Archiv: policy / politics


03.07.2023 - 09:54 [ Nobelprize.org ]

Harold Pinter – Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics

(2005)

When we look into a mirror we think the image that confronts us is accurate. But move a millimetre and the image changes. We are actually looking at a never-ending range of reflections. But sometimes a writer has to smash the mirror – for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us.

I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.

If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us – the dignity of man.

10.04.2023 - 09:41 [ HuffingtonPost.co.uk ]

Rise of the Political Technologists: „Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible“ by Peter Pomerantsev

(May 22, 2015)

The conflict in Ukraine bears many hallmarks of Surkov‘s work. He even published a short story (under a transparent pseudonym, of course) about the possibilities of what he termed ‚non-linear war‘. In this constructed and stage-managed media landscape, Ukrainian officials and MPs are derided as fascists; the Russian soldiers fighting and dying in Ukraine are actually freedom fighters, defending the creation of ‚Novorossiya‘ – or they are not there at all; and, perhaps worst of all, the whole conflict was actually the result of Western expansion, of US imperialism.

10.04.2023 - 09:26 [ theAtlantic.com ]

The Hidden Author of Putinism: How Vladislav Surkov invented the new Russia

(November 7, 2014)

They repeat the great mantras of the era: The president is the president of “stability,” the antithesis to the era of “confusion and twilight” in the 1990s. “Stability”—the word is repeated again and again in a myriad seemingly irrelevant contexts until it echoes and tolls like a great bell and seems to mean everything good; anyone who opposes the president is an enemy of the great God of “stability.” “Effective manager,” a term quarried from Western corporate speak, is transmuted into a term to venerate the president as the most “effective manager” of all. “Effective” becomes the raison d’être for everything: Stalin was an “effective manager” who had to make sacrifices for the sake of being “effective.” The words trickle into the streets: “Our relationship is not effective” lovers tell each other when they break up. “Effective,” “stability”: No one can quite define what they actually mean, and as the city transforms and surges, everyone senses things are the very opposite of stable, and certainly nothing is “effective,” but the way Surkov and his puppets use them the words have taken on a life of their own and act like falling axes over anyone who is in any way disloyal.

10.04.2023 - 07:03 [ Sam Johnson / Youtube ]

HyperNormalisation (2016) by Adam Curtis | FULL DOCUMENTARY

The cult documentary maker explores the falsity of modern life in his own inimitable style. Though he’s spent the best part of four decades making television, Curtis’s signature blend of hypnotic archive footage, authoritative voiceover and a seemingly inexhaustible appetite for bizarre historical tangents is better suited to the web, a place just as resistant to the narrative handholding of broadcast TV as he is. He argues that an army of technocrats, complacent radicals and Faustian internet entrepreneurs have conspired to create an unreal world; one whose familiar and often comforting details blind us to its total inauthenticity.

14.11.2022 - 13:24 [ Nobelprize.org ]

Harold Pinter – Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics

(2005)

When we look into a mirror we think the image that confronts us is accurate. But move a millimetre and the image changes. We are actually looking at a never-ending range of reflections. But sometimes a writer has to smash the mirror – for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us.

I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.

If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us – the dignity of man.

01.02.2022 - 03:14 [ Haaretz ]

NSO Is an Arm of Israel‘s Government

In 2019 NSO agreed to reconnect the Pegasus system in Saudi Arabia, in the context of Netanyahu’s contacts regarding the Abraham Accords. Until the accords were announced, Israel gave NSO a permit to sell Pegasus to almost all of the countries that signed the agreements.

01.02.2022 - 03:00 [ New York Times ]

The Battle for the World’s Most Powerful Cyberweapon

(Jan. 28, 2022)

The F.B.I. had bought a version of Pegasus, NSO’s premier spying tool. For nearly a decade, the Israeli firm had been selling its surveillance software on a subscription basis to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, promising that it could do what no one else — not a private company, not even a state intelligence service — could do: consistently and reliably crack the encrypted communications of any iPhone or Android smartphone.

01.02.2022 - 02:28 [ New York Times ]

F.B.I. Secretly Bought Israeli Spyware and Explored Hacking U.S. Phones

(Jan. 28, 2022)

The Times found that sales of Pegasus played a critical role in securing the support of Arab nations in Israel’s campaign against Iran and negotiating the Abraham Accords, the 2020 diplomatic agreements, signed at a Trump White House ceremony, that normalized relations between Israel and some of its longtime Arab adversaries.

The U.S. had also moved to acquire Pegasus, The Times found. The F.B.I., in a deal never previously reported, bought the spyware in 2019, despite multiple reports that it had been used against activists and political opponents in other countries. It also spent two years discussing whether to deploy a newer product, called Phantom, inside the United States.

07.10.2021 - 11:55 [ Standard.co.uk ]

UK gas prices fall from record high after Russia steps in

Following Mr Putin’s comments on supplies, gas prices dropped to about 257p a therm later on Wednesday.

07.10.2021 - 11:38 [ euobserver.com ]

Putin offers to ease EU gas crunch

Deputy prime minister Alexander Novak urged German regulators to quickly certify the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help.

02.10.2021 - 18:57 [ Cnet.com ]

Climate change: COP26 is the biggest conference in the world. Here‘s why it matters

Unless nations take drastic action to wean themselves off fossil fuels in the coming decade.

That‘s why November‘s UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, is being hailed as „the world‘s best last chance“ to get the climate emergency under control. To ensure temperature change remains „well below“ the 2 degrees Celsius agreed to by UN signatories in the Paris Agreement in 2015, countries need to act fast and double down on commitments to reach net zero emissions.

02.10.2021 - 18:37 [ GlobalTimes.cn ]

Chinese chip firms temporarily halt production due to nationwide power curbs

A number of chip enterprises in China have halted production temporarily, including suppliers of semiconductors for foreign companies, amid a severe nationwide power shortage due to soaring coal prices and policies to reduce energy consumption.

CWTC, a semiconductor packaging material supplier for NXP and Infineon Technologies, released a notice on Sunday saying that its factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu had suspended semiconductor production from September 26 to 30, in accordance with the local policy on power reduction.

02.10.2021 - 18:21 [ Nikkei.com ]

China‘s Zhejiang orders production suspensions to meet energy targets

(25.09.2021)

Nearly 80% of the affected companies are in Ma‘an, where a production halt order was issued for Sept. 21-30, according to the official.

The central government is pressing local authorities to reduce energy consumption as part of a national green transition strategy to lower emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases. Beijing aims by 2025 to reduce national energy consumption per unit of GDP by 13.5% from 2020 while cutting carbon emissions 18%. Local governments have been given specific reduction goals.

02.10.2021 - 18:17 [ digitimes.com ]

Uncertainty in China power reduction policy haunting supply chains

(28.09.2021)

A number of Chinese provinces are enforcing power cuts in line with the country‘s energy consumption and carbon reduction goals, catching many firms off guard, and it remains unknown whether the policy will become a long-term one.

02.10.2021 - 18:13 [ bworldonline.com ]

Asian factories stagnate as China’s slowdown, supply constraints hit

(01.09.2021)

China’s waning economic momentum dealt a fresh blow, with the official Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) on Thursday showing the country’s factory activity unexpectedly shrank in September due to wider curbs on electricity use.

02.10.2021 - 17:56 [ IOL.co.za ]

Evergrande, power China cuts and crypto-ban raises growth prospects

(28.09.2021)

Also on Friday there were reports that power rationing and forced halts to factory production in China were widening – there were power curbs in 10 out of 23 provinces amid electricity supply issues and a push to enforce environmental regulations.

02.10.2021 - 17:49 [ Bloomberg ]

China’s Growth Risks Multiply as Manufacturing Activity Shrinks

(30.09.2021)

Alongside tough measures to rein in the property market, the latest developments have led economists to pare back full-year growth predictions below 8% and warn that Beijing could be willing to tolerate a sharper slowdown as it tries to reform its economic model.

02.10.2021 - 17:48 [ theGuardian.com ]

China’s Lehman Brothers moment?: Evergrande crisis rattles economy

(17.09.2021)

Although there may be some parallels, the more extreme prophecies of doom for China may be no more correct than the assumption that Beijing will simply step in and bail out Evergrande to make sure the fallout from the failure of a property giant does not spread to other areas of the Chinese economy.

07.08.2021 - 11:14 [ Radio Utopie ]

Iran und Atomabkommen J.C.P.O.A.: Wieder einmal spielen alle, außer uns, auf Krieg

Iran. Washington. Atomabkommen. Libanon. Gaza. Israel. Hamas. Hisbollah.

Es herrscht derzeit mal wieder Verwirrung im Feld. Dabei würde in der Region weder geschossen, noch gestorben, wenn die Weltöffentlichkeit begreifen würde, was für heuchlerische Schurken da auf allen Seiten ihr Spielchen spielen.

08.06.2021 - 15:19 [ PeoplesParty.org ]

The CIA Has Been Taking Over for Decades—Even Former Presidents Tried to Warn Us

December 22, 1963 — exactly one month after President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, former President Harry S. Truman published an op-ed in the Washington Post that most people, especially our perfumed ruling elite, wanted to ignore.

Truman, who signed the CIA into existence just after World War II, wrote, “I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency—the CIA. […] For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas. …There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.”

Not only did that adorn the pages of the Washington Post one month after JFK’s death, Truman hand wrote the first draft just one week after JFK met up with a bunch of bullets in Dallas. Sure, one may wish Harry had sent his thoughts to John a month before the President’s televised execution. Maybe he could’ve sent a singing telegram or something. But let’s at least give Truman partial credit for the belated message.

Before his death President Kennedy also held no love for the Central Intelligence Agency. Following the calamitous Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy said he wanted to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds.”

Point being, clearly Truman, who created the CIA, and Kennedy, who met a mysterious untimely end by professional killers, knew the agency had run amok.

Yet the CIA is still here, bigger and filled with more Bond villains than ever, and now they have a whole cavalcade of other intelligence agencies working with them.

23.04.2021 - 22:00 [ Svenna Jensen / Youtube ]

Nobel Lecture by Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter‘s Nobel Lecture was pre-recorded, and shown on video on 7 December 2005, in Börssalen at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.

04.04.2021 - 09:16 [ Dutchnews.nl ]

ChristenUnie rules out a new coalition with Rutte as prime minister

ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers said in an interview with the Nederlands Dagblad …

31.03.2021 - 23:35 [ Haaretz ]

Outlast Bitter Rival Netanyahu or Taint the Israeli Presidency: Rivlin‘s Post-election Dilemma

In the past, Rivlin has set about consulting with party leaders immediately. This time, for an unexplained reason, he will start the consultations only on Monday, just two days before the deadline. This despite the fact that the new Knesset has no fewer than 13 parties, the highest number during his presidency.

Could the timing have anything to do with the fact that Monday is also the day when Netanyahu is finally due back in court, for the first testimony from a witness for the prosecution in his criminal trial?

01.03.2021 - 07:20 [ Haaretz ]

Politics in the Netanyahu Era Is a Dangerous Thing, and the PM Is the Ultimate Danger

At least Trump wasn’t stalking congressional Democrats to lure them into his camp. But to agitate, bribe and rule is the life’s blood of Netanyahu’s doctrine.

Netanyahu hasn’t merely adopted a policy of divide and conquer, the essence of colonialism, but has upgraded it, including against his own people. He has succeeded in sparking disputes within and breaking down nearly every party institution that stood in his way. He identifies his rival’s weak point, applies pressure, and the rest is history.

06.02.2021 - 12:14 [ theHill.com ]

Blinken holds first call with Chinese counterpart

Blinken had a phone call with Chinese Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi to extend his best wishes for a happy lunar new year, according to a readout of the call from the State Department. The secretary of State pushed Yang on reports of human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and the crackdown of civil rights in Tibet and Hong Kong, among other security-related issues.

29.01.2021 - 09:29 [ Haaretz ]

Alliance of Israeli Arab Parties to Split Ahead of March Election

At this stage, it’s not yet clear whether Ta’al might even decide to run jointly with Hadash and Balad, which have agreed to run on a joint slate, or whether it would pursue a link-up with the United Arab List.

26.11.2020 - 00:44 [ NBC News ]

Defense lawyers rail about unfair prosecutions. Flynn’s case shows why.

(09.05.2020)

Sometimes federal agents are criticized for „creating“ a crime instead of investigating one. Sting operations are examples of crimes that are a consequence of law enforcement actions. Agents create a fictional crime to trick a suspect into attempting to join that crime, thereby creating the crime.

Similarly, Flynn’s crime of lying to government agents was the consequence of the government agents‘ investigation of Flynn. If there was no crime before Flynn‘s interview, then there‘s little reason to interview Flynn as part of a criminal investigation, unless the agents were looking to create a crime.

26.11.2020 - 00:40 [ CNN ]

Trump announces pardon for Michael Flynn in tweet

President Donald Trump announced in a tweet Wednesday that he has granted his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, a „full pardon,“ wiping away the guilty plea of the intelligence official, lobbyist and conservative fringe darling for lying to the FBI.

22.10.2020 - 09:38 [ Esha / Twitter ]

[Thread] Obama years, in no particular order ….

(19.12.2017)

22.10.2020 - 08:27 [ New York Times ]

The Intelligence Director Who Is Undermining Trust and Truth

Mr. Ratcliffe, like Maj. Gen. Willoughby before him, seems to think his job is to serve only his boss, who requires that everyone agree with him at all times. As General MacArthur is often quoted: if you control intelligence, you control decision-making.

14.08.2020 - 04:56 [ Michael Cohen / Twitter ]

The day has finally arrived. I have waited a long time to share my truth. To read the foreword and pre-order my book DISLOYAL, visit …

25.07.2020 - 20:22 [ Nobelprize.org ]

Art, Truth & Politics

(2005)

When we look into a mirror we think the image that confronts us is accurate. But move a millimetre and the image changes. We are actually looking at a never-ending range of reflections. But sometimes a writer has to smash the mirror – for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us.

I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.

If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us – the dignity of man.

07.07.2020 - 17:51 [ theHill.com ]

Poll: 63 percent believe America needs to change

While the nation celebrated Independence Day this past weekend, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds a majority of voters believe they do not live in the America they want to live in.

24.05.2020 - 19:41 [ DailyMail.co.uk ]

Boris Johnson steps in at 5pm press conference to REFUSE to sack Dominic Cummings and says aide acted ‚responsibly and legally‘ while ‚following instincts of any father‘ amid calls for resignation over claims he broke lockdown three times

But despite ten Tory backbenchers demanding the scalp of his closest adviser and the mastermind of the Brexit Vote Leave campaign, he backed the divisive Machiavellian figure over revelations he twice travelled 270 miles from London to Durham while the public were told to stay at home.

24.05.2020 - 19:36 [ Spiked ]

Dominic Cummings broke the lockdown? Good

The hysteria over his trip to his parents‘ home is driven by nothing more than Remainer revenge.

14.05.2020 - 23:17 [ Real Clear Politics ]

Rand Paul: „Vice President Biden Is Guilty Of Using Government To Go After A Political Opponent“

Sen. Rand Paul called for acting Director of National Intelligence Rick Grenell to testify about a list of Obama administration officials, including Obama and Biden, involved in the „unmasking“ of then-incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn‘s communications after the 2016 election.

Speaking to members of the press, Paul also said he wanted testimony from the officials on the list, including James Comey and James Clapper.

14.05.2020 - 22:56 [ Wall Street Journal ]

More Than a Dozen Obama Officials Requested ‘Unmasking’ That Identified Michael Flynn in Intelligence Reports

The list includes then-Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan; the requests came after Russian interference in U.S. election.

14.05.2020 - 22:48 [ Fox News ]

Unmasking’ requests number in thousands across administrations, as pols demand details

The numbers reflect how frequently national security and intelligence officials use this tool in their work. Unmasking occurs after U.S. citizens‘ conversations are incidentally picked up in conversations with foreign officials who are being monitored by the intelligence community. The U.S. citizens‘ identities are supposed to be protected if their participation is incidental and no wrongdoing is suspected. However, officials can determine the U.S. citizens‘ names through a process that is supposed to safeguard their rights. In the typical process, when officials are requesting the unmasking of an American, they do not necessarily know the identity of the person in advance.

14.05.2020 - 22:44 [ the Hill ]

Burr decision sends shock waves through Senate

Burr‘s decision, which will go into effect on Friday, comes at a crucial moment for the committee. It‘s expected to vote next week on Rep. John Ratcliffe‘s nomination to be the next director of national intelligence and the committee is expected to release its final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election by the August recess.

10.05.2020 - 03:54 [ New York Times ]

Obama Warns That Dropped Charges Against Flynn Put ‘Rule of Law’ at Risk

“There is no precedent that anybody can find for somebody who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free,” Mr. Obama said on a call with thousands of supporters who worked in his administration or campaigns.

10.05.2020 - 03:51 [ NBC News ]

Defense lawyers rail about unfair prosecutions. Flynn‘s case shows why.

Sometimes federal agents are criticized for „creating“ a crime instead of investigating one. Sting operations are examples of crimes that are a consequence of law enforcement actions. Agents create a fictional crime to trick a suspect into attempting to join that crime, thereby creating the crime.

Similarly, Flynn’s crime of lying to government agents was the consequence of the government agents‘ investigation of Flynn. If there was no crime before Flynn‘s interview, then there‘s little reason to interview Flynn as part of a criminal investigation, unless the agents were looking to create a crime.

06.05.2020 - 21:18 [ the Hill ]

Did the FBI target Michael Flynn to protect Obama‘s policies, not national security?

How would you like to be investigated by the FBI because you disagreed with the president’s policies? Sounds a little KGB-ish, you might think — and you’d be right, because the FBI has zero authority to conduct such an investigation. But the more we learn about the FBI’s investigation of Michael Flynn, the more it appears he was targeted precisely because, as the national security adviser to the incoming Trump administration, he signaled that the new administration might undo Obama administration policies — which is kind of what the American people voted for in 2016.

31.03.2020 - 14:59 [ Washington Post ]

Benny Gantz just sold out Israel’s perilously ill democracy

A criminal defendant will stay prime minister. Netanyahu has been rewarded, not punished, for his misuse of power in recent days. The exclusion of the Arab minority continues. And more than a million Israelis who voted for Blue and White have received a brutal lesson in political cynicism.

In all of this, Gantz is now Netanyahu’s partner.

31.03.2020 - 14:57 [ CNBC.com ]

Israel heads for unity government as Netanyahu rival Gantz puts coronavirus over politics

„The coronavirus pandemic appears to be accomplishing something that three elections couldn‘t — it‘s forcing Israel‘s deeply divided leaders to put the health and safety of the nation ahead of their own political fortunes,“ Israeli-American political analyst and author Joel Rosenberg told CNBC over the weekend.

14.03.2020 - 20:21 [ South China Morning Post ]

US State Department summons Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai amid anger over Beijing coronavirus comments

Diplomat David Stilwell delivers a ‘stern representation’ of the US government’s position to Cui Tiankai
Meeting in Washington follows Chinese foreign ministry spokesman’s insinuation that the US military brought the coronavirus to China

08.03.2020 - 14:44 [ Haaretz ]

Gantz Agrees to Lieberman‘s Terms for Entering Government

„Agreed. We need to move forward,“ Gantz tweeted in response a list of demands that the Yisrael Beiteinu leader listed earlier Sunday in a Facebook post.

24.01.2020 - 22:34 [ ABC News / Youtube ]

Senators forced to leave campaign trail for impeachment trial l ABC News

(21.01.2020)

Four Democratic senators, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, are on Capitol Hill for Trump‘s trial as the remaining candidates in Iowa campaign ahead of the caucuses.

24.01.2020 - 22:30 [ theHill.com ]

Impeachment throws curveball in Iowa to sidelined senators

With their candidates stuck in Washington for the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, campaign staffers, organizers and surrogates for Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) are under pressure to help make closing arguments before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3.

The trial kicked off this week and will keep senators in session for six days a week, although it‘s set to end early afternoon on Saturday, allowing the 2020 Senate candidates to travel to Iowa for the weekend.

07.01.2020 - 16:32 [ Mustafa Salim, Reporter for @washingtonpost Baghdad ‏/ Twitter ]

“I was supposed to meet Soleimani at the morning the day he was killed, he came to deliver me a message from Iran responding to the message we delivered from Saudi to Iran” Iraqi PM said.

(05.01.2019)

07.01.2020 - 16:29 [ theGrayzone.com ]

Iraqi PM reveals Soleimani was on peace mission when assassinated, exploding Trump’s lie of ‘imminent attacks’

According to Abdul-Mahdi, he had planned to meet Soleimani on the morning the general was killed to discuss a diplomatic rapproachment that Iraq was brokering between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Abdul-Mahdi said that Trump personally thanked him for the efforts, even as he was planning the hit on Soleimani – thus creating the impression that the Iranian general was safe to travel to Baghdad.