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The coronavirus has illuminated the stark divides in a global game—and spurred new efforts to bridge them.
via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/the-fractured-world-of-tennis-amid-a-prolonged-pandemic
The coronavirus has illuminated the stark divides in a global game—and spurred new efforts to bridge them.
Apple Daily, a pro-democracy paper known for celebrity gossip and hard-hitting investigations, has become a target in Beijing’s new national security law in Hong Kong.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/world/asia/hong-kong-apple-daily-jimmy-lai.html?ref=oembed
Apple Daily, a pro-democracy paper known for celebrity gossip and hard-hitting investigations, has become a target in Beijing’s new national security law in Hong Kong.
Corruption, as much as violence, makes Iraq unlivable. It helped fuel the rise of ISIS. And America provides the cash to sustain it, at least $10 billion a year in hard currency.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/magazine/iraq-corruption.html?ref=oembed
Early last October, while working in his office in Baghdad, a businessman named Hussein Laqees got a phone call from a number he’d never seen before. “We need to talk,” the caller said. The man’s voice was gruff and self-assured, a little menacing. He demanded that Laqees come meet him but refused to give his name.
The arrest of the tycoon and democracy activist Jimmy Lai has reinvigorated defiance rather than demoralize his supporters.
via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/chinas-arrest-of-a-free-speech-icon-backfires-in-hong-kong
Last September, when I was in Hong Kong reporting on the anti-government protests engulfing the city, I spent an afternoon in the industrial-looking headquarters of Apple Daily, a popular tabloid owned by perhaps the city’s most unusual tycoon, an outspoken democracy activist and one of the Communist Party’s leading critics. To meet Jimmy Lai, I walked through the publication’s vast open-plan office, where hundreds of staff members busily put out the day’s news. “When I went into the publishing business, twenty-five years ago, it was a no-brainer,” Lai told me in his office, which resembled the appearance of its owner: determinedly functional and, unusually for Hong Kong, absent of status markers. “Information is freedom, and I wanted to be in the business of delivering freedom.” Lai admitted that back then he hardly thought this was a risky proposition. “I believed that all of China was going forward, that it was inevitable China would adapt to openness.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin can be described as the Renaissance man of deniable Russian black ops. An ex convict who served time for robbery, fraud and involving a minor in drinking and criminal activity, he began his legitimate business career in the 90s as a St.
via bellingcat: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/08/14/pmc-structure-exposed/
Now, a long-running investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider and Der Spiegel has uncovered that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s disinformation, political interference and military operations are tightly integrated with Russia’s Defense Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU. Prigozhin’s private infrastructure – along with that of other government-dependent entrepreneurs, like Kostantin Malofeev – it appears serves as a deniable veneer and a round-tripping money laundering channel for government-mandated overseas operations.
The official Factorio trailer for 2020Homepage (free demo / buy the game): http://www.factorio.com.Steampage: http://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Video:…
via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8SBp4SyvLc
Factorio – Trailer 2020
The pro-democracy figure is the most high-profile person detained under the sweeping legislation imposed by Beijing. “It’s hard to believe this is Hong Kong,” said a journalist.
The pro-democracy figure is the most high-profile person detained under the sweeping legislation imposed by Beijing. “It’s hard to believe this is Hong Kong,” said a journalist.
Yevgeny Prigozhin can be described as the Renaissance man of deniable Russian black ops. An ex convict who served time for robbery, fraud and involving a minor in drinking and criminal activity, he began his legitimate business career in the 90s as a St.
via bellingcat: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/08/14/pmc-structure-exposed/
Yevgeny Prigozhin can be described as the Renaissance man of deniable Russian black ops. An ex convict who served time for robbery, fraud and forcing minors into prostitution, he began his legitimate business career in the 90s as a St. Petersburg restaurant owner and later as caterer for the Kremlin.
In the nineteen-forties, a panel of scholars struggled over truth in reporting, the marketplace of ideas, and the maintenance of a free and responsible press. Their deliberations are more relevant than ever.
via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-future-of-democracy/how-can-the-press-best-serve-democracy
From photographing protests to documenting his own personal experiences, Randy Blythe captures the raw emotion of moments that matter. Discover how he uses p…
via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PTJINfHIyo
Ali Soufan, a decorated veteran of U.S. law enforcement, has become the target of a vitriolic social-media campaign that appears to involve some of the same people who had targeted Jamal Khashoggi.
via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/is-the-saudi-government-plotting-against-another-us-based-critic
When a Qatari sheikh came to live in L.A., an entire economy sprouted to meet his wishes. “His highness doesn’t like to hear no,” one associate told a professor.
via Los Angeles Times: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-16/qatar-prince-usc-ucla-la
The search for Syrian war criminals in Europe
via Harper’s Magazine: https://harpers.org/archive/2020/08/in-plain-sight-syrian-war-criminals-in-europe/
An eccentric Dutchman began living in a giant underground facility built by the German military—and ran a server farm beloved by cybercriminals.
via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/03/the-cold-war-bunker-that-became-home-to-a-dark-web-empire
He fled Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He exposed Australia’s offshore detention camps — from the inside. He survived, stateless, for seven years. What’s next?
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/magazine/behrouz-boochani-australia.html