TRACwatch, ein Dienst, der den Extremismus weltweit überwacht, warnt:
Der Cloud-basierte Messagingdienst Telegram, der ein führender Kommunikationskanal für Extremisten geworden ist, hat eine Voice-Chat-Funktion gestartet, die seiner Community die Fähigkeit bietet, virtuelle Radiosender zu bauen.
Mit diesem Schritt tritt Telegram gegen Clubhouse an, das Voice-Chat-Messaging anbietet und in den letzten Monaten ein enormes Wachstum verzeichnet hat. TRAC schätzt, dass unreguliertes Live-Audio- und Video-Streaming bösartige Aktivitäten begünstigt.
Da Telegram seine Vorkehrungen zur Anonymisierung verstärkt hat, werden viele dadurch ein neues Megafon gewinnen, um ohne eine Rundfunklizenz von der FCC ein noch breiteres Publikum zu erreichen,
Derzeit dreht sich die Diskussion der neuesten Funktion des Telegram-Dienstes um die rechtsextreme Möglichkeit, ohne Angst vor Zensur rassistische Beleidigungen laut zu äussern.
Telegram hat auch versprochen, in diesem Frühjahr eine Video-Funktion zu liefern und damt das Potenzial für viel radikalere Anwerbung von potentiellen Extremisten, ähnlich wie die Gefahren von FaceBooks und YouTubes Live-Video-Streaming-Diensten, die enorm von den extremen linken, rechten und dschihadistischen Sphären genutzt werden, die Sekunde für Sekunde über Telegram kommunizieren.
Die Möglichkeit, sich eine GoPro-Körperkamera umzuschnallen um aktive Selfie-Schießereien von einsamen Wölfen zu filmen, begann, als Brenton Tarrant 2019 seinen bewaffneten Angriff auf Moscheen während der Freitagsgebete in Hagley Park und Linwood in Christchurch, Neuseeland, live auf Facebook streamte.
Seitdem wurden viele weitere Extremisten von diesem Videomaterial inspiriert, das nach wie vor auf Telegram im Umlauf ist. Zweifellos wird der neue Telegram-Videodienst auch Selfie-Live-Streaming anbieten, was die Reichweite und Effektivität der Botschaften von Extremisten um eine neue Dimension erweitern könnte.
In den letzten Tagen ist klar geworden, dass die COVID-Varianten aus Südafrika und Brasilien die Hoffnungen auf Rückkehr zu einem normalen Leben torpedieren. Nicht nur, dass die existierenden Impfstoffe teilweise die Erkrankung nicht verhindern sondern nur mildern, sie können auch bereits durch Erkrankung immun Gewordene erneut infizieren.
Achtzehn Fachleute, die von Reuters befragt wurden, zeigen sich pessimistisch. Das Virus wird uns als endemisch erhalten bleiben "und wird wahrscheinlich eine bedeutende Belastung durch Krankheit und Tod auf Jahre hinaus bedeuten", wie Reuters berichtet. "Die Bevölkerung sollte damit rechnen, weiterhin Massnahmen wie das Tragen von Masken und die Vermeidung von Gedränge während Zeiten höherer COVID-Infektionen zu treffen, vor allem gilt das für Leute mit hohem Risiko."
Keine Rückkehr zur Normaliät auf Jahre hinaus? Was wird dann aus uns, unserem Leben, unserer Wirtschaft? Bestürzende Perspektiven
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Update
Das amerikanische staatliche Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) " wird in dieser Woche voraussichtlich folgende Richtlinien für Geimpfte erlassen:
Den Menschen, die bereits vollständig geimpft sind, wird geraten, sich weiterhin an die meisten öffentlichen Gesundheitsregeln zu halten, wie z. B. das Tragen von Masken und körperliche Distanzierung in den meisten Umgebungen. Obwohl sie grünes Licht für begrenzte soziale Zusammenkünfte bekommen, sollten diese klein und zu Hause gehalten werden, und sie sollten nur andere vollständig geimpfte Erwachsene umfassen, wie es heisst.
Written on .
Journalist Can Dündar, former editor-in-chief of Turkey’s critical Cumhuriyet daily who lives in exile in Berlin, has made a bid to attract public attention to political imprisonment in Turkey with the adaptation of a prison cell in the garden of Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater, Deutsche Welle Turkish service reported on Thursday.
“This is a replica of a cell in the [high-security] Silivri Prison, which is known as the largest journalist jail in the world,” Dündar told DW Turkish, describing the room furnished with concrete-colored objects and optically insulated with mirror film.
“Among those who have been kept in there are politicians, journalists, academics and artists — a lot of people whose only crime was telling the truth — and some of them are still behind bars. I wanted to make their voices heard,” he said.
“It’s a kind of human rights campaign, and I hope it draws public attention to political prisoners in Turkey,” Dündar said, referring to his installation for the theatre that he calls the “Prison of Thoughts.”
Unless blocked by a court ruling, ex-President Donald Trump will most likely be the frontrunner for the Republican candidacy in 2024. Currently, he seems to enjoy the almost unanimous support of the GOP. Terrible or marvellous?
Among others, Adlai Stevenson II and Hillary Clinton have shown that Americans don’t like losers. Once you lost a primary or a presidential election, you are out. That’s the rule, and the GOP pundits know it as well. Still, they support Trump with the enthusiasm of lemmings, why?
There are two possible explanations
– they are still under Trump’s spell and afraid of his followers
– they think: four years are a long time and Trump might be blocked or fade away.
Indeed, under “normal” circumstances, Trump “fighting ïn his basement” at Mar-a-Lago would have hardly a chance against a President Biden enjoying the glamour of office and running for re-election after four moderately successful years.
But circumstances are far from normal. Twice, America has shown that it is ready to morph from a white plus minorities society to a minorities plus white society. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are two milestones marking a transition unique among major countries with the exception of South Africa.
The South African parallel is not as far fetched as it may seem: the whites still claim they settled and developed an empty country before the blacks moved in from the North, established a majority and grabbed power. Like Republicans in the U.S., whites in S.A. represent old money and wield economic power.
More than Obama, Biden seems ready to implement policies dear to the progressives and the minorities. Consequently, the conservatives are furious and disgusted. After four years of an administration pandering to their ideas and preferences, the shock of Biden’s reversal is deep.
The result is despair and radicalism among the Republican electorate. Today, if a President Trump would again call for an attack on the Capitol, thousands instead of hundreds would be coming.
Some observers predict that Trump, if reelected, would repeat the January 6th event on a much larger scale instead of giving up power. Support among Republicans for his attempts to topple democracy would be stronger than ever.
There can be little doubt at this juncture that many Republicans would trade in America’s democracy for a system that offers conservative white rule forever. Biden’s liberal immigration policy and his intention to legalize 15 million illegal foreigners are the opposite of what these Republicans consider indispensable.
There are three possibilities how Trump might get a real chance to return to power
Biden’s policies result in havoc and disaster
Biden falls ill and Harris takes over
Biden is exhausted, refuses to run for a second term, and the Democrats present a weak candidate as successor.
If none of the above happens, it is likely that America will be able to definitely close the chapter Trump.
Still, there is the possibility that the GOP would nominate a successor candidate who is more Trumpian than Trump.
John Wantock
Written on .
A year has gone by since the world started suffering from and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite all efforts, despite lockdowns and frantic search for vaccines we now seem to be back to square one.
The virus is mutating and the mutations are spreading uncontrollably. Mutations can be more contagious and able to sidestep vaccines. In many countries the damage done by aggressive new variants seems to wipe out progress made by vaccination.
Look at the case of Italy: as of February 20th, because of rising infections, the entire country could be sliding back into orange alert with the consequence of a stricter lockdown.
Francesco Menichetti, head of infective diseases at a hospital in Pisa, says: The British variant is already present in one third of the cases and it is more aggressive. It is showing up in the provinces of Florence, Pistoia and Pisa. The Brazilian virus is occurring in Siena province, and the South African variant ist showing up in Arezzo.
He urges nationwide strict tracing of all infections as the only way to prevent a disaster which he calls terremoto, earthquake. He noticed infections are becoming more dangerous, and more young people are badly affected.
Dangerous mutations seem to compete with vaccinations in many countries:
Covid-19 Vaccination Delays Could Bring More Virus Variants, Impede Efforts to End Pandemic. Scientists say high rates of viral spread in a partially immunized population could encourage mutations...
Dr. Bruce Y. Lee, a professor of health policy at City University of New York who leads the research effort for PHICOR, a public health research group, said that coronaviruses have relatively high mutation rates and that it is likely that new variants of the virus will continue to emerge. “The question will be how different might these variants be,” he said. If a variant of the virus stops responding to the vaccine, “it will then be a matter of determining whether and when new vaccines will need to be produced.”
Developing new vaccines and making them available on a mass scale takes time even under conditions of top urgency, as we have learned over the past twelve months.
Let us be honest with ourselves: our prospects for dealing with the pandemic are not encouraging. At present, no one can credibly promise that herd immunity will be attained to end the pandemic. Mutations, shortage of effective vaccines in sufficient quantities, and the resistance of millions of no-vax people are the main obstacles, compounded by excessive cost, shortcomings and technical problems of some vaccines.
Time has come to fathom the depth of our global crisis. We must face the possibility that for a very long time lockdowns will be the new normal. No more socializing, no more travel, less or no dating. Virtual schooling. No more restaurants, bars, clubs, hotels. Entire sectors of the economy to disappear. No more government subsidies to suffering sectors and their laid-off staff.
Or, as an alternative, efforts to avoid recurrence of mass hospitalizations and mass burials as experienced in Wuhan and Bergamo in spring 2020.
