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MaartenVC

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    Israeli-Palestinian conflict

    in General Banter

    Posted · Edited by MaartenVC

    Israel moves to shut down Al Jazeera after new law allows for ‘security threat’ bans on international media:
    https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/01/middleeast/israel-al-jazeera-media-law-intl-hnk/index.html
     

    Spoiler
    CNN  — 

    Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to shut down news network Al Jazeera following the passage Monday of a sweeping law allowing the government to ban foreign networks perceived as posing a threat to national security.

    Netanyahu said he intended “to act immediately in accordance with the new law” to stop the Qatari-based news outlet’s activity in the country, according to a post on social media platform X following the passage of the law.

    Al Jazeera Media Network, which has produced dogged, on the ground reporting of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, slammed the decision in a statement, vowing it would not stop the network from continuing its “bold and professional coverage.”

    The new law gives the prime minister and communications minister authority to order the temporary closure of foreign networks operating in Israel – powers that rights groups say could have far-reaching implications on international media coverage of the war in Gaza.

    Its approval by Parliament Monday comes months into Israel’s war against Hamas and as Netanyahu faces mounting public pressure – and large public protests – over his handling of operations in Gaza.

    Netanyahu’s government has also long complained about Al Jazeera’s operations, alleging anti-Israeli bias.

    In his statement on X Monday, the prime minister accused the network of being a trumpet for Hamas and accused it of “actively participating in the October 7 massacre and inciting against IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers.”

    Al Jazeera, which is funded in part by the Qatari government, said these were “slanderous accusations” that “jeopardize” not only the reputation of Al Jazeera but also the safety and rights of its employees worldwide.

    Rights groups condemned the move to shutter Al Jazeera and the law’s potential implications.

    In a statement the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was “deeply concerned” by the new legislation.

    “The law grants the government the power to close any foreign media outlets operating in Israel, posing a significant threat to international media within the country,” program director Carlos Martínez de la Serna said, adding it would “contribute to a climate of self-censorship and hostility toward the press.”

    Blocking Al Jazeera “marks an alarming escalation, and Israeli efforts restrict the freedom of the press and further limit the access that citizens of the world have to the daily realities in Israel and Palestine,” Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir told CNN.

    The White House also called reports of the move to shutter Al Jazeera “concerning.”

    “The United States supports the critically important work journalists around the world do. And that includes those who are reporting in the conflict in Gaza,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday during a press briefing.

    The move also comes during a critical period for relations between the Israeli and Qatari governments. The Gulf State has played a key role in ceasefire negotiations in the on-going war.

    Fighting between Israel and Hamas began on October 7 when Hamas carried out a deadly attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israel.

    Israeli forces have since launched months of ongoing bombardment and ground operations in the Hamas-ruled enclave of Gaza, where the death toll stands higher than 32,000, according to the Ministry of Health in the strip.

    Targeting Al Jazeera

    The new law places a raft of restrictions on Al Jazeera in Israel, giving the government authority to take action against offices operated by the network and confiscate equipment and reporters’ press cards. It can also restrict its broadcasts and public access to its website.

    Al Jazeera has an office in Jerusalem, as well as in the West Bank and Gaza.

    Since the start of the war, it has produced critical, on-the-ground coverage of Israeli military operations and their humanitarian impact on the embattled enclave.

    Last month, a United Nations spokesperson condemned the reported arrest and assault of Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail Al-Ghoul while he was reporting from the Al Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City.

    Several Al Jazeera reporters and their family members have also been killed in Israeli air strikes, according to the network.

    On October 25, an air raid killed the family of Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, including his wife, son, daughter, grandson and at least eight other relatives, it said.

    Al Jazeera broadcast Dahdouh as he walked into the morgue to view the bodies of his family in a heart-wrenching moment that provided a window for the world into the grief and loss experienced by many Gaza residents as Israeli’s military operations got underway.

    Israeli’s passage of the law and move to ban the network comes amid mounting concerns from press freedom groups about causalities among journalists operating in war zones there and what they describe as obstruction of journalistic work by Israeli authorities.

    As of April 1, 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ preliminary investigations showed at least 95 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began.

    Palestinian journalists, including those working for a handful of international news agencies still operating inside Gaza, are vital witnesses to what is happening there. Israel’s military have taken some foreign reporters inside Gaza on a small number of escorted trips since October 7. But both Israel and Egypt, which control Gaza’s borders, have so far refused to let international journalists have unfettered access.

     

    What Video Games Are You Currently Playing

    in General Banter

    Posted

    Just done my 2nd play-through of Elden Ring. Sooo good. Love that game.

    Hopefully they do more and bigger dungeons for the DLC, and make the game a bit more challenging.

    I was thinking about doing another Dark Souls 3 run, but then I saw Nioh 2 and Citizen Sleeper in this months humble bundle. 

    So, right now I'm playing Nioh 2.

    This game is hard af. A lot of the difficulty seems to depend on how well you know all the game systems, and on what weapons, armor, and stances you use. It's not just timing and stamina-management. I love the setting though. And once you get the hang of it, it really clicks,... until the game throws another impossible boss your way.

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    system-movie_ss.gif

    Favourite YouTube Videos

    in General Banter

    Posted · Edited by MaartenVC

    Napoleon in Egypt: Part 2: Napoleon's invasion of Ottoman Syria and the failed Siege of Acre, and the defeat of the Ottoman Turkish counter-invasion at Aboukir:

     

    Learning from Starfish Prime, Nuking low earth orbit would cause a powerful EMP: (Pretty bad for electronics, like satellites.) But it might also cause beautiful auroras, so, worth it.

     

    The strength of the 4 fundamental forces (strong nuclear, electromagnetism, weak nuclear, and gravity) is actually different for different distances:

     

    For a long time, we actually haven't been able to tell the sex of dinosaurs, or if dinosaurs even had different sexual morphological characteristics:

     

    Nuclear bombs and the bad stuff after a nuclear war:   (spoiler: Best survival chance in Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand. Maybe.)

     

    Boring. (horizontally)

     

    Blue LED, almost impossible:

     

    Cosmological time dilation (and redshift) caused by the expansion of the universe:

     

    RedLetterMedia: Madame Web movie review

     

    • Like 3
    • Big Brain 1

    Israeli-Palestinian conflict

    in General Banter

    Posted · Edited by MaartenVC

    Absolutely fucking disgusting this war.

    An atrocity.

    How can humans be so full of hatred and utter apathy.

    And none of our leaders dare to stand up and put a stop to this madness.

    This world is going down the shitter, isn't it. All downhill from here. A sad fucking shitshow.

    I'm really losing my belief in humanity...

    Or maybe I'm just concerning myself to much with all the bad things happening in the world. Just take it as it is maybe. Do small good things. Gotta keep sane and stay happy in daily life in this clusterfuck. I don't know.

    • Like 2

    Would You Pay to Access WATMM In Lieu of Advertisements?

    in General Banter

    Posted

    1 hour ago, aencre said:

    it seems like an ad-less, open community is pretty doable? We just need an automatic reminder to pay the bills.

    I agree. Keep the forum free. It can be done.

    Otherwise new people would be discouraged too much to join I think. Gotta keep the community alive. (and growing)

    Ideas: If possible:

    • Notify subscribers yearly with a pop-up. Some subscriptions might just expire without the subscribers really knowing.

    • Notify non-subscribers once a year with a pop-up saying that subscribing is a good way to support the forum.

    • Show a small "Like watmm? Support the forum." or "Keep watmm ad-free? Support the forum." or "Like talking about music and nonsense? Support the forum." line on the top of the 6 main forum hubs if you're not a subscriber.

    • Give subscribers a subscriber-only reaction-emoticon and/or subscriber-only reply-emoticon.

    • ...

    • Like 4

    Social Media's Effects On Our Minds & Lives

    in General Banter

    Posted · Edited by MaartenVC

    1 hour ago, o00o said:

    can‘t wait until this is the new normal. Looks exactly like it did when people started using a mobile phone or a smartphone 

     

    1 hour ago, auxien said: 
    <iframe src="https://mastodon.social/@haentz/111873104918456302/embed" class="mastodon-embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0" width="400" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><script src="https://mastodon.social/embed.js" async="async"></script>

    ^tried embedding but that probably won't work so, Vision Pro users in public super cut, ~1 min video:

    https://mastodon.social/@haentz/111873104918456302

    I want to be excited about new tech... but it seems so very dystopian to me.

    It almost activates a primal fear in me. Weird. Can't really explain it.

    Maybe this tech really is inevitable. In that case we better get used to it.

    Maybe a bit too distracting to use this in public? But then again, so were smartphones.

    Or will this tech stay more confined to work and home-entertainment, and these are just early adopters testing the waters?

    Anyone here has this, and willing to share their experiences?

    • Like 3

    What TV series are you watching at moment?

    in General Banter

    Posted

    Blue Eye Samurai does not qualify as an Anime according to MAL / weebs / otakus. It's not created in Japan, or made by a Japanese production company.

    However... Netflix does market it as an anime. And it's influenced by anime quite a bit. And it's set in Japan. And indeed most Japanese people call all animation anime.

    So ... it's probably ok to call it an anime.

    Same goes for Arcane, Castlevania, Avatar,...

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