Working to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and nature © 2020 WWF - World Wide Fund For Nature© 1986 Panda Symbol WWF – World Wide Fund For Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund)® “WWF” is a WWF Registered Trademark Creative Commons license You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience Marcus Copeland: Look Latrell Spencer: Negro, please. Didn't anyone tell you that this was an all-white party, huh? Someone get this jiggaboo away from me. Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb We can no longer count on our governments to protect us from a tide of disinformation Our security rests in the hands of open source intelligence When the story of 2018 is told, historians may be hard pressed to say which was weirdest: that a deadly nerve agent was deployed in a quiet cathedral town on the edge of Salisbury Plain, at the heart of our military establishment. Or that the Russian suspects were identified not by British intelligence but a group described last week as “armchair investigators” Because we now know not just the identities of the two men who travelled to Salisbury with a military-grade chemical weapon but also the arm of the Russian army that deployed them – thanks to Bellingcat, a citizen investigation site founded by Eliot Higgins a former blogger who started it from a laptop on his sofa in breaks from caring for his daughter Taken separately these stories are gobsmacking but what’s been lost in the reporting is how they are two sides of the same story imperfect reflections of what many believe to be the defining story of our age: disinformation the central role of the technology platforms in disseminating it and the inadequacy of governments to counter it Because the sleuthing of the identity of these men is a truly remarkable tale that shows how the power of the crowd and a suite of open-source techniques can achieve feats that remind us of how we thought the web used to be the tech-utopian dreamspace that has taken such an existential battering in the last two years Bellingcat’s pioneering achievements are an inspiring reminder of what is still possible But it’s also a window into the darkness that the web has become – a site of propaganda, distortion, subversion. Because last week Bellingcat identified the second suspect as Alexander Mishkin an officer in Russia’s military intelligence service It’s the key that unlocks both the gravity and the audacity of what we are witnessing It’s the GRU that is at the very heart of the attack on western democracies the day hundreds of thousands took to London’s streets to protest against President Trump’s visit to his eager new ally Mueller released the indictments of 12 GRU officers for hacking into the computers of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic national convention an extraordinary piece of work that gives a blow-by-blow account of precisely how the GRU targeted more than 300 people and leaked tens of thousands of stolen documents that would go on to play a hugely consequential role in the presidential poll The same agency that we now know has targeted Britain Mueller understands what he is dealing with a “counterintelligence mission” to investigate “the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election” But what has become plain is that the British government shows no sign of even acknowledging the scale or complexity of the national security threat we face, let alone how to deal with it, as Hillary Clinton – the target of the GRU’s operation – appeared to acknowledge when she spoke in Oxford last week She described how the foundation of western liberal democracy is under assault and made pointed remarks at both the nature of Russia’s attacks on Britain and Britain’s failure to investigate head of the select committee for the Department of Culture for warning of “a crisis in British democracy” and Tom Watson who have both called for a public inquiry with “Mueller-style” powers What Bellingcat exposes is how citizen investigations are not only surpassing traditional mainstream organisations they also seem streets ahead of government agencies Investigators who use publicly available sources have been quietly joining a citizen’s battle against this flood not just of disinformation This month, BBC Africa Eye published a stunning investigation using techniques Bellingcat has developed identifying the location and identity of men who’d killed two women and two young children through forensic analysis of online sources who was profoundly troubled by the way personal data was being abused who took it upon himself to produce an open-source document that he made freely available to journalists And when the firm threatened to sue the Guardian it was the pioneering work of another open-source investigator who created a chart of its many complicated corporate structures that the Observer and Guardian’s lawyers drew upon in our response a Liverpool-based duo who met ten years ago through football fan activism researching offshore finance used by the Premier League For 18 months Mueller has investigated how Russia targeted the US via information space; an information space that we in Britain share he unsealed indictments of 13 Russians and three companies that revealed how in 2014 Moscow launched a sophisticated operation to target US citizens by subverting their own social media platforms against them in the absence of any government being able to hold Facebook to account – Zuckerberg has refused three requests from parliament to appear – it’s all there is A citizen-fuelled effort that combines counter-disinformation counter-intelligence and even counter-attacks The GRU answers to the chief of the general staff of Russia’s armed forces, General Valery Gerasimov, who has described how this new world works How “the very ‘rules of war’ have changed” How “military means of a concealed character” are not just supplemental means of war describing how through the use of propaganda disinformation and subversion “a perfectly thriving state” can Where we now know – again thanks to Bellingcat who tracked their travel logs – the two Salisbury suspects were previously deployed And it’s hard to pick the most extraordinary part of this That the same Russian military operatives who subverted eastern Ukraine are freely roaming British streets That the same military agency targeted our information space Or that the investigation into the actions of this hostile foreign power is being spearheaded by a group of citizen investigators who rely on donations for funding But then, it was Bellingcat that in another triumph of open-source investigation, trumped western intelligence agencies in tracking down the Russian unit that launched the missile that brought down flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine Bellingcat has helped draw our attention to what the Skripal attack perhaps really was: an information operation This wasn’t simply a hit job on an old adversary The measure of the attack’s success was not whether Skripal did or didn’t die It’s the headlines across the world that were the real measure of its success only now dented by the efforts of Bellingcat Because if there’s one lesson to take from this it’s that we cannot count on the government to protect us It won’t even acknowledge what has happened It won’t back parliament’s demands to Facebook We are in the extraordinary position that our national security appears now to rest in our own hands This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media Deputy Solicitor-General Kapila Waidyaratne while battling the discomforts of humid weather from inside a black cloak worn over a black suit concluded his day’s arguments at the Colombo High Court requesting Judge Kumudini Wickremasinghe for another date to examine witnesses Waidyaratne is primary prosecutor for one of Sri Lanka’s most high-profile court cases in recent times: the murder of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar on August 12 Following investigations by the police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and other agencies the case was first taken up for hearing in court on October 12 State versus V Prabhakaran and others was how the case had been listed since then Former LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and his head of intelligence Pottu Amman alias S Shivsankar were at the top of the list of six accused by the State for having conspired and killed Kadirgamar Although the LTTE had denied its hand in Kadirgamar’s assassination the Government of Sri Lanka believed otherwise Kadirgamar – a Tamil of Jaffna origin - was a fierce critic of the Tamil Tigers The Government of India had accused Prabhakaran and Pottu of conspiring and killing former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 2 calling his assassination a “historical tragedy.” Two others accomplices – also probably from the LTTE – Charles alias Charles Master and Komadi Mani Mekala had been listed as accused numbers three and four in Kadirgamar’s murder case the Government of Sri Lanka through its lawyers Waidyaratne and Senior State Counsel Shanil Kularatne had told the court that the first four accused in the Kadirgamar case were dead thereby reducing their relevance as prime accused Two men – a gardener called Muttiah Sahadevan who worked at one of Kadirgamar’s neighbour’s house and Isitor Arokyanadan a.k.a Babu who drove a three-wheeler in the vicinity of Buller’s Lane in Colombo 7 where Kadirgamar lived – had been arrested almost immediately after Kadirgamar’s death In Police custody since August 2005 and now as surviving accused the two men are being tried under Section III of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) Sahadevan and Babu have been accused of conspiring with the LTTE to eliminate Kadirgamar the then Foreign Minister and if found guilty Section III of the PTA says that any person who does an act preparatory to the commission of an offence or abets exhorts or incites the commission of an offence or causes the death of a person or commits any attack upon any person (also in contravention of the penal code) Prison terms could range from seven to 20 years The provision for life behind bars also exists in this section of the PTA Sahadevan and Babu sat in the box meant for the accused with their blank eyes staring into nothing Their family members sat a few steps away on benches looking equally hopeless while defence lawyers A Vinagayamurthy and Kewi Thavarasan intervened every once in a while during Waidyaratne’s arguments Since October 12 last year seven court hearings have taken place during which three witnesses from the police and Special Task Force (STF) have been examined Waidyaratne interrogated SSP Ajith Wickremesekera who at the time of Kadirgamar’s murder was with the STF and was among the first officers to visit the scene of crime (Kadirgamar’s residence no SSP Wickremesekera was probably the first police officer to also visit 42 At around 10.30 p.m as Kadirgamar stepped out of his swimming pool and went to look at his garden in the backyard several gunshots were fired at him from the window of a bathroom located on the top floor of house number 42 on Buller’s Lane This house – next to Kadirgamar’s – was allegedly used by his killers to execute their plan This is also the house in which accused Sahadevan used to tend to the gardens Komadi is said to have been the LTTE handler for Sahadevan and Babu SSP Wickremesekera who had joined the police force in 1976 was asked by Waidyaratne to identify exhibits in the court room last Friday a tripod stand on which the sniper rifle/gun used to fire at Kadirgamar was mounted photographs of Kadirgamar’s house and the neighbouring house During previous hearings of the case on March 4 and 5 this year SSP Wickremesekera had been examined by the prosecution During that inquest SSP Wickremesekera is said to have confirmed to the court that the bullets had indeed been fired through the window of the bathroom at 42 Recalling the events of the evening of August 12 five years ago SSP Wickremesekera has told the court that he was informed at around 11 p.m. He further said that an STF team was soon dispatched to Kadirgamar’s house SSP Wickremesekera had also told the court in the earlier hearings that when he had knocked on the main door of house number 42 on Buller’s Lane after Kadirgamar had fallen to the bullets the then house owner who passed away in 2006 (due to natural causes) had expressed his ignorance about the incident Thalayasingam told investigators (back in 2005) that he and his wife used only the ground floor of their house and that they lacked knowledge about activities on the top floor by persons who planned and killed Kadirgamar During another previous hearing of the case Abeyratne Rajapaksa an officer with the crimes division of the police had been asked if the police had tried to even arrest Prabhakaran Police inspector Rajapaksa had then told the court that warrants had been issued for the arrests of Komadi and Charles Master in Mullaitivu through the District Secretariat but they could not be tracked down The case is scheduled to be heard next on May 17 and May 26 President Peter Mutharika on Wednesday cancelled his official scheduled engagements in Lilongwe and Salima No reasons have been given for the cancellation The President was supposed to have a whistle stop tour in some parts of Lilongwe and open a cane factory in Salima State controlled Malawi Broadcasting Corporation said the President would open the sugarcane plant on Monday No reasons were given for the cancellation of the official opening on Wednesday The President is said to have made an impromptu trip to Blantyre leaving the State House advance party stranded in Salima Cancelling without reasons doubtful there is there is achimwene So whats the matter here???????????????????? Who said the advance party was stranded in Salima They already had their double allowances by then mpakana word “stranded”anthu adya mapwevupwevu aulere What a poor article from a poor journalist munthu akasintha ulendo wake ndi Mlandu?Umafuna akakuza utani?Olo kulemba sumathanso wadya za JB ETI Lewis Kamundi who is also Executive Director of Malawi Youth Dream (MYD) has.. Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has confirmed that its national executive committee (NEC) dismissed  spokesperson Jessie Kabwila for alleged misconduct and  that first-vice president Richard Msowoya and  Secretary General Gustavo Kaliwo have been suspended Addressing a news conference at the party headquarters  in Lilongwe on Tuesday Ezekiel Ching’oma said NEC  has also suspended party Second Deputy Secretary General Chatonda Kaunda and Tony Kandiero He said the members will be  summoned to  disciplinary hearing sessions “NEC agreed to suspend these people pending conclusion of disciplinary process,” he said who was flanked by public relations officer Alekekeni Menyani and others  said NEC has appointed Reverend Maurice Munthali as Deputy Publicity Secretary He also confirmed that that Wickford Sulamoyo is new party administrative secretary Wrapping it all Ching’oma said the party has  also appointed Elsenhower Mkaka as Secretary General He also confirmed that the dates for party elective convention will be between April 4  and 8 at a venue yet to be disclosed Ching’oma has since vowed that MCP will continue speaking for the Malawians on all ills which Malawians are facing Press conference ya ku Lilongwe Hotel ija matiuza kuti akutumani zotsatira zake ndizimenezi Apapa MCP yagufa kwambiri because voters in the north are always undecided since the demise of AFORD This can be confirmed by their voting pattern Voters in the center and south are very decided and their voting decision is inelastic Serious vote hunters always go for undecided voters It is therefore extremely silly for MCP to abandon the north for the south Anthu a ku m’mwela anaganiza kale zochita ndipo adzachita zomwezo; with or without Mia Mia was riding on the popularity of his late father He is a businessman and… Read more » Wait for the post-convention activities before blowing your mind so is Harry Mkandawire (touted for the second vice president position) and Cornelius Mwalwanda is also in the MCP bag Then there are also young tested politicians from there in the MCP bag Kezzie Msukwa is destabilising the DPP foothold there I am a northerner but would speak against him you will be suprised what the northerners will do in 2019 chilima ndi smart motion kuti dpp tichotse chilima muzaoma momwe dpp ndi bwana Pitala adzalizile pomwe Amsowoya an go fun a udindo moral kwao kumpoto aline amayi ndiozikonda Anakanika kukopa anthu ku North ali yekha yekha ngati running mate Shithole leaders don’t learn from past mistakes Why can’t you wait for a conversion which is not far from now Mind your business in DPP where big trouble looms Why are you taking panado on someone else’s headache Msowoya and his friends said they are forming their new party Mr 7777999 kumbukilan mawu a bingu za mngelo lusifala zimene anamupanga mulungu kumwamba tisasokoseletse nkhosa zambiri kamba la imodzi….a jesse ngati Ali khang’a kwawo adzawinaso koma ngati amoneka ngati wanzeru coz of chipan nde zake zada palibe chabwino.viva mcp viva Dr chakwera even in our houses we discipline our own kids if they misbehave The problem that madam Kabwira has is that she does not want to accept to be on a wrong side Take for example the time she was at Chancellor College during the academic freedom fight with late Bingo Now the same attitude is that which she is displaying in MCP This is not an academic institution but a political institution with different agenda You do not discipline people through unconstitutional means If Chakwera is failing to uphold party constitutional provisions can he manage to adhere to national constitutional provisions This so called man of God is surely a national disgrace I SUPPORT THE DECISION… NO ONE IS A KING AND QUEEN IN THE PARTY MAKA MSOWOYA HE ADDS NO VALUE IN THE PARTY AS HE CANT EVEN BRING VOTES FROM THE NORTH YET HE WANT TO BE TREATED LIKE A MACHINE GUN NO WAY it needs people who are fearless as Kabwila i do not know as to when your wonders are going to end but this is your downfall whats sort of party is this which cannot forgive its members who have wronged Instead of keeping members within and come with real hard strategies for 2019 and you are busy firing members otherwise time is passing and by the end you finish with your… Read more » Nawe usatinyanse apa titha kukuchotsa Mmalawi Blantyre District Council says it will from April this year start constructing a shopping mall at Chileka Airport as one.. Members of parliamnt on Wednesday morning got back to serious business when they passed bills in harmony in sharp contrast to the previous day when the opposition walked out of the House and senior politicians wanted to fight Parliament on Wednesday passed two Land bills in a very peaceful atmosphere and for the first time in weeks legislators on the government side participated This was in contrast with the Tuesday tense atmosphere when Leader of the House George Chaponda invited Mzimba West MP Harry Mkandawire outside the Chamber for a fight after political tensions rose Information minister Patricia Kaliati attacking the opposition when she kept on making unfavourable and insulting interjections off the microphone This prompted Chitipa South MP Welani Chilenga to report her to second deputy speaker “The honourable minister of Information is insulting me he says who voted me into the House,” bitterly complained Chilenga The deputy speaker asked Kaliati and the other cabinet ministers to stop provoking the already tense situation as that derailed business in the House Malawi Congress Party (MCP) shadow minister of Agriculture Felix Jumbe has said security detail for party president Lazarus Chakwera might.. The Blantyre District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Medson Matchaya winner in the health category of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation-MBC Innovations Awards  left for China on Tuesday on a skill enhancement tour Speaking before his departure from Chileka International Airport  Matchaya hailed MBC for  various great initiatives the Corporation have taken for the citizens of the country Matchaya also encouraged MBC to increase similar kind of interactions with its audiences On the trip Matchaya described life as a learning curve and was hopeful that the tour will broaden his scope in management of public health issues ”’I am full of expectations to enjoy the course and bring back more expertise to help Malawi in the development of the health sector,”said Matchaya For her part MBC public relations officer Chembezi Mhone described the tour as a motivator in inspiring the nation “We  go beyond the newsroom and production unit in our quest to educate we ensure that we reach out and inspire the broader populace,” said Mhone In 2016 10 people were recognised for their exceptional talent in various categories including sports So far 6 awardees have travelled to China for the month long skills enhancement tour komadi bwana ndi kale lija yesesani mwayi wa specilisation Mwakula inu za u DHO izi asiyireni ana inu kapangeni specialization mumuuzenso Gift Kawalazira ku Zomba ku Ma specialist ake adzikagwira ntchito kuti zipatala zake zopanda zida zogwirira ntchitozi Communities along the Nsalu-Kabudula-Kasiya-Santhe Road have expressed happiness with progress in the construction of the road As part of Independence Day celebrations on July 6 this Friday Moyale Barracks Football Club will be hosting TNM Super League defending champions in a friendly which Moyale Coach Charles Kamanga says is important for both sides Kamanga told Nyasa Times that it was an honour to be part of these Independence Day celebrations and looks forward to a good game against the nomads on Friday “It feels good to play against Be Forward Wanderers before the head of state and many Malawians we are preparing very well for this game and we are not taking it lightly We would like to entertain soccer fans with beautiful football and eventually win the game,” explained Kamanga He added that the game is a good strength testing match before the two sides can meet in the country’s top flight league The Nomads are on position four on the log table with 18 points from ten games while the soldiers are on position ten with 14 points from twelve games are at the top with 26 points followed by Nyasa Big Bullets and Civil Sporting Club with 22 points and 19 points kkkkkkkkkk komadi atumbuka mukamalira kuti mumatsalidwa apa ndiye ndikumvetsa Chisangalalochi chikamachitika madela ena aku mmwera ndi pakati amayitanitsa national team yadziko lina ndikusewera ndiyathu Koma panopa chikuchitika kumpoto ati koma moyale ndi wandalazi kkkkkkkk This year’s 53rd Independence anniversary celebrations won’t go unnoticed for veteran Malawian soldiers who fought in the two World Wars... has successfully drilled three shallow gas wells in Eastern Hungary Two drillings were carried out in the Komádi area and one in Álmosd The three new wells will be able to meet the gas needs of up to 20,000 average family homes for years MOL launched its shallow gas programme in 2019. The initiative targets fields that are closer to the surface and small in size, Portfolio reports Shallow gas currently accounts for roughly 5 percent of the company’s 1.4 billion cubic meters of gas production in Hungary each year The new findings were made possible by a special evaluation of modern seismic measurements It will help researchers get a more accurate picture of where there is a high probability of gas deep underground The gas fields targeted by the drilling are located at shallower depths than usual The existing gas pipeline infrastructure in Hungary makes it possible to bring the discovered plants into production and deliver the gas to the population and industrial consumers in a very short time The three new wells could contribute up to 750 barrels per day to maintain Mol’s production of around 32,000 barrels per day of gas and oil in Hungary That is equivalent to about 44 million cubic metres of gas per year MOL is the largest producer of natural gas in Hungary It accounted for 90 percent of domestic production in 2022 with 1.4 billion cubic meters and shallow gas accounts for roughly 5 percent of the total The company plans to invest around HUF 200 billion in oil and gas mining in Hungary over the next five years with around 60-65 percent of this for natural gas 20-25 percent for oil and the remainder for the safe maintenance and replacement of infrastructure and website in this browser for the next time I comment Y"},"category":false,"taxonomy":{"active":false,"name":"category"}},"markup":{"custom_html":true,"wpp-start":"","wpp-end":"<\/ul>","title-start":"","title-end":"<\/h2>","post-html":"{thumb} {title} {stats}<\/span>{excerpt}<\/p><\/li>"},"theme":{"name":""}} You have successfully joined our subscriber list SupportUs Newsletter © 2025 DailyNewsHungary | All rights reserved