WORLD NEWS FLASH
UNITED STATES
On Dec. 2, the new owner of Twitter gave some shocking insight into some of the activities of the old regime.
World’s wealthiest human and Twitter owner Elon Musk has shared several internal Twitter documents and e-mails with journalist Matt Taibbi, showing that the company suppressed content that could support the cause of conservatives and even former President Donald Trump.
The documentation also confirmed that content about Hunter Biden’s misdoings was also suppressed in order to give current President Joe Biden a better chance at winning the 2020 Presidential Election.
Taibbi, who has dubbed the documents as the “Twitter files,” is reporting that the company had a longstanding pattern of partisanship towards Democrats and liberal ideologies, and that people would occasionally be “shadow banned.”
Both Musk and Taibbi have suggested that more information about the old Twitter guard is yet to come, and could implicate people from the Democratic National Committee to even people associated with the White House. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration has declined comment on the matter.
While there is no endorsement of any person in this article, the implications of such content manipulation are worrisome. If anyone were to have a “hidden agenda” and desire to put a person, product or service over, Twitter has displayed a method for slanting narratives. For examples, after Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” in the wake of the 2017 Charlottesville incident that claimed the life of Heather Heyer, he did in fact condemn white nationalism. However, the video of that condemnation is rare to find. The only reason we can mention it here is that we saw it 100% in front of our own eyes. Otherwise, we could have been gaslighted into believing that he never made any condemnation of white supremacy. Again, while we are not endorsing anyone, it is easy to label anyone anything if you can suppress any information that may exonerate them.
Whether or not it made a difference years later, Trump endorsed Senate candidate Herschel Walker lost his bid to oust Democrat Raphael Warnock, giving that side of the political aisle a clear 51-49 majority in the Senate.
WORLD
UKRAINE FACING HARSH WINTER
A UN Spokesperson said on Dec. 5 that another wave of missile strikes in Ukraine has further damaged the country’s energy system, leaving millions of people without electricity and water as temperatures dip below freezing.
At the regular press briefing in New York, Associate Spokesperson Stéphanie Tremblay told journalists that according to UN humanitarian affairs office OCHA, citing local authorities, strikes affected regions in the north, center and south, as well as the capital, Kyiv.
“In Odesa, the water supply has been compromised due to the lack of electricity to run the pumps, and the heating system in Dnipro and Odesa have also been impacted,” she detailed.
“In addition, 40 percent of the Kyiv region was left without electricity.”
Ms. Tremblay said attacks have further damaged Ukraine’s power grid, “at a time when temperatures have dropped below zero in most of the country and reached -8 degrees in Kyiv.”
Repeated attacks on the energy system are putting millions of civilians at risk of freezing, particularly those living on the front lines, without access to heating, water, and essential services.
Fortunately, she continued, aid workers continue to support the Ukrainian authorities with generators to keep hospitals working; centers for the displaced to keep warm; and helping prepare thousands of facilities as temporary heating points.
“We have distributed more than 400 generators, and more are arriving in the coming days”, the spokesperson continued. “We also provided warm clothes, heating appliances and home repairs for more than 630,000 people.”
And in the Kherson region, the UN has delivered another 10 truckloads of critical supplies to two communities in the outskirts of Kherson city, including health kits enough to treat 20,000 patients for three months; hygiene kits for 6,000 people; and critical household items, including blankets, mattresses, and other supplies to 1,500 families.
At the same time, she said that despite the challenges sparked by conflict-induced lack of basic services in the country, last month, the World Food Program (WFP) has assisted close to 2.8 million people with food and cash support.
WFP noted that the main priority for December remains to consistently respond to the dire needs of those in the worst impacted areas through timely life-saving assistance.
“Overall, since the start of WFP operations in the country in February of this year, more than 137,000 metric tons of food have been delivered to partners, intended for people impacted by war and in need living across the country,” Ms. Tremblay concluded.
Despite the issues, there is a bright spot as of late. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year along with “The Spirit of Ukraine” on Dec. 7.
EUROPE / ASIA
UK & JAPAN TEAMING UP
On Dec. 7 the UK and Japan have unveiled details of a new digital partnership to turbocharge their joint working in an era of increasing global competition on tech and data.
The UK and Japan are modern tech powerhouses, with combined IT sectors worth more than £406 billion (British pounds). The newly launched partnership will develop the unique strengths of both countries and deliver on the UK’s ambition, set out in this year’s Digital Strategy, to increase international collaboration on complex tech issues.
This partnership will structure engagement between the UK and Japanese governments on a range of digital issues, including how to improve the resilience of globally significant supply chains such as semiconductors and telecommunications. The countries will develop joint research and development initiatives to share expertise about these vital technologies.
The UK and Japan will strengthen foundations for trade and investment between their tech economies and make it easier for businesses to operate in both countries by aligning approaches to digital regulation.
Improving cyber resilience is a priority for the partnership, which will see the UK and Japan promote initiatives to standardize the security of internet-connected products and apps and address the risks of digital services in supply chains.
Collaboration between the UK’s data regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and Japanese regulators will be supported through the partnership to give businesses and citizens greater certainty about the security of data sharing between both countries.
At the center of the partnership will be the UK-Japan Digital Council, an annual meeting between ministers from the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and representatives from the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Digital Agency to drive forward new priorities.
UK Digital Secretary Michelle Donelan said: “The UK’s relationship with Japan has grown from strength to strength in recent years based on a foundation of shared goals and values. Our thriving tech sectors are another opportunity for us to work together to benefit citizens and businesses across both countries. I look forward to deepening our relationship through the UK-Japan Digital Partnership in the future.”
Both governments will use international settings such as Japan’s G7 Presidency and the G20 to tackle shared goals and challenges with other global partners.
This new partnership further delivers on the UK’s goal, set out in the Integrated Review, to become the European nation with the broadest presence in the Indo-Pacific region which is increasingly critical as global tech competition and international assertiveness intensifies.
MIDDLE EAST
JUSTICE FOR ISIL CRIMES
Providing justice for the communities impacted by the ISIL terror network in Iraq remains the key focus of the UN investigative team there, Special Adviser Christian Ritscher told the Security Council on Dec. 5.
Highlighting the progress made by Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD), he said evidence collected and analyzed, substantiated preliminary findings from his previous report.
He cited crimes committed against Christians such as enslavement and forced conversion; “notable progress” on the development and use of chemical and biological weapons; and inspections on the destruction of internationally protected cultural heritage sites.
“At this pivotal stage of our mandate, please allow me to state that my Team has now reached the next level on the path of holding ISIL perpetrators accountable for the core international crimes they committed,” he said.
He highlighted the excavation of several ISIL-related mass graves in Iraq and detailed that UNITAD has agreed with Germany to collect data and DNA reference samples from the Yazidi community residing there for a campaign to identify human remains in Iraq, “allowing survivors to eventually mourn their beloved ones.”
UNITAD has also been supporting other Member States in their investigations and prosecutions for ISIL crimes throughout the world.
So far, he said, 17 Member States have requested assistance from the UN team, to support national prosecutions.
“The ability of the Team to collect testimonial evidence from witnesses in direct response to these requests, combined with its capacity to identify corroborating internal ISIL documentation from battlefield evidence, has been of significant assistance in supporting investigations by national jurisdictions within these Member States”, said the senior UN official.
“As part of this program, psychosocial support training is provided to Iraqi authorities to ensure international best practice is maintained when dealing with victims and survivors,” said Mr. Ritscher.
So far, his team had converted 5.5 million physical pages of documentary evidence of ISIL-related crimes into digital formats and is currently supporting digitization at six different Iraqi sites.
Moreover, they are part of UN system-wide efforts to move forward on repatriation of nationals from camps in neighboring countries, such as Syria.
In closing the Special Adviser said his team was moving even more rapidly to assist in bringing alleged ISIL members to justice, “regardless of where they may reside.”
“UNITAD will not stop to ensure that justice is delivered for the thousands of victims and survivors who have been impatiently waiting to see their day in court,” he spelled out.
