Who funded the anti-BRI “Made in Ethiopia” documentary?

WSWS: Made in Ethiopia—or anywhere else in the worldXinyan Yu (National Fellow at New America*), Max Duncan (Reuters in China), Eastern Industry Park

Related:

Industrial park showcasing Chinese extensive investment participation in Ethiopia

In addition to the 12 industrial parks built by the government and managed by the Industrial Parks Development Corporation and regional governments and the Diredawa Free Trade Zone, there are also industrial parks built and managed by private investors in various areas of Ethiopia. One of these private industrial parks is Eastern Industry Park. The industrial park is located in Dukem area, and 153 companies are engaged in production activities in the park. 95% of the companies are owned by Chinese investors, while the rest are owned by companies from India, England, and other countries. These producers are contributing significantly in terms of job creation, foreign exchange earnings, technology, and knowledge transfer.

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‘Kill’ plot vs Marcos ‘maliciously taken out of context’ —VP Sara

‘Kill’ plot vs Marcos ‘maliciously taken out of context’ —VP Sara (archived)

BBM seems to be taking out his opponents from what I’ve been observing. The next presidential election is in 2028. I wonder how involved the CIA is?

Related:

Sara Duterte Exposes House Panel’s Off-Cam Confession: It’s All About Election Funds

“After that meeting with the Makabayan bloc and Martin Romualdez, they started destroying my name, pummeling me in the media with the multi million PR campaign. They even insulted me by lying that I was a traitor, a corrupt, an abusive person. Your motherfucker, who is corrupt?” she said during an online press briefing early Saturday.

“Those congressmen who are holding hearings, what do they say when the hearing is over, when the mic is off, when the media is gone- ‘Excuse me, we need money because the election is coming up. Please tell Sara, I don’t like what I’m doing,’” she said.

The country’s veep then directed her fury at Manila Rep. Joel Chua, head of the House panel probing the confidential funds use, accusing him of hypocrisy.

“You motherfucker, you don’t like what you’re doing, why are you ruining my name, Joel Chua?”

Trump 2.0: Scientology sitting pretty as Trump names Pam Bondi his pick for Attorney General

After once and future President Donald Trump named Matt Gaetz, a loyalist, to be his pick for Attorney General in his incoming administration, former top Scientology executive Mike Rinder last week announced at his blog that Scientology would have nothing to worry about from the Department of Justice for the next four years.

Scientology sitting pretty as Trump names Pam Bondi his pick for Attorney General

A friendly fire death, a platoon’s 20 years of trauma

Bryan O’Neal has spent two decades grinding his way up the U.S. Army ranks, from lowly private to command sergeant major — the highest rank for a non-commissioned officer. He could write a textbook on modern warfare history — and his own unique place in it — but much of what he’s seen and done could be hard for anyone to hear. Significant numbers of the men and women under his command weren’t even born until after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that inspired him to enlist.

In the spring of 2004, perhaps the last thing President George W. Bush’s administration needed was another war-related PR problem. No one could find Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, which the administration had used to build a case for war. Less than a month before Tillman’s death, four contractors for the Blackwater private security firm in Iraq were ambushed and dragged through the streets, and their corpses were hung from a bridge. In April came shocking images of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison.

A friendly fire death, a platoon’s 20 years of trauma

Related:

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Australia-Philippines Military Public Affairs workshop

YouTube / Facebook

Throughout the three-day course, we’ve looked at the strategic, operational and tactical levels.  We’ve looked at the operational framework in which both nations work.  Some of the considerations that we have to work together with.  We’ve looked at media programs and media talent and preparing that talent and facilitating media embed programs.  And we also unpacked and looked at photography workshop as well, where we’ve been able to have lots of fun looking at the kits and the tools, and taking some photography and vision in order to amplify key messages into the region.

ADF | Australia-Philippines Military Public Affairs workshop

Related:

Great communication begins with connection

‘The workshop got our nations on one page to deliver the right information and messages that we want to convey across the globe.’

Embedded journalism:

The original purpose of embedding was to control journalists, according to Helen Benedict, a professor at the Columbia Journalism School.  Citing award-winning Australian journalist Phillip Knightley’s book “The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Iraq” which describes how the U.S. government invented embedded journalism in response to critical coverage of the Vietnam War.  As civilian casualties in Afghanistan reached 5,000, the Pentagon sought a media strategy that would bring attention back to the military’s role in the war, especially the role played by ordinary American service members.  This would require bringing war correspondents on side.

What are Information Operations?

To obtain a competitive edge, information operations and warfare entail obtaining intelligence on opponents and disseminating propaganda.

DefinitionInformation operations are tactics used to sway people’s opinions and affect how decisions are made.

More information:

Embedded Journalism, Media Manipulation & Apathy

2012 NDAA – Propaganda – MISO – InfoOps – PsyOps

SeaLight document

Recruitment and far right: “I Love the Third Brigade”

Recruitment and far right: “I Love the Third Brigade”

The United States is putting pressure on Zelensky to lower the age of conscription again, but for the moment the Ukrainian president is rejecting this possibility. This is what Ukrainian media such as Ukrainska Pravda reported this week, referring to the mobilization of men between 18 and 25 years old, a very small population group in which the country’s future cannot afford to lose. Even before the law on mobilization was approved, which is very unpopular despite not being as harsh as foreign allies demanded, prominent figures and self-proclaimed friends of Ukraine such as US Senator Lindsey Graham have publicly encouraged Ukraine to recruit those over 18 years old despite the demographic risk that this implies for the country they claim to defend. These suggestions seem to have become a demand that is confirmed even by people who belong to the state apparatus. “If this information has come to light, it may confirm that American politicians from both parties are putting pressure on President Zelensky on the question of why there is no mobilisation for those aged 18-25 in Ukraine,” said Serhiy Leshchenko, one of Andriy Yermak’s advisers and a figure who has gone from representing the third sector, civil society in Maidan Ukraine to all kinds of well-paid positions in government or in the few state-owned companies that Kiev has not yet privatised. The past ten years show a double standard between those who have been privileged and those who have been impoverished and marginalised thanks to the European and liberal reforms of the peacetime years. However, Ukraine’s refusal to recruit its most vulnerable population group strictly responds to the future needs of the state, which, if it hopes to rebuild itself, must maintain minimum levels of youth population.

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