"France has officially indicted Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov."

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has set a stringent deadline for Elon Musk, the owner of the social network X, and its CEO Linda Yaccarino, to appoint a local legal representative for the platform in Brazil. The ultimatum was clear: do so within 24 hours or see the social network suspended in the nation. This directive came to light following a court ruling on Wednesday. Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts critical of the government and remove specific posts it accused of spreading “misinformation” related to Brazil’s electronic voting system and promoting “hate speech.” The targeted accounts were often associated with supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro and were linked to investigations into what the court described as “digital militias” accused of disseminating false information. Additionally, some profiles were connected to the January 8, 2023 riot, where Bolsonaro supporters stormed key government buildings in protest. The confrontation between Brazilian authorities and X has intensified this month, with the platform announcing that it would shutter its Brazilian operations and lay off local staff after Moraes threatened to arrest X staff in the country if the platform didn’t cave to its censorship demands. Despite X shutting down its operations in the region, X said that it would continue to allow Brazilian citizens to access the website. The Justice’s decision, ironically shared on the Supreme Court’s own X account, emphasized the potential for a national block of X should the platform continue to ignore demands. By enforcing these strict measures, the Brazilian judiciary is accused of using the guise of combating “misinformation” and “hate speech” to suppress dissenting voices. This censorship not only undermines the values of free expression but also raises concerns about the impartiality of legal measures taken under the pretext of law and order. It’s particularly troubling that these measures target digital platforms, crucial arenas for modern public discourse and political activism. The ultimatum to shut down or radically alter the operation of a major social network like X if it fails to comply with these demands signals an overreach that could isolate Brazil from the global digital community. Such aggressive censorship discourages platforms from operating within the country, which could deprive Brazilian citizens of access to multiple viewpoints and the global exchange of ideas. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Brazil Threatens To Block Access to X Within 24 Hours After the Platform Refused To Censor appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

They came to an animal shelter for a kitten but knew they had to take his mother cat with them too. Hairy BabyNewborn Kitten RescueBaymax, the cat, and her kitten, Hairy Baby, came to an animal shelter when their family was unable to care for them. The shelter staff discovered that Baymax had a severe dental issue that was causing her a lot of discomfort.Rescuers from Newborn Kitten Rescue usually go to the shelter to help orphaned or critical kittens. Realizing Hairy might become an orphan if his mom didn't receive the help she needed, they didn't hesitate to take them both.They couldn't bear to see them separated, knowing the mom's condition was treatable. Baymax and Hairy BabyNewborn Kitten RescueShortly after arriving at their foster home, Baymax nestled in her new bed with her kitten by her side. "They were both extremely sweet and affectionate, not only when we got them, but throughout their stray," Newborn Kitten Rescue shared with Love Meow.Baymax needed a complete dental extraction and a lot of TLC. Despite what she had to endure, she was a doting mother, keeping her kitten well-fed and his coat immaculately clean. Newborn Kitten RescueWith a cozy room and an abundance of food, Baymax could finally relax and focus on raising her little mini-me. She watched as Hairy crossed one milestone after another, took his first steps outside the nest, and later attempted to reach the summit of the big cat tree.Once the kitten was fully weaned, Baymax began spending more time with her people, finally becoming the center of attention she had always desired. Newborn Kitten RescueAround that time, they discovered that Baymax was completely deaf, which explained her piercing meows that shook the house whenever she demanded attention or announced her presence.Baymax also has different-colored eyes: one yellow and the other blue. Baymax has different-colored eyes and is completely deafNewborn Kitten RescueWhen Hairy was ready to socialize and hone his feline skills with a friend, he met a blind kitten named Polka Dot.Polka Dot came to the rescue with severely infected eyes. They couldn't save her eyesight, but they were able to spare her life. She was always in good spirits from the beginning, purring through every trial and obstacle. Polka DotNewborn Kitten RescueShe quickly won over the hearts of every volunteer and now, Hairy. The two feline friends romped around the house, playfully chasing each other until they wore themselves out.They followed each other everywhere like they were kindred spirits. Polka Dot was adept at finding Hairy when he tried to hide and sneak up behind her. She seemed to have the ability to sniff him out. Newborn Kitten Rescue"Hairy can barely keep up with her. Being blind has nothing on her. This girl is feisty. She's always giving Hairy a run for his money, but we know he loves it. He's equally as playful and fun-loving."While the kittens' bond flourished, Baymax continued to bask in her people's love, enchanting them with her gentle purrs. Newborn Kitten RescueBaymax has happily retired from motherhood and now gracefully shadows her humans around the house.She enjoys lounging on the couch and rolling on the floor with her belly on display. Though toothless, she's overjoyed to be able to eat without pain. Newborn Kitten RescueWhen Hairy and Polka Dot were ready for their next chapter in life, they were quickly adopted together.Hairy is full of unbridled energy and mischief, and Polka Dot, his partner in crime, trails behind him on all their adventures together. They cherish their new home, but more than anything, they are thrilled to have each other for life. Newborn Kitten RescueBaymax has found her dream home with a family that adores her dearly. "Her new name is Opal. She enjoys living as an only cat and having her family's full attention." Newborn Kitten RescueShare this story with your friends. More on Newborn Kitten Rescue on Instagram and Facebook.Related story: Stray Cat Steps into a Home for the First Time After Being Outside for Years, His World Completely Changes

Kristof: Is Europe a Success or a Failure?

Wednesday's Final Word

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a statement Monday acknowledging that Facebook actively censored information on COVID-19 and the Hunter Buden corruption scandal due to direct pressure from the federal government. Facts revealed by Elon Musk through the Twitter Files had already made it clear that government agencies like the FBI, CIA, and NSA were regularly demanding the censorship of American citizens by social media companies, but the letter that Zuckerberg sent to the House Judiciary Committee serves as the smoking gun. The official Republican House Judiciary account on Twitter celebrated this admission as a victory for free speech, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Despite the admission that government actors used censorship to interfere in the 2020 election and silence dissent during the pandemic, no one faces criminal prosecution, and no one is getting fired. The only lesson the Democratic Party and deep state have learned is that censorship works. The GOP is a fake opposition, powerless to prevent abusive manipulation by a modern Praetorian Guard. Once the secret police start rigging elections, you must take swift action or things get bad fast. That is exactly what has happened in the United States, and no one in the GOP seems very interested in holding the FBI accountable. Zuckerberg’s letter revealed that, leading up to the 2020 election, the FBI lied to Facebook executives by claiming that any story about the Biden family’s connection to the Ukrainian energy conglomerate Burisma was Russian disinformation. Facebook took the warning seriously and suppressed the story on its platform, denying millions of voters the information they needed to make an informed choice during the election. Other social media companies took similar actions. Twitter went so far as locking the account of the New York Post for its story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. We now know the story was true, and the FBI knew it was true as well. However, the FBI wanted to rig the election in favor of Joe Biden, so agency officials used their position of power to lie to corporations that control the flow of information in the United States to influence the presidential contest. Zuckerberg's apparent change of heart is, at least theoretically, great news. The billionaire wields enormous influence over how Americans interact with information. He also spent hundreds of millions of dollars in 2020 to reshape local election structures to favor the Democratic Party's machine politics, as Mollie Hemingway outlined in her book “Rigged.” If Zuckerberg now feels compelled to admit his previous bias and commit to neutrality in the upcoming election, it could shift the results of a close contest by itself. Of course, it is entirely possible that Zuckerberg is lying and still sympathizes with the Democrats. However, if he feels pressured to play things closer to the middle, that is significant. None of this should be seen as a win for the GOP and its representatives in Congress. Both FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Director Paul Abbate appeared to perjure themselves on live television during their testimony about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. We now know the FBI acted to influence the election by spreading lies to social media companies, which then censored critical information leading up to the 2020 election. Democrats do not hesitate to bring charges against their political enemies, as shown by their efforts to imprison Donald Trump for the rest of his life on absurdly manufactured charges. Yet even when Republicans have direct evidence of wrongdoing by the FBI, the most their supporters can hope for is a social media post declaring a false victory. This feels like an embarrassing echo of George W. Bush’s “mission accomplished” speech during the War on Terror — though at least in that case, some jihadis were actually killed. Some conservatives may not even know what constitutes a victory at this point, so let's make it clear: A victory occurs when those who violated the law and corrupted institutions critical to the rule of law are fired, impeached, or jailed. Simply revealing that the FBI lied to social media companies to manipulate the election and successfully install the preferred candidate, without any repercussions, is not a victory. This admission shows that the GOP is a fake opposition, powerless to prevent abusive manipulation by a modern Praetorian Guard. Only life-altering consequences will stop the abusive actions of an elite class that feels entitled to shape the nation as its members see fit. To call the FBI a rogue organization would be a misnomer. A rogue actor is one that is no longer operating in accordance with the will of the government. The FBI is not working against the wishes of the American government; it is instead shaping that very government from the top down. The FBI can lie about the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, lie to media organizations and censor critical information to alter the outcomes of elections, and intimidate and incarcerate the political opposition. This is rule by a police force, a reign defined by the ability to lie to and terrorize the American public. By every available definition, this is tyranny. Republicans are clearly afraid to challenge the FBI in any meaningful way. Donald Trump has not helped much either, as he seems more interested in building a shiny new headquarters for the federal police agency than in holding it accountable. Someone in the GOP needs to take this issue seriously, right now. The FBI must be dismantled from top to bottom, and those responsible must go to jail. Without serious action, law and order in the United States will continue to degrade, and civil strife will increase. The right needs real political opposition, not the complicit clown show the Republicans have been running.

To most people following the story, UBI means universal basic income. The proposal, which has floated around under different names since antiquity, took shape in its modern incarnation as a project mainly pushed by British intellectuals favoring (at a minimum) some kind of collectivist floor to capitalist society. Today, this sort of welfare arrangement is more closely associated with tech and tech-adjacent people who see progress in automation as inevitable and/or highly desirable. However, it is also costly because it adversely impacts the relevance or use of most human beings. A lot of people laugh at satanism and even the idea of Satan, but there’s a reason the devil has stuck around in our consciousness to this very day. It is no surprise that the arc of utopian Anglo thinking would end up here. Communism, as formulated by the functionally Anglo Marx and Engels, looked forward to a time when all people became industrially free to toggle among whatever pursuits they preferred whenever they cared to do so. It is but a small leap to posit that the only real path to realizing this utopian collective is for a special class of super-capitalists to build the only kind of industry that could theoretically liberate everyone from the need for work or, indeed, any economic valuation. That agenda (and the worldview behind it) seems very difficult to reconcile or harmonize with Christianity — for many reasons, but perhaps above all because it dramatically encourages looking to the machinery of utopian collectivism (and the people behind it) as the source of all goodness, salvation, and creative power rather than to the Lord of all creation, the triune God. All too predictably, it’s now increasingly fashionable and high-status for AI researchers and technicians to baldly proclaim that they’re building a god to be worshiped as the one true transformer of all people out of their given human form. This is a god that destroys the Christian God by destroying the crown jewel of His creation, the human being. Of course, we’re told, this is a good thing, actually, because what comes next for us is beyond our wildest dreams — in other words, we’re about to become gods, too, and it will be like nothing anyone has imagined. This promise will carry the sting of especially diabolical heresy to those familiar with the millennia-old sacred Christian tradition of theosis, the concept and (highly laborious) practice of working to achieve union with God eventually. That tradition, taught carefully by the Church, has emphasized that the greatest of spiritual risks and harms come from trying to shortcut or speed-run theosis, properly understood as the reunion desired for us all by the immeasurably loving God who created us. The path toward theosis is marked and defined by the utmost patience, humility, discipline, and self-denial — not by (for example) maximizing “mind-blowing” inventions that make it ever easier for people to experience ecstasies and produce fantasies. In sum, the best and oldest Christian teachings have warned the most against what is being pitched to us most aggressively as humanity's ultimate universal achievement. Notably, this warning has great power because it doesn’t order us to stop making advanced tools or using them simply. Its counsel is more difficult and more spiritually purifying. It’s to recognize that the temptation to usurp and replace God is so difficult to resist that our best efforts are doomed to failure without an utterly humble and absolute reliance on God and trust in Him — a round-the-clock watchfulness wherein we focus on stopping temptations at the spiritual door to our hearts before they can get in, take hold, and grow. All this deep and needful wisdom seems to be entirely lost on the loudest and most prominent advocates of universal basic income today, who are really advocating it because it helps accelerate us toward universal bot idolatry.Beneath the hype, advocates struggle to ignore the fact that even the most extraordinary machines are only means to ends outside and beyond them. All machines, all tools, are for something, and the existence and development of these useful devices always ultimately depend on a creator exercising some kind of discernment, judgment, and, it must be concluded, worship. As bleeding-edge technologists increasingly recognize that theology and worship are inescapable no matter how radically machine-making evolves, they must inevitably come to realize that one’s own tool — one’s own creation — can never be one’s god. If you think you’re worshiping tech for tech’s sake, you are deluded; you’re actually serving some other idol, some other facet of God broken off and falsely elevated to spiritually sovereign status. A lot of people laugh at satanism and even the idea of Satan, but there’s a reason the devil has stuck around in our consciousness to this very day. And a lot of people are about to relearn why.

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