I can't seem to find anything in a sidebar or sticky thread that talks about the moderation / rules of the news community. I'm very interested in coming to this community to learn about news, but right now it seems whats being posted tends to be relatively low (lower?) quality. Examples of common rules - Use the same titles as the article itself - No blog spam, link to the source - Political news, should go to the political community - No dupes of same topic As an example, take a look at other news aggregators that focus on news. My goal here isn't tell people what to do but its start a conversation on the topic.

[Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250125095227/https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/01/25/zelensky-warns-putin-wants-to-manipulate-trump-on-ukraine-a87737) Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday warned that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wanted to "manipulate" Donald Trump, after the Kremlin chief praised the U.S. leader and said he was ready for talks with him. Kyiv earlier warned against any Putin-Trump peace talks on the near three-year war without its and European participation. "He wants to manipulate the desire of the President of the United States of America to achieve peace," Zelensky said during a daily evening address on social media. "I am confident that no Russian manipulations will succeed anymore." He said Putin, who launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, was ready to continue the war and "manipulate the leaders of the world." Putin had earlier praised Trump as a "smart" leader who might have prevented the conflict from starting.

Cross posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18168481 [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250124122542/https://chinamediaproject.org/2025/01/23/a-golden-friendship/) **A forum in Bangkok this month underscored China’s ambition to work with local partners in Southeast Asia to impact public opinion there. A closer look at one of the propaganda vehicles meant to accomplish this goal suggests carelessness reigns down below such high-level exchanges.** On January 17, a high-profile forum on Sino-Thai cooperation in Bangkok brought together journalists, media specialists, and think tank researchers from both countries. Attended by former Thai deputy prime minister Pinit Jarusombat, who in retirement has become a regular on PRC state media to stress the importance of cultural ties, was also an opportunity for Beijing to outline its vision for media cooperation — **which emphasizes the dominance of narratives in the favor of China’s leadership.** Pinit serves as president of the Thai-Chinese Cultural Relationship Council (泰中文化促进委员会), which was formed in 2020 as a platform for intergovernmental cooperation, and also as vice president of the Beijing-based International Confucian Association. He said the dialogue, called “Our Golden Friendship,” aspired to “promote the role of the media and think tanks to better connect people.” But Pinit wasn’t the only VIP in the crowd. **Gao Anming (高岸明), vice president and editor-in-chief for the China International Communications Group (中国外文局) run by the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department, was also there to outline China’s vision for media and communication**. He described media outlets as “important platforms for disseminating information and channeling public opinion.” The latter phrase, emerging under Hu Jintao in 2008, refers to the CCP’s efforts to better direct public discourse toward the goals and agendas of China’s leadership. It is closely related to another term, “public opinion guidance” (舆论导向), which is a crucial phrase in the CCP’s vocabulary on press and information control in China. Gao’s reference to “public opinion channeling” (引导舆论) in the context of think tanks and bilateral media cooperation suggested the focus — for China at least — was on **manipulating the conversation over Thai-Chinese relations, and moving the agenda in China’s favored direction**. [...] A simple WordPress-based website for China Report ASEAN offers English-language coverage emphasizing the benefits of Chinese infrastructure investment in Southeast Asia, including Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. But a closer look at the publication’s online presence reveals an awkward oversight duplicated across the publication’s Facebook page, which has more than 500,000 followers, as well as its Youtube and X accounts. All of these accounts give “chinareportasean.com” as the outlet’s online address. Indeed, registration records indicate that the domain was first activated in 2017, the same year that China Report ASEAN was launched. Before readers visit this web address, however, they may wish to know that it links not to China Report ASEAN but to a Chinese gambling site. China remains determined to impact global discourse and conduct effective international communication. But **in the topsy turvy world of the CCP’s “external propaganda,” where everyone is anxious for results** — strange things can happen.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24657192 > **_Summary_** > > In a virtual speech at the World Economic Forum, Trump suggested Canada could become a U.S. state to avoid his proposed tariffs on imports. > > The remark elicited gasps from the audience. > > Trump claimed the U.S. does not need Canadian lumber, energy, or vehicles, vastly overstating the trade deficit between the two nations. > > He reiterated his intention to impose tariffs, potentially as high as 25%, on imports from Canada and Mexico starting February 1. > > Economists warn such tariffs would raise prices for U.S. consumers.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18156820 > [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250111175640/https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/hongkong-property/) > > [...] > > More than 200,000 people in Hong Kong live in sub-divided flats like [...], often cloaked in a musty odour and plagued by bedbugs during sweltering summers. > > The former British colony [which has been ruled by China since 1997], ranked as the world's most unaffordable city for a 14th consecutive year by survey company Demographia, has one of the world’s highest rates of inequality. > > [...] > > Hong Kong aims to eliminate subdivided flats by 2049, a target set in 2021 by China’s top official overseeing the city. **Beijing sees the housing woes as a serious social problem that helped fuel mass anti-government protests in 2019.** > > [...] > > Still, Hong Kong's roughly 110,000 sub-divided flats have become notorious for high rents, with a median floor rate of HK$50 ($6.43) a square foot, a survey by non-government body the Society for Community Organization (SoCO) showed in 2022. > > **For so-called “coffin” homes, each roughly the size of a single bed**, the rate is even higher, at HK$140, exceeding a rate of about HK$35 for private homes. > > “All I hope for is to quickly get into public housing,” said Wong Chi-kong, 76, who pays HK$2,900 ($370) for a space smaller than 50 sq ft (5 sq m). His toilet sits right beside his bed and under the shower head. > > [...] > > **About 1.4 million of Hong Kong’s population of about 7.5 million live in poverty, with the number of poor households rising to 619,000 in the first quarter of 2024, to account for about 22.7% of the total**, says non-profit organisation Oxfam. > > SoCO called for the new regulations to extend to “coffin” homes. > > “This kind of bed homes is the shame of Hong Kong,” said its deputy director, Sze Lai-shan. > > [...] > > “The most important thing is having a roof over my head, not worrying about getting sunburnt or rained on,” said Sum, who gave only his last name. > > Chan, 45, who pays rent of HK$2,100 a month for his 2 sq m (22 sq ft) home, said he hoped public housing would finally enable him to escape the bedbugs. > > “I applied in 2005,” he said, providing only one name. **“I have been waiting [for public housing] for 19 years.”** > > [...] **Addition**: Homelessness is defined differently around the world, making it difficult to compare the issue across countries. Today, only 78 countries have official government data on Homelessness, [according to the Institute of Global Homelessness](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cd543d1380b74896b21860aae3be1539) (these countries are depicted in red on the map on the institute's website if you click the link). China does not provide such statistics for its mainland. Also, methodologies as well as definitions of homelessness differ across countries. There are several internationally accepted methodologies for homeless data collection and efforts continue to standardize and improve enumeration for making data internationally comparable.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53586604

[Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250124180725/https://theins.ru/en/news/278159) Over 100 fake news websites have been implicated in spreading false information as part of Russian efforts to interfere in the upcoming German parliamentary elections, according to an investigation by the nonprofit center CORRECTIV and the disinformation tracking project NewsGuard. These websites have been found to be linked to the late Yevgeny Prigozhin’s “troll factory” and Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU. Fake news about German politicians began appearing en masse in November 2024, the investigation notes. Among the politicians targeted in the disinfo campaign are German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor, Robert Habeck. For instance, fake reports about Baerbock claim she had an affair with a male escort during a trip to Africa. Another article falsely accuses Robert Habeck of sexually assaulting a young woman several years ago. Altogether, over 100 interconnected websites were identified in the investigation. The fake news is attributed to a group called Storm-1516, according to CORRECTIV. This group is connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin’s “troll factory” (the so-called “Internet Research Agency”), the GRU, and former U.S. police officer John Mark Dougan, who received asylum in Russia and now lives in Moscow. Dougan was previously involved in spreading fake news about U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election. According to a report by The Washington Post that cited a European intelligence agency, Dougan “worked directly with Russian military intelligence” and “was provided funding by an officer from the GRU.” Pro-Russian politicians in Germany also help disseminate fake news after it first appears on the websites. For example, in December, the outlet Presseneu published a fabricated story about an alleged migration agreement between Germany and Kenya, under which nearly 2 million Kenyan workers would move to Germany. The article cited as its sources Kenyan portal Tuko and South African outlet The South African. However, both publications were revealed to have been paid for by third parties. The South African, for instance, received €620 for its article, though the identity of the sponsor remains unknown. Influencer Alina Lipp, known for her pro-Russian stance, shared the story with her nearly 190,000 Telegram followers. [...]

[Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250123072925/https://meduza.io/en/short/2025/01/22/sticker-shock) Data from Russia's Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) shows that the food item with the biggest price jump in 2024 was potatoes, which saw a nearly 92 percent increase from December 2023 to December 2024, according to RBC. Prices for onions, cabbage, and red caviar also rose significantly. Butter, which received widespread attention in Russian media last year for its rising cost, comes in fifth on the list, with a 36 percent increase. To address the soaring prices, Russia started importing butter from Turkey and the UAE. Overall, vegetables and fruits grew more expensive by 22 percent year-on-year. Food prices increases (Dec 2023 - Dec 2024) in Russia according to official data: - Potatoes: 91.9% - Onions: 48.2% - Cabbage: 44.7% - Red caviar: 37.7% - Butter: 36.2% - Beets: 32.1% - Cucumbers: 28.5%

[Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250124142638/https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/1/24/dam-for-a-dam-india-china-edge-towards-a-himalayan-water-war) **Despite local protests, India is building a giant hydro dam on the Siang River to counter a Chinese dam – the world’s largest – upstream in Tibet. Millions of people in India and Bangladesh could be hurt.** The Siang River, cutting through serene hills, has been considered sacred for centuries by Jijong’s ancestors in the Adi tribal community – farmers whose livelihood depended on its water. But all of that is now at risk [...] as India moves to build its largest dam over their land. [...] [But a local Indian minister] has insisted that it is “not just a hydro dam,” but that its “real objective is to save the Siang River”. From China. [...] At the heart of the Indian dam project that Jijong and his community are opposing is a geostrategic contest for water and security between New Delhi and Beijing, who are locked in a tense rivalry that, in recent years, has also at times exploded into deadly border clashes. The Siang River originates near Mount Kailash in Tibet, where it is known as the Yarlung Zangbo. It then enters Arunachal Pradesh and becomes much wider. Known as the Brahmaputra in most of India, it then flows into Bangladesh before sinking into the Bay of Bengal. Last month, China approved the construction of its most ambitious – and the world’s largest – dam over the Yarlung Zangbo, in Tibet’s Medog county, right before it enters Indian territory. Soon after China first officially announced its plan to construct the dam in 2020, officials in New Delhi started seriously considering a counter-dam to “mitigate the adverse impact of the Chinese dam projects”. The Indian government argues that the Siang dam’s large reservoir would offset the disruption in the flow of the river by the upcoming Medog dam, and safeguard against flash floods or water scarcity. But the presence of two giant dams in a Himalayan region with a fragile ecosystem and a history of devastating floods and earthquakes poses serious threats to millions of people who live there and further downstream, caution experts and climate activists. And India and China’s dangerous power tussle over Himalayan water resources could disproportionately hurt Indigenous communities. [...]

If there is a better community for me to post this in please let me know prior to deleting this post. Do any of you use Ground.news? It's pretty great at finding multiple sources of information on the same topic and helping to compare biases. Sometime in the not-too-distant past they stopped including articles from RT.com. I'm not really sure why. I found it really helpful when people would post from the Russian government news agency and show them other sides of the story, or when they actually posted decent stuff, share it from something that isn't so often crap.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53502163

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18153936 > If successful, the move could provide Manila with one of its most influential platforms to challenge Beijing over its expansive South China Sea claims, reports China-based South China Morning Post (SCMP). A seat on the UNSC would allow Manila to spotlight China’s sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea, which conflict with the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone > > [...] > > Securing a seat on the Security Council would allow Manila to spotlight China’s sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea, which conflict with the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and international law. > > While any resolutions targeting China would almost certainly be vetoed by Beijing, a permanent member of the council, the effort itself could have significant diplomatic impact. > > “The votes would embarrass Beijing,” said SCMP cited Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, as saying. > > [...] > > The Philippines has a strong record to support its candidacy. Over six decades, it has contributed 14,000 troops to 21 UN peacekeeping missions and previously held a Security Council seat in 2004–2005. > > Additionally, the Philippines has secured backing from its regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Under a long-standing agreement, ASEAN members rotate their bids for non-permanent Security Council seats, and the Philippines’ turn has now arrived. > > Additionally, it is likely to secure support of all Asean bloc members, who have agreed to support each other in a rotation on the UNSC. > > [...]

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53502678

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18142273 > [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250123140719/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr46npx1e73o) > > When Zhang Junjie was 17 he decided to protest outside his university about rules made by China's government. Within days he had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital and treated for schizophrenia. > > Junjie is one of dozens of people identified by the BBC who were hospitalised after protesting or complaining to the authorities. > > Many people we spoke to were given anti-psychotic drugs, and in some cases electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), without their consent. > > While there have been reports for decades that hospitalisation is used in China as a way of detaining dissenting citizens without involving the courts, a leading Chinese lawyer has told the BBC that the issue - which legislation sought to resolve - has recently seen a resurgence. > > Junjie says he was restrained and beaten by hospital staff before being forced to take medication. > > [...] > > "The doctors told me I had a very serious mental disease… Then they tied me to a bed. The nurses and doctors repeatedly told me, because of my views on the party and the government, then I must be mentally ill. It was terrifying," he told the BBC World Service. He was there for 12 days. > > [...] > > Just over a month after being discharged, Junjie was once again arrested. Defying a fireworks ban at Chinese New Year (a measure brought in to fight air pollution) he had made a video of himself setting them off. Someone uploaded it online and police managed to link it to Junjie. > > [...] > > He was accused of "picking quarrels and troublemaking" - a charge frequently used to silence criticism of the Chinese government. Junjie says he was forcibly hospitalised again for more than two months. > > After being discharged, Junjie was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. We have seen the prescription - it was for Aripiprazole, used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. > > "Taking the medicine made me feel like my brain was quite a mess," he says, adding that police would come to his house to check he had taken it. > > Fearing a third hospitalisation, Junjie decided to leave China. He told his parents he was returning to university to pack up his room - but, in fact, he fled to New Zealand. > > He didn't say goodbye to family or friends. > > [...]

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53472470 > - The Brazilian diplomat who will chair the next United Nations climate summit praised China on Thursday (Jan 23) as an example in the fight against climate change while admonishing rich countries for shirking their responsibilities. > > - By reducing the price of solar panels and of electric cars, China is giving infinitely more support to the developing world (on climate change) than if it were just providing symbolic amounts (of aid), which is what the developed countries want.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53392082

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25047271

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18137894 > [Archived link](https://web.archive.org/web/20250123075822/https://tibet.net/nine-un-experts-investigate-chinas-incarceration-and-disappearance-of-nine-tibetans/) > > United Nations (UN) human rights experts have issued a communication letter to the Chinese government raising serious concerns about its recent history of human rights violations, in particular, its unlawful arrest and disappearance of rights defenders and individuals in Tibet and East Turkestan (Ch: Xinjiang). The communication highlights “recurring patterns of repression, including incommunicado detentions and enforced disappearances, which were intended to limit artistic, cultural, and religious expression, silence human rights defenders in these regions, and silence opposing or critical views.” The communication dated 14 November 2024 was made public on 14 January 2025. > > In the communication, the experts called on the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to provide information on the fate and whereabouts of nine Tibetans, including Tsedo, Kori, Chugdar, Gelo, Bhamo, Lobsang Samten, Lobsang Trinley, Wangkyi, and Tsering Tashi. The communication also mentioned other human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, activists, and ethnic or religious minorities unlawfully imprisoned and disappeared. > > Moreover, the experts questioned China about the facts and legal basis for the arrest, detention, charge, and sentence of the individuals mentioned above, along with whether their cases were classified as secret and the trials were closed. They explained how these actions conformed to China’s international human rights obligations. > > [...]

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53288897

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53391458

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53161995

Russia is posing an existential threat to the European Union's security and to only way to address that is to increase spending on defence, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday, adding that the EU had for too long offered Russia alternatives. "Russia poses an existential threat to our security today, tomorrow and for as long as we underinvest in our defence," she said during a speech at the annual conference of the European Defence Agency (EDA). "People say I'm a 'Russia hawk'. I think I'm simply realistic about Russia," Kallas said. Kallas, one of EU's most vocal opponents to Russian President Vladimir Putin, also acknowledged U.S. President Donald Trump was right in saying that EU members don't spend enough on defence. [...] "Time is not on Russia's side. But it's not necessarily on ours either. Because we are not yet doing enough. There should be no doubt in any of our minds that we must spend more to prevent war. But we also need to prepare for war," Kallas said.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53391836

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53288701

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18125684 > [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250121220700/https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/01/thailand-must-immediately-halt-deportation-48-uyghurs-china-un-experts) > > >The Government of Thailand must immediately halt the possible transfer of 48 Uyghurs to the People’s Republic of China, UN experts* said today, warning that the group was at real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment if they are returned. > > >**“The treatment of the Uyghur minority in China is well-documented,” the experts said. “We are concerned they are at risk of suffering irreparable harm, in violation of the international prohibition on refoulement to torture.”** > > >“The prohibition on refoulement prohibits the return or transfer in any manner whatsoever to a country where there is real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” they recalled. > > >The experts urged Thailand to provide adequate and comprehensive medical care to the group of Uyghurs without delay. > > >The 48 Uyghurs are said to be part of a larger group of approximately 350 persons who were arrested in Thailand in 2014, after irregularly crossing the Thai border to seek protection in Thailand. It is alleged that they have been held in de facto incommunicado detention for over a decade, with no access to lawyers, family members, representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). > > >[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53215812

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53181465

Watch till the end of the video for a Nazi with a Hilter stash.

> An additional executive order meant to "protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other national security and public threats" is undeniably meant to apply to pro-Palestinian protesters across America, particularly on college campuses.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18113590 > [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250120135638/https://chinamediaproject.org/2025/01/10/china-opens-icc-to-rebrand-xinjiang/) > > International Communication Centers, or ICCs, have been sprouting up across China at a blistering rate since 2018. Tasked with leveraging local expertise and fusing traditional and new media to amplify the Party’s external propaganda, their story is one we have been following closely for years. But one part of the PRC has remained a grey area on the map — the part of the country perhaps most in need of positive spin, the far-western Xinjiang region. > > Then, in late December 2024, Xinjiang’s branch of the Cyberspace Administration of China (网信新疆) announced the launch of the Xinjiang International Communication Center (新疆国际传播中心), housed in its own purpose-built offices in regional capital Urumqi. > > [...] > > **A New Propaganda Nexus** > > Xinjiang Daily credits the new ICC with helping it to build a “matrix of foreign propaganda products.” One of the products they list is a website called Tianshan Net (天山网), which features videos from the new ICC and publishes content in English, Kazakh, Russian, and Uyghur. As we have written about before, China now conceives of external propaganda as an all-of-society effort pulling in various government and Party institutions. ICCs are not just production centers but hubs that serve to weave these different threads together. > > [...] > > Despite [...] efforts to reel in tourists with its “ethnic minorities” — majorities in much of the region — **Xinjiang is best known internationally for subjecting its ethnically Turkic and predominantly Muslim population to what the UN calls crimes against humanity.** More than anywhere else in the country, Xinjiang needs to refurbish its reputation. Yet while ICCs have spread throughout wealthier provinces to the east, Xinjiang has had most of its overseas propaganda created by outlets headquartered in Beijing like Xinhua and the People’s Daily. > > [...] > > Throughout 2024, Xinjiang’s government worked hard to cast off its poor reputation. In May, a special International Communication Research Center brought together members of the regional propaganda department to brainstorm new ways to “tell Xinjiang’s story well.” China’s annual World Media Summit also came to the regional capital [of Xinjiang], **with executives from international news outlets like Reuters, AP, and CNN rubbing elbows with their counterparts at Xinhua, People’s Daily, and China Media Group**. > > [...] > > Xinjiang’s ICC, despite the long wait and the lofty expectations ascribed to it, is unlikely to give us any new, innovative content. But it’s merely one more weapon in what they have called “a smokeless war” for global public opinion. > > [...]

I figured this is the correct community to post to since UHC is a multi-national company but if this is more suited to US News I can move it.

> Manufacturers say that installing a couple of 300-watt panels will give a saving of up to 30% on a typical household’s electricity bill. With an outlay of €400-800 and with no installation cost, the panels could pay for themselves within six years. > > In Spain, where two thirds of the population live in apartments and installing panels on the roof requires the consent of a majority of the building’s residents, this DIY technology has obvious advantages. > > With solar balconies, no such consent is required unless the facade is listed as of historic interest or there is a specific prohibition from the residents’ association or the local authority. Furthermore, as long as the installation does not exceed 800 watts it doesn’t require certification, which can cost from €100 to €400, depending on the area. --- > As with all solar power systems, balcony power only works in daylight and a battery storage system can add at least €1,000 to the installation cost. --- > Vernetta says the vertical surface area of cities is far greater than that of the roofs and that, in Spain, balcony panels benefit more than roof panels from the low winter sun. > > Cities such as Helsinki are already experimenting with buildings with solar panel cladding.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/36008883

A Russian court awarded more than 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) of damages against the biggest Western bank in Russia, Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), in a landmark ruling underscoring the perils of doing business in Russia. The case, in which lawyers for Raiffeisen accused the court of using intimidation tactics, is one of the most significant rulings against a Western company still operating in Russia, with one of the largest awards of damages yet. [...] Almost three years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, RBI's continued presence in Russia underlines the lingering ties between Moscow and Vienna - with Vienna having served as a hub for cash from Russia and former Soviet states. That bond put Raiffeisen and Austria on the front line of a global push by the United States to isolate Russia by reinforcing sanctions on banking and choking off access to Western goods after it invaded Ukraine. [...] "This lawsuit, with a huge number of gross violations, is an attempt to force the sale of blocked assets through a Russian court," Andrei Timchuk, partner at Delcredere, representing Raiffeisen Bank, said in a statement. [...] "The court hearing was attended by unidentified armed people in balaclavas, whom the court sat next to the defendant with the obvious goal of exerting additional pressure," he said. [...] The dispute followed the failure of an earlier deal that Raiffeisen hoped would allow it unlock some of its frozen billions in Russia. The case was centred on a claim by Russian investment company Rasperia against builder Strabag, its Austrian shareholders and the Russian arm of Raiffeisen. RBI had sought to buy a stake in Vienna-based Strabag from Rasperia, which Strabag had linked to Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska. [...]

After arriving in Grand Junction, Egan, who was driving a taxi, pulled up next to Alex at a stoplight and, according to an arrest affidavit, said something to the effect of: “Are you even a U.S. citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a Marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!” Alex, who had been out reporting, then drove back to his news station in the city. After he got out of his vehicle, Egan chased Alex as he ran toward the station’s door and demanded to see his identification, according to the document laying out police’s evidence in the case. Egan then tackled Alex, put him in a headlock and “began to strangle him,” the affidavit said. Coworkers who ran out to help and witnesses told police that Alex appeared to be losing his ability to breathe during the attack, which was partially captured on surveillance video, according to the document.

[Original link in German ](https://btw2025.cemas.io/artikel/update-doppelgaenger) A Russian disinformation campaign is seeking to boost the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of the country's election on Febryuary 23, an investigation by the German Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS) has found. CeMAS tracked a total of 630 German-language posts with typical double-track patterns were documented on X from 17 December 2024 to 14 January 2025, the organization says. The contributions reached a total of over 2.8 million views by January 15, 2025. Due to the nature of this metric, this figure is to be considered as a rough guide, for example because of the artificial distribution of the contributions by the campaign itself. For the 630 contributions, only a few responses from apparently uninvolved accounts could be recorded, which were also mostly critical. The so-called Doppelgaenger campaign, created after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine to undermine Western support for Kyiv, spreads links to falsified Western news outlets sharing false information, according to a German foreign ministry report published last June. The German posts on X have blamed the Greens party for Germany's economic woes, lambasted Chancellor Olaf Scholz (from the Social Democratic Party for his support of Ukraine, cast the conservatives as untrustworthy but spoken in favour of the right-wing AfD, according to the report. While 79 posts were based on images and did not contain a link, 63 articles referred to authentic articles from existing German media such as Focus, Spiegel, Welt or Handelsblatt, which focused primarily on economic problems. It is assumed that these articles were instrumentalized in the sense of the campaign goal, as they fit into the narrative, CeMAS says.