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The United Nations on Friday fired 12 of its employees in Gaza and began an investigation after charges by Israel that they had helped plan and participated in the Oct. 7 terrorist assault that left 1,400 Israelis dead or captured. The workers, all men and all employed by the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians and known by the acronym UNRWA, are subject to a criminal investigation, two U.N. officials said. A U.N. official, briefed on the accusations, called the allegations “extremely serious and horrific.” Israel, which presented the allegations to the U.N. earlier this week, has previously accused UNRWA, which provides social and education programs in the Gaza Strip, of fueling anti-Israeli incitement. The stunning accusation and the U.N.’s swift reaction, however, contrast with previous U.N. denials of Israeli allegations. The accusations led to swift action by the United States, one of the agency’s largest donors, which temporarily halted its funding to the organization. UNWRA has been the principal agency overseeing the distribution of aid to Gazans amid a growing humanitarian crisis because of the war launched after the Oct. 7 attack. Israel and the U.N. have each accused each other of acting in bad faith. The U.N. has accused Israel of slowing the delivery of humanitarian aid to the embattled enclave, and Israel has said the world body has promoted Hamas’s propaganda. Those allegations, however, are less politically sensitive than the accusation that humanitarian workers could have engaged in an act of terror, which is being taken seriously by the U.N. secretariat, the United States and the European Union, UNRWA’s largest donors. NYTimes

the United States has bombed Yemen, Somalia, Syria & Iraq and helped Israel bomb Gaza, the west bank & Lebanon all in the first 3 weeks of 2024, great achievement for the US administration that promised to not continue the US t̶e̶r̶r̶o̶r̶i̶s̶m̶ wars

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24049050/microsoft-activision-blizzard-layoffs

https://www.axios.com/2024/01/23/conde-nast-walkout-union-layoffs-new-york We love to see it

Germany sees second day of large protests against far right An estimated 1.4 million people in Germany demonstrated against the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) from Friday to Sunday, according to the organizers of the events. From Friday through the weekend, demonstrations were called in about 100 locations across Germany. On Sunday, rallies were held in major cities such as Cologne, Munich and Berlin. Several other German cities, including Cottbus, Dresden and Chemnitz in the east, also planned to hold demonstrations. In Berlin, around 100,000 gathered outside the Bundestag, or the lower house of parliament, according to police figures. Police in Munich said that some 80,000 people participated in the march, while organizers put the figure at 200,000. The march had to be called off due to overcrowding and attendees were asked to disperse. Meanwhile, in Cologne, police sources put the number of demonstrators at around 10,000. Why are so many people protesting now? The wave of mobilization against the far-right party was sparked by a January 10 report from investigative outlet Correctiv, which revealed that AfD members had met with extremists in Potsdam in November to discuss expelling immigrants and "non-assimilated citizens." Members of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the main opposition party, were reportedly also present. Participants in the meeting discussed "remigration," a term often used in far-right circles as a euphemism for the expulsion of immigrants and minorities. News of the meeting shocked many in Germany at a time when the AfD is riding high in opinion polls ahead of three major regional elections in eastern Germany, where the party's support is strongest. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who joined a demonstration last weekend, said any plan to expel immigrants or citizens alike amounted to "an attack against our democracy, and in turn, on all of us". AfD confirmed the presence of its members at the meeting but maintained that its remigration proposals, which were part of its last election manifesto, do not include naturalized German citizens. These comments at the meeting were made by an Austrian far-right figure, Martin Sellner, who is not a member of the AfD. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-second-day-of-anti-far-right-protests-sweeps-major-cities/a-68045396

fter Japanese author Rie Kudan won one of the country’s most prestigious literary awards, she admitted she’d had help from an unusual source — ChatGPT. “I plan to continue to profit from the use of AI in the writing of my novels, while letting my creativity express itself to the fullest,” said the 33-year-old, who was awarded the Akutagawa Prize for the best work of fiction by a promising new writer on Wednesday. The author then confirmed at a press conference that around 5% of her book “The Tokyo Tower of Sympathy” — which was lauded by committee members as “practically flawless” — was word-for-word generated by AI. Last year, Berlin-based photographer Boris Eldagsen withdrew from the Sony World Photography Awards after revealing his winning entry in the creative photo category was created using the technology. Meanwhile, authors like George R. R. Martin, Jodi Picoult and John Grisham joined a class action lawsuit against OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, last year, saying it used copyrighted work while training its systems to create more human-like responses. Some on social media expressed interest in Kudan’s creative use of AI and said they were now more interested in her work, others called it “disrespectful” to other authors who wrote without the help of the technology. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/19/style/rie-kudan-akutagawa-prize-chatgpt/index.html

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/1/18/gaza_israel_palestine_solidarity_censorship Absolutely wild to me how this country never passes the chance to be on the wrong side of history

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After Iran admitted to air striking Pakistan: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67999465 Pakistan is now carrying/carried out retaliatory strikes of its own: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/18/middleeast/pakistan-targets-locations-iran-intl-hnk/index.html Pakistan is currently trending as a topic with like half a million tweets for this reason. Them striking each other and posting petty "dw we respect your sovereignty <3" jhfjhd; but

Read the plan: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

https://news.sky.com/story/worlds-richest-men-double-their-wealth-in-three-years-as-oxfam-warns-of-first-trillionaire-13048652?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter