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Celerity
Celerity's Journal
Celerity's Journal
May 14, 2024
We know it’s coming. Here’s how to rebut it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/14/election-denial-prevention/
https://archive.ph/Qq89E
We know it is coming. The array of contestants in four-times indicted former president Donald Trump’s vice-presidential beauty pageant have repeatedly refused to say they unequivocally will accept the election results. Trump has already begun to lie about Democrats enlisting illegal immigrants to vote. If the MAGA forces do not win, Americans can expect an enhanced replay of 2020 election denial — amplified by Truth Social, Elon Musk’s X and China’s TikTok. Americans must collectively prepare for it — and for any violence MAGA forces (from the gang who argued Jan. 6, 2021, was “legitimate political discourse”) might incite. Democrats can certainly sound the alarm. For starters, they can underscore that only one side is planting the seeds of election denial. President Biden and other top Democrats can talk about it at the convention this summer when they will have the largest national audience of the campaign. But Democrats cannot do it alone. It’s an all-hands-on-deck moment both to ensure all legal votes get counted and to counter expected election denial.
The news media must go “beyond pointing out that claims of widespread voter fraud are false and not substantiated (if, indeed, there is no evidence that irregularities occurred),” journalism scholars Heesoo Jang and Daniel Kreiss argue. Coverage, they say, should frame election denial “as a violation of democratic norms with deleterious implications for democracy.” That means treating election denial “or ex ante assertions that a candidate will not accept the result of an upcoming election — as fundamentally different from other campaign issues.” (They found news coverage fell short in 2020 and did not adequately “condemn, correct, or call out election deniers.”) A starting point would be for news organizations to intensely educate voters and set standards for how they will cover false claims of election denial. In addition, local election officials will need support. “More than half of local election officials reported being concerned about the safety of their colleagues or staff — a significantly higher number than in 2023, but about equal to 2022,” the Brennan Center reported this month. “Similarly, more than one in four worries about being assaulted at home or work. And concern about harassment of family or loved ones reached levels seen in 2022, the last federal election year.”
The good news: “Since 2020, local election officials have taken action to ensure that elections are safe and secure for everyone. More than 90 percent of local election officials reported having taken steps to increase election security over the past four years, such as participating in security trainings and updating polling place contingency plans and election technology.” Legal counsel for election workers and strict enforcement of laws against harassment and threats of polling officials are essential. Nonprofits and civic groups can help by mounting a campaign well in advance of election day to stress that these nonpartisan officials and volunteers are voters’ trusted neighbors, friends and colleagues. Lawyers, too many of whom played an unseemly role in the attempted coup (and subsequently faced discipline and disbarment), also play a key role in validating the election results. State bar associations can publicize and strengthen disciplinary measures for attorneys who file frivolous election claims or plot to overturn election results.
Judges and court personnel will need intensive training in managing election cases (which often requires expedited “adjudication of an election challenge case from the moment of filing”). They will play a critical role in finalizing election results and instilling public trust in the results. The Biden administration should highlight and denounce MAGA efforts to stage resistance to court orders striking down illegal gerrymandering, as well as to legitimize intimidation and weaken access to voting. Pro-democracy election lawyers continue to battle against Republican-backed efforts to suppress voting and the GOP effort to inject partisanship into the election administration process. These lawyers could use pro bono volunteers. In short, they can educate voters that the problem is not voter fraud but deprivation of voting rights. Federal law enforcement, appropriately criticized in the Jan. 6 House select committee’s final report, cannot afford to drop the ball again. They must prepare to secure the Capitol and to lend assistance to state officials to maintain order. A key recommendation from that report needs to be implemented:
snip
Jennifer Rubin: Americans must prepare for another round of election denial
We know it’s coming. Here’s how to rebut it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/14/election-denial-prevention/
https://archive.ph/Qq89E
We know it is coming. The array of contestants in four-times indicted former president Donald Trump’s vice-presidential beauty pageant have repeatedly refused to say they unequivocally will accept the election results. Trump has already begun to lie about Democrats enlisting illegal immigrants to vote. If the MAGA forces do not win, Americans can expect an enhanced replay of 2020 election denial — amplified by Truth Social, Elon Musk’s X and China’s TikTok. Americans must collectively prepare for it — and for any violence MAGA forces (from the gang who argued Jan. 6, 2021, was “legitimate political discourse”) might incite. Democrats can certainly sound the alarm. For starters, they can underscore that only one side is planting the seeds of election denial. President Biden and other top Democrats can talk about it at the convention this summer when they will have the largest national audience of the campaign. But Democrats cannot do it alone. It’s an all-hands-on-deck moment both to ensure all legal votes get counted and to counter expected election denial.
The news media must go “beyond pointing out that claims of widespread voter fraud are false and not substantiated (if, indeed, there is no evidence that irregularities occurred),” journalism scholars Heesoo Jang and Daniel Kreiss argue. Coverage, they say, should frame election denial “as a violation of democratic norms with deleterious implications for democracy.” That means treating election denial “or ex ante assertions that a candidate will not accept the result of an upcoming election — as fundamentally different from other campaign issues.” (They found news coverage fell short in 2020 and did not adequately “condemn, correct, or call out election deniers.”) A starting point would be for news organizations to intensely educate voters and set standards for how they will cover false claims of election denial. In addition, local election officials will need support. “More than half of local election officials reported being concerned about the safety of their colleagues or staff — a significantly higher number than in 2023, but about equal to 2022,” the Brennan Center reported this month. “Similarly, more than one in four worries about being assaulted at home or work. And concern about harassment of family or loved ones reached levels seen in 2022, the last federal election year.”
The good news: “Since 2020, local election officials have taken action to ensure that elections are safe and secure for everyone. More than 90 percent of local election officials reported having taken steps to increase election security over the past four years, such as participating in security trainings and updating polling place contingency plans and election technology.” Legal counsel for election workers and strict enforcement of laws against harassment and threats of polling officials are essential. Nonprofits and civic groups can help by mounting a campaign well in advance of election day to stress that these nonpartisan officials and volunteers are voters’ trusted neighbors, friends and colleagues. Lawyers, too many of whom played an unseemly role in the attempted coup (and subsequently faced discipline and disbarment), also play a key role in validating the election results. State bar associations can publicize and strengthen disciplinary measures for attorneys who file frivolous election claims or plot to overturn election results.
Judges and court personnel will need intensive training in managing election cases (which often requires expedited “adjudication of an election challenge case from the moment of filing”). They will play a critical role in finalizing election results and instilling public trust in the results. The Biden administration should highlight and denounce MAGA efforts to stage resistance to court orders striking down illegal gerrymandering, as well as to legitimize intimidation and weaken access to voting. Pro-democracy election lawyers continue to battle against Republican-backed efforts to suppress voting and the GOP effort to inject partisanship into the election administration process. These lawyers could use pro bono volunteers. In short, they can educate voters that the problem is not voter fraud but deprivation of voting rights. Federal law enforcement, appropriately criticized in the Jan. 6 House select committee’s final report, cannot afford to drop the ball again. They must prepare to secure the Capitol and to lend assistance to state officials to maintain order. A key recommendation from that report needs to be implemented:
snip
May 14, 2024
Label: Not on Label Self-Released - DJ-only
Format: Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Single
Country: UK
Released: 1981
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop
Style: New Wave, Synth-pop
Duran Duran - Careless Memories (1981 Night Version)
Label: Not on Label Self-Released - DJ-only
Format: Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Single
Country: UK
Released: 1981
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop
Style: New Wave, Synth-pop
May 13, 2024
https://twitter.com/JonathanKadmon/status/1789968789703954820
Matt Yglesias deleted this heinous tweet so I volunteer to archive it for him
Kate Willett
@katewillett
Matt Yglesias deleted this heinous tweet so I volunteer to archive it for him
@katewillett
Matt Yglesias deleted this heinous tweet so I volunteer to archive it for him
https://twitter.com/JonathanKadmon/status/1789968789703954820
Jonathan Kadmon
@JonathanKadmon
Somebody generously did something similar with his 'nazis had some good ideas' tweet. Which by the way is utter horse💩 even on those ludicrous terms.
@JonathanKadmon
Somebody generously did something similar with his 'nazis had some good ideas' tweet. Which by the way is utter horse💩 even on those ludicrous terms.
May 12, 2024
https://globalextremism.org/post/fortnites-political-content-encourages-violence/
Fortnite, a video game developed and released by Epic Games, reportedly has 236 million monthly active players and boasts around 650 million registered players as of 2024. According to Demandsage, around 60 percent of Fortnite players are between the ages of 18 and 24, with around 90 percent identifying as male. Over 20 percent of players reside in the United States with Russia, Brazil, Poland, and Mexico following suit. Fortnite generated $4.4 billion in revenue in 2022, making up 85 percent of Epic Games’ total revenue for the year. Fortnite is available on PC, Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, having been pulled from both Apple’s iOS App Store and the Google Play Store in August 2020 after a dispute over royalty payments. Epic allows access to Fortnite on Android devices through its own application.
Epic Games has a history of platforming problematic content and allowing hate to spread on their games. Fortnite was criticized for hosting antisemitic content and failing to moderate Holocaust denial following the release of a report by the ADL in April 2023. According to the report, “multiple users had the name ‘Holohaux,’ while others included the number 88, a white supremacist reference to ‘Heil Hitler.’” Epic Games responded by unveiling an in-game Holocaust Museum, titled “Voices of the Forgotten,” created by Luc Bernard, a French-Jewish video game creator. Unfortunately, this didn’t prevent well-known antisemites from taking advantage of the game’s popularity with young people. Neo-Nazi online influencer Nick Fuentes hosted a fundraiser in December 2023 with a $500 grand prize on Fortnite for his white nationalist conference, the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC).
User-generated content appears on Fortnite as “islands,” a collection of game modes first released in 2018 separate from Fortnite’s trademark “Battle Royale”-style. Each Island represents a different game that users can choose from the “Discover” tab when they open Fortnite, similar to how Roblox’s “experiences” function (read our reporting on Roblox’s user-generated content here). Epic has released their own islands, like the “Festival Jam Stage,” which hosts popular music artists performing at virtual concerts. Gamers can build their own islands using an in-built game designer, called Fortnite “Creative,” and the external “Unreal Editor for Fortnite” powered by Unreal, a game engine also owned by Epic. Creative mode is described by Epic Games as allowing the player to “design Fortnite games and experiences that can be published and shared with friends online… using your own rules on your own personal island.” Users can generate islands from elaborate templates, or from a “basic” island design available in the Creative Studio. The vast majority of islands are themed maps used for more classic game modes, like “Team Deathmatches,” which pits two teams against each other, “Free For Alls,” and Player vs. Player (PvP) game modes. Fortnite was used as a campaigning tool by Joe Biden in the 2020 US Presidential election with an island called “Build Back Better.” It is no longer available for players to access.
A selection of islands featured on Fortnite’s “Discover” page, including both user-generated content and those developed by Epic. (Source: Fortnite)
Political Gaming on Fortnite
Storm The Capitol, featured on Fortnite’s “Discover” page, uses an image of three armed Fortnite characters marching on the U.S. Capitol (Source: Fortnite)
One island flagged by GPAHE is called “Storm the Capitol,” developed by “KCG Studios.” The island’s information page features an image of three armed Fortnite characters approaching a building resembling the United States Capitol, and the “About This Island” section describes the island as only having “one goal, OCCUPY ENEMY BASE!” by “eliminat[ing] all the guards and infiltrate enemy base (sic).” Up to four players can attempt this virtual insurrection at once. Upon entering the island, in-game terrain doesn’t resemble the Capitol grounds, however the objective remains the same. The player must enter a “stronghold” by making their way past eight armed guards by either killing them or stealthily avoiding them. Players are given three weapons: a suppressed sniper rifle, an automatic shotgun, and an assault rifle. They may also take guns from guards they’ve killed. Any time the guards are alerted to any of the players’ presence, a group of “reinforcements” arrive and engage the players in a gunfight. Reinforcements will continue fighting players until they or the player are killed. The game appears to be built using Epic Games’ Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and uses the Verse Stronghold Template provided by the Epic Developer Community. KCG Studios made little to no edits to the template before rebranding it as an insurrection simulator.
At the beginning, the player enters into a forested area that catches fire before they begin entering the “stronghold” (Source: Fortnite)
Fortnite's Political Content Encourages Violence and Allows Players to Stage a Capitol Insurrection
As part of an ongoing investigation into the presence of unmoderated extremism and election-related content on gaming platforms, including on mainstream platforms like Roblox, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) has uncovered a series of user-created content active on the popular video game Fortnite that promotes insurrection and pits world leaders against each other in armed combat.
https://globalextremism.org/post/fortnites-political-content-encourages-violence/
Fortnite, a video game developed and released by Epic Games, reportedly has 236 million monthly active players and boasts around 650 million registered players as of 2024. According to Demandsage, around 60 percent of Fortnite players are between the ages of 18 and 24, with around 90 percent identifying as male. Over 20 percent of players reside in the United States with Russia, Brazil, Poland, and Mexico following suit. Fortnite generated $4.4 billion in revenue in 2022, making up 85 percent of Epic Games’ total revenue for the year. Fortnite is available on PC, Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, having been pulled from both Apple’s iOS App Store and the Google Play Store in August 2020 after a dispute over royalty payments. Epic allows access to Fortnite on Android devices through its own application.
Epic Games has a history of platforming problematic content and allowing hate to spread on their games. Fortnite was criticized for hosting antisemitic content and failing to moderate Holocaust denial following the release of a report by the ADL in April 2023. According to the report, “multiple users had the name ‘Holohaux,’ while others included the number 88, a white supremacist reference to ‘Heil Hitler.’” Epic Games responded by unveiling an in-game Holocaust Museum, titled “Voices of the Forgotten,” created by Luc Bernard, a French-Jewish video game creator. Unfortunately, this didn’t prevent well-known antisemites from taking advantage of the game’s popularity with young people. Neo-Nazi online influencer Nick Fuentes hosted a fundraiser in December 2023 with a $500 grand prize on Fortnite for his white nationalist conference, the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC).
User-generated content appears on Fortnite as “islands,” a collection of game modes first released in 2018 separate from Fortnite’s trademark “Battle Royale”-style. Each Island represents a different game that users can choose from the “Discover” tab when they open Fortnite, similar to how Roblox’s “experiences” function (read our reporting on Roblox’s user-generated content here). Epic has released their own islands, like the “Festival Jam Stage,” which hosts popular music artists performing at virtual concerts. Gamers can build their own islands using an in-built game designer, called Fortnite “Creative,” and the external “Unreal Editor for Fortnite” powered by Unreal, a game engine also owned by Epic. Creative mode is described by Epic Games as allowing the player to “design Fortnite games and experiences that can be published and shared with friends online… using your own rules on your own personal island.” Users can generate islands from elaborate templates, or from a “basic” island design available in the Creative Studio. The vast majority of islands are themed maps used for more classic game modes, like “Team Deathmatches,” which pits two teams against each other, “Free For Alls,” and Player vs. Player (PvP) game modes. Fortnite was used as a campaigning tool by Joe Biden in the 2020 US Presidential election with an island called “Build Back Better.” It is no longer available for players to access.
A selection of islands featured on Fortnite’s “Discover” page, including both user-generated content and those developed by Epic. (Source: Fortnite)
Political Gaming on Fortnite
Storm The Capitol, featured on Fortnite’s “Discover” page, uses an image of three armed Fortnite characters marching on the U.S. Capitol (Source: Fortnite)
One island flagged by GPAHE is called “Storm the Capitol,” developed by “KCG Studios.” The island’s information page features an image of three armed Fortnite characters approaching a building resembling the United States Capitol, and the “About This Island” section describes the island as only having “one goal, OCCUPY ENEMY BASE!” by “eliminat[ing] all the guards and infiltrate enemy base (sic).” Up to four players can attempt this virtual insurrection at once. Upon entering the island, in-game terrain doesn’t resemble the Capitol grounds, however the objective remains the same. The player must enter a “stronghold” by making their way past eight armed guards by either killing them or stealthily avoiding them. Players are given three weapons: a suppressed sniper rifle, an automatic shotgun, and an assault rifle. They may also take guns from guards they’ve killed. Any time the guards are alerted to any of the players’ presence, a group of “reinforcements” arrive and engage the players in a gunfight. Reinforcements will continue fighting players until they or the player are killed. The game appears to be built using Epic Games’ Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and uses the Verse Stronghold Template provided by the Epic Developer Community. KCG Studios made little to no edits to the template before rebranding it as an insurrection simulator.
At the beginning, the player enters into a forested area that catches fire before they begin entering the “stronghold” (Source: Fortnite)
May 12, 2024
https://globalextremism.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GAPHE-P25-Fact-Sheet.pdf
One-page primer on Project 2025
https://globalextremism.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GAPHE-P25-Fact-Sheet.pdf
May 12, 2024
This week we look at how Project 2025’s Alliance Defending Freedom is promoting its anti-abortion agenda in the UK, how dark money is funding Project 2025’s authoritarian agenda, and how Project 2025’s anti-LGBTQ+ plans are being implemented in Tennessee.
https://globalextremism.org/post/project-2025-may-8th-update/
Project 2025 Organization Takes The Battle Over Abortion Rights To The UK
In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s seismic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, the shockwaves are being felt far beyond American borders. The ruling seems to have emboldened the U.S. anti-abortion movement to intensify its efforts to roll back reproductive rights internationally, with the UK emerging as an important battleground, as Truthout reported. A recent vote in the British Parliament highlighted how American-style anti-abortion tactics and rhetoric are being exported across the pond. MPs voted down an amendment from Labour’s Stella Creasy that would have allowed women in England to permanently access abortion pills by mail, as was temporarily allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anti-choice groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) celebrated this defeat as a major win in their quest to dismantle abortion access. However, a 2023 poll showed that nearly 90 percent of Britons describe themselves as pro-choice.
What’s particularly concerning is how intertwined the U.S. and UK anti-abortion movements have become in recent years. ADF in particular has been working hand-in-glove with its British counterparts. They’ve exported model legislation, funding, strategic guidance, and more to organizations in the UK aiming to chip away at abortion rights. ADF’s UK campaigns are based on successful strategies imported from U.S. anti-abortion groups. Although the UK is majority pro-choice and abortions are legal, nevertheless the anti-abortion movement is making inroads in the UK, manipulating social media and television appearances to make their movement seem larger than it is. These are million-dollar campaigns with US groups exporting their strategies to Europe for a global impact. Some of their campaigns include the clip posted to YouTube below, encouraging anti-abortion supporters to pray silently outside abortion providers’ offices.
“As if the US anti-abortion movement didn’t already have sufficient momentum, the Dobbs’ decision turbo-charged their motivation and reach,” Gillian Kane, the director of policy and advocacy research at the pro-choice, non-governmental organization Ipas, told openDemocracy. “There are veteran organizations continuing their line of work, but also traditionally domestic-focused groups… see an opportunity to dip their toes in these crowded international waters.” From 2017 to 2022, the last year tax records for ADF are available, its foreign expenditures have been $31 million, with the vast majority of that being spent on European anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns. Details as to which organizations were recipients are not required to be disclosed by the IRS, only the region where funds are sent.
Part of what makes this international alliance so formidable is their sophisticated tactics that go beyond the usual emotional pleas to “protect the unborn.” These groups have become experts at co-opting progressive language around human rights, equality, and justice to reframe the entire issue as one about defending the civil liberties of fetuses. ADF International promotional materials boast of “35 victories before the European Court of Human Rights.” They’ve also deliberately rebranded and portrayed themselves as modern women’s rights groups – despite having the goal of stripping women of bodily autonomy. This insidious rhetorical repackaging has allowed the anti-abortion movement to make alarming inroads overseas. American-style draconian abortion bans such as those proposed and advocated for in Project 2025 could eventually take root on British soil as this “cultural war” escalates globally.
snip
Project 2025 May 8th Update
This week we look at how Project 2025’s Alliance Defending Freedom is promoting its anti-abortion agenda in the UK, how dark money is funding Project 2025’s authoritarian agenda, and how Project 2025’s anti-LGBTQ+ plans are being implemented in Tennessee.
https://globalextremism.org/post/project-2025-may-8th-update/
Project 2025 Organization Takes The Battle Over Abortion Rights To The UK
In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s seismic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, the shockwaves are being felt far beyond American borders. The ruling seems to have emboldened the U.S. anti-abortion movement to intensify its efforts to roll back reproductive rights internationally, with the UK emerging as an important battleground, as Truthout reported. A recent vote in the British Parliament highlighted how American-style anti-abortion tactics and rhetoric are being exported across the pond. MPs voted down an amendment from Labour’s Stella Creasy that would have allowed women in England to permanently access abortion pills by mail, as was temporarily allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anti-choice groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) celebrated this defeat as a major win in their quest to dismantle abortion access. However, a 2023 poll showed that nearly 90 percent of Britons describe themselves as pro-choice.
What’s particularly concerning is how intertwined the U.S. and UK anti-abortion movements have become in recent years. ADF in particular has been working hand-in-glove with its British counterparts. They’ve exported model legislation, funding, strategic guidance, and more to organizations in the UK aiming to chip away at abortion rights. ADF’s UK campaigns are based on successful strategies imported from U.S. anti-abortion groups. Although the UK is majority pro-choice and abortions are legal, nevertheless the anti-abortion movement is making inroads in the UK, manipulating social media and television appearances to make their movement seem larger than it is. These are million-dollar campaigns with US groups exporting their strategies to Europe for a global impact. Some of their campaigns include the clip posted to YouTube below, encouraging anti-abortion supporters to pray silently outside abortion providers’ offices.
“As if the US anti-abortion movement didn’t already have sufficient momentum, the Dobbs’ decision turbo-charged their motivation and reach,” Gillian Kane, the director of policy and advocacy research at the pro-choice, non-governmental organization Ipas, told openDemocracy. “There are veteran organizations continuing their line of work, but also traditionally domestic-focused groups… see an opportunity to dip their toes in these crowded international waters.” From 2017 to 2022, the last year tax records for ADF are available, its foreign expenditures have been $31 million, with the vast majority of that being spent on European anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns. Details as to which organizations were recipients are not required to be disclosed by the IRS, only the region where funds are sent.
ADF is also cozying up to British politicians, including MP Fiona Bruce, Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion of Belief, who has attended several ADF events, at least one of which had travel and expenses paid.
Part of what makes this international alliance so formidable is their sophisticated tactics that go beyond the usual emotional pleas to “protect the unborn.” These groups have become experts at co-opting progressive language around human rights, equality, and justice to reframe the entire issue as one about defending the civil liberties of fetuses. ADF International promotional materials boast of “35 victories before the European Court of Human Rights.” They’ve also deliberately rebranded and portrayed themselves as modern women’s rights groups – despite having the goal of stripping women of bodily autonomy. This insidious rhetorical repackaging has allowed the anti-abortion movement to make alarming inroads overseas. American-style draconian abortion bans such as those proposed and advocated for in Project 2025 could eventually take root on British soil as this “cultural war” escalates globally.
snip
May 12, 2024
Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose wealth is about a third of the country’s GDP, watches from the wings as a controversial foreign agent law threatens to widen gulf with the West
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/georgia-protests-foreign-agent-bill-bidzina-ivanishvili-rlkvc5g8l
https://archive.ph/HGwUD
Ana Minadze became a symbol of youth resistance in Georgia after an image of her putting on lipstick in the reflection of a riot shield went viral GEORGE DUMBADZE
When Ted Jonas arrived in Georgia from the United States 30 years ago he paid little heed to the frequent power cuts, absent heating and street gang warfare. Instead the Ivy League graduate fell in love, married a Georgian and ran successful legal practices, in the process becoming a Georgian citizen. Two weeks ago he was beaten, kicked and punched in the head and body by the security forces, arrested and dumped in a police van and then held for hours in a police station, vomiting and concussed. Dozens of others were arrested alongside him.
Their crime? Taking part in mass protests against a draft law that has triggered some of the biggest unrest in the small Caucasian country since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. At his house in the historic heart of the capital, Tbilisi, Jonas was still sporting a watery black eye and suffering from bouts of dizziness. But rather than blame his assailants he cited the influence of Bidzina Ivanishvili, an enigmatic billionaire who lives in a vast glass and steel mansion on the hills overlooking the city. “What’s happening here right now is an absolute face-off between people who want Georgia to have a European future and the person who does not,” he said. Further protests were expected on Saturday night.
Bidzina Ivanishvili has a personal fortune estimated to be equal to a third of the country’s GDP SHAKH AIVAZOV/AP
The draft legislation, which has passed two of three readings in parliament, would require NGOs and independent media that receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents — or face considerable fines. The government maintains that this step is essential to protect the country from foreign influence. Protesters see it as a direct attack on a vibrant civil society and the latest governmental step pushing Georgia back into the dubious embrace of the Kremlin.
“Life has never been very easy here,” said Natasha Lomouri, director of PEN International Georgia, who remembers protesting on the streets of Tbilisi as a child on April 9, 1989, when the Soviet army, with the help of tanks and poison gas, opened fire on peaceful protesters, killing 21 people. “But now it’s the most dangerous time since independence.” The government first attempted to introduce the foreign agent legislation last year but withdrew it due to mass protests. Now, with the nation facing elections in October, the law is back and is this time pitched as an attempt to protect Georgia from imported ideas such as the promotion of equality for LGBT+ minorities. Such liberties remain overwhelmingly unpopular in the predominantly conservative Orthodox Christian country.
snip
Georgia swells with protests under the boot of a billionaire
Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose wealth is about a third of the country’s GDP, watches from the wings as a controversial foreign agent law threatens to widen gulf with the West
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/georgia-protests-foreign-agent-bill-bidzina-ivanishvili-rlkvc5g8l
https://archive.ph/HGwUD
Ana Minadze became a symbol of youth resistance in Georgia after an image of her putting on lipstick in the reflection of a riot shield went viral GEORGE DUMBADZE
When Ted Jonas arrived in Georgia from the United States 30 years ago he paid little heed to the frequent power cuts, absent heating and street gang warfare. Instead the Ivy League graduate fell in love, married a Georgian and ran successful legal practices, in the process becoming a Georgian citizen. Two weeks ago he was beaten, kicked and punched in the head and body by the security forces, arrested and dumped in a police van and then held for hours in a police station, vomiting and concussed. Dozens of others were arrested alongside him.
Their crime? Taking part in mass protests against a draft law that has triggered some of the biggest unrest in the small Caucasian country since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. At his house in the historic heart of the capital, Tbilisi, Jonas was still sporting a watery black eye and suffering from bouts of dizziness. But rather than blame his assailants he cited the influence of Bidzina Ivanishvili, an enigmatic billionaire who lives in a vast glass and steel mansion on the hills overlooking the city. “What’s happening here right now is an absolute face-off between people who want Georgia to have a European future and the person who does not,” he said. Further protests were expected on Saturday night.
Bidzina Ivanishvili has a personal fortune estimated to be equal to a third of the country’s GDP SHAKH AIVAZOV/AP
The draft legislation, which has passed two of three readings in parliament, would require NGOs and independent media that receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents — or face considerable fines. The government maintains that this step is essential to protect the country from foreign influence. Protesters see it as a direct attack on a vibrant civil society and the latest governmental step pushing Georgia back into the dubious embrace of the Kremlin.
“Life has never been very easy here,” said Natasha Lomouri, director of PEN International Georgia, who remembers protesting on the streets of Tbilisi as a child on April 9, 1989, when the Soviet army, with the help of tanks and poison gas, opened fire on peaceful protesters, killing 21 people. “But now it’s the most dangerous time since independence.” The government first attempted to introduce the foreign agent legislation last year but withdrew it due to mass protests. Now, with the nation facing elections in October, the law is back and is this time pitched as an attempt to protect Georgia from imported ideas such as the promotion of equality for LGBT+ minorities. Such liberties remain overwhelmingly unpopular in the predominantly conservative Orthodox Christian country.
snip
May 11, 2024
A fierce battle is under way for Ukraine’s second city as Moscow launches the biggest ground assault on the region for two years. Soldiers caught up in the fighting tell their story
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-was-silent-then-it-was-hell-russia-renews-strikes-on-kharkiv-7r9w6bp2m
https://archive.ph/U8nZi
The soldiers had spent almost a fortnight digging trenches day and night to deter Russian forces from crossing the border north of Kharkiv, but at about two o’clock on Friday morning the enemy came crashing through. Russia’s new assault on Ukraine’s second city had begun. “It was silent at first, and then it was hell,” said platoon commander Nikita a few hours later, speaking from his mother’s home in Kharkiv. “We held the artillery. That’s it. We stood watching it all.” For the next 12 hours, he and his platoon tried to ward off Russian attacks, which came from multiple directions in the form of drones, artillery, tanks and infantrymen.
The hardest part of the battle was the first six hours as enemy forces moved through a border that had remained intact for over a year. “We detained, repelled in full, and we inflicted a very big blow on them,” Nikita said. “We had no wounded or killed.” Leo, a soldier from the same brigade stationed at another point, watched the Russians as they infiltrated Ukrainian positions. His own section came under fire at 11.30am on Friday in a battle that lasted 15 to 20 minutes. They all got out alive, he said. “But I saw other soldiers who were dead,” he added. “The Russians went into the trenches.” The rest of the day passed in a blur as the Ukrainians fought to stop enemy soldiers from occupying villages around the border. At one point, while evacuating civilians, Leo made eye contact with an elderly woman whose face was filled with fear and hopelessness. “I felt sad for her,” he said.
Russia said on Saturday that its forces had captured five villages — Pletenivka, Ohirtseve, Borysivka, Pylna and Strilechna — which lie in the “grey zone” along the Ukrainian border, which, at its closest, is less than 30 miles from Kharkiv. The Ukrainian military, which rushed reinforcements to the Kharkiv region on Friday, said the Russian advance had been halted. “The enemy is localised in the ‘grey zone’, it is not expanding,” said Nazar Voloshyn, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern command. “However, there is the question of finally destroying it and catching it in the tree lines where it could hide.”
Ukrainian forces also launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Saturday on Russia’s Belgorod, Kursk and Volgograd, Russia’s defence ministry said. This is the biggest ground assault Russia has launched in the Kharkiv region since its forces retreated after failing to take the city in May 2022, just three months after Vladmir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. A “fierce battle” was under way in Kharkiv, President Zelensky said on Friday, adding: “We must disrupt Russian offensive operations and return the initiative to Ukraine.”
snip
'It was silent ... then it was hell' -- in the path of Russia's move on Kharkiv
A fierce battle is under way for Ukraine’s second city as Moscow launches the biggest ground assault on the region for two years. Soldiers caught up in the fighting tell their story
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-was-silent-then-it-was-hell-russia-renews-strikes-on-kharkiv-7r9w6bp2m
https://archive.ph/U8nZi
The soldiers had spent almost a fortnight digging trenches day and night to deter Russian forces from crossing the border north of Kharkiv, but at about two o’clock on Friday morning the enemy came crashing through. Russia’s new assault on Ukraine’s second city had begun. “It was silent at first, and then it was hell,” said platoon commander Nikita a few hours later, speaking from his mother’s home in Kharkiv. “We held the artillery. That’s it. We stood watching it all.” For the next 12 hours, he and his platoon tried to ward off Russian attacks, which came from multiple directions in the form of drones, artillery, tanks and infantrymen.
The hardest part of the battle was the first six hours as enemy forces moved through a border that had remained intact for over a year. “We detained, repelled in full, and we inflicted a very big blow on them,” Nikita said. “We had no wounded or killed.” Leo, a soldier from the same brigade stationed at another point, watched the Russians as they infiltrated Ukrainian positions. His own section came under fire at 11.30am on Friday in a battle that lasted 15 to 20 minutes. They all got out alive, he said. “But I saw other soldiers who were dead,” he added. “The Russians went into the trenches.” The rest of the day passed in a blur as the Ukrainians fought to stop enemy soldiers from occupying villages around the border. At one point, while evacuating civilians, Leo made eye contact with an elderly woman whose face was filled with fear and hopelessness. “I felt sad for her,” he said.
Russia said on Saturday that its forces had captured five villages — Pletenivka, Ohirtseve, Borysivka, Pylna and Strilechna — which lie in the “grey zone” along the Ukrainian border, which, at its closest, is less than 30 miles from Kharkiv. The Ukrainian military, which rushed reinforcements to the Kharkiv region on Friday, said the Russian advance had been halted. “The enemy is localised in the ‘grey zone’, it is not expanding,” said Nazar Voloshyn, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern command. “However, there is the question of finally destroying it and catching it in the tree lines where it could hide.”
Ukrainian forces also launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Saturday on Russia’s Belgorod, Kursk and Volgograd, Russia’s defence ministry said. This is the biggest ground assault Russia has launched in the Kharkiv region since its forces retreated after failing to take the city in May 2022, just three months after Vladmir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. A “fierce battle” was under way in Kharkiv, President Zelensky said on Friday, adding: “We must disrupt Russian offensive operations and return the initiative to Ukraine.”
snip
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