Reports of slightly elevated radiation levels over Northern Europe were blamed on Moscow by Western media – accusations that appear to stem from a botched translation. The Kremlin says Russia has registered no nuclear incidents.
“We have an absolutely advanced radiation levels safety monitoring system and there are no emergency alarms [that went off],” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday responding to the allegations of a nuclear incident on Russian territory.
State nuclear energy agency Rosatom also said that all the readings reported by its monitoring systems remain within the normal range.
A slight increase in the levels of radioactivity over Northern Europe was detected by several monitoring stations in Finland, Sweden, and Norway in the first half of June. The spike was later acknowledged by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).
The CTBTO said the increase was not harmful to people. The organization’s executive director, Lassina Zerbo, tweeted that the isotopes “most likely” came from a “civil source.” The organization also shared a map of the area where the source of radiation might have been located. The marked area covers parts of Sweden, Finland, and Russia.
22 /23 June 2020, RN #IMS station SEP63 #Sweden🇸🇪 detected 3isotopes; Cs-134, Cs-137 & Ru-103 associated w/Nuclear fission @ higher[ ] than usual levels (but not harmful for human health). The possible source region in the 72h preceding detection is shown in orange on the map. pic.twitter.com/ZeGsJa21TN
It did not take long for the blame game to begin, with Moscow seemingly being assigned its usual role of scapegoat.
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) said on Friday that the composition of the nuclear elements indicates an “incident involving a fuel element of a nuclear reactor.” The initial version of the report, published in Dutch, claimed that the radiation came “from the direction of Western Russia.”
The claim was swiftly picked up by Western media, with many outlets interpreting the report as all but certain proof that the mysterious nuclear “event” could be traced back to Russia.
When the media and internet were already rife with speculation, the RIVM amended the original report. Blaming a “mistranslation” for the confusion, the Dutch researchers said it was impossible to determine the exact source of the radiation.
The now revised report (which has since been translated into English) states, rather vaguely, that based on “calculations,” they believe that “the arrival [of isotopes] at the measuring stations took place from a South East direction.”
“The possible source location, therefore, covers a large area, and a more specific location for the source cannot be determined owing to the limited number of measurements,” it now reads.
While downplaying its report of the alleged Russian trace in the newest nuclear mystery, the RIVM could not resist patting itself on the back for being “able to locate the source more accurately” in a “similar situation” in 2017. Back then, a large increase in ruthenium-106 levels was detected in the air over several European countries. Despite any actual proof, many were quick to blame Russia, claiming its Mayak nuclear facility, located in the Urals, was behind the leak. Moscow did not report any nuclear incidents at the time, suggesting instead that a derelict satellite that burned up in the atmosphere might have been behind the radioactive scare.
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After New Delhi banned dozens of Chinese-made mobile apps citing privacy concerns, TikTok denied sharing the data of Indian users with China, saying it would not do so even if requested by any foreign government.
The Indian branch of the Beijing-headquartered company insisted that it abides by “all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and have not shared any information of our users in India” with any government, including China.
“Further, if we are requested to in the future we would not do so. We place the highest importance on user privacy and integrity,” a statement by Nikhil Gandhi, the head of TikTok India, says.
Earlier, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology banned 59 Chinese-owned mobile apps, including TikTok, as well as microblogging platform Weibo, messaging service WeChat, and Alibaba’s UC Browser.
New Delhi explained the surprise decision citing numerous reports about the apps “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorized manner.” The data has been mined and profiled in a way that infringes on Indian sovereignty, national security, and defense, the ministry said.
TikTok has rapidly grown in popularity in India, the company’s biggest foreign market, where an estimated 120 million people use it.
The ban on the 59 apps came amid spiraling tensions along the disputed Indian-Chinese border in the Himalayas. A confrontation involving hundreds of troops from both sides broke out earlier in June, leaving at least 20 Indian troops dead.
While reports citing Indian officials claimed that as many as 40 Chinese soldiers were killed, Beijing dismissed the number as “fake news.”
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After New Delhi banned dozens of Chinese-made mobile apps citing privacy concerns, TikTok denied sharing the data of Indian users with China, saying it would not do so even if requested by any foreign government.
The Indian branch of the Beijing-headquartered company insisted that it abides by “all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and have not shared any information of our users in India” with any government, including China.
“Further, if we are requested to in the future we would not do so. We place the highest importance on user privacy and integrity,” a statement by Nikhil Gandhi, the head of TikTok India, says.
Earlier, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology banned 59 Chinese-owned mobile apps, including TikTok, as well as microblogging platform Weibo, messaging service WeChat, and Alibaba’s UC Browser.
New Delhi explained the surprise decision citing numerous reports about the apps “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorized manner.” The data has been mined and profiled in a way that infringes on Indian sovereignty, national security, and defense, the ministry said.
TikTok has rapidly grown in popularity in India, the company’s biggest foreign market, where an estimated 120 million people use it.
The ban on the 59 apps came amid spiraling tensions along the disputed Indian-Chinese border in the Himalayas. A confrontation involving hundreds of troops from both sides broke out earlier in June, leaving at least 20 Indian troops dead.
While reports citing Indian officials claimed that as many as 40 Chinese soldiers were killed, Beijing dismissed the number as “fake news.”
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If the foreign minister doesn't have a clue, it's probably time to give up guessing. On Monday, Sergey Lavrov admitted to RT that he has no knowledge of when his country's borders, shut since March, will reopen.
“I don't know. We are gradually starting to return to normal life, leaving (behind) the period of video conferences,” he said. “I was already visited – in person – by two of my colleagues: Mohammad Javad Zarif, the minister of foreign affairs from Iran, and by Jorge Arreasa, from Venezuela.”
Despite receiving diplomatic guests, Lavrov believes it might be some time before the borders open up for ordinary Russians.
“The European Union is now opening up, but, given the number of detected cases of infection in Russia, like in the USA and in Brazil, the EU is not yet considering opening up [for Russians],” he said.
The bloc is planning to reopen to a large number of non-EU citizens on July 1. However, people from countries with a large number of infections won't immediately be allowed in – including those from Russia and the USA.
Foreign Minister Lavrov also revealed that at least 20,000 Russians who have expressed a desire to return still remain abroad. Despite regular repatriation flights, some areas of the world are inaccessible to Russian airlines – including Oceania and the Philippines.
On March 27, Russia halted all international passenger air travel to and from the country, with only specially permitted flights being allowed to transport people across the border.
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The Democratic Party has provoked a collective eye roll on Twitter after blasting the president for an upcoming rally at Mount Rushmore, saying it would honor “white supremacy” on sacred native land. The tweet was quickly nuked.
The Dems’ latest hot take on Monday night stood for only moments before it was sent down the memory hole, though by then it had already been preserved for eternity on an internet archive site. The hot-button tweet said President Donald Trump had “disrespected Native communities,” and would do so again by holding his July 4th rally at Mount Rushmore, which it deemed “sacred” to some Native American tribes.
The now-deleted post sent critics into a fury, interpreting the message to say that both the iconic American monument and Independence Day itself are celebrations of racism. Among those to wade into the fray were Trump’s own campaign team, as well as the GOP’s national spokesperson, Elizabeth Harrington, who put a challenge to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Joe Biden's Democrat Party says Mount Rushmore and 4th of July celebrations "glorify white supremacy."
One Trump campaign staffer noted that a number of high-profile Democrats – as well as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Dems – had each visited the monument themselves, showing no signs of disapproval at the time.
Conservative pundit Jack Posobiec directed his criticism in another direction, taking aim at Republican lawmakers and suggesting they might adopt the same progressive-friendly position if asked (‘NeverTrump’ Senator Mitt Romney was put up as a likely candidate).
If the Senate GOP were asked about Mt Rushmore would they call it white supremacist too?
Some netizens on the other side of the political spectrum have taken up the argument against the massive monument, however, noting that the site has religious significance for the Lakota and that it honors presidents who “perpetuated genocide” against Native tribes.
Mt. Rushmore is literally a mountain of colonizers and slave masters carved into a sacred indigenous mountain and that’s on settler colonialism sir https://t.co/bp7QdkfqJa
A site sacred to the Lakota was not only blown up, but it was designed by a member of the Ku Klux Klan in honor of presidents that all supported & perpetuated Indigenous genocide.
YouTube intellectual Stefan Molyneux has seen his channel of 14 years and thousands of videos deleted, with the platform citing “hate speech” as a number of online venues take aim at conservative and right-wing personalities.
Molyneux – the host of Freedomain Radio, billed as “the world’s number one philosophy show” – was booted off YouTube on Monday over its policies regulating “hate speech,” according to a company statement. His termination came amid a broader social media purge throughout the day, which saw prominent Trump-related accounts banned on Reddit and Twitch, as well as other right-wingers scrubbed from YouTube for good.
“We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Verge about Monday’s bans, adding that a policy change last year has driven a surge of similar deletions.
After updating our guidelines to better address supremacist content, we saw a 5x spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels for violating our hate speech policies.
Previously boasting nearly 1 million YouTube subscribers and hundreds of millions of video views, Molyneux has launched a campaign to reinstate the channel, calling on his followers to inundate the company with pleas to have his account revived. In a video statement posted on Twitter, Molyneux insisted the charges against him are baseless, stating there is a “highly coordinated effort” to silence “dissidents,” comparing his ban to a “book burning.”
“The accusation is the usual one, that I am fomenting violence and hatred and so on, which is not true at all,” he said, adding that he has always called to resolve social disputes with “reason and evidence,” rather than violence.
— Stefan Molyneux, MA (@StefanMolyneux) June 29, 2020
Starting out on YouTube in 2006 with a show largely devoted to libertarian political philosophy and peaceful parenting, Molyneux has courted controversy more recently, delving into what critics have deemed “scientific racism,” or theories that posit significant biological differences between races. While those views generated fierce criticism over the years – as well as bans on other platforms – some of his detractors weighed in to oppose his channel’s deletion, arguing he should still have the “right to speak” even if his opinions are “awful.”
I think your scientific approach to race is arbitrary discrimination & you sometimes look like a misogynist, but disagreement is what sparks critical thinking that challenges & educates.
To be honest, I just ignore your "wrong thing" & move on.
Ignorance is a tool of slavery 😬
Other opponents were far less forgiving, however, some labeling Molyneux’s content a “pathway” to “white supremacist radicalization,” and the “first step down the alt-right rabbit hole,” one also noting that more openly racist figures like David Duke and Richard Spencer had been banned along with him in Monday’s purge.
Lots of right wingers FURIOUS at the "political bias" of YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit's recent content bans. Here's a secret: Most political violence and hate speech is on the right. The research is widely available. https://t.co/ksbltxz7wF
Richard Spencer and David Duke are bigger names, but YouTube banning Stefan Molyneux is a big, big deal. He had 300 million lifetime views (!), and was the first step down the alt-right rabbit hole for a lot of young men, including Caleb Cain. https://t.co/7UojMUuwWR
stefan molyneux's youtube channel suspended 😍 soooo many people i studied for my book specifically cited him as a pathway for their white supremacist radicalization. small victories
Molyneux wasn’t without his defenders, as many stepped in to decry the move as part of a broader effort to censor conservative and right-wing icons online. Others voiced disappointment that his whole body of work had been scrubbed, pointing out that many of his earlier videos were “incredibly detailed, well researched and sourced.”
Holy smokes Stefan Molyneux got banned from YouTube
They're constantly censoring right wing/conservative icons
I don't like a lot of what he had to say & took issue with a lot of it, but I at least want him to voice his opinions!@TeamYouTube reinstate @StefanMolyneux
Google is a private company, and as the owner of YouTube it can ban @StefanMolyneux for whatever reason it wants. But management should at least be honest about their reasons. Fortunately, you can still listen to Stefan at https://t.co/01bM2sOPAL
The news is that Stefan Molyneux was banned by YouTube for alleged white supremacist views despite explicitly repudiating white supremacy and insisting on rational, evidence-based debate. But who cares about truth if a non-Leftist can be silenced. Disappointed in @TeamYouTube
Sad to see Molyneux's entire YouTube channel deleted. Haven't seen his stuff recently, but I watched a ton of his content years ago, when I was first interested in politics; his videos on liberal economics and free markets were incredibly detailed, well researched and sourced.
YouTube intellectual Stefan Molyneux has seen his channel of 14 years and thousands of videos deleted, with the platform citing “hate speech” as a number of online venues take aim at conservative and right-wing personalities.
Molyneux – the host of Freedomain Radio, billed as “the world’s number one philosophy show” – was booted off YouTube on Monday over its policies regulating “hate speech,” according to a company statement. His termination came amid a broader social media purge throughout the day, which saw prominent Trump-related accounts banned on Reddit and Twitch, as well as other right-wingers scrubbed from YouTube for good.
“We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Verge about Monday’s bans, adding that a policy change last year has driven a surge of similar deletions.
After updating our guidelines to better address supremacist content, we saw a 5x spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels for violating our hate speech policies.
Previously boasting nearly 1 million YouTube subscribers and hundreds of millions of video views, Molyneux has launched a campaign to reinstate the channel, calling on his followers to inundate the company with pleas to have his account revived. In a video statement posted on Twitter, Molyneux insisted the charges against him are baseless, stating there is a “highly coordinated effort” to silence “dissidents,” comparing his ban to a “book burning.”
“The accusation is the usual one, that I am fomenting violence and hatred and so on, which is not true at all,” he said, adding that he has always called to resolve social disputes with “reason and evidence,” rather than violence.
— Stefan Molyneux, MA (@StefanMolyneux) June 29, 2020
Starting out on YouTube in 2006 with a show largely devoted to libertarian political philosophy and peaceful parenting, Molyneux has courted controversy more recently, delving into what critics have deemed “scientific racism,” or theories that posit significant biological differences between races. While those views generated fierce criticism over the years – as well as bans on other platforms – some of his detractors weighed in to oppose his channel’s deletion, arguing he should still have the “right to speak” even if his opinions are “awful.”
I think your scientific approach to race is arbitrary discrimination & you sometimes look like a misogynist, but disagreement is what sparks critical thinking that challenges & educates.
To be honest, I just ignore your "wrong thing" & move on.
Ignorance is a tool of slavery 😬
Other opponents were far less forgiving, however, some labeling Molyneux’s content a “pathway” to “white supremacist radicalization,” and the “first step down the alt-right rabbit hole,” one also noting that more openly racist figures like David Duke and Richard Spencer had been banned along with him in Monday’s purge.
Lots of right wingers FURIOUS at the "political bias" of YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit's recent content bans. Here's a secret: Most political violence and hate speech is on the right. The research is widely available. https://t.co/ksbltxz7wF
Richard Spencer and David Duke are bigger names, but YouTube banning Stefan Molyneux is a big, big deal. He had 300 million lifetime views (!), and was the first step down the alt-right rabbit hole for a lot of young men, including Caleb Cain. https://t.co/7UojMUuwWR
stefan molyneux's youtube channel suspended 😍 soooo many people i studied for my book specifically cited him as a pathway for their white supremacist radicalization. small victories
Molyneux wasn’t without his defenders, as many stepped in to decry the move as part of a broader effort to censor conservative and right-wing icons online. Others voiced disappointment that his whole body of work had been scrubbed, pointing out that many of his earlier videos were “incredibly detailed, well researched and sourced.”
Holy smokes Stefan Molyneux got banned from YouTube
They're constantly censoring right wing/conservative icons
I don't like a lot of what he had to say & took issue with a lot of it, but I at least want him to voice his opinions!@TeamYouTube reinstate @StefanMolyneux
Google is a private company, and as the owner of YouTube it can ban @StefanMolyneux for whatever reason it wants. But management should at least be honest about their reasons. Fortunately, you can still listen to Stefan at https://t.co/01bM2sOPAL
The news is that Stefan Molyneux was banned by YouTube for alleged white supremacist views despite explicitly repudiating white supremacy and insisting on rational, evidence-based debate. But who cares about truth if a non-Leftist can be silenced. Disappointed in @TeamYouTube
Sad to see Molyneux's entire YouTube channel deleted. Haven't seen his stuff recently, but I watched a ton of his content years ago, when I was first interested in politics; his videos on liberal economics and free markets were incredibly detailed, well researched and sourced.
The US Director of National Intelligence said that recent leaks in the media may put US troops at risk and derail the investigation into source-based reports of Moscow allegedly paying the Taliban bounties to kill US troops.
“The selective leaking of any classified information disrupts the vital interagency work to collect, assess and mitigate threats and places our forces at risk. It is also, simply put, a crime,” Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe said in a statement on Monday.
While Ratcliffe did not directly refer to the story, originally run by the New York Times on Friday, which alleged that US intelligence had briefed President Donald Trump on reports that Moscow offered Islamist insurgents in Afghanistan money in exchange for the killing of US soldiers, he stated that the Directorate is “still investigating the alleged intelligence referenced in recent media reporting.”
Ratcliffe went on to note that once the investigation is complete, the agency would “brief the President and Congressional leaders at appropriate time.”
DNI Ratcliffe issues statement on impact of unauthorized disclosures on force protection pic.twitter.com/Pr7PbWk443
There was nothing out of the ordinary in how the investigation had proceeded until the media jumped the gun with its reporting, potentially reducing the whole effort to uncover the truth to zero, he said.
Unfortunately, unauthorized disclosures now jeopardize our ability to ever find out the full story with respect to these allegations
Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has stoked rage online after it emerged that he doesn’t allow actors to use chairs on his sets. Apparently running out of stars to denounce, cancel-happy netizens did not take the news sitting down.
The director’s name came up during a webchat for Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors’ on Monday, in which stars Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman discussed the style of various filmmakers, eventually coming to rules on set, with Hathaway noting that Nolan allows neither phones nor chairs.
“Chris also doesn’t allow chairs. I worked with him twice,” she said. “His reasoning is, if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they’re sitting, they’re not working.”
I mean, he has these incredible movies in terms of scope and ambition and technical prowess and emotion. It always arrives at the end under schedule and under budget. I think he’s onto something with the chair thing.
For every idiot that thinks the Christopher Nolan-chairs story is a thing, witness Hugh Jackman, who played the lead in a Nolan film, expressing surprise at this ‘revelation’. https://t.co/LzbOqrBb2j
Though Hathaway gave a nod to the director’s methods – while Jackman, who has also worked with Nolan, appeared outright surprised to hear about the chair ban – netizens rushed to the actors’ rescue, dubbing Nolan an “ableist” and even a “racist” for good measure.
So not only is Nolan a racist with his whitewashed, Dunkirk movie. But he's also an ableist with his no chair rules. Fuck that man. https://t.co/wPWf7zaKWt
Not only does Christopher Nolan want you to risk your life to see #Tenet in theaters because he's a greedo, he bans chairs from his sets for cruel & arbitrary reasons.https://t.co/tW8GVwWxYK
— Matthew Catania #SaveLodge49 (@MattTheCatania) June 29, 2020
“Think about how this affects the people he works with. How it limits the range of people who can work with him,” one critic said, while another suggested“Christopher Nolan won't hire you if you have any type of physical disability. Got it.”
Skeptics soon showed up to rain on the parade, however, with some in the film industry arguing Nolan’s point about chairs on set is “kinda true.”
“People laughing at the fact that Christopher Nolan doesn’t allow chairs on sets because people won’t work, but as someone who works in the industry it’s kinda true... I’ve seen a lot of people who just sit down and sit on their phones,”said filmmaker Rebecca Winkler.
Others noted that the outrage was blown far out of proportion, questioning why anyone would be up in arms that “stars are treated like every other working class Joe.” Some even cast doubt on the claim itself, arguing Nolan does not, in fact, maintain a standing rule on chairs.
Lol people are reading WAY too much into this. Nolan does allow chairs on set and people are sitting all the time, even in his most recent movies.
— Logically Preston ❼ (@PrestonTheSnack) June 29, 2020
man the worst y’all got is that the man doesn’t allow chairs on set ? shoot if I had the opportunity, i’d still work in one of Nolan’s pictures any day
Of course, as always, given such an opportunity the internet did not fail to deliver on the memes, many envisioning Nolan flying into a rage at the mere sight of a seat.
Venezualan President Nicolas Maduro has expelled the EU ambassador to the country, giving the diplomat 72 hours to pack up and leave, after Brussels imposed sanctions on Venezuelan officials, including on members of parliament.
Maduro’s decision to banish Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa comes after the European Council decided to spap a flurry of punitive sanctions on about a dozen of high-ranking Venezuelan officials.
The 11 Venezuelans that have been hit in the latest crackdown include lawmaker Luis Parra, who replaced opposition figurehead Juan Guaido at the helm of the National Assembly in January.
"I have decided to give the European Union Ambassador to Caracas 72 hours to leave our country. Enough of European colonialism against Venezuela!" Maduro said during a televised address on Monday.
Taking aim at those who seek to meddle into the Latin American’s country affairs, Maduro said he would do his utmost to protect Venezuela from outside interference into the election process.
"Prepare yourselves, colonialist, supremacist and racist gentlemen, because in Venezuela there are going to be free, transparent, and parliamentary elections with the participation of thousands of candidates," he said.
In addition to the head of Venezuela's legislature, a magistrate and a senior military chief have been targeted in the fresh sanctions spree, with the EU Council accusing them of undermining the “democratic functioning” of the parliament, including by stripping immunity from several MPs.
Maduro shot back, arguing that the officials of the opposition-run legislature invoked the EU wrath after they “refused to carry out orders from the EU Embassy in Caracas” and are otherwise law-abiding citizens.
The relationship between Caracas and Europe have long turned sour, as the block still sees Guaido as the head of the National Assembly despite him being ousted as result of the election in January, which the US-backed opposition leader denounced as a parliamentary 'coup.' Guaido now claims to be the leader of an alternate national assembly - a parallel legislature - backed by his allies within the country as well as in the West.
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The New York Times story accusing Russia of offering bounties for killing US troops in Afghanistan relied on unconfirmed intelligence from an ongoing investigation, which is now impossible to finish, a congressman has revealed.
“The blood is on their hands,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Indiana) tweeted on Monday, after attending a briefing with top intelligence officials at the White House. The Times, he said, “used unconfirmed intel in an ONGOING investigation into targeted killing of American soldiers in order to smear the President.”
The real scandal: We’ll likely never know the truth… Because the @nytimes used unconfirmed intel in an ONGOING investigation into targeted killing of American soldiers in order to smear the President. The blood is on their hands.
Banks, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee as well as its Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities – presumably the reason he was invited to the briefing – said it was now “impossible to finish the investigation” due to the story, and all because the Times “will do anything to damage” President Donald Trump, even if it means compromising national security.
The story, which appeared in the Times on Friday evening, relied on anonymous sources claiming that Trump had been briefed in March about a Russian spy unit offering bounties for the death of US troops in Afghanistan to the Taliban or “armed criminal elements closely associated” with them.
Trump denied this, and denounced the story as “probably just another phony Times hit job, just like their failed Russia Hoax.”
Indeed, it took no time at all for Trump’s critics to accuse him of being “Putin’s puppet” or “colluding” with Russia – same as they have for the past four years, through the evidence-free ‘Russiagate’ conspiracy theory.
Banks even brought that up in his Twitter thread, condemning “many in the media and Congress” for rushing to judgment and urging Americans to “treat anonymously sourced [Times] stories about Russia [with] skepticism.”
As if to prove his point, Banks received a flood of replies from online #Resistance activists accusing him of treason, being in the pay of Russia, and repeating Russiagate talking points.
Even though the Times story was filled with qualifiers such as “assessed” and “believed to” and “linked,” its basic claim was quickly adopted as established fact by other US media outlets, from the Washington Post and CNN onward.
That Moscow denied the whole thing as absolutely preposterous and pointed out it sounded tailor-made to derail the US withdrawal from a 19-year war in Afghanistan only made them believe it more. Nor was there any skepticism about the revelation that the story about the bounties was at least in part based on “confessions” of Afghan prisoners, presumably under torture.
Earlier on Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was barraged with questions not about the veracity of the Times report, but on why Trump hasn’t acted on the briefing he allegedly received. Her explanation that he was never briefed because the allegations amounted to unverified intelligence – just as Banks said – was met with indignation from reporters.
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A New York Times reporter in Hong Kong, Austin Ramzy, has deleted his Twitter cover photo, which showed colonial powers gathering in the city’s harbor during the Second Opium War, after the historical image sparked anger online.
The New York Times has seemingly gone out of its way to convince its American readers of its wholehearted support for the protests against racism – and the legacy of colonialism, for that matter – that have engulfed the US. However, its reporter in Hong Kong picked a photo depicting one of the most brazen acts of colonialism for his social media header.
He promptly deleted it, though, after Carl Zha – a podcaster who focuses on China – revealed the context of the image. The black-and-white photo depicting ships in a harbor turned out to be one of a series of images snapped by British-Italian war photographer Felice Beato in 1860, as an Anglo-French armada prepared an attack on China during the final phase of the infamous Second Opium War.
Zha posted another of Beato’s iconic photos from the series as he tweeted about Ramzy’s curious choice of banner picture.
I thought @nytimes journo in HongKong @austinramzy profile background photo looks familiar. It’s famous Felice Beato photo of 2nd Opium War: Ango-French Fleet gathered in Bay of Hong Kong to prepare their assault on Beijing in 1860. pic.twitter.com/ss9FXJ1glb
The conflict was a blatant aggression by the colonial powers against China, with the sole purpose of extorting commercial privileges and territorial concessions. One of the most heinous parts of the conflict was that London particularly sought to secure its right to the unrestricted export of opium to China – something that Beijing actively resisted until it was forced into submission. The British seized Hong Kong as a result of one of the Opium Wars.
Either Austin Ramzy who had been @nytimes reporter in China for yrs totally ignorant of symbolism of using the Opium War photo of Western nations preparing to attack China, or intentionally use it because of its symbolism as US ratchet up tension with China. Judge for yourself...
The reasons for such an apparently insensitive choice of cover image on the reporter’s Twitter account remain unknown, as Ramzy has not commented on it publicly. As noted by some commenters on the platform, him picking that photo was equivalent to a foreign journalist in Russia using a picture of “Wehrmacht massed at the [Soviet] border,” or anyone putting a photo of the Auschwitz concentration camp during Nazi rule on their cover.
This would be the equivalent if someone covered Russia and their background was the Wehrmacht massed at the Russian border.
Other Twitter users highlighted the poor impression given by a US journalist using such a photo at a time when Washington supports the Hong Kong protests, and amid extremely strained US relations with Beijing.
He's getting ready for the new invasion of Hong Kong by NATO !
Soon after the photo started attracting critical attention, Ramzy promptly changed his cover image to a more neutral picture of modern-day Hong Kong – without providing any insight into his sudden change of heart or the initial banner photo choice.
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