https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/nato-says-it-didn-t-notice-ukraine-soldier-s-apparent-nazi-symbol-in-tweet/ar-AAUQXyT?ocid=msedgntp

An official of the U.S.-led NATO alliance has told Newsweek that the coalition did not notice what appeared to be a symbol associated with Nazism on the uniform of a Ukrainian soldier featured in a since-deleted photo on NATO's official Twitter account.

The image, posted Tuesday to commemorate International Women's Day, contained four images related to the current crisis in Ukraine, where a Russian military incursion was set to enter its third week.

"All women and girls must live free and equal. This international women's day we think of the remarkable women of #Ukraine," NATO tweeted alongside a Ukrainian flag emoji. "Their strength, bravery and resilience are symbolic of the spirit of their nation #IWD2022."

The first of the four images included what appeared to be a Ukrainian servicemember bearing a "Black Sun" on the chest area of her military fatigues. The symbol, also known in German as "Schwarze Sonne" or "Sonnenrad," is rooted in Nazi occultism and has been brandished by far-right elements across the globe, including in Ukraine, where it is featured on the official logo of the National Guard's Azov Regiment.

The image first appeared to be shared on social media on February 14 by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and was later syndicated by a number of outlets and agencies, and was featured prominently on the front page of The Guardian the following day. The symbol itself, however, is not readily visible, as it is nearly the same color as the green camouflage of the soldier's uniform.

Shortly after NATO shared the image, the symbol was noted by a number of social media users and then taken down swiftly.

Reached for comment, a NATO official said the post was removed after the alliance first noticed the symbol.

"As part of an International Women's Day collage for social media, we posted an image from stock footage of an international agency," a NATO official told Newsweek. "The post was removed when we realised it contained a symbol that we could not verify as official."

While closely associated with Nazism, the history of the Black Sun actually stems largely from the lore of the Third Reich that lingered long after its fall.

As to its actual meaning, Strube explained that the Black Sun "can mean a lot of different things, but it is almost always situated within far-right and neo-Nazi contexts."

"It can refer to a supposed 'Pagan' past allegedly linked to Nazism and the SS in particular," Strube said. "As such, it might be related to Norse or Slavic Neo-Perunism with a far-right thrust — or it may simply serve as a substitute for the Nazi swastika, which is outlawed in several countries."

In the context of Ukraine, where official symbols of both Nazism and communism were declared illegal in 2015, Strube said that the Black Sun is "most likely related or refers to the Azov Battalion, which used it among its insignia."

Mark Pitcavage, senior fellow at the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, also noted how the Azov Regiment "has incorporated it into their logo."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ghislaine-maxwell-s-secret-dog-walker-reveals-she-was-paranoid-someone-would-kill-her/ar-AAUTfnA?ocid=msedgntp

n March 2015, Ghislaine Maxwell and her future secret husband Scott Borgerson brought her new dog walker to Central Park and issued a stern warning: He must never tell a soul that the British socialite was his employer.

The dog handler, Rasmus Alpsjö, was part of a rotation of young Swedish men hired to care for Maxwell’s Vizsla, Captain Nemo. And he claims that Borgerson, tall and with an iron grip, was particularly intimidating. “He sat me down and he told me, like, ‘The woman that you’re working for, living with, she’s a very famous woman. So you can never say who she is, and you can never bring people to the house and you have to be quiet about all this,’” Alpsjö said.

The alleged encounter is featured in a new episode of actress and filmmaker Raeden Greer’s podcast Diaries of a Pretender, which delves into her friend Alpsjö’s brief stint as Maxwell’s pet minder, hamburger griller, and fetcher of Starbucks coffee.

Alpsjö’s interview offers a rare glimpse into Maxwell’s world just before she swapped New York for Massachusetts in order to live with Borgerson. The socialite and those in her circle were paranoid about strangers and media appearing at her Upper East Side townhouse, he said.

On one occasion, Alpsjö claims, Maxwell became enraged after he allowed a delivery man to enter her home. “She's just like, ‘Who is this?’ And ‘gimme your ID.’ And then she took the delivery guy’s ID, like took a copy of it,” Alpsjö said, adding that “when she told him to leave, ’cause he was at the wrong door, she was furious at me.”

When Alpsjö first met Maxwell, the socialite supposedly asked him, “Do you have a passport?” Alpsjö considered this might be a trick question but answered yes. “Now you have two passports,” Maxwell allegedly said. “You have to register on my website, the TerraMar Project, and you will get the second passport.” (She was referring to her oceans nonprofit’s site which allowed supporters to become “citizens” of the high seas.)

Alpsjö separately shared with Greer and The Daily Beast a photo of another item someone showed him in Maxwell’s residence: A signed copy of former President Bill Clinton’s autobiography My Life. The inscription reads, “To Ghislaine with love.”

>>15829583

>>15829843

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/twitter-deletes-russian-embassy-s-posts-calling-an-apparent-pregnant-ukraine-hospital-victim-a-crisis-actor/ar-AAUTAJX?ocid=msedgntp

Twitter deleted a series of Thursday tweets from the Russian Embassy to the United Kingdom claiming an attack Wednesday on a hospital in Mariupol, a city in southeastern Ukraine, was staged, alleging without credible evidence that a widely-photographed pregnant victim was a crisis actor.

Key Facts

Twitter removed tweets that targeted an alleged victim of the hospital strike from the embassy’s official account at about 11:30 a.m. EST—a rare move for the social media platform which has long resisted calls to remove posts from official government accounts.

A Twitter spokesperson told Forbes in a statement: “We took enforcement action against the Tweets [Forbes] referenced as they were in violation of the Twitter Rules, specifically our Hateful Conduct and Abusive Behavior policies related to the denial of violent events.”

The Russian embassy tweeted Thursday the maternity hospital in Mariupol was “non-operational” and thus didn’t injure any civilians, contradicting Ukrainian authorities’ claims the Russian strike on the hospital left three dead and 17 more wounded, with doctors, expecting mothers and children among the victims.

The New York Times independently verified videos showing the destruction of the Mariupol hospital and injured victims, but Russia contends the strike did not hit any civilians, as Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the Ukrainian military removed patients from the hospital hours before the attack.

The embassy then followed up by identifying a pictured pregnant victim of the attack as Marianna Podgurskaya, saying she wore “very realistic make-up” to embellish head wounds and “played roles of both pregnant women on the photos,” with its sole evidence being that Podgurskaya runs a somewhat popular Instagram account and was photographed twice at the scene of the hospital bombing.

An Instagram account believed to belong to the victim that has 24,000 followers shows her as visibly pregnant in several posts, tagging Mariupol as her location in several posts.

Chief Critic

Many users called on Twitter to take action to take down the Russian embassy’s account following these posts, including Bellingcat researcher Aric Toler, who tweeted, “The clearly fake information is bad enough, but naming her like this is more than enough to boot the embassy's account off of the platform. As if her and her unborn child nearly dying isn't bad enough, she'll likely be harassed for years now because of this accusation.” Conspiracy researcher Mike Rothschild joined Toler, writing, “Time for Twitter to deplatform all these propaganda accounts.”

Key Background

The embassy’s bizarre accusations were part of a quickly changing Russian narrative on the Mariupol hospital strike. Kremlin spokesperson Dmittry Peskov told Reuters Thursday "Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets,” and he didn’t have “clear information” on the hospital strike. Shortly after, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called claims of the attack “pathetic,” claiming there were no civilian victims because the hospital "long ago became a base for extremists." Claims of victims actually being so-called crisis actors are a common disinformation tactic, and fake videos of actors supposedly preparing to portray Ukrainian victims on social media circulated earlier this month.

Tangent

Twitter and other social media platforms have responded in a variety of ways to limit the spread of Russian propaganda. Twitter vowed to label links to Russian state-run media, Meta stopped recommending state media links on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok said it will suspend all content originating in Russia. Still, TikTok accounts linked to Russian state-run RT and RIA Novosti news agencies continue to post on TikTok, Forbes reported Monday.

>>15829853

https://mobile.twitter.com/donnabrazile/status/1501622471161794566

https://mobile.twitter.com/DWStweets/status/1501626554320891908

noodles

kek

>>15830086

https://mobile.twitter.com/AmbRice46/status/1501957172049158147