LONDON: The UK announced Thursday new sanctions against “Russian propagandists and state media,” targeting two Kremlin-funded media organizations and a well-known presenter, over the invasion of Ukraine.
The 14 new sanctions follow several previous rounds of sanctions against more than 1,000 Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities in response to Moscow’s war in its western neighbor.
“Britain has helped lead the world in exposing Kremlin disinformation, and this latest batch of sanctions hits the shameless propagandists who push out (Vladimir) Putin’s fake news and narratives,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
“We will keep on going with more sanctions to ramp up the pressure on Russia and ensure Putin loses in Ukraine. Nothing and no one is off the table.”
The latest sanctions list includes Russian Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, who the UK foreign ministry said had become known as “the butcher of Mariupol” over Russia’s actions in the besieged Ukrainian city.
Britain also hit TV-Novosti, which owns the global television channel RT — formerly Russia Today — and Rossiya Segodnya, which controls the news agency Sputnik.
Meanwhile, London targeted Sergey Brilyov, a famous TV anchor in Russia on state-owned media outset Rossiya, which it described as a “propagandist for Putin.”
“Having previously lived in the UK, (he) will no longer be able to access any of his UK assets or continue business dealings,” the ministry said.
Alexander Zharov, chief executive officer of Gazprom-Media, Alexei Nikolov, the managing director of RT, and Anton Anisimov, head of Sputnik International Broadcasting, were also sanctioned.
The UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom earlier this month revoked the license of RT with immediate effect, saying it was not “fit and proper” to broadcast in the country.
UK sanctions Russian ‘propagandists and state media’
https://arab.news/r2mwp
UK sanctions Russian ‘propagandists and state media’
- New sanctions follow several previous rounds of sanctions against more than 1,000 Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities
Streaming platform Deezer starts flagging AI-generated music
- French streaming service Deezer is now alerting users when they come across music identified as completely generated by artificial intelligence, the company told AFP on Friday
The announcement by chief executive Alexis Lanternier follows repeated statements from the platform that a torrent of AI-generated tracks is being uploaded daily — a challenge Deezer shares with other streaming services including Swedish heavyweight Spotify.
Deezer said in January that it was receiving uploads of 10,000 AI tracks a day, doubling to over 20,000 in an April statement — or around 18 percent of all music added to the platform.
The company “wants to make sure that royalties supposed to go to artists aren’t being taken away” by tracks generated from a brief text prompt typed into a music generator like Suno or Udio, Lanternier said.
AI tracks are not being removed from Deezer’s library, but instead are demonetised to avoid unfairly reducing human musicians’ royalties.
Albums containing tracks suspected of being created in this way are now flagged with a notice reading “content generated by AI,” a move Deezer says is a global first for a streaming service.
Lanternier said Deezer’s home-grown detection tool was able to spot markers of AI provenance with 98 percent accuracy.
“An audio signal is an extremely complex bundle of information. When AI algorithms generate a new song, there are little sounds that only they make which give them away... that we’re able to spot,” he said.
“It’s not audible to the human ear, but it’s visible in the audio signal.”
With 9.7 million subscribers worldwide, most of them in France, Deezer is a relative minnow compared to Spotify, which has 268 million.
The Swedish firm in January signed a deal supposed to better remunerate artists and other rights holders with the world’s biggest label, Universal Music Group.
But Spotify has not taken the same path as Deezer of demonetising AI content.
It has pointed to the lack of a clear definition for completely AI-generated audio, as well as any legal framework setting it apart from human-created works.
Israeli police prevent media from reporting at scene of Soroka hospital strike
- Officers block journalists from filming at medical center hit by Iranian missile on Thursday, and demand they hand over equipment
- The move is said to the result of directives issued by Israel’s minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir
- Amid growing concerns about restrictions on reporting, advocates for freedom of the press accuse Israeli authorities of censorship
LONDON: Israeli police reportedly prevented journalists from filming at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, which suffered “extensive damage” from an Iranian missile strike on Thursday.
Officers were said to have cited security concerns as the reason, on the grounds that footage from the scene revealed “precise locations” and had been broadcast by Al Jazeera, a media outlet banned in Israel since May 2024 over its coverage of the war in Gaza.
The Times of Israel said police confronted one cameraman at the hospital site and demanded he hand over his equipment. The journalist reportedly refused and told officers: “They are seeing you on CNN, seeing you on BBC, seeing you all over the world, so calm down for a second.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the attack in which the hospital was damaged, saying it had targeted nearby Israeli military and intelligence sites. The Israeli military denied having any facilities in the area. Footage authenticated by BBC Verify suggested the medical complex was hit by a direct strike.
Israeli police confirmed on Thursday that they ordered a halt to foreign media coverage at Soroka and other affected locations for reasons of national security. They added that they were actively looking for media workers filming at the sites.
“Israel Police units were dispatched to halt the broadcasts, including those of news agencies through which Al Jazeera was airing illegal transmissions,” the force said.
During a visit to the hospital site on Thursday, Israel’s minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said: “This morning in Tel Aviv, there was an incident where equipment was confiscated. There is a clear policy: Al Jazeera endangers state security.”
The crackdown on the media comes amid growing concerns among advocates for freedom of the press. Several journalists and other industry professionals have reported obstruction by authorities, including confiscation of equipment. Many accuse Israeli officials of censorship. It follows policy directives from far-right minister Ben-Gvir, in coordination with Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, to “maintain the safety and security of citizens.”
Sources close to Ben-Gvir said he has instructed Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and the police to step up action against any foreign media outlets or civilians suspected of celebrating the Iranian missile attacks.
“There will be zero tolerance for expressions of joy over attacks on Israel,” Ben-Gvir said this week.
Tensions in the region have risen sharply since coordinated strikes by Israeli authorities against Iranian military and nuclear sites began on June 13. Tehran has retaliated with missile strikes on Israeli targets, some of which have hit civilian buildings.
After a visit to the Soroka hospital site on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz escalated the rhetoric further, declaring that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist.”
Iranian authorities say at least 639 people have been killed and 1,329 wounded since the fighting began a week ago. The death toll in Israel stands at 24, according to officials in the country.
Trump administration tightens social media vetting for foreign students
- US will now impose much stricter social media vetting for visa applicants, requiring them to make social media profiles public to check for anti-American content
- Washington told US missions abroad they can resume visa processing for students, after appointments were suspended in May
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday ordered the resumption of student visa appointments but will significantly tighten its social media vetting in a bid to identify any applicants who may be hostile toward the United States, according to an internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters.
US consular officers are now required to conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting” of all student and exchange visitor applicants to identify those who “bear hostile attitudes toward our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles,” said the cable, which was dated June 18 and sent to US missions on Wednesday.
On May 27, the Trump administration ordered its missions abroad to stop scheduling new appointments for student and exchange visitor visa applicants, saying the State Department was set to expand social media vetting of foreign students.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said updated guidance would be released once a review was completed.
The June 18 dated cable, which was sent by Rubio and sent to all US diplomatic missions, directed officers to look for “applicants who demonstrate a history of political activism, especially when it is associated with violence or with the views and activities described above, you must consider the likelihood they would continue such activity in the United States.”
The cable, which was first reported by Free Press, also authorized the consular officers to ask the applicants to make all of their social media accounts public.
“Remind the applicant that limited access to....online presence could be construed as an effort to evade or hide certain activity,” the cable said.
The move follows the administration’s enhanced vetting measures last month for visa applicants looking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose, in what a separate State Department cable said would serve as a pilot program for wider expanded screening.
ONLINE PRESENCE
The new vetting process should include a review of the applicant’s entire online presence and not just social media activity, the cable said, urging the officers to use any “appropriate search engines or other online resources.”
During the vetting, the directive asks officers to look for any potentially derogatory information about the applicant.
“For example, during an online presence search, you might discover on social media that an applicant endorsed Hamas or its activities,” the cable says, adding that may be a reason for ineligibility.
Rubio, Trump’s top diplomat and national security adviser, has said he has revoked the visas of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, including students, because they got involved in activities that he said went against US foreign policy priorities.
Those activities include support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza.
A Tufts University student from Turkiye was held for over six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza. She was released from custody after a federal judge granted her bail.
Trump’s critics have said the administration’s actions are an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
FEWER APPOINTMENTS?
While the new directive allows posts to resume scheduling for student and exchange visa applicants, it is warning the officers that there may have to be fewer appointments due to the demands of more extensive vetting.
“Posts should consider overall scheduling volume and the resource demands of appropriate vetting; posts might need to schedule fewer FMJ cases than they did previously,” the cable said, referring to the relevant visa types.
The directive has also asked posts to prioritize among expedited visa appointments of foreign-born physicians participating in a medical program through exchange visas, as well as student applicants looking to study in a US university where international students constitute less than 15 percent of the total.
At Harvard, the oldest and wealthiest US university on which the administration has launched a multifront attack by freezing its billions of dollars of grants and other funding, foreign students last year made up about 27 percent of the total student population.
The cable is asking the overseas posts to implement these vetting procedures within five business days.
WhatsApp ‘concerned’ services to be blocked after Iran calls on citizens to delete app
- Iran state broadcaster urged the public on Tuesday to delete the messaging app from their devices, saying it was sharing data with arch-rival Israel
- WhatsApp said it does not “provide bulk information to any government”
WASHINGTON: WhatsApp said it was “concerned” that its services would be blocked in Iran after a state broadcaster urged the public to delete the messaging app, saying it was sharing data with arch-rival Israel.
State television IRIB appealed to Iranians on Tuesday to delete WhatsApp from their phones, alleging that the app collected users’ personal data and “last known locations and communications,” and shared them with Israel.
On Wednesday, Israel and Iran exchanged fire for the sixth straight day, with Israel saying it struck a nuclear site near Tehran.
A WhatsApp spokesperson dismissed the IRIB claims, saying all messages sent on the app were “end-to-end encrypted,” with only the sender and recipient able to access them.
“We’re concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most,” the spokesperson told AFP.
“We do not track your precise location, we don’t keep logs of who everyone is messaging and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another,” they said.
WhatsApp also does not “provide bulk information to any government.”
Israel launched a massive bombing campaign against Iran on Friday that has hit nuclear and military facilities, as well as residential areas.
Iran has responded by launching missiles and drones, and early Wednesday said it had fired hypersonic missiles at Israel.
Tehran announced Friday that it was placing temporary restrictions on the Internet for the duration of the conflict.
Numerous sites and apps have since been at least partially inaccessible.
The authorities appealed to the public on Tuesday to “minimize their use of equipment connected to the Internet and to take appropriate precautions” online.
For their own safety, civil servants and their security teams have been banned from using any connected devices, including smartphones, watches and laptops during the Israeli air offensive.
In the wake of nationwide protests triggered by the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, Iranian authorities had blocked several apps and online services, including WhatsApp.
All new Facebook videos to be classified as Reels soon, Meta says
- Social media giant said change would simplify how users publish visual content
LONDON: All new videos uploaded on Facebook will soon be classified as Reels, simplifying how users publish visual content, social media giant Meta Platforms said on Tuesday.
The Instagram parent said Reels on Facebook will no longer have length or format restrictions, and include all types of video content — short, long and live.
Previously uploaded video content will remain as such on the platform while videos posted after the change will be classified as Reels. The company will also rename the Video tab as Reels tab.
As part of the update, users will be prompted to confirm their audience setting or select a new one if their feed posts and Reels currently have different settings. The update will also give users access to more creative tools.
Meta said it will gradually roll out these changes globally to profiles and pages over the coming months.
