Mayor Of Town Where Chernobyl Workers Live Says Three Died In Protests Against Russian Occupation

Smoke And Gunfire In Slavutych As City Protests Against Russian Occupation

Russian forces took control of the Ukrainian town where workers at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant live and briefly detained the mayor, sparking protests in which three people died, the mayor of the town has said.

Russian forces took control of Slavutych and took Mayor Yuriy Fomichev hostage on March 26. Fomichev later told AFP by phone that he had been released.

The military administration of the Kyiv region, which covers Slavutych, announced earlier that Russian troops had entered the town and occupied the municipal hospital.

Residents took to the streets carrying a large blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag and headed toward the hospital, the administration said. Russian forces fired into the air and threw stun grenades into the crowd, it added.

The administration shared on its Telegram account images in which dozens of people gathered around the Ukrainian flag and chanted "Glory to Ukraine."

Fomichev posted a video on Facebook later on March 26 saying that at least three people had died, without elaborating.

"We haven't yet identified all of them," he added, but said that civilians were among the dead. While they had defended their town, they were up against a larger force, he said.

There was no immediate comment from Russia about Slavutych.

The town sits just outside a safety exclusion zone around Chernobyl, site of one of the world's worst nuclear power plant accidents in 1986. Ukrainian staff have continued to manage the site even after Russian forces took control of the plant on February 24, the day that Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.

The Chernobyl plant is located north of Kyiv and close to the Belarusian border. Its nuclear reactors are enclosed in a giant steel and concrete sarcophagus and are not operating.

Although the plant is decommissioned it needs electricity to power cooling systems for the spent nuclear-fuel-storage facility and other systems. Tons of waste at the plant must be constantly cooled to keep radiation from leaking.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expressed "concern" earlier this week after Ukraine informed the organization of Russia's bombardment of Slavutych.

The IAEA said in a statement on March 26 that it was monitoring the situation and expressed concern about the ability of staff to rotate in and out of the plant.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CHERNOBYL 

BYE BYE BOLSONARO
Bolsonaro Launches Reelection Bid Complicated by Weak Economy

Gabriela Mello, Daniel Carvalho and Simone Iglesias 

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro lashed out at recent polls showing him trailing leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the run-up to October’s elections as he kicked off his bid for re-election on Sunday.

© Bloomberg Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's president, center, speaks during a re-election campaign event in Brasilia, Brazil, on Sunday, March 27, 2022. Bolsonaro is seeking a second term amid growing economic challenges that will potentially determine the outcome of this year's election.

“A deceiving poll published a thousand times will not turn someone into the President of the Republic,” he told supporters during an event hosted by the Liberal Party in Brasilia, recasting the 2018 messianic discourse that drove him to power.

The right-wing leader, who’s seeking a second term amid growing economic challenges that will potentially determine the outcome of this year’s election, framed the upcoming runoff as a fight against an internal enemy.

“It’s not a fight of the left against the right, but of good against evil,” the president said at the event, which also saw Citizenship Minister Joao Roma and Science Minister Marcos Pontes affiliate with the party.

Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto, whom Bolsonaro may tap as running mate, is expected to join the party at a later date. According to Brazilian law, candidates for the October vote will only be considered official when they register with electoral authorities in August.

Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 on a conservative, anti-corruption platform that resonated with Brazilians outraged by a series of graft scandals plaguing the 13-year rule of the leftist Workers’ Party. But economic problems have returned to the forefront since then: Inflation and unemployment are both above 10% in the wake of the pandemic, the economy is expected to grow only 0.5% this year, and poverty has returned to levels last seen in 2010.

It’s a difficult economic situation that has weighed on the president’s popularity and boosted the chances of his main challenger -- Lula, the former president and leader of the Workers’ Party whom many Brazilians associate with a period of economic bonanza that was largely supported by a global commodities boom.

Lula, who was behind bars and unable to run in the 2018 election, would now receive 44% of the votes in a first-round vote, while Bolsonaro would get 26%, according to a XP/Ipespe poll published Friday. He would defeat Bolsonaro with 54% of the votes in a second round, the same poll found.

Yet Lula’s lead over Bolsonaro could shrink as the incumbent rolls out a package of social spending that will inject 165 billion reais ($34.8 billion) into the economy, on top of a program of cash handouts he’s been paying since the beginning of the year.
Old Strategy

So far Bolsonaro has insisted on a rhetoric not very different from the one that got him elected four years ago, warning voters against the threats of corruption and communism that he says Lula and the Workers’ Party represent.

While that still resonates with his most radical supporters, it does little to win the backing of poor Brazilians who have suffered the most during the Covid-19 crisis, or women who in their majority disapprove of the president’s handling of the pandemic and his often sexist remarks.

He’s been trying to plug in those gaps by considering fuel subsidies or larger cash handouts to the poor, while trying to appeal to female voters by showing up in public events accompanied by First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro.

Besides his wife, Bolsonaro was also joined at Sunday’s event by Agriculture Minister, Tereza Cristina, who took the floor before the president’s speech.

Yet he’s unlikely to depart much from his original platform, according to Deysi Cioccari, a political science professor with the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo.

“He will likely use the same strategy of 2018: talking about corruption, communism, guns,” she said. “And it works for him.”

(Updates throughout with Bolsonaro’s remarks during pre-candidacy event)

People who haven’t had Covid yet probably have no friends, a Korean doctor says

Doctor later deleted comments following backlash

A South Korean doctor has faced a backlash after suggesting people who are yet to catch Covid-19 probably do not have friends.

“The adults who have not yet been infected with Covid-19 are those who have interpersonal problems," Ma Sang-hyuk, who is vice-president of the Korean Vaccine Society, wrote on Facebook.

He reportedly deleted the 16 March post.

Cuba's most popular beach resort aims to boost tourism before high season ends

CGTN

A couple walks on a beach in Varadero, in the province of Matanzas, Cuba, on July 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Joaquin Hernandez)

Sitting on a bench in Havana's Central Park on Saturday, Italian tourist Mateo Ricci was waiting for a bus to Varadero, Cuba's most popular seaside resort.

The 32-year-old was eager to participate in the 2022 International Varadero Half Marathon, scheduled to take place on Sunday, which will involve more than 2,000 runners.

"We are not professional runners, but we want to enjoy the atmosphere," he told Xinhua. "Sports, pure air, sun, and beach are a perfect combination."

The marathon is part of the Cuban government's efforts to boost tourist activity across the country before the high season ends in April.

Located in the western province of Matanzas, about 140 km east of Havana, Varadero has seen an increase in hotel bookings over the past few months.

New construction projects in the area include a boulevard, shops, and a replica of Havana's famous Floridita bar-restaurant, which is partly inspired by late American Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway, a resident of Cuba for almost 20 years.

Varadero resident Maria Varona, 42, told Xinhua that the increase in tourist numbers will help revitalize the local economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S.-led economic sanctions on the island.

"The more tourists visit the country, the better the economy will perform," she said. "Tourists bring hard currencies. Everybody is happy when they are around."

Meanwhile, Varadero's 43 hotels with 17,000 rooms are also gearing up to host Cuba's 2022 International Tourism Fair in May.

Ivis Fernandez, tourism delegate for Matanzas, said that tourists have been arriving in Varadero as expected since the start of the high season on Nov. 15 last year.

"We have seen a growth in the number of tourist arrivals from Canada, which is our main issuing market," she said. "As to Europe, we are receiving visitors from Germany, England, Spain, Belgium, Poland, and Italy, who are very familiar with this destination."

Varadero receives more than 40 percent of the international tourists arriving in Cuba, the tourism ministry said.

At present, the provincial government of Matanzas is taking steps to improve digital connectivity in Varadero as maintenance and other construction projects continue in the area.

Matanzas Governor Mario Sabines said that local authorities are working hard so that national and international tourists feel more comfortable in Varadero.

"We are committed to increasing tourism flows. If the tourism industry grows, economic activity will strengthen," he told Cuban state TV.

The Caribbean nation, which received nearly 500,000 international visitors in 2021, is projected to welcome 2.5 million vacationers this year, according to official estimates.

On Saturday, Cuba registered 957 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one death, bringing the total number of cases to 1,086,361 and the national death toll to 8,509.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency

MY NEPHEW JUST RETURNED FROM VACATION IN CUBA HE LOVED IT

VENCEREMOS!

FAKE CAPITALI$M
Museum raises $174,000 from auction of Nelson Mandela’s arrest-warrant NFT

By Loni Prinsloo
March 28, 2022 — 
t
A non-fungible token created from Nelson Mandela’s original arrest warrant raised 1.9 million rand ($174,000) in an auction to help fund a heritage site that documents South Africa’s struggle for democracy.

Mandela, the anti-apartheid activist who emerged from 27 years in prison to become South Africa’s first black president, was arrested in 1962 for conspiring to overthrow the white-minority government.

Nelson Mandela in 1970.CREDIT:FAIRFAX MEDIA

NFTs have soared in popularity in recent months, with caricatures of monkeys and lions commanding prices in the millions of dollars.

Sports clubs, prestige automakers and even pop stars are among those getting into the nascent trading business, which uses blockchain technology to authenticate unique ownership tokens attached to otherwise easily reproducible digital goods.

Proceeds from the sale of Mandela’s arrest warrant will go toward the Liliesleaf Museum Heritage Site, which received the original document in 2004 as a donation, said Ahren Posthumus, chief executive of Momint, the marketplace for NFTs that sold the Mandela item.

Nelson Mandela’s original arrest warrant.

Last year the museum received about $US50,000 following an auction of a NFT of a pen gun owned by fellow freedom fighter Oliver Tambo.

This helps the “museum sites stay afloat,” Posthumus said in an interview.

“They have been badly affected by the lack of tourism due to COVID. So this is a way to revitalise their flow and keep history alive.”

Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and the first multiracial election was held four years later.

The buyer of the NFT will have exclusive access to the original document at Liliesleaf Museum, Posthumus said.

“The ink is visible through the paper” of the high-definition scan, he said.

Liliesleaf farm, then on the outskirts of Johannesburg, was used as the secret headquarters of the African National Congress from 1961 and was where Mandela and other party leaders hid from authorities. Leading activists were arrested there during a raid by police in 1963.

Bored Apes Yacht Club NFT was also sold at the auction at $US310,000 said Posthumus.

Radical Robbie Burns, Peoples Poet

In Kharkiv, sandbags pile up to save Ukraine national poet’s statue

By AFP
Published March 27, 2022

Taras Shevchenko is Ukraine's national poet, the country's foremost nineteenth bard and one of the first to write in Ukrainian - 

Copyright AFP Hector RETAMAL

Hervé BAR

In Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv — under daily Russian bombardment that has damaged or destroyed 1,000 buildings — work has begun to erect sand barricades to protect its statues.

The most symbolic of them all sits enthroned in the heart of the town centre in a vast park filled with century-old trees: Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine’s national poet, who was the country’s foremost nineteenth-century bard and one of the first to write in Ukrainian.

Since the country’s independence in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, not a single Ukrainian city has been without its own Shevchenko Avenue or Square. The country’s largest university in Kyiv is named after him.

Workers with lifting equipment busy themselves around the imposing black cast-iron statue.

At 16 metres (52 feet) high, it is the biggest in Kharkiv since the statue of Lenin on a nearby esplanade was taken down in 1994.

“We must protect the city so that future generations know it as we have known it,” says Petro, a 72-year-old retiree sporting a leather cap and gold teeth, who is taking part in the operation.

Put up in 1935, the statue of Shevchenko is a mixture of socialist realism and baroque Stalinism, with the central character surrounded by revolutionary soldiers at his feet.

It’s an example of Ukrainian patriotism long suppressed by “brother” Russia during the Soviet era.

The sandstone plinth and the Stalinist fighters have now disappeared beneath sandbags that are already up to the poet’s waist, obscuring his conquering gait, but not yet his fierce gaze and drooping moustache.

“It seems a bullet ricocheted off his head during World War II,” says one of the council workers with a smirk.

“Back then, the city was devastated, but the centre was relatively well-preserved, not bombarded like now,” says Volodymyr.

Since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has, along with southern Mariupol, been the most bombed Ukrainian metropolis.

From just a few kilometres (miles) away, Russian artillery has bombarded the north and east of the city daily, as well as its historic centre, targeting in particular administrative buildings.

– ‘Another 1,000 years!’ –

More than a thousand buildings have been destroyed or damaged in a city emptied of around a third of its 1.5 million inhabitants, according to local authorities.

A city of culture and history, Kharkiv has around 50 important monuments which will be protected with sandbags, according to the town hall.

“We hope that these monuments will last another thousand years!” it said.

As the protective wall surrounding the Shevchenko statue nears completion, dozens of town hall employees and volunteers turn their attention to the positioning of sandbags around the independence monument, a goddess brandishing the laurels of victory, celebrating Ukraine’s proclamation of independence on August 24, 1991.

For the moment, one can still read, engraved in the Cyrillic alphabet, the slogan that one now hears everywhere in this country at war: “Glory to Ukraine.”

“At the moment, we mainly collect branches and trees brought down by rockets. This year we will not plant anything, there will be no flowers,” says council worker Ilona Kalashnikova who normally tends the city’s green spaces.

“These sandbags are a symbol of our attachment to our city. We can rebuild destroyed houses, but not historical monuments,” she adds.

SEE 

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Radical Robbie Burns, Peoples Poet

A'hae toast ya laddie with a wee dram.
It is Robbie Burns Day around the world.

A day to celebrate the common man, the common poet, of the common people; Robbie Burns. It's a day where we all become Scot's for a moment, drinking a wee dram of the namesake liquor in a toast to that countries greatest lover, poet and radical. Around the world there are Robbie Burns dinners and celebrations.

This unique popularity of Burns as the voice of the common people is not shared by any other poet. Other poets of the common people and their struggles, are not celebrated internationally by men and women of all nations as one of their own. As great a voice for their people as they may be.

The great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko is known as the Robbie Burns of the Ukraine. Some would say this is idle boasting but compare this final verse from Shevchenko's poetic eulogy, Zapovit (My Testament) with the last lines of Burns immortal; Scots Whae Hae, they both ring with eternal truth, that stirs the heart and brings a lump to the throat. A clarion call to revolution, and the fight for social justice for all.

Zapovit
Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants' blood
The freedom you have gained
And in the great new family,
The family of the free
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me


Scots Whae Hae
Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow!
Let us do, or die!

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Radical Robbie Burns, Peoples Poet (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

Six organizations sue French presidential candidate for denying gay Holocaust victims

Far-right candidate Eric Zemmour said it's just a "legend" that gay men were deported to concentration camps. LGBTQ organizations say that's illegal Holocaust denial.

By Alex Bollinger 

Sunday, March 27, 2022

The monument to gay victims of Nazi Germany in Sitges, Spain

Six LGBTQ organizations in France are suing a far-right presidential candidate for denying that gay people were targeted by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The lawsuit is the first in France to address Holocaust denial specifically as it relates to LGBTQ people.

According to the organization Holocaust Memorial Day, somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 men were accused of homosexuality and sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust, and tens of thousands more were arrested and jailed in police prisons. Others were castrated and subjected to “gruesome medical experiments.” Others were killed.

Related: French fascist tells American conservatives to oppose ‘individuals without gender’

That, though, is a “legend,” according to Eric Zemmour, who is running for president of France. He got national attention with his 2014 book The French Suicide (Le Suicide français), where he said that France has been in decline for decades due to immigration, feminism, and egalitarianism. In that book, he claimed that Vichy France – the authoritarian French regime during World War II that collaborated with the Nazis – actually protected Jews, despite Vichy’s mass arrests of Jewish people in France who were sent to concentration camps.

Last year, Zemmour published a campaign manifesto entitled France Has Not Said Its Final Word (La France n’a pas dit son dernier mot), in which he called it a “legend” that gay people were targeted in France during the Holocaust.

“The deportation of homosexuals from France because of their sexual orientation is a legend,” he wrote. Around 500 men accused of being gay were arrested in France during World War II.

Now, six LGBTQ organizations – Mousse, Stop Homophobie, Inter-LGBT, Adheos, SOS Homophobie, and Quazar – have filed a lawsuit against Zemmour. France, like many other European countries, bans Holocaust denial. These laws have been passed out of fear that denying the Holocaust would be a precursor to it happening again. France’s law was passed in 1990 in order to fight anti-semitism.


The organizations published an op-ed in the French LGBTQ magazine TETU that notes that French authorities themselves did not acknowledge the gay victims of the Holocaust until 1995, refusing to let LGBTQ activists participate in official remembrance ceremonies. And it wasn’t until the 2010s that acknowledging the gay victims was normalized at local ceremonies.

In 2011, Rudolf Brazda – a French man deported to a concentration camp for being gay – was made a knight in the Legion of Honor in recognition of his role as a witness.

“Eric Zemmour’s Holocaust denial is a veiled call to hatred,” the op-ed states. “In denying the crimes committed during the Second World War against gay people, Eric Zemmour minimizes homophobic violence that is still happening today. That is, in in order to understand and fight against homophobia, we have to face up to it, in its historic and everyday reality.”

The French presidential elections will occur on June 12 and the runoff – if no candidate gets over 51% of the vote, no one is expected to – will take place on June 19. Zemmour has generally polled in third or fourth place this past month.

French Far-Right Candidate Vows to Fight for Identity as Prospects Fade

Éric Zemmour, a far-right pundit, tried to revive his flagging campaign Sunday in a place that is familiar to hopefuls of his ilk.

Éric Zemmour drew a large crowd at a rally on Sunday in Paris, but his campaign for the French presidency has stumbled in recent weeks.

Credit...Julien De Rosa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Constant Méheut
March 27, 2022

PARIS — With its immense forecourt opening onto a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower, the Trocadéro Plaza in Paris offers an ideal setting to revive a flagging campaign for the French presidency. Twice in the past decade, tens of thousands of people have flocked there, responding to calls from embattled right-wing contenders looking for support.

A third attempt came on Sunday, when Éric Zemmour, the far-right pundit turned presidential candidate, held a massive rally at the Trocadéro designed to halt his slide in the polls, exactly two weeks before the first round of voting.

“I will fight to reconquer our identity, I will fight to regain our prosperity,” Mr. Zemmour told tens of thousands of supporters who waved a sea of French flags under a blazing sun.

Sunday’s rally, one of the biggest of this year’s elections, had all the trappings of a last-ditch attempt to revitalize a campaign that started with a bang and then gradually stalled, as Mr. Zemmour, 63, got bogged down in controversies and struggled to broaden his voter base.

He entered the presidential race last fall, putting his prolific career as a polarizing far-right writer and television star behind him and promising to shake up French politics with his hard-line views on immigration, Islam’s place in France and national identity.

Many people at Sunday’s rally were drawn by support for Mr. Zemmour’s conservative positions on immigration. The placard reads, “So that France remains France.”

Credit...Julien De Rosa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

And shake it up he did. For months, through his active presence on social and news media as well as his frenzied rallies, he shaped the public debate by pushing it further to the right. He popularized the concept of the “great replacement” — a racist conspiracy theory stating that white Christian populations are being replaced by nonwhite immigrants — rewrote some of the worst episodes from France’s past and promoted divisive ideas such as a proposal to force parents to give their children “traditional” French names.

His meteoric rise in the polls — he briefly ranked second in mid-February — turned him into an unexpected runoff contender and a serious threat for Marine Le Pen, the longtime leader of the far right, and Valérie Pécresse, the candidate of the mainstream right.

But his ratings have gradually slipped for a month, putting him in fourth or fifth place, after the war in Ukraine exposed two of his biggest flaws: his past sympathy for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his neglect of the issue of economic inequalities.

In a 2018 interview, Mr. Zemmour said he “would dream” of a French equivalent of Mr. Putin, praising his attempt to restore the grandeur of “an empire in decline” — words that have haunted him since Russia invaded Ukraine, severely denting his credibility on international affairs. The candidate also provoked an outcry after he first opposed welcoming Ukrainian war refugees, saying it would further “destabilize France, which is already overwhelmed — I do say overwhelmed — by immigration.”

Ukrainian evacuees crossing the border into Palanca, Moldova, this month. Mr. Zemmour provoked an outcry after at first opposing an influx of Ukrainian refugees.

Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times


But it is his failure to respond to the economic hardship created by the war that has most affected his standing. Mr. Zemmour has long defended liberal positions on the economy, which have done little to allay voters’ fears about rising energy prices. By contrast, his competitors, Ms. Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a far-left candidate, have benefited from this concern, having long campaigned against economic inequality.

“He has focused so much on identity, immigration and security,” said Bruno Cautrès, a political scientist at the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po university in Paris, “that it has prevented him from embodying anything else in the eyes of the voters.”

In the fall, Mr. Zemmour had pinned his hopes on his ability to appeal to “the patriotic bourgeoisie and the working classes.” But attendance at Sunday’s rally suggested that he mainly attracted bourgeois voters.

“Sovereignty, grandeur, identity — this guy thinks exactly like me,” said Benoît Bergeron, a 68-year-old Zemmour supporter wearing a tweed jacket, who had crossed the Seine from his upscale Left Bank neighborhood to join the rally.

Mr. Bergeron said the last time he had joined a demonstration was to support La Manif Pour Tous, a large movement opposing same-sex marriage that upended France in 2013. Several supporters in the crowd said Mr. Zemmour was the best representative of a conservative generation that emerged after that movement.

Mr. Cautrès said Mr. Zemmour had a limited voter base and scored well mainly among segments of the upper middle class, the elderly and conservative Catholics. “It’s not something that propels you to the second round of the presidential election,” he said.

Against a backdrop of sinking poll numbers, Mr. Zemmour has tried to refocus the debate around immigration by toughening his already polarizing stance. Warning that France will become “a Muslim country” by 2060 if current migration levels persist, he promised last week to create a “Ministry of Remigration” and deport 100,000 “undesirable foreigners” each year, if elected.


Marine Le Pen, the longtime leader of the far right, is now polling at 20 percent in voting intentions, about twice the level of Mr. Zemmour.

Credit...Johanna Geron/Reuters

But the proposal only caused further controversy and accentuated his image as an extreme politician. “He didn’t run a campaign to bring people together, but he ran one that was more divisive, more provocative every day,” said Robert Ménard, a French radical right-wing mayor and longtime acquaintance of Mr. Zemmour who supports Ms. Le Pen.

At the rally, Mr. Zemmour’s speech was filled with populist overtones, with attacks against the news media and the elites, who he said where trying to undermine his candidacy. “Nothing and no one will steal this election from us,” he told the roaring crowd.

The candidate’s radical messaging has also had the unexpected effect of sanitizing the image of his direct far-right competitor, Ms. Le Pen, a goal she has long been pursuing. Ms. Le Pen is now polling at 20 percent in voting intentions, about twice the rate for Mr. Zemmour, and appears on track to reach a runoff with the incumbent, President Emmanuel Macron.

“He has normalized Marine Le Pen,” Mr. Ménard said.

Perhaps the biggest impact of Mr. Zemmour’s campaign will be its lasting effect on French politics, which have increasingly lurched to the right. Polls show that two-thirds of French people today are worried about the “great replacement.” Depending on his performance in the first round of voting, Mr. Zemmour may also force a complete reshuffle of the French right. Several leaders of Ms. Le Pen’s and Ms. Pécresse’s parties have already joined his campaign.

Several supporters at the Trocadéro on Sunday said they did not trust the polls. “We’re at a turning point,” said Stéphanie Vitry, a company manager, who was convinced Mr. Zemmour would come out ahead in two weeks. Otherwise, she said, “it’s the end of France.”

But some did not hide that they had largely given up hope that the far-right candidate would reach a second round.

“I confess that I’m not very optimistic,” said Oxana Herbeth, 23, a former Le Pen voter who had turned to Mr. Zemmour, attracted by his tough line on immigration and security.

It did not help that the Trocadéro has also been symbolically associated with the downfall of the French right. The past two presidential candidates of the center-right party Les Républicains held big rallies there — before being defeated on Election Day.

“To gather the right at the very place where it has failed,” Mr. Ménard said. “Strange idea.”

The Rise of Éric Zemmour

Echoes of Trump at a Rally for France’s Far-Right Upstart
Dec. 11, 2021

Rise of a Far-Right Pundit Is Scrambling French Politics
Oct. 12, 2021

Éric Zemmour, Far-Right Pundit, Makes French Presidential Run Official
Nov. 30, 2021

From TV to the French Presidency? A Right-Wing Star Is Inspired by Trump
Sept. 17, 2021

Constant Méheut reports from France. He joined the Paris bureau in January 2020. @ConstantMeheut

A version of this article appears in print on March 28, 2022, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: Fading Far-Right Candidate Vows Fight for French Identity. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Chat and Encrypted Messaging Apps Are the New Battlefields in the Propaganda War

By Inga Kristina Trauthig 

Sunday, March 27, 2022


Ukrainians fleeing the war check their phones while on a train to Poland on Feb. 28, 2022. Photo credit: Pakkin Leung via Wikimedia; CC BY 4.0.

Editor’s Note: Just as the military conflict in Ukraine rages, so too does the propaganda war. Russia has long been a master of wartime (and peacetime) propaganda, and Ukraine has surprised many observers by adeptly telling its story and winning the hearts of much of the world. Inga Kristina Trauthig of the University of Texas at Austin shows how both sides are using chat and encrypted messaging apps as part of the propaganda struggle and explains why this may be the new normal for future conflicts.

Daniel Byman

***

The war on Ukraine has intensified the importance of chat and encrypted messaging apps (EMAs). Ukrainian users rely on these apps for up-to-date information and advice on personal safety and public health, but they are also central to the propaganda war and are being manipulated by both sides. EMAs are used widely in Ukraine: Viber appears to be the most popular chat or encrypted messaging app, with Telegram second and Facebook Messenger third (with penetration rates of 98 percent, 86 percent and 76 percent, respectively). These apps are especially effective for spreading Russian propaganda in Ukraine, but the apps are also used widely in Russia, where they are exploited to spread propaganda that focuses on Russia’s domestic audience. Russian users spend more time on Telegram than the global average, and the current war has made the app more important for both activists and pro-government media. For instance, Russian propagandists exploit the dissemination of disinformation on Telegram by re-reporting it as “leaked” information on Russian state channels that amplify the false claims. At the same time, Telegram has established itself as a way for Russian activists to access independent information after the Russian government shut down the few remaining independent news channels.

Propagandists adapt to changing circumstances, and how they use these new technologies will likely change over the course of the conflict. What is clear so far is that EMAs will be an important medium for actors fighting for control of narratives about the war. Ukraine and Russia are taking different approaches, with Ukraine adapting its state-supported infrastructure on the apps for public messaging and Russia using the apps to source or spread new disinformation in support of its messaging campaign. The companies that run these apps are only just waking up to the ways their platforms are being used, and there is no clear path forward for preventing the apps’ exploitation for propaganda purposes. These apps are now a battlefield in their own way, representing a new normal for how propaganda wars are fought.

Ukraine: Adapting Public Communication for Wartime

The ubiquity of EMAs in Ukraine led to local journalists and politicians building new infrastructure for communicating to mass audiences on these platforms. This shift had been developing for several years prior to the invasion. These actors had begun relying on EMAs to offer their audiences “unfiltered” messages. Research that my colleagues and I conducted in 2021 at the Propaganda Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Media Engagement captured how Telegram and Viber in particular had grown in importance for political messaging by Ukrainian leaders. A Ukrainian academic who advises politicians on effective communication with citizens told us in an interview that “Telegram is the major source that brings politically relevant information” to the Ukrainian public, as most major news outlets, parties and individual politicians have their own Telegram channels with large numbers of subscribers.

Over the past two years, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health’s coronavirus communications relied heavily on Telegram and Viber. Following the Russian escalation, these established lines of communication were repurposed. The primary Telegram channel that was dedicated to reliable coronavirus news in Ukraine is run by a private company but works closely with the government and is verified by Telegram. The channel asked whether subscribers wanted updates on the latest “socio-political” news. Following a positive vote, the channel changed its purpose and has since mostly provided updates on the war. This exemplifies a radical change, with a nominally nonpolitical channel shifting to become an important tool of citizen communication during wartime. The existing EMA infrastructure—which journalists relied on to identify news stories and politicians used for political campaigning—has become vital for Ukrainians trying to find the most recent information and analysis about the conflict.

On EMAs, as in other media, it can be difficult to distinguish between nonpolitical communication and reliable information on the one hand, and propaganda built on half-truths or even lies on the other. Russia was already aware of the importance of Telegram for the Ukrainian public prior to the invasion and used anonymous Telegram channels and other propaganda strategies on these apps to push its agenda. For example, after Ukraine banned the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in 2021, Russia increased personal attacks targeting key Ukrainian politicians, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian minister of health, on Telegram channels that were purportedly set up to share news by local journalists in Ukraine. Political messaging on EMAs is part of a broader ecosystem of computational propaganda, which is a business in Ukraine as it is in any other country and includes Ukrainian political actors’ messaging to domestic audiences. One interviewee, who previously worked in the Ukrainian parliament but now works for a media nongovernmental organization, described to us how the earnings scale of “political consultants” running Telegram channels related to the previous Ukrainian president’s office depended on the subscriber numbers of channels they ran, which creates incentives for polarizing messaging and exploitative gimmicks. These apps are pervasive, but the information on these channels is as unreliable as other forms of social media.

Ukrainians are learning from their unfortunate history of having been attacked by Russia in the recent past. Both new and repurposed channels and groups on EMAs are now being used to provide practical information, from advice on safety to self-defense. Recently, Ukraine’s deputy minister for digital policies has turned to Telegram, setting up an “IT Army of Ukraine” group, which has reached over 260,000 members. Overall, Ukraine is capitalizing on its advanced digital ecosystem. Ukrainians are using these apps to push back on Russian propaganda and document the gruesome war for foreign audiences with the aim of fostering international support.

Russia: New Tools, Old Tactics

Russian propagandists have capitalized on the rising use of EMAs in Ukraine by setting up their own channels aiming to attract Ukrainian subscribers, with even the state broadcaster RT running Telegram channels. More than just an additional avenue for propaganda output, Russia’s state media have been relying on “leaked” videos, images and claims—often unverified or outright disinformation—from Telegram channels to fuel its propaganda. Despite coming from dubious sources pursuing their own agendas, Russian media use these so-called “leaks” to implicitly increase the legitimacy of their state-controlled channels by relying on what they claim is “authentic” input from Ukrainian citizens.

For example, a video from the Telegram channel of the DNR People’s Militia, a Russian-supported militant group operating in Donetsk, allegedly showing Polish-speaking attackers trying to blow up chlorine containers in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine was picked up by Russian state media. TASS and RIA Novosti took the video and the separatists’ claims at face value and amplified them to a wider audience. Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat, described the video as “the laziest, dumbest disinformation I’ve seen in forever.” However, by the time accurate, fact-checked information could spread, Russian state media had already moved on to the next news item. Even when fact-checking happens simultaneously, these corrections are unlikely to reach the audience on which it has the biggest effect: the Russian people.

Russian propagandists seek to counter two dynamics that have disrupted propaganda efforts since the Cold War. First, specific propaganda campaigns have become less effective due to the sheer increase in volume and related noise that adversely affects targeted campaigns. Second, propaganda has become harder to control than in previous eras when it was conveyed from the top down, from the professional news media to the public. Now, the emphasis of two-way communication in Web 2.0 makes a consistent message more difficult, but Russia is adapting by creating a disinformation ecosystem that seeds false reports and convenient narratives abroad through social media that propagandists can then seize on and claim as “authentic” reporting. In 2014, for example, the Internet Research Agency generated blog posts pretending to be first-hand accounts from inside Ukraine and ginned up comments to make them look real and generate traffic; we are witnessing similar tactics in the current conflict. These tactics and the exploitation of social media has increased the relevance of traditional journalism as an amplifier of disinformation operations—both because traditional journalism can promote these false claims, intentionally or inadvertently, and pass them on to a broader audience and because traditional journalism exposes how these disinformation operations work.

The New Normal

Propagandists and local activists have benefited from features that have made it more difficult to access EMA content—either to surveil or to fact-check. Telegram does not suggest trending topics to navigate its broadcast channels, which complicates finding problematic spaces, for instance. Also, users must request access to join private groups, and when communications are end-to-end encrypted this stands in the way of established content moderation regimes like the ones implemented by Meta. But interventions to limit the spread of disinformation can still be established by analyzing metadata, promoting verified information by the company or relying on third-party efforts.

The companies that run EMAs are aware that their platforms are being used as critical lifelines by some actors and exploited to spread propaganda by others, but their responses have been inconsistent. Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, recently announced that the company would crack down on Russian propaganda, offer users in Russia and Ukraine encrypted direct messaging on Instagram, and demote Facebook posts by Russian state media outlets. The spread of false information on Telegram prompted its founder, Pavel Durov, to consider restricting access to the platform, and Signal’s creator, Moxie Marlinspike, tweeted a reminder to users that Telegram is not always end-to-end encrypted and leaves communications more exposed. WhatsApp’s Will Cathcart emphasized the app’s usefulness, tweeting that the State Emergency Service of Ukraine had launched a helpline on WhatsApp with the aim of providing advice on how to stay safe.

Combating propaganda is largely falling to journalists and open-source analysts. Local Ukrainian fact-checkers have increased their efforts on EMAs, as part of an ongoing process described to us by a Ukrainian journalist in 2021. VoxUkraine is one example; it has acted to counter Russian propaganda since 2014.

Identifying the creators of propaganda campaigns remains the greatest challenge. Propagandists can take advantage of online anonymity, automation and the scale of the internet to remain in the shadows as they sow deceptive political messaging. Manipulation and deception have always been part of politics, and no state or society will be able to eliminate them. Instead, new technological developments must be incorporated into existing analysis. With the global success of EMAs, the political manipulation of these chat apps is now a significant conduit for propaganda.

Inga Kristina Trauthig is a senior research fellow with the Propaganda Research Lab at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin.

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How North Korean Cyberattacks Threaten the Developing World

North Korea once fostered supportive relationships with the Global South, but it now uses cyber attacks against developing countries for its own purposes.

by Benjamin R. Young

March 27, 2022

The North Korean government of the Cold War era expressed solidarity with Third World liberation movements and decolonization. From supporting African anti-colonial struggles to sending pilots to fight alongside the communists in the Vietnam War, the North Korean leadership saw itself as part of a global anti-imperialist front. However, North Korea retreated inwards after the fall of the communist bloc in the 1990s and became much more nationalistic in its foreign policy. Now, North Korean cyberattacks increasingly target countries in the developing world.

Pyongyang began to devote significant resources to its cyber capabilities in the 1990s. Cyber operations became a way for North Korea to aggressively assert itself in the international arena and inflict pain on its strategic foes, principally the United States and Republic of Korea. Nonetheless, in recent years, Pyongyang’s cyber operatives have stretched beyond North Korea’s traditional adversaries. They now increasingly target financial institutions in the developing world. In an effort to bolster the coffers of the political elite and also gather intelligence for military purposes, North Korean hackers see the developing world as a vulnerable target for increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. In fact, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) remains the only government in the world that brazenly uses cyber attacks for monetary gain.

The most well-known North Korean cyber attack in the developing world took place in 2016. North Korean hackers stole around $81 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh (CBC). The CBC was targeted due to its relatively lax security standards and outdated systems. North Korean hackers manipulated the SWIFT system and tricked the U.S Federal Reserve into sending funds to their fraudulent bank accounts that appeared to be the CBC’s, but were in fact accounts set up by Pyongyang’s hackers. The North Korean cyber theft of the Bangladesh Central Bank shocked the international community.

After the CBC bank heist, North Korean hackers continued to target financial institutions in the developing world. In March 2018, a North Korean hacker unit, known as “Hidden Cobra,” targeted Turkish banks. Using a spear-phishing email campaign, the North Korean hackers lured targets with a fake cryptocurrency scheme and acquired sensitive information for potential future cyber attacks. In 2019, a UN report said that North Korean hackers attacked banks and cryptocurrency exchanges in India, Bangladesh, Chile, Costa Rica, Gambia, Guatemala, Kuwait, Liberia, Malaysia, Malta, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, and Vietnam. Two years later, in April 2021, North Korean cyber agents attacked a South African logistics company and took control of their computers for purposes of intelligence gathering.

North Korean hackers now use developing countries as physical and virtual locations to obfuscate Pyongyang’s involvement in illicit cyber activity. In fact, the 2014 Sony Pictures hack came from a WiFi network in a five-star Thai hotel. North Korean hackers have also likely used India as a physical base for some of their cyber operations. In Africa, North Korean hackers have found “safe havens” in Kenya and Mozambique. Passing themselves off as workers at legitimate businesses, North Korean hackers utilize the cyber infrastructure of developing countries to attack financially lucrative targets on behalf of the Korean Workers’ Party. It seems that North Korean hackers use lax visa regimes and weak sanctions enforcement measures in developing countries as a way to disguise Pyongyang’s role in these cyber operations.

North Korean cyberattacks in the developing world are dual purpose. In addition to revenue generation for the Kim family regime, North Korean cyberattacks are meant to acquire sensitive information on weapons systems and critical infrastructure. The collection of this intelligence is vital for the heavily sanctioned regime that is cut off from global supply chains. During the Covid-19 pandemic, North Korean hackers have even targeted pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer, for information related to COVID vaccines. Under Kim Jong Un, the regime’s propaganda has emphasized a return to economic self-reliance and self-sufficiency. North Korea’s cyber operations can be seen as part of this broader internal effort to promote autarky.

It is clear now that North Korean hackers view the Global South as vulnerable cyber terrain. It is imperative that governments and banks in the developing world bolster their cyber defenses and indicate to their employees the importance of up-to-date cybersecurity measures in preventing cyber intrusions. Cybersecurity training is imperative in order to deter North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated and aggressive cyber attacks.

In addition, governments in the Global South need to reevaluate their visa agreements with the North Koreans. Pyongyang’s willingness to abuse visa regimes and diplomatic immunity should be cause for concern. North Korean diplomats and overseas agents are expected to send loyalty funds back to Pyongyang. This self-funding expectation makes the Kim family regime’s diplomatic presence abroad a potential source for future cyber espionage and criminal activity. North Korea is no longer a friend or an ally to the developing world. Pyongyang’s cyber agents exploit and abuse the security vulnerabilities of Latin America, Africa, and southern Asia. The days of North Korea’s Third World solidarity are long gone.

Benjamin R. Young is an assistant professor of homeland security and emergency preparedness in the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of the book Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World, and his writing has appeared in a range of media outlets and peer-reviewed scholarly journals. Follow him on Twitter @DubstepInDPRK.