"It's All So Tiresome": UK's Social Media Ban Trudges Ever Onward

"It's All So Tiresome": UK's Social Media Ban Trudges Ever Onward

Kit Knightly

The UK government’s “consultation” on social media harm is over, and – brace yourselves – it turns out they’re going to have to do something about it.

I know, I was shocked too.

The main talking point is that “social media is like cigarettes”. Everyone is saying that, it’s the meme of the day.

It’s a sentiment originally taken from a new report submitted to the consultation by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

Titled “Growing up in an online world”, it contains this hilarious line in the foreword:

…there is, I think, an overwhelming consensus that excessive screen time can harm children and young people and we need to call this out unflinchingly rather than passively wait for someone else to prove causation”.

Which is a pretty neat summary of how our political system works in general, and certainly in this case: We don’t know if there’s even a problem yet, but by God we’re gonna do something about it.

That the something they end up doing makes them rich and powerful is just one of the curious coincidences tyrants can always rely on.

{Sidenote: This morning the BBC had “Overwhelimg consensus” in their headline on this story, but at some point the absurdity of that quote was realised, and the headline changed. Now there’s this disclaimer near the end: “There is no consensus among the wider scientific community that screen time overall is harmful to children.” Funny stuff.}

Elsewhere, the report wails about “a wave of radicalized children” who pose “a real risk to society”, and calls social media “an incredibly powerful and uncontrolled commercial detriment to health”.

In a similar vein, The Guardian is warning of a “tsunami of harm”, and has assembled an all-star cast of interested parties to talk up the scariness of social media meanness.

After meeting with “bereaved parents” earlier today, Keir Starmer has “vowed to take action”.

His potential rival for the leadership has been even more vocal. Political eunuch and leadership hopeful Wes Streeting is all over this, campaigning hard to be the next disposable suit full of bugger all to “lead the country”:

He thinks a ban should be “just the start”:

Social media should be treated like tobacco – it’s extremely addictive, bad for our health, and big tech is borrowing the big tobacco playbook to avoid regulation. We’ve got to give our children their childhood back […] A ban for under-16s must be the start, not the end […]We have given the pen to tech moguls to write our future for us. It’s time to take the pen back.”

Streeting is an idiot whose ambition outweighs his intellect by a factor of ten, and who clearly doesn’t understand the rules of the game he’s playing.

Some political handler behind the scenes probably told him to go hard on this issue because it will make him look tough and assertive, but the likely truth is he’s being wheeled out as the extreme option so a “sensible middle ground” option – probably Andy Burnham – can enforce “common sense policies”.

What will those policies be? It doesn’t really matter, but we’ll get to that.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, notable only for garnering less than 5% of the vote in the 2015 leadership election, is out there promising “action”:

'The question isn't whether we are going to act, we will' As a consultation on social media use for under-16s comes to an end Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told #BBCBreakfast the Government plans to take action https://bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y7r9gqp6jo

The Guardian has a handy list to choose from, including but not limited to:

– social media bans
– “digital curfews”
– “function limitations”
– age gating “addictive features”
– protecting children from personalised algorithms
– enforcing screen time limits.

Which one will it be?

Well let me answer that question with another question – Who cares?

The powers that be certainly don’t.

This is very much an “any colour you want so long as it’s black” situation.

Choose an outright ban – “Great, please submit your ID to prove you’re over 16 and exempt from the social media ban.”

Choose screen time limits – “Great, please submit your ID to prove you’re over 16 and exempt from screen time limitations.”

Choose digital curfews – “Great, please submit your ID to prove you’re over 16 and exempt from the digital curfew.”

Since all the proposed measures rely on age verification for enforcement, they all achieve the end goal: No more online anonymity, for kids or adults alike.

Debating the list is pointless, and making a choice counterproductive. It’s like choosing the colour of your electric chair: It makes no difference to the end result, but your entirely cosmetic choice lends tacit approval of the whole process.

We all know where this is going: Age gating everything, everywhere and then – eventually – digital ID.

It’s just…

What is the point of this worn-out, unenthusiastic propaganda?

We know what they’re going to do, they have said they’re going to do it, and still they feel the need to play out this performative umming and erring.

Just get on with it.

All the people who don’t believe them will NEVER believe them, and all the poor fools who do believe them will always believe them.

So why carry on this absurd pretense?

It’s like when you’re watching a really dull movie – one that has telegraphed its “clever twist” in the first ten minutes – but is still insisting on dragging out the run time for two more hours of what the writers evidently consider skillful foreshadowing.

Or when you get a call from an unknown number, and some eager breathless voice announces “this is not a sales call”, before launching into a fifteen minute speech about double glazing or solar panels, and you’re just waiting for a pause long enough to say “no thanks”, and hang up.

It is a sales call, and you’ve known that from the beginning, and they know you know, but they can’t stop talking because then you’ll leave. They have to keep talking because they know you’re not listening.

So maybe that’s the answer. Maybe they can’t take a breath because people will hang up.

‘We’ve returned stronger than ever’: Netanyahu hails capture of Beaufort Castle in Lebanon, vows ‘dramatic shift’ in policy on Hezbollah

‘We’ve returned stronger than ever’: Netanyahu hails capture of Beaufort Castle in Lebanon, vows ‘dramatic shift’ in policy on Hezbollah

Nava Freiberg

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrates the IDF’s recent capture of Lebanon’s historic Beaufort Castle and the surrounding strategic ridge, calling it “a dramatic shift” in Israeli policy as forces push deeper into southern Lebanon amid an expanding ground offensive against Hezbollah.

“The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policy we are leading,” Netanyahu says in a video message released by his office, adding, “Now my directive is to deepen and expand our hold on areas that had been under Hezbollah’s control.”

The prime minister releases the statement as Hezbollah pounds northern Israel with relentless rocket and drone fire from Lebanon.

Netanyahu recalls that the landmark site “became a symbol of deep division within our society” after Israeli troops captured the castle in one of the first battles of the First Lebanon War in 1982. Israel held the position throughout its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, withdrawing in 2000 after years of grinding conflict that cost hundreds of Israeli lives.

“Today, we have returned to Beaufort differently. We have returned united, determined, and stronger than ever,” Netanyahu says. “We have broken through the barrier of fear. We are taking the initiative. We are operating on all fronts — in Syria, Gaza, and Lebanon. We have established security zones beyond our borders in order to protect our communities.”

Netanyahu adds that Israel has eliminated 8,000 Hezbollah terrorists since the Iran-backed group began attacking Israel following the Hamas-led invasion and massacre in October 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza. Three thousand of those operatives were killed since the start of Israel’s war against Iran last June, and seven hundred were killed since last month, Netanyahu says.

“It will take time, but we will complete the mission,” he says.

Thirteen Israelis have been killed since a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced in mid-April, with the most recent fatality a soldier killed by a Hezbollah drone last night.

France requests UN Security Council emergency meeting on Lebanon after IDF captures Beaufort Castle

France has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council after Israeli forces seized the medieval Beaufort castle in Lebanon, the French foreign minister says.

“I have requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council because, while we recognize Israel’s right, like that of all countries, to self-defense… nothing can justify the continuation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its ever-deeper occupation of Lebanese territory,” Jean-Noel Barrot says on the BFMTV channel.

Inside the Ebola Epicenter:

Inside the Ebola Epicenter, the Virus Rages With Little to Stop It

Declan Walsh

In the cramped, dilapidated Ebola ward, a 5-year-old boy languished on a bare mattress, a tissue stuffed into his nose to stanch the incessant bleeding. His father stood over him, eyes clouded with worry.

A few beds away lay the body of Christiane Bahati, 21, who had died seven hours earlier but had not yet been taken away. Her shoes were still tucked under the bed, her wailing relatives gathered outside the ward doors.

The body, covered by a thin sheet, was highly contagious. Yet hardly anyone in the ward was protected. Relatives came and went, carrying food and water to ailing patients because the hospital had none to give them. A few wore rubber gloves or pulled a scarf across their mouths. Most had nothing at all.

In the next ward lay the hospital’s laboratory technician, also sick. Seven other hospital workers had already died from suspected Ebola. Few of the staff members had ever been trained to fight the disease, and the most rudimentary equipment was in dangerously short supply: tests, protective suits, goggles, masks, even drinking water.

Outside, the sound of hammering broke the hushed silence. Aid workers from Doctors Without Borders were racing to erect isolation tents and disinfection stations.

Dr. Alex Bogole, a Congolese doctor in the hospital’s intensive care ward, was furious.

The virus had been spreading for months, virtually unimpeded, “and this is the best we can do?” he said, the frustration pouring through his protective gear.

This is the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the front line is completely overwhelmed.

The Congolese Health Ministry declared the outbreak on May 15, and it has already ballooned into the third largest on record. Two weeks later, the international response is being outpaced by the virus, and there is almost nothing to slow it down. Aid groups warnthat without urgent intervention, this could be the world’s deadliest Ebola outbreak ever.

Dr. Bogole was never trained for this and was angry at everyone — at the Congolese government for failing to detect the outbreak until perhaps six weeks after it began, and at the world, which has barely mobilized help here in Mongbwalu, a remote gold mining town of about 150,000 where the outbreak is believed to have started.

“They hold meetings and meetings,” he said, struggling to contain his disdain. “What is the purpose of these meetings? People are dying, people are getting infected, people are in danger. It’s very slow.”

I arrived here with Arlette Bashizi, a photographer for The New York Times, after taking a bumpy, three-hour journey from the regional capital, Bunia, on what has become the Ebola highway, a rutted dirt road that began spreading the disease long before anyone detected it.

Giant trucks, curling through lush hills, leave blinding clouds of dust. Edgy-looking Congolese soldiers guard checkpoints that are often little more than string. Gold miners and people fleeing rebel conflict stream in and out of Mongbwalu, providing an excellent vector for the spread of the virus.

Through April and into early May, doctors in Mongbwalu found themselves fighting a mysterious disease that was taking dozens of lives in the town. It turned out to be Bundibugyo, a virus that causes Ebola. There is no approved vaccine or treatment.

As of Thursday, at least 1,077 suspected cases and 246 suspected deaths had been recorded in this outbreak, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 400 of those cases are in Mongbwalu, a town in the heart of gold country and surrounded by rebel-held territory here in Ituri Province, in northeastern Congo.

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Are “Energy Lockdowns” Coming?

Are “Energy Lockdowns” Coming to America?

Matt Morgan

When I first heard the term “energy lockdown” I was surprised and uneasy. I wasn’t quite sure what such a thing would entail but I didn’t have to go very far back into my memory banks to remember another “lockdown” for our own good.

I won’t continuously cover this topic, but it’s important enough for me to step outside my no-more-news bubble to warn you of what may be coming.

The war in the Middle East, particularly the impassable Strait of Hormuz, is threatening global fuel shortages, as tankers are unable to safely transit with their cargo.  To make matters worse, yesterday, Valero’s Port Arthur refinery blew up, sending dark smoke toward the sky and causing the surrounding area to be under a shelter-in-place order.

Here’s what we should know about this refinery.

The Port Arthur Platform was built in 1936 and acquired in 1973. In the heart of the major industrial zone of Port Arthur, Texas, the refinery employs more than 600 people. As one of TotalEnergies’ six refining and petrochemicals platforms worldwide, the Port Arthur Refinery has a daily processing capacity of 238,000 barrels per day and is our largest facility in the United States. The refinery can process heavy crude oil as well as lighter domestic crudes. It also has a dedicated unit to produce low-sulfur fuels, which reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (source)

According to the media and statements from the plant, this was an unfortunate accident that occurred when “an “unforeseeable release of process fluid in Complex 2” led to an ignition event and multiple process unit upsets.”

So, clearly, that event had absolutely nothing to do with the oil crisis and was just a terrible coincidence. It was certainly not the result of a terror attack on that extremely vital plant.

First things first, you may be wondering what the heck an energy lockdown is? Well, lucky for you, we already have some examples which we will get to in a moment.

Whenever I think about the government mandating something, I get flashbacks to the last time that happened. It sparked extreme vitriol and crushed our economy in a way we still haven’t bounced back from. Later, at a Congressional hearing, we would learn from Anthony Fauci, the mastermind behind it all, that they were just making stuff up, and that mandates like “six feet apart” and “masking materials” had no basis in science.

Again, the lockdowns could start in Asia.

While nobody has imposed full work-from-home mandates, such measures are actively being considered.

Pakistan has closed schools for two weeks (we’ve heard ‘two weeks’ before) and is allowing office workers to work from home. Sri Lanka declared Wednesdays to be a public holiday to help make its fuel supplies go further.

Here are some of the draconian measures being considered in Pakistan, where Sindh Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah is leading the charge.

• Smart lockdowns, first introduced in Pakistan during the CV pandemic, are targeted restrictions aimed at controlling movement and limiting gatherings in specific areas.
• Under this system, authorities can impose restrictions on individual neighbourhoods, streets, or communities, rather than enforcing a city-wide shutdown.
• In areas under a smart lockdown, no more than four people are allowed to gather at a time, and only one person per household may leave their home after explaining their reason to law enforcement.
• Public events, social gatherings, and celebrations are prohibited, while neighbourhoods, and targeted zones may be sealed.

Rationing and restrictions are already being enforced in many countries.

• Europe’s 50-liter limit: Countries like Slovenia have imposed a strict 50-liter daily cap on fuel for private citizens. Long queues at petrol stations have become the new checkpoints, with police monitoring purchases to prevent hoarding.
• The four-day mandate: The Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan have introduced a mandatory four-day workweek for public sector employees. Designed to reduce commuting, the measure ensures fuel is reserved for emergency services.
• National fuel rationing has been implemented in countries such as Slovenia, Hungary, Sri Lanka, and India, with private citizens limited to between 15 and 50 liters per day.
• The aviation sector is experiencing massive disruptions, with airlines like United, Air New Zealand, and Lufthansa canceling or rerouting over 40,000 flights this month.
• In parts of Asia, including the Philippines, Thailand, and Pakistan, governments have mandated work-from-home policies and limited public sector operations to reduce commuting and conserve energy.
• Meanwhile, countries such as South Korea, Egypt, and Nigeria have imposed government-enforced price ceilings to prevent hyperinflation and keep essential fuel accessible.

It’s also being suggested that Australians work from home and drive more slowly.  The UK is considering lowering speed limits.

Just because this isn’t being publicly discussed in the US doesn’t mean that these things aren’t a possibility as the war that (almost) nobody wanted drags on.

China Could Wipe Out Every U.S. Base In Asia In The Opening Hours Of A War

China Could Wipe Out Every U.S. Base In Asia In The Opening Hours Of A War

Brandon Weichert

Summary and Key Points: America’s network of major bases across Asia — its biggest bet for deterring China — now sits within range of Beijing’s vast missile, drone, and hypersonic arsenal, which dwarfs anything Iran fielded in the recent war.

-Key sites like Guam remain lightly hardened, and analysts, including Hudson’s “Concrete Sky” report, warn that shelters are too few.

-With a massive defense budget request on the table, the urgent question is whether Washington can harden its Pacific bases before China is ready to act.

One of America’s biggest defense investments, and one of the capabilities that the Pentagon believes is its greatest asset in any way with China, might actually be the US military’s greatest vulnerability. That’s a reference to the 30- 40 major named US military bases across Asia. Numerous smaller sites, logistics hubs, and shared facilities support these larger facilities. What’s more, these bases and support facilities house tens of thousands of active-duty military and War Department civilian personnel.

America has spent decades since the end of the Second World War building these key bases throughout the Indo-Pacific. Now, every one of them has gone from being force multipliers for the US military to major strategic liabilities.

That’s entirely because of China’s commitment to its anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategy. This strategy insists upon denying the US military forward bases from where the Americans can launch attacks against Chinese forces that could either be attacking Taiwan or another US ally, like Japan or the Philippines.

Washington got a taste of how easily US military bases in a contested region can go from strategic assets to vulnerabilities in the recent Iran War. The US had established more than a dozen key US military facilities around the Islamic Republic of Iran. The moment hostilities started, though, the Iranians used their potent ballistic missile and drone capabilities to flatten those facilities.

Now, there is real concern in Washington that they will not be allowed to reconstitute the bases in any meaningful way. Due to political issues arising over the Iran War, there is even more worry about the local governments not welcoming the Americans back to their countries.

After all, the US bases in the Arab states made those Arab nations target priorities for Iranian missiles and drones.

Those attacks caused massive damage to the region’s economies.

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