If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Emmanuel Macron thinks the Republic needs a quality seal for reality. The French president recently proposed creating an official “reliability label” for news outlets, modeled on Reporters Without Borders’ Journalism Trust Initiative. He insists it is not censorship. It is a “democratic duty.” “It is about making our young people understand, encouraging them, motivating them to turn toward press outlets, whether in physical, printed form or digital,” Macron said, as though the French youth were a flock that had wandered into the dangerous fields of the internet and needed shepherding back to Le Monde. The proposal, presented during a discussion with readers of the Ebra press group, called for a label for outlets that follow ethical standards, validated by “peers and third-party experts.” The government, he said, would not decide who qualifies. It would only “encourage” such standards. But in France, the words “encourage” and “government” often mean something closer to “mandatory, eventually.” The model is RSF’s Journalism Trust Initiative, which already certifies media that meet certain requirements. Certified outlets supposedly even get algorithmic advantages on platforms like Bing. Macron wants a French version, claiming it would bring “international recognition of the professionalism of our journalists and the rigour of our editorial teams.” Translated from technocrat to plain French: good media will rise to the top, bad media will sink to the digital basement. This, Macron says, will help fight “disinformation.” The country has heard that promise before. Each new attempt to fight misinformation seems to end up tightening control over information itself. The idea landed with the subtlety of a brick through a newsroom window. On BFMTV, Parliamentary Party Leader of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen called it “unworthy,” said the proposal was “extremely dangerous,” accusing Macron of wanting “to master information.” Bruno Retailleau, leader of Les Républicains, said “no government has the right to filter the media or dictate the truth.” The Mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, said the president had “crossed a fundamental line.” Even some journalists balked at being graded by a system endorsed by the state. Macron denied everything. “There is not going to be a state label, and even less a ‘ministry of truth,’” said government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon after the cabinet meeting. Macron repeated that “it is not the state that should verify” the truth, since “otherwise it becomes a dictatorship.” So far, the reassurance has not worked. The term “Ministry of Truth” is now glued to the project in every headline, thanks in part to a viral editorial by Pascal Praud on CNews, who accused the president of “wanting to impose a single narrative.” In a remarkable act of irony, the Élysée responded to critics on X by posting a video labeled “warning, false information.” The president’s communications team, while denying the existence of a Ministry of Truth, had just produced something that looked exactly like one. The post set off another round of outrage. Jordan Bardella, President of the National Rally, said Macron’s proposal was “the reflex of a man who has lost power and seeks to maintain it by controlling information.” The label plan is part of Macron’s wider campaign against disinformation. He has floated legal changes to allow “false information” to be blocked online more quickly and has repeatedly called for tighter regulation of social media, describing the current state of the internet as “the Wild West.” It is not hard to see why the issue obsesses him. Macron and his wife have been the targets of online rumors for years. For a president who sees himself as a technocratic reformer, the swamp of digital conspiracy has become both a personal irritant and a political threat. Macron insists that only a system of certified journalism can protect the public from manipulation. The trouble is, the public does not want the government or anyone tied to it certifying which journalists to trust. Reporters Without Borders may be an NGO, but any system announced by the president and promoted as a matter of “democratic duty” will carry the scent of state authority. Once the government endorses a “trust” label, those without it become, by definition, untrustworthy. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Macron’s Proposed Seal of Truth Meets a Wall of Criticism appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Post Editorial: The Judicial Resistance Lives

The Anti-Communist Film Festival Invite List: Pam Grier

One of the main reasons Americans flock to shows like “The Liz Wheeler Show” is because Wheeler is someone the average citizen can trust to tell the truth — and it’s something that she’s very proud of. Which is why when other members of the new media on the right appear to betray the trust of the American people, she feels the need to call it out.“These people, who are ostensibly conservatives, began to post on X very long, flowery defenses of Qatar and the Qatari government that didn’t seem to be quite authentic. It didn’t seem to be quite organic,” Wheeler explains, pointing to Rob Smith as one of those influencers.“My first trip to Qatar has been eye-opening. This is a very different Middle East than I experienced as a U.S. Army soldier deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom,” Smith began in his post on X.“I wasn’t aware of a great deal of things about Qatar, only misperceptions and half-truths I’d read about online. When the opportunity was presented to me, with full authority and autonomy to ask the tough questions of the officials I’d be meeting with (and I did), I decided to risk any potential criticism and to travel and experience it for myself,” he continued.The post went on to praise the Qatari government further, finishing with a posed photo of Smith on a balcony.“If your reaction after hearing that post or reading that post was anything like mine was, maybe you scratched your head after you read that, because it reads a little bit like a scam email,” Wheeler says.“I mean, to be perfectly frank, my gut reaction when I read that was, ‘Shouldn’t you register as a foreign lobbyist after writing this post, Rob?’” she adds.In another post from influencer Emily Wilson, she is posed in a photo on a very similar looking balcony, writing only, “So beautiful can’t wait to come back," followed by the flag of Qatar. When Wilson’s post went viral, she responded, “I genuinely can’t believe how clueless some people are. Qatar hosts Formula 1 and people from all over the world fly in for it. Tourists, models, celebrities, fans. It is a massive international destination.”“And honestly it was amazing to finally feel safe and not be surrounded by homeless crackheads and criminals for once. I could actually relax and enjoy myself. Maybe if you salty losers left your bedrooms and visited a place before obsessively talking about it, you wouldn’t sound so chronically online and jealous,” she added.“Again it just doesn’t ring quite true. Why all of a sudden are these influencers coming to the defense of Qatar?” Wheeler asks, pointing out that Smith happens to be gay, which is considered a crime in Qatar.“They write these glowing recommendations of Qatar and yet their own behavior is actually illegal in Qatar. If you look at Qatari law, it’s illegal to evangelize for any other religion besides Islam. You can be put in prison or worse from that. You are not allowed to preach publicly about Christianity or distribute any kind of religious materials,” Wheeler explains.“You can’t even question the tenants, the teachings of the Islamic religion. That is a criminal offense in Qatar. ... Same-sex sexual relations in Qatar are illegal and punishable by imprisonment. If you engage in any kind of gay sex, then you are considered a criminal under the Islamic law in Qatar,” she continues.“They have a two-tier justice system, a justice system that oppresses regular people and lets off the elites, holds them to an easier standard, which is pretty evident,” she says, adding, “That’s exactly what’s happening here to Rob Smith and to Emily Saves America.”Want more from Liz Wheeler?To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement highlighted the Wednesday arrests of several "worst of the worst" criminal illegal aliens, including a man who had been accused of operating an unlicensed dental practice, according to a Department of Homeland Security press release exclusively obtained by Blaze News.'ALL of them WILL be deported, never to return and harm another American AGAIN.'On Wednesday, federal immigration officials nabbed Jose Alfredo Uzeta, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was previously convicted of dentistry act violation and indecent assault in Harris County, Texas. A 2023 report by KTRK-TV accused Uzeta of operating an unlicensed practice for two decades. Uzeta previously told a judge that he was seeing approximately eight patients a day. During an appointment for her braces, one patient claimed that Uzeta unhooked her bra, massaged her, and attempted to kiss her. Police uncovered the illegal practice when the patient reported Uzeta's inappropriate conduct."For 20 years, Uzeta preyed on vulnerable Americans, charging for dental procedures he had absolutely no business of performing. Worse, he sexually violated one of his patients who trusted him," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated. "In addition to this monster, ICE also arrested child predators, murderers, and violent assailants — ALL of them WILL be deported, never to return and harm another American AGAIN," McLaughlin added.RELATED: Unruly anti-ICE protesters shut down NOLA city council meeting — police carry out activist Jose Alfredo Uzeta. Image source: Department of Homeland SecurityICE also arrested Mahmoud Telfah, a criminal illegal alien from Jordan. Earlier this year, Telfah was convicted of two counts, including child solicitation by electronic communication device and meets with a child, as well as attempted sexual exploitation of children by prostitution, according to the New Mexico Department of Justice.A criminal complaint revealed that Telfah attempted to solicit sexual acts from an undercover Albuquerque Police Department detective whom he believed to be a 15-year-old female. RELATED: DHS slams Newsom over illegal alien accused in death of 11-year-old boy on Thanksgiving Mahmoud Telfah. Image source: Department of Homeland SecurityThe DHS press release highlighted ICE's recent arrest of Hamidou Diallo, an illegal alien from Mali, who was convicted of murder in New York. Hamidou Diallo. Image source: Department of Homeland SecurityAgents also captured Santos Guevara-Carrero, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, convicted of manslaughter in New York. Santos Guevara-Carrero. Image source: Department of Homeland SecurityMarcos Leon-Sorto, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras, was arrested by federal agents. Leon-Sorto was convicted of aggravated assault causing significant bodily injury and assault on a peace officer or judge in Texas. Marcos Leon-Sorto. Image source: Department of Homeland SecurityLike Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Michael FrachettiThe mountainous region of Tugunbulak, where archaeologists now believe the Silk Road city of Marsmanda once sat. When archaeologists traveled to the mountains of Uzbekistan in 2011, they were hoping to find evidence of Bronze Age people who’d lived in the region some 4,000 years ago. Instead, they found a sea of artifacts which dated not to the Bronze Age, but to the Middle Ages. Now, they believe that they’ve uncovered evidence of a “lost” Silk Road city at the site, a metropolis known as Marsmanda that has eluded experts for decades. Though Marsmanda appears in 10th-century Arab texts, where it’s hailed as an advanced producer of prized iron goods and weapons, the city has never been located. However, archaeologists now believe that — by using both LiDAR technology and old-fashioned archaeological techniques — they’ve uncovered this Silk Road city some 6,500 feet above sea level. The Possible Discovery Of Marsmanda In The Mountains Of Uzbekistan Michael FrachettiTugunbulak, which archaeologists now believe is the lost Silk Road city of Marsmanda, as seen by drone in 2018. The discovery of what could be Marsmanda came entirely by accident. According to a report from Smithsonian, Michael Frachetti, an archaeologist at Washington University in St. Louis, and Farhod Maksudov, the director of Uzbekistan’s National Center of Archaeology, first traveled to Uzbekistan’s Malguzar Mountains in 2011 in hopes of finding evidence of Bronze Age people who might have once lived in the region. Instead, at a site called Tashbulak, they found a sea of ceramic artifacts from the 8th to 11th centuries — long after the end of the Bronze Age. These artifacts dated to the time of the Silk Road, a network of trade routes that connected the Far East with Eurasia and Europe until the mid-15th century. From there, the archaeologists learned about an even larger site just nearby called Tugunbulak. By using both LiDAR technology and hands-on archaeological work, they determined that the settlement once spread out over 300 acres — twice the size of Pompeii — and contained both large fortified structures and hundreds of smaller structures between them. Archaeologists believe that Tugunbulak was likely a thriving metropolis, a center for making iron goods like weapons and tools. SAIE lab/J. Berner/M. FrachettiA LiDAR map of Tugunbulak, which exposed a sprawling network of buildings. What’s more, they believe that this site was once Marsmanda, the Silk Road city that was mentioned in historical accounts but eventually lost to time. The Mysterious History Of Marsmanda, Lost City Of The Silk Road But what do experts actually know about Marsmanda? Medieval sources described it as the place “where the rivers froze.” The 10th-century Arab geographer Ibn Hawqal further described it as a cold “mountainous city that has no gardens and no vineyards” that nevertheless had “pretty meadows and pastures, blooming [flowers], and beautiful places for strolling.” Ibn Hawqal also noted that the site drew people from “faraway places” because of its ironworks. Indeed, archaeologists suspect that Tugunbulak — or Marsmanda — would have been busiest during the summer months, when people took advantage of the mild weather to travel to the mountains, meet others, and trade. At the site, archaeologists have uncovered evidence of once-thriving iron workshops, as well as artifacts like jewelry, ceramics, and beads. Michael FrachettiExcavations at Tugunbulak in 2022. Archaeologists have found a number of exciting artifacts at the site, including jewelry and ceramics. But what makes the site truly remarkable are the insights it offers about life in the region at the time. Historians have long assumed that the Silk Road wound its way through lowland cities. But the existence of Tugunbulak, and Tashbulak, suggest that the trade network also extended into the mountains. What’s more, Marsmanda upends conventional ideas about the Silk Road, which claim that Central Asia was an untamed land of rural nomads and raiders prone to attacking the merchants attempting to link the economies of China and Europe. Instead, the state-of-the-art facilities at Marsmanda likely supplied everything from swords to axes to plows for everyone from the Scythians to the Huns to the Mongols for hundreds of years. Eventually, however, archaeologists believe that this settlement was abandoned around 1050 C.E. for unknown reasons. Drought, deforestation, or competing ironworks could have all played a role. Nevertheless, there is still plenty to learn about Tugunbulak and Tashbulak, and their possible connection to the lost Silk Road city of Marsmanda. In addition to sifting through the discoveries they’ve made at the sites over the past several years, archaeologists also hope to return in 2026 to continue excavations. Then perhaps more of this fabled city’s lost story will finally come to light. After reading about Marsmanda, the lost Silk Road city that may have just been discovered in Uzbekistan, learn the story of the Hippie Trail, the counterculture pilgrimage that flourished in the 1960s and 1970s, and followed many old Silk Road paths. Then, look through this collection of fascinating ancient ruins from around the world. The post Archaeologists Believe They’ve Just Found The Fabled Weapon-Producing Capital Of The Silk Road In The Mountains Of Uzbekistan appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Public DomainAn 1854 painting by Alexander Schramm of an Aboriginal encampment. Nearly 250 years ago, Europeans established their first permanent settlement in Australia and came into contact with the continent’s Aboriginal people. Now, a new study published in Science Advances has determined when these Aboriginal inhabitants arrived in Oceania themselves. The study involved the analysis of nearly 2,500 genomes from Aboriginal communities across Australia, New Guinea, and other Pacific islands to clarify the timeline of when the first modern humans landed on Sahul, a prehistoric continent that included modern-day Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. Not only did the team find evidence of human habitation as far back as 60,000 years ago, but they also discovered what may be the earliest uncontested example of travel by boat. And some of those early arrivals may have even mated with other species along the way. New Technologies Spark Debate About Humans’ Arrival In Australia Between the first European contact with Aboriginal Australians and today, numerous leaps in technology have enhanced the scientific understanding of when the continent was first settled. Radiocarbon dating techniques in particular helped to establish a timeline that pointed to thousands of years of occupation, far exceeding initial European estimates. “This pushed the time of people’s arrival back to around 45,000 years — ironically, now known as the ‘short chronology,'” Martin B. Richards, a professor of archaeogenetics at the University of Huddersfield and co-author on the study, writes for The Conversation. “However, some archaeologists argued they may have arrived even earlier.” The so-called “long chronology” theory started gaining traction around 2017, as newer scientific dating methods like optical luminescence dating were developed. This theory suggested that the first people arrived in Australia 60,000 years ago, but it was not widely accepted and remained contentious. Then, in 2024, more evidence emerged that once again turned the tide. Public DomainAn Aboriginal camp in Victoria, circa 1858. As Richards explains, geneticists then got involved in the debate, publishing a study that examined the “genetic clock” of prehistoric Australians. This suggested some interbreeding between early modern humans and Neanderthals, with an overlap of about 5,000 years. This would have occurred less than 50,000 years ago, suggesting the short chronology may actually have been more accurate. “All present-day non-Africans carry around two percent Neanderthal DNA, suggesting they must all be descended from that small group,” Richards writes. “This research therefore supported the short chronology view.” One potential explanation for this was that humans arrived in Sahul in two waves: one 60,000 years ago and a second 40,000 years ago, which entirely replaced that first wave. However, this explanation made little sense to some experts. Humans were already widespread in Sahul 40,000 years ago, after all. But the new study offers another explanation: Only one wave of humans arrived in Sahul 60,000 years ago, but they took two distinct routes to get there. The Earliest Seafarers Arrived In Two Migrations After sequencing mitochondrial DNA genomes — which are only inherited maternally — from nearly 1,000 new samples collected with the help of Aboriginal elders and combining them with another 1,500 sequences that were already available, researchers were able to use what they called a “molecular clock” to determine that the deepest human lineages in Australia dated back 60,000 years. “Our results suggest there were two distinct migrations into Sahul — both around the same time 60,000 years ago,” Richards writes. “This is because the most ancient lineages fell into two groups.” These groups were a major set and a minor set, the former having ancestry in the Philippines and the latter hailing from either South Asia or Indochina. Notably, the major set’s DNA was distributed throughout both New Guineans and the Aboriginal Australians, while the minor set was only observed in Aboriginal people. Maximilian Dörrbecker/Wikimedia CommonsA map of present-day Southeast Asia and Australia overlaid with the prehistoric continents of Sunda and Sahul. The simplest explanation for this was that each group arrived via a different route: a major path in the north and a minor southern one. In modern New Guineans and Aboriginal people, there was also evidence of an additional five percent of archaic human DNA on top of the standard two percent Neanderthal DNA, indicating prehistoric humans interbred with other archaic human species as they traveled. Most remarkably, however, is that despite lower sea levels at that time, the minor group would still have traveled at least 60 miles across the open sea, which marks some of the earliest evidence of human seafaring. They would have traveled on simple watercraft like bamboo rafts or canoes, but that makes their journey no less impressive. The authors noted that this doesn’t fully settle the debate, but it certainly offers more compelling evidence for the long chronology. So far, studies have only been able to examine indirect evidence, but if researchers are ever able to recover any prehistoric DNA to apply the models directly, it could provide a definitive answer. After reading about when the first humans arrived in Australia, discover how humans may have arrived in Mexico 20,000 years earlier than previously thought. Then, learn about when the first humans arrived in Sicily. The post A New Study Has Just Determined When Humans First Arrived To Australia appeared first on All That's Interesting.

The administration is right to abandon Joe Biden’s electric-vehicle mandate.

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