What’s your money worth? A series from the front line of the cost of living crisis, where people who have been hit hard share their monthly expenses.
Name: Dipanwita Ridi
Age: 37
Occupation: Founder and chairperson of Animal Lovers of Bangladesh (ALB) animal shelter, the country’s first animal adoption shelter for strays; freelance content writer and translator.
Lives with: Two rescue cats – a 13-year-old female called Pitu and a six-month-old male named Pouch. Various stray cats – a female and five males – come and go as they please.
Lives in: A one-bedroom apartment in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
Monthly household income: In August, Dipanwita earned 43,591 Bangladeshi taka ($390) from her freelance work.
The average monthly income is 7,614 taka ($68) nationwide and 10,951 taka ($98) in urban areas, according to the 2022 Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Household Income and Expenditure Survey.
Total expenses for the month: 30,000 taka ($269) spent on rent, utilities, food and transport to attend a birthday and a wedding.
For years, there’s been a misconception about filmmaker Anurag Kashyap allegedly partaking in the consumption of substances. However, he recently clarified that he is allergic to them. Kashyap recalled he had to take emergency medicine when a fan had gifted him a box of joints at a film festival.
Anurag Kashyap can’t shake off ‘ganjedi’ tag; recalls fan gifting him marijuana and facing medical emergency: “I had to take an antihistamine immediately”
During a conversation on a podcast Flip the Script with Shubra, Anurag said, “Because I’ve made Gangs of Wasseypur and Raman Raghav, people think I’m a psychopath. People are initially very scared of meeting me. And when they meet me, they get totally overwhelmed because I’m completely opposite of their perception. I can’t change that. A lot of people think that I smoke up. Often, when I get trolled, people call me ‘ganjedi’ and ‘nashedi’. But I just roll my cigarettes; they don’t even know I’m allergic to it. I get serious asthma attacks even if I smell somebody smoking pot around me.”
Recalling a fan story from the Toronto International Film Festival, the director said, “I was in Toronto for the festival, and somebody came and said, ‘I’ve got a nice gift for you’. He had a wrapped bag, with flowers on it. And because I’m allergic to it, I can smell it from a distance. I said, ‘What’s in that bag’. He said, ‘Something you’d love’. I opened the bag, and he had rolled…
In the small village of Sesklo in central Greece, 46-year-old Vasilis Tsiamitas has felt the extremes of both freak weather phenomena this summer, as Greece has become a climate change hotspot.
Storm Elias flooded his house, damaged his beach bar and swept away his car in September. That finished off what was left weeks earlier by Storm Daniel, Greece’s most intense on record, and a July wildfire that scorched his family’s almond grove.
“God only knows how I will get past this,” said Tsiamitas, standing outside his two-storey family house. The front door is off its hinges, propped up against a wall next to wooden boards soaked by floodwater.
“What else could hit me? It can’t get any worse,” he said.
Fierce storms and floods have become more frequent in recent years, while rising temperatures make summers hotter and drier, creating tinder-box conditions for wildfires.
Muddy roads and household furniture, stacked up outside to dry, in villages across the central mainland region of Thessaly are a constant reminder of the steps Greece needs to take as it adapts to climate change and seeks to mitigate the effects of such freak weather events.
Sesklo, a village of about 800 residents near the port city of Volos, and home to one of Europe’s oldest prehistoric settlements, has survived natural disasters through the centuries.
But its oldest residents, Tsiamitas says, have never experienced anything like this year’s devastation.
“It’s the first time that our village is tested so much,” said Tsiamitas, who is also the local community leader. “We have elderly people sitting at the village square who are 95 years old. They have never experienced such a thing before.”
The wildfire that broke out in July was burning uncontrolled for at least two days.
Sesklo residents were evacuated in time but the flames, fanned by strong winds, burned through farmland and groves, destroying approximately 70 percent of the village’s almond and olive oil production, said Tsiamitas.
“The weather conditions were so bad, the wind, there was no humidity that day, the fire was moving fast. There was not enough time to do anything,” he said.
In early September, Storm Daniel hit Thessaly after Greece’s longest heatwave in more than 30 years. It killed 16 people and turned the area into an inland sea, destroying homes, farms and wiping out swaths of crops.
Tsiamitas, whose beach bar flooded, said most Sesklo residents were not as badly affected as others in the wider region. But their feeling of relief was short-lived.
Weeks later, Elias, a less intense but unexpected storm, was the final straw.
Tsiamitas recounts that he had his youngest son in his arms when a raging torrent flung his front door open, forcing him to race upstairs where his in-laws live.
Since then, the water has subsided, revealing the devastation that villages like Sesklo suffered.
“We should learn our lesson,” Tsiamitas said, looking at stumps of burned almond trees. “We need to uproot them … we need to plant them again. Again and again, we need to start everything from scratch.”
Although Eren Yeager and Light Yagami are from two separate worlds, the pair share a common goal of wanting to balance the books of an unjust system. More often than not, this often leads to death; hence, the titling of the Death Note series — and Attack on Titan is, of course, no stranger to that concept as well.
But now the question remains: Who is the true evil protagonist between the two legendary anime? Could it be the infamous Kira, or will the new Founding Titan wielder be the one who reigns supreme? The only way to determine the winner of this battle is by looking at their arc as a whole and the reasoning behind their sinister acts.
Let’s start with their origins and how the characters were inspired to cause the downfall of their respective worlds. In our introduction to Light, we see a brilliant teenager who is incredibly bored with his life, almost making it too easy for Ryuk to tempt him with the Death Note. His first instinct is to exterminate all the filthy criminals of the world, which could be seen as a heroic act.
However, you could say the same for Showtime’s TV series main protagonist, Dexter, who has the same ideology as Light. Given that Yagami already has tendencies of a blatant serial killer, things don’t look too good for our genius boy wonder. His expressions also don’t do him justice because, well, he just looks evil (at least, that’s what I’m seeing.)
Image Source: Madhouse
When it comes to Eren’s reasoning, he didn’t outright start with the need to kill, as opposed to Light. Yes, he wanted to eradicate the Titans due to the death of his mother and the rest of the Shiganshina residents, but it wasn’t something he initially began with. It was a belief that was developed throughout the years until it eventually came into full fruition the moment he saw the dystopian future from Historia’s hand.
So, we have Light, who immediately gives in to dark urges right from the start, while Eren is more of a slow burn. Nevertheless, you can still consider the fact that Yeager’s evilness was with him all along, but honestly, I don’t think this darkness was there until the end of AoT Season 3 and the rest of Season 4.
Viewers can also acknowledge the fact that Eren knows that he cannot change the future, as he’s tried this before, and he doesn’t necessarily have a choice in his decisions. It’s still morally wrong to do, yet it’s challenging to grasp if you were in his shoes.
Beyond the reasoning, we need to examine the two characters’ guilt, given that most true villains don’t experience this emotion. Light initially feels this after he commits “murder” with the Death Note, but then he ultimately disregards it as something that is right and can only be done by him, the great ruler of the world.
While Eren may seem like he’s the same way, with his multiple instances of heartless emotions, he’s shown his guilt a few times in Attack on Titan’s final season. You can see a perfect example of this when he apologizes to the young Ramzi, knowing he would be the one responsible for his death. It doesn’t exempt him from his actions, but it does show his compunction for it.
Image Source: MAPPA
The only time I’ve really seen Yagami display some form of sadness was during his dad’s death. Even then, I’m not entirely sure if the tears were real since he did say he was using it as a tactic to get his father to write in the Death Note.
Now that we’ve reviewed their reasoning and guilt, let’s talk about the horrible things they’ve actually done. In hindsight, we can see that Eren is the winner here for the most atrocious acts since he, you know… wiped out 80 percent of the world through the Rumbling. Based on this alone, I would say Yeager would be considered anime’s most evil main protagonist.
On the other hand, we can’t solely depend on this reasoning, as plenty of other factors can still come into play. Light isn’t even scott-free either due to his linkage to an enormous amount of deaths. According to the fans, Yagami has roughly killed more than 200,000 people with the Death Note. Of course, that’s nothing compared to Eren’s terrible feats, but we should still keep it in mind.
When it all comes down to it, Eren and Light’s final moments can help us determine the outcome for the real evil main protagonist by looking into their impact on other characters. True villains, both fictional and non-fiction, tend not to have anyone grieve for them unless a group or an individual believes in their corrupt ideology.
Once Light reaches the end of the road, the remaining members of the Task Force feel betrayed and turn against him, similar to what happens to Eren. However, the two characters’ deaths are significantly different despite their shared occurrences. While Yagami dies alone, Yeager continues to be surrounded by those he loves despite what he’s done. His friends also don’t outrightly take his side after his death, and more so come to terms with understanding why he did what he did.
Image Source: Madhouse & MAPPA
We can see that during the Attack on Titan epilogue scenes, all his friends visit him frequently. For me, someone truly evil wouldn’t have people still caring for him, like Eren has, which is the polar opposite of Light’s journey. No one really mourns him, with the exception of Misa Amane, and that proves to me that Yagami is the clear winner as the evilest main protagonist.
Everything about Light has always been linked to morally wrong acts, starting from the show’s beginning and right until the end. He’s shown no guilt throughout the series and never cares about his actions or how they affect everyone around him. That doesn’t mean he’s a poorly written character; it just proves he is the real evil one here.
At the end of the day, you can form your own opinions on this matter since Eren could undoubtedly hold the villainous mantle from specific perspectives, primarily due to his part in his mother’s death. Nevertheless, it’s not like Light was that innocent in his own father’s demise, so that’s not a huge leap either.
We could probably go back and forth for an eternity on who is the most evil anime main protagonist, but I believe what really matters is the impact these two series have made. I mean, just look at how Death Note is still talked about even today, regardless of its release all those years ago. The same could probably be said for Attack on Titan in the future through its dedicated fanbase.
There will likely be more evil protagonists to come, and it demonstrates the ongoing changes to the classic heroic main protagonist. It certainly keeps the thrill going and solidifies that storytelling in anime is genuinely remarkable, no matter how wicked it may be.
About the author
Kristina Ebanez
Kristina is a Staff Writer and has been with Twinfinite for more than a year. She typically covers Minecraft, The Sims 4, Disney Dreamlight Valley, anime, Call of Duty, and newly released games. She loves the Metal Gear Solid series (Snake Eater especially), Rockstar’s Bully, the Horizon franchise, What Remains of Edith Finch, and many more. Her dog is also an avid video game watcher, primarily when there’s a horse or a cat. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and grew up gaming on the islands.
Open banking regulation is in the works — finally. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced in October 2022 a plan to propose a rule in 2023 requiring financial institutions to share consumer data upon request by the consumer. One year later, on Oct. 19, 2023, the bureau unveiled its Personal Financial Data Rights proposal. […]
Penelope has been so much a part of royal life, household staff have nicknamed her And AlsoCredit: Alpha Press
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Penelope has been a trusted member of the Royal Family’s inner circle for years and bonded with Philip through their love of carriage-drivingCredit: PA
The Countess Mountbatten of Burma — 32 years younger than the late Duke of Edinburgh, who died in April 2021 aged 99 — has been a trusted member of the Royal Family’s inner circle for years and bonded with Philip through their love of carriage driving.
She was the only non-family member at Philip’s small, Covid-restricted funeral, except for his personal secretary.
Indeed, she has been so much a part of royal life, household staff nicknamed her “And Also”, because whenever Philip listed guests who were to be invited to a royal do, he would end with “and also Penny”.
When Philip was involved in a car accident near the Queen’s Norfolk retreat of Sandringham in January 2019, Her Majesty dispatched Penny to encourage the duke to surrender his driver’s licence.
Ingrid Seward, author of biography Prince Philip Revealed: A Man Of His Century, said: “The Queen had enlisted the help of the Countess Mountbatten of Burma, who visited Philip and helped convince him to give up driving.”
Three weeks after the accident, which Philip blamed on him being blinded by the low winter sun, it was announced he had stopped driving.
The Truman Show actress Natascha McElhone plays Penny in The Crown, with veteran actor Jonathan Pryce taking over from Tobias Menzies as Philip.
A TV insider said: “The highly personal relationship is unlikely to be welcomed as a storyline by the Queen or the rest of the Royal Family.”
Penny was introduced to Philip at age 20 while dating husband-to-be Norton Knatchbull, Philip’s godson and grandson of the duke’s uncle Lord Mountbatten.
Norton had been a year above the then-Prince Charles at Scottish boarding school Gordonstoun and the Queen and Philip never forgot his kindness in looking after their eldest child during his challenging time there.
Back then, Penny was simply Penelope Eastwood, daughter of Reg Eastwood, a wealthy butcher turned businessman who founded the Angus Steakhouse restaurants.
Tragedy befell the family in 1979 when Lord Mountbatten — affectionately known by the royals as Uncle Dickie — was assassinated by the IRA.
The bomb blast on board his fishing boat off County Sligo, Ireland, which featured in the last series of The Crown, also killed Norton’s 14-year-old brother Nicholas and his grandmother, Lady Brabourne.
Devastated by this horror, Penny and Norton decided to postpone their wedding for two months.
When they did tie the knot, with Charles as best man, they inherited Mountbatten’s 18th-century, 60-room Broadlands estate near Romsey, Hants, where Charles and Di would spend part of their honeymoon two years later.
‘Tremendous support’
With Philip and Penny, who was previously known as Lady Romsey then Lady Brabourne, it was a meeting of the minds.
Educated in Switzerland, and with a business degree from the London School of Economics, friends describe her as being “outgoing, engaged, clever and well-read”.
She and the duke also both shared a “boisterous sense of humour”, according to Ingrid. But it was after Penny’s five-year-old daughter Leonora died of kidney cancer in 1991 that Philip really began to take her under his wing.
One source said: “He was a tremendous support during a time of unimaginable grief.”
He encouraged Penny to take up his sport of carriage driving, to distract her, and got his head groom Micky Flynn to show her the ropes.
For Philip, it meant he gained an attractive companion to events such as the Royal Windsor Horse Show and at numerous social gatherings associated with the sport and beyond.
They were even spotted dancing together at the Royal Yacht Squadron Ball during one Cowes Week. Of course, incidents like this on the Isle of Wight only fuelled whispers that they may have been more than just good friends.
It was even rumoured Prince Charles had cut off his friendship with Penny after someone close to him shared their suspicion that his father was having an affair with her.
But author Ingrid said: “We’ll never know how the Queen felt about it all. Philip always was a flirt and the Queen used to joke about his lascivious nature. If she had been hurt by rumours of supposed dalliances, she would never let on.”
Philip himself would simply laugh off any suggestion of impropriety. He told journalist Jeremy Paxman: “Every time I talk to a woman they say I’ve been to bed with her. It’s absolutely cuckoo.”
‘Absolutely cuckoo’
Penny’s marriage broke down in 2010, after 31 years and three children. Her husband Norton, now the 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, fled to the Caribbean to be with fashion designer Eugenie Nuttall. Jeannie, as she is known, is the sister of former Bahamas Attorney General Sean McWeeney.
Penny, left to manage her and Norton’s 5,000-acre Hampshire estate alone, reportedly gathered together all the staff while her estranged husband was mid-flight and told them he had gone but everything else would stay the same.
One source said at the time: “Not for a moment would Penny allow her husband’s departure to interrupt the smooth running of the estate.”
There was never any question she would leave Broadlands, where every day she visits the tall stone monument, about 100 yards from the house, which stands above her daughter Leonora’s grave.
The Royal Family, in particular The Queen, were full of admiration for Penny’s stoicism. She did allow Norton back to Broadlands in 2014, not to the marital home, but to a converted barn there.
Her marriage troubles came on top of worry about their son, Nicholas, who was a year above Prince William at Eton, and had spent years hooked on crack cocaine and heroin. It was only when he feared he would be cut off from the family’s £100million fortune that he checked into rehab and kicked his habits.
In May 2021, tattooed Nicholas, 40, a music producer and gardener, married Ambre Pouzet, a French former fire-eating mermaid performer. The civil ceremony at Broadlands was a far cry from his sister Alexandra’s lavish 2016 wedding at Romsey Abbey, in which she was given away by the now-King Charles, as her father, The Queen and Philip watched.
A family friend said: “It’s very unusual to be given away by someone else at your wedding, even if it is by the Prince of Wales. Alexandra was at the time furious with her father for leaving her mother, but of course she still wanted him at the wedding.”
Alexandra, a financial analyst known as Knatch, chose to marry Thomas Hooper, an entrepreneur, on what would have been her sister Leonora’s 30th birthday. By coincidence, Leonora shared the same birthday as Uncle Dickie.
The day after Philip was laid to rest at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, Irish republican partySinn Fein — the political wing of the IRA — apologised for Mountbatten’s assassination. Penny continued to visit Philip until he died on April 9.
She was one of the only people apart from family members who he saw at Wood Farm, the five-bedroom home on the Sandringham estate where he spent most of his time after he retired from royal duties in 2017.
Ingrid says: “They were brought together by tragedy but were there for each other through thick and thin. He trusted her implicitly and she adored him. She never betrayed him. She was a keeper not only of his secrets but those of the family.”
Penny returned to the Royal Windsor Horse Show without her decades-long comp-anion for the first time. She was seen standing behind the Queen, broad grins on both their faces.
If Philip had been looking down on them, he surely would have been smiling too.
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Jonathan Pryce as Prince Phillip and Natascha McElhone as Penny Knatchbull in The CrownCredit: NETFLIX
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Penny was the only non-family at Philip’s small, Covid-restricted funeral, except for his personal secretaryCredit: Getty
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Penny and Prince Charles pictured in 1983Credit: Alpha Press
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The pair mount their motorbikes during the Royal Windsor Horse Show at Home Park, Windsor Castle on May 13, 2005Credit: Getty
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Philip and Penny at Royal Windsor Horse Show in 2009Credit: Getty
Idlib, Syria – In a small house in northwestern Syria, Muhammad Haninun is glued to his mobile phone, following the latest Israeli attacks taking place in Gaza.
For more than a month, he has watched videos of the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and the displacement of civilians trying to escape the bombing. All the while, the events bring back clear memories of what he endured 75 years ago.
The 80-year-old cannot help but think about the similarities between what he is seeing in Gaza and what he experienced when he and his family were displaced during the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, in 1948 when Israel was created and more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly uprooted from their land and thousands were killed.
“The Palestinian tragedy is happening again,” Haninun said. “The people in Gaza are facing war without receiving any help the same as we did before.”
Muhammad Haninun, 80, pictured with his six-year-old grandson Mahmoud, is determined to return to Palestine one day [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]
‘A cracked record’
Since October 7, when the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas, breached the separation wall that surrounds Gaza and attacked southern Israel, Western countries, led by the United States, hastened to condemn the movement that has been running the besieged Gaza Strip since 2006.
The condemnation was followed by Western financial and military support for Israel, which has been relentlessly bombing Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, for 35 days. Since October 7, at least 10,812 Palestinians, including 4,412 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel.
Similarly, during the first half of the 20th century, Britain provided military support in the form of protection and weapons to Zionists, encouraged Jewish immigration from Europe to Palestine and allowed them to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes as they built a new state for themselves.
In November 1948, Israelis used aircraft to bomb the northern village of Tarshiha in the countryside of Acre, destroying three houses – including Haninun’s family home – and killing seven of his relatives.
“Before that, we had evacuated our homes several times for two or three days and returned. We did not take anything,” he recalled. “We thought we would return, especially since we were not able to recover the dead from under the rubble.”
But they never could.
Haninun, then five years old, and four members of his family were forced to move between seven cities in Lebanon and Syria before they were allowed to stay in a refugee camp in Aleppo, a “tragic” setting with a small room for each family, no kitchen, bathroom or running water and shared toilets.
He remembers Arab radio stations and governments promising Palestinians a quick return – after seven days, then after seven weeks, then after seven months, until more than seven decades had passed.
“This cracked record has been playing since 1948, when people were fleeing from one village to another, only to face massacres afterwards, because the enemy viewed ‘others’ as animals, and killing them just like killing cattle – and this logic is still the same today.”
Haninun moved to the Syrian capital, Damascus, to study history. After this, he worked as a teacher in Aleppo, living in the camp there, until the Syrian war forced him to flee to Idlib in 2014. But what he still longs for is the chance, one day, to return to Palestine – and to his roots.
“There is still hope,” Haninun said. “If I die before I return to Palestine, I will tell my children and grandchildren that you have a right to that land and we are its true owners.”
Scouts gather in downtown Idlib to show support for Gaza [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]
Strengthening the Palestinian cause
On Thursday, the Ain Jalut Scouts and the Syrian Private Scouts marched through downtown Idlib, just one of the many activities held in the area over the past few weeks in support of Gaza.
Ayman Muhammad, 40, a displaced Palestinian residing in the northwestern Syrian city and the scout leader of the Ain Jalut group, told Al Jazeera that the injustice that Palestinians have endured for 75 years is the motivation for staging protests as well as fundraising and providing support via social media.
Israel’s war on Gaza has strengthened the Palestinian cause, Muhammad believes. “Today, the West and the East, from one end to the other, stand with the Palestinian people against the aggression.”
During October, major cities around the world witnessed demonstrations with hundreds of thousands of people participating to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and freedom for Palestine.
Palestinians in Idlib cannot stand by and watch, Muhammad said. Despite the difficult economic and security conditions in Idlib, he added, members of the Palestinian community and Syrian supporters here have managed to collect about $400,000 in donations for Gaza.
Syrian activists also participated in demonstrations in support of Palestine despite bombing by government forces and Russian warplanes targeting gatherings in the country’s last rebel stronghold.
For Palestinians in northern Syria who are living through Syria’s war, the Syrian revolution and the Palestinian cause are now inseparable, Muhammad believes. “Victory will come for both causes because the right will not be lost as long as we demand it,” he said.
THE daughter of a Nazi death camp survivor has told her father’s incredible story for the first time — after being shocked by anti-Jewish hate triggered by the Hamas attacks.
Mum-of-three Maja Klausner, 49, had kept silent on the heart-stopping story of her late father Wladyslaw Rath, an Auschwitz inmate who was on the real-life Schindler’s list.
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The international Jewish community has been shocked by anti-Jewish hate triggered by the Hamas attacksCredit: Alamy
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Mum-of-three Maja Klausner is the daughter of a Nazi death camp survivorCredit: Doug Seeburg
But she contacted The Sun after being moved by our front page showing the faces of 32 child hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
And yesterday she told how her peace campaigner dad would have been horrified by the rise of anti-Semitic hate set to be paraded again this Remembrance weekend.
Housewife Maja, 49, said: “My father could not bring himself to describe what happened to him in Auschwitz until two years before his death.
“It was too painful.
“But when the film Schindler’s List was released, he began telling us he had been a part of that story and was one of the lucky ones who lived.
“I had never intended to reveal what he told me but feel I have to say something as we remember the Second World War, because I fear the wheel of history has come full circle again.
“There is so much hate — on both sides — but I would appeal to everyone planning to protest, please remember the lessons of the past.”
Wladyslaw Rath was the 15-year-old son of a successful Jewish factory owner in Krakow, Poland, when the Nazi invasion decimated his well-to-do family’s life in 1939.
‘Huge, ferocious dogs’
The youngster, his older sister Dora, then 19, their father Max and mother Amalia lost everything and were marched from their townhouse to Krakow’s ghetto at gunpoint.
Amalia was gassed in a Nazi extermination camp and Max collapsed and died on a forced “death march” days before the end of the war.
But Wladyslaw and Dora survived the horrors of Plaszow, Buchenwald and Auschwitz concentration camps thanks to Holocaust hero Oskar Schindler.
The German industrialist saved 1,200 Jews by creating fake jobs for them in his Krakow armaments factory to keep them out of death camps.
Wladyslaw and Dora were numbers 231 and 200 respectively on the record of employees immortalised as Schindler’s List in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Oscar-winner.
Before his death aged 71 in 1996, Wladyslaw told Maja he was saved by Schindler — played by Liam Neeson in the film — and how he thanked him after the conflict.
But he also haltingly recounted his near-death ordeal at the hands of sadistic Plaszow camp commandant Amon Göth, chillingly portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in the film.
Maja told The Sun: “My father was saved by Oskar Schindler but first had to survive Göth in Auschwitz.
“In the movie Göth was seen delighting in shooting dead prisoners for fun with a sniper rifle, and my father endured this torment.
“One day he was carrying a ladder through the camp with a man who was taller than he was when Göth appeared and began shooting.
“A bullet went through my father’s hair and grazed his scalp but hit the taller man, killing him instantly.
“My father was traumatised but had seen so much death in the camp by then that he just picked up the ladder and carried on walking.
“While many lost the will to live and were shot, gassed, starved or worked to death, he somehow managed to stay strong and carry on.”
Maja told how her father also recalled the horror of watching Jew-hating Göth’s huge, ferocious hunting dogs savage camp inmates to death.
She told The Sun: “Göth had two enormous dogs which he had trained to kill.
“They were vicious cross breeds as big as a Great Dane.
“He would set his dogs into crowds of starving, exhausted prisoners and laugh as they tore people to pieces.
“My father was in the crowd several times when this happened and somehow avoided being the victim.
“And Göth later gave him the job no one wanted — feeding the dogs.”
Maja told how her determined father, by then in his late teens, turned the feared chore to his advantage.
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Wladyslaw Rath was held in auschwitz but survived the warCredit: Doug Seeburg
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Wladyslaw survived by pretending to be an experienced factory machinists to enable him to be added to Schindler’s listCredit: Doug Seeburg
She continued: “He had a way with animals which enabled him to control them.
“He began stealing the dogs’ food to enable himself and other inmates to survive.
“Everyone was terrified of them, so he would hide the food he stole as he walked with them and trained them to snarl at any camp guard who approached him.
“That food kept them alive when many more starved.
“He also managed to save Dora’s life by hiding her from the guards when she fell ill with typhoid.
“Any prisoner unwell in Auschwitz was routinely gassed or shot immediately because they were of no further use to the Nazis.
“This was the very peak of anti-Semitism of the kind we are seeing rising again now, the mass murder of millions of people just because they were Jewish.
“It must never be allowed to happen again.”
Wladyslaw and Dora survived by pretending to be experienced factory machinists to enable them to be added to Schindler’s list of fake forced labourers.
Schindler, who died aged 66 in 1974, had his workers deliberately make dud shells to hamper Adolf Hitler’s war machine before Krakow and nearby Auschwitz were liberated in 1945.
Maja said: “At the end of the war Oskar Schindler’s workers feared he would be mistaken for a Nazi and shot.
“So my aunt Dora and others escorted him to surrender to the Allied soldiers to save his life.
“Years later my father met him especially to say thank you.
“He told me it was an incredibly emotional moment for them both.”
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Wladyslaw only survived the war because he was on Schindler’s listCredit: AFP
After the war, Wladyslaw moved to the Austrian capital, Vienna, where he ran a successful cinema business.
He was invited to the world premier of Schindler’s List in the city in 1993.
‘Risk of attack too high’
He also managed to track down and buy the wartime ID card of his nemesis Göth — which is now on display on the Auschwitz holocaust museum site.
Maja said: “My father was a very positive person and always tried to look forward rather than back.
“He never really talked about what happened in the war until a couple of years before his death.
“He firmly believed that what happened to him and millions of others changed the world for ever, and I’m glad he is not alive to see what is happening today.
“People were marching against Israel and celebrating the Hamas massacres on the streets even before Israelis retaliated.
“I’m not a practising Jew but I have Jewish friends who are afraid to go out.
“Others have removed Jewish names from their doorbells fearing they will be attacked.
“I won’t be going to the Christmas markets in Vienna, which I love every year, because the risk of an attack by extremists is too high.
“And while I am determined to speak out, I don’t want to give you the names of my three children in case they are put at risk.
“This is the climate we are living in again, at a time of year when we are remembering those sacrificed during World War Two.
“It feels as though history is going backwards and that we have learned nothing.”
Maja — whose children are aged eight, ten and 12 — said she had been heartbroken by the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians triggered by the October 7 atrocities.
And she was particularly moved by the plight of innocent youngsters caught in the crossfire, including the 32 Israeli child hostages pictured on a powerful Sun front page last month.
In recent months, Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region has been largely free from the conflict and violence that has engulfed much of the country since the military seized power in February 2021.
The delta, hemmed in by the Bay of Bengal, is isolated from other parts of Myanmar where anti-coup forces have expanded, and is without a land border with a neighbouring country, making it more challenging to secure supplies from overseas.
Inside a hangar, a crowd is pressed around a ring in which arms flail, kicks fly, knees crush into ribs, and, occasionally, a head is violently thrust into an opponent’s face. This is Lethwei.
Myanmar’s brutal national sport is dubbed the “art of nine limbs” for each body part that can be employed in the attack: fists, feet, elbows, knees and, uniquely, heads.
Unlike other martial arts in the region, Lethwei is bare-knuckle, with only thin gauze wrapped around the fighters’ fists to protect their hands.
The country’s beleaguered energy network cannot provide power from the grid, so a generator hums throughout the day.
It powers some strip lights hanging above the ring and a sound system, which strains beneath the distorted cries from the ring announcer as each blow lands.
Power Punch, a team of fighters from Yangon, have made the two-and-a-half-hour journey to this small town to take part in the competition.
Their bouts are an opportunity to fight in front of a large audience, build their and their gym’s reputation in the ring, and earn some prize money.
The team comes away with a win, two draws and a loss. The earnings are not substantial, and some of them have just a couple of weeks for their wounds to heal before their next fight in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw.
Sayar Hein, a former fighter and now owner and coach at Power Punch, the experience of a competitive bout is critical for the young fighters, even if they do not win.
“We always speak to the fighters after the fights to determine if they performed well and to correct any mistakes,” he said.
TERROR group Hamas has been accused of using civilian sites to launch its attacks.
Aerial footage appears to show a rocket launcher being fired from an orchard — which was just yards from a water desalination plant.
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Hamas has been accused of using civilian sites to launch rocket attacks against IsraelCredit: AFP
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A Hamas rocket has been launched from a near to a water desalination plant constructed with EU cashCredit:
The video, supplied by the Israeli Defence Forces to The Sun on Sunday, shows a flare of light when what appears to be a rocket, one of more than 7,000 which have been launched, is fired towards Israel.
We geolocated the site and confirmed it was next to a £9million plant which was built with European Union funding and opened in 2017.
The weapon appeared to be hidden at the plant at Deir al Balah on the Mediterranean coast in what seems to be an orchard — likely an olive or pomegranate grove — just a few yards from the facility.
If the site was to suffer damage in a strike to take out the launcher then it could further deprive thousands of Palestinians already reeling after four weeks of bombardment.
Water has long been in short supply for Gaza’s 2.3million residents as 95 per cent of that extracted from the aquifer beneath it is not suitable for human consumption.
Israel supplies ten per cent of the country’s water with the rest made up of sea water treated at three desalination plants.
The supply from Israel was cut off when a full blockade of the enclave was imposed after the attacks on October 7 by Hamas.
Israel later restarted supplies and by this week was supplying 28.5 million litres a day — only about half of its supply before war broke out.
The plant in the footage was providing 20,000 cubic metres of water a day to residents of southern Gaza before the war.
It is not known if the rocket launcher still remains at the site in Deir al Balah since the footage of it being fired was released.
An IDF spokesman said of the video clip: “Hamas is firing rockets from inside densely populated civilian areas — right next to schools, hospitals, homes and humanitarian facilities.
“In this footage, you can see a Hamas rocket launcher, placed intentionally adjacent to a water desalination facility, used for providing water to the civilians in the Gaza Strip.
“It is an active rocket launching from within the Gaza Strip, towards Israel.”
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The weapon appeared to be hidden at the plant at Deir al Balah on the Mediterranean coast in what seems to be an orchardCredit:
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Hamas have a network of underground tunnels across Gaza, with some dug underneath medical facilitiesCredit: AFP
The spokesman added that the location was picked to make it hard for Israeli forces to eliminate it — underlining the alleged policy of choosing areas that would suffer collateral damage if targeted by a strike.
He insisted that the tactic was “a deliberate strategy”.
He added: “Hamas knows that when they fire rockets at Israel, Israel will respond in self-defence to stop this threat.
“They also know that Israel makes every effort to avoid civilian casualties while operating, so they do this to make it even more difficult for Israel to target their terrorist infrastructure.
“Hamas has got better at covering this up over the years, but there are countless examples to show that its strategy is still in place.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent said 15 people were killed when the ambulance, which had been trying to take patients to the Rafah border crossing, was hit outside Al-Shifa hospital on Friday.
It accused Israel of committing a war crime.
The PRC claims there were two strikes on ambulances, the deadliest one yards from the hospital and one about a kilometre away.
It says the dead were civilians and 60 others were wounded.
Witness Bisan Owda, a filmmaker, told the BBC: “Some people lost their legs, lost their hands, people were trying to carry injuries,
“People were crying, trying to find each other.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organisation, said he was “utterly shocked”.
He added: “We reiterate: patients, health workers, facilities, and ambulances must be protected at all times. Always.”
But the IDF said that it had targeted the vehicle because it was being used to ferry terrorists and that a number of Hamas fighters had been killed.
A spokesman said: “We have information which demonstrates that Hamas’s method of operation is to transfer terror operatives and weapons in ambulances.
“We emphasise that this area is a battle zone.
“Civilians in the area are repeatedly called upon to evacuate southwards for their own safety.”
The IDF’s Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari accused the terror group of using patients as human shields and said: “Hamas wages war from hospitals.”
He claimed Hamas had placed a command and control centre under Shifa Hospital — with another base inside it.
He said: “We have concrete evidence that hundreds of terrorists flooded into the hospital to hide there after the massacres of October 7.”
He also said that Israel believes several tunnels lead to the underground base from outside the hospital and there is an entrance to the complex within one of the wards.
Mr Hagari added: “Shifa is not the only hospital — it is one of many. Hamas’s use of hospitals is systematic.”
Background to the conflict
HISTORIAN Mark Almond — Director of the Crisis Research Institute, Oxford — here outlines background to the conflict between Israel and Palestine and explains the parts played by others in the Middle East.
WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL?
ISRAEL declared its independence in 1948 — but the Jewish state’s roots go back 3,000 years to when it occupied the land as a kingdom.
It was later conquered by Rome and the Jews eventually expelled after a rebellion was crushed.
They were scattered around the world until Hitler’s World War Two murder of six million led to survivors moving to UK-run Palestine.
In 1948 Israel’s army defeated Arab states who tried to strangle the new state at birth.
WHO ARE HAMAS AND WHAT DO THEY WANT?
HAMAS is the governing party of Gaza. It is a Muslim organisation which rejects Israel’s right to exist.
The group was founded in 1987 by blind, wheelchair-bound cleric Sheikh Yassin who wanted an Islamic state to include Israeli territory.
He was killed by an Israeli airstrike in 2004. But Hamas continued to attack Israel with homemade and Iranian rockets.
They launched a murderous assault on Israeli families on October 7, killing 1,400.
WHY ARE HEZBOLLAH OF CONCERN TO ISRAEL?
HEZBOLLAH is a Shia Muslim organisation run by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah which controls the most powerful armed force in Lebanon.
After clashes with Israel, it became an army with Iranian missiles and thousands of fighters.
Israel suffered heavy losses when it fought Hezbollah in 2006 — the first time an Arab army had successfully held off its forces.
A third of Israel’s forces man the Lebanese border to deter Hezbollah from joining Hamas’s war in Gaza.
WHAT IS IRAN’S ROLE IN CURRENT EVENTS?
IRAN is Israel’s mortal enemy — seeing it as America’s main ally in the Middle East ever since the Islamic Revolution there in 1979.
Iran provides money, weapons and training to both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon to act as proxies for its anti-Israeli strategy on the country’s borders.
But it also backs Iraqi militant Muslim groups who attack American forces there, as well as the Yemeni Houthi militia.
WHAT’S HAPPENED TO SAUDI/ISRAELI TALKS?
ONE of the biggest impacts of the current war has been the suspension of talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia, who had been preparing to live normally side-by-side.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza, resulting from Israel’s determination to crush Hamas, has made it impossible for the Saudis to deal directly with Israel.
Popular anger at the human cost of defeating Hamas has made even countries like Egypt and Jordan back away.
For many of us, our first introduction to puppetry came through children’s programming — but now this ancient art form is having a moment and taking centre stage.
At Lebanon’s border with Israel, residents of a Christian village are hoping war can be avoided even as they prepare for the possibility of worsening hostilities between the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah and Israel.
Located just a couple of kilometres from the frontier, the village of Rmeich has already suffered fallout from three weeks of clashes along the border between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, the dominant force in southern Lebanon.
The village, along with the rest of Lebanon, is feeling the turbulence unleashed by the conflict raging some 200km (124 miles) away between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, an ally of the heavily armed Hezbollah.
Those who remain in Rmeich appear reluctant to discuss the politics of the crisis that has brought conflict to their doorstep, trying to preserve some normalcy in the village whose 18th-century church still holds a mass three times a day.
“I won’t say we’re feeling safe but the situation is stable,” village priest Toni Elias, 40, said as a military drone buzzed overhead.
“If we don’t hear the drone, we think something odd is going on. We’re used to it every day, 24/7,” Elias said.
The Middle East abounds in tales of spirits and their antics. Today, Al Jazeera brings some of these tales to life.
Myths and legends, whispered under the veil of night from elder to child, offer glimpses into a culture’s most profound fears, dreams, and values.
In Iraq, the enigmatic Marshes resonate with tales of the Tantal, an elusive creature that can shape-shift – from man to beast to inanimate object.
It is the essence of mischief, a trickster that delights in its trickery.
Imagine encountering a stranger in the Marshes, adorned in flashy, seemingly tasteless attire. This stranger, possibly a Tantal in disguise, might pose a peculiar question: “Do you think these clothes would suit you?”
Your answer holds weight. Admire his choice, and he may not only befriend you but also shower wealth upon you. Disapprove, and you risk the creature’s wrath, which could spiral you into madness.
Marsh dwellers will tell you the Tantal is a creature of the night, a guardian of hidden marshland treasures and a malevolent spirit quick to ensnare the unwary, especially children.
Visually, the unadorned Tantal is unsettling – with eyes oriented vertically like a cat’s and strikingly long, sharp canine teeth in an ambiguous “face” that hovers over a giant’s body that shuffles along, loose-limbed and terrifying.
Of course, it often appears disguised as another creature – a man, woman, child, cat, or dog – when it is out and about to ensnare the unwary.
Tales of the Tantal were also cautionary tales as grown-ups told children of the Tantal’s wrath, of how it could pull the defiant deep into watery graves.
Tantals take their names from the names of the Marshes – among the most famous names known in Iraqi folklore are Tantal Abu Ghraib, Tantal Umm al-Ubaid, Tantal Abu Asmej, Tantal Dawar, Tantal Salin, and Tantal Hafiz, who is considered the ruler of many Tantals in the Marshes.
The Tantal goes back to the legend of Hafiz himself, which was passed down from generation to generation among the clans of southern Iraq.
The legend says that in ancient times there were two great kingdoms in southern Mesopotamia, ruled over by two kings, Al-Akr and Abu Shadhar, who had a brother named Hafiz.
Life flourished in the two kingdoms, and the kings built ornate cities and temples with arched arcades and splendid balconies that looked over lush palm and fruit orchards the kings had ordered the planting of.
And they had huge fences built around their kingdoms to protect them from flooding from the Marshes. They felt they had done everything they needed to ensure a safe kingdom and a happy populace.
But the life of plenty and luxury meant they eventually strayed from the right path – they forgot God, forgot to dedicate their life to obeying the divine, and faltered in their worship.
God’s anger was swift, and he sent an earthquake that largely destroyed the kingdoms, including the fences, and a flood that drowned what was left, till all that remained was ruins.
Then God sent down Tantals and Jinn to guard the remains of these one-mighty kingdoms, which had been buried whole, with their treasures and delights.
And that is what the Tantals have done. Through the centuries, they have used fear and trickery to keep people away from whatever buried treasure the Marshes hold.
But if you were ever to get close to a Tantal, you would find that they have a gift: the power of foresight. Befriend it, and you may receive prophecies of the future.
Yassir Kareem, an Iraqi filmmaker, once interviewed an elderly man from the Marshes.
The man firmly believed the Tantal had visited him in a dream, predicting a future where the land would parch, and outsiders would claim it, forcing the native inhabitants away. This was a prophecy, he said, given the climate change that dried out the Marshes and the foreign oil companies that flooded into the oil-rich regions of Iraq.
In mid-September, YouTube announced a collection of new artificial intelligence tools coming to the platform. The tools touch basically every part of the content creation process, from generating topics to editing and even generating video footage itself through the Dream Screen feature. But even as AI features have caused an uproar in so many other creative industries, the response to YouTube’s new suite of tools has been muted. Instead, YouTubers are sharing other concerns about the ways generative AI is already affecting the platform.
It’s been a watershed year as generative AI tools have made it easier to create images and text, all generated from internet scrapes of others’ art and writing. Artists and writers have typically pushed back, citing issues like copyright and their own work being undermined — in September, high-profile authors including George R.R. Martin and Jodi Picoult filed to sue OpenAI for scraping their books. And then there’s generative AI’s issues with hallucination and inaccuracies.
On the other side of the coin, these tools have been used by many people, either experimentally or professionally. Prizes have been won by AI art, while some news sites cut their staff and put out AI-generated articles. AI has also become a cornerstone of TikTok, particularly AI-powered filters. Creators use the Bold Glamour filter to apply makeup, a Ghibli filter to look like characters from the studio’s films, and even pay a fee for filters that generate themed avatars — like the hugely popular ’90s high school photo filter.
Maybe it’s the fact that YouTube’s tools aren’t available to the general public yet. But the quiet reception still seems to buck the trend. On the YouTube Creators account on X (formerly known as Twitter), the announcement only picked up a few hundred likes, doing similarly to engagement-bait tweets like “how do you make your audience feel seen and heard?” On the main YouTube account, it performed worse than a tweet reading “stars are kinda just sky rocks.”
On the platform itself, it’s difficult to find videos discussing the tools at all, despite a thriving community of YouTubers who explain how to use AI tools in making videos — just not the ones announced by YouTube. Instead, these videos focus on explaining existing tools to generate scripts and voice-overs, and to create and edit together images for the video visuals. YouTube’s new tools basically give creators an in-house option for much of this: Creators will be able to generate video prompts and script outlines, automatically edit clips together, and create AI-voiced dubs into other languages.
The main potential draw is that these AI tools would generate content based off of creators’ own historical output. For example, YouTube says the “insights” tool will be personalized so that new video ideas will take into account what a creator’s audience is already watching, something that other text generators can’t do without access to YouTube’s data. It also aims to recommend music for videos, including royalty-free music that hypothetically should help creators know what won’t get them troublesome copyright strikes.
But existing creators don’t seem particularly interested one way or the other. “No one’s heard of it yet,” says Jimmy McGee, a YouTuber who recently made a video titled “The AI Revolution is Rotten to the Core.” As the title might suggest, he’s not a huge fan of YouTube’s proposed tools, but he says it’s “strange” how they’ve been received.
He thinks it may be that these tools are mainly geared toward creators, and viewers may not notice if, for example, a video is edited with the help of AI. He doesn’t think the more obvious tools, like the melty generated visuals of Dream Screen, will take off in the long run. “People will get sick of those quick enough that it’s not really a problem,” he says. But the other tools might lead to longer-term issues in the creator space.
Viewers might not immediately notice if AI software is used to edit videos, but McGee worries that it will undermine those who actually use it. “It’s going to de-skill newer people on YouTube,” he says. Although he finds it unlikely that it will replace professional editors in its current form, it will prevent newer creators from growing their skills. YouTube is billing the feature as an easier way in for people who might not be as confident in their skills yet. It’s also aimed toward Shorts, YouTube’s vertical-video spinoff, so it might make things easier for those who only have their phones to edit on. But McGee thinks that relying on it may end up discouraging video creators in the long run as they struggle to grow creatively.
“I think the more decisions you can make in your video, the better the video can be,” says McGee. “Maybe it won’t be [at first], but the ceiling is higher. That’s what worries me. If someone goes in earnestly trying to use these tools, it’d be very sad to see them give up.”
That potential pitfall depends on whether YouTube’s tools stick around. Parent company Google has a habit of shuttering things — including features it has hyped up a lot more than this one. And generative AI is currently running at a loss for most companies. “We’re probably going to see a decline in its popularity pretty soon,” says media and fandom critic Sarah Z. “[In the meantime] I hope these tools are helpful to creators and serve as a way of empowering them to better execute videos that serve their visions rather than a way to undercut creators.”
But some creators already feel undercut by AI on the platform. Just before YouTube’s tool announcement, creator Abyssoft released a video about a potential case of plagiarism. In it, he detailed the similarities between a previous video he had put out and a video uploaded by a different channel and speculated on how AI could have been used to perform the theft, including using speech-to-text programs and AI voice-over software.
Contacted for comment, Abyssoft pointed out that this is already a widespread issue on the platform. In May, science communicator Kyle Hill spoke out against YouTube channels using AI to create unverified but attention-grabbing content on the site. These videos are often misleading and in some cases appear to copy topics that Hill himself had made videos on.
In his video, Abyssoft says that he isn’t sure what the solution to these issues is. But one thing he suggests is that YouTube should disclose when AI is being used in video creation. He’d also like to see “a punishment or strike system for people that fail to disclose and are proven to be using AI.”
This would be easier if it were YouTube’s own AI tools that were being used; the platform would already be aware. In response to a request for comment on whether Google was considering implementing this feature or any additional measures to avoid plagiarism and misinformation on the platform, Google policy communications manager Jack Malon stated that all content is subject to the existing community guidelines, and that these are “enforced consistently for all creators on our platform, regardless of whether their content is generated using artificial intelligence.”
Although Abyssoft considered some of the other generative AI tools as potentially useful, like the music tool helping creators avoid copyright issues, he continues to fear what easy access to AI tools might do to YouTube creators. “AI facilitates plagiarism in a way we haven’t seen before, and with a bit of effort it will soon become undetectable,” he says. “Competing in a sea of faceless AI channels will be a tough challenge for creators who make a living this way, as their upload cadence will be greatly outpaced by the AI.”
However, he doesn’t think that AI will necessarily produce interesting videos. “I’m assuming the tool that suggests video topics is only going to suggest ideas that it thinks will do well in the algorithm,” he says. “Things will get incredibly formulaic if [it’s] relied on too much.”
He does acknowledge that channels with technical content, such as his own speedrunning history videos, have the advantage of research and understanding that can’t be carried out by AI. McGee similarly feels somewhat protected by his own style. “My videos are messy and I like them that way,” he says. “I can make all the melty, weird visuals myself and make something I’m actually proud of.”
But other channels might not be able to survive. “Someone that covers current news will see AI upload videos before their editing is finished, since it can just scrape whatever articles have been published for the day and render out a video and voice-over in less than an hour,” says Abyssoft.
YouTube’s tools haven’t yet launched beyond a few test countries, so it’ll be some time until we see the impact they’ll have on the platform. But while creators have concerns that they might add new issues for both existing and upcoming video makers, they also have prior concerns about the use of AI that they feel aren’t being addressed by the platform. It seems to be these that are holding creators’ attention, not any new announcements.
Demián Rugna’s terrifying possession movie When Evil Lurks — now available for streaming on Shudder — breaks the rules of the subgenre in all sorts of startling ways. For one thing, it isn’t a religious movie at all, even though most exorcism movies are. For another, the victims facing down a demon in his film aren’t struggling with faith, or with something they don’t understand. They all know the rules for dealing with the hideous, bloated creatures that result from demon possession — the encarnado, or as the English subtitles put it, “the rotten.” There’s even a little teaching song about the rotten, presented in the film as something akin to a children’s lullaby.
So if everyone knows how to safely deal with demons, why is the movie so frightening? Because the rules — including “stay away from electricity and electrical appliances, demons can travel through them” and “only kill the possessed in certain specific ways” — take effort and self-control, and people are often greedy, lazy, or impulsive. “It’s too hard,” Rugna told Polygon at the 2023 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. “You need to comply with the rules because the demon wants to be with you, but it’s too hard for us to run away from cities, trying to avoid electricity, to avoid even thinking about the devil.”
When Evil Lurks is a tremendously frightening movie, in part because it’s as much about the power we give our personal demons as it is about any sort of supernatural force. Unlike in films like The Exorcist and its many sequels and reboots, Rugna’s characters can’t expect any help from organized religion or from God. “I have no religion,” the director said. “And I hate religion as a business. I love religion as faith, or for helping people. But not as a business.” Instead, the characters in When Evil Lurks have to rely on each other, and on their own courage and discipline. That goes poorly, to put it mildly.
They’re also meant to rely on institutions put in place to help them. At the beginning of the film, it becomes clear that the government has systems in place to handle the encarnado, and those systems have failed entirely because of bureaucratic indifference and laziness. Rugna’s inspiration for the movie explains a lot about where that theme came from: As he told the Fantastic Fest audience in a Q&A after the movie’s premiere, he got the idea for When Evil Lurks from a series of news stories about farm pesticides in his native Argentina causing widespread health issues.
“The owners of those lands contaminate those fields with glyphosate to kill bugs — pesticide,” he said at the Q&A. “There’s a lot of people who work in those fields, and they get cancer. You’d probably see a little kid with cancer, because they are workers. They didn’t say anything — or if they say something, nobody knows.” He suggests that corporate apathy about the workers’ health, and the way the issue occured “out in the middle of nothing,” where it’s easy for profiteers and city-dwellers to ignore the impact of their choices, started him thinking about the idea of lurking evils given free rein to spread.
“The pesticide infected them,” Rugna told Polygon. “Kids were born with cancer. Sometimes you see something in the news, but then there’s nothing more to say, and you forget the image. They’re in the middle of nothing, the middle of poverty. They must do work for less than a couple dollars, and they’re all ill. After you turn off the television, you forget, but they are still there, they are still probably gonna die.”
He said it happens too often, that “people who work the land” get “abandoned” by the system. “When I decided to make a movie with some kind of exorcism, I thought, OK, but what happens if the people cannot reach a priest? All the Exorcist movies happen in the city, in a big house. But what if we’re in the middle of nothing, in a poor house, with poor people who nobody cares for? Even the owner of the land wants to get rid of them, to burn their houses. It happens in my own country all the time — not the demons, [but the rest].”
All that said, while Rugna emphasizes how important realism in the acting, relationships, and setting was to him in making the movie, he laughs off the idea that realism in terms of reflecting the real world is important in horror. “You can see a movie just for fun,” he said. “Being entertaining is most important for me. If you have the chance to have reflection, that’s a double goal. But for me, it’s not fully necessary.”
He said the social inspirations just worked their way naturally into the writing because they’re part of his background. He didn’t set out to make a message movie, just one that would scare audiences. “I’ve noticed for myself in my movies, for a greater horror story, I want to make you suffer,” he said. “And the social element just comes along with my culture.”
Photo: Shudder/IFC Films
Ironically for a movie inspired by bureaucratic indifference to the suffering of children, though, one of the biggest limits on his film was bureaucratic regulations about how he could handle his child cast. When Evil Lurks is unusually brutal to its kid characters, with graphic scenes of child distress, mutilation, and death. In response to an audience question at the Q&A about how he protected the child actors, Rugna grinned and explained how his production walked the actors’ parents through their safety plans.
“I’d need two hours to tell about the process of working with the parents,” he said. “It’s too funny, because we did take care with the parents — we thought, OK, we want to share the entire script. We were scared about the reaction of the parents. […] The parents were too excited to put their kids in our movie. You can’t imagine. […] When the parents read the script, and we’re like, The kid’s gonna be bit by a dog and crushed with a car — ‘Oh, I love the script! Got it!’”
But the government was much more limiting, Rugna said. Among other things, in spite of the violence of the scenes involving children, they weren’t allowed to have artificial blood on the kids’ skin at any time. In another scene, a teenager wasn’t allowed to hold a gun during an emotional monologue. “All the time, it was horrible to work with the kids,” he said, laughing. “Not for the kids, for the rules.”
At 2:45am, we head to the rendezvous point where Stepan, our military liaison officer, will meet us. We will be taken to a mortar position before heading to the start line of an assault, a couple of kilometres away.
The checkpoints are more suspicious of us as we are the only ones travelling in the dark. We are pulled over by the police and the driver, Denis, and the fixer, Dimi, are questioned. Our embed is with the military and in general the two organisations don’t get on. Much discussion, checking of papers and phone calls ensue. The police are angry they weren’t informed and make us wait, saying the army has no authority here.
Finally cleared to pass, we arrive at the rendezvous location, don our body armour and tramp off in the dark. Luke, our security consultant, tells us to stay in a straight line – no deviation due to mines. The path has been marked by shreds of white plastic tied to trees. Once at the mortar position, we will remain there for 20 minutes before moving again. Maybe. Things have a habit of changing quickly. I could really do with a coffee.
Al Jazeera correspondent Zein watches videos of his little girl while we wait to move forward. We are all quiet. We drive in the dark for a while, pale predawn light on the horizon. This is the road that leads directly to Robotyne, only recently back in Ukrainian hands. The bark of artillery is more insistent now, accompanied by heavy mortars. It starts to get light.
The distant booming echoes of the artillery sound like giants slamming doors – the vast scale of it doesn’t feel human.
A quick interview with the commander is punctuated by nearby blasts and warnings that Russian jets are dropping KAB 250 and 500s, precision-guided bombs.
We’ve filmed enough, no need to stay any longer. We head back. The car speeds up to avoid the attention of Russian spotter drones.
We pull back to Orikhiv where we were a few days ago. Driving back through the wrecked town, we pass armoured personnel carriers crammed with soldiers on the roof. More military vehicles are gathered under trees, hiding from the spotters. The sky grows grey and it starts to rain.
Orikhiv now behind us, we start to slow down. The houses are intact, normal programming has resumed and off comes the body armour. Our clothes, soaked with sweat, suddenly feel cold. We think about breakfast and coffee. It starts to rain heavily.
We pull over and chat but receive a call with an offer to meet some of the medics who have been pulling shifts at the local first aid station. The body armour goes back on with minor grumbling.
We climb into yet another vehicle. At the aid station, we speak to medics – all are exhausted, some are asleep in their bunks, others offer us chairs in the cramped bunker. Our selfish thoughts of food are forgotten as they share what they’ve seen, what they’ve witnessed, what they could and could not do, who they could and could not save. All spoken matter of factly, no emotions involved. That will come later.
Fukhari, Gaza – Everyone at our school knows that Yehia Dahdouh is the son of Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh.
He was in my fifth-grade science class at the Rosary Sisters School in Tel el-Hawa and the first time I called his name for attendance, he stood up promptly with a: “Yes, miss.” I remember being relieved that he seemed a kind child who laughed a lot.
He is also an imp who cannot sit still and waits for break time impatiently so he can run off to the playground.
And he moves around fast, so fast that I would not be surprised to find him appearing in front of me, as if out of thin air, at any time.
Now Yehia, who is only 12, is much slower, his head bandaged and his heart heavy, and the last time I saw him was in a news video on Thursday as he wept over the dead bodies of his mother, brother, sister and nephew.
Then he stood awkwardly to perform the funeral prayer for them, standing tiny next to his father and doing his best to complete the motions with his bandaged elbow.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces shelled the Nuseirat area where Yehia and his family had sought refuge in Gaza. Yehia survived, but his pain must be immense.
‘I’m comfortable here’
Yehia and I formed a bond, as teachers do with the kids in their class, and he made me laugh. When he would call out “Miss!”, he would stretch it out in a way everyone in class chuckled at and got used to hearing.
He is kind of special, I love hearing him laugh and joke around. He had a “nickname” for me, where he would call me by the type of phone I have.
I laughed at that and it made me happy because I know that when a child loves someone and is not afraid of them, they can be themselves.
His father Wael was very involved in how his son was doing in school and always answered my calls and messages about Yehia.
When I told him that Yehia was doing great but could be a bit calmer, he laughed and said, “Yehia is wearing you out! I’ll talk to him and will come visit you at school.”
Yehia loves and respects his father, and I saw that after Wael’s visit, in how calm he became, but of course, I started to miss hearing him call me “Miss” the way he used to.
Yehia stood tiny next to his father Wael to perform the funeral prayer for his mother, brother, sister and nephew [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
Fifth grade ended and imagine my surprise on the first day of the next academic year when I walked into my sixth-grade class and found Yehia there, even though he was meant to be in a different class.
“Welcome,” I said. “Why’d you move to this class?”
He told me, “I’m comfortable here, you’re my teacher, I’m used to you.”
Targeting families
The children of Gaza do not like wars.
The children of Gaza love their childhood and want to live it.
My students are like brothers and sisters, not just classmates, and it is such a beautiful thing to experience. They talk after school ends. They always know why a classmate is absent from school.
The gentle, strong communication between them makes me so happy.
When the news of Wael Dahdouh’s family being targeted came out, I was so anxious, searching frantically for Yehia in all the photos being circulated.
Was he OK or not?
I found out that his mother, brother and sister had been killed, and that there were members of his family missing under the rubble.
Teachers at the school began to exchange worried messages. Then we found a video of him in the hospital with a head injury.
Yehia looked so worn out and scared in that video of him being treated at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the doctors had to treat him in the corridor, with no sterilisation, and using the wrong thread to suture his head – all because the hospital was so overstretched they had run out of everything.
This is the recurring scene in every home in Gaza: Residents stay home to be safe but, suddenly, missiles fall on them, hurting their bodies with firepower and their hearts with the burning agony of separation.
I don’t know if Yehia will ever be able to get over being separated from his mother like this. I don’t think so.
The scene of him bidding farewell to his mother and crying bitterly for her soul made me cry along with him.
Is there anything worse than losing a mother and the beautiful memories you had with her, losing that kind of love and care?
And here was this child bidding farewell to his mother, brother, and sister, three of the closest people to his heart.
Yehia is alive, hopefully, his head will heal soon. He was able to say goodbye to his mother and pray for his family.
But I don’t know the extent of his pain, I can only imagine it.
Yehia, right, weeps over the bodies of his mother, brother, sister and nephew as his father Wael Dahdouh keeps his arm on his shoulder [Ali Mahmoud/AP Photo]
Churachandpur, India – In early June, two men sat hunched over, working on laptops inside a partially constructed building in the Churachandpur district of northeastern India’s Manipur state.
A fire had been raging across Manipur since May 3. Several parts of the state, including Churachandpur, were engulfed in an ethnic conflict between the Kuki-Zo and the Meitei people, who are among the largest ethnic groups in the state, which borders Myanmar.
The Kuki-Zo people are a majority in Churachandpur and some other hilly areas while the Meitei dominate the state capital, Imphal, and a few adjoining towns and rural areas.
On May 4, the state government blocked access to the internet across all of Manipur.
Yet in June, on the 37th day of the violence when a leader of a Kuki-Zo civil society organisation led me into the building in a residential area of Churachandpur, to my surprise, the internet was up and running on his phone and that of the other Kuki men in the room.
The leader told me, “We pay hackers up to 1 lakh rupees [$1,200] to 1.5 lakh rupees [$1,800] for the internet. We were without internet for 15 to 20 days before these connections were set up.”
The internet had been restricted by the state to some phone lines for the use of the state machinery. The hackers helped the group get online by connecting to these lines.
For what?
“It was important to do this for students who had to fill [online] forms for exams, etc,” the leader said.
But there were other, more important, reasons. “Before we got hackers [and access to the internet], we had given access to our social media accounts to people outside the state … Social media has become important to tell people what is happening here,” the leader said.
Violence was happening on the ground but hundreds of people like the Kuki-Zo leader and his associates as well as people from the Meitei community took on the task of running the message machine, providing powerful ammunition in the battle to shape narratives on social media.
An analysis of social media over two months by The Reporters’ Collective revealed a significant surge in new accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter, voicing views on their respective sides and a proliferation of narratives about the conflict via Instagram and Facebook posts.
Social media posts from handles claiming to be affiliated with the Kuki or Meitei communities flowed freely, brimming with information, disinformation, hate, claims of victimhood and requests for solidarity. Reportage and opinions that did not square with theirs were trolled, and journalists were grouped into pro- and anti-camps.
As of mid-September, 175 people had died and 1,118 injured as per the latest data available.
Manipur has seen worse ethnic clashes. From 1992 to 1997, fighting between the Kuki and Naga communities reportedly caused greater loss of life, damage and destruction.
But what sets the recent violence apart is that it is probably the first armed conflict in India being fought hard on social media, as well. The narratives spread from each community have closely followed the events on the ground and sometimes provided the first evidence of incidents that later made it into the news.
In at least two instances of violence – the first of two Kuki-Zo women being paraded naked, a video of which went viral, and the second of two Meitei students being killed, images of which also went viral – added to the vitriol being spread over social media. In both cases, the situation was aggravated with protests being held in the state.
Disinformation campaigns by these social media warriors have also reinforced the hostilities.
For instance, in the early part of the conflict, a picture of a woman’s body wrapped in plastic was shared widely with a claim that it was the body of a Meitei woman who had been sexually assaulted. Fact-checking websites like BOOM later reported that the body was that of a woman killed by her parents in Delhi.
A month later, another video claimed that a Christian Kuki woman was assaulted by armed civilians. BOOM later found the video had originated in Myanmar.
Manufactured narratives
Actual violence and street protests in Manipur have added to the social media vitriol [File: AFP]
Two separate studies by the Delhi-based Narrative Research Lab, as well as Joyojeet Pal of the University of Michigan and independent researcher Sheyril Agarwal, revealed patterns of how the narratives were being manufactured and organically built on X. They shared their findings with The Reporters’ Collective.
Most media reports suggested that the conflict began with a sudden and unexpected outbreak of violence on May 3. Similar to the situation on the ground, social media users were quick to respond, the research suggested.
More than 100 handles were created in the first few days of the violence.
Violence broke out in Kuki-dominated Churachandpur on May 3. This was followed by days of widespread violence against the Kuki community in the capital, leading to an exodus of Kuki people from Imphal and of the Meitei from Churachandpur and other Kuki-dominated areas as they sought refuge in other parts of the state. The violence soon spread to the rural areas where the valley meets the hills, and Kuki, Meitei and other communities exist cheek by jowl.
While the number of people dying has eased up in the last few days, the bunkers are still very much in place and civilians from both sides continue to be trained on how to use arms.
Pal and Agarwal’s research showed that initially, handles sympathising with or affiliated with the Kuki community mushroomed and tweeted actively with well-coordinated messaging.
Meitei-associated handles got into the narrative game later but quickly came up to speed and were actively tweeting, including with aggressive attacks on opposing views and disinformation campaigns.
The Kuki-Zo leader who accessed the internet sitting in the partially constructed building gave me a glimpse of how the civil war in Manipur motivated people and the leadership of the two communities to tell the world “their truth” as they saw it.
The new warriors
The battles are largely being fought on X.
Siam Phaipi, a 33-year-old lawyer from the Kuki-Zo community, is among those who started tweeting after the conflict began.
He told me, “I opened this account because of people’s suggestion that it is easier to spread awareness on Twitter than on FB [Facebook] or [other] social media, especially because all politicians use this Twitter platform more than other social media pages/profiles.”
From May, hundreds of handles like Phaipi’s began tweeting on behalf of one or the other community on X.
The Reporters’ Collective identified nine prominent handles each posting in favour of Kuki and Meitei narratives and shared them with the Narrative Research Lab in the last week of July.
Using these 18 handles, the lab mapped 2,722 other handles – 875 of the handles were followers of these 18 handles and 1,847 of the handles were followers of the 875 handles.
The lab scanned through their meta-data – information that describes and helps make sense of data – for trends.
Of these 2,722 handles, 455 were clearly identified as Kuki-affiliated and 487 as Meitei-affiliated.
More than half of the Kuki-affiliated handles (51 percent) were created on or after May 3. In the case of Meitei-affiliated handles, 40 percent were created on or after May 3.
The rest were in an ambiguous category: 1,733 were classified as “others” whose affiliations could not be discerned manually or through algorithmic methods; 47 handles were protected, no longer existed, belonged to officials (including police and media) or had been suspended or withheld.
The platform does not provide accurate data on where the tweets originate, so it is possible that the Kuki leader and his friends were exceptions who had hacked into the internet while in Churchandpur.
There are also allegations that despite a ban on the internet, a few people in Imphal had internet access because they were close to the government.
People from Manipur could also have been tweeting remotely because many people from the two communities study and work in the rest of India and abroad.
Opposing handles
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), a key political association of Kuki leaders that has accused Manipur’s chief minister, the state police and sections of Meitei people, including armed militia, of carrying out a genocide against their community, has had a strong presence on X since the start of the conflict.
At the time, the Meitei community did not have such a singular voice reflecting political and civil society leadership on social media.
The ITLF ran an active WhatsApp group from June 4 to share posts and updates on the hardships faced by the Kuki-Zo community, putting them in front of many journalists from across India.
The Reporters’ Collective was able to find evidence of at least one group, COCOMI Media, formed by political actors from the Meitei community, which became active in July.
It was purportedly started by leaders of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a conglomerate of Meitei civil society organisations.
The Narrative Research Lab mapped the frequent use of standard hashtags by many handles. The hashtag #SeparateAdministration4Kuki highlights the demand by Kuki-Zo groups for a separate state, which intensified since the conflict started.
In return, the Meitei-affiliated handles accused the Kuki community of “narcoterrorism” and of being undocumented migrants on the back of a history of a narcotics trade and the inflow of people from Kuki-Chin-Zo communities from Myanmar.
Since the start of the conflict, social media warriors of each community kept asserting that the other community was not nationalistic or Indian enough.
Patterns of mobilisation
University of Michigan’s Pal and independent researcher Agarwal noted that the first bump in social media activity was seen around April 28, fired up by the burning of a gym in Churachandpur that the state’s chief minister was due to inaugurate.
The next spurt happened on May 3 following the violence triggered after several tribal groups held a protest against a demand by Meitei groups for scheduled tribe status, which would accord them privileges.
“First, we see that the shutdown of internet services meant that there was very little direct access to the voice of people in Manipur, and the engagement was limited to those who have families in Manipur but are currently living outside the state,” the two researchers said.
As the graph highlights, the pro-Kuki-Zo community was quicker to organise.
“We also see evidence of better collective action on both sides in terms of when highly engaged accounts were set up,” the researchers noted in their analysis titled ‘What the early days of a social media war tell us about the framing of conflict’ that was shared with The Reporters’ Collective.
For instance, they said, 86 new accounts with high activity from the pro-Kuki-Zo side were set up in the first week of May. Pro-Meitei content saw 24 new accounts.
To study the patterns and differences between how members and backers of each community have tweeted about the ethnic riots, they also looked at a set of highly engaged X users: The pro-Meitei set contained 77 accounts with 6,339 original tweets and 7,837 retweets whereas the pro-Kuki set had 308 accounts, 31,462 tweets and 94,909 retweets.
“Pro-Kuki-Zo make more callouts to media accounts as compared with Pro-Meitei users. Two things stand out – Kuki calling out to the UN and other human rights organisations juxtaposed with Meitei calling out the Spearcorps account [a formation of the Indian army],” the researchers wrote in their analysis.
This played into the stance of the two communities – the Kukis said the rights of the Indigenous people were being impinged on by the Meiteis, hence the callouts to the United Nations seeking its intervention.
Similarly, the Meiteis accused the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force under the Indian army, of being in favour of the Kukis and have tweeted about it.
The researchers tied that to how the groups mentioned political parties.
In the case of the Meitei, tweets skewed towards the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because Chief Minister Biren Singh, a BJP member, was in the first month of the conflict seen as someone they could rely on, “whereas Kuki-affiliated accounts have a more even distribution between major political parties”, they noted.
The researchers analysed 2,765,151 tweets relating to Manipur from May 1 to June 5 and found evidence of coordinated activity. Only 11.6 percent, or 322,094 tweets, out of that total were original posts.
“We observe a considerable amount of copy-paste in our dataset with 788 tweets copy-pasted more than five times without any modification from the source text,” the researchers said.
The researchers also found that the Kuki-affiliated accounts had a higher retweet-to-impression ratio. In other words, there was more concerted activity on X by the Kuki-affiliated handles than the Meitei-affiliated ones.
“If you narrow it down by scenario and look at this kind of narrative exchange and narrative battle, you usually have a mix of genuine users with accounts and some amount that is synthetic,” meaning bots, said Prateek Waghre, policy director at the Internet Freedom Foundation, a Delhi-based non-governmental organisation that advocates for digital rights.
Researcher and technologist Rohini Lakshane listed reasons why so many accounts may have been created since the conflict started: “To give out information of the local goings-on firsthand – information of the sort that would otherwise not make its way to the intended audience, at least not quickly,” she said.
“It could be for mobilisation, peaceful or otherwise, and lastly to create a narrative. The intent behind the narrative could range from voicing their own story or opinion to intentionally spreading misinformation.”
The two studies used different methods to collect data, their periods of observation differ and the method of analysis also differs, so the findings of the two cannot be conflated.
A manual review of the data throws up several examples of dubious handles used to push the narrative of one or the other side.
Take the example of this account of user Yamkhongam Touthang (@YTouthang). Before August, it would repost cryptocurrency-related advertisements. After August 8, it began reposting comments about the conflict, favouring the Kuki community.
While sections of both communities, their political leaders and armed groups fought it out on the ground, the war on social media became sophisticated. Well-produced videos and drone footage made it onto social media, the latter more often on Instagram
Superspreaders
There have been at least two instances of superspreader events on social media during the conflict.
On September 25, two images went viral over several social media platforms in which 20-year-old Phijam Hemanjit and 17-year-old Hijam Linthoingambi, residents of Imphal who had gone missing, were depicted as dead.
In the first image, Linthoingambi and Hemanjit are seen sitting next to each other. The subsequent image shows them slumped on the ground, presumably dead, with Hemanjit’s head missing.
On X, Meiteis wrote scathing tweets against the Kuki-Zo community. Meanwhile, Kukis criticised the government’s decision to put the Central Bureau of Investigation in charge of the case.
The Kuki handles contended that such a “quick” response had been lacking in cases in which people from the Kuki-Zo community were allegedly killed. Some also questioned if there was sufficient evidence to say whether the two had been killed at all.
Soon after the images emerged in late September, protests erupted in Imphal, compelling the state government to snap shut the internet that had been restored just days before following a five-month-long suspension.
Earlier in July, a video of two Kuki-Zo women being paraded naked led to a similar response from the Kuki community. Huge rallies were held by Kuki women in Kangpokpi, Churachandpur and Mizoram. For the first time since the conflict started, Prime Minister Narendra Modi commented on the situation in Manipur condemning the incident of sexual violence and said the incident “has made 140 crore Indians hang their heads in shame”.
At the time, Kuki handles on X renewed calls for a separate administration and their posts were reposted hundreds of times.
‘If you don’t take off your clothes,we will kill you’:Kuki women paraded in #Manipur
It’s impossible for #Kuki_Zo to live together with these barbaric #Meiteis when chopping,raping,looting,burning is what normalcy seems for these desperate animals.
The users behind the most popular Kuki and Meitei handles say their main motivation is to counter the narratives propagated by the other side.
I reached out to three handles that are sympathetic to the Kuki community’s narrative and claim to be Kuki as well as five handles from the Meitei, to understand their motivations.
People behind two of the Kuki-affiliated handles and two of the Meitei-affiliated handles spoke with me. Some preferred to remain anonymous. Others either had disclosed their identity in public or agreed to do so with me.
Each one who spoke pointed to the need for their community’s voice to be heard better. It was not possible for Al Jazeera to verify their stories.
ManipurTalks, which is now suspended, spoke to me in August on Discord, an instant messaging application, without disclosing his identity. He claimed to be living in Imphal.
“My account has been active since 2010, I’ve been doing news updates and what not, including satire,” he said.
Once the conflict started, he began increasingly tweeting about it, he said.
“In the beginning, I was accusing government officials for not controlling the conflict … I was angry at the government because they seemed to have had all the intelligence but had still not done anything,” he said.
Expectedly, he blamed the Kuki-affiliated handles for propaganda.
“I saw a lot of propagandist spin on the narrative. I asked my Kuki brothers and sisters to resolve this but later, I got to know that their intention wasn’t to curtail the conflict. Later, I realised they had been influenced by a separatist agenda. I saw them sharing one-sided propaganda. That’s when I decided to drop my guard and discuss Meitei’s side of the story, as well.”
“Even if one person sees it, that is good enough. I need to tell the story. Earlier, in the beginning of this conflict, there was a one-sided narrative. After seeing my tweets, they’re realising there is another side,” he said.
Until August 10, ManipurTalks had amassed more than 11,500 followers. ManipurTalks’s X account was withheld on 15 August “in response to a legal demand“.
According to X’s guidelines, “it means X was compelled to withhold the entire account specified (e.g., @username) in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order”. The users usually are not told who asked for their account to be withheld.
Phaipi, from the Kuki community, has the same explanation. “Ninety-nine percent of all my tweets are about spreading awareness about what’s happening in Manipur and about the ethnic cleansing that has been going on against the Kuki-Zo community,” he said.
Since launching his account on X in May, Phaipi has amassed more than 9,200 followers.
These accounts were not just looking to win over the locals but the global community too.
“I’m trying to convey my views to each and everyone in India as well as all over the world … It [X] has a bigger outreach and circle as compared to insta [Instagram] and FB [Facebook],” Phaipi said.
Of the civil society and political outfits representing the two communities, the ITLF proved nimble on X. It launched an account in May 2023 when the conflict began and by June 18, had amassed more than 5,800 followers.
When its handle @ITLFMediaCell was withheld in June “in response to a legal demand”, it opened another, @ITLFMediaCell(A), raking up almost double the number of followers in a little more than three months.
Al Jazeera spoke about it with Ginza Vualzong, the organisation’s spokesperson. “We started the ITLF account after the conflict because our voices were not heard. The narrative was dominated by the Meitei media,” he said.
“There was no internet in Manipur. So I asked volunteers from outside the state to start the social media handles… We use Twitter [X] to put up our voices and to counter-narrative by the other side,” he added.
In a similar vein, the Meitei Heritage Society, which describes itself as “a group of like-minded individuals working to present ethical news, fighting false narratives against Meiteis”, told me that the society came together in the wake of the violence in Manipur.
According to the member I spoke with, there was a “pre-planned false narrative that followed in sections of the national media and the social media to malign the image of Manipur and split the state.”
“The plan”, said the member, “was to weave a false story around minority tribals Christian Vs majority Meiteis to hide the real issues of the violence: illegal immigration from Myanmar, Illegal poppy cultivation & drug business and deforestation/encroachment into forest land.”
Handles from both communities had the same story to tell: Their respective communities had been wronged and the truth, as they believed it, had not reached the rest of India and the world.
At the time of writing this piece, the incidents of firing between the two sides has subsided for the time being, but the people continue patrolling the “borders” between the Kuki and Meitei areas. The internet ban has been lifted only partially with mobile internet still officially shut. That has not stopped the social media warriors of the two communities to continue to battle for the hearts and minds of the rest of the world.
Nearly three weeks after the Hamas attacks in southern Israel, Israel has not yet responded with its promised ground invasion.
Initial moves after the October 7 attacks conformed to political and military logic. A national unity government was formed to demonstrate that the country is operating as one. More than 350,000 reservists were called to arms. Relentless bombing of Gaza started immediately although to this day it is hard to discern any military justification or pattern in the pounding of Palestinian infrastructure and killing of thousands of civilians.
Despite angry demands from Israeli society, especially its radical factions, for a massive response and total annihilation of Hamas, analysts, myself included, warned that preparations for a ground war take time. Realistic calculations were that Israel would be ready in 10 to 15 days. Nothing happened.
Half a million armed men and women remain positioned all over Israel and the occupied West Bank, but the momentum of war seems to have diminished, almost stopped. What happened? Why has the Israeli war machine not advanced into the Gaza Strip?
There may be many explanations, and only the Israeli cabinet and the army General Staff know them and keep them top secret. Outsiders can only guess based on scant open sources. We scrutinise bits of seemingly unconnected information for a pattern, subtle nuances in official statements, even body language between civilian chiefs and top military officers.
Reasons for the delay could be international or domestic, could be caused by civilian or military considerations.
Map of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel [Al Jazeera]
The first possibility would be the quest for a peaceful solution. Israel could be holding out to give informal and poorly coordinated international initiatives a chance to at least secure the release of some or all captives, if not to negotiate and secure a ceasefire.
That line of thought has as little credibility as do the efforts of the international community. This is the most unlikely scenario. The determination to avenge the victims of October 7 seems so unwavering that even the pleas of the hostages’ families for them to be freed without fighting are being disregarded. Any armed hostage rescue situation could end in heavy collateral damage and captives dying rather than being freed.
If the reasons keeping Israel from launching its wrath are military, could that be an indication that the high command, known as Matkal, fears that the current forces it has at its disposal are insufficient? No, that cannot be because it could easily raise hundreds of thousands of additional trained reservists and arm them from its warehouses.
Another obstacle could be the realisation that the brigades poised around Gaza are not trained for bloody urban warfare and especially for what would certainly be the most difficult part of such a battle: subterranean fighting in the network of Hamas tunnels. That too cannot be the reason because the General Staff would have known how (un)prepared its forces are for that task on October 7 and would not have unleashed the fast mobilisation but would have first raised those units that needed specialised training.
Ominous lull
There might be discord between Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant (centre) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on one side and the military commanders on the other [Handout: Israeli Ministry of Defence via Anadolu Agency]
General Herzi Halevi, chief of the Israeli General Staff, and his associates must be uneasy. They have half a million soldiers getting nervous, not knowing what their task is or when and how they will roll into action.
Every sergeant in every army knows that the worst thing for military morale is uncertainty, indecision, waiting, loitering and expecting the unknown. In peacetime, grunts are made to do menial tasks just to prevent that poisonous uneasiness, but in war, it sets in and erodes fighting capabilities rapidly.
So why are the Israelis allowing their armed forces to start doubting their purpose? Everything points to discord between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Galant on one side and Halevi and his commanders on the other.
Since time immemorial, officers obeying higher orders, imperial, royal or civilian, want those to be clear, well defined, without doubts and uncertainties. When civilian authorities order the army into action, they must outline the strategic goals and the fallback options if the primary goals prove elusive. Generals want their orders in writing so that after the battle, responsibility for eventual shortcomings or failures can be honestly apportioned.
In the case of Israel, the generals certainly want the cabinet to tell them what it expects the forces to do and what the politically acceptable level of losses and casualties is. It is Matkal’s job to plan for all eventualities, but it needs to be told what the policy is.
If, hypothetically, the cabinet were to say: “We want to expel all Palestinians from Gaza, kick them into Egypt,” or “We want to get into Shujaieya Park, into the centre of Gaza City, raise the Israeli flag there, stay for a month and withdraw into Israel,” the military command would calculate the force levels and composition of forces needed and get them ready and deployed. It would plan for various eventualities, from easy victory to bloody deadlock or unacceptable losses and defeat.
The current ominous lull might be an indication of a standoff between the civilians and the military. I am only guessing, but it would be consistent with Netanyahu’s cowboy style and bully mentality to try to pressure the army into action with muddled orders, something along the lines of: “Just move in, kick Hamas fighters as much as you can and then we will see how it develops.”
It would also be consistent with the mentality of generals who feel a responsibility to their junior officers and troops to resist acting on vague instructions that the military sees as irresponsible.
For all of the above reasons, these uncertainties probably cannot be allowed to go on much longer. Israel must either launch the big offensive soon or say it is postponed, possibly indefinitely.
With the release of the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection, we’ve compiled this list of the franchise’s most iconic moments. From Snake Eater to the Sons of Liberty, you’ll undoubtedly feel a sense of nostalgia as you relive these memorable scenes or learn a few new things if you aren’t entirely familiar with the series. So, let’s dive into Metal Gear Solid’s extensive timeline and world.
*Careful, Snake! There are spoilers ahead for the Metal Gear Solid series up to MGS4.*
The Boss’ Betrayal (Metal Gear Solid 3)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
The Boss is one of the most beloved characters in the series as the mentor to the famous Naked Snake, also known as Big Boss. During the Virtuous Mission in MGS3, we see her in several Codec Calls where she helps Snake rescue Dr. Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov, a Soviet rocket scientist who has recently defected to the United States. But, just as we step onto a bridge to get away, The Boss suddenly shows up to intercept Sokolov, ultimately betraying Snake and the entire country.
This epic moment shifted the entire storyline of the franchise since it led to Naked Snake becoming Big Boss, thus creating a domino effect for the rest of the installments. Her defiance completely comes as a surprise for any player. It surely was for me, and it continues to be one of my favorite gaming moments, no matter how heartbreaking it can be.
Last but not least, we can’t forget how the scene ushered in the origins of the famous bandana, as Snake pulls off the garment from his old master. It will be surreal to experience this all over again, and it will undoubtedly be even more tragic with the upcoming remake of Metal Gear Solid Delta.
The Intense Elevator Fight (Metal Gear Solid 1)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
Before Solid Snake fights with the legendary Sniper Wolf, something goes amiss the minute he steps inside a mysterious elevator. Despite being the only one aboard, the alert for the weight limits goes off, confusing the character as to why this is happening.
Otacon calls Snake shortly after to explain how four stealth prototype suits have gone missing, hinting at what’s to come for the heroic protagonist. By the time they realize the connection between the suits and the elevator’s weight limit, it’s already too late, as Otacon yells, “Look out, Snake! The guys who stole my stealth prototypes are in there with you!!!”
When I first played this as a teenager, it was one of the most frightening and thrilling battles I’ve experienced, especially since older games weren’t as forgiving with game-overs. Hopefully, now, as an adult, I can finally redeem myself with the Master Collection and take down these invisible foes with ease.
The Legendary Ladder Scene (Metal Gear Solid 3)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
Amidst all of Metal Gear Solid’s heavy combat and diverse gameplay, the ladder scene in MGS3 is possibly the most talked-about subject in the franchise.
While Snake is on his way to see EVA (AKA Tatyana), he comes across an ordinary ladder that leads him to her location. Simple enough, right? Wrong.
As players continue climbing up, the main theme of the game, “Snake Eater,” starts to play, with no end in sight. Since this is the only way to get to EVA, you have to point your analog stick up for about two to three minutes and hope that the odd but funny scene eventually ends.
This aspect of the game may be incredibly simple, but that’s what makes it so unforgettable because it was so random and unlike anything we’ve seen before. After you play this, you may never be able to look at ladders the same ever again.
Raiden’s Fight Against Vamp (Metal Gear Solid 2)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
Vamp is a major antagonist in both Sons of Liberty and Guns of the Patriots due to his supernatural abilities and immortality.
Although Vamp has many fights within the franchise, we’ll focus on the memorable showdown between him and Raiden in MGS2. In the past, Raiden had failed to eliminate him repeatedly, but now the two are alone without any distractions.
With the Master Collection, we can live through this fight all over again in the latest-gen consoles. Rather than simply shooting at him, you’ll need to time your bullets right and find a way to “injure” him whenever he dives underwater. Of course, the showdown doesn’t quite go how we want, but we’ll just have to wait until the Master Collection Volume 2 release to reach the final conclusion of this epic fight.
The Redemption of Raiden (Metal Gear Solid 4)
Source: Kojima Productions
Although Metal Gear Solid 4 didn’t make it to the Master Collection’s first volume, it is expected to arrive in the following phase to complete the collection. With that said, I had to include Raiden’s redemption arc, given his rocky history with the franchise.
Hideo Kojima’s character portrayal of Raiden in MGS2 initially received mixed reviews mainly because of the fans’ loyalty to Snake. But, after the release of MGS4, no one questioned him ever again since he played a significant part in the war against Liquid Ocelot and his frightful army.
Along with his many other scenes in the game, the one that shines the most is his iconic return in the all-out Gekko battle, displaying his swift movements with his sword and effortless strength. By the end of the fight, Raiden turns to the old Solid Snake, his former comrade, and says, “Snake, It’s my turn to protect you,” solidifying his importance to the storyline.
The Brothers’ Showdown (Metal Gear Solid 1)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
You wouldn’t expect two shirtless men to be fighting it out with the countdown of a deadly nuclear module, yet that’s precisely what happens during the events of MGS1, on top of a mech, no less. While the battle can be frustrating at times, given its limited space and time duration, it’s a chance to get all your frustrations out on Liquid in yet another hand combat battle.
Besides Liquid’s powerful punches, gravity can work against you, in which you can ultimately find yourself falling off the machine when making the wrong move. Even those who do end in triumph will realize that the battle isn’t over yet with the thrilling car chase scene that occurs shortly after.
It’s the last time we ever see Liquid in this state (still shirtless, of course), setting the stage for the rest of the franchise.
Boss Battle Against The End & All the Other Members of the Cobra Unit (Metal Gear Solid 3)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
The Cobra Unit was once a commanding force during World War II, including the members: The End, The Sorrow, The Fury, The Fear, The Pain, and their leader, The Joy (also known as The Boss). In return, we get these extraordinarily intricate boss battles that often prompt you to think creatively and strategically, like the fight against The Sorrow, which doesn’t have any combat whatsoever.
While I can go on about all the members of the Cobra Unit, The End continues to be my favorite boss battle of all time, showcasing a variety of ways to defeat this one enemy. For example, after Volgin torments Tatyana, players can use a sniper to shoot him before his battle even takes place, along with many other methods.
If you want to try out the standard fight, you’ll embark on a showdown of long-range combat, where The End camouflages his body with the greenery and silently takes you down from a considerable distance. It will be curious to see if any newcomers to the game will discover alternative ways to kill this legendary sniper, and I can’t wait to choose which method to utilize next.
The Tanker Incident (Metal Gear Solid 2)
Even if Raiden is the star of the show in Sons of Liberty, you can still witness Snake’s elite sneaking skills during the first part of the game. Here, we get to see the brutality of Metal Gear firsthand as Ray unleashes a horrific scream for all of Manhattan to hear.
Considering that it is a sneaking mission, players can experience the game in its full form without needing combat. Nevertheless, you’ll still get your hands dirty in Olga’s boss fight or any guards who stand in your way.
One of my favorite Easter Eggs can be discovered here, involving the photo segment of the quest. In particular, if you take a picture of one of the model posters, Otacon will blush at the sight of it and ridicule you for snapping this type of photo. Yet, it doesn’t end there, with the multiple other shots you can take to trigger these unique dialogue scenes.
Big Boss’ Arrival in Post-Credits Scene (Metal Gear Solid 4)
Source: Kojima Productions
What makes Big Boss’ triumphant return so fantastic is the fact that it is known to be the longest cutscene in video game history, which was confirmed by the voice actor of Snake, David Hayter.
“Metal Gear Solid 4 holds the Guinness World Record for ‘Longest Cutscene in a Video Game’, at 71 min.”
Not only does the moment showcase various details about the story’s timeline, but it also produces an emotional scene between Big Boss and his clone, Solid Snake, a soldier who was always under his shadow. In this conversation, he tells Snake, “Don’t waste the life you have left fighting,” and proceeds to express his respect for him as a soldier and a man.
In Big Boss’ last moments, he stands in front of the grave of his mentor and salutes her one last time, a callback to an epic scene where Naked Snake cries at her death in MGS3. It might not necessarily have any gameplay, yet you can’t help but shed a tear during this bittersweet conclusion.
Psycho Mantis’ Unique Battle (Metal Gear Solid 1)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
Psycho Mantis’ duel has to be one of the most unique fights out of the franchise and possibly in the gaming world, considering its fourth-wall-breaking mechanics. In the first interaction, he reads your console’s memory card and deciphers your personality based on the types of games you play. During my time with it, he even teased me for not saving as much as I should have, making me feel embarrassed just by the words of a video game character.
As the fight continues, players will have difficulty damaging the supernatural character since he can read their “mind,” as he previously did with the memory card interaction. One of the only ways to beat him is by physically unplugging your controller and plugging it into the second port of your console, a technique never seen before. It may play out a bit differently in the Master Collection, so we’ll have to see how he’ll read our minds this time around.
Due to Psycho Mantis’ popularity around the community, he ended up appearing in MGSV as a kid and MGS4 as Screaming Mantis. Each battle still proves to be an entertaining fighting sequence just like the first one, demonstrating that Mantis is here to stay.
The Eerie Codec Call From AI Roy Campbell (Metal Gear Solid 2)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
Codec calls are a necessary mechanic to help you with the game and have delightful conversations with different characters. Yet, things take a dark turn when the AI version of Roy Campbell repeatedly contacts you, resulting in weird conversations, fourth-wall-breaking gameplay, and Raiden being… naked?
At one point in the scene, AI Campbell says, “Raiden, turn the game console off right now!” and “You have played the game for a long time. Don’t you have anything else to do with your time?” Playing this as a kid was certainly frightening with Roy and Rosemary’s numerous calls. It also didn’t help that I was wearing a similar color shirt to the random woman displayed on the codec call screen, resulting in me thinking that the game was recording me.
Thankfully, the naked Raiden does get his gear back from Snake eventually, triggering a hilariously awkward situation between them.
Flashbacks of Shadow Moses Island (Metal Gear Solid 4)
Source: Kojima Productions
Old Snake’s return to Shadow Moses Island showcases a vast amount of nostalgic scenes and callbacks to MGS1. If you’ve played the game, you’ll go down memory lane as Snake recalls past conversations with Naomi, Mei Ling, and Colonel Campbell.
Before you even get to the area, Old Snake dreams about the events in MGS1, a sequence where the player goes back in time and plays as the character in the classic PS1 style. In this part of the storyline, you’ll relive the mission that started it all and abruptly go back to the old version of Snake in the present timeline.
On top of all these references to MGS1, there is a hysterical scene that breaks the fourth wall, in which Otacon calls him through Codec to warn Snake about switching his console discs (an action that the player previously had to do in MGS1 when entering the Blast Furnace of Shadow Moses). Then, he laughs at his mistake and realizes that the times have changed, expressing his admiration for Blu-ray discs and the improvement in technology.
Raiden Versus Metal Gear Rays (Metal Gear Solid 2)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
With all the franchise’s battles and showdowns, there must always be an ultimate duel between man and machine, including Solid Snake’s battle with the first ever Metal Gear of the series. Joining alongside him is Raiden’s fight against not one but multiple gigantic robots.
While Raiden rages against the machines, he must avoid getting hit by missiles and stomped on by their legs. The only useful weapon players can utilize here is the handy Stinger, targeting specific parts of the Metal Gear to deplete its almost impenetrable armor.
To end it all, Olga (now the successor to the Cyborg Ninja) comes to the rescue and helps you in MGS2’s final moments; without her, Raiden may not have made it out alive.
The Splitscreen Fight Against Vamp & an Army of Gekko (Metal Gear Solid 4)
Source: Kojima Productions
Vamp once again makes it on this list, but this time in a new version within MGS4, featuring Old Snake versus Gekkos and Raiden versus Vamp.
Since Vamp is basically immortal from his accelerated nanomachines, Snake first uses the Syringe to dampen his healing abilities. As a result, Raiden takes advantage of this and partakes in an ultimate blade duel, while Snake defeats hordes of machines.
In order for the player to see both showdowns, the gameplay shifts into a split-screen view of the two characters, allowing you to completely experience the fight as a whole. It’ll make for an excellent showdown for the Master Collection’s Volume 2, where we could potentially get a complete remake like MGS3.
The Destruction of Colonel Volgin and the Shagohod (Metal Gear Solid 3)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
After Snake experiences Colonel Volgin’s sadistic torture and interrogations, he finally retaliates in the iconic showdown near the end of MGS3. This duel comes in three waves: a combat fight in Groznyj Grad, a chase scene with the Shagohod, and a combination of the arsenal’s weapons and Volgin’s electricity.
Similar to The End, you can also perform various techniques in the first wave, such as using the Raiden mask to confuse the Colonel and taking the Fake Death Pill to trick him into thinking you’ve died. However, you’ll still have to watch your back since he is one of the more difficult bosses in the game.
Once players survive through the phases, an ironic bolt of lightning hits Volgin, ending his reign of terror and the elimination of the deadly Shagohod. Naked Snake and EVA can’t help but hold each other in a warm embrace as they victoriously accomplish their mission of taking down the Colonel and destroying a working Metal Gear prototype.
The Microwave Hall (Metal Gear Solid 4)
Source: Kojima Productions
The split-screen sequence with Snake’s infamous microwave hall and the rest of the characters battling against enemies is one of the most heartbreaking and unforgettable scenes. Through this cinematic style, we see the journeys of various characters, such as Meryl and Johnny fighting for survival, Mei Ling’s battleship warzone, and Raiden versus the Haven Troops.
Of course, we can’t forget about Old Snake, a man willing to give it his all while dying from FOXDIE and the heat from the scorching rays. During this scene, I found myself yelling at the screen for Snake to get up as I rapidly pressed the Action button to move.
Everything pays off once he makes it to the “graveyard” of GW, another impactful moment of the series that finally eliminates the threat of the Patriots and the eventual death of Liquid.
Metal Gear Battle on Shadow Moses (Metal Gear Solid 4)
Source: Kojima Productions
Series fans have consistently battled Metal Gear as either Raiden or Snake, but nothing compares to the moment you actually control and fight with one in MGS4.
In Solid Snake’s return to Shadow Moses Island, he faces Liquid and yet another Metal Gear, reflecting what happened before in the first installment. However, this time, he takes over Rex from MGS1 to fight against Liquid’s Ray from MGS2. Once the battle starts, players will harness the powers of the Metal Gear, wielding the Gatling Gun, AT Missle, and FE Laser.
If the ultimate robot battle doesn’t impress you enough, then maybe the reveal of Outer Haven (a massive battleship) will. We also have to consider Raiden’s courageous warrior spirit when he stops the arsenal from crushing Snake, using his raw strength alone.
Gray Fox’s Sacrifice (Metal Gear Solid 1)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
It’s hard to decide which Gray Fox moment to pick when choosing the most iconic one, especially since there are a variety of incredible scenes showcasing his talents. However, the one that shines the most has to be his sacrifice at the end of MGS1.
Until this point, Gray Fox’s memories and sense of self were clouded because of the experiments done on him after Snake killed him in Zanzibar Land. Fortunately, the Cyborg Ninja remembers his life, and the two comrades share an emotional exchange just before he dies from Metal Gear Rex.
Although it will be saddening to play this moment in the Master Collection, its impactful meaning still holds true with Gray Fox’s commemorable sacrifice.
Ocelot and Solid Snake’s Showdown (Metal Gear Solid 4)
Source: Kojima Productions
While Old Snake and Liquid Ocelot haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, their final fight scene is one of the most heart-wrenching and exciting storylines in the franchise’s history. The momentous duel doesn’t even feature any guns or hidden tricks, just a simple showdown, man-to-man.
During the brothers’ showdown, the essence of Liquid starts to diminish as Ocelot regains his spirit with every punch. At the same time, the health status of the characters changes throughout the fight in the style of previous installments. In particular, when Ocelot slowly gets his personality back, the life bar changes from MGS1 to MGS3’s art style. Moreover, past songs of the franchise can be heard to increase the emotions even more, including the songs Snake Eater, MGS1’s main theme, and the soothing guitar of MGS4.
You may need a tissue box by the end of the fight once Ocelot does his trademark hand signal and classic line of “You’re pretty good.”
The Boss and Naked Snake’s Final Battle (Metal Gear Solid 3)
Source: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
The battle between The Boss and Naked Snake has it all: breathtaking scenery, action-packed combat, and the perfect embodiment of what it means to be a mentor and a pupil.
If you know The Boss’s true intentions for the Snake Eater mission, this fight hits you right in the feels when you realize how much she sacrificed for her country despite her presumed defection. Not only is it difficult for her to do with her own pupil, but it also heavily impacts Snake’s perspective on the horrors of the world, leading to what happens in Peace Walker.
Once Snake kills her in the end, he is never the same after this and mourns her loss to the day he dies. In his final moments in MGS4, he states, “Ever since the day I killed The Boss with my own hands, I was already dead,” making their showdown one of the most iconic moments of the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
Now that we’ve gone over the list of monumental storylines in the series, you can create some new memories in the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection. Whichever way it plays out, we just hope that it’s “pretty good.”
About the author
Kristina Ebanez
Kristina is a Staff Writer and has been with Twinfinite for more than a year. She typically covers Minecraft, The Sims 4, Disney Dreamlight Valley, anime, Call of Duty, and newly released games. She loves the Metal Gear Solid series (Snake Eater especially), Rockstar’s Bully, the Horizon franchise, What Remains of Edith Finch, and many more. Her dog is also an avid video game watcher, primarily when there’s a horse or a cat. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and grew up gaming on the islands.
