MOSCOW: A Russian military court on Monday convicted a popular Ukrainian YouTube blogger and journalist in absentia for making public calls to kill President Vladimir Putin.
A Moscow military court sentenced Dmitry Gordon to 14 years imprisonment, the TASS news agency reported.
Russia has been convicting its opponents in absentia as part of a crackdown since the start of the Ukraine offensive.
Gordon, 56, is a household name in Ukraine with millions of followers on social media.
A poll in August 2023 placed him seventh among Ukrainians’ most viewed “experts” commenting on YouTube.
Starting as a newspaper journalist, he founded a Russian-language weekly newspaper called “Gordon’s Boulevard” and hosted a television show called “Gordon’s Guests,” also in Russian.
He then launched an online news site called Gordon and two YouTube channels.
Gordon used to often appear as a commentator on Russian television talk shows, saying on Olga Skabeyeva’s 60 Minutes show in 2019 that “I would call Putin one word: a criminal.”
He was critical of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky up to Russia’s offensive.
In 2022, Russia declared him a “foreign agent,” while he countered that he is not a Russian citizen.
He commented on Instagram of Russia’s verdict against him: “this is how they grow savage near the end, which will be soon and inevitable.”
The court decision Monday cited YouTube videos posted by Gordon in 2022, TASS wrote.
It said one contained a “call to eliminate” Putin.
The court said Gordon felt “hatred toward the current Russian president” and viewed Russia’s offensive in Ukraine “extremely negatively.”
It added he called for civil war and to kill Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and urged US President Joe Biden to launch a nuclear strike on Russia.
The court found Gordon guilty of calls for terrorist activity, publicly distributing false information about the Russian military and inciting hatred.
Moscow ‘jails’ popular Ukrainian TV host and blogger in absentia
https://arab.news/yz2ar
Moscow ‘jails’ popular Ukrainian TV host and blogger in absentia
- Dmitry Gordon was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment
- The YouTuber was found guilty of calls for terrorist activity, publicly distributing false information about the Russian military and inciting hatred
TikTok partners with Esports World Cup ahead of Riyadh tournament
- Short-form video platform will be entertainment partner
- Unprecedented $60m prize pool for July 3-Aug. 25 event
LONDON: TikTok is set to become the official entertainment partner of the inaugural Esports World Cup taking place in Riyadh from July 3 to Aug. 25.
The ByteDance-owned short-form video platform and the Esports World Cup Foundation inked a partnership agreement on Monday.
Mohammed Alnimer, sales director of the EWCF, said the partnership was poised “to redefine esports content and entertainment among a broader audience.”
“TikTok is an excellent way to authentically engage with esports communities worldwide, and enable more fans to follow and support the Esports World Cup athletes and clubs.”
As part of the partnership, TikTok will launch an Esports World Cup Hub in the app, with content from the official broadcasters, teams and players.
The EWCF will also produce “exclusive content tailored for TikTok,” and encourage collaborations with popular creators.
In addition, the partners will produce a weekly show featuring reports and news from the contest.
“Promoting a shared appreciation for e-sports, connecting fans and players across different cultures and regions is at the top of TikTok priorities,” said Mohamed Harb, head of partnerships, TikTok MENA, in a statement.
Harb said TikTok aims to “shape the future of gaming content and fan engagement.”
The Esports World Cup is poised to be the largest event of its kind.
The tournament organizers have already announced a large roster of partners, including firms in the sportswear and beverage sectors.
Alongside gaming activations, community tournaments and pop culture celebrations, the event will have an unprecedented prize pool of $60 million.
MBC’s Shahid platform announces premiere of ‘Grendizer U’
- Anime series set to be released July 24 on world’s largest Arabic streaming service
RIYADH: MBC’s Shahid, the world’s leading Arabic streaming platform, announced on Tuesday that the remake of the original “Grendizer” anime series is set to premiere worldwide this July 2024.
Launched in partnership with Manga Productions, a subsidiary of the Mohammed Bin Salman Foundation, Misk, the new series brings back the beloved characters Duke Fleed and Kouji Kabuto.
Manga Productions has unveiled a third promotional video for “Grendizer U” as well as a new key visual for the new anime series.
Dr. Essam Bukhary, CEO of Manga Productions, commented: “We are pleased to announce the continuation of our partnership with Shahid, confirming that this partnership is an extension of our previous successful collaborations.
“It is worth mentioning that there have been several previous partnerships between Manga Productions and Shahid in showcasing prominent works such as ‘The Journey’ movie, and the ‘Future’s Folktales’ and ‘Captain Tsubasa’ series. It is noteworthy that ‘The Journey’ has made it to the top five anime films on the Shahid platform.”
Tareq Al-Ibrahim, director of content at Shahid, and director of MBC1 and MBC Drama, said: “Our strategic partnership with Manga Productions brings significant value to our audiences, appealing to a wide range of viewer categories and age groups.
“What sets Manga Productions apart in its industry is its commitment to high production and artistic standards, fused with creative content that delivers valuable social messaging and storytelling.”
He added: “This type of content and its messages align with the region’s culture values and resonate with audiences throughout the region, providing Arab families with a sophisticated, enjoyable, and entertaining viewing experience.”
In 2022, a strategic partnership was announced between Dynamic Planning and Manga Productions to license “UFO Robo Grendizer” — more commonly known as “Grendizer” — and use it in products and characters for cities and entertainment events worldwide, except Japan.
The new series is based on Go Nagai’s “UFO Robo Grendizer”. The general director for “Grendizer U” is Mitsuo Fukuda, with series composition and script by Ichiro Okouchi, with Tatsuhito Higuchi also writing the script.
Character design is handled by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, while Mari Araki is responsible for sub-character design. Mechanical design is crafted by Wataru Inata, AF_KURO, and Junichi Akutsu (Astrays), with design works by Pinakes, Tomoyuki Aoki, Zenseava, and Masato Yoshinaga.
The main animators include Hiroyuki Taiga, Takashi Hashimoto, Masahiro Yamane, and Toru Yoshida. Art direction is managed by Hiroshi Kato and Hirofumi Sakagami (Totonyan), while Tomoe Yoshimura handles color design and Atsushi Usuta (Nexus) manages cinematography.
Yukio Nagasaki serves as sound director, with sound effects by Toshiya Wada and Maki Takuma (Swara Pro). The music is composed by Kohei Tanaka, and music production is handled by Pony Canyon. Animation production is done by Gaina.
‘Google is broken’: How an algorithm tweak cost livelihoods
- Google’s massive upgrade in March and April caused catastrophic drops in traffic
PARIS: Google made major changes to its search algorithm and spam filters earlier this year to get rid of low-quality content — but the effects have proved devastating to some smaller websites.
Online businesses have been left considering layoffs and even site closures after Google’s massive upgrade in March and April caused catastrophic drops in traffic.
Gisele Navarro is one of the unlucky ones whose website got caught up in Google’s dragnet.
The 37-year-old Argentine runs the HouseFresh website with her husband, and they had been building a healthy niche in product reviews for air purifiers since 2020.
There were no ads, no product placements and no soft-pedalling — if a product was bad, the site’s reviewers would say so.
They earned commissions from clickthroughs to Amazon.
But Google’s update changed all of that.
“We found that we went from ranking number one — because we were one of the only people who had actually done a review — to not even showing up,” she told AFP.
HouseFresh used to get around 4,000 referrals from Google search a day, but this has since collapsed to around 200.
The dropoff in business has been so bad that Navarro said she had been advised to shutter the site and start over with a new domain name.
Underpinning the frustration for Navarro and many other sites is the lack of clarity over how Google ranks results.
The US firm is notoriously secretive about its algorithms — so much so that an entire industry known as “search engine optimization” has grown up trying to game the algorithm to get more clicks.
The latest update sent SEO experts into a tailspin, desperately trying to unpack why some sites were boosted and others getting downranked.
Google told AFP in an email that its update was designed specifically to give users “fewer results that feel made for search engines.”
“The only changes we launch are ones that our experiments have shown will meaningfully improve results for people. And we do believe that these updates have been helpful,” Google said.
Yet Navarro showed in a widely shared blog post in May that people searching for product reviews were increasingly being fed ads and content that appeared to be AI-generated or SEO-maximized.
Other material boosted by Google’s update included user-generated content from websites like Reddit and Quora.
Google defended this approach saying “people often want to learn from others’ experiences,” adding: “We conduct rigorous testing to ensure results are helpful and high quality.”
But staff at one European news website said their articles were now being routinely outranked by largely irrelevant content from Reddit.
The site publisher, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the topic, said referrals from Google had plummeted by between 20 to 30 percent since the update — and cutbacks would be inevitable.
“In an already tough market this is a serious problem for independent publishers like us,” they said.
All the businesses AFP talked to said they were now urgently seeking ways to avoid relying on Google search — whether by writing newsletters, making podcasts or finding other ways to attract audiences.
The boss of a fintech news outlet, who spoke to AFP anonymously fearing adverse effects on their business, said their competitors all employed SEO firms “to buy traffic.”
“We don’t do that but it’s getting harder to hold that position as those sites didn’t fall anywhere near as much as ours after this Google update,” they said.
Navarro, who has had to reduce her staff drastically, has pivoted to video reviews and newsletters to try to reconnect with her audience.
And despite her experience with Google, she remains an optimist about the web.
She has been heartened by the many messages of support, and an uptick in referrals from alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo.
“The entire knowledge of humankind is on the web — and that’s worth something,” she said.
“I don’t want to give up on it just because Google is broken.”
New season of MBC’s ‘Top Chef’ to be shot in NEOM
- ‘Visionary location aligns food show with city’s futuristic and sustainable values,’ MBC director of production says
LONDON: MBC Group announced on Monday that the new season of its popular show “Top Chef” will be filmed in NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s futuristic city.
Samar Akrouk, MBC Group’s director of production and MBC Studios’ general manager, said that moving the show to NEOM offers more than just a new location, providing a “visionary setting” that aligns with the city’s futuristic and sustainable values.
“This eighth season will merge the high-energy competition that viewers expect with a strong emphasis on ecological awareness and sustainable living, reflecting the core values of NEOM as a city of the future,” Akrouk said.
“Top Chef,” originally launched by Bravo in the US, features chefs competing in various culinary challenges, judged by a panel of professional chefs and notable personalities from the food and beverage industry. Contestants face elimination at the end of each episode.
Akrouk explained that this season will introduce a new layer of difficulty.
Contestants will not only be judged on their culinary skills and creativity but also on their “sustainable approach” to cooking.
“These challenges have been designed to inspire contestants to think about food in its relation to the environment,” she added, emphasizing that the program “echoes the principles upon which NEOM is built.”
In the region, the Arabic version of “Top Chef” by MBC Group has previously been filmed in locations across the UAE, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.
NEOM marks the latest location for the program in the Kingdom, underscoring efforts to position the region as a premier filming destination for local, regional, and international productions.
The new season of “Top Chef” is currently in production and is set to be released later this year.
India human rights body says Reuters story on Foxconn hiring raises discrimination concerns
- Reuters investigation alleges that Foxconn rejected married women from iPhone assembly jobs due to family responsibilities
- National Human Rights Commission has requested detailed reports from the Indian and Tamil Nadu governments regarding the accusations
NEW DELHI: India’s human rights watchdog said on Monday it had asked government officials to examine reported discrimination by Foxconn, after a Reuters investigation found the major Apple supplier has been rejecting married women from iPhone assembly jobs in the country.
In a statement, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said it had issued notices to the secretary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s labor ministry and the chief secretary of the state government of Tamil Nadu, site of a major iPhone factory, calling for a detailed report within a week.
“NHRC observes that the matter, if true, raises a serious issue of discrimination against married women causing the violation of the right to equality and equal opportunity,” it said.
The Reuters story has sparked debates on TV channels, newspaper editorials, calls from women groups, including within Modi’s party as well as opposition parties to investigate the matter. Modi’s federal government has also asked Tamil Nadu state for a “detailed report.”
Modi’s labor ministry, Apple and Taiwan-based Foxconn did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Tamil Nadu government spokesman referred questions to its labor department, which did not respond.
The Reuters investigation found Foxconn systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone plant on the grounds they have more family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts. Foxconn hiring agents and HR sources cited family duties, pregnancy and higher absenteeism as reasons for not hiring married women.
Responding to the investigation, published last week, Apple and Foxconn acknowledged lapses in hiring practices in 2022 and said they had worked to address the issues. All the discriminatory practices documented by Reuters at the Tamil Nadu plant, however, took place in 2023 and 2024. The companies didn’t address those instances.
Foxconn has said it “vigorously refutes allegations of employment discrimination based on marital status, gender, religion or any other form.”
Apple has said all its suppliers, including Foxconn, hire married women and “when concerns about hiring practices were first raised in 2022 we immediately took action and worked with our supplier to conduct monthly audits to identify issues and ensure that our high standards are upheld.”
Indian law does not bar companies from discriminating in hiring based on marital status, though Apple’s and Foxconn’s policies prohibit such practices in their supply chains.
The NHRC said it “noted the fact that gender equality is not only required in the Indian constitution but the international treaty and covenants.”
State authorities must ensure that all companies follow the norms and regulations relating to labor laws, it added.
