recently set a deadline for this goal. The year 2030.

This year - 2030, is also included in Russia's strategy as the deadline for gaining control over the Republic of Moldova and moving it away from the EU, NATO and other partners.

The document detailing Moscow's strategy was obtained by RISE Moldova together with an international consortium of journalists including Yahoo News, Delfi Estonia, the London-based Dossier Centre, the Swedish newspaper Exane Westdeutscher, Rundfunk and Norddeutscher Rundfunk, the Polish investigative station Frontstory, the Belarusian Investigative Centre and the Central European news website VSquare.

The document comes from the same Presidential Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation that produced a similar strategy on Russia's plans to annex the Republic of Belarus. The strategy was drafted in autumn 2021, as was the Belarus strategy, with input from the Russian General Staff and Moscow's special services: the FSB, SVR and GRU. "There is zero percent [chance that] these documents are fake," according to the source who provided us with the documents.

The strategy was built on three spheres of influence: political and military, economic and humanitarian.

PRO-RUSSIAN POLITICAL AND BUSINESS INFLUENCE GROUPS

Strategic objectives in the political, military, military-technical and security spheres

In the short term (until 2022), Russia has set out to open a consulate in ATU Gagauzia, but this has not happened. The idea of opening a Russian consulate in Comrat has been promoted by former head of state Igor Dodon since 2012. At the time, Dodon was a member of parliament.

In 2021, an initiative group started collecting signatures in support of the idea, arguing that "many Gagauz residents have Russian citizenship and go to this country to earn money. Many citizens of the autonomy got married in Russia, have businesses there. We are linked to Russia by many threads".

Mihail Vlah is the chairman of the supervisory board of the public company Teleradio Gagauzia (GRT) and one of the organisers of the rally against price increases in the summer of 2022. His wife, Tatiana Vlah, owns 67% of Bakayan, which is on the list of Moldovan companies that Rosselkhoznadzor allowed to export to Russia in December 2022, after imposing an embargo on all agricultural producers on the right bank of the Dniester in August. Vlah denied at the time any link between obtaining the right to export to Russia and the organisation of the protest.

Mihail VLAH, civic activist from Gagauzia: I think Russia is generally not interested in Moldova. What is happening in the Transnistrian region is very important for Russia, because about 50% of the population there is Russian, they keep their weapons there and there are peacekeepers there.

As far as Moldova as a whole is concerned, I think Russia would naturally like to see Moldova in its sphere of influence. Just as Europe and America would like to see Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia in their sphere of influence.

And from Gagauzia, Russia wants nothing. We live as badly as the whole of Moldova. We pay 30 lei each for gas and electricity. Our products do not reach Russia. We, like our Moldovan brothers, suffer from the fact that there is war in Ukraine and from this relationship between the authorities of the Republic of Moldova and the authorities of the Russian Federation.

Another objective of the Russian Federation is 'Countering Moldova's collaboration with NATO', which it has set itself to achieve by 2025. And in the long term, i.e. by 2030, Russia wants to "form a negative attitude towards NATO in Moldovan society and political circles". This was one of the "10 priority objectives" promoted by the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) in the February 2019 parliamentary elections: "We will not allow NATO membership and we will achieve the closure of the NATO office in Chisinau".

"Countering Romania's expansionist policy in Moldova" - Russia's medium-term goal - by 2025. In the same 2019 elections, the PSRM claimed that if it had a parliamentary majority, it would ban "unionist parties and movements". At the same time, the socialists promised that Moldova would "achieve full membership of the Eurasian Economic Union" (EEU). The objective is also reflected in the Russian Federation's strategy.

Also in the political, military, military-technical and security spheres, Russia wants to "broaden the electoral base of political forces in Moldova that advocate constructive relations with the RF", "create stable pro-Russian groups of influence among the Moldovan political and economic elite", 'developing cooperation in the politico-military sphere, including intensifying Russian-Moldovan contacts between the armed forces and law enforcement institutions' and 'increasing the level of Moldova's participation in CIS activities, including restoring the participation of Moldovan representatives in all Community formats as well as through the EEU'.

Dorin RECEAN, Prime Minister: From a military point of view, at the moment, they do not have the resources and circumstances to do much. They cannot advance on the Transnistrian side. They are not aligned enough.

But in terms of increasing insecurity and fear and anxiety and funding protests and different kinds of destabilization, that's what they're trying to do. And that coincides with the agenda of these groups that normally should be in jail, and their money - recovered by the government, because they stole money from the people.

"Russia sees the Shor Party as a reliable partner"

One party that satisfies the Russian Federation's agenda in Chisinau is Shor. The party led by fugitive Ilan Shor has openly shown sympathy for Moscow.

Alongside socialists and communists, Șor has not once spoken out against NATO, even threatening that our country's rapprochement with the military alliance could lead to war with Russia.

"As if it is not clear how our traditional partners in the East will react to our giving up our neutral status and joining NATO. [...] Do we want war? Maybe we should tell this witch (Maia Sandu - ed.) to stop bringing NATO trouble to our peaceful land," Ilan Shor said in early 2023.

Amid the large-scale war unleashed by Russia, Șor has shown his support for the aggressor state, campaigning against the sanctions imposed by the EU. "In the case of support for sanctions against Russia (by the authorities in Chisinau - ed.), I reserve the right to call people to the streets," Șor said in a Facebook video.

Moreover, back in 2021, the parliamentary party claimed that it aimed to establish cooperation relations with "Edinaia Rossia" (United Russia), the party that has been governing in Russia for more than a decade. A statement published by the Shor Party said that the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Russian State Duma, Leonid Slutsky, said that "in recent years, the big problem has been that we have not had a reliable and long-term partner in Moldova for all our big companies. Today, however, we have found this partner in the person of Ilan Shor and the 'Shor' Party."

Ilan Shor and his party have been included on the US sanctions list for representing Russian interests in Moldova.

"Before the 2021 parliamentary elections, Russia was planning [...] to bring Moldova back into its sphere of influence. To support this effort, it worked with Russian citizens to create a political alliance designed to control Moldova's parliament and then support the adoption of a series of legislative acts in the interests of the Russian Federation," a document issued by the US State Treasury in October 2022 said.

We interviewed Marina Tauber in front of the government during the Sunday, 12 March 2023 protest organised by the Shor Party. Tauber denied that she was financed by Russia in any way.

Marina TAUBER, member of the Shor Party: No, we are not financed by Russia in any way. I declare this officially. And when people say or affirm this, please ask them to prove it to you and show you the concrete evidence. Otherwise, sorry, blah, blah, blah. I can't answer for all the people in the world. If they hired some of their employees, they have to answer. Mr Chernăuțan (Viorel Chernăuțeanu, head of the General Inspectorate of Police), as far as I heard from his briefing, said nothing about the Shor political party. If there are provocateurs here, what can I say? How can I tell you? I show you people who came from the district at our invitation. What the others are doing, I can't answer for the whole world.

PRO-RUSSIAN NGOS, CHURCH SUPPORT AND SPECIAL STATUS FOR THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

Strategic objectives in the humanitarian sphere

By 2025, Russia aims to create a network of "NGOs promoting the development of Russian-Moldovan relations" in Moldova and to provide "organisational, financial, legal and informational support for Russian-friendly NGOs". Igor Dodon founded such an NGO in 2021.

Transfers to the Moldovan-Russian Business Union

About the former president's "Moldovan-Russian Business Union", RISE Moldova wrote in the "Rubles for Dodon" investigation, in which we showed how from October 2021 to April 2022, i.e. in just seven months, more than 20 million Russian rubles (about five million lei) entered the association's Moldovan account. The money came from the "Delovaia Rossia" organisation in the Russian Federation, financed by businessmen close to the Kremlin and represented in Moldova by Igor Chaika, younger son of Yurii Chaika, Russia's Prosecutor General in 2006-2020.

Also on the humanitarian track, the authors of the plan set as their objectives "ensuring that the Moldovan authorities give up the idea of abolishing the study of Russian in schools" and "reconfirming the status of the Russian language as a language of inter-ethnic communication". The issue of the status of the Russian language on the territory of the Republic of Moldova is also reflected in the political programmes of the Socialist and Communist parties. In the latest political programme, approved in 2021, the PSRM "advocates strengthening the legislative framework on the status of the Russian language as a language of interethnic communication throughout the Republic of Moldova". And the PCRM notes in its electoral programme that "the state authorities will strictly observe the rules stipulating that Russian is the language of interethnic communication on the territory of our country". At the end of 2020, the parliamentary majority made up of socialists and the "For Moldova" Platform (made up of Shor Party MPs and defected MPs) passed a law in Parliament giving the Russian language special status. A month later, the law was declared unconstitutional and subsequently repealed.

Young people are also on the Russian Federation's radar. Russia aims to "expand opportunities for Moldovan students to receive distance education in Russian", to increase the quota allocated by the "Russian government to Moldovan students for studies at Russian universities with budget funding", and to create consortia between "higher education institutions of the two countries", open branches of Russian universities and develop an academic exchange programme.

Sergiu DIACONU, Head of the Prime Minister's Office: Interesting in this document, what we know exactly, but it is just a confirmation that they will put a lot of pressure on the so-called humanitarian and social zone. And here they can really cause some damage, because they are using institutions, including the Russian Cultural Institute here in Moldova, where you can see the permanent presence of the young generation, especially from the socialist side. It's a kind of enclave for the exchange of anything but cultural issues.

And the most interesting thing in the humanitarian sphere is that they want to increase the number of student organizations and the growing presence of the Russian language. They want to increase their media capacity.

The Russians' strategy also targets the church. According to the plan, by 2030 they aim to support "the Russian Orthodox Church in defending the interests of canonical Orthodoxy in the Republic of Moldova".

Mihail VLAH, civic activist from Gagauzia: The European Union is a very big and friendly family. It is like an intellectual, brain, technology. And Russia is Orthodoxy, a shared history of centuries that you cannot break with a pickaxe.

MAINTAINING DEPENDENCE ON RUSSIAN GAS

Strategic objectives in the commercial and economic sphere

"Maintaining the volume and legal framework for Russian natural gas supplies" is the objective with which the plan for the commercial and economic sphere begins.

Sergiu DIACONU, Head of the Prime Minister's Office: I would be very happy if people in Moldova could see this strategy. Because in the second point, in the economic sphere, they set out in the short term that they want to maintain the volume of gas deliveries to Moldova, which they did in 2021. But in this year, 2022, they have cut the supply by 40% and they are keeping us permanently under the prospect of the permanent cessation of gas imports from Russia. Every month we have this problem, that they say we're going to cut gas across the country. So how does what they say here stack up against what they do?

The goal of expanding "Russian-Moldovan cooperation in trade, economic and interregional relations" is similar to the mission of Igor Dodon's organisation. The "Moldovan-Russian Business Union" advocates the development of bilateral relations in the business environment of Moldova and the Russian Federation.

A Moldovan-Russian investment project is also AgroHub Moldova, a business started in Hincesti, which RISE Moldova wrote about last March. Specifically, the investment involved the creation of an agro-industrial and logistics centre, which aims to facilitate the export and import of agri-food and wine products. Worth $55 million, the project was also included in the protocol of the Moldovan-Russian Intergovernmental Commission meeting of 2 October 2020 and, according to the document, the agrohub was "aimed at improving trade relations between the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation". Except that, a few months after the publication of the RISE investigation, the lease contract for the public land on which the agrohub was to be built was terminated. Details, HERE

RISE Moldova sent requests for information to the Party of Socialists and the Party of Communists in which we asked them if there is any connection between the political and humanitarian objectives in the parties' programmes of activities and the exact same objectives found in the Russian Strategy. At the time of going to press, I had not received any reply.

Intelligence and Security Service of the Republic of Moldova: A multitude of subversive strategies, scenarios or plans with direct or indirect reference to the Republic of Moldova are circulating in the public space, elaborated by various experts or pseudo-experts. However, in most cases, these have little prospect of materialisation, as they are launched either to attract generous financial resources from sponsors or to manipulate public opinion.

"THE KREMLIN'S 'MOLDOVAN DIVISION

The document "Strategic Objectives of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Moldova" was reportedly drafted under the leadership of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Colonel Igor Maslov, who headed the Kremlin's so-called "Moldovan Division" until 2021. We talked about this subdivision in the #Kremlinovich series of investigations.

Our partners' sources report that Andrei Vavilov, an employee of the "Moldovan branch", was among the authors of the strategy. Our sources in special services in several countries claim that Vavilov's superior is Victor Lisenko.

Vavilov and Lisenko are not just officials of Putin's administration. They also communicate with FSB General Dmitry Miliutin, who is in charge of the Moldovan-Transnistrian intelligence network. We talked about how Miliutin influences Moldovan politics in the investigation "FSB agents in charge of Moldova".

According to data obtained by RISE Moldova together with the Dossier Centre, from November 2021 to May 2022, Vavilov called Miliutin at least three times, and Lisenco is one of the most frequent phone contacts of the FSB Moldova coordinator. During the period mentioned, Lisenko called the general at least ten times, being surpassed in terms of calls only by Miliutin's wife - Natalia.

If Miliutin came to Moldova in 2016 when Igor Dodon took office as Moldova's president, then Lisenko paid a visit to Chisinau relatively recently. In June 2019, an official Russian government delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak arrived in Moldova. Kozak was also accompanied by Viktor Lisenko, only his presence in the delegation was not made public.

Viktor Lisenko at the meeting between representatives of the Moscow and Chisinau governments. 24 June 2019. Photo:gov.md

In Chisinau, the Russian guests met with Maia Sandu, newly appointed prime minister in a coalition government with the socialists. The incumbent president at the time, Igor Dodon, also met with the Russian delegation. The parties discussed bilateral trade and Moldova's gas supplies, which later became the focus of Russia's ten-year strategy.

RISE Moldova contacted Vavilov on one of his phone numbers just a day before this story was published. As soon as he heard his last name, the man asked:

Andrei Vavilov

- But who is calling?

- This is Vladimir Thorik calling from Moldova.

- About what?

- I'm a journalist with RISE Moldova. I have a question about a document concerning Moldova. We have a document: "Strategic Objectives of the Russian Federation..."

- You... you got the wrong number... Then he hung up.

We sent an official request to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Moldova to find out which of Russia's strategic objectives had been achieved, but until the inquiry was published we had not received a reply.

[papirouge]

2022(?): radfem defend Kiwifarm, a Website known to be a nest of racists, islamophobe and antisemitic a#sholes (respectively calling them nigger, sand niggers and "glowies") closing down after a TRA activists campaigned for its closure, in the name of "freedom of speech".

2023: radfem stand with Israel, shill for the #metoounlessyourajew campaign while both dismissing the rape victims on the Palestinians side and acting like the reasons (the left) "doesn't care" about Israel women is because they're antisemitic and misogynist (and probably not because Israel was already granted a MASSIVE support from the "international community" that Palestinians struggle to get and that only people of the world thrived to provide. "not caring for the already catered victim" was translated as "not caring " & "antisemitism ". I wonder why radfem weren't shouting #alllivesmatters in 2017 at that point.... (Maybe one day I'll make an essay about how whitefem are terrified of Black women turning on them bc they know we are the only leverage saving them from being labeled as a "white woman's right movement" they know we have the power to "culturally" destroy this movement)

2024 : Kiwifarm (who's back from the dead) moids shit on radfem they accuse of ruining the website (after allegedly after they flocked over as to support them against that TRA censorship) and blame on them the transsexualist movement (LMAO)

2024 : radfem, who for years swore up and down they were NOT white supremacist, aligned with the left and divested from male attention, start to make statements about how White men are actually the "more humane" type of men

2024: radfem defend JK Rowling terminally online ass getting shit (again) on xitter for saying shit about transpeople. Oh and also Taylor Swift - for whatever reason. We never see them show such much zeal to defend Palestinians women who've already been carpet bombed for months at that time.

2024: radfem dunk down on Imane Khelif, an Algerian GNC athlete literally rehashing crooked far right news outlets fake news talking point. Act like higher levels of testosterone make someone a man after swearing up and up down for YEARS what made up female were our sexual organs (hopefully they accept men with lower testosterone levels are women then ☺️). When getting told them the "Imane is a man/has WXY chromosome)" only source is a butthurt Russia boxing federation top exec that pulled it out of his ass bc imane beat their champion those idiots took for granted and started this smear campaign to "prove" Imane was a man, they started grasping at straw posting screenshot of "twitter expert" - that don't have access to Imane genetic record, because this document doesn't exist - saying that's indeed a male..

Keep in mind those feminists literally took the words of a MAN to dogpile to call "man" what could possibly be a woman victim a genetic disorder (some argue it's Swyer syndrome) where those people could present female genetic organs while having Y chromosome.

Radfem were the one pretending to approach with respect the discourse or intersexuality and being oh so much more educated than everyone else about it, but look at them going full on Alzheimer about it and dedicated to prove Imane is a MAN and not a complex configuration of genetics making her GNC.

Radfem were also those bragging about acknowledging woman for having feminine organ regardless of her behavior or looks - and there they are, screaming with the conservatives gender enforcing wolves saying Imane couldn't be a woman BECAUSE she didn't look like one.

Such ironic has to be kept under record.

The way radfem constantly proved throughout the last few years they became the monster they swore up and down they'll never become ("we'll never ally with conservatives" "we'll never support white supremacists" "we'll always support GNC women" "we'll never consider news from right/conservatives aligning outlets) needs to be clinically studied.

RIP to all the non white/radfem who stood against that fringe of the moment, but unfortunately that's what you've become to the eyes of people foreign to your movement. Especially people of color. I personally never take you seriously ever again. Most likely when you weaponize the fate of Middle East women a abused by Islamic culture when you've proven again and again you actually had no issue letting them be brutalized and killed by White supremacist culture and Zionism. No words about the men signing up bombs that will shred their flesh apart, or making merch bragging about killed pregnant Palestinians women - mothers of "the next terrorist generation. We all know you hate children. Especially when they're brown & poor. Elon Musk would be proud of you. Useful idiots. All of you.

Go back reading Dworking and delude yourself thinking you're gonna save women. In the real world you've exposed yourself to be nothing more than the armed hand of White supremacy. Shame on all of you.

[deadoveater]

they don't even have to call Khelif or Lin male, or focus on them, what is needed here is to tell IOC - you have been given an information that there are males competing in women's boxing, there is an urgent need have clearly defined guidelines and testing done to keep female sports female. idk what it is, they have a few top radblr bloggers and a few mutuals whose posts they read and base their opinion on, other than that, no need to look anything up or look into the notes if someone's saying something else. Some of the basic olympic knowledge also gets lost on them

they didnt have to even speak about this if they had no idea what is going on or have any interest. like Im the last person whos gonna go "why isn't anyone talking about this???" because I get it its exhausting to pay attention to so many horrible things happening to women constantly. but to straight up saying conspiratorial shit like "it's the russians" or one of my faves "reduxx might be a psyop to make radfems racist or homophobic" is mindblowing. they had to just wait for couple of days for the official statements tho even now most of them haven't even read those so it's not even jumping the gun atp. one of them even admitted to not knowing rules for intersex athletes like then stfu????

also its always the usual suspects you'll find spreading this kinda misinfo too. their word is taken as gospel because ??? so Ig to hell with what people who don't base their opinions on what they read on an unprofitable website for socially inept morons and know what theyre talking about. ntm I highly suspect that this wouldve happened if khelif and lin were white. its incrediblely direspectful to both white women AND woc. Im not one to believe delusional shit but seeing how I have yet to see anyone defending khelif and lin bring up any valid argument other than their race Im just believing theyre only going so hard for them because its the american tendency to make everything about race. they dont realize how more horrible ioc not having proper eligibility criteria could prove in the future to all women.

a lot or the defenses fall extremely flat on the face when you start applying basic logic or start reading how people involved on khelifs side have handled this decision. like his father has no issue flashing his birth certificate to the world but somehow people saying why khelif wouldn't release the test results to prove everyone wrong are going too far because thats their personal info. like lol, lmao even. and saying iba is corrupt... like these people really dont know shit. all sports associations and federations are corrupt, doesnt matter if theyre national or international, govt bodies or not. theyd puke if they saw the shit wfi has put indian female wrestlers thru theyd puke.

at the end of the day this is social media platform and majority of the people on here are always gonna be morons but I really wish theyd at least stop pretending like they care about women.

[devilbimboy]

WHAT TO DO TO SUPPORT PALESTINE! (MASTERLIST)

Are you someone who can’t seem to go to protests or do anything outside of your home to support Palestinians? Are you afraid of supporting either side of the war because you aren’t fully educated on the matter? Do you wanna know how to protest?

Fear not! This is a breakdown of resources to read and how to support Palestinians!

RESEARCH! ~ 🔎

The conflict between Israel v.s. Palestine has been going on since 1947. For me personally, I’ve been hearing about the conflict since I was 14 in 2021.

Q: What is HAMAS?

A: HAMAS is a terrorist organization in Palestine that formed in 1987 due to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. HAMAS launched an attack due to brewing resentment and the attack was to “relieve Palestinians of the occupation of the West Bank and Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip” (Cook, CBSnews).

Q: What is the history of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict?

The Balfour Declaration of 1917, issued by the British, endorsed the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and led to an influx of Jewish immigrants into Palestine. Then, after WW2 and the Holocaust, there was international pressure to establish a Jewish state, which led to the establishment of Israel in 1948. After the establishment of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became displaced from their homes. There were numerous attempts to have peaceful negotiations but none of them lasted.

Source: UN marks 75 years since displacement of 700,000 Palestinians

Supporting Palestinians stance: The people who support Palestine supports Palestinian freedom, not violence! There are rare extremists who think HAMAS is in the right for targeting civilians but that doesn’t make up the vast majority of supporters. REMEMBER TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH ON THIS TOPIC OF THE VICTIMS IN PALESTINE! LISTEN TO THEIR STORIES!

CALL/TEXT ~ 📞

What helps is voicing your concerns to the federal state officials, local officials, etc, about your stance with Palestine!

Q: How do I find my state officials and their contact information?

A: use the website https://www.usa.gov/ and go to the menu button (it should look like three lines on the right side of the screen if you’re on mobile). Go to about the U.S. and its government and scroll down to Find your elected officials. Put in your information and click Find my Elected Officials and all of the officials will be listed with their contact info! It’s recommended to contact their local offices (and you can find that information by clicking their website in the information section).

DONATE ~ 💸

https://droplets.donorsupport.co/page/GazaEmergency?fbclid=PAAableUi-pKguJnwgpwqYs20OeC7ojZDhYP1c5igGX0efl55XWuKaBpjwC9k_aem_Afk0nqv3AGNmqT95Y7nL67Wa-ZMyCEMhmfnm6jHeQ3aSpUP4BB4MPD-oPMZ5HJS0glM

PROTEST ETIQUETTE ~ 🪧

If you’re going to go out to protest, I’m proud of you for taking that step into your activism! Here's a list of things to keep in mind:

Follow instructions of the organizers

Avoid direct police contact

Protect your cellphone privacy (lock your phone, disable thumb/face recognition, leave your phone locked while taking photos, etc.)

Protect your identity and identity of others. (Do not post yours or other people’s faces on social media)

Beware of undercover police

Know your rights

Dress appropriately (keep easily identifiable marks hidden)